The local paper for Downtown ART FOR EVERYDAY PEOPLE
◄ P.12
BIG CHALLENGES FOR NEW POLICE BOSS tion on their underlying message: “Safest Big City in America.’’ Appointed last Monday to be the city’s next police commissioner, Shea will soon have the ultimate responsibility for keeping it that way. But serious challenges abound for the soon-to-be leader of the nation’s largest police department. Shea, who succeeds James O’Neill on Dec. 1, will
LAW ENFORCEMENT J.K. Rowling, Maurice Sendak and many other authors have visited Books of Wonder over the years. Photo: Jason Cohen
BOOKS OF WONDER PLAGUED BY DEBT SHOPS Legendary Chelsea bookstore launched a fundraising campaign to help pay for its move to a new location BY JASON COHEN
A fixture in Chelsea for nearly four decades, Books of Wonder is buried in debt and plans to relocate when its 15year lease at 18 West 18th Street runs out at the end of the year. To help finance a move to a new location, owner Peter Glassman launched a GoFundMe effort last month. “I think it’s important that
Dermot Shea will face criminal justice reforms and the planned closing of Rikers BY MICHAEL R. SISAK, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Each month, Dermot Shea sits with other top New York City police officials and the mayor to brief reporters on the latest crime statistics. In
The deck is stacked against him.” Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD sergeant who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
front of them, often, is a big, blue sign featuring a varia-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
New York City have a children’s bookstore,” Glassman said. “It would be a crime not to have one.” Glassman had been planning to move when his current lease expires and found a new spot in the Flatiron district, near Eataly and the Rizzoli Bookstore. But to renovate and move will require an investment of $250,000 to $350,000. (He also operates a store on the Upper West Side, at 217 West 84th St., which opened in 2017.) Many might wonder why a store that has been so successful would need to find a
CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
WEEK OF NOVEMBER
14-20 2019 INSIDE
HONORING BUILDING SERVICE WORKER AWARD WINNERS Friends, family members, employers and local officials turned out in support. p. 9
ROBBIE ROBERTSON HAS HIS SAY
A new documentary about The Band tells the story of the legendary group from the perspective of its songwriter and lead guitarist. p. 13
THE FLOOR IS OPEN
It’s standing room only for slams at the Nuyorican Poets Café. p. 18
THE MUSUEM OF LOST MUSEUMS
Mayor Bill de Blasio announcing that Dermot Shea (right) will be next Commissioner of the New York Police Department, at City Hall on November 4, 2019. Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
Touring a cultural Bizarro World where the words of the MTA graphic designers are written on the subway walls. p. 6
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SPRING ARTS PREVIEW
WEEK OF APRIL
< CITYARTS, P.12
FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL
presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration a lay point of view,” lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders separate a in and then, how he arrived his decision, detailing Visitors to the blog at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want unthey whether really want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiArbitration Man, suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in actions the owners, policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s quantitative give us the first with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step problem. the xing fi of deformality for To really make a difference, process is a mere complete their will have to to are the work course, the advocaterising rents, precinct, but chances-- thanks to a velopers looking find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout lives on who problem. Angelo, vexing most said Mildred construction permits gauge what Buildings one of the Ruppert said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She on the Over the past is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever Every New Yorker clang, tion Act tangible signs go as they please. work between early, and some come metal-on-metal can construction any small sound: the or on the weekend, have no respect.” the piercing of progress. For many can’t come p.m. and 7 a.m., the hollow boom, issuance of these business owners, that moving in reverse. as after-hours. The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
Newscheck
for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
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CONTINUED ON PAGE
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FROM K-POP TO THE CONCERT HALL
MUSIC
Traditional Korean music draws American audiences BY MIN JI KOO
Traditional Korean music, with its colorful zithers, cymbals, powerful voice and drumming, is starting to invade the American music scene. The Tune, an all-female band from Korea, continued a national tour at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium on Nov. 7, following a 30-day tour by Korean percussionist Kim So Ra that turned heads from New York to Indiana. “Although Korean music has a broad spectrum of topics, melodies, and sounds, most American audience members may think only Korean pop as Korean music,” said Lee Soung Soon, a percussionist of The
Tune. “Now, it’s our turn to show our diversified music.” The Tune reinterprets traditional music to appeal to the U.S. market, said Lee, incorporating the sound of a modern keyboard instrument in tandem with traditional instruments – most typically a drum, stringed instruments like a zither and a variety of wind instruments. The Tune also employs a traditional “call and response” technique, Gutgury, adopted in K-Pop in which performers establish a rhythm with instruments and voices, and draw audience members to respond to the beat with their own voices. ““We briefly introduce a few words, and people start to say those words following beats,” said Lee. “That is the part where our audiences get the most excited.”
Heart Beats Cynthia Chen, like most Americans, had never heard Korean tradi-
The Tune, a Korean traditional music band, employs a “call and response” technique. Photo courtesy of The Tune.
tional music. But after her favorite Korean pop band BTS injected some traditional sounds and beats into a hit song, she was drawn to Kim’s New York concert. Now, she’s a devotee: “I can feel my heart beats with the music.” “Until now, we just did not know how to step into the U.S. market,” said Kim. She emphasized that Ko-
rean music has a great weapon to grab American listeners: rhythm. “Unlike melodies that your brain memorizes, beats are what your body directly feels,” she said. Korean music has distinctive and rare rhythm systems like a 48-beat system. The Tune also strongly agreed that Korean traditional music has
rhythm patterns that, in Lee’s words, “straightforwardly strikes into listeners’ hearts.” Both Kim and The Tune bet that Korean music has great potential to attract an American audience. Shades Adeyemo, programming coordinator at the Atrium at Lincoln Center, apparently agreed, having booked The Tune soon thereafter.
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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG STATS FOR THE WEEK
MAN MUGGED ON THOMPSON ST.
Reported crimes from the 1st precinct for the week ending Nov 3
It was all tricks and no treats for a pedestrian who was mugged the night before Halloween. At 7:50 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 30, police said, a 30-year-old man was walking on Thompson St. between Canal and Grand Sts. when eight men in their 20s approached him from behind and grabbed his Bose headphones off of his head. According to police, one of the men said “Don’t make this harder than it has to be” and then proceeded to punch, kick and choke the victim. The victim later told police that the suspects also took his coat and bag and fled on foot. The items stolen included the Bose headphones worth $350, a green Stüssy jacket valued at $100, and three Halloween costumes selling for $50, making a total stolen of $500. The victim was in pain, but he declined medical attention at the scene.
VIOLENT ASSAULT ON EXCHANGE PLACE A 25-year-old man who woke up in the hospital with a fractured skull and a concussion told police the last thing he remembered was getting out of a taxi at the corner of
Week to Date
Year to Date
2019
2018 % Change
2019
2018 % Change
0 0
0 1
n/a -100.0
1 11
1 22
0.0 -50.0
5 5
4 2
25.0 150.0
59 87
67 49
-11.9 77.6
Grand Larceny
2 26
4 37
-50.0 -29.7
115 874
62 922
85.5 -5.2
Grand Larceny Auto
1
0
n/a
17
20
-15.0
Murder Rape Robbery Felony Assault Burglary
Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr
Exchange Pl. and Hanover St. The apparent victim of a violent mugging, the man was returning home from a night out at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 3, when the attack occurred. Items of his property were missing, and unauthorized charges turned up on his Capital One credit card, which he subsequently canceled. The stolen belongings included an iPhone 10 valued at $600, a silver Hugo Boss watch priced at $600, an iPhone 7 worth $450 and a black leather wallet selling for $50, making a total
stolen of $1,700.
