CHELSEA NOW, SEPT. 25, 2014

VOLUME 6, NUMBER 22 SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL'S KITCHEN

St. Peter’s Restoration Built on Foundation of Outreach

Photo by William Stivale

BY EILEEN STUKANE When St. Peter’s Episcopal Church was consecrated in 1838, its bell tower was the tallest structure in Chelsea, which at the time was the name of Clement Clarke Moore’s family estate. In fact, Moore donated the land for St. Peter’s church and rectory — and ever since its inception, the church (on W. 20th St. near Ninth Ave.) has been a hub of community activism.

St. Peter’s cared for cholera and yellow fever victims during the 19th century, and helped those rendered homeless by Hurricane Sandy in this century.

“We take the point of view that this is not simply our church, but it’s the neighborhood’s church,” says interim pastor Rev. Stephen Harding. “It has been here for over Continued on page 4

Photo by Jenny Rubin

Full of New Features, High Line’s Final Act is a Natural Fit

BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC The opening of the third and final section of the High Line completes a 15-year journey started by the Friends of the High Line and the surrounding community, while beginning a new chapter for a park that forever altered the way we view industrial architecture that dots the landscape.

Joshua David, one of the Friends of the High Line’s co-founders and its current president, spoke with Chelsea Now on Thurs., Sept. 17, a few days before the weekend’s ribbon-cutting ceremonies that included puppets and a community processional on Saturday and the official opening on Sunday.

The new half-mile section, which is being referred to as the High Line at the Rail Yards, has many unique markers that distinguish it from the other two sections.

The third section runs along W. 30th St. and the West Side Highway and extends to W. 34th St. After going around a curve, as soon as people move into the third section, says David, they will be in line with the Hudson River — and privy to its beautiful vista and sunsets views in the evening.

“You have a great feeling of expansiveness and openness,” said David in a phone interview, and “there’s a

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COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

TASTES OF NYC It’s an afternoon of nibbling among the cobblestones, when chefs from some of the best restaurants in Chelsea, the Meatpacking District and the West Village converge on Gansevoort Plaza for the 7th Annual Tastes of NYC. All proceeds ensure the continuation of arts and enrichment programs at The Lab School for Collaborative Studies (on W. 17th St.). A village of white tents will showcase smallplate offerings from Bakehouse, Serafina, Corsino, Fatty Crab, Zampa, Giovanni Rana, Fig & Olive, Spasso, The Quarter, Grape & Vine, Mighty Quinn’s BBQ, Tia Pol, Doppio, Sweet Corner Bakeshop, Heartwood, Crave.it, 16 Handles, Philip Marie, and The Chester.

Raffle prizes include gift certificates and cookbooks. This Zero-Waste event aims to throw nothing away (even the servers’ gloves are made of compostable sugar cane!).

Sun., Sept. 28, 1–4 p.m. at Gansevoort Plaza (at Little W. 12th St. & 9th Ave.). A six-taste ticket is $40 in advance (via TastesNYC.org), $50 day of. A Community Table (ticket for one at a community table with food runner service) is $100, and a Donor Circle Table (one table for six with seating and food runners) is $750. More info on Facebook at NYC Lab School Tastes or Instagram at @nyclabtastes or on Twitter at NYC LabTastes.

HUDSON GUILD’S COMMUNITY HEALTH FAIR Many people in our community can’t afford the most basic of preventative healthcare measures. To combat this, Hudson Guild will be hosting “Good Health — Your Key to a Good Life.” In partnership with local health institutions including Visiting Nurse Services of New York, Mt Sinai Hospital, Lenox Hill HealthPlex, NYU School of Dentistry, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and local pharmacies, Hudson Guild will provide attendees with various health services free of charge. Offerings include flu vaccinations, vision and hearing screenings, HIV counseling and testing, and cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure, and dental screenings. Organizations will also be present to determine eligibility for Medicaid, SNAP and HEAP as well as helping you to understand the new paid sick leave law. Participating wellness centers will provide information on activities including physical fitness that promote overall health and well-being, while Hudson Guild staff and volunteers will offer nutrition and mental health consultations.

Free. Wed., Oct. 1, from 2–7 p.m. at Hudson Guild’s John Lovejoy Elliott Center (441 W. 26th St., btw. 9th & 10th Aves.). For more info, visit hudsonguild.org.

BALLET FOR THE HOMELESS Founder Edward Morgan, director Joseph Alexander and ensemble members from TheEdwardMorganBallet NYC — in collaboration with singers, actors and

Photo by Robert Ripps

Gansevoort Plaza is the place for Tastes of NYC: Sun., Sept. 28.

street dancers — will perform several dance pieces designed to raise awareness and educate people about homelessness in New York City. In addition, the program includes “Earthly Love, Heavenly Spirits,” a pas de deux commemorating the death of Matthew Shepard (first danced in October 2001 and revived by the troupe in honor of, Mr. Morgan notes, “LGBT homeless youth who died on the streets, fighting to survive”). Proceeds will benefit Goddard Riverside, whose programs work to meet people’s basic food, shelter, and educational needs (the MorganBallet is their resident dance company).

Fri. & Sat., Oct. 3 & 4 at 8 p.m. and Sun., Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. At the Church of the Holy Apostles (296 Ninth Ave. at 28th St.). Free admission. Reserved seating, $50. For reservations & info, call 212-582-1941 or visit edwardmorganballet.org (from the Home page, click on “performances”).

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BY JOSH ROGERS There are many dozens of families on the waiting lists for pre-K seats at PS11 and 33 in Chelsea, including mine — but there is a full-day program nearby still accepting students.

The Salvation Army NY Temple pre-K center at 132 W. 14th St. (btw. Sixth & Seventh Aves.) is off to a great start, and is anxious to increase enrollment. I was impressed with Johanna Torres, the school’s director, and the other teachers when I first met them three weeks ago, right before school started. My wife and I continue to be happy with the school now that our son is enrolled.

Torres is an experienced early childhood educator, and I was amazed that she and the Salvation Army were able to hire such obviously capable teachers in such a short amount of time.

The school occupies the entire second floor of the Salvation Army building with two classrooms stocked with brand new furniture and educational toys, and a kitchen which serves free hot breakfast and lunch to all students.

The program has no religious component since it’s city-funded, and runs 8:45

Photo by Josh Rogers

A few of the students at the Salvation Army’s new public pre-K program on W. 14th St.

a.m. to 3:05 p.m. (the hours were tweaked this week in rapid response to some parent requests). There is now an afterschool program whereby a McBurney YMCA staff member will pick up the children and walk them across the street to participate in Y activities until 5:45 p.m.

Our son, so far, is happy too. Why not? The first week, one girl, who shares his sense of humor, said she wants to marry him, and another boy told him, “You’re my best friend.”

For more info, contact Sarah Fay at sarah.fay@use.salvationarmy.org or by calling 212-337-7439. .com

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At 176 Years Old, St. Peter’s Still Sets An Example Continued from page 1 100 years and we’d really like to be around for a lot longer. We’re part of the community.”

In keeping with this view, and because the historic stone church has plans for preservation work, St. Peter’s members — a congregation of 90 — in early September invited their nearest neighbors on W. 19th and W. 20th Sts. to join them for an Open House billed as a “Restoration Plans Preview.” This was an inclusive and thoughtful move in a city where residents are often taken by surprise when building construction begins seemingly overnight in their midst.

“I’m impressed by how the new interim pastor [Harding has been at his post for about a year] has made an effort to reach out to immediate neighbors,” says Eric Marcus, who heads the quality of life committee for the W. 20th St. 300 Block Association. “He has offered the church rectory as a meeting space for our Block Association and invited us to preview the church’s plans

Photo by Jennifer Maguire

Photo by Eileen Stukane

This 1900 work by J&R Lamb Studios, with the apt inscription “Follow Me and I Will Make You Fishers of Men,” is in good condition — but other stained glass windows need cleaning and restoring.

Rev. Stephen Harding, interim pastor at St. Peter’s.

an important and daunting challenge, to restore this vital landmark to good health.”

Today in St. Peter’s, Chelsea neighbors, just like their predecessors over 100 years ago, sit under the original pendant vaulted ceiling, in the original wooden pews, surrounded by the original stained glass windows from Tiffany and J&R Lamb Studios, aware that the original tin rooftop, now badly leaking, prevents the use of the balcony.

St. Peter’s, the first English parish Gothic church building in the United States, is at a crucial stage. The building remains structurally sound, but water and insect damage has weakened its trusses. Without the needed preservation measures, this historic stone church will be at greater risk of becoming another piece of the city’s vanished heritage.

A smaller undertaking, the church’s bell and four-sided clock tower were restored in 1990-91.

As Marcus says, “I lived in the neighborhood when the tower was redone, and there was little effort at the time to engage the community.

They just didn’t think to do it.”

