Our Town Downtown May 7th, 2015

The local paper for Downtown wn CHRISTINE QUINN ON THE SUPREME COURT < VOICES, P.8

A TOUGHER STANCE ON PEDESTRIAN SAFETY NEWS Advocates hope a recent indictment of a deadly driver signals a shift by prosecutors

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

A driver that struck and killed a pedestrian on the Bowery last winter was

District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

charged with manslaughter by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., raising hopes among some pedestrian safety advocates that prosecutors are changing the way they handle such cases.

“The charge of manslaughter in the second degree under these circumstances is not unprecedented, but it is very rare,” said Marco Con-

ner, legislative and legal manager for Transportation Alternatives, a leading voice in the push for increased bicyclist and pedestrian safety.

In November, Danny Lin, 25, was driving his 2011 BMW 335xi on the Bowery when he struck and killed Robert Perry, who was crossing the street. The DA’s office said Lin was driving 55 mph, over twice the new 25 mph

speed limit that had been introduced citywide less than three weeks prior.

Perry, age 57, was thrown into the air and landed 140 feet away from the scene of the accident. He was transported to Beekman Downtown Hospital where he later died. Lin’s conduct was made worse when he reportedly

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

A MOMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT FOR THE OTHER DOWNTOWN FILM FESTIVAL NEWS The SoHo International has record number of premieres

BY ALAN KRAWITZ

Bragging rights at this year’s SoHo International Film Festival: The festival, which returns to the city May 14, is premiering more movies than at any time since its inception in 2010.

Festival organizer and filmmaker Sibyl Santiago said that out of this year’s 74 film submissions, 69 films were either world, U.S., East Coast or New York premieres.

“This is a true testament to the trust that the filmmakers put upon our festival and what drives us to do whatever it takes to provide the indie filmmakers a proper stage to

showcase their films,” said Santiago, who has been involved in the film industry as an actor, director and producer for more than 30 years.

“We pride ourselves in being a ‘filmmakers’ festival.”

Among the festival’s numerous competing filmmakers is self-taught Washington Heights-based cinematographer John Painz, who, along with two partners, produced the feature Stuck, about an agoraphobic man who hasn’t left his home in over two years, as his new therapist challenges him to leave his apartment in the next 30 days.

Painz, who admitted the film is “semi-autobiographical,” said that it was made for about $10,000.

Asked what he hopes to get out of the festival, Painz said

he’s looking for exposure.

“We worked with some fantastic people, and they’re all deserving of recognition,” he said. “I also hope that we meet some investors who enjoyed the movie enough to trust us to make a second film.”

Don Scime, the actor/ writer and producer of The David Dance, explained that his LGBT film was actually based on things he felt in his own life.

“I live in New York City, but the film takes place in Buffalo, New York, where I grew up,” he said. “I always felt like kind of an oddball even as an adult (even with other gay people) and I feel that’s what this film addresses this completely universal experience of feeling different.”

The David Dance recently

A scene from The David Dance, which is showing at the festival scored an Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature Film at The Tallgrass Film Festival and the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival as well as an award at the Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Fla. But, Scime added that having his film screened in the city is very important to him.

“The SoHo Film Festival is actually the very first screening right in the city where I live - so I am very excited to have all my friends and fam-

ily there,” he said.

Many of the festival’s selected films will also hold Q&A sessions with cast and crew members following each screening, as well as panels, social events, and other networking opportunities.

Filmmakers Annette Mia Flores and Jenny Joslin both volunteered for the festival in 2013.

This year, their film Chupa-

WEEK OF MAY

7-13 2015

Our Take UNCOVERING MANHATTAN’S AIRBNB SCAM A clutch of state lawmakers has made it their business to make AirBnB miserable in Manhattan.

Led by State Sen. Liz Krueger, the officials have long argued that AirBnB makes the city’s housing crunch worse by effectively taking affordable apartments off the market.

At times, the arguments have been hard to swallow: How is a $400-a-night-apartment in Times Square rented by European tourists going to make it any easier for the rest of us to find a decent place to live?

State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has finally convinced us. The intrepid Rosenthal -- a newspaper reporter in an earlier life -- took the unusual step of staging her own undercover sting operation last week to prove that AirBnB is scamming New York. Rosenthal, using a hidden camera, documents several cases in Manhattan where apartments clearly are being used as fulltime nightly rental properties, in violation of the state law that forbids renting out an apartment for less than 30 days if the tenant isn’t at home.

Rosenthal points out that if the apartment’s owners could get a decent market rent for their units, they would. It’s apartments that are more affordable that are being rented by AirBnB en masse.

“It is illegal, and yet they keep doing it with impunity,” she said.

“These are flagrant violations.”

Meantime, AirBnB presses on, arguing that it is in the vanguard of a sharing economy we should all embrace.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Downtowner

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City Arts Top 5 Business 15 Minutes

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SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12

FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging

BY RICHARD KHAVKINE

is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961.

Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice

9-16

MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20

2015

In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS

The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam.

Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services.

Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done.

Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She on the Over the past is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks.

President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” can’t come p.m. and 7 a.m., of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits

SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS

A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311

n OurTownDowntow

COM

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for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced

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MAY 7-13,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

WHAT’S MAKING NEWS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD 58 PERCENT OF RETAILERS CHECKED SOLD ALCOHOL TO UNDERAGE CUSTOMERS A lengthy investigation of nearly 1,000 liquor stores revealed that underaged decoys were able to buy alcohol at more than half of them, the city’s Department of Health reported.

A dedicated unit from the state’s Liquor Authority used a $147,000 Health Department grant to investigate and document underage sales by licensed liquor retailers.

Members of the unit, along

with underage decoys, visited 911 pharmacy, grocery and liquor stores, representing about 10 percent of licensed outlets citywide, and found that 58 percent of the stores sold alcohol to the decoys.

“The Health Department is stepping up education efforts to reduce underage alcohol consumption, because we know that the younger someone starts drinking alcohol the more likely the person is to become dependent on alcohol,” said the Health Department’s commissioner, Mary T. Bassett, said. “Furthermore, reducing access to alcohol will also curtail underage drinking and reduce

the nearly 7,000 alcohol-related emergency room visits among New Yorkers under age 21.”

Costs associated with underage drinking, such as healthcare and law enforcement, are estimated to exceed $1 billion per year in New York State.

Fines for first-time offenders start at $2,500 and climb to $10,000 per violation on subsequent offences. Repeat offenders could also have their licenses revoked But authority officials said that previous offenders were less likely to sell to underage consumers.

Employees at hundreds of liquor stores citywide were found to have sold alcohol to underage decoys, the city announced. They face fines and, for repeat offenders, suspension or revocation of their liquor licenses.

Photo: Joseph, via Flickr

SLIGHT HIKE EXPECTED FOR RENT STABILIZED APARTMENTS Residents of more than 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in city could have their rents frozen if a preliminary vote by the Rent Guidelines Board is any indication, DNAinfo reported. Residents with oneyear leases could see increases from 0 to 2 percent, while those with two-year long leases could see their rents climb anywhere from .5 to 3.5 percent. Some tenants went so far as to argue for rollbacks, citing a decrease in heat and gas prices, DNAinfo said. Landlords, though, by and large would like steeper increases of 4.2 percent on one-year leases and 6.75 on two-year leases. A final vote by the Rent Guidelines Board is scheduled for June 24.

BELOVED STUYVESANT HANDYMAN IS LET GO BECAUSE OF LAW CHANGE Handyman Kern Levigion, 54 is likely to be let go by

Stuyvesant High School because he never passed a civil-service exam, according to the New York Post. Due to Levigion’s failure in passing his service exam he is considered a “provisional” worker because he has been kept on for over 20 years. State law required so-called “provisional” hires to pass the exam to become a permanent employee. He told the Post he didn’t take it because he didn’t know it was being offered – and because he wasn’t told about the requirement. According to many at the school, Levigion is well liked among students and teachers, in addition to being good at his job. Levigion’s does everything from fixing phone lines and repairing furniture to installing sets and lighting for school productions, the Post wrote. “He does everything.

He’s Mr. Fix It,” one Stuyvesant employee told the Post. “We don’t know what we would do without him.”

NIGHTCLUB CITED IN TOPLESS INCIDENT

Liquor Authority on May 13 to enlighten state officials about an alleged topless dance at the West 29th Street nightspot in March, the Daily News reported.

According to a summons quoted by the newspaper, “the licensee suffered or permitted the licensed premises to become disorderly by suffering or permitting lewd and indecent conduct and/or lewd and indecent performances and/or exhibitions.”

The summons cites “topless entertainment/lap dancing” among the violations. If found liable for the incident, the Leonara could lose its liquor license, the News said. One of the club’s operators, financier Michael Bregman, said he and other investors are “concerned.”

“I’m not experienced in this world, but that’s a pretty scary piece of mail,” the paper quoted Bregman as saying.

Another Leonora representative, however, said the investors should have little concern since the people allegedly involved in the incident are not associated with the club.

The operators of the Leonora dance club are set to appear before the State

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

STREET PROTESTS CONTINUE OVER NYPD About 1,000 protesters decrying police brutality marched in Manhattan at a May Day rally that took on a new message amid national outrage over a Baltimore man’s death in police custody.

Days after over 140 demonstrators’ arrests in New York spurred complaints about police conduct, participants streamed through blockedoff streets, bearing signs with such messages as “Disarm the NYPD” and “Justice for Freddie Gray,” the 25-year-old who died in Baltimore. The march came hours after Baltimore’s top prosecutor announced charges against six officers in his death from a broken neck.

The news made Destiny Glenn, a 19-year-old college student, all the more determined to attend the march that began in New York’s Union Square.

“I’m very upset, and I’m tired of police brutality,” Glenn said.

“Lives are being disregarded.

It’s just stunning.”

The demonstration generally went calmly, with a brief standoff when protesters demanded that officers open a barricade; they didn’t, and the demonstrators ultimately moved on.

Police said Friday night they had no tally of any arrests. One man, Anthony Robeledo, 26, was detained and said he was given an appearance ticket after he tried to jump over a police barricade early in the march.

He said later that he’d been trying to see why the march wasn’t moving, at that point.

Released after about two hours, he rejoined a group of protesters who were continuing to range through downtown Manhattan, taking to sidewalks after the planned march ended.

Some activists and elected officials had criticized the New York Police Department’s handling of protests Wednesday over Gray’s death, saying police were overly aggressive while arresting more than 140 people. Police had told marchers that they should stay on a sidewalk and in a prescribed area; arrests were made after some demonstrators splintered

p.m., she pinged her laptop and received a location reading at East 122nd Street and Second Avenue. Police are investigating.

off, trying to get on a highway and block tunnel entrances.

