Our Town September 19th, 2013 by Our Town

cityArts

CELEB SINCE 1970 PAGE 17

EVERY THURS.

NYPRESS.COM • THE LARGEST PAPER ON THE EAST SIDE • SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

The First Week of School Kids on the Upper East Side grade their new classrooms By Adam Janos abor day has come and gone, which means school’s back in session. Our Town took a trip to P.S. 6 on E. 81st Street to talk to kids about coming back. We caught up with first grader Priyanka, twin second graders Owen and Neil, and siblings Lilah and Nicholas as they talked about their experiences.

Priyanka, 1st Grade OT: What’s your favorite subject in school? Priyanka: Art. I like to do some arts and crafts. OT: What did you do your first week of school? Priyanka: For arts, actually I just drawed what I did this summer. OT: What did you do this summer? Priyanka: I went to the Disney cruise. OT: What else did you learn this week? Priyanka: I learned two math games. Today I did one but my teachers didn’t tell me what it’s called, and the other one is called Go For a Swim. OT: What are you looking forward to about first grade? Priyanka: Well, I kind of like doing the math. OT: So you like math, and art… do you like writing? Priyanka: Yeah. I like school. Continued on page 9

ALSO INSIDE TARGETING MUSLIMS ON THE UPPER EAST SIDE P.4 KEY FOOD CHANGES HANDS P.5

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The Education of Ben Kallos Meet the 32-year-old who could be your next city councilmember By Daniel Fitzsimmons

en Kallos is not your typical Upper East Sider. He went to state school because, he said, he couldn’t afford an Ivy League education. His Hungarian grandparents immigrated to New York in the 1950s. He grew up on the East Side but went to high school at Bronx Science. He got his law degree, worked in private practice, then the New York State Assembly and a good government group. None of that has stopped the 32-year-old from winning the Democratic primary for City Council on the Upper East Side. Kallos, barring an upset by his Republican counterpart, David Garland, would succeed Jessica Lappin in district five come November. (Over the weekend, Kallos won the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney for the post.) His refusal to accept campaign contributions from real estate interests and his public school chops dovetail with his idealism, but his launch into public service will be interesting to watch given his neophyte status with the Democratic establishment on the Upper East Side. “I went to public school for high school, college and post-grad, so I think that it’s more representative of the larger city and the public support we all need as a city because without it I wouldn’t be here,” said Kallos. “I couldn’t afford anything else and the only reason I could run for office instead of paying off mountains of law school debt is because I went to SUNY Buffalo.” Kallos said he became politically active in 2007, when “Microsoft was making a move nationwide to switch over to Microsoft-based voting machines, and back on 2007 people were still talking about Bill Gates as a possible presidential candidate, and that scared me a lot,” said Kallos. “I have a serious background in technology, I’m a web developer, and that activated me.” At the time Kallos was a member of New York Democratic Lawyers Council and drafted a memo to board of elections opposing the Microsoft-based Continued on page 8

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

TAPPED IN Fashion Week Closes on Upper East Side By Samantha Critchell Marc Jacobs closed New York Fashion Week on Thursday night with a memorable show, for sure. He put on a stifling parade of dripping hot models against a decaying beach backdrop in the Park Avenue Armory, which felt like a billion degrees. Catwalkers, including Cara Delevingne, wore high-necked wool and lace numbers decorated with tassels and beads on a boardwalk above black sand strewn with garbage and an abandoned bus. Jacobs puts a lot of thought into the production of his shows and gives the audience only a quick look at the clothes with a fast pace, dim lights and a complicated runway design. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more about the mood, and this one was apocalyptic chic on a stormy Upper East Side night. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The weather, the experience, the rain, this sideways rain, everybody fanning themselves, I think that it kind of just adds to the effect of what it takes to put on some kind of show like this,â&#x20AC;? said Julianne Hough, who added she felt â&#x20AC;&#x153;luckyâ&#x20AC;? to be there. The luckiest models wore Hawaiian print Bermuda shorts and sequined tourist sandals, the flat Velcro-close ones that grandma might wear with socks. That floral print, though, turned into some fabulous

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eveningwear that wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as exaggerated as some of the opening dresses, but with the same drama. Which front-row celebrities - Drew Barrymore, Winona Ryder, Julianne Hough or Hailee Steinfeld - will wear them first? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m just taking it all in now. It looked really, really good,â&#x20AC;? said Barrymore. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I really liked the florals mixed in with the plaids and stuff like that. ... It went by so fast! But, like I said, I saw a floral dress, and I was like, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Oh, that looks perfect.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? One of the best looks was a cocktail dress with navy beads against a black background. It was the peaceful, pretty moment, like waves in moonlight, when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too dark to see the cigarette butts or Starbucks cups. Jackets with puffy sleeves, wide shoulders and embroidery, though, seemed most likely to land on the must-have lists of Jacobs fans or the coolest marching band player you know. Jacobs is considered New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most influential designer, so the stylists, retailers and editors will have something to talk about as they board planes to cross the Atlantic to see what London, Milan and Paris have to offer for next spring.

Re: Michael Gormleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s article (Scaffold Law, September 5, 2013) the author does not realize the risks and dangers faced by construction workers who work at heights, often extreme heights, where an accident means permanent disability or death. In 2008, nineteen deaths of construction workers were reported with many more workers seriously injured. To weaken the law as the author suggests invites more death and injury to workers. The facts are that our Scaffold Law only applies to construction activities and provides that those in the best position to enforce proper safety procedures â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the owners and general contractors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are held strictly liable for injuries resulting from the failure to provide safety equipment and training. Therefore, when a safety device, such a ladder or hoist, fails to do its job, the construction worker injured receives the special protection of the law. The Labor Laws were passed to promote safety in this hazardous and dangerous field. Our legislature recognized that many deaths and injuries associated with working at elevated construction sites could be avoided by merely requiring that site owners and contractors provide vital safety equipment to properly protect the workers. The solution to bring down insurance premiums is not to weaken worker safety laws, it is for owners and contractors to ensure that proper safety procedures and equipment are uses at construction sites to reduce injuries. Michael J. Asta

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

CRIME WATCH

By Jerry Danzig

Ambulette Assault

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An ambulette driver assaulted another driver in a road rage incident. At 11:05 PM on Monday, September 9, a 36-year-old male driver got into a verbal dispute with a private ambulette driver. The dispute escalated, and the 36-year-old took out his phone to record the incident. The driver of the ambulette knocked the other driver’s phone out of his hand to the ground, before quickly getting back into his ambulette and driving away. The 36-year-old followed the ambulette to an Access-A-Ride pickup station on East 70th Street and York Avenue in front of New York Presbyterian Hospital. Both men then exited their vehicles, and the ambulette driver proceeded to shove the other driver and then punched him in the face and head with his closed fist. The 36-year-old’s face and ear on his left side became swollen, but he refused medical attention.

A man was assaulted by an acquaintance who stole his wallet and cell phone. At 11:30 PM on Monday, September 9, a 52-year-old man living on East 61st Street was transported to New York hospital by EMS. He told the hospital staff he did not know what had happened to him, but doctors determined that he had sustained a broken jaw and eye socket. Later, he was able to give details of what had transpired, saying he had been struck with an unknown object and his wallet and cell phone taken by a male perpetrator. This perpetrator was identified as Anthony Elton, a 48-year-old man and acquaintance of the victim.

Phone Fraud

Illustration by John S. Winkleman

SPECIAL DELIVERY A weapon was found in a public mailbox. At 11:30 AM on Monday, September 9, a postal carrier found a weapon in the mailbox on the Southeast corner of Park Avenue and East 94th Street. The weapon was a 32 caliber Smith & Wesson Premier handgun.

