Our Town - January 14, 2016 by Our Town

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The local paper for the Upper er East Side A SPECIAL REPORT ON EDUCATION < P.9

WEEK OF JANUARY

14-20 2016

KALLOS’S STATE OF THE DISTRICT NEWS East side councilmember wants to meet every person in the district Councilmember Ben Kallos touted his office’s work with constituents on housing issues in his recent state of the district address, and looked forward to several initiatives in 2016. “As a constituent and advocate myself, then candidate, and now council member, I have always been frustrated with how government can be opaque, closed, unaccountable and broken,” said Kallos, addressing a room of community leaders and residents at Memorial Sloan Kettering on East 67th Street. “What if we started to change all that - empowering our community - what would that look like?” Kallos said his constituent services

NEW YORK’S MEDICAL MARIJUANA FORAY NEWS Storefront opens on 14th Street, but its offerings are limited BY JENNIFER PELTZ

In a sleek Manhattan storefront on E. 14th Street with an upscale-doctor’s-office ambience, New York’s measured

foray into medical marijuana began Thursday with a liquid packaged with a plain white label. Behind an understated, secured entrance, pharmacists at New York City’s first medical marijuana dispensary will consult with patients whose doctors must take special training to recommend the drug, allowed only in forms that can’t be

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team and roughly a dozen graduate students in social work have helped more than 4,000 people in his district, and that legal clinics supplied by his office have provided individual counsel to nearly 250 other constituents, “who are trying to stay in their homes or get heat back in their apartments.” He also revealed a lofty goal: to personally meet all 168,413 people who live in his district. Kallos said his team worked with constituents facing everything from poor conditions to evictions, with the goal of protecting housing in the district. “I grew up here; I want to raise a family and grow old here, too,” said Kallos. “We must protect our affordable and public housing, and combat the forces of overdevelopment.” One of Kallos’ signature achievements occurred when he, Borough President Gale Brewer and State Senator Liz Krueger opposed Mayor smoked. There’s not a marijuana leaf in sight. It’s a far cry from dispensaries in such states as California, where jars of buds feature evocative names. New York, where eight dispensaries are set to open around the state Thursday, has some of the strictest rules among the more than 20 states that allow medical pot. Patients and their advocates fear New York is putting up too many roadblocks, and it’s unclear how many patients, if any, will be ready to walk through dispensary doors. But operators say the state’s stringency will help convey professionalism as the industry matures.

Bill de Blasio’s housing plan, which called for adding height to the contextual height caps that allow for the East Side’s quiet side streets. “We opposed the measure…so developers wouldn’t tear down rent stabilized buildings to get more height,” said Kallos. “And the Department of City Planning heard us, and agreed to protect the midblock.” Midblock buildings in the district are capped at 75 feet, Kallos said. Fighting superscrapers has also been a theme for Kallos. When residents of the Sutton Place alerted his office to a proposed 90-story building in the neighborhood, he said, his office worked with local residents to form the East River Fifties Alliance. “Under the leadership of President Alan Kersh, the alliance has worked with our office to organize the community behind an effort to rezone

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

Our Take METAL DETECTORS FOR OUR KIDS Yet another way to measure our separate, and unequal, city schools. For months now, we’ve been despairing about the deep, and shameful, racial segregation in our schools, as our neighborhoods have become more homogenous. Now, an investigation by WNYC radio and the investigative reporting organization ProPublica has added another layer to the scandal. For more than a decade now, more than 100,000 middle and high school students across the city have have had to start their day by taking off their shoes and belts to pass through airportstyle metal detectors. The practice stems from high school crime rates a decade ago -- rates that have since fallen by nearly 50 percent. Yet the scans continue. And, not surprisingly, the journalists ﬁnd that the use of metal detectors is not evenly applied throughout the city: Black and Hispanic kids are nearly three times more likely to be scanned than their white couterparts. Think about the message this sends to students. It’s humiliating, and tends to cause problems of its own, as students are forced to stand in line for what can be an hour awaiting scans. Our kids deserve better.

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Newscheck Crime Watch Out & About Voices

2 3 6 8

City Arts Top 5 Real Estate 15 Minutes

16 17 20 21

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JANUARY 14-20,2016

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WHAT’S MAKING NEWS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD CITY TO DEDICATE RESOURCES TO GUN CRIMES The city will adopt a new system of handling gun-related violence. A deployment of a

200 officers whose focus will be on gun crimes and a court dedicated exclusively to handling ﬁrearm-related violence will be among the new initiatives, The New York Times reported.

The initiative is designed to quell unceasing gun-related incidents citywide and also address police officials’ frustrations at the difficulty of securing jail time for gun crimes, The Times said. The paper

noted that the mostly young men charged with gun crimes often do not have prior arrests and judges, who are overseeing other criminal matters, often release them on low bail or none at all. Officials said the new gun court will decide illegal possession gun cases within six months, according to the paper. “Dedicated judges will help us prosecute gun cases faster and more efficiently in Brooklyn,” The Times quoted Ken Thompson, the Brooklyn district attorney, as saying. The police department’s new Gun Violence Suppression Division will work with the court. The division, comprised of mostly detectives, will keep speciﬁc officers on gun cases until a court’s disposition, the paper said.

SECOND AVENUE BIKE LANE PROPOSED

Photo: Dan Nguyen, via Flickr.

Second Avenue might never be the same. The city Department of Transportation has proposed installing bike lane facilities from 105th Street to 59th Street. Once completed, the bike path would parallel that on northbound First Avenue and stretch existing

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bicycling facilities on Second Avenue above 105th Street and below 59th Street. The Second Avenue makeover, to be completed once the ﬁrst phase of subway line there is completed, would include a so-called “ﬂoating” parking lane and pedestrian islands. It would also include pedestrian and bicyclist signal phases and dedicated left-turn lanes. The DOT announcement says the alterations along the corridor would shorten “crossing distances for pedestrians, better organize traffic and improve safety for bicyclists. The agency says bicycling has increased threefold along both First and Second Avenues since 2007. The proposed changes from 69th to 69th Streets and from 70th to 105th Streets would leave four travel lanes, including a dedicated busloading zone lane, the same number as before the subway project began, but would remove the western parking lane.

WOMAN STRUCK, KILLED CROSSING YORK AVENUE

and killed by a car on Thursday night as she crossed York Avenue at 78th Street. The Daily News reported that witnesses said the woman, from Fort Lee, was hit by an SUV making a right turn onto York about 6:40 p.m. The woman, identified as Andrea Kremen, 68, was a regular customer at a nearby market. Gilberto Solano, 43, who works at Super-Del Market, where he said Kremen was a regular, said two men rushed to Kremen’s aid after she was struck. “They said, ‘You okay? You okay?’ But she didn’t respond,” he was quoted as saying by The News. The driver, identified by The Daily News as an older man, stayed at the scene. There was no further word on what led to the crash. According to an obituary in The New York Times, Kremen, had been employed in the legal field and had travelled widely. She had “an endless love of the arts,” it said. Her survivors include her husband, two children and two grandchildren as well as her mother.

A New Jersey woman was hit

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JANUARY 14-20,2016

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

MAN SETS FIRE TO CHURCH PEW Police say a man set fire to a pew inside a Manhattan church and was arrested trying to flee. It happened shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest on the Upper East Side. Police responding to a report of a man setting a fire apprehended the suspect as he ran out the church’s back door. Regis De Foucauld was arrested on charges including arson and criminal mischief. Church staffers told police that De Foucauld had entered the church and started stacking cushions on a pew which he then lit on fire. The staff members told police the suspect said, “Don’t worry, it’s a New Year’s fire.” De Foucauld was taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation. It wasn’t clear if he had a lawyer.

TRIPPED UP Two Upper West Side residents had the misfortune to return from holiday vacation only to ﬁnd that their apartments had been burglarized. In the ﬁrst incident, a 64-year-old woman

left her apartment at 215 W. 88th Street for a trip to California at noon on Wednesday, December 23. When she returned at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, January 3, she noticed that property was missing from her bedroom. There was no damage to the lock of the apartment’s front door, but she told police that she had left some windows slightly open; the window frames were undamaged. A woman neighbor had access to the apartment and had walked the victim’s dog while she was away. Multiple building employees also had access to the premises. The items stolen included various pairs of earrings valued at $20,000, a number of cufflinks valued at $15,000, pendants worth $8,000, and a collection of quarters amounting to $250. The total stolen came to $43,250. In the second incident, a 36-yearold woman left her apartment at 210 W. 89th Street at 3 p.m. on Friday, December 18. When she returned at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 27, she discovered that her bedroom window had been broken and opened, and the front door of her apartment was unlocked. She found numerous items missing, and the apartment had been left disheveled, with belongings moved about and thrown on the ﬂoor. The items stolen included a diamondand-jade tennis bracelet valued at $1,400, two Samsung laptops totaling $850, a gold tennis bracelet worth

$800, a rose-gold cuff bracelet priced at $500, a Swarovski Crystal necklace valued at $400, a Michael Kors watch with a gold face priced at $400, a silver Rotary watch tagged at $350, along with other jewelry presenting a total value of $5,960.

GRAY DAY Thanks to thieves, one man got less than a year of use out of his new car. At 11 p.m. on Monday, December 28, a 43-year-old man parked his gray 2015 Nissan Altima with New York plates GDU5304 in front of 95 W. 95th Street. When he returned the next morning at 11 a.m., he found that the car was missing. The Altima was not at the tow pound, nor could police locate the car elsewhere in the neighborhood. The vehicle was valued at $32,000.

TARGETED A local senior became yet another target of ID thieves. On Friday, December 4, an 84-year-old man living at 780 West End Avenue received a phone call from the Wells Fargo bank, asking if he had made ﬁve purchases at a Target store in Brooklyn. Apparently, an unknown perpetrator had used a cloned credit card to make purchases without the man’s permission or authority. The victim subsequently canceled his card. The total amount

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th Precinct for Dec. 28 to Jan. 3 Week to Date

Year to Date

2016 2015 % Change

Murder

n/a

Rape

0.0

-100.0

Robbery

-66.7

n/a

Felony Assault

50.0

0.0

Burglary

-66.7

n/a

Grand Larceny

4.3

0.0

Grand Larceny Auto

-50.0

purchased came to $9,824.

