Our Town - December 14, 2017 by Our Town

The local paper for the Upper East Side

WEEK OF DECEMBER SUBWAY BOMBER INSPIRED BY ISIS ◄ P.3

14-20 2017

WOMEN OF FAITH RELIGION How three groundbreaking spiritual leaders view their roles in the community

City Council Member Dan Garodnick at the September 2016 ribbon-cutting for the new Trygve Lie Plaza on First Avenue at 41st Street. Photo: Daniel Avila / NYC Department of Parks

BY CHRISTOPHER MOORE

They became the role models they didn’t have. And they did it years before our #MeToo age, with its dramatic shifts in gender politics and women’s empowerment. A year after arguably the world’s most famous woman in politics did not break a glass ceiling, these women — in the realm of religion — do it every day. These Manhattan-based women of faith, at different stages in their New York careers, play different spiritual and professional roles — one at a university, one at a church, one at a synagogue. From different traditions, these women share traits too, like a talent for busting barriers with grace and good humor. Now they’re ready to mark the holidays of 2017 and the New Year with their services. And their own service, too.

Jewelnel Davis: ‘The win is in the diversity’ The Rev. Jewelnel Davis says that part of her work is to walk tenderly through difficult emotions. “This is going to sound sad, and I’m not sad about it,” she says in her basement office at St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University. “Chaplains are the keepers of secrets and the keepers of the dead. A lot of the time we are listening to where the soul aches.”

“We are listening to where the soul aches,” says the Rev. Jewelnel Davis, Columbia University chaplain. Photo: Christopher Moore Davis has been listening for 22 years at Columbia, where she is also an associate provost. She likes the challenge and the idea of always being “in learning mode,” she says. “I think one is always humble. One is always aware that there is less that you know than you think you know.” She talks with appreciation about the diversity at Columbia, including a Catholic ministry with links to the neighboring Corpus Christi Church, a vital Hillel presence and a “very active Muslim population.” Davis purposely does not conduct her own weekly services, as some university chaplains do, not wanting to zero in on one faith tradition. Instead, she oversees a rich array of programming, representing a broad swath of beliefs — as well as agnostics and atheists. But she did arrive with a specific sense of mission. She wanted the university to interact more with nearby areas, including Morningside Heights but also reaching out to Washington Heights and Harlem. “We have been able to rebuild and shore up relationships with the communities,” she says, adding that the mission only became more crucial in the aftermath of the university’s high-profile development to the

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north. The idea of becoming a university chaplain came from Davis’s mentor, Jacob Neusner, an academic scholar on Judaism. At a pivotal crossroads, Davis wondered what was next in her career. Neusner asked Davis if she had ever considered becoming a university chaplain. “I said: Do you know any black people who are university chaplains? Do you know any women who are university chaplains?” Davis remembers. “And he said, ‘I don’t know any and it doesn’t mean you can’t be the ﬁrst.’” After a long tenure at Bard College upstate, Neusner died last year. But he left Davis with powerful memories of their conversations. “I really liked Jack Neusner’s style of teaching and his fundamental belief that religion had to make the link between faith and the life of the mind,” Davis says. She grew up in the Baptist faith, but her work with Neusner underlines her passion for crossing religious traditions. “The win is in the diversity,” she says. Today she estimates that about 40 percent of her job is in one-on-one counseling sessions. But she’s also been a high-proﬁle presence during

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Restaurant Ratings Business Real Estate 15 Minutes

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WHAT NEXT FOR GARODNICK? POLITICS In an exit interview, the outgoing East Side Council member reflects on three terms in office, ponders a political future, recounts his accomplishments — and heads for the TV and the kitchen BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

After 12 consequential years in the City Council in which he steered to passage more than 60 pieces of legislation, Dan Garodnick is ready for a small, short break: He’s going to ﬁnally take the time to watch “The Wire.” And that’s not all. The 45-year-old Democrat, who is leaving office on December 31st because of term limits, will be trading in politicking and

governing for a new regimen – grocery shopping, cleaning, jogging and cooking for his family. “I make a mean spaghetti and meatballs. Also sausages, fried chicken and chili. Nothing particularly healthy,” he says. “I feel like this is my moment.” Don’t expect it to last. Garodnick is on a very short list of the political players most likely to mount a credible run for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s job in 2021 when the incumbent must depart City

CONTINUED ON PAGE 19 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, December 15 – 4:11 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com

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IMAGINE ... THERE IS JOHN LENNON VIEWPOINT A what-if question on the anniversary of his death: what would he make of President Trump? BY JON FRIEDMAN

Asking “what if” is a risky, ultimately empty exercise. But we all do it now and then, when the weight of the moment threatens to overwhelm our normal sensibilities. That’s how I feel every Dec. 8, the date marking John Lennon’s death. What if Lennon hadn’t been killed, by a lunatic’s handgun outside his home on the Upper West Side, on the unseasonably warm Monday evening in Dece 1980? What might he have gone on to do? What would he be singing, writing and talking about today? How much more would our lives have been enriched by his inﬂuence? Would The Beatles have gotten back together? And, of course, the elephant in the room in 2017: What would John make

of his fellow New Yorker, President Donald Trump? Since Lennon died nearly two generations ago, some historical background is necessary. Born in Liverpool, England in 1940, he met Paul McCartney and George Harrison when he was still in his teens and they formed The Beatles (Ringo Starr joined later, in 1962). The Beatles went on to become the greatest, most dynamic and most popular rock and roll band of all time — and many of us brilliant fossils feel that that is still true today. But Lennon was more than a great singer and songwriter — and he was very great, at both jobs. He, like his peer and rival Bob Dylan, stood for something. Lennon couldn’t abide nostalgia for the good old days. He always wanted to grow and change, and he brought both his band and his generation with him for a glorious ride. He became a devoted, if quirky, peacenik at the end of the Sixties. By the time of his death, he had created and/or popularized some of the great catch phrases of modern popular culture: I’d love

At Strawberry Fields in Central Park, November 20, 2017. Photo: Dave Addey, via ﬂickr to turn you on, all you need is love, give peace a chance, come together, instant karma, imagine, gimme some truth, power to the people and mind games. He also sang: living is easy with eyes closed, I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together, life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. And one of my sneaky favorites: que pasa, New York. Que pasa, Trump? Lennon would have likely found Trump fascinating, horrifying and perplexing. He would have written a great song or two and invented a new buzz phrase. Close your eyes. You can

practically glimpse Lennon grinning slyly, over his blue-rimmed granny glasses, as he imagines the mischief he can get into. You can almost imagine Trump asking if the government can reopen the deportation case against Lennon, four-decades-plus on. I miss Lennon’s brilliance with words at those daydreaming moments. I ponder all of the good he might have done for our society as I recall how ﬁttingly we could use some of his anthems today. “Across the Universe” might have served as a rallying cry against Trump’s sins against the environment. “How Do You Sleep” would

DECEMBER 14-20,2017 have worked just fine with Trump, not Paul McCartney, as its target. Do I even have to paint you a picture for “Nowhere Man” (and McCartney’s apt “Fool on the Hill” would have been the appropriate B-side)? Lennon may be gone, but plenty remains — his wit, his humor, his caustic observations, his notorious impatience with people who wasted his time, his penchant for waving a one-ﬁnger peace sign at the establishment with a brilliant turn of phrase and his strength of purpose and character. He could accomplish more with an unforgettable song lyric than an army could, even with all of its bullets. The Eighties would not have seemed so fake and futile. The Nineties would have been burnished by his ebullience at the end of the Republican dominance. The Obama years would have gleamed. Lennon would have loved that blissful eight-year run, which now seems like it happened in another century. In my utopian foolishness, I imagine him challenging Ronald Reagan’s destructive policies, rocking out at Live Aid (with Paul, George and Ringo?), electrifying Bill Clinton’s first inaugural ball (with Paul, George and Ringo?), castigating W’s stolen presidential victory (“I read the news today/Oh boy/About a lucky man who made the grade”), and getting numerous awards and citations from Barack Obama. We are all together.

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DECEMBER 14-20,2017

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

Year to Date

2017 2016

% Change

2017

2016

% Change

Murder

n/a

-100.0

Rape

n/a

200.0

Robbery

-66.7

110

27.9

Felony Assault

0.0

115

118

-2.5

Burglary

50.0

190

195

-2.6

Grand Larceny

51.6

1,304 1,323 -1.4

Grand Larceny Auto

n/a

-21.7

Police outside Port Authority after a bomb detonated on Monday. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

SUBWAY BOMBER TOOK INSPIRATION FROM ISIS TERROR Port Authority bombing suspect faces federal terrorism charges BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

One day after a would-be suicide bomber detonated an improvised pipe bomb in one of Manhattan’s busiest transit centers, injuring himself and three others and triggering a massive law enforcement response that disrupted the morning commute for thousands of New Yorkers, the scene at the Port Authority Bus Terminal had largely returned to normal, aside from a visibly increased security presence and lingering news cameras ﬁlming the usual bustle of commuters and tourists. Monday morning’s blast, in an underground passageway near 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, resulted

in only minor injuries to bystanders but forced the suspension of service at the nearby Port Authority Bus Terminal, at the subway station there and at Times Square. At about 7:20 a.m., Akayed Ullah, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant living in Brooklyn, detonated an “improvised, low-tech explosive device attached to his body” in the underground passageway connecting the Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue subway platforms at 42nd Street, according to NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill. The bomb, built from a metal pipe ﬁlled with screws that Ullah attached to his body with zip ties, failed to detonate as intended. Police responded to the explosion and found Ullah injured on the ground. He was taken into custody and transported to Bellevue Hospital with burns and cuts to his body. Three others who were nearby when the bomb detonated were hospitalized with minor injuries.

