Our Town - June 28, 2018 by Our Town

The local paper for the Upper East Side

WEEK OF JUNE - JULY WELCOME TO BROADWAY’S LIVING ROOM ◄ P.18

28-4 2018

GOLD COAST GRANDEUR ARCHITECTURE An exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York explores the legacy of Jazz Age architect Rosario Candela BY VAL CASTRONOVO

An outpouring of donations for the separated migrant children at the office of Council Member Mark Levine (right). Photo courtesy of the Office of Mark Levine

SEPARATION AND SOLIDARITY IMMIGRATION Outrage turned to action as New Yorkers worked to support migrant children brought to the city BY ALIZAH SALARIO

At first, not even New York City’s elected officials knew that the perilous journeys for 239 migrant children separated from their parents had come to an end, for now, in Manhattan. But as the story unfolded last week of how the Trump administration’s family separation policy — widely denounced as a moral and human rights catastrophe by politicians, religious leaders and former first ladies from across the political spectrum — had resulted in an estimated 2,300 children shipped to far-ﬂung cities around the country, New Yorkers took notice. And when news broke that approximately 700 of those children were believed to be

It was a very intense and an emotional experience, and I experienced the heartbreak of meeting the children, some as young as one year old.” Council Member Mark Levine, after touring the Cayuga Center in East Harlem in New York State, with over a quarter of them in New York City alone, many City leaders and everyday citizens ﬁrst expressed outrage — and then quickly took action. “I have to say how incredibly proud I am of the way New Yorkers have supported these kids,” says City Council Member Mark Levine, who represents Northern Manhattan.

1 Sutton Place South. 740 Park. 960 Fifth. 1 Gracie Square. These are just a few of the posh pre-war addresses in Manhattan that are part of Rosario Candela’s portfolio, most completed during a heady wave of luxury apartment-house construction in the 1920s before the Great Depression put the brakes on the spree. The Sicilian-born architect rode the crest of the wave and designed or codesigned some 75 apartment buildings, most in Manhattan. The son of a plasterer who came to the U.S. around 1910 with $20 in his pocket, Candela (1890-1953) graduated from Columbia University with a degree in architecture and went on to become a Jazz Age starchitect, “the greatest apartment designer in America,” Michael Gross exuberantly writes in “740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building.” As architecture critic Paul Goldberger has said: “There was a wonderful assurance and solidity to his buildings ... they don’t display any visible effort, in the greatest traditions of old money.” He designed “the best Gold Coast buildings,” Gross enthuses, whose residents could glory in the cachet and the giddy sense that they had “made it” by snaring Candela digs. In the 1980s, he writes, “a ‘Candela apartment’ became a Greed Decade status symbol even more potent because of its rarity.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

OurTownEastSide

O OURTOWNNY.COM @OurTownNYC

Crime Watch Voices NYC Now City Arts

3 8 10 12

Restaurant Ratings Business Real Estate 15 Minutes

14 16 17 21

Rosario Candela designed or codesigned dozens of buildings in New York City, among them 778 Park Avenue, with its pavilion-styled water tower. 778 Park (1931), on the northwest corner of 73rd Street, would be Candela’s last building on the boulevard. Photo: Rob Stephenson, courtesy of the photographer

Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, June 29 – 8:13 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com

We deliver! Get Our Town Eastsider sent directly to your mailbox for $ $49 per year. Go to OurTownNY.com or call 212-868-0190

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

SMOKE SCREEN POLICY Reform advocates underwhelmed with NYPD shift on marijuana enforcement BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill announced a new NYPD policy on June 19 that will reduce the number of individuals arrested in New York City for public consumption of marijuana. The new policy directs officers to issue a criminal summons to individuals found smoking in public as an alternative to arrest — with some exceptions, including if the suspect has no valid identification or address, open warrants, is on probation or parole or has a “history of recent violence.” That includes anyone arrested for a violent crime within the last three years, regardless of whether the arrest resulted in a conviction. The NYPD projects that the new policy will result in 10,000 fewer arrests annually. Marijuana arrests in New York City have declined signiﬁcantly in recent years, from a high of 53,000 in 2010 to 19,000 in 2017. But racial disparities in

enforcement have persisted. In recent years, over 85 percent of those arrested were black or Hispanic, an outsized proportion that stayed roughly consistent even after the NYPD adjusted guidelines in 2014 to issue summonses rather than make arrests for low-level possession offenses. David Holland, the executive and legal director of the Empire State chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said there is little reason to expect that the NYPD’s shift in policy will reduce the racial disparity in enforcement. “If the summonses are issued in the same way that arrests have taken place, then you’re going to have people of color paying the ﬁnes 85 percent of the time,” Holland said. Nelson Guerrero, executive director of the Cannabis Cultural Association, a New York-based advocacy group, called the move “a very small step toward creating a real solution.” The carve-outs included in the NYPD policy, Guerrero said, leave some of the city’s most marginalized populations — undocumented immigrants, minors of color, the homeless and other groups that frequently do not have valid identiﬁcation and would remain subject to arrest under the new policy

Members of the City Council’s progressive caucus and other cannabis policy reform advocates gathered on the steps of City Hall June 18 to critique the NYPD’s new marijuana enforcement policy. Photo: City Council Member Rory Lancman, via Twitter. — vulnerable to deportation and other consequences. Melissa Moore, the deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance in New York, said the move seems to be at odds with de Blasio’s position on immigration. “The mayor has been really clear that he wants to oppose the Trump administration’s crackdown and do as much as he can to shield immigrants in New York City,” she said. “A really signiﬁcant and concrete step he could actually take would be to end the arrests and the carve-outs entirely. We know that people have been deported or put in danger of deportation for years-old marijuana offenses.” In its report, the NYPD cited the

lack of a uniform prosecution policy among the city’s ﬁve district attorneys as a “signiﬁcant challenge” to the development of a new police policy. “It’s extremely disingenuous for the NYPD to say ‘we can only go this far because there are these differing ways that the cases will be prosecuted,’ Moore said. “That makes no sense whatsoever, especially if you consider that if they stop the arrests, the pipelines to those cases that they’re talking about would be basically brought to an end.” The NYPD’s move takes place against the backdrop of a larger debate over if and when New York should join nine other states and the District of Colum-

bia in legalizing cannabis for use by adults. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio (both of whom have publicly acknowledged their own past use of cannabis) have been hesitant to embrace legalization even as public sentiment within the state has shifted in its favor. New York’s neighbors — Canada, Vermont and Massachusetts — have already moved to sanction recreational use, with New Jersey and Connecticut to possibly follow. A forthcoming study on the potential impacts of legalization commissioned by Cuomo will recommend that the state begin regulating cannabis for consumption by adults, state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said June 18. But Albany’s legislative session ended in June without any movement on legislation that would legalize cannabis for adult use. Asked about his position on legalization, de Blasio said he is “not there yet.” “We know there is a bigger discussion happening in this state, in this nation on the question of marijuana policy, and we have to be prepared for that,” de Blasio said. “But we’re doing what we can do right now.” Moore contends that there is nothing preventing the NYPD from ending all arrests for low-level marijuana offenses now. “They could certainly choose to focus their resources more effectively on doing things that actually support public safety, but they’re choosing not to,” she said.

Here you are Earning More How many banks can say that?

% 20

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY LENDER | MEMBER FDIC

CountryBankNY.com

*Effective 3/22/18, the Prime Savings interest rate is 1.194%, 1.20% Annual Percentage Yield (APY). The minimum opening deposit and minimum daily balance to qualify for the APY is $5,000.00. If the daily balance falls below $5,000.00, a $10.00 monthly fee will be charged. If the balance falls between $2,500.00 and $4,999.99, the interest rate is 0.196% and the APY is 0.20%. If the balance falls below $2,500.00, no interest will be earned. Prime Savings Account rates are not tied to any index and are subject to change at the bank’s discretion. Speak with your local branch for details.

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG POLICE COLLAR SUSPECTED MUGGER

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th district for the week ending June 17

Police arrested a man suspected of mugging two young women earlier this month. At 4:44 a.m. on Saturday, June 16, a 28-year-old woman was walking home with a 28-year-old female friend when a man shoved one of them to the ground on East 81st Street near Third Avenue and pointed a black object at her, which she believed was a ﬁrearm. He grabbed her purse, took out her phone and wallet and ran off. The victim tracked her stolen iPhone to 86th Street and Lexington Avenue, where a police officer stopped the suspect. The victim arrived and positively identiﬁed the mugger. Officers arrested Larry Johnson on robbery charges.

Week to Date

WOMAN’S CELLPHONE SNATCHED Police again remind cellphone users to remain alert to passersby, including bicyclists. At 10 p.m. on Thursday, June 14, a 28-year-old woman was walking northbound on Park Avenue when a teenage boy on a bicycle, accompanied by two other boys, swooped by at the corner of East 62nd Street and Park and snatched her phone out of her hand. The three teens then pedaled

Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr

off, heading northbound on Park before turning right onto East 63rd Street. The stolen cell was a silver-and-white iPhone x valued at $1,000.

MAN ASSAULTED ON EAST 75TH At 4:40 a.m. on Monday, June 18, a

46-year-old man was walking on the north side of East 75th Street when three men came up from behind him outside 173 East 75th and struck him on the back of his head and in his face, according to a police account. One of the men allegedly said, “Don’t do anything; just give me all your money.” The trio, however, eventually ﬂed empty handed toward the 77th Street

Year to Date

2018 2017

% Change

2018

2017

% Change

Murder

n/a

Rape

n/a

16.7

Robbery

150.0

21.3

Felony Assault

n/a

-3.2

Burglary

150.0

-3.2

Grand Larceny

-3.7

654 635 3.0

Grand Larceny Auto

100.0

Lexington Avenue subway station, police said. The man was treated Lenox Hill Hospital for a slight cut.

LATE MODELO A shoplifter struck at yet another Duane Reade location recently. At 8:46 p.m. on Friday, June 15, an employee in the drugstore location at 401 East 86th Street saw a 48-year-old man carrying four cases of Modelo beer in the store. The employee became

THIS ISN’T JUST A GARDEN It’s how we’re growing our energy future. Learn how we’re making The New York Botanical Garden greener at coned.com/partnerships

35.7

suspicious and asked the man what he was doing, causing the latter to reply, “Leave me alone!” The man then dropped two cases of the beer and tried to leave the store without paying. The employee attempted to stop him, but the perpetrator pulled out a box cutter, which he brandished at the employee. The employee stepped aside, and the man left the store, ﬂeeing northbound on First Avenue.

