Our Town December 04th, 2014 by Our Town

The local paper for the Upper er East Side WEEK OF DECEMBER A MODERN MADAME OF ART, CITY ARTS P. 12 >

4-10 2014

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A NEW TACK IN THE FIGHT OVER TRASH STATION

In Brief MAYOR HIGHLIGHTS LATEST CRIME STATS

NEWS The battle has shifted from killing the project to moving its access ramp BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

UPPER EAST SIDE Asphalt Green this week launched two high-profile ads targeting Mayor Bill de Blasio over his position on the E. 91st St. marine transfer station. The ads – a full-page color spread in The New York Times and a 30-second TV spot – are not seeking to stop the MTS outright. Rather, they implore the mayor to agree to a plan that moves the ramp for dump trucks going to and from the MTS one block north to 92nd St. The campaign is the most tangible sign yet that opponents of the plan are facing the reality that the MTS will be built, and are shifting their focus to mitigating its impact on the community. Asphalt Green, a sports complex on the Hudson River, is at the epicenter of construction surrounding the MTS. The current access ramp runs right through the facility, bisecting the main complex and nearby soccer fields. The athletic complex hired engineer Sam Schwartz, who formerly held a position in the DOT and still does some consulting work for the city, to identify other locations where the ramp could go. His firm came up with E. 92nd St. as an alternative, and Asphalt Green and Schwartz have spent the past few weeks trying to convince the city to agree to their plan. They say they’ve been successful in getting their idea across to officials at the DOT and the Dept. of Design and Construction, but have so far not received an answer as to whether the city will move the ramp a block north. “These meetings are quite frequent,”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 23

THE TRAGEDY AFTER INVESTIGATION As many as 260 pedestrians are expected to die this year on New York City streets. But almost none of the drivers involved in those cases will be prosecuted -- adding to the nightmare for the families of the victims.

BY JILL ABRAMSON oﬁa Russo was 45 minutes late for her appointment with justice. But she didn’t miss much. On Nov. 20, Judge Gregory Carro swiftly pushed off until January the sentencing of Franklin Reyes, the teenager who ran over and killed Russo’s 4-year-old daughter, Ariel. So, as she did on this day, Russo, a teacher, will ﬁnd someone to cover for her class next month when she returns to court again, hoping to

see Reyes punished for Ariel’s death, now more than a year and a half ago, in June 2013. Russo said in an interview that she ﬁnds cruel irony in the fact that she teaches history to boys the same age as Reyes, who was 17 when he ran over Ariel and her grandmother in a Nissan Frontier SUV in front of the little girl’s preschool on the Upper West Side. This is why she initially sympathized with Reyes. “The majority of my kids are 16 and 17, including a lot of troubled boys. This could have been one of my students,” she said. But empathy has hardened into rage in the months since the accident. Although Reyes had tried to ﬂee the scene, backing up so violently he pinned Ariel and her grandmother to a nearby restaurant’s metal grating, he was treated leniently, charged as a minor and freed on bail. This despite the fact that the crash that killed Ariel was the result of another crime: Reyes was driving without a license, speeding up Am-

sterdam Avenue in an attempt to ﬂee from cops who had seen him driving erratically and ordered him to pull over. The chase ended with the fatal crash on 97th Street. Originally, by giving him bail and charging him as a minor, Judge Carro was giving Reyes a chance to avoid having a public criminal record. But on Sept. 3, Reyes was again stopped for driving recklessly, without a license. This time, in speeding away, Reyes dragged the cop 100 feet and then led police on another chase, hitting a car and almost injuring a parking attendant before he was arrested. This time, he was sent to Rikers Island, where he has been ever since, except for a visit to a city hospital for chest pains, after which he again ran away from the police and had to be chased down. (In the months before that arrest, Reyes was charged with petty larceny for stealing from an apartment building where his father was the super.)

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bratton announced the city’s latest crime numbers and outlined the administration’s work this year to strengthen the relationship between police and community. Be Blasio pointed out as an example that lowlevel marijuana arrests—which disproportionately affect young men of color—have decreased by 61.2 percent since the new policy launched by the de Blasio administration last month. De Blasio and Bratton also announced that the NYPD body camera pilot program will begin this week, starting with the training of three commands where stop-and-frisk rates have been the highest: PSA 2, 40 Precinct, and the 120 Precinct. “Thanks to the NYPD and the leadership of Police Commissioner Bratton, crime in New York City is at historic lows,” said de Blasio. “But this administration doesn’t rest on its laurels—we will continue to build on our efforts to strengthen the bond between our police officers and communities they service, working to keep New York the safest big city in the nation.” The mayor announced that the overall index crime is down 4.4 percent at the end of November, and that homicides in New York City have decreased by 6.8 percent; robbery is down 14.4 percent; and rape is down 2.9 percent from already historically low numbers. The four month period of August through November has had the lowest number of shooting incidents and homicides compared to prior August through November periods since 1993.

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2 Our Townâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS CHECK

LOW-INCOME SENIOR HOUSING COULD COME TO EAST SIDE City officials recently suggested granting Draper Hall, a former nurseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dorm on First Ave. near 90th St., a 99year lease in order to build low-income senior housing. According to the plan, which would be funded by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Draper Hill proposes building an additional 13 ďŹ&#x201A;oors to the 114,463 square foot building. The Daily News reports the project would be completed by the end of 2016 and consist of 202 units, most of which would be one-bedrooms. The developer would lease the site for $100,000 per year. The proposal is currently in review by City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. The council needs to approve the plan before it can go into effect. Daily News

SENIOR MUGGED & SEVERELY INJURED A 69 year-old woman was mugged and had her arm broken by a robber on East 83rd Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues on Nov. 9. The robber stole the senior citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brook Brothers purse,

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The City Council is considering a proposal to build new affordable housing for seniors at this site on First Avenue near 90th Street.

which contained $100 and a cell phone. He forcefully grabbed the womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bag from behind her, pushing her to the ground. The victimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arm was broken and her face and hand cut as a result. The suspect has yet to be identiďŹ ed but was seen on surveillance tapes wearing a blue baseball cap. New York Post

STRICT NEW SPEED LIMIT ENFORCEMENT The city is making an active attempt to improve pedestrian safety, and drivers report that the new 25 mph speed limit is being strictly enforced. The Post reports that a taxi driver from Queens was pulled over and ticketed by a cop with a radar gun on at West 39th

Street and Seventh Avenue in Midtown for driving 5 miles above the speed limit. He was driving at 30 mph in a 25 mph zone. The driver received a $148 ďŹ ne and 3 points on both his and his hackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s license. The driver, who has been driving a taxi for 27 years, said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was surprised. Everybody is going 30 mph. Getting stopped for going 30 is very unusual. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very hard to drive going 25.â&#x20AC;? Stricter traffic patrol is a result of Mayor Bill de Blasioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Vision Zero plan, which aims to reduce New York Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s traffic fatalities. The plan lowered the speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph. The Post reports that studies show pedestrians are 50 percent less likely to die if struck by a car driving 25 mph than one driving 30 mph. To ensure drivers are aware of the new law and its consequences, the city has sent street teams to talk about it with taxi drivers. The city also launched a social media campaign for the new law that shows the families of people fatally struck by vehicles in the city. New York Post

SON OF BROOKE ASTOR, CONVICTED OF STEALING FROM HER, DIES AT 90 Anthony D. Marshall, the only son of the late socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor, died on Sunday in Manhattan, the New York Times reported. Marshall had previously been convicted, along with one of Astorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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attorneys, on charges of grand larceny for taking huge sums of money from his motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s estate. The lawyer, Francis X. Morrissey, Jr., was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy for forging Astorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s signature and helping Marshall allocate a $1 million raise for himself retroactively for managing his wealthy motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ nances. Astor, who died in 2007 at age 105, had been suffering from Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, and a jury found that both Marshall and Morrissey took advantage of her weakened mental state to swindle her. Marshall began serving his sentence of one to three years in prison in June 2013, but was released on medical parole two months later. His conviction marked the conclusion of years of legal battles between him and Astorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s friends and grandchildren, with Marshall accused of mismanaging his motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s estate by his own son. Marshall, who was married three times and is survived by his wife Charlene and two sons and three grandchildren, as well as his wifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s children and stepgrandchildren, lived a varied and at times extravagant life afforded by his motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inheritance. He served in the Marines and was wounded at Iwo Jima, worked for the C.I.A. in the 1950s, served as a U.S. ambassador to several countries, wrote seven books and won Tony awards for his Broadway productions. New York Times

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

NYPD: 10 ARRESTED DURING FERGUSON DECISION PROTEST The NYPD says 10 people were arrested as thousands protested the decision not to indict a white Ferguson, Missouri, police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager. The arrests occurred in Times Square. Four people were charged with resisting arrest and six with disorderly conduct. There were no injuries. Police say the protests were largely peaceful. Police Commissioner William Bratton said officers were giving protesters “breathing room” to express outrage as long as they remained nonviolent. The protesters gathered in Union Square before splitting up into separate groups, chanting “No justice, no peace.” They caused traffic disruptions on the FDR Drive and congregated at the entrances

to the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges and the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

19TH PRECINCT Report covering the week 11/17/2014 through 11/23/2014

GRAND SUMS FOR GRANDSONS Two senior Upper East Side residents were taken this week in the pernicious “grandson in peril” phone scam. At 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 20, a 79-year-old man received a call from someone stating that his grandson was in trouble down in Santo Domingo and needed his help. The man was instructed to wire $12,200 via Western Union, which he did. Police said the incident is still under investigation. At 9 a.m. on the same day -- Thursday, November 20 -- an 85-year-old woman received a phone call from someone purporting to be an officer with the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic. The caller stated that her grandson had been in a vehicle accident and needed $3,500 in funds to be sent by means of Green Dot money cards. The woman visited multiple stores to collect Green Dot cards in that amount, and when she called the phone number she had been given, she

Week to Date

Year to Date

2014 2013

% Change

2014

2013

% Change

Murder

n/a

Rape

n/a

Robbery

-50

-16.3

Felony Assault

100

-1.1

Burglary

-57.1

199

200

-0.5

Grand Larceny

-16.7

1,240

1,380

-10.1

Grand Larceny Auto

n/a

42.3

was then instructed to send an additional $4,000 in Green Dot funds. She bought additional cards and was then instructed to send even more money. In all, the woman bought ﬁfteen Green Dot money cards worth a total of $7,574.

CELL KNELL Cell phones continue to prove attractive targets for thieves. At 9:50 a.m. on Monday, November 24, two man walked into an Upper East Side telecommunications store and stole four cell phones before

running away in an unknown direction. The cell phones were an iPhone 6 and 6+, as well as a Samsung Note 4 and Galaxy S 5 valued at a total of $2,775. Bad Break One man paid a really high price for a three-day vacation.

At 12 noon on Saturday, November 15, a 54-year-old man went on vacation. During the next seventy-two hours, unauthorized charges appeared on his credit cards totaling $11,274. Police are investigating the crime.

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4 Our Town DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 19th Precinct

153 E. 67th St.

212-452-0600

FDNY 22 Ladder Co 13

159 E. 85th St.

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HORSE-BAN VOTE COULD COME EARLY NEXT YEAR NEWS

CITY COUNCIL Councilmember Daniel Garodnick

211 E. 43rd St. #1205

212-818-0580

Councilmember Ben Kallos

244 E. 93rd St.

212-860-1950

STATE LEGISLATORS State Sen. Jose M. Serrano

157 E. 104 St.

212-828-5829

State Senator Liz Krueger

1850 2nd Ave.

212-490-9535

Assembly Member Dan Quart

360 E. 57th St.

212-605-0937

Assembly Member Micah Kellner

1365 1st Ave.

212-860-4906

COMMUNITY BOARD 8

505 Park Ave. #620

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LIBRARIES Yorkville

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Mayor Bill de Blasio’s long-delayed plans to ban the city’s horse carriages are finally moving forward with a bill that phases out the industry by 2016 and dangles a carrot for the soon-to-be unemployed drivers: a career driving a taxi. That measure was set to be introduced at a City Council meeting next week but it already drew fierce opposition from the 400 drivers and stable hands who say it was an insult to suggest they could be satisfied with another way of life. “We want to stay in business, and the horse is our business, “ said Christina Hansen, a carriage horse driver who claimed de Blasio is ill-informed on the issue. “The mayor still hasn’t been to the stables.” During his bid for mayor a year ago, Bill de Blasio repeatedly told supporters that “on Day One” he would end what he saw as the inhumane practice of the colorful coaches clip-clopping their way through Central Park and the surrounding streets. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito confirmed that the bill currently being drafted with the mayor’s support would likely be voted on early next year, and de Blasio said he would not be in favor of further delays. “We think it’s time to end horse carriages in this city and it’s time to act on it,” he said. Under the bill, the industry would be phased out by the middle of 2016, with exceptions made for film sets and some

parades. The bill would offer job training classes and the waiver of nearly all the fees associated with the license to drive a green taxi, which predominantly pick up passengers outside the heart of Manhattan. “We’re in the tourist ﬁeld, not the taxi cab

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business. We don’t want to be in the taxi cab business,” said driver Stephen Malone, noting that the holiday season was the absolute worst time to push this legislation. Allie Friedman, head of the group leading the charge to ban the practice, NYCLASS, cheered the news, saying it was “the right creative solution that benefits all New Yorkers by adding jobs while also ending an unsafe and inhumane industry.” That sharp back-and-forth was emblematic of a months-long debate that grew increasingly heated and occupied a bigger and bigger portion of the city’s headlines, much to de Blasio’s exasperation. The mayor — and the animal welfare activists who donated $1.3 million to his campaign — said the ban should be enacted because the streets of the nation’s largest city are no places for horses. A groundswell of support emerged to save the horses. Actor Liam Neeson led a media blitz that portrayed the industry as an iconic, romantic part of New York that supported many Irish immigrants. A series of city unions — who usually are de Blasio’s staunch allies — broke with the mayor, urging him to reconsider his decision in order to save not only the industry’s jobs but a proﬁtable source of tourism. A recent poll revealed that nearly twothirds of New Yorkers were in favor of keeping the horses at least in Central Park. And The New York Daily News launched a frontpage campaign called “Save our Horses” that ﬁlled its pages with pro-carriage stories and an online petition that recorded tens of thousands of signatures.

