The Villager Express - January 30, 2020

V i s i t u s o n l i n e a t w w w .T h e V i l l a g e r. c o m

THE

S S E R P X E

January 30, 2020 Volume 90 • Number 3

The Paper of Record for East and West Villages, Little Italy, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, and Chinatown

UNFORGOTTEN

East Villager still rocking Page 16

NYPD marks grim anniversary of East Village cop killings Page 4

More angst over SoHoNoHo plans

SCREENSHOT OF VIDEO VIA TWITTER/@NYPDSHEA

Members of the NYPD Cold Case Unit with the poster showing the images of two officers shot to death at the corner of Avenue B and East 11th Street 48 years ago.

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Fight continues over SoHo-NoHo Initiative

BY SOFIA CERDA CAMPERO

D

ozens of people gathered on Jan. 23 for the full Community Board 2 meeting at the Scholastic building in SoHo. Once again, the dispute over fair housing and the Envision SoHo/NoHo plan, a possible new development that seeks improvement and innovation in the area, was the main topic on the table.

Other issues included the AB-5, a California bill which does not grant protections to independent contractors; The Street Vendor Project resolution, which protects vendors from getting billed and helps them grow their business through training; and the accountability of the MTA, were also discussed.

The Envision SoHo/NoHo report, an 86-page document published in November by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, the Department of City Planning and Councilwoman Margaret Chin, details a list of recommendations such as improving the quality of life for neighbors and workers in the area, encouraging neighborhood diversity, and promoting economic vitality.

These also include repealing regulations that ban ground-floor retail, allowing retail space at 10,000 square feet.

This initiative was met with backlash from local residents and coalitions such as Open New York For All, a prohousing project that aims to rezone

PHOTO BY SOFÍA CERDA CAMPERO

The Jan. 23 CB2 meeting.

the area in an attempt to make it more affordable.

In a board meeting on Jan. 16, Anita Brandt, the co-chair of the CB 2 Land Use Committee said, “I think that one of the great things about New York City is that every neighborhood contributes something different. And so, what we’re contributing in SoHo with our cast-iron and cobblestones… I don’t feel that we should be responsible for producing as much affordable housing as other neighborhoods.”

To anti-development activists, these remarks were highly controversial, as it seemed that the project aimed to replace affordable housing with cobblestones and fancy buildings.

The fight for pro-housing rezoning

states that having affordable housing in wealthy areas of the city would be a key part of ending segregation. Comptroller Scott Stringer estimates that since 2009, the city has added 500,000 residents, yet only 100,000 homes, causing rents to rise 24%.

“Who is a stakeholder in the SoHo rezoning?” asked Dan Miller, treasurer of New York for All. “A lot of people in this room have been vociferous in saying the only stakeholders are people who live in SoHo/NoHo, or work in SoHo/NoHo. We should reject that wholeheartedly.”

Miller stated that the community board law in New York City is set up to not only include the voices of residents but to include all relevant people.

“The relevant audience for a decision of this magnitude is citywide,” he said, stating he has personally been affected by the increase in rent throughout all boroughs. “I urge the board to think of the people who have come to you asking to take their interest into account.”

Although the next steps on this initiative have remained undecided, on Jan. 24, Mayor Bill de Blasio addressed the issue on the Brian Lehrer Show, saying, “A really important plan came out recently that showed a pathway to create more affordable housing in Lower Manhattan.”

He said they would have to further look at its viability in the coming months and years, adding, “We have to create affordable housing everywhere if we want to keep this city a city for everyone.”

Two 5th Pct. officers flunk ‘integrity test,’ get cuffed

BY EMILY DAVENPORT

T

wo members of the 5th Precinct were arrested for allegedly stealing cash during an “integrity test” held by the department, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Police Officer Joseph Stokes, 40, was charged with grand larceny and official misconduct, and Officer Jose Aracena, 35, was charged with petit larceny and official misconduct.

“These officers are accused of stealing from someone they believed to be the perpetrator of a crime – in other words, someone who might have been met with disbelief had they come forward to report a theft by police officers,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance. “Crimes committed by members of law enforcement threaten the essential public trust that our communities place in us, and will be vigorously prosecuted by my Office’s Schneps Media

PHOTO VIA SHUTTERSTOCK

Public Corruption Unit.”

According to charges, at 1:45 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2019, the NYPD performed an integrity test on Stokes and Aracena.

During the test, the officers arrested an undercover officer, who was posing as

an intoxicated driver, at a traffic stop on Stanton and Orchard Streets on the Lower East Side.

During the arrest, Stokes and Aracena brought the undercover officer to the 7th Precinct stationhouse

for processing and they allegedly separately searched the “perp’s” car.

During the search, Stokes allegedly found several “stash cans” – hollow containers of hidden money disguised as fruit punch – containing approximately $4,800. Surveillance footage allegedly shows Stokes hiding the cans under his own car in the parking lot.

The money was never vouchered and members of the Internal Affairs Bureau found the two cans under Stokes’s car later that day.

Hidden cameras inside the undercover officers’s car allegedly captured Aracena taking $120 from inside the glove compartment and $100 from the center console while he searched the car for registration paperwork. That money was never vouchered and Aracena allegedly told Stokes and another officer that there was no money in the car when he searched it.

Januar y 30, 2020

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East Village ‘Spiritual Sounds’ unites world of faiths

BY CHRISS WILLIAMS

T

he pews of Most Holy RedeemerNativity Church in the East Village were packed with Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and the unaffiliated on Jan. 26 to listen to the 11th annual “Spiritual Sounds; An Evening of Faith, Recitation and Music.”

The topic of religion and spiritual practice has long been a point of contention for communities inside and outside of New York City but not in this space.

Spiritual Sounds is not political in nature or promoting anything other than unity in diversity. For two hours, attendees witnessed members from a variety of faith communities perform and engage in what the German theologian Rudolf Otto called the “numinous,” communicating with God, others, the universe and themselves through sound.

The event allowed people to witness humanity outside of their social filter bubbles, an experience the event’s creator and organizer Anthony Donovan says is uncommon.

Donovan addressed those gathered inside Most Holy Redeemer- Nativity Church, with awe and praise as their simple act of attending the event demonstrated tremendous strength.

PHOTO BY CHRISS WILLIAMS

Middle Collegiate Church choir led by John Delcueto.

“We all have people in our communities that may not approve of you doing this,” said Donovan.

Religious institutions around the country have witnessed a surge of violence as religious identity is often a motivating factor in hate crimes. According to the NYPD, hate crimes in the city were up 19% in 2019 and anti-Semitic hate crimes increased by 26% with 234 incidents.

Mayor Bill de Blasio recently asserted its commitment to combating anti-Semitism and hate crimes against religious groups through the establishment of

multi-ethnic interfaith neighborhood safety coalitions and working with the NYC Department of Education to create new programming for schools that promote tolerance.

Spiritual Sounds has provided a reflective refuge from oppression and hatred for the past eleven years.

“New York City is noisy,” said Father William Elder, whose parish hosted this year’s event. “Our challenge is in the midst of the cacophony around us is to listen to the sounds of the spirit, to listen to spiritual sounds, the sounds of the human heart.”

Alex Seibel of The Bhakti Center, challenged stereotypes of what a “spiritual sound” should be with his performance of an original rap song. “The way we understand Bhakti is that anything can be transformed into a devotional act to God,” Seibel told The Villager.

Other local faith groups participating included; St. Marks Church in the Bowery, The Shul of New York, Light of Guidance Sufi Center, St. Mary’s American Orthodox Church, Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection, Second Avenue Church, Sixth Street Community Synagogue, The Catholic Worker, Most Holy Redeemer-Nativity Church, Nechung Foundation, The Center of Universal Peace, Town & Village synagogue, Medina Masjid Mosque, and Middle Collegiate Church.

Adam Raabe, a former resident of the East Village, attended Spiritual Sounds for the first time. After Middle Collegiate Church’s gospel choir closed the evening with rousing joy-filled number, he mused that the event was everything the world needs in 2020, ”a melding of the good things that religions can offer, specifically: community and inspiration. The event is welcoming, diverse, and awe inspiring.”

Remembering East Village cops slain 48 years ago

BY GABE HERMAN

M

onday marked a gruesome anniversary in the history of the NYPD and the East Village.

On Jan. 27, 1972, Police Officers Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie were killed while on duty by members of the Black Liberation Army, an underground black nationalist militant group that was largely made up of Black Panther members, and existed from about 1970-81.