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Useful Contacts

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

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

HOW TO REACH US:

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

212-868-0190 nyoffice@strausnews.com ourtownny.com

Include your full name, address and day and evening telephone numbers for veriﬁcation. Letters that cannot be veriﬁed will not be published. We reserve the right to edit or condense letters for libel, good taste, grammar and punctuation. Submit your letter at ourtownny.com and click submit at the bottom of the page or email it to nyoffice@strausnews.com.

TO SUBSCRIBE: Our Town is available for free on the east side in select buildings, retail locations and news boxes. To get a copy of east side neighborhood news mailed to you weekly, you may subscribe to Our Town Eastsider for just $49 per year. Call 212868-0190 or go online to StrausNews. com and click on the photo of the paper or mail a check to Straus Media, 20 West Ave., Chester, NY 10918.

NEWS ITEMS: To report a news story, call 212-8680190. News releases of general interest must be emailed to our offices by noon the Thursday prior to publication to be considered for the following week. Send to news@strausnews.com.

BLOG COMMENTS: We invite your comments on stories and issues at ourtownny.com. We do not edit those comments. We urge people to keep the discussion civil and the tone reﬂective of the best we each have to offer.

PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD: Call 212-868-0190. Classiﬁed ads must be in our office by 12pm the Friday before publication, except on holidays. All classiﬁed ads are payable in advance.

PREVIOUS OWNERS: Tom Allon, Isis Ventures, Ed Kayatt, Russ Smith, Bob Trentlyon, Jerry Finkelstein

CALENDAR ITEMS:

ABOUT US

Information for inclusion in the Out and About section should be emailed to hoodhappenings@strausnews.com no later than two weeks before the event.

Our Town is published weekly by Straus Media-Manhattan, LLC. Please send inquiries to 20 West Ave., Chester, NY 10918.

BY PETER PEREIRA

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

SEPARATION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Students from The Calhoun School blew bubbles and waved to the crowd from their Pride ﬂoat. Photo: Natasha Roy

RAINBOW PRIDE ON PARADE MARCHES On the F Train, Sunday’s festivities got a head-start BY NATASHA ROY

Toting rainbow flags and holding rainbow-spangled signs, they trickled into the Delancey Street/Essex Street station minutes before the train pulled in. Once aboard, friends and strangers alike mingled with one another as the train moved uptown and more rainbow-clad parade-goers stepped on. At the parade’s starting point at Seventh Avenue and 15th Street, the crowd was sectioned away from the road by barricades and people milled around, trying to squeeze as close to the front as possible. Several people had set up lawn chairs to comfortably watch the ﬂoats, but for some attending Pride for the first time, the preparade crowd was dizzying. “It’s overwhelming,” 19-year-old Sacha Ruiz-Macheret said. “I don’t really know what to do because it’s my ﬁrst time here, so I’m just, you know, kind of following the crowd, but it’s really cool.” Despite near-delirium at the start of the parade, anticipation, too, was palpable. Ruiz-Macheret said she recently came out as bisexual and that she wanted to celebrate it at Pride. “Here is where everyone can get together and just be themselves without having any fear of being judged by everybody else because you know, we’re all the same — kind of, in a way — and it’s just like this is where you can come

to, I guess, not be afraid to be who you are,” Ruiz-Macheret said. The parade began with rainbow confetti and several motorcyclists zipping through Seventh Avenue. Adults and children, some accompanied by dogs, marched past an animated crowd with various LGBTQ-friendly nonprofits and businesses. Several prominent New York City political figures, including Mayor Bill de Blasio and Senator Chuck Schumer, marched with along with staff, drawing cheers – mostly – from onlookers. However, gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, who walked along the edge of the parade route, shaking hands with everyone on the front lines, was perhaps Sunday’s most popular politician. Several businesses, Lyft and TMobile among them, had large floats featuring disc jockeys, dancing employees and drag queens. Groups of employees would run by the barricades, handing out whistles, flags and sunglasses. For some attending the parade, like 21-year-old Jordan Gray, Pride meant being part of a community. “I’ve been gay now for three years, and I want to experience this,” Gray said. “I usually try to go to work, so I took off work to come here.” Ruiz-Macheret said the Pride parade was important to her because everyone should feel accepted regardless of sexuality or identity. “I’ve never seen so many sexual beings just out here living their best lives, being who they are, and it’s great to see it,” she said. “I’m happy to be a part of it.”

Under pressure, President Trump signed an executive order on June 20 ending his administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents who were detained at the southern border. But New York City officials continue to push back against the lack of Federal transparency about the reuniﬁcation process and demand the exact whereabouts of the children already separated from their parents. And that begins with the young people shipped hundreds of miles now sharing the same shores as Lady Liberty. On June 22, Levine, along with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and other elected officials, toured the Cayuga Center in East Harlem, where some of the migrant children are being held, as first reported by NY1. “It was a very intense and an emotional experience, and I experienced the heartbreak of meeting the children, some as young as one year old,” says Levine. “It was also a tremendous relief to see the quality of care [Cayuga Center] is providing [them]. That’s not to minimize the trauma these kids have gone through.” After Levine’s office put out a call for donations last week, they were ﬂooded with baby formula, diapers, clothing and books, sometimes brought in by young children themselves to help those in need. Over 1,200 volunteers signed up with the office online, including attorneys offering pro bono services and doctors and dentists offering their expertise to provide check-ups for the migrant children. “It is better that the children are here in a state that is willing and able to help them rather than elsewhere,” said Council Member Ben Kallos, who represents the Upper East Side. “I hope to be able to work with the City and the State to improve the lives of these children and reunite them with their families, and if even possible help put them on a path toward legal status here in the U.S.”

SHOW OF SUPPORT Religious leaders and faith-based groups have been leading the charge to help the migrant children. In some cases, they have helped undocumented immigrants long before the child separation policy was enacted. “This is a moral crisis. It’s barbarism. So how do we work together?” says the Rev. Schuyler Vogel, senior minister at the Fourth Universalist Society on Central Park West. Since last year, Vogel’s congregation has provided sanctuary for Aura Hernandez, an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant who is facing deportation. She currently lives in the church with her young daughter, and her 10-year-old son comes to visit her on weekends. Hernandez is one

Lawyer Moms for America participated in a protest in downtown Manhattan last week. Photo courtesy of Lawyer Moms of America of three undocumented immigrants publically taking sanctuary in New York’s houses of worship. There are more sanctuary cases that are not public, says Vogel, and it’s a reminder that families are at risk of being separated right here in our own city. “It [sanctuary] is all part of the same battle, to ensure that human dignity is respected and that families are staying together,’ says Vogel. “We have the privilege of knowing these undocumented people as our friends, as our neighbors. They’re not other to us. We see them as good people, and good Americans.” Prior to the executive order, an interfaith delegation of 40 religious leaders including Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Executive Director of T’ruah and Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, visited the border to demand that the Trump administration end the policy of separating families. “Jewish history, unfortunately has taught us too well the pain of being separated from one’s family,” said Jacobs. “We have also learned the tragedy that happens when the U.S. closes its borders to those fleeing danger.” Social media has also been instrumental in turning public outcry into direct action. Lawyer Moms for America, a Facebook group that sprung up recently in response to the family separation policy, is part of a coalition organizing a Day of Action on June 29. They plan to hand-deliver a letter to every Senator and U.S. Representative demanding immediate reuniﬁcation of the migrant children with their families, and legislation that ends family separation and fam-

ily detention. “We feel strongly that we’re sworn to defend the constitution, and we can no longer stand by as grave damage is being done to children coming to seek safety in our country,” says Morghan Richardson, a partner in family law at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, and a leader of the New York chapter of Lawyer Moms of America. “I think that sits particularly badly with us because we have our own children, and we feel so passionately about this country that we became attorneys and bound to uphold the law,” she adds. One sentiment was shared across the board: this is not who we are, as Americans, and especially as New Yorkers. “It’s so important that there was such an outcry around the separation of families, because it’s so contrary to what this country stands for and in its best form, is categorically against,” says Vogel. On June 30th, a massive rally and march led by the New York Immigration Coalition and its partner organizations is expected to draw tens of thousands of New Yorkers. The NYIC has long been at the helm of immigration issues in New York and remains instrumental in mobilizing resources and volunteer opportunities. As for now, Levine says that many organizations are flooded with donations, and the most pressing need is for Spanish-speaking foster families. The Cayuga Center is also seeking professional child care workers. In spite of all the resources provided, the migrant children are still lacking the thing they need most: “They need to be reunited with their families.”

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

THE LITTLE GRANT THAT COULD FUNDING Or how a modest $2,000 can help an arts group fulfill its mission, raise its profile — and enrich the cultural lives of New Yorkers and tourists BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

It’s just $36,000. It’s distributed in every corner of Manhattan. And it’s divided among 18 separate nonproﬁts. It won’t pay the rent. It won’t build a building or repair a leaking roof. It can’t be used to hire a staffer or retain a consultant. But the sums are a windfall for the lucky institutions that receive them. They build brands, boost revenues, broaden audiences. Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer, teaming up with NYC & Company Foundation, announced a series of $2,000 awards law week to theatrical companies, dance troupes, museums, musical ensembles, film festivals and historic-sites projects. Known as cultural-tourism development grants, they’re designed to market and promote events and exhibits, in-

Every single dollar that comes in is meaningful.” Jonathan Hollander, artistic director of Battery Dance

crease access, expand visitor awareness and grow audiences for the borough’s smallersized, lesser-known arts and cultural treasures. “Manhattan boasts a wealth of cultural gems — not just our massive, globally known institutions, but also our neighborhood museums, studios and cultural spaces,” Brewer said. “These smaller organizations both preserve old traditions and incubate innovative new works and artists.” Case in point: Hudson Warehouse, a grant recipient that stages three shows every summer season — pay-what-youcan, no-tickets-necessary — on the north patio of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park. “There’s so much theater in

A recent performance in the Battery Dance Festival on the Esplanade of Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park in Battery Park City. The Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor provide the backdrop. Photo: Darial Sneed / Battery Dance New York City, but we’re here, too,” said Susane Lee, the company’s executive director. “Everybody has their own niche. This is ours.”

