Trib july aug 2013 reduced

6 12 33

T RIBECATRIB

BMCC’s Fiterman Hall elevators give rise to confusion In stogie war, Millennium High School scores a win

On an evening in Duane Park, they come out swinging

THE

Vol. 19 No. 11

www.tribecatrib.com

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JULY/AUGUST 2013

BUYERS BE WARE? THE PUSH TO PUNISH PURCHASERS OF COUNTERFEIT GOODS [PAGE 4]

HERE’S WHAT’S COOL TO DO THIS SUMMER. ALL FREE, ALL DOWNTOWN. [PAGE 20]

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JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

M A N H AT TA N | B R O O K LY N | Q U E E N S | L O N G I S L A N D | T H E H A M P T O N S | T H E N O R T H F O R K | R I V E R D A L E | W E S T C H E S T E R / P U T N A M | F L O R I D A © 2013 Douglas Elliman Real Estate. All material presented herein is intended for information purposes only. While, this information is believed to be correct, it is represented subject to errors, omissions, changes or withdrawal without notice. All property information, including, but not limited to square footage, room count, number of bedrooms and the school district in property listings are deemed reliable, but should be verified by your own attorney, architect or zoning expert. Equal Housing Opportunity.

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TRIBECA TRIB

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VOLUME 19 ISSUE 11 JULY/AUGUST 2013

Winner National Newspaper Association First Place, Feature Photo, 2012 First Place, Feature Photo, 2011 Second Place, Local News Coverage, 2011 First Place, Breaking News Story, 2010 New York Press Association Second Place, News Story, 2013 Second Place, Special Section, 2012 First Place, Education Coverage, 2011 First Place, Photographic Excellence, 2011 CUNY IPPIE AWARDS Second Place, Best Photograph, 2012

PUBLISHER A PRIL K ORAL APRIL @ TRIBECATRIB . COM EDITOR C ARL G LASSMAN CARLG @ TRIBECATRIB . COM ASSOCIATE EDITOR A LINE R EYNOLDS ALINE @ TRIBECATRIB . COM ASSISTANT EDITOR/LISTINGS E LIZABETH M ILLER ELIZABETH @ TRIBECATRIB . COM ADVERTISING DIRECTOR D ANA S EMAN DANA @ TRIBECATRIB . COM CONTRIBUTORS OLIVER E. ALLEN THEA GLASSMAN JULIET HINDELL BARRY OWENS CONNIE SCHRAFT ALLAN TANNENBAUM COPY EDITOR J ESSICA R AIMI

Protect the people’s interests in preserving the Seaport

To the Editor: When are the people who elect the officials who run the city going to wake up to the imminent threat to the survival of our last major historical site enlightening us of our original roots: the South Street Seaport.

The Museum of the City of New York, which jumped in to rescue the South Street Seaport Museum, has now withdrawn that support, leaving it leaking and listing for any greedy salvager.

This mercenary kind of thinking ignores the fact that our early seaport made us a great city. It is what people who visit and live here want to relive when they visit Schermerhorn Row and the tall ships and Piers 16 and 17.

Why not throw away all the history books if we can only value the present?

The South Street Seaport is a

national historical treasure and should be permanently, publicly supported as is done in other cities in the world.

The cold, ultra-modern glass cube that will replace Pier 17 is a glaring example of what happens to this rare site when commercial interests are in control, as happened to the old Pennsylvania Station, a lost spectacular work of architectural art.

We must demand that our representatives protect the people’s interests in supporting and preserving the South Street Seaport.

To avoid the fate of everything that has needlessly become extinct as a result of ignorant, self-interested myopia, everyone has to shout, “ahoy” and “Avast, save our South Street Seaport!” to our political leaders.

Seymour Schleimer

Memo to dog owners: Help protect Finn Sq.

Goodbye Bell Bates

To the Editor: Summer is here, the gardens are in bloom, and the Friends of Finn Square would like to remind our neighbors who have dogs that we hope they will keep them out of Finn Square, the traf-

TO PLACE AN AD: Display ads for The Tribeca Trib are due by the 18th of the month. Ads received later are accepted on a space-available basis. For prices, go to “Advertising” at tribecatrib.com or email Dana Seman at dana@tribecatrib.com.

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JESSICA RAIMI

fic triangle just south of the Franklin Street subway kiosk.

Dogs and gardens don’t mix, for many reasons. Even if you pick up after your dog, dog urine is still harmful to plants. Dogs trample the flowers, break stems and branches, and dig up the dirt.

So please respect the plantings at Finn Square and keep them looking good for all to enjoy.

Jessica Raimi Friends of Finn Square Finn Square

New skyscraper will obscure landmark

Rendering of Silverstein’s 30 Park Place

To the Editor: Friday, June 15, was a sad day for Bell Bates customers. Even as an irregular regular of this store on Reade Street, I took the closing hard.

It was a more personal place to shop than Whole Foods, which a lot of people blame for the store’s demise. But, according to the Sayage family, who founded the natural foods store, the reasons were largely due to the loss of city workers all over Lower Manhattan who left the area or were laid off. (It wasn’t due to a higher rent—Bell Bates owns the space.)

Many Caribbeans, African Americans, East Indians and Rastafarians shopped at Bell Bates, coming from around the city. Their knowledge of the herbs and spices—with names like Male Fern Buckhorn, Gum Arabic, Black Cohash Root Powder and Blood Root, Black Willow Bark, Sheep Sorrel Herb and Devil Claw—eluded me. I ended up buying cinnamon sticks.

Bell Bates was jazz giant Sonny Rollins’s favorite store. He moved the day after 9/ll, but still kept ordering his almond butter from there.

Matthew, a longtime employee and (CONTINUED ON PAGE 39)

To the Editor: Developers and their architects constantly ask us to embrace new buildings. They tell us that redevelopment of every pocket of airspace is a necessary part of capitalism’s creative powers.

Although this often seems a self-serving argument, we are busy, it’s not our block, so we let it go. Yet sometimes developers go too far. That is the case with the area around the Woolworth Building, one of our greatest landmarks.

With explicit intention, Cass Gilbert designed the Woolworth Building for everyone to see from all around.

Working feverishly in his studio, sacred music (the “Stabat Mater,” in fact) sounding in his mind, he invented a masterpiece of architecture that seemed to rise up organically from near the bustling commercial district of the old Washington Market area. The building astonishes to this day. Architecture critic Paul Goldberger goes so far as to call it the Mozart of our skyscrapers.

And indeed it is. But what exactly is its mystery? Why does sight of the Woolworth—framed in sky from far up Broadway or West Street—give so much pleasure to so many? We think (CONTINUED ON PAGE 39)

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Punish Buyers of Phony Goods?

Chin renews call for passage of bill to help bring end to counterfeit market on Canal Street

BY ALINE REYNOLDS Counterfeit goods—from $60 Louis Vuitton bags and $50 Rolexes to $5 DVDs—are a perennial tourist trap around Canal Street, but those who take the bait could soon be punished.

As Chinatown’s counterfeit industry continues to thrive, area residents and others are calling for the passage of a law now being considered by the City Council that targets the purchasers of phony goods. At a Council hearing last month, a handful of Tribeca residents and lawyers testified in favor of the proposed law, which would penalize a buyer of fake merchandise with a $1,000 fine and up to a year in prison.

John Hagen, who lives at 45 Lispenard St., between Church and Broadway, claimed the counterfeiters are “ruining” his block. Hagen and other nearby residents believe the new law could end the dealing that they say is diminishing their quality of life.

“I get out of my house every day and walk right into it,” he said of the bag sellers who line a corner of his block, near Canal Street. “I really want this to stop.”

Cathy Haft, who lives at 395 Broadway, two blocks south of Canal, regularly calls the police to report the illicit activity that she says is “killing” her neighborhood.

“The First Precinct is wonderful,” Haft said, “but, frankly, there’s no way they can keep up with the amount of phone calls I, myself, make. They need help, and I think this law would really do that.”

“If there is a consequence,” she added, “that [the tourists] will care about.

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

Above: On Canal Street, a vendor shows potential customers a catalogue of dozens of handbags.

They did not buy.

Left: Tribeca resident Cathy Haft, who testified in favor of a law that would punish buyers. “The [police] need help,” she said, “and this law would do it.”

I would personally just love to see a few of them arrested.”

Chin believes the proposed law— languishing without a hearing since 2011, when she introduced it—would stem the demand for the merchandise.

Currently, the sale of knock-off goods cheats the city out of an estimated $1 bil-

lion annually in taxes, according to a report from the city comptroller’s office.

“We need to deter people from purchasing these items,” said Chin, noting that the law would give cops an “extra tool” to combat street transactions. “We cannot keep trying to tackle this problem in the same way, because it’s not work-

We Check Out the ‘Deals’

Last month, the Trib's Aline Reynolds and Carl Glassman set out to see what tourists experience when they make contact with the sellers of counterfeit goods. In the course of one hour, they had entered into separate transactions (but no purchases) with vendors of handbags, watches, sunglasses and DVDs. Here are three of those encounters, as described by Reynolds.

THE GOOD STUFF IS IN THE BACK After being led by a woman to a Centre Street storefront, a man takes reporter Aline Reynolds to a back room, where she is shown dozens of counterfeit bags.

ing.”

While declining to comment on the proposed law, First Police Precinct Commanding Officer Brendan Timoney said his officers are on the lookout daily for illegal vendors on Canal Street.

“We’re relentless on this,” he said.

“Between us and the Fifth Precinct...we’ve confiscated a ton of fake bags.”

The local enforcement, however, typically results in just a few arrests per day, he noted, since the cops can only make an arrest when they witness a sale, and the peddlers are often successful in hiding the transactions. “It’s sort of a game—once we make an arrest,” explained Timoney, “[the other peddlers] shut down their operation.”

Although counterfeit sellers can face up to 15 years in jail, depending on the goods’ total value, roughly three-quarters of 659 Canal Street arrests made last year resulted only in misdemeanor charges, according to the Police Department. (No information was provided on the number of arrests that resulted in jail time.)

The city’s Office of Special Enforcement, which oversees raids and other counterfeit enforcement tactics, opposes Chin’s law. The office’s director, Kathleen McGee, claimed in her testimony that it would hurt the city’s retail industry.

“While we share the Council’s frustration with consumers’ misguided support of criminal enterprise,” she said, “we are unable to agree with the approach taken by the bill. We are concerned that enforcement of such a prohibition could deter both New Yorkers and tourists from shopping for legitimate goods.”

In an interview outside his shop, the owner of an electronics store, near Church Street, agreed that the bill would

‘If you want it, get it now’ First, we met one of the many African bag sellers who stand on Canal Street, east of Broadway. Having expressed interest in a Louis Vuitton bag—“it’s not the real one but a good one,” he said—he lowered his price from $100 to $60 within seconds.

“If you go to the store,” he said, “you’re going to buy it for $300 or $400.”

Pretending to be intrigued, I scanned one of those ubiquitous, single-sheet catalogs showing dozens of knock offs in every color. I asked to see two of the bags.

“Which color you want?”

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 19)

I told him a brown one and a white one.

“OK. Wait here.”

Following a brief phone call the man disappeared into the crowd, soon returning with two black garbage bags. He handed them to a partner, who lifted each of the bags halfway out to show me.

“I thought it was all white,” I said, looking at the white checkered one and pretending to be disappointed.

“What kind of material is it?”

Instead of answering the question, he said, “If you look at the real one and this, you’re not going to tell the difference.”

“Is it leather?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he assured me.

I hesitated, saying the bag looked different from the one shown in the catalog. I asked if I could come back later.

“If the police come out, we going to move,” the second man said. “So if you want it, get it (CONTINUED ON PAGE 19)

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JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

Far left: BMCC students at an elevator bank in Fiterman Hall. Left: Wall sign at end of ninth-floor elevator bank explains express and local operation, neither of which exists. Above: Lit sign installed in the wall of the eighth floor says that local is running. There is no local service, and the elevator never stops at floors 6 or 7.

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

BMCC Lifts Give Rise to Confusion

BY CARL GLASSMAN SAVITRI CHANKHARSINGH What’s up with the elevators in Fiterman Hall?

Borough of Manhattan Community College's gleaming, $325 million building opened last August to great fanfare, fulfilling the need for much-needed classroom space that was lost when the original Fiterman Hall was irreparably damaged on Sept. 11, 2001. But getting to those classes via the two banks of high-tech, energy-efficient “skip-stop” elevators has proved confusing for many students, as well as their professors— advanced degrees and all.

“I was going to Fiterman twice a week and I never was able to figure out exactly how it works, which elevator bank to go to,” said a part-time instructor, who taught there last fall. “I knew where to go to get up in the elevator but other than that it was just guessing.”

“The north bank of elevators goes, where does it go? To the third floor and the fifth floor and the seventh floor? I don’t know,” said Douglas Anderson, a music professor who has an office on the 11th floor and teaches on the third. “I can’t quite figure it out from the signs.”

There is an overhead sign at the first floor lobby entrance to each of the two elevator banks. One says “High-Rise 914,” the other “Mid-Rise 5-8.” They are WITH

Fiterman Hall, at Barclay and Greenwich

wrong. The “High-Rise” elevators stop only at 1, 9 and 11, while the “MidRise” ones go to 1, 5 and 7.

“It’s not supposed to say that,” BMCC vice president Scott Anderson told the Trib when asked about the signs.