Notice of Joint Public Hearing, December 8, 2014 Intent to Award as a Concession the Operation of Souvenir & Gift Concessions in Various Locations within Central Park, Manhattan to the Central Park Conservancy, Inc. NOTICE OF A JOINT PUBLIC HEARING of the Franchise and Concession Review Committee and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to be held on Monday, December 8, 2014 at 125 Worth Street, 2nd Floor Auditorium, Borough of Manhattan, commencing at 2:30 p.m. relative to: INTENT TO AWARD as a concession the operation of souvenir and gift concessions in various locations within Central Park, Manhattan (“Licensed Premises”), for a potential nineteen (19) year term, to the Central Park Conservancy, Inc. (“CPC”). Compensation to the City will be as follows: In lieu of a license fee, CPC shall use the revenue generated from the sale of Souvenirs/Gifts to offset the cost of providing Visitor Services and maintenance and repairs at the Licensed Premises. A draft copy of the agreement may be reviewed or obtained at no cost, commencing Thursday November 20, 2014 through Monday, December 8, 2014, between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm, excluding weekends and holidays at the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, located at 830 Fifth Avenue, Room 313, New York, NY 10065. Individuals requesting Sign Language Interpreters should contact the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, Public Hearings Unit, 253 Broadway, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10007, (212) 788-7490, no later than SEVEN (7) BUSINESS DAYS PRIOR TO THE PUBLIC HEARING. TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR THE DEAF (TDD) 212-504-4115

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THE TRAGEDY AFTER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 On Nov. 20, the judge refused a request from Reyes’ lawyers that he be freed on bail, angrily deriding his lawyer’s claim that he had a psychological report showing Reyes could be trusted out on the streets. Sofia Russo is 28, with dark curly long hair and glasses. She tends to tear up when talking about Ariel and wonders how “drivers can kill people and nothing happens.” Dana Lerner is also waiting for justice. Her 9-year-old son, Cooper Stock, was killed by a cab driver a year ago. Like Ariel, who was holding tight to her grandmother when she was struck, Cooper was holding his father’s hand as he crossed West End Avenue with the light. But the office of District Attorney Cyrus Vance told Lerner that it would not bring criminal charges against the cab driver, Kofi Komiani. New York City operates under the so-called Rule of Two, which requires drivers to be found to flout two driving laws in order to be charged. It took months for Komiani to even be ticketed. “Enforcement is weak to non-existent,” said Lerner, who has since become a highprofile critic of the way fatal traffic accidents are handled in New York City. “The attitude is, accidents happen.” In an interview, Lerner said she was particularly troubled that one of the cops at the scene kept telling her that Komiani was remorseful and using the word accident to describe the fatal crash that killed Cooper. Amy Tam-Liao and her husband, Hsi-Pei Liao, were also troubled this month, after learning that the two tickets issued by the city’s Department of Motor Vehicles to the driver who killed their three-year-old daughter, Ally, were dismissed. Ally was going to buy a watermelon in Flushing with her grandmother, who was also injured in the crash. The parents only found out about the ticket dismissal when they went to a deposition in a wrongful death civil case they have filed against the driver, Abu Zayedeha. Even though Zayedeha was found to have elevated blood alcohol at the time of the crash, it was too low for him to be criminally charged, according to the lawyer for the Liaos, Steven Vaccaro. Zayedeha was ticketed for failing to use due care and failure to yield, which carry $250 penalties. Those were the charges dropped by a DMV judge. “Knowing this driver was in the wrong, we don’t understand how this could have happened,” said Hsi-Pei Liao, Ally’s father. The answer is this: If you want to kill someone in New York City and get away with it, the weapon of choice should be a vehicle. It’s the perfect crime. Fewer than 7 percent of the drivers in fatal crashes that kill pedestrians are ticketed and only a tiny fraction, usually only those driving drunk, face any criminal charges. As of May, the most recent statistics

available for 2014, 54 pedestrians and cyclists have been killed by cars in New York City. There have been 5,669 injuries, making this year slightly better than last, with 168 fatalities and 16,000 injuries. (Since 2012, 23 children under 14 have been killed by cars in the city. In New York, motor vehiclerelated injury is the leading cause of injury deaths for young children.) While the number of pedestrian deaths in New York is comparable to other large cities, according to transportation experts, what’s starkly different is the enforcement, or lack of it. Neighboring states like New Jersey and Connecticut treat drivers much more harshly when they kill someone. “The comparison is troubling,” said Brad Aron, who has been compiling statistics on traffic deaths for years as a writer for Streetsblog. Aron says that New York City “has a culture of deference,” when it comes to drivers. In Streetsblog, Aron points out that other states are far less permissive to drivers. In Alabama, to cause death while violating a traffic law is to commit homicide, regardless of intent. In many states, the severity of the charges in non-fatal crashes depends on the injuries of the victim. Finally, the seeds of tougher attitudes are being planted in New York, at least at the top of the city’s government. In June, Mayor de Blasio signed 11 bills under Vision Zero, the most ambitious of which reduced the city’s speed limit to 25 m.p.h. (The odds of surviving being hit by a car are about 60 percent when the speed limit was 35; those odds increase to 80 percent under the new law). In June, the mayor also signed a law that creates a misdemeanor criminal penalty for drivers who kill pedestrians or motorists with the right of way. But Lerner and the other parents say that as good as the mayor’s efforts are, they aren’t enough. Concerted action by the Police Department, the District Attorneys and the DMV is required to change a culture of lax enforcement, they said in many interviews since the summer. While the Police Department’s Thomas Chan, the new head of the N Y PD Transportation Bureau, has pledged to train the entire 35,000-member force to use the new laws to be tougher on bad drivers who kill, the department’s Collision Investigation Squad only has about 30 case investigators right now. While some family members of those killed praised the police who handled their cases, others said the police sometimes blame the victims, not the drivers. They also suspect that the police leak erroneous facts about the deaths. For example, when graphic artist Jean Chambers was killed by a driver over the summer, there were inaccurate early news reports that she was using her cellphone as she crossed West End Avenue (her phone records showed this was not true). After Ally Liao’s death, there were erroneous reports that she had broken free from

her grandmother. “Getting falsely blamed for not holding Ally’s hand tight enough hurt my mother most of all,” says Hsi-Pei Liao. Sometimes families have to sue to get the accident reports in the deaths of their relatives. Names of drivers are almost never made public, except in the rare case of criminal charges. Police Commissioner William Bratton, while allowing room for improvement, said the number of tickets issued by the police to speeding or erratic drivers has gone up 15 percent since the Vision Zero laws were enacted. Increasing the number of speed cameras has helped. The number of summons for failure to yield has doubled. Still, DMV Commissioner Barbara Fiala has faced intense criticism after Hsi-Pei Liao publicized on Twitter the dismissal of the tickets in Ally’s death. (The commissioner has also been criticized for getting a speeding ticket herself, shortly after her son was arrested for drunk driving after hitting a cyclist and fleeing the scene.) The most frequent complaint voiced by the families of dead pedestrians is the reluctance of the city’s D.A.s, especially Manhattan’s Cyrus Vance, to file criminal charges against drivers. “In the Cooper Stock case they could have at least suspended the driver’s license of the cab driver,” said attorney Matthew Dawes, “they just don’t have any cojones.” This is surprising, because Vance made a campaign vow to abrogate the Rule of Two and to be more aggressive. But early in his tenure, his office had an embarrassing defeat in the case of the death of a 68-year-old woman who was killed by a driver while she was bicycling in Chelsea with her husband over the Fourth of July weekend in 2011. Her name was Marilyn Dershowitz and she was the sister-in-law of famed law professor Alan Dershowitz. The driver, postal worker Ian Clement, had initially left the scene of the crash. He was acquitted by a jury in 2012. Since then, there haven’t been any high-profile prosecutions by Vance in traffic death cases. Michael Cheung recently met with the same Assistant D.A., Erin LaFarge, who handled the failed prosecution of the Dershowitz

case. He says that in a meeting on Nov. 20, LaFarge went out of her way to defend the driver who killed his mother, Sau Ying Lee, in a Chinatown crosswalk in October. “She came up with all kinds of excuses to protect the criminal driver,” Cheung said in an email. Vance, through a spokeswoman, Joan Vallero, disputed that account of LaFarge’s conversation with Cheung. Vallero also denied that the difficulties with the Dershowitz case inﬂuenced how the office has handled subsequent cases. “The outcome of that case has no bearing on any other case,” she said in an email. In an appearance at Fordham Law School earlier this month, Vance was pressed on why his office prosecutes so few motorists who kill pedestrians. Vance said that his “instinct is to work on behalf of victims,” but that “there are cases which are tragic but may not have the facts to support a criminal prosecution and conviction.” He vowed to commit more resources to pedestrian cases and is considering supporting a stiffer penalty for failure to yield, one of the most common infractions of motorists who hit pedestrians. What’s beginning to change, say many people tracking the issue, is the activism of victims’ families. Transportation Alternatives and family members created an offshoot, Families for Safe Streets, which has begun to organize protests and become vocal

Clockwise, from top: Dana Lerner, center, seated at the end of the table, with a photo of her son, Cooper Stock, with other families who have lost loves ones in traffic accidents; Upper right: Soﬁa Russo; Right: Amy Tam-Liao and her husband, Hsi-Pei Liao, whose three-old-daughter Ally died in a traffic accident, and who have since had another baby; Lower right: Cooper Stock; Below: the Upper West Side intersection renamed in honor of Ariel Russo.

If you want to kill someone in New York City and get away with it, the weapon of choice should be a vehicle.”

DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 7

THE TOLL OF TRAGEDY A selection of some of the city’s pedestrian traffic fatalities so far this year Ariel Russo June 4, 2013 Four-year-old Ariel Russo was killed when an SUV driven by Franklin Reyes, a teenager with no license, hit her and her grandmother near West 97th St. and Amsterdam Ave. Allison Liao October 6th, 2013 Three-year-old Ally Liao was hit by an SUV when she was walking with her grandmother in Queens.

about the failure to prosecute drivers. (A rally is planned for this Sunday, Dec. 7, at City Hall.) Dana Lerner, a member, recently published an op-ed on the subject in The New York Times. The Liaos spoke out on local television when the tickets of the driver who killed their daughter were dismissed. The families’ efforts have caught the attention of politicians. U.S. Representative Grace Ming and City Councilmember Margaret Chin have become active in the Liao case and Councilmember Helen Rosenthal says she has become passionate about creating safer streets because of multiple deaths, including Cooper Stock and Jean Chambers, in her district. “This needs to be treated as seriously as an epidemic,” she said in an interview in her office. “It needs the full attention of the best law enforcement and public health thinkers.” I learned about the existence of Families for Safe Streets after I published a long account in the Times about my experience and those of three of my colleagues. All of us had been run over and seriously hurt. My encounter with a delivery truck in 2007 left me with a broken femur, pelvis and foot as well as a bad limp and traumatic stress syndrome. In the article, I mentioned the death of Cooper Stock. The day after the article ran, I got a call from Dana Lerner. “I’m the mom of the boy you mentioned,” she said. She came to the newspaper the next day and told me about the changes she was pushing for in the traffic laws and city street designs. “Some days I feel I can’t even get out of bed,” she said. “What keeps me going is trying to give meaning to Cooper’s death and prevent others.” Soon I was attending a fundraising reception for Families for Safe Streets. It was beyond odd to be at a cocktail party where the chatting quickly revealed that almost all the attendees had sustained a horrific family loss. Steve Hindy, the president of Brooklyn Brewery, told me about the death of his son, Sam, 27, who was hit by a car as he cycled home over the Manhattan Bridge.

Cooper Stock January 10th, 2014 Nine-year-old Cooper Stock was hit and killed by a taxi as he was crossing the street with his father at West End Ave. and 97th St.

Sau Ying Lee October 14th, 2014 90-year-old Sau Ying Lee was crossing near Elizabeth St. and Canal St. when she was hit and killed by a passing vehicle.

Alex Shear January 10th, 2014 The 73-year-old Americana antique collector Alex Shear was hit and killed by a tour bus near Broadway and West 96th St. while he was on his way to a restaurant for dinner.

Robert Perry November 24th, 2014 Robert Perry, 57, was struck by a BMW at 6:50 p.m. as he crossed the Bowery between Rivington St. and Prince St., and was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after.

