Our Town Downtown September 3rd, 2015

The local paper for Downtown wn A TREASURE FROM SUMMER'S BOUNTY < P. 14

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER

3-9 2015

CHINA INSTITUTE MOVES, EXPANDS After decades on the Upper East Side, the organization moves to brand-new headquarters downtown

BY RUI MIAO

For more than half a century, China Institute resided in a four-story building on the Upper East Side — 65th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues. From within that Upper East Side perch, politicians, scholars and laypersons could study and discuss World War II, the collapse of the Cold War and the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations.

Decades on, the institute has outgrown its 9,000-square-foot home.

Last month, the institute, one of the nation’s oldest and most respected educational institutions devoted solely to Chinese culture, headed south. The new headquarters, four times the size of the former one, is at 100 Washington St. and forms part of a newly invigorated district.

“Lower Manhattan is an energetic and transformational neighborhood, and we want to be a part of it,” said James Heimowitz, the institute’s president. The rebirth of the neighborhood parallels to China Institute’s own evolvement. Heimowitz said the institute is undergoing a transformation from a gloried organization to a dynamic, modern one, with state-ofthe-art facilities and expanded programs.

Founded in 1926 by a group of Chinese educators, the organization was

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The Rubin Museum of Art’s Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room (shown in its current space) is expanding, thanks in part to the museum’s first online crowdfunding campaign.

Photo: David De Armas.

CROWDFUNDING A CROWD FAVORITE The Rubin Museum hopes to finance the expansion of a popular installation

BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

A favorite exhibit at the Rubin Museum of Art is getting bigger, and the museum is asking the public to get involved.

On Sept. 1, the Himalayan art institution in Chelsea launched “Find Your Focus,” a crowdfunding campaign to finance the expansion of its much-loved Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room, a recreation of a house shrine envi-

ronment on its second floor.

The online fundraising effort, a first for the West 17th Street institution, with a $45,000 goal, will help fund the installation of the shrine in a larger fourth-floor space that will double its capacity.

The launch of the campaign is the newest phase in the shrine’s expansion — the museum first opened a shrine room in 2010 with art on loan from the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., before opening the current iteration with work from its

is our patron’s space.”

For the Rubin Museum and other institutions in New York and beyond, social media and interactive digital projects can bring the collections to new audiences and provide opportunities for visitors to engage with the objects outside of the traditional museum experience.

At the Cleveland Museum of Art, an interactive touchscreen wall shows around 4,500 works that are on view in the galleries. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s ongoing digital initia-

own collection in 2013 — and marks the institution’s latest effort to engage with its audience through digital initiatives.

“One of the beauties of the crowdfunding is the people who endeavor to join the crowdfunding campaign take a piece of ownership in this space,” said John Monaco, head of exhibition design at the Rubin. He compared this to how donors to Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns connected with the candidate. “That really is kind of part of this. Because it

tives range from Meow Met, a Google Chrome extension that displays images of cats from the museum’s collection whenever a user opens a new online tab, to the Artist Project, a video series in which artists discuss works from the Met’s collection.

“The idea is, how can we connect our audiences to the art in multiple ways?” said Sree Sreenivasan, the institution’s chief digital officer.

Following the earthquakes in Nepal this spring, the Ru-

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City Arts Top 5 Real Estate 15 Minutes

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WEEK OF APRIL

SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12

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

BY RICHARD KHAVKINE

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

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

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

2015

In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS

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

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

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

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

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks.

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

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

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

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

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SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

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WHAT’S MAKING NEWS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD BRATTON: POPE’S VISIT TO PRESENT SECURITY CHALLENGE Pope Francis’ visit to New York later this month will trigger an “unprecedented” security challenge, the New York Post reported Police Commissioner Bill Bratton as saying. The pope’s visit will take place atg

the same time as the United Nations General Assembly, which will be extraordinarly in that “we have an extraordinarily large UN delegation coming in, (and) we have the pope coming in for several days,” Bratton told reporters.

An unusually large contingent of noted world leaders are expected at the United Nations.

“You are going to have two events that are going to cause significant issues with traffic, significant challenges with crowd control and . . . with that many world leaders in one city, as well as the pope . . . we have the threat and specter of terrorism,” the paper quoted Deputy Police Commissioner John Miller as saying.

PLAN TO PROTECT LOWER MANHATTAN FROM FLOODING New York City officials are announcing a new $100 million capital commitment to protect Lower Manhattan from flooding.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and other officials made the announcement Thursday while

handing out “go-bags” on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

They said protection would be built from the base of the Manhattan Bridge around the tip of the island to Battery Park City.

The plan will use measures like levees, flood walls, and additional park land to soak up storm water. A timetable for construction has not been set.

The plan was unveiled as the city is competing for $500 million in federal funding for additional resiliency efforts.

It is part of the city’s overarching $20 billion resiliency plan created in the wake of the devastation left by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

The Associated Press

RESTAURANTS, OTHER BUSINESSES HAVE NEW RECYCLING RULES

Pope Francis arriving at the European Parliament last year.

Photo: European Parliament, via Flickr

The Sanitation Department issued new rules last week to force hotel dining establishments, sports arenas and food wholesalers to recycle their food waste. The composting mandate will sweep 350 companies, including

restaurants of hotels with more than 150 rooms, stadiums with 15,000 seats and big food-processing plants. The department plans to formally embrace the rules after a public hearing in the fall, and businesses have to comply a year following that. Lawbreakers could deal with fines ranging from $250 to $1,000.

NO. 7 SUBWAY LINE STATION TO OPEN After years of delays, the newest station on the No. 7 subway line is scheduled to open next month. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says the 34th StreetHudson Yards station will debut on Sept. 13. The line will extend from its current terminus at Times Square to 11th Avenue on the far west side. The MTA says the 1.5-mile extension will be the only subway line south of 59th Street to provide service west of Ninth Avenue.

The far west side is undergoing a major redevelopment with the construction of the 28acre Hudson Yards retail and residential project.

The Associated Press

YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR EYES OFF GAS SAFETY FOR ONE SECOND.

Gas safety starts at home. So make sure your burners are turned off when you’re not using them. Always store combustible items far away from those appliances. Don’t step, sit, lean or place any objects on gas pipes or equipment. And, if you do smell gas (think: rotten eggs), leave the area immediately and then call 911 or 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633). If you like, you can even report it anonymously.

Gas safety involves everyone. To do your part, read all our tips at conEd.com/GasSafety.

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

MAN CONVICTED OF TRYING TO GET â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;DEATH PILLSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; A city man looking to acquire ricin so he could sell â&#x20AC;&#x153;simple and easy death pillsâ&#x20AC;? and guarantee â&#x20AC;&#x153;risk-freeâ&#x20AC;? murder was convicted of federal charges on Aug. 27.

The jury returned the verdict against 22-year-old Cheng Le after a four-day trial, convicting him of attempting to acquire ricin as a weapon, postal fraud and identity theft. Le faces a mandatory minimum of ďŹ ve years and a maximum of life in prison. A sentencing date was not immediately set.

Among the evidence introduced at trial were statements Le made in writing about getting ricin from an FBI covert employee, including: â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you can make them into simple and easy death pills, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d become bestsellers.â&#x20AC;?

The jury was also told that Le said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be trying out new methods in the future. After all, it is death itself weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re selling here, and the more risk-free, the more efficient we can make it, the W

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had been taken. She had left a window to the ďŹ re escape open, enabling a burglar to enter. The burglar gained access to the ďŹ re escape from the rear of the building. Items stolen included a Tiffany engagement ring valued at $7,500, an heirloom necklace worth $3,000, a Longines watch priced at $2,500, a MacBook tagged at $2,500, a Tiffany wedding ring valued at $2,000, a Tiffany silver necklace priced at $700, and an Apple TV device worth $99.

better.â&#x20AC;?

Le was arrested in December after prosecutors said he contacted an FBI covert employee online using an encrypted messaging service and asked if he sells ricin. Authorities said Le was wearing latex gloves when he went to a postal office to retrieve a fake shipment of pills.

Leâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lawyer argued the government didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have proof that Le was the computer user who contacted the FBI employee.

But prosecutors said Leâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s computer was open to the online account used to communicate with the FBI employee when Leâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s apartment was raided.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Le tried to acquire ricin through what is known as the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dark Web,â&#x20AC;? a part of the Internet where criminal marketplaces thrive. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As Le himself put it, he was looking for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;simple and easy death pillsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and ways to commit â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;100 percent riskfreeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; murder,â&#x20AC;? Bharara said in a news release. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He was thwarted in his poisonous plot.â&#x20AC;?

The Associated Press

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right cheek. After striking the victim, both the muggers took his property.

His iPhone 6 was tracked to East 134th Street and Willis Avenue. Police searched the area but could not ďŹ nd the muggers. Video is available of the incident. Besides the money, the two took a menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chain, an iPhone 6, and a pair of Jordan sneakers.

At 1:05 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 24, a 43-year-old woman and a man of unstated age entered the Marc Jacobs store at 163 Mercer St. They browsed the store for some time before removing a purse valued at $2,500 from the window display, putting it in a shopping bag, and leaving the location at 2:30 p.m. without paying for the item. They were last seen ďŹ&#x201A;eeing northbound on Mercer. A search of the neighborhood turned up nothing.

The item stolen was an electric blue womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bag.

Two MacBooks disappeared from a business in what appears to be an inside job, police said. Upon leaving the offices of a business named Monthly Gift at 69 Walker St., a 29-yearold female employee said the two computers were sitting on desks at 10 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 21. When she returned at 9 a.m. the next Monday morning, she discovered them missing.

