The local paper for the Upper East Side
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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MELEE FOLLOWS GOP CLUB EVENT CONFLICT NYPD under scrutiny for response to violence following Gavin McInnes event; police seeking 12 individuals BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
State Senator Liz Krueger stands by a plaque at Greenacre Park on East 51st Street at ceremonies earlier this month to mark the naming of the 47-year-old oasis, a gift of the Rockefeller family, to the National Register of Historic Places. Photo courtesy of Greenacre Foundation / Howard Jay Heyman
MINI-PARK SCORES MEGA-HONOR PRESERVATION Federal recognition bestowed on Greenacre Park, a tiny East Side oasis that had an outsized impact on streetscape and urban design BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Up until the late-1960s, the standard city park occupied three acres or more. It almost always fronted an avenue. It offered multiple entrances to pedestrians. And it cut off the street grid to barricade traffic flow. Then, mid-century planners devised the vest-pocket park: It could be as small as the footprint of a single building. It could fit on a discreet side street. It could sit amid shops and stoops in the very heart of midtown. Spawned by urban renewal, and the need to fill gaps in the streetscape left by the demolition of chunks of the urban fabric, a movement was born to bring little plots
It recharges our souls, lifts our moods, lowers our blood pressure, reduces our stress and raises our self-esteem.” State Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey of green into the city’s park-starved precincts. Leading the charge was Greenacre Park, a three-level, mid-block sliver park — dominated by a 25-foot-high waterfall that tumbles off granite blocks with a pool at its base — that opened on East 51st Street in 1971. A gift from the philanthropist Abby Rockefeller Mauze, the older sister of ex-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, the privately owned, publicly accessible,
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New York became the latest American city to play host to riotous political violence Oct. 12 when violent clashes between members of a far-right group and anti-fascist protesters erupted on the streets of the Upper East Side following a Metropolitan Republican Club event featuring the right-wing agitator and provocateur Gavin McInnes. Police are seeking nine individuals affiliated with the Proud Boys, a farright organization founded by McInnes, on charges of riot or attempted assault. The NYPD is also seeking three anti-fascist protesters police say were involved in the fighting, also on charges of riot or attempted assault. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson described the incident as “a violent mob attack by a hate group” at an Oct. 15 press conference in front of the Metropolitan Republican Club, at 122 East 83rd St. The Proud Boys’ “sole mission is to stoke fear and incite violence, not just here in New York City, but around the country,” Johnson said, referencing members’ involvement in recent violence in Portland, Oregon, and the August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, at which a woman was killed by a car driven by a white supremacist and dozens of others were injured. “Did we learn anything?” Johnson asked. “The Metropolitan Republican Club apparently did not.” Videos widely circulated on social media after the event show Proud Boys members kicking and punching several individuals on the 82nd Street
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Restaurant Ratings 44 Business 46 Real Estate 47 15 Minutes 53
The Metropolitan Republican Club was vandalized prior to an event featuring Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes. Photo: Michael Garofalo sidewalk after the McInnes event as police officers arrived on scooters. Some witnesses and elected leaders have questioned the NYPD’s failure to make any arrests at the scene. NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill rejected the criticism at an Oct. 15 press briefing. “Did you see the video?” O’Neill asked. “It was two or three cops on scooters. There was a group of about 20 people. As soon as they pulled up, everybody dispersed. The cops went to render aid to the people that appeared to be injured and they were refused, quite frankly.” “We should not be scapegoating our cops, who responded to a very chaotic scene,” NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said at a later press conference. Donovan Richards, the chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, which is responsible for oversight of the NYPD, forcefully criticized the department’s response to the incident as “nonexistent,” and called police “inept, incompetent and derelict in their
duties.” “We’ve seen schoolyard fights where people have been arrested on-scene,” Richards said. “Officers witnessed these individuals kicking and punching individuals. Without a doubt, those folks should have been arrested.” In a statement, the Metropolitan Republican Club defended its decision to invite McInnes: “We want to foster civil discussion, but never endorse violence. Gavin’s talk on Friday night, while at times was politically incorrect and a bit edgy, was certainly not inciting violence.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 50 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, October 19 – 5:52pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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OCTOBER 18-24,2018
LONG LOST STRAD TO SOUND AGAIN MUSIC 18th century violin stolen and then recovered is being loaned long-term to Juilliard student BY VERENA DOBNIK
The Stradivarius stolen from the late violinist Roman Totenberg and miraculously found more than three decades later has a new life — under the chin of a budding 18-year-old virtuoso. Last week, Totenberg’s three daughters presented the multimilliondollar instrument on long-term loan to Juilliard student Nathan Meltzer. Jill Totenberg said she and her sisters, Nina and Amy, “can now go to listen to our father� as if the Polishborn American violinist were playing again. “And once again, the beautiful, brilliant and throaty voice of that longstilled violin will thrill audiences in concert halls around the world,� said
Nina Totenberg, who with th her sisters joined Meltzer er at Rare Violins of New York, k, a world-class dealer that at restored Totenberg’s violin olin after years of neglect. The 18th century instrument ument was snatched in 1980 from om Totenberg’s dressing room m after a concert in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was recovered in 2015, after his death, among a former student’s belongings. The man’s exwife discovered it and tried ed to sell it, not knowing it had been stolen until an expert contacted the FBI. BI. The decadeslong theft saga ended when then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan returned the instrument to the Totenberg family familiar with it since they were children. “It was there when I was born,� said Nina Totenberg, the legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio. An anonymous benefactor then purchased it and made sure the public would again hear its sound.
The so-called “Ames� Stradivarius — named after a previous owner — �is one of the most fantastic examples of the late work of Antonio Stradivari; it’s a large instrument, so it needs somebody who is strong yet gentle to play it,� said Bruno Price, the cofounder of Rare Violins. “You need to have the strength to pull out the full
sound, but you can’t crush it.� A strapping, 6-foot teenager, Meltzer meets those criteria, said Price, adding, “He says the violin is waking up as he plays it.� Meltzer has performed around the United States and abroad, from London and Paris to Israel and Brazil. The loan to Meltzer, a student of violinist Itzhak Perlman, is part of a program created by Rare Violins of New York to match wealthy benefactors with promising young musicians.
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This Stradivarius was snatched in 1980 from Roman Totenberg’s dressing room after a concert in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was recovered by the FBI in 2015. The multimillion-dollar instrument, made in 1734 by luthier Antonio Stradivari, will be loaned to Juilliard student Nathan Meltzer. Photo: FBI
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th precinct for the week ending Oct 7 Week to Date
Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr
BICYCLIST MUGGED ON FIFTH AVE. Police are seeking two muggers who threatened to use a gun on a bicyclist. At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 4, a man was walking his bike northbound along Fifth Avenue near 95th Street when he was approached by two men, one said to be in his early 20s, who said they had a gun and demanded his backpack. He gave them his pack, which held $2,000 and personal items, and both men ran southbound to 94th Street, according to the account the man gave police. The bicyclist was then approached by another man, also 20, who punctured the bike’s front tire
Year to Date
2018 2017
% Change 2018
2017
% Change
Murder
0
0
n/a
0
n/a
Rape
0
1
-100.0 11
9
22.2
Robbery
4
1
300.0 117
92
27.2
Felony Assault
2
2
0.0
113
104
8.7
Burglary
1
6
-83.3
172
166
3.6
Grand Larceny
22
26
-15.4
1,079 1,051
Grand Larceny Auto
4
1
300.0 60
1
2.7
before running southbound toward 94th Street and getting into a black Nissan Maxima. A witness saw the incident and noted the car’s license plates. No gun was ever displayed.
$4,000 Rolex and wallet which held $200. The man was not injured.
BAG REMOVED FROM TRUCK CAB
APPLE WATCH TAKEN FROM MAN’S WRIST
SLIM PICKINGS FOR LATENIGHT BURGLAR
AFTERNOON MUGGING ON SECOND AVE.
At 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29, a 27-year-old man left his bag in the cab of his work truck, which he left unlocked while he moved items from 215 East 96th St. to the truck parked across the street. When he returned to the truck cab an hour later his bag was missing, police said. Missing is an iPhone SE, headphones, $140 and other personal items.
iPhones aren’t the only Apple products thieves love. A 32-year-old man walking south on the east side of Second Avenue near 64th Street on the evening of Thursday, Oct. 4, had his Apple watch stripped from his wrist by a thief who then ran southbound on Second Avenue.
A burglar got away with only $15 in cash after breaking into a local restaurant. At 2 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 8, a man lifted up the front gate and walked down an alley way to gain entry through the back door of the Eighteen Restaurant at 240 East 81st St. The burglar entered an office, where he tried to open the safe but failed. He succeeded in prying open a cash register, though, taking the $15.
A senior was preyed upon by a teenaged mugger on Second Avenue, police said. At 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 5, a 63-year-old man got off the M96 bus at Second Avenue and 96th Street and was walkings south when a male youth about 15 put a sharp object to the man’s right side, and took the man’s
IT’S MORE THAN A CALL It’s a way to keep you and your community safe. If you smell gas, leave the area immediately and call 911 or 1-800-75-CONED (26633). Learn more about gas safety at coned.com/gassafety
40
50.0
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Photo: Amy Barone
HOTEL SEVILLE BY AMY BARONE
Its Beaux-Arts crown will continue to impress passersby. No longer destined to make way for a new luxury dorm, the landmarked hotel lives on by Madison Square North. Haunting green bay windows remain, take me back to somewhere sweet. They once welcomed single ladies traveling solo when the idea was thought a bit shocking.
Its red brick façade stands tall amid glass skyscrapers lacking heart. A Tiffany skylight adorns modern décor. Years ago, once inside, I looked out while dancing to forro sounds at a Brazil Day bash. Now when I walk by, especially at dusk, I linger to gaze at grandness, listen to its music.
Sand-hued limestone lion heads and foliage survived a century of noise and wear. Amy Barone’s new poetry collection, “We Became Summer,” from New York Quarterly Books, was released in early 2018. She wrote chapbooks “Kamikaze Dance” (Finishing Line Press) and “Views from the Driveway” (Foothills Publishing). Barone’s poetry has appeared in Café Review, Paterson Literary Review, Sensitive Skin, and Standpoint (UK), among other publications. She belongs to PEN America Center and the brevitas poetry community. From Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she lives in New York City.
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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BLOOMBERG CHANGES PARTIES — AGAIN POLITICS With an eye toward 2020, ex-mayor, ex-Republican and ex-independent returns to the Democratic Party he abandoned almost two decades ago BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Ronald Reagan is the classic case of the Democrat who becomes a Republican. A champion of the New Deal and supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he officially changed his party registration in 1962. John Lindsay is the opposite: The classic case of the Republican who becomes a Democrat. The then-mayor swapped parties in 1971 before launching an abortive Democratic presidential nomination bid in 1972. The late U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Arlen Specter one-upped them both. Initially a Democrat, he joined the GOP in 1965 — and 45 years later, switched back to run as a Democrat in 2010, only to lose the race. But when it comes to repeatedly refashioning one’s partisan identity — and ponying up untold millions to
Wrong time, wrong place.” Mayor Bill de Blasio on a possible White House run by his predecessor rebrand multiple times — no one in recent memory can come close to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A Democrat who became a Republican who became an independent, the billionaire just became a Democrat again, completing, for now, a cycle in which he changed his voter registration three times and had four separate political affiliations, one a duplicate, over 18 years. The latest of the dizzying switcheroos — each one in sync with the electoral calendar, each seemingly driven by political considerations, not principles — came on Oct. 10 when Bloomberg signed paperwork to register as a Democrat and posted the photo on Instagram at 5:40 a.m.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
Ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg glad-hands dozens of voters at a get-out-the-vote and gun-safety rally in Nashua, N.H. on Oct. 13. He journeyed to the state with the first presidential primary in the nation three days after rejoining the Democratic Party. Photo: Via Bloomberg’s flickr page
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A not-so-subtle dig at President Donald Trump that accompanied the posting instantly stoked speculation that he was launching a White House bid in 2020. Which is exactly what happened the last time he changed party registration, from Republican to independent, and organized a third-party 2008 presidential campaign that never got off the ground. “At key points in U.S. history, one of the two parties has served as a bulwark against those who threaten our Constitution,” Bloomberg wrote in
describing why he reregistered. “Two years ago at the Democratic Convention, I warned of those threats. Today, I have re-registered as a Democrat — I had been a member for most of my life — because we need Democrats to provide the checks and balance our nation so badly needs,” he added. Three days later, he was off to New Hampshire. And there, at a get-out-the-vote rally in Nashua, in the state which holds the first presidential primary in America, he sought to defuse questions about a possible reprise of his Oval Office ambitions: “Right now, I’m only focused on the midterms, plain and simple,” he said.
Indeed, Bloomberg has pledged to spend $80 million on Democratic Congressional candidates in a bid to flip the House, plus an extra $20 million to boost Senate Democrats, a $100 million tally that dwarfs the $55 million GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson is forking over, making him the largest single largest political giver in the U.S. in 2018. But what will he do after the Nov. 6 midterms? “Well, we’ll have to see what happens down the road,” he said.
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Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a gun-safety and get-out-the-vote rally in Nashua, N.H. on Oct. 13. He traveled to the state just three days after he reregistered as a Democrat, fueling speculation about his Oval Office ambitions. Photo: Via Bloomberg’s flickr page
THE ROVING REGISTRATION OF MICHAEL BLOOMBERG Saga of the ex-mayor’s fluctuating party affiliations over nearly six decades: 1960 — First registers as a Democrat from family home in Massachusetts 2000 — Changes registration for first time. Leaves Democratic Party after 40 years, becomes a Republican, prepares for mayoral run 2001 — Elected to first term as mayor on GOP ticket a year after bolting Democratic Party 2004 — Backs Republican President George W. Bush for re-election over John Kerry 2005 — Re-elected to second term as mayor on GOP line 2007 — Changes registration for second time. Leaves GOP after seven years, becomes political independent, mulls White House run 2008 — Organizes third-party presidential bid as independent a year after bolting GOP, hires big staff, spends millions. Then nixes campaign, endorsing neither Barack Obama nor John McCain
2009 — Reelected to a third term as mayor as independent 2012 — Again stokes speculation of an independent presidential bid. After long delay, endorses Democratic President Barack Obama for reelection over Mitt Romney 2016 — Begins planning a third possible third-party presidential race as independent. Drops campaign again, backs Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump Oct. 10, 2018 — Changes registration for third time. Surrenders independent affiliation after 11 years, becomes Democrat. For the fourth time, mulls a putative White House run in 2020 Oct. 13, 2018 — Flies to New Hampshire to attend get-out-the-vote rally in state that holds America’s first presidential primary. Says he’s “only focused on the midterms” — Douglas Feiden
OCTOBER 18-24,2018 rial skills to the nation. But he’d also have to defend stop-and-frisk policies that alienated minorities, and he’d be vulnerable to the allegations of sexism and settlements of harassment at his business empire that first surfaced in his 2001 mayoral campaign. The changing of political sides is a longstanding Bloomberg tradition: As an 18-yearold, he first registered with the Democratic Party in 1960 from his parents’ home in Massachusetts. Flash forward 40 years, and he became a Republican in 2000, enabling him to steer clear of the crowded Democratic primary field and capture City Hall in 2001. Then, in his second term as mayor, he changed his registration a second time, dumping the GOP in 2007, becoming an independent, hiring a huge campaign staff to launch a White House bid, researching how to get on the ballot in all 50 states and signaling he’d spend $1 billion from his personal fortune to win in 2008. But he pulled the plug on the race. In 2012, he mulled a thirdparty independent presidential campaign, but never took the plunge. Ditto in 2016, when he nixed the idea for a third time
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Just three days after returning to the Democratic Party, ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg schmoozes with a potential voter on Oct. 13 in New Hampshire. Photo: Via Bloomberg’s flickr page before endorsing Hillary Clinton in her losing race against Trump. And now, it’s deja-vu all over again. As a 76-year-old who would be 78 in 2020, he’s now a born-again Democrat after a third registration change, an older white male, in a party moving toward women and minorities, who boasts a net worth of $52 billion and could easily self-finance a national campaign. But should he? His critics on both the left and right are troubled by his maneuverings. “Michael Bloomberg, if you watch, recently reregistered as a Democrat so that he can try to buy a Democrat nomination to run against Donald Trump,” said House Majority Leader and California Republican Kevin McCarthy in a TV interview
last week. “That’s unfortunate, and not very democratic with a small ‘D.’” And Mayor Bill de Blasio pooh-poohed his predecessor’s dreams. “I think someone who has not been a member of the Democratic Party for the last 20 years is not going to be what Democrats are looking for,” he said on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. “There’s a tremendous wave in the Democratic Party. People want to really achieve change, they want Democrats who are uncompromising, who are going to be forceful, consistent Democrats,” de Blasio added. “You see it all over the country. So, I absolutely have respect for him, but I think, wrong time, wrong place.” invreporter@strausnews.com
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serve for all appointees. Amending the City Charter to impose term limits would not serve the community, its residents or the city.