SUBWAY MUGGING A 35-year-old woman boarded the southbound 1 train at Chambers Street in the early morning of April 24, when a man in a red leather jacket walked up to her, showed a knife with a serrated blade, ran it along her forearm and demanded her phone. When the victim tried to look up at the perpetrator, he pushed and held her head down and said, “Do not scream and do not look at me.” The thief, described as in his mid-30s, then demanded the woman’s purse. The robber left the train at the Rector Street station and fled. The woman also got off at the station and called police.

Her purse was recovered on the street outside the station but it was missing an iPad2 valued at $600, an iPhone 3 priced at $300, a Samsung Core 2 tagged at $250, a brown purse worth $250, plus a green card, ATM and ID cards. Police are investigating.

BAYDAY! BAYDAY! At 11 a.m. on Friday, April 24, a 36-year-old man robbed cash and other property totaling nearly $10,000 from a 55-yearold man at Vietnam Vets Plaza before throwing the ill-gotten gains into New York Bay. The perpetrator also pushed the victim and spat in his face during their verbal dispute on the plaza at South and Broad Streets.

Three days later, police arrested Dwight Riggins and charged him with robbery. The items stolen included prepaid tour tickets valued at $4,176, a credit card machine priced at $3,050, $2,040 in cash, and a Samsung S5 cell phone tagged at $500.

The total stolen amounted to $9,766.

HUSQVARNA HUSTLE It appears that the number of stolen motorcycles increases as the temperature also rises. At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, April 17, a 37-year-old man parked his blue 2010 Husqvarna Husaberg at the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue and Franklin Street and headed to dinner. When he returned at about 90 minutes later, his bike was missing. Police searched the area but could not locate the FE 450, valued at $6,000. The bike bore New York plates 42SJ24.

PUTTING THE “SHOOT!” IN PHOTO SHOOT Leaving a bag unattended in the city is like putting a sign on it that says STEAL ME. At 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 21, a 27-year-old woman left a suitcase filled with more than $17,000 of computer and camera equipment unattended while taking pictures during a photo shoot on the northeast corner of Duane and Greenwich Streets. She found it gone a few minutes later. The items stolen included an Apple MacBook Pro valued at $3,000, a Canon 50 Mark III camera priced at $2,700, a Canon 50 Mark II camera tagged at $1,700, a LaCie 1 TB hard drive valued at $900, plus various lenses, a flash attachment, memory card, filters, camera batteries, and a bag. The following day at 4

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HANDBAGS BAGGED In the early morning of April 22, an unknown perpetrator entered the LAZ parking lot at 249 Pearl Street and broke in to a Ford Econoline van and took $2,500 worth of handbags that had been stored in garbage bags, police said. The van’s rear window was smashed.

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STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th Precinct for April 20 to April 26 Week to Date

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Year to Date

2015 2014

% Change

2015

2014

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

1

0

n/a

Rape

0

0

n/a

1

3

-66.7

Robbery

2

0

n/a

36

30

20

Felony Assault

2

1

100

38

31

22.6

Burglary

2

3

-33.3

40

69

-42

Grand Larceny

29

17

70.6

378

401

-5.7

Grand Larceny Auto

2

2

0

12

16

-25

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4

MAY 7-13,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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A PRIMER ON THE LOOMING RENT DEBATE NEWS

ELECTED OFFICIALS Councilmember Margaret Chin

165 Park Row #11

212-587-3159

Councilmember Rosie Mendez

237 1st Ave. #504

212-677-1077

Councilmember Corey Johnson

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State Senator Daniel Squadron

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212-298-5565

PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD: Call 212-868-0190. Classified ads must be in our office by 12pm the Friday before publication, except on holidays.

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How could the rent laws be weakened? How could they be strengthened?

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BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

Approximately 2.5 million New York City residents are covered by the state’s rent laws, which are set to expire in June.

These laws include legislation governing rent stabilization and rent control, as well as the controversial 421a tax break that is offered to developers in exchange for building affordable housing.

According to affordable housing advocates, the danger isn’t so much that the rent laws won’t be renewed, but rather that they will be weakened as the political price for their renewal.

Advocates are also focused on reversing amendments that govern the deregulation of affordable housing, which is known as vacancy decontrol.

A landlord is able to remove a rent stabilized unit from regulation by legally and steadily increasing the rent over time through vacancy fees, major capital increases and individual apartment improvement increases. Once the rent passes a $2,500 per month threshold, that unit is removed from rent stabilization and can be brought into line with market rate housing.

As June approaches, we spoke to two affordable housing advocates who are active in the fight to strengthen rent laws and repeal vacancy decontrol: Sue Susman, an independent affordable housing advocate and tenant leader, and Ken Schaeffer, vice-chair with the Met Council on Housing.

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Sue Susman: They can be weakened by keeping things the same. Since the last Housing Vacancy Survey, done every three years, New York City has lost some 54,000 rent regulated apartments. Given the age of many rent stabilized and rent

controlled tenants, that pace may speed up.

They can also be weakened by cutting funds for enforcing the law. For example, the NYS Homes and Community Renewal agency’s Tenant Protection Unit can be funded even less than it is.

The laws can be strengthened by repealing vacancy decontrol. This will remove landlords’ incentive to get rent stabilized and rent controlled tenants out. That would cut harassment and preserve the city’s existing stock of affordable housing for the next generations.

The laws can also be strengthened by capping major capital improvement increases and capping and investigating individual apartment improvement increases.

The laws can also be strengthened by making “preferential rents” the actual legal rent.

Sometimes landlords rent apartments for less than the legal regulated rent. In such cases, the tenant is not likely to complain about problems with the building or the apartment.

Nor will the tenant complain as the landlord raises the legal regulated rent higher and higher. But depending on the lease, landlords cancel the preferential rent and force the tenant to pay the new legal regulated rent. Unable to pay, the tenant often leaves.

The laws cannot be strengthened by raising the rent at which at vacant apartment can be taken out of rent stabiliza-

tion. That just leads to more fudging of what improvement costs are claimed to bring the legal rent to the new level.

Ken Schaeffer: Rent laws have repeatedly weakened by the state legislature, most notable in 1997 and 2003, to the point where simply renewing them as is will ensure the loss of hundreds of thousands of additional affordable apartments in the coming years.

Landlord allies could weaken them further in a number of ways, including reversing several recent court decisions which have allowed tenants to challenge fraudulent rent increases.

The most important ways to strengthen the laws this year would be, number one, to end the deregulation of apartments when the owner displaces an existing tenant and can then raise the rent to $2,500. Number two, close the loopholes created by the legislature in previous years that allow rents to be raised sharply, including a 20 percent vacancy bonus, permanent rent increases for so-called improvements even after the owner has recouped his investment, abuse of socalled “preferential rents,” and the imposition of “fees” on top of the lawful rent for things like washing machines, air conditioners, roommates, or paying your rent a few days late.

What is the best way for New Yorkers to fight for the rent laws’ protection?

Ken Schaeffer: There are

three things: (1) The NYS Assembly must be tenants’ champions, and hold out against any unacceptable compromise by refusing to pass things the Republicans in the State Senate want. (2) Governor Cuomo must be made to understand that his legacy, and any chances of a third term, depend on fixing the broken rent and eviction laws this year. (3) In union there is strength- New Yorkers who care about this issue and the future of their city should join the Metropolitan Council on Housing or one of the many other groups that are working together this year to strengthen the laws.

If you could get one thing in Albany on your housing wish list, what would it be?

Sue Susman: Repeal vacancy decontrol.

Ken Schaeffer: The top of my wish list has always been restoring New York City’s home rule power to enact stronger rent and eviction protections for our city, taken away under Gov. Rockefeller’s notorious “Urstadt Law” in 1971. But we are realistic and understand that this is very unlikely to happen this year, so tenants are united around a platform of repealing $2,500 vacancy decontrol and the loopholes that allow rents to be ratcheted up to that level, and re-regulating the thousands of decontrolled units, as was done in 1974 when the last disastrous experiment with vacancy decontrol ended.

MAY 7-13,2015

5

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

The High Line

THIS WEEK ON THE HIGH LINE PLANT OF THE WEEK: DWARF FOTHERGILLA The dwarf fothergilla, or dwarf witch-alder, takes its name from Dr. John Fothergill, whose patronage made possible William Bartram’s botanical studies of the North American Southeast in the late 18th century.

Though it’s tricky to propagate and grows slowly as a young plant, the fothergilla, once established, is a low-maintenance and compact shrub with a stunning autumnal color.

A remarkably showy native plant, it grows wild across the Southeast, preferring shrubbogs and wet pine savannas with peaty, acidic soil. Its white, honey-scented flowers appear before the leaves and begin as small, rabbit-tail puffs, extending into graceful bottlebrush blooms later in the spring. Their interesting shape is due in part to their lack of petals - fothergilla flowers are composed solely of stamens. Keep an eye out for giddy honey bees, butterflies, and other native insects, who look forward to the fothergilla each year as a sugary treat and nectar source. Birds use its blue-green foliage as much-needed cover.

You can see the plant on the High Line between 20th and 22nd Streets, and at the 10th Avenue Square between 17th and 18th Streets.

BLOOMS

COMING UP

Thursday, May 14, 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Location provided via email following RSVP Discover how our perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees change as seasons pass, what plants are native, which are edible and medicinal, and how we take care of the 456 plant species living in the park.

This tour will highlight the spring bulbs and native spring ephemerals growing on the High Line RSVP required.

PUBLIC TOUR: FROM FREIGHT TO FLOWERS TAI CHI Every Tuesday, June through September, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.

Under the Standard, on the High Line at West 12th Street Join our neighbors from the Taoist Tai Chi Society for an introductory class. Tai Chi movements are believed to

A D ay C a m p As Comple te As SleepA w ay !

help calm the emotions, focus the mind, and strengthen the immune system. Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to discover a new discipline and feel better in a natural, openair space. Beginners welcome!

GARDEN TOUR: SPRING BULBS &

Every Tuesday and Saturday, May through September Gansevoort Street entrance, on the High Line at Gansevoort Street Free 75-minute tours led by High Line Docents, offering an insider’s perspective on the park’s history, design, and landscape.

Free public tours take place bi-weekly on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 10 a.m. between May 4 and September 29.

Space is limited. Please arrive at least 15 minutes early to guarantee a spot.

Tours are subject to cancellation due to weather.

