Our Town October 8th, 2015

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The local paper for the Upper er East Side RETHINKING ANDY WARHOL < CITYARTS, P.26

WEEK OF OCTOBER

8-14 2015

SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS BEARING BRUNT

Autumn in the City

Legislation would ease onerous lease terms and give proprietors more time to find new locations BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

Lorcan Otway recently questioned if New York wasn’t losing its soul. As the owner and operator of Theater 80, a small but cherished off-Broadway gem on St. Marks Place, Otway is on the front lines of the battle to save small business in New York. “All the businesses in this room depend on small the-

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OUR TOWN’S THE ART OF FOOD Our Town’s Art of Food presented by NewYorkPresbyterian Hospital is here! Mouth-watering dishes will be prepared by 27 culinary titans of the Upper East Side, each of whose creations will be inspired by art from Sotheby’s upcoming auctions. (Le Cirque’s inspiration, by Toulouse-Lautrec, is on the left.) Café Boulud, Crave Fishbar, JoJo, August, Fred’s at Barneys, The Meatball Shop, The Cecil, The East Pole and others are among the participants. For more information, go to www.ArtofFoodNY.com

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril (D. 345; Adr 11; W. P6), 1893, Dimensions (L x H): 47.5 x 61 in Courtesy Sotheby’s

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Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2015 When: 7:00 – 10:00 PM Location: Sotheby’s New York Ticket Prices: $200 VIP Ticket, $135 General Admission Ticket

27 Culinar y Titans A R T O F F O O D N Y.C O M TUESDAY, OC TOBER 13 a t hosted by Chef Michael W hite & Designer Nicole Miller

20 Tic % ke O ts FF

Temperatures are dropping and the nights are getting longer. Reader Joseph Abate snapped this photo after attending a concert at Carnegie Hall. Do you have a photo that captures your New York? Send it to us at news@strausnews.com or go to www. ourtownny.com and click Submit Stuff

Jewish women and girls light up th by lighting the Shabbat candles ever Friday evening 18 minutes before su Friday, October 9 – 6:07 PM For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com

Home delivery of Our Town Eastsider H $49 per year. Go to OurTownNY.com $ or call 212-868-0190

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OCTOBER 8-14,2015

WHAT’S MAKING NEWS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD ASPCA REHAB CENTER OPENS A rehab center for dogs run by the ASPCA recently opened near the organization’s East 92nd Street headquarters has a near perfect success rate with abused animals

seized by the police, WABC-TV reported. Dog therapists at the Gloria Gurney Canine Annex for Recovery and Enrichment. Nutrition, use training, affection, natural light and reinforcement to get the canines back on healthy all-fours.

“Say you have someone who is afraid to go outside and you hand them a hundred dollar bill every time they do it, that’s it, you take a scary unfamiliar person approaching them who gives them a treat, create positive association,” Victoria Wells, a CARE therapist, told reports for the TV

station. The program has a 95% success rate so far, according to the report. “We see these animals come in skin and bones, bloodied, shot, then we see them turn around become healthy and trusting and it makes it all worthwhile,” the ASPCA’s president and CEO, Matt Bershadker, told the station.

ARSENAL BUILDING ALLOWS ACCESS VIA A RAMP FOR FIRST TIME The construction of a ramp leading to the Arsenal building on Fifth Avenue and 64th Street is finally over after a summer-long installation, DNAinfo reported. “Since the day Central Park was built, people with and without disabilities have struggled to get down the steps to access the park’s headquarters,” Victor Calise, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, was quoted by DNAinfo.com. “Now those days are over.” In addition to the new ramp, the Central Park Conservancy has also upgraded the staircase and installed new lights and handrails along the existing stairs, according to the news site.

CUNY PROFESSORS PROTEST CUNY professors have gathered by the CUNY Chancellor James Milliken’s apartment on East 68th Street, demanding raises and a betterstructured workload, according to DNAinfo. “The chancellor doesn’t feel the urgency of this,” tenured Borough of Manhattan Community College political science professor Geoff Kurtz, 41, told the news site. “A number of people in my department have left because of the salary and the badly structured workload.” The protest was organized by the Professional Staff Congress teachers’ union. According to the union, the academics, both adjunct and full-time, struggle to keep up with the cost of living and CUNY’s less competitive salaries are beginning to take a toll on education. “Adjunct professors get paid pennies and teach more than half the classes. Because of that, students don’t have the support that they need,” Manette Berlinger, a retired academic literacy teacher who worked at the Queensborough Community College for 44 years, told DNAinfo.

For updated news about the Upper East Side, go to www. ourtownny.com

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

DERMATOLOGIST FOUND DEAD IN CHELSEA Police are investigating the death of a 38-year-old Long Island dermatologist found unconscious in the vestibule of a Manhattan apartment building. Police say Kiersten Cerveny, of Manhasset, was found at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday inside the ďŹ ve-story walk-up building on West 16th Street in Chelsea. The woman was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. The medical examiner is to determine the exact cause of death. Police gave no other details. A 2009 New York Times wedding announcement described Cerveny as chief of dermatology at Brooklyn Hospital Center and an assistant professor of clinical dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

MORE ID THEFT

Oct. 1, a 59-year-old man East 64th Street resident was informed by Sotheby’s that he had made a purchase valued at $106,000. He replied that he had not. Later, he was checking his business account and further discovered that an unknown person had removed more than $1 million over several unauthorized transactions. A police investigation is ongoing.

FRAUD ARREST A young man was arrested for fraud. At 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, a 25-year-old man entered a high-end Madison Avenue department store and applied for the store’s credit card. He was approved and immediately bought two pairs of shoes and one handbag totaling $9,000. The store suspected something was amiss, however, and held the shopper until police could or arrive to investigate. It was discovered that the young man had used forged ID documents to apply for the account, and he was arrested and charged with grand larceny, ID theft and possession of a fraudulent instrument.

The cost of ID theft keeps mounting. At noon on Thursday,

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS? New York’s ďŹ nest and bravest both interceded to thwart a burglary. On Sunday, Oct. 4 at 1140 a.m., a 54-yearold woman was helping a neighbor when a 50-year-old man entered the lobby of their building on 84th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues and made off with the woman’s handbag. The woman called 911, and some nearby ďŹ reďŹ ghters attempted to stop the perpetrator, but he held them off with a pair of scissors before eeing into the subway at 86th Street and Lexington Avenue. Police managed to catch up with the man, arrested him and charged him with burglary, possessing stolen property, and menacing. The woman’s handbag was recovered.

EXPENSIVE EVENING One young man had an unusual evening. On Saturday, Sept. 12, a 25-year-old male Upper East Side resident was downtown “enjoying himself� after consuming a quantity of beverages at a nightclub, when

OPEN HOUSE

Saturday, October 1ˇ—11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m For details, please call our Admissions Office 718.721.7200 ext 699 or visit us at stjohnsprepschool.org.

“ The bar was set high at St. John’s Prep. We were challenged to be our best, to make a difference, and to be lifelong learners.� — 2013 St. John’s Prep Graduate Attending Harvard University

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th Precinct for Sept. 21 - 27 Week to Date

Year to Date

2015 2014

% Change

2015

2014

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

1

0

n/a

Rape

1

0

n/a

9

7

28.6

Robbery

3

1

200.0

75

63

19.0

Felony Assault

2

1

100.0

92

73

26.0

Burglary

2

8

-75.0

120

170

-29.4

Grand Larceny

26

33

-21.2

969

991

-2.2

Grand Larceny Auto

1

1

0.0

54

59

-8.5

he got into a black livery cab at 2 a.m. to take him home. He passed out in the livery, and when he woke up at 3 a.m., he found he was now riding in a yellow cab and was no longer in possession of his iPhone, wallet, or Richard Mille watch valued at $12,000. Later he also learned that someone had tried to withdraw $500 in cash using his debit card at an HSBC location but had been denied.

The total tab for the young man’s evening out came to $13,500.

LIPSTICK LARCENY A young woman can never have too much lipstick apparently. At 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, a loss prevention employee at a department store on Lexington Avenue between 59th and

60th Streets saw a 21-year-old woman remove property from a display and conceal it in her coat pocket before trying to leave the store. Security personnel intercepted and held her for police, who arrested her and charged her with grand larceny. She attempted to make off with 37 YSL lipsticks valued at $1,300.

Educating Tomorrow’s Leaders The marks of true leadership—knowledge, faith, virtue, service to others, a passion for learning, innovation, and creativity—are embedded in our school’s culture. St. John’s Prep is a foundation for success and fulďŹ llment, in college and life. t )JHI TUBOEBSET PG MFBSOJOH JODMVEJOH "1 )POPST BOE FOSJDINFOU DPVSTFT Faculty dedicated to the needs of each student t $MPTF LOJU WJCSBOU DPNNVOJUZ PG $BUIPMJD GBJUI t "DUJWF FOHBHFNFOU PVUTJEF UIF DMBTT JO BUIMFUJDT BSUT TFSWJDF DBNQVT ministry, and more t &YQFSJFOUJBM MFBSOJOH UISPVHI BQQSFOUJDFTIJQT HMPCBM USBWFM 45&. BOE partnership programs with St. John’s University 718.721.7200 | stjohnsprepschool.org 21-21 Crescent Street | Astoria, NY 11105

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OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 19th Precinct

153 E. 67th St.

212-452-0600

159 E. 85th St.

311

FDNY Engine 39/Ladder 16

157 E. 67th St.

311

FDNY Engine 53/Ladder 43

1836 Third Ave.

311

FDNY Engine 44

221 E. 75th St.

311

FIRE FDNY 22 Ladder Co 13

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

1916 Park Ave. #202

212-828-5829

State Senator Liz Krueger

1850 Second Ave.

212-490-9535

Assembly Member Dan Quart

360 E. 57th St.

212-605-0937

Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright

1365 First Ave.

212-288-4607

COMMUNITY BOARD 8

505 Park Ave. #620

212-758-4340

LIBRARIES Yorkville

222 E. 79th St.

212-744-5824

96th Street

112 E. 96th St.

212-289-0908

67th Street

328 E. 67th St.

212-734-1717

Webster Library

1465 York Ave.

212-288-5049

100 E. 77th St.

212-434-2000

HOSPITALS Lenox Hill NY-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell

525 E. 68th St.

212-746-5454

Mount Sinai

E. 99th St. & Madison Ave.

212-241-6500

NYU Langone

550 First Ave.

212-263-7300

CON EDISON

4 Irving Place

212-460-4600

POST OFFICES US Post Office

1283 First Ave.

212-517-8361

US Post Office

1617 Third Ave.

212-369-2747

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AT MARYMOUNT, A NEW PRESIDENT MEETS THE CITY Photo by Robert Laberge

NEWS Kerry Walk is only the eighth leader in the history of the Manhattan liberal arts school BY KYLE POPE

Kerry Walk is new enough to Manhattan to still be amazed by the little things. Recently, for instance, she found herself needing to run two errands: repair some shoes and fix a broken clock. She braced for some serious schlepping. Instead, she walked out of her apartment, turned the corner, and found a single store that repaired clocks and shoes. “It was amazing,” said Walk, who July 1 was named president of Marymount Manhattan, a small liberal arts college on the Upper East Side. “There’s a strong feeling of neighborliness here, which I have to tell you surprised me.” Expect to see a lot more of Walk in the neighborhood. In part, that’s because she lives above her job, on the Marymount campus on E. 71st Street. When we met in her wood-paneled office on a Wednesday afternoon, she was battling a possible cold, made worse by a regular meeting with Marymount’s auditors, who had just left. But it’s also because this Pittsburgh native and first-time New Yorker has embarked on something of a welcome tour of the city, meeting with other educators and cultural leaders in the neighborhood and throughout her new adopted hometown. On Oct. 23, Walk will be officially welcomed to the city, at an inauguration ceremony at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her mission for Marymount, she says, is to more fully integrate the college into the city, beefing up what she sees as a unique selling point for a small college in the heart of Manhattan. “The number one thing we will be looking to do is figuring out how to embed ourselves more clearly in New York,” she said. “It’s why you go to college at Marymount Manhattan. When students are doing

a presentation about a work of art, they do it standing in the Metropolitan Museum.” Walk is something of an unusual fit for Marymount. While her academic credentials are clear – she most recently was provost of Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles after stints at Harvard, Princeton, and Pitzer College – she’s a non-Catholic at a college where five of the last eight presidents have been nuns. (The school was founded by a convent in Tarrytown.) Now, this 54-year-old Berkeley PhD, who built and directed

the acclaimed Princeton Writing Program, finds herself leading a college of 1,700 students, more than a quarter of whom come from families eligible for government Pell grants. Her challenge is to differentiate Marymount in a city ringed by globally known universities, and to do it at a time when the liberal arts themselves are under assault. “We are going to be thinking very hard about what kind of college we want to be,” she said. “How do we want to be known? Her initial thought, after a couple of months on the job, is

to fully embrace what makes Marymount unique, which is simply the fact that it is the only small, sectarian liberal arts school on the island of Manhattan. That, she says, translates into a different kind of student body, compared to other liberal arts schools in more traditional settings. “They’re not interested in a stereotypical college experience, with a football team and the partying,” she said. “They’re very focused. They have their eye on professional experience and what’s beyond college.”

