The local paper for the Upper East Side
WEEK OF FEBRUARY OLD MASTERS IN A NEW LIGHT ◄ P.12
14-20 2019
Inside
DÉJÀ VU ON THE WEST SIDE POLITICS
REQUIEM FOR A PET STORE
Gale Brewer was first elected to the City Council in 2001 and moved up to borough president 12 years later. As the term limits clock ticks, friends and supporters say, she is now contemplating a reprise.
Petland Discounts to shutter its shops by April
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
It is extraordinarily rare for an elected official serving in an executive capacity to trade down to a legislative branch and seek a position with fewer constituents, lower pay and lesser influence. But Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer has never been your typical politician. Ever since she was reelected to a second term by a lopsided 83 percent margin in 2017, the question of her political future has emerged as one of the hottest guessing games in town. Now, the answer is starting to come into focus: Brewer has been eyeing a possible return in 2021 to the City Council seat on the Upper West Side where she served from 2002 through 2013, according to at least seven people in her political orbit. No final decision has been made, and no announcement is anticipated anytime soon, for a general election race that is still two years and nine months away, say friends, supporters, district leaders, political consultants and officers of Democratic political clubhouses. Term limits, which Brewer has long opposed, is the catalyst. It will force her out of office on Dec. 31, 2021, when she completes the second of her two consecutive four-year terms as borough president.
IS IT REALLY ‘NERVOUS STOMACH?’ Intestinal health and your quality of life Mayor Bill de Blasio (center) and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill (left) announced the NYPD would add 35 new investigators to its Special Victims Division at a Feb. 5 briefing on crime statistics in Brooklyn. Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
NYPD TO BOLSTER SEX CRIMES UNIT LAW ENFORCEMENT
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
As reported rapes increase, the department to add investigators in Special Victims Division BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
The New York City Police Department will increase staffing in its unit tasked with handling sex crimes amid a citywide trend of rising reports of rape. The department will add 35 investigators to the Special Victims Division, police officials announced at a Feb. 5 press briefing. The NYPD came
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under fire last year after a report by the city’s Department of Investigation cited “chronic understaffing and inexperience” within the SVD, which “jeopardized prosecutions, re-traumatized victims, and negatively impacted the reporting of sex crimes.” The NYPD recorded 150 rapes in January of this year, a 27 percent increase over the 118 reported over the same period last year. Three of those rapes were reported in the Upper East Side’s 19th Precinct, which recorded zero in January of last year. January’s totals represent the continuation of a spike in reported rapes that began in 2018, when police recorded 1,794 rapes citywide, as com-
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pared with 1,449 the previous year. Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill have said that the increased totals are not due to an increase in the actual number of rapes taking place; rather, they believe rapes have long been underreported to police and that survivors have felt more comfortable coming forward in recent years, in part due to increased public awareness and the #MeToo movement. “This is tragically what was happening for a long time but not being reported,” de Blasio said in January. “It’s finally being reported.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
BLOOD, SNAKES AND SQUARE KNOTS Recalling Boy Scout camp in the 1960s
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IS IT REALLY JUST ‘NERVOUS STOMACH?’ HEALTH Intestinal health issues may not be fun to talk about, but they can have a major impact on quality of life BY JESSICA GELMAN, MS, RDN, CDN
Let’s face it, running to the bathroom because of your “nervous stomach� can be very embarrassing, not to mention inconvenient. Whether you are giving a presentation at the office, or trying to navigate the crowded New York subway system, daily stress levels may unfortunately play a role in dictating your bathroom needs. While it may be an uncomfortable topic to discuss, the staff at the Susan and Leonard Feinstein IBD Clinical Center has heard it all. We treat thousands of patients a year and know that a so-called “nervous stomach,� with symptoms such as bloating, gas, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea and/ or constipation, can be a sign of a more serious, but treatable, gastrointestinal disorder. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is the most commonly diagnosed gastrointestinal condition and affects more than 35 million Americans. It is a
Irritable Bowel Syndrome is the most commonly diagnosed gastrointestinal condition. chronic disorder of gut-brain interaction, deďŹ ned by recurrent abdominal pain and altered bowel habits. Other gastrointestinal disorders include Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, gastroenteritis and more. Diagnostic tests, including blood tests, radiological imaging or an endoscopy with biopsy, can help identify whether your digestive disorder
may be structural, motility-related or gut-brain in nature. Once the cause of your distress has been diagnosed, an integrated approach to your treatment plan — not simply a prescription — can help to empower you and get you back to being the high-functioning New Yorker that you want to be. Comprehensive care should include nutrition, mental
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health services and social/care coordination. If you are suffering with gastrointestinal issues, you should seek an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan. In the meantime, here are some nutrition-focused strategies that may help. Please note that every person is different, and these items may not apply to you. For individualized recommendations, please see a registered dietitian who specializes in gastrointestinal disorders. • Think Mediterranean. There’s a reason the Mediterranean Diet is repeatedly voted as the best diet on countless lists year after year. Its focus on whole, unprocessed foods, with an emphasis on plant-based items, healthy fats and lean proteins, makes it beneďŹ cial not only for digestive health, but overall health too. • Cut back on caffeine. Caffeine may act as a stimulant on the bowels, by promoting the release of a hormone which increases motor activity and emptying time in the colon. This can lead to diarrhea and abdominal discomfort. Products containing caffeine include coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks and chocolate. • Avoid known triggers. This seems obvious enough, but some people ďŹ nd it
hard to resist certain foods they know to bother their stomach. If you absolutely must indulge, try to limit yourself to having a small amount alongside foods you tolerate, and consume it at home, if possible. • Limit alcohol. Alcohol can irritate the lining of the GI tract and exacerbate your symptoms. Stick to a maximum of one drink per day for women or two drinks per day for men as tolerated, and stay well-hydrated with water. If you are taking antibiotics or other medications, check for potential interactions with alcohol before drinking, even in moderation. • Slow down! We live in a fast-paced world and our mealtimes are often secondary to the many other things we have to do. Practice mindful eating by taking the time to sit down for a meal without distractions, chew slowly and enjoy your food. Your digestion will thank you for it. For additional tips related to nutrition and more, follow us on Instagram at @mountsinai_ibdcenter. Jessica Gelman, MS, RDN, CDN, Senior Clinical Dietitian, Division of Gastroenterology, The Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital
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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG COORDINATED EFFORT YIELDS RESULTS A pricey boutique on Madison Ave. was hit by shoplifters again, but this time police were ready for them. At 4:14 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 6, two men in their twenties entered the Mackage store at 814 Madison Ave.. According to police, one of the pair distracted a store employee while the other grabbed a jacket from a rack. Both men then ed the store, heading north. The store manager pointed the two out to Neighborhood Coordination Officer (NCO) Bryan White of Sector A. White took off on foot after the pair and managed to stop one of them at the corner of Madison and East 66th St.. The other man ed west on East 67th St towards Fifth Ave. with two plainclothes officers from the 19th Precinct Crime Unit in pursuit. While jumping a wall to catch up with that eeing suspect, however, both plainclothes officers sustained injuries and were later taken to the ospital for medical treatment. The second suspect was nevertheless soon stopped at the corner of Fifth Ave. and East 66th St. by the 19th Precinct’s NCO Supervisor Sgt. Sandy Rodriguez. Daquan Tyson, 24, and Francis Abdul, 21, were arrested and charged with petit larceny. The stolen jacket, which was recovered, was a black Seth design valued at $990.
STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th precinct for the week ending Feb 3 Week to Date 2019 2018
% Change 2019
2018
% Change
Murder
0
0
n/a
0
0
n/a
Rape
0
0
n/a
3
0
n/a
Robbery
1
3
-66.7
11
14
-21.4
Felony Assault
1
6
-83.3
13
16
-18.8
Burglary
7
3
133.3
29
26
11.5
Grand Larceny
26
38
-31.6
158
159
-0.6
Grand Larceny Auto
0
0
n/a
0
5
-100.0
COUNTERFEIT CASH SCHEME SQUELCHED
Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr
STRAPHANGER RAGE Sometimes, subway problems have nothing to do with equipment failures. On Thursday morning, Jan. 31, two women, one in her 30s, the other in her 40s, were riding a southbound F train. According to police, when the train doors opened at the 63rd St. Lexington Ave. station, the older woman bumped into the younger woman and said, “Wait for the next train, bitch!� She then struck her in the face, causing a
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laceration on her lips. The attacker then ed and police were unable to locate her in the vicinity. The victim refused medical attention.