“I don’t remember it saying that.”

Then there are other signs, located on the wall at the far end of each elevator bank on most of the floors. (Escalators and stairs are meant to be used up to the fourth floor of the 14-story building.)

They indicate that the elevators run express at certain times, and local at others. There are more signs installed in the

THE PIANO STUDIO Instruction for Children and Adults

walls of most floors that light up, indicating whether the elevators are running as local or express.

In fact, there is just one kind of skipstop operation—neither express nor local. “This is a battle that we had with the designers of the building,” Anderson said. “The college won out, but the designer still gave us what he [wanted].”

The building is designed by Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners, whose website notes that the elevators “operate in express mode during change-of-class periods.” But the problem, Anderson said, is that class periods are staggered and can’t be coordinated with elevator operation.

“The architects did not understand the nuances of class scheduling. Some are 40 minutes, 55 minutes, two hours long.”

So why was the misleading signage installed anyway?

“Let’s just say that they made their commitments with the sign makers and all that stuff,” Anderson said. “I’m not that concerned. We can get that changed.”

There is another change that Anderson anticipates. Faculty have complained that the skip-stops are a burden when carrying loads of class materials.

He said he’ll add a local. (One service elevator now goes to all the floors.)

Anderson insists that, despite the signage for an elevator system that is not in

use, the system works as it should. The lobby doesn’t get crowded, he said, since the average wait time for the 5,000 to 8,000 people who come in and out of the building hourly is only 23 seconds.

(BMCC classrooms are also housed in an office building on Murray Street, where students and staff all agree the school has far worse elevator problems, with waiting times as long as 15 minutes.)

“Students know where to go even if you took all the signs down,” Anderson said. “After the first two weeks of school, they got it down.”

Business student Alamgir Hossain agrees. He recalled getting off on the wrong floor the first time he took a Fiterman elevator. “It took me about 20 minutes to get to my classroom,” he said.

“Once I got used to it, it seems OK.” Not so for fellow student Luis Manon, who recalled an early elevator experience in which he kept pressing the button of a floor where the car, it turned out, didn't go. He thought he was stuck.

“I was like, you know what, I’m not going to take classes in this Fiterman building because the elevators are too complex,” he said.

“I prefer my main campus,” he added, “because the elevators there go to all the floors.”

Savitri Chankharsingh, a BMCC student, contributed reporting.

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

WHERE WILL THEY GO TO SCHOOL?

SCHOOL OVERCROWDING SCHOOL OVERCROWDING IS IS UNDERMINING UNDERMINING T THE HE Q QUALITY UALIT Y OF OF OUR OUR CHILDREN'S AND HEALTHY CH ILDREN'S EDUCATION EDUCATION A ND PLACING PL ACING THE THE H EALTHY GROWTH GROW TH OF DOWNTOWN RISK. O FD OWNTOWN AT AT R ISK. THE THE SOLUTION? SOLU TION?

BUILD B UILD S SCHOOLS CHOOLS NOW NOW MISSION Make the building of downtown public elementar y and middle schools a deciding issue in the upcoming NYC elections.

WHO Parents, community members and businesses who love downtown and responded to the call to rebuild our neighborhood after 9/11.

HOW Demand that public school seats be created to keep pace with downtown child population growth over the last 10 years (242% in FiDi, 196% in Tribeca, 150% in BPC and 57% in the Seaport / Civic Center).

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JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

Far left: The city presented this design for the West Thames Street pedestrian bridge. It selected a standard “George Washington Bridge gray” because that is a paint color that the Department of Transportation keeps in stock, said an official.

Left: Rendering shows the pedestrian bridge’s glass roof.

RENDERINGS COURTESY OF THE MAYOR’S OFFICE

New Design for Thames St. Bridge

BY ALINE REYNOLDS The city revealed its new concept for the West Thames pedestrian bridge last month.

The bridge, an elevated alternative to crossing West Street at West Thames, will have a “light and airy feel,” a glass roof and stair-and-elevator access at each end, Matt Best, from the deputy mayor’s office for economic development, told Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee.

The bridge, designed jointly by engineers Weidlinger Associates and WXY Architecture + Urban Design, will have a double lenticular truss, resembling two joined parabolic forms, one longer than the other. A preliminary design dates back to 2009, when the Battery Park City Authority released a bridge rendering by SHoP Architects that was also a lenticular truss.

At its busiest, some 1,100 pedestrians, more than half of them students, are expected to cross the new bridge per hour, according to Best.

The Rector Street pedestrian bridge, erected after the Sept. 11 attacks as a temporary West Street crossing, will be taken down once the West Thames bridge opens in mid-2015, Best noted.

Construction of the West Thames Street bridge is expected to begin in

Best anticipates that the city will present CB1 with more details on the project in July or September, after a third round of review by the Public Design Commission.

November.

Nearby bridge elevators along West Street—at Chambers, Vesey and Rector streets—frequently break down, prompting committee members to voice concern about the city’s decision to install elevators and stairs on the bridge’s western side rather than a more expensive wheelchair-accessible ramp. (A ramp on the bridge’s eastern side was never considered due to limited space between West and Washington streets.)

Best said the elevators’ mechanicals

would probably be sheltered from the elements and that technological improvements over older outdoor systems would also help keep them functioning properly.

“The elevators we’ll be putting in here [are] a generation more advanced than these other elevators that you’re having trouble with,” Best said. But, he conceded, “It’s still going to be a problem, because it’s an outdoor elevator.

They’ll function as well as they can.”

As of late June, the bridge design

hadn’t yet to win approval from the city’s Public Design Commission. The process of getting that approval has delayed the design, Best said, and the glass roof in particular remains a sticking point.

“They don’t think that pedestrian bridges should have roofs,” Best said of some commissioners’ opinion. “We disagree—we feel that it has significant utility in reducing long-term maintenance costs as well as making it even a more attractive option than trying to cross at [street level].”

Best anticipates that the city will present CB1 with more details on the project later this year, after a secondround review by the Public Design Commission.

The project is being funded with $20 million from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and $7 million from the Battery Park City Authority, with hard construction costs estimated at $18 million. Best said the city is “close” to an agreement with the Authority over who will pick up the expense of any cost overruns. That impasse had appeared to threaten the start of the project.

By the end of the month, the discussions were still “ongoing,” according to Battery Park City Authority spokesman Matthew Monahan.

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JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

Left: A few days before Asphalt Green’s official opening, all 14 lifeguards took the first dip in the 25-yard-long pool with a group jump (at the Trib’s request). Below: On the first day, Asphalt Green staff was on hand to work with fledgling basketball players.

Asphalt Green’s Big Splash in BPC

TEXT AND PHOTOS

BY CARL GLASSMAN There were no ribbons to cut, no speeches to endure, no brouhaha whatsoever. Still, the long-awaited, much-delayed opening of Battery Park City’s Asphalt Green on June 15 was grand all the same.

No sooner had the doors opened, with staff standing ready, than members, members-to-be and the just plain curious were filing in at 212 North End Ave. to swim laps, shoot hoops, elevate pulse rates on brand new treadmills and otherwise try out the center’s $55-million facilities. For the next 12 days, people could explore the place and take demonstration classes for free.

“I’m bowled over,” said Wendy Most, who was pausing between sets on one of the center’s weight machines. She said that she and her husband, Nathan Weber, will be abandoning the small nearby gym they had been using for

many years.

“I feel like they have the best machines,” she said of Asphalt Green. “They know what they’re doing and they have

half later than planned, delayed first by an impasse in contract negotiations between Asphalt Green and the Battery Park City Authority and then by massive damage from Hurricane Sandy.

All that seemed well in the past on this day. Basking in the swirl of activity around her, Asphalt Green’s executive director Carol Tweedy stood in the lobby with Left: A performer-to-be tries out a tightrope used in Asphalt the center’s director, Green's circus arts classes. Above: A demonstration spinning Bryan Beary, and class in a room equipped with 24 bikes. smiled. such great experience with the uptown “This response shows that the complace. I think we’re going to love it.” munity is so receptive to us,” Tweedy The 52,000-square-foot center, at 212 said. “It’s a win for us and win for Lower North End Ave., is opening a year-and-a- Manhattan.”

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

Rooftop Redo on White

Plans are afoot to put a penthouse atop 6066 White Street, a trio of cast-iron buildings that have barely been altered since they were built in 1869. The project, part of a conversion and restoration of the structures that now house commercial tenants, would convert two of the buildings into residential condominiums; the third would remain an office building.

The one-story penthouse, set back, would not be seen from the street.

But the same cannot be said for what was proposed to sprout from the top. Three elevator bulkheads, housing the mechanicals for elevators going to the second floor of the duplex penthouse, would rise 10 feet above the roof. Two cooling towers, each 18 feet tall, would also be added.

Last month the project came before the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which told architect Garrett Gourlay to bring it down.

“The roofscape is abysmal and every effort should be made to reduce it,” said Commissioner Michael Goldblum, who expressed bewilderment about the height of the protrusions.

“If this is the machine room of an elevator that’s not going to the roof’s surface I don’t

believe that’s right. Usually it’s four feet above the roofline. Please check it.”

“I’ll double check it,” Gourlay replied.

Earlier in the month, the project came before Community Board 1’s Landmarks Committee for advisory approval. The committee liked much of it but was also riled by the roof. Gourlay acknowledged that the visible structures would be a “hard sell” but, he said, CARL GLASSMAN

CARL GLASSMAN

“we tried to get to the minimum that we could.”

Well, not quite, according to committee chair Roger Byrom. Upon questioning, Gourley said the bulkhead could be 10 feet lower if the elevator stopped on the fifth floor rather than go to the penthouse a floor above.

“It’s a duplex,” Byrom said. “They can walk up.”

Above: Row of five-story buildings on White Street includes 60-66 White, which became one building in 1998. Above right: Mock-up structures show visibility of elevator bulkhead and cooling tower, seen from Franklin Alley. Right: Rendering of building plan with penthouse and all cooling towers and bulkheads.

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JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

School Scores a Win in Stogie War

BY CARL GLASSMAN Parents, staff and students will no longer be raising a stink over the smell of cigar smoke at Millennium High School.

The school and tobacconist Barclay Rex have been uneasy next-door neighbors at 75 Broad Street since Millennium opened there in 2004. The store’s smoking room—one of the few commercial spaces in the city where smoking is still allowed—shares a party wall and part of a ventilation system. Efforts to contain the odor, according to the school, have proved futile. The tobacco store owner says otherwise.

Last month, the building’s landlord said he will not renew the tobacconist’s lease.

The decision, by owner Joseph Jerome of JEMB Realty, is meant to clear the air in a ground-floor “multipurpose” room used for physical education classes in the school, which lacks a gym. (The school proper is housed on three converted upper floors of the office building.)

It also means that $400,000 of state money, allocated last year by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to turn the room into a more gym-like facility, can soon be spent.

“Very smartly, they weren’t going to put the money into the space to make it into a gym if it still smelled like a Vegas casino,” said PTA president Tara Silberberg, who worked with Paul Goldstein, Silver’s district office director, to resolve the issue.

Citing a “very close relationship” with Silver's office, Jerome called the

Hirshel Kahn, MD Helen Radoszycki, MD Terry Raymond, PA-C

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

Above: Millennium High PTA president Tara Silberberg in the “mulitpurpose” room that will be renovated with $400,000 from the state. Left: File photo of the Barclay-Rex smoking room next door. Inset: Outside the “smoking lounge.”

decision “the easiest way to go.”

“I think we’re doing an accommodation for a very good tenant and we want to make sure that everything we do with them is appropriate and they’re happy with their home here at 75 [Broad],” Jerome said. He would not change his mind about renewing the lease even if Barclay-Rex owner Vince Nastri chose to close the smoking room, he said.

Silberberg said the parents are now hoping the school will be able to expand

the multipurpose room into the vacated storefront.

But in a telephone interview with the Trib on June 28, Nastri said he was unaware of his landlord’s decision.

“That’s news to me,” said the owner, who opened his Broad Street store 13 years ago, a business that his grandfather started on Barclay Street in 1910. “I’ve been talking to the landlord and he hadn’t given me any indication that it’s not going to be renewed.”

Nastri said his lease expiration was “a few years away” but would not say when. Jerome said it would be “soon” but also would not be more specific.

At the urging of the school’s PTA, the store recently upgraded its ventilation system, but still failed to eliminate the odor, according to Silberberg and others at the school.

“It was kind of sad because we got

them to spend 40 grand—I saw all the paperwork on the equipment that they purchased,” Silberberg said. “It probably is not their fault. Something is wrong with the way the ventilation system was set up for that room and nobody can figure out what it is.”

But Nastri said the problem, which he claims was exacerbated by faulty ventilation in the school, is solved.

“We changed the whole ventilation system completely. It’s been corrected,” he said, noting that technicians who installed the equipment as well as the building’s managing agent have verified that there is no more odor.

(With the school now closed, independent verification for this article was not possible.)

Silberberg said that, as recently as early June, the odor was apparent during an orientation for incoming freshmen.

“I had multiple parents come up to me,” she recalled, “and they asked, ‘Does it always smell like this in here?’”

13

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

With Lifeline Cut, Seaport Museum Future Is in Doubt “Sandy did us in.”