The office door was never locked, but the front entrance door had been locked and required a key card to gain access. Numerous employees on the ďŹ&#x201A;oor had key card access. There were no signs of forced entry, and the office windows had been secured. A canvass of the building turned up nothing. No cameras recorded the incident. The office architect had access to the record of the key card scanner, enabling

A 39-year-old woman who returned to her apartment at 199 Prince St. at 7:05 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21, found ot had been ransacked and property, including jewelry, worth more than $18,000 â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

JACOBS JACKALS

AIR SNARE

FIRE-ESCAPE SCRAPE

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police to identify the key card used.

The computers stolen were a MacBook Air valued at $2,172 and a 13-inch MacBook Air priced at $1,750, making a total of $3,922.

WEATHER DOWN A local bar was hit by a burglar overnight recently. When an employee entered the Weather Up bar at 159 Duane St. at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22, he noticed that a window to the bar was open. He then saw that the cash register had been opened and currency was missing. A 36-year-old male employee who reported the incident to police conďŹ rmed that currency had been taken, as well as an iPod. There was no tracking on the iPod, nor were there cameras inside the bar, although there may have been cameras outside in the street. A search of the area revealed nothing. The items stolen were $400 and a gray iPod valued at $299, making a total of $699.

PECK HECK Two young man ganged up on another near South Street Seaport, robbing him of $500 in cash and other items. At 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 23, a 23-year-old man was walking on Peck Slip towards Front Street when he was approached by a 20-year-old man who called out, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hey! Hey!â&#x20AC;? Then another 20-year-old man grabbed the victim from behind, while the ďŹ rst struck the victim in the face with his closed ďŹ st, cuting the 23-year-oldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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POST OFFICES

POLICE PRESENCE WILL DOUBLE IN TIMES SQUARE The increase comes after weeks of complaints about panhandling and nudity

BY JAKE PEARSON

Police have announced a new unit dedicated to patrolling Times Square following weeks of complaints about the panhandling tactics of costumed characters such as Elmo and Batman and topless women covered in body paint.

The area, one of the busiest and most crowded in the nation, eventually was going to get new officers who would work regular shifts and be assigned to the same posts every day, but the past few weeks of attention accelerated the decision to recruit, the New York Police Department said.

“It just seemed natural,” Chief of Department James O’Neill said last week.

The announcement came a week after Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio assigned a multiagency task force to figure out how to deal with the issue of costumed characters and

CROWDFUNDING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

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SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

bin Museum installed a small Nepalese art installation in its lobby and labeled Nepalese objects throughout its galleries with the hashtag #HonorNepal, encouraging visitors to share the works on Twitter and Instagram. The Rubin also worked with Google to create an interactive online experience of the exhibition, as the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and other institutions have done.

“A museum can be so much more than just the space itself,” said Robin Carol, the Rubin’s public relations and marketing manager. “We have a lot of active followers and we have a lot of fans all over the world who may or may not have been to the museum itself and we wanted to really activate a new audience that way.”

The museum’s campaign through a platform called Razoo is hardly the first crowd-

so-called desnudas — women wearing thongs and covering themselves only with body paint — seeking tips in exchange for photos at the popular tourist attraction.

In New York, toplessness and panhandling are legal. But that hasn’t stopped the city’s tabloids and some elected officials from calling loudly for action. Some have suggested regulating the transactions as a business, while others have floated the idea of uprooting pedestrian plazas.

Among the women who accept tips for their photos, Saira Nicole doesn’t believe the practice should be an issue.

“People are having fun,” she said recently. “There’s no problem.”

By the fall, police hope to double the number of officers assigned to the Crossroads of the World, from 50 to 100, O’Neill said.

Overall, crime is low in the area, though there are complaints to handle besides the panhandling characters, such

as aggressive CD hawkers and vendors who sell their wares too close to businesses or the street.

The new officers will be tasked with getting to know the business owners, vendors and workers in the area in line with the neighborhood polic-

ing model being implemented in other precincts citywide, O’Neill said.

“Times Square is an important piece of real estate in New York City,” he said. “And you have to pay attention to what goes on there.”

funding effort made by an arts institution. Carol referenced a campaign by the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery that helped fund a 2013 exhibition on art and yoga as inspiration. In 2013, the Louvre restored “The Winged Victory of Samothrace” statue in part with crowdfunded donations, and the Smithsonian recently earned $719,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to fund the conservation of Neil Armstrong’s space suit.

Crowdfunding, Carol said, can create anticipation for a project, but also reveals the process of building an exhibition to anyone with Internet access. “(Museums) are doing everything they can to reach people through social media. They’re trying to personalize the collections,” said Anna Blume, a professor of art history at the Fashion Institute of Technology on Seventh Avenue in Chelsea. “The efforts to be inclusive right now are extraordinary.”

Currently located on the Ru-

bin’s second floor and connected to its Gateway to Himalayan Art exhibition, the 300-squarefoot shrine room appears as an open-air diorama, with a shinhigh glass barrier separating viewers from a richly-adorned room. Decorated with sculptures of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, flickering battery-operated candles, offering bowls and around 130 other ritual objects from the museum’s collection, the room offers an immersive gaze into what a home shrine might look like.

At 500 square feet, the new shrine will be more immersive, with room for seating and a floor-to-ceiling, retractable clear glass wall that, when lowered, will open the space for intimate music performances and readings.

That the shrine room was already a beloved space and tour stop made its expansion an ideal crowdfunding project. Much work has already been done offsite to construct the new shrine room, Monaco said, and the funds raised through the

campaign, which runs through Oct. 23, when the shrine opens, will finance additional construction, installation, conservation and transportation of the art works and the creation of a new lighting system, an integral aspect of the room’s venerable atmosphere. (The shrine will open as part of a larger exhibition called Sacred Spaces which was financed by the museum’s 2015 exhibitions fund and private donations.)

“It’s really fitting to us because we’re opening up the shrine room physically, we’re making it a bigger space, but we’re opening up the process, sort of behind-the-scenes, and we’re opening up the support we can receive to anyone who has a computer or smartphone,” she said. “That’s a huge goal of the crowdfunding campaign, to give people a bigger sense of ownership over the space.”

By later this year, the number of officers assigned to Times Square will double, from 50 to 100, following complaints about the panhandling tactics of costumed characters and nearly naked women. Photo: Holly Northrop, via Flickr

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

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Neighborhood Scrapbook ELECTED OFFICIALS, CITY LEADERS MARK WOMEN’S EQUALITY DAY Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, former City Council speaker Christine Quinn and some of the city’s top women leaders and elected officials assembled on the Upper East Side Aug. 26th to mark Women’s Equality Day and to call for renewed efforts to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment. Hochul pledged support at the state level, saying that New York State has been in the vanguard of women’s rights nationally and would continue to be so. “Women’s equality is more than

just a slogan: It is a call to action to enable women of all backgrounds to fulfill their potential,” she said.

“From women’s suffrage to the Equal Rights Amendment, New York has always been a progressive leader in these areas of national importance. I am proud to stand with Congresswoman Maloney and others in recognition of Women’s Equality Day as our fight continues to move full steam ahead.” Above, City Councilwoman Margaret Chin speaking at the rally.

Photo: Jeanne Straus

Share your news and what’s going on in your life. Go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.

CHINA INSTITUTE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 initially dedicated to help Chinese students in America. As its mission grew, it became a window for Americans to understand China, through its various Chinese language and culture classes as well as exhibitions.

It was a bridge between China and the U.S. “My grandmother took the Chinese cooking lessons at China Institute in the 1950s,” Heimowitz said. “The mission of China Institute is old and timeless but it’s never been more important than it is now. China and the U.S. are the two most important countries on the planet, and we need to figure out a way to understand each other better.”

The institute has offered Chinese language classes from its inception; nowadays, those programs are still popular, and have some more diverse options. “We have kept our language class satellite on the Upper East Side, just across street to our old building,” said Shenzhan Liao, the institute’s director of education. Many of the institute’s longtime students are from the neighborhood, she said, and maintaining a connection with the longtime constituents is important. Besides, the downtown headquarters also offers language classes to, Liao said, meet “the growing needs and interests in Chinese language learning” as well as to give “more opportunities to different people.”

Not only does the institute showcase China, it can also facilitate trips to the country. Their summer immersion program has taken hundreds of local high school students to Beijing since 2005. About onethird of students have strong ties to the country. “They were either born here or at a very early stage came here from China,” said Liao. “Their parents want them to be reconnected with their roots in China.”

The education program, Heimowitz said, is of the institute’s three pillars, along with an arts, culture and gallery program and a business program.

“We believe business is the DNA of the Chinese culture, said Heimowitz, a former banker who lived in China for many years and is fluent in Mandarin.

In the wake of China’s increasing importance and its growing impact on the global financial market, the institute developed a series of conversations, executive summits and impact speeches, offering a gateway to understanding and dissecting China’s role in global affairs, not least in the economic sphere. Notably, in its global council program, a group of CEOs, half from China and half from America, have periodic gettogethers to discuss contemporary issues involving the two countries.

The institute’s new headquarters are being completed in phases. Classrooms, a 2,000-square-foot art gallery, a library and a seminar room are now open. The design followed traditional Chinese style: the carved wooden display shelves, a red seal logo on the façade, and a yet-to-be-built tea house.

The first major exhibition at the new site will open in fall 2016, featuring Chinese treasures from the third to sixth centuries, and feature the artistic innovations and achievements of the chaotic Six Dynasties.

“We hope our new home, now the largest space devoted to Chinese culture in Manhattan, will increase our opportunity to collaborate with other cultural institutions in the city and make the Institute an even more dynamic ‘gateway to China’ for a new generation of global citizens,” Heimowitz has said. “With the rising importance of China, and its relationship with the U.S. and the rest of the globe, our mission is more relevant, and necessary, than ever before.”

A rendering of the China Institute’s new headquarters on Washington Street.

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

7

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Sixth Borough

THE POPE, AC AND ME

BY BECCA TUCKER or 33 years, I never heard a peep against air conditioning. It’s always been a fact of life, worthy of discussion only when it’s absent.

