The local paper for Downtown wn OUR NEW REAL ESTATE LISTINGS < P.17
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER
24-30 2015
MANHATTAN’S LOOMING TRAFFIC PROBLEM Traffic congestion set to worsen as, among other issues, MTA delays and funding gaps persist BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
Traffic in Times Square. Average speeds in Manhattan decreased by 9 percent during a recent five-year period and are projected to slow even more. Photo: joiseyshowaa, via Flickr
With private and for-hire vehicles, yellow cabs, trucks, buses, bicyclists and pedestrians all vying for room in which to travel, the city’s roads, particularly in Manhattan, have never been more crowded. Between 2010 and 2014, average travel speeds within Manhattan slowed by 9 percent, according to figures from the borough president’s office. Some of that slowdown is attributable to the 25,000 forhire vehicles, many of which operate in Manhattan’s cen-
transit delays – and even more commuters turning to car services. Brewer convened eight panels representing various stakeholders in Manhattan’s traffic landscape, from alternative transportation advocates and bus operators to the American Automobile Association and the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission. Also included in the mix was Uber, which recently beat back a proposal by Mayor Bill de Blasio to impose a cap on the number of vehicles it can operate, and is poised to scrap with City Hall again over dueling congestion studies set to be released by the company and the de Blasio administration.
tral business district below 59th Street, that have hit the streets since 2011. Add to that 2,000 new forhire vehicle registrations received each month by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, and what gets conjured is a permanent, citywide bottleneck. So far, traffic congestion adds up to $16 billion in lost economic activity each year, according to Manhattan borough President Gale Brewer’s office. At a meeting last week to address the issue, Brewer warned that the MTA’s seemingly intractable budget gap of at least $11.5 billion would likely result in increased mass
A major theme of the hearing was identifying small ways traffic congestion could be alleviated, ideas that were repeatedly referred to as “lowhanging fruit.” Each group had different - and occasionally opposing — ideas on the causes and remedies of traffic congestion. For residents, the ubiquity of construction contributes mightily to congestion. Christine Berthet, chair of Community Board 4 in Chelsea, reported that there are 20 stretches of roadway between Eighth Avenue and 11th Avenue that are partially or completely blocked by traffic. Ryan Russo, a deputy commissioner with the Department of Transportation, said his agency is focused on improving and expanding Select Bus Service, which has produced promising results in areas of Manhattan where it is already implemented. SBS’ current eight routes handle 200,000 riders a day, and Rus-
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OFFICIALS: TURN STONEWALL INTO A NATIONAL PARK NEWS Momentum is building to name the Stonewall Inn a national park. U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, the National Parks Conservation Association, and a spectrum of state and local elected officials held a news conference on Sunday to build support for national park designation at Stonewall in the Village, where the modern LGBT movement began in the summer of 1969. “The Stonewall Rebellion is a rarity – a tipping point in history where
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we know, with absolute clarity, that everything changed,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. “This site has a unique place in American history and the struggle for dignity and equal rights in our society, and would be a fitting site for the country’s first National Monument dedicated to the LGBT community.” As part of the leadup to the national launch, elected officials have sent the first letters to President Obama requesting the designation of a Stonewall National Monument. Organized by Nadler, the list of officials announcing their support includes
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U.S. Senators Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, 11 members of Congress, 13 New York State Senators, 37 New York State Assembly Members, five New York City Council Members, as well as the New York City Comptroller, Public Advocate, and Manhattan Borough President. “It’s time for a national monument honoring the legacy of people and events that took place here,” Gillibrand said. “Victories like the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the passage of marriage equality in New York
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Downtowner WEEK OF APRIL
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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
n OurTownDowntow
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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 24-30,2015
WHAT’S MAKING NEWS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD ZONING PROPOSAL WOULD SET ASIDE UNITS FOR LOW INCOME HOUSING Builders in some city neighborhoods would have to set aside a portion of the units for lower-income residents according to a newly released proposal
for zoning rules, The New York Times reported. According to the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing rules released by the de Blasio administration, if a developer choose to build in certain areas of the city they would have to abide by a so-called 25-percent rule –
where at least a quarter of the building would be set aside for lower-income residents. These changes are brought about by the rezoning of city areas in part by the mayor’s plan to create 80,000 new affordable units by 2024. In addition, the new plan would also mandate community improvements, A new zoning proposal would require developers of new residential construction in certain city neighborhoods to set aside at least 25 percent of units for lowerincome residents. Photo: Timothy Neesam, via Flickr
including beautification of sidewalks, parks, and new schools. “By bringing much-needed public investments and targeted programs to the neighborhood, this comprehensive plan will ensure that we’re not just adding housing, but that we’re creating an improved, affordable and more livable East New York for longtime residents and newcomers alike,” Carl Weisbrod, the chairman of the New York City Planning Commission, was quoted as saying by the New York Times. Changes to the zoning plan will be discussed further in community boards and with borough presidents during the next six to seven months before a vote can be taken with city council.
WHITNEY HAS WINNING HONEY The Battle of the Bees. That’s what the Waldorf Astoria called Tuesday’s honey competition on the hotel rooftop. Various nectars were vying for best from hives in New York City. After a blind tasting, a panel of food industry judges announced the winner: honey harvested by the Whitney Museum of American Art. The runner-up was the nectar from the New York City Beekeepers Association near the High Line. The Waldorf’s own honey comes from beehives atop its roof. The bees fly around Manhattan to supply their urban
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MAYOR AND TENNIS STAR MAKE NICE FOLLOWING MEETING OVER ARREST Mayor Bill de Blasio and tennis star James Blake exchanged compliments following a meeting to over Blake’s mistaken arrest. The New York Times said de Blasio praised the tennis star for his efforts to find something positive out of his arrest and tackling outside a midtown hotel on Sept. 9. According to the Times, the mayor declined to commit on further punishment for the officer who tackled Blake, or to pursuing policy changes that Blake has pushed for. Blake met with de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton at City Hall on Monday to discuss steps the city could undertake to curb the kind of rough treatment he faced. In an interview on CNN on Tuesday morning, de Blasio said Blake had handled an “unfortunate situation” with “a certain selflessness.”
rants u a t s e lous R u b a F estival F d Fif t y o o F in One
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG
PARALEGAL CHARGED WITH DOZENS OF FORGED SIGNATURES A New York City paralegal has been arrested after authorities say he forged the signatures of more than six dozen judges. Manhattan prosecutors say 42-year-
old Thomas Rubino was arrested on 117 counts of forgery. They allege Rubino was working for a Manhattan law firm when he forged documents that allow companies to purchase a person’s court settlements in exchange for a lump sum payment A judge needed to sign off on each of the transfers. Authorities allege Rubino forged 117 documents between June 2011 and October 2013 with the signatures of 76 different judges. They say he cut the judges’ signatures from real documents and taped
STATS FOR THE WEEK
MINUS PLUS Shoplifters are apparently as excited about the new iPhone 6 as shoppers are. At 12:18 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11, a man familiar to the employees of the T-Mobile store at 29 John St. entered the shop and too phones from a display rack and took off out of the store. The items stolen were an iPhone 6 Plus valued at $750 and an iPhone 6 priced at $650, making a total of $1,400.
IPHONE SCUFFLE
Reported crimes from the 1st Precinct for Sept. 7 Sept. 13 Week to Date
them on the falsified papers. It was not immediately clear whether Rubino had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Year to Date
2015 2014
% Change
2015
2014 % Change
Murder
0
0
n/a
1
0
n/a
Rape
0
0
n/a
5
5
0.0
Robbery
1
2
-50.0
43
36
19.4
Felony Assault
2
0
n/a
58
54
7.4
Burglary
1
5
-80.0
91
115
-20.9
Grand Larceny
21
11
90.9
732
633
15.6
Grand Larceny Auto
0
1
-100.0
15
14
7.1
The new iPhones are disappearing on the streets as well. At 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, a 20-year-old man snatched an iPhone 6 from a 33-yearold man’s hands at the southwest corner of MacDougal and West Houston Streets. The thief then fled westbound on West Houston toward Sixth Avenue. The victim chased the thief and tackled him to get his phone back, when three other perpetrators — a 20-year-old man and two 20-yearold women — punched and kicked the victim before fleeing westbound on West Houston and then southbound on Sixth Avenue. Police searched the area but could not locate the thieves,
and attempts to track the iPhone also proved futile. The iPhone 6, in a clear rubber case, is valued at $700.
BAD LUCK A local thief preyed on a tourist from overseas, making off with items worth more than $1,400. At 9:40 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, a 43-year-old woman from Carrickfergus, Ireland placed her bag next to her chair in the Pick a Bagel shop at 311 South End Ave. before and started to write in her journal. When she looked for her bag five minutes later, it was no longer where she had left it. The items stolen included a Panasonic digital camcorder valued at $600, a Pentax camera worth $200, an Android phone priced at $200, an iPod valued at $150, a pair of Ray-Ban prescription glasses tagged at $150, a One World Trade Center Observation Deck ticket priced at $32, a jacket and T-shirt worth $70, a guidebook priced at $20, and a gorilla plush toy and sweets worth $20, making a total of $1,442.
KNIFE-WIELDING MAN ARRESTED Police arrested a 54-year-old man following a scuffle with two men in their 20s during which he pulled a knife and sliced and stabbed one of them, police said. At 3:25 a.m. on Monday,
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Sept. 14, a 22-year-old man got into a verbal dispute with the older man inside a McDonald’s at 160 Broadway. The dispute spilled outside to the southwest corner of Fulton Street and Broadway, where the 22-year-old man and his friend, a 20-year-old man, confronted the older man, who then pulled out a knife. The 20-year-old punched the older man, who swung the knife, cutting the 20-year-old on the left side of his face and then stabbing him in the upper left part of his chest. Police apprehended and arrested Saul Puente charging him with assault.
NO BUCKS AFTER STARBUCKS At 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 13, a 34-old-man left a Starbucks store at 291 Broadway. He walked a little ways before realizing that he did not have his wallet, which he had used when paying for his beverage in the store. He searched the store and the area but could not find his lost wallet. He subsequently canceled his credit cards, and fortunately, no unauthorized usage had turned up. The contents of his stolen brown ostrich wallet included $1,060 in cash, a Visa rebate card worth $70, a Chase debit card, and a New York driver’s license. The total loss came to $1,130.