BLOOD IN THE PARK Outdoor theater on a windswept river-facing plateau, and a shoestring budget, isn’t easy. Adding to the challenges, an exhaustive clean-up is required after each production to give the public unfettered access to the park by daybreak. Consider “Romeo and Juliet,” the current offering. “A lot of people die,” Lee said. So the company can’t leave without scrubbing the stage blood off the patio. “You don’t want people out for a morning jog seeing a lot of blood,” she said. Hudson Warehouse is already rehearsing its next play, Lee’s adaptation of “The Three Musketeers: 20 Years Later,” based on the Alexandre Dumas novel, that has its world premiere July 5. The $2,000 grant will help promote and publicize it, she said. A typical month-long show costs roughly $9,000, drawing 1,000 people, each of whom receives a free program costing $1 to produce, so the funds will underwrite some design costs for the playbills. “It’s a real validation,” Lee said. “We’ve been here 15 years, and now, it’s as if the city is saying to us, ‘Good job. Well done. You guys have stayed the course. You’ve stuck it out. You’re still there. You’re still strong.’” The grant money is provided by the foundation of NYC & Company, the city’s convention and visitors’ bureau, which ad-

ministers the program. Brewer’s office selects the grantees and spreads the funds across the borough. Awards must be used to promote cultural activities, like advertising and tourism outreach, and can’t be tapped for professional fees, personnel, capital projects, travel or entertainment. Noting that the “arts scene in the borough is constantly evolving,” Fred Dixon, CEO of NYC & Company, said his agency “plays a vital role in ensuring its continued appeal and magnetism.” Among the $2,000 recipients in the annual grant program: • Battery Dance at Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park in Battery Park City. Drawing performers from Botswana, Macedonia, Kazakhstan and Gabon, the company has been a downtown stalwart since its founding in 1976. Forced from its World Trade Center Plaza home on 9/11, and from 1 New York Plaza after Hurricane Sandy, it now commands Statue of Liberty views from the park’s Esplanade. The group’s 37th annual Battery Dance Festival kicks off August 12, and the free, weeklong performances attracts some 12,000 people. “We see ourselves as ambassadors for lower Manhattan — in a setting that represents our history as an entry point for immigrants from all over the world,” said founder and artistic director Jonathan Hollander. The grant will pay for marketing materials, and to place posters at downtown hotels, put ﬂyers in ferries and blanket

international press outlets to increase attendance. Battery Dance has a $1.3 million budget. So why would $2,000 make a difference? With a ﬁscal year starting July 1, the search for funds begins anew every year, and there’s no guarantee that the priorities of its funders haven’t changed, Hollander said. “Every single dollar that comes in is meaningful,” he added. “When we get $2,000 from here, $2,000 from there, we celebrate.” • La Casa de la Herencia Cultural Puertorriquena on East 99th Street. Founded in 1981 to preserve the cultural-literary heritage of the Puerto Rican diaspora, the group will use the funds to support Latin American Icons, a multi-dimensional, multi-cultural, theatrical-musical project conducted by Puerto Rican author-actress-broadcaster Gilda Mirós. • Chelsea Film Festival at 208 West 23rd St. The grant will support programming for the international festival’s sixth edition, a series of screenings by emerging ﬁlmmakers of indie shorts, features and documentaries with global themes that runs from October 18 to 21. • The 24 Hour Plays at the American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd St. Every year since 1995, the company has written, directed, rehearsed and performed six new 10-minute plays on Broadway within a 24-hour period. On October 29, it will unveil a similar concept for musicals, creating and performing four new stage works, each up to

20-minutes long, within 24 hours. The plays involve six writers, six directors and 24 actors. The musicals may be even more complex. Four composers, four book writers, four directors, 20 actors, two choreographers, four musical directors and one live band will collaborate on the project, said Mark Armstrong, the group’s executive director. Funding will support marketing and advertising efforts: “We’re going to invest in a promotional campaign so that everybody in New York City will learn about us,” Armstrong said. • NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project in Greenwich Village. Established in 2015, it’s a scholarly and educational initiative whose founders, as part of a different nonproﬁt, helped create the nation’s first LGBT historic-sites map in 1994. The organization is ramping up its lecture and walking tour series as the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots approaches next year. The award will support research and a social media presence to promote its offerings. “Our interest is in place-based history — the speciﬁc locations where history took place, the exact addresses — that gives a visceral and visual connection with the events of the 19th and 20th centuries, if not earlier,” said historic preservation consultant Ken Lustbader, co-director of the project. “It’s a form of time travel through LBGT history.” invreporter@strausnews.com

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

On the East River: The porte-cochère at 1 Sutton Place South, July 7, 1927. Photo: Wurts Bros. Museum of the City of New York, Wurts Bros. Collection. Gift of Richard Wurts

ARCHITECTURE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Photos, mostly drawn from the Museum of the City of New York’s collection, wall text and a digital animation tell the story of a math genius who created an assemblage of apartments — simplexes, duplexes, triplexes and multi-story maisonettes — and arranged them inside his buildings like the pieces of a gigantic puzzle. “I had been noticing a lot of real estate advertising about Rosario Candela buildings, and how they were being used as a marketing tool. I was just intrigued to learn more about him,” curator Donald Albrecht said about the origins of the show. “He was not only a great architect, but there are many stories about the city here. There’s the immigrant story, and there’s the story of the social transformation at that time, with people moving out of private residences and into apartment buildings. And then there’s the story of his being a cryptographer.” Candela, a man of many talents, pursued cryptography after the Depression put a damper on his building commissions. He created an unbreakable encryption method and advised an American intelligence unit on secret codes during World War II. The exhibit here, on view through October 28, is small and primarily showcases his

best buildings on the best avenues — the exclusive precincts of the East Side on Park and Fifth Avenues and along the East River on Sutton Place. “We decided to focus on the essence of Candela and not try to be encyclopedic,” the curator said. “We chose three neighborhoods that tell the social transformation of the city story as well as the architecture story.” Candela, of course, designed many good “breadand-butter” buildings on the West Side, he said, including his first apartment house in 1922, The Clayton, on the northeast corner of Broadway and 92nd Street. The crew-cut architect was a savvy networker and eagerly worked the Italian-American builder community to get his start. He collaborated with developers Anthony Campagna and the Paterno family — and with architects like Arthur Loomis Harmon and Mott Schmidt and interior designers like Dorothy Draper and Sister Parish — to create luxe buildings with spacious accommodations and gracious amenities (e.g., communal dining rooms and lounges on the ground ﬂoor of 960 Fifth and an indoor tennis court at 1 Sutton Place South). “There was a common neoclassical style at the time, and they could collaborate more easily [than now],” Albrecht said, adding, “It seemed like when he collaborated he mainly did the plans. On 740 Park, he collaborated with Arthur

Loomis Harmon. The thinking is that Harmon did the exterior detailing, and Rosario Candela probably did the plans.” Indeed, as the late architecture writer Christopher Gray notes in “The New York Apartment Houses of Rosario Candela and James Carpenter,” Candela’s interiors were the selling point: the ample fireplaces at 775 Park, the size of the linen rooms at 834 Fifth, the steam provided to clean garbage pails at 778 Park. His prodigious talent let loose after a new zoning law in 1916 allowed apartments to rise in height if they included setbacks — literal steps back from the street as a building rises above a certain level to allow light to filter through and hit the pavement. For Candela, especially at the end of his career, the law led to a wild profusion of setback terraces and ornamental flourishes that pierced the sky. Look up at 778 Park (1931; northwest corner of 73rd Street), the last of 10 apartment houses he designed along the wealthy corridor, and see setback aeries mixing with a neo-classicallyclad pavilion that camouflages a water tank. Across the street, on the southwest corner of 73rd, rises 770 Park (1930), a companion piece. The tops of the buildings, fantastical responses to the requirements of the setback law, play off one another and look, Albrecht said, “almost like giant hill towns in the sky.”

She depends on you. You can depend on us. Caring for an older relative or friend is not easy. You can get support and guidance that includes in-home or overnight care, supplies and a lot more. Call 311 and ask for “caregiving support.”

Bill de Blasio Mayor Department for the Aging

Donna Corrado, PhD Commissioner

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

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.

POP ART EAST SIDE OBSERVER BY ARLENE KAYATT

Art’s a-popping — As pop-up shops take up the slack of empty storefronts, new names and businesses are appearing around town. Like Anton Russev. He’s got paintings — don’t know if he’s the artist or the gallerist — on display in the corner storefront at the bus stop at Second and 78th once occupied by at least two Japanese restaurants at different times. And another storefront on Third between 91st and 92nd, once home to Effy’s Kitchen (now on Lex-

ington in the 90s) and before that to Connecticut Muffin (never seen again in these parts). This storefront seems to be readying for a new tenant. Not so the 78th Street location, which remains dark and dirty-looking. Anton’s artists, passers-by and the neighborhood deserve better. Unfortunately, though, since the block (except for Shaaray Teﬁla, the synagogue on the uptown corner) is being readied for razing, Anton’s corner art store will continue to be — if not unappreciated — an eyesore.

Calling Gridlock Sam — The city streets need a guru. And I’m suggesting the traffic expert Gridlock Sam. His columns about traffic patterns across the city appear in several publications, including the Daily News, informing about events that affect traffic. Maybe his mas-

tery of traffic can be used in advising city dwellers on how to navigate the city’s sidewalks, which are getting more and more crowded and inaccessible day by day. Think bike racks, bus shelters, vendor carts, MTA fare ware, and now metal seating on many blocks (a great amenity but a taker-upper of sidewalk space) to say nothing of sidewalk use by pedestrians and skateboarders.

Fare game — The MTA is shameless in its waste of resources. Truly. At 3 o’clock on a Friday afternoon in June. It’s a holiday so school’s out and the 86th Street crosstown buses — east to west — have few riders at that hour. A no-brainer as to what the ﬁnancial result will be as far as fare revenue goes. You don’t need an auditor or a traffic maven for that one. But that didn’t deter the MTA

from having at least eight uniformed officer enforcers waiting at the Columbus and 86th Street bus stop to ticket anyone who didn’t show a receipt that they’d paid the fare. Four officers were stationed at each of the two exit/entrance doors denying access to and exit from the buses at the 3 p.m. hour when were maybe 10 passengers either getting on or off the bus. Even if none had paid their fare — or had a receipt to show for it — the $100 ﬁnes for each fare-beater would have totaled a $1,000. Hardly worth the thousands of dollars in salary that the enforcers would be paid. It boggles the mind to think of the decision-making process on this one. The MTA needs to rethink their priorities. Yes, fares have to be paid. But from experience and observation, the MTA’s problems are well beyond fare enforcement at the 86th

Street crosstown particularly on a school holiday in June.

