Downtown Express

downtown n ®

VOLUME 24, NUMBER 44

TUBA-PLAYING IN RECTOR PARK, P. 14

express ss THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN

MARCH 21 - 27, 2012

Cabbies, locals protest W.T.C. security plan

BY ALINE REYNOLDS Financial District residents who live near the World Trade Center aren’t the only ones bemoaning the NYPD’s proposed security plan for the site.

Cab drivers who have seen the plan are vowing to stay out of Downtown altogether if the checkpoints and other security measures are implemented as planned. Some of the driv-

ers attended a public hearing held last Wed., March 14 at the Department of City Planning to voice their concerns.

By 2019, when the W.T.C. site is expected to be fully built out, police will be screening all cars seeking to enter or pass through the site and will restrict vehicular access along Greenwich, Washington, Vesey, Fulton

Continued on page 9

O.W.S. arrests lead to local pols’ support

Downtown Express photo by Milo Hess

Green was not the only color on Saturday The Hudson was awash with color on Saturday for “Holi,” a traditional Indian festival that marks the arrival of spring with people throwing colored water and powder on each other. Page 13.

BY JOHN BAYLES Occupy Wall Street once again made its presence felt at Zuccotti Park when on Saturday, to mark the movement’s six-month anniversary, protesters returned to the park once considered their homebase. At the end of the day, a reported 73 people were arrested after the NYPD announced that the park was closing and ordered the crowd to disperse.

As midnight neared, the mostly peaceful day turned into a scene that resembled the group’s eviction last November when protesters were forcibly removed from the park so the proprietors of the privately owned public space, Brookfield Properties, could clean it.

Stephen Calkins, a member of the O.W.S. direct action working group who was arrested early Sunday morning, said it was the

Continued on page 4

March 21 - 27, 2012

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downtown express

New Port chief addresses audit, W.T.C. in exclusive interview

Your doctor retired to where?

Patrick Foye, former deputy secretary for economic development for State Governor Andrew Cuomo, took the helm last fall as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owner of the World Trade Center and construction manager of parts of the site. In an exclusive interview with the Downtown Express on Thursday, March 15, Foye spoke about the recent financial audit of the agency and all things W.T.C.

BY ALINE REYNOLDS

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How is the recent audit of the Port Authority affecting your daily decision-making about the agency’s future?

The short-term answer is, since I arrived, I have put a number of financial and operating checks and balances in place that didn’t exist beforehand, and that’s to make sure that there is greater accountability and transparency on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis.

Obviously, the report uncovered and revealed a poorly coordinated capital planning process, inadequate cost controls and less-than-ideal transparency and oversight. On a more longterm basis, we are in the midst of a Phase II review [for which] we are going to go through a rigorous review of all our capital spending in every one of our line businesses.

How do you plan to secure funding moving forward from the different W.T.C. parties to help ensure that the Port averts cost overruns in the future?

Since I got here on Nov. 7, I’ve been focused… on making sure the Port Authority is in a position to collect every dollar of

Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

revenue that has been promised to us. We’re not going to be advancing funds or spending funds unless they’ve been approved as required by the Board of Commissioners here, and where there is solid documentation that clearly sets out our obligations and the obligations of our counter-parties.

But how are you going to make sure the parties hold to their financial commitments moving forward?

We are systematically going through the list of third-party stakeholders, [and] we’re in discussions [with them] to clarify and firm up their obligations and commitments to pay the Port Authority.

Continued on page 16

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Anne Frank Center USA opens On Thurs., March 15, the Anne Frank Center USA at 44 Park Place opened its doors to the public. Fore more information visit www.annefrank.com. According to the center’s brochure, “Through a variety of innovative programs and exhibitions, the Center uses Anne Frank as a role model to inspire students, educators and citizens to help build a world bases on mutual respect.”

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EDITORIAL PAGES . . . . . . . . . . 10-11

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YOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 ARTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 - 20, 22-23

PANEL TO HOST ONE MORE MEETING ON CANCER The World Trade Center Health Program’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (S.T.A.C.) is allowing for further public comment on the types of cancer to be considered under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, via a telephone and web conference.

The conference is set for Wed., March 28 from 1:10 p.m. to 1:55 p.m.

The comments could influence the S.T.A.C.’s decisions before its final recommendation is sent to the bill’s health administrator, Dr. John Howard, by Monday, April 2. Up to 300 people may participate in the conference and will be allotted time slots on a first-come, first-served basis.

To join in on the conference, dial 1-800-593-0693 and provide the following code: 4447238. Each participant will be granted up to five minutes for comment.

For further instructions and information about the meeting, visit www.cdc.gov/NIOSH/topics/wtc/stac/ meetings.

LAW FIRM DROPS 9/11 COMPENSATION VICTIMS Worby Groner Edelman & Napoli Bern, the law firm that secured more than $200 million for the approximately 10,000 Ground Zero workers from the city in a federal court settlement in November of 2010, will

not be representing 9/11 survivors applying for compensation under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. The firm made the decision once its attorneys realized they couldn’t bill the clients involved in the settlement, according to the article.

“Despite the Zadroga legislation, the bill passed by Congress… not only prevents us from getting paid for our services but even prevents us from being reimbursed for our expenses and overhead,” according to a March 5 letter signed by Bill Groner, a partner at the law firm.

The firm is referring the victims to Barasch & McGarry and Kreindler & Kreindler, both whom Groner says has experience with 9/11 clients.

John Feal, head of the 9/11 advocacy group the FealGood Foundation, was angry that Groner didn’t give the clients prior notice before making their decision.

“They knew for a long time they weren’t going to be able to represent them,” said Feal. “The fact that they waited so long… is a disservice to the 9/11 community.”

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C.B. 1 EE TING S

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A schedule of this week’s upcoming Community Board 1 committee meetings is below. Unless otherwise noted, all committee meetings are held at the board office, located at 49-51 Chambers St., room 709 at 6 p.m.

ON MON., MAR. 26: The Housing Committee will meet.

ON TUES., MAR. 27: The Full Board will hold its monthly meeting at Pace University, 1 Pace Plaza; use the 3 Spruce St. entrance.

15,000 RUN IN SEVENTH ANNUAL NYC HALF MARATHON On Saturday, runners and the fans that cheer them

Continued on page 6

Relics of the city’s past uncovered on Fulton St.

BY ALINE REYNOLDS As the city rips apart Fulton Street and Peck Slip in the South Street Seaport to install new water mains, a team of archeologists has discovered a trove of hidden artifacts. While the relics are informing knowledge about the past, they’re also pressuring archeologists to crack larger puzzles concerning the neighborhood’s rich, complex history.

Most recently, on Mon., March 12, Chrysalis Archeology President Alyssa Loorya, the archeologist overseeing the Downtown excavation, uncovered a portion of an 18th-century stone wall in front of 40 Fulton St. that is believed to have belonged to the estate of either the Van Tienhovens or the Van Cortlandts, two wealthy Dutch merchant families who came to New Amsterdam in the 17th century. The finding is one of a slew of recent discoveries Loorya’s team has made since fall 2009, when the city Department of Design and Construction began the Fulton Street reconstruction project.

The wall is one of three walls and two wells the archeologists have found underneath Fulton Street that is suspected to have come from the same residential estate, according to Loorya.

Which estate the structures come from is still an unknown, however, since the archeologists have yet to determine the boundary line that once separated the two residential properties.

“It’s not common that you’d see so many

different structures from a single property dating back to the 18th century all in this one area,” said Loorya of the findings.

“We’re trying to overlay the maps [we’ve found] with the current map to see if we can nail down who is the actual property owner.”

Loorya broke off a small fragment of the wall, which has been reburied into the ground, for dating and other testing. The fragment will then be compared to structures that made up neighboring estates.

These analyses will offer the archeologists a better snapshot of the area’s geographical layout, Loorya noted.

“The interesting thing is, this is smack in the middle of Fulton Street [and therefore dates back to] the period when that part of Fulton Street was [part of private property],” said Loorya. “Once we begin to map everything, we’ll be able to piece together and extrapolate some of the dimensions of the properties — where the family placed its wells, where it had outbuildings, and where the wells and outbuildings may have been relative to the house and to the street line.”

Earlier this month, the crew uncovered artifacts in a muddy section of Peck Slip, which the archeologists began excavating last August. The discovery left them with more than 40 Ziploc bags full of broken pottery from the early-to-mid 19th century.

“When we started cleaning it off, we found a whole range of [dinner plates] with the same patterns in different colors,” said

Photo courtesy of the NYC Dept. of Design and Construction

Construction workers along Fulton Street are uncovering relics of the neighborhood’s past as they replace old water mains.

Loorya. “They were probably discarded items from a supply store.”

The archeologists also recently uncovered timber from landfills that make up the foundation of the modern-day Seaport. Using dendrochronology (otherwise known as tree ring dating), the team can not only find out the trees’ species but also build a more detailed timeline of the landfill’s formation.

The crews have also uncovered the

foundation remains of a 19th-century print shop, several hundred ink bottles with ink still in them, a bone toothbrush, wooden water mains, and clusters of drinking goblets and serving platters.

And while Fulton Street and Peck Slip will be completed in 2013 and 2016, respectively, Loorya and her crew will make do with the artifacts already uncovered to help unlock the mysteries of the Seaport of the past.

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POLICE BLOTTER Arrest bunny rustlers Miss Cooper, the rabbit stolen from the window of the Alexander Bernardi boutique at 174 Prince St. was returned to the First Precinct shortly after midnight Sat., March 17. A homeless friend of the thieves had convinced them to give up the furry Holland Lop rabbit.

The two rustlers, Thomas Smith, 62, and his partner, Andrea Ruggieri, 45 were arrested later on Saturday at a soup kitchen and charged with larceny. Police said they had been wearing cowboy hats, a black one for him and a white one for her, when they snatched Miss Cooper from her front window pen on Wed., March 14. Christopher Kulukundis, owner of the store, told reporters that Smith had come into the shop before to look at the brown and white lop-eared creature, but so did other passersby. Carl Bernstein, the Pulitzer-winning journalist, told the Daily News that he always waived to Miss Cooper whenever he passed the window. During her captivity, Miss Cooper was held in a fish tank on a bed of old T-shirts and fed on Apple Jacks, according top reports.

Fake police rob LES victim Police are looking for two suspects who harassed a vic-

tim on the J train platform at Essex and Delancey St. on Feb. 4, then flashed badges, one of them claiming to be a police officer and the other saying he was an Immigration agent. The two imposters, described as being over 50, punched the victim and fled with his wallet.

Indicted for firing at police Luis Martinez, 25, a resident of the Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side, was indicted on Wed. March 14, on attempted murder charges for firing at two police officers at 1:40 a.m. Mon., Feb 27 as they were patrolling on Columbia St. Martinez, who was arrested in his Baruch Houses apartment, fired several shots, one of which hit the magazine clip that was attached to the belt of officer Thomas Richards The magazine deflected the bullet that would have entered the officer’s abdomen, the indictment says. During the exchange of gunfire, a police bullet hit Martinez in the buttock as he was fleeing.

Elevator robbery A Lower Manhattan resident told police he had been shopping in the Duane Reade at 67 Broad St. around 7

downtown express p.m. Mon., March 12 when he noticed that a stranger was following him home to 54 Stone St. The stranger pushed his way into the elevator, and said, “I have a gun and I’m going to shoot you, Give me your money and phone,� police said. The victim surrendered his phone and the suspect, who did not display a gun, fled.