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SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Useful Contacts
45 Years and Counting
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3 GENERATIONS OF MR. CLEAN But Anthony Giaimo could be the last on a laundering line that stretches to the late ‘50s BY MICKEY KRAMER
Our Town is celebrating our 45th anniversary by profiling a neighborhood business that has been around longer than we have. Know of a local business that should be on our list? Email us at news@strausnews.com On any given day, a dozen washing machines whir and eight dryers whirl at Royal Sutton Cleaners on First Avenue. If dropping off or picking up clothes doesn’t sound like the most thrilling part of one’s day, owner Anthony Giaimo can make it a memorable visit with passionate disquisitions about the most recent Republican debate, or “the good ol’ days” when sports stars such as New York
Ranger Hall of Famer Rod Gilbert and Art Shamsky, a member of the 1969 New York Mets, lived mere blocks away and were regular customers. Since 1959, three generations of Giaimo men have kept Upper Eastsiders in clean duds. First, Anthony, who was followed by his son Joseph, and lastly, Anthony, the younger, joined the family business in 1982. “To be honest, I needed a job ... I was getting married,” the younger Giaimo said. Giaimo, who prior to teaming up with his dad and grandfather worked in construction, adds that he “sorta fell into it as it was not something I was necessarily dying to do.” Anthony Giaimo grew up with his parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents, all of whom lived in apartments right above the store. After moving around a bit, he re-
turned to the dwelling above store with his wife in 1985. Those arrangements might have made the commute an easy one, but they could and did lead to many a sleepless night. “People, knowing where we lived, would ring our bell all the time, day and night ... .They needed their clothes for work, and we’d always take care of them,” Giaimo recalled. Initially, Royal Sutton, just south of 63rd Street, was a drop-off only service. Since the mid-1980s, at the behest of the youngest Giaimo, Royal began taking in dry cleaning as well “Figured we could bring in more money,” he explained. After over 30 years of working in the same location, Giaimo takes pride in what he calls Royal Sutton’s “personal touch,” whether a customer has been coming since
the early 1980s, is new or even just visiting the city. Giaimo has put three children through college and while, at 57, he’s in no hurry to retire, he’s nevertheless fairly certain the longstanding business will end with him. His children, he said, have other interests. “Three generations is pretty good, but that will be it,” he said. And although Giaimo has lived on Long Island for many years he still has a strong attachment for the block on which he has lived and/or worked for over 40 years. “Of course, I love this neighborhood. I was born in this building. All my roots are here,” he said. Right now is pretty good too. “I’m happy and gonna stick it out,” he said.
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
DOWNTOWN ‘BRAIN GAIN’ CHRONICLED BY ALLIANCE NEWS The Downtown Alliance released an updated research report that demonstrates continued growth in the number of professionals living within a 30-minute commute of Lower Manhattan. “The Brain Gain,” as the report is called, shows how shifting demographics have continued to favor the Lower Manhattan Central Business District over the past five years. More than 750,000 college-educated adults now live within a 30-minute commute, the report states. Creative and professional workers have experienced significant growth, with more than half a million people working in these industries now living within a 30-minute commute, an 18 per-
cent increase since 2000. College educated adults and creative and professional workers have continued to flock to areas near Lower Manhattan, demonstrating steady and accelerated growth. A quarter of the region’s college educated adults now live within 30 minutes of Lower Manhattan, an increase of more than 43,000 from 2010 to 2013. Nearly a quarter of the region’s creative and professional workers live within 30 minutes of Lower Manhattan, an increase of more than 23,000 for the same time period. Comparatively, these populations have remained stagnant or declined in many other parts of the region. A major driving force of this growth is Lower Manhattan’s access to a wealth of transportation options. Serving 127
million annual riders, Lower Manhattan transit network includes 12 subway lines, 30 bus routes and 1 SBS route, 20 ferry routes, 2 PATH routes, 7 Downtown Connection buses and 28 CitiBike stations. Nearly 40 percent of the region’s college educated adults and more than onethird of the region’s creative and professional workers are within a one-seat ride to the district. “The Brain Gain” analyzes 2000 U.S. Census and 2010 and 2013 American Community Survey data. The study area includes 30 counties in New York City’s five boroughs, Long Island, Westchester, the Hudson Valley, Southern Connecticut, Northeastern Pennsylvania and Northern New Jersey. The full report can be accessed at www. downtownny.com/newsroom/ research
New transit options in lower Manhattan, like the Fulton center pictured here, have helped draw workers into the neighborhood.
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SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
The High Line
TRAFFIC PROBLEM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
PLANT OF THE WEEK: KOREAN FEATHER REED GRASS This grass has had a strong presence on the High Line all year, but since early September it’s commanded more attention with the appearance of its pink-tinged, feathery flowerheads, reaching up to four feet in height and glowing beautifully when backlit by late afternoon light. In full sun exposure, as it enjoys in our garden, Calamagrostis grows upright, with glossy, quarter-inch-wide leaves forming masses as wide as they are tall. A native to Asia and Europe, Calamagrostis grows comfortably alongside Achillea filipendulina, or fernleaf yarrow – another Asian native that has naturalized to North America – in the High
COMING UP ON THE HIGH LINE STARGAZING Every Tuesday, through October, dusk to 11 p.m. On the High Line at West 14th Street You don’t have to leave New York City to see the stars. Gaze at the stars,
Line’s Meadow Walk. It takes its name from the Greek kalamos, meaning “reed,” and agros, meaning “field,” and, accordingly, agrostis, meaning “grass.” Growing in climates as diverse as India and Siberia, it is found most often in open woods and in woodland borders, and prefers damp soil in either part-shade or full-sun exposures. In shade, this grass will take on a more relaxed look, with bowing flowerheads and a looser mound shape. It makes a beautiful border, functioning equally as a specimen plant and an effective filler, but also as a mass planting in naturalistic or meadow gardens. Its tolerance for wet soil means that it will flourish in low spots and along bodies of water, as well. In fall, the leaves fade to a soft tan, and seed plumes mature to light tan as they ripen, providing a beautiful point of winter interest. It becomes clear from September onwards why this variety is also known as Foxtail grass.
planets, and moon through the high-powered telescopes of the Amateur Astronomers Association, and chat with the experts about the sights you see. This High Line Program is free and open to visitors of all ages. No RSVP required. Viewing times and locations along the High Line are subject to change due to weather. Check back or follow @highlinenyc on Twitter for updates every Tuesday by 3:00 PM.
TOUR: HIGH LINE ART
Monday, September 28, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday, October 26, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Location provided via email following RVP The High Line is filled with public art: from sculptures and murals to performances and videos. Have you ever wondered what inspired the artists? Or what the meaning was behind an artwork? How was it made? Join Melanie Kress, High Line Art Curatorial Fellow, for an insider’s view on High Line Art.
TOUR: HIGH LINE AS HABITAT Saturday, October 3, 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Location provided via email following RSVP Tour the High Line with horticulturist and resident wildlife expert, Maryanne Stubbs. This tour will focus on how pollinators, migratory birds, and other wildlife use the habitat and forage provided by the High Line’s gardens. RSVP required.
so said the agency wants to add 12 more routes in the next three years. Others advocated for increased operations to prevent drivers from blocking the box, a term that describes the familiar scene of vehicles getting trapped in the middle of an intersection when trying to beat the light, thereby blocking oncoming traffic. Some transportation advocates say that funding the MTA’s capital budget, which would increase public transit ridership and improve service, would be the most practical way to ease congestion. But with the agency’s budget shortfall anywhere from $11.5 to $15 billion, depending who’s counting, no viable strategy has yet emerged for closing the gap. The high-profile feud between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and de Blasio is not helping matters and Albany’s legislative session this year wrapped up without funding for the agency’s capital plan. Others have suggested compelling private developers to include subway improvements in their development deals as a way to help close the gap. Supporters point to a $200 million investment by SL Green to improve the subway stations at Grand Central Terminal that was part of their deal to construct a new commercial tower at One Vanderbilt Place next to the transportation hub. Andrew Albert, an MTA board member, said real estate values skyrocket in direct proportion to their proximity to transit projects and improvements. “I think it’s incumbent on lawmakers to harness these
STONEWALL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 State and the final, decisive Supreme Court ruling securing our freedom to marry, were borne from the modern equal rights movement launched at Stonewall.” Two-thirds of America’s more than 400 national park sites are dedicated to cultural and historic significance. Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y., tells the story of the first Women’s Rights Convention held there in July 1848, and the struggle for equality and civil rights. Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail in Alabama, a national park site, traces the
Attendees at a meeting last week convened by Manhattan borough President Gale Brewer’s office to address growing traffic congestion. Photo: Daniel Fitzsimmons increased real estate values,” said Albert. Another proposal is the Move NY Fair Plan, whose central premise is to reform the city’s toll system by imposing a more equitable fee on all bridges and tunnels, thereby preventing “bridge shopping” along the East River. The plan also calls for charging drivers $6 to cross 60th Street. Supporters of the plan say it would ease congestion in Manhattan’s busiest neighborhoods, encourage more commuters to take public transit, and funds generated by the plan would go towards improvements to subway infrastructure. But congestion-pricing plans have stalled in New York before. In 2007, a plan to charge $8 on weekdays to private cars traveling south of 60th Street, which enjoyed support from the city council, died after it failed to pass the NYS Assembly. Brewer wholehea r ted ly endorses the plan, as does Schwartz, but said it needs more support and recognition, particularly in the busi-
ness community, if it is to pass. “Move NY is out there but it hasn’t gotten the amount of attention I think it deserves,” said Brewer in an interview after the hearing. “Move NY would need a private sector push.” The hearing also set the stage for another bout between Uber and City Hall, after the company accused the city of moving too fast with a four-month study on the impact of for-hire vehicles that was agreed to by both sides after the Uber cap proposal was abandoned. A four-month study, said Uber, could not possibly take into account all the factors necessary to determine the impact of Iber and similar companies. “A study needs to consider the full range of factors that influence congestion in order to identify their impact,” said Nicole Benincasa, a policy advisor for Uber. “A study that limits itself to only one or a few factors will likely miss other factors that cause congestion.” Uber has since retained a consulting firm to look at what factors the city’s study should take into account.
march led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the struggle for equal voting rights for African Americans. A national park at Stonewall would tell the story of the LGBT community’s fight for equal rights in America. “The resounding support for this effort underscores that it is time to have a national park site that tells the story of the LGBT rights movement – one that should be told for decades to come,” said Cortney Worrall, Northeast regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “We must continue to protect and preserve these places, urban and rural, natural and historic, that speak to and represent who we are as a nation. And by the best storytellers in the business –
the National Park Service.” A national park in the village would invigorate historic preservation of LGBT history in the neighborhood. The call to designate the nation’s first LGBT national park site around Stonewall enjoys tremendous local and national support. “The Stonewall Uprising wasn’t just a catalyst for the LGBTQ civil rights movement – it signified a watershed moment in the history of American social justice,” said New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. “Now is the time for Stonewall to take its place alongside the many other places of deep historical significance in New York City.”
