The local paper for the Upper East Side WEEKWEEK OF DEC.-JAN. OF THE WOW PARADE ◄ CITY ARTS, P.12
DECEMBER
26-1 262019
Cameron Koffman, 22, launches his campaign for the New York State Assembly. Photo: Courtesy of Martin Rather
GEN Z ON THE BALLOT POLITICS
They’re young and they’re eager to serve. How two political neophytes from Manhattan became candidates for elected office. BY CECE KING
From Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to Julia Salazar, New Yorkers have followed the national trend of voting young people into office. But as New York County Democratic Committee Chair, and former New York State Assembly Member, Keith Wright points out, the “energy, excitement, and electricity” that young people bring does not outweigh the fact that politics “is made from the bottom up.” Wright recommends anyone interested in running for office first learn the process by working for an elected official or attending precinct council and com-
munity board meetings. Wright, who emphasized that “there is no educational prerequisite, no vocational prerequisite” for politics, chose to work for then Borough President David Dinkins rather than enter the political fray right after law school. “Politics is a blood sport,” Wright warned, and “the hardest folks to impress are the folks in your community when you’re asking them for their vote.” As Wright sees it, what qualifies someone for public office is simple and unrelated to age: “Passion, intelligence and commitment to their community.” With that in mind, Straus News spoke to two of New York’s youngest political hopefuls, Ellie Pfeffer, 19 and Cameron Koffman, 22, about their campaigns and their approach to politics.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
MEET YOUR MANHATTAN HISTORIAN
INSIDE I want to create more opportunities for people to gather in public forums to explore and discuss our borough’s history. We have a lot to learn from each other.” Robert W. Snyder, Manhattan borough historian
URBAN LIFE
OURTOWNNY.COM @OurTownNYC
Falling debris kills architect Erica Tishman and focuses new attention on city scaffolds. p. 6
Robert W. Snyder is taking on one of the city’s most interesting and quirky posts BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
His first vivid memory of Manhattan came as a threeyear-old in the late 1950s when he visited the city from suburban New Jersey with his family and entered an apartment building in Washington Heights – an experience he found “scary.” But Robert W. Snyder, the Bronx-born historian, scholar, researcher, academic, journalist, editor and author or co-author of five non-fiction books, all of them about New York City, quickly overcame those fears. In fact, he wrote a 2015 book about the Heights, “Crossing Broadway,” and is co-author most recently of “All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants and the Making of New York,” published by Columbia University Press. A former special projects researcher at Newsday,
SEEKING SAFER STREETS Robert W. Snyder, the new Manhattan borough historian, addresses some 200 community activists, neighborhood leaders and local historians at the Fire Museum on Spring Street for a Dec. 3 reception. Photo courtesy of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer’s office
he’s currently working on a biography of legendary newspaper columnist Murray Kempton. Now, Snyder, 64, is taking on one of the most interesting, unpaid and quirky posts the city has to offer: Manhattan borough historian. Appointed by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who terms his knowledge of history “unmatched,” he’s already settled into work in the Municipal
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Building. And after 20 years at Rutgers University-Newark, where he’s a tenured professor of journalism and American Studies, Snyder plans to retire in July 2020. We chatted about his agenda, the borough’s shifting landscape, the things he doesn’t know, nativism, immigration – even his favorite subway line.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
has seen a surge Five years in, NYC and uctuating in cyclist deaths – and motorist numbers of pedestrian fatalities BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
year that saw 299 In 2014, after a traffic-related incipeople killed in Mayor Bill de Bladents in the city, eliminate all traffic sio set out to
CONTINUED ON PAGE
6
AT LAST
WOODSTOCK SOJOURN an NYPD judge recommend at City Hall after Photography Office holds a press conference Appleton/Mayoral Mayor Bill de Blasio 2019. Photo: Michael Friday, August 2,
firing Officer Daniel
Pantaleo on
THE BILLY AND GILLY SHOW
Kamala HarWarren, Cory Booker, and Bernie debates,” longris, Amy Klobuchar for the September Pete strategist George Sanders, South Bend Mayor time Democratic doesn’t have former Texas Rep. Artz says. “De Blasioare way down Buttigieg and both Beto O’Rourke. the donors, and close, but none of A few others are in the polls.” Hank Sheinde Blasio or GilliPolitical consultant that either them are named kopf says it’s “50-50” “Any- brand. returned reBY STUART MARQUES will make the next round: Neither campaign but they’re not quests for comment. thing can happen, agree that Warde Blasio faced to qualify.” Pundits generally When Mayor Bill held off the more Gillibrand – likely a minimum of Candidates need to ren and Sanderson the first night. off with Sen. Kirsten Democratic presi- 130,000 unique donors and have moderate field and eight other in four qualigot high marks on – on July 31, it Booker and Yang and hit at least 2 percent dential hopefuls the last Billy candidates have the second night, but Biden a might have marked presidential fying polls. Eight the polls. and are assured at the are still ahead in hit those marks and Gilly Show largely igon Sept. 12 Harris Gillibrand Houston and in De Blasio debates. ei- spot onstage Presiawful tough for are former Vice 18 “It’s going to be and and 13. They Senators Elizabeth CONTINUED ON PAGE get the donors dent Joe Biden, ther of them to needed to qualify polling numbers”
POLITICS
dim for Presidential prospects Democratic New Yorkers on the debate stage
C i e Watch
Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, December 27 – 4:17 pm. For more information visit www.chabbaduppereastside.com.
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A NYC fan bids farewell to a great Giants quarterback. p. 8
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‘MY HANDS ARE OUTSTRETCHED’ P. 19
f d h e s, p gs ng st ts alng ish ass eel
SUTTON PARK,
chair of the City Ydanis Rodriguez, committee, Council’s transportation street s afety on speaks at a rally for steps of City Hall legislation on the McCarten/NYC May 8. Photo: John Council
Amid a growing sense of unease, UWS residents, elected officials and experts hunt for solutions to homelessness. p. 7
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seasonal How to deal with thefeel worse virus that makes usp. 2 than a winter bug.
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DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
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‘MOCKINGBIRD’ TO PLAY AT MSG THEATER
The Broadway production will appear one night in February exclusively for public school students - for free BY MARK KENNEDY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The hit play “To Kill a Mockingbird’’ is busting out of Broadway - and dunking at Madison Square Garden. For one night only in February, the stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s iconic book will be performed exclusively for 18,000 public school children free of charge at the home of the New York Knicks and Rangers.
The move marks the first time a Broadway play has been performed at the venue nicknamed “The World’s Most Famous Arena,‘’ which has hosted concerts by members of the Beatles, boxing bouts between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali and “The Concert for Bangladesh’’ in 1971. The play’s usual Broadway home is the 1,435-seat Shubert Theatre, where it is routinely sold out and commands an average ticket price of $162. But on Feb. 26, thousands of middle and high school students from all five boroughs will get to see it for free, courtesy of the Scott Rudin-led production and James L. Dolan, the executive chairman and CEO of The
Shubert Theatre. Photo: Chmpgnrose, via flickr
Madison Square Garden Company. The tickets are being distributed by the city’s education department. The entire current Broadway cast will be present, led by Ed Harris as Atticus Finch. Harris told The AP he was thrilled by the prospect, especially with such a powerful play.
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“It is also an honor to be performing ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in front of thousands of New York City school kids. We know it will be a once-ina-lifetime event - for all of us,‘’ he said.
“A One-of-a-Kind Event” “To Kill a Mockingbird’’ won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and has been widely praised
as a sensitive portrait of racial tension in 1930s Alabama. Finch is a lawyer called upon to defend a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. The stage adaptation is directed by Bartlett Sher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin’s other plays include “A Few Good Men” and “The
The local paper for the Upper East Side
Farnsworth Invention.” He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his screenplay for “The Social Network.” His films include “Steve Jobs” and “Moneyball.” “This is a one-of-a-kind event - 18,000 young people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford to see a Broadway play are going to be introduced to American theater,“ Sorkin said. “Scott, Bart and our cast, Jim Dolan and Madison Square Garden and the Department of Education are bringing the mountain to Mohammed - and I’m very excited to be a part of it.’’ Sorkin’s “To Kill a Mockingbird’’ adaptation crackles with energy and his trademark soaring language that made hits of “The Newsroom’’ and “The West Wing.’’ For the stage, he cut the undergrowth of minor characters from Lee’s book and enhanced others, particularly the maid Calpurnia and Tom Robinson, the man falsely accused of rape.