Park Row arrest A security guard at J & R Music World, 23 Park Row, saw a suspect take a head phone from a display and conceal it among some handbills he was carrying, police said.

Andrew Pintado, 36, was arrested for trying to walk out without pay for the item.

Asleep on the train A man who fell asleep on a southbound 1 train woke up at 4:40 a.m. Sat., March 10 t the Chambers St. station to find that his pockets had been cut and his keys and $30 in cash had been stolen.

A woman visiting from Los Angeles put her bag on a seat next to her on a southbound C train around noon Fri., March 9 and discovered a few minutes later at the Spring St. station that someone had made off with the bag.

— Alber t Amateau

City Council pushing for ‘Protester’s Bill of Rights’ Continued from page 1 construction of a makeshift tent in the center of the park that spurred police officers to move in. Other activists said the police issued a warning to vacate the park or face arrest and gave them only a few minutes to do so. A core group of O.W.S. protesters sat down on the ground and linked arms and were, as a result, removed from the park and placed in handcuffs.

The event sparked outrage by local elected officials.

U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler issued a statement on Monday concerning the incident and calling for a Department of Justice investigation into NYPD conduct with Occupy Wall Street and the media. Congressman Nadler had previously issued a similar statement in the days following the eviction of O.W.S. last November. “I am disturbed yet again by allegations of police misconduct and excessive force used against Occupy Wall Street protesters during this weekend’s demonstrations

at Zuccotti Park,� said Nadler. “Our law enforcement officers are charged with protecting our health and safety, but that duty must always be carried out with respect for the fundamental First Amendment rights to free expression and peaceful assembly. Once again, I call on Attorney General [Eric] Holder to launch a thorough investigation into law enforcement activities surrounding Occupy Wall Street – and its national offshoots – to determine whether the police have indeed violated the civil liberties of demonstrators or members of the media.�

Also on Monday, numerous members of the New York City Council held a press conference decrying the actions of the NYPD in relation to Saturday night’s actions. “On Saturday, I stood right next to peaceful demonstrators who, in return for exercising their rights, were hit by NYPD police officers,� said NYC Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez. “The NYPD is tasked with upholding the law, and there is no law higher than the U.S. Constitution, which explicitly protects the right to peaceably assemble.�

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NYPD officers kept watch over O.W.S. as they assembled in Union Square on Monday to protest the arrests of fellow demonstrators in Zuccotti Park early last Sunday morning.

Rodriguez announced his intention to introduce legislation on the NYC Council level creating a “Protester’s Bill of Rights.� “The protesters from Occupy Wall Street are not terrorists, yet the NYPD is treating them as just that,� said Councilmember Jumaane Williams. “These are New Yorkers with the Constitutional right to assembly, and Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly are failing to ensure that right. Force should be an act of last resort, rather than a tool to antagonize and suppress a peaceful

Continued on page 13

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March 21 - 27, 2012

Crane accident could stall completion of Four W.T.C.

BY ALINE REYNOLDS The topping out of Four W.T.C. has been postponed by at least two months due to the loss of a crane that in mid-February dropped a pile of steel beams and somehow left construction workers and passersby unscathed.

“We have a little impact right now,” said Mike Goldberg, an executive at Tishman Construction, the firm charged with the build-out of Four W.T.C., at Community Board 1’s World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee last Monday, March 12. “We were looking at early May, [but] it’s probably going to be two months after that at this point.”

A source familiar with the construction of Four W.T.C. reported that the incident, which leaves the tower with only one crane at its disposal, has caused construction delays that could drag on for even more than two months, depending on how long it takes to get a second crane atop the building to replace the faulty crane. This could conceivably lead to the stalling of the building’s opening, which is expected to take between one-and-a-half to two years once the tower is fully built out, according to the source.

The news coincides with months-long investigation by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey of the faulty FMC / Link-Belt TG 1900 crane, which has been taken apart and transported to a warehouse in Bayonne, New Jersey, according to Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesperson. Coleman declined to comment further on the investigation.

In light of the incident, the city Department of Buildings sent out a letter to crane operators of the same make and model asking that they reduce their maximum capacity loads by 25 percent as a precautionary measure, according to Bethany Klein, a vice president in Tishman’s structural engineering department.

An initial inspection conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration revealed that there were no deficiencies found with the other cranes at the site nor with the company’s safety program, according to Tishman.

Had it not been for the site’s safety rules, the crane accident would have turned ugly, according to Dwayne Carter, representing Tishman’s corporate safety division. The company has established an access zone to keep authorized personnel out of crane-

lifting zones and has set up an audible alarm system to alert workers every time there is a “crane pick” on the site, Carter said.

“It’s a basic policy within our company… we do not pick any type of load over any workers or the public,” said Carter. “That was one of the key things that helped prevent us from having any injuries.”

Carter added, “If we didn’t put in place

“If we didn’t put in place some of these protocols… it would have been a total tragedy.”

— Dwayne Carter, Tishman Construction Downtown Express photo by Aline Reynolds

some of these protocols… it would have been a total tragedy.”

Neither Tishman nor Silverstein Properties would comment on the status of the Port Authority’s investigation.

The malfunctioning crane was manufactured in 1976 but was rehabilitated in the years since, Klein told the committeee.

The crane of the same model being used at Three W.T.C. has been tested since the incident and has different interior machinery, according to Klein.

“The machine deck and all the motors have been replaced,” said Klein, “so it’s not exactly the same crane.”

The discussion became heated when Tishman spokesperson John Gallagher reminded the committee that the company does not own or operate the defective crane.

“If a company is outsourcing [work]… the buck stops with you,” said committee member Joel Kopel. “You have to do your due diligence to make sure that the company that you’re hiring is having machinery that is up to code and that’s not 35 years old and could possibly fail.”

Dwayne Carter (left), John Gallagher (right) and other representatives of Tishman Construction appeared at last week’s C.B. 1 meeting to answer questions about the 4 W.T.C. crane incident.

Jay Badame, Tishman’s president and chief operating officer of the New York region, assured the committee that safety is “paramount.”

“We understand the buck stops here.

We’re the general contractor, we understand that fully,” said Badame. “When we get the [results of the] investigation, we will be happy to come back and explain to you in detail what it says.”

Fighting to make Lower Manhattan the greatest place to live, work, and raise a family.

Assemblyman Shelly Silver If you need assistance, please contact my office at (212) 312-1420 or email silver@assembly.state.ny.us.

March 21 - 27, 2012

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OWNTOWN DIGEST

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LAW FIRM NIXES PLAN TO MOVE TO ONE W.T.C.

along, took part in the Seventh Annual NYC Half Marathon, hosted by New York Road Runners.

Peter Kirui of Kenya took first place for the men with a time of 59:39. He was only 15 seconds shy of the men’s record for the 13.1-mile event.

For the women, Ethiopia’s Firehiwot Dado crossed the finish line first with a time of 1:08:35, and set a new event record, running the course 17 seconds faster than last year’s winner, Caroline Rotich. Dado also happens to be the reigning ING New York City Marathon champion.

This route for this year’s event was slightly different than the previous six half-marathons. Instead of ending in Battery Park City, the finish line was in the historic South Street Seaport. The race started in Central Park, ran along Seventh Avenue and the West Side Highway and then crossed over to the Seaport. Roughly 15,000 runners from 69 countries took part in the race. The runners’ ages ranged from 13 to 81.

Midtown-based law firm Chadbourne & Parke will not be moving into One W.T.C., according to a story published in the NY Post on March 19.

A representative from the organization curtly notified the tower’s owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and its leasing agent, the Durst Organization, that the deal was “dead.”

The news comes approximately one month before the 1,776-foot tower will stand taller than the Empire State Building and less than two years before it’s slated to open.

The involved parties couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

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Yoga studio instills ‘do good’ spirit

BY HELAINA N. HOVITZ Living in New York City, it’s easy to get caught up in, well, everything. Often, it feels like there is barely time to take care of one’s self, let alone think about doing something to help others.

Luckily, “DO GOOD” month at I.AM. YOU, a yoga studio at 132 Mulberry St., is dedicating four weeks to helping their students help others.

During the first week in March, students gave “their energy” and dedicated their thoughts to someone other than themselves in their weekly classes. According to studio owner Lauren Imparato, it’s been scientifically proven that praying for someone who is sick makes a marked difference in their recovery, in that they can “feel your thoughts.”

Last week, students brought in clothing to donate to the Bowery Rescue Mission.

This week, students will bring in both canned and prepared food to distribute at various homeless shelters.

Imparato was recently inspired to create “DO GOOD” month after attending the private, invite-only “Escape For Good” in Arizona, where professional athletes inlcuding Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, Andre Aggasii, Mia Hamm, and Tony Hawk each taught a class to raise money for charity, devoting their time to do good without technically “getting anything” in return.

Imparato recalled that at the retreat, Muhammad Ali said, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

“It’s easy to write a check, but when giving comes from inside of you, its effects are exponentially bigger,” said Imparato.

“In yoga philosophy, we believe that if you do something with proper intention, you plant the seed for more to grow.”

Bethany Leigh is a 22-year-old yoga instructor and a student at I.AM.YOU. She said “DO GOOD” month has inspired her to think more about the smaller ways she can be of service to others.

“We don’t realize how many different ways we can give, simple things like smiling at a stranger, donating clothes, or helping a friend’s little brother with his homework,” said Leigh.

The final “DO GOOD” week in March will focus on “giving time.” The studio is currently arranging various volunteer opportunities for their students, the goal

Photo courtesy of I.AM.YOU

A recent class at I.AM.YOU on Mulberry Street, where students are currently learning more than just how to practice yoga.

being that the students carry the concept with them into April, which is National Volunteer Month.

“I’m already planning which organizations I’ll help out next month,” said Leigh. “I’ve been sorting through boxes of clothes and books that I can’t wait to donate.”

In addition to the themed weekly efforts of “DO GOOD” month, I.AM.YOU has also donated $2,000 worth of instruction to various charities and organizations.

“Yoga is not just a physical workout, it’s also a mindset,” said I.AM.YOU student Alison Urkowitz, 33. “You must be good to yourself and to others.”

Urkowitz is also Vice President of Research Operations at the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and helped Imparato host a fundraiser at the studio called Posing for Parkinsons. It raised nearly $12,000 for the foundation in 2010 and 2011.

“When we break down what yoga means, it’s essentially ‘union with ourselves and with others,” said Leigh. “When you take care of yourself, you can extend your spirit to those around you to help take care of others in need.”

Read the Archives www.DOWNTOWNEXPRESS.com

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March 21 - 27, 2012

Noisy Con Ed work on John Street persists

BY ALINE REYNOLDS Con Edison recently assured Community Board 1 Vice Chairperson Catherine McVay Hughes that all of the utility company’s noisy work would be completed by Mon., March 19. But that deadline has come and gone, and the noise has not stopped.

Con Edison workers continue to dig up the street to replace rotting, underground gas mains from the hours of 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays. The work, which has gone on for months, has disturbed nearby residents’ peace and quiet. Barring any snags, the bulk of the excavation work along John Street should be finished by the month’s end or in early April, according to David Gmach, Con Edison’s director of public affairs, who with colleagues appeared before C. B. 1’s Quality of Life committee on March 15.

