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COMMUNITY NEWS BELOW 14TH STREET
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A 135-year-old non-profit pairs city kids with country retreats
Local Kids Get Fresh Air
By Joanna Fantozzi
E
Eli Figueroa, 7, a Lower East Side resident, spends a week in East Hampton every summer.
li Figueroa, age 7, is excited, like most kids, for summer activities like fishing, sticking his toes into waves at the beach and diving into a pool. But unlike many kids his age, this is a rare treat for Eli, who lives on the Lower East Side with his parents. He is just one of the 9,000 inner city children ages 6-18 who participate in the Fresh Air Fund, a 135-year-old non-profit citywide organization that sends children, whose families cannot afford to go on vacation, away for one or two weeks. The children, who are selected based on financial need, spend their vacation in a volunteer host family’s home. Host families are located all over the East coast - from the Hamptons on Long Island, to rural Pennsylvania, Maine and even Canada. This will be Eli’s second year visiting Susan and Victor Benson’s summer home in East Hampton, New York, and he will be leaving on July 11th. Melissa Figueroa, Eli’s mother, could not be more thrilled with the program. In fact, her daughter just left for her Fresh Air Fund trip to Scranton, Pennsylvania. Melissa and her husband both participated in the Fresh Air Fund when they were children, and her husband still keeps in contact with his host family. “Eli has experienced things there that he would not be able to get staying in the city,” she said. “He can’t wait to go back on the 11th, and my daughter Continued on page 6
ALSO INSIDE TEEN ART GALLERY P.4 IF WEINER PLANNED TWITTERGATE P.5
The Lower East Side’s Chain-ging Landscape How the expansion of chain stores in this old neighborhood is impacting life for everyone By Alissa Fleck
7
-Eleven is the largest retailer in the world by store count, and a new 7-Eleven opens somewhere in the world approximately every three hours. Corporate representatives from 7-Eleven attended a recent meeting at the Seward Park Housing Co-op to address residents’ questions and concerns about the store opening soon on Grand Street, a meeting which spurred further discussion of
the philosophies behind chain store expansion in the city. This 7-Eleven corporate store arrives on the heels of the extremely controversial proposed 7-Eleven on Avenue A, which prompted the ‘NO 7-Eleven’ movement, now 600 members strong. However, attitudes surrounding chain store proliferation differ downtown depending on who — and where — you ask. Scott Teachenor, the market manager for all 7-Elevens in New York State, along with his colleagues, attempted to allay concerns. He explained the 7-Eleven business model is such that small business owners generally operate stores, something which should ideally add appeal for members of a community replete with small businesses. Continued on page 6
NEIGHBORHOOD CHATTER Firefighter ID-ed in WTC Remains By Jennifer Peltz Firefighter Jeffrey Walz phoned his wife and his parents on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, telling them he was being called into action, his brother recalls. His relatives would never see him again or even have any of his remains to bury, until now. The city medical examiner’s office said Friday that it had identified some of Walz’ remains, making him the 1,637th person identified among the thousands of remains found in and near the rubble of the World Trade Center after the terror attacks. Authorities have painstakingly tested and retested the material as technology became more refined. The news loosed complex feelings for Walz’s family: a resurgence of difficult memories, coupled with a new gratitude. “We’re just very relieved, in some respects, to be finally bringing him home to where he grew up and to put him to rest there,” said his brother, Raymond Walz. “That’s some peace.”
After growing up on Staten Island, Jeffrey Walz got an electrical engineering degree and worked at the Navy’s air engineering station at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. But he’d been enthralled as a child by his father’s stories about working as a firefighter, his brother said, and he decided to follow his father’s example. Walz joined the Fire Department of New York in 1992, though the naval station persuaded him to keep working there on some of his days off, former deputy public works officer Charlie Mink told the Asbury Park Press in 2006, when a road at the base was named in Walz’s honor. Walz, who was promoted to lieutenant after his death at age 37, died in the trade center’s north tower. His remains were collected during the initial recovery effort in 2001 and 2002, but they were retested and identified just recently, medical examiner’s office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said. Walz’s family decided to let his identification be made public. “Maybe it’ll give other families hope,” his mother said.
Statue of Liberty Reopens By Colleen Long The Statue of Liberty finally reopened on Independence Day months after Superstorm Sandy swamped its little island as people across the U.S. celebrated freedom and President Barack Obama urged citizens to live up to the words of the Declaration of Independence. The statue’s reopening Thursday was a sign of recovery as the nation celebrated its independence in a variety of ways - from a solemn fireworks tribute to fallen firefighters to traditional parades and concerts to competitive hot dog eating. A large crowd gathered for the holiday and ribbon-cutting ceremony at Liberty Island with federal officials and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Lines stretched blocks long for the boat to the island, which left from the busy southern tip of Manhattan. The statue was spared in the October storm, but Lady Liberty’s island took a serious beating. Railings broke, docks and paving stones were torn up and buildings
were flooded. The storm destroyed electrical systems, sewage pumps and boilers. Hundreds of National Park Service workers from as far away as California and Alaska spent weeks cleaning mud and debris.
Downtown Hospitals Merge New York-Presbyterian Hospital announced last Monday that it will be merging with New York Downtown Hospital to expand health care services to the neighborhood of 75,000 residents. New York-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital, as the 180-bed community clinic will be renamed, remains the only hospital in Lower Manhattan. New York-Presbyterian Hospital has teamed up with Columbia University’s and Cornell ‘s medical schools to provide better care to diverse and underserved neighborhoods on six campuses throughout the city. The expansion comes just in time before the Affordable Care Act goes into effect this January, which aims to increase access to quality care and could overstretch hospital resources.
Cooling Centers Since the heat index is predicted to be dangerously high for this week (with 90-degree temperatures plus 10 degrees of “urban heat island” effect), the NYC Office of Emergency Management will open 400 cooling centers across all five boroughs. Below is a list of the cooling stops in your neighborhood. Center on the Square Neighborhood Center (for seniors) Muhlenberg Library, 209 W. 23rd St. Stein Neighborhood Senior Center, 204 E. 23rd St Judith C. White Neighborhood Senior Center, 27 Barrow Street Jefferson Market Library, 425 6th Avenue Independence Plaza Neighborhood Senior Center, 310 Greenwich St. Chatham Square Library, 33 E. Broadway New Amsterdam Library, 9 Murray Street City Hall Neighborhood Senior Center, 100 Gold St. NY Chinatown Neighborhood Senior Center
We are pleased to welcome David B. Samadi, MD to Lenox Hill Hospital as Chair of the Department of Urology and Chief of Robotic Surgery. Recognized internationally as a pioneer in robotic surgery for prostate cancer, Dr. Samadi brings an innovative approach to the treatment of prostate cancer, prostate health and men’s health at North Shore-LIJ Health System’s Lenox Hill Prostate Cancer Center.
For an appointment, call (212) 365-5000. 485 Madison Avenue, 21st Floor New York, New York 10022
As part of the health system, Dr. Samadi and his patients have access to our award-winning resources and facilities. Dr. Samadi is a Professor of Urology at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, where we are advancing medical education for the next generation.
Learn more about Dr. Samadi and Lenox Hill Prostate Cancer Center.