Check www.thehighline.org or follow @highlinenyc on Twitter for updates.

Text and photos from www.thehighline.org

A Unique Camp Experience for Boys and Girls, Ages 3-15: t t t t t t t

Junior Champs, Ages 3-6 3&4 year olds, Special First Start Program Girls’ Side Spirit, Ages 7-15 Boys’ Side Pride, Ages 7-15 Optional Trail Blazers Trip Program, Ages 8-15 10th Grade Leadership Program Sports, Arts, Cultural Activities, Special Events & more!

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 lost control of the vehicle after striking Perry and crashed into a hydrant on a sidewalk full of pedestrians. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Miraculously, no one else was hurt,â&#x20AC;? said Vance in announcing the indictment. â&#x20AC;&#x153;City streets are no place for this kind of reckless driving and dangerous speed.â&#x20AC;?

Lin pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charges and, according to the Daily News, claimed he was only going a few miles an hour over the speed limit at the time of the accident. The DAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office declined further comment.

Perry was one of 144 pedestrians struck and killed on the streets of New York last year.

Many of those deaths involved driver error. Yet the DAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office rarely brings criminal charges in such cases unless alcohol is a factor.

Attorney Ben Rubinowitz, who represented lawyer Nat Dershowitz in a successful civil case against the driver of a postal service truck that struck and killed his wife, said Lin was likely charged because he was so egregiously violating the speed limit. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think it has to do with the severity of the conduct,â&#x20AC;? said Rubinowitz. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If someone were driving the speed limit, it would be questionable as to whether or not they could properly control the vehicle. But to drive it twice the speed limit thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no doubt about it, they are not in control of their vehicle and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to hurt someone.â&#x20AC;?

Rubinowitz said in a failureto-yield case where the driver is making a left-hand turn, that driver technically has the right

to proceed. Lin, by contrast, did not have the right to be driving at twice the speed limit, as prosecutors allege he was.

Rubinowitz also represents Dana Lerner, whose son, Cooper Stock, was a victim of perhaps the most high-proďŹ le pedestrian death of last year.

Cooper, age 9, was walking in the crosswalk with his father when he was struck and killed by cabbie Koffi Komlani. Cooper and his father were crossing with the light and had the right of way. Komlani was charged with a traffic violation and ordered to pay a fine as well as complete a driver safety course.

The lax penalty in Cooper Stockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case set the pedestrian safety community off on a campaign to pressure the DAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office into adopting a tougher stance against drivers who break the law and, as a result, kill or seriously injure a pedestrian.

After her sonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death, Lerner joined Families for Safe Streets, an organization made up of survivors and family members of those who have been killed by what they call â&#x20AC;&#x153;traffic violence.â&#x20AC;? Lerner passed Cooperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Law, with the help of Councilmember Helen Rosenthal, which immediately suspends the license of any cab driver who kills or seriously injures a pedestrian, and revokes it fully if a subsequent investigation ďŹ nds the driver at fault.

But such cases are always thorny for the victim and the perpetrator, as well as for officials who are tasked with obtaining justice. What constitutes a genuine accident?

In the Dershowitz case, Vance indicted the driver of the postal service truck for leaving the scene of the accident but failed to secure a conviction after less than a day of jury deliberation.

Yet three years later, Rubinowitz secured a wrongful death decision in civil court, which include monetary damages for the family, prompting criticism of Vance for losing the criminal case. It also led to the notion among pedestrian safety advocates that Vance became gun shy when it comes to bringing criminal charges against drivers after losing the Dershowitz case.

But Conner praised Vance for bringing a manslaughter indictment against Lin, and said securing a conviction is by no means a sure thing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Based on what we know about this case, to prove these elements beyond a reasonable doubt is no slam dunk,â&#x20AC;? said Conner. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Therefore it is highly commendable that Vance is bringing this charge.â&#x20AC;?

He also said that Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets have been told their advocacy on behalf of pedestrians is gaining traction among officials. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Prosecutors have told us that the efforts of Families for Safe Streets and other individuals affected by traffic violence, are resonating within their offices,â&#x20AC;? said Conner.

So would Lin have been indicted if not for the advent of Vision Zero and the rise of pedestrian safety advocates?

Rubinowitz said itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to say, but that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quite possible charges would not have been brought against Lin. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s questionable as to whether or not he would have been indicted,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening is that people are becoming much more aware, through the efforts of people like Dana Lerner, who are really concerned about pedestrian safety.â&#x20AC;?

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cabra is in the festival. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We met ďŹ lmmakers and watched much of the programming,â&#x20AC;? Joslin said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It really inspired us to want to make a ďŹ lm together.â&#x20AC;?

Their movie is about adopted sisters who take a trip through the Texas Hill cCuntry to fulďŹ ll their fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bizarre last wishes.

Other titles in this yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; competition include the NY premiere of Darrett Sandersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Kill Me, Deadly, starring Kristen Vangsness, Joe Montegna, Lesley-Anne Down and Paul F. Tompkins, as well as director Chandler Wildâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mount Lawrence, a documentary about a young man who bikes 6,500 miles to Alaska to scale an unnamed mountain and name it after his father who committed suicide.

In addition, Santiago said the festival will also present the New York premiere of the ďŹ lm Sam, directed by Nicholas Brooks, executive produced by Mel Brooks and starring Natalie Knepp, Sean Kleier, James McCaffrey, Bryan Batt, Morgan Fairchild and Stacy Keach.

IF YOU GO The SoHo International Film Festival will be held at the Village East Cinemas at 189 2nd Ave. at 12th Street For information on screenings and times, call 212-5296998 or visit www. villageeastcinema.com.

MAY 7-13,2015

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Street Art

PORTRAITS OF A CHANGING CITY Artist Lynn Lieberman was born and raised in New York before venturing off to Los Angeles in the late 60’s and 70’s and Coconut Grove Florida in the 90’s. She returned to New York in 2007 -- just before the

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city began its latest economic boom, which has left many small businesses struggling to stay afloat amid rising rents.

Lieberman has painted more than 100 watercolors of storefronts, mainly in Greenwich

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Village and Harlem. Many of those businesses are now gone, others are hanging on.

All of them are reflections of a moment in time that is fading fast.

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MAY 7-13,2015

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Op-Ed

LETTERS

MEMO TO RENT-STABILIZED OWNERS: GIVE US A BREAK To the Editor: Re “Memo to de Blasio: Give a Break to Rent-Stabilized Owners,” April 30: The underlying theme of Mr. Strasburg’s argument for the real estate industry that he lobbies for is simply industry greed over human need. Even he seems to admit that rentstabilized apartments are the single greatest, if not the only, main preserver of affordable housing for New York’s middle and working classes and number approximately a million rental units.

From there Mr. Strasburg’s logic and claims get distinctly one-sided and profitdriven. He ignores the rampant vacancy deregulation by owners who will conjure any investment costs for vacancies to raise monthly rents beyond the $2,500 threshold to deregulate them. He omits the fact that thousands of apartments have been arrogantly removed or simply unlisted by owners from regulation (stabilization), while new tenants risk their tenancies if they inquire why or complain that a building with over five units is NOT regulated. Mr. Strasburg also spins the old disingenuous and discredited “trickle down” economics to promise jobs and “improved” housing stock, if only owners are given more perks, write-offs, incentives and tax breaks at the public’s expense.

He wants corporate welfare and government largess on the scale of another rich, profitable and powerful industry, the petroleum industry! He ignores that landlords regularly use the MCI route (Major Capital Improvements) to increase rents far beyond annual guidelines. Owners having real financial trouble can get hardship relief, but they want to avoid the bureaucratic application headache that tenants must regularly endure, and by letting maintenance lag so that problems add up and can be called an MCI project, landlords get rents raised ever more towards the

PEN’s Free Speech Award to charlie hebdo Is illconceived

BY LUCY REISS experienced deja vu this week when I learned that prominent writers — among them Peter Carey, Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner, Michael Ondaatje and Francine Prose — had withdrawn from the PEN American Center gala in Manhattan May 5 because the organization is giving a free speech award to the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Three months ago I felt like the only liberal Manhattan high schooler who would not rally for the Paris paper’s freedom of speech. As a student at the Lycée Francais de New York, I grew up in a half-French world on the Upper East Side most of my life — with a French Jewish grandmother and lots of French-speaking Muslim friends — so I’ve thought a lot about how minority issues play out in France. I’ve also studied that country’s traditions regarding speech and religion.

I opposed supporting Charlie Hebdo’s advocacy of free speech from the start because the issue, for me, was never really about that. The publication regularly made my Muslim friends uncomfortable with its conflation of terror and Islam.

I didn’t understand that as a furthering of free speech but rather as a curtailing of free discussion about minority issues in France.

Yet it was difficult to convey the distinction to my progressive New York high school friends, whether French or American. Despite everyone’s attempts to be tolerant and unbiased, I often notice a different standard being applied to Islam and Muslims than to other religions and their practitioners.

Islamic terrorists use religion in a way that reminds me of a homegrown, American terrorist group: the Ku Klux Klan.

Yet I never heard a word in my school history class or on the news about the KKK as a

I

deregulation threshold.

Industry-wide surveys have shown the average landlord makes $600 profit per month on every regulated unit. My landlord, who owns some 70 buildings, 11 or 12 of which have been converted, averages $800 profit per month on our regulated units! These vast profits are just the cash flow, never mind the many other profitable benefits real estate ownership is leveraged for —and tenants don’t even get interest on our security deposits any more!

For decades the annual rent increases have been far in excess of owner’s costs, yet industry greed only grows and landlord demands multiply.

The most ridiculous doublespeak Mr. Strasburg makes on behalf of his industry is that “owners of rent-stabilized apartments contribute greatly to preserving and protecting existing affordable housing,” when in fact, they do everything in their power to eliminate, destroy and deregulate “affordable housing.”

Meanwhile, democratically speaking, tenants are locally disenfranchised, the City Council is made impotent, and Mayor de Blasio has his hands tied concerning fair rental regulatory issues all because the Urstadt

Law keeps authority in dysfunctional Albany, which is conveniently influenced by big-contributing landlords, developers and real estate industry interests (which Governor Cuomo doesn’t seem to mind at all). We should only be so very lucky as to have the city’s housing stock “back to the bad old days of the late 1970s and 1980s,” when Mr. Strasburg’s Stabilization Association and its Conciliation and Appeals Board were actually held accountable for regulatory practices and were not able to buy off Albany politicians and influence DHCR regulators to promote rapacious practices and parasitical greed against the public necessity and human need for housing in our city.