POLICE SEEK SUSPECT IN SUBWAY MUGGING At 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 28, on the southbound A train platform in the Broadway/Nassau St., police said, a woman threatened to throw another woman on the tracks, shoved her and then took the victim’s cell phone, an iPhone 8 Plus valued at $500. The victim, 23, refused medical attention at the
precinct station house. Police are looking for April Council, 29, of Brooklyn, in connection with the incident.
EXPENSIVE MISTAKE At 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2, a 71-year-old woman from Westport, CT placed her bag on the sidewalk in front of 60 Mercer St. She walked away from the bag, and when she returned five minutes later it was gone. Police said that a nearby security camera showed a man with
long blonde hair and a mustache taking the bag and fleeing north on Mercer St. The bag was found in front of 26 Mercer. The items stolen included a two-tone yellow-andwhite-gold Piaget watch valued at $20,000, an iPhone valued at $1,000, makeup worth $600, a Purl Soho gift card valued at $300, a Container Store gift card worth $200, a purse selling for $200 and four credit cards, making a total stolen of $22,300. The victim’s stolen iPhone had been turned off so it could not be tracked.
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Subway passengers ignore the elaboratelypresented, essentially useless “Art Stop” information. Photos: Douglas Feiden
THE MUSEUM OF LOST MUSEUMS UNDERGROUND
Touring a cultural Bizarro World where the words of the MTA graphic designers are written on the subway walls. The only problem: They’re almost all outdated, confusing, inaccurate or just plain wrong.
historians can mine a vanished era that’s merely 19 years old.
Where’s Winnie?
“So what are you waiting for? Head on up and see the sights!” Display panel on a midtown E train station platform
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
For better or worse, the latest territorial expansion of one museum on West 53rd Street could never have been accomplished without the real estate deal that triggered the total obliteration of another. The Museum of Modern Art quite literally bulldozed its way through a controversy that erupted when it purchased the home of its nextdoor neighbor to the west, the American Folk Art Museum. It ignored the howling of critics, architects and preservationists seeking to save the beloved if quirky building as it advanced its broader artistic mission – reimagining how Modernism is showcased in the 21st century. MoMA bought the distinctive structure in 2011 as the smaller museum exited midtown to reclaim property it owned at 2 Lincoln Square, then in 2014, unapologetically demolished the folk-art gem.
Into that void it built new gallery space, elongating its linear campus to the west. And thus, on Oct. 21, it officially unveiled its latest supersized addition, the fifth since it opened its doors on 53rd Street in 1939. But there is one place on the block where, if you believe the writing on the wall, this entire drama never occurred. MoMA’s latest $450 million makeover? Never happened. Its $858 million overhaul in 2004? Nope. As for the Folk Art Museum, it was never razed. In fact, it hadn’t even opened yet. But the masterwork by husband-and-wife architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien was under construction and said to be “coming soon.” The time-defying setting is the downtown platform wall of the Fifth Avenue / 53rd Street subway station on the E and M lines, known as the MTA’s “Art Stop.” Filled with
The Winnie the Pooh dolls at the Donnell Library as displayed on the wall panels of the MTA's "Art Stop" at the Fifth Avenue / 53rd Street station. The dolls moved out in 2008 when the library was closed prior to its demolition in 2011. Photos: Douglas Feiden
73 eye-catching, porcelain enamel panels, it utilizes photos and graphics to portray and promote a range of museums and cultural treasures, all supposedly found on the streets above.
A Gallery of Ghosts But Art Stop was installed in 2000. The two intervening decades saw a meteoric rise in real estate valuations. And
a corresponding shakeout of museums and arts nonprofits struggling to stay afloat in midtown. The result is that all six institutions featured in the exhibit – four on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, two around the corner – were suddenly in play: Two were torn down, three left the neighborhood, three rebranded and changed their
names, and only one, MoMA, remained, doubling its footprint, in part by gobbling up space vacated by two exneighbors. Exactly none of these epochal changes are reflected in Art Stop. The place has turned into a kind of time capsule. Walkable, explorable, it is almost a museum in itself – a parallel universe, preserved in amber – in which cultural
But a public space broadcasting bad or misleading information without qualifiers can also have real-life consequences as unsuspecting tourists get bum steers, outdated tips and confusing or inaccurate directions. Consider the McGrath family of Minnesota: Eight-yearold Ellen had wanted to see the famed Winnie-the-Pooh dolls, and her mother Susan had found a listing in an old online guide saying they were on display at the Donnell Library Center at 20 West 53rd St. Sure enough, the subway wall panels still showcase the Donnell’s longtime draw. And the original characters – Winnie and best friends Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger and Kanga – are said to be “on exhibit” in the library’s Central Children’s Room. There’s even a large evocative photo of the five of them with the works of A. A. Milne in the foreground. But the Donnell was closed in 2008, and the climate-controlled, bullet-proof case Winnie shared with his pals moved that year to the 42nd Street flagship of the York Public Library. The branch was demolished in 2011, and
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That was then: Five of the six museums on this map either moved out, were demolished or have been rebranded. The sixth, MoMA, bears little resemblance to the way it is portrayed in the MTA’s Art Stop.
the 50-story, hyper-luxe Baccarat Hotel and Residences rose on the site. A smaller library, essentially in the basement of the Baccarat, opened in 2016. But the Donnell name disappeared, and Winnie the Pooh never returned to the new 53rd Street Library. “I’m going to see Eeyore, I’m going to see Eeyore!” Ellen McGrath cried out, referring to her favorite. The McGraths were lucky. By happenstance, a transit worker passing by had watched the scene unfold, and she helpfully explained what had happened and where the dolls could now be found, and so the family good-naturedly left the subway and walked south toward the main library. “You’ll still get to see Eeyore!” said Susan McGrath. She explained that this was her daughter’s first trip to the city, and that she had no intention of letting a few “alternative facts” get in the way.