Two of the men believed by police to have executed the officers wound up dead within two years, according to writer and former NYPD officer Edward Conlon.

They had died in shootouts with police, one of which involved Rocco Laurie’s gun.

While two other suspects remain of interest to the NYPD, the investigation officially remains open.

“Today we remember Patrolman Gregory Foster & Patrolman Rocco Laurie,” the 9th Precinct tweeted out on Monday, “partners and assigned to @NYPD9Pct. Forty-eight years ago today, while walking in the area of Avenue B & E. 11th St., they were ambushed, shot, and killed. #FidelisAdMortem #NeverForget”

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Januar y 30, 2020

It was an era of high crime, 9th Precinct and other NYPD violence and racial tensions. officials, including former Police The killings occurred around Commissioner Bill Bratton and 10:50 p.m. on that fateful night, current Police Commissioner while Foster, 22, who was black, Dermot Shea in recent years.

“Today in 1972, NYPD P.O.s and Laurie, 23, who was white, Gregory Foster and Rocco Lauwere on duty and in uniform.

They had finished looking rie were assassinated – shot in into a nearby domestic dispute their backs – solely because of report, and were walking on the blue uniforms they wore,” 11th Street toward Avenue B Shea tweeted in 2018. “These when they noticed a double2 heroes fought for America as Marines in Vietnam, and parked car.

(TWITTER/@NYPD9PCT) The patrolmen checked in worked every day after to keep Patrolmen Foster and Laurie were killed on Jan. NYers safe. We will never, ever a nearby diner if anyone knew 27, 1972. forget.” whose car it was, and when no one did, they walked back outside. They 3, 1972 issue of The Villager included a Foster’s legacy is being carried on in passed by a group of men, who would report about the incident: “A citywide his family, as NYPD Chief of Department then turn around and start shooting at dragnet is underway for four alleged Terence Monahan tweeted a photo of Fosthe Officers, who were shot in the back members of the Black Revolutionary ter next to one of his grandson in uniform several times. Then the shooters took the Army wanted for questioning in the as a current member of the NYPD. “In his grays, this is Probationary Poofficers’ guns and shot them again. murders this past weekend of East VilFoster, who was married and had two lage Patrolmen Gregory Foster and Rocco lice Officer Gregory Foster III,” Monahan children, was shot eight times. Laurie, Laurie.” wrote on Nov. 18, 2019. “He now wears who was married, was shot six times.

Nearly a half-century after the heinous the shield of his grandfather, Officer Both men were former Marines and crime, the NYPD is active in keeping Gregory Foster, who along with Officer alive the memories of Foster and Lau- Rocco Laurie was shot and killed in the Vietnam veterans.

After the killings, the NYPD released rie. Messages of remembrance go out line of duty in 1972. Thank you for carryinformation on several suspects. The Feb. every year on social media, from the ing on the legacy, Greg. #Never Forget.”

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Police Blotter Used stolen cards at CVS

Threats made at church A harassment report was filed against a man for allegedly threatening another man outside the Church of Sts. Cyril & Methodius and St. Raphael, at 502 W. 41st St., according to police.

On Sunday, Dec. 15, the victim, a 44-year-old man, told police he was at-

tending a church event with his family.

He said that while leaving the church, the other man, 53, who was described as an acquaintance, started yelling at him and repeatedly saying, “I’m gonna kill you, you don’t belong here, why are you even here.”

The victim said the man continued yelling as he walked and put his family in the car. The victim told police he feared for his safety from the incident.

— Gabe Herman

Bike rider goes off in dispute

Smash and grab at Mackage SoHo

BY ROBERT POZARYCKI

S Stolen credit cards were used to make purchases, after a woman’s wallet went missing in an East Village bar on Thursday, Dec. 12, police said.

Around 9 p.m., inside a bar at 34th Ave. B, a 28-year-old woman noticed that her wallet was gone and contacted the police.

An investigation found that two days later on Dec. 14, around 6 p.m., a man allegedly used the victim’s stolen credit cards to buy several items at a CVS at 253 First Ave. The man, described as between 20 and 30 years old, then fled to parts unknown. The wallet and amounts charged to the cards had a combined estimated value of $1,200, officials said.

— Gabe Herman

Armed heist on St. Mark’s There was a group robbery inside an apartment building near St. Marks Place on Thursday, Jan. 9, according to police.

Around 12:30 a.m., near Second Avenue and St. Marks Place, five people, at least three of them male, followed a 23-year-old male victim to the second floor of the building and allegedly demanded his property.

One of the thieves allegedly lifted his shirt to reveal a handgun in his waistband. The victim complied and the group fled the building in an unknown direction, with a wallet containing several debit and credit cards.

There were no injuries reported from the incident.

— Gabe Herman

ix smash-and-grab thieves who broke into the Mackage Clothing Boutique in SoHo this week and stole $40,000 in luxury coats remain at large, police reported.

Cops said the burglary occurred at 11:12 p.m. on Jan. 23 at the store located at 123 Mercer St. According to law enforcement sources, one of the thieves hurled a large, unknown object through the glass front door, allowing him and his cohorts entry.

Video footage that the NYPD released on Jan. 25 shows the crook hurling the object, which appears to be similar to a concrete slab, through the door.

The suspects are shown entering the shop, then exiting moments later, clutching armfuls of coats.

In all, police reported, the sextet grabbed 52 coats, valued at $40,000, and fled inside two getaway vehicles

An e-bike rider is wanted for assault after an argument with pedestrians turned violent, according to officials.

On Jan. 23, at 12:45 p.m., a man, 57, and a woman were walking at Eighth Avenue and West 40th Street, when a man rode past them on an e-bike and nearly struck them, police said.

An argument ensued, and the biker allegedly spat on the man, before turning his bike around to confront him.

He then got off the bike and allegedly began to fight with the victim. During the fight, police said, he pulled out a knife and slashed the male victim on his face, then fled.

The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment.

— Gabe Herman — a gray BMW X5 and a black Lincoln Town Car. Anyone with information regarding their whereabouts can call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (for Spanish, dial 888-57-PISTA).

Mackage burglars steal $40K in coats

BY EMILY DAVENPORT

C

ops are looking for a crook who broke into a Lower East Side synagogue and stole electronics.

Police say that at 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 25, a 62-year-old custodian returned to work at the Eldridge Street Synagogue, located at 12 Eldridge St., and found that property was missing and reported it to police.

A subsequent investigation by police found that at 8:45 p.m. the previous night, an unknown man was caught on surveillance footage entering the synagogue though a secured side window. Once inside, the suspect took electronics, valued at $400, and fled on foot to parts unknown.

Call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS with information on the case.

Phone snatched at subway stop A woman was robbed at a 42nd Street subway station on Thursday, Jan. 16, police said.

Around 4 p.m., a woman, 35, was standing on the platform of the downtown B train, when a man allegedly snatched her cell phone from her hand and then fled the station.

— Gabe Herman

One fishy thief A man was caught trying to shoplift seafood from Whole Foods at 250 Seventh Ave., police said. On Saturday, Jan. 25, around 5 p.m., a loss prevention officer at the store saw a man allegedly place two items in his jacket without paying, including a lobster tail and a package of shrimp, with a total value of $62. He was caught when trying to leave the store, and the man, 61, was arrested for petit larceny.

— Gabe Herman

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Recovery continues in Chinatown after big blaze

BY EMILY DAVENPORT AND ROBERT POZARYCKI

C

hinatown remains in recovery mode following a devastating, five-alarm inferno at a historic building last week which destroyed community facilities and more than 85,000 museum artifacts kept in storage.

At around 8:40 p.m. on Jan. 23, the FDNY responded to a call regarding a fire at 70 Mulberry Street. The fire quickly escalated, spreading to the fifth floor and the roof, and was categorized as a five-alarm fire, according to the FDNY. Hundreds of firefighters worked for hours to get the flames under control, completely extinguishing the fire sometime the following morning.

Nine people, eight of which were firefighters, were injured as a result of the fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The building served as the home base for many local nonprofits as well as a senior center and the Chen Dance Center, and also stored more than 85,000 documents from the Museum of Chinese in America.

“This building is home to many local non profits and a senior center that serves as a pillar to the Chinatown community,”

said Mayor Bill de Blasio on Twitter. “I know the neighborhood is in shock tonight. We’re going to help the community get through this. de Blasio announced Monday that city agencies are working to place tenants housed at 70 Mulberry St. at nearby sites until the fire-damaged structure is repaired or rebuilt.