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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WHEN BICYCLISTS AND PEDESTRIANS ARE ALLIES OP-ED BY HINDY LAUER SCHACHTER

Throughout the summer of 2015, people on Manhattan’s Upper East Side debated the pros and cons of First Avenue’s protected bike lane. Wherever cyclists gathered, they raised high fives to this infrastructure improvement. But, in June, after a hit-and-run cyclist crashed into pedestrian Mary Grace BelďŹ near E. 86th Street, several local papers featured articles where a few residents suggested that bike lanes themselves constituted a safety problem. They argued that pedestrians were actually more secure before the redesign of the street, claiming the bike lane brought people who disobeyed traffic rules into the neighborhood. The police must track down and society punish hit-and-run cyclists, just like their motorized counterparts. But crashes between cyclists and pedestrians account for almost none of the collisions that seriously injure Manhattan’s pedestrians.

The overwhelming number of crashes occur when drivers of motorized vehicles speed or fail to yield to pedestrians in an intersection. For this reason alone, the way to increase pedestrian safety on the Upper East Side cannot be a return to the pre-bike-lane days, when cyclists had no designated space in which to ride. The way to create the safest possible environment is to reconfigure street layout so that both cyclists and pedestrians have sufficient space dedicated to their needs. For cyclists on the Upper East Side, this strategy means completing a grid of protected bike lanes. First Avenue’s protected lane is a boon to cyclists, particularly those who are new to this way of getting around (a group set to grow with the introduction of CitiBike to the Upper East Side). But cyclists need more than one protected lane per neighborhood. Most cycling trips require riders to go east and west as well as north-south along one avenue. For cyclists to feel safe on the Upper East Side, the next

step is for the Department of Transportation to inaugurate protected crosstown lanes, perhaps one in the east 60s and one in the east 80s. Note that for such lanes to actually increase cyclist safety, they cannot constitute space demarcated by a single line (which is easy for cars to cross) but rather space demarcated by barriers such as parked cars or a CitiBike installation. In addition to inaugurating crosstown bike lanes, the Department of Transportation should also take steps to secure more car-free space for pedestrians. One key requirement is reconďŹ guring traffic lights so that walkers and motorized vehicles cross intersections at different times. Such traffic light reconfiguration would provide walkers with the same amenity bike lanes offer cyclists — space free from worries over encounters with errant drivers. Some of the articles that appeared after Mary Grace BelďŹ â€™s collision imagined that cyclists and pedestrians are antagonists in the campaign to re-al-

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Woman and companion biking down West 4th Street on Citibike in traffic.

locate street space. In actuality, cyclists and pedestrians form one camp seeking safe space from collisions with drivers of motor vehicles. Because savvy walkers and bike riders know that almost all serious crashes involve cars, they advocate for policies that would address the major safety problem, rather than focusing on one or two

outlier crashes. Savvy pedestrians want protected crosstown bike lanes on the Upper East Side for the same reason that savvy cyclists call for pedestrian-only crossing time at intersections. Both groups know that the key to minimizing crashes is giving people who use every mode of transport access to space in

which they can feel safe. In the campaign for protected crosstown bike lanes, cyclists and pedestrians are natural allies. Hindy Lauer Schachter, whose husband was struck and killed by a cyclist in Central Park last year, is a member of Families for Safe Streets

BE THE NEW YORKER WHO REALLY DOES KNOW IT ALL. CANCER SURVIVORSHIP: HOW TO LIVE WELL DURING AND AFTER TREATMENT. A LECTURE PRESENTED BY RUSK REHABILITATION AT NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER. Join a panel of physicians and experts in cancer rehabilitation for an evening of discussion on health and wellness for cancer survivors. Topics will include the role of integrative health, physical therapy, and exercise and lifestyle in secondary cancer prevention. Date: Thursday, October 15, 5:30pm – 7:00pm. Location: Ambulatory Care Center. 240 East 38th Street. 11th Floor Conference Room. Info: This lecture is free and open to the public, but you must RSVP. To attend, call 212.263.6952 or email ruskrsvp@nyumc.org. View past NYU Langone lectures at youtube.com/nyulmc.

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OCTOBER 8-14,2015

NEWYORK-PRESBYTERIAN/WEILL CORNELL

NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center First in New York to Offer New Alternative Treatment for Sleep Apnea

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Healthy Aging to Prevent Alzheimer’s: Latest Research and a Patient’s Story Richard S. Isaacson, M.D. Max Lugavere, Patient

Diabetes and the Diabetic Eye: Understanding the Disease from a Multidisciplinary Approach Jason C. Baker, M.D. Charles W. Mango, M.D. Joy Pape, F.N.P.-C., C.D.E.

Get Your ZZZ’s: Tips on a Good Night’s Sleep for Optimal Health Daniel A. Barone, M.D.

NOVEMBER Food Allergies and Nutrition: Was it Something I Ate? Amina H. Abdeldaim, M.D., M.P.H. Alexandra L. Weinstein, R.D., C.D.N.

All seminars will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and are held at Uris Auditorium; Weill Cornell Medicine; 1300 York Avenue (at 69th St.) If you require a disability-related accommodation, or for weather-related cancellations, please call 212-821-0888 and leave a message on the recording. Visit our website at: www.weill.cornell.edu/seminars All seminars are FREE and open to the public. Seating is available for SHRSOH RQ D ÂżUVW FRPH ÂżUVW VHUYHG EDVLV

state-of-the-art implant designed to treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is now being offered at NewYork-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center. The device is the ďŹ rst of its kind approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is an alternative to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), the current standard of care for OSA. Some 18 million Americans have OSA, according to the National Sleep Foundation. The condition occurs when the tongue and other soft tissues relax during sleep and obstruct the airway. While CPAP masks are effective when used properly and consistently, they face high rates of non-compliance. Studies have shown that many patients ďŹ nd CPAP masks uncomfortable and inconvenient to wear at night before going to sleep. “The implantable upper airway stimulation device has revolutionized our treatment approach for CPAP-intolerant patients with OSA,â€? said Dr. Maria Suurna, a sleep surgery specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and assistant professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine. “This is the most

apnea and hypopnea (shallow breathing) by 68 percent, and 85 percent of bed partners reported little to no snoring in their partner 12 months after activation. “While CPAP treatment can often help people with OSA, there is still a great need for alternative treatment for patients who have not been able to tolerate CPAP,â€? said Dr. Ana Krieger, medical director of the Weill Cornell Center for Sleep Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and an exciting alternative therapy for patients who associate professor of clinical medicine, have struggled for years to effectively manage their OSA. Now, we can implant this small neurology and genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. “This new implant will device with little discomfort to the patient. allows us to offer a new treatment approach This innovative procedure has been very sucfor patients who have been suffering for cessful in controlling airway obstruction and many years. This patient-centered approach snoring during sleep.â€? The implant works with a person’s natural is a major breakthrough in addressing OSA, which is related to a number of other, more breathing process. The device is inserted under the skin in the upper chest, and delivers serious conditions.â€? NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell mild stimulation to key airway muscles, Medical Center is currently offering the procekeeping the airway open during sleep. The dure and device to patients who have OSA patient activates the device with an external and have not been able to use a CPAP mask. remote control at night and can turn it off For more information, contact the ofďŹ ce of upon waking in the morning. Dr. Suurna at 646-962-9135. In clinical trials, the implant reduced

10 Years After Life-Changing Injury, NYPD TrafďŹ c OfďŹ cer Reunites With The Medical Team That Saved His Life

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ast month, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center hosted a reunion for NYPD TrafďŹ c OfďŹ cer Tarrell Lee, who was treated at the hospital following a near fatal car accident. OfďŹ cer Lee was struck by an SUV and pinned against a concrete barrier while directing trafďŹ c at the corner of 60th Street and York Avenue. Due to the extent of his injuries, OfďŹ cer Lee was placed in a medically induced coma for more than 30 days and his leg had to be amputated below his knee. While going through rehab, OfďŹ cer Lee met Matt Long, a New York City ďŹ reďŹ ghter who also nearly killed in a trafďŹ c accident, and the two helped inspire each other to overcome their injuries. The reunion brought together Long, Lee, and Lee’s medical team for the ďŹ rst time since Lee left the hospital.

3rd Avenue Fair Promoting Good Health All Around the East Side

NYPD Traffic Officer Tarrell Lee with his medical team and former FDNY Firefighter Matt Long.

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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FALL 2015

Photo credit: Roger Tully

Weill Cornell Medicine Investigators Discover How Ovarian Cancer Halts Body’s Natural Defense Against Tumor

The Glimcher laboratory. From left: Drs. Juan Cubillos-Ruiz, Xi Chen, Laurie H. Glimcher, Sarah Bettigole and Stanley Adoro.

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varian cancer shuts down immune system cells that would otherwise act as a first line of defense against the deadly tumor, Weill Cornell Medicine scientists reported in a study published in the June 11 issue of Cell. But a therapy that restores the cells’ diseasefighting abilities could provide a powerful new strategy to attack the cancer, which kills more than 14,000 women each year. The investigators identify a gene in dendritic cells - which are key regulators of the immune system - that ovarian cancer activates, resulting in the cells’ inability to mount an effective response against the tumor. In preclinical studies, they demonstrate that turning off the gene, XBP1, restores dendritic cell function and triggers robust immune responses against ovarian tumors. “The high death rate in ovarian cancer has remained the same over the last 40 years because there have been no new therapeutic strategies. This study offers us a new approach — a bright beacon of hope,” said senior author Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine and a researcher in its Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center.

“Harnessing the natural ability of our immune system to eliminate malignant cells represents the most promising anti-ovarian cancer strategy since the development of chemotherapy,” she added. “We look forward to developing new ways to unleash protective immune responses in ovarian cancer.” `The findings extend the Glimcher lab’s discovery that XBP1 is a potential Achilles’ heel in cancer. Investigators there reported last year that the gene plays a key role in the development and progression of the triple negative form of breast cancer, a lethal tumor that’s especially difficult to treat. Because of XBP1’s ability to promote tumor cell survival, the group suspected it could also play a role as an inhibitor of anti-tumor immunity. This is the first time scientists have found that XBP1 can co-opt and turn off immune cell function in cancer. “We are now devising first-in-class drugs that can inhibit the activity of XBP1 in both cancer cells and dendritic cells, which would both sensitize the cancer to treatment and restore an immune response against it,” said lead author Dr. Juan R. Cubillos-Ruiz, an instructor of microbiology and immunology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

New Weill Cornell Medicine Name Announced Weill Cornell is proud to reveal a new name. Following an era of exciting and strategic growth, Weill Cornell Medical College is uniting under a new name— Weill Cornell Medicine—to better reflect the institution’s mission and the breadth of services we provide: world-class patient care, cutting-edge research and top-ranked medical education. We’ve built a powerful network of partnerships and expanded our clinical presence in New York City to the Upper West Side, Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, all so that we can provide the finest care for our patients, who are at the center of everything we do. For more information please visit:

www.Weill.Cornell.edu | www.WeillCornell.org

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Voices

Write to us: To share your thoughts and comments go to ourtownny.com and click on submit a letter to the editor.