The Bureaucracy Responds Of course, not every encounter with wrong information will have such a happy ending. So Straus News asked the MTA if it was concerned about potentially misleading tourists and New Yorkers with old information – and if it had considered adding an explanatory panel to update the location of the museums and their names today to address any possible confusion. The response: “We’re working on an update to this installation and will have more information to
share in the near future,” said Andrei Berman, an agency spokesperson. No timetable or other specifics were provided, but these are among the fallacies in Art Stop that could possibly be redressed: ■ The American Folk Art Museum is said to be “coming to 53rd Street soon.” Actually, it came (in 2001, after breaking ground in 1999) and then left (in 2011, for its old home at Lincoln Square) after defaulting on $32 million in bond debt and selling its building at 45 West 53rd St. to MoMA, which razed it three years later. ■ The photo of MoMA in the art panels depicts a modestsized, almost quaint-looking museum that hadn’t been altered since 1984, bearing scant resemblance to today’s sprawl. Nothing in the images shows how MoMA transformed 53rd Street into a glass-and-steel canyon that “can bring to mind the headquarters of Darth Vader’s hedge fund,” as New York Times architectural critic Michael Kimmelman wrote in an October review. ■ The “American Craft Museum,” located at 40 West 53rd St. Those two simple facts are both wrong. It hasn’t used that name since 2002, when it became the Museum of Arts and Design. And it left the block in 2008, moving up to Columbus Circle. Unsurprisingly, the space is now occupied by the MoMA Design Store. ■ The “Museum of Television & Radio,” located at 25 West 52nd St. Well, at least the address is right. It was re-
branded the Paley Center for Media in 2007 and hasn’t functioned as a traditional museum in years. ■ The Municipal Art Society of New York, located in the 1884 Villard Houses at 457 Madison Ave., and showcasing a public exhibition space called the Urban Center. But it decamped from the brownstones across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dec. 2009, moved up to 57th St. and shuttered the Urban Center, where it held civic-minded lectures, panel discussions, exhibits and design presentations. “We have since returned to the corner of 51st and Madison Avenue in the landmark LOOK Building, across the street from our former home,” MAS said in a statement. “Although we no longer have a formal public exhibition space, much of the advocacy work reflected in the station ads – such as our campaign to protect the public realm from shadows cast by private development – continues to this day,” it added. “We also host frequent public events at the new office, like our upcoming ‘Closer LOOK: Artists Rights’ event on Nov. 18.” “So what are you waiting for?” one of the Art Stop display panels asks. “Head on up and see the sights!” it grandly proclaims. But of the six sights promoted in the MTA’s underground time warp, not a single one exists as advertised. invreporter@strausnews.com
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UES RETAIL: CHAIN, CHAIN, CHAIN EAST SIDE OBSERVER
BY ARLENE KAYATT
There was a time - When the UES didn’t look like a drive across the country where all you would likely see were strip malls with every manner of retail and commerce. Couldn’t help but think of that while walking along Third Ave. north of 65th St. - Target, Nordstrom Rack (not to be confused with Nordstrom 57) and all those empty storefronts along both sides of the avenue that don’t
bode well for anything but other chain stores or big box businesses. Or do we really need another bank? Another mega supermarket? Another hospital or rehab facility? I will say that walk-in medical facilities like City MD and Urgent Care are welcome, as are walk-in med facilities for pets. One East Side local business story that’s really worth noting is Health Nuts, which started out in the 1960s or early 70s as a really small, compact local business on the northeast corner of Second Ave. between 63rd and
64th Sts. Today, it takes up almost half of the block. I’m wondering if a similarly named business coming to the southwest corner of Third Ave. on, I think 65th St., is the same ownership. The little shop that could - and did. A welcome in NY story: Going nuts. A good thing. Truth in naming - Everybody, except maybe fake news types, wants the truth, especially when they are buying something. Even the U.S. Congress recognizes a need for truth in lending. And there’s an Act which protects con-
sumers with lenders and creditors. And if it goes through, there will be a Truth in Spending Act, saying that a bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law. So how about a practice or policy that protects the consumers against false names for let’s say restaurants? Like that nice little restaurant calling itself Bread N Wine on Lexington Ave in the 90s. Since opening in the last year they haven’t been able to serve wine because they don’t
NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
Voices yet have a liquor license. And except for bread used for sandwiches, I’ve never seen a shelfful of loaves for purchase during the day or evening. They do have good soups and salads. But I’m there for bread and wine and that’s what they’re supposed to be selling. To add insult to injury, they promote an all-day $6 wine. Just not at their eponymous shoppe. A 3,000 year-old date Leave it to chef Dino Redzic to celebrate old-fashioned pizza by serving it the way it was made back in the era of King Darius, whose his soldiers baked flatbread on their shields and which were later covered with cheese and dates. Dino and his partner Nick Krkuti call their newly
opened pizza parlor simply Old Fashioned Pizza. And dates are among the toppings offered. The shop is located on East 13th St., just west of Second Ave. During the day and early evening, it’s buzzing with school-age kids from the neighborhood who enjoy the slices and sometimes a whole pie, especially those with dates, and the ones with pepperoni or lasagna. For the grab-and-goers, kids and grown-ups alike, there are salads and sodas in the fridge. It’s all self-serve and sit down for slices, whole pies, soda, garlic knots, strombolis, calzones. The only beverages served are soda, Snapple, and bottled water. “Absolutely no wine,“ says Dino, “not with kids as customers.” Way to go.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MET’S ‘PAY WHAT YOU WISH’ MUSEUMS
BY PAT NICHOLSON
Before my husband passed away in 2013 and my subsequent relocation, my family lived across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art where, for us, the Museum was a “park activity,” not a “destination attraction”. So, in early 2000, when the Museum invited Fifth Avenue co-op board members to attend a meeting to learn details of a planned expansion, which included dynamiting the plaza and adding a floor, I chose to attend. I wasn’t an “activist” – yet. But at meeting’s end I began what turned out to be a 19year information-gathering campaign to mitigate the Museum’s expansion and overturn its “pay-what-you-wish but you-must-pay-some-
thing” – now “the amount you pay is up to you” - admissions policy, as well as similar policies at 12 other institutions on NYC park land, among them the American Museum of Natural History and the Brooklyn Museum.
Barriers to Culture and Learning Though Fifth Avenue had become home, I grew up in the city’s housing projects and knew first-hand that admission fees – even if veiled as “voluntary” – were barriers. Most, if not all of us, are embarrassed to give less than what is stated in big boldface type. As then, many city adults today – including numerous elderly – are without $25 ($17 for seniors) to pay the Museum’s suggested “General Admission” fee. To be clear, because New York City contracted by 1878 lease to build and let Central
Park buildings to the Museum rent-free, the 1893 State Legislature passed a law putting the onus on the Museum to provide unfettered access to New Yorkers. Yet the Museum perpetuates an admissions policy which denies our cultural legacy to our most impressionable, while in effect violating New York State law. Parks Council Annual Reports from the late 1800s portray a special vision for the Museum, justifying the beginnings of the city’s and Museum’s public-private partnership: That it be an anchor for a park “education campus” open to all. The vision includes attention to the large city-wide immigrant population.
An Annual Billion-Dollar Windfall Because of “packaging,” some are persuaded to view the Museum’s “pay any
amount you wish” policy as an act of good will. It is not. It is a conscious campaign to take money from New Yorkers’ pockets because Museum and city leaders are silent on this seminal fact: at 2,000,000+ square feet, the Museum’s rent forgiveness now approximates One Billion Dollars annually. Ch. 476 of the Laws of 1893, unequivocally provides New Yorkers free-of-all charge entry to an “open and accessible” Museum five days each week, one being Sunday afternoon, and two evenings in the week, and during all operating hours for art students, copyists and schools.
Time for Action If the Museum were to operate in compliance with Ch. 476, its signage would be succinct and its bottom line over time positive, since millions of visitors from out of state
Photo: Brian Lauer via Flickr
would still pay admission fees. As demonstrated on my Free Admission (FA) website, while the key 19th century law has gone unenforced, the Museum’s signage reads as though an admissions fee is mandated for New Yorkers. You now know it is not. FA believes the time is ripe to reach out to New York Attorney General Letitia James
to insist that she undertake to enforce Ch. 476 of the Laws of 1893 with respect to the Museum and the laws for the other 12 institutions on park land. To learn more about all of this, and to sign a petition to Attorney General James, visit my Free Admission [FA] website at museums4allnyc.com
President & Publisher, Jeanne Straus nyoffice@strausnews.com
STRAUS MEDIA your neighborhood news source nyoffice@strausnews.com 212-868-0190
Vice President/CFO Otilia Bertolotti Vice President/CRO Vincent A. Gardino advertising@strausnews.com
Associate Publishers Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth Regional Sales Manager Tania Cade
Account Executives Fred Almonte, David Dallon Director of Partnership Development Barry Lewis
Editor-In-Chief Alexis Gelber Deputy Editor David Noonan
Senior Reporter Doug Feiden Staff Reporter Emily Higginbotham
Director of Digital Pete Pinto Director of Design Christina Scotti
NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
HONORING BUILDING SERVICE WORKER AWARD WINNERS CELEBRATIONS
Friends, family members, employers and local officials turned out in support Straus Media-Manhattan joined forces with 32BJ SEIU last Wednesday to recognize the accomplishments of 21 building service workers for the 13th annual Building Service Workers Awards. Friends, family members and employers attended the award ceremony, hosted by NY1 anchor Errol Louis. 32BJ President Kyle Bragg opened the evening’s events, and Straus Media President and Publisher Jeanne Straus expressed appreciation for the leadership of the late Hector Figueroa. Local elected officials turned out to congratulate
Honorees after the event with emcee Errol Louis (center) and Straus Media President and Publisher Jeanne Straus (right of center). Photos: Ciro J. Napolitano
Clementine James, winner of the Idrissa Camara Award for the Security Officer of the Year at a Public or City Building.
the honorees and present their awards, including U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, State Senator Brad Hoylman, State Senator Brian Benjamin, State Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, State Assembly Member Dick Gottfried, NYC
Comptroller Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, City Council Member Ben Kallos, City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez and City Council Member Helen Rosenthal.
