Our Town - June 14, 2018

The local paper for the Upper East Side

WEEK OF JUNE MANIFESTATIONS OF POWER ◄ P.12

14-20 2018

FEAR AND FASHION: THE KATE SPADE STORY LIVES

The 2019 city budget deal agreed to last week by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council includes additional expense funding for the New York Public Library that officials say will help the system avoid making cuts to operating hours. Photo: Steven Strasser

PUBLIC LIBRARIES WIN CASE FOR BUDGET BOOST FUNDING New spending deal gives NYPL increase to maintain service amid rising costs

BY THE NUMBERS New York Public Library has:

BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

New York City’s public library systems received increased funding in the city budget for the coming fiscal year following a public campaign waged by library officials, who said the additional money is necessary to maintain current operating hours and programming, which have been threatened in recent years by rising costs.

The budget hike requested by the city’s three public library systems

neighborhood branches research libraries in Manhattan annual visitors

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

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library cardholders

circulating items in the system’s collections

Crime Watch Voices NYC Now City Arts

Or how a whimsical, business-savvy designer created a global brand, empowered the women who carry her bags – and ultimately, lost a harrowing battle to her demons

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

It was, for a very long time, the classic Manhattan success story: Fueled by outsized dreams and driven by creative furies, an ambitious, gifted young Kansas City woman with a degree in broadcasting exits the Midwest to find fame, fortune, and ostensibly, happiness, in New York.

She builds a fashion brand, transforms it into a worldwide, multimillion-dollar corporation, and positions it as a cultural touchstone and beacon for legions of aspiring women. Soon, she’s a household name.

Trappings of wealth and social status quickly follow. The co-op at 850 Park Avenue, complete with fireplace.

The beach vacations in Baja, Mexico.

The Carlyle Hotel — her “favorite spot for cocktails,” she says in a blog post.

Raoul’s on Prince Street in Soho, her preferred restaurant.

And then it all goes catastrophically awry. On Tuesday, June 5 at 10:20 a.m., a housekeeper in her spacious, art-filled apartment off East 77th Street enters the bedroom and finds her hanging from a red scarf tied to a doorknob. A suicide note is discovered at the scene.

Restaurant Ratings Business Real Estate 15 Minutes

I am stunned.”

Tweet from Bette Midler, singersongwriter-actress-customer

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

3 8 10 12

Tribute in the window of Kate Spade shop on Columbus Avenue. Photo: Alexis Gelber

14 16 17 21

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Friday, June 15 – 8:11 pm.

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ETHNIC EATING FROM NYC’S FAMOUS FOODIES CUISINE

course, the ubiquitous Chinese dumpling. Pictures, too.

8 cookbooks that offer a world of feasts in your own kitchen

Daniel Boulud’s Cafe Boulud Cookbook,

by Daniel Boulud (Scribner). A treasury of classic French cuisine with occasional nods to the cookery of Italy, Spain and East Asia, plus family history from the owner of CafĂŠ Boulud and recipes written by cookbook author Dorie Greenspan. There is also a glossary applicable to all kinds of cookers, everything you need to know about pots and pans and even a list of reputable and reliable purveyors.

BY CAROL ANN RINZLER

Miami loves Latin; San Francisco, Asian; and Chicago, middle European.

But New York is where America comes to eat all around the world.

In a city that speaks — and probably cooks in — more than 170 languages, Zagat’s restaurant roster lists 60-plus ethnic and regional cuisines ranging from A (Afghan, African, Argentinean, Asian, Australian, Austrian) through the Three I’s on every politician’s world tour (Ireland, Israel, Italy) and maybe on to Z if one of the African restaurants in town serves dishes native to Zambia, Zimbabwe, or Zaire.

Naturally, many New York’s famous foodies and restaurant aficionados have written the books you need to bring the good stuff home to your own kitchen, all available at your favorite bookstore such as the UES’s own Kitchen Arts and Letters, the LES’s Bonnie Slotnick’s Cookbooks, the West Village’s Joanne Hendricks Cookbooks or Amazon.com. A small sampling (in alphabetical order):

Balaboosta: Bold Mediterranean Recipes to Feed the People You Love, by Einat Admony (Artisan). The chef and owner of Bar Bolonat and TaĂŻm (a third restaurant, Balaboosta, is currently closed for relocation), Admony bases the 140 recipes in her book on her Israeli heritage (Yemenite, Persian) to offer a cuisine that leans toward the Mediterranean, fitting all who live within site of the lovely blue sea.

The Food Lover’s Guide to the Best Ethnic Eating in New York City, by Robert Sietsema and Calvin Trillin (Arcade Publishing). This entire city’s worth of notes on ethnic eating in all five boroughs features restaurants whose menus include dishes from such farung culinary outposts as Armenia, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Malaysia, New Guinea, West Africa and yes, even regional America.

Chinatown, New York, by Ann Volkwein

The Go Green East Harlem Cookbook/ El Librio de Cocina Viva Verde East Harlem, edited by Scott M. Stringer (Jones

(Collins Design), does the honors for the largest Chinese community in the Western hemisphere, with special mention to special restaurants and recipes for fresh seafood, a variety of pork dishes, dim sum delicacies and, of

Books) during the NYC Comptroller’s previous incarnation as Manhattan Borough President. You can read this in English if you start from one end and Spanish if you turn the book and start from the other. Either way, the recipes

— contributed by members of the largest Puerto Rican community outside Puerto Rico — are updated to bring traditional dishes into line with modern nutrition guidelines: less fat, more ďŹ ber, and fresh foods at every turn.

The Irish Pub Cookbook, by Margaret Johnson, pictures by Leigh Beisch (Chronicle Books). There are approximately 2,000 Irish pubs in the Big Apple, roughly one for every 43,113 New Yorkers or, to put it another way, one for every 210 Irish among us. Surprisingly, none of the pub people appears to have written his or her own book but this illustrated volume by Massachusetts-transplant Johnson suffices with recipes for more than 70 pub classics

ranging from Shepherd’s Pie to ďŹ sh and chips and whiskey bread pudding.

Rao’s Cookbook: Over 100 Years of Italian Home Cooking, by Frank Pellegrino (Random House). Recipes from the legendary ten-table restaurant that has been in the Rao-Pellegrino family since 1896 — with a recent offshoot at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas — include such sterling standbys as marinara sauce, seafood salad, roasted peppers with pine nuts and raisins, baked clams, lemon chicken and so on, a gift to those who may never score a seat at the real Rao’s tables but can still enjoy their classic Italian cooking.

The Veselka Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Landmark Restaurant in New York’s East Village, by Tom Birchard and Natalie Danford (Thomas Dunne Books) offers up recipes from a Ukrainian restaurant on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, once home to a large contingent of Eastern Europeans (veselka means rainbow in Ukrainian). The collection includes such classics as pierogi, ďŹ ve different kinds of borscht, grilled kielbasa and poppy seed cake. As a bonus, Veselka owner Birchard tells pleasant tales of celebrity customers.

Carol Ann Rinzler is the author of “Nutrition for Dummies.�

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG TEENS ARRESTED ON ASSAULT CHARGES

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th district for the week ending June 3

Two teens were arrested on assault charges following an afternoon run-in with a 52-year-old man at Park Avenue and 86th Street on May 31, police said.

The 4:15 p.m. incident began when the man was hit by a tree branch held back by one of a pair of teenaged boys.

One of the teens then asked the man to apologize for bumping into him, according to the police account. The man replied that he had not bumped into the boy, at which the teen punched the man in the mouth. The two then accosted the man. Plainclothes officers nearby witnessed the incident and arrested Rahsaun Fort and Deime Moore, charging them with assault.

Week to Date

Police are seeking a motorist for questioning after an incident occurred involving the driver and a pedestrian.

