Our Town Downtown - November 16, 2017 by OurTown Downtown

The local paper for Downtown wn MAKING A SPLASH IN TIMES SQUARE ◄P.21

WEEK OF NOVEMBER

16-22 2017

A SKIRMISH OVER TRIBECA’S HISTORIC FOOTPRINT COMMUNITY District boundaries at issue in preservation group’s lawsuit BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

GirlCoders from left to right: Soﬁa Basilio, Chaya Trapedo, Kayla Massick, Georgia Green, Camille Lurie, Emerson Davis. Photo: Lorraine Duffy Merkl

UP TO CODE LEARNING The GirlCode program helps female students who love STEM succeed BY LORRAINE DUFFY MERKL

Talk to the elementary and middleschool members of GirlCode for ﬁve minutes and it’s easy to feel like Penny on “The Big Bang Theory.” These young women are not only proﬁcient in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), but intelligent, poised, articulate, and personable. At the Celebrating Young Girls in STEM event on November 8 at the Arlo Nomad Hotel in midtown, they were also excited to present their sociallyconscious projects, each with a game component, because it’s not enough for them to play for recreation. They

want to create the games. Kayla Massick, 12, has attended The Coding Space — home of The GirlCode Program — since she was nine. Inspired by her grandfather, an environmentalist, she designed the Clean Water Project, where players remove debris floating down a river. “I like coding because it lets me make something from nothing.” Because the crafting of any tech project has its bugs, Kayla, like any true coder, has the wherewithal to sit at her computer, “until I figure it out.” 10-year-old Georgia Green, who has been with GirlCode for a year, chose to raise awareness about poverty, inequality and hunger by developing the Q&A game Code For Change. For her, the fun was “making it more than the finished product.” Robots fashioned by MIT ignited a passion for tech in Sofia Basilio, 10, who’s been with GirlCode for two years and presented Clean Water For All, “to teach kids about stopping ocean pollution.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

At a glance, and even upon inspection by an educated eye, 10 Hubert Street and 92 Chambers Street appear substantially similar. The two five-story buildings, located about a half-mile apart at opposite ends of Tribeca, are rough mirror images in their brickwork, arched windows and ornamental flourishes. According to architect and preservation expert David Rau, the buildings “exhibit nearly identical characteristic in terms of nearly all their architectural features. They appear to be products of the same historical period, with similar scale, massing materials, coloration, fenestration and stylistic details.” The key difference between the two buildings, at issue in a soon-to-bedecided lawsuit filed against the city: 10 Hubert sits in a designated historic district and 92 Chambers does not. Though New Yorkers generally think of Tribeca as a singular neighborhood, in preservation terms the Triangle Below Canal is divided into five separate historic districts that encompass much, but not all of the area. Viewed together, the five Tribeca Historic Districts resemble a gerrymandered political district, winding across the neighborhood in fragmented fashion — some blocks in, some blocks out, with districts sometimes stopping mid-block to leave neighboring buildings with differing historical desig-

Though 92 Chambers Street (left) and 10 Hubert Street are similar in appearance and both located in Tribeca, the former falls outside of the Tribeca Historic Districts — the boundaries of which are the subject of a pending lawsuit. Photos: Michael Garofalo nations in spite of their architectural similarities. Tribeca Trust, a local nonproﬁt focused on preservation issues, cites 10 Hubert and 92 Chambers among over two dozen other pairs of architecturally similar buildings situated inside and outside of the Tribeca Historic Districts in a lawsuit ﬁled against the city. The differing designations of the pairs of buildings, which in several cases were designed contemporane-

Downtowner

OurTownDowntown

O OTDOWNTOWN.COM @OTDowntown

Crime Watch Voices NYC Now City Arts

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 on the Over the past 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.” can’t come p.m. and 7 a.m., 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

ously by the same architect, show, according to Tribeca Trust, that the current district boundaries “lack any justification in architectural or historic terms.” In 2013, Tribeca Trust ﬁled a request for the evaluation of the expansion of the historic districts with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the city agency responsible for historic

CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

We deliver! Get Our Town Downtowner sent directly to your mailbox for $49 per year. Go to OTDowntown.com or call 212-868-0190

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

WHEN BAD DRUGS DO GOOD HEALTH Can MDMA, aka Ecstasy or Molly, treat PTSD? A team at NYU Langone Health moves ahead with a study BY CAROL ANN RINZLER

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an ill wind that blows absolutely no good and a really bad drug that has absolutely no beneďŹ ts. The classic example is thalidomide, once banned for causing devastating birth defects, now FDA-approved to treat conditions ranging from cancers to skin lesions. Last month, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine reported that smoking marijuana can actually improve your sex life. Last week, a New Jersey Appellate Court panel put the cherry on this pharmacological sundae by ruling it â&#x20AC;&#x153;glaringly apparentâ&#x20AC;? that pot can be good medicine. There is similar good news about â&#x20AC;&#x153;magic mushroomsâ&#x20AC;? whose active ingredient, psilocybin, appears to reduce anxiety and depression in cancer patients. And believe it or not, studies at the University of

Cagliari (Italy) suggest that the â&#x20AC;&#x153;date rape drugâ&#x20AC;? gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) may do for alcoholics what methadone does for heroin addicts: reduce the craving. And then thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s MDMA (methylsafrylaminc), aka Ecstasy or Molly. Some mid-20th century psychiatrists thought the drug, developed by Merck in 1912 as precursor to medicines that would control bleeding, made it easier for patients to access insights that sped relief. But MDMA soon made its way to the streets and onto the party scene, so, in 1985, DEA put it on the list of Schedule 1 drugs, those with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. MDMA is still Schedule 1, but a growing number of researchers think it can treat PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). Based on early trials, last summer the FDA made MDMA eligible for â&#x20AC;&#x153;breakthrough therapy,â&#x20AC;? meaning itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s now possible to set up more clinical trials to test its safety and effectiveness for PTSD patients. In previous trials sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), 65 of 107 participants with chronic, treatment-

resistant PTSD got better after two months of MDMA plus talk therapy. Now MAPS is about to run a multisite Phase 3 study of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Efficacy and Safety of Manualized MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapyâ&#x20AC;? at 14 centers in the United States plus two in Israel. One of those trials will happen right here in New York at NYU Langone Health. Dr. Stephen Ross, Chief of Addiction Psychiatry, and his team are excited to be a principal academic site for the trial, which Ross says â&#x20AC;&#x153;further advances our history in examining new ways to diagnose and treat this devastating illness.â&#x20AC;? Yes, he adds, more study is required, but â&#x20AC;&#x153;the rapid response of the FDA earlier this year to allow this MDMA clinical trial to move to Phase 3 illustrates the optimism many people have for this research.â&#x20AC;? Naturally, not everyone agrees. Even in a medical setting, MDMA is not without side effects: nausea, chills, sweating, muscle cramping, and blurred vision, high blood pressure, faintness, panic attacks and in severe cases, loss of consciousness and seizures. And some worry that people who hear MDMA being used as

%FBS 1BSFOUT :PV BSF DPSEJBMMZ JOWJUFE UP BUUFOE POF PG PVS 01&/ )064&4 BU :PSL 1SFQBSBUPSZ 4DIPPM

t Ä&#x2021; VSTEBZ /PWFNCFS UI t 5VFTEBZ /PWFNCFS UI t 5VFTEBZ +BOVBSZ UI t 5VFTEBZ +BOVBSZ SE t 5VFTEBZ "QSJM UI t 5VFTEBZ .BZ TU t 5VFTEBZ .BZ UI

1. ČŞ 1. ". ČŞ ". ". ČŞ ". ". ČŞ ". ". ČŞ ". 1. ČŞ 1. ". ČŞ ".

3471 CZ SFHJTUFSJOH POMJOF BU ZPSLQSFQ PSH "OZ GVSUIFS RVFTUJPOT FNBJM ,FMTJF JO "ENJTTJPOT BU LQBUSJDL!ZPSLQSFQ PSH York Prep is a coeducation college preparatory school for grades 6-12

Dr. Steven Ross, Director of Addiction Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health, a principal academic site for the MDMA trial. Photo courtesy of NYU Langone Health a medicine might think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a safe recreational drug. While you ponder that, ponder this as well. Effective drugs sometimes arise in strange places. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iridium, an element found on earth but in much greater concentrations on celestial invaders like the asteroid that knocked off the dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago. British and Chinese scientists have found that iridium kills cancer cells by â&#x20AC;&#x153;ďŹ lling them with a deadly version of oxygen.â&#x20AC;? So the researchers created an organiciridium compound and lasered it into a

model lung cancer cell tumor where it killed the bad but not the healthy cells. It could be another Eureka moment like thalidomide for cancer, marijuana for good sex, psilocybin for depression, GHB for alcoholism and â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if MAPS and Ross have it right â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MDMA for PTSD. Carol Ann Rinzler is the author of more than 20 books on health including â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nutrition for Dummies.â&#x20AC;? Her latest, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Is It Safe to Kiss My Cat?â&#x20AC;?, addresses the ordinary hazards of everyday life.

How a child learns to learn will impact his or her life forever.

City and Country School Keeping the progress in progressive education. Two-Year-Olds â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8th Grade

Open House: Thursday, November 16, 6:00 - 8:00pm 146 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011 Tel: 212.242.7802

www.cityandcountry.org

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG MAN ROBBED, STABBED ON 5 TRAIN A man was arrested and his accomplice is being sought in connection with the robbery and stabbing of a 75-year-old Bronx man on a northbound 5 train just before it pulled the Wall Street station on Halloween, police said. The man told police he was approached by the pair, who engaged him in conversation around 10:15 p.m. The woman, later identified as Scarlet Acuna, 29, snatched the man’s cellphone and stabbed him on the arm, leg and stomach with a knife when he tried to get his phone back, police said. As he continued to fight with the woman, the man, later identified as Steve Beauvior, punched him several times in the face. Acuna and Beauvior fled the train when it pulled in to the Wall Street station. The victim taken to Bellevue Hospital where he was initially listed in serious but stable condition. Beauvior was subsequently apprehended and arrested on robbery charges. Police described Acuna 5 feet, 5 inches tall, and weighing about 170 pounds. She has a tattoo on her forehead and wears long dreadlocks. She was last seen wearing a black sweater with white skulls on its front, green pants and white sneakers.

