Our Town November 5th, 2015

Page 1

The local paper for the Upper er East Side

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AWARDS

WEEK OF NOVEMBER

5-11 2015

SALUTING OUR BUILDING WORKERS SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE

STAYING IN THE CITY HE LOVES FOURTH OF SIX PARTS BY HEATHER CLAYTON COLANGELO EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS DIRECTED BY DORIAN BLOCK

NEWS Locals opposed to the project shift gears to mitigate its impact on the neighborhood

Hank Blum’s children have been charmed by the space and pace of suburbia, dispersing to Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut and Florida. But as he sits in the living room of his apartment, in the middle of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, he says he has never been tempted. “I would never want to leave the city. Period,” he says. Hank has called New York City home for the majority of his life. He was born in Newark, N.J., and he spent his teenage years in Borough Park, Brooklyn. He only left the city after that to attend Sampson College upstate. For 62 years he was an optometrist, mostly working on Southern Boulevard in the Bronx. Hank says the best thing about the city is the diversity (“it opens up your perspective”), the abundance of things available to do, and the ease of

BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

The Chapin School was granted conditional approval on several variances it was seeking in an expansion project that began last year, a setback for those in the community opposed to the project due to concerns over increased traffic congestion in the area and years of disruptive construction noise. Chapin wants to add three floors, including a glass-encased gym on the top level, to its existing eight-story building at 100 East End Avenue. The other two floors will contain locker rooms and performance art space. The school is also expanding its basement-level cafeteria space, work that occurred in earnest over the summer with night-time construction hours that locals said resulted in no small amount of disruptive noise as well as cable and phone outages. Chapin officials claim the expansion is necessary to meet the school’s evolving needs but will not result in

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

GRAYING NEW YORK A series looking at growing older in the city

CHAPIN EXPANSION MOVES AHEAD

CONTINUED ON PAGE 43 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday November 6 – 4:29 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com.

Photos by Heather Clayton Colangelo

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WHAT’S MAKING NEWS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD KILLINGS AND RAPES noted that October was the safest ever “in the modern era of the department.” INCREASE, BUT OVERALL “We are proud that we are pushing CRIME DOWN FOR THE YEAR crime even lower, despite our record Although killings, rapes and crime on public transit have increased so far this year over last year, overall crime is down in 2015, according to city police, which

low last year,” Commissioner William J. Bratton said in a statement issued by the department. “We’ll continue building new relationships

in our communities to better address crime and concerns in particular neighborhoods, making this city safe and fair, everywhere.” Through Oct. 31, crime was down 3.1 percent overall this year, with nearly 3,000 fewer incidents reported, according to police.

But there have 21 more killings citywide, a 7.7 percent increase, over this time last year, the department reported. Incidents of reported rapes are up 4.2 percent, and crime on public transit increased by 7.5 percent. Shooting incidents — 70 percent of them in the Bronx or in Brooklyn — are down by 1.7. October saw an overall decline in crime of 5.9 percent, police said. With four fewer people were killed than during the month last year. Shootings overall were down 11.8 percent. Reports of rape also declined by nearly 17 percent.

HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER PLAYER DIES A 16-year-old Loyola High School soccer player died following a freak, but innocuous seeming collision during a game last week. Thomas Jakelich, a sophomore, was hurt when he collided with a member of the United Nations International School in a game Oct. 26 on Randall’s Island, the Daily News reported. Jakelich was carried off the field and taken to a nearby hospital where he underwent several surgeries to quell internal bleeding but died later that night, the newspaper reported. “He was a soccer fanatic, and he was darn good,” Jakelich’s stepfather, Rick Newman, was quoted as saying by the

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The Marymount School for girls will build a 13-story building to house all of its programs, DNAinfor reported The school intends to build the 229-foot structure at 115 East 97th Street to green specifications and include terraces and gardens, the news site quoted Rick Cook of CookFox Architects as saying. A solar panel system could also be built, he said. “From the very beginning we decided that this building should be a laboratory for having smarter buildings for the next generation,” DNA quoted him as saying . “Hopefully this will be a real state-ofthe-art poster child for how to design in cleaner, greener way.” In addition to classroom, lab and studio space, the building will include a cafeteria, kitchen and a student common area. An auditorium, gym and media lab will be in the basement, DNA reported. The school owns four buildings in the neighborhood, although it will vacate its current building on East 97th Street when the new facility is built, the news site said.

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Daily News. He said Jakelich was a talented athlete but an even better person.“He was empathetic in a way that can’t be taught,” Newman told the newspaper. “He was quiet and cautious as a child. As a soccer player he was aggressive, and as a person he was remarkably charismatic.”

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG

SLAIN NYPD OFFICER BURIED IN GUYANA Scores of New York City police officers were among hundreds of mourners who stood in the rain Saturday as their slain comrade Randolph Holder Jr. was buried in his native Guyana. After a service at Georgetown’s main Catholic church, Holder was laid to rest with a 21-gun salute at the city’s sprawling cemetery with uniformed NYPD and Guyana police and Guyana President David Granger standing by. Holder was “a humble man, a true hero of the NYPD, a true hero of Guyana,â€? said one of the officer’s supervisors, Capt. Reymundo Mundo. A 5-year NYPD veteran, Holder was killed in the line of duty on Oct. 20 while responding to a report of shots ďŹ red and a bicycle stolen at gunpoint in Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood. A suspect has been arrested and charged with fatally shooting the ofďŹ cer in the head. Holder finished high school in the South American country and then moved to New York to live with his father, who also served in the NYPD. NYPD Commissioner William Brat-

ton posthumously promoted Holder to detective and issued him a new gold shield with the same number of the badge worn by his father. “He told me that the job was getting scary but this is a risk he had to take,� said Holder’s uncle, Desmond King. “I feared for him.�

MISSING JEWELRY A West 93rd Street resident reported more than $6,000 worth of jewelry missing from her bedroom nightstand. The 58-year-old woman went to get the jewelry on Aug. 7 as she prepared for a funeral. She told police that a 14-karat-yellow-gold 1-karat diamond engagement ring, a 14-karat gold charm bracelet and a 14-karat gold men’s watch were all missing from a jewelry box . The woman told police that a number of people had the keys to her apartment, including her three sons, a cleaning lady, a dog walker and building staff. She delayed reporting the incident until Oct. 24, all the while looking for the missing items and for receipts.

DECAMPED A Maryland woman found out that the streets of Manhattan made a poor campground for her camping gear. At 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 18, a 34-year-old woman from Rockville parked her gray

2004 Toyota Avalon at the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and West 104th Street. When she came back the following day at 7:45 a.m., the Yakima car-top carrier and its contents were gone. The contents included a REI tent valued at $880, a red REI sleeping pad tagged at $400, a Sears hammock valued at $200 and other items were all missing.

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th Precinct for Oct. 19 to Oct. 25 Week to Date

Year to Date

2015 2014

% Change

2015

2014 % Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

1

0

n/a

Rape

0

1

-100.0

8

9

-11.1

BUSINESS ROBBED

Robbery

2

1

100.0

85

69

23.2

At 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, a woman entered the Liberty Tax office at 202 West 96th St. approached a 31-year-old female employee, and asked if she could use the bathroom. The next thing the employee remembered, she was waking up on the oor with substantial pain in her leg and head. She then discovered that money had been taken from the cash drawer. She herself was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital for medical assistance. The female intruder had made off with $3,002 in cash.

Felony Assault

3

2

50.0

105

83

26.5

Burglary

2

4

-50.0

132

186

-29.0

Grand Larceny

32

41

-22.0

1,084 1,119

-3.1

Grand Larceny Auto

1

1

0.0

63

-6.0

TEEN FACING ROBBERY CHARGES A 16-year-old was arrested on robbery charges after he allegedly assaulted a 34-year-old at Amsterdam and West 104th Street and took his electric bicycle on the evening of Oct. 20, police said. The man was sitting

ad a 25-year-old woman had placed on care.com offering her tutoring services. The person said that her son was coming to the country and would be staying with a nanny. The person then sent the woman a bank check via mail in the amount of $4,800. The person told the tutor to keep $700 for her tutoring services, and to deposit the remaining $4,100 into the nanny’s bank account at the Bank of America, which the tutor did. The tutor was later informed by the bank that the check was fraudulent.

at a traffic light on the southwest corner of the intersection when the teen approached and punched him in the nose. The two struggled, and the teen punched the rider a second time and then ed with the victim’s bike. He was found nearby. The bike rider was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital for medical attention.

HARSH LESSON A tutor got schooled in the ways of a scam artist. At noon on Thursday, Oct. 8, an unknown person answered an

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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 MILE 17, THE PARTY OUTLASTED THE MARATHON Along the race’s route, festivities at a First Avenue watering hole started early, ended late BY NOMIN UJIYEDIIN

Mile 17, on First Avenue just north of 75th Street, is starting to fill up. It’s 10:30 a.m. on Marathon Sunday and the tavern’s namesake, the 17th mile marker of the New York City Marathon, just steps away on the avenue, is nearly desolate. The runners are still miles away. But a small number of spectators leans on the metal barricades, encouraging the few athletes hustling by on wheelchairs or handcycles. By the time the leading pack of elite runners appears, the bar is bustling. At 11:30 a.m., Jan Crozier is finishing a bowl of soup as the TV screen above the bar shows Kenyan runner Mary Keitany crossing the finish line in Central Park. Crozier, 78, reflects on a time when female athletes were barely recognized for their accomplishments. She’s happy they’re getting their due. Crozier, an Upper East Side resident since the 1980s, also remembers past marathons and the security that accompanied them. Roadside checks have never stopped her from getting around, she says. “I’m an old lady who knows how to weasel her way,” she says. Jamal Thomas is checking IDs at the door. He might be the only person on the premises who is underage. The 20-yearold is on his second shift in less than 12 hours. “I only got like three hours of sleep,” he says. He left his other job at 3 a.m., got home to the Bronx at 5 a.m. and raced to his first-ever shift at Mile 17 at 10 a.m. He’s already been standing watch a couple of hours, but Thomas insists he isn’t tired. Like the runners racing on First Avenue steps away from his perch by the front door, he sometimes hits a wall, but he’s not there yet. “I’m used to it. Keep my legs healthy,” he says. On the avenue, a sea of neon

New York City Marathon runner Amy Remick, 38, hugs friend Carrie Stock, 37, at the race’s 17-mile mark and just outside Mile 17, a First Avenue bar, Sunday. Photo: Nomin Ujiyediin jerseys bobs and bounces up the avenue. There’s another nine miles to the finish line. By around noon, the cheering and the clanging of cowbells are constants. Beth Rudolph has flown in from Pittsburgh to catch a glimpse of her brother, Mark, running his sixth marathon. He passed by a few minutes ago, but she’s staying to cheer for other racers. “They’re looking for a smile, and, hey, I can offer that,” she says leaning

against the barricade. Rudolph wants to inspire the runners. And their feat, she says, in turn inspire her. Encouraged by her brother, she ran the Pittsburgh Marathon. She’s not yet sure she when or whether she’ll try another race. “Running a marathon is like watching a soap opera; you have your highs and your lows,” she says. A man runs by, carrying a bronze Eiffel Tower replica twice his size. The

crowd cheers louder. At 2 p.m., Mile 17 is packed. Three different football games are showing on the tavern’s TVs. The staff, themselves racking up miles inside the crowded bar, dodge patrons while dishing out beers, french fries and other fare. At one table, Rosemarie and Bob Rizzo guard zip-close bags labeled “mid-race” and “postrace.” The bags hold small bottles of electric yellow Gatorade. They go outside, lean against a barricade and scan the crowd of runners for their daughter, Amy Remick. They wave cutouts of Remick’s face on a stick. It will make it easier for Remick to find them, they say. “This is what she needs,” Rosemarie Rizzo says of the bags of Gatorade. “She’s almost here.” She scans the crowded First Avenue field for her daughter. “This is the perfect spot,” says Kristen Lackaye, also holding a likeness of Remick’s face. When they’re not scanning their phones, looking for an update on Remick’s progress, Lackaye and her friends shout encouragement to the racers. A tearful woman walks past. The runners are starting to slow down. “You got this!” yells Aileen Foglietta. She, too, is brandishing a picture of Remick’s face. When Remick finally arrives, everyone gets a hug and a picture. Her mother hands her a bag of Gatorade before her daughter dashes off again. At 3:45 p.m., police are letting cars cross East 72nd Street. A few stragglers pass up the avenue, and the sidewalks are nearly deserted now. Inside Mile 17, Sunday night festivities have a ways to run.

