Tribeca Trib July 2012 by Carl Glassman

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T RIBECATRIB

Amish Market owner in jail, accused of Cuba dealings

Greening proposed for 19th-century Seaport buildings At P.S. 276, kids have a good excuse to clown around

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Vol. 18 No. 11

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JULY/AUGUST 2012

HOLDOUTS

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

Still trading in textiles, three brothers just say no to Tribeca condo developers. [PAGE 21]

A worker on the fifth floor of the Paramount/Boltex Textile Company on Walker Street, owned by brothers Ron, Alan and Stevie Katz (above), the third and last generation to own the business.

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VOLUME 18 ISSUE 11 JULY/AUGUST 2012

Winner National Newspaper Association First Place, Feature Photo, 2011 Second Place, Local News Coverage, 2011 First Place, Breaking News Story, 2010 First Place, Arts Coverage, 2010 First Place, Best Photo Essay, 2010 New York Press Association First Place, Sports Action Photo, 2012 Second Place, Special Section, 2012 First Place, Education Coverage, 2011 First Place, Photographic Excellence, 2011 Second Place, News Story, 2011 CUNY IPPIE AWARDS Second Place, Best Photograph, 2012

Publishers A PRIL K ORAL AND C ARL G LASSMAN Editor C ARL G LASSMAN Associate Editor J ESSICA T ERRELL Editorial Assistant E LIZABETH M ILLER Contributors O LIVER E. A LLEN J ULIET HINDELL FAITH PARIS J IM S TRATTON A LLAN TANNENBAUM Copy Editor J ESSICA R AIMI Advertising Director D ANA S EMAN The Tribeca Trib Published monthly (except Aug.) by The Tribeca Trib, Inc. 401 Broadway, 5th fl. New York, N.Y. 10013 212-219-9709 editor@tribecatrib.com Subscriptions : $50 for 11 issues The Trib welcomes letters. When necessary, we edit them for length and clarity.

VIEWS

Trip abroad expands students’ horizons

To the Editor: During mid-winter recess, 16 students from Millennium High School traveled to Costa Rica in hopes of helping another community, broadening our Spanish-speaking skills and expanding our knowledge of the outside world. For many of us it was the first time being away from home for 10 days. (We did not have cell phones or the Internet!) On our trip, we traveled up steep roads through the mountains for a five-day stay at Nacientes Palmichal, an environmentally friendly community. We painted, cleaned and helped to build a river bridge and also cleared land at a coffee farm. Another day we hiked up the mountain to a dairy farm to help clear land—and got to milk a cow. We also spent a morning helping teach an English lesson to elementary school students. Our experiences together helped create strong bonds and friendships among us. We not only learned about another culture but about ourselves as well, and gained a new appreciation for everything that we have in our lives. Millennium High School offers trips to other countries two to three times a year. To pay for these trips, all students and teachers involved must raise money through fundraising and donations. Millennium offers scholarships so that everyone can have the same opportunity to travel. If you would like to donate to our scholarship fund, please mail a check, made out to Millennium High School, to 75 Broad St., 13th fl., New York, N.Y., 10004. Thank you. Noni Vaughn-Pollard, Zoli Bakaty, Jackie Razo

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Girls’ softball program, bigger and better, seeks more players

developed over the last few years largely due to an awesome manager and coach, Joe Marino. He, and many other coaches, are truly invested in the Downtown Softball program and our kids. The program gets bigger and better every year and for every age group. The girls get stronger and more skilled, The Juniors Softball Revolution team pose after their win. and play more competitively. To the Editor: If you know someone who wants to Hooray for our girls, the Juniors join the team or you would like to Softball Revolution team! Last month, they beat the West Side know more about the program, please Little League Juniors team, 16 to 6. It’s contact Joe Marino. His email is gmsmarino@aol.com. The girls are Downtown Softball Juniors 3rd title now preparing for the Little League win in a row! Incidentally, our Seniors Revolution series softball tournament in July. Wish us luck! team came in 2nd—no small feat, Jean Chen-Villalba either. The Downtown Softball program

‘TriBattery Steve’ will be missed

To the Editor: Steve Russo, 60, longtime drummer of the TriBattery Pops and host at our website “Ask TriBattery Steve” unexpectedly died last month. We grew up together on Long Island where as teens in the late 1960s we played in a band. A public school music teacher by trade, Steve never recorded until the Pops put him on record doing solos. In the early 1970s, a friend drove Steve to Forest Hills to audition for the Ramones. There he met Joey Ramone, who questioned Steve about his background: “Where do you live?” he asked. “I live in my parents’ basement and enjoy reading comic books,” Steve answered. “You’re perfect! You’re our new drummer!” Joey said. Steve then asked the Ramones if they could play the Rolling Stones song “Wild Horses.” They could not perform the song. So Steve’s friend who had driven him to the audition convinced Steve not

to join, saying that the group would never be a well-known band. Steve loved playing for the neighborhood. He especially loved the Bogardus Triangle garden and was a great community volunteer. His loss hurts us deeply; we will miss him so much. Tom Goodkind Founder/Conductor, The TriBattery Pops

New director at JCP

To the Editor: JCP is happy to announce that Eli Kornreich will join us as Executive Director as of July 1. Kornreich was hired following a national search. Most recently, he was the executive vice president of Lincoln Square Synagogue, following 10 years of leadership as president and CEO of the JCC in Bridgeport, Conn. Welcome to our community! Susan Silverstein JCP Board President

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Market Owner ‘Languishes’ in Jail Amish Market’s Arici remains behind bars, 7 months after arrest for alleged Cuba dealings BY CARL GLASSMAN

Not so long ago, Adem Arici was on top of the gourmet grocery world in Lower Manhattan. The co-founder and former co-owner of the chain of Amish and Zaytuna Markets, with as many as four Downtown locations, Arici was hailed as a Financial District pioneer when he opened his Amish Market on Cedar Street in 1999. And he became a sympathetic symbol of post-Sept. 11 business distress after his store was ruined in the attacks. Today, with all but two of his stores closed or sold and his Tribeca market at 53 Park Place in bankruptcy, Arici’s world is the Westchester County Jail, where he has been held without bail for seven months. Arici, 50, is charged with conspiracy to violate the Trading with the Enemy Act and witness tampering. The “enemy” is Cuba and the trading, federal prosecutors allege, was investing in real estate in the country, where the U.S. has maintained a trade embargo since 1962. The government claims Arici tried to cover up his actions by telling a witness to lie to investigators. Arici, who has dual Turkish and U.S. citizenship, vehemently denies the charges and insists he should be allowed to post bail, which he says has been denied three times. “I want to get the bail and continue with the investigation,” Arici told the Trib by phone, in his first interview since the arrest. “That should be the right way to treat a human being so I can continue with my life.” Prosecutors claim that Arici went to Cuba last September to do business. His lawyer, Marc E. Verzani, who was with him, is a co-defendant in the case. “The defendants were prepared to put their business interests before compliance of a clearly established trade embargo with Cuba,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. The pair was joined by an unnamed associate who became a “cooperating witness” and implicated his companions in alleged illegal activities, including, in Arici’s case, the investment of “millions of dollars in Cuban real estate and businesses.” Along with conspiracy and witness tampering charges, Verzani is accused of obstruction of justice for allegedly lying under oath in court. He has denied all the charges. Homeland Security investigators persuaded Arici’s and Verzani’s associate to record their conversations with him. The witness, who Arici says he has known well for 10 years but declined to identify publicly, has not been charged. A conspiracy conviction carries a maximum penalty of five years and $250,000; witness tampering up to 20

CARL GLASSMAN

The Murray Street entrance of Amish Market, the store Arici oversaw before he was arrested last December.

COURTESY OF AMISH MARKET

Above: Adem Arici in 2007. Right: Arici returns to his Amish Market at 130 Cedar Street after Sept. 11. Arici had used $250,000 of a subsidy brokered by the Downtown Alliance to help him open the store in 1999 and keep it running.

years. Arici claims that a Turkish group sent him to Cuba on a religious and a humanitarian mission as part of a Muslim holiday in which lambs are slaughtered and the meat is given to the poor. According to Arici, who is Muslim and speaks Spanish, the Turkish group paid for 200 lambs and all his expenses. “They wired me the money. I have the proof,” Arici said. “I didn’t charge for my time, I didn’t make money to go there, I did it for charity, for the good.” Arici insists he could not have bought property in Cuba. “A foreigner cannot have any real estate in Cuba. Period. It says in the law.” “If he is not guilty of violating [the Trading with the Enemy Act],” Arici’s lawyer, Jared Scharf, wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel, “it is unlikely that he is guilty of tampering with witnesses.” Arici was denied bail because he is “a flight risk,” said Herbert Hadad, a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman. “[He has]

two passports and he’s been charged with a serious crime, trading with the enemy.” Scharf says there is more to it. For more than two years, according to Scharf, the Internal Revenue Service has been investigating what it says is $54 million in missing earnings from stores co-owned by Arici. So far, there are no indictments but the missing money, Scharf said, makes Arici a greater flight risk in the eyes of the judge. In his letter to the judge, Scharf argued that the case against Arici may be a tactic to pressure him to plead guilty to tax evasion. He said that the arrest of CARL GLASSMAN

Verzani, who testified in the case, may have been meant to further discredit him. Arici says he had nothing to do with the missing money and claims his problems stem from the actions of some partners. “There are many stores, many owners, many corporations,” Arici said. “It has nothing to do with me personally.” As a matter of policy, Hadad said, he cannot comment on government investigations. Scharf maintains that the case should be dismissed because Arici is being targeted for a violation that is normally not criminally prosecuted. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Aug. 9. “Mr. Arici is languishing in jail for a crime that is rarely if ever enforced and for which I believe he is not guilty,” Scharf wrote to the judge. In a review of enforcement actions by the federal Office of Foreign Assets Control, which metes out penalties for violations of the Trading with the Enemy Act, the Trib could find no criminal actions taken by the government, only civil penalties. According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, the average penalty to individuals for business dealings with Cuba between January 2004 and March 2010, the most recent figures provided in the report, was less than $3,000. The Obama administration favors taking Cuba off the “enemy” list, which also includes North Korea, Iran and Syria. In the meantime, things aren’t the same at Tribeca’s Amish Market, said Manager Jamal Miah. “It’s completely different for business because customers know that Adem is arrested,” said Miah, 27, a Bangladeshi immigrant who began working at the store as a cleaner at age 18. “They ask, ‘How long is he going away? How come he doesn’t come out?’” Miah called Arici “like a father” to him. He said he cried when he heard of the arrest. “God bless him that he might come out as soon as possible,” he said.

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BKSK ARCHITECTS

The slanted, green roofs of the proposed project will be seen by travelers along the FDR Drive, though that elevated view is not the purview of the Landmarks Commission.

New Life for Old Seaport Buildings Developer proposes turning three old counting houses into green-roofed project BY CARL GLASSMAN

Three empty hulks of South Street Seaport history are slated for rebirth in a very 21st-century way. They are a sad trio of four-story former counting houses at 104, 105 and 106 South Street, between Beekman Street and Peck Slip. If the developers, who plan to convert the buildings into a single 20-unit rental project, have their way, they will take two of the three buildings to new heights—seven stories. On top will be sloped roofs meant to suggest their early 19th century origins, when the peaked roofs of industrial buildings held big hoists and other mechanical equipment. This is not just any roofline, the project’s architect, Harry Kendall, told Community Board 1’s Landmarks Committee in a presentation last month, but one known to millions of commuters who pass it on the FDR Drive. “Here is the surprise of our whole proposal,” Kendall told the committee. “We are proposing green roofs on the sloped roofs that you’ll see as you whiz by on the highway or see from the Brooklyn Bridge.” Environmentally friendly “greened” roofs are planted with weather-resistant grasses that, along with other materials, insulate the building from weather and noise and absorb rainwater. “We’re introducing an old style of roof system but we’re doing it in a modern way,” said Chris Horrigan, a partner in the Pilot Real Estate Group, the project’s developers. Horrigan said the new-style roofs will also draw attention. “It’s a way to have people notice the building. They are going to think about why is it green, why is it sloped. Maybe it will make people think about the history of the street.” “If we can get someone to just ques-

CARL GLASSMAN

Left: Rendering of proposed buildings as seen from beneath the FDR Drive. Entrance would be on the Beekman Street side, at left. Inset: The three buildings today. BKSK ARCHITECTS

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A 1931 photo of the block on South Street shows the three building at far left.

tion why,” he added, “then I think it’s a success.” The project’s financial success is partly in the hands of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which will decide whether the proposed added floors—38 feet more height on 105 and

106—is appropriate on that block of the South Street Seaport Historic District. A hearing is scheduled for July 10. “It’s subject to what Landmarks allows us to build,” Horrigan said. CB1 gave its advisory approval to the plan, though it opposed a glass railing

around a shared terrace on 104 and 105, and a glass “dormer” that pops out of the new roof of 106. Both 105, the oldest of the buildings, built in 1826, and 106 were a floor taller before they were struck, separately, by fire. The brick of the new fifth stories would have a darker “charred” appearance, “so it hints that there was a fire and this is new work transitioning,” Kendall said. While those two buildings will rise to seven stories and have greened sloped roofs, 104 will stay the same height, with plantings along the edges. The “counting houses” of the Seaport, some built as early as 1798, were mostly used by grocery wholesalers until the Civil War, when the fish market took over the area and the buildings were used by fish wholesalers. Warehouses began to decline during the Depression and by the 1970s many buildings were abandoned. Some, like those owned by fish dealer M. Slavin & Sons, who are partners in the new project, were still operating in the market until it closed and moved to Hunts Point in 2005.