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st district for Week to Date 2017 2016

% Change 2017

2016

% Change

Murder

n/a

137.5

Rape

n/a

130

117

11.1

Robbery

-3.6

932

1,030 -9.5

BOX CUTTER ATTACK

Felony Assault

37.9

1,278

1,222 4.6

A teenager became a recent slashing victim as well. At 3:45 p.m. on Thursday, November 2, a 17-yearold man was involved in a dispute in front of 106 Fulton Street, when an unidentiﬁed person took out a box cutter and slashed him in the right arm, police aid. The slasher then ﬂed southbound on Nassau Street. The victim was taken to New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital conscious and alert.

Burglary

-3.8

1,018

1,090 -6.6

Grand Larceny

192 246 -22.0

8,602 9,125 -5.7

Grand Larceny Auto

218

She canceled all her cards but was told by Citibank and Discover that unauthorized charges had been made at 506 Broadway totaling more than $8,000.

WALLET STOLEN

UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY

Someone needs to invent a wallet alarm. At 12:50 p.m. on Friday, November 3, a 35-year-old woman having lunch at Belle Reve on Church Street had her wallet taken from the inside of her seat, she told police.

A visitor from Massachusetts found out just how mean our streets can be. A 63-year-old Sherborn, Mass., man returned to his car from a downtown dinner to ﬁnd that several items had been taken from his 2014 Volkswagen

Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr

CAB STOLEN, CULPRIT JUMPS IN RIVER It takes all kinds, especially in the Big Apple. At 8:40 a.m. on Friday, November 3, a 31-year-old man saw a 28-year-old man get into a taxi sitting in front of 102 North End Avenue, take the driver’s seat and drive away northbound on North End. The driver made a left on Murray Street and a right onto River Terrace before the witness lost sight of the vehicle. Directly after that, another passerby saw the 28-year-old get out of the cab and jump into the Hudson River. The cabjacker was recovered from the water by a New York Water Taxi crew, and the cab Itself was recovered at Murray Street and River Terrace. David Madjrouh was arrested November 3, charged with grand larceny auto, and taken to Bellevue Hospital.

Year to Date

-30.0

276

-21.0

GTI which he had parked on Sixth Ave. near Spring Street. The missing items included two Apple MacBook Pros, each valued at $2,000, hard drives priced at $1,000, a backpack, headphones, and textbooks worth $1,000 and other items. In all, the missing items totaled nearly $7,000 in value. There were no signs of forced entry into the vehicle. The victim tried to locate his laptops using a phone app and discovered they were possibly in Oyster Bay, N.Y.

We make it easy TO EARN MORE. 15 Month CD

% 30 1

APY*

Guaranteed Rate

5 Year CD

% 25 2. APY*2

Guaranteed Return

Effective 7/17/17, *1 the 15 month CD interest rate is 1.295%; Annual Percentage Yield is 1.30%. *2 The 5 year CD interest rate is 2.225%; Annual Percentage Yield is 2.25%. The minimum opening deposit for any term CD to qualify for the APY is $1,000.00. Penalties may apply for early withdrawal. Rates are subject to change at the Bank’s discretion. New money only.

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.

212-477-7411

NYPD 1st Precinct

16 Ericsson Place

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

ROASTED AND STUFFED BY PETER PEREIRA

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.

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

MEASURING BIKE SAFETY SAFETY Stats show drop in East Side cyclist and pedestrian injuries BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

There are more bikes than ever on the city’s streets. About three-quarters of a million New Yorkers ride a bicycle regularly, according to the city’s Department of Transportation — over 250,000 more than five years ago — but data indicates that cyclists’ safety is improving even as their numbers increase. Though annual bike fatalities citywide have remained relatively flat in recent years, when increased ridership is taken into account by measuring on a per-trip basis, the fatality rate for cyclists dropped 71 percent between 2000 and 2015, according to a recent DOT study. On Manhattan’s East Side, the number of traffic collisions involving cyclists is on pace to continue on a downward trend: to date, there have been 228 collisions involving cyclists in 2017, down from 350 in 2016 and 373 in 2015, according to NYPD data. The number of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians injured in collisions on the East Side dropped over the same period. Since 2012, 1,194 cyclists have been injured in collisions with motor vehicle on the East Side, but none have been killed, according to an analysis of NYPD data covering East Side zip codes from 26th to 96th Streets performed by the office of Council Member Ben Kallos. Thirty-nine pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles over the same period, along with 2,722 injured. Since 2012, no pedestrians have been killed in collisions with bicycles in the East Side zip codes covered in the analysis. Police in the 17th and 19th precincts have issued 1,557 summonses to bicyclists so far this year, mostly for running red lights and failing to give pedestrians the right of way. Motor vehicle operators received nearly 16,000 summonses in the two precincts over the same period, including 1,541 to drivers for not giving the right of way to pedestrians. The two East Side precincts have also placed heavy emphasis on enforcing the city’s ban on electric bicycle use, confis-

NYPD collision and injury data indicates that bicycle safety has improved on the East Side in recent years. Photo: Michael Garofalo cating 103 to date this year — accounting for more than 10 percent of all e-bikes seized by the NYPD citywide. In addition to targeting individuals who ride the motorized bikes, most of whom are food delivery workers, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in October that the city would soon begin fining the businesses that employ them. Starting in 2018, businesses that use e-bikes or allow employees to use them will be subject to fines of $100 for a first offense and $200 for each subsequent offense. On the East Side, the enforcement regime has been accompanied by an educational push, which includes DOT-sponsored training sessions for business owners and delivery riders. Free safety vests, lights and bells are distributed at the trainings, which are part of a bike safety program led by Kallos and fellow Council Member Dan Garodnick. “I think what’s been most effective is going to restaurants door to door with DOT and giving them information and equipment they need,” Kallos said. Kallos applauded the work of the East 72nd Neighborhood Association, which has released reports grading local restaurants on their bike safety practices, including whether riders wore vests, displayed

identification tags or rode ebikes. Kallos said he hopes that other neighborhood associations in his district will join in similar surveys, “so that every restaurant on the East Side is getting a letter grade and those guides are found in every lobby in the district. Consumer behavior will drive restaurants to adopt better practices.” Perhaps the most signiﬁcant development of the last year for East Side bikers was the long-awaited implementation of protected bike lanes southbound Second Avenue from 110th to 68th Streets. Kallos said the new bike lane has helped improve safety for cyclists in the district, but that it needs to be expanded further south. “I am a fan of the Second Avenue protected bike lane, but it stops once you reach the sixties, which are the most dangerous intersections in the district,” Kallos said, adding that he also plans to push for more crosstown bike lanes on the East Side. The DOT has prioritized the expansion of bike lanes in recent years, adding 18 miles of protected lanes in 2016 and 45 miles over the last five years. According to the DOT, 89 percent of fatal bike collisions between 2006 and 2016 occurred on streets without bike lanes.

IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY

TO INVEST IN A GOOD THING. Introducing Better Futures —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

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

RAISING THE ROOF AT CHAPIN DEVELOPMENT The elite East Side girls’ school has embarked on its second skyward expansion in 10 years to fulfill its academic mission and keep students “under one roof” — but trash, rodents, truck traffic and highdecibel jackhammering have irked the neighbors BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

Every morning, author and Upper East Side character Susan Cheever follows the same routine: She leaves her home on East End Avenue to walk her dog in Carl Schurz Park, always turning left, toward East 85th Street, never right, toward 84th Street. Why? The memoirist and biographer does not want to encounter what she deems the loud, disruptive, unsightly construction site a few feet to the south, where the Chapin School is in the throes of a noisy, multiyear expansion project. Again. Cheever, the daughter of the late short-story writer John Cheever, has lived around the corner since 1992, and she describes a nightmarish scenario. “What they’ve done to that sleepy beautiful Upper East Side crossroads is not to be believed,” she said. “They completely ruined what was once a very beautiful Manhattan block.” The exclusive all-girls private school has occupied the same building at 100 East End Avenue since 1928, and every decade or so, going back to 1971, it has enlarged or reconﬁgured its original footprint — at times growing internally, at times horizontally, at times vertically. But every single addition has been in keeping with the vision of Maria Bowen Chapin, the educator who founded “Miss Chapin’s School” in 1901 and believed that her young charges — then known as “proper ladies-in-training” — should be schooled “under one roof.” That’s been the guiding philosophy ever since, and so, the entire Kthrough-12 school has stayed in one perpetually growing building – not a spread-out campus cluster, or even across-the-street facilities, which is far more common in Manhattan academia. The result, Chapin educators say, is that its under-one-roof approach has fostered a sense of continuity and community, encouraged student interaction with girls from different grade levels, and helped burnish its reputation as one of the nation’s top prep schools. Unfortunately, pedagogic philosophy, however inspired, offers scant comfort to neighbors, in this case,

