Our Town July 7, 2011

40 ANNIVE

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Joy of Shopping: Summer Scoops You Can’t Resist

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July 7, 2011

Upper East Side Weathers Budget Storm

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express ANOTHER RALLY AGAINST TRANSFER STATION—Hundreds of Upper East Side

CONSTRUCTION-PLAGUED SCHOOL RELOCATING—The students of P.S. 51

are being relocated after months of protest from parents and teachers about the unhealthy environment created by construction in the nearby area.

For the past two months, the school, located at 520 W. 45th St., has been surrounded by construction projects that will see new high-rise buildings on the block by 2013.

According to parents, children have been coming home with new, unexplained health problems such as skin rashes, eye irritation, headaches, nosebleeds and exacerbated asthma. They had been calling on the City Council and Department of Education to relocate the students with vocal requests and a rally last month.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced on Thursday, June 23, that P.S. 51 will be moving to Our Lady of Good Counsel on East 91st Street, a former Catholic school building owned by the Archdiocese.

—AW HYRDOFRACKING POSSIBLE IN NEW YORK—Last week, Governor Andrew

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July 7, 2011

FREE TENNIS & GOLF FOR KIDS—

CityParks Foundation kicks off its summer program July 5, offering free tennis and golf lessons to children ages 5 to 16. Tennis lessons will be held at the Central Park Tennis Center, West Drive at 96th Street, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1–4 p.m., and East River Park, FDR Drive and Houston Street, Mondays and Wednesdays, 1–2 p.m., through August

Honoring First responders

CAITY BIERMAN

residents gathered at the Stanley Isaacs NYCHA Housing Development last week to once again protest the building of a marine transfer station at East 91st Street.

Upper East Siders reiterated that they do not want the transfer station in their neighborhood, stating that a garbage dump does not belong in any residential area.

With the threat of a transfer station soon becoming a reality, community activists have plans in place to thwart the start of construction.

Anthony Ard, of the Gracie Point Community Council, has been fighting the issue in the courts, with two pending lawsuits against the city. He said he plans to keep taking legal action to stop the plans from moving forward.

But if the transfer station does go up, what will it mean for the residents of the Upper East Side? Will they rough it out in their neighborhood or move elsewhere?

For some, this would be a tough call.

“It is my home and I would hate to leave, but I would certainly have to consider it,” said Tammy Weinfeld, who has lived on the Upper East Side for 14 years.

Yet, for Ard, coming to that decision is simply unthinkable.

“I don’t look that far down the road,” he said. “I’m here to try to kill this thing, and that’s what I’m going to try to do.”

—AW

Cuomo announced plans to lift New York State’s moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, a drilling method known as hydrofracking, used to extract natural gas.

Many politicians and environmental activists have questioned the practice’s safety, citing the lax regulations in place and the need for more legal oversight and testing of the chemicals used in the process.

The State Department of Environmental Conversation issued a recommendation to the governor to allow hydrofracking in many areas of the state, including 85 percent of the Marcellus Shale, the source of drinking water for New York City. Drilling within 500 feet of aquifers will be prohibited.

This is a reversal of a 2009 study by the DEC that recommended the complete prohibition of hydrofracking.

“This report strikes the right balance between protecting our environment, watersheds and drinking water, and promoting economic development,” said DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens in a statement.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg applauded the governor’s decision to abide by the DEC’s recommendations, noting the economic benefit to the state, but local state representatives have spoken strongly against it.

“There are still way too many unknowns when it comes to hydrofracking,” said Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal in a statement. “Unless and until we can be sure that the process will not cause irreparable harm to the health and safety of New Yorkers and their water supply, the moratorium should not be lifted.”

Rosenthal joins most of her Democratic colleagues in the Assembly and Senate denouncing hydrofracking, and Representative Carolyn Maloney has been a strong anti-hydrofracking voice at the national level as well.

The DEC will open a 60-day public comment period on the proposal in August, and is also engaging in a study of socioeconomic impacts of hydrofracking, which it expects to be completed by July 31. If the state allows the process, individual permits will still be subject to review and open to public comment.

—Megan Finnegan

The Zadroga 9/11 Health Bill, which provides continued health care for those affected by the 9/11 attacks, went into effect on Friday, July 1. The bill’s authors, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Congressman Jerrold Nadler, joined

by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, celebrated the event with a ribbon cutting at Mount Sinai Medical Center, the site for one of the four Centers of Excellence in the New York City area created under the law.

The act, which was signed into law earlier this year, is named for James Zadroga, a New York City police officer who died in 2006 of a respiratory disease that has been attributed to the time he spent during 9/11 recovery effort. It provides $1.5 billion in guaranteed federal funding and establishes the World Trade Center Health Program, which offers medical monitoring and treatment benefits to both 9/11 first responders and residents of lower Manhattan and parts 16. More information at cityparksfoundation.org.

—MF EAST SIDE AUTHOR TELLS NO LIES—By

day, Cathi Stoler works as a successful advertising executive—but by night, she writes mystery novels. A native New Yorker who has lived on the Upper East Side for 37 years, Stoler recently published her first novel, Telling Lies, a mystery set in New York and Italy, and will soon embark on a book tour.

“I came up with the story for Telling Lies after 9/11, which I unfortunately witnessed firsthand,” Stoler told Our Town.

“I had the feeling someone was taking

of Brooklyn. In addition, the law will re-open the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, allowing those affected to file claims for economic losses due to harm or death caused by the 9/11 terror attacks.

For lawmakers who have been fighting to get the bill passed for years, this was a momentous victory.

“Today represents the culmination of nearly 10 years of work and struggle by so many people,” said Nadler.

“Nearly 10 years ago, the heroes of 9/11 risked their lives and, with phenomenal bravery, ran into burning buildings and smoldering ash to save others. And, for nearly 10 years, they have suffered ill health and death as a result.”

For Maloney, the law finally means giving back to those who gave so much nearly 10 years ago.

“It is important that our country takes care of those who take care of us,” she said. “They were there to help us on 9/11, and we are here today to take care of them.”

—Ashley Welch advantage of this horrible tragedy to change their life and their identity. And then I also saw how art prices were skyrocketing. These all came into play in the book.”

Stoler often gets inspiration from her neighborhood and always checks out locations to make sure she’s describing them accurately.

“I always thought I wanted to be a spy when I was a little girl,” Stoler said. “I read all of the spy books—Robert Ludlum, Ian Fleming. I always liked reading mysteries and I thought, ‘Maybe I could do this,’ because I’ve always loved to write as well.”

—Lisa Chen N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

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NEWS YOU LIVE BY

Rtheeading

Why the neighborhood continues to inspire authors, and some of the great reads (old and new) that are set just outside your door

UpperEastSide H

By Beth Mellow

andrew schwartz

literary blogger and author, explained, “I think the Upper East Side is a brand, undreds of dead butter- sort of like the Left Bank or Bloomsbury, flies fell onto party attend- that conjures certain pictures in readees at the most highly ers’ minds, whether or not they have anticipated fête of the ever been there. There is an association year. At the stroke of midnight, in the in many people’s minds between Upper ballroom of a grand Fifth Avenue pent- East Side and ‘old money.’” house, Chilean butterShe said the setting flies danced underneath intrigues people who aren’t luminous spotlights to as wealthy and toil away at the delight of the parunglamorous jobs. tiers. However, the light “There is the fantasy of proved too strong for the another easier, more eleinsects and the electricgant life,” she said. ity blew out, resulting in Dominick Dunne darkness, pandemonium exposed readers to the and a rainfall of butterfly inner workings of privicarcasses. Guests susleged Park Avenue in his tained broken bones and novels, including Too Much bruises as they rushed Money and People Like for the exits.

