The local paper for the Upper er East Side A DENTIST GOES HOLLYWOD < 15 MINUTES, P.21
WEEK OF MAY
21-27 2015
FRICK EXPANSION HAS ANOTHER OPPONENT
Our Take
Brandon Torres reels in a bunker fish from the East River. Photo by William Mathis.
THE PRICE OF SUNSHINE
Municipal Art Society voices opposition to the museum’s expansion plan BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO
As famed artists added their names to the growing list of opponents to the Frick Collection’s proposed expansion, one of the city’s influential preservation organizations also expressed its dismay with the plan. The Municipal Art Society of New York, a 120-year-old planning and preservation organization that has previously evaluated proposed expansions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The New-York Historical Society and other museums, officially opposed the existing plan in a May 7 letter to museum director Ian Wardropper. In an echo of a now-familiar sentiment, the letter notes that the organization will oppose any renovations that include the loss of the museum’s 70th Street viewing garden built by landscape architect Russell Page in 1977. “While MAS is not necessarily against an expansion, we will oppose any plan that places the Page garden in its crosshairs. We urge the Frick Collection to explore alternative solutions — most obviously, the reference library — that do not require the loss of such a beloved work of landscape architecture and treasured urban greenspace,” the letter states. Municipal Art Society representatives first met with Frick officials almost a year ago, shortly after the
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A LURE: CASTING FOR DINNER IN THE EAST RIVER Despite health risks and the din of traffic, anglers come for the bluefish, bass and other catch BY WILLIAM MATHIS
At the St. Stephen’s Greenmarket, on East 82nd Street, local shoppers flock to the American Seafood tent to buy locally caught fish. But the city’s freshest catch can be had for free only a few blocks away. Just bring your hook, line and sinker. “Personally I like organic stuff, so I prefer fresh fish. I don’t eat farmed fish,” said Walid Zowaal, 52, as he gazed out at his fishing line, which stretched out in the waters of the
Newscheck Crime Watch Voices Out & About
East River just below 100th Street. He is among the few city dwellers who head to the waters surrounding New York City this time of year to try and reel in bluefish, striped bass and perch. Zawaal lives just a few blocks away on East 102nd Street, but grew up fishing in the Mediterranean Sea in his native Alexandria, Egypt. He moved to New York 20 years ago and took up the pursuit once again. “Some people grow up on the water and it’s a part of them,” he said as he reeled in an empty hook. In flip-flops, corduroy pants and a polyester fishing vest, Zawaal rolled
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a cigarette and looked out over the water at Wards Island in the distance. He pondered the potential health risks of eating from New York City’s waterways, which contain unsafe levels of chemicals and other toxins. “I have thought about it, but it’s good,” he said of the fish. “It’s not that bad.” Because of the contamination, and occasional sewerage dumps into the river waters, the state Department of Health cautions against eating fish from city waters. The DOH says males over 15 can safely eat from one to
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How is it that someone can build a 600-foot building in New York and not have to ask a soul for permission to put the thing up? Community Board 5 this week took the unusual step of calling for a temporary moratorium on new skyscrapers along Central Park South until the de Blasio administration can come up with some kind of zoning plan to regulate them. The move, unusually aggressive for any community board, highlights the Wild West nature of development in the city at the moment. Throughout Manhattan -- on the Upper East Side, in lower Manhattan, and certainly on “Billionaires Row” on Central Park South -- massive new buildings are popping up in a skyscraper race not seen in a generation. The buildings are transforming the city’s skyline and remaking its neighborhoods -- all without any input from those of us on the ground. According to a report in Capital New York, seven supertowers are underway and five more are planned in midtown. These shadows “disturb community access to sunshine in the park,” according to the community board. Count us dubious about whether any of that will happen. But at least this community group is trying, reminding all of us that in today’s New York, nothing, not even sunshine, is guaranteed. Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday May 22 – 7:54 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com.
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