The local paper for the Upper East Side
2018
WEEK OF JANUARY
25-31 2018
P.12
NEW DETAILS ON DISPUTED ESPLANADE BRIDGE City officials unveiled plans last week to implement protected bike lanes on 26th and 29th Streets, the first protected crosstown lanes in Manhattan that would span nearly river-to-river. 26th Street (pictured), currently does not have a bike lane, while 29th Street now features a painted bike lane. Photo: Michael Garofalo
SAFER CROSSTOWN BIKE LANES EN ROUTE STREET
NYC CYCLIST FATALITIES
City plans to add protected lanes on 26th and 29th Streets BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Manhattan cyclists looking for a safer route across town will soon have a few new options. Plans are underway to reconfigure 26th and 29th Streets to include protected bike lanes that would span almost uninterrupted from the Hudson River to the East River, the city’s Department of Transportation announced last week. As bike use has exploded in Manhattan over the last decade, protected north-south bicycle thoroughfares on the borough’s wide avenues have proliferated — First, Second, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Avenues, as well as Broadway, now feature substantial stretches of protected lanes — but similar protections for bikers on east-west streets have been slower to materialize.
2013
12
2014
20
2015
14
2016
18
2017
23
Source: NYC DOT Stretching from the Hudson River Greenway to First Avenue, the 26th and 29th Street bike lanes would be the first protected crosstown routes to span nearly the entire width of the island.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 21
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WATERFRONT EDC presents basis for proposed 54th Street bridge location, which has stirred opposition from some Sutton Area residents BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
A plan to install a pedestrian bridge in a small park near 54th Street and Sutton Place that would provide access to a new section of the East Midtown Waterfront Esplanade has become a source of neighborhood controversy. Representatives from the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the lead agency on the project, laid out the rationale for the location of the proposed bridge at a Jan. 22 meeting of Community Board 6’s land use and waterfront committee. The “flyover,” as EDC officials have termed the proposed span, would create an access point bridging the FDR Drive to the new span of riverfront esplanade set to be built between 53rd and 60th Streets on the East River. The entrance to the bridge would occupy much of what is now the northern portion of Sutton Place Park South, a small area of green space with riverfront views along Sutton Place South between 53rd and 54th Streets. The proposed bridge is opposed by some residents, who fear that the entrance ramp would have a negative impact on the park’s character, resulting in a loss of walking space and benches, drawing additional bicycle and pedestrian traffic to Sutton Place, and potentially impacting river views from the street and lower floors of
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Sutton Place Park South is the site of the entrance to a proposed pedestrian bridge that would provide access to a new stretch of waterfront esplanade on the East River. Photo: Michael Garofalo neighboring buildings. A number of local groups and officials, including the Sutton Area Community and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, have voiced their disapproval of the planned bridge. In addition to the 54th Street site, which was identified during conceptual design planning that took place from 2009 to 2012, EDC representative Kathryn Prybylski said that EDC also examined 51st, 52nd and 54th Streets as potential sites for a new bridge. In designing the connection, EDC aims to provide access to the new esplanade at regular intervals that complies with applicable regulations, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. Some residents questioned why the existing pedestrian bridge at 51st Street that currently connects Peter Detmold Park to a small seat-
ing area along the river could not be repurposed to provide access to the new esplanade. Prybylski said that the existing bridge, which has stairs on both sides, is not ADA-compliant. If 51st Street were chosen as a connection site, she said, the existing bridge would have to be demolished to make way for a new bridge featuring ramps.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 21 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, January 26 – 4:48 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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JANUARY 25-31,2018
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SAVING THE SACROSANCT RELIGION The Landmarks Conservancy awards matching grants to two storied sites in Chelsea — the “Christmas Church� and a Tibetan Buddhist temple frequented by the Dalai Lama BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Clement Clarke Moore is best known as the presumed author in 1823 of “A Visit from St. Nicholas,� which has been beloved by generations of school children for its immortal opening line, “Twas the night before Christmas.� Less well known is that Moore was also a fabulously wealthy, God-fearing churchman and property owner in Chelsea who transformed his grand country estate into one of the most desirable and elegant residential neighborhoods in the city. Among his great gifts: Vast tracts of donated land, including his apple orchard, which became the sites of the General Theological Seminary and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, twin institutions that have long helped to
define, preserve and enlighten the community. As the guiding light at St. Peter’s — or the “Christmas Church,� as it’s been called for 180 years — Moore served variously as warden, usher, organist, vestryman, trustee, ecclesiastical scholar and unofficial publicist. He also underwrote the bulk of its construction costs. Unfortunately, the timbers, masonry and gables he paid for have seen better days. No wonder. St. Peter’s, located at 346 West 20th Street, was consecrated in 1838 and survives from an era when church spires, steeples and bell towers dwarfed every other structure on the skyline. Since then, the gales off the Hudson River and the punishing winters of Chelsea have exacted their toll, and so, for decades, the church has been grappling with rotted planking and crumbling masonry, washed-out mortar and loose stones, a leaking roof and a drooping ceiling. Now, the New York Landmarks Conservancy is coming to the rescue. Again. The nonprofit, which funds restoration projects that preserve and protect the city’s architectural legacy, has been helping St. Peter’s repair its
sanctuary in multiple stages since 1988. The group established its “sacred sites grant programâ€? 31 years ago to assist religious organizations statewide in preserving their historic properties, and St. Peter’s was one of the ďŹ rst institutions tapped to receive funding. “It’s one of the most architecturally and historically signiďŹ cant religious buildings in the city,â€? said Ann-Isabel Friedman, the director of the Conservancy’s sacred sites program. “It has incredible stained glass and murals and original woodwork, it’s one of the country’s earliest Gothic Revival churches, and it’s signiďŹ cant for its role in the history of Chelsea and its connections with Moore,â€? she added. Since its launch in 1986, the program has awarded 780 congregations some 1,400 grants tallying more than $10.4 million, sums that churches and synagogues are typically required to match in a process that has helped leverage roughly $630 million in restoration projects. The grants help professionalize what stewards of religious buildings often dub the “patch-and-pray method,â€? referring to rehabilitation efforts that sometimes appears haphazard.
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, at 346 West 20th Street in Chelsea, has received a $25,000 matching grant from the New York Landmarks Conservancy that will help the fabled “Christmas Church� shore up its 180-year-old exterior walls. Photo: New York Landmarks Conservancy In announcing its new round of sacred site challenge grants last week, Conservancy funders pledged $25,000 to St. Peter’s that, once matched, will help jumpstart an ambitious $1 million structural and exterior masonry restoration project. It follows an earlier $25,000 matching grant in 2014 that helped fuel a $2 million roof repair-and-replacement project that was completed last October. Previous grants, in 1988, 1995 and 2000, began the task of stabilizing and
shoring up St. Peter’s, which was briefly closed in 1941 and again in 1990 over fears its sanctuary had become unsafe. “We’re giving the church TLC,â€? said the Reverend Stephen Harding, who is guiding the restoration. “It needs a lot of work and a lot of love, and that’s what we’re trying to do.â€? The Conservancy also provided a $3,000 matching grant to Yeshe Nyingpo, a Tibetan Buddhist temple in a landmarked Greek Revival rowhouse that was built around 1846 at 19 West 16th Street in Chelsea. “It’s a very special building — it’s so blessed and so holy, ďŹ lled with prayers and blessings — and the Dalai Lama sometimes comes here when he’s in town,â€? said Theresa Giorgi, the general manager of the temple, which has occupied the townhouse since 1976. There is a special throne in the building maintained for the Dalai Lama’s personal use, she added. The funds will be used to restore the temple’s recessed, double-leaf, mahogany front door. “We were afraid that at any moment, that door was going to fall off its hinges,â€? Giorgi said. For a nonproďŹ t sacred space with a modest budget, raising the $3,000 match was not easy: “It took over a year, and we got donations from all over the world — Spain, Italy, Portugal, California — but we did it!â€? she said. The restoration work on Yeshe Nyingpo’s entry door began on Monday, January 22nd.
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19TH PRECINCT HAS NEW COMMANDER The 19th Precinct has a new commanding officer, with Deputy Inspector Kathleen Walsh succeeding Inspector Clint McPherson, who has been transferred to the police department’s intelligence bureau. Walsh was transferred from the 25th Precinct in East Harlem, where she had been commander since May 2016. Police officials, including from the precinct, declined to provide further biographical information on Walsh or reasons for the change. They said Walsh would address the precinct’s next community council meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 5 at the precinct, 153 East 67th Street. McPherson was named head of the 19th in April 2016, after the precinct’s former commander, then-Deputy Inspector James Grant was placed on desk duty as part of a federal corruption investigation into the activities of two fundraisers for Mayor Bill de Blasio.
STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th district for Week to Date
Year to Date
2018 2017
% Change
2018
2017
% Change
Murder
0
0
n/a
0
0
n/a
Rape
0
0
n/a
0
1
-100.0
Robbery
6
3
100.0
9
3
200.0
Felony Assault
3
3
0.0
8
8
0.0
Burglary
5
3
66.7
9
6
50.0
Grand Larceny
40
23
73.9
64
47
36.2
Grand Larceny Auto
1
0
n/a
1
0
n/a
Deputy Inspector Kathleen Walsh at her desk at the 19th Precinct. Photo: NYPD
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POLICE BY PETER PEREIRA NYPD 19th Precinct
153 E. 67th St.
212-452-0600
159 E. 85th St.
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STATE LEGISLATORS State Sen. Jose M. Serrano
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360 E. 57th St.