Visit lenoxhillhospital.org/roboticoncology.
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THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013
CRIME WATCH
Perjury Charges in Manhattan DWI Case
Travel Agent Indicted in Ticket Scam
Two men originally involved in a drunkendriving trial in Manhattan are now facing multiple felony charges for perjury as well as conspiracy. District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. says Leonel Polanco-Colon and Luis D. Nunez fabricated a story and lied under oath. Polanco-Colon was arrested for DWI in 2011 after being found intoxicated in a parked, running car on West 14th Street in Manhattan. Polanco-Colon testified that he had only been in the car to charge his phone. He said Nunez was his designated driver. According to the indictment announced Monday, the two were not together at the time. The indictment claims that the two met secretly during the trial to corroborate their false testimonies.
Authorities say an NYC woman who worked as a freelance travel agent has been indicted for a scheme that targeted her fellow Dominican immigrants. The Manhattan district attorney’s office says Cecilia Suarez is accused of charging victims for a round-trip flight to the Dominican Republic, but only giving them one-way tickets or not giving them tickets at all. Authorities say there are more than 30 victims and the fraud took place between January and September 2012. District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. says some families were stranded in the Dominican Republic for weeks.The indictment was announced Wednesday. The 54-year-old Suarez faces charges including grand larceny, identity theft and scheming to defraud. A telephone number for her could not be found, and it was unclear who her attorney is.
Preparation classes for the entrance examination for New York City’s SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOLS
STUYVESANT, BRONX SCIENCE, BROOKLYN TECH, AMERICAN STUDIES, MATHEMATICS AND ENGINEERING, QUEENS H.S. FOR THE SCIENCES, STATEN ISLAND TECH, AND BROOKLYN LATIN Illustration by John S. Winkleman
YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE Someone stole a suitcase from a tourist who fell asleep on a park bench at the corner of Spring Street and Hudson Street. The tourist, a 41-year-old man from Bietigheim, Germany, fell asleep at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, with his silver suitcase between his legs. When he woke up, the suitcase was gone. Items taken included the suitcase valued at $50, 350 Euros, his driver’s license, clothes, medical records, and credit card. Fortunately, no unauthorized charges had been made to the credit card.
By Jerry Danzig
Y on the Fly A 30-year-old woman stole a shoulder bag from a clothing boutique on Greene Street in the afternoon of Tuesday, June 25. Video footage of the theft is available. The bag stolen was a black Yves St. Laurent Y-Line shoulder bag valued at $1,795.
Crossover and Out A BMW crossover was stolen from a parking space on Greenwich Street. The owner, a 35-year-old man, had parked his vehicle at noon on June 24. When he returned at 6:30 p.m., the vehicle was missing. There was no broken glass on the pavement, and the vehicle was not at the tow pound. The stolen crossover was a black 2006 BMW X5 with NY plates, valued at $16,500.
Not Gym Dandy A 26-year-old woman from Staten Island had her wallet stolen from a locker in a gym
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013
on Broadway. When she left her wallet in the locker on June 16 at 5:30 p.m., she did not have a lock and did not lock the locker. When she returned to the locker forty-five minutes later, her wallet was missing. Items stolen included the wallet, debit and credit cards, plus her NYS driver’s license.
Dell Knell An unknown man entered a business office on Broadway and stole three Dell laptops at 10:50 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25. The thief used the building elevator to gain access to the fifth floor, pulling on the front door handle several times before gaining access to the premises. He then walked through the office and placed the laptops in a black bag before leaving the same way he entered. Video is available of the incident, and a cleaning lady may have witnessed the theft as well. The looted laptops were Dell E series machines, each valued at $1,281, for a total haul of $3,843.
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Teen Art Gallery Shows Local Talent A 17-year-old curator helps teenage artists get exposure By Daniel Fitzsimmons
H “Escape of a Visionary” by teenage artist Deborah Lee.
.com STRAUS MEDIA MANHATTAN PRESIDENT Jeanne Straus ACTING EDITOR Megan Bungeroth • editor.otdt@strausnews.com CITYARTS EDITOR Armond White • editor.cityarts@strausnews.com STAFF REPORTER Joanna Fantozzi FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS Alan S. Chartock, Bette Dewing, Jeanne Martinet, Malachy McCourt, Angela Barbuti, Casey Ward PUBLISHER Gerry Gavin • advertising@strausnews.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth, Kate Walsh ADVERTISING MANAGERS Marty Strongin, Matt Dinerstein CLASSIFIED ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Stephanie Patsiner DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Joe Bendik OUR TOWN DOWNTOWN is published weekly Copyright © 2013 by Straus Media - Manhattan, LLC 212-868-0190 • 333 Seventh Ave, New York, NY. Straus Media - Manhattan publishes Our Town • The West Side Spirit • Our Town Downtown Chelsea Clinton News • The Westsider To subscribe for 1 year, please send $75 to OUR TOWN DOWNTOWN, c/o Straus News 20 West Ave., Chester, NY 10918 PREVIOUS OWNERS HAVE INCLUDED: Tom Allon, Isis Ventures, Ed Kayatt, Russ Smith, Bob Trentlion, Jerry Finkelstein
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ow does a teenage artist get work shown at a gallery in one of the most competitive art scenes in the world? Through Facebook, of course. Upper Westsider Charlotte Bravin Lee, 17, is the director of Teen Art Gallery, an organization whose mission it is to break down the barriers between the NYC art world and young talent looking to get noticed. Charlotte Bravin Lee TAG calls for submissions in any medium from teen art programs across the country and from local artists by “Teen art is certainly not seen by the public as much as posting bulletins in NYC public and private schools. For it should be,” said Bravin Lee. “But more importantly teens each show, Bravin Lee receives around 800 submissions. should be supporting teens, seeing each other’s work and From that initial crop she posts a gallery of her selections reading each other’s writing.” to Facebook. TAG recently started a YouTube channel to enable young “I view them all with respect to technical skill and filmmakers to join the fray. Bravin Lee said the turnout at conceptual thought and narrow it down,” said Bravin Lee. TAG shows is encouraging. “It becomes like a big thing, “I make a Facebook album for the 11 members on my not just one age group,” she said. “It’s more of a family team. We generally have two rounds of voting to narrow thing, not just teens.” it down.” The pieces with the most votes on Facebook get Bravin Lee will be a senior in the fall at the Fieldston featured in a gallery showing. School and must pass on leadership of TAG upon TAG has a show that starts Wednesday, July 10, graduating in 2014. “Next year I’ll still be working with at chashama, 303 10th Ave. The show, dubbed “Full TAG because I’ll still be in high school,” said Bravin Lee. Spectrum,” runs until July 19 and will feature 23 artists and “But after I graduate we’ll have a whole new team of four films screened via YouTube. The opening reception is juniors, sophomores and seniors in high school that will from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., July 10, and will feature an acoustic performance from New York City’s “The Jacobins.” TAG was formed in 2010 by NYC teen Audrey Banks. Their first showing was at the New York Open Center in August 2011 and they’ve since been held at Salon 94 and Rogue, among other venues. They’ve also received press from the New York Times and Huffington Post. Bravin Lee got involved after reading one such article and contacted Banks looking to volunteer. “I attended a meeting with her old group of teens that worked with TAG,” said Bravin Lee. “At the end of the year, when they were all graduating, I took over.” Bravin Lee became the director in August of last year and the first showing under her tenure was at a gallery owned by her parents, Bravinlee productions. Funding and other expenses associated with producing an art show come from TAG stoop sales and other - less conventional - sources. Teen artist Sophia Calatrava donated the proceeds from one of The Teen Art Gallery Team. her shows to TAG and they’ve also raised $10,000 via a Kickstarter initiative. carry it on.” Part of Bravin Lee’s job is to convince galleries in Bravin Lee is currently deciding on whether to major NYC to host TAG shows, which she said can sometimes in studio art or creative writing when she moves on to be a struggle. “We’re not opposed to paying for space college. at all, although our budget is not big,” said Bravin Lee. TAG has a show starting next Wednesday, July 10, “We generally use our funds for matting or framing, at chashama, 303 10th Ave. The show, dubbed “Full announcement cards, and installation assistance.” Spectrum,” runs until July 19 and will feature 23 artists and Bravin Lee said she feels that in high school, athletes four films screened via YouTube. The opening reception and actors get the most attention and cultivation, and that is on July 10 from 6-8 p.m. and will feature an acoustic she’s interested in having artists, writers and filmmakers a performance from New York City’s “The Jacobins.” chance to have their voice heard. However, that’s not the only consideration.