Someone opened five cell phone accounts in a woman’s name after filing false tax returns in her name. At 3:30 PM on Tuesday, September 10, a 26-year-old woman living on East 90th Street realized that she had not yet received her income tax return and wanted to find the cause of delay. She called the Internal Revenue Service and was told that the return had been sent. Apparently, someone had used her information but filed giving a different address, so the IRS told her to re-file with her accountant. The woman then said she received mail from AT&T confirming that she wanted to go paperless. So she called AT&T and was told that someone had opened up five cell phone accounts using her name and Social Security number on August 30. The accounts had been opened in the New Jersey 732 area code.

Grabbed at Gunpoint A man had his cell phone robbed at gunpoint. At 11 PM on Saturday, September 7, an 18-year-old man from Grover Beach, CA was sitting on a park bench on the northwest corner of Third Avenue and East 91st Street, when he was approached by an unknown perpetrator who said, “Do not make this harder than it has to be.” The young man then heard what he thought was someone loading a gun, and he felt a cold object being pressed into his neck by a second perpetrator who was standing behind him. The first perpetrator said, “Just give us the phone,” and took the cell phone from the victim’s hand. Both perpetrators then fled on foot northbound between buildings towards East 92nd Street. The victim returned to his apartment on East 91st Street and called 911 using his roommate’s phone. Police searched the area but couldn’t find the robbers. The stolen phone was an iPhone 4 valued at $200.

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NEWS .com STRAUS MEDIA  MANHATTAN PRESIDENT Jeanne Straus EDITOR IN CHIEF Kyle Pope • editor.ot@strausnews.com EDITOR Megan Bungeroth • editor.otdt@strausnews.com CITYARTS EDITOR Armond White • editor.cityarts@strausnews.com STAFF REPORTERS Joanna Fantozzi, Daniel Fitzsimmons FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS Alan S. Chartock, Bette Dewing, Jeanne Martinet, Malachy McCourt, Angela Barbuti, Casey Ward, Laura Shanahan PUBLISHER Gerry Gavin • advertising@strausnews.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth, Kate Walsh ADVERTISING MANAGER Matt Dinerstein CLASSIFIED ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Stephanie Patsiner DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Joe Bendik OUR TOWN is published weekly Copyright © 2013 by Straus Media - Manhattan, LLC 212-868-0190 • 333 Seventh Ave, New York, NY. Straus Media - Manhattan publishes Our Town • The West Side Spirit • Our Town Downtown Chelsea Clinton News • The Westsider To subscribe for 1 year, please send $75 to OUR TOWN, c/o Straus News 20 West Ave., Chester, NY 10918 PREVIOUS OWNERS HAVE INCLUDED: Tom Allon, Isis Ventures, Ed Kayatt, Russ Smith, Bob Trentlion, Jerry Finkelstein

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Targeting Muslims on the Upper East Side ‘People don’t understand, this is our country’ By Daniel Fitzsimmons

t has been known for years now that the NYPD has been spying on the city’s Muslim community. Now, the extent of those operations is becoming clear. Two Associated Press reporters, Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, wrote in a recent New York magazine excerpt of their new book that the NYPD employed officers of Arab descent whose job it was to frequent mosques and Muslim businesses in an attempt to root out radicals. The authors revealed that the NYPD had, with help from the Central Intelligence Agency, built a massive database of Muslim citizens, businesses and places of worship, and that one of their targets was the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, located on the Upper East Side. The center is the largest mosque and Muslim community center in New York City. Nobody at the Islamic center wished to speak with Our Town about NYPD surveillance in their community, but leaders at a downtown mosque, Masjid Manhattan, recently sat down to discuss their views on the issue. Olayinka Dan-Salami, the Masjid general counsel, confirmed that police surveillance has rattled the congregation at the mosque. “They are very upset that Muslims in general are being spied on,” said Dan-Salami. “We are professionals, we do respect those who are not part of our religion. We respect them highly and to now be singled out and to be spied on, we just think that they are telling us ‘you are not part of the community.’”

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Sayeed Chawdhury said there is a common misconception in America that Islam is supportive of terrorism. Pillars of the Islamic faith, he said, forbid killing or even hating another person. He praised America for its religious freedom, but pointed out what he sees as the hypocrisy of the American government, and by extension the NYPD, lobbying for human rights in other countries while simultaneously abusing them at home. Sheikh Mostafa said the Muslim community has nothing to hide, and that extremists can be found in any segment of society. “Why if any Christian in this country does something crazy, do they not call him a terrorist?” asked Mostafa. “We are here to build America. We are here in America to build America, not to demolish America.” Mostafa and Chawdhury said some in their congregation work for the NYPD, and a great deal more - 90 percent, they estimated - are professionals working in city or state agencies or in other professional capacities. “When you try to stereotype a particular community, you’re basically telling that community that [it] is not part of you, you’re making that community second-class citizens,” said Dan-Salami. “And that is what is so hurtful, especially when that very group is also trying as much as possible to assist in any way to build the country and to build the community. And you are now denigrating that very community, that is what is so bad about the whole thing.” Mostafa said efforts to monitor the Muslim community are misguided, because when one segment of society - or an individual - feels singled out, they’re more likely to react negatively to that isolation. The mosque supports the police in their investigations of legitimate terror threats, he said, but not indiscriminate monitoring of the Muslim community as a whole, who he feels are being looked at for no other reason than that they practice Islam. For Chawdhury, there’s also a concern about what impact NYPD monitoring will have on the next generation of Muslims in New York. “They are seeing these things, going to school, they are also serving in the military, serving in the NYPD, in a part of the system, and they’re growing up seeing their uncle, cousin, father being targeted or being spied upon,” said Chawdhury. “In the long run, it’s not going to help. It’s not a fruitful solution.” Dan-Salami said that if the police department has concerns about a member in a particular mosque, than they should approach the leadership of that mosque because they’re willing to help, a statement seconded by Mostafa and Chawdhury. “We are open to anybody. Come talk to us, we are human beings, we are part of society, we are American, [if] you exclude us...the next generation, they’re not going to take it lightly,” said Chawdhury. “In the long run it’s not going to work out.” In addition to being misguided, Mostafa said the NYPD tactics of targeting mosques for surveillance isn’t likely to gain them any leads on terror threats. “You’re not going to find anything, to be honest,” said Mostafa. “You’re not going to find anything in a mosque. Even if they work it 24 hours day.”

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THURSDAY,

NEWS

2nd Ave Key Food Owners On Checkout Line Local grocery store changes hands after 37 years in the community By Joanna Fantozzi “No, no, I got it,” says Richie Durso, the coowner of Key Food to his teenaged employee, as he bends to pick up a box of canned goods and place them on the shelves. He turns around immediately, and explains to yet another customer, probably for the 20th time that day, that her long-term coupon won’t be good next week, because Sunday is their last day in the store. After 37 years, brothers Richie and Frank Durso have sold their Key Foods franchise - a store that has become a staple in the neighborhood. Frank, the elder brother, said that it’s high time, at age 61, that he retires. The store will remain a Key Foods,

but has been sold to Mike Hassin, a Key Foods member who owns several New York Key Foods stores, as well as a C-Town on Long Beach, Long Island, that he bought after Hurricane Sandy had all but destroyed the place. The store will supposedly remain open during the change-over, but Mr. Hassin could not be reached for confirmation of this. Richie insists that Hassin is a competent and upstanding owner, but Frank said that the store won’t be the same. “We’re a neighborhood icon,” said Frank Durso. “No one will treat our customers like we do.” Durso’s customers are also concerned about the change in their local store. Many customers were asking the brothers what changes would come with the new owners, but they could not provide answers. Carol McCabe, the director at the nearby Knickerbocker Senior Center, said that seniors are most worried about if the new owners will raise prices. “Here in the East 90s, that’s definitely the biggest concern,” she said. Josephine Dietz, a nearby resident, said that if the store closed temporarily or changed, she might have to take her business elsewhere. “This isn’t good at all, the store is run by good people,” said Dietz. “It’s a shame.” It’s also a shame for four out of five employees at Key Food. The new employers are hiring a completely new staff. One employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said that come Monday he will start looking for another job. But the Durso brothers are trying to help the transition run as smoothly as possible. “Come Monday morning they will open, and it will be like we never left,” said Richie Durso.