At 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30, a 30-year-old woman was crossing the street at the northeast corner of Third Avenue and East 88th Street when a man driving a blue 2004 Toyota Sienna with New York plates made a right turn and cut her off, police said. She slapped the back window of the vehicle, inciting the driver to get out of the van. He then

2018 2017

% Change

2018

2017

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

1

0

n/a

Rape

0

1

-100.0

7

6

16.7

Robbery

1

3

-66.7

62

57

8.8

Felony Assault

2

0

n/a

55

58

-5.2

Burglary

9

2

350.0

79

89

-11.2

Grand Larceny

35

25

40.0

596 579 2.9

Grand Larceny Auto

1

2

-50.0

16

MAN PUNCHES BUS

VAN DRIVER SOUGHT Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr

punched her in the back of her head, causing pain. He also twisted her arm before driving away.

CAR WINDOW BROKEN Police are also looking for a pedestrian suspected of breaking a

car window. At 10:48 a.m. on Friday, June 1, a 53-year-old male sitting in his car at First Avenue and 70th Street when he was cut on his forehead after a 23-year-old man punched the car’s driver’s-side window, breaking the glass. The perpetrator then ed in an unknown direction, while the victim refused medical attention at the scene.

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Year to Date

This was quite a week for irate pedestrians punching vehicles. At 5:18 a.m. on Saturday, June 2, a 45-year-old male bus driver saw a 56-year-old man strike the glass door of his MTA bus, breaking the glass, at the southwest corner of Second Avenue and East 74th Street. Eldrich W. CoďŹ eld was later arrested and charged with criminal mischief. At the time of his arrest a box cutter was also found in his front right pants pocket.

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23.1

CLEANERS CLEAN OUT HOME One or more of a cleaning crew is suspected of taking cash and jewelry from East 93rd Street resident’s apartment, police said. Returning to his apartment after the May 30 cleaning, the man found that cash and various items were missing. The missing goods included $8,000 in cash, a necklace valued at $3,000, a Social Security card, passport, birth certiďŹ cate and marriage license.

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Useful Contacts

Drawing Board

POLICE NYPD 19th Precinct

153 E. 67th St.

212-452-0600

159 E. 85th St.

311

FIRE FDNY 22 Ladder Co 13 FDNY Engine 39/Ladder 16

157 E. 67th St.

311

FDNY Engine 53/Ladder 43

1836 Third Ave.

311

FDNY Engine 44

221 E. 75th St.

311

CITY COUNCIL Councilmember Keith Powers

211 E. 43rd St. #1205

212-818-0580

Councilmember Ben Kallos

244 E. 93rd St.

212-860-1950

STATE LEGISLATORS State Sen. Jose M. Serrano

1916 Park Ave. #202

212-828-5829

State Senator Liz Krueger

1850 Second Ave.

212-490-9535

Assembly Member Dan Quart

360 E. 57th St.

212-605-0937

Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright

1485 York Ave.

212-288-4607

COMMUNITY BOARD 8

505 Park Ave. #620

212-758-4340

LIBRARIES Yorkville

222 E. 79th St.

212-744-5824

96th Street

112 E. 96th St.

212-289-0908

67th Street

328 E. 67th St.

212-734-1717

Webster Library

1465 York Ave.

212-288-5049

100 E. 77th St.

212-434-2000

HOSPITALS Lenox Hill NY-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell

525 E. 68th St.

212-746-5454

Mount Sinai

E. 99th St. & Madison Ave.

212-241-6500

NYU Langone

550 First Ave.

212-263-7300

CON EDISON

4 Irving Place

212-460-4600

POST OFFICES US Post Office

1283 First Ave.

212-517-8361

US Post Office

1617 Third Ave.

212-369-2747

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PARSING PATEL’S POLITICAL POSTS EXCLUSIVE An insurgent’s Twitter feed, and his oft-changing voter registration, could impact the campaign to represent the UES in Congress

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

The Democratic primary challenger vying to unseat longtime incumbent Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney posted three telltale tweets in 2017 that are raising questions about his rootedness in the district where he is now running for office.

Indiana-raised, East Village resident Suraj Patel is contesting the 12th Congressional District, a prize that takes in the Upper East Side, Sutton Place, Midtown, Roosevelt Island, Union Square, the East Village and parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

But in two of his tweets, the 34-year-old scion of an Indianapolis-based hotel development company called himself a “constituent” of two out-oftown elected officials whose jurisdictions are, respectively, 750 and 100 miles away from the East Side of Manhattan.

And in another, he appears to be enlisting political allies “to help knock out” a conservative incumbent Republican in a different district than the

IWantToBeRecycled.org

one he is currently seeking to represent.

On February 2 of last year, the first-time candidate identified himself as a “Proud Constituent” of Sen. Joe Donnelly, the vulnerable first-term Democrat from Indiana, according to a review of Patel’s Twitter history.

Then on February 12, 2017, he responded to a tweet — about how “real investigations can begin” if Democrats win back the House in the 2018 midterms — by singling out pro-Trump GOP Congressman Lee Zeldin, who hails from Suffolk County and represents the 1st Congressional District.

“Gentlemen, this is why I need your help to knock out @ LeeZeldin in NY-1,” he wrote.

Finally, on May 4 last year, Patel tweeted directly to Zeldin: “I’m your constituent, tried to call your office 5 times, straight to vmail,” he wrote. “You’re marked for replacement #NY1.”

The posts surfaced on the eve of the first and only televised debate of the primary campaign, a one-on-one face-off between Maloney and Patel that took place June 12.

A ROAMING REGISTRATION The candidate’s connections to the jurisdictions in which he said he was a “constituent” are his property holdings and voter-registration records.

Patel has owned a condo in

Indianapolis since at least 2015 and had for a time collected a “homestead tax deduction” on the property. He has been registered, on and off, in the Hoosier State and voted there in the 2016 presidential election for Hillary Clinton.

In 2017, he bought a traditional shingled Hamptons home on Springs Fireplace Road in East Hampton, and though he never voted from Long Island, he said he was registered there “for a few months” after filling out a loan application and changing the address on his driver’s license.

Patel says his permanent address is a condominium on East 12th Street off Avenue A in the East Village that he purchased in January 2011, and he says he has been living in the district since 2006, when he first came to the city from Indiana to attend NYU Law School.

But at different times over a period of less than four years, he has been registered to vote in all three locales, an Our Town examination of his voterregistration history found.

After voting in Indianapolis in 2014, for instance, Patel switched to the city and voted here in 2015 and early 2016 — before changing back to Indiana later in 2016, his campaign said in offering a partial response to multiple questions about his recent voting and tweeting history.

In one 10-month period, between November 2016 and September 2017, Patel changed his registration twice: First, he was registered in Indiana, where he cast his vote for Clinton, then, in the Hamptons, and finally, on September 18, 2017, back in the city, according to a review of Board of Elections documents.

On October 11, 2017, less than one month after Patel had reregistered from his East 12th Street home, he filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Committee. The Committee to Elect Suraj Patel was up and running.

“Suraj has lived in New York since he was 22,” said Patel spokesperson Lis Smith. “He owns a home in the East Village, teaches business ethics at NYU, volunteers with political and civic organizations, is a member of the New York bar, and has paid New York City taxes his entire adult life.”

She added, “Like many millennials, he was registered to vote at his parents’ house since he was 18, and simply chose to vote absentee there in 2016.”

Asked repeatedly over several days, Smith didn’t provide detailed responses to questions about Patel’s tweets.

The campaign noted that Patel has never lived in Zeldin’s district. He had no intention or interest in running on Long Island. Along with his brother,

Suraj Patel, who is seeking to oust Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney in a Democratic primary challenge on the East Side, mingles with voters at a town hall last month in an East 88th Street church. Photo: Douglas Feiden he does own a home in the district, and so as active Democrats, they do have an interest in seeing a Democrat represent the area.

But by the time of the “knock out” Zeldin tweet last February, Patel had already begun the outreach effort for his run against Maloney, the campaign said.

“Maybe he should run in Suffolk County, or in Indianapolis,” said former City Council Member Jessica Lappin, a Maloney

supporter who represented the East Side from 2006 to 2013.