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ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Did Weiner Plan Twittergate? A far-fetched but plausible alternate reality for the mayoral candidate By Tom Allon
I
magine that for more than a decade you’ve been plotting to become Mayor of New York City and you’ve been blocked from that path by the wealthiest man in town. You’re a reasonably well-known congressman, but your name probably won’t resonate in Staten Island or with voters in Harlem or Brownsville or Bedford Stuyvesant. You have limited campaign dollars to spend to reach 8.2 million potential voters and you need to do something that’ll get your name recognition sky-high. Then one day it comes to you in an epiphany: what if I commit a sexless, highprofile indiscretion that’ll surely create a feeding frenzy on social media and in the tabloids? Sure, it could lead to a year or two in the political wilderness seeking penance, but everyone knows that Americans -- and New Yorkers -- are suckers for a penitent comeback story. Heck, even my political hero, Bill Clinton, became known as the Comeback Kid, and his sexual pecadilos -- much more egregious than my planned social media tweeting of my private parts -- didn’t get in the way of his ascent to the presidency. Wow, Anthony Weiner thinks to himself, this is a very bold and risky move. But it just might work. I’ll achieve universal name recognition, skip that boring and tedious
run-up campaign in 2012 and as an extra bonus get to spend real quality time with my newborn son. While the above conspiracy theory seems far-fetched, I’ve recently wondered whether this whole rollout by Anthony Weiner was all carefully planned two years ago. Because so far, with Weiner vaulting past long-time New York pols Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson in the polls, the “Twittergate” scandal has given Anthony Weiner tens of millions of dollars of free exposure (whoops, sorry to resort to an easy pun there, but there’s no better word). Mike Bloomberg spent a hundred million dollars on each campaign, give or take, to win in 2001, 2005 and 2009. Mark Green, who has run so many times for office in New York that I’ve lost count, said to me in 2009 when he was planning one last electoral stab at Public Advocate: “My name recognition is 90 percent. Do you know how much money you have to spend to get that high name recognition? Bloomberg type money.” Well, not if you’re Anthony Weiner circa 2013. Every move of his “reality show” campaign seems to draw media attention, even the color of his pants at the Gay Pride Parade. When I was running for Mayor last year, I used to jokingly say that I probably had to announce that I was going to light myself on fire in Times Square to get throngs of media to listen to my policy ideas. Not so with the crafty and media savvy Weiner. Universal name recognition may get you into the top tier in the July polls and maybe even into the mayoral run-off in September, but it is no guarantee of victory. Just ask Mark Green, the once “almost Mayor” of 2001 and the 90 percent name recognition guy in 2009. Not all name recognition is positive. Anthony Weiner could learn that the hard way this fall. But wouldn’t it be a stroke of cynical genius if the Weiner circus was all a planned mayoral strategy?
15 1 4 7
re-use
ways to old newspaper
your
Use it as wrapping paper, or fold & glue pages into reusable gift bags.
2
Add shredded newspaper to your compost pile when you need a carbon addition or to keep flies at bay.
5
Use newspaper strips, water, and a bit of glue for newspaper mâché.
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10
Crumple newspaper to use as packaging material the next time you need to ship something fragile.
13
Tightly roll up sheets of newspaper and tie with string to use as fire logs.
After your garden plants sprout, place newspaper sheets around them, then water & cover with grass clippings and leaves. This newspaper will keep weeds from growing.
Make origami creatures
Use shredded newspaper as animal bedding in lieu of sawdust or hay.
11
Make your own cat litter by shredding newspaper, soaking it in dish detergent & baking soda, and letting it dry.
14
Wrap pieces of fruit in newspaper to speed up the ripening process.
3
Cut out letters & words to write anonymous letters to friends and family to let them know they are loved.
6
Roll a twice-folded newspaper sheet around a jar, remove the jar, & you have a biodegradable seed-starting pot that can be planted directly into the soil.
9
12 15
Tom Allon
OUR TOWN DOWNTOWN
Stuff newspapers in boots or handbags to help the items keep their shape. Dry out wet shoes by loosening laces & sticking balled newspaper pages inside.
a public service announcement brought to you by dirt magazine.
Tom Allon, a former Liberal Party-backed candidate for Mayor, is the president of City and State media. Questions or comments? Email tallon@ cityandstateny.com.
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013
Make newspaper airplanes and have a contest in the backyard.
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PAGE 5
7-Eleven Continued from page 1
Reactions were mixed among community members, though most who lived in the area seemed to partially welcome the store, or were at least resigned to its arrival. One resident’s comment seemed to resonate most with the rest of the crowd: “What added value can you bring us as a community?� “New York City speaks 800 languages,� added Eric Mandelbaum, acting president of the Board of Directors of Seward Park House Corporation. “There will be a need for Kosher, sushi and kimchi — how much do you want to become a flagship of the Lower East Side as projected through Seward Park Housing Corp?� “I can tailor stores to my communities quickly and efficiently — if I need kimchi you need to let me know,� Teachenor said. Dave Sonenberg, a young man who lives in the Seward B Tower and is pursuing a Masters degree in nutrition, lamented the recent loss of the neighborhood’s only health food store. “That is an underserved need of the community,� said Sonenberg, who hopes to see 7-Eleven take on some of this burden. One resident asked what made the 24-hour chain choose this particular area, pointing out there are no students
or barflies — as near the Cooper Union store — but mostly people who will be sleeping in the middle of the night. Andrew Shelhouse, the senior real estate representative at 7-Eleven said deciding where a store should be developed is done according to a predetermined plan. “A lot of areas are different but can support a store and there’s a need there. We look at demographics, population, vehicular and foot traffic, subway counts, bus stops, etc.� Still, there was some strong dissent over the store’s impending presence. According to Rob Hollander, who blogs about life on the Lower East Side, “The corporation doesn’t care at all about the local community, only about the foot traffic, regardless where it comes from.� Ingrid Kellerman of “NO 7-Eleven� asked Teachenor and his colleagues, “Do you care that you are killing little, local businesses?� While Kellerman may have been in the minority at this particular meeting, she later explained her stance as a resident of the East Village: “We are not happy about the NYU expansion in the East Village, as well as new condominiums. We are connected to the history of our Village - that’s what gives it this special flavor of rock n’ roll. It’s an arty, poetic, anarchist, experimental playground.� Hollander explained residents of the co-op at the meeting who were welcoming of a chain store most likely fear rising amenity costs and know they can count on a chain store to help supplant costs unlike former “deadbeat� commercial residents.