A young Jacqueline Bouvier, later Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, near the Chapin School in the late 1930s or early 1940s. She attended the elite all-girls private school from first grade to sixth grade. Photo: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum mid-block residents of 84th Street west of East End Avenue, whose numbers include dozens of seniors in rentstabilized walk-ups. After all, many of them have lived through the clangor of construction projects past that steadily enlarged the Chapin envelope — first in 1971, then in 1987, next in 1996 and again in 2006. Now, the cycle has resumed, and they’re in the midst of a build-out that began in May 2015 and is expected to last five to six years, with anticipated completion in late 2020 or early 2021. Back in 2006, Chapin built its first vertical addition, adding two stories to its original, six-story, Delano and Aldrich-designed, Georgian-style building – the one Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis attended from first to sixth grades. That initial skyward thrust created an eight-story, 132,328-square-foot, 117-foot tall school. Chapin is climbing higher still. With an enrollment of 783 students and some sub-par facilities that don’t meet current needs, it’s embarked on a $135 million expansion, its second major vertical addition in a decade. Renderings released by the school show three more floors added to the existing eight-story building, resulting in an 11-story, 176,249 square-foot structure that will top out at 186 feet. A projected fence to enclose rooftop recreational space will push the height to 207 feet. “This project is vital to fulfilling the school’s academic mission,” said Anneli Ballard, Chapin’s director of marketing. “It involves replacing substandard athletic and physical education spaces with a regulation-size gymnasium ... for our student athletes, enhancing program space for science,

engineering, math and technology classes, and constructing a cafeteria for lower school students.” Three new performing arts classrooms will also be built to boost the music-and-dance curriculum. Current space is “insufficient,” the school says. The proof: Chapin’s high school dance team has been known to rehearse in the hallways. The school’s ambitious aims, necessitating the inevitable racket of hard hats at work, has collided with life on a tranquil block. It has taken quite a toll. Serene Green 84, a citizens group formed in 2015 to oppose the project, cites collateral damage to both streetscape and quality of life. “They’re the neighbors from hell,” said co-founder Cynthia Kramer. The block of 84th Street between East End and York Avenues, already a bit narrow, feels even more closedin due to worksite staging. So much so that when a tower crane was set up last month, its dangling hook appeared to “swing perilously close” to the walk-ups on the north side of the street, said Lisa Paule, the other cofounder of the group. “I could almost touch the hook from my ﬁre escape,” said Paule, who lives in a fourth-ﬂoor co-op at 531 East 84th Street. The operation was safe and supervised by building inspectors at all times, the school says. The two women cited, among other issues, trash heaps, the occasional colony of rats scampering from a school alley, a day-long water outage, earlymorning deliveries, truck traffic at all hours, the use of the block as a loading dock – and high-decibel noise so unbearable that even state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli took notice. On August 31, his auditors determined that 122 noise complaints had been lodged with 311 about construction at 100 East End Avenue, more than any other work site in the city in the period between January 1, 2014 and June 30, 2016. Chapin says the audit was performed during excavation work, which is “always the loudest phase of any project.” After it wrapped up in the summer of 2016, noise complaints tapered off. To deal with that issue and others, the school holds public meetings every four to six weeks to solicit feedback, brief residents on the expansion and mitigate impact. It has limited after-hours construction, performs no exterior work on Sundays, altered garbage pick-up hours to accommodate neighbors, pays a premium so haulers don’t come in the middle of the night, and runs a “rigorous rodent extermination program” in coordination with nearby buildings. “The school has and will continue to take extensive measures to ensure the expansion program is carried out in

The three faces of the Chapin School are in evidence in a recent photo looking west across East End Avenue: At the base is what remains of the original Georgian-style building. Atop that is the ﬁrst vertical addition, built in 2006, and the crane at left is being used to construct the second vertical addition, which will add three new ﬂoors to the existing eight-story school. Photo: Serene Green 84 the safest, most responsible and efficient manner, with as minimal impact as possible,” Ballard said. It’s an approach that has won over some residents: “They’re incredible neighbors who care about us, they’re considerate, communicate with us frequently, and clearly go above and beyond in reaching out,” said Hope Webster, who moved to the block in 2006. Community Board 8 voted to oppose the project in 2015. It’s never reversed that position. And yet, in the two intervening years, the board has been impressed by the school’s performance. “The Chapin School has been a model for other schools to follow as to how best to handle an expansion project in a quiet residential area,” said James Clynes, chairman of CB8, who said the school had set up a 24-hour line to call for any problems. “I’m convinced that Chapin is a good neighbor,” he added. Cheever has lived through what she views as intrusive and disruptive construction before. During a 1996 buildout for a new library and theater, she penned a New York Times opinion piece, “My Neighbor, My Nuisance,” lamenting noise, diminished light,

profound disruptions and the “building of a parapet where there is now sky.” Why did she stay? She didn’t. In a recent interview, Cheever said that in 2001, she moved from the 84th Street side of her building to the 85th Street side to get away from the incessant din. “Now, they’re not pounding on my door, shining lights in my window, and waking me up at six in the morning,” she says. The ruckus was supposed to end in late 2018. Chapin said that original project completion date was “provided by a construction team that is no longer on the project,” and that when a new job-site manager came on board in 2016, it developed a new schedule, targeting completion in the 2020-2021 academic year. “I doubt that Chapin is any more pleased than the community is with the delay in completing their expansion,” said City Council Member Ben Kallos. Webster is philosophical: “This is New York, and I’m a lifelong New Yorker,” she said. “If there’s one thing we do in New York, we grow!”

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Got an EVENT? FESTIVAL CONCERT GALLERY OPENING PLAY Get The Word Out! Add Your Event for FREE

nycnow.com

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

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.

NO STANDING EAST SIDE OBSERVER BY ARLENE KAYATT

Alert: Missing bus stop and other rider hassles — Lexington between 88th and 89th. A page in any publication or blog detailing the outrageous conduct of the MTA as an entity and drivers as their agents would sure have a following. Including twits and tweets! While it’s understood, well-known and detested, riders know that construction happens in NY and for some reason there’s always a bus stop included in the construction site. But where’s the notice letting riders know where the replacement stop is? You won’t find out from the MTA. And don’t bother asking the bus driver when

you arrive with bated breath at the next stop. He won’t tell you. “But what was the stop before this one?” asked the exasperated rider who sprinted several blocks to catch the bus she just missed. “You’re on the bus now, right?” Smarts 101. And then there’s the driver on the M55 route that travels along what starts as Church Street and becomes Sixth Ave and which was previously the M5. The route started at South Ferry and World Trade Center and ended in Washington Heights and was curtailed and now ends at 44th and Sixth. At the same stop you get what I think is still called M5 which continues on up to Washington Heights, just like old times. A rider unfamiliar with the change asked the driver if he could change at 44th St without having to pay an additional fare on

the continued route. “You’ll have to ask the next driver to find out.” Hmm. Just what the public needs, bus driver discretion to decide the fate of each passenger’s fare. Imagine the brouhahas and time wasted as the driver pronounces his/her decision about who pays and who doesn’t. Oy. No wonder neither Gov. Cuomo nor Mayor de Blasio claim ownership of the MTA. Can we talk, Joe Lohta? Delivery by the ounce — It must be two years since Key Food replaced Associated Market on Second Ave in the 90s where it now stands in an upgraded physical condition. However, supermarkets like Key Food, Associated and Gristede’s are going the way of moms and pops. My take is that moms and pops are generally forced out by high rents and competition from CVSes and Duane Reades and that the big box supermarkets are prey to Amazon/Whole Foods. While I’ll stick with the locals — Key Food, C Town (which exists for now on First Ave in the 80s), Gristedes, D’Agostino’s (the latter two are too

pricey) — I can’t really abide the $4.95 service charge for delivery at Key Food. With the diminishing number of food markets around and the higher costs, neighborhood residents opt to shop in quantity, but if you have to add $5 to your bill, it may not be worth it. Especially if you are a single person household. Nearly $5 is a hefty add-on even if you’re shopping at supermarkets with cheaper prices. Halloween Boo Boo — Not much of a secret that the closely guarded townhouse on East 81st (Lex/Third) belongs to Madonna, who claims to cherish her privacy. So why would she decorate the enclosed sprawl — which she says she wants “hidden” from the hoi polloi — with ghosts and ghouls hanging out windows? The spooky types Madonna shuns were busily snapping pics and peeking between the opening in the gates, hoping maybe to see Madge in the surroundings of her one-woman gated community. Sorry, no sightings to report. Bentornato, Il Carino — Nice to

see the new canopy at Yorkville’s Il Carino Italian restaurant. It’s eyecatching, colorful and a stand-out. Welcome back, again. This time to stay. CUNY’s got “Close Up” — Sam Roberts is back. His formerly erstwhile NY1 Sunday p.m./Monday a.m. hour has found a weekly home, albeit for a half-hour, early Sunday afternoons on the CUNY station. The New York-ey, well-informed reporters and other talking heads really have the pulse and beat of our town. Lively, acerbic real New York as it takes on the issues. The lively and chatty hour was a high point of the week in getting an overview of the week’s news by Times reporters — the newbies and the old-timers — holding forth about the ins and outs of mostly local and state news. Their no-holds-barred take on the week’s news is fun and informed. Breathing is more refreshing with Close Up on the CUNY Channel (75 on Spectrum). Great having the regulars back — Sam Roberts, Clyde Haberman, Eleanor Randolph. Cheers!

BY ANY OTHER NAME GRAYING NEW YORK BY MARCIA EPSTEIN

Sometimes I don’t know where I live. Oh, I don’t mean it that way. I know my address. It’s on West 97th Street, on the Upper West Side. At least that’s how I always describe my neighborhood. I am an Upper West Sider. I live on the Upper West Side. The UWS is defined as extending from 59th Street to 110th, between Central Park and the Hudson River. I never give it a second thought. However, it seems I might also live in Manhattan Valley. According to Wikipedia and most other sites, Manhattan Valley runs from Broadway to Central Park West, and from 96th Street to 110th Street. One site, however, says Manhattan Valley comprises 100th Street to 110th Street, Broadway to Central Park West. Yet a third site

claims it is 96th Street to 110th Street from Amsterdam Avenue to Central Park West. The Park West Neighborhood History Group says that Manhattan Valley is a piece of the Bloomingdale area that centers along Manhattan Avenue from 104th to 110th Street. Go ﬁgure! And so, I also live in the Bloomingdale area. This local history group calls the area from 96th Street to 110th Street, from the Hudson River to Central Park West, Bloomingdale. The area was once known as the Bloomingdale District, and the history group wants this name to be used again. The Ninth Avenue El was principal in developing what the History Group calls the Bloomingdale Community. It was built in 1878 and 1879 by seven men and a team of horses. In 1903, it was the last el in New York to go electric, and in 1940 it was closed. The name Bloomingdale is still used by some to refer to the part of

the Upper West Side, the location of old Bloomingdale Village, which extended from 96th to 110th Street and from Riverside Park east to Amsterdam Avenue. In 1907, the greenspace at the intersection of Broadway and West End Avenue, and 106th and 107th Streets, now called Straus Park, was designated as Bloomingdale Square. Getting complicated? You bet! In any case, the neighborhood, whatever boundaries you decide to use, includes The Bloomingdale School of Music and the Bloomingdale branch of the New York Public Library. The name Bloomingdale comes from Bloemendaal, a town in the tulip region of Holland. It consisted of farms and villages known as the Bloomingdale Road. In 1899, after being widened and paved, Bloomingdale Road was connected to and became an extension of Broadway. Some restate companies never know what to call all these neighborhoods

Straus Park was so named for Isadore and Ida Straus, who went down with the Titanic, in 1912. Prior to that, the area, bordered by 106th and 107th Streets, Broadway and West End Avenue, was known as Bloomingdale Square, for Bloomingdale Road, the former name of Broadway. Photo: Richard Khavkine of the Upper West Side. And there are those who feel that calling the area Bloomingdale is confusing because Bloomingdale’s Department store is on the East Side. Well, no wonder the confusion. I am totally confused myself. So where do I live? I suppose I live in all three neighborhoods: the Upper

West Side, Manhattan Valley and the Bloomingdale area. I am a member of BAIP (Bloomingdale Aging in Place), and I use the Bloomingdale branch of the library. Nevertheless, if you ask me where I live, it’s The Upper West Side.

