Downtown Express - August 8, 2019

V isit us online a t w w w. Dow n t ow nE x pr e s s .co m

VOLUME 32, NUMBER 16

AUGUST 8 – AUGUST 21, 2019

9/11 PHOTOS FIND Stunning trove of Ground Zero pix Page 6

COURTESY JASON SCOTT

This photo of the destruction of 9/11 was one of thousands found on CD’s that may have belonged to a Ground Zero hard hat.

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August 8 - August 21, 2019

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Judge: Do Two Bridges review Last December, the City Planning Commission voted to green-light the three-tower project. City Planning plugged the projects’ benefits, emphasizing nearly 700 of its 2,775 units would be affordable.

Brewer and the City Council sued the de Blasio administration, holding that the “minor modification” argument was absurd, and that the project must go through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure a.k.a. ULURP. Brewer, Speaker Corey Johnson and Councilmember Margaret Chin issued a joint press release with statements on Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling.

The court found that “[T]he irreparable harm here is twofold. First, a community will be drastically altered without having had its proper say. Second, and arguably more important, allowing this project to proceed without the City Council’s imprimatur would distort the city’s carefully crafted system of checks and balances. ... Without

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

T

he Two Bridges megaproject does not get a pass from the city’s ULURP public-review process.

That was the ruling by a State Supreme Court justice, who on Thursday decided in favor of a lawsuit on the Lower East Side megaproject filed by the New York City Council and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

The Two Bridges megaproject includes an 80-story building by JDS Development Group, 62and 69-story towers by L+M Development Partners and the CIM Group, and a 63-story tower

by Starrett Group.

Three years ago, Department of City Planning staff said that the proposed projects in Two Bridges, between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges — which would rise as tall as 80 stories — were merely “minor modifications” to the site’s existing large-scale residential development, or L.S.R.D., zoning.

PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH

On June 5, Borough President Gale Brewer with Councilmember Margaret Chin, demanded the Two Bridges plan go through ULURP. Last week, a judge agreed.

ULURP, the city’s Legislature is cut out of the picture entirely.”

The project site is located in Chin’s Lower Manhattan Council District 1.

“For three years, we have rallied and petitioned,” Chin said. “As a final step, we sued... . Judge Engoron’s decision vindicates our efforts and...empowers the voices of those most impacted by the displacement and gentrification of the proposed megatowers.”

However, local community groups that have been battling the project — and who have also filed their own lawsuit against it — expressed skepticism that Thursday’s ruling would, in the end, matter. The groups, Lower East Side Organized Neighbors (LESON), and the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side, released a hard-hitting statement on the judge’s decision to proceed with a ULURP, and slammed Chin as ineffective in fighting the towers. They decried as “cheap buyouts” the infrastructure improvements that the developers have promised. “[T]he influx of thousands of new residents will overburden any structural investments,” they said. “Even more serious is the massive displacement that will be caused by over 2,000 market-rate units.”

Court says 14th St. car ban can start

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

A

judge who temporarily blocked the 14th St. busway from going forward a month ago, on Tuesday gave the embattled scheme the green light.

State Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower ruled that the city can put its novel Transit and Truck Priority lanes plan into effect. In doing so, she found against a community lawsuit by a broad coalition of Village and Chelsea block associations and large residential co-op buildings.

Under the city’s plan — now set to go into effect Monday — only buses and trucks with at least three axles will be allowed to use 14th St. as a through street between Third and Ninth Aves. daily from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Delivery vehicles and residents will be able to drive onto the street for drop-offs or pickups, but have to take the next available right turn. Residents will also be able to drive onto the street for parking. The first of its kind in New York City, the traffic plan is being called an 18-month “pilot project.”

Many opponents fear the 14th St. car ban will push displaced traffic onto their nearby side streets. Meanwhile, 14th St. residents are concerned about maintaining curbside building access.

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But the city says the scheme will speed up buses during the hours it’s needed the most.

Select Bus Service — along with a reduction in the number of bus stops — went into effect on the M14 route a month ago in another effort to get the buses moving faster.

Tim Minton, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, assured that speed and efficiency would be increased.

“This ruling is a win for 27,000 daily bus riders who can get to work and where they need to go faster,” he said.

“Speedier rides mean more reliability, better service and added convenience.

We thank the New York City Department of Transportation for its dedication to implementing a more efficient design on 14th St.” A D.O.T. spokesperson added, “Today’s ruling allows us to move ahead to improve bus service along the corridor.

We are beginning work immediately and Transit and Truck Priority will go into effect Mon., Aug. 12.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted his excitement at the plan’s court win: “JUST IN: We prevailed in our legal fight to speed up buses on 14th Street!

With this hurdle clear, @NYC_DOT is moving ahead with final roadwork so we can get New Yorkers moving on

one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.

Let’s get this DONE!” The plaintiffs were represented by attorney Arthur Schwartz, the Village’s male Democratic district leader, who did the case pro bono. Schwartz, who lives on W. 12th St., was also an individual plaintiff in the suit.

Schwartz, in a group e-mail to the opponents, wrote: “We think the judge made three errors. The first is that she allowed D.O.T. to assert that they took sufficient consideration of environmental factors, without any proof. Second, she did not make them explain why they need the restrictions to stretch from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., when the bus speed problems D.O.T. described were only between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., and 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Third, she did not consider at all how unsafe the 12th and 13th St. bike lanes are; they are an invitation to bicyclist injury.”

Crosstown bike lanes were added on the two streets, anticipating a full L-train shutdown, which never materialized — but D.O.T. made them permanent anyway.

“Over all,” Schwartz continued, “I am horrified that my block, 12th St., will now have 350 cars an hour going down it (D.O.T. numbers); that’s one car every 10 seconds on a residential street.

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Speaking after the ruling, Schwartz said that Eric Beaton, D.O.T. deputy commissioner for transportation planning and management, submitted a letter arguing that traffic lights could be controlled to ensure that the traffic would flow smoothly, somehow avoiding vibrations that could harm fragile historic Village and Chelsea buildings.

Schwartz said the judge deemed this the “hard look” she had asked the city agencies to do last month.

Schwartz added that traffic data and times were only presented for morning and evening rush hours — so the argument wasn’t made why the no-cars plan should exist at other times.

“It may be one of the reasons we appeal,” he noted.

The attorney also bristled at transit advocates who call the antis wealthy.

“Most of the people in the block associations are not rich at all,” he said.

“They tend to be an older group. They are in rent-regulated apartments.”

After all the hoopla, ultimately, the plan would only result in the crosstown buses running a couple of minutes faster, the attorney charged.

“The goal is to make the buses go 2.1 minutes faster in the morning — 2.1 eastbound, 2.9 minutes westbound, something like that,” he said. “It was in Beaton’s affidavit.”

August 8 - August 21, 2019

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Police Blotter was awakened. She encountered the man, who then fled the apartment. He was last seen fleeing on foot near E. 11th St. and First Ave. No property was taken and the victim was not seriously hurt from the incident.

Police have identified the suspect as Tyler Lockett, 22, who stands 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt and gray sweatpants.

Police said Lockett is known to frequent areas in Brooklyn’s 90th Precinct, which includes Williamsburg and East Williamsburg.

Police provided a photo of Lockett, which was taken from a robbery/home invasion arrest this Jan. 25 in the 90th Precinct. In that incident, which followed a similar pattern to the East Village attack, he forced his way into the apartment of a 23-year-old woman, locked the door, grabbed her purse and fought with her. He then knocked the woman to the ground, causing a knee injury.

Anyone with information should call the Police Department’s Crime Stoppers Hotline.

FIRST PRECINCT

Bad guests According to police, on Fri., May 31, around 4 a.m., a 45-year-old man invited three males into his residence in the vicinity of Wall and Front Sts. that he met at a bar earlier that evening. Once inside, the trio began to remove some of the victim’s personal property and fled the location on foot to parts unknown.

The property included jewelry and credit cards with an estimated value of $7,000. The victim was uninjured.

The individuals are described as male blacks, 20 to 25 years of age, last seen wearing all dark clothing. Police took photos and video from the location after the incident.

SIXTH PRECINCT

Nursery con job A man broke into and robbed a nursery school in the West Village, according to police.

On Tues., June 19, around 6 a.m., a man entered West Village Nursery School, on Horatio St. near Washington St. He got in by pretending to be a locksmith who was scheduled to do work inside the building, and being able to get a key from a person living in an apartment above the daycare. The man then entered the school and took an iPad, before fleeing.

Police released a photo of the wanted man, who was wearing a long dark overcoat and carrying a shoulder bag.

Anyone with information should call the Police Department’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

Tips can also be submitted on the CrimeStoppers Web site at WWW. NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on Twitter @NYPDTips. All tips are strictly confidential.

SEVENTH PRECINCT

Keyed-up attack Police said that on July 13, at 9:40 p.m., a 31-year-old man was with his

family playing in a playground at Pier 35 when he had a verbal dispute with another male who possibly pushed his child.

Two other individuals approached the victim, one of whom had keys sticking out from between his fingers and punched the victim in the head. The second male joined in and also punched the victim several times. Both individuals then fled the location. The victim refused medical attention at the scene.

Rec center thief There was a theft at the Hamilton Fish Recreation Center on Mon., July 22, according to police.

The incident occurred around 7:45 a.m. at the Parks Department facility on the Lower East Side, at 128 Pitt St., just south of E. Houston St. A 54-year-old man had his watch, cell phone and about $300 in cash taken from his duffel bag by another man.

The thief fled in an unknown direction. Police released a surveillance image of the suspect, who is wanted for grand larceny. He is described as having saltand-pepper hair, and was last seen wearing a long-sleeved orange shirt, dark jeans and black shoes.

Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers.

NINTH PRECINCT

Rough robbery suspect ID’d Police have identified a suspect and released his photo in the case of an East Village woman who was recently followed into her apartment and attacked.

According to police, on Fri., July 26, around 1:45 a.m., the suspect followed a 21-year-old woman into her apartment building, at E. 12th St. and Avenue A. The New York Post reported the woman had been returning from the store. The man then forcefully pushed his way into her apartment.