Democratic voters will go to the polls on June 26 to choose between Patel and Maloney, the 72-year-old veteran who was first elected to Congress in 1992, and the winner will be the odds-on favorite in the November 6 general election against Republican candidate Eliot Rabin. invreporter@strausnews.com

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NEW YORK PUBLIC NOTICES

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— $16 million in additional expense funding, along with $60 million in new capital funding — was included in the $89.2 billion budget deal struck June 11 by the City Council and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“Today, as we face rising costs across so many areas, we need further support to avoid service reductions — reductions of hours, branch closures during construction projects, or fewer materials and programs,” Tony Marx, the president of the New York Public Library said in written testimony delivered at a Council budget hearing last month.

The library systems, with the City Council’s support, requested $16 million more than the $372 million in expense funding allocated in the mayor’s previous budget proposal. Of the $16 million, library official said, roughly $7 million will be allocated to the New York Public Library, which operates 88 neighborhood branch libraries in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island. The remainder would go to the Brooklyn and Queens public library systems.

According to Marx, NYPL plans to devote the majority of its share of the new funding — $4.6 million of $7 million — toward funding wages,

benefits and other costs associated with library staff, which have grown in recent years as New York enacted paid family leave and increased the minimum wage.

“The Library fully supports and aligns with these values,” Marx said.

“Nevertheless, these increased costs have significantly stretched our budget, requiring an additional investment to continue our current levels of service.”

The funding will also be used to purchase new books for NYPL’s collections, particularly picture books to promote early literacy and test preparation books that are consistently in high demand from students.

The rest will be dedicated to maintenance needs that are ineligible for capital funding — critical repairs to floors, heating and cooling systems and cracking paint in NYPL libraries, which are 84 years old on average.

The public library systems have seen their city funding grow considerably under the de Blasio administration, rising from $301 million in the budget adopted the year before de Blasio took office in 2014 to over $372 million in the fiscal year ending June 30. But as of the budget passed last year, the city’s libraries had yet to fully recover from cuts imposed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

In spite of the spending increases under de Blasio, the systems’ expense

budget still fell short of pre-crisis levels when adjusted for inflation.

Jimmy Van Bramer, the Queens Council member who chairs the Council’s libraries and cultural affairs committee, pushed for the mayor and Council to fund the libraries’ request, calling the $16 million expense budget increase “a relative drop in the bucket of a $90 billion budget.”

“We have the means to do this, we just need the political will to make it happen.” Van Bramer said at a recent budget hearing. “The people of the City of New York benefit so much by a relatively small investment.”

In addition to the $16 million in expense funding, the city’s library systems also received an additional $60 million for capital projects, split evenly among the three systems.

NYPL’s total capital needs exceed $1 billion, Marx said, but the additional $20 million will be used to address the system’s most pressing requirements, including accessibility upgrades and technology improvements to better protect patrons’ privacy and security.

Key negotiations in the $89.2 billion budget deal centered on the inclusion of a “fair fares” proposal championed by Council Speaker Corey Johnson, which will fund a $106 million transit subsidy for nearly 800,000 low-income New York City residents.

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Eastsider Opponents of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to overhaul admissions to specialized high schools held a rally at City Hall June 10. Photo: State Senator Marty Golden, via Facebook

ASIAN-AMERICANS ASSAIL SCHOOLS DIVERSITY PLAN EDUCATION Mayor has proposed elimination of test criteria for admission to specialized high schools

BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

Asian-Americans have voiced robust objections to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to increase diversity in New York City’s specialized high schools, claiming the proposal to overhaul admissions at the elite institutions would unfairly and inordinately impact AsianAmericans.

The mayor’s plan, unveiled last week, would modify admissions standards at eight of the city’s nine specialized high schools (including Stuyvesant High School and the High School for Math, Science and Engineering in Manhattan), where offers are currently determined solely by applicants’ scores on a three-hour exam.

The mayor’s proposal calls for the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, to be eliminated, a step that would require state authorization.

Under de Blasio’s plan, which

I really disagree with the mayor on this. He could have started the conversation with the elected officials and the community and come up with a plan together to present to Albany.”

Council Member Margaret Chin

has won the support of a number of elected officials and education groups, the test would be replaced with a new composite admission score based on students’ classroom grades and performance on state standardized exams. The top 7 percent of students at each middle school in the city would receive offers from specialized high schools.

The plan is aimed at remedying persistent racial segregation in the specialized high schools, which are among the most selective and prestigious public schools in the nation.

Black and Latino students make up just 10 percent of the student body at specialized high schools despite comprising 70 percent of the population in the public school system as a whole. White and Asian

students, by contrast, are overrepresented.

The administration projects that the plan would drastically increase the number of black and Latino students admitted to specialized high schools — raising the proportion of admission offers to those groups from 9 percent to 45 percent.

But any substantial change in student demographics at the specialized high schools would disproportionately impact Asian-Americans, who currently receive more than half of all offers.

Hundreds of specialized high school students, parents, and alumni, many of them AsianAmerican, rallied at City Hall June 10 to protest the mayor’s plan. “Keep the test,” chanted

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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Voices

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

FILM AT 11 EAST SIDE OBSERVER

BY ARLENE KAYATT

The tipping police — Imagine getting a notice from your credit card company telling you that you’re a “great” tipper. That’s what they emailed me after they noticed I had left a tip that far exceeded the percentages recommended by the tip meisters who say the high-end tip should be 20 percent of the bill (there’s disagreement as to whether that includes tax or not). So? That was my thought. Like why is it anybody’s business what tip I give?

Maybe, like Bill O’Reilly in his hey-

day, they are just looking out for me?

Or maybe the bartender inflated the tip? Give me a break. Not sure that credit card companies should be getting into the nitty gritty of customer spending practices. They might consider working on other issues that impact consumer credit and online access to credit information. And take into consideration privacy of consumers. Forget it. That was another lifetime. I’m sure if the credit card company asks the tip-averse Danny Meyer, he might tell them to pass the tip along to the boss who will somehow figure out how to increase prices to accommodate generous tipping. At the end of the day, credit card companies should focus their resources and stop scrutinizing tips. There are some things that should be left to customer discretion as well as their ability to complain about charges they didn’t make.

Ordering protection — It continues to boggle the mind (mine at least) that Christine Quinn’s WIN (Women in Need), which has been providing housing and services for homeless women and children for over 30 years, will not provide round-theclock, or almost any, security for the WIN supportive housing being built on East 91st between First and Second Avenues. These are at-risk families. Many of the women, their children and their pets have been subjected to domestic violence and, at one time or another, have gotten an order of protection from the court. Without sufficient security, these women and children will live in fear of their abuser having access to them — their abuser will be able to harass them by trying to gain entry to the building premises; by hanging around the building; by approaching the children and the women when

they come and go from the building. There is a school in the building.

However, the children who live in the supportive housing may attend other schools. During the day, there is activity in the building — there are support services on premises. And there is an open space on an upper floor which is accessible to anyone who enters the building.

WIN believes that by having cameras in elevators and in other areas in the building there is sufficient security. I disagree. That kind of security is insufficient. When WIN made its presentation to a Community Board 8 committee last year, the committee capitulated. One board member was heard to say, “Why should they (WIN residents) have (security) when other buildings on the block don’t?” And another board member expressed fear that “It won’t be built if there are too many demands.”

First things first. Women and children who have been homeless and who have been subjected to domestic violence deserve to have a safe place to live and not have to live in fear that their abuser will gain entry to where they live because there is no human security to confront and turn the abusers away. Cameras are effective after the fact.

Late night moves, make that movies — It was a Sunday, 11 p.m. Just finished dinner. On the way home passed Two Door Tavern on Third and 89th.

They are now showing a weekly late movie. A great way to end the night and start the week. This particular Sunday it was Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters,” and the next week’s showing was “Beavis and ButtHead Do America.” No cover. Just pay for drinks. Popcorn’s on the house.

Nice way to end the week and good way to generate late-night business.

THE QUIET RADICALISM OF KATE SPADE She let the world know that a woman can be serious and ambitious, and still carry a bright pink wallet

BY ALIZAH SALARIO

Everyone seemed to own a Kate Spade bag. Everyone, that is, except me.

In the late ’90s, the popular girls at my suburban Chicago high school toted the designer’s signature black nylon sack with the tiny Kate Spade tag.