“This was an attempted terrorist attack,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference shortly after the incident. “Thank God the perpetrator did not achieve his ultimate goals.” According to prosecutors, Ullah admitted that he drew inspiration from the attack from the Islamic State and had viewed radical content online as far back as 2014. A court-authorized search of Ullah’s apartment revealed pipes and screws consistent with pieces of the bomb recovered at the scene of the attack. Prosecutors said that Ullah began researching how to build bombs a year ago and planned the Port Authority attack for several weeks, selecting the time and location in hopes of maximizing human casualties. Ullah now faces ﬁve federal criminal counts, including providing material support to a terrorist organization and using or attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Additional NYPD units were de-

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ployed to transit hubs across the city as a precautionary measure, but police are unaware of any further specific threats, officials said. The increased police presence around the Port Authority had little apparent impact on events the day after the attack, as commuters poured off subway trains at the 42nd Street station and appeared to continue about their days unfazed. But the previous day’s incident, just six weeks after a jihadist-inspired vehicle attack in Lower Manhattan that killed eight, still weighed on the mind of at least one traveler. “I’m one of those people that think about that kind of stuff every day,” said Jacqueline Jamaleddine, a commuter at the Port Authority. “Am I going to be on the train when a terrorist attack happens?’ Because little ones just keep happening.” Liz Hardaway and Carson Kessler contributed to this report.

National Guard troops on the second ﬂoor of the Port Authority the day after Akayed Ullah, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant living in Brooklyn, prematurely detonated a pipe bomb in an underground passage nearby. Photo: Liz Hardaway

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DECEMBER 14-20,2017

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Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 19th Precinct

153 E. 67th St.

212-452-0600

159 E. 85th St.

311

FIRE FDNY 22 Ladder Co 13

BY PETER PEREIRA

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

ILLUMINATIONS

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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DECEMBER 14-20,2017

No wonder they call it “Sleigh-Ride Hill.” A photo taken after a blizzard in January 2017, from the bottom of the East 91st Street hill at Second Avenue looking west up toward Third Avenue, shows families enjoying the play street, which has been closed to traffic since 1975. Photo: Dave Rosenstein

‘SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT’ HISTORY Courting couples, schmoozing seniors and scampering children have used James Cagney Place on the East Side as an informal community hub for decades. Now its status is being protected as an official “pedestrian plaza” BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

Ever since 1975, the steeply sloped block of East 91st Street that drops from a crest on Third Avenue into a valley on Second Avenue has been known to Upper East Siders as “Sleigh-Ride Hill.” The street, bisecting the site of the long-demolished Jacob Ruppert and Co. Knickerbocker Brewery, has been closed to vehicular traffic for 42 years and serves as an open-air community space. Officially named James Cagney Place, for the song-anddance man who grew up on East 96th Street, it is the hill where a 5-year boy named Ben Kallos once played in the pud-

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dles on a rainy day with other local kids. Now, he’s the 36-year-old City Council member representing the area, and he’s never stopped coming to the block — a “staple of childhood on the Upper East Side,” he calls it — especially for sledding after a snow. “This portion of East 91st Street has been a closed play street for longer than I have been alive,” Kallos added. In recent years, that status appeared to be in doubt: A possible threat to the landscaped, red-brick pedestrian plaza-and-walkway suddenly loomed on the horizon — the city’s planned Marine Transfer Station. Just two-and-a-half long blocks to the east, also on 91st Street, the MTS sent shock waves through the neighborhood when it was first proposed in 2004 in the Bloomberg administration’s solid-waste management plan. Residents of the three megahousing towers on either side of the plaza — Ruppert Tower, Yorkville Tower and Knickerbocker Plaza, which hold a com-

bined 1,836 units — feared the street could be reopened for westbound sanitation trucks exiting the transfer station’s 91st ramp. Fanning those fears, the city’s Department of Sanitation, over a decade, never delineated the exact routes its trucks would take, tenant and community leaders say. And the clock began ticking when MTS construction began in 2013 with completion now anticipated in 2019. So Community Board 8, which takes in the site developed in the 1970s as the “Ruppert Brewery Urban Renewal Area,” moved to protect the walkway in September 2014 by forming the 91st Street Demapping Task Force. Its mission: Find a way to remove the block from the city’s right-of-way system, legally and in perpetuity, “via demapping or other mechanism,” to safeguard the pedestrian mall, and thus, block it from ever being reopened as a traffic-bearing street. “It was always a vehicle-free oasis in an area that has very

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

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EAST 91ST CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 little open space in the midst of a crowed city,â&#x20AC;? said Rita Popper, a CB8 member, task force co-chair, resident of Knickerbocker Plaza since 1975 and head of its tenants association. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My kids played stickball on that street,â&#x20AC;? she added. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They went down that hill on their Flexible Flyer wooden sleds ... Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the perfect place for skateboarding. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where seniors have always sat on the benches. They still do, but now many of them sit with their aides.â&#x20AC;? Doubly miraculous: All this activity takes place on an old industrial site, long known for the scent of hops and barley wafting from the brewery, which closed in 1965. How do you preserve such a humanscale treasure from an encroaching city? â&#x20AC;&#x153;We needed to figure out what we could do to make it clear that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a special street with a special status, that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just something that was closed by accident and happens to be barricaded on both ends,â&#x20AC;? said CB8 member Dave Rosenstein, the other task force cochair. Easier said than done. It is extremely rare for the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Department of Transportation to demap a street. Exceptions have been made â&#x20AC;&#x201D; for super-blocks like Lincoln Center in 1959, and Park West Village on the Upper West Side in the early 1960s. But typically, DOT prefers to keep the grid and its rights-of-way intact to meet the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future needs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our concern was that the street is fragile, it needs protection, it needs recognition,â&#x20AC;? Rosenstein said. But DOT made clear it has no way of knowing what its needs for the roadbed and the East Side will be â&#x20AC;&#x153;100 years from now,â&#x20AC;? he said. A ďŹ rst priority was determining the streetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legal status. Officials had cautioned that it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a legally protected status: It had been closed â&#x20AC;&#x153;informally,â&#x20AC;? CB8 was told, meaning that, at least theoretically, it could be reopened at any time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make a lot of sense to us,â&#x20AC;? Rosenstein said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Obviously, it was closed under some kind of agreement with the city. So we began an extensive hunt for documentation.â&#x20AC;? Along with Ruppert-Yorkville Management Co. (R-Y), a subsidiary of the DeMatteis Organization, which has maintained and operated the plaza since it was built in 1975, Rosenstein and Popper re-

A 1928 photo shows the view from Second Avenue looking west up East 91st toward Jacob Ruppert & Co. Knickerbocker Brewery complex. The long-demolished structures include the George Ehret Hell Gate Brewery (right, foreground) and the Jacob Ruppert and George Ringler Breweries (right, background.) The block has been closed to vehicular traffic since 1975.Â Photo: OldNYC, via New York Public Library Collection /Â Percy Loomis Sperr searched its history. They examined ďŹ les from the long-disbanded Board of Estimate, looked at records from DOT and the City Planning Commission, and even sent a researcher to Yale Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sterling Memorial Library to scour the papers of Edward Logue, a visionary planner who helped develop some of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blockbuster projects. But the city had nearly gone bankrupt in 1975 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it was the year of the famed Daily News headline, â&#x20AC;&#x153;FORD TO CITY: DROP DEADâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and paperwork was lost, misplaced or hard to come by. Their 18-month quest, to ďŹ nd relevant paperwork explaining how a closed street came to be closed, was ultimately fruitless. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It remains an urban mystery,â&#x20AC;? Kallos said. Eventually, DOT suggested plaza boosters apply to the agencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s NYC Pedestrian Plaza Program, which encourages the creation of vibrant, social public spaces and provides official recognition to â&#x20AC;&#x153;traffic-freeâ&#x20AC;? plazas if community groups commit to operate, maintain and manage the spaces. So R-Y and CB8 in November 2016 formed Friends of James Cagney Place LLC to apply for the designation. They were turned down in January. The program requires an â&#x20AC;&#x153;active community involvement component,â&#x20AC;? they were told. In other words, it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough that sledding, jogging, biking, courting, dog-walking, power-walking, schmoozing and skateboarding already take place on the walkway. There has to be programing and special events, too. Organizers got the memo. This year, they staged a free jazz festival and arts-and-

crafts show; a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Movie on the Hillâ&#x20AC;? night in which â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beauty and the Beastâ&#x20AC;? was screened; a Halloween Parade and costume contest; and a tree-lighting and sing-along. To round out the year, a â&#x20AC;&#x153;SnowďŹ&#x201A;ake Runâ&#x20AC;? takes place December 31st. The community again applied for â&#x20AC;&#x153;pedestrian plazaâ&#x20AC;? status. Since the walkway was now officially â&#x20AC;&#x153;programmedâ&#x20AC;? as a plaza, DOT accepted it into the program. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s now better positioned to â&#x20AC;&#x153;become a neighborhood destination for the Upper East Sideâ&#x20AC;? and serve as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;community hub,â&#x20AC;? the agency said. In making the announcement on December 1, DOT Manhattan Borough Commissioner Luis Sanchez conjured up a 1937 James Cagney film title: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is truly â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Something to Sing Aboutâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; that this part of 91st Street is ďŹ nally getting official recognition as a pedestrian plaza,â&#x20AC;? he said. The urban enclave will remain closed to traffic. No renewal of the designation is required, and no changes to its status are anticipated, a DOT spokesperson said. The plaza remains part of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right-of-way and has not been demapped. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was a fear in the community that this play street that has been closed for generations would be reopened solely for garbage trucks spewing diesel particulate as they struggled up the steep hill of 91st Street â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and that the noise from those trucks would replace the pleasant sounds of children at play,â&#x20AC;? Kallos said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rest assured that now that the city has officially recognized this space as a public plaza, the street will be preserved for what we hope will be generations to come,â&#x20AC;? he said.