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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG MONDAY BLOODY MONDAY
STATS FOR THE WEEK
Monday, December 16 was a day of violent assaults on the Upper East Side. In the first incident, which took place at 11:06 a.m., a 21-year-old woman was outside 45 East 85th St. near Park Ave. when an unknown man allegedly punched her with a closed fist on the left side of her head. She sustained redness and swelling and was in substantial pain. Just four minutes later, a 29-yearold woman across from 1536 Third Ave. near 87th St. was trying to take a picture on her phone of an unknown man who was allegedly menacing her. Police said that the man then displayed a 6-inch knife and chased the victim into oncoming traffic on Third Ave. The suspect finally fled southbound on Third, and police reported that he was wanted in another incident the same day at 960 park Ave. The victim in the initial incident sustained no injuries. Later, at 8:21 p.m. a 39-year-old man allegedly stabbed a 25-year-old man in the left side of his stomach at the southeast corner of Park Ave. and 85th St. The victim told police that he felt something on his left side after the suspect said to him, “Watch where you’re going!” Then at East 85th St. and Lexington Ave. the victim saw the suspect drop an orange kitchen knife, saying, “Get
Reported crimes from the 19th precinct for the week ending Dec 15 Year to Date
2019
2018 % Change
2019
2018 % Change
0 1
0 0
n/a n/a
0 18
1 13
3 1
2 4
50.0 -75.0
166 135
133 144
Grand Larceny
10 39
5 35
100.0 11.4
211 224 -5.8 1,589 1,392 14.2
Grand Larceny Auto
2
0
n/a
60
Murder Rape Robbery Felony Assault Burglary
that she found her room a mess – not the way she had left it – and some belongings were missing. The stolen items included a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses and a Kate Spade wallet totaling $353.
Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr
away from me!” The victim reported the incident at the 23rd Precinct and identified the suspect to officers. A green knife was recovered from the suspect, who remains unidentified but was arrested at the southwest corner of Park Ave. and 92nd St. and charged with assault. The victim was treated at a nearby hospital for a minor injury to his side and then released.
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APARTMENT BURGLARY At 4:45 p.m. on Sunday, December 15, a 33-year-old woman left her apartment on East 73rd St. to visit friends and go to work and did not return to her place until the following day at 7:10 p.m. At that time she discovered that her apartment had been broken into through the bedroom window. She told police
AMAZON PHONE SCAM Yet another area senior became the victim of a phone scam. At 2:15 p.m. on Friday, December 13, an 81year-old woman living in Gracie Terrace between East 82nd St. and East 83rd St. at East End Ave.
-100.0 38.5
71
24.8 -6.3
-15.5
allegedly received a phone call from a stranger who identified himself as an Amazon employee. The caller said that the woman’s Amazon account had been blocked and asked for her personal information to solve the problem. She gave him the requested information, and police said that the suspect then made a wire transfer in the amount of $24,985.75 from her Citibank checking account without her consent.
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Weimar cinema landmark The Ancient Law (1923) tells the story of a rabbi’s son’s interaction with an archduchess at the imperial court. Catch a screening with a live original score by Alicia Svigals and pianist/composer and silent film music legend Donald Sosin (free).
New Year’s Eve Concert for Peace 2019
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Founded by Leonard Bernstein in 1984, the annual New Year’s Eve Concert for Peace is a signature event with performances by the Cathedral Choir and Orchestra. Among the special guests is world music pioneer Paul Winter; Harry Smith hosts ($40-$150).
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Former federal prosecutor and host of Stay Tuned with Preet launches the paperback version of his New York Times-bestseller Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law ($26 ticket, $38 with book).
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CITY COUNCIL Councilmember Keith Powers Councilmember Ben Kallos
DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
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DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
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DEADLY TERRACOTTA AND SIDEWALK SHEDS BUILDINGS
A falling chunk of debris kills architect Erica Tishman and focuses new attention on city scaffolds BY GORDON MEHLER
A recent front-page New York Post story decried the “scandal of [New York City’s] everlasting scaffolds,” or sidewalk sheds. It called attention to the 300 miles of these plywood and pipe contraptions, which mar the landscape and block out the sun for years at a time. And it blamed landlords for the seeming permanence of these ugly green structures all over town because they find it cheaper to keep them up indefinitely than to do required building facade repairs. But that’s not the whole story. The deeper question is: what makes these scaffolds necessary in order to protect pedestrians from falling debris? A leading culprit is the once widely-used construction material known as terracotta. Last Tuesday, Erica Tishman, a 60-year-old architect, was killed when a chunk of terracotta fell off a 1915
building north of Times Square that had been cited by the city for failure to fix its facade. Century-old dilapidated terracotta, often attached to rusted metal anchors, is a major reason for the proliferation of sidewalk sheds. “I am saddened and outraged by the totally preventable death of Erica Tishman,“ U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney tweeted. “The building owners who chose to pay a fine rather than make necessary, life-saving, repairs must be held accountable & should be punished to the full extent of the law.” Terracotta is very common in prewar buildings, and has been employed in some of the most iconic facades of the Manhattan skyline, including the Woolworth and Flatiron Buildings. A hard-baked clay used by potters since ancient times, terracotta (“baked earth” in Italian) became a popular building material in the 1890s. It was lighter, cheaper and easier to shape than carved stone, yet could be made to look like limestone or granite. In fact, its chameleon-like character makes it hard to tell what’s terracotta and what’s not.
Changing Architectural Tastes Terracotta was particularly favored for building ornaments, such as cartouches, gargoyles and urns. Formally known as historic glazed architectural terracotta, its glazes made possible the profusion of colors characteristic of Art Deco buildings of the 1930s. But shortly thereafter, terracotta fell out of favor, as architectural tastes drifted toward simpler, sleeker facades. Recently manufactured terracotta, aided by installation techniques that allow for better water seepage, has renewed the fortunes of this architectural ceramic, though it is used mostly to replace older existing terracotta. But few American companies make terracotta today, compared to two dozen in 1924, and the material is no longer inexpensive. Other construction materials can break down too, of course, but damaged terracotta of the sort that turned deadly this week is a major concern of the city’s Department of Buildings. It can chip, crack and crumble, especially when attached to rusted steel that loosens the adjoining masonry.
The Woolworth Building in Lower Manhattan. Photo: foundin_a_attic, via flickr
After the death of Erica Tishman at 49th St. and Seventh Ave., the Buildings Department ordered the emergency building of a sidewalk shed. Photo: Emily Higginbotham
How do buildings deal effectively with their vulnerable facades? An architect hired to oversee necessary repairs sends a specialist aloft, sometimes in a cherry picker, to visually inspect the terracotta, and then “sound” it with a light mallet for signs of deterioration. Defective terracotta is then often replaced with substitutes such as cast stone (crushed stone bonded by cement) or GFRC (glass fiber reinforced concrete). In addition to the replacement of potentially hazardous masonry, a construction contractor can go behind the facade and the backfill to waterproof or replace any rotting structural steel. There are also preventative electrochemical systems that can stave off rust and monitor the health of a building’s steel, if a building can afford such a system. Restorationists love older terracotta for its decorative qualities, but Buildings Department inspectors, not so much. They have singled out older terracotta for more comprehensive inspection before it will remove a building from the “unsafe” category that applies to more than 1,000 New York City buildings. Unsafe facades are still the primary reason for sidewalk sheds. These ubiquitous scaffolds may be an eyesore, but decrepit terracotta protrusions, including balconies and parapets, can pose a real hazard to passersby. Abe Yeager, for example, was fatally struck by a cracked terracotta cornice.
A Law Prompted By a Student’s Death For all of the Post’s criticism, however justified, a protective scaffold would have saved the life of Grace Gold, a 17-year-old Barnard College student who died when masonry struck her 40 years ago last summer. Grace’s death led to the enactment of what is now the Facade Inspection Safety Program, known as Local Law 11. It mandates facade inspection and repair every five years for buildings over six stories. Local Law 11 has largely been a success from a public safety standpoint. Deaths from “failed” masonry have been rare since its inception. Greta Greene was the last fatality before this week, an Upper West Side toddler killed by a falling brick in 2015. Some older buildings have simply removed much of their terracotta to minimize inspection worries. But this solution sits uneasily with building boards intent on historic preservation. That does
not even include the nearly 40,000 properties protected by the local Landmarks Preservation Commission. Take the Woolworth Building, the tallest skyscraper in the world from 1913 to 1930. It’s covered in over 50 stories of multi-colored terracotta, and the facade’s character has remained impressively intact even after major renovation work. That work required lots of longstanding scaffolds, but many looking at the Woolworth Building today would say it was worth it. The death on Tuesday from terracotta that plunged from a prewar facade is a reminder of why the Facade Inspection Safety Program exists. Immediately afterwards, though not soon enough to spare Erica Tishman, the Buildings Department ordered the emergency erection of a sidewalk shed. Gordon Mehler practices law in Manhattan, and lives in a prewar apartment building with a terracotta facade.
