The local paper for Downtown FROM JULLIARD TO THE MET, < Q&A, P.21
WEEK OF JUNE-JULY
25-1 2015
CANDLE BAR GOES DARK The Upper West Side’s last gay bar closes after decades in the neighborhood BY LOGAN HENDRIX
On Monday night, longtime customers stepped inside Candle Bar on Amsterdam Avenue and said goodbye, to each other and to the last of its kind on the Upper West Side. The low-lit establishment with a rainbow flag loosely draped from the ceiling and rock music coming from its speakers had attracted a gay clientele since it opened in the mid-1960s, when the notion of same-sex attraction still had a subversive aura. Still, the Candle Bar’s closing was tinged with nostalgia and melancholy. “I’m very sad the bar is
closing, it’s the only community bar left and I have no idea where I’ll go next,” said Archie Long, a longtime patron who recalls when the Upper West Side had a dozen or so gay bars. The bar’s owner, Michelle Ader, who has run the bar since 1992, sold the building and its new owner does not want to keep the Candle Bar operating, she said. “We hope that everyone has enjoyed the community fixture and we’re sorry,” said Ader. Amonte Demarko, who’s worked at Candle Bar for about 12 years, the last 10 as its manager, said bar options for gay men are dwindling. “It’s my home away from home, it’s my second family”
he said. Steve Vasta, a regular customer for nearly a decade, said, “I like that I can sit here and talk to the bartenders, play video games and watch horrendous movies on the TV.” Vasta, calling himself a ‘refugee of clubs,’ says most customers are unsure what bars will replace Candle Bar because alternatives are not close by. “There were a lot more gay bars in the ‘80s, and they were more gay ‘Cheers’ where everybody knows everybody,” Vasta said. Vasta and Demarko mentioned the Ninth Avenue Saloon as an option, as well
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
Our Take THE MAYOR AND THE POLICE
Amonte Demarko, who’s worked at Candle Bar for about 12 years, the last 10 as its manager, at the bar on its last night of business. Photo: Logan Hendrix
CITY TENANTS WATCH WARILY AS RENT FIGHT PLAYS OUT IN ALBANY Though officials have offered assurances that rent controls won’t be affected, some tenants aren’t convinced BY JENNIFER PELTZ AND MICHAEL BALSAMO
Protesters last month at a rally against changes in the rent rules.
Fabulous upcoming New York State events and must-sees at ILoveNY.com/summer15 and inside!
Lynda Williams woke up in her apartment of 34 years wondering about her future there, after the state’s decades-old rent regulations expired overnight. Although officials say the laws ultimately will be renewed, “it’s scary for me,” said Williams, a retired nurse who has seen de-
regulated apartments across the street from hers rent for considerably more than she pays. “It would be impossible for me to move somewhere else and pay the rent I’m paying now and be able to support myself,” she said. As Gov. Andrew Cuomo discussed the rent laws in a closed-door meeting with top lawmakers in Albany, renters and housing advocates rallied outside his Manhattan office and at City Hall to decry the
regulations’ lapse at midnight Monday despite months of discussion. “It’s mind-boggling,” said City Councilmember Daniel Garodnick, whose Manhattan district includes a largely rentstabilized complex with more than 11,000 apartments. If the laws aren’t extended, restrictions on rent increases and evictions for more than 2 million tenants in and around New York City would disappear once their leases expire. Lawmakers say that’s an unlikely scenario, but it has tenants nervous: New York City’s 311 information hotline has seen an uptick in calls about rent regulation in recent
Late Monday night, the mayor finally agreed to a police-staffing deal that should have been struck months ago. Bill de Blasio agreed to fund an additional 1,300 NYPD officers as part of the city’s new $78.5 billion budget. The mayor, inexplicably, had been holding out against adding the cops, despite pleas from Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Council Speaker Melissa MarkViverito, unlikely allies on the issue. They argued that the extra officers were needed to find a crime rate in the city that had begun creeping up. Apparently, the mayor never got the memo that public safety was his single most important legacy. But de Blasio refused to move away from his base, holding firm as recently as two weeks ago that what was needed wasn’t more police, but better policing. It was a maddening stance, given the crime stats and Bratton’s own credibility in making the case. The good news here is that the mayor ultimately did the right thing, approving not only the 1,000 officers requested by the NYPD, but an 300 additional officers in an anti-terrorism team to patrol high-target areas like Times Square. Even before the increase, the city has by far the largest police department in the country, with about 34,600 uniformed personnel, not including 890 new officers who will graduate from the Police Academy in July. Those are big numbers. But they are unfortunately what’s needed at a time when the city’s crime rate once again is on the rise.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 Downtowner SPRING ARTS PREVIEW
WEEK OF APRIL
< CITYARTS, P.12
9-16
MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
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
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 number will tally the type and business of complaints by small 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 work between and go as they please. some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come 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
OTDOWNTOWN.COM O @OTDowntown
Newscheck Crime Watch Voices Out & About
for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
2 City Arts 3 Top 5 8 Real Estate 10 15 Minutes
12 13 14 18
CONTINUED ON PAGE
25
Home delivery of Our Town Downtowner $49 per year. Go to OTDowntown.com or call 212-868-0190