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JANUARY 25-31,2018
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THE LONG ROAD AFTER THE MARCH VIEWPOINT The Women’s March displayed the power of anger manifest in action BY ALIZAH SALARIO
The 2018 Women’s March agenda was “Power to the Polls.” Come November, many women will be laughing all the way to the ballot box in the face of naysayers who scoffed at their pink pussy hats. But don’t be fooled. We’re still angry. It’s estimated that this year’s Women’s March drew more than 200,000 protesters in New York City — about half the number of people in 2017, according to The New York Times. Protesters marched down Central Park West and toward Trump Tower, where they chanted “Unstable! Unfit! Donald Trump is full of shit!” reported the New Yorker. The subways were full of people on the way to and from the march on Saturday; I struck up a conversation with a woman holding a “threaten my existence and you’ll meet my resistance” sign. Last year, she said, she didn’t know there was a march. This year she was pushing friends to attend. I felt buoyed by the easy solidarity I found with strangers on the subway last weekend. But if the 2016 election taught us anything — let’s not forget that 53 percent of white women voted for Trump — it’s that women are not a monolithic voting bloc with a singular agenda, and even those unified in their opposition to Trump are splintered in their focus. Some might see these fissures as the sign of a fraught movement, but the branching and flowering into myriad goals is to me a sign of growth. From generalized resistance to Trump in 2017 spurred by his infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, the 2018 Women’s March had a clear set of objectives and action steps to reach them: getting women to the polls, supporting DREAMers and immigration, building the #MeToo movement. And the movement doesn’t stop with the march. TIME magazine reported that at least 79 women are exploring runs for governor in 2018, potentially doubling a record for female candidates set in 1994, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. What’s
Protesters near Trump International Hotel and Tower. Photo: Alec Perkins, via flickr more, “to date, 390 women are planning to run for the House of Representatives, a figure that’s higher than at any point in American history. Twentytwo of them are non-incumbent black women — for scale, there are only 18 black women in the House right now,” wrote New York magazine’s Rebecca Traister. On the local level, “Beyond Suffrage,” a new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, traces women’s political activism from the fight to win the vote to the present day, focusing on how women navigated New York politics — often behind the scenes. The Women’s March helped triggered the current wave of political involvement, but it’s part of a long history of women coming up to the political plate in response to dissatisfaction with those in power, particularly in New York. The Women’s March had its one-year “glow up,” complete with snazzy PR and an online swag shop. It’s easy to forget that critics scoffed at last year’s march, questioning the effectiveness of marching at all. When I attended the march in 2017, like any cynical journalist I too questioned the march’s agenda, and my own. Was marching smug virtue signaling (reinforced by the obligatory Instagram selfie) to those who already shared my politics? Was it merely a collective conscience-easing that absolved women like me — white, relatively privileged — from doing the real work of change? I marched because the election results filled me with a frenetic energy I couldn’t shake, and I feared it might manifest in self-destructive behavior. And, like any journalist who got into the profession because of starry-eyed ideals, I wanted to tell my daughter-to-be that (I was pregnant at the time) perhaps I’d been part of history when she’d been part of me. Energized and emboldened, I marched past Grand Central up to Trump Tower. It was
then, beneath the sea of knitted pink hats and behind the glittery signs, that I recognized en masse the feeling I’d had since the election: unmitigated, raw anger. “When I walked in the Women’s March in Washington a year ago — one body among thousands — the act of marching didn’t just mean claiming the right to a voice; it meant publicly declaring my resolve to use it,” wrote the novelist and essayist Leslie Jamison in a recent essay on turning anger into accountability. Ja m i son’s obser vat ion echoed my own experience, and we’re two of many women who are using anger to torpedo them to action. Righteous anger has long been seen as the providence of men, expressed in fiery speeches, or in some cases, violence and destruction. Women’s anger is often downgraded to a passive emotion like despair, or amplified for frightening impact. How often is the word “feminist” preceded by shrill, strident or humorless? Perhaps, given all that women’s anger has accomplished, the emotion can adopt a new image, one defined by power and hope. I’m not running for office or launching a movement, but I do feel a renewed call to hold myself accountable — to my own ideals and goals. It’s this personal reckoning that is harder to quantify. For me, and many women I imagine, it’s a private, personal calculation. Data doesn’t capture how many women will follow a dream or leave a toxic partner, start a business or simply say “no” when in instances they long said yes because of the collective anger that made its force known in streets around the world this year, and last. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially — as the “daily prayer” meme that’s now printed on t-shirts and tote bags says — she’s been granted the confidence of a mediocre white man.
Chef Hemant Matur at last year’s Art of Food event
TANDOORI LAMB CHOPS Fine dining restaurant Sahib is bringing its high-end Indian cuisine back to the Art of Food this year. Their acclaimed chef, Hemant Matur--the first Indian chef in the U.S. to be awarded a Michelin star--will be creating a unique dish to pair with a piece of artwork at this event, where New York’s art and food scenes become one. Taste incredible dishes by New York’s top chefs, and enjoy the artwork, wine, and spirits that accompany each. To get tickets, visit: www.artoffoodny.com
ART OF FOOD at
Presented by
While we wait to see what Hemant serves up at The Art of Food, he’s sharing a favorite recipe with our readers:
Tandoori Lamb Chops Serving Size: 4
INGREDIENTS: 8 to 10 American lamb rib chops, about 2 pounds, cut 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick 1 cup yogurt, drained in a cheesecloth-lined strainer or coffee filter for 2 to 4 hours 1/4 cup malt vinegar 1 lemon, juiced 8 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced 1 3-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated 1 tbsp garam masala 1 tbsp cumin, toasted 1 tsp ground cardamom 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp ground mace 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 2 tbsp canola oil 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
DIRECTIONS: 1. Cut three or four deep slashes in each of the lamb chops, taking care not to cut all the way through the chop. 2. Combine the yogurt, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, garam masala, toasted cumin, cardamom, cayenne pepper, mace, and nutmeg in a gallon-sized reusable plastic bag. Add the lamb chops, then turn to coat them in marinade and refrigerate for four hours or even overnight. 3. Preheat a grill to medium-high heat (you should be able to hold your hand five inches above the grate for no more than three to four seconds). Add the oil to the marinade bag, reseal, and massage the chops to incorporate. 4. Transfer the lamb chops to a baking sheet and let the lamb rest for five minutes. 5. Brush each lamb chop with melted butter and place on Grill until each side is evenly browned, about five more minutes per side, and serve.
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JANUARY 25-31,2018
Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com
Â&#x2021; 7KH )ULFN &ROOHFWLRQ Â&#x2021; WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HAPPENING AT THE MUSEUM Murillo: The Self-Portraits Museums internationally are marking the 400th anniversary of the birth of one of the most celebrated painters of the Spanish Golden Age, BartolomĂŠ Esteban Murillo (1617â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1682), and the Frickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s acclaimed show is the only New York tribute to the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s achievements. This exhibition of paintings and works on paper was inspired by a recent significant acquisition; it also features a newsworthy discovery. Murillo: The Self-Portraits, which received raves reviews from The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, has been extended through February 11.
Discover the world around the corner. Find community events, gallery openings, book launches and much more: Go to nycnow.com
Veronese in Murano: Two Venetian Renaissance Masterpieces Restored We present two important paintings by the celebrated artist Paolo Veronese (1528â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1588). While the works are known to scholars, their remote location in a church on the island of Murano has made them difficult to study. St. Jerome in the Wilderness has been exhibited outside its home only once, while St. Agatha Visited in Prison by St. Peter has not left the church since the early 19th century. These two rarely seen canvases have been restored and leave Italy for the first time since their creation, over 450 years ago.
Fired By Passion: Masterpieces of Du Paquier Porcelain from the Sullivan Collection The Frickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Portico Gallery showcases an exhibition of rare DuPaquier porcelain. The exhibition features gifts from Paul and Melinda Sullivan in addition to loans from their collection, all created at the Viennese manufactory. Established in 1718 by entrepreneur Claudius Innocentius du Paquier, it was only in operation for twenty-five years. Yet, it left an impressive body of inventive and often whimsical work, forging a distinct identity in the history of European porcelain production. Exhibitions focused on this firm are uncommon opportunities.
COMING UP
EDITORâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PICK
Mon 29 ART MAKING FOR MIDDLE SCHOOLERS
Next Fridays Event: February 2nd Museum admission and programs are free 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the first Friday evening of the month. Visitors have access to the permanent collection and special exhibition galleries, enjoy talks and lectures by museum educators and curators, music and dance performances, and open sketching in the Garden Court (complimentary materials provided by the Frick.) For more information, visit frick.org/FirstFridays.
ZurbarĂĄnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jacob and His Twelve Sons: Paintings from Auckland Castle Opens January 31 Sevilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Golden Age, a period of economic expansion and cultural resurgence in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, was defined in part by the work of artist Francisco de ZurbarĂĄn. In the 1640s, he produced a remarkable series of full-length paintings depicting Jacob and his twelve sons. The group is on view in the United States for the first time through this exhibition, which is co-organized by the Frick with the Meadows Museum in Dallas and Auckland Castle, County Durham, England.
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The Frick Collection &BTU UI 4U PO 'JGUI "WF t www.frick.org
DID YOU KNOW? What site in NYC was one of the key locations for the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Monuments Menâ&#x20AC;? mapping of Europe during World War II, with the goal of preserving cultural treasures form Allied bombing raids? Hint: Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a remarkable museum library at 10 East 70th Street. Today itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s much in the news as a center for research. Open to the public.
