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CityArts: A Look Behind ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’
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September 1, 2011
Hoffa Leans on Sotheby’s
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Un-Caped Bat Crusader PAGE 10
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Tree Damage, Evacuation Mistakes
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one school, P.S. 70 in Queens, during the last school year. Here’s hoping they can get it down to zero this year.
Notes from the neighborhood
BOARD BACK IN THE SWING
ZEN & DENIM Japanese clothing sensation UNIQLO will be opening a pop-up store on the Upper East Side at 1142 Third Ave. near East 67th Street, cleverly located by Hunter College (kids love those skinny, less expensive jeans). According to a release from the landlord’s leasing agents, Faith Hope Consolo and Joseph Aquino of Prudential Douglas Elliman, “the 2,000-square-foot store is part of an expansion that includes four state-of-theart pop-up UNIQLO shops in Manhattan, in addition to two new flagships at 666 Fifth Ave., at 53rd Street and another in Herald Square at 34th Street and Sixth Avenue.” Fashionistas and bargain hunters alike will find their zen at the store that arranges its wares in color palettes and offers free alterations on all pants bought in the store. The lease is a temporary one, but hopefully it will draw some much-needed business to the retail strip on Third Avenue.
The Department of Education is getting serious about bed bugs this year, according to a letter sent by Chancellor Dennis Walcott’s office to City Council Member Gale Brewer. After reading an article this summer by Geoffrey Decker on the website Gotham Schools, entitled “Bed
A loving couple hoping to adopt a newborn We’re Rebecca and Mark, a loving, energetic, fun, and financially-secure couple. We live in a suburban area near good schools and parks. We’re hoping to adopt a baby to raise in a home filled with love, laughter and learning. Expenses paid. Call toll-free at 800-816-6311 or www.markandrebecca.net or email us at rebeccaandmark2005@gmail.com 2
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After a summer hiatus, Community Board 8 will resume regular meetings in September, right after Labor Day. One of the first items on the season’s agenda is sure to be a rousing one— the Department of Transportation will be making a presentation to the board’s Transportation Committee on Wednesday, Sept. 7, about the exten-
Hoffa & tHe art of tHe Picket Line
photos by andrew schwartz
SCHOOLS WON’T LE T THE BED BUGS BITE
Bug Invasion Continued Unabated in 2010-2011 School Year,” the council member was jolted into action and sent a letter to the DOE, asking them to “immediately initiate a bed bug treatment contract to deal with the issue before the start of the school year” and to “send us a list of all schools that have been treated for bed bugs in the past year.” The article noted that there were 3,590 confirmed cases of bed bugs found in schools in the 2009-2010 school year, a rate three times that of the previous year, but acknowledged that the increase could be attributed to heightened awareness of and vigilance about reporting bed bugs. A DOE spokesperson noted that one reported finding of bed bugs does not an infestation make—kids could bring them in from home—and it’s true that schools are unlikely breeding grounds for the blood-sucking pests, since they typically burrow into mattresses and clothing during daylight hours and emerge at night to feast on human blood. Still, the report was enough to make Brewer’s skin crawl, and she recently received a response to her letter from Dara Adams in Walcott’s office, stating that the DOE is “currently in the process of registering contracts with three vendors to cover our bed bug treatment efforts.” Adams also noted that schools provide Bed Bug Fact Sheets to students and parents for a little bedtime reading in an effort to stop the spread before they ever set a foot (or six) inside a school building. The letter also said that the DOE only employed full infestation treatment at
Teamsters members and supporters rallied outside Sotheby’s Manhattan showroom protest the company’s lockout of its art handlers on Friday, Aug. 26. Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, (inset), son of the former union boss, spoke to members at the event.
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Compiled by Megan Finnegan
sion of bike lanes on First and Second avenues. Bike lanes are a perpetually contentious issue for the board, which has issued resolutions in the past noting that “virtually all cyclists ignore the laws” and has a vocal anti-bike contingent, so the meeting should be an interesting one. They will also be discussing a city council proposal to require a citywide bike lane master plan. Other upcoming CB 8 highlights include a Youth and Education Committee meeting on Sept. 12, during which the committee will discuss wait lists, overcrowding and the shuffling of schools in the district, and a full board meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 21.
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City Looks for Cash to Build Sanitation Garage Hopes to find a medical, educationed or scientific use for the site of those functions must be the core business of the applicant. The East Side has seen its fair share of similar land swap deals between the city and private developers—a complex series of swaps will hopefully be set in motion this fall between the United Nations, Con Edison, the city and state in order to facilitate the development of the East River Esplanade. According to a press release from the DSNY, the final structure will be built at “little to no taxpayer expense while generating returns to the city through proceeds from the site’s purchase, providing tax revenue from developing and operating the site and expanding and preserving quality jobs and permanent employment opportunities through participation in the HireNYC Program.” Sanitation officials refused to answer questions on the project, but in a prepared statement, spokesperson Kathy Dawkins implied they had received more than one response to the RFP and said that they would adhere to ULURP land use procedures, which require a formal presenta-
andrew schwartz
By Megan Finnegan The city is hoping to turn a site used for trash into a new treasure for the Upper East Side. Three years ago, the city demolished an obsolete garage used by the Department of Sanitation on East 73rd Street, abutting the FDR Drive. The plan was to rebuild a better garage, but the city ran short on capital funds, and its desolate concrete base has sat unused as a growing ground for weeds ever since. Earlier this year, however, the city decided to issue a request for proposals from companies who may wish to purchase the site and develop it. The RFP, which was issued by the Economic Development Corporation, states that the site will be sold for a purchase price that includes a credit for building a new garage to be turned over to the Department of Sanitation. The city will not allow just any commercial building to go up on the prime piece of real estate, however. The RFP calls for “the expansion or creation of a health care, education or scientific research facility,” and specifies that one
This site at the east end of 73rd Street is once again slated to become a Sanitation garage, but this time the hope is to add another use. tion to the local community board. The Sanitation garage will cut down on unnecessary travel time for the DSNY vehicles that will be stored in the garage, reducing congestion and pollution from the trucks. Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said in a statement that “this RFP is a creative way to allow the
private sector to provide the department with a much-needed new garage and eliminate the long traveling distances from the temporary locations to service the affected districts.” With responses in at the end of July, Sanitation and the EDC are now reviewing the proposals.