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? On Wednesday morning, Jan 30, an unknown man entered the Church of St. Monica at 413 E. 79th St. He went into the altar area and stole four brass candleholders from two side altars. The stolen tems were valued at $3,000.
YEEZY BOOST BUST
Police arrested Chantel Schuler on Jan.31 and charged her with grand larceny in connection with a counterfeit cash scheme. According to police, Schuler, who worked in an unspeciďŹ ed chain store on Second Ave,, helped other suspects purchase products with counterfeit bills during the period between 7 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24 and 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 30. The total of the purchases made with bogus bills came to $10,350.
Police charged a 17-year-old male with petit larceny after he tried to intercept a package using a false identity, ďŹ rst from a UPS truck and then again from a residence inside 151 East 85th St. The incident occurred on Friday, Feb. 1, The item stolen and recovered was a package containing a pair of Yeezy Boost 700 sneakers valued at $587.
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Useful Contacts
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POLICE NYPD 19th Precinct
153 E. 67th St.
212-452-0600
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211 E. 43rd St. #1205
212-818-0580
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244 E. 93rd St.
212-860-1950
STATE LEGISLATORS State Sen. Jose M. Serrano
1916 Park Ave. #202
212-828-5829
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1850 Second Ave.
212-490-9535
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212-605-0937
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212-288-4607
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Mary Haviland, the executive director of the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault, said this analysis is “likely� correct, but impossible to confirm without improved data collection. Haviland cited a 2015 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found 1.2 percent of women in the United States had been raped in the previous year. “If you apply that to the female population in New York City you come up
“White shields:� Topic of contention Of the 35 new investigators that will join the SVD’s current staff of 260, 15 will be assigned to the division’s adult sex crimes unit, 16 will be assigned to the child sex crimes unit and four will be tasked with investigating transit sex crimes. Chief of Detectives Dermot
Shea said that a majority of the new investigators will be so-called “white shields,� or investigators who are working to achieve the rank of detective. The NYPD’s use of white shields in investigating sex crimes has been a persistent topic of contention between police and sexual assault advocates. “Our position is that there should be much more experienced detectives in that unit because sexual assault cases are difficult and complex,� Haviland said, adding, “Why are you putting new detectives on sexual assault cases? Put them on lower-level felonies
Reported Rapes by Year, Citywide 2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
1352
1438
1438
1449
1794
January Reported Rapes by Year, Citywide JAN 2014
JAN 2015
JAN 2016
JAN 2017
JAN 2018
JAN 2018
114
113
101
108
118
150 SOURCE: NYPD
and misdemeanors.â€? Shea disputed the notion that white shields are unprepared to handle sexual assault investigations.â€? I’m very comfortable with the training that they are receiving, the mentorship that they receive once they get into Special Victims,â€? he said. Cou ncil Member Helen Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side and serves as chair of the committee on women, echoed Haviland’s concerns with white shield investigators in SVD. “When NYPD reports that it has more detectives, it’s critical that we ask what grade they are,â€? Rosenthal said. “Because given the unique nature of the survivor-centric investigation, inexperienced detectives can bollocks up a case, which means there will be no justice for the survivor.â€? Legislation passed by the Council last year requires the NYPD to ďŹ le annual reports on SVD’s staffing levels, including detailed data on investigators’ caseloads and ranks. The NYPD has not yet filed its first such report, which was due Jan. 31, Rosenthal said. Chief of Crime Control Strategies Lori Pollock said the department will also begin hold-
ing weekly CompStat meetings dedicated solely to the Special Victims Division. “These will be closed meetings where we will have supervisors work through their cases and share best practices,â€? she said. Rosenthal said she is concerned that the introduction of CompStat, the NYPD’s crime data performance management system, could cause SVD investigators to move too swiftly and “lose sight of the need to be survivor-centric in an investigation.â€? “I’m awaiting a brieďŹ ng on it to see if they’re able to set up CompStat to be more sophisticated than just solving this crime as quickly as possible,â€? she said.
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with about 50,000 rapes a year. But only 1,300 to 1,700 are reported to the police, so you know that there’s a big problem and there’s a lot of room for increased reporting without an increase in incidents,� she said.
have
NYPD
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BREWER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Similarly, the two-terms-andyou’re-out cap means that City Council Member Helen Rosenthal, who succeeded Brewer in Council District 6 in 2014, is also barred from running again for the same post. In fact, she has already tossed her hat in the ring to run for comptroller in 2021. That clears the path for a potential encore run by Brewer, who was first elected to the Council in 2001 and represented the West Side, Lincoln Square, the northern part of Hell’s Kitchen and all of Central Park – before moving up to win election as Manhattan’s 27th beep in 2013. But a bigger job could be in the wings: Brewer commands enormous respect. If she runs and wins, she’ll have more seniority than anyone else in the Council’s incoming class of 2022 because she had racked up 12 years in the legislative body before term limits was changed from three terms to the current two. Meanwhile, change is in the offing. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson is also out of a job at the end of 2021 due to term limits, and he has already started accepting contributions for a probable mayoral run. With Johnson’s exit dawning, the buzz among political cognoscenti is that Brewer is already well positioned to step into the power vacuum and succeed him as the next Council speaker. In a handful of brief conversations, Brewer declined to comment about her intentions for 2021. She didn’t confirm that she was running for her old seat; but she didn’t deny it either. And she appeared to take herself out of contention for the mayoral race that year. “I love Manhattan,” Brewer said. “That’s all that I can tell you — I love Manhattan,” she repeated. “I do not have a fiveborough orientation.”
Who Needs Money or Power? Typically in politics, officeholders seek to move up, not down, and rare is the official who would blithely trade in a $179,200 salary, which is what a borough president makes, to pull down $148,500, which is a Council member’s wages. “She loves being a legislator,” said George Arzt, the Democratic political strategist who served as Mayor Ed Koch’s press secretary in the late 1980s. “Many people have asked her many times to run
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer at the New York City Women’s March in Columbus Circle on Jan. 19. She is widely expected to run in 2021 for the City Council seat on the Upper West Side where she served for 12 years until her election as beep in 2013. Photo: Brewer’s Instagram page. for mayor, and she is always quickly dismissive — but she loved being in the Council.” If she makes the move, her constituency would shrink dramatically, said New York County Democratic Party Chair Keith Wright, a former state Assembly Member from Harlem. “She’d go from representing 1.8 million people to representing 155,000 people,” he said. “But it’s never been about money or power for her. It is about staying grounded, doing what you love, bringing a vast wealth of experience and knowledge about how government works, and being a wonderful partner to all communities.” Could she painlessly win back her old seat? “I presume she wouldn’t have any difficulty,” said Wright, who has been Manhattan Democratic leader since 2009. But he added a cautionary note: “You never know — just ask Joe Crowley,” he said, referring to the 10-term incumbent Congressman from Queens who was ousted by the 28-year-old newcomer Alexandria OcasioCortez. “Still, we’re very lucky to have a public servant of her caliber, and the people of her district would be very lucky to have her again, too,” Wright said. “I am ecstatic!” The 67-year-old Brewer is clearly in no hurry to take the plunge, declare for office and vie for her old seat, political consultants say — and there is no compelling reason to do so when the primary isn’t until June 2021 and the general election isn’t until Nov. 2021. But by putting out the word so early that she’s exploring a run in her home district and longtime political base — where she would almost certainly become the prohibitive favor — her backers are sending a clear message to other potential candidates for the seat: Stay away. Preliminary indications sug-
gest that the strategy has been working. Consider one well-regarded hopeful, Micah Lasher, a former chief of staff to the state attorney general, incoming chair of the Riverside Park Conservancy, ex-aide to Rep. Jerry Nadler and unsuccessful candidate in 2016 for a West Side state Senate seat. “Absolutely!” he said when asked if he was considering a run. But at the same time, he described Brewer as an “extraordinary Council member and an extraordinary borough president” and said that the district would be “incredibly well served” if she came back to her old post. “If Gale were to decide that she wanted to return to the City Council again to represent our community, I would accord that an enormous amount of deference,” Lasher added. As for the timetable of any announcement, Curtis Arluck, a West Side Democratic district leader for the past 40 years, notes that Brewer is “only a little more than a quarter of the way” through her second term as beep. “If she were suddenly to be seen as running for an office that other people would like to have, then the vastly beloved Gale Brewer would not be above the fray anymore,” said Arluck, whose longtime club is the Broadway Democrats. “She would be in the thicket. So why not keep the glow that she has for another year or more?” he asked. Unlike so many politicians, Arluck added, Brewer doesn’t have the ego that says she has to be in the top position: “That’s Gale in a nutshell,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a higher title or if it’s a lesser title, she just wants to continue to serve — and she wants to continue to serve Manhattan.” invreporter@strausnews.com
FEBRUARY 14-20,2019
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L TRAIN STREET CHANGES IN FLUX TRANSPORTATION As city prepares for subway line’s “slowdown” rather than full shutdown, the fate of long-planned mitigation measures is unclear BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
More than a month after the surprise cancellation of the L train shutdown, commuters and elected officials are still looking for answers regarding what will become of longplanned changes to bus and bike infrastructure designed to mitigate the impacts of the subway closure. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Jan. 3 announcement that the MTA would scrap the imminent 15-month full shutdown of the L train, opting instead to maintain weekday service on the line during repairs to the damaged Canarsie Tunnel, came as an unexpected curveball to transportation officials who had spent years developing elaborate plans to accommodate displaced riders. Some aspects of the shutdown plan, such as new bike lanes on 12th and 13th Streets, are already in place. Other measures were scheduled to take effect ahead of the April shutdown, including expanded bus service across the Williamsburg Bridge, new East River ferries and the wholesale transformation of 14th Street into a dedicated “busway” with restrictions on private vehicle traffic. What will become of the 14th Street busway and other transit changes in light of the MTA’s new repair plan remains an open question. Transportation advocates and elected officials gathered on 14th Street Feb. 6 to call on the city’s Department of Transportation and MTA to follow through on their mitigation plans, which they say will benefit commuters on the L train corridor even though the shutdown will no longer occur. “The mitigation measures that had been planned were good ones and they had years of community input behind them,” Joe Cutrufo, communications director with Transportation Alternatives, told Straus News. “Even though they were planned in concert with the 15-month full L train shutdown, these are mitigation efforts that are needed nonetheless. Regardless of how the
Council Member Keith Powers speaks at a Feb. 6 rally for transit improvements along 14th Street during work to repair L train tunnel damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. Photo: Transportation Alternatives, via Twitter Canarsie Tunnel repairs take shape, we are in the middle of a transit crisis.”