The first elite women racers run past Mile 17, a bar on First Avenue, during the early stages of the New York City Marathon Sunday. The bar, at the marathon’s 17th mile, was filled with patrons throughout the race. Photo: Nomin Ujiyediin

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AMAZING IS BEING ASKED THE RIGHT QUESTIONS. Kieran Holohan is a living example of precision medicine in action. Diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), he was initially given a 30% chance of survival, and that only after a risky bone marrow transplant. Dr. Gail Roboz at NewYork-Presbyterian took a different approach. Additional testing on Kieran’s marrow uncovered a rare mutation in his leukemia cells. With this mutation, his chance of a cure would be just as high with chemotherapy as with a bone marrow transplant, and he was able to avoid the procedure altogether. As he himself puts it, “Dr. Roboz asked the right questions. And the answers were there. She did it by throwing the playbook out the window.”

nyp.org/amazingthings

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NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

STAYING IN THE CITY HE LOVES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 doing them. “New York has so much to offer beyond belief. South Street Seaport is fabulous. Central Park is fabulous. Coney Island is fabulous.” Recently he saw “Kinky Boots” on Broadway and loved it. Up next is “Wicked.” He is fortunate that he is able to afford to enjoy New York the way he wants to. He takes advantage of the city’s restaurants daily. Hank even relishes the harsh winters and enjoys the change in seasons. Patti, Hank’s wife of 41 years and a native New Yorker, says her children have tried to convince them to leave over the years. “The kids want me to move to Connecticut but (NYC) is easier as you get older. I don’t drive.” Besides she says, “they have their own lives.” Hank agrees. “I became old. They’re young. I don’t want to interfere with their lives.” He worries Patti would feel isolated in Connecticut, dependent on someone else to drive her around. He used to have a car but gave it up five years ago. The extensive public transportation system and abundant taxis in New York give them independence. “Accessibility. It’s just there, says Hank. “When you walk out the building, there’s the bus.” Accessibility has become even more important to Hank as he’s aged. He suffers from Stage 2 Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Atrial Fibrillation (Afib) and has good days and bad days. Yesterday was a bad day. Not only was he not feeling the best, but Patti had been sick all weekend with a bacterial infection. Instead of their usual trip to Connecticut to see their daughter and grandkids, they had to visit the doctor. It upset them both to miss out. But today is a new day and a good day. Hank says his breathing is “not too bad.” Which is good, because he has a lot on his schedule. Last week Hank had an MRI to figure out the source of his recent neck pain. Today he’s going to pick up the results and run a few neighborhood errands. Later he is meeting his son to walk him through a Lasik consultation at a local surgeon’s office. Before leaving, Hank feeds his new puppy Ethel and increases the air conditioner temperature. It’s a hot day, Patti is out

I don’t know if I’ll ever be back there. I used to think I’d go up there for lunch. Now I don’t. It’s too much of a bother. I have to deal with what is. -- Hank Blum on visiting his old office with her friends, and with his list of errands, he’s not sure how long he will be out. Hank exits the apartment and walks the 10 or so feet to the elevator bank on his floor. Hank is grateful for the convenience. Back when he was much younger, he lived in a walk up. “I can’t walk up steps anymore. I wouldn’t be able to breath,” he says. The elevator descends and the doors open to reveal the pristine tiled lobby. An elegantly dressed older woman using a walker, and a younger one donning denim shorts and a T-shirt, cross paths with Hank, an example of the generations of people who live in the building and nearby. Hank exchanges a few pleasantries with his doorman and walks out onto E. 79th Street. It’s a gorgeous day and Hank is walking to his destination, but he feels fortunate that if he wanted to, he could wait for the bus right outside his building. As he takes a right onto Third

Avenue, heading uptown, he reminisces about his journey into retirement. For 15 years, Hank tried to retire on four separate occasions. It never stuck until now, his fifth attempt. “I retired because I was ready,” he says. “Some men have issues with being retired. I do not. I love what I do now — nothing.” He can’t quite believe it’s been 66 days since he had dinner with his boss and broke the news that he was done. “I’m surprised how quickly the days go,” he says. Hank only has to walk half an avenue and one and a half blocks — a little over a tenth of a mile -- to get to his doctor’s office. He says he’s grateful that he lives in a city where medical doctors and hospitals are in such abundant and convenient proximity. “I think you have the best damn doctors in the world in New York City.” Hank pulls open the door to the Medical Arts Building, pushes the button for the fifth floor and exits into the office of Dr. Ilisa Wallach, his internist and cardiologist. Recently Hank has been experiencing neck pain. He had an MRI done last week to hopefully find the source of the pain. It’s another annoying ailment to add to a growing list as he ages. He chats with the receptionist, Joan, while he waits to get the results of his test. He is known here, although it’s not one of his favorite places to be.

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015 “You are better off going to a restaurant where they know you then going to a pharmacy or doctor where they know you,” he jokes. Four other patients wait in the austere room. Joan hands Hank some folded up sheets of paper and Hank opens them and begins to read at the window, before heading over to sit in one of the beige waiting room seats. The MRI showed a bulging disk and the doctor has recommended that Hank see a neurologist. He adds that appointment to his increasing medical to-do list. He says he will refuse surgery if recommended. “I’m aware of it every minute of every waking hour. (But) it’s tolerable.” He is more worried about the potential complications that could arise in surgery and the effect it could have given his Afib and COPD. “If someone said go in for surgery for new lungs, I’d go in in a heartbeat,” he says. But he knows and accepts that’s not an option at age 85. “It wouldn’t be fair if they gave it to me. How much more am I going to live?” he says. “I’m too old for new lungs.” Finished at the doctor’s office, he walks a block away to his bank. He opens the door, crosses the lobby and walks up to the windows. He cocks his head as he looks for his favorite teller, Greg, but doesn’t see him. Another teller, Maxima, notices him. She tells him that Greg is on his lunch break, and they chat for a few minutes. Although Hank doesn’t mind using the ATM, he generally uses the tellers because he likes the social interaction. “They know me here. They are so pleasant that I don’t mind giving them my money,” Hank jokes. Maxima laughs. Back on the street Hank walks just half a block when he spots Greg walking towards the bank. They greet with a hearty handshake, and chat for a few minutes before Greg has to return to work. The doggy bag Greg clutches in his hand is a reminder to Hank that it’s time for lunch. After saying goodbye, Hank continues up Third Avenue but soon reduces his pace. “There’s a hill. I’ve got to go slow,” he says. He’s relieved when the traffic light at 84th Street turns red. The pause gives him extra time to catch his breath. When the light turns green, Hank continues up the sidewalk. Hank decides that he will head to one of his regular spots,

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the Highlands Cafe Restaurant, a diner at Third Avenue and 85th Street, for lunch. He and Patti have been coming here multiple times a week since they lived in their old apartment, steps away. Neither Hank nor Patti cook (“Cook? What is that? We don’t cook,” he says. “The stove is pristine.”) Hank crosses 85th street, the restaurant in sight, when he recognizes one of his usual waiters, Alex, outside during his break. They hug hello and

FOR MORE IN THE SERIES Our Town will spend six weeks chronicling Hank Blum’s struggle with retirement. For more on Hank -- and for the stories of New Yorkers followed by our sister publications in other parts of Manhattan -- go to www.ourtownny.com

Hank says he’ll see him inside. He heads to a table by the window and settles in. When Alex returns, he mentions that he just saw Patti here for breakfast this morning. He offers Hank a menu but Hank waves it away. He orders the Greek Salad — “extra anchovies.” He’s watching his weight on advice of his doctor. His pulmonologist, Dr. David Posner, suggested that his difficulty breathing might be eased if he lost some weight. Hank even deviated from his usual order at his favorite frozen yogurt shop, 40 Carrots inside Bloomingdales, recently and ordered a small yogurt with fruit on the side instead of his usual large bowl. “No soup?” says Alex. “Not today” says Hank. Hank is feeling good, which means no soup. “I’m breathing. When I eat soup it’s for medicinal purposes. That’s why it has to be very hot.”

Hank orders it so frequently that all of his regular waiters at his regular hangouts expect he’ll order a cup and know to make it extra hot without him asking. After a few minutes, Alex, returns with his salad — minus an important ingredient. Hank immediately notices the absent anchovies. “A Greek salad with no anchovies makes no sense at all,” exclaims Hank. Alex quickly hurries away and minutes later comes back with a small bowl filled with the fish. Hank happily dumps it on his salad and digs in. Alex is in his 70s and is, like Hank until recently, working past the age when most people retire. When he’s not waiting tables at the diner, he works at Yankee stadium. The standing is taxing, but he continues to work in order to be able to afford to live in the city. He dreams of retiring from both jobs and moving to Long Is-

land. Hank tells Alex that he finally, officially, retired. “You can’t quit work,” says Alex. “I already did,” say Hank. “I don’t believe you. You’ll be back in the office,” says Alex. “No way,” says Hank. Hank is adamant that he is done this time. He once thought he would make monthly trips back to his former office to visit but has come to terms with this new stage of his life. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be back there. I used to think I’d go up there for lunch. Now I don’t. It’s too much of a bother. I have to deal with what is.” Lunch done, Hank has to make a quick stop at nearby Rite Aid before he meets his son. He enters the familiar drugstore, walks straight to the supplement aisle and picks up two bottles of magnesium — “it keeps the rhythm of my heart” — before he hears a man call out his name. Hank greets his pharmacist, Ari, who’s re-

sponsible for doling out the many pills and inhalers Hank takes every day to keep his conditions in check. Hank looks down at his watch. It’s well past 3 p.m. and he has to leave if he wants to make it to meet his son in time. Marc is considering Lasik surgery and wants Hank to accompany him to his appointment with a local eye surgeon on E. 70th Street. He may be retired but Hank still relishes being called upon for his professional advice. Hank pays the cashier, exits the store and hurries back into the bustling streets of the city he loves. This series is a production of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. It is led by Dorian Block and Ruth Finkelstein. It is funded by the New York Community Trust. To find all of the interviews and more, go to www. exceedingexpectations.nyc

8

Voices

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

Letters

BIKE LANE PROPOSAL SPURS DEBATE Several readers commented, either online or by letter to the newspaper, on an article that reported on grass-roots effort to construct bike lanes on the Upper East Side. Some of the comments reacted to opponents of the effort quoted in the story, including to one who said that although biking had increased, bicyclists still comprised “a teeny tiny percentage of the population,” and to another who said that “adding crosstown bike lanes is like rewarding a spoiled child with a new toy when they misbehave.” The readers continued their conversation online at nypress.com. Here is a sample of the comments and letters. From Yorkville to Roosevelt Island, Seattle to Copenhagen, Brooklyn to Montreal, every real world and academic study supports dedicated bicycle lanes and expanded pedestrian space. These lanes are key to better, sustainable transportation, cleaner air, quieter streets, and a better quality of life for all residents. This is especially important on the congested Upper East Side, a pass-through zone for internal combustion vehicles gaming the only cross-river bridges without tolls. During this period of global climate change, where Hurricane Sandy caused the East River to jump the East 90s seawall just up the street, one would think that fossil fuel free bike lanes, and the enhanced pedestrian space that go with them, would be high up on all my neighbor’s lists of priorities on our low

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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lying, exposed Manhattan Island. Jeff Gold, former transportation committee chairperson, East 79th Street Neighborhood Association. I witness the lawless behavior of motor vehicles every day and until all motor vehicles obey all the rules of the road and the NYPD provide enforcement, a great majority of pedestrians will continue to feel unsafe. When do we condition road improvements on perfect behavior of a whole class of road users? Protected bike lanes make everyone safer by bringing order and predictability to the streets and separating vulnerable users from dangerous vehicles. Geck If you think people would suddenly love losing parking or car lanes to install bike lanes so long as every person on a bike behaved, good luck. This is about a challenge to the status quo, nothing more and nothing less. Twofooted Drivers in their arrogance and entitlement will complain regardless. But it is the pedestrians whom bicyclists alienate when we break the rules. Of course there will always be opposition to bike-related progress. But that doesn’t mean we should just go ahead and swell our enemies’ ranks and give them free ammunition. Ferdinand Cesarano

accommodation for cars over bicycles, they aren’t thinking things through. Alicia I am a pedestrian. Since I am not brain-dead, I realize that 99.9% of the lethal danger to me comes from car drivers. Kevin Love Keep in mind that cyclists are as diverse as most any other group. To say that ALL cyclists must obey ALL laws in order to be given a political voice is like say all pedestrians need to stop jay walking before we give them greater protections. Running a red light in an intersection with no cars or pedestrians - and while riding a bike - is a sorry reason to oppose cycling. We cannot keep denying this reality. Much more can be done, that cannot be countered with any sort of “Well a few cyclists buzz pedestrians” argument. This is a dense crowded city, this sort of argument is even less persuasive. ummm... The “natural alliance” between peds and cyclists only exists in the minds of the bike evangelists. Most NYC pedestrians loathe bicyclists. How many TA members don’t ride bikes? Twelve, thirteen? This “alliance” is just a cynical attempt by the 1% cyclists to add themselves to the millions of pedestrians to claim to be some sort of majority. Atomic Man

If any pedestrian feels alienated by bicyclists who “break the rules”, and as a result favors more

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UP AND DOWN THE STREET EAST SIDE ENCOUNTERS BY ARLENE KAYATT

Dancing in the streets: The block closings in front of some synagogues in October this year were for partying. Purely oldtime religion celebrating the end of the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah. Two temples, Chabad of the Upper East Side on E. 77th Street and Temple Israel on E. 75th Street had the streets closed on their respective blocks to mark the end of the annual cycle of public Torah readings and the beginning of the new cycle. The closed streets were filled with dancing, singing, crafts and celebrating. Temple Israel had food trucks. Next year, Oct 24th. Window rights: Cool weather finally setting in. M103 southbound bus air conditioned and not too crowded. Passenger seated near window in front of the bus opened the window. Passenger in window seat immediately behind wanted it closed. Too much wind coming in. The front window passenger insisted that, because the window release was closer to her, she had the right to decide whether the window stayed open or closed. “No” claimed the passenger in the seat behind her. Consensus of those standing was that the rider seated closest to the window release wins. Case closed. Window open. Top of the Hill(ary) list: Comes as no surprise that Upper East Sider and Democratic Party power player Trudy Mason has been named to the Hillary for New York Leadership Council. She joins a group of over 100 elected

officials - including the Governor, Congress, Assembly Members, former Mayor Dinkins as well as community, coalition and grassroots leaders -- who will be working for Clinton’s election. The current mayor, Delisted. Boomer and millennial bond: The 60ish woman couldn’t believe her eyes. The 20-something woman seated in Cohen pocket park on E. 57th St. was holding the same version of a Samsung Galaxy phone - of not so recent vintage - that she had. Of course, the millennial supplemented hers with a smart phone. The boomer quickly approached the millennial and asked how to text on the phone. All she ever got was templates. The millennial took the cell in hand, made some magic moves, showed the boomer where to press on the keyboard to get to the ABC/abc mode. And that’s how the text was won. Group texting: Friends of friends of friends are not my friends and hearing their text beep at 5 a.m. is not appreciated particularly when the texter is informing the minions that he’s on his way to Ashville and hopes that Leah got the name of the party goods store. Ungroup me, please. MTA goes MIA: Missing local bus stop at 90th and 2nd. No notice before. No notice after. There’s nothing new about construction or repairs at bus stops. And perhaps there’s nothing new about the MTA dissing the public by not doing its job. Social media, posting signs at the bus stops. Simple, cost effective stuff -- none of which requires a fare

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Staff Reporters, Gabrielle Alfiero, Daniel Fitzsimmons

increase. Pomp and Circumstance x 2: Tams and kilts and drums and bagpipes hardly an everyday sight or sound in New York, but I’ve encountered them twice in a two-week period. First, in front of the firehouse on East 51st when Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney commemorated the 150th Anniversary of Engine 8, Battalion 8, Ladder 2 by reading the resolution she placed in the Congressional Record. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro and State Senator Liz Krueger were on hand to honor the company ... And then to the sight of tams and kilts and the sound of drums and bagpipes came the swearing in by Mayor Dinkins of the 68th Assembly District’s Leaders John Ruiz, Melissa Mark-Viverito, John C. Rodriguez, and the AD’s County Committee Members, including former Upper East Sider Susan Hochberg. Chalking it up: Blackboard in front of the newly opened Crepes & Delicies on East 86th: “Happiness is Just 1 Crepe Away.” The same message appears in the West Side location. Rather indelicate even if there’s a porta-potty on premises. 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

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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My Story

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Shedding a Different Kind of Light BY BETTE DEWING or you with computers, I urge you to search “Protests and Sodium Street Lights.� Yes, there is a world-wide protest against the replacement of sodium street lights with the LED light kind, because they turn night into day and invade people’s homes, and it will happen in your neighborhood unless there is a massive protest. Of course, we need to save the planet, but in ways that don’t do harm. Indeed we do good by reducing the excessive electric light wattage, which thanks to lighting industries, and the astronomical use of lighting in entertainment venues, has become du riguer in the last half century. This is the do-no-harm way to cut back, not by adversely affecting our everyday places -- our homes, our streets –- the natural cycle of darkness, also needed by plant life. And oh so needed is the calming

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Gift Card. If we don’t, you’ll get $10 off a new hard drive so beauty of the night itself and especially in the city. Right now the street lighting is just about perfect. LED’s lower operating cost is no reason to use them except in places where they will not do harm – used in moderation and with warmer light spectrum rather than the stark blue whites. That goes for uorescent tubes, too. If only the so called efficients had never been invented. The incandescent bulb makes everything and everyone look better and feel better, too. They’re biodegradable and don’t emit radiation. They are more than worth the operating or energy consumption cost. As for moderation the famed Rockefeller Chritams tree is so overlit you can’t see the magniďŹ cent sacriďŹ ced tree for the lights. I love holiday lights but now they’re way too profuse - less is more. And I’ve strayed from what couldn’t be more important to save -- our sodium street lights. Make New York the city of the right lights. While Paris still resists the LEDS, reports say it will eventually relent. Why? Protesting the LED street lamps Internet search ďŹ nds communities abroad, especially posting “Save Our Street Lightsâ€? signs.