In New York, motor vehiclerelated injury is the leading cause of injury deaths for young children.” The deaths of children have been a rallying point to change driving laws in New York City. In the 1920s, when driving became prevalent in the city, cars and trucks killed 7,000 children annually. In letters to the editors in those days, parents called the drivers murderers. There were mob attacks on motorists. A popular novel called “Manslaughter” became a rallying point for demanding tougher laws, as did a King Vidor movie, “The Crowd,” which showed the death of a small child in New York City pinned under the wheels of a truck. The ﬁrst speed limits were enacted and other public safety laws soon followed. That kind of public anger is missing now. Even some family members of victims prefer to call crashes accidents. “You can’t criminalize accidents,” John Chambers, the husband of Jean Chambers, told me. “It’s an act of God,” said Martin Levin, whose wife, Bonnie, was killed by a driver on a rainy day this summer on 31st Street and Seventh Avenue. New laws have been passed under pressure from parents whose children have been injured or killed. In 2009, Elle Vandenberghe was hit in the crosswalk during her second week in pre-school. The driver who hit her was rushing to claim a parking spot on E. 82nd Street. Elle’s Law was passed, under which drivers can lose their licenses for six months to a year for failing to yield and injuring pedestrians. (Elle lived, but needed multiple operations.) After Haley Ng , 4, and Diego Martinez, 3, were killed by a delivery van in Chinatown in 2009, the driver, who backed up and struck the children, wasn’t charged. Haley and Diego’s

Law increased the penalties for careless driving on a first offense. Cooper’s Law makes it easier to revoke the Taxi and Limousine Commission licenses of cabbies who hit pedestrians as a result of failure to yield. Ariel’s Law requires the time ambulances are dispatched to be measured from the first call for help. A delay in Ariel Russo’s case may have contributed to her death. “But these laws won’t mean anything unless they are enforced,” said Dana Lerner. The driver in my case was neither ticketed nor charged. I was hit and dragged down, run over by both the front and back tires of a heavy white food delivery truck. The driver lied in his deposition, claiming he saw me stand up in his rear view mirror as he drove away. (I would not be able to put any weight on my legs for three months). Other pedestrians stopped to help me and chased down the truck. I sued the truck company and won a settlement. By any measure, I was one of the lucky ones. On Friday, the cab driver in the Cooper Stock death will appear in criminal court on his traffic ticket. It is unclear whether he will be fined or otherwise punished. D.A. Vance wanted him to be forced to appear in court, in part to blunt criticism of his office for not bringing criminal charges in the case. Sofia Russo is still waiting for the sentencing of Franklin Reyes, the driver who killed her daughter and badly injured her mother, who is still, according to Sofia, “completely traumatized.” Meanwhile, about 260 people are expected to be killed in New York City in traffic deaths this year, if the current trend continues, which is slightly lower than in 2013, the worst year for pedestrians in this city in seven years. Jill Abramson is the former executive editor of The New York Times. In October, she announced plans for a digital journalism startup with Steven Brill.

8 Our Town DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

Voices

LANDSCAPERS TAKE ON THE FRICK To the editor: Many thanks for the article “Frick Opponents Get Organized: Coalition of community groups coalesce against museum expansion,” which helps provide context for the Frick Collection’s proposed expansion and the impact this action would have. However, concern about this is not limited to a coalition of community groups, as the subhead notes. Shortly after the Frick plans were unveiled, Charles A. Birnbaum, founder and president

of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a national organization based in Washington, DC, wrote a June 30, 2014 feature story for the Huffington Post and moved the discussion of the Russell Page-designed garden on East 70th Street from being non-existent (or peripheral, at-best), to being a central focus of this debate. This issue was picked up Michael Kimmelman’s July 31 NY Times article, in which Mr. Birnbaum is quoted. In an August 26 Huffington Post feature, Mr. Birnbaum broke the news by publishing a 1977

Frick Collection press release and supporting material that undermines a fundamental argument by current Frick officials, that the Page garden was temporary – the 1977 press release and additional material state the garden was designed to be a “permanent garden.” The garden is also included in the foundation’s Landslide 2014: Art and the Landscape - a compendium of nationally significant works of land-based are that are threatened and at–risk. Recently, the Garden History Society in the UK has written to Mayor de Blasio expressing their opposition to the garden’s destruction. And, the Garden Museum in London – which is not an advocacy organization – wrote Mayor

de Blasio to provide scholarly context for the garden – they are also mounting an exhibition about Page, in which the Frick garden is featured, which opens in March 2015. In addition, in the NY Times, there is a letter to the editor from the statewide New York chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects that expresses opposition to the garden’s demolition, and argues that it’s eligible to the National Register of Historic Places. Many thanks for your attention. Nord Wennerstrom Director of Communications, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Washington, D.C.

THANKFUL FOR THANKSGIVING To the Editor: Season’s Greetings! This letter is concerning the wonderful and delicious Thanksgiving Day dinner I enjoyed with great company at St. Stephen’s of Hungary Parish on November 27th. With nowhere to go for the holiday and friends and family hither and yon’ I decided to attend this year’s Thanksgiving feast with my German friend at St. Stephen’s having read about their dinner in Our Town. It was not what I expected: in the past I had attended church dinners upstate where the audience had been congregants and far ﬂung residents comprising the disabled,

homeless and the single elderly. At St. Stephen’s I was pleasantly surprised to ﬁnd a diverse and prosperous audience both in composition and age, intergenerational in fact. Being a ﬁrst generation American of German and Hungarian stock I was looking for Old World Europeans to converse in the languages of my ancestry. I was seated in excellent company with none other than your intrepid, pedestrian rights and safety advocate, columnist Bette Dewing. I also saw in the audience fellow members of the East 79th Street Neighborhood Association and the 19th Precinct Community Council.

The Thanksgiving turkey meal itself was outstanding. Much of the food was donated by community merchants and businesses including Agata and Valentina, Orwasher’s, Ottomanelli’s, Fairway and private individuals to name a few. St. Stephen’s Thanksghiving dinner has been a tradition in the neighborhood for the past six years but its existence may be in jeopardy. The Archdiocese has slated St. Stephen’s Parish for closure in the future aiming to merge its congregation with St. Monica’s on 79th Street between York and First Avenues. Such a move would be a dire circumstance for St. Stephen’s and a tre-

mendous loss for the community and neighborhood. St. Stephen’s has bilingual (Hungrian and and English) church services, an excellent school, athletic competitions,cultural programming and a food pantry for the needy in the community. I certainly do hope that Cardinal Dolan will reconsider his decision and realize the great asset that St. Stephen’s is to the Upper East Side. Wishing everyone at Our Town and St. Stephen’s a joyous and properous holiday season. Sincerely, Andrea K. Zimmermann E. 75th St.

STRAUS MEDIA-MANHATTAN President, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com Vice President/CFO Otilia Bertolotti Vice President/CRO Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnew.com

Publisher, Gerry Gavin Associate Publishers, Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth

Sr. Account Executive, Tania Cade Account Executive Sam R. McCausland Susan Wynn

Editor In Chief, Kyle Pope editor.ot@strausnews.com Editor, Megan Bungeroth editor.otdt@strausnews.com

Staff Reporters, Gabrielle Alfiero, Daniel Fitzsimmons

Block Mayors, Ann Morris, Upper West Side Jennifer Peterson, Upper East Side Gail Dubov, Upper West Side Edith Marks, Upper West Side

DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 9

My Story

In praise of a community BY BETTE DEWING ave the communities, and that’s what Thanksgiving, Chanukah and Christmas are sort of about, Charlie Brown. But let’s start with the shopping: may it mostly be done at small community businesses, and not only on Small Business Saturdays. Forget Black Fridays and CyberMondays. But, oh remember we must, to somehow help restore the small businesses destroyed in Ferguson. And we’re still thinking about the sixth year of St. Stephen of Hungary’s Thanksgiving dinner for its members and the community-at-large, and the prayers there by multi-faith people and hopes by non-believers, that there will be a seventh one and beyond. Indeed, they hoped all the parishes slated for closure or merger next August would be saved. The whole community needs them. Thanksgiving Day media rightly covered “soup kitchen” type festive dinners and the volunteers who made them happen. And the mayor, in essence, said, “Nobody should be hungry, especially on Thanksgiving!” Amen! But there are very many who can afford the food in this mobile and go-it-alone society who may have to eat solo. And that is a major reason St. Stephen’s Thanksgiving dinner for its members and the community came about. We remember gratefully the Christmas Day Strudel Breakfasts at Zion St. Mark’s Lutheran Church when it was pastored by the Reverend Manfred Bahmann, who knew some in the church and neighborhood would otherwise be alone on that day. And indeed, not only Christians partake in these church holiday gatherings; for example, Community Emergency Response Team member, Joy Zagoren, who is Jewish, rushed over to my St. Stephen’s dinner table with a Daily News piece which, she said, “you must

write about this!” And how welcome was the half-page photo and story about Mira Wexler, 76, and Helena Weglowski, 85, being so gratefully reunited at JFK airport after 70 years. They and their families so thankfully remember how Weglowski’s Catholic family sheltered Wexler and her mother from the Nazis. (How thankful we’d be if all Daily News female photos were G-rated like this one not to mention, coverage of more stories like this one.) Incidentally, many at the dinner thanked me for this newspaper’s coverage of “the church crisis,” and for its concerted efforts to save small businesses. And yes, the food could not have been better at St. Stephen’s Thanksgiving dinner, and all prepared in the church kitchen by church members, but more importantly, it brought people together from the neighborhood, some for the ﬁrst time, and others who see each other too seldom in the nabe or only on Sundays, or at meetings like the 19th Precinct Community Council, the East 79th Street Neighborhood Association, and the 60-plus exercise group led by physical therapist Betsy O’Neill. Ms. O’Neill is also on St. Stephen’s Church Council which, under the direction of its pastor, Msgr. Thomas T. Leonard, has appealed the merger with St. Monica’s, citing some very valid reasons why it should not occur. For example, unlike St. Stephen’s, St. Monica’s is not

handicapped accessible, and I might add anyone wanting to shop at St. Monica’s annual Christmas Bazaar must be able to do steep stairs. While many Thanksgiving diners were mid-life and older, there were some millennials and families with youngsters, including Aaron Murphy, who was a most laudable church member volunteer - and role model, My tablemates included non-church member Ted Bloecher, who once sang in musicals like “My Fair Lady” and “Hello Dolly.” And, hey, what we needed there and everywhere, and not only on holidays, are sing alongs! (Singing’s better than talking sometimes, and for we who can’t process speech so well in group settings.) And I should have thought to ask Ted to lead a sing-along at our table. Next year, and again, we so hope, and yes, pray, there will be another one for this church, and for the others as well - because they do so much untold good for the community-at-large, as well as for their own parishioners. And we can’t afford to lose any more faith groups. And again, thank you St. Stephen of Hungary for this blessed Thanksgiving community dinner, and to all the volunteers for preparing a four-star meal for 200 people, and so much more that, well, just helps build what the late, great Dr. Karl Menninger believed the nation so urgently needed – “ caring communities.” dewingbetter@aol.com

Media Sponsor: Straus Media

10 West Side Spirit DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

Out & About 212-666-9774 info@columbusamsterdambid.org www.columbusamsterdambid.org

to nyc in support of her True Colors Fund for homeless lgbt youth. 212-465-6500. www. beacontheatre.com, www. truecolorsfund.org

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING On December 8th, 2014 at 10:00 a.m., a public hearing will be held in City Hall, New York, NY 10007, for the purpose of considering a local law which authorizes an increase in the annual amount to be expended in the [insert name of the Business Improvement District] not to exceed $[insert amount of the 2015 assessment].

FOURTH UNIVERSALIST HOLIDAY CRAFT MARKET 4th Universalist Society, 160 Central Park West at 76th. 1-6 p.m.Free. Join the Fourth Universalist Society for their fun-ﬁlled 2nd annual Holiday craft fair. 212-595-1658. www.4thu. org

Walk Our Avenues Under Lit Snowflakes

Warm Up In Our Neighborhood Cafes Birch Coffee 750 Columbus Ave. & 96 St. 212-665-1444 Bistro Ten 18 1018 Amsterdam Ave. & 110 St. 212-662-7600 Busters NYC 892 Amsterdam Ave. & 103 St. 212-665-5045 Café Amrita 301 W. 110 St. 212-222-0683 Crepes on Columbus 990 Columbus Ave. & 108 St. 212-222-0259 108th St Mini Café 196 W. 108 St. & Amsterdam Ave. 212-662 0445 La Toulousaine 942 Amsterdam Ave. & 106 St. 212-866-2253 Miss Mamie’s Spoonbread 366 W. 100 St. & Columbus 212-865-6744 Zanny’s Café 975 Columbus & 109 St. 212-316-6849

Flavors Of The World Eat Local, Taste Global Arco Café (Sardinian) 886 Amsterdam Ave. & 103 St. 212-665-0033 Awash (Ehiopian) 947 Amsterdam Ave. & 106 St. 212-961-1416 Casa Mexicana (Mexican) 894 Amsterdam Ave. & 103 St. 212-222-3151 Chico Julio (Mexican) 768 Amsterdam Ave. & 97 St. 212-749-2929 Freda’s (Caribbean Soul) 993 Columbus Ave. & 109 St. 646-438-9832 Isola (Italian) 994 Columbus Ave. & 109 St. 212-665-2970 Lura (Mediterranean) 949 Columbus Ave. & 107 St. 212-866-7500 Maharaja Palace (Indian) 931 Amsterdam Ave. & 106 St. 212-662-5000 Roti Roll (Indian) 994 Amsterdam Ave. & 109 St. 212-666-1500 Saiguette (Vietnamese) 935 Columbus Ave. & 106 St. 212-665-2970 Shahi Biryani (Punjabi) 71 W. 109 St. & Columbus Ave. 212-222-8820 Tropical Sensation (Latin) 953 Amsterdam Ave. & 107 St. 212-222-0098 Tatz Gourmet Sweetz (Bakery) 844 Amsterdam & 101 St. 212-864-2932 Thai Market (Thai) 960 Amsterdam Ave. & 107 St. 212-280-4575 Warique (Peruvian) 852 Amsterdam Ave. & 102 St. 212-865-0101 NEW Restaurants in Italics

