Our Town - July 20, 2017

The local paper for the Upper East Side

WEEK OF JULY RICHARD GERSTL’S GENIUS < P.12

20-26 2017

Famed gossip columnist and nightlife chronicler Michael Musto in a familiar pose, riding what he calls his “girl’s bike” down Lexington Avenue in the East 20s. Photo: Streetfilms “Il Ciclista Dolce: Michael Musto” screen shot

The white marble Kaskel & Kaskel Building at 316 Fifth Avenue, built for the custom shirtmaker in 1902, could soon face demolition. Photo: Beyond My Ken, via Wikimedia Commons

DOOM LOOMS FOR FIFTH AVENUE CHARMER HISTORY A Beaux-Arts building will face the wrecking ball

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

The old Kaskel & Kaskel Building at 316 Fifth Avenue at 32nd Street has little resonance for most New

Yorkers. Its inevitable demolition will not make the headlines. And its loss, unfortunately, will not be mourned.

Too bad. Built in 1902 in the Beaux-Arts style as a retail showroom and headquarters for Kaskel, one of the city’s premiere

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CALAMITY AND THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST SAFETY Michael Musto was knocked down and badly hurt by a “crazed cyclist.”

Now he can’t wait to ride his own bike again

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

Michael Musto has rather strong opinions about public transportation: “I hate subways! I hate cabs! I hate Ubers!” he says. “I don’t want to get stuck in traffic. I don’t want to be late for any of my appointments.”

He never is. For more than three decades, the downtown icon, nightlife columnist, celebrity chronicler and

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Restaurant Ratings Business Real Estate 15 Minutes

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pop-culture fixture has scooted off to screenings, shows, premieres and nightclubs on his trusty bicycle.

“It’s a wonderful way to see how the city is evolving — to see it up close and personal in a way that is true,” says Musto, a pioneer of the Out movement as one of the city’s first openly gay gossip columnists.

That makes the former Village Voice mainstay — he penned “La Dolce Musto” from 1984 until 2013, when he was, unaccountably, laid off — heir to a grand, if eccentric, newspaper tradition whose practitioners used to be called “cycling scribes.”

Think New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham snapping women from the back of his Biria at Fifth Av-

enue and 57th Street, a corner that now bears his name. Or New York Post columnist Murray Kempton gadding about the Upper West Side on his battered three-speed — and, rarity of rarities, stopping at every single red light.

Both Cunningham and Kempton had their share of spills and mishaps. So

CONTINUED ON PAGE 19 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR BIKE FATALITIES Referring to your reporting of the cyclist fatality (“Cyclist Killed on West Side,” July 6 - 12), it is always a real tragedy when anyone loses his/her life in a bicycle accident. The mayor and other bike proponents are disingenuous when they express surprise when such a bike fatality occurs. How can you unleash thousands of additional bikes onto city streets which repeated studies have cited as among the most congested in the country and not expect that serious injuries and deaths are going to occur from bike/auto collisions? Hundred of millions of dollars are being expended to accommodate bicycle riders, yet they pay no fees, are not required to carry insurance or to wear safety helmets. The police department as well as the Department of Transportation have done a very poor job of regulating bicycle riders.

I would only encourage my worst enemy to ride a bicycle on the streets of this city.

hoods” (“Restore Our Good – With Neighborhoods,” June 29 - July 5).

What Ms. Dewing says about her beloved East Side is equally applicable to my beloved West Side.

She mentions the loss of “community places to buy or break bread.” Re the latter, in 2013 we lost Big Nick’s, a local staple for over 50 years. Reasonably priced, and open 24 hours, it provided exactly the type of atmosphere Ms. Dewing notes. And just this year, we lost Restaurant Dan (open over 35 years) and Isabella’s (over 30 years).

In all three cases the cause was landlord greed, and, again as Ms. Dewing points out, the loss was not only of community eateries, but also the jobs of dozens of dedicated employees. And these are only the three most egregious examples: the UWS has actually lost over a dozen local eateries over the past two or three years.

Ian Alterman Upper West Side

A white bicycle is often brought to the site where cyclists have been killed. Photo: Thomas Brownell via Wikimedia Commons

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

B. Wallace Cheatham Tribeca

PIZZA MEMORIES When I asked Carmine around 40 years ago why they didn’t deliver (“A Slice, a Cel-Ray and a Scowl,” July 6 - 12), he said he and Sal had once had delivery service, but they were tired of the pizza delivery pranks of yore: kids calling up, ordering five pies for delivery to a bogus apartment number, and watching the frustrated delivery guy have to turn back carrying five boxes of pies. He encouraged phoning in advance and having your order ready for pick-up.

Eileen Stareshefsky Upper West Side

LOSING NEIGHBORHOODS Brava to Betty Dewing for her loving, if sad, piece on the loss of “neighbor-

I read with great interest the article “Preventing Elder Abuse,” (The Spirit Westsider, June 22 - 28) describing the important event by JASA on June 14, 2017. But there was no mention [of] the UN General Assembly 2005 Proclamation of WEAAD [World Elder Abuse Awareness Day] celebrated all over the world on June 15th, including the most recent presentation at the UN Headquarters in NYC on June 16, 2017.

Rosita Resnick Upper West Side

MIXED BLESSING The appointment of past Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joe Lhota to assume his old position is a mixed blessing (“NYC’s Subway Savior,” June 29 - July 5). The good news is no doubt that as MTA

Chairman and CEO between November 2011 to December 2012, he did a great job bringing MTA transportation back from the damages brought

by Super Storm Sandy. Lhota’s previous experiences at the MTA and at City Hall serving as NYC Finance Commissioner, Office of Management and Budget Director and Deputy Mayor for Operations under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani position him to hit the ground running. The bad news is that it is disappointing to learn that he will retain his position as a senior Vice President of NYU Lagone Medical Center. Now, more than ever his MTA assignment is a full-time job well beyond the standard 9-to-5 hours most New Yorkers work. Lhota can’t serve two employers at the same time. Transit riders, taxpayers, transit advocates and elected officials can accept no less.

Larry Penner

Great Neck, NY

CONCERN ABOUT THE IDC New Yorkers deserve strong leadership on climate change from our state elected officials. With Donald Trump dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency and pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, it’s clear that states and local governments must be more aggressive than ever before.

Sadly, New York’s state legislative session just ended with no progress on climate change, one of the the most pressing issues of our time. The reason for this is simple: Senator Marisol Alcantara and the seven other members of the Independent Democratic Conference have handed control of the State Senate to the party of Donald Trump. Just like they have across the country, New York’s Republicans blocked any action on climate change.

And the IDC has made it clear that

whenever the Republicans need a majority, the IDC will supply it.

This is unconscionable, of course.

The good news is that New Yorkers are waking up with near constant rallies calling on Senator Alcantara and the other IDC members to end their ruinous alliance with the Republicans.

Simply put, it’s time for Senator Alcantara to stop playing political games and get to work moving New York off fossil fuels and on to 100 percent renewable energy. We simply cannot wait for climate justice.

Daniel Marks Cohen, Corinne Constantine, Wendy Dannett, Daniele Gerard, Mary Ann Marks, Marie Lunn, Lynn Max, Steve Max, Merle McEldowney, Lois Safian, Lorraine Zamora Members, Board of Directors Three Parks Independent Democrats

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG NEW PALTZ AND NO PULSE

TWO SENIORS SCAMMED

IT’S COMPLEX

An area resident saw justice served against a former roommate. From about mid-September to the start of October, 2016, a 75-year-old Upper East Side resident was in the hospital having heart surgery and recovering. In his absence, his roommate, a 45-yearold man originally from New Paltz, decided to help himself to the patient’s credit card, racking up $10,000 worth of charges on the card. He then took off and never returned to the apartment.

Police caught up with the roommate, however, arresting him on July 12 and charging him with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property after having absconded with a $900 laptop computer belonging to the recovering roomate. His excuse to police about ripping off his heartpatient roommate? “I thought he was dead,” he told police.

Two more area seniors became victims of phone scams. In the first incident, which took place at 10:30 a.m. July 2, an East 86th Street resident, 79, got a phone call from someone who told her that her computer had been compromised.

She was instructed to buy iTunes gift cards as payment to have the problem resolved. She complied, buying gift cards from Duane Reade and CVS in the amount of $1,900, which she called in to the scammer. Remember, folks, scammers love gift cards because they can’t be traced; beware of any caller requesting payment in gift cards!

Meanwhile, between June 15 and July 11, another woman, 89, received a series of phone calls from someone claiming to represent Publishers Clearing House, telling her that she was a sweepstakes winner but she needed to pay taxes before she could receive her winnings. She sent the perpetrator a personal check in the amount of $2,500 and of course never received an award.

The apartments of two Upper Eastsiders were burglarized recently in the same large apartment complex.

From June 27 to July 5, a 34-year-old woman living at 305 East 86 Street was on vacation. When she returned to her apartment, she discovered that a number of items were missing, including six Hermes bracelets, various pieces of Tiffany jewelry, two IWC watches, and more, with a total value of $15,540.

And at 12:23 p.m. on July 1, a 34-year-old man living at 315 East 86th Street received a phone call from a home security device alerting him to motion detected in his apartment.

When he returned home, he discovered that a gold watch valued at $30,000, a gold necklace, four sets of Tiffany cufflinks, and $2,000 in cash had been taken. The total haul amounted to $48,000.