THAI AND DRY Police warn readers never to leave large amounts of cash in an unattended bag in a public place. At 4 p.m. on Thursday, December 31, a 38-year-old waitress in the Thai Market restaurant at 960 Amsterdam Avenue put her purse and jacket on a shelf behind the hostess counter before starting work.

When she came to retrieve the property at the end of her shift at 11 p.m., her belongings were missing. She had not seen anyone approach the counter who could have taken the items. A coworker claimed to have seen her property behind the counter just an hour before it was found missing. The items stolen included $2,500 in cash and an AXT NYC jacket valued at $750, a Longchamp handbag, credit cards, a Thai passport, and a debit card.

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JANUARY 14-20,2016

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Rebuilding Penn Station is on an ambitious Cuomo agenda

Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 19th Precinct

153 E. 67th St.

212-452-0600

159 E. 85th St.

311

FDNY Engine 39/Ladder 16

157 E. 67th St.

311

FDNY Engine 53/Ladder 43

1836 Third Ave.

311

FDNY Engine 44

221 E. 75th St.

311

FIRE FDNY 22 Ladder Co 13

CITY COUNCIL Councilmember Daniel Garodnick

211 E. 43rd St. #1205

212-818-0580

Councilmember Ben Kallos

244 E. 93rd St.

212-860-1950

STATE LEGISLATORS State Sen. Jose M. Serrano

1916 Park Ave. #202

212-828-5829

State Senator Liz Krueger

1850 Second Ave.

212-490-9535

Assembly Member Dan Quart

360 E. 57th St.

212-605-0937

Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright

1365 First Ave.

212-288-4607

COMMUNITY BOARD 8

505 Park Ave. #620

212-758-4340

LIBRARIES Yorkville

222 E. 79th St.

212-744-5824

96th Street

112 E. 96th St.

212-289-0908

67th Street

328 E. 67th St.

212-734-1717

Webster Library

1465 York Ave.

212-288-5049

A STATE OF THE STATE WISH LIST RAIL

NEWS

HOSPITALS Lenox Hill

100 E. 77th St.

212-434-2000

NY-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell

525 E. 68th St.

212-746-5454

Mount Sinai

E. 99th St. & Madison Ave.

212-241-6500

NYU Langone

550 First Ave.

212-263-7300

CON EDISON

4 Irving Place

212-460-4600

POST OFFICES US Post Office

1283 First Ave.

212-517-8361

US Post Office

1617 Third Ave.

212-369-2747

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Cuomo is promising his most ambitious to-do list since taking office BY DAVID KLEPPER

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is promising big investments in transportation, a plan to address corruption and a proposal to help the homeless in what he says will be his most ambitious to-do list since he took office in 2011. He is calling the agenda “Built to Lead,” a name he says recalls New York state’s tradition of using big investments like the Erie Canal to build for the future. The new plan calls for billions of dollars of investments in bridges, roads, rail, a convention center and Penn Station -- the nation’s busiest train terminal. “This is surely the most ambitious State of the State that I will have suggested,” he told a Manhattan audience. “We will have the most aggressive development program in the history of the state of New York.”

TOLLS AND ROADS Motorists who use the Thruway the most would get a tax credit under a plan from Cuomo that would also freeze tolls on the Thruway and the Tappan Zee Bridge until 2020. The governor’s proposal also calls for $22 billion in transportation investments, including $1 billion to upgrade and replace 200 bridges and $1 billion to pave 1,300 miles of state and local roads.

Cuomo wants to restart the long-discussed plan to revamp Penn Station, which he says is “dark,” “ugly” and outdated. He has also called for a third rail line on the Long Island Rail Road.

TUNNEL Proposals to dig a tunnel between Long Island and the Bronx, Westchester County or even Connecticut date back nearly a century. The governor wants to devote $5 million to study the feasibility of the project, which would likely cost many billions and take decades to plan and complete.

best revitalization plans.

TAXES Cuomo wants to cut small business taxes by $300 million. He will also have to weigh a proposal from Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to raise income taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, a plan that already has drawn criticism in the GOP-led Senate.

The New York City convention center would double in size under Cuomo’s $1 billion plan to expand the facility.

MINIMUM WAGE

EDUCATION

Called “The Mario Cuomo Campaign for Economic Justice” after his father, Cuomo’s push for a phased-in $15 minimum wage is expected to be a deﬁning issue in the legislative session. It’s a sure thing in the Assembly, but the Republicans in the Senate are likely to ask for big tax cuts or other trades in exchange. The increase, when fully implemented in 2021, would give New York the highest state minimum wage in the country.

Democrats want a big injection of funds into public education -- $2.4 billion is one suggested ﬁgure -- and Republicans want to eliminate a policy that takes back some school aid to balance the state budget, a practice they say hits wealthier and suburban districts the hardest. Cuomo has yet to say what he will do.

AIRPORTS On Saturday Cuomo proposed a $200 million upstate airport competition, which would award five $40 million prizes to the airports that submit the

HOMELESSNESS New York City’s homelessness problem became the latest battleground in the feud between Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Cuomo’s administration has criticized de Blasio’s handling of the issue, and Cuomo has promised to offer his own proposal.

ENVIRONMENT The state’s environmental protection fund -- which supports efforts to conserve land, protect farms, fight invasive species and revive waterfronts -- would increase by $123 million to a total of $300 million under the governor’s proposal. Cuomo also wants to set aside $250 million for upgrades to local water and sewer systems around the state.

JAVITS CENTER

restricting lawmakers’ outside income.

ETHICS Cuomo hasn’t released the details, but he promises to make efforts to address Albany corruption a top agenda item in 2016. Possibilities include proposals to revoke the state pensions of politicians convicted of corruption, tightening campaign ﬁnance rules and

UBER The ride-hailing service wants to enter the market in upstate cities such as Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. Cuomo has signaled he supports the idea of state regulation to allow the expansion -- an idea sure to worry taxi cab owners who say Uber should be held to the same rules as their industry.

HOW’S HE GOING TO PAY FOR IT? The details won’t come out until Cuomo submits his budget recommendation, but the dollar amounts for Cuomo’s proposals may not be as high as they seem. Transportation projects will likely rely on significant federal investments. Upgrades to Penn Station would be ﬁnanced by the developer -- who would retain commercial rights at the facility. And while $250 million for water projects sounds like a huge amount, estimates are that the state needs to spend $40 billion in the next 20 years just to keep up with deterioration. Last year’s budget totaled $142 billion.

JANUARY 14-20,2016

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

Thu 14 Fri 15

RAJA & RALPH POLITICS, MONEY, AND ANARCHY: HISTORIC Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave, at 82nd Street, HOUSE MUSEUMS ▲ Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue 6:30 p.m. Museum members, free; general public, $16; students/seniors, $12. A panel of invested experts debates the uncertain future of historic sites and historic house museums. 212-534-1672. www.mcny. org/

Cosmetic Dermatology

ENT

General Dermatology

Obstetrics and Gynecology

Ophthalmology

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Pediatrics

COMPUTER BASICS

Primary Care

Webster Library, 1465 York Ave. Noon-1:15 p.m. In-person registration required. Learn about the various types and components of computers, including basic computer terminology, an overview of operating systems, and popular software applications. 212-288-5049.

234 East 85th Street New York, NY 10028 www.mountsinai.org/east85

Great Hall Balcony. 5-8 p.m., free with museum admission. Ralph Farris, viola, and Raja Rahman, piano, perform works by Hindemith, Pärt, Brahms and Farris 212-535-7710. www. metmuseum.org/events/ﬁndevents

OUT OF ISRAEL 92nd Street Y, Lexington Avenue and 92nd Street, Buttenwieser Hall 8 p.m. From $20 Israeli choreographers gather for a sixth year in this showcase exposing the current vibe of bold, visceral Israeli contemporary dance. 212-415-5500. http:// www.92y.org/Event/Out-of-Israel

Sat 16 STORIES OF NEW YORK Yorkville Library, 222 East 79th St. 11 a.m. Cyndi Freeman and Dawn Frazer, both veteran performers and instructors share short personal stories about living in NYC and then open up the ﬂoor to for the audience to share their own. 212-744-5824. www.nypl.org/events/ programs/2016/01/16/storiesnew-york

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT: FROM TEDDY ROOSEVELT TO BILL CLINTON The Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West. 9:30 am to 11:00 am William E. Leuchtenburg, the author of more than a dozen books on American history and presidents, chronicles the

JANUARY 14-20,2016

212-415-5500. www.92y.org/ w Event/A-View-from-the-Bridge Event/A-View-from

Mon 18 A TRIPLE CROWN QUES QUEST: SOPRANO SONDRA SO RADVANOVSKY AND RADVANOVSK THE DONIZET DONIZETTI TUDOR QUEENS

presidents of the past century century, highlighting their moments of high drama and triumph. 212-873-3400. www. nyhistory.org/programs/ american-president-teddyroosevelt-bill-clinton

Sun 17 HUMANIZING CRIMINAL JUSTICE New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th St. 11 a.m. In recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Remembrance Day, a panel discussion on criminal justice and its humanizing elements. 212-874-5210.

“A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE”: A BROADWAY PLAY REVIEW 92nd Street Y, Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street 2:30 p.m., from $30.00 Evan Madin, theater teacher, and Scott Borowka, lighting designer, Arthur Miller’s play, at the Lyceum Theater. See the performance on your own to discuss.

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Peter B. Lewis T Theater, 1071 Fifth Ave., at 89th Street. $25-$30 7:30 p.m. $25-$ Soprano Sopran Sondra Radvanovsky Ra rises to the challenge of singing all season three queens in a single si in director David McVicar’s production, which will complete his own staging all three of Donizetti’s Tudor queen operas. 212-423-3618. guggenheim.tix.com/Event. aspx?EventCode=821024

DRUM MAJOR INSTITUTE HOSTS MLK PROGRAM AND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION The Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive Noon-2 p.m. Drum Major Institute hosts A Call to Conscience in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 87th Birthday. This year’s keynote address will focus on ending gun violence in America. 212-203-9219.

Tue 19 “ARMY OF SHADOWS” FIAF, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th St.