The intruder then grabbed the woman, told her to “shut up,” threw her to the ground and covered her mouth to prevent her from screaming.

But the woman’s roommate, a 22-yearold woman, was home at the time and

1OTH PRECINCT

Valley National Bank robbery There was a robbery at the Valley National Bank, at 295 Fifth Ave., on Fri., July 26, police said.

Around 1:20 p.m., a man entered the bank branch, between W. 30th and 31st Sts., and passed a note to a teller demanding cash. The man was able to get $250 before fleeing. Police released surveillance images of the suspect, who is described as 50 to 60 years old, about 5 feet 11 inches tall and around 200 pounds, with a salt-and-pepper goatee.

He was wearing a camouflage bucket hat and a blue hoodie.

Subway attack There was a subway station assault in the Garment District on Sun., June 23, around 4:30 a.m., according to police.

At the station at Broadway and 32nd St., a 65-year-old straphanger was exiting up the stairway, when he was approached by two men and a woman. The group then punched the man several times. The victim suffered a broken nose and cuts to his eye brow. Police released surveillance photos of one of the wanted men. Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers.

Street assault There was an assault on Eighth Ave. last Saturday around 12:45 a.m., according to a police report.

On Aug. 3, in front of 244 Eighth Ave., between W. 22nd and 23rd Sts., a 59-year-old man was walking home, when he somehow got into an argument with a man he did not know. The stranger reportedly told him, “I’m gonna f— you up.”

The dispute turned physical, and the victim was punched in the mouth, causing swelling. A canvass was conducted with negative results. The man said that the stranger fled on Eighth Ave. toward W. 23rd St. The victim refused medical attention at the scene.

Park intimidation A harassment report was filed against two men for their behavior toward a police officer in Chelsea Waterside Park, cops said.

On Friday, Aug. 2, around 3:15 a.m., a 35-year-old female officer was walking her dog at the park, when two men started to shout at and intimidate her. The officer believed that one of the men lives in her building. Video was available at the location, and the officer also took video of the incident. She also said that one of the individuals kicked her dog.

Gabe Herman and Lincoln Anderson

For more news & events happening now visit www.TheVillager.com 4

August 8 - August 21, 2019

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August 8, 2019

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Trove of Ground Zero photos found

BY GABE HERMAN

T

housands of photos of Ground Zero, taken in the weeks after the 9/11 attack, were recently discovered by chance at a house clearance sale.

Archivists bought a group of CD’s at the sale and stumbled upon a collection of 2,400 photos of Ground Zero, according to a BBC report. The CD’s were reportedly in bad condition, but the photos were able to be salvaged.

The photos are believed to have been taken by a construction worker at the site, who has not yet been identified. They show stunning images of the aftermath of the attack, including at the World Trade Center site and neighboring areas, such as the Winter Garden Atrium across the West Side Highway.

Some photos are taken at ground level and others are from high up on nearby buildings. Many include construction workers clearing rubble in the area.

The photos have been posted online at: flickr. com /photos /textf iles /albums/72157708997281912 Archivist Dr. Johnathan Burgess, whose partner discovered the photos, told the BBC, “Generally these items are neglected at sales. It’s very likely these would be in a dumpster by now had we not gone.”

Burgess archived the photos, with help from a CD recovery service, and they were released through another archivist, Jason Scott. Burgess added of the discovery, “It’s a miracle the discs transferred so well, CDROM’s of that age are pretty spotty.”

In terms of sharing the photos for all to see, Burgess told the BBC that it’s “about doing what’s right for humanity.” He added that those touched by the images might think of donating to a charity of their choosing.

Almost 3,000 people died from the 9/11 attacks, and many thousands more have since been affected by 9/11-related illnesses, from toxic dust that lingered in the area for months afterward. The federal government recently extended the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund permanently, after pressure from first responders and other advocates.

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COURTESY JASON SCOTT

These photos are samples of the discovered images taken in the weeks after 9/11. Both are from Oct. 5, 2001.

August 8 - August 21, 2019

COURTESY JASON SCOTT

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Council O.K.’s retail-vacancy tracking bill

BY GABE HERMAN

R

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August 8 - August 21, 2019

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etail vacancies remain an ongoing issue throughout much of the city, including in Downtown Manhattan, in areas like the East Village and West Village, such as along Bleecker St. Now the City Council has passed a bill that will create a database of retail spaces and their vacancy status, and which requires merchants to register storefronts with the city as part of the process.

The bill to create the vacancy database, which would be the first of its kind in the country, was introduced this year on March 13 by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side, and Council Speaker Corey Johnson, whose district includes Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, the West Village and Midtown West.

The three local politicians said the bill would help address the crisis of empty storefronts. “You can’t fi x a problem when you can’t even begin to measure it,� Brewer said after the bill passed. “This database will be a boost for business owners looking for possible places to rent, those facing lease negotiations, and countless other possible services, which is why I’m proud the Council voted to pass this bill today.� “Our ‘Storefront Tracker’ legislation will require citywide tracking of commercial storefront and second-floor spaces for the first time,� Rosenthal said, “providing comprehensive data on commercial strips at risk, the location of every vacant storefront and more. This essential information will be the basis for solutions which help keep small businesses in our communities.�

Speaker Johnson joined Rosenthal in stressing the importance of small businesses to the local economy. “Passing legislation to address and help mom-andpop store owners is vital,� Johnson said after the bill passed, “and today we are approving several proposals to help businesses by providing much-needed support and information. Currently, the city lacks the data necessary to make informed policy decisions and the storefront database bill will tackle this issue head on.�

Some small-business advocates, however, were less optimistic about the bill’s impact on the problem.

Kirsten Theodos, co-founder of TakeBackNYC, which advocates for mom-and-pop shops, said she has no problem with collecting information about retail vacancies. “But it is perplexing why a bill counting vacant storefronts was fast-tracked and passed in just four short months,� she said, “while the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, a bill that would actually stop the closings by addressing the unfair lease-renewal process, had a hearing eight months ago and since then there has been zero movement toward a vote.�

Theodos was also critical of how Speaker Johnson has been handling the vacancy issue. “It is very sad that the speaker had the time to withdraw his name from the S.B.J.S.A., a bill he proclaimed in 2018 he was a ‘proud sponsor’ of, be a co-sponsor of this recent bill — that will not stop the crisis of good businesses from closing — and quietly reshuffle the deck on the Small Business Committee; but he does not have the time or political will to pass progressive legislation like the S.B.J.S.A.�

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Field of dreams (how big?) at Gansevoort

BY MICHELE HERMAN

V

acant 5.5-acre chunks of prime Manhattan landfill with river views on three sides don’t come along often. I went to a Community Board 2 presentation at the Greenwich Village Middle School, at 75 Morton St., last week to learn more about what’s in store for the one at Gansevoort Peninsula near the northwestern edge of the Village.

This rectangular parcel that juts into the Hudson is in the process of becoming part of Hudson River Park now that the Department of Sanitation facilities that used to sit on it have been demolished.

Needless to say, different constituencies are drooling at the possibilities being presented by the new section of the park. Actually, to judge by those in the audience of roughly 100 who spoke up during the question-and-answer period after the presentation, there are mostly two constituencies: the large, well-organized school soccer-team community (parents, coaches, league directors and after-school program organizers) fighting for the biggest possible ball field, and assorted others quietly advocating on behalf of passive green space.

Some things at C.B. 2 never change.

The faces of the soccer proponents were mostly new since I last attended a meeting, but their ardor was the same as ever.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by the civil, even good-natured tone of the meeting.

The first brave, witty soul to speak out for passive green space began his statement by saying, “Can I risk being lynched?” The second said to the soccer people, “I know you’ll win, but a ball field is exclusionary. I’m advocating for everyone else. As we teach our kids: You have to share.”

The Hudson River Park Trust, the park’s governing state-city authority, hired James Corner Field Operations, a landscape architecture firm known for connecting city dwellers to nature and for integrating culture and history into its designs, to come up with a concept.

Field Operations’ presentation followed up on the initial one in March, with a third scheduled for Sept. 4. The design process is somewhere in the middle stages, which means there is a basic concept and many lovely color sketches, but still some wiggle room as the designers continue to refine the concept and respond to community feedback.

According to Noreen Doyle, the Trust’s executive vice president, Gansevoort’s construction budget of $50 million is in place and the building of the park is expected to take one and a half to two years.

A space of 5.5 acres (an acre smaller than Union Square) may seem like a lot, but Lisa Tziona Switkin, senior principal at Field Operations, explained that the Schneps Media

COURTESY JAMES CORNER FIELD OPERATIONS

A rendering of the “Upper Beach” at Gansevoor t, playing paddle ball and relaxing in view of David Hammons’s “Day’s End” sculpture.

west there would be furniture — including seating — and trees, a rolling lawn for sunset views and a picnic grove. To the south there would be kayak access (though no rentals), tidal pools for education and exploration, and the beach.

Switkin said she hopes some of the trees would be willows, which can thrive in sandy soil.

The aforementioned wiggle room in the design comes down mostly to the size of the ball field. As young soccer players

designers and engineers have to work with a large number of conditions and givens. The givens include passive recreation, no commercial uses or development, a beach, a maintenance-andoperations building, a comfort station, a concession and a permanent art installation by David Hammons — sponsored by the Whitney Museum of American Art — that is at once enormous and unobtrusive, because it’s a stainless-steel ghost frame of the pier shed that once stood on the peninsula’s southern edge.

The conditions consist of unexpectedly lively wave action on Gansevoort’s south side, as revealed by underwater modeling, which makes the dream of an actual sand beach unachievable. Instead there will likely be sand yielding to new riprap (loosely packed rocks or concrete chunks) at the shoreline. Other conditions include the C.S.O. regulator (the underground sewage drainage system); unstable soil (the technical term, Switkin explained, is “pudding”) on both the north and south edges of the 19th-century landfill; the recently installed Spectra high-pressure gas pipeline, and the Fire Department road and turnaround that has to accommodate the largest fire trucks, which connects to the fire-boat station at Gansevoort’s northwestern corner.