Not only is St. Peter’s engaging with Chelsea residents this time around, but Harding has also rekindled the church’s relationship with the nearby General Theological Seminary (on W. 21st St.) and St. Paul’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church (on W. 22nd St.). He also plans to reach out to Hudson Guild, Church of Holy Apostles, and local elected officials. The church recently welcomed a morning AA group

meeting, and in addition to its Food Pantry, hosts neighborhood groups such as Pictorial Photographers of America, Chelsea for Peace, and a local Girl Scouts troop. “We need everybody to make this church work,” says Harding. “Everybody’s got a gift, got a skill. We need whatever it is you have to grow and to make an impact in our community.”

Meanwhile William Stivale, the building conservator who worked on the restoration of the tower, and is creating the master plan for the current restoration of St. Peter’s exterior and interior, explains the importance of everyone working together to preserve the building: “This church is really a gem. It was built before the American Industrial Revolution when the stone for the walls was dug right out of the ground. It’s made from what’s called Manhattan Schist, the bedrock of the island. There was no Portland cement used in the United States then, so the workers went to the Hudson River, got sand, made their own lime, and the stone walls are held in place with the mixture. If done correctly that works great. Half of Roman and Greek structures are made from it.”

Due to the rusting and damaged tin roof, however, water seepage is washing away the sand between the stones. Inside the church, the vaulted ceiling that one sees is not the roof but a dropped ceiling, and even that shows signs of wear and water. The beautiful, almost priceless, stained glass windows from Tiffany and J&R

for restoration and to let us know what’s going on.” Although Marcus has lived on the block for decades, the first time he was inside the church was when he was invited on a tour in relation to the restoration plans.

Having done that, he says he is “incredibly impressed by the current church’s leadership in taking on such

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Cubes, Beams, Benches Reference High Line’s Rustic Past Continued from page 1 big feeling of difference just in that. Whereas a lot of other parts of the High Line are interior to the blocks with buildings on both sides, you always have the streetscape open to you on one side at the Rail Yards.”

Another important distinction is the way the Friends of the High Line has treated the third section: as a found object. “The Interim Walkway is a part of the High Line that we basically left in its natural condition, the way that we found it,” said David.

When the trains stopped running, David explained, seeds that drifted there or birds that transported them to the site, sewn themselves into the gravel ballast of the High Line. Although it was an inhospitable landscape, the seeds set root and it grew into a lush natural wilderness of grasses, small shrubs and meadow flowers.

“That’s what Robert Hammond, the other co-founder of Friends of the High Line, and I first discovered some fifteen years ago when we started this project and it was the landscape that really inspired us to make a park on the High Line,” he said.

The Interim Walkway comprises about half of the new section of the Rail Yards and will offer the general public their first opportunity to see that

Photos by Jenny Rubin

The future’s so bright, he’s gotta wear shades: Joshua David marches in a Sept. 20 procession that culminated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the High Line at the Rail Yards.

original landscape.

Part of that scenery is seating that will is unique to this section: peel-up benches, which “sort of grow organically out of the cement planks of the High Line,” says David.

The park’s design team created one that is called the rocker, reminiscent of a seesaw, and seating called conversation benches with backs at both sides

Argentinian artist Adrian Villar Rojas’ cube-like forms “are a mixture of poured concrete and soils and other organic material with seeds incorporated in them,” notes Joshua David.

so people can face each other while sitting, David explained.

For the first time, the High Line will have a feature specifically designed for children, called the Pershing Square Beams. The cement decking that previously held up the track ballast was removed. The steel gird-

Continued on page 11

THE SH O W C A N ’ T G O O N I F T H E LI G H T S D O N ’ T .

Three months of rehearsals.

Two weeks of ticket sales. One performance. Talk about pressure.

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September 25, 2014

5

Rally Protests ‘Unconscionable Harassment’ of 21st St. Tenants

BY WINNIE McCROY At noon on Sunday, Sept. 14, the half-dozen remaining tenants of 222224 W. 21st St. staged a rally outside their home, protesting the harassment they have endured since Slate Property Group took over ownership.

It brought together elected officials and about 25 supporters, who held signs demanding the landlord stop forcing out these longtime residents in their effort to construct high-end apartments.

“This is emblematic of what’s happening throughout New York City,” said state Senator Brad Hoylman.

“There are five or six tenants here, but there are hundreds across the West Side of Manhattan being harassed by landlords who want to make a quick buck, redevelop the apartments at market rate, and force the tenants out.

We’ve got to put our foot down and stop this unconscionable behavior.”

In its Aug. 14 issue, Chelsea Now reported on the remaining tenants of this building, who were subjected to a constant barrage of drilling and jackhammering from morning until night, cuts to utilities and unsafe living conditions they believe are intended to force them out of their home.

They reached out to the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), who suggested they find a lawyer. With the help of their elected officials, including Sen. Hoylman, Councilmember Corey Johnson and Assemblymember Dick Gottfried, they secured representation from the nonprofit Housing Conservation Coordinators (HCC), who offered them some hope.

Apparently, the building had been renovated in 1972 with an Article 8 loan under the New York City Private Housing Finance Law, and placed

6

September 25, 2014

Photo by Pamela Wolff

Over two dozen supporters lent their voices a Sept. 14 rally meant to protest Slate Property Group’s shameful treatment of longtime Chelsea tenants.

under rent control for the 20-year duration of that loan. When the loan term expired, the apartments were supposed to be subject to the Rent Stabilization Code.

But tenants said that they never received any notice that their rent was now stabilized — a requirement under the law. In Oct. 2005, the owners petitioned the DHCR to remove the rent stabilization, and the agency agreed, without informing tenants.

Now, representatives from the HCC say that if tenants successfully argue that the building was improperly destabilized, they could be reverted back to rent-stabilized status, and may be able to stay.

REMAINING TENANTS SPEAK AGAINST HARRASSMENT Andrew Rai, a tenant in the building since 1997, holds out hope that lawyers at the HHC will find a way to save their home. A social worker with the Visiting Nurses Service for the past 15 years, Rai is worried not only about his own future, but also

about the future of the neighborhood he loves.

“I work in the community, I live in the community, and if people like me — schoolteachers, firefighters, nurses, bus drivers and sanitation workers — are driven out, who is going to perform these services?” asked Rai. “This is not endemic to this building; this is pandemic to the city,” he continued. “Landlords are coming in, driving unwary tenants out. The landlords and their savvy attorneys create this dense paperwork that intimidates tenants. A lot have moved out of this building already, including the cancer patient who was intimidated when she came home to find the landlord standing in her apartment.”

Cher Elyse Carden, a former teacher who has lived in the building since 1986, described the past six months as “agony.” The noise is so loud, it sets her to tears. The buzzers are broken, the front door has no lock — and for the past 21 days, tenants have had no gas.

With her food allergies and the cost of eating every meal in a restaurant prohibitive, Carden was forced to go out and purchase a hot plate to cook on. She said she has to walk down from the fifth floor to let visitors in, and can’t get deliveries from UPS or FedEx, because there’s no way to let tenants know they’re here. With the construction and traffic, it’s impossible to keep packages safe.

Jose, a resident of four years, said that he came home about two weeks ago at about 11 p.m. to find his apartment reeking of gas. He called Con Edison, and had to wait outside for a worker to come. They told him that the construction workers had turned

the gas on and off without tenants’ prior notice, so that the pilot lights on his stove had extinguished, leaking toxic gas into his home.

Amir, a ground floor resident, noted that recently, a worker mistook his unit for an unoccupied one, and climbed into his front window. He said that his girlfriend was using the restroom when a hole was opened in the ceiling above.

Steve Schaeffer, a tenant for 15 years who works from his home, said that his unit was the one that the landlords showed perspective tenants.

They were friendly at the time, but “as soon as the new owners took possession of the building, the only contact we received was a ‘Dear Tenant, you need to be out in 30 days’ letter slipped under our door. At no point did anyone talk to us or give us an option to keep our apartment.

They were eager to get everybody out so they could gut the building then charge exorbitant rents in this neighborhood. From there, it just became a battleground.”

Schaeffer said that when construction started it was nonstop, with workers using incredibly loud machinery first thing in the morning. It goes on after hours without permits, and needs to stop, he added.

“My alarm clock became the hammering on the ceiling below my bedroom at 9 a.m. You could set your watch by it,” said Schaeffer. “Over time, it becomes so unsettling to feel that you’re under siege in your home.

And now I’m in danger of losing the home I’ve created over 15 years purely because landlords want as much money as possible, and have no thought to the welfare, safety and security of the tenants.”

Rai confirmed that the only communication they had from the new landlord came the day before, when he asked them not to hold the rally, but to do a ‘sit-down’ with him.

“I’ve lived in this building for 28 years. I am a cancer survivor. This isn’t just a place I hang my hat. It’s my home. It’s my sanctuary. I healed myself of cancer here,” said Carden.

“So when something like this happens and displaces someone like me, it’s not just hurting me, it’s hurting the fabric of the community.”