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th precinct for Week to Date

Year to Date

2017 2016

% Change

2017

2016

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

0

2

-100.0

Rape

0

1

-100.0

6

2

200.0

Robbery

1

1

0.0

62

44

40.9

Felony Assault

4

0

n/a

70

68

2.9

Burglary

4

4

0.0

108 102 5.9

Grand Larceny

24

27

-11.1

721

701 2.9

Grand Larceny Auto

0

1

-100.0

16

42

Photo by Tony Webster, via flickr

-61.9

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Useful Contacts 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 Daniel Garodnick

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

1365 First Ave.

212-288-4607

COMMUNITY BOARD 8

505 Park Ave. #620

212-758-4340

LIBRARIES Yorkville

222 E. 79th St.

212-744-5824

96th Street

112 E. 96th St.

212-289-0908

67th Street

328 E. 67th St.

212-734-1717

Webster Library

1465 York Ave.

212-288-5049

100 E. 77th St.

212-434-2000

HOSPITALS Lenox Hill NY-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell

525 E. 68th St.

212-746-5454

Mount Sinai

E. 99th St. & Madison Ave.

212-241-6500

NYU Langone

550 First Ave.

212-263-7300

CON EDISON

4 Irving Place

212-460-4600

POST OFFICES US Post Office

1283 First Ave.

212-517-8361

US Post Office

1617 Third Ave.

212-369-2747

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GREAT EXPECTATIONS

BY PETER PEREIRA

JULY 20-26,2017

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CHIN’S TOWN HALL EVENT SCRUTINIZED POLITICS Norman Siegel, the civil rights attorney, says police’s seizure of political literature is unprecedented

BY RICHARD KHAVKINE

The confiscation of political flyers and other campaign material by police prior to a town hall meeting hosted by Council Member Margaret Chin and attended by Mayor de Blasio last month has received more scrutiny.

The prominent civil rights attorney Norman Siegel and others have since denounced events alleged to have taken place prior to the June 21 event, with Siegel calling the police action unprecedented.

“It’s unheard of,” said Siegel, a former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “In all the years doing what I do in New York, I’ve never heard about cops confiscating political literature at a public meeting so it’s got to stop.”

According to several people who attended the town hall, uniformed and plainclothes NYPD personnel at a security tent riffled through would-be attendees’ personal belongings and seized political flyers, banners and signs critical of either Chin or de Blasio or that supported opposition candidates before they allowed people into the YMCA on the Bowery.

In letters to de Blasio and police Commissioner James P. O’Neill, Siegel said “Such actions by state actors raise serious constitutional concerns.”

In the July 8 letters, Siegel said the confiscations raised several questions, including whether officials were aware of the confiscations; what the rationale might have been; whether an investigation was underway; and which steps would be taken “to ensure that the First and Fourth Amendment rights of the public are respected.”

Siegel said he had yet to receive answers to his letters.

“I’m not going to let this one sit,” he said. “If it is the first time, it should be the last time.”

Siegel was retained by the SoHo Al-

liance and its executive director, Sean Sweeney, who suggested that Chin was behind the police action. “It had to come from her,” Sweeney said. “These things don’t happen in a vacuum.”

Sweeney, head of the alliance since about 1995, said this was the first time he’d attended a town hall or similar meeting where documents were seized. “The mayor has had several of these,” he said. “No one gets searched.”

Chin’s chief of staff, Paul Leonard, though, dismissed Sweeney’s allegations, saying that Council members do not issue directives to police. He also noted that pro-Chin campaign literature was also seized at the event.

“These unfounded allegations are just more political attacks by a disgraced former community board member with a troubling record of using his public position for personal gain,” Leonard said in an email.

(Sweeney, a former member of Community Board 2, was fined about $3,000 in 2015 by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board for accepting a membership to a private club and other gifts.)

City officials, including from the

mayor’s office, did not respond to inquiries.

Siegel said he was not yet prepared to go to court. “It shouldn’t take us going to court and find accountability and stop this practice,” he said.

Should he not hear back from city officials, though, Siegel said “then that’s a double issue.”

In late June, a challenger to Chin’s District 1 City Council seat filed a federal criminal complaint alleging that the confiscation of his campaign literature violated his right to free speech.

In his complaint, Aaron Foldenauer said that uniformed and plainclothes NYPD personnel at the security tent seized political material he and his team had been handing out prior to the town hall. He said that representatives from other organizations, including the National Mobilization against SweatShops, Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden, and opponents of the Real Estate Board of New York, were also outside the YMCA passing out material critical of Chin and de Blasio. Those flyers were also taken from people entering the event.

Council Member Margaret Chin and Mayor Bill de Blasio at the June 21 town hall meeting at the Chinatown YMCA/ University Settlement. Photo: Ed Reed/ Mayoral Photography Office.

Although Foldenauer noted that flyers and literature supportive of Chin were also confiscated, that amounted to a “smokescreen” since, once inside the venue, members of Chin’s staff were passing out Chin’s spring newsletter to the community and other material.

GIRL SCOUT TROOP 6000 RECEIVES $1 MILLION GRANT KIDS The first troop in the nation dedicated to homeless girls will expand throughout the city

BY ESTELLE PYPER

Five girls donning green and brown vests dotted with stitched patches approached the podium in City Hall’s Blue Room last Wednesday. They had an exciting announcement for the news conference: their Girl Scout troop, Troop 6000, the first serving homeless girls and women, will expand far beyond their Queens shelter.

Mayor Bill de Blasio granted over $1 million for the expansion, which will grow to include 14 more shelters throughout New York City in addition to the original Long Island City location. The exact locations of these shelters will be announced at a later date.

The current troop is modest, but certainly not small, with 28 active members; this expansion will present at least 500 more girls the opportunity to join this national club.

“It was only a few months ago that Troop 6000 stole the hearts of New Yorkers and garnered support from

people around the country,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio in a statement.

“Together with the Mayor’s Fund, we are proud to expand and support Troop 6000, allowing more young homeless children to participate in a program that is helping them cope and deal with the challenges they face every day.”

Established last March, Troop 6000 is the first Girl Scout troop in the nation dedicated to women in the shelter system. It was made possible by an alliance between the City’s Department of Homeless Services and the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, catalyzed by a passionate single mother named Giselle Burgess.

Burgess, a community engagement specialist at the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, found herself and her five children in the Long Island City shelter last year. Transitioning to her new, challenging environment, she longed to start a Girl Scout troop for the shelter and asked her employer for help.

“They said, ‘Absolutely, why not?’,” recalls Burgess. “Living here is not the best feeling in the world. My first thought was, ‘What can I do to make this situation light?’”

Being the first to start a troop of this nature, Burgess and her colleagues

At the expansion announcement at City Hall on July 12. Photo: Office of City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer dove in blind, figuring out the details of the process as they went. By March, the chapter was official.

The buzz surrounding the development of their troop has helped draw attention to the city’s homeless population: children under 17 constitute one third of the Department of Homeless Services’ shelter census, and 70 percent of the census are families.

Burgess is ecstatic that they “can offer this program to the girls and give them this sense of stability and motivation and sisterhood” — something that has meant the world to her and her three young daughters over the years.

Having previously participated in other Girl Scout troops and now Troop 6000, Burgess’s daughters “feel that deeper connection [with Troop 6000] and that sense of need to be a role model to the girls here,” Burgess says. The troop meets once a week and participates in various impressive activities like coding, STEM programs, community service and outdoor experiences.

The Girl Scouts of Greater New York will manage the three-year expansion with funding provided by the Department of Homeless Services and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, led by de Blasio’s wife,

Chirlane McCray (a former Girl Scout herself), with annual donations of $320,000 and $55,000 respectively.

The funds will cover expenses like member fees and dues, uniforms and pins, and financial aid for activities and camps.

For Burgess, it’s a step closer to a greater goal. “We’re totally trying to break the stigma of what a real homeless person is or looks like or where they’ve come from,” says Burgess.

“That’s been my main goal: trying to give these girls that really, they’re no different from everybody else.”

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A BILLIONDOLLAR MIRAGE SCHEMES What if the West Side Stadium had been built?

BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

Perhaps it would’ve become one of those bits of received transportationrelated wisdom that Manhattanites grow to take for granted. Don’t plan on driving anywhere fast on the East Side during the United Nations General Assembly. Avoid Penn Station during SantaCon (or preferably, altogether). Stay away from the West Side if the Jets have a home game on a fall Sunday afternoon.

Maybe future New Yorkers would have looked back on 2012 the way some now remember the 1939-40 and 1964-65 World’s Fairs, and would one day have proudly told grandchildren: I was there when Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps won gold at the New York Olympics.

We’ll never know. The West Side Stadium — a billion-plus dollar project championed by two mayors that would have served as the Jets’ home field, a massive convention hall, and the key venue for the 2012 summer Olympics — like so many other big dreams in Manhattan civic planning history, died on the vine. But despite the fact that it was never built, the stadium’s legacy will continue to be felt on the West Side for decades to come.

The idea of building a stadium on Manhattan’s West Side had its roots in the early 1990s, when Gov. Mario Cuomo floated the Long Island Rail Road train storage facility that would go on to be known as Hudson Yards as the site of a potential new home for the Yankees, whose boss George Steinbrenner was using the threat of a move to New Jersey as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the city over financing for a new stadium.