That was the long and the short of it from Susan Henshaw Jones, director of the Museum of the City of New York, who announced in a statement late last month that her institution, which has kept the struggling South Street Seaport Museum afloat for nearly two years, would end the alliance on July 5.

As MCNY’s obligations to the museum, already extended from April, drew near, Seaport Museum supporters hoped for an 11th-hour rescue yet again. But with the museum still drowning in hurricane reconstruction costs estimated at $22 million, Jones dashed those hopes.

“Sandy ravaged our building systems and more,” she said in the statement.

“FEMA considers the Museum a ‘nonessential nonprofit.’ There is no clear path to receiving ‘mitigation’ funding. At the same time, funding from FEMA will take years to receive.”

Jones touted the work of the Seaport Museum’s “small but mighty staff” during MCNY’s operation of the maritime institution, including the mounting of 18 exhibitions, critical repairs to two historic ships (and fundraising to fix a third), and the reopening of Bowne & Co.—along with the launching, next door, of Bowne Printers.

Jones’s announcement came on the

heels of a letter that Community Board 1 sent to Mayor Michael Bloomberg asking the administration to “intervene as soon as possible” in order to salvage the museum and its historic vessels.

That intervention never happened. A meeting is expected with the Economic Development Corp. (the city’s museum landlord), CB1, the Department of Cultural Affairs and elected officials to discuss the museum’s future.

Asked about the city’s plans for the Seaport Museum, Department of Cultural Affairs spokeswoman Danai Pointer said in an email that officials from her department had spoken to Councilwoman Margaret Chin and others to address the museum’s future.

“The city is working on finding another entity that can steward the museum’s mission and collections,” she wrote. “The attorney general would have to be consulted if a steward is not found.”

John Fratta, chair of CB1’s Seaport Committee, said he is holding out hope that another institution will “step up to the plate” and take the helm.

“Without the Seaport Museum, all we’re going to have is a mall,” he said, referring to the future Pier 17 structure.

“The whole historic character of the Seaport is being destroyed, and it started with the loss of the Fulton Fish Market.”

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JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

Parents Celebrate Waitlist Solutions DOE says kids can attend nearby schools; acknowledges future demand for more seats

BY CARL GLASSMAN “Oh, my God, I just started jumping up and down!”

So recalled Maritza Mrozinski when describing her reaction to the news last month that her son, Dylan, who was hopelessly low on the waitlist for a kindergarten seat at PS 276, would be able to attend PS 89 in September.

As it turns out, all of the remaining children waitlisted for PS 89, PS 276, PS 234 and the Peck Slip School received “alternate offers,” as the Department of Education calls them, at schools in their neighborhoods. Here’s how it worked out.

• Two kindergarten classes were added to the existing three at PS 89, one to accommodate its own waitlist and another for children waitlisted for PS 276.

• PS 150 will get a second kindergarten class for children waiting for a seat at PS 234.

• The three children waitlisted for the Peck Slip School can go to the Spruce Street School.

The news came at a June meeting of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s School Overcrowding Task Force, before parents were officially notified of where their waitlisted children would be sent to kindergarten. Ariana Massouh, the mother of a child waitlisted at PS 276, attended the meeting and immediately got the word out to the other parents.

Massouh, who had mobilized parents with a petition and letter-writing campaign addressed to the Department of Education, was now witnessing the resolution to a fight she said she had to wage.

“I was so upset when I found out about the waitlist news, the uncertainty was literally driving me nuts,” she recalled in an interview. “So I sat down with my husband and said the only thing that’s going to make me feel better is to at least put the effort in to make something happen. It was really a coping mechanism for me.”

While PS 89 Principal Ronnie Najjar

“The ideal thing would be to put the school in FiDi. That’s where the needs are greatest now,” said Eric Greenleaf, a member of that committee whose own demographic projections have indicated a shortage of 1,200 seats in Lower Manhattan in the next five to six years. (According to a Community Board 1 study, the number of Financial District children aged four and under increased by 242 percent between 2000 and 2010; in Tribeca, that increase was 200 percent.)

In determining where to open new schools, the DOE forecasts population growth based on new apartment construction, making development-intensive Lower Manhattan a logical choice for a school, Greenleaf said.

“There may not be enough money to fund all the needs around the city and [the DOE] CARL GLASSMAN has to look at where overMaritza Mrozinski with son Dylan at PS 89, where he was offered a kindergarten seat for September. crowding is the worst,” he said.

“I think everyone would agree that oversaid she did not oppose the opening of school year. crowding is pretty bad downtown.” two additional kindergarten classes in “There’s a lot of conflict in that Carrie Marlin, the director of planher school, she was worried about the school right now and I hope that kind of ning for the DOE’s Office of Portfolio following year if, once again, she has energy doesn’t affect the children,” she Manage ment, told Silver’s task force that nearly 30 children on her waitlist. said, adding that she continues to be trouthere are other considerations as well, “We would not ask that any school to bled by the yearly drama over school including the availability of sites that offer kindergarten sections that are actu- crowding. meet the size and environmental qualifially beyond their capacity to carry those “It’s not the best scenario to keep sections through their school,” Jennifer squeezing these schools to create more cations for a new elementary school.

“A lot of that often drives the deciPeng, from the DOE’S Office of Port- classes,” she noted. sion about where a new building will folio Management, told Silver’s task Down the road, that squeeze could be go,” she said. force. “I do hear that being the underly- eased considerably. A school needs assPaul Goldstein, who directs Silver’s ing worry.” essment announced last month by the district office, said it is “incumbent” Peng said she expected the five sec- DOE found that Lower Manhattan— upon the task force to begin an immeditions of kindergartners to become five defined by two subdistricts of School ate search for new sites, much like their classes of first graders the following District 2 below 14th Street—will be previous efforts that yielded the locations year, then to be collapsed into fewer short 1,000 seats in the coming years. for the last three Downtown schools. classes in the years after that.

That means the city can include a new “We know it’s this group that has Jessica Whitney Gould, whose son school, or schools, in that area in its fiveidentified sites for the schools that have Julian had been on the waitlist for PS year, citywide capital plan that is expectbeen built to date,” Goldstein said.

“With 234, said in an interview that she was “of ed to be announced in November. course, very happy” that he would be The finding, presented to a subcom- all due respect to the [School Conattending PS 150. But she expressed con- mittee of Silver’s task force on June 12, struction Authority] and the DOE, it’s cerns about the emotional climate at the reverses the DOE’s long-held position, at been the community that has identified school, where staff and some parents dis- odds with Downtown school advocates, every single one of them.”

The DOE’s Marlin didn’t disagree. agree over a recent DOE proposal to that additional seats are not needed in “We rely on that often,” she added. move the school to Chelsea in the 2014 Lower Manhattan.

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JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

W H AT A SEQUENCE PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

S

B L A ST

THE IMPLOSION SPECTACLE ON GOVERNORS ISLAND

Last month’s implosion of a former apartment building sent dust and smoke high above and well beyond Governors Island.

CAROLE ASHLEY

BY CARL GLASSMAN AND ALINE REYNOLDS half-century. Most recently, two 400-foot-high steel utility tanding some 900 feet from an 11-story, dynamite- tanks in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, were imploded in 2001.) infused former apartment building, Leslie Koch was The 1968 building, which housed Coast Guard families for beaming. “There is no building I want to blow up nearly 30 years, was already a shell of its former self. Little more than this building,” said Koch who, as presi- more than exterior walls, columns and some ceiling ducts dent of the Trust for Governors Island, is overseeing remained. the transformation of the island’s southern end into a 30-acre Thom Doud, a project manager for Controlled Demolition, park. And the morning of Sunday, June 9, as reporters and spec- Inc., the company subcontracted by Turner, pointed to some of tators gathered in a special area to watch the structure’s quick the more than 900 holes bored into the building’s columns but dramatic demise, one towering impediment to that goal fell where the dynamite would be inserted. Most were on the first to the ground. floor, which Doud referred to as the “major motion floor.”

It would be the takedown of Governors Island’s largest nonElevator shafts and stairwells, which made up the hardened historic building, once known as the Cunningham Apartments, portions of the building, were removed, he said, to ensure that and the city’s first implosion-based demolition in 12 years. the structure would collapse smoothly and in the direction that “That building is just standing right in the middle of [what the engineers had planned. will be] the sports field,” she told reporters, noting that the rub“It’s very important that we get the building loose and soft ble would be recycled as landfill for the park. “So in about a so that we can get her to move in the way that we’d like her to,” year when you come out he said. here to play Little League Were a “misfire” to occur, sports, you’ll actually be an uncommon scenario but standing on the building, one Doud was prepared for, believe it or not.” the building would only parAs detonation time— tially collapse while still con7:36 a.m.—neared, over a taining live explosives. loudspeaker came a twoThe prevention method? minute warning, then one Redundancy. “Everywhere minute, then 30 seconds. we could put a detonator,” he “Seven, six, five, four, explained, “we put [one] on three, two, one.” the other end of that line.”

Puffs of smoke seeped Were remote-based remefrom behind protective dies to fail, Doud said, “It’s black tarp wrapped around my job to go in a structure the building’s first, third Rendering of ball field to replace the demolished apartment buildings. when there’s a misfire and and seventh floors. Then, rectify it. In 23 years, I’ve there was a teeth-rattling boom and eight seconds of 29 rapid- never had to do it, knock on wood, and I’m not going to start fire explosions. Nearly 250 pounds of dynamite, set in the here.” columns of those three floors, were doing their work.

The black tarp that shrouded the building’s three dynamiteIn less than half-a-minute, the building, which buckled at packed floors was meant to prevent debris from flying during each end of its three wings before caving in on itself, was the implosion. A 750,000-square-foot area around the building reduced to a 25-foot pile of debris and a billowing dust cloud. was cordoned off four days before the demolition, in advance Several days before the demolition, Joseph Byrne, a project of the delivery of dynamite. And on Sunday morning, the executive with Turner Construction, the construction manager Federal Aviation Administration kept airspace clear up to 3,000 for the project, had led a group of journalists through the build- feet high and up to half a mile wide. ing as a preview for the implosion.

The implosion went off without a hitch at 7:36—the time Nearly two dozen other buildings on the island had already Koch had calculated would provide the perfect view from the been demolished using conventional methods, he noted, but 7:30 Staten Island-bound ferry. this one, which stood the tallest at 115 feet, required a different Making the demolition a public spectacle was in keeping means. with the Trust’s philosophy, Koch said. “The hallmark of “It’s safer to do it with one implosion than to put all the everything we’ve done is that the public is always involved.” workers up, by hand, with chopping guns,” he explained. (The “And let’s be honest,” she added. “An implosion is super implosion is one of only a handful the city has seen in the last cool!”

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

17

POLICE BEAT

REPORTED FROM THE 1ST PRECINCT

For updates, go to tribecatrib.com.

17 VESTRY June 1, 6:15 p.m.

A black BMW was stolen from a parking spot on the street.

42 BROADWAY June 4, 11 a.m.

A 49-year-old woman left her wallet unattended on top of a fire hydrant as she turned around to place other items in her bag. When she went to pick up the wallet, which contained credit cards and money orders totaling $351, it was gone.

80 VARICK June 4, 6 p.m.

A thief smashed the window of a parked car and swiped $6,500 in optical fiber-testing equipment and a $450 Samsung tablet.

50 MURRAY June 7, 12:24 p.m.

A man’s wallet containing credit and debit cards, monthly transit cards and $30 was taken from his Equinox locker.

More than $700 in unauthorized purchases were made to his cards at Century 21 Department Store and elsewhere.

38 WARREN June 7, 10:30 p.m.

A 52-year-old deliveryman was robbed of his $800 electric bike by three men in a pickup truck. The driver pulled up next to the bicyclist, got out and held the victim while the other men seized the bike and threw it into the back of the vehicle.

395 SOUTH END June 10, 7:50 p.m.

A man’s bike, valued at $1,300, was stolen while he was making a food delivery. The bike was reportedly locked with a chain at the time of the theft.

138 READE June 11, 4:40 p.m.

A man grabbed the phone out of the hands of a woman as she was texting.

377 GREENWICH June 12, 11:15 a.m.

A thief swiped a $2,660 camera lens from a man. The theft occurred as the victim was taking photos in a crowd.

200 CHURCH June 14, 7 p.m.

A man lifted a $1,200 laptop from the counter of the Blueberry Fusion Cafe after purchasing a coffee.

129 FULTON June 18, 5 p.m.

While a woman was making a call outside the entrance to CVS, a man came from behind her, snatched a prepaid iPhone 4S out of her hands and fled.

MURRAY AND WEST June 18, 7:30 p.m.

A thief swiped a 12-year-old boy’s bookbag while he was playing in the ball fields. Inside the bag was an iPhone, a credit card, a Metrocard and $20.

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PINE AND WILLIAM June 19, 11:32 a.m.

A taxi driver picked up a woman who asked to sit in the front seat due to an alleged leg injury. During the ride, the woman touched the man’s leg numerous times. After a while, she asked him to stop the car so she could get out to retrieve her missing keys. When he did, the woman fled on foot. Soon afterwards, the driver realized that his wallet—containing credit and debit cards and $1,700—was missing from his pants pocket. More than $120 in fraudulent charges were made to his card.

4 NEW YORK PLAZA June 20, 6:45 a.m.

A man’s 2006 Suzuki motorcycle, valued at $5,000, was stolen while he was at work.

