Our Town - January 24, 2019

The local paper for the Upper East Side THE ART AND LIFE OF A POLYMATH ◄ P.12

WEEK OF JANUARY

24-30 2019

RALLYING FOR A REMNANT PRESERVATION Upper East Siders scramble to keep the vestige of a 19th-century church on view — even as the construction project next door for an elite private school threatens to conceal it forever

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

of community meetings. Using the new strategy, imposed by the Governor and his experts, rehabilitation will move forward with a partial, 15-20-month nights-and-weekends reconstruction.)

While avoiding a full shutdown — that would inconvenience 275,000 daily commuters — is welcome news, there is still a Pandora’s box of outstanding questions: • Will commuters traveling on Monday mornings after a weekend of work be safe from the hazardous chemicals — most importantly silica — from that work?

• Is the new plan better for the longterm stability of the damaged tunnel than the old one?

• How many years will this new approach last? Are we just kicking the rehab can down the road for a decade?

In 10 masses over the past two weekends, there was one subject that the pastor of St. Joseph’s Church on East 87th Street returned to again and again and again and again: The fate of a fragment.

Specifically, the monumental architectural remnant on East 90th Street that survives from the neo-Classical, brick-and-stone chapel of the old St. Joseph’s Orphan Asylum, which was the predecessor of his church.

Father Boniface Ramsey is battling to save it.

His 750-plus parishioners have been informed about it from the pulpit. His Parish Bulletin is publishing and disseminating articles about it.

He’s trying to enlist the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in his bid to preserve it. And the community has now begun to rally to Ramsey’s cause.

Built in 1898 to serve the orphanage, which was founded in 1857, the church was deconsecrated in 1918, and its imposing seven-story, entry facade has miraculously endured through two conversions over a century.

Now, it is endangered as never before: The remnant is spectacularly embedded into the 12-story condominium building at 402 East 90th St. — and it stands sentinel over a

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

Photo: Mike Steele, via flickr

THE L-TRAIN UN-SHUTDOWN VIEWPOINT The Manhattan Borough President calls for an independent review of “a Pandora’s box of outstanding questions”

BY GALE A. BREWER

The L-train un-shutdown has been a particularly gripping early story of 2019, one that’s brought more intrigue than an episode of “Law and Order.”

(If you haven’t heard, Gov. Cuomo called in academic engineering experts late last year and settled on an alternate rehabilitation plan for the L train Canarsie tunnels, one that won’t necessitate a full shutdown of those tunnels — which had been deemed essential by the MTA and its engineers and consultants for years, and whose effects had been debated and planned for during untold hours

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Father Boniface Ramsey, the pastor of St. Joseph’s Church on East 87th Street, is helping to spearhead the fight to save an eye-catching vestige of an old chapel on the site of a Catholic orphanage on 90th Street that was the predecessor of his church.

Photo courtesy of St. Joseph’s Church

The community will be watching.”

East Side Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright

14 16 17 21

Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset.

Friday, January 25th – 4:47 pm.

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JANUARY 24-30,2019

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EARLY FOOD STAMP BENEFITS DUE TO SHUTDOWN GOVERNMENT February SNAP payments issued early but have to last through end of next month

BY LESLIE GERSING

Most food stamp beneďŹ ts for February became available on Thursday, January 17, as a result of the federal government shutdown, worrying New York City and state officials that the money will be spent too quickly to last through next month. They’re not even sure March beneďŹ ts will be paid out at all.

State and City officials warn that the 2.7 million New Yorkers who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneďŹ ts, or SNAP, could get their electronic payment ahead of schedule, mistake it as a bonus, and use it up all at once. “New Yorkers receiving their February SNAP beneďŹ ts early need to carefully plan their food budgets as this will need to last through the entire month,â€? said Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Commissioner Samuel D. Roberts in a January 14 press release and on Facebook. OTDA also published a list of questions and

are refilled as late as the second week of the month, based on the last QUESTIONS ABOUT digit of the client’s case number. Even if the shutSNAP BENEFITS? down ends next month, NYC Human Resources and March payments arAdministration (HRA) rive as scheduled, FebruCall: 311 or HRA’s Infoline at ary’s benefits may have 718-557-1399 or to last “potentially six, or Visit: nyc.gov/hra as many as seven weeks, For frequently asked whereas most people are questions: otda.ny.gov/ used to four,â€? says Sherry share/Shutdown-SNAPTomasky, communicaQuestions-Answers.pdf tions director at Hunger Solutions NY, an advoCase managers help with SNAP and other beneďŹ ts at the New York Common Pantry. Photo courtesy of the New York Common Pantry cacy organization based in Albany.

New York State’s OTDA has no inforanswers about how the shutdown af- able to continue to put food on the table,â€? said Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Of- mation from Washington about SNAP fects SNAP. beneďŹ ts for March, says a spokesman, About 1.6 million low-income New ďŹ ce on Twitter.

SNAP case managers at the New who referred that question to the parYork City residents, including families, seniors and people with disabili- York Common Pantry in East Harlem tially-shuttered USDA. “We will conties, rely on SNAP. More than a third are telling clients they must make the tinue to work closely with the federal of the households getting SNAP, have benefits last until March. But that’s government during the shutdown,â€? children. The state says NYC residents highly unlikely, says Muhammad Al- and provide updates when available, who do not get their February beneďŹ ts Amin, the agency’s Director of Social he said.

But last Thursday, Jan. 17, Mayor de early will receive them next month on Services. “First of all, that monthly allotment is usually not enough to Blasio warned of a “full blown crisis� their regularly scheduled day. “We are in the longest federal shut- cover food expenses, so that’s always if the shutdown continues. Beginning down, but New Yorkers who use SNAP challenging,� he says. “And now you’re in March, the City will lose a half bilbenefits don’t need to worry. SNAP asking people to stretch it out even lion dollars a month in direct support for New Yorkers, including the City’s is funded through February, so hun- longer. That would be a tough go.�

In New York City, SNAP beneďŹ t cards SNAP beneficiaries, school children dreds of thousands of people will be

and seniors. “We’re watching as the federal government starts to starve its people,� de Blasio said.

Right now, the USDA has about $3 billion left that it could use toward March’s SNAP beneďŹ ts, less than twothirds of the monthly $4.8 billion cost, not including expenses USDA pays the states to administer the program.

Some hunger-relief advocates say the shutdown could result in reduced SNAP beneďŹ ts for the nearly 39 million beneďŹ ciaries nationwide.

That would also have a ripple-effect on the places where New Yorkers buy food, including many independent groceries and convenience stores.

Every dollar of SNAP generates about $1.70 in economic activity, says Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks across the country.

To make matters worse, more than 2,500 stores nationwide failed to get their applications and recertiďŹ cation to accept SNAP when the shutdown started. They cannot serve customers who pay with SNAP. Meanwhile, the New York Common Pantry has opened its doors to furloughed and unpaid federal workers affected by the shutdown. It has already served 13 workers, with 27 family members, in all.

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG INTRUDER IN THE NIGHT

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th precinct for the week ending Jan 13

An Upper East Side resident had a frightening encounter with an intruder in her apartment. At 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 15, a 31-year-old woman was inside her bedroom in her apartment on East 89th St. when she heard sounds in the living room. She opened her bedroom door and saw a tall man in her apartment, near a window by the fire escape. She screamed and yelled, “I’m calling the cops!” before running back in the bedroom, closing the door and locking it behind her.

When she went back to the living room about ten minutes later the man was gone. There were no signs of forced entry and nothing had been taken.

Week to Date

TEENS MUG NEWSSTAND EMPLOYEE On Wednesday evening, Jan. 9, a 58-year-old man was working at a newsstand on East 86th St. when five teenage boys approached and struck him on his left arm in an attempt to take his phone. The teens then fled westbound on an M86 bus. Fortunately, the victim suffered no injuries, and no weapons were displayed. The thieves got away with a cell phone case valued at $40.

Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr

A PARK AVENUE PUNCH? The driver of a luxury car has been accused of losing her cool at the corner of Park Ave. and East 51st ST. A 49-year-old woman told police that, on the morning of Jan. 14, she got into a verbal dispute with a woman who was driving a white Mercedes Benz.

The accuser said the Mercedes driver got out of the vehicle and hit her on the bridge of her nose. The victim left the scene and flagged down a police officer at Sixth Ave. and West 55th St. She complained of pain but showed no visible injuries and declined medical attention.