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In Plain Sight: Two Penthouse Plans Quick Approval for Design Back to the Drawing Board Atop a Historic Landmark for ‘Beautiful Work of Art’

BY JESSICA TERRELL Famed architect Shigeru Ban flew in from Tokyo last month, arriving at a Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing just in time to defend his design for a 23-foot-high rooftop addition on 361 Broadway, one of the most exceptional cast iron buildings in the city. He hardly needed to make the trip. Despite the height and visibility of the new structure, easily seen from both Broadway and Franklin Street, the commissioners heaped praise on Ban’s design and approved it unanimously, though two preservationists at the hearing testified against it. “I find this proposal breathtaking,” Commissioner Fred Bland said. “When you see it, it JESSICA TERRELL seems to set back from, and in Model of proposed penthouse atop 361 Broadway. no way challenge, the historic sultant hired by Knightsbridge to usher building below it.” “It is so beautiful and so striking, and the project through the approval process, such high quality,” said Commissioner dismissed the fact that the penthouse was Joan Gerner, admiring the “light trans- visible from the south on Broadway. “The building has a hierarchy of faparent addition, that also respects the cades,” she said. “Just like historic buildsolid portions of the building.” Ban’s design for 361 Broadway is ings all over the city, the side elevation part of a residential conversion of the was unarticulated in the anticipation that building into 12 duplex apartments; the at some point another building would go up next to it. ” Preservationists who testified at the hearing disagreed with Quasebarth and the commissioners, saying the design should be rejected. “The addition does not improve the building, since this beautifully restored individual landmark needs no improving. It’s pretty CARL GLASSMAN much perfect as is,” Shigeru Ban explains his penthouse design to commissioners. said Nadezhda Wiltwo-story penthouse will have two units. liams of the Historic Districts Council. Scaffolding recently came down, reveal- “A non-visible or nearly non-visible oneing an impeccable restoration by the story addition could be possible here, and we ask that this route be explored developers, Knightsbridge Properties. “The biggest challenge for me was instead.” “[The building’s] own massing and how to keep this building and respect its original condition,” Ban told the com- roof line should remain visually domimissioners. “So, I thought the solution nant, which will only be possible with a reimagining of the rooftop addition,” could be something very transparent.” Like Ban’s Metal Shutter Houses in said Christabel Gough of the Society for Chelsea, which feature retractable glass the Architecture of the City. Although Commissioner Margery walls, the lower level of the penthouse Perlmutter voted in favor of the project, will have sliding glass doors. “In order to make the building light, I and described the design as “a very thought maybe our building has to be thoughtful approach,” she expressed detached from the existing building,” some doubts. “What I am struggling with,” she Ban said, describing the second floor as said, “is this subject of it being an indi“almost floating.” Elise Quasebarth, a historical con- vidual landmark.”

CARLOS ZAPATA

Rendering of penthouse on Reade Street that was rejected by the Landmarks Commission.

BY JESSICA TERRELL from east to west to capture the sun, and With its high ceilings and dramatical- to create a visual plane with the neighly sloped roof, well-known architect boring buildings. At its peak, the pentCarlos Zapata’s proposed two-story house would be 32 feet high. rooftop addition at 105-107 Reade Street Landmarks commissioners were was meant to be something of an anom- intrigued by Zapata’s rationale for his aly, a structure designed to stand out in a design, but said it had little relationship sea of deliberately hidden penthouses. to the building below it. The existing The design, the city’s Landmarks five-story Italianate building was built in Preservation Commission said after 1861. lengthy debate last month, was “beauti“At the end of the day, this has to ful,” “sculptural,” and ultimately inappropriate for the landmarked 151-year-old building. “This is certainly a beautiful work of art, but I think the scale of it is much more than I could tolerate on existing buildings in Tribeca,” Commissioner Pablo Vengochea said. The LPC told Zapata last month to CARL GLASSMAN “scale down” his Zapata describes his rooftop design at Landmarks hearing. designs and come back. The addition had been unanimous- relate to a specific building,” Vengochea ly rejected by Community Board 1’s said. “I think this addition could be put Landmarks Committee. on another two buildings.... I am not sure The 7,465-square-foot penthouse it’s appropriate to the buildings where with a 40-foot pool would not be seen we are being asked to place it.” from Reade Street, but would be very The Historic Districts Council, visible from nearby West Broadway. which recommended rejection of the Zapata, who was a designer on the proposal, went even further. international concourse at Miami Airport “The asymmetrical design recalls and on Chicago’s Soldier Field, told the none of the order of the handsome buildCommission that he intended for the ing below,” testified Nadezhda Williams addition to relate to the penthouses and of the Historic District Council. buildings around it. Williams called for a new design that “There is a different landscape, would be “more sympathetic to its surwhich is the rooftops of Tribeca. It is not roundings.” necessarily historic, but it is the landMaybe Zapata’s design would work scape,” Zapata said. “What we are trying in some neighborhoods, but not this one, to do is add to this landscape.” said the commissioners, who asked the The addition would slope upward architect to return with a revised plan.

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OPEN IN FRONT: Large crowds swarm easily around the bull, barricaded on three sides with a large opening in front.

EARTHCAM (3)

CLOSED OFF: Tourists gather in the street to look at the bull, completely surrounded by barricades and out of reach.

THE MAZE: Long line forms to enter a small enclosure, where police allow one or two people to enter at a time.

He Says Fence, Too, Is a Lot of Bull BY JESSICA TERRELL Leaning on a metal police barricade, Maria Cruz giggled as she posed for a friend’s camera, stretching her hand out at just the right angle to give the illusion that she was caressing the backside of the famed Charging Bull sculpture some 20 feet behind her. “It’s still buena suerte,” the Colombian tourist said with a grin, turning to look at the 7,000-pound brass animal that she would have stroked if not for the ring of barricades surrounding it. “Good luck!” Cruz is among the hordes of tourists who visit the sculpture at Bowling Green to snap photos or try to gain a bit of good fortune by rubbing the popular symbol of American capitalism. But whether they get close enough to hook their arms around the bull’s horns or pat it on the backside has been a matter of luck lately, with the configuration of police barricades surrounding the sculpture changing nearly daily. “There’s no logic, no reason for this,” said Arthur Piccolo of the Bowling Green Association, who has helped care for the sculpture for more than two decades. “There’s no place else in the city where you find [the police] doing this kind of nonsense. And at this point, I don’t know if it’s ever going to end.” One day last month, the barricades only lined the sides of the cobblestone plaza, giving tourists free access from the back and front of the bull. A few days later, the sculpture was entirely surrounded by galvanized steel and no one

CARL GLASSMAN

Arthur Piccolo is on a crusade to have barricades removed around the Charging Bull.

could lay a hand it. When Cruz and her friends visited at the end of June, the barricades resembled a maze. One circled the bull; another funneled tourists into another queue ending in a narrow opening that allowed visitors to enter the enclosure one by one. A final row of barricades stopped visitors from going beyond the bull’s ribs. “The [extra] barricades were here when I arrived,” said a police officer stationed at the bull. “I don’t know why.” The barricades went up during the Occupy Wall Street protest last September, but police officials have yet to explain what threats still require their protection. In addition to the barricades,

at least one officer and a squad car are always stationed at the park and two security cameras, trained on the bull, have been installed on nearby poles. Sculptor Arturo Di Modica placed the bull in front of the New York Stock Exchange in 1989 as an uncommissioned Christmas present to New Yorkers. Piccolo helped bring the bull to the park and now he is on a mission to get the barricades removed. Since September, Piccolo estimates, the city has spent up to $1 million protecting the sculpture. “Think about this million dollars being put to better use,” he said. Neither the NYPD nor the city’s

Parks Department nor the Department of Transportation responded to a request for comment. The mayor’s office has said repeatedly that the decision is up to the Police Department. “Security measures in the downtown Manhattan area, which includes the Charging Bull, are determined by the Police Department depending upon current security concerns,” Stephen Sherrill, policy advisor to the city’s Deputy Mayor for Operations, wrote in an email to Piccolo early last month. “Alongside the Police Department, we will continue to monitor and revise protocols as the situation dictates.” After several appearances by Piccolo before Community Board 1’s Financial District Committee, CB1 passed a resolution in June calling on police to replace the barricades and police car with “measures that are less intrusive.” In a phone interview with the Trib from Sicily, Di Modica said the city has been in contact with him about the security measures, which he believes may be warranted. He doesn’t want to see protesters graffiti the bull, and also pointed out that the city DOT is getting ready to embark on a sidewalk widening-project around the plaza to keep bull visitors from spilling into the street. But Di Modica said he does want to see the barricades removed in the near future. “Eventually, of course,” the sculptor said. “When I am going to be there, it’s going to come down. Because if it’s not going to come down, I’ll take it down.”

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Owner Angry Over Seating Denial

BY JESSICA TERRELL Standing on the small raised platform outside his restaurant Max at 181 Duane St., Luigi Iasilli gazed at a sidewalk cafe down the street and counted off the names of nearby restaurants with outdoor seating. “There’s Roc across the street,” Iasilli complained. “You have Blaue Gans—and this is just the second year they have it. City Hall is on Duane.” A few days before, Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee had unanimously opposed his application for a three-table, seven-chair sidewalk cafe in the tiny outdoor space, and he was claiming unfair treatment. “There are basically another three restaurants, just on my street, with side street sidewalk cafes.” The committee said at its last monthly meeting that they were against Iasilli’s cafe based on a longstanding policy of opposing sidewalk cafes on side streets. But pointing to side street cafes operating in Tribeca, the restaurateur said he is confused and angered by the decision, and determined to press ahead with his application before the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs. “I have definitely been treated unfairly. And I want to use the word unfair, because they used the word fair. They said, ‘We need to be consistent and fair to everybody,’” Iasilli said. In response to questions from the Trib, Committee Chair Peter Braus de-

CARL GLASSMAN

Luigi Iasilli on the raised platform where he hopes to put three tables and seven chairs.

clined to elaborate on the policy or other cafe approvals, but told Iasilli at the meeting that his committee had opposed several other applications on side streets. “We do have a pretty established precedent,” Braus told Iasilli at the meeting, citing the committee’s recent opposition to a sidewalk cafe at Smith & Mills on North Moore Street. “We want to be consistent,” Braus said. “So I think it would be difficult for us to say, ‘Okay, we are going to make this one exception for you,’ because then obviously the people we turned down are going to come back to us and say, ‘Well, wait a minute, you know that’s not fair.’”

Other examples mentioned by Braus included Sarabeth’s and Locanda Verde, two corner restaurants that applied for sidewalk cafes on two streets each. “Locanda Verde wanted their sidewalk cafe to wrap the corner. We only gave them tables on Greenwich Street,” Braus said. “Sarabeth’s wanted tables on Jay and Greenwich. We only gave them on Greenwich.” A resolution for Locanda Verde from 2010 approves tables on both Greenwich and North Moore streets; a follow-up resolution in 2011 does not mention North Moore. The restaurant has been serving tables on both streets.

The Tribeca Committee’s policy on cafes on side streets goes back as far as current staff can remember, said CB1 Community Liaison Andrew Brockman, noting that some sidewalk seating predates the policy. The Department of Consumer Affairs can also approve a restaurant’s application regardless of the board’s recommendation. The Tribeca Committee’s policy appears to be tougher than those of nearby boards. The district managers for Community Boards 2 and 3, which border CB1, said they evaluate each application individually and have no uniform policy beyond what city regulations stipulate. “If the zoning allows it, we hear the application and we judge each one individually,” CB2 District Manager Bob Gormley said. “I don’t know that we’ve ever denied a [new application] outright.” After rejecting Iasilli’s application, two Tribeca Committee members said they would consider revisiting the policy if most other members wanted to. “I am comfortable with the policy, I’ve been persuaded, but if people want to say this is something that ought to be done case-by-case and we are willing to budget the time it would take to do that, then I am open to that,” Mark Costello told his committee members following the vote. The city will review Iasilli’s application at a hearing on July 18.

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Leonard St. Building Gets Close to Landmark’s OK

RENDERINGS BY TURETT COLLABORATIVE ARCHITECTS

Above: The first design, with grey brick on the side. Right: New design replaces a metal frame with red brick, aligns the channel glass with the column structure, bringing it forward while setting back the windows.

BY JESSICA TERRELL the penthouse.” Close but not quite close enough. “The penthouse looks added on, it That was the message the Landmarks doesn’t look as if it rose out of the buildPreservation Commission delivered last ing,” Commissioner Roberta Washington month to the team behind a proposed said. “[It] needs to be smaller or seven-story glass building topped with a removed.” two-story residence at 15 Leonard St. Neighbors have complained that the Commissioners applauded most of 116-foot building with its channel glass the design modifications that developer Steven Schnall and architect Wayne Turett had made since first presenting the plans in May. The new design uses orange brick instead of grey, reduces the size of the windows on the top floor, and replaces one of four ground-floor The new ground floor design includes three garage doors instead of four, and breaks the garages up by adding a storefront. garage doors with a storefront. But efforts to reduce the visi- facade, (slated for a lot now occupied by bility of the penthouse fell short. two one-story garages built in the 1920s) “The move to red brick was terrific. is too big and inappropriately designed The base of the building is [also] much for the historic district. more in keeping now with a contempoSchnall, who plans to live with his rary version of the industrial base we see family in a two-floor, 6,000-square-foot in Tribeca,” Commissioner Fred Bland “maisonette,” told the Trib he agrees that told the development team. “The reducing the penthouse visibility will changes go a long way in making this a improve the design, and expects to return good addition to the district, but there to the commission for final approval this needs to be some major scaling back of month.

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Right: In 1921, the New York Curb Market moved indoors to this building on Greenwich Street. Inside, trading posts weretopped with globes resembling lampposts—a reminder of the days of curbside trading. Far right: The Trinity Place side of the building. By 1931, the building had expanded upward. In 1953, the Exchange renamed itself the American Stock Exchange. ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF NYSE EURONEXT

Landmark Decision American Stock Exchange building is finally protected BY JESSICA TERRELL It’s a giant of both financial history and Art Deco architecture, a 14-story limestone building with handsome angular lines and fluted piers that was home to the American Stock Exchange from 1921 until the exchange closed in 2008. The 210-foot-tall Curb Market Building at 86 Trinity Place is so prominent, in fact, that the most surprising thing about the landmark designation bestowed upon it last month may be that it wasn’t already a protected building. “This is such a stunning building. I always thought it was a landmark,” Landmarks Preservation Commissioner Joan Gerner said before casting her vote. “I’m so happy it is now.” “This is a remarkable building and extremely important in my judgment to have as a New York City landmark,” said Commission Chairman Robert Tierney. “[The building] means a lot to the city of New York. It means a lot to Lower Manhattan.” Constructed in two stages, the building has two different facades—one on Greenwich Street, the other on Trinity Place. A modest three-story neo-Renaissance brick facade on Greenwich Street was completed in 1921, after the exchange—then an outdoor trading market known as the Curb Exchange—opted to build a home to give itself more legitimacy. The building was expanded, and a grander Art Deco extension on Trinity Place was completed in 1931. The Trinity Place facade was completed during the Depression, and its architects kept ornamentation to a minimum, the Commission notes in its landmarks designation report. “With Wall Street’s recent crash fresh in memory, decorative restraint must have seemed entirely appropriate,” the report states. Small details can be noticed with a careful eye, however,

such as the rectangular metal panels that illustrate the types of stocks represented by the exchange. Near the top of the building, small metal grilles were added to resemble frozen fountains, which the Commission notes were “a common symbol of prosperity at the time.” In contrast to most other exchange buildings in Lower Manhattan, which were built in a Greek Revival or classical style, the Curb “stood out for its height and modernity.” The building’s designation is due in part to the efforts of preservation consultant and nearby resident Mary Dierickx, and her recently revived group Citizens for Downtown. Derickx has been calling for landmark protection for the building for more than a year. “This is a rare and powerful visual reminder of the rise of the American financial industry, in New York City and in the world,” Dierickx testified at the Commission hearing. The landmarking process went quickly because the building’s new owners, 86 Trinity Place LLC, supported it; owners often oppose landmarking because of restrictions placed on modifying their buildings. Allan Fried, a principal in 86 Trinity Place LLC, told the Trib last year that plans to turn the building into a hotel with high-end retail shops would make it accessible to the public. “This has been effectively an off-limits building for a number of years,” Fried said. “We hope to bring it into full life.” The building was one of 29 to be given individual landmark status in the past year. But even among a slew of other worthy landmarks, this building stood out to the commissioners. “The architecture of this alone would warrant its inclusion as a landmark,” Commissioner Frederick Bland said. “Its history makes it even more significant.”