4 p.m. Non-members, $14, students, $7. Members, $3 in advance, free day of. Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1969 psychological drama about a cell of Resistance ﬁghters. In French, German and English, with English subtitles. 800-982-2787, for tickets. www.ﬁaf.org/events/ winter2016/2016-01-19-csarmy.shtml

HOUSING A GROWING CITY Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave. Free for Museum members; $16 general public; $12 for students/seniors. A panel of leaders in New York City urban planning the challenges of housing expanding population. 212-534-1672. www.mcny. org/

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SUPERHERO NEW YORK: REAL AND IMAGINARY New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, at 77th Street 6 p.m. Free Seed the current exhibition “Superheroes in Gotham,” followed by a presentation and talk by with comics historian and former Marvel editorial director Danny Fingeroth about New York’s comic book landmarks, both real and imagined. 212-873-3400. www. nyhistory.org/programs/ superhero-new-york-real-andimaginary

COMMUNITY BOARD 8 The Ramaz School, 125 East 85th St., Auditorium 6:30 p.m. Full board meeting. 212-758-4340. cb8m.com/ events/full-board-meeting-48

We work to make your smile dreams come true.

The Marble Community Gospel Choir

in Concert

Honoring the legacy of

T N with a tribute to the late Andraé Crouch. Directed by Stacy Penson.

Sunday, January 17 at 3:00pm Admission: $20 at door | $15, seniors Save $5 by ordering in advance online at MarbleChurch.org 1 West 29th Street New York, New York 10001 212 686 2770 MarbleChurch.org

JANUARY 14-20,2016

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Voices

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

My Story

A community approach to homelessness BY BETTE DEWING “Authorities” advised in the last “homeless on the street” explosion, ”Don’t give money because it will go for alcohol or drugs. Give food, clothes or directions on where to ﬁnd help.” Is this still the advice and is enough said about the alcohol/drug dependence and “homelessness link?” The concern now seems more centered on “mental illness,” something that happens to the brain, not what people do to themselves to, ironically feel better, but may then get hooked and estranged from family and friends, become unemployable and even homeless. And I was reminded of all this when a Chase bank “reluctantly” discontinued a coffee service for costumers waiting for banking help in a small lounge area. “More and more homeless were coming in for coffee and hanging out in that area which made customers waiting there uncomfortable.” Understandably so, when reportedly, there were requests for money and sometimes hostile gestures and remarks. No, I don’t blame Chase, but rather “society” when, for example, how little is said about the 24-hour A.A. workshop program held for decades in St. Monica’s lower level only a block away from this bank. Alcohol and other addictions need more media “coverage” and from churches and synagogues where A.A. and other 12-step programs are frequently

held. Church bulletins I see ask for volunteers to help with the admirable overnight shelter programs for “the homeless,” and 12 Step programs are listed, but no suggestions to attend “open to the public” meetings to learn about the alcohol/drug dependence and homeless connection. And all this when more and more public gathering places, like neighborhood eateries, are replaced by luxury high rise condo homes with no room for community involvement even when some apartments are “affordable.” Ironically the expansion of medical and educational facilities which destroy self sustaining neighborhoods may ultimately work against overall public health and welfare. People often drink or do drugs to feel connected or for shy people to be heard. Like my Uncle Clarence, whose gregarious wife, Helen (who, incidentally, worked for Senator George McGovern), used to say, “Norwegians, like my husband, often need alcohol to prime the pump.” But Uncle Clarence learned to “get a word in” sober through the Minneapolis A.A. meetings he and Aunt Helen attended together. Ah, and in my Minneapolis childhood our Baptist church regularly held hymn singing and prayer services in the Bowery type mission for “down on their luck” men who seemed quite receptive. And while alcohol was an absolute no-no, ﬁre and brimstone sermons were eschewed. But we kids got the message which some

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unfortunately later forgot but thankfully wound up in A.A. like their uncle did. Minneapolis papers and all small town newspapers once regularly listed A.A. and other recovery group meetings, and now would you believe, 411 has twice given me non-working numbers for Alcoholics Anonymous Intergroup. Now waiting for an internet group to call back. 1 800 314 2684 gives some general alcohol/drug information But above all, the mayor and all desperately seeking answers to the latest homeless problem must search the Internet for homelessness and alcohol/ drug dependence. Incidentally, also found there was a 1990 L.A. Times piece about my Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church’s Cocaine Anonymous group which I surprisingly had read on a Los Angeles visit. Titled “The Neglected Weapon in the Drug War,” it described these weekly meeting’s high success rate, which experts said couldn’t be done. Surely AA and other 12-step groups must not be the neglected weapon in the war against homelessness. Or overlooked in the war against gun and other violent and anti anti-social behaviors. Or ignored in the greatest overarching drinking problem, while remaining employable and housed, but when under the inﬂuence, saying or doing things one wouldn’t do sober, or failure to say and do what is needed. Responsible drinking in general so needs to be stressed – medics now limit women to one drink daily and two for men. Hey, but happily, no limits on coffee or tea. It can be done if enough of us try dewingbetter@aol.com

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THINKING OF FOOD, AND SOME OTHER THINGS EAST SIDE ENCOUNTERS BY ARLENE KAYATT

First the old, then the new: The MTA doesn’t disappoint, that’s for sure. I was looking forward to what turned out to be a beautiful clear New Year’s Day. Meeting good friends for late morning lunch (not brunch) at the uptown 2nd Avenue Deli. Getting there meant the local M15 at 88th/2nd in front of the old Elaine’s. About five or six of us standing in the local part of the stop. Several others standing a little farther up waiting for the Select. Lo and behold the local comes along. Stops. Doesn’t open doors. Drives off. That was enough to get me going. Then one of the other wouldbe riders opined, “That’s why we need Trump. He’d never let the drivers get away with that!” Another would-be noted, “That’s right. They’d be out of a job! He’d dump the MTA.” Trickle down, trickle up. Like it or not; believe it or not - Trump fever’s rising. An oy brings me back to the 2nd Avenue Deli, which I was told, has the best baked apples - at $8.95 I hope so - lush, voluptuous, juicy, like the ones you used to get in the Catskills - at Brickman’s, Grossinger’s, Brown’s, the Concord. My dessert tastes tend to strudel and plain old sponge cake from Moishe’s on 7th St/2nd Ave. Thinking about it all and having a great time over lunch made me realize that the MTA will be the MTA, Trump will be or not be. But I’m having a happy new year no matter what. Same to you all. Re-calling Gloria Allred: A recent visit to Sarge’s on Menupages found me perusing

its new menu. New, because the original Sarge’s (38th/3rd), open since 1964, was burned out and closed for over a year. It reopened in the last year or so. I’ve not been back, but glad that it’s here again. It holds fond family memories - we’d go there on the holidays when they had special menus. Other times throughout the year it was always the place to go for good deli, sandwiches, herrings, soups. While going through the online menu, I was surprised to come across a “Cosby Burger.” Made famous by The Cosby Show’s Theo Huxtable (Bill Cosby’s tv son) when he would call out “Dad...I want a Bacon Burger Dog!” Depending on the recipe, a Cosby Burger is either made for skewers or patties and consists of ground beef, bacon, and hotdog. The $14.95 Cosby Burger at Sarge’s is a 10 oz. cheeseburger topped with a grilled sliced hotdog served with lettuce, tomato and Bermuda onion. Anyway, anything Cosby these days raises a red ﬂag. Not sure Sarge’s is ready to recall its menu. At least not until Gloria Allred calls. Shopping not so fair: Long lines waiting at the cashier on a Friday evening at Fairway 86th St. A young man waiting on line decided he wanted to continue shopping for a refrigerated item. He didn’t have a cart and was holding onto the several items he was going to purchase. As he shopped the fridge, he picked up a container with dumplings. It fell. Instead of picking it up and putting it along the ledge of the unit, he left it on the ﬂoor and kept shopping in the same spot. Shopper waiting on line to pay went over to pick up the still closed dumpling container on

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the floor. The culprit looked up and said, “Oh, I thought I’d leave it there” to which the lady picking it up retorted, “Why, so you can come back and fall on it and sue Fairway?” Some folks think of everything. Queen of the “I’ll”: This was something I’m still trying to wrap my brain around. Jan 2, Saturday, Starbucks, 92nd/3rd, late morning. Full house. All seats taken. Two young women seated at the long table with bench seating. One on the bench side. The other across from her. Both talking. Both with cups of coffee. The one working her laptop had two clementines waiting alongside her coffee. When the non laptop lady left, the laptop lady moved her laptop and a chair into the space where other customers would have to pass to get to and leave the bench seating. At one point a man seated on the bench side wanted to get more coffee which meant, of course, that he had to get up and would be coming back to his seat. Two other customers were seated alongside him. Only laptop lady, seated in the access space, would have to get up so he could leave. She admonished him that he couldn’t keep getting up and coming back because she would have to keep getting up. He said that she could sit someplace else and not block the access space. Her reply, “I’ll sit where I want to. I’m not moving.” Period. Chutzpah, entitlement, attitude, clementines - what a way to roll in the new year. Arlene Kayatt’s East Side Encounters runs bi-weekly in Our Town. Know of something she should include in the column? Email her at news@strausnews.com

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

JANUARY 14-20,2016

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

DECIPHERING YOUR KIDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DOODLES PRE-SCHOOL Developmental experts say they are an important step to reading BY LAURAN NEERGAARD

