Our Town - March 24, 2016 by Our Town

The local paper for the Upper er East Side VAN DYCK AT THE FRICK < CITYARTS, P.12

WEEK OF MARCH

24-30 2016

NEW WORRIES ABOUT TRUCK TRAFFIC ON EAST SIDE NEWS Pedestrian death reinforces concerns tied to M.T.S. BY MADELEINE THOMPSON

Jodi McGrath was crossing First Avenue at E. 92nd Street when she was struck by a garbage truck taking a left turn onto the avenue, a stone’s throw from her home at the Holmes Towers. According to a report from the office of the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information, McGrath was taken by emergency responders to New YorkPresbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she died. McGrath, who was 55, was hit by an unidentiﬁed male driving a private sanitation

vehicle; the driver has been issued a summons for failure to yield and, according to the DCPI, the incident is under ongoing investigation by the New York Police Department’s Collision Investigation Squad. Her death is cause for mourning as well as a cause of concern in the community, highlighting the dangers posed by garbage trucks related to the Marine Transfer Station, now under construction on 91st Street and the East River. While residents and public officials in the neighborhood have been concerned about the concentration of garbage on the East Side related to the MTS, the bigger concern is the amount of truck traffic that will accompany the project -- a concern that McGrath’s death has reinforced.

“It’s imperative that the city reexamine what this traffic will mean,” said Maggy Siegel, executive director of Asphalt Green, the sports complex that is adjacent to the road trucks will take to the transfer station. Asphalt Green last year successfully led a ﬁght to shift that route one block north, to 92nd Street, which will dramatically decrease the number of turns that garbage trucks will be taking to the MTS. However, there still will be a three- to four-year period that the 91st Street entrance will be in use. Greg Morris, executive director of the Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center, is particularly concerned about the fact that such tragedies

An aerial view of the site of the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, which is being constructed next to Asphalt Green’s athletic ﬁelds.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

Chapter 4: Enter Charles

EVE AND OTHERS BY ESTHER COHEN

Illustration by John S. Winkleman

OurTownEastSide

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One day in our building Eve got into the elevator with a man who was visiting a friend on another ﬂoor. This man called himself Charles. He was not Chuck. Chas either. Charles was going to see someone he’d known in his childhood in Brooklyn, a high school friend named Larry. There were so many Larrys once. I don’t think I’ve seen a Larry baby ever. Charles said to Eve, “What ﬂoor are you going to?” and Eve

Newscheck Crime Watch Voices Out & About

2 3 8 10

told him six. Charles replied that he would like to come visit. How about now? he asked, more gentle than insistent. But still. His friend Larry was a magician, and every week on Friday he’d join a table of other magicians, in a room in a midtown restaurant. They’d all eat pastrami sandwiches and do their tricks. Larry told me that once a man pulled a rabbit out of a hat and then they all ate it. Larry earned his living as a sound person at NBC. He was a huge man, really huge. Elevator big. Larry could bring a friend to be part of the round table audience and that’s why Charles dropped by. He was tiny, fastidious. Even his head seemed neatly positioned on his neck, and his neck

City Arts Top 5 Business 15 Minutes

12 13 16 21

actually seemed centered between his shoulders. His face was careful, controlled, and so were his hands. The day Eve saw him first, he was dressed in a neat black overcoat, even in the 80s when the rest of the world wore jackets. His coats did not give anyone the sense that he was entirely unemployed. About Eve, she was a person who was visually always amazing. Besides her face, her strong, memorable, very beautiful face, she wore red velvet dresses and painted gold shoes. The 80s was an unfettered time, and although the world was as difficult as always, we were young. We were free. We were living in New York City where god knows anything at all could happen.

Charles told Eve all about Larry, the first time he sat in our apartment. He invited her to accompany him. “Do you like magic?” he asked, knowing her answer. Of course she said yes. Funny what we remember, and what we don’t. What I remember about that day, seeing Charles and Eve sit-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday March 25 – 6:56 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com.

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MARCH 24-30,2016

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WHAT’S MAKING NEWS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD TRANSIT TRANSGRESSOR’S STORY BOUND FOR BIG SCREEN Darius McCollum has spent much of his life thinking about the city’s transit system but never in any official capacity. Since he was in his teens, McCollum has climbed aboard city buses, into a subway operator’s cabin or into various roles within the transit system. It’s brought him plenty of trouble, and lots of time behind bars. McCollum, now 50 and in a Rikers Island jail cell for having appropriated a Greyhound bus from the Port Authority Bus Terminal last year, is about to have his story told through a feature film, one starring Julia Roberts as his lawyer, The New York Times reports. But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, on several occasions the target of McCollum’s deeds, said it would act to claim any money he would make from the feature, The Times reported. The authority cited the so-called Son of Sam law, which was enacted to keep convicted serial killer David Berkowitz from making money from selling his story. McCollum’s lawyer, Sally Butler, told The Times the M.T.A.’s would be chasing a trivial amount of money. She would nevertheless fight the agency, she said. “It’s not going to be such a significant amount that the M.T.A. would want to

waste money on the team of lawyers they would need to pursue this,” Butler told the newspaper. “They will take it over my dead body.” Advocates for McCollum, who has Asperger’s syndrome, have long said he would be better served by treatment than punishment.

NATIONAL ACADEMY TO SELL BUILDINGS The National Academy, the venerable Upper East Side arts institution, will close its museum on June 1 and sell two historic Beaux Arts Fifth Avenue buildings. The mansions, at East 89th Street, have been home to the academy since 1942. The buildings have proved exceedingly costly to maintain and the prospect of a hefty return made their prospective sale enticing, The New York Times reported. The sale will allow the 190-year institution to create a ﬁrst-time permanent endowment, its director, Maura Reilly, wrote on the museum’s web site. The National Academy’s holdings include a collection of American art that would be the envy of much larger museums, The Times said. Among its nearly 8,000 pieces are artist portraits by Robert Rauschenberg, John Singer Sargent, Cecilia Beaux and Jacob Lawrence.

ANTIQUE DEALER CAUGHT SMUGGLING STOLEN 2ND CENTURY SCULPTURE A 71-year-old Japanese antiquities dealer was arrested for smuggling a $1.1 million second-century sculpture called “Footprints of Buddha” into New York. Tatsuzo Kaku, part of Tokyobased Taiyo Ltd. which deals in ancient artifacts, was caught at the Mark Hotel on East 77th Street and charged with possession of stolen property, the New York Post reported. The relic, a 440-pound rare Buddhapada sculpture, was stolen from an archaeological site in Pakistan in 1982 and bought by Kaku later that year; he then smuggled the artifact to Japan where he sold it. After buying the sculpture back and selling it again twice after in the subsequent years, he took possession of the sculpture in 2013 when the previous collector “entrusted” it to him, according to the New York Post’s sources. Before his arrest on March 14 and subsequent seizure of the sculpture by the DA’s Office and Homeland Security, Kaku intended to sell the relic at Maitreya Inc. Gallery on East 75th Street, The Post reported. He was ultimately caught because a rival criminal art dealer began cooperating with the police in 2015 and brought them evidence of Kaku’s incriminating emails.

Holy Week & Easter 2016 Thursday, March 24th 7:00pm - Holy Eucharist followed by stripping of the Altar. The church will be open until 10:00 PM for private vigils. Friday, March 25th 12:00pm - Good Friday Liturgy

Saturday, March 26th 9:00pm - Easter Vigil Reception following Sunday, March 27th Easter Sunday 10:00am - Festive Choral Eucharist

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

MAN FILES $30 MILLION CLAIM IN CRANE COLLAPSE A man who was injured after a large construction crane collapsed in New York City last month has filed a $30 million claim against the city. The New York Daily News reports 73-year-old Thomas O’Brien, of North Easton, Massachusetts, ﬁled the notice of claim. O’Brien says he was sitting in his parked car when the crane’s boom crashed down on the car’s roof Feb. 5. He alleges the city was negligent in monitoring the Manhattan construction site. The crane fell as it was being lowered amid roughly 20 mph winds in a snow squall. The cause is still under investigation. Wall Street worker David Wichs was

killed in the collapse. Three others, including O’Brien, were injured. A spokesman for the city’s law department says it will review O’Brien’s claim.