President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com

STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source nyoffice@strausnews.com 212-868-0190

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 Executives Fred Almonte, David Dallon Director of Partnership Development Barry Lewis

Editor-In-Chief, Alexis Gelber Deputy Editor Richard Khavkine

Senior Reporter Doug Feiden

Director of Digital Pete Pinto

Staff Reporter Michael Garofalo

Director, Arts & Entertainment/ NYCNow Alizah Salario

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

MESSING WITH MY MOM’S LEGACY VIEWPOINT The son of the founder of the Riverside Neighborhood Assembly House on a move to privatize Mitchell-Lama co-ops BY ALAN CHARTOCK

In 1967, the Riverside Neighborhood Assembly House opened on the West Side of Manhattan on 96th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. It was one of the first, if not the first, of the Mitchell-Lama buildings in Manhattan. The idea was to make sure that common folks who could not afford the high rentals could remain in the neighborhoods of New York. I recently heard that the average rental of a one bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan runs $3,400 a month. That’s a lot of money. People I know in the RNA House are paying about $600 a month for a one bedroom. To this day, the Mitchell-Lama program has some pretty strict rules. In order to get one of these apartments, you have to be on the waiting list and meet certain criteria. You have to fit between certain economic guidelines and because there aren’t enough apartments to go around, you may have to wait on the list for years to buy shares in a cooperative building. Like other co-ops, you don’t own your apartment. Rather, you own shares in the building but you get to use the apartment. If you are allowed to buy into the building, the rule is that when you leave, you have to surrender your shares at the price you originally paid in plus a prorated share of the amortization while you were there. You may wonder why I am writing about the RNA House, now an incredible fifty years old. It is so important to me because it was my mother who thought up and gave birth to the place, just as she gave birth to my brother and me. My mom, Shirley Chartock (later reverting to her given name of Sarah), was the school community coordinator on

In front of the RNA building on 96th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. Photo: Alexis Gelber the West Side of Manhattan. She thought up the Riverside Neighborhood Assembly (after whom the building is named) whose job it was to bring the people and the schools together and she sponsored an awful lot of conferences and theater parties to make it all happen. She worked incredibly hard at it and then she taught in the evenings at Hunter College in the education department. She founded the Fire Island Youth Group and ran that for many summers. My mother was at the forefront of those folks who believed that there should be a place, an integrated place, where people could live when so many were being forced out of their neighborhoods. When the Mitchell-Lama program originated, thanks to Mayor Robert Wagner and a cadre of assistants (Warren Moscow and Robert Moses among them), my mom saw an opportunity for the Riverside Neighborhood Assembly to sponsor a ﬁrst. I seem to remember Bob Wagner laying it all out in our living room. That’s why I’m not happy about the latest development in the long history of the RNA House — they are trying to mess with my mom’s legacy.

All these years later, there is a move to change the MitchellLama co-ops so that the apartments people could actually afford would be privatized. That means some of the people who are the cooperators want to own their apartments and sell them at current market prices and, of course, make out like bandits. The whole idea of affordable housing was to make real middle class, integrated housing a reality. After twenty years in the program, the law allows the cooperators to vote on whether to privatize. In most cases, people have been true to the mission but in others, they have been understandably greedy. Soon the RNA House will have to decide. My mom, whose name is not up there on the plaque even though it was her project from start to finish, will be rolling in her grave if the cooperators ﬁghting the privatization should lose. Then a good idea would have gone sour. Too bad. Alan Chartock is professor emeritus at the State University of New York, publisher of the Legislative Gazette and president and CEO of the WAMC Northeast Public Radio Network. From an article in the troyrecord.com.

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Discover the world around the corner. Find community events, gallery openings, book launches and much more: Go to nycnow.com

EDITOR’S PICK NTOZAKE SHANGE’S “WILD BEAUTY” BOOK RELEASE►

Thu 16 Nuyorican Poets Cafe 236 East Third St. 6 p.m. Free

The local paper for Downtown

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

Join poet and playwright Ntozake Shange for the release of “Wild Beauty,” her first collection of poetry in 10 years, with performances by Michael Ray, Chrissy Raye and William “Spaceman” Patterson. This highly-anticipated bilingual collection of more than 60 pieces is emotionally charged and full of raw honesty. Best known for her play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf” (1975), Shange is considered to be one of the most influential and writers of her generation. Come buy a book and meet the author. First-come, first-served. Refreshments will be available.

Thu 16 Fri 17

otdowntown.com

MOTHERHOOD & FILM PANEL

GENERATION WOMEN: THE SKIN I’M IN

Neue House 110 East 25th St. 6:45 p.m. Free Explore how parenthood can affect a ﬁlmmaking career, and learn more about why, despite attempts to reach gender parity in the ﬁlm and television industry, child-care responsibilities overwhelmingly continue to fall on mothers. Panelists include Paola Mendoza, the artistic director for the Women’s March on Washington. Children welcome. mifnycpanel.splashthat.com

Caveat, 21 Clinton St. 7 p.m. $25 A night of cross-generational storytelling that ampliﬁes women’s voices and creativity, this monthly symposium features women in their 20s through 70s presenting original essays on a given topic. This month features actress Yael Stone of “Orange Is the New Black,” activist Barbara Collins Bowie and others. 212-228-2100 caveat.nyc

Sat 18 THE VELVETEEN RABBIT, REBORN► BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St. 1:30 p.m. $30 In this musical re-telling of a classic children’s tale, a young boy’s love and a little nursery magic help transform the Velveteen Rabbit from a favorite plaything into a real rabbit. The Boy and Velveteen embark on exciting imaginary adventures, and together they learn the true meaning of friendship. For ages 3-11. 212-220-1460 tribecapac.org

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Photo by esthermax, via Flickr

Sun 19 Tue 21 Wed 22 ‘DIASPORA’ OPENING WEEKEND The Gym at Judson Theater, 243 Thompson St. 3 p.m and 8 p.m. $55.50 A group of young American Jews on a Birthright trip to Israel examine their relationships to Israel and Jewishness while visiting Masada in this provocative new play by Nathaniel Sam Shapiro, Part comedy, part commentary, 73 A.D. meets 2017 as the group comes face-to-face with their heritage, and the past. Runs through Dec. 23. 238-811-4111 diasporatheplay.com

ZUMBA JUMPSTART ▲

POETRY IN MOTION

6 River Terrace 10:30 a.m. Free Join a ﬁtness dance party with upbeat music including salsa, merengue and hip-hop. This community of dancers learn new dance steps each week. For all ability levels. 212-267-9700 bpcparks.org/event

McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St. 7 p.m. Free Poet, curator and artist Anaïs Duplan’s “Mount Carmel & the Blood of Parnassus,” a new collection that includes both poetry and essays, will launch with readings by upand-coming poets Precious Okoyomon and Benjamin Krusling. 212-274-1160 mcnallyjackson.com/event

Your neighborhood news source

otdowntown.com

Mon 20 PEN OUT LOUD: MADNESS AND MANIA The Strand, 828 Broadway 7 p.m. $10, admission includes signed copy of book This intimate poetry reading with award-winning authors Sam Sax and Jeanann Verlee explores the creative processes that allows for self-expression during difficult times. Sax and Verlee will navigate themes of mental health and the often obscured line between self-hate and self-love. 212-473-1452 strandbooks.com

Follow Our Town Downtown on Facebook and Twitter

Downtowner

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

THE LONG ROAD TO A MASTERPIECE Da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” BY MARY GREGORY

The chapter being written at Christie’s this week is just a small part of the long story of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” (Savior of the World). Painted around 1500, roughly contemporary with da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper” at the height of the artist’s career, its beauty, serenity and spirituality did little to shield it from the vagaries of fate. Like many important works of art, it led a sheltered life at the beginning, and then, as time, fading fortunes and changes of ownership and taste stretched across centuries, it eventually languished, unloved. “Salvator Mundi” may have been commissioned by Louis XII of France. It ended up in England about 150 years later, where King Charles I was an avid picture collector. Wars ensued, power shifted. Fortunes were made, others were lost. It was listed in a 1650 inventory of the royal collection, and a notable printmaker made a copy of it titled “Jesus after Leonardo ... Leonardus da Vinci pinxit (Leonardo da Vinci painted it).” s It seems to have stayed with English nobility, passing through generations, till the 1800s. By then, the panel on which it had been painted had split, and, as was the practice at the time, a restorer had a crack at fixing it up however he saw fit, probably unaware that it was a da Vinci. It was purchased at auction in about 1900 for the Cook Collection, as a work by a follower of Leonardo. In 1958, that collection was liquidated, and the painting (still mislabeled) sold for £45, or about $500 in today’s money. The second genius involved with “Salvator Mundi” was an unnamed American businessman with a keen eye, who snatched up a dark and unheralded picture at a small, regional auction house in 2005, reportedly for about $10,000, sensing greatness. This was despite the fact that the masterpiece was hiding behind a restoration that included the most clichéd disguise of all — a fake moustache. It took years for cleaning, expert opinions, valuations, restoration and second opinions, exhibitions and another change of owners to bring the story to its current page — a sale of epic proportions on November 15. The picture passed all the scientific verifications of materials and technique. It’s composed almost exactly as da Vinci’s other great portraits (of which only a handful exist). It’s been accepted by the world’s top experts as da Vinci’s work. The story has been checked and rechecked.