This and that — Maison Kayser shop on Lexington and 39th in their takeout fridge: egg salad sandwich with “cage-free” mayo. Hadn’t expected or seen that before. Subway store on Second Ave in the 80s now serving coffee, and it’s as good as Dunkin’s and better than Starbucks. Pens made from recycled paper (says so on the pen) being used at Yotel hotel on 42nd Street. And that bus dispatcher who sat in the storefront at Fika’s at the 42nd and Lexington Avenue bus stop had to relocate to Duane Reade’s next door because Fika’s closed. Now that IHOP’s become IHOB, pancakes are being served as a side with burgers. Question — can wee pancakes as burger buns be far behind? Something to think about? Maybe not.

NYC’S WORLD CUP FEVER PUBLIC EYE BY JON FRIEDMAN

Let me begin this piece by benevolently issuing a Public Service Announcement for my fellow non-soccer fans and, particularly, the vast minority of the New Yorkers who couldn’t care less about the World Cup. You’re screwed, folks. Do NOT schedule a business meeting at a restaurant bar during a World Cup match, especially when the combatants happen to be geographic rivals, Spain and Portugal. If you are so foolish as to do so, expect to be shouted out and thrown off your game every few seconds by rabid fans of either team. Whether they’re jubilant or in despair about the action, it doesn’t matter. Your meeting will be disrupted. Your pitch will be destroyed — and even your self-esteem can take a hit, too. That’s exactly what happened to me when I tried to sit down with an ordinarily tough-to-reach journalist at my usual neighborhood restaurant bar, Petite Abeille. No doubt, the same sort of scene will continue to occur at various locations in the city until the World Cup wraps up. If I had been paying closer attention

that day to the match, I’d have noticed that Portugal’s megastar, Cristiano Ronaldo, had scored a spectacular hat trick (three goals) to force a 3-3 tie with its powerful neighbor Spain. At ﬁrst, I politely asked the exultant fans to cheer down, in George Harrison’s immortal phrase. Of course, they had the good sense to ignore me completely and enjoy the spectacle. I knew I was outnumbered when my guest chided me by saying, “Oh, let them have their fun. They only play the World Cup every four years.” It was clearly the time for me to wave a white ﬂag and appreciate the mastery of the soccer players, along with the rest of the world. Beyond the fun of watching great athletes playing their hearts out for their countries, it’s easy to understand why New York City should feel such an emotional attachment to the global soccer tournament. We are cheering for our own people, in many cases. The numbers tell a revealing story. According to the website FurmanCenter.org, New York “is one of the few cities in the country in which four different racial/ethnic groups each make up at least ten percent of the population.” The data go beyond the cliché that New York City is a melting pot and suggest that the World Cup competition is

Watching the World Cup on West 29th Street. Photo: Michael Garofalo likely to offer something for every New Yorker, a team or a player that excites one of us on a personal level. (Sadly, the United States team did not qualify this time for the World Cup so Americans, as a group, have to look elsewhere.) The World Cup also comes at an ironic time in history, as news events play out. The Trump administration’s controversial, to put it mildly, immigration

policy hit a boiling point as the early stages of the World Cup took shape. The same players we admire on TV, who are applauded for their skill, grit and courage, might have countrymen and women who could be routinely turned away at the southern U.S. border. And those soccer fanatics who were innocuously going crazy that afternoon in the bar or in watering holes

around the nation might have had a special feeling of solidarity this year. Who wants to meet me for coffee some afternoon — after the World Cup ends? Jon Friedman, who has his hands full cheering for New York’s Rangers, Giants and Knicks, teaches journalism courses at Stony Brook University and Hunter College.

President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com

STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source nyoffice@strausnews.com 212-868-0190

Vice President/CFO Otilia Bertolotti Vice President/CRO Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnews.com

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

Account Executives Fred Almonte, David Dallon Director of Partnership Development Barry Lewis

Editor-In-Chief, Alexis Gelber Deputy Editor Richard Khavkine

Senior Reporter Doug Feiden

Director of Digital Pete Pinto

Staff Reporter Michael Garofalo

Director, Arts & Entertainment/ NYCNow Alizah Salario

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

DOE ADOPTS SCHOOL DIVERSITY PLAN

NEIGHBORHOOD’S BEST To place an ad in this directory, Call Douglas at 212-868-0190 ext. 352.

ART

EDUCATION

DINING

HARDWARE ELEGANCE IN HARDWARE

This Summer, let us do the cooking!

New UWS middle school admissions process part of broader push to integrate city schools

A Luxury Hardware Experience 860 Lexington Avenue 646-922-8707 eleganceinhardware.com

MON-SAT 10:30AM-6PM | SUN 12PM-6PM

www.the-maac.com Come visit the nation’s largest art & antiques center featuring 100 galleries and over 40 categories. Enjoy time on our 3 ﬂoors of antiques, ﬁne art, and every category in-between Buy or sell, we welcome your visit 7 days a week.

BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

The Department of Education will move forward with a plan to overhaul the admissions process at Upper West Side middle schools with the goal of increasing diversity in the district, which is among the city’s most segregated. Under the diversity plan, 25 percent of seats in every middle school in District 3 will be set aside for low-income students with low grades and low standardized test scores. The plan gives priority to students who are eligible for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program and who have low academic performance based on a weighted composite of classroom grades and scores on state-mandated fourth grade math and English tests. “Students beneﬁt from integrated schools, and I applaud the District 3 community on taking this step to integrate their middle schools,” Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza said in a statement announcing the middle school plan. “I hope what we’re announcing in District 3 will be a model for other districts to integrate schools across the City, and I look forward to working with parents and educators as we implement this plan and strengthen middle schools across the district.” The plan applies to all middle schools in District 3, which includes the Upper West Side and parts of Harlem. Most middle schools in the district screen students for admission based on academic performance and other criteria. At some of the district’s top-performing middle schools, the system has produced demographics in which black and Hispanic students are disproportionately underrepresented. At Booker T. Washington Middle School on West 107th Street, for instance, black and Hispanic students make up 8.6 and 14.7 percent of the student body, respectively. In District 3

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Lock & Door Hardware Architectural Hardware Decorative Hardware Plumbing

1050 2nd Ave. bt. 55th & 56th Sts.

212.355.4400

as a whole, 21.5 percent of students are black and 32.3 percent are Hispanic. Education officials say the new admission criteria will increase racial, economic and academic diversity in District 3 schools. Students entering sixth grade in the fall of 2019 will be the first class admitted under the new admissions system. The DOE estimates the plan will affect roughly 300 families in the ﬁrst year. The middle school diversity plan became a ﬂashpoint early in Carranza’s tenure. In April, less than a month after joining the New York City school system, he tweeted a video of parents arguing against the plan at a public meeting on the Upper West Side. Carranza has since taken an aggressive posture toward addressing segregation in public schools, announcing a plan in early June to change the admissions process at the city’s elite specialized high schools in order to increase diversity. Additionally, Carranza has publicly questioned whether public schools should engage in admissions screening at all. The diversity plan adopted by DOE, along with similar alternatives that were considered, faced criticism on multiple fronts during months of local community education council meetings, which, at times, echoed disputes over a 2016 rezoning plan to address overcrowding and segregation in UWS elementary schools. One view, expressed by parents in the video in Carranza’s

tweet, holds that the new middle school diversity plan will be unfair to students who perform well on standardized tests but will not receive offers to their preferred schools, while lower performing students will receive priority. Others have said that the measures do not go far enough in creating middle school student bodies that reflect the demographics of District 3, one of the city’s most economically and racially diverse school districts. While the DOE projects the plan will signiﬁcantly increase academic diversity at a handful of middle schools, other schools — including several with high poverty rates — will see minimal changes. The DOE’s attention, some critics said, would be better focused on improving lower-performing schools in Harlem. But despite those concerns, the plan enjoys broad support among local principals and West Side politicians, including Borough President Gale Brewer, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal. Helen Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side in the City Council, called the plan “a positive step toward addressing the fundamental inequity created by the proliferation of screened schools.” “The many hoops a 10 yearold must jump through to attend middle school in our district have resulted in a segregated and inequitable public school system,” Rosenthal said in a statement.

LOCKSMITH

LIGHTING

Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza is hopeful that a newly adopted admissions plan to increase diversity in Upper West Side middle schools will serve as a model for desegregation efforts across the city. Photo: William Alatriste/NYC Council

SKY LOCKSMITH & HARDWARE Lighting

Restoration & Repairs Lampshades Custom Lighting For The World’s Finest Homes Bespoke

Mention This ad and Receive A FREE In Home Consult in NYC!

BhonBhon Lighting BHONBHON.COM | (212) 397-3710 Visit Our Lighting Showroom 43-01 21st. Long Island City

PERSONAL TRAINING soZo concept *O )PNF t *O 0GmDF Personal Training Bringing Fitness to the home & ofﬁce for over 20 years! No Weights Free Needed! Consult TRX Kerry Aissa Founder

NEW MUL-T-LOCK ClassicPRO Installed FOR JUST $135 PLUS TAX

24/7 EMERGENCY LOCKSMITH SERVICE 212-288-7773 Store Locations: 1574 1st Ave / 182 E. 73rd / 2212 Broadway

SENIOR CARE ICONNEL

SENIOR CARE ®

Senior Care Companions, Homemakers, Polish/English, Live-in or Hourly, Educated, Mature Experienced, Since 1992.

212-203-5634 KTA1@me.com

Call us! 800-915-4266 www.iconnel.com

SPIRITUAL

WINDOW TREATMENTS

Upper West Manhattan Church of Christ 80 YEARS!

Meeting at 891 Amsterdam Ave. @ 103rd St. In Hosteling International For more information: Call 212-729-8356 www.uwmchurchofchrist.com

Draperies Shades Shutters Blinds Motorization Window Film Upholstery Fabric & Trim Flooring Paint

SEMI-ANNUAL CUSTOM DECORATING SALE GOING ON NOW! UPPER WEST SIDE 469 AMSTERDAM AVE. 212.501.8282 WINDOWFASHIONS.COM

KARPOFF AFFILIATES KARPOFF AFFILIATES is your single stop for senior life transitions and real estate brokerage needs. We provide peace of mind and ensure that each project is handled with respect and integrity.

www.KarpoffAfﬁliates.com mkarpoff@karpoffafﬁliates.com 212.358.8044 290 Third Avenue, Ste 26C, NYC 10010

NEIGHBORHOOD’S BEST Features select Business & Services catering to residents in Manhattan. Neighborhood’s Best appears weekly and is distributed to 60,000 households throughout. Space is limited so please contact Douglas at 212.868.0190 ext. 352 to discuss availability.