As mayor, Rudolph Giuliani flirted with the idea of a new Yankee Stadium in Manhattan as well, but later, in a surprise announcement during his 1999 State of the City address, said that a new facility on the rail yard site should be built not as a baseball park, but as a football stadium for the Jets, whose lease at Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands was set to end in 2008. Among the administration’s selling points was that a football stadium would only disrupt traffic in the neighborhood during 10 home games each year, as opposed to the 81

regular season games hosted annually by the Yankees.

The Yankees ultimately chose to stay in the Bronx, but the Jets, under new owner Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson IV, went all-in on Manhattan.

Soon after purchasing the franchise in 2000 for $635 million, the Johnson & Johnson heir turned his attention to getting a stadium built at the rail yard site. Johnson found an ally in Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who took office in 2002.

The timing dovetailed nicely with the Olympic ambitions of Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for economic development. Doctoroff, previously an investment banker, had worked for years to catalyze support for a New York City bid at hosting the Games. A new stadium on the West Side could serve as the centerpiece of the Olympics; the Jets could provide a source of private funding.

A plan eventually emerged for a stadium that would serve not just as a home for the Jets and Olympics, but also as an expansion of the neighboring Javits Center. It called for the Jets to foot the roughly $800 million bill for the stadium’s construction, and for the city and state to contribute $300 million each to finance the platform over the rail yards that the stadium would be built upon and a retractable roof that would allow the venue to be used as a convention hall.

Architects at the New York-based firm Kohn Pedersen Fox designed the stadium, which would be bounded by 11th and 12th Avenues to the east and west and 30th and 33rd Streets to the north and south.

Chief among the architects’ goals was to integrate the facility into the surrounding cityscape. “Typically stadiums are standalone projects,” Lloyd Sigal, a principal at KPF who worked on the project, explained. A venue on the West Side called for a different approach than a stadium in a suburban parking lot. To meet this challenge, the stadium plans were rectangular in shape to fit into the city grid, rather than the more typical round footprint, and designers wagered that the incorporation of the High Line (then still in its precarious infancy as a park), large public plazas, retail and convention programming would make the area an attractive destination even on days when athletic events weren’t taking place.

The design also featured a number of sophisticated environmental elements that would become more common in the years to come, such as so-

The unbuilt West Side Stadium stadium could have served not just as a home for the Jets and 2012 Olympics, but also as an expansion of the neighboring Javits Center. Credit: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates lar power collectors, 40-foot tall wind turbines and a rooftop rainwater collection system. “I think it was cuttingedge from a sustainability point of view and the idea of integrating more architecture and urbanism into the building,” Sigal said.

The plan was perhaps most maligned for what it lacked —plentiful parking. Planners relied on the idea that the vast majority of the 85,000 spectators traveling to the stadium for events (plans called for capacity to be reduced to 75,000 after the 2012 Olympics) would rely on public transportation. The extension of the 7 train to 34th Street in Hudson Yards was a key feature of the project, and would combine with other West Side subway lines, commuter rail service to Penn Station and ferry service from New Jersey to get fans to and from the venue. Many community groups in the area weren’t sold on the idea, and complained about anticipated gridlock in their neighborhoods on game days.

“I think people, mentally, weren’t quite there yet when we were talking about these things,” Sigal said recently, looking back. “I think after Barclays [Center, the transit-centric sports arena built subsequently in Brooklyn that is also short on parking] and after seeing the 7 line extended and seeing how that works, maybe it would have changed people’s opinions.”

Along with game-day traffic, construction-related disruptions were a key concern of groups that opposed the project. Their opposition was shared by then-Cablevision president James Dolan and his family, who owned nearby Madison Square Garden and saw the new stadium as a threat to their arena’s status as New York’s preeminent entertainment venue. (Dolan, incidentally, spoke favorably of the project years earlier when Giuliani proposed that it include the relocation of the Garden. Dolan also tried to purchase the Jets and was outbid by Johnson.)

The Dolans helped bankroll an advertising campaign against the stadium that was later countered by Johnson. “The Dolan family, with their ads, helped galvanize that opposition,” Bruce Berg, a political science professor at Fordham University who has studied the stadium case, said.

After years of planning, the formal submission of an Olympic bid, extensive public debate at the community level, and an ad battle to shape public opinion waged by billionaires, the stadium’s fate was ultimately sealed by three men in a room. The state’s Public Authorities Control Board, comprised of representatives of Gov. George Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, voted against funding the

state’s $300 million share, effectively killing the deal. Pataki supported the stadium; Bruno opposed it. Silver cast the deciding vote against the stadium because he felt the plan would detract from the ongoing recovery of his Lower Manhattan district in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

New York’s Olympic bid fell short soon after, with the wind taken out of its sails by the stadium funding failure.

London was awarded the 2012 Games.

The unbuilt stadium’s impact, however, lives on. The development plan and Olympic bid kick started the rezoning of the district and the extension of the 7 train line that made the eventual Hudson Yards redevelopment project possible. It’s now difficult to think of Chelsea or the Hudson Yards area without the High Line, but before the stadium plans, it was a real possibility that the old freight line could have been torn down.

“One of the good things about the stadium not being built is that it left the far West Side for other different kinds of development,” Berg said.

“That might have been all that was there,” he added. “The housing, the office buildings wouldn’t exist. That would be a shame, since the new West Side neighborhood in 10 years should be a solid piece of the Manhattan landscape.”

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FAMILY DYNAMICS GRAYING NEW YORK

BY MARCIA EPSTEIN

In my women’s group, we talk a lot about our children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren. The connection between the generations is strong and really awe-inspiring.

I’ve been on Ancestor.com and found that my great grandfather on my mother’s side was named Berel.

Suddenly, something came alive for me. I was part of a long line of other people, stretching back for countless generations, and presumably

going to continue for many more generations.

I found out that, on my mother’s side, there were 5 brothers who owned a large chain of grocery stores called Dilbert’s. I already knew that my grandfather, who died before I was born, was the only brother who didn’t buy in at the beginning, and thus we were the poor Dilberts. I didn’t know that the chain had so many stores, that there were five brothers, and what their names were. Again, awe. This was my family. And my grandchildren will carry it on. They won’t know about Berel, but he will be a part of them as is my Aunt Chana, my paternal grandfather Shmuel (who again, I never knew), and countless others.

Recently, I had a talk with some women who never married and thus never had children and grandchildren. It is only now, in their old age, that they feel regret and sadness and loss. Not only the loss of the family line, but loss of the joy that

the grandchildren can bring. And the fun. One woman was sad that she didn’t have a grandchild to take to lunch, to museums, to buy clothes for. Another, a former professor, regretted not having grandchildren to buy books and educational toys for.

She pictured taking her imaginary grandchildren on trips and adventures. This, of course, presupposes that the parents are willing, the grandchildren are old enough, and game to go off with grandma.

It doesn’t always work that way, and the benefits of intergenerational bonding can be lost. There are family rifts, difficult or special needs grandchildren, and various other permutations of human behavior.

I’ve heard all sides of the issue and at certain times attended meetings about parents being estranged from adult children. My family has had its moments of difficulty. Lesley Stahl, the renowned journalist and “60 Minutes” correspondent, was

NEW YORK: A DRAMEDY LEX AND THE CITY

BY ALEXA DI BENEDETTO

I sometimes feel as though a typical day in New York is, on an emotional level, equivalent to being tossed into the plotline of a D-list romantic comedy. In the film, the swoon-worthy lover akin to James McAvoy or Ewan McGregor has been replaced by 8.5 million city-goers.

Some scenes are hot and steamy, like commutes in subway cars packed tight like sardines in a tin can. Others are melancholy, like realizing your unlimited monthly MetroCard has slipped away, to be picked up and used by someone else like a lover lost.

Critics might say that the climax is weak, but one could argue that the premise is more of a “character study” than a traditional narrative structure in which action rises and falls in great hurdles.

It’s the little things — the joy of a buttery, fresh baked croissant from Balthazar and the woeful, gut-churn-

ing aftermath of your gluten intolerance that follows — which make the plot interesting.

Considering the cast of characters remains fairly consistent and the general setting remains the same day-byday, it may be more fitting to liken this lifestyle to an episodic series. A dramedy of sorts (CC: Netflix executives).

Here’s how I’d envision the pilot might go: Alexa, 25, wakes to the sound of an electric drill hacking away at the drywall just below her bedroom as a crew of builders continue their work transforming the first floor into an ice cream shop. She chuckles at the cruel irony of this, as she is severely lactose intolerant and just a few sweet bites would put her stomach into pure turmoil.

Cut to: the L-train platform. Alexa commutes from Williamsburg to Midtown Manhattan each day. It’s a worthwhile trek for a job she enjoys, but each journey offers new surprises — sometimes good (finding someone’s unlimited MetroCard) but often bad (spending 20 minutes in a delayed

Photo: John Wisniewski, via flickr car with her head in a tall man’s sweatsoaked armpit).

Today’s surprise isn’t great — she’s run into her ex-boyfriend. This occurs roughly once every other month. The director (Alexa) would have it differently, if only the actor would agree to the script: love reignited in a passionate scene in which he admits that she was right about everything always, and how could he possibly live without her?