Year to Date

2019 2018

% Change 2019

2018

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

0

0

n/a

Rape

2

0

n/a

2

0

n/a

Robbery

3

5

-40.0

4

8

-50.0

Felony Assault

2

3

-33.3

5

7

-28.6

Burglary

11

6

83.3

14

10

40.0

Grand Larceny

31

40

-22.5

61

61

0.0

Grand Larceny Auto

0

1

-100.0 0

1

-100.0

FUNNY MONEY PIZZA PLOY

D’OH!

Police said a lot of counterfeit $100 bills are turning up these days. In one incident, around 11 p.m on Thursday, Jan. 10, a delivery man for Ray’s Pizza brought a pie to a customer standing on East 61st St. between Park and Lexington Aves. The customer paid for the pie using what turned out to be a fake $100 bill. Police discovered that the phone the man used to order the pizza had also been used in a previous case of petit larceny in the 17th precinct.

If you leave a flat-screen TV in your car and forget to lock the vehicle, odds are the TV won’t be there when you return. On Friday afternoon, Jan. 11, a 50-year-old man parked his car in front of 253 East 82nd St. When he returned at 8:45 a.m. on Sunday morning, Jan. 13, he discovered that the TV was missing from the car. The car suffered no damage, and the victim told police he had probably left it unlocked.

The stolen TV was a 43-inch TCL 4K flat-screen set valued at $250.

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JANUARY 24-30,2019

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POLICE NYPD 19th Precinct

153 E. 67th St.

212-452-0600

159 E. 85th St.

311

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STATE LEGISLATORS State Sen. Jose M. Serrano

1916 Park Ave. #202

212-828-5829

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1850 Second Ave.

212-490-9535

Assembly Member Dan Quart

360 E. 57th St.

212-605-0937

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1485 York Ave.

212-288-4607

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Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer (center) with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney and other elected officials in Brooklyn on Sunday, Jan. 6 to call for greater transparency in new L train plans. Photo courtesy of Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer

L-TRAIN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 • What will become of the mitigation transportation options that the city Department of Transportation (DOT) and MTA jointly planned?

With such a fast, 180-degree change of plans, it’s no wonder that the public might be confused about who to trust — even as those who use or otherwise depend on the L train are relieved that an un-shutdown is happening.

That’s why we need an independent evaluation of this new plan before moving forward (along with a review of all previous scenarios that the MTA had considered). It’s all the more necessary now that the MTA has decided the Board does not need to vote on a contract for the new tunnel rehab plan (or debate the specifics) because it’s estimated to cost the same as the old one.

I agree with the Governor when he describes the MTA as operating within a “Trans-

portation Industrial Complex.�

There are consultants upon consultants upon consultants — many of whom are former MTA staff — who review plans, and review the reviews of plans. It’s a circular, time-andmoney consuming pattern.

But “bigfootingâ€? the old plan doesn’t guarantee success. So an independent review, conducted by a vendor who’s had nothing to do with previous plans and selected by the MTA board, is the best way to inspire trust in the ďŹ nal approach chosen (even though it will take a bit more time and money).

In addition to an independent review, we should go ahead and adopt many of the plans the MTA, DOT and local stakeholders prepared to mitigate the L train closure in Manhattan because they’re smart transit policy anyway and because they’ll be needed during the more limited L train closures.

We should implement Select Bus Service on 14th Street — along with a dedicated bus lane or Busway — to increase crosstown travel speeds beyond

that of a pedestrian walking.

We should keep protected bike lanes on 12th, 13th and Delancey Streets further enhancing the Manhattan bike network.

And we should explore other components of the plan worth keeping such as expanded pedestrian space around Union Square. I’m grateful that NYCT President Andy Byford has promised to move forward with ADA elevators at 1st and Sixth Avenue L stations.

Just like an episode of “Law and Order,� the L train situation has a larger societal villain at work: climate change.

Without the once-in-a-generation Superstorm Sandy, we wouldn’t have had this wakeup call and found ourselves in this predicament.

The best way for us to upend this villain is to repair the tunnels in a lasting way — as certiďŹ ed by an independent review — and permanently install climate friendly transportation solutions like better bus service and safer cycling.

Eastsider

TELL US ABOUT SOMEONE Making A Difference in the Neighborhood Each year Our Town recognizes East Siders making a difference in the neighborhood with an OTTY (Our Town Thanks You) Award.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS: who should we highlight and interview about their work in the neighborhood? Who’s making a difference?

Please send your nominations to comm.engage@strausnews.com or call 212-868-0190 and ask for Aija

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JANUARY 24-30,2019

THE PRIEST WHO WOKE THE WEST SIDE ACTIVISM As his birth centenary approaches, pols, preachers, parishioners, neighbors, scholars, loved ones — and comrades-in-arms — prepare to salute a charismatic cleric who championed the disenfranchised

If anybody gets violent tonight and takes off even a flake of paint in this church, I will personally knock his chops off.”

Father Henry J. Browne, April 21, 1970

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

One of the defining moments of oldtime Upper West Side radicalism was the act of bestowing sanctuary on the Rev. Philip Berrigan.

It was the height of the Vietnam War, and the fugitive priest was on the run for burning and pouring blood on draft records in Maryland.

Along with his older brother, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, he had made the cover of Time magazine — and also the FBI’s most-wanted list.

So the younger Berrigan, like so many other anti-war activists, trod a path that led through the old wooden doors of the Church of St. Gregory the Great.

It was there, in the fourth-floor rectory at 144 West 90th St. between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, that Father Henry J. Browne vouchsafed shelter to the fleeing Berrigan.

At one level, this was a high-profile case of one rebel priest offering refuge to another with risks for both clerics.

But as it turns out, this wasn’t the only time that Browne, who was born in a West 35th Street tenement in Hell’s Kitchen in 1919, had provided safe haven. He’d done so many times before. And would do it again. In his vision of the priestly calling, it was all in a day’s work: “The rectory was an aerie with a vast collection of books high above the street — and it made the perfect safe house,” said Flavia Alaya, a feminist scholar, author and professor, who shared a secret life with Browne. “He would use it to protect draft-dodgers and to house people escaping to Canada.”

Among the worshippers at St. Gregory’s, where he served as pastor, associate pastor and resident between 1958 and 1970, it was a truism that Browne was indeed a “man for all seasons.”

They only knew half the story.

A pioneer in the Catholic social-justice movement and a founder in 1959 of the Strycker’s Bay Neighborhood Council, he was a crusader for peace, civil rights, tenants’ rights and affordable housing.

He was also a dynamic preacher, consummate flirt and spinner of yarns in the best Irish-American tradition, whose salty language often seemed to befit a longshoreman more than a priest.

Father Henry J. Browne, in 1969 or 1970, on the steps of the garden apartment in New Jersey he shared with the mother of his three children. The activist priest who crusaded for the poor and disenfranchised on the West Side had a secret life with a hidden family. Photo courtesy of Flavia Alaya It is this colorful legacy that will be celebrated on Saturday, Jan. 26 in “Cider, Donuts and Memories,” the first of two major community events marking the 100th anniversary of Browne’s birth. He died of leukemia in 1980 at the age of 61.

Presented by Strycker’s Bay, in the community room at 66 West 94th St. between 2 and 5 p.m., it’s billed as an informal reunion in which neighbors and parishioners will share their personal stories about his life, causes and indelible impact on the neighborhood he loved.

An audio-visual record will be created, and the stories, narratives and historical memories could figure in a larger centenary event on June 19, “An Appreciation of Activism on the Upper West Side,” which will focus on his life and times in the late 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.

“He was a priest, an academic, a scholar and an intellectual — but he could quickly code-switch to talk to Ms. Suarez, Ms. Jenkins or anybody else in need and help solve their problems by calling lawyers, housing officials, commissioners and elected officials,” said Kelley Williams, executive

director of Strycker’s Bay since 1985.

URBAN RENEWAL VS. URBAN REMOVAL One of Browne’s signature triumphs was a fight over the West Side Urban Renewal Area — a 20-square block tract bounded by 87th and 97th Street and Amsterdam Avenue and Central Park West — which the city had earmarked for wholesale demolition and rehabilitation in the late 1950s.