CIVIC EXERCISES EAST SIDE OBSERVER BY ARLENE KAYATT
Biking the system — Money may not be an object for the owners of the Equinox sports club or to the New York Sports Club, both located in the East 90s, in their efforts to lure the workout crowd to their gyms and their products. And money may not be an object to their members. But the same cannot be said for those young millennials still going to school and/ or working two or three jobs to get by. They have found a way to game the system, circumvent the cost, and get a free workout by cycling on the stationary Citibikes at the foot of James Cagney Place on East 91st Street off Second Avenue. Way to go. Rogue route — Add out-of-control
to descriptions bestowed on MTA bus drivers. Riding down Lexington Avenue on a weekday afternoon was slow-going. Traffic and pedestrians and the usual assortment of bicycles, shopping carts and strollers made it difficult for the bus to get over to the bus lane. As it approached the 45th Street stop, a passenger hit the “Stop Request” device and headed for the exit door followed by several other passengers. Instead of announcing that the bus would not be stopping at 45th Street or the next stop (42nd41st and Lex), the driver turned left on 42nd Street, leaving riders to figure out the next stop on the runaway bus trip. No way to run a bus line.
Lobotomizing community boards — Get ready to vote for whether or not you want term limits for members of the city’s Community Boards. The November ballot has a proposal to
Some get a workout by pedaling on stationary Citibikes docked at James Cagney Place on East 91st Street off Second Avenue. Photo: Ted Eytan, via flickr amend the City Charter to impose term limits for community board members. Borough presidents appoint board members. In doing so, they look for individuals with diverse backgrounds and interests. A prerequisite for appointees is that the live or work or have a business in a community board’s catchment area. There are 12 community boards in Manhattan. There are currently no term limits. By imposing limits, boards will be deprived of institutional memory. Appointees are an invalu-
able resource. They know the process and the community should not be deprived of their input. Zoning, health and housing are among the issues that seriously effect the community. It’s the part of the process where the community has a true voice. The community board is tasked with giving guidance and input. Let each appointee’s performance be the standard for reappointment. Arbitrary term limits can be chaotic. There must be standards and requirements to be met, in addition to the ability to
New neighborhood, old too — Whenever passing the corner of 53rd and First Avenue, that red structure on the corner — Parnell’s Irish pub — always catches my eye and a little bit of my heart. Located in a 5-story apartment building, it’s been there since 1968 — its 50th year! Many years ago I was told — by a distant Parnell’s family member — that the pub was a family-owned restaurant located in an apartment building that they owned — and would never sell. Seems like that’s still the case, because alongside the pub on First Avenue is a luxury apartment building that went up in the last year or two. I’d venture to say that Parnell’s prime corner real estate had Realtor types lusting after a deal. But no. Parnell’s is staying in the restaurant business and renting apartments in their building. Always happy to report that kind of news.
OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER BY MEREDITH KURZ
It’s not a smoke-filled back room; it’s a second floor, badly fluorescent-lit space. There aren’t any cigars, just a large bag of pretzels shared among the committee members. No secret deals are being made with the men and women working here; no money being passed around. On the sidewalk below flow pedestrians, double-wide strollers, walkers, wheelchairs, dogs and skateboards. Cars, buses, motorcycles, skateboards, tourist cyclists and messenger bikes compete around dug-up streets, detours and construction cones. Under the streets our subways run, or notoriously don’t. These three levels are the turf of the Transportation Committee for Community Board 7. Board members, all volunteers, prepare to plow through the agenda. Their loosened ties and slightly crumpled dresses reveal they’re coming from a long day of work. In the audience are architects, landlords, a
Department of Transportation representative, the Lincoln Center BID rep, the NYPD precinct commissioner and Upper West Side citizens. There’s a bus line update we can’t quite get to because there are other more pressing agenda topics. A scant report is given on three subway elevators that may or may not be working and may or may not be inspected, three lines on a blank sheet because the board wasn’t given much information. Then a young man, 15 years old, rolls in on his motorized wheelchair. Perched on the chair’s arm is a computer giving him access and opportunity to speak his mind. The tone and mood changes in the room as he enters. The teenager waits patiently for his agenda item to come up. He must be both patient and persistent, because he’s been waiting two years already. He lives in a prewar building that has no ramp. His family began requesting one two years ago. The red tape finally leads here tonight. The committee volunteers are eager to help. The word
“expedite” flies around the table. The architect drawings are brought up on an ancient project screen that creaks down from the ceiling. There’s a collective sigh of relief when the members discover the building is west enough of the Historical Landmark district, avoiding yet another approval, yet another vote from another committee. The members want to help, want to accomplish one small thing for one young man. There’s a hold up, though. Even after their approval, there’s a mandatory vote required by the entire Community Board 7 that’s not until November. Someone says if we don’t get this approved soon, it will be too late in the season to pour concrete, build the ramp. This will add another six months to an already long-awaited goal. Everyone wants to raise their hand and vote for this young man to get his ramp, to approve one thing. With subways delays that have leapt from 20,000 to 60,000 a month, with elevators in disrepair, nonexistent or broken, with roads that are filled with
At the CB7 Transportation Committee meeting. Photo: Meredith Kurz construction from utilities, just this one thing would be progress. The young man has his opportunity to speak. The voice comes out slightly computerized, but definitely a male teen’s timbre. He presses the screen, giving his name and age, then says, “I use a wheelchair. I use a motorized chair at home so I can drive myself. There are steps to get into my building. There’s a small ramp now but I can’t get in or out of my home in my motorized wheelchair. Please approve the ramp so I can drive my wheelchair outside. Thank you!” I imagine him somehow getting each word entered into this piece of tech, so
he can come here, and press one or two buttons. There are hours behind those few words; years. His independence to navigate these streets, to be a young man on his own, is at stake. Small government groups like Manhattan’s community boards get things done, push things forward, make our streets safer, and therefore make us safer. There are appointed and nonappointed opportunities for residents to get involved to help. The agenda reveals a small slice of what the board needs to advocate for. Politics wasn’t always a dirty word: part of its ancient Latin roots is “community.” These are the people that represent us.
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OCTOBER 18-24,2018
‘GRAMMAR ZEN’ IN VERDI SQUARE COMMUNITY New Yorkers talk tricky tenses, punctuation passions and more at Ellen Jovin’s UWS pop-up table BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Are you prepositionally challenged? Hesitant around hyphens? Undergoing a comma crisis? Simply enraptured by the beauty of a well-placed ellipsis? Ellen Jovin wants to talk grammar with you. Jovin has become familiar to Upper West Side word lovers in recent weeks as the face and founder of Grammar Table — a public forum for open-ended discussion of all things language. Armed with a folding table and an array of reference books and style guides, Jovin sets up shop near the northern entrance to the 72nd Street subway station on Broadway to dole out complimentary (with an “iâ€?) pointers, guidance and emotional support to all comers, from devoted syntacticians to the downright grammar-averse. “Hi, this looks lit,â€? a young woman said on a recent afternoon as she approached Grammar Table (lately Jovin has been trying out the name without the definite article). The woman introduced herself as a fifth-grade English teacher, and soon discovered that she had found a kindred soul in Jovin. A spirited conversation on the joys of sentence diagrams ensued. A steady stream of passersby paused in the midst of the rush hour scrum to gaze curiously at the Grammar Table sign. Some were wary; others, perhaps emboldened by the inclusion of “Vent!â€? in the sign’s menu of services, had bones to pick. “Dangling modiďŹ ers! Why?â€? a man cried from afar, clenching his ďŹ sts in anguish. Em dashes — do we overuse them? “It’s really easy to get sucked into,â€? another visitor observed. A punctilious student and his mother inquired about apostrophe placement in “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.â€? (Grammar Table consensus settled on the rendering that appears in the previous sentence, but other credible sources, including The New York Times, opt to dispense with the possessive entirely.) An editor lamented writers’ aversion to semicolons. She explained, “A semicolon has a very
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“The stereotype of a grammarian is ‘I tell you what’s right,’ and I don’t want it to be like that. I learn from people all the time.� Ellen Jovin, founder of Grammar Table
“Are you a word person?� Ellen Jovin often asks visitors as they approach her pop-up language workshop at 72nd Street. Photo: Michael Garofalo
speciďŹ c use; there’s a reason to use it and a reason not to.â€? She went on to gripe about commentators on the Tennis Channel, who, she said, seem to have forgotten how to use adverbs (“He should have hit it more aggressive.â€?). She identiďŹ ed Tracy Austin as the worst offender and possible patient zero of the epidemic. Jovin, who is a corporate communications consultant by trade, ďŹ rst took her passion to the public in September. “This summer I was feeling like I was on the computer too much,â€? she said. “I felt like my societal experience was becoming atomized and I decided to bring it to the street. It took literally 30 seconds for someone to come up to me the ďŹ rst day.â€? Grammar Table has since become a semi-regular presence in Verdi Square on weekend afternoons and weekday evenings. Jovin, who lives nearby, has found the exercise to be a welcome diversion from politics and the constant onslaught of the news cycle. “New York City is full of seriously bummed-out people right now,â€? she said, but grammar gets people chatting. “It’s light,â€? she said. “Even though people get a little bit excited about the Oxford comma, they usually don’t go into a rage and block people on Facebook over it.â€? Grammar Table discussions aren’t limited to English. Jovin, who describes herself as a “compulsive language student,â€? has studied over 20 languages and likes to practice her skills whenever opportunity allows. “Jak siÄ™ masz?â€? she called in greeting at one point to a passing Polish acquaintance. “Bardzo dobrze,â€? he cheerily
replied. Grammar Table’s most hotly debated topic? The aforementioned Oxford comma, the punctuation mark before “and� in a list of three or more items. “By far,� Jovin said. “No competition.� “That and the spacing after periods are the two most emotional issues in any discussion of punctuation,� she explained. Proponents hail the Oxford comma for the additional clarity and precision it sometimes affords. Those who prefer a cleaner aesthetic tend to side against it. “What’s the point?� a woman in a fatigue jacket with a Woodstock patch asked, incredulous that anyone would sully a page with an unnecessary mark. Jovin herself doesn’t get too worked up about it. “I use it myself but I don’t really care if other people do,� she said. (This reporter cannot say the same. Bound by his editors’ deference to the sometimes oppressive strictures of the Associated Press Stylebook, he is obliged, against his wishes, convictions and better judgment, to omit the righteous comma.) Jovin’s stance on the most controversial comma in the English language is characteristic: Grammar Table prioritizes dialog over dogma. “The stereotype of a grammarian is ‘I tell you what’s right,’ and I don’t want it to be like that,� she said. “I learn from people all the time.� “There’s a lot of grey area in language, where there’s not really right or wrong,� she said. “I think it’s fun to live with a certain amount of uncertainty and variety.� “I’ve achieved a state of grammar Zen. I’m at peace.�
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Health & Wellness Seminar Series !t¥¥ ñïð÷
Discover the world around the corner. Find community events, gallery openings, book launches and much more: Go to nycnow.com
EDITOR’S PICK
Thu 18 EAST SIDE WWI CENTENNIAL Lycee Francais de New York, 505 East 75th St. 6:30 p.m. Free eastsidewwicentennial.org Enjoy an evening of musical performances, distinguished guest speakers and a special screening of “Sergeant York,” a 1941 biographical film starring Gary Cooper as Alvin York, one of the mostdecorated American soldiers of World War I (and for whom York Avenue is named). Centennial celebration events are co-chaired by Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright and Howard Teich.
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Time 6:30–8:00 pm Place All seminars held at Uris Auditorium Meyer Research and Education Building Weill Cornell Medicine 1300 York Avenue (at 69th St.)
All seminars are FREE and open to the public. Seating is available for 250 people on a firstcome, first-served basis. For more information on the Health & Wellness Series please visit our website at: www.weill.cornell.edu/seminars/ American Sign Language interpretive services will be provided at all seminars.
If you require a disability-related accommodation please call 212-821-0888 and leave a message.
Thu 18 Fri 19
Sat 20
‘HEADHUNT REVISITED: WITH BRUSH, CANVAS AND CAMERA’
KEROUAC AT THE CATHEDRAL
▲ HALLOWEEN MURDER MYSTERY
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Ave. 7:30 p.m. $25/$45 David Amram, legendary composer and early Kerouac collaborator, and his band perform Beat-era and original classics, as Oscar-nominated actor Michael Shannon, actress Kate Arrington, poet/actor Frank Messina and poet Quincy Troupe read the works of Jack Kerouac. Proceeds support the Jack Kerouac Project of Orlando, Florida, home to nearly 60 writers. 212-316-7540 stjohndivine.org
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden 421 East 61st St. 6:15 p.m. $25 adults/$15 children/members In this fictional mystery game, explore the museum by candlelight and collect clues to solve a harrowing case. Appropriate for adults and children 10+. Reservations required. 212-838-6878 mvhm.org
The Explorers Club 46 East 70th St. 6 p.m. $25/$5 students In the 1920s, American artist Caroline Mytinger visited Melanesia — then known as “the land of the headhunters.” Four years later, she returned with sketches, paintings and a wealth of ethnographic material, making her work one of the first color interpretations of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. This documentary recounts her influence and improbable journey. 212-628-8383 explorers.org
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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Free Health Screenings )UHH +HDOWK\ 6DQGZLFKHV What: When: Where:
Free Lighthouse Guild Wellness Fair Flu 6XQGD\ 2FWREHU ĂŻ ĂĽ SP Shots! /LJKWKRXVH *XLOG QG Ä&#x2021;RRU :HVW (QG $YH DW WKH FRUQHU RI UG 6W 1<&
Learn about Lighthouse Guild vision and health services here in your neighborhood!