250 BROADWAY June 22, 12:20 a.m.

Three thieves stole $1,900 worth of gum and mints from the lobby bodega and fled.

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JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

Free Tennis Lessons

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The Friends of Washington Market Park is offering a free tennis clinic for kids on Wednesday, July 10, from 4 to 6 p.m. Children ages 4 and 5 play from 4 to 5 p.m.; ages 6 to 7 from 5 to 6 p.m. Rain date: July 11. There is also a free lesson for families on Saturday, Aug. 10 from 10 a.m. to noon. Parents with children ages 4 and 5 play from 10 to 11 a.m.; ages 6 and 7 from 11 a.m. to noon. Rain date: Aug. 11. There is a limit of 15 children per class. The courts are at the northwest corner of Chambers and West streets. washingtonmarketpark.org.

National Night Out

The First Precinctâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual free picnic will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 6, from 5 to 8 p.m., at the North Cove Marina (behind 395 South End Ave.).

Hot dogs and hamburgers are on the menu and there will be music and a DJ.

The Bard at the Battery

Shakespeareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Tempest,â&#x20AC;? reset to the Victoria era, is coming to Battery Park this summer. New York Classical Theatreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free, roving production will take place in the park from July 9 to 14, 16-21, 23-28 and July 30 to August 4.

The theater company is also offering 45minute pre-performance workshops on July 20, 21, 27 and 28, at 5 p.m., for children ages 7 to 11, to help them understand the story through games and exercises. (There is a $10 suggested donation per child.) Reservations are not required.

Meet in front of Castle Clinton. See newyorkclassical.org for information.

Bastille Day

Cercle Rouge restaurant is holding its annual Bastille Day celebration on Thursday, July 11. Sand pĂŠtanque (similar to bocce) courts will be set up on West Broadway between Beach and White streets, which will be closed to traffic. The Michael Arenella Trio and their band of Can-Can dancers will perform. Winners of the pĂŠtanque tournament will receive round-trip airfare to Marseille, France. There will be a variety of French beers and wines as well as food for sale.

After-Work Volleyball

Volleyball players of all levels are welcome to join other adults for goodnatured games on Wednesdays, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on the Esplanade Plaza in Battery Park City. Scorekeeper and balls are provided. There is no charge for playing. More information on volleyball and other Battery Park City Parks activities is at bpcparks.org.

Governors Island Event

There will be dozens of events this summer on Governors Island. One of them, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;City of Water Day Festivalâ&#x20AC;? will be held on July 20 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Activities will include a free boat tour, kayaking and canoeing. Those wishing to stay on shore can fish, bike, attend waterfront advocacy workshops, and enjoy live music. Free ferries leave from the Battery Maritime Building at South and Whitehall Streets. For a ferry schedule and more information, go to govisland.com.

Barbra Streisand Fest

Wednesday nights this summer at the Museum of Jewish Heritage belong to Barbra Streisand. Five of her movies will be shown on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m.

The line-up is: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Up, Doc?â&#x20AC;? (July 10), â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Way We Wereâ&#x20AC;? (July 17), â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Star Is Bornâ&#x20AC;? (July 24), â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yentlâ&#x20AC;? (July 31) and â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Prince of Tidesâ&#x20AC;? (Aug. 7).

Entrance is free with a suggested donation. Tickets will be available at the box office on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 4 p.m. on the day of each screening. The museum is at 36 Battery Place, in Battery Park City. Information at 646-437-4202 or mjhnyc.org.

A Walk to Honor

The annual walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to honor Sgt. Keith A. Ferguson, a member of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s anti-terrorism Downtown unit who died in 2004 in the line of duty, will take place Sunday, Aug. 4, at 8:30 a.m. To sign up or to make a donation, go to KeithsRace.org. Proceeds from the walk go to a police scholarship fund. Sgt. Ferguson was the nephew of Dr. Raphael Santore of Tribeca Dental Center.

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

PUNISH BUYERS OF PHONY GOODS? (CONTUED FROM PAGE 4)

hurt legitimate businesses like his.

“What you’re proposing is that a tourist who saved his money to come here and visit New York City and has heard about Canal Street is going to get arrested,” said the owner, who declined to give his name. [What] is that going to do for our tourism? It's going to make it even worse.”

As it is, he said, his business is down 50 percent because of the daily congregation of counterfeit vendors in front of his store’s entrance. “It’s very intimidating, and [tourists] don’t like it,” he said.

As an alternative to penalizing the buyers, McGee suggested a new public awareness campaign to better inform tourists of the illegality of the trade, along with its funding of terrorism and human trafficking and the dangers posed by certain low-quality knockoffs. (Some imitation perfume reportedly has been found to contain contaminated alcohol and even urine.)

Joseph Gioconda of the Gioconda Law Group, which specializes in intellectual property law, testified that an awareness campaign alone would not end the thriving, illicit industry, as previous blitzes have proven ineffective. In 2009, the city installed posters carrying anti-counterfeiting messages in Times Square and Chinatown to commemorate

that year’s “World Anti-Counterfeiting Day.” “I think what surprised a lot of people is that it didn’t even make a dent. [The counterfeit business] continued to spiral out of control and skyrocket, even in the face of these public service campaigns,” Gioconda said. “And nobody’s really clear exactly who should be fitting the bill to pay for the public service campaign.”

In response to ideas brought up at the hearing, Chin agreed that the proposed legislation should call for harsher penalties, such as jail time, only to resellers who buy in bulk—and levy fines of around $100 to tourists who purchase a single item. She said she plans to discuss the proposed legislation this month with the Bloomberg administration.

And what do the tourists think about it?

Several buyers who were approached by a reporter refused to discuss the prospect of being fined.

A woman from St. Augustine, Fla., who giddily told her friends that the bag she had just gotten for $80 would be at least $2,000 in a store, said that she didn’t really want to think about that posssibility.

“We’re really having fun,” she explained.

Summertime in Tribeca.

Walks through the park or along the Hudson River.

Munchies at the local markets.

Dining alfresco at the latest fine restaurants.

If you spot me out and about the neighborhood, feel free to stop me on the street and ask me any neighborhood or real estate related questions.

Hope to meet you soon.

CHECKING OUT THE ‘DEALS’ (CONTUED FROM PAGE 4)

right now.”

They both seemed unfazed by my decision to think about it.

“Ok,” the first man said. “It’s up to you. I’m here, anyway.”

In a Baxter Street Courtyard “All the way down,” said the woman standing near the corner of Centre and Canal. We had stopped to find out about the DVDs she was peddling.

All the way down meant rushing to keep up with her as she zigzagged along the crowded sidewalk to Baxter Street.

Then, nearly jogging, we continued down to Bayard.

The woman led us into the gritty, redand-green hallway of a tenement at 102 Bayard Street.

“Do we stay here...we come?” I asked.

The hall led to a small, sunny courtyard with shirts and pants hanging from a makeshift clothesline and at least halfa-dozen garbage cans. The woman rushed through a door on the other side of the courtyard and immediately reappeared, holding a red plastic bag full of DVDs. We looked over a handful of them. “The Great Gatsby,” “21 and Over,” “The Big Wedding” and other familiar titles as the speaker on her phone crackled and she answered back.

Getting off the phone, she turned to us, breathing heavily and looking anxious.

“How much are they?” I asked. “$5.”

“Could you give them to me for $3?”

She hesitated, then replied, “Five for $20, OK?” I said we didn’t have the cash and

made a quick exit.

Bags in a Back Room Back on Canal Street, a man handed me the usual catalog showing dozens of handbags. I said I was interested but wanted to see one first.

The man shook his head, abruptly took the catalog from my hand and gave it to a tourist in search of a Louis Vuitton purse. Instantly, another vendor appeared next to me, showed me the bag she was wearing and offered to get me the same one for $50.

“Where are the bags?” I asked her.

“You don’t have it here?”

She motioned for us to follow her across Canal Street. Soon we were passed off to another woman who we would follow. Looking straight ahead and ignoring my questions, she rushed up Centre Street and, almost to Grand, dropped us off in a nondescript storefront, its shelves filled with a jumble of cheap odds and ends, from umbrellas and batteries to dolls and stocking caps.

Silently, a man took us behind a rear display and through a back door. There, in a tiny room, scores of knock-off bags hung from the walls, from floor to ceiling—purses small and large, firm and flexible, of every color and designer label.

“Oh, look—they have Prada,” I said.

“How much are these?”

“Sixty dollars,” he muttered. A Michael Kors bag? $55.

“Are they real” He raised a hand and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, no English.”

I told him I only had $10 and we were out of there.

!

WARBURG REALTY

20

JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

S

Spark Movement Collective asked for ideas on how to perform with the large balls.

martly attired in heels, black dress and red rubber nose, Barbara Ann Michaels, aka The Jester of the Peace (“I’m a legal wedding officiant and I’m also a clown”), was a welcoming presence on Governors Island one morning last month. Already she had married a woman to her sore ankle in hopes that it would feel better.

And, if today were to be anything like her appearance on the island the previous season, she had plenty more “weddings” to look forward to.

“Last year I married someone to a tree, to a can of soda, I married families to each other,” she said. “I married co-workers and people who never met before.”

“Somebody asked me to do a self marriage later today,” she added. “I’m sure I'll do a number of those.”

Street performance weddings, giant soap-bubble catching, a solar-powered merry-go-round, a “post-apocalyptic” world of electronic waste. Such was the variety of offerings at the seventh annual Figment, where 250 interactive acts and installations, spread out over the island’s lawns and walkways, drew 20,000 visitors over the weekend of June 8 and 9.

“Blessings, blessings upon you,” a robed man who identified himself as PeacockFeatherBlessings said through a mask adorned with butterfly stickers.

With one gentle hand on his blessee’s shoulder and the other tapping him with colorful feathers, he continued, “You’re a good person because you exist. There’s nothing left to prove, nothing.”

What Ben Schultz and Suzanne Karpinski, both MFA drama students dressed as “Giving Trees” (inspired by Shel Silverstein’s children’s book) wanted to prove was that giving could be as simple as a cartwheel, a hug or a song.

“It’s learning to appreciate and value things you have to offer,” said Karpinski, whose bodysuit sprouted twigs and leaves and had the words “Make seeds not war” written on her abdomen.

Figment, now in nine cities, is the invention of David Koren, who is driven to show art that is free and participatory.

“It’s profoundly important,” he said, “that people engage with each other in a way that’s about giving and sharing and collaboration, not just about ‘I have this thing to sell you, do you want to buy it.’”

Instead, he added, Figment is the creative person’s headiest dream. “It’s about, if you could do anything, what would you do today.”

OF THEIR IMAGINATION From left: Along the way to Figment, visitors first encountered a fairy with bubbles to blow; In Aqua Attack, “armies” dress up in costumes, stand in kiddie pools and throw wet plush toys at each other; a teepee erected by One World Circle was the site of contemplation; and a dj was on hand in “Head in the Clouds,” a structure designed by STUDIOKCA and made of 53,780 recycled bottles.

21

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

Left: In a performance choreographed by Shandoah Goldman, women in painted body suits and “lanterninspired” dresses took on the role of their Chinese zodiac animals and were matched in a “dating game” with men recruited from the audience. The piece, said Goldman, plays with the farce of the zodiac and compatibility “and this idea of happily ever afters in fairy tales.”

Below: A stiltwalker on the parade grounds.

S

H

OLD TRIBECA

22

BY OLIVER E. ALLEN e was described as a man of “ordinary size, with an athletic form and dark complexion” who presented “an intelligent and benevolent countenance.” He would have doubtless passed unnoticed in New York in the 1830s, which would have suited him fine. His name was David Ruggles, and he is an unsung hero of the Underground Railroad, the storied network that aided and protected slaves escaping from the South before the Civil War. He lived and worked in what is now Tribeca.

Although New York State had outlawed slavery in 1827, blacks were nonetheless barred from most white institutions and were frequently assaulted by gangs of white hoodlums.

Ruggles arrived here in 1827, at the age of 17, from Norwich, Conn., and within a year or two had become a “butter merchant” operating from a store near his residence on Chapel Street (today’s West Broadway). The business flourished, but Ruggles’ interest shifted to the plight of his fellow blacks.

In 1833 he left his store to write for a black newspaper and lecture on the evils of slavery. His writing was incisive, and his talks were instantly popular; he spoke, said one observer, “in a manner which excited the liveliest emotions in every heart.” The next year, he moved to 67 Lispenard Street and opened a bookstore, stocking it with anti-slavery publications. (He is thought to be the first black bookseller in the U.S.) The store soon became an esteemed gathering spot.

Increasingly involved in the abolitionist cause, in 1835 he was instrumental in setting up a New York Committee on Vigilance, whose goal was to “protect unoffending, defenseless and endangered persons of color, by securing their rights as far as practicable.” The biracial group, of which Ruggles was the secretary, cared for escaped slaves who came through the city—feeding, clothing and, if necessary, hiding them before sending them on to Canada, Boston or elsewhere in New England. Ruggles sheltered many of them under his own roof, making it a key stop on the Railroad.

Among the hundreds of fugitives he helped during these years was Frederick Douglass, whom he hid for several days on his way to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Years later Douglass described

JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

At 67 Lispenard St., a Stop on the

Underground Railroad

ILLUSTRATION BY EBERHARD FROEHLICH

David Ruggles often alerted runaway slaves to “blackbirders,” as slave catchers were known, who were sent by Southern slaveholders.