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
More CUNY Award Winners! SEAN THATCHER Barry Goldwater Scholarship 2015 College of Staten Island
EVGENIYA KIM Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans 2015 Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College
JACOB LEVIN Harry S. Truman Scholarship 2015 Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College
JOHNATHAN CULPEPPER National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship 2015 Medgar Evers College
CARLA SPENSIERI Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Grant 2015 Hunter and Queens Colleges
KYLE CHIN-HOW Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship 2015 Queensborough Community College
CUNY students are winning the most prestigious, highly competitive awards in the nation. In the past five years, they have won 81 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, 79 Fulbright Awards for research and teaching English abroad, and 12 Barry Goldwater Scholarships for outstanding undergraduates who intend to pursue research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering. And two CUNY doctoral candidates captured prestigious prizes that are rarely awarded to students—a Pulitzer Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, both for poetry. Providing quality, accessible education has been CUNY’s mission since 1847, a commitment that is a source of enormous pride, as are these students.
— James B. Milliken, Chancellor
Join the winners’ circle! For more information about The City University of New York visit cuny.edu/welcome
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SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Write to us: To share your thoughts and comments go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a letter to the editor.
Letter
WAITING FOR THE BOMB TO DROP
BIKE SHARE WITHOUT THE BIKE LANES To the Editor: The city has embarked on a dangerous new experiment: bike share without significant bike lanes on the Upper East Side. Installation of Upper East Side CitiBike stations began on September 1. But apart from the First Avenue bike lane and a single pair of lanes at East 90th and 91st streets, the neighborhood lacks the bike network that preceded the rollout of bike share to the south and west. What can we expect? Riding bike share has proven far safer than riding a personal bike. But to what extent does this this impressive safety record reflect the availability of bike lanes and bike paths in the the original bike share launch zone? These facilities make cycling safer in several ways: they create a defined, legal space for cyclists where motorists and others can expect to find them; they collect cyclists (who will detour in order to use them), creating a larger, more visible flow of riders; and there is a peer-to-peer effect, where the less experienced or considerate cyclists will be exposed to the examples of more experienced and respectful cyclists. Why conduct this experiment at all? Let’s instead install crosstown bike lanes and paths on the Upper East Side as in other neighborhoods, to ensure a safe, predictable and successful roll-out of bike share. Steve Vaccaro, E. 96th Street
PERSONAL ESSAY BY FREDRICKA R. MAISTER
CORRECTION Our article “Down by the Old Hotel” in the Sept. 10 edition, about the Chelsea Hotel, incorrectly stated that Brendan Behan died at the hotel. While Behan stayed there in 1963, he died in Dublin in 1964. It wasn’t Behan, but fellow writer Dylan Thomas, who bragged about drinking 18 glasses of whiskey, while staying at the Chelsea Hotel in November 1953. Two days later, Thomas was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, where he died a few days after that. We regret the error.
IN SEARCH OF SENIOR DATING INFO Our Senior Living columnist, Marcia Epstein, is looking for people willing to talk about the dating scene for seniors. Do you have anecdotes, war stories, insights you’re willing to share? Email her at news@strausnews. com. Write senior dating in the subject line.
STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source
The October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I was in middle school during those fateful days. I remember sitting in class, gripped with fear that a nuclear catastrophe ushering in the end of the world was imminent. I vividly recall Mr. Gaug, my American history teacher, lecturing on the Revolutionary War, my classmates engaging in discussion, and me silently questioning the relevance of history when we were about to be blown to smithereens in World War III. Maybe my hypersensitivity had something to do with my father suddenly dying of a heart attack the year before. Attuned to the fragility and transience of human life, I just wanted to go home so I could be with my mother and sister when the bomb fell. Oddly enough, despite its emotional impact, I have rarely thought about the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 50-plus years since John Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba and Nikita Khrushchev pulled his Russian missiles from Cuban soil—that is, until recently, when a cup of coffee with Cary, an acquaintance from my exercise class at the 92nd Street ‘Y’, unexpectedly thrust that historical event back into my consciousness. I knew that Cary had fled Cuba with her mother and sisters in the mid1960s, and that her father, a counterrevolutionary pursued by the Castro regime, had escaped to the States a few years earlier. Cary never talked about her life in Castro’s Cuba. We chatted about pedestrian subjects: exercise teachers, body aches, jobs, deteriorating medical care, life in New York City, etc. But one day at the coffee shop where we would meet after exercising, we found ourselves talking about 9/11. Cary said that 9/11 had been es-
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pecially stressful for her because it revived the emotional trauma of living in Cuba during the Castro regime. In 1961, during the Bay of Pigs Invasion, her father fled to the mountains. After he left, young soldiers—neighbors she had grown up with--started coming to her house looking for him. Pointing machine guns at her, her mother and sisters, they threatened to kill the family. She was aware of the executions of counter-revolutionaries at a nearby prison; she could hear the deadly shots at two or three in the morning. Shunned by neighbors because of their anti-Castro sentiments, the family felt vulnerable and isolated. Cary said that whenever they would go to the store to get food rations, no one would speak to them. Given such a hostile environment, the absence of her father, and the growing threat of an American bombardment, I could not imagine what Cary’s life was like during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I told Cary about the anxiety I had experienced as an American teenager that October, admitting that I’d
Voices
never considered the plight of people on the “other side” of the crisis. Surprised that I mentioned the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cary said that most Americans didn’t seem to even know about it. “I lived 500 meters away from the missiles. They were practically in my backyard,” she told me. The same Soviet-armed nuclear missiles that were aimed at the United States? I was incredulous. Cary’s family lived in the countryside next to a military base where the Soviets had installed missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to major U.S. cities. She said that initially no one knew it was a missile base because the missiles had arrived piecemeal on trucks and were kept hidden under tarps. No Cuban soldiers were allowed inside the base; it was exclusively manned by the Soviets. She remembered the Soviet soldiers well. They would come to the house (one had a crush on her sister) and bring cans of food and bread. She even learned some Russian. The family let them picnic on their parklike property and gave them fruit from their orchards. Since the family lived in such proximity to the base, they were aware that if the Americans bombed the base, they would be killed. Cary, who had been studying English in preparation of eventually joining her father in the States, remembered, “I said ‘I’m not going to study anymore. If we are all going to die, what is the
point?’ ” As I sat glued to television to hear the latest developments in the deepening crisis, Cary only had limited access to news via a small radio. She could sense that a crisis was unfolding because of the heightened activity at the missile base. The soldiers who would visit were not allowed to leave the base. Cary could hear sirens blaring day and night-“rehearsals”--in case of an American attack. Cary said that without full news coverage she never realized how close the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to nuclear disaster. However, more than five decades later, she chillingly recalled, “If I remember correctly, they uncovered the missiles. They never uncovered them during the day. They were ready.” We were ready, too. Senator John McCain, a former naval pilot, told voters at a campaign stop during his 2008 bid for the presidency, “I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off of Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war.” As both sides readied to annihilate each other in October of 1962, Cary in Cuba and I in the United States, riddled with fear and pessimism about the future, waited for the bombs to drop. Fredricka R. Maister is a longtime Manhattanite and freelance writer.
Army Hawk Missiles on Smather Beach during October 1962. Photo Don Pinder.
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
Block Mayors, Ann Morris, Upper West Side Jennifer Peterson, Upper East Side Gail Dubov, Upper West Side Edith Marks, Upper West Side
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Sixth Borough
Eat â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;em while theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;hotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; BY BECCA TUCKER Confessions of a parent of a ridiculously picky eater â&#x20AC;&#x153;Make it seem like a bigger deal,â&#x20AC;? I hissed through clenched teeth at husband Joe. It is tricky; oh, so tricky, to know when to pretend you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t notice a vegetable getting close to the mouth, and when to go for an Oscar. But few enough vegetables get eaten by our almost-3-year-old that this is fraught. I buy kale chips at $6 a-not-very-big container because she turns her nose up at the ones that come out of our own oven. I hide avocados in chocolate smoothies, and shredded zucchini in muffins. I make homemade ketchup out of tomatoes from our garden, and now count myself among those heretofore ridiculous people who consider ketchup a veggie. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m extra motivated to visit a friend in New Paltz because, for whatever reason, my daughter Kai has decided she will gladly eat a cucumber thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been skinned and cubed by this particular person â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but under no other circumstances. I myself am a garbage disposal, and historically paid scant attention to other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food habits or hangups. A couple good friends in college, it turned out, had eating disorders that were totally obvious to everyone else but, despite all our dining hall meals together, took me by complete surprise when they were revealed. Wringing my hands over food has come as novel territory for me, although by now Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a pretty good feel for what vegetables have a chance of being eaten (corn,
glorious corn, and please, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to hear about how itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actually a grain), and whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not worth the friction. But every once in a blue moon, I ďŹ nd myself startled by an uncharacteristic gastronomic foray. Like when Kai picked a piece of mozzarella off a tomato and tried it, gagged, but ďŹ nished chewing and swallowed. There was no second bite, but still I was proud. And a few weeks ago, when our gardenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s green beans were mostly over and hardly worth the trouble of harvesting, Kai and I were out there together when I saw her spit out what looked like a bean stem. Could it be? I watched out of the corner of my eye as she picked up an-
other freshly harvested bean off the cinderblock where Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d left them, and started chewing. OMG. She was eating green beans. I kept picking, careful not to let on that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d noticed anything unusual, and placed the beans on the cinderblock a few at a time so as not to overwhelm. Eventually Kai joined in the harvest, ďŹ nding ones Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d missed. We began to discuss our haul. The teensy Kai-sized beans, which Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d assumed would be the most tender and palatable, in Kaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyes lacked the appeal of the big-kahuna Papa-sized specimens. Those, she got a particular kick out of eating because, ostensibly, they should be eaten by Papa.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sorry Papa,â&#x20AC;? weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d say, as she bit into a thick one. Maybe weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll leave him one. Or maybe weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll eat them all. After sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d eaten all the beans she was going to eat â&#x20AC;&#x201D; six, maybe â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we hurried inside, me feeling victorious and Kai feeling agreeably mischievous, to tell Dad that he was going to have to ďŹ nd his own beans because weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d eaten all his. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Good,â&#x20AC;? he said, not looking up. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I want you to eat them.â&#x20AC;? Buzzkill! This was when I began hissing at him. We needed groans and tearing of chest-hair, here! But he has bad hearing from decades of selling merchandise at rock shows, and blithely continued chopping something up for dinner. The humble beans, perhaps stimulated by our obsessive harvesting, gave us a good couple weeks of eating a handful of fresh veggies like every single day. But by the time I wrote this, the magic had faded. Even the Papa-sized ones had lost their appeal. The delight of ďŹ lching other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food, though? That is still thrilling. I am beginning to realize that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s probably not the best moral to be imparting â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s amusing to steal food from the mouths of loved ones. The other day, Joe reported with some befuddlement that Kai wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t eat any of her own lunch. She only wanted his lunch. So pretend itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your lunch, I suggested. I do hope weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not raising a sociopath. But the present is about all we can manage, and for the moment, at least, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eating. Next morning, Kai snatched a Papa-sized home fry and gobbled it with glee. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m so hungry!â&#x20AC;? Joe wailed. Kai squealed. Was this the ďŹ rst time in eight years Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d heard him lie? Possibly. I put my face in my hand to hide my expression, which felt like something between a smile and a grimace.