As currently conceived, the park would include a ball field with artificial turf in the center of the space, oriented east-west and elevated somewhat above the level of the manmade peninsula. The building housing the M&O, restrooms and concession would be on the inland side and broken into three separate low-slung structures to allow for views between them, with a single green roof above. To the north the designers envision a series of salt marsh “nooks”; the unavoidable fire road leading to the Fire Department boat stationhouse, softened with lawns and gardens; an outdoor “gym” with exercise equipment, and a dog run that, at 250 feet, would actually be long enough for running. To the DEX

grow, they require bigger fields, with designations that correspond to kids’ ages.

There is plenty of room on Gansevoort for baseball and for two U-10 (“under age 10”) soccer practice fields. One U-11 fits comfortably, and one U-12 fits. The trouble is that a U-13 field — which is full size for middle- and high-school kids but still not big enough for regulation playoffs — does not fit on the peninsula without cutting into some of the passive features and probably eliminating the space for the outdoor gym.

The soccer supporters are pushing hard for the largest field. Jacqui Getz, principal of the 75 Morton middle school, wrote a letter of support, noting the school will be adding an additional grade in the fall for a total of 900 students.

“We have no access to a field; there’s a shortage,” Getz wrote. “Kids commute two hours [back and forth] to East River Park to play an hour of sports. We urge the full-sized field so we can serve the local community.”

Others chimed in with ever-more dire statistics. There are only four U-13 fields in the city. There are only three gyms Downtown to serve nine schools. Those fields are booked seven days a week for 10 hours, so overused that they have become unhygienic. Downtown Soccer League will have to turn kids away for the first time.

August 8 - August 21, 2019

9

Bridge renovations set to start this fall

BY ALEJANDR A O’CONNELL-DOMENECH

R

enovation work on the Brooklyn Bridge is scheduled to begin this fall, according to the Department of Transportation.

The agency recently awarded a $328.3 million contract to New York City-based construction companies Navillus and MLJ contracting to repoint the bridge’s two towers and replace walls and facades along both the Manhattan and Brooklyn approaches, which have become dilapidated over the last 125 years, as well as marred by graffiti. Navillus confirmed that work would begin in September.

As part of the facade renovations, the supportive archways along the Brooklyn Bridge’s Manhattan approach will be repointed, eroded red bricks will be replaced and new operable stainless-steel doors and decorative angled slats resembling windows will be installed. Behind the brick facades, new reinforced concrete walls will be constructed. Any original remaining railings, stairs, signage and other related infrastructure too deteriorated to repair will be removed.

The majority of the work planned on the bridge’s Brooklyn side is repointing on archways. The span’s towers will also be repointed, plus receive reinforcing bars to secure granite blocks within its Gothic arches.

D.O.T. plans on improving drainage and restoring adjacent sidewalks along the bridge approaches, as well. The entire restoration process will be photographically documented.

The project’s focus is on “meeting today’s codes and standards with preservation strategies in retaining and extending the life of the bridge’s iconic appearance,� a D.O.T. spokesperson stated.

PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH

Protestors march across the Brooklyn Bridge as par t of rally calling for Governor Cuomo to stop the proposed Williams Pipeline on April 18.

In July, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the agency’s restoration plan for the bridge, which was completed in 1883 and landmarked in 1967.

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August 8 - August 21, 2019

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PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Bett y E. Staton, a retired Family Cour t judge and president of Brooklyn Legal Ser vices, received the National Bar A ssociation’s Judicial Council’s Thurgood Marshall Award.

PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Attorney Sanford Rubenstein told judges among the National Bar A ssociation members at the awards ceremony to maintain their independence, and urged young law yers to advocate on behalf of victims.

PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Attorney Sanford Rubenstein was honored with the National Bar A ssociation’s Chair’s Award for Civil Rights.

National Bar Association honors legal leaders

BY TEQUIL A MINSK Y

D

uring the National Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Judicial Awards Luncheon at the Sheraton New York Times Square on July 23, its Judicial Council, with 200-some lawyers and judges attending, honored five judges, as well as a New York civil-rights and social-justice attorney.

The National Bar Association is the nation’s oldest and largest national network of predominantly AfricanAmerican attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of 65,000 lawyers, judges, law professors and law students throughout the United States and around the world. The organization was formed in 1925 when five of its founding members were denied membership to the American Bar Association.

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At its 48th annual meeting, two local legal professionals were honored among this year’s honorees.

Retired Judge Betty E. Staton received the Thurgood Marshall Award.

As a New York University School of Law student, Staton was always advocating to bring more black and Latino students into the law profession. Staton began her legal career in 1979 as a staff attorney at Bedford Stuyvesant Community Legal Services, leaving eight years later, to form with two other African-American women the first African-American female partnership in the country. Four years later, Mayor David Dinkins appointed her to New York State Family Court, on which she served for almost 20 years. On mandatory retirement, she returned as project director to B.S.C.L.S., which merged in 2012 with two other legal services

to form Brooklyn Legal Services, of which she now is president.

Attorney Sanford Rubenstein, one of the city’s top advocates for victim’s rights in personal injury, medical malpractice and civil rights matters, received the National Bar Association’s Chair’s Award for Civil Rights. He was recommended for this award by a Civil Court judge based on his work for civil rights.

Rubenstein, who lives in Brooklyn, has represented numerous victims and families of victims of police brutality and wrongdoing in New York City, including Abner Louima, sodomized in a police precinct by a New York Police Department officer; the family of Sean Bell, who was killed in a police shooting the night before his wedding; the estate of Kalief Browder, who killed himself after spending 400 days in soliTVG

tary confinement on Rikers Island; and the estate of Eric Garner in the early stages of litigation against New York City and the N.Y.P.D. On receiving the award, Rubenstein said how humbled he was. During his acceptance, he emphasized to the judges at the luncheon to maintain their independence.

“It is what stands between our democracy and tyranny,” he said.

To young lawyers he urged, “Advocate on behalf of victims in the courtroom and in the streets, as well, to get change, so what happens to one victim does not happen to others.”

Rubenstein also signed his memoir, “The Outrageous Rubenstein: How a Media Savvy Trial Lawyer Fights for Justice and Change,” which all in attendance received.

August 8, 2019

11

Editorial

Message to Republicans: Do something

W

ith apologies to Albert Einstein, there’s a new definition of insanity in America: Sending thoughts and prayers over and over again, and expecting the mass shootings to stop.

This weekend’s bloodshed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, reminded us once again of how broken things are in America when it comes to gun violence — and how our government has utterly failed to stop the carnage.

Following the latest massacres to occur in America this past weekend, there have been more than 250 mass shootings in the United States so far this year. No other nation in the world had a number of mass shootings exceeding single digits.

What are we going to do to stop this?

The obvious answer is greater gun control — reviving the assault weapons ban, expanding background checks, and preventing convicted felons from owning guns, among other ideas.

No American should own an AR-15, an AK-47 or any other high-capacity assault rifle built specifically for the military to wage war. These weapons aren’t made for sport; they’re made for death, in high volumes, in short periods of time. No American should need one; no American should want one.

Calls for gun control have been made over and over and over again, follow-

pulpit to say horrific, blatantly bigoted things about people he doesn’t like or whom he doesn’t agree with politically.

One study after another has found that the number of hate crimes in America has soared since Trump took office. That’s because white nationalists feel empowered by the president’s own rhetoric; they feel it justifies their own hatred, and spurs them to lash out on their own.

Radicalized white nationalist terrorists are getting their hands on weapons of war and turning them against ordinary people just living their lives.

The president, of course, didn’t pause to contemplate his contribution to this.

He blamed everything and everyone else except himself, and guns.

One prominent Republican in Queens, Councilmember Eric Ulrich, shamefully dismissed that notion and played the “both sides” card by wondering why the press didn’t blame, in his eyes, Presidents Clinton and Obama for mass shootings during their administrations.

We don’t recall President Clinton calling Mexicans “rapists and drug addicts,” the way Trump did back in 2015 at his campaign announcement; nor do we recall President Obama describing

ing one mass shooting after another, in this country over the last decade. It should be a bipartisan effort, but it is not, because one party utterly refuses to do anything about it other than offer “thoughts and prayers” after each tragedy.

Members of the Republican Party offer every other excuse in the world for the bloodshed, and for making no concerted effort to increase public safety.

It’s violent video games, they say.

It’s mental health, they say. It’s broken homes, they say. It’s the lack of prayer in public schools, some ignorantly claim.

Other nations have violent video games, mental health issues, dysfunctional families and public prayer bans — yet they do not have the level of gun violence we experience in our country.

What they do have are strict gun laws that preserve public safety without infringing upon one’s right to defend themselves.

Shouldn’t we, as Americans, deserve and demand the same? Seems like an obvious yes to us.

The G.O.P. has run out of excuses and time — and so has President Trump, whose own hostile words toward immigrants were echoed in a manifesto left by the gunman responsible for the El Paso massacre.

Since he began his presidential campaign in 2015, Trump has used his bully

the arrival of migrants on the southern border as an “invasion” of America, as Trump has repeatedly said this year.

Republicans may try to wash the president’s hands of responsibility here, but the majority of us know better.

Sure, Trump didn’t pull the trigger, but his past words undoubtedly inspired the gunman to do so. This country has a gun problem and a white nationalist problem — and Republicans must start working with Democrats to strengthen gun laws and reject white nationalism.

However, showing the problem is even more widespread, the Dayton shooter was an antifa activist and avowed socialist.

In short, every politician of every party has a responsibility to solve these problems. It’s time that they finally do something to protect us all, rather than just talking about it or ignoring it altogether.

Call President Trump, call Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and call the New York State Republican Party and demand that they support gun control and the fight against white nationalism. President Donald Trump: 202-456-1414; Senator Mitch McConnell: 202-224-2541; NYS Republican Party: 518-462-2601

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August 8, 2019

VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA SCHNEPS LINCOLN ANDERSON GABE HERMAN ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH MICHELE HERMAN BOB KRASNER TEQUILA MINSKY MARY REINHOLZ PAUL SCHINDLER MARCOS RAMOS CLIFFORD LUSTER (718) 260-2504 CLUSTER@CNGLOCAL.COM MARVIN ROCK GAYLE GREENBURG JIM STEELE JULIO TUMBACO ELIZABETH POLLY

A

1908 photo of Madison Square Park and 23rd St. features part of the Flatiron Building on the far right, and the second Madison Square Garden, which stood from 1890 to 1925, in the background at left.

