Our Town - October 19, 2017

The local paper for the Upper East Side

2017

B UILDING SERVICE WO RKER

AWAR DS P. 15

WEEK OF OCTOBER

19-25 2017

CONTESTING THE ‘CON-CON’ POLITICS Pols, unions, citizens, advocates, lobbyists, special-interest groups – and strange bedfellows – take to the barricades over the November 7 referendum on a statewide Constitutional Convention

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

A rendering of the 81st Street pedestrian bridge, as seen from the John Finley Walk.

Courtesy: NYC Department of Design and Construction

BRIDGE PROJECT NEAR COMPLETION INFRASTRUCTURE Officials say design changes and fabrication problems led to setbacks

BY CARSON KESSLER

The long-awaited East 81st Street Pedestrian Bridge, designed to link the Upper East Side and East River Esplanade, is now expected to be complete by December 2017, city officials said during a community meeting Thursday night.

Several of the 30 residents attending the meeting at the Chapin School were relieved to hear the project, into its third year of construction but in the planning for more than 10 years, would soon be accessible. “It’s great

to hear this project will be reaching its rightful conclusion,” Lisa Paule said following the meeting.

The bridge was initially expected to take 18 months to rebuild. Many neighbors, such as Cynthia Kramer, grew frustrated with the prolonged reconstruction. “It’s going to be beautiful, but it is comforting to hear there is a plan in place,” she said, referring to presentation given by the project coordinator from the city’s Department of Design and Construction, Christopher Esposito Barnard.

Barnard’s presentation outlined the delays as results of an unforeseen north abutment retrofit, design changes and fabrication of stainless steel.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

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Crime Watch NYC Now Voices City Arts

To say that Planned Parenthood and the New York State Right to Life Committee are historical antagonists is a huge understatement. The truth is, they manifest fear and loathing for each other’s viewpoints.

The pro-choice group assertively champions a woman’s reproductive rights. The pro-life organization is just as tough-minded in opposing abortion. Could they ever pool resources and join forces? Actually, yes.

Bedfellows don’t get any stranger than this. Yet every 20 years, such highly unlikely — and very temporary — alliances are formed as groups that routinely bash each other suddenly discover a common agenda.

At issue is a November 7th referendum that boils down to this: “Shall there be a convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same?”

That 13-word question appears on the ballot every two decades when voters, as prescribed by law, determine if a Constitutional Convention — or “Con-Con” — should be held in Albany to retool, rewrite and amend the New York State Constitution.

A convention is a journey into the unknown. It can augment rights, protections and prerogatives. It can also strip them away forever. Thus do players with ostensibly nothing in common find common ground: Planned Parenthood, fearing that abortion rights could be abridged at a convention, and the Right to Life Committee, dreading they could be

3 8 10 12

Restaurant Ratings 44 Business 46 Real Estate 47 15 Minutes 53

Delegates to the state Constitutional Convention convened in the state Capitol in Albany in 1867 for a speech by William Wheeler, a future U.S. vice president, who argued that the concept of racial equality should be incorporated into the Constitution. Engraving: Stanley Fox, via New York Public Library collection expanded and enshrined in an updated Constitution, are now allied in a coalition, New Yorkers Against Corruption, campaigning to defeat the measure.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the barricades, such establishment groups as the New York City Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association, which believe a new Constitution can reform the judiciary and enhance ethics in government, have come out in favor.

But so, too, have less mainstream advocates — like Restrict & Regulate in NY State, which seeks to legalize adult-use marijuana, and Divide NYS Caucus, which calls for the legal separation of downstate and upstate into two autonomous regions.

It’s a free-for-all: Unions and liberal downstaters fear wealthy special interests will hijack the convention and undermine hard-fought labor rights.

But upstate conservatives, also opposed, fret that big money from the city will use its leverage to roll back gun-ownership rights.

Manhattan’s progressive wing is divided. “New York State government has a lot wrong with it, and I share many of the pro-convention move-

ment’s goals,” said Borough President Gale Brewer. “But the way the rules are set up, we’d be unlikely to win improvements, and would have to put a lot of hard-won protections at risk.”

Brewer cited environmental protections, labor rights and voting rights, which are all now protected by constitutional provisions.

Upper West Side City Council Member Helen Rosenthal agreed, saying Con-Con could undermine state pension obligations to municipal workers and conservation measures that preserve the Adirondacks.

“Great things in the Constitution could be revoked,” Rosenthal said. “If the people driving this have the same point of view as the people in the state Senate, everything is at risk.”

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OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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HOW SLEEP AFFECTS YOUR WEIGHT HEALTH Researchers on both sides of the Atlantic find that too little rest widens your middle

BY CAROL ANN RINZLER

Want to be slim and healthy? Get into bed. At night. To sleep, of course.

True, those of you who collect weird statistics may know that being, um, intimate burns about 120 calories every 30 minutes for men and 90 for women which, as scientists at the University of Quebec note, is about half what they’d spend during a 30 minute jog. But when it comes to waist size and weight, what matters most in bed is how long you stay there. Sleeping, that is.

According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), more than one in every three American adults gets less than the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep a night. The National Center for Health Statistics says that the same number of us aren’t just a few pounds over our jeans size, but actually obese, defined as a BMI (body mass index) of 30 or more, for example, 169 pounds for a person 5’3” tall

and 207 pounds for a person 5’9” tall.

In a moment of scientific agreement, researchers on both side of the Atlantic think they can draw a straight line connecting these two facts. At the Mayo Clinic, Andrew Calvin, MD, says that when people don’t get enough sleep, they eat more, wolfing down about 500 extra calories a day, enough to pack on an extra pound in just one week. And a study at the University of Leeds’ Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine and School of Food Science and Nutrition in England found that people sleeping only six hours a night were likely to have waistlines 1.18110236 inches (3 cm) larger than those sleeping for nine hours.

Not surprisingly, the sleep-deprived also had higher BMIs, a situation increasingly linked to a myriad of unpleasant health issues including, but not limited to, high blood pressure, more “bad” cholesterol, less effective glucose metabolism leading to an increased risk of diabetes, lower levels of thyroid hormones, and higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a measure of inflammation considered a risk for heart disease.

What’s happening here? As Eve Van Cauter, director of the Sleep, Metabo-

lism and Health Center at the University of Chicago, explains, we humans are the only mammals who don’t sleep on a regular basis. When we don’t get enough rest, ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, goes into overdrive, while leptin, a hormone that tells you you’ve had enough to eat, pulls back. At the same time, you produce more endocannabinoids, chemicals that trigger what Van Cauter calls “hedonic eating,” that is, “eating for pleasure.”

Sleep deprivation also affects your fat cells, the ones your body uses to store fat. You pretty much have the same number of fat cells as long as you live, but they can change shape, expanding to store more fat or contracting so you are slimmer. Sleep deprivation appears to makes fat cells less responsive to insulin. When that happens you make less leptin, which means you are likely to eat more and gain weight.

Conclusion? As it says at the top, get enough sleep. Your mirror will show you the difference.

BMI (body mass index) is a number that reflect the relationship between height and weight.

A BMI of 18.9 to 24.9 is considered normal; lower than 18 is underweight; higher than 30 is obese.

The following formula calculates the BMI for a person 5’3” tall weighing 138 pounds: BMI = Weight (in pounds) / height (in inches, squared) x 705

Carol Ann Rinzler is the author of “Nutrition for Dummies” (6th edition). Her latest book is “Is It Safe to Kiss My Cat?”

(For example BMI = 138 divided by 63 x 63 x 705 = 24.5)

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OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th district for Week to Date

Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr

MAN ASSAULTED ON WEST 88TH A 58-year-old man was knocked to ground and robbed late on Friday, October 6, as he walked on West 88th Street bewtween Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, police said. The man was approached by four men, one of whom punched and kicked him, knocking him to the ground. The others then went through the man’s pants pockets and took the man’s wallet, cash, an ID and an insurance card. The victim said his face hurt but refused medical attention at the scene. Police searched the area but couldn’t locate any of the four.

NEEDLE THREAT

CELLPHONE THEFT, ARREST

Another week, another drugstore robbery. At 11:50 p.m. on Friday, October 6, a perpetrator took items off the shelf inside the CVS store at 743 Amsterdam Avenue and attempted to leave without paying. When an employee confronted the shoplifter, the latter became irate, took out a hypodermic needle and tried to stab the employee. The shoplifter then dropped the needle and ran out of the store toward Broadway and West 96 Street.

The items stolen included lotion and toothpaste the store valued at $88.

At 9 p.m. on Thursday, October 5, a 30-year-old man was at the home of a 26-year-old Amsterdam Avenue woman living when he forcefully snatched her cellphone from her hand.

She tried to retrieve the device, and the man scratched her arm, cutting her, before he ran out of the residence. The police were called to the scene, and the phone was recovered from the man. A resident of the 43rd precinct, Matthew McCorkle was arrested and charged with robbery, assault, harassment and other charges.

Year to Date

2017 2016

% Change

2017

2016

% Change

Murder

0

0

0

0

2

n/a

Rape

1

0

n/a

9

3

200.0

Robbery

1

5

-80.0

90

69

30.4

Felony Assault

0

1

n/a

100

95

5.3

Burglary

5

2

150.0

168

154

9.1

Grand Larceny

26

30

13.3

1,051 1,093 -3.8

Grand Larceny Auto

1

1

0

41

BERRY BAD BEHAVIOR A local store had their “Han’s full” with a shoplifter recently. At 11:20 p.m. on Friday, October 6, a perpetrator took a number of fruits from the Han’s Family Market food stand at 2501 Broadway. He grabbed one of the employees’ arms, causing redness, before saying, “I’ll come back.” The man then took off with Beach Farm Strawberries, Driscoll raspberries and blackberries worth a total of $23.04.

-35.9

SHOTS FIRED ON WEST 104TH A man on a black-and-blue motorcycle fired shots from a handgun at people as they entered 64 West 104 Street at about 2:15 p.m. on Sunday, October 8, police said. No one was hit, and the bullets penetrated the door frame, shattering a glass door.

The attacker fled on his motorcycle eastbound on West 104th Street and then southbound on Manhattan Avenue. Police said there were no injuries.

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OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 19th Precinct

153 E. 67th St.

212-452-0600

BY PETER PEREIRA

FIRE FDNY 22 Ladder Co 13

159 E. 85th St.

311

FDNY Engine 39/Ladder 16

157 E. 67th St.

311

FDNY Engine 53/Ladder 43

1836 Third Ave.

311

FDNY Engine 44

221 E. 75th St.

311

CITY COUNCIL Councilmember Daniel Garodnick

211 E. 43rd St. #1205

212-818-0580

Councilmember Ben Kallos

244 E. 93rd St.

212-860-1950

STATE LEGISLATORS State Sen. Jose M. Serrano

1916 Park Ave. #202

212-828-5829

State Senator Liz Krueger

1850 Second Ave.

212-490-9535

Assembly Member Dan Quart

360 E. 57th St.

212-605-0937

Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright

1365 First Ave.

212-288-4607

COMMUNITY BOARD 8

505 Park Ave. #620

212-758-4340

LIBRARIES Yorkville

222 E. 79th St.

212-744-5824

96th Street

112 E. 96th St.

212-289-0908

67th Street

328 E. 67th St.

212-734-1717

Webster Library

1465 York Ave.

212-288-5049

100 E. 77th St.

212-434-2000

HOSPITALS Lenox Hill

ART AND ABOUT

NY-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell

525 E. 68th St.

212-746-5454

Mount Sinai

E. 99th St. & Madison Ave.

212-241-6500

NYU Langone

550 First Ave.

212-263-7300

CON EDISON

4 Irving Place

212-460-4600

POST OFFICES US Post Office

1283 First Ave.

212-517-8361

US Post Office

1617 Third Ave.

212-369-2747

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OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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BRIDGE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 An initial survey of the column supporting the southeast corner of John Finley Walk indicated a more signiďŹ cant retroďŹ t would be necessary to ensure safety. The repair’s design and execution pushed back the project by eight months, he said.

Prompted by the concerns from members of Community Board 8, officials from the city’s Public Design Commission had demanded that DDC reconsider

some design elements of the project, including installing a pedestrian viewing window on John Finley Walk, addressing lighting concerns, and reconsidering the design of an access ramp on 81st Street.

In response, the DDC fit the bridge with 24 glass windows on its southern side, removed ďŹ ve light ďŹ xtures, reduced the wattage of the bulbs, and eliminated the addition of an accessible ramp from the contract.

There will be ADA approved accessible ramps on 82nd and 83rd streets. The design changes cost the project about

ďŹ ve months.

The last piece of the project is the installation of stainlesssteel fencing, projected to last over 75 years. Due to fabrication complications out of state, the custom-made steel is now being manufactured on-site.

Given the proximity of the East River, it is crucial that the bridge is durable, Barnard said.