FENCE OFFENSE A 33-year-old man was arrested on grand larceny charges after trying to sell another man’s stolen property back to him, police said. The victim, 32, had brought a 40-year-old man he had recenlty met to his Amsterdam Avenue residence on March 6. When the 32-year-old woke up later that morning, his new acquaintance was missing — as were several personal items. The victim later received a phone call from another person, who told him he had bought property from the 40-year-old for $700. He offered to meet with the victim and sell him back his property for $900. The victim declined to meet the reseller, but the police caught the fence anyway, arresting Trevor Forde. The items stolen and recovered were a MacBook Pro valued at $1,200, an iPhone worth $700, an iPad priced at $400, a Fossil wallet valued at $40, along with a New York State ID and various credit and debit cards.

CLONED OUT

being cloned these days. Sometime between March 3 and March 10, an unknown perpetrator used the debit card information of a 35-year-old West End Avenue resident to make multiple cash withdrawals totaling $5,920 with a cloned credit card in locations throughout Queens. The victim was still in possession of his debit card, which he subsequently canceled.

AWFUL EARFUL Diamond earrings are no longer one girl’s best friends. During the evening of Saturday, February 20, a 22-year-old woman living on 101st Street discovered that some diamond earrings she had received as a gift just three days before were now missing. She had last seen the earrings while she was at work the previous day. She had placed the pair, valued at $5,500, into their box, which she then inserted into her purse. She told police she zipped the bag closed and put it inside a tote bag. She then boarded an L train, transferring to a 6 train at Union Square. The train was very crowded, and she felt “squished in” before getting off to visit her boyfriend, who lived at 79th Street and Park Avenue. The victim told police that she was certain the earrings had been removed from her purse in the subway and not lost.

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19TH PRECINCT Week to Date

Year to Date

2016 2015

% Chg

2016

2015 % Chg

Murder

n/a

-100.0

Rape

n/a

-100.0

Robbery

-66.7

-5.0

Felony Assault

-100.0

-7.7

Burglary

50.0

60.7

Grand Larceny

38.1

252

242

4.1

Grand Larceny Auto

n/a

25.0

BLOOMINGDALE WAIL

MAILBOX POX

Communing with nature was no walk in the park for one Upper West Side resident recently. At 11 a.m. on March 12, a 21-year-old man was sitting on a bench in Bloomingdale Park at West 104th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. As he left the park, he noticed his wallet was missing and returned to the park bench to ﬁnd it. The wallet was no longer there. The property stolen included the black wallet, $1,600 in cash, and a prepaid travel MasterCard valued at $2,800, making a total of $4,412.

On Nov. 29, a 77-year-old man living at West 95th Street mailed checks using the mailbox located at 700 Columbus Ave. On Feb. 10 , the man was notiﬁed by the Bank of America that a check he had initially written for $143.94 had been changed to $1,430.94 and cashed. In addition, another check he had written to the New York City Department of Finance had also been altered and cashed for $2,407.06.

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Students at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, on the Upper East Side, participate in Kick Butts Day events March 16.

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STATE LEGISLATORS State Sen. Jose M. Serrano

1916 Park Ave. #202

212-828-5829

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KICKING THE HABIT BEFORE IT STARTS Students document the dozens of retail outlets that make up the city’s “tobacco swamp” BY BRYTNIE JONES

Students at Smith School on West 86th Street need to walk just a few hundred feet to get a cup of coffee at no fewer than four different outlets. Middle Eastern delicacies, pizza, bagels, crepes and barbecue are also available within a couple block radius. So are cigarettes. Plenty of them. Students at Smith recently counted about 30 outlets selling tobacco products within four blocks of the school and on nearly every corner. On March 16, National Kick Butts Day, Smith’s roughly 50 students teamed up with NYC Smoke-Free, an education and advocacy organization, to raise awareness of tobacco proliferation within the city’s neighborhoods. Other schools, including Eleanor Roosevelt High School on the Upper East Side

and Stuyvesant High School, downtown, also participated. Smith, though, held one of the larger events. The week before Kick Butts Day, representatives from NYC Smoke-Free visited Smith, and gave a presentation on the negative effects of tobacco and detailed the industry’s marketing campaigns. They also coordinated with students to document the neighborhood’s retail outlets selling cigarettes. Students then created posters illustrating what they learned, but also to set down messages combating tobacco advertisement and promoting the importance of being smoke-free. “Right now there are about 4,000 high school students that currently smoke in Manhattan. So there is a lot of work to be done,” said Lisa Spitzer, NYC Smoke-Free’s community engagement coordinator. “We’ve made a lot of progress with our smoke-free laws in New York City, but the fact remains that smoking among youth is still an issue, and the prolifera-

tion of tobacco retail outlets throughout New York City is a huge problem. New York City is like a tobacco swamp.” According NYC Smoke-Free, more than 10,000 city teenagers become daily smokers each year. Nearly three times that many New Yorkers — 28,200 — die annually from tobacco use. This year, Smith School’s teachers implemented college, multicultural and healthy habits weeks to build culture, raise awareness and promote students to be “change-makers” and make thoughtful decisions. Consideration of tobacco’s harmful effects ﬁt right into the curriculum. Marissa Allen, the school guidance counselor, said NYC Smoke-Free campaign was particularly good timing. The idea ﬁt right into the curriculum that students and teachers were covering within their advisory groups. “We’re dealing with real teen topics that they’re interested in and want to talk about, real life issues besides the curricu-

lum their learning in history, English or math. They get to talk about stress management, peer pressure, stereotypes, drugs and alcohol, and stuff that they face on a daily basis,” Allen said. On National Kick Butts Day last Wednesday, Ayo Alli, NYC Smoke-Free’s youth engagement coordinator, encouraged students to think about why combating tobacco matters. He told students that 90 percent of smokers started before they reached 18. He commended students for working hard to combat tobacco use. “The youth here feel like we don’t need any more tobacco retail outlets, they don’t need more tobacco stores and tobacco products in their community. They need healthier options that support them in making the right decisions,” Spitzer said. “They want to see a vision for their future generations to be tobacco-free and I think this could only spur the start of conversations with them within their peers, as well as their families.” Rachel Mitchell, an 11th-grader whose poster was among those judged most effective, said the event and the instruction and discussion that led up to National Kick Butts Day, was instructive and sobering. “I’m definitely more aware of the effects of smoking,” Mitchell said. “I’m going to try my best to influence my peers not to smoke.”

MARCH 24-30,2016

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very year, hundreds of thousands of students choose The City University of New York for a multitude of reasons that can be summed up as one: opportunity. Providing a quality, accessible education regardless of background or means has been CUNY’s mission since 1847. The University’s unwavering commitment to that principle is a source of enormous pride. CUNY colleges offer a seemingly infinite array of academic programs taught by award-winning faculty, as well as the arts, sports, internships, scholarships and community service opportunities. The powerful combination of quality academics, remarkable affordability, financial support and the convenience of 24 modern campuses spanning the five boroughs of New York – the most exciting city in the world – makes CUNY a singular value in higher education today. The wise choice for smart students: That’s the CUNY Value. James B. Milliken CHANCELLOR

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com She called me in to join them. I was in our One Other Room, probably reading a novel. Reading a novel has always been my default position. There are always two or three or four right next to my bed. I knew they were in the living room. I’d heard them come in. “Naomi,” yelled Eve. She

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didn’t have to yell. Of course I was curious. “We are roommates,” was the ﬁrst thing I said. “Obvious,” he replied. And then he half-laughed. “I’ll tell you about myself, so you don’t have to ask,” he began. And we were rapt, sitting in

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In accordance with Section 1-12 of the Concession Rules of the City of New York, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (“Parks”) is issuing, as of the date of this notice, a Request for Bids (“RFB”) for the sale of food from mobile food units at various park locations citywide. Hard copies of the RFB can be obtained, at no cost, commencing Wednesday, March 16, 2016 through Thursday, April 7, 2016 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., excluding weekends and holidays, at the Revenue Division of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, which is located at 830 Fifth Avenue, Room 407, New York, NY 10065. All bids submitted in response to this RFB must be submitted by no later than Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. The RFB is also available for download, Wednesday, March 16, 2016 through Thursday, April 7, 2016 on Parks’ website. To download the RFB, visit www.nyc.gov/parks/businessopportunities, click on the link for “Concessions Opportunities at Parks” and, after logging in, click on the “download” link that appears adjacent to the RFB’s description. For more information related to the RFB contact Zoe Piccolo (for Bronx and Staten Island Parks) at 212-360-1397 or via email:zoe.piccolo@parks.nyc.gov; Eric Weiss (for Brooklyn Parks) at 212-3601397 or via email: eric.weiss@parks.nyc.gov; Joseph Conforti (for Queens Parks) at 212-360-1397 or via email: joe.conforti@parks.nyc.gov, or Glenn Kaalund (Manhattan Parks) at 212-3601397 or via email: glenn.kaalund@parks.nyc.gov. TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR THE DEAF (TDD) 212-504-4115

