Chelsea Now August 13, 2015

YOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN

MetroCard Donation Project Travels Well

BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC A few months after Zachary DuBow graduated from college in 2012, world events — the Israel-Hamas conflict, the shooting of schoolchildren in Newtown, CT, Hurricane Sandy — led him to conclude that he needed to take action.

“I was very affected by these events, and I donated and I blogged about it,” DuBow told Chelsea Now by phone. “I just tried to feel like I was doing something productive. None of those things made me feel satisfied.”

An idea had been percolating for DuBow, who knew that MetroCards were often discarded with small sums of money on them. He decided to start a nonprofit called The NeXT Stop Project (nextstopproject. org), which collects MetroCards with low amounts, combines them, and then donates them through partners to people who need help getting to their “next stop,” whether it be a job interview or medical appointment.

In late 2012, DuBow wasn’t quite sure how its operations would work, how he would determine who should get the MetroCards, or what impact it would have.

“I realized I had to partner with outreach organizations who would be our distribution partners,” DuBow recalled. He went to the Bowery Mission on Christmas Day to volunteer, and then approached Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen (holyapostlessoupkitchen.org) — now NeXT Stop’s biggest distribution partner, having received 392 MetroCards Continued on page 7

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Photo by Zach Williams

L to R: Allison Tupper, Will Rogers, Stephen Fanto and Denise Penizzotto Gieseke are among the residents, nonprofits and art professionals determined to see a Hell’s Kitchen mural returned to its former glory.

Mural Project Hits a Wall, But Boosters Remain Determined

BY ZACH WILLIAMS Local residents will have to wait about six more months before they can recreate an aging anti-gentrification mural in Hell’s Kitchen.

Two weeks ago, organizers of the effort had hoped to begin repairs to the wall featuring Arnold Belkin’s “Against Domestic Colonialism” which abuts MathewsPalmer Park (btw. W. 45th & W. 46th Sts., and 9th & 10th Aves.). But just days before scaffolding would rise, the contractor engaged for the project was unable to perform the work for insurance reasons — the latest obstacle for the effort to recreate the 43-year-old mural, which has faced funding and logistical issues in recent years.

However, organizers said that they remain confident in the ultimate success of the effort, which requires that they completely replace the mural because of the deteriorating wall. The scaffolding work requires about six weeks — but with autumn approaching, painting will have to wait,

© CHELSEA NOW 2015 | NYC COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

because of the temperature variations of that season, and the subsequent winter.

Extra time, though, allows organizers to continue discussion of lingering issues surrounding the project.

“The biggest challenge for the recreation of [the mural] is the many pieces that are required to act in coordination to promote the success of this monumental project,” said Edward Ward — a project coordinator with Beautify Earth, a nonprofit group supporting the effort.

Some local residents among the approximately 15 people directly involved with the effort told Chelsea Now that there has been dysfunction within the group. One cited, for example, disagreement between local residents who would like the project to begin sooner rather than later, and art industry professionals who are more inclined to emphasize thoroughness.

Continued on page 2 VOLUME VOLUME 07, 07, ISSUE ISSUE 25 |22AUGUST | JULY 13 16 - 19, 22, 2015

Recreation of Hell’s Kitchen Mural Must Wait Until 2016

Photo by Zach Williams

In “Against Domestic Colonialism” (above), artist Arnold Belkin emphasized the positive effect that class consciousness could have for working people. Work on the mural will have to wait until we weather the fall and winter.

Continued from page 1 The extent to which Patricia Quijano (Belkin’s widow and former student) would participate in the project was

2

August 13 - 19, 2015

just one issue of concern listed in a July 31 memo composed by Mark Golden, CEO of Golden Artist Colors, which is involved in the effort. She would offer insight into Belkin’s approach to the mural and owns the intellectual rights

to the work, but the on-scene involvement of the Mexico resident would raise costs for the project — which will require about $48,000 just to repair the wall. Previous estimates of additional costs were about $20,000, Chelsea Now reported on June 17.

Communication issues, the intended longevity of the wall, and aesthetic matters of method and materials all require more consideration, according to the memo. But organizers reiterated their commitment to recreating the mural, an effort which stalled at least twice in the last four years.

The pace of progress has evolved from a “sprint” to a “marathon,” said Will Rogers — executive director of the W. 45th St. and W. 46th St. Mural Project, a neighborhood group backing the effort — in a telephone interview.

Necessary permits from the city Department of Buildings and the Parks Department have been received, Ward said. An immediate matter concerns the transfer of such permits to a new contractor after the previous one had to leave the project due to “a miscommunication” with involved insurance companies, he added.

Mural artist Denise Penizzotto Gieseke said in an email that the painting will present its own challenges, especially since she will have to recreate the work of another artist.

The intent of the repairs is to evoke the original appearance of the wall while ensuring its long-term survival.

Recreating Belkin’s work also requires study of his techniques, as well as

examination of documents used by the artist, said Rustin Levinson, an art conservator involved with the project, in an email.

Belkin “chose specific colors to evoke mood and imply intentions,” Penizzotto Gieseke noted. The artist created the mural to convey his belief that working class people could band together to confront social and economic blight as well as gentrification, but he was not known as overly “dogmatic” or “stubborn” in his mindset, according to Graciela Kartofel, a West Side resident and art historian who worked with Belkin in the 1980s.