“He believed urban renewal would mean urban removal for folks living in the brownstone rooming houses, which were then on the side streets, and in the tenements on Columbus Avenue, which were left over from the old Ninth Avenue El,” said Karen Jorgensen a former executive director at Strycker’s and parishioner at St. Gregory’s.

After a years-long battle, a coalition led by Browne extracted a pledge in 1962 from Mayor Robert F. Wagner to up his commitment to low-income housing units — from a mere 400 in the original plan to 2,500. Luxury units were slashed from 5,000 to 1,300.

“You didn’t mess with him,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale

Brewer. “He was a big tall man with a big beard and a big voice, and he was bigger than life.”

To this day, she said, the West Side boasts 14 New York City Housing Authority brownstones and 30-plus lowincome co-ops that wouldn’t exist if not for Browne.

“They would have gone to the highest bidder,” Brewer said. “He knew how to bring people together, and I can still see him leading the charge.”

An element of self-preservation entered the calculus: “Urban renewal was threatening to eviscerate his parish because the old Irish members and the new Puerto Rican members would have been displaced on a mass scale to make way for upper-income housing,” Alaya said.

So Browne pushed back against moneyed interests. “There was something bubbling up from the streets that was going to become the ‘60s,” she said.

“There was already a lot of political activism around the civil rights movement and the beginning of the feminist movement — and there were so many red-diaper babies living on the West Side it was bound to become a leftist energy center ... He was there waiting for an opportunity, and it presented itself,” she added.

No searching examination of that turbulent period can omit this simple truth: Father Browne was all too human.

As Commonweal Magazine wrote in 2004, referring both to his private life and the mid-1960s reforms stemming from Vatican II, “If the Latin Mass and fish on Friday could be done away with, why not, many asked, priestly celibacy as well?”

The church, of course, begged to differ. But that didn’t stop Browne and Alaya, 16 years his junior, from meeting and falling in love when they were both on Fulbright scholarships in Perugia, Italy, a tale she recounts in her 1999 memoir, “Under the Rose.”

He went on to pursue a secret life with a hidden family — two boys and a girl living with their mother in Ridgefield, N.J. — that he saw when he could slip away from his duties at St. Gregory’s.

Yes, he’d broken his priestly vows.

But the miracles he wrought on the UWS still pertain: “He had a role in helping shape the West Side as a more diverse, tolerant and culturally interesting place,” said Chris Browne, the second of his three children and a Brooklyn resident. ““He’s been gone now for 38 years. Yet we’re still talking about his work and life and legacy.”

So whatever happened to Philip Berrigan? On April 21, 1970, hours before a planned peace rally at St. Gregory’s where he was expected to turn himself in, FBI agents raided the rectory, broke a locked door and arrested the concealed priest.

Browne wasn’t pleased, but he told the feds they were always welcome in his church. And should they wish to return, he gave them the hours of Sunday masses.

Meanwhile, the anti-war militants gathered inside St. Gregory’s were restive. The priest quickly calmed them down. “If anybody gets violent tonight and takes off even a flake of paint in this church, I will personally knock his chops off,” he said. invreporter@strausnews.com

Father Henry J. Browne (at left) with Mayor Robert F. Wagner (center) in an undated photo from the early 1960s. The priest, a fiery advocate for affordable housing on the Upper West Side, forged a deal with the mayor to save thousands of units of lowincome housing. Photo courtesy of Flavia Alaya

JANUARY 24-30,2019

7

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WEST SIDE TOWER CUT DOWN TO SIZE DEVELOPMENT City to revoke permits for 775foot condo building on West 66th Street

BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM

In a victory for opponents of what would be the tallest building in Manhattan north of 59th Street, the city Department of Buildings has reversed course and issued a notice that it intends to revoke the building permits for a controversial condo tower at 50 West 66th Street.

In the notice, DOB states that the 160-foot-tall mechanical void included in plans for a new 775-foot tower violates the city zoning regulations. (Mechanical voids are areas used for mechanical equipment and do not count toward the floor area totals that govern permissible building heights.) Extell Development, the group behind the project, may still move ahead with its approved plans for a 25-story development at the site. The company has 15 days to appeal the DOB’s decision to revoke.

The Extell tower is one of the latest Manhattan projects to face opposition from land-use advocates and local residents.

These critics argue that developers, with DOB approval, have relied on loopholes in the building codes to build ever-higher luxury residential buildings — with equally steep price tags — which do not fit within the scale or architectural context of the neighborhoods.

The department’s decision comes as a welcome surprise to the opposition forces; in November, the DOB denied a zoning challenge to the Extell project that focused on the mechanical void and public safety filed by Landmark West!, a land-use and neighborhood preservationist nonprofit, and residents of a neighboring coop building at 10 West 66th St. Sean Khorsandi, the executive director of Landmark West!, said the department’s decision was good news, but questioned why DOB twice gave their approval to the project only to now change its mind. “The mechanical void is

Construction underway at 50 West 66th Street. Photo: Courtesy of Chris Giordano not serving any purpose other than making the apartments above it more valuable; so the question is now: why was it allowed to get to this point?”

Andrew Rudansky, DOB’s Senior Deputy Press Secretary, said the department sent the developer their letter to revoke following an audit of the building plans and found that a void of the proposed size is not typically found in residential buildings. “In addition, we have raised objections, which the developer has not addressed, that occupants of the building may not be able to get from one emergency stairway to the other, as is required, within the proposed void,” he said.

Extell did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer celebrated the department’s reversal Thursday morning. “From the beginning, I have opposed the developer’s decision to use a monstrous 160-foot void to boost the number of condos with views — and boost sale prices — while robbing the community of sunlight and air,” she said in a statement.

“This is a victory not only for the Upper West Side, but for communities all over the city that find themselves outgunned by developers who try to bend or break zoning rules for massive private profit.”

City Council Member Helen Rosenthal called the notice a “critical first step in the process to overhaul the City’s approach to mechanical voids and ‘super-talls.’”

“We are very pleased that the administration is taking this issue so seriously,” she said in a statement. “New York City’s Zoning Resolution needs to be updated so that there is a comprehensive approach to the use of mechanical voids across the borough which puts neighborhood context and public safety first.”

Khorsandi said the issue is far from settled. The DOB could change its mind again if Extell appeals, he said, or Extell could design the building in a different way to make it just as tall as the DOB-rejected plan.

Echoing Rosenthal’s and Brewer’s calls for city-wide reform in the building codes, Khorsandi said Landmark West! is going to continue to put pressure on city officials to curb the use of mechanical voids, atria and amenity sites that aim to skirt regulations.

“We are not against developments. We’re against the loopholes and the abuses of the building codes,” Khorsandi said. “Developers are stretching the limits of what can be approved and they’re doing it now because there’s great profit in it. The limits have never been pushed like this.”

Everything you like about Our Town is now available to be delivered to your mailbox every week in the Eastsider From the very local news of your neighborhood to information about upcoming events and activities, the new home delivered edition of the Eastsiderwill keep you in-the-know.

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JANUARY 24-30,2019

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Voices TOO MANY LAWS, BUT NO CAT

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

figuring out how to find the slot to insert the letter. Takes a few tries. The old mailboxes are being replaced with the new ones in neighborhoods where there has been a high incidence of mail theft by “fishing,” where thieves use sticky substances to trap and then fish out the mail through the snorkel. Can’t happen through the slot.

EAST SIDE OBSERVER

BY ARLENE KAYATT

There ought not to be a law — In these days of raging inequities, inequalities and indecencies, the need to rein it all in is so so tempting. Agreed, but there comes a time when here’s just too too much law. One recent bill proposal comes from now City Council Member Rafael Espinal.

The New York Post reported this past week that Espinal’s “Right to Disconnect” bill is heading for City Council hearings. The bill would prohibit businesses from requiring employees to check emails and all other electronic communications outside the normal workday unless they were contractually obligated to do so. Oy. Please, not another law so legislators can add another bill to their term-limited resumes, add lawsuits to court calendars, and just create another avenue of agita. It seems employees and employers should be working together to resolve this type of work issue without legislation. Unfortunately, lawmakers seeking another office — in Espinal’s case, he’s one of the many many, running for Public Advocate this election cycle — will get exposure for their candidacy with City Council hearings and media attention. Really, what’s law got to do with it?