The Guggenheim, 1071 Fifth Ave. 4 p.m. $500 ($400 members), includes all art materials, snacks, and a family pass 212-360-4254 theguggenheim.org For the next ten Mondays, middle school students will build artistic abilities in a creative and supportive artistic environment at this top-notch class. Led by a Guggenheim teaching artist, this studio program includes visits to the galleries, art making in a wide range of mediums, and the development of a personal portfolio of works. For students in grades 6-8. Sign up at ckeogh@ guggenheim.org
Thu 25 Fri 26 Sat 27 DEFINITELY CONTAINS MOVING PARTS: AN EVENING WITH ARNALDO MORALES
CITY OF TOMORROW: REAL ESTATE, ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN SUMMIT â&#x2013;ş
El Museo del Barrio 1230 Fifth Ave. 6 p.m. Free Morales, a multimedia artist who works with industrial materials, low-tech manual devices, and mechanical systems, creates projects that are often interactive and focus on issues of fear, desire, ambition, and pleasure. Come here him discuss his process and his work at this thoughtprovoking lecture. 212-831-7272 elmuseo.org
92nd Street Y 1395 Lexington Ave. 5 p.m. $60 From skylines to skylights, todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading real estate developers, architects and design innovators convene for a two-day conference to explore new departures, trends and initiatives for New York Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s landscape. An opening night ticket gives you access two keynote panels. 212-415-5500 92y.org
WINTER JAM NYC Central Park, Namburg Bandshell, mid-park at 71st St. 11 a.m. Free Enjoy skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, live ice sculpting and more at this annual winter sports festival. For those who enjoy more low-key activities, there will also be shuffleboard and potpourri sachet making. Snacks will be available from food trucks. nycgovparks.org/events
Answer: Frick Art Reference Library
JANUARY 25-31,2018
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Your neighborhood news source Sun 28 Mon 29 Tue 30 SUNDAY AT THE MET: THE STORY OF THE CAESARS
‘GOING BLIND:’ A DOCUMENTARY AND DISCUSSION
The Met, 1000 Fifth Ave. 2 p.m. Free with museum admission Join curator Julia A. Siemon and classicist Mary Beard for a discussion of Roman emperors and their stories. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition “The Silver Caesars: a Renaissance Mystery.” 800-662-3397 metmuseum.org
The New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Ave. 6 p.m. Free, advanced registration required In recognition of Glaucoma Awareness Month, and the ongoing needs of millions of Americans dealing with vision loss, the Academy of Medicine will host a screening of Joseph Lovett’s documentary “Going Blind: Coming out of the Dark About Vision Loss,” followed by a Q&A on the subject. 212-822-7200 nyam.org/events
EVA DIAZ: COPIES HAVE MORE FUN The Guggenheim 1071 Fifth Ave. 6:30 p.m. $15, free for students with RSVP In conjunction with the exhibition “Josef Albers in Mexico,” join Eva Diaz, professor of history of art and design at Pratt Institute, for a lecture on Albers’s artistic and teaching practices. 212-423-3500 guggenheim.org
Wed 31 ▲‘THE ART OF SCREEN TIME’ Barnes & Noble 150 East 86th St. 7 p.m. Free What is the best way to raise kids in a world where technology is everywhere? NPR’s lead digital education correspondent and expert on education and technology Anya Kamenetz discusses her new book, a practical guide on how best to set aside digital anxieties and create space for a happy, healthy, family life. 212-369-2180 barnesandnoble.event
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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.
CIVIL DISCOURSE EAST SIDE OBSERVER BY ARLENE KAYATT
Read back — Would like to share and respond to reader reactions to recent columns: “Comings and Goings.” Inveterate East Sider that I am, a reader called me out for not knowing that Gabriela’s restaurant was on Columbus, not Amsterdam, Avenue. So sorry. Won’t happen again and be assured that I’ll revisit
Gabriela’s on Columbus for their margaritas. Not their bean soup. Can’t fight the small spoon spillage... And a reader, Dr. Loosen, wants to know if there are reasons other than rising rents that are causing empty storefronts. Here’s my short list: higher costs, government regulations, higher wages, developers and hospitals that lust for Manhattan real estate and will pay big, big bucks for the privilege of razing blocks of residential and commercial tenancies so they can build, build, build.
These buildings are fertile ground for massive construction. Like it or not, the age of moms and pops and small independent businesses are passé. Maybe it can be stopped on an ad hoc basis, but IMHO it’s a losing battle... Dr. Loosen also wanted to add, in response to the “Street Seens” column reporting on the classy closing of Hu’s paleo restaurant on East 86th Street, that Hu’s 14th Street location survives because trust fund students can afford it. I’d posit that Hu’s menu and preparations are more in sync with a student population whatever the price. Just saying. From chair to bench — Community Board 8 recently bid farewell to James G. Clynes at Maz Mezcal res-
taurant on East 86th Street. In November, Clynes, who chaired CB8 for the last 3 years and was a member for 12 years, was elected to be a judge in Manhattan Civil Court. He will be inducted on January 25 in the Civil Court House at 111 Centre Street at 4:30 p.m.
It’s 9 p.m. ... no lights — It may be an old wives tale, but it seems to have resonance these days. If you look up at a low-rise building at about 9 p.m. and there’s the glow of maybe one TV flickering with all other windows gone black, it has come to mean that the building is going byebye. Think 79th/80th on First. And now it seems to be the fate of the block — buildings, storefronts — on Third Avenue between 76th/77th
on the east side. The high-end, ever popular Atlantic Grill is shuttered. Bank closed. McCabes liquor store on the 77th Street corner is moving across Third Avenue. Explanation? See “Read back” item above.
Movie comeback — Was glad to see lines and “Sold Out” signs at Cinema 86 for the recent showings of “Phantom Thread,” “I, Tonya” and “Lady Bird.” Made me think that the upcoming demise of Lincoln Plaza on Broadway and the Landmark on East Houston doesn’t mean that there aren’t still moviegoers who like seeing films on a large silver screen in a movie house in addition to watching Netflix films at home and on hand-held devices.
TO MAKE IT IN NYC, STAY UNCOMFORTABLE BY LORRAINE DUFFY MERKL
Rest in peace, my Angel. Angel Nails, the salon that I’ve gone to for the last 17 years, pushed back its last cuticle on December 31, 2017. Keeping things in perspective, it’s not like my husband abandoned me, yet my initial reaction to the shuttered business would have fooled you. On the Upper East Side, if you’re looking for a mani-pedi all you have to do is throw a rock; nail salons are as ubiquitous as Starbucks and Duane Reade. Yet notice of the closing left me with an oh-no feeling, which is my usual response when a “go-to” suddenly is no more. Frankly, I have no one to blame for my dismay but myself. Options are the name of the game in NYC and not keeping abreast of them defeats the purpose of living in the city where you can get anything at any time. As a native, I should know better, but I allowed myself to fall into the trap many New Yorkers do: we want to feel that we don’t just live in our city, but own it. To prove that we put the word “my” in front of everything — my grocery store, my diner and yes, my manicurist. There’s a certain cachet of “having people.”
Photo: Lorraine Duffy Merkl And then we get comfortable, which leads to being thrown when something as mundane as a bakery moves locations or shuts down completely. My mistake of not broadening my horizons is not limited to neighborhood businesses. I have been a NYC freelancer from way before the gig economy became the norm. Ask any contract worker and they will tell you: it’s either feast or famine, and looking for your
next job is a major part of the job. Many a time, I made the mistake of exhaling during the heady “feast” times, when I had three or four clients consistently feeding me assignments and designating me their de facto writer. I convinced myself I was too busy working to look for more clients. I got — yes, comfortable, and foolishly thought my good fortune would last forever.
The longer the clients enlisted my services, the rustier I got at networking. Naturally panic set in when a client decided they needed new thinking on an account (aka a different writer), fell on hard times and had to keep assignments in-house, or closed their doors. I always managed to pick myself up off the floor, and start cold-calling again, but my pitches would feel less smooth, and the realization would
set in that I’d fallen behind the pack, which can sting. But never was the “comfort zone” more painful than years ago when I was young and single in the city. I prided myself on being a one-man-woman. Why, I don’t know. Perhaps because then like now (so I’m told), dating could be more exhausting than fun. But tying oneself to someone without the promise or even hint that commitment was on the horizon, often (read: always) left me feeling as though I had wasted time with nothing to show for it; and having to begin again with someone new was more daunting then exciting. (“So what high school did you go to?” Ugh.) I guess with age comes, if not wisdom, at least the desire to not keep making the same mistakes. (After a while, that just gets embarrassing.) I decided to use saying goodbye to my go-to salon as the incentive to not tie myself to the same ol’ same ol’, and make 2018 the Year of Living Uncomfortably, trying something/somewhere new and keeping my options open. There’s too much going on in NYC to keep oneself closed off. Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author the novels “Back To Work She Goes” and “Fat Chick,” for which a movie is in the works.
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JANUARY 25-31,2018
HUNTER’S FIRST RHODES SCHOLAR SPEAKS OUT IMMIGRATION An academic star of Haitian descent responds to Trump’s anti-immigrant remarks BY ILGIN YORULMAZ
Thamara Jean is a regular at Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Brooklyn, where she helps her family at the church all day every Sunday. For the 22-year-old political science major at Hunter College — who in November became the first Hunter student to be awarded the highly-selective Rhodes Scholarship — her family and the Haitian community she belongs to come first. When President Trump recently made derogatory remarks about immigrants from certain countries and singled out Haiti, it hit those like Thamara Jean at the heart: “It intensifies when the insults are so targeted towards a community that you specifically belong to,” she says. “There are people who come to this country who don’t necessarily become doctors, lawyers and engineers,” Jean adds. “They might just be nurses, janitors, and sanitation workers. But those people, who are just dignified, humble, good, tax-paying citizens also deserve just as much as a right and a place in this country as any exceptional immigrant ... ” At Thamara Jean’s church, whose congregation is mostly of West Indian origin, Trump’s comments were not surprising “considering whom they came from” and “given the general continued disappointment with his immigration policies,” Jean says. Instead, the general sentiment among Jean’s strong Haitian community, whom she calls “her extended family,” was one of “focusing on a message of love, about uplifting and supporting the community rather than his hate,” she says calmly. But she also mentions the energizing power of the protests held in New York City and elsewhere immediately after Trump’s remarks. Jean was born in Brooklyn, the youngest of three children. She finished Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood.
