Our Town - October 13, 2016

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The local paper for the Upper East Side FAITH AND PHOTOGRAPHY < P. 40

WEEK OF OCTOBER

13-19 2016

FASTER CROSSTOWN BUS SERVICE SOUGHT City officials petition MTA, DOT for Select Bus Service on the M66, M79 and M96 lines BY SARAH NELSON

The MTA is considering whether to add Select Bus Service to the M79 bus route, one of the city’s slowest lines. The service improves speed and safety with off-board fare payment, designated lanes and extended green lights for the buses. The proposal comes more than a year after the authority introduced Select Bus Service to the M86 line, a few blocks north. The changes brought a 10 percent decrease in travel time, reducing ride time from 23-24 minutes crosstown to 20 minutes, officials from the city Department of Transportation and the MTA said at a Community Board 7 meeting last week. That outcome is largely the reason Councilman Ben Kallos, who repre-

sents the Upper East Side, requested that the authority add SBS to the M66, M96 and M79 bus lines. “After the success of M86, we wanted to bring it to M79,” Kallos said after the meeting. On any given day, M79 buses move efficiently only 40 percent of the time in service, with the rest spent either at a stop, stuck in traffic or moving less than 2.5 mph, city and MTA officials said. In 2014, M79 earned the “Pokey Award,” an annual verdict given to the slowest bus line in the city from the New York Public Interest Research Group’s Straphangers Campaign. Traffic analyses are underway to ensure safety along the route, specifically at the intersections of Broadway, as well as at Lexington and First Avenue. There is also talk about removing the M79 stop on 81st Street and Amsterdam, largely due to low ridership.

City officials are seeking Select Bus Service on the M79 route, as well as on the M66 and M96 lines. Photo: Sarah Nelson

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

FAITH LEADERS ADDRESS GUNS

in their communities. Rev. Dr. Amy Butler, the church’s senior minister, had the idea for the conference at the Aspen Ideas Festival this summer. “This is an issue that a lot of faith leaders are addressing in their congregations,” she said. “It’s almost like people are feeling a sense of relief. This is finally a place where [they] can begin to voice all of these questions and concerns that I’ve been carrying by myself that I didn’t feel I

At Riverside Church, ‘sense of relief’ just in tackling topic together

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

BY MADELEINE THOMPSON

Within the cavernous nave of Riverside Church, Lucy McBath recounted the story of how her 17-year-old son was shot to death by a white man for playing music too loud. “After Jordan died, I questioned the absence of the faith community in ad-

dressing the proliferation of guns,” she said. “The silence troubled my spirit, and I began to look for congregations that engaged themselves in raising questions about the unethical gun violence spreading across the nation.” Her keynote speech Friday morning was the first event in a daylong training program held by Riverside Church to educate faith leaders in dealing with the topic of gun violence

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U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (Conn., 4th District), the closing keynote speaker at a day-long training program at Riverside Church Oct. 7. Photo: Helena Kincaid

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Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat and holiday candles Friday October 14, 5:58 pm Sukkot eve. Sunday Oct. 16, 6:00 pm 2nd day Sukkot eve. Monday Oct. 17 after 6:53 pm from a pre existing flame For more information visit chabaduppereastside.com

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OCTOBER 13-19,2016

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SAFEGUARDS ANNOUNCED FOR CITY BRIDGES AND TUNNELS Cuomo announces several security measures, as well as aesthetic accents for crossings BY VERENA DOBNIK

Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a farreaching futuristic plan for the city that includes color LED illumination of bridges, completely automated toll booths and driver facial recognition cameras for tighter anti-terrorism security. “So much in today’s world is about the immediate, it’s about the here and now, it’s about Twitter, it’s about Instagram and focusing on getting one day to the next,” said the Democratic governor, who presented what he calls his New York Crossings Project at the New-York Historical Society last week. “The reality is, it’s the long view that matters, and what are they going to say 10 years from now and 20 years from now and 30 years from now about what we accomplished while we were here?” But in the immediate future, about 150 members of the National Guard and another 150 state troopers are to be stationed full time at entrances and

The George Washington Bridge is among eight spans that will be illuminated by multi-color light shows starting in January. Photo: Robert M. Wittek, via Wikimedia Commons exits of bridges and tunnels leading to the city, starting in January. Cuomo said recent terrorist explosions in New York and New Jersey have renewed the need to bolster such emergency measures.

Special heavy-duty trucks will be at the ready to barricade access to the crossings in emergencies. The LED illumination work on eight bridges is to begin in January, when the first totally automated tolls will be

installed in the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel from Brooklyn to Manhattan and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel connecting Manhattan with Queens. Within about a year, on bridges, too, cars that don’t use the E-ZPass electronic

payment system will be billed using photographed images of their license plates. Seven city bridges are operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the eighth, the George Washington Bridge, is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. About 800,000 vehicles use MTA bridges and tunnels daily. The target date for completion of the lighting has not been set. The Crossings Project includes another new element: safeguarding the tunnels from the kinds of devastating floods that followed Superstorm Sandy in 2012 with concrete barriers acting as temporary seals on both ends. “From speeding up commutes and reducing emissions on key roadways with automatic tolling to bolstering resiliency on our bridges and tunnels and increasing security at key checkpoints,” Cuomo said, “this transformational project will revolutionize transportation in New York and ensure that our state is built to lead for generations to come.” Funding for the changes is allocated as part of the MTA’s $27 billion capital plan.

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

BANK BREAK-INS LINKED TO COCAINE, THEFT FROM MOM Prosecutors say a Manhattan man is accused of stealing money from his mother to buy cocaine and then trying to pay her back through bank break-ins. According to court documents, 39-year-old Daniel Bertini unsuccessfully tried to get into tellers’ areas at two Manhattan banks before dawn Monday. Authorities say he was arrested at a third bank with over $900 in coins in his bag. They say a crowbar also was recovered. Law enforcers say he resisted arrest and suffered two head cuts that required stitches. His lawyer declined to comment.

FAST AND FELONIOUS 7 Apparently, the new iPhone is so tempting to thieves that you can’t even lay one down on a restaurant table without a mishap. Sometime between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Oct. 1, a 40-yearold man was eating lunch in a bar on First Avenue in the mid-60s when he noticed that the iPhone 7 he had put on the table was no longer there. He used

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

Tony Webster, via ickr

the Find My iPhone tracking software and discovered that his celebrated cell was now residing in Queens. The stolen iPhone was valued at $1,047.

TAKE MY APARTMENT KEYS, PLEASE! A woman was drinking at a bar on the Lower East Side at 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, September 25, when she realized that she had been pickpocketed and her wallet was missing. The wallet contained both her driver’s license and her apartment keys. When she arrived home at 450 East 81st St. the next morning at 8 a.m., her apartment had been burglarized of several items, including a 42-inch TV, an Apple TV box, a speaker, sunglasses and a laptop.

CARE SCARE Another week, another phone scam. On Sept. 26, a female resident of the Upper East Side received a phone call from someone claiming to represent an outďŹ t called Windows Care. He said that something was wrong with her computer, but he could ďŹ x it if she would send $2,000 via iTunes gift cards. No sooner had she complied with that request when the same individual talked her into letting him share remote access of her computer, at which point he locked the machine and refused to unlock it until she sent another $2,000 in iTunes gift cards.

BANK ROBBER ARRESTED The police arrested a bad seed outside an Apple bank. Police said a 31-year-old man later identiďŹ ed

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Year to Date

2016 2015

% Change

2016

2015

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

2

1

100.0

Rape

0

0

n/a

3

8

-62.5

Robbery

2

2

0.0

64

78

-17.9

Felony Assault

4

1

300.0

94

93

1.1

Burglary

2

4

-50.0

151

124

21.8

Grand Larceny

26

29

-10.3

1,063

1,003 6.0

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2

3

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63

60

as Garvin Clouden of the Bronx walked into the Apple bank at 812 Lexington Ave. at 3:10 p.m. on Sept. 30, and demanded money from a teller by passing notes written on two withdrawal slips. The teller did as told, giving Clouden more than $220 in cash – plus some bonus dye packs. Police officers were soon on scene and arrested Clouden, who was charged him with robbery and criminal possession of stolen property.

5.0

BULL RUN The lazy, crazy days of summer are clearly over: shoplifters are turning to stealing energy drinks! At 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 5, a man in his 40s walked into the CVS store at 1223 Second Ave. and made off with 87 cans of Red Bull and 8 cans of Monster energy drinks valued at $255.

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Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 19th Precinct

153 E. 67th St.

212-452-0600

FDNY 22 Ladder Co 13

159 E. 85th St.

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OCTOBER 13-19,2016

ST. PAUL’S TURNING 250 The city’s oldest church received a facelift ahead of its Oct. 30 anniversary

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

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212-460-4600

BY ULA ILNYTZKY

Manhattan’s oldest church is getting ready to celebrate its 250-year history, which includes worshippers ranging from George Washington to those who searched for victims following the Sept. 11 attacks. St. Paul’s Chapel in Lower Manhattan is best known today as the “Little Church that Stood,” having survived unscathed as the World Trade Center towers came down across the street. A monthslong interior renovation of the Episcopal sanctuary will be unveiled on its anniversary date Oct. 30, along with a “9/11 Chapel of Remembrance” area for quiet reflection that also contains artifacts of the attacks. On Oct. 4, a weather-resistant statue of St. Paul was put in place by crane to a spot outside the chapel where the original had stood. The original has been restored and will be

Workers prepare to attach a weather-resistant statue of St. Paul to a crane, which lifted it to a spot outside the chapel where an original statue had resided. That statue was restored and will be moved inside and unveiled Oct. 30. Photo: Trinity Church Wall Street/Leo Sorel

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A weather-resistant statue of St. Paul is lifted to a spot outside the chapel. Photo: Trinity Church Wall Street/Leo Sorel

moved inside and unveiled on the anniversary date. St. Paul’s, the chapel of the Parish of Trinity Church several blocks south, is Manhattan’s last remaining colonial structure. It was built in 1766 as a “Chapel of Ease” for the “uptown” parishioners of the expanding city, then at the tip of Manhattan. It was known best in colonial times for surviving several fires, the most devastating of which was the Great Fire of 1776 that consumed a quarter of lower Manhattan. A fire bucket brigade saved the chapel but Trinity, built in 1698, was turned into a pile of rubble. “That is why Founding Fathers like George Washington wound up worshipping at St. Paul’s regularly,” said Anne Petrimoulx, the archivist for Trinity and St. Paul’s. In sprucing up for its 250th anniversary, the chapel’s blue ceiling and pink walls, rendered during an earlier restoration in the 1960s, are being covered in white dove and natural cream traced back to the mid-1800s — the earliest color conservationist could find. Conservators took about 1,000 samples from various locations — columns, balconies, ceilings and walls — “and wound up finding the earliest color they could,” said project manager Luke Johns. The church’s remarkable historical artifacts also have been restored in recent years. They include an 18th-century painting of the Great Seal of the United States and the oldest monument in New York, commissioned by the Continental Congress in 1776, to an American revolutionary war hero, Gen. Richard Montgomery. But it is equally renowned for its long ministry including religious services for printers getting off work in the wee hours of the night in the early 1900s and opening a business lunch club for women when the female workforce was relatively small. Today, most remember it for providing meals, beds and counseling to rescue workers after 9/11.

OCTOBER 13-19,2016

BUS SERVICE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The DOT and MTA presented their plans to install fare machines at bus stops this fall. By winter, the agencies want to solidify their plans and solicit community feedback before

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com launching in spring 2017. Relatedly, support for a residents’ petition seeking an additional bus stop on East 72nd Street was approved unanimously by Community Board 8’s transportation committee on Oct. 5. The petition was spearheaded by the 72nd Street Neighbor-

hood association with the intention of adding M15-SBS bus stops at 72nd Street on First and Second Avenues. “72nd Street is a major crosstown avenue,� CB 8’s chairman, Jim Clynes, said. The transportation committee voted unanimously to approve the addition of the bus

stop, which will now be taken up by the full board on Oct. 19. “I am sure the full board will vote to approve this bus stop,� Clynes said. “I feel the more bus stops the better — especially for the elderly.� Olivia Kelley contributed to this story

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The Rev. Dr. Lisa Thompson, a professor a Union Theological seminary, left, and the Rev. Amy Butler, senior minister at Riverside Church, during a plenary session on gun violence at Riverside Church last week. Photo: Helena Kincaid

GUNS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 could talk about.� After McBath’s keynote speech, the 120 faith leaders in attendance split into groups to participate in four different workshops focusing on different aspects of gun violence. The topics covered preaching on gun violence, the intersection of race and gun violence, and the global impact of America’s gun violence epidemic. Manhattan Borough Presi-

dent Gale Brewer made an appearance, and Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes gave the closing keynote. On social media, attendees used the hashtag #godandguns16 to share the lessons they learned. “ When you put your faith in a gun, it becomes your god,� tweeted Kristen, a minister from Connecticut. In a reflective blog post, pastor Chelsea Jackson called the conference “heavy, incredible, heartbreaking and uplifting.� McBath, a member of Everytown for Gun Safety who spoke

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at the Democratic National Convention as one of the Mothers of the Movement, urged those in attendance to bring these controversial issues into the conversation. “The countless deaths as of late have shaken faith communities and the country at large,� she said. “It can be hard to know what do. I’m reminded each and every day of the people that will continue to die if people of faith are not engaged in saving lives.� Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@ strausnews.com

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OCTOBER 13-19,2016

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Voices

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

A Poem

EAST RIVER BY DIEGO LOPEZ

An entire river fits on this page has to be a desire to empty it out feed into its abstraction. Carrying the sun toward A Cold Spring Elizabeth Bishop dictates its pace: The river wears a necklace/ another gift from the sun, I believe, I realize I have decided it so. I say the Poet said. On other days it seems to take brilliance else where: I’m in downtown NYC writing these lines. I’m forced to ask myself, save for when it’s in view, when do I think of a river? When have I not been a visitor? Am I one now? Another day, I sit in anticipation for its currents to inexplicably change course; convinced one of us is doing the leaving,both still intact. You see, the East River fits on this page, but the poem cannot contain it: a river emptying out is its desire of becoming an ocean. I hope to be like the East River Sun, whose scattered self still glistens, carrying souvenirs — becoming souvenirs. Be it my cascade. This time, my James Merril raises my trident: a dis cernible regularity, a predictable manner; Auctoritas. Yes, but what is it assembling, what is this puzzle I cannot see, and so, complete? is qui auget. Crooning my name— my manifestations in its quotidian acts. A sky is what is left; an ocean in its own right. A similar niche I’m sure will come about, you see, putting together a heaven is a task the East River beck ons; a river you wouldn’t dream. All is familiar. Assaulting me with the same sunrise. That sunlit paradigm, all too familiar, might as well be silence. An adamant Auden, positioned below me, announces my approach. Myth-to-life. Might as well be my exit. Misuse nothing, value nothing — that sort of silent dissolution, I say the Poet said. The river calm as a tower with its clock; a losing thing stared at by lost names, practicing something in the wind. The East River bears a vessel on this page the poem cannot contain; Where the waters and their voyager are not one.