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In accordance with Section 1-12 of the Concession Rules of the City of New York, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (“Parks”) is issuing, as of the date of this notice, a Request for Bids for the sale of food from mobile food units at various locations at Central Park, Manhattan. Hard copies of the RFB can be obtained, at no cost, commencing on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 through Thursday, April 7, 2016, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., excluding weekends and holidays, at the Revenue Division of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, which is located at 830 Fifth Avenue, Room 407, New York, NY 10065. All bids submitted in response to this RFB must be submitted by no later than Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. The RFB is also available for download, commencing Wednesday, March 16, 2016 through Thursday, April 7, 2016 on Parks’ website. To download the RFB, visit www.nyc.gov/parks/businessopportunities, click on the link for “Concessions Opportunities at Parks” and, after logging in, click on the “download” link that appears adjacent to the RFB’s description. For more information, contact Glenn Kaalund at (212) 3601397 or VIA email at Glenn.Kaalund@parks.nyc.gov. TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR THE DEAF (TDD) 212-504-4115

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our bright yellow room, hearing this odd stranger telling us a thing or two about himself. “I am my mother’s only child,” was the way he began. This is the fourth installment of our first-ever serialized novel. For past chapters, go to www.ourtownny. com. For more on the writer, go to www.esthercohen.com

into

EVE AND OTHERS

you You’d look

Email us at news@strausnews.com

By Stuart Appelbaum, President Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW

here is dignity in all honest work, and all workers deserve to be treated with respect. When people go to work each day, they deserve to be able to support themselves and to earn a decent living. That’s what it’s supposed to be about. When people go to work each day, not be condemned to lives of poverty. And yet for far too many workers, that is exactly what is happening. They go to work each day – just like society wants them to – and they are still condemned to lives of poverty, anxiety and stress because New York’s minimum wage is inadequate. It’s wrong, it’s immoral, and it has got to change. And the way to make it change is by raising New York’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. It’s simply a matter of fairness, decency, and good economics. When we join together to fight for $15 an hour we are fighting for more than just a higher wage rate. We are fighting for a better future for all New Yorkers. We are fighting for a growing middle class, and more opportunity for all of us. We are fighting for a stronger tax base and a diminished gap between the wealthiest few and working people. At the RWDSU, and at our union’s Retail Action Project, which gives assistance to non-union retail workers, we’ve seen the daily struggles that retail workers in New York face. Too many are bringing home $10 an hour, $9 an hour, and sometimes even less. Many of these workers are forced to turn to public assistance. It’s outrageous that any hardworking person should require food stamps to provide dinner for their family. Retail workers represent the largest percentage of New Yorkers who work at minimum wage or slightly above. And these workers desperately need – and deserve – more pay. But retail workers are not alone. Car wash workers, home health aides, food service workers, and many in other industries all deserve more than the terribly insufficient $9 minimum wage that New York State mandates. Every working human being in New York deserves better than that. Every worker is doing their part, contributing to our communities, and making profits for their bosses. We all deserve a shot at a decent life. We all deserve a chance to build stronger families and communities, and realize our dreams. That’s why we work. Our movement is getting stronger. It’s a movement to change the lives of three million working people. The state legislature needs to listen to us, do what is right, and help ensure New York’s workers are guaranteed higher pay and a better quality of life. Together, we can win a higher minimum wage, and we can make a difference in the lives of New York’s working families.

For more information, visit

www.rwdsu.org

MARCH 24-30,2016

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Voices

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

Letters ON SENIOR SEX AND DATING Marcia Epstein’s “Graying New York” column in the March 17 issue, about sex and dating among seniors, prompted a number of letters from readers. Here’s a sample: To the Editor:

Firstly, the “fact” that (woman) friends found it awful for women of our age group...The men, no prizes themselves, were dismissive and sometimes even rude. There were no call-backs. These women soon went back to their single lives, determined to make them even better than before.....and the overall theme is they want attractiveness ... and the wish for women to cater to their desire and wishes. Needless to say, these men get my hackles up.” My reaction is, Why? Why do these men get your hackles up? What is wrong with men - even older gentlemen - wanting attractiveness? (I’m an old lady, almost 80, and into the fifth year of my widowhood, after a beautiful half century marriage to an incredibly wonderful husband.) My mantra is ‘The older you get, the harder you have to work at your appearance.’ Today, with all the makeup and beauty care tips out there, there is no need for a ‘mature’ woman to be anything but easy to look at. After all, aren’t we hoping for/looking for a pleasant-looking man who obviously takes care of himself? Why, in our search, would we even consider men ‘who are no prizes themselves’? For those of us who have used the ‘dating scene, Internet or otherwise’ why do they find it awful? For the Internet, you compose your own personality profile, and if you’re honest, and consider your intended ‘audience’, then you simply have to work at projecting your ‘wonderfulness.’ An honest, humble, sensitive statement can be either an irresistible attractant or an insurmountable turn-off to a man. And, what is so terrible or unacceptable about a man’s ‘wish for women to cater to their desire and wishes’? (I know that there are legions of widows, like myself, who would give anything to have our man back to cater to his desires and wishes.) Love and kindness and caring engender love and kindness and caring, and, if we are honest with ourselves, isn’t that what we all yearn for? The line in ‘Graying New York’ that concerned me most, and made me saddest, was ‘....[they] soon went back to their single lives, determined to make them even better than before ...’ What does that really mean? Do these women not want, need, yearn

STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source

for the company, the male-female yin and yang? Men are quite different from women, and, in my honest opinion, the difference, the dynamic, the ‘sexiness’ is exciting and beautiful and life-affirming, at any age. (My adored late husband was signiﬁcantly older than I but his general ‘maleness’ was always there: from his attitudes, his quirks, his opinions and his world views, there was never any doubt that my life’s companion, was quite different and thus fascinating to me. The company of women is a wondrous thing, but the company of a man makes everything so much better.) As for sex ... when you show love, nurturance, appreciation and kindness to even a very old partner, you receive, in turn, love, nurturance, appreciation, kindness, and, should you both be so inclined and interested, sex. (No person wants to touch, or be touched by, someone who doesn’t like or love them.) Humans wither and die without love. We ladies are still the same inside - it’s just our ‘gift-wrap’ that is missing. Inside we are still the same wonderful, kind, nurturing, wise, caring - and yes, sexy. My response to the senior dating scene would be, ‘Take a chance, get out there, showcase your wonderfulness, make use of all the good instincts that your happy marriages - and lives - have taught you and go out there and try again ... The man you meet might not be Mr. Wonderful, but you will probably not ‘make [your years] even better than before’ by spending them in cruises to foreign ports and Book Clubs with the girls. Lisa To the Editor:

Every man no matter what age wants an attractive woman to date. If he’s going to invest his time/money and possibly get intimate{sex}he has to be attracted to her. Now a friendship/companionship is a different story. And as far as women taking care of men ... a lot of these men came from a different time when the roles of the sexes were not as confusing as they are today. If a man had a wife who passed away and she always took care of him it would only be natural for him to want that again. Maybe we should put an age limit on dating ... say 70. LOL. No dating after 70. But like everything else in this life, sometimes people get lucky at any age. Thank you for the article. (BTW, I’m only in my 50s and I have a lot of problems with dating, too.) Michael

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Associate Publishers Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth Regional Sales Manager Tania Cade