Test case on 14th Street The top concern for many Manhattan residents is whether the city still intends to reconfigure 14th Street to include new dedicated bus lanes, expanded pedestrian space and a daytime ban on non-bus through traffic. Pedestrian and bus advocates have long hoped that implementation of the 14th Street busway could serve as a successful test case for the street design concept, paving the way for the similar changes to other major crosstown thoroughfares in the future. “When you consider 14th Street, it’s right in the heart of the densest, most transit rich city in America,” Cutrufo said. “We can’t continue to put the convenience of drivers ahead of people who choose and rely on more space-efficient modes like the bus.” While transit activists have cheered the busway plan, it has attracted equally fierce opposition from some locals. The 14th Street Coalition, a neighborhood group opposed to the DOT’s previously proposed street changes, responded to the new L train repair plans by calling on the city to remove the new bike lanes recently installed on 12th and 13th Streets and abandon the busway, which it believes will divert excessive traffic to surrounding residential streets. Council Member Keith Powers, whose district includes the eastern portion of 14th Street, said that the partial L train shutdown, which will last 15
to 20 months and result in reduced nighttime and weekend service, “was met with a lot of relief by people, but I think they’ll find it does not solve all of their problems in terms of getting around.” Powers said the city should carry out previously announced plans to implement select bus service on the M14, which is one of the city’s slowest bus routes. He said that the city should “still consider” implementing the full busway proposal, but added, “The most important thing to me is getting quicker bus service on 14th Street regardless of whether there’s a private vehicle restriction or not.” Since Cuomo’s announcement, the city has given little indication of which mitigation steps it intends to complete. Asked for comment, a Department of Transportation spokesperson referred Straus News to remarks made by Mayor Bill de Blasio at a Jan. 24 press conference, in which the mayor said it would take “several weeks” for the city to reevaluate its mitigation efforts in light of the MTA’s new repair plan. “Obviously we’re going to be very vigilant to make sure things are working properly,” de Blasio said. “But now we have to decide what that means now with this new plan in terms of mitigating the impact and then if there’s anything that we were planning that is no longer needed because of the L train but that we might want to do anyway.” An MTA spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
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RX FOR ALL: CARING COMMUNICATION BY BETTE DEWING
“I’m just so sorry this happened to you,” said Dr. Sarah Flannery. She meant the freak accident which brought me to the Lenox Hill Hospital emergency room. Details later, but this column is about caring communication, and how much it’s needed in the medical profession and beyond. No, it wasn’t a fall. I was sitting on a kitchen step stool when a heavy cast-iron skillet fell from its spot on a peg board hook — right onto my right leg. Yi-i-i-i-! Excessive bruising and swelling sent me to Urgent Care (what a much-needed city resource), and from there I was sent to the ER.
Dr. Flannery had the report, of course, before her compassionate greeting, with its much appreciated understanding of my fears, pain and distress at being back in an ER again. No broken bones, thankfully, but the blood thinner link landed me in the hospital after the usual many hours in the ER. No doubt some of you know how communication matters during those long, long waits — especially for those alone without family or other advocates. But some patients and/or their advocates sometimes look out for patients who are alone. I was loaned a phone that worked, along with some encouraging words.
Surely caring communication from doctors and nurses needs to be stressed. With so many patients to see, maybe what we need is more medical personnel, and not more new medical buildings, which replace the much-needed the neighborhood kind. Indeed, the neighborhoods are distressed by the expansion plans of both Lenox Hill and Weill Cornell Medical Center. And I can think of no better example of of the kind of people we need in our hospitals than Dr. Sarah Flannery. In time for Valentine’s Day, please consider some of this column’s caring communication ideas. Consider the shy, and those who are
not so “easily verbal,” for example, and see that they are not left out. Everything really depends on the talk being shared. A friend who had jury duty recently reports how the aggressively verbal jury members tried to take over the deliberations, Thankfully, this one angry jury member didn’t let that happen. Just and democratic communication couldn’t be more essential. But to stay with the caring theme, let’s remember the words of communication expert and author, Sherod Miller, in a Jane Brody interview: “Communication is the way relationships are created, maintained and destroyed ... to be heard and understood is central to any ongoing relationship — husband and wife, parent and child, employer and employee, friends, siblings, you name it.” Miller’s book, “Straight Talk: A New Way to Get Closer to Others”
needs a mighty revival. And hey, maybe so do some related thoughts from a previous column of mine titled “Sympathize, Don’t Analyze.” which suggests, no, commands, by golly: “When someone says they feel rotten, don’t pile on the advice or regale them with tales of your own, or someone else’s travails. Don’t say ‘Everyone has problems,’ or ‘It could be worse.’ Meet a person where they are — this and other 1970s human potential directives need a mighty revival. Now, we sure don’t mean indulge complainers who don’t listen to the complaints of others. Caring communication also means reprimands.” But enough from me already — let’s hear it from you. Along with the Dr. Flannerys’ message, that is what Valentine’s Day is very much about — sharing talk — the kind that is caring.
WELCOME TO THE SECOND-MOST HELLISH PLACE IN NYC PUBLIC EYE BY JON FRIEDMAN
Penn Station is the most hellish place anywhere in the five boroughs during the evening rush hour. Hundreds of thousands of people race around like lab rats, flashing twisted looks on their anguished faces. I’m making that train, damn it — and damn you! If you dare to stand in their path, they’ll trample you, like Larry Csonka used to do on a power slant. Speaking of hellish places: Clocking in a close second, in a photo finish, is Penn Station some 12 hours later, at 5:30 in the morning. To be sure, nobody is running anywhere — they’re too sleepy to move much at all. Instead, they just stand there in place, as if stuck in quicksand, their glassy eyes peeled to The Sign. Lucky me. As a reverse com-
muter on the Long Island Rail Road, I get an exposure to both atmospheres on a regular, twicea-week basis. I leave for my teaching assignment at Stony Brook very early in the morning — usually on the 5:47 a.m. train heading east — and then return in time to endure the mad scramble of the evening rush hour, just as the throng is going home on the train. In every situation on the LIRR, life revolves around The Sign, which reveals what track their train will be leaving from. At dawn, when they spot their track, the people trudge on over there. Inevitably, they creep past the handful of assembled cops on duty. These men and women in blue cluster together, utterly oblivious to the reverse commuters. It’s hard to tell if the officers are secretly elated or resentful that they have quite possibly the dullest shift on the entire New York Police Department assignment sheet.