Richie Durso, the co-owner of Key Foods

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

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OUT & ABOUT

Friday, September 20

Saturday, September 21

Central Park Tour: The Ramble Belvedere Castle in Central Park Accessible, Mid-park about 79th Street, 12 - 1 PM, $15 Pass over streams and under arches on a maze of pathways in this secluded, 38-acre woodland on this route, which involves many hills and stairs. Tickets available for purchase onsite. Space is limited. Please arrive at the meeting location 15 minutes before the start of the tour. Contact info: 212-772-0288

Broadway Autumn Fair Broadway from Waverly Place to 14th Street, 10 AM – 6 PM, free Broadway Autumn Fair is a typical NYC street fair featuring vendors with food, jewelry, clothing, apparel, art, crafts, and more. Contact info: 212-809-4900

Shababas Dinner in the Sukkah Lexington Avenue at 92nd St, 6 PM, $30 Welcome Shabbat with friends and family, eat dinner under the stars in our rooftop sukkah and learn about the ancient festival of booths. Contact info: 212-415-5500 Art Exhibition - Notched Bodies: Insects In Contemporary Art Arsenal (in Central Park), 830 5th Avenue, 9 AM – 5 PM, free The exhibition features eleven contemporary artists who offer probing personal interpretations on the importance of insects through a variety of media. Contact info: 212-360-8163

Heart to Heart Concert Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street, 6:30 PM, $36; Members, Seniors, Students, Children $31 Labor of Love hosts the Heart to Heart Concert - New York’s Event for Authentic Traditional/Contemporary Gospel Music. 25 percent of net income goes to aid The American Heart Association. Contact info: 212-864-5400 Health and Race Walking North Meadow Recreation Center in Central Park Accessible, 9:30 AM-11 AM, free Get fit as you enjoy beautiful park landscapes. Co-presented with the NY Walkers Club. Contact info: 212-860-1370 Rooftop Jam / Ages 30-45 Lexington Avenue at 92nd St, 7:30 PM, $30 Enjoy music and refreshments as you take

in panoramic skyline views under the stars. Event moves indoors if it rains. Contact info: 212-415-5500 Chess-in-the-Park Rapid Open Bethesda Fountain in Central Park 9 AM - 6 PM, free All ages outdoor chess competition. Grandmasters will play with challengers throughout the day and there will be chess puzzles for kids. Chess sets, trophies, medals, and other prizes to be awarded following the last round Contact info: 212-643-0225

Sunday, September 22 When Comedy Went to School Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street 5:15 PM, $14; Students, Seniors $12; Members $10. Documentary film. Hosted by comedian/ actor Robert Klein, When Comedy Went to School features interviews with comic greats who redefined standup and sketch comedy, and forever altered the course of American humor. Contact info: 212-864-5400 Summer on the Hudson: Kayaking on the Hudson

Riverside Park, The Downtown Boathouse 10 AM - 5 PM, free Join The Downtown Boathouse for 20-minute instructional paddles, and explore the Hudson River first hand. Please wear a bathing suit or shorts and a t-shirt, and know how to swim. Weather permitting. No registration required. Kayaks and life vests provided. Contact info: 311 Israeliness Family Sundays Lexington Avenue at 92nd St, 4 PM, $30 per family with one child / $35 per family with two or more children An Israeli-style, biweekly program for families with children age 6 months-2nd grade, featuring art, music and Israeli culture, and conducted entirely in Hebrew. Contact info: 212-415-5500 Birding for Families Charles A. Dana Discovery Center in Central Park, 10 - 11 AM, free Take the kids on a walk through the North Woods. Learn how to spot and identify our feathered neighbors in their natural surroundings as you are guided by the NYC Audubon Society and a Conservancy Discovery Guide. Binoculars available to borrow, limited to 20 participants. Ages 5+. Contact info: 212-860-1370

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

OUT & ABOUT

Monday, September 23 D’Ambrose Boyd & David Pearl Present Singers Space Bar Thalia, 2537 Broadway, 8 PM, free Come to Singers Space at Bar Thalia, hosted by D’Ambrose Boyd with David Pearl at the piano, where professional and aspiring singers come to sing their favorites and hear their peers perform before an intimate audience. Bar Thalia offers cocktails, wine & beer, soups, salads, wraps and desserts. There’s no cover and no minimum. Contact info: 646-597-7340 Picturing Science. Special Exhibit in American Museum of Natural History Central Park West at 79th Street, 10 AM 5:45 PM, free with museum admission This exhibition, curated by Mark Siddall, curator in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, features more than 20 sets of largeformat images that showcase the wide range of research being conducted at the Museum as well as how various optical tools are used in scientific studies. Contact info: 212-769-5100

Tuesday, September 24

Lincoln Center Plaza, 7:30 - 11:05 PM, $17-$40 Music Director James Levine makes his long-awaited return to the Met podium to conduct Mozart’s beloved opera about testing the ties of love. The cast is filled with youthful Met stars: Susanna Phillips and Isabel Leonard are the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, Matthew Polenzani and Rodion Pogossov are their lovers, with Danielle de Niese as the scheming Despina. Contact info: 212-362-6000 Central Park Tour: West Side Stories 81st Street and Central Park West, 12 - 1 PM, free Visit an area of the Park off the beaten track for most visitors, but well-known to Upper West Siders. Route involves moderate inclines and a few stairs. Contact info: 212-772-0288 How Important Is Sex In a Relationship? Lexington Avenue at 92nd St, 7 PM, $30 Janis Spindel delves into the importance of having a healthy sexual relationship with your partner. She reveals how the level of intimacy speaks volumes about the physical and emotional status of your relationship. Contact info: 212-415-5500

Così fan tutte at Metropolitan Opera

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

OUR TOWN

For The Love of Italian Coffee Lexington Avenue at 92nd St, 7 PM, $45 Delve into the secrets of the Italian coffee roasters, with their skill, experience and sensitive palates. Learn about coffee’s origins, espresso history, how to make a perfect cup of brew and how to cook with coffee in this fast-paced class. Contact info: 212-415-5500

Wednesday, September 25 Anjellicle Cats Rescue: 4th Annual Life is a Catbaret Variety Show Rundraiser and Benefit Triad Theater, 158 W 72nd St, 8 - 11 PM, $25 Performances will encompass singing, dancing, comedy acts, and monologues in a true cabaret style in a renovated theater renowned for hosting some of the city’s best performers. 100 percent of ticket sales go directly back to ACR and its efforts in rescuing New York City’s many homeless and abandoned cats and kittens. Contact info: 800-838-3006 Youth Soccer Clinic Featuring the New York Red Bulls North Meadow Soccer Fields in Central Park, 4 - 6 PM, free

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Join us for a fun day of drills and skills featuring a chance to meet players from the New York Red Bulls. Pre-registration is required. Contact info: 212-348-4867 An Introduction to Communicating with Difficult People Lexington Avenue at 92nd St, 7 PM, $30 In this interactive session participants will learn how to navigate challenging conversations by practicing a four-step communication model that transforms critical communication barriers into opportunities for clarity, collaboration and action. Contact info: 212-415-5500

Thursday, September 26 Eugene Onegin at Metropolitan Opera Lincoln Center Plaza, 7:30 - 11:05 PM, $17-$40 Deborah Warner’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, set in the late 19th century, moves episodically from farmhouse to ballroom, with a powerful snowstorm providing the dramatic setting for the finale. Starring Anna Netrebko and Mariusz Kwiecien, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Contact info: 212-362-6000