“He could elaborate very well how to help society,” she said on Aug. 11 at the park.

The mural follows a timeline from left to right, with several overt representations of just what type of direction Belkin desired for Hell’s Kitchen. On the viewer’s left, poverty and drug abuse afflict the neighborhood. A more hopeful view emerges when eyes move to the right side. Residents follow the faded slogan: “We the people demand control of our communities” as they seemingly march in triumph to a more assertive and prosperous future.

Organizers repeatedly emphasized that the message of fighting eviction and maintaining control over the destiny of one’s neighborhood remains as relevant in 2015 as it was four decades ago. In both eras, the forces of development threatened to dislodge longtime residents.

The project itself evokes a sense of cooperation, according to organizers who said that additional support from local residents would help ensure that their effort could ultimately succeed.

Ward said those interested in contributing to the project — financially or otherwise — should contact him at edward@ beautifyearth.org.

Allison Tupper, vice president of the W. 46 Block Association and an organizer with the mural project, said in a telephone interview that while there have been delays, there are not “obstacles” to its ultimate completion at this point so much as “a process that has to be worked out.”

Enthusiasm among organizers remains higher than ever, she added.

“The timing is still up in the air.

There is no doubt about it. But the neighborhood really does want this mural. We have been trying off and on for years, and we are now very hopeful,” Tupper said. .com

B u s i n e s s , M A n H AT TA n s T y l e – A d v e r T i s e M e n T

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LED and LCD TVs Light-emitting diode (LED) and liquid-crystaldisplay (LCD) TVs are the most popular TVs for custom home theater installation projects, but have their ups and downs: Pros • They have a thin profile, making them ideal for wall mounting.

• They work extremely well in brightly-lit rooms (well — all rooms really).

• Many offer great high-definition (HD) display and performance, including bright and crisp colors.

• In general, they are extremely energy efficient.

Displays come in resolutions up to 3840 2160 which is 4K TV, or, ultra high-definition.

Cons • LCDs tend to be more expensive than LEDs. • They have poorer viewing angles than others such as plasma.

• Often, they offer limited brightness capabilities.

• They can have limited black displays, with some black being displayed in shades of grey.

Plasma TVs Plasma TVs are of course popular in today’s TV market and offer a number of phenomenal benefits — and drawbacks: Pros • They offer brightness levels higher than most, and brightness and colors display evenly across the screen.

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• The screen can burn an image into it if left on one image for an extended period of time (although this can be deterred by calibrating the factory settings to a lower brightness).

• Plasma TVs tend to have a shorter lifespan compared to other home theatre display types.

• Many plasma screens still offer only 720p, which for the price point a similar LED or LCD could offer 1080p or more.

• They also don’t reproduce black as well as some display options.

OLED TVs OLED TVs are the new “it” thing in home theatre displays: Pros • Their image quality is extremely good. They have one of the best contrast ratios on the market, offer 180-degree viewing angles, have a super-fast refresh rate, and an extremely sharp image quality.

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Cons • They can be very pricey, as their production costs are currently much higher than other options.

• They have a significantly shorter lifespan than other options — of only 15,000 hours as opposed to more than 50,000 for LED and LCD screens.

Projector Projector TVs can be a super-cool addition to a home theater: Pros

• Projector screens can be projected on nearly any wall and the nearly paperthin screen takes up the least space of any of the screens listed above.

• The projector element is extremely portable.

• The screen size is absolutely enormous.

• Their resolution can be off the charts, and can leverage the resolutions that our eyes can distinguish the differences of on a smaller screen, like 4K. • Your home is likely to become the clubhouse for sporting and gaming events.

Cons • Your home is likely to become the clubhouse for sporting and gaming events.

• You need HD media to get the best picture quality, as standard cable feeds and DVDs won’t have the resolution when expanded to the large screen size of projectors.

• You’re pretty much going to have to watch TV in the dark, or a poorly-lit room.

• The lamps only last a few

thousand hours and then need to be replaced — which can be pricey.

• You have to plan your room movements carefully — or you’ll be the “shadow star” of whatever you’re watching.

• Every other TV is going to look tiny.

So, home theatre displays — and systems in general — are a great addition, however, they take a lot of planning (you also need to think about audio and other connecting elements). They can also have difficult setup and installation processes.

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3

Gansevoort Peninsula Reboot Posits Paper, Plastic, Park

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON Adam Weinberg, the director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Councilmember Corey Johnson stood on the westernmost tip of the W. 59th St. pier on a Thursday morning in last month. Floating next to them in a long slip sat a giant open hopper barge filled with 400 tons of discarded paper.

As the two watched, a crew of men working power winches and thick braided ropes slowly eased the immense load silently — and, thankfully, odorlessly — past them and out into the Hudson River.

The tide took hold of it and pulled the now-bobbing barge out further.

Ernest Mack, who manages the pier operation, heartily shouted back and forth with a crewmember perched on the prow of a waiting tugboat, which then started to push the massive blocklong bin on its slow journey downriver.

With his burly physique and suspenders, Mack looked straight out of “On the Waterfront.”

“This is fascinating! This is so cool!”

Weinberg enthused. “This is impressive.”

“As you can see, nothing is a rushed movement,” Tom Killeen, director of solid waste management for the Department of Sanitation, said cooly of the careful choreography of the gargantuan garbage barge.