Reader readback — Some updates/feedback to my last column about the Public Advocate race: Andrea Catsimatidis, president of the Upper East Side’s Metropolitan Republican Club, sent out a release endorsing Staten Island’s Eric Ulrich for Public Advocate, bypassing Met Club member Mike Zumbluskas. Zumbluskas has name recognition on the UES having run for several other offices. Political consultant and West Side Democrat Suzanne Jacobson writes that the “Republican could win the special election as the Dems could fracture the vote. The election is 2/26, which is also the first day of petitioning for the new combined federal and state June 25 election [this year].” Petitions are in. Candidate names on the ballot are not yet known.

Note to ALL registered voters, regardless of party: VOTE. Cat’s out — Chinese New Year 2019 welcomes the Pig and says bye bye to 2018’s Year of the Dog. The Chinese zodiac honors one animal each year in its 12-year cycle of animals — including a rat, an ox, a monkey — but nowhere a cat.

There’s lore and folklore on the whys and wherefores of the missing cat. Some say it’s because cats originally came from Egypt. Others say that the cat jumped over the moon.

Whatever. No cat. So cat people, starting February 5th this year, share Chinese New Year with a cat of your choice and bring home a doggy bag filled with roast pork leftovers.

Gung Hay Fat Choy.

Safer mailboxes — Thanks to the U.S. Postal Service for modifying the design of mailboxes — at least in parts of Manhattan — in order to stave off the spate of mailbox content thefts. The shiny new boxes no longer have pull-down snorkel compartments. Instead, there is now a slot (which is set between a claw-like configuration) that can fit a standard size envelope inserted lengthwise. It’s a little tricky What about me? Photo: Billie Grace Ward, via flickr

HEALTH GIFTS: MANY HAPPYISH RETURNS

BY GAIL EISENBERG

Post-holidays. Meh. Not the most wonderful time of the year, if you’re asking me. We’ve gone from ho, ho, ho back to ho, hum. It’s colder than the North Pole; the sun sets at 4:27; the tryptophan from Thanksgiving is somehow still in our systems, and now we’re knee-deep in a “re-gift or return” conundrum. However, there are some products you — aka a conscientious person — wouldn’t wish on anyone, the ones that have you asking yourself, if it’s the thought that counts, what the hell were my family

and friends thinking?

Should you find one of these under the tree next year, do yourself a favor and just leave it there.

The Talking Scale If you like a little room for error when it comes to flab, fat chance of finding it with the best-ever Talking Scale. Its within .2-lbs.- accuracy leaves zero denying you have a few on Santa, which you do not need to hear at all much less out loud. Also, the scale’s Spanish, German and Croatian translations are rather unwelcome reminders that you’re also dangerously overweight

throughout much of Europe. Bottom line: The Talking Scale needs to zip it.

The Large Readout BMI Calculator All for efficiency; who isn’t? But this two-for-one weight and body mass reader’s results stay lit in one-and-ahalf LED illumination for a full 15 seconds — which is large enough and long enough for the entire neighborhood to see. BMI? More like TMI. No, thank u, next.

make talking scales, why not talking mirrors?) Also, the 8X magnification gives you the world’s closest look at your cavernous pores, aging skin and protruding nose hairs. Toocloseforcomfort don’t you think? Finally, seeing so clearly how your eyebrows have grown together will only make you think about how much you and your beloved have grown apart. Which may lead you to your next return.

The Memory Foam Bed The Mega-magnification Mirror For starters, the mirror doesn’t ask if you’re ready for your close-up. (They

You’re in the holiday spirit (or perhaps possessed by one), and decide to throw a last-minute New Year’s Eve

party. A guest has a few too many, so you insist she sleep it off on the new Memory Foam Bed, which you quickly coin “The Relationship-ending Memory Foam Bed.” Because, as the catalogue description promised, the foam of the three-and-a-half inch deep mattress deftly defines — and remembers — the contours of the houseguest’s body, as well as yours. Entangled.

Together. In a compromising position. You fold yourself up, along with the bed, reach for the leftover eggnog, hoping to forget products that function better than you do.

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JANUARY 24-30,2019

NEIGHBORHOOD’S BEST

RALLYING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 construction pit one plot to the east where the Spence School is building a six-story, 85-foot tall athletic complex.

Community leaders have suggested that Spence erect a glass-curtain wall on the west side of its development site so that the architectural feature can remain on view. So far, the schools hasn’t publicly changed its plans, and when the project is completed, the façade will be totally obscured, perhaps for generations, perhaps forever.

The old Yorkville vestigial wall was the subject of a Page One story — “The Ghostly Remnant� — in the Our Town issue of Jan. 10-16, and on Jan. 12, two days after it was published, Ramsey wrote a letter to Sarah Carroll, the chair of the city’s landmarks agency. “I think that there is merit to preserving the old church facade for view on at least three counts,� the parish priest wrote. “It is a monumental structure — not great architecture, perhaps, but entirely respectable and grand and powerful,� he said.

In addition, it is a “very significant part of Yorkville’s history and heritage� that harkens back to the period, between 1884 and 1918, when the orphanage occupied the entire city block bounded by 89th and 90th Streets and First and York Avenues, Ramsey wrote.

Finally, he added, “It may be unique in the city that such a large piece of architecture has been incorporated into another building and presents such a striking appearance; it is certainly a remarkable curiosity.�

In his letter, Ramsey told Carroll that he was bringing the matter to her attention in hopes that LPC would have a say about keeping the old façade in view.

9

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EDUCATION

DINING

A 1908 photo of the neo-Classical chapel of St. Joseph’s Orphan Asylum that stood on East 90th Street. Its attened facade survives to this day and can still be seen on the block. Photo: Architect and Builders Magazine Vol. X, 1908-1909  And he added, “There are ways of doing so that would be creative and interesting and that would reect well on Spence School.â€?

In a brief statement on Jan. 22, an agency spokesperson said, “The Landmarks Preservation Commission received a request to evaluate the church remnant as a potential landmark and it is currently under review.�

Thus far, two requests for review have been submitted to the LPC. The agency’s standard procedure is to evaluate all requests that come in, even if it’s only one.

Spence, the prestigious allgirls, K-12, college-prep school with 751 students and a $52,050 tuition, did not respond to queries by press time.

Meanwhile, Rachel Levy, executive director of the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, which is researching and documenting the site, noted a “groundswell of interest and passion in the community to find a creative solution� to preserving the artifact. “Friends is working to support

A rendering of a new athletic-and-educational facility that the Spence School is building on East 90th Street. A remnant of a 1898 church that is part of the adjoining wall of the building at right (not visible here) will vanish from sight when the project is completed. Rendering courtesy of the Spence School

and amplify those efforts,â€? she said, adding that the support from Ramsey — whom she called “today’s voice of St. Joseph’s legacy in the neighborhoodâ€? — is particularly compelling. “Friends agrees with those who fervently hope Spence will reconsider the possibilities for incorporating the façade into the new structure,â€? Levy said. “Seen as a whole, the site encompasses several hundred years of New York City history, especially the immigrants who shaped our neighborhoods, and the contributions of philanthropic institutions.â€?

Also weighing in on Tuesday was East Side City Council Member Ben Kallos, who said his office has reached out to Spence in an effort to “see what if any measure can be taken to preserveâ€? the façade. “I hope that if Spence sees a feasible option to preserve the architectural remains, they take it,â€? Kallos added.

In a time of over-building on the East Side, the interested parties should all sit down and seek to forge a solution, suggested state Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, who represents the block. “Historic designations help to preserve the character and integrity of neighborhoods,â€? she said. “Given the striking significance and splendor of the facade amidst the substantial over-development of Yorkville, I am hopeful that the ďŹ ne leadership of Spence, the LPC staff and Father Ramsey will work towards an amicable solution.â€?

And Seawright added, “The community will be watching for such progress with great interest.� invreporter@strausnews.com

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JANUARY 24-30,2019

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Discover the world around the corner.

Find community events, gallery openings, book launches and much more: Go to nycnow.com

EDITOR’S PICK

Fri

25- Sun 27

ANIMATION FIRST 2019 FIAF 22 East 60th St Prices start at $40 fiaf.org 212-355-6100 Join FIAF for their second edition of this wildly successful festival of French animation featuring provocative feature-length films, exciting shorts, immersive exhibits, video game demonstrations, panels with filmmakers, and much more.