As for my own relationship with AC, I guess I’d say “it’s complicated.” I have similar feelings toward air conditioning as I have toward smartphones. Obviously I understand the allure, and I use other people’s plenty often, but I don’t have it and I’m not going to get it. In my house, that is. (If a compressor didn’t cost $750, I would get my car’s AC fixed. That’s one environmentally expensive luxury I would splurge on.

Since it crapped out, though, I’ve found workarounds, like trying to depart on long trips at night, and giving toddler Kai a sippy cup filled with ice water to slurp and cuddle up with. Inevitably, though, you will get stuck in bumper-tobumper traffic in an airless pit like the Holland Tunnel at 3

F

p.m. on a July scorcher when you’re pregnant. And that’s why you have sweat glands.)

I know people think twice about “going up there to roast,” as one family member put it, rehashing the thought process involved in deciding whether to come over to see Kai. I’d like people to feel comfortable at our place, but I will never feel at ease with the modern gadgetry that coddles us so, its cost concealed under a cloak of slick convenience and ease.

My dad and uncle now have Nest thermostats, which allow you to control your home’s temperature remotely, using your phone. We haul logs in the winter and keep the doors and windows open in the summer. The smart thermostat is an ingenious invention, and it has the potential to save energy, but the shiny orb does hammer home that we live in different worlds. Mine is the one for me, but it can feel sparsely populated, not to mention sweaty.

Still, air conditioning came up in conversation approximately never — until I got around to reading the Pope’s encyclical.

Pope Francis is my man; he has been since I heard on the radio that in his village in

Buenos Aires, back when he was plain old Jorge Bergoglio, he used to collect the rubber bands in which his daily newspaper came bound, and return them at month’s end to the kiosk. Notwithstanding my Jewishness and our lack of any common anything, I feel like we occupy the same world.

His encyclical (written, by the way, to every human being on earth, so feel free to Google it) is full of very big ideas but also quite specific ones, about immigration, the media, the global one percent, unplugging, and air conditioning.

“People may well have a growing ecological sensitivity but it has not succeeded in changing their harmful habits of consumption which, rather than decreasing, appear to be growing all the more. A simple example is the increasing use and power of air-conditioning,” wrote Francis. “An outsider looking at our world would be amazed at such behavior, which at times appears self-destructive.”

I sat up when I read that.

Presumably, Pope Francis — who at 78 is no spring chicken — isn’t cranking the AC either, then, and the Vatican gets just as hot as it does here, according to weather.com.

Pope Francis would feel just

fine in the hammock on our front porch, and if he didn’t, we could all go stick our feet in Kai’s baby pool on the deck and watch the chickens bathe in the dust — their version of AC. And then we’d all take a siesta.

Imagining life without AC, I had a memory of a trip to Maceio, a beach town in Brazil.

In the early afternoon, hoping to score my go-to snack of a coconut with a straw in it, I peeped into a food stand. My first thought was that the family that ran it had been gunned down: a very old lady, I recall particularly, in her long colorful skirt, with handkerchief around her head, was splayed alongside various progeny, out cold. They had fallen where they stood on the tile floor, no pillows, no hands behind heads, nothing. In a couple hours they would rise and keep doing business. This was how people in the air-conditionless world dealt with being hot.

Within the week I stumbled across a yet another criticism of air conditioning. The piece in Mother Earth magazine was by a guy named Stan Cox, a researcher at The Land Institute in Kansas (this place, too, I’ve been hearing about all of a sudden).

“Fifty years ago, about nine of 10 U.S. residents spent sum-

mertime in homes without air conditioning,” Cox wrote. “Our society has come to regard refrigerant-based air conditioning as an in-dispensable technology, and has forgotten about plenty of other cheaper, simpler ways to beat the heat.”

Turning off our energyhog air conditioners in this country would, he wrote, equate to shutting down 140 coal-fired power plants. But we all know that’s not happening. Here’s one that might get

you thinking, though: if you spend a lot of time in AC, your body adjusts to lower temperatures, and you suffer more in the heat. Let yourself get hot, though, and your internal thermometer will adjust.

Voilà, you’ll feel more comfortable when it’s hot as hell.

Becca Tucker is a former Manhattanite now living on a farm upstate and writing about the rural life.

The New Continental Hotel & Restaurant 15 Leo Court Greenwood Lake, New York 10925 845-477-2456 www.thenewcontinentalhotel.com On Facebook: thenewcontinentalhotelandrestaurant Stay over in one of our cozy comfortable guest rooms!

Dine overlooking a breathtaking view of beautiful Greenwood Lake and its surrounding mountains!

On-site catering available for all special occasions!

Step back and enjoy a quieter time at our lakeside hotel − only one hour from Manhattan!”

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SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Voices

Write to us: To share your thoughts and comments go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a letter to the editor.

Letter

WHAT DID YOU SAY?

BIKE LANES, SAFEGUARDS FOR ALL

SENIOR LIVING

BY MARCIA EPSTEIN

Photo: John St John, via Flickr To the Editor:

Bette Dewing’s Op-Ed, Older Views and Bike Safety, (Our Town, Aug. 19, and online) claims that city government is not concerned about bike safety and suggests that biking is a hazard to all pedestrians, and old people, as she puts it, in particular.

The facts do not support her views. Some of the relevant facts are the following: 1. Streets with bike lanes are 40 percent less deadly for pedestrians.

2. Bike lanes on Ninth Avenue helped reduce injuries by as much as 58 percent.

3. Crashes with injuries went down by 63 percent on Prospect Park West while bike ridership doubled.

Those who are interested in the facts should go to this page: a841tfpweb.nyc.gov/dotpress/2013/05/facts-on-citi-bike/ Part of the problem with her opinion is that it scares people for no reason. Bike lanes make crossing the street safer for everyone, and especially so for people who cross slowly, because people can wait at the bike lane island before crossing which shortens the distance across the street. Plus, because more bikers will be riding in the bike lane and not all over the street, pedestrians will know where to look. And it slows down vehicular traffic.

Like many people I meet who have negative things to say about biking, who coincidentally are not cyclists, there is an irrational bias against biking that I cannot understand. Biking is good for health, fitness and the environment, so let’s stop scaring people and bashing it with meritless and unfounded arguments.

Richard Weil

STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source

Vice President/CFO Otilia Bertolotti Vice President/CRO Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnews.com

There’s nothing to make one feel old more than “the talk” with one’s children. It can be the big talk — about living wills, advance directives and burial versus cremation — or other less big but still jarring topics such as hearing loss. I got the hearing loss talk from my daughter a few weeks ago, and I wasn’t a happy camper.

Yes, I know I have hearing loss. No one who knows me doesn’t recognize it. In fact, many of those same people also have it. Though some of my friends do have hearing aids, many of us are putting it off. I know from my partner’s experience that they are a pain in the neck. He’s always fiddling with batteries, forgetting to take them out before getting in the shower, and having to maintain them. Eyeglasses were one thing (well, cataract surgery will do that to you), but hearing aids are another.

But my daughter was adamant that my life is in danger

HAVE AN IDEA FOR OUR NEW SENIOR LIVING COLUMN? Email us at news@ strausnews.com or call us at 212-868-0190

Associate Publishers, Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth Sr. Account Executive, Tania Cade

without them. What about not hearing cars coming?

What about warnings about over-enthusiastic dogs that I don’t hear (this actually happened. I guess I missed being mauled by pure luck).

And I must admit that I have pretty much limited myself to foreign movies because I just can’t hear dialogue well enough to enjoy the film, especially those with young actors and actresses who, I swear, mumble and just plain talk incomprehensibly. Why don’t they move their lips?

Why are they constantly whispering into each other’s ears in some bedroom scene?

When I saw “Still Alice,” I could understand Meryl Streep most of the time, but not a word that came out of her “daughter’s” mouth. No sir, it’s foreign films for me.

But still, I am not ready for hearing aids. I hate things in my ears. I can still hear my cat meow for dinner and my partner saying that no, he didn’t say that at all, he said something else entirely. So I’ll continue to say “What?” and “Huh?” for another long while.

And I’ll continue to see my daughter pass “that look” to her husband when I say, once again, “What did you say?”

Maybe I’m stubborn (and also not rich), but it’s still my choice. Still, it sure made me feel old when my daughter, my own child, started to act as though I needed to be guided, not so gently, into the

realities of old age.

And on another topic of change: we visited my hometown a few weeks ago, and wow, what a shock. It’s only an hour north of here, but I don’t go very often, and part of the shock was that I got lost! In my own hometown!

The reason is that things have changed so much; houses have sprouted, parks and playgrounds appeared.

It’s so crowded now. I spent my childhood playing outdoors, tossing softballs in the summer, waiting for the Good Humor man and sometimes even getting a ride on his truck. We burned leaves in the fall and sledded in the winter. Our parents didn’t

President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com Account Executive Editor In Chief, Kyle Pope Fred Almonte, Susan Wynn editor.ot@strausnews.com Director of Partnership Development Deputy Editor, Richard Khavkine Barry Lewis editor.dt@strausnews.com

Staff Reporters, Gabrielle Alfiero, Daniel Fitzsimmons

hover, we had the whole outdoors as our own.

When we visited “my” house, I had to leave quickly.

It was surrounded by strange homes and painted a different color. “Let’s go,” I said, “It’s too emotional.” I guess you can’t go home again, or if you do, it’s going to be a shock. I prefer my memories.

And so time has passed, and I need hearing aids and got lost in my hometown. Very jarring, both. And yet time has brought me my grandchildren, new friends and new activities. Old age can stink, but it has its benefits.

Must remember to concentrate on that thought ...