FROM INTERNET SPEEDS TO TV POLITICS EAST SIDE ENCOUNTERS BY ARLENE KAYATT

Not so fast: Verizon spokesman Ricky Gervais lauds Verizon’s “#1 for consistently fast speeds.” With all due respect, Mr. Gervais is not describing the Verizon internet access or telephone service provided to its Park Avenue residential and business customers in east midtown Manhattan. For months on end, Verizon businesses and residences in the 57th Street area have been victims of interrupted or no service for hours or days at a time. Talk to Verizon and they tell you about tangled wires, twisted cables, too much copper, not enough copper. All while billing you as though you were getting bona ﬁde phone and internet services. No 911 in an emergency. No 311. No 511. No friends, family, relatives. No business calls coming in or going out. Nothing. An Our Town reader with five business and phone lines in her Park Ave. residence has been complaining that all ﬁve lines have been inaccessible 24/7 or with burps in between when calls can be made or received and the internet works. Seems Verizon’s told Ricky only half the story - that they are the “#1 network” when their network’s working which is not 24/7 or even close. If Verizon wants to be the #1 network and enhance their credibility by using Ricky Gervais, then untangle the wires, untwist the cables, get the right copper and be honorable and don’t make customers pay for services they are not getting. Trust me, having to give credit for non service will lead to phones and internet working fast and furious. Really fast. Brazilian babes @ B&N: Late Saturday morning at B&N on East 86th. Down escalator to the Starbucks Cafe. A 20-something female

working at her laptop. Wearing a mock turtleneck tee shirt ringed with the words, “I’m not sorry.” Passing by, a 20-something male noticed a postcard alongside the lady’s laptop bearing the words “Brazilian Babes,” with a sketch graphic of the lower anatomy of a female dazzled with stones. The smiling young man caught the eye of the lady at the laptop, directed his eyes to the tee shirt and glanced over at the postcard and said “I’m not sorry” either. They smiled, winked and waved at each other. Life’s too short for sorry. Millennial meal making: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Whole Foods may be the next venue for Blue Apron, Plated, Fresh Direct type dining on its Mezzanine floor (on 87th/3rd) for those who are not eating at home. These delivery services provide the makings/ ingredients to be assembled and prepared at home. An unintended consequence is that some folks are now shopping at Whole Foods, purchasing the makings/ ingredients - not from the self service buffet on the main floor - but from the meat, fish and produce departments, and making and delivering the meal to themselves. On several recent visits to Whole Foods I saw it right before my eyes. Whole Foods shopping bag in hand, a man proceeded to unpack the fresh ingredients from fish and poultry to veggies and fruit. He removed cellophane wrapping, salted and peppered the food, placed it in a bowl with water and maybe another liquid, added parsley and mint leaves, and marched over to the microwave. It took many a trip back and forth before even one item was done. It’s not home dining. It’s not home delivery but it’s another option for the millennial generation. And it doesn’t require a

President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com Account Executive Editor In Chief, Kyle Pope editor.ot@strausnews.com Fred Almonte Director of Partnership Development Deputy Editor, Richard Khavkine Barry Lewis editor.dt@strausnews.com

Staff Reporters Gabrielle Alfiero, Madeleine Thompson Director of Digital Pete Pinto

monthly fee - but a willingness to shop, prepare and serve yourself. A matter of taste and time. Cold comfort: At home with pneumonia for over a week. Doctor’s orders. And so it was that I was landlocked as the Republican primary season raged on. Clicking the remotes is my ﬁrst act when I open the door to my home. White noise, sometimes. Otherwise, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News. Different talking heads. Sometimes the same. Doesn’t matter. I want to see/hear it all on TV when I’m home. Or so it was. No more. As the Republican field whittled down. As the venom ﬁred up. As the media hyped the protests, there had to be another way for me to stay at home and still have the TV on. Books, newspapers, yes. But the visual, how do I manage that? Comfort foods not an option. Ah, comfort from the TV. Never thought about that. What to watch? The perennials - Food Network favorites like Chopped, Unique Eats. Law and Order whatever channel. What could be more comforting than old time reruns of the 90’s show? Sam Waterston’s Asst DA Jack McCoy. Steven Hill’s DA, Adam Schiff, S. Epatha Merkerson’s NYPD Lieutenant Anita Van Buren. Predictable. Not always the ending you wanted. But it made sense. Same for Food Network’s Chopped show where working chefs compete. Their food is judged by world-class chefs like Geoffrey Zakarian, Scott Conan, Amanda Freitag. They like what they like and tell you why. And why they don’t. Makes sense. Not so Bernie’s revolution or Donald’s walls, or Ted’s endorsements. The doctor told me to stay in and I’d get better. If there’s a next time, I’ll have to ask for an overthe-counter prescription for TV watching or I’ll never get better.

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

MARCH 24-30,2016

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Is she losing her innocence too soon?

My Story

Photo by George Cade

SEARCHING FOR CONNECTION BY BETTE DEWING

The original ‘Senior Concerns’ Our Town columnist, Barry Coyne, always warned on major holidays how “this must not be one day of remembering in a year of forgetting!” It’s a phrase I’ve used ever since. Barry, a man of about 60, and I think a professional social worker, always hoped the event would produce more enabling connections. And this came to mind at Our Town’s OTTY Awards event that when award winner Archbishop Timothy Dolan learned that award winner Harris Healy’s Logos Book Store was “the only NYC Christian book store,” he would go all out to support it. Heaven knows, book stores need supporting. For the general public, I hasten to add, Logos’ books include those of other faiths and philosophies, and most of the stock is of the secular, if not the sensational kind. There are CD’s and gracious small gifts and greeting cards. It also stocks this community newspaper. Plus there are community events, a Monday morning children’s story hour and a monthly Kill Your TV book reading and discussion event, and much more. Some of us care that it’s also architecturally nurturing with high ceilings and walls covered with dark wood book shelves. (The lights could use some toning down, though - a subject for a

regular column, For redemptive lighting, wattage must be reduced, and any “efficients” must be the warm-white kind. That goes for places of worship, healing, working, learning, street lights (!), and especially at home, including shelters for those without homes.) Are you still with me? And speaking of redemption, of course, it’s Easter week, but this year it’s not so easy for some Catholics to be joyful with their churches closed or merged. But to my knowledge, Our Lady of Peace on East 62nd between Second and Third still hopes the Vatican will reopen this centuryold church, which was ﬁnancially self-supporting and very well-attended. And unlike the new church to which it’s assigned, its ambience is traditionally subdued and spiritual. And so admirably, some of its faithful members reportedly still hold a daily 6 p.m. informal service outside the church. Maybe even nonChristians and non-believers will want to join them sometimes or/and support them. In general, though, maybe all us faith group members need to be a little more caring of one another, and not only for the most obvious elder members who too often are only remembered on holy days with a holiday plant delivered to their home. Not very redemptive.

But back to the Our Town Thanks You Awards, may not only the archbishop of the honorees connect with one another beyond the event. May they all work together on maybe, above all, saving small neighborhood businesses that meet everyday needs – that make a caring community. That is truly redemptive. Ah, and many there were not honorees but they surely do serve the community. But some were absent this year, like former honoree, Loretta Ponticello, whom I only later learned was temporarily disabled by a fall. Oh, yes, Harris Healy’s mother was able to attend thanks to her son, a wheeled walker device and a home care aide. But I missed Matilda Cuomo, another OTTY Award winner, now sadly widowed and rarely if ever seen in the news or with her son Andrew. Well, to close on a more redemptive note, a musical one, this shy-talker columnist most wholeheartedly welcomed the live piano music played at the OTTY event’s reception time. Awards galore to the pianist for playing that most redemptive of popular music, the American standards. But please consider their lyrics often also apply to family and friendship love, like, “I’ll be Loving You Always.” Hey, and don’t let me be the only one singing along! dewingbetter@aol,com.

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MARCH 24-30,2016

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Thu 24

politics and history of Ukraine and uncovers the roots of Russian and Ukrainian nationalism. 212-415-5500

THE WIND UP â&#x20AC;&#x201D; COMEDY NIGHT â&#x2013;˛

Fri 25

The Jewish Museum, Scheuer Auditorium, 1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd Street 8-10:30 p.m. $13 advance, $18 at the door Hosted by Josh Gondelman, with comedians Josh Gondelman, Sean Patton, 2 Dope Queens and others, including a performance by Anya Marina. Ticket includes open bar with beer, wine and snacks. 212-423-3200 thejewishmuseum.org/ calendar/events/2016/03/24/ the-wind-up-comedynight-032416

PUTIN, UKRAINE AND THE COLD WAR 92nd Street Y, East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue Noon, $25 Marvin Kalb, a nonresident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, brings to life the geography, power

PHOTOGRAPHY IN TRANSITION The Met, 1000 Fifth Ave. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Fellows present brief papers on their research and explore

common questions 212-535-7710. www. metmuseum.org/events/

CURATORâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S EYE TOURâ&#x2013;ź Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave. 12 p.m. Free w/ admission Join curator Nat Trotman on a focused tour of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Peter Fischli David Weiss: How to Work Better.â&#x20AC;? 212-360-4257. www. guggenheim.org/

MARCH 24-30,2016

Sat 26 Mon 28 INSTANT SHAKESPEARE: ‘RICHARD III’ 67th Street Library, 328 East 67th St. 1:30 p.m. Join the Instant Shakespeare Company for a dramatic staged reading of Richard III 212-734-1717