< BRACING FOR SNOW To the Editor: Winter is coming, and with it comes snow on the sidewalks. It freezes if not shoveled into the street. But you can’t shovel into the street

Letter

past a solid wall of cars permitted to stay in their spots all winter! So, pedestrians were forced to walk on icy sidewalks, slipped, fell, busted a few hips boarding a bus or posting a

letter. The powers that be should get their act together! Joe Ehrlich E. 83rd Street

EAST SIDE ENCOUNTERS

NOTES FROM AROUND THE BLOCK BY ARLENE KAYATT

HARSH JUSTICE FOR BIKES To the Editor: It is a sad day when we realize that we are not the subject of foreign terrorism but the callous and mindless actions of other New Yorkers who overstep their bounds to cause undue hardship to others. I am referring to the insurgence of cyclists on our city streets who are posing a risk to all New Yorkers. The recent upsurge of cyclists in the city due to the city’s own bad governance has caused a major crisis on our city streets- setting off cyclists with pedestrians and traffic that has become an untenable situation. Dangerous, speeding bikes are now whizzing in all directions, cutting pedestrians off at crosswalks, impeding the flow of traffic and causing major disruption and distracted driving. By creating bike lanes in a city that was once a haven for open living, the city has created a traffic nightmare -- and let down its citizens who take joy in walking freely and openly. We need to regulate the use of bicycles on city streets that pose a risk to all pedestrians and curtail such an abominable activity that is degrading the quality of life and making the city unlivable for pedestrians who rely on the city as a place for moving and congregating. Further, to give impetus to such a reckless activity by creating a program like CitiBike that has made the city more crowded and placed pedestrians in harm’s way -- creating even more congestion and traffic on city streets -- that was the outcome of poor planning, corporate malfeasance, and pernicious thinking is a crime. Something must be done to stop this heinous act that is being perpetrated by some New Yorkers who wish to cause chaos on city streets is a criminal act that should be governed by stricter, harsher laws and street justice for cyclists who cross the line. AJ Cross

STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source

Street trash: Northwest corner of 87th Street and Lex, opposite CVS - old wire trash cans overflowing with rubbish. City signs on cans forbidding personal and business trash. There’s plenty of other trash to fill the cans to be sure but they are filled and the trash is all over the sidewalk and in the street. CVS could be a good neighbor and have the garbage removed during high volume times. Benefits of construction: After developer Related Companies cleared out the old Ruppert Playground, its 36-story tower is being built on 92nd between 2nd and 3rd. Expect concrete, cranes, scaffolding for at least the next two years. The upside is that the construction workers are busy patronizing the local mom and pops along 3rd Ave. Yellow cabs and GPS’s: That yellow cabbie who said he knew how to get from 80th and 3rd to NY Presbyterian in Flushing, forget it. He meant he was relying on GPS which, as it turns out, has the wrong location for the former Booth Memorial Hospital. The ill-fated route cost me an additional 20 dollars. Taxi drivers should be required to know how to travel without a GPS. Or at least know the difference when the GPS doesn’t. No more Acting: The Manhattan Democratic Convention nominated four Acting Supreme Court Justices to become full Supreme Court Justices come the

Vice President/CFO Otilia Bertolotti Vice President/CRO Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnews.com

Associate Publishers, Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth Sr. Account Executive, Tania Cade

November Elections. The nominees are Justice Tanya Kennedy, Justice Arlene Bluth, Justice Arthur Engoron, Justice Raymond Bruce. Eighteen judges competed for four open seats. Those judges who did not make it this year along with other judges who will be reported out of the Judicial Screening Panel are eligible to try again for open seats next year. Judge Kennedy’s replacement for her countywide Civil Court seat will be selected by Manhattan’s Democratic District Leaders on Oct. 8 from those who were reported out by the Civil Court Screening Panel - Ta-Tanisha James, Housing Court Judge Sabrina Kraus, Richard Tsai. Doggy due: Patient was leaving oncologist’s office in the East 80s with Yorkie in tote. The technician came running out of her office saying “Don’t leave, don’t leave.” Looking shaken, the patient asked if everything was OK. “Oh yes, everything is fine. I forgot to give you treats for Millie.” Price alert: Be on the lookout for under-pricing on shelves at Duane Reade and CVS in Upper East Side locations. When you get to the scanners, the price invariably is more. Staff is good about confirming correct price, but not best practice to lure consumers with faux prices. Cracking down on Select bus riders: Hold on tight to the receipt you get when you pay your fare on Select Bus routes. In the last month or so, enforcers have

been ticketing riders who cannot produce proof of payment receipt. And the enforcers stay the bus route so look for the trash can when you leave the bus. No sooner. Not the fair way: What Fairway 86th St is calling a “Cafe” is nothing more than an ordinary take-out shop with no place to sit. It has a salad bar, hot food, coffee, soups. No more smoothies. Dis-service charges: Splitting restaurant bills with more than one credit card has become de riguer in my experience. I’ve heard it criticized by Europeans who take the “I pay this time, you pay next time” approach. But in NY, USA, some restaurateurs take the opportunity to add a “service charge” when diners use more than one credit card to pay the bill. After talking to several restaurant managers, the consensus was that it’s “tacky” and “not right,” that the restaurant pays a fee to the credit card company and is charged per swipe/ use of the card, and the cost per card is negligible. However, if the charge is going to be added to the bill, there should be notice to the customer. Barely waiting: Bareburger on East 87th between 1st and 2nd takes a hard line when it comes to early arrivals. At 5:50 PM an elderly gentleman arrived for his 6:15 dinner with two friends. The host/manager would not seat him because “the policy” is for entire party to be seated at the

President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com Account Executive Editor In Chief, Kyle Pope Fred Almonte, Susan Wynn editor.ot@strausnews.com Director of Partnership Development Deputy Editor, Richard Khavkine Barry Lewis editor.dt@strausnews.com

Staff Reporters, Gabrielle Alfiero, Daniel Fitzsimmons

same time. What made it more unpleasant was that there was no place for him to sit and wait. Time for Bareburger, a casual neighborhood restaurant that counts on local clientele for business, to rethink its policy. Mosque Fridays: On Friday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., the sidewalk in front of the Islamic Society of Mid-Manhattan on East 55th St. between 3rd and Lex, is occupied by Muslims praying. The street is open, except for the stretch in front of the mosque where Muslims use the street to pray. The mosque has a longstanding permit to use the street so long as the mosque itself is filled to capacity and is unable to accommodate those who have come to pray. There are three floors in the building. Two for men. One for the women. On some Fridays passersby congregate around the immediate vicinity of where the men are praying. Best to walk to the opposite sidewalk. Or make your way by using the street instead of the sidewalk. Arlene Kayatt’s East Side Encounters will run bi-weekly in Our Town. The column marks a return to Our Town for Kayatt, who has lived on the Upper East Side for more than 40 years. She worked for the paper from 1973 to 1986, as a reporter and as managing editor. Know of something she should include in the column? Email her at news@strausnews. com

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

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

My Story

Does It Have The Apple Logo?

On the Pope and Yogi Berra BY BETTE DEWING “What are you writing about?â€? asks our doorman, Jose Temprano, and when I say, “Yogi Berra and Pope Francis’ visit,â€? this thoughtful staff member (they all are, incidentally) says he hopes it’s about “Yogi’s great character, unlike that of too many athletes.â€? Not surprisingly, this was my intention, and the column title, “Person, Not Player the Main Focusâ€? is the title of Times’ writer Harvey Araton’s account of this most beloved Yankee’s funeral. And don’t we need that – in general – focus on character, and Pope Francis would say this was surely basic church doctrine. But “the churchâ€? (all faith groups) could use some related lessons from Yogi to help ďŹ ll those pews and prevent more parish mergers whose immeasurable loss was not addressed during Pope Francis’ visit. And so in need of remembrance and adoption are these lessons from Yogi, thankfully found in Daily News reporters Larry McShane, Christian Red and Larry Vinton’s Sept. 30 account of his funeral. (Do get a copy.) Lesson number one as recalled by ex-Yankee manager Joe Torre was “Yogi’s uncanny ability to make people smile.â€? Although these words followed Torre’s tribute to “this American treasure who leaves behind a kindness and respect for all. He affected so many people in a positive way,â€? it’s the smiling that so needs an imminent revival, in general with love one another, love thy neighbor -- faith groups setting the example. Now you may not get even a nod from others sharing your pew. During Pope Francis’ visit, which made great multitudes smile (for a while), the pope told Our Lady Queen of Angels school’s 4th graders to keep smiling, even though there are problems at home.

9

9G %CP (KZ +V #V 6GMUGTXG YG UWRRQTV CNN VJKPIU #RRNG Whether you’re having problems with your iPhone, iPad, Mac—or any other Apple product—we can troubleshoot, Ă°[ LW RU VXJJHVW D FRVW HIIHFWLYH XSJUDGH RU UHSODFHPHQW Surely he also meant the school must hear about these problems, often alcohol and drug-related, which ďŹ nd treatment in 12 Step groups which often meet on church premises. Children should share their problems. Everyone should. Ironically, this school is part of the Our Lady Queen of Angels church, which was closed some years ago to highly publicized parishioner protest, and now some recently closed parishes are desperately hoping the Vatican will reopen their churches which are even self-supporting and also accessible. But more must be publicly said about the ongoing hardships these mergers create, to both parishioners and the community as meeting places for Alcoholics Anonymous and other public service groups. Ah, and these churches are beautiful human scale buildings, beacons of hope even for non-believers. And inďŹ nitely more must be said about how Yogi Berra with his wife Carmen and family of three sons faithfully attended their parish church in Montclair, New Jersey. All important was Yogi and Carmen’s role model marriage and intact family (extended, of course). natural support systems so essential for a stable and non-violent society. The Catholic Church is not

alone in hoping Pope Francis’ visit gets more people into those pews and seminaries and convents. But it would help if more sermons and Sabbath school lessons were based on Yogi Berra’s life and his being “a legacy of kindness and respect for all and his uncanny ability to make people smile.� Remember as well, Derek Jeter praising Yogi for being a good listener as well as a good talker. And although a generation apart, these two became close friends. As did Yogi and Ron Guidry, and do read Harvey Araton’s book, “Driving Mr. Yogi, Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, Baseball’s Greatest Gift.� Intergenerational friend and familyships are especially needed as the population ages, with the obvious, able-bodied helping those who are not, but some babies from Yogi’s “Greatest Generation,� thrown out with the bath water of ill-advised change need to get back into the mix. And, how we need to “share the talk!� so everyone’s voice is heard. Faith groups, all people of good will, should be in the vanguard of reviving both too little practiced examples of peace and justice for all - sharing the talk and overcoming generational apartheid. To be continued, no doubt, and it can be done if enough of us try. Smile! dewingbetter@aol.com

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OCTOBER 8-14,2015

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Out & About More Events. Add Your Own: Go to ourtownny.com

Thu 8 COLOR IN ART

Dear Parents: You are cordially invited to attend one of our OPEN HOUSES at York Preparatory School Tuesday, October 13th Tuesday, October 27th Tuesday, November 3rd Tuesday, November 10th Tuesday, November 17th Tuesday, December 1st Tuesday, January 5th Tuesday, January 26th Tuesday, April 19th Tuesday, May 10th

9:10am-10:30am 9:10am-10:30am 9:10am-10:30am 9:10am-10:30am 9:10am-10:30am 9:10am-10:30am 9:10am-10:30am 9:10am-10:30am 9:10am-10:30am 9:10am-10:30am

RSVP to the Admissions Office at: Elizabeth Norton 212-362-0400 ext. 103 - enorton@yorkprep.org Cathy Minaudo 212-362-0400 ext. 106 - cminaudo@yorkprep.org York Prep is a coeducation college preparatory school for grades 6-12

M ARBLE C OLLEGIATE C HURCH

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. 2 p.m. $35. Join Museum scientists and conservators for in-depth discussions about the use, study, and transformation of color in works of art. 212-570-3961. www. metmuseum.org/events/ programs/met-studies/shortcourses/color-in-

DRINK AND DRAW 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. 7 p.m.$20. Join in for a Drink and Draw session with a twist—music and models inspired by a theme. 212-415-5500. www.92y. org/Event/Drink-and-Draw

previews/middle-kingdomfamily-dual-individualassociate?

NEW YORK BAROQUE INCORPORATED The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. 7 p.m. Free The young musicians of New York Baroque Incorporated bring energy and enterprising to this exquisitely old-school and rare program of cantatas. 212-868-0190. www. metmuseum.org/events/ programs/met-livearts/ny-baroque-inc-huggett?eid=83030

Sat 10 CLASSIC BALLROOM 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave.

sketching-unconventional-

Sun 11 VEINS AND SINEWS IN GREEK ART The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. 11 a.m. Free Examine these small features, which often bear meaning as clearly as larger features do. 800-662-3397. www. metmuseum.org/events/ programs/met-tours/gallerytalks/veins-and-sinews-ingreek-

YOUNG ARTIST CONCERT SERIES ▼ 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. Noon. Free Join in to enjoy the music: Anais Reno, Voice; Peter Yarin,

Fri 9 ANCIENT EGYPT TRANSFORMED ▼

Ken Cowan One of North America’s finest concert organists.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 7:30PM $20 at the door and $15 for students and seniors

1 West 29th Street / New York, New York 10001 / 212 686 2770 / MarbleChurch.org

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Free Join in to preview the exhibition Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom before it opens to the public. 212-415-5500. www. metmuseum.org/events/ programs/met-celebrates/ membership-exhibition-

7 p.m. $23. Ballroom host Gene Eagle brings stardust evenings of ballroom classics—Foxtrot, Waltz, Cha Cha and your favorite Tangos. 212-415-5500. www.92y. org/Event/Classic-Ballroom

SKETCHING: UNCONVENTIONAL TECHNIQUES The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. 1-3 p.m. Free Experiment with different drawing approaches as you sketch from original works of art in the Museum’s galleries with the guidance of an artistinstructor. 800-662-3397. www. metmuseum.org/events/ programs/met-creates/ saturday-sketching/saturday-

Piano. 212-415-5500. www.92y. org/tickets/production. aspx?pid=119959

Mon 12 A BALLERINA’S TALE SCREENING 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. 7:30 p.m. $40. Get the behind-the-scenes story of how Misty Copeland overcame a tumultuous upbringing to become one of the most revered dancers of her generation. 212-415-5500. www.92y. org/Event/Misty-Copelandand-Nelson-George

11

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

IN OUR HANDS RESCUE & NORTH SHORE ANIMAL LEAGUE AMERICA

92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. Noon. $25. Charles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron tell how the Met became and remains a powerful actor on the global cultural scene. 212-415-5500. www.92y. org/Event/The-Story-of-theMet

Tue 13 EAST SIXTIES NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION Mount Vernon Museum & Hotel Auditorium, 417 East 61st St.