Abolitionist David Ruggles sheltered and comforted frightened, fleeing slaves, including a young Frederick Douglass.

his protector as “fully imbued with a love of his afflicted and hunted people, and took pleasure in being to men as was his wont, eyes to the blind and legs to the lame. This brave and devoted man suffered much from the persecutions common to all who have been prominent benefactors.” Indeed, a mob once set Ruggles’ store afire.

But caring for escapees was only part of his work. He published the names of the slave-catchers sent by slaveholders to round up fugitives and ship them back south, and pointed them out to other blacks on the street. He boarded newly arrived ships in search of slaves being smuggled into the U.S. He went door to door in fashionable neighborhoods to tell black domestics of a new New York law that freed imported slaves after nine months of residence. He worked tirelessly to raise money for the abolitionist

cause. Most important, he represented captured runaways in court to see that they got a fair hearing (most often, they did not). So effective were his efforts that he became a marked man and had to keep changing his lodging to avoid being kidnapped. He was more than once jailed on false pretenses.

By the late 1830s, overburdened and racked by worry, Ruggles’ health was deteriorating. His eyesight was failing; he was forced to close his store and give up his work for the Committee. In 1842 his doctor gave him only weeks to live.

Thus did his extraordinary work for the abolitionist cause come to an end.

But there ensued an amazing postscript.

He moved to Florence, Mass., the home of many blacks whom he had helped.

There, a white abolitionist named Lydia Maria Child took him in. While recuperating, Ruggles began a treatment known

as hydrotherapy, based on water treatments, diet and rest, and he eventually regained his health. He then set himself up as a hydrotherapist, and his patients marveled at his acute sense of touch, with which he diagnosed many ailments.

In 1846, he raised the money to build a 20-room treatment center, the first of its kind in the U.S. Although he admitted that hydrotherapy was not a panacea, his ads claimed that he could cure “headache, bronchitis, general and nervous debility, pulmonary affections, liver complaints,” among other ailments.

Sadly, in late 1849 his eye trouble recurred. Complications set in, and by the end of the year he was dead. Either of his two careers would have been an impressive life’s work for one person. At his death he was just 39 years old.

This article was first published in the Trib in April 1999.

Brian & staff wish all a healthy & happy summer!

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

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JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

KIDS

25

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

Right: Zena Spratley swings for a triple. The charger catcher is Megan Choi. Far right: Paloma Rivera started the game for the Cougars.

Below: Charger Zoe Morrison is safe at second on an overthrow to second baseman Paula Auguirre. Charger Helen Chmiel is in the outfield. Below right: The Chargers Brianna Lynn beats out a throw to Paloma Rivera for a single.

BPC BATTERS UP The neighborhood’s two middle schools compete in softball playoffs

B

illed as a “sibling rivalry,” the girls’ softball teams of Battery Park City sister schools IS 89 and IS 276 faced off last month in a playoff game that determined who would go on to face IS 223 in the next round.

That honor went to the 89 Cougars as they overtook the Chargers 19 to 9 in a game that saw most runs forced in on bases-loaded walks—but with some good fielding and spirited base running from both sides along the way.

The Cougars went on to lose a 7-6 heartbreaker to IS 223. The Lab School took home the championship.

The two teams are run as part of Manhattan Youth’s after-school program. Leyna Madison coached the Cougars and Frankie Alameda led the Chargers.

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27

Sorting Out the Next ‘Education Mayor’

As the number of mayoral candidates has increased, so has the array of forums and debates organized to get their stands on the issues out there. This past winter and spring I attended a few forums on education sponsored by various groups.

At a forum organized by the principals’ union, the questions posed included: Would he or she support raises and new contract for teachers and principals?

Should there CONNIE be merit pay?

Should the SCHRAFT next chancellor be required to have an education background?

Parents of charter school students who trekked from the Bronx and Queens to the SCHOOL Salvation TALK Army auditorium on West 14th Street came to hear about such issues as co-location and the advisability of charter schools paying rent to the DOE. Probably the most well-rounded forum I attended took place at Murry Bergtraum High School one evening in June, thanks to the variety of sponsors, including Class Size Matters, the Coalition for Public Education, several

unions, and parent groups such as Parents to Improve Transportation.

The forums were fascinating, mostly because of the audiences—sign-waving, opinionated and passionate New Yorkers who listen intently, know what they want, and wildly cheer or boo.

I wish I could say the same about the candidates, but it was difficult for them to distinguish themselves. Many share the same opinions on class size, standardized testing and school safety. The issues where they differ are so nuanced—charter schools, mayoral control, parent empowerment—that they are

to make necessary improvements because they are under-enrolled and don’t have well-functioning PTAs to fill in the gaps.

I would back someone who not only promises to give schools more money, but has ideas about where that money could come from.

Bill de Blasio has suggested increasing taxes for the top 1 percent in order to fund full-day pre-K programs for every four-year-old.

John Liu reminds audiences that the city has never received the money the state owes us for having underfunded our

The audiences at the candidate forums were opinionated New Yorkers who listened intently and wildly cheered or booed. difficult to discuss in a fast-paced Q&A, with the moderator encouraging simple responses.

What would make one of this season’s candidates pull ahead of the others?

I would back the candidate who understands that educational equity doesn’t mean treating all schools exactly the same. The cookie-cuttter approach of the Bloomberg administration simply hasn’t worked. What we need downtown—more school seats, please—is different from the needs of a district of failing schools that doesn’t have the money

schools for many years. He also believes that the money the DOE pays to consulting companies should be going to the schools instead. Liu was recently endorsed by District Council 37 because of his reputation for standing up for the neglected, according to the union’s director.

Meanwhile. the United Federation of Teachers endorsed Bill Thompson, citing his experience as a teacher and the head of the former Board of Education.

Mostly, though, he is the antithesis of Bloomberg, who, intentionally or not,

has antagonized the teachers’ union for the last 12 years. I admired Thompson at one of the forums for often being the only voice of dissent on some hot-button issues. When he said he would not relinquish mayoral control, someone shouted, “Dictator!” It was a brave stand.

Christine Quinn has a lot of ideas.

She wants to extend the school day. She wants to do a system-wide study of success. She suggests using the money schools spend on quickly outdated textbooks for tablets. She wants to do a better job of distributing resources equitably, and the overuse of stop-and-frisk.

She is smart and has grit, but you know what?

She’s no Hillary Clinton, but once it was leaked that Bloomberg had urged Clinton to join the race, I couldn’t help but fantasize about it.

Hillary would use her diplomatic skills to negotiate with the UFT. She would support principals and work to understand what they need to run good schools. She would use data responsibly and not become a prisoner of it.

That’s not going to happen, of course.

The former Secretary of State has the White House in her sights. But maybe this year’s mayoral candidates should start thinking like her.

Connie Schraft is PS 89’s parent coordinator. For questions and comments about Downtown schools, email connie@tribecatrib.com.

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at THE VILLAGE TEMPLE'S ROSH HASHANA AND YOM KIPPUR SERVICES. Rabbi Chava Koster stirs us with her wit and wisdom, drawing on tradition while seeking the new. With his rich baritone, Cantorial Soloist Gerard Edery infuses our annual search for meaning with power and soul.

Add your voice to our songs and prayers!

Free children’s

afternoon services

Sept. 4–14 I Cooper Union

villagetemple.org I 212.674.2340

Since 1948, educating and inspiring our children for a lifetime of active engagement in Judaism.

OMING U C P

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JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

FOR KIDS

ARTS & CRAFTS

SPORTS g Basketball Clinic Each session covers individual and team-based skills—shooting, passing, defense and more. For children entering 3rd–5th grades. Registration required. Mondays & Wednesdays to 8/14, 2 pm. $250. Downtown Community Center, 120 Warren St., manhattanyouth.org.

g Art & Games Group games and handson art projects, ranging from designing cities to making animal masks. Art supplies are provided. For ages 5 and up. Wednesdays, 3:30 pm. Free. Teardrop Park, near Warren St., bpcparks.org. g Preschool Art Children ages 2–4 make projects out of paper, clay and wood.

Materials are provided. Thursdays, 10:30 am (except 7/4). Free. Rockefeller Park, near Warren St., bpcparks.org.

g

Basketball Learn the rules of the game with adjustable-height hoops. Closed-toe shoes required. Mondays, 3:30 pm, ages 5–6; 4:30 pm, ages 7 and up. Free.

Rockefeller Park, near Warren St., bpcparks.org.

g

Woolworth’s Gargoyles Tour the “Woolworth @ 100” exhibition and learn about the various gargoyles on the building.

Kids then create fanciful sculptures and gargoyles of their own. Ages 3–10. Sat, 8/10, 10:30 am. $5. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org. g On the Dotted Line: Design and Drawing Kids learn about the museum’s exhibits on Chinese-American designers, then learn how to sketch and design clothes. Ages 5–10 with a parent or caregiver. Sat, 8/10, 11:30 am. $10; $6 children. Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre St., mocanyc.org. g

Sidewalk Art Kids will sketch plans of buildings they know, then use chalk to draw them on the sidewalk in front of the museum. Sat, 8/24, 10:30 am. $5. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org.

DANCE g Circle of Dance! Interactive storytelling and Native dance sessions that focus on summer tales and traditions. Tuesdays–Fridays, 7/9– 8/2, 11 am & 12 pm. Free. National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green, nmai.si.edu. g

Brazilian Family Dance Forro music from rural Brazil. Dance caller leads traditional dances. Sat, 7/13, 6:30 pm. Free. Esplanade Plaza near Liberty St., bpcparks.org. g Bhangra Family Dance Learn the basics of bhangra, a fusion of traditional Punjabi-style folk dance and music with Western hip hop and rock. Sat, 8/17, 6:30 pm. Free. Esplanade Plaza near Liberty St., bpcparks.org.

FILM g Pizza and a Movie Pizza, snacks and a family film. Fri, 7/19 (“Matilda”) and 8/16

M

g

anhattan Youth is offering free weekday summer programs for teens entering grades 6–9, from Sunday, July 7, to Friday, August 2. Classes and activities focus on performing arts, sports, and science, technology, engineering and math. For a list of programs, dates and times, go to manhattanyouth.org. (“The Secret of Kells”), 6 pm. Free. Charlotte’s Place, 109 Greenwich St., trinitywallstreet.org.

GARDENING g

Young Sprouts Gardening An introduction to organic gardening, including planting, watering and identifying weeds. For ages 3–5 with an accompanying adult. Tuesdays, 3:15 pm.

Free. Gardening Club Children ages 6–10 plant flowers, weed and compost, and learn about soil preparation, vegetables and herbs.

Tuesdays, 4 pm. $130 for two months. Call 212-267-9700, ext. 366, to register.

Rockefeller Park, bpcparks.org.

MUSIC g Teen

Drumming Circle Learn the art of drumming on various percussion instruments with Senegalese musician Maguette Camara.

Drums provided. Tuesdays, 4 pm. Free.

Rockefeller Park, near Warren St., bpcparks.org.

One Great Preschool in two DOWNTOWN locations!

275 Greenwich St. 212.571.6191

g Soccer Learn how to play and to pass, dribble and shoot. Closed-toe shoes required. Tuesdays, 2:30 pm, ages 3–4; 3:30 pm, ages 5–7; 4:30 pm, ages 8–11.

Free. Rockefeller Park, near Warren St., bpcparks.org.

6 Barclay St. 212.571.2715

Call Khris for availability for the 2013-14 school year!

theparkpreschool.org

g Monkey Music A high-energy show during which kids play air guitar, count the odd numbers, jump around, pop bubbles and more. Fri, 8/30, 3:30 pm. Free. Battery Park City Library, 175 N. End Ave., nypl.org.

SPECIAL PROGRAMS g H2Oh! Kids learn about the ocean, including how boats float, how a submarine submerges, which animals live in the ocean and more. Also related art projects and experiments. Ages 5–12. Registration required.

Wednesdays (except 7/17 & 7/31), 7/10– 8/21, 4 pm. Free. Battery Park City Library, 175 N. End Ave., nypl.org. g

Come Out and Play Field Day Activities, including traditional field games as well as newer ones such as zombie tag and life-sized ping pong. Sat, 7/13, 11 am–5 pm. Free.

Governors Island. Free ferries leave from the Battery Maritime Building south of the Staten Island Ferry. comeoutandplay.org.

Tennis Clinics Instructors lead kids in drills and games, and teach the basics of the sport. Wed, 7/10 (rain date: 7/11), 4 pm, ages 4–5, and 5 pm, ages 6–7. Clinics for the family on Sat, 8/10 (rain date: 8/11), 10 am, ages 4–5; 11 am, ages 6– 7. Free. Washington Market Park Tennis Courts, Chambers St. near Greenwich St., washingtonmarketpark.org.

STORYTELLING g Storytime with Teresa Children 18 months to 5 years hear interactive stories, sing songs and see finger puppet plays with a parent or caregiver. Free. Tuesdays & Thursdays starting 7/9, 10:30 & 11:30 am. New Amsterdam Library, 9 Murray St., nypl.org. g Tales

for the Teeny Tiny Stories, interactive games, songs and finger plays. Ages 18 months–3 years with a parent or caregiver.