Hamid Mouhcine (center), Downtown Doorman of the Year, with State Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal and Jeanne Straus.
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Agora Gallery 530 West 25th St 6:00 p.m. Free Photo: Jacob Akira Okada agora-gallery.com 212-226-4151 A feature documentary telling the story of Ed Belbruno, a NASA mathematician and artist whose space-inspired paintings have sparked ideas for scientific discoveries and mathematical formulas. Belbruno, whose work is on display at the gallery through Nov 22, will be joined at the screening by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND
thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY
Ticket To…Rwanda
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19TH, 7PM The Greene Space | 44 Charlton St. | 646-829-4000 | thegreenespace.org Get immersed in Rwandan culture 25 years after the devastating genocide. Scholastique Mukasonga’s Our Lady of the Nile novel, conversations, comedy, and a taste of a Rwandan delicacy are all on the bill ($15).
MOCATalks: Anna May Wong and Television Stardom
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20TH, 6:30PM Museum of Chinese in America | 215 Centre St. | 212-619-4785 | moca.org Author and Baruch professor Danielle Seid speaks on iconic Asian American film star Anna May Wong, with a look at her later-career performances and her “symbolic importance to the transition from the Chinese exclusion era to 1950s Cold War multiculturalism” ($15, includes wine).
Just Announced | City Winery Presents: BETTY Holiday Show with Special Guest Gloria Steinem
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8TH, 7PM The Cutting Room | 44 E. 32nd St. | 212-691-1900 | thecuttingroomnyc.com Pop trio BETTY returns for their infamous holiday show, mixing music with their struggle for human rights. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem joins to deliver her annual Top 10 Gift List ($35 & up).
For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,
sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.
Thu 14
Fri 15
Sat 16
BLACK AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR ▲
FILM: KILLER’S KISS (1955)
LA MAMA PUPPET SLAM
6 River Terrace 6:00 p.m. Free Stanley Kubrick’s second feature film is the story of an aging boxer who gets mixed up with a nightclub dancer and her violent boss. bpca.ny.gov 212-417-2000
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club 66 East 4th St 8:00 p.m. $20 These condensed works of puppetry are original, compelling, brilliant, witty, tragic, funny, stunning, startling, ironic, exotic, political, lyrical, musical, beautiful, intellectual, experimental, wild ... and always demonstrate genius in a matter of minutes! lamama.org 212-352-3101
African Burial Ground National Monument 290 Broadway 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Free Black soldiers fought in every battle of the Revolutionary War, making up 10 to 15 percent of what historians have called the most integrated army prior to the Korean War. This weeklong Veterans Day exhibit delves into their oftenoverlooked history. nps.gov 212-238-4367
NOVEMBER 14-20,2019
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NEIGHBORHOOD’S BEST To place an ad in this directory, Call Douglas at 212-868-0190 ext. 352.
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The Red Room 85 East 4th St 7:00 p.m. Free You are invited to a meeting of The Tail & Whisker Club, New York’s finest salon for cat people and friends of cat people. Featuring comedy, conversation, Q&As, and the Cat Quiz (with prizes at stake). No cover, but seating is very limited so arrive on time! letstalkaboutcats.com 212-505-3360
Regal Union Square 14 850 Broadway 7:00 p.m. $12.50 On a journey to find the cure for a curse, a young warrior meets an enigmatic princess and finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and industrial forces. Subtitled. fathomevents.com 855-473-4612
9/11 Memorial & Museum 180 Greenwich St 7:00 p.m. $40 As a complement to the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s upcoming exhibition on the hunt for bin Laden, al-Qaeda experts discuss the future of the terrorist group. 911memorial.org 212-312-8800
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NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
ART FOR EVERYDAY PEOPLE EXHIBITS
IF YOU GO
The Jewish Museum celebrates Russian-immigrant gallerist, Edith Halpert, promoter of American art BY VAL CASTRONOVO
New York art dealer Edith Halpert (1900-1970) may have zero name recognition, but the names of the artists she represented in her more than four-decade career are eminently recognizable: Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Elie Nadelman, Jacob Lawrence and so many more. She opened the Downtown Gallery in free-spirited Greenwich Village in 1926, when she was only 26, and made it a showcase for contemporary American art— and just that—the first art space of its kind. One of the city’s original female gallerists, she had a simple, very American formula: democratize art and make it accessible to everyday
Edith Halpert in 1955 with Georgia O’Keeffe’s In the Patio IX, one of the prizes of her personal collection. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Downtown Gallery records. Photo: Cathy Carver
What: “Edith Halpert and the Rise of American Art” Where: The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Ave at 92nd St When: Through February 9, 2020. thejewishmuseum.org people. Take it off the pedestal and offer it up at affordable prices, on the installment plan. “Before she came along, art collecting, and even going to museums, was a fairly exclusive activity,” curator Rebecca Shaykin told us. “She really did a lot to make art popular and keep her gallery welcoming and unintimidating … She encouraged people to buy and feel like anybody could be an art collector if you love art and you want to live with it.”
New Ideas, Great Art Halpert, who had a background in retail, held print sales in December to encourage purchases of art for the holidays, and advertised end-of-season markdowns to lure buyers. “You had to attract [clients] with ideas … nobody ever dreamed of giving a work of art for Christmas,“ the exhibit catalog quotes her. “That was a new idea. They’d come in, they’d look around, and they’d see a print, a lithograph, or something, and for twenty-five bucks they could give somebody a gift and prove that they were very cultured people.” She located her gallery in a townhouse at 113 West 13th Street, near artists’ studios and far from the swank galleries in Midtown. Her story is the story of a self-made Russian-Jewish immigrant who had a knack for business and a major hand “in helping to shape and define what American art is—somebody who had a very inclusive vision of what American art and culture could be,” Shaykin said.
Jacob Lawrence, This Is Harlem, 1943, gouache and pencil on paper. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966. Artwork © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Cathy Carver
As the show here demonstrates, she not only identified many of the major modern artists of the 20th century, but she also took pains to seek out a range of talent—women, African Americans, Asian Americans, Jews—practicing in a range of styles. She guided collectors like Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and Duncan Phillips, whose holdings were subsequently donated to major public institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. The exhibit of some 100 items is replete with abstract beauties by Stuart Davis (“Egg Beater No. 1,” 1927), precisionist works by Charles Sheeler (“Americana,” 1931), social realist works by Ben Shahn (“Hunger,” 1946), boldly colored paintings from Jacob Lawrence’s Harlem Series (“This is Harlem, 1943), plus prints, sculpture and folk art.