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Thamara Jean has been politically engaged at Hunter. Photo courtesy of Thamara Jean Her parents are Haitian immigrants who arrived in the U.S. separately in the 80s and the 90s. Her mother, Grace, is a nurse, and her father, Vital, is the groundskeeper at a synagogue near Prospect Park. Without the resources to own or rent their own building, the church that the Jean family attends borrows space from the synagogue to conduct services. “My family is physically detached from the home they came from, but when you get a large community ... you have the chance to recreate some of your culture here in the city,” Jean says. She herself hasn’t been to Haiti yet, but hopes to go one day. The number of Haitians in the U.S. has reached 676,000 according to the 2015 census. They are primarily issued visas as seasonal workers in agriculture and other industries. Jean’s family has been living the American Dream: Her brother will soon become a physiotherapist. Her sister is with her husband who is serving in the Navy base in Guam. Jean, who has been politically engaged at Hunter, explains that frustration with the current system has always been the main motivation behind her activism and intellectual curiosity. In one of the earlier projects she worked on at Hunter, Generation Citizen, she taught a civics curriculum to youngsters and people who don’t traditionally have access to government, emphasizing the “stakes of getting involved in their local and even national politics” early on to improve
their community on issues like affordable housing. She has also advocated for the Equal Rights Movement. Her startling realization as a political science student that her “identity as a woman isn’t protected under federal law” motivated her to join the movement. Through a campaign, she and other local activists reached out to students outside New York City, in Washington D.C., Arizona and Missisippi. In 2014, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests across the nation, Jean started noticing the gap between Western political thinking and the philosophy that empowered protesters on the ground. For her junior thesis at Hunter, she asked why “all the qualities that make us American seem to fall short when we came to discussing black citizens.” These days, the Hunter senior has focused her attention on the legal ramifications of another Trump administration decision closely related to her community. The day after she won the Rhodes Scholarship, the Department of Homeland Security announced that along with Sudanese, Yemenis and Salvadorans, nearly 59,000 Haitian immigrants, who were allowed to stay in the U.S. after a massive earthquake hit their home country in 2010, would lose their temporary protected status in the next 18 months unless they applied for extended residency or left the U.S. “I immediately thought of the kids ... who have spent the majority of their lives in this country,” Jean says. “It’s upsetting to think how many stories like mine are potentially being upended, because now these children are being sent back to a place where ... they may not have the best shot in life.” The prestigious R hodes Scholarship is an international post-graduate award to study at the University of Oxford in England. Thamara’s plan is to study political theory at Oxford, where she will be headed this fall after graduating from Hunter. She may then pursue a Ph.D., depending on the circumstances, and hopes to be politically engaged through a career in politics or the nonprofit sector.
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JANUARY 25-31,2018
HEAVEN AND EARTH ON FIFTH At The Met, a photo reproduction of Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling BY MARY GREGORY
At the 1964 World’s Fair, New York hosted a very special guest. Michelangelo’s Pietà was installed in a specially designed exhibit in Flushing Meadows Park. Thousands lined up to see it. I, a preschooler, holding my mother’s and father’s hands, was among them. A conveyor belt slowly carried us into a pitch-black space that opened into a room where a miracle occurred. Illuminating the darkness was a piece of marble carved by Michelangelo, caressed by spotlights, transformed into something as transcendent and important as the characters it portrayed. My parents, in their wisdom, had prepared me that this was something quite special, more important than any of the other fun and excitement at the World’s Fair. Also in their wisdom, according to my mother, when the conveyor belt deposited us at the exit, we — my mother, father, brother and I — walked right back to the end of the line and saw it again. And again. And again. It remains my first clear visual memory, something I can call back to my mind’s eye at will. Also on that line was a young Daniel Weiss, now the president and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “I remember visiting the World’s Fair quite vividly because, after all, it was an exciting thing to visit, but that was the highlight for me — the theater of it but also the object itself,” Weiss said of Michelangelo’s marble sculpture in a 2016 interview. “That was the first time I remember a meaningful interaction with art.” Now The Met Fifth Avenue is hosting Michelangelo in an extraordinary exhibit comprising more than 200 works, which Val Castronovo recently detailed in these pages. Whether indebted to that decades-old memory of a prominent New York art lover or independent of it, part of “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer” that deserves its own consideration is the exhibition’s installation. Worth a revisit or visit on its own is an incredible quarter-scaled backlit high-resolution photographic reproduction of Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. No book, postcard or device screen can give the feeling of the seemingly miles of masterpiece that stretch across the ceiling, even a downscaled one. It’s stunning, humbling, fascinating and practically close enough to touch.
IF YOU GO WHAT: “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer” WHERE: The Met Fifth Avenue, 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) WHEN: through February 12 www.metmuseum.org Seven male prophets and five female sibyls (prophetesses from the ancient world who were said to have foretold the birth of Jesus) are depicted on the Sistine ceiling. “Studies for The Libyan Sibyl” is one of The Met’s masterpieces. Photo: Adel Gorgy No, it’s not the real thing. (Reproductions of China’s Terracotta Army have warranted their own museum exhibitions and delighted audiences.) And no, you don’t have the experience of being in the Sistine Chapel. But at the Vatican, you don’t have the ability to look at the detailed drawings Michelangelo used to plot his course across the heavens. Here, we can see The Met’s own exquisite red chalk “Studies for the Libyan Sibyl” sketched by Michelangelo, a nude figure based on a young male model. We can see how the musculature of the model had to be worked out before the artist morphed the figure into a clothed female, dressed in flowing pink and orange robes. And then, there she is, above you, in a full color reproduction on The Met’s ceiling. Michelangelo’s careful consideration of the drapery of fabrics, so important that it deserved its own drawing, devoid of even a hint of a figure, is presented at eye level, inches from the viewer. The finished treatment, again just above, is an extraordinary before/after picture, and can only be seen at The Met. Maybe you’ve been to the Sistine Chapel, but years have dimmed the memory. Maybe you visited before the fresco was cleaned, and it wasn’t the memory was dimmed, but the work itself. Maybe you’re too young, too old, too busy, too broke, or too whatever to get to Rome. You, especially, should see this before it goes away. Sometimes the most miraculous things drop by New York. The Pietà was one. The Met’s installation of a full scale, brilliantly lit, awe-inspiring reproduction of arguably the greatest feat of painting in the Western world is another.
“The Creation and Downfall of Adam and Eve” imagined by Michelangelo, reproduced and presented by The Met. Photo: Adel Gorgy
JANUARY 25-31,2018
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JANUARY 25-31,2018
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2018
HOW SUMMER CAMP MADE ME WHO I AM Conquering Mount Katahdin and other obstacles BY CAROLINE ROTHSTEIN
Caroline Rothstein at Camp Walden in 1997. Photo: Courtesy of Caroline Rothstein
When I was 15 years old, I hiked the top of the Appalachian Trail. It was my last summer as a camper at sleepaway camp and the oldest age group always climbed Mount Katahdin in Maine. As my bunkmates and I ascended into the sky bearing our bulky late1990s frame-packs. I began experiencing horrible cramps. I had an ulcer in my stomach, and a bruise at the base of my esophagus. It was the result of bulimia, which I’d developed just before heading to camp two summers prior. I’d had an eating disorder since I was 11. I asked the counselors if we could stop. The weight of my pack made the pain unbearable. And the weight of my perfectionism made reaching the top of Katahdin a non-negotiable goal, even though I’d bailed midway through our practice hike a few weeks
earlier and descended with one of my counselors before making it to the top with everyone else. The counselors had us pause. My bunkmates and me had sorted a week’s worth of food and cooking supplies among ourselves, and they redistributed my load amongst themselves. They lightened my load. We hiked onward. I got to touch the sky. Of the myriad meaningful stories I accumulated throughout my nine, 8-week summers at sleepaway camp — five as a camper and four as a counselor — from the countless lifealtering moments and experiences that shaped who I am, this moment has always struck me as the epitome. Not only did my bunkmates physically lighten my load that summer day in 1998, they also have been metaphorically lightening my load ever since. I went to a predominantly all-girls camp in Denmark, Maine — Camp Walden, founded in 1916. My mom was a camper in the 1960s. My dad, too, had gone to camp. My sister was a camper in the 2000s while I was
Caroline (left) with her sister Natalie at Camp Walden in 2004. Photo: Courtesy of Caroline Rothstein
JANUARY 25-31,2018
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N U F E R R E H E S M T R M A T U S S Siblings at Walden. Caroline Rothstein (left) as a counselor, with her sister Natalie as a camper and their brother Josh on visiting day in 2002. Photo: Courtesy of Caroline Rothstein a counselor. She went on to become head counselor for many years. My brother went to camp. My aunts and uncles and cousins on both sides all went to camp. And we all went to day camp before shuttling off for two months every summer with stuffed duffel bags and shower buckets and all the other requisites. Camp is part of my blood. It was inevitable I would go, but it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t inevitable that it would shape my life. Camp is not an untainted white picket fence of peace and love. Kids get homesick. Not everyone experiences unmitigated bliss, either at the time or, through nostalgiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lens, retrospectively. I know plenty of kids who got bullied and picked on at camp â&#x20AC;&#x201D; both at mine and elsewhere. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a guaranteed safe space. But I also think camp gives us a better shot at learning how to navigate the best innate human kindness has to offer, beyond the potentially challenging dynamics of school or family or the outside world. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an intentional, intimate space. I also know I am one of many people for whom sleepaway camp was a formative experience. Camps come in all shapes and forms. I happened to go to a private camp â&#x20AC;&#x201D; albeit one of the most rustic of its kind: It had no electricity or hot water in the cabins, and only screens for windows rather than glass â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which I recognize was a particular privilege allotted to me in how camp shaped my life. Still, there are countless accessible and affordable options for camps around the country â&#x20AC;&#x201D; arts-focused, religious, non-
proďŹ t and scholarship-based. And still, I count not only the relationships I built at camp, but also how I learned to build all relationships in my life as the greatest privilege I gained from camp. In both middle and high school, I always distinguished between my â&#x20AC;&#x153;camp friendsâ&#x20AC;? and my â&#x20AC;&#x153;home friends.â&#x20AC;? Then I got to college and realized I made new friendships that felt like my friendships at camp, and that even my friendships from growing up felt like camp friendships too. I realized that because of how I learned to build relationships at camp â&#x20AC;&#x201D; friendships rooted in lightening one anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s metaphorical loads â&#x20AC;&#x201D; every relationship in my life feels like camp. In fact, my whole life feels like the sacredness of what I
used to only touch for eight epic weeks among the pines trees of Maine. I even credit the self-esteem and conďŹ dence I built at camp with what later became the infrastructure for my ultimate recovery from that eating disorder. Camp was my playground for discovering my core; my strengths and my vulnerabilities; my weaknesses and my fears; my nuances and my quirks; my indefatigable zest for friendship and life. Even now, in my mid-30s, camp is still my lifeline to myself. It is nothing short of the honest truth when I say that everyone should go to camp. Living with people at a young age and developing into a teenager who understands how to lighten a peerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s load can undoubtedly change the world.