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N EW S YO U LIV E B Y
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An Un-Caped Crusader for Bats
bradleyklein.com
By Megan Finnegan As the final days of summer sink into fall, New Yorkers may want to add one more thing to their to-do list of last hurrahs—bat watching. An organization called the New York City Bat Group, formed in 2004, promotes awareness and education about the bat species native to the city. One of their missions is to simply get New Yorkers to look up. “Any night that it’s warm in the summer and the insects are flying, the bats are out there eating them,” said Danielle Gustafson, one of the group’s original members. She said that many people mistake them for low flying birds, but bats can be found in most parks throughout the city. Gustafson works with the Museum of Natural History to lead tours through Central Park, teaching people how to spot red and little brown bats, two of the most common types. Gustafson isn’t a biologist; she worked for the New York Stock Exchange for 14 years and now runs digital and social media for a bank holding company. But her enthusiastic fascination for the winged creatures is perhaps the best possible qualification to educate the general public about an animal that many associate with Halloween, vampires and a certain caped crusader of pop culture. She first got interested in bats when, due to her interest in bird watching, a friend
invited her on a trip to the Amazon with a group of wildlife and bat conservationists. The more she learned, the more she became endeared to the often misunderstood animals. How does she dispel an ingrained sense of chiroptophobia? “You start out with the fact that they’re mammals,” Gustafson said. “They’re closer to primates than rats are.” She also marvels at their intelligence and instincts, recalling a time when she
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Danielle Gustafson of the New York City Bat Group before leading a tour. and her husband were helping a friend complete research on bats in French Guinea for her doctorate. (The couple got engaged on a bat research trip in South America and requested donations to bat conservation organizations in lieu of wedding gifts.) They were netting mothers carrying their babies on their backs when they noticed one juvenile missing its mom. Their scientist friend told them they should take care of the baby and deposit it back to the same spot in the jungle where they had found it, since the mother had probably dropped it off to feed and would return to pick it up later. “They park their kids and then come back,” Gustafson said, admitting that before she had witnessed it, she was skeptical the bat would remember the exact spot. “They have great special memory.” When they tried netting in the same spot two nights in a row, all of the bats knew to steer clear of the area the second night. On her bat excursions, Gustafson points out the bats’ ability to zero in on their prey—insects—without swiping people or branches. She uses a bat detector to tune in to their calls in order to find and identify them. “The closer to actual prey [they get], it sounds like they’re giving someone a raspberry because the clicks are so rapid and they’re zeroing in on the prey, and
that’s hilarious,” Gustafson said. “You realize how close over your head they’re flying, how uninterested they are in you.”
But Gustafson insists that people should be interested in the bats, because an alarming number of local bats have been dying of something called White Nose Syndrome. Because there is no official count of the bat population in the city, it’s difficult to say how the disease is affecting them, but scientists are seeing it throughout the Northeast and are concerned that it could lead to local extinction. “These are hibernating bats; they’re having these massive die-offs,” said Gustafson. “Bats have one baby per year, so these die-offs are really alarming.” The Bat Group hopes to secure funding to figure out what’s causing the spread of the deadly fungus. Gustafson remembers the reason she became interested in bats in the first place and hopes it will draw others to care about the animals. “There is something about living and working in New York City that makes you hungry for the antidote to the buildings and the concrete. It kind of makes you very aware of the natural creatures,” she said.
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new york family
Getting In to Private School By Molly O’Meara Sheehan
In 2008, Jennifer Brozost, then an admissions officer at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, approached her coworker Vimmi Shroff with an idea: why not start a business to help New York City parents navigate the notoriously nervewracking process of applying to private schools? The two women have seen New York’s private school admissions from every angle. Brozost taught second grade before working in admissions for seven years; Shroff taught kindergarten before her eight-year admissions career. Just a year after starting their consultancy, PEAS (Private Education Advisory Services), Brozost came to Shroff with another big request: would she co-write a book with her based on their experiences? They ended up collaborating on The NYC Private School Admissions Handbook, which was published in June and walks parents through the steps they must take to apply to the city’s private nursery schools and kindergartens.
You write that you wished you had a book like this when you were applying to schools for your own children. After working in admissions, why would you need a guide? Jennifer Brozost: To keep ourselves organized. In the back of the book, we have checklists and places for notes. People can go to their interview, come back and write down everything there. It gets so crazy when you apply. Also, we included anecdotes to keep it light. We know it’s a serious process, but the more relaxed our clients are, the better they are going to do in their interviews. You don’t recommend prepping children for the kindergarten admissions test, but aren’t you in effect prepping their parents? JB: It’s not really prepping parents. It’s just educating them on the process. It is giving them someone real to talk to after each interview. We’re just kind of doing a lot of their homework for them, and they can trust us. What is the first tip you give to parents applying to nursery school or kin-
dergarten? Vimmi Shroff: Talk to someone who is objective [in order] to learn about a school. In this process there is a lot of park bench gossip. We saw tons of “frenemies” created this year, parents who were applying to schools who could be nasty to each other. What is the top mistake that parents make? VS: Herd mentality. This is New York City, and people get so caught up and competitive and think the admissions process is their personal game, but it is actually a child’s life they are dealing with. Show respect to your child for who he or she is. You write that all New York City private schools offer fabulous educations. Can you explain why? VS: Because they invest in great teachers. They value education. That is the reason they are a school in New York City. It’s not easy to run a school here. They are always learning. The private schools also have a lot of resources compared to public schools. JB: You’re also getting smaller class-
Hot Tip of The Week
9/11 Peace Story Quilt Head to The Met for the opening weekend of the poignant and timely 9/11 Peace Story Quilt exhibit, designed by Faith Ringgold and created in collaboration with young New Yorkers aged 8-19. Comprised of three panels with 12 squares each, this work of art conveys the importance of peace across cultures and religions. For more information, visit metmuseum.org and for even more family events, visit newyorkfamily.com.
