The local paper for the Upper er East Side AUTHOR DIGS INTO POLITICS IN NEW NOVEL < Q&A, P. 21
GLOBAL MARCHES DRAW ATTENTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
2014
OURTOWNNY.COM
OurTownEastSide @OurTownNYC
DE BLASIO: INCOME INEQUALITY NOT ACCEPTABLE
Massive crowds flocked to Manhattan streets to demand environmental action BY VERENA DOBNIK AND MICHAEL SISAK
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In Brief
NEWS
Tens of thousands of activists walked through Manhattan, warning that climate change is destroying the Earth -- in stride with demonstrators around the world who urged policymakers to take quick action. Most came on foot for the Sunday march, others with bicycles and walkers, and some even in wheelchairs. Many wore costumes and marched to drumbeats. One woman played the accordion. But their message was not entertaining. “We’re going to lose our planet in the next generation if things continue this way,” said Bert Garskof, 81, as a family member pushed his wheelchair through Times Square. He had first heard about global warming in 1967, “when no one was paying much attention,” said Garskof, a native New Yorker and professor of psychology at Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University. Organizers said more than 100,000 marched in New York, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Evangeline Lilly. They were joined in midtown by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former Vice President Al Gore and Mayor Bill de Blasio. On Tuesday, more than 120 world leaders convened for the United Nations Climate Summit aimed at galvanizing political will for a new global climate treaty by the end of 2015. “I am overwhelmed by such a strong power, energy and voice of people,” Ban told reporters. “I hope this voice will be truly reflected to the leaders
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER
Issa Nails Salon on Lexington Avenue gets high online ratings, despite a tough report on health practices in the city’s nail businesses.
DIRT UNDER THE NAIL SALON PUBLIC SAFETY A report by the Public Advocate’s office found that many of the city’s nail salons don’t adhere to state safety guidelines BY NICOLE DEL MAURO & DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
UPPER EAST SIDE On a recent Sunday afternoon at Issa Nails Salon on Lexington Avenue between 61st and 62nd streets, three manicurists dutifully shape and file their client’s fingernails with sterilized tools and freshly opened, individually wrapped nail files without gloves on. Across the salon, two pedicurists work on clients side by side, one wearing a facial mask and latex gloves while the other is not. Meanwhile, to clean her desk after
completing a manicure, the store’s manager folds a paper towel filled with nail clippings and wipes it across her work space, pushing the remaining nails on the desk to the floor. With nail salons dotting nearly every block, and the whims of Yelp reviewers holding enormous sway, the competition for customers is fierce. Issa Nails Salon, at 800 Lexington Avenue, has a four and a half star Yelp rating from a total of 50 reviews - a high rating. But most of the positive reviews, while mentioning cleanliness, focus on the service and quality of the nail procedures, and not too much on safety. That was also the conclusion of a recent study published by the Public Advocate’s office, “How Safe is Your Nail Salon?” In the report, Public Advocate Letitia James found that many of the city’s nail salons don’t
follow the proper safety regulations, designed to protect both workers and customers. One major reason for unsafe and unsanitary conditions in nail salons is that New York’s Dept. of State has only 27 inspectors who are charged with monitoring 5,000 salons statewide, 2,000 of which are in the city. One Dept. of State report said that over the past four years, 56 percent of salons inspected were cited for violations; 11 percent for operating without a license, 13 percent for employing unlicensed practitioners, 19 percent for sanitary violations, 53 percent for technical violations like uncovered trashcans, and 20 percent for no proof of insurance. Nail salons are popular in New York, which employs the second highest number of nail technicians
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Bill de Blasio, who was elected mayor on a promise to fight the city’s income inequality gap, said that new data indicating Manhattan is the most economically stratified place in the nation is further proof of the “crisis” that threatens his city. Manhattan’s top five percent of households earn 88 times as much as the poorest 20 percent, according to data released by the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. That gap, which translates to more than $860,000, is the largest in the nation. About 1.7 million of the city’s 8.4 million residents live below the poverty line, according to the data from 2013, the final year of exMayor Michael Bloomberg’s term. “It’s not an acceptable state of affairs,” de Blasio said after an unrelated event in the Bronx. “It’s something we have to grapple with.” De Blasio’s underdog campaign struck a chord last year with many poor of working-class voters who felt forgotten by what they believed were Bloomberg’s Wall Street-centric policies. But while he said his administration has used “every tool available to local government” to combat the problem, he needs help from Washington, particularly in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. “The big missing link here is we need a federal government committed to addressing income inequality,” the mayor said. “We don’t have it now. If we don’t have a Congress willing to take on this issue, it will undermine this nation.” Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat and the Holiday candles. Rosh Hashanah, Thursday September 25 - after 7:28 pm* Friday September 26 6:28 pm* (from a pre-existing flame.) For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com.