Although delays were frustrating, Barnard ensured “the bridge is designed to be retroďŹ tted with ease in the future.â€?

The Parks Department will maintain the bridge, including by removing snow.

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OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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FLAG AT STONEWALL MONUMENT IS ON CITY PROPERTY GAY RIGHTS Rainbow banner flies, just not on federal land

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Members of the National Parks Conservation Association during the June 26, 2016 Pride Parade in New York City, the same day President Obama designated the area around the Stonewall Inn as a national park site. Photo: National Parks Conservation Association.

President Barack Obama created the Stonewall National Monument last year in an area around the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar where patrons resisted a police raid in 1969, giving a spark to the nascent gay rights movement.

The monument, the nation’s ďŹ rst federal monument to gay rights, covers several blocks, but a small city park across the street from the Stonewall Inn became federally owned and maintained because of the designation.

Activists pushed to add a rainbow ag to a agpole on a triangle of sidewalk just outside the park fence, where a United States ag, a POW-MIA ag and a National Park Service ag were already ying.

The Park Service donated a

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Gay rights activists who worked to get a rainbow flag installed permanently at the newly created Stonewall National Monument are upset the National Park Service says the flag isn’t actually on federal land but on property owned by the city.

The distinction may seem like a minor one because the ag is still flying either way. But to the group that had lobbied for the ag to be added to the site, the Park Service’s surprise announcement that the city, not the federal government, would be maintaining the ag and its pole seemed like a betrayal. “They’re trying to make the gay community insignificant,â€? said Scott Gorenstein, a spokesman for flag dedication event, on Oct. 11. “They’re trying to make us disappear.

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The Park Service denied that any slight was intended, but the dispute threatened to dim the mood at the dedication ceremony in Greenwich Village.

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rainbow ag and began ying it last month but later realized the agpole is actually on city land, said Joshua Laird, the commissioner of the National Parks of New York Harbor. “We raised the ag on September 28. We did that on a pole that we were maintaining but didn’t own,â€? Laird said after the dedication ceremony. “I think the main thing is that the pride ag is ying over the site.â€?

Laird acknowledged the Park Service removed its own flag from the pole last week.

Activists said Park Service officials told them Tuesday that they were pulling out of the ag dedication, prompting speculation President Donald Trump’s administration had pressured the local office to scale back its involvement. “Yesterday they told us that they could not participate,â€? said Ken Kidd, an organizer of the ag dedication.

Laird disputed that account, saying in an email: “We never pulled our support.�

City pa rks depa r tment spokesman Sam Biederman said the city “is very proud to step in to carry the banner for LGBTQI rights following this weekend’s transfer of the ag to city jurisdiction.â€?

Speakers at the flag dedication ceremony assailed Trump, whose attorney general, Jeff Sessions, moved last week to reverse an Obama-era policy protecting transgender people from discrimination. “We’re here to assert our membership in the community of the United States of America,� said longtime lesbian activist Ann Northrop. “That membership is still in dispute with the higher-ups in the Trump administration. But we embrace everybody, and we are proud of ourselves and will continue to do that no matter who opposes us.�

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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Voices

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

PRESSING BUTTONS EAST SIDE OBSERVER

BY ARLENE KAYATT

Photo: Lisérgico, via flickr

Cell-evator madness — Saturday mid-morning, crowded elevator UES condo, eight riders. Cellphones to ear.

All in use. First stop, missed. “Why didn’t anybody say something?” said the man who forgot to get off. “We’re all on the phone, that’s why. Look out for yourself, or you’ll never get out,” advised another. Wisdom comes, wisdom goes. Practical stays.

Bike protection — Southeast corner of 23rd and 6th, M23 crosstown bus stop. The bus shelter intended for seats so bus riders may sit while waiting for the bus is now occupied by bike racks. No seats for users of bus transportation. Nice and cozy that the poor bikes enjoy the warmth and comfort of an enclosed space. But what about the seats for which the shelter was intended? Who decided to use it for

bikes? Who is paying for them? NY is now a bike city — think bike racks, bike lanes, biker rights — but there are other modes of public transportation used by locals and others.

Movie houses make are coming back! — One of the highlights of the week was seeing “Marshall” at the new Landmark movie theater, which opened in September. Took the 57th Street crosstown (M57) to 12th Avenue opposite the river. There’s no marquee leading the way into the theater. Marquees and times that the movies are playing are no longer part of movie-house offerings. And figuring out how to get into the theater can be a little dicey figuring out since the Landmark is an all — or almost all — glass edifice on the ground floor of what looks like a combination of residential and commercial building.

But a nice staffer was on hand to let us know we were in the right place and to show us which door would lead to the theater. The seats were the now

de rigueur cushy loungers where you push a side button and elevate your feet. Just loved that they weren’t those oversized seats where there’s just too much room. “Marshall” is compelling story, with a brilliant cast, of the journey of the legendary Thurgood Marshall who ascended to the United States Supreme Court after years of representing clients on behalf of the NAACP. Especially poignant was the last scene, when the eponymous Thurgood arrives at the train station in Mississippi (where he was sent by the NAACP to represent a wrongly accused black man) and was met at the train station by the young man’s parents. The mother was portrayed by Sybrina Fulton who is the real life mother of Trayvon Martin, the young black man killed in Florida by the notorious George Zimmerman. Central casting 101.

A sign of the times — Since my recent observation of the “For Rent” sign splashed across the window of the check cashing store on 90th Street and First Avenue, I’ve been noticing that other businesses are experiencing the same fate. Fika’s window facing Lexington Ave between

88th and 89th was also the bearer of an oversized “For Rent” sign.

Checked it out and was told that Fika was still in business but there was a dispute with the landlord. I get it. The landlord wants to be paid. But putting a “For Rent” sign in the window that makes it look like the place is going out of business (when it’s not) or is having a moving sale (which it’s not) is not in anybody’s interest. The Fika store is in the commercial space of block-long co-op or condominium residential building. There’s a FedEx store on one corner and a florist shop that’s been there forever on the other corner. For some reason, however, the mid-block stores are usually empty or have frequent turnover.

The block is dreary. In the last year or so the entrance to the residential portion of the building was moved to 88th Street. Maybe to have more commercial space. If that’s the case, then maybe the co-op or condo owners may want to rethink their strategy or leasing practices. Empty stores and blazing “For Rent” signs are hardly an inducement for new businesses or customers and sure don’t make for good neighborhood karma.

A MAYORAL DEBATE AS HOCKEY FIGHT NY1’s event turned into the night that the candidates dropped their gloves

BY JON FRIEDMAN

On October 10, I turned off the New York Rangers game on MSG and found that a hockey fight had broken out over on NY1.

In the first mayoral debate, Democratic incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped the gloves with his two opponents: Republican Nicole Malliotakis, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island in the New York State Assembly, and bellicose media grandstander Bo Dietl, a former New York Police Detective, who appears determined to represent … Bo Dietl.

If this is an indication of how it will go til Election Day on November 7, the New York media corps have a lot to look forward to. What’s more fun than covering an off-the-rails contest like this one?

Come to think of it, the debate had all the hallmarks of a hockey fight: shouting, finger-pointing, accusations, recriminations, the whole shebang. There was little of genuine substance. The dialogue took on the tone of a verbal spat between fifth-graders in a schoolyard: “You’re stupid!” “Oh yeah? Well, you’re stupider!”

It was a 90-minute freak show. NY1’s able moderator Errol Louis somehow gamely held the proceedings together.

Louis served not only as a voice of reason but a role model for anchors of future televised debates of all kinds. He took charge — and stayed in charge.

Louis was openly frustrated by the peanut gallery in the studio audience that shrieked repeatedly, reminding me of the hilarious scene in Animal House when Otter mobilizes his Delta buddies to out-shout their foe, Dean Wormer. Yes, the debate was on that level.

Louis appropriately ordered that Dietl’s microphone be shut off a few times because Dietl wouldn’t stop

shouting when it wasn’t his turn to talk. Louis refused to let the candidates (read: the ever-present Dietl) veer off course and launch into a selfserving diatribe against one of the other speakers (read: de Blasio).

The money-shot moment of the NY1 mayoral debate occurred nearly at the end. Grace Rauh of NY1, a well-prepared and well-spoken panelist, asked Malliotakis, a Republican, if she sided with Trump or not, because the candidate had taken up both arguments at various times. It was high noon!

Malliotakis, appearing flustered for the first time, promptly accused Rauh of “carrying the mayor’s water.” It was a foolish gambit because NY1, Rauh’s employer, had sued the de Blasio administration in a Freedom of Information petition (and won).

This was the actual point/counterpoint: Rauh: “You can’t seem to make up your mind about him. are you trying to have it all ways when it comes to President Trump?”

The day before the debate, Mayor Bill de Blasio marched in the Columbus Day parade on Fifth Avenue. Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office Malliotakis: “I gotta be honest with you, Grace. I feel that you’re carrying the mayor’s water right now.” For the record, Malliotakis added: “When I disagree with President Trump, I will say so.” But the damage was done, for a moment, at least.

Malliotakis appeared to have won points when she lectured de Blasio by saying, “Don’t disparage me.” Whether he actually did that or not is really a moot point. Every woman viewer who has felt that an insensitive guy

“mansplained” to her in public might well have been nodding in solidarity with her.

Errol Louis was the big winner. He remained composed and resolute. I trusted him completely. Hey, maybe he should be our next mayor.

Jon Friedman, who recently wrote about rock and roll and nostalgia in these pages, teaches at the Stony Brook University School of Journalism.

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

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

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

Senior Reporter Doug Feiden

Director of Digital Pete Pinto

Staff Reporter Michael Garofalo

Director, Arts & Entertainment/ NYCNow Alizah Salario

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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Peace of mind begins by planning today!

The Sanctuary at MOUNT LEBANON CEMETERY Public Advocate Letitia James discussed plans to help Puerto Ricans and others displaced by the recent hurricanes. She and others spoke at City Hall on Oct. 12. Photo: Mihika Agarwal

HURRICANE VICTIMS TO GET HELP FROM CITY REFUGE Armories could house those displaced; education, health care and other services will be available

BY MIHIKA AGARWAL

With thousands in Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the region still displaced by the ravages wrought by hurricanes in recent weeks, city and officials along with representatives from 10 Latin-American community organizations said last week they would pool resources and political might to ensure those with housing and other needs would be cared for.

Emphasizing the need to view the victims of the storms as “displaced Americans,” the city’s public advocate, Letitia James, said it was incumbent on New York officials and others to help provide shelter and other basic services to those affected.

“Throughout our history, New York City has always stood as a beacon of hope and as a place of refuge for those fleeing hardship and disaster, the first and final destination for a fresh start, and today should be no different,” James said during an Oct. 12 news conference at City Hall.

She emphasized the city’s

long affiliation and shared culture with Puerto Rico.

It’s estimated that roughly 20,000 Puerto Ricans had arrived in Florida by last week.

James and others said that in addition to housing, hurricane victims would need support with education, as well as health care.

Carlos Martinez said his son, stepfather and five siblings in Puerto Rico and were experiencing hardships. “My stepfather is 80 years old and he has just found out that he won’t be able to see a doctor for the next year because there is no electricity in hospitals,” said Martinez, who believes health care for the elderly to be the most urgent need.

Owing to the city’s perennially short supply of housing, ensuring that all of those displaced by the hurricanes have a roof over their heads is a priority for the city, James and others said. The city is considering establishing armories as temporary housing as well as providing housing vouchers to support victims in the immediate term.

“Recovery funds must go to victims, not vultures,” one organizer said.

James asked that the Federal Emergency Management Agency “step up to the plate” and provide its leadership and resources in getting indi-

viduals with acute needs out of Puerto Rico, and “recognizing that this is a humanitarian crisis.”

This week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the opening of a service center at the Julia De Burgos Latino Cultural Center at 1680 Lexington Avenue.

The center, scheduled to open October 19, will provide basic resources and crucial services.

It will be staffed with government officials as well as representatives from nonprofits and community-based organizations to help families and individuals enroll to secure public benefits such as health insurance and food assistance, as well as other services.

The center will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. People planning to visit the service centers can make an appointment by visiting nyc.gov or calling 311. The center will be closed Saturday, October 21.

“New York City will help those affected by recent hurricanes in any way we can,” de Blasio said in a statement. “We’ve been sending donations and emergency responders to affected areas, and now we’re setting up a central location to help displaced people in our city receive essential services and assistance.”

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OCTOBER 19-25,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Isabel O’Neil Studio Workshop Learn the Art of the Painted Finish

Discover techniques by famed teacher and author, Isabel O’Neil.

Discover the world around the corner.

Find community events, gallery openings, book launches and much more: Go to nycnow.com

Holiday Party/Sale Nov. 30th Call for details.