Block Mayors, Ann Morris, Upper West Side Jennifer Peterson, Upper East Side Gail Dubov, Upper West Side Edith Marks, Upper West Side

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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

LEARN

FROM THE

BEST

FALL SPORTS CLASSES AT THE FIELD HOUSE REGISTER TODAY Semester Starts September 10

Thu

3

4

MOSFILM: WAR AND PEACE (PART 1)â&#x2013;˛

TOCA NYC: TRIBAL FUSION

Hudson Park Library, 66 Leroy St. 2 p.m. Free.

The ďŹ rst part of the famous ďŹ lm adaptation of Leo Tolstoyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most renowned novel.

212-243-6876. www.nypl.org/events/ programs/2015/09/03/ mosďŹ lm-war-peace-russianversion-part-1-approx-120-mins

Cielo Club, 18 Little West 12th St. 10 p.m. $20.

An exploration of African Diasporic music, starring DJ Sabine. This event is 21 and over. www.cieloclub.com/ event/937571-toca-nyc-tribalfusion-new-york/

ANGEL REY: A BENEFIT FOR STUPID CANCER

212.336.6520 chelseapiers.com/fh

Fri

Rockwood Music Hall, 185 Orchard St. 6:30 p.m. $15.

Pop fusion artist Angel Rey holds a beneďŹ t concert for Stupid Cancer, a non-proďŹ t organization dedicated to addressing young adult cancer.

This event is 21 and over. www.ticketďŹ&#x201A;y.com/ event/928565

Sat

5

MORE THAN ENOUGH: SIX YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St. 10 p.m. Ladies free before midnight, gents free w/ RSVP before midnight.

The sixth anniversary of More Than Enough, a musically eclectic dance party that celebrates the best that New York City has to offer. This THE CRY - LOST event is 21 and over. RSVP @ ELEMENT morethanenoughnyc@gmail. com.

Mercury Lounge, 217 East 212-505-FISH. www.

Houston St. lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/ 10:30 p.m. $10. more-than-enough-septemberThe Cry is a ďŹ ve-piece pop/ rock band from Portland, inspired 5th-2015/

by British rock and punk from the 60â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and 70â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. This event is 21 and over.

SANKOFA SOUL www.mercuryloungenyc.com/ PRESENTS: TAMBOR event/893999-cry-new-york

AND TRIBE

Santos Party House, 96 Lafayette St.

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

11

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

DUSTBOWL REVIVAL — THE HOT SARDINES

DOWNTOWN UNITED SOCCER CLUB

Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston St. 6:30 p.m. $10.

A tribute to the jazz of the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. This event is 21 and over. www.mercuryloungenyc. com/event/926941-dustbowlrevival-hot-new-york

Wed 11 p.m. $10 before 11:30, $15 after.

An afro/soul musical celebration, featuring Zepherin Saint, Stan Zeff and Sres. This event is 21 and over. www.santospartyhouse.com

Sun

6

FUNKBOX W/ RESIDENT DJ TONY TOUCH▲ Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St. 10 p.m. $15.

Hip Hop icon Tony Touch hits up Le Poisson Rouge for a night of partying. This event is 21 and over.

212-505-FISH. www. lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/ funkbox-september-6th-2015/

LIBRARY HOTSPOT PATRON LENDING EVENT

NAT TOWSEN’S DOWNTOWN VARIETY HOUR

Chatham Square Library, 33 East Broadway 5 p.m. Free.

A collaborative event made to provide free internet access to low-income New Yorkers.

Registration is granted on a first-come, first-served basis.

212-964-6598. www.nypl.org/events/ programs/2015/09/09/libraryhotspot-patron-lending-event

Tue

8

JAPANESE DESIGN TODAY▼

New School University Center, 63 Fifth Ave. 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free.

Art professor Hiroshi HORSE MEAT DISCO Kashiwagi comes to discuss the Cielo Club, 18 Little West evolution of Japanese design.

12th St. RSVP is required.

10 p.m. $35. events.newschool.edu/event/ An electro-dance party, japanese_design_today_ courtesy of the acclaimed British unique_evolving_ DJ collective Horse Meat Disco.

This event is 21 and over. www.cieloclub.com/ event/934905-horse-meatdisco-spank-djs-new-york/ borderless_ with_hiroshi_ kashiwagi_and_ yoshifumi_ nakamura#.

VeHm9b5urzI

Mon

7

9

fresh, modern sound. This event is 21 and over. www.rockwoodmusichall.com

UCB East Village, 153 East Third St. 8 p.m. $5.

An eclectic variety show presented by Nat Towsen, a writer for Vice and CollegeHumor. east.ucbtheatre.com/ performance/41457

GIRLS GOT GAME! DUSC girls attended the Parade in NYC honoring the USWNT that won the World Cup! We are so proud!

We also are proud to be working with the next generation of girls soccer, who knows the ‘Jersey Girls’ of 2015 could be the’ NYC girls’ in World Cup 2031.

Join now to be a part of the next generation of Champions! #WeAreDUSC

NINA RAPPAPORT: VERTICAL URBAN FACTORY Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, 55 West 13th St. Nina Rappaport, author and curator of “Vertical Urban Factory,” comes to discuss design and production processes in the new economy.

RSVP is required. events.newschool.edu/event/ nina_rapaport_-_vertical_ factories#.VeHnPr5urzI

RECREATIONAL LEAGUE

INSTRUCTIONAL CLASSES

Designed to provide a positive environment for girls to grow within the game of soccer providing them the relevant skills needed for soccer, from the fun-

DUSC Soccer classes are guided by our professionally licensed coaching staff.

Whether just starting out, or looking to take your game to the next level.

damentals soccer skills and important character principles; teamwork, effort,

Classes offer programs to sharpen your skills.

perseverance, overcoming set backs as well as handling winning & losing.

Begins

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SPACE IS LIMITED!

REGISTER NOW!

ZEPHANIAH AND THE 18 WHEELERS Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St. 10 p.m. Free.

Zephaniah and the 18 Wheelers are a Brooklyn-based country western group with a

facebook.com/DowntownUnitedSoccerClub twitter.com/DowntownUtdSC instagram.com/DowntownUnited youtube.com/DUSCNYC

DUSC.NET

info@dusc.net

AGES

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$250 Per Player

12

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

George Stubbs (British, 1724-1806).

“Newmarket Heath, with a Rubbing-down House,” ca. 1765.

Oil on canvas; 12 × 16 in. (30.5 × 40.6 cm). Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection WHAT: “Paintings by George Stubbs from the Yale Center for British Art” WHERE: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street).

WHEN: Now through November 8. www. metmuseum.org

HORSE SENSE: THE MET SPORTS A SMALL SHOW OF PAINTINGS BY GEORGE STUBBS The museum struts the 18th century British artist’s animals and hunting scenes

BY VAL CASTRONOVO

“George Stubbs, Painter” was the byline affixed to his famous 1766 book, “The Anatomy of the Horse.” But he was, and is, most often referred to as George Stubbs, the horse painter, a sobriquet that he disliked. Because Stubbs was more than a horse painter, as viewers will see in Gallery 629 on the second floor of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where eight Stubbs beauties are on loan from the Yale Center for British Art, which acquired them from philanthropist and art collector Paul Mellon. The Louis I. Kahn building in New Haven is undergoing renovation and will reopen in 2016.

Now through November 8, the Met is showcasing a genre

that is in short supply on its premises — sporting art. The museum owns only one oil painting by George Stubbs, but it has an impressive stable of portrait paintings by other 18th century British masters — think Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney and Lawrence — and has trotted them out to display opposite Stubbs’ sporting works to highlight the brilliance of the period and evolving tastes.

Stubbs, for his part, was less interested in painting his noble patrons and their aristocratic friends than he was in painting his noble patrons and their aristocratic friends in the company of their racing horses and dogs — or, better still, just the horses and the hounds (he reveled in painting working dogs and pet dogs alike). The human figures in his paintings tend to be dwarfed by,

and compete with, the natural environment and members of the animal kingdom, especially the stallions, the mares, the fillies and the colts. Stubbs had a penchant for exotic animals as well, and was enthralled by the majesty of the English countryside. But he made his money painting horses.

Born in Liverpool in 1724, this son of a currier was self-taught.

He studied human anatomy at York County Hospital in the 1740s and illustrated a treatise on midwifery. He later assumed the onerous task of dissecting horses in a barn in Horkstow, Lincolnshire, a project that consumed him for 18 months from 1756-1758. He would purchase a live horse, bleed it to death by slitting its jugular vein, and then use hooks to suspend the cadaver from an iron bar attached to the ceiling. He settled the horse’s hoofs on a

plank and positioned the dead animal for observation.

Stubbs, who was assisted in this endeavor by Mary Spencer, his common-law wife for more than 50 years, drew what he saw, replacing the models with fresh cadavers every six or seven weeks, “or as long as they were fit for use,” Stubbs told his memoirist, Ozias Humphry, according to an account in Judy Egerton’s catalogue of the artist’s known works. He eventually amassed the material for his study, “The Anatomy of the Horse,” with text and engravings that he prepared himself.

The entrance to the mini-exhibit in Gallery 629 is flanked by the show’s two serene horse paintings, “Turf, with Jockey up, at Newmarket” (ca. 1765) and “Lustre, held by a Groom” (ca. 1762). The former is situated at the fashionable racing center, with bay colt and jockey

anticipating the beginning of a race, framed by a golden rubbing house and a white post.

The rubbing house depicted in “Turf” is commemorated in one of only two genuine landscapes painted by Stubbs, and is impressively on display here: “Newmarket Heath, with a Rubbing-down House” (ca.

1765). The small painting of the blocky building on the heath, containing stalls where the horses were saddled and then rubbed down after the races, is a prime example of Stubbs’ preoccupation with quiet moments — the before and after moments. He leaves the action — the charge of the animals, the frenzied spectators, victory and defeat — to the imagination.

The darker horse painting, “Lustre, held by a Groom,” commemorates the moment when the 1760 chestnut race

winner, Lustre, is turned out to stud. The work is a testament to the symbiotic relationship between horse and groom, both “slightly canted, suggesting the bond between them,” we learn.