Wed, 7/17 & 7/31, 10:30 am. Free. Battery Park City Library, 175 N. End Ave., nypl.org.

g

Monkeys, Mangoes & Magic Storyteller tells tales of adventure set in India and the Asian subcontinent. Sat, 8/17, 11 am. Free.

Teardrop Park near Warren St., bpcparks.org.

THEATER g

My City Park A mall is going to be built in Milo’s favorite park and he seeks the help of his friends to stop it. Puppetry, songs and audience participation. Ages 3 and up. Wed, 7/17, 4 pm. Free. Battery Park City Library, 175 N. End Ave., nypl.org.

29

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

SUMMER FAMILY PROGRAMS at THE ANNE FRANK CENTER USA in Tribeca

Do you have toys your children are not using?

CONVERSATIONS WITH ANNE Ages 9–adult

I am a Downtown resident who has worked in early childhood education throughout my career. I have recently established contact with a Senegalese military unit based in Ivory Coast, Africa. We are jointly initiating a program to provide toys and educational materials for children in the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Madagascar. Toys will be sent every month.

If you would like to donate toys, old or new, or educational materials such as books, for children birth to 13 years of age, please email me to arrange for pick up at growingtogetherafrica@gmail.com Thank you in advance for helping these children!

– Dee Grieve growingtogetherafrica.org

Our signature one-woman show with a script drawn directly from Anne’s Diary, followed by audience Q&A with Anne “in character” Saturday, July 6, 2013, 1:00 p.m.

Saturday, August 3, 2013, 1:00 p.m.

Saturday, September 7, 1:00 p.m.

“Love in the Secret Annex”

“Growing Up in Hiding”

“Becoming a Writer”

$8 adult; $5 students/seniors To reserve, call 212-431-7993 or e-mail info@annefrank.com Anne Frank Center, USA Gallery 44 Park Place New York, NY 10007 info@annefrank.com www.annefrank.com 212.431.7993

Bring this hool or show to your sc oup! community gr

Directions: A / C train to Chambers Street; E train to World Trade Center; 2 / 3 train to Park Place; N train to City Hall; 4 / 5 train to Fulton Street M5, M9, M22, M103 buses to City Hall Gallery Hours Tuesday–Saturday, 10:00am–5:00pm Conversations with Anne, a family program, is a monthly Saturday feature with a new theme each month.

SWIM | SPORTS | FITNESS | CULINARY ARTS | CULTURAL ARTS

ASPHALT GREEN BATTERY PARK CITY IS

OPEN! REGISTER TODAY. Summer classes begin JUNE 24.

Fall classes begin SEPTEMBER 7.

212 North End Avenue | ASPHALTGREENBPC.ORG

30

JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

1GTCP

@JSCQ GL !?RRCPW /?P I "GRW Q /?P IQ

Thursdays, 7 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8:30 pm, FREE! Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park

July 18, John Hammond Band

July 25, Christian Scott Quintet

Aug 1, Bill Sims, Jr.

We rent instruments:

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Aug 8, The Wiyos The Battery Park City Parks Conservancy is funded and supported by the Battery Park City Authority

www.bpcparks.org â&#x20AC;¢ 212-267-9700

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THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

ARTS, ETC.

31

Paul Feig’s Life and Rebirth in Comedy

BY THEA GLASSMAN “I used to have Steve Martin’s whole comedy album memorized,” writer, director and actor Paul Feig recalled during an appearance last month at 92YTribeca. “I went out and bought a threepiece white suit just like the one he wore, and every night I would put it on and lipsync along to his album.”

Feig, whose credits range from creator of the cult TV classic “Freaks and Geeks” to directing episodes of “The Office,” “Arrested Development” and the hit film comedy “Bridesmaids,” has come a long way from the days of performing alone in his bedroom. And the 64-year-old triple threat took great pleasure in chronicling his bumpy road toward success.

“I started doing stand-up when I was 15,” he said. “My parents would have to take me to this really seedy biker bar in Detroit…a great place to go with your Christian Scientist parents.”

Asked about his comedy performances, Feig responded, smiling. “They were the worst,” he said. “All I could do was copy other people. I was a big Johnny Carson fan so literally all my punch lines were about New Jersey. I had never been to New Jersey in my life.”

While he did recall getting some laughs (“Even bikers have a heart,” he quipped) his performances, he said, never lived up to his expectations. “I was always just running through straight to the punch lines because I was so nervous.”

Feig went from aspiring teen comedian to film student at the University of

GEMMA LAMANA

Paul Feig in the director’s chair on the set of his upcoming movie, “The Heat.”

Southern California and a tour guide at Universal Studios. “I fell into the Jaws lake in the middle of one of the tours,” he said. “That was my claim to fame.”

Feig continued to make the stand-up rounds after college and eventually became a headliner. That success, however, was not all it was cracked up to be.

“You lose the camaraderie with the other performers,” he recalled. “You’re in cities by yourself, or you’re staying in these gross comedian condos and they’re always trying to bring waitresses home.

I didn’t want to be a part of it.”

Feig decided to try acting. “I had, like, two goofy moves.” he said. “And I couldn’t even laugh on camera. My eyes

always gave it away.” He paused and smiled. “Steve Carrell is the greatest fake laugher in the world.”

It was while he was on tour for a film that was never released that Feig wrote the pilot for “Freaks and Geeks,” the story of a group of high school outcasts.

The show, which launched the careers of James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel, among others, presented Feig with the frustrations that come with seeing his script brought to life.

“I was a real control freak when I wrote the pilot,” he explained. “And in pre-production [producer] Judd Apatow said, ‘Okay, let’s tear the script apart.’”

This was not appealing to Feig. “I spent

the entire time complaining,” he said, “dramatically saying to everyone that my own army was shooting me in the back.”

And yet, Feig said he now uses the same hands-off approach that he once rejected.

“Control freaks are the death of comedy,” he said. “I like actors so much that directing, for me, is just about getting out of their way.”

He gleefully recalled filming scenes for his latest film, “The Heat,” when stars Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock ignored his direction, improvised, and came up with even better material.

“I went away to set up the camera for a scene. When I came back, they had Scotch-taped their noses up and Melissa had taped forks onto her hands. They went on a 15-minute run that was just so funny.”

During the screening of a clip from that scene, Feig was as bemused as the audience. He beamed as McCarthy and Bullock took shots and drunkenly slowdanced with each other.

Feig, whose career has been devoted to comedy, bemoans what he says is Hollywood’s lack of respect and recognition for funny movies.

“I see a lot of actors who are so great at comedy,” he said, “who are driven away because they want to win awards instead.”

But not Feig.

“It sounds so corny, but the best reward for me is making people laugh. I want to lighten people’s lives up if I can.”

32

Tokyo Bay Elegant Sushi & Japanese Dishes in an Intimate Setting

JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

Aux Epices 121 Baxter St.

Formerly “Franklin Station Cafe”

We’re back!

Our fish comes from South America, California, New Zealand, Canada and Norway—and some special fish from Japan.

“Tokyo Bay looks like most other sushi dens in the city, but the fish is better. The sushi and sashimi options are extensive...and the rolls are creative.” — Metro NY

Party Trays of sushi, sashimi & special rolls available for large or small events.

183 Duane Street 212.431.8666 LUNCH Mon–Fri: 11:30am–3pm DINNER Mon–Thu 5–10:45pm; Fri 5–11:15pm; Sat 5–11pm; Sun 5–10:15pm

Free Delivery

Open 7 Days a Week Lunch 12–5pm Mon-Sat Dinner 6pm–12am Mon–Sat Dinner 5–11pm Sun Brunch 12–5pm Sun Happy Hour 4–7pm Mon–Fri

273 Church Street bet. Franklin & White 212.219.0640

Malaysian & French Bistro Lunch & Dinner Daily ~ 11am -10pm Take out & delivery 212-274-8585

www.auxepices.com

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

ARTS, ETC.

33

PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN

The Duane Street Swing

“Feel free to grab a partner,” swing dance instructor Michael And, indeed they did. Following some basic lessons, dancers Raine called out to the folks who had gathered June 19 in of every age and skill got into the swing of it on Duane Street, Tribeca’s Duane Park. “If it’s a girl with a girl, a boy with a boy, closed to traffic and open for an evening of free fun, sponsored a girl with a boy, everyone gets to dance!”

by Friends of Duane Park.

Dance master Michael Raine (photo top left) got the evening started with instruction in some basic swing steps.

Dancers ranged from kids (left), out for their first swing, to exhibition-level performers (far left) who wowed the crowd.

This is Tribeca, like you never saw it.

TRIBECA: A Pictorial History

By Oliver E. Allen The neighborhood story, told in delightful detail and illustrated with more than 150 exquisitely reproduced photos and drawings. $49.95

Available at Amazon.com and…

DUANE PARK PATISSERIE STELLA 179 Duane St. 184 Duane St.

34

JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

Have fun & Stay fit!

COM MUNITY CENTER at

Stuyvesant High School 345 Chambers Street

S u m m er 2013 CLASSES

*members/non-members

RECREATION

REGISTER

Gymnasium & Dance studio may be rented for parties.

To register for classes and purchase Day Passes, come to the Community Center.

Call 646-210-4292 for more information or visit www.ccshs.org.

! y a d o t r e t s i R eg

Managed by Battery Park City Parks Conservancy for Battery Park City Authority

RESERVE EARLY for the HIGH HOLIDAYS 9/4 Sanctuary Open House 7:15pm followed by Dinner 8PM Registration for HEBREW SCHOOL for Fall 2013 49 White St. NYC 10013 Call for info: 212-966-7141 www.synagogueforthearts.org NEW!

Summer Camps for Ages 2.5 - 5 Mon-Fri from 9:30am-12:00 all summer long!

Fall soccer season begins in September!

Classes everyday for ages 2-7 and pre-soccer programs for ages 12-24mo

www.bpcparks.org

Downtown Little League

would like to thank its Sponsors for a great 2013 season, our largest and most successful to date. Your support is invaluable to our growing community.

Com Community munity

Hebrew H ebrew SSchool chool of Â?

M Manhattan anhattan ap project roject o off th thee A Aish ish C Center enter

Introducing Introducing a new new an andd eexciting xciting eeducational ducational program program for for children children in N NYC. thee E East ast YC. LLocated ocated in th Village, Community Community H anhattan Village, Hebrew Manhattan ebrew SSchool chool ooff M is a project project of of the the A Aish Center, trend-setter ish C enter, a tr end-setter in creative creative Jewish Jewish education education fo eople ooff all aages. ges. ffor or ppeople A fraction of typical tuition costs

Please visit downtownlittleleague.org for a complete listing of Sponsors.

All Jewish backgrounds welcome Synagogue membership not required

ccommunityhebrew.com ommunityhebrew.com info@c inf info@communityhebrew.com o@communityhebrew.com

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

35

OMING U C P A SELECTION OF DOWNTOWN EVENTS

BOOKS & READINGS

bank until its downfall in 1995. This exhibit explores five of the firm’s US investments, good and bad. To July. $8; $5 students, seniors; free under age 6.

Tue–Sat, 10 am–4 pm. Museum of American Finance, 48 Wall St., moaf.org.

g

Evelyne Bloch-Dano From the importance of peppers in early international trade to Proust’s love of beef-and-carrot stew to the surprising array of vegetables that preceded the pumpkin as the Halloween mascot, hear the fascinating stories behind our everyday food in a talk

by Bloch-Dano about her book “Vegetables: A Biography.” Mon, 7/8, 12 pm. $21. 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St., 92ytribeca.org.

g

The Woolworth Building @ 100 A pictorial survey of the architectural and technological wonder, the 100-year-old Woolworth Building, which was financed by the five-and-dime store entrepreneur Frank Woolworth. To Sun, 7/14. $5; $2.50 students, seniors. Wed–Sun, 12–6 pm. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org.

g

Proust Birthday Poetry Reading Celebrate Proust’s birthday with readings from “The Collected Poems of Marcel Proust,” edited by Harold Augenbraum. In addition to Proust’s pieces, poets will also read some of their own works inspired by the writer. Wed, 7/10, 7 pm.

Free. Poets House, 10 River Terrace, poetshouse.org.

g Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture Exhibition on Native Americans who have had successful careers in the music industry over the past century. To Sun, 8/11. 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

g The Jews of Cuba A large number of Jews immigrated to Cuba in the early 1900s, when the quota system in the U.S. effectively blocked their entry. But after the revolution, most Jews fled to Miami, leaving only a few behind. Photographer Debbie Rosenfeld looks at the lives of some of the remaining 1,500 Jews in Cuba. To Fri, 8/30. $8; $5 students, seniors. Tue–Sat, 10 am–5 pm. Anne Frank Center, 44 Park Pl., annefrank.com.

Marguerite Holloway Director of Science and Environmental Journalism at Columbia University will discuss her book “The Measure of Manhattan: The Tumultuous Career and Surprising Legacy of John Randel, Jr., Cartographer, Surveyor, Inventor,” about the man who surveyed most of the island of Manhattan to lay out its street grid. Wed, 7/24, 6:30 pm. Free. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl., skyscraper.org.

g

Kennedy Known only by her middle name, MTV’s 1990s VJ reads from her memoir “The Kennedy Chronicles: The Golden Age of MTV Through Rose-Colored Glasses,” about what it was like to bring outrageous and cutting-edge culture into America’s living rooms. Wed, 7/31, 6 pm.