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voting machines. Through his work on the council he met Jonathan Bing, the former NYS Assemblyman for the 73rd District, who took Kallos on as his chief of staff from 20072009. Kallos said notable legislation he worked on with Bing that became law included a bill that improved NYC Select Bus Service and a bill that strengthened crane regulations after two collapses in 2008, one of which was fatal. “By the grace of God it hasn’t happened again, and I hope that that legislation had something to with it,” said Kallos. Kallos then transitioned from being an Assembly chief of staff to becoming the director of policy for Mark Green in his 2009 bid to become Public Advocate. Green was later defeated in a runoff election by Bill DeBlasio. In 2009 Kallos signed on as the executive director for the good government group New Roosevelt, where he worked to unseat former state senator Pedro Espada. Espada was indicted on federal embezzlement and theft charges in 2010. When asked how he won the primary, Kallos said he simply worked hard. “I ran a campaign on openness, transparency and accountability. We had over 150 interns involved here over the course of the campaign and I think it really resonated with people and we just worked really hard,” said Kallos. “We called everyone in the district multiple times, we knocked on their doors, we shook their hands. By the end of [Primary] Day, my field director told me I had spoken to most of the people who voted for me.” Kallos’ campaign was helped along when allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against his former rival and current state Assemblyman in the 76th District, Micah Kellner. Kallos won 46 percent of the vote to Kellner’s 39 and Ed Hartzog’s 15. But Kallos didn’t attribute his win to the allegations against his opponent. “I feel that based on the responses we’ve been getting for the entire campaign and how sick of Albany politics the district is and how people voted citywide, that we were going to take it,” said Kallos. Still, he said that he can’t ignore the scandal as a factor in the race.

“It would be foolish of me not to acknowledge it,” he said, speaking of the Kellner allegations, “and not to acknowledge how we as a city rejected certain behavior that voters do not believe should be in government anymore and I’m proud to have been a candidate, I’m proud to be a part of this city and to be a voter where we voted out Weiner, Spitzer and Lopez...we sent a strong message.” As for his political aspirations, Kallos said part of his recent success was not overextending himself. Although he knew he wanted to enter public service since he was 12, he took his time and gained experience as an organizer, chief of staff and policy director on a city campaign and progressive organization. In four years, he said, he’d like to run for reelection and then, who knows? “It’s however much you think you can do. For me I felt that I needed to run the kind of campaign I did in order to get into office in the way I wanted to so I could accomplish the things I want,” said Kallos. “For now I’m focused on City Council and doing the best job I can do there...I hope that in eight years I merit promotion.” To? “Whatever it may be,” he said.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

NEWS First Week of School Continued from page 1

Owen & Neil, 2nd Grade Twins OT: Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your favorite subject in school? Owen & Neil: Math. OT: Why do you like math? Neil: You get to play under the tub. You pick a number, and then you put some on top and some under. OT: Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d you guys do this week? Neil: We did math, we did reading. Mostly I read animal books. We did reading and writing workshops. And I did art and I did music. OT: Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your favorite part of being back in school. Owen: So I can see my friends? Neil: Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m excited to see what my teachers are like and also see my new classmates. OT: What are you looking forward to about second grade? Neil: Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m looking forward to have fun. Owen: I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to make lots of new friends.

secret and they learn spells. OT: Great. And Nicholas, what do you like about math? Nicholas: I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know, I just like it! OT: Are you good at it? Nicholas: yeah. OT: What did you learn this first week in school? What happened on your first day? Nicholas: Nothing really, butâ&#x20AC;Ś I go in school, and I went for one hour because it was only my first day and then I left. OT: What did you learn this week, Lilah? Lilah: We had a math assessment and a writing assessment and we learned a new math game. I forgot what itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s called but you have these unifix cubes and you have to fill these roads and you have to fill all of them with these unifix cube. OT: Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the nicest part about coming back? Lilah: Seeing my friends! Nicholas: I like seeing my friends, too. OT: What are you looking forward to about first grade? Nicholas: Getting a jumbo marble. Lilah: I liked getting marbles because now I have like ten million marbles. Nicholas: You get them for good behavior. OT: Have you got any marbles already? (Nicholas shows three marbles, which he has been clutching furtively in his hand.) Mom: He got them today. OT: What do you get for good behavior in second grade? Lilah: We get these tickets, and you write your name on them, and then the teacher picks it and one thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a girl and one blue one for the boys and whoever gets picked out of the jar, they get to pick a prize from the box. OT: What are you looking forward to about second grade? Lilah: I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know, I just love my teacher Ms. Rosenberg.

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OUR TOWN

tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s September 11th as I write this and I can glimpse the new WTC Towers from my office window. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to believe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a dozen years since that tragic and fateful day. We have been extremely fortunate to have a Police Commissioner and an NYPD that has combatted terrorism and brought down crime with 5,000 fewer police officers in the past few years. As he leaves the New York stage, Ray Kelly should receive some well-deserved applause. But now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s almost time for the next chapter in our great cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history, and we now know that our new mayor will be either Bill de Blasio or Joe Lhota (with a very slim chance that Bill Thompson will still be in the mix for a run-off, pending a recount over the next week). There are two other third party candidates, Adolfo Carrion and Jack Hidary, both intelligent and well-intentioned men, but even those closest to them know their chances of winning are somewhere between slim and none. What are the lessons to be gleaned by the primary day results? First of all, on the Democratic side, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;hope and changeâ&#x20AC;? candidate won and his ascension was not unlike Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Obamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s steady rise in 2008. Bill de Blasio used Mike Bloomberg as a foil throughout the campaign and he benefitted from the publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weariness with the three-term mayor, the minority communities rising anger over â&#x20AC;&#x153;stop and friskâ&#x20AC;? and the cozy relationship Speaker Quinn had with Bloomberg. Identity politics also helped de Blasioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s late surge; the TV commercial optic of his appealing son Dante with the most famous hairdo in America was one of the most effective campaign ads Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever seen. Bill de Blasio, who worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Bill Clinton administration, also learned an important political lesson from his boss, one of the canniest politicians of the past generation: itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to have empathy and say â&#x20AC;&#x153;I feel your painâ&#x20AC;? to those in the middle- and underclass. De Blasioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s populist message of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Two Citiesâ&#x20AC;? resonated in 2013 in a way it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, for some reason, for Democratic mayoral candidate Freddy Ferer in 2005. In the wake of a very prolonged recession, the subprime

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Tom Allon mortgage crisis and Occupy Wall Street, the public was looking for a class warrior, which is a role de Blasio seems well suited for. On the Republican side, Joe Lhota emerged victorious in a relatively close race against John Catsimatidis, largely because voters seemed to want someone with vast government experience, in addition to a private sector background. Lhotaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very effective campaign slogan â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ready to Lead on Day Oneâ&#x20AC;? is a very different message than deBlasioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Two Citiesâ&#x20AC;? approach. Obviously, Lhota faces an uphill battle in a city with a 6-1 voter registration advantage for Democrats. But Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg over the past five elections proved that party demographics is not destiny, at least when it comes to mayoral races. Lhotaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s victory speech on election night did a good job of explaining the stakes in the upcoming Nov. 5th election: if you believe the city has made dramatic progress in public safety and business friendliness in the past 20 years, then Lhotaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the right choice to continue in that path. If, however, you believe that the city has done too much to help business at the expense of low-income New Yorkers and has paid too high a price in civil liberties for our public safety gains, then de Blasio is your man. Fortunately for New Yorkers, both of these candidates are battle-tested after a long, arduous primary campaign season. They now have almost two months to lay out their different visions for the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future and voters will have a real choice. On the morning after, as we pause to remember our brethren who perished a dozen years ago in the most heinous attack in our cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history, we should gently lean into our cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future and imagine what we want our city to become in the next decade - for ourselves, our kids, our grandkids and our neighbors. Stay tuned - Round Two of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Race for City Hallâ&#x20AC;? is about to begin. Tom Allon, president of City & State, NY, was the Liberal Party-backed candidate for Mayor last year. Questions or comments: tallon@ cityandstateny.com