De Blasio called the Mulberry Street building “a pillar of Chinatown,” as it houses numerous cultural groups, athletic organizations and social services to assist local residents.

In addition to offering storage space to store recovered artifacts, the city is also providing the Museum of Chinese in America with resources from the Department of Records and Department of Cultural Affairs to further recover their archives.

“The fire at 70 Mulberry jeopardizes a vital collection of American history,” said Nancy Yao Maasbach, president of the Museum of Chinese in America. “Thank you for the outpouring of support from near and far. MOCA is strengthened and determined to recover, repair and rebuild.”

Meanwhile, the city connected the CPC Chinatown Senior Center with four

PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY

nearby senior centers to accommodate members. The primary alternate site is the Open Door Senior Center, 168 Grand St. “CMP has been grateful for the support the mayor, elected and city officials, and the community have offered us since the five-alarm fire broke out on Thursday night,” said Hong Shing Lee, the CMP executive director. “At this moment, CMP’s first and foremost priority is to continue our commitment to the community we serve, minimize service interruption and

resume our program activities as soon as possible.”

The Chinatown Manpower Project will be using space provided by the Chung Pak Daycare Center and P.S. 130, while the H.T. Dance Company will be moving its administrative offices to a nearby partner organization. The city is also offering its space at 125 Worth St. for the dance company’s performances.

Finally, the United East Athletic Association will be relocated to available space in the municipal building at 1 Centre St.

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Rally for Ravi, and against ICE, at Foley Square

BY TEQUIL A MINSK Y

O

ver 150 supporters rallied with immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir at Foley Square on Jan. 23 before his 9:30 scheduled check-in with ICE. Two years ago, what was supposed to be a standard check-in turned into something much greater. Ragbir, Executive Director of the New Sanctuary Coalition, was detained, fainted, taken by ambulance to hospital and then flown to Krone Detention Facility in Miami while supporters demonstrated, got arrested and fought his deportation. There is a stay in place to prevent his deportation, but he still has to report to ICE, and has to return on July 23.

Politicians and faith leaders with his wife accompanied Ragbir into the Federal Building while supporters circled the Federal Building and prayed, and Ravi Ragbir accompanied him when he was released.

Ragbir’s attorney Alina Das responded to ICE’s claims that his previous detention was for public safety. “ICE targeted Ravi because he spoke out against a cruel and unjust system. He is still here because the public has spoken out for him. We are grateful that Ravi is still with us, and we will continue to fight to protect the rights of all immigrants.”

Ragbir received his green card in 1994, but now faces the double punishment of deportation based on a single fraud conviction he received almost twenty years ago. He was given a final order of deportation in 2007 but was placed on an order of supervision in 2008, allowing him to live and work in the U.S. During that time, he became active in the immigrant rights movement, and paid the price for that activism when ICE detained him on Jan. 11, 2018, and tried to deport him.

A federal appeals court has recognized that the First Amendment protects immigrants from retaliation for their protected political speech and has issued a temporary stay of Ragbir’s deportation. The government is deciding whether to appeal the decision.

“I happen to have the privilege of being PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY a citizen,” said Public Advocate Jumaane returns after checking in with ICE. Williams at the rally. “And everybody who Amy Gottlieb, his wife, spoke to supporters after his has privilege has to use that to protect those check-in. “We are so grateful to have the support of our who don’t, those who are being abused and oppressed. legal team, our families, our friends, our elected officials, That is our duty to stand in the gap. It is our duty to make our faith leaders, as ICE continues to try to exert power sure we are lifting up those who have been oppressed over our lives. But we know that we will walk out each by a system…. How do you have a life when you have time, and that our power as a united community will to check in every six months and you don’t know what’s going to happen?” overcome injustice and lead us to victory.”

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Impeachment protesters hit Grand Central

BY GABE HERMAN

D

ozens of Rise and Resist members g rouped themselves at Grand Central during the peak of rush hours, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Monday night, for a vocal demonstration, sparked by the impeachment proceedings on speed and lack of witnesses.\ Demonstrators chanted the sentiments on their signs, and many passersby echoed the same sentiments.

There were also Trump supporters that responded with their points of view, usually without breaking pace.

PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Protesters in Grand Central during the evening rush on Monday.

Chelsea Flea Market gets new life this spring

BY GABE HERMAN

A

fter the Chelsea Flea Market closed down at the end of last year, a new flea market is set to take its place starting this spring.

The flea market will open in April at the same location, at 29 West 25th St., between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, but under new management, as first reported by Gothamist.

Operators of the Brooklyn Flea will run the market, which is to be called Chelsea Flea and will be open yearround on weekends, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Opening weekend will be April 4 and 5, Eric Demby, co-founder of Brooklyn Flea, told this paper.

“We have spent the last several days—since signing our lease just last week—searching far and wide for longtime dealers from the 25th St. lot and the old Garage location,” Demby said on Jan. 28, “to offer those folks a spot at the new market, as we believe they deserve to be at the core of the Chelsea Flea’s future.”

Demby said over 30 vendors had been booked so far for the opening weekend, “and anticipate that number going much higher in the coming weeks.”

The Chelsea Flea Market, which had Andy Warhol as a regular, was previously run by Alan Boss, who ran Annex Flea Markets since 1976, which included several locations in the Chelsea area.

When the lease was not renewed for weekends, the Chelsea Flea Market held

Schneps Media

PHOTO BY LARRY BAUMHOR

The Chelsea Flea Market in September 2014.

its final days on Dec. 28 and 29 of 2019.

Other Annex locations nearby included indoor market The Garage on West 25th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, which closed in 2014, and Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market on West 39th Street and Ninth Avenue, which consolidated with Chelsea Flea Market in January 2019.

Brooklyn Flea also operates the Brooklyn food market Smorgasburg.

Demby said of Chelsea Flea, “We will incorporate 5 or so food vendors into the market, much as the Brooklyn Flea has done for years, but food will not be the focus, just an amenity.”

Demby said he hoped to keep the flea

market tradition going in Chelsea, while also moving forward and attracting new people.

“Our hope is that by returning New York’s biggest and highest-quality vintage and antiques market to its status as a regional and global destination,” Demby said, “we will bring back many longtime buyers while attracting a new generation of shoppers who constantly seek out what’s unique and special in style and who care about current fashion’s impact on the environment and climate.”

Demby said a decision hasn’t been made yet whether to continue the flea market’s previous early-bird hours, from 6:30-9 a.m., but he added they are leaning toward keeping those hours in place.

PHOTO BY LARRY BAUMHOR

Items at the Chelsea Flea Market in July 2014.

Januar y 30, 2020

11

Editorial A new website, and a renewed commitment The online home of The Villager, Chelsea Now, Downtown Express and Manhattan Express newspapers, thevillager.com, has been merged into the online home of amNewYork Metro, amny.com.

Combining the two sites allows for greater visibility of the great stories published in the weekly Manhattan newspapers, and provides a one-stop shop for all your local news.

Our team is still in the process of uploading all previously published stories on thevillager.com to amny.com — as the archives date back many years. When that is completed, those who type in thevillager.com will be automatically redirected to amny.com.

Change is never easy, and we know some might bristle with this change and others made in recent months. It’s only natural to feel that way. But we felt the need to change in order to keep up with the many changes taking place in our corner of Manhattan and beyond.

Our focus will always be chronicling great stories about culture, business, arts and entertainment in The Village and surrounding neighborhoods. These are stories you won’t be able to find anywhere else.

There are, of course, many other stories to tell — and stories that need to be told — all over the island. We intend to tell them, and reach every reader we can.

We have a dedicated team of journalists going out to local community board meetings and covering important issues of the day. They’re all across the area chronicling, in word and image, the big events in each community.

They’re keeping an eye on police activities and arrests, staying on top of education issues, going to City Hall to get the facts on public policy, highlighting issues with public transit, and examining changes in the real estate market that affect your rents, your property values, your cost of living.

Some of the news we report may be what you want to read. Others may be things you need to know. All of it, we believe, is important to you.

However you get your news — online or in print every Thursday — please know that we’re committed to doing our best to give you the best. We may succeed or err along the way; we hope you’ll appreciate what we provide, and forgive us when we slip up.

Thanks for your support!

Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now, Downtown Express and Manhattan Express PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER CEO & CO-PUBLISHER EDITOR IN CHIEF REPORTERS

CONTRIBUTORS

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PUBLISHER’S LIABILITY FOR ERROR The Publisher shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher’s liability for others errors or omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue.