“I’m almost 60 years old. If my rent stabilization is taken away, where am I

Continued on page 7 .com

Tenants Demand Justice, Electeds Agree Continued from page 6 going to go?” she asked. “I know other people facing my situation who are 80, 90 years old. Where are they supposed to go? When we are displaced, it changes the community, it takes away the services we have been providing the community, and it creates economic segregation.”

ELECTED OFFICIALS STAND WITH TENANTS Councilmember Johnson said he had been working with the tenants and their lawyers and city agencies to protect them, and would not let them be driven out of their homes. He was one of the four elected officials, including Hoylman, Gottfried and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who came out to the rally.

“We’re here to stand up for the tenants, to protect their rights as rent-stabilized tenants, and send a message to developers across the city that our community is not going to sit idly by while our tenants get harassed,” said Hoylman, who noted that when harassment on 21st St. was discussed with the landlord, he claimed to be unaware of it.

“We sat down with the landlord.

He pleaded ignorance,” said Hoylman.

“We did mention that it seems like a pattern. He denied that. Some of these tenants work from their homes, and it’s been virtually impossible for them do so, because…they’ve been living in a construction zone. And what’s so upsetting about that is it leads one to believe this is a cynical ploy to force the tenants out.”

“It should not take a rally on the steps of one of his properties to get his attention,” said Hoylman. “We’re going to use every aspect of local and state government to make sure these tenants are protected.”

Rai said that situations like this threaten New York City as a place of diversity, not exclusivity, for immigrants from all walks of life in every line of work, “not just stockbrokers and offshore millionaires, but you and me. Let’s preserve laws to protect people like us.”

Johnson agreed, saying that Chelsea has historically been a middle-class, economically diverse neighborhood, and “We want to keep it that way. The backbone and lifeblood of Chelsea have been the people who have lived .com

here for decades, raised their kids here, patronized the small businesses, and that’s who these tenants are,” said Johnson, adding, “They should not be kicked out of their homes because of a greedy landlord that comes in and does illegal things.”

“Is it fair that all lower and middle-class people have to live on one side of the town — or not even in the town at all — while people who are left are the super wealthy?” asked Carden.

“This is an important issue that doesn’t just affect me, but affects every single one of us here today. Let’s save our home, let’s protect rent stabilization, let’s find out what our tenants’ rights are, let’s educate each other, work together and save our community.”

Borough President Brewer showed up at the end of the rally to say that situations like this were not new to the city, “and that’s the problem,” she said. “We have to fight and I will do so for every piece of affordable housing in Manhattan and the five boroughs. Harassment is a horrible, horrible experience…and we need to work together to put the owners on notice that we will not put up with this.”

Saying, “what is going on here is landlord greed out of control,” Gottfried noted that he would continue to work in Albany to strengthen New York’s rent and housing laws to protect people’s homes from greedy landlords illegally trying to throw people out to make obscene profits.

“They don’t care who they hurt, who they deprive of a home, whose property is destroyed when they smash water pipes and create floods in the building, they don’t care who they force out in the street,” said Gottfried. “We’re here because we care and because we want to make sure the law is enforced.”

“This is an issue that effects these tenants here in Chelsea, but it is a phenomenon across the city of New York,” said Hoylman. “When you have landlords who have the incentive to flip properties and force tenants out, we have to step in as government, as a community, to protect them. I’m proud to let Slate Property know that Chelsea is not going to stand for tenant harassment.”

Hoylman said he took a tour of the property, and was sorry for the tenants’ troubles, noting that they had to walk through a gauntlet of construction workers every day, were covered in dust, with holes in the floor and ceiling, no gas, no hot water, and a front door

Photo by Winnie McCroy

L to R: City Councilmember Corey Johnson, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried and State Senator Brad Hoylman speak out against the deplorable conditions at 222-224 W. 21 St. (Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer was also in attendance).

without have a lock on it, letting people come and go as they please.

“We’re here today to send a message to Slate and the developers of this property that they cannot proceed with this unconscionable harassment of our

neighbors,” said Hoylman. “We will not stand for it.”

Johnson said that the message for Slate was simple: “This is not how we do business on the West Side, and we will not let this stand.”

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Reform Zoning Rules to Protect Vulnerable Blocks TALKING POINT

BY WILL R. ROGERS Over the years, most New York City buildings have been built using “as-ofright” regulations, meaning a project complies with all applicable zoning regulations and does not require any discretionary action by the City Planning Commission or Board of Standards and Appeals. Now, because of advances in building materials, new engineering technologies, changes in the real estate market, and tactics used by developers to identify vulnerable sites, we as citizens of every block need to be more vigilant than ever.

Such is the case at 122-124 W. 16th St. and the French Evangelical Church, whose parent operating affiliation is the Presbyterian Church. Recently, the Presbyterian Church finally and quietly voted to sell the French Evangelical Church’s air rights to the Einhorn Development Group. Einhorn plans to build a 12-story luxury condo that will awkwardly cantilever above the 180-year-old church.

Renderings of the proposed development by Einhorn show a tall, out-ofscale, misshapen and uninviting midblock building that will be built without taking into account any of the street’s architectural character and neighborhood balance. Despite letters of concern from Chelsea neighbors and elected officials — including NYS Assembymember Richard Gottfried, NYS Senator Brad Hoylman, and City Council Member Corey Johnson — the project is scheduled to move forward.

Neighbors accustomed to luxury condominium construction were surprised that current zoning would allow such a development, since it is to be built in the middle of a low-rise (six-story) block.

But because this development is “as-of-right,” unused development rights may be shifted from one lot to another through a Zoning Lot Merger.

The complexity of the underlying zoning rules and “as-of-right” development give developers an unfair advantage to exploit zoning regulations to build almost anything, anywhere that is discovered to be vulnerable. The development site of 122-124 W. 16th St. is a perfect example.

Once Einhorn Development had secured (for an undisclosed dollar amount) the transfer of the French Evangelical Church’s air rights, Einhorn could build to the maximum FAR (floor to area ratio) allowable. This simply seems to be not right.

contextual regard to people living on W. 16th St. The Presbyterian Church sold out to the highest bidder. Neighbors on W. 16th St. must now live with a luxury condo building which should have never have been allowed by zoning laws.

The travesty on our street should be another wake up call to all NYC neighborhoods, Block Associations, and Community Boards that as our city’s density continues to grow, so will the skills of developers and lawyers to use present zoning regulations and “as-ofright” development rules.

Zoning is never final and is constantly renewed in response to evolving pressures. As it stands now, underlying zoning rules within vulnerable blocks and neighborhoods need reform.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Change starts at the supermarket To The Editor: Last Sunday, hundreds of thousands marched throughout the world demanding action on climate change, just before 120 world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations Summit on Climate Change.

What can we do?

A 2006 U.N. report estimated that meat production accounts for 18 percent of man-made greenhouse gases. A 2009 article in the respected World Watch magazine suggested that the contribution may be closer to 50 percent.

The meat industry generates carbon dioxide by burning forests to create animal pastures and by combustion of fossil fuels to confine, feed, transport and slaughter animals. The much more damaging methane and nitrous oxide are discharged from digestive tracts of cattle and from animal waste cesspools, respectively.

In an environmentally sustainable world, wind, solar

Publisher Jennifer Goodstein THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

Published by NYC Community Media, LLC One Metrotech North, 10th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Phone: (212) 229-1890 • Fax: (212) 229-2790 On-line: www.chelseanow.com | E-mail: scott@chelseanow.com © 2014 NYC Community Media, LLC Member of the New York Press Association

An average citizen trying to understand the complexities of NYC zoning law and “as-of-right” development is like trying to do your own income tax return.

Only professionals, such as developers, are able to deftly navigate the system.

It’s amazing that in 21st century NYC planning, “as-of-right” development continues being the status quo since at least the 1961 Zoning Resolutions. How can this be justifiable when neighbors and neighborhoods are wronged by the very laws that should help protect them from out of scale development? This practice is certainly not new and occurs with common frequency throughout our city.

The Einhorn Development Group used our current NYC planning system to their maximum advantage without

Member of the National Newspaper Association

Editor Scott Stiffler Editorial Assistant

Sean Egan

and other pollution-free energy sources must gradually replace polluting fossil fuels. Similarly, vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains must replace polluting meat and dairy products. The large variety of widely available plant-based entrees, lunch meats, veggie burgers, cheeses and ice creams can certainly help.

Our next trip to the supermarket is a great opportunity to start the transition to a sustainable world. Our favorite Internet search engine offers ample product lists, recipes, and dietary tips.

Nico Young E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to Scott@ChelseaNow.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to Chelsea Now, Letters to the Editor, NYC Community Media, Once Metrotech North, 10th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. Chelsea Now reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Chelsea Now does not publish anonymous letters.