And please get hold of the N.Y. Times March 24 piece “With LED Streetlights, Saving Energy but Exhausintg Residentsâ€? and especially read its Sunday Oct. 18 Op Ed, “Ruining That Moody Urban Glowâ€? by author Lionel Shriver. The title is misleading. Far more than a mood is negatively altered by the LED streetlight. Not only does she note how blue spectrum LED lights are known to affect sleep paterns, they’re also a known risk for breast cancer. Such argments are needed for those who pooh pooh the aesthetic effect those of us like Shriver so stronlgy experience. Unfortunately we don’t seem to make the rules. That must be changed. A concerned mental health professial friend gave me a Nov. 2 New Yorker full-page photo of Tompkins Square Park lit by a sodium street lamp. The caption blithely notes how the soft glow of New York’s sodium street lamps will be replaced by the “more brightly burning, less melious LEDS.. and soon will soon have gone the way of the pay phone.â€? “Not if we can help it,â€? this mental health professional said. I so desperately hope that you say it too! To be contined no doubt. dewingbetter@aol.com

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NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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Out & About NEWYORK-PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL AND WEILL CORNELL MEDICINE FALL SEMINAR SERIES

NOVEMBER

10

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.

Time: All seminars will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Place: All seminars held at Uris Auditorium Weill Cornell Medicine 1300 York Avenue (at 69th St.) For more information: If you require a disability-related accommodation, or for weather-related cancellations, please call 212-821-0888 and leave a message on the recording. Or 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

More Events. Add Your Own: Go to ourtownny.com

Thu 5 â–˛ FESTIVAL ALBERTINE Albertine Books 972 Fifth Ave., at 79th Street 7:30. Seating is ďŹ rst-come, ďŹ rst-serve. A ďŹ ve-day event showcasing leading French-speaking and American thinkers tackling topics ranging from the state of feminism to the future of journalism begins this evening. 212-650–0070. www. albertine.com

Fri 6 AMERICAN ORGANIC: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF FARMING, GARDENING, SHOPPING AND EATING 92nd Street Y. Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street Noon. From $25.00 Robin O’Sullivan charts organic’s history and future trajectory. 212.415.5500. www.92y.org/ Event/American-Organic

COMMUNITY BOARD 8 Brick Presbyterian Church, 62 East 92nd St., Carnegie Room 6:30 p.m. The board’s Parks and Recreation Committee meets. Among the topics of discussion: John Jay Park’s basketball courts, the 1190 Second Ave. park project and Queensboro ▲ MS WORD 2010 FOR Oval resolution, and Parks BEGINNERS Without Borders. 212-758-4340. cb8m.com/ calendar-meeting_date/2015-11 67th Street Library, between First and Second Avenues 2:30-4:30 p.m. Learn the basics features of Microsoft Word 2010, a word

processing program you can use to create documents. Topics include entering and editing text, saving ďŹ les, and formatting. (212) 734-1717. www.nypl.org/ events/programs/2015/11/06/ ms-word-2010-beginners

Sat 7 A TASTE OF YORKVILLE Meeting location provided upon ticket purchase and registration. 2:30 p.m. $10, members; $20, non-members Engage all ďŹ ve senses, most importantly taste, as you sample sweet and savory specialties from Schaller & Weber and Glaser’s Bake Shop, among others, while we visit Old Yorkville on this neighborhood walking tour. www.nycharities.org/events/ EventLevels.aspx?ETID=8502

NEW YORK OPERA FORUM PERFORMS ORFEO ED EURIDICE; & CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA 96th Street Library, 112 East 96th St. 1-4 p.m. Free

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, one of the most admired religious leaders of our time, delivers a major address on how we can understand and confront religious violence. 212-415-5500. www.92y. org/Event/Jonathan-SacksNot-in-God-s-Name

Mon 9 BECOMING RICHARD PRYOR New York Opera Forum performs the complete operas of Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck and Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni. A musical recital performed in concert with piano accompaniment. 212-289-0908. www.nypl.org/events/ programs/2015/11/28/ music-new-york-opera-forumperforms-xs-y

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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Huge Selection of

Up for discussion this week Toni Morrison’s “Home.� (212) 734-1717

Bibles Fiction/Non-Fiction Children’s Books Greeting Cards .VTJD t (JGUT Original Art Events and More!

â—„ ADULT ONE-ONONE COMPUTER HELP WORKSHOP Yorkville Library, 222 East 79th St. 11 a.m-12:30 p.m. Work one-on-one with a volunteer tutor. Improve internet skills, Create and Use Email, Microsoft Office Pre-Registration required in person or by phone. 212-744-5824. www.nypl.org/ events/programs/2015/11/03/ adult-one-one-computer-helpworkshop

92nd Street Y, Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street Noon. From $25 Scott Saul, an associate professor of English at the University of California-Berkeley. sheds light on an entertainer who, by uniting the spirits of the Black Power movement and the ISRAELI FOLK DANCING counterculture, forever altered comedy. 92nd Street Y, Lexington 212-415-5500. www.92y. Avenue at 92nd Street, Mack org/Event/Becoming-Richard- Gym

Hours: M-F 10am-9pm 4BU BN QN t 4VO QN QN

:PSL "WF #UXO SE UI 4U t www.logosbookstorenyc.com

Wed 11

Here learning happens every day. Isabella’s Early Childhood Education Program features a little bit of everything to keep your child challenged, engaged and constantly learning.

OPEN HOUSE

Wednesday, November 11th, 2015 10:00am – 12 Noon And 3:00 pm – 6:00pm 515 Audubon Avenue, New York, NY 10040 Call for more information: 212-342-9436

Sun 8 â–˛ THE PAPER BAG PLAYERS 31ST ANNUAL FAMILY BENEFIT The Loeb Boathouse in Central Park, 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue. 12:30-2:30 p.m. Varies. Come enjoy a unique and fun-ďŹ lled afternoon of exciting games, imaginative crafts, a delicious buffet lunch, and of course, a special performance previewing this season’s show, “Pop-Pop-Popcornâ€?. 212-353-2332. thepaperbagplayers.org/fallbeneďŹ t-2015/

NOT IN GOD’S NAME — CONFRONTING RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE 92nd Street Y, Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street 8 p.m. From $32

Pryor

ART IN THE ROUND: EXHIBITION TOUR Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave., at 89th Street 2 p.m. Free with museum admission Single Exhibition Tour. Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting, with Angela Garcia, gallery educator. 212-423-3500. www.guggenheim.org/ new-york/calendar-andevents/2015/11/09/art-in-theround-exhibition-tour-19/5284

Tue 10 BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP 67th Street Library, btw. First and Second Avenues. 5:30 p.m. Get the neighborhood read!

Ongoing, most Wednesdays at 8:15 p.m. From $14.00 Open Session: Dancing for everyone! Open dancing with instruction of more advanced repertoire. Taught by Ruth Goodman. 212.415.5737. www.92y. org/Uptown/Event/Israeli-FolkDancing

T(W)EEN HEADQUARTERS Yorkville Library, 222 East 79th St. 4 p.m. Free Come hang out, explore, learn, use technology, make music, take apart items, use iPads, computers, the Wii and more! We will be exploring the intersection of fun and learning, while looking into the technology that surrounds us daily. Ages 9 - 18 are welcome to take part in this program. 212-744-5824. www.nypl.org/ events/programs/2015/11/04/ tween-headquarters

Let your child learn and grow in our rich and dynamic environment where safety comes first. Our Early Childhood Education Program offers developmentally appropriate educational programs for the children and prepares them for future learning. Our award winning and unique intergenerational program provides opportunities for playful interaction between children and older adults in our that helps to develop lifelong social skills in children.

Full Time & Part Time care is available Program features: / Developmentally appropriate education programs / Computer based literacy program / Storytelling / Music

/ Creative Arts / Indoor and Outdoor Physical Activities / Gardening

We provide breakfast and beverages. Parents provide baby food and formula for infants and lunch for toddlers and preschoolers. We respect various dietary laws.

We are open: Monday-Friday 8am-6pm Fees are structured on the basis of each family’s schedule and the age of the child. We are Licenses by the New York State Department of Health. If you cannot come to our Open House, call or e-mail for an appointment. Dr. Karen Ellefsen, Director, 515 Audubon Avenue, NY, NY 10040 Isabella Early Childhood Education Program (212) 342-9436 Kellefsen@isabella.org www.isabella.org/childdaycare

More neighborhood news? Email us at news@strausnews.com

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NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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< Brad Kahlhamer Kachina doll, or Next Level Figure. Photo: Lou Sepersky

> Hunter College’s East Harlem Gallery. On is the wall is Xaviera Simmons’ “Superunknown (Alive In The). In the foreground at right is Jean Seestadt’s “Untitled.” Photo: Natalie Conn

A GALLERY GROWS IN HARLEM A new gallery space will explore social issues through art, inviting conversation about timely topics BY LEIDA SNOW

Is there an upside to death? Arden Sherman wants to start a conversation about a subject most people would rather avoid. “There’s a power and beauty that comes from acknowledging that there’s an end to life,” she said. And as curator and director of Hunter College’s East Harlem Gallery, Sherman wants to talk about a lot more. The space — snugly housed on the ground floor of Hunter College’s Silberman School of Social Work, at West 119th Street and Third Avenue — had been dark for a year when Sherman, 32, came to her post a year ago. Part of the attraction, she said, was building from scratch. Sherman said the gallery’s mission is to present artists who focus on social issues. As such, the space — within a neighborhood in transition,

with upscale boutiques and restaurants bumping up against longtime retail businesses — will host temporary exhibits rather than a collection. “I want the neighborhood to think about this place as a platform for conversation. I want to build this space beyond any exhibition, so that people know it’s available to them and to the art world,” she said. The gallery, free and open to the public, is a first for the East Harlem community, she said. The current exhibition spotlights 12 international contemporary artists, each looking at the way death is acknowledged by the living. Sherman’s hope is that the installation, titled “If You Leave Me Can I Come Too?”, will provoke, while steering clear of the funereal. The exhibition’s title is taken from a large abstract painting by Friedrich Kunath. The question, coupled to the depiction of a black, closed door, might seem to point to a fear of mortality, according to Sherman. But, she said, the colorful

Arden Sherman, the curator of the Hunter College’s East Harlem Gallery. Photo: Lou Sepersky rainbow in the picture allows the spectator to imagine what might lie beyond the door. The work and the exhibition are “hopeful and life affirming,” she said. Kunath, she said, is hinting that the bond between people remains despite an end that’s assured. “People can talk about this subject,” she said. “It shouldn’t be taboo.”

Artist Justine Reyes photographed the contents of a dresser drawer sometime after its owner had died. The viewer is reminded about how everyday objects become sanctified and preserve our memories. The work of Brad Kahlhamer, whose heritage is Native American, recalls a legend within the Hopi and Pueblo Indian tribes about beneficent spirit-beings, kachinas, who brought good luck. At some point, the spiritbeings evolved into carved, colorful dolls that could be given to tribal children. Kahlhamer’s installation reveals these joyful objects, which seem to link the spirit world to the land of the living. One wall of the small space is covered with Xaviera Simmons’ large-scale grid of 32 photographs of people on boats. The groups, backgrounded by turquoise waters, could be those out on an excursion. But these are migrants who have risked everything to escape death. They are reaching for life in precari-

ous vessels. The photos From Cuba, Javier Castro’s video, “Ossuaries,” documents the exhumation of remains from overcrowded graveyards and the conveyance of bones, now pressed together in small boxes, to their final resting places. Castro’s video chronicles the cemetery workers going about their repetitive tasks, underlining the routine nature of death. The exhibition is dedicated to Jean Seestadt, one of the featured exhibitors. During a phone interview, Seestadt acknowledged that she is obsessed with her own mortality. “I was hoping for clarity,” she said about research she did for the exhibit at the Carter Burden Center for the Aging in East Harlem. Seestadt said the women she met at the Center “led fuller lives” than she did. “These women are amazing,” she said. “They are active, they continue to learn. They are inspirational.” Most of all, the women at the center are not afraid of dying,

Seestadt said. For her part, she “cannot accept that there’ll be an end.” The artist’s vibrant installation of balloons – which will deflate over time – is celebratory. The balloons, inscribed with single words and short phrases, are meant to make people think of a life well lived. “The artist has a vision, but the viewer may have different ideas,” she said. On one of the gallery walls is a copy of a letter Seestadt wrote to her husband, sharing her fears with him: “There are so many wonderful memories that I don’t want to die with me,” she wrote. “The love I feel for you and my family is sacred and it is going to end. … So this is what we have. Just us and we are going to end.” Seestadt doesn’t look at her art as therapy, yet she said that talking about her fear of death has made her more comfortable with herself. “I don’t seem to have the panic attacks anymore,” she said. “I’m more comfortable with my anxiety.”