The bag managed to be both demure and distinctive; it was just a black bag, but it was also the black bag. The bags were go-to gifts for bat mitzvahs and birthdays. To me, they signaled belonging in a tribe of ambitious and privileged young women conscious of their place in the world. These young women were my peers, and like me, they desired a more cosmopolitan life after graduation. If you had a Kate Spade bag, you belonged, and if you could belong at my competitive high school, then you just might belong somewhere bigger and better, too.

Maybe I didn’t want the bag. Maybe I just wanted bigger and better.

When the shocking news of Kate

Spade’s suicide broke on Tuesday, I felt a personal sense of loss, as though she had been a friend. Clearly, I’m not alone. Chelsea Clinton tweeted about receiving her first Kate Spade bag from her grandmother. Lena Dunham also paid tribute on Twitter, writing that Spade “had a quirky visual language that captivated Bat Mitzvah girls and artists alike.” Some of my high school friends posted on Facebook, including Straus News contributor Caroline Rothstein, who wrote, “Your work was integral to my own well-being in ways that shaped and changed my world.”

These sentiments are no exaggeration. For those of us who came of age with Kate Spade bags in our orbit, she sent a message about who we could be in the world. Her bags carried many young women into adulthood, and for that, there is collective sense of indebtedness.

When I went downtown on weekends, my father’s girlfriend taught my sister and me how shop the markdowns at Filene’s Basement and TJ Maxx on State Street.

She carried a knockoff Chanel purse with padded sides, a double C clasp and that signature strap, a gold chain

woven with leather. The Chanel aesthetic appeared gauche to me. It was flashy; Kate Spade was understated.

At the time, I was keen on rejecting looks of my youth — particularly the puffy headbands with bows and pink outfits of my father’s girlfriend bought for me. Being grown up meant being simple and sophisticated. Kate Spade represented this aesthetic. She was Kate Spade New York, and New York was the epitome of style. New York was where things happened, where I imagined a smarter, bolder version of myself would move someday to become a writer. There was hope: Kate Spade was from the Midwest, and she had become very New York.

In retrospect, the thing about that Kate Spade bag was that it functioned as a backdrop. The bag didn’t define you. It allowed you to define who you wanted to become.

By the time I moved to New York City in 2009, the Kate Spade heyday was over. The height of the brand’s popularity coincided with that of “Sex and the City,” when the statement bags became a talisman of success. This year marks the show’s 20th anniversary, and certain aspects, like the faux empowerment via consumerism it

peddled, have not aged well.

The parts of SATC that still resonate are the same things Kate Spade tapped into. Like Carrie Bradshaw waltzing around in an outlandish tutu and simple tank, she knew how to merge cutting-edge and classic. Kate Spade made fashionable purses accessible, and she gave us permission to desire them. She let the world know that a woman can be serious and ambitious, and still carry a bright pink wallet. Yes, her bags were mainstream, but what she did was pretty radical.

Spade taught us that dressing up is not just fun and games. It’s like scaffolding — it supports the self we want to present to the world. But it’s also very delicate. The minute we stop believing in the worlds we create with our image, they crumble.

It would be unfair to speculate about the circumstances surrounding her suicide, but the loss of Spade is a reminder that the people who bestow the most brightness and beauty on the world often do so to stave off their own darkness. Her death is testament to the fact New York success stories are always part truth and part illusion, and that an impossibly cheerful brand image many have hid, and hurt,

Kate Spade store in Soho, 2006. Photo: Ralph Daily, via flickr the human being behind it.

Some people might wonder what all the fuss is over a purse. The fuss, I believe, is the way certain items mark our lives. A friend wrote to tell me about the parrot green Kate Spade bag gifted to her by an ex that she still holds onto because receiving it felt like she had arrived. Another friend told me about two pieces she purchased from Kate Spade’s Saturday’s store in SoHo that she cherishes — a refined square neck red shirt and a three-in-one striped canvas bag that she loves “like a child loves a stuffed animal.” The bag has carried her from coast to coast and to places in-between, a steady companion in a period of change.

In a world where the shadows seem to be creeping in from all corners, there is something radical about wanting more for yourself. And if it takes an elegant bag that makes you feel like you’ve already arrived to get there, then so be it.

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KATE SPADE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

A SPOUSE’S STATEMENT In a family more sprinkled with stardust than shrouded in tragedy, Kate Spade’s survivors include brother-in-law, David Spade, the stand-up comedian formerly of Saturday Night Live,� and niece Rachel Brosnahan, the Golden Globewinning star of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.� “Kate was the most beautiful woman in the world,� Andy Spade said of his wife in a statement a day after her death. “My daughter and I are devastated by her loss, and can’t even begin to fathom life without her.

We are deeply heartbroken and miss her already.�

Spade also pulled back the curtain on a life that to the outside world, and plenty of friends, too, seemed as joyous, vibrant and radiant as her witty, color-splashed design creations. “There were personal demons she was battling,� he wrote.

SpeciďŹ cally, she suffered from depression and anxiety for “many years,â€? and had been taking medication for both conditions over the past ďŹ ve years. “She was actively seeking help and working closely with her doctors to treat her disease, one that takes far too many lives,â€? he added. There was no substance or alcohol abuse, he said, despite tabloid reports.

Marital issues, though unspeciďŹ ed, were also at play, the statement made clear.

Within hours of her death, loving photos of the couple surfaced.

There they were, formally dressed, for the Met’s Costume Institute Gala, and there again, stylishly dressed, at a fundraising soiree in their home for the New York Center for Children, a favorite charity. A lively video shows a mariachi band serenading them as they dance, seemingly carefree.

But for the past 10 months, the Spades had been living apart, though they weren’t legally separated, and “never even discussed divorce,� Spade wrote. He took a second Park Avenue apartment, 14 blocks to the north. Even so, they saw each other or spoke daily, raised their daughter jointly, dined and vacationed together as a family. “We were best friends trying to work through our problems in the best way we knew how,� he said. “We were together for 35 years. We loved each other very much and simply needed a break.�

How different it must have seemed in 1983 when they met, and quickly paired up, at a men’s clothing store in Phoenix where both worked during their time as students at Arizona State University.

After graduating in 1985, they moved to the city. A year later, Kate Spade, 24, landed a temping job at now-defunct Mademoiselle magazine. She became a top fashion editor, and by 1991, when she left as senior accessories editor, she knew the industry cold.

BOUTIQUE BUSINESS In 1993, she launched the eponymous Kate Spade, with the man she’d marry one year later, and unveiled a collection of nylon handbags — “Exactly the kind of bag I’d want but can’t find,� she said — that managed to be stylish, practical, cheerful, whimsical, all at the same time.

At age 31, she was a towering success, birthing a lifestyle phenomenon and a business model — she handled design details, he managed advertis-

ing and branding — for how a husband and wife can partner and proďŹ t.

By 1996, Kate Spade had opened its ďŹ rst boutique at 59 Thompson Street in 400 square feet in Soho. Growth was turbocharged. Hungry for space, the shop in 1997 moved four blocks to 454 Broome Street, tripling in size.

The design brand became one of the most recognized on earth. It opened 140 retail stores in the U.S. and 175 abroad over two decades. Yet though it bore Spade’s name and logo, it quickly ceased being a familycontrolled company.

In 1998, the partners began cashing out. They sold 56 percent of the line to Neiman Marcus, stayed on board to helm design, and then in 2006, a year after their daughter was born, sold their minority stake to Neiman Marcus, which later sold it to Liz Claiborne.

Kate Spade herself formally exited Kate Spade in 2007.

Choosing family over fashion, she kept a low proďŹ le, devoting herself to raising Frances Beatrix Spade. It was in this period, her husband’s statement suggests, that the bouts of depression worsened.

Still, in 2016, she launched a new accessories label, Frances Valentine, legally changed her name, reengaged with the industry in a comeback bid, and advertised that her designs had “become a bit more grown up since the early days,� along with the tastes of her clientele.

