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JULY 31, 2014 Our Town
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST
FOR THE WEEK
The local paper for the Upper West Side
BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO
SOUP BURG CLOSED AFTER RENT INCREASE SAVING SMALL BUSINESS
KIDS
Venerable Upper East Side restaurant to be replaced by a TD Bank branch BY CATHERINE ELLSBERG
Soup Burg has served up its last bowl. The restaurant, which had called its Lexington Ave. and 77th Street location home for the past 10 years, was ďŹ nally forced to call it quits June 29 after the building’s landlord tried to raise the rent exponentially. Unable to pay the higher rent, Soup Burg’s owner, Jimmy Gouvakis, had to make the difficult decision to close the restaurant—a family-owned business since 1963—to make way for the building’s new tenant, TD Bank. Gouvakis has had the difficult news hanging over him since April; since then, his customers have showered him with support -- as well as a healthy dose of outrage. Many neighborhood fans and long-time customers see the closing of Soup Burg as part of a sad, and larger, epidemic—the ousting of small businesses, and the rampant excess of banks and chain stores that replace them. Nikki Henkin, who lives above the Soup Burg and who has been a devoted customer from the beginning, described the restaurant as a favorite local hangout. Located directly across the street from Lenox Hill Hospital, Soup Burg has long “served a neighborhood function,â€? says Henkin, catering to the hospital staff, neighborhood doormen, and “just people.â€? The restaurant, which was open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., represented a neighborhood spirit for many people, including Henkin, who describes such small restaurants as “(necessities) in every community.â€? Other Soup Burg patrons have taken the restaurant’s closing as a particular blow and, to a degree, a sign of a wider decay:
SHINE AND THE MOONBEAMS Kid-friendly singer-songwriter Shawana Kemp and guitarist Jon Heagle bring soul music to the young masses as Shine and the Moonbeams. Kemp, an alum of the High School of the Performing Arts, writes positive, upbeat songs about a range of youth-friendly subject matter, from confronting bullies to giving high ďŹ ves and thumbs up. Thursday, July 31 Madison Square Park Entrance at 23rd Street and Broadway 10:30 a.m. FREE
“How far can we go with this? Are we just going to end up with a lot of banks?� added Henkin. Joie Anderson, another local devotee, chastises Mayor de Blasio, who in her eyes has allowed everything to “turn into a Duane Reade and a TD Bank.� For Anderson, these “mom and pop stores give character� to the area, and are welcome remedies to the ubiquitous Starbucks or Panera chains. At places like Starbucks, Anderson complains, there are different workers there every time you visit; Soup Burg, on the other hand, promises personalized attention, regularity, and consistency. “You go into Soup Burg and they act like you’re their favorite customer,� Anderson says, noting that such local joints keep “New York from being a suburban shopping mall.� But as angry as Henkin, Anderson, and a slew of other customers are, Gouvakis, has
been equal parts levelheaded and nostalgic. Recognizing that “a lot of people are upset,â€? Gouvakis acknowledged that this is “all part of business; it’s nothing personal against us.â€? Gouvakis, who owns Soup Burg with his two partners—his brother John and his brother-in-law Timmy— plans on relocating to somewhere else on the Upper East Side, an area they love and are now long familiar with. In the meantime, Gouvakis spent Soup Burg’s ďŹ nal day serving up last meals, to people and dogs alike. Joking that in his next life he’d “rather live with dogs than most humans,â€? Gouvakis has been known to hand out bits of ham to neighborhood pets. Gouvakis also made one of his famous cheeseburgers for his mother. “It was a pleasure being here for ten years,â€? Gouvakis told me: “This was my second family.â€?
July 3, 2014
July 6, 2014
The local paper for the Upper East Side
UPS tells employees to lie, overcharge customers: suit
U.P.S.’S SECRET MANHATTAN PROBLEM One of the Hagan brothers’ 11 Manhattan UPS stores, now closed.