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

cityArts

Edited by Armond White

New York’s Review of Culture . CityArtsNYC.com

The Britten Season and More A few bets on the ‘ﬁrst semester’ of the classicalmusic season By Jay Nordlinger

he classical-music season is divided into two semesters, in a sense—though the second semester is far longer than the first. At any rate, I will make some recommendations for the first semester. We will begin with the New York Philharmonic. In concerts starting on Sept. 26, Yefim Bronfman will play Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. If you have never heard him play this concerto, treat yourself to it. It is a powerful musical experience. In concerts starting on Oct. 30, Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct a program that includes his own violin concerto. The program also includes music by Ravel and Sibelius. On Dec. 10, Manfred Honeck will lead an allDvorak program. One of the pieces is the violin concerto, in which the soloist will be Anne-Sophie Mutter. Dvorak is a canonical

composer, but, strangely enough, his violin concerto is seldom programmed. Move, now, to Carnegie Hall. On Oct. 10, Valery Gergiev will lead his Mariinsky orchestra in a program of Stravinsky: The Firebird, Pétrouchka and The Rite of Spring. If Gergiev is on, this concert will be hairraisingly marvelous. If he is not, the concert could be a snoozeroo. On Oct. 13, James Levine is scheduled to continue his comeback from an army of health problems. He’s to lead his Met orchestra in a varied program, one that has a soloist: Joyce DiDonato, the American mezzo-soprano. There’s not a better singer in the world right now. A few may be equal (and just a few). But none is better. This is a Britten year—the centennial of that composer’s birth—and we have heard a lot of Britten already. We’ll hear a lot more. On Oct. 20, Ian Bostridge, the English tenor, and others will perform Britten’s Canticles. This work may not be your cup of tea. But chances are it will be brewed superbly. On Oct. 22, Yuja Wang, the sensational young pianist, will give a recital. Like the Mariinsky orchestra, she will play Pétrouchka. On Nov. 2 and 3, the Minnesota Orchestra will give concerts. In the first, Hilary Hahn will be the soloist, playing the Sibelius violin concerto. This could be

a bracing, overwhelming experience, having almost physical effects. In the second concert, Anne-Sofie von Otter will be the soloist. This Swedish mezzo will be singing songs from nearby, composed by the Finnish master Sibelius. On Nov. 12, Joshua Bell will give a recital. Don’t be put off by his Hollywood aura (or on): He is a first-rate violinist. A pianist, Valentina Lisitsa, will give a recital at the 92nd St. Y on Oct. 19. She is a YouTube sensation. We will now have a chance to hear her in the flesh. On Dec. 3, also at the Y, Xuefei Yang will give a recital. She’s a Chinese guitarist, but she can play more Spanishly than almost any Spaniard. On Nov. 19, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will host a concert called “The Virtuoso Benjamin Britten photographed by Cecil Beaton Clarinetist,” headlined by Patricia Racette is in the title role and Roberto that virtuoso clarinetist, and Alagna will sing Cavaradossi. If the stars are profound musician, David Shifrin. Before aligned, that will be a knockout. Die Frau ohne that, on Nov. 10, Great Performers will host Schatten, the Strauss opera, will begin on Nov. an Estonian orchestra and choir, conducted 7. The production is that by the late Herbert by that Estonian maestro, Neeme Järvi. The Wernicke, one of the best productions in the program will feature music by the nation’s Met arsenal. great composer, Arvo Pärt, and also by Mozart: his Ave verum corpus. Starting on Dec. 6, we will have Falstaff. Levine will conduct, and is there a better We will end with the Metropolitan Opera. conductor of this work? In the title role will The season opens on Sept. 23 with Eugene be Ambrogio Maestri, and can anyone do it Onegin, conducted by Gergiev and starring better? Just last month, I heard the Covent Anna Netrebko as Tatiana. That could be a Garden chief, Sir Antonio Pappano, say that charisma-packed affair. Levine is scheduled to Maestri is unrivaled in that role. The maestro, conduct Così fan tutte, starting on Sept. 24. In about Maestri, is dead right. the cast are two singers who rarely disappoint: Isabel Leonard and Matthew Polenzani. The Met will do Tosca, starting on Oct. 29.

Pianist Yuja Wang

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

OUR TOWN

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PAGE 11

CITYARTS FILM

Natural Born Killers Blue Caprice sentimentalizes tragic history By Armond White

n the low-light neo-noir visual scheme of Blue Caprice, dark-skinned actor Isaiah Washington is automatically a silhouette, an emblematic obscure object of both dread and desire. Washington portrays John Muhammad, the elder member of the two-man team responsible for the Beltway sniper killings over three weeks in 2002. French director Alexandre Moors sees this social tragedy from a distance that turns its key elements of race and unfathomable evil into art concepts. This view of how grudge-bearing Muhammad met the lonely, fatherless young John Malvo (played by Tequan Richmond) in Antiqua, then brought him to the U.S. where he trains the kid to be a mindlessly obedient killing machine, is a strange platonic love story. Moora’ cool,

PAGE 12

sleek, steadily ambiguous mood makes projections about Black male character: how insular, stigmatized social figures develop and express anger. Named after the teal-andchrome used car Muhammad and Malvo outfitted into a covert attack vehicle they drive from Tacoma, Washington to D.C., Blue Caprice is an estheticized existential mystery with a political enigma at its center-a shadowy Black boogie man. It’s possible that Washington (who co-produced the film) chose this role to express some of the frustration from his recent career trouble and media vilification--relating in some way to Muhammad’s own resentment of his failed marriage and social profiling. Yet despite Washington’s coiled efforts, this “dark” characterization is not enlightening. It repeats racial stigma and complements the mainstream media routine that exploits Black subjects then ignores their essence. Fittingly, the film’s documentary opening establishes a standard news and sociological point-of-view of the Beltway killings then goes no further. This mystification-recalling David Fincher’s Zodiac “process” and Terrence Malick’s lyrically disaffected Badlands criminals, is in a different class from the trashy political sentimentality of Lee Daniels’ The Butler. But Daniels’ crude film comforts audiences with the sap they already want to see. The Black characters in Blue Caprice are no deeper than these generic title designations-just butler, maid and weapon: The enigmatic duo go underground (“I’ve created a monster” notes a white militia

OUR TOWN

Moors’ Blue Caprice landmines seller). Take driving lessons and target practice (“The kid’s a fuckin’ natural,” says an off-grid white after seeing Malvo’s gun skills). Muhammad writes a Handbook (“A sniper must not be susceptible to emotions such as anxiety or remorse”). Yet their exploits (including s&m-style training sessions in the woods and quasi-sexual professions of love) don’t illuminate the subliminal problem of social maladjustment-even though the major issue comes down to race conflict. In Andre Techine’s probing The Girl on the Train, New York’s Tawana Brawley case was transposed to Paris as a bourgeois white girl’s story to investigate the warped liberalism of too-close identification with social victims while Blue Caprice stays morally distant, catering to spurious, liberal sympathy--the flipside of racist contempt. In this view, Muhammad

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and Malvo are archetypal African Americans and a Black man’s grievance seems just…crazy. Muhammad is livid and Malvo is morally blank; like the protagonist in Louis Malle’s Lacombe, Lucien, they refute any understanding about the effects of racism on personality. At the film’s New Directors/New Films premiere last Spring, the MoMA crowd bought this terror-welcomed it as part of their cultural sophistication--while avoiding any movies about life-affirming Black experience as banal. That’s one of the problems Blue Caprice doesn’t resolve. Why would Washington rebound from career ignominy by portraying a serial killer? The choice could be a perfect response to the frequent Black demonization in film culture (whether it’s Denzel Washington’s rogue cop in Training Day, Halle Berry’s skank in Monsters Ball, Mo’Nique’s gorgon in Precious

or when stereotyping is reversed as in the maudlin victimization of Fruitvale Station). In the same fashion Blue Caprice perceives only the superficial aspects of Muhammad and Malvo’s malevolence and leaves it at that. Muhammad and Malvo aren’t seen with the same inquiring depth as the father-son theft scene in Vittorio deSica’s The Bicycle Theif. Instead, by ignoring--excusing--the complexities of Black American social circumstances, Blue Caprice falls into the same pit as Denzel Washington’s bacchanal in Flight: the query into Black masculine stress is left a bogus mysterious. Malvo becomes a bleeding-heart puppet and gets the last, guiltinducing word: “Where’s my father?” Follow Armond White on Twitter at 3xchair