Celebrate your childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scribbles. A novel experiment shows that even before learning their ABCs, youngsters start to recognize that a written word symbolizes language in a way a drawing doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t -- a developmental step on the path to reading. Researchers used a puppet, line drawings and simple vocabulary to find that children as young as 3 are beginning to grasp that nuanced concept. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Children at this very early age really know a lot more than we had previously thought,â&#x20AC;? said developmental psychologist Rebecca Treiman of Washington University in St. Louis, who co-authored the study. The research published Wednesday in the journal Child Development suggests an additional way to consider

reading readiness, beyond the emphasis on phonetics or being able to point out an â&#x20AC;&#x153;Aâ&#x20AC;? in the alphabet chart. Appreciating that writing is â&#x20AC;&#x153;something that stands for something else, it actually is a vehicle for language -- thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty powerful stuff,â&#x20AC;? said Temple University psychology professor Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a specialist in literacy development who wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t involved in the new work. And totsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own scribbling is practice. What a child calls a family portrait may look like a bunch of grapes but â&#x20AC;&#x153;those squiggles, that ability to use lines to represent something bigger, to represent something deeper than what is on that page, is the great open door into the world of symbolic thought,â&#x20AC;? Hirsh-Pasek said. The idea: At some point, children learn that a squiggle on a page represents something, and then that the squiggle we call text has a more speciďŹ c meaning than what we call a drawing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dog,â&#x20AC;? for example, should be read the same way each time, while a canine drawing might appropriately be labeled a dog,

or a puppy, or even their pet Rover. Treiman and colleagues tested 114 preschoolers, 3- to 5-year-olds who hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t received any formal instruction in reading or writing. Some youngsters were shown words such as dog, cat or doll, sometimes in cursive to rule out guessing if kids recognized a letter. Other children were shown simple drawings of those objects. Researchers would say what the word or drawing portrayed. Then theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d bring out a puppet and ask the child if they thought the puppet knew what the words or drawings were. If the puppet indicated the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;dollâ&#x20AC;? was â&#x20AC;&#x153;babyâ&#x20AC;? or â&#x20AC;&#x153;dogâ&#x20AC;? was â&#x20AC;&#x153;pup-

py,â&#x20AC;? many children said the puppet was mistaken. But they more often accepted synonyms for the drawings, showing they were starting to understand that written words have a far more speciďŹ c meaning than a drawing, Treiman said. Language is â&#x20AC;&#x153;like a zoom lens on the world,â&#x20AC;? said Hirsh-Pasek. This study shows â&#x20AC;&#x153;even 3-year-olds know thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something special about written words.â&#x20AC;? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not clear if children who undergo that developmental step at a later age -- say, 5 or 6 instead of 3 or 4 -- might go on to need extra help with learning to read, cautioned Brett Miller, an early

learning specialist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which helped fund the research. But because some children did better than others in the experiment, Treiman plans to study that. Scientists have long known that reading to very young children helps form the foundation for them to later learn to read, by introducing vocabulary, rhyming, and different speech sounds. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to include other activities that bring in writing, too, Treiman said. Look closely at a totâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scribbles. A child might say, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m writing my name,â&#x20AC;? and eventually the crayon scribble can become smaller and closer to the line than the larger scrawl that the tot proclaims is a picture of a ďŹ&#x201A;ower or mom, she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very exciting to see this develop,â&#x20AC;? she said. Previous studies have shown itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s helpful to run a ďŹ nger under the text when reading to a youngster, because otherwise kids pay more attention to the pictures, Miller said. If the words arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t pointed out, â&#x20AC;&#x153;they get less exposure to looking at text, and less opportunity to learn that sort of relationship -- that text is meaningful and text relates to sound,â&#x20AC;? he said. Make sure children see you that you write for a purpose, maybe by having them tell you a story and watch you write it out, adds Hirsh-Pasek. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s much richer than just learning what a B or a P is.â&#x20AC;?

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JANUARY 14-20,2016

SUPREME COURT HEARS TEACHERS’ UNION CASE NEWS Dispute over money raised for collective bargaining BY SAM HANANEL

The Supreme Court is considering a case involving a group of public school teachers and the union fees they’re required to pay, The dispute involves a California case brought by a group of public school teachers who claim mandatory union fees violate the First Amendment rights of workers who disagree with the union’s positions. Unions fear the potential loss of tens of millions of dollars in fees could reduce their power to bargain for higher wages and beneﬁts for teachers, ﬁrefighters, sanitation workers and other government employees. While half the states already have right-to-work laws banning mandatory fees, most members of public-employee unions are concentrated in

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more liberal-leaning states that don’t, including California, New York and Illinois. The lead plaintiff in the case is Rebecca Friedrichs, a public school teacher in Orange County, California, who says she left the California Teachers Association after becoming disillusioned with its mission. She wants the high court to overturn a 39-year-old ruling that said states can require nonmembers to pay “fair share” fees. These fees cover what it costs the union to represent them in bargaining as long as the money doesn’t go for political purposes. That 1977 case, which involved a group of Detroit schoolteachers, said the fee system prevents non-members from “free riding,” since the union still has a legal duty to represent all workers. The high court has raised doubts about the viability of the ruling in two recent cases, but has stopped short of overturning it. Opponents of the fee system

want the justices to essentially convert those more liberal states into de-facto right-towork states for public employee unions, where workers still covered by the union can pay nothing at all. In Michigan, a historic labor stronghold, the loss of revenue at the MEA has led to cuts in staff and more time spent urging members not to leave, said spokesman Doug Pratt. That means fewer resources for bargaining contracts or efforts to reduce class size, curb standardized tests and increase school funding. “It undermines our ability not only to bargain, but to operate as a collective,” Pratt said. “It’s about strength in numbers.” While it may be too early to tell whether Michigan’s law has had an impact on the bargaining process, Pratt said it has encouraged union officials to spend more time reminding members what the union does for them. The challengers in California say it’s impossible to separate politics from the bread-andbutter workplace issues on which unions spend money. “It is difficult to imagine more politically charged issues than how much money local governments should devote to public employees, or what policies

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public schools should adopt to best educate children,” their lawyers said in a brief to the court. For LaPorte, a Saginaw schoolteacher for 11 years, his decision to give up his union membership wasn’t about politics, but frustration over an agreement that led to a pay freeze for younger teachers. He’s involved in a separate lawsuit brought by the Mackinac Center, a conservative Michigan think tank, challenging the union’s policy of giving workers only a one-month window each year to opt out of fees. “If the union wants membership, then they need to offer a better product,” LaPorte said. But union advocates say the Supreme Court case is all

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about politics -- that conservative groups aim to weaken labor unions that tend to overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates and policies. The case also threatens to unravel thousands of contracts around the country that were negotiated relying on the four-decade old system, said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union. Those agreements help promote efficiency and avoid costly disruptions, union officials say. The challengers are backed by the same groups that supported Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s effort to take away most collective bargaining for public employees. The action has left

Wisconsin’s public unions reeling from membership declines of up to 70 percent. Roughly half of all union members are government workers. About 36 percent of public-sector employees are in a union, compared to just 6.6 percent of private-sector workers. “Since private-sector unionism hardly exists, they are now attacking public-sector unions,” said Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara. “Unions will be weakened as bargaining and political institutions.” In Michigan, the Koch brothers-backed group Americans for Prosperity bought a fullpage ad in the Detroit Free Press in 2014 with a form that teachers could send to their union to drop out. The Mackinac Center mailed post cards reminding union members about deadlines to withdraw. Overall, Michigan’s union membership fell from 16.3 percent to 14.5 percent in 2014, the ﬁrst full year under the rightto-work law. Vincent Vernuccio, director of labor policy for the Mackinac Center, said unions have to prove their worth to members and “can no longer take those dues or fees for granted.”

JANUARY 14-20,2016

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

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With the push of a button, the battery-powered vehicle into which Katelyn Bennett was strapped surged forward. The three-year-old with pigtails broke into a huge smile, her eyes bright behind purpleframed glasses. Pressing down repeatedly on the large white button, she navigated her way around a room. Many other youngsters would enjoy such a toy, but the vehicle gave Katelyn something she had lacked: the ability to control her own mobility. She was born with spina bifida, a disease that affects the spinal cord. With no feeling below her waist, she struggles with ﬁne motor control.

Her parents, Ed and Heather Bennett, grew frustrated by the lack of toys available for their youngest daughter. (They also have Summer, 7, and Chloe, 6.) Even when they could find toys fitted with adaptive switches (large enough for disabled children to press), they often found the cost prohibitive (anywhere from $50 to $150). In response, Mrs. Bennett in April 2013 formed a nonproﬁt, Katelyn’s Krusade, and in February 2014 opened Katelyn’s Kloset -- a “library” of adaptive toys that parents of children with disabilities can borrow. The vehicle, for example, that Katelyn was recently driving -- patterned after Thomas the Tank Engine -- had been rewired. Instead of being operated by a foot pedal, it features the easy-to-use button. The adapted toys “promote interactive play,” said Bennett, 34. “Her sisters like to play with

her, but this way she can do it on her own, too. You learn cause and effect -- `When I do something, this toy sings or dances’ -- and that’s so much more fun than watching someone else push a button for them.” Word of the library opening spread quickly not only throughout the close-knit community of families with disabled children but also to those who serve them. Demand for the toys exceeded Bennett’s expectations. “We just were here for families,” she said. “Our thought was that therapists and teachers, they had the resources (to acquire adaptive toys) and they’d do what they need to do. But that really wasn’t the case. A lot of them came to borrow toys.” Among them was Ann Horton, a physical therapist with the Franklin County (Ohio) Board of Developmental Disabilities who met the Bennetts

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HUNTER, NY Almost synonymous with the word “skiing” for devotees of the sport, this world-famous destination now also lures avid snowboarders with its legendary terrain, award-winning snowmaking and luxurious mountainside lodging. Whether treating yourself to a romantic weekend or a family getaway, Hunter offers something for everyone including ski and snowboarding instruction, delicious dining, great shopping, and the largest snow tubing park in New York State!

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WEST MOUNTAIN SKI RESORT QUEENSBURY, NY Recently voted one of the top nine resorts to visit on the east coast by “Ski the East” Magazine, this haven for skiers and snow-boarders is less than an hour from Albany. Dramatic views of the Hudson add to the enjoyment of 30 trails over 126 acres, as does its impressive snow-making abilities and the “West Express,” an incredibly fast triple chairlift. The newly refurbished Main Lodge, the East Slope Bar & Eatery, and West Mountain Cafeteria offer both formal and casual dining.

WHITEFACE MOUNTAIN WILMINGTON, NY This legendary resort, twice host to the Winter Olympic Games and myriad World Cup events, boasts “the greatest vertical drop east of the Rockies.” With 87 trails, 11 lifts (including the “Cloudspitter Gondola”), terrain parks and the Olympic Mountain, skiers of all ages and skill-levels will be thrilled. In nearby Lake Placid, visitors can tour the Olympic Sports Complex, the Olympic Jumping Complex and enjoy the many shops, eateries and entertainment.

PLATTEKILL MOUNTAIN RESORT ROXBURY, NY Priding itself on its true family-friendly atmosphere, this resort has been privately-owned and operated for 23 years. But don’t let its “small mountain charm” fool you; with 38 trails to choose from, Plattekill Mountain also offers expanded snow-tubing lanes as well as challenging slopes for skiers and snowboarders, double and triple-chair lifts and private and group lessons.