DECEMBER 14-20,2017

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Our Town’s

ART OF FOOD EST. 1744

5 Napkin Burger Andy D’Amico

Amali/Calissa Dominic Rice

Bistro Chat Noir Mario Hernandez

Candle 79 Angel Ramos

Crave Fishbar Todd Mitgang

Flex Mussels Alexandra Shapiro

Freds at Barneys New York Mark Strausman

Jones Wood Foundry Jason Hicks

La Esquina Fabian Gallardo

Little Frog Xavier Monge

Magnolia Bakery Bobbie Lloyd

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Maya David Gonzalez

Mighty Quinn’s Barbeque Hugh Mangum

Orwashers Bakery

Saturday February 10, 2018 Photo: Evan Sung

Honoring chef Claus Meyer, cofounder of Noma, voted best restaurant in the world and the gastronomic entrepreneur behind Grand Central’s Michelin restaurant Agern and Great Northern Food Hall.

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Keith Cohen

Paola’s Stefano Marracino

Quality Eats Delfin Jaranilla

Serafina Always Vittorio Assaf

T-Bar Steak Benjamin Zwicker

The East Pole Joseph Capozzi

The East Pole Fish Bar Joseph Capozzi

The Great Northern Food Hall Claus Meyer

The Meatball Shop Daniel Holzman

The Penrose Nick Testa

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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.

WHERE THE HEART IS GRAYING NEW YORK BY MARCIA EPSTEIN

Dear Mr. Landlord: I know you think this building is yours and the real estate company you work for. But I want to tell you about me, and the people who have lived alongside me here for 25, 30, 35 years or more. This building is our home. In my case, for going on 40 years. I raised my two daughters

here, long before it became an “in” neighborhood and the building was billed as “luxury.” It was far from luxury when I moved in with my two little girls. In fact, it was a Mitchell-Lama building, and gentrification was many years away. Was the building perfect? No, of course not. There were troubles, things arose and needed to be done. But no one ever felt that they were second-class citizens, and we knew that this was home. Ever since Mitchell-Lama ended in this

building, Mr. Landlord, the original tenants have been seen as commodities to be gotten rid of in the name of the holy dollar. The idea is to make this building a cash cow, to ﬁll it with young people paying the kind of money we can only shake our heads at. We are now at just about half rentstabilized and half market-rate tenants. While I can’t complain about the services in general (many buildings are worse), I feel as though only our demises will make you and your bosses happy. Then you can “renovate” and receive a ridiculous rent. In this building, Mr. Landlord, new tenants come and go so frequently the paddings are rarely taken off the elevators. They can’t afford to stay

more than a year or two, so there is constant in and out, in and out, and always new people across the hall. But Mr. Landlord, money isn’t everything. I want you to consider us senior citizens and long-time renters, see how we feel that we’re not important to you, that we are just obstacles. In fact, we are longtime Upper West Siders who consider this neighborhood our home, people who sent our kids to neighborhood schools, and who sadly watched as the almighty dollar took the place of the wonderful mix of teeming humanity and neighborhood spirit that once existed here. Please Mr. Landlord, try to understand. We know this is your building, that we are rent-stabilized ten-

ants and stand in the way of your ultimate goals. But we helped build this neighborhood, supported its public schools, gave it its character, and taught our children how to be independent New Yorkers at young ages. And we called this building “home.” We still do, Mr. Landlord. It is our home. Our lives are here, our past is here, our memories are here. We are still here. I just want you to understand all of this, Mr. Landlord. We are not just obstacles to your final goal of full market-rate housing. We are people, we live here, we raised families here, we saw people die here. Yes Mr. Landlord, we call this home, because that’s what it is.

STREET SEENS EAST SIDE OBSERVER BY ARLENE KAYATT

James Cagney Place, the stretch of East 91st Street between Second and Third Avenues closed to vehicular traffic for more than 40 years, was officially recognized as a pedestrian plaza early this month. Photo: Douglas Feiden

City sidewalks — “The curb’s too high,” came the joint howl as two pedestrians tried to mount the curb encircled in the construction corridor temporarily erected on the southwest corner of 86th and Third near the downtown train station. Neither pedestrian — one a teen with a leg in a cast, the other an upright millennial — could navigate the heightened curb that was too many feet away from the cut curb. From what I can tell, once the construction is cleared, the curb’s still too high and the only easy access, short of lowering the curb, will be to reach the sidewalk via the corner cut curb. With all the foot traffic, that will create a very crowded curb. So bring on the experts — just not the ones that should have ﬁgured it out and gotten it right the ﬁrst time. Return of a native — Film icon James Cagney, son of Yorkville via the Lower East Side in the early 20th century, has a place of honor on the site of the former Ruppert Brewery — now a housing behemoth known as Ruppert Towers and Yorkville Towers at

90th-91st Streets east of Third Avenue — with a memorial headstone in a section of the street re-named James Cagney Place in 1989. The street, closed to vehicular traffic for some 40-odd years, is magical these days with white-wire holiday decoration and light. A Citi Bike rack on the corner south of Second Avenue is a sign of the 21st century. In the last three years, Dave Rosenstein and Rita Popper, who live in the neighborhood and are Community Board 8 members, have worked tirelessly with Ruppert Management and electeds to have the street designated as a plaza for unfettered use by the community. Mission accomplished! Council Member Ben Kallos celebrated the opening with Popper and Rosenstein and locals in a recent Saturday morning ceremony. Way to go. Out of the box — The empty storefront on Third Avenue between 92nd and 93rd is readying to open. Calling itself “Boxers,” it could be a sparring gym or another Boxers sports bar. This one’s the latter. Classy closing — Hu’s on Third and 86th. This paleo self-serve two-story restaurant never quite made it. They had all-manner of good coffee, but the food was never quite right. Too

salty, too mushy, and it never looked like you’d want to eat it. So when the sign on the door said sayonara, it was no surprise. But they assured passersby in a gracious note on the door that they were “Closing because it is not the right set up for us right now. Look for us as we grow Hu Kitchen in other formats.” They got it right. While the UES location didn’t work, the Hu’s on 14th and Fifth is thriving. The best of print news news — With all the kerfuffle surrounding the Trump presidency, print junkies have to heave some thanks, if not praise, on the errant New Yorker’s ability to generate controversy and tsuris. His tweets and tumult are fodder for print. His words and deeds, too. Investigative journalism is alive and well — from the Washington Post to The New York Times digging, digging on the national and global fronts. Here’s to print. Trump, not. Back in the day — like November 1990 — Daily News columnist Liz Smith recognized Our Town’s Bette Dewing’s advocacy on behalf of local news coverage — in news stories, features, editorials, columns and letters. High praise for Bette whose columns emphasizing qualityof-life issues have graced the pages of Our Town since the ‘70’s. Onward.