But the completion date partially depends on factors that are outside of the utility company’s control, explained Leonard Singh, Con Edison’s general manager of Manhattan gas operations.

“I can’t see through the ground… the

“One of the reasons why [John Street residents and business owners] are pissed is because they’re not getting the information,” — Pat Moore

pipes were laid in the 1800s,” said Singh. “If it’s a straight shot… within two weeks, we’ll be done. If the pipe has an offset, we have to do additional excavating.”

The news comes on the heels of a wellattended special meeting convened by C.B. 1 and the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center on March 6, where John Street residents and businesses railed against Con Edison and other construction project representatives about bothersome nighttime and weekend work.

“So we were given the wrong information about March 19,” said Hughes at the meeting. “Can you give me a simple answer?

What is your end date for John Street?”

Gmach’s reply prompted committee members to demand a written timetable of Con Edison’s work schedule.

“One of the reasons why [John Street residents and business owners] are pissed is because they’re not getting the information,” said C.B. 1 Quality of Life Committee Chair Pat Moore. “If you tell them it’s going to take a year… they won’t love it, but they’ll

know.”

Gmach promised to send a work itinerary to C.B. 1 by the end of the week and said there is still months’ worth of work to do on John Street.

In addition to the primary work, Con Edison must reinforce below-ground electrical cables in order to avoid having to replace a transformer vault situated in front of 25 John St. that’s out of service. The transformer job would take several weeks and would entail tearing apart the northern sidewalk, Gmach noted.

“We’d like to hold off doing that until post-summer 2012 [or even] 2013,” said Gmach. “The cable work, in contrast, should only necessitate a day’s worth of excavation between now and mid-April in front of 12, 16 and 20 John Street.”

Con Edison also anticipates doing a fair amount of cable installation work tied to the Fulton Street Transit Center project through May — some of which might involve noisy digging, according to Gmach.

The committee also grilled the Con Edison officials about the street plates, which 12 John St. resident Barbara Minsky and others said continued to rattle as cars drove over them in the days after the March 6 meeting.

“Last night was the first night, and I’ve gotten some emails, that people slept, because they closed the street [to traffic],” said Minsky.

Minsky said she would like the street closed or the plates to be properly installed, and also complained about Con Edison’s non-emergency evening work that occurred on the weekend following the meeting.

Con Edison officials didn’t speak to the street plates, but Gmach vowed that moving forward, the utilities company would not be undertaking nighttime work without special after-hours variances granted by the city.

Con Edison typically reserves certain manhole work for evening hours so as not to hamper daytime vehicular traffic. But according to Gmach, the company recently decided to make an exception for John Street so as to accommodate local residents.

Hughes reminded Gmach that businesses are also suffering as a result of the construction work.

“Whether Con Edison can get their act together and coordinate [its] projects, is going to determine the livelihood of these businesses,” said Hughes.

“I understand how disturbing this has been,” replied Gmach.

Following the discussion, the committee voted unanimously in favor of a resolution asking that city inspectors immediately respond to 3-1-1 calls about nighttime and weekend construction work and urging the city to better coordinate with Con Edison to minimize the impacts of construction on John Street and other residential areas in Lower Manhattan.

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March 21 - 27, 2012

Cab drivers against planned W.T.C. checkpoints and Liberty Streets as well as West Broadway.

Though he makes most of his money Downtown, Beresford Simmons, who has driven a taxi for nearly 40 years, said the W.T.C. checkpoints would be a huge deterrent to picking up fares in Lower Manhattan. “[With] the checkpoints, I guarantee you, a lot of us are going to avoid going Downtown,” said Simmons. “I would ask you gentleman who are in charge of this [security] program to consider the cab drivers. We are not terrorists, we are hardworking men and women in this city.”

Cab driver Javaid Tariq also said he’d hesitate driving around Lower Manhattan once the new security plan takes effect.

“We’re not against security measurements… but think about how this will affect cab drivers’ economic situation,” said Tariq.

“If we’re headed to Brooklyn, we have to take Chambers Street to access the Brooklyn Bridge, and it’s going to be a traffic mess all the time. Time is money. How are we going to make our money?”

Tariq said he would also avoid Downtown out of fear of being singled out by police because he is Muslim.

“Where there are more cops, there are always unfair summonses,” said Tariq.

While fewer cabs will bother traveling to Downtown because of the heightened security, the plan would discourage local residents and workers from purchasing their own cars, according to Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Desai said the proposed security plan would leave Downtown residents, visitors and workers with scant options for private transportation.

Currently, 94 percent of trips from Lower Manhattan to the tri-state airports are via yellow taxi, according to Desai, who added the plan would be financially “devastating” for the city’s taxi industry. “[As it is, the drivers are] laboring 60-to70 hours a week and their yearly earnings amount to less than minimum wage,” said Desai. “It will greatly impact our ability to earn that hard-earned living.”

Community Board 1 members and other local residents who also testified at the hearing asserted that the current plan would infringe on their daily lives.

C.B. 1 Chair Julie Menin said she witnessed first-hand the negative effects of security checkpoints, having previously run a business directly in front of the NY Stock Exchange.

“Many of the small businesses in the area closed within one year of the checkpoint opening,” said Menin.

Trinity Wall Street WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 6pm Life Blooms—Family Systems A simple introduction to some basic family dynamics led by Kathleen Kelley, Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute.

74 Trinity Pl, 2nd Fl, Parish Hall THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1pm Concerts at One Cynthia Roberts, violin Christoph Hammer, fortepiano Trinity Church SUNDAY, MARCH 25, 10am From the Pew to the Street: Whose Law? Betty Whelchel, Trinity member, vestryperson, and attorney, will speak about how the practice of law relates to Christian ethics.

74 Trinity Pl, 2nd Fl, Parish Hall

Cars passing through the checkpoint were forced to wait 15-to-20 minutes during certain times of the day, Menin recalled.

“We the people who live and work Downtown recognize we’re the number one terrorist target in the world.”

— Julie Menin

“Obviously, we at C.B. 1 are not questioning the need for security,” said Menin. “We the people who live and work Downtown recognize we’re the number one terrorist target in the world. But what we are asking for is that the security measures be implemented in a way that recognizes the impacts to residents and to Downtown businesses.”

Kathleen Moore, a resident of 125 Cedar St., expressed concern over access to emergency services and requested that

Let’s do something together

SUNDAY, MARCH 25, 4:30pm Lenten Storytelling & Jazz Meditations: Blessed Are the Peacemakers Celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela with stories, readings, jazz meditations

by Theodicy Jazz Collective, and prayers.

St. Paul’s Chapel MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1pm Bach at One The Trinity Choir and Trinity Baroque Orchestra present a service featuring J.S. Bach’s cantatas, accompanied by prayers and readings.

St. Paul’s Chapel

Cedar Street be made a westbound street again so that those who live on the block and are trying to get home by car can avoid having to go through two checkpoints on Greenwich Street. The vehicular direction of Cedar Street between Trinity Place and Greenwich Street was reversed last year to accommodate firetrucks’ leaving the Ladder 10 firehouse.

“I was there on 9/11, I was there in 1973 [when the W.T.C. first opened], I don’t intend to move, and I’d like to make sure that my neighborhood is accessible to me and that it is pleasant for everyone,” said Moore.

To help alleviate the hassle for local car owners, C.B. 1 Vice Chair Catherine McVay Hughes requested that neighborhood residents and businesses be incorporated into the security plan’s Trusted Access Program, which is supposed to expedite vehicular entry through the W.T.C. for office tenants, car services, delivery vans and even taxis.

“They’ve been part of the rebuilding process,” said Hughes of the locals.

The comment period will remain open through Monday, March 26. Comments can be sent to Lieutenant David Kelly at the New York Police Department, One Police Plaza, New York N.Y. 10038, or via e-mail to WTCEIS@nypd.org.

trinitywallstreet.org

worship SUNDAY, 8am and 10am St. Paul’s Chapel Holy Eucharist SUNDAY, 9am and 11:15am Trinity Church Preaching, music, and Eucharist Sunday school and child care available MONDAY – FRIDAY, 12:05pm Trinity Church Holy Eucharist MONDAY – FRIDAY, 5:15pm All Saints’ Chapel, in Trinity Church Evening Prayer, Evensong (Thurs.)

Watch online webcast

TRINITY CHURCH Broadway at Wall Street 74 Trinity Place is located in the office building behind Trinity Church.

Leah Reddy

Continued from page 1

Members of the Trinity Baroque Orchestra perform March 22 and 29 at Trinity Church.

ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL Broadway and Fulton Street CHARLOTTE’S PLACE 107 Greenwich St, btwn Rector & Carlisle

All Are Welcome All events are free, unless noted.

212.602.0800

The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, Rector The Rev. Canon Anne Mallonee, Vicar

an Episcopal parish in the city of New York

March 21 - 27, 2012

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EDITORIAL PUBLISHER & EDITOR John W. Sutter ASSOCIATE EDITOR John Bayles ARTS EDITOR Scott Stiffler REPORTERS Aline Reynolds Albert Amateau Lincoln Anderson SR. V.P. OF SALES AND MARKETING Francesco Regini ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Allison Greaker Colin Gregory Julius Harrison Alex Morris Julio Tumbaco BUSINESS MANAGER / CONTROLLER Vera Musa ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Troy Masters SR. GRAPHIC DESIGNER Vince Joy GRAPHIC DESIGNER Christina Entcheva CONTRIBUTORS Helaina N. Hovitz • Terese Loeb Kreuzer • Jerry Tallmer PHOTOGRAPHERS Milo Hess • Jefferson Siegel • Terese Loeb Kreuzer

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Don’t put FiDi in a lockdown!

As we watch the World Trade Center towers rise into the air, we are all the more reminded of the need for tight and high-tech security to fend off a third terrorist attack once the site is fully reopened to the public.

We applaud the NYPD’s Counterterrorism Bureau for devising a tangible security plan for the site’s perimeter that would bar unauthorized vehicles from entering the W.T.C. We also commend the NYPD for recognizing the need for an environmental impact statement to assess the plan’s effects on the neighborhood.

However, we are deeply concerned about the vastness of the current plan, which stretches westward from Church to West Street and southward from Barclay to Thames Street. The possible side effects could severely decrease the quality of life for Downtown residents and businesses.

The proposed configuration of security checkpoints and “secure” lanes bordering the site are likely to exacerbate traffic in an already heavily trafficked area.

Increased congestion, in turn, could worsen air pollution, slow deliveries to local businesses, and, in the worst case, jeopardize lives by hindering ambulances from responding to emergencies.

For neighborhood residents, the proposed plan could also result in unnecessary inconveniences, such as making it harder to hail a cab. As is, the proposal would conceivably dissuade taxis from venturing Downtown in search of passengers. This point was made clear by several cab drivers at last week’s public hearing on the plan.

In short, the current plan violates the city’s and the W.T.C. designer’s promise to provide unimpeded vehicular and pedestrian access to the area and instead creates a lockdown scenario that could deter people from visiting Downtown and patronizing its businesses. As a result, it could put a crimp on the rebuilding of a living, breathing neighborhood that is still recovering financially and emotionally from 9/11.