WINDHAM MOUNTAIN RESORT WINDHAM, NY A mere two hours from Manhattan, this familyfriendly mountain offers “small town Catskills charm with 21st century ambiance” and compares itself favorably with Vermont and the Berkshires when it comes to accessibility and vertical slopes. It has invested more than $15 million in recent improvements, including 98% snowmaking on its trails, an inn, alpine spa, six terrain parks, 12 lifts.

TRUXTON, NY Just a half hour’s drive from Syracuse, this resort has achieved a #1 rating among its many fans for several years in a row. It offers a variety of 22 slopes and trails along with instructions for skiers and snowboarders of every skill set.

WOODS VALLEY SKI RESORT WESTERNVILLE, NY This resort has been teaching the basics of skiing for 48 years and recent improvements include a new Sun Kid Wonder Carpet to get youngsters safely uphill, a new Carousel, new rental equipment and even an exciting new Tubing Park.

WESTERN NEW YORK HOLIDAY VALLEY ELLICOTTVILLE, NY Holiday Valley is now considered Buffalo’s main winter tourist attraction, particularly among families who love the exciting Mountain Coaster, secret trails, Native American history lessons and the hospitality found at its Tamarack Club and the Inn at Holiday Valley. Visitors appreciate the $4 million of recent upgrades and renovations of snowboarding and tubing fun on its 58 slopes.

HOLIMONT SKI AREA ELLICOTVILLE, NY Praised as North America’s largest private ski resort catering to “family skiing adventures,” Holimont has attracted generations of devoted patrons who enjoy

its welcoming atmosphere as much as the first-class skiing and snowboarding conditions it’s provided for more than half a century. Featuring a patented snow-making system, it recently added a Pisten Bully groomer for its popular terrain park and has expanded its section for novice skiers. Its eight lifts provide fast, convenient service for its 50 slopes, trails and terrain parks.

PEEK ‘N PEAK RESORT CLYMER, NY Created more than 50 years ago, this resort now attracts skiers and snowboarders of all ages to its 27 lighted ski slopes and trails, terrain parks and optimum conditions enhanced by its state-of-the-art snow making pipes. It also features Magic Carpet lifts for kids, plentiful chair lifts for adults and fun events like the Annual Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month, which in early 2016 will attempt to establish a Guinness World Record for the Largest Multi-Venue Ski and Snowboard Lesson ever!

FINGER LAKES BRISTOL MOUNTAIN SKI RESORT C AN ANDAIGUA, NY Every skier and snowboarder will be thrilled by this premier resort’s 1200 foot vertical rise, the highest between the eastern Adirondack/Laurentian Mountains and the western Rocky Mountains. Within 138 acres of skiable terrain, visitors find 35 slopes and trails, 97% of which are illuminated for shushing under the stars. State-of-the-art snowmaking facilities ensure you’ll find optimum conditions for a winter adventure that’s as memorable as it is exciting.

THUNDER RIDGE SKI AREA PATTERSON, NY Located just 60 minutes from New York City, Thunder Ridge is haven for fun-loving families who hate long car rides. For those new to the slopes, Thunder Ridge has a top-notch Snowsport School. The high intensity terrain park has a variety of rails that pose challenges for even the gnarliest of riders. Thunder Ridge’s advanced snow making system can cover over 100 acres with snow, guaranteeing fresh powder for new memories no matter the weather.

HUDSON VALLEY C ATAMOUNT SKI AREA HILLSDALE NY Since opening in 1939, family-friendly Catamount Ski Area has served as a top recreation spot in the Berkshires. With 36 trails, 7 lifts, and 1,000 vertical feet, Catamount offers a variety of terrain for every skill level. Catamount boasts both the steepest and longest run in the Berkshires.

ADIRONDACKS

well-groomed surfaces, ease of travel and convenient accommodations, eateries and services along the way.

ADIRONDACK SNOW TOURS

OLD FORGE SPORTS TOURS

INLET, NY In this gateway to a 34-mile corridor of state-owned land known as the Moose River Recreation Area, you can rent a snowmobile for a few hours or a whole day. The trails connect with the area considered a “snowmobile highway,” and visitors appreciate the

CENTRAL NEW YORK

FLAT ROCK INN

BOLTON LANDING SNOWMOBILE TOURS

Nothing can equal the thrill of riding a powerful snowmobile through acres of pristine white winter landscapes. Below are just some of the locations where visitors can enjoy over 10,000 miles of snowmobile trails throughout New York State.

OLD FORGE, NY An ideal destination for snowmobiling adventures, visitors can enjoy some of the best riding available on professionally groomed and maintained trails in an area many consider “the snowmobile capital of the east.” You’ll also find trail-side dining, fueling stations, accommodations and entertainment along the 500 miles of trails offering some of the most beautiful scenery in the Adirondacks.

CATSKILLS BEAR CREEK LANDING RESTAURANT & RECREATION AL PARK HUNTER, NY This unique recreational park and tempting eatery offers a truly unique outdoor winter experience. Its

TUG HILL PLATEAU ADIRONDACK SPORT CENTER

LAKE GEORGE

SNOWMOBILING

which offers customized tours. Riders of all ages will be entertained by the variety of tours, including trips to Loon Lake, the Adirondack Park, the Northern Trailblazers trail system and even a day-long “Create Your Own Tour” for larger groups. There’s even a romantic dinner tour in the evening.

HAINES FALLS, NY Established as one of the oldest snowmobile rental outfits on the mountain, this family-friendly center offers a half-hour guided tour through its beautiful back mountain country trails led by local drivers who really know the area. They also offer an entertaining “happy hour” tour for adults that provides an after dark snowmobile ride to town for dinner and a cocktail.

EARLVILLE, NY Catering to those seeking a more personal experience along “the roads less traveled,” this venue’s local snowmobile trails are regularly groomed and have much less traffic than those in more touristy spots. Here you’ll receive comprehensive instruction on how to safely handle your vehicle should you choose to go it alone, or one of their expert guides can lead you on a safe, exciting snowmobile adventure.

WARWICK, NY This season marks the 80th year since this resort (which originated as a marketing venue for skiing fashions sold by Macy’s) first opened. Known for its Free Beginner Ski and Snowboarding School, diverse terrain park, excellent snowmaking and grooming facilities and first-class racing, Mount Peter, first and foremost, is famous for its family-friendly atmosphere. Recent improvements include a designated tubing area, changes to its Snow Basin Learning Area, a Carpet Lift, Sun Kid Carousel and illuminated night skiing on 100 percent of its trails.

CLARK’S MARIN A & SNOWMOBILE RENTAL

RIP VAN WINKLE RANCH

RASMUSSEN SNOWMOBILE RENTALS

MOUNT PETER SKI AREA

LAKE PLACID, NY Here rentals on snowmobiles are geared to fit the rider’s ability with single and group tours ranging from slow scenic rides through the picturesque woods to a more spirited pace over well-groomed trails. You can choose from rides lasting from one to six hours, with night tours and refreshments available for longer trips. There are single and double seaters with backrests, and all vehicles are equipped with hand and thumb warmers.

expert drivers can lead you on an exciting snowmobile tour through acres of private, wooded, snow-covered terrain or instruct you in how to operate your own rented vehicle. Adventurous types can also take a few breathtaking laps around its “Need for Speed” track before enjoying a hot, comforting meal at the center’s popular, family-friendly restaurant for new memories no matter the weather.

BOLTON LANDING , NY This family-friendly service will welcome you on a two-hour guided tour along well-groomed trails through the wilderness zone, where you’ll ride snowmobiles and enjoy breathtaking mountain scenery on your way to the picturesque Adirondack Ponds. Everything you need, from helmet and safety equipment, is supplied.

C&C ADIRONDACK SNOWMOBILE TOURS CHESTERTOWN, NY A combined 40+ years of experience guiding visitors distinguishes the expert staff at this brand new venue,

BOONVILLE, NY During the winter, this family-owned and familyfriendly recreational center maintains a fleet of quality rental snowmobiles and rental accommodations, making “play and stay” options very attractive to those seeking to spend more than one day exploring the well-groomed trails.

LOWVILLE, NY This location benefits from a climate that receives 250 to 300+ inches of snowfall each winter and a location with more than 800 miles of well-groomed trails. Flat Rock Inn boasts a fleet of one and twoperson snowmobiles, including Polaris models. Visit the Tavern where you can toast all your adventures and a comfortable lodge in which to bed down.

THE RIDGE VIEW INN LOWVILLE, NY Conveniently located near the beautiful Tug Hill Plateau and set squarely within the snow band area of Northern New York, this is an ideal place from which to plan your snowmobiling adventure. Hire a snowmobile from the Tug Hill Ridge Runners Snowmobile Rental venue affiliated with the Inn, dine on world-class cuisine at the restaurant and get a good night’s sleep before hitting the trails once more.

WESTERN NEW YORK CHAUTAUQUA LAKE SNOWMOBILE SERVICES BEMUS POINT, NY Whether you choose to rent a Polaris snowmobile or just sit back and let an experienced driver show you the gorgeous natural sights during a two-hour jaunt or an all-day adventure, exploring the county’s well-groomed trails or secret backwoods areas will be fun, exciting and memorable.

JANUARY 14-20,2016 when she provided home-based care for Katelyn. The increased stimulation and mobility that children receive from adaptive toys, Horton said, “can be life-changing.” “It makes therapy fun, and a lot of stuff with therapy can be not fun.” To cover the costs of Katelyn’s Kloset -- for toy purchases and building rent -- Bennett initially charged a $50 annual membership fee. By early this year, though, increased financial support from businesses and individuals allowed her to waive the fee, making the service free. Katelyn’s Krusade has an annual budget of about $20,000, with about half raised through an annual 5-kilometer walk, Bennett said. Not long after opening the library, she expanded the offerings to battery-powered vehicles. An engineer for Honda of America, she found that rewiring the vehicles wasn’t too difficult. She also began hosting monthly workshops, in which volunteers learn how to assemble buttons and switches, and properly wire the toys and vehicles. Unlike the toys, the vehicles are fitted specifically for each

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child who needs one. And the child can keep the vehicle until he or she outgrows it. Mobility, experts and parents say, makes a huge difference for children with disabilities. “He used to just be a bump on a log,” said Brian Jones, a Dublin resident who received a Thomas the Tank Engine vehicle for 2-year-old son Charles, who has cerebral palsy. “Now he’s zooming around, banging into things. He’s adventurous. “I see smiles, and he’s happy that he’s getting to see other parts of the house that he wouldn’t see unless we were walking through with him.” The workshops have stirred a ripple effect of sorts in the community. Through word-of-mouth and some personal connections,

students from Ohio State University and Hilliard Davidson High School who are interested in engineering began volunteering. For Connor Yarcheck, who started helping at the workshops while attending Davidson, getting involved has sparked a passion. With several classmates, he helped develop a new type of button. As a freshman attending the OSU campus in Mansfield, he hopes to make blueprints for the buttons available to the public soon. “I’ve really been driven by it and moved by it (the experience),” said Yarcheck, 19. “To see that I could engineer something that might impact somebody -- you don’t get that in a high-school class. I am doing something now that feels purposeful.” Horton, Jones and others marvel at the time and effort that Bennett has given to the project, especially considering that she works full time and has two other children besides her daughter with special needs. Bennett shrugs off praise. “We’re just here to serve these families and to love on these kids,” she said, “and just give them something that they may not be able to get otherwise.”