It was a “fluff load,” he added, meaning it was dry, not waterlogged from being in the rain.

No, this was not some kind of industrial performance art project — at least not yet, that is. (Weinberg may have some ideas along those lines, but more about that later.) It’s how Manhattan’s waste paper is currently sent to Staten Island for recycling. Much of the repurposed pulp ends up as white pizza boxes, with Tuscan scenes stamped on them.

Johnson set up the event to observe first-hand what goes on at the pier. The museum director is one of the councilmember’s appointees on a nine-member community advisory group, or “CAG,” that has been set

up to weigh in on Gansevoort Peninsula’s redevelopment into a park. The mayor, borough president and Johnson each have three appointees on the CAG. Plans for Gansevoort even call for it to sport a beach on its southern side.

Yet, the peninsula won’t only be a park.

Part of it, in fact, will be dedicated to a new marine waste-transfer station.

Specifically, the paper-barging operation from W. 59th St. will be relocated to Gansevoort, which also will handle all of Manhattan’s glass, plastic and metal recyclables. All of these recyclables will be shipped from Gansevoort to a recycling facility in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

The Whitney is a glittering newcomer to the Meatpacking District. On the other hand, across the West Side Highway, to the west of the museum, Gansevoort Peninsula has long been home to trash — as in, municipal garbage-related uses — since at least the mid-20th century.

Gansevoort once even sported an incinerator, the ominously named Gansevoort Destructor Plant, which was later converted into a garage for city garbage trucks, its current use.

In an earlier incarnation, the peninsula was a lively open-air farmers market.

But the advent of supermarkets with refrigeration ended that use.

Before they went out to the pierhead to watch the barge maneuvers, Weinberg and Johnson observed several garbage trucks dumping the final loads of paper into the heaping barge.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!” came a thunderous clanging from one truck. The cacophony lasted a few seconds.

“That’s him banging the hopper blade,” Killeen explained. “He’s trying to empty the truck.”

The Gansevoort transfer facility will have 12 bays, six each on its east and west sides, from which the garbage trucks will dump their recyclables into waiting barges in either of two slips. The peninsula’s existing marine

Corey Johnson, left, and Adam Weinberg at the end of the W. 59th St. pier as a paper-laden barge is floated out into the river.

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August 13 - 19, 2015

Photos by Tequila Minsky

A garbage truck adding a final load of recyclable paper to an open hopper barge, which had already been filled over the past few days with about 400 tons of paper. The facility sends five barges per week to Staten Island.

waste-transfer structure — which has not seen use in decades — will be totally rebuilt in the same location. The bays on one side will be for paper, and those on the other for metal, glass and plastic.

“Recycling is neater than any of the other materials we pick up,” Killeen assured.

Later, responding to follow-up questions, Gregory Anderson, Sanitation’s chief of staff, said because the Gansevoort facility will be out on the water and also enclosed, noise shouldn’t be a problem.

Each day, about 50 to 60 garbage trucks will dump about 5 tons of recyclables at Gansevoort. Each truck will make one trip per day.

The heaviest days for recycling pickups will be Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The trucks will arrive at Gansevoort from mid-to-late morning, with 11 a.m. being peak time. Anderson said there will be some garbage trucks that come in the evening, namely those that pick up from schools.

Again, he assured, even if there are a few garbage trucks that come at night, the facility will be quiet and won’t affect any residents who happen to live within earshot of Gansevoort.

As for garbage trucks crossing the heavily used Hudson River bikeway and park esplanade, he said, “Our drivers are very attentive. They know there’s a heavy volume of traffic there. There will be some sort of stop light there.”

The garbage trucks that currently park on Gansevoort cross the bikewayand there currently are traffic lights for both the trucks and bikes.

According to Anderson, construction of the marine transfer station, or MTS, on Gansevoort is included in the city’s

fiscal year 2020 budget — and thus won’t start before then — and should be at least a two-year project. Until 2020, the W. 59th St. pier will be used for barging recyclable paper, while recyclable metal, paper and glass will continue to be sent to New Jersey or the Bronx by trucks and then barged.

Meanwhile, the plan for the W. 59th St. facility is to convert it to handle “C and D” waste, or construction and demolition debris.

To get to the Gansevoort MTS, the garbage trucks will drive along a ramp on the peninsula’s northern edge, adjacent to the fireboat access road, then turn left and go up to the facility.

The entire trash-barging scheme is part of the citywide Solid Waste Management Plan, or SWMP, aka “SWAMP,” which was pushed by Mayor Bloomberg and is being continued under Mayor de Blasio.

“It’s a fair, equitable, environmentally sound plan,” Anderson said. “Each borough shoulders its fair share of trash.

It gets trucks off the road by relying on barges and rail.

Traditionally, majority-minority low-income communities got hammered with garbage.”

Upper East Siders, however, have notably been battling an MTS in their neck of the woods. Construction on that facility — which could start operating as soon as mid-to-late 2017 — was able to start earlier than the one slated for Gansevoort, Anderson said, because Gansevoort’s salt shed and garbage trucks first had to be relocated. What’s left of the old Gansevoort Destructor also must be demolished, and the pen-

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Possible NYCHA Privatization Rattles Residents

Photo by Zach Williams

A representative of State Sen. Brad Hoylman was one of numerous people to speak on Aug. 11, at a public hearing regarding NYCHA’s draft of its 2016 Annual Plan.