Photo: Nathan Rupert, via Flickr
Sun 21 Mon 22 Tue 23 â&#x2013;˛ HALLOWEEN HOWL & HEALTHY HOUND FAIR Carl Schurz Park, basketball and hockey courts and John Finley Walk Noon. Free/$10 donation requested for the canine costume contest The parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Conservancy presents the 2018 Halloween Howl canine costume competition, an annual neighborhood favorite. The event also includes the Healthy Hound Fair, where visitors can check out wellness products and services and a silent auction with proceeds going to beneďŹ t the Conservancyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts. 212-459-4455 carlschurzparknyc.org
BEN BARNZ IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM Shakespeare and Co. 939 Lexington Ave. 6:30 p.m. Free To celebrate the launch of his new book, â&#x20AC;&#x153;WE: An Adoption and a Memoir,â&#x20AC;? author Ben Barnz will be joined for a Q&A by Michael Cunningham Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Hours.â&#x20AC;? 212-772-3400 shakeandco.com
CAN WE TALK?: CHANNELING JOAN RIVERS Temple Emanul-El 1 East 65th St. 7:30 p.m. $36 Melissa Rivers began channeling her mother, Joan, long before the death of the entertainment legend, entrepreneur and humanitarian. Join Melissa Rivers for an evening of laughs as she discusses her new book, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Joan Rivers ConďŹ dential: The Unseen Scrapbooks, Joke Cards, Personal Files, and Photos of a Very Funny Woman Who Kept Everything.â&#x20AC;? 888-718-4253 emanuelnyc.org
Wed 24 â&#x2014;&#x201E; A HISTORY OF COUPLE-HOOD Albertine 972 Fifth Ave. 6:30 p.m. Free Author and psychoanalyst Ă&#x2030;ric Smadja will discuss the fundamental psychological and sociological characteristics of contemporary couples with Princeton University professor Ruben Gallo, based on Smadjaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest book, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Couple: a Pluridisciplinary Approach (Routledge).â&#x20AC;? 212-650-0070 albertine.com
FREE Health Screenings: ĂŻ Vision ĂŻ Glucose (sugar) levels ĂŻ Blood pressure
Speak with the Experts: ĂŻ Diabetes & nutrition ĂŻ Managing stress, anxiety & insomnia ĂŻ Aging and vision
Hands-on Workshops: ĂŻ Smart phones, tablets & assistive technology ĂŻ Cooking healthy meals & recipes ĂŻ Meditation
Special remarks by the Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer
RSVP:
5DIÄ&#x2021;H SUL]HV *LYH DZD\V & opportunities for Health Bucks
Email communityevents@lighthouseguild.org or call 212-769-7893
In partnership with the Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer
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OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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THEY PAINTED A REVOLUTION Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde BY MARY GREGORY
Suprematists. Constructivists. Surrealists. Cubo-Futurists. Optimists. Socialists. Mystics. Leftists. Artists. All of the above. The years 1918-1922 were heady times in Vitebsk, Marc Chagall’s hometown (in present-day Belarus). After the Revolution of 1917, Russia was changed. For Chagall, it meant new rules and new possibilities. Discrimination against Jewish artists was made a thing of the past by law. He was guaranteed full rights for the first time in Russia. He poured his joy into an ebullient painting, “Double Portrait with Wine Glass,” where he and his new wife Bella embrace, toast
IF YOU GO WHAT: “Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich: The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922” WHERE: The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Ave., at 92nd Street WHEN: Through Jan. 6, 2019 thejewishmuseum.org life and, yes, there’s a little flying involved. An angel soars above, with purple wings echoed in the purple stockings on Bella’s ankles — as above, so below, in color. Chagall rides piggy-back on his bride’s shoulders and both beam beatifically. Though it was painted years after their wedding, her lovely décolletage and his broad smile paint a picture of marital bliss.
Suprematism in everyday life, here served up on a plate designed by Malevich. “Dynamic Composition” Plate, 1923. Photo: Adel Gorgy
El Lissitzky’s commemoration in geometry, “Untitled (Rosa Luxemburg)” from 1919-20. Photo: Adel Gorgy Over 8 feet tall, it’s a towering portrait of happiness worth the trip on its own, and it sets the mood for the show. Over 150 works are on view at the Jewish Museum’s “Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich: The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922. The exhibition was organized and curated by Angela Lampe, of the Centre Pompidou (where it debuted earlier this year) joined by the Jewish Museum’s Claudia J. Nahson. It’s the first show to examine the outsized influence of a small city in Russia where a unique collection of teachers, students, ideas and ideals changed the course of art. Chagall (1887–1985), traveled to Paris in 1910 and found the Cubists. Though their frac-
tured forms can be found in his buildings and backgrounds, Chagall never left figuration. He was a people person. The exigencies of wars, as well as Bella, whom he’d met at a young age, called him back to Vitebsk. In 1918 he was named the city’s commissar of arts. A free, radical art school, open to all, was what was needed, Chagall decided. He founded The People’s Art School. Before long, avant-garde artists, architects and students blanketed the snowy city with color, slogans and youthful, revolutionary enthusiasm. Chagall invited El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich, the reigning leaders of Russian radical art to join him. Malevich, a passionate, charismatic
Even within pure abstraction verging on minimalism, a goat wanders into Chagall’s “Composition with a Goat.” Photo: Adel Gorgy
Chagall’s whimsical painting, “The Traveler” is on loan from a private collection. Photo: Adel Gorgy artist, espoused that only in pure abstraction could the highest level of emotion be expressed. He was one of the first to abandon the idea of pictures of something, striving instead for visual expression of feelings and mystical ideas through shape, line, color and form. His work and his titles have been linked with esoteric teachings of his countryman and contemporary, P.D. Ouspensky. “Forms must be given life and the right to individual existence,” Malevich wrote in 1915. His “Mystic Suprematism (Red Cross on Black Circle)” from the Vitebsk years (1920-22) is pared down to the named elements — a red cross and black circle on a white background with a few additional diagonal red lines. With three colors and two shapes we’re witness to a whole new world in art. Lissitzky took those elements and used them to construct (hence, Constructivism) buildings, posters, speakers’ platforms, book covers, even coffee cups, all to serve modern society and the goals of Communism. “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge,” a lithograph with a red point cutting open a white circle (the Bolsheviks’ opponents were the White movement) was like the Mona Lisa of Soviet political propaganda.
Throughout the exhibition, letters, folios, designs and documents testify to an insistence on the new, on change. Five sections, “Post-Revolutionary Fervor in Vitebsk,” “The People’s Art School,” “‘The New Art’: Lissitzky and Malevich,” “Collective Utopia,” and “After Vitebsk” trace the early earnest impulses of a young Jewish artist, up through the realization of his dream and the final dissolution of the school. Chagall, himself, was perceived as too old-fashioned, with his flying people and goats. Students didn’t sign up for his classes, and he and Bella left the school and moved to Moscow in 1920. Is it ironic that artists of the day could find more emotional experience in colorless squares of stark abstraction than in embracing, floating lovers awash in lush hues? That’s in the eye of the beholder. What’s apparent from the works in the exhibition is that an artistic zeal ruled Vitebsk for a few, glorious years. The wall text quotes a visitor from 1921, a year before the school closed, “The city was still resplendent with Malevich’s designs — circles, squares, dots, and lines of different colors — and with Chagall’s flying people. I had the impression of being in an enchanted city.”
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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Drama Desk winner Will Eno returns to Signature for a new staging of his surreal one-man show, starring Michael C. Hall (“Dexter,” “Six Feet Under.”)
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Bertolt Brecht’s skewering of Adolf Hitler and totalitarianism is given a new production directed by John Doyle (“The Color Purple”) for Classic Stage Company.
Daniel Alexander Jones returns to the stage as Jomama Jones, his critically-acclaimed alter-ego, in this revival for turbulent times. GREENWICH HOUSE THEATER - 27 BARROW ST
CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY - 136 E 13TH ST
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OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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Photo:Stephen Paley
She loved theater. So she gave.
Village Den interior. Photo: Karissa Ong for BeccaPR
REDEFINING COMFORT Some Some say say Helen Helen Merrill was was the the theater. theater. During her life, life, she she fostered fostered the careers of of dozens dozens of of playwrights. playwrights. Today, Today, 21 21 years years after her death, death, the the fund fund she she started in The The New New York York Community Community Trust supports supports emerging emerging and distinguished distinguished playwrights.
What do you love? We We can can help help you you create create aa charitable charitable legacy. legacy.
Contact Jane Wilton: (212) 686-2563 or janewilton@nyct-cfi.org
THE NEW YORK COMMUNITY TRUST nycommunitytrust.org
HANGOUTS The Village Den transformed from greasy spoon to healthconscious fare, thanks to a reality television star’s revamp. Can locals still get satisfaction at this neighborhood staple? Antoni Porowski, the food and wine expert on Netflix’s hit show “Queer Eye,” introduced simple recipes that helped revamp the lives of everyday people from the inside out. Now he’s behind another reboot: The Village Den, a classic West Village diner, was reopened earlier this month by Porowski, along with his partners and restaurateurs Lisle Richards and Eric Marx. The new fastcasual cafe offers healthy options, and all that remains of the erstwhile Den is the name. It’s a choice the owners thought long and hard about. “[The name] is symbol of what it was, a meeting place, a crossroads of the West Village. It stands for community, and it stands for local, and those are two things we’ve been really focused on,” says Richards. “I mean, the food itself looks different than the food that was served [at the old Village Den], but I think the concept is very similar. It’s just a new dialogue.” The menu is already generating plenty of conversation. It features “TV dinners,” gussied-up versions of the
compartmentalized frozen variety. Favorites include the macadamia nut-crusted fish sticks and the meatloaf, says Richards. They also serve a variety of salads, smoothies and baked goods, some of which are sourced from Sans gluten-free bakery. Catering to various diets (gluten-free, vegan, paleo) without compromising taste is a priority. The space is bright and clean, and a colorful mural of the West Village covers part of one wall. A board with a list of “things that matter” includes “recycling,” “dreaming’ and “eating your veggies” quite literally defines their “it takes a village” ethos. The focus on community makes for a lovely aesthetic. But will New Yorkers find comfort in quinoa and kale the same way they once did in brisket on a kaiser roll? “Delis and diners in New York are disappearing right and left,” says Marx. “It’s tough, because as a New Yorker, that’s something that you’re very used to, and it’s part of what New York is. But I think that things change, and dietary habits change.” Comfort, in large part, comes from familiarity. For those who watched “Queer Eye,” Porowski seemed to know this instinctively. He didn’t barge in with outlandish new recipes, but instead traded mayo for Greek yogurt in a classic salad dressing, and taught a microwave cook to make homemade pasta. The idea that healthy eating can be achieved through rela-
tively small changes isn’t new, but perhaps a restaurant concept based around it is. “Food doesn’t have to be difficult, food should be good. It shouldn’t be complicated because you want to make it complicated. [Antoni’s] got a really wide ability, to make something really ooey gooey and all that stuff, and then he has the ability to make something really healthy,” says Richards, who notes he still goes to diners, with La Bomboniere and Waverly Diner ranking among his favorites. When it comes to food, New Yorkers can still get the best of both worlds: there is no shortage of both decadent and health-conscious options available. But in an age of online delivery and apps like Ritual that allow busy professionals to order from impersonal lunch spots in advance, human interaction and familiarity with those who make and serve our meals is rapidly disappearing. The sassy diners waitress who remembers your standing order is a largely a myth, but that’s where the nostalgia comes from. And though Porowski likely isn’t going to be blending your smoothie, friendly-seeming celebrities who put their personal stamp on a menu can make a place feel familiar even — if we only know them through the screen. If you go: The Village Den, 225 West 12th St.
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In the pages that follow, you’ll meet the people who make New York work. For over a decade, our newspapers have proudly joined forces with 32BJ to celebrate the supers, porters, cleaners and others who make our city a better place to live and work. We are thrilled to be able to honor a few of them once a year, and to say thank you. We’re proud to put a focus on these hard-working men and women. Thanks to our sponsors and to 32BJ’s President Hector Figueroa, Eugenio Villasante and Carolina Gonzalez for their help on this project. Read these stories and meet a remarkable group of New Yorkers. And please join us in congratulating them all.
Maria Alexandru
Gaspar Amorim
Kristinia Bellamy
Noel Brown
Sinoun Bun
Romay Garcia
Corey Green
Jose Guichardo
Willie Hawkins
Adem Kajosaj
Cortez Lagroon
Zakiyy Medina
Cristiana Mendez
Miguel Negron
Kole Palushaj
Angie Person
Ron Pioquinto
Rene Richard
Zoraida Rodriguez
Cliff Tisdale
Sean Williams
Special thanks to our sponsors:
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MARIA ALEXANDRU FROM ROMANIA TO TRUMP TOWER
OFFICE CLEANER — MIDTOWN
Maria Alexandru wanted to live in America for the opportunities — and found them BY JASON COHEN
Photo by Madeleine Thompson
ADEM KAJOSAJ DOORMAN — EAST SIDE
MORNING MOMENTS IN ‘THE SPOT TO BE’ Doorman Adem Kajosaj says that his boundless energy is a crucial tenet of his position BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
There’s no such thing as a typical day in the life of Adem Kajosaj. As the morning doorman at 175 East 74th Street, he assists residents with everything they need. The hardest part of the job, he says, is staying calm when things get hectic. “You can be sitting here for five or 10 minutes and not see anybody and then all of a sudden you have food deliveries, you have people calling down, so you kind of have to balance everything,” he says. Luckily, the crazier moments come in waves. In between, Kajosaj loves hearing stories from the people and families he has come to know very well over his 14 years there. “I know their friends, I know their guests, so we do get kind of close,” he says. Kajosaj would recommend his job to anyone, but he adds that his seemingly boundless energy is a crucial tenet of his position. “I’m a firm believer in the energy you give off is the energy you receive,” he says. He sees it as part of his responsibilities to greet everyone with positivity no matter their disposition. He particularly enjoys the social aspects of the job and meeting people from all walks of life, from nannies to tenants’ coworkers. “You get to hear a little bit of story behind everybody.” 175 East 74th Street is the only building he’s worked
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I’m a firm believer in the energy you give off is the energy you receive.” in and he loves the neighborhood around him, calling it “the spot to be.” When’s he not at work, Kajosaj is a traveler with global aspirations. He oftens visits family in Albania and recently went to Hawaii for the first time. He’s been to Italy and Switzerland and his father’s hometown of Montenegro. He loves hiking, especially the portions of the Appalachian Trial in his native New Jersey. Kajosaj also plays the drums and the guitar. He roots for the Brooklyn Nets — which was originally a New Jersey team — and the Buffalo Bills. He’s close with his parents and two siblings, often spending time with them in New Jersey.
For more than two decades Maria Alexandru has dedicated her life to cleaning Trump Tower. The Romania native moved to the United States in 1989, but never imagined that she would be working in New York City for 24 years, let alone at the same job. She explained that being recognized for her service is nice, but she is a modest person and doesn’t like the spotlight. “It was a surprise,” she says. “I’m a good worker. I’m honored.” Alexandru, 66, first worked as a movie projectionist in Romania. Although she didn’t have a dream job, she wanted to live in America where there are more opportunities. “I’m a person that accommodates,” she says. “If you put me in a jungle, I’ll survive” Alexandru recalls how she started at her job. She was in the street crying and suddenly someone sweeping saw her and connected her to an office. From there she hasn’t looked back. “I’m very happy working there,” she says. “You stick with the job because it’s steady and it provides for you.” Over the years she has gotten to know many tenants and has seen President Donald Trump, his daughter Ivanka and son Donald Jr. She notes that when she’s gone, the replacement cleaner is always asked, when is Maria coming back? However, during the recession from 2008 to 2010 many people in the building lost their jobs and even her hours were cut from 47 to 15. (Her hours were eventually restored.)