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

To our Customers, Friends and Neighbors After being in Yorkville 116 years Glaser’s Bake Shop will close its doors July 1, 2018. It goes without saying that everyone at Glaser’s thanks the generations of Customers who have allowed them to be part of their celebrations for over a century. Few businesses will ever have the privilege of knowing the loyalty, goodwill and friendship that have been extended to the Glaser Family and to those who worked behind the bakery counter. We truly couldn’t have remained here since 1902 without all of you. With deep gratitude and appreciation The Glaser Family.

212-289-2562

Discover the world around the corner. Find community events, gallery openings, book launches and much more: Go to nycnow.com

EDITOR’S PICK

Thu 28 AROUSED: THE HISTORY OF HORMONES The New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Ave. $12/$8 students/seniors 212-822-7200. nyam.org In her provocative new book, “Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything,” Dr. Randi Hutter Epstein will separate the hype from the hope and elucidate how discoveries and mishaps in the past shape our perceptions, our hopes, and our fears about hormones and hormone therapies today.

1670 1st Ave. at 87th Street NYC

Photo: Bb337, via WikiMedia Commons

Thu 28 Fri 29

Sat 30

NEW YORK CITY IN THE AGE OF HYPERGENTRIFICATION

▲ KID-FRIENDLY DISCOVER WALK

Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave. 6:30 p.m. $20 In an era of skyrocketing rents and closing independent shops, writers and cartoonists talk about what it means to capture the “soul” of the city, even as many longtime New Yorkers question its survival. Before the discussion, a documentary short about neighborhood shops that are about to close that’s part of the “Disappearing NYC” ﬁlm series will be screened. 212-534-1672 mcny.org

SUFI SONGS OF LOVE New York Open Center 22 East 30th St. 8 p.m. $30 Amir Vahab sings in an evocative, traditional Persian style that embodies millennia of mystical tradition. Vahab will perform with his ensemble songs selected from the poetry of the great Suﬁ masters Rumi and Haﬁz, as well as other legendary mystical poets. 212-219-2527 opencenter.org

Vanderbilt Gate in Central Park, Fifth Ave. & East 105th St. 10 a.m. Free; space is limited, registration required Discover the difference between the various ﬂowers and landscapes that make up Central Park’s Conservatory Garden, the park’s only formal garden. Learn about its history and design, and about what it takes to maintain a healthy and beautiful garden through handson exploration and guided activities. nycgovparks.org

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Sun 1

Tue 3

Wed 4

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;POLICE COPS & COPS IN SPACEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

MOVIES UNDER THE STARS: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;THE HOUSEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

MIDSUMMER NIGHTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SWING

59e59 Theaters 59 East 59th St. 2:30 p.m. $35 On a distant planet, Sammy must team up with an alien ďŹ ghter pilot and his trusty cyborg to embark on an intergalactic adventure to become the best damn Police Cop in space. 646-892-7999 59e59.org

White Playground, East 105th to East 106 Streets, between Lexington and Third Avenues 8 p.m. Free After the town takes away their daughterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s college scholarship, a couple start an illegal casino in their friendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house to make back the money. Come see â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Houseâ&#x20AC;? starring Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler; arrive early for activities related to the movie. 212-360-1430 nycgovparks.org

Damrosch Park, West 62nd St. at Lincoln Center 6:30 p.m. free dance lesson, 7:30 p.m live music, $17 in advance/$20 day off Join instructor Marlon â&#x20AC;&#x153;Internationalâ&#x20AC;? Mills for a salsa lesson, then groove to syncopated beats The Mambo Legends Orchestra. One of the best ways to swing into summer, everyone is welcome to salsa the night away under the stars at this hopping dance party. 212-875-5456 lincolncenter.org

Mon 2

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

JOHN KRTIL FUNERAL HOME; YORKVILLE FUNERAL SERVICE, INC. Dignified, Affordable and Independently Owned Since 1885 WE SERVE ALL FAITHS AND COMMUNITIES 5 )/'&1 /'+$1)-,0 $2250 -+.*'1' 5 )/'&1 2/)$*0 $2850 5 4.'/1 /' *$,,),( 3$)*$%*'

1297 First Ave (69th & 70th & + # " $& )" $ " $ ) * "#( & " $ + ))) $& '" $ #! #! Each cremation service individually performed by fully licensed members of our staff. We use no outside agents or trade services in our cremation service. We exclusively use All Souls Chapel and Crematory at the prestigious St. Michael's Cemetery, Queens, NY for our cremations unless otherwise directed.

Huge Selection of Bibles Fiction/Non-Fiction Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Books Greeting Cards .VTJD t (JGUT Original Art Events and More!

â&#x2013;ş SUMMER SEAFOOD BOIL The Guggenheim 1071 Fifth Ave. 11:30 a.m. Prices vary Celebrate July 4 all week long with a summer seafood boil at the Guggenheimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s restaurant, The Wright. Featuring Long Island clams, Gulf shrimp, Louisiana crawďŹ sh and mussels with new potatoes and sweet corn, and served with garlic butter and classic cocktail sauce. 212-427-5690 guggenheim.org

20% OFF MOST IN-STORE ITEMS WITH AD

)PVST . 5I BN QN t 'SJ BN QN 4BU BN QN t 4VO QN QN

:PSL "WF #UXO SE UI 4U t www.logosbookstorenyc.com

Come meet me and my friends! Photo: Hobie Caldwell, via Flickr

4TH OF JULY MACYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S 4TH OF JULY FIREWORKS Show begins at 9:25 p.m. Watch the ďŹ reworks light up the sky above the East River near Midtown. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where to catch a good view, as long as youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re prepared to claim your spot around sundown. East Side: Manhattanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s FDR Drive between Houston Street and Midtown East. Entry points in years past have been at Houston Street, 23rd, 34th and 42nd Streets. Downtown: The waterfront area between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. Accommodations for elderly or disabled: Spectators with special needs can head to the FDR southbound lane at 16th Street and Avenue C, or the top of the ramp at 34th Street. On the water: Various barges and Circle Line river cruises sell tickets if you want a ďŹ&#x201A;oating view of the ďŹ reworks.

MUDDY PAWS RESCUE & NORTH SHORE ANIMAL LEAGUE AMERICA

PetSmart

Petco

10 Madison Square West btwn W. 24th & W. 25th St. New York, NY SAT JUNE 30 ( 12 PM - 5 PM

159 Columbus Ave 860 Broadway @ E. 17th St. New York, NY SUN JULY 1 ( 1 PM - 5 PM

len Dunn

Photo By El

( ( ( RR006

25 Davis Ave., Port Washington, NY 11050 animalleague.org (

Your neighborhood news source

OurTownNY.com

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

LAST CHANCE TO ‘LET GO’ WITH NICK CAVE At the Park Avenue Armory, the visual artist engages visitors in a “dance-based town hall” BY ANNE KRISTOFF

From the minute you enter the Wade Thompson Drill Hall in the Park Avenue Armory, you become a part of “The Let Go,” an interdisciplinary installation created by visual artist Nick Cave. This is no accident. “For Cave, The Let Go is all about participation,” reads the program, “the more the better.” Security will search your bag as you enter the building. The windows are blacked out so you can’t see inside. Once you pass through the main door, the music first gets your attention. Or maybe it’s the sparkle. The Armory is a formal space with period rooms — large oil paintings of military officers, intricately carved wood on the walls and ceiling, built-in brown leather seating with nailhead accents, stained glass, painted ceilings, pressed tin walls and chandeliers. It’s curious to hear house music beckoning from the room straight ahead. Then a glint of light reflects off a shiny surface. The Drill Hall is dark and cavernous and the shiny surface is a floor-to-ceiling fringed Mylar curtain. It’s attached to a track on the ceiling and it snakes around the room in an undulating pattern. This is called “chase.” A lot happens next. The piece is at the far end, then it’s moving towards you, then it’s brushing past you, then it surrounds you, then you’re tangled up in it, and when you push through and bat the curtain away you’ll find yourself in one of the six spotlights on the floor. You won’t be alone. Cave began as an Ailey-trained dancer before moving into visual art. There are dancers here performing along with a number of community groups — yoga teachers, school groups and church choirs. The crowd is mixed, everyone from an older man in a wheelchair to preschoolers

Baritone Jorell Williams and Vy Higginsen’s Sing Harlem Choir perform in “The Let Go” by Nick Cave. Photo: James Ewing

Artist Nick Cave. Photo: Sandro running and twirling. You can stand there and watch or take your phone out and snap something for the ‘Gram but really, Cave wants you to let go. “Back in the day, the clubs felt like the only place I was truly safe and celebrated for being who I was born to be,” he said. “I am using ‘The Let Go’ as a way to share that feeling.” “The Let Go” is described in the program as a “dance-based town hall,” where New Yorkers can gather and use movement as a cathartic antidote to all of the craziness that’s been going on around the world and closer to home. “Chase,” combined with the steady thump of house music, provided by a changing roster of DJs, creates an immersive experience. It’s magical and it’s fun. But Cave’s work goes a lot deeper than that. “Chase” is comprised of intentional colors — black, red, and green followed by black and blue — that represent youth of color being chased by the police. The other part of the curtain is gold, silver, and bronze — representing bling materialism — mixed in with rainbow ﬂag colors. The installation is open on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with DJs spinning from 2 to 6 p.m. Cave’s “Soundsuits,” the work for which he

is best known, are on display as sculpture during this time in the ornate rooms located off the main floor hallway, known as the Head House. The soundsuits are elaborately constructed of brightly colored raffia, beads, hair, buttons and other found objects and are displayed as sculpture juxtaposed against the stuffy formality of the room decor. The Soundsuits also have a deeply socio-political intention. They were first created by Cave as a response to the Rodney King beating. On weeknights (Wed,, Thurs., Fri.), they are used in a performance piece called the “Up Right.” Backed by a choir performance, young male initiates remove their street clothes and are dressed piece by piece in a Soundsuit. It’s meant to signify a shamanistic, rite of passage ending in rebirth. After that, we dance. The participatory nature of the installation continues after you leave. In the program is a stencil with instructions to make your own TLG T-Shirt. There’s also a photo diagram explaining how to learn the “Let Go Line Dance,” choreographed by Francesca Harper specifically to accompany the installation. And there is a list of ways to “let go” generated by New York City high school interns. “The Let Go” will close on July 1. DJs for the final weekend are Sammy Jo (June 30) and Tedd Patterson (July 1). Admission is free during the regular weekend hours for NYC ID holders. For more information: www.armoryonpark. org/programs_events/detail/the_let_go

The crowd gathers around Marquale Ashley, aka Lilgayboy Ladosha, who won the State of the World category at Nick Cave’s Freedom Ball, one of many special events that took place over the course of “The Let Go”’s one-month installation period. Photo: Anne Kristoff

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Your Neighborhood News Source

BEYOND BROADWAY - EAST SIDE The #1 online community for NYC theater:

www.show-score.com

NOW PLAYING IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD FROM $15

FROM $50

FROM $39

EL CREDITO

TEENAGE DICK

LITTLE ROCK

22 REVIEWS OPEN RUN

7 REVIEWS JUST OPENED

23 REVIEWS JUST OPENED

A comic drama about an ordinary man and his attempts to secure a small bank loan.

