The local paper for Downtown wn RETHINKING ANDY WARHOL < CITYARTS, P.24
WEEK OF OCTOBER
8-14 2015
Autumn in the City
SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS BEARING BRUNT Legislation would ease onerous lease terms and give proprietors more time to find new locations BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
Lorcan Otway recently questioned if New York wasn’t losing its soul. As the owner and operator of Theater 80, a small but cherished off-Broadway gem on St. Marks Place, Otway is on the front lines of the battle to save small business in New York. “All the businesses in this room depend on small the-
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OUR TOWN’S THE ART OF FOOD Our Town’s Art of Food presented by NewYorkPresbyterian Hospital is here! Mouth-watering dishes will be prepared by 27 culinary titans of the Upper East Side, each of whose creations will be inspired by art from Sotheby’s upcoming auctions. (Le Cirque’s inspiration, by Toulouse-Lautrec, is on the left.) Café Boulud, Crave Fishbar, JoJo, August, Fred’s at Barneys, The Meatball Shop, The Cecil, The East Pole and others are among the participants. For more information, go to www.ArtofFoodNY.com
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril (D. 345; Adr 11; W. P6), 1893, Dimensions (L x H): 47.5 x 61 in Courtesy Sotheby’s
ST CE A L AN CH
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Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2015 When: 7:00 – 10:00 PM Location: Sotheby’s New York Ticket Prices: $200 VIP Ticket, $135 General Admission Ticket
27 Culinar y Titans A R T O F F O O D N Y.C O M TUESDAY, OC TOBER 13 a t hosted by Chef Michael W hite & Designer Nicole Miller
20 Tic % ke O ts FF
Temperatures are dropping and the nights are getting longer. Reader Joseph Abate snapped this photo after attending a concert at Carnegie Hall. Do you have a photo that captures your New York? Send it to us at news@strausnews.com
Downtowner WEEK OF APRIL
SPRING ARTS PREVIEW < CITYARTS, P.12
FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
n OurTownDowntow
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Newscheck Crime Watch Voices
for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
2 City Arts 3 Top 5 8 Real Estate 10 15 Minutes
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