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

CITYARTS POP

ss World-Cla

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Edith Piaf

Serenading the Little Sparrow Tribute to Edith Piaf on the 50th anniversary of her deathÂ By Valerie GladstoneÂ

ew singers have won so many the hearts as French songstress, Edith Piaf. Known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Little Sparrowâ&#x20AC;? because of her diminutive stature and nervous energy, she became a universal symbol of love, loss and sorrow from the 1940s until her death in 1963 at 47. Now, on the 50th anniversary of her passing, the French production company Morgeme, which presents the popular Franofolies music festivals throughout Europe, has put together a tribute to her with some of the most sophisticated and affecting artists performing today. The line up includes Marianne Faithfull, Duffy, Harry Connick, Jr., Madeleine Peyroux, Patricia Kaas and Angelique Kidjo, among others. They join together on September 19 at the Beacon Theatre and at Town Hall on September 20 to sing her songs, like â&#x20AC;&#x153;La Vie en rose,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Non, je ne regrette rien,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hymne Ă lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;amour,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Milordâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;La Foule,â&#x20AC;? against the backdrop of films of her legendary stage performances.Â Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;We want to seduce New Yorkers into loving Edith Piaf again,â&#x20AC;? says Gerard Post, a producer of the concert. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They love French food, French

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

perfume, French clothes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they miss so much if they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t also love her and her music.â&#x20AC;?Â A resilient woman, she had an incredibly tough life. Abandoned by her parents, she spent her earliest years with her maternal grandmother who ran a brothel. She joined her father, a street acrobat, as an entertainer at 14, leaving that behind to devote herself to singing at 17. Discovered by a club owner a few years later, she became an icon to French troops in World War II, and afterwards, took the rest of the world by storm. Fame gave her the freedom to fully indulge herself in music and love affairs. But three car crashes left her with a dependence on alcohol and morphine, which led to her early death.Â Kidjo remembers listening to Piaf growing up in Benin, her world music-loving father putting the singer on the highest pedestal. Soon she was practicing singing the songs herself. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I love her because every word comes from her guts,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She puts her whole soul, her whole body into her songs. She never worried about being pretty or nice. She sang that life could be harsh but that it always has possibilities. She said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Look at me. My life was hard but see what music gives me, the power to transcend the hardships.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; In love and music, she found magic.â&#x20AC;?Â Tickets for the concerts September 19 at the Beacon Theatre and September 20 at Town Hall are on sale now via Ticketmaster.com and charge-by-phone at 800-745-3000.Â

OUR TOWN

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innie Mandela, Nelson Mandelaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first wife, keeper of his flame during his years of incarceration before falling to the vicissitudes of South African revolution and her own ego, should be a great role for a real actress yet the part went to singer Jennifer Hudson who won an Oscar for Dreamgirls-part of the Motion Picture Academyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s late liberal congratulation of its own sentimental progressivismâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a hypocritical notion for an industry that continues to ignore the struggles of dedicated actresses of color. Despite all the colors in the Winnie role (naĂŻve young daughter, ardent wife, defiant prisoner, principled activist, forceful leader, desperate despot, resentful martyr, rueful underdog), the movie Winnie Mandela (originally released in 2011 but just now opening in the U.S.) presents a nearly pallid historical figure. South African director Darrell Roodt moves through the life of the woman considered â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Mother of the Nation,â&#x20AC;? yet canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t overcome Western film cultureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basic indifference to the diverse moods and complexity of Black women. Taking on a role already portrayed on film by Alfre Woodard, Tina Lifford and Sophie Okenedo, Hudson lacks the varied emotional subtlety required to make a memorable characterization. She works at it but her bovine features and placid beauty donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t spark, even during Winnieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stalwart speeches, moments of anger or the ought-tobe poignant, ironic, torture-scene recitation of Shakespeareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sonnet 18, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Shall I compare thee to a summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s day?â&#x20AC;? When Hudson isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t soloing diva-style, she just seems sullen. But I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to make this about Hudson; her attempts to break from being cloudy and dull are related to a larger problem: When trained Black actresses lose opportunities to showbiz anomalies (singers, models, kids) the experiences of Black women get diminished rather than memorably

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dramatized--compounding the issue of roles that might be misconceived to begin with. A list of casualties precede Hudsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Winnie but the misfortune is particularly felt in Winnie Mandela when a lifetime of desire, ambition, bravery, bewilderment and deep, deep regret simply passes by as a nightmare pageant. (An end-credit montage of the actual Winnieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s piercing eyes lays waste to filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s drama.) The extraordinary act of Nelson Mandela, following his release from prison and rise to Presidency in the new post-Apartheid South Africa, divorcing himself from his controversial disgraced wife, offers a profusion of moral paradoxes. Only the Macbeths are parallel. Yet, aside from Terrence Howardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s glamour and skill as Nelson (sexier than Jeffrey Wrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s MLK in Boycott), the remarkable personal-political moment where Mandela declares â&#x20AC;&#x153;I do not part from her with recriminations but embrace her with all the love and affection I have felt for her since the moment I first met herâ&#x20AC;? is bland as Hudsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Afro-hauteur. Winnie Mandelaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s failure betokens a larger crisis. Its weak though incendiary politics are nearly as insipid as Lee Danielsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; The Butler. This story of South African struggle is less familiar and so less tiresome than how the U.S. Civil Rights struggle has been sentimentalized by mainstream media, yet this iconic duo is as non-threatening as The Butler. (When Howard wears an afro with a part down the center and a near Van Dyke beard he has a radical, militant air later assigned to secondary thugs in Winnieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s football team-army). This is consistent with the Obama era idea of passive, ineffectual Black leadership. Strange that this unchallenging notion pleases viewers (white and Black) who are susceptible to Hollywood suasion, no matter how meretricious. Just imagine the Winnie Mandela that Erykah Badu might have flaunted. Instead, this era of film industry appeasement (where the mere idea of putting a Black story on screen suckers the public) is unfortunately epitomized by various Black female betrayals-from Myrlie Eversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; patronizing endorsement of The Help to Alice Walkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recent tasteless, self-pitying praise of The Butler and this sad, tepid Winnie Mandela. Follow Armond White on Twitter at 3xchair

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

NEWS

NY Bridges Found Deficient and Dangerous A review found that hundreds of New York stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bridges are structurally deďŹ cient, and several of those are in NYC By Verena Dobnik

he lifeline of New York City, surrounded by water, is the bridges that link its five boroughs to each other and the world. But the aging structures including the beautiful, landmark Brooklyn Bridge - could now themselves be at risk if billions of dollars arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t spent to keep modernizing them. Some of these crucial connectors in the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest urban community are among more than 2,000 New York state bridges the government says are structurally deficient and badly need repairs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I say, you have a legal, moral and ethical obligation as stewards of the traveling public not to let people go over something thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unsafe,â&#x20AC;? says leading construction attorney Barry LePatner, author of the book â&#x20AC;&#x153;Too Big to Fall: Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Failing Infrastructure and the Way Forward.â&#x20AC;? An Associated Press review of 607,380 bridges in the federal governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Bridge Inventory found that 65,605 of them are structurally deficient. That means theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in need of rehabilitation or replacement because at least one major component of the span has advanced deterioration or other problems that lead inspectors to deem its condition â&#x20AC;&#x153;poorâ&#x20AC;? or worse. According to the most recent data, 20,808 bridges are deemed â&#x20AC;&#x153;fracture critical,â&#x20AC;? meaning they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have redundant protections and are at risk of collapse if a single, vital component fails. Some 7,795 bridges nationwide fall into both categories - a combination of red flags that experts say is particularly problematic.