Nonetheless, some co-op residents expressed, less vehemently, similar concern that the 7-Eleven would hurt mom and pop stores in the area, particularly pizzerias. In other areas downtown, for instance Avenue A and 11th Street, a 7-Eleven is much less welcome by locals who see no reason for it to be there. Hollander noted the difference: “Loisaida/Alphabet City has little chain presence...So the imminent threat of a 7-Eleven seems to have touched a nerve. We still have a small-community feel.... there are many residents who came here back in the 1970s to get away from the corporate world. This was a refuge from mainstream commerce and remote corporate control.� “We’re a distinctive community and chain stores aren’t part of our sense of self-identity,� he said. Indeed the Seward Park 7-Eleven, as well as the one being fought tooth and nail in Alphabet City, are just examples of a much larger trend, what Bob Holman of the Bowery Poetry Club and “No Chains on the Bowery� calls the “Pringle-ization� of the Lower East Side. “Folks here don’t want to be Pringleized,� said Holman. “We refuse to fit inside a cardboard tube. 7-Eleven does not believe in neighborhoods, they are a global corporate construct,� he said. Kellerman said she’s concerned the effects if this is permitted to continue in Manhattan. “New York is so unique — it will be so sad if this big city looks like any other big gentrified city in the world.�
Fresh Air Continued from page 1
is already having a blast in Scranton. Plus, it gives me a little time to rest. Whoever invented this was a genius.� The non-profit organization was actually formed by Reverend William Parsons in 1877. He asked his small congregation to provide country homes for poor children living in tenement houses in the city. The organization has since grown exponentially to not only include the individual trips, but also an annual camping program in Fishkill, New York. The backbone of the Fresh Air Fund, according to Hannah Beck, a representative from the non-profit, is the volunteer families, who are not paid a dime for hosting these children. Susan and Victor Benson have hosted four children over the past 13 years, and say that their experience has been enriching, to say the least. “Having grown up in New Jersey with a spectacular childhood running around
boat. She also helps them with reading and homework, and they watch movies or swim in the pool. She said that kids’ reactions range wildly. Eli, although shy, was comfortable with her as soon as he got to Long Island. One girl, Fatima, she said was extremely nervous at first, and had to be reassured. But, said Benson, she likes to think that the experience has a strong influence on these children, especially since before getting involved with the Fresh Air Fund, Fatima’s summers consisted of her sitting in front of the TV all day, because her grandmother felt that her Harlem neighborhood was too dangerous to play outside in. Benson is also still in touch with Andre, one of their first Fresh Air Fund guests, who is now 20, and still inquisitive. Benson said that he was majoring in graphic design in college, but dropped out to figure out his path and is in the process of getting a job. She said that sometimes the disparities between her own nieces’ lives, and the lives of children not as fortunate, can sometimes be alarming, or
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outdoors and going to the beach, I wanted to give back in that way to a child,â&#x20AC;? said Susan Benson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Any child that can be exposed to experiences outside their own little box, especially living in an innercity community, is a good thing.â&#x20AC;? Benson said, however, that she keeps it simple - she takes the kids clamming, or they go out on the family
disheartening. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When Andre stayed here he one time asked us â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;what is it like to be rich?â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? said Benson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I told him just because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re rich doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re happy, and he asked if I was not happy. I then told him that â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the best thing about being rich is being able to share it with you,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; and he was happy with that answer.â&#x20AC;?
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013
DINING
Seaport Spot Turns Glamorous Trading Post offers traditional American food with a twist By Helaina Hovitz
A
s I approached 170 John St. the other night, I thought perhaps my memory had failed me. This couldn’t possibly be the same space that housed the stale-ale smelling Yankee Clipper just two years ago, where people came to bet on horses before OTB got canned. The outside looked glamorous, like something you’d find in Midtown East or Tribeca. The main dining room at Trading Post is full of special nooks, sections, and private booths, while the second floor is set up like an Old English library, offering a partial view of the river from its beige leather couches and chairs, all imported from Ireland. Everything from the black-and-white patterned napkins to the lacquered tables and black walls scream elegant, not stuffy. The restaurant’s owners, Richard Sheridan, John Higgins, and Sammy O’Connor, are right when they say there’s nothing like this in the neighborhood. Sure, similar haunts are common around Wall Street and on Lower Manhattan’s West Side, but O’Connor says that most Seaport-area residents, himself and Sheridan included, don’t really have a favorite “regular place” downtown. Opening up a restaurant post-Sandy and pre-Pier 17 renovation is risky; in fact, some people might say it’s downright crazy -- especially when you’ve got a staff of 70 on payroll -- but they’d already bought the space in March of 2012, and now they’re making the best of it. “We had signed a 15-year lease, and a good one. I knew Pier 17 would be demolished but that the city would push to make the neighborhood special,” said O’Connor. “Sure, we opened during the worst season, but when you’re paying rent every day, you have to get the place going.” Here’s what they have to offer: The cocktails are hard, and they’re definitely Irish (lots of whiskey-based drinks). Trading Post serves brunch, lunch, dinner and bar menus, so variety isn’t in short supply. The menu is American traditional with a twist. The razor clams, for example, are almost a salad of corn, bacon, clams, hearty, and moist, served in four long, thin shells. The dinner menu is seafood-heavy but still offers something for everyone: pork belly sliders, a tomahawk chop for two, a 36-ounce bonein-rib-eye served with chipotle béarnaise and a loaded baked potato, cornmeal crusted skate with pineapple and rocket salad, and asparagus risotto with poached hen’s egg and aged parmesan cheese.
As for sides, zucchini is served up in thick chunks and heavily marinated with sesame seeds, while the French Fries, almost sinfully perfect, come with both ketchup and curry mayo. For brunch, try the baked egg and chorizo flatbread or lemon ricotta shortstack served with caramelized bananas. Wash it down with a peanut butter and chocolate chip shake. The master chef, Stephen Woods, 38, who has also worked for Smith and Wollensky, the Patina Restaurant Group, and Cucina and Co., has one rule: keep it simple. “You have to be able to easily identify all of the ingredients, so there’s never more than three or four in each dish, with a few exceptions,” he said. “Otherwise, things get lost.” It’s a refreshing philosophy, especially when combining ingredients that have never been paired together before seems to be many restaurants’ new strategy. Sheridan, O’Connor, and Higgins are hoping to take advantage of the weather and get approval from the building’s board for outdoor seating. As of now, they are waiting with fingers crossed and hoping the crowds come in to cool off. “I know we’ll be fine when they demolish the Seaport. We have 88 Pine nearby, along with other giant office buildings that aren’t going anywhere,” Sheridan said. Since the spot seems a little ahead of its time in the struggling Seaport area, it’s a relief to know that they’re willing to stick it out for the long haul. “We’ll definitely be here for 15 years,” O’Connor said.