BY ZACH WILLIAMS At an August 11 public hearing held at Pace University, public housing residents reiterated their concerns that the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) might jeopardize the future of low-income housing as it responds to an ongoing fiscal crisis.

NYCHA assert that developing partnerships with private enterprises, increasing parking fees, and new building construction — some with market rate housing — will help the housing authority move from the brink of financial oblivion to a $230 million budgetary surplus over the next decade. Residents, however, expressed a multitude of concerns regarding the authority’s draft of its 2016 Annual Plan.

The notion that open space outside of housing developments could become new buildings particularly irked speakers

at the hearing.

“I thought NYCHA was developed for the poorest, for the low-income residents. But all I hear is about how y’all want to bring more affluent people to close your deficit,” said Kevin Singley, a resident of Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx.

Most of the approximately 30 speakers called on NYCHA to offer more transparency and reaffirm its commitment to meeting the needs of residents while confronting a projected $2.5 billion operating deficit over the next 10 years.

About 150 NYCHA residents attended the meeting. Members of Community Voices Heard — a housing advocacy group based on E. 106th St. — and congregants of Brooklyn’s Church of the Open Door had numerous representatives at the meeting. The seven-person

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panel included two NYCHA leaders, four board members and the chief of the NYPD’s housing bureau. They listened to public comments for two and a half hours, but did not respond to questions.

There were plenty of empty seats within the venue. Some attendees said that they did not hear about the meeting until a few hours before its 5:30 p.m. start time.

Speakers at the event were primarily from Harlem or the outer boroughs, with no residents of West Side developments providing comment to the panel. But other NYCHA residents spoke to lingering problems which are not foreign to residents of Elliott-Chelsea Houses (btw.

W. 25th & 27th Sts., and 9th & 10th Aves.) and Fulton Houses (btw. W. 16th & 18th Sts., and 9th & 10th Aves.).

Mold remains rampant in developments, wait times for apartment repairs are too long, and the authority has not

met its stated commitment to hire residents nor provided promised job and leadership training to tenants, according to NYCHA residents. Crime is a problem at many of NYCHA’s more than 300 housing developments, according to several speakers.

Some, meanwhile, accused the housing authority of merely paying lip service to residents who raise concerns.

Complaints to that effect concerned people throughout the NYCHA chain of command, with one speaker directly confronting NYCHA General Manager Michael Kelly on that point.

Jaqueline Young, a resident of Lenox Road-Rockaway Parkway houses in Brooklyn, said that a new tenant association there wished to use an empty office space, but could not secure the necessary permission from at least two other NYCHA officials. Young said she met Kelly at a town hall meeting last month.

An assistant to Kelly later said (in a mid-July email) that her concerns would receive attention, but there has not been any response to her inquiry since then, Young said. The lack of support for the new tenant association aroused her suspicions regarding NYCHA plans for “scattered site” developments, she added.

“Is Lenox Road houses going to be sold and managed by someone else? No one has answered that question. Is that the reason that no one has let us know whether we can use that office?” asked Young.

State Senator Brad Hoylman echoed such concerns about scattered sites — which are mostly old residential buildings abandoned by their owners decades ago, and then converted to public housing. He said, through a statement read by legislative aide Sejal Singh, that the authority’s plan to improve its finances and services

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Holy Apostles Outreach Includes NeXT Stop MetroCards Continued from page 1 (from a total of 903 round-trip cards distributed by NeXT Stop so far).

Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen (296 Ninth Ave. at 28th St.) has been a part of Chelsea since 1982, explained Yvonne Cassidy, director of development, in a phone interview. As the largest soup kitchen in the city, she said, it serves 1,000 meals every day — and also helps people find shelter, provides a clothing pantry, and offers phones to use.

At the end of 2012, DuBow met with Richard Trifiro, social services manager for Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen.

He “wanted to see if he could help us with his program,” said Trifiro in a phone interview. “We talked a bit about it, and it was a huge need for us. We never had that ability to offer MetroCards for people.” By January, NeXT Stop was providing round-trip MetroCards to the soup kitchen.

The soup kitchen did, and does, offer something in the line of a referral sheet, a request to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to let someone ride for free, said Trifiro. The person has a 50-50 shot of being given a free ride, he said.

“For really important travel, that’s a risky thing to do,” he said, especially “if somebody has an important benefits appointment.”

NeXT Stop supplies the soup kitchen with anywhere between 25 to 40 roundtrip cards every couple of months, said Trifiro. The nonprofit is then provided with a report about how the cards are utilized, whether it was for a medical appointment or job interview.

The response has been incredible for those who get them, he said.

“For those people, they oftentimes are overjoyed and really express how much easier it’s making their day and their week,” Trifiro said. Sometimes people walk as much as 80 blocks to get where they need to go. “It’s just very nice that in some cases we’re able to at least say, ‘Okay, this time you can get a ride.’ ’’ Trifiro had high praise for DuBow, who he said has fought several battles to get the nonprofit off the ground.

Around the time that DuBow launched NeXT Stop, the MTA started to charge a $1 fee for new MetroCards. Because of the fee, explained Trifiro, people stopped discarding their cards.