Published by Schneps Media One Metrotech North, 3rd floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 Phone: (718) 260-2500 Fax: (212) 229-2790 On-line: www.thevillager.com E-mail: news@thevillager.com © 2019 Schneps Media

12

Januar y 30, 2020

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

Member of the New York Press Association

Creative Arts Class in 1971

(VILLAGER FILE PHOTO/NYU)

F

rom the Dec. 16, 1971 issue of The Villager, Shelley Goren of LaGuardia Place helps Bronx youth in a weekly creative arts class. The class met every Monday uptown at NYU’s Gould Student Center.

The caption noted that Shelley was the daughter of Arnold Goren, Assistant Chancellor of the university.

— Gabe Herman

Thunderbird American Indian Dancers Pow Wow and Dance Concert January 24 - February 2, Tix $18 Fri & Sat 8PM, Sat & Sun 3PM

Brocade by Robert E. DiNardo January 30 - February 16, Tix $18 Thur - Sat 8PM, Sun 3PM

212 - 254 - 1109 | www.theaterforthenewcity.net | 155 First Ave. NY, NY 10003

Local News Read all about it!

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Member of the Minority Women Business Enterprise

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Op-Ed

Public charge ruling a devastating blow for immigrants

BY ANN TOBACK

I

n a blow to immigrant rights activists across the country, Monday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allows the Trump Administration to implement a devastating public charge provision.

Since taking office, the Trump Administration has done everything in its power to close America’s “golden door,” as inscribed in the base of the Statue of Liberty, to those who come here in search of safety and opportunity. One of the ways the Trump Administration has sought to achieve this is through enacting changes to the long-existing public charge provision – a test that is used by the federal government to determine if an individual seeking to immigrate

is likely to become dependent on the government for subsistence.

Make no mistake, this rule is tantamount to a racially motivated wealth test that punishes lower-income immigrants of color in favor of those with more wealth and higher levels of education, more likely to come from predominantly white countries.

It is a mistake to view people in need as a burden.

On appeal, circuit courts in other parts of the country reversed the lower court decisions to block the new rule, opening the way for it to go into effect.

In early January, we were able to let out a small sigh of relief, as a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit here in New York ruled to keep a nationwide halt in place.

But after Trump’s Department of Justice appealed to the Supreme Court, the Court on Monday agreed to lift the hold that kept his draconian policy from going into immediate effect.

This is personal for us. For 120 years, the Workers Circle has stood with those whom America refused to welcome with open arms.

The American Dream was first, and is still, an immigrant’s dream; it has always promised a better life. But imposing arbitrary rules and regulations for access to that dream is unjust

and irresponsible. The government should be making it easier, not harder, for working class immigrants to move toward citizenship.

It is a mistake to view people in need as a burden. In so doing, we fail to recognize that social supports and welfare programs are more than just charitable “handouts.” They are an investment in people and potential.

While the court has given the green light to the Trump administration to close the doors on countless immigrants, we will continue to work to make the public charge a thing of the past.

Ann Toback is the Chief Executive Officer of the Workers Circle (formerly the Workmen’s Circle), a Jewish social justice nonprofit.

Fears of brain drain in post-Byford MTA

BY MARK HALLUM

O

ne assurance left in MTA New York City Transit President Andy Byford’s resignation letter on Thursday is that he had confidence the team he put together would keep the city’s transit system on track.

But a day following news that Byford would depart the agency on Feb. 21, signals chief Pete Tomlin announced that he, too, would follow the man who appointed him out the door.

Lisa Daglian, the executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, told amNewYork Metro that Tomlin is a little-known figure who holds the system together — and his exit does not bode well for the MTA’s future.

“Pete Tomlin’s resignation was the second tough blow for riders in a terrible week. He’s the guy most New Yorkers never heard of who would make a huge difference in their daily lives,” Daglian said. “A well-respected signals expert, Pete knows what needs to be done to bring the subway system into the 21st century and was just getting underway. Pete and Andy Byford were really a dream team and we’re very sorry to see them go.”

The Riders Alliance has fought to hold not only the MTA, but also Governor Andrew Cuomo, accountable for getting the subways rumbling to business as usual.

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FILE PHOTO

MTA signals chief Pete Tomlin

With the MTA in the process of modernizing the subway signal system, they see see the departure of any expert at this stage as a major setback for commuters.

“It’s on the governor to make sure the signals are fixed. It’s worrisome to have an expert leave at the beginning of the process,” Danny Pearlstein, policy director for the organization, said.

Beyond the signals, New York City Transit will also tackle an array of

herculean tasks without Byford.

Not only does the MTA face the task of making as many of the 472 stations in the subway system completely ADA accessible for riders as possible, it must also overhaul the century old signal system and replace it with Communicationsbased Train Control (CBTC). Some lines already have CBTC such as the L train and the 7 line, but the majority of routes still need the upgrade.

Only as recently as early January has a $245.8 million contract been awarded to have CBTC installed on the A, C, and E lines.

Tomlin was appointed in December 2018 following Byford’s appointment as president of New York City Transit.

In Byford’s resignation letter to MTA COO Mario Peloquin, he indicated that the MTA’s reorganization efforts contributed to his departure.

“The Alix Partners MTA Transformation plan called for the centralization of projects and an expanded HQ, leaving Agency Presidents to focus solely on the day-to-day running of the service,” Byford wrote. “I have built a excellent team and there are many capable individuals in Transit and other within the MTA family, who could perform this important, but reduced, service delivery role.”

Council Speaker Corey Johnson took took up an ominous tone to Byford’s resignation again. He also argued for municipal control of subways, and told Twitter followers he would not let talent such as Byford’s slip through their fingers.

“It would be much easier to retain top talent like Andy Byford under municipal control. It’s time for municipal control now! Maybe we can bring Andy back,” he tweeted.

Januar y 30, 2020

13

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The Census 2020 count may be the most important and challenging population survey that our country, state and city have ever undertaken.

New York has historically been undercounted, but this decennial tally is taking place under particularly challenging circumstances.

Undercounting can deprive us of our rightful representation in Congress along with millions of dollars in federal support for public education. Census data impacts funding for the federal Pell Grant program, adult education grants and a host of other services that are vital to CUNY and other institutions of higher education. The importance of achieving a fair and complete count of every New Yorker has prompted the state and city governments to commit significant resources and coordinate stakeholders. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the creation of the Census Council, co-chaired

by Martin Luther King III, Lucy Liu and Lin-Manuel Miranda, to act as the state’s coordinating arm in the effort.

The law is that every person should be counted, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. But the current climate of fear within immigrant communities poses a challenge to that goal; it is a concern that hits close to home for New York and especially for us at CUNY. More than a third of our students were born outside the country. They and their families live in communities that our own faculty experts tell us are designated “hard to count,” which include highly mobile people, non-native English speakers, undocumented immigrants, people of color, low-income people and students.

Fortunately, CUNY students, who reflect the full range of New

York City’s diversity, are uniquely positioned to help achieve a fair and accurate census count. A team of 220 students, two thirds of whom speak a language other than English, were being trained this month, even before the spring semester started this week, to be deployed as part of CUNY Census Corps. They will work in paid part-time positions from January to end of May, getting out the count at CUNY colleges and venturing into the hardest-to-count neighborhoods to ensure that the people who live in those communities are acknowledged and counted.

Participation in this missioncritical task will enable CUNY students to develop their leadership, problem solving, teamwork and communication skills. Equally important, they will learn firsthand the vital importance of civic engagement — a core value of public higher education.

Our efforts are being guided

by CUNY data resources, including a mapping tool created by our Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center that is being widely used in census outreach efforts across the country.

CUNY is also proud to be working closely with NYC Census 2020 to administer and oversee the contracts that have been awarded to more than 150 community-based organizations that will be at the frontlines of this year’s census-related education and organizing.

The key to a complete census count is a determined, full-scale and efficient partnership among the leaders of New York State and City and their institutions. CUNY is proud to be an important part of this partnership. We are working closely with all our government and civic partners to carry out this very consequential endeavor.

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Januar y 30, 2020

PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL

Photos shows liberation of Auschwitz camp in Poland. A million people were murdered there.

BY TODD MAISEL

T

o mark the 75th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation in 1945, the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in Manhattan brought in noted Holocaust historian Dr. Robert Jan Van Pelt to discuss the death camp’s history.

