DOWNTOWN EXPRESS

VOLUME 24, NUMBER 50 May 2-15.2012

130 LIBERTY CONTRACTOR ADMITS TO MASSIVE BILKING SCHEME B Y ALI NE REYNOLDS end Lease, the international construction company responsible for tearing down the Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St. has admitted to a massive fraud scheme amounting to several million dollars in lost funds for its clients.

However, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the state-city agency that contracted Lend Lease to demolish the 9/11-battered tower, managed to avoid the worst of the scam.

Lend Lease, previously known as Bovis Lend Lease, has overcharged private clients as well as the L.M.D.C. and several other government agencies for more than a decade, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York, which filed the fraud charges against the firm early last week. The company has also been involved in the construction of the PATH station, the Fulton Street Transit Center and the National Sept. 11 Memorial.

The agencies overseeing those projects weren’t available for comment by press time.

The L.M.D.C., for one, had implemented a scrupulous billing process that narrowly prevented the fraud from affecting the

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Downtown Express photo by MILO HESS

LOOK! IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE… IT’S A WOMAN HANGING IN THE AIR! Families attending the 11th Annual Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair, hosted by the Tribeca Film Festival, were treated to an aerial array of activity along Greenwich Street on Saturday. More photos on page 16.

May Day demos offer prelude to summer awakening B Y Z A C H W IL L IA MS broad range of progressive activists staged a series of May Day demonstrations in an effort to further their mission of crucial social, political and economic change.

Labor unions, immigration rights groups and Occupy Wall Street comprise the core coalition that organized the May 1 events throughout New York City. Activists expressed outrage throughout Manhattan against bank bail-outs, cor-

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porate influence on politics, American militarism, income inequality and other issues in the form of marches, rallies, teach-ins and even a “guitarmy” of about 100 guitar players. Thousands of demonstrators participated in an afternoon rally at Union Square and a march all the way down Broadway to the vicinity of Bowling Green Park.

As of press time, only a handful of arrests were recorded and no major disruptions had occurred, despite the occupiers’ request for tunnels and

Continued on page

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bridges entering Manhattan to be shut down.

The citywide events were part of a national effort that also included demonstrations in Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland and other cities across the country. The protesters’ hope was that the “day without the 99 percent” would mark the beginning of renewed efforts from the O.W.S. movement to reclaim the national attention they Continued on page 19

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May 2-15, 2012

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DIGGING FOR CLUES IN ETAN PATZ CASE Hoping to solve the mystery of 6-year-old Etan Patz’s disappearance from Soho 33 years ago while on his way to catch the school bus, the F.B.I. and police removed a concrete floor, dirt and drywall from a basement at 127B Prince St. near Wooster St. A cadaver dog recently got a “hit” on the basement, where a local handyman who knew Etan had a workshop. But after four days of dismantling and digging — along with screening the rubble for human remains, clothing and personal effects — the search was called off Monday with the report of “no obvious human remains.” Above, during the effort, an agent dumped dirt from the basement into a dumpster. The debris will be segregated at a landfill on Staten Island in case it needs to be re-examined later.

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May 2-15, 2012

NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-9, 12-21 EDITORIAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-11 YOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 ARTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23-25, 27 ONE W.T.C. RECLAIMS STATUS AS THE BIG APPLE’S TALLEST SKYSCRAPER On Monday, April 30, One World Trade Center became the city’s tallest tower, surpassing the Empire State Building by 21 feet, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owner of the W.T.C. site.

The columns’ placement brings the height of the building to 1,271 feet above street level. Once the tower is completed next year, it will rise to 1,776 feet to the top of its antenna, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

Iron workers installed two, 26-foot steel interior columns atop the skyscraper that afternoon as a handful of Port Authority executives looked on. The milestone triggered praise from many.

“Achieving the status of the region’s tallest building is an unparalleled milestone, but it is only a small part of the story,” said Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni. “This tower is about jobs, economic activity and providing a place of commerce and business. It will have unprecedented environmental, energy-efficient systems, be accessible to one of the most extensive transportation networks in the region, and be located in a growing, dynamic neighborhood.”

Port Authority Chairman David Samson noted that

the achievement is one of many feats the Port Authority has delivered in its 91-year history. “We could not have reached this milestone without the hard work and dedication of the many men and women who tirelessly work to rebuild this monumental site,” he said. “This project is much more than steel and concrete, it is a symbol of success for the nation.”

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C. B. 1

HIDROCK TO ERECT NEW DOWNTOWN HOTEL Commercial real estate owner Hidrock Realty has plans to build a new hotel a block away from the World Trade Center, according to recent article published in Real Estate Weekly.

The company’s partners, which paid $27.9 million for the vacant lot at 133 Greenwich St., are prepared to spend an additional $70 million to develop a 28-floor, 300-room hotel targeting Lower Manhattan’s large influx of visitors, according to Hidrock Realty President Abraham Hidary.

“While we haven’t yet ruled out other options for the site, a hotel will be a big draw for tourists visiting the World Trade Center and traveling businesspeople alike,” he said.

The hotel is scheduled to open in early 2015.

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 WED., MAY 2: The Financial District Committee will meet.

ON THURS., MAY 3: The Planning and Community Infrastructure Committee will meet.

ON TUES., MAY 8: The Youth and Education Committee will meet.

ON WED., MAY 9: The Tribeca Committee will meet.

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May 2-15, 2012

‘WHITE POWDER’ MAIL Envelopes of apparently harmless white powder with threatening notes arrived in the mail on Mon. April 30 at seven Manhattan locations including 100 Gold St. where Mayor Bloomberg’s mail is processed before it gets to City Hall, police said. Some of the notes to various banks, read, “This is a reminder that you are not in control. Just in case you needed some incentive to stop working — Happy May Day.” Police conjectured that the envelopes were part of the Occupy Wall St. May Day demonstration. But an OWS press team member said he didn’t think anything like that had been planned for the demonstration.

PEDESTRIAN FATALITY A pedestrian trying to cross Sixth Ave. from west to east at Watts St. around 4:30 a.m. Sun., April 29 fell and was struck by a cab and killed. The driver remained at the scene and was not charged. The victim, Dan Fellegara, 29, of Baltimore, was declared dead on arrival at New York Downtown Hospital, police said.

CRASH ON FDR DR. A motorcycle-car crash on the FDR Dr. at Gouverneur Slip at 10 a.m. Tues., April 24 injured the biker who was taken to Bellevue Hospital with serious but not lifethreatening injuries, police said.

PLEA IN BPC FRAUD J. Christopher Daly, 49, president of Sheldrake Organization, developer of Riverhouse in Battery Park City, pleaded guilty in federal court last week to steal-

ing $2.3 million from a bank in 2007.

Daly sent invoices to the bank for money owed to Battery Park City Authority that the bank had already paid and then used the money to cover his own shortfalls.

Daly has since repaid the money to the bank. The actor Leonardo DiCaprio sued Riverhouse in 2008 in connection with an apartment he owns in the building, according to a New York Post item.

ARREST ROBIN HOODS Police arrested 19 ACT-UP protestors in two Downtown demonstrations on Wed., April 16. At 9:50 a.m. nine defendants in Robin Hood costumes were arrested for chaining themselves to a lamppost and forming a chain that blocked crosswalk traffic across from the New York Stock Exchange at Wall and Broad Sts. Police cut the chains and took the Merry Men in a van to central booking in the Tombs.

Around 11 a.m. 10 other ACT-UP activists were arrested during a rally at Broadway and Park Pl. at City Hall Park.

BOWERY BURGLARY Police arrested Philip Rice, 25, in the foyer of 81 Chrystie St. on Wed., April 25 and charged him with stealing a television set from a fifth floor room of the World Hotel at 101 Bowery between Hester and Grand Sts. around the corner from the Chrystie St., location. He was standing next to the stolen television set when he was arrested, according to the complaint filed with the Manhattan District Attorney.

BRIBERY AND WRECKAGE

Jesse Louis, 31, who was stopped for reckless driving on Sixth Ave. and Watts St. around 4:35 a.m. Sun., April 22, got out of his car in the middle of the street and tried to flee arresting officers, according to a complaint filed with the Manhattan District Attorney. The suspect fought with cops when they put him in the patrol car, tore off a side view mirror and broke the turn signal handle on the patrol car’s steering column. He later offered cops $10,000 to let him go without charges.

WHO BROKE THE FIGURE? Corice Arman, the widow of the late Tribeca sculptor Arman, filed a civil suit for $300,000 in Manhattan on April 23 charging that a photographer for Art + Auction Magazine dropped and smashed her terra cotta Nigerian “Nok” figurine estimated to date from 618 B.C. The accident happened in last May when the magazine was working on a photo spread of the sculptor’s collection. The president of Art + Auction, Ben Hartley, told the New York Post that the company was not liable for the loss and that the photographer had said that no one was near the figurine when it fell.

SUBWAY SNATCHER Police arrested Evans Whittaker, 23, as he was fleeing from the Canal St., subway station at 7:20 a.m. Wed., April 25 after snatching an iPad from the hand of a woman passenger on a southbound No. 1 train. The arresting officers happened to be in the next car, heard the victim yell and caught the suspect just outside the station, according to the charge filed with the Manhattan District Attorney.

OFF-DUTY DWI Sergio Carillo, 31, an off-duty police officer, was arrested at 4:30 a.m. Sun., April 29 for drunk driving after he was involved in a crash on Second Ave. and E. 11th St., police said. Carillo, a member of NYPD since 2005, was suspended from his assignment at the Seventh Precinct on the Lower East Side.

SHED ERECTORS FALL Three workers erecting a sidewalk shed at 366 Broadway near Franklin St. fell 10 ft. to the sidewalk at 9 a.m. Thurs., April 26, police said. They remained conscious and were taken to New York Downtown Hospital in stable condition. A Department of Buildings spokesperson said the contractor, Spring Scaffolding, was issued a safety violation.

CREDIT CARD WHOPPER A woman resident of 33 Gold St. told police that when she got home from an evening at SL, the club in the Meatpacking District around 11:30 p.m. Sun., April 15, she discovered her cell phone and credit cards were gone from her bag. She learned later that unauthorized charges of $2,100 had been made on her cards.

JEWELRY GRAB A thief who entered Lunessa, the jewelers at 100 Thompson St., sometime between 10:55 a.m. and 7:45 p.m. Sat., April 28 made off with a bracelet and four rings with a total value of $4,995, police said.

— Albert Amateau

O’Connor speaks up against intercity bus law

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B Y Z A C H W ILL IA MS ne Lower Manhattan congressional candidate is asserting that transportation issues in Chinatown are driving his campaign to unseat a long-time Democratic incumbent.

Democratic challenger Dan O’Connor, who is vying for a Congressional seat representing parts of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, said at a local press conference Monday that the plight of low-cost buses servicing the community and the continued closure of Park Row to vehicular traffic would be central issues in his campaign in the upcoming primaries, which are scheduled for June.

O’Connor is challenging Nydia Velazquez, who has represented her district since 1993.