DuBow at one point asked the MTA if he could put collection boxes at .com

Photo by Scott Stiffler

A MetroCard, superimposed over the website home page of NeXT Stop partner, Holy Apostles.

stations, but was denied. He did say, however, that he is hopeful to work with someone within their claims department who may be able to combine cards.

Now, DuBow and his co-founder Samantha Molozanov have to go to a booth and ask the attendant to combine the cards. He called it a “very cumbersome process.”

Both DuBow and Molozanov attended New York University. During Molozanov’s sophomore year, he asked her and a few others if they were interested in helping with the nonprofit.

“I loved the idea, so I was the person working most closely with him and helped him start it all up,” said Molozanov in a phone interview. “I really wanted to be a part of it.”

In addition to Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, she explained, College and Community Fellowship, Greenhope Services for Women, The HOPE Program and the Bronx REAL PROS are also some of their distribution partners.

NeXT Stop has plans to expand their MetroCard collection by placing custom-made boxes at places that are frequented by tourists, such as hotels and tourist agencies, said DuBow. The box is still in the design phase, but there should be a prototype in a few weeks, he noted.

DuBow said he is heartened when the nonprofit gets MetroCards in the mail from tourists.

“It’s really nice getting cards from Kansas, Florida, Oklahoma, California [and] Texas,” he said. “It’s just inspiring to see that other people are thinking

about this and they’re trying to do something useful and charitable.”

NeXT Stop is a registered non-profit organization and donations are tax

deductible. Visit nextstopproject.org for info on how to volunteer, and for dropoff locations. MetroCards can be mailed to 120 W. 97th Street #3B, New York, NY 10025.

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Commercial Enterprise Has No Place in Public Parks THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

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8

August 13 - 19, 2015

BY SAVE CHELSEA (savechelsea.com) Thank you for Zach Williams’ article entitled “Mixed Buzz on Pier 62 Beer Garden,” which appeared in the July 30th issue of Chelsea Now. Save Chelsea joins many other groups and individuals in opposing the proposed beer garden, which would accommodate 200 patrons, operated

by Merchants Hospitality Inc., self-described as a “full service hospitality company with expertise in investment, development, ownership and management of real estate, restaurants, and hotels.”

As Williams also reports, this proposal has been met with skepticism and opposition by area residents.

For one thing, it would eat up a large chunk of what is described on the Hudson Park’s (HRP) website as “a whimsical, fun filled pier that both children and adults can enjoy. It features a one-of-a-kind carousel ride, skate park, and open plaza area on the western end of the pier.”

Further, the sacrifice of public park land for commercial enterprise is diametrically opposed to the basic definition of what a public park is supposed to be: “…an area of land created for the enjoyment of the public, having facilities for rest and recreation, often owned, set apart, and managed by a city, state, or nation” — not as investment opportunities for developers, real estate interests, corporate entities, or even, for that matter, wealthy philanthropists.

Pier 62 represents yet another instance of a commercial venture intruding upon and exploiting what has formerly been dedicated public open space.

The public park-to-private profit alchemy is increasingly ubiquitous. We have Shake Shack creating long lines and crowds in Madison Square Park; The Pavilion Market Cafe, which has now taken over a traditionally public structure in Union Square Park; the replacement of historic Pier 54, to be replaced by new Pier 55, a project added by at least $100 million dollars from the private sector; the revamping of Pier 57, being touted as a future Superpier, as well as the rapidly vanishing vistas, open air, space and light along the Chelsea segment of the High Line Park, where spectacular views are

A rendering of the beer garden, from the Merchants Hospitality website.

now blocked by a virtual canyon of luxury housing.

To hear the sales pitches of proponents of the proposed beer garden and most other similar public to private schemes, one would think there are NO other places to eat, drink or live.

This is simply not so. NYC, and certainly Chelsea, are by no means lacking in luxury housing, restaurants, bars or cafes.

It is then no surprise that the “public” is growing increasingly skeptical — as day by day, more and more public space is gobbled up by private interests and commercial enterprise. But sadly, none of us should be surprised. After all, we now live with the private sector’s ferocious appetite for consuming hospitals, post offices, and public libraries. In fact, the air itself has become a valuable commodity known as “air rights” — square footage in the sky.

These days, few are naive enough to expect public spaces to be supported by local and state tax dollars.

Anyone who lived in NYC in the 1970s knows that is no longer a realistic expectation. But, the public to private trend, now becoming so firmly entrenched, must be forged into a public process that benefits all, not just the few.

To date, many neighborhoods have opposed and fought the privatization of their parks — which, during fallow economic times, were literally saved and brought back to life by the tireless efforts at the grassroots level. Small wonder local residents feel so protective of their parks, which are now being hijacked by commercialism and tourism.

Without a truly transparent public

process, mega-powers and BIG money can simply work the system, overwhelming even the most vigorous community protest.

Even beyond the issue of privatization, the beer garden slotted for Pier 62 brings up other critical issues. Where and how is the annual revenue for this establishment to be used? The public has repeatedly been told that a park extending out into the river is fantastically expensive to maintain.

The original plan for funding HRP was never implemented. This involved culling funds from taxes, which would appreciate as property values across from the park would grow. Instead, special legislation was passed in 2013, allowing the transfer of more than six million square feet of development rights from commercial piers one block inland from Chambers to W. 59th St. The public was told the funds from the TDRs (Transfer Development Rights) would be used to maintain the park, defray the cost, and complete repairs of damage from Super Storms Irene and Sandy.