Dr. Robert Jan Van Pelt is one of the main authorities on the history of Auschw itz. From 1997-98, he presided over the team that developed the master plan to preserve the Auschwitz camp and participated as an expert witness in the famous case against the British historian and author David Irving (London, 1998-2001).

During his appearance at the NoHo center, Van Pelt expressed concern about Auschwitz visitors who act with insensitivity, such as taking selfies on site. He also remarked that the crowds were so heavy that the mood and solemness of Auschwitz was being undermined.

“But then there are some people that come there and really understand what they are seeing, the suffering, the real feeling that they should have that this is a solemn place,” Van Pelt said.

Van Pelt went into g reat de tail about the horror and hate at Auschwitz.

“In 1942, it became a place to go to be murdered,” Van Pelt said as he showed slides of laughing Nazis celebrating mass murder. He was careful to note that other races the Nazis considered to be “subhuman” were

also exterminated in the camp, including more than 150,000 captured Russians from the Eastern Front.

Auschwitz began as a place of interment, evolving later into the war to become the most bloodstained camp of all, with a capacity to cremate from 250 per day in the 1938 to 4,500 bodies per day towards the end of the war.

T he death camps became more brutal as the war wore on with some people led into gas chambers as soon as they arrived on massive trains – mostly those who couldn’t work in the private rubber plant UG Farbenindustrie – forcing mostly Jews to work to feed the Nazi war machine.

Van Pelt was joined by Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, the Executive Vice President of The New York Board of Rabbis, the largest interdenominational rabbinic body in the world.

Today, Van Pelt said, he is concerned that anti-Semitism was returning to the United States and he said there were early signs of disaster for the Jews in the 20s and 30s that led to the Holocaust.

“Anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise around the countr y, leaving members of the Jewish community feeling frightened and unsafe. In New York City, anti-Semitic crimes have jumped 21 percent in the past year.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were 1,879 incidents of anti-Semitism in the United States in 2018, including more than 1,000 instances of harassment,” he told the Washington Post.

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★

CELEBRATING LABOR IN THE BIG APPLE

MLK’s legacy: Support of labor union movement

COURTESY OF LOCAL 32BJ SEIU’S ALL LABOR HAS DIGNITY’ RALLY. BY: NELSON KING

A

s American celebrated the birthday of slain civil rights leader, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is important to examine King’s role in the labor union movement.

While researching at the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta, Ga in 1992, Michael Honey, a Washington University professor, found what the Atlantic describes as “an inconspicuous folder” labeled “King’s Labor Speeches.”

The publication said Honey opened the folder and found “a trove of King’s addresses to labor unions and workers’ rights coalitions, most of which had never been published.”

Honey subsequently edited, and released by Beacon Press, “All Labor Has Dignity”: King’s Speeches on Labor.

“The book shows an eerily prescient Dr. King, a clear-eyed visionary, who speaks prophetiSchneps Media

cally about the host of issues facing our nation today,” said the Atlantic in an article, written by Joe Fassler, on Feb. 22, 2011.

“In the eloquent, mythic language for which he is famous, King lambastes economic forces growing the gap between rich and poor, the massive tax resources used for war spending while domestic programs languished, and the kneejerk demonizing of progressive social reform as ‘communist,’” said Fassler, editor of “Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration and the Artistic Process.”

Fassler, who also interviews writers for The Atlantic’s “By Heart” series, said King even criticized conservative senators, calling them “Neanderthals,” who “abused their filibuster privilege to block meaningful legislative change.”

“The collection demonstrates that historical considerations of Dr. King’s contributions have over-

looked his dogged dedication to the organized labor movement and his fight on behalf of the working poor across racial divides,” said Fassler, who spoke with Honey about King’s work for workers’ rights, the historical context of the speeches and the relevance of King’s conclusions to ongoing 21st-century American labor disputes.

Honey said the book contains 15 different documents, from 1957 to 1968, which “present a somewhat different side of King that most people don’t know about.

“Almost all of these speeches are unknown to the general public,” he said. “Until recently, King’s economic justice platform and his relationship with workers and unions has been an almost entirely neglected topic.”

Honey said the civil rights movement was not just about civil rights – it was about human rights, adding “that means labor rights.”

He said the book is “really about a period when King was trying to use the momentum of the civil rights movement to help the labor movement, the cause of public employee workers and people in the service economy.

“And those are the areas where unions have grown tremendously in the last 20 or 30 years – in part because of Dr. King’s sacrifice in Memphis (TN),” he said.

Honey told Fassler that Dr. King made these speeches to the strong unions, at that time, so they could “donate money to the civil rights movement, which was an emerging movement.”

He said King made an interesting plea: “You have a lot more power than we do, but we have the moral agenda and the attention of the nation that you’re losing.

“King wanted to convince the unions that the civil rights movement was not only important on its own but that its success

was crucial to the labor movement’s success, too,” Honey said.

In a 1968 speech, he noted that King asked: “What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?”

“He did say that the civil rights that we’d attained from Brown v. Board of Education to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were a remarkable change,” Honey said. “But, after that, he really did emphasize economic issues.”

The Washington University professor said urban areas were, at the time, exploding all across the country, with riots, police brutality and National Guard occupation of black communities.

“The fact was, in the urban areas, civil rights didn’t do anything to change the economic situation for the mass of working class people,” he said.

“Those were people that should have had Januar y 30, 2020

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EP: NFIBJ :<C<9I8K@E> C89FI @E K?< 9@> 8GGC< jobs and union wages, who should have been advancing themselves,” he added. “Instead, factories were shutting down. Jobs were being shipped overseas. The urban areas were being stripped of all economic activities.

“It was like stranding the millions of people who’d migrated to the cities for jobs,” Honey continued. “So, without an economic program—yes, that’s what he was saying—the civil rights we’ve gained won’t be meaningful for most people.”

Fassler noted that King was working on an “important Poor People’s Campaign” in New York City in early 1968, when he left for Memphis.

At that time, Honey said the sanitation strike was reaching a crucial point, where the workers could possibly lose.

“They’d been holding mass meetings every day for over a month in different churches around the city,” he said. “They’d been having picket lines

two times a day. Marches downtown, every day; 1,200 workers on strike, for well over a month.

They were running out of food. They were losing their homes, their automobiles.”

Honey said the black community was in strong support of the strike, as well as the labor union, AFL-CIO. But he said that “they had a totally intransigent mayor, a fiscal conservative who was totally against unions.

“He wanted the city to spend less, and he wanted to take that out of the backs of workers,” Honey said. “So, you had this confrontation between labor and civil rights on the one hand, and fiscal conservatism and anti-unionism on the other.

“The strikers felt they weren’t getting any attention, and that it was a really important battle; and that’s why they brought King in,” he added. “How could he not go to Memphis?

“Here was a good example of local people organizing around the very issues he was trying to mobilize the country around,” Honey continued. “So, his staff told him he shouldn’t go, but he went against their advice.”

In the “Mountaintop” speech, the speech given in Memphis, Fassler said King seemed aware of the imminent threat of violence against his person, saying, that while “longevity has its place,” he would prefer to pursue his work than be assured safety.

Fassler said the whole coda of the speech was a meditation on danger and the transience of life.

When King flew to Memphis the day before he gave that speech, Honey said there was a bomb threat and that King had told his family before he left Atlanta that someone was trying to kill him, “and that they should be ready.”

“We know from the House Committee on As-

sassination that there was a reward of $50,000 put up by some businessmen in St. Louis for somebody to kill him,” Honey said.

“He defi nitely had premonitions that it could very well happen at any time.

He was always being attacked by the right wing, neo-Nazis and segregationists.

“But when he came out against the war, the opposition to him went right up the ranks to the President of the United States, and certainly the FBI—which had been trying to destroy his career since 1963, at least,” he added “The whole atmosphere around King was tainted by real hostility to what he was saying and doing.”

Of all the speeches in the book, Honey said he liked the one the book is named for: “All Labor Has Dignity,” a speech to the Memphis sanitation workers.

“It’s not a scripted speech—and it’s marked by constant cheers and

uproarious approval, and chanting,” he said. “He’s talking straight from the heart; it’s King at his best.

He talks about the problem of two Americas, one poor and one rich. The gulf between people with inordinate, superfluous wealth and the people suffering in abject, deadening poverty.

“He talks about the working poor—people who work what he calls ‘full-time jobs at parttime wages,’” Honey added. “He talks about hospital workers being as important as the physician, and sanitation workers being as important as the doctor. How labor is not menial until you’re not getting adequate wages—all jobs are important.