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FOR THE WEEK BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO OUR ARTS EDITOR

MUSIC

A GILDED AGE SALON: MUSIC FROM PARIS TO NEW YORK Sylvan Winds, a five-piece chamber music outfit, performs works by six composers, many with roots in Paris, including Camille Saint-Saëns, who acted as a church organist throughout the city. The ensemble also performs a suite by Théodore Dubois, a director of the Paris Conservatory from 1896-1905, who, like Saint-Saëns, was a church organist. A Gilded Age Salon: Music from Paris to New York Thursday, Nov. 12 The Salmagundi Club 47 Fifth Ave., at E. 12th Street 7:30 p.m. Tickets $40 For tickets and more information, call 212-222-3569 or email sylvanwinds@att.net

The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, along with the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys perform two powerful works at Saint Thomas Church. Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Missa in Angustiis,” which he composed in the summer of 1798, and Mozart’s “Requiem Mass in D Minor.” Thursday, Nov. 12 Saint Thomas Church One W. 53rd St., near Fifth Avenue 7:30 p.m. Tickets $40-$75 For more information, call 212-664-9360 or visit saintthomaschurch.org

“UNORTHODOX” Over 200 pieces by 55 artists from more than 20 countries make up the Jewish Museum’s new exhibition “Unorthodox”. Switzerland’s Xanti Schawinksy’s “Faces of War” series considers the devastation of World War II and Dineo Sheshee Bopape explores apartheid. Nov. 6-March 27 The Jewish Museum 1109 Fifth Ave., at 92nd Street Xanti Schawinsky, The Aviator, Museum hours: Sunday-Tuesday from the series Faces of War, 1942, mixed media, watercolor and Saturday, 11 a.m.-5:45 p.m.; and ink, 28 ? x 21 in. Courtesy Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday, 11 of the Xanti Schawinsky a.m.-4 p.m. Estate, Switzerland, and Admission $15 Broadway 1602, New York. © For more information, visit Xanti Schawinsky, image provided thejewishmuseum.org or call 212by Broadway 1602, New York 423-3200

THEATER “BRIGADOON” Long-running Upper East Side community theater group St. Jean’s Players begins its new season with musical “Brigadoon,” in which two American travelers get lost in the woods in Scotland and find themselves in an untouched magical town. Featuring a cast of 35 actors, Alan Jay Lerner’s and Frederick Loewe’s 1947 play includes the tunes “Almost Like Being in Love” and “Heather on the Hill.” Nov. 6-8, Nov. 13-15 and Nov. 20-22 St. Jean’s Auditorium 167 E. 75th St., between Lexington and Third Avenues Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets $25 For tickets, call 212-868-4444 or visit smarttix.com; remaining tickets available at the door

FILM

UNIQUE GIFTS & WORKS OF ART

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Invisible Ink by Bill Griffith

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH, 1PM Society of Illustrators | 128 E. 63rd St. | 212-838-2560 | societyillustrators.org Hear from underground cartoonist Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead), who has recreated his mother’s secret life in ’50s and ‘60s New York for his just-released graphic memoir. ($15)

ASBURY SHORTS

Becoming Richard Pryor

Asbury Shorts, a short film event now in its 34th year, brings previous favorites to the screen as well as new films, including “Wire Cutters,” Jack Anderson’s animated short about two robots, and “The Girl and the Gondola” from Abbe Robinson. Friday, Nov. 6 NYIT Auditorium on Broadway 1871 Broadway, between W. 61st and W. 62nd Streets 7:30 p.m. Tickets $15 To purchase tickets, visit www. asburyshortsnyc.brownpapertickets.com or visit asburyshortsnyc.com for more information

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH, 12PM

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

An agency of UJA-Federation

MUSEUMS

“MISSA IN ANGUSTIIS” AND “REQUIEM MASS IN D MINOR, K. 626”

92nd Street Y | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212-415-5500 | 92y.org Delve into the background of the crazy, angry, wonderful wit of Richard Pryor via a talk by the author of the biography Becoming Richard Pryor, which focuses on the comedian’s formative years in his family’s brothels. ($25)

Just Announced | Monograph in Motion—Dattner Architects: New 34th Street/Hudson Yards Subway Station

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH, 6PM Open House New York | 552-70 W. 34th St. | 212-991-6470 | ohny.org It’s been over 25 years since NYC added a subway station. Hear from the Hudson Yards station’s architects as they describe their use of light and openness to convey safety and space. ($20)

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

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

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NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

ALL OF THE ABOVE. (At Avenues, that’s often the best answer.) When a Bolshoi Ballet dancer leaps through the air, does

all connected. One example is our Rashomon project, which

that provide a lesson in art, music, geometry, Russian culture

demonstrated how a single piece of music could inspire

or Newton’s law of gravity? Of course, the correct answer is

learning in a range of subjects from math to history. Watch

all of the above. That’s why, at Avenues, we’re dedicated to

it unfold on our video library site. You’ll see the future of

helping students see how countries, disciplines and ideas are

interdisciplinary learning, in practice at Avenues today.

www.avenues.org/watch

To register for a parent information event on November 12 or December 3, please visit avenues.org/watch or call 646.664.0800.

THE 2015

BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS

AWARDS Tony Ahmeti

Edward Bonilla

Idrissa Camara

Joe Ferdinand

Carlos Galvez

Ruselit Guillen

Marie Le Bon

Martha Londo単o

Thomas Louie

Enma Mehmedovic

Lance Mumford

Germania Pagan

Haydee Reynald

Sam Ruiz

Tomas Seaton

Celia Seda

Craig Tsouristakis

Denise White

Stephanie Williams

Weston Wright

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Sponsored by GLENWOOD B U ILD ER O W N ER M A N A G ER

BUILDING MAINTENANCE SERVICES

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

Editor’s Note In the pages that follow, you'll meet the people who make New York work. This year's list of Building Service Workers Awardees -- the ninth such collaboration between our newspapers and 32BJ SEIU -- honors the often-unsung supers, porters, cleaners and others whom we take for granted the rest of the year. Ours is a city full of such unsung heroes. We're thrilled to be able to honor a few of them once a year, and to say thank you. Thanks, too, goes out to our sponsors and to 32BJ President Hector Figueroa and Elaine Kim for their help on this project. And kudos to Madeleine Thompson for doing the interviews, writing the stories, and shooting the photos. Read these stories and meet an exceptional group of New Yorkers. Congratulations to them all. Jeanne Straus, President, Straus News Kyle Pope, Editor in Chief

applauds

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NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Edward Bonilla Doorman of the Year

A Doorman Always on the Move Edward Bonilla declines to sit down during his interview, insisting on adhering to proper doorman protocol. His experience and graciousness are just a few of the things that make him this year’s best doorman. “About 29 years ago I came here to be interviewed to be a porter, and in the same day something happened

to one of the doormen and they called me back,” he said. “I guess I was destined to be a doorman.” He says the job can get intense sometimes between balancing 23 security monitors and the residents of over 200 apartments on E. 74th Street, but he enjoys that part of it. “There’s always something going on,” Bonilla said. “I work closely with the superintendent. Anything that’s happening in the building goes through me first since we’re the first line of defense. It’s never boring.” He has developed close relationships with the residents of the buildings and with his colleagues. He has done supplemental work as well, like cleaning the apartments and doing electrical work. “You name it, I’ve done it,” he said.

But after serving in the U.S. Air Force, he appreciates the relative calm of his job. Bonilla spent four years in the military after high school in California and upstate New York. Though he shovels snow as a doorman, he says it’s nothing compared to working in negative 45 degree weather with snow drifts two stories high. Bonilla is looking forward to retiring next year to Vieques, a small island where his family is from. “I have property near the water so I’m pretty set,” he said. “I’m going to be a beatnik. I can see water from ground level so I’m going to be living the life.” He is grateful for his job and the residents he has come to know so well for enabling him to retire. “They’ve made everything possible for me,” he said.

Photos by Madeleine Thompson

Ruselit Guillen Doorwoman of the Year

Breaking Through a Building’s Glass Ceiling At the age of 24, Ruselit Guillen may be the youngest doorwoman in New York City. She started working in her W. 96th Street building as a receptionist, then took on a porter position and now oversees the building’s daily operations during her shifts. “I’m always interacting with the adults, families, kids,” she said. “I get along with all of them. It’s incredible how I can know so many people’s names.” She has loved getting to know the tenants over the last year, especially the kids, who wave to her as they come in and out. Guillen felt that her gender was an

obstacle to getting a position occupied by so few women, and has worked very hard to prove that she is just as capable as anyone else. “I have to show everybody that I can actually do it,” she said. “Not a lot of people thought I was going to do it, and I’ve been proving myself. You have to work hard.” She was encouraged by a former doorman in her building who is now retired to become a porter and work her way up, and in turn would encourage anyone who is interested to go for it. “You just have to put in all your effort and be positive,” she said. What she really loves, however, is

math. Guillen worked in accounting for several years and hopes to be a math teacher some day. “Anything that has to do with kids I feel comfortable (with),” she said. “I grew up with my three nieces. Since I was young I used to do everything for them for years. They used to come to me for schoolwork and everything.” They inspired her to want to work with children. Guillen describes herself as a family person, and spends a lot of time with her family outside of work having barbecues and cooking Dominican food. “(We’re) always together,” she said.

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Craig Tsouristakis Super of the Year

Learning the Ropes, and Never Stopping Craig Tsouristakis, this year’s top super, began doing electrical work at age 17 when he joined the military, where he also learned to box. “I’ve always worked with my hands,” he said. After his military career ended he boxed professionally in Europe and the U.S. until 1981. He has been a super at his current building in the Bronx for 15 years and is a commercial super at eight other buildings. “My favorite part is when outside contractors come in and I know their job, I know what they’re supposed to do, and that’s all through a lot of training from 32BJ,” said Tsouristakis, who is especially involved in the union as a shop steward and board member. “It’s so incredible that so much knowledge is there. I take every course that comes through there.”

He has taken classes on boilers, compactors, gravity tanks and countless other crucial tools that make him such an effective super. The green analyst course, on making buildings

more energy efficient, inspired Tsouristakis to start a garden outside of his building, which he planted with the help of the tenants. “You can come on this job as a porter or a doorman, but if you choose to go to school … you can grow in this business,” he said. He has used all the skills he has learned to open up a repair business, Mad Skills Corporation, which has been operating since around 2001. “At one time I had five employees,” he said proudly. “We might go on weekends and complete a floor in two days.” Tsouristakis has four children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Outside of work, he enjoys fishing, working on his motorcycle and supporting the Dallas Cowboys.

Congratulations to the

Building Service Workers of the Year!

675 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017 212.370.9200 EllimanPM.com

For over 100 years, management has been our focus.

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THE NEW YORK YANKEES ARE PROUD SUPPORTERS OF THE SEIU LOCAL 32BJ AND SALUTE ALL OF THE 2015 HONOREES

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Thomas Louie Building Manager of the Year

Keeping it in the Family For Thomas Louie, managing buildings is the family business. Louie is one of 17 members of his family who manage residential buildings throughout New York City. “It’s been three generations of building managers,” he said, estimating that the tradition began in the 1930s or 1940s. “They worked in department stores and then they became maintenance people and they trained their children. My uncle took me under his wing and showed me the ins and outs.” Louie initially taught middle school on the Upper West Side, but he took a job as a porter during the summer and was offered a job as the building’s super at the end of the summer, and

he’s continued to quickly move up the ranks. “As I was entering that building, the superintendent abruptly left, so they really had nobody steering the ship,” he said. “And since I had all the skills and qualifications I did a lot of the supplemental work.” He has been managing buildings for almost nine years now. He particularly likes working in boutique buildings like his current one because “you get to know your residents,” he said. “I would say I know all the residents very well. It’s more filial.” He has worked in several different buildings in the city but has found a favorite in 520 E. 86th Street. “Everybody always mentioned how on

this block how wonderful the people, the staff are,” he said. “It’s an anomaly to find a building like this where actually I would say 100 percent of the residents are very, very kind, warm people.” Louie was drawn to the job not only because of his family history, but because of 32BJ. “32BJ was my main draw because it was such a solid union,” he said. Louie is also proud to be the vice president of the Scandinavian American Building Managers Guild, where he helps mentor building workers so they can move up in the business the same way he has.

We are proud to support

SEIU 32BJ and we applaud their great work. Congratulations to this year’s award recipients.

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Idrissa Camara Life Saver Award

Making the Ultimate Sacrifice In the years that Idrissa Camara worked as a security guard at 201 Varick St. in lower Manhattan, his coworkers looked to him as someone they could count on for guidance, advice or whatever they needed to lift their spirits. “Camara wouldn’t hesitate to give you his last dollar or the shirt off his back,” said Winnifred Dwyer, who worked with him for 14 years. And this selflessness led Officer Camara to agree to work a second shift of overtime on August 21, the day a gunman entered the lobby of the building, which houses offices for the federal Department of Labor, opened

CONGRATULATIONS! Related is proud to support the Building Service Workers and congratulates tonight’s honorees on all of their many accomplishments NEW YORK

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fire and killed the 53-year-old father of four at his post. This officer’s sacrifice is the reason his family will receive a posthumous Lifesaver Award as part of this year’s Building Service Workers Awards. In addition, the annual award for Security Officer in City or Public Buildings will be renamed the Idrissa Camara Award. Officer Camara’s loved ones have spoken of his deep commitment to family, co-workers and community. In addition to caring for his immediate and extended family in New York, he was closely connected to family and friends in his native Ivory Coast, and to those in the Masjid Aqsa-Salam,

the mosque in Harlem he attended regularly. Security officers and other 32BJ members from across the country banded together to grieve, send condolences and support to Officer Camara’s loved ones. Several remarked on how this heartbreaking tragedy reminded them of the important work security officers do putting themselves in the front lines to keep others safe. “He trained me in the ins and outs of that building,” said co-worker Myra Mercado. “This incident reminds us that we should look out for each other and have each other’s back the way Camara always did.”