Photo by Molly Colgan
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I’m doing the job right because I like it.” While she has never met the president, when Trump first announced he was running for elected office Alexandru made a sign that said “Vote for Trump” and stood between Fifth and Sixth Avenues with it. The insults hurled at her made her not do it again. Today, she lives in Kew Gardens with her husband Juan Camargo, her 27-year-old daughter Nancy and her two dogs, Luca and Coco. She loves to cook and spend time with her family. Alexandru is a cancer survivor and hopes she continues to be healthy well into the future. “Me and my husband, we are like a stamp and an envelope, we don’t go anywhere without each other,” Alexandru said. Her job has also allowed her to send money to her mother, Elaina, 93, who still lives in Romania. “I enjoy what I’m doing,” Alexandru says. “I’m doing the job right because I like it. When you leave the house, you come to work and you leave everything behind.”
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ABM salutes all of the 2018 Building Service Worker Awards honorees, including ABMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own Cliff Tisdale and Zakiyy Medina
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KRISTINIA BELLAMY HELPING HAND
A FIGHTER AND A SURVIVOR At work, Kristinia Bellamy has developed a rapport with the lawyers in her building BY JASON COHEN
Photo: Madeleine Thompson
SINOUN BUN DOORWOMAN
KEEPING ACTIVE IS THE REWARD Sinoun Bun keeps it homey on the Upper East Side BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Sinoun Bun is in the right place for someone who loves kids and families as much as she does. Bun has been a doorwoman and concierge at 300 East 77th St. for 16 years and has come to know her building’s residents well. She delights in working there and considers it a second home. “I love everybody — all the tenants, all my staff,” she says. “The building makes me happy, because all my kids are very old. Over here it makes me very active.” Bun’s actual home is in the Bronx, where she has lived since coming to the city from Cambodia in 1983. She spent a brief period living in Philadelphia, where one of her daughters is working towards becoming a dental hygienist. She has four children for whom she likes to cook just about anything; her kids particularly love her pasta. In her free time, Bun enjoys fishing. She goes to Crotona Park and Bear Mountain, and catches everything from striped bass to blue perch. “My dad got me into it and I got addicted to it,” she says. “It meditates your mind and keeps you from all the drama.” A self-described independent woman, Bun has had to advocate for herself as a female in a male-dominated industry. She started out in housekeeping and babysitting and worked her
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Kristinia Bellamy is a fighter. She battled and defeated breast cancer in 2011 and lost her husband in the line of duty 13 years ago. Bellamy, 49, has worked for 12 years as a cleaner in Manhattan at 919 Third Ave., a 47-story building that houses law firms, a bank and a retail store. About a year ago she became a shop steward as well. Bellamy was born and raised in Far Rockaway and as a child dreamed of being a flight attendant. While she never got that far, she did fly often when she worked as a ticket agent at American Airlines at JFK Airport in the 90s. Bellamy noted that one of the coolest places she went to was Grenada. After leaving the airline in 2001, she worked at an office building in Westbury, Long Island. Her supervisor there, Christopher Hughes, connected her to a new job as a floor lady at the Hearst Tower. She started at Hearst in 2006, which was just a year after her late husband Jeffrey Bellamy, an undercover ATF agent, died on the job. So a job at night with more peace and quiet was better for her. While she enjoys the stability and the lawyers, it can be challenging. “Working at night ... messes up your whole system,” she says. “You can’t go to sleep when you get home.” Bellamy cleans the 19th and 20th floors of the building and learned quickly that if she isn’t friendly with the lawyers there, they may not be nice to her. Many of the lawyers work later than
To other young women hoping to get ahead in the industry, Bun advises that they be patient and stay strong. way up to doorwoman and then concierge. She handles packages, phone calls, work orders and everything else that makes the Upper East Side building feel like home. The key, she says, has been to treat everyone equally. “If I have something to say I’m going to say it. I’m not so intimidated. I can’t let somebody look down on me,” she says. Besides, she gets along with everyone. To other young women hoping to get ahead in the industry, Bun advises that they be patient and stay strong.
Photo courtesy of 32BJ
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If you don’t talk to the tenants on the floor your job is hard. she does, so having a rapport with them really helps, she explains. She also enjoys talking with many of them and has even become friendly with some over the years. In fact, she is friends with a former tenant of the building, Alec Rothstein, who now lives in London. “If you don’t talk to the tenants on the floor your job is hard,” she says. Bellamy, who now resides in Bayonne, NJ, likes to spend her free time with her husband, Steven Cherry, and her two sons, Anthony, 30, and Jason, 27. She also enjoys giving back to the community. For the past eight years she has volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club in Jersey City, where she mentors young girls. Right now, she is working with two girls in middle school, Azha and Anaya. “These chicks are like my kids,” she says. “They’re very smart kids, but they come from troubled homes. I enjoy doing it. It makes a difference with these kids.” As she looks to the future, Bellamy says she is happy with her family and job.
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Silverstein Properties is honored to salute Building Service Workers 32BJ SEIU
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KOLE PALUSHAJ ‘MY ROOTS RUN DEEP’
BUILDING MANAGER
A building manager who values mentorship and learned the trade from his father and grandfather BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Photo by Madeleine Thompson
JOSE GUICHARDO ONE BUILDING, 40 YEARS
DOORMAN — WEST SIDE
In his “whole journey” on the West Side, Jose Guichardo has built relationships of mutual respect BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Jose Guichardo came to New York City almost 40 years ago from the Dominican Republic. He was working in a shop in 1983 when the work dried up and a friend who was a contractor gave him the tip about 175 West 70th Street. Guichardo interviewed for a doorman position, got the job, and started that night. “That’s how the whole journey started,” he says. “To tell you the truth I didn’t plan it.” He has been there ever since. Guichardo takes care of packages, deals with contractors, handles guest keys and serves as a layer of security. He calls his job “rewarding, because you meet people from different backgrounds, different countries.” “You hear their background, their family experiences, you learn about other cultures,” he says. Over the years he has built relationships not just with tenants but with housekeepers, babysitters and tenants’ families. He remembers how helpful residents were when he started out, having no experience, and credits a partnership of mutual respect with creating a great work environment. “They really embraced me,” he says. Guichardo is especially grateful for his situation because he knows not all doormen are so lucky. Guichardo credits his affable personality and willingness to go the extra mile with his success on the job. Outside of work, Guichardo spends time with
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This line of work is in Kole Palushaj’s genes. Palushaj is a third-generation member of 32BJ and comes from a family full of supers like himself. “Fifty percent of my family is in the union. My roots run deep,” he says. He grew up in apartments all over New York City learning the trade from his father and grandfather. Palushaj has only been at his current building, the landmarked, 134-year-old 205 West 57th Street, for the last 18 months, but he’s been in the industry for 18 years. He oversees a staff of 11 people and manages the residents of 90 units — a very different feel from his previous West Village building with 400-plus units. He says his day never really starts or ends. “I can be up overnight to get my daughter a gallon of milk and there’s three or four things that need my attention on the way out the door,” he says. The job of managing a building has changed a lot from his father and grandfather’s day, and now relies far more heavily on technology like smartphones and powerpoints. “It’s no longer the 50 pounds of keys and a guy walking around with a plunger and a flashlight,” he says. Palushaj started as a doorman on Park Avenue and worked his way up the ladder from there. He says all the jobs he’s had have been equally hard, and credits a close mentorship with his first building’s resident manager with helping him rise to the top. “He took me under his wing as a handyman, taught me everything I needed to know and put me on the right path,” he says.
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Palushaj is adamant about helping young people in the industry the same way he was helped. For that reason, Palushaj is adamant about helping young people in the industry the same way he was helped. He had a few temporary employees working for him this summer who he has set on the same path his mentor laid out for him years ago. “I gave them the same advice he gave me, which is if this is what you decide to do and you stick to it, you can make a very lucrative career of this industry, where it takes you,” he says. In his limited free time, Palushaj is a family man. He and his wife have an eight-month-old daughter and a four-year-old son. He is the president of the Metropolitan Building Managers of New York and is actively involved with the 160-member organization. He was awarded “resident manager of the year” by the Metropolitan Building Managers this year as well. “A friend of mine said you can only go down from here,” he jokes.
You hear their background, their family experiences, you learn about other cultures.” his wife, a teacher’s assistant, and their two children in Washington Heights, as well as with his two brothers. He has traveled to Canada and throughout the southern U.S. He also pursues his hobby of street photography, and belongs to a group of visual artists who put on occasional shows. He has been honing his skills for the past 15 years taking photos of events and doing street photography.
Photo by Madeleine Thompson
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Congratulations to all the Award Winners on this well deserved honor!
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RENE RICHARD MORE UPS THAN DOWNS LONGEVITY
Even after more than four decades on the job, Rene Richard keeps looking forward BY JASON COHEN
Photo by Madeleine Thompson
COREY GREEN PORTER
RAVE REVIEWS FROM RESIDENTS Corey Green may be reluctant to talk himself up, but the people he helps sing his praises BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Corey Green is a quiet, reserved man whose generosity of spirit speaks volumes. He has worked at the five buildings comprising Riverbend Houses in Harlem since 2006, when he served as vacation relief. Today he considers the residents family. They feel the same way about him. While Green is reluctant to talk himself up, the people he helps on a daily basis are happy to do it for him. One resident cited a time Green came in from his home in New Jersey on his day off to drive her to the doctor. She called him “a kind gentleman not just to me but to everyone in the building.” Another resident recalled when Green helped clean her apartment after it flooded and noted all the times she’s seen him carrying groceries for some elderly tenants. The feeling is mutual. “They’re beautiful people,” Green says. “It just makes my day.” Green’s job involves watering plants, sweeping and hauling garbage, but he says the hardest part
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Rene Richard grew up in Haiti with ambitions of becoming an engineer, but never in his wildest dreams did he imagine he would work more than four decades in Manhattan’s Garment District. Richard, 67, moved to America in 1974 and quickly found his first job as a deliveryman. One day while working, a man asked him to fill in for someone who had called out sick. That particular gig turned into 42 years of working at 225 West 37th St. “I’m the last of the Mohicans,” he said. “Not too many people could say they have done a job for 42 years.” His first day of work was June 7, 1976. He has worked the front desk, been the night man and now operates the freight elevators. Richard hard has seen the ups and downs in the building. ing. He witnessed sadness and emptiness during the recession, when many people lost st their jobs, but has also seen people stay for many years and gotten to know them.. More re importantly, he has become friends ds with all types of people in the building. ing. He’s attended their weddings, s, their kids’ graduations, Sweett 16s and bar and bat mitzvahs. “It’ss like family here,” he said. Richard hard originally lived in the e city, but about 20 yearss ago moved to quiett Harriman in upstate ate New York. He felt elt it was a good place for he and nd his wife, Gladys, ys, to raise t h e i r k id s , Jerry, y, 33, and Tanya, ya, 24. Besides des the nonstop top
I go the extra mile for people.” is dealing with snow. “A little bit of everything, you could say,” he says. Though he’s responsible for a large number of units across five buildings, Green says it’s not too much to handle. “I go the extra mile for people,” he says. Outside of work, Green enjoys riding his bike and playing basketball. He spends time with his wife and her kids. He was born in Harlem and now lives in New Jersey, where he appreciates the plentiful parking and quieter atmosphere.
Photo: Jason Cohen
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It’s like family here.” snow in the winter, he loves the relaxing suburban atmosphere. While the commute is 90 minutes, after a few weeks he got used to it. In his free time, Richard enjoys being with his family. With retirement on the horizon, he knows he will miss his job, but having the opportunity to spend time with his kids and wife make it all worth it. He knows he has worked his beh behind off for more than four decades and soon he can reap rea in the rewards. “I will m miss the people, peo but we ccan’t work forf e v e r,” h e remarked. remarke “When I came so somebody gave g me a cha chance. Now I h have to give the young guy chance a cha too.”
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ZORAIDA RODRIGUEZ A GOOD ACT TO FOLLOW
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THEATER CLEANER
Zoraida Rodriguez keeps the Great White Way elegant and welcoming BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Zoraida Rodriguez wasn’t that into plays and musicals until she started working as a theater cleaner. After 12 years on the job, though, she has seen just about everything that’s come to Broadway. She has worked at theaters up and down the Great White Way, changing locations as shows close and new ones open. Some favorites include “Cinderella,” “Sister Act” and “Shrek.” “Sometimes people are like, ‘how did they do this?’ and I’m like, ‘I know what’s going on backstage,’” she says of her unique access to behindthe-scenes magic. She recently started working at the Bernard Jacobs Theater on West 45th Street, where Jez Butterworth’s “The Ferryman” just opened. Rodriguez came to New York City from the Dominican Republic in 2005 and now lives in New Jersey with her 23-year-old daughter. She
is especially proud of her two children and her granddaughter, who she loves taking to the playground on her days off. Rodriguez and her family like to go to dinner and movies. They also travel to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to visit Amish communities. “They have a theater, so they do plays. It’s amazing,” she says. “I’ve seen many shows on Broadway but those are beautiful. They use real animals.” The hardest part of her job, Rodriguez says, is fitting in all these things around her unusual hours. After working mornings she returns to the theater around 9 p.m. to clean after the show, so she often returns home late. But she loves her coworkers, whom she knows from jobs at other theaters. She also enjoys having conversations with people buying tickets about which shows are good and what to do around the city. “Sometimes we get into conversations about different plays, the city, the restaurants,” she says. “I like what I do.”
Making a Difference. Every Day.
WORKER
I like what I do.” Favorite shows: Cinderella, Sister Act, Shrek
Photo: Madeleine Thompson
FirstService Residential is a proud sponsor of the 2018 Building Service Workers Awards Congratulations to all of the winners for a job well done! As New York City’s leading residential management company, FirstService Residential is committed to delivering proven solutions and exceptional service that add value, enhance lifestyles and make a difference, every day, for every resident and property we serve.
www.fsresidential.com 212.634.8900
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CORTEZ LAGROON GOING THE EXTRA MILE
COMMERCIAL SECURITY GUARD
An avid history buff, Cortez Lagroon zeroed in on security as his field
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Cortez Lagroon’s upbringing in a family of preachers is evident in his dedication to helping others. Lagroon has been in the security industry for 26 years — he was at Google for 12 years and has been at 1 Court Square for five — but he has made a career of going the extra mile for people. Asked what people rely on him for, Lagroon says “everything.” Even when he was offered a more lucrative job at a different building, he decided to stay at 1 Court Square to help coworkers. “I get a joy out of helping my fellow workers,” he says. Lagroon also is active in his own community in the Bronx, where he oftens provides advice and mentorship to neighborhood
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When man forgets about man, we’re in trouble.” kids. He says it’s a life lesson he learned from his mom. “My parents always said when man forgets about man, we’re in trouble,” he says. “That’s what we’re supposed to do for each other.” Lagroon comes from a large family — he’s one of eight siblings — and oftens visits his hometown in
South Carolina. He likes reading and working out in his free time, and is an avid history buff. After coming to New York City in 1996, Lagroon zeroed in on security as the thing he wanted to get good at. He read books about security, took emergency management training classes and studied the field with an academic sense of purpose. “I’m trained in all of it,” he says. He got a job as supervisor at the Archdiocese of New York, then moved up and up the ladder. Now, he describes his title as “rover” since he’s capable of manning the front desk, filling in at the loading docks and everything in between. He uses those skills to look out for what he calls “my people”; that is, everyone who comes through the three buildings he oversees. “Seeing a smile on their face, that’s what I enjoy most,” he says. “This is my family.”