The image is evocative and ethereal in its beauty…. Luminous, gentle eyes and an enigmatic, soft smile radiate beatific grace.”

Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi.” Photo: Adel Gorgy

But da Vincis aren’t about stories; they’re about light and color, scientiﬁc inquiry, visual intrigue, and mysteries of meaning. So, how does it look? The hands — one raised in blessing, the other holding a rock crystal orb that represents the world — are exquisite in technique, gesture and sensitivity. The face of Jesus is somewhat blurry, veiled by a soft focus. Experts have argued that that’s exactly as Leonardo intended, while others suggest that the forces of age and loss have taken their toll. It may be moot, since we can only regard the face of the “Salvator Mundi” that has come down to us. The image is evocative and ethereal in its beauty. The face of Jesus emerges from a black background, shining as though lit from within. Luminous, gentle eyes and an enigmatic, soft smile radiate beatific grace. The skin tones are fresh. The colors of the robes are rich and luxurious, its folds painted with great mastery. The ringlets of hair, like so many others da Vinci painted, are rendered with controlled precision and attention to the perfection of nature’s geometry. “Salvator Mundi” surrounds itself with a hushed yet powerful presence and is unquestionably a masterpiece of Renaissance art. It’s been dubbed the “male Mona Lisa,” and the greatest artistic discovery of the century. Is it? Push aside the pundits, and look carefully at the picture, itself. Let it speak to you. Take the advice of Leonardo, himself, an artist who was relentless in looking and who questioned everything. He said, “All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.”

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

FORKS AND FASHION DESIGN SVA students created offbeat designs made out of silverware, pennies and tea bags for a Madison Avenue BID event BY CARSON KESSLER

Using 382 forks, 59 spoons and two ladles, design student Filipa Mota designed the perfect, 1920s-inspired cocktail dress. Displayed on the corner of East 69th Street, Mota’s stainless-steel dress is one of 14 original ensembles decorating the sidewalks of the luxury shopping strip on Madison Avenue between 61st and 76th streets. With the guidance of Kevin O’Callaghan, 3D design chairman at Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts, 20 undergraduate design students created offbeat pieces to accompany the 36 premiere brands participating in the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District’s One-of-a-Kind Luxury Event. Participants include brands such as Bottega Veneta and Dolce & Gabbana, all featuring a roster of one-of-a-kind products for sale at their Madison Avenue locations. “[The event] is homage to the creativity of the brands found here and to the New York City brick-and-mortar shopping experience,” said Matthew Bauer, President of the Madison Avenue BID. “We wanted to make this event for the stores come to life on the street.” The design students created raincoats made out of enough teabags to fill 1,400 cups of tea and stilettos made out of enough pencils to write 12.9 million words. Each piece was made out of a single material and installed in a glass case outside of participating stores. Statistics accompanied each student’s creation, putting into perspective the astonishing number of items that went its development. “People are amazed that there is art on the street like this, in glass cases,” O’Callaghan said. “I’m being told that it’s kind of a game-changer, bringing the art to areas that don’t have the facilities to [show] art.” Students used the opportunity of a public art exhibition to highlight bigger themes, such as consumer trends and waste. “I used pennies to underline the money that we spend on

If it rained, Chris Choe’s raincoat could ﬁll 1,400 cups of tea. Photo: Carson Kessler

The tree bark on Bobby Cao’s dress is equivalent to 4.5 running yards of bark. Photo: Carson Kessler

Zhuoyuan Li used 288 pencils to create these sharp stilettos. Photo: Carson Kessler

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Icons and Innovators: Isaac Mizrahi and James Whiteside

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH, 7PM The Greene Space | 44 Charlton St. | 646-829-4000 | thegreenespace.org American Ballet Theater principal dancer James Whiteside and fashion maven Isaac Mizrahi come together for a session of Icons & Innovators, celebrating artists chaﬁng at limitations ($20).

The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn: An Untold Story from the American Revolution

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20TH, 6:30PM Fraunces Tavern | 54 Pearl St. | 212-968-1776 | frauncestavernmuseum.org Twice as many Americans died on the HMS Jersey as were killed in combat during the entire war. Learn more about the horrors of this prison ship from author and historian Robert Watson ($10). Filipa Mota created her 1920s-inspired dress from old silverware found at vintage stores. Photo: Carson Kessler

Just Announced | Secret Science Club Presents Illusions of Mind

fashion,” said Mert Avadya of the inspiration behind her dress made out of 12,500 pennies. James Tsang used 225 RAM chips, a common source of e-waste, to create his armorinspired design. The multi-dimensional event created an unusual experience for shoppers. “A key attribute

The Bell House | 149 7th St., Brooklyn | 718-643-6510 | thebellhouseny.com

that makes Madison Avenue able to attract both the international visitor and the local client is that our boutiques present items that are truly one-of-a-kind,” Bauer said. The One-of-a-Kind luxury event is scheduled to close on November 15.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20TH, 8PM Brain scientists Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik (Champions of Illusion) join the Secret Science Club to talk about the sight gags that surround us, and what these visual illusions reveal about evolution and the inner workings of our minds (free).

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

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS NOV 1-9, 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. Zagara Wine Bar

Westville

Artichoke Basille’s Pizza & Bar

Coppelia Cuban Luncheonette

216 7Th Ave

246 West 18 Street

457 West 17 Street

207 West 14 Street

Grade Pending (25) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to Grade Pending (26) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored. Grade Pending (40) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. 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. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Grade Pending (24) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Muscle Maker Grill

70 7Th Ave

Grade Pending (26) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. 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. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

Westville

210 West 10 Street

Ad Hoc Collective

13 Christopher St

Mr. Dennehy’s

63 Carmine Street

Jack’s Stir Brew Coffee

10 Downing Street

Gallo Nero Iii

1 7Th Ave S

Grade Pending (21) Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Food Protection Certiﬁcate not held by supervisor of food operations.

Dunkin’ Donuts

75 Christopher Street

Bar Bolonat

611 Hudson St

Dunkin Donuts & Baskin Robbins

395 Hudson St

Oppa

353 W 14Th St

Sevilla Restaurant

62 Charles Street

Grade Pending (23) Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Facility not vermin proof.

Chelsea Square Restaurant 368 West 23 Street

Chelsea Thai

88 10 Avenue

Entwine

202 W 14Th St

Grade Pending (20) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

765 Washington Street

La Carbornara

The Elk

128 Charles St

Hudson Diner

468 Hudson Street

Six Pans/ Creamline

180 7Th Ave

Niu Noodle House

15 Greenwich Avenue

Limon Jungle Empanadas

197 7Th Ave

Grade Pending (24) Food from unapproved or unknown source or home canned. Reduced oxygen packaged (ROP) ﬁsh not frozen before processing; or ROP foods prepared on premises transported to another site. Food Protection Certiﬁcate not held by supervisor of food operations.

Emily

35 Downing St

Luv Tea

37A Bedford St

Not Yet Graded (22) Food Protection Certiﬁcate not held by supervisor of food operations. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Closed By HealthDepartment (37) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. 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.

Bluestone Lane

55 Greenwich Ave

Waffle De Lys

353 W 14Th St

Cowgirl Hall Of Fame

519 Hudson Street

Snack Taverna

63 Bedford Street

Sports Center Cafe

0 Chelsea Piers

VISIT OUR WEBSITE! at OTDOWNTOWN.COM

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

ADVOCATING FOR THE CITY’S HOMELESS

Tired of Hunting for Our Town Downtown? Subscribe today to

ISSUES A four-point plan to keep people housed

Downtowner

BY GEOFF MULVIHILL

It’s before dawn when two outreach workers ﬁnd a homeless man known as Juice near a train station in Harlem. A nurse will be visiting to discuss his heart problems, they tell him. A short time later, in Marcus Garvey Park, the sun has just begun to rise when the caseworkers approach a man zipped inside a sleeping bag. They have encountered him before; they know he’s teasing when he gives a phony name. Gladys Rivera and Ali Olson are part of a citywide, roundthe-clock army of workers for nonprofits contracted by the city. Their aim is to get the homeless into shelter, and so they make the rounds of upper Manhattan, checking on clients, identifying newcomers to the streets and trying to connect them with services. They are often rejected, but they do not give up. “You never know which one is going to be the one that sticks,” said Olson. The nation’s most populous city also has the nation’s largest homeless population, with 75,000, and like other highrent cities, it has not been able to move the dispossessed to permanent housing nearly as fast as people are becoming homeless. The city had fewer than 4,000 unsheltered homeless in an official count taken in January, a number that might have been deﬂated somewhat by winter weather. But that amounts to only about 1 in 20 homeless people being unsheltered. That compares with 15 of every 20 homeless people in Los Angeles sleeping on the streets or in tents, vehicles or abandoned buildings. In California, Oregon and Washington combined, 12 out of every 20 homeless people have no shelter at night. New York’s right-to-shelter policy in effect during coldweather months grew out of a series of court rulings dating to the 1970s and is rooted in state constitutional provisions

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

Photo: Steven Strasser adopted in the 1930s to ensure the needy would get government help. Homeless families can get short-term shelter while their cases are investigated and longer-term shelter if they are found to need it. For single adults, there is even easier access to the system. They show up at intake centers and are usually given a place to stay that night. Last year, New York spent nearly $1.7 billion in city, state and federal money to aid the homeless. And even with that commitment, the sheltering program has its critics among the homeless. Some 4,000 people continue to sleep outside. “No one wants to be in a shelter ... where all anybody does is ﬁght,” said Anthony Rainey, who was packing his possessions into a wheelchair when the caseworkers spoke with him. Rainey, 63, had slept next to a school but cleared out before students arrived. He said he has been on the streets since 1971, when he got back from his time in Vietnam as a Marine. For the people who remain on the streets — many with mental health issues, drug addictions or years of incarceration in their pasts — Rainey’s complaint is common. They note the police officers who serve as guards, the small lockers and strict curfews. “A shelter is no different from jail,” said William Bryant, a 50-year-old who has stayed with a group of a half-dozen others in front of a vacant sushi restaurant near Penn Station since he was released over the summer after a four-month stint in jail for drug possession. Steven Banks spent more

than 30 years suing the city to help the homeless, and it was his lawsuit that forced New York to shelter homeless families, who now make up most of the sheltered population. Now he’s working on the inside, after Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed him three years ago to oversee the Department of Homeless Services. Among other things, he wants to phase out the use of hotels to house the homeless. A city comptroller report earlier this year found that nearly 8,000 people were being put up in hotels at a total cost of more than $500,000 a day . Banks also is pushing to improve conditions at shelters. He wants to open 90 new facilities, increase the size of the outreach staff and give them better technology to share information about clients. The overall plan, adopted earlier this year, aims to reduce the shelter population by 2,500 over ﬁve years. While that sounds like a modest objective, Banks said the key is reversing the growth of the Department of Homeless Services’ shelter system. The homeless population has nearly doubled since former Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office in 2002. Banks said there are four steps to addressing homelessness: keeping people in housing; getting those who are homeless off the streets; making sure shelters are safe and decent; and moving people from shelters to permanent housing. “Without a comprehensive approach with each of those four elements,” Banks said, “homelessness cannot effectively be addressed.”