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SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Does It Have The Apple Logo?
Out & About More Events. Add Your Own: Go to otdowntown.com
Thu 24 MOVIE NIGHT: INSURGENT â&#x2013;ź
creating safer public spaces and streets. 212-229-5600. www. eventbrite.com/e/safer-cities-aframework-to-address-universalaccess-to-safe-and-inclusivepublic-spaces-2030-tickets18565128800?aff=es2
9 a.m.-6 p.m. Free Leading Biologist in structural biology will take part in an open symposium discussing research and ďŹ ndings from their niche ďŹ eld. 212-413-3221. events. cuny.edu/eventDetail. asp?EventId=64552
9G %CP (KZ +V #V 6GMUGTXG YG UWRRQTV CNN VJKPIU #RRNG Whether youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re having problems with your iPhone, iPad, Macâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or any other Apple productâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we can troubleshoot, Ă°[ LW RU VXJJHVW D FRVW HIIHFWLYH XSJUDGH RU UHSODFHPHQW
#RRNG UGTXKEG [QW ECP VTWUV As an Apple Premium Service Provider, we honor all Apple warranties and AppleCare coverage, using only genuine $SSOH 6HUYLFH 3DUWV 'RQâW IDOO YLFWLP WR XQDXWKRUL]HG UHSDLU VKRSV WKDW FRXOG YRLG \RXU ZDUUDQW\
If your Mac, iPhone, iPad, or any other Apple RTQFWEV PGGFU C Ć&#x201A;Z WRITCFG QT EJGEMWR stop by today.
Seward Park Library, 192 East Broadway. 4 p.m. Free Catch Insurgent at the Seward Park Library in a teens only (ages 13-18) event. Snacks are free. 212-477-6770. www.nypl.org/ events/programs/2015/09/24/ teen-movie-time-seward-park
VISITING ARTIST TALK WITH JAMIE ISENSTEIN Einstein Auditorium, Barney Building, 34 Stuyvesant St. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Free. Jamie Isenstein will be this weeks artist featured in the New York University Visiting Artist Lecture Series in an event open to the public. 212-998-5700.
Fri 25 GLOBAL URBAN FUTURES PRESENTS SAFER CITIES â&#x2013;ş
6DRS QC 2SQDDS r r SDJRDQUD BNL
Wollman Hall, Eugene Lang College, Room B500, 65 West 11th St. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free with RSVP. In a two-part series UNHabitat and Global Urban Futures Project focus on
STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY 2015: INSIGHT THROUGH INTEGRATION CUNY Advanced Science Research Center, 85 Saint Nicholas Terrace
Sat 26 â&#x2013;˛ LAFAYETTE EXHIBITION Fraunces Tavern Museum, 54 Pearl St. 12 p.m. Free with early RSVP See the new Lafayette exhibit at the Fraunces Tavern Museum for Smithsonian Museum Day. 212-425-1778. www. smithsonianmag.com/ museumday/?no-ist
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
THE NEW YORK COFFEE FESTIVAL ► 69th Regiment Armory, 68 Lexington Ave., between between 25th and 26th Streets 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Starting at $20. A festival of over 70 coffee and coffee equipment vendors teaming up to kick off charitable Coffee Week NYC. 646-424-5500. www. newyorkcoffeefestival.com/Home
Sun 27 HUDSON RIVER PARK’S BIG CITY FISHING Pier 25, in Tribeca 1 p.m., Free A free program, to those as young as five who are eager to learn both how to fish and about the Hudson River environment. Rods, reels, bait and instruction provided. 212-627-2020 . www. hudsonriverpark.org/events/ big-city-fishing-sunday-onpier-252
YOUTH GROUP ▲ Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew, 263 West 86th St. 1-2:30 p.m. Free. Youth group at Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew. 212-362-3179. www. stpaulandstandrew.org/event/ youth-group/?instance_id=17579
Mon 28 FASHION WEEK AT CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF ARTS Children’s Museum of the Arts, 103 Charlton St. Noon-5 p.m. $12. Create fashionable fabric bracelets or bow-ties in celebration of iconic Fashion Week. Ages 5 and up. 212-274-0986.
HIGH LINE ART 6-7:30 p.m., Free Location provided via email following RSVP via website
Join Melanie Kress, High Line art curatorial fellow, for an insider’s view of sculptures, murals, performances and videos on the High Line. 212-206-9922. www. thehighline.org/activities/arttours
Tue 29 COMEDY CENTRAL’S COMICS TO WATCH SKETCH SHOWCASES UCB East Village, 153 East Third St. 8 p.m. $5 UCB East Village will be holding Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch Sketch Showcases featuring host Matteo Lane, and 9 guest comics. 212-366-9176. east.ucbtheatre.com/ performance/41492
THE BATTERY CONSERVANCY AS A HORTICULTURE VOLUNTEER Outside Playground Area, The Battery 9:30 a.m.-Noon.Free Join the Horticulture team of The Battery Conservancy. Help preserve its flower beds and
gardens, sign up is required. 212-830-7700. www.nycgovparks.org/ events/2015/09/29/join-thebattery-conservancy-as-ahorticulture-volunteer
GET OUTDOORS THE REST HAPPENS NATURALLY
Stroll along the High Line. View the Bronx from the 145th St. Bridge. Take a trip back to the 1964 World’s Fair. Or marvel at the vast difference between the Hudson River and the city skyline. Appalachian Mountain Club invites you to discover another side of our great city. Find us online at outdoors.org/nyc.
Wed 30 HARPERCOLLINS AUTHOR EVENT: JOSH ALTMAN Seaport Studio,, 19 Fulton St. 5:30 p.m., Free Josh Altman of “Million Dollar Listing,” discusses his latest book, “It’s Your Move: My Million Dollar Method for Taking Risks with Confidence and Succeeding at Work and Life”. 646-762-4716.
MONTHLY MEETING LMHQ, 150 Broadway, 20th Floor. 6 p.m.Free. The monthly public hearing for CB1 regarding the Capitals and Expenses for the financial year 2017. *ID is required to enter building. 646-779-9616. www.nyc.gov/ html/mancb1/html/community/ community.shtml
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
UPTOWN BOOGALOO A literature teacher rediscovers the musical joys of his roots BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO
As a boy, Jonathan Goldman’s parents wanted him to learn an instrument. He picked trumpet; he liked E.B. White’s children’s story “The Trumpet of the Swan.” It didn’t stick. “I quit as soon as they let me,” said Goldman. When he was 18, the waiting list for the Mitchell-Lama apartment building he grew up in on 90th Street and Columbus Avenue opened up, and his mother urged him to apply. “I had no intention of ever living there again,” said Goldman, who attended University of California, Berkeley and now teaches literature at New York Institute of Technology. “And she said, ‘just trust me. You might thank me one day.’” Goldman, 43, found his way back to the neighborhood he was quick to leave, and the instrument he put aside. Fourteen years ago, he moved in to the building where he grew up and now lives (his parents still live upstairs). After years away from music, Goldman picked up the trumpet again while working on his Ph.D. at Brown University, a creative respite from days spent studying literature. Six years ago, he started boogaloo band Spanglish Fly, recruiting musicians for the outfit through an ad on Craigslist. The 10-piece band released their second album, “New York Boogaloo,” earlier this month, and a flurry of fall concerts includes a show at Goddard Riverside Community Center on Sept. 29, just blocks from Goldman’s nearly lifelong home. Boogaloo, a genre that combines traditional Latin and Afro-Caribbean rhythms with blues and soul, started in New York in the 1960s, before dipping into obscurity, a history Goldman explored in a 2014 piece for the Paris Review. He speaks of a swelling boogaloo revival, and with Spanglish Fly, he looks to bring new audiences to the forgotten form. “When I started this band, part of my intention was to play this music because I thought it would be fun to play,” said Goldman, who, with loose, curly brown hair, prominent sideburns, and tattoos looks more like a bandleader than a literature professor. “The other part was to bring it to people who had never heard it. And that’s been the most gratifying thing about it.” Latin music was part of the fabric of Goldman’s Upper West Side childhood. He re-
members hearing salsa in the street and watching drum circles in a vacant lot near his apartment building. Still, he didn’t start playing Latin music until he formed Spanglish Fly six years ago, after working as a DJ brought him to boogaloo records. Spanglish Fly’s performance at Goddard is a bit of a delayed musical homecoming for Goldman. After six years with the group, the show is the first he’ll play with the band in his own neighborhood. An eclectic mix of musicians makes up the group, with some rooted in Latin music, Goldman said, and others from Brooklyn brass bands and funk scenes, a logical range given boogaloo’s inherent layering of genres. Trombone player Sebastian Isler came to New York to play jazz. He met Goldman through a mutual friend five years ago and joined the band shortly after. He said Goldman’s clear vision for the group from the outset—to update boogaloo sounds while honoring the genre’s roots—remains. “On the one hand we want to modernize it, but on the other hand there’s a real respect for the tradition of it,” Isler said. “So there’s a blending of these two worlds that he’s always kept in mind.” In some ways, that credo reflects in the production of “New York Boogaloo.” Izzy Sanabria, who designed the covers of Latin music records in the 1960s and 1970s, did the album artwork, with help from his daughter Jacqueline, an aspiring artist. Harvey Averne, who produced for Latin music label Fania Records (Celia Cruz and Willie Colon were among the label’s artists) produced the last track on the album. Adrian Quesada, a member of contemporary Latin-funk group Grupo Fantasma, also produced. By nature, boogaloo breaks down barriers and encourages connections, Goldman said, and audiences tap in to the energy of the music and the atmosphere of the crowd. Isler calls performing “an interaction” with the audience. For Goldman, it’s a party. “You get up and shake your thing…because it sounds like funk music. It sounds like soul music. It happens to have a cha-cha beat. You can do salsa steps but you can also just get up and move around,” said Goldman as he finished a bagel and coffee at Mila Café on 94th Street and Columbus Avenue, before picking up his 4-year-old daughter from school. “It’s a party and everyone is invited, and once you’re here you’re not going to be thinking about where else you can be.”