FINDING THE RIGHT CAREER FIT Hunter College, 68th and Lexington, East Building, Room 805 12:30-2 p.m. Use the Myers Briggs Personality Indicator (MBTI) to help decide your career choice. 212-772 4850. www.hunter. cuny.edu/calendar/#/?i=4

‘MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION’ Wester Library Auditorium, 1465 York Ave. 2 p.m. A viewing of the 2015 featurer starring Tom Cruise and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. 212-288-5049

Sun 27 SUNDAY SKETCH The Frick, Garden Court, 1 East 70th St. 1-3 p.m. Free w/ admission An afternoon of informal sketching in the Garden Court. 212-288-0700

EASTER PARADE

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Hamlin, Jared Kushner and Steve Kushner answer questions about the areas in NY that will see major developments in the next couple of years. 212-415-5500. www.92y. org/Event/Behind-the-Bricks

NEWYORK-PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL AND WEILL CORNELL MEDICINE SEMINAR SERIES • SPRING 2016

WAR AGAINST ALL PUERTO RICANS 86th & Lexington Avenue, 150 East 86th St. 7 p.m. Nelson A. Denis reveals the forgotten story of the failed 1950 insurrection by the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico against the United States. Denis depicts how his journey is part of the larger story of Puerto Rico and US colonialism 212-369-2180. stores. barnesandnoble.com/ event/9780061762196-0

April

Brain Health is a Team Sport: Understanding and Managing Pediatric Concussion Barry Kosofsky, MD, PhD Tara Mathews, PhD

Arthritis and Pain Management: Don’t Let the Pain Get In Your Way David H. Goddard, MD, FRCP, FACP Sadiah Siddiqui, MD

From Reﬂux to Esophageal Cancer: Knowing Your Risks and Prevention Tips Felice H. Schnoll-Sussman, MD Alexandra L. Weinstein, RD, CDN

Wed 30 ROTH UNBOUND▲

BOOK TALK: ‘THE BRAZEN AGE’

MCNY, 1220 Fifth Ave. 6:30 p.m. $16 adults, $12 Albertine, 972 Fifth Ave. seniors&students 7 p.m. Free Join David Reid and Claudia Roth Pierpoint will historian Thomas Bender discuss ‘Roth Unbound,’ her fascinating study of Philip Roth’s for a conversation about the intersection of politics, art and life economics during this period in 212-650-0070. www. NYC’s history. albertine.com/events/oh-boy/ 212-534-1672. www.mcny. org/event/book-talk-brazen-age

Tue 29

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

MARCH 24-30,2016

FLEMISH WUNDERKIND VAN DYCK AT THE FRICK The first major show in the U.S. of the 17th century artist’s work in over 20 years BY VAL CASTRONOVO

Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) has been hailed as one of the greatest portraitists of all time. In 1672, biographer Giovan Pietro Bellori gushed that he “had justly acquired the greatest name that any painter had ever merited since Titian.” Add to that his reputation as one of the greatest printmakers of all time. Born to a prosperous mercantile family in Antwerp, the Baroque master is best remembered for memorializing royals and aristocrats, famously becoming the principal painter to King Charles I of England in 1632, easing out Dutch artist Daniel Mytens, a lesser light. No surprise, van Dyck was a child prodigy, producing the refined “Portrait of a Seventy-Year-Old Man” (1613) when he was only 14. It is his earliest dated work and kicks off the paintings on view in the Oval Room at “Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture,” the largest show in the Frick’s history and “the most comprehensive exhibit, showing him in all media,” museum Director Ian Wardropper said of the portrait oeuvre at a packed preview. Van Dyck liked his job, and why wouldn’t he? He achieved fame by his early 20s and got to paint the cream of society — cardinals, statesmen, generals, nobles and, of course, Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria and the royal offspring and retinue (not to mention family, friends, artists and his mistress). Add to that an early fascination with exploring his own identity in a virtuoso series of self-portraits. They are all represented here, some 100 glorious works, with special attention given to drawings and prints (the “Iconographie”), in the lower level galleries and on the first floor, respectively. In his London years, from 1632 until his death in 1641, van Dyck worked

WHAT: “Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture” WHERE: The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th St. WHEN: Through June 5. www.frick.org. prodigiously — producing over 260 portraits — but he still managed to have plenty of fun. As guest curator Stijn Alsteens from The Met writes in the catalog, he supplied his sitters with a wealth of diversions. He quotes Bellori, who said the artist kept “servants, carriages, horses, players, musicians, and jesters, and with these entertainments he played host to all the great personages, knights and ladies, who came daily to have their portraits painted at his house.” The Frick is a logical spot for a van Dyck celebration. The museum owns eight paintings by the artist, including two favorites of co-curator Adam Eaker, also from The Met — painter “Frans Snyders” (ca. 1620) and his wife, “Margareta de Vos” (ca. 1620), who lived in a house on Antwerp’s most fashionable street. The missus wears a gold bodice that glistens; a glass vase to her right brilliantly reﬂects strokes of blue and yellow paint. On our tour, Eaker waxed eloquent about the portraits’ “introspective, melancholy quality,” betraying “rich inner lives. It is this interiority that sets van Dyck apart.” The master was around 20 when he executed these bravura works. He took off for Italy the next year to paint its aristocrats, spending most of his time in Genoa, but traveling to Rome and half a dozen other cities as well. The recently conserved “Genoese Noblewoman” (ca. 1625-27) in the Oval Room is a towering canvas of an unidentiﬁed woman. The subject is believed to be a widow, with black sash, cuffs and plumed headpiece telegraphing her loss.

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641). Genoese Noblewoman, ca. 1625–27. Oil on canvas. The Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest. Photo: Michael Bodycomb Look to the other side of the room for the crimson “Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio” (1623), on loan from Florence’s Palazzo Pitti and making only its second appearance outside Italy. Painted in Rome, the canvas owes a clear debt to Titian. Here it is paired with a preparatory drawing that “shows how much room was left for improvisation,” Alsteens said, referring to the intricate lace fringe on the cardinal’s white tunic and altered pose in the ﬁnal composition. The 24-year-old van Dyck’s portrait of the cardinal “established his career in all of Europe,” the curator said, with its hallmark “evoca-

tion of inner life.” But this is a show about the process of portraiture, and visitors are encouraged to begin at the beginning (downstairs), where the curators have amassed an impressive array of chalk and oil sketches that trace the artist’s working method. (Works by reputed rival Peter Paul Rubens, Antwerp’s other master, can also be seen here.) Van Dyck did not prepare detailed studies of his subjects. As Alsteens writes in the catalog, “from the beginning of his career [he] seems to have used paper to work out a composition rather than to capture the details of a

likeness.” Costumes and poses were sketched on paper, but faces were typically only roughly delineated, with details painted directly from life onto the canvas. The curators concluded our tour in the East Gallery, devoted mainly to van Dyck’s paintings of nobles and the English court. But the right-hand wall is reserved for family and friends and features portraits of three women, one unidentified, two positively identified: his wife, “Mary, Lady van Dyck, née Ruthven” (ca. 1640), and his mistress, “Margaret Lemon” (ca. 1638) — shown together here for the first time.

MARCH 24-30,2016

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

AN AUDIENCE OF HER PEERS TO DO Play distills the real life events that brought a woman to death row, and the story that followed

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BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

In Eduardo Ivan Lopez’s play “Natural Life” a woman sits on death row for killing her husband, having led a life ﬁlled with abuse from a young age. Lopez, along with director Jake Turner, discuss the real case on which the play is based, and how Lopez came to the story through the journalist who covered it. This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

THE CHARACTERS Jake Turner: The reporter first hooks into this story almost as a mercenary, as just a reporter getting a good scoop and saving her career — and it’s held against her, she’s an aging reporter in a world of youth coming up in the media. So she just walks into this story as someone who is going to use her professional ethics but as a mercenary to get a good scoop. But she’s drawn to this woman because her story is so fascinating and in a way it’s frightening. And I don’t think that you can listen to this story without feeling that this, where she ended up in committing the crime of murdering her husband, is she guilty? The play doesn’t tell you whether or not she is, it just asks you the question: where do you stand? So in a way, [the prisoner] is retried in front of you. And that’s why the cast sits back there [on stage] the entire time almost as a jury, and faces you, the audience, who are also a jury.