“The question is do you have dignity, and respect and a decent livelihood, based on what you do?” he continued. “I just think it’s a marvelous speech, and it deals with a lot of the issues we’re still dealing with today.”

LABORERS’ LOCAL 79 APPRENTICESHIP APPLICATIONS OPEN FEBRUARY 14TH Our apprentices are put on a solid career path that transforms their lives. Come join us and achieve real economic security as a skilled laborer and union member.

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September 17, 2020

New York City

Nominate an outstanding union representative for the 2020 Salute to Labor Awards. Schneps Media will show our appreciation for all the years they’ve worked to promote and preserve the union movement in New York.

Nominees must exhibit one or more of the following criteria:

APPRENTICESHIP OPPORTUNITIES OPEN TO ALL NEW YORKERS: • 74% of graduates are Black or Latino • 12% of graduates are women • 80% of graduates live in the

• Executives and members of the labor community • Women who have a prominent role in their union • Heads of apprenticeship programs • Allies of the labor community • Rising Stars in the labor community Submit your nominations to Jasmin Freeman at 718-260-4512 or email jfreeman@schnepsmedia.com

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Januar y 30, 2020

For more information, visit www.mttf.org Schneps Media

EP: NFIBJ :<C<9I8K@E> C89FI @E K?< 9@> 8GGC<

LABORERS’ LOCAL 79 IS PROUD TO CELEBRATE THE CONTRIBUTIONS AFRICAN AMERICANS HAVE MADE TO THE LABOR MOVEMENT. We will continue to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. by uplifting people of all backgrounds into strong and healthy careers in the construction industry.

“

“The Labor Movement was the principal force that

transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. s Martin Luther King Jr.

APPRENTICESHIP APPLICATIONS OPEN FEBRUARY 14TH For more info, visit www.mttf.org

Proud Sponsor of this tribute to Black History Month

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Januar y 30, 2020

17

East Village rocker still ‘Sley’-ing them

BY BOB KR ASNER

C

ynthia Sley has seen some changes. Musical projects, jobs, record labels, motherhood, divorce and more apartments than she can remember have come and gone.

But, after 40 years, the band that guitarist Pat Place “coerced” her into joining – the Bush Tetras – is still going strong.

Sley grew up in Cleveland, taking in the wild musical scene that produced Pere Ubu and Devo but never thinking that she’d ever be in a band. It was on a trip to New York City to visit the only person she knew here – Jim Jarmusch – that she had her epiphany.

“I walked from the Empire Hotel (on the Upper West Side) to the East Village and I knew immediately that I had to move here,” she recalls.

Although she had written lots of poetry, it was never with the intention of her words becoming songs. Her previous experience in anything resembling a band was her involvement back home in a “fake band” called “Johnny and the Dicks,” a performance art piece that didn’t involve much actual music (but did involve future Bush Tetra Laura Kennedy) .

Once she moved to the city, she toyed with the idea of going to FIT and becoming a fashion designer, but fate had other plans.

“I ran into Laura Kennedy and fell into that group of weirdos!” Sley laughs. Guitarist Pat Place had left the Contortions, where she had made a name for herself in the “No Wave” scene backing up James Chance with her unique style and was putting the Bush Tetras together but couldn’t find the right vocalist.

Sley fit right in, her poems becoming songs as the Bush Tetras came together with Kennedy on bass and drummer Dee Pop. “We felt the chemistry right away,” Sley muses. “I fell in love with the collaborative process – sometimes the songs just burst out of nothing.”

Their first gig was at Tier 3, a short lived, legendary center for live music in Tribeca. It was packed with fans of Pat Place and Sley remembers being pretty nervous.

“I hung on the mic stand and sang with my eyes closed the whole time,”

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Januar y 30, 2020

PHOTOS BY BOB KRASNER

At the Mercur y Lounge in summer 2019, the Bush Tetras L-R: Pat Place, C ynthia Sley, Dee Pop, Val Opielski. she says. “We only had seven songs and Bob Albertson kept them going for we did them all twice!” another year, but “we sabotaged ourThe second gig was even scarier. selves,” says Sley. Among other issues, Opening for the Feelies at a much “drugs were involved.”

As the Tetras dissolved, she formed bigger full house at Irving Plaza, Sley brought along a guitar but never played Lovelies with husband Julian, recording it. “I only opened my eyes to play per- one album. In 1989 their son Austin cussion,” she admits. was born and eventually Sley put aside The Bush Tetras had a sound and music for a while. “I was crushed that an attitude that was perfect for the things hadn’t worked out,” she admits.

Other projects did follow, including downtown scene. Their first single, released in 1980 on 99 Records, was an excellent collaboration with Rachel “Too Many Creeps,” a perfect intro to Dengiz and Pat Irwin (of the Raybeats their aesthetic. The seven inch single and the B52’s) called Command V and actually made a dent on the Billboard a couple of recorded but unreleased dance chart, hitting no. 57 and remains enterprises – the Tabby Chinos with a signature tune in their live show.

Bob Pfeifer and 1-900-BOX, a group Sley spent some of these formative that had the blessing and occasional times sleeping “on a pile of mattresses” mentorship of Debbie Harry but didn’t in the group’s rehearsal space at First last.

Meanwhile, music wasn’t paying the Avenue and First Street, trying to ignore the dripping water and hop- bills and in 1992 her marriage broke ing that the gas leaks would be fixed up, leaving her a single mother. quickly.

“I really struggled,” she admits. “I Real apartments followed and the was doing freelance gigs, like editing band continued to record and tour. Berlitz travel guides – I speak fluent The band went through changes and French – and putting myself through Sley’s life did as well. In 1982 she mar- college to get a teaching degree.” ried guitarist Ivan Julian, a member She started out teaching art at a of Richard Hell’s Voidoids. The Bush “pretty rough” school on the Lower Tetras began to mutate in 1983 due to East Side, but luckily ended up at the departure of Kennedy and Pop. PS3 in the West Village. “I loved that Replacements Don Christenson and school,” she says.

C ynthia Sley in her apar tment.

Her place of residence continued to change, landing her in Brooklyn, Harlem and even a few years in Laurel Canyon in California. “I hated California,” she notes.

In addition to art, Sley has had a great time teaching science, writing and math to grade school kids but, she says, “I couldn’t give up music.”

New work began to emerge with an EP on Wharf Cat Records and a single on Jack White’s Third Man label. While they work up new material for an upcoming LP, Sley is having a moment of transition that is working for her.

“I’m debt free and I’m retired from teaching,” she explains. Her son and his wife have moved out of her Chelsea digs and Sley is relishing the creativity of the revived Bush Tetras.

“We write a lot out of jams – it’s really cool and really fun. And we are having a great time playing live!”

Even though the times have changed and the post punk scene that nourished the band is now history, the band sees fans at the shows who were not yet born when they released their first single.

The Bush Tetras will celebrate their 40th anniversary at Le Poisson Rouge on Feb. 21. They can be heard live on wfmu.org on Feb. 19 at 9 p.m. More info about the band is at www.facebook.com/bushtetras/.

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Lunar New Year celebrates across Chinatown

BY TEQUIL A MINSK Y

B

rilliant red floods the streetscape of Chinatown. Red is the color for happiness, beauty, vitality, good luck, success and prosperity.

Under shop awnings, scarlet paper lanterns sway in the breeze while messages of good fortune line window storefronts — the Chinese New Year is everywhere.

This year is The Year of the Rat—the first in the astrological cycle of Chinese New Years, which is celebrated for two weeks.

In spite of the Saturday rain on New Year’s Day as well as the devastating fire of a historic community building with the Chinatown archives, the Lunar New Year entered on Jan. 25 with its traditional firecracker ceremony at Sara D. Roosevelt Park.

Sheltered by a tent, active community members and local politicians wished everybody well, and during the constant shower, presented proclamations in a sped-up ceremony.

Then, holding long poles with lettuce dangling, VIPs enticed and fed the dancing dragons, and firecrackers scared bad luck away, welcoming the New Year. An FDNY explosive expert was on hand among the firecracker professionals.

Meanwhile in the park, two firefighters tabled with FDNY recruitment info.

Chinatown-raised Danny Wong (Truck & Ladder 114, Sunset Park) described eating his family’s mouth-watering New Year’s Eve meal.