2018 Building Service Worker Awards Congratulations to our very own
Gaspar Amorim
“Window Cleaner of the Year and to all the other honorees
And thank you to all the SEIU workers for all the great work you do
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THE BRODSKY ORGANIZATION JOINS IN CELEBRATING ALL BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS AND THE 2018 HONOREES FOR THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS.
Photo by Madeleine Thompson
GASPAR AMORIM RESPONSIBILITY AT A HIGH LEVEL His job can be scary, but Gaspar Amorim says “you develop yourself and build your skills” BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
CONGR ATUL ATES
32BJ SEIU AND THE 2018 BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS OF THE YEAR
BROOKFIELDPROPERTIES.COM
Gaspar Amorim is a modern Renaissance man. A lover of history and politics and an active member of his Catholic church, Amorim brings a sense of gratitude and optimism to everything he does. For the past 17 years that has been cleaning windows at 3 Times Square. “Pretty much since the building was new,” he says. He has worked at office buildings like 1 Chase Plaza and 395 Wall Street. So far, 3 Times Square is his favorite. Home to large companies like ThomsonReuters, the global mass media corporation that owns the building, Amorim’s workplace is surrounded by glowing neon signs and awe-struck tourists day and night. “It’s a privilege to work for these people,” he says. Amorim’s job requires a high level of responsibility because of all the machinery and risk involved. He has to operate scaffolding and three rigs, and he says it can be scary, to a degree. But, over time, “you develop yourself and build your skills.” “Being a window washer’s got its own charms,” he says. Amorim first came to New York City in 1965 from Portugal, following in his father’s footsteps. “My father was always in New York when he was a young man,” he says. Amorim now lives in Queens with his wife of 30 years. Their son works right around the corner from him at 5 Times Square, though they don’t cross paths
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Amorim brings a sense of gratitude and optimism to everything he does. as often as you might think. “Young people have really a good opportunity — politically, socially and even spiritually,” he says. In his free time, Amorim loves watching sports, especially rooting for Portugal’s Benfica soccer team. He got into baseball upon coming to New York and became a Yankees fan after reading about their powerful legacy. He and his wife have also played on a local bowling team in his community. “I like to do something where I live,” he says. “That’s what makes this country great, to be part of it. You could have your disagreements, but be involved.”
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MIGUEL NEGRON SCHOOL CLEANER
‘THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS’ Working at an elementary school in Greenwich Village — and running a farm upstate
Photo by Madeleine Thompson
BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
It’s evident that Miguel Negron loves his job, if for no other reason than his commute is three hours each way. He and his wife moved upstate to Wallkill, New York six years ago and run a small farm there, but Negron is so devoted to his job that he’s never even considered finding work closer to home. The commute is by far the only bad thing about working at P.S. 41 Greenwich Village Elementary School, where he has been a custodian for 20 years. Of his commute, Negron finds an upside. “I get to do a lot of studying,” for his upcoming custodian engineer exam. “I get to have the best of both worlds.” Negron calls P.S. 41 his second home, and says when things are good at work they are good in the rest of his life. “I don’t mind going above and beyond because it benefits me spiritually,” he says. “And then when I go home what I left behind is good and I don’t have to worry about work.” Negron has driven through snowstorms to get to work, stopping on the side of the road to wipe off buried signage, but he says he would do anything for the kids at P.S. 41. “These are my kids,” he says. He loves the hustle and bustle of schools and knows he has skills that are valuable, like listening and problem-solving. “I can contribute a lot besides just cleaning,” he says. He loves his coworkers and considers them family. They clearly feel the same way. Principal Kelly Shannon says she is fortunate to have gotten to know Negron. “The way he cares about what he does, he’s become part of the heart and soul of P.S. 41,” she said. Standing next to her, Negron wipes away tears. Born and raised in New York City, Negron practically grew up in the industry. He uncle is a custodian, and his father worked as a custodian at a high school for 30 years. Now Negron is just as dedicated to his wife of seven years as he is to his job. When he gets home from work he makes sure she has her bath ready and her lunch for the next day. Together, Negron and his wife tend to their 26 chickens, cat, dog and birds. They also crochet, cook and watch reality shows in their shared time off.
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When things are good at work, they are good in the rest of life.”
100 Years of Excellence
Kaufman Organization vision for the future
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CLIFF TISDALE ELEVATOR OPERATOR
Is Pleased to Congratulate
Kole Palushaj The Osborne 205 West 57th Street
Building Manager of the Year
CONGRATULATIONS 32BJ SEIU & Award Winners!
A DAY TO REMEMBER After 9/11, Cliff Tisdale and his colleagues are an additional layer of security BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
There used to be a lot more people doing Cliff Tisdale’s job. But though there are fewer of them now, elevator operators aren’t remotely extinct. And at places like the World Financial Center at 225 Liberty Street, which houses large companies like Oppenheimer and Bank of America, they remain a crucial part of the infrastructure. Tisdale describes himself as “like a yoyo,” going up and down all day between the building’s 44 floors. “It seems easy, per se, but a lot of times you have people who don’t know where they’re going so you have to give direction,” he says. Sometimes that includes emergency service workers who need Tisdale’s help when responding to a situation in the building. Tisdale’s worst day on the job was, without a doubt, September 11, 2001. Working just a block away from the World Trade Center, Tisdale watched people jump from the highest floors and plummet to the ground, then he watched the towers collapse. “I’ve got a vivid memory of the
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I’ve got a vivid memory of the guy jumping out of the window and all you can see is his tie flapping.” guy jumping out of the window and all you can see is his tie flapping,” he says. It’s something he’ll never forget. Since that day, Tisdale and his colleagues have been trained to watch for suspicious activity and serve as an additional layer of security. But most days are good ones. “Every day you wake up is a good day,” he says. He’s even had a celebrity or two in his elevator: Venus and Serena Williams, for example, Bernie Williams of the New York Yankees and Steve Harvey of “Family Feud.” Tisdale has been working in the area long Feud. enough to see Lower Manhattan change drastically and, he says, for the better. Tisdale was born in New York City but grew up partially in Florida, hanging out where his grandfather worked at the Kennedy Space Center. He came back to New York City in 1995 and started out cleaning dorms at New York University. He has worked as a porter, floor cleaner and security guard. He now lives in Brooklyn and spends his free time with his girlfriend and daughter and grandsons, coaching youth basketball and listening to Aretha Franklin. “Right now I can’t see myself living any place else,” he says.
We honor your valuable service to our community.
Photo by Madeleine Thompson
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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ISS Facility Services is proud to help LaGuardia keep moving
ISS congratulates CristiBna Mendez, LaGuardia Airport Worker of the Year 2018 Building Service Worker Awards us.issworld.com
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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com 1301 Avenue of the Americas 21st Floor New York, NY 10019 212.907.9700
WILLIE HAWKINS A WELCOMING PRESENCE
DOORMAN — DOWNTOWN
32 BJ Honorees Thank you for your service! We represent the buildings you serve.
The job is no longer work for him — it’s more like an adventure
The cooperative/condominium law group at Smith Gambrell & Russell, LLP Sean Altschul Eric Balber Ben Gorelick Michael Manzi
Stephen O’Connell Todd Pickard Edward Schiff Robin Silberzweig
BY MADELEINE E THOMPSON
Lisa Smith John Van Der Tuin Eliot Zuckerman sgrlaw.com
Atlanta • Austin • Jacksonville • London • Los Angeles • Munich • New York • Southampton • Washington D.C.
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND
thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY
Hemingway’s Artifacts: Michael Katakis with Declan Kiely
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23RD, 6:30PM NYPL Schwarzman Building | 476 Fifth Ave. | 917-275-6975 | nypl.org Author and manager of the Hemingway Estate Michael Katakis draws on 400 key objects to explore a literary life. Photos, documents, and ephemera come together to create a portrait of a legend and a legendary era (free).
American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots & Rise of Fear
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23RD, 7PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org Critical race theorist and law professor Khaled A. Beydoun speaks about his new book, which looks at the way U.S. law, policy, and state rhetoric come together to sanction anti-Muslim outcomes. A book signing will follow the event ($29).
Just Announced | Point of View: A Conversation with Blondie’s Chris Stein and Debbie Harry
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30TH, 6:30PM The Cooper Union | 7 E. 7th St. | 212-353-4100 | cooper.edu
Willie Hawkins has been at 270 Broadway way since it was still under construction and he wass the only doorman. But his connection to Lower Manhattan goes back much farther. Hawkins was as assistant manager during the evening shift at Windows on the World at the Twin Towers in 2001 and was supposed to be at work on September tember 11. He wasn’t. “We lost a total of 77 and I lost ost two from my staff,” he recalls, choking up. To this day he doesn’t work on September ber 11, sometimes choosing to visit his son and d two grandsons in Philadelphia. In his 15 years at 270 Broadway, Hawkins wkins has become a well-known face to the residents of its roughly 85 units, and he has grown rown close to most of them over the years. He iss fond of the building’s atmosphere and its family-oriented -oriented feel. Hawkins is a veteran of the industry: try: Before coming to 270 Broadway he was a doorman man on the Upper East Side. He says there’s no hard part of his job when you love it as much as he does. Asked what the work iss like day-to-day, he says, “fantastic.” “I leave home to come home,” he says. “This used to be work for me, now it’s an adventure.” He has seen three sets of twins born and raised under his watch. Hawkins was born in Rochester, but moved to the city when he was 2. He considers himself a native city kid. He lives in the Bronx now, close to his mom. He prizes visits with his two children and nd four grandchildren, going to comedy shows and traveling ling to Las Vegas, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Hawkins’ 60- to 80-member extended d family has been having annual summer barbecues in Manhasset anhasset State Park for the last 41 years. He could see himself having a second home ome someday, maybe in North Carolina, but he says he’d never ever leave the city for good. “Too much quiet’s not good,” he e jokes.
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Founding member of Blondie Chris Stein gets together with Blondie herself to talk about his new photo book, Point of View: Me, New York City, and the Punk Scene, and a lost New York (free).
For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,
sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.
I leave home to come home.”
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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RON PIOQUINTO A SUPERIOR EFFORT For Ron Pioquinto, the job is a personal endeavor BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
“Welcome, welcome, welcome!” Ron Pioquinto puts a lot of emphasis on being visible to the residents of 5-09 48th Ave. in Long Island City. With a smile that big, it’s not hard. It also helps to live in the building. “People like to see your presence in your building,” he says. “As they’re walking by they’re saying ‘hey, I have an issue’ or ‘this is looking great.’” Pioquinto starts every day with a 4-mile walk along the East River waterfront that he credits for drawing so many New Yorkers to Long Island City in recent years. Then he goes down to his office on the first floor to prep and to check emails. His office is crowded with blueprints, manuals, packing tape and Christmas cards from building families. The rest of his day is spent doing walkthroughs at 5-09 48th Ave. and at another nearby build-
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My interests are theirs.” ing he manages, making himself available for anything residents may need. “My interests are theirs,” he says. He speaks highly of all of his staff, which he helped pick out specifically to fit the building’s and residents’ personalities. “We have the best porters and handymen that you can possibly imagine,” he says.
The building is the second waterfront condo built in the area, and Pioquinto knew it would be crucial to put together the best possible team. “Then everyone else came as years went by,” he says. Pioquinto has lived in other neighborhoods and boroughs, but something kept drawing him back to the building he helped open in 2008. Part of the appeal was the family-friendly, close-knit environment. His now-grown son was raised there and even worked part time as a doorman and porter when he was a teenager. His son, now a Marine living in California, recently got mar-
ried and gave Pioquinto his first granddaughter. Pioquinto was born in the South Bronx and raised by a mother who worked in civil service. He says he gets his work ethic from lessons she instilled. He was a facilities trainee for Con Edison during school and that’s when he was “exposed to the maintenance aspect of it.” “It opened my eyes to this industry,” he says. In his free time, Pioquinto goes fishing and bike riding, and roots for the Yankees and the Jets. “I like to do things that soothe my spirit,” he says. “If I’m healthy then my approach to the job is healthy.”
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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SHOP. EAT. DRINK. PLAY.
ALL UNDER ONE MAGNIFICENT ROOF.
At the corner of Church St. and Dey St.
BANANA REPUBLIC ǭ EATALY ǭ FOREVER 21 SEPHORA ǭ UGG ǭ VICTORIA’S SECRET
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NOEL BROWN OUTER BOROUGH RESIDENTIAL WORKER
THE MAN TO TURN TO Bronx handyman Noel Brown is available for advice and emergencies BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Noel Brown serves as a handyman for a collection of buildings in the Bronx containing hundreds of units. Though that can seem overwhelming, Brown is methodical and diligent and never goes home until every tenant is taken care of. “If I have something I’m working on it’s hard for me to go home and get comfortable while the tenant is uncomfortable,” he says. Tenants often call him for advice and in the event of an emergency — when their heat goes out or the smoke alarm is going off. “Sometimes on my days off they’re even calling me,” he says.
“When they have problems they don’t know where to turn so they call me.” He calls it his duty to help them out. Luckily, Brown has built friendly relationships with many tenants over his 16 years there. “I appreciate them and they appreciate me,” he says. “I respect everyone.” The hardest part of his job, Brown says, is all the walking between buildings and up and down the flights of stairs. But it keeps him fit, he says, and it focuses his mind. He was surprised to hear he’d won an award, but credits his patience with the tenants and “going the extra mile for them.” Brown came to New York City from Jamaica in 1980 and now lives in the Bronx. “It’s a great city,” he says. “If you put out effort you can achieve
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It’s a great city. If you put out effort you can achieve anything.” anything.” He spent some time in plumbing before being introduced to the manager of his current buildings. He has a daughter and in his free time enjoys playing dominoes and going back to visit Jamaica.
Dennis Giblin 646 438 3343 dgiblin@ableserve.com
Cleaning, Operating & Maintaining OVER ONE BILLION SQ FT EVERY DAY
708 Third Avenue Suite 1100, New York, NY 11017 | www.ableserve.com/nyc
Working together to deliver valuAble Able work-life experiences. Since 1926.
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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WE CONGRATULATE New York’s Building Workers who are being celebrated at the
BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS AWARDS CEREMONY & SPECIAL SECTIONS for all they do to keep New York City running smoothly. We thank you. Photo: Jason Cohen
ROMAY GARCIA SMOOTH SAILING FOR THIS NAVY VET
CUSTODIAN
For Romay Garcia, maintaining a school is a service to the country BY JASON COHEN
For more than two decades Romay Garcia served his country overseas. Today, the Navy veteran is head custodian at Success Academy South Jamaica. Garcia,52, has worked at the school, at 120-27 141st St. in South Ozone Park, for 10 years. Garcia grew up in Harlem during a time the borough was filled with drugs and crime. He had aspirations of being a doctor, but after attending Hunter College, he realized his best shot at getting out of the neighborhood was to enlist in the military. He joined in 1988 and spent time in Italy, Spain and the Middle East. “I met a lot of good people who really love this country,” he said. He left the Navy in 2008 and returned stateside, only to find himself in the throes of one of the country’s bleakest economic periods. In need of a job, a friend recommended him to the school. Things have been smooth sailing since. While the head custodian at a school is different than maintaining a vessel, Garcia loves the job. He is closer to home, there’s less stress and, best of all, children greet him with a smile every day. “I consider this job a service to my country,” Garcia said. “They (students) bring you that strength to continue.”