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Enma Mehmedovic Helping Hand

Helping and Listening Across the City This year’s recipient of the Helping Hand Award, Enma Mehmedovic, has been cleaning offices at 550 Madison Ave. for 14 years and is always looking for ways to help others. She started out covering for someone temporarily while they were on vacation, and was later hired on full time. For a time, she assisted a 32BJ delegate by visiting other buildings and talking to the workers there. “I was helping give information and answer questions and listen to the members’ concerns,” Mehmedovic said. She is a shop steward for her building and several others around her. “I go to the buildings and give my name and phone number and if they need something

important I come from my house,” she said. “I like to do that.” She said she enjoys feeling important and doing something good for other workers. Though she said she doesn’t like to talk much, she said her preference for listening makes her good at solving problems. “I listen in all the buildings I go to and make notes,” she said. “When someone doesn’t help you, it’s no good. I try to change that. If you don’t go to the union how are they going to help you?” Mehmedovic has lived in New York for over 20 years. She enjoys dancing — bachata and meringue especially — and going to the movies as often as she can. She has four kids and lives in Queens.

Alliance Building Services Salutes the Dedication & Service of This Year’s Building Service Workers Winners

Gary Green & Michael Rodriguez 70 W 36th Street, New York, NY 10018

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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Congratulations to all the Nominees and Winners of the 2015 Building Service Workers

AWA R D S

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NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Tony Ahmeti Outer Borough Residential Worker of the Year

A Mr. Fix-It, on the Job and Off Luckily for Tony Ahmeti, he loves what he does as a handyman, because the work doesn’t end when he leaves his building in the Bronx. “I have a list; my wife always has a list” he said, smiling. “My mother-in-law always calls me. Every time I go to her house I have to have my tools.” Ahmeti got his current job through his cousin, who used to work at the same building, and has found himself to be incredibly handy. He learned a lot from his uncle, who was a car mechanic and electrician, and has always wanted to work with his hands. “There’s always stuff to do,” he said. “I love the people here.” Ahmeti has held many jobs in New York since moving from Kosovo in 1990, including restaurant owner and country club manager. He enjoyed them all, but has found his calling

in handywork, especially carpentry. “I used to work in the city with this contractor and we used to do a lot of crown molding,” he said. “It was very difficult to do because they had flowers and stuff … I just did crown molding in my living room.” Ahmeti has three daughters, and thinks the youngest one may have inherited his knack for fixing things. “I always say the little one — she’s six but still — every time I go around she always comes after me,” he said. Ahmeti describes himself as a joker, and sure enough he asks a coworker for a comb for his mostly bald head before getting his picture taken. He also loves cooking, mostly Italian food, and making progress on the list of work that needs to be done on his home — a list that never seems to end.

Congratulations! Congratulations, winners of the 2015 Building Service Workers Awards! Thank you for all that you have done for the New York community and making the lives of those around you a little brighter every day. Gain value for your building and business with ABM as your facility solutions partner. Our technology-enabled workforce brings ABM expertise to any type of property… from neighborhood banks and schools to the largest office parks, stadiums and airports.

abm.com 800.874.0780 ©2015 ABM Industries, Inc. All rights reserved.

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Denise White Green Award

Recycling for the Next Generation Denise White worked at the World Trade Center for 18 years before 9/11, and was one of the workers who closed the building the night before the towers were attacked. She remains deeply affected by the trauma of losing so many friends and co-workers. “It took me like three months to get it back together,” she said. “It was a difficult time. All the workers, we were one big family.” White recently saw one of her colleagues from the World Trade Center at a 32BJ meeting for the first time since 9/11, and they took a picture together. As the winner of the Green Award, White takes special care to separate recycling into the correct bins both at work and at home. “I make sure the papers and the cans and the bottles are where they’re

Making a Difference. Every Day.

supposed to be,” she said. “They try to give us equipment that meets the green standard. I have a bunch of nieces and nephews so I want them to have a decent place to live.” White is the oldest of seven siblings and tries to organize as many family gatherings as possible. “Every Thanksgiving we go to my sister’s house,” she said. “I’m thinking about (renting) a 15-seater van so we can all be in one car. We’re one big, happy family.” White is also active in her church, which recently recognized her for her volunteer work. She also likes to travel, and visited the Dominican Republic this summer. She has been cleaning offices for 31 years.

FirstService Residential is a proud sponsor of the 2015 Building Service Workers Awards Congratulations to all of the winners for a job well done! As New York City’s leading residential management company, FirstService Residential is committed to delivering proven solutions and exceptional service that add value, enhance lifestyles and make a difference, every day, for every resident and property we serve.

212.634.8900

www.fsresidential.com

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Celia Seda Longevity Award

Thirty Years on the Job Celia Seda has been with 32BJ for 30 years. She began working as an office cleaner at 767 5th Ave. 31 and joined the union a years ago. Seda is a native New Yorker, born and raised in the Bronx, where she still lives. Her favorite part of her job is that it has supported her family for so many years. She has two children, and is married to a former doorman who recently retired after being with 32BJ for 28 years. She also loves interacting with the tenants in the building. “I see them come

Marie Le Bon Lower Manhattan Office Cleaner

A Busy Life Outside of Work Marie Le Bon has been cleaning buildings since 1974, after coming to New York from Haiti as a student. “My mother paid for me for one semester and I had to get something to do,” she said. Le Bon studied to be a nurse, and is happy that one of her daughters is a nurse now. She has worked in her current building on lower Broadway for 10 years. Asked what she likes about her job, she replies “everything.” Le Bon is extremely active in her church, where she recently won a medal of honor. “I’m an usher, I do hospitality and bingo, and I’m a eucharistic minister,” she said, pulling out her phone to show a picture of her with her bishop. She has a lot of friends at her church, which she has

been going to since 1989. She didn’t see Pope Francis when he was in New York this summer, but hopes to visit the Vatican after she retires. She also caters for some church events and uses the skills she learned in cooking school. “My grandmother had a bakery in Haiti, and for vacation my mother always sent me to cooking school,” she said. “When I came here I went to learn how to decorate.” Her favorite cake was the one her mother made for her first communion: a vanilla cake with pineapple in the middle. Le Bon is also a shop steward with 32BJ, has served a three-month period on brigade, and makes a point of going to rallies often. “I hope 32BJ goes from victory to victory,” she said.

and go and retire,” she said, stopping to chat with one such tenant on her way out. As for the union, Seda has been a faithful member for three decades. “First of all, the benefits are very good,” she said. “They fight for us. Because in reality this is a hard job. We work nights which is also risky. We’ve got fabulous medical insurance because of them fighting for us.” She also makes sure to attend rallies to support her fellow union members and goes to union meetings. “I started here and I’ll retire

here,” she said. When she gets off work she likes to relax and help her daughter with her fiveyear-old grandson. “I like having my family over,” she said. “My family loves to come over because we have barbeques. In the wintertime we like having Sunday dinners.” She is one of eight siblings who all have their own kids, so it’s always a fun crowd. She expressed her gratitude to 32BJ for allowing her to support her family for so long.

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Joe Ferdinand Midtown OfďŹ ce Cleaner

Three Decades of Dedication In January, Joe Ferdinand will have been working at 460 W. 34th Street for 30 years. He has seen many things in that time — a snowy owl in the rafters, a cat at the bottom of the elevator pit, an assortment of strange objects in the toilets. Ferdinand also met his wife in the building, when she worked there with a company that made baby clothes. “I was running the freight elevator and I had to bring the passengers down ... and then all of a the sudden I’d see that she kept forgetting stuff upstairs,� Ferdinand said. “I sort of got the hint.� They bonded over heavy metal music and for their first date went to a White Zombie concert.

Originally, it was because of his father that Ferdinand came to the building in the first place. “My dad started here in ’58,� he said. “He was a CPA for Bruno New York, which did the tile on the floor. He worked in an office upstairs and then it turned out there was an opening down here and I jumped on it.� Never a big fan of office culture, Ferdinand loves that he never knows what his day will hold. “I’ll spend two days shovelling snow, somebody’s air conditioner will leak, we do whatever it takes around here,� he said. “I’ve done every shift in the building. I wear a lot of hats here.� Ferdinand enjoys hanging out with his co-workers, and is friends with some

of the building’s tenants as well. He became close to his boss, Mike, because they live near each other and will carpool to work sometimes if there’s an emergency. He has two kids and lives in Long Island, where he cheers on the New York Jets every football season.

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Tomas Seaton Outer Borough Office Cleaner

A Love for the Outdoors Handyman Tomas Seaton has never encountered a problem he couldn’t handle. Between painting, repairs and all kinds of maintenance work he has proved to be extremely adept. “I got into handyman work watching my dad,” Seaton said. “He was a super — still is a super. I like to tinker with stuff, like motors, and work with electrical. I’m a jack-of-all-trades.” He does most of the repairs on his car and motorcycle. Seaton has also been working at his current building for eight years. Outside of work, he is an outdoorsman with a cabin in upstate New York. “I go fishing, hunting, camping,” he said, adding that he visits his 10-acre property most weekends. “I like to spend time with the kids up there. I love nature.“ He has three kids who like

riding ATVs and hiking. One of his favorite memories is of seeing a bear on a camping trip. “My wife spotted a bear standing and walking,” he said. “I’ve never seen that in my life. It walked about 10 feet on its two (hind) legs, like Bigfoot.” His love for the outdoors also comes from his father, who made a point of exploring nature. “Since I was a child he would always take us out of the city,” he said. “He made it a point to spend time with his kids. That was always his first priority.” Seaton does the same for his own kids, making sure they spend quality time outside. He has lived in New York his whole life, always in Manhattan. He hopes to eventually retire to his cabin.

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

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Cleaning Up After a Tragedy On Sept. 13, 2001, two days after the World Trade Center fell, Haydee Reynald was back at Stuyvesant High School — three blocks from Ground Zero — cleaning dust and debris from the halls. The school was being used as a triage center for what was happening in the area. “From the 13th on I had been in that building,” she said. “Everybody was in there. People would come out of the pit, come in, change clothes. We kept on cleaning up behind everyone.” Reynald has always placed special importance on helping people, and tries to do so every day. She has worked at Stuyvesant High since 1998, and is grateful to get to interact with so many great kids and teachers. “When I work the day shift basically the whole building knows (me),” she said. “I had kids in the 2000s that were phenomenal. These kids were

always gracious.” Though she doesn’t have children of her own, Reynald takes pride in watching the students who pass through Stuyvesant’s halls grow up and succeed. One of them helped her when she was sick, and she keeps in touch with several of them. “Overall, the job is a blessing,” she said. “I can’t say enough about having a job where I … don’t have to struggle. It’s the camaraderie that I have with a lot of people.” Reynald has taken to getting more involved in 32BJ lately, and is a shop steward. “I’ll go to anything that involves the union itself so I can learn more,” she said. “I’m stepping out in the field with my representative. I’m not a very outgoing person in that sense, but when it comes down to trying to help, I’m always willing to participate.”

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Weston Wright Public School Handyperson

A Love of Working with Kids As he walks through the halls of P.S. 194 Elementary School, Weston Wright is greeted by many of the kids as “Mr. Wes.” Wright has worked at P.S. 194 for 17 years, and handles maintenance tasks of all kinds, from cleaning to handywork. He learned to do repairs back home in Jamaica, where he was born, and enjoys working with his hands. He moved to New York in 1989. “In 17 years I never come to work late,” he said. “I like working with the kids. When they misbehave or something like that I can understand them because when I was growing up I used to be the same way.” Wright’s wife runs a day care, and he likes to help out when he gets off work. They have three kids of their own.

Wright particularly enjoys working with plaster, sheetrock and tiling, which he learned to do from one of his first bosses. That same boss hires him to do contractual work on the weekends. “Most of the time I try to help people,” he said. “My parents, they always helped others. I don’t like to sit around.” He does a lot of the work at his own home, including tiling the bathrooms, painting and laying concrete. Wright also likes spending time with his family outside of work and hanging out with his neighbors. P.S. 194’s Principal Josephine Bazan joked that Wright is always there to help break into her office when she forgets her keys, but expressed sincere gratitude for his hard work.

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Stephanie Williams Security Officer - Commercial

A Positive Approach to Security

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Williams

Stephanie Williams has been working at Rockefeller Center for 25 years. “I meet a lot of great people there,” Williams said. “I get to know faces. They become friends as the years go by.” She loves that the job allows her to help solve problems every day by, for example, putting mats down when it’s raining so no one slips. She got into the security business because she loves helping people. She places a lot of importance on having a positive attitude. Sometimes she faces doubt from people who don’t think female security officers can do the job, but she enjoys proving them wrong. “You just move

along,” she said. “I always take the positive approach. If someone is negative, (I) say something nice.” Williams credits her mother with teaching her these values, and recalls that she loved the saying “you catch more flies with honey.” Williams has four children and loves getting her family together and having barbeques in the backyard. “I like to cook Southern food,” she said, adding that though she is from New York, her mom grew up in the South. “Macaroni and cheese, collard greens, that kind of thing.” She also enjoys traveling, and particularly likes Philadelphia and California.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THOSE BEING HONORED BY THE

BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS AWARDS

100 Years of Excellence

Kaufman Organization vision for the future

For all that you do we salute you.

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Carlos Galvez Security Officer - Higher Education Building

A Gentleman and a Scholar For 12 years, while working nights as a security officer at Long Island University, Carlos Galvez doubled as a student during the day. “My favorite subject was economics in high school,” he said. “When I came to this country I wanted to continue studying. I wanted to pursue a degree in accounting so I could continue doing taxes. It looks easy but it’s not.” His whole family was present at his graduation, and his children have been inspired by him to pursue their own college degrees. Galvez has been everything from a base dispatcher to a sergeant at LIU, and is proud to work at the third most-secure campus in the country, according to the Daily Beast. “My

CONGRATULATIONS

goal is to protect the people here, to help other officers,” Galvez said. Because of his experience in so many different positions, Galvez also trains new officers to take on various roles, including the last security director. The security business doesn’t come without its dangers. “I’ve been in two situations where I had to defend a student who was being assaulted,” he said, pointing to a scar on his forehead that resulted from one of those incidents. Galvez moved to New York from Honduras at the invitation of friends in 1974. He has five children and nine grandchildren, all of whom he loves spending time with. “Right now I’m helping my wife with my

stepdaughter’s two grandkids,” he said. “Basically why I work at night (is) I used to take care of my two youngest kids during the day because my wife worked during the day. While the kids were in school I was studying, so I got used to it.” Ever the scholar, he hopes to get his master’s degree in accounting.