EDITOR’S PICK

Thu 19 PARANORMAL ACTIVITY CRASH COURSE The Kosciuszko Foundation, 15 East 65th St. 7 p.m. $35 eventbrite.com

#BTJD 'VSOJUVSF 1BJOUJOH t (JMEJOH t .BSCMF t 4IBHSFFO 'BVY #PJT t -BDRVFS t (MB[JOH t %JTUSFTTJOH All art supplies available at the studio.

No experience necessary, just bring your desire to learn something new.

Contact us at 212-348-4464 www.isabeloneil.org 315 East 91st Street, New York, NY 10128

Feel the spirit — or two or three spirits — with the New Yorkk Adventure Club on this crash course Ad in paranormal activity at the The Kosciuszko Foundation’s Van Alen Mansion. Participants will learn their way around ghost hunting tools and equipment, review findings and evidence using scientific methodology, and tour the Van Alen’s ballroom, where spirit sightings have been rumored for years. Built in 1917 in the most affluent neighborhood in New York, the mansion brings old London to Gotham City. The mansion is based on a prototype located in St. James Square in London that was the childhood home of England’s late Queen Mother. Come for the ghost hunting, stay for the incredible architecture.

Led by U.S. Air Force veteran Douglas McMillan, the founder the Bronx Paranormal Society, an organization dedicated to the scientific study of paranormal activity, this course may spook even the skeptics. McMillan has performed paranormal investigations on three different continents over the past decade, and regularly lectures on the latest ghost hunting methods and techniques.

Thu 19 Fri 20

Sat 21

‘CAUGHT IN TIME’ OPENING RECEPTION

ETHEL AND FRIENDS QUARTET▲

BUTLER, LIBRARY, CANDLESTICK?

The Manhattan Art & Antique Center 1050 Second Ave. 5:30 p.m. Free The clock is ticking on “MAAC on the Map: Caught in Time,” a contemporary photography exhibit curated by Paul Anavian and Michaela Boruta. Featuring 11 photographers, the exhibition centers on the excavation of memory and the movement of time. Through Nov. 19.

212-355-4400 the-maac.com

The Met, 1000 Fifth Ave. 5 p.m.

Free with museum admission Enjoy familiar classical tunes mixed with a cutting-edge repertoire at this music series specifically designed for the Met’s Balcony Bar. ETHEL is one of the most acclaimed string quartets in the contemporary classical field, and they bring their innovative sound to an unparalled space.

212-535-7710 metmuseum.org/events

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden 421 East 61st St. 6:15 and 7:30 p.m. $25 Loosely based on a newspaper account of an unidentified skeleton discovered at the Mount Vernon Hotel, this Halloween murder mystery invites participants to explore the Mount Vernon for clues to unravel the case. Additional dates Oct. 27 & 28.

212 838-6878 mvhm.org/event-details

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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Health & Wellness Seminar Series !tÂĽÂĽ 2017

Sun 22 Mon 23 Tue 24 LISA LOEB FOR THE LITTLE ONES The Jewish Museum 1109 Fifth Ave. 11:30 a.m. $16 Known for her hit song “Stay (i Missed You),� singersongwriter, producer, author and mother Lisa Loeb is also behind a handful of irresistible children’s albums, including “Catch the Moon� and “Feel What u Feel.�

She will perform songs for children and pop hits at this concert for kids of all ages.

212-423-3200 thejewishmuseum.org/ calendar

CHOCOLATE TASTING WITH MICHAEL LAISKONISâ–˛

‘ILLUSTRATED STORIES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT’

92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. 7 p.m. $29+ Discover why craft chocolate is having a moment and celebrate food writer Megan Giller’s new book, “Bean-toBar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution� along with award-winning pastry chef Michael Laiskonis. These connoisseurs will sign books and lead a guided tasting to tempt your sweet tooth.

212-415-5500 92y.org

Albertine, 972 Fifth Ave. 7 p.m. Free Tales as old as time get a modern update, thanks to illustrator Serge Bloch and writer Frederic Boyer. Join the acclaimed illustrator-writer duo for a live drawing and conversation about “In the Beginning, Illustrated Stories from the Old Testament,� their new book combining delightful illustrations with eloquent prose.

212-650–0070 albertine.com/events

Wed 25

@€É² ‰¿ ùó You Are One of A Million: Precision Medicine and the Future of Healthcare M. Elizabeth Ross, MD, PhD 1‰¼¼Þ e™¼¼™tÂŤĂƒÄ? 9 Ä? Q:Ä? M:

HANSEL & GRETEL’S HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE◄

Photo of Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre’s production of “Cinderella Samba�, by Noralanning, via Wikimedia Commons

Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, West 79th Street & West Drive, Central Park Noon, $8-$12 The Swedish Cottage’s latest innovative marionette production is based on the children’s classic Hansel & Gretel. These delightful string creations go on an adventures in the dark woods. Through Oct. 31.

212-988-9093 cityparksfoundation.org/ arts

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.

If you require a disability-related accommodation, please call 212-821-0888 and leave a message.

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OCTOBER 19-25,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

SEEING INDIA THROUGH COLOR LENSES IF YOU GO

The Met Breuer focuses on “the Ganges side of modernism” with street photography by Raghubir Singh

BY RAHIM CHAGANI

Found Footage Festival hosts Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher got booked on three local morning news shows by claiming to be a strongman duo called Chop & Steele. Photo courtesy of Found Footage Festival

REWINDING VHS TAPES IN A DIGITAL AGE How an infusion of video archives from the Letterman show transformed the Found Footage Festival

BY ALIZAH SALARIO

It was the call Nick Prueher, a former researcher at the “Late Show with David Letterman,” had been waiting for his entire life.

In 2015, when Letterman announced his retirement, a friend of Prueher’s who still worked at the show called to let him know that Dave’s video archives were headed for demise.

“He said everything must go, it’s going in the dumpster, do you want it?” said Prueher.

Boy, did he ever. Prueher drove straight over to the Ed Sullivan Theater and filled his Toyota Prius to the gills. Then he made a second trip, saving about 300 videos from incineration.

What, exactly, did he plan to do with a boatload of antique VHS tapes, most of which were esoteric (an instructive video on how spot counterfeit Beanie Babies) or inane (a video of Andy Rooney teaching people how to act, a training

video for ferrets)?

Prueher is the co-founder of the Found Footage Festival, a traveling showcase of obscure and oddball VHS clips narrated by Prueher and his co-host Joe Pickett. As teenagers in Wisconsin in the early 90s, Prueher and Pickett began collecting random VHS tapes from thrift stores and garage sales. Their collection grew, and they began screening them for friends in their basement.

“We thought we were a very specific group of weirdos who got together and tried to find these tapes at thrift stores,” says Prueher.

Prueher thought wrong. By 2004, he and Pickett had gone from screening videotapes for friends in their Wisconsin basements to screening them for the public at Bar Rafifi (R.I.P.) in the East Village.

Fans packed Rafifi’s Cinema Classic room, equipped with a screen and projector; shortly thereafter, the Found Footage Festival was born. This year marks the thirteenth season in New York.

“It seemed like people were ready to look back at the VHS era and laugh,” says Prueher.

“There was sort of this wide-

eyed innocence about people making these videos. For the first time you had an affordable format, and at the time it was kind of a gold rush.”

Many of the clips screened at the Found Footage festival can’t be found online. The hosts edit them for maximum effect; a montage of religious videos called “101 depictions of Jesus” (“claymation Jesus, handsome WASP Jesus, etc.”) was a real crowd-pleaser. Still, in an age of curated consumption, where every person on a subway car can view a different scrap of media simultaneously, collective viewing might seem like a throwback to a different era. But Prueher suggests that the appeal is more about a contemporary need than nostalgia.

Says Prueher. “Something magical happens when you can take this footage that was never meant to be shown in public, and you show it in public.”

IF YOU GO WHAT: Found Footage Festival WHERE: Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave. WHEN: Fri. Oct. 20th, 7:30 and 10 p.m. $15 foundfootagefest.com/tour

One of the distinguished offerings The Met Breuer has given its large audience is a focus on modernism — the latest example being Raghubir Singh’s color street photography.

A tribute to the art of photography, this fall’s retrospective at The Met Breuer, “Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs,” situates Singh’s work at the intersection of Western modernism and traditional South Asian modes of picturing the world. The exhibition features 85 photographs

by Singh, along with examples of Indian court painting styles that inspired his explorations into color photography.

Born and raised in an aristocratic family in Rajasthan, Singh resided in Hong Kong, Paris, London, and New York — but his lifelong subject was his native India that remained his inexhaustible muse. A selftaught photographer, Singh dropped out of college in the 1960s and started his career with assignments for international magazines. He immersed himself in experimenting with color photography.

Famous for using his handheld camera and color-slide film, Singh recorded India’s dense backdrop in what artists call “frieze-like composition.” with opulent color. He died in 1999, at the age of fifty-six, but left a long-lasting legacy that has inspired many photographers around the world.

The exhibition traces the full course of Singh’s career from his early work as a photojournalist in the late 1960s through his last unpublished projects

of the late 1990s. Walking through the intimate display of Singh’s photographs, the narrative resounds as you look at picture after picture shot in exquisite color. The chromatic use of color and light shouldn’t come as a surprise from a man widely acknowledged as the pioneer of color photography in India. The choice of his subjects and the compositions always made him stand out.

Singh was greatly influenced by the works of Henri CartierBresson, Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray, and American street photographers such as William Gedney and Lee Friedlander. Traveling along his own path, Singh described

WHAT: “Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs” WHERE: The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Ave., at 75th Street WHEN: through January 2 212-731-1675

his distinctively Indian style of modernist photography as “on the Ganges side of modernism, rather than the Seine or East River side of it.”

The Met has had a history of collecting art from India. Last year, the museum renewed a long-term cooperative relationship with the Indian government’s Ministry of Culture, which established a partnership for sharing knowledge and expertise between The Met and cultural institutions in India.

“Monsoon Rains, Monghyr, Bihar,” 1967. Chromogenic print.

Photo courtesy of The Met Breuer

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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/ĹľĹľÄžĆŒĆ?Äž zĹ˝ĆľĆŒĆ?ĞůĨ Ĺ?Ĺś &ĆŒÄžÄž /ŜŜŽǀĂĆ&#x;ǀĞ ĹŻÄ‚Ć?Ć?ÄžĆ?ÍŠ Midtown East Programming for Older Adults

Explore foreign languages Discuss current events Discover Tai Chi and yoga Express yourself through visual arts Learn hula and belly dancing Develop personas in theater class Enjoy ĚĂĹ?ůLJ ĹśĆľĆšĆŒĹ?Ć&#x;ŽƾĆ? farm-to-table lunches Visit us at 619 Lexington Avenue @ 54th St. (Lower Level of Saint Peter’s Church) For more information or to join, call 212-308-1959 or go to www.lenoxhill.org/saintpeters

Professor Andrew Lear speaks about gender relations and fashion trends in Europe. Photo: Carson Kessler

FASHION FORWARD AT THE MET ART Style and beauty are the focus of a new Shady Ladies tour at the museum

BY CARSON KESSLER

What are those women painted on Grecian vases wearing?

Who styled the hair of Imperial Rome’s “it� girls? Who designed the gold ear spools of Pre-Columbian America?

Professor Andrew Lear treats New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art like an awards show red carpet.

On a mission to “liven up� the classic art museum experience, Lear founded Shady Ladies, an alternative tour service at The Met Fifth Avenue designed to uncover the secrets concealed within the statues, paintings, and artifacts that illustrate history as we know it.

Lear’s newest tour on fashion and beauty at the Met explores the evolution of beauty standards throughout nearly 5,000

years of cultures. From Grecian statues to French portraiture, fashion and its trends are unavoidable in art. “I’ve come to believe that fashion is the most important topic at the Met,� Lear said of his inspiration to create a tour centered on style. “Art is a pileup of hairdos, makeup, and bizarre underclothes.�

A founder of similar tours like “Nasty Women of the Metropolitan Museum� and “Gay Secrets of the Metropolitan Museum,� Lear weaves detailed, informative history with sexy, scandalous details.

Standing in front of Artemisia Gentileschi’s baroque painting, “Esther before Ahasuerus,�

Lear describes what any art history buff would probably already know. The Italian painting depicts the Jewish heroine Esther, appearing before the king to plead for her people.

But Lear takes his description of the iconic painting one step further, delving into the communicative purpose of King Ahasuerus’ fashion. To achieve what Lear calls, “the bubble

butt of the Renaissance,â€? royal men would wear britches ďŹ lled with bombast or horsehair to take up more space, thus appearing even more powerful. “You have to go beneath the surface to get to the real story of how political, social, and even medical currents shaped fashion,â€? Lear said. “It is the backstory of art that museums so unscrupulously avoid.â€?

