cityArts
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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.
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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
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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