“My mother-in-law did the cooking,” he said, listing garlic crab with rice, vermicelli, chicken, abalone, lobster, shrimp and pork as part of the meal that the extended family of 15 ate. Some families eat their big meal on New Year’s Eve. For some families, New Year’s Day is a vegetarian meal. But for all, Chinese New Year is a time when the family gets together and eats.

One young man who works at the Apple Store said that his family will take up three large round tables in a Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn. “We don’t have a home big enough to accommodate our whole family,” he said.

One woman spoke from the locker room at the Parks Dept. Dapolito Center as she looked forward to eating with five other family members in her apartment.

Her New Year’s dinner menu would include soup with a whole chicken and lots of vegetables—all home made, accompanied by prepared duck that she

would buy.

New Year’s is a time of new beginnings, a clean slate. People get haircuts before the holiday, as did firefighter Danny Wong. All cleaning must be completed before the holiday and on New Year’s Day only good things can be said, nothing bad. One must be positive.

Council Member Margaret Chin grew up in Chinatown and shared remembrances. “My mother would make dumplings filled with peanut butter and sugar,” she recalled. “And we always got a new outfit. I have to get something new,” she said, a few days before the holiday.

There’s still plenty of time to celebrate Asian Lunar New Year in Manhattan.

If you want to be part of the fun, the Museum of Chinese in America will host crafts and dance performances, snacks and tales inspired by Chinese and Chinese American New Years. The ticketed sessions are at 10 a.m. or 2 p.m. on Feb. 1.

Chinatown will also host on Feb. 8 the Lion Dance thoughout the neighborhood, beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Finally, on Feb. 9, raucous symbols, drums, poppers spraying confetti, multicolored costumes and giant dragons will delight crowds during the Chinatown

PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Celebrating the Chinese New Year.

Lunar New Year Parade and Festival starting at 1 p.m. The route goes from Mott and Hester to Chatham Square to East Broadway towards the Manhattan Bridge, completing on Eldridge and Forsyth Streets towards Grand Street next to Sara D. Roosevelt Park.

LES exhibition explores bond between people and nature

BY GABE HERMAN

a beach near Tel Aviv and used them to cren exhibition showing for one week ate objects related to the sea. Lavian said on the Lower East Side uses natural resources more plastics are accuto examine the ever-changmulating at the beach, ing environment, including but more people are also speaking out humans’ impact as polluters and consumers. about it and trying to T he show is called address the problem, “Materialness,” and will which he hoped would be at the Parasol Projects continue.

Gallery at 213 Bowery, at Another project is Rivington Street, from “Obsessidian,” by NitJan. 28 to Feb. 3. It’s zotz Saranga, which presented by the Bezalel stems from the artist’s Academy of A rts and stated obsession with Desig n in Jer usalem, different types of volPHOTO BY GABE HERMAN and features artworks by The ar tists at a preview of the exhibition. L-R: Nitzotz Sacanic rocks. Saranga lecturers, graduates and ranga, Natalie Feldesman, Ariel Lavian, Maayan Fima, Anaelle said she researched students from various de- A A, and Adi Farber. volcanic rocks as raw partments of the college, said artist Ariel Lavian, who also cumaterial, and melted which was founded in 1906 and has rated the show, at a preview the day and ground down rocks, then molded over 2,500 students. them onto other rocks. before its opening.

“The exhibition is about material, One of Lavian’s projects is “Plastitu“I was really fascinated by the rocks I how it affects us and the environment,” tion,” where he took plastics found on saw,” Saranga said. “I made something

A

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unnatural using natural materials.”

Also in the show is a five-and-a-halfminute video by Natalie Feldesman, which is a collage of nature videos, distorted into abstract and surreal images.

The video explores ideas of information overload and man’s relationship with the natural world.

Feldesman said she wanted to “take man’s gaze of the planet and destroy it, into a beautiful chaos.” Feldesman said she wanted the colors to be hyper-real, “something that you dive into.”

“Toxtiles” is another project in the show by Ariel Lavian, and explores the environmental damage caused by the fashion industry. Lavian created a series of stools made of textiles and iron, using discarded fabrics collected

by Lavian from fashion houses and sewing workshops. “It speaks to the other side of the story,” Lavian said of the project.

More information on the “Materialness” exhibition can be found at www. bezalelfriends.org.

Januar y 30, 2020

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Eats

L & M Deli in Chelsea keeping good food tradition alive

BY GABE HERMAN

T

here seem to be fewer local neighborhood delis in Lower Manhattan these days, as small businesses often struggle to survive.

But L & M Delicatessen and Catering, at 80 Seventh Ave. in Chelsea, is one place still going strong — and has grown over the last 49 years into a center of the community.

Spending any time with owner Larry Xerri in L & M will likely come with interruptions, as he seemingly knows everyone who comes into the store and greets them, chats for a few minutes and often exchanges a few inside jokes. On a recent afternoon, he was preparing a Super Bowl pool that he does with many local residents, which now goes back 20 years.

“People come here and see their neighbors,” said Xerri, “and talk about what’s going on in the neighborhood.”

Xerri is a first-generation American, his family coming here from Malta. His father and uncle started the deli in 1971, and Larry, 54, has been there for the past 30 years. He helped out in the store as early as age 13.

Larry is a true local, growing up on Hudson and Leroy Streets. He attended the Academy of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village, then Stuyvesant High School and NYU. His cousins are among those who work at the deli, along with other employees who have been there for decades.

“Everyone’s trying to do the great American success story,” Larry said.

“We’re more or less a family here.” He added, “We pay our guys and charge a fair price.”

The area in Chelsea has changed a lot over the years, Larry said, becoming more affluent and family-oriented. He said the key to success is to remain a consistent presence, while also adapting to the times.

Twenty years ago, for example, they offered six types of salami, but now there are more varieties of turkey, as people become more health-conscious.

Catering has become a growing part of the deli operation as it now accounts for 15 percent of total business — something that didn’t even exist two decades ago.

“You gotta roll with whatever is working and what the community is asking for,” Larry said, adding that they get about 80 percent repeat business.

Another key is not being priced out of

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PHOTOS BY GABE HERMAN

Larr y Xerri in L&M Delicatessen and Catering.

the location, which happens to so many businesses who can suddenly face a skyrocketing rent, Larry said.

“I’ve seen everything change,” he said. “There aren’t many places left.”

But he said the landlord, Price Rahav Realty, is reasonable. “They have been very fair with us,” he said. “Fair is hard to come by these days.” He added, “We’re still here, knock on wood.”

The deli features three illustrations near the entrance by caricature artist Robert Risko, who is a regular. He drew Larry, his Uncle Mike (now retired from the deli) and employee Hugo Bustamante, who has been there 30 years.

The deli’s location was also part of Edward Hopper’s famous 1930 painting “Early Sunday Morning,” though the buildings in the painting were torn down decades ago.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson gave L & M a shout-out in The New York Times in 2018, saying it’s part of his Sunday routine.

One of the many regulars is Eileen Millan, a retired artist who has lived nearby for decades. When she stops by, they already know what she wants without her having to say it: two scrambled eggs with crispy bacon on an unseeded roll.

“They make the best breakfast sandwich,” she said. “To me it’s the best in town.”

Millan added that generations of families have been going there. “It’s like a neighborhood place,” she said. “Everyone knows your name, it’s like ‘Cheers.’”

Larry still puts in 65 hours a week at the store, he said, and used to work even more. “That’s small business,” he said.

“You do things yourself.”

L&M at 80 Seventh Ave. in Chelsea.

Januar y 30, 2020

21

‘Burdens of discovery’ bog subway access suit

BY MARK HALLUM

F

or three years, the Center for the Independence of the Disabled (CIDNY) and the MTA have been going back and forth to court over a lawsuit regarding full accessibility at all New York City subway stations.

The latest chapter of the battle was written in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, with a discovery hearing that demonstrated some of the intricate legal hurdles that have slowed the case’s progress.

The MTA wants the CIDNY to provide emails based on 50 keywords from their clients about how they use the subway. Lawyers for the CIDNY say they want to provide the list, but there are technological constraints related to the Gmail system their clients use.

They say 50 keywords are not feasible for a small organization, and they won’t allow the authority to sift through the information themselves.

The MTA, however, also argued against CIDNY’s own discovery request, claiming it would need a massive data dump from multiple agencies over a period of years.

CIDNY Executive Director Susan Dooha has been involved with trying to get a formal and legal-binding

City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal fist-bumping activist Sasha BlairGoldensohn.

commitment from the MTA to bring train stations up to par with federal ADA laws for over 30 years. She thinks there is framework for such a resolution.