Edward Maloney To the Editor: In response to Joseph Strasburg’s recent op-ed supporting the weakening, or elimination, or rent stabilization laws in New York, I would like to provide an equally biased response from a rent=stabilized tenant.

The catch phrase “bad old days of the 1970’s and 1980’s” was introduced by Republican Candidate Joe Lhota during his failed mayoral campaign, and has been used by the anti-deBlasio forces to

hype fear since Lhota’s resounding defeat by a 73.15% to 24.31% margin. Now, it is used by everyone, from (Police Chief William) Bratton, to the New York Post (which endorsed Lhota), and it has become a code phrase to discredit the mayorship of David Dinkins, New York’s first, and only, African-American mayor.

I would suggest that it is a fairly well-established fact that many landlords of rentstabilized buildings, the group that Mr. Strasburg represents, would happily celebrate the demise of the rent stabilization laws by promptly evicting all of their rent-regulated tenants and replacing them with unregulated occupants. Imagine what would happen to New York City if one million tenants were evicted simultaneously? The mass exodus of the millions of middle class residents of NYC, the facilitation of the destruction of thousands of currently stabilized apartment buildings to be replaced by high rise luxury buildings, and the de-stabilization of the entire NYC housing market.

Talk about “bad old days”, that would be the bad new days.

Gregory Holman

Christian organization, though its ideology and symbolism is engrained in Christianity — the burning crosses are only the most obvious symbol. At my school and on CNN or Fox, by contrast, Islam and terrorism seem closely aligned.

Like my friends, I spend a lot of time on social media, especially Tumblr, so I see that Muslims my age feel completely vilified by this debate. How can they go “blaming a whole group for something a few people who claim ‘being Muslim’ did,” writes a Tumblr poster from France, responding to an attack by skinheads on a girl wearing a hijab. “They are not Muslims, they are terrorists. Do not associate Islam to these people.

I’m scared to go to school, I’m scared to walk down the street, I’m scared just to throw out the garbage. When is this going to stop?”

Aside from Islam, I wonder what exactly free speech is. It’s essentially what our country has come to define itself by — it is, of course, the cornerstone of the First Amendment. This right has come to exclude certain kinds of expression, but not hate speech.

By contrast, France itself saw the need for limits on free speech. Article 11 of France’s 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (which we had to study at the Lycée) guaranteed “the free communication of ideas and opinions” as one of the most “precious rights” of man, but added that every citizen would be responsible “for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.”

When we glorify Charlie Hebdo, are we supporting one of the most “precious rights” of man or, rather, “abuses of this freedom”? That question is now steamrolling through the ranks of PEN and dividing an organization that is usually unified on issues of free speech.

Charlie Hebdo supports a simplistic confusion of Islam and terrorism. The magazine divides Muslims from the rest of society, and it distorts the values of openness it claims to support. I do not think it should be held up as an exemplar of free speech, but as an example of abuse of free speech. I am glad to see prominent PEN voices in New York rejecting that assumption.

Lucy Reiss is a junior at Avenues: The World School who would like to study at a liberal arts college on the West Coast.

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MAY 7-13,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Out & About More Events. Add Your Own: Go to otdowntown.com

Fri

8

NEW STEPS: A CHOREOGRAPHER SERIES THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART

The 2015 John Jay Iselin Memorial Lecture Series

THE MONOPOLY MOMENT THE NEW ANTI-TRUST PARADOX PROFESSOR ZEPHYR TEACHOUT Wednesday May 13, 2015 | 6:30pm The Great Hall, East 7th Street at Third Avenue Constitutional law professor and former gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout will speak about monopolies, circumstances that make them possible and the need for anti-trust laws today.

For more info go to cooper.edu/teachout

Chen Dance Center, 2nd floor, 70 Mulberry St. 7:30pm, $12; $10 for students & seniors This semi-annual emerging choreographer series will showcase six selected artists: Jonathan Breton, Hannah Cohen, Bree Nasby, Janice Rosario and Ashley Carter and Vanessa Martinez de Banos.

212-349-0438. www. chendancecenter.org

erseries.eventbrite.com

Sat

9

▲ PARSONS FESTIVAL: PARSONS LUXURY AND CRAFT Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 2 W. 13th St. and Union Square 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Free Celebrate the work of Parsons student in collaboration with the Luxury Education Foundation.

212-229-5108. www.events. newschool.edu/event/parsons_ luxury_and_craft#.VUYt1VbjPwI

FLATIRON SAFETY AND THE LAND OF NOD SECURITY BOOKMOBILE BUS 950 Broadway, at 23rd TOUR ▼ Street.

8:30 a.m.-10 a.m.

Capt. Brendan Timoney, the commanding officer of the 13th Precinct, will discuss safety and security in the Flatiron District as part of the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership’s Speaker Series.

RSVP: 212-7412323 or flatirondistrictsafetyspeak-

Textile Arts Center 26 W. Eighth St.

10-11:30 a.m., Free Track down the Land of Nod bookmobile making stops around New York in honor of its brand new Little Golden Books for Nod collection.

800-933-9904. www. landofnod.com/nod-bookmobile

Sun

10

EEYORE VISITS STRAND Strand Bookstore, 828 Broadway and 12th Street 11 a.m.-noon, Free Play pin the tail on the donkey with Eeyore as he takes a day off from the 100-acre woods for some morning fun.

212-473-1452. www. strandbooks.com/childrenfamily-hour

MAY 7-13,2015

212-866-4444. www. barrowstreettheatre.com/index. asp

ANIME CLUB

▲ BRAD MEHLDAU TRIO

7 p.m.

Enjoy readings by Pulitzer Prize nominee Charles McNair, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh writing guru Liz Rosenberg, multiply best-selling author Ave. South and 11th Street 8:30 p.m., $35 plus one drink Sarah Pekkanen and novelist Amy Scheibe. Part of the Pen Check out piano genius Brad Parentis Literacy Salon series.

Mehldau as he performs with 212-590-1234. www.nycgo. trusty comrades Larry Grenadier com/events/pen-parentisand Jeff Ballard. literary-salon-presents-sarah212-255-4037. www. pekkanen-charles-mcnair-andvillagevanguard.com liz

Mon

11

CONTACT! NEW MUSIC FROM ITALY SubCulture, 45 Bleeker St. 7:30 p.m., From $35 The musicians from the Philharmonic ensembles will play new music from Italy that represents different generations from the legendary Luciano Berio to 30-year old- Vittorio Moltalti.

212-533-5470. www.92y. org/Event/CONTACT-NewMusic-from-Italy

LITTLE THEATRE @ DIXION PLACE Dixion Place, 161A Chrystie St., between Rivington and Delancey Streets 7:30 p.m.,Tickets at the door $15, $10 in advance Be entertained by various excerpts from new pieces commissioned by Dixion Place.

Works include Tiger Tiger, Miss Authenticity, Whither Goest Thou and Colors Project.

212-219-0736. www. dixionplace.org

Tues

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PEN PARENTIS LITERACY SALON ENDING SHOW ► Hotel Andaz, 75 Wall St., entrance on Waters Street

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

CHILDREN’S SOCCER Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, 75 Battery Place 2:30-3:15 p.m., Free Children can participate in a free soccer program learning footing and helpful tips before a practice scrimmage at the end of each session. First session is for pre-schoolers.

212-267-9700. www. bpcparks.org/event/soccer-forpreschoolers/2015-10-27/

Wed

13

THE FLICK Barrow Street Theatre, 27 Barrow St. and Seventh Avenue South 7:30 p.m., $45–$75 Come check out this comingof-age play, also a 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner about awkward teens and arrested adults.

Seward Park Library, 192 E Broadway 4 p.m., Free Teenagers can enjoy authentic Japanese treats and great anime. This month ages 13-18 yrs can enjoy the anime series Sailor Moon.

212-477-6770. www.nypl.org/events/ calendar?location=67

Thur

“...Maybe (newspapers) are more effective than people give them credit [for].”

Martin Sorrell, CEO of the world’s #1 largest Ad Agency, March 2015

14

PERSON, PLACE, THING WITH RANDY COHEN AND DIANE ACKERMAN Poets House, 10 River Terrace 7 p.m., $10, $7 for students and seniors Emmy Award winner Randy Cohen will interview writer Diane Ackerman on her favorite Person, Place and Thing she finds meaningful as part of Cohen’s public radio show.

212-431-7920. www. poetshouse.org/programsand-events/readingsand-conversations/ person-place-thing-randycohen-diane-ackerman

MAXWELL BEZANSON BASS The New School, School of Jazz Performance space, 55 West 13th St. and Union Square 9-10 p.m., Free Come support School of Jazz bassist Max Bezanson as he performs in his Spring recital.

212-229-5150. www.events. newschool.edu/event/maxwell_ bezanson_bass_spring_15_ ensemble_recital_series_new_ school_jazz#.VUdsn1bjPwI

In a speech Sorrell said clients and agencies may want to rethink the shift of ad dollars into online media at the expense of traditional outlets.

He said recent research has found that traditional media can be more engaging and ȱ ȱ ¢ȱ ȱ Ĵȱ ȱ ȱ ȱ in print magazines and newspapers than with online and mobile content.

Mr. Sorrell said advertisers in the future should look more at measuring engagement rather than time spent by a consumer.

Follow Sorrell’s Advice Get results Advertise with Straus News

Call Vincent Gardino 212-868-0190

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MAY 7-13,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Danica Patrick in a film still from Drath’s “1 of 1: Origins” short.

Filmmaker Eric Drath.

UNDERDOGS, WELTERWEIGHTS AND A CAMERA UWS filmmaker tells dramatic, compelling sports stories

BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

Boxing, as last weekend’s Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao showdown reminded us, is a brutal sport, and perhaps not the most logical obsession for a man born and raised on the Upper West Side, educated at a private high school and then in the Ivy League.

But after seeing his first fight, at a ring in Yonkers, Eric Drath was hooked.

“It’s a very pure sport,” said Drath, 44. “You don’t need any money to be a boxer. You need a pair of gloves ... there’s not a barrier for entry.”

Though he had a career in broadcast news, Drath became a boxing publicist and eventu-

ally an agent, traveling with fighters to Hungary, Poland, Germany and England.

While enmeshed in boxing circles, Drath developed an interest in a boxer who eventually became the subject of his first documentary, “Assault in the Ring.” The film, which aired on HBO in 2008 and went on to win an Emmy, followed Bronx fighter Luis Resto, who was suspended from the sport in 1983 after he and his trainer removed padding from his gloves before a fight, a move that left his opponent with permanent injuries. Resto never fought again and served jail time for assault. For years afterward, he lived in a dark, decrepit basement of a boxing gym in the Bronx.