Twenty-third St. had a virtual convoy of trolley cars (talk about a dedicated “transit corridor”), while many horse-drawn carriages can also be seen on the streets.

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Op-Ed

Letters s to the Ed Editor eration. Nothing has changed.

I suggest that people show up at the First Precinct on the last Thursday of the month to voice their complaints.

It’s disgusting how these bar/ restaurant owners get away with this stuff and we are getting no support from the police or Community Board 2.

Elizabeth Street Garden’s roots

BY BARBAR A CAPOR ALE

I

n the late 1800s to early 1900s my great-grandparents had a dry-goods store on Elizabeth and Prince Sts., which they lived above.

The Elizabeth St. Garden would have been such an amenity for my grandfather to play in as a youth, and families to picnic in.

I’m certain much playing was done in the streets since they were safer then, and children could be watched from the windows. I do not know what green space existed then other than the St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral yard cemetery. The old public school on the Elizabeth St. Garden site allegedly provided some community space.

The statues and monuments that exist in the Elizabeth St. Garden bring us back to rooted history, when buildings were designed artistically, with sculptural detail — things that I crave to cling to for perspective and connectivity.

Everything that’s built nowadays is box-like, too much glass, or just plain ugly.

My grandfather became one of the first homegrown Italian architects to graduate from Pratt. He went on to build homes in Brooklyn and other parts of the city and, I’m sure, lots of the older brickwork buildings in Lower Manhattan with more personality. The homes that I know of that he built in Brooklyn all supplied green space, probably since his youth was greatly lacking in that and he realized what families need.

When I look at the statues in the Elizabeth St. Garden, I am transported back in time. I see my relatives, long skirts, straw hats, knickers, and I hear “While Strolling Through the Park One Day” in my head, and Italian mandolins and accordions.

Maybe some of the proponents of the Elizabeth St. Garden are new gentrifiers. However, they join those of us who have struggled to remain in our neighborhoods. They understand what is of value to families, and the needs for humans to interact or just reflect in urban spaces with nature, near their mostly tiny apartments in tenement buildings.

We have learned from the recent history of new development in the neighborhood, that you never get the community benefit that was promised — and it takes so long for any green to be re-established.

Yes, we need housing. But the Haven Green affordable housing project should be switched to the West Side site, approved by Community Board 2, that is much more developable and would provide more units — more units that would be low income and ultra-low income, truly affordable.

And thank you — not! — Rudeness Giuliani for selling off most of the city-owned land, making creating new affordable housing development more difficult.

I actually recently went and found the storefront where my great-grandparents had their dry-goods store that they and their family lived above. I went inside and looked at the old brick high ceilings and wood beams and touched everything.

LOL. And then I also went down Mulberry St. to fi nd where they had a store in the 1890s.

I’m sure my Italian forebears would have supported saving the beautiful Elizabeth St. Garden. I know they would be deeply saddened to hear Mayor de Blasio wants to destroy it.

Caporale is a longtime activist in Downtown Manhattan.

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Kay Powell

Time to speak up PHOTO BY JEFFERSON SIEGEL

Former Manhattan D. A . Rober t Morgenthau prosecuted East Village anarchists harshly after the 1990 May Day riot in Tompkins Square Park, according to letter writer Bill Weinberg. More than a dozen people were arrested for disorderly conduct and assault on police.

‘Small Kitchen,’ big headache To The Editor: Re “Loud Soho restaurant ‘wrecked block’: Neighbors” (news article, Aug. 1): Sometimes a restaurant moves into a neighborhood and is oblivious to the residents where it has situated itself. So it is with Thompson St.’s Piccola Cucina that attracts a very fun-loving clientele. That’s fine, but… .

There is no accommodation — exposed brick that bounces the music and yelling around like a pinball machine — to the fact this eatery is on a (formerly) quiet residential street.

Come summer, it’s ultra-volume music and happy chatter, with voices at elevated pitch trying to be heard above the music. It can be heard one-quarter the distance of the block to the corner.

One building resident moved out because of the racket, actually relocating in the neighborhood due to the noise.

It appears after a deluge of complaints that the restaurant has begun to adhere to its stipulation and closes its glass windows/doors by the designated 10 p.m. Or maybe they’re just keeping the air conditioning inside.

But noise isn’t the restaurant’s only “ignoring the neighborhood” modus operandi. Hordes blocking the sidewalk — waiting for tables or hanging out — prevent people who are trying to pass. The mass also includes a cadre of smokers, mostly fun-

TVG

loving Europeans, who can’t smoke inside.

The restaurant generates so much garbage that the trash receptacles are tossed wily-nilly on the sidewalk after the pickup, blocking the sidewalk in the morning. Asked about this, the restaurant blames its sanitation company, instead of having the containers moved inside in a timely fashion.

The restaurant’s owner has two others in Soho. Noise is similarly generated from the Spring St. location, and one neighbor who lives across the street is kept up at night when apartment windows are open.

The Spring St. restaurant drilled into a tree to hang a holder for its promotional material and menus when the restaurant is closed. Someone must have complained, since that was short-lived.

Even the outdoor seating on Spring St. violates the required 8-foot clearance from the barrier on the nearby tree pit.

Darlene Nation

Help, police!

To The Editor: Re “Loud Soho restaurant ‘wrecked block’: Neighbors” (news article, Aug. 1): This scene is not any different from what goes on at Felix, at West Broadway and Grand St., every Sunday.

I too have contacted the First Precinct many times, as have my neighbors, and been told that police have sat down with the owner and have his coop-

To The Editor: Re “Loud Soho restaurant ‘wrecked block’: Neighbors” (news article, Aug. 1): This is a police matter. Register the complaint with 311 and call the precinct. Go to the monthly First Precinct Community Council Meeting. Insist they do their jobs. Also tell the community board and the State Liquor Authority.

Unless people show up at community board hearings or register complaints, the board is unlikely to even know there are problems with restaurants.

Lora Tenenbaum

‘Morgy’ memories To The Editor: Re “Robert Morgenthau, 99, iconic D.A.” (obituary, Aug. 1): The Central Park 5 later sued the city and won a multimillion dollar settlement — which Donald Trump protested in a Daily News opinion piece.

Given this is The Villager, it would be good to recall Morgenthau’s prosecution of the Tompkins Square anarchists after the 1990 May Day riot.

Kenny Toglia served a year in Rikers on dubious “incitement” charges thanks to Morgenthau’s prosecutorial zeal.

Bill Weinberg E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 MetroTech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published.

August 8, 2019

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August 8 - August 21, 2019

DEX

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News flash: Gem Spa is struggling

BY BILL WEINBERG

I

t was slightly traumatic for old-school East Village residents when they last approached Gem Spa to buy a paper at the newsstand that had long stood outside the corner store. The newsstand, a fi xture for generations, displaying a multilingual selection reflecting the neighborhood’s diversity, was gone — not a scrap of printed matter was to be found at Gem Spa. Parul Patel is behind the counter every day now, putting her “life on hold” to save the family business. The newsstand was a necessary sacrifice, she said.

“We don’t make money on newspapers,” she explained. “Six or eight dollars each day — if nobody steals any. My dad was doing it as a community service.”

Her father, Ray Patel, now ailing with Parkinson’s disease, purchased Gem Spa in 1986.

“My father loves newspapers, he’s from that generation,” she said. “He carried the torch at his own expense.”

Old-timers who still buy newspapers could be accommodated — until a twist of fate plunged the business into crisis.

Sales initially dropped 80 percent in April, when the store’s cigarette license was suspended. Patel said a “rogue employee” (subsequently fired) sold butts on two occasions to undercover snoops from the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs.

“It’s not in line with our philosophy,” Patel said.

“We wouldn’t be here 33 years otherwise.”

She pointed out the pop-up sign on the register that prompts cashiers to ask if tobacco purchasers are 21 years old.

A city judge imposed no penalty on Gem Spa after the rogue cigarette sales last year, noting the store’s clean prior record. But word of the sales was automatically shared with state authorities, who imposed a six-month suspension in April.

The newsstand was removed in early June, partly at the urging of the landlord’s management company, which sought a cleaner look. Zoltar, the mechanical fortune teller, was also removed.

The inside magazine racks were likewise removed. Patel said the distributer, Hudson News, “scooped up” the entire stock of magazines following a financial dispute. She said newspaper and magazine sales took a plunge some 10 years ago, as digital media became ubiquitous.

The loss of the newsstand exemplifies a cultural shift. Opinion differs on when Gem Spa first opened. Certainly, the store has been at the corner of Second Ave. and St. Mark’s Place since the 1950s. But sources maintain it had an earlier incarnation at the location under a different name in the ’20s. It is widely credited as the first place in New York to sell egg creams. It began selling Yiddish newspapers, but became an outlet for the underground press in the counterculture of the ’60s. Allen Ginsberg and Patti Smith invoked Gem Spa in their writings, and the New York Dolls shot the back-cover photo of their 1973 debut album in front of the iconic store.

When the New Jersey-based Patel family bought

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PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Did he even see it coming? Zoltar, the for tune teller, was removed from the front of Gem Spa in June, allegedly to give the storefront a “cleaner” look.

the store, they learned how to make egg creams from the previous owners.

“I’ve been making egg creams since I was a teenager,” Parul Patel boasted.

What’s critical now is making it to October, when the tobacco license will be restored, according to Patel. She’s added CBD items to try to take up the slack — and vegan egg creams with almond milk. “We’re catering to new segments of the neighborhood,” she said.

Patel anticipates eventually restoring magazines and newspapers — although not the outdoor newsstand — on a limited basis. But she said it would just be the “main titles, not all the exotic stuff we carried, in Chinese, Polish, Italian and Spanish.”

“I’m overwhelmed by how many people have come forward to help us,” she said. But she was quick to add, “I have to triple what I’m doing right now. We’re just surviving, with no pay for myself. I never see my kids.”