6-8 p.m. Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Fall Annual Meeting & Ave. Pedestrian Safety Forum 6:30-8 p.m. 212-713-5826. esna-nyc.com The attractions/challenges of making and looking at nocturne paintings. Moderated by Peter HOOVER’S WAR ON Trippi, editor-in-chief of Fine Art GAYS Connoisseur Magazine. 92nd Street Y, 1395 212-255-7740. www. Lexington Ave. salmagundi.org Noon. $25. At its peak, J. Edgar Hoover’s NEW PARENT GETnotorious “Sex Deviatesâ€? ďŹ le TOGETHER encompassed nearly more than 330,000 pages of information. 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. 212-415-5500. www.92y. 10:30 a.m. $10. org/Event/Hoover-s-War-onGays Bring your baby and join Sally Tannen, director of 92Y’s Parenting Center for a lively, weekly get-together to share, learn and make new friends. 212-415-5500. www.92y. org/Uptown/Event/NewParent-Get-Togethers AMERICAN MASTERS

Wed 14

PANEL DISCUSSION “SEEING IN THE DARKâ€? â–ź

Photo By Ellen Dunn

GRAND OPERA: THE STORY OF THE MET FROM GILDED AGE TO NEW MEDIA â–˛

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SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 aters,� said Otway to his fellow small business owners — proprietors of local bakeries, cafes and wine bars — at a recent roundtable organized by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. “The small theater business is dying. There’s no other way to say it.� He spoke of disarming thugs in the dope days of the 1980s and the challenges and joys of growing a small business in the big city. A recent run-in with cellphone bandits notwithstanding, Otway and his theater face a much more dangerous foe these days: rising

rents in the area, skyrocketing taxes and zero leverage when it comes to renewing a lease. “Once we lose the theaters in New York, we lose New York,� Otway said. “We don’t become Las Vegas, we become Flint, Michigan.� The irony? Things were easier when he was fending off junkies and armed hustlers, he said. For example, he said, his taxes have jumped from $56,000 to $146,000 in four years. What happens is that the city’s Finance Department conducts property assessments every year, which in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods can result in sudden tax bill increases. The problem for small business owners is that those tax bills can be passed along to them by the building owner via

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their lease. All of this is done legally, according to Brewer, and is a “major problemâ€? for small business owners in the borough and across New York City. Jesse Ballan, who owns CafĂŠ Mocha on East Second Street, faces a similar problem. He recently received a tax bill for $30,000 from the owner of his building, and the end of his lease is in sight. “In three years my lease is up,â€? said Ballan, who recently received a commendation from Mayor Bill de Blasio for opening his cafĂŠ as a staging ground for first responders in the aftermath of the East Village blast that killed two people in March. “I don’t know if I’m going to survive,â€? he added. Barbara Feinman of Barbara Feinman Millinery on E. Seventh Street has a different problem. Her building was recently sold to a developer, and she has about ďŹ ve years left on her lease. There’s no guarantee, she said, that her new landlord will renew her lease at a reasonable rate. “None of these other issues matter if we don’t get to renew our lease,â€? she said. “After ďŹ ve years, I don’t know what I’m going to do.â€? Brewer announced in March her office was working on an

initiative to bolster small businesses’ standing during lease renewal negotiations. According to a broad outline of the proposal, landlords would be required to give small business tenants 180 days’ notice of their intention to terminate a lease, followed by a negotiation period in which either party can request nonbinding mediation. The legislation would also provide the option of a one-year lease extension with no more than a 15 percent rent increase to give businesses time to move. Ahmed Tigani, an urban planner in Brewer’s office, said her team is currently working with the chairman of the city council’s small business committee, Robert Cornegy, to draft and introduce the legislation. Barring that, they’ll seek to inuence an existing piece of legislation to give more power to small business owners during lease negotiations. Lucien Reynolds, also an urban planner in Brewer’s office, said the forthcoming legislation is meant to ensure property owners have a conversation about lease renewal with their commercial tenants, as opposed to ending the lease with little notice and jacking up the rent to an unrealistic level. One thing Brewer is not in-

vesting time and energy in is passing the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, which would require building owners to provide small businesses with a minimum 10-year lease, and provide small business owners with recourse to binding arbitration if fair lease renewal terms cannot be reached. Brewer helped write the legislation in the mid-1980s with then city council-member Ruth Messinger, and said the bill has languished for decades and will never pass. “We don’t want to come up with something we’re going to be talking about for the next 30 years,� she said, in reaffirming her belief the legislation is dead. During her time in the city council representing the Upper West Side, Brewer worked to pass a law that prevents streetlevel storefronts from being longer than 40 feet across and limits the frontage of banks on the Upper West Side to a maximum of 25 feet across. “That’s the only thing I’ve been able to do in terms of helping small businesses,� she said. “It’s not easy,� she added, to pass laws that help small businesses in New York. Anthony Aiden, of Anthony Aiden Opticians, said he’s being targeted by sanitation workers who seem to follow

garbage trucks around waiting for items to fall off so they can write tickets. (In New York, businesses are charged with keeping the sidewalk in front of their establishment clean and unobstructed, and can be ďŹ ned if they fail to do so.) “It’s an epidemic,â€? Aiden said. A Department of Small Business Services representative said there’s a multi-agency study currently underway to examine ways to decrease bureaucratic gridlock. And an official from the Department of Buildings said the agency holds informational sessions Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. with business owners on DIB requirements for building and renovating a storefront. An official from the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene said in advance of a real inspection, the agency is available for “pre-inspectionsâ€? where potential violations will be pointed out but not penalized. Brewer touted a study by her office that looked further at the challenges and potential solutions to sustaining small businesses in New York. The report, “Big Impact: Expanding opportunities for Manhattan’s storefronters,â€? is available for download at www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov.

HELP THOSE IN NEED At our 99 Park Avenue branch, we are accepting non-perishable food item donations beneďŹ ting Food Bank For New York City.

BANKING WITH CARE NOW AVAILABLE IN THE HEART OF THE CITY. NEW BRANCH NOW OPEN AT 99 PARK AVENUE @ 40TH STREET. At Flushing Bank, we recognize the importance of our role in the community and believe it is our responsibility to do more for our customers and the communities we serve. Visit our newest location at 99 Park Avenue and allow us to show you how we are a different kind of bank – one that cares.

Be sure to ask about our bonus offers including how to get up to $300 for a new consumer checking account and our free tablet offer for new business checking customers. *New checking account with new money only must be opened at the 99 Park Avenue branch. Existing checking account customers are not eligible. An existing checking customer is deďŹ ned as anyone who currently has or has had a Flushing Bank checking account within the last 24 months. Flushing Bank is a registered trademark

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13

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

Andy Warhol, After the Party Courtesy Sotheby’s

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com rtownny.com

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

Top chefs of the East Side are coming together to offer up creations inspired by art from Sotheby’s at Our Town’s Art of Food on Tuesday, October 13. The event will be hosted by chef Michael White and designer Nicole Miller. (See our interviews with them in the pages that follow.) We’re also recognizing Tim and Nina Zagat for their Lifetime of Achievement of capturing the excitement of dining out. In these pages you’ll find our interviews with some of the chefs who will be on hand. We’ve also provided a complete list (as of press time) of what each chef is preparing -- and the art that inspired them. A portion of the proceeds will go to CityMeals-on-Wheels. For more information, go to www.artoffoodny.com. And pick up Our Town next week to see photos of the fun and food. Honorees Tim and Nina Zagat

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To Advertise Call Vincent Gardino at 212-868-0190 The local paper for the Upper East Side

The local paper for Chelsea

The local paper for the Upper West Side

The local paper for Downtown

I love to eat. I love food. So sometime in college the fact that I watched my Mom make a box of Near East rice pilaf, gave me an edge over my friends. I started to shop at the glorious Wegmans super stores and the rest is history. As I challenged myself to find pairing for this boxed riced, I tapped into a creative passion that still exists today. Working in the restaurant business is not as simple as boxed rice, but it still is about making people happy with food.

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E FOOD & WYOINUR FEST IN ORHOOD B NEIGH FESTI VALS

What inspires you? Good food inspires me. Passionate people inspire me... When I dine out, if I taste something that impresses me, I am inspired to create based on that feeling or that vinegar or herb that was used. When my vendors call me and say, “Todd you’ve got to try this,” I am inspired to put their excitement on a finished plate.

know, we serve this prep at the restaurant, ha.

What’s your favorite food spot on the Upper East Side? Nancy Lee’s Pig Heaven for their spare ribs, some hot mustard and I am very happy!

What’s the current dining trend or fad you wish would go away? I am not a hater, and therefore I cannot

Is there a food or a dish you would eat answer this honestly. Most food trends every day if you could get away with it? trend for good reason, and although a Fatty salmon cooked rare to medium rare with the skin seared crispy. What do you

good thing can tire itself out, a short time without it, you may start to miss its flavor, texture, its convenience.

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

THE REGENCY BAR & GRILL www.regencybarandgrill.com 540 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065 212-339-4050

BRIAN KEVORKIAN What made you go into the restaurant business? I walked into a restaurant when I was 13 and I was told I couldn’t make it – since then all I’ve wanted to do is prove them wrong. Shortly after that I was hooked on the intensity of it!!!

What inspires you? Honestly everything is an inspiration. I get inspired by everything around me – something as simple as my daily bike ride or a visit to the farmers market.

THE PENROSE 1590 Second Ave. 212-203-2751 www. penrosebar.com

SHAUN VANALPHEN What made you go into the restaurant business? I first got into the restaurant industry out of necessity. I was 14 years old and needed a weekend and summer job. This led me to my first job as a dishwasher. I didn’t think much of it back then but I was very amused with the fast-paced environment and the feeling of comradery. Restaurants became part of my life and after I graduated High School I moved to Portland, Maine and worked for Chef Sam Hayward at Fore Street. This was the first place that I got a real taste of what food should be. Everything was locally sourced and cooked over live fire. The whole experience was very eye opening and I knew from there on that I wanted to be a Chef.

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Is there a food or a dish you would eat every day if you could get away with it? A burger!!! I just love a delicious burger. I feel like a good burger is really hard to make and most people don’t do it properly.

What’s your favorite food spot on the Upper East Side? Daniel - one of the top 5 meals I have had since moving to NYC.

What’s the current dining trend or fad you wish would go away? POP UP chefs. These guys who have barely worked in the restaurant industry doing these pop up restaurants and calling themselves chefs. I don’t mind a good pop up like Chef John Fraser did a few years back but Chef Fraser put in his time and is a well respected Chef.

matter. Tacos are such a simple product but when done correctly it can be the most enjoyable 4 bites you have ever had.

What’s your favorite food spot on the Upper East Side? Inase. It’s a small husband and wife run sushi restaurant. You won’t find any unnecessary ingredients, just pure, clean fish. When the chef isn’t in, the restaurant is not open.

What inspires you? There are so many things that inspire me from different chefs, book, friends and the pursuit of gaining knowledge that it’s really hard to pinpoint one. I think if I had to choose it would be making people happy. Food is an art and when you present a person with a dish that blows them away it is a really nice feeling. There aren’t many things that are better then somebody pulling you aside and complimenting you on something that you have made for them.

Is there a food or a dish you would eat every day if you could get away with it? Tacos, any kind of taco it doesn’t really

What’s the current dining trend or fad you wish would go away? I don’t really want to see any trend go away. I think trends are trends and they come and go but it doesn’t make it any less interesting to learn about it and see the thought process behind it. If anything I would like to see people actually get back to cooking with classic techniques. We are starting to get very far removed with all the new tools that are coming out for cooks that sometimes people lose the fundamentals of cooking.