The Upper West Side. Photo: Peter Burka via Flickr

MY NEIGHBORHOOD: FROM SCARY TO TRENDY GRAYING NEW YORK BY MARCIA EPSTEIN

What’s happening to my Upper West Side? I always say I live on the Upper West Side, though it may be Bloomingdale or Manhattan Valley. I can’t keep up with what the various neighborhoods are called. Of course, my neighborhood bears no resemblance to when I first moved here in the late 1960’s and rented a tiny one-bedroom on West End Avenue and 87th Street. I’ve been here ever since, and in my (oh, I am so lucky!) rent-stabilized unit since the late 1970’s. At the time, friends thought I lived in a scary neighborhood. Now it’s upscale and trendy. But sad, too. The Metro Hardware on 96th and Broadway closed suddenly last week. Gone, poof! As did the Europan Bakery on 94th and Broadway, which also suddenly disappeared. And the “new” Chinese restaurant on 98th and Broadway was recently the new Vietnamese restaurant which, previously was another Chinese restaurant and before that, a different Chinese restaurant. Always a new “Grand Opening” sign above the window. The interior doesn’t change much, in any case. Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, from 90th up to 97th Street, are lined with empty storefronts. I was eagerly awaiting new stores, but only Party City on 92nd and Columbus has come to that area. There have been rumors for years that Trader Joe’s was coming, but so far no

sign of it. The blocks on Columbus between 97th and 100th Streets and Columbus are pretty much occupied, and Amsterdam Avenue is seeing a bunch of new restaurants and cafes above 100th Street, which is heartening. Arco Cafe on Amsterdam and 103rd Street serves, during the week, a delicious two course lunch for $12. A nice new addition to the neighborhood. Still, the empty storefronts on Columbus and Amsterdam in the 90’s are disheartening. East Side, West Side, all around the town. As I said, I am a long-time Upper West Sider, and when I travel East, I can’t help noticing the difference between older women on opposite sides of Central Park. Most women from Fifth Avenue eastward, including seniors, seem sleek and “done.” Their faces bear no lines. Their hair is perfect, their forms slim, and their clothes impeccable. Is this a generalization? Of course. But to my eye, that’s how it looks. Even their dogs are perfectly groomed and usually carried in expensive bags. On the West Side, many older women are like me; Mom jeans and sneakers, utilitarian short hair or sometimes lovely disheveled gray curls held back by clips or just flowing freely. We seniors on the Upper West Side, for the most part, don’t seem Botoxed and surgically enhanced. The idea of elective surgery makes me shudder. I’d rather have my lines and wrinkles. Again a generalization; yes, surely. But I’m speaking of my own observations and of the majority of women I come into contact with or just see on the streets.

There’s also a somewhat bohemian vibe that some women seem to carry from the 60’s. But it’s all so much more informal and individualistic. I like to meet friends on the East Side on occasion, but I’d be out of place living there. This is my village, my neighborhood, the place where I have set down roots. These are my people. Please, no offense, East Siders. Each to his or her own, right? Well, we may be offered a very slight Social Security increase. Probably around 0.2%, based on some consumer price index that apparently doesn’t apply to New York City. It’s even possible to lose money if you make more than a certain amount because of the Medicare Part B deduction. The people who do these indexes haven’t shopped in New York for even basic everyday needs, such as food. Most of us don’t own cars, so the gas prices don’t affect us. It’s only when I’m eating in a restaurant outside of New York that I realize how ridiculous the prices are here. Due to the ever-rising rents, soon only banks and chain drug stores will be able to afford the leases. Of course, I’m one of the lucky ones who can eat in a restaurant. Many New York seniors are living on very limited incomes and a very low Social Security increase will do little to help them. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer’s office has a Manhattan Help Guide with all the phone numbers you’d ever need for any kind of help in the city. E-mail info@manhattanbp.nyc.gov for a pamphlet.

OCTOBER 13-19,2016

HELLO, I’M STILL HERE BY MELITTA ANDERMAN

ever all the time. I have an acquaintance with adult children who will jump every time the phone rings. It doesn’t matter where she is at the moment, the ring of the gadget comes ďŹ rst and no offspring can be kept waiting. These are not emergency SOS. When she enters her home she immediately runs to the phone and checks messages. Does she think a Hollywood talent agent is trying to get her for a film test? I love the restaurant scene I witnessed recently. A family of four is seated next to my table. Mom, Dad and two teenage daughters. Each person has

ing around. I try to sneak a look at the title but no matter. A person is reading a book. What I miss most of all while riding on a public conveyance is newspapers. People used to eagerly read about the daily news, do crossword puzzles, check out artistic review and sports activities. As well, what happened to all the list makers with their little pens or pencils (remember these handy implements?). Today these lists are programmed into a reminder or note app. All well and good, but you have to check these apps periodically because they can’t remind you so how can

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When I use public transportation I get a strange sensation that I am isolated in the midst of a crowd. I seem to be the only person not doing anything, that is I am not chatting on my phone or texting. I do look at my watch or make notes in my diary for new ideas to incorporate in my writings. Life and all its intricacies has become an open book. You can disagree in public, make big business deals, vow chastity, settle terms with your divorce attorney, declare bankruptcy, make plans for a lover’s tryst, all in the open. Where has discretion gone, or does it only exist in Jane Austin novels?

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“We’ll Be There For You!� People stare at the strange lady with the crazy grayish hair dressed in uber chic. What’s she doing, looking out the window in a dreamlike state. The lady in question is me and I stare right back at them. There must be a number of us out there without the obsession of being in touch with whomso-

a phone in their lap. They order and eat while eyeing their phones. I’m waiting for one of the phones to ring. Because otherwise they may have to talk to each other. What then? I’m sitting next to a gentleman on the M15 bus heading downtown. He is reading a hard-cover book and not glanc-

you remind yourself to look at the reminders? For me it’s a bit too complicated. I will just go along with my old-fashioned note taking and datebook jottings. I know it won’t be deleted and my privacy will not end in cyberspace, or worse, end up in Twitter with an unapproved server.

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OCTOBER 13-19,2016

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VISIT OUR WEBSITE! at OURTOWNNY.COM

Out & About More Events. Add Your Own: Go to ourtownny.com

Come Experience Auctions at Showplace First-Time Bidders Welcome! Sunday, October 16, 10am

Fine and decorative art, jewelry and furniture for a fraction of retail cost! No reserves! Absentee and phone bids accepted! Complimentary lunch after the auction! Preview: October 3 – 16 8:30am – 5:30pm weekends & 10am – 6pm weekdays View the catalogue: www.nyshowplace.com! th

Showplace Antique + Design Center | 40 West 25 Street 212-633-6063 ext. 808 | auctions@nyshowplace.com

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FRANK E. CAMPBELL THE FUNERAL CHAPEL known for excellence since 1898 1076 madison a avenue at 81st street 212.288.3500

www.frankecampbell.com

Thu

13

BLACKWELL’S ISLAND Roosevelt Island Library, 524 Main St. 6:30 p.m. Free Nathalie Belkin, a city archivist, will review the recent digitization, conservation and preservation of The Almshouse Ledger Collection, 1758-1952, which documents much about the numerous institutions on Blackwell’s Island. www.rihs.us.

DRINK PLANT PARTY▲ UNO’s, 220 East 86th St. 7 p.m. $65 Come out for food, drinks and planting. Learn how to create a succulent terrarium garden. www.plantnite.com

Fri

14

‘AGNES MARTIN: WITH MY BACK TO THE WORLD’

John A. Kuhn, Jr., Manager Owned by A Subsidiary of Service Corporation International, 1929 Allen Parkway, Houston, TX 77019 (713) 522-5141

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave.

1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. Free with museum admission Come check out screenings for this documentary about the internationally renowned painter. 212-423-3575, www. guggenheim.org

HARRY POTTER

Chamber of Secrets.� 212-369-2180, www.stores. barnesandnoble.com

Sat

15

NEW YORK OPERA Barnes & Noble, 150 East FORUM CONCERT 86th St. 6 p.m. Free A kick-off to the fall season 67th Street Library, 328 East with the release of the illustrated 67th St. edition of “Harry Potter and the 1:30 p.m. Free

OCTOBER 13-19,2016

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The New York Opera Forum will perform selections from Lucrezia Borgia by Gaetano Donizetti. 212-734-1717, www.nypl.org

THE SAINT PAUL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Kautmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Avenue 8 p.m. $38 The orchestra, joined by pianist Jeremy Denk, makes its 92Y debut in its first New York appearance since 2011. 212-415-5500, www.92y.org

Sun

16

HALLOWEEN HOWL AND HEALTHY HOUND FAIR Carl Schurz Park, East 86th St. and East End Avenue Noon-3 p.m. Free Come see 200 creatively costumed pups strut their stuff at this annual dog costume event. 212-459-4455, www. carlschurzparknyc.org

CARDUCCI QUARTET▲ The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th St. 5-6:30 p.m. $45 212-288-0700, www.frick. org

17

Mon

‘LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN’

Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Ave. 4 p.m. Free

A screening of Max Ophüls’ 1948 film. 212-994-9439, www. neuegalerie.org

‘CONNIE COOK: A DOCUMENTARY’ Marymount Manhattan College, 221 East 71st St. 6-8 p.m. Free This free screening will be followed up by a talk back with state Sen. Liz Krueger and others. 212-490-9535, www. conniecookfilm.com

Tue

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‘THE KING’S DAUGHTERS’ Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th St. 4 and 7:30 p.m. $14; $7 with student ID This French film is based on a true story about a boarding school for daughters of the penniless aristocracy and its deterioration. 800-982-2787, www.fiaf.org

29TH ANNUAL HILLA REBAY LECTURE:

CARRIE LAMBERTBEATTY Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave. 6:30 p.m. Free Award-winning author Lambert-Beatty discusses parafiction, her term for artistic reality experiments that encourage viewers to practice a range of belief states the way musicians practice scales. 212-423-3575, www. guggenheim.org

19

Wed

BOOK SIGNING: ‘TURBULENCE’ Shakespeare & Co, 939 Lexington Ave., at 69th Street Annette Herfkens signs her memoir about survival and resilience. 7 p.m. Free 212-772-3400. events@ shakeandco.com.

TRUNK SHOW Calypso St. Barth, 900 Madison Ave. 2-6:30 p.m. Free Come out for drinks and fashion tips at this trunk show hosted by Fashion Rabbit NYC. www.photolerner.com

A conference for concerned New Yorkers

NEW POLICIES FOR A HUMAN SCALE CITY The Theme: What rules do we have to change to get the city we want? The all-day conference will have panels that include topics on zoning, affordable housing, community planning, campaign finance reform, and historic preservation There will about 20 speakers that include Roberta Gratz, Sal Albanese, Simeon Bankoff, Marcelo Rochabrun (of Propublica.org), Lynn Ellsworth, Layla Law-Gisiko, Jeffrey Kroessler, Michael Hiller

Saturday October 22, 2016 50 East 7th Street (Middle Collegiate Church, Social Hall) from 10am to 6pm

For more information or to reserve click on www.humanscale.nyc or call 212 732 1025

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OCTOBER 13-19,2016

OCTOBER 13-19,2016

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Fall 2016

Free Health & Wellness Fall 2016 Seminar Series October

18 25

The Aging Brain How To Stay Healthy and Fit Matthew E. Fink, MD Radiation and Immunotherapy What’s It All About? Encouse Golden, MD, PhD

November

8 15

Urogynecology Treatment for “Unspoken� Pelvic Floor Disorders Incontinence and Prolapse Patrick J. Culligan, MD Bilal Chughtai, MD Clearing The Air What Every Parent Needs to Know About Allergies and Asthma Lisa Moreno, MD Rizwana Popatia, MD

All seminars are FREE and open to the public. Seating is available for 250 people on a ďŹ rst-come, ďŹ rst-served basis. If you require a disability-related accommodation, or for weather-related cancellations, please call 212-821-0888 and leave a message on the recording. All seminars: 6:30–8 pm All seminars held at Uris Auditorium Meyer Research and Education Building Weill Cornell Medicine 1300 York Avenue (at 69th St.) www.weill.cornell.edu/seminars

NIH Awards Grant to Four New York City Medical Centers to Advance Precision Medicine Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Medical Center, in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian and NYC Health + Hospitals/ Harlem, were in July awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health worth Dr. Mark Rubin $4 million in the ďŹ rst year of funding to improve physicians’ ability to prevent and treat disease based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment and genetics. The grant, which could total $46.5 million over ďŹ ve years, will enable researchers to enroll patients in the Cohort Program of President Barack Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) in order to better understand the genetic and other biological drivers of disease, and how they relate to overall health. Precision medicine, an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention, takes into account individual variability in genes, environment and lifestyle for each person. Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia, along with several other medical centers and institutions across the country, will provide expertise and infrastructure to launch the PMI Cohort Program. This landmark research program aims to engage 1 million or more diverse U.S. volunteers in an effort to extend the success of precision medicine in some cancers to many other diseases. Importantly, the program will also focus on ways to increase a person’s chances of remaining healthy throughout life.

Medical Billing Program Creates New Opportunities for LaGuardia Students & Weill Cornell Medicine More than two dozen students graduated from LaGuardia Community College’s Medical Billing CertiďŹ cate Program on April 28. Developed through a collaboration between LaGuardia and Weill Cornell Medicine, who were brought together by the Harvard Business School Club of New York, this program is a key part of Weill Cornell Medicine’s Human Resources’ efforts to create new talent pipelines for high-volume roles and reach new candidates in metropolitan New York City.

The New York City research team plans to enroll at least 150,000 volunteers by 2021. Patients will receive wearable devices that will track their physical activity and will have their genomes sequenced; researchers will also collect relevant clinical information. The data will be noted in their electronic healthcare records, enabling researchers to monitor their health over time. The electronic health records of regional PMI Cohort Program participants — stripped of personal and conďŹ dential patient data—will aid in identifying disease patterns and trends. Patients will have access to all of their data to ensure that they are able to follow their own healthcare. @ɗ‰¿ e‰™¼¼ ²¿Â‰ÂĽÂĽ 9‰…™€™‰ J¿™€™ŸtÂĽ (ÂŹĂ—Â‰ĂƒĂ‰Â™Â“tɲ¿Ăƒ (€¼Î…‰Ď - Dr. Mark Rubin, director of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine and the Homer T. Hirst III Professor of Oncology in Pathology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and director of the precision medicine program at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center - Dr. M. Elizabeth Ross, the Nathan Cummings Professor in Neurology in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute and director of the Center for Neurogenetics at Weill Cornell Medicine;

Faith-Based Program is an Effective Tool for Cardiovascular Disease Education, Study Finds

Celebrating 5 years of our HeartSmarts program and our 2016 graduates.