rooms and more individualized attention. The problem with public schools, even though there are great ones, is that they are getting overcrowded again. Also, they really have to bring up the bottom of each class to perform well on tests. So in the third grade, because of the third grade testing, they really teach to the test for a lot of the year. For more information, visit nypeas.com.
“New York’s state government is broken, and our economy continues to falter. Instead of making the hard decisions necessary to secure the future, our leaders continue to kick the can down the road and call it progress. I am running for State Assembly to get New York moving in the right direction again.” SAVE THE MTA by ending overtime abuse and cost overruns instead of hiking fares and cutting service REDUCE STATE GOVERNMENT COSTS by restructuring state employee pensions, saving billions of dollars over the next decade KEEP NEW YORKERS IN NEW YORK by cutting the income taxes that have caused over one million New Yorkers to flee the state ENCOURAGE JOB CREATION by eliminating job-killing employment taxes ENSURE QUALITY EDUCATION by keeping the best teachers, regardless of seniority PROVIDE AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR MANHATTAN by speaking for everyone not represented by the one-party political machine that controls all of Manhattan’s State Senate and Assembly Seats
SPECIAL ELECTION! VOTE TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 13TH 8
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City Issued Mistaken Evacuation Orders, Council Members Say By Megan Finnegan Last week, Hurricane Irene had city residents shaking in their collective boots. While most of the Upper East Side did not have to evacuate, some public housing residents in Zone B were mistakenly told to leave their homes. A small sliver of the Upper East Side, along the FDR Drive from 89th through 93rd streets and from First Avenue to the river from 93rd Street to around 100th Street, is part of Zone A. Residents were required to leave Zone A when Mayor Michael Bloomberg took the unprecedented step of calling for a mandatory evacuation of these low-lying areas. But the Stanley Isaacs Houses and Holmes Towers, on 92nd and 93rd streets, both NYCHA buildings, were not part of Zone A and were told to evacuate anyway, according to City Council Member Dan Garodnick. “In Isaacs and Holmes, they did cut off the hot water and the elevator service,” said Garodnick. “NYCHA was telling people that they had to be out by 5 p.m. [on
Saturday]. They were getting mixed and incorrect information.” Then the agency switched course and told residents of Holmes Towers they did not have to leave, but that residents of Isaacs Houses still did. “They were already putting flyers under people’s doors” telling them to leave, said Garodnick, and many people ended up confused. City Council Member Jessica Lappin’s office reported similar confusion at the Ira Robbins building, another NYCHA property on East 70th Street. “We did receive reports that NYCHA incorrectly posted signs about a mandatory evacuation,” said Michelle Feldman, Lappin’s spokesperson. “This was not the case and our office called NYCHA to report the mistake. They removed the signs and had the building manager knock on residents’ doors to let them know they did not have to evacuate.” Aside from the zone confusion, the Upper East Side suffered little damage from the storm. Some areas lost power
for a short time, but it was quickly restored. Parts of the FDR Drive flooded and the road was closed to traffic at one point. “There is a ghost town feel as there are no cars driving on it,” wrote resident and Our Town columnist Lorraine Duffy Merkl, who snapped photos of some of the dam- A downed tree age. “A straggler here and there. People were actually crossing the highway as though it were a regular city street.” Merkl also reported flooding and some felled branches in Carl Schurz Park, as well as a tree completely blocking part of East End Avenue. According to the mayor’s office, about 2,000 trees were damaged during the storm, mostly in Queens. Central Park’s roads remained closed to traffic on Monday so workers could
in Central Park Monday. remove 25 trees, branches and debris, but pedestrians were able to enter the park. For the most part, however, Upper East Siders were lucky to survive the storm that devastated other parts of the East Coast. One word of caution for local merchants the next time around, from Feldman: “Some constituents had trouble finding batteries for their flashlights in stores on the Upper East Side.”
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Looking for Youth to Help Change Community Boards By Megan Finnegan
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‘When I was younger, it was like, “Oh look at all these old people, do I want to belong to an organization of them ?”’ —Jackie Ludorf terms of you don’t appoint them, you can’t fire them, you can’t give them a raise—to get them to cooperate with each other,” Ludorf said. She’s been the chair for the past three years but has served on the board for 32 years.