Complete EVENTS and Restaurant Guide on our website www.columbusamsterdambid.org Columbus Amsterdam BID @Col_AmBID fb.me/ColAmBID 212-666-9774

info@columbusamsterdambid.org

5 ALISA WEILERSTEIN AND THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, 132 West 65th St. at Broadway. 2 p.m., $30-$134. See the star cellist Alisa Weilerstein perform in Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with the Philharmonic. 212-875-5030. www. lincolncenter.org

STAGE FRIGHT The Theater at Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus

Cir. at Eighth Ave. 7 p.m., $10 general, $5 MAD members. This unique performance tells the struggles of a Baltimore experimental theater company during the late 80’s. 212-299-7777. www. madmuseum.org

6 CYNDI LAUPER AND FRIENDS: HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

7 AN EVENING OF WISDOM AND INSPIRATION

JCC Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave at W. 76th. 8:30 p.m., $20. Beacon Theatre, 2124 Sharon Boorstein and Sharon Broadway at 74th St. Salzberg interview each other to 8 p.m.$50 and up. discuss the basis of learning and Pop-star Cyndi Lauper returns practicing meditation. 646-505-5708. www. jccmanhattan.com

FROM CRIMINAL JUSTICE TO HUMAN JUSTICE New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th St at Central Park West. 11 a.m., Free with museum admission. Juvenile Justice Director of the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, Kyung-Ji Kate Rhee will lead this discussion of the boundary between human and criminal justice. 212-874-5210. www.nysec. org

DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 11

8 HOLIDAY CHEER FOR FUV

Fifth Ave. 10 a.m., $30-175. A live opera performance with puppets, this is the tale of a miller who inherits his fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cat. His new pet promises him a life of love and fortune. 212-831-7272. elmuseo.org

Beacon Theatre, 2124 Broadway at 74th St. 8 p.m.$45-$300. Indie-folk singer Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and Monsters of Folk performs for this festive concert with special guests Laura Marling, Natalie Merchant JEWISH MUSEUM and more. Tickets beneďŹ t WFUV â&#x20AC;&#x153;JOURNEYSâ&#x20AC;? ART (90.7 FM/wfuv.org), New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s WORKSHOP musically innovate public radio station. 212-465-6500. www. beacontheatre.com

explore the characteristics of modern feminism and how social media and celebrity culture affect the movement. 212-415-5500. 92y.org

JAMES LENOX HOUSE, INC. 49 EAST 73RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10021 www.JLHAinc.org James Lenox House, Inc., a Mitchell-Lama Rental Housing Company supervised by New York State Homes and Community Renewal, will be selecting a limited number of applications by lottery for placement on their waiting lists as follows: Studio Apartment â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 100 Applications to be accepted

11 â&#x20AC;&#x153;CHRISTMAS IN JULYâ&#x20AC;? SCREENING

6HOHFWHG DSSOLFDQWV ZKR TXDOLI\ DV YHWHUDQV SXUVXDQW WR VHFWLRQ HLJKW\ Ă&#x20AC; YH RI WKH FLYLO VHUYLFH ODZ RU WKHLU surviving spouses, will be given preference in admission. Minimum age requirements, monthly rental charges, household composition and maximum income limit are as follows:

Apt. Size Studio

Minimum Age Requirement*

Monthly Rental Charge**

Household Composition***

Maximum Income Limit***

55 Years

$1,026.00

1 to 2 persons

$86,184.00

* All individuals on the application must be age 55 or older.

96th Street Library, 112 E. 96th St. near Lexington Ave. 2 p.m., Free.

** Monthly rental charges are subject to change without notice. In some cases, rent surcharges may be applicable. *** Household members must be residing together and meet the household composition requirements at the time of application and at the time of apartment availability. **** Based on the total household income for the prior calendar year, less $1,000 for each personal and dependent exemption, and less $20,000 (or actual earnings if less) for each secondary wage earner. Household income must be within the allowable income limit at time of application and at time of apartment availability. DIRECTIONS FOR REQUESTING LOTTERY APPLICATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

BELL CHOIR CONCERT

To request a lottery application and instructions you must send a STAMPED SELF ADDRESSED ENVELOPE, no smaller than 9 by 4 inches, by FIRST-CLASS MAIL to: -DPHV /HQR[ +RXVH ,QF &KHURNHH 3RVW 2IĂ&#x20AC; FH 32 %R[ 1HZ <RUN 1<

150 E. 58th St., btwn Lexington & Third Ave. 12 p.m., Free. The Hewitt School Bell Choir will perform a lunchtime concert with holiday songs. 212-813-0034. eastmidtown.org

&HUWLĂ&#x20AC; HG UHJLVWHUHG RU RYHUQLJKW PDLO DQG ZDON LQ RU WHOHSKRQHG UHTXHVWV ZLOO not be accepted. Your request must be postmarked by 5 pm on January 9, 2015. Application requests postmarked after that deadline will not be honored. On January 19, 2015, a lottery application and instructions will be mailed to persons whose requests were received by the aforementioned deadline.

9 â&#x20AC;&#x153;@WARâ&#x20AC;? BOOK TALK 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd St. 7 p.m., $30. Shane Harris beckons Americans to think about government attempts to patrol the Internet by means of alliances with tech and ďŹ nance companies. 212-415-5500. 92y.org

XAVIER MONTSALVATGEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S â&#x20AC;&#x153;EL GATO CON BOTASâ&#x20AC;? El Museo del Barrio, 1230

Note: This is a two step process. First, follow the directions above to obtain a lottery application and instructions. Second, when you receive the application, follow the instructions and submit your completed application with a processing fee of $75. If your application is not selected in the lottery, the processing fee will be returned.

The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Ave. btwn 92nd and 93rd St. 2-3:30 p.m., $12-15. In this art workshop for individuals with memory loss and their caregivers, discuss works of art and complete multi-sensory art activities. 212-423-3200. thejewishmuseum.org

OUR A NNUAL CHRIST MAS CONCERT !

Surp rised by oy A HOLIDAY TRADITION

Joyous Music, Dance, Inspirational Readings

PASS THE MIC: MILLENNIAL FEMINISM

with THE MARBLE

92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd St. 8 p.m., $36. In this 1940 black and white Female journalists and authors ďŹ lm, a young clerk is tricked by his coworkers into thinking heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s won $25,000 in a Coffee Slogan contest. 212-289-0908. nypl.org

with

CHOIR and FESTIVAL OF VOICES Chamber Orchestra, Kenneth Dake, director

JUILLIARD DANCEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NEW DANCES: EDITION 2014 Peter Jay Sharp Theater at the Juilliard School, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza at 65th St. 8 p.m., $15-$30. Featuring a selection of Juilliard students from ďŹ rst year to fourth, this performance joins together notable and innovative choreographers. 212-769-7406. www. juilliard.edu

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7 AT 2:30PM For ticket information go to www.MarbleChurch.org Dr. Michael B. Brown, Senior Minister 1 West 29th St. NYC, NY 10001 (212) 686-2770 www.MarbleChurch.org

12 Our Town DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

THOROUGHLY MODERN MADAME OF ART EXHIBITIONS The Jewish Museum celebrates the iconoclastic Helena Rubinstein with her first museum show BY VAL CASTRONOVO

Cosmetics magnate Helena Rubinstein (1872-1965) fashioned a global empire from skin cream. Self-made and largely self-educated, this Polish girl from Krakow started a beauty business in Australia that blossomed into a chain of salons spanning four continents. A 4-foot, 10-inch titan of industry, she arguably became known as much for her art collection and eclectic tastes as for her lipsticks and powders. She was an entrepreneur and a champion of self-invention and female empowerment long before start-ups and feminism entered the vocabulary. Now through March 22, The Jewish Museum plays host to the first museum exhibit devoted to the life and collections of this exceptional woman, who kept her Jewish surname and promoted modern art and non-Western art alike. “Madame,” as she was widely known, opened salons in Paris and London before coming to New York in 1915 and setting up shop at 15 E. 49th St. She would eventually relocate to a sevenstory salon at 715 Fifth Ave., where clients would be treated to beauty regimens in a rarefied setting decorated with modernist paintings, sculptures by Elie Nadelman, and miniature period rooms. Dozens of these trophies, all auctioned off after her death, have been gathered for the current show, “Helena Rubinstein: Beauty is Power,” along with items from her famed jewelry collection (she favored precious stones but also wore costume pieces) and couture clothing. Not surprisingly, Madame, whose stock in trade was make-up and artifice (“the theater of the face”), collected masks from Africa and Oceania and favored portraits, especially ones she commissioned of herself. She is famously known to have insisted that Picasso paint her, showing up at his door on the French Riviera in 1955 and not taking “no” for an answer. Picasso, as curator Mason Klein explains, “didn’t do portraits as such.” He hated commissioned portrait sittings, preferring to work conceptually and from memory. But she cornered him, and

he relented, producing some 30 sketches ch can be after two sittings, 12 of which ced the seen here. He never produced nstein portrait painting that Rubinstein wanted, however. y tied Her image was inextricably to her brand, appearing in advertisements for her salons and he products. Conscious that she ywas a Jewish immigrant trying to do business and social-ize with elites in London and beyond, she commissioned a series of etchings by French artist Paul César Helleu to raise her profile and gain acceptance. Two such works are he prominently displayed at the show’s beginning—one is a reait production of a Helleu portrait that appeared in a 1915 ad in k Vogue for her first New York salon; the other, “Portrait of Helena Rubinstein with Egret Feathers” (c. 1908), is an original etching of the beauty maven, with piercing eyes and feather headband, on loan from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. The exhibit’s curators take pains to emphasize that Rubinstein was above all a maverick who wasn’t afraid to be unconventional. Her art buying was not guided by professionals—she bought what she liked, and what she liked was new, daring and diverse. She embraced the modern aesthetic with a passion, acquiring Cubist works by the likes of Picasso, Braque, and Miró, along with Mexican folk paintings that caught her eye (e.g., Frida Kahlo’s “The Fruits of the Earth,” 1938; she considered Kahlo a kindred spirit). She was the first collector to acquire an in-depth, encyclopedic array of African and Oceanic art, reveling in the different traditions and showcasing the works in her homes in New York, Paris, London, the south of France, and Greenwich, Conn., as well as in her salons. Figures and masks are interspersed at the exhibit with the modern pieces, underscoring the influence of African art on Cubism. Rubinstein had two palatial residences on Park Avenue over the years—the first was a triplex at 895 Park, the second, a triplex at 625 Park—and allowed them to be used for fashion magazine and publicity shoots. When she wanted to rent at 625, she was told that Jewish tenants were not welcome.

Grah Sutherland, Helena Rubinstein in a Graham Red Brocade Balenciaga Gown, 1957Oil on canv 61 3/4 × 36 1/2 in. (156.9 × 92.7 canvas, cm) Daniel Katz Gallery, London © Estate of Gra Graham Sutherland H < Helena Rubinstein (1870-1965), American bea beautician of Polish origin. Wearing an em embroidered jacket by Elsa Schiaparelli. ca 1938 ¬©Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet / The ca. Im Image Works Be Below; Cosmetician/business woman H Helena Rubenstein reading a book by the ﬂourescent light emanating from the headboard of her elegant lucite bed which she had built for $675 in her bedroom at home. (Photo by Herbert Gehr//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Undeterred, she bought the building and ﬁlled a penthouse with her art treasures, mixing and matching from the wealth of her collections. Her first Park Avenue apartment fantastically boasted a Lucite bed and tufted cellophane walls. Madame’s eccentricity and flamboyant style set her apart from her conservative rival Elizabeth Arden. Her genius was to recognize the intersection of modernism and cosmetics, both celebrating selfexpression and rejecting standard ideals. Female beauty was within every woman’s reach, Rubinstein preached and practiced. “She offered women the ideal of self-invention—a fundamental principle of modernity,” the curator writes. “One’s identity, she asserted, is a matter of choice.” Or as she once said: “There are no ugly women, only lazy ones.”