Would the old magic work anew? HorriďŹ cally, her suicide makes the question moot. But her place in fashion’s pantheon, and in the memories of the women she served, is secure: “My grandmother gave me my ďŹ rst Kate Spade bag when I was in college. I still have it,â€? tweeted Chelsea Clinton. “I will never forget the first Kate spade bag I got for Christmas in college,â€? echoed another first daughter, Jenna Bush Hager. “She was a trailblazer.â€?

On Instagram, Rachel Brosnahan called her aunt, “A light that words can’t capture who touched everyone she ever came into contact with.�

Perhaps Bette Midler, recalling the “wonderful illusions she created,â€? summed it up best: “I am stunned,â€? she tweeted. invreporter@strausnews.com Any readers who are thinking about suicide, or are concerned about a loved one’s mental health, should call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK), which provides 24/7 free and conďŹ dential support services for people in distress.

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Born in Missouri in 1962 as Katherine Noel Brosnahan, she died on the Upper East Side as Katherine Noel Frances Valentine Brosnahan Spade, having legally changed her name in 2016.

But the handbag and accessories entrepreneur — who a quarter-century ago became synonymous with a brand beloved by a generation of young, urban women — will always be remembered as Kate Spade.

She was 55 and left behind her husband of 24 years, Andy Spade, who was also her business partner, and their daughter and only child, 13-year-old Frances Beatrix Spade.

Three days after her death, amid the heightened focus on mental-health issues it triggered, chef Anthony Bourdain hanged himself in his hotel room near Strasbourg, France, where he was ďŹ lming an episode of CNN’s “Parts Unknown.â€? He was 61.

Like Spade, the globetrotting author of “Kitchen Confidential,� whose body was discovered by fellow toque Eric Ripert, was long associated with Park Avenue, though a part that must have seemed light years away from the Silk Stocking District.

Bourdain won celebrity status in the 1990s as executive chef of Les Halles, the French brasserie on Park Avenue South off 29th Street, and on June 8, his fans and viewers and diners adorned the shuttered culinary landmark with letters and owers.

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MICHAEL BARBARO IN CONVERSATION WITH KARA SWISHER 92nd Street Y 1395 Lexington Ave. 7 p.m. $35 Today, countless people received their news through podcasts. At the cutting edge of this trend is Michael Barbaro and the team at The Daily, a ďŹ ve-day-a-week show from The New York Times. Barbaro will be in conversation with Kara Swisher, executive editor of Recode, to discuss what makes the medium so powerful.

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Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden 421 East 61st St. 1 p.m. $15 adults/$10 members and children Enjoy an early 19th century New York City pastime: an ice cream garden social. Make and enjoy ice cream the way New Yorkers did 200 years ago while enjoying historical tunes in the garden and taking a break from the dust and noise of the city.

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Dairy Visitor Center, midpark between 64th and 65th Streets 10 a.m. $15 Hallett Nature Sanctuary, the smallest of the Park’s three woodland landscapes, was closed to the public in 1934 and remained mostly untouched until 2001. View the restored sanctuary, learn park secrets and follow a rustic trail adorned with native plant and wildlife on this intimate tour.

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The Walt Disney Company gifted this Tsesah crest to the Smithsonian Institution. It’s on view at The Met Fifth Avenue through Sept. 3. Photo: Adel Gorgy

Cameroonian Crest (tsesah) from the late 19th-early 20th century, on loan from The Menil Collection. Photo: Adel Gorgy

MANIFESTATIONS OF POWER Royal masks from Cameroon, stunning and evocative, at The Met

BY MARY GREGORY

It’s all quite subjective, but some things just emanate a presence. Then again, maybe it’s not. The artists who carved the towering royal Tsesah crests from Cameroon now on display at The Met Fifth Avenue sought to depict power and authority. They did it through size, style and psychology, and the sculptors who created them were carefully selected for their mastery. Turning a corner into the exhibition gives a sense of how successful they were. They’re jaw-droppers, the kind of pieces that force you to stop and look.

Just as Renaissance bishops, cardinals and popes established and enhanced their rank through patronage of and commissions for artists like Leonardo and Michelangelo, the rulers of the Bamileke peoples of Cam-

eroon expressed their importance through art. Royal Tsesah crests were reserved for the king of kings, the sovereign fon, the seat of consolidated of power for some 100 chiefdoms that spread across the Grassfields region of Cameroon. Tsesah crests were their crowning glory.

The faces are massive, standing roughly 3 feet tall. They’re stunning, using abstracted, exaggerated forms.

They’re evocative, suggesting distance in time and way of life. They’re imposing and impressive, despite being rough from age and repeated use, or perhaps because of that.

Although very few Tsesah crests survive (only 15 are known) they have been recognized by artists, curators and critics for decades for their strikingly original, creative figuration. One was displayed in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1935, selected for its aesthetic quality, rather than its royal heritage. A photograph showing the installation of the crest in MoMA’s galleries is included in the

show. Imagine the impact it would have had on young modernists.

Recently, The Met acquired what may be the very first Tsesah crest, carved more than 200 years ago. “The Face of Dynasty: Royal Crests from Western Cameroon” is the inaugural appearance of that piece. It’s joined by three others, the largest grouping so far in an American museum. Also included is an expansive, powerhouse of a geometrically patterned textile known as ndop, which provided the backdrop for moveable, outdoor courts and ceremonies.

While each is unique, the form of the mask is prescribed. The face of the Tsesah features an exaggerated concave brow, stretching seemingly to the sky. It tops pointed oval eyes, cheeks that come out horizontally toward us, flaring nostrils open to the viewer (offering, perhaps, a suggestion of royal breath) and impossibly broad lips, often hinting at a smiling visage. The major portion, the brow, is arched, and in three of the works on

This crest, or Tsesah, on loan from McClain Gallery, features intricate diamond patterned carving on the brow. Photo: Adel Gorgy view, incised with decorative patterns — chevrons, checkerboards and lines — that may represent stylized images of indigenous animals like crocodiles, also emblematic of power.

The crests would be held by attendants above the head of the ruler during dances to celebrate his sovereignty, or during royal ceremonies like funerals, enthronements and the delivery of judicial sentences. They were visible proclamations of the power invested in the head they crowned.

Tsesah crests were first collected by Westerners in the early 20th century, the curators, Yaëlle Biro and Alisa LaGamma, point out. By that time, they were no longer being worn. “According to oral history, the last time Tsesah was danced in Bandjoun was on the occasion of the funeral of fon Fotso II in 1925,” the wall text states.

One of the descendants of the master carvers provided some understanding of the masks, their usage and cultural importance. In the 1970s, Paul Tahbou, a carver from Bandjoun where

the crests originated, supplied the names of some of the previous artists, including his father. The art form was transmitted from generation to generation, as were the works of art, themselves. According to Tahbou, they traced back centuries. Tsesah crests were the Bamileke ruler’s primary insignia of power. As authority passed from one ruler to another, so did the mask. When it became too worn, it was retired and a new one was commissioned. Only one could exist at a time. It was the visual embodiment of the monarchical idea, “The king is dead, long live the king.”

IF YOU GO WHAT: “Face of Dynasty: Royal Crests from Western Cameroon” WHERE: The Met Fifth Avenue, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas WHEN: Through Sept. 3

JUNE 14-20,2018

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Subtitled ‘A Brief History of Helen of Troy,’ this drama is an unsettling examination of complacency culture and the politics of beauty.

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A provocative romance set against the backdrop of a hotly contested election in 1925 London.

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Stephen Trask (‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’) and Peter Yanowitz tell the story of drifters and dreamers searching for their place in the world of Studio 54.

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YOU & ME

A basketball player must juggle politics and personal history when he travels to Beijing for a game.

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ATLANTIC THEATER STAGE TWO - 330 W 16TH ST

Mummenschanz returns for a new show of sculptural puppetry and visual antics. A visually stunning spectacle for the entire family to enjoy.

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Experience this classic in a new way – in Yiddish (with English and Russian supertitles), the language of Tevye and his family. Joel Grey directs a new translation.

Tony winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson returns to Shakespeare in the Park to direct a new production of ‘Othello.’