Trailblazing, and Controversy Because Halpert’s embrace of American art had one foot in the present but another foot in the past. She saw the aesthetic value of naïve portraits and quintessentially American objects like weather vanes, trade
signs and Shaker boxes, and founded a second gallery, the American Folk Art Gallery, on the second floor of her establishment to showcase these “American ancestors.” (The Downtown Gallery eventually migrated uptown to East 51st Street in 1940, but kept its name.) As Lithuanian-born artist William Zorach, part of her roster, put it: “[She] did not take the easy way of promoting and selling European art where the path was clear and well trodden. She … realized that if this country was ever to have an American art, it had to come out of American artists.” A savvy businesswoman, she never shied away from controversy; in fact, she turned it to her advantage. One of the most dramatic items on view here is Zorach’s “Spirit of the Dance” (1932), a bronze sculpture of a nude female dancer, captured at the moment her performance ends. The artist was commissioned to produce a figurative piece for the lower lounge of the brand-new Radio City Music Hall, then the largest theater in the world. But the nude he presented, cast in polished aluminum, shocked Radio
City’s owner, “Roxy” Rothafel, and was removed shortly before the theater’s scheduled opening, to the consternation of many in the art world and beyond. Enter Edith Halpert, who took the original plaster iteration and exhibited it with great fanfare at her Downtown Gallery, just hours before the curtain rose at Radio City on opening night, December 27, 1932. The stunt worked, and the result was a stream of favorable press. The New York Times enthused that “Spirit” was “one of the most significant pieces of plastic art ever produced in America.” Radio City caved, and the censored sculpture was ultimately returned to the music hall where it belonged, and where it can now be seen in the Grand Lounge. Halpert’s promotion of modern American artists at the expense of the European avant-garde is but one of her lasting contributions, of course. As a woman in art who was “kind of a one-woman band,” Shaykin said, she was also “an incredible inspiration to the next generation—to gallerists and curators and the collectors who came up under her guidance.”
NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
ROBBIE ROBERTSON HAS HIS SAY PUBLIC EYE
A new documentary about The Band tells the story of the legendary group from the perspective of its songwriter and lead guitarist BY JON FRIEDMAN
I’m going to write something unpopular right here about the story of The Band, one of the most beloved groups in rock and roll history: Robbie Robertson, its songwriter, lead guitarist and spokesman, has been treated shabbily by the supporters of Levon Helm. The group’s drummer blamed Robertson for the breakup of The Band up to his dying day in 2012. Helm all but accused Robertson of turning his back on his bandmates, hogging the lucrative songwriting credits and walking away with an inordinate share of the publishing windfall.
Not Fair or True Thanks to the ferocity of Helm’s loyal fans, these theories have gained momentum over the years. Robertson, showing massive restraint,
previously declined to address the chatter or defend his reputation. It’s not fair. It’s not right. And it’s not true. This is one of the underlying themes of the elegiac new documentary “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band,“ which will open in New York and Los Angeles before breaking “wide” a week later. I saw a screening last week, and I can assure Band fans that the film will serve as a worthy bookend to 1978’s “The Last Waltz,‘ a concert film of The Band’s last show on Thanksgiving night in 1976 in San Francisco. The Band rose to the big time after backing Bob Dylan on his ”going-electric” tours of 1965 and 1966. They were heralded as mysterious seers and have been hailed as one of the fathers of Americana roots music (whatever that is). Time put The Band on the cover of the Jan. 12, 1970 issue, proclaiming the five musicians to personify “the new sound of country rock” (although Dylan had already recorded two country albums in Nashville). In Helm’s 1993 memoir,
“This Wheel’s on Fire,“ he savagely blames Robertson for taking The Band from productivity to retirement. He asserts that Robertson wanted to leave behind the familiar cycle of touring in favor of doing film soundtracks with his Svengali, Martin Scorsese, who directed “The Last Waltz.”
A Different Story Robertson tells a different story in “Once Were Brothers,“ which is an adaptation of his terrific 2016 autobiography, “Testimony.” If the excellent film “The Last Waltz”was a celebration of The Band’s rise, “Once Were Brothers” serves as a cautionary tale of the excesses of success. The most pronounced excess, sadly, is substance abuse. Robertson’s bandmates, the sensational vocalists Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Helm himself, overdid it to the point that none of them regularly came up with original songs for Band albums after the heady triumphs of Music from Big Pink, The Band and Stage Fright, the group’s first three albums. The pressure fell to Robert-
son to write all of the songs, give interviews and basically keep The Band together. Robertson makes it clear that Helm was the big brother that he never had, as an only child. When Robertson joined forces with Helm and rockabilly master Ronnie Hawkins in the early 1960s, Robertson had achieved a dream come true: an escape from his native Toronto and a discovery of the American South, whose music, language and culture he revered. Helm, however, proved to be an unreliable mentor many years before The Band made it big and the cracks started forming. He actually walked out on a Bob Dylan tour in late 1965 because he was tired of getting booed – although Dylan, who took the brunt of the catcalls, stuck it out, as did Helm’s mates. Thus, Helm forced Dylan to find a new drummer on the fly. It’s possible that the reason Robertson decided to stop touring was that he had grown weary of holding together a band filled with party animals. It was a shame that The Band split up while it was still creating terrific music on
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NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS
food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.
OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 5, 2019 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml. Panya/Autre Kyoya
810 Stuyvesant Street
A
Taqueria Diana
129 2 Ave
Grade Pending(32) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
307 East 9 Street
B & H Restaurant
127 Second Avenue Grade Pending(47) Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. No facilities available to wash, rinse and sanitize utensils and/or equipment. 119 1St Ave
Grade Pending(35) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, crosscontaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or nonfood areas
Beauty Bar
231 E 14th St
Grade Pending(22) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
Bite Food & Coffee
820 Broadway
Not Yet Graded(58) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Food contact surface improperly constructed or located. Unacceptable material used. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
D.B.A.
41 1St Ave
441 East 6 Street
A
Ace Bar
531 East 5 Street
A
The Summit
133 Avenue C
A
Bg Bar/Mehanata
113 Ludlow Street
A
Black Crescent
76 Clinton St
A
Mission Chinese Food
171 E Broadway
Not Yet Graded(12) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Las Lap
74 Orchard St
Grade Pending(26) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.
Don Ceviche
88 Essex St
Grade Pending(35) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Food contact surface improperly constructed or located. Unacceptable material used.
Arancini Bros
88 Essex St
A
The Masala Wala
179 Essex Street
A
Hou Yi Hot Pot
92 Hester St
A
Lupe’S East L.A. Kitchen
110 Avenue Of The Americas
A
Little Ways
343 W Broadway
Not Yet Graded(85) Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided. Insufficient or no refrigerated or hot holding equipment to keep potentially hazardous foods at required temperatures.. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Sushi Azabu
428 Greenwich Street
A
Lunella Ristorante
173 Mulberry Street
Grade Pending(20) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
A
Mudspot
Oiji
Cherry Tavern
Grade Pending(15) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Live animals other than fish in tank or service animal present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
Kotobuki
56 3rd Ave
A
Lao Ma Spicy
58 E 8th St
Grade Pending(23) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies or food/refuse/sewageassociated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-
Golden King Bakery 90 Bowery
The Grey Dog
49 Carmine St
Grade Pending(20) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred. A
NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
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Neighborhood Scrapbook
Everything you like about Our Town Downtown is now available to be delivered to your mailbox every week in the Downtowner From the very local news of your neighborhood to information about upcoming events and activities, the new home delivered edition of the Downtowner will keep you in-the-know.
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It’s your neighborhood. It’s your news. Artist Rubem Robierb with his “Dandara” sculpture. Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images for Mastercard
TRANS TRIBUTE IN TRIBECA PARK City parks have been showing public art since 1967, and the newest installation is a work in Tribeca Park by Rubem Robierb, from the artist’s “Dream Machine” series. The 10-foot sculpture, “Dandara,“ is dedicated to the transgender GNC (gender non-conforming) community in honor of Dandara, a transgender woman who was murdered in Brazil in 2017. “In tribute to the strength and bravery of the Trans GNC community,“ Robierb says, “Dandara
has an important message and meaning and I felt that NYC was a place to showcase this on a public scale.” The artist, who was born in Brazil and now lives in NYC, names his “Dream Machine” sculptures after people who fought for their own dreams, or those of others. Robierb designed the large fiberglass butterfly wings so the public can interact with the sculpture. “Dandara” will be on display through May 4, 2020.