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Students bring you that strength to continue.” After being in the Navy, waking up at 4 a.m. is easy. In addition to keeping the school clean, he’s charged with making sure the heat works in the winter and the air conditioning in the summer. “This job is like an extension to serve the community and the city of New York because students they are the future,” Garcia said. “The best part of the job is when I see the scholars moving to the next level.” Garcia lives in the Bronx with his wife, Sandra, and their two kids. While he acknowledged it is nice to be honored for his work, he wants veterans to receive better treatment. “I just wish that those people that sacrificed their life for this country and their family should have better opportunities,” Garcia said.
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Photo: Madeleine Thompson
BEST OF MANHATTAN
ZAKIYY MEDINA STAYING GROUNDED
More than 150,000 loyal readers of Our Town, The West Side Spirit, Our Town Downtown and Chelsea News turn to the first & best guide
For Zakiyy Medina and his coworkers, cooperation is key to a smooth operation
MAKE SURE THEY KNOW YOU’RE THE BEST
AIRPORT WORKER (NEWARK)
BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
Zakiyy Medina has worked as a baggage handler at Newark Airport for three years and is privy to some of the hub’s coveted secrets. Asked if he’ll share any of them, he jokes, “it wouldn’t be a secret if I share it, right?” Medina says the job, which involves taking luggage off of planes and making sure they get to the right carousels or final destinations, is mostly manageable. There are stressful periods,too, though, particularly “when we’re dealing with a lot of passengers.” What with loud plane engines and multiple workers all whirring, things “become a little bit harder” without that crucial element — cooperation. It just depends on the day. “You get used to being around a lot of people,” he says. Though he didn’t have experience in the industry before he started the job, Medina says he catches on pretty quickly and now has a solid grip on the work. Airports are “like their own communities,” he says, and he has enjoyed learning about how they operate. “It gives you a wider perspective on not just the people that you meet but how things work,” he says. Medina was born and raised in New Jersey,
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Get a 100 word write-up about your business in the category of your choice Neighborhood Shops Gym/Recreation Home Improvement Pets t Kids t Arts & Culture Food & Drink A N D M O R E !
Airports are like their own communities.” where he still lives with his grandparents. In his free time, he likes making music and has a page on SoundCloud. He has aspirations of becoming a music producer, and as such is a diverse listener of everything from rock to jazz to hip hop. He’s working on building a website for his work. Medina has participated in numerous political actions with the union to raise the minimum wage. He has attended Port Authority meetings, leadership meetings, and is especially grateful to have met elected officials such as Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. His personal plea to travelers? Make sure your bags aren’t overweight.
ISSUE DATE: Dec 6 AD SPACE DEADLINE: Nov 30 For more information Call 212-868-0190 advertising@strausnews.com The local paper for the Upper East Side
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OCTOBER 18-24,2018
CRISTIANA MENDEZ AMONG THE VIP’S
AIRPORT WORKER (LGA)
Cristiana Mendez is grateful for the life in the city that has brought her so much BY MADELEINE THOMPSON
What gets Cristiana Mendez up in the morning and keeps her going is the fact that she can provide for her family. She got her job cleaning at LaGuardia Airport in 2002 and has come to love the environment, especially her coworkers. She particularly enjoys being around so many other Spanish-speakers. Her days usually start around 6 a.m., when she begins by checking the bathrooms and then continues with regular maintenance of her assigned area. Mendez is responsible for the airport’s VIP lounges and says she often sees famous and important people. She occasionally deals with rudeness, which she attributes to stress caused by traveling. Mendez likes learning things about how the airport works and her job in general. She especially appreciates being recognized by her bosses and supervisors for her dedication. Mendez lives in Queens but enjoys visiting
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She works cleaning La Guardia Airport and particularly enjoys being around so many Spanish speakers Times Square. She’s grateful for her stable life in the city that has brought her so much opportunity. She spends her free time with family and friends and enjoys visiting Puerto Rico, where she was born and raised.
Photo provided
HINES congratulates the SEIU Local 32BJ 2018 Annual Service Workers of the Year Award recipients
7 Bryant Park; 100 East 53; 56 Leonard Street; 1585 Broadway Sunrise East 56; One Vanderbilt; 53W53; Hudson Square Properties
www.hines.com
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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SEAN WILLIAMS EARNING HIS KEEP Sean Williams set his sights forward, and found satisfaction BY JASON COHEN
While Sean Williams wanted to be a cop p when he was younger, and was employed mployed at places such as Kmart, Bradlees and Lord & Taylor, he is proud to be where he is today.. Brooklyn resident Sean Williams liams worked in retail and restaurants for many any years, and at the New York City Human Resources sources Administration. Williams, 50, climbed the ladder of security at the Allied Universal Security Services building, at 320 Schermerhorn rn St. in Brooklyn. He started out as a security guard and, 14 years later, is a supervisor. “I wanted something better,” er,” Williams says. “I always wanted to be one (a a supervisor) when I was a guard.” His work ethic and his desire re to provide for his family have always ys kept his motor going. Even when n he dealt with rude people, he never ever let them get under his skin. “I’ve been through the ups and I’ve been through the downs,” s,” he says. He recalled how people used ed to call him a clown cop and toy y cop. That could have been a deterrent to some, but Wil-liams persevered. He knew w that to provide for his family, y, he needed to get a promotion..
SECURITY
It was worth the effort, he says. “I’ve earned to where I got now,” Williams says. In addition to working close to his wife, Tasha, and eight children, Williams explains that it’s the people at work that really make it fun. He describes himself as friendly, always talking to colleagues and tenants and getting g g g to know them. Williams is a family man who enjoys movies, parties, going out to dinner. He is also a New York Yankees fan. But there’s nothing more important in his life than being honorable and a good person. “I’m a caring person,” he says. “I like to help people. I’m very thankful.”
Everything you like about Our Town is now available to be delivered to your mailbox every week in the Eastsider From the very local news of your neighborhood to information about upcoming events and activities, the new home delivered edition of the Eastsiderwill keep you in-the-know. And best of all you won’t have to go outside to grab a copy from the street box every week.
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ANGIE PERSON AIRPORT WORKER (JFK)
A DEDICATION TO VOLUNTEER WORK Angie Person has spoken in Albany about fair wages and reads to neighborhood kids
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Angie Person started working at JFK Airport in 2013. She is a cleaner at the sprawling Terminal 8, which is twice as big as Madison Square Garden. Nearly 13 million people pass through Terminal 8 every year. “I do the pilot room, the tower, and another part,” she says. “I thank God I’m working.” She has spoken at the state capitol in Albany four times about fair wages, among other things. Person’s dedication to volunteer work also applies to her personal life. She can often be found at the library across from her apartment, where she reads to and entertains neighborhood kids. “I do a lot of work with little children,” she says. She also spends time at nearby soup kitchens. Before going to JFK she worked at the parks department for 18 years. It’s evident from the toys stacked neatly around Person’s home that she dotes on her nine-year-old
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I do the pilot room, the tower, and another part. I thank God I’m working.” granddaughter, whom she calls “the mini-me.” The two go to plays together and take trips to Las Vegas to visit Person’s mom. She also enjoys spending time with her son. Person was born in North Carolina but raised in Brooklyn, where she still lives.
Photo by Madeleine Thompson
Douglas Elliman Property Management is proud to congratulate Mr. Adem Kajosaj as the 2018 Doorman of the Year East Side and all of the other honorees.
675 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017 212.370.9200 EllimanPM.com
For over 100 years, management has been our focus.
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7ŕś ŕľž 1ŕľžŕś? <ŕś&#x2C6;ŕś&#x2039;ŕś&#x201E; <ŕľşŕś&#x2021;ŕś&#x201E;ŕľžŕľžŕś&#x152; $5( 3528' 6833257(56 2) 7+( 6(,8 /2&$/ %$1' 6$/87( $// 2) 7+( +2125((6
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congratulates
the 2018 Building Service Workers Award Winners and thanks each of them for making our homes and offices better places to live and work.
GLENWOOD BUILDER, OWNER & MANAGER OF MANHATTANâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S MOST LUXURIOUS RENTAL RESIDENCES All the units include features for persons with disabilities required by FHA.
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
The Original Teachings of
MONUMENT-MAKING IN THE CITY HISTORY The de Blasio administration is encouraging an open discussion about the creation of new monuments, but some cite frustration with bureaucracy and a lack of funds BY CHARMAINE P. RICE
The history behind many of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s monuments is a complicated one, fraught with political intrigue and, some say, elitist attitudes. Last week, a panel of experts discussed the opportunities, challenges and frustrations in trying to rectify a paucity of monuments commemorating groups, including women, traditionally underrepresented on city property. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Prior to the mid-1960s or so, there was no particular concern or awareness of community, the unity of constituents, or of a neighborhood. No community was consulted except for the members of the narrowly circumscribed group initiating the project,â&#x20AC;? said Michele Bogart, a professor of art history at Stony Brook University and the author of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sculpture in Gotham: Art and Urban Renewal In New York City. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The outlook was just very different from today.â&#x20AC;? The Oct. 9 talk, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Who Decides? The History and Future of Monuments in New York City,â&#x20AC;? was held at the CUNY Graduate Center on Fifth Avenue and moderated by Todd Fine, president of the Washington Street Historical Society. Along with Bogart, other panelists were John Kuo Wei Tchen, an associate professor at New York Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gallatin School, cofounder of the Museum of Chinese in America and a member of the Mayoral Advisory Commission on Monuments; and Mary Anne Trasciatti, an associate professor at Hofstra University. The de Blasio administration is now making a concerted effort to ensure that public dialogue is a key component in the planning and placement of monuments. Just over a year ago, the Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments and Markers was established to address controversies surrounding some of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perceived â&#x20AC;&#x153;hotbuttonâ&#x20AC;? monuments, including that of Christopher Columbus
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A majority of the Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments and Markers, established last year to address controversial commemorations on city land, advocated for keeping the statue of Christopher Columbus at Columbus Circle, saying it â&#x20AC;&#x153;represents the complexity and contradictions embedded in our representation of our history as a nation.â&#x20AC;? The commission noted that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the best optionâ&#x20AC;? to redress similar controversies â&#x20AC;&#x153;will be to add new works of public art or new educational opportunities.â&#x20AC;? Photo: Marcel Rene Kalt, via Wikimedia Commons at Columbus Circle and a statue, since removed, of Dr. James Marion Sims, the so-called â&#x20AC;&#x153;father of modern gynecology,â&#x20AC;? on Fifth Avenue Commission members convened over the course of three months to discuss monuments and markers on city-owned land. A subsequent report in-
cluded guidelines and recommendations for the creation and placement of monuments. And in June, the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Department of Cultural Affairs launched â&#x20AC;&#x153;She Built NYC,â&#x20AC;? a $10 million initiative whose aim, in-step with the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recommendations, is to erect public monuments honoring womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history in New York City. Artists were then given to until Sept. 30 to submit monument ideas. One of those is Mary Anne Trasciatti, an associate professor at Hofstra University, who is spearheading an effort to build a memorial commemorating the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 garment workers, most of them immigrant women and young girls, in March 1911. For Trasciatti, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a child of a garment worker,â&#x20AC;? she noted. Trasciatti outlined the many bureaucratic obstacles in her path. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The ďŹ rst challenge was how to get permission to build a public memorial on a privately-owned building. This was perhaps the most interesting and frustrating element in this project,â&#x20AC;? she said. The Brown Building, which housed the factory, is owned by New York University. In 2012, NYU administrators granted permission but made it clear that the university would not pay or help build the memorial. To move the project forward, Trasciatti enlisted pro-bono help from accountants, lawyers and architects. The proposed memorial, designed by Richard Joon Yoo and Uri Wegman, would consist of ribbon-like steel panels that will travel across both sides of the Brown Building and extend up to the ninth ďŹ&#x201A;oor, where most of the casualties happened. The names of the 146 victims will be engraved on the panels. Trasciatti said another challenge is raising the necessary funds. She said interest from the mayorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office is lukewarm at best. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We hit a brick wall after brick wall. Who wants to fund a labor memorial about immigrant women?â&#x20AC;? she said. She said she is puzzled by the de Blasioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s administrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lack of support for the project. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I implore him to include hard-working people [beyond explorers, conquerors, and colonizers], like the Italian immigrants at Triangle, that is much more representative of the community of New Yorkers,â&#x20AC;? she said of the mayor.
Theosophy as recorded by H.P. Blavatsky & William Q. Judge
PROGRAM FOR OCTOBER 2018 SUNDAY MORNINGS B N UP OPPO t %PPST PQFO B N Discussion Group: Exploring Tenets of Theosophy
SUNDAY EVENINGS Q N UP Q N t %PPST PQFO Q N TALKS AND PANEL DISCUSSIONS
October 21
All Meetings Free No Dues No Collections TV Channel 3 Fri @ 9:30PM
RedeďŹ ning the God Idea
WEDNESDAY EVENINGS Q N UP Q N t %PPST PQFO Q N STUDY CLASS in - Selected excerpts from the writings of H.P. Blavatsky & William Q. Judge on the theme of Dreams and the Dreamer
For full program contact:
The United Lodge of Theosophists Theosophy Hall Phone (212) 535- 2230
347 East 72nd St., New York www.ULT.org
T H E VA L L E Y TA B L E P R E S E N T S
october 29 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; november 11 )
Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss the most anticipated food event in the region! Make your reservations today!
WHITECLIFF VINEYARD â&#x20AC;&#x201D;20TH
VINTAGE YEARâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;
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OCTOBER 18-24,2018
Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com
A GREENER CHELSEA PLAY SPACES A community playground opens at P.S. 33 on Ninth Avenue BY GASPARD LE DEM
P.S. 33-Chelsea Prep students during a choreographed dance to C+C’s “Everybody Dance Now” before Tuesday’s ribbon cutting for a community park at the school. Photo: Gaspard Le Dem
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS OCT 3 - 9, 2018 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml. Dallas BBQ
1265 3 Avenue
A
Garden Court Cafe (Asia Society)
725 Park Ave
A
Cafe Luka
1317 1st Ave
Grade Pending (21) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. 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.
5 Napkin
1325 2nd Ave
A
Barnes & Noble Cafe
150 East 86 Street
A
Andaman Thai Bistro
1843 1 Avenue
A
Noche de Margaritas Restaurant
1726 2 Avenue
A
New Fresh Wok
1777 1st Ave
Grade Pending (18) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or nonfood areas.
Wok 88
1570 3rd Ave
Not Yet Graded (29) 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 nonfood areas. 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.