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ON SNOW DAYS, ‘VIRTUAL SCHOOL’ HIGH SCHOOL Some school districts are experimenting with an alternative to closing school altogether BY ANDREW WYRICH

The Record Last year, as a snowstorm blanketed North Jersey, Pascack Valley Regional High School District attempted something that, at the time, was considered unique -- a “virtual school day.” Ultimately, the New Jersey Department of Education decided the day would not count as a full school day, but that hasn’t stopped the district -- and a neighboring school system -- from trying again. The Record reports that both high schools in the Pascack Valley Regional High School District and Park Ridge High School are planning “virtual school days” for their students next month. This will be Park Ridge’s ﬁrst attempt to host a virtual school day, while Pascack Valley is ﬁne-tuning its original plan.

Pascack Valley, which has two high schools for students in Hillsdale, River Vale, Woodcliff Lake and Montvale, will have two virtual school days on Feb. 3 and Feb 4. Park Ridge will have its virtual school day on Feb. 8. “No one wants to be the person who takes away all snow days for kids -that’s a sense of innocence and joy -but when you are bombarded with a winter like we had a year or two ago, it would be nice to be able to keep your school calendar intact,” Pascack Valley Regional High School District Superintendent Erik Gundersen said. “More importantly than that, I think the world in front of us is becoming more and more a world where you’re able to work and function digitally and you don’t necessarily have to be engaged with the people you work with -- or your teacher -- 100 percent of the time in a face-to-face environment. That is what we are trying to prepare our students for.” In February 2014 Pascack Valley instituted a districtwide virtual school day during a snowstorm -- where students logged onto their laptops and received

instruction from teachers and assignments that could be completed over the Internet. While the ﬁrst virtual day was considered a success by the district, Department of Education officials did not count it as an official day of school because state law requires facilities to be open to count as a school day. With this in mind, both Pascack Valley and Park Ridge have refocused their experiment. In November both Gundersen and Park Ridge Superintendent Robert Gamper sent a joint-letter to the New Jersey Department of Education explaining the changes that will be made with the new virtual days and their intent to share the data they glean from it with the state department. The virtual days in both districts will be optional -- students can either log on at home or come to school as they normally would. Teachers will be in all of the facilities, the buildings will be open and the cafeterias will be serving food. This change, officials from both districts said, should keep them in line with state regulations. The school officials said the Department of Education was “excited” they were planning virtual days and wanted to hear about the school’s experiences. “We are interested in piloting this and giving students a sense of what the future could be like for them, whether it’s an online classroom in college or the workforce that they will enter in the future,” Gamper said.

“This experience is something we want to build upon to get our students ready for college and beyond.” While the two districts have slightly different plans to implement the virtual days, the officials said they hope to compare and analyze data gathered from each other to improve in the future. Park Ridge will have a “full day” online where students will log in to different classes on a normal schedule through a learning management program. Pascack Valley is having two “abbreviated days,” where half of the day will be scheduled instruction, and the second half of the day will be time for students to complete work that has been assigned to them. Gundersen said the decision to have two split days was made after reviewing student and teacher feedback from the previous virtual day in 2014. Students expressed an overload of assign-

JANUARY 14-20,2016 ments, he said. “We had many students that said, `I did more work on the virtual day than I ever had on a regular day,’” Gundersen said. “You have to be careful of that, because if this is something we want to experiment with, it has to be palpable for students and teachers.” In addition, during the last virtual day different teachers used different learning management programs -which caused confusion among students. This year, all teachers use one program. The virtual days are an ongoing experiment, officials said, but they are important for the districts moving forward. “We want to see if we can engage in blended curriculum in the future -- whether it’s a course or two, or perhaps, as a region of schools, offering courses we typically couldn’t offer in just one small school,” Gundersen said. After the virtual days in February, both districts intend to get feedback from students and staff and then discuss the differences between the different styles to see what works best. “The big piece here is to get the feedback from parents, students, staff, admin,” Gamper said. “Being able to evaluate exactly how much learning took place on that one day will be difficult, but it’s the feedback that we will receive that will allow us to see where we can improve and make it a better day in the future for everyone involved.”

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Come and explore all that Cathedral has to offer you!

CUOMO RAISES WAGES FOR SUNY WORKERS NEWS Move is part of a broader raise of the minimum wage to $15 New York state will raise the minimum wage for state university workers to $15, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced, part of his broader effort to expand that minimum to all workers in the state. The increase at the State University of New York system will affect 28,000 employees when fully phased in during 2021. Cuomo announced the raise at a rally in Manhattan that featured organized labor leaders and actor Steve Buscemi. The Democratic governor used his executive power last year to approve phased-in $15 minimums for workers at fastfood chain restaurants, as well as state employees. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are chipping away at it,â&#x20AC;? Cuomo said about the latest in-

crease. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re making a little progress, a little progress, a little progress.â&#x20AC;? The SUNY Board of Trustees is set to formally approve the increase later this month. The higher labor costs will cost the system an estimated $28 million when fully implemented. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The State University of New York is proud to ensure that anyone working on a state-operated SUNY campus continues to be paid at least minimum wage, including all full-time staff as well as students participating in work study pro-

â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘

grams,â&#x20AC;? said SUNY Board Chairman H. Carl McCall. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We look forward to joining Gov. Cuomo in setting a model for state entities and public university systems across the country.â&#x20AC;? Cuomo hopes to pass a $15 minimum wage increase for all workers in the state this year. Like the other increases, the raise would be done in stages, with workers in New York City seeing a $15 minimum in 2018 and those elsewhere getting it in 2021. The stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s base minimum wage rose from $8.75 to $9 on Thursday, the last of three increases approved by lawmakers and Cuomo in 2013. State lawmakers will debate Cuomoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposed $15 increase during the 2016 session, which starts Wednesday in Albany. Critics say the additional labor costs will lead to reduced employment, higher prices and struggling businesses.

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Pia Gallo shows “Yellow Dancer,” a 1911 pastel by Everett Shinn, during Master Drawings New York. Photo: Master Drawings New York.

A WEEK OF MASTER DRAWINGS EXHIBITIONS Madison Avenue opens its galleries in late January BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

Throughout a week of gallery exhibitions on the Upper East Side, drawings by Old Masters receive fresh audiences—and new owners. Founded by Italian art specialist Margot Gordon, Master Drawings New York originated 11 years ago as a stateside iteration of an annual summer showing in London. Gordon partnered with art dealer Crispian Riley-Smith, who started the London series, to bring a similar show to New York. Master Drawings opens with a preview on Jan. 22, followed by a week of open galleries

from Jan. 23-30, with most exhibits located off a 20-block stretch of Madison Avenue. Participants include local Upper East Side galleries such as Kraushaar Galleries on E. 71st Street, and many visiting galleries and private dealers from New York and abroad, which borrow gallery spaces for their shows. “Drawings are so interesting because they are in many cases the first thoughts of the artist, the first intense initial thoughts and you see the artist’s way of thinking,” said Gordon, who will share a gallery space with Riley-Smith for her exhibition of figurative work. “They’re very intimate to look at and they’re intimate in the sense that they’re close to the artist.” Pieces on view date from the early 16th century to the late

20th century, and contemporary art is well-represented, with many dealers covering multiple periods. Mireille Mosler, whose gallery on E. 67th Street usually opens by appointment only, exhibits five centuries of work from the Netherlands, including Jacob Marrel’s 1638 work “Study of the Gery Tulip.” “A lot of Old Master dealers have also ventured further into the earlier and later 20th century,” said Gordon. “It’s a little more difficult to find Old Master material.” Pia Gallo, who operates on E. 86th Street near Madison Avenue and was a private dealer for 25 years before opening her own space, marks her fifth year exhibiting with Master Drawings, but was introduced to the weeklong shows as an attendee.

“Usually the exhibitions, they’re not too large or extensive, so one can actually manage and go from one gallery to the next without getting too exhausted, she said. “It’s very easy to get a really good dose of what’s available in drawings from Old Masters through contemporary.” Gallo also exhibits each year at the International Fine Print Dealers Association Print Fair at Park Avenue Armory, a ﬁve-day event that drew 89 exhibitors to its most recent incarnation in November. Both shows introduce her to collectors who aren’t part of her regular clientele of private collectors and museum curators, including those with the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Master Drawings, which co-

incides with Sotheby’s annual auctions of Old Master works and the Winter Antiques Show at Park Avenue Armory, retains a relative intimacy, where exhibitors have time with buyers, and collectors have a full week to absorb the array of work from several centuries and 29 different exhibitors, without paying an entry fee. “It’s really top-notch,” said Gallo, who will show 20thcentury American watercolors and pastels from private collections. “And gives one a taste of what’s out there on the market.” Allan Stone Projects joined as an exhibitor this year. Started by art dealer Allan Stone in 1960, the Chelsea-based gallery, which shows at Jonathan Boos on Madison Avenue, joined in part because Stone’s

history with artists like Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky and Wayne Thiebaud, all on view in the gallery’s exhibition, led to a strong holding of works on paper, and the audience seemed ideal for such pieces, said Bo Joseph, the gallery’s director. Prices va r y drastica lly throughout the exhibitions, as does the notoriety of the artists represented. At Allan Stone Projects’ show, three gouache works by Harry Bowden, a friend of de Kooning, will likely be new to most collectors, Joseph said, and are priced around $2,000 each. In the same exhibition, a pastel still life from the 1970s by Thiebaud could sell for more than $500,000. While drawings can be less costly than paintings by the same artist, some collectors seek them out for their “high degree of mastery and depth,” Joseph said. “Some of the works on paper collectors I know have this almost fighting the good fight type of attitude in their ambitions as collectors,” he said.