Chef VanAlphen of The Penrose says his Beet Cured Fluke, Burnt Apple, Yuzu Kosho and Chive Flowers was inspired by Marc Chagall - Carnaval of Flowers (M. CS 33); 1967 Courtesy Sotheby’s

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

DISHING IT OUT HOST Michael White, co-host of Our Town’s Art of Food event, reflects on his culinary career BY ANGELA BARBUTI

If you have a penchant for fine dining, chances are you’ve eaten at one of Michael White’s eight Manhattan restaurants. The list: Marea, Osteria Morini, Ai Fiori, Nicoletta, Costata, The Butterfly, Ristorante Morini and his newest, Vaucluse, which opened last month on the corner of Park Avenue and 63rd Street. The Wisconsin native trained in the north of Italy, and as a result, only serves homemade pasta to his guests. His newest venture, Vaucluse, invokes the south of France and Paris, and White describes it as very warm and inviting. Although it is only a month old, he said, “We’ve already had people that have been there seven, eight, 10 times. That very much speaks to the due diligence and the time we spent as a team building it.” As the co-owner of the Altamarea Group, White works with a staff of over 1,000, which has enabled him to expand overseas with eateries in Hong Kong, Istanbul and London. And he is not planning on halting that growth anytime soon. “I’m having a lot of fun. When I don’t have fun anymore, then we’ll stop,” he said.

Is it true you always knew you wanted to be a chef? Oh, definitely. Cooking with my father as a young person, just being in the kitchen. I also cooked with my grandmother. It was obviously premature, before Food Network and such. So, when I told my father that I was going to be a chef, he wasn’t too pleased right off the bat. Being a chef back then, in the late 80s, you were flipping burgers somewhere or working as a short-order cook. It wasn’t thought of as what it is today, that’s for sure.

Having trained in Italy, what do you miss about cooking there? You know I have to say, when I first started my career working in Italy as a young person, it was a mind-blowing experience. Being able to work with

the products firsthand and being right at the source is such an amazing thing. But as you know now, we are able to get all those products here in such an easier way. But when I first started cooking Italian food, we didn’t have all those things that we do today. Missing obviously being in Italy, but I have to say that we’re very fortunate in America and around the world to have great Italian products.

What’s a dish you serve at one of your restaurants that has a lot of meaning to you? I would definitely say the lobster and burrata that we do at Marea. It’s stracciatella, pickled eggplant, lobster, tomato and basil. A very simple dish, but combining lobster and a milk product is not usually one of those things that you do. That was one of the first dishes that was solidified on the menu. It has never left the menu and I’ll probably never take it off unless we can’t get good product one day.

Tell us about some interesting requests that customers have made. We’re in the hospitality business, so we get everything. Ob-

VAUCLUSE MICHAEL WHITE 100 E 63rd St. (646) 869-2300 vauclusenyc.com Preparing: Pâté de Campagne Inspired by: Pablo Picasso - Nature morte sous la lamp (B. 1102; Ba. 1313); 1962 Andy Warhol - Piglet (F. & S. IV.134B); 1959 viously gluten is a very popular issue right now. Whether we’re toasting somebody’s gluten-free bread at one of the restaurants that they bring in, we’re very accommodating. We know that people have dietary restrictions, so we like to accommodate as best we can. Some of the weird things, I have to tell you ... . Even adults are like children. “I don’t want my vegetables to touch my protein.” I have to say when we get to a certain age, I can’t believe we’re still there. But we make it happen for everybody.

How is your new restaurant Vaucluse different from your

others? We’re building a client base that loves French food in a relaxed atmosphere with touches of the south of France and Paris. It’s a big and comfortable restaurant with a menu that has lots of choices, so you can come back many times and use it as a neighborhood restaurant. It’s different than Marea,

which is in Columbus Circle. Vaucluse is on Park Avenue. It’s not too fancy, so it invokes France, but not too much. It’s a very warm place where you can come back numerous times.

As far as the future goes, will you continue to open restaurants? I tell you, all the restaurants we have, we only have one man-

agement deal. All the other restaurants we own as Altamarea Group. We keep building restaurants as long as we have our team members that are growing along with us. It’s very difficult to open restaurants as you know, so we’re building teams to work at these restaurants, and then take team members out of these restaurants and go ahead and keep going. I don’t think we’re gonna stop anytime soon. We’re over 1,000 people in the Altamarea Group and things are going quite well.

So how do you make time for your family in the midst of all this? Wow, it’s very difficult. I can barely get on the phone with you! My daughter Francesca is in seventh grade. She has school, extracurricular activities and birthday parties. It’s a good time. The tough time is in the summer when my daughter is away at camp. But I know she’s having a great time. Sundays, we all get together and cook. We make time for sure.

If you were going out to eat in the city with your wife and daughter, where would you take them? That is a really tough question. We cook a lot of Italian food at home, so we’re always going for Korean or something like that. Sundays we’ll go to dim sum in Chinatown. Those are the kinds of thing I do with my girls.

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

THE ENDURING STYLE OF TASTE HOST

all these great factories in the United States now.

The co-host of the Art of Food on fashion, food and conservative Manhattan styles

As far as New York City goes, you’ve called it ‘conservative’ clothing-wise. I’m talking about how when you go to events in New York, I find that a lot of times, everyone is kind of wearing your basic ball gown. Some of them are really great, but unless you go to a downtown event, then you see people being a little bit more adventurous.

BY ANGELA BARBUTI

Nicole Miller started her career as an intern and opened her first store on Madison Avenue in 1986. The rest is New York City fashion history. The Tribeca resident’s interests extend well beyond fashion, and her passion for food has led her to co-host, with chef Michael White, Our Town’s Art of Food, happening at Sotheby’s on October 13. The event welcomes 25 Upper East Side chefs who will be preparing dishes inspired by art from one of Sotheby’s upcoming auctions.

What was it like when you opened your first store on Madison Avenue? Madison Avenue had a reputation for having very snooty stores, and it’s kind of comical because you would walk into another store and everybody would be aloof and cold. And these stores would open up and close up and open up and close up. And there were so many times when half of Madison was empty, between the recession or being poorly run, or whatever. We withstood the times. We were there for years and years and years.

I read that your company grew significantly after you designed a tie. When we opened the store on Madison Avenue, I decided to make some ties. I was making scarves and my own accessories at that point. My business partner said, “Make me some ties while you’re at it.” So, we took some of our old prints and had the fabric reprinted and made some ties. It just became a huge hit. It was great because when women were shopping with their husbands, the men would have something to shop for. Or if the women were shop-

Nicole Miller at her spring fashion show last month at Skylight Clarkson Square. Photo ©Patrick McMullan ping, they would buy one for their husbands. And it was back when conversational ties were a new thing. There wasn’t anything like that around. And anytime a guy wore one of these ties, they just got so much attention. And they would come back for more. So we really had a huge tie business for a while. Until people started copying us and making ugly versions of them. And then there were casual Fridays and then men got conservative and went back to grey ties again. We still make a few ties, but it doesn’t have that super excitement it did back in the ‘90s. We made a lot of ties with food and alcohol on them.

You’ve said that the fashion industry has changed as far as quality goes. Well, there used to be mostly domestic manufacturing, and not so much global. So I think the whole quality and level of American design has gotten much more elevated. Back when we started, I was only making things in the United States and the factories were very limited. If I wanted to make a bias cut dress, they would go, “Oh no, but we can’t.” They didn’t let you do anything that was challenging. So gradually we started making things overseas a bit. In the meantime, American manufacturing has caught up and there are

How do you think New York fashion is different from anywhere else in the world? Well, at this point, it’s in a big comfort zone. I look around and everybody is always dressed for comfort, with sneakers. People will dress up to go out. Even offices have gotten so much more casual. When I used to go, everyone was dripping in their leather jackets and cool, latest whatevers and now everyone’s in jeans and sneakers.

What are your favorite restaurants in Manhattan? In my neighborhood, which is Tribeca, I’m very spoiled since I live across from Nobu. I go there all the time. But my two all-time favorite restaurants are Indochine and Da Silvano. And Waverly Inn, I like that, too. And in my neighborhood there’s a great place called KheYo, owned by Forgione. It’s Laotian food. The Butterfly is in my neighborhood; I like that a lot. too. I also like to go to Santina in Meatpacking.

What are your future plans? We’re developing our handbag and shoe collection quite a bit and that seems to be taking hold, so I’m excited about that. And we’re already starting to think about summer of next year, which is terrifying. [Laughs] It’s funny, I spend the whole summer doing boardsports- wakeboarding, water skiing, kiteboarding- so now I’m like, “What am I going to do now?” since there’s a gap before snow season comes around.

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CAFÉ BOULUD

FLEX MUSSELS

20 E 76th St. (212) 772-2600 www. cafeboulud.com

174 East 82nd St. 212-717-7772 www.flexmussels.com

AARON BLUDORN

MICHAEL SULLIVAN

What made you go into the restaurant business?

What inspires you? I am inspired by learning anything new about food, new techniques, new produce, how it relates to a culture that I didn’t know of. I will never know everything about food and that is what excites me most about working with it.

What made you go into the restaurant business? An overwhelming love of food, people, and community.

What inspires you? The seasons, street art, New York City, fresh ingredients, new ingredients, colleagues

Is there a food or a dish you would eat every day if you could get away with it? I don’t think so, it’s the variety that excites me most, eating one thing would leave me craving everything else.

What’s your favorite food spot on the Upper East Side?

J.G Melon, I love their burgers, great after work spot.

What’s the current dining trend or fad you wish would go away? It’s a trick question because all fads or trends fade in time, it’s the classics that always stand the test of time.

Is there a food or a dish you would eat every day if you could get away with it? A perfect slice of NYC pizza.

What’s your favorite food spot on the Upper East Side? Viand Diner for late night snacks! Marruzella for their

amazing insalata Bianca.

wish would go away?

What’s the current dining trend or fad you

Overcomplicated food. Give me perfect ingredients prepared perfectly and interestingly!

Styling: Eleonora Martini - eleonoramartini.it

I was washing dishes to make extra money during high school and developed a love for the teamwork and sense of community that working in a restaurant brings. Over time I began to cook and developed a passion for it and continued to do it. The more I learned the more I wanted to know and it has been that way ever since.

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

NEWYORK-PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL 525 E. 68th St. 212-746-5454 www. nyp.org

ROSS POSMENTIER What made you go into the restaurant business? When I was fourteen years old, I had a weekend job at a gourmet delicatessen and caterer in Northern Westchester County. The owner is an amazing chef who sat me down on my first day of work and told me, “The restaurant business is not an easy line of work. You will often find yourself in stressful situations. You will get burned. You will get cut. But if you decide to stick with me, I’ll teach you everything I know.” This man is the very reason I went into the restaurant business.

What inspires you? Day in and day out, my patients inspire me to do as much as I possibly can for them. There’s no feeling in the world like bringing a smile to a sick patient’s face by providing them with a good, wholesome meal. Being

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

hospitalized can often be scary for a person regardless how old they are. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are the three highlights of a patient’s day. Seeing both the mental and physical positive effects good food can have on our patients is what makes me want to create more and more positive moments for them.

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cannot even fit a cloche over it would kindly go away. I feel that if you have a dozen or so accompaniments piled on top of a juicy blend of ground meat, it should be deconstructed and served as an entrée.

What is the importance of locally sourced food? Today, the public is much more

Is there a food or a dish you educated about sustainability. would eat every day if you could Before one purchases a pound of tomatoes at the market they might get away with it? Call me a purist. My absolute favorite food in the world is a raw oyster on the half shell. Not just any oyster though! Wellfleet oysters. Put a freshly shucked Wellfleet in front of me every single day and I am one happy man.

What’s your favorite food spot on the Upper East Side? Felidia. Every bite takes me right back to Italia. Chef Nicotra has a unique way of using seasonal ingredients in an extremely innovative fashion.

What’s the current dining trend or fad you wish would go away? I wish burgers stacked so high with ingredients that you

ask, “Where are these Brandy Wine tomatoes from?” This is extremely important because local simply means fresher.

What brought you to NewYorkPresbyterian? I decided to join NYP because I have always been drawn to work for the best. The opportunity was presented to me back in 2009 when the hospital was recruiting a Senior Executive Chef to open the Amenities Unit, Greenberg 14 South at NewYork-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center. I can still provide the highest level food and service here, which is what I set out to do every single day.