HeartSmarts, a faith-based community education and outreach program, is an effective method for teaching underserved communities about heart health in New York City, according to a study published in the Journal of Religion and Health. Based at the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at NewYork-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center, the program marks its ďŹ fth year of collaborating with local churches to improve understanding of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Twenty-three students were selected for the program out of more than 100 applicants. As part of the program, students were guaranteed interviews at Weill Cornell Medicine for a variety of entry-level medical billing roles. Weill Cornell Medicine has already extended 18 job offers to recent graduates.

199 participants from 14 church sites have completed the ambassador-led sessions. And although this program focused on participants who attend religious services, there is also potential to reach their social networks which includes individuals who do not attend formal church services. In addition, the course is modiďŹ ed each year based on feedback from participants to ensure that it remains relevant to its constituents. “In the ďŹ ve years since we began this program, we have received so much positive feedback and seen so many success stories,â€? Dr. Anderson said. “We hope to continue to develop these innovative approaches that reach patients directly in their communities by collaborating with people and institutions they trust most.â€?

Falls Prevention Falling can be very serious. Falls are one of the main causes of injury in people over age 65. An older person who falls may take longer to get better than a younger person. And after a fall, an older person is more likely to have problems that don’t go away. You and your loved ones can learn more about ways to avoid falling. And as you take control, you may ďŹ nd yourself feeling less afraid. NewYork-Presbyterian has injury prevention programs geared towards older adult falls prevention and boosting conďŹ dence around walking safety. Join us for a Falls Prevention Health Fair on Friday, October 14, 2 pm–5 pm in the Cayuga Room at New-York-Presbyterian Hospital, 252 East 68th Street Ä k²¿£ ׉Î‰ĥ. We would also welcome working with you to set up a falls-prevention educational event with your building or community group. Please contact Stephanie Bovis, to learn more! E-mail stb9099@nyp.org or call/text at 347-920-6287.

- Dr. Rainu Kaushal, chair of the Department of Healthcare Policy and Research at Weill Cornell Medicine and physician-in-chief of healthcare policy and research at NewYork-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center, and head of the New York City-Clinical Data Research Network

LaGuardia’s faculty members collaborated with Weill Cornell Medicine’s Human Resources and Physician Organization Business OfďŹ ce leaders to design a curriculum that provides students with the technical training and job readiness skills required to excel in these positions, including healthcare accounting, data analysis, EPIC and customer service communications.

Led by Dr. Holly Andersen and Dr. Naa-Solo Tettey, HeartSmarts aims to reduce cardiovascular disease in New York’s underserved communities by developing a coalition of faith-based and community partners. Representatives are recruited from churches and other organizations to teach them about heart health. The graduates of the program become health ambassadors who take the lessons they have learned back to their congregations and pass on their knowledge to their respective communities in a formal instructional environment.

Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian participated in the annual Third Avenue Fair Sunday, September 11. Overall 27 departments from both institutions were present providing community residents and visitors information about their health, which included prevention tips, health screenings and lots of fun free giveaways. Thank you for a great Fair, we’ll see you again next year!

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10

th

ANNIVERSARY

2016

BUILDING SERVICE WORKER

AWAR DS

Ralph Archer

Juan Arias

Duilio Bini

Wayne Blanks

Enrique Calo Jr.

Keiffer Campbell

Walter DeJesus

Julio DeLeon

Orla Ditaranto

Dwayne Doucette

Stephanie Doyle

Dwayne Fernandez

Pedro Francisco

Yolanda Geronimo

Jorge Grisales

Anne Murray

William Payne

Yovanna Peguero

Cheryl Pennant

Edwin Peralta

Caroline Rodriguez

Todd Salley

Frank Shaw

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Sponsored by GLENWOOD B U ILD ER O W N ER M A N A G ER

BUILDING MAINTENANCE SERVICES

OCTOBER 13-19,2016

EDITOR’S NOTE In the pages that follow, you’ll meet the people who make New York work. For a decade now, our newspapers have proudly joined forces with 32 BJ to celebrate the often unsung supers, porters, cleaners and others whom we take for granted too often. Everyone has a story. We’re proud to be able to tell some excellent ones while shedding light on those who strive to make our city a better place to live and work. We’re thrilled to be able to honor a few of them once a year, and to say thank you. Thanks, too, goes out to our sponsors and to 32 BJ’s President Hector Figueroa, Elaine Kim, and Carolina Gonzalez for their help on this project. Read these stories and meet an exceptional group of New Yorkers—and join us in congratulating them all. Jeanne Straus, Publisher Richard Khavkine, Editor Christopher Moore, Editor Straus Media - Manhattan

A&A Maintenance Proudly Supports the

SEIU Local 32BJ

A&A Maintenance | Integrated Facility Solutions | 914.969.0009 | aamaintenance.com

OCTOBER 13-19,2016

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year Edwin Peralta in front of the huge windows of the Studio Building. Photo: Genia Gould

Edwin 10 ANNIVERSARY Peralta 2016 th

Doorman of the Year East Side Peralta on job of a lifetime BY GENIA GOULD

Edwin Peralta in the lobby of the Studio Building. Photo: Genia Gould

As a teenager, during summers, Edwin Peralta worked as a relief doorman at 131 East 66th Street until 1983. That’s when a full-time position opened up. He was just 19 then, and he continues to be a doorman there today. Peralta, 52, knows inside and out the history of the 11-story structure, known as the Studio Building, and of its residents. The Studio Building was designed by architect Charles A. Platt and built in 1906; it was designated as a landmark building in 2006, he says. He describes the unique double-

WHEN RESIDENTS ARE LIKE FAMILY high ceilings of the apartments done in the Italian Renaissance-inspired style, and talks about how the Studio Building was originally designed for artists to live in. “The windows are huge to get all that sunlight in,” he says. And he mentions how the manually-operated elevators are still in use. “I feel like the shareholders are family to me,” he says. “When they’re sick, I feel bad. If someone is going in for a procedure, I worry. I see them grow up and get older. If I haven’t seen some tenants all day, I’ll think to myself, let me call and see if they’re okay, and then it’s good to hear their voice and to know that they’re fine.”

He goes on, saying, “It’s great to see the kids when they go off to school, great to see them when they come back and after the summer away, how tall they’ve become,” he says. It works both ways. Shareholders have watched Peralta grow up. And he has a three-generation family link to the building service industry, since his father, Tomas, was a doorman at the building for 34 years. The two overlapped for seven years at the same workplace, until the elder Peralta retired in 1994. (He died in 2011.) Peralta himself has two stepchildren, including one who also works as a doorman. After work, Peralta is happy to re-

turn to Rockland County, where he lives with his wife, stepson and two dogs. Domestic by nature, he says, he does a lot of the cooking at his home. Some of the food comes directly from a vegetable garden in his backyard where he grows eggplants, tomatoes, green peppers, peppermint and basil. “Nothing like fresh tomatoes with basil and fresh mozzarella,” he says. Still learning the art of cooking, he watches a lot of food channels on TV, he says, and pays attention to what his wife creates in the kitchen. And then he has another way of getting answers to his cooking questions: “A lot of phone calls to my mom.”

Congratulations! Congratulations, winners of the 2016 Building Service Workers Awards! Thank you for all that you have done for the New York community and making the lives of those around you a little brighter every day. Gain value for your building and business with ABM as your facility solutions partner. Our technology-enabled workforce brings ABM expertise to any type of property... from neighborhood banks and schools to the largest office parks, stadiums and airports.

ABM.com ©2016 ABM Industries Inc. All rights reserved.

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OCTOBER 13-19,2016

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

A CONCIERGE WHO CARES Calo’s mission is ‘to help’ BY GENIA GOULD

Enrique Calo, Jr. is a busy concierge. Photo: Genia Gould

The building where Enrique Calo, Jr. works, he says, has one of the rare big lobbies on the Upper West Side. “It’s a fast-paced building,� he explains, with kids and pets, many people in entertainment, so the place needs to have two people at the front desk. Calo says he is considered a concierge. The job at the building, which is full-service for the residents, involves assisting with a myriad of facets of the residents’ lives. Calo serves on a front line, taking in dry cleaning, storing baby chairs and strollers or things that people don’t want to take to work. The concierges take in all kinds of packages coming in through UPS, FedEx, DHL or handle packages for returns. A large industrial-size refrigerator stores groceries and prepared foods that are delivered to residents from Fresh Direct and other food companies. “What I like is going to work and knowing I’m going to help somebody,� Calo says. “I don’t know what shape or form it turns out to be, but besides doing my job, I have a nice word for someone, or a nice hello.� His personal time, says Calo, is about his church, service and community and also

10 Enrique ANNIVERSARY Calo, Jr. 2016 th

Doorman of the Year West Side spending time with his family. “I have a wife, my son who just got married, and I’m part of a church,� he says. “I do a lot of work in the Lower East Side community.� Born and raised in that area, he says, “I love it down there.� Calo overcame drug and alcohol addiction 20 years ago. Since then, he says, life revolves around his sobriety and helping others become clean and sober. After

a few years in the Narcotics Anonymous program, he experienced a spiritual awakening and lives by Christian doctrine and study. “Some people call it born again,� he says, “some people call it Pentecostal.� Calo leads a men’s ministry group one day a week. “The men get together and play dominos and cards and we minister to them,� he says. “We pray for them if they need prayer, we support them if they need support, we feed them if they need feeding.� On Sundays, Calo teaches Bible study. “I read a lot, I study a lot,� says Calo, who speaks at church on Wednesdays about life issues. He went to seminary for about three years to become a pastor. He discontinued the formal studies, he says. But in his life he wound up doing some of the work of a pastor each day.

What I like is going to work and knowing I’m going to help somebody.�

We Honor 32BJ SEIU and congratulate the winners of the Building Service Workers of the Year Awards

Attorneys at Law 1370 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10019-4602 r XXX CBMCFSQJDLBSE DPN

OCTOBER 13-19,2016

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

HE’S ‘PART OF THE FAMILY’ Bini’s there, in good times and bad BY GENIA GOULD

At Washington Square Village on Thanksgiving Day, Duilio Bini can sometimes wind up with six or seven dinners. They’re delivered by the residents he serves. “I learned from father to never say no, so I take all the dinners,” he says. “Even if it’s turkey, every culture has a small difference. Spanish will have pork and tamales, for instance, but I’ll get Irish-American and French twists.” The same sort of thing happens the next month, too. “They’ll also take care of me at Christmas,” he insists. “I become part of the family. I spend most of my waking time with them. Coming to work is like a therapy. I feel happy.” Bini, 64, is a man with many interests. He reports that he reads three to four hours a day. He’s passionately interested in politics and history, as he is by natural history and natural medicine. Bini, a married father of five, grew up in Ecuador, and came to the U.S. at 18 to make it on his own. His first

Duilio Bini thinks activists may just be wired differently. Photo: Genia Gould employment was at Radio City Music Hall. He’s now worked for nine years at Washington Square Village, part of a 46-year professional career in this country. What inspires Bini, he says, is injustice and it keeps him busy and in the forefront of worker’s rights movements. He says he once read in a scientific journal that the brains of people who protest and those who “go along with the system” are wired different-

ly. It may be genetic, he says. If this is true, by his lineage, protest surely runs in his blood. His grandfather was born in Napoli, Italy, and was killed by Mussolini for being a socialist. Bini says his own father, in turn, was beat up and left for dead in the streets by the Mussolini Black Shirts. Bini’s grandmother found him, nurtured him back to health and put him on a ship to become an officer for the merchant marines. Bini described himself as proud to be an American, although he doesn’t neglect his country of birth. He describes how he’s been able to have hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of perfectly new medical equipment, which might otherwise have been thrown away, utilized by public hospitals in his country. He says his passion for politics is fed by favorite media figures, including Noam Chomsky, Richard Wolfe and Amy Goodman. He says he has a great job. “I’m blessed,” he says. “The reward is my tenants who make my day. They greet me every morning, every afternoon, and evening.” He loves seeing the children, enjoying the happy moments, especially

10 Duilio ANNIVERSARY Bini 2016 th

Doorman of the Year Downtown when his tenants become parents. “I’m often the first one they show the baby to,” he says. But he doesn’t shy away from the darker side of life either. “I share the sorrow when somebody passes away,” he says. He sees sickness and old age up close. “We share in that and feel the pain.” He talked about the range of residents’ lives, and how he speaks with single women who live alone or someone who has never had children. “They start talking to us,” he says. “We are social workers. We are psychologists. We are bartenders. All those jobs, because we have to be good listeners.”

Duilio Bini says he likes to fight injustice. Photo: Genia Gould

BUILDING MAINTENANCE SERVICES

VORNADO and BMS are proud to sponsor the Building Workers Service Awards on behalf of approximately 2,800 unionized porters, cleaners and guards that make our buildings great. (212) 714-0004 | www.bmsbuildingservices.com CHICAGO t MARYLAND t NEW YORK t VIRGINIA t WASHINGTON D.C.

SM

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

‘IT’S NOT JUST A REGULAR JOB’ Ditaranto, on creating sense of home BY GENIA GOULD

For Orla Ditaranto, what started out as a job as a doorwoman grew quickly into a passion. Through her union, she’s had the opportunity to take classes and receive certifications in plumbing, carpentry, green building LEED certification, air pollution, blueprint reading, building management, bed-bug prevention, fire alarms and fire safety, standpipe and sprinkler use, electrical crisis prevention and management, elder abuse and other topics. Most recently Ditaranto, 36, took a refresher class in CPR and an automated external defibrillator class. Soon she’ll be at a refresher class in green building certification. As a doorwoman for The Beatrice, a luxury rental apartment building in Chelsea, since its opening in 2010, she is dedicated and finely tuned to the residents’ needs. “I know 90 percent of my residents’ preferences,” she says. “I know who their nannies are, who their housekeepers are. I know where people who are entering the building are going before they even come to the desk.” She wants her residents to feel safe. “It’s not just a regular job. It’s home, too,” she says. “Along with the residents, the nannies, the dogs the cats, everybody, it’s

one big happy family.” She adds, “I like smiling, and for the residents to know there’s someone around who’s happy and content. “ She’s a woman in what is still a male-dominated field. “You have to be yourself, you can’t be afraid, and it’s also a matter of treating individuals respectfully,”” she says. If you can treat them with respect, you’re going to get respect back.” If she needs to be tough, though, she has no problem with that. For instance, she says that if a person is not announced ahead head of time, she won’t hesitate to search their bags before they are allowed into the building. Ditaranto’s credentials also include policing and security. She’s certified as part of the New York State Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), a designation from the city’s emergency management officials. “If you have a terrorist scare or hurricanes, for instance, they’ll reach out to you,” she says, “to see if you’re available to volunteer-assist with the emergency.” On her own time, when not on the job or in a class, she loves to spend time with her husband and eight-year-old son at their home in East Brunswick, N.J. She serves as a coach for her son’s soccer team a couple of evenings during the week, and at Saturday morning games. She’s originally from Ireland, namely Tullamore town in County Offaly. She arrived

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Orla Ditaranto ANNIVERSARY 2016

Doorwoman of the Year in the U.S. when she was 14 with her entire family – three brothers, two sisters, her parents, an aunt, and a family dog. “New York City is probably one of the best places I could be,” she says. “One is exposed to and learns about so many cultures.” Still, as big as New York can be, she says that being Irish means that “we’re known by the third degree – every third Irish person knows who you are.” Ditaranto’s co-workers joke that in the future there may well be a building with the name The Orla. After you hear her talk about her passion for her work, it seems like a serious possibility.