Greenwich Street, which has suffered since the Port Authority severed it 1966 to make way for the original W.T.C., should also be considered when discussing the idea of connectedness and access around the site. In 2009 the Downtown Alliance recognized the potential that a new W.T.C. site offered and released a study that proposed reopening Greenwich Street and allowing it to serve as a continuous artery from the Battery all the way to Chelsea. The goal was to allow Greenwich Street to be a destination neighborhood, let it thrive as a vital part of Downtown and reconnect it with the Lower West Side.

We wholeheartedly support Community Board 1’s request for a Community Advisory Council, which would enable area residents and merchants to have a say in the plan’s revision. We also side with C.B. 1 in imploring the NYPD to avoid replicating at the W.T.C. the fortress-like setup of barriers around Park Row. As C.B. 1 accurately points out, since 9/11, Park Row has become a no man’s land of bollards and other barricades that have caused more congestion in the vicinity and have disconnected parts of Downtown from the Lower East Side.

Together, the community and the NYPD must formulate a new plan that will balance security with necessary movement and access in and around the W.T.C. site. This type of collaboration is essential for the creation of a plan that would both successfully protect the W.T.C. and ensure that the neighborhood’s residents’ and business owners’ quality of life is not unduly diminished.

downtown express

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Quinn hedging bets on ‘sick leave’ To The Editor: The potential methods used by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to defeat the proposed “sick leave bill” supported by 36 of 51 members of the New York City Council is nothing to cheer about, when you look into the details.

This measure would force companies to pay employees a minimum of five sick leave days per year. Speaker Quinn has kept this bill proposed by Manhattan Council member Gale Brewer bottled up in committee since 2009 while she contemplates her political options.

As an all but publicly announced candidate for mayor in 2013, Speaker Quinn has to make a choice by affording all 51 Council members a vote which will either make labor happy or the business community unhappy. In the meantime, she continues to raise campaign contributions from both the labor unions and the same business people along with the usual City Hall “Pay for Play” crowd.

Her potential method in defeating this legislation is to deny 50 other members of the NYC Council the right to vote up or down on the proposed legislation. Wasn’t Quinn elected to represent voters of her West Village district and not all five boroughs? Her actions denied almost eight million New Yorkers a direct say regardless of their side of the issue.

This is just another example of how NYC Council Speaker Quinn long ago removed the veil of her Manhattan liberal independent reformer image to reveal that she is a seasoned Democratic Party machine leader. She follows in the fine tradition of her predecessors, former Council Speakers Gifford Miller, Peter Vallone Senior and the late Tom Cuite.

On January 18, 2010 after being relected Speaker, Quinn announced her appointments of various Council committee chairpersons. Councilmembers loyal to their respective county organizations (the ones that endorsed her candidacy for speaker) were rewarded with salary increases known as lulus ranging from $4,000 to $28,000 to chair Council committees. These were renewed once again in January 2012. The average salary for a New Yorker is $41,000 per year.

Every councilmember has a base salary of $112,500 plus bonuses, for a parttime job.

Under Quinn’s reign, it continues to be the usual political quid pro quo with councilmembers. Vote as instructed by the speaker, and members will continue to receive the perks of office.

These include salary bonuses for chairing Council committees, extra cash for local district offices, staff and mailings along with your share of several hundred million dollars available for funding local neighborhood pork-barrel projects and

a favorable gerrymandered district after reapportionment to grease the wheels of re-election.

The five county Democratic political bosses don’t care if you are liberal or conservative, gay or straight, man or woman — just play ball like Quinn and you’re welcome to the smoke-filled clubhouse back rooms! Diogenes is still searching for a more honest potential mayoral candidate in 2013 than Quinn.

Sincerely, Larry Penner

N.Y.U. should build in FiDi To The Editor: Re “C.B. 2 votes unanimous No! on N.Y.U.’s superblocks plan” (news article, March 7): New York University should build in the Downtown Financial District area where 20 years of construction would be welcomed. In fact, the offer to utilize the Downtown area was made by Julie Menin, chairperson of Community Board 1, several years ago. That’s an area where this sort of project would truly be needed.

N.Y.U. should go back to the drawing board with the Financial District envisioned.

Just as the N.Y.U. 2031 overbuilding plan was rejected by Community Board 2, the City Council will also reject it — or know the wrath of voting Villagers.

Sylvia Rackow

Please, think of the birds!

To The Editor: Re “City spins idea for wind rotors atop buildings” (news article, Feb. 29): The possibility of wind turbines being installed anywhere in Manhattan is alarming. While many municipalities are doing what they can to minimize dangers and help birds safely navigate a high-rise city, it appears that the New York City Planning Department does not believe that nature exists here — or, if there is money to be made, doesn’t care. In fact, Manhattan Island, especially along the rivers, is a flight path for migrating birds and the monarch butterfly.

The addition of tall buildings along the waterfront is a crime against nature as the buildings significantly add to bird mortality. For example, during the day, reflections from the buildings’ shiny surfaces blind birds, or the birds, instead of seeing the building, see the sky and clouds reflected on it. At night, especially when there is fog, indoor lights confuse birds into interpreting the lights as pathways through tree branches. Birds then fly directly to Continued on page 11 Continued on page 17

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March 21 - 27, 2012

ON THE SPOT WITH MARTHA GALLO

BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER Martha Gallo, 54, head of global compliance and regulatory management for JPMorgan Chase, was just appointed to the Battery Park City Authority board of directors. She has lived in Battery Park City for almost 30 years.

get an M.B.A. because it would help me with not-for-profit work and to work in business.

He said that I could satisfy my interest in helping not-for-profits even with a role in the financial services industry.

three weeks later. We’re New Yorkers. We never considered not returning.

Has that proven to be true?

Yes. Catherine [[myy older daughter, g , now 14] was attending Battery Park City Day Nursery. Out ut of more than 100 children, there were only a handful left. I worked on behalf of the Day Nursery to help them with fundraising [so that they could ould survive].

I was working for the same company I work for now. I was budget analyst for technology.

Yes. I was on the Governors Island board and I was on the Downtown Alliance board. I chaired a not-for-profit called Upwardly Global for a number of years. Upwardly Global helps new Americans get jobs in American companies. It’s for people who are here legally and who have skills from their homeland. They have a hard time breaking into our system for a variety of reasons. I thought it was a great cause. New Americans are such a vulnerable population. I think at one level or another we were all immigrants at one point.

What had you studied in school?

Where did your family come from originally?

I went to Cornell University. I studied child development as an undergrad and finance and accounting for my M.B.A.

My relatives came from Italy, Ireland and Germany. They came through Ellis Island.

Why did you move to Battery Park City?

I moved here because I worked on Wall Street and wanted to be able to walk to work, but probably more importantly, I grew up in the Finger Lakes and I love the water.

What work were you doing when you moved here?

Why did you change fields?

When I started to look at graduate schools for social work and a master of public administration, my father said that I should

You can see Ellis Island from your apartment — the one you were living in on 9/11.

Did you consider not returning?

No. We returned as soon as the neighborhood was open — I think that was about

Have you been a mentor to young women?

Yes. I’ve been a mentor to many.

You were in the vanguard of those who came back?

You’ve been en extremely successful in n business. What has that been een like for you as a woman?

When I started I asked my bosses, ‘Who ho are my role models?’ and nd I was told, ‘You u will have to bee your own role model.’

I asked are there any other senior women around? ound?

And they said, very few. But that’s changed anged quite a lot.

What are your thoughts about the issues for Battery Park City?

I’m concerned about the sustainability susta of Battery Park City. I want to make sure m that the neighborhood development phase is behind us, that we are able to stay foc focused on the quality of life in the th neighborhood and that we have the resources we need to d do it.

You’re a busy person. With all that you’re already doing and with a family, why did you decide to d go on the board boar of the Battery Park City P Authority?

Author I wo would rather be b in the room when decisions are decis made than mad read about them in the newspapers. new

NOTEBOOK River runs are a constant in an ever-changing world

BY MICHELE HERMAN When I first started running, my route was a length of old riverfront asphalt marked off by splintered piers, and the World Trade Center — that bland beacon — was always up ahead. My kids were 6 and 3 and I was a full-time mom, and it felt delicious to be out by the Hudson all by myself for a half hour, no one begging for another game of Candyland.

This was 1998, which in retrospect seems like a very good year. Monica Lewinsky notwithstanding, it was a time so quiescent I don’t remember feeling I was living in a particular era at all. Technology hadn’t yet insinuated itself into everyone’s every waking moment. I remember watching parents and their teenagers and feeling convinced that the generation gap was an outdated notion from the ’60s. The U.S. had its first budget surplus in 30 years, Exxon and Mobil merged, Viagra was approved, the euro created, an obscure Islamic radical named Osama bin Laden published something called a fatwa, and a little company with a funny name (Google) was founded.

Little did we know; little do we ever know. Soon I ran into a new century — one that should be filed under the great Chinese curse “May you live in interesting

times” — and I often wish I could run back out again, even though there’s no denying that in this century the city has grown far more hospitable for recreation. Now I run through a tree-lined park up a gently sloped wooden boardwalk planted on either side with grasses that rustle in the breeze and make me feel, for just a minute, that I’m at the beach.

But then I look up and see the so-called Freedom Tower grow crazily tall and shiny and know that life in 2012 is no day at the beach. Drivers beside me on West Street are texting though they know they shouldn’t be. At high tide the Hudson rises alarmingly close to the level of the esplanade.

Upheavals tumble into the news at such a rapid rate it’s hard to keep all the natural disasters, deposed or killed dictators, disgraced U.S. politicians, teetering world economies and changing paradigms in my head at once.

Me — I have more freedom these days, at least on the micro level. I would happily play a game or two or 20 of Boggle if only there were a kid around who would deign to join me. Alas, there’s only one left at home, and, being a consummate teenager, he makes himself quite scarce. So, in this newish decade of the newish century, I go

out for an occasional run to breathe the air and watch the world go by and muse on everything from my BMI to the meaning of life.

‘I aim myself toward peace and enlightenment, but to date my shadow remains firmly attached, waxing and waning.’

Running is one of the most rudimentary and linear activities a human can do, but it’s subject to change like everything else. Running is conducive to taking in the scenery and asking myself lots of idle questions. Do the mockingbirds fly south for the winter or are they just resting their vocal cords, like Liza Minnelli? How did horse chestnuts get their name?

I have kept up the running so much longer than I expected to that I feel like a

whole different sort of person from the one I thought I was going to be. For one, I never expected to have such an active exercise life or so many muscles. If I do have to stop running I will still have my bike, weights, yoga and, in the summer, the city pools. But none are as simultaneously tingly and calming as a good run.

I aim myself toward peace and enlightenment, but to date my shadow remains firmly attached, waxing and waning. And the world casts a bigger shadow on my runs than it used to. I worry less about how many calories I’m burning and more about whether we humans are running straight into a science fiction novel, and whether it will be of the anti-utopian variety. I worry about European economies and the American democracy, and about whether I am living in the midst of a great empire in decline. I cross my fingers for the wisdom and perseverance of peaceful protesters everywhere, and for a new era to grow from the unpromising seeds of this one. Each time I lace up my Asics and run, I like to think I grow infinitesimally stronger. And I wish that civilization at large operated, like running, under the principle of slow progress through steady effort.