My NY Bakery Cafe
1565 Lexington Avenue
A
Sidewalk Tacos
2163 2nd Ave
A
Mazey’s
126 E 103rd St
A
Eddie’s NY Deli & Pizza
184 E 116th St
Not Yet Graded (38) Food contact surface improperly constructed or located. Unacceptable material used. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Taking a stroll in the park and getting outdoors to play just got a lot easier — and more eco-friendly — for Chelsea residents. That’s all thanks to a brand new community playground on the corner of 26th Street and Ninth Avenue. The P.S. 33 Chelsea Prep Community Playground brings 30,000 residents within a 10-minute walk of a park. “It’s a gift to us,” said Chelsea Prep principal Cindy Wang at Wednesday’s ribbon cutting for the playground. “This is where kids learn how to play. Play is so big — all the social interactions — it’s such a critical part of their development and growth.” Parents, staff members and all 628 students at Chelsea Prep got to participate in the design process for the playground. At the ceremony, students performed an elaborate choreographed dance to C+C’s
“Everybody Dance Now” before the ribbon cutting. “We’ve come a long way — this is a far cry from what it was,” said Shabana Patel, whose three children attend the elementary school. “It’s a limited space and it’s an odd shape, but they’ve done such a fantastic job with it.” The playground, built by a partnership of the city and The Trust for Public Land at a cost of $1.16 million, features trees, a turf field, porous pavement and other eco-friendly features. It’s designed to absorb an estimated 365,000 gallons of stormwater each year, according to the city Department of Environmental Protection. “Think about what a typical playground in New York City looks like — it’s just asphalt,” the DEP commissioner, Vincent Sapienza, said. “Making playgrounds that are absorbent, that are like sponges that can soak up that runoff before it hits the ground and goes into the street, helps the environment.” Officials say the park is a small, but important step toward building a city more resilient to climate change. “It’s small but we think it’s mighty,” said Carter Strickland, the state director of The
Trust for Public Land, which has designed nearly 200 playgrounds across the city’s five boroughs. “At a time when some people in the federal government are denying climate change, denying that we need to do anything, we’re working together here in New York City.” Strickland said. But with Hurricane Michael barreling up the East Coast and the ghost of Hurricane Sandy still looming, Strickland worries that the city is not moving fast enough to protect itself from another environmental catastrophe. “It just takes too long and it’s too expensive to build in this city,” Strickland said. “We need to make it faster and less expensive so that we can get things in the ground and protect ourselves from the next storm.” New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who represents Chelsea on the City Council, also expressed concerns about the city’s readiness for climate change. “ It ’s a n over whel m i n g amount of things we need to do,” said Johnson. “It would be nice if we had a federal government that supports us in doing those things.”
New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who represents Chelsea on the City Council, celebrates the opening of the student-designed playground at P.S. 33-Chelsea Prep along with students. Photo: Gaspard Le Dem
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com
Neighborhood Scrapbook ESTABLISHED 1789 A NURTURING, SMALL, JUNIOR-K THROUGH 5th GRADE CO-ED SCHOOL On 95th Street at Central Park West
Where Empowerment and Education go hand-in-hand.
Sign Up for An Open House Tour at alexanderrobertson.org/admissions or call 212-663-2844 to make an appointment for your visit. Voter registration on Columbus Avenue, with League of Women Voters volunteers at Book Culture. Photo: Mia Kravitz
READING, WRITING AND VOTING Book Culture, Prior Manor Press and League of Women Voters of New York City sponsored a Voter Registration drive on the Upper West Side on October 10 and 11. Outside the store, League of Women Voters volunteers Marilyn Sulzbacker and Rachel Westerwelle (standing) helped register voters at Book Culture’s UWS location at 450 Columbus Avenue at 81st Street.
In addition to registration materials, on the table was “Wild World,” by Peter S. Rush, recipient of the 2018 Independent Press Award for Debut Fiction. Published by Prior Manor Press, “Wild World” is a novel set in the student protest movements of the 1970s; the author is passionate about political engagement today among young people. The event produced 31 new voter registrations on the Upper West Side.
The Board of Elections in the City of New York is hiring Poll Workers to serve at poll sites across New York City. Become an Election Day Worker and you can earn up to $500 for completing the training course, passing the exam and working two Election Days.
ELECTION INSPECTOR
INTERPRETER
REQUIREMENTS @ Registered voter residing in the City of New York
REQUIREMENTS @ A permanent U.S. resident over 18 years of age and a resident of New York City
@ Enrolled in the Democratic or Republican party @ Able to read and write English DUTIES @ Prepare the poll site for voters
@ Assist voters during the voting process @ Close the poll site @ Canvass and report election results @ Assist other poll workers as needed TRAINING @ All Inspectors must attend a training class and pass the exam SALARY @ Earn $200 per day
@ Earn $100 for training (Note: You will only be paid for Training if you pass the exam and work on Election Day.)
You can earn up to $500 for completing the training course, passing the exam and working two Election Days.
@ Fluent in English and the interpreter’s language @ Spanish interpreters needed in all boroughs @ Chinese interpreters needed in Manhattan, Brooklyn & Queens @ Korean, Hindi and Bengali interpreters needed in Queens. For Hindi Interpreters: Please note on your application if you can also speak Punjabi.
@ Does not have to be a registered voter DUTIES @ Assist non-English speaking voters by translating voting information into covered languages during the voting process TRAINING @ All Interpreters must attend a training class and pass the exam SALARY @ Earn $200 per day
@ Earn $25 for training (Note: You will only be paid for Training if you pass the exam and work on Election Day.)
You can earn up to $425 for completing the training course, passing the exam and working two Election Days.
HOURS/LOCATION @ 5:00 a.m. until the polls are closed and results reported, which will be after 9:00 p.m. @ Must be willing to travel within the borough for assignment to a poll site
HOW TO APPLY Visit pollworker.nyc/2018 to apply. If you have any questions, call 866-VOTE-NYC (866-868-3692).
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OCTOBER 18-24,2018
Business
In New York City the last few years, sellers were used to asking more than the last sale price. For now, those days are over. Photo: Dale Cruse, via flickr
SELLER’S CORNER REAL ESTATE With inventory climbing, real estate values have dropped BY FREDERICK W. PETERS
Today’s real estate market requires caution and care on the part of sellers. This is no time for ambitious, “it only takes one buyer” pricing. Many buyers who retreated to the sidelines in the past couple of years have returned to the market, knowing that their dollar will go further. And they’re right: with inventory and days on market higher than they have been in many years, sellers and their agents need a strategy to get each property sold. Here are a few tips: • Forget aspirational pricing. If the
last similar apartment sold 6 months ago for $1,400 per square foot, today’s value is likely to be $1,300 or $1,325. Sellers have become accustomed to asking more than the last sale price, but those days are over. Now a serious seller must ask less. • Spruce the property up! The best prices these days go to those units which look great. They need at least a fresh coat of paint and, ideally, a lot of editing and some updated furnishings. Not every property can be in mint condition (though that is what most buyers want) but they can all look good. A tired paint job, stained carpeting and Grandma’s furniture almost guarantee a few price reductions after months on the market. • Don’t aspire to multiple bids. If a seller chooses what she believes to be a low price in the hope of receiving
multiple bids, she will almost certainly be disappointed. Almost every sale Warburg completes these days comes as the result of a single offer. The expectation that multiple people will bid against each other for ANY property these days defies the realities of the marketplace. However great Apartment A may be, there is usually an Apartment B (and often an Apartment C) with different benefits waiting in the wings. These days, buyers walk away from a property with an offer on it at least as frequently as they retain enough interest to bid. And the asking price (or close to it) scores a home run for sellers. Almost no one pays more than the asking price today. • Monthly costs matter. Since buyers have become cost-sensitive, they care a lot about the maintenance or common charges and taxes. New
condominium buildings all have high monthlies because they are not taxabated and usually provide a full suite of hotel-like services. Some iconic coops like the Dakota have always had a high maintenance and buyers usually know that going in. The same is true for buildings with few apartments; since the costs of running the building get divided between a small number of owners, they inevitably run high. But for less high-profile buildings, an outsized maintenance can add difficulty to the sale. These days a maintenance between $1.75 and $2 per square foot seems to be the norm. Once an apartment exceeds those numbers it will have a commensurate impact on the price of the unit. • Don’t dawdle. These days we urge every seller to respond to all offers; each one is precious. We agents have
seen too many listings now ASKING less than the amount of an offer we brought them six months ago. The seller’s agent can negotiate the best possible deal, but I would urge any seller who has an offer between 5 percent and 7 percent of the asking price (even if that price was just reduced) to take it. While this is now a buyer’s market, sellers can still manage a successful sale. It requires discipline about pricing, about clean-up, about staging and about responsiveness. In today’s environment, many properties still suffer from poor preparation, lack of adequate staging, and overly optimistic pricing. ALL ducks must be in a row to bring about a sale at an appropriate price in a reasonable time period. Frederick W. Peters is chief executive officer of Warburg Realty Partnership.
OCTOBER 18-24,2018
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OCTOBER 18-24,2018
Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com
RALLY PROTESTS DEVELOPERSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; INFLUENCE ACTIVISM Hundreds assemble at City Hall, blaming developers and Mayor Bill de Blasio BY SPENCER LEE
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Defiance and frustration spoke loudly on the steps of City Hall Saturday afternoon, with some 300 people voicing displeasure at the speed by which New York neighborhoods are being sacriďŹ ced to developers. The protesters directed much of their ire at Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Real Estate Board of New York, holding both responsible in equal measure for growing economic disparity in the city. Nearly 70 community organizations signed on as sponsors of the event, Rally for our Neighborhoods, at which speakers and attendees alike railed at the pace of development, much of it approved, they said, at the expense of residents and small businesses. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The evictions of New Yorkers, the destruction of affordable housing, the whitewashing of diverse communities of color â&#x20AC;&#x201D; these are not natural changes. They are planned,â&#x20AC;? Jeremiah Moss, publisher of the blog â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vanishing New York,â&#x20AC;? said at the assembly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They are the products of public policy,â&#x20AC;? Moss continued. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We must demand a change in policy and demand a change in values. Endless growth is not a sustained ethical value. It is a cancer. Endless growth is not progress. It is the corporate model.â&#x20AC;? Others at the rally echoed
Saturdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rally for our Neighborhoods at City Hall featured several speakers who railed at how quickly new developments are approved without sufficient input from residents. Photo: Spencer Lee Mossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sentiments, including Richard Moses of the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Instead of upzoning neighborhoods in some kind of dystopian future, the city needs to respect existing community scale and context,â&#x20AC;? he said to loud approval. Local politicians, several speakers said, were complicit in acquiescing to developers and the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our history, our memory of the history of this city â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a public commons â&#x20AC;&#x201D; sold off for less than its value. Our parks â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a public commons â&#x20AC;&#x201D; sold off for less than its value because of the money from REBNY,â&#x20AC;? said Michael White, a cofounder of Citizens Defending Libraries. Sheila Lewandowski of the Long Island City Coalition said rapid development in her neighborhood have led to the dumping of raw sewage into the East River, subway overcrowding and increasingly scarce green space. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We need the city to stop expecting developers to plan infrastructure. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not going to do it. We need planning that deserves our input,â&#x20AC;? she said.
Banners and signs â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x153;I ? NYâ&#x20AC;? among them â&#x20AC;&#x201C; were prominent at the rally, which lasted a little more than an hour under overcast skies. Chants â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whose city? Our city!â&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;New York City - not for saleâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; punctuated the event. Lower Manhattan residents who oppose the plan for a new jail in Chinatown were a noticeable presence. The jail, which would accommodate 1,510 beds, would be built near a park in a busy residential and commercial area. â&#x20AC;&#x153;No community should have 40 stories of cages and retail underneath. It is a savage concept,â&#x20AC;? said Jan Lee of the Chinatown Core Block Association, referring to the plan to convert city offices at 80 Centre St. Lynn Ellsworth, of the Alliance for a Human-Scale City, which organized the event, urged people to stay involved, particularly by voting. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is a great opportunity. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ nd candidates who pledge not to take money from real estate,â&#x20AC;? she said. The battle against development, Ellsworth said, is a citywide issue. â&#x20AC;&#x153;No neighborhood can win alone,â&#x20AC;? she said.
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OCTOBER 18-24,2018
GREENACRE PARK CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 6,360-square-foot vest-pocket park redefined the concept of parkland. It joined Paley Park, which debuted in 1967 on an East 53rd Street mini-lot, in inspiring scores of other hidden gems, invisible from the avenues, that were nestled into some of the most congested blocks in the city. Now, Greenacre Park, between Second and Third Avenues, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, which serves as the official U.S. government listing of American places deemed worthy of preservation because of their historic, artistic, cultural or architectural significance. “It’s only the size of a tennis court,” said Lois Cremmins, the executive director of the Greenacre Foundation, the nonprofit founded by Mauze to own and maintain the park for public use in perpetuity. “But it welcomes 200,000 people a year.” They come for the garden-like setting, fast-flowing brook, forest of honey-locust trees, ivy walls, terrace with trellis roof, lush evergreen plantings — and most of all, the central waterfall that muffles the honking of taxis and other urban sounds the moment a park-goer enters from 51st Street. There are also sunlit seating areas on the russet-brick paving that come complete with moveable tables and
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A 25-foot-high waterfall with a pool at the base is the central feature of Greenacre Park on East 51st Street, which was just named to the National Register of Historic Places. Photo Courtesy of Greenacre Foundation / Howard Jay Heyman chairs and an outdoor café. And there’s a sense of permanence: The park is virtually unchanged — there have been almost no alterations — since the day it bowed on Oct. 14, 1971, Cremmins said. The historic designation is a “sign of the value the park brings to the area,” said East Side City Council Member Keith Powers. It guarantees that a rare midtown oasis will endure and thrive, offering the hope of “protecting the sunlight, which all New Yorkers can appreciate,” he added.
Greenacre takes its place on the registry with 557 buildings, properties, districts and religious institutions in Manhattan, a list that runs, literally, from A (the Ansonia Hotel on the Upper West Side) to Z (Zion-St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on the Upper East Side).
HEALTHFUL, RESTFUL, SOULFUL AND UNSTRESSFUL At the unveiling of a plaque at the park’s entrance on Oct. 2 to mark its naming to the roll, Rose Harvey, com-
missioner of the state’s Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said that Greenacre was, by some measures, an unlikely nominee for federal designation. Most entrants to the registry, which is managed by the National Park Service, are more than a half-century old; Greenacre is 47. Individual parks aren’t typically honored, though Central Park, Bowling Green and Bryant Park all made the cut. And no other Manhattan vest-pocket park appears on the list. The park’s intimacy — part living room, part social space, part pastoral retreat, part healing gardens, part celebration of urban life — is central to its appeal, Harvey said. “This beautiful park delivers a connection that builds social bonds with family, friends and community — and allows us to maintain a regular relationship with the outdoors,” she said. “It recharges our souls, lifts our moods, lowers our blood pressure, reduces our stress and raises our selfesteem,” Harvey added. Practically, the listing won’t have a huge impact on Greenacre. While properties named to the National Register can qualify for grants and state and federal tax credits for historic preservation, those incentives wouldn’t apply to the nonprofit foundation, Cremmins said. Simply put, “The designation is a great honor to have for a beloved green
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space in an area that lacks green places,” she added. Indeed, Community Board 6, which takes in the park, has the least amount of open space in Manhattan. And while 19 percent of the total acreage of the average City Council district is devoted to parkland, the tally for District 4, which includes the East Side and Midtown, is a mere two percent, according to data from the Greenacre Foundation. Not only that, District 4, which Powers represents, ranks 49th out of all 51 City Council districts in terms of the number of parks and playgrounds per 1,000 residents, the foundation found. “People clamor to get in,” said State Senator Liz Krueger, whose East Side district takes in the park. “It’s beautiful and peaceful, a communal space to escape the bustle of the city. You take a deep breath, and you feel like you’re breathing cleaner air, and you probably are.” For the district’s elderly visitors, Greenacre Park is a special blessing and “literal oasis,” Krueger added. “The seniors tell me, ‘I come here every day’ and ‘Thank God, it’s here,’” she said. “They tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter that Central Park is nearby because getting up to 59th Street and Fifth Avenue just isn’t realistic for me.’” invreporter@strausnews.com
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Elected leaders gathered at the Metropolitan Republican Club for a press brieďŹ ng on Monday. From left: Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, Council Member Ben Kallos, Assembly Member Dan Quart, Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Council Member Keith Powers and Council Member Donovan Richards. Photo: Michael Garofalo
MELEE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The clubhouse was vandalized early on the morning of the event by two masked individuals who broke windows and spray-painted anarchy symbols on the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s doors. Police are seeking the suspects. The Metropolitan Republican Clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement continued, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We must forcefully denounce any suggestion that the Club somehow deserved the hostility and threats we have received in recent days, simply because we invited a speaker that some people might disagree with. We in no way encouraged any violent behavior. We cannot say the same about the folks who left threatening messages, vandalized our property or showed up in ski masks and threw glass bottles.â&#x20AC;? Johnson called the vandalism â&#x20AC;&#x153;unacceptableâ&#x20AC;? and condemned the individuals behind it, but added, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Republicans equating this brutal beat down with that vandalism is ridiculous.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why were the Proud Boys invited here?â&#x20AC;? Johnson said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Their agenda is violence â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to stoke fear and incite violence â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and to equate them with the other counter-protestors is a false equivalency.â&#x20AC;?
Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed President Donald Trump for creating a divisive political atmosphere. Cuomo called on the FBI to investigate the incident and directed the State Police Hate Crimes Unit to coordinate with federal and local law enforcement in carrying out an investigation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The bottom line is that I hold the president responsible for demonizing differences, fanning the ďŹ&#x201A;ames of racism and division and creating a fire of hatred and violence,â&#x20AC;? Cuomo said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;These vile acts of racism, division and discrimination are repugnant to American values, and have no place in our state. Why did this club invite the Proud Boys, a hate group with a history of inciting violence?â&#x20AC;? Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a tweet nearly 24 hours after the violence, writing â&#x20AC;&#x153;The NYPD is fully investigating the incidentâ&#x20AC;? and continuing, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hate is never welcome in NYC and we will punish those responsible â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whether they threw punches or incited violence â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to the fullest extent of the law.â&#x20AC;? The mayor did not address the violence in comments at an Oct. 15 NYPD graduation ceremony at Madison Square Garden, and he did not attend a press conference with Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neill at the event. The night ended with three arrests; none of the arrested individuals were Proud Boys
members. Police arrested three people several blocks away from the other ďŹ ghting after a Proud Boys member accused the individuals of assaulting and robbing him. Johnson called for a full and transparent investigation of the incident and for all video collected by the NYPD to be released to the public. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why was no one arrested if the NYPD was here on the scene when people were being physically beaten up?â&#x20AC;? Johnson asked. â&#x20AC;&#x153;These are questions that need to be answered.â&#x20AC;? Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neill said the NYPD is â&#x20AC;&#x153;vigorously investigating all leadsâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;will make arrests.â&#x20AC;? Deputy Inspector Kathleen Walsh, the commanding officer of the Upper East Sideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 19th Precinct, said police â&#x20AC;&#x153;are doing a thorough investigation of this whole event.â&#x20AC;? Members of Proud Boys, which bills itself as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;proWestern fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists,â&#x20AC;? were also involved in violence at a Feb. 2017 rally at New York University. McInnes, who was a co-founder of Vice Media and left the company in 2008, has advocated for the use of violence against political opponents, calling it â&#x20AC;&#x153;a really effective way to solve problems.â&#x20AC;? Pax Hart, a member of the
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Police circulated video of street violence on 82nd Street that occurred after the Oct. 12 event at the Metropolitan Republican Club. Image: NYPD Republican club who attended the event, described McInnes as â&#x20AC;&#x153;a political entertainer.â&#x20AC;? McInnesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performance at the club consisted of the reenactment of the 1960 assassination of a Japanese socialist leader by a nationalist with a traditional samurai blade, followed by what Hart characterized as â&#x20AC;&#x153;some politically incorrect humor.â&#x20AC;? McInnes exited the club at about 8:20 p.m.; videos and photos show him brandishing a samurai sword (Hart said the sword was plastic) at protestors across 83rd Street. A bottle was thrown in McInnesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; direction. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The precipitation
of violence started from the counterprotestors across the street,â&#x20AC;? Hart claimed. In comments after the event, McInnes said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have a lot of support in the NYPD and I very much appreciate that, the boys in blue.â&#x20AC;? Richards took note of McInnesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; remarks, saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;This better not check out. The NYPDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actions over the next few days better prove that this narrative is wrong.â&#x20AC;? In an emailed statement, the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;By the end of the night, no Proud Boys were arrested, and several anti-fascist protesters were
hauled away in handcuffs. Infuriating? Yes. Surprising? No.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ultimately, the Metropolitan Republican Club, the NYPD, and the Proud Boys all have the same objective: maintain the status quo, whether it be with racialized economic policies or plastic samurai swords,â&#x20AC;? the statement continued. Keith Powers, who represents the neighborhood in the City Council, criticized the club for inviting McInnes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe they all believe what the Proud Boys believe [...], but I do think thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a problem when you invite them into our neighborhood,â&#x20AC;? Powers said of the clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s members.
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YOUR 15 MINUTES
SCROLLING WITH STEPHEN B. SHEPARD The author of a new book on a golden age of Jewish writers explores the influence of his favorite titles, and reflects on why the works of Roth, Bellow and more are like modern-day religious texts BY MARK NIMAR
As a Jewish New Yorker, Stephen B. Shepard grew up being more comfortable with egg creams and stickball than he was with the Torah or tefillin. But after a remarkable career as the editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek and the founding dean emeritus of what is now known as the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, Shepard decided to revisit the work of Jewish-American authors who had a profound effect on him in his youth. What resulted from his research is his book “A Literary Journey to Jewish Identity,” a literary memoir that discusses books by writers such as Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick and Bernard Malamud, whose collective work contributed to the golden age of Jewish-American literature in postwar America. On Nov. 1, Shepard will join Rabbi Scott Perlo in conversation at the 92Y to discuss what it means to be a Jewish-American writer, and how postwar Jewish-American writers helped shape
his identity. We sat down with Shepard to talk about the Bronx, Bellow, and what it means to be a Jewish writer.
Where are you from? Well, I grew up in the West Bronx above Kingsbridge road on University Avenue. It was a largely Jewish neighborhood. In those days, the Bronx was the most Jewish borough. Forty to 50 percent of the Bronx was Jewish. There were also Italians, Irish. My parents belonged to an Orthodox synagogue. My mother kept a kosher home when I was a boy. Two types of dishes, one set for meat, one for dairy. It was a Jewish experience. We celebrated Yom Kippur. We lit candles on Friday night. We weren’t aggressively Jewish, but we were observant. We went to Hebrew school and played stickball in the streets. It was a Jewish neighborhood.
What made you want to revisit JewishAmerican literature from this period? At the time [I first read these books], I wasn’t the least bit aware that there was something of a golden age for Jewish writers into the 50s, 60 and well into the 70s. It didn’t dawn on me that there was a golden age, and Jewish writers were emerging after WWII, some of the writers explicitly Jewish like Roth and Malamud, amud some were slyly so like Bellow. I began wonB dering, derin by the time I got to college, by the time I co was in college, is there such a thing as a Jewish writer? Is there such a writ thing thin as a Jewish novel? What Wh does that mean? These The books stayed in my mind a while, and after aft I stepped down from fro CUNY, I decided to revisit them, and see r what wh influence did they have on my Jewish ha identity. I just wanted ide to learn.
W are some of What th the lessons and ob observations you took aaway from reading tthese books? You can be Jewish without being rew lligious. They were giving me permisg sion to be less reli-
Photo courtesy of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY gious. The fiction reinforced it. I always saw myself as Jewish, but it was always a question of the amount of observance of my life as a Jew. My mom called it being “modern,” and [even] my mom shed some of her orthodoxy after her mother died. I was aware of Jews as a victim. Schools had quotas, Jews couldn’t live in certain neighborhoods. My father changed his name from Shapiro to Shepard because he felt it would get him a better job. Assimilation became a form of disguise, a way of averting victimization that I thought would happen to me as a Jew. The literature I was reading supported those feelings.
Why do you think so many great Jewish writers, such as Philip Roth, Saul Bellow and Malamud, came to prominence during this time? You know, there was an enormous decline in anti-Semitism after the war. But in the 1930s there was a lot of antiSemitism that prevented a lot of Jews from rising up in various fields. But when I was growing up, there was very little anti-Semitism. And these writers came of age in post-war America and there was an appetite and acceptance for these stories among Jews and among all kinds of readers. I just think there was a better climate for the acceptance of Jews as major novelists. But a lot of Jewish writers don’t want to be called Jewish writers. Saul Bellow said, calling a writer Jewish is like being called an Eskimo cellist.
They didn’t want to be known as that. It was a way of dismissing them, Bellow thought. They won all the Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Awards. And there was backlash from Gore Vidal, and others who referred to them as the Jewish mafia. But there was a decline of anti-Semitism postwar, because they were allowed to be read.
Some writers that you mention, like Cynthia Ozick, feel that fictionalized accounts of the Holocaust trivialize the atrocities of that historical event. To what degree do you feel this is true? I never felt that it trivialized it. I know that she felt she couldn’t make art out of it. But she did it a lot. She really felt very strongly about Jewish identity, and that people didn’t diminish the memory of the Holocaust ... If it’s done well, it can produce deeper feeling of what happened. Another thing that was characteristic: Roth wrote a lot about “Why them and not me,” and I think that it’s important to try to write novels that have Holocaust themes or characters from that era. [Ozick] was drawn to it as a subject. [Her short story] “The Shawl” was an amazing piece of fiction about a survivor in that era. When Roth and Bellow were writing, these memories were still fresh. It was so recent, I don’t see how you can avoid writing about it. Some people got more religious because of the Holocaust and some people got less religious because of the Holocaust. It’s obviously very complicated.
If you could recommend just one book for someone to read from this golden age of Jewish authors, what would it be? I think that someone who isn’t too familiar with this should read Roth’s novella “Goodbye Columbus.” It deals with Jews’ suburbanization of America. That’s a good one to start with. In terms of Bellow, “Seize The Day” is a wonderful novel. So is “Herzog.” And if you like Updike, the Henry Bech novels are terrific.
What is these Jewish writers’ collective legacy? Will they be remembered? There is now a new cohort of Jewish writers like Michael Chabon. And we don’t think of them as Jewish writers, because times have changed. No one thinks it’s unusual [anymore] that Jews are writing novels. They’ll be remembered if their novels are remembered as great novels ... They will be remembered for the quality of their fiction. Some will fade away, and some will be remembered as long as people are reading. It depends on what the quality of the work is. If the work endures, and it’s seen to be great, then the writers will be remembered. And if they’re not, they’re not ... And that’s life.
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CROSSWORD
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The puzzle contains the following words. They may be diagonal, across, or up and down in the grid in any direction.
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Aluminum Clay Cotton Ebony Fiber Glass Iron Leather Plastic Porcelain Silver Steel Titanium Wood Wool
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WORD SEARCH by Myles Mellor
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Each Sudoku puzzle consists of a 9X9 grid that has been subdivided into nine smaller grids of 3X3 squares. To solve the puzzle each row, column and box must contain each of the numbers 1 to 9. Puzzles come in three grades: easy, medium and difficult.
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SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan
by Myles Mellor
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POLICY NOTICE: We make every effort to avoid mistakes in your classified ads. Check your ad the first week it runs. The publication will only accept responsibility for the first incorrect insertion. The publication assumes no financial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for any copy changes. All classified ads are pre-paid.
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PUBLIC AUCTION NOTICE OF SALE OF COOPERATIVE APARMENT SECURITY PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: By Virtue of a Default under Loan Security Agreement, and other Security Documents, Karen Loiacano, Auctioneer, License #DCA1435601 or Jessica L Prince-Clateman, Auctioneer, License #1097640 or Vincent DeAngelis Auctioneer, License #1127571 will sell at public auction, with reserve, on October 24, 2018, in the Rotunda of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York NY 10007, commencing at 1:00pm for the following account: Eric Goldberg and Lisa Goldberg, as borrower, 144 shares of capital stock of 310 East 70th Street Apartment Corp. and all right, title and interest in the Proprietary Lease to 310 East 70th St, Apt. 6E, New York, NY 10021 Sale held to enforce rights of Citibank, NA, who reserves the right to bid. Ten percent (10%) Bank/Certified check required at sale, balance due at closing within thirty (30) days. The Cooperative Apartment will be sold “AS IS” and possession is to be obtained by the purchaser. Pursuant to Section 201 of the Lien Law you must answer within 10 days from receipt of this notice in which redemption of the above captioned premises can occur. There is presently an outstanding debt owed to Citibank, NA (lender)
as of the date of this notice in the amount of $301,840.09. This figure is for the outstanding balance due under UCC1, which was secured by Financing Statement in favor of Citibank, N.A. recorded on September 16, 2005 under CRFN 2005000517302. Please note this is not a payoff amount as additional interest/fees/penalties may be incurred. This sale is subject to a first lien held by Astoria Federal Savings and Loan. You must contact the undersigned to obtain a final payoff quote or if you dispute any information presented herein. The estimated value of the above captioned premises is $1,050,000.00. Pursuant to the Uniform Commercial Code Article 9-623, the above captioned premises may be redeemed at any time prior to the foreclosure sale. You may contact the undersigned and either pay the principal balance due along with all accrued interest, late charges, attorney fees and out of pocket expenses incurred by Citibank, NA. and the undersigned, or pay the outstanding loan arrears along with all accrued interest, late charges, attorney fees and out of pocket expenses incurred by Citibank, NA, and the undersigned, with respect to the foreclosure proceedings. Failure to cure the default prior to the sale will result in the termination of the proprietary lease. If you have received a discharge from the Bankruptcy Court, you
are not personally liable for the payment of the loan and this notice is for compliance and information purposes only. However, Citibank, NA, still has the right under the loan security agreement and other collateral documents to foreclosure on the shares of stock and rights under the proprietary lease allocated to the cooperative apartment. Dated: August 22, 2018 Frenkel, Lambert, Weiss, Weisman & Gordon, LLP Attorneys for Citibank, NA 53 Gibson Street Bay Shore, NY 11706 631-969-3100 File #01-080833- #95571
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COME HOME TO GLENWOOD MANHATTANâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FINEST LUXURY RENTALS
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UPPER EAST SIDE 1 BEDROOMS FROM $3,195 2 BEDROOMS FROM $4,495 3 BEDROOMS FROM $6,795
MIDTOWN & UPPER WEST SIDE 1 BEDROOMS FROM $3,495 2 BEDROOMS FROM $5,195 3 BEDROOMS FROM $8,495
TRIBECA & FINANCIAL DISTRICT 1 BEDROOMS FROM $3,995 2 BEDROOMS FROM $5,995 3 BEDROOMS FROM $8,695
UPTOWN LEASING OFFICE 212-535-0500 DOWNTOWN LEASING OFFICE 212-430-5900 ! " " All the units include features for persons with disabilities required by FHA.
GLENWOOD Equal Housing Opportunity
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GLENWOODNYC.COM