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DECEMBER 14-20,2017

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CITY TO EXAMINE RIKERS REPLACEMENT OPTIONS

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JUSTICE Closing the facility will require the renovation of existing jails as well as the development of new sites BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

As part of efforts to close jail facilities at Rikers Island, the notoriously violent city lockup on the East River, officials will soon start to identify potential sites for new jails as well as evaluate existing jails for possible renovation. “While ‘close Rikers’ has become a convenient moniker, it masks the seismic system change that must happen in order to achieve that one goal,” Elizabeth Glazer, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, said last week in testimony before the City Council. Key to closing Rikers, she said, is the continued reduction of the city’s jail population. The current average Rikers population of just over 9,000 individuals per day is less than half what it was during the peak years of the early 1990s, and city officials hope to reduce the number of detainees another 25 percent within the next ﬁve years. “As the size of the jail population falls to 7,000, jail will increasingly be reserved only for individuals charged with serious crimes or who are a high risk of ﬂight,” Glazer said. The drop in the jail population is attributable to overall reductions in crime and felony arrests, supplemented by changes in the criminal justice system. Those include efforts to reduce the amount of time it takes for a case to reach conclusion and the implementation of diversionary measures such as a supervised release program, which allows judges to release some defendants who would otherwise remain jailed before trial because to their inability to make bail. Glazer said the city would work to expand those diversionary efforts with the goal of reducing the jail population to 5,000 within the 10-year time frame for closing Rikers set by Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Once the jail population reaches 5,000, the city will be in a position to close Rikers Is-

The Manhattan Detention Complex, known informally as “The Tombs,” will be evaluated for possible renovation as part of the city’s efforts to close the jail facilities on Rikers Island. Photo: Wikimedia Commons land for good,” Glazer said. A number of City Council members, including Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, have pushed for a more accelerated timeline for shuttering the Rikers jails than de Blasio’s 10-year plan. Roughly 77 percent of the city’s jail population is housed at Rikers Island; the city operates additional jail facilities in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan. Since boroughbased facilities currently have a maximum capacity of 2,300 — well short of the estimated post-Rikers jail population of 5,000 — closing Rikers will require renovations of existing facilities as well as the development of new jail sites. In November, the city announced it would commission a study to assess the city’s existing jails and identify potential locations for new lockups. The study will start by examining existing jails, including the Manhattan Detention Complex in Lower Manhattan, for possible renovations or expansions, with the ultimate goal of producing a master plan that will identify additional jail sites as required. The process of closing Rikers, Glazer said, “will be one of the largest capital programs this city has ever undertaken.” The Detention Complex, also known as “The Tombs” in ref-

erence to the Egyptian Revival architecture of the original 138jail facility that once stood near the same site, is the only existing jail in Manhattan operated by the city. Roughly 8 percent of the city’s jail population is housed there, although roughly 38 percent of the city’s jail population comes from Manhattan’s criminal court. (A small number of additional detainees are held in Manhattan in a prison ward in Bellevue Hospital.) In 2016, Mark-Viverito appointed former New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman to head a commission to explore the possibility of closing the Rikers Island jails. The commission’s report, released in April, recommended replacing the Rikers jails on with facilities near courthouses in all ﬁve boroughs. (At last week’s hearing, officials said the city currently has no plans for a jail on Staten Island, despite the commission’s recommendations.) The facilities would vary in size, based on each borough’s expected population. Manhattan would require the largest facility, according to the commission’s recommendations. The report estimated that the new jails would cost $11 billion, but would result in projected annual savings of $1.6 billion. Michael Garofalo: reporter@ strausnews.com

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EDITOR’S PICK

Fri 15 ‘EVERYONE’S CAROL’ The Morgan Library, 225 Madison Ave. 6:30 p.m. $25, $10 for children 12 and under 212-685-0008. themorgan.org Over the past six years, from London to New York City, thousands of people have seen and worked on actor Austin Pendleton’s semi-staged production drawing from Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” Created by Laurie Strickland and Jamie Bullins, this rendition focuses on the original text and features original music. The Morgan’s exhibition “Charles Dickens and the Spirit of Christmas” will be open at 5:30 p.m. for concert attendees.

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Thu 14 Fri 15

Sat 16

ANGELINA JOLIE ON ‘FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER’

THE ROBERT GLASPER TRIO

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The Met, 1000 Fifth Ave. 7 p.m. $65, includes museum admission Beacon of hip-hop jazz Robert Glasper’s Met debut includes improvisational takes on holiday favorites. The Grammy-winning pianist and record producer brings the versatility and the beat; you bring the kids for $1. 212-535-7710 metmuseum.org

Bloomingdale’s 1000 Third Ave. 1 p.m. Free Picking the perfect gift is no easy task, so join Bloomie’s shop experts for their gift-giving advice and recommendations. Find something special for everyone on your list. food52give.eventbrite.com

92nd St. Y 1395 Lexington Ave. 7:15 p.m. $40 Renaissance woman Angelina Jolie, with Cambodian author and activist Loung Ung, will talk with moderator Annette Insdorf about their ﬁlm, “First They Killed My Father,” which will screen after the onstage discussion. 212-415-5500 92Y.org

DECEMBER 14-20,2017

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Sun 17 Mon 18 Tue 19 CARRIE MAE WEEMS: THE SHAPE OF THINGS Park Avenue Armory 643 Park Ave. Noon. $45 Join Armory artist-inresidence Carrie Mae Weems in this day-long convening of artists, writers, poets, musicians, thinkers and social theorists. Weems leads this communal critique our tumultuous political and social climate through readings, performances, conversations and other artistic responses. 212-616-3930 armoryonpark.org

A YANOMAMI REUNION Explorers Club 46 East 70th St. 7:30 p.m. $25 Listen to David Good, the son of a prominent American anthropologist, Kenneth Good, and a Yanomami indigenous woman, Yarima, share his captivating story about wrestling with his indigenous identity and embarking on a journey back to his homeland in the Amazon rain forest of southeastern Venezuela. 212-628-8383 explorers.org

CONTEMPORARY CONFRONTATIONS IN ART AND ARCHITECTURE ▲ The Guggenheim 1071 Fifth Ave. 6:30 p.m. $12 How does the architecture of A museum drive relationships between artists, architects, curators and their audiences? Artist Rachel Rose and architects Preston Scott Cohen and Florian Idenburg discuss the relationship between contemporary art and architecture at this compelling panel discussion and book signing. 212-423-3500 guggenheim.org

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Carrie Mae Weems: The Shape of Things

Wed 20 ‘THE GREATEST SHOWMAN’ OPENS ◄ The Beekman Theatre 1272 Second Ave. 10 a.m. $15 Inspired by the ambition and imagination of P.T. Barnum, “The Greatest Showman” tells the story of a visionary who created a mesmerizing spectacle that became a worldwide sensation. Starring Academy Award nominees Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams. citycinemas.com

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17TH, 12PM The Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Ave. | 212-616-3930 | armoryonpark.org Park Avenue Armory artist-in-residence Carrie Mae Weems brings together artists across myriad disciplines for an all-day session on the history of violence, and The Shape of Things to come, given the political state of today ($15).

A Yanomami Reunion

MONDAY, DECEMBER 18TH, 6PM The Explorers Club | 46 E. 70th St. | 212-628-8383 | explorers.org David Good’s story is an unlikely one: the son of prominent American anthropologist Kenneth Good and a Yanomami indigenous woman, Yarima. He’ll discuss his book, The Way Around, and his insights into the Amazonian rain forest culture that forms half of his birthright ($25).

Just Announced | Rose McGowan in Conversation with Ronan Farrow

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST, 7:30PM 92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org Time Magazine co-Person of the Year Rose McGowan talks about the abuse that led her to be an activist, and the courage it took to break her silence. She’ll be joined by Ronan Farrow, who unleashed a torrent with his scoop in The New Yorker ($40).

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

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DECEMBER 14-20,2017

READY-T0-WAKE In its first fashion exhibit in decades, MoMA highlights craft — and exposes the body as battleground BY MARY GREGORY

High or low or not fashionable at all, worn by millions or just by millionaires, 111 garments that changed the world have been put together to tell a story about design, art and life as only the Museum of Modern Art can. “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” is the museum’s first exploration of fashion in over 70 years. It fills a whole floor of MoMA, and includes items of luxury and rarity, and others so ubiquitous or dated they’re all but forgotten. Some don’t even exist yet, except as prototypes commissioned by the museum and imagined by contemporary designers and artists. The curatorial team led by Paola Antonelli and including Michelle Millar Fisher, Stephanie Kramer, Anna Burckhardt and Kristina Parsons nominated, debated and defended garments from the past 100 years from all over the world and came up with a group that

IF YOU GO WHAT: “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” WHERE: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street WHEN: Through January 28 www.moma.org speaks to larger issues than what we wear. Antonelli discussed the show and the works on display with us, in a conversation edited for length and clarity.

Did you set out to make a fashion exhibition unlike any other? Because it is. It’s the fashion exhibition that I and we could do, in the sense that this museum doesn’t have a tradition of fashion, but it has a strong tradition of design. So what we did is try to approach fashion from the viewpoint of design.... About 13 years ago, I started keeping this list called “garments that changed the world” and the list was made up of, of course, the white T-shirt, Levi’s 501 jeans, Converse sneakers. It’s the list that you would make also.

One of the strong statements that’s made in the exhibition is about women’s bodies, in particular, being a battleground for culture wars.

Issey Miyake and Fujiwara Dai’s innovative “A–POC (A Piece of Clothing) Queen Textile” allows the customer to cut along the dotted lines for sleeve length, bias, neckline or hood, to create the desired garment. Photo: Adel Gorgy

That is a theme that recurs many times in the exhibition, the theme of the body being a battleground.... It’s especially strong in the area about modesty. There is a juxtaposition in the exhibition that’s very powerful. It’s between the bikini and the burkini. They’re next to each other, and the reason for that is because they represent two different instances of attempts to control female bodies. In this case, we’re not talking about the imposition of the item unto and of itself, but rather legislation around it. You can find pictures of the same beach in France where, in the 1950s, the police are stopping the woman wearing a bikini, and last year the woman wearing the burkini.... Whatever we think about the ideology behind it, it is, once again, female bodies that are the locus of control.