DELACORTE THEATRE - 81 CENTRAL PARK WEST

EDMOND J SAFRA HALL AT MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE - 36 BATTERY PL

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JUNE 14-20,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS

Neighborhood Scrapbook

MAY 30 - JUN 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.

Caravaggio

23 East 74 Street

A

Latin Bites

419 E 70th St

A

Starbucks

1488 3 Avenue

A

83 1/2

345 East 83 Street

A

Campagna Quattro Gatti

205 East 81 Street

Grade Pending (18) Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Metropolitan Museum Balcony Lounge

1000 5 Avenue

A

Three Decker Restaurant

1746 2 Avenue

A

Pho Shop

1716 1st Ave

A

Sprinkle Splash Bakery

1590 Park Ave

A

Subway

201 E 116th St

A

Tamales Lupita

154B E 112th St

A

Brisas Del Mar Seafood Market

1785-1787 Lexington Ave

CLOSED (51) Food, food preparation area, food storage area, area used by employees or patrons, contaminated by sewage or liquid waste. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Crown Fried Chicken

1867 Lexington Ave

A

Q Marqet

38 E 98th St

A

Lupita Restaurant

2049 2nd Ave

A

BE THE SOMEONE

WHO HELPS A KID BE THE FIRST IN HER FAMILY TO GO TO COLLEGE.

newyorkcares.org

Dr. Holly S. Andersen holds a proclamation from Mayor Bill de Blasio honoring “Hands Only CPR Day.” Photo courtesy of the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute

HANDS-ON CARE First responders know that administering CPR effectively is one of the most important skills to help save the lives of those suffering from cardiac arrest. Last week, the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute of the NewYorkPresbyterian Hospital and the American Heart Association teamed up with the New York City Health Department to launch their second annual #HandsOnlyCPR camapaign as part of National CPR Awareness week.

The new initiative, which will spread the word throughout NYC’s five boroughs, includes a PSA called “It’s Sexy to Save a Life,” with the Tony award-winning cast of “Chicago.”

The Hands Only program focues on a three-step method introduced in 2008 to replace mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. “We want people to knonw it’s simple, they cannot hurt someone who will die without their help and there are Good Samaritan Laws in every state to protect someone who tries to save a life,” said cardiologist Dr. Holly S. Andersen, director of education and outreach at the Perelman Heart Institute and a clinical associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. The Hands Only technique, she said, “makes it easy to jump in and help someone in an emergency.”

Cast members of “Chicago” with Jason Patrick Sand, who produced the #HandsOnlyCPR video. Photo courtesy of the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute

The three steps of Hands Only are: CHECK for responsiveness and breathing CALL 9-1-1 or have someone call for you chest compessions. Kneel over victim. With straight arms COMPRESS Start and interlocked hands, push hard and fast in center of the chest, two compressions per second at least two inches deep.

JUNE 14-20,2018

AN ‘EDGY, RADICAL’ CAMPAIGN FOR CONGRESS POLITICS

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Sander Hicks vies for Independent nomination in District 12 with populist, “truther� platform

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BY NATASHA ROY

After being knocked off the Democratic primary ballot last month, 47-year-old Sander Hicks didn’t veer from his mission of representing New York’s District 12 in Congress.

Instead, he simply chose to run as an independent.

Hicks, a self-proclaimed 9/11 “truther,� is running on a populist platform. He wants to abolish the Electoral College, hold regular town halls and restore diplomatic relations with Iran.

Hicks has served as the president of the Cortelyou Road Merchants Association, a network of businesses on Brooklyn’s Cortelyou Road, and currently operates the woodworking company Zen Space Makers, Inc. in Queens. He believes the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, isn’t progressive enough to represent the district’s “edgy, radical, creative, entrepreneurial side.� “I’m a lifelong peace activist, and I felt there’s a political vulnerability with the fact that Carolyn Maloney voted for the Iraq War, went along with the economic bailouts of Wall Street and is extremely conservative about Middle East politics [and] Israel,� Hicks said. “I feel that she’s vulnerable to a true progressive challenge.�

One of his key, if controversial, missions is determining the “truth� behind the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Hicks believes former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney covered up the true perpetrators of the attacks, citing the “28 Pages,� a document released under the Obama administration that alleges connections between some of the 9/11 hijackers and Saudi officials. The terrorist group al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Hick’s website lists a ďŹ ve-step plan to restore peaceful relations with Iran; he recently went there for the New Horizon conference, an event for American and European anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist academ-

15

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Come meet me and my friends!

MUDDY PAWS RESCUE, K9 KASTLE & NORTH SHORE ANIMAL LEAGUE AMERICA

Petco Sander Hicks, second from left, with potential constituents. Photo courtesy of Michael Pastko ics, activists and other ďŹ gures.

His policy platform on the Middle East also includes negating the United States’ stance that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical attacks on his own people.

He cites Bernie Sanders and Paul Wellstone as inspirations, and said he can even understand people who voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

The Greenpoint, Brooklyn, resident had originally run for Congress on the Democratic ticket until candidate Suraj Patel ďŹ led a lawsuit against him and former primary candidate Peter Lindner, citing an invalid petition, according to Town & Village. Now, Hicks is focusing on collecting enough signatures to have his name on the independent ballot in November. He needs signatures from either 3,500 people or from 5 percent of the district’s voting population — whichever is less, according to the New York City Board of Elections. “I’m a blue-collar, fighting progressive, spiritual warrior who believes in nonviolence, but, you know, when it comes to politics you can’t just throw me off the Democratic Party ballot,â€? Hicks said. “Suraj Patel, I think he made a terrible mistake by doing this petition challenge because now it looks like he’s scared of me.â€?

While Hicks’ platform and values are a shift from the other liberals running in District 12,

his lack of funds may get in the way. As of March 31, Hicks had raised $12,411 — a mere fraction of Maloney’s $1,356,589 and Patel’s $1,064,921.

To engage with voters, Hicks and his team of about 20 volunteers are canvassing across the city, an effort that helped attract volunteer policy strategist Michael Pastko to his team. “One thing that Sander’s been doing really well is networking and speaking at events that other progressive and left-leaning organizations are putting on,� Pastko said.

One of those events was a debate at Progressive Action of Lower Manhattan, during which he beat Patel in a 2-1 vote. “I’m proud of that because I hit him hard on his position on Syria, his position on war, his position on foreign policy ... and you know what, I admire him because he’s got good positions on immigration and ending the drug war,� Hicks said.

District 12 has swung blue in every election since 1961 and has voted for the incumbent since 2013 — but now, Hicks believes, the district needs someone who has some edge. “It’s a safe seat for Democrats,� Hicks said. “Whoever usually wins the Democratic primary usually wins because of the overwhelming amount of Democrats, so it’s going to be an interesting theory to say, ‘What about a real, true progressive independent running against the Democratic Party nominee?’�

860 Broadway @ E. 17th St. New York, NY SAT JUNE 16 # 12 PM - 5 PM

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thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders

TUESDAY, JUNE 19TH, 12PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org In conjunction with a new Morgan Museum exhibition, shows co-curators talk about the range of imaginative beasts of the Middle Ages and how they were used to express ideas. They’ll also look at the not-so-distance practice of employing monsters to express “the Other� ($29).

Summer of Know: Molly Crabapple and Anand Giridharadas

TUESDAY, JUNE 19TH, 7PM Guggenheim Museum | 1071 Fifth Ave. | 212-423-3500 | guggenheim.org The Wright restaurant hosts these informal discussions; this week features artist Molly Crabapple and writer Anand Giridharadas talking about journalism as activism in the age of Trump ($10).

Just Announced | Nelson Mandela at 100

MONDAY, JULY 9TH, 7PM Symphony Space | 2537 Broadway | 212-864-1414 | symphonyspace.org Performances, readings, and reections make up a night of celebration for the centennial of Nelson Mandela’s birth. Four-time Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad, The Blacklist’s Hisham TawďŹ q, and novelist Salman Rushdie will be among the participants ($35).

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

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

16

JUNE 14-20,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Business

Real Estate

ASK A BROKER

BY ANDREW KRAMER

My husband and I recently saw a beautiful and large apartment in the Sutton Place neighborhood that we fell in love with and we want to make an offer on it. The apartment has everything going for it, including a reasonable asking price, however the maintenance is on the high side.