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TRADING POST ■ 170 John Street ■ 11:00am - 1:00am, Sunday - Wednesday; 11:00am - 2:00am, Thursday - Saturday ■ Lunch & Dinner daily; Brunch weekends ■ 212-614-0146; tradingpostnyc.com
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THE 7-DAY PLAN FRIDAY
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BEST PICK
Monkey Town 3
Eyebeam, 540 West 21st Street at 11th Ave, seatings at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., $85, Sundays $50, tickets at BrownPaperTickets.com The legendary Williamsburg video cinema and dining room with four screens returns for a pop up, limited engagement in Chelsea. The event reconstructs the original and still unprecedented cinema-in-the-round, this time as a seamless floating cube of 4 massive projection screens, with 8.1 surround sound. This 10th anniversary edition will feature a single curated film and video program that replays every night for 60 days, featuring almost all multichannel works by 21 extraordinary artists and filmmakers. Each viewing is accompanied by dinner from a rotating crew of high-end NYC chefs.
No Name… & a Bag O Chips Otto’s Shrunken Head, 538 E. 14th St, ottosshrunkenhead.com, 7 p.m., free This recurring comedic performance at Otto’s famed tiki bar has been named “the best damn comedy/variety show” in New York City. The show also encourages audience interaction and includes a free giveaway at the door post-performance.
Street Fair ◄ Hester Corner of Hester & Essex Sts, hesterstreetfair.com,10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Eastville Comedy Club, 85 E. 4th St, eastvillecomedy.com, 7 p.m., $20 Twenty bucks may be more than you’re willing to shell out for a couple laughs, but with names like Janeane Garofalo, it’s hard to imagine Eastville’s A-List Comedy Lineup could possibly disappoint. If you’re still not convinced, Sunday and weekday shows are half the price at this East Village laughter den.
Bastille Day on 60th Street
Sunday Morning Rides From UES
60th betw. 5th & Lex, bastilledayny.com, noon-5 p.m., free Come out and celebrate Bastille Day and French culture on the Upper East Side for the French Institute Alliance Francaise’s annual Bastille Day festival and street fair. There will be specialty French foods— including cheeses, wine and pastries—live music, crafts and activities to entertain family members of all ages. Vive la France!
Danny’s Cycles, 1690 2nd Ave, dannyscycles.com, 8 a.m., free Love to ride but having trouble finding riding buddies or hitting your stride? Sunday morning rides from Danny’s Cycles on the Upper East Side encourage all skill levels including beginner cyclists. The route varies depending on participants’ skill level from a few laps of central park to a trip over the George Washington Bridge. Rides are cancelled in the event of rain or inclement weather.
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Monday Nights at Lil Charlie’s Lil Charlie’s, 19 Kenmare St, 11 p.m., free This Little Italy joint throws one of the biggest Monday night parties in the whole city. DJs spin at Lil Charlie’s well into the wee morning hours. This disco-style lounge guarantees a long night of swinging fun. For more information, check Lil Charlie’s out on facebook.com/ lilcharliesnyc.
NY Philharmonic Concert in the Park Great Lawn, Central Park, nyphil.org, 8 p.m., free The annual New York Philharmonic Concert in the Park Series performs once a summer in each borough and Monday night will be Manhattan’s long-awaited turn. Grab a picnic blanket, or squeeze onto your neighbor’s, for a night of Dvorak and Tchaikovsky under the stars, followed by a fireworks display.
Metropolitan Opera in the Parks
“Busted” at the High Line
Central Park SummerStage, 8 p.m., free Beginning Tuesday, July 16, the Metropolitan Opera will be hitting parks in all five boroughs for free outdoor performances. Join the Opera for its first concert of the season in Central Park. The performance will run for two hours and audience members are encouraged to bring their own refreshments. Arrive early for guaranteed entry as spots fill quickly.
The High Line, Washington St at Gansevoort St, ongoing, free Sure, you’ve seen the High Line before, but have you checked out the latest art installation— “Busted,” a series of sculptures created by nine different artists riffing on famous portraits and monuments from around the world? These works of art are sure to send you giggling as you meander among the benches and greenery of the High Line.
Drunken Smartass Olympics
Shaken & Stirred Burlesque
Dempsey’s Pub, 61 E. 2nd Ave, dempseyspub.com, 7 p.m., free Believe it or not, this is New York City’s longest running weekly quiz series. Show up to Dempsey’s Pub for a 51-question quiz featuring questions ranging on just about every subject imaginable. Drinks and food specials are served as “mental fuel” for quiz participants. Start reading up on your ancient history now if you plan to attend this trivia night.
The Delancey, 168 Delancey St, thedelancey.com, 9:30 p.m., free This three-hour-long burlesque show at The Delancey— featuring different performers every week—is guaranteed to get more than just a little bit freaky. We can’t be certain, but there are even rumors of complimentary shots after the show. If it’s nice out, be sure to round your evening off by checking out the rooftop bar.
THURSDAY
Films in Tompkins ◄ Free Tompkins Square Park, 6 p.m. The annual Tompkins Square Park free film festival is returning this summer to regale audiences with musical acts, blockbuster hits and cult classics. Gates open at 6 p.m. and film screening begins at sundown. “Drive” will be shown on July 18, but be sure to check out the rest of the summer’s stellar lineup. There’s a little something for everybody in there.
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Eastville’s A-List Comedy Lineup
The Hester Street Fair, which takes place every Saturday through the end of October, boasts artisanal food items, vintage clothing, crafts, jewelry and more in a a lively outdoor market setting. Check out the food vendors online for a mouthwatering preview. According to Yelp reviewers, the first few weekends are always the busiest.
MONDAY
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Submissions can be sent to otdowntown@strausnews.com
Centro Español, 239 W.14th St, spainculture.us, 6-9 p.m., free The Centro Espanol-Spanish Benevolent Society, located at the crossroads of Chelsea, Greenwich Village and the Meatpacking District, aims to keep Spanish heritage alive among Spanish and Hispanic Americans. “She-City” is an exhibition of female figures and landscapes by the painter Eduardo Anievas. The exhibit runs through July 21, with an opening reception Friday, July 12, which includes complimentary sangria.
SUNDAY
WEDNESDAY
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She-City
SATURDAY
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Lez Miz Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie St, dixonplace.org, 7:30 p.m., tix: $10-15 Dixon Place is the home of experimental theater in the City and Lez Miz is sure to be a hit for the ages. According to Gay New York’s review of the piece, “Identity crises! Moral conflict! Unrequited love! Requited love! Revolution! It’s amazing how much an old French novel can have in common with 21st century dyke drama.” We’re not planning to miss this 21st century queer spin on the renowned Victor Hugo classic and you shouldn’t either.
