Our Town Downtown May 15th, 2014 by OurTown Downtown

The local paper for Downtown wn PRIME KOSHER K STEAK IN THE FIDI FOOD & DRINK, P. 14

AIR BNB-EWARE BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

PROPERTY Increasing number of eviction proceedings stemming from use of apartment-sharing websites

Many New Yorkers have probably noticed the apartmentsharing startup Air BnB in the news lately. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed the company for records of users he believes

are using it to illegally book apartments. Air BnB is ﬁghting the subpoena, saying that users who abuse their platform are promptly kicked off and the AG’s move amounts to intrusive government snooping into the lives of its customers. But what’s not at the forefront of the discussion surrounding Air BnB are the increasing numbers of customers who have had to ﬁght

“ They’re really beneﬁtting from a lot of actual lawbreaking, and that’s a morally gray area to be operating in. They really have to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their business model.” Tenants’ rights lawyer David Frazer

eviction proceedings because they rented their apartment using the site, or a similar one like VRBO. “I think I’ve seen in the last six months probably four of these cases that I personally handled,” said Samuel Himmelstein, a partner at Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben, Donoghue and Joseph. His ﬁrm caters exclusively to

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

S.L.A. FIELDS COMMUNITY BOARD QUESTIONS NEWS Joint meeting held to discuss liquor license application and renewal guidelines

15 2014

NYPRESS.COM

OurTownDowntown @OTDowntown

In Brief HUNDREDS RALLY FOR CAPTURED NIGERIAN GIRLS About 200 people gathered outside the Nigerian consulate in New York in support of captured Nigerian girls. Mayor Bill de Blasio addressed the crowd of activists, human rights groups and Nigerian immigrants during the Saturday afternoon prayer vigil and rally in Manhattan.He told the crowd the kidnappings of more than 270 girls by the extremist group Boko Haram should be denounced around the world. Anti-gun violence organizer Iesha Sekou led a group of about 50 who marched from a Harlem church to the consulate. She says her group rallied because the girls were taken at gunpoint. Boko Haram claims to use Islamic teachings as justiﬁcation for threatening to sell the kidnapped girls into slavery. Its kidnappings have prompted worldwide condemnation.

DANIEL A. NIGRO APPOINTED FIRE CHIEF

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

SOHO Officials from the State Liquor Authority met with members of the three downtown community boards to discuss the liquor licensing process and communication concerns between the authority and the community. In Community Board 1 alone, said chair Catherine McVay-Hughes, the board reviewed 85 new liquor licenses and 189 renewals in the past year. Community Board 2’s territory includes the Meatpacking District, which has seen a surge of nightlife venues opening in recent years and an uptick in traffic and noise issues. The explosion of bars in one area of Community Board 3’s territory on the Lower East Side has led to the formation of a community group dedicated to ﬁghting the proliferation of rowdy bars. The group, LES Dwellers, was later banned from CB3 meetings for being disruptive and operating autonomously. Lower Manhattan has a much high-

WEEK OF MAY

A crowded street in “Hell Square” on the Lower East Side on a Saturday night. Residents met with the State Liquor Authority to discuss concerns over the large number of licensed establishments in their neighborhood. Photo by Daniel Fitzsimmons er concentration of nightlife venues than in other, more residential, areas of the city. As such, leaders from all three community boards decided to hold a forum with SLA officials to further align each group’s communication process when deciding whether or not to grant liquor licenses. Community boards are an important first stop for those looking to open a bar or restaurant serving alcohol in New York. While the SLA is an independent body with autonomous decision making power, they base many of their liquor license decisions on the recommendations they receive from the various community boards, of which there are 57 in the city.

ers – and indeed, friction between the community boards and the SLA – is a given bar’s adherence to, or rebellion against, stipulations they signed in order to get their liquor licenses. Stipulations are agreements that a bar or restaurant owner makes with the surrounding community on things like operating hours, noise levels and outdoor seating, in exchange for a positive recommendation to the SLA from the community board. What happens, according to CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer, who moderated the event, is that bar and restaurant owners then interpret those stipulations to suit their needs once a liquor license is granted.

Stipulations At the center of many issues between the community and bar own-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

SUBMITTING EVIDENCE TO THE SLA SLA Chair Dennis Rosen said that the authority routinely uses as evidence photos, receipts and other submissions from the community alleging liquor license violations. To submit such evidence in New York City, email noel. colon@sla.ny.gov or michael.jones@ sla.ny.gov.

WHAT, EXACTLY, DOES LAST CALL MEAN? In New York, establishments must stop serving alcohol at 4 a.m. However, they’re allowed to give patrons up to a half-hour after last call to finish their drinks. During this half-hour patrons cannot order additional drinks.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his appointment of Daniel Nigro, a 32-year veteran of the FDNY and former chief of department, to serve as New York City’s fire commissioner. Mayor de Blasio charged Nigro with ensuring the safety of New York City’s residents and firefighters, increasing diversity among the ranks, and maintaining the department’s commitment to swift FDNY response times in neighborhoods across the city. Appointed chief of department on the afternoon of September 11, 2001, Nigro led the FDNY through search, rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero, and provided operational leadership for FDNY and EMS response units and personnel. “Our courageous firefighters sacrifice to protect this city each day, and I will ensure these first responders are protected and cared for as well,” Nigro said.

Our Town MAY 15, 2014

NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS CHECK Baby hawks outside NYU are starting to peek out of their nest, and should be ﬂying by the end of the month.

N.Y.U.’S BABY HAWKS BEGIN TO EMERGE The New York Times’ City Room blog checked in on the three-weekold baby hawks hatched on a window ledge of New York University’s Bobst Library. The pair of gray-feathered babies, called eyases, are the offspring of famous urban hawks Rosie and Bobby, who have built their 12th floor nest overlooking Washington Square Park and are a constant subject of fascination from locals who watch them through the Hawk Cam. Currently the little ones, whom some have dubbed Orla and Silver, are practicing defecating outside the nest and eating the chunks of rodent and pigeon carcasses that their parents bring and feed them in chunks up to 15 times a day. They are expected to start “jumpflapping” in preparation for full flight in the coming weeks, and should be ready to take off by late May. New York Times

MAN SAVES TEENAGER FROM SUBWAY TRACKS A man jumped onto the subway tracks at rush hour on Wednesday to save a 16-year-old girl who had fallen at the Union Square station, DNAinfo.com reported. Joshua Garcia, a food service employee at New York University on his way home around 6:45 p.m. that

evening, spotted 16-year-old Stephanie Xue leaning over the platform, looking unstable and woozy. Xue then tumbled onto the tracks, hitting her head with a loud bang that knocked her unconcious and caused a severe laceration on her head. As others watched, Garcia leapt onto the tracks and hoisted Xue to safety. Justine Omilig, a 23-year-old nursing student at Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing, rushed over to assist and help stop the bleeding before paramedics arrived to transport Xue to Bellevue Hospital. Xue received 50 stitches but was released the next day. “It was adrenaline and the power of the Lord,” Garcia told DNAinfo.com about

his heroic rescue. “I was glad to help and said library officials and New York City officials are discussing alternatives. to show her that there are good people “When the facts change the only out there.” DNAinfo.com right thing to do as a public-serving LIBRARY SHELVES REVAMP, institution is to take a look with fresh eyes and see if there is a way to improve WON’T MOVE 1.5M BOOKS the plans and to stay on budget,” Marx said in a statement. The New York Public Library is The plan involved closing and shelving a $300 million plan to revamp selling two midtown branch libraries. its ﬂagship midtown Manhattan Their functions would have been building and move 1.5 million books consolidated inside the main research to New Jersey, library officials said library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, Wednesday. The plan had drawn which would have become a circulating widespread opposition from scholars library. 1.5 million books would have and was the target of four lawsuits. Library president Tony Marx didn’t detail moved from stacks in the Fifth Avenue the reasons for the change in plans but building to storage in New Jersey. AP

COMMUNITY PROTESTS UNFAIR AMENITIES PRICES At a meeting last week, members of Community Board 2 who had previously approved of a development plan for 261 Hudson Street voiced their displeasure about one aspect of the building, Downtown Express reported. While the board applauded the move by developer Related Companies to make 20 percent, or 41 units, of their new building affordable, they decried the company’s move to charge all residents, including those occupying the affordable units, the same ﬂat fees for use of amenities in the building, like a gym and a computer lounge. The 12-story building will have 201 total units. Related Companies will make the building’s rooftop terrace and library open to all tenants free of charge, but plans to levy a $500 perperson, per-year fee for other amenities that include a gym, locker room and computer lounge, with no plans to discount that rate for affordable tenants. The community board said that rate is prohibitive for affordable unit renters and will create unfair divisionis of tenants within the building. They passed a resolution calling on the city council to reject Related’s application unless they change their policy to charge less to affordable unit renters. Downtown Express

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MAY 15, 2014 Our Town

CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG HOMELESS AND RUTHLESS

for a total of $1,900 stolen.