IF YOU GO WHAT: “Helena Rubinstein: Beauty is Power” WHERE: The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Ave., at 92nd St. WHEN: Now through March 22, 2015 FOR MORE INFO: www.tjm.org

Helena Rubinstein holding one of her masks from the Ivory Coast, 1934. Photograph by George Maillard Kesslere.Helena Rubinstein Foundation Archives, Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY, Gladys Marcus Library, Special Collections

5 TOP

DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 13

FOR THE WEEK BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

GALLERIES

“STREET DAILIES” Brooklyn-based street photographer Amy Touchette has always been interested in the lives of strangers, and uses her medium to imbue meaning into even the briefest chance encounters. Her latest exhibition, “Street Dailies,” includes portraits of New Yorkers, neighbors and passersby that Touchette captured on her iPhone and shared through her Instagram account. Through Jan. 3 Max Fish Bar and Gallery 120 Orchard St., between Delancey and Rivington Streets Bar hours: 4 p.m.-4 a.m. FREE

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MUSIC

IN CONVERSATION

VIVALDI’S “THE FOUR SEASONS”

BILL NYE

Antonio Vivaldi’s four distinct violin concertos “The Four Seasons,” each reﬂecting the mood and imagery of a season, are among the most popular and identiﬁable classical works. Performed along with sonatas by Albinoni and Geminiani, and a concerto by Telemann, Vivaldi’s seasons are presented in full. Friday, Dec. 5 and Sunday, Dec. 7 Lincoln Center Alice Tully Hall Columbus Avenue, between West 63rd and West 64th Streets Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 7 at 5 p.m. Tickets $45-$88

Gen Xers and Millennials of a certain age likely remember Bill Nye as the enthusiastic and eccentric host of Emmy-winning 1990s science education program “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” though as of late he’s as notable for his advocacy of science education free from creationism. He discusses his new book, “Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation,” which covers the basics and logic of evolution, and his belief that creationism doesn’t have a place in a science curriculum. Sunday, Dec. 7 92nd Street Y Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street 7:30 p.m. Tickets $37

DANCE “CRAWL” Led by its founder, creative director and choreographer Kate Ladenheim, dance company The People Movers presents the ﬁrst event in a new, day-long art and performance series, “Crawl.” Created by Ladenheim, each event in the presents work by two emerging choreographers and visual art in another medium. The ﬁrst event in this series features watercolor and spray-painted work on wooden canvases by artist Christine Jaeger. Saturday, Dec. 6 Whitebox Art Center 329 Broome St., between Bowery and Chrystie Street 5:30 p.m. Tickets $18-$25

BOOKS SHORT STORIES OF TEJU COLE AND SALMAN RUSHDIE The latest installment of the Selected Shorts series at Symphony Space features work by “The Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie and Nigerian-American writer and Brooklyn resident Teju Cole. Actors Blythe Danner, Jeffrey Wright and Michael Stuhlbarg read selections from the authors’ repertoires that focus on exile from home. Wednesday, Dec. 10 Symphony Space 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street 7:30 p.m. Tickets $29

14 Our Town DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

6th Borough

Into the Plastic Vortex

BY BECCA TUCKER

efore you go about your holiday shopping, let me just Scrooge in here and remind everyone of the trash vortex in the Pacific Ocean, in which slowly degrading garbage, dead fish and snared birds swirl in a growing gyre the size of Texas. And it’s not just out there – plastic breaks down in the water into microscopic pieces that are eaten by sea life, and eventually, by us. Everyone knows that (I think?), but sometimes, especially when faced with the prospect of giving enjoyment to people we love, especially if those people happen to be small children, we forget, and our generous instincts turn us into plastic poopers. Exhibit A: the dolly stroller, also known as Fisher Price’s Brilliant Basics StrollerStyled Walker (normally $36.79, on sale Cyber Monday for $24.99!). It came into my life in a flat, heavy cardboard box – a birthday present from my aunt to my two-year-old daughter, who, being the first of her generation on that side of the family, gets a lot of love. I got on the floor with Kai and made a big production of tearing the box open. Out tumbled plastic pieces – pink plastic wheels and pieces of a white plastic frame, a blue plastic teddy bear bobbing around like a bobblehead in a car windshield. And a pink cloth dolly. I struggled to fit the pieces together while my dinner got cold. There were no directions, no picture on the box that came from China. I couldn’t get the white pieces to snap together in the way that was clearly essential to the thing’s structural soundness. It was, however, able to play a little ditty, and roll around even in its discombobulated state. I hated it. “Leave it,” suggested Joe. I tried to stuff the pieces back into the box. “It’s broken,” I explained to Kai, who was getting increasingly irritated. Easy come, easy go. I’d ship it back to Fisher Price and move on. But the pieces refused to fit into the slender box from which they’d just emerged. No matter what configuration I tried, they ripped the box open and protruded out the top. It was Pandora’s Box I had opened. “Calm down,” Joe laughed. “Come eat.” So we sat down to dinner, and the stroller sat behind me, busting out of its box, cluttering up what seemed like half the kitchen, tantalizing Kai and making me feel disgusting and culpable for the metastasizing

plastic vortex, because that’s where this dolly stroller is headed, sooner or later – this thing comes with a one-way ticket to plastic island. If it’s really lucky, maybe it’ll join the plastic one percent and get recycled into traffic cones. But now that it existed, and could not be returned because it wouldn’t fit back into its box, it would only compound the horrors to never even use the thing. Please, I begged Joe, I will stop talking about it – if you’ll agree to get it set up tomorrow. He did, and Kai liked pushing her dolly around the kitchen in the stroller, in addition to half-eaten apples and bananas and single shoes. Mostly she enjoyed making it play its little two-part ditty – after the first part, you could not finish a thought, let alone a sentence, until the second had run its course, which was an evil that Joe in particular suffered from, since he works from home. We had some chuckles crafting imaginary thank-you cards. “Thanks, Aunt X, for the earth-destroying dolly stroller! Kai adores it. Joe is at Bellevue.” Dolly’s stroller joined a caravan of wheeled plastic vehicles we’d received, or picked up on the side of the road, over the past two years. We were running out of parking space, and at the same time as we were tripping over them, they were also fading into the backdrop so that Kai hardly noticed most of them anymore. Then Kai and I spent a girls’ weekend in the city. When we returned, Joe cryptically referred to some “cleaning” he’d done, putting a finger to his lips. The place did look better, but I didn’t give it much thought – until Kai and I embarked on an adventure hike, which took us into an outbuilding, where we happened upon the plastic caravan, getting dripped on as snow melted through the roof. Our lives had been no worse for lack of these toys – I daresay that not getting blindsided from below on nighttime trips to the bathroom might even have constituted an improvement – but what we’d seen, we couldn’t un-see. Kai immediately recognized her stroller, its telltale teddy bear bobbing like a ship’s flag. I unleashed it from the other pieces as quickly as I could, fumbling in my rush to separate it before she realized that all of these forlorn gewgaws were hers. We brought it back inside. Joe rolled his eyes. But it exists, I repeated lamely, and it’s better that it at least gets used. Where am I going with all this? I guess it’s something of a plea. Now, I don’t pretend to be high and mightily plastic-free: I play with a Frisbee, like, all the time, which is of course plastic. I asked for a ping-pong table for Christmas, and those balls aren’t made of bamboo. But kids will play happily with just about anything, hence the running parent joke: “Your present was totally awesome! And what came inside the cardboard box was interesting, too.” For the sake of parents with limited room in our houses and peace and quiet in our lives, for the sake of all of the inhabitants of this planet already choking with plastic: pretty please, don’t be a plastic pooper. Even if it’s on sale. Becca Tucker is a former Manhattanite who lives on a farm upstate and writes about the rural life.

Central Park

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE PARK? Lasker Rink repairs are now complete and the rink has reopened for the 2014/2015 season. Wollman Rink is also open for public session. Check out a birding walk with Birding Bob. There are over 235 species of birds in Central Park to discover while also experiencing many of Central Park’s most famous landmarks on the walk. More info at www.birdingbob.com. On Saturdays through midDecember, NYCe Wheels is hosting free guided Brompton folding-bike tours in Central Park. More details at www.centralpark. com/events.

COMING UP THIS WEEK

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Daily at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Take a guided walk through the lesser known and often missed parts of the park. Contact info@centralpark. com for reservations www.centralpark.com/ guide/tours

Mon/Tues: 10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Wed/Thurs: 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. Fri/Sat: 10 a.m. - 11 p.m. Sun: 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. www.centralpark.com/ events

MOONLIGHT RIDE IN THE PARK 12/5 Meet at Columbus Circle at 10 p.m. Take a night bike ride through Central Park. Brompton folding bikes

welcome and all other bikes as well. www.centralpark.com/ events

HOLIDAY SIGHTS WALKING TOUR Daily at 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Get your cameras ready and get in the holiday spirit on this fun and festive walking tour covering Central Park, Rockefeller Center and more. Now through January 5. www.centralpark.com/ guide/tours

The Central Park column will appear biweekly throughout the winter.

Event listings and Where in Central Park? brought to you by CentralPark.com.

WHERE IN CENTRAL PARK? Do you know where in Central Park this photo was taken? To submit your answer, go to centralpark.com/ where-in-centralpark. The answers and names of the people who guessed right will appear in next week’s paper and online.

LAST WEEK’S ANSWER In 1925, Balto the sled dog led a team of mushers and sled dogs 674 miles across Alaska to deliver medicine for a horriﬁc diptheria outbreak. Congratulations to Bill Ferrarini, Gregory Holman, Henry Bottjer and Caryl Baron for guessing correctly!

DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 15

Sports THIS WEEK: HUNTER COLLEGE SPORTS WOMENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BASKETBALL The Hawks opened up CUNYAC play against CSI on Tuesday night, losing to the Dolphins 62-44. The loss drops the Hawks to 2-4 on the young season. Against CSI, the Hawks were led by Kristen Markoe who notched her sixth consecutive double-double. This week the Hawks host two home games, Monday against Manhattanville and Friday night against rival Baruch.

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up CUNYAC play Tuesday night against CSI and lost to the Dolphins 81-66. The Hawks had a balanced scoring attack with four players teaching double digits. The Hawks have two games on the schedule this week, Monday night against Manhattanville and then Friday night against rival Baruch. Fridayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s game is Hunter Homecoming 2014!

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16 Our Town DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

Food & Drink

< GIRL SCOUTS SELL COOKIES ONLINE Girl Scouts are expanding the ways that they sell their famous cookies with the addition of online ordering. Girl Scouts are well-known for their in person selling tactics, including going door to door and stationing themselves outside high traffic areas like grocery stores. Each scout will have an

In Brief SOLAR POWERED PIZZA MAKING

Eco-friendly food truck Neapolitan Express is expanding its reach with the opening of two Manhattan pizzerias. In December the company is set to open two storefront locations, one in the Financial District at 40 Wall St., and the second at the other end of the island at 232 East 111th St. Launched in 2013 by Max Crespo and based in Harlem, the food truck is outﬁtted with a solar roof panel and allows the ovens to rise to 900 degrees. The company continues their environmentally friendly approach by using recycled, compostable cardboard pizza boxes to pack up their pies.

RESTAURANT FINED OVER AD LANGUAGE An Upper East Side restaurant has been fined based on the language they used in an online employment listing. Family-owned restaurant Sistina placed an ad on Craigslist in anticipation of the busy holiday season seeking a “Hostess/ Coat Check” employee. The Human Rights Commission has given Sistina a $5000 fine for using the word “hostess,” a term considered discriminatory because of its implication that only women need apply. The Human Rights Commission sent two responses to the ad, one signed by a woman and one by a man, and say that only the one from a woman was read. Owner Giuseppe Bruno says that there was no discrimination intended and that they did not read both due to time constraints. The ad was in fact placed by Bruno’s assistant, Lara Kineavy, who says that she did not know the term in question was considered discriminatory. Sistina is appealing the fine.

individual website and can email the link to potential customers, and customers can process payment and organize shipping through the site. The online ordering process however will not eliminate traditional forms of selling cookies, but will complement the Girl Scout objective of teaching

girls how to act as entrepreneurs and develop organizational and social skills. The online ordering will be available in certain areas through December and will increase in January when the cookie-selling season is in full swing.

WEALTHY & HOMELESS SHARE A HOLIDAY MEAL DINING A charity dinner at St. Bart’s Church brought together homeless people with the well-to-do BY LARRY NEUMEISTER

Some well-off Manhattan residents paid $100 last Friday for the honor of eating a candlelit holiday dinner with homeless people at a church, an intersection of two worlds that left one down-on-his luck man thinking the seemingly impossible. “What if a love connection happened tonight between the haves and the have-nots?” 44-year-old Craig James said before guests arrived. James, who has been homeless since losing a security job four years ago, also volunteers at St. Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue, where the dinner occurred. The Rev. Edward Sunderland called the unusual mealtime gathering a “smashing success.” He said he hopes it will become a nationwide trend. “When the food was passed we all became equal,” he said. About 500 people, serenaded by a piano and saxophone, ate at large round tables with red tablecloths beneath the church’s tall dome. Chefs from The New York Palace and The Waldorf-Astoria hotels provided roasted turkey, buttered mashed potatoes, red velvet cake, pumpkin cheesecake and other delights. Sunderland said the dinner provided donors a safe environment to meet those who beneﬁt from their

charitable instincts. Guest Andrea Neyman said the meal was a great equalizer: “It didn’t feel like an event where there were a lot of homeless people.” Mori Goto agreed. “They’re intelligent people,” he said. Sunderland said he was encouraged that only two of 167 people who bought dinners asked not to be seated with the more than 250 homeless people. Among guests were law ﬁrm partners, investment professionals, executives, teachers, social workers, writers, artists, musicians and retirees. Not everybody was wealthy. He said one couple saved to afford tickets. A host at each table managed relationships. “Both groups tend to be a little high maintenance,” Sunderland said. “Many wealthy people have mental illnesses. Many are addicted to substances, and it’s probably at the same rate as homeless people. It manifests itself differently and it’s treated differently.” David Garcelon, Waldorf-Astoria’s director of culinary, said the hotel served about 1,800 people on Thanksgiving. “This will be a fun and easy day for us,” he said. Heather Mitchell, a paying guest, said she expected some would be made uncomfortable at a church known for welcoming everyone. “But how many dinner parties do you go to with people of the same socio-economic status and you’re bored to tears?” she asked. “It’s good to mix it up.” Artie Stone, 58, another guest, said: “The idea of well-to-do and

Professional chefs prepare the meal at St. Bart’s church, where for $100 tickets, diners shared dinner with local homeless people. struggling people side-by-side is like having the lion and the lamb lay down together.” James, serving as a table host, said he hopes the dinner dispelled homeless stereotypes reinforced by a “dirty guy on the train or someone sleeping in the park.” Another table host, Sports Illustrated writer Peter King, said one of ﬁve homeless people at his table described being on the street for 10 years. King said the man, who said he

sleeps in a sleeping bag in a park, was on his fourth piece of turkey when he paused in a moment that could not be scripted better in Hollywood and announced slowly with pride: “Tonight, I’m not homeless.” Sunderland called it the “story of the night.” “It just brought me to tears,” he said. “Because for me, having all these people together is a great thing but having a homeless person with a sense that he’s not homeless is what I do this for. It’s priceless.”

DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 17

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS NOVEMBER 22 - 28, 2014

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST

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. Dining Room

.1-A East 77 St Manhattan, 10021

Union Club Of City Of New York

101 East 69 Street

Knish Nosh (Conservatory Water)

0 5Th Ave/Central Park

Closed by Health Department (99) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.

Sicaffe

964 Lexington Avenue A

Pyramid Coffee Company Hospital For Special Surgery

535 East 70 Street

Elio’s

1621 Second Avenue

Le Churro

1236 Lexington Avenue

Ottomanelli Cafe

1626 York Avenue

Chicky’s

355 East 86 Street

Not Graded Yet (5) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

Agora Turkish Restaurant

1565 Second Avenue

Charley Mom Kitchen

1580 York Avenue

Fresh & Co

1260 Lexington Avenue

Grade Pending (27) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided. Tobacco use, eating, or drinking from open container in food preparation, food storage or dishwashing area observed. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

Poke Restaurant

343 East 85 Street

Frere De Lys

1685 1 Avenue

Grade Pending (21) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.

Akami Sushi

1771 1 Avenue

Not Graded Yet (8) Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or nonfood areas.

The Brown Cup

1707 2 Avenue

The local paper for the Upper East Side

November 5, 2014

April 17, 2014 The local paper for the Upper West Side

LOST DOG TALE, WITH A TWIST LOCAL NEWS

A family hopes that Upper West Siders will help bring their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel back home Upper West Side For the past week, Eva Zaghari and her three children from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, have been papering the Upper West Side with over 1,300 ﬂyers asking for information on their beloved dog Cooper. ?We are devastated, please return our dog,? the sign implores. The catch though, is that Cooper didn?t technically get lost, or even stolen. He was given away. When she explains the story, sitting at Irving Farm coffee shop on West 79th Street before heading out to post more ﬂyers around the neighborhood, Eva and her kids are visibly distraught. About a month ago, on September 5th, her husband Ray had arranged to give the dog away, via a Craigslist ad. He mistakenly thought that removing a source of stress from his wife and kids ? walking and feeding and caring for a dog, tasks which had fallen mostly to Eva ? would make everyone happier

October 2, 2014

October 8, 2014

The local paper for the Upper East Side

A CENTURY OF SEX TALK ON THE EAST SIDE MILESTONES Shirley Zussman, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday, worked with Masters and Johnson, and still sees patients as a sex therapist BY KYLE POPE

UPPER EAST SIDE Some people’s life stories write themselves, and Shirley Zussman, the 100-year-old sex therapist of the Upper East Side, is one of those people. She was born in 1914 at the start of World War I (less than a month after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand), lived in Berlin at the height of the Cabaret era, became a protege of the original Masters and Johnson, and, now into her second century, continues to see patients in an office in the ground ﬂoor of her apartment building on E. 79th Street. Last month, more than 50 people crowded Yefsi restaurant, a Greek place

August 7, 2014

August 20, 2014

FI R S T I N YOU R N E I G H BO R H O O D

(212) 868-0190 The local paper for the Upper East Side

The local paper for the Upper West Side

The local paper for Downtown

18 Our Town DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

< HOSPITALITY GROUPS MERGE The United Restaurant and Tavern Owners of New York’s more than 250 pubs and bars have merged into the New York City Hospitality Alliance. Together the group is now known as The Alliance, and according to organizers, “has created the most diverse and powerful NYC based trade association to represent the interests of eating and drinking establishments

In Brief COMMUNITY BOARD INVITES AIR BNB AND LIZ KRUEGER TO HOUSING MEETING Community Board 7 has extended an invitation to representatives from Air BnB and ShareBetter to the board’s housing committee meeting next Monday, Dec. 8. Air BnB is a popular yet controversial apartmentsharing startup that has caught the attention of authorities in New York and elsewhere for allegedly ﬂouting local housing law. Share Better is a coalition of local elected officials, community members and local groups, backed by hotel industry, that takes issue with the website’s business model and accuses it of driving up rents and threatening the city’s limited affordable housing stock, and contributing to the city’s illegal hotel problem. The coalition was formed to counter Air BnB’s massive ad buy in New York, which itself occurred in the wake of a very public battle with New York’s Attorney General Eric Schniederman over its business practices. Among its members is State Senator Liz Krueger, whose 2010 illegal hotel law says that owners or tenants of apartments in New York cannot rent out their spaces for fewer than 30 days unless they themselves are present. It’s also the law the Air BnB stands accused of regularly violating.

BROADWAY CLEANS UP OVER THANKSGIVING The Associated Press is reporting that Broadway had a record-breaking Thanksgiving, raking in over $34.1 million the week ending Sunday. Revenue ﬁgures were compiled by the Broadway League and taken from the aggregate of 36 plays, musicals and special events, said the wire service. The league is the national trade organization for the Broadway industry, according to their website. Broadway pulled in $2.6 million more than the same period last year, but the past two years have been high-water marks. The AP said that among the biggest draws were “The Lion King” and “Aladdin,” which pulled in $2.4 million and $1.76 million, respectively. “Wicked” earned $2.4 million over nine shows. Bradley Cooper’s “The Elephant Man” made $958,570 while Hugh Jackman’s “The River” scored $906,275. Broadway is also up overall on the season, making $701 million so far this year compared with $620.5 million this time last year. Attendance this year is also up about 13 percent to 6.75 million.

Business

throughout New York City.” The United Restaurant and Tavern Owners of New York has represented the concerns of onpremise liquor licensees in New York City since 1937. The organization represents the largest coalition of pubs in the city. The two organizations have history, working together on shared mutual interests. The Alliance said in a press release that the two organizations advocated together to reduce regulatory burdens and beneﬁted from

the member services offered by both. The informal partnership worked so well that the URTO’s Board of Directors voted to merge into The Alliance, signifying a further uniﬁcation of the NYC hospitality industry and a consolidation of industry power and inﬂuence, they said. As of Dec. 1, 2014, all members of the URTO will be transferred to The Alliance and several URTO board members will be elected as voting directors on The Alliance’s governing board.

BLACK FRIDAY HYPE FALLING SHORT RETAIL Retail group says that Black Friday weekend is losing allure with shoppers BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO

Black Friday fatigue is setting in. Early discounting, more online shopping and a mixed economy meant fewer people shopped over Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey of shoppers released Sunday by the National Retail Federation. Overall, 133.7 million people shopped at stores and online over the four-day holiday weekend, down 5.2 percent from last year, according to a survey of 4,631 people conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics for the trade group. Total spending for the weekend is expected to fall 11 percent to $50.9 billion from an estimated $57.4 billion last year. Shoppers, on average, are expected to spend $380.95 over the four days, down 6.4 percent from $407.02 last year. That marked the second year in a row spending was down. Part of the reason is that Target, Macy’s, Wal-Mart and other major retailers pushed fat holiday discounts as early as Halloween and opened stores even earlier on Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday shopping season, stealing some thunder from Black Friday and the rest of the weekend. The preliminary data also raises worries shoppers remain frugal despite improving employment and falling gas prices. Matt Shay, the trade group’s CEO, told reporters that the effect of the economy is puzzling, but he believes that people beneﬁting a recovering economy may not feel the need to ﬁght the crowds to get the deepest discount on a TV or toaster. And those who still feel like they’re stuck in a recession may not have the money and will stretch out what they spend through Christmas. “While they’re more optimistic, they’re very cautious,” Shay told reporters during a conference call. “They’re still looking for the deals. If the deals are not right for them, they’re not going to spend.” Bottom line: Expect more deep discounting, all season long. “Every day will be Black Friday. Every minute will be Cyber Monday,” he said. That could be what it takes to get shoppers to open their wallets for the holiday shopping

season, which accounts for 20 percent of the retail industry’s annual sales. Despite an improving economy, high food prices and stagnant wages are still affecting on shoppers. And people also are becoming more discerning when they shop. Armed with smartphones and price-comparison apps, they know what’s a good deal, and what’s not. Kimani Brown, 39, of Manhattan, was among the Black Friday defectors. After four years of braving the crowds, he called it quits this year. “I consider myself a smart shopper. And it’s not as alluring as it used to be,” Brown said. “It’s a marketing tool, and I don’t want to be pulled into it.” He said he looked at the sales and wasn’t impressed. Moreover, he says he tended to overspend during the Black Friday sales because he got caught up in the frenzy, and he paid the price in January when he looked at his credit card statement. Instead, he says he will be looking at what is known as Cyber Monday, the online shopping day after Thanksgiving weekend. And some Thanksgiving shoppers felt they were doing it against their will. Cathyliz Lopez, of New York City, said she was forced to shop on the holiday because they felt the deals were better than Black Friday. “It’s ruining the spirit of Thanksgiving,” said the 20-year-old who was shopping at Target’s East Harlem store on Thursday. “But I was checking all the ads, and the best deals were today.” The National Retail Federation is still predicting a 4.1 percent increase in holiday sales

to $616.9 billion. That would be the highest increase since the 4.8 percent gain in 2011. Some stores and malls had reason to be optimistic Dan Jasper, a spokesman at Bloomington, Minnesota-based Mall of America, said customer counts are tracking up 5 to 6 percent for the four-day weekend. One plus: Shoppers were doing more buying for themselves. “People were in an optimistic mood,” he said. “They felt conﬁdent in the economy.” CEOs at Target and Toys R Us said they saw shoppers not just concentrated on the doorbuster items but throwing in extra items in their carts. Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren told The Associated Press that he’s hoping lower gas prices will help spending. “There’s reason to believe that confidence should continue to grow. That should be good for discretionary spending,” he said. In a separate report out Saturday, IBM said online sales for Black Friday climbed 9.5 percent over the same day last year. More than one of every four transactions was made using a smartphone or tablet computer. But the early start pulled sales forward, resulting in sales declines at stores for Black Friday for the second time in a row. Shoppers spent $9.1 billion at stores on Black Friday, according to data out Saturday from research firm ShopperTrak. That’s a drop of 7 percent compared with the same day last year. Sales on Thanksgiving jumped 24 percent to $3.2 billion from $2.5 billion a year ago. And overall sales for the two days are expected to slip half a percent to $12.29 billion. Those ﬁgures don’t include online transactions.

DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 19

This December, ring in the holidays with the East Midtown Partnership, as we present two weeks of special holiday music programming. These performers will bring holiday cheer to the community from December 2 through December 16, and recapture the true meaning of the holiday season.

Performance Schedule: Times and Locations Subject to Change; Visit www.EastMidtown.org/SoundsOfTheSeason for updates

Tuesday, December 2, 11:30 Noon

Wednesday, December 10

Jia-Yi He World Class Harmonica Virtuoso from Turtle Bay Music School 919 Third Avenue (at East. 56th St)

Lighthouse Guild Vocal Ensemble from the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School the nation’s only music school dedicated to helping people pursue their interest in music while overcoming the challenges of vision loss 11:30am at 150 East 58th Street (between Lexington Ave and Third Ave) 12:30am at 450 Park Avenue (at East 57th St) Presented by Jones Lang LaSalle

Thursday, December 4, 1:15 PM Trio Lafayette – The Goldberg Variations St. Bart’s Church, 325 Park Avenue (at East 51st St) Presented by St. Bart’s Church & Gotham Early Music Scene

Friday, December 5, 12:30 Noon Turtle Bay Music School Staff & Faculty Carolers and Stein Senior Center Chorus 919 Third Avenue (at East 56th St)

Saturday, December 6, 2:00 PM DJ Mark of Plum Radio The Harman Store, 527 Madison Avenue (at East 54th St)

Saturday, December 6, 3:00 PM The Unforgettables Chorus the ﬁrst chorus of its kind for people with dementia and their family members and friends St. Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Ave. (at East 54th St) Presented by St. Peter’s Church and The Unforgettables Chorus

Monday, December 8, 12:00 Noon Hewitt School Bell Choir 919 Third Avenue (at East. 56th St)

Wednesday, December 10, 7:00 PM Messiah Sing-In and Play-In at Turtle Bay Music School 244 East 52nd Street (between Second Ave and Third Ave) Presented by Turtle Bay Music School

Thursday, December 11, 1:15 PM Jörg-Michael Schwarz & Dongsok Shin – Trios for Two: Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord of J.S. Bach St. Bart’s Church, 325 Park Avenue (at East 51st St) Presented by St. Bart’s Church & Gotham Early Music Scene

Saturday, December 13, 2:00 PM Adam James of Plum Radio The Harman Store, 527 Madison Avenue (at East 54th St)

Tuesday, December 16, 12:00 Noon PS 59 Chorus from Beekman Hill International School PS 59 919 Third Avenue (at East 56th St)

Produced by the East Midtown Partnership XJUI UIF HFOFSPVT TVQQPSU PG )BSNBO t 8IPMF 'PPET t 4- (SFFO t 7PSOBEP 3FBMUZ 5SVTU for providing refreshments and venues

20 Our Town DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

Real Estate Sales Neighborhd

Address

Price

Bed Bath Agent

Turtle Bay

210 E 47 St.

$485,000

Warburg

Beekman

400 E 51 St.

$1,700,000

Corcoran

Turtle Bay

212 E 47 St.

$950,000

Citi Habitats

Carnegie Hill

1060 PARK Ave.

$2,535,000

Brown Harris Stevens

Turtle Bay

216-218 E 47 St.