But Stubbs’ range is on full view here with his four-part “Shooting Series” (ca. 17671770) documenting a bird hunt from start to finish — two friends, with two pointers, readying their guns, searching for prey, nailing their prey and resting under a canopy of trees with their catch. The figures take a back seat to craggy mountains, grassy expanses and tree trunks. One of the works, “Two Gentlemen Shooting” (ca. 1769), features a wounded partridge falling out of the sky, feet in the air — a curious speck in the far right of the canvas, which to 21st century eyes looks oddly like a drone.

Topping off this micro-survey is “Freeman, the Earl of Clarendon’s gamekeeper, with a dying doe and hound” (1800), considered Stubbs’ most enigmatic work. It’s a haunting scene and makes you yearn for more.

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

13

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Exploring the Experience of Refugees and Migrants in the Mediterranean

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH, 12:30PM The Wild Project | 195 E. 3rd St. | betweentheseas.org Between the Seas, NYC’s only Mediterranean performance festival, dedicates a day to displacement, with staged readings and a panel on “The Intimacy of Identity.” (Free to $10)

Book Launch, Tim Snyder | Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH, 7PM Museum of Jewish Heritage | 36 Battery Pl. | 646-437-4202 | mjhnyc.org Find historian Timothy Snyder in conversation on his new book, which takes a novel look at the Holocaust and why it serves as a warning for the future. ($12)

Just Announced: The Age of Clinton | America in the 1990s

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8TH, 6:30PM New-York Historical Society | 170 Central Park West | 212-873-3400 | nyhistory.org Historian Gil Troy looks at the dramatic changes to America during the prosperous Clinton years.

Correspondent Lesley Stahl moderates. ($34)

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

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

‘SECOND AVENUE SINATRA’ FOUND DEAD Gary Russo, who found fame as a crooner on a construction site, is believed to have committed suicide

BY MICHAEL BALSAMO

A karaoke-loving ironworker who briefly became a New York sensation for his serenades from a subway construction site has been found dead in an apparent suicide, a month after he disappeared from his Queens neighborhood, police said Friday.

Four years after Gary Russo’s brush with fame, the “Second Avenue Sinatra” vanished without a trace after leaving his home shortly after midnight on July 28.

Russo’s family and friends, in a desperate search to find the divorced father of two, plastered fliers with his picture all

over his neighborhood.

On Friday, Aug. 28, around 2 p.m., a passer-by discovered Russo’s body hanging from a tree in a park strewn with reeds in the outer-city neighborhood of Howard Beach, near where Russo lived.

Police suspect the 54-yearold died in a suicide. The city’s medical examiner will determine his cause of death.

Earlier last month, Russo’s car was found abandoned in the same neighborhood.

Russo was helping build the future Second Avenue subway under Manhattan’s Upper East Side in late July 2011 when he began using his lunch breaks to start singing in public, serenading onlookers.

Within a few weeks, Russo was featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and MSNBC

host Rachel Maddow declared him “The Best New Thing in the World Today.”

But his stardom was shortlived. Russo was transferred to another job site about a month later.

Friends said Russo still performed at some small venues and gave motivational speeches.

But he didn’t seem like himself recently, friend Apryl Nebozenko told The Associated Press earlier this month, remarking that Russo seemed drained at a party she had in July.

Nebozenko said Russo had been renovating a houseboat and working on a play about his life.

Attempts to reach Russo’s family late Friday night were unsuccessful.

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Terms apply.

14

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

In Brief DYLAN’S CANDY BAR HEADED FOR UNION SQUARE Dylan’s Candy Bar is coming to Union Square, the New York Daily News reported. The candy purveyor, which opened its flagship location on Third Avenue and 60th Street in 2001, opened the doors of its new, 33 Union Square West location on Sept. 1. In addition to the familiar, brightly-hued candy selections, the new, 3,300-square-foot location will serve pastries and other sweet baked treats from local brands, including Amy’s Bread and Ceci-Cela, each morning from 7-11 a.m. The location also offers a selection of locallymade sweets, such as Jars by Dani, mini cakes served in mason jars. Operated by Dylan Lauren, the candy chain also has outposts in Miami, Chicago, Los Angles, and other U.S. cities.

NEW MICHAEL WHITE RESTAURANT OPENS ON UPPER EAST SIDE Michael White’s latest restaurant Vaucluse is now open at 100 E. 63rd St., Eater reported. Located in the former home of Park Avenue Summer, which changed its name and menu with each season, Vaucluse’s two entirely renovated dining rooms seat about 80 people each. Chef Jared Gadbaw, also of White’s restaurant Marea, runs the kitchen and the menu is mostly French, featuring beef tartare, escargots, herbroasted chicken and plenty of seafood, along with house-made pastas. White, who operates the Altamarea restaurant group, has 12 restaurants in New York and abroad, and is known mostly for his Italian fare.

TEEN CHEF OPENING DOWNTOWN RESTAURANT A 16-year-old chef is doing what many aspiring chefs twice his age have yet to accomplish: opening his own restaurant in New York. Flynn McGarry, whose supper club that he operated out of his San Fernando Valley home landed him a New York Times magazine cover story at age 15, will open an east coast iteration of the concept called Eureka on Sept. 12, Food and Wine reported. The restaurant, which operates out of the Creative Edge catering company at 639 Washington St. in the West Village three days a week, will feature a 14-course, $160 per-person tasting menu with seating for 12 guests each night. The menu includes brined sea urchin with pickled carrots and his handmade peanut Ritz crackers with foie gras and cherry compote.

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

Food & Drink A TREASURE FROM LATE SUMMER BOUNTY Tomatoes

BY SARA MOULTON

If you’re like me, you believe that a fresh, ripe tomato is one of the best things about summer. And this tart is an ode to the tomato in season — and a lesson about how to make the most of it.

Let’s start with how to choose the best tomatoes. First, pick up your candidate, smell the stem and confirm that it smells strongly like a tomato. Next, figure out if it is juicy by hefting it. You want a heavy tomato; if it’s heavy, it’s juicy.

On the chance that you buy more tomatoes than you plan to eat right away, store the extras on a counter away from the sunlight. Do not put them on a sunny windowsill, which can make them rot. Likewise, don’t put them in the refrigerator, which can kill their flavor if they’re not already ripe and make them mealy after a few days.

If you bought a few tomatoes that weren’t quite ripe and you want to speed up the process, put them in a brown paper bag with a banana.

The ethylene gas given off by both the tomatoes and the banana will do the trick.

Do not seed the tomatoes. Once upon a time we routinely seeded them, a nod to the French ideal of finesse, which decreed that seeds were crude. Years later, I read a story in Cook’s Illustrated magazine that persuaded me that discarding the seeds is a mistake. Apparently, the seeds and the jelly surrounding them are the most flavorful parts of the tomato. And — bonus! — you save a bunch of prep time when you don’t bother to remove the seeds.

One of the main reasons we love tomatoes in season is because they’re so juicy. That’s great when we eat them raw, not so great when we’re making a tomato pie. How to keep juicy tomatoes from turning that pie into a watery mess? By slicing and salting them ahead of time. The salt delivers a one-two punch, draining the tomato of its excess liquid and concentrating its natural flavors.

Though tomatoes are terrific all

Photo: Liz West by themselves, they also get along famously with a cornucopia of other ingredients, starting with virtually every herb under the sun and moving on to just about any cheese you care to name. This recipe calls for Gruyere, but you’re welcome to swap in sharp cheddar, mozzarella or even feta. Point is, feel free to experiment with different herbs and cheeses that melt. Make this recipe your own.

Tomatoes are so meaty and satisfying that I’m sure everyone — even die-hard carnivores — will be happy to see a slice or two of this pie set down for lunch, maybe with a simple green salad on the side. And picnickers take note: This tart happens to be as scrumptious served at room temperature as it is hot right out of the oven. ___ SUMMER’S END TOMATO TART Start to finish: 2 hours 55 minutes (30 minutes active) Servings: 8 All-purpose flour, for rolling out the dough 1 pie dough (recipe below) or 12 ounces store-bought pie dough 1 1/2 pounds large tomatoes Kosher salt 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Dijon

mustard 1 1/2 cups coarsely grated Gruyere cheese 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 garlic clove, finely minced 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs, such as mint, basil, thyme, chives, tarragon or a mix On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie dough until 1/8 inch thick.

Transfer the dough to a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, easing the dough into the pan and pressing it into the corners. Trim off any excess dough hanging over the edge. Prick the dough all over with a fork, then chill it for 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 375 F. Line the pie shell with foil and fill it with pie weights, dried beans or rice. Bake in the lower third of the oven until it is opaque throughout, about 25 minutes. Carefully remove the weights and foil. Return the shell to the oven and bake until light golden, about another 8 minutes.

Transfer the tart shell to a rack and let it cool 15 minutes.

While the tart shell is baking, slice the tomatoes 1/3 inch thick, sprinkle them liberally with salt, then arrange them on a wire rack to drain over the sink or a rimmed baking sheet.

Increase the oven temperature to 400 F. Spread the mustard evenly over the bottom of the tart shell, then sprinkle the cheese over it. Pat the tomatoes dry and arrange them over the cheese in one overlapping layer. Bake on the oven’s middle shelf until the pastry is golden brown and the tomatoes are very soft, 35 to 40 minutes.

In a small bowl, stir together the olive oil, garlic and herbs. Sprinkle the pie with this mixture while it is still hot, spreading the mixture gently with the back of a spoon. Serve the pie hot or at room temperature.