A “rule of law” must be established over the NYPD, which slams companies and citizens alike with tickets and fines in order to meet “quotas,” said O’Connor at a press conference held at the United Fujianese Association’s offices on East Broadway.

O’Connor also expressed his support for a petition demanding the thoroughfare’s reopening, since Park Row’s closure due to security reasons following the September 11 attacks has unnecessarily caused damage to the local economy, he said.

“I have spoken a lot with the local business people, the local residents and they said that Park Row being blocked off has hurt transportation. Everyone has said this,” said O’Connor.

The local bus operators have drawn criticism in the wake of recent accidents and poor safety and maintenance records that led one carrier, “Double Happyness,” to be ordered to shut down by the federal government last December. Efforts

to further regulate curbside bus services gained fresh traction last week upon the announcement by local legislative representatives to establish a permit system for intercity buses operating in New York City.

A 2011 crash of a World Wide Tours bus on I-95 in the Bronx, which caused 15 deaths and 18 injuries, underscores the need to crack down on the curbside bus carriers, supporters of the proposed state law have said.

But according to O’Connor, the law unfairly targets the Chinatown bus companies.

Since about 300,000 people each month utilize such bus services in Chinatown, the proposed legislation could unduly affect the local economy, which is still recovering from the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, according to O’Connor.

“If anything happens to the bus companies, it’s going to have a serious impact on the community,” said O’Connor in an interview with the Downtown Express.

Countering O’Connor’s claims, Velazquez, a supporter of the law, said, “As the lead Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, I’ve worked to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens on all small business, but there is an issue of safety — both for bus travelers and the community — that must be addressed. For these reasons, I’ve worked with U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer to ensure that discount bus travel remains a safe and affordable alternative.”

May 2-15, 2012

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L.P.C. applauds Pier 17 proposal but asks to see more B Y T E RE SE L O E B K R E U Z E R he Howard Hughes Corporation employed the full court press on April 17 when it went before the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The developers were requesting permission to demolish the existing building on Pier 17 in the South Street Seaport and replace it with a glass-sheathed structure designed by SHoP Architects.

But the developers didn’t quite get the green light on the plan. Though the commissioners favored the presentation, they had a number of substantial reservations and questions, some related to Howard Hughes Corp.’s lack of a master plan for the South Street Seaport.

The commissioners will be voting on the proposal at a later L.P.C. meeting that has yet to be scheduled, according to L.P.C. spokesperson Elizabeth de Bourbon. But before the vote, they’re expecting Howard Hughes Corp. to show them a more detailed plan, she said.

Christopher Curry, a senior executive at Howard Hughes Corp., led the presentation, positioning the proposed building as something that could become “a community resource to be treasured by the residential population of Lower Manhattan as well as the workers and the visitors who come to Lower Manhattan.”

SHoP Architects partner Gregg Pasquarelli, historic preservation consultant Elise Quasebarth and James Corner Field

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Operations representative Lisa Switkin, designer of the proposed pier’s landscaping and outdoor furniture, were also on hand to extol the merits of the plan.

To enhance their slide presentation, the officials brought large models of the building and a display of the materials that would be used to build it.

Quasebarth provided a historic and contextual history of the site, reminding the L.P. commissioners that the current Pier 17 building was completed for the Rouse Organization in 1985. It was designed by Ben Thompson and Associates as part of the plan for the South Street Seaport Historic District and the Festival Market and was created with extensive input from the L.P.C. Addressing critics, such as the Historic Districts Council, which is on record as opposing the building’s demolition, Quasebarth said the current structure was “an appropriate solution in the 1980s, but it hasn’t really lived up to the commercial success of the rest of the district.”

Buildings that use new materials and new technology, such as Howard Hughes Corp.’s proposed structure, she added, can still relate to the nearby historic buildings.

As previously reported in the Downtown Express, the proposed building is a rectangle pierced with an opening on the East River side and capped with a lawn that SHoP Architects envisions as being used for concerts. The upper floors of the building would

be 60,000-square-foot spaces suitable for large retailers, and there would be a variety of shops and restaurants on the lower floors.

Some of the glass façade would be translucent, giving retailers an opportunity to display their wares, while other parts of the building would be fully transparent, affording views of the nearby Brooklyn Bridge. The building’s north side would be equipped with tall, porch-type gliders, so that people could sit there and look out at the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Though none of them voiced opposition to the developer’s proposal, the commissioners had several questions and concerns.

“What is happening to the Tin Building?” asked L.P.C. Vice Chairman Pablo Vengoechea, referring to the 1907 structure that once housed the Fulton Fish Market. The building was a sore spot when General Growth Properties, Howard Hughes Corp.’s predecessor, sought to move it from its current location to make room for a high-rise hotel.

“How do you propose to integrate it eventually into what is happening in this whole space?” asked Vengoechea.

Curry replied that while Howard Hughes has an option to overhaul the Tin Building per a non-binding agreement with the E.D.C., it’s not part of the developer’s current plans.

“If we did plan to propose something to the Economic Development Corporation, we’d have to come back with a separate Uniform Land Use Review Procedure,” he

explained. “One of the reasons we did this is that we wanted to make an immediate investment into Pier 17 and the South Street Seaport.”

The commissioners also inquired about whether retailers would mar the glass design with their signage, and asked how reasonable it was to consider having an outdoor concert venue so close to a six-lane highway.

Commissioner Frederick Bland wondered about the viability of replacing the existing shopping mall with something similar.

“It was suggested that the Pier 17 mall failed because the public got weary of Festival Marketplaces,” he said, “and yet this is still a mall. Is putting a bunch of global, generic shops on the pier the answer?”

Pasquarelli assured Bland that Howard Hughes Corp. is looking at a mix of local and global brands for the pier.

“I don’t think generic retail is the goal of my client in any way, shape or form,” he said.

Referencing the South Bank of London, parts of Barcelona and Seattle, Pasquarelli added, “I think there are places around the world where people do shop on the waterfront.”

L.P.C. Chairman Robert Tierney said that he was persuaded to support the endeavor because he liked what he saw on Pier 15, which SHoP Architects also designed.

“I don’t think anyone denies something needs to be done at the South Street Seaport,” he said, “and I think this is an appropriate first step.”

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May 2-15, 2012

Dept. of Education’s proposals rejected by Silver’s edu task force B Y A L I N E R E Y NO L D S he city Department of Education’s proposed solutions to this year’s Downtown kindergarten wait lists were forcefully shot down by local parents and education activists at Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s Overcrowding Task Force early last week.

Overcrowding is still rampant in Downtown’s zoned elementary schools.

The overall application count for seats in the schools has declined by a mere 13 since last year, and the number of students wait-listed at the schools for the 2012-13 school year has only dwindled from 85 students to 81 students in recent weeks, according to Drew Patterson, director of the Manhattan South planning board for the city Department of Education. The D.O.E. expects to see further attrition once the families begin accepting offers to private schools and gifted-and-talented programs.

Specifically, the Department anticipates 40 to 45 wait-listed prospective kindergarteners to be granted seats at their zoned schools, which would leave the city scrambling to accommodate the remaining 40 or so students on the wait-lists.

One possible solution is to open an additional kindergarten section at P.S. 276, Patterson said, which could accommodate all of the wait-listed students at the school, but that might require slashing at least one kindergarten section in future years and removing or relocating its pre-k program. Another option is to open a third kindergarten section at the Tweed Courthouse, which, once the new Peck Slip school incubates there in the fall, is currently slated to house two classes per grade.

But even the latter proposal has its complications. “If we were to add an additional section [at Tweed], it would require split-siting that school in year three and looking for an additional location for those sections,” said Patterson.

Task force members had qualms about these proposals. While some parents expressed concern about the D.O.E.’s proposal to expand kindergarten at P.S. 276 and elsewhere next year, others railed against cutting class sections down the road.

“I cannot reiterate enough the need to cap these schools,” said P.S. 234 parent Tricia Joyce, a member of the overcrowding task force. “Clearly, [P.S. 276] cannot sustain one more class — it needs to shrink in size.”

P.S. 276 principal Terri Ruyter cau-

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tioned that tacking on another kindergarten section at the school next year would cause a shortage of classrooms the following year.

“It’s a short-term solution to a longterm problem,” she said.

Tammy Meltzer, whose daughter attends P.S. 276, said the only appropriate solution is to find new space for the students. Reducing the number of kindergarten sections in future years, she said, is “completely untenable.”

Meltzer also said it’s entirely possible to divvy up the four large classrooms in the basement of the Tweed Courthouse (a proposal recently put forth by fellow members of Community Board 1 in order to free up additional classroom space for Downtown students). The Tweed classrooms had been partitioned while her child attended kindergarten there during P.S. 276’s incubation period.

“The sound level was fine… and I think kids were better behaved because they knew there were people on the other side [of the partition],” said Meltzer.

Eric Greenleaf, a business professor at NYU who has extensively studied Downtown school overcrowding, says that two new elementary schools are needed to address D o w n t o w n ’s surge of elementary-aged children.

“Talking about a little bit of space here and a little bit of space there isn’t going to do it,” said Greenleaf.

“If P.S. 276 takes even just four kindergarten classes next fall and Spruce takes in just three, [one less section in each school, respectively, than this year], that means those two schools will have no room left for 2013 kindergarteners, under very reasonable assumptions.”

No matter what the circumstances are, all Downtown parents should be able to send their children to the neighborhood’s zoned schools, according to Speaker Silver, who challenged the D.O.E. to come up with a more lasting solution to the wait lists.

“Short-term solutions we’re discussing shouldn’t cover up long-term, continuing overcrowding problems,” said Silver.

“That effort must be joined by siting of lower elementary schools as soon as possible.”

Silver went on to express sympathy for Downtown parents who are eagerly awaiting news about placements for their children. “I hope we don’t have to go through [the wait list process] again until you’re waiting for a letter from Harvard for your children,” he said.

“I cannot reiterate enough the need to cap these schools. Clearly, [P.S. 276] cannot sustain one more class — it needs to shrink in size.”

— Tricia Joyce

Downtown Express photo by ALINE REYNOLDS

Battery Park City parent Matt Schneider turns to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for support in lobbying the city Dept. of Education to solve Downtown’s overcrowding crisis.

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.

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May 2-15, 2012

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May 2-15, 2012

Oysters play crucial role in New York Harbor, says panel B Y T E RE SE L O E B K R E U Z E R nce upon a time, New York harbor’s oysters were legendary — as large as dinner plates and so plentiful that, before 1900, every New Yorker consumed an average of 600 local oysters in a given year. Then, the harbor became polluted from heavy industry and local oysters literally became poisonous. Eventually, New York City’s massive oyster beds disappeared.

On April 26, a presentation at the New York Academy of Sciences entitled “Can Oysters Save New York Harbor?” explored what happened to the harbor, what’s happening now to restore it and the role oysters can play in its rehabilitation. Students from the New York Harbor School on Governors Island joined four expert panelists to explain the life cycle of an oyster and relate it to the life of today’s harbor.

The New York Harbor School, a small, public high school, opened in 2003 and has been working with oysters since its inception.

Since 2009, oyster aquaculture has become even more prominent in the curriculum, according to the students. The students have been seeding oysters in five reefs — three in deep water and two in shallow water.