A new comic take on ‘Richard III,’ which reimagines the king as a discontented 16-year-old outsider.

A riveting true story of the first black students to attend their city’s formerly segregated high school.

REPERTORIO ESPANOL - 138 E 27TH ST

PUBLIC THEATER / SHIVA THEATER - 425 LAFAYETTE ST

SHEEN CENTER - 18 BLEECKER ST

WHAT’S TRENDING ACROSS NYC

COMING SOON

FROM $39

FROM $82

DESPERATE MEASURES 823 REVIEWS OPEN RUN

THIS AIN’T NO DISCO PREVIEWS START JUN 29

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.

89 A foot-stompin’, knee-slappin’ new musical set in the Old West based on ‘Measure for Measure.’

ATLANTIC THEATER - 336 W 20TH ST

FROM $20

NEW WORLD STAGES - 340 W 50TH ST

MUMMENSCHANZ: YOU & ME PREVIEWS START JUL 4

FROM $50

CARMEN JONES 52 REVIEWS JUST OPENED

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

GERALD W LYNCH THEATER - 524 W 59TH ST

86 FROM $52

Oscar Hammerstein II’s adaptation of Bizet’s ‘Carmen,’ reset with an African-American cast.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF PREVIEWS START JUL 4

CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY - 136 E 13TH ST

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.

FROM $35

CONFLICT 61 REVIEWS JUST OPENED

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

FROM $59

SMOKEY JOE’S CAFE PREVIEWS START JUL 6

Content provided by

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

An all-new incarnation of the record-breaking hit revue celebrating the best songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

THEATRE ROW / BECKETT THEATRE - 410 W 42ND ST

STAGE 42 - 422 W 42ND ST KEY:

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

IWantToBeRecycled.org

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything

THURSDAY, JUNE 28TH, 6PM NY Academy of Medicine | 1216 Fifth Ave. | 212-822-7200 | nyam.org Dr. Randi Hutter Epstein, author of a book on hormones, shares insight into the history of endocrinology, from fountain-of-youth quackery to tomorrow’s life-saving therapies ($12).

Suﬁ Songs of Love: Rumi, Haﬁz, Baba Taher and Yunus A new bike lane would be added to Columbus Circle under a recently announced DOT proposal. Image: NYC DOT

DOT PLANS NEW UWS BIKE LANES STREETS Amsterdam Avenue, Columbus Circle slated for reconfiguration under proposal BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

Manhattan bikers could soon have a much safer route between the Upper West Side and Midtown. Amsterdam Avenue and Columbus Circle would be redesigned to accommodate new bike lanes under a proposal recently announced by the city’s Department of Transportation. Columbus Circle’s current conﬁguration makes the iconic intersection extremely difficult to navigate for cyclists. Bikers must share traffic lanes with vehicles for much of the circle and contend with cars changing lanes to exit on Broadway, Central Park South and Central Park West. The DOT’s redesign would create a dedicated bike lane hugging the island in the center of Columbus Circle, which cyclists would access via new bike lanes near pedestrian crosswalks. The measure would not require the removal of a vehicle lane. The DOT’s vision for the West Side also includes a proposal to install a northbound protected bike lane on 10th Avenue beginning at 52nd Street. The protected lane would continue

past 59th Street, where 10th Avenue becomes Amsterdam Avenue, and connect to the existing protected bike lane on Amsterdam Avenue that begins at 72nd Street and runs to 110th Street. Expanding the city’s network of protected bicycle lanes, in which a curbside bike traffic is separated from moving vehicles by a parking lane, have been a top priority in recent years for DOT, which has added over 70 miles of protected bike paths since 2006. The Amsterdam/10th Avenue lane would provide a new northbound protected bike route connecting Midtown with the Upper West Side. (There is currently a southbound protected lane on Columbus Avenue, but no northbound protected route that runs the length of the Upper West Side other than the Hudson River Greenway within Riverside Park.) DOT officials hope the mea su re w i l l i mprove safety along this stretch of Amsterdam/10th Avenue, which has proven a dangerous thoroughfare for cyclists, pedestrians and motorists alike. The corridor was the site of 277 traffic-related injuries from 2012 to 2016. Bikers currently share the road with six lanes of vehicle traffic during peak travel hours. Two cyclists were killed in collisions with vehicles on

Amsterdam/10th Avenue last year, one at 55th Street in June and another at 72nd Street in October. During off-peak hours, 79 percent of vehicles exceed the citywide speed limit of 25 miles per hour, according to a speed study on the corridor conducted by DOT last year. According to DOT, the removal of one vehicle lane to make way for the protected bike lane will have a calming effect on vehicle traffic. In addition to making the road safer for cyclists, DOT officials say the bike lane will improve safety for motorists and pedestrians. New pedestrian islands at corners would shorten the crossing distance on the wide avenue, where 109 pedestrians were injured in collisions from 2012 to 2016. DOT statistics indicate that injuries to pedestrians and motorists drop 15 and 21 percent, respectively, on streets after a protected bike lane is installed. The Amsterdam/10th Avenue redesign will necessitate the removal of 44 parking spaces along the corridor to make way for pedestrian islands and turning lanes. DOT officials presented the plans to Hell’s Kitchen residents at a Community Board 4 meeting June 20 and will share the proposal with the Upper West Side’s Community Board 7 in July. The community boards play a non-binding advisory role in the process.

FRIDAY, JUNE 29TH, 8PM New York Open Center | 22 E. 30th St. | 212-219-2527 | opencenter.org Suﬁ, sacred, and folk music singer Amir Vahab brings his ensemble to an evening celebrating Rumi and Haﬁz, as well as Persian, Turkish, and Kurdish traditional music. A dynamic drumming performance concludes the evening ($25).

Just Announced | Deep Sea Mass Meditation

WEDNESDAY, JULY 18TH, 6:30PM Am. Museum of Nat. History | CPW at 79th St. | 212-769-5100 | amnh.org Hit the museum after hours for special access to the exhibition Unseen Oceans, followed by a sound bath and mass meditation with The Big Quiet—held under the Blue Whale! Live musical performances will follow ($40).

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

YOUR FOOD SCRAPS with GrowNYC

Drop off household fruit and vegetable scraps at 82nd Street Greenmarket Saturdays, 9am-1pm - 82nd St b/t 1st & York

92nd Street Greenmarket Sundays, 9am-1pm - 1st Ave b/t 92nd & 93rd Sts

96th St Compost On-The-Go Wednesdays*, 7:15am-10:30pm - 96th St & Lexington Ave (*no collection on 07/04/18)

Lenox Hill Fresh Food Box Tuesdays, 3:30pm-6:30pm - 1st Ave b/t 70th & 71st Sts For more information visit GrowNYC.org/Compost 212.788.7964 Recycle@GrowNYC.org GrowNYC.org/Compost

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Business

Francesco Brachetti and his two partners opened a second location of Avocaderia, on 11th Avenue in Chelsea, earlier this year. Photo: Michael DeSantis

MUCH MORE THAN GUACAMOLE Avocaderia, in Chelsea, serves up the fruit in many guises BY MICHAEL DESANTIS

Avocado lovers in Chelsea, rejoice. Avocaderia, a small establishment on 11th Avenue, has put the fruit front and center. Co-owners Francesco Brachetti, Alberto Gramini and Alessandro Biggi have sought to spread the idea that avocados can not only be tasty, but also healthy. “When you think about healthy food, there is a common idea or myth that it has to taste bad,” Brachetti, 30, said. “You prefer to eat bacon over a salad,

like 95 percent of the people. With avocados it’s different. The thing that you get by eating avocado is that you feel full, you’re eating something good, it’s creamy, but at the same time, it’s good for you.” Avocados may be high in calories — a half an avocado has about 125 — but the fat they contain is healthy, says Cher Pastore, a city-based dietician and nutritionist. They are also high in ﬁber, which helps with weight loss, since eating them makes one feel more full, she said. And avocado consumption lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels. “I recommend avocado regularly to my patients,” Pastore said. “I think it’s extremely nutritious.”

Brachetti and his partners also appreciate the avocado’s versatility. “We were 100 percent sure that we had to do this with avocados,” he said. On the menu are toasts (of course), salads, smoothies, sandwiches and even a cheesecake. The Chelsea store, just north of 27th Street, is Avocaderia’s second location. Its ﬁrst, near the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, opened last year. “Chelsea’s one of the most iconic neighborhoods in Manhattan,” Brachetti said. Elisa Singh, who manages both Avocaderia locations, said Chelsea residents have taken a particular liking to salads and grain bowls. Brachetti estimates that each store

goes through about 200 pounds of avocado each day. Avocados have become immensely popular in the United States in the last few years, with per-capita consumption nearly doubling, from less than four in 2008 to more than seven in 2014, according to data on Statista, an statistical and research database. Singh, 31, thinks their popularity is permanent. “I think avocados are here to stay,” she said. “There are so much you can do with them. So much you can create with them and make pretty. It’s kind of like coffee. Everyone loves coffee and everyone wants coffee. It’s never going away. I think that’s avocados.” And just like there are coffee lovers,

there are avocado lovers, the Lower East Side’s Rachel Buigas-Lopez among them. “If I could eat them for every meal, I would,” Buigas-Lopez, 19, said. She said she was thrilled to hear that Avocaderia was opening in Chelsea. “I live near a place that’s a similar concept,” she said. “Avocado Appetit. I had been there and I had really loved it. I was excited there would be more options for avocado restaurants and I knew I’d deﬁnitely be going.” Brachetti said Avocaderia is hoping to open a third location by the end of the year. Midtown, Washington Square Park and the Financial District are potential options.

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

" #$

%& ' (

)

) "

* + +

" !

- . #/ 0

%& ' (

2 ) "

* + +

" !

- . $ 0

) "

* +

" !

%& ' (

)

2 ) "

* + +

" !

- . $ 0

)

) "

* + +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

2 ) "

* + +

" !

) "

* + +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

(" ' (

) "

* + +

" !

- . $ 0

* +

" !

- . $ 0

) "

* +

" !

- . #/ 0

* +

" !

# 4$

) "

* +

" !

- . $ 0

) "

* +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

* +

" !