Penn Station at the crack of dawn. Photo: Jon Friedman
Judging by the detached looks on their faces, though, one point is clear. To quote a line from a Bob Dylan song: “The cops don’t need you — and, man, they expect the same.” Sure, Penn Station can seem quaint at that hour and the extreme reverse-commuter sport has its charms — kind of. I am on a first-name basis with Steve and Jackie, my faithful allies who work at the Starbucks near the LIRR area. They work hard and remain cheerful, day in and out (and neither of them has threatened to run for President). Just to convey what a BMOC I am at that shop, Jackie often begins to prepare my mocha drink as soon as I walk in, enabling me to make my train easily. Now, that’s status! And sure, Penn Station has slowly been a teeny bit less hellish. Such innovations as the establishment of a trendy Shake Shack helps modernize the joint. The people who play music pro-
vide a nice diversion. But Penn Station could use better ventilation, access for disabled people and some system to cut down on the general atmosphere of chaos. And don’t get me started on the bathrooms. To save time, look under “disgusting” in the dictionary. So, why do I put myself through this nonsense? Two reasons: I like to teach at Stony Brook and (on a good day) shape young minds and encourage them to be better citizens. And, No. 2: I have no choice. I don’t have a car, so there is actually no alternative. The LIRR has got me in its clutches. I’ve been doing this drill for so many years that I rationalize it by telling myself that I can sleep or work on the train and that it really isn’t so bad to hang out at Penn Station at 5:30 in the morning. But, of course, it really is.
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Little Star at Broome Street Early Childhood Center. Photo: Brian Demo
THE PROMISE AND CHALLENGES OF 3-K FOR ALL SCHOOLS Teacher pay and other issues could complicate the future of the early education program BY BRIAN DEMO
Following on the success of Pre-K for All, New York introduced 3-K for All in April 2017. The program targets threeyear-olds and offers “free, fullday, high quality education,â€? according to the city Department of Education. Plans call for the program, already in place in 12 school districts, to expand throughout the city over the next two years. Meanwhile, educators and researchers continue to evaluate the ongoing impact of the popular approach to early education. With some 70,000 kids enrolled, Pre-K for All has worked well in New York. The Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale — a nationallyrecognized measuring tool — found that 94 percent of pre-K programs assessed between 2017-2018 were correlated with “improved student outcomes. And the Brookings Institute recently released a study that found “convincingâ€? evidence that school readiness, in areas such as literacy and numeracy, is higher among children who complete pre-K. Pre-K for All offers other advantages. Children in at-risk communities get an early jump on education, and the institutions and centers that host the programs beneďŹ t from the DOE’s emphasis on teacher and curriculum improvements.
Mary Cheng is the education director of Little Star at Broome Street Early Childhood Center. She noted several positives since Little Star joined the Pre-K for All program. “It’s allowed educators to speak really in one, single voice,â€? she said, referring to the uniform curriculum. She also noted that the DOE program gives the parents of young children the opportunity to learn about the city’s public school system. However, she also pointed out that centers like Little Star often don’t have the money to pay its teachers as much as DOE schools. According to research from the University of California at Berkeley, New York City’s PreK for All program is funded through state grants (78%), city tax levy (21%), and federal grants (1%). While the City plans to make 3-K for All citywide in the 2021-22 school year, with additional support from the state and federal governments, Chalkbeat, a nonproďŹ t news organization, reported that a citywide universal 3-K program would cost more than $1 billion, requiring $700 million from outside sources, such as Albany and Washington. The 3-K for All program faces additional challenges, including disparities in teacher pay. Data approved by the Citizens’ Committee for Children, a nonproďŹ t, nonpartisan child advocacy organization, showed about a $30,000 yearly salary difference between a teacher at a DOE school (roughly $74,000) and a certiďŹ ed teacher at a community-based organization, or CBO (roughly $44,000), when both have bachelor degrees and eight
years of experience. W. Steven Barnett, senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, sees the lack of pay parity between the public and private education centers as a serious problem. Lower pay, for example could weaken teachers’ incentive to remain in CBOs. Cheng agrees. “People ask me, ‘What would help your program if you had everything in place?’ It really is pay parity,â€? she said. Another concern, one noted in a 2018 study of 3-K from the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs, is that childcare centers that participate in the 3-K for All program could become less inclined to take in infants and toddlers, who cost more to monitor. When Los Angeles implemented a universal 4-K program, a number of home-based providers stopped taking in toddlers and infants. Those providers found it easier and more proďŹ table to focus on the four-year-olds. The New School study — an early one, with more likely to come — offers recommendations for the DOE to make 3-K for All more effective before it goes citywide. These include New York State offering â€œďŹ nancial incentives to encourage teachers in subsidized family child careâ€? to pursue professional development. And on the crucial topic of teacher pay, the study recommends that the DOE find ways for teachers at subsidized CBOs to earn more, or else they could leave for better-paying jobs (as the Citizens Committee for Children predicts) or burn out (as The New School predicts).
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Jan 16 - Feb 23 TAMING NATURE: ANIMATED PERSPECTIVES FIAF Gallery 22 East 60th St 11:00 a.m. Free fiaf.org 212-355-6100 This video art exhibition features recent works by three women artists from France who each use distinct animation techniques to explore how nature and humans adapt to changing and sometimes hostile environments.
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► FILM: THE QUIET MAN (1952)
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96th St Library 112 East 9th St 2:00 p.m. Free A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love. John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara star, directed by John Ford. nypl.org (212) 289-0908
▲ MET ROUNDTABLES — CURATING NATIVE AMERICA The Met 1000 Fifth Ave 10:30 a.m. Free with museum admission Join guest curators, scholars, and other experts for intimate gatherings that invite collaborative discussion on topics of historical and cultural significance. This session with Caitlin Mahony, Assistant Conservator, Objects Conservation, The Met, and Jami Powell, Associate Curator of Native American Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. metmuseum.org 212-535-7710
Symphony Space 2537 Broadway 11:00 a.m. $17 This Latin Grammy-winning duo brings beats and rhythms from all over Latin America that get kids to jump, dance and sing along, en español y en inglés. symphonyspace.org 212-864-5400
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“Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek at the 2016 USO Gala, Washington, D.C., Oct. 20, 2016. Photo: U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jim Greenhill, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sun 17 Mon 18 Tue 19 MARYS SEACOLE 20 Lincoln Center Plaza 7:00 p.m. $30 In MARYS SEACOLE, Mary (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) is an ambitious Jamaican woman determined to live a grand life; her adventures take her across oceans and eras, from a battlefield of the Crimean War to a contemporary nursing home, and many times and places in between. Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz (Pipeline, War). lincolncenter.org (212) 875-5456
GARY: A SEQUEL TO TITUS ANDRONICUS BY TAYLOR MAC WITH NATHAN LANE, ANDREA MARTIN AND GEORGE C. WOLFE Guggenheim Museum 1071 Fifth Ave 7:30 p.m. $45 Set just after the bloodsoaked conclusion of William Shakespeare’s first tragedy, Titus Andronicus, in Gary, Mac’s singular world view intersects with Shakespeare’s first tragedy. guggenheim.org 212-423-3500
▲ WHO IS ALEX TREBEK? CELEBRATING 35 SEASONS OF JEOPARDY! 92y 1395 Lexington Ave 8 p.m. $50 This 10-day tournament kicks off the day after Trebek’s 92Y appearance. Join him as he talks about his remarkable history with the show, the fascinating contestants he encounters every day, his facial hair through the years, and much more! 92y.org 212-415-5500
Wed 20 WRITING LIFE GROUP: MEMOIR 1 New York Society Library 53 East 79th St Whitridge Room Members Only 2:30 p.m. Free By Special Admission This group is intended for writers with some experience giving and receiving critique and a writing sample is required prior to acceptance. nysoclib.com 212-288-6900 53 East 79th St
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND
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Who Is Alex Trebek? Celebrating 35 Seasons of Jeopardy!
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19TH, 8PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org Iconic host Alex Trebek looks back at his long stint with the beloved game show, and forward to a new iteration, The Jeopardy! All-Star Games, with 18 elite contestants returning to compete in teams. Trebek will be joined by actor Michael McKean ($50).
Philip K. Howard in Conversation with NPR’s Laura Walker
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20TH, 6:30PM Shakespeare & Co. | 939 Lexington Ave. | 212-772-3400 | shakeandco.com Philip K. Howard talks about his new book, Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left, and his ideas for a simplified government. He’s joined by Laura Walker, President and CEO of New York Public Radio; a Q&A and book signing will follow (free).