Flowers for Erica Tishman. Photo: Emily Higginbotham
DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
7
Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com
A group of homeless people have set up an encampment on the corner of 73rd Street and Broadway in front of the North Face store on the Upper West Side. According to a concerned group of residents it’s one of the several spots in the neighborhood where they no longer feel safe. Photo: Emily Higginbotham
SEEKING SAFER STREETS COMMUNITY
Amid a growing sense of unease, UWS residents, elected officials and experts hunt for solutions to homelessness BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
Over the last year, Elizabeth Carr has witnessed a shift in her neighborhood on the Upper West Side. She and others have noticed encampments of homeless people sleeping on mattresses in front of empty storefronts, something they had not seen before. She said she has frequently been accosted verbally by a man on the street, who she said obviously suffers from mental illness, while walking with her children. “As a someone who’s lived in the neighborhood for 15 years, and as a mother of three children, I was starting
“There is no quick fix [to the homelessness crisis]. But we should be working to get as many folks as possible off the streets and into shelters.” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer
to feel unsafe in the neighborhood for the first time,” Carr said in an interview. “Frankly, around the city, I was observing anecdotally, a very different sense, and what it felt like to walk down the street.” At the same time, residents in the neighborhood have been shaken by a sense that violent crime was also on the rise, particularly in the wake of last week’s stabbing death of first year Barnard College student, Tessa Majors, in Morningside Park. But the initial event that became the catalyst for Carr to act was a shooting incident on 64th Street and West End Avenue near a playground. So she started a Facebook group originally called Upper West Side Quality of Life and now called NYC Moms for Safer Streets. The group is nearly 1,700 strong, with a core group of ten who have begun lobbying elected officials to take action. Carr says it has been a tricky line to walk so as not to conflate the issue of crime with the issue of street homelessness in the neighborhood. “We’re very clear that there is no link between aggressive mentally ill homeless on the street and what’s going on on the crime front, but for the fact that they both contribute to a sense of unease that seems to be felt by people definitely throughout the Upper West Side,” Carr said. She said she wants to be
sure that her group is compassionate when it comes to the issue of street homelessness, but that having compassion doesn’t mean authorities who are supposed to be dealing with the problem shouldn’t be held to account. “Our hearts absolutely go out to people whose lives have come to this,” Carr said. “We reject the idea that there’s anything compassionate or humane about allowing people really to kind of self destruct on our streets.” Her group has been asking elected officials and police what they are doing to help solve the issue, and whether there are big, new pilot programs or policy solutions that can be implemented.
The Mayor’s Action Plan Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio released a comprehensive, six-point action plan to end street homelessness over a five-year stretch. The plan aims to increase access to housing, mental health and medical services for homeless individuals, as well as improve the city’s outreach efforts to those living on the streets. “Homeless New Yorkers are just like us — they deserve our love and compassion and a commitment to go as far as we can to help,” de Blasio said in a statement. “So here’s our promise: we will help every
CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
TURN YOUR CONCERN INTO IMPACT. The New York Community Trust can help maximize your charitable giving. Contact Jane at (212) 686-0010 x363 or giving@nyct-cfi.org for a consultation.
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OVERBUILDING IS BAD FOR CITY LIFE EAST SIDE OBSERVER
BY ARLENE KAYATT
Back for the cure - The walk-in medical facility Pro Health Urgent Care opened in the Ruppert Yorkville residential building complex on the east side of 90th and Third in the last two or so years. Then suddenly, just about a year ago, they closed, leaving another big empty space on the busy corner. Then, lo and behold, about a week ago, a notice appeared in the window saying that they were coming back. Good to know that the site won’t be having the same fate as the empty storefront where Parlour restaurant once stood – and thrived – on the west side of 90th and Third. That location’s been empty for at least two years and it doesn’t look like the landlord has been able to bring in a mega-rental tenant. So the neighborhood’s left with a big ugly blight of an empty storefront on the avenue. Unfortunately, the west side of Third Ave, starting north at 86th and up through 95th is replete with empty storefronts as landlords hold out for blockbuster tenants or wait to assemble the old Yorkville buildings to make way for sky-high condos – creating a New York not meant for New Yorkers who want to maintain roots here. And overbuilding just doesn’t work for the civic life of the city. Many, if not all, of the newly built towers un-
doubtedly will be condos, and in many, if not most, instances, I’d guess, buyers will be investors who will reside elsewhere and reap the benefit of their investment by renting to tenants. Transient tenants don’t usually vote at these addresses because they don’t intend to establish a permanent residence and have no stake in the community. Perhaps public officials will take those factors into consideration when they go along with rampant razing and overbuilding in local neighborhoods and consider the negative impact on local businesses and services when condo apartment owners are just absentee landlords. .Being seen and heard Back in 2018, the City Council passed a controversial rezoning bill affecting Inwood in Upper Manhattan. Whether its empty storefronts or rezoning, the community has to be heard and the Inwood community opposed the proposal. Kudos to Judge Verna Saunders who decided against the City Council’s proposal in Washington Heights in a lawsuit that sought to overturn the council’s approval of the rezoning . The community argued that the process behind the city’s environmental review was improper. In the lawsuit, as reported in Patch, the community was opposing the upzoning of large sections of the area east of Tenth Ave. to allow for the building of mega-residential developments and rezoning areas
west of Tenth Ave. to preserve the character of the neighborhood. As a result of the Saunders’ ruling, the plan goes back to the city Economic Development Corporation of the Office of he Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development. They will have to explore the issues raised in the Inwood Legal Action’s lawsuit. Judge Saunders found that the city failed to take a “hard look” at the potential effects of the rezoning. It’s too bad when the governing body overrides the will of constituents. It remains to be seen if the decision will be upheld on appeal. Constructing buildings and ignoring present as well as future consequences to the neighborhood and the community is not good policy making. Luckily, in this case those most directly impacted by zoning changes were heard – and listened to – not the same thing, trust me. Chocolate’s hot - A recent column noted the influx of chocolatiers in East Midtown – Laderach in the Bloomberg building near Bloomies, and Godiva and Hotel Chocolat. further south on Lex. Not to be left chocolate-less, the UES now has its own illustrious chocolatier with the addition of Jacques Torres. Originally on East 57th St., the eponymous house of chocolate is now at Third and 88th. There’s also a location at Amsterdam and 74th. While Godiva and Hotel Chocolat. have seating, the UES Jacques Torres does not. At least not yet. Instead, if you want to stay indoors, you have to stand and sip. Or you can start sipping on your way out the front door. Doesn’t sound like a very cozy way to imbibe a childhood favorite, does it?
DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
Voices
THANK YOU, ELI PUBLIC EYE
BY JON FRIEDMAN
My beloved New York Football Giants will not make the playoffs again, in another dreadful season. The once-proud franchise sank to stunning levels of futility and humiliation, failing to win a game in October and November. Still, we die-hards got to see NFL class personified when Eli Manning rode off into a New Jersey sunset on a crummy December 15 afternoon. He threw two touchdown passes and led his team to a 36-20 victory over the equally pathetic Miami Dolphins. It was nice to see him do well and for the team to snap its franchise-tying nine-game losing streak. The best part was seeing Eli out there again, calling his troops. Like old times. Eli was shoved out of his familiar perch as the starting quarterback in week three when the team sensibly made room for its high draft pick, Daniel Jones of Duke University. It’s Daniel’s team now. That he suffered an ankle injury and couldn’t play seemed like fate, as we got one more opportunity to watch Eli.
The Face of the Franchise Eli has been the face of the franchise since the Giants landed him in a trade after the San Diego Chargers made him the top pick in the 2004 NFL draft. He has had one of the more perplexing careers of a superstar: two improbable Super Bowl vic-
tories over the hated New England Patriots and a .500 career percentage as an NFL quarterback. If the Giants hadn’t stunk for most of the seasons since 2012, his record would have been a lot better. If you watched Eli passing the ball against Miami, you saw his whole career on display: his strong-jaw leadership, his exuberance when the Giants scored a touchdown, his love of the sport and respect for the franchise, his Jimmy Stewart/Gary Cooper leadership. And you’d have also seen Giants receivers dropping his arrow-like passes and the team’s Swiss cheese defense and the horrendous special teams.
The Great Times I’d rather remember the great times. The helmet pass to David Tyree late in the 2008 Super Bowl. The perfect sideline throw to Mario Manningham late in the 2012 Super Bowl. Eli braving sub-zero elements to defeat Brett Favre and the Packers in the championship game before that first Super Bowl win. Eli getting knocked down mercilessly but doggedly rising off the canvas to beat the San 49ers in the NFC title game before the second Super Bowl victory. Eli started 222 consecutive games at quarterback. Think about that, in an age when players routinely suffer devastating concussions along with the usual knee, shoulder and ankle injuries. Eli was only sidelined by a ham-fisted coach who wanted to shake up the Gi-
Eli in action against the Seattle Seahawks, October 2011. Photo: Mike Lizzi via Flickr
ants -so he benched Eli. Nice!