It is these small tidbits that dazzle in the two-hour perusal of the largest art museum in the United States: how the cosmetic staple of the beauty mark originated in attempt to mask evidence of small pox and syphilis; how the dangerous trend of an irremovable neck ring in Africa is not too far off from the modern day stiletto; and how John Singer Sargent’s controversial Madame X anticipates Coco Chanel’s iconic little black dress.

Shady Ladies Tours now offers a variety of tours in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Paris.

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OCTOBER 19-25,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

THE PSYCHICS OF CHELSEA METAPHYSICS

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

The area has a high proportion of the city’s seers, tarot-card readers and mediums

Two Visions of Paradise

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21ST, 6PM Japan Society | 333 E. 47th St. | 212-832-1155 | japansociety.org Join Monsignor Timothy Verdon, Ph.D., Canon of the Florence Cathedral and Director of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, for a lecture on Ghiberti’s Gates and artist Hiroshi Sugimoto to-scale contemporary interpretation ($15).

BY LIZ HARDAWAY

If Chelsea residents seek to know the future, they only have to walk around the corner to find it.

From rusty machines promising to divvy out a fortune for a dollar to psychics charging $200 an hour to rid a New Yorker of their bad juju, Chelsea seems to have a higher proportion of clairvoyance compared to the rest of Manhattan. Not even spanning a whole square mile, Chelsea houses at least 20 official psychics who have made their way to the World Wide Web. That number does not include the various holein-the-wall seers advertising their skills from random windowsills, promising consumers they will foretell their future with a half-hour reading of tarot cards.

One medium who balances his psychic ability with his life as an executive on Wall Street is Jesse Bravo. He had his first metaphysical experience being home alone as a child, when he saw a bat-like creature clawing underneath his bedroom door.

Scared of what he saw and blaming this occurrence on an overactive imagination, Bravo repressed his ability to see the unknown until his own child was born years later. Realizing his son had the same ability, he decided to learn more and embrace his gift.

After nine years of being a medium, Bravo has seen many things during his readings, some of which didn’t even make sense at the time. In one reading to a long-term client, he saw a man riding on top of a T-rex, only to find out a month later that his client had started dating a curator from the American Museum of Natural History who specialized in the dinosaur exhibit.

“I go in there and just let myself go and let the natural process happen and just trust that it happens,” Bravo said. “And you walk out there with somebody who has been helped.”

Bravo prides himself in being honest with his customers and what he sees. Trying not to use gimmicks or leading questions, a common tactic used by

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

City of Rising Waters: A Symposium

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22ND, 2PM Museum of the City of New York | 1220 Fifth Ave. | 212-534-1672 | mcny.org A fraction of the archives stored in the American Society for Psychical Research. Photo: Liz Hardaway deceptive psychics, Bravo has even gone as far as exposing fraudulent psychics on a radio show in the past.

“I would call them up as a straight-up sucker, victim, playing into their hand ... and then I would just expose them on the radio for being a terrible person who preys on people,” said Bravo. “You know, how could they do this?”

Though his main office, Psychic NYC, is in the heart of Chelsea, Bravo has multiple locations throughout New York.

“People who are believers will always believe, no matter what I say. And then people who are doubters, no matter what I say, will always doubt. So, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day whether it can be established or not because whatever line you’re taking is the line,” Bravo said.

But there are people in the city investigating whether or not these phenomena can be proven.

“Paranormal doesn’t mean it can’t be explained, science just hasn’t explained it yet,” said Patrice Keane, executive director of the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR).

Tucked away in a narrow building on 73rd Street and Central Park West, the ASPR houses four centuries worth of research and literature regarding anything involving the paranormal and supernatural.

Founded in 1885 by one of the fathers of psychology himself, William James, and other scholars, the society strives to “explore the uncharted realms of human consciousness,” according to their website, www. aspr.com.

The society is currently exploring ESP functioning in an altered state of consciousness.

One floor of the house even has a laboratory, where the society conducts a double-blind experiment to study ESP. A subject is supposed to clear their mind and picture a location, or painting, that another subject is looking at. After the subject leaves the chair, they are given multiple paintings or locations to choose from, and only find out later which was the correct choice.

“We bring this in a lab to rule out chance,” Keane said. She said she had seen some scarily accurate results, such as subjects describing all four options to choose from in very specific detail, instead of just the one.

She has also witnessed psychics finding the missing piece to a crime investigation.

“If we only see [a phenomenon] a little bit, it doesn’t make it less real,” Keane said.

Not only does the society have rare literature and early findings of psychology, philosophy, manuscripts and case reports, but they have also participated in exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris with their rare photographs and archives. The society is currently preparing an exhibit in spirit photography and is seeking funding.

Through all the signs and advertisements littered around the streets of Chelsea promising a patron their future for five dollars, one still has to remain skeptical. There is no licensing required, nor regulation, of this business. There are also countless horror stories of victims shelling out thousands of dollars to get some dreaded curse lifted. So maybe just take the psychics with a grain of salt, and enjoy the ride.

If you’ve been feeling like you’re on high ground this hurricane season, don’t forget what it looked like here in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Mark the 5-year anniversary with a symposium that delves into how the city can survive the next storm surges ($40).

Just Announced | Secret Science Club North Presents Astronaut & Spaceman Author Mike Massimino

MONDAY, OCTOBER 23RD, 8PM Symphony Space | 2537 Broadway | 212-864-1414 | symphonyspace.org Microgravity, the future of space travel, and what it’s like to dine hundreds of miles above Earth will be among the topics outer space veteran Mike Massimo brings to the Secret Science Club ($25).

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

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

IWantToBeRecycled.org

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ANTHONY CIOTTI AT THE DOOR, AT THE READY Anthony Ciotti has been out front on East 86th Street’s Colorado building for three decades

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

Anthony Ciotti prides himself on putting together a good team. He wishes his favorite sports franchises could say the same. “I pick all the hard ones,” he laughed.

Ciotti was hired to be a doorman 33 years ago when his friend’s uncle poached him from his job managing a liquor store. “I didn’t know who he was. I thought we were going to get robbed and then he started asking me about wine,” he said.

“It was a test of my customer service.”

Ciotti got hired on the spot. He started on the West Side and then 2 1/2 years later he was asked to open a new building, The Colorado, on East 86th Street. He’s been there ever since.

“Opening the building” meant selecting the staff. “I think I’ve done a good job because most of them have been there 20 years,” he said. Ciotti

is a doorman/concierge. Every day brings different challenges and he meets them all with a positive attitude. He tries to instill two things in his team: do your job and try again tomorrow. “We work as a chain,” he said. “Once a link is broken, the chain doesn’t work anymore.”

And if that does happen, there’s always tomorrow — wake up and try again.

The most challenging aspect of his job is making sure all the residents are satisfied. This goes hand in hand with the best part, which is making people happy and seeing a smile on their faces.

“Knowing, when you walk out at the end of the day, that you did your job,” he said.

In his free time, Ciotti loves to go to Jets games.

Being a Flushing native, he also loves the Mets.

“Unfortunately,” he laughs.

He and his wife also enjoy going to concerts.

They’ve been to six out of the past eight iHeart Radio Music Festivals in Las Vegas. “The outdoor village is in the same exact spot,” he said of

DOORMAN — EAST SIDE

2017

B UILDING SERVICE W ORKER

AWAR DS

We work as a chain. Once a link is broken, the chain doesn’t work anymore”

the recent shooting in Vegas, “so I really feel for those people.”

Although he’s got 33 years under his belt, Ciotti doesn’t plan on retiring any time soon. “I love people and I love what I do,” he explained. “And like I said, every day’s a new challenge.” In addition, his wife has started a dog walking business, 4 Pawz Forward, and he wants to support her in its growth and development.

In terms of his future plans, Ciotti doesn’t have any. “I like to do things on the spur of the moment. I live for today,” he said “If you feel like doing [something], let’s go do it because you might never get that chance [again].”

“I think I’ve done a good job because most of them have been there 20 years,” Anthony Ciotti says of the staff he’s hired. Photo: Anne Kristoff

Congratulations to the

Building Service Workers of the Year!

675 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017 212.370.9200 EllimanPM.com

For over 100 years, management has been our focus.

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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KEISHA BESSETTE

DOORWOMAN

‘I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT PEOPLE BEING HAPPY’ As the concierge at 11 Riverside Drive, Keisha Bessette deals with all kinds of personality types and packages

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

Keisha Bessette likes to make people happy, which is a good trait to have when you handle a building with more than 600 apartments.

Bessette started working at 11 Riverside Drive 19 years ago. She was about to graduate from high school and needed a job. While visiting a friend who worked in the building, she overhead the general manager say they were hiring. Bessette bounced around in the beginning and has even spent some time as the elevator operator, but she eventually settled in as concierge. In that role, she greets people, keeps on eye on kids darting around the lobby, and has to know a little about everyone in the building.

“I have to know all the parents, the friends, the dogs, and the dog walkers,” she said. And she has to be sensitive to many different personal-

I treat everybody on an individual basis. I treat them how they want to be treated.” ity types. That means being intuitive and taking cues from the residents, being smiley when they’re smiley and serious when they’re serious.

“I treat everybody on an individual basis,” she said. “I treat them how they want to be treated.”

The bulk of her job entails dealing with the mountains of packages that come in all week long, including Sunday now, thanks to Amazon.

“Packages up the wazoo,” she said. “The post office, couriers, laser shipping, Amazon Prime, Google Express.” She keeps everything orga-

Bessette says she has to “know all the parents, the friends, the dogs, and the dog walkers.” Photo: Anne Kristoff nized and logged in and also keeps the lobby in order. Patience is the most important trait to doing her job well and the hardest part is not wanting to let anyone down. The best part? She feels lucky that she’s been able to provide for her-

2017

B UILDING SERVICE W ORKER

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self and her daughter, and making her residents happy. “I have no problem making people happy,” she said. “At Christmas, I look forward to seeing who writes what in their cards because that tells you how they feel.”

When she’s not at work, Bessette spends time with her family. She owns a three-level house in Brooklyn, with her mom living upstairs and her brother downstairs. Friday is her time to catch up and chill with her daughter and cook whatever she wants. That usually includes things like stewed chicken, oxtails, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, or lasagna. Her daughter’s birthday is in December and instead of parties, she started treating her to travels at age four.

They’ve been to Turks and Caicos, Disney World, Universal Studios, and Dubai. And until recently, she made yearly treks to her native St. Lucia. Future trips will include the Maldives Island and a return to Dubai.

As she begins to think about life after retirement one day, Bessette said she’ll want to do something different, involving giving back, and something she truly loves. “I don’t know what that is,” she said, “but I’m passionate about people being happy.”

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LORETTA ZUK

‘I FEEL LIKE A PIONEER’

SUPER 2017

B UILDING SERVICE WOR KER

AWAR DS

Loretta Zuk is one of the few women working in NYC as a super

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

Loretta Zuk fixes things. It’s been that way since she was a little girl.

“In my foster family, I was the youngest and the strongest,” she said. Her grandmother was a widow. Then her mom became one, and then her aunt. “I started doing things, fixing things,” she said. “I just did it. I needed to.”

After high school, Zuk went to New York City Technical College, where she was one of just four women who took the 480-hour building superintendent certificate program. After graduating, she was recommended to the folks at Columbia University.

Zuk started as a handyperson. She left after three years to work at two other buildings, which increased her skills and allowed her to come back to Columbia as a super for a residential building where graduate students live. All told, she’s been at Columbia now for 31 years.

There are an estimated 9000 supers in the city, only 80 of whom are women, she says. When she started, contractors and mechanics would come to the door looking for the super and ask Zuk where her husband was. It took a long time for her to gain their respect, but she did her homework, took courses at the union, and asked a lot of questions. “I wasn’t afraid to say I didn’t know something,” she said.

Her day consists of hiring contractors and overseeing their work but there’s more administrative stuff these days. Everything is computerized so there is a lot more online communication and paperwork than when she first started. And as building codes change and Columbia continues to “go green” there is always something new to learn.

But she still also gets to fix stuff, which is the best part of the job.

“I’ve always loved to fix things, but there’s this thing I call a MacGyver,” she said. “Sometimes it takes a MacGyver, that little thing that you come up with yourself that isn’t part of what you’ve learned and it makes it work. That’s the most rewarding to me.”

She also likes to makes things beautiful. That begins with her dedication to keeping her building clean, comfortable, and secure and it extends

Santiago says her job “helps me provide for me and my family.” Photo: Anne Kristoff

As Columbia continues to “go green,” there is always something new to learn. Photo: Anne Kristoff

BERLIN SANTIAGO A NIGHTLY ROUTINE 2017

I’ve always loved to fix things, but there’s this thing I call a MacGyver … that little thing that you come up with yourself that isn’t part of what you’ve learned and it makes it work. That’s the most rewarding to me” to her hobbies. Zuk has a passion for creating abstract acrylic paintings and she loves refinishing old furniture. “I love fixing and taking something broken and making it whole,” she said.