Photo: Ralph Hockens, via Flickr

Thu

24 Fri 25

FILM SCREENING: THE PETRIFIED FOREST 96th St Library 112 East 96th St 2:00 p.m. Free In this classic movie, directed

by Archie Mayo, customers and employees at an isolated service station and cafe in the Arizona desert are held hostage by a vicious killer, played by Humphrey Bogart. nypl.org (212) 289-0908

► S.A. CHAKRABORTY ON THE KINGDOM OF COPPER Book Culture 450 Columbus Ave 6:00 p.m. Free Celebrate the launch of The Kingdom of Copper, the second book in the Daevebad Trilogy, with author S.A. Chakraborty. bookculture.com 212-595-1962

Sat

26

▲ HEART OF THE PARK TOUR

Central Park 72nd St and Fifth Ave 2:00 p.m. Free Walk straight through the heart of Central Park on this east-to-west tour led by Central Park Conservancy Guides. Enjoy a great variety of the scenic, sculptural, and architectural elements the park has to offer. centralparknyc.org 212-310-6600

JANUARY 24-30,2019

11

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com The local paper for the Upper East Side

Sun

Advertise with Our Town today!

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Call Vincent Gardino at 212-868-0190

JAZZ OPEN MIC NIGHT Cleopatra’s Needle 2485 Broadway 4:00 p.m. $10 Always wanted to try jazz in front of an audience? Or would you like to relax and listen to some jazz up and comers? Join in the fun at this UWS jazz venue. cleopatrasneedleny.com 212-769-6969

Mon

28

Tue

STEPPENWOLF AND THE NATIONAL THEATRE: DOWNSTATE BY BRUCE NORRIS The Guggenheim 1071 Fifth Ave 7:30 p.m. $45 Following the world premiere at Steppenwolf in Chicago and prior to the London premiere at the National Theatre of Great Britain, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and Steppenwolf ensemble member Bruce Norris

(Clybourne Park) discusses his provocative new play Downstate. Steppenwolf ensemble members, including Glenn Davis, K. Todd Freeman, Francis Guinan, and Tim Hopper, will perform highlights from the play. guggenheim.org 212-423-3500

29

ART TALKS: ALEX KATZ IN CONVERSATION WITH CALVIN TOMKINS AND DODIE KAZANJIAN 92y 1395 Lexington Ave 7:30 p.m. $35 Famous painter Alex Katz will be joined by eminent art historian, writer and New Yorker contributor Calvin Tomkins and author, Vogue contributing editor and New Yorker contributor, Dodie Kazanjian in what promises to be a lively and candid conversation about art and artists through the lens of history, fashion and aesthetics.

92y.org 212-415-5500

Wed

30

OurTownNY.com ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Psychobiography with Dr. Gail Saltz: On Denis Diderot

MONDAY, JANUARY 28TH, 7:30PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org Enlightenment luminary Denis Diderot (1713-1784) helped lay foundations for the modern world.

Wesleyan professor Andrew Curran speaks with psychoanalyst Dr. Gail Saltz on his new biography, which reveals Diderot’s iconoclastic takes on “art, theater, morality, politics, and religion” ($29).

The Poison Squad: Deborah Blum with Maria Konnikova

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30TH, 6:30PM Mid-Manhattan Library | 476 Fifth Ave. | 212-340-0863 | nypl.org

▲ JEWELRY: SEEN AND UNSEEN

Science journalist Deborah Blum tells the story of Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley’s decades-long fight for food safety, culminating in the 1906 Food and Drug Act. She’s joined in conversation by Maria Konnikova, journalist and author of The Confidence Game (free).

The Met 1000 Fifth Ave 11:00 a.m. $30 Join Met curators Kim Benzel and Joanne Pillsbury for a closer look at the context and function of jewelry across time and cultures, from concealed objects used for worship and burial to pieces that were meant to be prominently displayed. metmuseum.org 212-535-7710

Just Announced | Power Within: Yoga and Science

MONDAY, APRIL 1ST, 7PM Rubin Museum of Art | 150 W. 17th St. | 212-620-5000 | rmanyc.org If you’ve ever wondered about the mind-body connection and how exactly yoga works, don’t miss this evening with Deepak Chopra, MD. Chopra will join yoga teacher Eddie Stern for the launch of Stern’s new book, One Simple Thing, and an explanation of how we’re wired ($65, includes book).

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

sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.

12

JANUARY 24-30,2019

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

COVARRUBIAS: THE ART AND LIFE OF A POLYMATH

BY VAL CASTRONOVO

Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1957) was one of the 20th century’s preeminent Mexican artists, arguably best known in the U.S. for his brilliant caricatures and friendship with The Line King himself, Al Hirschfeld, who died in 2003. The two met at a party on West 55th Street in 1924 and became studiomates, first at 110 West 42nd Street and then at the American Radiator Building on West 40th Street.

Almost 100 years after that fateful meeting, Covarrubias is the subject of a handsome, under-the-radar show at Throckmorton Fine Art in midtown, where 60 oil paintings, gouaches, watercolors, drawings and lithographs are on view and on sale, with prices ranging from $1,000 to $325,000. The cache comes from the estate of Rosa Rolanda, Miguel’s wife of 27 years, and the collections of Covarrubias biographer Adriana Williams, gallery president Spencer Throckmorton and art dealer Pablo Goebel.

Hirschfeld may be much better known, but as Throckmorton says, “Covarrubias influenced Hirschfeld to start doing character drawings. He

Miguel Covarrubias and wife, Rosa Rolanda, New York City, 1924. Photo: Courtesy Throckmorton Fine Art

influenced Hirschfeld because he had his own distinctive style, and he kept to it. He never changed it. Miguel was doing it first.”

Hirschfeld said the duo started “a mutual admiration society.” In his book, “The Hirschfeld Century” (2015), David Leopold writes that “Miguel was a natural talent. Al would later say wherever there are pyramids, there is good graphic art.

Mexico’s rich history of graphic art helped to form Miguel’s point of view ... His use of line almost exclusively to model his subjects would become an important ingredient to Hirschfeld’s early style.”

The works on display “cover all the periods that he worked in,” Throckmorton says, “from the Bali series to the Mexican series to the New York series, the Harlem series and his early work here with ‘Negro Drawings,’” his 1927 homage, in book form, to the Harlem Renaissance.

Gallery director Norberto Rivera says of the artist’s modest reputation in the U.S.: “Diego [Rivera] overshadowed him, but he’s coming to light now. We’re noticing a lot more of his works coming up for auction.”

Indeed, one of his most celebrated works, “The Tree of Modern Art — Planted 60 Years Ago” (1933), a genealogical tree of the modern art movement, sold at Sotheby’s recently for $312,000. In 2011, his Bali painting “Offering of Fruits for the Temple” (1932) was auctioned at Christie’s for a record $1,022,500.

Born in Mexico City to an upper middle class family, Covarrubias was a larger than life figure, a polymath who traveled in elite circles and inspired his friends and associates with his enthusiasm for, well, everything.

A gifted draftsman with no formal art training, he was an illustrator, a caricaturist, a painter, an anthropologist, an archaeologist, an art historian, a set designer, a writer, a curator, an educator, a dance choreographer.

Above all, he was a bon vivant who, with his wife Rosa, a dancer and food

IF YOU GO What: Miguel Covarrubias: A Retrospective ...

Where: Throckmorton Fine Art, 145 East 57th Street, Third Floor.

When: Through February 23 www.throckmorton-nyc.com

Flower Vendor, 1940s. Photo: Courtesy Throckmorton Fine Art

FDR, Vanity Fair cover, November 1934. Photo: Courtesy Throckmorton Fine Art

enthusiast, entertained Nelson Rockefeller, John Huston, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Langston Hughes, Dolores del Río and so many more.

The couple knew everybody, and everybody was drawn to them. As Williams writes in her biography “Covarrubias” (1994) about their Mexico City residence, Number Five Calle Reforma: “Many believed this period [1930s and 1940s] was Mexico’s artistic Golden Age, and Number Five served Mexico City’s intellectual and artistic membership as a gathering place, much the way the Algonquin Hotel served New York’s, or Virginia Woolf’s home served London’s, or Gertrude Stein’s did Paris’s.”