“People like [outgoing New York City Transit President] Andy Byford, well-meaning as they are, come and go in the MTA with regularity, and to be counting on particular individuals to achieve a civil rights victory is probably not the best idea,” Dooha said. “I appreciate that accessibility will be achieved in stages, I wonder how many elevators

they’ll actually install during this five year period and how many they’ll merely commit to contract for the future.”

But how far does the MTA have to go?

There are 124 stations in compliance with disability laws, with 24 being added in the last capital plan and 70 are included in the current 2020-2024 budget. This will push the number of handicap accessible stations closer to 50 percent.

Current timelines that Byford previously established aim to have the system fully accessibly by 2035. Dooha sees this as a reasonable timeline for the kind of

joint agreement they’re looking to compel the MTA to sign.

“The MTA is committed to providing accessibility throughout the subway system. That’s why we’ve allocated $5.5 Billion to make an additional 70 stations fully ADA accessible,” MTA spokesman said in an official statement. “We continue to pilot new technology and creative solutions at the Jay Street-Metrotech station that assist people with disabilities in navigating through stations. The Paratransit program is expanding access to the experimental e-hail program. Beyond that, we have no comment on pending litigation.”

Prior to the hearing, advocates held a rally dedicated to Malaysia Goodson, a woman who died in January 2019 after taking a fall while carrying a stroller down the stairs at a station. The plaintiffs then made their way into 60 Centre St., where Judge Schlomo Hagler presided over the discovery negotiation.

But Hagler did not see the case moving forward until the appellate court came to a conclusion about the merits of the complaint. Even so, debates over discovery continued.

The hearing did not end in agreement.

Instead, a follow-up hearing was scheduled for March.

Cuomo touts his own e-bike reform bill for NYC

BY MARK HALLUM

A

month after he vetoed an electronic bike legalization bill that state lawmakers approved last year, Governor Andrew Cuomo presented his own plans on Jan. 23 for e-bike and scooter reforms.

No helmet requirements and higher speed limits in the original legislation were factors Cuomo attributed to his decision to veto, but now he says he’s “all for it” when it comes to his bills, which allows for speeds up to 25 miles per hour and makes protective headwear obligatory for certain riders.

The Thursday press conference at the governor’s Manhattan office was a followup to his budget address on Jan. 21 in which he said funding for an e-bike and scooter legalization bill would be in the pipeline.

“New transportation technologies like e-bikes and e-scooters pose exciting potential as a sustainable alternative to vehicles, but we need clear laws and regulations that put the safety of riders and pedestrians first,” Cuomo said. “This legislation will create important speed and operating measures for these technologies

22

Januar y 30, 2020

that will provide clarity for everyone and end the arbitrary enforcement of vague laws that has posed substantial hardship on immigrant delivery workers, while enabling all delivery workers to do their work safely and more efficiently.”

The news reached advocates who celebrated a victory — even if it wasn’t completely like the original bill they had championed since 2018. That year, Mayor Bill de Blasio changed the administrative code to ban motorized bikes, primarily utilized by working class immigrants to

deliver food.

But de Blasio has deferred to the state in lifting the ban on e-bikes and scooters, as Albany has the real authority legislate what type of vehicles are road legal.

The original bill’s roots go deep in Queens where it was introduced by state Senator Jessica Ramos and Assemblywoman Nily Rozic.

“The push to legalize e-bikes and e-scooters has enjoyed the support of a broad coalition of stakeholders, from immigration advocates and local lawmakers

to environmental justice activists and food delivery workers,” Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris said Jan. 21. “In New York City, working cyclists who rely on e-bikes to complete their rounds have been targeted and harassed. We expect Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD to end their misguided e-bike crackdown once this budget is approved.”

According to the governor’s office, the outline of his e-bike bill are as follows: • Setting a maximum speed limit of 20 miles per hour on Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes and 25 miles per hour on Class 3 e-bikes, • A maximum speed limit of 15 miles per hour on scooters, • Prohibiting e-bike and scooter use on sidewalks, • Requiring e-bike and scooter users to be 16 years of age or older • Mandating all Class 3 e-bike riders to wear helmets • Mandating all e-scooter riders under 18 to wear helmets • Empowering localities to mandate helmet requirements for Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes Schneps Media

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Januar y 30, 2020

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24

Januar y 30, 2020

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Extra!

Extra!

Local News Read all about it!

www.TheVillager.com

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Januar y 30, 2020

25

Manhattan Happenings

5 COURTESY OF BORIS AND HORTON

Head to Boris and Hor ton at 195 Avenue A for a Puppy Bowl viewing par ty on Super Bowl Sunday.

FRIDAY, JAN. 31

1

Isaac Mizrahi at Café Carlyle

Head to this café at 35 E. 76th Street at 6:30 to hear the fashion guru spiel his show: Stars and Supermodels for $110. https://www.ticketweb.com/event/isaac-mizrahicafe-carlyle-tickets/10006025?pl=CAFECARLYLE

SATURDAY, FEB. 1

2

Swap + Skate Event at Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park

Locals and guests are encouraged to drop off up to 10 clothing items in gift-giving condition at Overlook in Winter Village at Bryant Park, then shop for some luxury items and go skating as well. 1-6 p.m.

3

MoMA Design Store in SoHo

Head to 81 Spring Street to check out this Museum of Modern Art Pop Up Store in SoHo. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. h t t p s : //s t o r e . m o m a . o r g / m o m a - d e s i g n store?StoreID=momastore_2

SUNDAY, FEB. 2

4

Dance for Mental Health

Shake that moneymaker for a good cause! $15 Shetler Studios & Theatres 244 West 54th Street 12th Floor

26

Januar y 30, 2020

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dance-for-mentalhealth-nyc-tickets-85099782741?aff=ebdssbeditorial collection

5

Puppy Bowl viewing art at Boris & Horton

Dan Schachner, host of the Puppy Bowl will be there along with one of the puppies from the actual competition. The day’s proceeds go to foster dog charities.

6

Il Fiorista Cocktail design workshop

This couples inspired workshop will teach you how to craft the perfect, lovey-dovey drink built for two from 4-5 p.m. for $90. https://www.ilfioristanyc.com/store/event/a-cocktailbuilt-for-two/

7

Super Bowl watch parties

Taproom No. 307, 307 3rd Ave Three hour open bar including house beers, wine, well drinks and appetizers for $65/person Narragansett Beer Bucket for $40 White Claw Special 5 for $30 Beer Towers with a choice of any lager for $42 or wheat and house IPA for $44 $80 Cocktail Towers

8

Speakeasy football at J.Bespoke at 121 E 27th St

Enjoy the big game in style at J.Bespoke, a chic, speakeasy cocktail bar in NoMad, which boasts 4K LED flat-screen TVs and a large projector as

well as a killer sound system.

9

Mustang Harry’s, 352 7th Ave.

$5 beer specials, turned-out tailgate favorites like The Feltman’s of Coney Island Top Dog & Underdog ($12) and Mustang’s famous Jumbo Beer Pretzel ($14), Buffalo Bites ($13) and fully-loaded Nachos ($15)

10

Industry Kitchen 70 South Street

It’s here where there will be innovative crazy pizza special featuring guacamole, chips, pigs in a blanket, and boneless chicken wings all in one pizza pie for $39.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 5

11

Smut Slam: A Sexy Storytelling Competition

Tell your risqué story or listen to others at this one of a kind event at 9:00 p.m. for $5 Under St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place https://www.eventbrite.com/e/smut-slam-tickets72481342647?aff=ebdssbeditorialcollection

12

Barking Irons Pop-Up Event at Moxy East Village

Celebrate Barking Irons’ exclusive Bob Dylan collection at Moxy East Village and shop their unique vintage inspired pieces!

7-10pm at 112 E 11th St

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27

Make the Switch to Reusable Bags!

Save Money

•

Reduce Waste

Starting March 1, 2020 Plastic Bag Ban

Paper Bag Fee

(New York State)

(New York City)

Single-use plastic carryout bags are banned, with limited exceptions, in New York State.

Businesses will begin collecting a five-cent fee on paper carryout bags.

This fee will not apply to any customers using SNAP or WIC.

5¢

To learn more and get a free reusable bag, visit nyc.gov/bags or call 311.

NYCsanitation 28

Januar y 30, 2020

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NYCzerowaste Schneps Media