- . $ 0

) "

* + +

" !

- . $ 0

) "

* +

" !

- . $ 0

)

2 ) "

* + +

" !

- . $ 0

) "

* + +

" !

. $ 0

2 ) "

* + +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

) "

* + +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

. #/ 0

# 4$

2 ) "

* + +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

) "

* +

" !

- . $ 0

) "

* + +

" !

, ("

565 3 ' (

)

) "

* + +

" !

- . $ 0

565 3 ' (

2 ) "

* + +

" !

- . $ 0

#$ 4# @ - 5 #@ = # # # #@ ? ## + > " ? #44 $ B$ ! # ?$ !#$ # #

" = #$ ! #4 > " ? - #@- > " ? A = A ?

" #$

( 8 ,

) "

* +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

( 8 ,

) "

* +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

)

) "

* +

" !

- . $ 0

2 ) "

* + +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

) "

* + +

" !

- . $ 0

) "

* +

" !

- . #/ 0

* +

" !

. #/ 0

565 3 ' (

) "

* + +

" !

, ("

) "

* +

" !

# 4$

) "

* + +

" !

. $ 0

) "

* +

" !

# 4$

- . $ 0

(6 " ( 6 ( 8 ;

) "

* + +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

)

) "

* +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

) "

* +

" !

, ("

- . $ 0

" % ,6 < 8 ,

* +

" !

- . $ 0

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

WELCOME TO BROADWAY’S LIVING ROOM THEATER At 54 Below and other venues, a flourishing cabaret scene BY ANNIE MCDONOUGH

Late on a Tuesday night in March, at a cabaret club in the heart of the theater district, a pack of giddy musical theater students are reveling in the kind of post-performance bliss that only comes from playing a packed room, obsessing over the woman with whom they’re sharing a greenroom. “Chita Rivera was up here,” says Jessie Brownie, a senior at Elon University in North Carolina. “She jumped in the group photo with us! It just conﬁrms that all the greats perform here, and it’s just so cool to be doing it right alongside them.” Here is Feinstein’s/54 Below, a cabaret supper club in the basement of Studio 54 — the infamous late-1970s nightclub turned Broadway theater. Founded in June of 2012 by a team of bold-faced Broadway producers, 54 Below has become the center of theater’s ﬂourishing cabaret scene. 54 Below is far from the only space in New York offering Broadway stars a stage for cabaret — Café Carlyle, Joe’s Pub and The Birdland Jazz Club rank

among the popular, too. But in the variety and volume of Broadway-centric programming it offers, 54 Below is unlike any of its peers. “You can go to 54 Below, and you can see Laura Benanti and her mom, and then you can see Norm Lewis, and then you can see some singer-songwriter who is still an undergrad at some college you’ve never heard of, do a night of her songs,” says Joe Iconis, a composer and lyricist, and one of 54 Below’s regular performers. In other words, there aren’t many venues at which a group of college students could legitimately proclaim that Chita Rivera was their opening act. For those unfamiliar with New York’s cabaret scene — or with the theater world at all — it might be helpful to think of 54 Below’s Hollywood equivalent. “Broadway performers have joked that it’s like being on ‘Law & Order,’” says Jennifer Tepper, 54 Below’s programming director. “Everyone on Broadway has done it.” And “everyone” is no joke. From Lin-Manuel Miranda to Laura Benanti, there are few marquee names who have yet to set foot on 54 Below’s small stage. In 2012, the club’s founders — Tom Viertel, Marc Routh, Richard Frankel and Steve Baruch — planned on open-

ing a traditional venue where famous Broadway performers would drift in and out, attracting a steady stream of New York theater fans. A different philosophy — one focused on variety and volume — saved 54 Below from becoming the flop that all producers fear. Now, instead of a few weekly headliners, the club produces between 15 and 18 shows every week. A typical week at 54 Below might include a classic cabaret by a Broadway legend, a slate of young performers paying tribute to The Beatles or Gwen Stefani, and a reunion concert of a gone-too-soon musical like “Heathers” or “Merrily We Roll Along.” Tepper, who was brought into the fold in 2013, is hailed by some as the mastermind behind this successful new approach. Though she denies sole credit, Tepper’s enthusiasm for her work matches that of a theater-loving kid taking her first bows in the fifthgrade play. “The good thing is, there’s no drought of Broadway performers,” she says. “There are always new shows opening, new writers writing new material. As long as Broadway keeps going, there’s always new stuff for us to do. We won’t run out.” Ticket prices at 54 Below usually range from $30 — $100, depending

on the act. Still, a $30 ticket (plus $25 food and drink minimum) isn’t exactly cheap. That’s where YouTube comes in. This spring, Joe Iconis performed a series of shows at 54 Below with George Salazar, an actor from his musical, “Be More Chill,” which centers around high school misﬁts, and which has become inexplicably popular in the last year — its album being streamed over 90 million times, despite the show only ever having a month-long regional production in 2015. (That popularity, however, will bring the show Off-Broadway this July). At one of Iconis and Salazar’s March shows, 54 Below was packed, mostly with teenagers and their parents, some of whom actually had ﬂown out for the event. Immediately as the show began, phones went up and started recording. The next day, video of each song from the performance was up on YouTube in multiples. “I call YouTube ‘Tin Pan Alley’ of the future,” Tepper says. “That’s how you get your songs known.” And not just known, but interpreted by other performers. “When you’re looking for a new song, you think, ‘what have people been performing at 54 Below?’” says Elon student Grant Paylor.

Brian Stokes Mitchell at Feinstein’s/54 Below. Photo: Nella Vera That’s what Michael Schimmele was thinking when deciding what to sing for the Elon senior showcase. After browsing YouTube, the song Schimmele chose for his 54 Below debut was “Michael in the Bathroom,” a standout hit from “Be More Chill.” Schimmele’s version now has nearly 4,000 views on YouTube, where the next generation of theater kids can ﬁnd him singing it on 54 Below’s hallowed stage.

TAKING A BREAK FROM MARRIAGE BOOKS Two new novels about living in limbo when spouses feel the need to separate BY LORRAINE DUFFY MERKL

Since the 19th century, upper crust New York marriages have been chronicled, analyzed and salivated over — from books (“The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund”) to TV shows (“Gossip Girl”) to movies (“The Age of Innocence”) as well as in the society pages (ﬁll in blueblooded surnames here). Current fiction and non-fiction accounts usually involve Wall Streettypes with mistresses and are always one tabloid headline away from dividing considerable assets, which often include Fifth/Madison/Park Avenue real estate with a Hamptons/Aspen house chaser. For a refreshing change, two new novels, both set on the Upper East Side, tackle the subject of spouses who feel they need a break, as opposed to a breakup. Separation is a complex subject that can be quite traumatic. A cursory internet search led to the insight that

being married but living apart may be even more stressful than being divorced, because when you’re separated you’re neither here nor there; you’re in marriage limbo. The first book to address this is “Marriage Vacation,” a byproduct of the TVLand show “Younger,” which has just returned for a fifth season. Published by Simon & Schuster, it’s faux-authored by the series’s ﬁctional character Pauline Turner Brooks, played by Jennifer Westfeldt. For those who don’t tune in, Pauline decided that taking care of her two children and husband, publisher Charles (Peter Hermann), was no longer fulﬁlling and takes off on an eatpray-love journey to Thailand. Upon returning to the family’s East 82nd Street townhouse after many months, Pauline not only wants to reclaim her marriage, but have the story of their separation published by Charles’s company and edited by 40-masquerading-as-20-something employee Liza (Sutton Foster). Those who watch the program know Pauline has already lost her husband’s heart to Liza despite the fact that her uplifting memoir is out and bound for best-seller glory. Unfortunately, that will not be the

fate of the actual book, which is nothing more than a bit of PR gimmickry to promote the series. As a standalone piece of reading material, one might be able to understand what prompted Pauline’s mid-life crisis and cheer for her new perspective on her life, but the majority of the book centers on her soul-searching adventures in Southeast Asia, which aren’t all that engaging. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are a super fan of “Younger” and want a souvenir. On the other hand, there is “The Intermission,” the second novel by Elyssa Friedland (Berkley, July 3rd). Told in alternating chapters by the husband and wife, Jonathan and Cass Coyne, this is a portrait of a marriage at a crossroads after a pregnancy goes awry. Friedland has created well-drawn characters who, by all appearances, are functioning just fine with their new normal, yet are struggling internally, not just with what to do about their relationship, but how to maneuver the associations they’ve cultivated in their current, semi-single lives. Cass and Jon, who are co-parenting their dog, meet up once a month to do a pet handoff. They have both started dating again; he with a sweetheart

from his Park Avenue youth, and she with Hollywood types in her temporary home of Los Angeles. During one pet exchange, Jon (the abandoned party) is taken aback at how good Cass looks with a healthy tan, while he feels so bad. When she finds out who her rival is, Cass begins to wonder if Jon ever stopped loving his former girlfriend, even after they got married. She also discovers the hard way that when you go on a date and your suitor ﬁnds out you have a husband, albeit one who’s three thousand miles away, it can put a damper on the evening.

Then there is the sharing of the news with friends and family, who often treat the situation with the gossipy sensitivity one gives soap opera characters. Although “The Intermission” does a better job than “Vacation,” both books show that living apart can take its toll on all involved, but that sometimes a break — not a breakup — can be what’s needed to remember the value of what you have. Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novel “Back to Work She Goes,” about a SAHM trying to re-enter the workforce.

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Tired of Hunting for Our Town? Subscribe today to Eastsider News of Your Neighborhood that you can’t get anywhere else

Dining Information, plus crime news, real estate prices - all about your part of town

Cultural Events in and around where you live (not Brooklyn, not Westchester) Kissena the swan has been treated for lead poisoning at The Wild Bird Fund and is expected to make a full recovery. Photo: Christina Cardona

KEEPING BIRDS SOARING ANIMALS The Wild Bird Fund is the only animal rehabilitation center in New York BY CHRISTINA CARDONA

Walk into The Wild Bird Fund on the Upper West Side and two pekin ducks greet you. So does a chicken, a white rooster, a mallard and a few goslings. You also notice the steady background music: birds cooing, left and right. For Rita McMahon, the organizations’ director, this is home. The Wild Bird Fund, on Columbus Avenue north of 87th Street, treats and nourishes the injured wildlife of New York City. The not-for-profit opened in 2012. Before that, McMahon, who lives nearby, kept and treated the injured birds in her

apartment. At one point, she had 60 birds. “Whatever bird is brought to our door, we try to make it whole again so it can go back to the wild. The second part of the mission is to educate New Yorkers about our wildlife,” McMahon said. “And how much we have — we’re very rich in wildlife and most people don’t realize it.” McMahon said the organization gets anywhere from three to 60 birds a day, depending on the season. Last year, the Fund rehabilitated 6,000 birds. “The most common statement is ‘thank God you’re here,’ because we are the only game in town,” McMahon said. The Fund gets 50 percent of its funding from individual donations, she said; 35 percent comes from foundation grants; and the remaining 15 percent comes from bird and photogra-

phy walks the fund hosts in the spring and autumn. The Fund also sells merchandise and provide educational programs, such as an eight-month junior ornithology course. Money, though, gets a little tight in the summertime, McMahon said. “We have the greatest number of patients, with all the big birds coming in. And it’s the time of year where people do not donate as much,” she said. “You do what you can, with what you have. You stretch it the best you can.” Rehabilitation includes diagnostic testing, surgery, physical therapy, feeding and sheltering. “New Yorkers care a lot,” McMahon said. “They respond when they see an animal on the ground, they pick it up. Especially when they know they can take it somewhere.”