Oysters are keystone species, the students explained to the New York Academy of Sciences audience. They have a disproportionately positive effect on the harbor ecosystem, because they filter water and

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Downtown Express photo by TERESE LOEB KREUZER

On Thurs., April 26, Denzel John, a New York Harbor School senior, devoured an oyster at the New York Academy of Sciences’ event dubbed “Can Oysters Save New York Harbor?”

provide habitats for a variety of fish and invertebrates. An adult oyster can filter and cleanse up to 24 gallons of water in a day.

“Thanks to the 1972 Clean Water Act, we now have enough oxygen in the water to support things like oysters,” said Paul Greenberg, one of the panelists and the author of the best-selling book, “Four Fish.”

“The fact that New York harbor is waking up from a long nightmare is evidence that we actually can legislate good environment,” he said. “But we’ve taken clean

THURSDAY, MAY 3 & 10, 1pm Concerts at One Ensemble ACJW Trinity Church SUNDAY, MAY 6 & 13, 10am Virtual Pilgrimages: The Holy Land of Paul and John May 6: Pergamum: John, Author of Revelation. Led by Dr. Brigitte Kahl, Union Theological Seminary.

May 10: Ephesus: John and Paul. Led by Katherine Shaner, General Theological Seminary 74 Trinity Pl, 2nd Fl, Parish Hall MONDAY, MAY 7 & 14, 1pm The Broad Way A weekly, informal Bible study focusing on the Gospels. Bring your lunch and join the Rev. Deacon Bob Zito for lively discussion and fellowship.

74 Trinity Place, 2nd Floor, Parlor

Let’s do something together

MONDAY, MAY 7, 1pm Bach at One In the final performance of the season, the Trinity Choir and Trinity Baroque Orchestra present J.S. Bach’s cantatas.

St. Paul’s Chapel TUESDAY, MAY 8, 6pm If I Forget You O Jerusalem An exploration of Jerusalem from different viewpoints.

Led by Marilyn Haskel, Trinity Program Manager for Liturgical Arts 74 Trinity Pl, 2nd Fl, Parish Hall

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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.)

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

Leah Reddy

Trinity Wall Street

water about as far as we can with the current regime. Now, let’s turn it over to the biomechanics of the oysters and see what they can do with it.”

To produce more oysters, the New York Harbor School is opening an oyster nursery at Wallabout Basin in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The nursery will be 600 feet long and 12 feet deep with around 1,200 oyster trays.

“There are few places in the harbor where oysters could be grown because of the harsh shoreline caused by urbanization,” one of the students told the audience.

To grow, oysters need to attach themselves to the sea bed, she explained. Wallabout Basin is protected from the forceful currents that dislodge oysters from their moorings and cause them to perish.

But, the student said, there’s “a huge problem.” A wastewater outlet near the Wallabout Basin discharges millions of gallons of raw sewage into the East River.

Bacteria on the sea floor from sewage consume most of the oxygen that the oysters need.

Oysters can’t save New York harbor, according to New York Harbor School’s aquaculture instructor Pete Malinowski, one of the evening’s panelists. “What could save New York harbor is if we stopped dumping raw sewage into New York harbor,” he said. “We have natural resources that we can’t take advantage of in our own backyard, because they’re contaminated with our own waste.”

“Can Oysters Save New York Harbor?” was the first in a three-part series at the New York Academy of Sciences, based at 7 World Trade Center, to explore the origins and ingredients of New York City’s food supply.

The next lecture, “The Science Behind the Hype: Resveratrol in Wine & Chocolate,” takes place on June 5 followed by “The Science of Local Food” on June 26. For more information or to buy tickets, call (212) 2988640 or email customerservice@nyas.org.

This season’s finale of Bach at One takes place on Monday, May 7.

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9

May 2-15, 2012

City Planning members grill N.Y.U. on superblocks plan B Y A L B E R T A M AT E A U City Planning Commission members on Wednesday questioned supporters and opponents about New York University’s application to add about 2 million square feet of new development to the university’s two superblocks south of Washington Square Park.

The previous Friday, local residents had joined community leaders and local politicians in a mass protest against the university plan. Starting at the MercerHouston Dog Run, they marched through the N.Y.U. superblocks, then rallied in Washington Square Park.

On Wednesday, critics outnumbered supporters of the N.Y.U. 2031 plan at the packed hearing that filled the 300seat auditorium of the Museum of the American Indian in the U.S. Custom House on Bowling Green.

N.Y.U. 2031, Greenwich Village’s largest project ever, would radically transform the superblocks between LaGuardia Place and Mercer St., the south block from Houston to Bleecker Sts. and the north block from Bleecker to W. Third Sts., over the coming 19 years.

The hearing was the next-to-last stop in the city’s uniform land use review procedure, or ULURP, on the two-phase project, which was recently scaled back by an agreement with Borough President

Scott Stringer.

The commission will vote on the project — with any additional modifications — by June 6, according to a commission spokesperson. The City Council, which has the final say, will hold one or more hearings before it votes in July or August.

N.Y.U. President John Sexton and Senior Vice President Lynne Brown, along with university architects and planners, testified at the start of the April 25 hearing. Martin Lipton, chairperson of the N.YU. board of trustees, spoke too.

Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, which is beginning its own long-term expansion in Manhattanville north of 125th St., also spoke in favor of the N.Y.U. project.

On the other side of the issue was Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. Six other G.V.S.H.P. staff members and friends presented studies to bolster the society’s call on City Planning to reject the plan in its entirety.

One G.V.S.H.P. study based on Department of Buildings records of the past four years indicates that N.Y.U. has reduced the number of Washington Square Village apartments on the north superblock by 170. The reduction is the result of enlarging the complex’s existing apartments, said Berman. He questioned

how the university could justify developing more faculty housing while reducing it in existing buildings.

State Senator Tom Duane also testified on the project, saying it was too big and calling on the commission to deny the application.

The proposed 17 percent reduction in the size of the project and the agreement not to build a temporary gym on the north superblock were “nice but modest concessions,� Duane said. “Despite these concessions, I have grave concerns about the impact on the neighborhood,� he said. “I urge the university to continue working with its neighbors, Community Board 2 and elected officials to develop an alternative that would more successfully integrate with the neighborhood,�

Duane added.

Brad Hoylman, chairperson of Community Board 2, which submitted its opposition to the project in March, told the commission on Wednesday that the bulk and density of the project “would forever alter the character of this special neighborhood.� He estimated that the project would bring 10,000 more people into the neighborhood, along with subjecting residents to two decades of construction.

Remarks by some commissioners indicated that more changes in the project are

possible. “I believe that more review could result in revisions that would make the application more acceptable to neighbors,� said Angela Battaglia, a Brooklyn resident who has been a City Planning commissioner since 1996.

Commissioners asked Sexton for details about future need for student dorms, faculty housing and academic space.

Amanda Burden, chairperson of the commission, called on Sexton to justify the need for a hotel in the proposed “Zipper Building� on the Mercer St. side of the south superblock.

The proposed hotel development would be open to the public, but it would mostly be booked in advance to accommodate visitors to N.Y.U. at moderate rates. “We do have hotels in proximity to our core, but we only have expensive hotels,�

Sexton said, drawing derisive hoots from critics in the audience.

Sexton also said the university would maintain offices in the superblocks to make sure that as the buildings are completed over the years they comply with plans as approved in the review of the project.

He said that faculty housing is needed in the superblocks to attract staff and

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May 2-15, 2012

Publisher’s Note PUBLISHER & EDITOR

John W. Sutter ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Aline Reynolds ASSOCIATE EDITOR EMERITUS

John Bayles ARTS EDITOR

Scott Stiffler REPORTERS

Albert Amateau Lincoln Anderson SR. V.P. OF SALES & MARKETING

Francesco Regini ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Allison Greaker Colin Gregory Julius Harrison Alex Morris Julio Tumbaco BUSINESS MANAGER / CONTROLLER

Changes in the Downtown Express WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE

four significant changes to the Downtown Express, all of which we believe will strengthen its central role in covering the local news of our Downtown neighborhoods.

First off, the Downtown Express is returning to its roots as a bi-weekly publication, effective this issue. The Downtown Express was founded in 1988 as a bi-weekly. Beginning in October 2001, we turned the paper into a weekly, as we quickly realized that people in a disaster zone desperately and quickly needed information in the wake of 9/11.

Over the past decade, we have published more than 1,700 stories that addressed the recovery, the resilience and the renewal of Lower Manhattan tied to that fateful day. While there is no end in sight to the redevelopment of the World Trade Center — what is arguably known as the world’s most complex construction site — we now believe that we can best deliver local, Downtown news by increasing our online presence and returning to a bi-weekly schedule for the print edition. Our channels of communication with our readers are

ever more robust, and we’ll continue to utilize them to their fullest extent.

And that leads us to the second change: we will now be posting concise, breaking stories more regularly on www.downtownexpress.com. Like most organizations that develop original and regular content, we are in the process of integrating dynamic digital platforms into the way that we spread the news. With our web site, e-mail blasts, new mobile app, social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, and soon-to-be available iPad app, we are able to speedily disseminate content to our growing and connected readership. Our printed issue will become more important than ever, as every two weeks it will contain a complete and thorough record of the most current news events.

It will also have exclusive feature stories that will be first available in the publication’s print version.

Thirdly, Downtown Express has a new Associate Editor, Aline Reynolds. John Bayles, who has held the position since April 2010, will be leaving the company. Aline, the paper’s staff reporter since June 2010, will now be responsible for editing the paper and its digital products with the

assistance of Community Media contributor and Lower Manhattan resident Bonnie Rosenstock.

Aline will be commissioning work from seasoned Downtown Express writers Terese Loeb Kreuzer, Helaina N. Hovitz, Zach Williams, and Sam Spokony, as well as other talented freelance writers. We congratulate Aline and wish her great success in her new role.

Finally, as you might have noticed, the paper has a fresh, new design. We hope you like it! As with all of our changes, this one will evolve, and we wholeheartedly welcome your input.

We are confident that these changes will enhance the quality and intensity of the Downtown Express’s particular brand of community journalism. The Downtown Express was recently recognized by the New York Press Association for excellence in its editorials, and for the best spot news coverage of any weekly newspaper in the state in its circulation category. We are eager to continue and build on that record of excellence, and believe that the above changes will help to make the Downtown Express a more integral part of our readers’ lives.

Vera Musa ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Troy Masters GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Vince Joy Christina Entcheva Michael Shirey CONTRIBUTORS

Helaina N. Hovitz Terese Loeb Kreuzer Jerry Tallmer PHOTOGRAPHERS

Milo Hess Jefferson Siegel Terese Loeb Kreuzer PUBLISHED BY

Letters to the Editor GLICK CLICKS WITH COLUMN To The Editor: Re “N.Y.U. freshmen need a campus — on Governors Island” (talking point, by Deborah Glick, April 25): This is the kind of creative problem solving that all our elected officials and administrators should be engaging in.