THE SCRIPT Eduardo Ivan Lopez: I met [journalist] Carol Marin at a journalistic award ceremony in Pittsburgh. We sat down to

Anna Holbrook as Rita, the TV reporter, and Holly Heiser as Claire, the convict, in Eduardo Ivan Lopez’s play “Natural Life,” directed by Jake Turner, running through April 2nd. Photo by Jonathan Slaff. eat dinner afterwards and she told me the story and I liked the story and I wanted to learn more about it. So I asked her to contact the prisoner. And she said she wouldn’t speak to me because she only spoke to [Marin]. And I said, ‘well try to reach out again.’ So she did and two weeks later I got a call from the woman. And she wanted to meet me ﬁrst before she’d give me the story. She said, ‘okay well I’ll want you to come up here and meet me and after I see you I can tell you. I have a sense about people. I can see whether I can trust you or not.’ So I went there. And we spent a couple hours together. And she gave me the story after that meeting. And we had conversations over the phone. We had conversations over four years. And I accumulated all the knowledge and did all the research on it and I got all the transcripts, articles that were published, and brushed up on it, and when I thought I was ready for it I sat down and

wrote it. It took me about four months to write it.

THE SET Jake Turner: We hear every day about the justice system being askew, and people being wrongly convicted, spending 40 years in jail. The whole concept was society, the justice system, and there are scenes with the governor, is all offkilter. There’s something off about it, and the injustice that happens as a result of that. So we have a very expressionistic, angular, askew set.

IF YOU GO What: “Natural Life” by Eduardo Ivan Lopez, directed by Jake Turner Now through April 2 Where: T. Schreiber Theatre, 151 West 26th St., 7th ﬂoor 8 p.m., with a 2 p.m. show on March 30 Tickets: $20. To purchase, call 212-352-3101 or visit www.tschreiber.org

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

The Social Life of DNA

THURSDAY, MARCH 24TH, 6PM The NY Academy of Medicine | 1216 Fifth Ave. | 212-822-7200 | nyam.org American and African American interest in genealogy and family trees is reaching all-time heights. Hear from sociologist and writer Alondra Nelson as she looks at the role of the double helix in issues of race and identity. (Free, registration required)

Documentary Adventures in Haiti and Pakistan

MONDAY, MARCH 28TH, 6PM The Explorers Club | 6 E. 70th St. | 212-628-8383 | explorers.org Journey with documentary ﬁlmmaker Annie Nocenti, as she describes her experiences making movies and teaching students in post-earthquake Haiti and rural Pakistan. ($25)

Just Announced | Let’s Walk: A Peripatetic Conversation Series with Philosopher Simon Critchley

THURSDAY, APRIL 21ST, EVENING (EXACT TIME TBA) Onassis Cultural Center | 645 Fifth Ave. | 212-486-4448 | onassisusa.org English philosopher Simon Critchley leads a series of walks through Gods and Mortals at Olympus: Ancient Dion, City of Zeus, discussing contemporary topics with surprise guests. (Free)

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

MARCH 24-30,2016

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS FEB 29 - MAR 18, 2016

Texas Chicken & Burgers

151 E 103Rd St

Grade Pending (25) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

Persepolis

1407 2 Avenue

Grade Pending (22) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Corrado Bread And Pastry

960 Lexington Avenue A

Mile 17

1446 1St Ave

The Green Bean Cafe

1413 York Avenue

Creative Cakes

400 East 74 Street

Delizia Ristorante

1374 1 Avenue

Beach Cafe

1326 2 Avenue

The Allie Way Sports Bar

413 East 70 Street

Two Lizards Mexican Restaurant

1365 1St Avenue

4Th Floor Cafe

221 East 71St Street

Just Salad

1306 1St Ave

Agora Turkish Restaurant

1565 Second Avenue

Dorrian’s Red Hand Restaurant

1616 2 Avenue

Mcdonald’s

1499 3Rd Ave

Yuka Restaurant

1557 2Nd Ave

Grade Pending (27) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Sistina Restaurant

1555 2 Avenue

Eastend Bar & Grill

1664 1 Avenue

Mee Noodle Shop & Grill

1643 2 Avenue

Grade Pending (22) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

La Pulperia

1626 2Nd Ave

Bangkok Cuisine

1586 2Nd Ave

Bayards Ale House

1589 1St Ave

Not Yet Graded (25) 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. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

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 www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/services/restaurant-grades.page. Double Dragon 88

2037 1St Ave

Thai Wok

1406 Madison Ave

Grade Pending (29) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food worker does not wash hands thoroughly after using the toilet, coughing, sneezing, smoking, eating, preparing raw foods or otherwise contaminating hands. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Hamza Pizza

Mamagyro

Megasun Restaurant

1976 3Rd Ave

165 E 106Th St

1773 Lexington Avenue

Not Yet Graded (15) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Not Yet Graded (33) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. No facilities available to wash, rinse and sanitize utensils and/or equipment. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Grade Pending (39) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

Mr. Good Juice Bar

1646 Madison Ave

Crepe Cafe

1642 Lexington Ave

Not Yet Graded (29) Food Protection Certiﬁcate not held by supervisor of food operations. Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Nocciola Ristorante

237 E 116Th St

Capri Bakery

186 East 116 Street

Ms Rita’s Place

349 E 109Th St

Not Yet Graded (27) 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. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

El Chevere Cuchifritos Bakery

2002 3Rd Ave

Makana

2245 1St Ave

Asian 83

1605 2Nd Ave

Neapolitan Express

232 E 111Th St

The Simone

151 East 82 Street

Bocado Cafe

1297 Lexington Avenue

Corado Bread & Pastry

1361 Lexington Ave

MARCH 24-30,2016

NEW WORRIES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 may become more common in the area due to an increasing number of garbage trucks coming and going “essentially in (residents’) backyard ... I think the tragic circumstance of this woman who was killed by a garbage truck, literally within walking distance of this complex, is scary,” Morris said. “And it perhaps foretells a lot of what folks have been saying, which is, the build out of the marine transfer station is going to endanger children, families and seniors who live in this community.” City Councilmember Ben Kallos said the death of McGrath points to the biggest danger of the trash station. “Garbage trucks are one of the most dangerous vehicles on the road,”

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com Kallos said. “I think if the city forces a private hauler, or a garbage truck or 300 of them to drive through a residential neighborhood with hundreds of thousands of people, it’s the city that’s culpable.” Upper East Side residents have been ﬁghting the station since it was first slated to be reopened as part of the 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan. Pledge 2 Protect, a group that has opposed the project, co-hosted a candlelight vigil on Tuesday night at the intersection of First Avenue and E. 92nd St. to honor McGrath’s life. Milagros Velasquez, vice president of the Holmes Towers residential board, was asked to serve as spokesperson for McGrath’s family and helped plan the vigil. “Jodi was a fixture in the community,” Velasquez said. “She didn’t have much in the way of family, so everybody

was kind of like her family. She was a big animal person, she loved pets.” Velasquez has also long been involved in protesting the marine transfer station. “It was horrible the way she had to die,” she said. “It’s kind of frustrating because it’s kind of like the whole development got together and tried to ﬁght this with, and they went ahead and did it anyway.” Kelly Nimmo-Guenther, president of Pledge 2 Protect, said the group is continuing to ﬁght the project. “Mayor de Blasio ... made a commitment to that community that he would do everything power to protect that community,” NimmoGuenther said. “We’ve always said it’s not if an accident will happen, it’s when. Unfortunately, the when is now.”

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MARCH 24-30,2016

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Business

CITYWIDE FERRY COMMISSION AWARDED TO HORNBLOWER Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the selection of Hornblower Inc. as the operator of his Citywide Ferry Service, which is slated to launch in the summer of 2017. The ferry will connect Manhattan to the other four boroughs via several ports on either side of the East River. Ferry rides will cost the same as a subway ride

In Brief NYCHA UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has turned over more than 400 million documents to government officials as part of a federal investigation into health and safety conditions of the organization’s over 400,000 tenants. The investigation became public last Friday after “the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, obtained a court order compelling the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to produce information about cases of elevated blood lead levels among public housing residents and complaints of ‘unsafe, unsanitary and unhealthful conditions’ in housing projects,” according to the New York Times. NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye told the Times she did not know what had prompted the inquiry, but several outlets report that the U.S. attorney’s office is looking into whether NYCHA falsiﬁed information when requesting federal funding to ﬁx unhealthy conditions in housing projects and city-run shelters. Mayor de Blasio said last week that his administration would cooperate fully with the investigation.