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

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

Now get your personal copy delivered by US Mail for just

49/Year for 52 issues

To Subscribe : Call 212-868-0190 or go online to otdowntown.com and click on subscribe

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Business TAX BILL WILL AFFECT REAL ESTATE, BUT HOW? Implications for both clients and businesses are far from clear BY FREDERICK PETERS

How will Federal tax law changes impact our New York real estate markets? Since several major issues remain to be worked out, and the bill has just begun debate in Congress, it’s far too soon to tell. With so many different constituencies lobbying pro or con various provisions, we know very little about what the final bill will look like. That said, we can certainly prognosticate based on some of the proposed bill’s more significant changes: • The deductibility of mortgage interest. This part of the bill could well remain intact, because such a small percentage of U.S. homeowners have mortgages (or houses) worth in excess of $500,000, which would replace $1,100,000 as the new maximum deductible mortgage amount. Of course, the impact on New York City would be substantial, especially for homes priced at $2 million and under. Fortunately, at least for now, the true value of the lost deduction reflects the low interest rate climate. The value of a lost interest rate deduction on $600,000, calculated at 4 percent, is

Photo: 401kcalculator.org, via ﬂickr $24,000; for someone paying at a 40 percent tax rate, the cost would be $9,600 per annum. Inconvenient, certainly, but not a market killer. • The deductibility of state and local taxes. While the end of the alternative minimum tax should have some mitigating effect on this provision, the heaviest burden will fall on high-tax

states like New York, and high-tax municipalities like New York City. Since there is a substantial groundswell of opposition to this from U.S. representatives and senators on both sides of the aisle who hail from high-tax states, it remains to be seen if it will make the ﬁnal cut. I originally anticipated that for many of our customers and clients

these losses would be offset by the proposed reduction of the top federal income-tax rate, but that reduction has apparently gone by the wayside for earners of $1 million or more. So this provision could result in higher taxes for our clientele, which is never a good thing for our business. • Business tax rates. Other than the

clear plan to reduce corporate tax rates to 20 percent, which will be a boon to both shareholders and large business owners, this part of the bill remains a work in progress. The bill proposes a reduction in the tax rates paid on the profits of pass-through entities like subchapter S corporations, partnerships and sole proprietorships. Pushback began almost immediately from those concerned that this would create a loophole for people in the highest brackets to create passthrough entities as a way of lowering at least part of their tax burden from 39.6 percent to 25 percent. Time will tell. Since so many real estate clients are either corporate officers or business proprietors, these provisions would be highly beneficial to them and thus to the real estate marketplace. Overall, everyone needs to assume a wait-and-see attitude. The first shots have been fired, but there are long battles ahead in both the House and the Senate before we truly understand the final implications of this tax bill for our client base. For now, we can sit back with interest and watch the show! Frederick Peters is CEO of Warburg Realty.

NEIGHBORHOOD SIDE STREETS sideways.nyc

MEET 10TH STREET

HIGHLANDS 26 EAST 10TH STREET If you have had the good fortune to roam the Scottish hills, frequent its local pubs and, of course, tour the single malt Scotch whisky distilleries. Highlands brings these quintessential memories of Scotland rushing back. It is an intriguing blend of old and new, both in the décor and the food. The atmosphere is simple, with modern wooden tables and touches of plaid on the chairs. While Scottish standbys of Cullen skink (smoked haddock soup), bangers and mash, and braised lamb shoulder pie grace the menu, the less adventurous might be glad to see the barley / mushroom risotto with a touch of whisky, the red-wine roasted pear salad and the slow-roasted fall vegetable salad. The star of the evening, at least for the aﬁcionados in one group, was the voluminous list of single malt scotch whisky. They always look for something a little off the beaten track of The Macallan and the wellknown “Glens.” For more photos and side streets, go to sideways.nyc

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

!" # $ % $&&

% ()!*+***

)/)0 1 2

"! 3 4& $&&

-5

% (")-+***

!0 2

6* & !7 $&&

! 5&

(!+,'-+***

!)"

. 4 7-/'0 2

6* & !7 $&&

! 5&

(!+,-*+***

!""

. 4 7)/-0 2

!7 & !7 $&&

! 5&

(',*+***

7/"0 2 ,

,,7 & !* $&&

! 5&

(888+***

. 4

!6- .#$% #&$ $&&

! 5&

(',-+***

,/80 2 7

)) & !, $&&

!)&

% ()!*+***

!*)

!!/!0 2

!7* 5 $$ $&&

, 5& (,+,-*+***

. 4

!** 5 $$ $&&

, 5& (7+7),+***

!*"

. 4

,!/,0 2

7 "

,! $ : .&

, 5&

(,+)8*+***

)

. 4

,/!0 2

!'- & # 4 $&&

(-'-+***

-8

!/)0 2

!7/)0 2 "

,' & " $&&

(,+,**+***

-- $& 3 4& $&&

, 5&

(,+8-*+***

)/)0 2

"! 5 4 $&&

7; 5&

('+!"-+77"

!,!

. 4

)/"0 2

", .$ 5< $&&

7; 5&

('+8*8+6')

)

. 4

!/'0 1 2

", .$ 5< $&&

7; 5&

(!*+-"-+7-6

. 4

*/80 1 2

", .$ 5< $&&

7; 5&

('+'**+***

. 4

6 ) '

5 .

,'' & $&&

7; 5&

(,+***+***

7),

7)0 2 -

"" :=&$ $&&

, 5&

(,+6**+***

,)8

!*/,0 2 6

- >$ 4=:%4 : .&

7; 5&

(7+)**+***

,''

. 4

!7/80 2

)7 $ # $&&

7; 5&

(7+'-*+***

!!6

. 4

'/70 2

8 !*

)

!"7 $& & $&&

7; 5&

("+,-*+***

!"'

. 4

!"/)0 2

,** .# 5&$ $&&

! 5&

(!+,'-+***

!*,

. 4

7/"0 2

!*! $$&4 $&&

, 5&

(7+)7*+***

-6

. 4

6/)0 2 '

,** $&. $ : .&

! 5&

()**+***

. 4

*/!0 1 2 8

-* & $&&

, 5&

("+","+,86

68*

. 4

!/'0 1 2

-6 %4& $&&

!!5

! 5&

(6'-+***

!",

. 4

!7/'0 2

'' $&&4 %.# $&&

!7*"

, 5&

(!+6)-+***

. 4

!/,0 2

!- 5$ $&&

!)!6

! 5&

(,+*8-+***

. 4

-/'0 2

7 # 4 &$ ? $&

(-**+***

!- %::% $&&

"7.

! 5&

(!+,6-+***

. 4

6/60 2

)* :% :& & $&&

()68+***

!"'

. 4

7/60 2

"/,0 1 2 !*

9 @ / A/ @ B B 9 A / > A A + @ 99 C /

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

GIRLCODE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

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

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

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

Yes! Start my mail subscription to the Downtowner right away! 1-Year Subscription @ $49

Name

________________________________________________

Address _________________________________ Apt. #

________

New York, NY Zip Code __________ Cell Phone _________________ Email Address___________________________________________ Payment by

Check # __________

Money Order

Credit Card

Name on Credit Card (Please Print) ___________________________ Card # _______________________ Exp. Date

____ //____ // ____

Signature of Cardholder ___________________________________

Return Completed Form to: Straus News, 20 West Avenue, Chester, NY, 10918 or go to otdowntown.com & click on Subscribe

GirlCode is one of the handson programs offered at The Coding Space, which has locations on both the Upper East and Upper West Side of Manhattan. GirlCode’s mission: To create a world where girls and women have the tools, drive and community to shatter the glass ceiling. Co-founders Nicole Kelner and Eli Kariv began The Coding Space three years ago, offering co-ed afterschool programs, because they saw there was a huge demand for coding education. In a 2016 Gallup study of K-12 schools nationwide, 90 percent of parents said theyed want their kids to learn coding but only 40 percent of schools offered computer science courses. “Coding is a great skill that we want all students to learn,” says Kariv. “It’s a second language, just like Spanish or French. It’s also an amazing medium for solving problems and critical thinking.” After the launch, they decided to add a girls-only program based on Kelner’s experience as one of the only women at her former tech job in San Francisco. Rather than complain to female colleagues about how there aren’t enough women in tech, she and Kariv started girl coding workshops. They were such a hit, a summer program and after school classes were added, and GirlCode was born. Through the power of coding, Kelner says, “We teach computational thinking, a growth mindset, and confidence to