Above left: Clerks receive buy and sell orders through the window from brokers on the street (above right). They communicated using hand signals. Left: By the 1930s, the Curb Exchange was the leading international stock market and the trading floor was doubled in size.

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012

A Warm Changing of the CB1 Guard

BY CARL GLASSMAN In an evening filled with cheek kisses, laudatory speeches and applause, Julie Menin chaired her last Community Board 1 meeting on July 26 as her successor, Catherine McVay Hughes, put her first imprint on the board. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer was one of several elected officials to publicly honor Menin for her seven years of leadership. “I want to present you with this Borough President proclamation,” Stringer said, handing the broadly smiling Menin a large framed document. “I also want you to learn to give this, because you never know.” Menin says she is exiting the board to devote herself full time to an expected run for the office held by Stringer, a mayoral hopeful. Hughes moved up from the vice chairmanship, unopposed, during the evening’s election of officers. (Longtime board member Anthony Notaro was elected vice chair.) Hughes has been especially visible as chair of the board’s World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee and as a passionate advocate on WTC-related health issues, such as the Zadroga Bill. A 14-year veteran of the board, Hughes moved quickly last month to combine the WTC Committee with the inglorious Planning and Infrastructure Committee. It’s an act, she told the Trib, meant to further her goal of reincorporat-

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

At the Community Board 1 meeting last month, Catherine McVay Hughes, the new chairwoman (above), helps to honor Julie Menin on her last evening of heading the board.

ing the now-fenced World Trade Center site into the surrounding neighborhoods. “We want to make sure the integration will be so pedestrians can flow through and around the site as much as possible,” said Hughes, whose family has lived close to the World Trade Center, on Broadway, since 1988. She said she plans to involve the board’s geographic committees (Financial District, Tribeca, etc.) in World Trade Centerrelated development issues.

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“The best response to the terrorist attacks over a decade ago is to make sure that our community is rebuilt in a livable, sustainable way,” she said. For her part, Menin called the end of her tenure “bittersweet.” “I love chairing the community board,” she said. “I like producing results. I like dealing with very tough challenges and trying to come up with a solution.” Still, no one seemed more relieved by

the leadership change than Bruce Menin, her husband. At a celebratory gathering of board members before their meeting, he was the last to speak, and the least sentimental. “Starting today there are no more calls,” he deadpanned. “I’d also like to announce that I have Catherine McVay Hughes’ private cell number and her home number and her email. I can make them available to everybody.”

JULY/AUGUST 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB

After 30 Years at Seaport, Woodcarver Must Move

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Sal Polisi uses a chisel and mallet to carve an eagle’s head in his workshop near Pier 15.

BY JESSICA TERRELL For nearly 30 years, Sal Polisi’s Maritime Craft Center has been a mainstay in the South Street Seaport. A shipping container turned wood workshop crammed with tools and half-finished carvings of ship figureheads, toys and shop signs, Polisi’s doors are flung open six days a week to welcome both tourists and the damp river breeze. But not for much longer. Polisi’s building, which is owned by

always remained near the pier. “Over the years they have said it’s going to end soon, but it keeps going.” The arrangement has been mutually beneficial. Polisi gets free studio space in Lower Manhattan and, in return, the Seaport gets a free tourist attraction. “[Polisi’s workshop] is part of what gives the neighborhood its character. It’s a vital asset,” said Peter Stanford, who founded the museum in the 1960s. The EDC told Polisi years ago that the shop would have to move, but Polisi and CB1 staff say the EDC promised it would relocate under the nearby FDR Drive. The EDC now tells them there is not enough room for the structure. CB1 passed a resolution in June calling on the EDC to find a Carving of “Captain Jinks” greets tourists outside Polisi’s workshop. suitable site for the South Street Seaport Museum and is the shop near its current location. In the located near Pier 15 on property con- meantime, the museum has offered Polisi trolled by the city’s Economic Devel- space in the Walter Lord Gallery on opment Corporation, is in the middle of a Water Street, but has not determined soon-to-be-constructed section of the whether it would charge him rent in the East River Esplanade. Unless a new site space. Polisi, who does not sell souvenirs is found, it will probably be demolished. and says he makes little from the custom “It’s not the museum’s fault in any pieces he creates for museums and prisense—they are being pushed by the vate collectors, has been instructed by EDC,” Community Board 1 Public the museum not to discuss the move or Member Michael Kramer said last month ongoing negotiations with the EDC. at the Seaport Committee meeting. “I “I don’t want to cause any trouble,” guess you could make the argument that said Polisi, who wears a museum T-shirt the EDC is not trying hard enough to find to work and tells visitors his space is a a design solution to keep him close to Seaport Museum workshop. “If I need to, where he is.” I will just pack my bags and go.” Polisi, a 76-year-old master woodOthers want him to put up more of a carver, got his start in the Seaport by fight. offering free demonstrations there in the “I don’t think we should accept anyearly 1980s. They were such a success thing other than having the shop rent-free that the museum’s president offered him under the FDR Drive,” said Stanford. the shipping containers for his workshop. “[Polisi] ought to be treated like a ship— “It’s been like a dream come true,” we don’t charge the historic ships rent. said Polisi, whose simple metal structure We should have a similar regard for has been moved several times, but human assets.”

TRIB bits

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012

The Bard at the Battery

You don’t need a ticket this month for the New York Classical Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” The show, which starts in Castle Clinton and roams with its audience through Battery Park, has as its setting New York City in the early 1900s. Performances take place through July 22, Tuesday through Sunday at 7 p.m. newyorkclassical.org/whats-playing.

Bastille Day Celebration

Cercle Rouge restaurant is holding its annual Bastille Day celebration on Thursday, July 12, noon to early evening. Sand pétanque (similar to bocce) courts will be set up on West Broadway between Beach and White streets, which will be closed to traffic. Music, cancan dancers and other entertainment will fill the street as well. Merguez frites sandwiches and French beers and wines will be for sale.

Bogardus Barbecue

The Friends of Bogardus Garden are sponsoring a barbecue on Wednesday, July 4, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Bogardus Plaza, Hudson and Reade streets. Available for purchase will be hamburgers and hot dogs from Ward III and s’mores crepes and sundaes from Cosmopolitan Cafe. bogardusgarden.org.

Tennis Lessons

The Friends of Washington Market Park are holding two free tennis clinics for children on Wednesday, July 11, and Saturday, Aug. 11, at 4 p.m. (ages 4 and 5) and 5 p.m. (ages 6 and 7). The courts are at the northwest corner of Chambers and West streets. washingtonmarketpark.org.

Chess Help

Chess players can get free tips and advice from an expert on Wednesdays, 12:30–1:30 p.m., just outside the entrance to the New York Mercantile Exchange at One North End Avenue in the World Financial Center. Boards and pieces are provided.

Poetry Walk

“We’re Floating” is a free interactive poetry walk with artist and poet Jon Cotner, who will connect the work of Japanese poet Matsuo Basho to the landscape of Rockefeller Park. The 45minute strolls take place on Saturdays, July 7 and July 14, at 4, 5, 6 and 7 p.m. Meet at Poets House, 10 River Terrace, poetshouse.org.

Dragon Boat Family Fest

It will be a full day for families on Sunday, July 29, at the Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre St. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., kids can learn calligraphy, make a scented bag and paper dragon boat, hear stories and a performance by a musician playing the Qin, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument, and learn about the Dragon Boat Festival. $10. Go to mocanyc.org for a schedule.

Free Sundays at Seaport

The South Street Seaport Museum is inviting the Downtown community to visit the museum for free on Sundays. Current shows include photos of Occupy Wall Street, a 22-minute film on the city’s history, work by designers working and manufacturing in the city today, and the recently opened exhibit “Explore Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions,” organized with the American Folk Art Museum. Passes are available at the ticket desk at 12 Fulton St. (between Front and South streets). For more information, call 212-748-8600 or go to southstreetseaportmuseum.org.

A Walk to Honor

The annual walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to honor Sgt. Keith A. Ferguson, a member of the city’s anti-terrorism Downtown unit who died in 2004 in the line of duty, will take place Sunday, Aug. 5. Meet at City Hall Park by the fountain at 8 a.m. Proceeds from the walk go to a police scholarship fund. Sgt. Ferguson was the nephew of Raphael Santore, D.D.S., of Tribeca Dental Center. To sign up, go to nypdrunningclub.com.

Governors Island Events

Two eras can be revisited this summer on Governors Island. On Saturday, Aug. 11, and Sunday, August 12, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., Civil War reenactors will show what life was like on the island in 1863. The free event will offer family activities, historic weapons demonstrations and period music. The 1920s will come alive on Saturday, Aug. 18, and Sunday, Aug. 19, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., with a jazz concert by Michael Arenella and His Dreamland Orchestra. There will be 1920s dance instruction and games from the era. $15; free under 12. The ferry to the island is free and leaves every half hour from the Battery Maritime Building. For a complete schedule and other island activities this summer, go to govisland.com.

National Night Out

The 1st Precinct’s annual free picnic will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 7, from 6 to 8 p.m., in Battery Park City at Liberty Street and South End Avenue, behind the police memorial. Hot dogs and hamburgers are on the menu. There will also be entertainment for children.

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012

POLICE BEAT

REPORTED FROM THE 1ST PRECINCT

88 PINE

June 7…6 p.m. A woman parked her 2010 Dodge Avenger and then went to a restaurant. While she was eating, the car was stolen.

SIXTH AVE. & W. BROADWAY June 7…8:40 p.m. A straphanger was traveling on a southbound train, when a thief snatched an iPhone from her hand and jumped off the train at Canal Street.

17 PARK PLACE June 9…4:30 a.m. An argument between two women turned ugly when one woman dropped her purse and the other woman picked it up, removed the owner’s cell phone and threw it on the ground. The woman who broke the cell phone then resisted arrest.

101 MAIDEN LANE June 13…2 p.m. A thief snatched a diner’s purse that had been placed on a nearby chair. 7 BROADWAY June 13…3 p.m. A Starbucks customer left her purse unattended on a chair. When she went to get her wallet, it was gone.

89 SOUTH STREET June 15…9:30 p.m. A pickpocket slipped a woman’s wallet out of her purse on a crowded street.

STATE & SOUTH June 16…11 a.m. Thieves stole an iPhone and wallet from a bag left unattended while its owner played basketball. 293 CHURCH

June 17…11:10 a.m. A food vendor left her cart momentarily unattended, and a thief made off with $200, a cell phone and the woman’s vendor’s permit and license.

385 CANAL June 17…6:45 p.m. Police arrested a man and a woman

who stole a $235 watch from a jewelry store and then assaulted the owner, throwing hot coffee in his face and punching him when the shopkeeper followed them onto the street.

89 SOUTH STREET June 20…noon A shopper at Express left her wallet unattended inside a dressing room. A thief took it and a few minutes later made charges on one of the credit cards at a nearby grocery store. 270 GREENWICH June 23…11:15 a.m. A thief stole a bicycle valued at $800 along with a $200 baby seat. The bike was locked to a bicycle rack.

20 RIVER TERRACE June 23…1 p.m. A man left his wallet and iPhone on a park bench while he played basketball. The items were stolen.

1 WHITEHALL June 23…5 p.m. A man sought help from the police after a female companion hit him on the head with a bottle and slapped and punched him repeatedly. The woman had previously threatened him with a knife. PINE & SOUTH

June 23…9:30 p.m. After tripping and falling on the sidewalk, a woman sat down to rest and realized that her bag had been stolen while she was on the ground.

94 FULTON

June 24…3:30 p.m. A 35-year-old woman approached a man sitting in his car, held a box cutter to his face and then snatched a cell phone from his lap. When police arrested the woman, she was carrying three box cutters and a forged driver’s license.

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June 25...9:30 a.m. Thieves broke into an office and stole two laptops.

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1calendar

JULY/AUGUST 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB

Community Board

The following is a partial list of the board’s agendas. For updates, go to the CB1 website. Meetings start at 6 p.m. and are held at 49–51 Chambers St., Rm. 709, unless otherwise noted. Call 212-442-5050 to confirm dates. An ID is needed to enter the building. (Unless an urgent matter arises, the board will not hold any meetings during August.)