A Champion Among Champions Plus, Eli had to climb out of the long shadow of his older brother Peyton Manning, himself a championship quarterback who is often mentioned as one of the greatest of all time. Eli made Giant fans forget about Phil Simms, too. Simms led the Giants to the Super Bowl championship for the 1986 season and was on target to do it again when he was injured late in the 1990 season. Simms had a rocket arm and was as competitive as any player we’ve ever seen. But Eli established his own pedigree and built a rep for toughness. We appreciate Simms, but Eli is mentioned in the same breath now. Eli has accomplished a lot. And he did it with class, never bad-mouthing his unimpressive post-Tom Coughlin coaches and never making excuses. He presented himself as a role model, whether he intended to or not. He is one of the greatest Giants of all time. That’s a lot. Thank you, Eli.
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City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, spoke about the toll that food insecurity takes on students. Photos: Sarah Ben-Nun
FIGHTING FOOD INSECURITY AT CUNY EDUCATION
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson announces a $1 million pilot program to help community college students get the meals they need BY SARAH BEN-NUN
Food insecurity, defined by the United States Department of Agriculture as “the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods,” or the ability to acquire said foods in a “socially acceptable” way, is an ongoing problem for many students in the CUNY system. Nearly half of respondents to a CUNY survey said that they had been food insecure within the last 30 days. And, as school officials acknowledge, food insecurity is underreported. Now, the New York City Council is stepping up to address the issue. At a press conference at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) on December 12, Speaker Corey Johnson announced a $1 million pilot program targeting food inse-
curity at CUNY’s seven community colleges. The money will be distributed to 1,250 qualifying students in the fall and spring semesters, at $400 per student. This is projected to provide each student with approximately three $10 meals per week, as vouchers, or swipe-cards, that can be used in the school’s cafeteria.
The Stigma of Hunger Letisha Moumin is a firstyear business administration major at BMCC, she’s also a full-time parent to two children. She reflected on the stigma associated with admitting food insecurity, which can lead to underreporting. “I think there’s a big weight on students’ shoulders: it’s embarrassing to say ‘Hey, I need help.’ That’s a big reason why [students] looking at the eligibility email choose not to do it – because why would they? it’s embarrassing. How would they look going into that office?” BMCC is trying to alleviate some of that shame by posting flyers throughout the campus advertising a nationwide program called Single Stop. The school is also shar-
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ing information about Single Stop on all course syllabuses. Single Stop pools all of the financial information about a student to provide them with a comprehensive understanding of what services they’re eligible for, and helps them navigate their options. Those services include a food pantry called Panther Pantry, which opened at BMCC in April 2018, and, for some students, the SNAP (food stamps) program. The CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute estimates that, in 2015, only 17 percent of food-insecure students were even aware of the resources and aid available to them. Single Stop’s food aid is crucial to students’ success, as Speaker Johnson pointed out. “On top of the stress of passing exams and getting good grades, we know that too many CUNY students are actually hungry, literally hungry – they don’t have access to the food that they need. They are sacrificing meals that they should be having to make their brains and bodies better because they need that
CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
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Thu 26 - Sun 29 LIGHTING OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST MENORAH Grand Army Plaza Fifth Ave at 59th St 5:30 p.m. Thu & Sun, 3:30 p.m. Fri, 8:00 p.m. Sat Free nycgovparks.org 212-310-6600 See the lighting of the world’s largest menorah at Grand Army Plaza, southeast corner of Central Park. The menorah is 32 feet tall and weighs about 4,000 pounds!
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Bryant Park 41st St between Fifth & Sixth Ave 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. Free This iconic winter experience features the only free admission skating rink in NYC, as well as 170+ holiday shops and The Lodge by Urbanspace, an indoor après skate-escape featuring a festive cocktail bar and delicious food offerings. bryantpark.org 212-768-4242
67th Street Library 328 East 67th St 10:30 a.m. Free Enjoy an hour of puzzles to warm up your mind before starting your day. Peruse periodicals, discuss current events, and see if you can complete the puzzle. nypl.org/locations/67thstreet 212-734-1717
82nd Street Greenmarket East 82nd St between First & York Ave 9:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Free On Saturdays year-round, a dedicated following of shoppers flock to the 82nd Street Greenmarket. A full range of products, including fruits, vegetables, baked goods, cheese, locally caught fish, chicken, goat meat and grass fed beef fill regular shoppers’ bags week after week. grownyc.org 212-788-7476
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Terence Cardinal CookeCathedral Library 560 Lexington Ave 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Free New York artist Pedro Charvac will be exhibiting pieces at the Cathedral Branch of the New York Public Library, weekdays through Dec 31. Mr. Pedro has been drawing for 14 years. He draws much of his inspiration from the mountains where he grew up in Guatemala. nypl.org/locations/cathedral 212-752-3824
NEW YEAR’S EVE WITH BACH AND VIVALDI Church of the Holy Trinity 316 East 88th St 7:30 p.m. $50 Ring in the New Year with the timeless music of J. S. Bach and Antonio Vivaldi at Amor Artis Chorus’ yearly concert of sublime choral compositions and effervescent instrumental favorites. amorartis.org 646-771-0393
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THE WOW PARADE FASHION
IF YOU GO
The latest show at The Met’s Costume Institute struts the extraordinary collection of Detroitborn Sandy Schreier BY VAL CASTRONOVO
Sandy Schreier, who is coy about her age, has been collecting clothes since she was a child. She would frequently tag along to work with her father, a furrier at Russek’s, an upscale department store with a Detroit branch that catered to the exclusive tastes of the wives of the automobile elite. The young Schreier would read copies of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar in the dressing rooms, and so impressed the clientele with her love of the finer things that they would give her their castoffs for dress-up. But the youngster had no interest in dressing up. She even refused her mother’s entreaties to dip into her stash at Halloween. In fact, Schreier has never worn the clothing she amassed in the years since, clothing that has become one of the most important private collections of 20th century fashion—couture and ready-to-wear—in the country, maybe the world. Some 80 items from that collection are now on exhibit at The Costume Institute, almost half of the 165
Sandy Schreier. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: © Susan Tusa/Detroit Free Press/ZUMA Press
What: In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection Where: The Costume Institute at The Met, 1000 Fifth Ave When: Through May 17 gifts that style-maven Schreier has promised to the institution in honor of The Met’s 150th anniversary in 2020. Today, museums have well-established fashion collections, but individual collectors are still relatively scarce, owing to the “challenges of preservation and display posed by the medium,” the organizers of the exhibit, “In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection,” state.
“The Fashion Savior” Schreier had an early, instinctive appreciation for beauty, and later for fashion as art and a reflection of the zeitgeist. She has spent more than 50 years on her passion. As The Met’s Associate Curator Jessica Regan writes in the catalog, “In addition to her own personal enjoyment and appreciation for these pieces, Schreier ultimately became motivated by a desire to preserve them. ‘I feel like I am the fashion savior,’ Schreier said. ‘Without me, the objects in my collection would have been thrown out.’” Regan, who collaborated with Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, and Assistant Curator Mellissa Huber, added in an interview: “In the very early years when she first began doing this, others discouraged the idea of collecting ‘old clothes.’ But she really had this vision that these were artworks, that they were worthy of preserving.” Many of the roughly 15,000 outfits, accessories and fashion illustrations in Schreier’s collection were gifts, many were acquired at estate sales and at auction, and many were just random discoveries. Regan told us that Schreier once was fishing through a basket in an antiques store and found a paper fan at the bottom, which she purchased for 25
DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
cents. It turned out the fan was a 1919 promotional item for fragrances by the legendary couturier Paul Poiret, “printed with an illustration by the artist Georges Lepape ... She has described it as her most exhibited piece. It is in this exhibition, and it was in our Department’s Poiret exhibit in 2007.”
Lagerfeld, Chanel, Dior and More A fashion lecturer and author of two books on Hollywood style, Schreier had an early infatuation with the glam costumes of Golden Age cinema, a key inspiration, along with the depiction of fabrics in paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts. At a recent drop-by to the show, we heard audible “wows” as visitors approached the haute ensembles and exquisitely crafted hats in the galleries. The big names are here— Gabrielle (“Coco”) Chanel, Christian Dior, Gilbert Adrian, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Balmain—but also fashion houses and couturiers that are less familiar like Madeleine & Madeleine, Boué Soeurs, Maison Margaine-Lacroix, Ana de Pombo, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo and Maria Monaci Gallenga. Schreier collected broadly, though mid-century French and American design and early 20th century fashions, particularly French couture from the 1920s and 1930s, are well represented, along with an impressive array from Fortuny and Gallenga, both of whom worked in Italy in the early part of the last century.