andrew schwartz
nyone who’s ever crossed into hour four of a community board meeting can attest to two things: it is a gritty, tedious, absolutely necessary place where the first scraps of democracy are woven into something resembling a fabric and it’s not for the faint of heart—or those who didn’t have the foresight to pack snacks and aspirin. The fourth hour of a community board meeting, like the occasional fifth and the elusive but always possible sixth hour, is when many people have given up and left. As the debate over whether or not to allow a half-day street closing for a particular event on a particular day drags on into the night, those members remaining eyeball one another and recognize a certain fortitude, a certain passion and perhaps just the slightest tinge of insanity, because that’s what it takes to serve on a community board in Manhattan. That and passing the scrutiny of an independent review board, acing an interview with the borough president’s staff, dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of hours to devote to incredibly difficult but unpaid work, a strong enough sense of community to think it’s all worth the effort and a limitless supply of patience— though the last is more of a preference than a requirement. It hasn’t always been this way. Community boards have changed a lot since Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer took office in 2006, after vowing in his campaign to reform the boards. Before Stringer got his hands on them, the 12 boards of Manhattan were rife
with politicized appointments and agendas, and were seriously unrepresentative of the communities they served. Now, in 2011, the boards have indeed changed course, moving toward Stringer’s ideal of fully diverse and representative bodies that look not to petty neighborhood squabbles but address the higher concerns of urban planning for the future, envisioning and helping to execute a better tomorrow for their particular swath of the island. They’re moving in that direction, surely, but some still have a ways to go on the journey. When asked what her job as chairperson of Community Board 8 on the Upper East Side is, one of the first things Jackie Ludorf says is “trying to keep people from killing each other.” She’s kidding, sort of. “It can be really difficult to get 50 people who you have no control over—in
Borough President Scott Stringer wants community boards to look at more long-term planning issues. Having the ability to think about the future more than the present is a gift not everyone shares, and it becomes even more difficult when a majority of board members are older, as is the case on Community Board 8. Stringer and some others would like to see a greater age mix on the community boards, but it’s a thorny problem. “I want very much to continue to put younger people on the boards because I think we need to prepare for the next generation of Manhattan leadership,” Stringer said. Ludorf explained why she thinks younger people stay away. “Maybe because so many of us are older,” she said. “I know how I was when I was younger, it was like, ‘Oh look at all these old people, do I want to belong to an organization of them?’” The biggest hurdle to keeping younger people on the boards is simply the
time commitment required, Ludorf said. People get married, get bogged down in their careers, start families, move away. They aren’t necessarily lifers. “It’s good to have continuity, though, because some of us who have been on for a long time remember things that have happened in the past,” she said. Some argue that it’s impossible to make a real dent until you’ve served on a board for decades. “If you’re on for five years, you don’t really contribute much,” said Upper West Side City Council Member Gale Brewer, 59, who makes it a point to recommend younger people for Community Board 7 when possible. “That’s another challenge, to try to find people who are young or middle-aged to stick it out for 20 years.” Her fellow council member on the East Side, Dan Garodnick, 39, completely disagrees. “I would not agree that you need to
What is Community Board 8? Community Board 8 encompasses the area from East 59th to East 96th streets from Central Park to the East River. Community boards have 50 unpaid members, who vote on issues like land use, liquor licenses and landmarking in an advisory capacity. All board members are appointed by the borough president to two-year terms, but half of them are recommended by local city council members. For Board 8, City Council Member Jessica Lappin recommends
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15 of the members and Council Member Dan Garodnick recommends 10. Scott Stringer, Manhattan borough president, requires all community board applicants to clear a panel comprised of leaders from good government and community groups, including The New York League of Conservation Voters, The Partnership for NYC, The League of Women Voters, The Municipal Art Society, NYPIRG, The Brennan Center for Justice, Citizens Union, the
Women’s City Club of New York, The Hispanic Federation, West Harlem Environmental Action, The Regional Planning Association, The NAACP and The Urban League. Council members recommend individuals who have passed muster with the panel. In an interview, Stringer said he has never rejected one of these recommendations. Community Board 8 has separate committees for budget, communica-
tions, environment and sanitation, health, seniors and social services, housing and public safety, land use, landmarks, parks, Roosevelt Island, street fairs, street life, youth and education, zoning and development and the 197-A Queensboro Bridge area. The board also has Second Avenue Subway and vendor task forces. Each committee meets once a month and can pass resolutions that are then brought to the full monthly board meetings as recommendations. N EW S YO U LIV E B Y
feature be there for 20 years to make a contribution, and I think you should have people representing a wide range of ages on the board. Young people are underrepresented,” he said. “Common sense and community sophistication is something that many people have at a very young age.” But it can be tough to find younger people who want to get involved in the important but difficult work of the boards. Some of the issues that have seen heated, drawn-out debate by Community Board 8 in the past year or so include the type of surface applied to the new dog run on East 63rd Street and whether or not it was irritating to dogs; the decision by the city to allow cyclists to ride on some of Central Park’s pedestrian paths; and controlling the young revelers who patronize the nightclub Vudu Lounge on First Avenue. While these issues are of the utmost importance to some in the community, the borough president would like to see boards move away from listing grievances or focusing on micro issues that only
andrew schwartz
CB 8 Chairperson Jackie Ludorf said it’s hard attracting younger members to the board. affect a few people. “I believe the future of community boards is less about solving local complaints and more about urban planning for a community,” Stringer said. One of his initiatives has been to place an urban planning graduate student as an advisor to each community board, and the city is now taking the program to other boroughs. In a way, Stringer is bringing the boards back to some of their original functions. Back in 1951, Borough President Robert F. Wagner created the first community board prototypes, called community planning commissions. When he became mayor, Wagner made them community planning boards, whose roles were to advise the borough presidents on the development and welfare of their districts. By 1975, when the city went through O u r To w n NY. c o m
a major charter revision, the boards had morphed into what Stringer calls the “complaint vehicles” that he has been trying to move away from. With the advent of the professional politician in the 1970s came a boom in the availability of constituent services. Now, Stringer says, with the relative success of the 311 system and the offices of city council members and state legislators being open to solving local issues, community boards can move away from cataloguing potholes and toward more serious, long-sighted planning efforts. In theory. Community boards are the first stop for businesses seeking to receive or renew a liquor license, and the State Liquor Authority often follows whatever the community board decides. They are also the first official body to review landmark procedures, whether designating new ones or changing existing ones, and while the Landmarks Preservation Commission takes many opinions into account and sometimes goes against recommendations, it too will often defer to community board decisions on smaller issues like changing windows on a landmarked building. For every debate that devolves into yelling and name-calling, there are serious discussions about issues like education and the fact that there aren’t enough school seats on the Upper East Side, public opposition to the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station or decisions about zoning and landmarking that will affect the neighborhood for decades to come. If he could change anything about the boards, Garodnick would quell the fighting. “I might include more training on conflict resolution—I think it would help to ensure that there is always a civil discourse and constructive process for the public,” he said. “These issues are frequently challenging and controversial, and it should be part of the basic training on how to navigate some of these complicated issues.” While she’d like to see more activity on social issues like services for the homeless on Community Board 8, Ludorf thinks the Upper East Side board is moving in a positive direction, touting its public television show and the board’s role in rallying for important local issues like the transfer station. As she looks back on her term as chair, which concludes at the end of this year, she does wish she had changed up some of the committee chairs when she first started. “Some people develop a specialty— that’s good,” Ludorf said, summing up what could be a diagnosis of all community boards at this current stage of their development. “Some people get too set in their ways.” S e p t e mb e r 1 , 2 0 1 1
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DINING
The Root Causes of Great Taste
this root beer or a wine I was smelling? On the palate I was greeted with flavors of anise and green herb up front. In the middle, I finally tasted sassafras. This was the only root beer with any major amount of that specific flavor component. There was wintergreen, but it served as a background player. The whole thing finished with menthol, cherry and brown sugar notes. The best root beer I’ve had so far. My quest continues and as I compile my notes, I reconfigure my recipe for the perfect home-brewed root beer. Onward!