We were told that’s because it’s a land-lease building.

What is a land-lease building and is it something we should pursue?

I know the building and yes the rooms are huge as are the views and the amenities but, oh ... that maintenance.

Unlike most co-ops that own the ground that they sit on, a land-lease building leases the land for a designated number of years (and gets re-negotiated at each renewal), which translates to higher maintenance for all its shareholders. The upside is the price of the apartments in land-lease buildings tend to be significantly lower than in regular co-op buildings.

I would advise you to sit down with your accountant, like everyone else who has purchased in the building before you, and do the math. Is the higher maintenance offset by the lower asking price? How much more would you have to pay for a similar apartment with lower maintenance? There are some uncertainties involved, however it’s certainly great space and location for those willing to take the plunge.

Andrew Kramer is a licensed associate real estate broker with Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales

Photo: Aaron Hawkins, via flickr

COLLEGE: IT’S AN INVESTMENT PLANNING A financial adviser on how parents and students can prepare for the increasingly high cost of tuition

BY MARK SERUYA

Photo: Patrick Nouhailler, via flickr

The time has finally come when your first born is graduating high school and is heading to college.

You have looked forward to this day, yet you discovered that the money you saved isn’t enough.

The price of a college education has risen steeply each year and, without proper advance planning, the cost likely will exceed your cookie jar contents.

There is no denying the high cost of tuition. From 1980 to 2014, college tuition increased an average of almost 260 percent compared to the nearly 120 percent increase in consumer items. In 1980, the average annual cost of tuition, room and board and fees at a four-year college was $9,438.

That had climbed to $23,872 by 2014 — and it is still increasing.

While the decision to invest in

a college education is ultimately a personal one, research shows that a college education is indeed worth the cost. A recent study shows that jobs paying the median household income of $53,000 or more annually made up nearly half of new jobs added during the economic recovery, and 97 percent of these jobs went to college graduates. In addition, the wage difference between college graduates and non-graduates nearly doubled — from 33 percent to 62 percent — from 1980 to 2013.

Some analysts maintain that the gap between increased education costs and increased inflation is sufficiently narrow to keep the gap between college and the working world manageable.

They point out that although the average cost of a four-year college education at a public institution has increased by 9 percent between 2012 and 2017, general inflation increased during the same period by 6 percent, leaving the increased cost once inflation is factored in at 3 percent.

Has the average student’s ability to pay for those increases kept pace with inflation and the

rising costs of a degree? Seventy percent of all students grapple with debt. Can they earn enough to pay off the debt in a reasonable time? That is the overriding question each potential college student must answer before enrolling.

As parents, we can help minimize the debt our children incur by planning wisely to cover as much of the cost as possible without loans or financial aid.

That planning starts early ... perhaps even at our child’s birth.

Starting that far in advance may help offset future costs — with a longer timeline, parents may utilize investment vehicles that could allow for greater returns, but which may be too risky for shorter timelines.

As one option, consider 529 college savings plans, which allow for the money to grow with significant tax-advantages. These accounts may grow larger than an identical taxable account where earnings are taxed every year. Additionally, when the funds withdrawn are used for qualified education expenses, including tuition, fees, room and

board expenses, supplies and equipment, they are free from state and federal income tax.

How much to save? A general rule is to save what would be the full cost of four years of college in the year the student was born, which translates into approximately one-third of the cost eighteen years later once your child enters freshman year. The second third of the cost might come from your current earnings during your child’s college years.

The final third can be borrowed through a combination of parent and child loans.

Regardless of where you fall in the discussion about costs versus financial benefit of a college degree, there is one thing that you can count on: a proactive approach to saving and planning financially can go a long way when it comes time to start tuition payments.

Mark Seruya is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management based in New York City.

He can be reached at 212-903-7699 or mark.seruya@morganstanleypwm. com.

JUNE 14-20,2018

17

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

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JUNE 14-20,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

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missions process.”

The mayor and others have said that SHSAT results are unfairly tilted to students from families with the resources to pay for private tutoring and prep courses. (Prep books for the test are consistently in high demand at libraries—two SHSAT prep books were among the top 50 adult non-fiction titles in terms of check-outs over the last six months at the New York Public Library; over that period, SHSAT test prep books were checked out over 2,600 times.)

“It’s true, the test prep industry does thrive in Asian communities, but the parents have made a decision to spend their hard earned dollars on these classes,” Lee said, adding that parents often turn to private prep courses because they feel schools fail to adequately prepare students for the SHSAT. “They’re doing this for survival,” he said. “They can’t rely on the public school system.”

“We hope that all this activity in the last few days has convinced the mayor and [Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza] that they should speak to us,” Lee said. “Of course diversity matters to us, but any solution should include everyone.”

Margaret Chin, who represents much of Lower Manhattan, including Chinatown, in the City Council, said in a telephone interview that the de Blasio administration did not do enough to solicit public input before announcing the plan. “I think mostly people were upset that they didn’t have a chance to voice their opinion or concern,” Chin said.

“It’s important for the mayor and the chancellor to really get feedback from the people who are going to be impacted.”

In a June 6 letter to de Blasio, Chin called for a formal process to address Asian-American families’ concerns with the plan, which she wrote “does not address the fact that far

something

too many students are at a disadvantage on the day of the SHSAT.” Chin, an alumna of a specialized high school, Bronx Science, wrote that the city should “identify immediate ways to make the existing process fairer,” such as increasing outreach efforts to ensure that students know about the admission test when they begin middle school and expanding test prep programs for lowincome students. “In the longterm, we must strive to make sure that our Middle Schools are preparing every student, regardless of race and socioeconomic status, for the rigors of the SHSAT,” Chin wrote.

“I really disagree with the mayor on this,” Chin said. “He could have started the conversation with the elected officials and the community and come up with a plan together to present to Albany.”

The state Assembly will not vote on legislation to eliminate the SHSAT before the current legislative session ends later this month, Speaker Carl Heastie said, in spite a move by the Assembly’s education committee to advance the bill.

Rebecca Seawright, who represents the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island in the Assembly and sits on the education committee, voted against the proposal and echoed Chin’s complaints about the lack of public discussion of the proposal. “I cannot support legislation on the future of specialized high schools with little opportunity for student, teacher, parent, alumni, and educator input,” Seawright said in a statement. “We must be thoughtful and look at the issue holistically, with all stakeholders present before making a decision which will impact millions of children and families in New York City for decades to come.”

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protesters, some carrying signs stating their intention to vote out elected officials who support the proposal.

“These schools have so many low-income students and immigrants, and they’re the ones who are going to be the biggest losers,” said David Lee, the vice president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York, one of the groups that participated in the rally.

Lee and others argue that racial disparities in admissions testing results demonstrate larger failings in the public school system that would not be addressed by the mayor’s plan. “We need to fix the pipeline to make sure middle school students have the skills they need for the test,” he said, adding that after school SHSAT prep classes should be expanded.

Ray Liu, a 2000 graduate of Stuyvesant who attended the rally, said the main issue for many specialized high school alumni is fairness. “Having high standards that are fair is something we really want our alma maters to maintain,” he said.

“I’m not against changing the admissions standards, as long as it’s something that’s fair and applied consistently across the board to everyone,” he said, adding that course grades can vary by school and classroom, making them an unreliable metric. The mayor’s plan to accept the top 7 percent of students from each middle school, he said, would unfairly place students at some schools at a competitive disadvantage.

“It’s not about maintaining some proportion of Asian people in specialized high schools,” Liu said. “It’s about making sure that there’s fairness and consistency in the ad-

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JUNE 14-20,2018

THE ART OF THE FIGHT FITNESS At Radical MMA in Chelsea, a Japanese aesthetic

BY MICHAEL DESANTIS

Anyone who enters Radical MMA in Chelsea is required to get barefoot and step onto a black pad inside a small blue rectangular bucket holding a cool sanitizer. They then step out onto a rug and descend stairs to a long, rectangleshaped room and take a second footbath.