She eyes him from across the car. David Attenborough narrates something

changed by becoming a grandmother and wrote a book about it. She called it transforming. She said she was “infatuated” from the beginning. Not everyone has this experience. Not everyone is invited to. But no matter what the situation, having grandchildren is pretty eye-opening. It’s a bridge to the past and the future that the single older women I spoke to don’t have and long for. Yes, they have a halcyon view of what being a grandmother is.

And sometimes it comes true.

Sometimes it doesn’t. Some grandparents are primary caretakers of their grandchildren while their children work; some have to fly long distances to see them; some rarely see them. Family dynamics! Not every grandparent is intimately involved with their grandchildren and some can’t imagine not being so. Some say “I’ve done my part, now let them do theirs,” and others want to babysit at every opportunity. This goes along with individual person-

about animal instinct, predator and prey. She approaches with confidence.

She goes in for the kill.

“Hey, what a surprise!” she says through cringed teeth, followed by uncomfortable banter, followed by “Yes, great to see you, too,” and some profuse sweating.

Cut to: the office. Alexa works in advertising. This scene, some viewers point out, could be cut — it’s much too long (8 hours).

“That was really long and pretty boring,” one viewer noted. “It could’ve used more action — all she did was stare at her computer!”

“I did like when she spilled coffee on herself, though. That was funny.”

Cut to: happy hour at a bar, no name.

The bar is called “No Name.” It’s meant to be cool.

The casting director has collected a motley crew to fill the space, although roughly half of the male actors sport some type of man bun, a number Alexa finds to be entirely unnecessary.

After two glasses of wine and one greasy plate of french fries, Alexa realizes that she had agreed to accompany a friend to a yoga class that very evening. A dramatic face-palm is followed by a “ba-dum-tiss” on the drums and forced laughter by the studio audience. Alexa throws some money on

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alities and family dynamics. What grandparenting is, though, is a link to generations past and future. Each of my grandchildren have some characteristic that I recognize; my mother’s and my own green eyes; my father’s sense of humor, their own father’s way of walking. It’s all thrown in a pot, mixed up and remade as a special, unique human being (and let’s not forget that they also have a paternal side in the mix).

There are as many ways of being a grandparent as there are of being a person. There are also myriad ways of being a person and not being a grandparent. I’m sure many have no regrets, and that’s fine also. But when I saw the name Berel, something changed for me. I felt like a part of something bigger than myself, and my grandchildren, who of course don’t give it a thought, are also a part of that chain of people past and future. Now that’s pretty special.

the table, apologizes to the friends she double-booked, and exits.

Cut to: the yoga studio. While her friend flows gracefully on the mat adjacent to her, Alexa maintains a steady child’s pose. Her attempt at downward dog has led some of the food she’d just eaten to make a brief reappearance.

At the bottom of the screen, subtitles read: “Yoga is a sport of interpretation, to be adjusted to the needs of the yogi.

Stronger, more advanced students enjoy a vigorous, athletic routine.

Weaker class-goers may find a more meditative flow.”

Cut to: Alexa’s apartment complex.

As she turns the key in the lock, she wonders what she’ll find — she expects that her roommates will be awake and chatty. To her surprise, she enters to an empty home. It’s quiet — almost too quiet.

She tiptoes to her room, changes into pajamas, and settles into bed, suspicious of any plot twists or cliffhangers. But they don’t come, and her lids become heavy, and she drifts off with ease.

“I didn’t get the ending,” one viewer commented. “But I have a good feeling that things are about to get more interesting.”

Editor-In-Chief, Alexis Gelber editor.ot@strausnews.com Deputy Editor Staff Reporter Richard Khavkine Michael Garofalo editor.otdt@strausnews.com reporter@strausnews.com Senior Reporter Doug Feiden invreporter@strausnews.com

JULY 20-26,2017

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Photo: Teri Tynes, via flickr

RETHINKING PORT AUTHORITY VIEWPOINT For a two-way terminal

BY RAANAN GEBERER

If there’s one thing that experts agree on about the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, it’s that the aging structure needs replacement. The original wing was opened in 1959 and designed for much smaller and lighter buses than those in use today.

The north wing opened later, in 1979, but even that is now almost 40 years in the past.

The terminal serves both commuter buses to New Jersey and long-distance buses to other parts of the country.

Peak demand is expected to increase 35 to 51 percent by 2040, according to the Port Authority. The structure suffers from serious overcrowding during rush hours, not to mention infrastructure issues such as cracked floors and deteriorating ceiling tiles.

The bus terminal does have its good points, such as the rolling-ball kinetic sculpture “42nd Street Ballroom” in the north wing and the statue of Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden character at the entrance to the south wing. Still, both of these can easily be relocated.

For the past few years, several plans have been floated for a new facility, all of them on the far West Side. Among them were one that would put the entire terminal underground,

one that would use land already owned by the Port Authority, with an elevated pedestrian plaza above Dyer Avenue; and one that would move the bus terminal to the lower level of the Javits Center.

In April, Port Authority officials approved a plan, but the agency’s commissioners, representing the Authority’s highest governing body, rejected it because of the estimated $9 billion price tag. The hefty cost reflected the fact extra-heavy fabricated steel was needed to support those 30-ton buses. So now, it’s back to the drawing board.

Whatever plan is finally adopted, I hope it can rectify a flaw in the design of the current terminal. This time, let there be access to cabs and other services at both the uptown and downtown avenues near the terminal — not just one.

I can’t count the number of times, coming back from a bus trip with my wife, that I’ve had to get a cab on Eighth Avenue and, because we live in Chelsea, the cab had to make an extra turn onto a crosstown street to reach either Seventh or Ninth Avenues, where traffic proceeds downtown.

In a small town or city. that wouldn’t make that much of a difference. But in Midtown Manhattan, even one or two extra blocks can add five minutes and several dollars to one’s cab ride. And if that’s true for us, it’s also true that countless thousands who live further south, in the Village, in Battery Park City, and beyond that, in

Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Wouldn’t it just be simpler to exit onto a downtown avenue and take a cab straight home?

When I once asked a community board member about why everything was concentrated on the Eighth Avenue side, she launched into a long, complicated explanation about traffic patterns. More to the point, I believe, was the explanation that a bus terminal worker gave me when I asked one day: “When this was built, what was on Ninth Avenue?”

In the late 1950s, when the Port Authority Bus Terminal was being built, Ninth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen had still not fully emerged from the shadows of the elevated line, which had been torn down in 1940.

The avenue was dominated by cheap bars, rundown tenements and street gangs. It was “West Side Story” territory.

In the context of that time, it made perfect sense to have a grand entrance with light and air, shops and restaurants on Eighth Avenue, while the Ninth Avenue side has no stores and only a comparatively narrow staircase as an entrance.

Those days are long over, however, and Ninth and 10th avenues have improved dramatically. Indeed, there are so many young people going to bars and restaurants on Ninth Avenue at night that it looks like another Williamsburg.

So, wherever a new bus terminal is finally built, make it a “two-way” bus terminal, with equal access to both uptown and downtown avenues.

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▲BROADWAY IN BRYANT PARK

Bryant Park, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Streets.

12:30 p.m. Free.

This week’s show is hosted by 106.7 LiteFM’s Rich Kaminski and includes performances from “Waitress,” “Chicago,” “Cats” and “Spamilton: An American Parody.”

212-768-4242. bryantpark. org

MENTAL WELLNESS: A FORUM ON HEALTHY AGING Uris Auditorium, 1300 York Ave. 6 p.m. Free State Senator Liz Krueger will moderate a discussion with field experts. tinyurl.com/ mentalwellnessforum

RHYTHM AND POWER, SALSA IN NEW YORK Museum of the City of New York, 1220 5th Ave. 4 p.m. $40 A private tour of the Rhythm and Power exhibit with the She Runs It team. The exhibit illuminates salsa as a social movement from the 1960’s to today. Following the tour, everyone will head over to Amor Cubano to kick off the weekend with mojitos and snacks.

212-221-7969. sherunsit.org

THEATER OF THE RESIST The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Ave. 6 p.m. Free Enjoy a pre-performance drink on the fifth floor and relax in your seat prior to the show, which is featuring PUBLIQuartet with Helga Davis and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble.

Doors open at 5 p.m.

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Sat 22 SUMMER SATURDAY: GET CAPTIVATED Guggenheim Museum, Fifth Ave. 9 a.m. $50 Experience Jackson Pollock’s “Alchemy” with gallery educator Lewis Kachur, and learn about recent conservation efforts to scientifically analyze and treat the painting. Registration required.

212-423-3500. guggenheim.org

CULINARY DEMONSTRATION Bloomingdale’s, 1000 Third Ave. 1 p.m. Free.

Meet chef Chris Rodopski and owner Larry Kramer of Whitman’s Restaurant as they prepare a signature hoagie.

212-705-2000. bloomingdales.com

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Sun 23 JEWELED SPLENDORS Cooper Hewitt Museum, 2 East 91st St. 10 a.m. $15 An exhibit featuring over 100 extraordinary examples of cigarette and vanity cases, compacts, clocks and timepieces, and other luxury objects will be installed in the Teak Room, including exquisite works from the premier jewelry houses of Europe and America.

212-849-8400. cooperhewitt.org

CHINESE OPERA COSTUMES OF THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES The Met Fifth Avenue, 1000 Fifth Ave. 10 a.m. Free with museum admission An exhibit examining luxury textiles from artistic and technical points of view, organized in two rotations: the ďŹ rst focuses on costumes used in dramas based on historical events, and the second features costumes from plays derived from legends and myths.