Harry Bubbins of Village Preservation notes rumors that a Citibank is planned for the space. This could be allowed under the terms of the East VilTVG

lage Historic District, as long as the exterior is not changed. Village Preservation is pushing for a “special commercial district” for the East Village, which would restrict new chain outlets from opening between E. 14th and E. Houston Sts. from Second Ave. to Avenue D. Community Board 3 approved the idea in June, but the plan must first pass muster with the City Planning Department before going to the City Council for a deciding vote.

“St. Mark’s is not dead, and it’s because of businesses like Gem Spa that have been in the neighborhood for decades,” Bubbins declared. “It’s a quintessential East Village corner store.”

Patel said supporters are planning a benefit for Gem Spa, and she’s promoting the store on social media. She said that despite having been a successful businessman, her father has little money. A devout Hindu, originally from Gujarat, India, he gave much of his earnings to charity.

“I need this business to take care of my dad’s medical needs. And it meant so much to him,” Patel said, wiping away a tear. “I want him to die with dignity.”

August 8, 2019

15

Progress Report

Political scene: What will 2020 bring?

BY ARTHUR SCHWARTZ

W

e all know that 2020 will be a watershed year in national politics. The unthinkably monstrous, racist, sexist, xenophobic, grandiose thing in the White House is so ripe for a challenge that 25 or more candidates are looking to be the one to take him down.

And in the run-up to that election, the Democratic primary is a test of whether Democratic Party voters want to go back to the Democratic Party of 2008-16 , or want to move forward to become the party at first envisioned by Bernie Sanders in 2016, advanced by The Squad, and reflected in a push for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, tuition-free higher education, and a genuine effort to rein in the 1%.

That conflict is already playing itself out in Villager-land. The eastern part of Greenwich Village and Chelsea is represented in Congress by a relic of the past, of the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton, named Carolyn Maloney.

Her district was once called the SilkStocking District, and when she was elected was entirely on the East Side

COURTESY ARTHUR SCHWARTZ

District Leader Ar thur Schwar tz, left, was Bernie Sanders’s New York 2016 campaign counsel.

of Manhattan, from 96th St. down to Loisaida.

But several rounds of redistricting have created a district that includes Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Long Island City and Astoria, areas in Brooklyn and Queens that include increasing numbers of millennials, and many people of color. Since 2010 Carolyn has faced a series of challengers, and in 2016 her opponent, Suraj Patel, got 41 percent of the vote, winning on the eastern side of the East River. That was the same 2016 primary that saw Alexandria OcascioCortez beat 20-year incumbent Joe Crowley, the Queens Boss.

The result is that there are around six candidates lined up to be the one to take on Maloney in the June 2020 primary. They all know that only one needs to be in the arena next June if Carolyn is to be defeated.

One local pol recently said to me, “Carolyn needs to figure out a dignified exit,” yet she seems to be diving headfirst into a campaign in which she will be buffeted because of her often Bill Clintonesque politics in a Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren-AOC world.

She is a big free-trader (the only New York congressmember who voted for NAFTA), a hawk on U.S. foreign policy, and a large recipient of corporate money. My bet is on Lauren Ashcraft to be her main opponent next year.

“Who?” you say. Lauren is a candidate who comes out of that same group

Icon Workshop at St. Luke’s Church October 25– 27 Presented by Peter Pearson, M.Div., Th. D.

Please join us to paint your own simple image of Jesus. No previous experience or natural talent is required! $225/person. $100 deposit due August 16th For more information: bit.ly/sl-iconworkshop dŚĞ ŚƵƌĐŚ ŽĨ ^ĂŝŶƚ >ƵŬĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ &ŝĞůĚƐ ͮ ŽƌŶĞƌ ŽĨ ,ƵĚƐŽŶ ĂŶĚ 'ƌŽǀĞ ^ƚƌĞĞƚƐ ϰϴϳ ,ƵĚƐŽŶ ^ƚƌĞĞƚ EĞǁ zŽƌŬ͕ Ez ϭϬϬϭϰ ͮ ϮϭϮ͘ϵϮϰ͘ϬϱϲϮ ͮ ǁǁǁ͘ƐƚůƵŬĞŝŶƚŚĞĮĞůĚƐ͘ŽƌŐ

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August 8, 2019

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of activists who backed AOC’s campaign, and almost propelled Tiffany Caban to the district attorney’s office in Queens. She is 30 years old, a JP Morgan Chase compliance officer, and a standup comic.

She is the daughter of an immigrant father, and a granddaughter of an individual with serious disabilities; she is a genuinely impassioned advocate for the immigrant community, and for expansion of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Ashcraft knows a lot about the banking system and that she wants none of their money. And her activist crew is already going door to door, more than 10 months before the primary. And she is a Bernie-sis, while Carolyn has endorsed Kirsten Gillibrand. It will be a race to watch.

(In another congressional race, Jerry Nadler will have a well-funded primary opponent, who comes from Andrew Cuomo-world, but Jerry, I believe, is an unbeatable folk hero.)

The New York State Legislature is in for another round of high-profile challenges like the state Senate had last year. But this time it will be assemblymembers, since the Assembly blocked many progressive pieces of legislation this year that had been adopted by the Senate.

My prediction? Assemblymember Deborah Glick, who has been around even longer than Carolyn, will have a very serious opponent. (It won’t be me.) She had a serious break with many L.G.B.T. activists by blocking a surrogacy bill that was proposed by her usual ally Senator Brad Hoylman. There is a PAC in formation that already has $150,000 pledged to help bring about her defeat. Several people are auditioning to take her on.

The other interesting thing to watch will be alignment of Downtown electeds with presidential candidates. The New York primary will be the last Tuesday in April, and with a multicandidate field, it will matter a lot.

Few local elected officials have aligned, but many will decide before petitioning begins in January, if they are looking to secure a place at the Democratic Convention. Pete Buttigieg is a conundrum for some; he is an L.G.B.T. breakthrough, but he seems to be fading already. A candidate needs 15 percent of the vote to get any delegates in New York and it is unlikely that he will get there.

It will be an interesting year, even before the November finale.

Schwartz is the male Democratic district leader for Greenwich Village.

Schneps Media

Progress Report

LHGV: A growing health hub at 5 years

BY ALEX HELLINGER

O

n July 17 Lenox Health Greenwich Village (LHGV) turned five years old. We first opened our doors to anyone and everyone needing emergency care in 2014 with our fullservice Emergency Center as a first step in filling the gap of healthcare services needed in this neighborhood and to ease the hardships our community endured after St. Vincent’s Hospital closed.

Our desire was to create something very special for patients in need of help at a critical time in their lives. Our Emergency Department is open 24/7/365 and cares for all patients regardless of their ability to pay. We had more than 38,000 patients visit our emergency department in 2018 alone.

We’ve administered clot-busting medications to patients with strokes, and we’ve provided critical care to many thousands of patients with heart failure, COPD, aneurysms, respiratory failure, pneumonia, influenza, diabetes, allergic reactions and more. We also regularly care for psychiatric patients, as well as patients with drug- or alcohol-related emergencies.

The opening of the Emergency Center was just the beginning of our more than $180-million investment for the residents of this community; we are building a true comprehensive medical network throughout Downtown Manhattan.

In 2016 we opened our state-of-theart Imaging Center. We realize that being referred for an imaging study can be a stressful experience that can be compounded by the inconvenience of having to travel to out-of-the-way facilities.

Our Imaging Center offers the most advanced breast cancer screening exams, including 3D mammography, a new imaging option that diminishes the rate of false positives by about 40 percent. We are one of only a handful of centers that offer this new imagining option. In addition to our full range of breast-imaging services, our 13,000-square-foot center also offers magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), CT scans, ultrasounds, digital Xrays and bone density testing.

Also within LHGV, we have opened a patient service center (blood collection), an ambulatory surgery center and a conference room space that is open for community use. Additionally, we have added orthopedic and spine care physician of-

fices and recently hired a plastic surgeon that specializes in transgender care.

With our commitment to continue building a comprehensive and robust medical ecosystem Downtown, in 2018 we opened Northwell Health Physician Partners at Greenwich Village, located at 7 Seventh Ave. — Northwell’s largest primary multispecialty center in Manhattan — and our 78th outpatient practice over all in the borough. Here you’ll find expertise in adult cardiology, rheumatology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, otolaryngology and surgical specialties, plus pediatric neurology, allergy and cardiology. In addition, surgical consultative services available include thoracic, bariatric, vascular, colorectal, plastic, urologic and general surgery. The clinical space features 28 exam rooms, a noninvasive cardiology testing suite, chest radiography, a full audiology testing booth and a pulmonary function laboratory. This follows the opening of three large primary care and multispecialty practices in the area.

In order to further provide access to medical care for non-emergencies, we also opened two GoHealth Urgent Care Centers, located at 225 W. 23rd St. and

41 E. Eighth St. With our strong commitment to the environment, the LHGV building, at 30 Seventh Ave., between 12th and 13th Sts., was awarded a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED-certified buildings save money and resources while promoting renewable, clean energy. We believe in and support this community. We have partnerships with the New York Alliance Against Sexual Assault, the L.G.B.T. Center and the New York AIDS Memorial. We are recognized as a “Leader in L.G.B.T. Healthcare Equality” by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, designated as an AIDS Center by the New York State Department of Health, and we are a certified Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner (SAFE) Center.

We are part of the fabric of this community and want our residents to have access to high-quality care right where they live. We administer free flu shots, offer CPR classes and routinely perform health screenings at community health fairs.

Hellinger is executive director, Lenox Health Greenwich Village.

Statue of Liberty Museum Connects Us With Our Past and Present

The Statue of Liberty has stood in New York Harbor since 1886, three years after the Brooklyn Bridge opened and decades before skyscrapers proliferated across Manhattan. Since then the statue has represented a host of causes and issues, and gone under a series of physical alterations. The new Statue of Liberty Museum on Liberty Island captures this history through immersive theater, engaging exhibits, and an opportunity to get up close to the statue’s original torch.