Doorwoman Orla Ditaranto at The Beatrice luxury rental building in Chelsea. Photo: Genia Gould

LAST ONE ON THE DANCE FLOOR Ralph Archer is awarded Longevity Award BY ANNIE NOVA

Students, teachers and principals come and go at Henry Hudson Junior High School in the Bronx. But one person has stayed. Ralph Archer has been a janitor at the school since 1972. “I saw it all,” he says, making a rainbow in the air with his cracked hands. “Nobody has been in this place all this time. Only me.” Archer was 17 when he moved from Puerto Rico to the Bronx. His dream was to be a cop. But at 5 feet, 2 inches tall, he had to dream again. At 20, he was hired as the middle school’s janitor. Almost half a century later and he’s still here. “I like to be doing the same thing every day,” he says. “I don’t want to go.” Archer takes pride in everything he does. Though his shift doesn’t start until 6 a.m., he’s in the building by 4:30. Where others might be sloppy, he’s meticulous, Archer

Ralph Archer, a janitor at Henry Hudson Junior High School. Photo: Annie Nova

insists. “If my name is involved,” he says, “I want to do a good job.” In the mornings, it takes him two hours to sweep outside the school. “I should be halfway dead,” Archer, 65, says. “But I’m alright.” He remembers a 1980s snowstorm when the snow reached up to his shoulders. Still, he made it to the school, where he turned on the boiler and began the long cleanup. “Who came? Me. I was the only one,” he says. Back in the day, when janitors were asked what they did, they’d tell people that they were teachers, explains Archer. Now, he says, lots of people want the job because of the high hourly pay and benefits. When he’s not working, he loves to dance. The teachers invite him to their nights out. He brings along the school crossing guard. The two are always the last ones on the dance floor. Sometimes he joins the students on their field trips. He recalls one field trip where he and the stu-

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Longevity Award dents were out canoeing, He got stuck paddling. “The kids do nothing,” he laughs. “I had to do all the work.” Having been a fixture at the school for so long, many teachers rely on him for guidance. One even came to him to discuss marital problems. Archer told her that she should try to resolve things with her spouse. “You know what you got,” Archer told her. “But you don’t know what you’re going to get.”

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

A PORTER TAKES CENTER STAGE Rodriguez sees stories behind spotlights BY GENIA GOULD

A big fan of musical theater, Caroline Rodriguez’s custodial-maintenance job is in Broadway theaters. Photo: Genia Gould

Caroline Rodriguez spends a lot of time in the darkened theaters of Broadway. As a porter for city theaters, she’s behind-the-scenes, amidst activities that bring plays and musical productions to the stage. She’s center stage for the set building, the light design, the rehearsals, the opening nights, the applause and the curtain calls. In her job, she’s the first to arrive, opening the theater and turning the lights on. At the end of the night, she’s the last to leave, turning out the lights and locking the theater doors. In between, as a porter, she’s “basically cleaning,” she says. But there are two parts of the job. In the evening, things change. “I say I’m a porter, but at nighttime I’m more like a doorman,” she says. “I wear a suit and tie, and I’m bringing the people in, greeting them.” She’s the head porter at The Belasco. Until there’s a show again there, she is subbing at other Shubert company theaters. Right now she’s the second porter at The Broadhurst. For theater porters, the hours are broken up from 8 a.m. to noon and then they come back again for a show at 6:30 p.m. For a the current show, “The Front Page” with Nathan Lane and an all-star cast in a three-

A GRAND ENDEAVOR Wayne Blanks on wiping the slate clean, every day BY MICKEY KRAMER

The Grand Hyatt Hotel on East 42nd Street has 36 floors and over 1,200 rooms. One man, Wayne Blanks, cleans every interior window, and has been named Window Cleaner of the Year. Blanks been cleaning the windows there since 2002. Despite his years of hard work, including 30 years of membership in 32BJ, Blanks was surprised to hear about the award for Window Cleaner of the Year. “I thought it was a joke,” Blanks says. “We play jokes on each other.”

[My father] taught me to take pride in my work and that in the long run, it would pay off...And it did.”

The first thing Blanks did was call his father, who is in the hospital. “I told him the award was for him,” Blanks says. “My father did this same job for over 30 years, taught me the business and how to do neat and clean work.” While most days include hard work and a general sense of calm, Blanks and a co-worker were working on the hotel roof on the morning g of Sept. 11, 1, 2001 when a plane flew straight aight ght over their heads. “We watched it go past the MetLife Building and saw it hit the World Trade Center,” Blanks recalled. “Shocked, of course, and it could’ve been us.” When Blanks started at the Hyatt in 1998, there was a staff of four, but by the end of 2001, he was the last man standing. Windows of the hotel rooms, restaurant, fitness center, ballrooms and conference rooms were his alone to make sparkle and shine. Blanks calls himself “a oneman army.” “I try to make everything look good,” he says, “but a little at a time since I can’t do it all at once.” Before settling down at the Grand Hyatt, Blanks mastered his trade at

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Caroline Rodriguez ANNIVERSARY 2016

Stadium/Theater Cleaner hour production with two intermissions, Rodriguez will get home at 12:30 a.m. She lives in Astoria so it’s fortunately not a long commute. She has the afternoons to do other things. “It’s a little rough with the longer shows,” she says. “But the last show was 90 minutes, and we still get paid for four hours.” Rodriguez says she used to be shy in school. Teachers would say she needed to participate more in class. But in her 11th year working for The Shubert Organization, that shyness seems to have dropped away.

Does it have to do with being around theater people? “It does,” she says. “You’ll see when we’re outside, we have to be aggressive sometimes, and loud and vocal with patrons.” Even of her own time – since she’s a big fan of musical theater – she attends shows, bringing her boyfriend or friends. She’s seen “Phantom of the Opera” more than a hundred times, an early on-the-job perk since it was playing at her home theater when she started. She’s taken her daughter twice too. The passion for theater runs in the family. Rodriguez’ mother was an usher in the theater, in the 1960s, she says. “She always took me to the theatre as a kid. She always told me all these stories about how glamorous it was,” she says. Her mother accumulated a stack of playbills signed by major celebrities, like Barbra Streisand, Desi Arnaz and Jackie Onassis. Rodriguez and her fellow employees are invited to parties where she’s met “just about every celebrity.” So Rodriguez’s own growing collection of autographs includes Tom Hanks and Neil Patrick Harris. Her personal favorite productions, she says are “Passing Strange” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” She liked the latter because Hedwig was “different and funny, and every night you never knew what you were going to get.”

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Window Cleaner New York Hospital and the Roosevelt Hotel, among other institutions. Blanks, 56, has a wife, four children, and two grandchildren in Georgia that he speaks with often. Blanks, who was born and still lives in Westchester, gets up at 4 a.m. to walk his 10-year-old Rottweiler. He then heads for Midtown for a 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift. Blanks often has his father in mind. “He taught me to take pride in my work and that in the long run, it would pay off,” he says. “And it did.”

Wayne Blanks, window cleaner of the year, takes care of 1,200 rooms at the Grand Hyatt.

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congratulates

the 2016 Building Service Workers Award Winners and thanks each of them for making our homes and offices better places to live and work.

STEPS FROM COLUMBUS CIRCLE

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

SMILING IRISH EYES AT BRONX DANCE ACADEMY Anne Murray is an ocean away from the family farm BY MICAH DANNEY

When something breaks at Bronx Dance Academy School, Anne Murray ďŹ xes it — be it a oor tile, light switch or faucet. The Bronx is a world apart from the dairy farm in Ireland she grew up on, but Murray enjoys interacting with the students more than the cows. “I love chatting with them,â€? she says. Murray, 51, of Yonkers, tries to get to know the students, who take some time getting used to her rapid-ďŹ re English steeped in a thick Irish brogue. Some ask if she’s speaking Gaelic, she says with a chuckle. Murray’s father died when she was 20, and she ran the family farm for eight years. She handed it off to her brother in 1992 so she could come to the U.S. in search of stable employment. She had a sister in Queens, so she moved in and quickly found work as a home health aide for elderly patients. At 28, it was her ďŹ rst time away from home. The job kept Murray preoccupied for the ďŹ rst two months, then homesickness set in. She

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School Handyperson started having nightmares, she remembered, and called home frequently. “I waited two years to go home for Christmas because I knew I wouldn’t come back,� Murray says. Things changed when she joined a Gaelic football league. She made friends there, then moved into her own apartment in the Bronx and got a job as a school handyperson at P.S. 95. She learned all her skills as she worked. Murray was at the elementary school for 10 years before she came to Bronx Dance Academy, a middle school, three

Anne Murray, school handyperson of the year, at Bronx Dance Academy School. Photo: Micah Danney years ago. She’s still friends with the principal and staff at P.S. 95, which she visits regularly. Murray’s work hasn’t changed much — she still hates ďŹ xing door locks, which can take her three hours to take apart and put back together — but she likes that the students are older. She’s also found a new community of friends in the staff at her current building. She does a boot-camp-style fitness program in Yonkers with one teacher several nights per week, and goes out for drinks with others on occasion.

Murray makes it back to Ireland once or twice a year to visit her 86-year-old mother in County Clare, where she sees all her childhood neighbors wherever she goes. Everybody knows each other there. “That’s the one thing I miss here,� Murray says, and noted her disdain for trips into Manhattan. “Too many people.� Whenever she returns from one of her threeweek vacations, her colleagues and the students have to adjust to her accent again, Murray says: “My brogue gets t’icker.�

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

WHEN CPR TRAINING KICKS IN Campbell’s courage on display BY GENIA GOULD

Keiffer Campbell saved a child’s life.Photo: Genia Gould

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Security Officer Commercial

Every day I try to be the best I can be, try to help as much as I can. I try to make things as easy as possible, cut out the anger period if that comes up.”

Last spring Keiffer Campbell was a few hours into a shift as a security guard at a government welfare office in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn, when he noticed some commotion not far from his post. He went over to investigate and saw a toddler choking. ing. He also witnessed panicked people ed p p gathered around the boy. They were striking the child on his back and around his head. One woman even put her hand down the small child’s throat. causing the two-year-old boy to bleed. Campbell immediately took over, knowing that people were well-meaning, but that they were endangering the child’s life. “I told everybody to calm down,” he says, remembering the spring night. The child was choking on a piece of candy and wasn’t breathing at all, he recalls. His CPR training kicked in, immediately, and he performed the Heimlich maneuver designed for toddlers, meaning the use of two fingers to pump at the breast bone of

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Keiffer ANNIVERSARY Campbell 2016

Security Officer Public or City Building (The Idrissa Camara Award)

child’s small body. He had to do this while the boy’s father was still holding him. “He was panicked and confused and wouldn’t let go,” Campbell says. Finally, “after about 15 seconds of pumping the child’s tummy, the piece of candy flew out of the baby’s mouth,” Campbell recalls. The child was able to breathe again, and was rushed to an area hospital.

For choking adults, the Heimlich maneuver requires firm thrusts in a person’s abdomen. But for very young children and for the elderly, the maneuver requires a modified technique, Campbell explains. Campbell, 29, normally works the night shift at Sleep Inn in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, to allow the time to take courses at B Baruch College by day. He’s studying for a degree in acy counting. Already an accredited enrolled agent – a federally authorized tax practitioner – he is accumulating business skills and accreditations for his planned future as a business owner. He’s still exploring what kind of business he will open, but he’s aiming for the “physical services,” which might be “food, construction or cleaning,” he says. Should anyone find themselves in a situation where someone is choking, his advice is clear: “Don’t panic, because that will cause worse problems.” Also, do not to put one’s hands down someone’s throat, as that will likely lodge the obstruction deeper, he warns. Campbell says his life-saving

Keiffer Campbell saved a child’s life. Photo: Genia Gould actions were just part of his training, and he insists that he was just doing his job. He has kept in contact with the boy’s father, whom he reports says the boy is doing well. He says he holds a soft spot for the toddler, and is planning to give him a present at Christmastime.

SOME LIKE IT COLD Pennant embraces climate, work BY GENIA GOULD

Cheryl Pennant loves the cold weather – at least in New York City. That’s a good thing, since she’s a security officer whose post is the loading dock of a Durst commercial building in Midtown East. She works in the semi-outdoors, where she oversees contractors and traders, deliveries, packages and things coming in and things going out of the massive 45-story office building. Pennant arrived in the U.S. 30 years ago, seeking better opportunities. Asked how old she is now, she says, “Close your eyes and pick any age.” But she does say she married 15 years ago, and for many years has worked clerical positions and also as a supervisor at a maintenance company where she managed 120 men. Four years ago, she made a career change, and became a security officer, another maledominated environment. She’s comfortable with that environment, and attributes that to her ability to communicate efficiently, get jobs done correctly, and at the same time “be kind.” She also gives credit to a supportive property manager, the engineers, porters

and head porters. “We all work together as a team,” she says. “Every day I try to be the best I can be, try to help as much as I can. I try to make things as easy as possible, cut out the anger period if that comes up.” Her predilection for the cold weather, she says, comes from hating the way that hot weather plays out in the Big Apple. Even though she’s originally from Guyana, South America, a tropical country. The weather there, she says, was an easier combination to handle, a mix of rain and sun. “As it’s below sea level, we always have that sea breeze coming off the ocean,” she says. That’s not true in hot weather in the Big Apple. So during New York winters, “I’ll find any excuse to go out into the snow or cold,” she says. During her time off, she’s always travelling, she says. She recently did some island-hopping to Bermuda, St. Maarten, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Haiti. And every now and then she also visits Jamaica. So Pennant saves her hot-weather moments for the tropical islands.