Yorker, I wouldn’t have wanted the city to preserve the historic drug and tawdry aspects of Times Square, Washington Square Park, 14th St. and other areas in the city that I would never have walked in past 9 p.m. at night!

Farah Hamilton

STEAMED OVER WASTEFUL A/C

A.S. Evans

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by Community Media LLC, 515 Canal St., Unit 1C, New York, N.Y. 10013 (212) 229-1890. The entire contents of the newspaper, including advertising, are copyrighted and no part may be reproduced without the express permission of the publisher - © 2012 Community Media LLC. PUBLISHER’S LIABILITY FOR ERROR The Publisher shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher’s liability for other errors or omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue.

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COUNTERPOINTS FOR GLICK To The Editor: Re “N.Y.U. freshmen need a campus — on Governors Island” (talking point, by Deborah Glick, April 25): So as an assemblymember you’re going to talk to the mayor about opening up the Governors Island space to N.Y.U.? Also, just to be clear, Governors Island is not right in the middle of New York City.

I fully understand the need to preserve historic communities in New York City. But as a native New

To The Editor: On April 16, the first very warm day of an early summer, as I walked up Fifth Ave. to buy my lunch, every other store I passed, on both sides of the street, had their doors wide open and their air conditioning blasting onto the sidewalks.

Several years ago, when Clyde Haberman of The New York Times made a case against stores that keep their front doors wide open with air conditioning blasting out onto the sidewalks, I was delighted.

In 2008, New York City passed a law to fine these businesses for this wasteful practice. It was only in

2010 that fines began to be imposed on stores that make a practice of this, but those fines, miniscule and rarely given, of $200 (for a second offense, $400) have not deterred merchants from repeatedly ignoring the law. The legislation states that any business larger than 4,000 square feet or part of a chain with five or more stores in the city must keep doors closed when using an air-conditioning system. To describe this law as weak and ineffective is an understatement.

Since this law was passed, I have filed numerous complaints about stores on Lower Fifth Ave., where I work, that are blasting their air conditioning onto the sidewalks, but to no avail. You can go to www. nyc.gov and search “Store door open while air conditioner running” to make a formal complaint. But the city and its law enforcement officers are, I suppose, too busy stopping and frisking young black American boys, giving tickets to bicyclists or to people who smoke in the parks, to bother issuing tickets to

these offenders.

This practice is so offensive, given the waste of precious energy resources and the undue pressure it puts on our energy suppliers, like Con Edison, who struggle each summer to keep the electricity on for everyone living in the five boroughs. Not to mention the shortage of oil and gas that has led this country into wars in the Middle East, wars that not only take the lives of our soldiers but those of so many innocent people who most likely never experienced the luxuries of air conditioning; wars that deplete the finances of this nation to the point where publicassistance programs, education, infrastructure and job creation are suffering immensely. And now there are the proposals to hydrofracture our delicate lands for natural gas to supplement our shortages. How arrogant and selfish these stores are to pump this cold air in your face as you walk by them, beckoning potential buyers to “Come in, enjoy the cool air, spend money.”

Last summer, when

walking down Fifth Ave. with a friend who was visiting from France, she remarked at how “wasteful” Americans are. When I asked what she meant, she said that our misuse of energy, like air conditioning and heating, was disgraceful. I was sorry to have to agree with her.

So I would like to propose the following: Every time you pass a store with its doors open and the air conditioning running — close the door. I do this now as a matter of routine and it helps. Several times a store security guard has tried to stop me and I inform him or her of the law. They usually back off. A couple of them have agreed with me about how wasteful it is. But, more often than not, the next time I pass this store, the doors are open again. I don’t let this deter me. I just keep closing their door(s). If all concerned citizens take up this practice, it could have a tremendous effect. I propose that you do. And for heaven’s sake, don’t shop at these stores!

Dee Vitale Henle

11

May 2-15, 2012

Op-Ed

Building a better transit system for Manhattan B Y M A N H AT TA N B O R O U G H PRESIDENT SCOTT M. STRINGER

THE FUTURE LOOKED ROSY

100 years ago, when New York undertook a revolutionary plan to build a vast network of subways and elevated trains. But it looks considerably different today as we struggle to meet urgent transit needs.

Anyone who’s crammed their way onto a crowded A or 6 train at Chambers Street, trudged from Alphabet City to a packed L train at 1st Avenue or watched walkers speed past them as they sit amid traffic on a crosstown bus understands that, while Lower Manhattan is blessed with tremendous public transit, there is still ample room for improvement and expansion.

One million more people will be living in our city by 2025 and, to put it bluntly, we are not ready for them. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (M.T.A.) — the central nervous system of our regional transportation network — is a fiscal house of cards.

This crucially important agency is being held together by unprecedented borrowing and fare hikes as far as the eye can see.

That’s no way to run a railroad, much less the

nation’s largest transit system.

What’s needed is a new, more stable stream of revenue for the M.T.A. — one that stabilizes its operating budget but also allows us to expand the system to reflect where people live and work today, not 100 years ago.

My plan is to devise an infrastructure bank for mass transit that I’d like to call the “New York City Transit Trust,” which could provide capital for a range of projects that could improve the lives of thousands of Manhattan residents.

The New York City Transit Trust would leverage private dollars by tying New York City’s infrastructure bank to a dedicated revenue stream — our existing Mortgage Recording Tax — which now helps fund the M.T.A.’s operating costs. Of course, if we are going to redirect the Mortgage Recording Tax to the M.T.A.’s capital needs, we have to replace it on the operations side with a new, reliable funding stream.

Today, the Lexington Avenue line on the East Side of Manhattan alone carries more passengers per day than any other subway system in the U.S. The Second Avenue Subway (S.A.S.) will help to alleviate this overcrowding when it opens in 2016.

However, as it stands now, we’ve funded

only one of four phases of the S.A.S. train.

A fully-funded S.A.S. would see the line built into the Financial District to Hanover Square, which would reduce pressure on the Lexington Avenue line and provide even more benefits to commuters in the Midtown and Downtown Central Business District.

Bus Rapid Transit could also be expanded. The M15 Select Bus Service has already improved transit for thousands of residents and workers in Chinatown, the Financial District and the Lower East Side. A similar line on the West Side of Manhattan could do the same for residents of Soho, Tribeca and Battery Park City. The Trust could also enable us to unlock the potential of the city’s sixth borough: the waterfront.

Many residents of Lower Manhattan live a short walk away from the water. Let’s recapture the spirit of engineer and inventor Robert Fulton, who created the city’s first commuter ferry nearly 200 years ago, and explore how ferries can help shorten commutes and improve the region’s economy.

The Trust would not only benefit Manhattan straphangers — it would benefit riders all over the city by financing new subway cars and buses and improving safety and

reliability by replacing tracks and upgrading outdated signals.

I believe we should start by getting back what we lost when the city’s commuter tax was repealed in 1999. The commuter tax, which affects people who work in the city but live outside the five boroughs, produced billions of dollars in revenue for the Big Apple between 1966 and 1999.

If we reinstated it at the same rate as when it was killed 14 years ago, we would raise $725 million annually to support the region’s transportation network. It’s undoubtedly the right thing to do. Every day, close to a million commuters pour into New York City, using our roads, bridges and rails to get here and relying on our police, fire and sanitation services when they arrive.

Unlike the old commuter tax, under my plan, the tax will go to the M.T.A. rather than the New York City’s general fund, so that the entire region — city residents and suburban commuters alike — would reap its benefits. That’s $725 million a year to fund transportation projects that would support Lower Manhattan residents.

This is how to create a true, five-borough transportation network and prepare New York for another century of growth.

Notebook

Grateful for a great opportunity and an even greater ride B Y J O H N B AY L E S

AFTER THE MOST DEVASTATING

natural disaster in our country’s history, Hurricane Katrina, I found myself in the Hamptons; all I knew, in October 2005, was that I had landed in the “playground for America’s rich and famous.”

Three years passed and I had become not only a journalist, but also a part of a community called Sag Harbor. When I made the choice to move to New York City, I did so carefully and with a hefty amount of hesitance. I knew I was leaving behind people that cared for me and people whose lives, through my work as a reporter for the local community newspaper, I had made a lasting impression.

My heart was set on finding work in the newspaper business once I arrived in New York City. But it took a while: 13 months to be exact.

I knew Lincoln Anderson, knew of Community Media and knew of the Downtown Express — due to having attended the New York Press Association’s annual “Better Newspaper Contest” and weekendlong convention held upstate each April.

The first year I attended the convention was 2006, and the impression that Lincoln Anderson and John Sutter left upon me was favorable and lasting.

While I was unable to immediately obtain a

newspaper job in 2008, I found a job working for a nonprofit in East Harlem that allowed me to contribute to yet another community — the homeless community — writing proposals that led to funding so people living on the streets, people constituting part of a population that rose 26 percent over the last year in NYC, could move into supportive housing with social services that provided the means to become functioning members of their communities.

While committed to my job, I later received an email from the editor of the Villager, asking if I was available to cover a story.

Journalism is an addiction and I was itching to get back in the game. I wrote roughly ten stories for the Villager and the Downtown Express, while continuing to work at the nonprofit in East Harlem for another six months.

And then came the call. The editor for the Downtown Express was leaving, to be a stay-athome dad and it was suggested I apply for the job. I applied, I got it and the sense of pride and satisfaction that overwhelmed me, caused me to plop down on a bench in SoHo Square and simply soak in the fact that a dream had just been realized, is nearly impossible to describe.

Which brings me to, “Goodbye.”

Knowing I’d be leaving this community rendered another feeling that seemed indescribable.

As Aline Reynolds takes over as the new associate editor for the new Downtown

Photo by PAUL SCHINDLER

John Bayles.

Express, I am left feeling grateful and lucky.

Stepping, essentially, fresh off the boat from the South, into a position that was held continuously by one man for nearly 20 years, was an opportunity I dreamt of, a challenge I knew I was capable of and a commitment that I took seriously and was very passionate about.

While the Village of Sag Harbor’s population is a mere 2,500, the sense of com-

munity that I experienced there was similar to what I have come to experience in Lower Manhattan.

The common thread among all communities is a desire to protect one another, the realization that what affects an individual affects the community as a whole and the means to better a community, to make it stronger, stem from people with a passion for community service and recognize that without that passion, communities can become stagnant and needed services can remain absent.

Lower Manhattan neighborhoods like Tribeca, SoHo, Chinatown and Battery Park City might not appear, at least to tourists or outsiders, as communities. But in two years I have realized that such a perception could not be further from the truth. These neighborhoods, their elected politicians and their families define the notion of community. And it has been my pleasure to serve this population and be associated with this newspaper.

Along the way I have met friends that will, no matter where I end up, remain in my life; I have met and been inspired by community leaders that challenged the status quo and made real change seem not only plausible, but possible.

Ultimately, I have witnessed the rebirth of a neighborhood, rebuilt on the backbones of dedicated individuals. And for that, I am grateful.

12

May 2-15, 2012

On The Spot

Robert Rhodes

little bit larger — that’ll be something a little bit different for me — but there was a lot of investment made in the school, and it has similar values as Millennium, so I think it’s going to be another really good match.

Who’s taking your place?