1ST PRECINCT

A homeless man made off with a subway rider’s backpack. At 2:35 AM on Friday, May 2, a man walked up to a 24-year-old female passenger in a southbound 1 train and said, “I am homeless. I have not eaten in three days.” The man next asked a 69-year-old female passenger, “Can I have some money?” The man then walked over to a 26-yearold male passenger and tapped him on his body, asking, “Are you awake?” The sleeping man did not respond. The homeless man then grabbed a backpack sitting on the train car’s ﬂoor between the sleeping passenger’s legs. The thief got off the train and ﬂed in an unknown direction. Police searched the area near Franklin Street, but were unable to locate the robber or the backpack. The items stolen included a Lenovo Yoga laptop, valued at $1,000, an external hard drive priced at $100, plus pants, a jacket, a checkbook, and the black backpack, making a total haul of $1,100.

LAIGHT GREAT TOOLS

Report covering the week 4/28/2014 through 5/4/2014

EOS CHAOS Someone snatched a female tourist’s camera and lens. At 5 PM on Monday, April 28, a 22-yearold woman from Berlin was walking around Soho taking pictures. She put her camera away in her backpack and closed the bag. When she got to the Northeast corner of West Broadway and Broome Street to get her cell phone out of her backpack, she realized the bag was now open and her camera was missing. She had felt a bump a while before, but the streets were so crowded, she had not thought anything of it. The items stolen were a Canon EOS 5D MXII camera valued at $1,500 and a 28 mm Voigtlander camera lens costing $400,

Tools were taken from a construction site. At 4:30 PM on Friday, April 25, the 52-year-old male project manager overseeing construction in a residential building on Laight Street told police that an unknown person had removed property from a tool box in the basement. He said that numerous employees had keys to access the box, and a former employee was still in possession of the key as well. The items stolen were a Hilti laser valued at $2,500, a Hilti concrete nail gun costing $950, and Dewalt Makita circular saws priced at $200, making a total of $3,650.

Week to Date

Year to Date

2014 2013

% Change

2014

2013

% Change

Murder

n/a

Rape

n/a

-33.3

Robbery

-100

-28.6

Felony Assault

-100

-8

UNKNOWN PERSON, UNATTENDED PURSE

Burglary

-71.4

-30.7

Someone swiped a woman’s purse from a restaurant. At 8:30 PM on Thursday, May 1, a 27-year-old woman from Staten Island was eating at a restaurant on Pearl Street when she realized that her purse had been stolen by an unknown person. Unauthorized charges turned up on her stolen credit cards totaling $290. Other items taken included a pair of Michael Kors sunglasses valued at $200, a small beige purse costing $100, a New York State driver’s license, an iPhone charger valued at $15, home and car keys, and various credit cards. The total stolen came to $605.

Grand Larceny

-40.9

297

373

-20.4

Grand Larceny Auto

-100

-80

restaurant. At 5 PM on Friday, May 2, a 32-yearold woman from Lynbrook, NY went to visit the bathroom in a restaurant on Reade Street. When she returned to her seat, she found that her wallet was missing. The items stolen included an iPhone 4S valued at $400, $40 in cash, a New York State driver’s license, an insurance card, and a debit and credit card that the woman cancelled before any fraudulent charges turned up.

READE DEED

GARBAGE HAUL

A woman’s wallet and cell phone vanished in a

Someone stole a garbage truck driver’s wallet

and cell phone. At 6:30 PM on Friday, May 2, a 46-year-old male garbage truck driver from Brooklyn left his wallet and cell phone in the cup holder of his truck. He left the driver’s side door open while he worked at the back of the truck. When he returned to the front, he discovered that his wallet and cell phone were missing. He was unable to track his phone, and he canceled his cards, which showed no unauthorized usage. The items stolen were an iPhone 4S priced at $200, a sanitation department ID and badge, and two debit cards.

Our Town MAY 15, 2014

BNB-EWARE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 7th Precinct

19 ½ Pitt St.

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16 Ericsson Place

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25 Pitt St.

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165 Park Row #11

212-587-3159

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212-677-1077

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State Senator Daniel Squadron

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212-298-5565

Community Board 1

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tenants, and is the largest ﬁrm of its kind in New York. “Before this, there was just a tiny little handful. The reason I think there’s such an uptick is how publicly accessible Air BnB is.” Most lease agreements in New York stipulate that an apartment cannot be subletted - no matter the duration - without the landlord’s prior approval, and that the apartment cannot be used for business purposes, i.e., making money off of it. As a result, many New Yorkers who use apartmentsharing websites stand a good chance - knowingly or not - of violating their leases. State Senator Liz Krueger who in 2010 passed the “illegal hotel law” to ﬁght the proliferation of apartments being used to capitalize on the transient tourist market, something Air BnB has been accused of enabling - said she knows of landlords who actively search for their properties on Air BnB and similar sites, looking for tenants who are renting their apartments in violation of their lease so they can start eviction proceedings against them. A ir Bn B has said that Krueger’s law was never intended to be used against everyday people renting out their apartments and that the majority of Air BnB hosts in New York are “regular New Yorkers just trying to make ends meet.” They also claim to have helped New Yorkers stay in their apartments by functioning as an extra source of income, and said their New York communi-

ty will contribute $768 million in economic activity this year alone. Economic forecasts aside, for those New Yorkers that share their rent-regulated or rentstabilized apartments, using sites like Air BnB can be very dangerous, said Himmelstein. In a poll of lawyers at his ﬁrm, he said there’s been 12-14 such cases in the last two years. “It’s not just rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments,” said Himmelstein. “It’s Mitchell-Lama, NYC Housing Authority, any apartment in New York City which is subject to some form of government ownership, involvement or regulation, this activity is illegal.” New York tenant lawyer David Frazer said he’s also handled several of these cases recently. In a case he took up just last week, the landlord bought the property in which his rent-reg-

“ “They’re really beneﬁting from a lot of actual law-breaking.” ulated client - an Air BnB host - lives and is “very aggressively going after all the tenants for any reason that he can come up with to try and create turnover in the building.” Frazer said he’s seeing these types of cases in Manhattan and the trendy areas of north Brooklyn. Himmelstein said he’s taken cases in the Village, East Village, and Chelsea. Both lawyers agree the number of eviction cases that stem from rent-regulated and rentstabilized New Yorkers sharing their apartments on sites like Air BnB will continue to rise.

“It’s already happening,” said Himmelstein. “Definitely,” said Frazer. “With all of the publicity Air BnB has generated for itself ﬁghting Schneiderman, it’s put more landlords on notice.” However, both Himmelstein and Frazer said so far they’ve

“

I think I’ve seen in the last six months probably four of these cases that I personally handled.” Samuel Himmelstein of the law ﬁrm Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben, Donoghue and Joseph been successful in avoiding forced evictions, though both have had clients who took buyouts of their rent-regulated apartments from landlords to avoid the possibility of walking away empty handed if they lost in court. “One of my clients had to give up his apartment because they had him dead to rights,” said Himmelstein. “If you’re doing this you’re giving the landlord ammunition to come after you,” said Frazer. “And even if ultimately you can succeed, it can be a very nerve-wracking and expensive proposition.”

Technology as a weapon A decade ago, said Himmelstein, landlords were cruising websites like propertyshark. com that provide in-depth real estate data for properties across the country. Landlords were looking for other properties their rent-regulated tenants owned that they could argue were the tenant’s primary residence, and which they

could use as the foundation for an eviction case. “All of the sudden there was an uptick in non-primary residence cases,” said Himmelstein. “That was the big thing between 2000 and now, but now Air BnB is the latest thing where landlords can use technology against tenants.” In response to a series of questions posed to Air BnB, spokesperson Nick Papas replied with a link that was found on the bottom of the homepage warning users to check local laws before listing their apartments. Papas also said New York users are presented with a message during the “listing flow” reminding them to check local laws before they can make a listing appear on the website. In an experiment, a reporter successfully listed a faux apartment on Air BnB in the West Village and no such reminder presented itself. After a request for clarification, a different spokesperson revealed that in the fifth of six steps, the page where a host enters the street address of the apartment they’re listing, a reminder about New York regulations and leases is found after scrolling to the bottom of the page. As for those measures being adequate, Frazer said they’re “several clicks away in the small print. It’s a very lawyerly move on their part but it smacks of bad faith. They’re really benefiting from a lot of actual law-breaking, and that’s a morally gray area to be operating in. They really have to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their business.” .model.”

Met Council is accepting applications for the waiting list of affordable housing rental apartments in our building located at 231 East 77th Street, NY.

Met Council is accepting applications for the waiting list of affordable housing rental apartments in our building located at 334 East 92nd Street, NY.