young girls. We especially love providing a space where they can imagine a better future self by being exposed to positive female mentors in STEM. We also go on ﬁeld trips to Google, Facebook and Microsoft. [The girls] start thinking of themselves as problem-solvers in the world of technology.” Coding is a powerful tool to help young women change the world. No one knows that better than the mothers whose girls participate in GirlCode. Educator Shaina Trapedo says that after two days at the GirlCode summer camp, her daughter Chaya, 13, came home talking about loops and algorithms. “I have a Ph.D. in English, yet didn’t understand what she was talking about,” said Shaina. So Chaya explained: “This is the language we use to talk to computers.” Impressed with the program’s “empowering initiative,” Shaina introduced it to her administrators at the Manhattan High School for Girls on the Upper East Side, where she is the Director of Humanities. Now, coding is part of the school’s core curriculum. “If they take English and math, they need coding. It’s collaborative and teaches problemsolving.” For Chaya, though, coding is “a labor of love. It’s exciting to see things happen.” Of all the activities she’s pursued — sewing, 3D animation, general camp offerings — “coding is the best.” Her contribution to the event was a water-saving game called Pro Water. “I thought about all the water we waste by leaving the tap

on when brushing our teeth,” she said, then cited how people in the Third World are lucky if they have a bucket of water that has to last for days. Emerson Davis, 11, and her partner Camille Lurie both loved video games and wanted to make their own. With their Poverty Project, when a player loses, their money goes to charity. Emerson has been coding for four years, the last two at The Coding Space. She’s been at GirlCode for two months. Emerson is following in the footsteps of her mother Debra, who has a background in tech. “I came up when girls were told ‘math is hard,’ and many girls were discouraged. I’m not going to let anyone take the steam out of [Emerson’s] love of tech.” When the Davis family moved from Chicago, Debra found The Coding Space right away. “There isn’t a lot out there and the difference I saw with this program was tremendous.” Is Emerson looking to a career in STEM? According to Debra, her daughter likes coding, has expressed an interest in UI (user interface) design, and is toying with the idea of becoming a YouTube star. Whatever she, and all the girls of GirlCode choose to do in the future, chances are they’ll succeed with coding as their foundation. For more information about GirlCode, contact admissions@ thecodingspace.com or call 929-352-1272 or go online: thecodingspace.com/girlcode.html Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novel “Back To Work She Goes.”

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

TRIBECA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 district designations. The LPC declined to expand the districts in 2016, citing agency priorities and the level of existing landmark protection in the area. (The potential expansion was not calendared for formal consideration by the full commission, which consists of 11 mayoral appointees.) The LPC’s ruling is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by Tribeca Trust, which seeks a court order to annul and vacate the decision and direct the commission to reconsider the case under new standards. The parties appeared in court earlier this month and a judgement will likely be issued in early 2018. In court documents, the LPC said that drawing historic district boundaries is a “difficult and nuanced endeavor,” and that the commission “seeks to include landmark-worthy buildings while minimizing the inclusion of vacant lots and buildings that do not contribute to the special sense of place of the district, because, they are too altered or of an entirely different era.” But Tribeca Trust, in its 2013 request to LPC, called the district boundaries “obvious bones thrown to the real estate industry” that allowed for “grossly inappropriate” buildings in the areas outside the historic districts that would not have been permitted within them. (Alterations, demolitions and new construction within historic districts require special permitting to ensure that appropriate context is maintained within the surrounding area.) Lynn Ellsworth, Tribeca Trust’s chair, said that Tribeca’s “sense of place” has already been compromised as a result of “inappropriate” buildings built outside the historic districts’ boundaries in recent years, such as by the 800foot tower at 56 Leonard Street. “If you gerrymander the boundaries and then allow all of this insane out-of-context infill towers or hideous buildings, you’re destroying the integrity of the historic asset that you designated in the first place,” Ellsworth said. “It becomes eroded through time.” Tribeca Trust claims that LPC’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious” — a key legal standard in this type of case, known as an Article 78 proceeding — because, the petitioners allege, the decision was made unilaterally by LPC Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan, “despite the absence of any lawful procedure or guidelines by which to consider expansion of historic districts.” “In the absence of any procedure or guidelines for such determinations, the Chair is left with no reviewable method of decision-making, precipitating decisions which, by their very nature, are necessarily arbitrary and capricious,” states one Tribeca Trust court filing. Sarah Carroll, the executive director of the LPC, disputed the characterization of the decision as “unilateral” in an affidavit stating that acted in consultation with and on the recommendation of agency staff in determining that the request for expansion wouldn’t be presented to full Commission. “It would be impractical,” Carroll said, for the full Commission to rule on every such request, and that “as a practical matter” decisions of this type are delegated to the chairperson, though each commissioner can motion to calendar items. According to Carroll, LPC research staff reviewed the proposal and “concluded that there were too many noncontributing buildings, altered buildings and vacant lots to warrant recommending expansion of the districts.”

Hubble Contacts are a soft lens, disposable contact subscription. They’re competing against four companies that dominate 97 percent of the contact lens industry. Photo: Hubble Contacts

WEST SIDE STARTUP ENTREPRENEURS How two friends came up with the idea for Hubble Contacts, a subscription lens company BY SOPHIE HERBUT

You may have seen them on television. Benjamin Cogan and Jesse Horwitz introduce themselves as a woman with a barrel of money walks into the frame. Cogan takes a single $20 bill and hands the woman a bright green box of contact lenses. “You shouldn’t have to pay a lot for daily contacts that feel great,” Cogan says in the commercial. Contact lenses are a necessity for many people. According to the Vision Council of America, about 75 percent of adults use some sort of vision correction, either glasses or contacts. An estimated 40 million people wear contacts lenses in the U.S. and daily contacts cost about $700 a year. Someone on a budget might overwear their contacts in order to save money and put their health at risk doing so. Cogan noticed that the price of contacts lenses spiked in 2015. He said it happened a lot, though people just accept it. But he and his friend Jesse Horwitz look into why — and decided to create a new company, Hubble Contacts, in 2016. Cogan and Horwitz were longtime friends. Cogan, 27, who grew up on the Upper West Side, had studied philosophy at Princeton. Horwitz, 29, studied Econ math at

Columbia after changing his major a few times. The Upper West Side is their home — they even used to live across the street from each other. “This is such a West Side company,” said Cogan. “Everyone involved is from the Upper West Side.” Cogan and Horwitz discovered that the market was dominated by four major companies: Johnson & Johnson, Alcon, Bausch & Lomb, and CooperVision control 97 percent of the industry and change prices constantly. Cogan and Horwitz found the rise in prices can lead to people overusing their contacts, potentially risking health problems. Their platform was to end “overpay or overuse.” “It’s a high-price thing that leads to health concerns,” Cogan said of contact lenses. Cogan quit his job at Harry’s — a subscription service for razors and shave gel — and Horwitz left his position at Columbia University’s endowment fund to start Hubble. Hubble Contacts is doing to contact lenses what Harry’s did for razors. They’re competing with established companies, offering lower prices with the added convenience of having them delivered to people’s homes. “We spent a lot of time talking to people in the industry,” said Cogan. “There are a lot of middle men [in the industry.]” Hubble’s subscription service allows people to submit their prescription and receive 30 pairs of contacts for the month at about a dollar a pair. Subscribers can also submit a different prescription for

Benjamin Cogan and Jesse Horwitz are the founders of Hubble Contacts. They’re planning to ship to Europe by early next year. Photo: Hubble Contacts each eye on the same order so they don’t have to order double. Daily contacts are usually more expensive than reusable lenses. And some people aren’t able to to use them, like those with astigmatism or who need bifocals. But Hubble Contacts are a viable option for many people who are overpaying for disposable contacts. Horwitz said Hubble’s design and marketing were very important to them. Cogan’s father came up with the company name. He was inspired by Cogan’s girlfriend, an astrophysicist, and the famous Hubble space telescope. Horwitz said they had hired a design team that gave them dozens of names but all were trademarked. Hubble employs about 100 people, including customer service employees and independent contractors. The company is located on 60th Street and Broadway, and Horwitz said they are the only startup of their size on the Upper

West Side. Cogan and Horwitz say their company is proﬁtable. And about those commercials: when Hubble started, their ads were mostly on Facebook and Instagram. “When you advertise on Facebook, you start reaching people only as quickly as Facebook allows you to,” Cogan said. Cogan said there was a limit on how much return a company gets from advertising on Facebook. Hubble Contacts was hitting those walls. So by May, they moved into other mediums: television, radio and podcast. Their TV commercials have been on many networks, including Lifetime, Fox Sports, CNN and NBC. Currently, Cogan and Horwitz are focused on expanding to more countries. This past August they started shipping to Canada, and they’re now working on shipping to Europe between December to February.

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

BE THE SOMEONE

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

WHO HELPS A KID BE THE FIRST IN HER FAMILY TO GO TO COLLEGE.

newyorkcares.org

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

YOUR 15 MINUTES

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

MAKING A SPLASH IN TIMES SQUARE The co-founder of the company behind the city’s new underwater adventure takes us behind the scenes BY ANGELA BARBUTI

For the past three years, a team of National Geographic scientists, as well as Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winners, have worked on a one-of-akind experience in the heart of Times Square. The attraction, “National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey,” uses digital and immersive technology to make guests feel like they are on an ocean journey from the South Paciﬁc to the West Coast of North America. To ensure scientific accuracy, marine biologist and National Geographic explorer David Gruber was called in and walked from room to room of the exhibit. And to create its sea creatures such as humpback whales, great white sharks and sea lions, they consulted Thilo Ewers of Pixomundo, the Emmy Award-winning visual effect company behind the dragons in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” The underwater sou nd s hea rd throughout were composed by Gra m mywinner David K a h ne, who collected them from libraries worldwide.

“Ocean Odyssey” opened on October 6, at West 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, and quickly garnered raves, according to William Pennell, co-founder of SPE Partners, the entertainment developer that created and produced the project. The Upper West Side resident and New York native has quite a multifaceted résumé, with highlights that include a law degree, acting gigs, work as a talent agent, and ﬁnally, the creation of SPE Partners with a high school classmate.

You attended New York Law and Fordham. Did you grow up in New York? I grew up in Smithtown, Long Island. At this point, at my age, it’s crazy to say I’ve spent most of my life on the Upper West Side. I started Fordham when I was 17, and basically lived on 66th Street and Amsterdam since Fordham, except for six years in LA. So I moved away, and then came back to the same street, which is pretty funny.