212-535-7710. metmuseum. org

Mon 24

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Yorkville Library, 222 East 79th St. 11 a.m. Free You will learn what fake news is, how to analyze news sources for credibility, and practice looking over sample articles to determine their validity.

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212-360-1399. cityparksfoundation.org

Tue 25 TOUR OF GRACIE MANSION Gracie Mansion, 88th Street & East End Avenue 10 a.m. Free Mayor de Blasio and ďŹ rst lady Chirlane McCray have introduced a new art installation, â&#x20AC;&#x153;New York 1942.â&#x20AC;? It includes artwork, documents and objects from the period that the La Guardias lived in Gracie, shown together to tell a more complete story of the overall historic context.

103rd Street Community Garden, 105 East 103rd St. 8:30 p.m. Free Enjoy a free screening of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.â&#x20AC;?

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RICHARD GERSTL’S GENIUS

IF YOU GO

Neue Galerie hosts the first museum retrospective of the Viennese artist’s works in the U.S.

WHAT: “Richard Gerstl” WHERE: The Neue Galerie New York, 1048 Fifth Avenue (at 86th Street) WHEN: through September 25 www.neuegalerie.org

23 years later, in 1931, after Gerstl’s brother Alois showed them to gallerist Otto Kallir, who agreed to display a selection at his Neue Galerie in Vienna.

BY VAL CASTRONOVO

Austrian Expressionist Richard Gerstl’s life was tragically cut short in the fall of 1908, when he committed suicide in the aftermath of a love affair gone sour with composer Arnold Schönberg’s wife, Mathilde. He was only 25. Before stabbing and hanging himself, Gerstl (1883-1908) destroyed many of his art works, the majority created in a brilliant, but brief, burst of creativity from 1902 to 1908.

In an effort to keep the scandal under wraps, his family put the roughly 70 surviving paintings and drawings in storage. They were only made public

Gerstl’s art had never been exhibited or sold during his lifetime. He famously refused an opportunity to participate in a show alongside well-known compatriot Gustav Klimt, whom he dismissed as a trendy “society operator,” Neue Galerie communications director Rebecca Lewis said on a private tour.

The reaction to the first exhibit of Gerstl’s works at Kallir’s gallery in Vienna was overwhelmingly positive.

Gerstl was pronounced “an Austrian Van Gogh,” but his reputation nonetheless grew slowly compared to that of Viennese modernists like Klimt

(1862-1918), Egon Schiele (1890-1918) and Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980).

He remains little known today outside Austria, but the organizers of the current show at the Neue Galerie in New York are looking to change that with the first museum retrospective of the artist’s oeuvre in the U.S. More than 55 works — some 45 by Gerstl with a smattering by his contemporaries, including Arnold Schönberg — line the galleries on the third floor.

“He was extremely original in his style. He actually didn’t embrace a style at all,” Lewis said. “He’d move from a more Pointillist style to Symbolism to a more Expressionist style, and there’s no real clear development over time. He really rejected any ideas about style or beauty that raged during this period,” she said in an obvious allusion to Klimt’s fabulously decorative portraits of society ladies.

Gerstl looked instead to Ferdinand Hodler, Edvard Munch, Édouard Vuillard and, of course, Van Gogh for inspiration. He met Schönberg in 1906 and became part of his inner circle, summering with his family and friends in Gmunden, south of Salzburg, in 1907 and 1908 and painting the landscape and their portraits.

Schönberg was looking to supplement his income as a composer and had approached Gerstl to give him and Mathilde art lessons. Gerstl, for his part, preferred the society of musicians to fine artists. Soon he was accompanying Mathilde to concerts, and the two became intimate over time. In August 1908, Schönberg discovered the affair when he walked in on the couple in flagrante at Gerstl’s summer farmhouse.

Richard Gerstl, “Self-Portrait Laughing” (1907). Oil on canvas. Belvedere, Vienna

JULY 20-26,2017

The lovers fled to a suburb outside Vienna, but Mathilde quickly regretted the liaison and returned to her husband and two children, leaving Gerstl in the dust (she resumed the affair, briefly, and Gerstl allegedly painted her nude). When Schönberg shunned Gerstl and did not invite him to a major concert featuring his students on

Richard Gerstl, “Portrait of the Reserve Lieutenant Alois Gerstl,” (autumn 1906). Oil on canvas. Leopold Museum, Vienna November 4, 1908, the rejection stung.

He was found dead in his studio that same day.

The painter’s personal history informs the work, especially the later portraits. Gerstl had two favorite subjects: himself and Mathilde, in that order. The self-portraits on view are notable for their psychological intensity and variety. We see Gerstl suited up, naked, grinning and somber — as a painter, a dandy and a very unstable young man.

The opening gallery is a showcase for his first homage to himself, “SemiNude Self-Portrait” (1902-04), an expressive Christ-like depiction of the artist with a sheet tied around his waist that looks like a loincloth. A radiant blue halo surrounds his head and suggests saintliness.

But the work, which highlights his slender torso and long skinny arms, was painted after the army rejected his bid to serve as a volunteer because of “physical weakness,” Gerstl scholar Raymond Coffer writes in the catalog.

Coffer argues that the canvas is “a youthful, self-confident riposte to his army medical examiners … a secular

image of his personal redemption” from disappointment.

Glance down the hall and compare that modest selfie with Gerstl’s final one, “Nude Self-Portrait” (1908). Created less than two months before he took his own life and in the midst of his breakup with Mathilde, this radical full-frontal nude is one of the artist’s most gestural works — and his most explicit. Per Coffer, his head and his manhood are painted in darker tones than the rest of his anatomy to accentuate their power. The figure appears emaciated and defiant.

Gerstl’s wild gestural brushwork anticipated the Abstract Expressionist painters of the mid-20th century.

A blurry group portrait of the Schönberg family on summer holiday in 1908 is a forerunner of Willem de Kooning’s abstractions. “Mathilde Schönberg in the Garden” (1908), meanwhile, has a free and easy “air of spontaneity,” Coffer writes. Mathilde’s facial features lack clear definition, but Gerstl in his genius “somehow retains recognition of the subject.”

Through September 25.

JULY 20-26,2017

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JAZZ, IN THE KEY OF TWITTER RIFFS Musicians’ union panel targets marketing

BY JAMES K. GALLOWAY

Talent will get you so far as a jazz musician. But fluency with social media is increasingly important in finding and developing an audience.

That was one of the takeaways of a panel discussion last month hosted by a local musicians union that took up the changing approaches to success in an evolving jazz music industry.

Two jazz legends led the talk, which was attended by about 40 people at the Local 802 Club Room on West 48th Street.

Camille Thurman, an accomplished, in-demand singer and saxophonist, and Christian McBride, one of the best known jazz bassists in the industry — and a five-time Grammy winner — sat at the front of the room with Andre Kimo Stone Guess, McBride’s manager.

The 10th installment of Jazz Mentors, which was moderated by Todd Weeks, principal business representative of the Associated Musicians of Greater New York, American Federation of Musicians Local 802, was the first discussion in the series to invite press, and touched on issues such as sustainability, social media presence and quality representation.

“This is a marathon,” Guess said at the June 29 panel. “It’s about finding a lifestyle that being a musician can sustain, and then doing what it is that’s going to make you happy within it.”

Guess said musicians can support themselves in that manner, but in order to take one’s career to the next level, a musician must discover and be aware of their own unique strategic advantages and play to those strengths.

“This is true of anything in life,” Guess said. “What is it you can do that’s different than most people can do?”

Thurman, however, initially took a different approach, and cited her own experience coming up as a saxophonist. She said women face greater scrutiny and must therefore go to greater lengths to prove themselves. She said she wanted to

From left, Andre Kimo Stone Guess, Camille Thurman, Christian McBride and moderator Todd Weeks talk about marketing jazz in a changing, and already challenging, music industry. Photo: James K. Galloway be respected first for her playing, and concealed her ability to sing for a long time, until a mentor finally heard her and asked why she would sit on such a gift.

“Because I want to be able to be respected for playing,” Thurman said. “She was like ‘don’t you realize you’re sitting on a freaking land mine?

The fact that you can both, and it’s not that you just sing. You sing as a horn player, and that’s unique and rare.’”

Even though now Thurman is well-known as a saxophonist and singer, she made her way using traits she and the other speakers agreed is appropriate for jazz: being a capable musician, being known by fellow musicians as a reliable sideman, and being willing to play other people’s music without necessarily being the star of the show.

But the music business is changing so rapidly under the pressure of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, in addition to streaming services like Spotify and Soundcloud, that a musician’s approach inevitably forks out to appease the changing landscape, if their careers were not already born out of it.

One must focus on their craft but also — as Weeks pointed out and Guess confirmed — balance time spent on their musicianship with the added work of cultivating of an online audience, to grow their brand not only through album releases, but by amassing followings in places that did not matter 10 years ago, and on sites that might not have existed 10 years ago.

Guess said it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each social platform. And use them to create a narrative consistent with the product — in this case, the mu-

sic — being put out.

“For people who don’t know you — if they come, and they hear your song — and during, they like it, well when they come to find out who you are on whatever your social platform is, the message they get when they get there needs to be consistent with the feeling they got when they heard it.”