In New York, where Miguel arrived in 1923 at age 19, he produced hundreds of caricatures for Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker, Time and Fortune, catering to the smart set with images of celebrities, politicians and influencers like FDR (for a Vanity Fair cover in 1934), critic/photographer Carl Van Vechten, Laurel and Hardy, and a shimmying Josephine Baker. All are on view here, along with a tiny caricature of the artist himself with Rosa.

When Covarrubias married Rosa in 1930, they honeymooned in Bali. The artist became so enchanted with the Indonesian island that he returned in 1933 to further immerse himself in the art, history, religion and folkways of the place, for the purpose of writing a book. “Island of Bali,” an exhaustive text, was published in 1937 and includes 90 drawings and five paintings by the artist. The gallery is featuring around a dozen works from this period.

“He made Bali important. His book was the beginning of tourism for Bali,” Throckmorton says.

Covarrubias spread himself thin, so thin that it may explain why he doesn’t have better name recognition here, Rivera says. After Bali, he delved deeply into the study of Mesoamerican art, with a focus on the Olmecs. His research and drawings led to “Mexico South: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec” (1946), among other authoritative works on native cultures.

In deference to his talent and scholarship, the Museum of Modern Art invited Covarrubias to curate the modern art section of its 1940 landmark show, Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art. As Rivera notes, “He loved to work, he loved to paint, but he also loved to promote everyone else’s work. He shared the limelight and helped bring attention to a lot of artists.” Now it is his turn for some muchdeserved attention.

JANUARY 24-30,2019

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Neighborhood Scrapbook

RINGING THE BELL City Council Member Keith Powers on Jan. 16 entered the company of boxing champs, CEOs, Olympic medalists, game show hosts and stars of major league soccer when he rang the opening bell of the NASDAQ in Times Square, which is part of his district.

“As a lifelong New Yorker, I often think about all the unique opportunities right in this city,” he said. “Headlining Madison Square Garden, throwing a pitch at Yankee Stadium, attending a General Assembly meeting at the UN — and now, I can check ringing the opening bell at NASDAQ in Times Square off the list.” The clapping enthusiasts flanking him include friends, family, staffers, community partners and a NASDAQ executive. Powers not only represents the NASDAQ MarketSite at 4 Times Square, but he’s worked with the financial powerhouse on streetscape and infrastructure issues.

Giving a hand: City Council Member Keith Powers (center). Photo: NASDAQ

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS JAN 9 - 15, 2018 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml.

E.A.T. Cafe

1064 Madison Avenue Grade Pending (21) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment.

McDonald’s

1499 3rd Ave

A

Lemon Life

255 East 110 Street

A

Hong Kong Restaurant

1703 Lexington Ave

A

Aloaf Cafe

170 E 110th St

A

Le Pain Quotidien

1399 Madison Ave

A

No Pork Kitchen

2135 2nd Ave

A

Malii

2028 2nd Ave

Grade Pending (24) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Famous Famiglia Pizza

1248 Lexington Ave

A

Bonjour Crepes & Wine

1585 2 Avenue

A

Green Kitchen

1619 2nd Ave

A

La Chula

137 E 116th St

A

Indian Tandoor Oven

175 E 83rd St

A

Paladar

358 E 112th St

A

JANUARY 24-30,2019

15

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THE WRITING DEN HELPS PEOPLE IN NEED CONNECT NEIGHBORHOOD Handwriting project in NYC provides a personal touch

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

The unexpected arrival of a heartfelt, handwritten note from a distant friend or relative carries with it the power to rekindle a lost relationship, or reaffirm a bond. For that priceless gift, the cost of a pen, a piece of paper, a stamp and an envelope seems very small, indeed â&#x20AC;&#x201D; yet for some, the absence of those materials might prevent them from reaching out.

Two years ago, Jill Higson and her boyfriend, Christian Michaels, then living in San Diego, recognized this dilemma among their local homeless population, and created The Writing Den in response. A den in name only (itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actually a table and some chairs), the project came about when the couple attended an August 2017 neighborhood meeting about volunteer opportunities to help the homeless, which led to a partnership with the First Presbyterian Church of San Diego. The following month, The Writing Den made its debut, as part of the churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weekly feeding of over 250 guests. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The power of handwriting â&#x20AC;&#x201D; thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really what itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about,â&#x20AC;?

Higson said, noting that for those who have trouble accessing computers or cell phones, a handwritten note allows people in need to â&#x20AC;&#x153;connect, feel acknowledgement and

love. Handwriting transforms thoughts into action, and enhances self-understanding, accountability and memory.â&#x20AC;?

And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just about communicating with friends and family. A handwritten note also adds the personal touch, in efforts to secure a better future. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Maybe thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a job, or housing, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve applied for,â&#x20AC;? Higson noted. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We give them the means, and sometimes, we help them ďŹ nd [family, friends, work] addresses. They stop by to write, but they also might just want to hang out, chat, and share their stories with us.â&#x20AC;?

Just as The Writing Denâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s appearance at a church or social services organization often comes as an unexpected surprise to those in attendance, so too did the raw materials responsible for inspiring this project. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When Christianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mother passed away,â&#x20AC;? Higson recalled, â&#x20AC;&#x153;she left a trove of papers, postcards, and stamps ... She was an avid writer. We also have a love for handwriting, which is a lost art these days. So we come to these places, and provide people with a postcard, or a birthday, holiday or special occasion card, to send to loved ones.â&#x20AC;?

In September 2018, Higson â&#x20AC;&#x153;moved back to my place in Chelsea of 11 years. So now weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a bicoastal nonprofit.â&#x20AC;?

Michaels oversees the San Diego activities, and the couple collaborates on expanding The Writing Denâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reach to other places (Seattle was recently added), and to more locations in existing cities.

Jill Higson and Christian Michaels, co-founders of The Writing Den. Photo: Christian Michaels

Handwriting ... is a lost art these days. So we come to these places, and provide people with a postcard, or a birthday, holiday or special occasion card, to send to loved ones.â&#x20AC;?

Jill Higson, co-founder, The Writing Den Currently, local venues include a monthly presence at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen (296 Ninth Ave.) and the New York City Rescue Mission (90 Lafayette St.), in partnership with New York City Relief.

Just announced are monthlies at the NYPLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Muhlenberg Library (209 West 23rd St.), beginning February 19. A January 26 event at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe (126 Crosby St.), Higson noted, â&#x20AC;&#x153;will be our ďŹ rst public, versus speciďŹ cally homeless service organization, event.â&#x20AC;?

During their December event at the New York City Rescue Mission, Higson recalled, a man named Jeremy â&#x20AC;&#x153;wrote 10 letters to family and friends,â&#x20AC;? whom he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have strong relationships with. At this monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s event, â&#x20AC;&#x153;He came up to me and said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;My sister and my cousin got my letters, and they were so touched.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the handwriting. They open their mailboxes, and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re touching and feeling. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not like looking at your email or texts.â&#x20AC;?

Another attendee at that same December den, named Chris, â&#x20AC;&#x153;was going to an interview. We talked about it, and I said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Let me know if you got the job.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; He texted me, and said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I got the job. Thank you so much.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;?

Speaking to the satisfaction of helping families reconnect or reconcile, Higson noted how â&#x20AC;&#x153;one young guy chose an Andy Warhol postcard, and said he hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t spoken to his mom in nine years. He said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m just ready to connect with her.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Then another young gentleman, he had an awful divorce, and wanted to write a letter to his ex-wife.â&#x20AC;?

Recipients have also shared success stories. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Christian and I have both gotten calls and emails,â&#x20AC;? Higson said, including feedback from â&#x20AC;&#x153;a young girl in

Texas, who didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even know where her father was, until his letter arrived.â&#x20AC;?

Although the project is fueled by the power of words, that stillhearty stock of goodies from Michaelsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mother, which made all things possible, will eventually become depleted. So Higson has begun successful outreach to a number of companies, to ensure a steady stream of supplies. BIC is donating pens, pencils, and markers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the 650 Sixth Ave. location of Blick Art Materials will be a source of pads and pencils.

As for what you can do to get involved, Higson said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;What we really need to further our mission is for people to donate, to help with the operating costs. And we do need volunteers. It only takes two people, per â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;den,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; and we, or our partners, provide the training.â&#x20AC;?

The Writing Den is a 501(c)(3) nonproďŹ t organization, and all donations are tax-deductible.