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March 21 - 27, 2012

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March 21 - 27, 2012

Downtown Express photos by Milo Hess

Fifth annual ‘Rang Barse’ While most people in Manhattan last Saturday were decked out in green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, the day also marked the fifth annual “Rang Barse” hosted by IN Group Events. The event, which started at Pier 16 in the South Street Seaport, was attended by more than 500 people, mostly of South Asian decent, to celebrate “Holi,” the traditional “Indian Festival of Color” that marks the beginning of spring by people throwing colored powder and water onto one another. The crowd boarded the Princess cruise ship for a tour around the southern tip of Manhattan that ended at Hudson River Park.

City Council pushing for ‘Protester’s Bill of Rights’ Continued from page 4 movement. Reform of training protocol is needed as a bare minimum response to this overaggressive police activity.”

Calkins said he did not witness the same aggressive behavior by the NYPD that led to outrage expressed in the national media as well as on social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter that followed incidents last fall, specifically when a NYPD officer was caught on video spraying pepper gas into the faces of four young girls.

“It was like a phalanx,” said Calkins on Monday. “They were coming in and literally peeling people out of the crowd one-by-one, working their way back to the center of the park.”

Calkins said while he did witness “hands and knees” being used by the NYPD to subdue activists, he did not observe police officers deploying non-lethal weapons such as mace, clubs or tasers.

Calkins alluded to the fact the arrests in the wee-morning hours on Sunday might have been the beginning of the anticipated O.W.S. American Spring. He said Downtown residents should expect the movement to remain active in the area,

citing plans to once again stage physical occupations in Lower Manhattan in addition to other actions throughout the city.

“This is going to be here, people are going to see us,” said Calkins.

To continue to bring attention to Saturday’s events, some O.W.S. activists took over Union Square during the day on Monday as well. At least 100 demonstrators gathered under the now symbolic yellow-and-black “Occupy Wall Street” banner. One demonstrator held a sign that read, “Guns and cops may break our bones, but we will always occupy!”

Councilmember Stephen Levin echoed Calkin’s prediction about the upcoming months at the press conference on Monday.

“This is a group that takes democracy seriously and we should all admire the courage they exhibit by organizing and speaking truth to power. The six-month anniversary of the occupation [was last Saturday]… the weather is warm and the spring has arrived so O.W.S. protesters peacefully assembled.

To my horror, the NYPD responded to this peaceful assembly with physical intimidation, violence, and excessive arrests.”

— additional repor ting by Zach Williams

OPEN THINKING | ON A NEW SCHOOL OF THOUGHT No. 5 IN A SERIES

CAN PHYSICAL EDUCATION BE A CATALYST IN THE CLASSROOM?

By Jennifer Inniss Athletics and Physical Education Director, Avenues When many of us were in school, physical education was simply “gym.” Leading educators today see it as so much more — because there is much to be gained when a dialog is established between teachers in physical education and those in academics.

Students who lack confidence in the classroom can often gain that confidence by becoming leaders in a physical education program.

Find out more about Jennifer Inniss’ thoughts on the role of physical education at www.avenues.org/inniss. You’ll find articles, videos, interviews and details on parent information events hosted by the leadership team of Avenues: The World School.

Avenues is opening this fall in Chelsea. It will be the first of 20 campuses in major cities, educating children ages three to 18 with a global perspective.

WWW.AVENUES.ORG

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BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER ANGELS IN AFRICA CLOTHING DRIVE: From now through April 15, six Battery Park City buildings owned by Milstein Properties are collecting clothing for people in rural Kenya that will be distributed via a charity called Angels in Africa that was started by Janet Martin, Milstein’s chief administrative officer.

Martin was in Kenya 25 years ago working on a photography assignment for the Kenyan government when she saw a woman and two children “walking where nobody is supposed to walk.” She asked why and was told that they had been thrown out of their village and “were going to die.” Horrified, Martin vowed that she would try to do something for women in that situation. She leased some property in the Kichwa Tembo region of the Masai Mara and built a hut there. Now there are 40 huts with 50 women living in the village and around a hundred children.

Martin initially provided them with five cows (now there are 70 cows in the herd), taught them how to garden and supplied

March 21 - 27, 2012

them with beehives. Recently, she got chickens for the village.

“They were the best thing,” said Martin.

The women of the village are able to earn some money by selling vegetables, honey and chickens to the tented camps of the region, whose occupants are slightly more affluent.

Martin also started a school for the children. Originally a one-room schoolhouse, it now goes from kindergarten through the eighth grade. There are currently 350 students and 13 teachers, who are supplied by the Kenyan government.

All 15 students in the most recent graduating class were accepted into high schools.

“I’m not going to be able to solve all the problems in Kenya,” Martin said. “I am trying to make a difference where I can.”

During the clothing drive, Angels in Africa is collecting clothing of all sizes and from all seasons for men, women and children. Coats, sweaters and shoes are most needed. To donate, contact the Milford management office at (212) 842-7310.

Participating B.P.C. buildings include Liberty Luxe, Liberty Green, Liberty

Downtown Express photos by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

Manchurian azalea (Rhododendron mucronulatum ‘Cornell Pink’) is blooming in Battery Park City’s South Cove.

downtown express

Ben Vokits, 36, took advantage of the nice weather on St. Patrick’s Day to practice his tuba-playing in Rector Park, attracting the attention of another B.P.C. resident, Elijah Bartner, 6.

Court, Liberty View, Liberty House and Liberty Terrace.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: B.P.C.’s gardens are in glorious, springtime bloom, with legions of crocuses, daffodils, hellebores and other flowers adorning B.P.C.’s nearly 36 acres of parks. This is also the time of year when the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy puts out its annual S.O.S. for volunteers to help with the gardening.

“No experience is necessary, but willingness to commit the time is essential,” said Eileen Calvanese, horticultural foreperson.

Volunteers are needed on Wednesday mornings from 7:30 a.m. to noon. The season begins on May 2 and runs through Oct. 31.

“We provide training and tools,” said Calvanese, “and an opportunity to work alongside Parks Conservancy horticulturists to learn about our organic gardening methods.”

The volunteers, who must be 18 years old or older, do tasks such as weeding, grooming and deadheading. To volunteer, call (212) 267-9700 or email info@bpcparks.org.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage at 36 Battery Place is also looking for volunteers to work in its Pickman Museum Shop. The shop is stocked with a variety of interesting merchandise for adults and children from books and CDs to jewelry, Judaica, games and other toys. Much of what is on sale is related to the Museum’s exhibition and program schedule.

Volunteers work in four-hour shifts on days and at times of their choice. The museum is usually open Sundays through Fridays.

(It will close at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 6 and will be closed on Sunday, April 8 and Friday, April 13 in observance of Passover.)

Volunteers are entitled to a 25 percent discount in the shop, as well as free admission to the Museum of Jewish Heritage and other museums. For more information, call Tammy Chiu at (646) 437-4367.

MUSIC IN RECTOR PARK: Rector Place residents heard unusual, un-birdlike sounds emanating from Rector Park on St. Patrick’s

Day. It turned out that B.P.C. resident Ben Vokits, 36, was taking advantage of the nice weather to sit in the park and practice Brahms’ cello sonata, Opus 38 in E minor on his tuba.

“The tuba has only been around for 200 years,” Vokits explained, “so there’s not a lot of solo music written for the tuba.”

That’s why, he said, he was playing a cello sonata.

Vokits, whose day job is research chemistry for Bristol Myers Squibb, graduated from Oberlin College where he studied chemistry, biochemistry and tuba performance. He plays with a number of musical groups including the TriBattery Pops, the Greenwich Village Orchestra, the Manhattan Symphonie and a few others. He owns four tubas and a helicon — “an ancient, marching tuba.”

Elijah Bartner, 6, and his mother, Lynn, paused in the park on their way home. Elijah wanted to know how a tuba worked. Vokits showed him that he could make all the notes with the mouthpiece, and explained that the horn itself was just a resonator. Elijah said he was taking piano lessons. “He loves music,” his mother said. A discussion of Camille SaintSaëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals” ensued during which Elijah correctly stated that there was no tuba in that 19th-century work.

Vokits recalled that he was just a little older than Elijah — maybe 7 or 8 — when he started studying piano. As for why he switched to tuba, “The sound has a low pitch when it mixes with the strings,” said Vokits. “It creates a beautiful, understated resonance.”

BENVENUTI CHANGES HOURS: Benvenuti, which sells pizzas and Italian specialties at 235 South End Ave., is now open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Tuesdays, the store is offering a spaghetti and meatball special for $5 (cash). With the pleasant spring weather, there’s now outdoor seating. Benvenuti also delivers. Call (212) 945-2100.

To comment on Battery Park City Beat or to suggest article ideas, email TereseLoeb@ mac.com

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March 21 - 27, 2012

S EAPORT R EPORT

BY JANEL BLADOW Mirth, marathoners and mayhem ruled the lower tip of Manhattan this past weekend. Between the beer drinkers who got their green on all day Saturday celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day by wandering through the Seaport and making waves around Stone Street and the thousands of runners crossing the finish line at Maiden Lane and Water Street, looking as one local denizen called it “the walking dead”, plus the frenzy and chaos stirred up at Zuccoti Park for another onslaught by Occupy Wall Street, our little ‘hood was as hot a ticket as a Lady Gaga concert.

WHAT’S WITH THE WEATHER… seems to be a refrain we can all rejoice in! Perfect for the weekend that was and all over the nabe Spring is flourishing, even it if is a tad early. The green thumb brigade at the Fish-Bridge community garden on the corner of Water and Dover Sts. has been hard at work tilling soil, repairing the park and readying for summer fun.

The daffodils are waving their little yellow heads to the sun and buds are bursting on

the trees. Thanks to you guys for giving us a bit of nature and color while we suffer through endless construction on the Brooklyn Bridge. Stop by and compliment this group’s flower power.

CHOW DOWN… Following the Half Marathon, runners and others gathered at The Thompson Warehouse, 213215 Water St., for a pancake party to benefit the New Amsterdam Market and the South Street Seaport Museum.

Guests dined on NY state products including: maple syrup from Catskills Provisions, pancakes made with Cayuga Pure Organics rye flour, Kriemhild Dairy Farms butter, Tonjes Farm Dairy buttermilk and Mosefund bacon. Students from Kingsborough Community College served as volunteers.

FUN-RAISING… The Blue School, now a set fixture in the nabe bringing in BMWs and Land Rovers to drop of little kids for class, hosts its annual Spring Fling April 19 at Bridgewaters. If you want to learn more about creative education or

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just have a good time you’ll want to get a ticket. Trickster Ball guest of honor is Sir Ken Robinson, educator and author of “The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.” For more info: www.theblueschool.org.

MAKING THE DAILIES… The hood is getting more buzz from the big boys uptown. The new lofts at 99 John St. made headlines in the NY Daily News last week for the art deco style and oldworld elegance. And Steve Cuzzo, the NY Post’s food maven, sang the praises of a new local eatery: “I had ridiculously good Atlantic salmon at 121 Fulton St., which replaced a Blarney Stone. It looks like a sports bar, but my fish was the real deal — moist but firm, medium-rare, topped with diced corn and peppers and crisscrossed beneath by tender baby asparagus.”