THE PEARL OF ALTO ADIGE Please enjoy our wines responsibly.

www.kettmeir.com

| Imported by SM USA Inc., Miami, FL

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OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com Andy Warhol, After the Party (F. & S. II.183), 1979, Dimensions (L x H): 33.5 x 24.75 in. Courtesy Sotheby’s

IL MULINO MICHELE MAZZA 37 E 60th St. (212) 750-3270 www.ilmulino.com Preparing: Ravioli Ai Porcini Inspired by: Roy Lichtenstein - Reflections on Crash (C. 239); 1990

JOJO RON GALLO, CHEF DE CUISINE 160 E 64th St. (212) 223-5656 www.jojorestaurantnyc.com Food inspired by: Edvard Munch - Madonna (Woll 39; Schiefler 33); 1895 - 1902

ATLANTIC GRILL ROMAN ORTEGA 1341 3rd Ave. (212) 988-9200 www. atlanticgrill.com Preparing: Montauk Pearl Oysters Inspired by: Andy Warhol - After the Party (F. & S. II.183); 1979

AUGUST NYC JOSH EDEN 791 Lexington Ave. (212) 935-1433 www. augustny.com Preparing: Hamachi Crudo Inspired by: Andy Warhol Flowers (F. & S. II.64); 1970

BKB RESTAURANT ERIC MILLER 321 E 73rd St. (212) 861-1038 www. bkbrestaurant.com Preparing: Long Island Duck Confit over Freshly Harvested Yukon Gold Potatoes with a Gold Chanterelle Vinaigrette Inspired by: Andy Warhol - Grace Kelly (F. & S. II.305); 1984

CANDLE 79

THE EAST POLE KITCHEN & BAR

ANGEL RAMOS

JOSEPH CAPOZZI

154 E 79th St. (212) 537-7179 www.candle79.com Preparing: Corn-Vegetable Cake with Apple Salad & Truffled Almond Cheese Wine pairing: Kettmeir Pinot Grigio Inspired by: Donald Sultan - The Fruits and Flowers portfolio; 1989 - 1990

THE CECIL & MINTON’S JJ JOHNSON 210 W 118th St. (212) 866-1262 www. thececilharlem.com Preparing: Hominy Stew Inspired by: Gerhard Richter - Eis (Butin 58); 1981

CAFÉ BOULUD

CRAVE FISHBAR

AARON BLUDORN

TODD MITGANG

20 E 76th St. (212) 772-2600 www. cafeboulud.com Preparing: Pâté en Croûte with Pistachios and Quince Jam Inspired by: Henri de ToulouseLautrec - La Revue Blanche; 1895

945 2nd Ave. 646-895-9585 www.cravefishbar.com Preparing: Naked Salmon Wine pairing: Kettmeir Pinot Bianco Inspired by: Roy Lichtenstein - Thinking Nude (C. 289); 1994

133 E 65th St. (212) 249-2222 www.theeastpolenyc.com Preparing: The Acatlan Latke Inspired by: David Hockney - View of Hotel Well III (Tyler 282:DH69); 1985

FLEX MUSSELS MICHAEL SULLIVAN 174 East 82nd St. 212-717-7772 www.flexmussels.com Preparing: The Gerhard Inspired by: Gerhard Richter - Kerze I (B. 64)1988

FREDS AT BARNEYS NEW YORK MARK STRAUSMAN 660 Madison Ave. (212) 833-2200 www.barneys.com/freds Preparing: Rigatoni with Brisket Ragu Inspired by: Pablo Picasso - Tête de Femme (Portrait de Jacqueline de Face. II) (B. 1063; Ba. 1280; P.P. L-98); 1962

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril (D. 345; Adr 11; W. P6), 1893, Dimensions (L x H): 47.5 x 61 in Courtesy Sotheby’s

LE CIRQUE MATTEO BOGLIONE 151 E 58th St. (212) 644-0202 www. lecirque.com Preparing: Mini Crème Brûlée Inspired by: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Jane Avril (D. 345; Adr 11; W. P6) 1893

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MAGNOLIA BAKERY

PARLOR STEAK & FISH

BOBBIE LLOYD

CARLOS MANANSALA, CHEF DE CUISINE 1600 3rd Ave. (212) 423-5888 www.parlorsteakhouse.com

1000 3rd Ave. (212) 265-5320 www. magnoliabakery.com Preparing: Banana Pudding, Sugar Cookies, Assorted Brownies, Cupcakes Inspired by: Andy Warhol – Lifesavers; 1985

MAYA DAVID GONZALEZ 1191 1st Ave. (212) 585-1818 www.richardsandoval.com Preparing: Tuna Tostada Wine pairing: Kettmeir Müller-Thurgau Inspired by: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec May Milton; 1895

THE MEATBALL SHOP DANIEL HOLZMAN 1462 2nd Ave. (212) 257-6121 www.themeatballshop.com Preparing: Pizza Meatballs with Classic Tomato Sauce Inspired by: Roy Lichtenstein - I Love Liberty (Corlett 192); 1982

Preparing: Chicken Liver Mousse Inspired by: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Elles (Frontispiece) (W. 155); 1896

PHILIPPE BY PHILIPPE CHOW PHILIPPE CHOW 33 E 60th St. (212) 644-8885 www.philippechow.com Preparing: Chicken Satay Inspired by: Wayne Thiebaud - Big Suckers; 1971

PIZZA BEACH

THE REGENCY BAR & GRILL BRIAN KEVORKIAN 540 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065 212-339-4050 www.regencybarandgrill. com

Marc Chagall, Carnaval of Flowers (M. CS 33), 1967, Dimensions (L x H): 30 x 37.5 in, © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris Courtesy Sotheby’s

Preparing: Fluke Crudo Inspired by: Howard Hodgkin Venice, Afternoon (H. 94); 1995

SHAKE SHACK MARK ROSATI 154 E 86th St. (646) 237-5035 www. shakeshack.com Preparing: Candy Apple Frozen Custard Inspired by: Wayne Thiebaud - “Candy Apples Assumed cataloguing (Gopnik 74): Dark Candy Apples”; 1983

ERIC KLIENMAN

THE PENROSE SHAUN VANALPHEN

1426 3rd Ave. (646) 666-0819 www.pizzabeachclub.com

1590 Second Ave. 212-203-2751 www.penrosebar.com

Preparing: Beet Cured Salmon Inspired by: Eric Fischl - Beach Scenes I-IV; 1989

Preparing: Beet Cured Fluke, Burnt Apple, Yuzu Kosho and Chive Flowers Inspired by: Marc Chagall - Carnaval of Flowers (M. CS 33); 1967

Andy Warhol, Piglet (F. & S. IV.134B) 1959, Dimensions (L x H): 27.5 x 22.75 in © 2015 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Sotheby’s

VAUCLUSE MICHAEL WHITE 100 E 63rd St. (646) 869-2300 www. vauclusenyc.com Preparing: Pâté de Campagne Inspired by: Pablo Picasso - Nature morte sous la lamp (B. 1102; Ba. 1313); 1962 Andy Warhol - Piglet (F. & S. IV.134B); 1959

WRITING ROOM LUCAS BILLHEIMER 1703 2nd Ave. (212) 335-0075 www.thewritingroomnyc.com Preparing: Braised Short Ribs Sliders Inspired by: George Bellows - Introducing John L. Sullivan (Mason 27); 1916

NEWYORK-PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL T-BAR STEAK & LOUNGE BENJAMIN ZWICKER 1278 3rd Ave. (212) 772-0404 www.tbarnyc.com Preparing: Roast Suckling Pig Rolls Inspired by: Andy Warhol - Piglet (F. & S. IV.134B); 1959

ROSS POSMENTIER 525 E. 68th St. 212-746-5454 www. nyp.org Preparing: Fettuccine “Bianco e Nero” Inspired by: Andy Warhol - Mick Jagger (F.&S. II 144); 1975

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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presented by

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d h ^ z ͕ K d K Z ϭ ϯ ͕ Ϯ Ϭ ϭ ϱ Join 25 Culinary Titans on the Upper East Side & taste unique mouth watering dishes inspired by art from Sotheby’s

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Hosted by Chef Michael White & Designer Nicole Miller with honorees Tim & Nina Zagat A por tion of the proceeds will be donated to Cit ymeals On Wheels PLATINUM

GOLD

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

SILVER

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OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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AMAZING IS NEVER GIVING UP THE FIGHT. Daniel Jacobs was a rising star in boxing when his legs started to go numb. An MRI revealed the cause: a large tumor wrapped around Daniel’s spine. The surgical team at NewYork-Presbyterian used precise three-dimensional imaging to navigate the path to Daniel’s spine. They removed the tumor and rebuilt the damaged area of the spinal column. How well did the surgery work? Three years later, Daniel became the WBA Middleweight Champion of the World.

nyp.org/amazingthings

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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Central Park

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE PARK

Central Park Dance Skaters Association as they celebrate their 21st season of free roller skating to live DJ music at the “Skate Circle,” 2:45 p.m.-6:45 p.m. This is located west of the Mall. Bring your own skates. The season comes to a close October 25.

Free Roller Skating to Live DJ Music Provided by the CPDSA: Come watch or participate with the

John Lennon’s 75th Birthday, on October 9: To celebrate, last week Yoko Ono

invited the general public to give peace a chance: in the form of a giant, human peace sign in Central Park. It took place on October 6 on the East Meadow. An overhead shot was taken of the huge human peace sign. The event, titled “Imagine Peace,” was organized by the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus and was in hopes to make it into the Guinness Book of Records.

WHERE IN CENTRAL PARK? Do you know where in Central Park this photo was taken? To submit your answer, visit: www.centralpark. com/where-incentral-park. The answers and names of the people who guess right will appear in the paper and online in two weeks. Congratulations to Gregory Holman and Alex Pigatto for answering last month’s question correctly.

COMING UP THIS WEEK Fit Tours NYC: Fit Tours are historic Central Park tours with a fitness twist! Founded by a native New Yorker who is a certified fitness trainer as well as a New York City sightseeing guide. When: Sundays through Fridays between October 1 and January 31. Please visit centralpark.com/events for costs and times. Columbus Day Parade: Nearly 1 million spectators

LAST WEEK’S ANSWER will line the streets of Fifth Avenue, starting at 47th Street and continuing up to 72nd Street. There is a red carpet area located on Fifth Avenue between 67th and 69th Street. When: October 10th, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. For more info visit:

centralpark.com/events

Bank Rock Bridge: The narrow inlet of water at the northern tip of the Lake, Bank Rock Bay is a popular bird-watching area that lies just beyond Oak Bridge. The Central Park Conservancy recently restored the site as part of a larger effort to secure the Lake’s eroding shoreline. In 2009, the Conservancy restored the bridge. The complex project involved almost entirely new construction, based on the Calvert Vauxdesigned bridge built in the same spot in 1860.

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

Neighborhood Scrapbook SEAWRIGHT’S FIRST BILL SIGNED INTO LAW

NEW RAMP IN CENTRAL PARK East side Assembly Member Rebecca A. Seawright announced that her first bill -- to clean up the Hudson River and New York’s waterways -- had been signed into law. The three-year extension of New York State’s subsidy for the cost of financing municipal projects pursuant to the federal Clean Water State Revolving Fund will provide critical financial assistance to clean water projects. The extension will allow municipalities that acquire, construct and upgrade eligible water pollution control projects through the federal Clean Water State Revolving Fund to continue to apply for interest rate subsidies. The program, which is jointly administered by the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation and the Department of Environmental Conservation, calls for a state to contribute 20% of the federal capitalization grants. To date, the federal program has provided more than $14 billion for low-cost financing of water quality protection projects. This is the first of five bills which Seawright anticipates will be signed by the governor.

Photo credit: Sara Cedar Miller/Central Park Conservancy

Central Park Conservancy officials unveiled a new ramp designed to make the park more accessible. The ramp, just off Fifth Avenue at 64th Street, is the design and work of Central Park Conservancy. The project involved rebuilding the existing stairs and adding a handrail, and will eventually include repaving the entire perimeter of Central Park from East 60th to 65th streets, which is expected to be complete next winter. All aspects of this project, including the ramp, stairs, landscaping and perimeter repaving, were made possible by a gift from Marty and Michele Cohen.

Share your news and what’s going on in your life. Go to ourtownny.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.