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
Jonathan Goodman, trumpet player and bandleader for boogaloo outfit Spanglish Fly, will bring his band to Goddard Riverside Community Center on Sept. 29, his first performance with the group in his neighborhood. Photo: Gabrielle Alfiero
IF YOU GO What: Boogaloo band Spanglish Fly performs as part of Goddard Riverside Community Center’s Afro Roots Tuesdays Series When: Tuesday, Sept. 29, 8 p.m. Where: Goddard Riverside Community Center, 647 Columbus Ave., at W. 92nd Street Contact: 212873-6600 Admission: $10 suggested donation
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SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
FOR THE WEEK BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO OUR ARTS EDITOR
DANCE
PERFORMANCE LAB SERIES Steps Beyond Foundation and REVERBdance present a multidisciplinary program of new works by nine different artists, including work by REVERBdance’s artistic director, Kate Griffler. Audience members are asked to write comments on the performances, and are invited to mingle with the artists following their presentations. Performance Lab Series Sunday, Sept. 27 Steps on Broadway Studio Theater, 2121 Broadway, at 74th Street, 3rd floor 7 p.m. Tickets $12 To purchase tickets, visit stepsnyc.com/steps-beyond or purchase at the door
PATRICIA HOFFBAUER’S “DANCES FOR INTIMATE SPACES AND FRIENDLY PEOPLE” Patricia Hoffbauer, a fixture in Manhattan’s downtown dance scene, debuts “Dances for Intimate Spaces and Friendly People” a pairing of dance performances with multigenerational performers and video and text installations that explores artists’ internal creative processes. Patricia Hoffbauer’s “Dances for Intimate Spaces and Friendly People” Sept. 30-Oct. 3 Gibney Dance’s Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center 280 Broadway, entrance at 53A Chambers Street 7:30 p.m. Tickets $20 To purchase tickets, call the box office at 646837-6809 or visit gibneydance.org
KIDS “HOW TO CATCH A STAR”
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
THEATER ANT HAMPTON’S “THE EXTRA PEOPLE” Performed as part of French Institute Alliance Francaise’s fall art festival “Crossing the Line,” British artist Ant Hampton’s site-specific “The Extra People,” an immersive theater presentation, explores the experiences of temporary workers. Participants are given a flashlight and headphones and choose how to traverse the terrain, while other audience members observe the spontaneous reactions, before swapping places. Ant Hampton’s “The Extra People” Sept. 25 and 26 FIAF Florence Gould Hall 55 E. 59th St., between Park and Madison Avenues Assorted show times Tickets $20 To purchase tickets, call 800-982-2787 or visit fiaf.org
MUSEUMS
Diverging Elements Theatre Company, which DORIS SALCEDO creates interactive storytelling performances with shadow puppets Sculptor Doris Salcedo, whose work, which and props as part of its focuses on the history of her native Colombia, “Stories in 4D” series at is currently showing in a vast retrospective at Upper West Side shop the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, will Book Culture, performs discuss her work during a daylong symposium. Oliver Jeffers’ illustrated Scholars and curators, including the children’s story “How to Guggenheim’s Katherine Brinson, participate Catch a Star,” about a in the conversation. young boy who tries to Doris Salcedo pull down a star from the Installation view: Doris Friday, Oct. 2 Salcedo, Solomon R. night sky. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 1071 Fifth Avenue, at E. 88th Street “How to Catch a Star” Guggenheim Museum, New York, June 26– 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24 October 12, 2015 Admission $15 Book Culture David Heald © For more information, visit guggenheim. 450 Columbus Ave., at Photo: Solomon R. Guggenheim org or call 212-423-3500 W. 82nd Street Foundation 2 p.m. FREE To be included in the Top 5 go to For more information, visit bookculture.com or otdowntown.com and click on submit a press call 212-595-1962 release or announcement.
Oaffdway Broeek W 21– t p e S Oct 4
Two weeks of amazing deals on the best Off-Broadway shows in the City!
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Certain terms and conditions may apply. Tickets are limited in quantities and are subject to availability.
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND
thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY
In the Shadow of the Megacity: A Symposium on Urbanization and Beyond
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH, 3PM The Cooper Union | 41 Cooper Sq. | 212-353-4100 | cooper.edu A panel of scholars and architects looks at design and its impact on urbanization. (Free)
The Dakota: A History of the World’s Best-Known Apartment Building
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH, 6:30PM The Skyscraper Museum | 39 Battery Pl. | 212-968-1961 | skyscraper.org Usher in the dawn of luxury apartment living in NYC in this lecture that traces the creation of The Dakota, which in the 1880s rose on the then-wild stretches of the Upper West Side. (Free)
Just Announced: Mission Chinese Food with Danny Bowien and Peter Meehan
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH, 7PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org Star chef Danny Bowien tells the story of Mission Chinese’s humble beginnings as a San Francisco food truck on the occasion of the release of his new cookbook. ($32)
For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,
sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.
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SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
ESPIONAGE ON THE STAGE PERFORMANCE A new play brings to life the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO
Betrayal can make for good theater. Such is the case with “The Brother,” a play about the reallife trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 for espionage and providing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Performed as a staged reading on Sept. 28 at the Unity Center of New York City on W. 58th Street, the play is based on reporter Sam Roberts’ 2001 book of the same name, and centers on Roberts’ interviews
with Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass, decades after his testimony secured his sister’s death. “There isn’t a nice person in this play,” said Elowyn Castle, the show’s director. “Except maybe Ethel, who’s a victim of all these circumstances.” The play, written by John Hancock and Dorothy Tristan, first opened in Chicago in 2007, but has been little performed since, said Teri Black, the founder of Break a Leg Productions, the company staging the reading. Black first saw a reading of the play at the City University of New York about three years ago, where she met Roberts and the playwrights. She was “intrigued” by the play, and is now staging the show as the in-
augural performance of Break a Leg’s new series of historical plays, “Historically Speaking.” (The company, which started as a group of friends reading plays in Black’s apartment while she recovered from a broken leg, also runs a series of science-themed plays, called “Art of Science” as well as “Unexplored Territories,” which focuses on new plays.) “The brother is the heavy,” said Black. “He turns the screw, but there’s more to him than that.” Roberts, an urban affairs correspondent for the New York Times, spent several hours interviewing the elusive Greenglass, who was living under another name (in the play, Roberts’ character receives an anonymous tip as to Greenglass’ alias and whereabouts). The play focuses mostly on David, whose false testimony spared him and his wife, Ruth, but sealed his sister’s fate. “Part of the whole fascination of writing this book and reporting “The Brother” was drawing David out and sitting down with him all those hours, and having no idea what he was going to say,” said Roberts in a phone interview.
“He could have engaged in hours and hours of self-justification and attempts to vindicate himself, but for the most part, he dug himself in deeper and deeper and incriminated himself more than anything else.” In the performance, 13 actors play 32 roles. Most characters, including Julius, Ethel, Ethel’s mother, Tessie, and the prosecutor Roy Cohn, exist in flashbacks as David, played by Richard Litt, recounts his story during interviews with Roberts’ character, played by Bruce Barton, decades after the trial. Actors read directly from the script, and sit in a row that extends the width of the space at Unity Center, a room with crimson carpet, wood trim and finicky lighting that, during a recent rehearsal, actors attempted to adjust. Performers stand when in a scene, and retreat to their seats once finished. While characters’ behavior might baffle a modern audience, the circumstances can make their actions at least understandable, if not quite empathetic. “These people don’t think they’re not likeable,” said
Castle. “You look at them with hindsight and you think, how naïve could they have been? But you understand David’s wanting to protect his wife. You understand his own psychological determination.” Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s case still fascinates some members of the cast, and has received renewed attention following the revelations in Roberts’ book. In August, following the release of previously-sealed documents, including grand jury testimonies, Julius and Ethel’s sons penned an Op-Ed in the Times, asking for their mother’s exoneration. “I think the story is specific to the time but the behavior is absolutely not,” said Castle. “There are always people who go charting off after a vision, a principal, misguided or not. There certainly is today. There’s betrayal, self-protection. All the human behavior in this play is universal.” When discussing the story of the Rosenberg trial, Roberts, who will lead a conversation with the audience following Monday’s reading, finds that most people want to know about David’s personality, and why he condemned his sister.
IF YOU GO What: A staged reading of “The Brother,” a play by John Hancock and Dorothy Tristan, followed by a conversation with reporter Sam Roberts. When: Monday, Sept. 28, 6:30 p.m. Where: Unity Center, 213 W. 58th St., between Broadway and Seventh Avenue For more information, visit breakalegproductions.com Admission: Free, donations benefit Unity Center The answer, Roberts said, is complex. “What I was looking to do was allow the reader, allow the viewer to put themselves in the place of the characters and ask themselves, ‘what would you have done?’” he said. “Given the temper of the times, what would you have done in this situation? And understand that it’s a much more complicated challenge and more complicated set of circumstances than, ‘why did you send your sister to the electric chair?’”
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS AUG 14 - SEP 18, 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. Pret a manger
179 Broadway
A
The patriot saloon
110 Chambers street
A
China red gourment
118 Chambers street
A
Wilmer hale
7 World trade center
A
New york dolls
59 Murray street
A
Gunbae
67 Murray st
A
Domino’s pizza
181 Church street
A
Subway
51 Murray street
A
The cricketers arms
57 Murray street
Grade Pending (22) 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.
Yorganic
275 Greenwich street
A
Millenium hilton
55 Church street
A
Aroma espresso bar
100 Church street
A
Chipotle mexican grill
281 Broadway
A
Potbelly
280 Broadway
A
Cafe Panino Mucho Gusto
551 Hudson Street
A
Sugar Factory Meatpacking 835 Washington St
Not Graded Yet (12) 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.
Chelsea Square Restaurant 368 West 23 Street
A
Flight 151
151 8 Avenue
Grade Pending (19) Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Cafe Loup
105 West 13 Street
Grade Pending (24) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
The Diner
44 9 Avenue
Grade Pending (22) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.