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Caroline (left) and her Camp Walden bunkmates at the top of Mount Katahdin in 1998. Photo: Courtesy of Caroline Rothstein
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To say that expectations and pressures for high school students have increased is an understatement. The competition to get into the best univer-
Just 25 miles from the GWB, Spring Lake Day Camp of Ringwood, NJ is the place to be. Our 30 acre campus is a kidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paradise offering a well balanced swim, sports and arts program. Our unique day camp experience offers a 5 acre lake for boating and ďŹ shing, heated pools with water slides, awesome athletic ďŹ elds, adventure ropes, shade and plenty of indoor facilities for rainy day events. Catered lunch, door to door air-conditioned mini-bus transportation, and uniform shirts included. We are the perfect choice for Manhattan campers. We are not just a camp, we are family. SLDC is single family owned & operated since 1989 by Mitchell & Michelle Kessler who reside on the UWS. We are proud to be celebrating our 30th Anniversary! Every Child deserves a SLDC Summer.
sities dominates the minds of teenagers and parents alike, with colleges seemingly ever more selective. This shift has put renewed emphasis on augmenting adolescent learning experiences. For most people, learning conjures up images of classrooms. But there are other important categories as well. A less obvious one can occur during the summer through â&#x20AC;&#x153;experiential learning,â&#x20AC;? which includes gaining skills and understanding through organic, hands-on exposure. During my last six summers, such learning has come primarily from my time at camp, as both a camper and teen leader. Spending up to seven weeks with my fellow campers has allowed me to foster skills â&#x20AC;&#x201D; some seemingly basic but essential â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as well as qualities of character that would probably not have developed in the classroom. Most importantly, what I have gained from these experiences has also enabled me to ďŹ nd success elsewhere. This past summer, in addition to returning to camp, I chose to embark on foreign study, participating in a four-week
JANUARY 25-31,2018 language program in Rennes, France. During this â&#x20AC;&#x153;School Year Abroadâ&#x20AC;? (SYA), I stayed with a host family while taking language classes and exploring the culture of northwestern France. My friends and family were as excited as I was about this new adventure. They asked if I was nervous, thinking it might be scary to jump into the unknown, far away from home and not knowing a single person. Actually, I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worried at all. Except for possibly making a fool of myself by crashing into the language barrier with my ninth-grade, subpar-at-best French, I had done this before. Indeed, the skills that I had acquired over my ďŹ ve years at camp became some of my most valuable assets during my journey in France. Living at camp had forced me to interact and build relationships with others face-toface, not just on one side of a phone or computer screen. I learned how to create strong, healthy, and close friendships. From eating meals together to teaching kids tennis with fellow junior counselors, I connected with campers of different ages and genders. At SYA, despite being one of only seven boys in the 33-student program â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as well as one of the youngest â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I was easily able to break through age and gender gaps. I brought people together, even those who were shy initially. At camp, I had met kids and adults from differing backgrounds within the US and abroad. I developed a keener awareness of cultural dissimilarities and learned how to handle such barriers, whether they were eating habits, hygiene regimens, or fashion choices. Of course, constant close contact with peers can lead to problems along the way, such
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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com as conďŹ&#x201A;ict over personal space or sharing. While such seemingly minor issues are typically avoidable in the classroom, in cabins campers must confront and resolve them. The greatest challenges I faced while abroad, however, often came from within. Selfmanagement was the makeor-break task of a successful experience in Rennes. My ability to take care of myself did not magically coalesce on the plane to France; much of it came from summers of understanding that my freedom away from home necessitated my completing tasks without regular reminders or aid. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve realized that a healthy dose of responsibility early on goes a long way toward independence down the road. Taking responsibility for myself as well as for my requirements and personal goals as a junior counselor had instilled in me the same positive habits that enabled me to manage both my daily 40-minute, two-bus commute and my progress with the French language. At camp I also experienced a culture of leadership among the junior counselors and gained essential values from that. These values have made me an asset, rather than simply a guest or participant, in other programs. In fact, the more I spoke of my time abroad, the more compelling a connection I saw between my learning experiences at camp and those in France. Last fall I began yet another new life chapter, starting my ďŹ rst year at Phillips Academy
Andover. The same challenges I faced at camp and in France awaited me there. But I knew that my last six summers had equipped me with the skills, conďŹ dence, and character not only to survive, but also to thrive at Andover. At camp, I had found a preparation for life. Thomas Wiener is a sophomore at Phillips Academy Andover, in Massachusetts, where he plays soccer and tennis. A native of Greenwich, Connecticut, Thomas is a member of the teen leadership program at Cape Cod Sea Camps and, last summer, also participated in an educational exchange program in France. He enjoys volunteering and working for tutoring and after-school programs for younger students in the Andover area. Originally published in Camping Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the American Camp Association. Š2017, American Camping Association, Inc. The American Camp AssociationÂŽ (ACA) is a national organization with more than 11,000 individual members and 3,000 member camps. ACA is committed to collaborating with those who believe in quality camp and outdoor experiences for children, youth, and adults. ACA provides advocacy and evidence-based education and professional development, and is the only national accrediting body for the organized camp experience. ACA accredits approximately 2,400 diverse camps nationally. Accreditation provides public evidence of a campâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s voluntary commitment to the health, safety, and overall well-being of both campers and staff. For more information, visit www. ACAcamps.org.
The Cathedral Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Summer STEAM Camp The Cathedral Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s summer STEAM Camp combines immersion in the ďŹ elds of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math with classic summer camp activities for 5-12 year olds. Our STEAM Camp encourages collaborative problem-solving, critical thinking, risk-taking and perseverance through project-based learning. From ďŹ eld trips to summertime carnivals, our campersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; days are ďŹ lled with fun. Cathedralâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s STEAM camp takes advantage of the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s state-of-theart classrooms, talented faculty, and dedicated young Cathedral alumni counselors. Every afternoon campers will enjoy activities led by The Cathedral Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Athletic Director and PE teachers on our 13-acre campus or in the surrounding parks and playgrounds.
SIX WEEKS OF STEAM FUN Sign up for one â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or all six â&#x20AC;&#x201C; of our terriďŹ c STEAM weeks: t -JWJOH (SFFO XJUI 45&". VSCBO TVTUBJOBCJMJUZ UISPVHI TDJFODF t 5IF 1PXFS PG ) XBUFS XBUFS FWFSZXIFSF t $JSDVJU $JSDVT DPNQVUFS DPEJOH DJSDVJUSZ BOE HBNF EFTJHO t #FZPOE 3 % PVS WFSZ QPQVMBS SPCPUJDT XFFL t #MPDL CZ #MPDL CVJMEJOH UFTUJOH BOE DSFBUJOH BT FOHJOFFST t 'FFM UIF 3IZUIN 'FFM UIF 7JCF DSFBUJOH FMFDUSPOJD NVTJD BOE TPOHXSJUJOH Sign up today at cathedralnyc.org. For more information, contact Camp Director Emmanuel Saldana at steamcamp@cathedralnyc.org
COOKING CAMP July 9-13 July 16-20 July 23-27 July 30-August 3 August 6-10 August 13-17
PASTRY CAMP July 30-August 3 August 6-10 August 13-17
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JANUARY 25-31,2018
PREPARING STEWARDS OF THE OUTDOORS In Indiana, combating a “nature deficit disorder,” and winning BY JOYCE RUSSELL
PORTER, IND. — Just more than 20 years ago, Lee Botts and a group of environmentalists dreamed of a place where
children could learn and gain respect for the unique ecosystem that is northwest Indiana. “The future depends on the kids,” said Botts, who now lives in Oak Park, Illinois. “We wanted to find a way to make them good stewards of the Indiana Dunes for the rest of their lives and to get kids outdoors more.” Botts, now retired Indiana
University Northwest professor Mark Reshkin, and then superintendent of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Dale Engquist, wanted a place where youngsters not only could get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine but become good stewards of the land. That place, Dunes Learning Center, was authorized by the
U.S. Congress in 1997 when U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, who represents Indiana’s First Congressional District, and former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar coauthored legislation that earmarked $1 million for the camp. It opened in October 1998. Since that time, Dunes Learning Center has taught more than 100,000 youngsters, in
CAMP RAMAQUOIS CAMP RAMAQUOIS, “A day camp as complete as sleep-away camp”, situated on 44 magnificent acres in nearby Rockland County. From adventurous activities to creative arts to athletic activities, boys & girls, ages 3-15 experience a traditional day camp program filled with a variety of stimulating activities. Facilities include an air-conditioned indoor gym, group bunks with bathroom facilities, a 5-acre crystalline lake, 9 heated swimming pools, a splash park, an aerial adventure park, tennis, basketball, pickleball & volleyball courts, hockey rinks, ball fields, a soccer field, a soccer rink, nature facility with petting zoo, special events & much more. Seven period programs planned for each age group. Junior Camp for 3-6 year olds has a separate campus with age-appropriate activities and facilities. Ramaquois offers our preteens and teens a regular camp program in combination with an optional personal choice travel program. Day trips planned for 3rd–10th graders; overnight trips planned for 5th-10th graders. 10th Grade Leadership Program. Hot lunch (nut aware) served in our air-conditioned dining room. Door to door air-conditioned mini-bus transportation provided using professional school bus drivers; a bus counselor provides safety, as well as planned activities on the bus. Ramaquois is a magical camp where children experience a sense of adventure, meet new challenges, create wonderful memories and make lasting friendships. Visit us at www.ramaquois.com or call 845-354-1600 to schedule a personal tour.