Only then can they walk onto the large gray mat where they’ll practice martial arts techniques or sparring for the next few hours. “Osu,” they declare, Japanese for “I will persevere through hardship.”

René Dreifuss, 47, the owner and driving force behind Radical MMA, enforces Japanese martial arts values and demands respect, discipline and a desire for self-improvement.

His pupils range from amateur mixed martial arts fighters with dreams of going pro to those simply getting in shape. He says Japanese-style formalities help separate Radical MMA from other fight-training schools in New York. His students agree: Dreifuss’s approach, they say, has made them more mature, confident and tenacious in their everyday lives.

Piaras McGarry, an amateur fighter who moved to New York City from Northern Ireland last year, said he’s been surprised to find himself cursing less outside the gym since he began training there.

“Me being Irish, we like to curse every second,” McGarry, 22, said. “Training at Radical has improved my overall life in terms of my vocabulary.”

McGarry said Radical MMA, on West 29th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, has more rules than any other academy he’s been to — he’s lost count of how many places he’s trained. For example, Dreifuss’s gym was the first time McGarry used a footbath.

Dreifuss said cleanliness is a huge part of Japanese culture.

His other rules, printed on a sheet of paper titled “Dojo Etiquette,” include not being selfish or egotistical.

He gives students opportunities to fix any problematic behavior to meet his guidelines.

If they don’t reform, Dreifuss bans them. The same goes for any first-time offender who

19

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Meet Dan Faryniasz

At Radical MMA on West 29th Street, René Dreifuss trains students in mixed martial arts-oriented jujitsu. Photo courtesy of Radical MMA does something unconscionable like act sexist towards the academy’s women or recklessly injuring a training partner.

Dreifuss said those are behaviors he’s seen at “meathead gyms,” which he equated to college frats. He’s witnessed fighters who practice with the same effort as they would in a fight and could potentially concuss his training partner.

“Most of the fights they get into are stupid bar brawls they could walk away from,” Dreifuss said. “That’s not selfdefense, that’s ego-defense.

They’re not afraid of the guy breaking into their home and putting a gun to their head.

They’re afraid of being shown up in front of their bros. That’s the allure of a meathead gym. I hate that.”

Every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., McGarry heads to Radical MMA to train with fellow amateur fighters Marlon Wiprud and Yu Ji. As three of Dreifuss’ most experienced students, they spend hours drilling rigorous fight training while trying not to injure one another. Each man is over 6 feet tall and slightly over 200 pounds.

Wiprud said the intense workouts pay dividends whenever he’s fighting someone in the ring.

“When you and another person are trying to knock each other out in front of 1,000 people, it’s obviously a stressful situation,” Wiprud said. “When you go through a lot of stress in training, it gives you this mental edge, where you’re like, ‘There’s no way you trained harder than me.’”

The sound of thuds reverberate throughout the room as students attempt to take their sparring partners down to the mat.

Among them is Juan “Wolf Man” Jimenez, who came to Radical MMA a few years ago to get in shape. Standard gyms

where the workout partners are treadmills and weights were boring, Jimenez, 28, said. He entered the academy at nearly 170 pounds — overweight.

“I used to be tired all the time,” Jimenez said. “I thought it was normal. I realized it’s not normal; I was just out of shape.”

Now, he said he fluctuates between 130-135 pounds. He achieved that goal, but has set new ones for himself after deciding to remain at Dreifuss’s school. Jimenez said he has no interest in becoming a professional mixed martial artist, but enjoys testing himself in amateur Brazilian jujitsu competitions. Those feature grappling an opponent on the ground while trying to control and submit them through either choking or extending a limb.

Dreifuss trains a handful of female students, and he’s not afraid to put them up against males in practice. Aleysa “Mouse” Yelisowa said she’s been benefited a lot in the outside world by the opportunity to train with men.

“I’m going to go into the risk management field soon, where it’s going to be mostly maledominated,” Yelisowa, 28, said.

“I don’t feel nervous anymore.

Once you can fight guys, you’re not really intimidated by them in an office setting.”

She’s now even considering becoming a fighter once she sharpens up her striking: the punches, kicks, knees and elbows that mixed martial artists throw. Meanwhile, she continues to practice grappling.

Dreifuss closes out each session by reminding his students the importance of discipline.

He tells students that they may find themselves passing on the knowledge of martial arts and wants them to teach the same values of respect and discipline he once learned in Japan. Dreifuss then dismisses the class.

“Osu,” the students shout in unison.

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Without my Child Protective Specialist, I wouldn’t have gotten my sisters back. They were with me every step of the way.

Shaquana, Manhattan

ACS CHILD PROTECTIVE SPECIALISTS — Protecting kids, supporting families.

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YOUR 15 MINUTES

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

PRESCRIBING LITERACY Pediatrician Leora Mogilner oversees a local chapter of Reach Out and Read

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

As a pediatrician in the Division of General Pediatrics at Mount Sinai, Dr. Leora Mogilner brought Reach Out and Read, a national literacy nonprofit, there in 1998. When children come in for a pediatric visit, starting as newborns, they are given a brand new developmentally and culturally appropriate book to take home.

The Upper East Side resident also serves as the medical director of Reach Out and Read of Greater New York, which recently marked 20 years of serving the city’s most underserved communities with the tools of literacy. On June 5, at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park, she was honored for her work with the program, which includes helping the organization grow from serving only 18 sites in 2000 to now 275,000 kids yearly at 223 sites.

How did you first learn about Reach Out and Read?

I had heard about it from a colleague who heard about it at an American Academy of Pediatrics meeting. And I thought it was a fantastic idea. Basically the idea is that you teach parents about the importance of reading to their children from the time they’re babies. And we give out brand new books. Their parents are taught about how important it is to reach to their children. And we also have volunteers in the waiting room who read to kids and model reading aloud for parents.

How have you grown the program?

We now give out books at every well visit, starting with the newborn visit.

So we used to start at six months, and now we start with the first visit. And we actually now give out books in the hospital, before a baby is discharged.

So that’s a new innovation in the last year in the well nursery before mom goes home at Mount Sinai, she gets a brand new book to share with her baby and advice about things she can do with her baby and the book. It’s not just reading the book to them, but it’s using it as a proxy, a way for a child to hear their parents’ language. But it also gives parents and children something to bond over.

What does your job as medical director of Reach Out and Read of Greater New York entail?

I train staff at other clinics; I’ve made training videos. I go to different sites to train other practitioners and help consult with different organizations to ensure that our programs are giving the highest quality of care that they can give.

Is it geared towards a certain demographic?

What is vision for the future of the program?

Everyone who comes to our clinic participates in the program. I will say that in the New York City area, there are hundreds of programs and the majority of them are located in clinics that are serving underserved populations. While reading and sharing books from birth is important for everyone of every demographic, we’re especially focused on children who are growing up in poverty, who may not have access to this information and the resources, like books.

We would ultimately like to ensure that we have funding so that every child who goes to the doctor for a well visit is able to leave with a brand new book they’re excited about. And parents get information they need to make reading and sharing books a part of their children’s lives. I would love to see this at every clinic and every practice in New York City.

Where do you get the books from? Who do you partner with?

We run books drives every year. We have generous donors who donate

Dr. Leora Mogilner, the medical director of Reach Out and Read of Greater New York, with Chelsea Clinton at a recent benefit for the nonprofit. Photo: Michael Wilson

money. The Reach Out and Read coalition of Greater New York provides some funding to each of their programs, so we get some of our book budget from them. Some of it we fundraise on our own. There’s also the National Reach Out and Read program, so we’re also eligible to get books through the national program. So we piece it together. We also partner with our local Barnes & Noble. They’ve done an amazing job running book drives and fairs for us, which have been wonderful.

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Eastsider COLOR THE EASTSIDE

by Jake Rose

Color Neue Galerie Neue Galerie New York is a museum devoted to early twentieth-century German and Austrian design.

Scan or take a picture of your work and send it to molly.colgan@strausnews.com.

We’ll publish some of them.

To purchase a coloring book of Upper East Side venues, go to colorourtown.com/ues

NEUE GALERIE NEW YORK

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