But one of our favorite stories was about the battle going on at St. James & St. Joseph Parrish in Chinatown over the feral cats, in the Daily News on

Saturday. The group that goes around feeding them says the church groundskeeper hinted at poisoning them. But the newly named pastor, the Rev. Lino Gonsalves, denies there is any such plot.

Meanwhile the rats continue to fester.

The cats keep their cool.

So SR’s question is: If you feed the cats, what’s to keep them from getting fat and lazy and then ignore the rats?

downtown n

express ss Your paper.

March 21 - 27, 2012

16

downtown express

New Port chief discusses all things W.T.C. Continued from page 2 Is there any sign of a resolution of the financial dispute with the National Sept. 11 Memorial Foundation? Have you spoken to Governor Cuomo or Mayor Mike Bloomberg about the matter?

I have been in personal touch with the City’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Steel and spoke with [9/11 Memorial President] Joe Daniels about the issue last week. Steel and I have been talking and meeting regularly, and I think it’s fair to say that we’re both committed to resolving this in good faith.

We’ve [already] made significant progress, and I’m optimistic that we’re going to come to a negotiated settlement.

But do you have any idea what the resolution will look like?

We know there’s $150 million swinging in both directions…

I’d like to limit the comment to [the aforementioned statements]. I think that both we and the City have not negotiated this in the media, and I want to continue that policy.

Is there a new completion date for the 9/11 Memorial Museum?

[For an answer to that] question, I think you should refer to the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

Do you have an update on Three W.T.C. — is there any prospect of getting the building beyond the seven-story retail podium? And if W.T.C. developer Larry Silverstein is able to secure a tenant for the building, will the Port be in a position to meet its obligation to back the Tower financially?

I’m optimistic on New York City, I’m optimistic on Downtown, and I think the progress that we’ve made in leasing One W.T.C.

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kind of speaks for itself. There’s a significant component of the Class A office space inventory in the City of New York that’s 50 or more years old, and there are a number of large tenants that, in the next several years, are going to be looking for significant blocks of space. Larry’s success at Three W.T.C. is good for City, the State [and] the Port Authority. If Larry is able to hit those thresholds, and we’re rooting for him, the Port Authority’s fully committed to honoring the obligations it has in full.

We’ve recently reported on the Port’s plans to absorb the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. What’s the latest on that?

The latest is, we’re working more closely with the L.M.D.C. since Gov. Cuomo made that announcement… and I think there’s a greater level of coordination between the L.M.D.C. and the Port Authority and the City.

Could you be more specific on the time frame of this?

I think that closer collaboration and cooperation is underway and is going to occur in the months ahead.

Will the L.M.D.C. be moved out of One Liberty Plaza and into Port Authority offices?

There’s no plan to do that right now.

What’s going on with the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center? Are the staff layoffs and the agency’s move to the Port’s offices set to happen by the month’s end, as we were told?

In the coming months, the L.M.C.C.C.’s going to be consolidating its space and operations at 115 Broadway, which is where the Port Authority’s W.T.C. offices are located. We’ve been asked for about 11 offices [for the remaining employees]… and we’re going to accommodate that. [In addition to the four remaining employees,] there are also a number of consultants both on the real estate and environmental sides. Even today, the number of consultants doing that work outweighs the number of the L.M.C.C.C. [core] staff, and there has been no change in the consultants.

But to clarify, will the L.M.C.C.C. remain an independent entity?

Yes. We’re not absorbing the L.M.C.C.C. — it’s going to continue to have separate staff. We made decisions that in areas like administrative support and webmasters, the L.M.C.C.C. could continue its work but do so in a manner that was more cost-efficient and cost-effective. For instance, we made a decision together with the L.M.C.C.C. that having a separate webmaster… at this point in its history didn’t make sense, and that we had the ability to combine not only real estate but staffing, and do so to allow the L.M.C.C.C. to fulfill its mission and its responsibilities [and] to save the relevant taxpayers some money.

Many Downtown community members firmly believe it

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is not time for the L.M.C.C.C. to sunset, but your predecessor Chris Ward advocated for it. What is your take on this, and when will the agency be folded?

I don’t have a specific date. I think there’s clearly going to be a day where the L.M.C.C.C. will have completed its work and satisfied its mission, and that’ll be appropriate. That’s not today… and that’s a decision we’re going to make in consultation and collaboration with the City. We’re aware and respectful of the community’s views.

Moving on to 130 Liberty: Is the site officially under the Port’s control?

There has been no official transfer. I think it requires… execution of some documents, and approval, as I understand it, by the L.M.D.C. board — so that’ll be activity for the months ahead.

What are the short- and long-term plans for the 130 Liberty site?

We think that the site is an extraordinarily valuable one, and that over the years ahead, aspiration of future uses for the site — which could include mixed-use, office, residential, hotel, [and] perhaps some retail — are appropriate. [But] those aren’t decisions that have to be reached now. We’re going to be and have been talking with both the City and the L.M.D.C. on those issues.

How is the W.T.C. redevelopment going, in your opinion, both in terms of construction and leasing?

I think we’re beginning to approach the point at which… you can see completion on the near horizon. [One] W.T.C. happily is at the 93rd floor today. I’ve been at the site twice this week, and I’ll be again at the W.T.C. site later today. For a building that’s going to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of 2013, we’re approximately 55 percent leased, with a number of other prospects in the pipeline. [Meanwhile,] steel is going up on the W.T.C. Transportation Hub and the Oculus building, and significant progress is being made there as well.

How will the Port’s review and changes to its management structure affect the agency’s role in redeveloping the W.T.C.?

We are going to honor in letter and spirit every commitment that has been made to Downtown and to Downtown stakeholders. The decision to develop the W.T.C. was made by two governors a long time ago: Governor Nelson Rockefeller in the ‘60s and Governor George Pataki following the murderous events of 9/11. And we don’t quarrel with either of those decisions, but I think going forward, we’re going to be taking a rigorous look at our capital plan in total.

We’re going to be more focused on our core mission, which is transportation infrastructure serving the region. I think it’s fair to say that it’s unlikely that the Port Authority is going to be pursuing real estate development like this any time soon [since] it’s not our core mission. Government is not a natural or particularly gifted real estate developer.

downtown express

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Continued from page 10 the light and crash into the building.

New York City Audubon, which began its “Lights Out NY” campaign in 2005, estimates that “90,000 birds die in collisions with buildings here each year.”

Not only do we not need to build any more tall buildings in our neighborhood, the addition of wind turbines on rooftops, reaching stories into the sky, along this migratory flight path would be a cruel step in the wrong direction. While it’s wonderful for buildings to become more green, and even as wind turbines have been improved so as to lower the mortality rate of birds, we need new standards to make buildings safer for birds.

City households, to help prevent needless bird deaths, can draw their drapes in the evening (especially during migration times — spring migration is starting now), not put trees inside a glass wall or window and use fritting (placing designs, frosting, etc. on glass). For more information go to flap.org.

Lynn Pacifico

17

March 21 - 27, 2012

SoHo BID a perfect ‘fit’ for mayor’s budget To The Editor: The idea of a SoHo BID did not come from the community; it came from an outside source. Who supplied the money for the dog and pony presentation for the BID? To say the community was involved is a lie… there were no petitions to draw the community into a dialogue, though the promoters say there was. I can only speculate that making “sewer service” an issue was a lawyer’s trick so the opposition does not show up when there is a hearing.

The idea that the Department of Sanitation no longer cleans the streets, that they only “pick-up,” fits Mayor Bloomberg’s idea of an efficient Department of Sanitation, which in term leaves each community with a gap in its cleaning of the streets and leaves a leaner, smaller Department of Sanitation. This fits the Mayor’s budget and saddles the community with a new tax.

Sincerely, Martin Hechtman SoHo dweller for over 50 years

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March 21 - 27, 2012

18

COMPILED BY SCOTT STIFFLER

FAMILY PASSOVER The Museum of Jewish Heritage’s “Get Outta Town! A Family Passover Program” offers storytelling, songs, arts and crafts. Designed for ages 3 to 10, the program includes dynamic storytelling by the duo Play Me a Story as well as a vibrant recounting of the Passover story (told through lively Egyptian-style dance, music and costumes). Following the performance, children can create holiday-inspired crafts. Sun., April 1, 2:30pm. At the Museum of Jewish Heritage (Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Place, in Battery Park City). Tickets are $10 and $7 for children 10 and under (for Museum members, $7 general and $5 for children 10 and under). To order, call 646-437-4202 or visit mjhnyc.org.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND, THE MUSICAL Featuring music

by Michael Sgouros and Brenda Bell, Literally Alive Children’s Theatre puts its own stamp on “Alice in Wonderland.” Once you follow that cotton-tailed creature down the rabbit hole, you’ll spend 60 minutes of wild, wacky, whimsical, marvelous mayhem. Just don’t forget to bow to the Queen of Hearts — or she’ll chop off your head!

Before the show starts, the one-hour “Pre-Show Workshop” explains how Literally Alive turned the original book into a musical. After discussing the book’s themes, kids and their families will make a special art project that can be taken home as a souvenir. This show is appropriate for all ages, recommended for 3 and up. Through May 20.

Sat. at 11am and 3pm; Sun. at 11am (no shows April 1 or 8; additional show, April 12). At The Players Theatre (115 MacDougal St., btw. 3rd & Bleecker). For tickets ($40 first three rows, $35 for second three rows, $25 for all other seats), call 212-352-3101, visit ovationtix.com or purchase at the box office (opens 11am daily). For more info, visit aliceinthevillage.com and literallyalive.com.

NEW YORK CITY FIRE MUSEUM Kids will learn about fire prevention and safety through group tours, led by former NYC firefighters. The program, which lasts approximately 75 minutes, includes a guided tour of the museum’s first floor, classroom training and a simulated event in a mock apartment (where a firefighter shows how fires can start in different rooms in the home). Tours, for groups of 20 or more, are offered Tues.-Fri. at 10:30am, 11:30am and 12:30pm. Tickets are $3 for children and $5 per adult (for every 10 kids, admission is free for one adult). The museum offers a $700 Junior Firefighter Birthday Party package, for 16 children, ages 3-6. They’ll be treated to story time, show and tell, a coloring activity, a scavenger

YOUTH ACTIVITIES

hunt and the opportunity to speak to a real firefighter (a fire-themed birthday cake, juice boxes, favors and decorations are provided). At 278 Spring St. (btw. Varick and Hudson). For info, call 212-691-1303 or visit nycfiremuseum.org.

THE SKYSCRAPER MUSEUM The Skyscraper Museum’s “Saturday Family Program” series features workshops designed to introduce children and their families to the principles of architecture and engineering — through hands-on activities. On March 31, “Stack ‘Em High” introduces kids to New York’s major players in the world of tall buildings by simulating their construction. Using stacking blocks, iconic structures such as the Empire State Building and the Woolworth Building will be created. Upon construction, get your picture taken with your mile-high building! On April 21, “Body Buildings” challenges kids to work together to make a city skyline with their bodies. You’ll learn about all the different shapes of skyscrapers, then use poster paper and your silhouette to make your very own building!

All workshops take place from 10:30-11:45am, at The Skyscraper Museum (39 Battery Place). Registration required. Call 212-945-6324 or e-mail education@skyscraper.org. Admission: $5 per child, free for members.