TRUMP PROTESTERS PEPPER SPRAYED BY NYPD Protests against the presidential candidacy of Donald J. Trump escalated last Saturday when New York Police Department officers pepper sprayed those who tried to stray outside the barricades keeping them on the sidewalk. According to CBS, the protest was endorsed by activist groups such as International Women’s Day Coalition, Millions March NYC and Revolutionaries Against Gendered Oppression Everywhere. Attendees carried signs with anti-Trump messages opposing his views on immigration and business, among other things. The crowd gathered in Columbus Circle by the Trump International Hotel and Tower and marched along Central Park South to Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. The New York Post reported that several protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and others engaged in anti-cop messages, though the rest of the protest proceeded peaceful. The conﬂict on Saturday follows recent violence at Trump rallies in various cities, though Trump said as recently as Monday in an interview with the Washington Post’s editorial board that he does not condone such aggression.

and will merge with the existing East River Ferry, lowering the cost of commuting for its 4,000 daily riders, according to a press release from the mayor’s office. “Tens-of-thousands of New Yorkers are going to have a new public transit option linking them to jobs, education and opportunities

across the city,” de Blasio said. “It’s going to be a commute like no other: fresh air, harbor views and a fast ride on the open water.” Other bidders for the operating contract included New York Water Taxi, New Jerseybased NY Waterway and BillyBey Ferry, according to POLITICO New York. Earlier this

month, New York Water Taxi sent a memo to its employees warning that they would have to shut down in October if not selected to run the Citywide Ferry.

BACKED BY UNIONS, CUOMO PUSHES FOR MINIMUM WAGE NEWS Travel, campaign ads paid for by health-care union BY DAVID KLEPPER

Andrew Cuomo may be driving the push for a $15 minimum wage in New York, but organized labor paid for the bus. The Democratic governor has traveled the state in a unionowned recreational vehicle to galvanize support for his proposal to enact a $15 minimum wage. He’s featured in slick TV advertisements pushing the wage that look a lot like campaign ads. This past week he delivered yet another speech before thousands of workers gathered outside the Capitol, many of them bused in by unions. Bankrolled by the unions, Cuomo’s campaign not only cements his ties to organized labor, but also burnishes his progressive political bona fides amid a national debate over the minimum wage and income inequality. Cuomo characterizes the proposal as an alternative to what is being offered by Republican presidential candidates such as Donald Trump, who he says has sought to capitalize on public anxiety over the economy. By being the ﬁrst state to raise the minimum wage to $15, the governor said, New York can show the nation a more hopeful path. :People are angry. They’re as angry in New York as they are in any other state,” Cuomo said, following the Albany rally. “It’s working families, the middle class, who are fundamentally frustrated with their economic

circumstance. There is an economic insecurity that eats at the table with people every night.” It’s a sharp pivot from just last year, when Cuomo’s administration dismissed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s suggested $13 minimum wage as a “nonstarter” with lawmakers. But this year an even bigger increase is his top priority in the Legislature, where it faces a critical test in coming weeks as lawmakers negotiate a state budget, a grand political deal that the governor hopes will include his wage hike. In a sign of its importance to Cuomo, he named the campaign for the wage hike after his father, the late Gov. Mario Cuomo. The proposal would gradually raise the wage from $9 an hour to $15 by the end of 2018 in New York City and by 2021 in the rest of the state. He has proposed $300 million in small business tax cuts to help businesses absorb the higher

labor costs, a number that critics say is far too low. To the Republicans and small business owners who warn of devastating effects from such a sharp wage hike, Cuomo is seeking to capitalize on the national debate over the wage to endear himself to organized labor and liberal voters in New York and around the country. “He had problems with $12, $13, but now $15 is a great idea,” said Greg Biryla, executive director of the group Unshackle Upstate, adding that he believes supporters settled on $15 because of how “Fight for $15” rolls off the tongue. “It’s a political number, and anyone who thinks otherwise really isn’t looking at the facts,” said state Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco, a Syracuse Republican. “It’s a political goal to garner support from the people that think this is a good

idea.” The Mario Cuomo Campaign for Economic Justice, the nonprofit created by labor unions to lobby for the $15 wage, is housed in the Manhattan headquarters of 1199 SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, the largest health care union in the nation. A financial disclosure filed with the state indicates that so far the campaign has spent $1.7 million on expenses including Cuomo’s RV tour and advertisements. Cuomo has received more than $250,000 in campaign contributions from SEIU and the other unions supporting the Campaign for Economic Justice since 2008. The increase is popular with New York voters, two thirds of whom support Cuomo’s plan, according to a Siena College poll released last month. Eighty percent of Democrats back the increase; 36 percent of Republicans do. Polls show similarly broad backing for Cuomo’s other big priority of the year, a family leave proposal that would let workers take up to 12 weeks of paid time off to care for a new child or sick loved one. Cuomo may be hoping the wage fight helps him in two years when he’s up for a third term or even in a possible White House run in 2020, according to Fordham University political scientist Christina Greer. Cuomo has long been socially progressive but fiscally centrist, focusing much of his early tenure as governor reining in state spending, imposing a property tax cap and cutting taxes. Liberal dissatisfaction with Cuomo prompted a surprisingly competitive primary challenge in 2014 from law professor Zephyr Teachout. “I’m not sure how deep those progressive roots are with the governor,” Greer said. “It could be about 2018, or 2020. But in some ways it doesn’t matter if his interest in this is genuine. Thousands and thousands of families are going to benefit if this passes.”

MARCH 24-30,2016

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

MARCH 24-30,2016

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

The 6th Borough

LIVING OFF THE GRID BY BECCA TUCKER

The lights blip and the radio cuts out. This already happened once this morning right and everything went back on. I glance up and go back to focusing on an email. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got no time to be curious; Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m working from home with an infant on my lap, and my toddler outside in the snow collecting sap with my husband. Any second now my attention will be assaulted. I try to download an attachment and it fails. I try to send my email and that fails. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when I realize that my modem must be dead, because the radio and lights are still off, because the power is still out. A power outage in inclement weather with an infant can be a bit of an ordeal. I realize itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how most of the world lives, but when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve gotten all soft and civilized, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rough. My three-year-old was born a month before Hurricane Sandy. We lost heat and water for 14 days, not to mention the roof of our barn. We bundled the baby up in a woolen cocoon, drank from a water cooler weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d ďŹ lled elsewhere, used a bucket as our toilet, and eventually took to sleeping at the house of a friend with a generator. We finally ďŹ&#x201A;ed, spending that ďŹ nal powerless weekend with a friend in Rockland whose electricity had come back on. It was deďŹ nitely an adventure, but one that left us sick â&#x20AC;&#x201C; since another guy who

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also camped out at our friend’s house that weekend had a bad cough that we all got. Sandy’s aftermath left an impression that sank deep. It was no small part of the reason we shelled out $7,000 this winter for a wood burning stove. The stove has already become a member of the family, and one that earns its keep. The oil heat – set to kick on if the temperature in the house drops below 50 -- has only roared into action once since we had the stove installed in December, during that cold spell with single digit temperatures. The stove is singing right now. I just tossed in another log and put a kettle on for tea and then had to strip off my sweater. If we should run out of water before the power comes back on, we’ve got a reserve of 20 gallons of maple sap in the garage – a slightly sweet, sparklingly pure version of water

– and more dripping from the trees into buckets all the time. If I’m beginning to sound obnoxious, indulge me. Sometimes I envy you, see, and everyone else in the overdeveloped world, who can ﬁddle with your phone on your way home from the airport and tell your Nest thingy to have the house heated to 68 by the time you walk in the door. Meanwhile we’re hauling logs and 50 pound bags of chicken feed, and planning months in advance to get away for a day. We’ve chosen this life and we wouldn’t trade it – most days, at least. But there are times Joe and I get into a funk and find ourselves asking each other: what the hell did you get me into? Whose idea was this? So it’s gratifying to look around, two hours now without power, and see that all the lugging has amounted to something quite substantial: a sort of peasant stronghold. All sys-

tems are go. Without any outside help, the house is warm, tea is steaming, eggs are being laid in the coop, sap is dripping. When we have to go, the composting toilet that Joe built is on the porch. (It’s my favorite place to do my business, even when the water’s working). Our next-door neighbor calls. Is our power out too? Do we need anything? Nope, we’re good. Does she need anything? Eggs? Maple syrup? Sure, she says. She’ll stop over later. Selfreliance, baby. With that, the power clicks back on. The fridge resumes its humming, the kitchen lights up, my internet connection comes to life. They ﬁxed whatever was wrong. They always do. And I’m always just a little disappointed. Becca Tucker is a former Manhattanite who now lives upstate and writes about the rural life.