We don’t k know yet. The city Department of Education has a formal pro process called a C-30, C named after the Chancellor’s regur lation, and the they’re in the middle mid of that process. proc People have already alre applied, and there’s the going to be a comc mittee that meets meet to interview the top candidates.

My last day is June 30; 3 a week or two before that, t we’re h hoping the comc mittee will announce my suc successor.

Come June, principal Robert Rhodes is leaving Millennium um High School, which he helped found and where he served as principal for 10 years. ears. Last week, Rhodes was honored by Community Board 1 for his distinguished service at Millennium over the years.

B Y A L I NE N E R E Y NO N O LD S Why are you leaving ving Millennium?

I have had an amazing experience here, but I started to think that I probably have two or threee more 10-15 year projects that I’d like to get involved in before ore I’m done with my working life. I had just started to meet with a bunch of people ple to try to figure ure things out, and I stumbled into o this other opporrtunity: becom-ing principal off Horace Greeleyy High School in Chappaqua, N.Y. The school’s a

Will you make help m

the selection?

No — I do not sit on the committee.

What is your most memorable experience at Millennium?

There’s no way I could pick out one.

The only thing I can say is, every day I feel is an amazing accomplishment. When we started the school, I think we all knew it was going to be a good school. I wasn’t worried about that. But I had no idea what a great school it would be. It has exceeded my wildest dreams, whether it’s the level of professionalism of staff, the performance of students, or the architecture. It’ll always be the crowning jewel in my career. And every day I walk in, I appreciate that. I’m going to miss being here a lot!

There’s so much talk these days about overcrowding in Downtown’s elementary schools yet little-to-no discussion about space shortages in the local high schools.

Can you shed some light on that?

Sure. When we opened Millennium, the number of schools like Millennium was much smaller. I never guessed our application numbers would have exploded over the years like they have. We’ve been operating at 120% capacity for several years now. Even though there are twice as many screened high schools like Millennium as there were 10 years ago, we still see the application numbers continue to increase. And, unlike elementary schools, high schools don’t keep wait lists

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— you’re either in or you’re not in, and if you don’t get in, you have to go somewhere else.

So high schools such as Millennium are packed to the brim, as well.

Yes. I think there are two different problems: The number of overall seats in the system and the kind of seats that are available. Either way, you need many more highperforming high schools in the city, wherever you can get them. There’s a great demand for them Downtown and in lots of other places in the city. I’m not sure what the overall shortage of seats is in the system, but I do know that, in the case of Millennium and many other schools, we receive application numbers far, far in excess of what we’re able to accommodate, which suggests there’s a really high demand for seats.

You had you been a strong supporter of Millennium’s expansion into 26 Broadway, which the D.O.E. has vetoed, rather than open a sister school in Brooklyn, which the Department did this year. Why? It had been my dream that we could open a sister school within a few blocks, so that each school could maintain the sense of community and allow students to crossregister for specialized and advanced courses not unlike college consortiums in Western Massachusetts and California, and figure out ways to graphically and educationally collaborate. Those students have access to something like university-level offerings while maintaining their own small college communities.

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May 2-15, 2012

Downtown Express photos by TERESE LOEB KREUZER

NEW AMSTERDAM MARKET FEASTING SPREE

J

udging by the New Amsterdam Market crowd when it opened on Sunday, April 29 for the 2012 season, shoppers had been hard-pressed to find fresh, local food during the winter and couldn’t wait to

get their hands on it. The weekly market on South Street between Beekman Street and Peck Slip showcases food producers from Maine to Maryland and the businesses that use their products.

New Amsterdam Market founder Robert LaValva estimated that there were between 3,500 and 4,000 people at the opening market, which featured bread from 15 New York City bakeries as well as a variety of other

foods such as cured meat, jam and ice cream.

The market opened at 11 a.m. Many of the vendors sold out well before the closing bell at 4 p.m.

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May 2-15, 2012

B Y TERESE LOEB KREUZER

PRESIDENT OF IRELAND VISITS B.P.C.: On May 1, a day that included breakfast with young Irish professionals at the Bank of New York Mellon, a visit to the 9/11 memorial and a meeting with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michael Higgins, president of Ireland, and his wife, Sabina stepped out of their black town car in front of Battery Park City’s Irish Hunger Memorial, where they were greeted by William C. Thompson Jr., chairman of the Battery Park City Authority, and by B.P.C.A. president, Gayle Horwitz. Higgins, who was elected president of Ireland in October 2011, was in New York City to drum up business for the beleaguered Irish economy before going to Boston to deliver a speech about the Irish potato famine that killed over a million people between 1846 and 1852 and caused more than one-and-a-half million people to emigrate.

Thompson said that during Higgins’ halfhour visit to the Irish Hunger Memorial, he commented on inscriptions on its walls and mentioned critical editorials in the London Times that appeared years after the fact, saying that the mass exodus from Ireland had benefited the United States. “He’s a walking wealth of information on the topic,” said Thompson. “It was incredibly interesting.”

Mr. and Mrs. Higgins ascended the gently sloping walkway to the top of the memorial, which has stones from every county in Ireland. They paused briefly near the stone from Galway. Mr. Higgins twice served as Galway’s mayor.

“Everybody who comes here comes away touched in a very different way,” Thompson observed.

Downtown Express photos by TERESE LOEB KREUZER

On a visit to the Irish Hunger Memorial on May 1, children from Battery Park City met Michael Higgins, the president of Ireland and his wife Sabina (right), who were posing for pictures with Gayle Horwitz (left), president of the Battery Park City Authority, William C. Thompson, Jr., chairman of the B.P.C.A. (second from left), and the Irish cultural liaison, Adrian Flannelly (left).

The Irish Hunger Memorial was dedicated in July 2002 and now needs some repairs.

The Battery Park City Authority plans a major rehabilitation of the Memorial, with work expected to begin in the fall of 2013.

The plantings, all of which can be found on the western coast of Ireland, will have to be removed and carefully tended during construction so that they can be put back when the work is finished.

On the day of the Higgins visit, Burnet roses were in bloom, draped over the old stones of a roofless cottage from County Mayo that dates from the 1820s and was used until 1960. The Slack family to whom it belonged donated it to the Memorial in remembrance of members of the family who died in the famine and those who found new lives in the United States.

The entrance to Riverhouse at 1 River Terrace in Battery Park City. Two executives of the Sheldrake Organization, the original developers of the 258-unit luxury condominium, were found guilty of a $2.2 million mail and wire fraud and face up to 20 years in prison. Riverhouse is now managed by Centurion Real Estate Partners.

RIVERHOUSE DEVELOPERS PLEAD GUILTY TO $2.2M FRAUD: Two executives of the Sheldrake

POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY:

at Poets House, 10 River Terrace. Dave Johnson, a playwright, poet and teacher, led off the poetry reading with “Halley’s Comet,” a poem by Stanley Kunitz, co-founder of Poets House. Julie Menin, chair of Community Board 1, read a poem about “a neighborhood at dusk.” City Council Member Margaret Chin contributed a poem by Li Po of the 8th-century Tang Dynasty that she said she had learned as a child in Hong Kong. “My son also learned this poem at Chinese school,” she said. “It reflects the sentiments of a lot of immigrants.” Chin recited the poem, “In the Quiet Night,” in Chinese and then in English. “The floor before my bed is bright/Moonlight - like hoarfrost - in my room/I lift my head and watch the moon./I drop my head and think of home.”

Other readers included Catherine McVay Hughes and Michael Connolly of Community Board 1 and students from Stuyvesant High School.

During the day, poetry aficionados fanned out across the neighborhood to distribute some poems that Poets House had printed on little cards — some by well-known writers and some by children. The poetry observance ended with an evening concert in the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center during which the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra performed music that had been written to accompany the poems of local school children.

In the coming weeks, Poets House continues its ambitious programming in honor of its 25th anniversary with presentations on Wallace Stevens (May 3), William Carlos Williams (May 8), the Imagists (May 10), the Objectivists (May 12) and the Harlem Renaissance (May 15). For more information, go to www. poetshouse.org

April 26, National Poem in Your Pocket Day, was enthusiastically observed in Battery Park City. The day began with a community breakfast and poetry reading

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

Organization, the original developer of Riverhouse at 1 River Terrace in Battery Park City, pleaded guilty last week to defrauding an unnamed foreign bank that loaned them $2.2 million to help finance the project. Sheldrake president J. Christopher Daly and Michael Abreu, Sheldrake’s director of asset management, each face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for mail and wire fraud.

In 2004, the Battery Park City Authority solicited bids to build Riverhouse, and Sheldrake was awarded a contract for the $573 million project. In 2006, Sheldrake started construction on the luxury condominium, which has 258 units. A year later, the Sheldrake executives sent their lender duplicate invoices for Battery Park City Authority fees that had already been paid.

The money was wired into the Sheldrake bank account.

Sheldrake never managed to make timely payments to the Battery Park City Authority and never paid its balance in full. In 2010, Sheldrake was ousted from managing Riverhouse, and Centurion Real Estate Partners took over.

Matthew Monahan, a spokesman for the Battery Park City Authority, said that all money due to the Authority has since been paid in full.

The luxury building has public spaces designed by David Rockwell and amenities that include a 50-foot lap pool, a fitness center with a yoga studio, a landscaped outdoor terrace and a children’s playroom.

More than 95 percent of the apartments have been sold.

May 2-15, 2012

Photo by LILLY O’DONNELL

From left, outside The Bean on Second Ave., Matt Rosen, Jim Power and Jesse Jane. Power did the new coffee shop’s mosaic sign and tile decorations.

Just call him ‘Mosaic Man, Inc.’ B Y L I L LY O ’ D O NN E L L or 25 years, Jim Power a.k.a. “The Mosaic Man” has been working on a “Mosaic Trail” through the East Village. Now that trail has led him into the digital age, with Mosaic Man merchandise for sale at Etsy.com and, more recently, Café Press.com .

Power’s mosaic light poles are emblematic of the artists’ colony that the East Village once was, and provide markers for historic locations and events. And his mosaic storefront signs lend businesses like Crif Dogs and The Bean an air of authenticity.

Until recently, funding for the Mosaic Trail came from those store signs, at about $1,500 a pop, and occasional donations of money and materials.

“I was never starving,” he said. “But every day I was struggling just to get by and feed my dog.”

Power got nonprofit status through Bowery Arts and Science so that donations would be tax deductible, hoping that would encourage more. But last year, he said, he got less than $500 in donations, which is not even enough to pay for one light pole on the trail when materials and labor hours are included.

The Mosaic Man Etsy store opened on Feb. 26, selling belt buckles featuring Power’s signature mosaic work at $100 to $200 each. In the first 48 hours, the store brought in $1,500, according to Matt Rosen, who has been managing Power’s online presence. After the initial boom, spending slowed, with just slightly more than $2,500 sold in the last six weeks, but, Rosen feels

F

the sales potential is there.