More than 400 of these are in New York state. The list includes the Brooklyn Bridge, which is undergoing a four-year, $500 million reconstruction. Completed in 1883, the suspension span over the East River is being updated for about 120,000 vehicles and thousands of pedestrians crossing daily. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was designed before vehicles were in existence, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s never going to be corrected for those things,â&#x20AC;? said Richard Marchione, head of the state Department of Transportationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office of Structures, responsible for bridge evaluation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;To maintain it is a big proposition for the traffic it now carries.â&#x20AC;? The state-owned Kosciuszko Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens, from 1939, is considered one of the most dangerous stretches of roadway in New York, with 160,000 daily vehicles causing massive bottlenecks resulting in a far above-average number of accidents. Gov. Andrew Cuomo helped fast-track $800 million in funding to replace the narrow twin arch with a new, ninelane bridge by about 2017. But all in all, New York Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest bridges are in generally good shape, because the administrations of two mayors, Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, had committed more than $5 billion â&#x20AC;&#x153;to make our bridges safe,â&#x20AC;? LePatner says. On the 82-year-old George Washington Bridge between Manhattan and New Jersey, hundreds of steel beams are being replaced, and about $1 billion is going into renovating the 77-year-old Robert F. Kennedy Bridge previously called the Triborough - that takes travelers to the John F. Kennedy International Airport. Most state bridges facing the double whammy of being both structurally deficient and fracture critical are not in imminent danger of collapsing, says Beau Duffy, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s open, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not unsafe,â&#x20AC;? he says. Not so, says LePatner - especially with

deteriorated old bridges. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The physics is that they could fall at a momentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s notice, or next month or next year if theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re left in the current condition,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a ticking time bomb.â&#x20AC;? New York state is sprinkled with bridges that were not designed for the volume of traffic they are handling. Emergency construction on dozens has been accelerated. Others were shut down altogether. In

Macedon, 20 miles outside Rochester, a closed bridge is not scheduled for repair until 2015. And in Buffalo, where a half-dozen bridges were under repair this year, the running joke is that the city has two seasons: winter and construction. Also needing constant fixing are bridges used by Amtrak trains, and the Metro-North and Long Island commuter railroads to New York City suburbs.

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OUR TOWN

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PAGE 15

SHOPPING AROUND

Spoiled Brats Makes Happy Cats The West Side pet shop has both supplies and kitties for adoption By Laura Shanahan

hen you enter this store, you will probably be greeted by Corvetta, a petite raven-haired beauty. “How old is she?” I discreetly asked another patron who was enjoying Corvetta’s friendly attention. Yes, I know, an unspeakably rude question – but I was curious, noticing patches of gray hair marbled throughout the black. Besides, I couldn’t ask Corvetta herself: She doesn’t speak English. “Old!” replied the woman, with obvious affection. As you’ve doubtless guessed, Corvetta is a cat – the house cat, as it were – at Spoiled Brats, a family-run pet-supply shop at 340 W. 49th St. In case you’re disappointed, because even from her brief description, you’ve kinda bonded with Corvetta already, be of good

PAGE 16

bone. Better yet, I’m going throw you a rubber cheer: This narrow but extremely lengthy chicken; specifically, a Sqawkie Talkies Cheech and stocked to the rafters store has a special the Cheeky Chicken. Looking more like “cat room” in the back, where several kitties something a Borscht Belt comedian would toss from Anjellicle Cats Rescue are secured in around as a prop, the nearly two-foot-long their own clean, comfortable surroundings, skinny bird is, as its name suggests, a squeaky complete with carpeted “kitty condo,” until toy – but more like a squeaky toy on steroids. I they are adopted. gave this item a little squeeze, and a startlingly Anjellicle, for the uninitiated, is a decadeold highly regarded Clinton area mainstay. It is robust, near air-raid-siren-like squeak burst forth from its rubbery a no-kill all-volunteer beak for what seemed group that works Spoiled Brats an eternity – this closely with Animal 340 W. 49th St; of course would be Care & Control to Phone (212) 459-1615 music to the ears of pull cats that are in What’s special: This family-run any squeaky-toydanger of – how to pet-supply shop stocks top-of-theloving pooch, and put this? – not getting line vittles, clever toys, free delivery aren’t they all? Never out alive. The day I in Manhattan – and hosts beautiful mind the neighbors visited Spoiled Brats, adoptable Anjellicle Cats Rescue’s – they can move! I saw two beautiful felines in a special “cat room” in back. (Besides, you’ll butterscotchmostly be playing in and-white kitties the park with this, comfortably resting, no?) Please pay the nice folks at Spoiled Brats along with a gray-and-white tabby. (For a $15 for Cheech. full listing of the many gorgeous adoptable What’s this? Elegant, beautifully boxed critters, visit anjelliclecats.com, and prepare to Votivo candles in a pet-supply store? You bet, fall in love multiple times.) says Eddie, a friendly staffer here, explaining Alright, I can hear you pooches and dog“that some people have three cats, four cats…” lovers growling, so I’m going to throw you a

OUR TOWN

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Well, whether pet odors are a problem for you or not, these chunky candles make any living situation smell great. Consider these luscious choices: Moroccan Fig, Morning Violet, Breath of Lavender, Pink Mimosa, Bright Leaf Tobacco and uber-fresh Clean Crisp White; $26 per. There are lots more unexpected, and expected, items here – pet toys, litter, leashes, collars and so forth – but the food’s the thing, and what’s stocked is top-drawer, heavy on the holistic, specialty formulated and organic. Best-selling brands include Newman’s Own Organics, Stella & Chewy’s, By Nature and Halo. The last’s popular Spot’s Stew line sounds like it’s for dogs, but this line’s holistically based products include kitty varieties as well; $1.39 for a 3-oz. can and $1.79 for a 6-oz. size. Does anyone really buy smaller cans, when double sizes cost negligibly more? Signed, Just Wondering…

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PAGE 17

CELEBRITY PROFILE

When Lady Gaga Was Still Just Stefani In his new book, author Brendan Jay Sullivan remembers the history of the Lower East Side By Adam Janos

he “One day, when I’m famous” daydream is shared throughout New York City; by struggling musicians and bullied children; by underpaid barbacks and underappreciated college students alike. The counterpoint daydream: “One day, when someone I know is famous” probably gets considerably less airtime. Yet statistically speaking, it’s a much more likely future outcome. It’s also exactly what happened to Brendan Jay Sullivan, 31-year-old author of “Rivington Was Ours: Lady Gaga, The Lower East Side, and the Prime of Our Lives.” In the book, Sullivan shares the story of his life working the Lower East Side night scene as DJ VH1, and the friendship he fostered with Lady Gaga. As Gaga – a struggling NYU dropoutcum-performance artist – attempts to blaze a trail that will lead her from go-go dancing in seedy dive bars to tangible prestige, Sullivan attempts to grow up and out of his first New York heartbreak. Gaga succeeds in that mission (spoiler!), and in the story’s retelling, Sullivan succeeds in his: capturing the raw ups and downs of being 25, creative, and ambitious in New York. And although the narration is at turns self-congratulatory and/or trite, it’s also unflinchingly honest and self-aware. And that honesty, like a bubblegum pop Billboard Hit of the summer, ultimately wins the reader over. We caught up with Sullivan to discuss the book.