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

32BJ SEIU & Award Winners! We honor your valuable service to our community. www.ourtownny.com Your Neighborhood News

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

Silverstein Properties is honored to salute

Building Service Workers 32BJ SEIU

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

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NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Lance Mumford Security Officer - Public or City Building

Protecting Others, at Work and at Home Safety and security have always been important to Lance Mumford. Mumford got into the security business after serving in the military for three years and the National Guard for five years, and he takes his job very seriously. “In your own environment and your own hometown, security’s also important, not just when you’re in the military protecting certain sections,” he said. “It starts in your backyard.” While working at St. Peter’s College, Mumford appreciated the responsibility he had to protect a group of young people. “These kids come from 3,000, 5,000 miles away and their parents are entrusting them to you,” he said. “We play a bigger role than we think we’re playing.” He worked closely with the local police force there to make the campus as safe as it could be. Within his family Mumford also plays the role of protector. Despite being the youngest of his

siblings, he was always looking out for them, and still looks out for his siblings’ children. He credits his mother with teaching him the value of safety. “If you can’t do anything, protect people as best you can,” he said. “My grandmother said the same. So I tried to be that way.” Mumford says he is honored to work in his current building, which had to be rebuilt after 9/11. “We’re a World Trade Center site,” he said. “To actually be here is a privilege.” He is proud to have been around during the rebuilding and restoration of the area, and has always encouraged his fellow officers to wear their role as a badge of honor. Even outside of work, Mumford is interested in the security of his environment. He is an active participant in his neighborhood watch in New Jersey. He is also a shop steward with 32BJ.

BUILDING MAINTENANCE SERVICES

VORNADO and BMS are proud to sponsor the Building Workers Service Awards on behalf of approximately 2,800 unionized porters, cleaners and guards that make our buildings great. (212) 714-0004 | www.bmsbuildingservices.com CHICAGO t MARYLAND t NEW YORK t VIRGINIA t WASHINGTON D.C.

SM

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Germania Pagan Stadium/Area Cleaner

Opening Doors at the Garden Germania Pagan was the first female worker at Madison Square Garden to get to operate the machines that scrub the arena’s tile floors. She rides the machine after every event, cleaning the floors until all traces of up-to-25,000 guests are gone. Her co-workers praise her for opening the door for other women to perform tasks previously reserved for men. Pagan started working at Madison Square Garden in 2001 cleaning restrooms and worked her way up to being in charge of the sixth floor. She attributes her persistence to her strong character, and is proud to have been a leader

among her co-workers. Since learning to operate the cleaning machines, Pagan also trains new workers to do the same. Though many celebrities have performed during Pagan’s shifts, it was Pope Francis’ recent visit to New York that impressed her the most. He held a service in the stadium that was very emotional for her, a faithful Christian. Originally from Ecuador, Pagan has lived in New York for 37 years and has two children with her husband of 35 years. She is a cancer survivor and loves spending time with her four grandchildren.

We proudly support 32BJ SEIU in its 9th Annual Building Service Workers Awards and are pleased to honor the dedicated men and women of the New York community

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YOU READ IT HERE FIRST The local paper for the Upper West Side

2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Sam Ruiz Window Cleaner

August 10, 2015

August 5, 2015 The local paper for the Upper East Side

LUXURY MEGA-TOWER COMING TO SUTTON PLACE EXCLUSIVE East Side officials already gearing up to fight the project BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

Plans have been drawn up for a luxury 900-foot condo tower in Sutton Place, which, if completed as planned, would rank as one of the tallest buildings in Manhattan. The 268,000-squarefoot tower will become the second-tallest on the Upper East Side, behind the in-progress 432 Park Avenue at 1,400 feet, and one of the tallest in the city. Construction permits

degree views of Midtown, Downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan, Central Park and the East River.” The 268,000 square feet of buildable space and air rights, which includes 58,000 square feet of inclusionary housing rights, have already been delivered. It’s unclear if the affordable housing will be offered on- or offsite, or how many units of affordable housing will be included. Representatives for The Bauhouse Group, which owns the site, declined to field questions about the Sutton Place Development, but a representative of the company provided a press release to Our Town that said the

April 7, 2015

April 8, 2015

The local paper for the Upper West Side

Safety Advocates Want Harsher Penalties for New York’s Drivers

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

see Reyes punished for Ariel’s death, now more than a year and a half ago, in June 2013. Russo said in an interview that she finds cruel irony in the fact that she teaches history to boys the same age as Reyes, who was 17 when he ran over Ariel and her grandmother in a Nissan Frontier SUV in front of the little girl’s preschool on the Upper West Side. This is why she initially sympa

sterdam Avenue in an attempt to flee from cops who had seen him driving erratically and ordered him to pull over. The chase ended with the fatal crash on 97th Street. Originally, by giving him bail and charging him as a minor, Judge Carro was giving Reyes a chance to avoid having a public criminal record. But on Sept. 3, Reyes was again stopped for driving recklessly, without a license This time in speeding

December 4, 2014

March 2, 2015

FI RST IN YOU R NEIGHBO R H OOD

(212) 868-0190

Eastsider Downtowner

Clinton Westsider

Working at the Heights of His Profession Sam Ruiz was born and raised in the Bronx, and has lived in every borough. He started washing windows at age 16 at the urging of his best friend, and he hasn’t looked back — or down — since. At 49 years old, that makes 30 years in the business. That same best friend was the best man at his wedding, and they still stay in touch. Ruiz met his wife through his father’s best friend, who is her father. “It was a neighborhood thing,” he said. “Best friends, summer job after school.” His favorite thing about the job is the very thing most people would balk at: the height. Ruiz enjoys the quiet and calm of being suspended above the city. He has cleaned windows at the original World Trade Center, Citicorp and the HRA buildings. At 2 Grand Central Tower, where he currently works, he cleans the windows by leaning out from the inside, but has done scaffolds, ladders and everything in between. He has had a few close calls and had to be retrieved from scaffolding by firemen, but has avoided any other major mishaps. “I do the whole building by myself. It takes me about three months and then I start over,” he said, adding that he has liked getting to know the people who work in his building over the last seven years. “I’m considered to be a people person, so it’s pretty cool.” Ruiz was a boxer for 30 years, professionally for several years. He has two kids and seven grandchildren, and has been with 32BJ for 25 years.

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Congratulates All the Winners &

Thanks

The Sponsors of

BUILDING SERVICE WORKERS

AWARDS GLENWOOD B U ILD ER O W N ER M A N A G ER

BUILDING MAINTENANCE SERVICES

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NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

2015 Building Service Workers of the Year

Martha LondoĂąo Theater Cleaner

Another Star on Broadway As a cleaner at the Broadway Theater for 15 years, Martha LondoĂąo has seen some of the best productions to grace any stage. “It’s a beautiful theater,â€? she said, recalling how amazed she was the first time she walked through the doors of the 1,760-seat theater. She has always been given tickets by the theater to see the shows that pass through, and some of her favorites have been “Cinderella,â€? “Bombay Dreamsâ€? and “The Color Purple.â€? She has met several broadway stars while cleaning their dressing rooms, and remembers the particular kindness of “Gleeâ€?’s Jane Lynch. The youngest of her two daughters, Daniella, is an aspiring singer, and has always loved going to see shows with

her mother. LondoĂąo likes socializing with her co-workers, some of whom have become her best friends over the years. She serves as a shop steward for 32BJ and works with contracts, negotiating raises and benefits. If she were to retire from her company, she would love to work for the union. Outside of work, LondoĂąo has a penchant for taking care of people. She often takes care of her three grandchildren and any of her friends who might be sick. “I go and pray for them,â€? she said, adding that her favorite book is the Bible. She also enjoys cooking, taking long walks and being active in her church.

We Honor 32BJ SEIU and congratulate the winners of the Building Service Workers of the Year Awards

Attorneys at Law 1370 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10019-4602 r XXX CBMCFSQJDLBSE DPN

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

The Durst Organization is honored to salute

Building Service Workers 32BJ SEIU

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BUILDING | OWNER | MANAGER

is proud to support

The Building Workers of ofthe theYear YearAwards Awards and congratulates all of this year’s honorees

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

CHAPIN EXPANSION

Reach Manhattan’s Foodies

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 increased enrollment, which currently stands at around 750. The K-12 all-girls private school is among the most exclusive in New York. Representatives of the school estimate the construction would begin in early 2016 pending approval, and wrap up by the end of 2018. Yorkville residents are concerned that the bulk of the work will take place in summertime and during non-school and weekend hours so as not to disrupt students during class time. They’ve also expressed doubt that Chapin won’t eventually seek to increase enrollment, which they claim would lead to further traffic congestion during drop-off and pick-up times as school buses, limousines and SUVs block East End Avenue and 84th Street. Residents also say Chapin’s last expansion, in 2008, was disruptive and is sure to be again this time around. Community Board 8 rejected Chapin’s application outright in January, citing concerns with the construction schedule, increased traffic congestion and how the building would look upon completion. But the school forged ahead with its application and the conditional approvals, granted by the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals, essentially grants permission for Chapin to move forward with the project as long as it complies with certain requirements. According to BSA spokesperson Ryan Singer, those requirements include the school having to insulate the construction sidewalk shed to reduce noise emanating from the site, and insuring that workers respect neighbors’ property and restrict debris to the Chapin property. Another stipulation is that once the expansion is completed, no sound amplification of any kind can be used on the top floor, and that only emergency lighting can be installed on the roof. As such, use of the roof is restricted to the hours between sunrise to sunset only. The BSA’s decision came as a blow to the Yorkville residents who live adjacent to the school and have mounted a robust opposition to Chapin’s expansion plan, including testifying at BSA hearings and submitting opposition letters to the agency, as well as speaking out against the expansion at CB8 meetings. But the conditional approval has those residents shifting

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their focus to finding ways they can limit the disruption caused by the expansion. “In view of the BSA decision to allow the expansion, we plan to shift gears to fight to obtain restrictions from city agencies on hours of construction and the manner in which the expansion will be carried out,” said Lisa Paule, a Yorkville resident who lives adjacent to Chapin and serves as the de facto spokesperson for the anti-expansion contingent there. “The last Chapin expansion was a major community disruption that reduced the quality of life of nearby residents, and we want to ensure that this expansion will be undertaken with paramount consideration for the neighbors.” Paule said residents’ number one concern is limiting the amount of construction noise and the hours during which work can occur. The group will be pushing for no evening or overnight construction and for work to only occur on one day out of the weekend, and is currently reaching out to elected officials and city agencies to find out how they can make their requests known. Chapin spokesperson Daniel White said the school plans to comply with the conditions on its variance approvals. “Chapin is extremely pleased with the approval and believes that the design of the expansion program has been significantly enhanced as a result of BSA input together with the public comments received

throughout the lengthy review process,” the school said in a statement. The statement went on to say that the school expects to begin work in early 2016, and will host public meetings to share its construction plans and schedule, as well as maintain its existing 24/7 community phone line and email inbox for community concerns. “As a member of the Upper East Side/Yorkville community for over 80 years, Chapin well understands and is sympathetic to the temporary disruptions to quality-of-life that construction can bring,” said the school in the statement. “The school is committed to taking extensive measures to ensure that its expansion program is carried out in the safest, most responsible and efficient manner, and with as minimal impact to neighbors as possible.” Paule said Chapin’s desire to spare their students having to endure the effects of construction, but not the surrounding community, is “objectionable.” “The concept that the public has to suffer through four years of unrelenting noise, traffic, dust, debris and other side effects because of the expansionist aims of a private school that gives nothing back to our community and offers zero public gain is unacceptable,” she said. “We are hopeful our forthcoming efforts will constrain these facets of the Chapin expansion and make it as reasonable an undertaking as possible.”

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a’s Schirrip l e with basi fare madinara, tomato lable e Italian mar y avai will serv le Steve’s currentl Market’s Book sauces. Unc a sauces are at Grace’s and e Goomba ed or- and arrabiat exclusively er East Side r naUpp ” and “Th A-certifi othe hase e to Life duce his USD Specialities,- for purc tions on the ng shelves in ba’s Guid intro Trat hitti e loca Italian rripa, of Love,” will le Steve’s ce at Grace’sMay 7 plac Island before summer. e Schi Unc aran ay, s this Long ve Stev Baccalieri ganic line, appe tion nesd n and nati loca Wed klyn in-perso tional St on vated Bobby has parth is free with an 201 East 71st event, whic Joe Trama and Broo erboss The reno at Actor ed mob und e Sopranos,” grocery South Wing toria at 7 p.m. For the utive chef met “Th play es on the gour line who Tavern from 5 the public, exec HBO serier East Side oduce a new also on the Green. to intr who’s open to with Upp nered Marketplace es. Schirripa, “A Gooma sauc s, including Grace’s nic past of orga lifestyle book authored

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Advertise with Our Town! Call Vincent Gardino at 212-868-0190 The local paper for the Upper East Side

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NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

Food & Drink

< CUOZZO CROSS WITH DOH

New York Post food writer Steve Cuozzo railed against the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on Nov. 1, in the midst of the city agency’s feud with a sushi restaurant operator over the use of latex gloves in food

In Brief EMPIRE SZECHUAN CLOSES IN WEST VILLAGE Empire Szechuan Village is set to close up shop following a massive rent increase, Eater reported. The longtime neighborhood establishment, which has operated at its 173 Seventh Avenue South location, at Perry Street, for 30 years, is leaving on good terms with its landlord, despite the rent hike. The long-term lease that restaurant owner Oscar King signed when he opened in 1985 kept his rent at $5,000 a month. To renew the lease, King is looking at $25,000 a month for the property, a cost that, Eater noted, may still be below market value. Empire Szechuan has also been troubled by nearby construction, a disturbance that hurt business. King told Eater that he’s “ready to retire.”

LONGTIME DINER CLOSES Market Diner, a west side institution for 53 years, closed on Nov. 1, Eater reported. Word of the diner’s demise came this summer, when the Real Deal reported that the Moinian Group submitted permit applications to develop a 13-story building at the W. 43rd Street and Eleventh Avenue location. The diner will get leveled, Eater noted. The Hell’s Kitchen eatery first opened in 1962, and was reportedly frequented by Frank Sinatra. Eater’s Robert Sietsema noted that Diane Keaton and Rudy Giuliani also favored the far west side restaurant, which also served as a meeting spot for the Westies gang.

preparation. The DOH recently closed East Village restaurant Sushi Dojo and its Meatpacking offshoot Sushi Dojo Express, and the eateries’ partner David Bouhadana is pushing back, claiming the closure is for chefs’ failures to wear gloves. Cuozzo, responding to the department’s comment that, if surgeons can wear gloves, so can sushi chefs, points out that sushi preparation has been done for hun-

dreds of years without the use of gloves, and that gloves actually may carry more dangers than bare hands. Many city eateries flout the glove requirement, he notes, and writes that the “gloves insanity is one among many DOH outrages.” Chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain also weighed in on the controversy, telling Eater that the glove rule signals “the destruction of sushi as we know it.”