Upon entering the museum, visitors are transported from 1860s France to present-day New York City during a 10-minute video about the statue and its history. One section of the museum reveals how French politician Édouard René de Laboulaye was so moved by post-Civil War abolition that he conceived the idea Schneps Media

design failed to consider how natural elements could infiltrate the statue, creating structural problems which spurred a multi-year renovation in the 1980s and a replacement of the original torch, which features a sculpted flame.

of a statue to celebrate that achievement. Other sections of the museum focus on the irony of a monument to that captured the imagination of immigrants while

For millions of us across the country, our family’s American story begins with a relative’s arrival in New York Harbor where they were greeted

by Lady Liberty. They must have been glued to the ship’s statue side to catch a glimpse of Lady Liberty. They must have felt a rollercoaster of emotions — excitement for having made it, uncertainty at what the future the country it represented torch was modified a hand- held, and a homesickness failed to give many full ful of times over its first for those they left behind. freedom and liberty. three decades to maximize The power of the new muthe light emitted as Lady seum is in its ability to The museum also houses Liberty was pulling double connect us to the dramas the original torch. The duty as a lighthouse. The of that past.

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Coffee therapy is creating buzz

BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH

T

wo years ago, on a trip to his native Turkey, East Villager Uluç Ülgen did something he had done thousands of times before.

He had coffee with his father.

But this cup of coffee would prove to be special.

After finishing the almost syrup-like drink, his father took his small porcelain cup, covered it with its saucer, flipped them both upside down and moved them in a circular motion three times. Then he flipped the cup right-side up to interpret the images he found in the runny grounds that had dripped along its sides, in traditional Turkish coffee reading fashion. His reading for his son was tremendously uplifting — plus gave him an idea.

“You will truly enlighten your entire surroundings,” Ülgen’s father told him, looking up from the cup. “You will experience a big love.” Ülgen, a video and podcast creator, had taken a break from his video podcast Mürmur, for which he invited strangers into his East Village home for an hour-long conversation. He went overseas with family to deal with a rough patch that included a bad breakup and an eviction. A month later, inspired by his father’s coffee reading for him, Ülgen returned to the East Village and went back to work on Mürmur, except this time doing his own coffee readings for others during the show.

“It is meant to be an opportunity to relay words of positivity, encouragement and hope,” Ülgen said of Turkish coffee reading, which is traditionally done in groups. According to the Ülgen the art of drinking Turkish coffee is just as much about the conversation as it is about the drink.

The readings proved to be a hit. This February, Ülgen began hosting group coffee readings full time in his apartment, mostly advertised as an Airbnb experience.

Over the last eight months alone, the 30-yearold has served between 800 and 900 cups of Turkish coffee during his group sessions, appropriately

PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH

Ulgen uses an endoscope camera to photograph what he sees inside of each coffee cup during the readings.

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August 8, 2019

PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH

In the 6BC Botanic Garden treehouse, Uluc Ulgen, host of Kahve: The Turkish Coffee Therapy Session, explains how a traditional Turkish coffee reading is done to t wo group session par ticipants.

entitled Kahvë: The Turkish Coffee Therapy Session. Ülgen currently hosts one session daily Tuesday through Friday and two sessions on weekends, plus will host pop-up sessions once or twice a month.

In a pop-up event on July 30, at the East Village’s 6BC Botanical Garden, 25 people participated in group readings — held in the place’s treehouse — with the coffee grounds in each person’s cup projected onto an iPad via an endoscope camera for group members to see. Endoscopes are typically used for medical purposes to look inside people’s bodies.

Most attendees at the July 30 garden pop-up had never before had someone read their coffee grounds in a group setting. But potential nerves did not keep laughter from filling the garden as strangers squished together in the tiny treehouse jokingly argued about whether a butterfly was actually a swan or a caterpillar or actually something lewd.

Participants were supportive and clapped after each reading.

Participant Margarita Calderon commented on how fellow session members would frequently say “Congratulations” and “I’m so happy for you.”

Like what his father did for him, Ülgen tries to instill hope for the future, self-assuredness and inner peace with his readings.

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“Not only did it give me a lot of assuredness but it gave me a lot to look forward to,” Ülgen reflected.

The reading his father did for him was not only special in meaning but also because it was the last one his father would give him. He passed away a month after Ülgen returned to New York City.

Meanwhile, Ülgen continues sharing the skill — and its empowering spirit of optimism — that his father taught him.

“Everything he said came true,” he said.

PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH

Ulgen explains images he found in a par ticipant’s coffee grounds, using an endoscope photo projected onto an iPad. Schneps Media

By the time I got to Woodstock... Oy vey

BY HARRY PINCUS

T

he passage of years is relentless in the human scheme, and it’s hard to believe that 50 have passed since that frozen tip of a January morning, when I walked away from Wingate High School, Brooklyn, New York, with my diploma in hand.

The Beatles had taken to the roof of Apple that very day, and splendidly “passed the audition.” It all happened so fast, we didn’t know what we had lost.

It was the year of the American apogee, when we went straight to the moon, Alice, in a module with less computing power than an old phone. And it was a summer of savage darkness, in Vietnam, and Manson’s mad spree. On Chappaquiddick Island, a black Buick plunged into that darkness, and a dream died in the churning tides.

The world has certainly changed since that landmark summer, when hundreds of thousands of us journeyed to an Upstate New York farm, for something called Woodstock. They’ve been trying to find “Woodstock” again, of late, as if the Genie of Innocence and Hope still resides in the same bottle.

But, sadly, that particular sprite only lives on in the aged eyes of those who looked upon the mountain and saw the light of electric guitars and the hopes of a land of children.

Unfortunately, efforts to stage a 50th anniversary concert recently fell through, with Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang calling the fiasco, “a really bizarre trip.”

My own journey began when I acquired an office boy’s job at a small Wall St. brokerage. There on the 33rd floor of 140 Broadway, I took my place in the adult workforce, supplying blue envelopes for Janet while the brokers perused Screw magazine, which they hid in their attaché cases.

I prepared the coffee, maintained the Pitney Bowes postage stamp meter, and most important, cut the ticker tape, which emanated ceaselessly from an ancient mechanical oracle mounted beneath a glass bubble on a hallowed pedestal.

But, inspired by a 20-year-old coworker who had left the day before to join a swami commune in West Virginia, I dumped the Wall St. job and set off for Woodstock. Some kids from Brighton Beach and I had assuaged our parents’ collective terror by renting a room in a nearby bungalow colony, for an additional 5 bucks a head.

We were already tooling up Ocean Parkway in my friend Bob’s ’67 Chevy Impala when we heard that hundreds of thousands were also on the way, and that a state of emergency had been declared. Oh boy!

The cost of gas, at 29 cents a gallon, as well as the room in the bungalow colony and the tickets for the three days, which Schneps Media

COURTESY HARRY PINCUS

A teenage Harr y Pincus, left, with singer Arlo Guthrie at Coney Island on Labor Day 1969, t wo weeks after Pincus’s anticlimactic Woodstock experience.

I believe cost $21, weighed heavily upon our 16-year-old souls. When the WMCA Good Guys announced on the car radio that the fence had been breached, and the concert was “free,” Bob decided that we ought to unload our tickets on some yokels along the way.

In retrospect, I hope our victims kept their tickets, because they now fetch a premium on eBay. As for Bob, he would go on to sell his communications company to some corporate Big Brother for $5 million and, sadly, expire a few years later, on the day his divorce was finalized.

It was the young Bob who’d cooked up the adventure, from his scarred desk beside yours truly at Erasmus Hall summer school. It was Bob who had a car.

Bob supposed that we could somehow join the Woodstock film crew.

My friend was preternaturally overweight, acne-ridden and balding, which was unfortunate, as he was otherwise quite brilliant and the possessor of legendary driving skills. It was as if his land yacht of a car was an extension of his body, and while the last few miles of our journey took hours, the big old Chevy had, by now, taken on at least 20 kids. We had people on the roof, the hood, the top of the trunk and, most delightfully, girls sitting on our laps.

With Bob in full command, we managed to secure a parking spot just shy of the broken cyclone fence behind the stage, and simply walked in to the Great Aquarian Festival. The sight of hundreds of thousands of bodies, heaving and writhing, lined up along the hill was either awe inspiring or terrifying, depending upon how neurotic you were.

I, of course, was terrified.

All I could think of was what might happen once darkness descended upon this enormous bowl of humanity. What would happen when I lost my friends, and was left to my own wanderings,

without a ticket home? Furthermore, the scene was full of astounding hippies, rugged, mature men with full beards and long flowing hair, and wild and beautiful ladies. The hills were alive with the intoxicating smells of weed, patchouli oil, mud, sweat and shit. An Old Testament ghost with flowing black cape, a staff, and a goat, floated past us, just as Richie Havens began stamping out “Freedom” before our very eyes.

We soon wandered back to explore the facilities, and discovered that save for some porta potties and a few phones attached to long lines of city kids calling their mothers, there were none.

I had just quit my straight job, and figured that I looked like a child without so much as a wisp of facial hair, in the lame, striped polyester shirt my mother had foisted upon me. It was also clear that we might as well just give up, because five teenaged Jewish refugees from Brooklyn would be unable to compete with thousands of ripened hippies for the attention of the ladies.

I would soon have my long hair and a beard, live in a flower truck and cavort on a goat farm in Colorado with

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other naked souls, but by the time I got to Woodstock…I just wasn’t ready.

As we watched Richie Havens, from a nearby rise on the hill, it occurred to me that being wedged into such a throng for three days and nights might actually be a bore. Richie Havens was minuscule, and the sound was no better than it might have been on my friend’s stereo, back at Trump Village in Coney Island.

In light of the extravagant circumstances, we soon cooked up a bogus exit plan. We would all leave, in order to check out the bungalow colony, and then return to the festival.

As soon as we hit the road out, however, opposing the endless flow coming in, a sense of remorse overtook us. We realized that we could never return.

Of course the bourgeois comforts of the bungalow colony were still there waiting for us. But now all we had was an empty wooden shack, and no one had any desire to sleep on the floor that night.

Bob then tried to buck us up, by proposing that we visit a certain waitress he knew at Poppy’s Pancake House in nearby Parksville.