Cheryl Pennant stands in a garden area of the office building where she is a security officer. Photo: Genia Gould

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

WESTBETH’S — AND THE CITY’S — BEST Todd Salley is superintendent of the year

much, but he says ‘You follow my lead and you’ll be the best handyman.’” He fulfilled his handyman duties for five Being a building super is no simple task, years, and one day unexpectedly found a but Todd Salley of Westbeth Artists’ Hous- paper on his desk detailing the job requireing tries every day to go above and beyond ments for a super position in Sunnyside, Queens. Salley’s friend had his job responsibilities to placed it there, confident ensure the highest level of that he was ready for the tenant satisfaction within task. his building, earning him “He said, ‘You can do this the honor of Super of the job, I want you to go for it.’ Year. And then I was hired,” Salley “When I heard I won I says. thought it was a joke,” he ANNIVERSARY After eight years in Sunsays. “I thought to myself, nyside, Salley’s bosses, who ‘Me? There’s over a 1,000 knew of his wish to work in supers in New York City, Manhattan, offered him a why me?’” post at Westbeth, the GreenSalley, a lifelong New wich Village Yorker and Brooklyn oklyn naw Villag nonprofit that provides tive, never envisioned thatt edthat dth id affordable housing and studio space to artists. he would be in the position Salley has been working at he is today. His journey beone of Westbeth’s buildings, gan in 1991 as a porter, but he quickly realized that was not his preferred a 13-floor building on Bethune Street with 383 units, since 2009. He has no intentions of career trajectory. “I had to move on,” he explains. “I had this leaving any time soon. “You have to be able to listen,” Salley says friend who worked as a super. He had a position available for a handyman and asked if about what makes an effective super. “You I’d be interested. I told him I didn’t know too can’t react on what they’re saying: just listen BY NICOLE LOCKWOOD

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Salley 2016

Super of the Year

Todd Salley, Super of the Year, at Westbeth Artists’ Housing. Photo: Nicole Lockwood

I’m always smiling on the job. I can’t help it, that’s just me.” and go observe.” His attentiveness has certainly gained the appreciation of his tenants. Salley’s tasks vary daily, but usually include directing his 22 staff members, contacting outside contractors, completing paperwork, paying bills and above all else, listening to the demands of residents. “I try to make life easier for everyone. I try to make changes necessary to accommodate the residents and ensure that they are happy,” he says. “This whole building is like family” Salley expressed his love for the job and his unyielding devotion to making sure his tenants enjoy agreeable living conditions. He says that he will continue to enjoy his role at Westbeth for as long as he can. “I’m always smiling on the job. I can’t help it, that’s just me,” he says. “I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.”

Congratulations to the

Building Service Workers of the Year!

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DREAMS DO COME TRUE Orubba Almansouri PHOTO BY ANDRÉ N. BECKLES /CUNY

City College of New York/CUNY Salutatorian 2016 B.A., English and History

HER STORY Almansouri, in a graduation speech that moved Michelle Obama to invite her to a White House summit on women, told how she broke barriers that kept traditional Yemeni girls out of school.

AWARDS Winner, Mellon Mays Fellowship Winner, Colin Powell Fellowship

GOAL Master’s in Near Eastern Studies, then a Ph.D.

THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK-1847

cuny.edu/welcome

HUNTER COLLEGE-1870 BROOKLYN COLLEGE-1930 QUEENS COLLEGE-1937 NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY-1946 COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND-1956 BRONX COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1957 QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1959 CUNY GRADUATE CENTER-1961 BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1963 KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1963 JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE-1964 YORK COLLEGE-1966 BARUCH COLLEGE-1968 LAGUARDIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1968 LEHMAN COLLEGE-1968 HOSTOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1970 MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE-1970 CUNY SCHOOL OF LAW-1983 MACAULAY HONORS COLLEGE AT CUNY-2001 CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM-2006 CUNY SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES-2006 GUTTMAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE-2011 CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH POLICY-2016 CUNY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE-2016

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

DEDICATION TO THE JOB Yovanna Peguero on tradecraft and organizing

“Getting things done the right way and helping others really keeps me going,” she says. Her dedication doesn’t go unnoticed. She’s BY MICKEY KRAMER WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY been named Lower Manhattan Office Cleaner of MOLLY COLGAN the Year. Hector Saez, Peguero’s supervisor of When she’s not busy helping her fellow co- almost four years describes her as “responsible, workers over at the MTA’s corporate office, hard-working and an essential part of the staff.” Peguero first joined 32BJ in 1995, working as Yovanna Peguero is home in Brooklyn—mixing a “floater” in buildings such batter and frosting cakes in as Carnegie Hall and Grand her free time. Central and worked at the “I’m a baker!” says Peguero. publishing company, Feffer “Wedding cakes, sweets for & Simons for nine years, and bridal and baby showers, I can for a year on the West Coast, bake just about anything.” Getting things done the was a hair stylist. When friends or family need right way and helping Peguero was “pleasantly treats for an upcoming event, easantly others really keeps me surprised” when notified the mini-bakery Yovanna d off her award, as she is not just runs out of her kitchen is their going.” dedicated to her job, but also go-to source. to the union. “I organized the For more than 30 years union from the beginning.” Peguero has had a thriving side business baking cakes for weddings, birth- When Peguero is not doing her best “Norma Rae” impression, her focus is on her job, which days and other occasions. “For about 10 years, before starting this job, I is cleaning, predominantly the 24th floor of the was home with my four kids and baking cakes,” 32-floor building. Peguero, 65, was born in the Dominican Republic, but moved to Brooklyn in she chuckles. “I was very busy.” She has four grown children – all of them 1966, where she has spent most of the past 50 “professional,” she beams – and now has seven years. “The neighborhood has changed so much since grandchildren and a great grandchild. Peguero says her union and co-workers are “like family” I first got here,” says Peguero. “It’s like SoHo has moved to Brooklyn—we have all of these new as well.

Making a Difference. Every Day.

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Yovanna ANNIVERSARY Peguero 2016 Lower Manhattan Office Cleaner restaurants…They’ve really been building it up. It’s nice.” But when she retires, Yovanna plans to spend more time in the Sunshine State, visiting her son, mother and siblings in Florida: “It’s time to enjoy the weather… Too much snow in New York!”

Yovanna Peguero, lower Manhattan office cleaner of the year.

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

AT THE BRINK OF THE RINK Francisco saves teen in trouble BY GENIA GOULD

Pedro Francisco calls himself the doorman at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where he’s worked for 16 years. He’s quick to pay homage to his co-workers, who have been at the location for 30 and even 40 years. “They’re all hard-working people,” he says. “They love their families. They love our country.” He has a hard time taking

credit for saving a young man from seriously injuring himself, and possibly worse. In the spring of this year, Francisco was at his post when he noticed a young man on the wrong side of a guard railing at the plaza level of the Rockefeller Skating Rink. The man was holding on to a couple of the flag poles that line the perimeter – and he was leaning backwards. Francisco quickly approached the teenager, talking with him until the two were face to face.

He used his hands a lot, he says, which is a life-saving technique to grab someone without alarming them, if necessary. Once Francisco saw that he had officers to back him up, a promenade post patrol officer and a NYPD officer, he made the decision to grab the man. It was not so easy because person he was trying to get was bigger in weight and height, and pulled Francisco dangerously over the railing, until he was aided by the two other officers. The person in danger was

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ANNIVERSARY

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Life Saver Award 16, “a teenager who was experiencing troubles,” says Francisco, 46, a father of five children who knows well that life events, like a break-up or other things, can loom large in a young person’s mind. The drop from the plaza level to the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Plaza is about 40 feet, he says. He’s witnessed people fall and crack their skulls, and others break arms and legs while they were on the ice. So he figures that falling from that height would have been tremendously serious.

Most of Francisco’s life, he says, happens outside of work. He’s a lover of the arts. He spends a lot of time going to museums and galleries and other cultural events. He also enjoys the outdoors, and he walks about eight miles a day. Francisco says he gets involved in many causes, most recently bringing awareness to the issue of PTSD. He explained that an average of 22 PTSDafflicted vets commit suicide every day in the U.S. The challenge he describes is to do 22 push-ups a day, and each day

Francisco, 46, is a father of five children who knows well that life events, like a break-up or other things, can loom large in a young person’s mind. nominate another person to do the same. His location at Rock Center means a lot of celebrity sightings. “I see stars every single day at Rockefeller Center,” he says, more than most, because I tend to look more at people’s eyes and I pick up features. “At any moment,” he says, “you’ll see someone from SNL, a guest or a regular, or someone from the “Today Show” or NBC News or the Jimmy Fallon show.”

CONGRATULATES

32BJ SEIU AND THE 2016 BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS OF THE YEAR

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Pedro Francisco on duty at Rockefeller Center, where he saved a teenager. Photo: Genia Gould

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

A CLEANER AND A PROBLEM SOLVER William Payne retired, and then went to work BY MILANA VINN

William Payne cleans offices at the Barclays Center, but his favorite part of his workday has nothing to do with cleaning. “I come in an hour early, at 10 p.m. instead of 11 p.m.,” says Porter, this year’s Porter of the Year Award in the outer boroughs. “I talk to workers. I try to help if they have a problem...I get a joy and reward by helping others.” Payne, 69, who lives a few blocks from the Barclays Center, is a helpful guy when he’s not working, too. He is deeply involved in the Fort Greene community, where on weekends he volunteers at hospitals, nursery homes, at his church and the local police precinct. Payne was a manager at the glove company Aris Isotoner for 30 years before he retired a few years ago. “I didn’t want to do nothing when retired,” Payne says. “I wanted to keep myself busy.” Payne became a part-time cleaner with Collins Building Services, working at Barclays Center. He works the night shift, with his weekly schedule dependent on events such as basketball games and concerts. Payne says co-workers quickly found he would help any way he could, including speaking up on behalf of others who were having problems. “I would always speak up

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ANNIVERSARY

Payne 2016

Outer Borough Office Cleaner if I see something is wrong,” he says. “Some workers are shy, and some don’t know their rights. I started giving them my number, and my wife got mad at me that someone is calling the house every day.”

I talk to workers. I try to help if they have a problem...I get a joy and reward by helping others.” William Payne, porter of the Year Award in the outer boroughs. Photo: Milana Vinn

We proudly support 32BJ SEIU in its 10th Annual Building Service Workers Awards and are pleased to honor the dedicated men and women of the New York community

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

HERO ON BRIDGE BETWEEN LIFE, DEATH De Leon on saving would-be jumper BY GENIA GOULD

Julio De Leon, a doorman for 31 years at 221 West 82nd Street, was riding his bicycle and in the zone. Cycling across the George Washington Bridge, something caught his attention in his peripheral vision. He saw a dog tied up to the bridge’s guard rail, and he thought that was odd. On closer inspection, he saw a young man on the wrong side of the protective railing, with only inches to fall 200 feet into the Hudson River. De Leon could see that the 19-year-old man was confused. De Leon unattached his cycling shoes from his bike and went over to the man and said, “Don’t do it! I love you. Think of your family.” De Leon described how he had his hands raised up, and next the man moved dangerously close to the edge. Then De Leon

grabbed the would-be jumper. “When I held him,” De Leon says, recounting the incident, “at the same time I could see 200 feet down.” He adds: “I believe that God put me in the right place at the right time. Not only that, but he gave me the control, the heart to stay very calm, and my hands were up, I don’t know why.” The two made a connection. “It was for me a very touching moment because he was like my son, and he hugged me and I hugged him. I tried to give a lot of support,” De Leon says. “He was totally confused, and I said you have to wait for police to come.” At evening rush hour, George Washington Bridge traffic is crazy from New Jersey to the City, he said. The bridge was packed, and it would take a while, and De Leon finally surrendered the young man to the police.

The story was written up in the New York Times, bringing DeLeon due praise and attention. Also spotlighted: the issue of guard rails that are not high enough on the bridge. Had DeLeon not been there, this event might have been the year’s ninth suicide. De Leon, 61, has been married for 34 years and has grown children, two sons and a daughter. He continues to receive praise, including from the boy’s family and strangers all over the world. DeLeon is going to also be honored later this month by the cycling advocate group, Transportation Alternatives. Was this behavior in any way related to his job as a doorman? “Yes,” he says. “We like helping people, but I always say the real hero was my mother. Why? Because she taught me to love and respect fellow human beings. For me, this is the most important thing, because she taught me when I was young.”

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Julio ANNIVERSARY De Leon 2016

Life Saver Award

De Leon unattached his cycling shoes from his bike and went over to the man and said, “Don’t do it! I love you. Think of your family.” While cycling on the George Washington Bridge, Julio De Leon saved a man’s life. Photo: Genia Gould

CONGRATULATIONS! Building Service Workers Award Honorees For all your hard work & professionalism we salute you.

Hero Julio De Leon describes how he saved a man’s life. Photo: Genia Gould

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

A CAUSE AND A PURPOSE Dwayne Fernández takes ownership of his life and labor

This type of work is not new to Fernández, the porter of year. He did maintenance work for 18 years while he supBY SAMIA BOUZID ported his family. But once his six kids For a long time, Dwayne Fernández’s had gone through school, Fernández says life was focused on other people. In his it was his turn. At 45, he went to college, got a B.A. and first chapter of adulthood, he raised six began doing social kids. When his work. His patients, who nest emptied, he were mentally ill, rebecame a social quired a lot of attention. worker caring He says he had patients for the mentally who would get spooked ill. Now, at 55, he and punch him, and one says his life is all patient who put a fist his. He works as through the bathroom a porter at the ANNIVERSARY mirror. Some, he says, Clinton Hill Cowere always trying to ops, a group of run away. apartment comFernández says he plexes in Brookwas happy to be doing lyn. He says that something so imporbuildings are less tant, but after 10 years, complicated than his time was up. “They people. tell you not to get emoFernández is in charge of a handful of groundskeep- tional,” he says. “It’s impossible to not get ing tasks that vary from day to day and emotional.” People’s lives depended on him feeding season to season. He buffs floors, cleans stairwells, removes garbage, clears snow them right, giving them the right mediand makes sure no one comes or goes cation and watching after them. “You might be off two days,” he says, “but you without a “good morning.”

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Dwayne Fernández 2016

Porter of the Year

Consultants and Actuaries to Collectively Bargained Plans

Congratulations and Best Wishes to the Local 32BJ SEIU Building Service Workers Honorees From Your Friends at Segal Consulting

www.segalco.com Offices throughout the United States and Canada

go home with it. You live with it.” It wore him down. “I can’t be chasing Mike down the block anymore,” says Fernández. “I’m outta breath now.” Fernández says life at the co-ops is peaceful and simple. “I’m not trying to work my brain,” he says. “It’s relax time.” In his free time, he goes to plays, movies and occasionally out to eat by himself. “Gotta pamper myself!” he says. Still, Fernández hasn’t stopped doing positive things for other people. As a member of the union 32BJ, he travels around the country and fights for workers’ rights to fair pay, benefits and safe conditions. “We rant and rave. We shout. And we make this happen,” he said. He says he will always be trying to make positive change. “It’s a cause, it’s a purpose, it’s a reason.”