For one person households, applicants must be 62 years old at the time of application; for two person households, the applicant must be 62 and the co-applicant 55 at the time of application.

Current Rent Range studio: $1014 - $1153 Income Range: $42,513 - $48,100 (1 person household)

Current Rent Range studio: $883 - $1153 Income Range: $37,257 - $48,100 (1 person household)

Current Range 1 bedroom: $1065 - $1238 Income Range: $44,584 - $48,100 (1 person household) $44,584 - $55,000 (2 person household)

Current Range 1 bedroom: Income Range:

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: 231 East 77th Street Residence 120 Broadway, 7th floor New York, NY 10271

Applications may be downloaded from: www.metcouncil.org/housing or requested by mail from Met Council: 334 East 92nd Street Residence 120 Broadway, 7th floor New York, NY 10271

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MAY 15, 2014 Our Town

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Baruch College announced that students Esther J. Lykes and Jonathan Flügel are this year’s valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively. They will join their fellow Baruch graduates on Tuesday, May 27, at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. Lykes is graduating summa cum laude with a B.A. in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. Lykes participated in a variety of entrepreneurship competitions that included serving as a team member in the 2014 Idea Brewery Hackathon (winning first place); a team member of the 2012 Fast Forward Leadership Program with KPMG in Hollywood, California (winning first place); and serving as team captain of the Oceanic Leadership Team, where she led her team to raise $60,000 for community service projects in Fiji, Vanuatu and The Solomon Island. Flügel is a student of the inaugural cohort of the Zicklin School of Business Undergraduate Honors Program. He was the first business school recipient of the prestigious John Mather Nobel Scholar award for his space related work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He is receiving a BBA in Computer Information Systems. Before entering Baruch College, Jonathan was a studio musician in New York City and collaborated with various independent recording artists.

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The No Kid Hungry campaign raised more than $500,000 at a charity dinner earlier this month at Barbuto restaurant downtown. The dinner was hosted by chef Jonathan Waxman, and will help feed kids in need up to 5 million healthy meals. Photo by Ken Goodman Photography

MAY 15, 2014 Our Town

SLA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 SLA Chair Dennis Rosen said that his agency encourages community boards to be as speciﬁc as possible when writing stipulations and to write as many stipulations as they feel is necessary. “We’ve been very encouraging of stipulations,” said Rosen, who noted he’s seen a steep rise in the number of stipulations attached to recommendations by community boards in the four-and-a-half years since he’s been chair. “I think that’s a great paradigm for how the process should work, as opposed to it sometimes being very antagonistic. I was shocked when I first came to the authority to see the degree of antagonism at times between the industry and community boards.” Rosen’s thinking is that the number and speciﬁcity of stipulations will prevent proprietors from taking advantage of any leeway in the language of an agreement between a bar or restaurant and the community board. “There’s so much at stake that I think the more specific an agreement you have the better. I try to be objective, to be in the middle, but I will be the first person to tell you that there are many licensees out there that are going to do whatever they can to wiggle around those stipulations because it means dollars to them,” said Rosen.

“ I was shocked when I ﬁrst came to the authority to see the degree of antagonism at times between the industry and community boards.” SLA Chair Dennis Rosen

“The more you can be lawyers, and lock them in, I recommend you do so. On the other hand, we will always interpret stipulations liberally and reasonably.”

Liquor license renewal process The community board’s position on renewals – of which they receive a 30-day notice for any establishment, the only place in the state where such a regulation exists – is that it represents a good opportunity for them to comment to the SLA on any problem establishments and recommend that a license not be renewed. “This is an area that causes constant confusion,” said CB3’s Stetzer, who told the SLA that upon receiving a 30-day notice,

community boards routinely send their comments and recommendations on a problem establishment to the SLA but the establishment receives their renewal anyway. Rosen told the dozens of community board members who attended the meeting that it would be impossible to respond to or investigate their complaints about a particular establishment within that 30day renewal window. “The statute exists just to inform you [of a renewal],” he said, noting that the SLA handles 15-20,000 such renewals a year. As a solution, Rosen said the community needs to lodge complaints with the SLA about an establishment in real time, when violations are occurring, not rush the SLA with a series of complaints while the license is about to be renewed. If need be, the SLA can then fold that establishment into their investigative operations and have the outcomes of those investigations on hand when an establishment’s license is up for renewal. “They’re of limited use,” said Rosen of complaints sent to the SLA about an establishment within 30 days of its liquor license renewal. “We have that 30-day window hanging over our head.”

‘A different perspective’ Rosen told community board members that the SLA is held to a different standard than perhaps residents who live in

an area with a high concentration of bars and nightlife might think is reasonable. “We have to come at it from a different perspective than you,” said Rosen. “The difference between us and say a community board or a block association is that we’re a governmental agency that’s making a determination, and that has to be according to the law and full due process for all of the parties concerned.” Rosen said he recognizes that community boards, block associations and residents have their own processes and stan-

dards in place as to who should be allowed to operate and how, but “there’s no real mechanism to hold your feet to the fire, whereas there is with us. People take us to court and if what we do didn’t follow the proper processes our decision will be set aside and nobody would have beneﬁted from it. That accounts for, at times, a lot of the difference in perspective.” Stetzer said the SLA has always been responsive to the boards’ concerns, even though they “disagree on many decisions and votes - but it is a respectful disagreement on both

sides.” CB1’s Catherine McVay Hughes said her board spends a lot of time on liquor license applications and renewals, and that she appreciates the SLA taking time out to address the community board’s concerns. “This is an indication that they really want to work with us to clarify questions and issues involved with the review of liquor license applications and renewals in order to make our recommendations to the SLA as effective as possible,” she said.

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SLA officials ﬁeld questions from Lower Manhattan community board members. Photo by Daniel Fitzsimmons

Our Town MAY 15, 2014

Voices

< CHECKING THE CITY COUNCIL ON TRANSIT Dear Editor, Why not amend NYC Councilmember Dan Garodnick’s bill requiring employers with 20 or more workers to sign up for transit checks to also include all 51 NYC Councilmembers, along with sev-

eral hundred Council staff? Councilmember Garodnick and his 50 colleagues can all give up their free parking spaces at City Hall. They and their staff can use transit checks to purchase Metro Cards. This will afford them the

LETTERS

Editorial

Keeping Small Businesses Alive

THE CARRIAGE DEBATE GALLOPS ON

Every week, we hear, and publish, stories about small local businesses folding and packing up their storefronts, forced out by astronomical rent increases. While the ebb and flow of businesses based on community needs is a normal part of urban life, the closures of late go beyond supply-and-demand market forces. Even highly successful boutiques, restaurants and service shops are getting booted when landlords realize that a bank or national retail chain would happily fork over triple the current rent. The locally owned businesses are often places that the community loves and patronizes regularly – the bookstore with curated stacks and knowledgeable staff who will guide customers with their love of literature; the family-owned dry cleaners who know their customers by name, the diner that’s been serving cheap, delicious comfort food for decades. But even a thriving business can’t prevent these stores from being priced out if their rent doubles or triples overnight. Lawmakers and advocates have tried over the years to slow the loss of these mom-and-pop shops independently owned businesses, with little success. There are major complications, to be sure – giving tax incentives to landlords for renting to small, locally-owned commercial tenants, for example, requires approval from Albany that is difficult to obtain. But there must be other options, and it’s up to the new administration to make preserving small businesses a real priority. The new mayor and city council need to take a hard, realistic look at this problem and recognize it for the emergency that it is. In the past, just as the alarming residential rents and low vacancy rates - a crisis which continues unabated a half century later - led to the creation of rent control laws in the ‘40s, our current retail rent environment, toxic to small local businesses, should be mitigated. It’s not enough for the city and the local Business Improvement Districts to encourage residents to “shop local.” People already do that, and voting with our feet and our dollars isn’t doing enough to inspire landlords to forego raising rents to prodigious levels. And until they have tangible reasons to do otherwise, we can hardly blame them. Whether through zoning laws, tax credits, or other legal incentives, the city and state need to work together to find creative ways to allow small businesses stay put. Preserving small businesses in our communities isn’t a romantic, idealized notion. It’s absolutely crucial to every resident’s quality of life, and the city needs to act before every block is flanked by two drug store chains and a bank, with nary a local florist or diner in sight.

Readers weigh in on the controversial topic of carriage horses in Central Park

We want to hear your ideas and suggestions for how the city can help keep small businesses in our neighborhoods. Please send your thoughts to news@ strausnews.com.

STRAUS MEDIA-MANHATTAN

opportunity to join several million constituents who use public transportation on a daily basis and also contribute to a cleaner environment. Sincerely, Larry Penner

Last week, we published an oped “The Argument For Banning Horse Carriages,” by Elizabeth Forel, president of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages. She wrote in response to our original editorial, “Where are the reasonable people?” (May 1, 2014) which argued that the debate over whether or not to ban the carriage horses has become out of control and filled with over-the-top rhetoric. Forel’s op-ed has continued to garner response from our readers. Here are just a few comments from the story on the web.