Who makes the best root beer?
H
alfway into my second trip to Kalustyan’s, the amazing Curry Hill spice superstore, my wife looked at me and totally nailed it: “Once you figure out how to make this root beer, you’re going to immediately lose interest in it, aren’t you?” She’s probably 100 percent correct, although I hope I continue making root beer for years to come. I have a Norman Rockwell-esque fantasy about spending weekends with my children (of which I have none yet) bottling our homemade creation. If not that, I would at least like to stick with this obsession long enough to come up with a recipe that actually tastes like root beer.
With my second batch effort, I managed to achieve a darker color but the rootbeeriness still wasn’t quite right. And the yeast I used still imparted an impossibleto-ignore bread dough quality that I made it my No. 1 priority to fix in the next batch. I ordered up some ale yeast, stat. What I really needed, though, was an immersion in the world of small batch root beers. While none of the brews I tried were bottle-fermented (they were all made using carbonated water), the flavors of these sodas would presumably be more complex than the mass-marketed root beers available in the supermarket. The first root beer I tried was Boylan’s. This was the widest available brand I tried and it was pretty good. It had a chocolatey brown color and medium head with good, small bubbles. The smell was what I soon realized was the standard, modern
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It was the only bottle that didn’t have a twist-off cap, which I realized later was foreshadowing of the authenticity I was about to experience. Reddish brown in color with a nice, medium head, the nose on this root beer made me take a seat. Menthol, eucalyptus, wet tree bark…Was
Italian Café Makes My Day
With my kids home from camp for an endless summer, I’ve spent lunchtimes over a hot griddle assembling grilled cheese sandwiches to share between us. I have become expert in my technique— just enough Vermont cheddar, with a squirt of mustard or daub of chutney. I stack six sandwiches, cut them neatly in half, pop them into a warm oven and yell “Luuuuunch.” Can’t someone make a grilled cheese salad was not an afterthought but perky sandwich for me? I set mesclun with a sweet baloff for Piccolo Café, a samic dressing. Piccolo warm, small space with 157 3rd Ave. (near 15th St.)* reminded me of restaurants high wooden chairs and in Milan, where Milanese 212-260-1175 wood plank tables. This office workers ordered www.piccolocafe.us tiny café is many things items like gnocchi with to many people—from morning espres- tomato and basil sauce ($8) after a hard so and breakfast bar, with green olive day and where tired Moms, like myself, omelets ($8) and truffle egg sandwiches could find respite and civility. ($9), to panini and pasta shop. My Italian style toast ham and cheese panini ($6) —Nancy J. Brandwein was simple but elegant, on excellent Gian Piero bread with ample thin slices of ham *Piccolo Café has three locations but prices differ at each, so check out their menus online. and a slice of mozzarella. The cheese Got a snack attack to share? melting over the crust made it shine like Contact nancybrandwein@gmail.com a glazed donut, and I liked that my side DANIEL S. BURNSTEIN
By Josh Perilo
root beer scent: wintergreen. The palate was very simple, but enjoyable. Vanilla bean up front, with major amounts of wintergreen through the middle and only the tiniest hint of sarsaparilla on the finish. Pleasant, if not outstanding. Then I tried Fitz’s, from St. Louis. The color was a lighter, reddish brown and there was virtually no head, with big, Coca-Cola-sized bubbles. This one smelled even more strongly of wintergreen than the last. The palate was very disappointing, however. The carbonation dissipated quickly, leaving an unbalanced, imitation vanilla extract flavor that wouldn’t go away. With a small amount of wintergreen in the middle, there was nothing else to balance out this sticky sweet mess. Sprecher’s was next and it was markedly better. The color was almost that of Guinness stout, and the head had a great foam of frothy, small bubbles that lingered. This was the first root beer I smelled that actually had a discernable scent of sarsaparilla. The flavor profile was also a bit more interesting; molasses flavors gave way to a pleasant bite of sarsaparilla in the middle, and finished with a nice wallop of licorice sweetness and a touch of birch bark tannin. A solid root beer. The beer maker Saranac also makes root beer, so I tried one of their concoctions. The color was a standard dark amber and the head was decent, though not as classic as Sprecher’s. There was more wintergreen and licorice on the nose, and the palate gave up brown sugar and caramel sweetness right up front. The wintergreen in the middle was balanced by a touch of sarsaparilla and licorice, and the whole thing finished with hints of bourbon vanilla. The real star of the show, however, was the Ithaca Soda Company’s root beer.
