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DARK HISTORY ON DISPLAY ◄ P.12
FINDING A PLACE IN THE WORKFORCE
HELPING HANDS Clothes hang over the tub in an East Village apartment. The tenant has lived in the neighborhood since 1981. Photo: Susan Schiffman
WHEN THE TENANTS ARE ALSO ARTISTS HOUSING Photographer Susan Schiffman documents the lives of creative New Yorkers, and fights for their rights BY MEREDITH KURZ
Jazz. Modern Dance. Abstract Expressionism. Hip Hop. Punk Rock. The Harlem Renaissance of Literature and Art. Carnegie Hall and a little place called Broadway. Our city lures the newest, the brightest and the best of the arts to be displayed, heard, read, and appreciated. The competition is brutal. And the salary? Well, not enough to put you in a penthouse. Which is why af-
fordable housing is the foundation of the arts in New York City. Photographer Susan Schiffman has lived in the city since 1979 and in the East Village for decades. After marrying herbalist Kim Turim in the 1980s, Schiffman moved into his rent-stabilized railroad apartment in the East Village. Once there, she learned about the strategies and legal loopholes some landlords use to raise rents, and began attending neighborhood events where she learned about the politics and laws that effect vulnerable tenants. She’s been a housing activist ever since.
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A nonprofit that provides jobs for people with autism opens a new facility in Tribeca where they make granola for Starbucks and other retailers BY JASON COHEN
For people with autism, finding a job is often a challenge. But one organization is doing their best to change that.
On Oct. 24, Luv Michael, a nonprofit, opened its Tribeca Kitchen & Learning Center, at 42 Walker Street, where adults with autism make organic, gluten-free and nutfree granola, which is sold to businesses. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the autism community suffers from the lowest employment rate among all disabilities, as 82.4 percent of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are unemployed. Luv Michael was founded
in 2016 by Dr. Dimitri Kessaris and his wife, Dr. Lisa Liberatore.
“A Meaningful Culinary Vocation”
WEEK OF NOVEMBER
21-27 2019 INSIDE
A PLACE FOR ALL KIDS TO PLAY The renovated Bloomingdale Playground on Amsterdam Ave. is ADA accessible. p. 5
“Luv Michael Co. was never designed to be a charity or provide young autistic adults with something to do,” Liberatore said. “Instead, Luv Michael’s mission has always been to provide a meaningful culinary vocation for the autistic population, and to
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THE FAT MAP Obesity statistics have their own Electoral College in which some states are heavier than others. Where New York stands. p. 2
GHOST BLOCK Once bustling streets are a sign of developers’ blight. p. 15
ANIME ROCKS THE CITY New York plays host to the country’s biggest celebration of the Japanese animation art form. p. 13 Luv Michael employees are known as “granologists.”Photos: Gus Butera Downtowner
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SPRING ARTS PREVIEW
WEEK OF APRIL
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FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL
presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration a lay point of view,” lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders separate a in and then, how he arrived his decision, detailing Visitors to the blog at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want unthey whether really 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 indiArbitration Man, suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in actions the owners, policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s quantitative give us the first with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step problem. the xing fi of deformality for To really make a difference, process is a mere complete their will have to to are the work course, the advocaterising rents, precinct, but chances-- thanks to a velopers looking 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 lives on who problem. Angelo, vexing most said Mildred construction permits gauge what Buildings one of the Ruppert 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 Every New Yorker clang, tion Act tangible signs go as they please. work between early, and some come metal-on-metal can construction any small sound: the or on the weekend, have no respect.” the piercing of progress. For many can’t come p.m. and 7 a.m., the hollow boom, issuance of these business owners, that moving in reverse. as after-hours. The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you 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
Newscheck
for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
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