Cho Cho San Japanese Restaurant
15 West 8 Street
A
Piadina Restaurant
57 West 10 Street
Grade Pending (2)
Lasagna Restaurant
196 8 Avenue
A
Lure Fishbar
142 Mercer Street
A
Uncle Ted’s
163 Bleecker Street
A
Zz Clam Bar
169 Thompson St
A
Sweetgreen Nolita
100 Kenmare St
A
The Mercer Submercer
147 Mercer Street
A
Bourgeois Pig
127 Macdougal St
A
Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery
200 Church Street
A
The Village Lantern
167 Bleecker Street
Grade Pending (2)
Bodega Negra
355 West 16 Street
A
Tom And Jerry Bar
288 Elizabeth Street
A
Salam Cafe & Rest
104 W. 13Th St. (Unit A One)
Snack
105 Thompson St
A
Bottega Falai
267 Lafayette Street
A
Merchants NY
112 7 Avenue
A
A
140 West 13 Street
A
Cafe Habana/Cafe Habana To Go
17 Prince Street
Sotto 13 Burger Joint
33 W. 8Th St
Grade Pending (27) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
Coffee Bean Tea & Leaf
189 Bleecker Street
A
Navy
137 Sullivan St
A
Baal Cafe And Falafel
71 Sullivan St
A
By Chloe
185 Bleecker St
A
Fraiche Maxx
213 Park Ave S
Grade Pending (27) 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/sewageassociated 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.
O’hanlon’s Bar
349 East 14 Street
A
L.A. Burdick Chocolates
5 East 20 Street
A
Tkettle
26 Saint Marks Place
Grade Pending (34) Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding.
Subway
220 8th Ave
A
Chartwells
65 West 11 Street
A
Super Taco Express
225 7Th Avenue
A
Domino’s Pizza
16A W 8Th St
A
Red Spoon
201 W 14Th St
Grade Pending (19) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. 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/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.
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SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR A NEIGHBORHOOD JEWEL
La Perla on West 105th Street. Photo: Richard Khavkine
Part of a Manhattan Valley community garden that rose from rubble will be sold BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
Forty years ago, a trio of stone-strewn but otherwise vacant lots on West 105th near Columbus Avenue were an apt metaphor for a distressed city on the brink of bankruptcy. One by one, the city foreclosed on the 17-foot by 100foot lots and, in late 1977, ordered the middle lot’s sale at public auction. Two young couples living in the neighborhood — Douglas and Elizabeth Kellner and Lizabeth Roberts and her soon-to-be husband, Martin Sostre — together placed a bid on the lot. “We got it for $500,” Elizabeth Kellner said. Neither couple had plans for the Manhattan Valley lot and, with real estate taxes of about $200 a year, they could afford to let it lie fallow. The two lots on either side of the Kellners’ and Sostres’, 76 and 80 West 105th, would eventually be transferred to the Trust for Public Land and the Parks and Recreation Department, respectively. In 1992, the couples were approached by a group of residents who thought the three adjacent lots would be a near ideal spot for a garden. “We gave them permission,” Kellner said. From a space totaling 50 feet by 100 feet, residents lugged out trash and bricks and hauled in tons of earth, consulted with a garden designer and welcomed anyone who could lend a hand or expertise. They christened their collective plot La Perla, after a tough and troubled neighborhood abutting Old San Juan in Puerto Rico. Within a neighborhood
where gunshots were a nearnightly occurrence and drug dealers plied their trade on nearby corners, hardy shrubs and trees, lilacs, lilies and peonies took root. Painted murals adorn nearby walls. A 1,000 gallon water tank in La Perla’s southeast corner gathers enough rainwater to supply nearly all the gardeners need. This year, an elaborate composting station was assembled. For more than 20 years, residents have cultivated ivy, lilac and irises; picked peaches, figs, and plums; and reaped tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, basil and thyme from 30 plots. “The majority of people like to grow what they can eat,” said Elizabeth Hall, who has lived on Columbus near 106th Street since 1992 and has been gardening at La Perla for about 10 years. But this fall’s bounty could mark the last harvest for some. “The taxes on the lot are now $15,000 a year,” Elizabeth Kellner said last week. “We decided we need to sell the lot.” The Kellners are now in their mid-60s and Lizabeth Sostre is in her 70s. Her husband died earlier this year. “We want to resolve this situation for the sake of our children,” Kellner said. A sale of the property, which is assessed at about $350,000, would very likely mean that a residential development would be built atop what are now a dozen fecund four-foot by eight-foot raised beds of earth and abundance. For Hall, the sale and consequent disruption of what she and others consider a neighborhood jewel would be a significant loss for the gardeners, certainly, but also for nearby
residents who use the garden as an oasis of sorts. “I’m seconds from the insanity on Columbus Avenue,” she said on a recent afternoon among pear, plum and peach trees casting mid-afternoon shade and yielding the last of their summer fruits. “It’s sort of a primal thing for me.” For $20 in annual dues, residents can lease a plot and plant just about anything that grow roots. “I call it the best real estate deal in town,” said Robert Pollard, who oversees the garden’s compost station. Just about anyone who wants a plot eventually gets one, he said. “We manage, we get by. We connect with people we wouldn’t have met otherwise,” he said. Kellner, who, like her husband, is a lawyer with a fourdecade history of civic involvement in the Upper West Side, said she, her husband and Sostre are amenable to a land swap. If worked out with either the Land Trust or the Parks Department, such an arrangement would allow the garden to continue on two adjacent lots rather than be split in two.“We would be very open to that,” Kellner said. The president of the Land Trust, Genevieve Outlaw, said relations with the Kellners and the Sostres have been cordial. But although she understood the impetus for selling the property, she called the decision “pretty devastating” for the gardeners. She said she would broach the idea of a land swap to the trust’s 12-member board next month. A Parks Department spokesperson said the department is aware of the discussion and is looking into how it might help keep the garden as intact as possible. Meanwhile, on a verdant patch in Manhattan Valley, a loose-knit crew continues to cultivate a treasure. In a neighborhood that continues to have its shares of hardship and episodic violence, La Perla is a refuge and a symbol of resolve “It brought neighbors together,” said Crystal Smith, one of La Perla’s original members. “It was something that said ‘we’ve come a long way.’”
COPPER THEFT ON SECOND AVENUE NEWS About 160 feet of cable were snatched BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
Police in the 19th Precinct are investigating the theft of 160 feet of copper cable from a Second Avenue job site at 92nd Street. Resident and Community Board 8 member David Rosenstein said he first heard about the theft on Monday, Sept. 14. “I asked [Con Edison] workers today what they were doing at the [southeast] corner of 92nd Street and 2nd Avenue, as they were blocking two lanes, a concern for emergency vehicles,” said Rosenstein, a member of the board’s Second Avenue Subway Task Force. “They said they were replacing copper
cables stolen at night from the newly reinstalled infrastructure below the street and above the station roof.” A spokesperson for Con Edison initially told Our Town that 84 feet of cable was stolen at about 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11, but later revealed 160 feet of cable had been taken. “The theft has been reported to the 19th Precinct,” said Con Ed spokesperson Bob McGee. An MTA spokesperson confirmed a theft occurred and indicated that there was more than once incident. “There have been ongoing copper wire cable thefts from Con Ed manholes,” said MTA spokesperson Kevin Ortiz. “Recently, one of the contractors working on [the 2nd Avenue Subway] hired two security guards to help safeguard their materials and were able to
avert theft on at least two occasions. NYPD is also involved.” The MTA noted that the stolen materials belonged to a contractor and not to the agency, but did not return a request for clarification on who is ultimately responsible for replacing the cable. Both the MTA and Con Ed refused to answer further questions as to the dollar value of the stolen copper cable, nor whether police were investigating the ongoing thefts as related to one another. McGee said he was coordinating with the MTA and NYPD on how much information to release to the public as of press time. The NYPD’s public affairs department did not return a request for comment by press time, and repeated inquiries to the 19th Precinct went unreturned.
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
OBITUARY
ANN KAVANAGH MANDT, MOTHER, ATTORNEY AND NURSE Ann Kavanagh Mandt, age 74, mother, attorney, nurse, and fighter for the wronged, passed away peacefully on Sept. 10 after a brief illness. Ann was born July 5, 1941, and grew up on Riverside Drive, the daughter of C. Murray Kavanagh, a lawyer, and Mary Kavanagh, a Broadway actress. She became a Registered Nurse after studying at St. Vincent’s Nursing School in Greenwich Village, and was married to Edward Mandt of Queens in 1965. They had four children, moving from New York to Ohio before settling in Detroit, where Ann earned a Master’s Degree in nursing and taught future nurses as a member of the Uni-
versity of Detroit Nursing Faculty. After her husband was diagnosed with cancer in 1988, Ann decided to go to law school at the University of Detroit. During her first year, Edward Mandt died at age 53. Ann continued her studies and graduated with distinction in 1991. She joined Charfoos & Christensen, P.C., a prestigious law firm in Detroit, where she used both her medical and legal skills to represent patients injured by medical malpractice. Over time Ann became a prominent Michigan attorney. Ann was a passionate sports fan and maintained a wonderful sense of humor up to her death. Her positive and
optimistic approach to life, even during difficult times, uplifted and comforted everyone in her life. When she could no longer golf and was unable to attend the ESPY Awards in July in Los Angeles, which her daughter Maura produced, her friends first became seriously worried about her health. Ann is survived by her brothers Charles and Jimmy Kavanagh and sisters Ellen Sydor and Maura Maier of New York. Most important to Ann were her four children who survive her, Maura Mandt of New York, a TV producer; Sheila Mandt, a non-profit executive and her husband Chris Hilbert of Richmond, Virginia; Michael
There’s no evidence that shows a link between credit reports and job performance. That’s why NYC made it illegal to use credit reports in employment decisions. Let’s grow New York businesses and workforces with fairness and equal opportunity for all. Learn how the law affects you at nyc.gov/humanrights or by calling 311.
Mandt, a TV producer and his wife Diana Mandt of Hollywood, California; and Neil Mandt, a producer and director and his wife Lauren Mandt, also of Hollywood, California. Two granddaughters, Grace and Charlotte Mandt, also survive her. In lieu of flowers, donations to either the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, 1264 Meldrum Street, Detroit, Michigan 48207, attention Brother Jerry Smith, or the South Oakland Shelter, 18505 Twelve Mile Road, Lathrup Village, Michigan 48076, would be greatly appreciated.
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
OBITUARY
Legislation Would Protect Grocery Store Workers and Our Communities
FRED WINSHIP, UPI WRITER AND THEATER REVIEWER
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 theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 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. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be able to show the new owners that their familiarity with the job and the storeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s customers is an asset and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be given time to look for other work while remaining employed. There wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s invaluable for grocery store shoppers. By requiring that 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.
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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.