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Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe series, 1967 on view at MoMA through October 18th. Photo by Adel Gorgy

SOUP AND SIDES — ANDY WARHOL AT MOMA A revealing look at a complex artist BY MARY GREGORY

Any major Andy Warhol exhibition is sure to attract enthusiastic audiences. He’s one of the best known artists of his epoch. He created images that even schoolkids recognize at a glance, and he was among the artists that developed Pop Art — one of the most significant movements in 20th century art. The Museum of Modern Art has gathered dozens of Warhol’s iconic works together for a quiet, scholarly and fascinating exhibition. Wait. Did we say quiet and scholarly and Andy Warhol? Indeed we did. “Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans and Other Works, 1953–19 67,” wh ic h r u n s through October 18 in the second-floor Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries, fills three rooms and brings together an intriguing group of early works, all 32 of Warhol’s famous Campbell’s soup can

paintings, and a several major silk screens from the 1960s. There’s something for everyone, from pensive pencil drawings to multiple big, splashy Marilyns. Together they paint a picture of an artist you know, but from a perspective you might not. The first gallery presents early works — watercolors, drawings, gouache paintings and even a group of mimeograph works. Do you remember mimeographs? If so, don’t admit it. It’ll date you. Warhol knew about them and, like a true artist would, he used them in a way no one else seemed to have ever imagined. MoMA’s collection includes four compositions done in 1962, in response to a request for works that could be reproduced and sold inexpensively through the Pasadena Art Museum. One of his early shots at multiples, they’re etched into the dark blue background of the pre-inked paper. This group, including a shapely Coke bottle and a soup can, was, the curators point out,

never used to run off copies, so the lines are pristine. The subject is worlds away, but the technique and the clarity and economy of line recall etchings by earlier artists, from Matisse all the way back to Rembrandt. Filling the opposite wall is a charming group of watercolor paintings of shoes. Warhol started his career as a commercial artist. In the 1950s and ‘60s some of the biggest stores and magazines sported Warhol creations, in the forms of ads, layouts and window displays. There was a stint from ‘55 to ‘57 when he was the official illustrator for the I. Miller shoe company. Warhol painted a new shoe each week for ads that ran in The New York Times. The series is wittily, if somewhat irreverently, titled “À la recherche du shoe perdu.” They’re bright, bold and utterly charming. Each has a clever little line of text in Warhol’s mother’s uniquely squiggly script (or that of assistants who imitated

her penmanship) that feels like the start of a limerick. Interestingly, the middle gallery, in which the soup can paintings are displayed, was less crowded during the times I visited. It’s hard to think of more iconic works of art. They’re presented on shelves about chest high, without their traditional Plexiglas frames, giving a chance to get up close and personal with the entire series. Organizers Starr Figura, a curator in the museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints, and Hillary Reder, a curatorial assistant in the department, have made every effort to engage the viewers, offering history and background for the works, even pointing out that the gold fleur-de-lis shapes that decorate the cans were made by a rubber stamp Warhol fashioned from an eraser. Certainly this group of works made a major impact on the trajectory of art of the 20th century. Warhol, with these small, simple paintings, the curators state, “subverted the prevail-

Andy Warhol, Untitled from À la recherche du shoe perdu, c. 1955, Lithograph, 9 3/4 x 13 11/16” Photo by Adel Gorgy ing notion of art as individual, expressive, and original.” And that’s absolutely true. He was also among the first artists to react to a tidal wave of imagery sweeping through America’s consciousness via name-brand advertising, which grew ubiquitous as televisions moved into homes en masse. From this standpoint, the small paintings are monumental. From the standpoint of standalone paintings, they are, as he intended, repetitive. Don’t blame yourself if, after seeing Turkey Noodle, Tomato, Onion and Clam Chowder, you wander, as many visitors did, into the next room where a dazzling group of Marilyns, a towering Elvis and dark and

poignant Jackies await. But, the draw may also be because the wall of multi-colored Marilyns and Warhol’s own self-portrait apparently make the perfect backdrop for selfies. Lots of visitors were availing themselves to of the chance to be pictured with not one, but two celebrities — Warhol and Monroe. It’s a moment for both art and fun, and that’s fine. MoMA, like many other museums, has been making great efforts to engage audiences beyond its doors. Images of all of the works and loads of information are available online. Still, nothing beats going to see these creations in person and drawing your own conclusions about how and where they fit into your understanding and vision of art. Andy Warhol was both prescient and provocative. He challenged and changed. He could be funny. Heaven knows, he could be scandalous. But, as the works in this show remind us in many ways, he was also a great artist.

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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TOP

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

FOR THE WEEK BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO OUR ARTS EDITOR

MUSEUMS “SUPERHEROES IN GOTHAM” Blockbuster superhero franchises dominate box offices, but even the most powerful characters had humble beginnings. A new exhibition at the New– York Historical Society explores the origin stories of Superman, Captain America, Iron Man and others through first-issue comic books, World War II-era issues of “Captain America” and original drawings of Spider-Man from his first appearance in a 1962 issue of “Amazing Fantasy,” among other items.

H. G. Peter, Drawing of Wonder Woman in Costume, ca. 1941. Courtesy of Metropoliscomics.com.

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“Superheroes in Gotham” Oct. 9-Feb. 21 New-York Historical Society 170 Central Park West, at 77th Street Museum hours: Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m.6 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Monday Admission $20 For more information, visit http://www.nyhistory.org/ or call 212-873-3400

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Onassis Festival NY | Narcissus & Art: In the Woods

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9TH, 11AM Onassis Cultural Center | 645 Fifth Ave | 212-486-4448 | onassisusa.org A Brooklyn art collective talks the myth of Narcissus in today’s art world, as part of the music, dance, talks and film of the Narcissus Now festival, which runs for four days through Sunday the 11th. (Free)

Stories Matter: Illustrators Discuss the Cultural Significance of the Popular Image

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10TH, 1PM Society of Illustrators | 128 E 63rd St | 212-838-2560 | societyillustrators.org In a world of selfies and YouTube, is there still room for the illustrated image? A group of young illustrators says yes (naturally), and they hope to convince you in a round-table discussion ($15)

Just Announced: An Evening with Neil deGrasse Tyson | Delusions of Space Enthusiasts

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1ST, 8PM Kings Theatre | 1027 Flatbush Ave | 718-856-5464 | kingstheatre.com Where’s our Mars colony? Star Talk’s host takes on the disparity between our dreams for outer space and the grounding of political and economic realities. ($50)

For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,

sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.

MUSIC

FILM

MONICA HUGGETT AND NEW YORK BAROQUE INCORPORATED: “DIE ALTE SCHULE”

“AFTER WINTER, SPRING”

London-born Baroque violinist Monica Huggett directs vocalists and instrumentalists of New York Baroque Incorporated, a group that plays on period instruments, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 708-seat concert hall. The program includes works by Telemann, J.S. Bach and J.C. Bach. Friday, Oct. 9 The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1000 Fifth Ave., at E. 84th Street 7 p.m. Tickets $30 To purchase tickets, visit www.nybaroque.org/events or call 212-570-3949

COMPOSER JENNIFER HIGDON AT THE NATIONAL OPERA CENTER Pulitzer-Prize and Grammy-winning composer Jennifer Higdon presents live excerpts from her first opera “Cold Mountain,” based on Charles Frazier’s novel of the same name. Following its debut at the Sante Fe Opera this summer, “Cold Mountain,” which chronicles the journey of a Confederate soldier and war deserter on his return to the woman he loves, will next open in Philadelphia, North Carolina and Minnesota. Tuesday, Oct. 13 The National Opera Center 330 Seventh Ave., at 29th Street, 7th floor 7 p.m. Tickets $25 To purchase tickets, visit operaamerica.org/onstage, or call 212-796-8620

Documentary “After Winter, Spring,” examines how industrial agriculture affects a farming community in the Perigord region in France, where farmers have labored for more than 5,000 years. Following the film, director Judith Lit joins a panel discussion that also includes French chef Daniel Boulud. A farmers market also follows. Monday, Oct. 12 French Institute Alliance Francaise Florence Gould Hall 55 E. 59th St., between Park and Madison Avenues 7:30 p.m. Tickets $14 To purchase tickets visit fiaf.org or call 800-982-2787

THEATER “COMES A FAERY” In playwright James McLindon’s new play, a young girl named Siobhan receives visits from an 8000-year-old fairy while her single mother, an Army mechanic, is away on active duty. Now through Oct. 24 The New Ohio Theatre 154 Christopher St., near Greenwich Street Assorted show times Tickets $18 To purchase tickets, visit nylonfusion.org or call 347524-0514

To be included in the Top 5 go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.

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OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS SEP 9 - OCT 2, 2015

Hotel Carlyle

35 East 76 Street

Grade Pending (19) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Caffe Bacio

1223 3 Avenue

Grade Pending (36) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. 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.

Mile 17

1446 1St Ave

Not Graded Yet (2)

Papa John’s Pizza

2119 1St Ave

Not Graded Yet (31) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. 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. 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.

Uptown Roasters Cafe

135 E 110Th St

Not Graded Yet (21) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Ottomanelli’s Restaurant

1325 5Th Ave

Grade Pending (17) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. 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.

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. Green Bay Sushi

1659 1St Ave

A

Oriental Cafe / Sunny

1580 1St Ave

Grade Pending (26) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. 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.

Dorrian’s Red Hand Restaurant

1616 2 Avenue

A

H & H Midtown Bagels East 1551 2 Avenue

A

Dunkin’ Donuts

355 East 86 Street

A

Om Indian Restaurant

1593 2 Avenue

Grade Pending (15) Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Live roaches 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. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

The York Social

1529 York Ave

Not Graded Yet (2)

Firenze

1594 2 Avenue

A

Korali Estiatorio

1662 3Rd Ave

A

Ko Sushi

1329 2 Avenue

A

Dunkin Donuts

411 East 70 Street

Grade Pending (20) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.

Taco Bell Pizza Hut Express 173 East 116 Street

A

Subway

455 East 116 Street

A

Mcdonald’s

1872 3 Avenue

A

Zahlaya’s Bistro

2028 3 Avenue

Grade Pending (27) 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. 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.

Closed by Health Department (141) Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Food, food preparation area, food storage area, area used by employees or patrons, contaminated by sewage or liquid waste. Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Live roaches 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. 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. Toilet facility not provided for employees or for patrons when required. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

Cross Culture Kitchen

62 East 116Th St

A

A

New Moon Cafe

129 East 102 Street

A

World Cup Cafe

956 Lexington Avenue Grade Pending (31) Food from unapproved or unknown source or home canned. Reduced oxygen packaged (ROP) fish not frozen before processing; or ROP foods prepared on premises transported to another site. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. 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.

Eats

1055 Lexington Avenue

4Th Floor Cafe

221 East 71St Street

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH LITERACY BY RESEARCHING MEDS Reputable resources, including on the Web, are readily available BY SUZANNE B. ROBOTTI

Suzanne B. Robotti founded the nonproďŹ t MedShadow Foundation in 2012 to prompt discussion between patient and health care provider. In a world where an annual physical can last 15 minutes, how often have you accepted a prescription without a thorough understanding of what the drug is for or its side effects? October is Health Literacy Awareness Month, an issue that the MedShadow Foundation, a nonprofit I founded in 2012, is committed to improving. Our mission is to provide resources to help individuals make educated decisions about medicines by knowing more about potential side effects, risks and beneďŹ ts of medicines they are prescribed. Although we know that medicine can enhance and save lives, all drugs have side effects. Some are relatively common and wellknown, while others are still undetected. Importantly, certain drugs have serious and potentially life-threatening side effects. Improve your health literacy about medicine and side effects and you’ll be more conďŹ dent and in control about your health. The next time your doctor hands you a prescription, go to medshadow.org and tap into the wealth of informa-

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

tion we have amassed at www. medshadow.org. Here’s a summary of tips we offer in a feature called 5 Ways To Research Your Drug’s Side Effects. Talk to your doctor: Visits to primary care physicians have shrunk to about 15 minutes so it’s helpful to come prepared with notes and questions to share. When discussing treatment options, be sure to tell your physician if you have started a new drug. Consult your pharmacist: Most people think pharmacists just count pills but pharmacists are the drug information experts. Many are certiďŹ ed in Medication Therapy Management (MTM). Most pharmacy schools require students to complete 2-plus years of pharmacology and pharmacy therapeutics training in addition to other requirements. Search the Internet cautiously: A Google search for any well known drug will result in thousands of hits. Use only trusted sources, such as sites affiliated with reputable health centers, hospitals or medical schools as well as independent sources such as the Mayo Clinic or Consumer Reports.

When you want to delve deeper about side effects, risks and beneďŹ ts of medicine, visit MedShadow.org. Check out gover n ment sources: The FDA regulates and approves prescription and non-prescription drugs, and its website has a wealth of information about drug safety, drug recalls and side effects. The FDA also maintains an Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), a database of information on adverse event and medication error reports submitted to the FDA. Reach out to single-disease organizations: Many organizations that specialize in, and conduct research into, a particular condition may have news about the latest drugs and their side effects. Some, such as the Michael J. Fox Foundation offer access to online communities that allow patients to connect with other. Your doctor and pharmacist will give you expert advice, but only you can decide if taking a medicine is right for you. Suzanne B. Robotti serves as second vice chair of Community Board 7

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TACHS # 202

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Business

< TIMES SQUARE TASK FORCE ANNOUNCE RECOMMENDATIONS

City officials are drafting legislation that will codify the time, place, and manner of soliciting tips and other activities in Times Square and pedestrian plazas citywide. Photo: Sarah_Ackerman, via Flickr

In Brief ON ANNIVERSARY, DIGITAL. NYC CELEBRATES 1 MILLION VISITORS The city’s New Economic Development Corp. recently marked the one-year anniversary of Digital. NYC, a first-of-its-kind online platform and centralized hub that has united the city’s tech ecosystem. To date, Digital.NYC has received over one million visits and more than 789,000 unique visitors. “As Digital.NYC — our one-stop shop for all things tech — celebrates its first birthday, we’re thrilled that so many New Yorkers are taking advantage of this immensely useful tool,” said de Blasio. “From course listings to co-working spaces, Digital. NYC is the best place on the web to find new resources and stay connected to the tech ecosystem in New York City.” Nearly 300,000 New Yorkers currently work in the city’s technology sector supporting an additional 250,000 jobs. The de Blasio administration said they’re committed to ensuring New Yorkers have access to jobs in the booming sector, and recently announced Computer Science for All to provide computer science education to all K-12 students. “Digital.NYC has made New York City’s tech scene more accessible to all New Yorkers across the five boroughs by providing information and resources that can turn ideas into businesses, delivering valuable tools for startups and entrepreneurs, and connecting New Yorkers to opportunities and jobs in the city’s tech ecosystem,” according to a press release from City Hall.