Once complete, Drath sold the film to HBO, a beginner’s mis-

take — that ultimately paid off.

“Little did I know back then that you should never go make a movie and then try to sell it,” said Drath from the office of his company, Live Star Entertainment, near Madison Square Park, through which he also produces television award shows and live events. “Try to sell it first.”

Drath, who lives in the West 70s near the American Museum of Natural History with his wife and two young daughters, was a talented athlete, attending Trinity-Pawling boarding school, where he played football and lacrosse. He hosted a radio show as a student at Columbia University, eventually working for CNN and Fox News, which gave him some of the storytelling tools he employs in his films.

“The stories he’s attracted to, and also the way he tells his stories, are going to appeal to people who wouldn’t even think they’re interested in sports,” said Aaron Cohen, a writer and film producer who worked with Drath on “Assault in the Ring” and other projects.

Tall and broad-shouldered, Drath has the matter-of-fact speech of a straight-shooting football coach. One of his intangible qualities as a filmmaker, Cohen said, is his ability to form relationships with the subjects of his stories. In “Assault in the Ring,” Drath draws facts from Resto that the boxer spent two decades denying. At a Dairy Queen in rural Tennessee, not far from the home of his ill-fated opponent’s family, Resto confessed to Drath about his role in the conspiracy, telling him that

his trainer plastered his hands before the fight.

“All the stories that I do, it’s the human element that I found interesting,” said Drath.

“Sports is a great environment in which to tell a story, but it’s really about the humanity that comes out.”

Drath’s company is finishing a series of short films about celebrity athletes’ early days through a partnership with ESPN and Marvel Entertainment. Scheduled to air in July, the films examine racecar driver Danica Patrick’s childhood as a go-kart racer and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s Little League Baseball days, among other athletes’ formative years. He’s also working on his first narrative film, a short based on his experiences as a boxing agent, and adapting

Stephen Birmingham’s 1967 book “Our Crowd,” about storied New York Jewish families such as the Lehmans and Guggenheims, into a documentary film and hopefully a scripted series. Though busy on several projects throughout the year, he still finds time to bring his daughters to Columbia University basketball games, for which he holds season tickets.

With “Assault in the Ring,” which was recently distributed through digital services, Drath originally wanted to prove Resto’s innocence, a compulsion that might come from being a lover of sports himself.

“Look, I’m a Mets fan. I’m always on the side of the underdog,” said Drath. “I always want to right a wrong. I always want to show the guy who might not get the camera.”

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FOR THE WEEK

BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO OUR ARTS EDITOR

GALLERIES

MICHAEL ZELEHOSKI’S “NEW ORDER” Beacon, New York-based artist Michael Zelehoski takes found objects, such as police blockades, wooden pallets, and even a whole building, and collapses and contracts them into flat, twodimensional sculptures. His exhibition of large-format assemblages incorporates items plucked from all over the East Coast, including an electrical tower.

Michael Zelehoski’s “New Order” May 7-June 20 Mike Weiss Gallery 520 W. 24th St., between 10th and 11th Avenues Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 1o a.m.-6 p.m.

FREE For more information, visit http://www.mikeweissgallery.com or call 212-691-6899

THEATER

KIDS

“JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK”

PICTURING YOU: MOTHER’S DAY ART

Upper East Side theater company St. Jean’s Players presents Irish playwright Sean O’Casey’s “Juno and the Paycock,” about a family living in a Dublin tenement in the 1920s. Matriarch Juno holds her family together, while her husband remains perennially unemployed.

“Juno and the Paycock” May 8-10 and 15-17 St. Jean Baptiste High School 167 E. 75th St., between Lexington and Third Avenues Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m., and Sundays 3 p.m.

Tickets $20 For more information and to purchase tickets, call 212-868-4444 or purchase at the door

Advertise with Our Town Downtown today!

212-868-0190 or advertising@strausnews.com

otdowntown.com

Gifts made by hand are sometimes a parent’s most prized present from their children. On Mother’s Day, book seller McNally Jackson hosts a read-aloud, featuring stories about children and their moms, followed by card and picture frame crafting.

Picturing You: Mother’s Day Art Saturday, May 9 McNally Jackson 52 Prince St., between Lafayette and Mulberry Streets 11:30 a.m.

FREE for all ages For more information, visit mcnallyjackson. com or call 212-274-1160

Salon Thursdays: Jewish Artists in Victorian London

MUSIC

IN CONVERSATION

Dahesh Museum of Art | 145 Sixth Ave. | 212-759-0606 | daheshmuseum.org

RUSSIAN REFLECTIONS

INTELLIGENCE SQUARED: SMART TECHNOLOGY IS MAKING US DUMB

Classical pianist and Upper West Sider Yelena Grinberg continues her home concert series in her lovely apartment with frequent collaborator, violinist Emilie-Anne Gendron. The pair performs an all-Russian program, with works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Alfred Schnittke, Nikolai Medtner, and contemporary composer Lena Auerbach.

Russian Reflections Sunday, May 10 Private residence in west 90s (exact address sent via email following online ticket purchase) 5 p.m.

Tickets $22 For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://yelenagrinberg.com/grinbergclassical-salon-series/

The Intelligence Squared debate series, based on the popular London program of the same name, tackles the positives and negatives of the now ubiquitous technology many of us carry in our pockets.

Intelligence Squared: Smart Technology is Making Us Dumb Wednesday, May 13 Merkin Concert Hall 129 W. 67th St., between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue 6:45 p.m.

Tickets $40 For more information and to purchase tickets, visit kaufmanmusiccenter.org or call 212-5013330 To be included in the Top 5 go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

THURSDAY, MAY 7TH, 6:30PM Learn about the lives of painting siblings Abraham, Rebecca and Simeon Solomon, born into an artistic merchant family in East London during the first half of the 18th century. (Free)

Political Activist and Law Professor Zephyr Teachout

WEDNESDAY, MAY 13TH, 6:30PM The Cooper Union | 7 E. 7th St. | 212-353-4100 | cooper.edu New York gubernatorial candidate (and author, organizer, educator and scholar) Zephyr Teachout speaks on the consolidation of wealth and power. (Free)

Lucinda Williams in Conversation

TUESDAY, JUNE 23RD, 8:15PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org Lucinda Williams talks about a career that’s moved from the sidewalks to the Grammy Awards, pushing creative and emotional boundaries all the while. ($40)

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

sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.

14

MAY 7-13,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

ON CENTRAL PARK WEST, A JOURNEY IN WORDS AND MUSIC Salon concert series brings season to close with commissioned work by Syrian clarinetist

BY MICKEY KRAMER

Comfy couches, art by Robert Motherwell, Tara Donovan and Michael Massaia on display, and a stunning picture-window view of the Central Park reservoir is not a typical setting for a classical music concert, but that’s what ticketholders get from St. Urban, a chamber music series started by pianist Lenore Davis.

Named for the Beaux-Arts building on Central Park West where Davis lives and hosts performances, each season of St. Urban includes three intimate house concerts followed by a commissioned work at a larger venue.

Davis, artistic director at Arbor Chamber Music in New Jersey until 2006, started St. Urban two years ago. She also performs during the concerts. Most at home collaborating with fellow musicians, Davis “loves rehearsals as much as the performance,” she said.

“Finding that connection with a fellow musician is a most special experience,” Davis said.

She conceived of the series, which include informal talk-backs with musicians and a cocktail hour following concerts, because as a performer she has always loved mingling with the audience.

“At these performances, people are literally coming into a living room,” she said. “Such a relaxed setting.”

Her home can accommodate up to 60 guests with folding chairs, window seats and couches. Her apartment, in

a grand, pre-World War I building near 89th Street, already had the right dimmensions for it to host chamber music.

It needed only a few renovations.

“We have a den behind the living room which acts as our green room,” Davis said.

Each season, St. Urban musicians focus on a unifying theme, and this season centered on poetry in song cycles and the instrumental music they inspire. The final performance, on May 9 at SubCulture on Bleecker Street, features “Songs for Days to Come,” a piece composed especially for the show by Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and set to texts by five Syrian poets, including Azmeh’s uncle, all of whom live in exile from that war-torn country.

“I have wanted to work with lyrics for many years and I felt that these poems reflect and document the contrasting feelings a Syrian might have experienced in the last few years,” Azmeh said by email while traveling in Turkey, where he played fundraising concerts to benefit the construction of a library in Istanbul for Syrian refugees.

Azmeh worked closely with the poets in choosing the material, but also credits soprano Dima Orsho, his collaborator for more than 15 years, with much of the songs’ fine-tuning.

The concert at SubCulture will feature Azmeh, Orsho and Davis, along with violinist Yevgeny Kutik and cellist Nicholas Canellakis, a musician with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center who has been with St. Urban since its inception. Andrew Byrne, the artistic director at Symphony Space, will moderate an informal dis-

Kinan Azmeh performing with soprano Dima Orsho.

IF YOU GO: What: St. Urban chamber music series’ season-ending performance of composer and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh’s “Songs for Days to Come.”

When: Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Where: SubCulture, 45 Bleecker St., at Lafayette Street Tickets: $35 For more information, email info@ st-urban.com; call 212-533-5470 or visit subculturenewyork.com to purchase tickets cussion with the composer and musicians after the performance.

Azmeh, a Brooklyn resident, has toured with Yo-Yo Ma but takes time to perform for Syrian children in Jordanian refugee camps. He is also a spokesman for a United Nations humanitarian campaign that seeks to bring awareness of Syria’s civil war.

He hopes that his music will similarly affect his listeners.

“My music cannot stop a bullet, nor can it feed the hungry or rebuild a home,” he said. “But I do hope that it can inspire individuals and organizations and possibly the world community to act.”

Davis, who wants to take listeners on a musical journey when they come into her home for a concert, finds Azmeh’s work a fitting end to St. Urban’s second season.

“Kinan’s evocative work as the finale for audience and performers [is] simply a thrilling culmination of our season,” she said.

MAY 7-13,2015

15

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS APR 27 - MAY 1, 2015

Formosa

34 Eldridge St

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.

Not Graded Yet (15) 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.

Clinton Street Baking Company

4 Clinton Street

Grade Pending (22) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. 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.

Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.

Whynot Coffe & Wine Art Gallery

175 Orchard Street

A

A K Us Group

95 Chrystie Street

A

Master Juice

196A Stanton St

Not Graded Yet (21) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.