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Fred Winship, long-time theater reviewer for UPI, died peacefully at 90 in his apartment on E. 57th Street on September 3. No cause of death was given. He was writing a review of a play he had just seen when he died. He was born on September 24, 1924, in Franklin Ohio, son of Wilbur William Winship and Edna Moery Winship. He was the son of a paper manufacturing executive and member of a family active in journalism in Massachusetts, West Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio since the 1790s. He received a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in 1945 from DePauw University, where he was president of the founding chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, the national journalism fraternity. He graduated in 1946 from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and started his career on UPIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New York news desk. He was a reporter, editor and critic for the wireservice for nearly 70 years. He was known as one of UPIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most versatile writers, having covered, as he once said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;everything but sports.â&#x20AC;? H. L. Stevenson, a longtime managing editor of UPI, called Winship â&#x20AC;&#x153;our triple threat man.â&#x20AC;? One of his first assignments was as correspondent at the new United Nations in its temporary headquarters in Lake Success, N. Y., and later at its permanent headquarters in Manhattan. There he covered one of the major stories of the day, the lengthy debate on the establishment of the State of Israel. Winship later covered politics, the courts, social events, and cultural affairs in New York. A personal interest in the arts led him to expand UPIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coverage in this area and took
him to many cities in the United States and abroad to cover museum exhibitions and to critique operatic, symphonic, and dance performances and theatrical events. In 1958 he was named an Ogden Reid Journalism Fellow and spent a year studying the second ďŹ ve-year economic development program in India, where he already had traveled extensively on tours of the Far East. Other assignments took him to Europe, Africa. South America, and Australia, so that he had ďŹ led stories from six of the seven continents. He wrote some of the earliest reports on the controversial planned city of Brasilia, now Brazilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capital; the discovery of Cheopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Solar Ship at the foot of the pharaohâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pyramid in Egypt; and the opening of the Soviet Union and China to tourism. He reported extensively on the glamorous marriage of American socialite Hope Cooke to the future king of Sikkim. His interviews ranged from Sir Winston Churchill, President Harry S. Truman, hydrogen bomb developer Edward Teller, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to the Dalai Lama and Norgay Tenzing, co-conqueror of Mt. Everest. He considered an interview with crusty architect Frank Lloyd Wright on the occasion of the completion of the Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum in New York as one of his most interesting encounters. Another was his exclusive interview with notorious murderer Nathan Leopold after his release from prison about his work as a scientiďŹ c guinea pig in Puerto Rico. He also was credited with inventing the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;smazeâ&#x20AC;? to describe a combination of
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smoke and haze. He used it in reporting on a strange atmospheric condition caused by forest fires in 1950 and it was picked up by the U.S. Weather Service and later by the Oxford English Dictionary and Websterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Winship was named UPIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assistant managing editor in charge of the new serviceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worldwide news feature and enterprise report in 1975. In 1983 he was named senior editor for arts and theater and became UPIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Broadway drama critic, reviewing literally thousands of productions. Since 2000 he held the title Critic-atLarge for the Arts and Theater. Winship was active in cultural and community affairs, and served as chairman of the Easter Seal Society of Greater New York, initiating its annual fund-raising telethon. For many years he was president of Letters Abroad, an affiliate of the U.S. Information Serviceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s People-to-People Program. He was also chairman of The Oratorio Society of New York, the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest choral group,
president of the New York Conference of Patriotic Societies, and a member of the boards of the New York State Easter Seal Society, Museum of the City of New York, and Friends of the American Theater Wing. He was a member of The Society of the Cincinnati and he was listed in The Social Register. In 1967 he was married to Joanne Tree Thompson, a former screen, stage, and television actress who turned journalist, reporting on fashion and lifestyle for UPI, AP and the New York Post. She died in 1997. At his request he was cremated and his ashes are to be interred in his family plot at Woodhill Cemetery in Franklin, Ohio next to his beloved wife Joanne. Survivors include: nieces Anna Hudson of NYC; Elizabeth Tannenbaum of Brattleboro,Vt; Randi Jane Lambert of Punta Gorda, FL; Marguerite Ulrich of Alexandra, OH; and nephew William R. Knutson of Franklin, OH and ďŹ ve great nieces and four nephews.
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Erectile Dysfunction (E.D.) When the “Magic Pill” isn’t so magic
FIGHTING HIGHER DRUG COSTS SENIORS Policy center rolls out recommendations that include consumer ratings for drugs’ effectiveness BY RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Consumer-friendly ratings of the benefits of new drugs. Limits on what patients pay. Requiring drug companies to disclose how much they actually spend on research. With the public concerned about the high cost of new medications, these are some of the proposals offered by a policy center often aligned with the Obama administration. The multistep plan from the Center for American Progress aims to get the attention of the 2016 Democratic presidential candidates. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are both on record advocating action against overpriced medications. In a break from standard liberal solutions, the proposal refrains from urging that the government be empowered to negotiate drug prices for Medicare patients. By law, Medicare’s prescription drug program can’t do that now. Topher Spiro, the center’s health policy expert, said he hopes the new emphasis on paying for value and consumer education will attract at least some Republican support. “We’ve been talking about Medicare negotiation ... for many, many years and gotten nowhere,” said Spiro. “We wanted to change the dynamic.” While some of the proposals require legislation, others could be green-lighted by the
administration. But the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America strongly criticized the plan, saying in a statement it would impose “arbitrary caps” on prices, “thwart innovation, impede the development of new medicines for patients and cost countless jobs.” Industry says the cost of drugs reflects investment in research as well as the uncertainties of developing a new medication. Nevertheless, insurers, employers, and state and federal policymakers may be interested in the new proposals. A poll this summer found that 72 percent of Americans think the cost of prescription drugs is unreasonable. The outcry gained momentum after the introduction last year of a $1,000-a-pill cure for hepatitis C. The 45-page plan seeks to rein in the overall cost of drugs while ensuring that patients get to share in the savings. Among its recommendations: * Requiring drug companies to disclose how much they spend on research and development, production, and sales and marketing. If a manufacturer fails to meet a threshold for research spending, it could be required to make payments to a new fund to support the National Institutes of Health. Taxpayer-funded NIH research provides the springboard for some new drugs. * Commissioning an independent research organization to evaluate new drugs for effectiveness. In a strategy similar to safety testing of cars, patients and doctors would get easy-to-understand ratings of whether a new drug provides no added benefit, minor added
benefits or significant added benefits when compared to existing medications. The ratings would be included in advertising and would become the basis for pricing recommendations from the independent evaluator. The price guidelines would not be arbitrary, but based on evidence, said Spiro. * If a new drug is priced more than 20 percent above the recommended price, and if the manufacturer relied on taxpayer-funded research to develop it, the government would be allowed to license that medication’s patent to generic competitors. The center claims a 1980 federal law known as Bayh-Dole provides this authority. * Protecting people covered through employer plans and other private insurance by capping cost-sharing for drugs at $3,250 annually and setting monthly limits as well. * Granting exemptions from antitrust laws so insurers and pharmacy benefit managers together could negotiate prices for the highest cost drugs with manufacturers. * Changing Medicare’s payment policy for medications administered in a doctor’s office, including many cancer drugs. Physicians currently get an added administrative fee of 6 percent of the drug’s price. Critics say that creates financial incentives to prescribe the most expensive medication. A prominent doctor and researcher said the plan has the potential to shift drug company pricing from a hunt for profits to a search for value. The industry is currently enjoying “a rising tide in prices that is carrying everything along,” said Dr. Peter B. Bach of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. “But the bull’s eye we want them to be aiming at is higher,” added Bach. Under the plan “you would maximize your profits by winning on creating the best medicine.”
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SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
WHEN A PLAYGROUND DISAPPEARS NYCHA plan to sell off play space hits a backlash BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
Photo: John St John, via Flickr
COUNTING BIKES ON THE EAST SIDE A survey by a neighborhood group tallied bikers and whether they abided by the law BY KYLE POPE
Just how out of control are dangerous bicycles on the Upper East Side? Not as much as you might think. In one of the first attempts to quantify the bike safety problem in the neighborhood -- a topic that has gained extra urgency with the recent roll-out of CitiBike -- the E. 79th Street Neighborhood Association this summer launched its own survey of bike traffic on First Avenue and 79th Street. Volunteers from the group, led by Betty Cooper Wallerstein, tracked bicyclists for nearly 12 hours on June 30, tallying how many bikes passed by the intersection, whether they were using the bike lane, and whether they obeyed traffic lights and went with the flow of traffic. The results: 1,218 bicylists were counted by the volunteers over those 12 hours. Of those, 821 -- or about two-thirds of the riders -- traveled in the bike lane. The group counted 277 riders who didn’t ride in the lane, 120 who were going the wrong way, and 178 who went through a red light. While the findings aren’t likely to reassure Upper East Siders concerned about the dangers posed by bikes, Wallerstein said she’s somewhat reassured by the results. “I was surprised,” she said. “I was expecting everyone to be going through the light. I was pleased to see some positive improvement.” According to the group’s numbers, bike ridership at the intersection peaked in the evening, between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., most likely as a result of food delivery bikes. In that hour, there were 137 bikes in the intersection, 47 of which were not in
the bike lane. The most dangerous hour tracked by the group was between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., when there were 101 bikes on the road, 92 of which were not in the lane. Councilmember Ben Kallos, who represents the Upper East Side, also has tracked improvement on the issue, thanks to a summer of work to address what he sees as one of the most pressing issues in his district. Kallos said a renewed focus from officers in the 19th Precinct has resulted in a 52% increase in enforcement actions against bikes and a corresponding 18% drop in bike and vehicle collisions. Working with his office, the Department of Transportation has given away 10,500 bells and 10,100 lights to bikers. “This is something we’ve taken very seriously,” Kallos said in an interview. “A lot of this revolves around residents feeling empowered to do something.” Yet while numbers from police and the new survey show improvement on the issue, it has yet to filter down to how people feel in the street. The September meeting of Wallerstein’s group, for instance, was dominated by the issue, with a number of speakers expressing frustration that bikers who break traffic laws or ride the wrong way seem rarely get punished. Wallerstein said the emotion surrounding the issue springs from fear, particularly among older New Yorkers, few of whom are riding the bikes that are now crowding the streets. “It’s very, very frightening,” she said. “The biker knows he can easily get around. But elderly people can’t do that.” Wallerstein said her group is planning another bike survey in the neighborhood next month. Kallos welcomed the input. “Unless the community steps up to the plate,” he said, “there will never be an end in sight.”