Free. Barnes & Noble, 97 Warren St., bn.com.

T

he winners of Soho Photo’s 18th Annual National Photography Competition will be on display at the gallery from Wednesday, July 3, through Saturday, July 27. Juried by Laura Paterson from Christie’s, the show features 39 artists from 35 states, including third place winner “Floor 10,” above, by Robert Moran of Bar Harbor, Maine. The gallery is at 15 White St. and is open Wednesdays through Sundays, 1–6 pm and by appointment. sohophoto.com.

g Barbara Rogan Author reads from her new mystery novel, “A Dangerous Fiction: A Mystery,” about Jo Donovan, a woman from the backwoods of Appalachia who forges a hard path to life among the literati of New York City. She becomes a literary agent, but things go awry when a would-be client turns into a stalker and begins to attack her clients. Wed, 8/7, 6 pm.

Free. Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren St., mysteriousbookshop.com.

Cohn, this film draws on the early 20th-century accounts of Knud Rasmussen, the Danish Greenlandic explorer, about the spread of Christianity to the Inuits and commerce to the Canadian north. Sat, 8/3, 2 pm. Free. National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green, nmai.si.edu.

FILM

GALLERIES

Hello, Gorgeous! The Films of Barbra Streisand Screenings of iconic films directed by and starring Barbra Streisand, including “What’s Up, Doc?” (7/10), “The Way We Were” (7/17), “A Star Is Born” (7/24), “Yentl” (7/31) and “The Prince of Tides” (8/7). Wednesdays, 6:30 pm.

Tickets are free and available at 4 pm. Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Pl., mjhnyc.org.

Todd Carroll Black and white photographs of performances by the Argentinean dancer Anabella Lenzu. Each image provides a glimpse into the artist's creative process and explores the importance of dance, community, choreography and dance pedagogy. To Sun, 7/7. Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, dnadance.org.

g

g

Before Sunset Screening of the film directed

by Richard Linklater about a couple who met and spent one night together nine years before in Vienna, and whose paths intersect again. The film follows them as they spend an afternoon together in Paris. It is the sequel to the 1995 film “Before Sunrise” and prequel to this year’s “Before Midnight.” After the screening, NYU film professor Michael Zam will lead a discussion and critique of the film over lunch. Mon, 7/15, 10:30 am. $40. 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St., 92ytribeca.org.

g

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen Directed

by Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk and Norman

g

g

Ebb & Flow This show brings together artists whose work draws upon the rhythms and cycles of nature, reflected in patterns, geometry and movement. To Sat, 7/13. Mon–Fri, 11 am–6 pm and by appointment. Cheryl Hazan Contemporary Art, 35 N. Moore St., cherylhazan.com.

g

The Last Laugh Works by five artists, including an audio installation, film, photography and other 2D and 3D pieces, all of which explore laughter, described by writer Georges Bataille as “beyond the extreme limit of knowledge, confusing, intoxicating and uncertain.” To Sat, 7/20.

Tue–Sat, 11 am–6 pm. apexart, 291 Church St., apexart.org.

g

Patricia Gaeta The artist creates a diametric body of work that ranges from large, deteriorating installations to small, refined collages. Concerned with forms of geometric abstraction, minimalism and op art, she uses graph paper, which she cuts into patterns, as her main source of inspiration. To Sat, 7/27. Masters & Pelavin, 13 Jay St., masterspelavin.com.

g Lost & Found II A group exhibition curated by Fran Holstrom that includes paintings, collage, and installations by 11 artists. Each piece explores the world through a historical or anthropological lens, incorporating images and ideas from another time or space. To Sat, 8/17. Wednesdays–Saturdays, 1–6 pm. Hal Bromm Gallery, 90 W. Broadway, halbromm@gmail.com. g

g Front Row: Chinese American Designers Beginning in the 1980s, ChineseAmerican designers such as Yeohlee Teng, Vera Wang and Vivienne Tam emerged in the New York fashion scene.

Since then, new designers have gained a standing in New York and the global fashion industry. The exhibit focuses on 16 Chinese and Chinese-American designers, including Derek Lam, Anna Sui, Jason Wu and others, and is curated by designer Mary Ping. To Sun, 9/29. Tue, Wed, Fri– Sun, 11 am–6 pm; Thu, 11 am–9 pm. $10; $5 students, seniors; free under 12.

Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre St., mocanyc.org.

MUSIC

g Sunset Jam Join a drumming circle on the Hudson River led by master drummers and learn to improvise African, Latin and Caribbean rhythms. Instruments provided, or bring your own.

Fridays, 6:30 pm. Wagner Park near Battery Pl., bpcparks.org. g

Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys One of the most influential accordionists and vocalists in modern Zydeco music, Broussard has defined a new style of Creole music incorporating R&B and soul into Zydeco music and dance.

The Creole Cowboys join on guitar, bass, scrub board and percussion. Tue, 7/2, 5:30 pm. Free.

Brookfield Place Plaza, 220 Vesey St., rivertorivernyc.com.

George Grubb A dozen photographs taken along the parkway in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., contrast the tourist destination with its economic struggles. The images are infused into a glossy metal surface to enhance their luminescence.

Wed, 7/3–Sat, 7/27. Opening reception: Tue, 7/2, 6 pm. Wed–Sun, 1–6 pm and by appointment. Soho Photo, 15 White St., sohophoto.com.

g

MUSEUMS

g

g

Barings in America: An Interactive Investment Experience In 1818, the Duc de Richelieu called Barings Bank the sixth great European power after England, France, Prussia, Austria and Russia. Barings remained a leading investment

Pedrito Martinez Cuban-born conga player and singer Martinez performs funk, rumba, guaguanco and Afro-Cuban rhythms. Tue, 7/2, 7 pm. Free. Rockefeller Park near Warren St., rivertorivernyc.com.

La Excelencia Best known as the “New Generation of Salsa Dura,” this nine-person salsa ensemble brings a modern interpretation to the musical genre. Tue, 7/9, 7 pm. Free. Rockefeller (CONTINUED ON PAGE 36)

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A SELECTION OF DOWNTOWN EVENTS

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35)

Park near Warren St., rivertorivernyc.com. g B. B. King and the James Hunter Six The “King of Blues” will perform original pieces from his 60+ albums, including some now considered blues classics. James Hunter’s band will open with a mix of classic and modern blues. The band has won Grammys and toured with Van Morrison and Aretha Franklin. Wed, 7/10, 6 pm.

Free. World Financial Center Plaza, worldfinancialcenter.com. g

Leon Russell Singer, songwriter, pianist, guitarist and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer performs classic rock. Wed, 7/10, 7 pm. Free. Rockefeller Park near Warren St., rivertorivernyc.com.

g Hungry March Band This performance by the Brooklyn-based brass ensemble includes guerrilla art, European jazz and circus feats and more.

Thu, 7/11, 12:30 pm. Free. One New York Plaza, Water and Whitehall Sts., rivertorivernyc.com. g

Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys and Alejandro Escovedo Three bands will play a variety of genres, including rock, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, and traditional and contemporary Spanish and Mexican music. Thu, 7/11, 6 pm.

Free. World Financial Center Plaza, worldfinancialcenter.com. g

Hauschka, Kosminen and Zeigler Three experimental musicians on piano, percussion and cello perform a medley of music with electronics. Thu, 7/11, 7:45 pm. Free. Pier 15 near John St., rivertorivernyc.com.

g

B

attery Dance Company will host the 32nd Annual Downtown Dance Festival on Sunday, Aug. 11, through Thursday, Aug. 15. There will be free performances by eight dance companies from Greece, Great Britain, Spain, France, India and the U.S., including “Dancing Earth,” a Native American company from San Francisco, above, which will kick off the festival in Battery Park at 1 p.m. Weekday afternoon performances will take place in other Downtown sites.

For dates, times, performers and locations, go to batterydance.org.

Brasslands Four brass bands from the Balkans perform, followed by a screening of “Brasslands,” a film about the world’s largest trumpet competition, held in Serbia. Sat, 7/13, 6:30 pm. Free. Brookfield Place Plaza, 220 Vesey St., rivertorivernyc.com.

g

The Tribeca Animal Totem Artist and Sculptor Seth Aylmer collects drawings of animals by children and adults who live in Tribeca, then transfers the drawings onto tiles that cover the base of a bronze animal sculpture. The original drawings will be displayed alongside the sculpture and base. To Tue, 7/16. Tue–Sat, 11:30 am–6 pm and by appointment. One Art Space, 23 Warren St., oneartspace.com.

g Lorraine Klassen In a tribute to Miriam Makeba, the South African singing legend of the 1950s and ’60s, Klassen will sing classic “township music,” a genre born in South Africa’s apartheid-era housing projects, which continues to be the country’s most distinctive musical sound.

Tue, 7/16, 5:30 pm. Free. World Financial Center Plaza, worldfinancialcenter.com. g River & Blues Festival Acclaimed Grammy-win-

ning and Blues Hall of Fame musicians will perform blues in this Thursday summer series: John Hammond (7/18), Christian Scott (7/25), Bill Sims, Jr. (8/1) and the Wiyos (8/8). Concerts at 7 pm. Free. Wagner Park near Battery Pl., bpcparks.org. g

Derek Miller Award-winning Aboriginal Canadian singer, songwriter and guitarist will perform rock ’n’ roll and blues as a part of the Native Sounds Downtown series. Thu, 8/1, 6 pm. Free.

National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green, nmai.si.edu.

TALKS g

Proust Birthday Poetry Reading Celebrating the publication of “The Collected Poems of Marcel Proust,” edited by Harold Augenbraum, and featuring the work of 20 poets and translators. Wed, 7/10, 7 pm. Free. Poets House, 10 River Terrace, poetshouse.org.

g The Art of Native American Beading Seminole-

Otoe artisan Cody Harjo will demonstrate how Native Americans make a traditional beaded octopus bag. A Q&A will follow. Thu, 7/11, 5 pm. Free.

National Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green, nmai.si.edu. g

Alexander Hamilton: Realist and Visionary Thomas Fleming, author and historian, will speak after a short memorial service for Alexander Hamilton. Presentation will be followed by a reception in the Trinity Church Museum. Free. Sponsored by the Museum of American Finance. 7/12, 1 pm.

Free. Trinity Church, 74 Trinity Pl., moaf.org.

g

Creative Revolution A revealing look at the shows that helped cable television drama emerge as an art form of the 21st century with author and entertainment journalist Brett Martin. Through an examination of “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” Martin explores how the new all-powerful writer-show-runners such as Matthew Weiner and David Chase have sparked a creative revolution. Tue, 7/16, 12 pm. $21.

92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St., 92ytribeca.org.

g

Washington’s Defeat at Brandywine Historian Bruce Mowday talks about the September day in 1777 when General George Washington and his

troops lost Philadelphia to the British in the largest battle of the Revolutionary War. Thu, 8/15, 6:30 pm. $10. Fraunces Tavern Museum, 54 Pearl St., frauncestavernmuseum.org.

THEATER

g Hamilton vs. Jefferson Debate Hamilton

scholar William G. Chrystal will become Alexander Hamilton for the evening to “debate” with Thomas Jefferson. The event will be held on the anniversary of the duel between Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

Reservations required. Thu, 7/11, 5:30 pm. Free.

Museum of American Finance, 48 Wall St., moaf.org.

g Andrew Ondrejcak Writer, director and designer performs an open rehearsal of his new adaptation of August Strindberg’s “A Dream Play.” The piece investigates what happens when the divine visits and interacts with everyday humans. Sat, 7/13, 2 pm. Free. Building 110, Governors Island, ferry leaves from the Battery Maritime Building, rivertorivernyc.com. g

Dirty Paki Lingerie Sex, religion and politics collide as six Pakistani-American Muslim women air their dirty laundry. Playwright and actress Aizzah Fatima wrote the play to show that MuslimAmericans are not a monolith in thought or practice. Thu, 8/1–Sun, 8/18. Wednesdays–Saturdays, 9 pm; Saturdays & Sundays, 5 pm. $25. The Flea Theater, 41 White St., theflea.org.

WALKS g

Historic Lower Manhattan Explore the neigh-

borhood where New York City began as the site of Dutch Fort Amsterdam. The tour spans 400 years of the city’s history from a trading outpost to the British takeover in 1664 and through the Revolution to today. Visit sites including Trinity Church, Federal Hall, locations of slave uprisings and the graves of historical figures. Meet on the steps of the U.S. Custom House, 1 Bowling Green. Mon, 7/1, 11 am; Sat, 7/6, 1 pm; Mon, 7/8, 2 pm; Tue, 7/16, Sun, 7/28, & Sat, 8/3, 11 am; Thu, 8/8, 2 pm & 8/15, 6 pm; Tue, 8/20, 11 am; Sat, 8/31, 2 pm. $20; $15 students, seniors. Big Onion Walking Tours, bigonion.com. g

History of Wall Street A 90-minute tour of the financial district with an emphasis on the neighborhood’s history and place in the global trade markets. Meet at the museum. Sat, 7/27 & 8/10, 1 pm. $15. Museum of American Finance, 48 Wall St., moaf.org.

g

From Coffeehouses to Banquet Halls Restaurants have played a major role in Chinatown since the earliest eateries that catered to Chinatown’s turn-of-the-century “bachelor society.”

Learn about the evolution of these eateries and the ways these spaces have both shaped and reflected the community. Meet at the museum.