Metallic Lace, Sheer Silks Maison Margaine-Lacroix (active ca. 1889-1929) eschewed “extreme corsetry” to allow freer movement and display of a woman’s figure. One of the standouts here is Jeanne Victorine Margaine-Lacroix’s pink silk satin gown (ca. 1913), with metallic lace, silk net, black beading and iridescent sequins. It shows the move toward a more natural form and the “exceptional beading and lacework that is typical of the period and reflects the skill of this house,” Regan said. Gallenga, known for exquisite fabrics that reference the past, created a lavender silk velvet cape (ca. 1925) that is printed with metallic pigment
Evening Dress, Jean Dessès (French, born Egypt, 1904-1970), fall/winter 1953-54. Promised gift of Sandy Schreier. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: © Nicholas Alan Cope
in a pattern adapted from a 14th century Italian textile. Said the curator: “It has this really wonderful glistening effect that imitates the appearance of brocaded velvets from the Renaissance period.” The wow parade continues with Jean Dessès’s evening gown from 1953-54 in yellow silk chiffon. This designer was known for working with very fine, sheer silks and creating gorgeous pleats and swags of drapery. The piece, Regan explains, “has a silhouette that looks back to
the 19th century, to the era of the founding of haute couture. He ties it back to this great French lineage of skilled workmanship.” Sandy Schreier saved the clothes, and her efforts greatly enhance our understanding and experience of 20th century fashion. Hat tip to the woman who found these extraordinary garments “and held on to them and cared for them so beautifully for all these years.”
DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
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FOOD INSECURITY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 money for books, or for housing, in an expensive city. That is unacceptable in 2019 in the greatest city in the world.”
Targeting Those in Need In an example of the complexity of the issue of food insecurity, the Council-funded program excludes students who qualify for SNAP in order to target those who might
ing for their families, all while attending classes. “Sometimes you just need to put your pride aside, and realize that this is a really beneficial for everyone,” Moumin said. “Everyone needs to eat, and everyone needs help in some way or another.” Added Johnson, “We need to make sure that those students ... are getting the support that they need. Our future really really depends on it.”
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RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS DECEMBER 12 - 18, 2019 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. Belaire Cafe
525 East 71 Street
A
Chirping Chicken
1560 2Nd Ave
A
Eli Zabar
922 Madison Ave
A
Jack’s Stir Brew Coffee
141 E 88th St
A
La Fonda Restaurant And Tapas Bar
169 E 106th St
Persepolis
1407 2nd Ave
Director Greta Gerwig talks about the making of her new movie BY JAKE COYLE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Not Yet Graded (35) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Proper sanitization not provided for utensil ware washing operation. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution. Non-food contact surface improperly constructed. Unacceptable material used. Non-food contact surface or equipment improperly maintained and/or not properly sealed, raised, spaced or movable to allow accessibility for cleaning on all sides, above and underneath the unit. Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist.
1359 1 Avenue
A
Sweetgreen
1321 1St Ave
A
The Writing Room
1703 2Nd Ave
A
have
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FILM
A
Session 73
‘LITTLE WOMEN’ AT THE ‘SPEED OF LIGHT’
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The first movie Greta Gerwig saw in a theater was “Muppets Take Manhattan.’’ When it was over, her parents momentarily couldn’t find her. She had run to the front of the theater to put her hands on the screen. “I thought I could get into it,‘’ Gerwig says. As a filmmaker, Gerwig has often been in the frame or just outside it. In 2012’s “Frances Ha,‘’ which she co-wrote, she starred as a 27-year-old dancer from Sacramento gaining a foothold in New York - an origin story not so unlike Gerwig’s own. Her semi-autobiographical 2017 solo-directing debut, “Lady Bird,‘’ was like a ``Frances Ha’’ prequel, set in high school in Sacramento about a young woman with artistic ambitions. In her latest, “Little Women,‘’ Gerwig has adapted Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel about the March sisters, but Gerwig has also added meta dimensions outside of the book. Jo March (Saoirse Ronan in the film), the book’s aspiring writer was herself a kind of stand-in for Alcott, who tweaked the character to suit audience demands. Alcott married her off by the end but later wished Jo had turned out “a literary spinster.’’ In Gerwig’s version, the seventh big-screen ``Little Women,‘’ Jo becomes a synthesis of the character, of Alcott and of Gerwig, herself, stretching the struggle of what it is to be a female writer from 19th century New England to present day. On a blustery autumn day last month, Gerwig met for an interview over tea in Tribeca
Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Eliza Scanlen and Florence Pugh in Columbia Pictures’ “Little Women.” Photo: Wilson Webb © 2019 CTMG, Inc.
to discuss the many layers of her “Little Women.’’ The film opens in theaters Christmas Day.
Every frame is so full of life in “Little Women.’’ How did you give it such vitality? I didn’t want it to be beautiful at the expense of being real. But I did want it to feel like you wish you can jump inside and live in there or eat it. I remember trying to explain that to the gaffer who was like, “You want what?’’ I was like, “I want them to want to eat it.’’ A lot of that was in prep. We spent a lot of time building shot diagrams and, with the production designer, the costume designer and my (director of photography), plotting out exactly how we were going to see everything and make it bursting with life. And then, with the actors, I had two weeks of rehearsal, so I was able to spend a lot of time getting their overlapped dialogue to be specifically correct. I wanted it to sound cacophonous but I very much wanted it to be controlled. When I was rehearsing with the girls, sometimes it was four people talking all at once, but sometimes it was eight people at once. It was almost like an a cappella group. I could kind of start them all at once. It was this combination of wanting it to feel rich like a painting but not nailed to the floor the way a lot of period pieces can feel heavy, almost
like you can tell how expensive the lighting package was. I wanted it to feel like it was flying through at the speed of life.
Instead of following the book’s narrative straight, you crosscut between the March sisters’ adulthood and childhood, lending the film the glow of memory. When I was reading the book, there was a kind of doubling of Louisa May Alcott, who wrote the book, and Jo March, who is the writer in the book. But Louisa’s life was different than Jo’s life. And there’s this quality of: Is that what happened or is that how you wrote it? I think that tension is best expressed through childhood being something that’s in a snow globe, that you can’t quite get back to. That it’s heightened in memory and maybe also slightly distorted. I like playing with time in that way. Maybe this is an odd reference, but in Hemingway’s “A Movable Feast’’ he’s writing it from the perspective that it’s all gone, that that marriage didn’t work. What happens later colors everything about that. I wanted to give some ache to this story.
In “Lady Bird,‘’ Christine wants to move to New York or, she says, at least Connecticut or New Hampshire “where writers live in the woods.’’ Now
DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019 you’ve made a movie about a writer who lives in the woods. (Laughs) That’s right. That’s Louisa. It’s Massachusetts but it’s close.
You might have been thinking of, like, Philip Roth in northeastern Connecticut. Some combination of Philip Roth or J.D. Salinger, just guys in the woods with their novels. It’s a thing. But you also have ladies in the woods with their work, Emily Dickinson and Louisa. My problem is I’m too social. To be in splendid isolation, I don’t think it would work with my personality.
There’s also a nice connection between “Frances Ha,‘’ which memorably had a scene of you running through New York. “Little Women’’ opens with Jo sprinting through the city. I had come across in my research on Louisa May Alcott this stuff that talked about her as a runner. She would run every day through the woods of Concord. I actually shot a bunch of footage of Saoirse running through the woods but it didn’t end up fitting in the movie, which I’m so sad about. Kill your darlings, as they say. But I thought: how perfect. Louisa May Alcott loved running and I can do this and it’s completely footnote-able and it’s also exactly what I’ve always been interested in. It felt like the most modern thing to capture a woman faster than we think they’re allowed to move.
How would explain the relationship you felt between yourself and Jo? I was interested in making something cubist and that honored this kaleidoscope of authorship. Part of what I wanted to do with the construction was to find the author everywhere - to find the author as Jo, to find the author as me, to find the author as Saoirse. There’s all this doubling of selves. It’s Louisa writing Jo. It’s me writing Louisa writing Jo. It’s Saoirse playing Jo playing Louisa playing my lines. There’s some communication between the four of us. The transcendentalists - and not to draw too many connections that are only, really, for me were thinking that way. Walt Whitman said, “I contain multitudes.’’
If there was a distance between Alcott and Jo, your characters seem closer to you. You’re living the life that they aspire to. Yes, maybe that’s true! Even though I’m getting to make films, which is all I’ve ever wanted to do, the deepest connection to myself will always be with the person who wanted to do that, not the person who’s doing it. And show people in general, you have to build the castle again every time. There’s that feeling that there’s no guarantee that anyone will come. You’re a dream machine, a smoke machine, so there’s a feeling of: I don’t know if any of this is real. I guess that’s just to say I identify more with the striver, still. And I still can’t believe that I get to do this at all. I feel like I’m getting to steal these movies, that somebody’s going to tap me on the shoulder and say, “Excuse me, ma’am, can you please come with us? You’re not a director.’’