Nutrition information per serving: 370 calories; 230 calories from fat (62 percent of total calories); 26 g fat (14 g saturated; 0.5 g trans fats); 60 mg cholesterol; 570 mg sodium; 24 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 2 g sugar; 9 g protein. ___ PIE DOUGH Start to finish: 1 hour 15 minutes (15 minutes active) Make 1 batch pie dough 1 1/2 cups (6.4 ounces) all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon table salt 10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 2 to 4 tablespoons ice water In a large bowl, stir together the flour and the salt. Add the butter and, working quickly, use your fingertips or a pastry blender to mix the dough until most of mixture resembles coarse meal, with the rest in small (roughly pea-size) lumps.

Drizzle 2 tablespoons of ice water evenly over the mixture and use a fork to gently stir until incorporated.

Gently squeeze a small handful of the dough. It should hold together without crumbling apart.

If it doesn’t, add more ice water, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, stirring 2 or 3 times after each addition until it comes together. Be careful: If you overwork the mixture or add too much water the pastry will be tough.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface. With the heel of your hand, smear in a forward motion on the work surface to help distribute the fat. Gather the smeared dough together and form it, rotating it on the work surface, into a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic, then chill until firm, at least 1 hour. ___ Sara Moulton was executive chef at Gourmet magazine for nearly 25 years, and spent a decade hosting several Food Network shows. She currently stars in public television’s “Sara’s Weeknight Meals” and has written three cookbooks.

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

15

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS AUG 11 - 27, 2015 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods.

Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml.

The Green Table(Chelsea Market)

428 West 16 Street

A

Mapi

1 West 13 Street

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 Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.

Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

149 8 Avenue

A

Yakiniku Futago

37 W 17Th St

A

Dallas Bbq

261 8 Avenue

Grade Pending (23) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

Subway

300 W 17Th St

A

Incognito Bistro

30 West 18 Street

A

The New School

55 West 13 Street

A

Subway/Roebeks

47 W 14Th St

A

C Bao Asian Buns & More

108 W 14Th St

Not Yet Graded (29) Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.

Nanking

63 W 14 Street

A

Kgb Bar

85 East 4 Street

A

Chipotle Mexican Grill

117 East 14 Street

A

Cafe Orlin

41 St Marks Place

A

Bite

211 East 14 Street

A

Heart Of India

77 2 Avenue

A

Saigon Market

9193 University Place

Grade Pending (41) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

Legislation Would Protect Grocery Store Workers and Our Communities

By Stuart Appelbaum, President Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW

I

n December 2013, workers at the Trade Fair Supermarket in Queens found out they’d be getting coal for the holidays.

The 50 hardworking men and women at the store reported to work, only to find out that the store had suddenly been sold – and that they were now jobless and had to leave the property immediately. The new owner was under no obligation to hire them back, and longtime shoppers at the store now had unfamiliar faces handling their food and tasked with keeping the store clean.

This is just one example of how grocery store workers can be left out in the cold when supermarkets change hands, and how working and health standards in our communities can suddenly take a hit when new ownership moves in at old stores.

Now, we have an opportunity to protect workers from this type of injustice in New York City, as well as protect consumers and their families in our communities. The Grocery Worker Retention Act, legislation that is currently before the New York City Council, would mandate that when a grocery store is sold, the new ownership would keep current store employees for a 90-day transitional period. The law would bring much-needed job security to the over 50,000 New Yorkers who work in the supermarket industry and give consumers confidence that food safety is a priority in grocery stores.

By requiring that grocery stores retain their employees, workers would be protected during the transition period. They’d be able to show the new owners that their familiarity with the job and the store’s customers is an asset and they’d be given time to look for other work while remaining employed. There wouldn’t be a sudden and harsh deprivation of wages like those at Fair Trade suffered.

Shoppers at these stores would know that their grocery store would continue to be staffed by workers who understand the industry and are good at their jobs. Experienced grocery workers have knowledge of proper sanitation procedures, health regulations, and understanding of the clientele and communities they serve. That’s invaluable for grocery store shoppers.

By requiring that

Kfc

242 E 14Th St

Grade Pending (22) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

Amsterdam Billiards

85 4 Avenue

A

Chipotle Mexican Grill

864 Broadway

Grade Pending (25) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Filth flies or food/ refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

Bully’s Deli

759 Broadway

Grade Pending (26) Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/ sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. 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.

Bravo Pizza

115 East 14 Street

A

Royal Bangladesh Indian Restaurant

93 1 Avenue

Grade Pending (10) Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Starbucks Coffee

219 1 Avenue

A

Beyond Sushi

227229 E 14Th St

A

For more information, visit

White Oak Tavern

21 Waverly Pl

A

www.rwdsu.org

A similar law has been in place in Los Angeles since 2005, and a statewide grocery store worker retention law just went into effect statewide in California this summer.

New York City needs to join the movement of protecting workers and communities in an industry that has seen too much exploitation, wage theft, and unfair treatment of a largely immigrant workforce.

“

grocery stores retain their employees, workers would be protected during change of ownership, and shoppers would know that their grocery store would continue to be staffed by experienced employees.

“

16

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

AFTER 48 YEARS, A SHOW IS CLOSING The fashion boutique Off Broadway starred the late style icon Lynn Dell Cohen

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

Lynn Dell Cohen shortly before her passing June 2. Credit: Tennavision Co.

Longtime salesperson Pat Taub with almost equally longtime customer Barbara Smith. Photo: Dan Fitzsimmons

Another piece of old, elegant New York is vanishing. Off Broadway, the women’s fashion boutique specializing in the unique and glamorous, will close its doors in mid-September after 48 years on West 72nd Street. The boutique is a victim of a rent increase following the death of its founder, Lynn Dell Cohen, a style icon and storied denizen of the Upper West Side.

“This is it, the end of 48 years,” said Pat Taub, a friend of Cohen’s who’s functioned as the primary salesperson at Off Broadway for 36 years.

The store is currently liquidizing its inventory, and pretty much anything else. In the back are racks of sun hats and feather boas. Mirrors lining the walls give the impression that the space is much bigger than it actually is. Clothing racks with items from a bygone — and perhaps more fabulous — era sit next to empty display cases and mannequins that are also being offered for sale.

In the front are photos of Cohen with various New York luminaries such as Michael Bloomberg and Al Roker, as well as several signed photographs of the leading models of the 1970s and 80s.

Opposite is a nearly barren jewelry display case, out of which Taub has been methodically selling articles faux and fine the past few weeks.

“We’ve been doing great,” said Taub.

“I’d be lying if I said anything else than that.”

A longtime customer of Cohen’s said the place looks like a ghost town.

“I’m going to miss this store,” said Barbara Smith, who by Taub’s estimation has been shopping at Off Broadway for three decades. “I must own half the jewelry.”

Keith Cohen, Lynn Dell’s son, said the store simply could not go on without her. His mother believed that a boutique should be an extension of the individual, “where merchandising is not geared for the customer but actually the customer seek out the individual taste or persona of the owner,” he said. “And she traveled the world finding fashions and getting ideas from everywhere: Milan, Paris, India, Nepal and Morocco.”

Cohen was also not above giving local artists a shot too. Each week she would set up a table at the front of the boutique and view clothing and accessories from fashion students and other aspiring designers, and if they were of sufficient quality and style, feature them in the store.

“She made some of them very famous,” Keith Cohen said. “You had designers from Pratt and FIT, and people who were really just trying to get a start come in.

Sometimes she would give them a shot

and some of them have done very well over the years.”

Laura Geller Cosmetics, for instance, was a beneficiary of Cohen’s policy after she set aside a small area of the boutique for the makeup designer when Geller was first starting out.

Cohen was a style icon for decades, especially for the older crowd, and was featured in a documentary called “Advanced Style” about stylish octogenarians in Manhattan.

“I am dressed up for the theater of my life every day,” she says in the film. “I get such a kick out of it.”

Her style and personality was so inextricably linked to the DNA of Off Broadway that the store could not survive without her, despite an attempt of about two months after she passed on June 2.

She was 82.

“It can’t really be duplicated,” Keith Cohen said. “My mom was there almost every day, setting up her little table in front, talking to the customers right up until her passing.”

Taub said the biggest change she’s seen in the neighborhood is the small business exodus as rents creep ever upward.

“How many more nail places could you have? How many more drugstores? How many more banks?” she said. “It’s not just here, it’s everywhere. The landlords are too greedy. Something has to stop.

Something will happen.”

Keith Cohen said the landlord was very kind to his mother, but the day she was buried was the same day he received an email asking for a 36 percent rent increase, “which made it almost impossible for me to carry on,” he said. “I tried to find somebody to buy it and take it over, but it would never be the same.”

So what exactly was so special about Off Broadway and the clothes that Cohen picked for sale?

“She brought the unusual and different,” Taub said. “You came here because you knew you wanted something different. Look around, there’s no store like this, never was. Everything looks sameold same.”

Taub, who met Cohen when she was working as a model in the late 1970s, said she plans on being a life coach and style consultant.

“It’s sad in a way because you work here so long, but my life goes on now,” said Taub. “I learned a lot. There’s a beginning for all of us, a middle, and there’s an ending. This is the end and [Off Broadway] had a great run. Not many stores are going to have that.”

She said many of Off Broadway’s clients are still looking for guidance on how to reflect their zest for life in the way they dress, the way Lynn Dell Cohen did.

“She lived her life full,” said Taub. “She dressed up every day as if she was going to a big party.”