Bring on the Ban Well, this should bring more exposure to the behavior of the carriage drivers and how they treat their horses. They should be required to explain where every horse that is replaced goes and why they are being replaced. There should be much more transparency on their business practices, income and taxes paid. The vets chosen to oversee these horses should have to explain their actions, their statements. It is not about the carriage drivers, this about preventing the mistreatment of the horses. If the carriage driver truly took care of their horses, never overworked them, followed the regulations care and rest, then they should not be worried at all. The fact that

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Group Publisher - Manhattan Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnews.com

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there is no elimination of drivers that break the rules, no one reporting the infractions until a judge forced the issue, tells this is not a humane business. It is not alright to abuse animals for profit, not alright to risk their lives for proﬁt. Why should this business be any different from the multitude of other businesses using animals? All of these businesses either need to be eliminated or PROVE they are humane, not the other way around. This is about the rights of the animals to NOT be mistreated. By far, the carriage business has done nothing but try to hide or explain away questionable events. People have a choice to walk in traffic or not, people to leave a job that is not treating them well, these horses are not yours to treat as you please. If your business is so

Associate Publishers, Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth, Kate Walsh Classified Account Executive, Susan Wynn

Editor In Chief, Kyle Pope editor.ot@strausnews.com Editor, Megan Bungeroth editor.otdt@strausnews.com

wonderful, why is there not more transparency and oversight? Mamajoy2013

You Don’t Know Horses A lot of what I’m reading here indicates to me that people who think the horses are sad and worn down are not familiar with horses. A calm quiet horse is one who stands with their head in a relaxed position, and who waits to be told to move on. You will see horses standing at rest in the exact same position. This is also a HIGHLY regulated industry they are not working “18 hours per day” nor are they deprived of food or water. Do you really think they’d be fat and shiny if they were deprived of food or water? Please take time to educate yourself, instead of making up a narrative. StopTheInsanity

Staff Reporters, Gabrielle Alfiero, Daniel Fitzsimmons Block Mayors, Ann Morris, Upper West Side

The carriage horses that line up at Central Park every day continue to provoke a ﬁrestorm of both support and criticism. Photo by Salon Nowojorski via Flickr

Jennifer Peterson, Upper East Side Gail Dubov, Upper West Side Edith Marks, Upper West Side

MAY 15, 2014 Our Town

STILL FIGHTING, 20 YEARS ON for her neighbors by leading the charge to force out a Cooper’s Coffee restaurant on the Upper East Side. The store had earned An iconic East Side artist a number of Health Departis once again fighting her ment violations and made life landlord over a tenant hell for its neighbors, keeping downstairs them awake at all hours with BY JEFF STONE an overwhelming coffee odor that seemed to not only come UPPER EAST SIDE Twenty through their ﬂoor, but also seep years ago, the artist known as through electrical sockets and Matuschka won a major victory cracks in the wall.

PROPERTY

Now, all this time later, Matuschka - a successful photographer perhaps best known for the award-winning “Beauty Out of Damage,” a self-portrait of her post-mastectomy chest that appeared on the cover of the New York Times Magazine – is fighting an eerily similar battle. She says her apartment on 87th and Lexington Avenue is again virtually uninhabitable because of Eli’s Essentials, a Zabar’s store that moved into the space in 2013 after a string of businesses were unable to afford rent. Despite a clause in her lease agreement preventing the landlord from renting the first floor space to any “coffee shop or food establishment that does cooking (such a broiling, frying, baking) or steaming,” Matuschka alleges that Eli’s Essentials is doing just that, and she once again finds herself at war with a

tenant in her building. While the facts of the squabble are in dispute -- staff at Eli’s maintains that the food is cooked elsewhere and moved into the store each morning -for Mastuschka, it represents something far bigger: that for artists like her, it’s become nearly impossible to both live and create in the city. Matuschka arrived in New York at the height of the 1970s creative boom, moving into the same apartment where she still resides. She attended the School of Visual Arts before embarking on a career that crossed paths with the likes of Salvador Dali, Carl Icahn and Norman Wexler, the screenwriter who penned “Serpico” and “Saturday Night Fever.” Most of the artists from that time period have died, though, or been forced out by exorbitant rent prices. David Byrne, Patti Smith, and other NYC fixtures have all warned the next generation of creators to avoid the Big Apple. Byrne, the lead singer of the Talking Heads, wrote last year that “a culture of arrogance, hubris and winner-takeall was established” in birthplace of punk rock, hip hop, and new wave. “Everybody I know has left because it’s become a big shopping mall,” Matuschka said of

MATUSCHKA Became famous for a 1993 self-portrait following a mastectomy Succeeded 20 years ago in forcing out a local coffee shop for health violations Now once again battling a downstairs tenant, Eli’s Essentials, a Zabar’s store

the city’s current incarnation. “It’s all about consumption and money.” She said that in the ongoing conversation about lower crime rates and gentrification, New York has lost its grimy, inventive

spirit. The same places where art galleries once stood have become unrecognizable in the shadows of condominiums that are occupied for only a fraction of the year. “You don’t have the feeling that all these people are creating,” she said. “There’s a very different energy when you’re around artists and creative thinkers than when you’re around lawyers and businessmen.” Matuschka herself is only able to stay in the city because of her rent-controlled apartment. She’s undergoing breast reconstruction, though, and the smell of soup and coffee from downstairs has made it impossible to sleep at home without drugs, further complicating her health. The situation is such that she now has no choice but to consider moving out of her home for the past 40 years, the very space where “Beauty Out of Damage” and other photos were taken. “They don’t really care about me; they just care about how much money they can make off this apartment,” she said, adding that it’s enough to make longtime residents wax nostalgic for the time before creative New Yorkers were left behind in favor of proﬁt margins. “It was such a different time, and New York was bankrupt.”

You Never Forget Who You Grew Up With. The rough touch of tree bark, the scent of freshly mowed grass, the gentle hum of pollinating bees as a flower blossoms — green spaces touch lives and all five senses. Green spaces are a vital part of growing up — they enhance lives, make memories and connect people with their neighborhoods and communities. Be a part of preserving and enhancing green spaces where we live, work and play. To volunteer, to learn how to help your community and to donate, visit ProjectEverGreen.org or call toll-free (877) 758-4835.

projectevergreen.org (877) 758-4835

Our Town MAY 15, 2014

More neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood

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Out & About 16 Sabbathday Lake, Maine. thewoostergroup.org

HOPE: ONE MAN SHOW

Access Theater, 380 Broadway at White Street 4th floor 2 & 9 p.m.; $15+ Village East Cinema,189 2nd In little more than an hour, Avenue (12th Street) Jerry Ford captures your 5:30 p.m.; $15 attention and mind, morphing into a variety of characters to tell Westsider Na’ava Ades the riveting story of his battle for narrates Red Father, a true success, on and off the streets. story of the Jewish lawyer representing African-Americans As a young adult, growing up in the cold streets of Detroit, facing death penalties and/or lynch mobs in 1930’s Maryland. MI, he witnessed the deaths of his brother and best friend, Q+A afterwards. sending him to perilous lows sohofilmfest.com as he finds himself in jail. Ford finds a way to push through the THE GIL EVANS and find an internal fire PROJECT DIRECTED BY darkness and will to succeed against all RYAN TRUESDELL odds, with the discipline gained

RED FATHER - SOHO FILM FESTIVAL

with a live band for the ﬁrst time in years (and for the ﬁrst time sober). New songs and a new perspective make this an unpredictable and exciting concert for everyone, especially James. jamestristanredding.com

ALL IN THE FAMILY SHOW AT KIDS N COMEDY Kids ‘N Comedy, 208 W 23rd Street 1 p.m.; $15 Families are the best/worst. Sometimes, you can’t believe you’re related to such awesome people. Other times, you think: why couldn’t I have been an orphan? Harry Potter was an orphan, and he turned out just ﬁne! Come hear NYC’s best teenaged comedians complain about how embarrassing it is to have a family. kidsncomedy.com

19 Jazz Standard at 116 E. 27th Street (between Lexington and Park) 7:30 p.m.; $30 Ryan and the group will be recording their second album live on our stage for future joint release via Blue Note/ ArtistShare. jazzstandard.com

17 EARLY SPIRITUAL SHAKERS: A RECORD ALBUM INTERPRETATION The Performing Garage , 33 Wooster Street 7:30 p.m.; $25 The newest Wooster Group work, Early Shaker Spirituals is a performance based on a 1976 LP of Shaker hymns, marches, anthems, and testimony recorded by Sister R. Mildred Barker and the sisters of the Shaker community in