You’re so obviously meant for it. I love it. I love it so much. I love it more than any other thing I’ve gotten to do, every step of the way. I still feel like a young filmmaker even though I’m 36, even though I’ve been making films in some way or another for 15 years. It still feels like I’m at the beginning of whatever, hopefully, body of work I get to do.
I read that you turned in a rough cut of “Little Women’’ 24 hours before going into labor with your first child. It was insane but I think as soon as I showed the movie it was like: “OK, we’re ready to go.’’ It was a long edit because it’s such a delicate film. If you change one thing it really does have ripple effects. And I kept editing after that. But that baby came right after showing (Sony Pictures chairman) Tom Rothman the movie. (laughs) I was so pregnant getting notes.
It’s hard to think of a filmmaking couple like you and Noah Baumbach, whose “Marriage Story’’ is also one of the year’s most celebrated movies. You guys are like Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy. That’s the most lovely thing anyone’s said to me. Isn’t his movie beautiful? He showed me a cut of his film when I was home for Thanksgiving from shooting “Little Women.’’ I just sobbed for two and a half hours. He was like, “What did you think?’’ and I said it’s a
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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com masterpiece. He was like, “I was thinking of cutting ...’’ And I said, “Shut up. We’re not getting into the details. It’s amazing.’’ It’s just a wonderful time. It just so happened that they all went together.
When you were getting “Lady Bird’’ made, you said one male executive asked if mothers and daughters really talked that way. That executive sounds a lot like ... Dashwood (the gruff publisher Jo visits, played by Tracy Letts). She says, “I took care to have a few of my sinners repent.’’ He says, “People want to be amused, not preached at. Morals don’t sell nowadays.’’ I could have been having that discussion with an executive today. I went through my own version of a male executive saying “Do mothers and daughters really talk like this?’’ And Lady Bird not ending up with one guy, that was another thing. They were like, “I don’t understand. There are two boyfriends and she doesn’t end up with either of them.’’ I was like, “Right. Because did you marry the person you dated in high school?’’ I will say with my screenplay for “Little Women,‘’ and how I wanted to deal with the ending that Louisa gave Jo, it was not a given that this would be an OK way to tell this story. Then I said, and luckily everyone agreed with me: If I can’t do an ending she would have liked 150 years later, then we’ve made no progress. We’re having the same discussion. If I can’t make it be that the thing you need to see at the end is that woman holding her book, then I don’t want to make the film. We’re in a better place. But we’re not in “the” place.
In “Little Women,“ you seem to playing with those expectations, not getting rid of them entirely. I understand you want the kiss in the rain. I get it. I do too. But why do I need it? Why does that make me feel better? And what’s that about? I’m not outside the thing that I’m pointing out. I’m very much in it. Even in “Lady Bird,‘’ I was like: I have to have them go to the prom. I’ve seen high school movies. You go to the prom. That’s not really what I’m doing, but you have to have it. The nice thing about movies is there are tropes and there are genres and with “Little Women’’ there’s so much shared iconography of this material, it allows you to play with it. To explode it and then put it back together somehow.
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RECENT GRAD SETS SIGHTS ON STATE ASSEMBLY Being a member of the New York State Assembly is not a typical first job out of college, but that’s the position Cameron Koffman has his eye on. Koffman, 22, is challenging incumbent Dan Quart to represent District 73, which includes Murray Hill and much of the Upper East Side. This is the first time Quart has faced competition in the Democratic primary since he was first elected in 2011. Koffman graduated from Yale University in May. About his Ethics, Politics, and Economics major, Koffman said, “it’s good that there’s a program that tries to combine ethics and politics,” and pointed out that New York has one of the highest conviction rates of state legislators. Interested in reform, Koffman wants to limit outside income
Koffman graduated from Yale in May. Photo: Courtesy of Martin Rather
for legislators. Koffman doesn’t think his age will affect his electability. Noting presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s popularity in District 73, Koffman offered, “there are people, regardless of age, who are buying into the generational change argument.”
A Varied Political Background While Koffman touts his progressive values and is running as a Democrat, he switched his party affiliation from Independent just this year. He said the shift was not ideological, and that he “al-
ways believed in progressive values.” He’s excited the possibility of serving in the newly blue State Senate In college Koffman, was president of Yale’s William F. Buckley Program. Although nonpartisan, the program is supported by the conservative publication The National Review, started by the program’s namesake. Koffman says the program is more “concerned with intellectual diversity and free speech on campus” than partisan politics. He believes it prepared him to face differently aligned politicians in Albany, and that an inability to engage with different viewpoints “would be a weakness in serving your district best.” Campaign manager Martin Rather, also 22 and fresh out of college, has been friends with Koffman since they attended the School for Ethics and Global Leadership in Washington, DC during high school.”To be 22-years-old and running for the New York State Assembly takes a certain amount of political courage,” Rather said.
Issues and Priorities When asked why run now,
FRESHMAN CANDIDATE WAS AN ACTUAL FRESHMAN Sixteen-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg isn’t the only teenager spearheading the climate movement. Cornell University freshman Ellie Pfeffer ran for Ithaca Common Council this fall during her first term in college on a climate policy platform. Pfeffer, an effusive 19-year-old from the Upper West Side, studies the environment and sustainability with a policy concentration. Pfeffer, who has always been engaged in social justice, said it wasn’t until she started following Thunberg and other “Fridays for Future” activists that she zeroed in on the climate crisis. Fridays for Future is a movement that draws students around the world out of school every Friday in protest of government inaction during
DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com Koffman responded “there’s just so much that’s so urgent that’s really concerning me.” Curbing retail vacancies and stopping the Northwell Health Lenox Hill Hospital project are at the top of his todo list. He also wants to work on implementing the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act to help “codify the way to get to net zero by 2050.” Koffman is focused on mom-and-pop shops, because “beyond raising revenue and creating jobs,” they create “a healthy community.” Unlike other state legislators representing Manhattan, Koffman does not endorse a vacancy tax, because it “assumes the only problem is that landlords are purposefully keeping their spaces vacant.” He believes minimum rent requirements written into mortgages prevent landlords from accepting smaller businesses as tenants. He also hopes to make the process of changing storefront use from retail to services easier, as e-commerce is reducing demand for dry goods stores. Koffman supports how the Housing Stability and Tenant
with over the summer. In her words, “this work doesn’t wait for us to acclimate to college.” Inspired by the proposed federal Green New Deal, the Ithaca Common Council passed a local Green New Deal in June aimed at achieving citywide carbon neutrality by 2030. During the budget season, Pfeffer and her Sunrise team lobbied the Council to expand its efforts. A green new deal, Pfeffer said, is not just “putting a little bit of money into some energy projects, but really shifting the way we think about sustainability to a climate justice lens.” Upper West Sider Ellie Pfeffer, right, with supporters, ran for local office as a freshman at Cornell University this fall. Photo: Courtesy of Ellie Pfeffer
the climate crisis. Pfeffer, who grew up and lives on the Upper West Side, remembers thinking, as she looked around New York City, “we are one of the biggest cities in the world, and people don’t seem to be mobilizing in the same way.” That’s when she joined the movement.
Speaking Up During the last two months
of her senior year in high school, Pfeffer skipped class on Fridays to attend climate rallies at the United Nations and City Hall, where she lobbied policymakers to adopt green legislation. She also got involved with the New York City Sunrise Movement, a climate activist organization. Now, she sits on the policy team for the Ithaca Sunrise Movement, which she got in touch with
Hat in the Ring Pfeffer said she and fellow Sunrise members were “doing everything we could to get our voices heard,” attending hearings and meeting with individual council members. Frustrated by the lack of action, Pfeffer said, “it really felt like there was no other choice but to run.” Backed by the Sunrise Movement, Pfeffer ran as write-in candidate for Ithaca’s third ward against incumbent
Protection Act of 2019 “codified tenants rights,” but wants to amend it. “If we are making it very hard for a development to be very profitable, then no one’s going to want to build, and the current housing stock we have will be more expensive,” he said. Regarding overdevelopment, Koffman favors height limits and opposes Northwell Health’s Lenox Hill Hospital expansion, which he said exemplifies “this symptom in our city of projects that are damaging the aesthetic integrity of our neighborhoods, are not helping our affordable housing crisis, and are providing years of construction that will cause bottleneck congestion and health concerns.”
A Real Estate Family Unlike some of the new young politicians, Koffman, a white male from a prominent New York family, represents a demographic that voters are used to seeing in positions of power. His great-grandfather is developer Samuel LeFrak, known for LeFrak City in Queens. His grandmother and mother worked for Sotheby’s International Realty.