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cityArts
Edited by Armond White
New York’s Review of Culture . CityArtsNYC.com
Diary of a Statistic And it was hell tryin’ to bail to the ovaries With nothin’ but the Lord lookin’ over me I was white with a tail But when I reached the Finish Line— YOUNG BLACK MALE! --Ice Cube’s “The Product”
A star turn becomes social protest in Fruitvale Station By Armond White
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oung Black males rarely get such a smoothly beautiful portrait as in Fruitvale Station. Actor Michael B. Jordan (who was the Obama-like candidate for Student Council President in last year’s Chronicle) gives this year’s most powerfully affecting performance in Fruitvale Station. From making love to his girl Sophina (Melonie Diaz), beaming at his toddler daughter Tatiana (Ariana Neal) to respectfully addressing his mother Wanda (Octavia Spencer), Oscar is first seen as tender and naturally charismatic, an irresistible character study-and a star turn--until he gets “normalized” into a mysterious, disturbing memorial to a real-life tragedy. The little goatee growing on Jordan’s baby-fat chin marks him at an indeterminate stage of manhood when responsibility and social pressure descend upon him. At 22-years-old, Oscar is an awkward age for social-protest cinema that customarily prefers statistical victim protagonists (as in the adolescent dramas Boyz N the Hood, Fresh, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Precious, Menace II Society, et al). Oscar already has a jail record but suppresses his worldliness and is ready to give up selling pot; yet his temper attests his intellectual as well as physical reflex to deal with harsh experience. Jordan conveys multiple feelings in Oscar’s eyes and voice: his feral and jovial moods, his hair-trigger anger and ardent affection. At this level, Fruitvale Station represents the triumph of a young actor’s handsome vibrancy representing those young
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men who remain enigmas on 24-hour-news-networks. But you cannot write a character like this--as director-writer Ryan Coogler’s superficial screenplay unwittingly demonstrates. Coogler was fortunate to find Jordan who makes better sense of Oscar’s imperfect character than can the sociological sentimentality of this victim story. Fruitvale Station is named for the subway stop of the Bay Area Rapid Transit where Oscar Grant was killed during a stop-and-frisk police procedure in 2008. Set in Oakland, Calif. (memorably the setting of Mario and Melvin Van Peebles’ extraordinary Panther, a dramatic history of the Black Panthers), it doesn’t recreate the tragedy with political consciousness like the Van Peebles; Coogler’s softer approach settles on sorrow, the stuff of folk legend. Coogler makes Oscar an existential casualty (as suggested in the overly symbolic scene where he helps a stray dog after a hitand-run accident) which might be even worse than analyzing another infuriating municipal accident. Jordan’s marvelous characterization is betrayed by this concept. In the end, Oscar’s recognizable urban personality and frustrated ambitions are all angled to fit a sociological profile. The subway sequence where
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Oscar and Sophina celebrate with New Year’s Eve passengers seems specifically West Coast geniality. But this surprising bonhomie is conveyed with a suspicious fake-documentary distance. At times Coogler steps back from his tale as if creating Bressonian distance through mismatched cuts, empty station shots and rough cell-phone imagery. These dubious esthetics smack of Sundance patronization (where Fruitvale Station took the Grand Prize). It misses the reality of Black urban consciousness--such as “The Black Book of Survival” that community activists used to hand out around Brooklyn’s Borough Hall warning young men: “When the police approach you CALM DOWN. They want to kill you.” Condescending to young men like Oscar may let Sundance swag-baggers feel better about themselves but reducing Oscar to a social statistic ruins the crucial moments when his behavior and fate need to be seen as clearly, unhurriedly and precisely as possible. It would imprint the life force that Jordan makes so attractive.
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CITYARTS FILM
THEATER CITYARTS
Shakespeare Comes to Harlem
Men with Movie Cameras
Classic Theater of Harlem’s new season By Valerie Gladstone
In Museum Hours and Upstream Color, two American filmmakers become disciples of Dziga Vertov By Armond White
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o back to Dziga Vertov’s 1929 Man with a Movie Camera, the still striking montage experiment (available on Kino Home Video) to find the root concept of two recent art movies, Jem Cohen’s Museum Hours and Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color. Museum Hours is eccentric for an American feature; its narrative context is the developing friendship, based on cultural curiosity, of Johann (Bobby Sommar), a security guard at Austria’s Kunsthistoisches museum, and a Canadian woman, Anne (played by singer Mary Margaret O’Hara) who’s visiting a hospitalized relative. Johann’s reflections on art and the Vienna environs assist Anne’s tourism--a guide to appreciating transient life. Their lengthy digressions become the story as in Upstream Color which built its narrative of a woman Kris (Amy Seimetz) and man Jeff (Carruth) falling in love through a constant hybrid of sci-fi, existential and romantic visual juxtapositions. Both films foreground their structure, using formal devices to access evanescent emotions and artistic perceptions. Such artiness is not new. Vertov’s movie began with the introduction “This film presents an experiment in the Cinematic Communication of Visible Events aims at creating a truly international absolute language of Cinema based on its total separation from the language of Theatre and Literature.” Almost a hundred years later the only difference is our culture’s surprise that visual communication is the way cinema works. Museum Hours takes this understanding back to its roots in painting and sculpture while Upstream Color goes for modern poetics
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and palpably distorts it. Vertov’s fascination with social phenomena (and cinema’s ability to observe and toy with it) gets turned into Carruth’s millennial concept that systems, programs, processes control and define our lives. Carruth perverts Vertov’s awe; his pattern-based, scientific approach to storytelling sees the wonder of life similar to silent movies (enthrallment with montage) but without Vertov’s post-Victorian senƟment or Soviet purpose. Carruth’s use of ellipsis and mystery and fragmentation become an end in themselves. He begins with Fear and menace, secrets, deception, violence, violation, telling four interlocked stories (including endangered children and a sound recordist). It’s both an intellectual conceit with its own esoteric motto (“You can force your story’s shape but the colors will always bloom upstream”) and an actorly conceit (Carruth, who resembles the actor Dan Futterman in Urbania, gives himself significant screen time). Museum Hours is no less contemporary yet it uses less irony. It immediately recalls Agnes Varda’s The Gleaners and I, Jean-Luc Godard’s The Old Museum and Isaac Julien’s 1993 short The Attendant featuring British scholar Stuart Hall as a museum guard (all good models) yet there’s no structure to Cohen’s narrative other than the associations he makes between created art and everyday life--art as lived. This is what connects Cohen’s film to Vertov. Cohen’s fondness for rumination matches Carruth’s fondness for the paranoid mystery that has become standard for cineastes unfamiliar with the density of experimental narrative by silent-era artists like Vertov who still believed in what Andre Bazin explained as the ontological truth of photography. It is the silent surrealists’ speculation on destiny that Carruth extends into dread. His murdermystery, ecological catastrophe plot adds terror to what should simply be wonderment about seeing the world in existential terms. Follow Armond White on Twitter at 3xchair