When she’s not engaged in those hobbies, she and her wife are hanging out with their pup, Abby the “Super Dog.” They also love to travel.

Italy and Europe are on the bucket list but Hawaii, where they honeymooned, has their heart.

Zuk is honored to be recognized for her work as a super. “I absolutely feel like a pioneer. That’s what I’m most proud of,” she said. “I wish more women would get into this because it’s a great job.”

Berlin Santiago has a system that kicks in on her evening cleaning shift in Times Square

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

When asked about her job, Berlin Santiago jokes, “Hey, it’s a breeze.” But all kidding aside, after 11 years her routine has a flow to it.

Santiago is a cleaner at 7 Times Square, right smack dab in the madness of 42nd Street. On getting the award she says, “It’s so nice. You think no one is acknowledging what you do. It’s like wow. It feels good.”

Santiago has worked with her father, who also does maintenance, so she was very familiar with the job at the start. But she was shown the ropes and got some additional training when she started. She works the evening shift, which allows her to get her six-year-old son up and off to school in the morning and to spend a little time with him before she heads to work.

Once there, that flow kicks in. “Come in, go to my locker, get my cart, prepare everything, and get straight to work — empty the garbage, wipe things down, vacuum, dust, sweep.”

When she’s not at work, she and her husband like to hang out, dance, go to lounges, movies, out to dinner. Born and raised in the Bronx, she

MIDTOWN OFFICE CLEANER B UILDING SERVICE W O R KER

AWAR DS

You think no one is acknowledging what you do.

It’s like wow. It feels good” enjoys all that the borough has to offer. “City Island is one of the nicer spots for seafood, Yankees games, Bronx Zoo, Orchard Beach. Well, the water is disgusting but we go for the music and hanging out,” she said.

And of course, spending time with their son is No. 1 on the list. That could be anything from swimming to baseball to basketball. It also includes watching him dance. Her son is a member of Positive Brothers, a dance troupe that performs around the city and other places.

“They just went to Canada. I don’t travel with them though,” she said. “That’s for the boys.”

Santiago’s husband is a business school grad and encourages her to think about opening her own cleaning business one day. For now she is grateful for the work she has. “I greatly appreciate the job,” she said. “It helps me provide for me and my family.”

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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We are proud to support the

2017 BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS AWARDS ĞůĞďƌĂƟŶŐ EĞǁ zŽƌŬ͛Ɛ ƵŝůĚŝŶŐ tŽƌŬĞƌƐ ǁŚŽ ŬĞĞƉ ƚŚĞ ĐŝƚLJ ƐĂĨĞ ĂŶĚ ĐůĞĂŶ͘ & “Always move forward,” says Robinson Ovide. Photo: Anne Kristoff

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Greg Ingram DŝĐŚĂĞů ZŽĚƌŝŐƵĞnj

ROBINSON OVIDE A SPIRIT OF GENEROSITY

DOWNTOWN OFFICE CLEANER

Robinson Ovide plans to run for public office

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

THE BRODSKY ORGANIZATION JOINS IN CELEBRATING ALL BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS AND THE 2017 HONOREES FOR THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS.

When Robinson Ovide says he’s planning to run for office one day, it’s not hard to imagine. Walking with him through One World Trade Center, where he works, you’d think he was the mayor.

Nearly every person he passes greets him with a handshake, a wave, or a giant smile.

His affable nature and generous spirit shine through. Being kind to everyone, he says, is just who he is.

Ovide moved to New York from Haiti in 1983.

After visiting for three months he told his father he was staying.

Since then, he has held a variety of jobs, from sales rep to property manager to billing clerk. He started as an office cleaner at 4 Journal Square but was quickly moved to One World Trade and welcomed the opportunity with zero trepidation. “It’s an iconic building, a special address, the most prominent building in the world,” he said. “Everybody wants to be here.”

He also differentiates between 9/11 and the 11th of September. “Always remember what happened,” he said, “but always move forward.”

Aside from the joy of getting to work in his favorite building in Manhattan, Ovide says the best part of his job is meeting people and making a difference. “The building cannot run without you guys,” he said.

Ovide has always taken pride in his work, no

2017

B UILDING SERVICE WORKER

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It’s an iconic building, a special address …

Everybody wants to be here.” matter which job he’s held. He is motivated by taking care of his wife and three children who, aside from God and his mother, he says, are the most important people in his life.

When he’s not at work, you can find him volunteering at his daughter’s school, in the community, or at his church. He also likes going to Broadway shows.

Next up for Ovide? Public office. He plans to run for District Leader next year and City Council four years from now. “Politics is being able to help others. It’s not about you. They come to you, want your vote, and you don’t see them until four years later,” he said. “I plan on doing it differently.”

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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ZEF SMAJLAJ MANAGING EXCELLENCE

BUILDING MANAGER 2017

B UILDING SERVICE W OR KER

AWAR DS

We are Proud to Announce

Zef Smajlaj’s journey started in a refugee camp

Mr. Zef Smajlaj of 510 Park Avenue

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

Was Named It’s a long way from war-torn Albania to a luxury apartment building on Park Avenue, but that’s the story of Zef Smajlaj’s life.

When Smajlaj arrived in New York it was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. He remembers asking an older Albanian friend how long it would take to save $10,000 because he figured once he had that much he could high-tail it back home. His parents escaped from Albania in 1951, making them all enemies of the state. Once settled in Montenegro, Smajlaj realized there would be no future for him there and he escaped to a refugee camp in Italy, leaving his parents and siblings behind.

In 1967, Smajlaj ended up on Delancey and Chrystie Streets, one block off Bowery. TThe neighborhood was in the throes of its decades-long epoch as skid row. He would come home from work and have to step over three or four drunks passed out in front of his door. “It was very sad for me to see,” he said, “because I never saw anything like that before.” He also missed his family terribly and did not speak much English, which was isolating.

But things soon took a turn for the better. Although he had no skills when he first arrived in the city, a friend found him a job as a porter. After six or seven months he had picked up enough English that he no longer needed a translator. “I still have my accent though,” he laughed. As he worked, he learned various skills and started work as a handyman and super. “You could change jobs every week back then,” he shrugged. It was also during this time that a woman he met while in the refugee camp in Italy moved to New York. They would marry and soon had a child on the way. Before long, his parents and brother immigrated to the States as well.

Smajlaj has worked as a super since 1973, and since 1996 at his current building on Park Avenue, near 60th Street. “Now it’s a fancy title — resident manager — with a suit and tie,” he said, but a lot of the functions are the same. He’s responsible for all the properties in the building, overseeing contractors, paperwork, blueprints, plumbers, electricians, painters and plasterers. In addition, he oversees 11 employees, does the payroll, and the hiring and firing.

He feels that communication and diplomacy skills are the most important traits to have in order to

Building Manager of the Year Congratulations on Your Achievement!

Zef Smajlaj. Photo: Anne Kristoff

CONGRATULATES

He feels that communication and diplomacy skills are the most important traits.”

32BJ SEIU AND THE 201, BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS OF THE YEAR

be successful at the job. “I love what I do,” he said.

“I’m proud of what I do. I think I do a good job and my shareholders are happy with me.” He also likes being able to help other people find jobs.

When he was younger he used to play soccer.

Now he opts for golf and fishing. He, his wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren head up to Lake Mahopac in Putnam County most weekends to relax, barbecue and ride on the boat. He also likes going to Yankees games and loves going to see the Rangers play. “I love all the New York teams,” he said, “even Buffalo.”

As for the future, Smajlaj’s goal is to see his grandchildren grow into successful adults. He hopes to maintain good health and above all else, “spend my life peacefully.”

BROOKFIELD.COM

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

Chris Demchuk. Photo: Anne Kristoff

CHRIS DEMCHUK

DOORMAN — DOWNTOWN

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL DOORMAN At the Avalon off the Bowery, Chris Demchuk hits the right notes

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

CONGRATULATIONS 32BJ SEIU & Award Winners!

We honor your valuable service to our community.

Chris Demchuk is a rock star doorman. Or he could have been, if he had followed his childhood dream. “I wanted to play in a rock n’ roll band,” he said, “Mick and The Stones!”

Instead, the Queens native opted for a career in the building service industry. He has held many jobs over his 25-year career including porter and handyman. He’s spent the last 10 years as a doorman/concierge at The Avalon building in the East Village.

His biggest concern and the main crux of his job is keeping his building secure. “You’re the eyes and ears of the building,” he said. “You keep it functioning and running.”

The Avalon is just off the Bowery, but he’s never experienced any real problems. The biggest change he’s seen to the neighborhood over the past decade is a proliferation of high-rises.

Demchuk gets up at 5:30 a.m. every day in order to get to work by his 7 a.m. start time. He’s off at 3 p.m. which leaves him time to take care of anything his two sons might need, or lend a hand to his father.

To be good at this job, Demchuk says you need to be a people person with good customer relations skills, and with 300 apartments to look after, you have to be very detail oriented. “The best part is knowing I did the best I could for the building, the staff and the residents,” he said.

When he’s not working, Demchuk spends time outdoors, going to the park, biking or taking pic-

2017

B UILDING SERVICE WORKER

AWAR DS

You’re the eyes and ears of the building. You keep it functioning and running.”

tures. He frequently goes out to the Rockaways where he swims. He also likes visiting Oyster Bay on Long Island. His favorite parts of the city all involve the water — going to the Hudson River, Pier 17 and Brooklyn Bridge Park. He once walked along the waterfront all the way from the Verrazano Bridge to Red Hook.

Even though he never ended up playing any instruments himself, Demchuk remains passionate about music and attends a lot of concerts. He’s seen The Rolling Stones multiple times, and also bands such as Styx and Rush.

So, maybe it’s time to revive the dream and put together a band with his colleagues?

“I don’t think there are many doormen who know how to make music and play rock,” he laughed.

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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FELIX FIGUEROA

DOORMAN — WEST SIDE

DELIVERING DEDICATION With nearly three decades as doorman at the same Upper West building, he’s seen generations grow up

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

2017

B UILDING SERVICE W OR KER

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Felix Figueroa begins each day with a pep talk.

He’s up at 5:15 a.m., heads out at 5:45, rides a very crowded 7 train from Sunnyside, Queens, to 116th St and Broadway, and gets his coffee and a bagel from the same guy he’s gotten it from for the last 18 years. When he arrives at his Upper West Side building he slaps the top of the entryway as he crosses the threshold, puts on his uniform, peeks in the mirror and says, “Let’s go. Let’s do this.”

100 Years of Excellence

Kaufman Organization vision for the future

I care about my job, my tenants, my lobby and my building. It’s like my second home.”

Felix Figueroa. Photo: Anne Kristoff Figueroa started as the night doorman 28 years ago. He worked that shift for six years and when the day doorman made the switch to handyman, Figueroa jumped at the chance to take his spot.

“You get to see families grow,” he said. “As the morning doorman I’ve seen about 12 to 13 families grow. Couples who came in living together, then got married, have kids. Then those kids get raised and then graduate college. I’ve seen everything.”

He looks after tenants in 113 apartments, knowing everything from their morning routine to the dry cleaner they use. “If they go walk their dog and don’t come back by a certain time I know something’s wrong,” he said.

This era of being a doorman is different. It’s no longer the routine of sitting down and taking in a few packages. “The packages are booming!” he said. He gets over 60 each day from Fed Ex, UPS, DHL, the Post Office and laser ship. Amazon Prime, Google Express, couriers and messengers. Then there’s the food — Fresh Direct, Martha Stewart, Blue Apron, Kickin’ It, Peapod, Amazon Fresh. His building had to install two refrigerators to handle the food deliveries. On top of that, there’s the Building Link system.

“To be good at this job you have to know your tenants, have good awareness, and know your lobby,” he said. Building Link helps with that, especially keeping track of contractors and guests.

The best part of the job is seeing the tenants happy and keeping the building’s routine running well. “I care about my job, my tenants, my lobby and my building,” he said. “It’s like my second home.”

Figueroa spent many years coaching kids in baseball. Getting involved with his community is something he is drawn to.

For fun, he and wife, whom he met through the handyman in his building, like to go to Jones Beach or shopping. They also like to go out to eat.

La Pequena, a Colombian restaurant in Jackson Heights, is a favorite. He also likes visiting the science museum. He used to take his children, now 23 and 16, there when they were young. He loves the diversity of the crowd.

As far as long-term dreams go, Figueroa has a few vague ideas but one very concrete plan.

He wants to go on a vacation boat cruise alone with his wife. “Just us,” he said. “Sail off for two weeks. Sit down, have a glass of wine, look at each other and say, ‘We did it.’”

AN OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT 8F QSPVEMZ TVQQPSU

32BJ SEIU JO UIFJS #VJMEJOH 4FSWJDF 8PSLFS "XBSET BOE BSF QMFBTFE UP DPOHSBUVMBUF BMM PG UIF IPOPSFFT

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MOHAN MATABEEK 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.