Us. In both books, readers It would have been a are invited into exclusive night to remember if it clubs and restaurants, and had happened, but it nev- Dominick Dunne. the luxurious homes of the er did. The tale comes elite. They witness insider from the bestselling Upper East Side-set trading in People Like Us, but they also novel People Like Us by Dominick Dunne. get an inside look at spending sprees From the gilded age of Edith Wharton’s that include wallet-defying purchases of The Age of Innocence to the ballrooms antiques, jewels and even overly expenof Dunne’s novels, the Upper East Side sive window treatments. continues to be a popular setting for According to David Whetter, manliterature. ager of bookstore Shakespeare & Co., Dr. Susan O’Doherty, psychologist, 939 Lexington Ave., the juxtaposition of

David Whetter, manager of Shakespeare & Co., with Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote.

Wolitzer Finds Map for Novels in UES

By Beth Mellow Meg Wolitzer, Upper East Side mom and New York Times bestselling author, decided to draw inspiration from her experiences in the neighborhood when writing her 2008 novel The Ten-Year Nap. The popular book focuses on a group of young moms facing personal, vocational, and familial conflicts.

“I had spent quite a few years hanging out with Upper East Side mothers, both working and non-working, and their children,” Wolitzer said. “When I came up O u r To w n NY. c o m

with the idea for the novel, I felt that the Upper East Side was an area I could write about with authenticity.”

The author, who grew up in Long Island, explains that living on the Upper East Side has not only shaped The TenYear Nap, which is set in the neighborhood, but also her other novels, including the recently released The Meg Wolitzer.

Uncoupling, a story that

unfolds in a suburban New Jersey town.

Wolitzer explains, “A writer is always influenced by her surroundings, and I think the Upper East Side has naturally affected me a great deal. I’ve spent a lot of time in Central Park, which is a real nucleus for all kinds of things, and I’ve listened in on conversa-

tions in coffee shops and dry cleaners in the neighborhood.”

The Upper East Side has not only been inspirational for Wolitzer, but has also been an integral part of the writing process for her.

“I live near Carl Schurz Park, a place I really love, and when I walk my dog on the promenade in the morning, I am often mapping out a section of a new book in my head,” she said.

The Ten-Year Nap, The Uncoupling and Meg Wolitzer’s other novels are available at Amazon.com and other booksellers.

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old money with middle-class ethics, as well as the struggles of the poor, creates engaging literature.

“Money makes social strata,” he said.

“A book like Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities exposes a [wealthy Park Avenue banker] to other parts of New York. That kind of writing is fascinating.”

In Bonfire of the Vanities, Sherman McCoy, a white, millionaire bond trader, and his mistress accidentally hit a young African-American man with their car in the Bronx. The story ultimately takes Sherman away from the comfort of his exclusive East Side apartment, where he and his family reside, to a holding cell in the Bronx. The novel contrasts the lives of McCoy and his circle with the middleclass district attorney who prosecutes him, as well as highlights issues of class and racism in 1980s New York City.

Harris Healy, owner of Logos Bookstore, 1575 York Ave., agreed that money and social status are two of the most prevalent themes that run through literature set on the Upper East Side.

“Money is always something of an attraction,” he said.

“Books like The Age of Innocence or 740 Park are classic examples of this. They have fascinating characters, who lead interesting lives because they have the means to do so.”

Authors began publishing books about the Upper East Side elite far before Dunne and Katharine Weber.

Wolfe. In fact, 100 years ago, Edith Wharton, an insider herself, set several novels—including The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence and parts

of The Buccaneers—against the backdrop of Fifth Avenue.

“I do think [Edith Wharton] was the most significant novelist to first write about the Upper East Side, having herself come from the Jones family with whom so many wanted to keep up,” said author Katharine Weber, whose Upper East Side-focused memoir, The Memory of All That, will be released later this summer. “She had a keen eye for the social maneuverings and obsessions that meant as much in the Gilded Age as they do today, when people are still obsessed with real estate and who lives where.”

While much of the Upper East Side literary cannon has focused on money and social class, newer novels are featuring different aspects of the neighborhood.

The recent New York Times bestseller The Ten-Year Nap,

by Meg Wolitzer, follows a group of East Side mothers as they deal with the classic conflict of parenthood versus career.

Jonathan Lethem’s alternate reality novel, Chronic City City, takes two of the book’s main characters on a postpot smoking burger binge at Jackson Hole on Second Avenue. Adam Davies’ The Frog King provides readers with a view into the rat infested Yorkville walk-up of a twenty-something jobless and lovelorn book editor.

The young adult novel Dark Dude, by Oscar Hijuelos, takes readers north and back in time to 1960s East Harlem.

Todd Strasser, another young adult novelist, whose recent book Famous is set on the Upper East Side, points out that while he selected the locale for its prestige and glamour, he also had a more mundane reason.

“One thinks of the best physicians in the city as having their offices there and a visit by a celebrity to one such

office is a key event in my book,” he said.

In addition to Dark Dude and Famous, which tells the story of a teenage paparazzo, a slew of other young adult novels set on the Upper East Side have been published in recent years. Cecily von Ziegesar’s blockbuster Gossip Girl series focuses on the lives of prep schoolers and has inspired the popular television show.

The New York Times bestselling Blue Bloods series, authored by Melissa de la Cruz, follows the love lives, trials and travails of young vampires on the Upper East Side. Vampires, but not ones that are friendly or that you can fall in love with, also live on the Upper East Side in the hip urban fantasy trilogy City of Ashes, by Cassandra Clare.

“The Upper East Side just seemed like a natural place to set my elite vampires.

It’s the powerful enclave of New York movers and shakers. It’s Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue, Jackie O. and the Met. It has history and beauty. It’s not just a place to live. It means much more,” de la Cruz said. She also has has an adult novel about witches in the Hamptons out this month, titled Witches of End East End. Novelists set their books on the Upper East Side for various reasons.

“I think the Upper East Side is appealing to writers because the landmarks are so clear and specific,” Weber said. “If the setting is evoked, then there is an automatic signal about a lot of encoded values and meanings.

This might be critical, it might be satiric, and it might be an act of devotion. It depends on the book and author.”

Strasser had a much simpler explanation.

“It gives an author the chance to dream of seeing his or her book jacket on a wall in Quatorze Bis,” he said, referencing the popular French Bistro on 79th Street, between First and Second avenues.

Favorite Neighborhood Reads We asked the experts what their favorite Upper East Side reads were.

Here was what they had to say.

Meg Wolitzer, author of The TenYear Nap “The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, the stories of John Cheever and, of course, Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh.”

Todd Strasser, author of Famous “Certainly Bonfire of the Vanities is one. Anything set there and written

by Joan Didion, Woody Allen or Nora Ephron would also have to be among my favorites.”

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Dr. Susan O’Doherty, psychologist and literary blogger “I love Dominick Dunne’s novels, especially People Like Us. He was enough of an insider in that world to present a detailed and convincing picture of life on Fifth Avenue, yet he was cynical about privilege. A truly engaging combination.”

Melissa de la Cruz, author of the Blue Bloods series and newly released Witches of East End “Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe— the best!”

Katharine Weber, author of The Memory of All That

“[Books that come to mind include] Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote, and American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.”

Harris Healy, owner of Logos Bookstore, 1575 York Ave. Stuart Little by E.B. White, especially the scene in the boat basin in Central Park. The Upper East Side lends itself well to children’s literature, especially in books like Stuart Little and The House on East 88th Street, which features Lyle the crocodile. The East Side is a big neighborhood for families with young children, and lots of children’s literature comes from that.