Executive Vice President Sales/Marketing

Art / Production Director Troy Masters

Amanda Tarley

Senior Designer Michael Shirey

Sr. V.P. of Sales and Marketing Francesco Regini Account Executives Jack Agliata Allison Greaker

Publisher Emeritus

Jennifer Holland

John W. Sutter

Julio Tumbaco

Graphic Designers Andrew Goos Chris Ortiz Circulation Sales Mngr.

Marvin Rock

Contributors Lincoln Anderson Sean Egan Raanan Geberer Winnie McCroy Paul Schindler Trav S.D. Eileen Stukane Zach Williams

Chelsea Now is published biweekly by NYC Community Media LLC, One Metrotech North, 10th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. (212) 229-1890. Annual subscription by mail in Manhattan and Brooklyn $75. The entire contents of newspaper, including advertising, are copyrighted and no part may be reproduced without the express permission of the publisher - © 2014 NYC Community Media LLC, Postmaster: Send address changes to Chelsea Now, One Metrotech North, 10th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

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

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September 25, 2014

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POLICE BLOTTER Assault: E train platform A young woman who had just stepped off the the E train was making her way toward the 23rd St. & Eighth Ave. exit at around 8:15 p.m. on Tues., Sept. 16 — when she was approached by a male, unknown to her, who struck her in the left shoulder with a closed fist, then threw her against the wall. The alert victim, who complained of shoulder and back pain, was able to describe the perp, but refused assistance, assuring responding officers that she would seek medical attention on her own.

Fraudulent Accosting: No laptop beyond bubble wrap Officers arrested a 52-year-old man, after observing him on the northwest corner of 14 St. & Eighth Ave. at around 3 p.m. on Wed., Sept. 17, in the act of attempting to scam a passerby. The novel but poorly executed ruse involved presenting his would-be customer with a great deal on a laptop — which was, in fact, a book hidden behind layers of

black tape and bubble wrap, covered with a few computer logo stickers to further complete the illusion. When confronted, the defendant was able to produce neither a laptop nor a “license to act as a general vendor to sell items.” He did, however, possess a 16 oz. Budweiser, which he was observed consuming as he attempted to pawn off the supposedly valuable electronic device.

having no means or ability to pay the $13,718.25 bill. After being taken into custody just after 5:30 a.m. on Wed., Sept. 17, the party-pooped perp did have the wherewithal to request a lawyer, leading police to note she was “unable to be debriefed.”

—Scott Stiffler

CASH FOR GUNS

Theft of Services: Final straw at last call The designated driver was an NYPD officer, for two boozehounds who tried to bail on their tab. In the first incident, taking place at just before 4 a.m. on Sat., Sept. 20, a 28-year-old male was bused, when presented with a bill for $1,625.27 by a heretofore-accommodating barkeep at a West Chelsea watering hole.

Elsewhere, specifically at 1 Oak (453 W. 17th St., btw. 9th & 10th Aves.), a well-lubricated 25-year-old female tried to stiff the joint for 12 bottles of Dom Perignon (Luminous collection) Champagne, when she admitted

$100 cash will be given (no questions asked) for each handgun, assault weapon or sawedoff shotgun, up to a maximum payment of $300. Guns are accepted at any Police Precinct, PSA or Transit District.

CRIME STOPPERS If you have info regarding a crime committed or a wanted person, call Crime Stoppers at 800577-TIPS, text “TIP577” (plus your message) to “CRIMES” (274637) or submit a tip online at nypdcrimestoppers.com.

THE 10th PRECINCT Located at 230 W. 20th St. (btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.).

Commander: Deputy Inspector Michele Irizarry. Main number: 212-741-8211. Community Affairs: 212-741-8226. Crime Prevention: 212-741-8226. Domestic Violence: 212-741-8216. Youth Officer: 212741-8211. Auxiliary Coordinator: 212-741-8210. Detective Squad: 212-741-8245. The Community Council meets on the last Wed. of the month, 7 p.m., at the 10th Precinct.

The next meeting is Oct. 29.

THE 13th PRECINCT Located at 230 E. 21st St. (btw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.). Deputy Inspector: David Ehrenberg. Call 212-4777411. Community Affairs: 212477-7427. Crime Prevention: 212477-7427. Domestic Violence: 212-477-3863. Youth Officer: 212477-7411. Auxiliary Coordinator: 212-477-4380. Detective Squad: 212-477-7444. The Community Council meets on the third Tues. of the month, 6:30 p.m., at the 13th Precinct. The next meeting is Oct. 21.

What’s your charitable dream?

When Harry met Sarah,

he was a taxi driver who “never had a nickel.” Sarah, a passenger in his cab, was a nurse who listened to patients’ stock tips and invested. They had a storybook marriage.

Sarah set aside money to take care of Harry. After their deaths, the remaining money started the Sarah and Harry Rogers Fund in The New York Community Trust to maintain parks and protect the City’s air and water. We continue to make grants in their names.

$ Prospect Park photo by Michael Pick / Creative Commons

$ Rogers Fund, established in 1994 with

Grants given from the fund to nonprofits, to date

$861,000

$ Market value of the fund (as of March 2014)

$1,521,000

Contact our counsel, Jane Wilton, at (212) 686-2563 or janewilton@nyct-cfi.org

.com

90 September 25, 2014

rs

Questions about your giving? We have answers.

of gi vi ng

$712,000

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a

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Made of Manhattan Bedrock, St. Peter’s has a Solid Restoration Plan Continued from page 4 Lamb Studios, need cleaning and restoring of some leaded areas and refastening of panes. One can see the result of restoration in the Call of St. Peter stained glass window above the altar, which depicts a life-size Jesus beckoning to fishermen at the Sea of Galilee. Created in 1900 by J&R Lamb Studios and restored in the early 2000s, it is by far the most glistening and inviting window of the church with the apt inscription “Follow Me and I Will Make You Fishers of Men.” Gail Rodgers, senior warden of St. Peter’s and chairman of its restoration committee, explains that fundraising has already begun. The Episcopal Church will offer a small percentage of the needed funds, and it is hoped that larger donations might come from foundation grants or corporations.

There are three phases of restoration planned. Phase I (estimated at about $2.5 million) concerns repairs to the exterior of the church and

Photo by William Stivale

Inside the church, the vaulted ceiling that one sees is not the roof but a dropped ceiling, and even that shows signs of wear and water.

rectory, which include roof, walls, and some stained glass windows. The inner upgrading of the church and rectory and renovation of the church’s interior is planned for Phases II and III. (If enough money is raised, it is hoped that the 1892 Frank Roosevelt

pipe organ near the altar might be made operational.) The total cost of the entire restoration, over a number of years, is $12 million. Included within that total is a $4 million cushion for maintenance and upkeep over future generations. “We want to be

good stewards,” says Rodgers.

St. Peter’s will have help in its fundraising from the lay-led Chelsea Community Church (CCC), which leases St. Peter’s for its Sunday noon services, and is known for its Christmas Candlelight Carol Service.

“We’re talking it up at every service, every Sunday,” says Paul Bodden, CCC’s treasurer. “We would like representation from Chelsea Community Church on the restoration committee,” says Harding, “and as we continue to grow and develop and deepen we’d like representatives from the neighborhood and neighborhood organizations too.”

St. Peter’s is now online as an Amazon charity. Go to smile.amazon. com, designate St. Peter’s Episcopal Church New York as your favorite charity, and 0.5 percent of your Amazon purchases will go to St. Peter’s. For direct giving, the church’s website: stpeterschelsea.com/wordpress/ has a “Donate” button on its homepage. Just for fun, you can join the pastor for a climb into St. Peter’s bell and clock tower: youtube.com/ user/stpeterschelsea.

FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING WRITER OF DINNER WITH FRIENDS

COUNTRY HOUSE

A New Play by

DONALD MARGULIES

Directed by

with BLYTHE DANNER

DANIEL SULLIVAN

KATE JENNINGS GRANT ERIC LANGE DAVID RASCHE SARAH STEELE DANIEL SUNJATA

Photo by Kurt Iswarienko.

THE

LIMITED BROADWAY ENGAGEMENT Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47th St. (Between B’way & 8th Ave.) Telecharge.com or 212.239.6200 • ManhattanTheatreClub.com

THE COUNTRY HOUSE is a co-production with the Geffen Playhouse. THE COUNTRY HOUSE was commissioned by MTC through the U.S. Trust New American Play Commissioning Program. Special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for supporting Manhattan Theatre Club.

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High Line, Now Complete, Looks to the Long Haul Path Continued from page 5 ers that make up the park’s structural form were revealed and a walkway was ramped down that will allow children to enter the gird work.

All the beams have been covered with a rubberized playground material for safety and there are a number of interactive features: speaking tubes, periscopes and something dubbed the gopher hole where children can go into the hole and then stick their head up in the planting beds.

“We’ve always wanted to have a feature designed specifically to engage the interests of children, but we’ve had a tough time finding the combination of the right site and the right design for it,” said David. “We’ve kept trying, and up at the Rail Yards we finally locked into something that we thought was the perfect design for the perfect site.”