The New York City Housing Authority shocked public housing residents and lawmakers when it announced a proposal to build affordable housing on playground space at Holmes Towers on the Upper East Side. In a bid to raise revenue and increase the affordable housing stock in Manhattan, the administration is proposing to sell or enter into longterm leases with developers to build 350-400 apartments on playground space at Holmes, 175-200 of which would be affordable. The remainder of the apartments will be offered at market rate. The agency released a statement last week that said since May, NYCHA has been rolling out key pieces of “NextGen NYCHA,” billed as a 10-year strategic plan to address the agency’s “chronic operating deficit” and $17 billion in unmet capital needs. Holmes Towers’ residents and local elected officials said they were not briefed on the proposal before it was announced last Thursday, and there are already several problems with the plan from their point of view. For instance, in order to qualify for the affordable apartments, a potential resident would need to make a minimum of 60 percent of the area median income, which is equivalent to a family of three making $46,600. “I think it’s really unfair,” said Milagros Velasquez, a resident and tenant leader at Holmes Towers. “I’m low-income, I’m a single working mother, and I still won’t be able to afford that low-income apartment.” A NYCHA spokesperson said a mixed-income building at Holmes is a balanced approach to the financial crisis facing NYCHA as it ensures both needed affordable units and revenue generating market rate units, and funnels a significant portion of revenue back into Holmes, with the remainder applied to NYCHA-wide needs. “The future of NYCHA is resting on all of us, even critics, to find the best path forward to generate the funds to keep NYCHA open for business,” said the spokesperson. “NYCHA is facing the worst financial crisis in its history — the Authority does not have the funds to address the infrastructure needs of our buildings, including the buildings at Holmes, which directly impacts the quality
of life of our residents.” But Greg Morris, executive director of the nearby Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center, said Holmes and Stanley Isascs residents feel they’ve been marginalized for decades, most recently by the city’s decision to move an access ramp to the East 91st marine transfer station to East 93rd Street, right past Holmes Towers. Now, said Morris, the city is appropriating what meager open space the community has in a deal with no clear upside to existing residents. “I think what I’m hearing from the community is, ‘Look, you neglected us on the marine transfer station, we weren’t really in that conversation in a constructive way. Now you’re going to make the ramp one block closer to us, so that’s going to potentially impact us more, and now you want our space because you think you can raise revenue. So now you want to be in dialogue with us about the needs of the community. Where were you before?’” Velasquez also scoffed that revenue from the plan being used to make much-needed repairs at Holmes is being billed as a benefit for the community. “Those are repairs that should be done anyway,” she said. And other issues remain. There are two playgrounds at Holmes Towers, which houses about 930 residents in nearly 540 units split between the two 25-story towers. According to NYCHA’s proposal, the displaced playground would be replaced elsewhere on Holmes’ property. But the city did not specify which of the playgrounds it would be building on, nor where a replacement playground could or would fit on the site. NYCHA said the site for the replacement playground will be determined by input from residents at
a series of collaborative meetings that are set to occur. “We’ve asked residents, advocates and others to have a seat at the table to help solve this problem and to keep an open mind as stakeholder engagement moves forward,” said a NYCHA spokesperson. Velasquez and Morris suspect NYCHA aims to build at 405 East 93rd Street, the bigger of the two playgrounds, as opposed to a smaller playground at 1780 1st Avenue, at the corner of 93rd Street. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer also came out against the plan, and questioned why prospective market rate tenants would want to live in apartments where garbage trucks will rumbling by on their way to the MTS (the Dept. of Sanitation has not yet revealed the exact route trucks will take on their way to the MTS, but East 93rd Street is a likely route). “The garbage trucks are going to go by Holmes,” said Brewer. “It’s hard for the residents.” She also criticized the plan for retroactively engaging with tenants of Holmes Towers after key decisions have already been made. She also wants any residential project at Holmes to be one hundred percent affordable. “I don’t know that I’d call it a joke, but I’d call it a challenging process,” said Brewer of the city’s forthcoming attempt to win tenants over to the plan. “I would want a hundred percent affordable with much discussion about what affordable is.” Councilmember Ben Kallos, who is also opposed to the plan, agreed. “I think we’re going to make it as hard for the mayor to do this as possible,” he said. Kallos said NYCHA is set to meet with residents to review the plan on Oct. 7.
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
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SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
YOUR 15 MINUTES
SAILING THE HIGH SEAS IN NEW YORK Hornblower exec takes us on a nautical journey through Manhattan
BY ANGELA BARBUTI
If you ever forget that Manhattan is an island, Hornblower Cruises and Events serves as a reminder, whisking revelers away on the Hudson every day and night. The company has six luxury vessels docked at Pier 40 in the West Village and Pier 15 at South Street Seaport, hosting every type of event from lavish weddings to afterwork happy hours to sightseeing excursions. Cameron Clark, the company’s vice president and general manager, works up to seven days a week overseeing a staff of 300 and multiple events sometimes taking place simultaneously. As a mechanical engineering student at California Maritime Academy, he started with the company in 2001 as a server, and, as he jokingly puts it, they haven’t been able to get rid of him since. It is only fitting that Clark named his first child Kai, after the Hawaiian word for ‘sea.’ He
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
calls his son, who was born in February, one of their frequent cruisers. “We live down in the Financial District ... . Part of my wife’s regular routine is to pack up and head down to Pier 15,” he explained. “They have lunch and jump on a sightseeing boat and go out for a cruise.”
Hornblower is fairly new to the city. How did it get started here? In 2012, we decided to bring the Hornblower brand to New York. In 2007 and early 2008, Hornblower entered the marketplace under the brand Statue Cruises, which took people to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We focused our energies there, always knowing that we wanted to introduce a business that began in California as a hospitality company. It took a few years before we were able to build new vessels and develop a product that we thought made sense in the marketplace and bring it here. Since then, it’s only been a startup, so as in most startups, it’s been a lot seven-day-a-week operations. We decided to expand our operations to Pier 40
in the West Village and Pier 15 in the South Street Seaport. We’ve gone from a startup in 2012 with a handful of employees to over 300 in 2015.
What’s the difference between Pier 40 and Pier 15 as far as what is offered? Pier 40 in the West Village we designated principally as the location for our private events. Our higher-end public products, such as our premium dinner cruises and champagne jazz brunch cruises, are sailing out of that location. Pier 15 in the South Street Seaport, on the other hand, is where we’re running our one-hour sightseeing cruises throughout the day, which are really tourist driven. And also our cocktail, happy hour and entertainment cruises, which are the more affordable price points, are out of that location.
Walk us through a typical day of events. Yesterday, we had our crew show up at a little before 5 a.m. They started preparing food for that day for our dinner
cruises, while another team prepared to get our sightseeing cruises underway. So by 9 a.m., two vessels left here at Pier 40 to head over to Pier 15, where over the course of the day, they carry over 3,000 passengers for sightseeing. While those vessels were running out of Pier 15 during the day, our team was prepping to get our first cruise out at 11 a.m., which was a bat mitzvah on the Hornblower Hybrid. That cruise went out at 11, came back, and then we prepared it for a wedding on the second deck and a public dinner cruise on the main deck. During the entire day, our team was prepping for a grandiose wedding of 340 passengers on the Hornblower Infinity, which included décor, a seven-piece band, flower arrangements and custom table design. The Sensation went out yesterday afternoon for a lunch cruise with a church group, then it came back and turned over and went down to Pier 15 and ran a cocktail cruise at night. That’s what an average Saturday would look like.
You started your career with the company while still in college. How did that come about? I was studying mechanical engineering there and we had an individual from the HR team for Hornblower show up at our campus and say, “We’re looking for cadets and students who’d be wanting to work on our vessels during the school year.” And I said, “Sounds like a lot of fun. I’d get paid. I’d get to play on the water. Sign me up.”
To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes
And they haven’t been able to get rid of me since! I did leave shortly after college and went to work for Matson and American President Line. Companies sailing from the pacific west coast to Hawaii and Singapore respectively. I had an amazing opportunity to come back to work with Hornblower and I couldn’t pass it up. I realized it wasn’t for me and had an opportunity to come back and work for Hornblower. Funny story, my mom is a flight attendant and actually ran into Terry MacRae (Hornblower’s CEO) on a flight and they got to talking. And by the end of the conversation, he said, “Have your son call me when he’s back from sea.”
Hornblower is committed to the environment and started Respect Our Planet. Tell us more about that. That was a passion project of mine and the owners that was started back in 2004. We’ve always been environmentally focused. Our CEO, Terry, actually has an engineering degree in environmental sciences. Before starting Hornblower, he worked for a company that did emission controls for factories. So his roots are on the environmental side, so we’ve always been focused as an organization, in doing good things, but it wasn’t until early 2000 that we formalized it and took it to the next level. That revolved around international environmental standards ISO 14001. We set standards on fuel consumption, emissions reduc-
tion and trash diversion. Then we thought that 14001 environmental standards sounds pretty boring to employees. So we started Respect Our Planet to get them engaged. It’s an integrated system to support quality, safety and environment. If we can’t respect our crew and treat them well, we won’t be able to respect our guests and treat them well, and we certainly won’t be able to respect our planet.
Even though we’re entering into the colder months, your boats are still going out. What events do you have coming up in the fall and winter? It seems that people think that past August, boat activities are done because it’s getting cold. But we do have activities year-round. We have great cruises in the fall — foliage, Halloween, Thanksgiving. And a whole series of festive lunch and dinner cruises heading into the holidays around Christmas. Of course New Year’s. It’s a spectacular way to celebrate, on the water. For more information, visit www. hornblowernewyork.com
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SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
“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.
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
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REAL ESTATE - SALE
SERVICES OFFERED
VACATIONS
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Quick | Easy | Economical
Call Barry Lewis today at:
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AUCTIONS
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CARS & TRUCKS & RVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S
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Chinese Objects Paintings, Jewelry Silver, Furniture, Etc. Entire Estates Purchased
800.530.0006 SOHO LT MFG
462 Broadway REAL ESTATE - SALE
ENTERTAINMENT
ANTIQUES WANTED
MFG No Retail/Food +/- 9,000 sf Ground Floor - $90 psf +/- 16,000 sf Cellar - $75 psf Call Farrell @ Meringoff Properties 646.306.0299
28
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
SEPTEMBER 24-30,2015
BINGE WATCH. (It’s educational.) If you’re searching for the right school for your child, Avenues
technology, engineering, math and the arts; our four-year high
has created a video library that’s a unique resource. You’ll find compelling looks at several of our innovative proprietary programs, including language immersion in either Spanish or
school Mastery program; and some vibrant examples of interdisciplinary study. Of course, you can’t choose a school by watching some videos. But we think you’ll find our video library
Chinese; an advanced STEAM curriculum integrating science,
an exceptionally helpful place to start.
www.avenues.org/watch
To register for a parent information event on September 29 or October 15, please visit avenues.org/watch or call 646.664.0800.