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news

Upper East Side Weathers Budget Storm

By Megan Finnegan The City Council officially approved the $66 billion, 2012 fiscal year budget last week. While teachers and firehouses were saved and some vital programs were preserved, the city was forced to tighten its belt a few notches, squeezing out some services and staff positions.

“The good news about this budget is that people will hopefully feel very little change in their day-to-day experience,” said Council Member Dan Garodnick. “It was a good and fair result after a number of doomsday scenarios were floated. The final product protects teachers, childcare slots, fire companies and five-day library service, among other things.”

The Mayor’s proposed budget had included over 4,000 teacher layoffs and the elimination of 20 firehouses around the city, among other cuts, in order to balance what Bloomberg said were slashes in state funding and a still-struggling city economy. The United Federation of Teachers and many city council members, including Speaker Christine Quinn, rallied against the proposed layoffs and vowed to restore the positions.

While no teachers will be laid off in the next year, the Department of Education was forced to make other concessions.

Sabbaticals for the 2011-2012 school year have been canceled, and the Department will use teachers in the reserve pool instead of substitutes to save money.

There are also about 2,600 teachers expected to retire, and they will not be replaced, decreasing the overall number of teachers and forcing an increase in class sizes across most public schools.

Gardonick said that saving teachers from lay-offs was a big bonus for the Upper East Side especially, since many teachers in the area are recently hired and would have been out the door under the UFT’s Last In, First Out policy.

“Another positive is that my office was able to secure $1.2 million in capital funds for East Side schools,” Garodnick said, which go toward everything “from tile replacements in the cafeteria to technological upgrades.”

The City Council was able to preserve $47 million for children’s services and $30 million for senior services, which includes funding for the creation of 10 new innova-

Fire houses avoided the budget chop. tive senior centers around the city.

“The Department for the Aging is such a small agency, and much of their money comes from the City Council,” said City Council Member Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side. “We got their $14 million baselined—all that means is that we don’t have to go through that bud-

get dance as much. [It provides] general operating funds for all the senior centers.

It’s not perfect, but they don’t have to worry about being eliminated.”

The Council also reinstated funding for a group of cultural institutions, like the Met and Carnegie Hall, which are owned by the city and occupied by various arts organizations, enabling them to remain open without major cuts to their programming.

Another important program that had been threatened with extinction but was preserved by baselining its $1.8 million budget is the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), which provides specially-trained forensic examiners and rape crisis counselors at acute care hospitals to examine and assist rape and sexual assault victims.

While many see the budget as a marginal victory, Garodnick pointed out that we’ve only avoided truly painful cuts for another year.

“We have a structural deficit—our expenses are outpacing our revenues and we do not have surpluses to plug the gaps anymore,” he said. “This year was hard, but next year will be harder.”

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Hot on Esplanade Repairs, Cold on Overdevelopment

By Megan Finnegan The results are in from the latest community engagement study done by CIVITAS, the group formed to encourage civic engagement and foster livable neighborhoods, on the Upper East Side and East Harlem. The group polled about 400 residents, asking about four areas: land use, transportation, environmental quality and streetscape.

“As an organization focusing on quality of life initiatives, we’re always reaching out to the community to gauge the

Many people in the CIVITAS study said that they would like to see more trees planted on the Upper East Side community’s needs and interests,” said Hunter Armstrong, the executive director of CIVITAS in New York.

They partnered with urban planning graduate students at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service to devise and conduct the survey and then distribute it through public buzz and online social media.

Heather Diaz, one of the four students who worked to develop and administer the survey as their Capstone project at NYU, said that they spent a year on it, working closely with CIVITAS to devise the right questions and methodology.

“We kept looking to what they wanted to hear and showing them questions. We also did our own research, using what we knew from planning school, and our own internships, trying to meld everything together,” Diaz said.

The study coincides with their 30th anniversary as an organization. CIVITAS began in 1981 in order to address land use concerns in the Upper East Side and East Harlem, operating within the official boundaries of community districts 8 and O u r To w n NY. c o m

11, and in their third decade, there are still similar community concerns.

Armstrong said that residents of both neighborhoods expressed particular concern over the need for greater contextual zoning—parameters that dictate new buildings be constructed in the same scale as existing buildings—in East Harlem.

“The UES has contextual zoning and has kind of a fine grain of different kinds of zoning categories,” Armstrong said. “East Harlem, until we embarked on our rezoning initiative several years ago which was ultimately passed by the Bloomberg administration in 2003, did not have contextual zoning, which resulted in projects that were out of scale with the neighborhood.”

He said that while survey respondents expressed satisfaction in response to the numerical rating question about the density, scale and height of local development, over half of the comments on the subject were disapproving of new development. Other comments expressed concern about the quality of existing public housing, vacant lots and abandoned buildings.

Another hot topic was the East River Esplanade, on which over two-thirds of people said they want to see major improvements, and the ever-controversial new bike lanes, approval of which was split almost 50-50.

“We had quite a few responders who requested additional trees in the neighborhood,” said Armstrong. “Certainly that’s great to see that kind of support, not only to environmental health but to aesthetics.”

He said that both neighborhoods called for more tree planting and care in East Harlem, which is an issue CIVITAS has been directly involved with in the past, helping the Mayor’s Million Trees NYC initiative.

Some concerns, Armstrong acknowledges, will have to be addressed by the city and by bigger and different organizations. Complaints about subway construction, street noise and pollution have to be met with a host of solutions, some legal and some through activism. The next steps for CIVITAS are to gauge public reaction to the responses and get more feedback on the most pressing issues.

“It’s a living document, which is awesome,” said Diaz of the survey. “It’s not just a report that gets dusted under the carpet. It’s a guiding tool.”

Community members can view the survey and its results at civitasnyc.org.

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JOY OF SHOPPING

Summer Scoops You Can’t Resist

By Joy Sherwood Williams-Sonoma 121 E. 59th St., 917-369-1131 If your kids are fans of Disney’s Cars, then you should head to Williams-Sonoma to pick up some of the latest Cars culinary merchandise in celebration of the release of the sequel! They have Cars 2 cookie cutters, kid’s aprons and pancake pans in honor of the movie. These utensils are so fun, they might even get the kids to help out in the kitchen!

These items range from $19 to $39.50.

New York Sports Club 151 E. 86th St., 212-860-8630 There is no better time to join a gym than during the summer. If you’re looking to shape up your beach body, then you can do a 30-day trial at New York Sports Club for $30.

Fig & Olive 10 E. 52nd St., 212-319-2002 Replacing butter with the finest olive oils in their dishes, Fig & Olive embraces a Mediterranean vibe that you’ll love. If

you order delivery online, you’ll receive a 10-percent discount. There are over 30 olive oils to choose from, each with a different flavor and base. You can simply enjoy them in your meals at the restaurant or buy a bottle to bring home. The store also sells aged vinegars, specialty olives and spreads that are perfect for cooking or gift giving.

Central Park Summerstage 69th Street at Fifth Avenue/ Rumsey Field On July 18, for just $40, you can experience the beautiful sounds of the Levon Helm Band and singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris at Central Park. The concert runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and proceeds go to the free programs of SummerStage.

Chloe 850 Madison Ave., 212-717-8220 This chic womens-wear boutique is having a sale you won’t want to miss if you are a fashion fanatic. It is 40 percent off their exclusive ready-to-wear spring collection and also 40 percent off handbags.

EAT 1062 Madison Ave., 212-861-2544 This store has great gifts, novelty items and knickknacks for kids and party hosts.

You can get journals, stationery, pens that look like paintbrushes, pillowcases, colorful sunglasses and decorative iPod buds. If you’re looking for fun toys for the beach, then come to EAT to get shovels, buckets and brand new lightup noodle floats.