Just Announced | From Page to Screen: Richard Russo and Guests
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH, 6:30PM NYPL Schwarzman Building | 476 Fifth Ave. | 917-275-6975 | nypl.org Novelist Richard Russo (Nobody’s Fool, Empire Falls) leads a panel of authors-turnedscreenwriters in discussing the creative challenges involved with converting fiction to the big and small screens (free, RSVP required).
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OLD MASTERS IN A NEW LIGHT The Met’s gorgeous show of Dutch treasures turns an overwhelming cache of riches into a jewel box of wonders BY MARY GREGORY
Thanks to a revamping of the skylights and spaces in the Met’s European Paintings galleries, we can now see Old Master treasures in a new light. The makeover’s not done yet, so, ironically, it’s the quieter light in the smaller, more intimate downstairs of the Lehman wing that offers up-close reconsiderations of beloved masterworks alongside seldom seen works by less known artists. “In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met” is presented in sections: “Faces of a New Nation,” “Questions of Faith,” “Staking a Claim,” “Masters, Pupils, Rivals,” “Comic Painting,” “Contested Bodies,” “Eloquent Things,” “Lives of Women,” and “Behind Closed Doors.” Each section groups works and concepts into interesting visual conversations.
IF YOU GO WHAT: “In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met” WHERE: The Met Fifth Avenue WHEN: Through October 4, 2020 Culling the hundreds of Hals, Vermeers, Rembrandts, de Hooches, Ruisdaels, Heems, Hedas and Kalfs to a scant 67 allows a focused but relaxed tour of one of art’s greatest periods. Holland’s Golden Age — roughly the 17th century — was a period of domesticity, prosperity and peace. The Dutch had just emerged from a long, costly war with Spain. Scientists, artists, writers and philosophers whose thoughts didn’t sit well with the Inquisition, found a warm welcome in Holland. Trade routes were opening globally. Thanks to natural ports, lots of canals, and busy shipbuilders, Holland became a prime supplier to both the Old and the New Worlds. The Dutch East Indies Company was the
Rembrandt’s “Self-Portrait” 1660 (left) and his painting “Hendrickje Stoffels” mid-1650s (right) from “In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met.” Photos: Adel Gorgy
richest, most successful corporation the world had ever seen. Holland’s Golden Age was the first time that working class Europeans, rather than just the aristocracy and churches, could afford luxuries and finery. They lived close together in elegant houses in bustling cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft, and Leiden. Land wasn’t their investment of choice. For many, it was art. Wealthy burghers, ship captains, merchants and their families all wanted their portraits painted, along with pictures of fancy dinners, beautiful tulips (another passion) and views of their beloved towns, roads, rivers and windmills. Lots of painters showed up to fill the demand. Some of the most successful of them needed extra hands to complete orders. They took on students and opened studio workshops. One was Rembrandt. A tour of the galleries will bring you to works by Nicolaes Maes, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Gerrit Dou, and Govert Flinck. All of them studied with Rembrandt. Flinck’s 1645 “Bearded Man with a Velvet Cap” is a marvel of verisimilitude. As Rembrandt had done, Flinck dressed his sitter in exotic clothes and rendered him brilliantly. The realism of the rumpled red cap, the soft, brown fur collar, the shine on the nose, and the cottony, white curls of a well-tended beard are testament to Flinck’s extraordinary skill. Rembrandt’s own 1640 “Herman Doomer” portrait focuses on other aspects. The sitter’s translucent skin, plump lips, and the sparkling wetness of his eyes bring him to life. Meanwhile, his brown suit recedes into the background, as the white collar frames his face, in service of the soul of the man whose crow’s feet enliven a direct, confident gaze.
“A Maid Asleep,” Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1656–57. Photo: Adel Gorgy By that time in his career, Rembrandt was leaving behind perfection of form for the search for spirit, manifested in art and humanity. His 1654 “Self-Portrait,” one of the treasures of the Met, is included in the section featuring masters and pupils. Too bad it couldn’t be hung next to his “Hendrickje Stoffels” portrait done around the same time (she shows up in “Lives of Women”). Stoffels was Rembrandt’s common-law wife, his second great love, and the mother of his only child to survive him. Some historians believe these two paintings were made as pendant portraits, typically made in pairs, often of husbands and wives, meant to be hung side-by-side, completing each other. The paintings’ similar dates, sizes, backgrounds, and poses that face
one another support the idea. The tenderness of Hendrickje radiates from one canvas. The weariness of the artist who’d just been bankrupted, lost his home and possessions, but still retained his spirit and drive, comes through in the other. That’s just one of the stories behind the pictures. Frans Hals, in my mind the original Impressionist, laid flat broad strokes of color on his canvases that somehow translate into pudgy bodies wearing shiny fabrics that reflect multitudes of flickering candles. How? Gerard ter Borch had a way with velvet. Rich red gowns and plump cushions show up often in his paintings, to show how good he was in capturing velvet’s uniquely shimmery shift from plushness to shine. Vermeer’s frozen moments, still
and perfect, transcend time. They became increasingly popular when, at the beginning of the 20th century, audiences got used to photography’s ability to arrest action. Did Pieter de Hooch plan to reveal interior lives when he painted complex, interior scenes with layers of depth? Or do we just infer them? The show offers starting points for many explorations. The smaller, dimmer galleries in the Lehman wing almost mimic the household rooms for which these great paintings were intended. They’re hung close together, mostly at eye-level, and invite near, slow viewing. Their grandeur will be back, once they return upstairs. Through October 4, 2020, this gorgeous show of treasures turns an overwhelming cache of riches into a jewel box of wonders.
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87 This 90-minute one-woman show tells the story of 1930s icon Bette Davis on the night of the 1939 Academy Awards.
This world premiere biographical drama explores the life of iconic feminist Gloria Steinem. Directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus.
Northern Stage’s new dark comedy skewers a family in crisis on Halloween. Starring Gordon Clapp (“NYPD Blue”).
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Oscar nominee Isabelle Huppert and Golden Globe nominee Chris Noth star in Atlantic’s disquieting new play about a woman grasping for stability.
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YOU WROTE A BOOK? SO PUBLISH IT! BOOKS “Upper East Siders delight in cubits of closets, while Upper West Siders measure it in board lengths of bookshelves” —Anonymous BY MEREDITH KRUZ
We are a bookish clan up here. If you’re like me, bedtime finds you drooling slightly on your pillow, fingers splayed about a book and the light on. (True Confession? I dog ear.) I’m convinced that for every rabid reader there’s a secret writer. They have perhaps a few typed pages, maybe a chapter or three. Most believe their story will never become a physical book. Well, there’s good news, hidden storytellers — Shakespeare and Co. offers a chance to be published, at a reasonable price, without undue delay. The legendary bookseller has an East Side store, and recently expanded across the park to 2020 Broadway, between West 69th and 70th Streets. If you peek in the window you’ll see a coffee bar to the left, a huge book collection beyond the stairs, a seating area to the right, and in the middle a large device called the Expresso Book Machine. If you’re an admitted author and keep a graveyard of publisher rejections, here’s your
Liza Stepanovich, with the machine that publishes writers’ dreams, at Shakespeare and Co. on the Upper West Side. Photo: Meredith Kurz solution. You no longer have to order 500 copies of your great American novel from a vanity publisher, push it on innocent family members whilst the rest molder under your bed, like a forever I-Told-You-So. For $10, plus 5 cents per page for black
and white, 25 cents a page for color, you can print one copy. There are bulk rates as well, promotional and design services, and other services to make publishing easier. They print so quickly, often you can come in, order a free cup of coffee while
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS JAN 30 - FEB 5, 2018 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml. 4th Floor Cafe
221 East 7 Street
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Come Prima
903 Madison Avenue
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El Chevere Cuchifritos Bakery
2002 3 Avenue
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Amy’s Bread
1220 5 Avenue
A
Island Bites
2107 1 Avenue
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Teranga Tac
1280 5 Avenue
Not Yet Graded (101) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Sewage disposal system improper or unapproved. Food contact surface improperly constructed or located. Unacceptable material used. No facilities available to wash, rinse and sanitize utensils and/or equipment.
your story is framed into pages, printed, cut and turned into a book. Congratulations, you are now a published author. I had a lot of questions for Liza Stepanovich, who operates the machine, consults with clients and assists in design. “You not only can bring in your digital file to turn into your own book, we have the right to print seven million titles on demand, with any cover you like,” she explained. She told me that most of her clients have never had a book in print. Cover design is wide open. If you’re obsessed, say with the color aqua, you could have all your books printed with aqua covers. Imagine that bookshelf! “Typically it takes about 20 to 30 minutes,” Stepanovich said. So with your free cup of coffee in your hand, and perhaps a newly purchased book, you can wait for your creation, whether it’s yours or your favorite author, to be completed. One hundred pages can be printed in about five minutes. There’s a 28-page minimum and a 700page maximum. In the independent author world, creating a cover that compels the potential reader to grab your book is an art form.