Guess added that it is better not to fixate on “Likes” which he compared to the euphoric rush of crack-cocaine, but to focus instead on creating content people will like.

Many musicians do not have the luxury of dismissing the necessity of micromanaging their social media presence. Even McBride, one of the world’s most prolific jazz performers, said he avoids politics online, choosing instead to limit his presence to information, positivity and humor.

Negative comments on Facebook are predictable, McBride said, but in the music business so are predatory “managers” and agents.

“As much as jazz is struggling,” McBride said, “there sure are a lot of managers.”

People laughed at McBride’s dry delivery.

“I heard about a manager who charged for a meeting,” McBride said. “’If you want to meet with me, I charge $125 an hour.’ That’s what we’re dealing with out here!”

Guess concluded by saying he would never accept payment exceeding that of his clients’ and it would be inappropriate for him to get paid for a gig, if a client does not.

Weeks said another talk is being planned for September. More information will be posted to the union website, local802afm.org, as the date draws near.

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Not a Scientist: How Politicians Mistake, Misrepresent, and Utterly Mangle Science

MONDAY, JULY 24TH, 6:30PM Mid-Manhattan Library | 455 Fifth Ave. | 212-340-0863 | nypl.org Journalist Dave Levitan gives an illustrated lecture that reveals the political tricks that subvert scientific progress (free).

Summer of Know: Surveillance and Civil Liberties in the Age of Hacking

TUESDAY, JULY 25TH, 6:30PM Guggenheim Museum | 1071 Fifth Ave. | 212-423-3500 | guggenheim.org Ben Wizner, Director, ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, joins artist Trevor Paglen to speak on Trump and Snowden era issues (free with museum admission).

Just Announced | TimesTalks: Naomi Watts, Brie Larson, and Jeannette Walls

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8TH, 7PM Mid-Manhattan Library | 455 Fifth Ave. | 212-340-0863 | nypl.org Oscar-winning actor Brie Larson joins actor Naomi Watts and author Jeannette Walls to talk about their upcoming film, “The Glass Castle,” based on Walls’ memoir of a dysfunctional family ($40).

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

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

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JULY 20-26,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

IWantToBeRecycled.org

The show won six Tony Awards in June. Photo: Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue, via flickr

BOOK ON ‘DEAR EVAN HANSEN’ PUBLISHING New behind-the-scenes account of the hit musical to be released in November The publishers of a best-seller about the making of “Hamilton” are hoping for similar luck with another prize-winning musical, “Dear Evan Hansen.”

Grand Central Publishing told The Associated Press on Tuesday that “Dear Evan Hansen: Through the Window” will be released Nov. 21.

Billed as a “behind-the-scenes” account, the book was written by the creative team of Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. The wrenching musical about loneliness, teen angst and suicide won six Tony Awards in June, including best book of a musical for Levenson and best score for Pasek and Paul. The book will include personal memories, photographs, unreleased lyrics and the “Dear Evan Hansen” libretto.

Last year, Grand Central published “Hamilton: The Revolution,” featuring commentary from the show’s creator and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

—The Associated Press

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS

Le Viet Cafe

1750 2Nd Ave

Grade Pending (27) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Papaya King

179 East 86 Street

A

New Ichie Japanese Restaurant

1215 Lexington Ave

A

Yorkafe

50112 East 83 Street

A

Amc Theatres

1538 3Rd Ave

A

Mcdonald’s

1872 3Rd Ave

A

New Level Juice

2244 1St Ave

A

Great Wall

2234 1 Avenue

A

T & J Jamaican Flava

1257 Park Ave

Not Yet Graded (8) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Tastings

251 East 110 Street

A

Mj Pizza

1976 1St Ave

A

JUL 05-11, 2017 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit http://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/services/restaurant-grades.page.

Up Thai

1411 2Nd Ave

A

Mel’s Burger

1450 2Nd Ave

A

La Esquina

1402 2Nd Ave

A

Cavatappo Grill

1712 First Avenue

A

Subway

1434 Lexington Avenue

A

Parlor Steak And Fish

1600 3 Avenue

Grade Pending (27) Food not cooked to required minimum temperature.

Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours.

Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.

Gina La Fornarina

26 East 91 Street

A

Dong’s Great Wok Garden Ii 1631 Lexington Ave

A

JULY 20-26,2017

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Comfort, Security & Community Straus News’ Senior Living Guide How To Improve Your Life!

Make A Better Decision with All The Right Info at Your Disposal

The original Waldorf Astoria Hotel, site of today’s Empire State Building, dominates this 1903 photo. Two blocks to the south (center left, with sign on top) stands the 1902 Kaskel & Kaskel Building, at 316 Fifth Avenue. Photo: New York Public Library collection

FIFTH AVENUE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 custom shirtmakers, it remains a treasure in white marble — and deserves a better send-off.

Let’s be clear. This is a six-story anachronism that has seen better days. In fact, in many ways, it’s a mess, as the authoritative “AIA Guide to New York City” noted in this charitable description in 2010: “Crusty old Beaux Arts, in the process of being devoured by its crummy commercial occupants,” the authors wrote. “But a copper-clad mansard roof keeps a hat on what is deteriorating at street level.”

So no, this is not Penn Station, whose 1964-1965 desecration followed protests by architect Philip Johnson and urbanologist Jane Jacobs and led to the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Or the Morosco and Helen Hayes theaters, whose 1982 destruction could not be halted despite efforts by theatrical luminaries like Joseph Papp, Colleen Dewhurst and Christopher Reeve to block the bulldozers.

Still, it would be nice if residents and workers in the neighborhood — variously known as Koreatown, NoMad and South Midtown and dubbed the “Empire District” in the 1930s in a tip of the hat to the Empire State Building — would get a little bit exercised over its fate.

“Once upon a time this was a place where even the president of the United States bought his custom-made shirts,” said Tom Miller, creator of Daytonian in Manhattan, a blog that tells the stories behind the city’s fabled buildings.

“Originally, this was a very high-end building that served the likes of the Vanderbilts and the Astors and other socially prominent families,” he added.

Miller relates the old gag about the day epony-

mous haberdasher Max Kaskel was introduced to President Theodore Roosevelt: “I make your shirts!” Kaskel told his most famous customer.

To which the old Rough Rider replied, “Oh, yes, Major Schurtz, I’d have known you anywhere.”

Noting that the façade and showroom spaces have been marred by tacky electronics and souvenir shops, he says Kaskel & Kaskel is still a “truly remarkable building — even though it’s been heavily abused and its ground floor has been totally brutalized.”

The structure retains its twin arched openings that span three floors, ornate brackets, rusticated piers, copper dormers, mansard roof and large marble cartouches emblazoned with the carved letter “K,” Miller wrote in his blog.

In 2016, Cottonwood Management LLC, a privately held, Los Angeles-based real estate development and asset management firm, shelled out $19.2 million to purchase the development site.

It filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings on July 6 to erect a slender, 40-story, 535-foot tower that will house just 27 apartments — expected to be hyper-luxury condominiums — atop three retail floors.

The architect of record is Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, according to the filings. Renderings have not been made public. Demolition permits haven’t been filed yet. The building doesn’t have landmark status, so Cottonwood apparently can raze it as of right.

A Cottonwood spokeswoman on July 18 declined comment.

Bottom line: A once-proud Beaux-Arts charmer will face the wrecking ball. The city will lose another building with architectural merit, history and character. A place that once had class will vanish from the Empire District.

As for its replacement, as Miller put it, “It could be the finest piece of architecture in New York City, but it still won’t fit in, it doesn’t belong there, and it will be totally out of context.”

Reaching 150,000+ loyal readers weekly in Doorman Buildings and Key Locations The dominant circulation based neighborhood newspapers in Manhattan and 80,000+ visitors each month to our websites Issue Date Thursday, July 27, 2017 Ad Deadline Thursday, July 20, 2017 Call NOW for more information!

212.868.0190 x407 or advertising@strausnews.com The local paper for the Upper East Side

The local paper for the Upper West Side

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The local paper for Downtown

The local paper for Chelsea

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Clinton

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JULY 20-26,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Business

GOING UP An apartment’s floor height is a matter of personal preference

BY FREDERICK PETERS

How high is high enough? As agents, we constantly address our various buyers’ preferences when it comes to floor height. “Absolutely no second floor!” “We have to clear the trees.” “I want to see the whole city!” “I need to be able to walk downstairs if there is a problem with the elevator.” While height preferences are extremely personal, there are a number of observations I would make about height related situations I have experienced over the course of my career.

• It isn’t necessarily quieter on a higher floor. Years ago I had a fabulous 12th floor exclusive in one of the Triple A Central Park West buildings.

Much of it faced the park, which meant much of it also faced the open subway grated on the park side of the street. If anything, the identical apartment on the third floor, available at the same time, was quieter. Noise is strange; it doesn’t behave in obvious ways.

Sometimes it louder nine floors higher up. You just have to check and see.

• Lower floors can be prettier. Many of us real estate professionals realized this many years ago about Park Avenue. From the fourth floor, you look out on the beautifully planted medians in the middle of the avenue; it feels European. Whereas from the ninth floor, all you look at is the building across the street. The same is true, in my opinion, of the buildings surrounding several of the city’s pocket parks. I much prefer the fourth or fifth floor on Gramercy, where you can ac-

Photo: Eric Gross, via flickr tually enjoy the planting in the park.