7/3 BATTERY PARK CITY 6 PM Location: Battery Park City Authority, 1 World Financial Center, 24th Fl. • Arts program. Update by Debra Simon, executive director of arts at Brookfield Properties • BPC update by Matthew Monahan, VP of public information, Battery Park City Authority • Run for Knowledge application for street activity permit on Sat., Oct. 13, at 201 Warren St. bet. North End and West. Streets closed: 8 am–2 pm. Event: 10 am–1 pm. Resolution • 102 North End Ave., new application for sidewalk café license for North End Grill • Bike Share Program. Discussion • Narrow sidewalk / Illegal parking on Warren Street bet. North End and West. Discussion and possible resolution • 2 River Terrace, application for renewal of restaurant wine and beer license for Le Pain Quotidien • City Bench Program. Presentation by Depart-

7/5 URBAN PLANNING ment of Transportation

7/10 YOUTH & EDUCATION 6 PM Location: 49-51 Chambers St., Room 501 WTC Health Registry. Presentation by Marcus Liem, public affairs liaison, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene • New schools and residential development issues. Update by Paul Hovitz, CB1 Member • Presentation on Broadway reconstruction

7/10 FINANCIAL DISTRICT

project by Norberto Acevedo, NYC Department of Design and Construction • John Street/Maiden Lane Historic District. Update • 100 Broad St., application for restaurant liquor license for Clearing House Restaurant Group, d/b/a to be determined. Resolution • 140 Fulton St., application for restaurant wine and beer license for Ralph Caruso’s Pizza. Resolution • 133 John St. application for restaurant liquor license for entity to be formed by Mena Maguire, d/b/a to be determined. Resolution • 30 Water St., application for restaurant liquor license for DRT Group LLC. Resolution • 165 Front St., application for restaurant liquor license for Aashiya Sushi. Resolution • Street activity permit application for block party carnival on Sept. 8, by Leman Manhattan Preparatory School on Broadway, Beaver Street and Exchange Place, 9 am–5 pm. Resolution The following notices have been received for renewal of wine and beer or liquor licenses: • 56 Pine St., application for renewal of restaurant liquor license for ISE Downtown

• 72 Nassau St., application for renewal of restaurant wine and beer license for Zaitzeff • 90 Fulton St., application for renewal of liquor license for Liam’s • Neighborhood Improvement District proposal

7/11 WATERFRONT

by Friends of Hudson River Park

• Bogardus Plaza. Update by Friends of Bogardus Plaza • The Rescue Mission application for street activity permit on Mon., Nov. 19, at Lafayette Street bet. White and Walker. Streets closed: 7 am–8 pm. Event: 10 am–1 pm. Resolution • Sukkot block party and family festival, application for street activity permit on Sat., Oct. 7, at 146 Duane St. bet. Church and West Broadway. Streets closed: 8 am–3 pm; Event: 10 am–2 pm. Resolution • Rue des Beaujolais, application for street activity permit on Thurs., Nov. 15, on West Broadway bet. Walker and White. Streets closed: 12:01 am–11:59 pm; Event: 9 am–10 pm. Resolution • 57 Murray St., application for tavern liquor license for Delboys NYC. Resolution The following notices have been received for renewal of wine and beer or liquor licenses: • 15 6th Ave., application for renewal of tavern liquor license for Tribeca Tavern • 1 Hudson St., application for renewal of restaurant liquor license for Acapella • 25 N. Moore St., application for renewal of tavern liquor license for Brandy Library • 22 Warren St., application for renewal of restaurant liquor license for Brick • 61 Warren St., application for renewal of restaurant wine and beer license for The Little Place

7/11 TRIBECA 6:30 PM

7/11 WATERFRONT 6:30 PM Location: 49-51 Chambers St., Room 501 • Public safety on the waterfront. Discussion • John Street/Maiden Lane Historic District.

7/12 LANDMARKS

• 225 West Broadway, application for storefront

Update

• 100 Broadway, application for new door.

renovation. Resolution Resolution

• Master plan for Seaport projects. Discussion • City Hall Park. Discussion • 99 John St., application for renewal of restau-

7/17 SEAPORT/CIVIC CENTER

rant wine and beer license for Jubilee

• Update by Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center by Robin Forst, director of government and community relations

7/19 QUALITY OF LIFE

• Lower Manhattan Seniors presentation, printing and distributing the updated Seniors Guide. Discussion

7/23 HOUSING

7/31 CB MONTHLY MEETING 6 PM Location: Dance New Amsterdam 280 Broadway, 2nd Fl. (enter at 53 Chambers)

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012

P.S. 276 Principal Protests DOE Policy She tells officials that her school is “out of rooms”, worries where to put future students BY CARL GLASSMAN

Department of Education officials got an earful last month from P.S./I.S. 276 Principal Terri Ruyter, who blasted the city’s handling of the classroom crunch at her Battery Park City school. At the monthly meeting of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s School Overcrowding Task Force, DOE representatives did little to relieve the concerns of parents and other Downtown school advocates over the growing shortage of zoned kindergarten seats in Lower Manhattan. But it was a DOE official’s suggestion of combining some class sections in the two-year-old school that drew fire from the principal. Drew Patterson, the DOE’s man in charge of planning for southern Manhattan, told Ruyter that finding additional space in the school for younger students “might mean we have to consolidate classes in the upper grades.” “I can’t consolidate!” Ruyter replied firmly. “Drew, I have 30 kids in two fourth grade classes next year. You cannot take 60 kids and put them in one class for fifth grade. It does not work. It is illegal and the classrooms are full.” Ruyter said she “pushed back” as long as she could against opening an additional, fifth kindergarten class in a school planned for three sections per grade. But as pressure mounted in May from the 25 families on the kindergarten waitlist, the DOE ordered her to open the class. Now, she says, she is trying to figure out where she will put the coming school year’s 4th graders—the oldest children now in the elementary school—when they reach 5th grade in 2013. (This September, the school will also have its full cohort of 6th, 7th and 8th graders.) “I sent you a spreadsheet that showed you that I am out of rooms,” Ruyter told Patterson, who sat beside her at the meeting. Ruyter said she sees a threat to her middle school as well, a fear that Eliz-

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

Top: At a meeting of Silver’s School Task Force, Terri Ruyter tells the DOE’s Drew Patterson that in 2013 she will not have room for her 5th graders. Above: P.S. 276, on the building’s opening day in September, 2010.

abeth Rose, from the DOE’s Office of Public Affairs, tried to allay. “We understand your concerns but we are not taking those programs away,” Rose said. “I don’t understand where you think I’m putting all these middle schoolers— on a miraculous ninth floor that’s going to be built over the summer?” Ruyter shot back. “I just don’t see it happening.” Ruyter said she also worries that she will have to give up her rooms dedicated to art, science and music. Patterson said that finding additional space in P.S. 276 might mean eliminating pre-kindergarten in the building as well as consolidating some classes. But those rooms would

remain “intact.” DOE officials continue to assert that P.S. 1, a school in Chinatown at 8 Henry St., has a dwindling student population and room for two more sections of kindergartners. With “ample space” available, Patterson said, “Right now we don’t see the need for additional seats Downtown given the capacity we do have at P.S. 1.” Downtown, Rose added, is hardly the only part of the city that is crying for new schools. There are 15,000 seats around the city, she said, that can’t be funded. “There are other communities, other parents just like yourselves, where we can’t say we have a school that’s anywhere in

the vicinity that can accommodate two sections per grade.” Noting the distance between Battery Park City and Chinatown, Silver’s response was emphatic. “P.S. 1 is not a viable option for this community. It just isn’t.” By the end of the school year, the four children left on the P.S. 89 waitlist had offers at P.S. 234. And at P.S. 276, there were a few empty kindergarten seats, said Parent Coordinator Erica Weldon. But the school is expecting 10 to 15 students to move in over the summer. Those who can’t be accommodated will be assigned to P.S. 1, she said. Tracie Basch, the mother of a kindergartner at P.S. 276, complained at the task force meeting that her child was heading for class sizes of more than 30. “And I don’t know where my younger child is going to be going to school in 2013,” she said, “because the building is full.” Downtown births increased 43 percent between 2006—the year that the current crop of kindergartners was born—and 2010, according to Eric Greenleaf, the P.S. 234 parent and New York University business professor who provides demographic projections for the task force. In 2015, when the Peck Slip school opens, Greenleaf said, there will be a shortage of 1,200 seats among the five zoned elementary schools within Community Board 1. “It’s time to stop talking about these Band-Aid solutions,” Greenleaf said, “and address the fact that Downtown needs two more elementary schools.” At the end of the meeting, Silver asked Rose to set up a meeting with DOE officials “in a position to make some decisions.” Late last month Silver did meet with DOE higher-ups, though not with Chancellor Dennis Walcott, according to his spokesman. In a statement, he said he urged the officials to amend the city’s school construction plan to include another Downtown school. Asked to comment on the meeting, Marge Feinberg, a DOE spokeswoman, would not acknowledge that it had taken place. “We’re not going to comment on a meeting that you claim happened,” she said.

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012

The three Katz brothers, from left, Alan, Ron and Stevie. Sometimes, Ron says, when Alan and Stevie are out of the office, he tidies up their desks. Inset: Their father, Jack Katz, taken about 1990. He often smoked a cigar while he worked.

Like their grandfather and father before them, these Tribeca holdouts say…

‘We Don’t Like Change’ BY APRIL KORAL PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

early every weekday morning for the last 35 years, Stevie, Alan and Ron Katz have arrived at their offices of Paramount/Boltex Textile Company at 34 Walker St. There, on the cluttered second floor of the weathered 146-year-old building, the brothers settle in, side by side at their desks, a mere arm’s length from each other. The trio seem oblivious to their surroundings, the papers spilling out of file cabinets and desk drawers, the broken obsolete equipment, the clutter of cloth, paper and

Left: 34 Walker Street, which wraps around to Church Street, was completed in 1870, built from masonry, with cast-iron elements. Above: Sam Katz, who began the business, in a portrait taken in about 1950.

boxes that cover nearly every available surface. The Katz brothers are among the few remaining textile merchants in a neighborhood long

rooted in that trade. From the mid-9th century until the 1970s, men like them occupied nearly every building in northeastern Tribeca. The Katzes are the last generation of a family business started on 64 White Street in the early ’30s by their 8

‘We Don’t Like Change’

grandfather, who was born on the Lower East Side. The phone calls from co-op developers eager to convert this valuable piece of real estate, which wraps around and also fronts onto Church Street, are relentless. But for the brothers, the idea of moving their business and giving up their building is, as yet, unthinkable. “We don’t like change,” they often say. Across a low divider lined with piles of invoices tied with rubber bands (“We file them,” says Alan, “when they get so high they might fall over”) is the former desk and chair of the brothers’ late father, Jack Katz, who died in 2000. Dad’s name comes up in nearly every conversation around here. And if there is a right way to do things, it was Dad’s way. “My father wouldn’t trust a computer even today if he was living,” Alan, 55, says. “If someone wanted a price he figured it out on scrap paper.” He picks up a composition notebook from his desk. “I keep all of my records in books,” he says, “like my father.” There are a few computers in the office and Alan uses them for email. But Ron, 61, and Stevie, 56, still avoid them. “I wouldn’t even know how to turn one on,” Ron says, laughing. Stevie uses ledger books to do the bookkeeping. The brothers work together in remarkable harmony. (“My father always said, ‘If you have sons, they’ll get along,’” Alan recalled.) Alan runs the air conditioner full blast, so Ron wears a jacket. When Stevie talks, and he is a big talker, the other brothers listen indulgently. “He talks about our father a lot and he exaggerates,” Ron notes. Stevie, standing nearby, is unfazed by the observation. Most important, they all agree that the business is staying just where it is— in this building that their father loved. “When buyers call, they ask, ‘Well, what’s your number?’” Ron says. “Stevie amuses himself by asking and hearing the answers—it’s worth 4 million, 5 million, 6 million. But truthfully speaking, we don’t have a number because we’re not ready to go yet. Stevie and Alan aren’t married. I’m living with a woman. None of us have children. I guess the person to decide will be the last one standing.” “The most important thing their father left them with was to be a family,” says Carol Levine, the secretary, who has worked for Paramount for 55 years, her chair just a few feet from Jack’s. “And even if they have different personalities, in business, that doesn’t break them up. Three goes into one, and it all comes out together. That’s his legacy.” *** All three brothers dropped out of college to join the business and Stevie and Alan still live together in the Brooklyn home where they were raised. “We pretty much grew up knowing that eventually we were going to come into this business,” Ron says. And they all agree that there was nothing else they wanted to do. They joined the business

JULY/AUGUST 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

Top: In the company’s second-floor office, Harold Green, at left, talks to Stevie Katz. Behind Stevie are brothers Alan and Ron. Above: Carol Levine at the desk where she has sat for over half a century. She continues to use a typewriter. Right: At age 65, Green is still moving 90pound boxes filled with restaurant tablecloths and napkins.

two years apart, beginning with Ron in 1973. Like their father before them, they came into the family business in their twenties and never wanted to leave. The sons don’t know much about their grandfather’s business on White Street (he died in 1959) but they know that their father, after returning from the war, bought the building on Walker Street for manufacturing. “We were the biggest laundry bag maker in New York,” Stevie says with pride. By the time the brothers stepped through the door, in the 1970s, Paramount/Boltex was specializing in linens and textiles for restaurants and hospitals. It was a thriving business. Every week, hundreds of rolls of fabric were delivered from mills in South Carolina. On one floor, a cutting machine went all day slicing the material into tablecloths and napkins. On another floor, more than a dozen women sat at machines, stitching hems. “When I first started working here in 1994, it was so noisy that you wanted to put cotton in your ears,” recalls Harold Green, who is now in charge of shipping and receiving. The constant whirring of the sewing machines, he says, took him months to get used to.

Orders came in from customers all over New York City, Long Island and New Jersey. Ron, who was one of the salesmen, recalls that he would spend four days alone just servicing the linen supply customers in Brooklyn. Their dad, the brothers are quick to say, was the brains behind the business’s success, but they’re even prouder of the respect—and loyalty—he earned from his workers. Green, too, recalls him affectionately. “Everybody loved him,” he says. “If a worker was short on money, he’d say, ‘Carol, write a check.’ If someone needed a favor, he did it. He never turned them down.” Years ago, Levine was mugged on the subway going to work. After that, Jack drove her home every day along with Alan and Stevie. (Since Jack’s death, the brothers have hired a car service to bring her to and from work, four days a week. “She put in her time,” Alan says.) Jack wanted to make life easy for his sons, and gave them little responsibility. “If I wanted to take off the day to go to the track, he said, ‘Sure,’” Alan recalls. “My father liked to be in control,” Alan says. “He took the orders, worked the factory, instructed everybody.”

But in 1996, their father suffered a massive heart attack. Returning to work for only a few hours a day, he could no longer take charge. For the first time, he leaned on Alan for help. “I learned more in those two years than in all the years I used to work with him,” Alan says. After Jack died, the brothers worried that they did not have what it would take to run the business. And the business was changing. “The independent guys basically bit the dust,” Ron says. “They were swallowed up by two or three big people.” More and more of his time was also being taken up by collecting from customers who weren’t paying on time. In 2003, the brothers took one big step that their father would never have considered: They shut down the factory. “Once NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement] passed, people stopped manufacturing in America,” Alan says. “Everything we used to make upstairs is now made in Mexico.” The brothers rarely venture above their second-floor office. The upper floors, now just a way station for boxes arriving from Mexico, is Harold Green’s domain. (The company also imports hos-

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012

pital goods from Pakistan.) Twice a month, a tractor trailer pulls up on Walker Street, fully loaded with boxes of ready-made tablecloths and napkins. Green gets in at 4:15 a.m. and a few hours later he is overseeing the day laborers who unload the hundreds of boxes. It takes all day to bring them upstairs in the building’s single tiny elevator. Like his bosses, Green is nostalgic about the business. Walking about the quiet floors, where foremen once shouted above the din of machines, he pointed out the dusty vestiges of the past. The 20-foot long cutting and folding tables are still there, a few sewing machines, a work table with drawers filled with parts. He cranks up a rusty lift that once carried rolls of cloth. “We keep it just for memories,” he explains. In the late 70s, Jack and his sons went into a side business, racing their own trotters. Their New Jersey stable is called The Three Brothers. “My dad always used to say, ‘I’m the best horse you’ve got,’” says Alan, “and he was right. So I think he would be surprised that we were able to continue running this business without him. And that we did so good.” n

Above left: It’s been nearly 10 years since Paramount/Boltex manufactured on Walker Street. But washcloths still hang from nails above a worktable where broken sewing machines were once fixed. Above: A left-over sewing machine. Left: Without a computer, Stevie takes care of the books on a desk crammed with papers.