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MARCH 24-30,2016

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PROTESTS CONTINUE AGAINST GROCERY STORE CLOSING

WCBS-TV NEW YORK â&#x20AC;&#x153;AMERICAN HEALTH FRONTâ&#x20AC;? TO FEATURE JULIUS SHULMAN, MD & DALIA S. NAGEL, MD SUNDAY, MARCH 27th, 2016 @ 5:30pm-6:00pm on WCBS-TV. (New York, NY) Dr. Julius Shulman and Dr. Dalia S. Nagel of Eastside Eye Associates (eastsideeyes.com) to appear on the New York/New Jersey edition to discuss recent breakthrough technologies and advancements in cataract diagnosis and cataract surgery. By age 80, more than half of all Americans either have a cataract (a clouding of the lens in the eye that causes a loss of vision) or will soon need cataract surgery, joining the ranks of the three million Americans who have cataract surgery annually. Almost 800,000 cataract operations will be performed in people under age 65, a testament to our increasingly active lifestyle. Modern cataract surgery, pioneered by Dr. Shulman and Dr. Nagel, now takes on average 20 minutes or less, with the patient often resuming normal activity within hours. Cataract surgery, accompanied by insertion of a clear, plastic intraocular lens (IOL), is statistically the most successful operation performed on the human body. $0(5,&$1 +($/7+ )5217 ZLOO WDNH \RX LQVLGH WKH RIÂżFHV RI 'UV 6KXOPDQ DQG Nagelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eastside Eye Associates where they have examined over 20,000 cataract patients. The program will feature candid interviews with the doctors, and a rare glimpse into the most current instrumentation and successful methods of treating cataract patients. The doctors will show why in most patients, cataract removal will not only give an astounding LPSURYHPHQW LQ YLVLRQ EXW DOVR D FKDQFH WR EH VSHFWDFOH IUHH SHUKDSV IRU WKH ÂżUVW WLPH in years. They will guide viewers through the questions they must ask and the choices they must make to have a successful and happy outcome. Most importantly, the doctors ZLOO VKRZ YLHZHUV MXVW KRZ PXFK WKH\ ZLOO EHQHÂżW IURP WKLV LQFUHGLEOH SURFHGXUH

About the Doctors Julius Shulman, M.D -XOLXV 6KXOPDQ 0 ' LV D %RDUG &HUWLÂżHG 2SKWKDOmologist and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mount Sinai Hospital. Since completing his residency in 1975, Dr. Shulman has performed over 15,000 surgical procedures. An early interest in cataract surgery led Dr. 6KXOPDQ WR SLRQHHU WKH ÂżUVW FDWDUDFW DQG LQWUDRFXODU OHQV implant operation at Mt. Sinai. Since then he has developed numerous surgical techniques to improve cataract outcomes for his patients, as well as surgical advancements in Laser Vision Correction. He has been on eight medical missions to India and Peru.

Dalia S. Nagel, M.D. Dalia S. Nagel, M.D. graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University, summa cum laude, and received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. After completing her training in ophthalmology at The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City, Dr. Nagel was appointed Clinical Instructor, where she is active in teaching residents and VWXGHQWV 'U 'DOLD 6 1DJHO LV ERDUG FHUWLÂżHG E\ 7KH $PHULcan Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and practices comprehensive ophthalmology with special interests in cataract surgery and laser vision correction.

The practice offers two locations, one on the Upper East Side and Tribeca.

EASTSIDE EYE ASSOCIATES Julius Shulman, MD - Dalia S. Nagel, MD 229 East 79th Street New York, NY 10075 - 212-861-6200 19 Murray Street New York, NY 10007 - 212-693-7200 EASTSIDEEYES.COM

Photos by William Alatriste

For the second straight week, residents of Chelsea and Greenwich Village joined elected officials for a demonstration against the planned closing of a local grocery store. The group picketed outside of 18 E. 50th St, the corporate offices of Pan Am Equities, the storeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s landlord. The West 14th Street Associated Supermarket is scheduled to close in May due to a dramatic rent increase -- from $32,000 a month to more than $100,000 a month -- demanded by Pan Am Equities. The company has not responded to attempts by elected officials to discuss the storeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pan Am Equities is demanding a truly unreasonable rent increase, leaving the store owners no choice but to close,â&#x20AC;? said Council Member Corey Johnson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are asking them to come to the table and negotiate a new lease with the store owner in good faith. No one should be forced to travel long distances to buy food, particularly seniors who are living on ďŹ xed incomes.â&#x20AC;?

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YOUR 15 MINUTES

To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to ourtownny.com/15 minutes William Zukof, far right, helped found vocal sextet The Western Wind.

WEST SIDE COOL Co-founder of vocal sextet The Western Wind discusses the ensemble’s origins and current repertoire BY ANGELA BARBUTI

In 1969, William Zukof helped found The Western Wind, a vocal sextet that continues to spread an appreciation for acapella music throughout Manhattan and the world. A New York native, he began his musical career as a child on the West Side, studying under esteemed choral director Earl Robinson at the Metropolitan Music School. Highlights on his accomplished resume include performing under Leonard Bernstein at the Vatican and having one of his ensemble’s songs nominated for a Grammy Award. The Western Wind also holds workshops on ensemble singing for both children and

adults, which according to Zukof, participants call “life changing.” As for the future, he said his focus lies in being able to “share the joy of ensemble singing with as many people as we can.”

Originally it was a collection of young singers who were really interested in early music. That means music of the Renaissance, early Baroque and Medieval music. We were all studying with various teachers.

cally it’s six voices, acapella. And the repertoire that’s developed from our additional interest in Renaissance music has expanded to include early American. This is music from the time of the American Revolution and it came out in a very timely fashion in 1973, 1974, when the American Bicentennial was in the air. So we did an LP called “Early American Vocal Music” and lo and behold it was nominated for a Grammy. We’re still performing it. We just performed it at our concert on March 12.

Explain what The Western Wind is and its purpose.

What does the name of the sextet refer to?

It’s a vocal sextet, acapella. We generally work without instruments, but occasionally we will bring some to play with us. And one of our members plays guitar sometimes with us on certain pieces. But basi-

Well, we all lived on the West Side of Manhattan. It was 1969. Rock groups had names like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Monkees, The Grateful Dead. We wanted a name that was kind of cool. The Western

How did the ensemble come about?

Wind is also a song from the 1500s and a poem. You can see the poem in a lot of poetry anthologies. It was even on the subway’s poetry series. It’s beautiful poem and a beautiful melody goes with it. It just seemed like a great name and we were also living on the West Side. And the name allowed us to expand into contemporary classical music with new works written for us by living composers as well as pop and jazz arrangements. So we do everything now from early medieval music to Billy Joel.

What have been some of your favorite pieces to perform through the years? That’s really hard to say. You know, there’s nothing like Renaissance Italian. We also do some wonderful music by Salamone Rossi, who is a Jewish composer who lived in Mantua. In the Renaissance, music was written by singers for singers. All the composers were singers. So it’s just a wonderfully vocal experience. But then, my other favorite stuff is contemporary, written by living composers. We have a new piece by Meredith Monk called “Basket

Rondo” along with Eric Salzman’s “Jukebox in the Tavern of Love.”

You’re a New York native. How do you think Manhattan shapes musicians? I’m from Manhattan. I used to live on 103rd Street and 105th Street. I still have the same ZIP code. I lived on 108th Street, off of Broadway. There’s an incredible mélange of cultures here both musical and in every other way. So we’re all exchanging cultural DNA.

How did you ﬁrst get involved in music? Did you begin at a young age? Yes, as a child. I went to music school and the choral director was a guy named Earl Robinson. He wrote “Ballad for Americans” and “The Lonesome Train” about Lincoln’s funeral. He also wrote “The House I Live In” and Frank Sinatra sang that. He also wrote, “The ink is black. The page is white. Together we learn to read and write,” after the 1954 desegregation decision of the Supreme Court. He was a politically active composer. And I was in his kids’ choir in the Metropolitan

Music School on 74th Street.

Tell us about the members of the ensemble. Is there an audition process? The group ranges in age now from mid-30s to early 60s. People tend to stay with the ensemble for a long because the singers have a lot of input and autonomy. When we needed new members, we would reach out to the singing community, mostly through personal connections. We didn’t have a mass call because what we do is fairly specialized. And New York has a wonderful community of people with great skill. There are a lot of wonderful voices and great musicians but it had to be somebody who wanted to work collaboratively who we would be comfortable with driving in a car with for ﬁve to six hours. That’s important. www.westernwind.org

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