Dwayne Fernández buffs floors, cleans stairwells, removes garbage, clears snow and makes sure no one comes or goes without a “good morning.” Dwayne Fernández

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

Jorge 10 ANNIVERSARY Grisales 2016 th

Juan 10 th

ANNIVERSARY

Arias 2016

Helping Hand

COMPANY MEN Jorge Grisales and Juan Arias, Upper East Side doormen, share helping hands award BY MICKEY KRAMER

What began as a casual wave from an Upper East Side doorman to a passer-by in 1994 grew into a remarkable friendship that lasted more than two decades. You see, the passer-by, Bernhardt Wichmann III, known as “Ben,” handed the doorman,

Jorge Grisales, a note that read, in part, “I can’t talk, but can hear.” From those simple words, Wichmann and Grisales, a doorman at the Mayfair on East 74th Street, would cultivate a deep relationship. For years after their initial meeting, Wichmann would bring Grisales Spanish-language newspapers and coffee, and a year later, also to Grisales’ colleague, Juan Arias, when he too

became a doorman at the Mayfair. The doormen, both from Medellin, Colombia, would talk and Ben would write. “We made such a good connection with him. Juan and I come from the same place and it’s normal for us to share, help, and do things for people,” Grisales says. Soon enough, the doormen learned that Wichmann lived in a single sing room a few doors ffrom tthe Mayfair. The “doing things” included giving him clothes, food, making and taking calls for doctors’ appointments and also simply keeping company, sometimes with glasses of wine, at other times without. Wichmann was 83 when he passed away in July, but not before an astonishing occurrence. The previous August, he checked into a hospital for an MRI. When the test was completed, he spoke — for the first time since 1983. “To me, it was a miracle that he could speak for the last months of his life,” Arias recalls. Wichmann had served during the Korean War and Grisales and Arias, with the help of donations from neighborhood residents, paid for a mili-

tary funeral and interred his remains at Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island. Even without the shared bond with Wichmann, the connection between Grisales and Arias, co-winners of the 32BJ’s “Helping Hands” award this year, are considerable. Both are 52 and live in Queens. They attended to the same high school in Medellin and though they shared some of the same friends, weren’t close at the time. That changed a few years later when, after finishing college in Colombia, Grisales moved to Queens and wandered into a Jackson Heights hardware

store, where Arias was the manager. They recognized each other, and Grisales began a four-year stint working there. When Grisales left in 1994 for the Mayfair gig, the favor was returned about a year later when Arias got the next open doorman spot. “Both guys are family guys and dedicated to the building,” says Spyro Papathanasiou, Mayfair’s resident manager for 18 years, about the doormen. Papathanasiou calls Arias, who handles the 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift, “My A-#1 doorman” but quickly adds that Grisales, often on the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, “is not too far behind.”

Arias was on duty about five years ago when a couple came out of the building carrying their two-year-old, who wasn’t breathing. “I know CPR so I started until the police came and took over,” he recalls. The baby turned out fine. Arias, who has a wife and four children, says the Mayfair job is ideal for him. “I’m kind of social and like to talk to people and the people who live here treat me well,” he says. Grisales, married with two children, was equally modest. “I wouldn’t have expected an award for just doing my job,” he says. “I think it’s for what we did for Ben.”

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THOSE BEING HONORED BY THE

BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS AWARDS

For all that you do we salute you.

Jorge Grisales, left, and Juan Arias, doormen at the Mayfair on East 74th Street, are recipients of 32BJ’s “helping hands” award.

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HUDSON YARDS

CONGRATULATIONS! Related is proud to support today’s honorees and congratulates 32BJ SEIU on all of their many accomplishments NEW YORK

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BOSTON

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CHICAGO

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SAN FRANCISCO

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LOS ANGELES

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SOUTH FLORIDA

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WASHINGTON, DC

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

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Dwayne ANNIVERSARY Doucette 2016

Building Manager of the Year

HE’S NOT JUST FIXING LEAKS Doucette shows job’s range BY GENIA GOULD

Dwayne Doucette says his work is multifaceted. Photo: Genia Gould

Remember that old image of the building superintendent? The guy was carrying a wrench and a screwdriver. But Dwayne Doucette is a lot more than that. Where he works on the Upper East Side, at a two-tower building on the East End Avenue, he is not just a fix-it guy. He’s also a contractor, a social worker, a childcare provider and a mediator between tenants. Doucette, 53, started his career in building service as a doorman in 1983 and worked his way up to handyman, and then in 2001 to a building superintendent. Since 2002, he’s worked along East End Avenue, in three separate buildings. He’s been in his current building for six years. A perk of the job, Doucette says, is an apartment on the property, but that means that he is on call 24/7. “My phone is always on, even by my head while I sleep. If in the middle of night there’s a leak or a fire, I’m the first responder,” Doucette says. Doucette enjoys the varied nature of his work. “I like to do something different every part of the day, whether it’s centered around the building’s mechanicals and making sure everything is functioning properly, or turning over apartments, or overseeing handymen and the staff.” To Doucette, it’s all about giving people services.

I like to do something different every part of the day, whether it’s centered around the building’s mechanicals and making surew everything is functioning properly, or turning over apartments, or overseeing handymen and the staff.” “In a rental we make sure all the equipment works properly,” he says. “For instance, we make sure the dishwashers and microwave and stoves are properly working and safely.” Doucette enjoys the East Side neighborhood, especially how it offers great schools for his three children, an 11-year-old son and six-year-old, boy-girl twins. During his time off, Doucette puts the focus on family. “We’re Disney people,” he says. So that means every summer they make their way to Orlando, Florida for 10 days, “no matter how hot it is.” This year, because of construction at Disney World, they went to Legoland, SeaWorld and Universal Orlando. On their way back they took the auto-train, in order to stop in Washington, D.C. Doucette, a history buff, got to see the Pentagon, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. His interests include nostalgia for the Queens neighborhood where he grew up, including the site of the 1964 World’s

Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. He says he has happy childhood memories. These days he serves as the president of Metropolitan Building Manager’s of New York Club, for resident managers. The group has about 150 members. They meet regularly at local bars, and talk about issues that pertain to their jobs. They organize events, too, including a golf outing and a holiday party. Any remaining funds they donate to charitable organizations, which have included Toys for Tots, Ronald McDonald House and St. Jude’s. This year, however, Doucette wanted the charity of choice to be one that resonated deeply and personally with members of the club. The selection: a charity to benefit group homes for people with autism, suggested by another member. “Since we’re handy, we have the ability to help these group homes,” he says. “Besides just putting money on the table, we’ll paint rooms, and do whatever handy work they might need.”

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Silverstein Properties is honored to salute

Building Service Workers 32BJ SEIU

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

ON PATROL AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND IN MIAMI

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Stephanie ANNIVERSARY Doyle 2016 Security Officer Higher Education Building

CONGRATULATIONS 32BJ SEIU & Award Winners! We honor your valuable service to our community.

Busy Doyle takes union act on road

Chocolate Cheesecake. “It costs so much to buy, so why not make it myself? And I can share it with others,” she says. Doyle likes her job. She says she enjoys meeting At Columbia University, Doyle patrols the 116th Street area by car, working as a security officer a lot of different people “on a day to day basis, in the campus’ mobile unit. Part of her job is to talking to them, hearing their stories. It’s fun. escort affiliates and students from point A to You never know who or what you will bump into, or who you’re talking to. point B. It could be the King of Doyle’s first stint in Timbuktu or a person public safety has been Doyle likes her job. She says she who was born and raised at Columbia Univerin the neighborhood.” sity for the past three enjoys meeting a lot of different Stephanie Doyle is curyears, which came after people “on a day to day basis, talk- rently in Miami, on a sixa career change. She month leave of absence ing to them, hearing their stories. had been a manager at from Columbia Univermultiplex movie theIt’s fun. You never know who or sity. aters in both Florida what you will bump into, or who In Miami, she is reachand New York, where ing out to non-unionized she worked for many you’re talking to. It could be the property workers. “I ask years. One of her reKing of Timbuktu or a person who them questions about sponsibilities included their experiences, and training new hires, so was born and raised in the neighguide them if they wish she brings with her borhood.” to become union memplenty of experience to bers,” Doyle says. “I inher new pursuits. form them about union Doyle is also her own best student. She has taught herself the art of benefits, living wage and respect on the job.” When she returns to her post at Columbia baking and the craft of crochet, by watching tutorials on YouTube and reading books. One University in November, she says she will also long-term project is due to be completed by this be continuing her education in the security proThanksgiving—an oval, crochet tablecloth for a fession by taking classes to become a trainer of dinner she is planning with family and friends at aspiring security officers. Presently, “being a security officer is giving me that experience so her home in Brooklyn. Baking is another passion of Doyle’s. In addi- when the day comes to be in front of the students, tion to creating cupcakes and brownies, one of I’ll be able to answer all their questions clearly,” her self-imposed challenges is to bake a Godiva Doyle says. BY GENIA GOULD

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

THE RHYTHM OF THE CRAFT Frank Shaw says self-composure is as important as the skill you bring to the job BY NICOLE LOCKWOOD

For Frank Shaw, a porter at the Nathan Hale Co-Op in Forest Hills, Queens, his job hardly seems like work. His commitment to his job has earned him Outerborough Residential Worker of the Year by 32BJ. “The most rewarding part of the job is that I enjoy what I do,” Shaw says. “I like the people that surround me. We get along good. It’s like a little family here.” This work is evident, as the building has a reputation for its cleanliness and aesthetic appeal. You might find Shaw the basement, arranging the compactor room, vacuuming, or maintaining the lawn and foliage on the property. “When you come to work you give 110 percent,” he says. “Show the boss that you’re here not just to work, but to work hard.” Shaw, 62, has lived in New York his entire life, growing up in Manhattan. He was 21 when he started working at

You need to have a good attitude. Sometimes people come downstairs and they’re having a bad day or just aren’t happy, so sometimes you got to be strong enough and brush it off your shoulders and keep going. You can’t let them take you out of your rhythm.” The Balfour, just a few streets from the Nathan Hale Co-Op, as a doorman. He then worked for a moving company, but returned to the Balfour realizing that it would be a better career move. When the job opportunity at the nearby Nathan Hale Co-Op arose, he was eager to take it.

His commute, which begins at 4:30 a.m. from his home in the Bronx, is time-consuming, but he makes sure to arrive to work early. He attributes his success as a porter to what he says is his composure — and a strong work ethic. “You need to have a good attitude. Sometimes people come downstairs and they’re having a bad day or just aren’t happy, so sometimes you got to be strong enough and brush it off your shoulders and keep going. You can’t let them take you out of your rhythm,” he says. Upon learning that he was being honored by 32BJ, he was overwhelmed by feelings of both excitement and disbelief. Shaw regards the union highly, and tries his best to maintain an active role in their events and meetings. “I go to all meetings and all functions with the union if I can,” Shaw says. “I attend mostly everything they offer because I know they will be there to help me when I need them.” Though he reflects upon his years as a porter at the Nathan Hale Coop fondly, he is looking to further his career in the world of residential

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Outer Borough Residential Worker of the Year property. Shaw has been applying and interviewing for several concierge jobs within Manhattan, and hopes to

bring his experience as both a doorman and a porter to any new position the future might hold.

100 Years of Excellence

Kaufman Organization vision for the future Frank Shaw, outerborough residential worker of the year, at the Nathan Hale Co-Op in Forest Hills. Photo: Nicole Lockwood

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THE NEW YORK YANKEES ARE PROUD SUPPORTERS OF THE SEIU LOCAL 32BJ AND SALUTE ALL OF THE 2016 HONOREES

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2016 Building Service Workers of the Year

A SCHOOL’S CORNERSTONE Walter DeJesus steps up to the plate for both job and family BY SARAH STEIN KERR

Everybody knows when Walter DeJesus, a janitor at the Lehman High School Educational Campus, goes on vacation. “When Walter goes on vacation, it takes three or four people to replace him,” says Trey Hodges, a 9th grade biology teacher at Westchester Square Academy, one of the six schools in the building. DeJesus, 39, might be the only person in his building who expressed surprise that he is this year’s 32BJ Public School Cleaner of the Year. “I’m gonna be honest with you,” he says, “when you first called me I was shocked. I didn’t expect it.” Although his shift starts every day at 3 p.m., DeJesus often arrives an hour early. As students stream out of the building, DeJesus gets to work on cleaning around 60 classrooms, sweeping, spot-mopping, taking out the trash and cleaning up graffiti. On top of the responsibilities of his job, which often keep him in the building past midnight, DeJesus is also the shop steward for the team of 20 janitors working in the complex. DeJesus has been the steward for seven years

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Public School Cleaner and as a results frequently fields phone calls at all hours of the day and night. “I try to make sure that the guys are getting treated right here and that everybody is being treated fairly,” he says. DeJesus joined 32BJ in 2001 when he was working at a janitor in a residential building in the Bronx. When his got his current job, he continued working at both buildings for almost two years, with most days clocking in at over 18 hours. “It was tough. But then my wife got

pregnant with my son, who is 13 now, so once she gave birth, my wife was like ‘you have to make a decision.’” DeJesus chose Lehman, where he hopes his son will attend Westchester Square Academy for high school. “I think it will be good for him,” DeJesus says. “I have a good relationship with a lot of the teachers on my floor.” When DeJesus isn’t working, he dedicates his time to coaching his son’s baseball team. “I really enjoy that because I get to spend a lot of time with him.” DeJesus may be a bit sheepish about this honor; he does not take it for granted. “I appreciate getting nominated. They could have chosen anyone from the five boroughs and they chose me,” he says. “It meant a lot to me.”

When Walter goes on vacation, it takes three or four people to replace him.”

Walter DeJesus, public school cleaner of the year, at the Westchester Square Academy on the Lehman High School campus. Photo: Sarah Stein Kerr

DAILY DUTY WINS THE DAY Yolanda Geronimo looks forward to a university degree BY NICOLE LOCKWOOD

Yolanda Geronimo was recognized as midtown office cleaner of the year.

When 25-year-old Yolanda Geronimo ventured from her home country of Mexico to the United States, she was unsure of what the future would hold for her. Though abandoning the place she called home posed a big risk, she soon found that the States had much to offer. Now 54, Geronimo has been honored as the Midtown Office Cleaner of the Year. “I was so happy when I found out I had won,” Geronimo says. “I have never been awarded anything in my life.” Geronimo currently works at the WeWork co-working office space on West 18th Street. Her daily duties include maintaining conference rooms, communal areas, hallways, bathrooms and other parts of the office. Though buildings in Manhattan, particularly within the Midtown area, employ countless cleaners, Geronimo was selected for the award due to her positive attitude toward the job and overall outlook regarding her daily tasks. She believes that someone in

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Yolanda ANNIVERSARY Geronimo 2016

Midtown Office Cleaner her position must possess certain characteristics to be successful as a cleaner. “You need to be friendly and just be a hard worker,” says Geronimo. “You really just have to be happy while you’re doing your job.” Geronimo maintains the belief that she must keep up a good work ethic to set an example for her children. Her

four daughters, at 30, 23, 20 and 17 years of age, are proud of what their mother has accomplished thus far in her life. “It’s important because I want my daughters to be good people and hard workers,” Geronimo explains. “Working gives you great value in life.” Despite Geronimo’s fears and doubts upon immigrating to the United States, she was certain a life in New York would provide for better opportunities in terms of quality of life and job prospects. She left behind her job as an elementary school teacher to join her husband, who had already moved and settled in New York. “I was scared because of the language barrier, but what comforted me was knowing my husband was here already,” says Geronimo. The award recipient is satisfied with her present situation, saying that the treatment of employers toward their workers is better here than in Mexico. As far as what may happen in the next phase of Geronimo’s life, she is openminded when it comes to changing her career path, wishing to someday return to school and earn a degree.