For more information on NYC, Seattle, and San Diego events, visit writingden.org. You can also ďŹ nd them on Facebook and Instagram.z

Holy Apostles soup kitchen guest Peter, at The Writing Denâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s December 2018 event, sent holiday cards to family members. Photo: Jill Higson

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Business

CHELSEA’S VANISHING RESTAURANTS More vacant addresses join the growing ranks of the city’s empty storefronts

BY DEBORAH FENKER

It seems every day another restaurant closes in Chelsea, some perhaps deservedly but more frequently a casualty. New York eateries are susceptible to so many obstacles: strenuous heath code regulations, a staggering level of competition, vicissitudes of taste, economic shifts, and, not in the least, the untenable rent hikes. Landlords seem to rule the layout of commercial Manhattan.

It is the rare circumstance that a restaurant goes under on its own volition, such as it did recently with The Red Cat, an iconic, rustic new American known for its hyper-seasonality and celebration of local purveyors. Owner Jimmy Bradley, after nearly twenty years in the neighborhood, decided to close his beloved eatery to pursue new avenues. But thoughtful and responsible business owner that he is, he vowed to help his displaced employees find new occupations.

Photo: Deborah Fenker

This is not the case with restaurants that close because “the rent is too damned high.” Rouge Tomate on 18th Street shuttered last month with much less fanfare (this time, at least), perhaps trying to slip away unnoticed, but left a trail of indebted purveyors and jobless staff. The savvy ones got out before the implosion, perhaps contributing to its demise. Some of those who remained have filed suit against the management for stealing tips, skimped overtime and shirked wages.

Andrew Cote, a local beekeeper who provided Rouge Tomate with their supply of honey, was left jilted with not only an immense outstanding bill (over $6,000) for the honey, but for the installation and maintenance costs of the hive they had him install on their roof. Despite myriad promises to reimburse him, they ultimately just stopped answering him, according to Cote, and now have a notice of bankruptcy and consequent termination of business posted on their front door.

While the owner continues to tend to his other global business engagements, the staff, from the hostess to the dishwashers, are now left to procure new employment, and the pur-

JANUARY 24-30,2019

Photo: Deborah Fenker veyors like Andrew, footing the loss.

And one more vacant, unattended address joins the growing ranks of New York’s empty storefronts.

This kind of surrender is common, and will probably intensify. Landlords have little motivation to fill vacant storefronts: they are eligible to receive

tax breaks for non-income generating properties, and are subsequently able to sit on them indefinitely, neglected, until some generic behemoth that can afford sky-high rent swoops in. It is worse for restaurants sites, whose leases are typically quite long, necessitated by the customization of interiors and the intent by management for longevity, despite dismal odds for survival. By some estimates, 20 percent of potential retail addresses are listed as vacant, as landlords hold out for a deep-pocketed lessee, too often knocking smaller players out of the playing field.

Community conversations like the ones on Nextdoor.com bemoan the demise of neighborhood favorites, even if some of them probably had little culinary merit. Some places to which I would just as soon bid good riddance have some nostalgic value to some long time neighborhooders, and perhaps more crucially, were affordable, even if not necessarily value in terms of relative deliciousness, a factor which is so subjective. Still, losses such as The Half King illustrated more than just a forfeiture of a serviceable Shepherd’s Pie — there was history, opportunity and community woven into the fiber of it. Inarguably less iconic are some other recent surrenders, like The Cottage and Sushi Choshi, but they still had their fans. If the trend of skyrocketing rents continues, none of the joints that provide comparably low-priced food will survive.

The high-end ones struggle too. The super-affordable, carb-tastically good Pasta Flyer from Michelin-pedigreed Mark Ladner is slated to find a new home, most likely out of shooting range of the Chelsea vicinity (its prior location was just one block south of 14th Street on Sixth Avenue). My absolute favorite Italian, dell’anima, had to find a new home due north at Gotham Market. The Highline Ballroom, too, un-welcomed the New Year in with notification that its landlord was not interested in renewing its rent.

As it with so many issues today, laissez-faire isn’t gonna cut it. The only legislation that has apparently been proposed to tackle the issue, the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, first introduced in 1987, then again in 2010 and once more in 2018, has failed to gain any traction in the New York City Council. One might hope that landlords would enjoy a good meal as much as any of us, and start offering some concessions towards more reasonable leases. This seems unlikely, however, since most seem to have reached a level of financial comfort that allow them to eat wherever they please, economics be damned.

Education is founded on the three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic. Manhattan thrives on the diversity of its own Rs: retail, residences, real estate and restaurants. We need to learn how to manage and retain a wide spectrum of these entities to ensure that all its residents can afford a nice meal out once in a while.

JANUARY 24-30,2019

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Real Estate Sales

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Inside the shop. Photo: Jason Cohen

FUNDRAISING KEEPS WESTSIDER BOOKS OPEN COMMUNITY A GoFundMe campaign raises $50,000 for UWS shop

BY JASON COHEN

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One of the last remaining used bookstores on the Upper West Side nearly shuttered its doors last week. However, through community fundraising, Westsider Books will stay open.

In less than a week of crowdsourcing, Upper West Side residents have raised $50,000 for Westsider Books, located at 2246 Broadway between 80th and 81st Streets. A staple in the community for 35 years, its announced closure caught everyone by surprise, but now frowns have turned upside down.

On Jan. 15, a day after co-owners Dorian Thornley and Bryan Gonzalez said their store would close, Upper West Side resident Bobby Panza sprang into action and launched a GoFundMe campaign.

Gonzalez expressed his gratitude toward the generosity of the community, but said “he did not know where the store would be in a few months or even a year.”

“The response has been overwhelming,” said the Westsider Books Facebook page. “It’s really an amazing show of sup-

It’s really an amazing show of support and we are humbled and incredibly grateful.

New Yorkers are awesome.”

Westsider Books Facebook page

port and we are humbled and incredibly grateful. New Yorkers are awesome.”

Panza said he started the GoFundMe because the bookstore is important to him and many people in the neighborhood, but he never imagined it would raise $50,000 that quickly. He said it is his cousin Ben’s favorite shop and he just bought a vinyl record there last week.

“I was working with so many great people to keep Westsider open,” Panza said. “It’s nice to see the community come together to keep this beloved shop open. It reminds me of that line from Billy Madison, ‘cherish it, for the love of God, cherish it.’ Because who knows, someday it might be gone.”

Gonzalez and Thornley, both 50, bought the store 23 years ago and have cherished every moment. From seeing people meet each other, listening to conversations and observing

the different types of characters that have come into the store, the duo has been blessed, they said.

They said it was extremely tough during the 2008-2009 recession and came close to shuttering their doors then.

However, in trying to keep up with the technologically driven times, this year has been very tough on them, as people just read and buy more books online.

Gonzalez reminisced that things were much simpler when they bought the store.

People used to read books in parks, buses or subways, while today their heads are glued to their phones.

“I think people come in to browse and maybe come find things they may not find have necessarily thought they were looking for,” Thornley said.

Prior to learning it would remain open, customers flocked to the store, called the owners and messaged them on social media. Columbia University seniors Kara Schechtman and Upasna Saha were there perusing the books. Saha, who went to high school in the area, has been there many times and enjoys finding books from people’s old collections.

“I’ve always loved this place,” Saha said. “It has great sentimental value to me. Being a student, used bookstore prices are much better.”

JANUARY 24-30,2019

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19

WELCOME BACK, LITTLE DOGGIES! ANIMALS The Museum of the Dog returns to Manhattan after three decades outside of St. Louis

BY JENNIFER PELTZ

It’s a museum that invites visitors to come! Sit! And stay.

The American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog opens Feb. 8 in midtown Manhattan, returning to New York after three decades on the outskirts of St. Louis.

The collection boasts portraits of royal and presidential pets, artifacts that trace canine history as far back as an estimated 30 million-year-old fossil, and devices that “match” visitors’ faces with dog breeds and let people try their hand at basic dog training with a virtual puppy.

While there won’t be actual dogs except for special occasions, the museum hopes to give visitors “an understanding of the history of dogs, how they came to be in such different variety,” said Executive Director Alan Fausel, a longtime art curator and ap-

Wall of movie posters. Photo: David Woo, AKC

praiser seen on PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow.”