Harley Davidson Of New York City

378 Broadway

Not Graded Yet (46) Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking

Manna House Bakery

87 East Broadway

A

A-1 Pizza Shop

505 Grand Street

Grade Pending (16) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Sauce

78 Rivington Street

A

La Margarita Pizzeria

151 Ludlow Street

Grade Pending (20) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

99 Favor Taste

285 Grand St

A

Empanada Son

174 Delancey St

Not Graded Yet (2)

A Casa Fox

173 Orchard Street

A

Dunkin’ Donuts

149 Canal Street

A

Cata

245 Bowery St

Grade Pending (24) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment.

Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Claw Daddy’s

185 Orchard Street

A

Spreadhouse Coffee

116 Suffolk Street

Not Graded Yet (21) 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.

Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.

Cocoa Bar

21 Clinton Street

A

Antibes Bistro

112 Suffolk St

A

Marm Cafe

79 Clinton Street

A

Rockwood Music Hall (Stage Zero)

196 Allen Street

A

Subway

221 E Broadway

A

Bite Of Hong Kong

81 Chrystie St

Not Graded Yet (32) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.

Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

Insomnia Cookies

164 Orchard St

A

Savor

the Hudson Valley.

Spend your days savoring local bounty, award-winning wines, farmers markets, specialty foods, The Culinary Institute of America, and multiethnic restaurants.

Visit farm stands, wineries, smokehouses, and gourmet shops. End the journey with a delectable meal from a rising chef.

PLAN IT! Visit DutchessTourism.com/travel-itineraries!

Distinctly Dutchess

dutchesstourism.com

16

MAY 7-13,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

< MORE MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS MTA asks city for another increase in funding Capital New York reported this week that City Hall was surprised and annoyed to receive a request for more funding, to the tune of

In Brief DE BLASIO WANTS STRONGER RENT LAWS Crain’s New York reported this week that Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled his proposal to protect rent stabilized housing in New York City by strengthening rent laws and making it harder for landlords to remove units from stabilization.

De Blasio reportedly wants to end vacancy decontrol - the process by which a landlord gradually increases the rent on a stabilized unit above the $2,500/month threshold, thereby removing it from stabilization - and vacancy fees - where a landlord can automatically raise the rent by 20 percent if a rent stabilized unit becomes vacant.

“Rent is the number one expense for New Yorkers,” said de Blasio in a statement accompanying his housing plan. “Unless we change the status quo, tens of thousands of hardworking families will be pushed out of their homes.”

Crain’s quoted Rent Stabilization Association VP Jack Fruend as saying the plan will “destroy” de Blasio’s plan to preserve 120,000 units of affordable housing.

HEPATITIS BILL PASSES COUNCIL The city council recently passed legislation that would require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to issue a comprehensive annual report on hepatitis B and C, which will focus on efforts by the department to identify and prevent the spread of hepatitis B and C during the preceding calendar year.

The bill was written and introduced by Council Members Margaret Chin, Corey Johnson and Peter Koo in February 2014.

It is estimated that at least 250,000 people in New York City live with hepatitis B and C and are at risk for developing complications related to the disease, according to Chin’s office. Her office also said many individuals who are infected are unaware of their status, and that viral hepatitis remains a leading cause of liver cancer and related complications.

“Hepatitis B has long had a severely destructive impact within the Asian-American community, both in New York City and across the United States,” said Chin’s office in a statement. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 12 AsianAmericans have hepatitis B, and as many as two-thirds do not know they are infected. Hepatitis B and C also have a deeply negative impact within the LGBT community, with regard to HIV/hepatitis co-infection.

According to the CDC, approximately 25 percent of people living with HIV and AIDS are co-infected with hepatitis C, and about 10 percent are co-infected with hepatitis B.”

Business

$1.5 billion, from Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Thomas Prendergast.

The request, in the form of a letter from Prendergast to deputy mayor Anthony Shorris, came on

the same morning City Hall confirmed it would comply with the MTA’s prior request for $657 million - and days after the administration began printing its budget books with the line item, according to Capital.

A City Hall spokesperson told Capital that the current administration was offering the highest

amount of capital support to the agency in 15 years.

“Yet after our budget went to print with full funding for the MTA’s request, we were surprised to learn this morning that they both nearly tripled their general capital ask and requested another $1 billion,” spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick said in an email.

WHO WOULD SPEND $100 MILLION ON A HOUSE? PROPERTY The ultra-wealthy are buying, even as the Manhattan luxury market slumps JOSH BOAK The poshest of luxury homes are acquiring the cachet of a masterwork by Picasso or Matisse.

Rather than settle for garages of antique cars or a museum’s worth of paintings, billionaires are increasingly willing to pay $100 million for homes that can serve as showcases for their fortunes, according to an analysis issued Thursday by Christie’s International Real Estate.

“It tells you that there is a new class of collectible -- they’re trophies now,’’ Dan Conn, CEO of Christie’s real estate brokerage, said of the most lavish homes being acquired.

The luxury housing market has shifted in the past year as the dollar has strengthened.

Sales in Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and other global hubs are stabilizing after having rocketed in 2013, when many buyers cashed in on stock market gains. Now, multimillionaires and billionaires are seeking estates overseas and at resort destinations, the report said.

Existing homes sold at an annual pace of 5.19 million in March, a sharp increase after a brutal winter curtailed buying in the Northeast, the National Association of Realtors said last week. Kelman warns that that sales pace isn’t sustainable because demand has been driven largely by 30-year fixed

mortgage rates averaging just 3.65 percent, compared with a 52-week high of 4.33 percent.

Winter storms have also weighed on Manhattan sales, yet analysts view that market as remarkably stable. Sales in the borough during the first three months of 2015 fell 19.5 percent compared to the same period in 2014, while average prices have slipped by roughly $40,000 to $1.73 million, according to reports by the brokerage Douglas Elliman.

“We had a horrible winter,” said Dottie Herman, CEO of Douglas Elliman.

She said many new developments in Manhattan that would boost sales have yet to come onto the market.

Herman is also seeing interest in second homes, something she attributes in part to wealthy baby boomers. Sales and prices have surged in winter hotspots such as Aspen, Colorado, where

the average sales price jumped 55 percent in the past year to $4.15 million.

“That’s because of the baby boomers, who are not retiring early and are sometimes on their third wife at 65 and have little kids,” Herman said.

Still, other luxury developers say the stronger dollar has cut into sales. There has been a 25 percent drop in Manhattan’s monthly sales pace and a 50 percent drop in Miami Beach, said Kevin Maloney, a developer whose firm, Property Markets Group, works on luxury buildings.

Global buyers have become more patient. They are seeking value because their incomes, earned in euros, pesos, reals and other currencies, now buy less in dollars. Real estate magnates are coping with same challenge facing manufacturers who are trying to sell their products overseas.

“If I had my druthers, I’d like to see the dollar weaken against other currencies,” Maloney said.

The dollar has appreciated 20 percent against the euro in the past year, making pieda-terres in Paris and wineries in Bourdeaux more affordable for wealthy Americans. Sales are also surging by averages of more than 20 percent along the beaches of Turks & Caicos and the slopes of Telluride, Colorado. Five homes sold around the world for more than $100 million in 2014, and a record 18 were listed for sale at that level, according to the Christie’s report. Last year’s purchases include a $146 million French Riviera mansion. Each square foot of the home cost $22,577 -- roughly equivalent to a new Honda Accord.

This is the new top tier for billionaires scouring the globe for signature homes, a market that Conn said should continue to prosper because the world minted 200 new billionaires from 2013 to 2014.

“You’ve got this club of billionaires who just like to have unique assets,” Conn said. “But it’s also, truthfully, that they like to entertain their friends and say, `This is mine.’”

The luxury market contrasts with the still-struggling U.S. real estate market as a whole.

Millions of homeowners still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth -- a vestige of the housing crash that triggered the Great Recession in late 2007. Buyers remain sensitive to changes in mortgage rates and price swings that could make ownership costlier. At the same time, access to credit remains tight for some.

Sales have been running below a pace associated with healthy markets.

“There’s a deeper cultural shift where people aren’t willing to get a house at any cost,” said Glenn Kelman, CEO of the brokerage Redfin.

MAY 7-13,2015

17

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Real Estate Sales Neighborhd

Address

Price

Bed Bath Agent

Chelsea

151 W 21 St.

$2,650,000 2

2

Chelsea

130 W 16 St.

$955,000

1

Chelsea

300 W 23 St.

$799,000

Chelsea

340 W 19 St.

Chelsea

Nolita

41 Spring St.

$925,000

Douglas Elliman

Soho

124 Thompson St.

$780,000

1

Corcoran

Soho

1

1

Douglas Elliman

$944,000

3

1

250 W 15 St.

$1,235,000

1

2

Chelsea

127 W 22 St.

$325,000

Chelsea

66 9 Ave.

$3,800,000 2

E Village

366 E 8 St.

$1,595,000

E Village

206 1 Ave.

$1,370,000

E Village

58 E 4 St.

$1,800

E Village

120 2 Ave.

$1,051,574

2

2

E Village

211 E 2 St.

$2,495,000 4

E Village

321 E 12 St.

$765,000

Financial District

3 Hanover Square

$398,000

Financial District

55 Wall St.

$930,000

Financial District

20 Pine St.

$1,800,000 2

Flatiron

260 Park Ave. South

$1,650,000

Flatiron

5 E 22 St.

$1,760,000

Flatiron

5 E 22 St.

$3,250,000

Flatiron

54 W 16 St.

$1,250,000 2

Fulton/Seaport

264 Water St.

$1,135,348

Fulton/Seaport

111 Fulton St.

$680,000

Gramercy Park

200 E 16 St.

$465,000

Gramercy Park

1

1

Corcoran

42 Wooster St.

$4,350,000

Tribeca

101 Leonard St.

$5,498,550 3

4

Douglas Elliman

Core

Tribeca

101 Warren St.

$4,200,000 2

3

Corcoran

Halstead Property

Tribeca

200 Chambers St.

$3,900,000 3

3

Nestseekers

Tribeca

275 Greenwich St.

$1,139,000

Tribeca

101 Leonard St.

$1,530,000

Tribeca

138 Reade St.

$5,100,000 3

2

Halstead Property

W Chelsea

475 W 22 St.

$2,650,000 3

2

Corcoran

W Chelsea

520 W 23 St.

$1,400,000

Town Residential

W Village

222 W 14 St.

$1,250,000 1

1

Halstead Property

3

Brown Harris Stevens

W Village

3 Sheridan Square

$1,350,000 2

1

Douglas Elliman

2

1

Corcoran

W Village

72 Perry St.

$751,000

1

1

Halstead Property

0

1

Douglas Elliman

W Village

719 Greenwich St.

$3,300,000 1

2

Corcoran

W Village

51 Jane St.

$425,000

0

1

Avi Nash Associates

W Village

421 Hudson St.

$2,500,000 3

2

Town Residential

W Village

14 Horatio St.

$718,000

1

1

Douglas Elliman

W Village

99 Bank St.

$535,000

0.5 1

W Village

2 Horatio St.

$1,750,000

2

2

Town Residential

Kian Realty

Maz Group Ny

1

Livingny

0

1

Citi Habitats

0

1

Bond New York

305 2 Ave.