Rob Gearhart. She started her campaign only two weeks before the election. Sunrise members Thea Kozakis and Cheyenne Carter ran as well, in the fourth and fifth wards. Pfeffer’s goal was to institutionalize a “mindset that puts climate justice first.” Her platform included hiring additional staffers to work on implementing the Green New Deal policies, because the Common Council had only budgeted for one. Inevitably, when a young person runs for office, the question of qualification is raised. Pfeffer responds by interrogating the motives of naysayers. She believes “the people who say that you’re unqualified to participate in politics because you’re too young are the people who want to silence young voices.”
A Loss, and Success Ultimately, Pfeffer received 18.5 percent of the vote as the only Third Ward candidate who ran a write-in campaign. Despite the loss, Pfeffer views her run as a success. Pfeffer’s
If we are making it very hard for a development to be very profitable, then no one’s going to want to build…” Cameron Koffman Koffman also parts from some of his peers by accepting donations from developers. “I’m willing to listen to anyone,“ he said, “I’m willing to say if someone wants to make a donation, ‘I appreciate their support, but it does not mean I’m willing to do their bidding in Albany.’” Koffman’s connection to the real estate industry includes a 2019 summer internship with Related Companies, one of the developers of Hudson Yards. The candidate criticizes the massive project for not bringing affordable housing or retail to the area and says it reminds him “more of Dubai than New York City.” He does however appreciate that it helped extend the 7 subway line to the West Side.
campaign team identified 260 active supporters. She said her campaign was an “effective way to mobilize young people around local issues” and illuminate political possibilities for students. She remembers her peers reacting with surprise when she was knocking on doors during her campaign. “You can run at your age?” they asked. She also believes the noise created by the write-in campaigns is what pushed the Common Council to allocate contingency funding for an additional staffer focused on the Green New Deal. Pfeffer wasted no time getting back to activism after election day. On December 6, she co-organized a chapter of the International Climate Strike that drew over 500 students. Some, including Pfeffer, occupied the administration building. When asked about balancing schoolwork with activism and campaigning, Pfeffer brushed the concern aside. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get the action that we need,” she said.
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Real Estate
Photo: Emily Higginbotham
SAFER STREETS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
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last person experiencing long-term homelessness off our streets and we will do more than we ever thought possible to bring them home.” Through the plan, the city aims to add 1,000 beds to ‘safe haven’ shelters, which have fewer rules of entry than other shelters. In collaboration with housing and social services providers, the city will work to identify privately-owned properties that can be converted into housing to provide 1,000 permanent housing units for currently unsheltered people. The city will also be expanding its Street Medicine to all five boroughs, delivering rapid response medical care directly to where people are on the streets and in the subways. This includes stepping up mental health services where they are, which the city hopes will help build trust between agencies and the homeless population. “There are many layers to the homelessness crisis, and everyone knows there is no quick fix. But, we have to
start somewhere, and first and foremost we should be working to get as many folks as possible off the streets and into shelters,” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer told Straus News.
Political Will and Community Support Carol Caton, a professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia who has long researched homelessness, said the safe haven shelters to which de Blasio’s plan aims to increase access has been an effective way to get people off the street. “Safe havens are a way of getting people off the street without having them have to go through (detoxifying) or agreeing to be in any kind of treatment,” Caton said. “They can just go into the safe haven and stay there. If they’re interested in getting services they can explore mental health or substance abuse treatment services.” But still, Caton said people might want to stay on the street if they’ve had a poor experience in a previous shelter or they want to stay on the street to panhandle so that they might be able to make a few dollars to buy food. The key to long-term suc-
cess, though, Caton said, involves big investment in affordable housing. It takes a great deal of political will, a lot of money and enthusiastic community support, Caton said, but it can be done. Carr said she applauds the plan de Blasio has put forward, but she’s reserving judgment until the resources are in place to put the plan into action. “It’s one thing to announce a big vision that we all hope succeeds,” said Carr. “But, since the administration has only has 35 percent of the goal number of beds in the works, and, apparently, (none) of the goal number of apartments secured, this announcement strikes me as premature.” As an election year approaches, Carr said she hopes her group can wield some influence and the ear of candidates to keep their message in the public sphere. “We are hoping to identify and support candidates for city council and mayor who are taking the issue seriously, and who are also bringing fresh energy towards these ideas,” Carr said.
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HISTORIAN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 How does one become a borough historian? I was appointed by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who saw me speak at public events, especially at Coogan’s in Washington Heights, where I launched my book “Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York.”
It’s a unique position – almost entirely defined by the occupant. How do you envision the job? I think of myself as an educator. My job is to help more people understand the depth of Manhattan’s history and the relationship between our borough’s past and present. I’m a professor, but I know that plenty of learning goes on outside classrooms. Over the years, I’ve created opportunities to teach history lessons in museum exhibits, radio and television documentaries, walking tours, books and opeds. I’ll continue that practice. As borough historian, I’ll be seeking partners not just in schools at all levels, but also in museums, libraries and archives. And if bars and bookstores want to sponsor historical book talks, I’ll welcome that, too. Finally, I want to introduce journalists to a wide range of historians who can become informed sources for news stories. Most contemporary issues are best understood with a historical perspective. In today’s minuteby-minute news cycle, we need more voices that take a long view.
In our first conversation, you told me, “I want to make everybody a historian.” What do mean? I want to give more people the tools they need – in books, online, in archives and elsewhere – to study the past. I also want to create more opportunities for people to gather in public forums to explore and discuss our borough’s history. We have a lot to learn from each other.
How do you accomplish that? I’ll start by working to improve communications among everyone studying the history of Manhattan today, from people who work on their own to members of local historical societies to historians in universities, colleges, museums and libraries. Soon, I’ll be writing a lecture, “Manhattan 101,” that I
Just-appointed Manhattan Borough Historian Robert W. Snyder chats with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer at the Fire Museum in Soho on Dec. 3. Some 200 local historians and neighborhood activists gathered to celebrate. And that’s a map of Manhattan on his tie. Photo courtesy of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer’s office can deliver around the borough. I hope to do a lot with social media, but there’s no substitute for face-to-face meetings. Ultimately, I’d like to create workshops around Manhattan where people can gather to study and write about everything from family history to neighborhood history to the history of their union, school, or house of worship.
New Yorkers have a weakness for historical trivia. Can you reconcile that with history? We all walk around with bits of fact and folklore rattling around our minds. The job of a historian is to put those facts in context with research and analysis. One great thing about Manhattan is that evidence from the past is all around us, from Lenape rock shelters in Inwood to colonial graveyards downtown.
What don’t you know about Manhattan that you’d like to learn? In an age of climate change, I want to learn more about how human action has shaped Manhattan’s ecology. Environmental history has never been more important.
The city was a different place in the 1980s when you got an M.A. and a Ph.D. at NYU and wrote a dissertation on vaudeville. There were low rents, great music – but muggings, too. Tell me about that era. In the 1980s, I lived in Greenwich Village. I was enthralled by the intellectual and musical scene. I earned a meager salary as a graduate student, but it was enough to cover my rent – about $150 a month for a bedroom in a shared apartment on Thompson Street. But I was troubled by how crime, poverty, and bad housing undermined life in other neighborhoods. Even in the early 1990s I never anticipated the drop in crime or the rise in gentrification – more proof that historians should be wary about predicting the future.
From a historian’s perspective, has Manhattan changed for the better or worse? The borough is safer and in some ways healthier than it used to be, and that’s great. But the rising cost of housing makes it harder for immigrants and young people to settle here. For centuries, Manhattan has benefited from the energy, vision and labor of people coming here to start a new life. If
newcomers turn away because they can’t afford Manhattan rents, we’re in trouble.
Is there a political subtext to your latest book – “All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants and the Making of New York” – in the Trump era? New York has never been a peaceable kingdom, but over the centuries people of different nationalities, religions, races and ethnic groups have learned to get along here. We are far from perfect, but overall our history rebukes nativism and proves that all the world’s peoples can live together in one city.
We Manhattanites like to think of ourselves as enlightened, but did we ever have our own brand of nativists and “American Firsters”? Nativism and racism have long histories here. In the middle of the 19th century, Irish Catholic immigrants, and to a lesser extent Germans immigrants, met bitter rejection. Street battles between Catholic and Protestant gangs were common, and conflicts between immigrants and natives shaped everything from policing to public schools to mayoral campaigns. As the 19th
century gave way to the 20th, Jewish and Italian immigrants faced bigotry. Madison Grant, a prominent nativist who shaped the immigration restrictions of the 1920s, lived in Manhattan. And Puerto Ricans and AfricanAmericans who came to Manhattan in transforming numbers after World War II confronted exclusion even though they were American citizens. The history of migration shows that inclusion has to be learned and fought for in every generation.