WHAT CAN ROBOTS AND ECONOMICS TEACH US ABOUT HUMANITY?

from a world-class martial arts education. It’s a magniﬁcent New York Academy of story told with humor and Sciences, 7 World Trade Center perseverance, about ﬁnding 250 Greenwich Street 40th yourself and your will to succeed. Floor 7 - 9 p.m. therealjerryford.com

18 JAMES TRISTAN REDDING: FIRST PERFORMANCE IN YEARS Arlene’s Grocery (95 Stanton St 7-8p.m.; Free Singer-songwriter James Tristan Redding moved to New York City in the summer of 2013, after getting sober and spending a winter in Mexico to dry out, learn Spanish, write and record his debut solo album. Redding will perform

MAY 15, 2014 Our Town

EARLY DEADLINE NOTICE for Memorial Day

243 Thompson Street, at Washington Square South 7:30 p.m.; $18+ The Shakespeare Forum follows up its acclaimed production of Love’s Labours Lost last summer with its take on a classic. Antonio, the titular merchant, borrows money from Shylock to help a friend woo a wealthy maiden. Antonio secures the loan with a pound of his own ﬂesh as collateral. Will true love win out or will Shylock come, knife in hand, to claim his pound of ﬂesh? theshakespeareforum.org

RANDY WESTON AFRICAN RHYTHMS QUINTET Jazz Standard at 116 E. 27th Street (between Lexington and Park) 6:30 p.m.; $25 Now in his seventh decade of jazz performance, the sound of Randy Weston continues to inform and inspire: Few other jazz artists have so effectively incorporated the vast rhythmic heritage of Africa into their music. jazzstandard.com

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THE SHAKESPEARE FORUM PRESENTS: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

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Broadway between Walker and White Streets 2 p.m.; $20 Three actors, three composers, and three musicians come together in this comic investigation of identity and the search that ensues when we wake to ﬁnd we have been living in a dream we chose to call “reality.” Why are we as we are? Who is the “persona” that builds up in and around us? by 2013 Financial Times/ Bodley Head Prize winner Alexandra Zelman-Doring in collaboration with Benedita Pereira and Emma Meltzer. spincyclenyc. com

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While we may think of our intelligence and ability to make choices as properties of the human brain, insights from the fields of artificial intelligence and economics paint a more complicated picture. Thoughts and actions arise from complex interactions among the brain, body, and environment - both physical and social. Rolf Pfeifer and Ernst Fehr, two of the world’s leading experts in artificial intelligence and behavioral economics, make a rare New York appearance to discuss their groundbreaking work. nyas.org

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Our Town MAY 15, 2014

INTO THE URBAN WILD LITERATURE New memoir by Ava Chin explores city foraging BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

UPPER EAST SIDE About five years ago, Upper East Side resident and urban forager Ava Chin took a British man named Owen mushroom hunting on a second date. When they married in Chinatown this past September, they drank tea made from linden flowers she found on the Upper East Side during their traditional ceremony. “To understand and know a plant, you have to see it from all its different stages,” said Chin. “From what it looks like when it’s a little sprout in the spring, to how it matures throughout the summer, and then the fall to when it dies back down in the winter again…To really be able to see a person who was going to be a potential partner, I had to be able to see that person through all those different stages.” Chin’s new memoir, “Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love and the Perfect Meal,” explores her own life in a similar cycle, starting in Flushing, Queens, where she grew up with a single mother and under the watchful eyes of her grandparents, who taught her about food and traditional Chinese ingredients. Chin pairs stories about her tenuous relationship with her father, whom she met for the first time in her late twenties, and her grandmother’s declining health with her tales of hunts for wild plants in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and edible mushrooms in Prospect Park. “I was always searching for something, even as a child, I had

this natural proclivity toward the quest,” said Chin, 44, whose first foraging success came when she accidentally pulled up field garlic in the courtyard of her Queens apartment building as a young girl. “A large part of my childhood was spent looking for clues of my father, wondering who he was. There was something about foraging, even as a kid, where I could actually find something that would sustain me; that I could eat; that I could capture.” As a child, Chin spent weekends in her Chinese grandparents’ home, taking in the aroma of her grandfather’s homemade Lobster Cantonese with scallions, and corn soup with pork and onions, but she didn’t seriously forage the city until her thirties. She read guidebooks and toured the city with foraging experts, which opened her up to a network of foragers, and met biologists who helped her distinguish poisonous mushrooms from those that were edible. She bought her first iPhone

in order to download iPlant, a h reference app for wild North American plants. y Chin has foraged in city rparks for plants like field gard lic, which she likens to an “old s, friend,” and lambsquarters, d a weed related to spinach and nquinoa which tastes like “spinut ach turned up to 11,” but e has also found edible plants in playgroundss s. and abandoned lots. She discovered violetss g growing in the parking n lot of a Laundromat in e Fort Greene and edible tamaranth plants outlside the Greek Consulst ate on the Upper East Side. k “We tend to think g of New York as being this concrete jungle,”” k she said. “But I think d that’s a very limited n viewpoint. As an m urban forager, I’m n most interested in n seeing the ways in which edible weedss e rub up against the e structures of the city.” When she tellss people she’s a forager, she’ss pmost frequently met with skepy ticism or confused curiosity by those who assume she riﬂess through dumpsters and eatss e road kill, though she’s selective e about what she takes home. She xdoesn’t forage on the street exn cept to keep her identification e skills sharp, and looks for edible plants on hills and elevated areas, away from street pollution. Chin teaches memoir writing and journalism at the College of Staten Island, and until recently wrote an urban foraging column for the New York Times’ City Room blog. In addition to leading foraging tours (her next

EXCERPT FROM EATING WILDLY “I climb aboard the log, which wobbles under my weight, and now I can just grab hold of the entire cluster of oysters. I rip

tour is on May 15 in Fort Greene Park), she also teaches her two-yearold daughter May to forage, much like her grandfather taught her about cloud ear mushrooms and the medicinal uses of different teas. On a recent trip to England to visit O wen’s fa mily, May pointed out garlic musta rd before Chin spotted the plant. “When you become a parent, you can become very conservative and overprotective of your kids,” Chin said. “Sometimes, as a parent you’re always saying, ‘don’t eat that! Don’t put that in your mouth!’ But sometimes I say, ‘well, actually, she can eat that.’”

a section off with my fingers, separating the flesh from the bark of the tree, my chin pressed up against the trunk. I am so focused on getting this lovely hunk of Pleurotus ostreatus that I forget about

Ava Chin has been foraging for edible plants in the city’s parks for years, and shares her stories in a memoir, Eating Wildly, out this month.

the blade in my knapsack or the precariousness of my footing. All of my tugging and pulling disturbs a spider the size of a quarter, which races out of the mushroom’s white folds. I laugh as it crawls on

delicate, spindly legs across my fingers, tickling me, and disappears into a peel of bark. I step off the log with over two pounds of oyster mushrooms heavy in my hands.”

5 TOP

MAY 15, 2014 Our Town

SPORTS CAMP FOR THE WEEK TRENDS BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

DANCE

DANCE PARADE AND FESTIVAL If dance is a universal language, then the universe will convene on Broadway on May 17 for the eighth-annual Dance Parade. As the parade snakes its way down Broadway and University Place to 8th Street and St. Marks, more than 150 dance groups from across the globe, including Ukraine, India, Korea, Spain and Indonesia, will present dances starting with ancient and traditional movements and progressing to modern genres such as tap and hip-hop. The parade culminates in Tompkins Square Park for DanceFest, a four-hour, four-stage celebration of movement that includes free dance lessons. Starts at Broadway and 21st Street Saturday, May 17 1:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. FREE For parade route and schedule, visit www.danceparade.org

FILM

GALLERIES

“DR. STRANGELOVE” AT FILM FORUM

PIERRE MATTER AT AFA

For the 50th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s dark comedy “Dr. Strangelove,” Film Forum presents the digitally restored classic Cold War satire on a new, 35-millimeter ﬁlm print. Starring George C. Scott and Peter Sellers (who plays multiple characters, including Strangelove himself), the 1964 black and white ﬁlm follows the fallout when paranoid general Jack D. Ripper orders a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, while a band of military and government personnel attempt to prevent nuclear Armageddon. Film Forum, 209 West Houston St. Friday, May 16-Thursday, May 22 Assorted show times Tickets $13

NYC HISTORY

French sculptor Pierre Matter calls himself a salvager. His often large-scale sculptures are fashioned from recycled scrap metals and welded and shaped into animal and human forms. But the renderings aren’t singularly realistic depictions, and instead embrace both organic and industrial elements: tubes, hydraulics and other mechanisms replace muscle and bone, creating a hybrid of beast and machine. The artist’s latest works will show at the AFA gallery in SoHo, and Matter will be on hand to celebrate the installation. AFA, 54 Greene Street FREE, RSVP required at 212-226-7374 Exhibition runs May 17-September 1 Gallery Hours Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