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NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
HOLIDAY CRUNCH TIME
Business
MARKETING
Retailers seek to stretch out this year’s short shopping season BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AND JOSEPH PISANI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
All they want for Christmas is more time. Faced with the shortest holiday shopping season since 2013, retailers are trying to figure out ways to get into the minds of shoppers sooner. Walmart, for instance, began offering holiday deals online for toys, TVs and mini trampolines nearly a week before Halloween. And the owner of Zales and Kay Jewelers said it spent more on advertising between August and October. Target Corp. says it’s spending $50 million more on payroll during the fourth quarter than it did a year ago so that there’ll be more workers on hand to help harried shoppers scrambling to get their shopping done in a shorter amount of time. “This is going to be a very compressed holiday season,‘’ Target’s CEO Brian Cornell told reporters during last week’s holiday preview in New York. “We lose one full weekend during the holiday. Every single day counts, from Black Friday to
BOOKS OF WONDER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 new home. For many years, Glassman said, the financial stability of the Chelsea store was dependent on the contribution of its sub-tenant, a bakery/cafe/caterer. That business was responsible for 40 percent of the rent and other expenses. But they went out of business during the great recession, owing more than $300,000. Glassman found another sub-tenant, Birdbath Bakery, a division of City Bakery, that he said paid faithfully the first few years. But it ran into fi-
We lose one full weekend during the holiday. Every single day counts, from Black Friday to Christmas Eve.’’ Target CEO Brian Cornell
Christmas Eve.’’ Steve Bratspie, who oversees Walmart’s merchandise in the U.S., says shoppers will likely not realize there’re fewer shopping days this year until it’s too late. “We plan for them,‘’ he says. Target superstore on the Upper East Side. Photo: Jason Cohen
Six Fewer Days Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November. In 1939, at the tail-end of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed Thanksgiving to the third Thursday in November as a way to goose the economy and create more shopping days before Christmas, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. But people continued to celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday and in 1941, it was officially changed back. This year, Thanksgiving will land on Nov. 28, the latest possible date it can be. That leaves the holiday shop-
nancial difficulty, he said, and left him having to pay most of the rent. “Their financial troubles made it impossible for them to keep up with their share of the rent, leaving us in debt,” Glassman said.
A Lifetime of Books Glassman, 59, grew up in Caldwell, N.J., and fell in love with books at a young age. Though his parents, Robert and Sandy, didn’t share his passion, they were business people like him. His dad owned a children’s clothing manufacturer and his mom worked with him. “By the time I was 13, eve-
ping season with six fewer days than last year. Adobe Analytics predicts a loss of $1 billion in revenue from a shortened season. Still, it expects online sales will reach $143.7 billion, up 14.1% from last year’s holiday season. Amazon said it doesn’t expect much of an impact. “The purchases tend to move around,‘’ said Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, adding that people may buy more later in the season knowing they’ll get their gifts delivered quickly.
ryone knew I was the kid who loved books,” he recalled. At the age of 14, he applied to the three bookstores in his town and none hired him. But a year later, Book World gave him a job. It was there that he learned the business, and within six months he was the buyer for sci-fi and fantasy books. After attending Brown University and dabbling in acting, Glassman realized he was happiest around books. So, at 20, he took a leap of faith and opened his first store. Books of Wonder launched in September 1980 at 444 Hudson Street. The original
Economy and Job Market Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist at trade group National Retail Federation, says he baked the shorter season into his holiday forecast. However, the real drivers of sales, he says, will be the economy and the job market. NRF predicts a healthy increase of anywhere between 3.8% and 4.2% increase for November and December, above the disappointing 2.1 % gain from a year ago. The last time the holiday season was cut short, in 2013, sales rose a modest 2.9%, according to NRF’s
idea was for the store to be devoted primarily to antique children’s books, until Glassman discovered that he didn’t have enough antique books to fill his shelves. He quickly added a section of new children’s books. “As only a 20year-old could, I thought I knew it all,” he said.
A Business and a Passion In 1986, Books of Wonder expanded with the opening of a second store at 132 Seventh Ave., on the corner of 18th St. As business boomed at the Seventh Avenue location, Glassman expanded that space and, in 1993, closed the
analysis of holiday spending. But Kleinhenz says it’s hard to isolate the impact of the shorter season because retailers were hurt by several big factors, including a series of winter storms as well as a government shutdown. Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consulting group, thinks retailers are using the quirk in the calendar as just another excuse if holiday sales don’t live up to expectations. “We think it is a bogus excuse,‘’ Johnson said. “It may have worked in the olden day before the internet.’’
Hudson Street store. In 1996 they moved to 16 West 18th St, and eight years later they moved to 18 West 18th. “It just grew and grew over the years,” he explained. Families flocked to the store, and famous authors, including J.K. Rowling, Madeleine L’Engle, Lloyd Alexander and Maurice Sendak, all visited. “We always recognized that the experience of visiting a bookstore was more than just the books on the shelf,” Glassman said. “It was the people in the store. I have been blessed for 40 years to have the most amazing peo-
ple work for me.” However, the debt began to pile up and ultimately he decided he didn’t want to be in a position of relying on someone else to pay rent. “I never really intended to renew the lease here,” he said. “I didn’t want to go through this again with a sub-tenant.” As he looks to the future, Glassman feels a new store will be a fresh start. “We have a very loyal following” he said. “God bless our customers. They’re wonderful. I’ve been here 15 years and it [moving] will feel weird at first, but every new space feels weird.”
NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
THE FLOOR IS OPEN SPOKEN WORD
It’s standing room only for poetry slams at the Nuyorican Poets Café BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
If you’re looking to get a seat at the poetry slams at the Nuyorican Poets Café, you better come early. A long line had already formed outside the former tenement building in Alphabet City 20 minutes before the café’s doors opened at 10 p.m. on Friday. Inside, though, many were content to sit criss-cross applesauce on the floor in front of the hundred or so already-occupied folding chairs making up the audience. Others hunched over the balcony railing for an aerial view of the stage. The drafty brick ware-
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“If you’re in the audience, and you hear a poem you don’t like, do not tackle the poet off the stage.” Emcee Jive Poetic house-like space has been packing in these crowds since 1981, but the spirit of the Nuyorican Poets Café was forged eight years earlier as a living room salon in the East Village apartment of Miguel Algarin, according the organization’s website. It was a space for poets, playwrights, and musicians of color who were not accepted by the mainstream industries to share their art. For decades, the café has continued to be a vital place
for the Latino and AfricanAmerican communities of New York to showcase their work. It was clear Friday that the slams — a contest comprised of three scored rounds in which spoken word poets recite their pieces from memory — draw people from all over the city. “Manhattan in the building?” asked Jive Poetic, the night’s emcee, conducting a borough check. His question was greeted by moderate applause. “Now how about Harlem?” he asked, this time eliciting raucous cheers. “OK, out-oftowners, let me explain to you what just happened. Harlem is in Manhattan — it just don’t think so.” Poetic ran through the boroughs, and “places that act like they’re boroughs,” finding representatives from Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx,
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Outside the Nuyorican Poets Café. Photo: Emily Higginbotham
Long Island, New Jersey, Westchester and even Connecticut. “Wait, last one — is Staten Island in the building,” he asked, getting no response other than laughter from the other boroughs. “OK, I just wanted to make sure.”