Talking about the way many of these items became weapons in culture wars, is there an item in the exhibition that you

Paola Antonelli is the Museum of Modern Art’s senior curator in the Department of Architecture and Design and the museum’s director of research and development.

think has affected a noticeable change in the world? When it comes to politically charged items, there are so many in the exhibition, some really explicit like the hoodie or like Colin Kaepernick’s jersey, and some others, instead, that are subtler like the Basque beret. Of course you can also talk about platform shoes in political terms, not to mention headgear and headwraps. There’s a lot. It’s pretty much spread around.

You place garments made by worldfamous designers next to ones made by anonymous craftspeople and factory workers. What kinds of assumptions are you challenging by doing that? Fashion is a system. It’s a system that’s cultural. It’s industrial. It’s about labor. It’s also about how we react as citizens. It’s important to make sure that people see that there is a connection between parts of the system that might seem so distant, for instance high-fashion and everyday wear.

There are several cutting-edge commissioned pieces in the show. How did that come about, and are there any that might make it out of galleries and into real world use? There are several pieces that could become reality. I have a feeling that the modular maternity dress, or the pantyhose for people in wheelchairs could.... As to how it came about, I’ve been doing that in many exhibitions, since the beginning. I think it’s important. This museum has power. It’s a wonderful thing. It has the power to give young designers visibility. It has the power to inﬂuence behavior of people who come to see the shows. And sometimes, it has the power also to propose

When Paul Poiret designed “Harem Pants” in the early 1900s, women could be arrested in New York and Paris for wearing pants. The Parisian bylaw requiring women to obtain permission from authorities before “dressing as men” was officially revoked in 2013. Photo: Adel Gorgy new ways of thinking about different items.... We wanted to really give life to that adjective that’s in the subtitle: modern. And modern is about pushing things forward.

What would you like to tell people about the show? We also have a massive online course that is completely free, and we’re doing social media campaigns. Bruce Lee’s daughter launched a challenge

on Instagram where people are invited to take pictures of themselves or other people in track suits and submit them with the #itemsMOMA hashtag. We’re really trying to reach as wide an audience as possible in as many ways as possible, because we believe that we can prompt people to look at what they wear in a more critical, more responsible and aware, and more “woke” way

DECEMBER 14-20,2017

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BIRD PERCHES IN CENTRAL PARK! NATURE But this sighting, of a Hammond’s Flycatcher in the Ramble, is an ornithological near-miracle BY CHARMAINE P. RICE

Just after the Thanksgiving holiday, a little bird lost its way and ended up in the Big Apple, perched on a tree branch in Central Park’s Ramble. It wasn’t just any little bird, but a Hammond’s Flycatcher, and its visit to the city, however unintended, was just the thirdever recorded sighting of the species in New York State. “Most of the birds of these species are in Mexico and Central America at this time,” said Anders Peltomaa, a longtime Manhattan birder and member of the Linnaean Society of New York. “During migration it likely got caught in high altitude winds and got lost, ending up here.” The ﬁrst sighting of this particular specimen was reported

on November 26. Soon after, a local high school student and avid birder named Ryan Zucker logged the sighting on eBird, a real-time online checklist portal launched 15 years ago by the Cornell Lab of Orinthology and National Audubon Society. The website provides birders access to data sources and basic information on bird abundance and distribution. Prior to this year’s sighting, the only other two recorded sightings of a Hammond’s Flycatcher in New York State occurred in in Nassau County on October 27, 2001 and in Westchester County on November 19, 2006. “Hammond’s Flycatcher is a very rare visitor to the east,” Peltomaa said. “Hundreds of birders from all over the metro area … traveled to the Ramble to catch a glimpse of the bird. I checked eBird on December 8 and saw that 161 people have made a trip to the Ramble, saw the bird, and reported it. Generally, 40-50 percent of birders will have a sighting, which means at least 300 people have flocked to the Ramble to con-

nect with the bird,” he said. Peltomaa cited a birder from Buffalo who drove 7 hours each way to see the bird. Luckily, that birder was rewarded with a sighting. Although there were concerns the bird would not survive Saturday’s snow, Peltomaa and other saw it again on Monday. Though Hammond’s Flycatchers are used to cold weather, sourcing insects is challenging at this time of year, especially in the midst of snow. Named after William Alexander Hammond, a former surgeon general of the U.S. Army, the Hammond’s Flycatcher habitat is more typically in western North America. They breed in mature coniferous forests and subsist on insects. Hammond collected bird specimens for Spencer Fullerton Baird, who served as the second Secretary of the Smithsonian. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Hammond’s Flycatcher’s conservation status is classiﬁed as “Least Concern.”

Crave Fishbar’s Naked Salmon from the 2015 Art of Food

THE SECRET SAUCE Our Town’s

ART OF FOOD at

Presented by

Crave Fishbar’s Todd Mitgang is an Art of Food alum. Last year, he was paired with Robert Cottingham’s “Women and Girls,” and made a Faroe Island Salmon Crude with banana pepper relish and crushed sunchokes. The year prior, he was paired with Roy Lichtenstein’s “Thinking Nude,” and created a naked salmon dish to compliment the artwork. “We had a lot of fun. Chefs like challenges, and what was unique about it was coming up with a pairing that somehow was inspired by the piece of art...When we go to these tasting events, we get the chance to create something totally unique.” While we wait to see what he cooks up this year for The Art of Food, Mitgang is sharing his favorite recipe with us. “I love to make this homemade spicy mayonnaise at home to use as a condiment for um, EVERYTHING,” says Mitgang.

Todd Mitgang of Crave Fishbar

Spicy Aioli BREAK THESE UP IN A FOOD PROCESSOR... 4 Thai Chilis

THEN ADD AND PUREE... This Hammond’s Flycatcher was spotted in Central Park’s Ramble last week, just the third-ever time the species has been sighted in New York State. Although there were concerns the bird would not survive Saturday’s snow, it was sighted on Monday. Photo: Anders Peltomaa

10 Egg Yolks 6 T Dijon Mustard

2/3 Cup Of Sriracha Sauce 1/2 Cup Tamari Soy Sauce 1/2 Cup Lime Juice

THEN SLOWLY ADD IN... 4 Cups Of Canola Oil & 2T Of Hot Sesame Oil

DECEMBER 14-20,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS NOV 28 - DEC 4, 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.

COMTE FRITTERS

Neil’s Coffee Shop

961 Lexington Avenue A

Eats

1055 Lexington Avenue

Grade Pending (37) Food not cooked to required minimum temperature. Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Tasti-D-Lite

1310 1st Ave

Grade Pending (38) 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.

Sashimi Express Ii

223 E 74th St

Not Yet Graded (10) Food Protection Certiﬁcate not held by supervisor of food operations.

Morini Ristorante

1167 Madison Avenue

Comic Strip

1568 2 Avenue

Duke’s

1596 1598 2nd Avenue

83 1/2

345 East 83 Street

Bondurants

303 E 85th St

Grade Pending (34) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Kobeyaki

215 E 86th St

Sistina

24 E 81st St

Bluestone Lane

2 E 90th St

East Harlem Bottling Co

1711 Lexington Ave

Hong Kong Restaurant

1703 Lexington Ave

Prime One 16

2257 First Avenue

Our Town’s

ART OF FOOD at

Presented by

Chef Xavier Monge, culinary force behind Parisian-style bistro Little Frog, is bringing his expertise to The Art of Food for the ﬁrst time this year on February 10. Every aspect of the chic Yorkville bistro is French-inspired, from the exquisite food, down to the ﬂoor tiles. While we wait to see what Chef Xavier prepares for The Art of Food, he’s sharing the restaurant’s special comte fritter recipe which appears as a “munchie” on the menu, and also happens to be one of the chef’s favorite snacks.

Xavier Monge of Little Frog

COMTE FRITTERS Makes 18 balls

INGREDIENTS: 1lb 1 year aged comte cheese, grated 8 egg whites 1/3 tsp espelette pepper 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp ground white pepper 1 “splash” of sherry vinegar

Cover with saran wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Lightly oil a tray to prevent sticking. Using a 1 oz. ice cream scoop, scoop the mixture and line the balls on the tray. Using 2 quarts of frying oil in a deep pot, bring the temperature to 350 degrees F.

DIRECTIONS:

Carefully drop your cheese balls in sets of three to prevent crowding.

In a large bowl, lightly whip egg whites until ribbons start to form.

Let fry for 5 minutes, until golden.

Add espelette, sherry vinegar, and grated comte cheese.

Damper with a towel to remove excess oil. Serve with a sprinkle of espelette on top.

Combine all ingredients, and with same whisk try to smash all together until a thick paste forms.