Allure Lingerie 1324 Lexington Ave., 212-860-7871 This lingerie store is well known for its personal fit and supreme service. It has everything you could ask for; it even sells swimwear. They are currently having a sale on select swimwear and lingerie, including brand names like Manuel Canovas.

Last Licks 245 E. 93rd St., 646-596-8566 It’s time to take your kids to the sports bar… for ice cream! Last Licks is an ice

cream parlor with a sport theme specifically designed for the little ones. They can enjoy their dessert while watching a sporting event or a Disney movie, and even browse through all the impressive sports memorabilia.

25 Park 1296 Third Ave., 212-585-2525 This store is great for moms because it sells both women’s and kids’ clothes, so you can do all of your shopping in one spot. Though it varies by designer, on average, kids’ clothing will run from 6 months to a size 8. Currently, select women’s clothing is 30–50 percent off and kid’s clothing is 50 percent off.

Bumble and bumble 146 E. 56th St., 212-521-6500 Come into this uptown hair salon to get a cut, color or purchase the newest hair care products for you or a friend. The latest promotion is all about a revamped product called Shine. This collection includes shampoo, conditioner and finishing spray that is sure to enhance shine and give your locks a needed boost.

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Winners will be chosen at random from the new sign up list.

The advance screening will be on Saturday, July 9th at 10:00AM at a Manhattan theatre. © 2011 Disney

Disney.com/Pooh • Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/WinnieThePooh No additional purchase necessary. Contest winners will be notified by email. Limit two admit-two passes per person. Duplicate entries will not be accepted. Theatre is overbooked to ensure capacity. Please arrive early as seating is first-come, first-served. Must be 13 years of age or older to enter.

in theatres july 15

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PRESENT PRESENTTHE THE

BUILDING BUILDINGSERVICE SERVICE OF THE YEAR PRESENTWORKERS THE WORKERS OF THE YEAR BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS OF THE YEAR

Nominate Nominate Your favorite doorman,

Your favorite doorman, Your favorite office or school cleaner!doorman,

office or school cleaner! office or school cleaner!

Do you you know a great doorman, porter or “handy-man” where you live?

Do know a great doorman, porter or “handy-man” where you live? Is there an Is there an office cleaner, security officer maintenance worker whowho helps offi ce cleaner, security officer or or maintenance worker helps make life a little make life little easier work? How about a school, theater, or easier atawork?

Howatabout a school, theater, eventevent or stadium cleaner who you Do you know a great doorman, porter or “handy-man” where you live? stadium who you believe deserves some extra recognition? believecleaner deserves some extra recognition? you know a great doorman, porter orservice “handy-man” where you Is there an office cleaner, security officer or maintenance workerworkers wholive? helps Once again this Do year, Manhattan Media and 32BJ SEIU, property workers Once again this year, Manhattan Media andthe 32BJ SEIU, the property service union–is honoring the workers who keep the city's commercial, residential and other

life little easier work? aboutoramaintenance school, theater, event or union–is honoring the workers who keepatthe city’sHow commercial, residential and otherwho buildings Ismake there anaoffice cleaner, security officer worker helps

buildings running smoothly. This fall in a special awards ceremony on October 21st, we will

running cleaner smoothly.

This fall a special ceremony, we will featuretheater, buildingevent service stadium who you believe deserves extra make life ainlittle easierawards atsome work?

Howrecognition? about a school, or feature building service workers who go above and beyond to make tenants’, residents’ and workers who go above and beyond to make tenants’, residents’ and New Yorkers’ lives better. again this year, Manhattan Mediasome and 32BJ SEIU, the property service workers stadium cleaner who you believe deserves extra recognition?

New Once Yorkers’ lives better.

union–is honoring workers who keep the and city's32BJ commercial, and other Once again thisthe year, Manhattan Media SEIU, theresidential property service workers

GO TO: WWW.OURTOWNNY.COM TO VOTE

GO TO: WWW.SEIU32BJ.ORG TO VOTE buildings running smoothly.

This fall in a special awards ceremony on Octoberand 21st, we will union–is honoring the workers who keep the city's commercial, residential other feature buildingDeadline service workers who go aboveSeptember and beyond to15th. make tenants’, residents’ and Nomination Wednesday, buildings running smoothly.is This fall in a special awards ceremony on October 21st, we will For more information contact Jessica Christopher at 212.268.8600; jchristopher@manhattanmedia.com, New Yorkers’ lives better. feature building service workers who go above and beyond to make tenants’, residents’ and or Kwame 212.388.3676; For morePatterson information contactKPatterson@seiu32bj.org Jessica Christopher at 212.268.8600; jchristopher@manhattanmedia.com.

New Yorkers’ lives better.

Nomination Deadline is Tuesday, September 6th, 2011.

O u r T o w n N Y. c o m

GO TO: WWW.SEIU32BJ.ORG TO VOTE

July 7, 2011

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WINERIES

RESTAURANTS 1770 House Almond Babette’s Beachhouse Beacon The BoatHouse Blue Parrot Cittanuova Deli Counter Fine Foods & Catering Dylan’s Candy Bar East Hampton Point Estia’s Little Kitchen Fresno The Frisky Oyster Georgica The Grill at Pantigo Gulf Coast Kitchen Gurney’s Pasticceria and Beach Bakery Jamesport Manor Inn La Plage Love Lane Kitchen

Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard Bedell Cellars Channing Daughters Comtesse Therese Duck Walk Gramercy Vineyards Jamesport Vineyards Jason Vineyard Long Island Meadery Long Island Merlot Alliance Martha Clara Vineyards Mattebella Vineyards One Woman Vineyards Osprey’s Dominion Palmer Vineyards Pellegrini Pindar Raphael

LT Burger Luce & Hawkins Montauk Lake Club Muse Restaurant Nick & Toni’s Old Mill Inn Race Lane Rugosa Sarabeth’s Savanna’s Scrimshaw Serafina East Hampton Southampton Social Club Southfork Kitchen Starr Boggs Stone Creek Inn Turtle Crossing Tutto Il Giorno Vine Street Café

Scarola Vineyards Sherwood House Sparkling Pointe Suhru Wines Wölffer Estate Vineyard

LOCAL PURVEYORS The Blue Duck Bakery Café Hampton Coffee Company North Fork Potato Chips Lucy’s Whey

FEATURING Sarabeth Levine of Sarabeth’s and Gourmet Author Silvia Lehrer

Saturday, July 16th, 2011 Sayre Park VIP Tickets:$225 General Admission Tickets: $150 A portion of the proceeds benefit Have A Heart Community Trust

tasteoftwoforks.com Host Chef Marcus Samuelsson

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For information, call 631-227-0188 VIP ticket includes complimentary admission to the Official Taste of Two Forks After Party at Georgica Must be 21+ to attend.

Master of Ceremonies FOX 5 Anchor Rosanna Scotto

NEWS YOU LIVE BY

What are you doing Saturday July 16th?

A. Wine Tasting at Duck Walk Vineyards B. Drinks at East Hampton Point C. Dinner at Nick and Toni’s D. Dessert from Dylan’s Candy Bar E. Dancing at Georgica

If your answer is all of the above, you’ll be at Dan’s Taste of Two Forks!

One night. Forty restaurants. Twenty wineries.

Get tickets now at tasteoftwoforks.com

O u r T o w n N Y. c o m

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new york family

Summertime & the Learning’s Easy How to battle your kid’s inevitable summer ‘brain drain’ with books, business and worldly babble

By Maria Riley As the school days wind down and summer rears its lazy head, parents and teachers struggle to find creative ways to combat summer learning loss, or “brain drain,” drawing a thin line in the sand between sunstroke fun and intuitive instruction.