Code Switching and Police Violence Poetic picked five volunteers from the audience to give each of the three poets a score after their three performances. He told the judges not to let him or anyone else influence their scores. He then told the rest of the audience it was their job to influence the judges. Most of the rules were straightforward, like requir-
ing the audience to turn their phones on silent. Some rules were not. “I can’t I’m about to say this to grown ass people,” Poetic said. “But, if you’re in the audience, and you hear a poem you don’t like, do not tackle the poet off the stage. This happened two weeks ago.” The poets — two women; one man — came up one by one and easily hushed the rowdy audience with their performances. “Death is the worst kind of personal trainer,” the first performer began with a bellow, telling a story about strength, death and resurrection. They recited poems about
code switching, police violence; the pressures of being second-generation; and haunting old, unfaithful lovers. The slam seemed to serve as a cathartic community event in being able to express and share in a space that was not white. The audience responded with snaps and “mhm’s.” The judges never gave a score below an 8. After midnight, Jive Poetic tallied the score, noting everyone had to make the trek back to their respective boroughs, announced the winner and gave her the $20 prize, and the offer to open next week’s slam with a poem. In the spirit of the café, Poetic opened the floor to anyone else who wanted to share.
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Mayor Bill de Blasio announces crime statistics for the month of October at NYPD’s first community center in East New York, Nov. 6, 2019. Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
POLICE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 have to contend with looming bail and other criminal justice reforms, pressure to reduce arrests and incarcerations ahead of the planned 2026 closure of the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex, and dissent among the department’s 36,000 officers. “The deck is stacked against him,‘’ said Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD sergeant who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Shea and O’Neill have been raising concerns about the statewide reforms taking effect Jan. 1. Changes include eliminating bail for non-violent felonies, appearance tickets instead of arrests for low-level offenses and a requirement that authorities give more information to defendants before reaching a plea agreement. Criminal justice advocates say the reforms, amid a widespread shift away from mass incarceration, will bring overdue fairness to a system that has long filled jails with people who are accused of lowlevel crimes and are unable to afford bail. Law-and-order types fear letting suspects roam free will make the city less safe. O’Neill, who is leaving to become Visa Inc.’s head of global security, said he’s particularly worried that people involved in violent crimes will be let out whenever they get picked up for lesser offenses. “It’s a lot to throw at us at one time,‘’ O’Neill said.
Data-driven Strategies On top of the reforms, a recently approved plan to re-
place Rikers with four new jails around the city has officials pushing to cut the number of people locked up on a daily basis by more than half, to 3,300 inmates by 2026, from about 7,000 today. Drastic drops in crime and a shift in the NYPD’s approach to minor offenses have already helped slash the city’s jail population from a peak of nearly 22,000 in 1991, the year Shea joined the department. Shea, 50, and O’Neill, 61, worked together to unwind former police commissioner William Bratton controversial “broken windows’’ policies, which viewed low-level offenses as a gateway to bigger crimes. Shea developed datadriven strategies for fighting and preventing crime, and helped O’Neill transition the department to a communityoriented policing philosophy, which pushes officers out of their patrol cars and onto the streets so they can build bonds with residents. Shea said that approach, known as neighborhood policing, is vital to coping with the shifting criminal justice landscape. In recent years, officers switched to writing tickets for minor offenses instead of making arrests. In 2011, there were about 84,000 misdemeanor drug arrests. Last year, there were less than 24,000.
Lack of Diversity in Upper Management Shea, the Queens-bred son of Irish immigrants, worked his way up the ranks over a 28-year NYPD career from Bronx patrolman to chief of detectives. Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was dazzled early on by Shea’s intellect and saw him as "the future of the
NYPD.’’ Critics, though, pointed to a lack of transparency in the selection process and a continued lack of diversity in the department’s upper management. O’Neill’s second-incommand, Benjamin Tucker, who is black, said he was disappointed not to get the job. Shea must also navigate strained relationships with the police unions and community resentment over how officers are disciplined and what information the department shares with the public. The city’s largest police union accused department leadership of abandoning officers amid a wave of attacks on police with everything from water to a metal chair. In August, the union called on O’Neill to resign after firing an officer for the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner. A spate of officer suicides this year led O’Neill to declare a mental health crisis. The deaths of two officers in separate friendly fire incidents prompted questions about how the department trains officers to deal with such scenarios. The biggest factor in Shea’s success or failure, though, will be the crime stats, Giacalone said. New York City has seen vast drops in crime over the last three decades. Last year, there were 295 homicides in New York City - a far cry from the 2,154 the city had in 1991. Recently though, numbers in some crime categories have ticked upward, and a pair of quadruple killings last month, along with attacks on senior citizens, have left some people fearing a return of the bad old days.
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Kids will spend 11 minutes dressing Spike up like a princess. How about two minutes to brush their teeth? Brushing for two minutes now can save your child from severe tooth pain later. Two minutes, twice a day. They have the time. For fun, 2-minute videos to watch while brushing, go to 2min2x.org.
Š2013 Healthy Mouths, Healthy Lives
NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
NOVEMBER 14-20, 2019
YOUR 15 MINUTES
THE ART OF RECOVERY CREATIVITY
A brain tumor and the complications that followed disrupted Alyson Vega’s life. Then she started making things. BY SARAH BEN-NUN
“How open are you to discussing your tumor?” “Oh, completely.” Alyson Vega was in the middle of her life in 2007 on a ski trip with friends when she got a headache that didn’t go away. “I found out that I had a benign brain tumor: cavernous angioma.” The headache, the first tell, was only one symptom. This brutal thing is an “abnormal cluster of vessels with small bubbles (or caverns) filled with blood,” according to Mount Sinai Hospital. The blood flow there is slow, with the potential to leak out. Vega’s did leak in her cerebellum, near her brain stem area. She’d been teaching math at a private school for a little over two decades when the nightmare started. After an MRI and an angiogram, she went in for surgery – which meant taking the rest of the spring off, then heading back to work in September. “I took on the full teaching load when I got back, but I had no idea how much I’d changed - my personality, the skills that I’d lost, my self-
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
“When I’m not doing anything, I’m cutting things up and sewing them back together, in an arrangement that looks beautiful to me.” Alyson Vega awareness. I didn’t know how I was coming across [to people].” Her brain had suffered damage, but Vega didn’t realize how much. Many months later, she was diagnosed with Cerebellar Cognitive Affective Syndrome. It’s a clinical condition, with an array of symptoms all of its own, that may follow any cerebellar disease. It is characterized by (among other things) the impairment of executive functions such as planning, abstract reasoning and working memory, and personality changes, with blunting of affect or abnormal behavior.
“I Was Falling Apart” “Memory and attention were problems,” said Vega, now 57, “but far worse for me were reading social cues, planning, disinhibition, mental rigidity, and emotion regulation. Basically my personality changed and I did not have the self-awareness to recognize it” She lost the ability to
multitask and plan. She couldn’t teach, write on the board and talk, especially when the students were talking which was always - and also sense if somebody needed something different. “I was falling apart,” she said. “I’ve always suffered from a major depressive disorder,” Vega continued, “teaching was one of the things that kept it at bay. That, and having my daughter. They were very positive influences on my ability to perform and function.” Not only was math the “color of her parachute,” it was a way of thinking that befit her craftsmanship. She’d been following orderly sewing patterns since she was a child. “I taught myself to sew at a young age I wanted to make doll clothes. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was interested.” She got her own sewing machine at the age of twenty-five. “I followed patterns, made quilts.” Her inspiration for the patterns came from magazines and books. When she was in college there was a quilt shop in Harvard Square, she bought a magazine there and started to teach herself how to hand quilt. Vega was hospitalized twice after she returned to teaching. It was the third trip to the hospital when the weight of feigning normalcy became too heavy to bear. “My husband insisted, ‘You can’t go back there. You have to stop. ‘I agreed.” So, four years after that momentous headache, and after two-and-a-half years of struggling at a loved, comfortable job, Vega quit teaching in the winter of 2011.