One of the aspects that will continue in the third section is the featuring of art. Argentinian artist Adrian Villar Rojas has done an installation in the Interim Walkway. Rojas is known for large-scale forms that often use materials

Photo by Jenny Rubin

High Line enthusiasts from the world of politics and pop culture gather for Sept. 20’s ribbon-cutting ceremony — including, second from left, actor Edward Norton. Regular readers of Chelsea Now will have no trouble identifying the other players.

that change in relation to the elements.

For example, fired clays that have been treated so that they react to rain or heat and change shape.

“In this case, he’s got a series of cube-like forms that are a mixture of poured concrete and soils and other organic material with seeds incorporated in them,” said David.

Rojas’ installation will remain for the year. During that time, it will have vegetation growing on it and from it, but will also in some places decay or change form.

“It’s a subtle, beautiful piece, very much in tune with the site of the Interim walkway,” said David. “It’s in this self-seeded landscape [in] which

vegetation took over this monumental industrial structure and vegetation is also overtaking this artwork as well.”

Art was also on display during the processional at the opening ceremony on Saturday. David said the processional, which included several community organizations and residents, was to celebrate “the biggest moment in the High Line’s history to date, making it all the way to 34th Street” and had been designed to reflect the qualities of the community.

The High Line was a project that grew from the community and then was supported by block associations, local businesses and civic and cultural organizations.

“We wanted to mark [this] historic moment by reflecting the community investment of volunteerism and advocacy on the part of our neighbors and our community that’s made this so successful,” he said.

David credits the community with developing a strong coalition of voices that articulated its need for more parkland, and that the High Line was a great opportunity for the neighborhood and

Continued on page 23

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September 25, 2014

11

High Line at the Rail Yards is a Whole

BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC, WITH PHOTOS BY JENNY RUBIN The third section of the High Line opened officially on Sun., Sept. 21. The new segment is either: A. exactly like the other two, B. nothing like the other two, or C. a distinct part that fits with the whole. If you choose C, you’ve won free admission to the park!

Okay, the park is always free — but the new and final section, dubbed the High Line at the Rail Yards, offers singular panoramas and features, such as the Pershing Square Beams, which makes one wish they were smaller to fit into the neon green accented square openings that ramp down into the structure, allowing entrance into a secret world that no adult will ever experience.

Or the Interim Walkway that blooms on one side with wild plants and flowers

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September 25, 2014

that beat out Mother Nature to blossom in gravel. The Interim Walkway follows the original train tracks along a curve that allows one to hear the Hudson singing and forget for an instant the city that surrounds it — until, of course, the dissonance of hammers pounding, the “zzz” of a construction saw, and horns blaring make one realize they’re not on a pier at a beach.

“It’s definitely a lot more open,” said James Petty, 31, a Hell’s Kitchen resident. He and another Hell’s Kitchen resident, Michael McGrattan, 30, faced out towards the rail yards — the many trains looking like the arms of an ancient god reaching out while cranes near buildings yearned for sky — and contemplated the Hudson Yards construction. “It’s very exciting to see the whole thing finally done,” said Brandon Warshofsky, 24. He and Esther Ryang, 23, both of Newark,

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e New Chapter at the End of the Road

New Jersey, were late for the Climate March and ventured for pickles and the High Line instead. They also enjoyed the High Line’s artwork.

An installation by Adrian Villar Rojas titled “The Evolution of God” populates the new section. Twelve cubes were spaced perpendicular to the Interim Walkway on the side lush with vegetation and used random materials — socks, clothes, ropes and shells — to create layers within the blocks. Some already had foliage growing out of them.

Like the bees that could not stay away from the flowers, neither could the people. The Friends of the High Line were keeping count at half-hour intervals and by 5 p.m. 9,300 people had visited.

Fanfare, fun and frivolity marked the ribbon-cutting ceremonies on a balmy Saturday before the opening. A proces-

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sional included several community members and groups as well as the resplendent Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps Marching Band, whose dancers shook while the band slapped down the beat.

Each group had its own color and flags — bright pink and green along with gray and white — and each carried a huge rail yard signal that highlighted the neighborhoods: a cow with its parts delineated for the Meatpacking District, multicolored lips, drag queens, Little W. 12th, clothes and ships were also featured. Huge puppets with frames that seemed to move like jelly had different heads and colors to represent the various groups.

The wind joined the celebration, caressing the foliage as it swayed and the community’s medieval-like flags that waved while electeds and Joshua David, the co-founder of the High Line, spoke.

September 25, 2014

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ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT Village Jazz Remains Red Hot and Blue

Today built on yesterday, grooving to tomorrow

BY MICHAEL LYDON A decade or four ago I was a jazz-mad college kid, and anytime I had an extra dime in my pocket I’d bus down to the Big Apple to hear my heroes live in smoky hole-in-the-wall Village clubs: Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond rocking the nearly empty Jazz Gallery on St. Mark’s Place, Ornette Coleman wailing at Slugs on East Third St., not long before trumpeter Lee Morgan got shot on stage and the joint closed down.

One night I dashed with my date from catching Herbie Mann at the Village Gate (now Le Poisson Rouge), to hear Thelonious Monk at the Five Spot on Third Ave. by the Cooper Union. Monk was great, but he often wandered off the stand, leaving his band to carry on without him. A few beers had made me more than a little drunk, and when the band’s tenor sax player tried to pick up my date, I’m sad to say he succeeded, leaving me crying the blues sometime ’round midnight.

New York, New York jazz has a long and distinguished history — who but jazz cats named our toddlin’ town the Big Apple? — a history that stretches back a century to James P. Johnson and Fats Waller playing stride piano in Harlem, Duke Ellington leading his elegant orchestra at the Cotton Club in the 1920s, Benny Goodman bringing an integrated band to Carnegie Hall in 1938, and Bird, Diz and Monk in the 40s and 50s plotting the bebop revolution Uptown at Minton’s and Midtown at a dozen clubs on West 52nd St. West and East Village jazz forms a multicolored thread in this history, a thread with more than a few twists and turns, but one woven from a no-holds-barred commitment to funky honesty and experimental daring.

As poets and painters, writers and rebels, folkies and philosophers have long found an intoxicating freedom in the Village’s higgledy-piggledy streets, jazz cats have long found an improvisational freedom in those same Village streets.

Village jazz clubs come and go — Sweet Basil, Fez, and Blue Water Grill are among the most recently departed — and the band on stage may be established stars or eager up-and-comers, but night after night the music still blows red hot and blue, and audiences of simpatico fans pack the clubs and clap and snap and groove with the cats all the way home.

No other jazz club tells more of the Village jazz story, or tells it better, than the Village Vanguard, founded in February 1935 by Max Gordon, a Polish Jew who had immigrated to America with his parents only nine years before. Gordon first opened a coffee house on Charles St. as a forum for poets and artists as well as musicians, but city officials refused him a cabaret license. “I knew if I was ever to get anywhere in the nightclub business,” Gordon wrote wryly in his autobiography, “I’d have to

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September 25, 2014

Photo by Jenny Rubin

Pianist Kirk Lightsey’s quartet is at the Vanguard through Sept. 28.

find another place with two johns, two exits, that stood two hundred feet away from a church or synagogue.”

He soon bought a triangle-shaped basement (and former speakeasy) at 178 Seventh Ave. and named it the Village Vanguard.

In its early years Gordon dedicated the Vanguard to poetry readings and folk music, and club goers heard Maxwell Bodenheim, the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians, declaim his verse and Leadbelly sing plaintive Southern songs like “Bring Me a Little Water, Sylvie.”

Yet in 1940 trumpeter Roy Eldridge packed the 123-seat club, and soon after so did Sidney Bechet, Art Hodes and Mary Lou Williams. Following the trend, Gordon began booking three jazz acts a night. Not every group, however, proved an instant success. On Thelonious Monk’s first Vanguard night in September 1948, Gordon’s wife Lorraine remembered, “Nobody came. None of the so-called jazz critics. None of the so-called cognoscenti.

Zilch.” With the loyalty that endeared them to generations of jazz artists, the Gordons kept booking Monk and enjoyed watching him grow to international fame.

Through the 1950s the Vanguard became the home club for dozens of modern jazz stars: Miles Davis,

Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Anita O’Day, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, Stan Getz and Carmen McRae. Fans who loved the carefully sculpted sounds of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra made their Monday night gigs a must-hear jazz institution from 1966 to 1990. Other fans who liked their jazz more unbuttoned packed the Saturday afternoon jam sessions.

“My pals and I went to the Vanguard for the jamming,” remembered one devoté. “We could go hear Lester Young, Ben Webster; all the greatest jazz musicians for fifty cents at the door!”