“The data shows that nearly every student in this country experiences summer slowdown,” says Matthew Boulay, Interim CEO of the National Summer Learning Association and the co-editor of Summer Learning: Research, Policies, and Programs. “It’s more severe in math but it still happens in reading.”

Creative Classroom According to researchers, children spend two or more months playing catch up at the beginning of each school year.

And keeping young minds active throughout the entire year, especially in comprehension, proves to be a key factor in overall student success.

“Summer is really the time when you can innovate,” Boulay says. It’s more about creative learning, rather than more of the same.

Since parents deserve a much-needed

break during the summer too (we see you nodding), it’s important to make learning engaging throughout the warm weather months, leaving the stress and deadlines far behind for both parties. It can be as easy as having your child read up on anticipated vacation spots, play word and math games, or oversee an entrepreneurial adventure.

Think of it as a treasure hunt—á la Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter or The Goonies—discovering buried treasure of enticed learning in the simplest of places.

What’s Old Is New Again Smaller children gravitate towards the familiar. Finding activities that morph into bigger and more mature versions of themselves guarantee a child’s long-term devotion. In as little as ten minutes, parents can teach a child an important lesson in reading, science, social studies, spelling or math.

Try turning a morning breakfast routine of eating Cheerios (or sugar cereal of choice) into a spelling lesson. Kids can create letters and words out of multigrain loops before devouring their bowl. Challenge your little ones to build three, four, and five-letter words like d-a-y, h-e-a-t and l-e-a-r-n.

And if you’re craving something sweet: “You can teach fractions with a Hershey’s bar,” suggests Dr. Judy Blanken-

Welcome To The Family!

For great parenting resources, fun weekend events and savvy shopping tips, sign up for our weekly email newsletter at newyorkfamily.com. ship Cheatham, Vice President of Literary Services for Reading is Fundamental, the largest children’s literacy nonprofit in the United States. “I did—of course, I kept eating up my teaching materials.”

Screen Time Children between the ages of 3 and 5 crave learning new concepts. If your little ones haven’t started using a computer, it’s a good time to make the introduction.

Many programs are available for free online, like funbrain.com or pbskids.com, and provide toddlers with basic computer skills while they learn numbers, colors and beginner’s phonics.

Hot Tip of The Week

Central Park SummerStage Family Day In honor of SummerStage Kids, presented by Disney, Central Park will host a free Family Day this Sunday afternoon. The extravaganza promises music, puppetry, workshops and dancing. There will be live music 14

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from The Verve Pipe and The Zany Umbrella Circus with Oko and dancing performances from the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, as well as the Brooklyn Steppers. To learn more, visit summerstage.org.

“I think there’s good screen time and there’s bad screen time,” Boulay acknowledges, “You want to limit the bad but encourage the good.” Parents should use discretion in setting appropriate limits— if you see your child browsing YouTube for the latest Lady Gaga video or checking out “Jersey Shore” episodes, suggest they go outside instead for some Vitamin D. It’s the better option.

Stop, Drop And Read Then there are books—the reigning king of summer stimulation (and heck, allyear-round) for all ages. For the younger set, we like Me…Jane, written and illustrated by Patrick Goodall. Its softly drawn pages bring naturalist Jane Goodall to literary life. “The goal for the parent is to teach some type of literacy every day,” says Dr. Cheatham. For the middle range, we suggest Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, the series’ fifth go-round for comical relief.

“Do something every day,” says Cheatham, warning that everyone becomes “rusty” when skills become dormant.

Travelogue Whether near or far, exploration provides an excellent opportunity for 6-8 year olds to help plan and document family visits, day trips and vacations. Use a globe or map to locate areas you’ll be exploring during the summer months. Have children create (and more importantly, be responsible for) photo journals and scrapbooks with pictures, captions, souvenirs and mementos. This project, like so many others recommended by educational experts, grows along with your child, from scrapbook creation to PowerPoint presentations. Instead of battling one another over the top vacation spot, each family member can build their own presentation, including tourism links, pictures, videos, and reviews, culminating in a preview night where everyone presents and ultimately votes on the winning trip.

A teacher for more than three decades, Cheatham knows firsthand the importance of continued learning during summer months and encourages parents to keep it simple, exploring opportunities in their own houses, neighborhoods or cities. “One of the greatest gifts we can give to children,” Cheatham says, “is to talk about the world around us.”

Build-A-Business As children age, the willingness to engage in any form of learning over the summer diminishes. You remember what it was like—too young to hang out with the teenagers but way too cool for the kids table. Inspiring this group involves out-of-the-box propositions. So why not promote the next young entrepreneur?

Some of the more popular and easier businesses include walking dogs, helping with groceries, tutoring younger kids, babysitting, or watering plants and checking mail for traveling neighbors. Invest in your child’s business venture with time, a bit of money, and most importantly, by imparting your own work experience. Guide your tween in marketing skills, lending a hand with making business cards, flyers, tshirts, a company name and/or logo. This is a prime opportunity for enhancing math skills and teaching financial responsibility.

“Reading at night is a part of our daily routine where as nobody is practicing math over the summer,” says Boulay.

Open a savings account at your local bank branch, introducing your mini-mogul to the staff, and set a certain time each week for making deposits. Together you can use the online banking site for checking balances and savings dividends.

Summer learning occurs naturally if parents and children welcome the break from a productive perspective. Concentrate on reconnecting with your children and rediscover the wonderment of youth.

Feed the brain, don’t drain it.

N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

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Send us your photos taken in East Midtown – whether amateur, professional, or just a cell phone snap – for a chance to win the Grand Prize of $1,000 and to be 1 of 13 winning photos featured in the 2012 East Midtown Partnership Calendar. Entries are due by October 3, 2O11. For complete entry information visit eastmidtown.org

eastmidtown.org GEt thE rEal INSIDE StOrY on everything east midtown

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event

Kathy Kearns and Brad Korn from Continuum Health Partners.

Manhattan Media Chairman Richard Burns, Marco Botarelli and Matthew Bauer of the Madison Avenue BID.

Claude and Shelly Winfield with their granddaughter Sophie Winfield-Pust.

An Anniversary to Remember ‘Our Town’ celebrates 40 years of community news Our Town celebrated its 40th anniversary on the evening of June 21 at Hunter College. Eight East Side families were honored for their contributions to the community, including Sheldon Silver, Robert Morgenthau and Lucinda Franks, Shelley and Claude Winfield, the Tisch family, Howard Rubenstein, Lynden and Gifford Miller, Jack and Bill Rudin and William and Judy Rapfogel.

The paper began in 1970 as Manhattan Pennysavers, a weekly amalgam of coupons, advertisements, neighborhood gripes and restaurant reviews. It was renamed Our Town on April 30, 1971. photos by andrew schwartz

Sophie Winfield-Pust with Mom and Dad, Konrad Pust and Marie Winfield-Pust.

Harold Holzer, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, addresses the crowd.

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William and Judy Rapfogel with their sons, Moshe and Michael and Michael’s wife Ora. N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

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State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Dr. Kelly Posner, Paul Schienberg and Candace Leeds.

Manhattan Media President and CEO Tom Allon, Tom Dunne and Elizabeth Crotty.

Former New York City District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and his wife Lucinda Franks.

O u r To w n NY. c o m

Howard Rubenstein talks to the crowd.

Hunter College President Jennifer Raab and Bill Rudin.

Jeff and Marilyn Wilkie from Iona College.

Linda Alexander and Tar Beaty.

Former City Comptroller Bill Thompson.