IN CONVERSATION

“AN UNMARRIED WOMAN”

ARTIST KARA WALKER WITH RADIOLAB’S JAD ABUMRAD

The 1978 film “An Unmarried Woman,” which garnered three Academy Award nominations, offers a glimpse into the lives and residences of New Yorkers during a time when large, onceindustrial buildings were converted into large artists’ lofts. Starring Jill Clayburgh as a wealthy woman who dates a downtown painter after her husband leaves her for a younger woman, the film provides one of the first peeks at these then-new urban apartments. Life in Reel New York: An Historic District Council Film Series Downtown Community Television Center 87 Lafayette St. Tuesday, May 20, 6:30 p.m. Tickets $10 RSVP at 212-614-9107 or bharmon@hdc.org

Jad Abumrad, host and creator of public radio program Radiolab, talks with artist Kara Walker, whose mixed media work explores America’s history of slavery, racism and gender oppression through visual retellings of historic events. Walker, best known for her cutout paper silhouettes, opened her ﬁrst large-scale project in the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg on May 10, and will talk with Abumrad about the history of sugar and the workers and slaves that were central to the industry. Live at the NYPL Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Celeste Bartos Forum Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street Tuesday, May 20, 7:00 p.m. Tickets $25

families can also search by intensity level — recreational, instructional, or intense/competitive. Camps are able to serve campers who are just looking to try a new sport, campers who are looking for serious skill building, and everyone in between! Begin searching early. Camps begin taking registrations well before the “camp season” begins. Beyond the activities offered at a camp, it is also crucial to consider a camp’s philosophy. ACA encourages parents to Many camps offer a focus on ask camp representatives if the camp is ACA-accredited. If sports that can benefit even not, ask why. ACA-accredited non-athletic kids camps meet up to 280 health For children who have a pas- and safety standards and are a sion for sports, specialty camp parent’s best evidence that the experiences with a sports focus camp is committed to the safety can offer a variety of benefits. Regardless of a camp’s specialty area, it is the nature of camp to help children develop into caring, resilient, compassionate, independent people. But especially at sports camp, campers enjoy the community and friendships of peers and role models with similar interests. They are also able to concentrate on and gain confidence in the sport they love. Ten percent of American Camp Association-accredited camps offer a targeted sports focus. By comparison, in 2004, only three percent of ACA camps offered a targeted sport focus. That’s more than a threefold increase in ten years. You can even find sports at special needs camps, where the activities are geared to campers’ abilities. The diversity of camps today reflects the diversity of America — there is a camp for every ability level and interest, from horseback riding to soccer, race car driving to softball. According to ACA’s most recent Sites, Facilities, and Programs Report, ninety-eight percent of responding ACA camps reported offering at least one sport even if sports were not a targeted focus. The top five sports activities offered are recreational swimming (87 percent), aquatic activities (76 percent), basketball (72 percent), archery (71 percent), and camping skills (67 percent). Unique offerings include fencing, lacrosse, SCUBA diving, windsurfing, and more. You and your child can search for the perfect camp experience on ACA’s Find a Camp database (http://find.acacamps.org). This resource allows families to search for camp programs based on location, price, session length, and more — including whether the camp focuses on just one sports activity or multiple activities. When searching for multiple-activity camps,

CAMP

and well-being of their child. A few other tips for learning more about the camp’s philosophy include: • Ask “What is the camp’s philosophy and program emphasis?” • Ask “How does the camp handle homesickness and other adjustment issues?” • Visit the camp if possible to see practices ﬁrst-hand. • Ask for references. Quality sports camp experiences will not only improve a camper’s skills or allow them to explore a new interest, they will nourish a child’s social and emotional development as well. Camp experiences help children gain skills they’ll use for a lifetime — both on and off the ﬁeld.

Our Town MAY 15, 2014

Food & Drink

< JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED This year’s James Beard Awards were presented on Monday, May 5 during a black-tie ceremony at Lincoln Center, on a night that yielded only a handful of awards for New York City chefs and restaurateurs, the New York Times reported. While top awards went to chefs, owners and restaurants in New Orleans,

In Brief RUSS AND DAUGHTERS CAFÉ OPENS The bagel is having a moment again, thanks in large part to the buzzy opening of bagel shop Black Seed on Elizabeth Street, and now Russ and Daughters, the 100-year-old ﬁsh and bagel shop on East Houston Street, serves bagels and lox, knishes and other classic items at cozy vinyl booths and a classic countertop at its new Russ and Daughters Café on Orchard Street. Opened to the public on May 7, the new café, part of the family-owned and operated enterprise now in its fourth generation of proprietors, features décor and dishes that nod to its origins, Grub Street reported. Dishes include potato latkes served with salmon roe and crème fraiche, open-faced smoked ﬁsh and bagel sandwiches and challah bread pudding with dried apricots and caramel.

IN HIS PRIME RESTAURANTS Kosher restaurant owner and butcher carries on family business BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

FINANCIAL DISTRICT In 2000,

THE CRONUT TURNS ONE

Pastry chef Dominque Ansel has had a good year. Despite a muchpublicized shutdown of his Spring Street bakery by the Department of Health in early April, the owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery hit it big in 2013 with his now-trademarked croissant and donut hybrid, the Cronut. The pastry celebrated its first birthday on Sunday, May 10, a year marked with hour-long lines and a rationing of the pastries (Ansel instituted a two-per-customer limit). To celebrate, Ansel, who took home the James Beard Award for outstanding pastry chef on May 5, passed out free Cronut holes to his customers every time his Spring Street shop played Happy Birthday. The bakery concocted miniature versions of the dessert in some of the featured flavors of the past year, including rose vanilla, fig mascarpone and blueberry lemon verbena.

12-year-old Albert Allaham emigrated from his native Syria to New York City to live with his brother in Brooklyn, leaving not only his parents and remaining siblings behind, but his legacy as well. For four generations, Allaham’s family worked as butchers in

Boston and California (including the award for outstanding chef to Nancy Silverton of Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles), April Bloomﬁeld, head chef and co-owner at the Spotted Pig in the West Village, took home the award for best chef in the ﬁve boroughs, and 82-year-old Sirio Maccioni was recognized with a lifetime

Damascus. At the time Allaham came to the United States, his father operated one of the largest butcher shops in the country, selling to restaurant and hotel clients and operating a retail shop, which Allaham visited every day after school. “He used to teach me how to cut that, how to clean this, how to pick the meat,” Allaham said. “How do you know the quality is good from looking at it.” It wasn’t long before he found his way back into the family business. At age 21, Allaham and his brother opened Prime Cut, a kosher butcher shop in Coney Island that sells chicken, lamb and prime beef, among other kosher foods, and now Allaham owns Reserve Cut, a high-end kosher steakhouse in the Financial District that opened in September. Allaham, 27, who has four brothers and a younger sister, said that before he opened Reserve Cut, he tried for years to ﬁnd a decent kosher steak in the city. “We’re ﬁve boys, my family, and we used to go out a lot,” Allaham said. “We used to come back home

achievement award for his nearly 40 years with iconic restaurant Le Cirque. Cronut creator Dominique Ansel was honored as this year’s outstanding pastry chef for his eponymous Spring Street bakery, an award that has previously gone to Brooks Headley of Del Posto and Angela Pinkerton of Eleven Madison Park.

“

I kept hearing from other people and family, and we had just came [from Syria], and we kept hearing, ‘Oh, there is no such thing as a good kosher steakhouse or a good restaurant.”

Albert Allaham in the dining room at Reserve Cut

and say, ‘what a waste. How come you can’t get a good steak when you go out? How come you can’t get a good burger when you go out?’ I always wondered. I kept g from other p p and hearing people family, and we had just came [from Syria], and we kept hearing, ‘Oh, there is no such thing as a good kosher steakhouse.” The 311-seat restaurant, located on the second floor of the Setai Wall

Cote De Boeuf with glazed Cipollini onion and bone marrow

Street building, deviates from the traditional thick, wooden tables and ﬂoor length linens; diners sit at glass-top tables inlaid with iridescent shells, as Michael Jackson, Pharrell and Daft Punk play over the din of the vast dining rroom, evidence of Allaham’s desir desire to cater to a younger crowd not o often found in steak joints. All Allaham said he wanted the qual quality of the meat, which is all USD USDA prime and sourced from his b butcher shop, then hand cut and dry-aged in the in-house aging room r for no less than 34 days, com combined with the atmosphere of th the dining room, to create an expe experience that kosher customers would w want to bring non-kosher diners to. Since all the meat is so sourced through Prime Cut dire directly from slaughterhouses, Rese Reserve Cut has access to prime kosh kosher meat, which Allaham said is iin high demand and hard to co come by. “Before I even came to the United States, people had the image that kosher is not good,” Allaham said. “Even in our butcher shop we had tthe same issue. ‘How is it so g good?’”