They had yet to build the highway extension that doomed Poppy’s, and the joint was jumpin’. Bob’s waitress friend was a sweetie, but didn’t have enough girlfriends available to go around. As we couldn’t just go home, we soon arrived at a collective decision. We would go off with a waitress or two and see Jane Fonda in “Barbarella” at the drivein, and then head for home.

And so it was that our weary troop pulled an all-nighter, and was nearly killed on the way home when Bob’s exhausted driving skills suddenly blinked out beside an 18-wheeler on the highway.

When I finally awoke that evening back in Brooklyn, and strolled out to the sultry courtyard of the Amalgamated Butcher’s Union Co-op, everyone was listening avidly for accounts of the great Aquarian Festival at Woodstock.

“I was just there,” I yawned. “It was O.K.”

August 8, 2019

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Manhattan Happenings Film Forum Web site, filmforum.org.

“Black Panther”: Take an actionpacked trip to the kingdom of Wakanda as the Central Park Conservancy presents this popular 2018 Marvel comicbook-inspired sci-fi film on Thurs., Aug. 15. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. and film starts at dusk. Located in Central Park at the landscape between Sheep Meadow and the 72nd St. Cross Drive.

BY MICAEL A MACAGNONE

POETRY Poets House Showcase: The 27th Annual Poets House Showcase runs until Sat., Aug 17, at Poets House’s Battery Park City home. The Showcase is a free exhibit featuring more than 3,300 books of poetry published by more than 800 presses over the previous 18 months. At Poets House, Elizabeth Kray Hall, 10 River Terrace. Free. Find more information at www.poetshouse. org.

ART “Silent Music,” by Kara Smith, is a mixed-media exhibit that investigates the codes and patterns of player-piano music rolls. The show focuses on how sounds can be experienced visually in a variety of tactile mediums, plus pushes the barriers of language and communication in new directions. Curated by Brooklyn-based artist and curator Sara Jones, the exhibit includes paintings, prints and fiber arts, as well as a sound piece by Berkshire-based musician Wes Buckley. Free. Closing reception Sat. Aug 10, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., at 266 W. 37th St.

PERFORMANCE Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart series ends Sat., Aug. 10, so there are a few more chances to see performances.

The dance-theater work “Under Siege,” by celebrated choreographer Yang Liping, explores war and power, betrayal and passion, from Aug. 8 to Aug. 10, at 7:30 p.m., at David Geffen Hall. In “Mozart à la Haydn,” pianist Steven Osborne joins Louis Langrée and the Festival Orchestra in a festive farewell to summer, on Aug. 9 and Aug. 10, at 7:30 p.m., in Geffen Hall. For more information, visit http://www.lincolncenter.org/mostly-mozart-festival .

Harlem Week: This annual event, now in its 45th year, has become one of the nation’s largest cultural events, and this year will have 100-plus events, including conferences, seminars, sports, music, food, dance and more. Summer Stage in Harlem is THE palce to be on Thursday nights, with “Broadway Night” on Aug. 8 and “Memphis Harlem” on Aug. 15, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Adam Clayton Powell Office Building, at 163 W. 125th St., at the corner of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard.

First Draft: A weekly reading series with a DJ, hosted by Urban Word NYC. First Draft is a free, uncensored, open mic for all ages, encouraging artistic expression, experimentation and development across all genres. At the northern end of Herald Square Park, at 34th St. and Sixth Ave., next to the Bellringers statue. Tues., Aug. 13, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

OUTDOORS

The secrets of Jay Maisel’s former building at Bower y and Spring St. — and of Maisel himself — are revealed in the new documentar y “Jay Myself.”

West, includes an immersive gallery with a 180-degree screen. Tickets can be purchased on the museum’s Web site, www.amnh.org, and are part of museum general admission. Running until Fri., Aug. 16.

tographer/artist Jay Maisel inhabited a thriving artist’s paradise. A successful commercial photographer and prolific art photographer, Maisel is also an obsessive collector of objects that have inspired him. “Jay Myself” chronicles his monumental move out of his 72-room home following its sale, the largest private real estate deal in New York City history. With humor and awe, Stephen Wilkes captures Maisel’s half-century of collecting — having had the room to save and exhibit every last thing he found beautiful, strange or (potentially) useful. Through Tues., Aug. 13, at Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. Tickets, $15, can be purchased through the

NATURE / SCIENCE Unseen Oceans at the Museum of Natural History: With the use of 21stcentury technologies like robotics, satellite monitoring and more, scientists are revealing the unseen habitats of the oceans’ most mysterious animals and mapping remote, inhospitable areas in unprecedented detail. The museum exhibit, at 79th St. and Central Park

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August 8, 2019

FILM “Jay Myself”: The Bank — a six-floor, 36,000-square-foot, 100-year-old landmarked building — sits on the corner of the Bowery and Spring St. For decades, it was draped in mystery, graffiti-covered, with boarded-up windows.

Inside of it, from 1966, renowned phoTVG

Central Park Tour: “Heart of the Park”: Walk straight through the heart of Central Park on this east-to-west tour led by Central Park Conservancy guides. Enjoy all the scenic, sculptural and architectural elements the park has to offer. Highlights include Conservatory Water (model-boat pond), Loeb Boathouse, Bethesda Terrace, Bow Bridge, Cherry Hill, The Lake and Strawberry Fields. Fri., Aug. 9, noon to 1:30 p.m. Meet at the Samuel F.B. Morse statue (inside the park, at 72nd St. and Fifth Ave.). Tour ends at 72nd St. and Central Park West.

“Rats, Bats and Pigeons, Oh My!” New York City is home to an amazing abundance of wildlife. In this New York City Naturalist Club event, Urban Park Rangers will guide you to the best wildlife viewing spots in the urban jungle. Sat., Aug. 10, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Meet at Tompkins Square Park at Avenue A and St. Mark’s Place.

Basic canoeing: Learn the all-important “J” stroke and the “bow sweep,” and — most importantly — how not to tip over! Urban Park Rangers will teach introductory canoeing for ages 8 years and older, though all skill levels are welcome. Participation in a mandatory safety review led by a trained Ranger is required. First come, first served. The line to participate may be closed before 12:30 p.m. due to demand. Sun., Aug. 11, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m, at Central Park’s Harlem Meer, at 110th St. and Lenox Ave. Schneps Media

Eats

I-CE-NY ice cream shop is rollin’

BY GABE HERMAN

A

lot of local ice cream shops boast that their flavors are locally made, but I-CE-NY actually makes its ice cream from scratch right in front of you in the shop. It’s hard to get more local than that.

The company started in Thailand, where it expanded to 30 locations in just its first six months. In 2015, founder Kajitsa Premwimol decided to expand to America, and the first shop in the States opened at 101 MacDougal St. The shop is still there, on the busy block between Bleecker and W. Third.

Business continues to boom, and the company now has more than 250 locations in Asia, and more than 20 in America in all parts of the country, from Florida to Colorado to Michigan.

The MacDougal St. spot is small and can get crowded, but it’s worth any wait to see the ice cream being made. It’s prepared near the counter area on big

PHOTO BY I_CE_NY/INSTAGRAM

In the foreground, chocolate ice cream with strawberr y, raspberr y, brownies and chocolate sauce.

metal plates that reach temperatures as low as 15 degrees below zero.

First, an ice cream base is poured out onto the plate, and other ingredients are then added in based on flavor options, like Rose Lychee, Mango Sticky Rice, Strawberry Cheesecake and S’mores.

Custom orders can also be made, with a choice from 20 mix-in ingredients and more than 30 toppings.

Metal paddles are used to quickly chop up the ingredients and mash them together, to be spread into a thin layer. In minutes, the ice cream firms up with the ingredients mixed in. It’s then scraped into rolls and served in cups.

Despite the unique appearance of being served in rolls, the end result is a great and familiar ice cream taste, very creamy and with a thin, smooth texture. That, along with the fun of watching how it’s made, make it easy to see why the company is thriving.

More information can be found at icenyicecream.com.

New urban farm grows at Essex Crossing

BY GABE HERMAN

T

alk about a green roof!

Well, actually, it’s a little bit orange and red, too.

Carrots, beets, baby kale and more are now being farmed on a rooftop deck on the Lower East Side at the new Essex Crossing development.

The Essex Crossing Farm, which opened July 31, is one quarter-acre, located on the sixth-floor deck of The Essex, at 125 Essex St., one of the nine sites of the development, which has been opening in stages.

Produce from the farm will go to a stand at the Market Line, a 150,000square-foot marketplace that will open later this summer and resemble a bazaar, offering a wide range of foods and other goods.

The new elevated farm is being run by the local nonprofit Project EATS, which operates 10 other urban farms across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. This one at Essex Crossing is the largest organic farm on Manhattan Island, and second largest in the borough after the Randall’s Island Farm.

Linda Bryant, founder and president of the nonprofit, said the Downtown urban farm is a great opportunity.

“Project EATS is extremely grateful for the opportunity Delancey Street Associates is giving us to work with and support this richly diverse, resourceful Schneps Media

COURTESY DELANCEY STREET ASSOCIATES

The Essex Crossing Farm, above, is a one-quar ter-acre space in the new L .E.S. development.

and baby kale.

For now, until the Market Line stand opens, the Farmacy is selling produce in the new Essex Crossing Park, at Clinton and Broome Sts., on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

and resilient community on the Lower East Side,” she said.

The items being grown, to be sold at the Farmacy stand in the Market Line, include root vegetables, like turnips, carrots, beets and radishes, along with baby greens, like arugula, mustards TVG

Project EATS will also run several programs at the Essex farm, including classes and after-school programs for public school students about the role of healthy foods and nutrition.

In addition, senior residents at Essex Crossing and in L.E.S. more broadly, will get free breakfast on Saturdays this year. The program will expand to families with children next year.

Also, students at Seward Park High School campus will have the chance to get jobs through the Essex farm in agricultural and community health training. Plus, there will be a public art project at the farm, called “Up On the Roof.”

One of the Essex Crossing developers, L + M Development Partners, has previously worked with Project EATS at a farm in Brownsville, Brooklyn, which yields more than 10,000 pounds of produce every season.