Fortunately, many great Vanguard nights got recorded. Sonny Rollins taped three LPs there, and Art Pepper, Tommy Flanagan, John Coltrane and Wynton Marsalis are a few of the artists who have put out “Live at the Village Vanguard” albums — a title, says Bruce Lundvall, head of Blue Note Records, “that has a direct and positive influence on an album’s sales.”

The day after Max Gordon died in 1989, Lorraine Gordon closed the Vanguard. The next day she opened it again, and by hook or by crook she’s kept the place going

Continued on page 15 .com

Best Jazz in Town Still Found in the Village

Photo by Jenny Rubin

© 2013 Toshi Sakurai, courtesy Chick Corea Productions

Traditional jazz still holds sway at Arthur’s Tavern, but look out for more modern surprises.

Chick Corea & The Vigil appear at The Blue Note for a six-night stand, Sept.

30–Oct. 5.

Continued from page 14 ever since. “It’s still the way everybody likes it,” says one longtime habitué.

What makes a café or bar a bonafide jazz club? It’s not always easy to say.

Hothouse, the free monthly guide to the New York jazz scene, lists 77 venues south of 34th St., but some of those are tablecloth and candle restaurants where a decorous pianist plays standards at Sunday brunch, and others are rockblues joints where the band might cover Ray Charles and Herbie Hancock hits.

Between the two extremes a dedicated jazz buff can find a wide variety of clubs bursting with both seasoned and fresh

talent six and seven nights a week.

Max and Lorraine’s daughter Deborah now manages the Vanguard. Lorraine, in her 90s, doesn’t come in to the club much anymore, says trombonist John Mosca says, “We’re still afraid of her!” Pianist Kirk Lightsey’s quartet comes into the Vanguard through Sept. 28, followed by another sax quartet, this one led by Ravi Coltrane, son of jazz pioneers John and Alice Coltrane, appearing from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5. The 18-piece band Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, now led by trombonists Mosca and Doug Purviance, still rules the roost Mondays and plays new works as well as many Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestrations that date back to the 60s.

The Blue Note continues its star-stud-

ded booking tradition with pianist Chick Corea & the Vigil covering a six-night stand Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, both groups playing two sets at 8 and 10:30 p.m.

Smalls will be closed for renovations from Sept. 22 to 25, but reopens Fri., Sept. 26 with an afternoon open jam session from 4 to 7 p.m. Resumes regular programming then resumes with Ralph Lalama’s band, Bop Juice, at 7:30 p.m., Myron Walden’s Momentum at 10:30 p.m., and Anthony Wonsey’s piano trio playing until closing or dawn, whichever comes first.

The smaller joints are jumping too.

The Cornelia Street Café has pianist Sebastien Ammann’s quartet, hot after a European tour, on Sept. 29. At Arthur’s Tavern, traditional jazz still hold sway,

but look out for more modern surprises.

At Fat Cat, you can play billiards while listening to eager up and comers, and you might as well go the new WhyNot Jazz Room — why not? Or check out the newest club on the block, Mezzrow, across 10th St. from Smalls.

“Jazz in the Village never ceases to amaze me,” says Jim Eigo, a diehard fan who’s become a publicist. “Old, new, traditional, experimental, big clubs, little clubs, known players, unknown players.

There’s so much energy, so much daring.

Go to a place you’ve never heard of, listen to a band you think you’re not going to like. I guarantee, if you open your ears, you’re going to have a Village night you’ll never forget.”

VILLAGE JAZZ VENUE GUIDE ANALOGUE

FAT CAT

THE STONE

19 W. Eighth St. (btw. Fifth & Sixth Aves.) analoguenyc.com | 212-432-0200

75 Christopher St. (at Seventh Ave. South) fatcatmusic.org | 212-675-6056

At the corner of E. Second St. & Ave. C thestonenyc.com | 212-473-0043

ARTHUR’S TAVERN

55 BAR

VILLAGE VANGUARD

57 Grove St. (btw. Seventh Ave. & Bleecker St.) arthurstavernnyc.com | 212-675-6879

55 Christopher St. (btw. Seventh Ave. So. & Waverly Pl.) 55bar.com | 212-929-9883

178 Seventh Ave. South villagevanguard.com | 212-255-4037

131 W. Third St. (btw. Sixth Ave. & MacDougal St.) bluenote.net | 212-475-8592

GARAGE RESTAURANT & CAFE

82 W. Third St. (btw. Thompson & Sullivan Sts.) zincbar.com | 212-477-9462

CAFFE VIVALDI

JULES BISTRO

32 Jones St. (btw. Bleecker and W. Fourth Sts.) caffevivaldi.com | 212-691-7538

65 St. Marks Pl. (btw. First & Second Aves.) julesbistro.com | 212-477-5560

CORNELIA STREET CAFÉ

SMALLS JAZZ CLUB

29 Cornelia St. (btw. Bleecker & W. Fourth Sts.) corneliastreetcafe.com | 212-989-9319

183 W. 10th St. (btw. W. Fourth St. & Seventh Ave. South) smallsjazzclub.com | 212-252-5091

THE BLUE NOTE

.com

99 Seventh Ave. South (btw. Grove & Barrow Sts.) garagerest.com | 212-645-0600

ZINC BAR

MEZZROW 163 W. 10th St. (corner of Seventh Ave.) mezzrow.com | 646-476-4346

WHYNOT JAZZ ROOM 14 Christopher St. (corner of Gay St.) whynotjazzroomm.com | 646-756-4145

September 25, 2014

15

Just Do Art

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

DAUGHTERS OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION It’s 1976 in suburban New York.

While men fixate on the modern sensibilities of “that Bionic Man program” while praising the curative powers of Valium, women concern themselves with recreational pot and the impropriety of glorifying America’s Bicentennial. Meanwhile, a promising but unfocused college student is failing ethics, both in and outside of the classroom. Returning home from campus with a boyfriend in tow, her ruthless determination to go on The Pill forces her parents and the couple next door to confront several aspects of sexual liberation, and change course accordingly.

Dana Leslie Goldstein’s new play has two generations asking, “Where does freedom end and responsibility begin?” It’s a question she isn’t concerned with answering definitively, but the script does take great pleasure in mulling over how the personal ethics of one person can both

Photo by Gerry Goodstein

Photo by Jeremy X. Halpern

Photo by Erik Carter

L-R: Christine Verleny as Joyce and Laurie Schroeder as Judy, in “Daughters of the Sexual Revolution.”

Olivia Killingsworth and Quinlan Corbett, in the Metropolitan Playhouse production of “Icebound.”

A house that may or may not be for sale isn’t the only thing up for grabs, in “Mr. Landing Takes A Fall.”

challenge and undercut the behavior of another.

Through Oct. 11. Thurs. at 7 p.m. Fri. & Sat. at 8 p.m. Sun. at 3 p.m. Added show Mon., Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. At WorkShop Theater (312 W. 36th St., 4th Fl.). For tickets ($18,

$15 for students/seniors), call 866811-4111 or visit workshoptheater. org.

Oct. 8, 11, 15 & 18 at 3 p.m.).

At Metropolitan Playhouse (220 E. Fourth St., btw. Aves. A & B). For tickets ($25, $20 for students & seniors; $10 for those under 18), call 800-838-3006 or visit metropolitanplayhouse.org.tickets.

FRANCESCO CLEMENTE: INSPIRED BY INDIA SEPTEMBER 5, 2014 THROUGH FEBRUARY 2, 2015

150 WEST 17TH STREET NYC 10011 RUBINMUSEUM.ORG

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September 25, 2014

METROPOLITAN PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS “ICEBOUND” Tirelessly devoted to presenting works from America’s theatrical heritage — and especially adept at choosing ones that are both revelatory and relevant — the East Village’s Metropolitan Playhouse opens their 23rd season (devoted to “Progress”) with “Icebound.”

Seen only once on the New York stage since its 1923 premiere, this revival of Owen Davis’ Pulitzer Prize-winner for Drama marks only the second effort from the author, since choosing to abandon a string of highly lucrative westerns, sex comedies and melodramas in favor of more serious fare. Set in rural Maine (where Davis was born), “Icebound” concerns the chilly reception given to a shrewish second cousin who becomes heir to the estate of a stern matriarch. Denied any inheritance, the bitter children are also frozen out by the newly powerful cousin — who hires their on-the-lam black sheep brother to help around the house. They clash as well, but also envision a better future. “But nature will out,” warns Playhouse artistic director Alex Roe, in “a play that asks whether our habits and fears will always defy our highest aspirations.”

Sept. 26–Oct. 19. Thurs.–Sat. at 7:30 p.m. & Sun. at 3 p.m. (also

MR. LANDING TAKES A FALL Chimney smoke rises from that charming little house on the hill, beckoning a young, just-married couple to bypass their honeymoon and put down roots — but first, they must dislodge the husband and wife who’ve barricaded themselves inside for 500 years, passing the time with booze, button-pushing and occasional concern for birds who flock together but can’t pull off a decent migration. It seems like all the world’s in an ominous holding pattern at the onset of “Mr. Landing Takes A Fall” — Sari Caine’s absurd, melancholy and unexpectedly violent drawing room comedy that full-throttles its four players through an evening filled with revelations from both couples, during which they consider the relative merits of stoking or extinguishing the spark that first drew them to one another.