Just over a year after Sandy, a chilling article called “Flood Risk Map puts West Chelsea in Danger Zones” appeared in Chelsea Now. This included redrawn FEMA maps clearly showing that HRP is directly in the floodplain.

Many locations — including the beer garden — are in “Advisory Zone V,” which “could be flooded by high velocity, breaking waves of three feet or more.”

Who will be picking the tab for what is predicted to be even greater devastation? Our guess is, when the waters recede, we will all be left crying in our beer. .com

POLICE BLOTTER DRIVING WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE: Too sleepy to go

An intoxicated man fell asleep in the driver’s seat of a motor vehicle parked near the northeast corner of 10th Ave. and W. 42nd St. Police say they arrested the 31-year-old man at about 3:20 p.m. on Sun. Aug. 9 after observing him in full slumber with the keys in the ignition and the engine running. He was arrested for misdemeanor drunk driving.

CRIMINAL POSSESSION: Too old to hang An adult was caught using a neighborhood playground without the requisite juvenile accompaniment. The offender was a 34-year-old man purportedly in possession of a controlled substance, police said. There were signs clearly stating that adults could not hang out inside Chelsea Park playground (303 Ninth Ave., btw. W. 27th & W. 28th Sts.) without being in the company of a child. But police observed the man doing exactly that, just before 5 p.m. on Fri., Aug. 7. A background check on the man revealed two open warrants for unstated charges, according to a police report, which added that the man possessed a quantity of an unknown narcotic.

HARASSMENT: Threat to open fire A man told an on-duty FDNY firefighter that he would shoot him. The threat came in response to a perceived provocation from the 46-year-old fireman, who was in Jenny’s Deli (435 W. 37th St., btw. 9th & 10th Aves.) at 8:30 a.m. on Thurs., Aug. 6. The firefighter reported the incident to police, who noted that a suspect was named in a police report — but thus far, there has been no arrest.

PETIT LARCENY: Stocking up with just minutes to go?

Police say they arrested a 51-yearold Brooklyn man who possessed an understandable motivation to swipe an afternoon snack. Five minutes before 4:20 p.m., the man entered the Whole Foods Super Market at 250 Seventh Ave. (btw. W. 24th & W. 25th Sts.) .com

on Thurs., Aug. 6. A 52-year-old male employee of the store noticed the everso-slightly younger man try to leave the premises with $16 worth of sushi and more than enough honey to tackle a sugar rush, valued at $13. The employee stopped the sandal-wearing prospective thief. Police subsequently arrived on-scene and discovered a stash of marijuana in his backpack.

The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce

LGBTQ Network

‘Toot Your Own Horn’ Networking Event

HARASSMENT: One-sided food fight A 28-year-old woman was walking on the sidewalk, and by all accounts minding her own business, just before 8 p.m. on Wed., Aug. 5. Yet, as she neared the northwest corner of Ninth Ave. and W. 24th St., an unexpected cluster of edible missiles smacked her in the face. Police say that a homeless man threw potato chips at the woman, who sustained no injuries from the salty ambush. Drunkenness spared the 52-year-old perpetrator a trip to the slammer. Emergency medical services instead escorted him to Bellevue Hospital. He was not arrested.

FELONY GRAND LARCENY: No need for the bloodhound A 39-year-old man got a little grabby with a 30-year-old woman with whom he was sharing a taxi in the early morning of Fri., Aug. 7. The Bronx resident snatched the Brooklyn woman’s iPhone inside the cab near the southeast corner of Eighth Ave. and W. 16th St., police say. He then fled on foot at about 4:20 p.m. He could run, but he reportedly could not hide. Software on the cell phone kept police on his trail.

They later found and arrested him for felony grand larceny.

NEW DATE Shadow Boxers August 18th, 6-8 pm 215 W. 40th St.

The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce LGBTQ Network is sponsoring a special networking event in partnership with Start-OUT. Enjoy food and drinks with other LGBT professionals at Shadow Boxers VIP Lounge.

Five business professionals will have the opportunity to present their business in a 5 minute ‘Toot Your Own Horn’ presentation, and compete for prizes. If you would like to be considered for one of the ‘Toots,’ please email us at Events@manhattancc.org.

Free for MCC & StartOut members —ZACH WILLIAMS

$10 in Advance ($20 at the door) RSVP to events@manhattancc.org

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

Commander: Deputy Inspector Michele Irizarry. Main number: 212741-8211. Community Affairs: 212741-8226.

212 473 7875 • manhattancc.org/lgbt August 13 - 19, 2015

9

Rhymes With Crazy

When Texas Came to New York one night when she

BY LENORE SKENAZY didn’t have to worry Hello, sucker! about them being stoThat’s not an insult to you, dear len. The woman who reader. That’s how Texas Guinan, New actually invented the York’s “Queen of the Nightclubs” word “nightclub.” I used to greet her patrons, friends and learned all that and protégés — among them Mae West, more when I called Barbara Stanwyck, Legs Diamond, Loschiavo up for a Lucky Lindbergh, Rudolph Valentino preview.

— the cream of the Jazz Age crop.

“She didn’t break And I don’t know about you, but the mold, she creatI’d never heard of her. ed it!” Loschiavo I happened to read about a talk whooped the minute I mentioned coming up at the Jefferson Market Texas, which, as you might guess, Library in Greenwich Village by was not Texas’ real name.