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hen Puck casts his magic spell over love besotted royalty and fairies in Shakespeare’s joyful A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the splendid new Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park July 13-30, the setting won’t be ancient Greece nor the music Elizabethan. Thanks to the brilliant Classic Theater of Harlem, Harlem is getting its own Shakespeare in its own park this summer, with poetic language intact but many other aspects of the play changed. “I wanted to go beyond the idea of simply having a color blind cast,” says the artistic director, Justin Emeka, recently, on the phone as he rushed to a rehearsal, “and change the play’s cultural aesthetic to African American, West African and Caribbean, to reflect Harlem. To incorporate our culture into the story.” An actor, writer, capoeirista and professor of theater and Africana Studies at Oberlin College, Emeka has had extensive theatrical experience, having directed The Glass Menagerie, Dutchman, A Raisin in the Sun and many other plays. Not new to shaking things up, he cast Avery Brooks as the lead in Death of a Salesman and set King Lear among the Olmec people who lived in Mesopotamia from 1200 – 400 B.C. “It’s incredible what happens to plays when you alter the culture,” he says. “It often cracks open a whole new way of seeing them. You look through another lens. This is how theater is going now. They’re so many ways that haven’t been explored.” In the two years Emeka spent adapting this version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he found a natural match for Puck’s tricks and magic in aspects of African cosmology and Yoruba traditions. Naturally, the music and dance had to reflect the same culture. Michael Wimberley, a drummer, percussionist and composer, who has worked with many dance companies, including Urban Bush Women, created a soundscape. He blended pop and Angolan rhythms and featured the berimbau as well as hip-hop and the music of R&B singer, D’Angelo, a favorite of Emeka’s. “I developed thematic material for each character,” he says. “My goal was to see the actors as musicians, so I got them singing on a daily basis, and trying out vocal and body
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percussion. They’re young and open to the challenge.” The choreographer Lakai Worrell worked closely with Wimberley, weaving elements of the cultures of the Diaspora into the movement, just as Wimberley did with the music. To make sure it worked with the cast, he first had each of them show him how they moved. “Many weren’t trained dancers and I wanted them to feel comfortable with what I gave them,” he says. He created big, boisterous moves for Bottom and more delicate and lighter moves for the fairies, though, he explains, “there’s a certain power behind them, a deadly, mesmerizing quality that I wanted to get across.” Actor and writer Ty Jones, the producing artistic director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem and Obie-award-winning star of The Blacks: A Clown Show, speaks of this production with a zealot’s passion. “Justin has combined extraordinary elements,” he says. “This is the way to expand our audience. We want to show how we attract foot traffic in Harlem, and that the arts employ people, and create a theater that the people of Harlem will want to go to without traveling downtown or to another borough.” This production and the CTH’s dedication to Harlem impressed the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. It doesn’t give grants for the arts; its mission is to generate business. But Jones and other board members proved that that was exactly what producing highlevel theater in the neighborhood would accomplish. For this reason, Verdery Roosevelt, senior vice-president, programs and nonprofit investments at UMEZ, notes that the theater won its support, to the tune of $312,000, to invest in infrastructure, marketing and education. “It was their vision that thrilled us,” she says.
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Healthy y Manhattan A Molecular Explanation for AgeRelated Fertility Decline in Women
cientists supported by the National Institutes of Health have a new theory as to why a woman’s fertility declines after her mid-30s. They also suggest an approach that might help slow the process, enhancing and prolonging fertility. They found that, as women age, their egg cells become riddled with DNA damage and die off because their DNA repair systems wear out. Defects in one of the DNA repair genes— BRCA1—have long been linked with breast cancer, and now also appear to cause early menopause. “We all know that a woman’s fertility declines in her 40s. This study provides a molecular explanation for why that happens,” said Dr. Susan Taymans, Ph.D., of the Fertility and Infertility Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the NIH institute that funded the study. “Eventually, such insights might help us find ways to improve and extend a woman’s reproductive life.” The findings appear in Science Translational Medicine. Senior author Kutluk Oktay, M.D., of New York Medical College (NYMC), in Rye and Valhalla, collaborated with colleagues at NYMC and researchers at Istanbul Bilim University, Turkey; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York; and Yeshiva University, New York. In general, a woman’s ability to conceive and maintain a pregnancy is linked to the number and health of her egg cells. Before a baby girl is born, her ovaries contain her lifetime supply of egg cells (known as primordial follicle oocytes) until they are more mature. As she enters her late 30s, the number of oocytes — and fertility — dips precipitously. By the time she reaches her early 50s, her original ovarian supply of about 1 million cells drops virtually to zero. Only a small proportion of oocytes — about 500 — are released via ovulation during the woman’s reproductive life. The remaining 99.9 percent are eliminated by the woman’s body, primarily through cellular suicide, a normal process that prevents the spread or inheritance of damaged cells.
The scientists suspect that most aging oocytes self-destruct because they have accumulated a dangerous type of DNA damage called double-stranded breaks. According to the study, older oocytes have more of this sort of damage than do younger ones. The researchers also found that older oocytes are less able to fix DNA breaks due to their dwindling supply of repair molecules. Healthy versions of BRCA1 are essential to fertility in women. Oocytes from young women (24 to 35 years) contain higher levels of BRCA1 (gray) than oocytes from older women (36 to 41 years). Image from Impairment of BRCA1-Related DNA DoubleStrand Break Repair Leads to Ovarian Aging in Mice and Humans, Shiny Titus et al. Source: Sci Transl Med 5, 172ra21 (2013); DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3004925.. Examining oocytes from mice, and from women 24 to 41 years old, the researchers found that the activity of four DNA repair genes (BRCA1, MRE11, Rad51 and ATM) declined with age. When the research team experimentally turned off these genes in mouse oocytes, the cells had more DNA breaks and higher death rates than did oocytes with properly working repair systems. The research team’s findings stemmed from their initial focus on BRCA1, a DNA repair gene that has been closely studied for nearly 20 years because defective versions of it dramatically increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer. Using mice bred to lack the BRCA1 gene, the NICHD-supported scientists confirmed that a healthy version of BRCA1 is vital to reproductive health. BRCA1-deficient mice were less fertile, had fewer oocytes, and had more double-stranded DNA breaks in their remaining oocytes than did normal mice. Abnormal BRCA1 appears to cause the same problems in humans—the team’s studies suggest that if a woman’s oocytes contain mutant versions of BRCA1, she will exhaust her ovarian supply sooner than women whose oocytes carry the healthy version of BRCA1. Together, these findings show that the ability of oocytes to repair double-stranded DNA breaks is closely linked with ovarian aging and, by extension, a woman’s fertility. This molecular-level understanding points to new reproductive therapies. Specifically, the scientists suggest that finding ways to bolster DNA repair systems in the ovaries might lead to treatments that can improve or prolong fertility.
Met Council is accepting applications for the waiting list of affordable housing rental apartments in our building located at 315 West 61st Street, NY
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013
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NIH-funded scientists find DNA repair systems become less efficient
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These studio apartments are for one person households only. The age eligibility requirement is 62 years of age at the time of application. Current Rent Range studio: Income Range:
$814.00 - $847.00 $27,897 - $36,120 1 person household
*Monthly rent includes heat, hot water and gas for cooking. Seniors will be required to meet income guidelines and additional selection criteria to qualify. Income guidelines are subject to change. One application per household. Applications may be downloaded from: www.metcouncil.org/housing or requested by mail from Met Council: 315 West 61st Street Residence 120 Broadway, 7th floor New York, NY 10271. Please include a self-addressed envelope. No Broker or application fee.