Museum Hours: Wed.-Sun., 12-6pm. Museum admission: $5, $2.50 for students/seniors. For info, call 212945-6324, visit skyscraper.org or email education@ skyscraper.org.

THAT BEAUTIFUL LAUGH Director Orlando Pabotoy’s high-octane clown show was inspired by his five-yearold son’s philosophical musings on the nature of laughter (which were inspired by Pabotoy’s nightly routine of making up bedtime stories). “That Beautiful Laugh” (The Artigiani Troupe’s inaugural theatrical production) is a family-friendly tale of a world where laughter is forgotten and rediscovered. Expect rhythmicallydriven comedy, clowning and original music — along with new renditions of old favorites. “Laugh” stars Alan Tudyk, who can be on the ABC television series “Suburgatory.” Musician Harrison Beck, on the accordion and vocals, accompanies the cast of skilled clowns.

Through March 25; Thurs.-Sat. at 10pm, Sun. at 5:30pm (running time, 90 minutes). At The Club at La MaMa (74A E.4 St., btw. Bowery & 2nd Ave.). For tickets ($18, $13 for students/seniors), call 212-475-7710 or visit lamama.org.

Also visit thatbeautifullaugh.com.

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THE NEW MUSEUM

downtown express

YORK

CITY

POLICE

The Junior Officers Discovery Zone is designed for ages 3-10. It’s divided into four areas (Police Academy, Park and Precinct, Emergency Services Unit and a Multi-Purpose Area), each with interactive play experiences designed to help children understand the role of police officers in our community. For older children, there’s a crime scene observation activity that challenges them to remember relevant parts of city street scenes, a physical challenge similar to those at the Police Academy and a model Emergency Services Unit vehicle in which they can hear radio calls with police codes and see some of the actual equipment carried by the vehicle. At 100 Old Slip (btw. Front and South Sts.). For info, call 212-480-3100 or visit nycpm. org. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 10am-5pm and Sun., 12-5pm. Admission: $8 ($5 for students, seniors and children; free for children under 2).

Photo courtesy of the NYC Police Museum

Policing the area, in the Junior Officers Discovery Zone.

ist within. Open art stations are ongoing throughout the afternoon — giving children the opportunity to experiment with materials such as paint, clay, fabric, paper and found objects. On Sat., March 31, the CMA and New York’s Irish Arts Center’s “Irish Arts Festival” invites you to explore the magical world of Irish arts and culture. Learn all about traditional and contemporary arts of Ireland by taking jig lessons and knitting workshops, as well as watching mythical animations and hearing mythical tales. Regular museum hours: Mon. and Wed., 12-5pm; Thurs.-Fri., 12-6pm; Sat.-Sun., 10am-6pm. Admission: $10; free for seniors and infants (0-12 months). Pay as you wish on Thurs., 4-6pm. At 103 Charlton St. (btw. Hudson and Greenwich Sts.).

Call 212-274-0986 or visit cmany.org. For group tours, call 212-274-0986, ext. 31.

Photo courtesy of Canal Park Playhouse

Mark Hayward (left) and Jonathan Burns (right) prepare to break a world record… any world record!

STUNT LAB Pay attention, kids: Mark Hayward and Jonathan Burns are living proof that you CAN spend a good deal of your youth playing with toys and making farting noises with your armpits — and still grow up to be a success. If it worked for them, it can work for you!

Yo-yo champ Hayward and celebrated contortionist Burns have traveled the world demonstrating their skills. Now, they’ve joined forces in order to break a world record at every performance of “Stunt Lab” — when they’re not busy using everyday objects and their own ingenuity to create dangerous, amazing and wild experiments.

“Stunt Lab” is part of Canal Park Playhouse’s Classic Brunch Matinee series. At the theater’s Waffle Iron Café, you can chow down on waffles, frittatas, French toast, salads and sliders before or after the show.

Hayward and Burns perform their crazy stunts every Sat. and Sun, 1pm and 4pm, through April 1. At Canal Park Playhouse (508 Canal St., btw. Greenwich & Washington Sts.). For tickets ($20), call 866-811-4111 or visit canalparkplayhouse.com. Also visit markandjonathan.com.

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF THE ARTS Explore painting, collage and sculpture through self-guided arts projects at this museum dedicated to inspiring the art-

POETS HOUSE The Poets House Children’s Room gives children and their parents a gateway to enter the world of rhyme — through readings, group activities and interactive performances. For children ages 1-3, the Children’s Room offers “Tiny Poets Time” readings on Thursdays at 10am; for those ages 4-10, “Weekly Poetry Readings” on Saturdays at 11am. Filled with poetry books, old-fashioned typewriters and a card catalogue packed with poetic objects to trigger inspiration, the Children’s Room is open Thurs.-Sat., 11am-5pm. Free admission. At 10 River Terrace. Call 212-431-7920 or visit poetshouse.org.

SATURDAY AFTERNOONS AT THE SCHOLASTIC STORE Every Saturday at 3pm, Scholastic’s in-store activities are designed to get kids reading, thinking, talking, creating and moving. At 557 Broadway (btw. Prince and Spring Sts.). Store hours are Mon.-Sat., 10am-7pm and Sun., 11am-6pm. For info, call 212-343-6166 or visit scholastic.com/sohostore.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR EVENT LISTED IN THE DOWNTOWN EXPRESS? Please provide the date, time, location, price and a description of the event. Send to scott@chelseanow.com or mail to 515 Canal St., Unit 1C, New York City, NY 10013. Requests must be received at least three weeks before the event. For more info, call 646-452-2497.

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19

March 21 - 27, 2012

Family Matters

Under David Cromer’s direction, Nina Raine’s ‘Tribes’ is season’s best THEATER TRIBES Written by Nina Raine Directed by David Cromer Through June 3 Tues.-Sun, at 7:30pm Sat.-Sun., at 2:30pm At the Barrow Street Theatre 27 Barrow St., btw. Seventh Ave. & W. Fourth St. For tickets ($75, $95), call 212-868-4444 or visit smarttix.com

BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE In the course of our lives, we are — or become — part of any number of tribes.

Each has its rules, hierarchies, communications and secret handshakes. I mean the last metaphorically, of course, but one of the ways we identify ourselves is by the tribes we are part of.

Whether it’s a family, school, workplace or — in the case of Nina Raine’s shatteringly moving new play, “Tribes” — the deaf community, how we see ourselves is often in direct relationship to our place within a tribe. As we grow and change, discover and define ourselves, our tribes may change, as may our roles within them, but how we know ourselves is always in relation to the other members. Conflict and, in this case, profound theater can result from those roles changing or the individuals inhabiting those roles evolving, upsetting the stasis essential to a tribe and to the dependability and predictability that give us comfort.

Raine’s play begins in an overly educated British intellectual home where the members of the family — parents and three adult children — find themselves living under one roof again. As often happens, each member of the family picks up their familiar roles. The opening scenes of the play are hilarious as the family bickers and argues in ways that have their roots in decades-old behaviors.

Christopher, the father, is a former college professor turned writer, too clever by half, curmudgeonly and critical.

Beth, the mother, is also a writer, constantly trying to negotiate among the family members. Daniel, one son, has a history of mental illness and is trying to complete a graduate thesis, while daughter Ruth is floundering and at the time the play opens hoping to become an opera singer. Billy, on the other hand, is deaf. He has been raised as if normal and is an adept lip reader, but still he is unable to participate fully in the rambunctious arguments that pass for famil-

Photo by Gregory Costanzo

Susan Pourfar, Gayle Rankin, Jeff Perry, and Russell Harvard in Nina Raine’s “Tribes,” directed by David Cromer.

ial affection.

When Billy meets Sylvia, his world changes. The hearing daughter of deaf parents, she communicates in sign language and grieves for the fading of her own hearing that will lead to complete deafness. Billy falls in love with her, and, as he finds himself immersed in the deaf community, a place where he is accepted and understood, he comes to see his family and his role in it as limiting.

But, of course, it is not that simple.

Raine’s story beautifully navigates the crisis that Billy’s change touches off as each character tries to discover who they are in a shifting context. Along the way, the playwright explores the artificial constructs held together by shared illusions in any tribe. Being branded “the quiet one,” “the social one,” or whatever within a family becomes deeply entrenched within the collective consciousness of the tribe — and those images persist long after time has made them untrue.

In Raine’s play, when Billy finds his voice, it is met with disbelief that leads to chaos. The play is so finely detailed and human that it creates empathy for each of the characters but also for the family organism as well.

Director David Cromer is firmly in his element here. No other working director can accumulate the details of lives so powerfully as he does. His orchestration of Raine’s play leads the audience fully into the family’s world and touches something so fundamental about the longing and loss we all experience in growing beyond our families that it is almost overpowering, more so because it creeps up on us so subtly throughout the play.

In addition to Cromer’s superb work, a magnificent in-the-round set by Scott

Pask that pulls us deeply into the action, and brilliant sound design by Daniel Kluger, the cast is simply magnificent. Jeff Perry is outstanding as Christopher, as he

tries to hold on as the world shifts around him. Mare Winningham is heartfelt and moving as Beth. Teetering on the brink of a breakdown, Will Brill is fragile and complex as Daniel — and Gayle Rankin is sharp and touching as Ruth.

The evening, however, belongs to Russell Harvard as Billy and Susan Pourfar as Sylvia. Harvard is an astonishing presence, at once powerful and vulnerable. It is his change, conveyed with integrity and focus, that drives the play. Simply put, Harvard’s is the best performance by an actor I’ve seen this season.

Pourfar, who is an extraordinary actress I’m always thrilled to see, has never been better than as Sylvia. She is brilliant as she loses her hearing and, with it, what she has known about herself. Technically, the performance is razor-sharp, with her speech changing as the character goes deaf — in devastating synchronicity with her emotional journey.

How we hear, how we see ourselves, how others see us, and how we find our way in and out of the tribes that populate our existence is the stuff of living. These issues are also the stuff of the best play of the season. Do not miss it.

March 21 - 27, 2012

20

downtown express

Support Your Local Cinema!

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

ORDINARY MIRACLES: THE PHOTO LEAGUE’S NEW YORK Director Nina Rosenblum’s documentary film pays tribute to an influential group of artists and socially progressive truthseekers working in the medium of still photography. From 1936-1951, The Photo League functioned as the center of the documentary movement in American photography. Young and idealistic, League members took their cameras into the streets to capture images meant to expose social problems and achieve social justice. For that, they were branded as Communists and blacklisted — forcing the League to disband.

Decades later, in addition to several of its members, the work survives — providing a panoramic view of New York City during the thirties and forties (the El train, May Day rallies in Union Square, cutting contests at the Savoy Ballroom, automats and Lower East Side street life).

Among those documenting the LES: the filmmaker’s father, Walter Rosenblum, and Rebecca Lepkoff — whose work is included in “The Radical Camera,� a Photo League exhibit on view through March 25, at the Jewish Museum (her own exhibit, “Life on the Lower East Side,� can be seen at the Tenement Museum, through April). Lepkoff, along with several other Photo League members and Miriam Grossman Cohen (wife of League founder Sid Grossman) will attend the screening of “Ordinary Miracles,� and participate in a Q&A. Thurs., March 29, 8pm. At IFC Center (323 Sixth Ave., at W. Third St.). For info, 212-924-7771. Visit daedalus. tv, thephotoleaguefilm.com and ifccenter.com, tenement.org and thejewishmuseum.org.