Now get your personal copy delivered by US Mail for just

49/Year for 52 issues

To Subscribe : Call 212-868-0190 or go online to ourtownny.com and click on subscribe

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Got an EVENT? FESTIVAL CONCERT GALLERY OPENING PLAY Get The Word Out! Add Your Event for FREE Just $10 per day to be featured

nycnow.com

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

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

YOUR 15 MINUTES

BEAUTIFYING NEW YORKERS Nicole Bryl on her skin care line, Melania Trump and celebrity BY ANGELA BARBUTI

At 14, Nicole Bryl started as a makeup apprentice for her mother. At that time, it would be hard to imagine that one day she’d be traveling to Washington, D.C., as a makeup artist for the ﬁrst lady. To say she has many notable clients is an understatement — with names like the Rockefellers, the Hilfigers, NASCAR’s France Family, Princess Charlene of Monaco and Queen Noor of Jordan. But her focus as of late is on Melania Trump, who she calls a “dear friend” and “one of the most beautiful women to do makeup for.” When she is not beautifying others, she is working on her skin care line, which she created in her own in her kitchen. It can be found at SoHo’s Thompson Chemists, which she said she chose because of its “momand-pop shop” feel.

Tell us about growing up in New York and your experience at the Rudolf Steiner School. The Rudolf Steiner School was the perfect school for me because it was small enough to have personalized attention from the teachers and also encouraged creative thinking kids, which I was. The Upper East Side was truly a pleasant area of New York City to grow up because it was family oriented, calm and safe. Then, when I graduated high school, I attended Fordham University at Lincoln Center, so I moved over to the West Side for a few years. From there, I went back and forth, West Side, East Side, but I’m definitely an uptown New York City girl at heart. Growing up in New York City is a very unique experience unto itself. It actually is a great place to grow up because although you may not have a backyard or be able to ride your bike on the sidewalk, you have Central Park, which is an amazing place to play. I never felt deprived from any kind of activity and was always involved in a lot of cultural activities as well. We

had the Metropolitan Museum right by where I grew up, the Guggenheim Museum too.

Tell us about your trip to Paris as a teenager and how it shaped your work. When I was 16, one of my best friends’ mom was Roxanne Lowit, who was a very famous fashion photographer, known for her behind-the-scenes shots. She invited her daughter and me to go to Paris to trail her behind stage at a lot of the shows. So we went; it was summer vacation. And her daughter Vanessa and I had a great time. For me, it was very exciting, because I was exposed to all these icons who were revered in my mind. Lots of beauty and the highest fashion you could imagine in Paris. For me, I was on air. She was also very good friends with Paloma Picasso. We spent a lot of dinners and private time with her and she used to talk to me about her vision on things, like beauty and art. That deﬁnitely shaped my own vision of how it should all go. She was instrumental in my ethics and way of thinking, so I was very grateful for that.

How did you start working with celebrities? I started working with celebrities in high school because I had been doing makeup diligently and started getting work right away. People just started recommending me for things. So at ﬁrst it was things that came through my mom. From there, I would just go on this shoot or that shoot and people were happy with the work and continued on with that.

Tell us how your work with Melania Trump came about.

Nicole Bryl. Courtesy of Nicole Bryl

Eventually, after many years in the business, I started working with Kathie Lee Gifford, who is probably one of the most generous and kind people I have ever had the opportunity to work with. She is very good friends with Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, and was invited to Melania’s baby shower which was held at FAO Schwarz, to interview Melania before her son Barron was born. I was with Kathie Lee that day, so she brought me along for the interview. At the shoot, Melania had mentioned to Kathie Lee that she liked her makeup, so Kathie Lee, who is

Nicole Bryl and Melania Trump. Courtesy of Nicole Bryl always so generous of spirit, called me over and introduced me as her makeup artist and suggested to Melania, “You should use Nicole. She’s great.” Melania and I said hello and quickly realized we actually had met several years prior on a commercial shoot and she asked me to please give my information to her assistant. They called me soon after the baby was born for a “People” magazine family shoot. And that’s how it all began that I started working with Melania, 12 years ago.

What has your experience been like working for the ﬁrst lady? I’ve been with her for 12 years and it’s always been a great privilege to do her makeup and be a part of her family. They’ve always been very kind to me and generous and nice. When this whole new time came about, with the campaign and then they won and then she became the ﬁrst lady, it was actually just a natural transition into the new position. It wasn’t

anything that we hadn’t done before, because I had been with her all that time.

Tell us about creating your product line. One of the things I have always done as a makeup artist is to take lots of different products and mix them together to formulate a custom blend for people’s skin when I would do their face. So over time, all the companies and major brands would send me lots of products to try. If I liked it, I would put it in my kit and maybe talk about it. Some of the products that I was mostly drawn to for skin were Vitamin C based. And I loved them, but felt they were a little watered down and a little bit too chemical-ey. So I liked the effects of vitamin C and what it contributed to the skin. I just wanted it to be more potent and less ﬁlled with chemicals. So at some point, I turned to my own kitchen, which I’m sure so many have, and started formulating things for myself with actual pure vitamin C, and

started opening capsules. And because I knew the chemistry of a lot of different products, I started I mixing and formulating it.

What are your future plans? In terms of makeup, I have my core clients. And I go back and forth to DC obviously to work with the ﬁrst lady. As a makeup artist, she is my number-one priority right now. But I have some other clients who I see who are also really incredible, like Ariana Rockefeller and the NASCAR family and a few others. I’m fully committed to my VIP clients. So in terms of makeup, the expansion is I’m pretty much committed to catering to the needs of those core clients, especially the ﬁrst lady.

Know somebody who deserves their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to ourtownny. com and click on submit a press release or announcement.

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Eastsider COLOR THE EAST SIDE

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

by Jake Rose

Gracie Mansion In 1799, Archibald Gracie built a house by the East River, which was sold to Joseph Foulke in 1823, bought by Noah Wheaton in 1857, and incorporated by New York City into Carl Schurz Park in 1896.

We’ll publish some of them. To purchase a coloring book of Upper East Side venues, go to colorourtown.com/ues

CROSSWORD by Myles Mellor

A W A

M A

H O C

42 36 31 26

S T

A H

17 14 11 1

F O

T 3

E 4

K O U

T 7

D O U

W E

L M

A B

A M

19 5

E W

A M

H T

B M A

16 13

N 8

F O 9

Down 1 Major or Minor in the sky? 2 Start-up money 3 Make permanent 4 Off the beaten path 5 Razor-billed bird 6 Snail-like 7 Enclosed, on the farm 8 CSI evidence 9 Back at sea 10 Quote from Homer 13 Inspire 18 Emission that’s bad for the environment (abbr.) 20 ___ scouts 22 Made a physics law 24 Dig 25 Peanut sauce cuisine type

O W E

O N

26 Radio wave 27 Neck part 28 Central line 29 Asian capital 33 Constituted 35 Italian “but” 37 Rulers of Russia 38 Dilly-dally 40 Shows where to go 41 Thing referred to 43 Major news website 46 Sign of boredom 48 Indian’s home 49 Touch down 50 Remote option 51 DNA cousin 52 Content of some barrels 53 Electric guitar need 55 Horse command 58

51 Laugh heartily 54 Witchy woman 56 Biblical birthright seller 57 Pilfers 58 Have a tab 59 Fuzz 60 High mountain 61 Genderless pronoun 62 Lose color

Across 1 Played for a sap 5 Obstinate animal 8 Darth to Luke 11 Blood vessel mesh 12 ___imate 13 Dope 14 Formative religion 15 Colorful ﬁsh 16 S.A.T. section 17 Literally, “for this” (2 words) 19 Golfer Simpson 21 Craft 23 Movie starring Meryl Streep 26 Chaos 30 “Uh-huh” 31 Nth degree 32 Sound of a gull 34 Male sheep 36 Essence 39 Republic in Africa 42 Put to the test 44 High school test 45 “Love Will Find ___” (2 words) 47 Sacred hymn

M S

R O A

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

CLASSIFIEDS

Telephone: 212-868-0190 Email: classified2@strausnews.com

POLICY NOTICE: We make every effort to avoid mistakes in your classified ads. Check your ad the first week it runs. The publication will only accept responsibility for the first incorrect insertion. The publication assumes no financial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for any copy changes. All classified ads are pre-paid.

MASSAGE

REAL ESTATE - SALE

PUBLIC NOTICES

NEED TO RUN A LEGAL NOTICE?

Quick | Easy | Economical

Call Barry Lewis Today: 212-868-0190

BE THE SOMEONE

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

newyorkcares.org

JUNE 28-JULY 4,2018

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

COME HOME TO GLENWOOD MANHATTANâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FINEST LUXURY RENTALS

+ + +

+ + + + + +

UPPER EAST SIDE 1 BEDROOMS FROM $2,995 2 BEDROOMS FROM $4,495 3 BEDROOMS FROM $7,495

MIDTOWN & UPPER WEST SIDE 1 BEDROOMS FROM $3,495 2 BEDROOMS FROM $4,795 3 BEDROOMS FROM $8,295

TRIBECA & FINANCIAL DISTRICT 1 BEDROOMS FROM $3,795 2 BEDROOMS FROM $5,895 3 BEDROOMS FROM $8,495

UPTOWN LEASING OFFICE 212-535-0500 DOWNTOWN LEASING OFFICE 212-430-5900 ! " " All the units include features for persons with disabilities required by FHA.

GLENWOOD Equal Housing Opportunity

BUILDER OWNER MANAGER

GLENWOODNYC.COM