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Congratulations To All The Nominees and Winners of the 2016 Building Service Workers Awards

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FAITH AND PHOTOGRAPHY The Met presents a timeless city captured by a moment BY MARY GREGORY

Auguste Salzmann, a French photographer whose work is strong enough to get into the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has never had a one-man show before. He died in 1872. “Faith and Photography: Auguste Salzmann in the Holy Land” presents a collection of his evocative and beautiful black and white images of landscapes and architecture in and around Jerusalem. The exhibition, curated by Anjuli J. Lebowitz and Jeff L. Rosenheim runs through Feb. 5. Comfortably filling three rooms with rare salted paper prints, it’s aesthetically and historically captivating and rewarding. Salzmann was born to wealthy parents and studied art, but his interests and abilities exceeded narrow definitions. He chose not to enter the family textile business, but rather to pursue a career as a painter, exhibiting in the salons of Paris. Possessed of a restless mind and seemingly boundless curiosity, as his interests grew, so did the realm of his studies and his capabilities. Salzmann’s Christian beliefs and fascination with the past led him to study biblical archeology, and he was among the earliest artists to dabble with the camera. He had the particular set of skills needed just when the right opportunity arose. In 1850, Louis Félicien Caignart de Saulcy, the French archeologist who would later conduct the first dig in the Holy Land, returned from an expedition with drawings that he claimed proved that many of Jerusalem’s buildings and sites dated, at least in part, to the time of King Solomon. Critics ridiculed him, finding the idea laughable, and fellow scholars suggested that he falsified his hand-made documentation. Salzmann joined the fray in 1853, lugging his equipment to a city few archeologists visited during the era of Ottoman rule. He wasn’t attempting to create travel photographs, and he

didn’t. Rather, he focused tightly on the religious structures — the temples, churches and mosques — that fill Jerusalem. By letting his camera record specific sites and isolated architectural details, he let the facts, as presented in stark black and white defined by the blinding desert sun, speak for themselves. They confirmed de Saulcy’s drawings. On Salzmann’s return to Paris, de Saulcy described his satisfaction at having been vindicated by no less a witness than the sun. It took him four months for Salzmann to record what would become an album of 174 prints; the exhibition presents about 40. The images give an impression of a city ever in the past while also ever in the present. Visitors

A fountain built by Süleyman the Magnificent in 1536–37 photographed by Auguste Salzmann in 1853. Photo: Adel Gorgy

The wall of the Old City and Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock as seen in 1853. Photo: Adel Gorgy today look up at the arches and gates, domes and walls depicted in the photographs. But the experience of seeing them in these prints feels strangely personal and immediate, since Salzmann’s images are completely devoid of people. There are no cars or fashions to date or muddle the picture. We see only buildings, foregrounds and clean white sky. Whether sweeping vistas, as in the view of the Dome of the Rock from outside the city walls, or in complex patterns of brickwork or carved stone that decorate the structures, the crisp tones and minimalist aesthetic appeal to modern sensibilities. Yet, we never step into the realm of the purely visual. These are, after all, images of some of the most revered religious sites in the world. A photograph of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with its domes, stairways, windows and multiple facades, the outcome of centuries’ worth of building and rebuilding, is a trove of details that document not just history, but the many faiths that hold this particular place sacred. “Jérusalem, Fontaine Arabe, 2” shows one of six fountains built by Süleyman the Magnificent in 1536–37. The composition uses positive and negative space, squares and arches, and endless gradations of gray against an empty background to enhance the monumentality of the structure. In another work, “Jérusalem, Tombeau des Juges, Détails,” just inside the entrance to the tomb are barely visible traces of 63 individual rock-cut tombs within.

The rich blackness of the opening, utter in its darkness, expresses more than just the formal qualities of the architecture. It’s a gaping mouth, echoing eternity, into which few visitors would likely venture. Salzmann was, after all, a scholar with an attentive scientist’s eye, a believer’s faith and

an artist’s romantic soul. Salzmann’s photographs both capture the beauty of the city and evoke a sense of wonder. In “Faith and Photography” we see evidence of the march of millennia, but feel Jerusalem as a place where time seems to somehow stand still.

Auguste Salzmann’s photograph of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is rich with historic and architectural details. Photo: Adel Gorgy

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LIBRARY’S ROSE READING ROOM REOPENS The grand Rose Main Reading Room at the main library on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street has reopened to the public after more than two years of repairs and restorations. The work, began in summer 2014, after one of the ceiling’s ornamental gilded-plaster rosettes crashed to the floor and shattered in the middle of the night. An evaluation of the reading room, as well as that of the adjacent catalog room, named for library trustee and benefactor Bill Blass, followed. The restoration and repairs, which cost $12 million, included the recreation of the rosette that fell, the reinforcement of 900 rosettes with steel cables, the recreation of a mural in the catalog room, the restoration of chandeliers and other work. “The Library has eagerly anticipated the reopening of these glorious rooms, architectural gems which for over 100 years have been home to scholars, writers, students, and all members of the public who want to access our renowned research collections, learn, and create,” the president of the New York Public Library, Tony Marx, said.

The Rose Main Reading Room, pictured, and the adjacent Bill Blass Public Catalog Room, reopened last week following two years of repairs and restorations. Photo: Max Touhey Photography

CITY PREPARES FOR CLIMATE CHANGE But with worries about what could happen in ‘the near term’ BY MADELEINE THOMPSON

As Hurricane Matthew battered Haiti and parts of Florida on Oct. 6, roughly 50 concerned citizens gathered in Lower Manhattan to discuss protecting their city from climate change. Superstorm Sandy’s considerable impact on the area in 2012 shone a spotlight on the lack of adequate planning for severe flooding and damage. In an effort to avoid being caught unaware in the future, the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency project has been hosting workshops for residents and experts. The goal: to collaborate on new and improved protection methods that are expected to begin construction in 2018. “What about the fact that in the near term, before 2018, there’s a darn good chance that we could get hit with something?” asked a Lower Manhattan resident and attendee at last week’s workshop. “Is anything being done to help us in the near term?” In response, Michael Shaikh, deputy director for external affairs at the Office of Recovery and Resiliency, assured her that some measures had already been taken, like updating the city’s evacuation plan and updating build-

ing codes. In August 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced OneNYC, his vision for addressing issues of growth, equity, sustainability and resiliency. The Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency project, which is sponsored by groups such as the Office of Recovery and Resiliency and the Economic Development Corporation, was outlined as a priority of OneNYC. After Sheikh’s presentation, attendees at the workshop split into small groups to discuss possible protection measures and brainstorm various priorities. Mat Staudt, an architect at One Architecture, explained to the group he was facilitating that environmental change “is a moving target.” “The design team has to approach it understanding that there’s a high degree of uncertainty,” he said. Teresa Llorente, vice president of Haks civil engineering, participated in the workshop out of desire to contribute her skills to problem-solving. “It’s a community,” she said of Lower Manhattan. “Whether it’s a community of people working, a community of residents, people want to keep their lives intact. There were so many businesses that couldn’t open up after Sandy. You feel for those people.” Catherine Hughes, a member Com-

munity Board 1 who has been involved in resiliency efforts, expressed frustration with the timeline of the process. Hughes said she’s prefer to be farther along with planning and funding for an initiative that transcends administrations. “Now it’s de Blasio, and when it ends there will be another mayor,” she said. “That’s what’s frustrating. Extreme weather events need more than looking at one election cycle.” Though she was glad to see that the workshop attracted many people, she lamented that funding and bureaucracy had gotten in the way of something that has long been a concern of Community Board 1 and its constituents. Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@strausnews.com

The purpose of the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency Project is to reduce flood risk from coastal storms and sea level rise. The project spans from Manhattan’s Two Bridges neighborhood to Battery Park City. Illustration: Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency

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OCTOBER 13-19,2016

Business

In Brief RENT FREEZE OPEN TO MORE IN CITY The city is extending its rent freeze program to 20,000 more New Yorkers. Targeting seniors through the Senior Citizens Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) and the Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE), the initiative freezes rent to help those eligible stay in their homes. “Keeping New Yorkers in their homes has been a top priority of this administration since day one and our Rent Freeze Program is designed to do just that,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “A person should not be forced to leave the place they’ve called home because they’ve been priced out or are unable to work due to a disability.” The city is also launching new efforts to inform tenants about the Rent Guidelines Board’s freeze on one-year rent-stabilized leases, and twopercent increase on two-year leases—both of which took effect on Oct. 1. Approximately 1.6 million New Yorkers live in rent-stabilized apartments that have leases coming up for renewal during the term affected by these guidelines. In July, 2014, with support from the de Blasio Administration, the New York State Legislature increased the income ceiling for rent freeze programs from $29,000 to $50,000. Since then, the city has enrolled over 20,000 people. The administration has identified the following underenrolled programs with possibly eligible candidates. On that list: Stuyvesant Town/Turtle Bay, the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side.

TARGET SETS SIGHTS ON URBAN SHOPPERS Tribeca location is smaller version of its typical outlet BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO

Target is thinking small to win over shoppers. The discounter opened a store in downtown Manhattan last week that’s just its second location in Manhattan and is one-third the size of its regular stores. This store in the Tribeca area is part of Target’s strategy to open dozens of small stores in the U.S. that are customized to college towns and dense urban markets. The two-level store, still 45,000 square feet, is geared to young couples, families, working professionals and students. It has a Chobani Cafe offering salads and yogurt drinks in what is the trendy yogurt maker’s first retail partnership. It’s also testing an area for shoppers to make customized T-shirts and features art from a local artist. At the front of the store, online shoppers can pick up their orders. And it’s testing a checkout strategy similar to Whole Foods, where shoppers queue according to a color. Minneapolis-based Target plans to invest nearly $1 billion in stores this year, including new store openings. Others in the works in the same for-

ASK A BROKER BY ANDREW KRAMER

Our children are now going to a wonderful school downtown, which is prompting us to consider selling our Upper East Side apartment. We haven’t moved in years and we don’t know whether we should look/buy before we sell? This question comes up often and the answer is based on your personal finances and your level of your emotional tolerance. If your next purchase will be in a co-op (vs. a condo, townhouse or single family home in the suburbs), it’s important to realize that Boards will look to see that all of your real estate holdings (current home plus new purchase) represent no more than 25% of your gross income. That said, unless you have the means to carry BOTH places within this threshold (some Boards will allow a few additional percentage points),

Photo: Mike Mozart, via flickr mat will be in Philadelphia and State College, Pennsylvania, near Penn State. The new store format is part of Target’s strategy to boost sales and customer traffic under CEO Brian Cornell. The company reported in August that sales at established stores fell 1.1 percent, after seven straight quarters of

any wise broker will put the brakes on the deal as your Board Package is not going to get the stamp of approval. If your finances allow it, there’s nothing that’s going to stand in your way of purchasing before you sell. However, carrying two properties simultaneously isn’t the ideal scenario for most sellers. If market conditions are favorable at the time you list the property, it should be a relatively quick and painless process to endure until you have a signed contract. However, if activity is not brisk and there’s limited interest and offers are not materializing, anxiety can set in and you may end up lowering your price or accepting an offer that you would never have entertained had you sold before you bought. The best way to avoid this from happening, although not the most convenient, is wait until you have a signed contract BEFORE you start your search (looking beforehand will not only put you in the same quandary, now you will be kicking

gain. And it also saw fewer customers in the store. Expanding into the smaller-store format can be risky. Early this year, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, closed all 102 Wal-Mart Express stores, its smallest format that aimed to be a convenient option for people in rural and urban areas.

The stores were about 12,000 square feet and offered essentials like toothpaste. But Wal-Mart said there was too much of an overlap with its Neighborhood Market stores. Shannon Buhro, Target’s district team leader for the New York area, says she believes the new Target will attract customers who had previously shopped at several different stores in the area, from drugstores to food and small clothing stores, to fill their needs. She also noted that the store will have more sales associates than stores of similar formats, since the company expects heavy traffic at this one. “It’s going to be localized,” she said. “Are we going to see people coming from other neighborhoods? I think we will.” On the first level of the Manhattan Target store are trendy clothes, including some for children, and a selection of stylish home goods like candles, dishes and pillows. The Chobani Cafe is off to the side. The basement level looks more like a typical Target, with a wide assortment of food including perishables, more clothes and home products and beauty products. The electronics area focuses on smaller TVs to fit customers’ apartments.

Photo: angela n., via flickr

yourself for walking away if you happen upon the “ideal” home and you’ll be comparing everything else you see to the “one that you let get away”) and move into temporary housing – whether a rental in the city or with family in the ‘burbs – until you find and close on your next place. There’s another option that I like to recommend to my sellers whenever possible…and that is a delayed closing or a “rent back” arrangement. If your buyers have time on their side,

you may be able to agree to delay the closing (typically 3 months from contract signing) or close first and “rent back” the apartment from the new buyers for a specific time while you search and close on your future home. (While your buyer may be OK with this, their attorney may advise them otherwise). Any way you approach it, there’s an element of discomfort involved, and your specific circumstances will dictate what’s best for you.

OCTOBER 13-19,2016

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RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS SEP 23 - OCT 07, 2016

Nocciola Pizzeria

123 E 110Th St

Grade Pending (60) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding. 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. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Subway

1885 3 Avenue

A

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 212 Pizzaman

188 E 104Th St

A

Grand Cafe (Metropolitan Hospital)

1901 2 Avenue

A

Subway

1392 Madison Avenue A

Lexington Restaurant

1863 Lexington Avenue

Grade Pending (18) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

A

1590 Lexington Ave

A

El Chevere Cuchifritos Bakery

2002 3Rd Ave

Absolute Thai Restaurant La Shuk

1569 Lexington Ave

A

King Food

2036 2Nd Ave

A.M. Deli Juice Bar Food Inc

308 E 116Th St

A

Milk Burger Express

2051 2 Avenue

A

Burger King

1886 3Rd Ave

A

Hong Kong Restaurant

1703 Lexington Ave

A

New NYC Yoan Ming Garden

1407 Madison Ave

Grade Pending (28) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.

Grade Pending (35) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food worker does not wash hands thoroughly after using the toilet, coughing, sneezing, smoking, eating, preparing raw foods or otherwise contaminating hands. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Malii

2028 2Nd Ave

Grade Pending (25) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

La Preciosa China Restaurant

163 East 116 Street

A

Neapolitan Express

232 E 111Th St

A

Joosed By Lloyd’s

1555 Lexington Ave

Grade Pending (45) Food from unapproved or unknown source or home canned. Reduced oxygen packaged (ROP) fish not frozen before processing; or ROP foods prepared on premises transported to another site. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Mamagyro

165 E 106Th St

A

Saba’s Pizza

1376 Lexington Avenue

A

East Garden

1685 1St Ave

A

Reif’s Tavern

302 East 92 Street

A

Pascalou

1308 Madison Avenue A

Corner Cafe And Bakery

1645-1651 Third Avenue

A

Three Decker Restaurant

1746 2 Avenue

A

Nick’s Restaurant Pizzeria

1814 2 Avenue

B

Naruto Ramen

1596 3 Avenue

A

Dtut

1744 2Nd Ave

A

Thai Peppercorn

1750 1St Ave

A

118 Kitchen

1 E 118Th St

A

Judy’s Spanish Restuarant

1505 Lexington Ave

Not Yet Graded (28) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.