THE SVA/BBC DESIGN FILM FESTIVAL

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Photo courtesy of the filmmakers and Rebecca Lepkoff

Rebecca Lepkoff’s “Lower East Side, 1947.�

Concentrating on design, advertising and book-related films, this film festival (presented by the School of Visual Arts and the BBC) gives Yanks the unique opportunity to see groundbreaking BBC films that have never been screened in the America.

Fans of “Mad Men� will want to catch “Selling the Sixties: How Madison Avenue Dreamed the Decade� — which tells the reallife stories of the ad men, and women, behind the fictional TV series. Gay Talese and advertising legend George Lois (famous for his Esquire covers, Xerox ads, work with Andy Warhol and Muhammad Ali and his reinvention of MTV) are among those providing a window on consumerism, 1960s-style. Lois will take

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downtown express

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downtown express

Downtown, and all around, Tom Murrin will be missed COMPILED BY SCOTT STIFFLER He was funny, sharp, prolific, unique and kind. He inspired others to create, innovate, provoke and entertain. He was loved, and he’ll be missed.

What more can you possibly say about a human being who’s no longer with us? Best to just expand on those laurels, and hope that the details provide some glimpse into what makes the loss of Thomas Lee Murrin (1939-2012) so deeply felt by his family and the Downtown arts community.

Surrounded by his wife Patricia and friends, the performance artist and writer known as Tom Murrin (aka the Alien Comic, aka Jack Bump) died on March 12, of complications from cancer. He was 73.

What a life.

In 2008, Tom was honored by Performance Space 122 at their annual Spring Gala. He received a plaque with the following quote: “For wildly imaginative groundbreaking performance work that never hesitated to serve the creative impulse, the desire to entertain, and the belief that new forms of theatre were possible. For invaluable contributions to Performance Space 122 and the entire downtown performing community that, through a history of selfless generosity, helped make New York a place where continuing generations of artists can imagine and invent. Performance Space 122 is proud to honor Tom Murrin aka Alien Comic.”

To learn more about his achievements, visit Murrin’s website: thealiencomic.com.

To help preserve his work, donations can be made payable to Alien Comic Fund and sent to: Alien Comic Fund, c/o PS122, 67 West Street, Suite 315, Brooklyn, NY 11222.

FAMILY, FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES REMEMBER TOM Patsy Jedynak (Tom’s sister) Hearts hold memories, and I have many good ones. I am one and a half years younger than Tom, and I am his only sibling, His show career began in grammar school with his magic act, when he was paid to perform at kid’s birthdays, friend’s parties, school and country club events.

I was his trusting assistant and helped him rehearse. He’d say, “Take a card, take a card, any card” during his never-ending practices. He was a perfectionist, and made me take an oath of secrecy to never reveal his methods. I assisted Tom when he appeared on “Beat the Clock” (a TV show in the ’50s and ’60s). Young Tom supplemented his income by appearing on Jeopardy and other daytime quiz shows. Once, Tom was on “The Gong Show” with two friends and they were gonged as soon as they started because Tom was mooning the audience with a plastic butt.

As a kid, Tom loved our family vacations on Balboa Island. He never missed a family gathering, every summer up to 2009. Over the years I have loved getting Tom’s, notes, letters and show bills in the mail. More recently, we emailed or talked on the phone almost daily.

that feeling of, “There was once something ELSE here….”

David Hershkovits (editor and publisher of Paper magazine) We initially asked Tom to write because he was a fan of performance, not because he was a critic. He didn’t seem to have a competitive bone in his body, extending his support to one and all. He wore both hats — performer and journalist — with equal ease.

Even when he had something to promote, he would be very low key about it, passing out a flyer or quietly letting us know. We always looked forward to his regular visits at Paper.

He was so much fun, upbeat and positive.

Photo courtesy of the Tom Murrin Archive

Tom Murrin performing on the streets, in India in the 1970s.

The day before I left for New York, I received a letter from Tom. I haven’t been able to open it, because I know it’s the last — and I am not ready to let him go.

Nicky Paraiso (director of programming, The Club at La MaMa) In the mid-1980s, I met Tom Murrin when my friend and mentor Bill Hart took me to see my first Alien Comic Show. I remember Tom wearing layers of costumes from which he undressed while telling fantastical tales of where he had been that very day — including running socio-political commentary on the news of the day and laying out what seemed like hundreds of homemade and found props which he used and promptly discarded. At one or another of these Alien Comic Shows, I remember Tom laying out the three rules of performance art, which were, 1) get a gig, 2) send out your flyers and postcards to get the news out about your upcoming performance and 3) show-up for the performance!

I remember Tom taking his Alien Comic show to all the Downtown performance venues which proliferated in those days, many of which are gone now: the original Pyramid Club, 8BC, Limbo Lounge, Chandelier, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut (now Niagara Bar), PS122, Dixon Place and, of course and of course, La MaMa — his first performance home in New York. The Alien Comic was even an opening act for James Brown at Irving Plaza!

Later, I remember Tom’s legendary Full Moon Shows, which were evening-length extravaganzas (performed in homage to Lunamacaruna, the Goddess of the Full Moon), presented mostly at PS122 and La MaMa, which gathered together Tom’s extraordinary circle of artist colleagues and friends, including Lucy Sexton and Annie Iobst/Dancenoise, Jo Andres, Mimi Goese, Iris Rose, Salley May,

Mike Iveson, Hapi Phace and a whole host of Full Moon Crew performers, choreographers and visual artists. Tom also brought “Butt Crack Bingo” and “Dick Play” (written by Tom’s notorious alter-ego and “evil twin” Jack Bump) to The Club at La MaMa. Tom is uniquely beloved in New York’s Downtown arts community. He would always encourage up-and-coming younger artists and cheer on the more established artists from the sidelines. We miss Tom, as we continue to miss those of Tom’s generation who are also no longer with us: Jim Neu, Bill Rice, Stuart Sherman, and also one of his best friends, theater director Bill Hart, as well as many others. I am immensely saddened by Tom’s passing, and salute his gallant, generous, irrepressibly anarchic spirit.

Trav S.D. (Chelsea Now, The Villager, Downtown Express theater columnist) Tom blazed many a trail upon which I and a thousand others have subsequently trodden and taken for granted. In the mid’90s, in addition to all his performance and theatre work, he began writing for Paper magazine. This was the capacity in which I knew him best and encountered him most.

That he could simultaneously hang on to his identity as a performance artist AND be an arts journalist at the same time was inspirational to me. Over the years he was very generous to me and my various theatrical exploits. I spoke to him most recently a little over two years ago, when he interviewed me about my show “Willy Nilly.”

He was a mighty nice guy, and like I said, a trailblazer. There is something about his passing that reminds me of the desolate feeling I get when I walk around St. Marks Place, or the area around Ludlow and Orchard Streets nowadays. It’s a feeling you don’t experience until you hit a certain age,

Francis Hall (aka Faceboy, of Bowery Poetry Club’s “Faceboyz Folliez”) Tom Murrin is one of the most inspiring and giving artists I have ever known. Though we are so deeply saddened by the loss of his physical presence, there is truth and beauty in writing, “Tom Murrin is...” for the myriad ways he inspires and all that he has given will always be with us.

However, some past tense usage must be applied here. Tom exemplified the risktaking performance artist. I first had the pleasure of meeting him in the mid-1990s, at Robert Prichard’s performance lab/theater, Surf Reality.

Venturing into what was then some of the sketchiest neighborhoods, he created and performed sketches even more daring than the journey through the streets one took to see them. As a print journalist, we had Tom to chronicle the scene in Paper magazine. It is rare and extraordinarily giving for an artist to promote others whose work is similar in genre to their own. He was one the first columnists to cover my stage work as well as that of my BFF Rev. Jen. He did this for so many of the unknowns and marginally known writers, risk takers and rabble-rousers. In time, we became friends.

Thinking now of the times I visited him, and knowing that I no longer can, I’m crying.

Yet in those tears, joy glistens in knowing how lucky I am to have had his friendship.

Michael C. Haenel (Tom’s nephew and godson) Grateful for Uncle Tommy...I admired Tommy’s magical talents, quick wit, masterful storytelling ability and his willingness to live life as an artist.

Tommy lived life filled with love, humility, grace and peace. God bless Uncle Tommy.

Vallejo Gantner (artistic director of PS122) While making his own work at PS122, for decades, Tom opened doors and created space for others to move freely in, building a community of artists around him who simply wouldn’t be the same without him.

Tom Murrin reminds us that what we do is important. He made PS122 wackier, stronger, smarter — more importantly perhaps is the fact that he continues to make the world wackier, stronger and smarter.

Continued on page 23

downtown express

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March 21 - 27, 2012

Remembering the unforgettable Tom Murrin Continued from page 22 Robert Prichard (co-founder, Surf Reality) Damn. This hurts.

Tom Murrin was not only a great performing artist, he was also our champion. He was our friend. Tom personified everything that’s cool about Downtown theater. I cannot recall him without thinking about his infectious energy, his generosity, his incredible wit and his unqualified love for the Downtown scene.

Every interaction I ever had with Tom was leavened with his kindness, his generosity and his compassion. As a performer, he was fearless and crazy ingenious.

Back when Surf Reality shared the building with a brothel and a crack deli, there was Tom performing his one-man show on our small stage — conjuring aliens, evil twins, elemental energies and on point satire of the culture at large. It was like watching a force of nature. He acted like our little hole in the wall performance loft was the center of the creative universe and the most important place to be in the world, and inevitably the magic he wrought would kick in and then his audiences would believe it too.

I thought again about how neither ego nor competitiveness ever seemed to come into play when he wrote about those who worked in similar fashions to his. It seemed he saw that part of his long and eclectic career as an opportunity to help other artists

rather than rip them apart, as so many writers tend to do.

Up until now, he always left us laughing. I hope he forgives me for being sad about this one final exit.

Ellie Covan (founder and artistic director of Dixon Place) I had several dreams about him in the days before his passing. Nothing bizarre or mysterious. Just hanging out with him.

Anything I say isn’t adequate. He was part of what made Dixon Place, Dixon Place.

He was the first performance artist to appear at DP (on East 1st Street) in 1986. He performed his groundbreaking work often, at all of our spaces.

Every artist has their own unique process, and Tommy’s was, well, funny. Before his show, he meticulously set up all the props and costumes. If you interrupted him, if you said anything, or even walked near his things, he would fly into a rage. At first, it startled me, and then I just thought he was an asshole. But after getting to know him, I totally looked forward to his arriving at the theater (and of course I made sure nothing disturbed him).

I feel so honored to have worked with him — he made a difference in so many lives, both as an artist and as an exceptionally kind and generous person. His last performance was at DP, making me at once very happy, very sad and very proud. His spirit is deeply imbedded in my heart and my living room.

Photo by Jim Moore

“Full Beaver Moon Show,” performed in honor of Ellen Stewart (in 2011, at La MaMa E.T.C.).

Photo by Joseph O. Holmes Photo by Liz Liguori

From a 2010 performance of “The Talking Show,” at PS122.

Bowery Poetry Club, 2008: A workshop performance of “The Talking Show: The Magical Ridiculous Journey of Alien Comic.”

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downtown express