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

17

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com CITY OF NEW YORK COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT – DISASTER RECOVERY NATIONAL DISASTER RESILIENCE COMPETITION – PHASE 2 NOTICE OF PROPOSED APPLICATION AND PUBLIC HEARING

Real Estate Sales Neighborhd

Address

Price

Battery Park City

300 Rector Place

$470,000

Battery Park City

212 Warren Street

$2,800,187

Battery Park City

2 South End Avenue

$560,000

Battery Park City

212 Warren Street

$2,805,278

Battery Park City

212 Warren Street

$2,543,079

Battery Park City

212 Warren Street

$3,966,083

Battery Park City

200 Rector Place

$220,000

Battery Park City

212 Warren Street

$2,575,000

Battery Park City

212 Warren Street

$3,986,448

Battery Park City

212 Warren Street

$2,795,096

Battery Park City

380 Rector Place

$1,300,000

Battery Park City

212 Warren Street

$1,512,101

Chelsea

319 West 18 Street

$545,000

Chelsea

140 7 Avenue

$1,388,887

Chelsea

200 West 20 Street

$515,000

Chelsea

234 West 21 Street

$1,499,999

Chelsea

201 West 21 Street

$895,000

Chelsea

100 West 15 Street

$515,000

Chelsea

148 West 23 Street

$570,000

Chelsea

127 West 15 Street

$737,172

East Village

645 East 11 Street

$715,000

East Village

513 East 11 Street

$1,800,000

East Village

226 East 2 Street

$549,000

East Village

277 East 7 Street

$1,629,200

East Village

160 East 3 Street

$1,250,000

East Village

216 East 12 Street

$546,820

East Village

114 East 13 Street

$1,271,415

East Village

149 Avenue C

$610,000

East Village

115 4 Avenue

$1,875,000

Financial District

120 Greenwich Street

$739,000

Financial District

88 Greenwich Street

$699,000

Financial District

20 Pine Street

$845,000

Financial District

20 West Street

$800,000

Financial District

80 John Street

$1,425,000

Financial District

75 Wall Street

$1,150,000

Flatiron

16 West 16 Street

$725,000

Flatiron

260 Park Avenue South

$2,672,500

Bed Bath Agent

TO RESIDENTS, BUSINESS OWNERS, GROUPS, COMMUNITY BOARDS AND AGENCIES: New York City (the City) is participating in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC). NDRC will competitively award nearly $1 billion in HUD CDBG-Disaster Recovery funds to an initial 67 eligible communities nationwide. The competition will help communities recover from prior disasters (declared in 2011, 2012, and 2013), and improve their ability to withstand and recover more quickly from future disasters, hazards, stresses and shocks. The Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency (ORR) is leading the application process for the City for funds relating to the presidentially-declared disaster of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The Competition’s application is divided into two phases. In the first phase, the City described its unmet resiliency needs stemming from Hurricane Sandy. HUD accepted the City’s first phase application and the City has moved to Phase 2, where it identifies specific projects for which it seeks funds. In Phase 2, the City will use this competition to strengthen social and economic resiliency in climate-vulnerable communities, to upgrade buildings, to adapt the region’s infrastructure system, and to enhance the city’s coastal defenses in response to the evolving risks associated with climate change and other 21st century threats.

Lower Manhattan and its residents remain vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and sea level rise. The City’s proposed project, “Protect and Connect,” will focus on coastal resiliency in Lower Manhattan. The proposed project will systematically integrate physical and social resiliency into the diverse communities of Lower Manhattan and Two Bridges through the implementation of physical projects, programs, and policies that will: provide integrated flood protection to maintain the social and economic viability of neighborhoods; and invest in resilient affordable housing by adapting building systems and neighborhood infrastructure to protect homes from climate stressors.

The comment period on the proposed Phase 2 National Disaster Resilience Competition application will begin on September 4, 2015 at 12:00 AM (EST). Comments must be received no later than October 3, 2015 at 11:59 PM (EST). The proposed Phase 2 National Disaster Resilience Competition application and the public commenting forms are available at http://www.nyc.gov/cdbg.

Individuals will be able to read the application and comment on the amendment in English, Spanish, Russian and Chinese (simplified).

The online materials will also be accessible for the visually impaired.

2

2

Corcoran

2

1

Douglas Elliman

The Public Hearing for the proposed Phase 2 Application has been scheduled for the date and location listed below. The hearing is subject to change. Please call 311 or check http://www.nyc.gov/cdbg for the most updated information.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 AT 7:00 PM (EST) SOUTHBRIDGE TOWERS COMMUNITY ROOM 90 BEEKMAN STREET (ENTERANCE BY SQUIRE’S DINER) NEW YORK, NY 10038 Paper copies of the Phase 2 Application, including in large print format (18pt font size), are available at the following address in both English and the languages listed above: New York City Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency 253 Broadway, 10th Floor New York, NY 10007

1

1

Corcoran

Written comments may be directed to Jessica Colon, Senior Policy Advisor, NYC Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency, 253 Broadway, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10007. Comments may be provided by telephone by contacting 311, New York City's main source of government information and non-emergency services. Dial 311 or (212) NEW-YORK (212-639-9675) from outside New York City. For more information on how people with disabilities can access and comment on the Application, dial 311 or, using a TTY or Text Telephone, (212) 504-4115.

At the end of the comment period, all comments shall be reviewed. A summary of the comments and a list of commenters will be submitted to HUD along with the Phase 2 Application.

City of New York: Bill de Blasio, Mayor Daniel Zarrilli, Director, Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency Date: September 3, 2015

1

1

Bien Realty Ltd

Now Get Real Time Bus, Subway & Alternate Side Parking Information Here

Downtown Sales Snapshot Number of contracts signed so far in the second quarter

STUDIOS

$0 - $600k

$600x - $1M

$1M-$2M

$2M-$5M

$5M-$10M

$10M+

40

35

7

3

1

-

1 BED

31

86

84

17

-

-

2 BEDS

-

31

65

94

15

-

3+ BEDS

1

2

6

37

33

11

TOWNHOUSE

-

-

-

-

3

1

Median Sales Price STUDIOS

600,000

1 BED

999,000

2 BEDS

1,850,000

3 BEDS

4,100,000

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.

otdowntown.com Source: UrbanDigs LLC

Your Neighborhood News The local paper for Downtown

18

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

A GREEN DREAM DEFERRED Colin Rath aspired to build a sustainable condo development in the city; he wrote about it instead

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

Colin Rath and his family in front of 121 West 15th St.

would eventually recuperate.

But the accident brought in the regulatory cavalry, and so began Rath’s travails. The ordeal is laid out in his book, “It Is What It Is — A True Manhattan Real Estate Nightmare With A Silver Lining,” which he published in May. Rath, a transplant from Chicago, moved east in 1992 to run the family’s direct mail marketing business in Stamford. He lived in Manhattan to avoid the “slow death” of living in the suburbs. He and Pam married in 1996, the same year they bought their first building at 121 West 15th St., which they lived in and subsequently renovated. They then bought the adjacent property at 123 West 15th St. and made plans for the green dream.

But all that was put on hold after the schist wall collapsed. Rath said that you call an ambulance to a construction site, the fire department automatically responds and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is automatically notified.

“The accident brought in OSHA and every investigator in New York State,” Rath said.

The agency shut down the site pending an investigation, which eventually found that Richie, in a bid to save time and money, had not driven the pilings

Colin Rath remembers the call — almost a decade ago now — that derailed his dream and set him on a hellish course of extreme debt and legal jeopardy. It was pouring rain that morning in November 2006, and the radio said the West Side Highway was flooded. For Rath, who reversecommuted from Manhattan to Stamford, that meant taking FDR Drive to I-95 while dodging overconfident SUV drivers in the downpour.

Back in Manhattan he was two years deep and behind schedule on a project to build a fully sustainable, eight-story condominium building that would cantilever over an adjacent property 20 feet to the east. Included in the construction would be two geothermal wells, passive solar radiant heating, reclaimed natural materials, modular construction, a car lift to a private garage and folding glass doors, all in an ultra-modern design.

“It was the green dream on steroids,” said Rath.

In order to support the weight of the cantilevered portion, concrete pilings would be driven eight to 12 feet below the basement floor, which was built in 1853 and made of chunks of old schist stacked and mortared together.

Rath’s contractor, Richie of a company called Plumb Level and Square, had already dug out five feet below the schist foundation, and had a cement pour scheduled that was threatened by the rain, a potentially serious setback on a project that was already very behind schedule. A worker named Ace had arrived at the site at 5 a.m. to assess the situation. Rath’s phone rang a little over two hours later. It was his wife.

“Pam, what’s up?” he said.

“It’s not good, Colin.

Ace got hurt. Pretty bad,” Pam said.

“The guy on Richie’s crew?”

“Right. That old schist wall let go and he was under it. He’s lucky to be alive,” Pam replied.

Ace was taken to nearby Saint Vincent’s Hospital. he published in May. He had broken his foot and The cover of Colin Rath’s book, which

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015 down to bedrock.

“We had to investigate all the foundation pilings, and it turned out none of them went down to bedrock,” Rath said. “We had to redo the whole foundation.”

Rath said had the accident not occurred and construction continued, the cantilevered portion of the building would have most certainly collapsed. “He defrauded me and did not build the foundation down to bedrock,” he said. “No matter what, it would have fallen down.”

Rath’s initial vision was cuttingedge in the budding green building movement. It attracted the attention of filmmakers who signed on to record the process and produce a documentary, which is where his book originated. But as things took a turn for the worse, the book and film became less about sustainable building and more about surviving a Kafkaesque misadventure in Manhattan real estate.

“Perseverance is the message of the book,” Rath said.

After the investigation concluded, Rath spent another $3 million to redo the foundation. But in the spring of 2007 the financial collapse hit, which cut off his access to funds he needed to finish the project. He and Pam wound up leveraging their home at 121 West 15th St., which still was not enough.

At the height of the ordeal, Rath was facing more than two dozen lawsuits from creditors, business partners and contractors.

“We were at our lowest when we got foreclosed on by our bank, and were threatened to be thrown out of our home,” he said. “We had 27 lawsuits against us, and numerous creditors because we used everything we had to keep this going.”

But as suggested by the book’s title, Rath’s story has an upside.

The silver lining turned up when the state courts threw out a $2.7 million mortgage on 123 West 15th St. It turned out that the bank, due to a series of convoluted mortgage transfers on the secondary market, could not prove they owned the property. This allowed Rath to sell his condo and extricate his family from financial and legal ruin.