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Why We’re on Strike As a doorman at Whitehouse Estates in Midtown on East 52nd Street, Pierre has been loyal to his tenants and dedicated to his employers for over 15 years. Despite Pierre’s hard work, his employer William Koeppel is demanding he and his co workers give up their family healthcare coverage and pensions or be kicked to the streets. In addition, these workers have filed charges against Koeppel with the National Labor Relations Board for forcing them to choose between their union membership and their jobs.

Since June 6th, we have been on the picket lines trying to get Koeppel to bargain fairly.

Meanwhile, we have lost health care coverage for ourselves and our families.

32BJ SEIU 101 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013 • 212.388.3800 • www.seiu32bj.org Local 32BJ has dispute with XXXXXXXXXXX. No dispute with any other employer. This is not a request to cease work, deliveries, or services.

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NEWS YOU LIVE BY

DINING

Cabernets for a Rainy Day

entertaining the idea of storing wine longterm, you must have the proper facility.

Even a six-bottle wine fridge is enough to keep that handful of special wines safe through the years.

So, if you have the resources, I recommend investing in any of these wines for that special day in a decade or so. If not, drink what you’ve got when you get it.

How to tell whether to drink a bottle of wine now or later

I

est parcel of land and tends to be the wine that most serious collectors clamor for the most from this vineyard. After pouring, I must have stuck almost my entire face into the glass to coax out anything other than the walloping scent of cedar that smacked my olfactory senses. Once I took a sip, the palate presented an equally simplistic yet harsh profile. Very little fruit, but a great deal of new leather, smoke and earth.

Finally, my personal favorite yearly offering, the Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 ($180 at Park Avenue Liquor, 292 Madison Ave., betw. E. 40th & E. 41st Sts., www. parkaveliquor.com). Again, the scents out of the bottle were very closed and harsh. And the palate offered,

By Josh Perilo predictably, tannin as the main event. The difference here was a touch more cinnamon and clove on the finish.

Sound yummy? Probably not. That’s because none of these wines should be touched for the next 10 years. The reason I know this is because, after tasting past vintages in both the year of release and years later, I have been able to see for myself the slow evolution of these wines as they have come into maturity.

So, what are the earmarks of a wine worth waiting for? And what exactly happens during those years waiting around in the bottle? Generally, wines that are meant to be cellared are more expensive.

But not all expensive wines are meant to be cellared! The telltale signs to look for are tannin and overall body. What time in the bottle is going to do is soften all of the characteristics that are already present in the wine. It won’t improve anything, per se, but simply refine the attributes that are already there. So, a tannin bomb with

a spiky, cinnamon candy finish might end up, in 10 years’ time, to be a hearty and refined wine with a sturdy tannic structure, ripe cherry fruit and a complex hint of cinnamon on the finish.

The other caveat is that, if you are even

Follow Josh on Twitter: @joshperilo.

Taiwanese To Go If New York City is, indeed, a melting pot, then Korea Town’s Food Gallery 32 is evidence that the stew in it hasn’t completely melted. This “International Food Emporium” sells only Asian (mainly Korean) fare. You bring your items upstairs where food quotes from Anglophone authors line the walls—“Kissing don’t last, cookery do”*—and you chew to the beat of thumping American pop tunes while watching Crepe Monster dish out Tokyo versions of a French staple.

Taiwanese stand Bian Dang was the only venue with offerings in my snack budget. I sweet-n-sour taste. The chocolate brown think I could have tea egg, however, tasted like a eaten much betplain old hardboiled egg, not ter at Food Gallery the tea and Chinese five spice 32 if I spent more. 11 W. 32nd St. (in Food Gallery mix that should have flavored Still, the $4 Snack it. Would I have had a tastier 32 near 5th Ave.) Platter included experience if I had ordered 212-695-5995 a huge bowl of the Zongzi, dubbed a “Chinese www.biandangnyc.com sticky rice doused tamale” ($4)? The melting in a homey minced pop keeps simmering! *George Meredith pork sauce, accompanied by bright green bok choy and dark —Nancy J. Brandwein green pickled greens, topped with a “tea egg.” While some Yelpers complain about Got a snack attack to share? the sour greens, I felt they gave this rather Contact nancybrandwein@gmail.com workaday lunchbox meal an interesting DANIEL S. BURNSTEIN

have told all of my friends, countless times, that 95 percent of all wine made worldwide is meant to be drunk within the first three years of production.

But it doesn’t seem to matter what I say.

Everyone thinks they’ve found that special bottle of wine that they just have to save for some occasion in the distant future.

It’s the logic behind buying a lottery ticket.

“This bottle could be the one.”

But how on earth could anybody know what or where these exceptional bottles are? How can you tell by looking at a shelf of wine in a liquor store that one wine will be amazing in 10 years, and the other will be vinegar?

I will try to illuminate using a favorite producer of mine from Napa Valley.

N ORDER - Email Art Vineyard Diamond Creek was established in 1968 and produces wine made from orth only one varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon.

Media Recently I was able to taste their 2008 line h St. release, which is their most recent effort.

NY 10018 The wines of Diamond Creek are dividinto the subdivisions of land within 724 Fax:ed(212) 268-0502 the estate. The first wine from the larguction@manhattanmedia.com est area is the Diamond Creek Volcanic rth@manhattanmedia.com Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 ($175 at Sherry-Lehmann Wine and Spirits, 505 at E. 59th St., www.sherry-lehm2.687”H,Park 1/8Ave. page ann.com). In the glass, the wine’s scent is predictably Cali-Cab: cherry, vanilla and Ad on Thursday: 07.07.11 cedar. On the palate, the first thing that stands out is the heavy-handed, underripe cherry flavor. This carries through to a mouth-drying middle with a massive amount of tannin. The finish is nothing but bitter herbs and black pepper.

The Diamond Creek Red Rock Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 ($110 at Manhattan Wine Company LLC, 1 Penn Plaza Ste. 6130 at W. 33rd St., www. mwcwine.com) is from the second larg-

Bian Dang

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Projecting ‘Portraits’ David Michalek thinks outside the box (and the walls) at Lincoln Center

By Susan Reiter

Mitchell’sNY The World’s Finest Delivery Services

Mark Stephen kornbluth

B

y all means, buy your tickets to the rich and international array of Lincoln Center Festival offerings that will keep theaters busy this month.

But one of the festival’s highlights is available without charge and offers a unique experience nightly once darkness falls.

Portraits in Dramatic Time, David Michalek’s latest outdoor video installation, projects brief performances by a wide array of theater artists on a vast screen on the façade of the David H. Koch Theater.

Each individual or group “portrait” is a miniature in extreme slow motion, a momentary dramatic narrative of 10 to 15 seconds which Michalek has filmed using ultra high-speed, high-definition cameras, and shown in extreme slow motion so that the action lasts as long as 10 minutes.

For those who experienced Slow Dancing, Michalek’s masterful 2007 installation that drew huge crowds to the plaza nightly, this will sound somewhat familiar.

That project featured three side-by-side screens on the same theater’s façade, each with a dancer performing a movement

sequence in extreme slow motion. For In the four years since Portraits, viewers will have a single image Slow Dancing wowed on which to concentrate, projected on a crowds, much has changed INSERTION ORDER - Email Art much larger space—85 feet by 45 feet. at Lincoln Center. The variAlthough Portraits doesn’t offer the ous pieces of the major Ainsworth frisson of the earlier Ceil work’s side-by-side campus renovation have Manhattan Media been completed, and the juxtapositions, it does offer, in succession, an especially broad range 38th of theatri63 West St. new look is sleeker and cal performers. features more high-tech New York NY 10018 Among them are such New York stage amenities. The theater Eric Dyer (seated), Mark Jaynes, Maggie Hoffman, Erin (212) 284-9724 Fax: (212) 268-0502 regulars as Reed Birney, Jane Houdyshell, that serves as Michalek’s Douglass, Kourtney Rutherford (seated) and Jim Findlay email:David production@manhattanmedia.com Neal Huff, Marin Ireland, Patrick “canvas” (formerly known in Portraits in Dramatic Time.