In its long-time home on West 89th Street, the Ballet Hispánico School of Dance has been impacting young lives for almost 50 years. With an eclectic curriculum of classical ballet, Spanish Dance, and contemporary forms, the School creates a nurturing family atmosphere centered on the joy of dance. With year-round programs for dancers of all ages, Ballet Hispánico gives students a passport to discovering Latino cultures through dance. Their summer camp programs are a wonderful example of this. “This year, in Los Explorers (ages 3-5), campers will have fun moving their way through the varied and diverse dances, songs, artwork, and landscapes, traveling through Mexico, Spain, and the Caribbean,” said Michelle Manzanales, director of the School of Dance. “Older campers, Los Adventurers (ages 6-8), add to their experience with an introduction to ballet and flamenco. The perfect adventure for both boys and girls, all week-long camps culminate in an invitation for loved ones to see the beautiful crafts created by the children, watch the dances they have learned, and celebrate their accomplishments.” 167 W 89th St, New York, NY 10024 (212) 362-6710 ballethispanico.org
New programs are being developed at Dunes Learning Center’s “newest” campus, Chellberg Farm, where live animals and a historic working farm from the turn of the 20th century are the backdrop for contemporary lessons in food, health, community and agriculture. Photo: Dunes Learning Center staff
DAY CAMP IN THE PARK
CHELSEA PIERS SUMMER SPORTS CAMP Chelsea Piers is home to multiple specialty sports camps for children and teens ages 3 to 17. For the past 22 summers, campers have enjoyed worldclass facilities, expert instruction and the most exciting sports curriculum available - without leaving Manhattan! Full-day Camps include: Sports Academy, Elite Soccer, Basketball, Gymnastics, Golf, Performance Golf, Ice Hockey, Ice Skating, Acceleration Hockey, Ninja & Parkour and Urban Adventure for teens. Chelsea Piers also offers Preschool and Junior camps in gymnastics, ice hockey and ice skating. Children are grouped by age and ability to maximize learning and focus on individual skill development. In addition, each camp features a daily recreational period that gives campers a well-rounded sports education. Aftercare and bus transportation serving major neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn are available for full-day campers. Summer Camps run from June 18 - August 31. Early Bird pricing available through May 18. Register Today! www.chelseapiers.com/camp
Is an ACA award winning day camp celebrating serving campers ages 4-15 for 40 years! Located on over 1000 acres on a protected nature site right on majestic Lake Tiorati in Rockland County. We’ve created every camper’s paradise for our children of every interest to learn skills, be safe, and have fun! With over 100 activities including Swimming, Archery, Dance, Arts & Crafts, Kickball, Skateboarding, Ceramics, Soccer, Music, Basketball, Climbing Wall, Woodworking, Softball, Batting Cages, Tennis, plus a fully certified Nature and Hiking program. Our campers play and make friends in our incredible forest setting featuring swimming twice every day in both our lakefront swimming dock and waterpark or in our massive in-ground heated pool, plus over 25 indoor cabins, and a boating center with over 50 boats! Certified teachers lead every group and we include door-to-door A/C transportation almost anywhere in Rockland, Bergen, Westchester, Orange, and Manhattan. Only 30 minutes from the GWB on the Palisades Parkway.
Know an aspiring young chef who loves to experiment in the kitchen, cooks family dinners, and never misses an episode of MasterChef Junior? International Culinary Center’s week-long summer Cooking Camp and Pastry Camp for Teens are the place for them to be! Designed for students 13-18 years old, Teen Camp builds confidence and skills in the kitchen while learning from the same ICC Chef-Instructors who teach our professional students. No prior experience is required – even if they’ve never cracked an egg before, students will gain the culinary techniques and sweet skills to impress foodie friends and family! Teen Camps begin in July and run each week from Monday through Friday, 9:30am-2:30pm. Register today to begin their training where Food Network star Bobby Flay and MasterChef judge Christina Tosi earned their culinary chops. Visit culinarycenter.com/teencamp to learn more. International Culinary Center 462 Broadway, New York, NY 10013 888.324.2433 | info@culinarycenter.com
JANUARY 25-31,2018
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Based within Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, Dunes Learning Center is surrounded by scenic trails, historic sites and one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world. For many students, their overnight camp experience is often their first time away from home, first hike in the woods, first encounter with animals in the wild, first exposure to Lake Michigan, first s’more by a campfire and first time identifying constellations in the night sky. Photo: Dunes Learning Center staff grades four through 12, about the uniqueness of the Indiana Dunes. Students from the nearby, Chicago and as far as central Indiana and southwest Michigan have come to hike the dunes, spend the night in cabins and leave with a greater appreciation of their environment, Executive Director Geof Benson said. The camp is on the site of the former Good Fellow Youth Camp, which had operated as a summer camp by U.S. Steel from 1941 to 1975. The camp on Howe Road was purchased then by the National Park Service and became part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The mammoth lodge and outbuildings
laid shuttered until 1997, when the learning center was authorized. National Park Service workers and volunteers went to work to begin restoring the camp. The former staff quarters became administrative offices. Ten new cabins and a new lodge were constructed. “It truly was a community effort,” Botts said on the development of the learning center, adding she isn’t surprised by its two decades of success.
Education is key One of the first tasks of the new learning center was to develop curriculum. They developed or adopted programs such as Frog in the Bog,
Dunes Versity and Dunes Scope for different levels of students. They also adopted Mighty Acorns and Calumet is My Back Yard outreach programs. The center isn’t only for students. Staff offer a variety of programs for all family members and for educators. Westville High School environmental science and agriculture teacher Bill Smith has been bringing youngsters to the camp since it opened. “It makes the classroom come alive,” Smith said. “We are fighting a nature deficit disorder. Kids have gotten away from being outdoors.” Smith said his students sometimes go out for the day, sometimes overnight. They’ve helped raise the chick-
ens reintroduced to Chellberg Farm and are participating in a University of Massachusetts maple sugar study to determine if maple trees are migrating northward. They participate in the CIMBY program and visit Red Mill County Park in LaPorte County with staff from the learning center to learn of the land’s stewardship needs. Portage Township Schools Assistant Superintendent Debra Dudek said Portage has had students participate since the beginning. Local students, she said, often take the Indiana Dunes and its unique ecosystem for granted. Getting them outdoors helps them learn about the special place they live. They’ve gone
hiking and snowshoeing and spent the night at the center. “The experience for the kids is very rich. They become better stewards of their environment, and this becomes one of their favorite activities and a lasting memory,” she said.
Other benefits “The trend is that kids are spending more time inside today then ever before. On average, they spend about seven minutes a day outside,” Benson said. Today, some schools don’t even offer recess time, the center’s director said.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
Goddard Riverside
Asphalt Green Summer Day Camp builds character, confidence, and community. When you are part of Asphalt Green Summer Day Camp, you are part of something special. Our core camp values — community, empathy, independence, energy, respect, and confidence — are focal points of every activity, creating a safe space for children to learn and grow. Whether playing sports, doing arts and crafts, or swimming, we encourage campers to be mindful of their actions. Children take the life lessons they learn at camp and apply them to school, sports, and social settings. Each week we focus on a specific value, bringing all of the principles together on the final week of camp.
4 Summer Day Camps at Goddard Riverside meet families’ need for high quality, low-cost youth programming for their 4 – 14 year old children. The comprehensive nature of services and long-term involvement with many of our families sets us apart from other area day camp providers. All programs offer activities which engage youth’s imaginations, develop literacy, promote STEM learning, build physical strength and coordination, and foster interpersonal skills.Each program also has its unique offerings and one of the camps is a specialty Performing Arts Camp. Full and half summer sessions are available. Camp hours are 9am-5pm, with early drop off at 8am and late pick up until 6pm. Breakfast and lunch included. To register & learn more about specific camps, visit www.goddard.org; call 212-799-9400, or go to site: Bernie Wohl Center - 647 Columbus Ave Beacon Program - 154 W 93 Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center - 250 W 65 Performing Arts Camp - 647 Columbus Ave
Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts is the preeminent arts day camp in greater NYC. With more than 100 classes and over 1,500 students each summer, Usdan guides every camper on a path of individual and creative growth, with the help of a team of artists and talented arts educators. The Usdan approach is distinctively interactive and hands-on, rooted in a balance between creative process, artistic practice, and craft on the one hand, and final product and performance on the other. Programs allow students to dive deeply into a single discipline while also exploring across multiple disciplines. Advanced students have abundant opportunities to deepen their craft alongside distinguished, professional artists. Come and see Usdan for yourself! For more information on scheduling a campus tour or attending an open house, please visit Usdan.org, or call to speak with us at 1-855-894-CAMP.
Enter promo code CAMP to save $100 on enrollment.
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STEWARDS OF THE OUTDOORS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 In a way, he said, the learning center experience reintroduces them to the outdoors. “It is even more relevant that they get more excited about being outdoors,” Benson said. Center marketing and development manager Michelle Krueger said the experience is even more important with the growing concerns about children’s health. “Kids need to get outside,” she said.
How it works The learning center is a nonprofit organization, Benson said, and operates on a $1.2 million annual budget. It is
overseen by a 20-member volunteer board of directors. Funding for the center, which operates year-round, comes from grants, corporate sponsors and individual donations, he said. The center employs 25 to 44 people, depending on the time of the year. They house, feed, pay and train 10 naturalists, usually recent college graduates. They also employ 10 counselors, a director of education, three outreach educators, a chief naturalist, food service director and multiple part-time food service workers. The food service workers serve some 25,000 meals a year, Benson said. Unlike other local eateries, they are inspected by the U.S. Marine Corps because the learning center is housed on federal property. Benson said each of the
Award Winning Camp
JANUARY 25-31,2018
schools that sends students receives some sort of financial support. The center itself provides $62,000 in residential program scholarships and $77,000 in summer camperships. Benson said that after nearly 20 years of operations, there is talk of expansion. Booking schools and campers, he said, is like playing Tetris at times, trying to fit in all the requests. He said they hope to add facilities soon to accommodate additional campers, and are looking to get larger buses to transport campers to various sites in the Indiana Dunes. Benson said they will continue to look at additional donations and securing grants to fund future plans. The (Northwest Indiana) Times
Established in 1979
40TH YEAR IN BUSINESS Day Camp In The Park is an ACA award winning day camp celebrating serving campers ages 4-15 for 40 years! Located on over 1000 acres on a protected nature site right on majestic Lake Tiorati in Rockland County. We’ve created every camper’s paradise for our children of every interest to learn skills, be safe, and have fun! With over 100 activities including Swimming, Archery, Dance, Arts & Crafts, Kickball, Skateboarding, Ceramics, Soccer, Music, Basketball, Climbing Wall, Woodworking, Softball, Batting Cages, Tennis, plus a fully certified Nature and Hiking program. Our campers play and make friends in our incredible forest setting featuring swimming twice every day in both our lakefront swimming dock and waterpark or in our massive in-ground heated pool, plus over 25 indoor cabins, and a boating center with over 50 boats! Certified teachers lead every group and we include door-to-door A/C transportation almost anywhere in Rockland, Bergen, Westchester, Orange, and Manhattan. Only 30 minutes from the GWB on the Palisades Parkway.