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Bureaucratic Frustration a Short Walk Away

The average Tribecan may not realize it, but one of the city’s most lucrative products is manufactured in our neighborhood. Frustration. It’s an important device used by the city to balance the budget. Those of us who live Downtown are lucky, because we don’t have to travel nearly so far to find frustration. Every day, from the JIM farthest borders STRATTON’S of the five boroughs, come desperate people who waste days entire doing what we can suffer often without even using the subway. Sometimes it’s a parking CITY ticket, someCHARRETTE times a building violation, sometimes a sanitation summons. In my case recently it was the NYC Department of Health. After an inspection, my tavern (not in Tribeca) received an “A” in its window. Despite this top letter grade, the fine was $990. Most of that fine was because the inspector, after examining approximately 140 liquor bottles, found a single fruit fly preserved in alcohol. That besotted fruit fly flew into the

heavily penalized “4H” category. According to the Department’s manual, its immersion is in the same league with rodent droppings in the custard, and presumably cow pods in the soup. The adjudication was at 66 John Street, a quick ride on the train from my loft to plead charges and pay the fine. A restaurateur from, say, Coney Island, would have spent half a day just on the subway. Ever since Ed Koch devised the present system during the 1970’s bankruptcy days, city agencies have been ordered to use the collecting of fines to help balance

the burden upon their own local voters. The city budget must therefore be balanced by fines. The system prefers those fines to be levied upon the small guy. Nobody wants the big guy taking his multinational corporation away. Frustrating. My $990 check was given to the Board of Health collection agency, OATH, a name that describes the mutterings of people who must deal with it. My check was deposited, but not credited. For six months OATH and its hired gun (a law firm in Minnesota) ig-

A single besotted fruit fly, preserved in a bottle in a pub that I own, got me into the heavily penalized “4H” category. It was as bad as rodent droppings in the custard.

the city’s budget. The reason is simple. New York City, unlike any other city in our state (or any other state), is by law not allowed to govern itself. That is left to Albany. The city is not permitted to raise taxes, nor to create new revenues. It must plead its case to Albany, and Albany nearly always says, “No.” The city must send the state billions of dollars more each year than it collects back from the state. Upstate legislators routinely divert the city’s funds to ease

nored copious evidence that the fine had been paid. My business was threatened with non-renewal of our restaurant license, which would have closed us down. The city’s game is to get the fine paid twice, settling the issue only after the extra money is in the bank. The Public Advocate’s office in the Municipal Building at Centre and Chambers streets finally got the deposit credited, but by that time it was too late to apply for the restaurant license by

mail. A quick train ride to 42 Broadway was required just to get an application from the Department of Consumer Affairs, and another train ride a day later to file the application. Turned down. Valid documentation of insurance that was acceptable last year is no longer permitted. As the new documentation was never issued to us, a walk to the State Insurance Fund at 99 Church Street was required. Luckily, a friendly State Insurance Fund employee was able to print out the required meaningless documents very quickly, in time for filing that day. (I’m withholding her name on the chance that she would be punished for being helpful.) When a petitioner goes before an OATH administrative law judge, foolish violations (and there are many of them) usually get thrown out. Fines are thereby lessened. The Department of Health has countered this loss of revenue by offering mail-in guilty pleas at a 15 percent discount, enticing a higher fine in exchange for not having to travel far to fight it. An outer-borough restaurateur who doesn’t want to waste a frustrating day will mail in the fine. Not me. I’m local. I’m adding to the neighborhood’s productivity, keeping judges employed. Thereby frustrating the system that is frustrating me.

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JULY/AUGUST 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB

Life in New York’s First Colony

It’s elementary at P.S. 89…

Far left: On the day that parents visited their classroom, the children dressed in New Amsterdam garb. Camila Grunberg was a teacher. Left: Each 3rd grade class created a three-dimensional map of New Amsterdam, with hundreds of tiny houses. The map was inspired by the Castello Plan, a 17th-century map of New Amsterdam.

t’s one thing to study historical figures. It’s another to dress the part. For P.S. 89’s 3rd graders, the school year ended with a demonstration of what they had learned in their semester-long study of New Amsterdam, which included—as best they could—donning the garb of the people of the times—blacksmith, housewife, teacher, baker, etc. (The rolled up pant of Little League uniforms came in especially handy.) The kids decided who in New Amsterdam they wanted to be and, aside from dressing like them, they drew pictures and wrote diary-like essays about their daily lives and the sorts of implements they used in their work. But, of course, being Downtown kids and living so close to where the Dutch settled, they could especially connect with New Amsterdam in other ways. “It makes a huge difference,” said Mariah Guss, who taught the study along with teachers Tara Loughran, Michael Parrish, Jesse Blachman and Christina Ward. “They walk around the streets and it sticks with them.” “This used to be New Amsterdam and before that Native Americans lived here,” said Camila Grunberg. “What I think is interesting is and how much this area has changed over the years.

Food, from Farm to Market

f the 1st graders of P.S. 89 had the notion that food starts out on the shelves of Whole Foods or in the trucks of Fresh Direct, they know better now. Their study this past semester was the farm-to-table process and it took them to a farm in Queens and to Farmers Markets in Union Square and Tribeca to talk to the people who are really responsible for the growing, harvesting, trucking and selling fresh foods. To cap off the year, the kids made a market of their own, set up in the school yard. Pickles, jam, apple sauce, cookies, bread, tomatoes, apple cider and, of course, apples were on sale. “They learn about organic healthy eating, and they understand why people shop at a farmers market and eat seasonal, local foods,” said 1st grade teacher Colleen Robertson. Not every food was at the market and 1st grader Madeleine Ames explained why. “Oranges are never there,” she said, “because they would smash everything up and they aren't local."

Above: A giant sign on the P.S./I.S. 89 fence announced the 1st graders market, held a few days before the end of the school year. Right: The market did a brsk business, with 1st graders both buying and selling. Far right: Susie McKnight, Sienna Michals and Laena Contegiacomo study the label of a pickle jar.

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KIDS

Aboard the South Street Seaport’s Pioneer, it was a last day of school like no other Margaret Flanagan, a South Street Seaport Museum educator, expains trawling. Later, the helped lay the nets.

or most high school students, the last day of classes is a lazy day, free of learning. But for a couple dozen freshmen from the New York Harbor School, stationed on the rain-drenched deck of the schooner Pioneer last month, there was hardly a break from their richly varied, hands-on marine studies. With clipboards in hand (waterproof pages of lab questions attached), the kids took off from the South Street Seaport for a trip around New York Harbor that kept them busy studying phytoplankton and fish trawling, sail-setting and water quality testing. “Give me a slide!” shouted Katelyn Fong, peering into a bucket filled with seawater and the tiny creature she was eager to put under a microscope. Nearby, Margaret Flanagan, an educator with the South Street Seaport Museum, passed around a container with a fish, just netted, that the students were asked to identify. They held in their laps a “dichotomous key,” a book of fish characteristics that uses process of elimination to help identify the species. The fish (a summer flounder, as it turned out) was among the animals the students had helped catch after a lesson in trawling. Like much of the learning at the New York Harbor School, fishing, boating and scuba diving are routine academic fare. And that’s what makes the school’s Introduction to New York Harbor program, in cooperation with the Seaport Museum, so valuable, said museum educator Abi Iverson, who was on the trip along with Flanagan and Harbor School teachers Ann Fraioli and Jeremy Lynch. “We learn a lot about what’s in the harbor, but the best thing about the program is that it’s not someone saying there are things living in New York Harbor,” Iverson said. “It’s us doing a trawl and actually seeing that there are things still thriving in the harbor that we need to protect.” This was just one of many field trips the students had taken this year. For these freshmen, there is a special pride in knowing that theirs is the only school in the city that offers hands-on marine skills outside the classroom—regardless of the weather. “Some kids say, ‘Oh, don’t go to that school, you’re going to get dirty,’” Fong said as Pioneer Captain Richard Dorfman docked back at Pier 16. “Right now my hair’s getting wet,” she added. “But it’s just like, it’s normal!”

As the wind comes up, students raise a sail, one of many activities aboard the Pioneer.

Left: Katelyn Fong uses a thin tube to capture and study a tiny creature brought up from the river. Above: Before the trawling begins, New York Harbor School teacher Ann Fraioli leads the lively “Fisherman’s Dance.” PHOTOS AND TEXT BY CARL GLASSMAN

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KIDS

Far left: In the cafeteria, all dressed up and ready to perform, these bunnies wait for the call. Left: Winniefredah Williams and fellow performers bounce happily out of the school cafeteria and on their way to the second floor where they will soon make their entrance on stage. Below: Imogen Roche and Sage Felch in “Tweedledee and Tweedledum.”

DOWNTOWN ALICE 130 dancing kids interpret the Lewis Carroll classic here was Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the chess pieces and Jabberwocky, the rabbits and, of course, Alice herself. But what really put the wonder in the Wonderland of Manhattan Youth’ dance production of “Through the Looking Glass” on June 2 were the 130 children from Downtown elementary schools who performed on the P.S./I.S. 89 stage, and the 30 staffers who managed to bring it all together. “There are a lot of props and flats that come in and out so to make everything run smooth is really complicated,” said Susan Kay, who adapted and directed the show. This was the fourth time that Manhattan Youth has produced a show featuring all its after school dance students. Kat Deime, along with dance teachers Lauren Ferebee, Frida Persson, Junie Kenworthy and Joy Voelker, choreographed the ballet, hip hop and creative dance pieces for their classes. Once again, costume designer Constance Tarbox was at the sewing machine, piecing together and repairing the outfits right up to the opening curtain. “I was finished this time but all of their ears fell off so I’m just doing last minute adjustments,” Tarbox said, seated at a table full of fuzzy ears. “You can’t have earless bunnies.”

Above: One group of performers take their bows. Above left: Victor Damian Pena (with mustache) and Riyan Daniels confer in “The Walrus and the Carpenter.” Left: Mekada Walker in “Alice’s Dinner Party.”

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

KIDS CALENDAR

JULY/AUGUST 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB

ARTS, CRAFTS & PLAY

MUSIC

PRESCHOOL PLAY For toddlers. Mondays–Wednesdays, 10 am. Free. Wagner Park near Battery Pl., bpcparks.org. GAMES AND CRAFTS Ages 5 and up. Wednesdays, 3:30 pm at Teardrop Park near Warren St.; Thursdays, 3:30 pm at Rockefeller Park near Warren St. Free. bpcparks.org. PRESCHOOL ART Projects using clay, wood, paint and paper. Thursdays, 10:30 am. Free. Rockefeller Park near Warren St., bpcparks.org. BASKETWEAVING WORKSHOP Learn about the woven baskets that sailors used, then weave one. Sat, 7/7, 10:30 am. Free. South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St., seany.org. KNOT TYING Tie square knots, figure eights and bowlines, and find out the uses of each. Sun, 7/8, 10:30 am. Free. South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St., seany.org. MINI MATES Arts and crafts, music, stories and more. Tuesdays, 7/10–8/21; Wednesdays, 7/11–8/22; Thursdays, 7/12–8/23. Ages 18–35 months, 9 am; 3–4 years, 10:45 am. $20; $105/7 sessions (same weekday only). South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St.,seany.org. INK, PULL, ROLL: PRINTMAKING Visit a historic print shop and make a print. Sat, 7/14, 10:30 am. Free. South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St., seany.org. TRASH FACTORY Build a model building out of recycled materials. Ages 5 and up. Sat, 7/14, 10:30 am. $5. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org. PIXILATION PROJECT Kids create a pixilated, animated sculpture. Sat, 7/14, 11 am. Free. Governors Island, Nolan Park, rivertorivernyc.com. SAILOR VALENTINES Make a 19th-century valentine. Sun, 7/15, 10:30 am. Free. South Street Seaport Museum,

ASTROGRASS Family bluegrass. Thu, 7/12, 6 pm. Free. Washington Market Park, Greenwich St. at Duane St. (rain location: 120 Warren St.), washingtonmarketpark.org. BIG JEFF Music for dancing and singing. Wed, 8/8, 3:30 pm. BPC Library, 175 N. End Ave. Free. nypl.org.; Wed, 8/15, 3 pm & Thu, 8/23, 10:30 am. New Amsterdam Library, 9 Murray St. Free. nypl.org.

SCIENCE & NATURE

IF YOU REALLY LOVE POLAR BEARS, an interactive story with music and puppetry, will be at New Amsterdam Library, 9 Murray St., on Tuesday, July 17, 11 a.m. and at Battery Park City Library, 175 N. End Ave., on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 3:30 pm. Free. For ages 4 and up. nypl.org. 12 Fulton St., seany.org. SKYSCRAPER PHYSICS Experiments to find out what makes skyscrapers stand. Ages 8–12. Sat, 7/28, 10:30 am. $5. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org. SO SEW TALL Learn about factory designs and design and build a model factory. Ages 7 and up. Sat, 8/11, 10:30 am. $5. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org. SKYSCRAPER SKELETONS Hear the story “Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building,” then build a mini-skyscraper using toothpicks and gumdrops. Ages 4 and up. Sat, 8/25, 10:30 am. $5. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org.

DANCE SUMMER DANCE Interactive Native American dance and stories. Tuesdays–Fridays, Tue, 7/10–Fri, 8/3, 12 & 2

pm; Tue, 8/7–Fri, 8/10, 12 pm. Free. National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green, nmai.si.edu. POWWOW DANCE Learn powwow dances. Sat, 7/14, 1 pm. Free. National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green, nmai.si.edu. BRAZILIAN FAMILY DANCE Liliana Aracejo performs forro music and dancers teach traditional moves. Sat, 7/14, 6:30 pm. Free. Esplanade Plaza near Liberty St., bpcparks.org.

FILM ARCTIC SUMMER Short animated films and a documentary about native Indian cultures of the Arctic and Subarctic regions of Canada. Daily to Sun, 7/8, 10:30, 11:45 am, 1 & 3 pm. Free. National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green, nmai.si.edu.