Tell us about your work as a talent agent in LA. I guess what led me to be a talent agent was I was an actor in my 20s. To make a very lon g stor y short, I ﬁnally got myself in a brand new Edward Albee play and said, “This is it.” And

Visitors to “National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey” at Times Square. Photo: National Geographic Encounter two weeks before we started our official rehearsal, he pulled the show. And I said to myself, “I need a little more control out of my life,” and that’s when I went to law school. And right out of law school, I moved out to Los Angeles and became a talent agent, with an understanding, having been an actor. My niche was advocacy for artists. I did that for about six-and-a-half years at Abrams Artists Agency. We represented someone on every television show, from the kid on “Two and a Half Men” all the way up to the famous actor Hal Holbrook, and everybody in between.

What led you to create SPE Partners? I called an old friend who I’d gone to high school with, Alex Svezia; he’s the “S” in SPE, and the “E” is entertainment. We’d always planned on doing something in entertainment together because we were both crazy cinema guys. And I called him one day from Los Angeles and said, “Let’s form a company. I’m going to come back; let’s ﬁgure something out.” The trend had been in immersive cinema. We had seen an article about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas in The New York Times, saying that immersive movies were the future. So we started to try and think about how that would manifest, and that started our path on this project.

How did your partnership with National Geographic come about?

William Pennell, the co-founder of SPE Partners, the entertainment developer that created and produced “National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey.” Photo: National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey

We were trying to decide who would be the right partner to do something like this, and for many reasons, National Geographic was at the top of our list because it’s such a trusted brand and world-renowned. And also, there’s a woman named Lisa Truitt, who’s now the managing partner and chief creative officer of SPE. She was one of the leaders in IMAX and 3-D technology in ﬁlm already. So it happened serendipitously. She was kind of thinking the same thing we were. Like

how do we break the boundaries and take someone and put them in a movie three-dimensionally, rather than sitting in a seat and watching a movie?

How can you explain Ocean Odyssey?

chovies, to escape their predators, become a giant sphere and predators, like whales and sharks, attack it. And we put you right in the middle of one in a high-resolution, 8K, 60 frames per second in a single shot, so it’s very exciting.

It’s closest to a walk-through movie or documentary. So it’s as if you walked into a ﬁlm frame of a National Geographic documentary or a fictional film and that frame became four-dimensional and you were able to step inside it. And you basically take a scientifically accurate geographic journey through the South Pacific. And you walk through each room where you not only experience the science and entertainment through the technology, but you also learn. It’s very much based in science. National Geographic calls it storytelling with a purpose. We’re big on making science entertaining. You can go to a science ﬁction movie, but when you come to “National Geographic Encounter” and you see the Giant Humboldt Squid Battle, it’s based on science, looks real and actually exists in the world, and it’s just as exciting.

They did all the CGI animation. The company is called Pixomondo. One of their lead animators, Thilo Ewers, is the guy who designs and creates the dragons for “Game of Thrones.” We wanted someone who was going to be a real creature guy, who understands how to build them. And they won the Oscar for Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” for visual effects. Our sound composer is David Kahne, who’s worldrenowned and has worked with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Kelly Clarkson and created this incredible soundscape using music, but primarily real ocean sounds. It’s been pretty amazing to work with people like that.

Who are the scientists who worked on it?

What are your future plans?

There were a lot of National Geographic explorers and scientists involved, but our most prominent was our chief science advisor for the project, Dr. David Gruber, an established National Geographic Emerging Explorer. He is the rock star of bioluminescence and underwater coral reefs. There’s plenty to read about him. Basically he would come in and go from room to room. And we worked with him to make sure we were getting everything scientiﬁcally accurate.

To create more locations around the world. “National Geographic Encounter” is really the brand and in each encounter we can do Ocean Odyssey or additional National Geographic-type subjects. So the next one could very much be an African safari or a space voyage. And we’re looking at cities, not only domestically, but also overseas. Very much so in London, it looks like that could be the next one.

What is your favorite part of the exhibit? There’s definitely a crowd pleaser and it’s the bait ball. We put people in a bait ball, which is a phenomenon that occurs and ours is off the coast of San Diego, California. And it’s where an-

You had a lot of Oscar, Grammy and Emmy winners working on this, as well as the visual effects team from “Game of Thrones.” What was their role?

www.natgeoencounter.com

Know somebody who deserves their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.

CROSSWORD

H V F D V T P R D V E K W D J

E E N E I V L F F W S R N F N

J H A C P N H E A Q P C B O B

O O M A T S O Y R Q Z R I A O

M P B O F P P D R Y C G I C P

R L E C A E U F J F P B K H U

P S N N J I X J A V N H G I Z

W O T J E R E F B P N X Z N O

F R T C N R W Z F Z Q J B A B

Y A B S F U X H U B U R N E R

P P B I O F R Y I N G P A N B

The puzzle contains the names of 15 kitchen items. They may be diagonal, across, or up and down in the grid in any direction.

R C C U P B O A R D P L A T E

Burner China Cupboard Cutlery Forks Fryingpan Knife Mats Opener Oven Pantry Plate Pots Sieve Silver

ANSWERS O

49 42

A M

A C

M A

N O

G R

26 20

E M

12 1

R A S S

E I 4

N 23

M A 6

R E 7

H C

S O S

S E H

E P

A M

N O 13

U M

U 5

T 37

A M

D P

L 27

T A

S 30

18 15

C O

39 29

A W S

B O

14 8

E Y

J H A C P N H E A Q P C B O B

O O M A T S O Y R Q Z R I A O

M P B O F P P D R Y C G I C P

R L E C A E U F J F P B K H U

P S N N J I X J A V N H G I Z

W O T J E R E F B P N X Z N O

F R T C N R W Z F Z Q J B A B

Y A B S F U X H U B U R N E R

P P B I O F R Y I N G P A N B

R C C U P B O A R D P L A T E

5 6 3 1 8

2 7 9 3 4 5

8 6

4 2 7

8 4 1 6 7 2 9 5 3

6 1 4 7 5 8 2 3 9

7 3 8 2 9 6 1 4 5

9 2 5 4 1 3 7 8 6

1 5 2 8 3 7 6 9 4

4 9 6 5 2 1 3 7 8

3 8 7 9 6 4 5 1 2

24 Abrade by rubbing 25 Mexican moolah 27 Security items 28 Another name intro 30 Equipment for the boat 32 “___ a real nowhere man” 34 Creature like an alligator 37 Org for kid welfare, for short 38 Right-hand page 40 Encircle 41 Solo song 42 ___ of averages 43 Lord’s Prayer starter 44 “___ we having fun yet?” 46 Albanian money 47 Musician’s asset 48 Jamaican pop

H B B I U E J S T D L Y R Z M

E E N E I V L F F W S R N F N

49 Halo 50 Lucky ﬁsh 51 Wood used in boat building 52 Songbird 53 Getaway 54 Gumbo Down 1 Dejected 2 Together 3 Kind of card 4 Saintly quality 5 Online option provider 6 Shakespeare, the Bard of ___ 7 By the year (2 words) 8 It has 12 constellations 9 Attorney org., for short 10 At this moment 11 ___, we have no bananas 16 Long-eared beast 19 Yes ___! 20 Econ. ﬁgure, for short 21 Quarters 22 Characteristic of birds

O A T C N S I L V E R W O O G

H V F D V T P R D V E K W D J

T L J Q F K T S N A O V E N F

H B B I U E J S T D L Y R Z M

4 9

WORD SEARCH by Myles Mellor

O A T C N S I L V E R W O O G

T L J Q F K T S N A O V E N F

1 5

Level: Medium 46

Across 1 Washing substance 5 Globe 8 Madcap 12 One side of a debate 13 The night before a holiday 14 Symphony member 15 Behavior 17 Black birds 18 Huge wave 20 Horses of a certain color 23 Civil rights org. 26 Gobble month, for short 27 Grand style 29 Taro root dish 30 Jute ﬁber 31 Bat wood 33 Paving material 35 Enemy 36 Hair tangle 37 They provide coverage 39 Set apart from the rest 42 Farm soil 45 Small rounded boats

7 5

37 39

6 9

K O

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.

SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan

by Myles Mellor

W R

Downtowner 1

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017

CLASSIFIEDS MERCHANDISE FOR SALE

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

PUBLIC NOTICES

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.

Enjoy Dairy Without Discomfort! Take Lacto-Freedom Probiotic for ONLY 7 DAYS, and get MONTHS of relief! Prevents gas, bloating, diarrhea, and cramps caused by consuming lactose in dairy foods.

Directory of Business & Services To advertise in this directory Call #BSSZ (212)-868-0190 ext.4 CBSSZ MFXJT@strausnews.com

Patented and clinically proven.

Antique, Flea & Farmers Market

LactoFreedom.com

East 67th Street Market

SINCE 1979

(between First & York Avenues)

Open EVERY Saturday 6am-5pm Rain or Shine

REAL ESTATE - RENT

Volunteering is Ageless

OFFICE SPACE

AVAILABLE IN MANHATTAN

300 to 20,000 square feet

Indoor & Outdoor FREE Admission Questions? Bob 718.897.5992

Elliot Forest,

Proceeds BeneďŹ t PS 183

abfebf@aol.com

Licensed R.E. Broker

212-447-5400

Learn why organizations want you and how to get started!

Volunteers of All Ages Needed

SERVICES OFFERED

Thursday, November 16, 2017 2:30Â˛4:00 Rutgers Presbyterian Church 236 West 73rd Street (Subway 1, 2, 3 to 72nd St; one block north) (BusÂ˛FURVV WRZQ 0 WR %ÂśZD\ RQH EORFN QRUWK

Admission is FREE! Light Refreshments

RSVP to reserve your place 212 889-4805 or www.volunteer-referral.org

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

NEED TO RUN A LEGAL NOTICE?

Paintings & Icons Conservation and Restoration Manhattan location

Quick | Easy | Economical

Call Barry Lewis Today: 212-868-0190

At Patina Studio your artwork will be restored, with personal and professional care, to give you pleasure for many years to come.

r XXX QBUJOBQBM DPN *Free on-site consultation*

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

in print & online is still here providing neighborhood news that matters to you. Sign up for our e-newsletter @ otdowntown.com Want a copy in print? Call 212 868 0190 ■

■

NOVEMBER 16-22,2017