Then, on March 28, they launched the Mosaic Man collection on Café Press, bringing in $336 so far. Power and Rosen are hopeful the Café Press items — T-shirts, mugs, even thongs — will take off, because unlike the belt buckles, which take hours to make and ship, once images are uploaded to Café Press, the site takes care of the rest, leaving Power free to continue his work on the Mosaic Trail and Rosen free to live his life.

Rosen has worked before to help propel the older generation of East Village fixtures into the digital age. He runs the Twitter account for Ray’s Candy Store, a beloved institution on Avenue A near Seventh Street.

The online presence has helped Ray’s business immensely. Rosen saw an opportunity to do the same for Power.

“I couldn’t do it without him,” said Power. “I’m illiterate in many ways.”

“People knew Jim,” Rosen said. “But there was no way to find him other than to run into him on the street.”

Now that Power is on Twitter, Rosen said, it will be easier to mobilize his audience and supporters. And, now that he’s on Etsy and Café Press, they’ll be able to get something tangible in return for their contributions.

The Café Press collection has only two images available now, but more are planned.

“I wanna see this s--- on everything,” Power said. “Every iPad, every tire, every fridge, every diaper. If it’s printable, I want it on it.”

15

16

May 2-15, 2012

Downtown Express photos by MILO HESS

Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair, 2012

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May 2-15, 2012

L.M.D.C. largely avoids fraud by contractor Continued from page 1

Deutsche Bank demolition project, according to an official familiar with the matter who requested anonymity. The source said the loss on the project resulting from Lend Lease’s scheme amounts to less than $50,000.

L.M.D.C. signed a contract with Lend Lease for the dismantling of 130 Liberty St. in fall 2005. Work on the project began late that year but came to a near halt in 2006 and 2007 because of cost disputes with Lend Lease that the two parties are still battling over in court, according to the source.

In early 2007, the L.M.D.C.’s billing procedures specifically tied to the Deutsche Bank project were changed, so Lend Lease’s fraud affected only its payments in the years prior, which were minimal, the source said.

Yet the finding follows a series of other questionable but unconfirmed actions by the company.

From approximately 1999 to 2009, Lend Lease systematically added one-to-two hours of excessive overtime per day to the labor foremen’s time sheets, paid foreman for days they weren’t on the job and billed its clients for additional hours, the court papers say. The company’s clients were purportedly unaware of the scheme and forked over the inflated payments.

Lend Lease also defrauded the Dormitory

Authority of the State of New York and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in order to feign compliance with government programs aimed at increasing the participation of minorities, women and small businesses on public construction projects. The cover-up caused D.A.S.N.Y. to

Jeffrey Melofchik, the company’s site safety manager, was implicated in the 2007 fire that killed two firefighters as it raged through parts of the Deustche Bank building. However, Melofchik ultimately escaped criminal indictment. Per a pending court case, Lend Lease also allegedly owes the

“There has to be a real disincentive for contractors engaging in fraudulent activity,” he said, “particularly when dealing with public money.”

— David Emil make payments to Lend Lease from approximately 2000 to 2007.

James Abadie, the former principal in charge of Lend Lease’s New York office, pled guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiring to commit a mail and wire scam by overbilling its clients, according to U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch’s office. In consenting to the fraud, the company has entered into a binding agreement requiring it to pay a total of $40.5 million to the federal government over the course of two years, in addition to some $16.1 million to clients affected by the scheme.

L.M.D.C. tens of millions of dollars in compensation for advanced payments toward the tower’s dismantling.

L.M.D.C. President David Emil deemed Lend Lease’s swindling tactic “outrageous.”

The L.M.D.C., he said, “intend[s] to recover any money which was claimed from us fraudulently.”

Emil and his team are working with the relevant criminal prosecuting agencies and consulting their own records to determine the extent of the overbilling. The lawsuit, however, doesn’t pertain directly to these payments, he said.

He wouldn’t comment on the status of the pending suit, nor would he confirm the total amount of the losses. He said only, “We have examined the bills and we’re working to get it back.”

Emil backed the fiscal penalties toward Lend Lease, saying they’re necessary to dissuade the firm and other mega construction companies from perpetrating fraud in the future.

“There has to be a real disincentive for contractors engaging in fraudulent activity,” he said, “particularly when dealing with public money.”

Richard Weiss, a spokesperson for the Local 79 Mason Tenders’ District Council of Greater New York, which represents scores of Downtown workers, stressed that the scandal does not in any way incriminate those that happen to be Lend Lease employees.

“The union had no role in this,” said Weiss. “If the company wants to pay them for their vacation, that’s between them and the company.”

In addition to the U.S., Lend Lease operates in more than 40 countries throughout Asia and Europe. It brands itself as a service corporation that provides construction, project management and consulting services to large-scale public and private construction projects.

Continued on page 21

S.T.E.P. Summer Teen Employment Program c/o Immigrant Social Services 137 Henry Street New York, New York 10002 The Lower East Side Prevention Coalition is seeking private sector employers to provide summer employment opportunities between July 5th and August 18th for young people ages 16 through 21. The estimated financial commitment is approximately $1500 per job. This project, Summer Teen Employment Program (STEP), strives to place at least 50 students in jobs.

The Lower East Side Prevention Coalition is a consortium of agencies including Immigrant Social Services, the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, HamiltonMadison House, the Office of the Manhattan District Attorney, NYS Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services, The Department of Education and the Chinatown Manpower Project. The mission of the Lower East Side Prevention Coalition is to promote positive youth development and to address factors that expose youth to alcohol, drug use, gang influence, violence and gambling. t Help employ students for 6 weeks from July 5th to August 18th (Minimum wage for at least 20 hours/week) t +PC DBOEJEBUFT BSF QSFTDSFFOFE UP NBUDI KPC SFRVJSFNFOUT t +PC DBOEJEBUFT DPNF SFDPNNFOEFE CZ UFBDIFST PS DPNNVOJUZ MFBEFST t &NQMPZFST NBLF UIF GJOBM EFDJTJPO PO XIP UIFZ IJSF We urge you to consider participating as an employer in STEP to make a difference in shaping the future of our younger generation.

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19

May 2-15, 2012

O.W.S springs into action Continued from page 1

enjoyed last fall following the establishment of the group’s original encampment in Zuccotti Park.

“We’ve lost our democracy. We’ve lost our civil rights,” said Carol Gay, 64, of New Jersey who has participated in the movement since September. “Everything that we were supposed to stand for, being a democracy, is just a sham now.”

Gay, a veteran activist, said that taking direct action against Wall Street can lead to victories both large and small, including a recent foreclosure intervention that saved an elderly woman from eviction. Gay said that staging large, disruptive actions are necessary in order to get everyday citizens, government officials and corporate workers alike to respond to the movement.

“I think we need to be a little crazy and out of control sometimes, [otherwise] they don’t listen,” said Gay. O.W.S. protesters who formed a spur-ofthe-moment occupation early in the morning managed to bring about 1,000 people to Bryant Park. Picket lines quickly materialized outside branches of Bank of America, Chase Manhattan and News Corporation’s midtown offices. The occupiers also organized a free “university” workshop at Madison Square Park, which featured teach-ins on capitalism and the history of May Day among other topics.

The afternoon rally at Union Square attract-

ed scores of activists to an event that featured speakers from throughout the coalition as well as musical performances by Tom Morello, Immortal Technique and other artists.

By about 6 p.m., activists had begun to trickle out of the square and march down Broadway. While labor unions and other traditional progressive organizations focused their mobilizing efforts on the permitted rally and march, ‘occupiers’ staged less-conventional actions that quickly caught the attention of the scores of NYPD present at demonstrations.

The ‘guitarmy’ group accompanied a nonpermitted march of several hundred occupiers in the afternoon. Shortly after the demonstrators left Bryant Park, some of them attempted to swarm the intersection of 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue. Dozens of police shoved protesters and members of the media back onto the sidewalk, and then blocked a crosswalk, which led to a further scattering of demonstrators as they headed toward a rally taking place at Union Square.

Activists vowed that May Day was only the beginning of ongoing demonstrations that would persist through the summer.

Nick Nelson, 24, a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan who attended his first Occupy protest this week, said the movement has already helped to alter the national political discourse.

Regardless of whether or not the movement survives, he said, Nelson is optimistic about what the future holds.

“Even if it does fail,” he said, “It’s setting the stage for something bigger.”

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May 2-15, 2012

Commissioners grill N.Y.U. on its superblocks plan Continued from page 9

P.S. 126/M.A.T. MIDDLE SCHOOL Presents Our 6th Annual SPORTS FUNDRAISER to benefit the athletic department of P.S. 126/M.A.T.

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• Beauty products (Smashbox, Khushi Spa, John Frieda) • Gift Certificates to children’s programs such as Manhattan Youth, Downtown United Soccer Club, Kumon Battery Park City, Camp Intrepid, Science Teacher Sarah and Pier 40 baseball • Beautiful mosaic artwork from local artist Valerie Carmet!

• Health and Wellness from Dr. Jack Mantion, Dr. Tansar Mir, Yasmin Djerradine and Great Jones Spa! • Weekend home in upstate New York for Dutchess County Fair • Tickets to the Yankees vs. Mets game, “Watch What Happens Live!”, Rachael Ray, Inside the Actor’s Studio, Visionfest Film Festival, Amateur Night at the Apollo and more!

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reduce the ratio off faculty to students to compete with other universities.

Burden, however, wanted to know why the faculty housing had to be in the superblocks.

“Why can’t they be anyplace else?” she asked.

Sexton noted the university’s recently announced plans to renovate a former M.T.A. building in Downtown Brooklyn for a new Urban Science Center across from the N.Y.U. Polytechnic Institute.

“We’ve already located more than a quarter of our future space needs outside of the core,” said Sexton.

The university’s student population, now about 45,000, is expected to be about 60,000, including all schools of the university, by 2031. The need for more dorms is only partly driven by increased student population. The university wants to reduce the amount of dorm space in leased buildings, Sexton explained.

Commissioners also wondered about the impact of the project on the Key Park on the Mercer St. side of the north superblock and on the Bleecker LaGuardia Corner Gardens on LaGuardia Place.

Brian Cook, director of the borough president’s land-use department, told the commission that Stringer conditionally approved the project if it reduced the total area by 370,000 square feet.

The reduction, agreed to on April 11

by N.Y.U., eliminates 185,000 square feet of underground space that would have been developed beneath the north superblock between the two Washington Square Village buildings. Another 85,000 square feet would come from reducing the bulk of the proposed Mercer and LaGuardia “Boomerang Buildings,” planned for between the two Washington Square Village buildings. Additionally, the larger Mercer “Boomerang” would be no taller than 162 feet, the height of Washington Square Village.

Photo by TEQUILA MINSKY

A young protester at Friday’s mass march and rally against the N.Y.U. 2031 plan.

The agreement also covered the proposed commercial rezoning of 26 buildings north of the two superblocks from W. Fourth to near W. Eighth St. between Washington Square East/University Place and the east side of Mercer St. Despite the protests of residents living in what have become known as “the loft blocks,” N.Y.U. intends to provide more opportunities for ground-floor commercial space.

The Stringer agreement, however, commits N.Y.U. to refusing to rent to new eating and drinking establishments that would derive 80 percent of the projected revenue from the sale of alcoholic beverages.