YOUNG SPROUTS GARDENING Simple gardening for ages 3–5. Tuesdays, 3:15–3:45 pm. Free. Rockefeller Park near Warren St., bpcparks.org. UP, UP AND AWAY Learn about air pressure and how objects fly in the air. Ages 4 and up. Tue, 7/10, 3:30 pm. Free. BPC Library, 175 N. End Ave., nypl.org. HEALTHY EATING HABITS Kids learn about basic nutrition and which foods to eat and which to avoid. Ages 5 and up. Registration required. Wed, 7/11, 3:30 pm. Free. BPC Library, 175 N. End Ave., nypl.org. AMAZING WORLD OF ANIMALS Meet and learn about many animals, from the furry to the scaly to the feathered. Ages 4 and up. Tue, 8/7, 3:30 pm. Free. BPC Library, 175 N. End Ave., nypl.org.

SPECIAL PROGRAMS STUDIO TOURS Visit a studio that produces kids’ films and TV fare. Reservations are required. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11 am & 4 pm. $10. Little Airplane Studio, 207 Front St., littleairplane.com. COME OUT AND PLAY Outdoor field day games. Sat, 7/14, 12 pm. Free. Governors Island, Parade Grounds, rivertorivernyc.com. CITY OF WATER DAY Theater, fishing, arts and crafts, critter touch tank, apple pressing, relays, games, historic boat tours, bouncy castles, live music and more. Sat, 7/14, 10 am–4 pm. Free. Governors Island,

Join us for the High Holy Days Rabbi Chava Koster will draw on an array of traditional sources, poets and philosophers to challenge and inspire as she has for over 13 years. Fusing ancient melodies with contemporary music, world-renowned Cantor Faith Steinsnyder will lead the congregation in moving prayer and song.

Free afternoon children’s services September 16–26 Cooper Union

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Since 1948, blending the beauty of tradition with the creativity of Reform Judaism

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012

The players, parents, coaches and managers of the Downtown Little League thank our 2012 sponsors for a great season.

THE POP-UPS indie-pop, soul and electronica for kids. Thursday, July 19, 6 p.m. Free. Washington Market Park, Greenwich Street at Duane, washingtonmarketpark.org. (Rain location: Downtown Community Center, 120 Warren St.) cityofwaterday.org. DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL Celebrate the Chinese holiday with craft activities, storytelling and theater performances, Qin music, calligraphy demonstrations and workshops, a walking tour and more. Sun, 7/29, 10 am–5 pm. $10; free under 1. Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre St., mocanyc.org. CIVIL WAR WEEKEND Reenactors show what life was like in 1863 on Governors Island, plus family activities, historic weapons demonstrations and period music. Sat, 8/11 & Sun, 8/12, 10 am–4 pm. Free. Governors Island, govisland.com.

SPORTS BASKETBALL Mondays & Fridays. Ages 5–6, 3:30–4:30 pm; ages 7 and up, 4:30–5:30 pm. Free. Rockefeller Park near Warren St., bpcparks.org. WIFFLE BALL Tuesdays. Ages 5–7, 3:30–4:15 pm; ages 8–11, 4:30–5:30 pm. Free. Rockefeller Park near Warren St., bpcparks.org. For a full schedule of summer programs and events in Battery Park City Parks, go to bpcparks.org.

STORIES & POETRY TINY POETS TIME Poetry reading for toddlers. Thursdays, 10 am. Free. Poets House, 10 River Terrace, poetshouse.org. CHILDREN’S STORYTIME An hour of stories for all ages. Saturdays, 11 am. Free. Barnes & Noble, 97 Warren St., bn.com. STORY FUN FOR THE VERY YOUNG Participatory tales from around the world. Ages 3–6 with a caregiver. Thu, 8/23, 3:30 pm. Free. BPC Library, 175 N. End Ave., nypl.org.

Books Ahoy! Children’s storybook readings, nautical face-painting and temporary tattoos and art projects are part of the fun on the deck of the 1933 lighthouse tender, the Lilac. The free event, geared to children ages 3 to 10, is on Saturday, July 28, from 2–5 p.m. Kids are encouraged to wear a nautical costume. The Lilac, which will not leave the shore, is moored on the Hudson River at Pier 25, at the end of North Moore Street. There will be free tours of the boat, including its engine room, and kids can spin a wooden captain's wheel. Some of the scheduled authors who will be reading in rotation are Yona Zeldis McDonough, Melanie Hope Greenberg and Brian Floca. Information at penparentis.org.

Alice Hartman Tutoring Alliance for Downtown New York ANDAZ Wall Street Hotel Andrews Building Corp. AJSA.com Asphalt Green BPC Autism Speaks Balloon Saloon Battery Park City Authority Battery Park Vision Beekman Beer Garden Blaue Gans Chambers Street Orthodontics City Hall Restaurant City 1 Maintenance Downtown Community Center Downtown Dance Factory DowntownExpress.com Dr. Lois Jackson, D.D.S. Duane Park Patisserie FasTracKids Frankly Wines Gee Whiz Diner Harry's Italian Pizza Bar Intricate Bay Lodge/Iliamna, AK Koh’s Kids Lance Lappin Salon

Liberty Green Liberty Luxe Liftcommunities.org Lilliput SOHO Kids Lipman Advertising Macro Risk Advisors Mailboxes Etc. Manhattan Youth

Merchant's House Merchants River House Metroloftnyc.com Miles for Hope Milford Management New York Health & Racquet Club NY Vision Group Pace University Poets House Reade Street Pub Roxter reitdesign Ross Mill Farm Saxton River Orchards Shake Shack Sherman Orthodontics Silverstein Properties Slate - NY St. Paul’s Chapel Stemsave The De Niro Group

The Harrison The Palm Tribeca The Red Cat The Solaire The Tribeca Trib The Visionaire Torly Kid Town Residential Tribeca Dental Clinique Trans Express Inc. Tre Sorrelle Restaurant Tribeca Grill Tribeca Internal Medicine & Infectious Diseases Trinity Church Verdesian Wallachbeth Capital Zuckers Bagels & Smoked Fish

Moving Visions Dance Studio Summer Programs EXPLORE Technique • EXPAND Creativity EMPOWER Children Through the Art of Dance

Imagination Through Movement Ages 3-6 July 9-20, 10:00-11:30

THEATER CONVERSATIONS WITH ANNE Performance about Anne Frank, followed by a Q&A with the actress. Reservations required. Sat, 7/7 & 8/4, 1 pm. $8; $5 students, seniors, ages 9–16; free under 8. Anne Frank Center, 44 Park Pl., annefrank.com. ALL ABOUT WATER Puppets and music. Ages 5 and up. Wed, 7/11, 10:30 am. Free. BPC Library, 175 N. End Ave., nypl.org.

Classical Ballet Intensive beginning & intermediate Ages 5-18 July 9-August 10, 4:30-6:30 Contemporary Dance Camp Ages 7-11 August 6-17, 9:30-3:00 Mini Camp Ages 3-6 August 6-17, 1:00-3:00

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Class Clowns KIDS

JULY/AUGUST 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB

The Spruce Street School’s

t the Spruce Street School this year, 1st and 2nd graders actually had an excuse to clown around. And in an auditorium filled with delighted parents last month, they demonstrated what they had to show for it. These 2nd graders were mimes, feather balancers, hula hoopers and robots, among others, their skills learned during an 11-day Circus Arts and Clown Theatre Workshop. It is a program of Marquis Studios, an organization that brings the circus arts into many city schools, incorporating

writing and drawing assignments as well as instruction in circus skills. The last three days are devoted to the performance “The Gerald and Piggie Circus!” led by comic duo Aristian Karanikolas (Gerald) and Scarlette Ragues (Piggie) as ringmasters of sorts. “It was incredible to watch students develop, culminating in this fantastic performance,” Principal Nancy Harris said. “To end the year this way, with a beautiful performance in our beautiful auditorium—it was perfect!”

Above: Aristian Karanikolas and his “Ridiculous Robots” perform during “The Piggie and Gerald Circus.” Left: Madeleine Haynes, who mimed as one of the “Bubble Gum Blowers of Bazookaville.” From left: Rocco Cangemi and Gabriel AlbrightOzores are among the “Feather Balancers of Tickleville,” Serina Akiyoshi performs hoop tricks, and Sofia Elder does a schtick with Aristian Karanikolas and Scarlette Ragues. PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012

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ARTS, ETC.

38 PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

JULY/AUGUST 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB

THEY CROSS THE BRIDGE FOR POETS HOUSE

“It’s beautiful, it’s fun, it’s the experience of poetry on the ground and under your boot soles.” That’s how Poets House Director Lee Briccetti described the annual “Poetry Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge,” held last month for the 17th year. Indeed, the soles of some 300 poetry lovers trekked across the bridge, stopping to hear the words of poets inspired by the majestic span and the city around it. Said Briccetti: “It can make you fall in love with New York all over again.” Above: Stopping along the way, participants follow the readings of works by a variety of poets. Left: As he does each year on the Fulton Ferry Landing, Galway Kinnell reads Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.”

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012

Steam fire engine. Made in Boston, c. 1880, from copper and zinc with traces of gilding. Thirty inches wide and 62 inches long.

The South Street Seaport Museum borrows from the great collection of the American Folk Art Museum to bring four views of the sea and its shores to four of its galleries.

BY GARY SHAPIRO

On the Waterfront: Folk Art

A few years ago, Stacy Hollander mounted an exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum pairing the 19th-century portrait artist Ammi Phillips with 20th-century abstract master Mark Rothko. The viewer was challenged to see the seemingly disparate works as they related to color, surface and light. Hollander challenges museumgoers yet again as curator of “Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions,” which opened last month at the South Street Seaport Museum. Drawn entirely from the American Folk Art Museum’s collection, the exhibit is show in four galleries and might be said to illustrate four different portals for exploring folk art as it relates to the waterfront and the sea. But it is clear that Hollander’s goal is not to merely exhibit certain kinds of objects. Instead, the objects present us with four forms of experiencing the sea and its shores. The first gallery, “Exploration,” underscores the risks and rewards of sea travel, and the emotional pull that l o n g absences create among families. It opens with a world map of the animal kingdom made in 1835 by an anonymous New Engl a n d

Harbor scene on Cape Cod, Mass. Artist unknown, c. 1890–1900.

schoolgirl. This bestiary comes to life with nearby carvings of a vicious monkey, a friendly tiger, a straw-quilled porcupine, and an orangutan with raised hands. Following the theme of exploration is a Noah’s ark on display made during the Napoleonic wars from animal bones salvaged from a prison kitchen. There is also a wonderful painting commemorating the deaths at sea of a father and brother, and, on a lighter note, examples of the intricately designed scrimshaw fashioned from marine mammals’ remains that seafarers made to pass the time. Vestiges of graffiti inspired the next section of the exhibition, called “Social Networking.” The traces that survive in the Seaport’s Schermerhorn Row show

Figure of a newsboy made in the Eastern or Midwestern United States c. 1880. Paint on pine.

wall writing from the 1860s and 1870s, featuring Irish Gaelic phrases from the time that a coffee and tea trader was one of the tenants. Also on display in this section is a sculpture of wood and cardboard showing monkeys playing cards at a table, as well as beautifully crafted family trees written in calligraphy and 18th-century silk samplers that distantly resemble Facebook or Pinterest pages. By 1835, the success of the Erie Canal led to much of the country’s trade flowing through the city. The show’s third section, “Shopping,” highlights this abundance and is a reminder of the many Centaur weathervane. Copper with gold leaf. Waltham, Mass., c. 1852-1867.

exported and imported goods that passed through this area. One luxury was an armchair that literally allows “armchair travel” to see Ithaca Falls—for it bears an actual painting of this scene on its backrest. Some of the other objects here include an 1815 looking glass and a painted wooden sheep that probably hung outside a woolens shop. As the exhibit rightly notes in its final section, “Wind, Water & Weather,” weather can be downright humbling. The most intriguing artist in this gallery is the eccentric recluse Henry Darger. By the time he was 10, his mother died and his father sent him to an asylum. As a teen, he escaped and headed to Chicago on foot, witnessing a destructive tornado that would inspire his art. Each of his watercolors features violent weather painted on newsprint. Darger was known to also use telephone books and other material found in trash cans as drawing paper. “Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions” is an example of how the Museum of the City of New York, now managing the South Street Seaport Museum, is infusing energy into a museum whose administrative hull had been leaking and was in danger of keeling over. Perhaps the show’s 19th-century weathervane is the best metaphor for where the Seaport Museum stands today. Many directions are possible. The museum is at 12 Fulton St. Open daily, 10 am–6 pm. southstreetseaportmuseum.org. $10; seniors and students, $6; under 9, free. To Oct. 7.

The Civil Service Bookshop New address: 38 Lispenard St. NY, NY 10013 212-226-9506 between Broadway & Church Street WE ALSO MAIL ORDER.

test prep books, school test prep, dictionaries, maps, travel guides & fiction

LISTINGS

40 DANCE g

FEEL...FORM Four female dancers engage in

a psychedelia-inspired kaleidoscope of movement. Sun, 7/1, 6 pm & Mon, 7/2, 1 pm. Free. Sheltered Arcade at North End Way, between West St. and N. End Ave., rivertorivernyc.com. g The Set Up: Junko Fisher Traditional Ryukyu dance and folk singing. Thu, 7/12–Sat, 7/14, 4 pm. Free. 80 Broad St., rivertorivernyc.com. g The Latin Choreographers Festival Solos, duos and ensembles performing contemporary ballet, modern and contemporary dance choreographed by Latino choreographers. See website for program details by date. Thu, 7/12, 8 pm; Fri, 7/13, 8 pm; Sat, 7/14, 4 & 8 pm; Sun, 7/15, 3 & 6 pm. $25; $20 students, seniors. Dance New Amsterdam, 53 Chambers St., dnadance.org. g Tap It Out 300 dancers perform a cappella choreography. Fri, 7/13, 12, 1 & 2 pm. Free. World Financial Center Plaza, worldfinancialcenter.com. g Battery Dance Festival Professional and emerging dancers and choreographers from around the world perform originial works in a week-long festival. All performances are free. There is a fee for select dance master classes and workshops. Sat, 8/11–Sat, 8/18. See website for schedule and locations. Battery Dance Company, batterydanceco.com.

Media coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests from Asian-American and Chinese-language periodicals. To Mon, 9/10. $7; $4 students, seniors, free for children under 12 and on Thursdays. Mon & Fri 11 am–5 pm, Thu, 11 am– 9 pm, Sat & Sun 10 am–5 pm. Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre St., mocanyc.org. g Founding Friendships: Celebrating the Legacies of Elizabeth Kray and Stanley Kunitz Artworks and archival material by lead-

ing postwar artists and poets. To Sat, 10/6. Free. Tue–Fri, 11 am–7 pm, Sat, 11 am–6 pm. Poets House, 10 River Terrace, poetshouse.org. g

Andrew Carnegie: Forging Philanthropy

Display on Carnegie’s life and work, with a spotlight on his love of Scotland, his business life and his philanthropic activities. To October.