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JANUARY 14-20,2016

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ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

FOR THE WEEK BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO OUR ARTS EDITOR

THEATER

LABUTE NEW THEATER FESTIVAL St. Louis Actors’ Studio brings its festival of one-act plays to New York for the ﬁrst time. The six staged works all debuted at previous festivals, including Neil LaBute’s “Kandahar,” about a soldier’s homecoming. LaBute New Theater Festival Jan. 13-Feb. 7 59E59 Theaters 59 E. 59th St., between Park and Madison Avenues Assorted show times Tickets $30 To purchase tickets, visit 59e59.org or call 212-279-4200

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Politics, Money, and Anarchy: Historic House Museums

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14TH, 6:30PM Museum of the City of New York | 1220 Fifth Ave. | 212-534-1672 | mcny.org Ponder the future of historic house museums: while everyone loves them, no one can agree on the best way to preserve them—and historic sites in general. A soothing reception follows the panel discussion. ($16)

Never Surrender: Winston Churchill and Britain’s Decision to Fight Nazi Germany in the Fateful Summer of 1940

TUESDAY, JANUARY 19TH, 6:30PM Mid-Manhattan Library | 455 Fifth Ave. | 212-340-0863 | nypl.org Wrestle with Winston Churchill on a crucial dilemma as historian John Kelly, author of Never Surrender, zeroes in on that tense six-month period. (Free)

Just Announced | Brainwave: Parker Posey + Emma Seppälä

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3RD, 7PM

MUSEUMS

GALLERIES

POLITICS, MONEY, AND ANARCHY: HISTORIC HOUSE MUSEUMS

JAMES DINERSTEIN’S “NEWTOWN CREEK” SERIES AND ALESSANDRO DEL PERO’S “WIRED” SERIES

Tied to its recent exhibition on landmarks preservation and the city’s Landmarks Law, the Museum of the City of New York hosts a discussion about the potential futures of house museums. Moderated by Andrew Dolkart, a professor of historic preservation at Columbia University, panelists include the chief curator of the Newark Museum and other experts. Politics, Money, and Anarchy: Historic House Museums Thursday, Jan. 14 Museum of the City of New York 1220 Fifth Ave., at 103rd Street 6:30 p.m. Tickets $16 To purchase tickets, visit mcny.org or call 212534-1672

DANCE ALISON CHASE/PERFORMANCE Modern dance choreographer Alison Chase and her company debut two new works, including “Tracings,” which references the landscape of Chase’s home on the Maine coast through the movement of her dancers. The company pairs the premieres with two earlier works from the choreographer. Alison Chase/Performance Jan. 14-17 Five Angels Theater 789 Tenth Avenue, near W. 53rd Street Assorted show times Tickets $30 To purchase tickets visit http:// www.eventbrite.com/o/alisonchaseperformance-8617607928 To be included in the Top 5 go to ourtownny.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.

Inspired by Greek sculpture, Brooklyn native James Dinerstein’s ﬂuid, abstract concrete structures evoke the draping of garments. Meanwhile, Alessandro Del Pero’s paintings connect light and dark spaces through graceful curves and coils of wires. James Dinerstein’s “Newtown Creek” Series and Alessandro Del Pero’s “Wired” Series Jan. 14-Feb. 20 Cara Gallery 508 W. 24th St., between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. FREE For more information, visit caragallery-llc.com or call 212-242-0444

FILM THE COEN BROTHERS AT FILM FORUM Ahead of the Feb. 5 release of Joel and Ethan Coen’s newest effort “Hail, Caesar!” Film Forum presents a 15-film retrospective that kicks off with a one-week showing of the brothers’ 1996 film “Fargo.” Along with favorites like “The Big Lebowski” and more recent films “True Grit” and “No Country for Old Men,” the festival also includes earlier films from the pair, including 1984’s “Blood Simple” and 1991’s “Barton Fink.” The Coen Brothers at Film Forum Jan. 22-Feb. 4 Film Forum 209 W. Houston St., near Varick Street Assorted dates and show times Tickets $14 To purchase tickets, visit filmforum.org or call 212-727-8110

Rubin Museum of Art | 150 W. 17th St. | 212-620-5000 | rmanyc.org Actress Parker Posey talks about happiness with neuroscientist Emma Seppälä, author of a scientiﬁc look at the emotion called The Happiness Track. A book signing will follow. ($30)

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

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A PLAY ABOUT A HOTEL ... IN A HOTEL PERFORMANCE ‘Insignificance’ is the latest in a wave of immersive plays in New York BY MARK KENNEDY

A play that imagines what it might have been like had Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Joe DiMaggio and Sen. Joe McCarthy met in a hotel room in 1953 will make its New York debut next month -- in a hotel room. The innovative theater company Defibrillator, based in Britain, will present Terry Johnson’s “Insignificance” in a suite at the five-star Langham Place in midtown Manhattan. Previews begin Feb. 19. “It’s a really exciting way to create theater,” said Defibrillator artistic director James Hillier, who will direct

STATE OF THE DISTRICT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 the neighborhood to draw the line on billionaires row at residential neighborhoods,” he said. “Integral to this community effort are Herndon Werth, the ‘Sage of Sutton,’ and Charles Fernandez, who have rejected buyouts and resisted harassment, and stayed in their apartments, saying the light and air and history of our neighborhood are too important to demolish for a superscraper.” Kallos said all of these campaigns, whether they’re local or citywide, “are meant to address the issues that you have brought me and my team.”

the play in New York. “When it comes to storytelling, you can tell stories in lots and lots of different places.” The play is the latest in a wave of immersive or site-specific theater in New York, including “Sleep No More,” a mask-filled, genre-bending show that mixes film noir and “Macbeth,” as well as the show “Queen of the Night,” a nightclub-opera-circus at the Paramount Hotel in Times Square. “The opportunities have opened up now and you don’t have to be in a more formal theatrical environment that’s set up specifically just to do that role,” Hillier said. “I think it just broadens the horizon and shows that theater is a very broad church.” “Insignificance,” which premiered in 1982 at the Royal Court in London, was made into a 1985 film by director Nicolas Roeg, starring Michael Emil, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey and Tony But, Kallos noted, the best is yet to come. He said he plans, as chair of the Committee on Governmental Operations, to continue to focus on improving democracy, transparency, and increasing access to government resources. Kallos touted legislation he’s sponsoring that would provide government benefits to everybody who qualifies automatically, with no application or renewal required, using information the government already has to increase efficiency and reduce bureaucracy. Kallos’ said in the meantime his office can already help residents get the benefits they’re entitled through

Curtis. It never had a professional New York premiere. “He’s got a brilliantly British take on these very American people, which I think offers a humorous, sometimes quite wry take on America and its position at the heights of its power,” said Hillier. Johnson also wrote and directed Broadway’s “The Graduate” and won a Tony Award directing “La Cage aux Folles” with Kelsey Grammer. He also directed “End of the Rainbow” with Tracie Bennett. The latest cast of “Insigniﬁcance” at the hotel will star Max Baker, Anthony Comis, Susannah Hoffman and Michael Pemberton. Tickets range from $49 to $125. Audiences -- as many as 60 people might be accommodated per showing -- will check in at a box office in the lobby on Fifth Avenue and then be taken to the fifth floor and into a spacious hotel room designed to evoke 1953. Nearby will be a room converted into a bar offering drinks and entertainment of the era. “Already, you’re having a really exciting experience. Already, you’re out of your comfort zone. You’re excited,” said Hillier. “What I really love is that feeling you had when you were on a school trip when you were a kid. You a 25-minute screening process at his office or online at nyc.gov/ACCESSNYC. “Whether or not you have a title, all of us in this room are leaders in some aspect of this neighborhood and city,” concluded Kallos. “Whether on the community board, your neighborhood association, your building, your PTA, or in your home, your experience and expertise in our community can bring value to the rest of us. Thank you for your partnership and I hope to see you over the next year as we work to make the Fifth Council District and New York City an even better place to live.”

JANUARY 14-20,2016 Midtown’s Lanhgam hotel, where the play will take place

all got on a bus at the same time and you get taken the Natural History Museum? It’s like, `Wow, this is great!’” Deﬁbrillator, established in 2011, focuses on narrative-driven theater but tries to make the experience richer with immersive elements. It has done shows like this before, presenting “The Hotel Plays” by Tennessee Williams in 2012 at the Grange Hotel and in 2014 at The Langham hotel in Lon-

MEDICAL MARIJUANA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “This is a medication. This is a serious opportunity to treat patients who haven’t necessarily found the treatment they need,” said Nicholas Vita, CEO of Columbia Care, the Manhattan dispensary’s operator. New York’s program “is going to be a game-changer for the industry ... because nobody’s going to let anything slip through the cracks.” Almost two decades after California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana, New York lawmakers agreed in June 2014 to a version that sought to balance patient demand with officials’ concerns that the drug could be diverted to recreational use. New York is the only state besides Minnesota to limit medical marijuana to non-smokeable extracts delivered in forms such as capsules, vaporizers and liquids taken orally, and it’s one of few states with a physician training requirement. New York limited its program to 20 dispensaries and a short list of qualified conditions such as cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. Missy Miller, the mother of a 16-yearold with epilepsy that causes multiple seizures per day, lobbied for the law and looked forward to the day when her son could legally try a treatment other patients have reported finding helpful. But that day wasn’t Thursday. Her son’s physician is holding off on taking the required course, and she hasn’t been able to find another doctor who has. “I’m extremely frustrated, and I’m heartbroken,” said Miller, of Atlantic

don. “We want the experience to be enriched. So, because they’ve had a taste of what life was like in the 1950s when they walk into that room, they feel a little bit more how those characters feel.” Hillier said. “They empathize with them a little bit more than they would if they just walked in cold off the street into a traditional theater.”

