The local paper for the Upper er East Side A TREASURE FROM SUMMER'S BOUNTY
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER
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3-9 2015
About 100 people attended the vigil on Central Park South. Photo: Mary Culpepper
CHINA INSTITUTE MOVES, EXPANDS After decades on the Upper East Side, the organization moves to brand-new headquarters downtown BY RUI MIAO
For more than half a century, China Institute resided in a four-story building on the Upper East Side — 65th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues. From within that Upper East Side perch, politicians, scholars and laypersons could study and discuss World War II, the collapse of the Cold War and the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations. Decades on, the institute has outgrown its 9,000-square-foot home. Last month, the institute, one of the nation’s oldest and most respected educational institutions devoted solely to Chinese culture, headed south. The new headquarters, four times the size of the former one, is at 100 Washington St. and forms part of a newly invigorated district. “Lower Manhattan is an energetic and transformational neighborhood, and we want to be a part of it,” said James Heimowitz, the institute’s president. The rebirth of the neighborhood parallels to China Institute’s own evolvement. Heimowitz said the institute is undergoing a transformation from a gloried organization to a dynamic, modern one, with state-ofthe-art facilities and expanded programs. Founded in 1926 by a group of Chinese educators, the organization was
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100 PROTEST INACTION ON HORSE CARRIAGES Attendees say they are dismayed by de Blasio’s failure to follow through on pledges BY MICKEY KRAMER
Just as the sun set last Friday, about 100 people lit up most of 59th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues with a candlelight vigil in tribute, they said, to carriage horses that have either been hurt or killed on city streets and worldwide.
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Some held posters that called out Mayor Bill de Blasio on his failure to fulfil campaign and post-election pledges to ban horse-drawn carriages. “Mayor de Blasio Sold Out the Carriage Horses,” some of the posters read. The vigil was organized by Elizabeth Forel, who founded the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, which has been fighting for a citywide ban
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since 2006. The coalition’s vice president, Mary Culpepper said, “We’re here to bring to light the inherent suffering that carriage horses face and express great disappointment in Mayor de Blasio for reneging on his promise.” Stacey Szewczyk, who held a poster in one hand and her leashed Chihuahua-mix, Nico, in the other, said she was chagrined to see the horses endure as much as they do as they trot
among cars and buses year-around. “It breaks my heart to see these horses in the summer heat and humidity ... breathing in all the car exhausts, and standing and walking in the freezing cold, as well,” she said. De Blasio, she said, had alienated a core group of supporters. “He and it infuriates me,” she said of his not carrying out his promises. “That is why I for voted him.” Most carriage horse drivers asked about the vigil and its purpose declined comment for the story but one,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday September 4 – 7:06 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com.
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