The de Blasio administration recently announced a series of recommendations to improve traffic, pedestrian plazas, the solicitation of tips, and a number of other issues in and around the Times Square area. The recommendations include increasing the police presence in Times Square with a dedicated unit that will develop familiarity with recurring issues, giving the city — through legislation to be developed in collaboration with the city council — the ability to make rules regarding the time, place, and manner of soliciting tips and other activities in Times Square and in pedestrian plazas citywide; completing construction of the Times Square plazas and evaluating after its completion whether any further improvements can be made; and, mitigating traffic and crowding during construc-

tion by limiting street fairs and adding traffic agents in the area. “Times Square is the crossroads the world, and our task force has created recommendations that will ensure Times Square is a great experience for the millions of New Yorkers, families and tourists that make it such a popular destination,” said de Blasio. “These are a positive and constructive set of recommendations and we look forward to working with the city council moving forward.” In the short term, the recommendations involve deploying a dedicated NYPD officer detail in Times Square and giving visitors information on how to safely enjoy the area. During construction of the plazas, the task force recommends adding traffic enforcement agents and crossing guards, where ap-

propriate, during peak times, and limiting the amount of street-permitted activity (such as street fairs) in the area. Beginning within 12 months, after the completion of the construction, the city will seek to empower NYC DOT with rulemaking authority to develop common sense time, place, and manner regulations in public plazas, including, but not limited to, Times Square. There is currently no entity empowered to develop rules to manage commercial and civic activities in pedestrian plazas, according to the city. “The action items recommended by this task force will help address the issues facing Times Square while respecting first amendment rights,” said Council Member Corey Johnson. “We must enact thoughtful, constitutionally robust solutions that are the right fit for this location. Times Square is one of the most visited locations in the world, it’s important that we get this right.”

ATTACKING BUSINESS AS USUAL NEWS The U.S. attorney takes aim at Albany’s money ties BY DAVID KLEPPER

With a widening probe of New York state government, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara appears to be taking aim at the nebulous relationship between money and politics itself -- a long and murky association in Albany and in capitals across the nation. The federal prosecutor, whose investigations have already toppled two legislative leaders, is now believed to be investigating Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature economic development project, the Buffalo Billion, which awarded significant state money to a company run by a Cuomo donor. To politicians who grouse that Bharara is attempting to indict the political system itself, the latest probe appears to be an effort to criminalize what is essentially business as usual -- something that has proven difficult for prosecutors before. The New York Post was first to report the investigation, which the newspaper says focuses on how Buffalo Billion funds were awarded to private companies in a bid to jumpstart Buffalo’s stagnant economy. SUNY Polytechnic, one of the state agencies involved in the deal, signed a $1.5 million legal contract with a Manhattan law firm this summer but won’t say whether the work is

related to a federal investigation. Cuomo has so far distanced himself from the investigation. But he defended the overall Buffalo Billion project, saying it has changed the city’s outlook. Asked recently whether it’s a problem that people getting state grants and contracts are contributing to his campaign fund, Cuomo noted that’s not new. “It hasn’t been a problem for the past 100 years, so I don’t know why it would be today,” he said. Bharara has not commented on the Buffalo investigation, which is taking place in a city under the jurisdiction of Western District U.S. Attorney William Hochul Jr., who is married to Cuomo’s lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul. Whether illegal or merely unseemly, the ties between elected officials and their contributors should be a matter of concern to voters, according to Richard Brodsky, an attorney and former Democratic state lawmaker from Westchester County who now writes about government and politics. “Corporations don’t spend tens of millions of dollars as a matter of good citizenship,” he said. “The system is funded by investors and investors inevitably expect a return, regardless of whether actual laws are broken or not.” A report from an anti-corruption commission Cuomo himself created in 2013 and then shut down the next year identified “eyebrow-raising patterns of potential misconduct”

based on a review of campaign contributions to elected officials from donors with interests in legislative outcomes. The relationship between wellheeled campaign contributors and elected leaders is indeed a long one throughout the country, as businessman and GOP presidential contender Donald Trump noted in a debate last month when discussing why he made political contributions. “I gave to many people,” he said. “I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. And that’s a broken system.” Cuomo’s critics have seized on the Buffalo investigation. Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox called the Buffalo Billion “the epitome of Cuomo’s crony capitalism.” Prosecutors in New York have had a mixed record when it comes to politicians charged with doing favors for donors.

Former Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., a Democrat, was sentenced to 14 years in prison last month for a scheme to take bribes from FBI agents posing as real estate investors as well as a carnival promoter looking for help with local permits But last year, Joseph Bruno, the former GOP leader of New York’s Senate, was acquitted of federal corruption charges after prosecutors failed to convince a jury that the Rensselaer County Republican’s payments from a businessman who received state grants amounted to a quid pro quo bribery scheme. Bharara’s office is currently prosecuting two former legislative leaders -- ex-Senate Leader Dean Skelos, R-Long Island, and ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan -- on unrelated corruption charges. Skelos is accused of using his position to extort payments from real estate interests and finagle employment for his son from an environmental firm and a medical malpractice company. Silver is accused of taking $4 million in kickbacks by exploiting his position. Both men resigned their leadership posts but are keeping their legislative seats while they fight the charges. In court papers, Silver’s defense attorneys have argued that the allegations facing their client aren’t crimes, but instead constituted “longstanding features of New York state government that the U.S. attorney finds distasteful.”

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ATTACK DOMESTIC VIOLENCE NEWS State senator promoting use of hashtag #NYSpeakUp BY RUI MIAO

New York State senator José M. Serrano is using a new tool to combat domestic violence this month. “Far too often victims of domestic violence are afraid to speak up and end up suffering in silence,” said Serrano, who represents parts of the upper Manhattan. In October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, he hopes to bring more attention to the old problem, using social media. “Every day this month, I will be tweeting different facts, stories, articles and resources relating to domestic violence in an effort to spark

a conversation and shine a light on the issue,” he said. Throughout the month, the hashtag #NYSpeakUp will flood his Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts, to raise awareness for victims and survivors of domestic violence. In addition to “hashtaging” the issue, Serrano’s office will be providing direct services to individuals in need throughout the month of October. The Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence will be partnering with Serrano to host joint constituent hours in East Harlem and the South Bronx. The Urban Justice Center’s Domestic Violence Project is also collaborating in the project by hosting a free legal clinic on Thursday, Oct. 22nd from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. at 1916 Park Ave., Suite #202 (New York, NY 10037). The free one-on-one le-

gal consultations will cover issues relating to domestic violence, child support, child custody/visitations and orders of protection. “We have a responsibility to address the unfortunate reality of domestic violence and assist domestic violence survivors as they move forward with their lives,” Serrano said. “Please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates and information about Domestic Violence and join my office in spreading the word about a problem that too often goes unmentioned. Let’s all use the hashtag #NYSpeakUp throughout this month and beyond to speak up and raise awareness for victims and survivors of domestic violence.”

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YOUR 15 MINUTES

To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to ourtownny.com/15 minutes

A DANCER’S DEVOTION History-making dancer and Manhattan resident Raven Wilkinson reflects on a life filled with dance

Raven Wilkinson and Misty Copeland with Nelson George, director and producer of “A Ballerina’s Tale,” a documentary about Copeland that opens at Film Society of Lincoln Center on Oct. 14. Photo: Courtesy of Urban Romances, Inc.

BY GIANNELLA M. GARRETT

Raven Wilkinson dancing the Waltz in “Les Syphides” Photo courtesy of Raven Wilkinson

“Notice anything different about me?” asks Raven Wilkinson, the history-making dancer and resident of West End Avenue’s Lincoln Towers who, in 1955, became the first African-American ballerina to join a national ballet company, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Wilkinson and I have just seen Misty Copeland in her final performance as the elusive Ivy Smith in Broadway’s “On the Town” at the Lyric Theater. Caught in the vortex of the euphoric crowd, we flow out of the building and toward the stage door. A friend of Wilkinson’s waves us into a corridor separating the cordoned fans outside from the backstage dressing rooms, where a handful of Copeland’s closest friends and family members gather. Wilkinson, 80, grins, revealing a discreet imperfection in her smile. “My bottom tooth broke off when I bit into a piece of bread the other day,” she says, unfazed. Then again, hiding behind a closed mouth has never been her style. Petite, with a cafe au lait complexion and silky, long hair, she was barely 20 when Sergei Denham, the Ballet Russe’s director, invited her to join his company. The realization of a long-held dream for Wilkinson, the offer also presented risks. Jim Crow laws in the segregationist South made life difficult for performers of color. As a touring company, the Ballet Russe spent months performing throughout the South every year. Although she could have masked her racial identity, Wilkinson was reluctant to do so. “If anyone asks,” she told Denham, “I’ll have to tell them I’m black.” As a result, Wilkinson was not allowed to perform on several occasions. Once, she was sent off to a “colored” hotel while several of the company’s foreign-born dancers screamed, “But she’s an American!” After seven years dancing with the Ballet Russe, the company’s ballet mistress told her not to expect advancing any further than her soloist roles. “We can’t have a black ballerina play a white swan,” she was told. The ballet mistress then suggested Wilkinson give up ballet and pursue African dance instead. No matter that Wilkinson had studied classical dance since childhood and had been praised by colleagues and critics for her lyrical artistry. When no other ballet company would hire her, Wilkinson took a most unlikely action: she joined a convent. A disciplined, passionate life dedicated to dance bears resemblance to that dedicated to prayer. Wilkinson was struck by the convent’s daily ritual of pinning up chores required of each nun. It reminded

her of the casting list posted before performances when dancers milled around, checking if they had been selected for the next show. Six months into her religious life, she realized she needed to dance, whatever the role, and she left the convent. A friend, Sylvester Campbell, nicknamed the black Nureyev for his bold, fiery style, invited her to join him at the Dutch National Ballet. He too couldn’t find work in America. Wilkinson went, performing in a racially-accepting atmosphere for the first time. When she returned to the United States in 1974, she found a position with the New York City Opera Ballet. Wilkinson stopped dancing at the age of 50, but continued taking on character roles through 2011, when she retired at the age of 76. Last June, Misty Copeland became the first African-American to perform the role of the Swan Queen with American Ballet Theater. Wilkinson, a mentor to Copeland, went on stage after the performance and hailed the dancer with flowers. Days later, Copeland made history again when the company’s director, Kevin McKenzie, promoted her to principal dancer–the first African-American woman to achieve that distinction in ABT’s 75-year history. Copeland is now the subject of a new documentary on her life and career, “A Ballerina’s Tale,” which opens at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater on Oct. 14. In the film, Wilkinson and Copeland are shown talking ballet shop at the younger woman’s apartment. Spontaneously, they grab hold of each other’s hands and improvise “The Cygnets’ Dance,” the famous variation from the second act of “Swan Lake.” Their heads spot left, right, front and bottom, then tilt side to side in unison. Their feet snap up on relevé and their legs kick — a classical chorus line. All the while, they’re

humming Tchaikovsky’s famous score and cracking smiles. The scene received cheers from the audience when the film premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in April. At the Lyric Theater, Wilkinson steps outside after congratulating the star. The crowd recognizes her from a photograph in Copeland’s autobiography, “Life in Motion.” “Do you think she’ll sign my copy?” someone asks. A group beckons her over for autographs, photographs and selfies. A tall woman in a blue dress tells me she and her six-year-old daughter traveled from New Orleans to see the show. “We thought Ms. Wilkinson might be here for the final performance,” she says. No one in this adoring crowd notices the missing tooth. Later, over roasted Faroe Island salmon and Xavier Flouret Rosé at Cafe Luxembourg on W. 70th Street, Wilkinson is reflective. “I never thought this would happen,” she says, referring not just to the events of this evening, but her entire life and career, with all their disappointments and even more remarkable achievements. “Stars shine brightly when we can go somewhere and be ourselves in our artistic pursuits.” Reality hits as we finish dessert. “I’m a little nervous about going to the dentist,” she says. “I don’t know why. My father was a dentist.” Giannella M. Garrett is a Manhattan writer. She is working on a children’s picture book biography of Raven Wilkinson.

Know somebody who deserves their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to ourtownny.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.

34

OCTOBER 8-14,2015

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CLASSIFIEDS

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ENTERTAINMENT

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