MAY 15, 2014 Our Town

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS APRIL 30 - MAY 6, 2014 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.

“THE PERFECT FATHER’S DAY GIFT” DRAW YOUR DAD FOR FATHER’S DAY JUNE 15, 2014

The Crooked Knife

232 West 14 Street

Draw a picture of Dad, scan it (or send it to us)

Underline Coffee

511 West 20 Street

Lena

1 West 8 Street

Peter Mcmanus

152 7 Avenue

Closed by Health Department (53) 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. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

and then order a mug or luggage tag with your child’s drawing on it.

Gene’s Resturant

73 West 11 Street

Clay

25 West 14 Street

The Hummus & Pita

585 Avenue Of The Americas

Umami Burger

432 Avenue Of The Americas

Miyagi Japanese Home Cooking

220 West 13 Street

Grade Pending (61) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. No facilities available to wash, rinse and sanitize utensils and/ or equipment. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

Caffe Bene

4 West 14 Street

Professor Thom’s

219 2 Avenue

East Village Pizza And Kebab

145 1 Avenue

Grade Pending (18) 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.

Grand Sichuan

1923 St Marks Place

Grade Pending (28) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Headless Horseman

119 East 15 Street

Coco

33 Saint Marks Place

Friend Of A Farmer

77 Irving Place

Heartland Brewery

35 Union Square West

Bricklane Curry House

306308 East 6 Street

Grade Pending (37) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment. Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding. Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

All kids drawings will appear on our website as they are received. Just go to otdowntown.com Click on Fun & Games

Then order Dad’s portrait on a mug, totebag etc. DO NOT USE PENCIL Use bold and bright colored pens, markers, crayons, etc. Light color and pencils will not reproduce on our website or newspapers.

PLEASE DO NOT FOLD YOUR DRAWING

Dad’s Name: Your Name & Age:

Address:

City: Cell Phone:

State:

Zip:

Our Town MAY 15, 2014

< COMING SOON: ‘.NYC’ DOMAIN NAMES New York City-based businesses and organizations can now apply to register their web address with the “.nyc” domain name. According to the mayor’s office, the new web addresses will hit computer screens in October 2014. The initiative is part of an effort by the de Blasio administration to enable city-based busi-

Business

nesses and organizations to set themselves apart from the competition by digitally associating themselves with the Big Apple brand. In order to qualify for consideration, entities must have a physical address in New York City and already be registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse sponsored by the Internet Cor-

In Brief

poration for Assigned Names and Numbers. The city will take a piece of the revenue generated from annual domain registration fees. NYC-based entities will have until June 20 to apply for a .nyc domain name. New York City will become the ﬁrst city in the country with its own top-level domain name.

My Story

9/11 REMAINS RETURNED TO WORLD TRADE CENTER SITE BY MICHAEL CASEY

The unidentified remains of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack returned to the World Trade Center site in a solemn procession on a foggy Saturday morning. The remains left the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Manhattan’s East Side shortly before 7 a.m. in three city vehicles. They were accompanied by police and fire department vehicles with lights flashing but no sirens. Construction workers paused as the motorcade passed, and about 10 firefighters stood in the cool breeze saluting the vehicles as they arrived. The remains will be transferred to a repository 70 feet (21 meters) underground in the same building as the National September 11 Memorial Museum. Like many decisions involving the site of the worst terrorist attack in the U.S., the disposition of the unidentified remains has been contentious. A group of victims’ family members who say the remains should be stored in an above-ground monument separate from the museum protested the procession. About a dozen wore black bands over their mouths at the site Saturday. “It’s horrible. I am so angry. I am so angry. I am outraged,” said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was killed at the trade center. “The human remains of my son and all of the 3,000 victims should be in a beautiful and respectful memorial, not in the basement of a museum,” she said. Other family members support the plans, which have been in the works for years. Lisa Vukaj, who lost her 26-year-old brother, said the new home for the remains is “a fitting place until technology advances” and new techniques are available to identify their loved ones. The facility will be available for family visits but will be overseen by the medical examiner. Officials hope that improvements in technology will eventually lead to the identification of the 7,930 fragmentary remains. The death toll stemming from the attacks at the World Trade Center stands at 2,753. Of those, 1,115, or 41 percent, have not been identified.

MALONEY PUSHES FOR NATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY MUSEUM Manhattan Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney recently passed legislation in Congress that will establish a commission tasked with making recommendations for the establishment of a national women’s history museum. The legislation now goes to counterparts in the Senate, where all 20 female legislators have signed onto the bill. The eight-member commission would have 18 months to produce the report and submit it to Congress for approval. Several notable New Yorkers have signed on to the effort as well, including Emily Rafferty, President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “This undertaking will be critically important in telling the stories of countless women whose contributions to our nation’s past have helped develop the cornerstones of our nation,” said Rafferty. “Today we honor all that our mothers have done for us, and soon we’ll honor all of the contributions of our mothers and foremothers in a National Women’s History Museum in our nation’s capitol,” said Maloney. “The House has moved us one step closer, and I hope the Senate will follow suit. I’m thrilled that so many notable New Yorkers are getting behind the effort as well.”

Secret shopping for designer clothes BY LORRAINE DUFFY MERKL

RETAIL Confessions of a consignment junkie

BY LORRAINE DUFFY MERKL Chanel. Christian Louboutin. Manolo Blahnik. For decades these were names I knew from magazines, but didn’t own. In fact, I didn’t want to. “I don’t advertise,” I’d sniff, adding that I had no desire to be a walking sandwich board that helped some designer hawk his or her merchandise. About five years ago, though, I had a change of heart. Perhaps all the Manolo-madness from “Sex in the City” had finally seeped in? Or perhaps it was that suddenly I found myself surrounded by peers – in motherhood as well as business – carrying Louis Vuitton “Neverfull” totes or Chanel classic doubleflap shoulder bags. Or maybe with my fiftieth birthday, I developed some taste. Whatever the reason, I wanted in, but felt out of luck. My son Luke was starting high school and my daughter Meg was beginning middle school. Any fantasy about walking into Saks for a pair of Jimmy Choo heels was dashed when tuition invoices arrived. Then I discovered the world of consignment. I went to pick Meg up from her friend’s house on Madison and

One clever shopper knows you don’t have to spend big bucks to go upscale.

79th Street. Just as I was about to approach the doorman, my cell rang: Meg wanted to stay a little longer. With an hour to kill, I considered my options. I didn’t want yet another cup of coffee or to hang around J. Crew, whose stock I already knew by heart. I started to walk uptown and not even half a block into my journey I saw women with shopping bags coming out of a doorway. I looked up and there on the second ﬂoor was Michael’s, The Consignment Shop for Women. I entered the store and found myself surrounded by so many labels I thought I was in Bergdorf’s. Everything was in mint condition, which dispelled my previous notions that pre-owned meant “other people’s old crap.” I hadn’t planned on buying anything, as I was not going anywhere any time soon that required a designer look. But sometimes, something in a store just calls your name. “Lorraine,” was being whispered in a French accent by a pair of Chanel loafers – shoes I could actually wear everyday around town and, for $100, a fraction of their retail price. And they were my size! And so began my Loco For Coco phase, shopping at resale stores like Collette on Madison and 92nd, Margotta Consignment Shop on

81st between Second and Third Avenues, and Second Chances on Lexington between 77th and 78th Streets. There are many others on the Upper East Side I simply haven’t gotten to yet. Even though consignment is often a way to afford the usually unaffordable, not everything is, dare I say, cheap. Some designer items get more valuable with age, and can cost as much, if not more, than the retail store prices. Not to despair, though, because not everyone consigns their designer duds; some donate. Places like The Cancer Care Thrift Shop, the Society Boutique, which is the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center thrift shop, and the Arthritis Gift Shop all on Third Avenue between 81st and 84 Streets often have a nice array of Chanel, Manolo Blahnik, Lily Pulizer and the like. And let’s not turn our nose up at Goodwill on Second and 88th. I dropped off a bag of non-label items and left with an AKRIS for Berdorf Goodman dress for $50. I may be a Designer Second Hand Rose, but I’m designer just the same. Lorraine Duffy Merkl is a NYC freelance writer and author of the novel, “Back to Work She Goes.”