It’s currently a high-demand, low-supply industry, so it can hit an author’s bottom line hard. Shakespeare and Co. offers cover design templates, and by-the-hour cover design services. Having an in-house designer and the ability to print out a single book at a reasonable price gives authors the opportunity to preview their tome before ordering 100. I wrongly assumed that digital books had the lion’s share of the market. According to Retail Dive, which does in-depth retail analysis, in the first three quarters of 2018, eBooks brought in about $771 million, while hardbacks and paperbacks brought in $4 billion. And some big-name authors have started self-publishing, like Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian, and E. L. James, who wrote Fifty Shades of Gray, removing the stigma of the “vanity press.” I met up with Lese Dunton, a children’s book author who’s written a series called “Charlotte’s New York Adventure.” There are currently three books, with another on the way. These books are sold online as well and at Shakespeare and Co. and other bookstores
throughout the city. Dunton said she uses Shakespeare and Co. to print her books because the finish of the covers is better, the colors are sharper, and the paper is higher quality than Amazon’s. It’s slightly more expensive than Amazon, but when she does readings at schools she likes to bring books with a good feel to sell in person. “The printing ability is empowering, but also, having a neighborhood book store is so important,” Dunton told me. With a place to sit and mingle, and books to browse, it has a local feel. Independent book stores are enjoying their 10th year of bookstore growth according to the American Booksellers Association. This local movement runs alongside the artisan and maker revolution, which gives a neighborhood, a restaurant, or a bookstore a unique flavor. Along with the printing services, of course, Shakespeare and Co. has a hefty collection of books. I was searching for a book that couldn’t be printed on the fly, so I ordered it, and they called me when it came in, which typically takes five days max. Here’s the link, for more info: www.shakeandco.com.
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HOW FIT STUDENTS GET INTO NYFWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S MOST EXCLUSIVE SHOWS They wait on line for fashion week sign-ups, work as â&#x20AC;&#x153;pacersâ&#x20AC;? or dressers and clamor for sneak peeks behind the scenes BY EMILY MASON
Brightly dressed and designer-clad show attendees flood the streets outside of Industria, one of New York Fashion Weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main event spaces. Fashion Institute of Technology design student Grace Peisker recalls racing through the streets outside the venue, wearing entirely black, hurrying to get inside. Peisker is a sophomore fashion design major who worked the Alice McCall show at Industria Studios in Chelsea last year. With only two fashion weeks every year featuring a range of shows from up-andcoming designers to the biggest brands in the business, everyone in the fashion sphere wants a ticket to one of the private shows, but theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re almost impossible to nab. And when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re an aspiring designer, knowing what the newest trends are is essential. Nicole Ruffino, a sophomore
at Fashion Institute of Technology, says many students watch livestreams of the shows, but the real way to get close to the action is to sign up to volunteer, which requires all-black clothing, comfortable shoes and absolutely no phones allowed. Students clamor to sign up to work the shows, hoping to be assigned to one of the most exclusive. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big thing, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a huge thing called fashion week sign-ups and people will wait out there for I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how long,â&#x20AC;? Ruffino said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll go to extremes.â&#x20AC;? Two of the most common roles filled by interns are as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;pacerâ&#x20AC;? or a dresser. Pacers walk the modelsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; route on the runway so that producers can make sure the timing and lighting is correct. Dressers work with the models, making sure their clothing and accessories are organized and just as the brand wants them. That role allows many students, like Noelle Decastro, a fashion business management major who worked the Coach show last year, to get sneak peeks of the show. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even though youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re on your feet for hours, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fun â&#x20AC;&#x201D; you get to see the set and we have cards
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FIT fashion design major Grace Peisker. Photo courtesy of Grace Peisker
FASHION
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to wear with the information of the model and a picture,â&#x20AC;? Decastro said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So we even got to see the looks for them before anyone.â&#x20AC;? For students pursuing careers in fashion, the shows can be networking opportunities and important resume-builders â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all designed to demonstrate to potential employers that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re willing to do anything to make their show a success, according to Peisker. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of it is about passion,â&#x20AC;? Peisker said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;and showing you care about what goes on behind the scenes and not just what goes out on the runway.â&#x20AC;? For those who miss the signup fest at FIT, volunteer opportunities are emailed out as well. Sometimes the shows are advertised under a company sourced to help put on the event, rather than the brand, as happened last year with the Alexander Wang show, according to Peisker. Volunteers showed up to the event unsure which brand they would be working for, only to discover they were working one of the biggest shows of the week. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh! I get jealous,â&#x20AC;? Ruffino said, laughing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was super jealous about the Alexander Wang show.â&#x20AC;?
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Business
REQUIEM FOR A PET STORE Petland Discounts is expected to shutter all 78 of its shops in the tri-state area by April – including these five locations across upper Manhattan
1 2 3 4 A stray named “Noodles” lounges in his cat condo in the back of a Petland Discount shop on West 23rd Street in Chelsea. The five-month-old kitten is up for adoption – even as the chain prepares to close its Manhattan stores. Photo: Douglas Feiden
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167 EAST 125TH ST.
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Between Third and Lexington Avenues
56 WEST 117TH ST. Between Malcolm X Boulevard and Fifth Avenue
1954 THIRD AVE. Between East 107th and 108th Streets
2708 BROADWAY Between 103rd and 104th Streets
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137 WEST 72ND ST. Between Broadway and Columbus Avenue
THE SHOP THAT SAVED KITTENS After 54 years and a celebrated track record for animal rescue work, Petland Discounts is expected to close all its stores and face a possible sale or liquidation by April BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
“Noodles” was a homeless orphan living on the streets of Virginia. His prospects seemed dire. Then, he was rescued and brought to New York for adoption. Now, he’s living in a cozy pad in the heart of Chelsea. But the idyll may not last. His fate, at least for the moment, is unclear. He may have to relocate all over again. The reason for his change of circumstances? The expected closing of a venerable retail pet chain. Hundreds of Manhattan bookstores, clothing stores, barbershops, thrift shops, Judaica shops, bars, restaurants, corner bodegas, green grocers and mom-and-pops of every variety have already suffered
They helped us with the adoptions of thousands of cats and dogs and puppies and kittens.” Joanne Yohannan, North Shore Animal League America
similar fates. This time, the victim of the far-reaching brick-and-mortar retrenchment is Petland Discounts, a mid-sized, Brentwood, L.I.-based chain that has 10 stores in the borough, including locations in Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, East Harlem, West Harlem and the Upper West Side. Founded in 1965, the company has long been buffeted by soaring rents and utility bills and hammered on price by webbased retailers — like online pet store Chewy.com, which
routinely undercuts it on guinea pig food, parakeet supplies, glass fish tanks and tropical reptile terrariums. But the final blow came on Jan. 14 when Neil Padron, Petland’s president, founder and sole proprietor, died of bladder cancer at the age of 74. Just four days later, the company filed a so-called WARN Notice with the New York State Dept. of Labor saying that all 367 of its employees would be laid off by April 18. The chain didn’t return calls. Amy Eisenberg, Padron’s daughter, who is Petland’s director of special events, didn’t respond to six calls to her office and cell phone over a week-long period. But the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification said that the retail workers, all nonunionized, were being let go as a result of “plant closings” and “economic dislocation.” After 54 years, all of Petland’s 78 stores in the tri-state area — down 34 percent from a peak of
3
SOURCE: New York State Dept. of Labor / WARN Notice 118 two decades ago — are now expected to be shuttered, and the company itself faces a possible sale or liquidation. The Manhattan shops are set to close on a rolling basis over the next two months, according to managers and employees at five of the locations. “I’m already looking for a new job,” said Tony Carrion, an assistant manager in the store at 312 West 23rd St. off Eighth Avenue in Chelsea, which will close in March. “There are five of us here, and only one of us has found a job so far. The rest of us are still out looking.” Feedback from pet-lovers has kept him going, Carrion said: “Customers have been very upset, they keep telling us they want us to stay, they wish we wouldn’t close, they hope somebody buys us out, and it’s been very, very comforting,” he added. The news has also rattled the local animal-rescue community because Padron’s company