Beach. “I’m sick over it, that we’re still waiting.” The state Department of Health says nearly 150 physicians statewide are ready to recommend medical pot, but the agency hasn’t released their names, though it has pledged to do so. Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said this week the implementation timeline was “extremely ambitious” and noted the state was meeting it. When the law passed, it faced some concerns from addiction experts and uncertainty in the medical community. As medical director for dispensary operator Vireo Health of New York, Dr. Stephen Dahmer knows medical pot is a question mark for some MDs. Medical research on marijuana has been somewhat constrained by the drug’s illegality under federal law. “Our hope, with Vireo Health, is to improve that evidence base,” he said at a dispensary in suburban White Plains also opened Thursday. Some medical marijuana advocates say that by barring patients from the familiar practice of smoking the drug, New York may make it more difficult for them to know how much is enough. To Dahmer and others at Vireo, however, the extracts offer exactitude in what patients are consuming. “We’re not going to be selling joints. We’re not going to be selling pot brownies,” said CEO Ari Hoffnung, who argues New York’s strictures can make some patients more comfortable with medical pot. In many cases, he said, “grandmothers don’t want to walk into a dispensary and be told by a 27-year-old bud tender that they should buy an AK-47 joint.”

JANUARY 14-20,2016

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RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS DEC 2 , 2015 - JAN 7, 2016

OUTREACH PHYSICAL AND OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY AND SPEECH REHABILITATION, PLLC

The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygieneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml. Bistro Citron

473 Columbus Avenue A

Bustan

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Grill 212

212 West 80 Street

Macaron Parlour

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The Parlour

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Grade Pending (20) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food and/or non-food areas. 2) Filth ďŹ&#x201A;ies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) ďŹ&#x201A;ies present in facilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food and/or non-food areas. Filth ďŹ&#x201A;ies include house ďŹ&#x201A;ies, little house ďŹ&#x201A;ies, blow ďŹ&#x201A;ies, bottle ďŹ&#x201A;ies and ďŹ&#x201A;esh ďŹ&#x201A;ies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated ďŹ&#x201A;ies include fruit ďŹ&#x201A;ies, drain ďŹ&#x201A;ies and Phorid ďŹ&#x201A;ies. 3) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. 4) Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

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1110 2nd Avenue( between 58th and 59th street: Northeast corner on 58th) 1IPOF t FNBJM info@outreach-rehab.com website: www.outreach-rehab.com

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Grade Pending (19) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food and/or non-food areas. 2) Filth ďŹ&#x201A;ies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) ďŹ&#x201A;ies present in facilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food and/or non-food areas. Filth ďŹ&#x201A;ies include house ďŹ&#x201A;ies, little house ďŹ&#x201A;ies, blow ďŹ&#x201A;ies, bottle ďŹ&#x201A;ies and ďŹ&#x201A;esh ďŹ&#x201A;ies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated ďŹ&#x201A;ies include fruit ďŹ&#x201A;ies, drain ďŹ&#x201A;ies and Phorid ďŹ&#x201A;ies. 3) Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

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JANUARY 14-20,2016

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YOUR 15 MINUTES

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

THE GIFT OF SOUND AND VISION A conductor forges a connection between orchestra and audience BY ANGELA BARBUTI

Gregory Singer was destined for a musical life. The son of two musicians — his father was a violinist and a conductor; his mother is a pianist — he began playing the violin as soon as he was big enough to hold it. Although he admits that in his younger years he didn’t always enjoy practicing and the formality of a school setting, now he ﬁnds solace in music. In fact, he created his own orchestra, Manhattan Symphonie, to share his and other musicians’ talents. “There’s so much ugliness and violence in the world that I really dreamed to have an orchestra that could bring attention to certain causes and share the beauty of life and counteract a lot of the negativity,” he explained. Singer, who also owns a high-end violin shop on the Upper West Side, transitioned from playing to conducting after realizing he was most himself when at the podium. As the conductor of the Symphonie, who plays their fourth Carnegie Hall concert on February 10 in celebration of the Chinese New Year, he said, “I like to break down the fourth wall and talk to the audience. I feel like a lightning rod right in the middle of the audience and the orchestra.”

You grew up in a home where your parents were both musicians. When did they notice your musical talents? My mother is a pianist and she still plays the piano in her nineties. My father was a great violinist and conductor, so I’m following in his footsteps. When I was very, very little I was always trying to get the violin, but it was too big for me. But my father would always bring it down and put it up to my chin to see if my arms were long enough. He put it back many times because I was not big enough to play it, and finally, one day, it stayed down and was the right size for

me. And I was very happy to be able to start to take lessons.

You studied at Juilliard. What was your experience like there? I personally didn’t like the regimentation of school very much. I enjoyed meeting a lot of the young students who were my age; we played a lot of music. But the experience at Lincoln Center ... the building was rather cold and not so warm. And I didn’t ﬁnd the experience so pleasant. But after running away from classical music for a while, I ran back to it. Now, I realize I can program what music I love the most. I learn new music with new people. I just got back from a two-week tour of China. That was a huge success and a lot of fun. I went to 16 different cities. So music has enriched my life greatly. Now I don’t have to associate it with my teachers or people telling me what to play or how much to practice. To me, music is now a sanctuary.

When did you transition from playing to conducting? About 12 years ago, someone asked if I could conduct a concert for Castle Gardens, a building affiliated with The Fortune Society. It’s sort of like a halfway house for people coming out of prison. I put together a 15- to 20-piece ensemble and conducted with a string orchestra and really enjoyed the communication and having the orchestra as my instrument. And then a few years later, someone asked me if I would accompany them in a Beethoven violin concerto and I did that at Weill Recital Hall. So my real debut came at Carnegie Hall and I really loved it. And then I began to remember all the years I spent watching my father’s rehearsals and concerts, and all the music came rushing back to me. And I suddenly realized it. And as a friend once told me, I was meant to be at the podium. I am the most focused and relaxed and it seems like that’s where I am the most comfortable.

Tell us about the musicians who

play in the Manhattan Symphonie. The members are really terrific. I sort of auditioned them over a 10-year period. The main thing I look for is attitude in addition to loving to make great music. So I collected musicians from the Lincoln Center Orchestra, virtuosos from the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music and The Juilliard School, and other professional musicians from around the city. So they’re young and old. I have some players as old as their late 80s and some young players as young as 17 and 18 years old.

Tell us about your violin shop, Gregory Singer Fine Violins. What is the atmosphere like there? It’s very quaint. It’s like a 19th century shop. We deal primarily with high-end violins though, so we’re not necessarily for beginner violin players. We’re selling Stradivarius and eighteen-century violins that are worth quite a lot of money.

How do you balance conducting with running the store? I spend about four or ﬁve days a week at the store. I don’t study music at the store. After five o’clock I study the music I’m preparing for the concerts in the evening. I meet musicians at the store all the time, so sometimes I’m auditioning new players for the orchestra. We play string quartets here sometimes. I get to play music with musicians who come to visit. People come from Europe and Asia to look at violins and talk about their recent concerts. And that’s how I meet people and sometimes select my soloists for the tours. The orchestra is on the web at www. manhattansymphonie.com and the violin shop at visit www.singerviolins. com

Know somebody who deserves their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to ourtownny.com and click on submit a press release or announcement. Gregory Singer conducting the Manhattan Symphonie. Photo: David Usui.

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“I WISH SOMEONE WOULD HELP THAT HOMELESS MAN.”

BE THE SOMEONE. Sam New York Cares Volunteer

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

JANUARY 14-20,2016

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N e w Yo r k S t a t e I n v i t e s Yo u To The Amer ican Hockey League New York State is home to five AHL teams, built on intense rivalries. And this season, New York will be the home of the American Hockey League’s marquee event when the Syracuse Crunch host the 2016 Toyota AHL All-Star Classic on January 31 and February 1.

2016 TOYOTA AHL ALL-STAR CLASSIC Syracuse, Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 See the top young talent in the American Hockey League! The fun kicks off with the All-Star Skills Competition Sunday night with All-Stars from the Eastern Conference squaring off against All-Stars from the Western Conference in seven skills events. The All-Star Challenge follows Monday night when the AHL’s All-Stars will be divided into four teams, one representing each of the league’s divisions (Atlantic, North, Central, Pacific).

The rosters feature 38 first-time AHL AllStars, nine rookies and 10 former first-round draft choices, including standouts William Nylander of the Toronto Marlies, Michael McCarron of the St. John’s IceCaps, Nick Ritchie of the San Diego Gulls and Mikko Rantanen of the San Antonio Rampage. In addition, 23 of the All-Stars named have appeared in the National Hockey League already this season. P.K. Subban and Mats Zuccarello.

Here’s a schedule of New York State’s teams so you can experience the fast paced action of live AHL Hockey! ALBANY DEVILS Fri 1/22/16 7:00 PM vs. St. John’s Sat 1/23/16 2:00 PM vs. St. John’s Fri 1/29/16 7:00 PM vs. Utica Sat 2/13/16 5:00 PM vs. Rochester Wed 2/24/16 7:00 PM vs. St. John’s BINGHAMTON SENATORS Sat 1/16/16 7:05 PM vs. Rochester Sat 1/23/16 7:05 PM vs. Syracuse Sat 2/6/16 7:05 PM vs. Rochester Sat 2/13/16 5:00 PM vs. Syracuse Fri 2/19/16 7:05 PM vs. St. John’s

Sat 2/20/16 7:05 PM vs. St. John’s Sun 2/28/16 5:05 PM vs. Syracuse ROCHESTER AMERICANS Fri 1/15/16 7:05 PM vs. Binghamton Mon 1/18/16 3:05 PM vs. Syracuse Wed 1/27/16 7:05 PM vs. Syracuse Fri 1/29/16 7:05 PM vs. Binghamton Fri 2/12/16 7:05 PM vs. Albany

SYRACUSE CRUNCH Fri 1/15/16 7:00 PM vs. Utica Fri 2/5/16 7:00 PM vs. Rochester

Wed 2/17/16 7:00 PM vs. St. John’s Fri 2/19/16 7:00 PM vs. Utica Sat 2/20/16 7:00 PM vs. Rochester Fri 2/26/16 7:00 PM vs. Binghamton Sat 2/27/16 7:00 PM vs. St. John’s

UTICA COMETS Sat 1/16/16 7:00 PM vs. Albany Sat 1/30/16 7:00 PM vs. Rochester Fri 2/12/16 7:00 PM vs. Binghamton Sat 2/20/16 7:00 PM vs. Albany Fri 2/26/16 7:00 PM vs. St. John’s