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STREET SHRINK I sat and carefully observed the early morning routines of others - the way each restaurant hosed the pavement as morning commuters Why taking time off is imperative for mental health averted eye contact and leapt over the coiled hose like it was a Skip-It from days of yore. As Monday I took a vacation day in the city, a time went on, I realized that while I’m burning By Kristine Keller self-mandated mental health day. the nine-to-six oil, there’s another world on Taking more than a usual morning minute these streets. Once the office doors shut, the ucky. Exhilarated. Alive. For many to stretch my limbs and rub my tired eyes, I streets become empty and full of possibility. of us, having the time to really feel felt lucky. I walked down my 5-floor walk-up It’s that time when you can feel the city’s these natural states is a luxury. smiling at the half-painted walls on the 4th scorching summer energy rolled into a ball. Most of the time we’re too focused floor. I stopped on the 1st floor at my mailbox Though the purpose of my mental health day on getting to our destination to and marveled at my name typed boldly next was to catch my breath, I knew the best use of take in our surroundings. But on a recent to a happy face. Next to my box sit the other time would be to maximize it and to discover downtown in In In the the midst midst of of the the healthcare healthcare crisis crisis sweeping sweeping sub-Saharan sub-Saharan Africa, Africa, a a small small hospital hospital in in ways I’m not permitted during the work week. I began my day rural rural Malawi Malawi serves serves 120,000 120,000 people, people, all all nearly nearly free free of of charge, charge, with with just just one one doctor. doctor. sojourn conquering a bucket list pillar: attending a martial arts class. Typically I’d be too scared to enter a primarily male class in the Financial District filled with gladiators and brawny Bruce Lee acolytes during the 6 p.m. gym happy hour. So, I braced myself for a morning class with few other participants. As I lunged my leg in the air and threw a Streetfighter punch towards the mirror, I felt an ineffable sense of strength. Conquering your fears isn’t so hard; you just need the confidence to Citibike over the initial hill. I made my way back to Washington Square Park, sat on a bench in front of the fountain and pulled out a sandwich. An NYU student sat next to me and asked me where I got it. “Olives,” I said. She hadn’t heard of it but she did tell me about the frozen treats at Wooly’s Ice on Centre Street. There’s no better time to catch up with strangers and exchange secrets than during your day of rest. Though some studies have indicated the psychological benefits of a four-day work, this is not a reality for most. But what I did learn from my mental health day is that it’s important to be kind to yourself. Take a few moments to slow the pace. By remaining curious and vigilant, we’re absorbing the city’s kinetic energy and opening our minds to innovative ideas. We’ve got to remember to look up when we walk. E-mail Kristine at StreethsrinkNYC@gmail.com.
Downtown’s Day of Rest
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tenants’ names, scribbled haphazardly in faded blue pen on old yellow paper. Normally I’d whiz past these subtle quirks like a fireman’s rush to duty. But today, I could revel in my building’s charm and scars of its past. I continued my day at a Little Italy restaurant cupping my espresso across the street from Hansky’s street art featuring the ultimate mash-up: Aziz Ansari’s face plastered to Ironman’s Tony Stark. Beside the masterpiece reads Starks and Recreation. I can’t conceal my expletive-eating grin. Buzzed on caffeine and besotted with downtown love,
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The Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine
Trying to have a baby?
Zev Rosenwaks, M.D. Director Owen Davis, M.D. Ina Cholst, M.D. Pak Chung, M.D. Rony T. Elias, M.D. Dan Goldschlag, M.D. Hey-Joo Kang, M.D. Isaac Kligman, M.D. Glenn Schattman, M.D. Steven Spandorfer, M.D.
Psychologists Linda Applegarth, Ed.D. Elizabeth Grill, Psy.D. Laura Josephs, Ph.D. The Center for Male Reproductive Medicine and Microsurgery Marc Goldstein, M.D. Director Darius Paduch, M.D. Peter Schlegel, M.D. Philip Li, M.D. Weill Cornell Medical College 1305 York Avenue New York, NY 10021 (646) 962-2764 Manhattanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s West Side 2315 Broadway New York, NY 10024 (646) 962-3767 Northern Westchester 657 Main Street Mount Kisco, NY 10549 (914) 242-3700 Garden City, Long Island 1300 Franklin Avenue Garden City, NY 11530 (516) 742-4100
We can help. At the Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine of Weill Cornell Medical College, we offer couples the most advanced and effective treatments for infertility for both our male and female patients, including: B 5 <1:86 .-8:131@):165 % B % ;915/ ,6568 -//9 B % =1:0 " B % =1:0 +6 +;3:;8B <;3):165 5,;+:165 B 5:8);:-815- 59-415):165 $
We accept UnitedHealthcare, Oxford Health and Cigna insurance plans for most fertility treatments. For more than two decades we have made your desire to build a family our main priority. If you or someone ?6; 256= 19 ->7-81-5+15/ 15.-8:131:? +65:)+: ;9 ): ! 68 <191: ;9 65 :0- =-* ): === 1<. 68/
Flushing Hospital Medical Center 146 -01 45th Avenue Flushing, NY 11355 (646) 962-5626
www.ivf.org
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013
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Turning Patients into Parents The Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine
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PAGE 13
Trying to have a baby?
The Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine Zev Rosenwaks, M.D. Director Owen Davis, Ina Cholst, Pak Chung, Rony T. Elias, Dan Goldschlag, Hey-Joo Kang, Isaac Kligman, Glenn Schattman, Steven Spandorfer,
M.D. M.D. M.D. M.D. M.D. M.D. M.D. M.D. M.D.
Psychologists Linda Applegarth, Ed.D. Elizabeth Grill, Psy.D. Laura Josephs, Ph.D. The Center for Male Reproductive Medicine and Microsurgery Marc Goldstein, M.D. Director Darius Paduch, M.D. Peter Schlegel, M.D. Philip Li, M.D. Weill Cornell Medical College 1305 York Avenue New York, NY 10021 (646) 962-2764 Manhattanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s West Side 2315 Broadway New York, NY 10024 (646) 962-3767 Northern Westchester 657 Main Street Mount Kisco, NY 10549 (914) 242-3700 Garden City, Long Island 1300 Franklin Avenue Garden City, NY 11530 (516) 742-4100
We can help. At the Center for Reproductive Medicine, Dr. Zev Rosenwaks and his outstanding team of physicians offer couples the most advanced and effective treatments for infertility. With multiple ofďŹ ces located conveniently for patients in the tristate area, we provide comprehensive and compassionate care. For more than two decades we have made your desire to build a family our main priority. If you or someone you know is experiencing infertility, contact us at (646) 962-CRMI or visit us on the web at www.ivf.org. We accept UnitedHealthcare, Oxford Health and Cigna insurance plans for most fertility treatments.
Flushing Hospital Medical Center 146 -01 45th Avenue Flushing, NY 11355 (646) 962-5626
www.ivf.org
PAGE 14
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Turning Patients into Parents The Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine
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THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013
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Classified Advertising Department Information Telephone: ] Fax: Email: classifi FE !TUSBVTOFXT DPN Hours: .POEBZ 'SJEBZ BN QN ] Deadline: .POEBZ OPPO GPS TBNF XFFLT JTTVF ANIMALS & PETS
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PAGE 16
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