Kelly, Alison Pill and Shepherd. as the New York State cc:Scott cainsworth@manhattanmedia.com Also included are some actors with a par- Theater) has undergone its own interior Obviously Slow Dancing and this new ticularly high profile and name recogni- renovation and acquired its new name. work could have been done somewhere 4.917”W x 2.687”H, 1/8 page tion: Holly Hunter, Patti LuPone, William Noted Redden, “One thing that’s true else, but there is something very right H. Macy, Roger Rees, Alan Rickman, Liev about his work in both cases is that it’s about doing it at Lincoln Center, espePlease Run Ad on Thursday: Schreiber and Lili Taylor. gorgeous to07.07.11 look at. It draws you in imme- cially in conjunction with the Festival, As Lincoln Center Festival’s artistic diately. To some extent, it is very much because in both projects, there’s a wide director, Nigel Redden co-commissioned the esthetic of the campus at the moment range of genres that are being explored.

Slow Dancing—which has gone on to be the plaza has become a wonderfully pris- That’s very much in keeping with what seen in over a dozen cities worldwide— tine place, which it wasn’t in 2007. I think we are about as a festival.” and nurtured this project which, like its the new work will look all the better in Portraits in Dramatic Time predecessor was conceived with the the renovated space.

Lincoln Center Plaza in mind. “The tech“I feel that David’s work is a wonderful Through July 31, Lincoln Center’s Josie nique for this one is similar, but conceptu- bridge between the visual and performing Robertson Plaza, West 63rd Street & ally it’s a whole different animal,” he said arts. One of the things I feel is particular- Columbus Avenue; daily from 8:45 of Portraits. ly brilliant about it is its site-specificity. p.m., free.

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Tom Allon tallon@manhattanmedia.com CFO/COO Joanne Harras jharras@manhattanmedia.com grOuP PuBLisHer Alex Schweitzer aschweitzer@manhattanmedia.com direCtOr OF interaCtive Marketing and digitaL strategy Jay Gissen jgissen@manhattanmedia.com

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exeCutive editOr Allen Houston ahouston@manhattanmedia.com sPeCiaL seCtiOns editOr Josh Rogers jrogers@manhattanmedia.com staFF rePOrter Megan Finnegan mfinnegan@manhattanmedia.com PHOtO editOr/editOriaL assistant Andrew Schwartz aschwartz@manhattanmedia.com Featured COntriButOrs Nancy J. Brandwein, Alan S. Chartock, Bette Dewing, Jeanne Martinet, Malachy McCourt, Lorraine Duffy Merkl, Josh Perilo, Thomas Pryor

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advertising@manhattanmedia.com PuBLisHer Gerry Gavin ggavin@manhattanmedia.com direCtOr OF new Business deveLOPMent Dan Newman assOCiate PuBLisHers Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth advertising Manager Marty Strongin sPeCiaL PrOjeCts direCtOr Jim Katocin seniOr aCCOunt exeCutives Verne Vergara, Rob Gault, Mike Suscavage direCtOr OF events & Marketing Joanna Virello jvirello@manhattanmedia.com Marketing COOrdinatOr Stephanie Musso Marketing assistant Jessica Christopher exeCutive assistant OF saLes Jennie Valenti jvalenti@manhattanmedia.com

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PrOduCtiOn Manager Mark T. Stinson editOriaL LayOut and design Monica Tang advertising design Ed Johnson assistant PrOduCtiOn Manager Jessica Balaschak production@manhattanmedia.com OUR TOWN is published weekly Copyright © 2011 Manhattan Media, LLC 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, N.Y. 10016 Editorial (212) 284-9734 Fax (212) 268-2935 Advertising (212) 284-9715 General (212) 268-8600 E-mail: editorial@manhattanmedia.com Website: OurTownNY.com OUR TOWN is a division of Manhattan Media, LLC, publisher of West Side Spirit, New York Press, Chelsea Clinton News, The Westsider, City Hall, The Capitol,The Blackboard Awards, New York Family, and Avenue magazine.

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July 7, 2011

Anniversary Celebration Hits the ‘Right Key’

Paper’s 40th a success—and bring back park pianos full time!

By Bette Dewing First, dear Our Town readers, a computer glitch grinch changed my wishing the paper 40 more birthdays to asking readers to save 40 copies of the paper in last week’s column. Hee, hee! But hey, do save a copy of the memorable June 30 anniversary issue.

This is universal, not just an East Side story about the need for community newspapers. Internet users will find it at Ourtownny.com. And those without, well, that ignored disenfranchisement riles me no end.

About the paper’s original logo “the newspaper that cares about you and your neighborhood,” CEO Tom Allon memorably recalls, “I used to think it was hokey, but now I think it is inspired.” So please revive it, dear Tom, for both Our Town and the West Side Spirit.

Founding publisher Ed Kayatt also chose the Our Town name, inspired by Thornton Wilder’s classic play, which needs great and frequent reviving to remind us who and what matters and to stop wasting precious time on who/what doesn’t.

We depend on newspapers to advise us

on the news we need to know and sometimes they tell us what really matters. Like the paper’s June 30 “Like Mother, Like Son”

Bette Dewing tests her chops on the popup park piano at Carl Schurz Park. editorial, a condolence note to Michael Bloomberg on the loss of his mother, Charlotte. But mostly it’s a tribute to his being a true son: “The Mayor was said to call his mom every day; this should be a lesson to all of us who let our busy lives interfere with staying in close contact with our elderly parents. If the Mayor of New York, who has more than 8 million people

to care for, can find time to call his mom each day, than we all should be able to.”

An editorial so worth the saving and sharing—widely. Incidentally, the NY Times didn’t buy my argument that Charlotte Rubens Bloomberg’s exceptionally good health and long life was in part due to the daily calls from her son, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York. And this family contact’s potential to reduce crucial health care costs should be strongly advanced by Charlotte’s highly influential son.

Doggone it! Why did they take away those inspired park “pop-up pianos”?

They need to be part of the regular cityscape, as Jo-Anne Theodore said, “So we without home pianos get a chance to play.” Even more, so the public gets a chance for some old-timey (timeless) intergenerational sing-alongs. Sponsored by MusicisHope.org, such community music-making also lowers those critical health care costs.

So bring ’em back pronto—and permanent style! dewingbetter@aol.com

LET T ER S

Big Bucks in Auto Fraud

40 ANNIVE

RS

NEWS: Full Speed Ahead on Great Blueway

Page 14

A RY

June 30, 2011

Since 1970

To the Editor: The State Legislature accomplished a lot this year, but one important reform was conspicuously left out—passage of the legislation know as the “Fraud Tax Bill” that would crack down on crisis-level auto insurance fraud in New York State.

No-fault auto accident Page 16 fraud is one of the fastest growing crimes in Open 365 days a year • No appointment needed New York State, yet it is We accept most major insurances Call 212.772.DOCS (3627) not expressly illegal. It is one of the reasons New Yorkers pay 53 percent more for auto insurance studies, almost $1 billion has been stolen than drivers in other states. According to from New Yorkers in the past five years

2

ANNIVE

RS

A RY

Laurie Tisch

Shelley & Claude Winfield

Robert Morgenthau & Lucinda Franks

Jack & Bill Rudin

Lynden &Gifford Miller

Howard Rubenstein

Ora, Michael, William & Judy Rapfogel

alone by organized criminal enterprises that stage accidents and run up phony bills with the help of a handful of crooked doctors. But the Legislature refused to do anything about it this year.