$1,650,000 1

1

Cantor And Pecorella

Gramercy Park

230 E 15 St.

$470,000

0.5 1

Town Residential

Gramercy Park

205 3 Ave.

$625,000

1

1

Warburg

Gramercy Park

201 E 21 St.

$642,500

1

1

Halstead Property

Gramercy Park

235 E 22 St.

$760,745

Greenwich Village

77 Bleecker St.

$530,000

0

1

Douglas Elliman

Greenwich Village

208 Thompson St.

$350,000

Greenwich Village

250 Mercer St.

$1,325,000

1

1

Douglas Elliman

Greenwich Village

208 Thompson St.

$660,000

2

1

Halstead Property

Greenwich Village

184 Thompson St.

$1,160,000

1

1

Douglas Elliman

Greenwich Village

24 5 Ave.

$335,000

0

1

Corcoran

Greenwich Village

44 E 12 St.

$1,880,000 2

1

Citi Habitats

Greenwich Village

1 5 Ave.

$1,400,000 1

1

Ann Weintraub, Ltd.

Greenwich Village

2 5 Ave.

$550,000

Greenwich Village

49 E 12 St.

$1,755,500

2

2

Sotheby's

Greenwich Village

55 E 9 St.

$550,000

0

1

Engelman & Company

Greenwich Village

41 5 Ave.

$1,445,000 1

1

Town Residential

Greenwich Village

34 W 13 St.

$1,570,000

Lower E Side

455 Fdr Drive

$840,000

Lower E Side

473 Fdr Drive

$710,000

Lower E Side

570 Grand St.

$400,000

Nolita

53 Prince St.

$3,000,000 3

1

Corcoran

Anchor Associates

St.Easy.com is New York’s most accurate and comprehensive real estate website, providing consumers detailed sales and rental information and the tools to manage that information to make educated decisions. The site has become the reference site for consumers, real estate professionals and the media and has been widely credited with bringing transparency to one of the world’s most important real estate markets.

Do

something

you You’d

like us to

look

?

into

2

1

Douglas Elliman

have

1

2

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18

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

MAY 7-13, 2015

UNVEILED: THE WHITNEY OPENS ITS DOORS Following star-studded parties and a visit from the First Lady, the museum opens to crowds

BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

Finally, the new Whitney Museum of American Art has what it’s been waiting years to acquire: visitors.

After a four-year, $422 million construction project, the museum opened on Gansevoort Street, next to the entrance of the High Line, on May 1, attracting a crowd and, at times, lengthy lines for admission.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” said Melissa Sundaram, a teacher from Queens who took the day off to visit the museum on its opening day.

The museum opened at 10:30 a.m. on a brisk but sunny day that also brought crowds to the nearby High Line. Shortly after opening its doors, a line stretched down the street, though it moved swiftly, said Sundaram, who purchased passes in advance and only waited about 10 minutes to enter the building. Once inside, she joined two free tours of the inaugural exhibition, “America is Hard to See,” a museum-wide show of more than 600 works from the Whitney’s permanent collection.

Vendors took advantage of the assembled crowd, with four food carts lining Gansevoort Street, selling hot dogs and bringing the smoky aroma of grilled meat wafting toward the line of museumgoers. By lunchtime, Whitney staff were handing out granola bars and bottles of water to waiting patrons.

Maddy Arnstein and Miranda Warren, friends from Washington Heights, took advantage of the warm weather and walked the length of the High Line. Arnstein and Warren came to “poke around” the new,

IF YOU GO: What: The New Whitney Museum of American Art opened on May 1 with its exhibition “America is Hard to See,” a show of more than 600 works from its permanent collection, including pieces by Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg.

When: May 1-Sept. 27 Where: 99 Gansevoort St., between Washington and West Streets Museum hours: Monday, Wednesday and Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; closed Tuesday Admission: $22 For more information, visit http:// whitney.org or call 212-5703600

Renzo Piano-designed museum.

They weren’t planning to go inside, not wanting to pay the $22 admission fee on opening day, but planned to come back.

“I’ve been watching this be built for years,” Arnstein said. “This is a big deal.”

The museum, which closed out its nearly 50-year run at the Marcel Breuer-designed building on Madison Avenue and 75th Street with a Jeff Koons retrospective last fall, has maintained a celebratory and somewhat exclusive atmosphere heading into opening day. The day before the official opening, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed invited guests at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. By opening day, many prospective visitors had likely read about and seen photographs of the building’s terraces, which offer views of the Hudson River and the Manhattan cityscape, and the 50,000 square feet of airy, open galleries that double the exhibition space of the former building, which the Whitney now leases to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. John Evans frequented the museum at its uptown location with his wife, Joyce, when he was a pastor at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, two blocks away. Now retired and living in Portland, Ore., the couple stopped at the new building during a visit to the city.

“It’s beautiful,” said Joyce. “This space is much more conducive to looking at art.”

Judy Perkins, from Concord, Mass., had read about the museum’s relocation and expansion for years, she said, and decided to visit the new Whitney when her planned trip to the city coincided with the museum’s opening. A onetime resident of midtown, Perkins sees the Whitney as the “anchor institution” in the neighborhood, not unlike celebrity architect Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, that will bring further change to the Meatpacking District.

“In 10 years that won’t be here,” said Perkins, gesturing at a meat processing facility just north of the museum. “This area will be the hot new spot.”

And for some, the location of the Whitney, in one of Manhattan’s more trendy and bustling districts, is part of the draw. Bronx resident Gia DiCola, who came to the museum on May 1 with a friend visiting from Los Angeles, looks forward to returning to the museum with her young children.

“I much prefer this location,” said DiCola. “I just think the Upper East Side, with all the museums, they’re old school. This has a fresh edge, more in line with the collection they have.”

The stairwell at the center of the building takes visitors between floors. Photo: Gabrielle Alfiero

Michelle Obama addresses invited guests at the dedication of the Whitney Museum of American Art on April 30. Photo: Filip Wolak.

MAY 7-13,2015

PREVENTING DOGBITE INJURIES IN KIDS PETS

19

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

A bit of prevention for a serious problem ANN E. HOHENHAUS

Dog bite injuries are a serious issue and comprise one percent of all emergency room visits.

The good news is that dog bites are a preventable health concern.

Who gets bitten?

Fortunately, due to research by veterinarians and physicians, we have identified easily modifiable risk factors associated with dog bite injuries.

Those at greatest risk for being bitten are children between five and nine years of age. Most bite injuries in children are inflicted by a dog known to them.

Entering a dog’s “space,” interacting with a dog while it is eating or surprising a sleeping dog can provoke even a gentle dog to bite.

What dogs bite?

Certain dogs are more likely to be involved in bite injuries.

Intact (not neutered) male dogs are three times more likely to be involved in dog bite injuries.

Dogs that are kept tied up outdoors can be territorial, making them more prone to biting.

Dogs with medical conditions are more likely to bite than dogs that are healthy.

Additionally, more bite injuries occur in the summer months, perhaps because children and dogs are frequently together outdoors or perhaps dogs are cranky, just like the rest of us are when it is hot and sticky outside.

Train your dog Proper care and training of the family dog helps prevent bite injuries because behavior is a reflection of both emotional

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and physical health. The Animal Medical Center suggests every dog see its veterinarian annually to spot any correctable health problems early. Due to their increased risk for biting, male dogs not intended for breeding should be neutered.

Obedience training teaches dogs to politely interact with humans and will make a dog less likely to bite.

Protect children All children should be taught the steps of safely interacting with dogs and coached to ask a dog owner if he/she can pet a dog they meet. Parents should be extra vigilant about dog safety in the warmer months.

All interactions between children and dogs should be supervised. Playing with your dog is important, but the games you play should not be tug of war or chasing games which could get out of control and lead to an inadvertent bite. When walking your dog, keep it under control on a leash to prevent an unwanted interaction with a stranger or strange dog.

Practice safe dog interactions Following these guidelines can help keep you, your family and your dog safe. Join veterinarians from The Animal Medical Center on Saturday, May 30 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Carl Schurz Park for PAW Day and find out how to play it safe with dogs. PAW Day will feature friendly, well trained dogs to allow children to practice safe dog interactions. For more information, visit www. amcny.org.

Ann E. Hohenhaus, DVM, Board Certified in Oncology and Small Animal Internal Medicine

20

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MAY 7-13,2015

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

YOUR 15 MINUTES

To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes Scott Reisinger, head of school at Trevor Day School.

Photo: Jez Coulson.

PUTTING THE ‘PAL’ IN PRINCIPAL Q&A Scott Reisinger, head of school at Trevor Day School, on making his job “all about the children.”

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

Scott Reisinger took the helm at Trevor Day School last July, he said it felt “very much like coming home again.” Not only is he a graduate of Columbia University, where he earned a master’s degree, but many of his former students now work here and reach out to him to have dinner.

When he started at Trevor, a place he says that puts “children and inquiry at the very center of everything it does,” the school was in the middle of two building projects. Now, almost completed, the Upper School will be moving to a new state-of-the-art building on East 95th Street this spring.

Among the new facility’s perks will be outdoor planting spac-

es, where students will grow food that will be served in the cafeteria, and a yoga studio to be used as part of their physical education program. Starting in September, the Lower School will be housed in the newly renovated Goodman Building on West 88th Street, where the Upper School now operates.

The principal finds inspiration in the fact that he is influencing his students to make the world a better place. “I see in every little way in our interaction with kids, no matter where we teach, that we’re helping them change the world. People say to me, ‘You know, that’s really naïve, Scott.’ But it isn’t naïve, it’s what gets me up in the morning.”

What makes Trevor special?

The school was built very carefully according to our philosophy and our mission of collaborative and inquiry-based education. One of the things that makes our school unique is that we are devoted to that.

If you walk around the school,

you will see that our middle and upper schools are built around common spaces. On the outside edge of the common space are the teachers’ desks and student tables are on the inside. And on the outside edges are the classroom spaces. So what typically happens is that a class finishes and oftentimes conversations continues into the common spaces.