PORTER

When he’s not at work, Matabeek is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in business management and finance.

Photo: Anne Kristoff

And best of all you won’t have to go outside to grab a copy from the street box every week.

It’s your neighborhood.

It’s your news.

BATTING 1000

2017

B UILDING SERVICE WO R KER

AWAR DS

Mohan Matabeek has worked as a porter near Lincoln Center for more than 15 years

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

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Mohan Matabeek grew up playing baseball in the Bronx. There was a time when becoming a Yankee may have topped his list of dreams, but though that didn’t happen, he has batted 1000 in other ways.

Matabeek has worked as a porter in a building near Lincoln Center for 15-plus years, a job initially facilitated by his uncle, who is the super at a nearby building. Before that, Matabeek worked in the dietary office at Stony Brook Hospital. He begins the trek into the city at 5:30 a.m. every day in order to drop his wife off at her job before starting his work at 8 a.m. Once there, he spends the day cleaning empty apartments and common areas of the building as well as doing handyman work.

To be good at the job, you have to like to clean, he said. “When I do my job it’s basically what I would like to see in my own house,” he said.

Asking what the hardest part of his job is elicits laughs. The best part is the tenants. “They love me,” he said.

When he’s not at work, Matabeek is working on his bachelor’s degree in business management and finance. Or he’s hanging out with his step-

To be good at the job, you have to like to clean. When I do my job it’s basically what I would like to see in my own house.” daughter, and visiting his brothers and family.

On other days you can find Matabeek umpiring collegiate and high school games, something he’s been doing for the past eight years.

Matabeek and his wife like to travel. They prefer warm places and have spent time in Florida and the Caribbean. They also enjoy vacationing at Lake George, something he’s been doing since he was a child, and visiting the wineries on Long Island.

Matabeek hopes to switch over to the business management side of things one day. For now though, he’s grateful to win this award. “It feels good,” he said. “Someone is noticing your work.”

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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RELATED’S COMMITMENT TO NEW YORK CITY EXTENDS WELL BEYOND OUR BUILDINGS

HUDSON YARDS

CONGRATULATIONS! Related is proud to support today’s honorees and congratulates 32BJ SEIU on their many accomplishments NEW YORK | BOSTON | CHICAGO | SAN FRANCISCO | LOS ANGELES | SOUTH FLORIDA | WASHINGTON, DC

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WILLIE LOPEZ

WINDOW CLEANER

A VERY HIGH-RISK JOB Willie Lopez has cleaned the windows on some of the city’s tallest buildings

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

You’d probably think that the first rule of window cleaning is “don’t look down,” but you’d be wrong. According to Willie Lopez, you actually have to look everywhere. “You look up, you look down, you look sideways, you look everywhere,” he said.

Lopez has been cleaning windows for 43 years.

He got the job after being laid off from the city, working with pre-trial services. He had a new wife and a baby on the way and was willing to do anything. A friend asked if he wanted to try cleaning windows.

“The first day was extremely scary,” he remembered. He was about 20 stories up, with just a belt attached the building, a wand, and a squeegee.

No scaffolding. The bravado of youth combined with the focus of his obligations quelled that fear quickly. Plus his friend taught him the ropes and gave him some helpful tips. “We were friends,” he said. “I trusted him.” Lopez caught on easily and three days later they sent him off on his own.

Lopez has cleaned the windows of a lot of different buildings over the years including the Empire State Building and the lobby of the original World Trade Center. While fear doesn’t cross his mind much, the danger and physical nature of the work is not something he can ignore. “It is hard, backbreaking work,” he cautioned. “You will hurt your back, your knees, your shoulders, your wrists.” He has had his skull cracked open by a falling screw, his ear sliced by a railing, and he broke his wrist once when he fell three floors.

There have been a lot of safety improvements over the years but it’s still a very high-risk job.

“More window cleaners than police officers have died [on the job] for the past two years,” he said, “but you don’t hear about that.” One of his best friends died just last month after falling 12 floors. Around 300 to 400 window cleaners came out to pay their respects.

Needless to say, one of the most important traits needed to do this job well is to be cautious and make sure everything is done correctly. After that, “leave it to God, hope for the best, and pray that everyone can go home at the end of the day.”

In his free time Lopez likes to go to the library to read or surf the Internet. He and his wife enjoy cruises and have visited the Bahamas, Hawaii, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. He also loves to go see Broadway and off-Broadway plays —

2017

B UILDING SERVICE W OR KER

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Ingram credits his work ethic for his success. Photo: Anne Kristoff

GREG INGRAM

STADIUM/THEATER CLEANER

A PEOPLE PERSON AT CITI FIELD Greg Ingram has seen the Mets through two stadiums and a World Series

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

“You look up, you look down, you look sideways, you look everywhere,” Lopez says. Photo: Anne Kristoff

Hope for the best, and pray that everyone can go home at the end of the day.”

“Miss Saigon” is a favorite. Lopez is an avid fisherman. He’s also a pool shark and has won many tournaments. “My wife sent me out to buy a kitchen table once and I came home with a pool table,” he said. Lopez is a father of four children and three stepdaughters, and has 15 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Retirement looms for Lopez and he’s looking forward to moving south to Florida. He dreams of owning his own boat one day.

He says winning the award feels outstanding.

“Some guys call me a relic,” he laughed, “but it’s nice to recognized by my colleagues.”

The hardest part of Greg Ingram’s job is getting there. He works the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift at Citi Field. When he’s carpooling, that means getting up at 4:30 a.m. But it’s an even earlier start if he has to take the 4 from the Bronx to Grand Central, and then the 7 to Queens. “Once you get there, everything else falls into place,” he said.

Ingram landed the job right out of high school. When he started, he met a guy who had been there for 10 years. “I said, ‘Wow.’ I didn’t think that would ever happen.” Thirty-three years later he’s seen the Mets through two stadiums and a World Series, and he’s held many jobs along the way.

He began in “the bowl” as a sweeper and was quickly promoted to lead bag man. He’s done everything from power-washing the stands to payroll to scheduling shifts. He now works as a porter. He credits his work ethic for his success and says whatever you do, you have to love what you’re doing and appreciate your job.

Being a Bronx native, Ingram might have taken some jabs from guys in the neighborhood for his job with the Mets, but it’s actually been the other way around. “I got a lot [of] flak from the Mets at Citi Field!” he laughed. “Because they knew I was a Yankees fan.”

But it was all in good fun and he eventually came over to the other side. “The Mets made me root for them because they treat you so nice,” he said. “The Mets helped me take care of my kids.”

2017

B UILDING SERVICE WORKER

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Ingram doesn’t see as many games as he used to, but he was at Shea for the 1986 World Series.

He also has some pretty cool memories of Darryl Strawberry, Doc Gooden, and Gary Carter, who would occasionally hang out and talk a bit with him and his co-workers.

The Mets helped me take care of my kids.”

But the games and players are not even the best part of his job. From the maintenance department to the food concessions to the office area, he says it’s the people that are the best part.

He’s just begun working on a bucket list and more travel is up at the top. “I want to do a big family trip somewhere, kids, grandkids, my girl.”

Ingram is a self-proclaimed people person.

He loves to smile, make others smile and crack jokes. “I have people who told me they were proud of me, that I didn’t even realize it would come from them,” he said. “Yeah, it felt good,” he says about winning the award.

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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Silverstein Properties is honored to salute Building Service Workers 32BJ SEIU

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ELAINE CHANEYFIELD SECURITY — COMMERCIAL BUILDING ‘I PUT MYSELF IN THEIR SHOES’ Elaine Chaneyfield’s security job requires empathy, courtesy and compassion

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

Elaine Chaneyfield works as a security guard at the MTA Bridges and Tunnel Building, which is ironic since she doesn’t even like the train. Still, she’s been at 2 Broadway for more than 17 years.

Her job entails a lot of things — greeting people, signing them in, monitoring her surroundings, answering phones — and requires empathy, courtesy, and compassion. “I put myself in their shoes,” she says, and that helps her to figure out the best way to handle any situation that comes up.

A big part of the job is looking out for and taking care of people. She likes getting to help people.

“If something is not right, we look out for each other,” she said, “give each other support.” The

The local paper for the Upper East Side

If something is not right, we look out for each other, give each other support.”

best part of her job is resolving issues and making people smile, “They have a smile on their face, and I have a smile on mine.”

Advertise with Our Town today!

Call Vincent Gardino at 212-868-0190

OurTownNY.com

Chaneyfield says the best part of her job is resolving issues and making people smile. Photo: Anne Kristoff

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Chaneyfield is also an avid cook. “I’m a very good cook,” she said. That’s everything from lemon meringue, cherry, pecan, and sweet potato pie, to chicken, potato salad, mac & cheese and peach cobbler. Chaneyfield likes the challenge of trying different recipes but even more than that, she loves to watch people eat her good food.

When she’s not at work or throwing down in the kitchen, Chaneyfield is most likely hanging out with her two daughters and especially her granddaughter. They might grab a bite to eat or catch a movie but mostly she likes to play things by ear. “I’m spur of the moment on the weekend,” she said. “I like to go sightseeing, maybe shopping, maybe hit 42nd Street and walk around. I love Coney Island.”

As far as a bucket list goes, Chaneyfield is in the process of getting a house. She has always thought of owning her own business, maybe a security company or perhaps a restaurant.

In the meantime, she looks forward to going to 2 Broadway. “I’m grateful for the job,” she said, “I like working.”

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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VERONICA GROMLEY

SCHOOL HANDYPERSON

THE FIXER

If their favorite lamp is broken, just go in and fix it. Just to see something work again and make people happy.�

Veronica Gromley remembers changing her first electrical outlet as a child in Northern Ireland

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

“I’m deďŹ nitely the ďŹ xer,â€? says Veronica Gromley. “That’s my middle name.â€?

Gromley has been the handyperson at Q378 preschool in Queens for three years but she’s been ďŹ xing things ever since she was a little girl. She grew up as the second youngest of eight children in Northern Ireland. She learned handy work from her mother and remembers changing her ďŹ rst electrical outlet at around age seven. “Actually, in Ireland women do most of the decorating of the house and physically do all the work,â€? she said. Decorating there doesn’t mean picking out window treatments. It’s part of construction work and deals with patching and painting, in-

Gromley says that one day she hopes to own her own building. Photo: Anne Kristoff stalling crown molding, and more.

Gromley first came to New York City in 1990 with dreams of being a police officer. After a few conversations, she was talked out of that line of work. Since she already had her certiďŹ cate as a

“Painter and Decorator,� she started her own handyperson business. She does everything from ripping out bathrooms to replacing kitchens, and though she’s been at it here in the states for 27 years, she still gets some weird looks at the hardware store. “I usually help the next customer that the man working there can’t help,� she said. “Then he either gets pissed or I get respect. One or the other.� At the school Gromley does it all, from making sure the air conditioning and heating is working, to maintaining every-

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thing from oor cleaning machines to outlets, and most importantly, making sure the building is secure for the children. She makes things fun for them and has decorated and named one of her garbage pails “Dusty.â€? The kids smile and wave as “Dustyâ€? makes his way through the halls.

When she’s not at work Gromley spends time with her nieces and nephews who live locally.

Ninety percent of her family still lives in Ireland though so she gets back there every two to three years to visit. On off years she’ll visit places like Bermuda. “Some place with peace and quiet.

Where I won’t get the phone,â€? she said. She also volunteers with local food pantries and does charity work with the elderly, or sometimes just helps out her neighbors. “If their favorite lamp is broken, just go in and ďŹ x it,â€? she said. “Just to see something work again and make people happy.â€?

One day, she hopes to own her own building.

In the meantime, you can ďŹ nd her taking all the classes necessary to prep for her next career step, custodian engineer. “People don’t realize all that 32BJ offers,â€? she said. “You don’t have to stay where you are.â€?

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JOSEPH SALJANIN HELPING HAND A FOUNDATION OF SUPPORT Joseph Saljanin is always ready to assist

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

“When you bring someone on board and change their life, it’s gratifying,” Joseph Saljanin says.

Photo: Anne Kristoff

It makes sense that Joseph Saljanin is receiving the “Helping Hand” award. Helping others is in his blood.

His father was a building super and, Saljanin said, was the first Albanian immigrant to own his own building.

That building was lost during the chaos that engulfed the Bronx in the 1970s. But despite falling on hard times, his parents were always ready to lend a hand. “That’s the way I was raised,” he said. “My parents always helped people. Brought them over from other countries, get their life started for them.”

Much like his parents, Joseph is known for his selflessness. In April, he spent his spare time organizing an effort to refurbish a school for children with special needs, Astoria Blue Feather

Making a Difference.

Every Day.

Headstart School. He got the word out about his project, rounding up volunteers from the Scandinavian American Building Managers Guild and Metropolitan Building Mangers organization.