THE MATRIARCH OF NEW YORK’S FOODIE FIRST FAMILY there’s no spaghetti and meatballs in an Italian cookbook? So I explain all of those things.

Q&A A Q&A on her family’s Italian-food empire

Did you have an actual drawer stuffed with all this information? I had some in my mind. But yes, there’s a physical drawer. And a computer folder.

BY MICHELE KAYAL

Lidia Bastianich is America’s Italian grandmother. In a dozen books and on her public television program, Bastianich has schooled American cooks in homemade pasta, the proper use of escarole, and the need to slow down and come to the table. Not that she’s slowing down, at least not in terms of career. At 68, Bastianich is the matriarch of a restaurant and entertainment empire. Along with her son, Joe Bastianich, and daughter, Tanya Bastianich Manuali, she has partnered on name brand New York restaurants, created product lines of sauces, pastas and cookware, authored best-selling cookbooks and launched a television production company. And it’s all built on her reputation for home-style Italian cooking, a palate often punctuated by sauerkraut and other ingredients common to the ethnically mixed region of Italy in which she was born. Bastianich’s new cookbook, “Lidia’s Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine,” (Alfred A. Knopf, $37.50) is part recipe guide, part meditation on history and ingredients. We talked with Bastianich about tips and techniques, and about her rise from refugee to food entrepreneur. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

Why this book? And why now? Lidia Bastianich: This book is the opening of a drawer. I literally put in clippings and ideas -- “I want to say this at some point,” “I want to explain to cooks how simple this is.” This drawer had all of this, and I just pulled it out and it evolved into this book.

What are the biggest mistakes people make in Italian cooking? The over-inclusion of ingredients. They feel the more they put into it, the better it gets. It’s the other way. If you focus on great ingredients you let nature show off.

You and your then-husband Felice Bastianich started in 1971 with one restaurant in Queens. You’ve grown that initial business into an empire of big name restaurants -- Del Posto, Esca, Eataly with Mario Batali -- food products, cookware, a winery, cookbooks, an entertainment production company. And you’ve done it all with your family, in particular with your son Joseph and your daughter Tanya. Why was it important to make this a family affair?

This book is a philosophy of how I cook and how the Italian culture cooks ... There are more than 400 recipes. About 40 percent are the traditional recipes you’ve seen in my books and in other books. Because that’s what the cuisine is. You don’t invent it. It’s a reflection of traditions. The others are my favorite recipes, some of them I adjusted, some I borrowed. I also included Italian-American recipes. How are you going to tell an American that

My kids grew up in that setting, of making food our business. But I always told them, “You do not want to do this job. We’re in America. You get educated, you get a real American job.” But somehow, they came back. My son came back because he wasn’t happy on Wall Street and he felt he could multiply this philosophy of food. My daughter was a professor in Italy. She was itching for something. She began to help me research the books. I would never have expanded so much had it not been for my children. They came back and they found their passion doing what I was doing.

Yours is a great American story. Many families come to the United States and open a restaurant or a grocery that stays in the family for generations. You opened a single restaurant in Queens. What was the most important factor in

growing the business? I came at a great age. I was 12. I went to high school and college here. I got a lot of the American way of thinking. But at the same time, I was born Italian. I have two of the greatest cultures on earth behind my back. How can you not succeed? I have all the beauty and flavors of Italy, and the marketing savvy, everything that is American. It was this combination of my two countries, communicating my birth country and my adopted country. There’s no place like America if you roll up your sleeves.

In 1981, you decided to move out of your Queens locations, buy a brownstone and open a restaurant in Manhattan, which became the acclaimed Felidia. It was a huge risk. Why did you take it? This is how you grow. The opportunity was there. You assess the opportunity and if you think you can make it happen you do it. These restaurants in Queens, I made polenta and gnocchi with venison and had developed a following from the city, and from the press, and everyone said, “You guys belong in the city.” And you listen. And it made economical sense. We could leverage the lease (in Queens) to get ourselves settled in Manhattan. It was just a bit over our head and we almost didn’t make it. But once we opened, right away people came and filled the seats. We got three stars from (New York Times restaurant critic) Mimi Sheraton and whoever else along the line. Then that eased off the financial pressure.

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

45

Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS OCT 2 - 29, 2015 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.

NOTICE OF A JOINT PUBLIC HEARING of the Franchise and Concession Review Committee and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to be held on Monday, November 9, 2015 at 22 Reade Street, Borough of Manhattan, commencing at 2:30 p.m. relative to: INTENT TO AWARD as a concession the maintenance and operation of Father Duffy Square in Times Square Manhattan, including the collection of special event concession fees, for one (1) potential nine-year term, to the Times Square District Management Association, Inc. (“Licensee�) Licensee shall provide, or cause to be provided, services for the maintenance and operation of the Licensed Premises including the Statuary, Plaza, and the Public Stairs to the reasonable satisfaction of the Commissioner. Such services shall include keeping and maintaining the Licensed Premises in good condition and repair, in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement. It is currently estimated that the value of such services at Father Duffy Square is close to $1 million per year. As set forth in the Agreement, Licensee shall collect sixty percent (60%) of the special event concession fees (“Fees�) from third parties under Section 2-10 of Parks’ Rules and Regulations. For example, when the Fees charged are $10,000, Licensee shall collect $6,000 and Parks shall collect $4,000. Licensee shall use all collected Fees to offset Licensee’s costs of providing maintenance and operation services under this License Agreement.

Aki Sushi

1531 York Ave

A

Metropolitan Museum Of Art

1000 5 Avenue

A

LOCATION: A draft copy of the license agreement may be reviewed or obtained at no cost, commencing on Monday, October 26, 2015 through Monday, November 9, 2015, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., excluding weekends and holidays at the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, located at 830 Fifth Avenue, Room 313, New York, NY 10065.

Bayads Ale House

1589 1St Ave

Not Graded Yet (2)

Individuals requesting Sign Language Interpreters should contact the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, Public Hearings Unit, th 253 Broadway, 9 Floor, New York, NY 10007, (212) 788-7490, no later than SEVEN (7) BUSINESS DAYS PRIOR TO THE PUBLIC HEARING.

Amura Japanese Restaurant

1567 2Nd Ave

Grade Pending (19) Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or nonfood areas. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Le Pain Quotidien

1592 1St Ave

A

Trinity Pub

229 East 84 Street

A

Flex Mussels

174 East 82 Street

Grade Pending (23) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth ies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) ies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth ies include house ies, little house ies, blow ies, bottle ies and esh ies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated ies include fruit ies, drain ies and Phorid ies. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Bar Prima

331 E 81St St

A

Chipotle Mexican Grill

1497 3 Avenue

Grade Pending (20) Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth ies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) ies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth ies include house ies, little house ies, blow ies, bottle ies and esh ies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated ies include fruit ies, drain ies and Phorid ies. 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 140Âş F. Cold food item held above 41Âş F (smoked ďŹ sh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ÂşF) 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)

Mimo Blend

987 Lexington Ave

Not Graded Yet - No violations were recorded at the reinspection conducted on 10/16/2015, or violations cited were dismissed at an administrative hearing.

Belaire Cafe

525 East 71 Street

A

Bella Blu

967 Lexington Avenue A

Starbucks Coffee

345 East 69 Street

A

Tang’s Garden

1328 3Rd Ave

A

Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

1388 2 Avenue

A

Mel’s Burger

1450 2Nd Ave

Not Graded Yet (21) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth ies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) ies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth ies include house ies, little house ies, blow ies, bottle ies and esh ies. Food/refuse/sewageassociated ies include fruit ies, drain ies and Phorid ies. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR THE DEAF (TDD) 212-504-4115

JOHN KRTIL FUNERAL HOME; YORKVILLE FUNERAL SERVICE, INC. Dignified, Affordable and Independently Owned Since 1885 WE SERVE ALL FAITHS AND COMMUNITIES 5 )/'&1 /'+$1)-,0 $2250 -+.*'1' 5 )/'&1 2/)$*0 $2850 5 4.'/1 /' *$,,),( 3$)*$%*'

1297 First Ave (69th & 70th & + # " $& )" $ " $ ) * "#( & " $ + ))) $& '" $ #! #! Each cremation service individually performed by fully licensed members of our staff. We use no outside agents or trade services in our cremation service. We exclusively use All Souls Chapel and Crematory at the prestigious St. Michael's Cemetery, Queens, NY for our cremations unless otherwise directed.

46

NOVEMBER 5-11,2015

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< SILVER JURY TRIAL BEGINS Jury selection began in the corruption trial of former NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Dozens of potential jurors were brought into the Thurgood Marshall United States Court House in Lower Manhattan. According to the

In Brief GOOGLE ABANDONS PLANS FOR RETAIL STORE Google has ditched its plans to open a retail store in New York. Crain’s reported that the decision to abandon its retail store came after the Internet giant spent $6 million renovating the 131 Greene St. location. The outpost was supposed to be one of Google’s first stand-alone stores in the U.S., putting it in direct competition with Apple and Microsoft, which opened its flagship store on Fifth Avenue. Google had planned to begin opening stores to sell products such as the Chromebook, a line of laptops and desktop computers made by several manufacturers that operate on Google software, and smartphones that run its Android operating system. Because Google is subleasing the Greene Street location, it would appear that the company has changed its mind and is pulling back on its plan to open physical stores, Crain‘s reported. Google significantly renovated and restored 131 Greene St., removing a portion of the ground floor to create a sunken area in the rear with soaring ceilings, glass skylights and large windows—exposing the brick walls, columns and steel beams of the landmarked building. The exterior was also restored. Google eliminated a concrete step that led to the front of the building and lowered the entryway to street level.

SEC CLEARS WAY FOR CROWDFUNDING A new form of crowdfunding is coming soon that will allow startups to raise money by selling stock to Main Street investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted rules implementing a 2012 law that opened the door to securities crowdfunding. The vote was 3-1 at a public meeting. For years, artists, charities and entrepreneurs have used the power of the Internet to generate money for projects. Starting in mid-2016, businesses will be able to offer investors a piece of their company by legally selling stock online. For investors, it’s a chance to make a small profit and possibly get in early on the next Twitter, Instagram or Uber. But it also entails high risk, given that a majority of startups fail. About half of all small businesses shut down within the first five years. Some critics also warn that investment crowdfunding is ripe for fraud. The new SEC rules won’t prevent the types of fraud that can arise in conventional online scams, said Mercer Bullard, a law professor at the University of Mississippi who is a mutual-fund investor advocate.

Business New York Times, some looked over their shoulders as Silver walked up the courtroom aisle to his seat at a long desk that faced Valerie E. Caproni, the presiding judge. Jury selection in the trial began almost immediately, but was initially slow going. The

court needs a pool of 36 qualified jurors, and by late in the day, more than 40 jurors had been interviewed. Prospective jurors were excused for cause, for work demands and for other reasons, the Times reported.

THE SUBWAY AND REAL ESTATE PRICES ASK A BROKER Is the coming completion of the Second Avenue line already baked into real estate values? BY DOUG SINGER

For commuters tired of crowding onto the overstrained Lexington Avenue line (the only subway currently serving the Upper East Side), and especially those living east of Second Avenue, the new “T” line is extremely welcome news. The first phase of the Second Avenue Subway, which will eventually run 8-1/2 miles from 125th Street to Hanover Square, is scheduled to debut by the end of 2016. Traditionally, properties east of Second Avenue have had real estate values that were reflective of a much longer walk to the nearest subway stop. Adding time onto your morning commute, especially amidst inclement weather, was a serious consideration for buyers and ultimately put downward pressure

on market values. The question now: Is it the right time to buy an apartment, sell, or wait until the project’s completion? The real estate market behaves in much the same way that the stock market does in that prices go along with perception. (For example, you may see great news come out on a company, only to see its stock fall in the next trading session. This is because the price bump was already built into the expectations of news that has now come to fruition.) Real estate values surrounding the anticipated completion of the ”T” line may just follow suit. With the help of a very recent analysis from Gabby Warshawer at data provider City Realty, some new insight is now available. As a sample, they focused in on three “T” line stops on the Second Avenue Subway — 96th Street, 86th Street and 72nd Street (part of the first phase slated to be open in late 2016). There are 39 condo and co-op buildings around these three stops. Prices west of Third Avenue on

the Upper East Side are still much higher than on the blocks near the stops: $2.5M compared to $1.3M, or 98% higher. Average prices in these areas are 34% higher than in other Upper East Side buildings east of Third Avenue. So what does this tell us? It tells us that the opening of the Second

Avenue Subway is affecting the psychology of both buyers and sellers and the search for a finite value regarding proximity to this new convenience for throngs of Upper Eastsiders, has yet to be determined. Neighborhoods that will certainly see a significant lifestyle effect, will be residents living as far

east as York and East End Avenues. A recent surge in new developments and remodels taking root in this area are counting on the imminent opening of this long awaited convenience. Doug Singer is a founding partner of Singer New York Real Estate

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Central Park

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE PARK YOUR PET, THE INTERNET CELEBRITY

FALL PHOTOGRAPHY There is nothing like a walk, bike ride or jog through Central Park this time of year. You can’t help but notice leaves turning into a light show of golds, browns and reds, hues that only Mother Nature can conjure. If you like to take photographs, it’s a perfect time for a visit. Share your photos with us and tell us your favorite spots! And check out our list of the best spots to see the season’s colors: www.centralpark.com/guide/activities.