Higher up, you see empty space. Not that there’s anything wrong with an open view, but I would rather look at the plantings and the streetscape.

• Second floor apartments can provide great value. It all depends on the building. Some buildings have extremely tall lobby ceilings and their second floor apartments are almost third floors. Certain views can be charming from the second floor, especially on side streets where the traffic is less ubiquitous or in the rear of

buildings with planted courtyards or gardens.

• Buildings sway when they are extremely tall. The spate of new condominiums built in New York can be eighty or ninety stories high. They provide amazing, very white light and the most panoramic views imaginable of Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs, all the way to the New Jersey mountains to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. They are affected by the wind, however. They move back and forth, frequently as

much as a number of yards. Many people don’t notice it. Others feel seasick.

• Light changes around the 10th floor. Even with open exposures, the light on lower floors can have a denser character. As one ascends, the light gradually whitens, so that above about the 10th floor the quality of the light becomes more transparent and illuminating, conveying greater clarity.

Apartment dwellers are typically high-floor people or low-floor people.

The latter tend to like the connection to street life and the ability to come

or go via the stairs. The high-floor people like the panorama spread out before them – a bird’s eye view. And for many, the middle is just right. On the seventh through 12th floors people on the streets below don’t resemble ants, but one is also high enough above the sidewalk so that the often wonderful feeling of apartments floating in the atmosphere is fully present. It’s just a question of what you like.

Frederick Peters is CEO of Warburg Realty.

ON THE SIDE STREETS OF NEW YORK EAST SIDE DANCE COMPANY — 204 EAST 83RD STREET East Side Dance Company accepts students from preschool age up through high school. There are three to four classes each weekday afternoon and

more classes on the weekends. What makes them unique, however, is that hip-hop is the primary focus of the school, and girls and boys of all ages are well represented. Owner Trammell Logan pointed out that it is a lot easier for young kids to commit to hip-hop than ballet: where more traditional dance forms like ballet and tap require

discipline from children, hip-hop allows them to express their creativity.

“You throw yourself on the floor, that’s a dance move,” says Logan. “You jump in the air, it’s the same thing,” To read more, visit Manhattan Sideways (sideways.nyc), created by Betsy Bober Polivy.

Photo: Tom Arena, Manhattan Sideways

JULY 20-26,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

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JULY 20-26,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

CONCERTS IN THE CITY: NEXT UP

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MUSIC A world of options, including a Korean rapper, an English emo band, Japanese rock and pop-punk from Baltimore

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Who: Korean rapper G-Dragon Where: Barclays Center in Brooklyn When: July 27th Though his group, the K-pop boy band Big Bang, which recently surpassed the Backstreet Boys as the best-selling boy band of all time, are on a hiatus for the foreseeable future as the members approach the age when Korean men must complete their mandatory military service, bandleader GDragon, born Kwon Ji-Yong, is setting off on an globetrotting arena tour. With a musical style as eclectic as his androgynous, avant-garde fashion sense, G-Dragon is known for his dynamic stage presence and vocals that range from nasal quickfire rapping to emotional crooning. The name of this tour “Act III: M.O.T.T.E.,” first indicates its status as G-Dragon’s third world tour, while the initialism “M.O.T.T.E.,” which stands for “Moment of Truth: The End,” indicates G-Dragon’s wish for this tour to act as a last hurrah for him, showing a more personal side of himself before he too goes off to the military.

Who: English emo band Moose Blood, with openers Choir Vandals and McCafferty Where: Baby’s All Right in Williamsburg When: July 28th Hailing from Canterbury, England, Moose Blood combine emotional punk sounds with solid, catchy pop songwriting.

A mainstay of the alternative music scene in recent years, Moose Blood are returning to the United States this July in support of their sophomore album, “Blush.” Lead singer Eddy Brewerton’s raw vocals combine effectively with lead guitarist Mark Osbourne’s simple, evocative riffs, and bassist Kyle Todd’s solid rhythms. A fourth member, drummer Glenn Harvey, was booted from the band in March over sexual misconduct allegations, with a temporary musician filling in on tour until they find a full-time replacement. Joining Moose

G-Dragon performing at the Act III: M.O.T.T.E. World Tour in Seoul, South Korea on June 10th. Photo: Jerry Chen, via Wikimedia Commons

Blood are two up-and-coming acts from the alternative scene, St. Louis indie rock band Choir Vandals and Ohio-based acoustic emo band McCafferty.

Who: Japanese rock band One Ok Rock, with openers Set It Off and Palisades Where: Playstation Theater in Times Square When: July 28th and 29th After a spring spent filling stadiums in their native Japan, One Ok Rock are embarking on a North American tour in support of their latest album, “Ambitions.” One Ok Rock are known for frontman Takahiro Moriuchi’s dynamic vocals and for their energetic, anthemic music, which mixes influences ranging from the electro-metal of Linkin Park to Japanese punk icons Ellegarden. One Ok Rock have long chased the American market, but after signing to Fueled by Ramen Records, a Warner-owned label known for housing American alternative chart-toppers like Paramore, Panic! At The Disco, and Twenty One Pilots, and releasing “Ambitions,” their first record entirely in English, they seem to be closer than ever.

One Ok Rock are joined on tour by the darkly upbeat Florida pop-rock act Set It Off, and the New Jersey band Palisades,

which mixes hardcore punk with electronic dance music to create a high-energy sound.

Who: Baltimore pop-punk band All Time Low, with openers SWMRS, Waterparks, and The Wrecks Where: Central Park Summerstage, at Rumsey Playfield When: July 31st Hailing from the suburbs of Baltimore, the four-piece poppunk outfit All Time Low are frequently on tour, and they don’t seem to be stopping anytime soon, playing at the Central Park SummerStage at the end of July in support of their new album “Last Young Renegade.” All Time Low mixes three-chord punk guitars with personal, often juvenile lyrics about the struggles of youth, which rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist Alex Gaskarth has been singing about for over a decade, since he started the band when he was only 15 years old. On “Last Young Renegade,” All Time Low exhibit a slightly more mature sound, eschewing much of their pop-punk roots for 80s-tinged pop rock. Opening for All Time Low are three new-to-the-scene rock bands: Oakland punk band SWMRS, Texas pop-punk band Waterparks, and Los Angeles-based indie rock band The Wrecks.

JULY 20-26,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

GOSSIP COLUMNIST CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 has Musto. Unfortunately, his most recent excursion nearly ended in tragedy. It resulted in two bad fractures. Excruciating pain. Surgery. A five-day hospital stay. And a recuperation that’s expected to last weeks.

Happily, that’s not enough to scare him off the streets. Already, he says, he’s counting “the seconds” until he can remount.

“I’m not afraid,” he says. “They’re not going to get to me!” A beloved if scratched-up, no-frills conveyance awaits his recovery: “It’s used. It’s cheap. Just $125 at Kmart. Basically, it’s a girl’s bike,” he says.

As usual, Musto was on board when the accident took place. It was the evening of June 19, and it began in typical fashion when he pedaled to midtown for an 8 p.m. screening of “Okja,” a South Korean film about corporate villainy, multinational agribusiness and an elephant-sized pig.

He wasn’t in love with it. Afterwards, the 61-year-old journalist steered himself down Lexington Avenue toward his home in Murray Hill. It was rainy, he was approaching East 46th Street, near the northwest corner, and then ...

Well, let Musto take over the storytelling since that’s what he does for a living: He now writes a column for Out.com — “Musto! The Musical!”

— and another for Papermag.com, where he recently denounced, “The 10 Most Horrible Kinds of People in New York Nightlife.”

“I was riding my bike, slowly and carefully, and then, suddenly, out of the blue, someone, a crazed cyclist, came out of nowhere and smashed into me,” Musto recounts. “I went flying ... the pain was agonizing.”

He believes the errant rider was “breaking all the rules” and may have been riding northbound against traffic on southbound Lexington Avenue.

But it all happened so fast that he can’t be certain.

New York Post columnist Murray Kempton put down his bicycle and picked up his typewriter in this 1964 photo, which ran in the long-defunct New York World-Telegram & Sun. Photo: Al Ravenna / World-Telegram & Sun, via Library of Congress What he does know is that the bicyclist paused ever so briefly, leaned toward him on the street, where he lay helpless, unable to stand up, trying to put on a shoe that came off, and muttered something like, “Sorry, sir.”

The memory of the moment is a little hazy due to the pain, but Musto believes the perpetrator sped away.

“I was in no shape to do anything retaliatory,” he says.

The crash also brought out the best in New Yorkers.

A Good Samaritan eyewitness helped him hop into a cab and traveled with him to make sure he got home safely. She simply “wanted to help someone in need,” he said. “She was a wonderful woman,” he added.

“A gem.”

What happened next was pure coincidence. But the kind that could only happen to Musto. It turns out that Carson Kressley, a judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the former fashionsavvy style expert on “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” was visiting friends in his building.

Kressley had been one of the “Fab Five” on “Queer Eye,” and when he spotted Musto hobbling in, he sprang

Bill Cunningham (with omnipresent bike) at the opening of the “Facades” exhibition at the New-York Historical Society in 2014. Photo: Don Pollard

up to assist, getting him first into the building and then into his apartment, later applying an ice pack to his foot and leg.