Together, they spent their weekends collecting supplies for the school and re-painting it. In addition to completing the project for the students at the school, Joseph and his team were also able to raise awareness in the community for Autism Awareness Month.

Saljanin has spent his whole career with Rose Associates. He started as a handyman right out of high school. At the time he didn’t think he’d make a career out of it but life happened and he just kept going.

In his current role as resident manager on East 79th St., he wears a lot of hats — oversees staff, gets bids from contractors, and is there to assist the tenants with their needs. His favorite part of the job is mentoring new hires. “When you bring someone on board and change their life,

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I’ve learned this over the years. When you give respect, you get it back.”

it’s gratifying,” he said.

When he’s not working, he and his wife spend time with their 9-year-old triplets. They make his coffee for him every morning.

Aside from his family, the most important thing to Saljanin is building employee morale.

“I’ve learned this over the years,” he said. “When you give respect, you get it back.”

FirstService Residential is a proud sponsor of the 2017 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

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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KAREN MCMILLAN SECURITY GUARD KAREN MCMILLAN IS ALWAYS THERE The security guard on lower Broadway takes classes to stay up to date on all the latest information

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

Karen McMillan is a security guard for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services on lower Broadway. She’s been at this job for 12 years but 14 with the city overall and another 16 in the private sector. All told, McMillan’s been working as a security guard for three decades.

It makes perfect sense then that the hashtag she’s adopted for her life is #AlwaysThere.

“Always there” applies to her job loyalty and dedication to improving herself and others.

When she’s not at work, she’s taking classes and helping out with whatever else is needed at 32BJ. “When you go in there, you’re going to come out learning something.”

Always there” applies to her job loyalty and dedication to improving herself and others.

To be good at the job she says you need customer service and human relations training, to always be cognizant of your surroundings, and stay up to date on all the latest information. That can be anything from physical building updates

(the addition of motion sensors, removal of fluorescent lighting), to a change in the type of oil that a building uses for heating, to knowing how to handle service animals and defibrillators, to taking classes like “Active Shooter.”

“Nothing stays the same,” she said. “Things can change at the drop of a dime.”

McMillan likes to help people. She takes pride in standing up for what she believes in and she loves learning. What she doesn’t like is the attention that winning this award brings.

“I don’t think I deserve the award,” she said.

“I’m just doing what I was trained to do.”

Thirty years ago McMillan protested Mayor Abe Beame’s attempt to dismantle what is now known as the Pell Grant and it was the action that would catalyze her lifelong path of standing up for herself and others.

“I’ve always been radical,” she said.

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“Things can change at the drop of a dime,” says Karen McMillan. Photo: Anne Kristoff

Congratulations!

Congratulations, winners of the 2017 Building Service Workers Awards!

Thank you for all that you have done for the New York community and making the lives of those around you a little brighter every day.

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ABM.com 800.874.0780 ©2017 ABM Industries, Inc. All rights reserved.

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CARROL CORT

AIRPORT WORKER — JFK

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SERIOUS BUSINESS AT JFK Carrol Cort went from nursing studies to handling security for British Airways

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

Cort was attracted to a career in aviation because there was so much to learn. Photo: Shaundale Azora

If you’re flying British Airways out of JFK, you can rest assured that no one is getting into an area in which they are not allowed. That is thanks to Carrol Cort. Cort has been with the airline for 22 years, first as a checkpoint screener and then handling security in an area located closer to the aircraft.

Cort came to the U.S. from Guyana almost 30 years ago. Before she began at the airport she studied nursing and worked in accounting. She was attracted to a career in aviation because there was so much to learn and it offered more room to advance, so she made the switch.

Her day consists making sure no one enters the area that’s prohibited. She also responds to any

My wish if for my girls [to] go through and grab the best.”

alarms that go off and writes reports about those instances. The threat of terrorism is always a concern, making her job serious business, so there’s not much about it that she would classify as “fun.”

When she’s not working, Cort spends time with her husband and two daughters. They might go out to eat or catch a movie. She also enjoys the vibrancy of downtown Brooklyn and likes to see shows at the Barlcays Center.

She and her family also love to travel. They’ve been to Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, and Canada. She’s also been back to Guyana four times.

As far as the future goes, Cort has thought about going back to finish her nursing studies. Her biggest dreams, though, involve her daughters. “My wish is to see my girls go through and grab the best, which I didn’t get a chance to do,” she said.

“My greatest wish is to see them be two [successful] individuals.”

She’s also looking forward to receiving her award. “It feels great,” she said. “I have never been nominated [before]. I am quite excited to see what it is like to receive an award.”

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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Echavaria hopes that someone will help his mother in Colombia when she needs it, the way he helps his customers. Photo: Esteban Ramirez

NORMAN ECHAVARIA PAYING IT FORWARD 2017

Wheelchair attendant Norman Echavaria describes himself as “a justice person”

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

Family, fairness, and hard work are the bedrock of Norman Echavaria’s life. “I’m a simple guy,” he said.

Echavaria has been working at LaGuardia Airport for 11 years. He started as a baggage handler and is now a wheelchair attendant. He’s up at 3:50 a.m. every day and catches the bus to make it the airport for his 5 a.m. start time. His is a very physical job and has taken a toll on his body, but he loves talking to the passengers and helping them get what they need in order to have a nice flight.

What keeps him going is thinking of his mother back in Colombia. He hopes that someone there will help her when she needs it, the way he helps his customers. He sees his job as sort of paying it forward. “I receive and I give,” he says.

When he’s not working, Echavaria likes to work out, do physical therapy exercises to keep his back healthy, read books, watch the news, and listen to music. He also enjoys meeting up with his friends in the evening. They go to Dunkin’ Donuts to talk for a few hours. In the summer he likes to take the ferry to Ikea in Brooklyn. His favorite part of New York is his adopted home of Queens. There he has friends and co-workers

AIRPORT WORKER — LGA

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I have goals of everything being the right way. I like to be a good worker, a good employee. I don’t think about material things” from all over the world — Colombia, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru.

Echavaria goes to visit to his native Colombia every year or two and recently visited his mother. He thinks about possibly returning full-time one day, maybe to help out his stepbrother who is in talks to buy some land in the countryside where he plans to plant corn, avocados, yucca, and plantains. Echavaria also gets out to California to visit his son when he can.

Echavaria feels honored to win this award. “Everything I do — wake up early, work late, work hard — I don’t do it because I want a prize,” he said. “I have goals of everything being the right way. I like to be a good worker, a good employee.

I don’t think about material things. I’m a justice person.”

Congratulations To Berlin Santiago and all the nominees.

Pritchard Industries is proud to have you as part of its family.

Pritchard Industries a Building Services Company www.pritchardindustries.com

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NANCY VAZQUEZ

AIRPORT WORKER — EWR

Consultants and Actuaries to Collectively Bargained Plans

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

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

“My friends tell me that I should run for councilwoman,” says Vazquez. Photo: Anne Kristoff

WORKING, ACTING, WRITING Naturally personable, Nancy Vazquez has found her public-speaking voice

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

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.

When it came time for Nancy Vazquez to look for a job after high school, she did what everyone in Newark does. She headed to the airport. There she got a job as a skycap. Twenty-five years later, she’s still there.

As a skycap at EWR, Vazquez checks people in for their flights and makes sure their bags are heading to the right place. Skycaps work for $2.13 an hour plus tips, so things can get extremely competitive. Being just one of two women working in the job along with 70 men can be weird.

Sometimes customers walk right past her, not realizing that there are, in fact, women doing that job. But it’s those same customers who make the job worth it.

Even with a 6:30 a.m. start time, Vazquez says the best part of the job is talking to the customers. “People are really open,” she said. “You find out so much just in that one minute!” It helps that Vazquez is naturally personable and that when she’s not working, she’s an actress. Actually, it’s writer, director, and actress. The great trade-off for starting work so early is that she gets off of work early, which leaves plenty of time for her to pursue her passion projects.

“Free time? Write. Write, write, write,” she said. “Make my films and documentaries.” Also,

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Free time? Write. Write, write, write. Make my films and documentaries.” she’s found her public-speaking voice and has spoken at more than 20 events and conventions, encouraging people and conveying everything that they are fighting for.

The next logical step may be public office.

“My friends tell me that I should run for councilwoman,” she said. “It’s funny because I spoke in front of City Hall a couple of times and one time when I spoke after the mayor, Ras Baraka, he stood over there said, ‘Damn! She can preach!’

So I said okay ... I could do this.”

In the meantime, she’s got her 32BJ acceptance speech ready, and is working on the one for her Oscars.

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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Tired of Hunting for Our Town?

LUIS LEDESMA

OUTER BOROUGH RESIDENTIAL WORKER

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Luis Ledesma. Photo: Mary Mendoza

BUILDING CONFIDENCE Luis Ledesma lives in the same Rego Park complex that he helps care for

BY ANNE KRISTOFF

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If there’s one thing you won’t hear Luis Ledesma complain about it’s his commute. Not only has he been at his job at Park City Estates in Rego Park for 14 years, he also lives there. “I bought a place there so I could spend more time with my family,” he said.

That family includes his wife, with whom he moved to the United States from Peru 15 years ago, and their 11-year-old son.

In Peru, Ledesma studied electronics and worked as a technician at a television station.

With the move to the States came a career change. He started as a porter and then saw that he could build on his skills via classes. “I said, ‘Let me go do something better, for my family,’” he said. He took classes in electrical and carpentry, which eventually earned him handyman six years ago. The best part of his job is doing good work. “When you finish and people are happy,” he noted. “Also, they’ll call the office and say ‘Send this guy because he’s good.’ That part I like.”

In his free time Ledesma sometimes works side jobs but is mostly focused on his son. He takes him to karate class or to the park, and sometimes they just hang out at home. He also likes going out to eat Peruvian food. He occasionally makes the trek to New Jersey where there is a large Peruvian community but he says, “If I want to see

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When you finish and people are happy. Also, they’ll call the office and say ‘Send this guy because he’s good.’ That part I like.”

Peruvians, I go to Peru.”

He and his wife return to Peru every other year and alternate those trips with other places like Canada and Florida.

But the future is all about his son, he said.

“I’m very focused on whatever my kid is going to be,” he said. “Sometimes you have to leave some dreams on the side to help my kid get his dreams.” His son’s dream for now is to be a video game developer. “He’s 11,” he paused, “so anything can happen.”

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

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congratulates our own

Mohan Matabeek and all the 2017 Building Service Worker Award Winners and thanks each of them for making our homes and offices better places to live and work.

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Scene from “9JKL” on the CBS Television Network. Pictured (left to right): Elliott Gould as Harry, Mouzam Makkar as Lily, Linda Lavin as Judy and Mark Feuerstein as Josh. Photo: Robert Voets/CBS

NO BOUNDARIES ENTERTAINMENT Family is a joke — at least on TV

BY LORRAINE DUFFY MERKL

In the new comedy series “9JKL,” Josh Roberts (Mark Feuerstein) is a newly divorced, out-of-work Hollywood actor who returns to his native New York. He is welcomed back to “East End Place” where his parents, Judy and Harry (legends Linda Lavin and Elliot Gould, respectively) own three apartments in a luxury doorman building. They live in 9J, their other son Andrew, the surgeon, his wife, Eve, and their baby, reside in 9L, until their home renovations are done, leaving empty apartment 9K, because his parents knew eventually Josh would be back.

Of course, they are all up in his business, because they have no boundaries. His request for some is met with a resounding “no” from Judy. Josh is resentful and frustrated, until Harry can hook him up with a movie producer casting a new film, and wingmen Andrew and Eve talk him up to an old flame with whom he’s trying to rekindle a romance. He then acknowledges that he appreciates how he can count on all of them.

What’s to come will be a never-ending series of personal infringements on Josh’s time as well as life decisions that he will complain about until he again needs support; and will have it with the ring of a doorbell.

I know this not from getting a sneak peek at future episodes,

but because I have been, in my own way, a Josh.

Up until 1995, I, as a single woman than married one, was able to keep a healthy distance from family. I worked full-time and my weekends had a full social calendar. Relatives were seen on special occasions or when a request was made from one of them because, “It’s been too long.”

Then my first child was born.

I went from staff to freelance so I could take care of my baby.

It was the best of both worlds, except when I was on deadline. Apparently, my son never seemed to get the memo and would start to cry/scream.

Often, it would take at least 45 minutes for me to figure out his need.

There were also days when clients wanted me to attend a presentation or a strategy meeting.

I felt grateful that I didn’t have to hire outside help because my mother, aunt and mother-in-law as well as two sisters-in-law, were willing (and in the case of the two grandmas, I’ll say eager) to help.

Even though I didn’t pay financially, I still paid emotionally with gratuitous advice and suggestions, articles given to me with titles like, “How Not To Raise A Brat,” and frantic phone calls to relay this-justin info apropos a piece of glass found in a baby food jar or a car seat recall.