6 Kendall Dr. | New City, NY 10956 | 845.638.2515
www.daycampinthepark.com
At Dunes Learning Center, students learn from hands-on experiences, grow to appreciate the environment and take action as the stewards of tomorrow. During the 2016-17 school year, the center helped 12,001 students connect classroom lessons with the natural world. Photo: Dunes Learning Center staff
SWIM SPORTS ARTS ADVENTURE
973-831-9000 WWW.SLDC.COM Just 25 Miles from the GWB
JANUARY 25-31,2018
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BUILDING CHARACTER. CONFIDENCE, AND COMMUNITY Ages 4 1/2 - 15 | JUNE 27 - AUGUST 17 REGISTER TODAY AT ASPHALTGREEN.ORG/CAMP
Upper East Side
Battery Park City
555 E. 90th St.
212 North End Ave.
/asphaltgrn
@agkidsnyc
@agkidsnyc
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TRADITIONAL GNOCCI
Art of Food alum chef Stefano Marracino is bringing his love for authentic Italian cuisine back to The Art of Food again this year on Feb 10. At the event, he’ll be serving up a unique dish based on a piece of contemporary artwork curated by Sotheby’s. While we wait to see what he’s serving up for the exclusive event, Stefano is sharing one of his favorite recipes with our readers: potato gnocci. “The beauty is in the simplicity,” says Marracino.
JANUARY 25-31,2018
Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com
ART OF FOOD at
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS JAN 10 - 16, 2017 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. Nino’s Restaurant
1354 1 Avenue
Grade Pending (28) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/ or non-food areas.
Cafe Boulud/Bar Pleiades
20 East 76 Street
A
The Allie Way Sports Bar & Grill
413 East 70 Street
A
Caffe Grazie
26 East 84 Street
A
Mochaburger + Subs Express
1603 2nd Ave
Grade Pending
Hutch & Waldo Coffee
247 E 81st St
Not Yet Graded (21) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.
G&J’s Pizzeria
1797 1st Ave
CLOSED (67) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food from unapproved or unknown source or home canned. Reduced oxygen packaged (ROP) fish not frozen before processing; or ROP foods prepared on premises transported to another site. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided.
Isohama
1666 3 Avenue
A
Patisserie Vanessa
1590 Park Ave
A
Presented by
Potato Gnocci INGREDIENTS: Potatoes, 1 lb. Flour, 1 1/2 c. Sea salt
METHOD: 1. Boil the potatoes in salted water until fork tender. 2. Peel the potatoes and discard skins. 3. Puree potatoes. 4. Slowly mix in flour until fully incorporated. Allow mixture to rest for 30 minutes. 5. On a flat, floured surface, roll out the dough and cut the individual gnocchi. 6. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, then add gnocci. When the gnocchi float to the top leave for about 30 seconds, then remove from water. 5. Add sauce, cheese, and any fresh herb of choice and enjoy!
BE THE SOMEONE
WHO HELPS A KID BE THE FIRST IN HER FAMILY TO GO TO COLLEGE.
newyorkcares.org
JANUARY 25-31,2018
ESPLANADE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Prybylski explained that a ramped bridge at 51st or 52nd Streets would have to be very long to account for the significant rise in height from the esplanade, which will sit 17 feet above the water, to street level, which is over 40 feet in elevation. 53rd and 54th Streets are significantly closer to esplanade level, necessitating less ramp space and allowing for bridge design to be shorter in length. According to EDC, constructing a bridge at 53rd Street would be complicated by the presence of a subway tunnel below the site, as well as the presence of an exit ramp from the FDR Drive that would potentially have to be closed to make way for pedestrian and bicycle traffic (the next southbound FDR exit is at 49th Street). Though it would take up part of the park, 54th Street allows for the shortest bridge span of the four locations. “We have kept it to the northern portion of the park to limit
BIKE LANES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The city’s move to provide more protections for cyclists travelling on east-west streets was spurred, in part, by a series of recent collisions involving bikers on Manhattan streets without dedicated bike lanes, including the June death of a Citi Bike rider on West 26th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. There were 23 cyclist fatalities in New York City in 2017, the highest total since 2007 and the second consecutive year that the number of deaths went up. Key to the DOT’s cyclist safety efforts is the expansion of the city’s network of protected bike lanes, which shield cyclists from passing vehicle traffic with a buffer of parallel street parking, pedestrian crossing islands and other physical barriers. As of last summer, 425 of the city’s 1,133 miles of bike lanes were protected, and the DOT has set a goal of adding 10 new miles of protected lanes each year. According to the DOT, none of the nine cyclist fatalities that occurred in Manhattan in 2017 took place in a protected lane, and injuries on corridors with protected lanes have decreased 20 percent. Both 26th and 29th Streets are currently one-way streets
Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com
BY THE NUMBERS • The East Midtown Waterfront Esplanade project will eventually add 1.1 MILES of new esplanade from East 38th Street to East 60th Street along the East River • City committed $100 MILLION in funding in April 2017 to complete Phase 2, which will span from East 53rd Street to East 60th Street • Construction on Phase 2 expected to commence in 2019 and last three years • Typical esplanade sections consist of 40-FOOT-WIDE PATHWAY raised on pilings over the East River, with two-way bike lanes, landscaping, pedestrian paths and seating areas impact to the rest of Sutton Place Park,” Prybylski said. “We’ve chosen conscientious designers that do not want to just drop something in the park and destroy it.” The proposed 54th Street bridge is designed with ramps at the steepest incline permissible under ADA, to minimize the entrance’s footprint in the park while maintaining accessibility. EDC’s presentation included an illustration showing that the bridge would sit below the level of windows on the first floor of 45 Sutton Place South, which
sits adjacent to the bridge. Permitting and environmental review are already in place for the bridge at the 54th Street site. “If a location [that is] not 54th Street is chosen, then the environmental review has to be reopened,” Prybylski said, noting that a change in the bridge site would result in a significant delay in the project’s timeline. EDC officials said they plan to schedule a meeting to discuss the project with Sutton Area residents and the Sutton Place Parks Conservancy “in the very near term.”
with a single lane of vehicle traffic and curbside parking on both sides of the street. There is no bike lane on 26th Street, while 29th Street features a painted bike lane that is not separated from vehicle traffic. The planned reconfiguration would create a new protected bike route along the south curb on each street — eastbound on 26th Street, westbound on 29th Street — separated from vehicle traffic by a parking lane. The change would result in a loss of between two and nine parking spaces on a typical block. According to the DOT, the anticipated budget for installing each new lane is “less than $500,000.” Department officials hope to begin phased implementation by this summer and presented plans to Community Board 4 last week. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer has long championed the implementation of protected crosstown lanes, calling them “a nobrainer and long overdue” in an op-ed in these pages last September. “Last summer’s tragic crashes threw a spotlight on the glaring need for safe, protected crosstown bike routes in mid-Manhattan,” Brewer said in a statement on the announcement of the new lanes. “I’m glad the Department of Transportation has responded and put together
a plan, and look forward to hearing the input of the areas’ community boards.” Despite the fact that annual cyclist fatalities have stayed relatively flat over the last decade, fluctuating on a yearly basis from a low of 12 to a high of 24, officials say that bike safety has actually improved considerably when the city’s unprecedented growth in bike ridership is taken into account. Citywide cycling volume increased 150 percent from 2006 to 2015, while the number of bike commuters in Manhattan nearly doubled from 2010 to 2015. On a pertrip basis, which accounts for the ridership increase, the cyclist fatality rate dropped 71 percent from 2000 to 2015. Along with the changes to 26th and 29th Streets, the city plans to add two more crosstown protected bike lanes further north in Midtown. The DOT has explored 55th Street as the possible site of a westbound lane and 52nd Street for a possible eastbound lane, but the area is still being studied. Last month, the DOT announced that in anticipation of the looming 18-month shutdown of the L train for tunnel repairs in 2019, 13th Street would be reconfigured to include a two-way protected bike lane, the borough’s first, running from Avenue C to Ninth Avenue.
YOUR FATHER KEEPS WANDERING AWAY FROM HOME. BUT IT’S YOU WHO FEELS LOST.
THE ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND RELATED DEMENTIAS FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAM. Caring for a family member who has trouble with thinking and memory can be extremely challenging. So challenging, in fact, that caregivers may feel overwhelmed, struggling to maintain their own health and well-being. NYU Langone’s Family Support Program provides convenient, personalized, and ongoing support to people caring for someone with Alzheimer’s or other thinking and memory disorders. The program is provided free of charge to individuals living within the five boroughs. You will receive access to counseling; connections to doctors and support groups; and compassionate guidance by being paired with a caregiver who has had a similar experience. Join a community dedicated to providing the support and guidance you need, for as long as you need it.
For more information or to enroll, call us at 646.754.2277 or visit nyulangone.org/memorydisordersupport. The Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Family Support Program is supported by a grant from the New York State Department of Health.