DECEMBER 14-20,2017

AN APPLE A DAY ... HEALTH Stress-busting nibble n’ nosh tips for the holiday season

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BY ALICIA SCHWARTZ

Two words that the holidays bring to mind for many of us these days are food and stress. With no shortage of sugary, fattening foods and a seemingly never-ending to-do list, it is easy for people with busy lives, particularly family caregivers who often lack time to care for themselves, to resort to unhealthy food habits like stresseating during the holidays. Does this picture sound familiar: the holiday is right around the corner, you’ve been tending to your elderly parents all day, traveling to appointments, doing housework and running errands while squeezing in that last minute holiday shopping, decorating, gift wrapping, cooking and travel plan coordination. When you ﬁnally stop to catch your breath, you realize you never ate lunch and are about to miss dinner. You’re tired, frustrated and, of course, hungry, and your todo list is not disappearing any time soon, even if your energy is. For fuel, do you: 1. Reach for the stash of nuts on the table, and resolve to buy yourself a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store for dinner. You deserve it after the long day you’ve had. 2. Have a candy bar and a cup of coffee for now to hold you over until you have the chance to go to a fast-food drive-thru later tonight. 3. Raid the pantry and dig into the seasonal snacks on hand — sugar-coated pecans, peppermint bark, caramel corn — and wash them down with a sugary, caffeinated beverage for energy. If this sounds like you, then read on. Many of the family caregivers I know through my work as a registered nurse caring for frail, elderly New Yorkers with multiple chronic illnesses are heading in the same direction. Gobbling holiday candy at the office or having that extra serving of pumpkin pie or holiday cookies may seem like a quick sustenance ﬁx or a boost of cheer, but extra caffeine, sugary or high-fat snacks, and processed foods can lead to a “nutritional hangover” that is harmful to both

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Eastsider News of Your Neighborhood that you can’t get anywhere else An apple with peanut butter is a quick and healthy snack. Photo: Crystal, via ﬂickr the body and mind. Here are three simple reminders that I reinforce with my patients and their family caregivers during the holidays:

Minimize Coffee and Other Caffeine Intake Your morning cup of joe is great for the boost of energy you need to check off your to-do list, but too much caffeine can increase anxiety and disrupt sleep. Rather than making a second cup or buying a holidayﬂavored latte, switch to green tea, a powerful antioxidant with less than half the amount of caffeine as coffee and only drink decaffeinated beverages in the afternoon and evening. A delicious way to wean yourself off coffee is having a nibble of dark chocolate now and again — it’s also packed with antioxidants and in small amounts, can help lower blood pressure, improve blood ﬂow and cognitive function, and reduce risk of stroke.

Snack on Natural Sugars Those Christmas cookies sure are tasty and festive, but they’re packed with empty calories that provide no vitamins, minerals or important nutrients. For so many of our older population, diabetes is a serious concern as well. Yael Reich, RN, a certiﬁed diabetes educator with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, cautions that extreme blood sugar ﬂuctuations, often brought on by sugar binges and crashes, can create serious health problems for people with diabetes. They can also cause mood swings and zap energy levels for anyone — especially during stressful or busy times

of the year. A holiday trail-mix made with dark chocolate and fresh fruits like blueberries and blackberries is a delicious, suitable alternative, and the fruits are packed with ﬁbers that help prevent blood sugar spikes. An apple with peanut butter is also a quick and healthy go-to snack.

Scrap Processed Foods as Much as Possible Your holiday dinner doesn’t need to come in a can. Processed foods may seem harmless, but they contain artery-clogging trans fats and saturated fats as well as copious amounts of salt and sugar. Snack on whole foods — foods that are closest to their natural form — and incorporate them into meals when possible. Whole grains, nuts, legumes, vegetables, fruits and proteins rich in omega-3s such as fish are great staples to a stressbusting diet. The holidays can bring people together in wonderful and selfaffirming ways, and for many of our elderly loved ones, they are an important and welcome chance to connect with friends and family. Remembering to nibble and nosh mindfully can help ensure that you and your family will gather in good health for many holidays to come. Alicia Schwartz is an RN and care coordinator with VNSNY CHOICE Health Plans, affiliated with of The Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the largest not-for-proﬁt homeand community-based health care agency in the country. For more information please visit www. vnsnychoice.org or call 1-888-8676555.

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DECEMBER 14-20,2017

Business

EIGHT NIGHTS OF FINANCIAL GIFTING A new way of thinking about Hanukkah presents BY SCOTT FRANKLIN

When Judah Maccabee and his band of the faithful defeated the mighty army of the Seleucids and succeeded in rededicating the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, little did he imagine that centuries later we still would observe the Festival of Lights in commemoration. While many families these days choose to exchange presents on Hanukkah, traditionally parents give gelt — gifts of money — to their children, even if they are just the gold foil-wrapped chocolate “coins” from supermarket shelves. For those parents or grandparents considering giving the gift of real money, here are some suggestions — one for each night of Hanukkah — that may just lead to a happier holiday: First night: 529 plan. The 529 plan is one of the most popular education savings plans. With the average cost of a private four-year education just under $200,000 and rising, it’s a good idea to start saving as soon as possible. There are some restrictions but most 529 plans have no income limits, age limits or annual contribution limits. Although there are lifetime contribution limits, those limits currently range from $235,000 to $500,000. Second night: A “job.” We all know

that money doesn’t grow on trees. Does the child have a weekly allowance? I believe such funds, regardless of the amount, should only be given in exchange for some assigned task, whether that’s clearing the dinner table or helping to shovel the snow. Having such a regular “job” can build selfesteem along with helping to teach the value of the dollar. Third night: A beginner’s book on investing. Many books are available for different age groups and different levels of experience. Reading and learning about money promotes financial literacy, with the ultimate goal of financial independence down the line. Fourth night: Child’s pick. Thinking about familiar companies, such as those that manufacture a favorite electronic gadget, and then buying even one or two shares of stock in that company is a great way to learn about the ups and downs of the stock market. Fifth night: Tzedakah. In many communities, on the fifth night of Hanukkah children learn to make a difference by donating a portion of their gelt to a charity. This is an expression of the Jewish value of tzedakah, or justice. It may mean a donation, or it could be volunteering. Whatever the act, it plants the seeds for a routine of philanthropy. Sixth night: Dividends. Even a small number of shares in a reliable, dividend-producing company can be fun

for a youngster, particularly when the dividend check shows up in the mail. What to do with that dividend check can be another life lesson: Is it spent? Is it invested? Is it donated? Is it saved? Seventh night: A silver dollar. A silver dollar can be a great vehicle for learning about inﬂation and the value of today’s dollar versus the value of a dollar from years past. It can also spark the discussion of so-called alternative investments, whether that is jewelry, art, or a coin collection. Eighth night: A bank account. What better way to teach children to be responsible for their money? They can deposit their allowance, birthday gifts, earnings from chores, and bar or bat mitzvah funds and watch their balance grow. Since children under the age of 18 may not sign legal documents, they cannot open an account for themselves. But parents can open one jointly as a custodial account. As you prepare for this year’s celebration, it might be good to think beyond the latkes and dreidels. Jewish holidays are the legacy we have been given by our ancestors. We too can leave a legacy for our children. Scott J. Franklin, a New York City resident, is a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Management Director with the Global Wealth Management Division of Morgan Stanley. He can be reached at 800-8271512 or scott.franklin@morganstanley.com.

NEIGHBORHOOD SIDE STREETS MEET 81ST STREET

sideways.nyc

MEISTERDISH 218 EAST 81ST STREET Ready-to-cook food delivery services have become a trend, but Meisterdish ingredients come pre-chopped and ready to be turned into a superb dish in a very short amount of time. Meisterdish has a small prep kitchen on East 81st with members of their team ready to jump on their bikes to deliver dinners to New Yorkers’ doorsteps at any hour. There is no need to subscribe: customers can order one meal at a time. The executive chef, Johannes Hennche, comes from an impressive background, having worked at Daniel and Eleven Madison Park. There are always six dishes on the menu, with at least one vegetarian meal. “I wanted to step out of the classic kitchen,” he explained. For more photos and side streets, go to sideways.nyc

DECEMBER 14-20,2017

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

AMNH PLAN GETS GO-AHEAD, BUT LAWSUIT LOOMS PARKS Gilder Center expansion clears environmental review; community group promises court case to block project BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

The American Museum of Natural History has received approval from the Parks Department to move forward with its plan to build a 200,000 square foot expansion, a portion of which will occupy what is now Theodore Roosevelt Park. The city approval marks the end of a long and contentious environmental review process, during which the museum’s plans were met with consistent criticism from neighbors and local groups opposing the project. With the museum now poised to move forward with the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, one opposition group has announced its intention to take the museum to court to block the expansion. “We feel that we have a very strong case that what the museum is trying to do is illegal,” said Laura Messersmith, co-president of Community United to Protect Theodore Roosevelt Park. The group has retained land-use attorney Michael Hiller and intends to ﬁle a lawsuit “in the near future,” Messersmith said. “We will be moving quickly, because we expect the American Museum of Natural History to try to move quickly,” she said. Messersmith and Community United believe that because the Gilder Center will stand on what is now public park land, the project should have been subjected to the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. “I think it’s clear that the museum thinks that they own that park, but that’s not the case,” Messersmith said. The $340 million Gilder Center project, which museum officials hope to complete by 2020, would add new exhibition and educational facilities to the museum, as well as improve circulation routes for visitors within the complex. The Gilder Center would sit on the west side of the museum, occupying a quarter-acre

of what is now Theodore Roosevelt Park, and include a new entrance to the museum facing Columbus Avenue. Community United and others opposing the project have cited an array of concerns with the museum’s plans, including complaints regarding the loss of public parkland and trees, increased pedestrian and vehicle traffic as a result of the new entrance, and the presence at the site of toxins that they claim could be released from the soil during construction. In a press release announcing its intention to ﬁle a lawsuit, Community United accused the museum’s administration of “glossing over the inconvenient facts of the project and avoiding legitimate accusations that it has no idea how to avoid the dangers from disturbed toxic substances.” The final environmental impact statement on the project issued by the Park Department last month addresses many of the criticisms and details steps intended to mitigate potential adverse impacts — including the potential release of hazardous materials, which it says can be controlled through “measures commonly used at construction sites throughout New York City” — but Community United has criticized the statement as “incomplete,” claiming it provides insufficient detail regarding health and safety. In an emailed statement, museum spokesperson Scott Rohan wrote, “Community United’s press release is unfounded and contrary to the comprehensive environmental review undertaken over the course of several years. As set forth in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, the project will not pose any public health risks with respect to hazardous materials. Materials of similar type and extent are commonly found at construction sites throughout New York City and can be controlled through the use of well-accepted remedial measures, which were reviewed and approved by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.” “To date, the Museum has not been served with a lawsuit,” the statement continued. “If and when a suit is ﬁled, the Museum will respond at the appropriate time in the appropriate forum.”