Sat, 7/27 & 8/31, 1 pm. $15; $12 students, seniors. Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre St., mocanyc.org.

Submit your listing to the Trib through our online calendar at tribecatrib.com.

37

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

M

y nephew Sgt. Keith A. Ferguson, a member of New York Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s anti-terrorism Downtown unit, died on 1/31/2004 in the line of duty. A dedicated, kind and compassionate man, we honor him one day a year with a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Proceeds from the walk go to a police science scholarship fund.

Even a small donation can help give someone deserving a much-needed scholarship.

This year, the walk is on Sunday, August 4th at 8:30 a.m. To sign up, or to make a donation, please go to www.KeithsRace.org.

Thank you.

- Dr. Raphael Santore, practicing dentistry in our neighborhood for 35 years

In Tribeca forever

C ity H all W ines & S pirits 108 Chambers Street 212-227-3385 bet. West Broadway & Church

38

JULY/AUGUST 2013 THE TRIBECA TRIB

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39

THE TRIBECA TRIB JULY/AUGUST 2013

VIEWS

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3)

DON’T OBSTRUCT THE WOOLWORTH BUILDING

the answer is simple. The Woolworth building doesn’t just brag about how big it is, nor is it merely utilitarian. It surprises because it is astonishingly beautiful and exquisitely handcrafted.

Its terra cotta intricacies and lyrical setbacks emotionally connect us to the great civic landmarks of Europe, landmarks that fired Gilbert’s imagination.

Such rare qualities, unveiling themselves in an uncluttered site near City Hall, conjure in our own city this essential story: there is still a kind of capitalism that can create spectacular beauty as well as celebrate in every detail the ordinary craftsmen who built it. Moreover, it can share that beauty in a civic space instead of locking it up for private consumption. What a message that is! Contending with so much that is physically ugly, banal, and tawdry as we go about our daily lives, the casual glimpse of the Woolworth’s beauty continues to hearten us. It encourages us to strive for similarly great achievements.

For that alone we need to see it from every direction, every day, always.

But an avoidable tragedy is about to take place. The developer Larry Silverstein and the architect Robert Stern aim to build an 80-story tower right on the Woolworth’s western flank.

It would bury the sight of the Woolworth and the story it broadcasts. This would be an injustice to the city. It would become a symbol of what is wrong with our zoning system. Much damage in the area has already been done. Their new tower piles on the injustice, like a schoolyard bully dealing the knockout punch.

Mr. Silverstein and Mr. Stern are both accomplished enough to consider a magnificent alternative, a great gesture for the city. Sell the air rights above the landmarked buildings across the street to a nonprofit that will preserve the views of this unique civic treasure. In this smaller building, put a public park on the roof. Of course, an even more brilliant decision would be

(CONT.)

to grant or sell the site outright to the people of New York and turn it into a second Bryant Park. Paired with the Woolworth Building, a park at that site would instantly become one of the greatest civic spaces of the world, like the one in front of Notre Dame in Paris.

The Silverstein family would become public benefactors on par with the Medici or Andrew Carnegie.

Meanwhile, the City Council ought to do its share by giving Mr. Silverstein a tax break for doing the right thing.

They should also fix the underlying zoning problem and pass a new law that protects the views of the Woolworth Building. Other cities do this for their great landmarks. London has its famous Town and Country Planning Order of 1991 protecting the views to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Why not do something similar? Are we not, as our mayor might say, a world-class city? Giving the Woolworth the room to breathe and be seen from all around would show civic leadership equal to the greatness of this building’s designers.

So the question for Mr. Silverstein is: How much for those air rights? The question for our City Council is: if not you, then who?

Lynn Ellsworth Chair, Tribeca Trust

BELL BATES LEAVING

(CONT.)

the heart and soul of Bell Bates, knew everything there was to know about nutrition, and loads of people gave him their email addresses at the end.

Lots of people came to say goodbye to Samara Sayage, the proprietor, whose husband bought the store from a Mr. Bell and Mr. Bates, who ran one of the first little stores on Dey Street that sold bulk coffee and tea.

Bell Bates eventually moved to the corner of West Broadway and Reade Street, where they stayed for over 30 years until expanding to Reade Street in 1997. A 45-year run!

Jane Goldberg

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GANSEVOORT GETAWAY Meatpacking District. Boasting 13â&#x20AC;&#x2122; CEILINGS A WOOD BURNING lREPLACE

and South facing open views; the best line of the Gansevoort, close to shops, restaurants and attractions. $1.795M. WEB# 3795804.

Filipacchi Foussard Team 212-452-4475

NoLita

A HOUSE FOR ALL REASONS TriBeCa.Privategaragein stunningly renovated 25-foot wide CORNER TOWNHOUSE #ONlGURED WITH PH W/ PRIVATE TERRACE 5+BR, elevator, superb roof garden.

Lafayette Street. Create your own $19.5M. WEB# 3850292.

4,472SF penthouse with 4,031SF Paula Del Nunzio 212-906-9207 private terrace on top of a full Shirley A. Mueller 212-906-0561 service Nolita condo. 12â&#x20AC;&#x2122; ceilings, GAS lREPLACES SWEEPING .

3 % AND NORTH MOORE CONDO TriBeCa. Charming Tribeca 2BR, W views. $14.5M. WEB# 3502640.

2.5 bath loft comprises exposed Kyle Blackmon 212-588-5648 brick, steel columns, a wood 2BR WITH DEN AND TERRACE BURNING lREPLACE AND "RAZILIAN Lafayette Street. Perched on the WALNUT mOORS - TH mOOR THIS 3& "2 DEN WEB# 8555301.

2.5 bath condo has 2021SF private Filipacchi Foussard Team 212-452-4475 TERRACES CEILINGS GAS lREPLACE AND SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST open S, E, and W exposures. FullTriBeCa. Stunning views south and service bldg. $8M. WEB# 3884910.

WEST FROM HIGH mOOR "2 BATH Kyle Blackmon 212-588-5648 condo at 101 Warren. Amenity-rich NOLITA 2BR WITH TERRACE bldg, sunny, and turn-key. $5.995M. Lafayette Street. Perched on the WEB# 3596897.

TH mOOR THIS 3& "2 BATH Paula Del Nunzio 212-906-9207 condo has 2,010SF private outdoor SPACE CEILINGS AND GAS lREPLACE AMAZING VIEWS AND LIGHT Open N, E, and W exposures. Full- TriBeCa. Co-Excl. Mint 2BR, 2 service bldg. $6.5M. WEB# 3884919. bath condo with high ceilings in new full-service building. Open Kyle Blackmon 212-588-5648 gourmet kitchen, laundry room, additional storage space, central air conditioning, open West and East exposures over TriBeCa landmarks. $2.5M. WEB# 4004485.

RARE 70 X 70 SoHo. Grandly Sophie Ravet 212-452-4470 squared 70â&#x20AC;&#x2122;x70â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Mercer Street loft Armin B. Allen 212-396-5851 with 12â&#x20AC;&#x2122; ceiling, 13 huge windows, 3 exposures, original wood columns AND mOORS GLORIOUS LIGHT PRIME 3O(O location. $4.45M. WEB# 3992706.

Siim Hanja 212-317-3670 PREWAR 3,600SF LOFT CONDO Rudi Hanja 212-317-3675 Chelsea. Beautifully renovated with A RARE LOFT EXPANSE private elevator, this apt. has an SoHo. 4,500SF of expansive open expansive great room, 2-3BR, chefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s loft space awaiting your vision. kitchen, North, East, and West Roughly 40â&#x20AC;&#x2122;x130â&#x20AC;&#x2122;, 12â&#x20AC;&#x2122; ceiling, exposures, 12â&#x20AC;&#x2122; ceilings, central air 3 exposures, 10 original wood conditioning, part-time doorman COLUMNS NEWLY RElNISHED mOORS building. $5.5M. WEB# 3669357. $3.4M. WEB# 3992718.

Nancy Candib 212-906-9302 Siim Hanja 212-317-3670 Dominic R. Paolillo 212-906-9307 Rudi Hanja 212-317-3675 2BR HIGH LINE HIGH LIFE Chelsea. Mint 2BR, 2 bath, 1,381SF, mOOR THROUGH CONDO WITH PRIVATE parking near the High Line.

Fabulous open kitchen. Balcony UPTOWN DOWNTOWN with view of Freedom Tower.

TriBeCa. Stunning and huge, $2.295M. WEB# 8513052. this duplex condo has meticulous Douglas Bellitto 212-906-0542 design and construction, crafted Anne Collins 212-906-0510 woodwork and metalwork, chefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kitchen, private pool, unusual charm. $24M. WEB# 3566972.

Liz Dworkin 212-906-0509

SoHo/NoHo

Gramercy/Chelsea

TriBeCa

NEW YORK CITY

MINT LONDON TERRACE Chelsea. 5.5 rm chic mint w/N open views. Open chefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kit, LR/FDR, corner MBR, huge 2nd BR, beam ceils, exposed steel doors and radiators, WICs, FS, pool and gym. $2.249M. WEB# 3716572.

Lisa Lippman 212-588-5606 Scott Moore 212-588-5608 FLATIRON DISTRICT LOFT West 19th Street. Excellent 2BR, 3 bath loft. Approx 1,336SF, 10â&#x20AC;&#x2122; ceils, oversized windows, W/D in unit. FS condo w/ 2 tiered roof deck, private lounge, sauna, 24hr DM. $1.95M. WEB# 8509629.

Drew Glick 212-396-5883 Alexandre de Montebello 212-452-6227 SALTY DOG CHARM Seaport. &ULL mOOR #O OP LOFT IN OLD STYLE BLDG

manual elevator, great original details AND CHARM BEAM COLUMNS mOOR

needs work but worth it. Great neighborhood. $1.36M. WEB# 3337596.

Liz Dworkin 212-906-0509

Chinatown 2 BEDROOM CONDO DEAL Chinatown. Just when you thought you were priced out of the market, this SUNNY TOP mOOR "2 WITH *ULIET BALCONY beckons. Elevator, roof deck & very low monthlies. $699K. WEB# 8508875.

Andrew J. Kramer 212-317-3634

Village

PERFECTION ON JANE ST West Village. Classic mint 5 story townhouse w/3 expos. N, S and E over Jane St. Garden. 2 outside areas. Master mOOR FPS ,OWER MEDIA CENTER ! PLACE to call home. $11.9M. WEB# 3547649.

Anne Collins 212-906-0510 Douglas Bellitto 212-906-0542 PREWAR LOFT CONDO West Chelsea. Fab, unique doorman bldg â&#x20AC;&#x201C; almost 1,200SF loft with over 10â&#x20AC;&#x2122; ceilings and all south exposure and formal dining room, brick walls, unique old factory space. $1.8M. WEB# 3835696.

Nancy Candib 212-906-9302 Dominic R. Paolillo 212-906-9307

THE HAMPTONS

Nadia Bartolucci

Financial District 3 SKYLIGHT GARDEN LOFT 4RI"E#A &ULL mOOR #O OP WITH chefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kitchen. Blue Star oven, 2BR, 1.5 baths + 800SF additionall can be built. CAC 4 zones. Pets. Low maintenance. 1,600SF private roof garden. $2M. WEB# 3924835.

Jon Phillips 212-317-3669 Ginnie Gardiner 212-317-3668

Douglas Bellitto

Liz Dworkin

Joan Goldberg

BIG BRIGHT BEAUTIFUL FiDi. Luxurious Philippe Starck design 2,028SF lofty full-service condo Huge master bedroom, 8 CLOSETS STORAGE SLEEP AREAS OFlCES

2 full bath, high ceilings. Bosch. Pool, gym fullt-time doorman. Roof deck. $1.799M. WEB# 3481381.

Brahna Yassky 212-906-0506

Rudi Hanja

Rentals FULL FLOOR WITH VIEWS Gramercy. Dramatic renov 4BR, 3 bath HOME OFlCE W KEYED ELEV FPS 7 $ & real chefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kit. Perfect property in ideal location. $15,000/month. WEB# 3796307.

Erin Boisson Aries 212-317-3680 Nic Bottero 212-317-3664 PRIME WEST VILLAGE TWNH West Village. Private entry into newly renov twnh w/W/D, granite countertops, beautiful hdwd & abundance of natural light. $9,5000/month. WEB# 8512658.

Filipacchi Foussard Team 212-452-4475 Iestyn L. Jones 212-452-4461 LIVE/WORK WITH FRONTAGE TriBeCa. Ground flr live/work apt w/10â&#x20AC;&#x2122; of store frontage on Laight St. Features incl exposed brick, updated appls, & bsmt storage. $6,500/month. WEB# 3811585.

Filipacchi Foussard Team 212-452-4475 Iestyn L. Jones 212-452-4461 HISTORIC SEAPORT LOFT Seaport. Renovated loft shows off EXPOSED WOOD COLUMNS RElNISHED hdwd & top-line appls w/WICs & builtin W/D. $3,896/month. WEB# 3924495.

Filipacchi Foussard Team 212-452-4475 Iestyn L. Jones 212-452-4461

Thomas Hemann

Pamela Leeds

Lara Leonard

Peter Rogers

Elizabeth Sheehan

PA L M B E A C H

All information is from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, prior sale or withdrawal without notice. All rights to content, photographs and graphics reserved to Broker. Equal Housing Opportunity Broker.