Piccolo Café
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O u r T o w n N Y. c o m
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FREE! Upcoming Events at Writing | Literature | Cultural Events
FALL 2011
The Jack Burstyn Memorial Lecture Dr. Alan Manevitz
October 17, 2011 | 7:00pm
An Evening with John Simon John Simon
October 27, 2011 | 7:00pm
The Humor of Sholem Aleichem Bel Kaufman
November 1, 2011 | 7:00pm
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Conner Guest Writer Francine Prose
November 14, 2011 | 7:00pm
Talented Young Writers Panel Stefan Merrill Block Alison Espach Haley Tanner Benjamin Hale
November 21, 2011| 7:00pm
Tina Santi Flaherty Irish Voices Literary Series
Pete Hamill Barbara Leaming Dan Barry Iris Cornelia Love
September 22, 2011 | 7:00pm October 24, 2011 | 7:00pm November 15, 2011 | 7:00pm December 5, 2011 | 7:00pm
REGISTER TODAY FOR FALL 2011 CLASSES! Featuring: Master Classes
Alison Espach- Fiction and Daphne Merkin- Memoir Plus many more writing, literature, and specialty courses
To RSVP for events e-mail twcce@hunter.cuny.edu or call 212.650.3850 See our complete list of Fall 2011 courses at www.hunter.cuny.edu/ce/the-writing-center Lewis Frumkes, director
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Of Golightly and Mazursky By Mark Peikert Film writer Sam Wasson has made a name for himself with books that shed new light on familiar subjects. After chronicling the films of director Blake Edwards in A Splurch in the Kisser, Wasson narrowed his sights to a single Edwards film: Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The result was last summer’s buzziest book, the New York Times bestselling Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman. Joining the newly released paperback edition of Fifth Avenue this month is Wasson’s latest book, another examination of mostly New York City-based films and a valiant demand to consider Paul Mazursky in Sam Wasson. the same breath as other rule-bending, iconoclastic ’70s directors like Scorsese and Coppola. With a series of interviews with Mazursky, his actors and colleagues, Wasson makes a convincing case for Mazursky’s right to a wider critical reappraisal. We caught up with Wasson over the phone and discussed the most romantic romantic movie of all time, the reasons why Mazursky has slipped from the public consciousness and the Holy Grail of show biz stories.
versation in my head.
Have you been consciously choosing topics that are hiding in plain sight? You want to hit the sweet spot of the cultural consciousness. If it is too far remote, no one will give a shit. And if it’s already conscious, then it’s already been done. So you’re trying to walk this fine line between what’s available and what’s yet to be done.
And with Mazursky? How comparatively easy it was to have a movie made in the late ’70s and ’80s. They would greenlight a script based on an idea, based on your own track record. The amount of integrity, the amount of fraternity that went on in the business, the sense that we’re all in this together. It was show business, absolutely, and people were in it to make money, but they also loved each other. That I found unbelievably moving.
What prompted you to write Fifth Avenue? I had written A Splurch in the Kisser. And Edwards did this slapstick stuff, and Tiffany’s was an anomaly. When it came time to write that chapter in the book, I thought it would be an easy ride through. But there was almost nothing written about the movie. Some bits in Audrey Hepburn books, but nothing substantial. And the idea to write a book about this, the most romantic romantic movie of all time—the playing field was wide open. I basically wrote the book that I was looking for while writing the Blake Edwards book. Mazursky was an act of love; Tiffany’s was about continuing the con-
You make a pretty solid case for Mazursky as the least acclaimed auteur of ’70s Hollywood. There are a lot of reasons for that. But really, he didn’t fit with the image of the rest of the guys, with the Scorsese and the Coppola. Mazursky made nothing like Bonnie and Clyde. [His movies] were soft, they were tender. And put that up against a Mean Streets or a Rosemary’s Baby and you’re talking about a guy who was not a part of what everyone else was doing. And of course, he was older than those guys. What were you most surprised by while researching Tiffany’s? How racy the part was for the time. When it was released, it was so hot that Paula Strasberg told Marilyn Monroe to not take the movie. And Audrey Hepburn was worried that as a new mother, it would ruin her image. After the film was released, people were offended by the image of a call girl. So much about Tiffany’s was somewhat morally dubious. Also that they shot two endings, and that the ending we have is the second ending, written by Blake Edwards.
Your next book is going to be about another ’70s filmmaker who rewrote the rules, Bob Fosse. How did you go from Mazursky to Fosse? All That Jazz is the definitive show business movie, and to me, a guy who makes his living telling show biz stories, it has always been the Holy Grail. But the image of Fosse in All That Jazz is not the full man. I think it’s true of all of us that if we were to write our story, it would not be the story, it would be a version of the story. And All That Jazz had few of the joys of being Bob Fosse. N EW S YO U LIV E B Y
SHOWS AVENUE defined by quality and design
Antiques, Art & Design at the Armory
Begins Friday, September 16th, 6 p.m. Meets each Friday till December 16th 48 E. 80th Street, NYC
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING The NYC Board of Standards and Appeals has scheduled a public hearing on the following application: Variance (§72-21) to permit the expansion of a (UG 3) community facility (The Spence School) contrary to lot coverage (§24-11) and rear yard equivalent (§24-382). R8B zoning district. Address: 20-22 East 91st Street, South side of East 91st Street, 62.17 ft. westerly from the corner formed by the intersection of the southerly side of 91st. Street & the westerly side of Madison Avenue., Block 1502, Lot(s) 59 & 12, Borough of Manhattan. Applicant: Friedman & Gotbaum, LLP, for The Trustees of The Spence School, Inc., owner. Community Board No.: 08 Manhattan This application, Cal. No.: 58-11-BZ has been calendared for Public Hearing on Tuesday, September 13, 2011, 1:30 P.M. session, 40 Rector Street, 6th floor Hearing Room “E”, Borough of Manhattan. Interested persons or associations may appear at the hearing to present testimony regarding this application. This notice is published by the applicant in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Board of Standards and Appeals.