“ Employees in virtually every Manhattan (UPS
BUSINESS
Store) location were so comfortable with the practice of ‌ lying about expected delivery dates, withholding accurate price quotes and overdimensioning boxes to trigger higher retail billable rates, that they would gladly engage in conversations on the topic.� A former UPS franchisee
MUSIC BETTYE LAVETTE The legendary soul singer, born Betty Jo Haskins, cut her ďŹ rst record in her hometown of Detroit at age 16, took on a stage name and broke onto the Billboard charts with her single, “My Man-He’s a Lovin’ Man,â€? shortly thereafter. The raspy-voiced singer now celebrates 50 years in the business with a free show in Battery Park. Thursday, July 31 Robert F. Wagner Park Between West Street and 1st Place 7 p.m. FREE
DR. JOHN AND THE NIGHT TRIPPERS Legendary musician Dr. John is known for his embodiment of a range of New Orleans musical inuences, including zydeco, boogie-woogie and jazz. An eccentric stage performer, Dr. John won a Grammy award for his last album, which he recorded with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, and is currently at work on a Louis Armstrong tribute album. Saturday, August 2nd Central Park SummerStage at Rumsey PlayďŹ eld Entrance at Fifth Avenue and East 72nd Street Doors 3 p.m. FREE
LEARN STARGAZING AT THE HIGH LINE
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UPS, and their right to operate a UPS store was revoked. But, in an effort to clear their name, the Hagans have ďŹ led an extraordinary claim against UPS in Federal Court that lays out, over 200 detailed pages, what they say is a systemic effort by UPS to rip off its Manhattan customers. The Hagans, UPS franchise owners since 2008 whose business grossed $6 million a year at its peak, even brought in a private investigator to secretly document the abuses they say occur at every UPS store in the city. Among their claims: Customers are routinely duped into paying more than necessary for shipping Employees are encouraged to lie about the weight and dimensions of packages to result in a higher bill Customers are told that one method of shipping is the cheapest, when often it is not The Hagans, in their lawsuit, says the deception is so widespread at UPS in
May 1, 2014
May 11, 2014
The local paper for Downtown
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Our Town MAY 8, 2014
From Vandals to Artists: Time Rouses More Appreciation for Graffiti
THESE WALLS CAN TALK ART Current exhibits explore NYC streets’ past and present BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO
Peek through high-tech telescopes at stars, constellations, planets and the moon without a trip to the planetarium. The Amateur Astronomers Association leads guests on a tour through the galaxy, all from the High Line, while experts from the organization identify what’s in view from the elevated park. Every Tuesday through October 28. Tuesday, August 5th High Line (speciďŹ c locations vary week to week); entrance between West 13th and West 14th Streets Viewing begins at dusk FREE
BY KYLE POPE
Last month, when nearly a dozen UPS Stores across the city closed down in a single day, the initial focus was on the customers put out by the shutdown: dozens of people found themselves unable to access their rented mailboxes, while others complained of packages lost in the The UPS Store believes shuffle. On the West Side, a blog surfaced the allegations made against to swap information about the fate of a store on West 57th Street. it and UPS ... to be false. What none of these customers knew at The UPS Store customer service team is doing all we the time, though, was that they had uncan to assure the customers wittingly become part of a much bigger in the Manhattan store area – and at times bizarre – dispute involving affected are taken care of� the franchisee who until the shutdowns
SOMI Songstress Somi celebrates the release of her ďŹ rst major-label record, “The Lagos Music Salon,â€? the soul and African jazz-infused result of an 18-month inspirational trip to Lagos, Nigeria. Also an internationally-recognized arts scholar, Somi is a TED fellow and has performed at the United Nations General Assembly, at the behest of Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Wednesday, August 6th The Cutting Room 44 E. 32nd Street near Park Avenue Doors 6 p.m. TICKETS $25
A former franchisee accuses the shipping giant of routinely gouging customers throughout the city
What can Brown screw from you? Two former UPS franchisees accuse the worldwide delivery service of telling employees to lie about the size and weight of packages in order to jack up prices on unsuspecting customers. Brothers Robert and Thomas Hagan, who owned and operated 11 UPS stores in Manhattan, claim in a federal lawsuit that a typical scam was to “add inches to the sides of measured boxes,� as well as an “enhanced declared value,� which allowed clerks to charge customers more. For example, a package with a length, width and depth totaling 26 inches would cost $106.85 to overnight from New York to Pittsburgh, but a 29-inch package would cost $117.19. In some cases, customers were overcharged as much as 400 percent, legal papers allege. “It’s pretty ugly,� said Steve Savva, the Hagans’ attorney. “It seems to be systematic, and the customers have no way of knowing.� The Hagans allege in court filings that The UPS Store, a subsidiary of the publicly traded United Parcel Service, was responsible for violating “the covenant of good faith and fair dealing� by: t 5FMMJOH DVTUPNFST UIBU HSPVOE EFMJWFSZ DPVME OPU CF HVBSBOUFFE BOE XPVME take longer than it actually would, in order to entice them to buy expensive, guaranteed air delivery. t $PODFBMJOH UIF DPTU PG DIFBQFS TIJQQJOH TFSWJDFT t $IBSHJOH DVTUPNFST GVFM TVSDIBSHFT GPS BJS EFMJWFSZ FWFO XIFO QBDLBHFT XFSFO U shipped by plane but by truck. Videotapes offered as evidence show UPS Store employees cheating customers,