LindaAnn Loschiavo, a historian, Born Mary Louise Cecilia in Waco, journalist and playwright. The blurb TX, 1884, she moved to New York in said Loschiavo usually gives an 1907 to Washington Square South annual presentation on Mae West, and paid $2 a week for room and but this year she’s reaching a little iNTekback provides: breakfast. Her other meals? “Milk further in history to the woman  Pick-up / Drop-off and On-site Computer Repair and rye bread,” says Loschiavo. who makes Lady Gaga look like  Online Tech Support and Remote Computer Support That humble diet didn’t last long.

Laura Ingalls Wilder. The woman  Online Requests — http://intek.nyc/help Very soon, Loschiavo says, Texas was who madeService a salary second only to William Hearst the Sale,telling Visit us atRandolph the West 44th Streetin Garage June 6rapt reporters tales of her life from 10 The a.m. towoman 5:00 p.m. and enter for your to winhome on a ranch, where she’d 1920s. who went tochanceback a $50.00 gift card from BEA | Restaurant & Bar. starred in Wild West shows, and jail dripping in diamonds and slyly http://www.beanyc.com | 403 W 43rd St | (212) 602-1910 attended an elite boarding school. thanked the police for giving her

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All lies.

All believed.

The press loved her brassiness, Broadway producers loved her sass.

“And she was a very attractive woman,” says Loschiavo, “so she picked up all these older men who brought her things.”

Before long Texas was living in an antiques-filled duplex at 17 W. Eighth St. She was even making enough to move her family up from Waco, where, for the record, her dad had been a grocer.

By 1917, Texas was out in Hollywood starring in silent movie Westerns and getting really rich. By 1922, she moved back to the city she loved and finally figured out her true calling.

Queen.

New York was roaring, and liquor was pouring — illegally, in speakeasies, thanks to Prohibition. Riproaring Texas was hired to keep the crowds singing, dancing and overspending at ever swankier clubs, and eventually she opened her own. She even coined the term “whoopee.”

With a string of scantily clad chorus girls to liven things up, she made sure everyone was happy — politicians, musicians, gangsters (they were key), college boys, bankers, gossip columnists (also key)...and police on the take.

Nonetheless, her clubs would get raided periodically. And just as periodically, she would get off. Each raid only added to her fame.

At least some of Texas’ trials were

held in the Greenwich Village building that was a courthouse then, and is the Jefferson Market Library today — and Loschiavo’s inspiration. “I live down the block from the library and there’s tons of women’s history there,” she says. “But every time you walk by the building you see a little plaque with men’s names” — the architects. “This used to boil my blood — so many important things happened in this building!”

She started writing about those things — including the obscenity trial that made Mae West famous. And guess who covered that trial for the Journal American?

Mae’s friend, mentor and role model, Texas Guinan.

Like so many high rollers, Texas did not weather the stock market crash particularly well, and had to take her act on the road. She was in Vancouver when she died, at 49, of ulcerated colitis — but not before declaring, “I would rather have a square inch of New York than the rest of the world.”

Twelve thousand New Yorkers turned out to pay their respects right back and in a way, we still do. To this day, what we think of as that innate New York brash is really a bit of Texas.

“Onstage Outlaws: Mae West and Texas Guinan during the Lawless Prohibition Era,” happens on Mon., Aug. 17, 2015, 6:30 p.m. at the Jefferson Market Library (at the corner of Sixth Ave. & 10th St.). Free.

For info, call 212-243-4334.

Lenore Skenazy is a public speaker and founder of the book and blog Free-Range Kids (freerangekids.com).

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There were no beefs (but plenty of burgers), when 10th Precinct officers fired up the grill.

They were cutting a rug in the middle of the street, thanks to music spun

by DJ Louie Brown.

Burgers, Bouncy Houses and Bonding, at Night Out Against Crime

BY FRANK MEADE Recording Secretary, 10th Precinct Community Council Chelsea’s yearly participation in the National Night Out Against Crime is about more than fun and games — although it has plenty of that, along with food fresh off the grill.

Started in 1984 and celebrated annually in the United States and Canada, our local observance of the event has evolved from a simple meet-and-greet affair into a robust gathering of civilians and members of the 10th Precinct who

are deeply committed to neighborhood improvement, crime prevention, and the building of civic awareness and alliances.

Hosted by Deputy Inspector Michele Irizarry, Commanding Officer of the 10th Precinct, and Detective Michael Petrillo and Police Officer Salvatore Saetta of the Precinct’s Community Affairs Office, this year’s August 4 event (held on W. 17th St. btw. 9th & 10th Aves.) drew a crowd of more than 300 adults and children and 20 Police Officers and Auxiliaries who enjoyed

Officers and residents mingled on W. 17 St. at Chelsea’s annual observance of Night Out Against Crime.

.com

games, bouncy houses, hot dogs, burgers and sodas while dancing, speaking with and — most importantly — getting to know each other.

As one participant put it, “We’re all in it together. We’ve got to make it work, and this is one way to do it.”

Great music was provided by DJ Louie Brown. A highlight of the evening was watching Inspector Irizarry lead the Officers, Auxiliaries and civilian community in tearing up the tarmac in what appeared to be several well-choreographed and rehearsed dance numbers.