What are the best and worst parts of your job?

That’s a good question. I’m not sure anyone has ever asked me that. Here’s the way I look at heading the school. I look at it as a calling, and like any calling, you take the skills, attributes, talents and gifts that you have and hope to find that place where they meet the needs of the world. The best parts for me are always working with the kids. Just the other day, I had a couple of students drop by towards the end of the day and they just stood there for 45 minutes talking to me. I’m talking about 5:30 now; they

had just come out of sports, and one came out of a rehearsal for a play. What I dislike the most is on rare occasions when you have to make decisions with regard to the student’s continued mission-appropriateness for your school, whether it’s for academic, social or behavioral reasons. That’s what I really dislike the most, without a question. My daughter tells me that those are the things that keep me up at night. Fortunately that hasn’t happened in the last 15 years very often. It hasn’t happed to me at Trevor yet.

How does technology affect the classroom?

We were among the first in the country here at Trevor to bring into classrooms as a requirement, laptops. Trevor has been around for a long time in the forefront of integrating technology. In my last school, I led the charge, I think successfully so, in bringing iPads into all of the kids’ hands. Because my own view of this is that there’s nothing we’re going to do to stop this and we have an obligation as educators to teach the healthy use of technology. I’m talking about its moral and ethical uses too. We must apply to our classroom settings the best research we have on what works and what doesn’t work. And present our students with the best research on distractibility, the best research on when to use technology and when not to. They are connected all the time in a

way in which I am not. But as negative as we find it, I see it as students being more connected than ever before. ... So it’s really the moral and ethical question we’re dealing with; it’s not the technology.

How do you guard against bullying?

We have very clear policies about that with regard to our use of technology here. We have empowered children more and more. I would not have said this 10 years ago, by the way. We kind of had a spike in bullying in all of our schools then, when all of this technology first began to be used. And by bullying, I don’t mean one or two things, or someone says something mean to somebody.

It’s a continual pattern, where it’s intentional. We’ve had that in our schools forever; we just didn’t have as easy a way to do it. But I think kids are more empowered now to see it and report on it, with anti-bullying campaigns, where we bring people in to talk to them. In my past school career where we had examples like this, the reports generally came not from parents, but from the students.

Finishing touches are being applied to Trevor Day School’s new building on East 95th Street.

Photo: Lisa Kassel studying film and the other is at the Maritime University in Massachusetts. They were all in Washington for a Bancroft School alumni event. My daughter happened to be there too, she’s at George Washington University. They called me just to check in and when they student got on and said, “Hey, Dad, how are you doing?” that was good.

To learn more about the school, visit www.trevor.org

Do you keep in touch with your former students?

Yeah, I do. I had one call me last night. “Hey, Dad,” is what he said to me. He’s at American University right now. In fact, he was with two other students who graduated three years ago. They’re all juniors now.

One is at Syracuse University

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

22

MAY 7-13,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; green spaces touch lives and all five senses.

Green spaces are a vital part of growing up â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 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

23

MAY 7-13,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

CLASSIFIEDS

ACCOUNTING/FINANCIAL SERVICES LOMTO Federal Credit Union It’s hard to beat our great rates! Deposits federally insured to at least $250K (212)947-3380 ext.3144

ADOPTION ADOPTION: Unplanned Pregnancy? Caring licensed adoption agency provides financial and emotional support. Choose from loving pre-approved families. Call Joy toll free 1-866922-3678 or confidential email:Adopt@ForeverFamiliesThroughAdoption.org ANIMALS & PETS

North Shore Animal League AnimalLeague.org 1-877-4-SAVE-PET Facebook.com/TheAnimalLeague ANTIQUES/COLLECTIBLES

Antique, Flea & Farmers Market, East 67 St Market (bet.

First & York Ave). Open every Saturday, 6am-5pm, rain or shine. Indoor & Outdoor, Free Admission. Call Bob 718-8975992. Proceeds benefit PS 183.

ANTIQUE LOVERS TAKE NOTE - BRIMFIELD, MA starts Tuesday May12th. 5,000 Dealers of Antiques/Collectibles. Visit: www.brimfield.com for info on 20 individual show openings.

May 12- 17, 2015 AUCTIONS

Friendly Neighborhood Auction Antiques & Collectibles, Paintings, Decorative Objects, Costume Jewelry. Sat May 16, 3pm. 1157 Lex Ave @ 80th St (garden ent next to All Souls) Prev & Reg 11am-3pm. Martine’s Auctions, 212-772-0900, martine-auctions@outlook.com

CAMPS/SCHOOLS Alexander Robertson School Independent School for Pre-K through Grade 5, 212-663-2844, 3 West 95th St. www.AlexanderRobertson.com Loyola School 646-346-8132 www.loyolanyc.org admissions@loyolanyc.org River Park Nursery School 212-663-1205, www.river parknurseryschool.com York Preparatory School 212-362-0400 ext 133 www.yorkprep.org admissions@yorkprep.org

CARS & TRUCKS & RV’S Donate your car to Wheels For Wishes, benefiting Make-AWish. We offer free towing and your donation is 100% tax deductible. Call (855) 376-9474 ENTERTAINMENT

LIPS The Ultimate in Drag Dining & Best Place in NYC to Celebrate Your Birthday!

227 E 56th St., 212-675-7710 www.LipsUSA.com

ENTERTAINMENT

Mohegan Sun Why Drive? For info call Academy: 1-800-442-7272 ext.

2353 - www.academybus.com HEALTH SERVICES

Carnegie Hill Endoscopy 212-860-6300 www.carnegiehillendo.com Columbia Doctors of Ophthalmology - Our newest location at 15 West 65th Street (Broadway) is now open. www.ColumbiaEye.org 212.305.9535 High Colonic By Rachel Relieve constipation & bloating 24 yrs exp. 212-317-0467 Lenox Hill Hospital Lenox Hill Orthopaedics (855) 434-1800 www.Lenoxhillhospital.org/ ortho Mount Sinai-Roosevelt Hospital University Medical Practice Associates 212-523-UMPA(8672) www.umpa.com New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital www.nyp.org/lowermanhattan NYU Langone Medical Center Introduces the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Men’s Health.

555 Madison Ave bet. 55th & 56th, 646-754-2000 HELP WANTED

VOLUNTEER REFERRAL CENTER & HEALTH ADVOCATES PRESENT

VOLUNTEERING IS AGELESS MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN NEW YORK CITY! LEARN HOW TO GET STARTED AND WHY ORGANIZATIONS WANT VOLUNTEERS OF ALL AGES Thursday, May 14, 3:30-5:00 ALL SAINTS CHURCH 230 EAST 60TH STREET (SUBWAYS 4,5,6,N, Q, R, to Lex/59th St) RSVP: 212 889-4805 FREE Light Refreshments

$8,000 COMPENSATION. EGG DONORS NEEDED. Women 21-31. Help Couples Become Families using Physicians from the BEST DOCTOR’S LIST. Personalized Care. 100% Confidential. 1-877-9-DONATE; 1-877-936-6283; www.longislandivf.com ATTEND AVIATION COLLEGE– Get FAA approved Aviation Maintenance training. Financial aid for qualified students.

Job placement assistance. Call AIM for free information 866296-7093

LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL ALLSTATE INSURANCE Anthony Pomponio 212-769-2899 125 West 72nd St. 5R, NYC apomponio@allstate.com

MASSAGE

Massage by Melissa (917)620-2787 Therapeutic massage, $75/Hr. Lic., 20+ yrs exp. 917-734-7448 tonydif.massage@gmail.com MERCHANDISE FOR SALE

Fresh California Organic Walnuts, home grown, hand picked. Reduces the risk of heart disease. One of the best plant source of protein, Omega 3 and E &B vitamins. $12 a pound shelled, $5 a pound in shell, plus shipping. Perry Creek Walnuts 530-503-9705 perrycreekwalnuts.com perrycreekwalnuts@hotmail.com Pandora Jewelry Unforgettable Moments 412 W Broadway - Soho, NYC 212-226-3414 Privacy Hedges - SPRING Blowout Sale 6ft Arborvitae (cedar) Reg $129 Now $59 Beautiful, Nursery Grown.

FREE Installation/FREE delivery 518-536-1367 www.lowcosttrees.com Limited Supply!

MUSIC

GUITAR LESSONS Quick Results. Acoustic, Electric, Songwriting. NYC Loc. or your home. Get started now!

Call Howie Scher at 646-2569676, or email schershot24@ aol.com for rates and hours.

REAL ESTATE - RENT

OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND. Best selection of affordable rentals. Full/ partial weeks.

Call for FREE brochure. Open daily. Holiday Resort Services.

1-800-638-2102. Online reservations: www.holidayoc.com REAL ESTATE - SALE

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New models from $85,000.

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Amenities include community pier, boat ramp, paved roads and private sandy beach. May remind you of the Jersey Shore from days long past. Great climate, boating, fishing, clamming and National Seashore beaches nearby. Absolute buy of a lifetime, recent FDIC bank failure makes these 25 lots available at a fraction of their original price. Priced at only $55,000 to $124,000. For info call (757) 442-2171, e-mail: oceanlandtrust@ yahoo.com, pictures on website: http://Wibiti.com/5KQN

Telephone: 212-868-0190 Fax: 212-868-0198 Email: classified2@strausnews.com

POLICY NOTICE: We make every effort to avoid mistakes in your classified ads. Check your ad the first week it runs. The publication will only accept responsibility for the first incorrect insertion. The publication assumes no financial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for any copy changes. All classified ads are pre-paid.

REAL ESTATE - SALE

UPSTATE NY ABSOLUTE LAND LIQUIDATION! MAY 9TH! 19 Tracts from 3 to 35 acres starting at $12,900. Examples: 9 acres -$19,900. 20 acres -$29,900. 35 acres- Farmhouse- $169,900. Foreclosures, estates, abandoned farms!

Waterfront, trout streams, farmhouses, views! Clear title, 100% g’teed! Terms available! Call: 888-905-8847 to register or go to: NewYorkLandandlakes.com SERVICES OFFERED

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Directory of Business & Services To advertise in this directory Call Susan (212)-868-0190 ext.417 Classified2@strausnews.com

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24

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Join us & make Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza

SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2015 Noon - 2 P.M. (Rain or shine) Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza (at Edgar Street and Trinity Place)

The Downtown Alliance is greening Lower Manhattan! You bring family and friends, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll bring the plants and gardening tools.

Complimentary refreshments will be available.

DowntownNY.com LEAD SPONSOR

MAY 7-13,2015