— famed for its commercial jingle and the slogan, “For the best care a pet can get” — was also celebrated for its work tending to strays and abandoned or ill-treated animals. “They helped us raise awareness of the plight of homeless animals for close to 15 years, and they were always fantastic supporters of our adoption events and campaigns,” said Joanne Yohannan, the senior vice president for operations at the North Shore Animal League America. “It is fair to say that over all these years, they helped us with the adoptions of thousands of cats and dogs and puppies and kittens,” she added. North Shore, a no-kill animal rescue and adoption organization on Long Island, worked with Petlands on two separate initiatives: An in-store adoption program in which cats liked Noodles temporarily live in “cat condos,” or play cages, at select
View the full map online at OURTOWNNY.COM shops scattered across the city. And mobile adoption events in which vehicles housing 20 to 30 animals awaiting adoption park in front of the store so that potential adopters can view, visit, and perhaps, fall in love with them. Yohannan said that North Shore and Petlands teamed up for 43 events throughout the tri-state area in 2017, and placed felines that were available for adoption in nine stores. And that’s where poor Noodles comes in. The five-monthold neutered, domestic short hair was rescued from Virginia — he’s a “young Southern gentleman,” North Shore says — and relocated to Chelsea in January to be adopted. He’s still living on West 23rd Street. He’s got a nice view of Petlands’ fish tanks and bird cages. And he’s still available. But with the store closing in March, the clock is ticking. invreporter@strausnews.com
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BLOOD, SNAKES AND SQUARE KNOTS CAMP BY DAVID NOONAN
Going to Boy Scout camp in the first half of the 1960s was a raw and exhilarating experience. It was also kind of nuts. We didn’t play tennis or softball. We didn’t have coed cookouts with girls from all-girl camps. We didn’t sleep in cabins with electricity and screen doors. And we didn’t have toilets. We slept in A-wall tents set up on wood platforms, two scouts to a tent. And we did our business in latrines, which, on a hot summer day in New Jersey, you could find with your eyes closed. It was supposed to be rug-
Boy Scout camp in the 1960s was not for the faint of heart. Some of the author’s gear, including his Eagle Scout medal. Photo: David Noonan
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ged, and it was. We were there to learn the kinds of arcane skills you really couldn’t learn anywhere else — how to start a fire in the rain, how to identify edible plants, how to build a rope bridge strong enough to hold a 250-pound man, how to make your way cross-country through the woods with a compass and a topographical map, how to tell time with a stick in the ground, how to cook a decent meal over an open fire. The point was to climb through the ranks of the quasimilitary organization, from lowly Tenderfoot to Eagle Scout, to earn merit badges and patches that you could wear on your uniform to signal your achievements.
FEBRUARY 14-20,2019 Armed too the teeth Another er difference between Boy Scout ut camp and the sleep-away away ca mps where some of my friends went was t he weapon eapon r y â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we were armed to the teeth, and nd we liked it.. We wore sheath eath k n ives on our belts, lts, carried multi-bladaded pocket ket knives in our pockets kets and sharprpened them em obsessively. vely. We used d off icia l Boy Scout hatchatchets and axes to chop wood for the e fires we were e always building. g. (There was even en a way to wear a hatchet on your belt.) t.) We shot bows and arrows ows at the archery range and nd we lay on funky old mattresses ses at the rifle range and shot .22 caliber riďŹ&#x201A;es at paper targets. ets. I used to pretend I was shooting at the Nazis who had invested so much time and energy trying to kill my father and his friends ds during the Battle e of the Bulge. World War II had ended less than 20 years before, and I can see now how it shadowed our ex-perience as Boy oy Scouts. Many of our dads and scout leaders were veterans, some with heavy combat experience. They didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t talk about it, but we did. One of our leaders, Mr. G., had fought in the jungles of the PaciďŹ c theater. I can still see the massive scar on the front of his thigh, which we decided he got in hand-to-hand combat with a machete-wielding enemy soldier. I also remember the night he punished a group of us for some infraction by having us stand in a circle and pick up and put down melon-sized rocks, over and over again, gain, for a half-hour or so. Try ry it sometime â&#x20AC;&#x201D; youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be amazed how exhausting it is. As I recall, Mr. G. said it was a method that was sometimes used in POW camps.
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Our Town|Ea Eastsider ourtownny.com linked the campsites. ((The board rural ER had a bo where on the wall wh isplayed t hey d isplay hooks, the fish hoo nails, girusty nails splinters ant splint random and rand hu n ks of metal they had removed remo from people.) peop I llo s t the nail â&#x20AC;&#x201D; nai the top of the thumb thu is f lat now, now with a wit notch notc in the middle midd but I â&#x20AC;&#x201D; bu back in was bac ca mp t h at shownight, sh ing off my enoren mous bandage, an arrangement of w white gauze the size of a chic chicken drumstick. We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t give it a lot of thought, but we were clearly on a kind of war footing, in our uniforms, with our ranks and chains of command, our Morse code and semaphore flags, our marching songs and m salutes. Before the sa end of the decade, e our Senior Patrol Leader, Jimmy, one of the older scouts, would become an Army Ranger and lose lo a leg in Vietnam.
Spilled blood Spille We sp spent a lot of time learning first aid, and we needed it. Spilled blood was as common as wood smoke. We sliced our fingers and hands open regularly with those carefully-sharpened knives (I ( can show you the scars), rs), burned ourselves overr campfires, sprained our ankles hiking the rocky terrain the camp was built on and bashed our heads on trees playing flashlight tag in the woods at night. earned a trip I earn p to the local hospital when I crushed w my left thumb m between two large rocks I was removing from one of tthe paths that
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Sssss... Without question, thou though, the most memorable thing about Camp Allamuchy in those days was the snake pit. Yes, we had a snake pit. It was a rectangular hole in the ground big enough to bury a small sedan. There was a wooden structure about three-feet high built around it, with a wire mesh top, so you could look down and see the snakes. And hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the best part â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it was up to the scouts to supply the snakes. By August it was quite the exhibit. (We knew what New Jerseyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s venomous snake, the copperhead, looked like. We were ordered to leave them alone, an order we were happy to obey.) Forty years later, my two sons attended the same sam camp with their th Boy Scout troop. There t were a lot of upgrades, of course, including the addition of a number o of cabins and a very nice shower house. Not surprisingly, the snake pit was no more. But the latrines were still in use, the tents still drooped in the rain, the scouts still practiced tying knots. And there were plenty of knives and hatchets to go around.
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YOUR 15 MINUTES
A POET AND HIS WORLDS BY BRIAN DEMO
Bob Holman remains on the move. He’s a poet and activist who travels the world, working to raise awareness for languages you may not know. He occasionally performs alongside his friend, Papa Susso — a Gambian griot and master kora player. You might find him at the Bowery Club, which he founded, where he recently concluded a workshop on poetry and theater. However, he managed to sit down for an interview in his apartment, home to souvenirs from Africa, troves of literature, and, in the living room, a painting by his late wife, the wellknown painter Elizabeth Murray.
What inspired you to write poetry? Was there an event or sense of self that made you say, “I think I could do this for the rest of my life?” I’m in love with language, words, reading, and was good at it. It was also an escape from the mundane life, into a place that was very special and my own. My mother’s voice taught me how to read and led me into all these other worlds. My teacher gave me a prize for my first poem I wrote when I was nine years old. She said, “Robert, where did you copy it from?” And I knew immediately. If you can get one over on your teacher, maybe you can get one over on the rest of the world.
What elements from your time as codirector of the Nuyorican Poetry Club did you hope to bring to the Bowery Poetry Club? When I left the Nuyorican Poetry Club, I wanted to have my own place. The Nuyorican’s performance dynamic is something for sure I wanted to do. The poetry slam that I started at the Nuyorican. I wanted to be sure that we had a poetry slam at the Bowery Poetry Club. I was moving into a more global kind of poetics. It’s always been kind of my dynamic to be inclusive until you got the whole world in your hands and one big bear-hug around the globe at the Equator ... The sister clubs — the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s, the Nuyorican, and the Bowery, I’ve worked at all three of them. They very much are complementary. You show me another spot on the planet where you can wander from poem to poem the way you can on the lower east side.