This book is all about working on the Lower East Side. How do you feel like the neighborhood has changed since the book’s 2006-2008 setting? The thing about New York is everything you love about it changes, and you just have to learn to love that too. Wherever you live, when you walk down the street, you’re the expert on your street. You know when a restaurant goes in, or when a neighbor builds a deck. In New York, you just don’t watch things disappear - you watch them turn into something else. and the same with the people in your life. The great thing about New York is you have the

PAGE 18

city to remind us that things will change, but it’s an opportunity to take a look back.

For every Lady Gaga, there are 10,000 New York artists who are struggling. How much of her fame do you attribute to talent, how much to business savvy, and how much to luck? What we call luck is a result of thousands of hours behind Gaga that we never saw. She worked and worked and worked. And people who work like to work with people who work.

The New York art scene is, in large part, about status. A few years ago, you raised a fair share of money online to help a homeless woman name Jackie. Talk a little about that relationship, and what it means to you. Well, I was on my way to a job interview, and this homeless woman asked me for money, and I had to tell her I didn’t have any. And she said “You’d better not, because I ask you every day.” And I said, “I’m on my way to a job interview right now, but if I get the job, I’ll take you out for Chinese food on my first paycheck.” I didn’t have anybody rooting for me then, this was before Gaga… and then I got to share my life with somebody. Because I no longer thought “I want to get out of this job,” I’d think “maybe if I earn a little more money, I can take Jackie out”. And for a while I made tons of money, but I lost all of that in one very long winter. And some of my old friends, they didn’t really care to hang out with me, now that I had no money, status, or connections. But Jackie did, and that’s why Jackie’s my real friend. Jackie had an opportunity to move into a place. She went from subway to halfway house

OUR TOWN

to YWCA… and then through Common Ground, she got a place. She moves in, but she’s far from her friends, and she has no sheets, and she would sleep on the floor. So I started the drive, to help her set up her apartment. I wanted to make a video to show people how important Jackie was to me, but I was also afraid to admit that I had lost my job during that time. I was afraid to admit that ConEdison was coming to shut off my power. During that time, I had to tell her that day I couldn’t give her any money. But instead of abandoning me like everyone else did, she came over with a big bag of groceries, and took care of me until I found a new job.

Most people don’t have homeless or formerly homeless friends, and most people don’t have megafamous friends either. Talk about the diﬀerence between the two, and what these two people have brought out of you.

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Jackie doesn’t care that I’m a big famous DJ. She cares that I’m her friend, and that I’m doing okay. And that I’m not going to leave.

When was the last time you worked with Lady Gaga? Right at the end of 2008.

How often do you two speak today? I see her when you see her. It goes back to what I was saying before, how things in New York, things don’t disappear, they just turn into something else. I celebrate our relationship the way I celebrate everything else in New York.

Where can New Yorkers ﬁnd your book? There are signed copies at Housing Works Books [126 Crosby Street] that we’ve donated to fight the twin problems of AIDS and homelessness in our city, and there are other signed copies at the Tenement Museum [91 Orchard Street]. It was also chosen as a “Best New Non-Fiction” book by Barnes & Noble, and can be purchased at their stores.

Now that Lady Gaga is famous and those days are over, how do you look back on her? I don’t think about working for her, I think about how I was going through a rough breakup, and there were only two people who called to check on me. One was Jackie, and the other was Gaga.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

NEIGHBORHOOD REAL ESTATE SALES Reported September 9, 2013 - September 15, 2013 Neighborhood Address

Apt.

Sale Price

All Upper E Side

140 E 72 St.

#21A

$3,750,000

Beekman

434 E 52 St.

#10C

$750,000

414 E 52 St.

#8A

$995,000

30 Beekman Place

#3Bc

411 E 50 St. Carnegie Hill

Lenox Hill

Midtown

Midtown E

Br Ba Listing Brokerage

Kleier Residential

$1,635,000

Corcoran

$4,600,000

Mercedes Berk

414 E 52 St.

#2G

$480,000

Douglas Elliman

120 E 87 St.

#P14g

$785,000

Douglas Elliman

1045 Park Ave.

#4C

$1,450,000

Corcoran

61 E 86 St.

#46

$1,210,405

Douglas Elliman

1075 Park Ave.

#1B

$1,225,000

Corcoran

141 E 88Th St.

#6C

$3,120,000

Stribling

1060 Park Ave.

#6B

$465,000

Douglas Elliman

1088 Park Ave.

#8A

$5,075,000

Brown Harris Stevens

8 E 96 St.

#2C

$2,550,000

Douglas Elliman

61 E 86 St.

#65

$1,500,000

Corcoran

152 E 94 St.

#7A

$1,250,000

Douglas Elliman

140 E 95 St.

#4E

$300,000

Halstead Property

134 E 93 St.

#7B

$1,800,000

Halstead Property

4 E 95 St.

#9A

$1,575,000

124 E 91 St.

#6Cd

$1,710,000

Brown Harris Stevens

181 E 90 St.

#21A+

$3,442,500

220 E 65 St.

#11D

$883,000

200 E 66Th St.

#D1103

$2,400,000

Town Residential

132 E 65 St.

#Ph2

$5,820,688

300 E 71 St.

#3M

$670,000

Metrobrokers

205 E 63 St.

#15C

$780,000

Kleier Residential

220 E 65 St.

#16N

$1,225,000

Douglas Elliman

310 E 70 St.

#11P

$1,695,000

Corcoran

233 E 69 St.

#14J

$715,000

Douglas Elliman

139 E 63 St.

#4B

$1,100,000

Halstead Property

201 E 66 St.

#9E

$1,450,000

Sotheby's International

220 E 60 St.

#8H

$735,000

Sotheby's International

575 Park Ave.

#1207

$726,000

233 E 70 St.

#16U

$545,000

Halstead Property

420 E 64 St.

#Epha

$985,000

Miriam Izsak Realty Llc

205 E 63 St.

#6H

$304,000

Corcoran

520 E 72 St.

#7G

$319,000

Brown Harris Stevens

720 Park Ave.

#16A

$24,000,000 3

Corcoran

117 E 57 St.

#27G

$890,000

Douglas Elliman

117 E 57 St.

#42H

$1,975,000

Sotheby's International

721 5 Ave.

#61L

$14,300,000 3

Think Properties

220 E 57 St.

#3D

$570,000

Corcoran

153 E 57 St.

#2D

$415,000

Rudd Group

207 E 57 St.

#11B

$2,775,000

Corcoran

Midtown South

220 Madison Ave.

#8Q

$950,000

Argo Residential

Murray Hill

415 E 37 St.

#11F

$985,000

Luxury Habitat

5 Tudor City Place

#2034

$253,500

Steven Corcoran

225 E 36 St.

#12C

$280,000

Halstead Property

67 Park Ave.

#5D

$570,000

Sotheby's International

152 E 35 St.

#3D

$295,000

Douglas Elliman

45 Park Ave.

#402

$1,319,898

Douglas Elliman

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

OUR TOWN

Nominate Your favorite doorman super or building cleaner! Do you know a great doorman, porter or handyman where you live? Is there an office cleaner, security officer or maintenance worker who helps make life a little easier at work? How about a school, theater, event or stadium cleaner who deserves recognition? Join Our Town, The West Side Spirit, Our Town Downtown and 32BJ SEIU, the property workers union, in honoring the people who keep our homes, offices, schools and public buildings clean and running smoothly. We’ll be selecting the people you nominate and vote for at a special awards ceremony in October, and be writing about them in New York’s leading community newspaper. So tell us, who’s gone above and beyond to make residents’, tenants’ and New Yorkers’ lives better?

GO TO: buildingworkerawards.com TO VOTE

Nominate and Vote Today

Deadline for voting is September 20, 2013 For more information, contact Courtney Knifﬁn at 212.868.0190 accounting@strausnews.com or Teresa Candori at 212.388.3696 tcandori@seiu32bj.org PRESENTS THE

BUILDING

SERVICE WORKERS

AWARDS