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November 7 - November 19, 2013
B.P.C. Committee: We need affordable center Continued from page 10
board for approval, Bob Townley, executive director of Manhattan Youth, said that it was essential that the Stuyvesant High School Community Center not only stay open, but that it continue to be affordable. “It is ludicrous to think that because the Battery Park City Authority is losing $200,000 a year, that they have to close this amenity,” he said. Tom Goodkind, a member of the Battery Park City Committee who participated in the negotiations that ended with Asphalt Green being selected to run a community center in Battery Park City, said that he and others who arranged that deal had been mistaken. “We all thought that this would be an affordable community center,” he said of the Asphalt Green facility. “It is not. We didn’t know that when we voted this in. And that, to me, is a kick in the teeth.” Referring to the students and to others who can’t afford Asphalt Green, he said that it would be great if they could use the center “instead of watching people through the window and saying, ‘I guess I’m not a part of that community.’ This community is low income, middle income and upper income…If they want to cut [the Stuyvesant
Community Center] down, then price something in so this gang could come here. [Asphalt Green] was supposed to be a community center. Make it a community center.” The committee approved a resolution that will go before the full board on Nov. 21, calling on the B.P.C.A. to continue operating the Stuyvesant High School Community Center at an affordable price as required by the legally binding agreement. In the discussion that preceded the vote, Mark Costello, a lawyer and former head of the Downtown Little League, said that the repercussions of breaking this agreement would go far beyond the Stuyvesant Community Center. “The set of documents that require the Authority to continue to operate this [center] are the strongest documents we’ve ever gotten in 25 years,” he said. “Similar agreements govern our dog run. They govern some aspects of our schools. If this agreement can be washed away, nothing is sacred. So in some ways, this battle goes beyond even keeping the community center open. It goes to whether we can negotiate agreements that bind. And if you can’t, then I think this place changes in fundamental ways. I think we have to hold the line here.”
Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer
At C.B. 1’s Battery Park City Committee meeting on Nov. 4, Robbie Martino, 17, a student at Millennium High School, read a plea to the committee to urge the B.P.C. Authority to keep the Stuyvesant High School Community Center open.
Making alternative therapies more available Continued from page 11
with their health problem. “ W h e t h e r i t ’s p o s i t i v e t h i n k i n g a b o u t t h e i r healing, stopping smoking or eating healthy, or cleaning up their home environment from mold, or whatever,” she said, “there has to be better communication to really make them a partner in their healthcare.” Abate feels this improved informational dialogue empowers patients, providing them with more balance and control, which will improve their overall health and well-being. She understands this firsthand. “I don’t think I’d be in the shape I am in today if I didn’t use the complementary and alternative-use therapies,” Abate said. Her initial diagnosis, following her first operation in June 2012, gave her 12 months to live. Abate, who is in her mid-60s, turned to Western medicine for surgeries and chemotherapy, and saw an immunologist, which is a field she wants to implement at the center. But she also went to a life coach and energy healer, who taught her the power of the mind. “Mind, body and spirit come together,” Abate said. “Everyone has the power to heal themselves. I had a lot of healing, and I’m not saying chemo didn’t have something to do with it. But even my oncologists would say, ‘It wasn’t just the chemo.’ ” One doctor told Abate that he thought her mind
was one of her most powerful weapons in her recovery. The healthcare C.E.O. believes visualization, diet and acupuncture all help effect a change of attitude toward life. “It adds up, I’m feeling strong,” she said. “I’m not totally cured yet, but I’m on the right path.” Abate still receives some low-dose chemo treatment, but she has spent many months playing tennis, and, as she put it, is doing “quite well.” She partially attributes her health status to alternative therapies. “I’m not suggesting people turn away from Western medicine,” she said. “I’m suggesting Western medicine becomes that more effective when you also utilize holistic and integrative approaches.” She used to receive holistic treatments weekly when she was sick, but now only goes every couple of weeks. Abate does practice daily visualization and takes herbal supplements. “I wake up with gratitude every day,” she said. “I see the beauty in things and in people, and the promise of the world.” To help foster this same hopefulness for others, Abate has submitted grants for the holistic program. She wants the therapies to be free or low-cost for patients. With that goal in mind, a boat cruise fundraiser around Manhattan was held on the evening of Tues., Oct. 22, with 240 people paying $250 per ticket. Demonstrations of alternative therapies were conducted onboard the boat.
Downtown Express photo by Bob Buchanan
Catherine Abate speaking at the Oct. 22 fundraising cruise for the holistic healthcare clinic at 150 Essex St.