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WEEK OF DECEMBER
HOLIDAY ARTS PREVIEW
10-16
CITY ARTS, P.12 >
2015
Our Take
SUING TO KEEP SENIORS AT HOME NEWS Lawsuit says landlords have ignored a law designed to give seniors the option to stay on as renters BY JAKE PEARSON
Inspired by his own experience living in a New York City apartment building that was converted into high-priced condos, a 71-yearold former state regulator is taking on developers citywide on behalf of seniors and disabled tenants. Walter Goldsmith claims in a state lawsuit that landlords have ignored a decades-old law that requires them to give tenants 62 and older and those with disabilities the option to stay-
OUR MUSLIM NEIGHBORS
on as renters in their apartments rather than move away or buy themselves. Experts say the case could provide an extra layer of protection to vulnerable market-rate tenants who have lost housing security as rentstabilized and regulated apartments have decreased in recent years. “It’s fair to say these people are entitled to some stability and harmony in their lives,” said Goldsmith, who for the past 10 years has lived in a cozy one-bedroom in a 31-story building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Landlords had previously argued, as Related Companies did to Goldsmith in correspondence provided to The Associated Press, that the option for seniors and disabled renters to stayon only applied in cases where buildings were
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CARVING OUT AN ANATEVKA IN THE CITY PROFILE The original Tzeitel now runs an antique jewelry business on the Upper West Side BY ILGIN YORULMAZ
It’s Friday night. The residents of Anatevka are getting ready for the Sabbath as audiences fill the Broadway Theatre, where the latest incarnation of “Fiddler on the Roof” has just started previews. Sitting in Row G, Seat 16, Rosalind Harris looks familiar. Her dark hair is elegantly piled on her head; her blue top and matching long skirt contrast
with a long, red tassled necklace. As the orchestra begins playing “Tradition,” the opening song by Tevye the Milkman, tears start rolling down Harris’ face; her reddened lips tremble. “Seeing this now, I suddenly became overwhelmed,” she says during intermission. “After so many years, it is still a huge part of me.” Harris played Tzeitel, Tevye’s eldest daughter, first on Broadway and then, a year later, in the hugely popular 1971 movie version. Between then and now, Harris has switched from the performance side of the stage to the audience. But in a sense, she never quite gave up acting. These days, the actor known simply as Roz to her friends, uses her voice and
performance skills to sell vintage and estate jewelry, a business she calls Rosalind’s -- As You Liked It. *** On a bright Sunday, the GreenFlea Market at the corner of W. 77th Street and Columbus Avenue is in full swing, selling everything from gourmet dill pickles to second-hand shoes and Buddha heads. Harris, wearing a crimson outfit with three strands of pearls, has set up her booth inside the main hall. Still working hard at 68, she talks without pauses. And sings. She’s just treated a British couple to
It’s hard to know exactly how many Muslims live in New York City, but estimates peg the number at well above 500,000 people, or about 6 percent of the city’s population. Men, women, kids, neighbors. Small business owners. Teachers. Police. Security guards. They practice their religion at more than 250 mosques, spread out across every borough. And even before Donald Trump’s new low in demogoguery this week, New York’s Muslims were running scared. Women wearing head scarfs -- even some non-Muslims -- say they are taunted and stared at. Two Muslims in Brooklyn were spit at and assaulted. The director of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations said the current backlash is as bad as the months and weeks following Sept. 11, 2001. The fact that this is happening in New York, the most diverse city in the country, is not a surprise to those who are suffering through it. “Even in New York,” Ferida Osman, a Hunter College senior who told the Times she was spat on by a stranger as she waited for a train at Penn Station. “Definitely in New York. Especially in New York.” All of this before Trump once again opened his foul mouth. It’s easy to get beaten down by all of this, to shrug it off as just another rant. Mayor Bill de Blasio was right to warn against complacency when it comes to the effect Trump’s word can have. “What he’s saying is corrosive to our democratic values. It’s dangerous,” the mayor told CNN. “And I’ll call him out. It’s not entertaining anymore, it’s dangerous.”
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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
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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
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