Last November, one of New York’s most iconic art exhibits was uncermoniously whitewashed. Outdoor art space 5Pointz, a destination in Long Island City where graffiti writers from all over the world came to leave their mark, was covered over with white paint last November at the behest of the building’s owner, Jerry Wolkoff. When the vast walls of colorful graffiti were covered, Long Island City resident Jeffrey Leder took notice. Wolkoff had allowed graffiti writers to legally create work on his property for more than a decade, but now plans to demolish the building and construct residential high-rises after winning legal disputes with the 5Pointz artists. Leder, who operates an art gallery a block away, joined forces with Marie Cecile-Flageul, a member of the 5Pointz community who also manages its press, to curate “Whitewash,� an exhibition responding to the destruction, featuring work by nine artists who once painted at 5Pointz. Included in the exhibit are paintings by Meres One, the longtime curator of 5Pointz as well as prints
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Leder about the debut of the exhibit. “It was a celebration 5Pointz of the life of 5Pointz and also showed that there mourning its death.â€? was a need for While “Whitewashâ€? is a di- graffiti culture rect response to the recent as a tourist events at 5Pointz, the Jeffrey destination spot, Leder Gallery is not the only and so therefore local space exploring graf- any gallery or art fiti’s presence in New York institution that City. In February, Museum of can provide people the City of New York opened with their graffiti “City as Canvas,â€? an exhibi- ďŹ x will do so.â€? tion of 1980s graffiti art. City Gregory J. Lore, a non-proďŹ t organiza- Snyder, author tion that preserves and pro- of “Graffiti motes folk and grassroots Lives: Beyond arts movements, opened its the Tag in New new gallery space in April York’s Urban Undergroundâ€? with “Moving Murals,â€? a photographic display of graffiti-covered subway cars shot by photographers Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper during the 1970s and early 1980s. “Graffiti is so emblematic of the way people can be creative in their own environment,â€? said Steve Zeitlin, founding director of City Lore, who noted that, while graffiti still exists in the city, painted train cars are rare. In August, Gothamist reported that a tagged 4 train was spotted in the Bronx, though Zeitlin said it didn’t stay in public view for very long. “They never make it out of the train yard,â€? Zeitlin said. While graffiti is more policed now than in the 1970s and 1980s, street art has become a more accepted public display in urban areas, thanks in no small part to the international celebrity of clandestine British street artist Banksy, who completed a month-long ‘residency’ on New York City’s streets in October. Gregory J. Snyder, a sociologist and professor at Baruch College whose book “Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York’s Urban Undergroundâ€? resulted from a decade of immersive research into graffiti’s subculture, makes a distinction between the two forms. “A lot of what we consider street art was antici
Above, a train mural from the City Lore exhibition. Photo by Henry Chalfant Left, Henry Chalfant and graffiti writer SHARP at the City Lore exhibition opening. Photo by Fernanda Kock
the early 1990s stared deďŹ antly at Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s cleanup efforts. Snyder also acknowledged the open tension between graffiti writers and street artists. “Street artists do not necessarily have to answer for their vandalism the same way that graffiti writers do,â€? he said. “Graffiti is thought to break windows, where street art is just, ‘hey, I’m putting up art.’ So it’s a little bit easier in the public mind to be a street artist than to be a grafďŹ ti writer, and I think both of those subcultures like it the way it is.â€? Abby Ronner, director of the City Lore gallery, echoes Snyder’s sentiments. “They’re totally different aesthetics,â€? Ronner said, noting that the City Lore exhibit explores an era when graffiti was transitioning from pure vandalism to legitimate expression in the art world’s view. Graffiti’s presence in galleries and museums isn’t new, Snyder said, nor is its alignment with ďŹ ne art. Brooklyn Museum exhibited graffiti in 2006 and included some of the same artists as the Museum of the City of New York show which
sent artists rooted in graffiti and street art. Many artists who were part of graffiti’s halcyon days have gone on to professional art careers, including Barry McGee, also known by his tag name Twist, and Steve Powers, known as ESPO, who are now successful studio artists. Still, Ronner notices a recent uptick in public interest. “In New York City, the cost of living is increasing so signiďŹ cantly and quickly, and there’s so much commercial development,â€? said Ronner. “A lot of people feel New York is being lost. The very deďŹ nition of New York and the character of it are lost. People are seeking old New York City culture.â€? Snyder suggests that Banksy’s mainstream success and the current popularity of street art renewed some interest in graffiti art and its culture, though he wonders if the recent events at 5Pointz affected gallery and museum attention. “Curators have a good sense of the moment,â€? said Snyder, who said that, though 5Pointz became a prestigious space for graffiti writers from all over the world it wasn’t necessarily home to
May 8, 2014
May 13, 2014
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