DECEMBER 14-20,2017

FAITH CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 difficult moments, like the death of a student, or at times of turbulence, as when 25 students met in her nearby apartment for a post-election session last year. She’s never found her academic setting to be claustrophobic — just the opposite. “There’s never been a time when it felt like I was in a small, gated environment,” she says. “It has challenged me. It has never disappointed me,” she says. “Every dawn brings new opportunities.” On Oct. 8, she turned 60. “There are so many new things to learn,” she says, looking content. “It’s going to be a great decade.”

Audette Fulbright: “You fall in love with a church” The Rev. Audette Fulbright, the recently installed associate minister at All Souls Church on Lexington Avenue, sent her own photograph to Hillary Clinton. In the picture, Fulbright was signing her contract to become the first woman to be called to serve All Souls, and the 12th minister named in the church’s 198-year history. After her official installation, Fulbright thought about the woman who did not get the nation’s top executive job last year. “I sent it to Hillary because I was thinking of her that day,” recalls Fulbright, 49. Indeed Fulbright reached out to the defeated Democrat to show that even in the aftermath of a highproﬁle woman’s failure to advance to a top job, other women are still making gains. In the ministry for 18 years, Fulbright was officially called this spring, moving her husband Seth Berkeley and 10-year-old daughter Ani from Wyoming to Riverside Drive for a new life. An older daughter, Ember, is 27. Serving now alongside Senior Minister Galen Guengerich, Fulbright took a higher-level position than the assistant minister job that others have held at the church. She had other career options after being a minister in Wyoming for several years, but Fulbright chose both the congregation and this town. “You fall in love with a church,” she says. Fulbright knows that part of her job is to push people into the future. “It’s a cliché, but you have to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted,” she says. She believes in being specific, putting tangible ideas into people’s heads rather than speaking too generally. She speaks enthusiastically about the faith she promotes. She says that when she visits a fellow Unitarian Universalist in the hospital, she actually has to ask about the person’s religion — whether he or she prays or believes in God or the extent or reach of faith. “We have to all start from ground zero,” she says — and then adds, “I love that it’s harder.” Part of the excitement of her new gig: living in the city. She likes the idea of the religious and ethnic diversity,

The Rev. Audette Fulbright, associate minister at All Souls Church on Lexington Avenue, says that “seeing women in positions of leadership matters.” Photo: Christopher Moore and the range of “faith connections” possible here. “I wanted to raise my daughter here. I wanted her to be a citizen of the world and not just a citizen of a small town,” she says, before interrupting herself and explaining that she didn’t want to be “patronizing” about small towns. She remembers her own in South Carolina. She grew up without a speciﬁc faith, then tried a lot of them. “I have been everything along the way,” she says. She’s happy where she landed, but argues her fellow UUs have actually been too wary of proselytizing. “We’ve been in the closet too much,” she says. “We’ve hidden a living faith from people which has the power to change and save lives.” Within her religion, Fulbright says, more women are serving in ministry than men. But that has not been true at All Souls, where the senior ministers have all been white men. Until now. “Seeing women in positions of leadership matters,” she says. “So that’s one thing.” Another thing: working with senior minister Guengerich. She says she was inspired by her conversations with him. She’s excited about “what ministry looks like when we work together. It will be different from two men.”

Felicia L. Sol: So much more than ‘sweetie’ Rabbi Felicia L. Sol did not grow up thinking she would become a rabbi. Actually, her brother was encouraged by the rabbi at their family’s synagogue to follow the religious route — but the young man grew up to be a poet and get a Ph.D. in literature. Sol herself is the one who became a rabbi. She arrived at B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side in 1996 in a Jewish education role. “I came in for the interview and I got the job,” she says with a smile, sitting at a table in her office on West 89th Street, “and I never left.” She’s grown and changed roles over time, becoming a rabbi there in 2001. Sol, 46, grew up first in East Brunswick, N.J., and then, at age 7, her family moved to New Fairfield, Connecticut, a small town near Danbury. “Of the five Jews in my grade, we were the most involved,” she remembers. Back then, while she always had that strong sense of Jewish identity, she thought of the rabbinate as a male-dominated job — because it was.

“I’m really blessed to live at a time when I can serve in this role,” says Rabbi Felicia L. Sol of B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side. Photo: Christopher Moore “No one ever told me you couldn’t be a rabbi as a woman,” she says, but then adds that she simply didn’t have a model. “When you don’t see anyone who looks like you in that space, it’s hard to imagine yourself in that role,” she says. Now she’s the role model she didn’t see back then. “The rabbinate has changed because women are in it,” she says. “Judaism is a patriarchal tradition. Women like me are both in love with that tradition and trying to dismantle the patriarchy from the inside.” Sometimes that can be challenging, she readily admits. For instance, don’t bother calling this rabbi “sweetie,” “kiddo” or “honey.” Although some congregants do. “They would never call a male rabbi those names,” Sol says. “At age 30, it might have been age-related. At 46, enough already.” She adds: “It tends to be women who do that, which is interesting.” She thinks the familiarity might be partly because she’s grown up over the years at B’nai Jeshurun. She sees the role of rabbi as multi-faceted, including: teacher, pastor, holder of Jewish wisdom, community leader, justiceseeker. She oversees the synagogue’s senior program directors. Still, she underscores her gratitude for where she is. “I’m really blessed to live at a time when I can serve in this role,” she says. She has an educational background to match her many missions. She has a BA in developmental psychology and education from Tufts University, a masters in Jewish Education from a school at the Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion (HUCJIR) in New York; and her masters of Hebrew letters (1996) and her rabbinic ordination (1999), also from HUC-JIR. Sol’s a mom to a seven-year-old son, Aiden, and a five-year-old daughter, Sivan. Her life as a single mother who never married brought about an appearance in a documentary, “All of the Above: Single, Clergy, Mother.” As a writer, she contributed an essay to the book “Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Feminists on Why We Stay.” Her parents are still in the small town in Connecticut, and Sol visits. “I still bring my two kids back to the July 4 parade,” she says. What do her own parents think about having a daughter who’s a rabbi? Sol grins. “They think it’s awesome,” she says.

DECEMBER 14-20,2017

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GARODNICK CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Hall and the race is wide open. In fact, four years out, he’s already sitting on an enviable campaign treasury with $1.1 million in the bank, including $353,000 he amassed for the 2017 election cycle, when he wasn’t even running for office, filings with the city’s Campaign Finance Board show. What will he do with the nest egg and who or what will he spend it on? “Those dollars were always raised with an eye toward a future campaign,” he said. “The question is really, what opportunities exist, and where can I best serve the city and state.” Can he speculate about that? Garodnick smiled a tad mischievously: “Probably not,” he said. During a wide-ranging, 75-minute exit interview on December 7th in his legislative office on the 17th floor of 250 Broadway, a panoramic view of the downtown skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, the East Side pol spoke with great pride about a string of accomplishments — and pondered his political future, if a little obliquely. “I’m going to think about what comes next,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy taking a breath after 12 long years of rather constant excitement.” He fully expects to remain in the public arena, but adds, “I don’t know what form that’s going to take yet, but I am keeping an open mind.” First elected in 2005, then reelected in 2009 and again in 2014, he is exiting what has been dubbed the “Garodnick seat,” which takes in a swath of the Upper East Side close to Central Park, plus East Midtown, Times Square, Turtle Bay, Central Park South, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, where he grew up and still lives. This isn’t the first time his name has been in the mayoral mix. In the run up to de Blasio’s landslide re-election, he was viewed as one of the A-listers who might seek to unseat him. He never took the bait. Why? “There had been a lot of inbound interests, and I found it very flattering,” he acknowledges. “Ultimately, I did not feel it was the right thing to do ... The city is fundamentally in a good place, and I didn’t see a rationale for it then ... It’s not what I wanted to do.” Yet Garodnick’s political ambitions have never been a secret: He mulled a run for city comptroller in 2013. Then in