Mcdonald’s

1997 3 Avenue

A

La Casa Saludable

352 E 116Th St

A

Little Caesars

1936 3 Avenue

A

Q Marqet

38 E 98Th St

A

Taco Bell Pizza Hut Express 173 East 116 Street

A

Moon House Chinese Restaurant

1810 3 Avenue

A

Dear Mama

308 E 109Th St

A

Healthier Choices

2107 1 Avenue

A

Crepe Cafe

1642 Lexington Ave

Grade Pending (27) Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.

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OCTOBER 13-19,2016

OCTOBER 13-19,2016

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

YOUR 15 MINUTES

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

A SUPERHERO WHO IS RAISING AWARENESS Bret Parker is running the New York City Marathon to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

“I had always dreamed of running the New York City Marathon ... I saw them wear those metal blankets and to me, they looked like superheroes,” said Bret Parker, a Manhattan native. He ran for the first time in 1996 with his childhood best friend and calls himself a “serial runner,” having participated on and off since then. When he was 38, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. “It’s not just a disease for old people. People get it in their 20s, 30s and 40s. ... And so, it’s more relevant to people than they realize and hopefully that should give them a sense of urgency to help find a cure.” This year, he is running the Nov. 6 marathon for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research to try and help finding that cure. Headquartered in Midtown, the organization was a resource for Parker when he was first diagnosed and had questions about the disease. A few years later, he became active with Team Fox, which is the organization’s community fundraising program. Because of his involvement, he was asked to become a member of their patient council, which consists of patients from across the country in different phases of the disease, who share their experiences to assist with the foundation’s research. A graduate of Fordham Law, Parker serves as executive director of the New York City Bar Association. The voluntary association, made up of about 24,000 lawyers and law students, is a resource for lawyers not only in the city, but around the world.

I read your piece in Forbes, which was the first time you spoke of your diagnosis publicly. What made you want to do it in that way? After a few years, I had started to tell a couple of close friends and family. And every time I told someone my story, it was very upsetting to me and them. It was very emotional to go through it. And I decided that it was just easier to rip the bandage off all at once and tell everybody at one time. So I wrote the blog and just sent people an email that said, “Go read this.” I also figured it would be a good way to do a fundraiser, so at the same time that I told everybody, David Samson, my childhood best friend, did this double marathon and I ran one leg of it with him. And we raised money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. That was the first time I had done a fundraiser.

What kinds of symptoms made you get checked out?

As the people at the Fox Foundation say, when people ask, “If I have Parkinson’s, should I exercise,” the answer is, “If you have Parkinson’s, you should exercise. If you don’t have Parkinson’s, you should exercise.” The research does show that exercise helps. It keeps you strong; it keeps you flexible. It’s really important. My doctor’s view is any exercise that I’m comfortable doing, I should feel free to do. Now, marathoning is a little extreme; it’s tough on your body. But I know myself and if I don’t have a goal as ambitious as a marathon, I won’t run. And that’s what happened all those years in between my marathon. If I didn’t have a goal, I wouldn’t exercise.

All I had at that time was a very slight tremor in my right hand when I would pour like a big bottle of soda, which a lot of people have. And for a lot of people it’s very normal, but I figured I’d better get it checked out. I actually thought it was carpal tunnel syndrome. [Laughs] I went to my doctor, and he was concerned enough to send me to a neurologist. And the neurologist, after literally a 7-minute appointment, said, “Oh, you have Parkinson’s.” There’s no blood test; there’s no chemical test. They basically do it through a series of observations. And then I went to a specialist who took an hour and a half and she had the same answer. But I felt better because it was a longer appointment. [Laughs] Explain how you first got involved with the Michael J. Fox Foundation. When I first got diagnosed, the first thing I did was go to their website just for information. At 38 years old, you don’t think of Parkinson’s. I didn’t really know anything about it. The first thing I asked the doctor is, “Am I going to die from this?” I didn’t even know whether it was terminal. So I go to the Michael J. Fox website and it was great and had all this information for patients and things about symptoms. And then I noticed they had a fundraising effort called Team Fox, which is for individuals who do runs or pancake breakfasts, pretty much anything. Since I’m not a doctor or researcher, I can’t find the cure myself, so figured I could help raise money for people who would find the cure.

How is it different running with Parkinson’s? First of all, it’s harder to run. My right side is stiff. My leg gets stiff. My arm gets stiff. I get a tremor in my hand. So I have to take more medicine when I’m running to try to help offset some of the symptoms. In the course of the marathon, I’ll probably take as much medication as I would usually take in a full day. I usually take medicine every few hours. When I’m running, I feel like it’s using it up more quickly, so I’ll take it every hour or two just to keep myself from getting cramps and stiffness and tremors and all that.

What is the New York City Bar Association and what does your job as executive director entail?

You’re a member of the foundation’s patient council. What does that entail? After I got involved with the foundation for a couple of years, they asked me to join the patient council. It’s a group of about 15 or 20 patients from all across the country, all different ages and phases of the disease and with all different kinds of symptoms. And we get together a couple of times a year with the foundation and they talk to us about research they’re working on and we talk to them about what we’re experiencing. And they use us sometimes as a focus group and to get feedback on website changes or clinical trial programs or things that they’re working on. So it’s a dialogue where we get to meet with them a couple of times a year.

Bret Parker during the run portion of a triathlon in 2014. Courtesy of Bret Parker.

To donate to Bret’s run for a cure, www2. michaeljfox.org/goto/bretrun To learn about the foundation, visit www. michaeljfox.org

Did you ever meet Michael? I did. I was fortunate enough to meet Michael a couple of times. He’s just a fantastic person. You know him from his shows and movies, and he’s just as nice as you think he would be.

How do your doctors advise you in regards to training for and running the marathon?

It’s a voluntary association of approximately 24,000 lawyers and law students. It’s an opportunity for people to come together to get education, write committee reports, network, socialize and advocate for changes in the law. We don’t handle the bar exam or bar admission; we don’t discipline lawyers. We’re a resource for lawyers, not just around the city, but around the state, country and world. Our headquarters is on 44th between 5th and 6th, where all those clubs are, so it’s right next to the Penn Club, the Princeton Club, right between Grand Central and Times Square. We hold hundreds of events there every year; we write hundreds of reports every year.

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

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it on the floo as red d plain, e foot uc building e the heigh as well three. from four t of the storie HAPP s to The ref urbishe would SNOWY LITTLE d sit FLAKES pier pil atop newl bu ild ing y food ma ings and restored Reme board co Transpa officia sio’s fi mber Mayo Jean-G rket overseenntain a expre ls, but rst r Bil eorge linger ov rency concer by sse me W ch Th s Vong hat a winter in his l de Blaef mbers e pr ns develop d concern dif fer redeveloper Howard Hu new years the de oposal also erichten. er ’s vis s that the ence Se ma molit ca lls a coup job? Seaport ment plans ghes’ pieapor t is be ion for th Ho ion for Hit wi kes. le of for the ing e tw use and Lin of the He ceme after th a snow ad o dil k Bu compre al instead relea sed sto tak new ma ing off ice rm shortly of in on adjacen apidated str ild ing, hensive Howa BY DAN t e in pro uc The new would yor fumble in 2014, th IEL FIT front ofto the Tin Bu tures CB1’s rd Hughes posal. d in a wa ZSIMM e co Jan. 19 ly restored me Pie ild joi ONS Re half of ing r 17. to The joi cen Tin presen South nt La nd mamet with his ter define th y that nt La nd tation Building, as by the tly announ Stree un So rk e m. to Comm fi ut fir s lle envisio ced Ho h ma Ce Po an t Seap st d. Stree nter d Ce plans poration ward Hu ned unity Bo storm Official wa tholes we t Seap rks and nter gh pla ns on Jan. 19 or t/Civic nt ’s ard 1. in Howard Hu at the for the Tin es Corfor th to unve Residen severity wernings on the a resolucomm ittee or t/Civic ghes a fou e s passe re mu ts in ne re ce iveSouth Stree Building r-s tory Tin Build il the pr tion in did dd igh d n’t led t supp structur ing bo op prov al d preli mi Seaport plaine vote for de rhoods tha . e at thelandm arke , of Howa osal, but req or t of na co d from being that their strBlasio com-t comm ry ap - Hording to the Seaport. Acd pla n for rd Hughes uested plo un ity a was lat wed -- a eets weren - ing wa rd Hu gh presentation - the Seap redevelopmmaster su ’t es ort , wo to mo tion-trucer proven spicion tha ve the is propos uld inc as a whole ent at ou t Tin Bu , wh lude the This k GPS data. t by sanitailding compa ich new detime aroun ny’s CONTINU d, ED ON ch arge Blasio seem an entirely PAGE 5 was for . Before th ed to be Sanitati e storm in ceful, Ins on bu tea , t no he d architect Dept. build closin of jumpin t panicke d. g g storm ure, is press ing, praised waited subways or the gun an ed into for d service its then ac for the storm schools, he during detectedted decisive to develop the , We do a sense of huly. We even n’t wa mor in The bu cre nt it all dit tha to give BY DEE to life ilding looks him mo . someth n is due, PTI HAJ , all re bu ELA ing can loo angles an like a mode t there about seeme rn d wa thi d nation k bluish or gra edges, with art painting New Yo to bring ou s storm tha s t rkers. t the be in any of the three. yish or wh concrete wa come On Su itish, or settin lls st of functi g, but It would be some that alpine nday, the cit an no on pounds it was cre ne more tha unusual str combiskiers vil lage. Cr y felt like an ate uc of the n rock sal d for --- sto the fairly pro ture snow plied the pa oss-cou nt ry rin t bo sai tha rks g CONTINU c tho t the cit hot ch ots and pa , people y’s De usands of ED ON ololat rkas ord in partm PAGE 29 wi es, th su ered kid ent of of sledd nburned fac s came home es after ding. There a day tent. Qu were pock ets the plo eens reside of disco nand elew trucks by nts felt th at the sch cted offici passed them, als closed ools should there sa id for ha But ov another da ve stayed %TGCVKX just en erall, consid y. G 9TKVK PI r &CPEG snows dured the secering we ha r /QVK torm in d QP 2KE lovely our his ond-biggest VWTG # litt TVU r and his le chapter tory, it was /WUKE a for the subjects r 6JG mayor CVTG r . 8KUWC

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Bu On Sa 13 10 15 siness BY EM ILY TOW parishioturday mo Minutes 16 NER rn and low ners, comm ing, archit 19 ered in er Manhatt unity me ects, mb vision St. Paul’s Ch an residents ers for Tr ap gat el hto discu inity Ch building ss urch’s The ex . new pa the rish Place acr isting bu ild been cle oss from Tr ing, on Tr inity inity Ch ared for 1923, urc de it the chu no longer sermolition. Buh, has tower rch and the ves the ne ilt in wi com ed The we ll be built in munity. A s of new in a ser ekend me its place. eti — collabies of commu ng was the needs orative for nity “charr fifth an um ett the low d wants of s to addre es” a whole er Manhatt the church ss the and an com . “In ou munit of r y initial as about charr buildinghow we wa ettes we talked for the to be a homented th is pa hood,” homeless an for the spi rish rit fer, Tr said the Re d for the neigh ual, v. Dr. Wi ini bor“We tal ty Wall Street lliam Lu ked ’s prector What ab . they wo out minis try act look,” uld be ivi Lu marke pfer said. , how they ties. wo t underst study in ord“We condu uld cte desires and neighbo er to objec d a dream as well as rhood needtively s.” parish s and He sai hopes and sion em d the churc tality braces a ph h communit The can tha ilo ride in coming t is “open sophy for y’s viCe carouseldidate’s owne ho , flexibl .” On the ntral Park. “We wa e and spifamilia puts New Yo rship of the wela white wall next to nt it street r bind rkers in , access to be visiblP.9 > that rea placard wi the entrance a Gemm ible to e from the com and Re ds, “Trum th red letter is well, a Whitema the CONTINU p Ca munit gulat ing who we n and ind It’s y, BY DAN Engla ED ON Joel Ha re on lat icatio ions” -- rousel Ru PAGE 6 weekd e afternoon IEL FITZSIMM presid ns that Do one of the les day, nd and rode vacation uxONS ay, an on only sai the en fro nald a mi tial d lining opera bearing d they notic carousel Mo m up to pakids and tou ld winter tes the candidate, J. Trump, ed the Trum ntially ow car ris y Tr $3 for “It p’s ns an placar New Yo a qu ts are see um p’s po ousel. d ma was in my name. OurTown d rk mo lit ics ping int n, he ment: intesenDowntow wh ad o the car have be 20gav a carou weigh 16 e he en asked ,” said Wh n gu sel an aft a deep ernoo ousel, as rid n in En r pause. “H if the realiz iteOTDOW O n esc ly divisiv gla ati ers e’s NTOW like, ‘Do nd, so in my not very lik on e candid ape again N.COM st he ed I want ate. Newsche to give ad I was a bit ck money @OTD CO Cri me Wa NTINU to this owntown 2 Cit tch ED ON y

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OurTown EastSide

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AN EN D "BR TO WINDO OKEN WS"? NEW

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MORE THAN SCREATHE M

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VOL. 2, ISSUE 10

10-16

Our To wn ha The pa s much 2016, per celebrat to be thank an OTTY d this we es its 45th ful for. ek Award anniv made ersary winnershonors its a un lat The OT ique differe , noting pe est group in ople wh of nce on You -- TY award the o ha s ha munit ve always -- short for OuUpper East ve Sid be y strong. service, an en a reflect r Town Th e. d this anks year’s ion of deep Our ho list is parti combusiness norees inc cularly owners lude co heroe mm an s. Cardi We’re also d medical anunity activi na tak fall’s wi l Timothy ing a mome d public saf sts, Franc ldly succes Dolan, who nt to recog ety is. nize sheph sful vis Kyle Po In his interv erd it iew wi to the city ed last pressi pe, Dolan by th Our ref ng Town Pope warning issues sti lects on thaCI Editor ll TYit, ARon movin s he receiv facing the t vis TS, g to Ne city,2 an>d on the w York ed from his P.1 Read nine his profile, seven years friends be the OT TY an fore ag Thom awards d the profi o. pso les of the oth We are n, in the spe by repor the wi proud to bri cial sectio ter Madelei er nners n ne part of ng it to you inside. our com , and pro ud to cal munit y. l

OURTOW O NNY.C OM

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WEEK OF MAR CH

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