“As we know well from our work in Brownsville with Project EATS,” said Debbie Kenyon, L + M vice chairperson and senior partner, “we couldn’t possibly find an operator more dedicated not simply to creating a great farm, but to engaging with the community on many levels — from education, to senior programming, to workforce development, to health and wellness.

We’re looking forward to welcoming the L.E.S. community to the farm and providing fresh produce for the neighborhood in the Market Line.”

August 8, 2019

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August 8 - August 21, 2019

DEX

Schneps Media

The path to a safer cycling city clists. Robyn Hightman, a 20-year-old bike messenger, was reportedly riding outside the bike lane at Sixth Ave. and 23rd St. in Chelsea, when fatally hit by a truck.

Other messengers said that it’s common at that spot to zip outside the lane for a block or so, then duck back into it.

I found myself doing the same thing about a week later at 23rd St. and First Ave. when a pack of cyclists in front of me were too slow.

But I really looked over my shoulder for traffic as I was doing it, and luckily there wasn’t any on the street at the time.

While I really do like the bike lanes, I am not a big fan of “sharrows,” which bikes and cars supposedly can “share.” These are totally unprotected areas that cars can drive onto — so it’s basically at the driver’s discretion whether she goes into them.

Yes, sure, I see some cyclists out there who blow through red lights.

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

I

’ve wanted to write a column on biking in the city for a while now. Somehow, though, despite thinking about it a lot, I always end up putting it on the back burner each week as something more pressing invariably comes up.

Yet now we are facing a crisis as the number of cyclists’ deaths so far this year in the Big Apple has already spiked to 18 — nearly double the 10 deaths for all of last year. Cyclist injuries are also on the rise.

That’s why the bike lanes are so crucial. I definitely “stay in my lane.” I feel safe in the lanes.

I can ride a CitiBike from my work in Downtown Brooklyn to my home in East Midtown Manhattan, 4.6 miles, in just over a half hour — and the entire trip is in a protected bike lane: Jay St. to the Manhattan Bridge, then up Allen St. and First Ave. It’s faster for me than commuting by subway — by 15 minutes.

Biking over the bridge is great cardio, and a side benefit is I find I think things through while doing it. Somehow by the time I reach the span’s midpoint, things on my mind resolve, and then I’m happily flying down the other side.

Of course, there’s also the health benefit, both physical and mental.

Small annoyances fade much more quickly after a good bike ride, and your body feels energized. Just the act of riding feels liberating — because it is.

At the bottom of the Manhattan Bridge there’s a kiosk with an L.E.D. display showing how many cyclists have used the bridge so far this year — well over 600,000 — and how many each day, usually somewhere around 7,000 or so in the warm weather, I think.

(Somehow, I never actually seem to be riding by it at 11:59 p.m. to check the day’s final tally.)

The bike lane on Allen St. is one of my favorites. At one point, the lane actually veers up onto the mall and you’re riding along a landscaped path with flowers and tall grasses along the sides while dodging the occasional low-hanging branch and you sometimes can even hear crickets — in the concrete jungle.

It’s like a little, refreshing, meditative nature ride, and all the while you’re totally safe from traffic, up on the mall.

But if you really want to hear crickets, try the Hudson River bikeway. I heard a virtual cricket concert there riding along the path’s Chelsea section this past Friday evening.

No question, the bike lanes have increased cyclists’ safety. Just look at the relatively new two-way lane on the east Schneps Media

FILE PHOTO

Upper West Sider Olga Cook was biking on the Hudson River path in June 2016 when she was killed at Chambers St. by a truck turning from the West Side Highway.

side of Chrystie St. on the Lower East Side/Chinatown, which I take on my way to work. Before, there were separate one-way bike lanes on each side of the street, and the Downtown one ran right past all kinds of lumber stores and beer outlets, with forklifts constantly backing up into the bike lane.

Now, with the two-way lane on the east side of the street, the cyclists are safe — but those riding Downtown have to go slowly and ring their bells so crossing pedestrians look out for them.

Granted, though, the lanes aren’t perfect. Sometimes you get people going the wrong way in them — bikers, skateboarders, delivery guys on e-bikes — and pedestrians using them as a sidewalk extension. If the lane is protected by a row of parked cars, you always still can get “doored,” so you have to ride cautiously. And, even if I’m in a bike lane, I’m always looking over my shoulder when I go through an intersection to check for turning cars.

Most drivers, I find, though, are pretty considerate, to be honest. Especially lately, maybe because of the awareness over cyclist fatalities, I’m finding a lot of drivers and cabbies are stopping before making their left turns, going out of their way to let cyclists go by first before completing their turns. As I pass, I usually nod my head or flick my fingers on my right hand a bit while not letting go of the handlebar, to thank them for letting me go first.

Admittedly, though, the lanes can get jammed up, such as by slower cy-

PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

An early-morning photo, from last year, of a kiosk that tallies rides over the Manhattan Bridge.

Personally, I always stop at the special bicycle stoplights on 14th and 23rd Sts. along First and Second Aves. Again, it’s just safer. The only time I really make bad moves is if I’m rushing.

The Friday night after Hightman’s tragic death, I was in Chelsea for an offbeat dinner party I regularly go to.

Afterward, I went by the white “ghost bike” memorial on Sixth Ave. It was festooned with flowers, messages, candles. I spoke to a young woman who also came by to pay her respects. Taking a working break from college in Europe, she lives in Brooklyn and bikes to Midtown every day, 8 miles each way.

Glancing over at the sidewalk, she said in her country, there would be a wide bike lane there and it would be raised above street level to protect it TVG

from traffic.

I said something about New York always valuing speed and business, which maybe is why cars are prioritized.

“This country is great, but in some ways this country sucks,” she said, sadly. “It’s pissing on the little guy,” she said, of cars mowing down cyclists and the lack of more protected spaces for biking.

I reassured her that while we are not there yet, we’re getting there, that young people, especially, want to be able to bike safely in the city, and that, gradually, it will happen.

We touched on the fact — probably I brought it up — that Hightman was killed after veering out of the bike lane, and I said I never do that — only, of course, to actually do it myself a few days later. That’s because, she explained, I have a “reverse commute,” so the lanes I’m riding in aren’t as crowded. Yup, she was right.

(The dinner party’s hostess later told me that she had seen the scene after Hightman’s death — the truck was still there — and that the cyclist actually had been trying to go from the right side of the avenue to the left side, where the bike lane is.)

The young Euro biker and I eventually said goodbye to each other.

As usual, I pedaled home on a CitiBike, on the new protected crosstown bike lane on 26th St. There’s a ghost bike there, too, just past Eighth Ave. A small sign notes it’s for Dan Hanegby, 36, killed there by a bus in June 2017.

His death — the first of a CitiBike rider — led to the creation of that crosstown lane and one on 29th St., which I also use when I’m going to the Friday night party. Sadly, Hanegby died on an unsafe street that today — because of his tragic death — I ride on in safety.

CitiBikes also make cycling safer: They are pretty slow, sturdy, with fat tires that roll right over potholes and excellent brakes. It took getting used to, but now I ride them everywhere.

According to my account, over the past six years, I’ve logged (or slogged?)

1,709 CitiBike trips, traveling an estimated 2,868 miles — or 100 miles more than from New York City to Los Angeles. So, basically, I’ve biked across the country. In doing so, my account info tells me, I have not spewed 2,329 pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. So I guess that’s my little part of a Green New Deal.

Many of the deaths have been in Brooklyn on streets without bike lanes.

In response, the mayor recently announced the city would create 10 “bike priority districts” in Brooklyn and Queens, plus add 30 miles of new protected bike lanes per year — up from the previous 20 per year. Obviously, that’s going to have a huge impact.

As the saying goes, and for safety: “Stay in your lane.”

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Real Estate

Bright ideas for brownstone lights

BY LIZ SADLER CRYAN

I

f you live in a brownstone or townhouse, selecting outdoor light fi xtures for a home in some cases as old as the lightbulb itself can be tricky.

Should you choose something historically accurate to illuminate the 10-foothigh double doors, or something spare and modern to complement the historic facade?

“First, if the house is landmarked or in a landmarked area, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will actually have to review the fi xture and finish specification,” interior designer Tamara Eaton explained. “They typically like to see either traditional fi xtures or very minimal fi xtures, if they are not too dominantly displayed.”

The Urban Electric Co. offers a wide range of finishes and designs, such as the Altamont sconce, Eaton noted.

When selecting a finish, the designer usually opts for black to match the trim color of a typical brownstone.

“We often consider the door and facade color when selecting lights,” Eaton said.

“And more often than not, we select a black finish, so it ties into either the door color, or the black ironwork typically found on the handrail or fence to the property.

“I personally prefer either a very modern and clean exterior light or something stripped down that still has a traditional reference.”

Eaton recommends timers that you can adjust throughout the year, according to the daylight hours.

For a traditional design or land-

PHOTO BY SUSAN DE VRIES

marked townhouse, Remains Lighting offers a wide variety of custom and made-to-order fi xtures, such as the Sorenson Exterior Wall Lantern, architect Anshu Bangia of Bangia Agostinho Architecture said.

“When designing outdoor lighting for residential projects,” Bangia said, “our focus can range from using decorative or point-source lighting to indicate a path or entry, to illuminating surfaces with diffuse, indirect light to

PHOTO BY SUSAN DE VRIES

highlight materials, give visual depth, and provide outdoor spaces with a sense of comfort.”

For lighting a path or steps, Bangia recommends the Recessed Luminaires

by Bega. For surfaces, such as garden walls or a stone patio, she suggests Vista Professional Outdoor Lighting.

For outdoor fi xtures at medium price points, designers Suzanna and Lauren Mcgrath of McGrath2 recommend the lighting company Lamps Plus. Urban Electric is another preferred but pricier option.

PHOTO BY SUSAN DE VRIES

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“We prefer to select traditional fi xtures in finishes that replicate vintage lighting,” Lauren McGrath said. “Aged zinc is one of our favorites.”

The designers often opt for motion sensors to illuminate the front of a townhouse.

“Motion sensors are practical,” she said, “particularly on the street side of the house. So, when available, we definitely like to use them.”

This article first ran in Brownstoner, a sister publication of The Villager.

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