MAY 15, 2014 Our Town

Real Estate Sales Neighborhd

Address

Price

Bed Bath Agent

Flatiron

260 Park Ave. South

$1,566,000 1

Core

Tribeca

250 W St.

$2,150,000

Battery Park City377 Rector Place

$774,000

Corcoran

Flatiron

5 E 22 St.

$2,000,000 1

Halstead Property

Tribeca

311 Greenwich St.

$1,750,000 2

Tabak Is Tribeca

Battery Park City1 River Terrace

$2,760,000 2

Douglas Elliman

Flatiron

15 Union Square W

$5,600,000

Tribeca

93 Worth St.

$1,191,353

Core

Flatiron

Battery Park City225 Rector Place

$524,150

16 W 16 St.

$675,000

Miron Properties

W Chelsea

450 W 17 St.

$3,681,500 2

Corcoran

Battery Park City21 South End Ave.

$1,350,000 2

Regatta Ny Realty

Fulton/Seaport 170 John St.

$700,000

Douglas Elliman

W Chelsea

100 11 Ave.

$3,750,000 3

Douglas Elliman

Battery Park City1 River Terrace

$3,800,000 3

Charles Rutenberg

Fulton/Seaport 150 Nassau St.

$1,400,000 2

Owner

W Chelsea

120 11 Ave.

$4,600,000

Douglas Elliman

W Chelsea

444 W 19 St.

$2,375,000 2

Corcoran

W Village

31 Jane St.

$630,000

Halstead Property

Engelman & Company

W Village

717 Washington St.

$895,000

Town Residential

W Village

421 Hudson St.

$1,280,000 1

Citi Habitats

Douglas Elliman

W Village

2 Horatio St.

$2,571,081

Battery Park City377 Rector Place

$950,000

Djk Residential

Fulton/Seaport 265 Water St.

$1,800,000 2

Battery Park City30 W St.

$1,800,000 2

Warburg

Fulton/Seaport 99 John St.

$804,417

Chelsea

212 W 18 St.

$11,437,500 3

Douglas Elliman

Greenwich Vill 55 E 9 St.

$720,000

Chelsea

229 W 16 St.

$525,000

Modern Spaces

Greenwich Vill 175 W 12 St.

$1,800,000

Chelsea

201 W 17 St.

$999,652

Greenwich Vill 60 E 9 St.

$785,000

Chelsea

201 W 17 St.

$999,652

Greenwich Vill 39 E 12 St.

$1,195,000 2

Halstead Property

W Village

421 Hudson St.

$4,378,475 2

Corcoran

Chinatown

30 Orchard St.

$1,501,918

Greenwich Vill 35 E 12 St.

$2,595,000 2

Corcoran

W Village

111 Barrow St.

$1,895,000 1

Owner

Civic Center

170 Park Row

$860,000

Cicada International

Greenwich Vill 24 5 Ave.

$1,500,000

W Village

731 Greenwich St.

$393,000

Corcoran

E Village

133 2 Ave.

$925,000

Corcoran

Greenwich Vill 23 E 10 St.

$1,065,000 1

Citi Habitats

W Village

222 W 14 St.

$580,000

Halstead Property

E Village

311 E 11 St.

$1,100,000 1

Corcoran

Greenwich Vill 60 E 9 St.

$585,000

Douglas Elliman

W Village

122 Greenwich Ave.

$5,400,000 2

Corcoran

E Village

205 E 10 St.

$742,000

Douglas Elliman

Greenwich Vill 24 5 Ave.

$800,000

Corcoran

W Village

167 Perry St.

$1,049,000 1

Corcoran

E Village

427 E 12 St.

$880,786

Douglas Elliman

Noho

$7,350,000 3

Corcoran

E Village

70 E 10 St.

$1,600,000 2

Beth Chase Real Estate

Soho

40 Mercer St.

$4,925,000

Financial District20 W St.

$495,000

New York Residence

Soho

50 King St.

$905,000

Corcoran

Financial District1 Wall St. Court

$1,460,000 3

Douglas Elliman

Tribeca

28 Laight St.

$4,158,800 2

Real Direct

Financial District88 Greenwich St.

$945,000

Town Residential

Tribeca

93 Worth St.

$2,206,548

Financial District123 Washington St.

$2,138,325 2

The Marketing Directors

Tribeca

93 Worth St.

$506,630

Financial District56 Pine St.

$650,000

Douglas Elliman

Tribeca

93 Worth St.

$1,960,131

Core

684 Broadway

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Our Town MAY 15, 2014

YOUR FIFTEEN MINUTES [Laughs] When we ﬁrst opened, there were a couple of people who asked for rare chicken. That was very off putting. Some people have come in and asked for just a plate of raw vegetables, including mushrooms. We’ve also had people come in and hand us their child’s meal - baby food, or a box of macaroni and cheese - and say, “Can you cook this?”

Do have interaction with your customers? I’m mostly in the kitchen, but here and there our general manager or our managing director will ask me to come out and meet people. We get all these tickets that come into the kitchen with customers’ names, so I know their eating habits, but I’ve never met them before. So I know that so-and-so doesn’t like salt or so-and-so likes ketchup with their oysters.

You went to The Culinary Institute. Who were your mentors there? It’s funny because when you’re in school, there are so many people who are hyperfocused on the bios of famous chefs. I was more focused on absorbing everything I could. But my ﬁrst job was working for a catering company in New Jersey. It was owned by a woman and mostly women worked there. I think that was a great spot to start. We did a lot of events; it was very high volume. But it was fun, it wasn’t very serious. It was all very strong women and we had a great time.

A WOMAN WHOSE PLACE IS IN THE KITCHEN Q&A Marea’s Chef du Cuisine dishes on her no-frill approach to a successful culinary career BY ANGELA BARBUTI

At just eight years old, Lauren DeSteno knew she wanted to become a chef. One of her specialties was spaghetti and meatballs for her older siblings and their friends as they came home from college. Now, at 31, she has brought her talent to a much larger kitchen at Marea, one of the most buzzedabout restaurants in Manhattan. Although the Central Park South eatery is known for its celebrity guests like Beyonce and Jay-Z, DeSteno is still the happiest when she cooks for those who are closest to her heart. “I love when someone I know comes to the restaurant and I go out and say hello to them and get to see how happy they are. Those are the best moments for me.”

Explain your title of Chef du Cuisine. What responsibilities do you have? Running the restaurant on a daily basis and keeping an eye on the systems we have to help the restaurant run smoothly all the

time. Overseeing and helping with ordering, cost control, speaking to our purveyors if, for example, the cost of lobster all the sudden spikes up. Talking to our cooks and giving them advice. During service, I’m usually expediting. And if our executive chef is there, he’ll be expediting and I’ll be helping to plate.

Are you the only woman in the kitchen? I’m the only woman sous chef manager on the savory side. There are two women sous chefs in the pasty department. We do have a good number of women who work in our kitchen. I never felt that anything was off. As long as everyone has the right mentality, it doesn’t matter what they are. But there’s definitely sometimes when someone will make a joke and I’ll make a joke back and they’re like, “What?” and I’m like, “I work with all of them all day long! I have to be able to play this game too!”

How do you maintain calm and order on a busy night? I just tried to be very organized, especially if I’m expediting. I like all my tickets to be folded properly at the right spot and everything has to be lined up. I’ve tried to teach this to other people, that it doesn’t pay to get worked up and freaked out when we start to

get busy, because it doesn’t help anything. Everything goes smoother if you handle things calmly.

Do you change Marea’s menu for spring and summer? Once spring starts showing up, everyone is so antsy to get out of root vegetables, like the whites, browns, and tans of winter vegetables, or green kale. As soon as anything starts coming in for spring - peas, fava beans, pole beans - everyone is trying to get it on the menu.

MAREA

What’s your favorite dish there?

240 Central Park South 212-5825100 www.mareanyc.com

I would probably say it’s the gnocchetti pasta. It’s delicious. We started putting some vegan dishes on the menu and they’re both made with a macadamia nut “cheese” that we make. And they’re really good.

Marea’s chef du cuisine Lauren DeSteno in the kitchen

I interviewed Jean-Georges last summer and he told me that he comes to Marea for pasta. He does. He comes in frequently.

What are some crazy requests the kitchen has gotten? We get a good amount of crazy things.

The New York Times featured you in an article about female chefs. Did people ask to meet you after that? There were a couple of people over the course of a couple weeks - their server would come back and tell me they asked, “Is Lauren here?” Complete strangers have sent me letters. It’s ﬂattering because it’s such a curveball in a way. It’s interesting when it’s not anything you’ve thought about prior. I never thought about this [women in the kitchen] being an issue in any way because I never had an issue with it.

On your days off, where do you go eat in the city? Oh, that’s hard. I really love Despana, on Broome, but it’s more of a food store. I remember when I came back to New York after studying abroad in Spain, I found all these things there that I had eaten in Spain or the Spanish side of my family would eat, that I hadn’t seen in such a long time. You can order a bunch of tapas that are reminiscent of being in a bar in Madrid. And you can order wine next door in their wine shop and bring it in. And Estela on Houston, that’s also great.

MAY 15, 2014 Our Town

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Our Town MAY 15, 2014

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