The state didn’t even pass a commonsense measure called “Alice’s Bill” that would make staging an auto accident in New York a standalone crime. The bill was named after a 71-year-old New York grandmother who was killed when she was struck during a staged accident.

The state legislature is rumored to be returning this summer to clean up unfinished business from the 2011 legislative session. Auto insurance fraud reform must be on that list.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver

336 East 86th St (Betw 1st and 2nd Ave)

Visit us at www.CityMD.net and see inside page 5 for more information.

Rafe LiebeR ExEcutivE DirEctor NEw YorkErs staND agaiNst iNsuraNcE FrauD Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

open forum

Are We Trashing New York City’s Future?

Last month I attended a rally against the proposed East 91st Street marine transfer station that is a key piece of the city’s new solid waste management plan.

Reflected in my neighbors’ outrage was the “garbage war” mentality that is pitting New Yorkers against each other by borough and neighborhood (read: race, income) over where these giant collection plants will be sited.

Locating a garbage facility in any residential neighborhood is, of course, idiotic.

But the issue seems to be a political ploy to distract us. The real question isn’t where New York builds dumps but rather how our great city will handle its exploding waste stream over the next two decades.

And this new plan evades that question, the problem and smart solutions.

Sadly, Mayor Bloomberg’s “new” waste management plan, slated to remain in effect for the next 20 years, is merely a repackaged version of the interim Giuliani plan hastily concocted after the Fresh Kills landfill closing in 2001. It is still based on exporting New York City’s garbage—in other words, making our waste somebody else’s problem. In the new scheme, water (barge) and rail transport replace long-haul trucking to neighboring states’ landfills.

This centerpiece idea is hailed as a brilliant leap into an environmentally sound future (fewer truck emissions = lower air pollution levels). But even casual scrutiny reveals its flaws.

First, marine and rail transport are hardly benign. Barging will spew carbon fuels into our newly cleaned-up waterways, upsetting the aquatic ecology.

What’s more, barges and trains are at risk for spills and collisions that would disseminate toxic matter present in waste.

Such accidents aren’t only environmental disasters; they necessitate emergency response planning, insurance and contingency monies for cleanup. And if New Yorkers will be happy to inhale fewer garbage truck fumes, our neighbors in trashreceiving New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and South Carolina get increased risk of groundwater contamination, as their landfills have been historically prone to leaks and infrequent inspections.

On the money front, dedicated rail transport of waste costs more than truck transport, studies say. Shrinking landfill capacity in the crowded Northeast means our garbage may soon be bound for rural western states—with escalating rail fees.

Though the courts have ruled that trash handling is legitimate interstate com-

merce, environmental groups continue to protest NYC’s dumping policy. Should destination states stop accepting our trash or boost charges, the Bloomberg plan could become a fiscal as well as an environmental nightmare.

Expenses are likely to go up, not down. Tipping fees (the cost per ton to dump) are already soaring nationwide, as are insurance rates and fuel prices.

Inadvisably, Bloomberg’s plan keeps the city hostage to a few private companies, like Waste Management Inc. and Allied Waste Industries, that rule the nation’s garbage industry. Because they both haul garbage and own landfills, they’ll have the power to negotiate future contract rates to unknown advantage.

Across the globe, cities are implementing imaginative plans for waste disposal.

Many alternatives center around wasteto-energy (WTE) technologies such as combustion, gasification and anaerobic digestion that recycle solid waste into usable energy in the form of heat and electricity. Model WTE cities like Vienna, Brescia (Italy) and Malmo (Sweden) are turning their garbage into valuable energy for the grid. Combined with aggressive, mandatory recycling, WTE is at the forefront of European waste management pol-

icy. Denmark, for instance, combusts and recycles over 95 percent of its garbage.

Way back in December 2001, a Columbia University joint research project titled “Life After Fresh Kills: Moving Beyond New York City’s Current Waste Management Plan” proposed a feasible alternative plan that would sidestep the risks outlined. In fact, many proposals have emanated from Columbia’s Earth Institute and its School of International and Public Affairs. Were such alternative strategies examined? Was our indigenous talent base at Columbia even brought into the Sanitation Department conversation?

If cutting-edge options like WTE were not seriously considered, the question is: Why not? Who benefits from the status quo?

Perhaps we need to follow the money.

Taking ownership of the trash we produce is morally right. By owning the process, we also obviously control more of the costs. When New York looks to the past instead of the future, when our highest public officials fail to initiate model programs for infrastructure issues like garbage, we have surely and willfully abdicated our title as “capital of the world.”

Sharon Gold is an Upper East Side resident and a writer and editor.

new york gal

Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Married Single or married, let’s respect each other’s decisions

By Lorraine Duffy Merkl The minute Governor Cuomo signed a law legalizing same-sex marriage, I began hearing how wedding planners, catering halls, florists, DJs—as well as divorce lawyers—started licking their chops at the new crop of potential clients.

Manhattan’s own City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is planning her nuptials, and I just read that Neil Patrick Harris got engaged to his long-time boyfriend. Yet, I’m also reading ad nauseum how marriage is broken, outdated and on the way out. So, all that waiting for the day when New York’s gay citizens could say, “I do” was for something not worth having?

As someone married for 23 years, I take umbrage with the wisdom of people like Cameron Diaz, who in the June issue of Maxim pronounced the institution “dying” and lumped it in with “old traditions that don’t suit our world any longer.” That’s tame compared to some O u r To w n NY. c o m

of the matrimony-bashing remarks I’ve heard (usually right after a celebrity break-up), including this gem from a straight/divorced gaymarriage advocate: “Everyone has the right to be stupid.” This is supportive?

The fact is that marriage is still the gold standard for a relationship. That’s why so many are always trying to knock it off its pedestal, diminish it and prove that monogamy is unsustainable.

The aforementioned 38-year-old actress and those like her remind me of the heyday of Sex and the City, when the “girls” seemed to feel oh so much better about their unmarried lives when their espoused acquaintances were miserable.

It all smacks of “If I can’t/don’t have it than I have to believe it’s not ‘all that,’ so I don’t have to feel like I’m missing anything.”

If getting hitched wasn’t worthwhile,

why would our governor have fought so hard to legalize the right of gay men and women who wanted so badly to be able to call their significant others “husband” or “wife”?

I think mature same-sex couples, just like their opposite sex counterparts, know it is not a fairy tale, nor a guarantee that your life will be perfect or work to your liking. It will not solve your (past, present or future) problems or make you complete.

It is a committed union taken to a higher level. Hence the reason same-sex couples were not satisfied just being in long-standing relationships. They wanted what they had to be seen as more than the equivalent of boyfriend/girlfriend.

I can hear some of you screaming at me now: but wedded people get divorced!

There are people whose co-habitation has lasted longer than a lot of marriag-

es! Some people never even want to get married!

And this all is true. Fifty percent (the number usually bandied about) of couples get divorced. Some of them chose wrong. Some got married for the wrong reasons. Some fell out of love. It happens, and they move on to live their lives successfully, alone or with new partners. For others, the non-married relationship is all they want or need. May their live-in love last. For those who, like George Clooney, never want to marry: don’t. (And I hope you stick to it, because if you get married when you know in your heart that it’s not for you, you will surely end up as one of the 50 percent.)

None of this, however, means that marriage doesn’t work. It means it doesn’t/ didn’t work for them.

Now that the hard won fight for legalized gay marriage in New York is behind us, I look forward to the fight for respecting marriage, in general, to begin.

Lorraine Duffy Merkl’s debut novel, Fat Chick, from The Vineyard Press, is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

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