A New Sense of Creativity
Alyson Vega overcame a rare disorder and reinvented herself as a fabric artist. Photos: Alyson Vega
Her routine, her stability, had been disturbed and stolen. But the same versatility that guided her through her self-taught craft followed her through the next phase: a lot of time at home, working and reworking the familiar fabric materials. Except that now, it was less restrictive and more creative. “From the surgery onwards, I began to make things. I would find things on the ground, bring them home, put them in a box, and paint on them. I started to take in things, because I couldn’t hold on to information; I sought organization, compartmentalization. I bought bags and boxes; organizing systems. I bought sweat-
To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes
Star Nebula, 26” x 26”, fabric, fiber, acrylic, woven, painted, sewn 2019.
ers, washed them, cut them up, and sewed them back together in long, long pieces. It was comforting. I needed to be doing something. I still feel that way.” The discovery of this therapeutic activity brightened up her life. It didn’t reverse the staggering effects of her brain injury, but it made it more bearable. “I felt very alienated. I’d have altercations with strangers. Someone said to me in the supermarket, ‘Why are you always talking to yourself’ — I didn’t even realize I’d been doing it. It was a coping mechanism, so I’d remember why I even went into the supermarket in the first place. I wanted to stay home and not interact with anybody.” She did that for a while, until she found others who had suffered brain injuries, and joined some support groups.
Great People and a Lot of Support In 2013, Vega heard about a New School panel that focused on mental illness and art. “By that point,” she said, “I was feeling that either I was making a huge mess, or I was making art.” She went to the lecture series and met the director of Fountain House Gallery. She started attending gallery meetings, and officially registered with Fountain House to showcase her work. “I hadn’t been there before any of this, and it really saved my life,” said Vega. “Even when I’m not making art, there are great people there; there’s a lot of support.” The Fountain House Gallery is an offshoot of Fountain House, an or-
ganization that harnesses the unique talent and substantial contribution that those suffering from mental illnesses make to their communities. “I don’t think people know enough about it,” she said, “but it’s a huge resource for people living with mental illness. I think it’s one of the most positive things that’s being done.” The small change in her brain birthed a massive change in her art, art that’s characterized by instinctual, unbound creativity. “My most successful pieces have been organic. When I’m not doing anything, I’m cutting things up and sewing them back together, in an arrangement that looks beautiful to me. Little by little, it starts to look like something. It begins with play; it’s messy. I know that I’m done when I love it, when I look at it, and love the way it looks. I don’t even know the rules of making art, so the fact that I’m breaking them, that’s what makes it feel creative to me. To try to make something that’s never been made before.” Vega’s art is currently featured at the “Small Works” exhibit at Fountain House Gallery, on view through December 20th Her work will also be featured at the Fountain House benefit, titled “Mad About Art,“ on November 21, 2019. View her work on Instagram and Artsy.
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M B S Y B X L X O K G U O K T
H H A R Q E L E W E C A R L H
N O H O B Z S E R J N J P E I
K L E G S O E S X K P N U J G
V N N V M V N P T Q S H S M H
R F G E C L P E T Z A B C V B
C Y A C C E N A S I Z X L O L
F A A G A K L K W V X M E H O
G L M S O R T L G B H X K A O
F F D K I Z M A S O E L U I D
N B L I G X K S G Z A B Q R E
The puzzle contains the following words. They may be diagonal, across, or up and down in the grid in any direction.
S R V N B F H M L T D N B L B
Ankle Arms Blood Bones Calf Cells Corpuscle Fingers Hair Head Legs Neck Skin Thigh Toes
ANSWERS L
B O
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44
45
46
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38 36 34
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33
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7
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42
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43
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41
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16
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20
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3
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19
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23
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11
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49
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48
40
35
A W E
15 1
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47
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18
37
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39
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25
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31
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26
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17
14 8
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10
H H A R Q E L E W E C A R L H
N O H O B Z S E R J N J P E I
K L E G S O E S X K P N U J G
V N N V M V N P T Q S H S M H
R F G E C L P E T Z A B C V B
C Y A C C E N A S I Z X L O L
F A A G A K L K W V X M E H O
G L M S O R T L G B H X K A O
F F D K I Z M A S O E L U I D
N B L I G X K S G Z A B Q R E
S R V N B F H M L T D N B L B
2 9
5 8
1
6
4 7
3 9 1
5 3 8
4 2
6
7
3 4 7 6 2 8 5 9 1
9 3 2 1 6 7 8 4 5
6 7 8 5 4 3 2 1 9
1 5 4 2 8 9 6 7 3
4 6 9 7 5 2 1 3 8
8 2 3 9 1 6 7 5 4
7 1 5 8 3 4 9 6 2
28. Old money 29. Last Hebrew month 30. One of Henry VIII’s six 31. Mr. Turkey 33. Road crew supply 35. I found it! 37. Finland natives 39. Back then 41. Respectively 42. Aquatic plant 43. Gave the cash for 44. Feathered stole 45. Offbeat 46. Came first 47. Undertake, with “out” 48. “Red ___” thriller, starring Rachel McAdams
Q G C R B C W Y C T Y N C N E
M B S Y B X L X O K G U O K T
50. Poem of praise 51. In tune 52. Special effects abbreviation 53. Tally (up) 54. Fill beyond full 55. Suffered from Down 1. Center’s pass 2. New Zealander 3. Support 4. Trash receptacle 5. Bother 6. Tight- ____ 7. Numbskull 8. Nothing 9. Perfect tennis serve 10. Diamond, e.g. 13. Farm call 17. NYC borough 19. City in Texas 22. In between 23. Take it easy 25. Prompted 26. Chorus member 27. Pan, e.g.
55
R D C R T S W D I G B R I A T
Q G C R B C W Y C T Y N C N E
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N W Z N Q D L F E Y D W W F S
R D C R T S W D I G B R I A T
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WORD SEARCH by Myles Mellor
N W Z N Q D L F E Y D W W F S
Across 1. Cousin of reggae 4. Soothing substance 8. Scold 11. Parker part 12. Going to the dogs, e.g. 14. Cocktail addition 15. Flabbergast 16. Response to a thank you 18. Hummus holder 20. Unfortunate 21. Quite the expert 24. Mozart’s “L’___ del Cairo” 27. Shone 30. Young fowl 32. Off shore driller 33. Start liking 34. Ancient Celtic priest 35. Domain of a noble 36. Everyone 37. Having a dense coat 38. Place to hibernate 40. Spring tide 44. Spaghetti dish 49. Like
49
4 6
I
53
51
48
43
9
9 3
D
50
47
42
9
G
46
41
2
A
40
1
C
39
1
H
45
5 8
Level: Medium
7
52
38
2 8
55
37
1
E
36
4
9
33
34
7
Y
31
5
5
T
30
32
44
26
2 9
E
29
25
6 7
A
24
5 9
4
K
23
3
N
22
3
1
S
28
20
Each Sudoku puzzle consists of a 9X9 grid that has been subdivided into nine smaller grids of 3X3 squares. To solve the puzzle each row, column and box must contain each of the numbers 1 to 9. Puzzles come in three grades: easy, medium and difficult.
54
27
14 17
19 21
10
O
18
13
9
51
16
8
E
15
7
D
12
6
D
11
5
D
4
A
3
SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan
by Myles Mellor
O
2
CROSSWORD
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