Both options come with their share of hope and dread.

At 7 p.m. on Sept. 26, 27, 30 & Oct. 1–4 and at 3 p.m. on Sept. 28.

At The Flea Theater (41 White St., btw. Church & Broadway). For tickets ($18), call 212-352-3101 or visit theflea.org. For artist info: slightlyaltered.org. .com

Buhmann on Art

BY BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN (stephaniebuhmann.com)

DRAWN TO LANGUAGE On view in the Cynthia C. Wainwright Gallery, this exhibition brings together both emerging and established mid-career artists, such as Ed Ruscha, Jenny Holzer and Jack Pierson, whose works employ language as a structural and at times philosophical source of inspiration.

Here, letters, words or phrases are transcribed, visualized, verbalized, symbolized, morphed into patterns, scrambled, and erased to create compositional content.

While the works vary conceptually and aesthetically, ranging from humorous to political and lyrically abstract, for example, each makes use of words to create a unique image. Because of its eclectic and encompassing nature, the exhibition succeeds in paying homage to language in general and as a timeless source of inspiration, which goes as far back as far as ancient callig-

Courtesy of the artist & Freight + Volume Gallery

Courtesy of the artist & Freight + Volume Gallery

Courtesy of the artist & Freight + Volume Gallery

Erik den Breejen. “Gerry Rafferty” (2013). Acrylic on canvas.

Michael Scoggins. “Explosion Drawing #5” (2014). Marker, prism color on paper.

Samuel Jablon. “The Poet Sculpture” (2013). Acrylic on wood.

raphy or illuminated manuscripts.

Most importantly, this installation exemplifies the manifold ways in which artists can be drawn to this particular subject.

Whether language is used for emphasis, to communicate specific meaning, draw out a narrative or

simply to make a joke, it always proves to be a potent means of expression. By focusing on artists who pursue their subject by using unusual materials, processes and techniques, “Drawn to Language” aims to encourage its audience to examine language in new ways.

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A Chill Is In The Air, But Manhattan, Brooklyn

BY LAUREN PRICE Manhattan real estate remains hot and is increasingly exclusive. That’s the message from Corcoran’s second quarter 2014 report. The average price for resale co-ops, resale condos and new developments increased 20 percent over last year, up to $1.697 million. That number topped the first quarter and sets a new record high price.

Median price, however, while increasing 6 percent to $920,000, has still not rebounded to the 2008 second quarter alltime high of $975,000. Price per square foot saw a large gain, up 15 percent to $1,286 market-wide, which is also a new record. Larger units are seeing higher price gains, with annual growth at 2 percent for studios, 6 percent for one-bedrooms, 11 percent for two-bedrooms, and a whopping 23 percent for three-bedrooms.

New development slowed in the second quarter, but not for lack of demand.

Price increases reflect not only appreciation but also the high quality of new supply. The new development market increased 63 percent over last year and price per square foot increased 31 percent. Median price was up 16 percent, to

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September 25, 2014

Courtesy of Town Residential

The rustic dining room of the penthouse duplex at 430 E. 10th St. in the East Village.

$1.731 million.

New developments skewed larger, with 27 percent three-plus bedrooms, compared to just 14 percent of existing stock. The greatest number of new development closings took place on the Upper East Side.

Douglas Elliman’s second quarter report found that consistent with a declining vacancy rate, Manhattan rents have

grown steadily over the past five months.

Tight mortgage underwriting standards and an increase in city employment levels were key factors. Median rental levels increased 5.4 percent to $3,205 compared to second quarter 2013, the biggest increase for that quarter in six years. The number of new rentals increased modestly by 7.2 percent to 4,938.

In Brooklyn, Elliman found, the rental market is also hot, with prices up for the 14th consecutive month and smaller apartments bearing the bulk of the increases. Tenants showed a greater willingness to seek affordability elsewhere rather than renew existing leases.

Price gains were seen across the studio and one-bedroom markets, with more mixed results in the larger size categories.

The median rent in Brooklyn grew 6.6 percent from a year ago to $2,852, but the luxury market rate increased only 1.8 percent to $4,500. The number of new rentals listed jumped 127 percent to 892 over the same period, reflecting strong tenant resistance to renewing leases at higher cost.

For Manhattan buyers, new developments, particularly on the Upper East Side near the Second Ave. subway, provide great options. When Phase I of the new subway line opens in late 2016, it will carry 200,000 straphangers from 96th St. to connections at 63rd St. and Lexington Ave. For views of the East River, there is the spanking new SixtyFour at 300 E. 64th St. at Second Ave., developed by architects Stonehilll & Taylor. A luxury condo conversion of a rental building, SixtyFour is exclusively sold through Douglas Elliman. Unit sizes runs from one- to three-bedrooms, including a penthouse, all with hardwood floors and oversized

or floor-to-ceiling windows, and square footage ranging from about 725 to 1,431.

Kitchens are outfitted with Liebherr and Bosch appliances, and bathrooms have soaking tubs, Kohler Caxton sinks and marble vanities.

A communal open-air penthouse, furnished and with a barbeque grill and four exposures, offers spectacular views of the river and the Queensboro Bridge. The building also includes a screening room and a gym. Prices start at about $925,000 (sixtyfourcondo.com).

The Charles from Bluerock Real Estate was designed by Ismael Leyva, with interiors by David Collins Studio. A luxury condominium with private access full-floor residences — including a duplex penthouse with two large terraces, each more than 3,000 square feet — The Charles is at 1335 First Ave. near 72nd St. Prices average $2,500 per square foot.

Special touches include very high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, and white oak Oyster Gloss wide-plank flooring that in the living rooms has radiant heat. Eat-in kitchens are outfitted with mirror-polished, high-gloss lacquer cabinetry, Corian countertops and backsplashes, and appliances by Sub-Zero and Miele. Polished dolomite marble tile bathrooms feature radiant heat floors and Kohler tubs.

Shared building amenities include a residents’ lounge, a Technogym, a game room and private storage. Exclusively marketed and sold through TOWN Residential, the Charles’s move-ins begin late this year (charlesnyc.com).

If the High Line park is your hot button, consider 505 W. 19th St. off 10th Ave, the building was designed inside and out by Thomas Juul-Hansen and is made up of towers framing the park. With just 35 units ranging from one- to five-bedrooms, including a penthouse, square footage ranges from 1,050 to more than 5,800. A number of units include direct elevator entry and some have private outdoor space. Features include wideplank rift-sawn white oak flooring and large windows positioned to enhance privacy for the lower-floor units and with expanded views on the higher floors.

Kitchens offer quarter-sawn white oak, and cerused, limed and stained gray cabinetry trimmed with brass. Countertops and backsplashes are absolute black granite and appliances are from Miele. Master baths with radiant heat floors offer honed Stellar White marble floors and shower walls and black lacquer vanities. All units feature Kohler cast-iron tubs and glass-en-

Continued on page 19 .com

Real Estate Markets Are Hot and Going Strong Continued from page 18 closed showers. Community pleasures include a fitness center and private storage units. Marketed and sold by Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, prices start at $2.54 million (505W19.com).

Downtown, a duplex penthouse co-op with private outdoor space has just come on the market at 430 E. 10th St., between Avenues C and D. This loft-like, fourplus bedroom unit in a meticulously renovated building merges modern amenities with original details, including exposed brick walls, wood beam ceilings and rustic wood columns throughout. Spanning more than 3,400 square feet with a private rooftop that practically matches the interior square footage, the apartment has new electricity and plumbing, central heating and cooling systems, double-paned windows and white oak “floating” floors installed with professional-grade acoustic soundproofing.

The living room / dining room has six large windows.

Highlighted by a skylight and a doublewide cement sink, the open kitchen has cabinetry created from the original 19th-century flooring topped with Belgium bluestone and appliances are by SubZero, BlueStar and Miele. The 500-bottle wine storage and tasting room is also created from the original floors. The corner master bedroom suite has a walk-in closet and an en suite bath with a freestanding tub, a glass-enclosed shower, double vanities and Lefroy Brooks fixtures. There is also a separate laundry room with full-size washer and exterior-vented dryer.

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Courtesy of Redundant Pixel

The Gluck+ Architects-designed 345 Carroll St. in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Listed with TOWN Residential, it’s priced at $3.998 million (townrealestate.com/sale/id-303796/430-East10th-Street-4th-Floor-East-Village).

Other Lower Manhattan properties include the contemporary architectural statement Ismael Leyva created at the Tribeca Royale at 19 Park Place near Church St. Developed by ABM Realty LLC, it’s made up of 24 halfand full-floor condominiums pre-wired for smart-home technology, each with floor-to-ceiling glass curtain walls with frameless glass balconies, wide-plank European oak

floors from Mercier, and in-home washers and dryers

by Miele. One- to three-bedroom units range from 716 to 1,336 square feet, and the mix includes a duplex and a penthouse with a gas fireplace framed in Calacatta marble.