Now, the fun stuff: What’s your favorite neighborhood? Block? Street corner? Favorite neighborhood: Greenwich Village, because even as it hyper-gentrifies it retains the spirit of the arts and dissent. Favorite block: Grove Street in the Village, because it conveys the scale of 19th-century Manhattan. Favorite corner: The Fort Tryon Park overlook in Washington Heights, where one glance takes in the beauties of nature and steel: The Hudson River, the Palisades and the George Washington Bridge.
What’s your favorite historical period? The early 20th century, some-
times called the Progressive Era. People faced many of the issues that confront us today – inequality, vast corporate power, immigration, political corruption – with an energy and optimism that I admire. The muckrakers, radicals, reformers, union members and settlement house workers of that time are among the greatest of Manhattanites.
What’s your favorite subway line? And your least favorite? My favorite: The A train, especially on the fast stretch between 125th Street and Columbus Circle. An enduring theme in my research is how mass transit, popular culture, the arts, politics and journalism knit a diverse metropolis into one city. My least favorite: The 4/5 on the Lexington Avenue line, when delays sabotage my commute to Rutgers UniversityNewark.
Can Straus News readers get in touch with you if they have follow-up questions? Absolutely! Anyone can write to me at rsnyder@manhattanbp.nyc.gov invreporter@strausnews.com
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DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
A MUSICAL WILD CARD OPERA
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YOUR 15 MINUTES
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IF YOU GO
How singer, composer and conceptual curator Ju-eh, born in China, found his artistic identity in New York BY MARK NIMAR
Ju-eh is a true 21st century artist. As an operatic countertenor, composer and overall conceptual curator, he has written operas, performed music, and created collaborative projects all over New York that defy genre, period or easy categorization. The richness and originality of his work derives from his varied background: Ju-eh grew up in Guangzhou, China, and studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, The Royal Conservatory in the Netherlands and the Mannes College of Music in New York. His unique identity as an artist is gaining him a lot of notice: he recently performed with the LA Philharmonic in Meredith Monk’s opera “Atlas,“ and sang in American Opera Project’s production of “The Night Falls.” He is slowly but surely building a reputation as an artist to watch in classical music. We sat down with him last week to talk about his upcoming engagement at the Proto-
WHAT: Prototype Festival WHERE: Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Ave. WHEN: January 9, 12, 15-17 at 7:30pm CONTACT: baruch.cuny.edu, 646-312-4079 type Festival, his experience feeding oranges to an audience and why he loves New York.
Where are you from? I am from Guangzhou, China. That is south of China. And then I went to study in Europe, so I keep telling people I have some different selves. So, my moral basic occupational self is southern Chinese, and then my musical sense was formed when I was in Europe, and my artistic self, where I found my identity, is in New York. So I always have this idea of me: how do I bring different selves together? That’s my background.
How did you start singing? Where did your journey start? I think the first thing that I heard was my grandma told my mother [that] when I was very young, maybe two, when the radio was on, my bum was always shaking in the right beats. My grandma was an amateur [chorister], and she said it was never wrong; it was always on the beat. When I was young, I learned pop
Ju-eh in “The Living Dying Opera” at the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side. Photo: Peichao Lin songs. Especially the female ones. So I was really tuned to this sort of very high voice. It was special for me. I knew I was more like a countertenor before I knew what countertenor was. Because it’s more a Western term, isn’t it? When I was in China, I would just follow those few pop stars, and buy their albums and just learn it in a week by ear. And I would memorize all the lyrics and just learn all of them. I knew what falsetto was. I just knew. No one told me.
Why did you move to New York? How does living in New York inform your work? When I arrived in New York, it was a big shift. Because I see how people are making their path, so that was very inspiring. Like, many things [you see on] the street, you look like a certain way, maybe it’s going to be read as weird. But no one cares in New York. That was very special to me at that point. Because I had too many rejections with me. And it was in Europe, where it was a society that they always had something to look up to. Like if you’re in Britain, you kind of have to look up to the British behavior, and thinking “oh, that is the model of some kind.” I just think in New York it’s much less of that. When I arrived here four years ago, I really needed that. I was way too insecure or negative about my own faith at that point. I felt that I was trapped in a very small place. I had to break through. And the way I was thinking was, I have to make my path. I need to be
Ju-eh in rehearsal. Photo: LGodPhotography
understood. If I don’t break through, I don’t know who I am anymore.
very always respectful of their culture and things. So it’s quite fitting.
What are some ways in which you’ve “broken through?” What’s the wildest thing you’ve ever done on stage?
When an audience member comes to hear you sing, what do you hope they take away from the experience?
Peeling an orange and feeding an audience while singing. I was singing “If Music Be the Food of Love.” It was under red lights, completely red, in a brownstone house. And the audience was sitting in chairs. And for that song, someone was giving me a bowl of oranges, and I just peeled it, and put it in one person’s mouth while I’m singing, and everyone else really was both [frightened] and excited at the same time. I never seen people so much eager wanting to be fed. But they were frightened at the same time. It was hilarious.
I would think what art is to me, it means to heal. I want them to feel inspired, and more with themselves. I think that’s my goal of making music, because I want to go to the performance [and leave] inspired, and more comforted. I just want to feel more comfortable, and I have more space as a person. There was a director [who I knew] who said, “a [play] is something that you gently open the audience’s mouth, and then you let them take whatever they want to take in their mouth.” And so a good piece of music/theater/opera or anything, it’s very important that you provide options. That the tools are provided to them, so that whatever they want to take, they can take the strawberry, they can take the pineapple. So they make their own meal. It’s like a buffet. You take your own food, and you feel filled.
Tell us about your upcoming engagement at the Prototype Festival. How did it come about, and what attracted you to the project? Someone reached out to me to ask whether I had the interest in auditioning for the [role of] the moon. They were promoting this as a creative process that changes along the way between the drama, the words, and the music. And I think it really fits my philosophy, and that I think music should keep changing. But the creative process, it was really intriguing for me. And being the moon, I have some faith in myself doing that. So I auditioned for them. It was based on a Japanese Noh play, although I’m not from Japan but I’m
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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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.
L
13
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A W A
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SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan
by Myles Mellor
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DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
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DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 1, 2019
CLASSIFIEDS MASSAGE
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PUBLIC NOTICES MERCHANDISE FOR SALE
Sell it in the Classifieds 845-469-9000 • 973-300-0890 • 570-296-0700
NOTICE OF SALE OF COOPERATIVE APARMENT BY VIRTUE OF DEFAULT in a security agreement executed on April 1, 2011, between Francisco R. Quijada and JP Morgan Chase Bank, National Association, successor in interest by purchase from the Federal Deposit Insurance Company as Receiver of Washington Mutual Bank, F/K/A Washington Mutual Bank, FA, and in accordance with its rights as holder of the Security, Caliber Home Loans, Inc., by Jessica Prince-Clateman, DCA #1097640 and/or Vincent DeAngelis, DCA # 1 127571 and/or Karen Loiacano, DCA 1435601#: will conduct a public sale of the security consisting of 790 shares of the capital stock, and all rights title and interest in and to a proprietary lease to Unit # 15-R in a building known as and by the street address, 300 E. 71st Street, Apt. 15R, New York, New York 10021, together with fixtures and articles of personal property now or hereafter affixed to or used in connection with Apartment 15-R on January 15, 2020, at 1:30 PM at the Ro-
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POLICY NOTICE: We make every effort to avoid mistakes in your classified ads. Check your ad the first week it runs. The publication will only accept responsibility for the first incorrect insertion. The publication assumes no financial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for any copy changes. All classified ads are pre-paid.
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tunda, New York County Supreme Court, 60 Center Street, New York, New York, in satisfaction of an indebtedness in the principal amount of $249,900.00 plus interest from 4/1/18, subject to open common charges. The Security will be sold in “AS IS” condition with no warranties expressed or implied either relating to title, possession, quiet enjoyment or any other warranty. Possession to be obtained by the purchaser. The sale is subject to: payment of all sums due, if any, to Theso Corp. and the consent if necessary, of said corporation; any existing tenancy; payment of all expenses and fees of the secured party with respect thereto; terms of sale and auctioneer’s fees. The secured party reserves the right to bid/purchase and reject all bids to the extent that the amount bid for the apartment is not greater than the amount due to the secured party for the outstanding principal plus interest. A 10% down payment in certified funds, bank check or money order payable to Cohn & Roth, LLC, Escrow Account, (no endorsed checks or endorsed money orders will be accepted) is required at the conclusion of the bidding. No cash will be accepted. All funds must be exhibited to the auctioneer prior to the commencement of bidding, unless proper funds have been verified you will not be permitted to bid. The balance of the successful bid is pa-
yable at closing which shall be held within thirty (30) days of the auction date. To obtain a copy of the terms of sale call Cohn & Roth, LLC at (516) 7473030 between 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. Cohn & Roth, LLC Attorneys for Secured Caliber Home Loans, Inc., Creditor 100 East Old County Road Mineola, New York 11501 (516)747-3030 #97903
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