Like Josh, I suggested boundaries, except my “no” was delivered Greek-chorus style.

There were days when the group-parenting would be too much. I’d call my husband and announce we would be hiring someone, a caregiver I’d gladly

pay to keep her two cents to herself. Invariably, my boy and I would head to Carl Schurz or Central Park, where I’d eye with certainty the Mary Poppinses looking after their charges.

Every time I’d get to that point, I’d run into another mother with a nanny tale of woe who would expect me to share my stories in kind. I’d say, often with an eye roll, that my family — my mother in particular, who eventually moved across the street from me after my second child was born — helped out.

Some would respond wistfully, “That’s beautiful. You’re fortunate.” Others would look at me perplexed, “Really? You can be around your mother?

You get along?”

I’ll be the first to admit my mother and I can fight over anything, but then again, together we could always stand up to anyone. So, yes, in our own often very loud way, we get along.

After conversations such as those, just as Josh was humbled (aka shamed), so was I, heading home to make a thank-you call to one of my personal Mary Poppinses for the article on “10 Ways To Be A Better Mom” and the heads-up on the latest study on pacifiers (and how I was indeed using the wrong brand).

Until my next interferenceoverload meltdown.

Because family is family, people like Josh and I know that the meddling never ends — if we’re lucky.

Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novels “Back to Work She Goes” and “Fat Chick,” for which a movie is in the works.

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RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS SEP 26 - OCT 3, 2017 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml.

Vivolo

138140 East 74 Street

A

Maison Kayser

1294 3 Avenue

A

Garden Court Cafe (Asia Society)

725 Park Ave

A

Thep

1439 2nd Ave

A

Kosushi

1329 2nd Ave

Not Yet Graded (27) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Filth flies or food/refuse/ sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or nonfood areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Nespresso

935 Madison Ave

Not Yet Graded (18) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.

Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

The New Amity Restaurant 1134 Madison Avenue A Mad River Bar & Grille

1442 3 Avenue

A

Dunkin’ Donuts

355 East 86 Street

A

Dunkin’ Donuts

1571 York Avenue

A

Chicky’s On 86

355 E 86th St

Not Yet Graded (49) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

No facilities available to wash, rinse and sanitize utensils and/or equipment. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

China Jade

1643 2nd Ave

A

Bosie Bakery

2132 2nd Ave

A

Nocciola Ristorante

237 E 116th St

Grade Pending (20) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. 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.

Roast

1569 Lexington Ave

Grade Pending (17) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.

Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.

Juicy Grill

1646 Madison Ave

A

Sams Famous Pizza

150 East 116 Street

A

My NY Bakery Cafe

1565 Lexington Ave

A

Sidewalk Tacos

2163 2nd Ave

A

Dunkin’ Donuts

1873 2 Avenue

A

Cafe Con Leche

2026 2nd Ave

A

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45

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NYPL DISPLAYS RECENT ACQUISITIONS CULTURE Items from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Wolfe, Kara Walker among more than 150 items on view at Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

BY MIAMICHELLE N. ABAD

Comic books from the 1960s.

A recording of a musical chess match between composer John Cage and Marcel Duchamp.

Rare 16th century woodcuts.

An antique map of Central Park.

All are showcased in the New York Public Library’s latest exhibit, “What’s New? Recent Acquisitions.”

Those items and roughly 150 others are on view at the main branch’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue through February 11.

The goal of the exhibit is “to show that we’re collecting to serve a wide variety of needs for our visitors,” said Kailen Rogers, a curatorial associate at NYPL. One of Rogers’s favorite pieces is a magazine from the 2000s called Rikers Review.

The articles were written by inmates at the city jail and then put together by people outside jail who then distributed the magazine.

“We have thousands of publications, but this is the kind of thing that is special and important,” Rogers said. “We maybe wouldn’t have heard about it otherwise, because it’s not on every newsstand.”

Some of the items were purchased from dealers, others were donated, and a few were brought at auction. The pieces will go back to their respective collections once the exhibit ends to give researchers time and space to study them.

“Confessionario Para Los Curas de Indios” is among the oldest books printed in the Americas and found a temporary home in the exhibit. The book was printed in 1585 for missionaries as a means to convert indigenous people in what is now South America to Christianity. There are six known copies of the book. Rogers said the dealer called up the library’s

A display of Latino comic books from the 1980, which are among about 150 items comprising the New York Public Library’s “What’s New? Recent Acquisitions” exhibit, on view through Feb. 11 at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue. Photo: Jonathan Blanc/NYPL rare books curator and asked him if we would be interested in it. “The curator tried to play it very cool,” Rogers said. “But inside his heart was just racing, because in his world this is a really big find.”

Membership applications from the Antigua Progressive Society are on display. The applications were for immigrants from the Caribbean who came to Harlem in the 1930s. “Now the descendants of these people use these as genealogy records,” Rogers said. Families have come in and been moved by tracing their ancestors.

The library last year purchased a comic book collection with issues dating from the 1960s to the 1990s. “It’s a mix of comics by Latino authors or that feature Latino characters,” said Jason Baumann, an assistant director for collection development at NYPL and a comic book enthusiast. Of the six comic books on exhibit, Baumann prefers one called Skull the most.

“It’s an amazing comic with great art,” he said. “I think it shows the role of Latinos in the counter-culture.”

Andie Arnold and Kevan Rahav were exploring the first floor of the library when they saw the exhibit room and decided to check it out. They looked at the Jewish marriage contract and felt a connection

to it. “He’s Jewish and we just got married like Saturday, so it was kind of interesting to see how they did it in the past,” Arnold said. The couple is from Utah and are in New York for their honeymoon.

Her husband liked the more visual pieces like the sketches from the Japanese artist Ariyoshi Kondo and a landscape drawing. “Something that usually attracts me when I see those kind of colors, it has a somewhat realistic, but brush look to it,” Rahav said.

The exhibit also features recorded interviews with Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr., a proof copy of Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own,” a linocut by Kara Walker and the set model for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Off-Broadway production of “In the Heights.”

Cynthia Chaldekas, a librarian, was only able to take a peek at the exhibit, because visitors were filling the room but she enjoyed the Warsaw wood cuts and one of the journalist Joseph Mitchell’s hats. “I think they should always be doing this, but they probably don’t do it enough for my liking,” Chaldekas said. “There should be something where they’re always focusing on their collections and the precious things that they have, which they have a ton.”

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46

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Business

THE YOGA YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED Naam Yoga on the Upper West Side offers music, gentle postures and breathing techniques that lift the mood

BY SUSAN MARQUE

What’s in a name? Apparently a whole lot if you believe in ancient ideas. Naam translates from Sanskrit to mean word or name. Naam Yoga is a practice of postures like other yoga, but involves a lot words. You get to chant with the music.

Normally, I would shy away from anything that seemed like a summer camp sing-a-long. I have no known ability to find a pitch or blend in harmony. I stumbled into Naam Yoga while on a visit to Santa Monica, CA this summer. I wanted a studio where I could take a few classes to stay in shape. They had a $29 introductory special. I figured if I hated it there wasn’t much to lose and there were all sorts of options from vinyasa to Pilates, along with the Naam.

I’ve done a little yoga my entire life.

My Dad was into it before it ever became popular. He’d do embarrass-

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

ing headstands in the living room at odd times and had a Hatha routine he liked. I sometimes joined him in a sun salutation or those kinds of stretches you are great at when you are a gangly kid. When I got older, yoga became something I enjoyed for the community of people, as well as for the health benefits. It gave me muscles, flexibility and energy, from all of the extra oxygen you inhale with yogic breathing.

It was one of the few activities that my father and I could share when I visited — but I never got that into it.

With so many types of yoga out there, I was surprised that a man named Michael Joseph Levry created the Shakti Naam classes as recently as 2006 in New York City, according to Primavera Salva, one of his longtime students. Levry discovered the practices he put into his version of yoga from a spiritual quest that included Universal Kabbalah, vinyasa, Hatha yoga, Kundalini and more.

On my return to New York, I discovered the cozy Naam studio on 72nd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. Salva taught a class much like the ones I had taken in California, with gentle postures, breath-

Primavera Salva leads a class at Naam Yoga. Photo: Bea Murray ing techniques, music and the Sanskrit words meant to bring in energy and light.

While other types of yoga were nice, my two months of Naam had been the first time I really felt something special was happening. I was happier and energized, plus my life seemed like it was lining up. I was making new friends, dating more, getting new work, and feeling fantastic about my body. Silva said that when she began studying with Levry she had been trying to get pregnant for three years.

Three months after telling the Naam founder what she wanted, and doing the prescribed meditations and postures, she became pregnant with the

first of her two children.

Salva teaches at Naam in New York and also internationally, as well as being on the board of directors of this growing practice. Rootlight.com is the hub for Naam around the world.

You can download the music, and purchase books to do an entire class at home. Downward dogs are surprisingly few but the repetition of simple movements such as swinging your arms can be just as much exercise.

Each teacher has their own spin on how they teach. It’s not religion, but it has a focus on spirituality. Kabbalah’s ideas of bringing in more light are the underpinnings of each word and hand movement. As we pointed our first fin-

gers up in the air with the thumb out, we were told the index is our Jupiter finger and it can activate prosperity. I’d like to believe that, but even if it isn’t true, the low impact exercises surprisingly get the heart rate up as well as lift the mood.

Salva said that when people come to Naam they often see their lives as a series of problems and after doing Naam for a few months, they see their problems as opportunities. I found that I can eat more and not gain weight, get extra work done in a day, and am generally a little happier. Right now, that is enough reason to keep going back to learn more.

NEIGHBORHOOD SIDE STREETS MEET 87TH STREET

sideways.nyc

RIME 167 EAST 87TH STREET Rime is unique in a few ways. For starters, it is one of the only stores that deals primarily in athletic footwear on the Upper East Side, and it is one of the few such stores that sells women’s sneakers along with men’s. But what may be most significant is that it is run by Susan Boyle, which, according to her staff, makes Rime the only store of its kind with a female owner on the eastern seaboard.

Sue is able to do a lot of business in women’s athletic footwear — unusual for a sneaker shop — because her store is so approachable and she knows how to cater to men and women alike.

For more photos and side streets, go to sideways.nyc.

OCTOBER 19-25,2017

47

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

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49

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

50 unionized employees have been notified of a possible store closing and its owners have been scouting alternative locations. Still, its departure from Broadway is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Ian Joskowitz, the local chainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chief operating officer, says Triumph Hotels, which owns the Belleclaire, is â&#x20AC;&#x153;negotiating in good faithâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and he makes it very clear to concerned shoppers that this is not the classic case of a rapacious landlord seeking to double or treble the rent. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The rent is not the be-all or the end-all for us, though obviously itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important,â&#x20AC;? Joskowitz said. Does that mean the bargaining parties are not that far apart? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Being not that far apart is the same thing as being completely far apart if we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a deal!â&#x20AC;?

For its part, Triumph Hotels, which is also a family-owned firm that owns the Hotel Edison in midtown and six other hotels in Manhattan, said in a statement, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Negotiations are in progress, but no decisions have been made yet.â&#x20AC;?

A paramount concern in the fabled food corridor on the

west side of Broadway between just south of 72nd Street and just north of 80th Street â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which also sites Citarella, Fairway and Trader Joeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to the south and Zabarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to the north â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is what comes next if Westside Market has to leave. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have no interest in watching the mall-iďŹ cation of the Upper West Side,â&#x20AC;? said City Council Member Helen Rosenthal, who represents the neighborhood. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to see more Duane Reades, banks or coffee chains replace our locally owned small businesses, and that is the real risk here.â&#x20AC;?

Rosenthal has offered to help the grocer find alternative space if their only solution ends up being to go somewhere else, and Joskowitz says he will indeed take her up on the offer.

So what is the issue exactly?

In many ways, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about space.

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take a step back: The West Side is a tough market for a grocer offering fresh, healthy food options. Profit margins are razor-thin, rents are skyhigh, competition from online delivery services is ferocious, and the commercial rent tax is punishing.

Huge Selection of Bibles Fiction/Non-Fiction Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Books Greeting Cards .VTJD t (JGUT Original Art Events and More! )PVST . 5I BN QN t 'SJ BN QN 4BU BN QN t 4VO QN QN

:PSL "WF #UXO SE UI 4U t www.logosbookstorenyc.com The Hotel Belleclaire graces the southwest corner of Broadway and 77th Street in a 1930 colorized postcard. A city landmark designed by Emery Roth in 1903, the hotel has housed the Westside Market since 1979. The supermarketâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lease with the parent company of the Belleclaire, its landlord, expires on November 30, and it is unclear if it will shut down or remain in its home of 38 years. Postcard: New York Public Library collection

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OCTOBER 19-25,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

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

‘‘

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

‘‘

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

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

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

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Politico - September 10, 2016

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