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21

May 2-15, 2012

Lend Lease admits to fraud Continued from page 18

To reclaim itself, the company has promised to revise its codes of conduct and billing guidelines, create a risk and compliance committee and hire an ethics and compliance officer as well as provide effective training of personnel on the revised rules.

Community Board 1 Chairperson Julie Menin said the fraud bolsters the L.M.D.C.’s standing in its legal battle with Lend Lease, even though the two aren’t directly related.

“The fact that we’re talking about… taxpayer dollars that are going to the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, is really unconscionable,” she said.

C.B. 1 Vice Chairperson Catherine McVay Hughes, who chairs the board’s W.T.C. Redevelopment Committee, said it’s “disheartening” that a large corporation such as Lend Lease would cheat during the rebuilding of the W.T.C. “Any money that was improperly taken

by Lend Lease for any project in Lower Manhattan must be immediately returned and reinvested in this community so that we can continue to rebuild,” said Hughes.

The scheme is a blow to Downtown and the city as a whole, according to NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

“Like so many of my neighbors, I was outraged to learn of the fraud committed

by Lend Lease,” he said. “I led an effort to

bring more accountability to the deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank building, and the overbilling scheme that was revealed is a serious betrayal of our community and the entire city.”

Moving forward, Lend Lease will require all of its workers to certify their own time sheets, require that the time sheets be approved by their foremen, and have a New York-based auditor oversee the time sheet recording and billing procedures and conduct regular visits to the project sites.

Since the investigation into the fraud began in 2009, Lend Lease has put in place substantial remedial measures, such as axing employees guilty of unlawful conduct, replacing managers, consolidating its U.S. operations under a new C.E.O., and amending its compliance, billing and regulatory rules, according to a news release put out by the company.

In a written statement, Robert McNamara, Lend Lease’s chief executive officer for its Americas region, said the company takes corporate governance “very seriously” and is committed to the “highest levels of ethical standards.”

“We accept responsibility for what happened in the past and have agreed to continue to make restitution to the affected clients,” he said. “We are satisfied the investigation is now resolved, and we are looking forward to continuing our commitment to projects in New York City.”

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May 2-15, 2012

UP TO YOU TADA! Youth Theater presents this not so ordinary high school musical by Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart, directed by Janine Nina Trevens.

Appropriate for ages 5 and up, it takes place in 1977 during Student Council elections at Hamilton High.

The narrator, Eric, is bullied because of rumors about his sexuality and soon learns who his real friends are.

At TADA! Youth Theater (15 W. 28th St., btw. Broadway & Fifth Ave.). Performances run every Sat. & Sun., from April 27-May 20 (except May 13) at 2pm & 4pm; additional performances, Fri., April 27 & May 18 at 7pm. For tickets ($15, $8 for children; premium tickets $25, $15 for children) and more info, visit tadatheater. com. Group rates and birthday party packages are also available.

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF THE ARTS Explore painting, collage and sculpture through self-guided arts projects at this museum dedicated to inspiring the artist 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. The CMA’s spring benefit (“Imagined Worlds”) is inspired by Japanese artist Misaki Kawai’s current exhibition, “Love from Mt. Pom Pom” (an interactive art exhibit running through June 10).

The benefit will feature hands-on art projects, face painting and music by the Raya Brass Band and Americana Family Jamboree. Catering is provided, and

guests are invited to Saatchi & Saatchi (375 Hudson St.) after the event. A silent auction featuring everything from sports tickets to fashion packages will be running through May 9, at biddingforgood.com/cma.

The Spring Benefit is Sun., May 6, 12-6pm. Tickets are $125 per adult, $45 per child. Ticket packages are available. 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.

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.

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Photo by JIM BALDASSARE

The magician Cardone stars in HOUSE OF GHOSTLY HAUNTS, a Spook Show running at Canal Park Playhouse.

HOUSE OF GHOSTLY HAUNTS Canal Park Playhouse is extending their run of Cardone The Magician’s spook show. The vaudeville-style act features razor swallowing and spirit conjuring — and ends in 10 minutes of complete darkness. shops designed to introduce children and their families to the principles of architecture and engineering — through hands-on activities. On May 12, children o f a l l a g e s a r e i n v i t e d t o t h e “ M o t h e r ’s D a y C a r d Workshop” to craft their own architecturally themed cards for mom. On May 26, the new exhibit “News PAPER Spires” lets kids ages 8-13 create paper towers like those that housed the newspaper industry at the turn of the 20th century (as seen in Broadway’s “Newsies”). All workshops take place from 10:3011:45am, 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 212-945-6324, visit skyscraper. org or email education@skyscraper.org.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND, THE MUSICAL F e a t u r i n g 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, t h e o n e - h o u r “ P r e - S h o w Wo r k s h o p ” e x p l a i n s h o w 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.

THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE MUSEUM T h e J u n i o r Officers Discovery Zone is designed for ages 3-10.

I t ’s d i v i d e d i n t o f o u r a r e a s ( P o l i c e A c a d e m y, P a r k

Appropriate for ages 7 and up. Tuesdays, through May 22, 7pm, at Canal Park Playhouse (508 Canal St., btw. Greenwich & West Sts.). For tickets ($20), visit ovationtix.com or call 866-811-4111. For more info, visit canalparkplayhouse.com. and Precinct, Emergency Services Unit and a MultiPurpose 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).

THE 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 f i r e f i g h t e r s h o w s h o w f i r e s c a n s t a r t i n d i f f e rent 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 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 212691-1303 or visit nycfiremuseum.org.

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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.

23

May 2-15, 2012

Sure beats a dance around the Maypole Downtown theater, during the ‘lusty month,’ dumbfounds and dazzles

N

B Y T R AV S . D . o, no, I’m not dancing around the May Pole, I just got my arm tangled in this tether ball…so don’t mind me. While I stay here and try to extricate myself, please, you kids, run along and see some Downtown theatre. Here, I’ll even hand you my list of handpicked favorites!

Fans of Theater for the New City (TNC) will be glad to hear about “155 First Avenue (The Epic Adventures of the Theater for the New Synzgy).” TNC is celebrating its 25th year at its present First Avenue location, and in commemoration they are presenting this thinly fictionalized fable the story of its address past, present and future. When I say past, I mean way past. The characters include Peter Stuyvesant (whose farm this block used to be on), Walt Whitman, Yiddish actress Molly Picon and a pushcart peddler from the building’s first incarnation as a retail market. The show was written by Toby Armour (author of the award-winning “Fanon’s People”) and directed by George Ferencz, whose many notable productions include a recent revival of “Tooth of Crime” with Ray Wise at La MaMa, and the world premiere of Jean-Claude van Itallie’s “Fear Itself” at TNC. Ferencz also directed the first production presented at TNC at its current space. What goes around comes around! “155 First Avenue” runs May 3-20.

For information and tickets, go to theaterforthenewcity.net.

Also opening on May 3 is “Desperately Seeking the Exit,” Peter Michael Marino’s solo show that recounts various misadventures in London, including the rise and fall of his West End musical version of “Desperately Seeking Susan,” featuring the music of Blondie. Gee, that musical doesn’t sound so bad. I’d almost rather see it than his solo show, but apparently it cost $4 million to produce. Something tells me the current show made it to the stage for less. It’s directed by the great John Clancy, co-founder of the New York International Fringe Festival, and is slated to be presented in Edinburgh this summer. “Desperately Seeking the Exit” is playing at Triple Crown Underground May 3-18. More info at seekingtheexit.com.

From May 5-24, the sprightly singer Carole

Photo by Mark Brutsche

In a scene from “White Like Me: A Honky Dory Puppet Show,” Paul Zaloom and his ventriloquist figure Butch Manly wrangle over race and ethnic identity in an epic battle of the wits…and half-wits.

J. Bufford, backed by the incomparable vintage jazz band Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, will be belting out the old school in a show she calls “Speak Easy.” On the set list, a roster of classics associated with the likes of Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Helen Kane, etc, etc. This engagement is happening at Chelsea’s tasteful Metropolitan Room (metropolitanroom.com).

May 18-22, you’d have to be an ass to miss the first annual ASSdance Film Festival, the ambitious new underground arts event produced by ASS Studios, the demented brainchild of the legendary Rev. Jen and her boyfriend/collaborator Courtney Fathom Sell. It’s all to celebrate the May 22 release of their first DVD, which includes such ASS classics as “Killer Unicorn” (which Miller calls “a gay revenge fantasy starring people far too old to play teenagers”) and “Elf Workout!” (author/ artist/performer is also, in case you didn’t know, a very well known Elf). Aside from their own movies, there’ll also be films and

performances by Janeane Garofalo, Christian Finnegan and Faceboy. Events to take place at various locations, including Bowery Poetry Club and Pushcart Coffee. Visit bowerypoetry.

com, revjen.com and assstudios.tumblr.com.

May 24 through June 10, at La MaMa, the fabulousness continues in “Jukebox Jackie: Snatches of Jackie Curtis,” starring Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, Cole Escola and Steel Burkhardt — in a show conceived and directed by Scott Wittman. Curtis was the gender-ambiguous Warhol Factory-ite immortalized by Lou Reed in “Walk on the Wild Side” as the one who “thought she was James Dean for a day.” Many credit her/him as one of the progenitors of Glam, so they’ve picked a fitting cast to make this tribute. We’re also promised special guests at certain performances, including Penny Arcade, Jayne County, Cherry Vanilla and Agosto Machado. For more info, lamama.org.

And last but hardly least, seminal puppeteering performance artist Paul Zaloom is back with a new solo show at Dixon Place, May 25-June 2. Called “White Like Me: A Honky Dory Puppet Show,” the piece, we’re informed, “employs the drawing room medium of toy theater to tell the story of the archetypical ‘white man’ and his universe. White-Man leaves his planet Caucazoid, travels through space, ‘civilizes’ the earth (populated with aliens), becomes a philanthropist and savior, and finally, freaks out about his approaching minority status.” I just love happy endings!

More information at dixonplace.org.

See you next month!

24

May 2-15, 2012

Just Do Art! B Y SCO T T S T IFF L E R

MY SOUL FLIES HOME TO AFRICA “I didn’t know what to expect,” says noted NYT photographer Chester Higgins Jr. of his initial 1971 excursion, “but I knew that I was not traveling to Africa to see the animals.”

The continent’s small town life so fascinated Higgins that he’d return more than 30 times (and counting) to document the people, sites and ceremonies of Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal and Ghana. Candid and revealing, this exhibit’s small sample of work from Higgins’ time in Africa provides intimate glimpses into the soul of his subjects — whether the lens is focused on the eyes or the shoes.

Free. May 6-June 13, 9am-7pm daily.

Opening reception, Sat. May 5, 12-2pm (with African music, Ethiopian appetizers, rum and champagne). Artist’s talk, Wed. May 9, 6:30pm. At the Art @ Tekserve Galllery, at Tekserve (119 W. 23rd St., btw. 5th & 6th Aves.). For info, call 212-929-3645 or visit tekserve.com. Also visit chesterhiggins.com.