Italian Baroque Venetian mirror with carved giltwood frame, circa 1750, from R. M. Barokh Antiques
Dated: August 11, 2011 Friedman & Gotbaum, LLP, Applicant
Designer Committee Co-chairs
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Community Pages Manhattan Antiques
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The Sour Candyman & the Coffin By Thomas R. Pryor My first coffin was metal. It measured six feet long, three feet wide and three feet deep. It rested on a wooden base that lifted it up a foot. It sat in near darkness at the rear of the parlor. Everyone paid their respects. Upon close examination, you saw it bleed sweat and you heard it release a soft, steady, communal hum. It held something we cherished and missed all the time; it chilled soda bottles in Joe’s Candy Store. The cooler was battered and red, with a raised Coca-Cola bottle cap appearing on all four sides. A similar model had followed Ike across Europe throughout World War II. I loved the coffin. I kissed it when no one was looking.
“To save money he used refrigerator light bulbs... giving the space a glow of gloom.” Joe’s Candy Store was my home base in Yorkville in 1962. Till I knew better, I thought a couple of kids lived there. Joe was a 50-year-old, moody Italian bachelor. Every day, Joe arrived at the store in gray work pants, a gray T-shirt and a puss on his face. Joe was a man of few words. Here’s a day’s worth: “What do you want?” “Put the comic book back.” “In the right place.” “Get out.” Joe made Silas Marner look philanthropic. There were no fans in the store
and minimal electricity. Con Edison had Joe on their “watch list.” To save money, he used refrigerator light bulbs in the store, giving the space a glow of gloom. Coming from the bright sunshine into the wartime blackout, you became disoriented. With enough kids in there, you could get a good game of blind man’s bluff going—without the blindfold. Despite his recordbreaking cheapness, Joe was no fool. If you had a candy store, you must have ice cold soda. Kids boycotted candy stores that ignored this rule. The water temperature in Joe’s cooler always flirted with the freezing mark. Sometimes I needed to submarine my hand through a thin crust of ice forming on the surface. 200 bottles of soda were buried deep beneath the sea, in a light so dim the eels bumped into each other. More than 20 different brands slept on the ocean’s floor. Unfortunately, I usually craved a bottle of Mission Cream. Mission soda was a local favorite with 10 different flavors, and Mission’s bottles had zero variation in style, texture or height. All Missions being equal led to a courage speech I’d give myself before each attempt. “You can do it. I’ve seen you do it. Do it.” Shorter than the top of the coffin, I’d hop up and swing my arm over its front wall. My armpit was now responsible for keeping me airborne. I’d sink my other arm into the icy water with a numbing splash. My hand and forearm would tighten up before I achieved bottle depth. When I reached the wreck, my numb digits embraced the familiar Mission shape and pulled one up.
Orange. “Ooooh,” I moaned. Back down the bottle would go. I’d do my best to remember where I replanted it; the bottles were snug as sardines. I had limited time before my arm below the elbow lost all sensation. Rotating my arm in a corkscrew motion increased blood circulation, allowing for a brief search extension, but the water was too cold. Pride swallowed, I raised the last bottle I touched before my hand passed out. It was a root beer. “Grrrrr.” I moved the second-place soda gently from my puffy blue hand to my landlubber hand. I tucked my arm under my noncombatant armpit, rocking back and forth till warmth returned. With phony bravado, I grinned at my friends. A wicked pleasure swept through the crowd when someone chose a soda you knew wasn’t their first choice. Everyone knew each other’s favorite soda, right behind knowing their favorite sports team or movie star. When I was in the hot seat, I sat there drinking the soda, faking enjoyment, saying “hmmm” or “aaahhh,” followed by a satisfying swipe of my mouth. I knew, and they knew I was lying. It didn’t matter, I went down swinging. Addressing the mob, I’d say, “I do like it. I really do like it. I just didn’t tell anybody.” Thomas Pryor’s work has been published in The New York Times, he has recently completed his first book and he curates a show at The Cornelia Street Cafe. Read his blog at YorkvilleStoopstoNuts.blogspot.com.
LET T ER S
Be Firm With Sidewalk Blockers
To the Editor: Regarding sidewalk oblivion (“The Good, the Bad and the Oblivious,” Aug. 25); yes, it’s aggravating when oblivious pedestrians forget they’re sharing the city with 8 million other people. And, like the author, I resent having to ask forgiveness (“Excuse me”) or permission
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Alternative Healthy Manhattan: Reiki & other healthy careers Page 18
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August 25, 2011
Putting History On the Map
Back to 2 School ANNIVE
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O’Neil, a Different Kind of Finishing School
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City and church in talks for UES school; smart apps for kids; a look at life coaching and other continuing ed programs.