Checks and Balances: Presidents and American Finance Financial challenges faced by American presidents. To November. Tue–Sat,

of professional kitchens, clips on food culture and other gastronomic images. Daily, Wed, 8/1–Fri, 8/31. All films: see website for schedule, free. World Financial Center Winter Garden, worldfinancialcenter.com. g Selection of upcoming films: Birds of Passage Two young Uruguayan musicians emigrate to find better opportunities. Tue, 7/10, 7 pm. $12. The Karate Kid A boy learns karate to defend himself in a new town. Post-screening Q&A with actor Ralph Macchio. Thu, 7/19, 6:15 pm. $18. American Heart A man on parole tries to get his life on track while taking care of his teenaged son. Wed, 7/25, 7:30 pm. $12. The Fisher King A former radio personality and a homeless man pair up to redeem themselves in life. Wed, 8/1, 7:30 pm. $12. Cutter’s Way A veteran and a gigolo try to blackmail a local tycoon who may have murdered a young girl. Wed, 8/8, 7:30 pm. $12. Against All Odds A man falls in love with his boss’s spurned ex-

JULY/AUGUST 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB gallery.com. g

After May Group show featuring works by seven artists insipired by nature and landscape. To Sat, 7/14. Mon–Fri 11 am–6 pm; Sat 12–6 pm; Sun 12–5 pm. Cheryl Hazan Mosaic Studio, 35 N. Moore St., cherylhazan.com. g Kim Chun Hwan Folding the Image, Unfolding the Real. Folded paper printed with patterns. To Sat, 7/14. Tue–Fri, 11–6 pm. Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, 14 Jay St., ecfa.com. g Mimi Saltzman Pure Now. Paint, salt, oil and minerals on canvas. To Fri, 7/27. Bond New York, 25 Hudson St. g The Permanent Way American landscape photographs by five artists of the transcontinental railroad. To Sat, 7/28. apexart, 291 Church St., apexart.org. g Mike Anderson and Javelin Canyon Candy. Site-specific installation that brings a Westernthemed music video to life. To Tue, 7/31. Tue– Fri, 12–5 pm. The Clocktower, 108 Leonard St.,

EXHIBITIONS g News Paper Spires: From Park Row to Times Square A look at some of the city’s first

skyscrapers that were built by the Times, Tribune and World. To Sun, 7/15. $5; $2.50 students, seniors. Wed–Sun, 12–6 pm. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org. g Small Spirits Dolls from more than 100 Native cultures throughout the Western hemisphere. To Thu, 7/19. IndiVisible: Afri-

can–Native American Lives in the Americas Panel display that outlines the seldomviewed history and complex lives of people of dual African American and Native American ancestry. To Fri, 8/31. We Are Here! Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship Painting, photography, installation art, video and sculpture by six Native American artists. To Sun, 9/23. Free. Fri–Wed, 10 am–5 pm; Thu, 10 am–8 pm. National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green, nmai.si.edu. g Let My People Go! The Soviet Jewry Movement, 1967–1989 Exhibition from the

Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv about the Soviet Jews who wanted to emigrate but were denied the right to leave. To Sun, 8/5. Filming the Camps Footage by noted filmmakers of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. To Sun, 10/14. Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles Story of the poet and her work for Jewish causes. To December. $10; $7 seniors; $5 students; free under 12. Free Wed, 4–8 pm. Sun–Tue, Thu 10 am–5:45 pm; Wed 10 am–8 pm; Fri 10 am–5 pm. Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Pl., mjhnyc.org. g

Graphic Design: Now in Production

Cooper-Hewitt exhibition featuring posters, products, typefaces, interactive media, film and television titles, and books and magainzes created by leading designers around the world. To Mon, 9/3. Free. Governors Island, Building 110, rivertorivernyc.com. g Merika: Emigration from Central Europe to America 1880–1914 Background on the

exodus from Austria-Hungary, how migrants traveled and the lives they established in the U.S., using period film footage and interviews.

So I Come to America: Detroit Pre-World War I Immigrants Portrait photographs and stories of 50 immigrants who traveled through Ellis Island to settle in Detroit, Michigan. To Mon, 9/3. $13; $10 seniors, $5 ages 4–12; free under 4. Daily, 8:30 am–6:15 pm. Ellis Island Museum, ferry leaves from Battery Park, nps.org/elis. g

America Through a Chinese Lens

Photographs by Chinese and Chinese-American photographers depicting America from their points of view. June 4, 1989: Media and

Mobilization Beyond Tiananmen Square

The River to River festival will be screening "Side by Side," a documentary about technological changes in filmmaking and the effects on the industry and the people involved. The screening at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 9, is free, but tickets, available at 6 p.m., are required. At the Elevated Acre, 55 Water St. For more information, go to rivertorivernyc.com.

10 am–4 pm. Museum of American Finance, 48 Wall St., moaf.org. g African Burial Ground The story of the free and enslaved men, women and children who lived and were buried Downtown. Ongoing. Free. Tue–Sat, 9 am–4 pm. African Burial Ground Center and National Monument, 290 Broadway, africanburialground.gov. g Dialog in the Dark Experience the New York City environment, including getting on and off a subway and crossing the street at Times Square, relying only on guides for the blind and visually impaired. Ongoing. $23.50; $20.50 children, students; $21.50 seniors. 11 Fulton St., dialognyc.com. g Soul Seekers: Interpreting the Icon A reconsideration of the form, status and relevance of iconography through a collection of works by contemporary artists and designers. Ongoing. Mon–Fri, 9 am–5:30 pm; Sat–Sun, 9 am–3:45 pm. The Trinity Museum, Broadway at Wall St., trinitywallstreet.org.

FILM g

In the Language Four films explore Native

American communities’ struggles to retain their language. Daily, 1 & 3 pm. Free. National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green, nmai.si.edu. g Films That Move! Archival footage from the Dance Films Association depicting a wide range of independently made dance narratives, documentaries and experimental clips. Daily to Tue, 7/31. Looks Delicious Dynamic photography

lover, whom he has been hired to track down. Wed, 8/15, 7:30 pm. $12. See website for more films. 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St., 92ytribeca.org. g Mel Brooks Festival: Young Frankenstein Dr. Frankenstein’s grandson inherits the castle and repeats the famous experiments. 7/11. Silent Movie A film director struggles to reproduce the first major silent film in 40 years. 7/18. High Anxiety The new administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous discovers some suspicious goings-on. 7/25. History of the World: Part I Comedic history of humankind, covering events from Biblical times to the French Revolution. 8/1. To Be or Not to Be A bad Polish actor and his unfaithful wife come to the aid of the underground resistance to thwart the Gestapo during World War II. 8/8. All films: Wed, 6:30 pm, free with suggested donation. Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Pl., mjhnyc.org.

GALLERIES g Silence Group show featuring video, sculpture, painting, photography and installations. To Thu, 7/5. A City Sorrow Built Paintings, drawings, photographs, collages and installations by five artists that reference Thomas Cole’s paintings. Thu, 7/12–Fri, 8/31. Opening reception: Thu, 7/12, 6 pm. Tue–Sat, 11 am–6 pm. Masters & Pelavin, 13 Jay St., masterspelavin.com. g Karlos Carcamo Microphone Check. To Sat, 7/7. Year One Group show. Wed, 7/11–Sat, 8/11. Hionas Gallery, 89 Franklin St., hionas-

13th Fl., artonair.org. g John Houck To Understand Photography, You Must First Understand Photography. To Sat, 8/4. Streamlines Group show featuring works by 11 artists. Thu, 8/9–Sat, 9/8. Tue–Sat, 11 am–6 pm and by appointment. KANSAS Gallery, 59 Franklin St., kansasgallery.com. g Tales: The Narrative Image Four artists transform windows into a giant architectural storybook using lyrical imagery and motion to spark imagination. To Fri, 8/24. Mon–Fri, 7 am– 7 pm. One New York Plaza, South St. at Whitehall St., rivertorivernyc.com. g Janet Newman Electric Organic. Paintings of flowers. To Thu, 8/30. Sovereign Bank, 110 Hudson St. g Mad About Art + Design Juried art exhibition of 16 artists and designers using photography, painting, sculpture, installations and functional art and design. To Tue, 9/4. McNeill Art Group, 143 Reade St., mcneillartgroup.com. g The Third Meaning II Group show featuring works that reveal layers of meaning through process and form. To Thu, 9/6. Tue–Sat, 11 am– 7 pm; Sun by appointment. RH Gallery, 137 Duane St., rhgallery.com. g Kristina Sretkova Abtract artist known for her colorful and vibrant natural iamegs. To Sun, 9/30. Warburg Realty, 100 Hudson St. g Transforming Function Various artists repurpose tools of science, technology, architecture and design. To Sun, 9/30. Building 110, Governors Island, rivertorivernyc.com. g Rachel Garrard, Sissel Kardel, Keegan McHargue, Jeff Olsson and Tyson Reeder

LISTINGS

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012 Group show. Thu, 7/5–Fri, 8/3. Opening reception: Thu, 7/5, 6 pm. Jessica Rath Take Me to the Apple Breeder. Thu, 8/9–Sat, 9/1. Opening reception: Thu, 8/9, 6 pm. Tue–Sat, 11 am–6 pm. Jack Hanley Gallery, 136 Watts St., jackhanley.com. g Photographs: Jason Gorbel, Richard Man and Kathryn Shelden Winners of the 17th Annual National Photography Competition. Shoot4Change Photographs by volunteers that explore the human condition with the aim to raise public awareness and create social change. Paul Stetzer Democracy is Coming... Scenes from Occupy Wall Street. Thu, 7/5–Sat, 8/4. Opening reception: Thu, 7/5, 6 pm. Wed– Sun, 1–6 pm and by appointment. Soho Photo, 15 White St., sohophoto.com. g Building 110: Open House Twenty visual and performance artists open their doors to the public. Sat, 7/14 & Sun, 7/15, 12–5 pm. Free. Governors Island, Building 110, rivertorivernyc.com.

funk and soul. Thu, 7/12, 7 pm. All concerts: free. Rockefeller Park near Warren St., rivertorivernyc.com. g Zach Williams and the Bellow Guitarist. Tue, 7/10, 8 pm. $10. Gandalf Murphy & the Slambovian Circus of Dreams and Higher Animals Psychedelic boho rock. Fri, 7/13, 9 pm. $20. Meta and the Cornerstones Soul and reggae. Fri, 7/20, 9 pm. $12. Clementine and the Galaxy and Johanna and the Dusty Floor Jazz-inspired electropop. Fri, 8/10, 9 pm. $10. The Bandana Splits and The WellInformed Retro-pop that channels the 1950s and ‘60s. Tue, 8/21, 8 pm. $10. See website for more concerts. 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St., 92ytribeca.org. g Ian Link Vocalist. Wed, 7/11, 12:30 pm. Dana Leong Trio Electro-acoustic jazz, classi-

most recent volume, “Planisphere.” Thu, 7/12, 7 pm. Free. Poets House Emerging Poets Residency Reading Participants read their original works. Thu, 7/26, 7 pm. Free. Poets House, 10 River Terrace, poetshouse.org. g New York Poetry Festival Readings and performances by The Poetry Brothel, Cave Canem, EARSHOT! and more. Sat, 7/21 & Sun, 7/22, 11 am–5:30 pm. $5. Governors Island, ferry at Battery Maritime Building, govisland.com. g Constance Rosenblum “Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak and Hope Along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx.” Tue, 7/31. Andrew Blum “Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet.” Tue, 8/7. All readings: 6:30 pm, free, reservations required. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org.

41 g

Eating Organically on a Budget Learn the basics of incorporating more organic food into your diet with a nutritionist. Tue, 7/10, 1 pm. Free. New Amsterdam Library, 9 Murray St., nypl.org. g

The Essence of Alexander Hamilton’s Greatness Founder of the Alexander Hamilton

Awareness Society talks about the man’s relationship with Washington and his role as one of the nation’s founders. Thu, 7/12, 4:30 pm. Free.

Haym Salomon: Life, Legacy, Myth and Reality of the Jewish-American Revolutionary War Financier Lecture by David Cowen, President and CEO of the museum. Thu, 8/9, 12:30 pm. $5. Museum of American Finance, 48 Wall St., moaf.org. g Taino Culture Discussion of Taino culture past and present, including traditional objects

MUSIC g Arieb Azhar Sufi urban and folkbased songs. Mon, 7/3, 7:30 pm. Free. Jim Messina Country rock. Sat, 7/21, 8 pm. $49–$79. Schimmel Center for the Arts, 3 Spruce St., pace.edu. g Megan Burtt and the Cure for Love Folk and pop singer/songwriter.

Thu, 7/5, 12:30 pm. Free. One New York Plaza, Water St. at Whitehall St., rivertorivernyc.com. g

Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing

Fiddle, vocals and guitars. Thu, 7/5, 7 pm. Shemekia Copeland Blues, funk and soul Thu, 7/12, 7 pm. Jim Campilongo Blues rock, country and jazz. Thu, 7/19, 7 pm. The 13th Amendment? and Eli Yamin Blues Band Blues, jazz and African American spirituals. Thu, 7/26, 7 pm. All concerts: free. Wagner Park near Battery Pl., bpcparks.org. g Patrick Watson and Loney Dear Rock and orchestral and folk-based experimental. Fri, 7/6, 7 pm. Eleanor Friedberger with Ex Cops Alto singers/songwriter. Fri, 7/13, 8 pm. All concerts: free. Pier 17, rivertorivernyc.com.