Why go home at all? Why not head straight to the nearest emergency room? “I’ve been hit before,” Musto explained. “Sometimes, you just lay down and hope against hope you will heal. This time, I didn’t heal.”

The next day, June 20, he went to a local medical center, learned he had broken both his left leg and ankle and was transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he had an operation on June 21 and stayed for five nights.

How did he like the food and accommodations? “It was like a fourstar hotel,” he says. Now, Musto can be a pretty caustic critic, but he can be lavish in his praise, too, and Lenox Hill, where he had a room to himself, scored rave reviews.

“It was posh and delightful,” he said. “You can order meals in advance. And they have this buzzer for help where you can buzz at 11 at night for cookies.” The most memorable hospital food? Baked whitefish.

Musto was released on June 25, the Sunday of the Pride parade, which he always observes but had to miss. His cast is now off, the staples are out, he wears a knee-high boot, still can’t put pressure on his leg — and his walker, crutches and wheelchair are close at hand.

But he’s never stopped working or meeting his deadlines. And he never lost his sense of humor: “Hobbling on one foot, in the aftermath of what I’ve been through,” he wrote his Facebook friends, “has been like getting crippled, then made to run a potato sack race.”

So which is more perilous for the law-abiding bicyclist, drivers or fellow cyclists? Musto says bike riders are “often the worst offenders when it comes to safety,” adding, “At least car drivers are always going the right way.”

Yes, motorists will fling their doors open without looking. “But other bike riders are definitely high atop the list of dangers,” he says.

“Many of them, as they barrel towards you, don’t feel the need to pull aside and give you the right of way.

Some of them are all helmeted and geared up, so it seems as if they care about their own safety more than others,’” he adds.

The ordeal was searing. The recovery is ongoing. But the cycling scribe who never had a driver’s license is very clear on one point: “The second I am able to get back on my bike, I will,” Musto says. “I won’t let this experience ruin it for me.

Nothing could diminish my love of bicycling in New York City.”

Now, it’s your turn. Have you had a harrowing encounter with a rogue cyclist on the streets of Manhattan? If so, write Douglas Feiden at invreporter@ strausnews.com

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SURE, AT FIRST I WAS A LITTLE TAKEN ABACK

BY THE WHOLE PEEING STANDING UP THING. BUT I TAUGHT HIM TO THROW A STICK AND NOW HANGING OUT WITH HIM IS THE BEST PART OF MY DAY. — EINSTEIN adopted 12-09-10

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JULY 20-26,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Nothing beats newspapers as the most reliable source of local news in print and online Recent studies show:

‘‘

Newspapers led online consumption for local news” Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016

‘‘

Local media users named newspapers as their “most relied on” source for deals across a range of goods and services.”

Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016

‘‘

What accounts for print’s superiority?

Print - particularly the newspaper - is an amazingly sophisticated technology for showing you a lot of it.”

‘‘

Local newspapers are still the top source of news about readers’ communities, including their branded Web sites and social media channels.”

Publisher’s Daily - August 30, 2016

‘‘

Residents are eager for news about their own communities, which, increasingly, only local news organizations can provide” Editor & Publisher - June 1, 2016

Politico - September 10, 2016

STRAUSMEDIA your neighborhood news source 212-868-0190 | nypress.com

JULY 20-26,2017

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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

GIVING GLORY The Salvation Army’s Times Square Corps’ Pratik Munn-Shirsath on his call to ministry

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

As a fourth-generation Salvationist, Pratik Munn-Shirsath is undoubtedly making his family proud with his unwavering devotion to The Salvation Army church. A native of Mumbai, India, he came to New York in 2005 to work with at-risk youth through a program called Project 1:17.

It was at his job as a youth pastor at The Salvation Army’s New York Temple Corps that he met his wife, Olivia.

In 2015, they were both appointed core commanding officers and pastors of The Salvation Army’s Times Square Corps. The following year, they started The Glory Shop, which combines their shared vested interest in discipleship and the arts. It is a 10-month program for 18 to 35-year-olds, where

students foster spirituality by discussing Scripture and engaging in prayer walks throughout the city, while also honing their performing arts’ talents.

“We started this school because of us believing that we are called to disciple artists from all over in a setting that’s free for them to create and find themselves with keeping Jesus at the center,” Munn-Shirsath explained.

ship side of things, but also we both have a passion for art. And The Salvation Army, in the eastern territory of the United States, runs a conservatory which is called TAM, Territorial Arts Ministries, where kids from all over the eastern side of the country come to learn about God, but also hone their skills in art. They can be actors, singers, anything that has to do with performing arts. And that is run by a lady named Carol Jaudes. Olivia was so deeply impacted by that as well, so we decided we wanted to start a school for young adults.

You came to New York to work at Project 1:17. Explain that program.

It’s a program that was started in 2001, based on a book from the Bible, the Book of Isiah. It’s from Isiah 1:17 which says, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” So it’s basically a program designed to raise up young leaders to step into the gap for the marginalized, for those who cannot fend for themselves. And mainly for kids who are at risk. This was a 10-month program where we got to do hands-on work with kids in inner city settings. And it was fantastic. It was life changing.... I think I really got to understand the words “at risk” and work with children who really didn’t have much, even as simple as a role model. So I got to learn about the logistics of that side of ministry. And above all, just loved being a mentor

Pratik Munn-Shirsath, a fourth-generation Salvationist, and his wife, Olivia MunnShirsath. Photo: Nealson Munn and beacon of light to some kids who really had it hard at home.

How did The Glory Shop come about?

My wife and I both attended different discipleship schools. I attended Project 1:17 and she attended a school called The War College, which is in Vancouver, Canada. She worked with people who are really struggling in life, such as drug addicts, and did a lot of street evangelism. So even before getting to this place, I think God was speaking to us about having a program that is stronger on the disciple-

What is a typical day like for your students?

They go through a plan called Bible in One Year, so they read certain sections that are in this plan every day, even when they are not at the school.

And after that, one of them, who we call an orderly, facilitates a discussion among the students about the portion of the scripture that they just read....

They later walk around the neighborhood and pray in the streets, because we believe that by praying on the streets, we are actually calling heaven to Earth and influencing the streets in a positive way.

How can people get involved and volunteer?

There are a lot of ways for people to

get involved. As you know, we are predominately, at our location, very much a church. But we also have social services such as a food pantry and clothing vouchers. Clothing vouchers are prepaid and given to people with low to no income. This was put into place out of the need of people applying for jobs but often not having the right attire to present themselves in an interview or a job setting. This is when we step in and help them get clothed from one of our thrift stores. One of the beautiful things that has grown this past year is that we are putting on two musicals a year. And with that, we need a lot of help from people who can volunteer, even those who have any kind of talent and want to be a part of it can definitely audition.... We also have a café that happens on Fridays, which we started last October. It’s a time where people can come and hang out, every Friday at 7. But we also need help with that — setting up, barista help.

People can get always come in and be involved in this community. www.thegloryshop.com

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

To sign up for text alerts, text REG to OUTAGE (688243) and follow the prompts.* conEd.com/TextAlerts *Message and data rates may apply.

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I W O R N M O R T N R V A A L

N S A L P F C J O E W M N M Y

S Y L B C M S N A A M O E Z F

S F A Q B X A T D E M A M C I

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K T G I D H C H K I N N N F H

S A R D I N E S Q E J M E T K

M D B T C A B Y I O R C A S H

C Z E E D T F T U N A E E K W

The puzzle contains the names of 15 sea creatures.

They may be diagonal, across, or up and down in the grid in any direction.

Y S H Q J B O S C H O O L S K

Anemone Barracuda Dolphins Fishes Greatwhites Hammerhead Humpback Jellyfish Mackerel Manta Orcas Rays Sardines Schools Tuna

ANSWERS N

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59 Sulk 60 Boiling equipment 61 Earl Grey is an example of this drink 62 Small vipers Down 1 Press down 2 Saudi Arabian coin 3 Poker bet 4 South west Indian village 5 Naval rank: abbr.

6 Ballet move 7 Ford model 8 Martin Luther King’s title: abbr.

9 Several periods 10 Gooey stuff 13 Cousin of a raccoon 18 Finish off 20 Pay___, online bank 22 Group of former Soviet republics, abbreviation

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6 4

Across 1 Links hazard 5 Santa’s little helper 8 Grande, in the Starbucks world 11 Northern Japanese people 12 Bor___, big island 13 Sin___ , honest 14 Spouse 15 Strategic Air Command, for short 16 Famous office 17 Academy freshman 19 Stage in the life cycle of a moth 21 In prescriptions, milk 23 Half human half horse deity 26 Nutty 30 In ___ of (replacing) 31 Winter wear 32 Chinese condiment 34 Silver-gray color 36 ___ Piper 39 Wailer 42 Fragrant compound 44 Congratulations, of a sort 45 The U of “Law & Order: SVU”

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D P N W C U N E F I S H E S C

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58

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WORD SEARCH by Myles Mellor

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Each Sudoku puzzle consists of a 9X9 grid that has been subdivided into nine smaller grids of 3X3 squares. To solve the puzzle each row, column and box must contain each of the numbers 1 to 9. Puzzles come in three grades: easy, medium and difficult.

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SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan

by Myles Mellor

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CROSSWORD

A

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SPECIAL FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYER PROGRAMS*

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