“We really had no choice, we had to persevere,” said Rath, who at the time of this interview with a reporter was sailing with his family around the Isle of Wight in England. “You either lie dead and you never get up, or you keep on going through and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel someplace down there. You’ve just got to keep on pushing through.”

Rath’s book is available on Amazon.com or through his website at terrapinindustries. com.

SEPTEMBER 3-9,2015

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100 PROTEST INACTION ON HORSE CARRIAGES Attendees say they are dismayed by de Blasio’s failure to follow through on pledges

BY MICKEY KRAMER

Just as the sun set last Friday, about 100 people lit up most of 59th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues with a candlelight vigil in tribute, they said, to carriage horses that have either been hurt or killed on city streets and worldwide.

Some held posters that called out Mayor Bill de Blasio on his failure to fulfil campaign and post-election pledges to ban horse-drawn carriages.

“Mayor de Blasio Sold Out the Carriage Horses,” some of the posters read.

The vigil was organized by Elizabeth Forel, who founded the Coalition to Ban HorseDrawn Carriages, which has been fighting for a citywide ban since 2006. The coalition’s vice president, Mary Culpepper said, “We’re here to bring to light the inherent suffering that carriage horses face and express great disappointment in Mayor de Blasio for reneging on his promise.”

Stacey Szewczyk, who held a poster in one hand and her leashed Chihuahua-mix, Nico, in the other, said she was chagrined to see the horses endure as much as they do as they trot among cars and buses yeararound.

“It breaks my heart to see these horses in the summer heat and humidity ... breathing in all the car exhausts, and standing and walking in the freezing cold, as well,” she said.

De Blasio, she said, had alienated a core group of supporters. “He and it infuriates me,” she said of his not carrying out his promises. “That is why I for voted him.”

Most carriage horse drivers asked about the vigil and its purpose declined comment for

About 100 people attended the vigil on Central Park South. Photo: Mary Culpepper the story but one, Frank Topcu, acknowledged that calamities are part and parcel of his occupation.

“It’s bad, but accidents happen,” he said just after dropping off two women and their children after a ride that concluded near Central Park.

But Topcu, 32, said he had been driving the same horse, Winston, for three years and had not had any accidents in his nine years on the job.

Jennifer Dickens, one of the two women, who visiting from Jacksonville, Florida, said the companions had opted for a carriage ride — their first — in honor of her daughter’s birthday. They all enjoyed the experience, she said.

But Forel countered that mak-

ing the industry safe or even humane was next to impossible. Citing a litany of shortcomings with the industry, she said that horses are prey animals that can spook easily, which can make them dangerous. She added that carriage horses have no daily turnout to pasture, as they would natu-

rally prefer. She said that 60 to 70 horses fall off the Department of Health rolls, with no accurate record of where they end up.

Natasha Brenner, 93, who made the trip from her home on the Lower East Side to participate in the vigil, said that she too was dismayed by de Blasio

failure to carry out his pledge.

“I had to be here to speak up for the horses,” she said while standing with the aid of a cane. “De Blasio has not kept his promise, and I truly hope it doesn’t take a human fatality for him and the City Council to step it up to end this antiquated industry. I hope I can see it end

during my lifetime.”

While not yet encouraged that de Blasio would fulfil his assurances, Forel called the vigil a “resounding success.”

“I have a very persistent and tenacious personality and do not give up easily,” she said.

“We will continue fighting for these wonderful horses.”

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YOUR 15 MINUTES

To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes

NEW YORK CITY HISTORY GETS PERSONAL Author Laura Pedersen discusses her new book on our one-of-a-kind city

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

Laura Pedersen came to New York City in 1984, at a time when people carried wallets filled with mugger money and Central Park was home to dope peddlers. Renters looked for apartment ads in The Village Voice and a pizza slice and a subway ride both cost 75 cents.

In her book, “Life in New York: How I Learned to Love Squeegee Men, Token Suckers, Trash Twisters, and Subway Sharks,” she also revisits the history of the city dating back to 1626 when Manhattan was bought from the Indians as a 24-dollar trade. And because her grandfather came here in the 1920s and her father was born here in the decade that followed, she provides us with secondhand accounts of events like her grandfather watching the Empire State Building being constructed and her

father riding the elevated railway above Third Avenue.

A Buffalo native, Pedersen began her career here as the youngest person with a seat on the American Stock Exchange. Throughout her 30 years in Manhattan, she has built quite an impressive and varied resume. Besides penning 15 books, she worked on The Joan Rivers Show as Rivers’ assistant and her play “The Brightness of Heaven” ran at the iconic Cherry Lane Theatre last year.

putting cards in a machine all day long. The reporters would mark them. And when I put a card in the machine, it would send the information to go on the ticker tape all around the world. I felt like such a cog in the wheels of international finance. If I didn’t put that card in, that trade wouldn’t go up on a ticker tape around the world.

It was a lot of responsibility.

You got a job at the Stock Exchange when you were 20. How did that come about?

Yeah, that always seemed a bit much. That was kind of a favorite headline which was never my first choice. I managed to go to Wall Street at the beginning of the biggest bull market in history, which I had no idea I was doing. I got there in 1984 and if you look at a chart, stocks started going up after that. It was dumb luck ... I was not the first woman to have a seat, but I knew her and she had just gotten it a few years before. She was the first woman and I was the youngest.

I left the Buffalo area — we were in a very bad recession and unemployment was worse in Buffalo than the rest of the country. Opportunities in New York City were better. I called to see if they were hiring entry-level positions at the Stock Exchange and they were. And I applied for one. It was just

You wrote about that experience in your first book, “Play Money,” and it revealed that you eventually became a millionaire.

How did you research the history of the city?

Well I have this connection that my grandfather had come to New York City in the 1920s.

And my father was born there in the 1930s. And my grandfather remained, so they were this great connector back almost 100 years. ... My grandfather would tell me about working in New York in the 1920s and ‘30s and on Long Island in the ‘50s and what it was like. My dad went to school in Manhattan and was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. They were my connections to the past and laid the groundwork.

And my dad would talk about the old Penn Station and my grandfather would talk about living on a nickel a day.

He laughed so hard about the book on New York on five dollars a day, which was popular in the ‘80s. He said, “Oh, I did much better than that.”

And he watched the Empire State Building go up. He’d have lunch or dinner out there when he was working in the restaurant or when he had a couple days of unemployment. I put this in

the book, they would use the Indian tribes who were not very afraid of heights and he talked to one of them. And the man said, “We’re just as scared as the next person, but we take a lot of pride in our ability to do this.” And then the guy pointed up and said, “See that guy over there in the red shirt? That’s a woman. Her husband is sick and he doesn’t want to lose this job.”

You wrote that the Second Avenue subway project actually began in 1920.

It’s been a work-in-progress for almost 100 years now. And when you look at China building five or ten expensive subways all in one year, it does make us look down at our feet.

But, as I said, a lot of people say, “New Yorkers don’t like children. It’s not a child-friendly city.” And I say, “We love children. We’re building a subway for our children’s children.”

I doubt I’ll ever get to ride the Second Avenue subway. And yeah, my whole neighborhood has been torn up for years now.

All my favorite restaurants have been forced to close down.

And we’re suffering because that’s how much we love children.

In your section on the plethora of parades here, you speak of the Danish Day Parade that you created.

Yeah, we don’t get a parade!

I guess we’re just too small a country. I could see a big LEGO float, couldn’t you? It started because I grew up in Buffalo where we have one of the biggest St. Patrick Day Parades in the country and one of the biggest Pulaski Day Parades in the country. So I said to my dad when I was little, because he’s first generation, his parents were both born in Copenhagen, Denmark, when’s our parade? He said, “It’s just us, when we walk out of the house, it’s a parade.” When I got to New York City, everybody had a parade, there were hundreds of parades. And yet, we still didn’t have one. So I go up to church one Sunday every summer with my Danish flag, Danish butter cookies and Danish stickers and tell everybody, “It’s the Danish Day Parade today.”

What was it like to work with Joan?

I have a background in standup comedy, so I really enjoyed working with her on material.

She had a meticulous file cabinet. You have to remember, she was a comedian before the internet and computers. We were in the process of translating onto the computer, but in the old days the jokes were all on 3 by 5 cards in these enormous file cabinets and they were all triple referenced. You know, jokes about Elizabeth Taylor would be under “fat,” “Elizabeth Taylor” and “celebrities.”

I worked with a lot of comedians and many of the good ones don’t write much of their own material, but she did. She was very bright and graduated at the top of her class. On the weekends, she wasn’t actually watching reality shows, she was watching documentaries on the Civil War or whatever new 800-page nonfiction book that came out, she’d be the first to have that. She broke so many doors for women comedians, whether you like her style or not ... I just give her a lot of credit. She worked through a tremendous amount of adver-

sity and sexism. And the fact that she didn’t get the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, I wrote a couple of letters to them. I said that she paved the way. When they gave it to Tina Fey a couple of years ago, I said, “That’s great. She’s a very deserving young woman who has a great future ahead of her.

But let’s give it to Joan Rivers, who made a lot of that possible.” She was a nice lady. When my grandfather was in the hospital she sent flowers and signed it “Joan Rivers.” Now, in her personal correspondence at the time, her husband had just recently died, so she still used “Joan Rosenberg.” The reason she sent those flowers was so all the nurses at that station would see flowers from Joan Rivers, think that he was someone important, and give him the best care possible. www.laurapedersenbooks.com

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

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“I WISH SOMEONE WOULD HELP THAT HOMELESS MAN.”

BE THE SOMEONE. Sam New York Cares Volunteer

Every day, we think to ourselves that someone should really help make this city a better place. Visit newyorkcares.org to learn about the countless ways you can volunteer and make a difference in your community.

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