$300,000

Carnegie Hill

45 E 89 St.

$1,995,000

Corcoran

Upper E Side

330 E 75 St.

$1,200,000

RP Miller & Associates

Carnegie Hill

50 E 89 St.

$1,137,500

Douglas Elliman

Upper E Side

135 E 79 St.

$22,705,312

Corcoran

Lenox Hill

400 E 70 St.

$650,000

Halstead Property

Upper E Side

345 E 73 St.

$540,000

Douglas Elliman

Lenox Hill

405 E 63 St.

$368,000

Halstead Property

Upper E Side

530 E 76 St.

$1,615,000

CORE

Lenox Hill

301 E 62 St.

$610,000

Fenwick Keats Real Estate

Upper E Side

515 E 72 St.

$1,731,025

Corcoran

Lenox Hill

785 5 Ave.

$2,300,000

Corcoran

Upper E Side

370 E 76 St.

$1,300,000

Lenox Hill

300 E 62 St.

$899,000

Mercedes Berk

Upper E Side

508 E 78 St.

$750,000

Lenox Hill

21 E 61st St.

$3,007,087

Extell Development Company

Upper E Side

338 E 78 St.

$649,000

Warburg

Lenox Hill

1210 3 Ave.

$2,750,000

Upper E Side

404 E 76 St.

$2,526,000

Lenox Hill

781 5 Ave.

$223,080

Upper E Side

516 E 78 St.

$350,000

Lenox Hill

316 E 69 St.

$4,600,000

Corcoran

Yorkville

10 E END Ave.

$3,700,000

Douglas Elliman

Midtown E

227 E 57 St.

$450,000

Douglas Elliman

Yorkville

333 E 79 St.

$600,000

Midtown E

200 E 57 St.

$1,891,000

Corcoran

Yorkville

340 E 80 St.

$925,000

Midtown E

250 E 54 St.

$1,053,679

Yorkville

180 E END Ave.

$2,050,000

Sloane Square

Midtown E

245 E 54 St.

$630,000

Next Stop NY

Yorkville

516 E 82 St.

$395,536

Citi Habitats

Midtown South

445 5 Ave.

$801,000

LivingNY

Yorkville

238 E 84 St.

$239,000

Citi Habitats

Murray Hill

415 E 37 St.

$840,000

Corcoran

Yorkville

401 E 86 St.

$1,200,000

Halstead Property

Murray Hill

2 TUDOR CITY PLACE

$1,200,000

John J. Grogan & Associates

Yorkville

444 E 84 St.

$595,000

Halstead Property

Murray Hill

104 E 37 St.

$340,000

Stribling

Murray Hill

415 E 37 St.

$1,387,000

Luxury Habitat

Murray Hill

166 E 35 St.

$445,000

Now Get Real Time Bus, Subway & Alternate Side Parking Information Here

StreetEasy.com is New York’s most accurate and comprehensive real estate website, providing consumers detailed sales and rental information and the tools to manage that information to make educated decisions. The site has become the reference site for consumers, real estate professionals and the media and has been widely credited with bringing transparency to one of the world’s most important real estate markets.

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DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 21

As part of SL Green’s plan to build a state-of-the-art ofﬁce tower at One Vanderbilt Avenue, the city’s leading commercial property owner has committed $210 million to funding public capital improvements in the heart of East Midtown. New access points, circulation areas and public spaces will ease crowding at Grand Central, allow more 4/5/6 trains to

move through the station, and provide direct access to MetroNorth, New York City Transit subway lines and, ultimately, a new Long Island Rail Road terminal. These upgrades will improve the commute for residents of every borough—and visitors from around the world.

Visit ABetterGrandCentral.com for all the details.

22 Our Town DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

INTRODUCING THE VIOLIN TO THE LITTLEST OF HANDS MUSIC A Manhattan private elementary school teaches students music through a new violin program BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

FINANCIAL DISTRICT Léman Manhattan Preparatory School, a private boarding school just steps from the New York Stock Exchange, introduces music performance to some of its youngest scholars through a new violin education program. Léman, a pre-K through twelfth grade private school with an inter-

national makeup—more than 50 countries are represented in its student body—implemented the violin class last year, after its sister school in North Broward County, Fl. found success with the program. Developed by Chris Petruzzi, the ﬁne arts director for an international network of schools, called Meritas, to which Léman belongs, the strings program utilizes a combination of techniques from other established music education models, including the Suzuki method (named for Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki). Léman’s program emphasizes repetition: students learn hand signs for each note, which correspond to the note’s location on a musical staff, and sing every song they learn on violin using both do-re-mi syllables and lyrics, often repeating a song multiple times in class. “When parents come and visit the school, that’s the room we have to drag them out of,” said Paige Murphy, head of marketing, admissions and communications for Léman. The violin program begins in first grade and continues through third grade, and so far 140 students have benefited from the instruction. Music teacher Hannah Picasso taught the course in Florida and came to Léman to introduce the program to the school’s already robust arts curriculum, which for elementary school students also includes woodworking and theater. Picasso is petite, with a sweet, high voice and a disposition to match, and accompanies her class on a Yamaha keyboard, her eyes off the keys as she scans the room of students, each dressed in a pale blue or navy Léman shirt or dress. Her students share music stands and stand two by two. The repetitive singing tests their abilities to stand still, but once the

violins come to their shoulders, they work their way through the A major scale, “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and “This Land is Your Land” with intense focus on the notes in front of them, and bow when finished. And they’re eager to continue playing. Toward the end of their half-hour class, Picasso asks who would like to play a solo, and most students wag their hands. “They are so excited to play for each other,” said Picasso. “They are confident performing in front of their peers.” Some songs are old standbys, and others were written specifically for the curriculum, including “Tops,” a song with instructive lyrics on how to stand and hold the violin and bow (“T is for triangle, we make it with our feet”). “There’s so many things that happen at once,” said Lisa Nowicki, director of Léman’s fine arts program. “What you’re doing with your mouth, your fingers, how you’re sitting. You’re deciphering code, you’re thinking about the duration of the notes, the pitch of the notes. Should I be playing loud? Should I play soft? The student’s mind is taking in all that information and instantaneously producing.” Singing helps students learn music by ear, Nowicki said. This process, called auditory discrimination, also helps with language skills, and is particularly helpful for learning Mandarin, which is taught to Léman’s youngest students. “That sense of confidence they’re building when they play is similar to when they speak, so it helps with public speaking,” said Picasso. “Musically and in a life-skills way, it’s helping. We want it to be really empowering for them.” Throughout the music program and the rest Léman’s academic curricu-

In the music program, young musicians learn how to stand, hold the violin and sing the notes before they start with the violins.

Students at Leman learn violin from ﬁrst to third grade. lum, even the youngest students are encouraged to think critically through what the school calls essential questions. In Picasso’s third grade class, she asks her students to pick a goal from a written poster at the front of the classroom, such as using a flexible grip or making a beautiful sound. Nowicki teaches seventh and eighth grade band, and asks students to delve more deeply into the subject matter by posting questions such as, ‘Why do people create music?’ and ‘How can an individual contribute to an ensemble?’

on posters in her classroom. Nowicki stresses that music education teaches teamwork, much like playing a sport might, and collaboration is an essential real-world skill that applies not just to academics, but will help students in future workplace scenarios. “It’s so unlike every other class that they have,” said Nowicki. “I tell my kids all the time, ‘If you bomb a test in math, it affects no one but you, but if you don’t know your music in my class, it affects everyone around you.’”

DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 23

M.T.S. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 said Maggy Siegel, Asphalt Green’s executive director. “There’s dialogue but there doesn’t seem to be progress.” The plan entails taking the entrance to FDR Drive on E. 92nd St. and dedicating it solely to dump trucks heading to the MTS. The acceleration lane, which runs directly behind Asphalt Green, would also be given over to the trucks, and would rise to link up with the overpass leading to the MTS at 91st St. Vehicle traffic that used to enter the FDR at 92nd St. would be routed two blocks north to 94th St., where an entrance onto the FDR would be created. It will cost an additional $11 million to abandon the E. 91st St. plan and move the ramp to E. 92nd St. in rolling out its proposal, Asphalt Green also drew attention to the perils of the current MTS proposal. It found, for instance, that E. 91st St. had twice as many children crossing it than E. 92nd St. and almost twice the number of pedestrians overall. Between 1995 and 2012, the report said, at the intersection of 91st St. and York Ave. - the site of the ramp in its current proposal – two bicyclists and seven pedestrians were struck by vehicles between 1995 and 2012. The intersection had the second-highest number of such collisions at intersections that were studied on York Ave. between 90th St. and 96th St., the study found. One bicyclist and four pedestrians were struck and injured at 92nd St. and York Ave. The report also noted the plan in its current form would cause 150 dump trucks to move in and out of the MTS on a daily basis. Asphalt Green’s Siegel told Our Town that after ﬁnding a viable alternative, the coalition did not

expect to have to resort to taking out ads critical of the mayor to get its point across. However, that’s where they feel the conversation has stalled. To Siegel and Schwartz, the plan makes sense. Yes, it will cost $11 million more than if the city stayed the course and ﬁnished the ramp on E. 91st St. But as pointed out in the report, DSNY pays out tens of millions of dollays in settlements every year for fatalities caused by its vehicles.

From 2009 through last year, the department spent over $200 million on such cases. Last year alone, the department paid out a whopping $91 million in settlements, according to Asphalt Green’s report. (That last ﬁgure caught the attention of Comptroller Scott Stringer, who said in a July report that DSNY’s ﬂeet of city vehicles is among the worst offenders when it comes to claims costs.) But if the mayor capitulates and decided to

alter course on the access ramp after pressure from Asphalt Green, wouldn’t he be perceived as weak? “I don’t think so,” said Siegel. “I think this is a chance for him to deliver on the getting the MTS built, but also keep the community safe and reduce pedestrian accidents.” She notes that the new plan dovetails with the mayor’s Vision Zero initiative to reduce pedestrian injuries and deaths. As it stands, said Siegel, the 91st St. plan amounts to “zero vision.” The play on de Blasio’s initiative is also the name of the ad campaign’s online presence. “No one said it can’t be done,” said Siegel. “We can hand him a win by moving the ramp.” And there may be another reason why de Blasio could come out on top if he approved of moving the ramp a block north. Last winter, he was blasted on the Upper East Side for what residents said was his failure to dig them out of the season’s ﬁrst major snowstorm. Moving the ramp out of Asphalt Green, a neighborhood institution, could be seen as a gesture of goodwill in a part of the city where the mayor isn’t terribly popular. In last November’s mayoral election, Republican challenger Joe Lhota won the Upper East Side handily, with the MTS cited by voters as one of the reasons for their decision. Pledge 2 Protect, the most prominent anti-MTS group, is also launching an ad campaign this week that also targets the mayor and asks him to move the ramp to E. 92nd St. “I feel like the clock is ticking,” said Siegel. “What’s taking them so long?” Siegel said she was told the city is considering the E. 92nd St. plan in earnest, and will likely decide on it in the next six to eight weeks. The good news, said Siegel, is that “we’ve not been told no.”

Apply now to join New York City’s system of high quality pre-K providers for the 2015-16 school year. Visit schools.nyc.gov/ProvidePrek.

24 Our Town DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

Find More Neighborhood Happenings Here ourtownny.com

NEW V www.ourtownny.com More Neighborhood News

EVERY BIT HELPS ANIMALS IN NEED PETS During the holiday season, a little effort goes a long way to help people - and pets BY LESLIE GRANGER

Find More Neighborhood Happenings Here @ ourtownny.com Out & About NE VW

www.ourtownny.com More Neighborhood News

‘Tis the season to be jolly – and charitable. For many of us though, jolly isn’t always how we feel, and charitable, well, that often takes a backseat to running here and there, trying to find just the right gift and struggling to juggle family, work, shopping, cooking and breathing! All of this during a time that certainly holds ideals that can bring us even more stress. So who has time or money to be jolly or charitable? We do. We all can be charitable in some way. It’s easier and less costly than you might think to make a big difference. While we hustle and bustle this December, trying to figure out how to get it all done and pay for it, there are many organizations in this city doing work that are relying on you too. (Not to stress you out more, but they are.) These charities are hoping you will remember them during this

busy time of year so they can continue to do the work that helps those in need. They need you because others need them. But what if you only have a little money or a little time? Well, ALL giving matters a lot – no matter how large or how small. If you give by volunteering your time or donate food or blankets or clothing, it matters. If you walk dogs or play with cats at your local animal shelter, if you feed the homeless at a soup kitchen or if you are able to donate money, it all matters more than you can ever imagine. Sometimes we don’t donate or volunteer our time because we think we don’t have enough of it to make a difference, especially during the holidays when we are spending more money and having less free time. But let’s consider for a moment a local animal charity and see how giving any amount matters. Here at Bideawee, a 111-year old animal welfare charity on East 38th Street, we rely solely on private donations from people just like you; we receive no government support. You might consider donating to Bideawee or another

animal shelter because you want to help them care for all of the homeless dogs and cats and think, “But what can my 10 dollars really do for a homeless pet?” I’ll tell you what it can do. It can feed a homeless dog or cat for 10 whole days! It can help pay for vaccinations. When combined with just 20 people like you who give 10 dollars each, it can transport a dog on the brink of being euthanized to the safety of a no-kill shelter for a second chance at life. Ten dollars adds up. One dollar adds up! And Bideawee and other charities like it need your help to continue to help those (people or animals) who are less fortunate. So, whatever your passion, whatever tugs at your heart, whatever you believe in, find a charity with a mission to match and do what you can. Give whatever you can. Even when it feels like you don’t have the extra time or the extra money. Remember, $10 dollars can feed a dog at Bideawee for 10 days! Every little bit helps and every little bit adds up to much more than you can imagine. To make a difference in the life of an animal today, visit www.bideawee.org/donate.

DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 25

YOUR FIFTEEN MINUTES

A HOST WHO’S SEEN IT ALL menu and ﬁgured out how to buy. After three or four years of that, I left and opened up a 230-seat Mexican restaurant called Arriba in Union City, N Jersey. A year from the day New I opened, o I had to give the keys bac to the landlord because it back tan tanked. I had on my business card, “On tell your best friends.” No “Only one told anybody. [Laughs]

When I opened here, it was the Wild West. It was us and Café Luxembourg. It was a dark street; the Coliseum, where the Time Warner Center is now, was shut down.”

So you didn’t give up after that?

Q&A The owner of Gabriel’s welcomes us into his dining room BY ANGELA BARBUTI

As a New York City restaurant owner for over two decades, Gabriel Aiello has seen everything from an unruly customer being taken away in handcuffs to a chef hurling a spoon at a waiter. He has also seen everyone. His namesake restaurant, Gabriel’s, on West 60th between Broadway and Columbus, welcomes guests from Oprah to Mark Cuban to Martin Scorsese. Mitt Romney decided to run for President over lunch at Gabriel’s, and last year, Mayor Bloomberg visited with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. The 125-seat Italian eatery has been a neighborhood mainstay since it opened in December of 1991. It’s Aiello’s pleasant personality and care for his customers that keep everyone coming back. Over a plate of fusilli with chicken in a vodka tomato sauce, he dished on star-studded events in the restaurant’s private party room, a typical work day, and his favorite lamb chops.

What is your background in the industry? My ﬁrst restaurant job was as a banquet waiter at Fiesta in Lodi, New Jersey. They really taught you how to be a good waiter and stressed service even though it was a cheesy place, a wedding facility. They kept your tips and you just got paid by the hour. I worked there for about five months and then got a job at Café Look See in Fort Lee, New Jersey as a waiter. And three days later, the owner asked me to be the maître d’ and manager, and I had never done that before. I had gone to school for restaurant management, so I took it very seriously. I studied the

I did give up. I left and lived in Spain for a few months. When I came back to the United States, I ran into a friend of mine, Leo, who was from Italy and worked at Look See. He was opening up an Italian restaurant in Tribeca called Arqua, and asked me to run it. It became an instant success. Literally two weeks after it opened, it was booming. I worked there for about four years as a maître d’ and manager. I worked six double shifts, and only had Sundays off. He wouldn’t give me another day off. I quit and spent about two years looking for locations, found this one broker, and this was the ﬁrst thing he showed me.

Was Gabriel’s an instant success? The country was in a bit of a recession back then in ’91. During the ﬁrst two weeks we were open, we were getting our sea legs and then Bryan Miller came in from the New York Times. We were making our own smoked cheeses and he did a Diner’s Journal saying, “The goat cheese had more smoke than a coal locomotive.” That was kind of a knife to the heart. Then we had a good review in the New York Observer and New York magazine. Gourmet magazine did a nice piece on us in early 1992. And then the New York Times came back and Bryan Miller loved it. He gave us a glowing two-star review and we were off to the races.

What’s a typical day like for you? Usually I get here between eight and nine a.m. Before I unlock the door, I look on the sidewalk because there are some homeless issues here. I come in the door and grind the coffee. I also check the restrooms just to make sure everything’s there. Then I usually do my Board of Health inspection. I check all the refrigerators’ temperatures. I look behind doors. I make sure everyone has on hats and gloves. Even though we have an A and we’ve had one, you never

Gabriel’s opened on the Upper West Side in 1991, when the neighborhood was a much different place.

know, they could walk in at any point, and you want to be ready. Then I usually get hit with someone not showing up or something not working. Then the rest of my day is dealing with private parties and reservations. I do all the parties here. We have a side room that can hold up to 36 people and have had over 6,000 events here. Everything from Oprah’s philanthropy board meeting to my son’s ﬁfth birthday party.

What are your favorite dishes on the menu? I love the burrata with basil oil and Vidalia onion jam with roasted peppers or tomatoes, depending on the season. The spicy mussel soup is fantastic here. The arugula salad with shavings of parmesan cheese is also one of my favorites. All of the pasta we make here, so they’re all fantastic. My favorites right now would probably be the fettuccini with homemade veal sauce with tomato and peppers and the tagliatelle Bolognese. The lasagna changes on a daily basis. Our tuna is one of my favorites and the lamb chops marinated in grape seed oil and mint, wood-grilled and topped with an organic honey truffle oil with spicy scalloped potatoes and broccolini. And we make our own ice cream and sorbet.

I read that story about how a

customer didn’t want to pay and you had to lock him inside and call the police. Well we had to get the police here. It was a $3300.00 check. We have a food and beverage minimum for the room and he thought it was all you could eat and drink for that much. So they went over the minimum by $1000.00 because they were eating and drinking and taking stuff home. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t want to pay, but his daughter had told him that was the policy. He didn’t want to wait for the police so we locked him in and the police came and made him pay.

You have many celebrities eating here. Why do you think they choose your restaurant? I think it’s because this is owner operated and they know, for the most part, that no one is going to bother them. The location’s also pretty convenient. Soon after we opened, they threw the 50th birthday for Martin Scorsese here and I think that was really the start of that industry knowing us and liking us. We get a big kick out of Sting or Oprah. Oprah is very nice. We get all the news guys too. Everyone’s nice.

How have you seen the neighborhood change? What a growth spurt. I mean,

when I opened here, it was the Wild West. It was us and Café Luxembourg. It was a dark street, the Coliseum, where the Time Warner Center is now, was shut down. The Coliseum didn’t really light up until 2004, so we were here 13 years before that happened. The only time they’d light it up would be on St. Patty’s Day for the Shamrock Society. They’d invite all the cops for corned beef and cabbage and beer. And then they would all come in here. Otherwise, we had zero beneﬁt from the Coliseum.

Tell us a funny restaurant story. We had a situation where we had a very elegant woman at the bar asking for items that we offer at the bar to be wrapped to go. She was eating at the bar, but she wanted more olives and more butter, then asked for bread to be wrapped. She walked out and didn’t pay, so my maître d’ brought her back in, and we called the police. The police came and she said she paid and we proved that she didn’t. And the police ofﬁcer said, “Please. And you need to leave a tip as well.” And then she stood on the ledge of the bar and with a fork, started banging the overhead glass lights and yelling to a full restaurant, “The salmon sucks. The salmon sucks.” And she didn’t even have salmon. Everyone started applauding; it was very uncomfortable. And then the police put handcuffs on her and took her away. www.gabrielsbarandrest.com

26 Our Townâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014

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DECEMBER 4-10 ,2014 Our Town 27

CLASSIFIEDS Classified Advertising Department Information Telephone: 212-868-0190 | Fax: 212-2868-0190 Email: classified2@strausnews.com Hours: Monday - Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm | Deadline: 12pm the Friday before publication ACCOUNTING/FINANCIAL SERVICES

CAMPS/SCHOOLS

ALLSTATE INSURANCE Anthony Pomponio 212-769-2899 125 West 72nd St. 5R, NYC apomponio@allstate.com

Loyola School 646-346-8132 www.loyolanyc.org admissions@loyolanyc.org

LOMTO Federal Credit Union It’s hard to beat our great rates! Deposits federally insured to at least $250K (212)947-3380 ext.3144

River Park Nursery School 212-663-1205 www.riverparknurseryschool.com

ANIMALS & PETS

BIDEAWEE - Animal People for People Who Love Animals! -Manhattan-Westhampton866-262-8133 www.Bideawee.org North Shore Animal League AnimalLeague.org 1-877-4-SAVE-PET Facebook.com/TheAnimalLeague ANNOUNCEMENTS

GrowNYC.org Recycle@GrowNYC.org 212-788-0225

World Class Learning Academy 212-600-2010 www.wclacademy.org York Preparatory School 212-362-0400 ext 133 www.yorkprep.org admissions@yorkprep.org

CARS & TRUCKS & RV’S Donate your car to Wheels For Wishes, benefiting Make-AWish. We offer free towing and your donation is 100% tax deductible. Call (855) 376-9474 CLEANING SERVICES/LAUNDRY

Antique, Flea & Farmers Market, East 67 St Market (bet. First & York Ave). Open every Saturday, 6am-5pm, rain or shine. Indoor & Outdoor, Free Admission. Call Bob 718-8975992. Proceeds beneﬁt PS 183.

DRY CLEANING John’s Cleaners, 1441 York Ave (bet 76 & 77) Manhattanwash Cleaners, 1142 1st Ave (bet 62 & 63 St) Manhattanwash Cleaners, 1324 Lex Ave (bet 88 & 89 St) 212-410-3200. Ask about Anniversary Sale.

AUCTIONS

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Exciting Neighborhood Auction Antiques and Collectibles, Paintings, Costume Jewelry, Decorative Objects Auction 3pm, Sat. Dec. 13 (Preview & Reg 11am-3pm) 416 E 80th St (bet 1st & York) Martine’s Auctions 212 772 0900, martine-auctions@outlook.com

Non-traditional therapist & problem solver, 40 yrs exp. I’ll help you learn to love & respect yourself Hazel James, 212-645-3135

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CAMPS/SCHOOLS Alexander Robertson School Independent School for Pre-K through Grade 5 212-663-2844, 3 West 95th St. www.AlexanderRobertson.com Boys & Girls Harbor “A vibrant hub for education and the arts.” 1 East 104th Street, 212.427.2244 www.theharbor.org GRF Test Prep Classes We prepare students to take the SHSAT! 120 W 76th St, New York, NY 10025 201) 592-1592 www.grftestprep.com Huntington Learning Center Your tutoring solution! UWS. 212-362-0100 www.HuntingtonHelps.com Learn Something New Today! Free computer classes at The New York Public Library LEARN MORE nypl.org/LearnToday 917-ASK-NYPL

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LIPS The Ultimate in Drag Dining & Best Place in NYC to Celebrate Your Birthday! 227 E 56th St., 212-675-7710 www.LipsUSA.com Mexican Festival restaurant 646-912-9334 www.mexicanfestivalrestaurant.com Mohegan Sun Why D rive? For info call Academy: 1-800-442-7272 ext. 2353 - www.academybus.com Need to know about everything that’s happening in lower Manhattan? DOWNTOWN ALLIANCE, www.downtownny.com or just download our mobile app onto your cellphone and go! HEALTH SERVICES

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Carnegie Hill Endoscopy 212-860-6300 www.carnegiehillendo.com Columbia Doctors of Ophthalmology - Our newest location at 15 West 65th Street (Broadway) is now open. www.ColumbiaEye.org 212.305.9535 Lenox Hill Hospital Lenox Hill Orthopaedics (855) 434-1800 www.Lenoxhillhospital.org/ ortho Make Your Body Thin & Healthy Colon Hydrotherapy & High Enemas. Swedish MassageComplete Relaxation. Safe & Private. Alternative Medical Center of New York since 1985. 7 days, 11 am - 8 pm. All Credit Cards Accepted. 176 W 94 St - 212.222.4868 and 235 E 51 St- 212.751.2319 Mount Sinai-Roosevelt Hospital University Medical Practice Associates 212-523-UMPA(8672) www.umpa.com New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital www.nyp.org/lowermanhattan NYU Langone Medical Center Introduces the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Men’s Health. 555 Madison Ave bet. 55th & 56th, 646-754-2000 HELP WANTED

$8,000 COMPENSATION. EGG DONORS NEEDED. Women 21-31. Help Couples Become Families using Physicians from the BEST DOCTOR’S LIST. Personalized Care. 100% Conﬁdential. 1-877-9-DONATE; 1-877936-6283; www.longisland ivf.com AIRLINE CAREERS begin here Get FAA approved Aviation Maintenance Technician training. Financial aid for qualiﬁed students – Housing available. Job placement assistance. Call AIM 866-296-7093

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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. We will only accept responsibility for the first incorrect insertion. Manhattan Media Classifieds 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 copy changes. All classified ads are pre-paid. LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL REAL ESTATE CLOSINGS Buy/Sell. Expd Attorney, Real Estate Broker, ESTATES/ CRIMINAL MATTERS Richard H. Lovell, P.C., 10748 Cross Bay, Ozone Park, NY 11417 718 835-9300. www.LovellLawnewyork.com

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