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Armond White on Our Idiot Brother
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(“Please”) to do something I’m perfectly entitled to do: walk down the sidewalk. So I’ve developed a tactic that works pretty well. In a firm voice, I simply declare my intention: “Coming through!” The offenders usually look a bit startled, but they move aside. And, I hope, they remember it for the next time. Marcia SpireS
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Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity. N EW S YO U LIV E B Y
Dewing Things BeTTer
John Boy Never Forgot Grandma Grandparents Day is Sept. 11. Does anyone care? By Bette Dewing The flash of lights etc. are ready for Hurricane Irene, expected to strike New York the day after tomorrow (the end of last week, the time of this writing). And yes, I am anxious, but grateful it’s happening before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, which is also Grandparents Day. Not unrelated is the appearance of The Waltons’ Mary McDonough and Richard Thomas at the Barnes and Noble at 82nd Street and Broadway on Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. They’ll discuss McDonough’s memoir Lessons from the Mountain. Unfortunately for me, Sylvia and her son Ira, who told me about the event, the East 79th Street Neighborhood Association meets the same night at 6 p.m. at the City University building, located at 80th Street and East End Avenue. Incidentally, one does meet people who become friends at civic endeavors like these where, for instance, I met Ellie
and Ruth. Far more needs to be said and done to enable this benefit in a city where many live too much on their own—even in times of disaster. Especially since we are segregated by age, unlike life on Walton’s Mountain, where the three-generation family lives together healthfully and helpfully because they work out their inevitable conflicts in a civil, nonviolent manner. Their extended family and the community are a part of their lives. (The Waltons blesses the Hallmark Channel weekdays from 4 p.m. to 6.) Ah, but too little remembered on 9/11 are the grandparents and greatgrandparents who suffered the profound loss of younger kin on this nation’s most terrible day. And the loss is sometimes compounded when a surviving parent remarries and contact with grandchildren is reduced or denied. But these cruel and often unjust losses get scant attention from the media, which so shapes our cus-
toms and views. Incidentally, it was thanks only to Logos Bookstore’s calendar that I knew Sept. 11 was also Grandparents Day. But, like elders in general, this holiday is not a “hot topic,” even when record numbers of grandparents are primary caregivers to grandchildren—not to mention the president’s own maternal grandparents, who raised him. And the first lady’s mother is in charge of the first daughters’ care. We need to hear more about that and the need for communication and conflict resolution skill lessons to help us all get along—including the need to share and talk. And, of course, we need to protest and prevent the common tragic disasters that are too often ignored when the victim is old. Think of the crime of all-too-commonplace traffic tragedies. And I, who have so long banged the drum against such carnage, only learned from the East 79th Street Neighborhood Association’s June meeting that an
81-year-old neighborhood man was killed at 79th and York as he crossed with the light and a private carting truck illegally backed into him. Was the driver charged? Shouldn’t civic groups pursue the fact that, according to the police officer, carting trucks operating at night often break the laws of the road? Of course we must. But for now, here’s an easy but important action to take to save our neighborhood pharmacies. Urge the governor to sign into law Assembly Bill A-5502-B and Senate Bill 83510-B, which ensure that prescriptions filled by local pharmacies will cost no more than those filled by mail-order pharmacies. Call Citizen Services at 518-474-1041, where you will only be asked to give your ZIP code. Ah, and let’s hope that those who fill the faith group pews because of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 will come back the next week, and the next. dewingbetter@aol.com
ciTiqueTTe
A Summer Home is No Vacation A clean break from the grind means no cleaning By Lorraine Duffy Merkl In the currently popular novel Rules of Civility, Amor Towles writes that the problem with being born in New York is, “You’ve got no New York to run away to.” We natives, however, learned long ago that you can run away if you just expand your horizons beyond New York City proper. Thus, my husband Neil and I have always headed out to Montauk. Although we both agree that “The End,” as the East End hamlet is known, is our home away from home, we have often been at odds about our accommodations. Neil would like to buy a place in the area where we’ve summered since 1985. We can’t walk through town without him escorting me by the elbow over to look at the offerings in the window of the premier local realtor, John Keeshan (his father was Captain Kangaroo, by the way). I, however, do not wish to own. I prefer to continue to stay at the same hotel O u r To w n NY. c o m
(most of the time in the exact same room) we’ve reserved at for the past quarter-century. FYI: I’m still winning. So as the 2011 season comes to a close, yet another summer has come and gone and, much to Neil’s chagrin, we still do not own a second home “in the country” as a former, rather pretentious colleague was fond of saying, even though her house was at the beach in Bridgehampton. Neil isn’t the only one, by the way, who questions my choice. “Is your home in town, by the lake or on the ocean?” I’m often asked when people hear me speak of Montauk like a resident of the community. My lack of a deed usually elicits shock with a side order of “Aw”—as in shucks. The most prevalent response is the curt, accusatory “Oh,” followed by the respondent’s eyes casting down to the ground; the assumption being that we lost it all
in the crash of 2008 or to Bernie Madoff. Few believe me when I say it’s just not on my life list of must-haves. (Just so we’re clear, my no vacation home mandate applies to renting those belonging to other people—no matter how lovely—as well.) So why would anyone not want a second home? I like to keep my vacay a vacay. This would not be the case if I had to clean, clean up after, grocery shop and do laundry for people at whom most of the time I would be screaming because they were dragging sand into the house. Me broom in hand does not sound like much of a by-the-sea holiday snapshot. Nor does saying things like, “No, I didn’t get to go fishing/biking/ to the beach because I had to wait for the plumber/electrician/cable guy…” or any number of tradesmen who are summoned to any home for unforeseeable repairs.
Aside from the sand part, that scenario doesn’t sound much different from my day-to-day life in Manhattan. I honestly don’t want to end up needing a vacation after my vacation. So I continue to vote to keep things just the way they are. Where we stay, the room I usually request faces the rolling ocean waves. The beach is steps away. The inevitable sand in the carpet is vacuumed up by the provided housekeeping service. The maintenance staff fixes what breaks. The pool is enclosed in this greenhouse-type thing, so even if it rains, we can still go swimming. Hence, I return from Montauk rested and relaxed with a positive attitude, even toward my aforementioned daily chores. That is how I maintain my civility. Lorraine Duffy Merkl’s debut novel Fat Chick, from The Vineyard Press, is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
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