PETS Pets dressed in costumes are the latest stars on social media

ICE SKATING IN CENTRAL PARK ’Tis the season to dig out your skates, get them sharpened and head to a rink! Central Park has two: Wollman Rink, in the southern end of the park, and Lasker Rink, in the northern end. Both rinks offer skating school programs, private lessons as well as hockey programs for children and adults. For more information, including hours and pricing, visit: centralpark.com/guide/sports

BY SUE MANNING

Wally the Welsh corgi used to get dressed up to go trick-ortreating for Halloween, often as a banana, once as a dinosaur. But Wally, owned by Marc and Cynthia Dalangin of Wharton, New Jersey, doesn’t go trickor-treating anymore. Like a lot of busy dogs, he has too many other engagements. And as a budding Instagram celebrity, he needs a wardrobe full of costumes to choose from. As dogs have filled their social calendars, they’ve had to fill their closets too. They’re not just dressing up once a year on Halloween. These days, dogs and their owners are getting invited to parties, parades, meet-ups, pumpkin patches, picnics, Christmas tree farms and many other themed outings. As a result, canine costumes have become more than just something dogs wear once to a party. It’s essential for dogs and cats who are up-and-coming social media celebrities to have a varied wardrobe. With their likes and followers growing faster than speeding bullets, their fans want new photos all the time. Two years ago, Wally left the simple banana costume behind when he underwent a lifestyle and wardrobe makeover. Now he dresses like Elvis Presley (“King Corgi”) and Michael Jackson (“Thriller Corgi”) and has become a rising star on Instagram, with 63,000 followers, and Facebook, with 12,000 likes. Wally’s transformation coincides with the pet costume industry’s coming of age. And business is booming. The National Retail Federation estimates that 20 million pet owners dressed their pets this Halloween, spending $350 million on the costumes. Pet costumes represent 2 percent of Costume SuperCenter’s sales. The company sells nothing but costumes and accesso-

COMING UP THIS WEEK POWER HOUR

Wally the corgi, via Facebook ries on eBay and other sites. “There does not seem to be a ceiling on what people are willing to spend on their pets,” said Michael Esposito, the company’s business development and affiliate marketing director. The majority of their pet costumes sell for $14.99 to $24.99. You would never know the costume only required a 10th of the fabric needed for a human costume, he said. “Costume SuperCenter has seen its pet costume sales double every year for the last three years,” Esposito said. He expects the trend to continue. Halloween costumes for pets and people tend to follow news headlines and movies. The latest “Star Wars” movie isn’t out yet but demand is already high for Darth Vader and Yoda costumes. “In March next year, Batman and Superman -- two of the most iconic superheroes -- will face off on the big screen, but we are already seeing the competition play out in stores and online this Halloween season with these two costumes neckand-neck, topping our bestselling list,” said Eran Cohen, chief customer experience officer for PetSmart. It’s close, but the Batman costume is actually outselling the rest of the field, Cohen said.

The top five best-selling costumes on eBay for pets are Superman, lion, panda, Batman and necktie. For adults, the top five costumes are Batman, Frozen characters, Alice in Wonderland, Star Wars characters and French maid. Spider-Man came in 10th. The children’s list put Mario and Luigi (Mario Bros.) on top, then Star Wars, Batman, Frozen and a witch. The Minions, Spider-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Minnie and Mickey Mouse and Power Rangers round out the kids list. Another popular pet costume consists of a figure that appears to be riding the dog, like a storm-trooper riding a dewback, a reptile from “Star Wars.” Cynthia Dalangin has been in charge of Wally’s wardrobe expansion, buying from eBay, PetSmart, DIY sites and garage sales. Wally has a particularly large collection of bowties because they set off his ears so well. She gets a lot of ideas from Pinterest and Etsy. If Wally accepts all his invitations, he might have to rotate through all his costumes, including Captain America and an outfit themed on “Breaking Bad.” And if he comes up short, “we still have the banana,” Dalangin said.

The original Fit Tours NYC workout! This is a two-mile course taking you from one great site to another, stopping to add strength training and high intensity exercises. When: Monday — Friday, times vary.

For more info visit: centralpark.com/events

NYRR — ULTRAMARATHON 60K: Run the loop of the park nine times and build up an appetite for Thanksgiving.

Event listings and Where in Central Park? brought to you by CentralPark.com. When: Nov. 14, 8 a.m.-Noon For more info visit: centralpark.com/events

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 Marisa Lohse, Joe Ornstein, Candigeorge and Henry Bottjer for answering the last question correctly.

ANSWER FROM TWO WEEKS AGO: Alexander Hamilton Statue: If you can’t get tickets to the hottest show on Broadway, “Hamilton,” you can visit the statue of the Founding Father, behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1880, James Hamilton (Alexander’s son) commissioned the statue, which is of fireproof granite. An earlier statue made of marble had been destroyed in an explosion in 1835. When erected, the statue was initially between the two reservoirs that were part of Central Park in 1880.

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BE THE SOMEONE

WHO HELPS A KID BE THE FIRST IN HER FAMILY TO GO TO COLLEGE.

REDEFINING A DANCER’S BODY A new work features disabled and other dancers who challenge the conventional images of the art BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

In “On Display,” the latest in Heidi Latsky Dance’s ongoing Gimp Project, a series featuring disabled and non-disabled dancers, it’s about being seen. The site-specific “On Display,” which opens on Sunday, Nov. 15 at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts along with an excerpt from Latsky’s 2013 solo work “Solo Countersolo” and the New York premiere of new work “Somewhere,” is what Latsky calls a movement installation, and functions as a live art exhibition and fashion show. Viewers wander through the performance, perhaps pausing and taking photographs, and then

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move on, instead of sitting for the duration of the program. The format allows viewers to focus on dancers of their choosing, and also permits performers to stare back if they want. “They’re being empowered to show who they are when they want to and how they want to, but people hide,” said choreographer and artistic director Heidi Latsky. The idea for the piece came from a comment Latsky received years ago when she presented a video trailer for the Gimp Project, which featured a dancer with one arm, at a creative retreat. A museum curator approached her after the presentation, and told her that he often finds sculptures with missing limbs, but when he watched her video, he recoiled, and felt ashamed of his response.

“When he said that to me I started thinking…what would it be like if I made a sculpture garden or a sculpture court of real people who are missing limbs?” Latsky said. “On Display” features disabled and non-disabled dancers, and what Latsky calls “unexpected bodies,” along with the familiar, lithe figures of professional dancers. Rachel Handler, one of the newest performers, is an amputee who’s without her lower leg. She performs portions of the show sitting on the floor, and at other times stands on one leg. Kimberly Olstad is visibly pregnant, and her clothing exposes her belly. “We’re so quick to judge people just by what they look like,” Latsky said. “But then when you see them move, especially an unexpected body, there’s a

beauty to that.” The piece’s unconventional music features robotic spoken text of physical human descriptions that sound like automated recordings. The attributes, like “engorged hands,” “sad brown eyes” and “bulging crotch,” were pulled from actual observations made by writer and company dancer Jerron Herman, who spent a month covertly jotting down descriptions of people he saw on the subway. Herman, who started dancing four years ago, has cerebral palsy, which affects the left side of his body. Watching others was an “inverse experience,” he said, as he’s often aware of people looking at him. The exercise challenged him, especially when he realized he didn’t always have the vocabulary to describe people with disabilities.

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OurTownNY.com (click on subscribe) Heidi Latsky Dance performing ON DISPLAY at the David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center, 2015. Photo: Darial Sneed

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IN OUR HANDS RESCUE & NORTH SHORE ANIMAL LEAGUE AMERICA

Heidi Latsky Dance performing ON DISPLAY at the David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center, 2015. Photo: Darial Sneed $ 25

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posed,” said Latsky, 57, a petite woman with curly blond hair. “I wanted to find ways to bring them out…the slower they move, the more you see them” The performers are also watching. “We have the agency to connect with our viewer,” said Herman. “The one that’s come to view us is also on display. I think that’s where my anxiety about being watched melts away. I’m showing myself.”

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by Brooklyn fashion designer Anna Kathleen Little, engage in slow, languid movements, or morphing (during a recent rehearsal Latsky urged dancers to make even smaller, slower shifts) and sometimes remain still. At other points, their movements are sudden and frenetic as they strike poses, plaster on smiles and open and close their eyes. “This was a very hard piece to choreograph because I didn’t want it to look like choreography—I wanted them to be ex-

have

“I was going between P.C. and truth, what should I say versus this is what I see,” he said. Now, as a performer in the show, when he hears the reading of the text, he can picture the faces of the people on the train. Though Latsky has worked with disabled dancers since 2006, the piece is a departure for her company. Much of her choreography features vigorous, technical movement. But in “On Display,” the 28 performers, dressed in costumes

you You’d look

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

CARE NEW BRANCH NOW OPEN AT 99 PARK AVENUE @ 40TH STREET.

HELP THE ENVIRONMENT Donate a non-perishable food item and you will receive an eco-friendly, reusable tote bag.

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*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 defined as anyone who currently has or has had a Flushing Bank checking account within the last 24 months. Flushing Bank is a registered trademark

For every new checking account* opened with $500 or more from September 28 to December 31, Flushing Bank will donate $50 (up to $25,000) to benefit Food Bank For New York City.

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TOW N H A LL

M AKING OUR NEIGHBORHOODS MORE LIVABLE Join Editor-in-Chief Kyle Pope, AARP, concerned citizens, and panelists for a discussion about the factors that go into making New York City more livable. PA N E L I S T S GALE BREWER

RUTH FINKELSTEIN

SANDY ROBBINS

Manhattan Borough President

Associate Director Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center

Founder, The Shadow Box Theater

We’ll hear from top local officials on the problems faced by New Yorkers in an increasingly unaffordable city, and will explore exclusive new AARP data on neighborhoods that are getting it right.

Monday, November 23 2-4pm The Society for Ethical Culture 2 West 64th St. The event is FREE but space is limited RSVP today at rsvp@strausnews.com or call Molly Colgan at 212-868-0190 The local paper for the Upper East Side

The local paper for Downtown

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YOUR 15 MINUTES

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

FILMMAKER GETS A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS Peter Odabashian visits with Old Friends in his new documentary BY ANGELA BARBUTI

After making documentaries for 30 years, Peter Odabashian decided to take on his first solo project. “Old Friends,” which has its world premiere at DOC NYC on Nov. 14, has him bringing his camera into the homes of his friends. “You’re getting a picture of me through my friends. Each person represents a piece of me somehow,” he said. Having grown up in the New York suburb of Larchmont, he came to Manhattan in 1974 and began working in a post-production house on mostly TV commercials. “In those days, film was still film, you cut it with a sharp knife instead of digitally,” he explained. He worked as a sound editor on such films as “Desperately Seeking Susan,” “Reds” and “Carlito’s Way.” Eventually, he moved on to documentaries and has worked on 22 so far, winning an Emmy which now sits on a bookshelf in the Upper West Side apartment he shares with his wife, Esther.

How did you get started in sound editing? The business of editing was old fashioned. You started as an apprentice and then became an assistant and then became an editor. It was sort of

like that for me. I worked in commercials and became an assistant editor there and then I went into feature films. “Starting Over” was my first feature. I worked as an apprentice on that. And then, this big job came along called “Reds.” They hired every person in New York; there was an editorial crew of 60. I somehow ended up being the associate sound editor and that’s how I got involved in sound.

Why did you make this film? I’ve been working cooperatively in film, like everyone who works in film, basically, you work with a lot of different people. After I stopped doing sound editing, I started editing documentaries. I became involved with Andy Kolker and Louis Alvarez and edited five different documentaries for them. And the first won one an Emmy for me. We got used to working with each other. I also cut documentaries for other people, but I would always come back to work with them because all there films had a sense of humor, and that was something I enjoyed. Because there are a lot of jobs where you work and you’ll show a first cut to somebody, and they’ll say, ‘What’s that?’ And I’ll say, ‘That was supposed to be a joke.’ Often humor gets eliminated in documentaries, especially back then. The last 10 years, I joined them as a partner and we’ve

been producing and directing together. So anyway, I was always working with groups of people, so I got to the point where I really wanted to do something that was mine.

What were the challenges to working on it alone? Because I was doing it alone, it makes the film more intimate. I mean, literally, I was a one-man crew. I did all the post production myself. I would walk into one of my friends’ houses and it would just be me with a very small camera. I would use natural light, which allowed me to move the camera around, which had interesting results. In this particular case, I picked a good subject for my first film because everyone knew me. And not only were they comfortable with me, but they wanted to tell me something because I was trying to make a movie. Everyone was quite forthcoming and dealing with something that I didn’t know.

What are some things you learned about your friends’ lives as a result? One person worries that everybody thinks they’re boring. Someone else, his mother left him in an orphanage, which, just recently, was exposed in the news. Other people thinking about death, that we don’t normally talk about. Another guy who I spent a lot of time with in the 70s and we had a lot

of fun, worried that maybe he should have done more with his life and that wasn’t a good period. You’re open about your depression, and call yourself ‘the happiest depressed person in the world.’ Why do you think you’re so open about it? I don’t know, there’s no taint on that for me. Admitting you’re depressed or you have problems with depression — I have no aspirations of being president. [Laughs] I always took a certain joy in having a certain kind of craziness and having a certain kind of craziness with my friends. Obviously I’m not talking about schizophrenia, but neuroses.

Your wife is in the film. What was it like working with her? She’s great. I love my wife. She’s really, as I say in the film, made my life not the life of a depressed person, even though I have leanings in that direction, I think she really steered me out of it. That’s how she lives every day. She brings a lot of energy to everyone around her.

The first part of the documentary takes place in upstate New York and then you switch to Manhattan. Why did you do that and was it hard to film on the subway? I think I’ve always planned to live out my days in New York City. It’s a great

place to grow old in. You don’t have to drive, you don’t have to shovel the snow. It’s like a giant playground. It’s so entertaining; you could just stand on Broadway. In upstate New York, it’s a different kind of entertainment. To tape on the subway, I actually looked up the rule, you can do whatever you want on the subway, but can’t use a tripod. [Laughs] The camera I shot this with looks like a home movie camera; it’s very small. If I have my audio gear, it starts to get cumbersome. But on the subway, I just needed to shoot video really, so the little mic on the camera was just fine. So it’s really unobtrusive. You know, I’ve been working on documentaries for 30 years and in the old days, if you brought a camera on the street in New York or anywhere else, people would stare at it, give you the finger, make faces, say, ‘Hi mom.’ But now, everyone ignores it. Almost everyone knows, either from watching reality shows, they don’t look in the lens, they don’t look at you. To learn more, visit www.oldfriendsdoc.com

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

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Family

THANKSGIVING

Food & PHOTO CONTEST

Upload your favorite photo from your Thanksgiving and vote for your favorites! Whether it’s the big spread, a special dish or family fun, send us your photo and it could end up in a future edition of Our Town.

Go to OurTownNY.com, click Fun & Games, then Food & Family to submit and vote! OR

Tweet your photo instead! @OurTownNYC #foodandfamily

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