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JANUARY 25-31,2018
Business
REJOINING THE WORKFORCE For those recovering from mental health issues, programs at Goddard Riverside help individuals find and maintain jobs BY ELISSA SANCI
Finding a new job is nerve-wracking for anyone, but the process can be particularly tough for those who have dealt with mental illness. Staff at the Goddard Riverside Community Center on the Upper West Side have created a supportive environment, reaching out to New Yorkers and their families, as well as running two programs aimed at helping those with mental health issues interested in rejoining the workforce: The Other Place (TOP) Clubhouse is a community of members who work together to operate and manage a clubhouse, where they do everything from cooking their meals to writing newsletters; TOP Opportunities is designed to help individuals find and maintain jobs. TOP Clubhouse and TOP OP are closely related. Deborah Kaplan, Goddard Riverside’s director of employment and rehabilitation programs, oversees both projects and says she works with the same community of members. Kaplan joined TOP OP’s staff in 2006 and has watched the programs grow over the years. TOP Clubhouse grew from Goddard’s homeless outreach program, which originated as a way to help the mentally ill homeless. The program had a drop-in center, and Kaplan says it was only logical to create a program to keep members engaged throughout the day. That program, in turn, transitioned to the clubhouse model, becoming a place where people ages 18 and older from any socioeconomic background with any mental illness could join. An alternative to a medical program, the clubhouse model uses a psychosocial approach to rehabilitation, where members work alongside professional staff to operate the clubhouse. TOP Clubhouse, which is open during the week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends, usually operates from the basement of a church on West 87th Street between West End and Broadway — however, due to a burst pipe, they’ve been temporarily displaced, now meeting in a much
Staff and members of the TOP clubhouse work together to organize and decorate their newly-renovated clubhouse. TOP helps people develop their life and work skills. Photo courtesy of Goddard Riverside smaller space at 646 Columbus Ave. “It’s a way for people to get back into the community and work on their recovery,” Kaplan says. “It’s a place for people to come where they feel welcome, where they can feel needed. You have to cook a meal, get the mail, make a newsletter — you have to all kinds of things to keep your clubhouse running.” Members are usually referred to the program by their physicians and outpatient programs, but aren’t paid for their work at the clubhouse. Kaplan explains that the purpose of the program is to create a participatory and collaborative environment, rather than establish a hierarchy through paychecks. Members also pay for their meals, although at a very reduced price of $1.50 a meal. The clubhouse creates a schedule for its members, who often struggle with time-management issues and keeping appointments, and provides a routine that builds skills that one day can be
put towards rejoining the workforce. Once members are ready to make that transition, TOP OP helps them by offering assistance through supported employment. Supported employment, Kaplan explains, is a practice where specialists work closely with members to assess their skills and interests, helping them with their job search. A large part of supported employment and one of the cornerstones of TOP OP is transitional employment: time-limited, paying jobs that help members overcome the barriers to the workforce. As Kaplan explains, transitional employment jobs belong to the program, not the individual. Placement managers (who are typically Goddard staff) train for the job; then, they work alongside a clubhouse member on the job for as long as that person needs before he or she can work independently. The biggest perk of transitional employment is that it gives guaranteed shift coverage to the employer: if, for some reason, the
member can’t work on any given day, the placement managers will work that shift. Members keep jobs for about a year before rotating out. “The idea is that you’re helping them get back into the workforce, but it’s not quite as threatening or frightening as getting a job on their own,” Kaplan says. “If somebody wants to go back to work, there are opportunities for them.” Many of TOP OP and TOP Clubhouse members are graduates of the Goddard’s ACT Team program, the center’s outpatient program serving the Upper West Side, Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. ACT Team clients are people who didn’t do well in traditional psychiatric centers; to qualify for ACT, a person must have a severe mental illness (such as schizophrenia or mood disorders like bipolar disorder) and must have been hospitalized three times within the last year.
ACT Team director Derrick Manigo says that in order to help a client improve, the ACT Team sometimes must work with the family as well. “A lot of time, the client may not have been the problem,” he says. Many times, the ACT Team has been able to repair rifts within families that resulted from the client’s mental illness. Manigo says that this is one of his favorite things about working with ACT. “It’s a magical thing when you see clients reach their highest potential,” he says. “Even just reaching a certain point where they can go on to another program and graduate from us.” One of the most important aspects of Goddard’s mental health programs is the determination to help individuals become independent and self-sufficient. “It’s about not creating dependency and not doing for people, but teaching them and encouraging them to do for themselves,” Kaplan says.
JANUARY 25-31,2018
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JANUARY 25-31,2018
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Our Town’s
ART OF FOOD at
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30 TOP CHEFS 30 PIECES OF ART 1 NIGHT ONLY Saturday, February 10 LIMITED TICKETS LEFT DON’T MISS OUT: artoffoodny.com 5 Napkin Burger Andy D’Amico
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Il Valentino Divino Sena
La Pulperia UES Carlos Barroz
Little Frog Xavier Monge
Mighty Quinn’s Barbeque Hugh Mangum Quality Eats Rachel Dos Santos
Bistro Chat Noir Mario Hernandez
Socarrat Paella Bar Lolo Manso
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The Meatball Shop Daniel Holzman
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Paola’s Stefano Marracino Serafina Always Vittorio Assaf
Great Northern Food Hall Claus Meyer
The Penrose Nick Testa
JANUARY 25-31,2018
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YOUR 15 MINUTES
To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to ourtownny.com/15 minutes
FROM THE PAGE TO THE SCREEN Emmy Award-winning producer Nikki Silver on her latest impactful film based on an acclaimed young adult novel BY ANGELA BARBUTI
“Monster,” the filmed adaptation of a young adult novel that chronicles a high school honors student from Harlem on trial for murder, made its premiere in the Dramatic Competition of the Sundance Film Festival earlier this week. Written by the late Harlem-raised Walter Dean Myers, the book, about the killing of a store owner and its aftermath, was a New York Times best seller, and also earned a Coretta Scott King Honor and a National Book Award. Producer Nikki Silver took on the powerful project, adapting the book, also called “Monster,” for the screen with her business partner Tonya Lewis Lee, who is married to Spike Lee. The Emmy Award-winning pair, who met on another children’s novel adaptation, launched a film and television production company called Tonik in 2012. “It’s the combination of our names, and also we like to say we’re a tonic for the world,” Silver said. “To do projects that are focused on women and diversity, because that’s who we are and that’s what we’re about.”
Film producer Nikki Silver. Photo: ToniK Productions
The film’s star-studded cast includes Jennifer Hudson, ASAP Rocky, Nas, Jeffrey Wright and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as its protagonist. As for the overarching message Silver, a Washington Heights native now living on the Upper West Side, wants to convey through this, said it’s about examining the question of whether or not one act should define a young person’s entire life.
us the opportunity to be involved with just amazing literature, travel across the country and tell great stories. Children’s television today is very different than it was when we were doing “Reading Rainbow,” because everything now is mostly animated. And back then, having LeVar [Burton, host of “Reading Rainbow”] speaking directly to and with kids, was so empowering.
How did you get your start in children’s programming?
You were president of On Screen Entertainment and worked on many children’s literature adaptations. Give us an example.
I was always interested in media and the impact it could have. And I was introduced to this incredible woman, Orly Wiseman, who was working at “Reading Rainbow” at the time. And I was always going between teaching and media, and children’s programming, to me, was the perfect marriage between the two.
What did your job entail as producer of “Reading Rainbow?” “Reading Rainbow” was some of the best years of my life. “Rainbow” gave
Filming “Monster” on location in New York City. Photo: ToniK Productions
What was great was, from working in children’s television and with “Reading Rainbow,” I was able to be involved in the adaption of some amazing young adult novels. Those included “Miracle’s Boys” by Jacqueline Woodson, which was a miniseries we did for Teen Nick. And actually, it was on that project w where I met my nowpartner of Tonik, Tonya Lewis Lee. We T were put together togethe to produce “Miracle’s Boys,” which was just an amazing six-part series. Spike Sp Lee directed the first and last episodes and Neema Barepiso nette and LeVar Burton and Bill Duke. B It was an incredible group coming incred together to tell th this story about three half-black, half-Puerto Rican orphans half-Pu who were living in Harlem.
Tell us the story of “Monster” and the message you want audiences to take away from it. “Monster” is a cautionary tale for teens. It is the story of a 17-year-old st black kid from H Harlem who’s from a great family, is a great student and an aspiring filmmaker. And he gets involved with some kids invo in the neighborhood and it’s a “was he or wasn’t he involved in a bodega i robber y that goes rob wrong?” And somewr body bo is murdered. And he, he Steve Harmon, is now n on trial for 25 to life. All teens make li very silly mistakes. v I have teen children. But B it’s about how one o act can define your life and should y it? it And why our system te doesn’t allow for teens to make difficult te choices, sometimes ch bad ones. But how their whole who life shouldn’t be given give away for that.
How did you find your cast? cas We first, Tonya and I Well, brought on our director, brou
Filming “Monster” on location in New York City. Photo: ToniK Productions Anthony Mandler. It’s his first feature. He comes out of the video music world. He’s done music videos for Rihanna, really every major music talent. And together, we started assembling this amazing cast, starting with our Steve Harmon, Kelvin Harrison Jr., who is a superstar. And then, ASAP Rocky came aboard to play King. He will tell you that this is the one book he read in high school and he loved. And he’s a Harlem boy, and we thought that was so important. And then Jennifer Hudson and Jeffrey Wright came on to play the parents, which is amazing. And Nas, who plays Raymond “Sunset” Green. And very early on, Tonya and I brought on John Legend and Get Lifted Film Co. to produce with us. John just wrote the most incredible song to go with the film. We’re thrilled.
“Monster” was filmed on location in New York. Where are some places you shot at?
We were all through Harlem. We were in Jackie Robinson Park. On the streets. We were in the Brooklyn courthouses. Really all throughout Manhattan.
Which neighborhood did you grow up in? I grew up in Washington Heights. I’ve moved a sum total of four miles down the Hudson River, because I’m an Upper West Side girl. So it’s New York through and through for me. tonikproductions.com
Know somebody who deserves their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to ourtownny.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.
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JANUARY 25-31,2018
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