About 150 pieces from the kennel club’s extensive, mostly donated collection are on view at the museum, which also has a library area for perusing some of the club’s 15,000 books.

Fanciers will find images and information on canines from bulldogs to borzois to Bedlington terriers. There are some just-don’t-knows, but the collection is focused on purebreds.

The kennel club, which runs the nation’s oldest purebred dog registry, has taken heat over the years from animal-welfare activists who view dog breeding as a beauty contest that fuels puppy mills. The club argues there’s value in breeding to hone various traits, from companionability to bomb-sniffing acumen, and hopes the museum helps make the case.

“I think the best thing to take away is the fact that dogs were meant to have different jobs,” Fausel said. “It’s learning why they were purposely bred for certain jobs, and their activities and their attributes.”

The exhibition ranges from the scientific — such as a skeleton of a 19thcentury smooth fox terrier that was

Canines in art at the Museum of the Dog. Photo: David Woo, AKC important to shaping the breed — to the whimsical, including one of photographer William Wegman’s images of Weimaraners in humanlike situations (in this case, canoeing). There’s also a tiny, elaborate, Edwardian-style dog house for a Chihuahua, and a wall of movie posters celebrating canine

stars from “Lassie” to “Beethoven.”

Other pieces speak to dogs’ stature in real life. A painting of a fox terrier mournfully resting its head on an empty armchair depicts Caesar, a pet so cherished by Britain’s King Edward VII that the dog marched prominently in the monarch’s 1910 funeral procession.

The collection also features paintings of White House dogs: U.S. President George W. Bush’s Scottish terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley, and one of President George H.W. Bush’s English springer spaniels, Millie.

“Dogs have enriched our civilization, and woven themselves into our hearts and families through the ages, and I am delighted to see them acknowledged” in the museum, then-first lady Barbara Bush wrote in a 1990 letter.

The museum opened in the kennel club’s New York headquarters in 1982.

Seeking more space and hoping to attract more than its roughly 15,000 annual visitors, the museum moved in 1987 to a historic house owned by St. Louis County.

Another planned move, to a new development in a nearby city, didn’t materialize. Neither did the hoped-for attendance boost: The museum counted under 10,000 visitors last year, Fausel said.

St. Louis County officials didn’t return a call Thursday, but Parks Director Gary Bess told the St. Louis PostDispatch this week the museum’s former home will be rented out for events and exhibits.

It offered something unmatched in the new locale in a high-end Manhattan office tower: Visitors can no longer bring their own pet pooches. And admission rates are higher: $15 for most adults in New York, compared to $6 in St. Louis County.

But the kennel club hopes the new museum — in a glassy street-level space at 101 Park Ave., a block from Grand Central Terminal — will boost attendance to 80,000 to 100,000 people this year.

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One Person’s Manhattan

A RABBI WHO DOESN’T JUST PREACH TOLERANCE Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum runs the world’s largest LGBTQ synagogue where everyone can be themselves and still be Jewish

Her memories of her early years at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah are filled with the recollections of the devastating AIDS epidemic. She recalls that “fully 40 percent of our members died from AIDS and I was

BY HARVEY COHEN constantly going to funerals and burying members of my own generation.”

Recent research indicates that One episode particularly fully 90 per cent of LGBTQ stustands out for her. She was at dents in New York claim to be the the bedside of a dying gay father victims of harassment, slurs and who was surrounded by his two general maltreatment. And the young daughters. She not only latest national crime statistics needed to comfort the dying show a year-to-year increase in man but perhaps even more so homicides resulting from antithe two girls.

LGBTQ hate crimes at an almost Years later those two girls visimpossible to believe 86 percent. ited the synagogue to meet their So it is obvious that despite father’s old friends and to once many gains, members of the LGagain thank Kleinbaum for her BTQ community still face persewarm support, when they and cution, isolation and increasing their father needed it most. violent and deadly assaults. In Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum (center-left, in blue scarf) with members of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah on November 2, 2018 in front of Kleinbaum and her deeply prothis environment, who can guide the Islamic Center at NYU. The congregation goes to the mosque every Friday and greets worshippers as they go to services as a sign of gressive views have not been them? Comfort them? Meet their solidarity with Muslims. Photo courtesy of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah without controversy. Several spiritual needs? And connect years ago, when she expressed sympathy for Kleinbaum was born in 1959 in the Inwood them to a God so many of them seek?

Palestinian children who were dying in Gaza, In Manhattan, there is a place and there is a section of Manhattan in a very progressive one member of her board of directors resigned spiritual leader who has accepted this chal- home that was totally connected to their Jualong with several members of the congregalenge. Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum has been the daism but not at all observant. She traces her Fully 40 percent of our members tion. rabbi at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah on own progressive leanings back to 1968 when died from AIDS and I was Kleinbaum, who says she is pro-peace, pro-Isshe was just nine years old and worked feverWest 30th Street since 1992. rael and pro-Palestinian, also receives her share Arthur Leonard, a professor at New York Law ishly for Eugene McCarthy, the anti-Vietnam constantly going to funerals and of hate mail and hostile posts on social media.

School and the co-chair of the search com- war candidate for the Democratic Presidential burying members of my own Recently someone posted on Facebook: “God will mittee back then, says this about why she was nomination. generation.”

PUNISH you by having a Jihadist behead you.”

After graduating from Barnard College in chosen as the congregation’s very first rabbi: Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, of her early years But she goes on, and she has helped build a “Rabbi Kleinbaum was the best combination of Manhattan, Kleinbaum began working at the at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah thriving congregation, with 200 to 250 people warmth, depth of knowledge and superior abil- National Jewish Book Center in Hadley, Massaattending Friday night services each week and chusetts. She always had a deep love of Judaism, ity to communicate.” over 4,000 coming to High Holy Day services but it was working at the Jewish Book Center, surrounded by wisdom of the ages, where her wasn’t easy for a woman and nearly impossible every year at the Javits Center.

In May of last year, she brought on an Ultralove really blossomed and she became aware of for a gay woman. The reform movement had her deep desire to teach Judaism and lead oth- only recently accepted the idea of women rab- Orthodox, straight rabbi to assist in her efers on their spiritual journey. Around that time, bis, but gay rabbis were still many years away, forts to serve all elements of the Jewish community. Rabbi Michael Moskowitz now works she came out as gay and actually decided she even in that very progressive form of Judaism.

It was only the Reconstructionist movement with Kleinbaum reaching out to, among othwanted to become a rabbi. She says: “I wanted to become a rabbi so I could create Judaism for that then allowed gay rabbis. So her only path ers, Orthodox Jews who are struggling with people like me who felt alienated from Judaism was to enter the Reconstructionist Rabbinic their sexual identity (sidebar). The two rabbis College, which she attended and was ordained originally met in the back of a police van where or on the outside.” they had both been arrested and handcuffed for But back in those days becoming a rabbi from. protesting in support of immigrants known as “Dreamers.”

For Kleinbaum, the job is never over and the challenges keep coming. Her congregation continues to grow and she continues to strive to meet their need by constantly adding new This worked for many years and I was able to Excerpts from an email received by Rabbi programs and services. Her latest initiatives put this “issue” in a box and compartmentalize Michael Moscowitz, colleague of Rabbi include finding better ways to meet the needs my life, but for whatever reason the desires are Sharon Kleinbaum: of elderly LGBTQ people and to help the children only getting stronger and my behavior acting “I don’t think I stand unique; quite the of LGBTQ find answers to their questions and on it proves it. contrary, I’m one of many in this situation. I’m comfort in their lives.

I know of some people who have come out a married frum [Orthodox] man with strong As she says: “in the time I have left, I want to and their family dynamic drifted apart and desires for other men. walk humbly with God and bring justice and only seems to have worked out for one person I do love my wife and family and fear losing passion with every step I take.”

ONE PERSON’S STRUGGLE

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum during services. Photo courtesy of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah

them if this secret were to be exposed. As a Rabbi, you can’t condone my actions and yet who am I really fooling ... I’m angry and upset and grew up with a sense of shame and knew that this is something I had to hide from the world.

— themselves ...I have built my life around my family and my only identity at this juncture of my life is through them. I don’t want to mess that up either.

I’m not entirely sure what it is that you can really say to make the situation any better.”

Know someone we should profile in One Person’s Manhattan?

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