Ljova and the Kontraband George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, the 1970s funk, R&B and soul group known for songs like "Flash Light" and "Chocolate City," will be performing Chamber-jam music incorporating a free concert at Rockefeller Park, near Warren St., on Thursday, July 12, at 7 p.m. For more information, go to rivertorivernyc.com. Eastern European, Gypsy, Latin and classical elements. Sat, 7/7, 1 & 3 and their uses. Mondays in August, 2 pm. Free. g June Fourth Elegies: A Reading and cal and pop. Thu, 7/12, 12:30 pm. All concerts: pm. Free. The JACK Quartet String quartet. National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Reading of poetry by and talk on Discussion free. 1 Liberty Plaza, Liberty St. near Church St., Sat, 8/4, 1 & 3 pm. Free. Columbia Summer Bowling Green, nmai.si.edu. the life of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu rivertorivernyc.com. Winds Wind ensemble. Sat, 8/11, 2 pm. Free. g Liliana Arecejo Traditional Brazilian forro Xiaobo, who was a prominent figure in the Michael Arenella and His Dreamland Tiananmen Square protests. Thu, 8/2, 6:30 pm. music, plus dance instruction. Sat, 7/14, 6:30 Orchestra Jazz music, plus jazz dance instrucFree. Museum of Chinese in America, 215 pm. Greek Music Traditional music and dance g Uncle Vanya Annie Baker’s adaptation of the tion. Sat, 8/18 & Sun, 8/19, 11 am– 5 pm. $15; Centre St., mocanyc.org. presented by the Greek American Folklore Chekhov’s play. Tuesdays–Sundays to 7/15, free under 12. Governors Island, ferry at the Society. Sat, 8/11, 6:30 pm. All concerts: free. 7:30 pm. $35–$45. Soho Rep, 46 Walker St., Battery Maritime Buiding, govisland.com. Esplanade Plaza near Liberty St., bpcparks.org. sohorep.org. g Blake Carrington Experimental electronic g A Far Cry Orchestra with Oneohtrix Point g Twelfth Night New York Classical Theatre music accompanies images of Lower Manhattan g Selection of upcoming talks: On Rewriting Never & David Lang Real-time electronically performs Shakespeare’s comedy about mistaken and architectural plans. Sun, 7/8, 7:30 pm. Free. the Constitution Talk on aspects of the looped piece for strings. Sat, 7/14, 7 pm. Free. identities and misguided lovers. Tue, 7/3, Thu, St. Paul’s Chapel, 209 Broadway, rivertorivernation’s constitution that are dated. Mon, 7/9, 7 World Financial Center Winter Garden, worldfi7/5–Sun, 7/8 & Tue, 7/10–Sun, 7/15, 7 pm. nyc.com. pm. $15. Swim: Why We Love the Water nancialcenter.com. Free. Meet at Castle Clinton in Battery Park, g Locos por Juana Afro-Cuban mixed with Journalist discusses swimming facts and trivia, g Derek Miller Roots-inflected rock guitarist rivertorivernyc.com. rock, funk and hip hop. Tue, 7/10, 5:30 pm. such as which president nearly drowned while and singer/songwriter. Thu, 7/26, 5 pm. Bill g Israel Horovitz One-Acts Three plays that Buddy Guy Blues guitarist. Wed, 7/11, 6 pm. skinny-dipping in the Potomac. Fri, 7/20, 12 pm. Miller and Martha Redbone Funk, rock and demonstrate Horovitz’s changing style. Neko Case, Charles Bradley and His $18. Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon & soul. Thu, 8/2, 4 pm. Pamyua Tribal, funk and Thusdays–Sundays, 7/5–7/15, 7 pm. $20. Extraordinaries and He’s My Brother She’s Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the world. Thu, 8/9, 5 pm. All concerts: free. #serials@theflea Short plays by young playMy Sister Blues, country, pop, folk and swing. Lost Story of 1970 Interviews, rare recordings National Museum of the American Indian, 1 wirghts and directors. Thursdays–Saturdays, Thu, 7/12, 6 pm. Thomas Mapfumo and documents illustrate a turning point in clasBowling Green, nmai.si.edu. 7/12–7/28, 11 pm. $10. The Flea Theatre, 41 Zimbabwean chimurenga music about human sic rock history. Mon, 7/23, 12 pm. $18. The g Nolafunk Summer Jazz Fest Jazz bands, White St., theflea.org. rights and cultural injustice. Tue, 7/17, 5:30 pm. Incomparable Julie Andrews Talk on the g Mel & El: Our Time of the Month Musical including Little Feat and Papa Grows Funk. Wed, Les Chauds Lapins Nineteen-twenties French English actress/singer/author’s life and work. 8/22, 7 pm. $45. Beekman Beer Garden Beach female comedic duo. Thu, 7/12, 7 pm. $15. swing. Tue, 7/24, 5:30 pm. Maria de Barros Wed, 8/8, 12 pm. $18. Rodgers and Hart and Club, 89 South St., downtownny.com. Moscow to Manhattan Singer Mira Stroika Cape Verdean music mixed with other West Hammerstein Examination of the collaboraand humorist Ilya Khodosh perform songs and African, Latin and European traditions. Tue, tions between Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart stories about their displaced, hyphenated lives. 7/31, 5:30 pm. Escort and Darcy James and with Oscar Hammerstein II. Thu, 8/16, 2 Tue, 7/17, 7 pm. $10. The Babysitters Club: Argue’s Secret Society Disco and jazz. Sat, g William Chrystal “Hamilton by the Slice.” pm. $25. The Last Bohemia: The Life of Mary Anne and the Wedding Party The 8/25, 7 pm. All concerts: free. World Financial Thu, 7/12. Teresa Carpenter “New York Williamsburg, Brooklyn Talk on the transforbabysitters, now grown, return to Stoneybrook Center Plaza, worldfinancialcenter.com. Diaries.” Thu, 8/16. All readings: 6:30 pm, $10. mation and gentrification of the now-center of for a wedding. Wed, 8/8, 7 pm. $12. 92Y g La India with Aurora and Zon del Barrio Fraunces Tavern Museum, 54 Pearl St., fraunceshipster culture. Tue, 8/21, 12 pm. $18. See webTribeca, 200 Hudson St., 92ytribeca.org. Salsa. Tue, 7/10, 7 pm. George Clinton and tavernmuseum.org. site for more talks. 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson St., g Parliament Funkadelic Nineteen-seventies (CONTINUED ON PAGE 42) John Ashbery American poet reads from his 92ytribeca.org. g

THEATER

TALKS

READINGS

JULY/AUGUST 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB

LISTINGS

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41)

“A City Sorrow Built,” a group show of paintings, drawing, photos, collages and installations includes Karl Klingbiel’s “The Elder,” (above), oil paint and wax on birch panel. The exhibit, curated by Todd Masters, will be on display at Masters & Pelavin from Thursday, July 12 to Friday, Aug. 31. There will be a DJ at the opening reception, which is on Thursday, July 12, at 6 p.m. The gallery is at 13 Jay St., masterspelavin.com.

WALKING TOURS

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g Tribute WTC 9/11 Tours of Ground Zero. Daily, hourly 11 am–3 pm; Sat, hourly 11 am–4 pm. $10; $5 ages 6–12. Visitors Center, 120 Liberty St., tributewtc.org. g Revolutionary New York Meet at City Hall Park, Broadway at Murray St. Wed, 7/4, 2 pm; Mon, 7/9 & Sat, 8/25, 11 am. Historic Lower Manhattan Meet at the U.S. Custom House, 1 Bowling Green. Fri, 7/6, 11 am; Wed, 7/18, 2 pm; Tue, 7/24, Wed, 8/8, & Thu, 8/16, 11 am. Gangs of New York The Five Points. Meet at SE corner of Broadway and Chambers St. Sat, 7/14, Thu, 7/26, Tue, 8/7, Sat, 8/18, & Fri, 8/31, 11 am. The Financial District Meet at Broadway and Wall St., Trinity Church. Mon, 7/30, 11 am; Wed, 8/22 & Tue, 8/28, 2 pm. All tours: $15; $12 students, seniors. New York City Walking Tours, bigonion.com. g Seaport History and Archaeology Maritime history, the designation of the neighborhood as a historic district in the 1960s and contemporary renovations. Fri, 7/6, Sat, 7/7, Tue, 7/11 & Sat, 7/14, 1 pm. Call 917-492-3395 for reservations and prices. South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St., rivertorivernyc.com. g Chinatown: A Walk Through History Tour of the contemporary neighborhood and how it has evolved over 400 years to become one of the fastest-growing immigrant communities in New York. Sat, 7/7, 14, 21, 8/4, 11 & 18, 2:30 pm. $15; $12 students, seniors; free under 5. From Coffeehouses to Banquet Halls Tour of Chinatown eateries that highlights their evolution and influence on the community. Sat, 7/28 & 8/25, 2:30 pm. $15; $12 students, seniors; free under 5. Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre St., mocanyc.org. g We’re Floating: Poetry Walk Interactive poetry walk in Rockefeller Park with poet Jon Cotner, incorporating the work of poet Matsuo Basho. Sat, 7/7 & 7/14, 4, 5, 6 & 7 pm. Free. Poets House, 10 River Terrace, poetshouse.org. g Artists Respond: Mark di Suvero Walking tour of the public art on Governors Island. Sun, 7/8, 2 pm. Free. Governors Island, Building 110, rivertorivernyc.com. g Tours of the Financial District: Alexander Hamilton’s New York Wed, 7/11, 11 am. History of Wall Street Sat, 7/21, 1 pm; Thu,

8/9, 11 am & Sat, 8/18, 1 pm. All tours: $15. Museum of American Finance, 48 Wall St., moaf.org.

ET CETERA g Elements of Nature Drawing Draw gardens with an artist. Materials provided. Wednesdays (except 7/4), 11:30 am. Free. Wagner Park near Battery Pl., bpcparks.org. g Figure al Fresco Learn figure drawing with a clothed model and an artist. Materials provided. Wednesdays (except 7/4), 2:30 pm. Free. Wagner Park near Battery Pl., bpcparks.org. g Volleyball For all levels. Scorekeeper and balls provided. Wednesdays (except 7/4), 6 pm. Free. Esplanade Plaza near Liberty St., bpcparks.org. g Tai Chi Learn the Chinese martial art with a master. Fridays (except 8/31), 8:30 am. Free. Esplanade Plaza near Liberty St., bpcparks.org. g Drawing in the Park Sketch and paint the river and parks with an artist. Materials provided. Saturdays, 10 am. Free. South Cove near 2nd Pl., bpcparks.org. g Come Out and Play Outdoor games for adults. Fri, 7/13, 9 pm. @Seaport, 210 Front St. Sat, 7/14, 12 pm. Governors Island, Parade Grounds. All events: free. rivertorivernyc.com. g CHERYL: On the Waterfront Dance party with music and hands-on craft activities for adults. Sun, 7/15, 5 pm. Free. Pier 16, rivertorivernyc.com. g In the Loop Knit and crochet items for women staying at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge. Fri, 7/20 & 8/17, 12 pm. WFC Winter Garden, worldfinancialcenter.com. g Book Discussion Group Talk about Ford Madox Ford”s “The Good Soldier.” Tue, 7/31, 6:15 pm. Free. BPC Library, 175 N. End Ave., nypl.org. g

New York Brews: A Local Beer Tasting

Learn about brewing history in New York and sample some of the state’s beers. Thu, 8/2, 6:30 pm. $25. Greenmarket Greens: A Tomato Primer Happy-hour cooking demonstration featuring creative ways to prepare tomatoes. Wed, 8/22, 5:30 pm. $12. 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St., 92ytribeca.org. g

Manhattan Island Relays River swimming and activities. Sat, 8/4, 9 am. South Cove near 2nd Pl., nycswim.org.

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2012

Husband and wife doctors leave the comfort of their Battery Park City apartment for a year in Haiti, helping a country in critical need.

DOWNTOWN FAMILY ON A

MISSION

BY JULIET HINDELL

A 24-hour guard at their gate, an armored car to take their children to school, a nighttime curfew and a pet goat. These are the kinds of lifestyle changes encountered by Fabienne Laraque and John Ho faced when, last summer, they traded their Battery Park City apartment for a year, ending this month, in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. The husband-and-wife doctors made the move with their two children to join

AJANI HUSBANDS

Above: John Ho treats a patient at a health clinic set up by the Centers for Disease Control at Rose-Mina Orphanage. Left: Ho and Fabienne Laraque treat children at the health clinic.

Fabienne Laraque and her son Jonathan with their pet goat.

the Centers for Disease Control’s efforts to rebuild the country after the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed more than 300,000 people and left one million homeless. The subsequent cholera outbreak was the most virulent in a generation. “The sheer devastation of the earthquake was so shocking,” said Laraque, who grew up in Port-au-Prince and speaks French and Creole. “I thought I had skills that are rare and useful in Haiti. It was an opportunity to give back.” Ho, who normally commutes to a hospital in Maine, specializes in infectious diseases and has visited Haiti many times. But he had doubts about moving the family to Port-au-Prince. “Our greatest fear was for our kids. Would they be in danger? Kidnapping was a huge problem, though now it seems to be diminishing,” he said. Ashley, 15, was a freshman at Bard High School before the move to Haiti. Jonathan, 12, was a 5th grader at P.S. 234. Fabienne was the director of the HIV Care, Treatment and Housing Program for the city’s Department of Health. When the two jobs became available with the Centers for Disease Control, it seemed like a calling, as well as an opportunity.

“We hoped that our kids would get out of our secluded, protected world, and see other lives and places,” said Laraque. The children were not enthusiastic about uprooting their lives to go to Haiti. “I thought, ‘No, the last place I wanted to go was a Third World country,’” said Ashley. “But then I felt guilty.” The children’s new world was a Christian private school where they were obliged to wear uniforms, a chauffeur who took them everywhere for their own safety and daily scenes of devastating poverty. “It’s weird to go to private school in an armored car with kids using iPads and see starving people outside the gates,” Ashley said. “I see more poverty here than in New York but I’m more detached because I see it through bulletproof win-

AJANI HUSBANDS

dows.” Ashley eventually made friends through a soccer club. Jonathan, who had a passion for animals, took advantage of a large backyard and the abundance of wildlife. His menagerie quickly expanded to include a rooster, a guinea fowl, ducks, two cats, a raven, ring-necked doves and two turtles. For their parents, the days began at dawn, with a trip by a U.S. Embassy van over jammed, potholed roads to the American compound. From there they would go out into the field, to remote countryside and city slums, where many earthquake survivors still live in squalid tent cities and barely eke out a living. Laraque helped the Haitian Ministry of Health better prepare for health emergencies, such as the recent outbreaks of

cholera. Ho was working toward improving tuberculosis detection, treatment and prevention. (Haiti has the highest rate of TB in the Americas.) As CDC employees, the couple waspart of the diplomatic community and had to report their travel plans as well as abide by an 11 p.m. curfew. Even walks in their neighborhood were considered risky and some areas of Port-au-Prince were off limits. The family never got used to the “heart-wrenching” poverty. “It’s hard because someone is always asking for help or money and you can’t give to everyone,” Ho said. When not on their jobs, the couple volunteered at a clinic and orphanage, treating many survivors of the earthquake, as well as others. Ashley and Jonathan played with the children while their parents saw patients. “Volunteering helps balance the fact that we can’t help everyone,” said Ho. “The kids were all over us,” Laraque added. “They were starved for affection.” While they missed the freedoms New Yorkers take for granted, they never regretted their year of service. “I hope my children get an understanding that if we are privileged, we have a responsibility to give back and contribute to society,” said Ho. “Life is not just ‘me.” If they’ve learned that, then we’ve done a good job.”