Master baths with radiant heat floors and hydronic towel warmers are done up in polished onyx porcelain slab walls by Ariostea Ultra Onici and honed walnut brown marble floors. Fixtures include a Wetstyle ovalshaped freestanding tub and a glass-enclosed shower with a slatted teak floor.

Communal amenities include a second-floor outdoor landscaped terrace. Priced from $1.12 million with anticipated 421a tax abatement, this development is marketed and sold through Halstead Property Development Marketing. Occupancy is set for spring 2015 (19pptribeca.com).

New developments are popping up across wide swaths of Brooklyn. According to a July report from the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, there are 7,800 housing units in the development pipeline, 2,000 of which will be market-rate condominiums. Streeteasy (streeteasy.com) recently reported that Brooklyn’s up-and-coming neighborhoods include those on the eastern edge of the borough, such as East New York and Carnarsie, plus neighborhoods near Prospect Park, such as Kensington, Flatbush and Sunset Park.

Centrally located in Downtown Brooklyn and devel-

Continued on page 20

September 25, 2014

19

The Fall Real Estate Market is Hot Continued from page 19 oped by the Stahl Organization, the SLCE-designed 388 Bridge Penthouse Collection is now on the market atop Brooklyn’s tallest condominium, located between Fulton and Willoughby Sts. On floors 45 through 53, there are 40 two- to four-bedroom penthouses, most of which are duplexes with private outdoor space for eyefuls of New York’s landmarks.

Units range from 1,133 to 2,371 square feet. All feature wide-plank graywash white oak floors, ceilings as high as 11 feet, and solar shades.

Master bathrooms feature white quartz walls, limestone floors, walkin showers and custom-designed white lacquer vanities. This full-service building with a 24-hour doorman includes a 46th-floor sky lounge with a fireplace, pool table, large screen TVs, a pantry and a wet bar. The adjacent outdoor terrace features a playground, two barbeques and a lounge area. Amenities also include a playroom, a media room, a pet spa and a two-story Manhattan Athletic Club, to which membership can be purchased. Marketed by Halstead

Property, prices begin at $1.742 million (388bridge.com).

Developed by Sterling Equities and designed by Gluck+ Architects, a new boutique development at 345 Carroll St., between Hoyt and Bond Sts., begins selling units this month. The building includes 32 luxury residences, with 18 two- to four-bedroom units with square footage ranging from 1,215 to 1,973.

There are also eight four-bedroom penthouses, sized from 1,847 to 2,393 square feet, and six one- to three-bedroom garden duplexes, with square footage ranging from 1,647 to 2,899.

Master baths have custom herringbone Italian marble radiant heat floors, walnut vanities topped with marble, glass shower stall and tubs with marble decks.

Amenities include a vegetable garden and one that is landscaped, a rooftop deck, a kids’ playroom, a dog-washing area and a bocce ball court. Lobby attendants are 24/7 and parking and storage areas are for sale. Marketed and sold through Stribling Marketing Associates, prices begin at $1.5 million with occupancy slated for fall 2015 (345carroll.com).

Cliff Finn, executive vice president at Douglas Elliman Development

Marketing, offered his take on Brooklyn’s rental market.

“Many renters prefer the technology, design and amenities of today’s new developments, and they are usually willing to trade off a little space and often location to get it,” Finn said. “Brooklyn is no longer the big discount to Manhattan it once was. However, in most cases, there is still a bit of a discount when compared to comparable buildings in other Manhattan neighborhoods, which now may only be a 10 percent to 25 percent savings, sometimes higher or even lower depending on the location. Compared to some Upper East Side and Upper West Side locations, one will find parts of Brooklyn more expensive.”

Finn offered a telling example.

“An average sized one-bedroom in our new boutique rental development, 267 Pacific in Boerum Hill, recently rented for $3,600. The same unit in the similarly sized new Hell’s Kitchen development would rent for $3,900, and in a new Greenwich Village rental, perhaps $5,000. The appeal, aside from new development housing stock, is the authenticity of its neighborhoods. Renters and purchasers like the look and feel of

the various intimate neighborhoods, with their small neighborhood parks, momand-pop businesses, and the light and air one gets from having more low- and midrise buildings.”

The signature design feature at 267 Pacific is the 50-foot-by 50-foot “Sign Language” mural from famed street artists Chris Stain and Billy Mode, who collaborated with the Brooklyn youth arts group Cre8tive YouTH*ink. The mural, which covers the building’s entire right side, pays tribute to legendary photographer Martha Cooper. Developed

by Quinlan Development Group and Lonicera Partners and marketed through Elliman, the GF55 Partners-designed project offers 60 units with wide-plank solid white oak floors, ranging from studios to two-bedrooms, some with terraces, plus penthouses with private terraces and spectacular views.

Bathrooms have Caesarstone-topped vanities. Communal amenities include a large bike garage and dedicated workshop and a large rooftop terrace with entertaining space, a sundeck, a misting shower and barbeque grills. Almost ready for occupancy, monthly rents will start at $2,525 (267pacific.com).

New Homes Personalized Just For You Starting From $279,900

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September 25, 2014

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The Homes for Veterans Program

$50 Million Commitment from SONYMA for Military Personnel and Veterans

The Homes for Veterans Mortgage Program from the State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA) is open to:

Program Features:

Funds are available until fully used!

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Darryl C. Towns Commissioner/CEO

September 25, 2014

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September 25, 2014

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On High Line, a View of Hudson Yards Development Continued from page 11

Aquarius A chatty encounter with the seldom-seen mutual friend of a sworn enemy endows you with heretofore hidden facts, with which to mend the riff or widen it.

Pisces Like that newly opened section of the High Line, this week’s love life promises fresh, bold takes on proven techniques sure to delight tourists and locals alike.

Aries An old chum will breeze into town, with Throwback Thursday photos that awaken a youthful dream you’ve long since given up on.

Go for it!

Taurus This is the week you’ve been waiting for, in matters of piping up for what you want and getting it just the way you like it. Accepting this bounty with humility sets the stage for greater goods.

for the city at large.

The community can also be proud of the fact, he said, that it set a new global standard for the way that cities look at parks and led to the rethinking of the adaptive reuse of old industrial infrastructure. Every week, noted David, the organization gets calls from municipalities, countries, states, park organizations, civic organizations and real estate developers.

“All of whom are looking at ways to tap into some of the energy that we’ve created around the High Line,” said David, who is happy to share what they’ve learned.

Development is happening right next to the High Line, as Hudson Yards construction takes place. David said that every inch of the park has a relationship to its surrounding and there will be the shift from an open expanse next to the High Line to a dense new development with a lot of buildings.

“The High Line will provide a front

row seat on one of the most dramatic urban transformation that the city has ever seen,” said David.

For the Friends of the Highline, the opening of the third section is the fulfillment of a key part of the original vision.

“To us, that’s an incredible moment to arrive at. It’s taken us fifteen years, which can seem like a long time, but it’s actually a fairly short time for a project of this scope, which faced such tremendous challenges at the very beginning,” he said.

The opening also means that there is 50 percent more park for the organization to maintain and operate. “The Friends of the High Line provides almost all the operation funding for the park so it does pose a new challenge for us,” said David. There will be more staff hours to fund and manage to ensure that the High Line continues to be impeccably maintained, he said.

“We’re very optimistic that we will meet it as beautifully as we have done in the first two sections,” said David. “I’m confident that we’ll determine a path that makes the High Line a strong and sustainable organization for the long haul.”

Gemini You never forget the misdeeds of others — but tread lightly when it comes to drudging up the past to humble a detractor. Foes, when properly finessed, can become fast friends.

Cancer You will balk at the price of an expensive pillow, setting the stage for more restless nights. At what price peace, frugal Cancer?

Leo Like the new crew on “The View,” a shifting dynamic at work will take time to gel. Abandon your drive to be Whoopi, and learn from the light interplay between Rosies P & O’D. Virgo Eggs, rules, sincere promises and fragile tailbones: These things are apt to be broken — unless you reign in that temper, my dear mercurial Virgo.

Libra This is not the week for bold actions, unless you count staying indoors and baking cookies. Do so, while you patiently wait for the opportunity that will present itself during the next full moon.

Scorpio Emotions flare, during an unwelcome conversation with an inquisitive telemarketer. A housepet’s shocked stare at this shameful display snaps you out of your ill-advised fury.

Sagittarius A wacky invention will yield nothing but debt and depression — but the secret to a fortune awaits, tucked into the marketing plan you pluck from a dream.

Capricorn Like the sea turtle who storms the beach to lay its eggs, you will soon find yourself riding a fast and frothy tide intelligently designed to steer your secret ambition onto shore. .com

September 25, 2014

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