“Poets don’t adapt to technology. Technology adapts to poetry,” says Holman. Photo: Brian Demo
How have you seen poets adapt to the development of digital and online? For instance, now there’s YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Spotify. Has it been beneficial? Has it been harmful? Poets don’t adapt to technology. Technology adapts to poetry. With digital, you are able to see and hear the poem in a way that you didn’t when it was locked onto the pages of a book. At the same time, you run into the problems of “Well, what is going to be your image track?” How are you going to allow the images in the poem to be as free for the viewer as the images of text are to the reader? These are all great challenges that technology has to adapt to the poem so that the medium can become an illumination of the poem, not an illustration of it. I think the new Bowery Poetry app — which is changing its name from SlamFind — you’ll find different examples of straight documentation of a poem to a full-blown production of it, to a simple film of words on the screen with soundtracks. It’s a great time for poetry because we’re moving into third consciousness — the synthesis, I think, of orality and literacy, which is what we call digital right now. I don’t think that name is going to stick, but that’s the name we use for it now.
What new projects have you been working or put out recently that really stick out to you? What are you excited about for the future? I got a couple of books coming out that are where I’m spending my time these days. “The Unspoken,” which are poems from the last ten years. Along with it is a book that I wrote 50 years ago when I really was proclaiming myself and spending my time at the Cummington Community of the Arts. I started working on a booklength poem called Life Poem, which has never been published. It’s gonna be published this year. It’s about a young man, falling in love with poetry — with the possibilities of art and wearing his love for that art as a heart-shaped thought poem. I’m also working on an anthology of poems in endangered and minority languages about New York City, continuing with the work that I did with the PBS series “Language Matters.”
Do you see some languages as inevitable — as in they may end up getting pushed out, or do you hope those that are really endangered can be preserved? It’s a natural thing for a language to be created and have its life and to morph into other languages, but never have we had so many languages that
are being pushed out at the same time. I think digital is at the root of this. Everyone wants to join in the great Twitter brigade. People can’t catch up with that if you’re speaking Occitan or Dogon. At the same time, the sense of identity [of people’s cultures] is truly growing. But as languages disappear, they’re not extinct. They’re simply sleeping. Because if the people of those languages want to bring their languages back — want to be able to understand the consciousness of their family, their lineage — they can because of documentation and the skills of the linguists, like the Wampanoags have done up in Cape Cod.
How do you juggle your time as a poet, a teacher, an advocate, and a traveler? Do you manage to find time to sleep at night? I wish I could sleep better at night. I’m not a great sleeper, but I write a lot when I’m traveling. I write a lot when I am visiting art museums. I write when I’m at a concert. I don’t know what I’d do if I were a novelist and had to turn out so many pages a day. I’m trying to write this book on third consciousness right now, and I’m finding to write prose to be a different kind of a discipline for me. But I’m getting there.
How does family, your late wife, fit into your work? The project I’m doing right now is a digital project — a film. I wrote poems for the each of the paintings that was in [Murray’s] show at Pace Gallery. [There were] 17 paintings. I wrote 17 poems. We filmed them. And the filmmaker Kristi Zia and I are turning that into a short, 23-minute film called Talking Pictures. The plan is for that film to be sort of the Bugs Bunny cartoon to open for the film about Elizabeth’s life, called “Everybody Knows Elizabeth Murray,” that was on American Masters on PBS this fall. Things start with the family. And then there’s time for everything else. And it’s interesting that you would get to this at the end of our conversation, because it’s actually where everything begins. This interview was edited for clarity and space.
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WORD SEARCH by Myles Mellor
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Across 1. Interrogate 6. Atty group 9. Sphere 12. Concluding stanza 13. Romanian currency 14. Sticky liquid 15. Noncommittal response 16. Printer fuel 17. Young guy 18. Cable channel 20. Exceedingly 21. Venomous snake 24. Port of ancient Rome 27. Seldom 30. Modern day protest movement 34. Spring flowers 35. Grand Canyon transport 36. “Surfin’ ___” 38. Graphics machine 39. Half human half horse deity 41. “Red __ “ thriller 42. Scottish lake 45. Just survive 47. Blood system 48. Recognition response 50. Spanish dishes
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Each Sudoku puzzle consists of a 9X9 grid that has been subdivided into nine smaller grids of 3X3 squares. To solve the puzzle each row, column and box must contain each of the numbers 1 to 9. Puzzles come in three grades: easy, medium and difficult.
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SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan
by Myles Mellor
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FEBRUARY 14-20,2019
Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com
FEBRUARY 14-20,2019
23
Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com
CLASSIFIEDS PUBLIC NOTICES
PUBLIC NOTICES
PUBLIC NOTICES If you have received a discharge from the Bankruptcy Court, you are not personally liable for the payment of the loan and this notice is for compliance and information purposes only. However, Citibank N.A., still has the right under the loan security agreement and other collateral documents to foreclosure on the shares of stock and rights under the proprietary lease allocated to the cooperative apartment. Dated: January 11, 2019 Frenkel, Lambert, Weiss, Weisman & Gordon, LLP Attorneys for Citibank N.A. 53 Gibson Street Bay Shore, NY 11706631-969-3100 File #01-084236-F00 #96329
PUBLIC AUCTION NOTICE OF SALE OF COOPERATIVE APARMENT SECURITY PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: By Virtue of a Default under Loan Security Agreement, and other Security Documents, Karen Loiacano, Auctioneer, License #DCA1435601 or Jessica L Prince-Clateman, Auctioneer, License #1097640 or Vincent DeAngelis Auctioneer, License #1127571 will sell at public auction, with reserve, on February 20,2019,in the Rotunda, at the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 commencing at 1:30 PM for the following account:
Mark Savet, as borrower, 804 shares of capital stock of 50 Sutton Place South Owners Inc. and all right, title and interest in the Proprietary Lease to 50 S Sutton Place, Unit #19F, New York, NY 10022 Sale held to enforce rights of Citibank N.A., who reserves the right to bid. Ten percent (10%) Bank/Certified check required at sale, balance due at closing within thirty (30) days. The Cooperative Apartment will be sold "AS IS" and possession is to be obtained by the purchaser. Pursuant to Section 201 of the Lien Law you must answer within 10 days from receipt of this notice in which redemption of the above captioned premises can occur. There is presently an outstanding debt owed to Citibank N.A. (lender) as of the date of this notice in the amount of $179,239.21. This figure is for the outstanding balance due under UCC1, which was secured by Financing Statement in favor of Citbank, N.A which was recorded on April 17, 2009 at CRFN 2009000113020. Said loan was then assigned to Bank of New York as Trustee for the Structured Asset Securities Corporation Mortgage Pass through Certificates, Series 2003-31A which UCC3 was recorded on April 15, 2015 at CRFN 2015000126121. The loan was subsequently assigned to Citibank, N.A. which UCC3 was recorded on May 4, 2016 at CRFN 2016000153159 then further assigned to Nationstar Mortgage LLC and recorded on October 6, 2017at CRFN 2017000370940. The loan was then assigned to Citibank, N.A. on October 23, 2018, CRFN 2018000352782. Please note this is not a payoff amount as additional interest/fees/penalties may be incurred. You must contact the undersigned to obtain a final payoff quote or if you dispute any information presented herein. The estimated value of the above captioned premises is $1,210,000.00. Pursuant to the Uniform Commercial Code Article 9-623, the above captioned premises may be redeemed at any time prior to the foreclosure sale. You may contact the undersigned and either pay the principal balance due along with all accrued interest, late charges, attorney fees and out of pocket expenses incurred by Citibank N.A.. and the undersigned, or pay the outstanding loan arrears along with all accrued interest, late charges, attorney fees and out of pocket expenses incurred by Citibank N.A., and the undersigned, with respect to the foreclosure proceedings. Failure to cure the default prior to the sale will result in the termination of the proprietary lease.
Telephone: 212-868-0190 Fax: 212-868-0198 Email: classified2@strausnews.com
POLICY NOTICE: We make every effort to avoid mistakes in your classified ads. Check your ad the first week it runs. The publication will only accept responsibility for the first incorrect insertion. The publication assumes no financial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for any copy changes. All classified ads are pre-paid.
PUBLIC NOTICES
HELP WANTED
TO PLACE YOUR LEGAL NOTICE
HELP WANTED
MASSAGE
CALL
MERCHANDISE FOR SALE
Barry Lewis at
(212) 868-0190 or
barry.lewis@strausnews.com
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FEBRUARY 14-20,2019
Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com
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