MUSIC: GABRIEL RIOS Mark it in pen on your calendar: You’ve got two upcoming chances to see, and hear, singer/ songwriter Gabriel Rios. The San Juan native and recent NYC transplant — whose Puerto Rican rhythms were churned through computers and

Photo courtesy of the artist

Photo by Delfine Bafort

Ethiopia, 2009: A painted Karo man, at the Omo River. See “My Soul Flies.”

The surreal thing: Gabriel Rios touches down at Rockwood Music Hall.

samplers during a stint in Belgium — continues his residency at Rockwood Music Hall with a stripped-down collection of songs featuring piano, percussion and guitar made to serve surreal tales of “growing older and of the end of the world as we know it.” The kid’s got talent, folks.

See him now before the line is too long.

At 9pm on Fri. May 4. At 8pm on Fri. May 11. On Stage #1, at Rockwood Music Hall (196 Allen St., btw. Houston & Stanton Sts.). No cover, one-drink minimum (per set). For more info, visit rockwoodmusichall. com and gabrielrios.be.

Photo by Whitney Browne

Left to right: Human beatboxes Kid Lucky, Rabbi D, J King and Grey Matter.

AMERICAN HUMAN BEATBOX FESTIVAL Eat your heart out, jazz. Curated by world-renowned beatbox artist Kid Lucky (search him on YouTube and be sufficiently amazed), this second annual installment of La MaMa Theatre’s American Human Beatbox Festival pays tribute to the American-born vocal style and technique of beatboxing (an enduring offshoot from the 1970s-era NYC hip-hop scene that long ago established itself as a global creative and social movement). Featured events include May 4’s 10pm “Unified Beats” — in which Dres Tha

Beatnik, Yakko440, Kid Lucky, Lethal FX, YanCarlos Sanchez, Akim Funk Buddah, Amit and MC Beats improvise beatbox masterpieces.

Thurs. May 3 through Sun. May 6, at La MaMa (74A E. 4th St., btw. Bowery & 2nd Ave.). All events, except the Hip Hop Subway Series, are $10. The festival’s “Hip Hop Subway Series” is a traveling performance starting at Bryant Park and ending up at La MaMa. To reserve a spot, send an email to beatboxerentmedia@gmail.com. To order tickets to the festival, and for more info, visit lamama.org or call 212-475-7710.

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25

May 2-15, 2012

Damage done by the game

‘Headstrong’ calculates the human cost of NFL heroics

T

B Y J E RRY TA L L ME R he black guy, a hard-bitten Super Bowl champion of years ago, says: “You don’t climb Mount Everest because it’s safe. You don’t drive NASCAR to be safe. Even, what’s it called, the fucking luge in the Olympics. You think that’s safe? It’s all danger. That’s what makes it sport. As opposed to a game by Parker Brothers or Fisher Price.”

The white guy says: “I understand what sport is.”

The black guy says: “So danger is a must. Action is a must, or we won’t have heroes no more.”

Yes, they are a black guy and a white guy — a Dartmouth white guy, no less — but they aren’t arguing color. They’re arguing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE or brain damage, the kind you get when you’re smashed in the head or throat or face several thousand times in an extended National Football League career.

The black guy is old lion Duncan Troy, in his 60s, former all-star, all-pro Philadelphia Eagles linebacker for fourteen seasons and father-in-law of Ronnie Green, a flashy young NFL running back, whose headaches, confusion and dementia have climaxed in early retirement, followed by suicide in a lonesome Cincinnati hotel room.

The white guy, in his 30s, is Nick Merritt, who has come down to Philadelphia from Cambridge, Mass., to try to get permission for his mentor, tart, Nigerian-born neuropathologist and researcher Dr. Moses Odame, to clinically examine the messedup brain of the late Ronnie Green.

The remaining person in this play — for we are talking here about a new play niftily titled “Headstrong” — is Duncan Troy’s no-nonsense daughter, Sylvia Troy Green, whose permission for the brain probing must be granted even though she and the late Ronnie Green were no longer living as husband and wife.

She says, “No. Take it from there.…”

About 30 seconds into 27-year-old Patrick Link’s “Headstrong,” you’re slapped wide awake by the following exchange about a quarterback named Marino: NICK MERRITT: The numbers don’t lie.

DUNCAN TROY: You want a number?

Zero. That’s how many [Super Bowl victory] rings that guy has…

NICK: Have you met him?

DUNCAN: Met him? I’ve sacked him.

I’m still laughing over that one. And the rest of the play is just as crisp and clean as that. Which doesn’t mean decisive. Because “Headstrong” is purely and simply a play indecision. — the play’s, the playwright’s, and this critic’s own personal ambivalence about the “game” of professional football. Hate it, love it, can’t stop watching it.

All accentuated nowadays — pro and

HEADSTRONG Written by Patrick Link Directed by William Carden Through May 13 At the Ensemble Studio Theatre 549 West 52nd St., btw. 10th & 11th Aves.

Wed.-Mon. at 7pm; matinees, Sat. at 2pm & Sun. at 5pm For tickets ($30, $20 for students/seniors), visit ovationtix.com or call 866-811-4111 For more info: ensemblestudiotheatre.org

con — by the great “Bountygate” scandal that has so far festered only in the locker room of the New Orleans Saints 2009 Super Bowl winners, who have allegedly had large sums of illegal hard cash dangled before them for driving opposition star players out of the game and into the hospital (or morgue?) with smashes to the heads, faces, eyes, limbs and other body parts.

The stink grew so apparent — with former Saints defense coordinator Gregg Williams caught on audiotape urging just such violence on his troops — that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been forced to step in and impose suspensions: one year for Saints head coach Sean Payton, eight games for general manager Mickey Loomis, six games for assistant head coach Joe Vitt, indefinite suspension for ex-Saint and prime offender Williams.

Patrick Link hasn’t written a play about that except indirectly — what medically happens to the victims of the assaults urged by people like Williams (who can be heard on that audiotape encouraging attacks on the throat of San Francisco quarterback Alex Smith).

“To me,” says playwright and football fan Link, “what’s scary is I don’t think it’s only the Saints who are guilty.”

The divide between Duncan Troy and Nick Merritt in “Headstrong” is the divide within Patrick Link himself. He and his father and brother all grew up on football.

“I can’t imagine Thanksgiving without the TV on for the game,” he says.

No, he doesn’t have a team at the moment — he and his wife Olivia live in Hell’s Kitchen — “but I want to like the Jets.” When I told him I’d once interviewed Joe Namath, the week of Super Bowl III, his jaw dropped in awe.

Though young Mr. Link’s father was born in Broken Bow, Nebraska, “population too small to bother to count,” and Patrick himself was born in Jacksonville, Florida on October 30, 1984, the community where our playwright grew up was

Photo by Gerry Goodstein

Nedra McClyde and Ron Canada aren’t playing games.

Amherst, Massachusetts, with pop working for MassMutual.

It was at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, that Link started writing plays, one of which, “Does the Body Good” — you know, like milk — made it into the New York Fringe Festival of 2007. The past four years he’s come under the sheltering wings of OffBroadway’s Ensemble Studio Theatre.

The genesis of “Headstrong” lies as much as anywhere in the real-life tragedy of Michael Lewis (“Iron Mike”) Webster (1952-2002), the great Hall of Fame lineman of the Pittsburgh Steelers who played with intimidating bare arms no matter the frozen weather and who died of a heart attack at age 50, says Link, while “sort of wandering around in confusion and dementia, living in his truck” — and in railway stations — “and having attempted suicide two or three times.”

Like Ronnie Green in “Headstrong.”

Green is gone before the play ever opens, but we see and feel him through the eyes of Duncan Troy (actor Ron Canada), Sylvia

Green (Nedra McClyde), Nick Merritt (Alexander Gemignani) and Moses Odame (Tim Cain).

A number of other onetime NFL players have died the same way as Mike Webster, and now of course, we have Peyton Manning battling a variety of symptoms.

So: back to square one. Knowing what we do about the murderousness of professional football, are we for it or against it?

(The last college football game that this writer ever attended, years ago, Columbia vs. Dartmouth at Baker Field, seemed like nothing so much as two bunches of fat boys pushing one another around in the rain and mud.)

“I dunno,” says Link. “Maybe there’s more to life than just staying alive. Do your best” — in football as in anything — “maybe there’s value in that.”

And the New Orleans Saints syndrome.

What’s to be done about that?

“I dunno,” says Link. “I dunno.”

Nor do I. Fifteen yard penalty. First down.

26

May 2-15, 2012

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May 2-15, 2012

All’s ‘FAIR’

Peel back the curtain, for a partial glimpse of Glass MIKEL GLASS: FAIR Through May 12 At (Art) Amalgamated 317 Tenth Ave., ground floor (btw. 28th & 29th Sts.) Gallery hours: Tues.-Sat., 10am-6pm For info, call 212-334-0403 or visit artamalgamated.com Also visit mikelglass.com

P

B Y SCO T T S T IF F L E R romoted as a marked departure from his previous work, this installation by heretofore conceptual realist painter and sculptor Mikel Glass — his debut show with (Art) Amalgamated — is not just an intriguing window into what lurks beneath the artist’s crowded and contemplative skull. That would be enough, for one show at least. Good to see, then, that “Mikel Glass: FAIR” is also a clever tweak of what goes on at art fairs.

Inspiring comparisons to Norman

Rockwell, Tim Burton and Marshall McLuhan — but ultimately claiming aesthetic and intellectual territory of its own — “FAIR” divides the narrow train car space of (Art) Amalgamated into two halves (or, perhaps, cerebral hemispheres).

If you’re the type who likes to read the final chapter before you’ve even glanced at the book jacket, make the back room your initial destination. That’s where you’ll find an “active, manned broadcast studio disguised as an artist’s studio.” At first glance, it seems as if you’re being invited to pull back the curtain for a quick and easy glimpse of the wizard’s true nature. His name, Glass, may imply transparency — but the back room’s two notable self-portraits (one hanging on the wall, one seemingly discarded on the floor) only muddy one’s efforts to figure out what makes this guy tick. Although it provides no answers, the desk — crowded with all manner of doll heads, trophies, glowing wires and TV set tubes that evoke neurons poised to fire — conveys the artist’s thought process with a worn but elegant sense of nostalgia.

In the front room (separated from the back one by a glass and steel wall, but fused to it by ceiling tubes), six large-screen monitors simultaneously broadcast a constant

Image courtesy of the artist

feed of videos — a mix of dreamy, distant images as well as streamed content from the art fair scene of local galleries (among them, Sidney Janis Gallery, Knoedler Gallery and Stable Gallery).

A jumble of wires, timeworn connecting devices and rusted industrial components fuse the six monitors — instantly transform-

ing the contemporary commentary into a relic of the past.

“You don’t know if it’s art or not,” says one bemused fellow of the art fair sites he’s just taken in. Hard to say if that’s the point being made by Glass or his video monitor proxy…but I must say, I liked their earnest sense of wonder.

Titanic at

100

Myth

and

Memory

See the exhibition Through May 16 at 213 Water Street Image courtesy of the artist

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May 2-15, 2012