City Council Member Dan Garodnick at a January 2016 rally in Battery Park to protest the Trump administration’s proposed ban on travelers from predominately Muslim nations. Photo:Cory Epstein / Dan Garodnick’s office 2014, he vied for City Council speaker — and was outpointed by Melissa Mark-Viverito, who won with de Blasio’s muscular backing. “This is a very fluky business,” he said. “If I’ve learned anything in 12 years in public life, it is to understand the volatility and unpredictability of politics ... You’re up one minute, you’re down the next ... And the whims of the electorate change periodically, too. So the thing that is most predictable is the unpredictability.” If he had four more years, Garodnick says, he’d focus on the escalating retail crisis. But his successor, Council Memberelect Keith Powers, is aware of the issue and committed to addressing it, he said. Garodnick is known as collegial and respectful of colleagues. He’s not a rhetorical bomb-thrower. He’s seen as a shrewd dealmaker, negotiator and compromiser. But in contentious, even ugly, political times, is that an asset or a liability for a potential seeker of higher office? “You’re never going to see me insult somebody on Twitter,” he said. “Name-calling, belowthe-belt politics, and dishonest behavior, that’s not a trend — it’s an aberration. And people are going to tire of it very fast ... So I think honest, collegial grown-ups in public life are going to be in high demand.” Instead, he points to a record of accomplishments that include: • A November 30th bill that provided relief from the muchreviled commercial rent tax to roughly 2,700 small businesses south of 96th Street. How did he get outer-borough colleagues to back — unanimously — a bill boosting Manhattan businesses? Despite their physical location, he argued, “These business are owned by everyone’s constituents, they employ everyone’s

constituents, and we’re stepping on their necks with an unfair and outdated tax.” • A 2014 affordable housing preservation deal — the largest in the city’s history — that preserved 5,000 units in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village as middle-income housing for the next 20 years. • An ambitious rezoning of Vanderbilt Avenue and Midtown East that permits increased development rights and fosters growth, in exchange for sweeping transit and infrastructure improvements. “The ﬁrst building approved through that rezoning, One Vanderbilt, will alone bring in about $220 million dollars in improvements to Grand Central,” Garodnick said. “And that’s just one building!” • The 2015 creation of a new park at Asser Levy Place, a demapped and underutilized two-way street between East 23rd and 25th Streets that’s now completely closed to trafﬁc. “What’s better than that?” he asked. “To go and see people out there enjoying new open space that you had a hand in delivering? I mean, that’s about as good as it gets.” Okay, it’s quite a list, but what about disappointments, Garodnick is asked, the things he wanted but never got done? For the only time in the interview, the Council member hesitates: “Disappointments?” he repeats. “I think the things which I really put my heart and soul into, we were able to get over the end zone,” he said. By “focusing on the big things that were achievable,” he didn’t spin his wheels or “waste time on lost causes that are not important,” he said. “I’m sure there were some disappointments, but nothing that’s really nagging at me,” Garodnick said.

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YOUR 15 MINUTES

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A ‘HIPPIE HEART’ FASHIONS A MOVEMENT Catherine Schuller on her lifelong mission to encourage diversity in women’s body types BY ANGELA BARBUTI

Catherine Schuller was hired as one the ﬁrst plus-size models in New York and went on to make a career out of helping women accept their bodies. The Pittsburgh native came to New York in 1975 with her boyfriend at the time, drummer Billy O’Connor, who would keep the beat for the band Blondie in its formative years. Schuller quickly got swept up into the Lower East Side punk rock scene at CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. “I was trying to be a model and an actress and of course, the whole thing in the ‘80s was you had to be thin. So I was told, “You did a great audition; could you lose 70 pounds?” And I didn’t want to do that. My hippie heart was like, “I’m ﬁne the way I am.” In response to that resistance, she created a comedy troupe called The Nerve, crafted around the idea of having the nerve to just be yourself. One night, a scout came backstage and suggested Schuller try plus-size modeling, to which she responded that she never heard the

words “plus-size” and “modeling” together in the same sentence. Schuller was signed with the special sizes division of Ford Models in 1988, when the plus-size industry was still in its infancy. “We created a movement; we were large, loud and proud,” she said. This was the beginning of her life’s work. In the late ‘90s, “Mode” magazine asked her to be their fashion retail editor, and there she created the program “Mode on the Road” and toured through hundreds of cities, hosting and styling full-ﬁgured fashion events. She now teaches a plus-size course at FIT and hosts “Runway the Real Way,” a monthly fashion diversity brunch she started at the Yotel Hotel. Another passion project of hers is honoring her late husband, Marvel Comics exec Mark Gruenwald, whom she met on an audition for “She-Hulk,” with the release of his biography next year.

What was the Lower East Side punk rock scene like? When I brought Billy here, we were kind of hanging out with the Warhol crowd, so that showed me a lot about if you’ve got a creative idea, you could pretty much just get out there and do it. Debbie H a r r y wa s very instrumenta l i n teaching

Catherine Schuller hosts “Runway the Real Way,” a monthly fashion diversity event. Photo: Jeff Jones

me how to take your career by the horns and just do what you need to do and invent yourself. And that was great about that scene because it was wide open. There was no internet, so you had to get out there, meet people face to face, hang out, play, support each other. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to have a scene like that again, where it’s just an artist community of people all like-minded and not trying to outdo each other, but on the same wavelength. It was this whole new wave and I just got swept up in it. I was from Pittsburgh and really always wanted to have that kind of idealistic romantic beat poet scene in my head. And that was kind of the equivalent of it.

Another interesting part of your bio is that you lived in Manhattan Plaza, which was Section 8 housing for artists. We all moved in there because Ronald Reagan decided that middle class kids who were artists were not going to turn tu it into slum housing and would take care of it. He made it Section 8 housing and we paid 30 percent of our hou income. Angela Lansbury was on my inco ﬂoor. oo Jaimie Alexander, Larry David. All tthese artists and people just coming up in the ﬁeld. It was a big community. nity And then AIDS hit, so we had to bury bur a lot of people too in the mid ‘80s.

Tell us about signing with Ford Models. I was w doing The Nerve, and a scout for Plus Models Agency came backstage stag and said, “You should do this thing thin called plus-size modeling.” And I wa was like, “You should write for my act, because I never heard the words plus-size and modeling together.” plu And they said, “No, it’s this big thing coming up and you’d be perfect for com it. You Y might even have to pad up.” I was about 168 pounds and 5’10’’ and thought, if I didn’t have to lose weight, thou it would be perfect. The industry was w in a pretty sorry state, but it was the beginning, and Liz Claiborne came on beg board, boa so we had a designer who was designing clothes for us. It was the des beginning of the movement to diverbeg sity and body acceptance. And I said, “This “Th is perfect for me.” so I became kind of the spokesperson for the plussize movement. They were about 68 models mod and there was a lot more work because there were less of us and bec there were a lot of catalogs, circulars and newspaper ads. There weren’t any magazines, but we had a lot of fashion

Catherine Schuller, left, came to New York in 1975 as an aspiring actor and model. Photo: Marcus Isaac

and runway shows. There were times I was the only plus-size model in a runway show.

What was it like to be the only plus-size model in a show? What kind of reaction did you get? I would get all this applause and standing ovations. And the models came back and said, “What are you doing out there, cartwheels?” And I said, “No, they just see themselves and it’s almost like that is a feminist issue.” I was an activist; I was up there representing. It was pretty exciting and I said, “I think I’m onto something here.” It became my destiny to allow everyone to feel fabulous no matter what their size, age, shape or height. And that’s where I got bitten by the diversity bug. And then “Mode” magazine saw me and asked me to become their fashion retail editor, so I did “Mode on the Road” for ﬁve years while the magazine was still in existence. And I went around the United States, and heard things like, “The magazine saved my daughter’s life.”

You also teach one of the only plus-size courses at FIT. I call it “The Long and the Short of It,” because my partner’s petite and I’m plus, so we teach what the size spectrum is. It’s called “special sizes” in the garment industry. I’ve been doing that for six years. And we launched “The Business of Curves” on November 15th, as a one-night only state of the plus-size industry. Our intention is to create a certificate program or module or even a minor in plus sizes with the curriculum and course material specifically focused on the full-figure body types. We can take that on the road to other design schools too. www.runwaytherealway.com

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CROSSWORD

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25 Fitting 27 Time segment 28 Cantina 29 Like some socks 33 View from a helicopter perhaps 34 Do nothing (sl.) 35 Stretch (2 words) 36 Currant-ﬁlled cake 37 “Waterloo Bridge: Gray __” by Monet 38 Garland 41 Airport times 42 Ore store 43 Europe’s highest volcano 44 Not yet ﬁnal 45 Like Superman’s vision 46 Beat, the competition for example 47 Lacquered metalware

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49 Codliver, e.g. 50 76 station 51 Ballerina Pavlova 52 Don’t waste 53 Old Chinese money 54 Sea creature 55 “___ the season ...” 56 Jekyll’s counterpart Down 1 Vegetarian staple 2 Distinctive and stylish elegance 3 Calf-length skirt 4 Mail service, pertaining to 5 Boss (2 words) 6 Kind of song 7 Malaysia state 8 Squirt 9 “Bye” 10 Related to 11 Store section 19 Tokyo, formerly 20 A drink with jam and bread.... 23 Long, long ___ 24 Empire State building locale

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

SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan

by Myles Mellor

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