Also enjoying the evening were 10th Precinct Community Council President Larry O’Neill and Vice President Vinnie Pizzonia, as well as elected officials US Congressman Jerry Nadler, NYS Senator Brad Hoylman, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, Democratic District Leader Steven Skyles-Mulligan, Paul Groncki, President of the West 16th Street Block Association and Miguel Acevedo, President of the Fulton Houses Tenants Association.

Residents who want to learn more about the 10th Precinct’s work, or express a concern about public safety, are encouraged to attend Community Council meetings. They take place on the last Wed. of the month, 7 p.m., at the 10th Precinct (230 W. 20th St. btw.

Seventh & Eighth Aves.). The council is on summer break, to resume on Sept. 30.

Deputy Inspector Michele Irizarry, Commanding Officer of the 10th Precinct, with Assemblymember Richard Gottfried (left) and NYS Senator Brad Hoylman.

August 13 - 19, 2015

11

CHELSEA CLINIC CLOSED FOR RENOVATION

Get services near the Chelsea Clinic entrance: s HIV/STD services are available from mobile clinics located near the Chelsea Clinic entrance. s Health Department Help Station provides updated mobile clinic hours and other full-service options.

Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Or visit the Riverside STD Clinic: 160 West 100th Street (btwn Columbus/Amsterdam) New York, NY 10025

160 W 100th St

Directions: 1

2

B

C

3

to 96th St.

to 96th St.

Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Also open Tuesday and Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. for HIV counseling and testing.

Closes at noon the first Wednesday of every month.

Text CHELSEA to 877877 to find your nearest confidential LGBTQ-friendly STD clinic.

Search clinics by zip code; Chelsea Clinic is in 10001. Message and data rates apply. Text STOP to quit; HELP for more information. For Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, visit nyc.gov/health.

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August 13 - 19, 2015

.com

Fix NYCHA Now TALKING POINT

BY NEW YORK CITY COMPTROLLER SCOTT STRINGER There’s a troubling status quo for many of the 400,000 New Yorkers who reside in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) apartments: water dripping through ceilings, stoves that catch on fire, mold that goes untouched for years. It’s an unacceptable reality that has lingered for far too long.

Since I took office last year, my office has conducted six audits of NYCHA. We’ve looked at how the Housing Authority handles its supplies, procures funding, and manages vacant apartments. While the focus of the audits has ranged widely, the outcome has been uniform: NYCHA’s results repeatedly fail to meet basic standards.

Our first NYCHA audit found that public housing and low-income New Yorkers lost out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential wages because the Authority failed to comply with federal law, and botched the implementation of the program it had developed to employ residents at NYCHA sites. Later, a financial audit found that NYCHA didn’t apply for available federal funding, and as a result left nearly

$700 million in revenue and savings on the table, squandering an important chance to bring boilers, lighting and hot water heaters to residents. Our audit of NYCHA’s management of vacant apartments found that despite the fact that there are 270,000 New Yorkers waiting for NYCHA housing, the Authority left 80 apartments sitting vacant for more than 10 years!

Most recently, my office looked at how well NYCHA repaired and maintained its apartments. What we found could make your head spin: 55,000 backlogged repair requests — more than 400 at the Elliot-Chelsea and Fulton houses. It takes NYCHA an average of 370 days to fix building safety violations and, most incredibly, it has a policy that closes repair work orders if residents aren’t home when repairmen come to visit.

Combined, all of our audits tell the biggest repair story of all: NYCHA itself is broken. Earlier this month, I proposed a four-point plan that will provide the tools, the reforms, and some of the necessary funds to begin improving quality of life for NYCHA residents. Going forward, NYCHA should: • Implement NYCHAStat, a management system modeled after the NYPD’s successful CompStat system that will provide real-time, development-by-development breakdown of key mainte-

Courtesy Office of the NYC Comptroller

July 13, 2015: New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer stands with tenants to release an audit of NYCHA’s repair backlog.

nance statistics. NYCHAStat would bring transparency to the Authority’s operations, and give tenants, advocates and all citizens of New York City the ability to monitor NYCHA’s progress in making repairs in real time.

• Enact budget reforms that would make NYCHA’s finances and capital plans, which in their current form don’t allow for proper accountability, as transparent as any other City agency.

• Update, and publicly release, its Physical Needs Assessment, a comprehensive overview of major infrastructure needs that the Authority has kept hidden for years. NYCHA must tie that

document to its capital projects report, while also making the document more timely and user-friendly.

• Seek surplus Battery Park City Authority funds, which amount to approximately $400 million over the next 10 years. The funds could support capital improvements at NYCHA, including technology and infrastructure upgrades.

If we are going to effectively address New York City’s affordable housing crisis, we must start by protecting the apartments we already have. It’s long past time that we put NYCHA’s house in order. We must fix NYCHA now.

Tenants: NYCHA Not Meeting Commitments Continued from page 6 — NextGeneration NYCHA — must preserve rather than unduly privatize public housing. “[NYCHA] calls for scattered-site developments to be sold to nonprofits and for distressed Towers-in-the-Park style developments to be converted to new ownership structures…which converts public housing subsidies to long-term guarantees and in turn facilitates an influx of private capital,” reads the statement.

Borough President Gale Brewer — the only elected representative of Chelsea who personally attended the meeting — told the panel that trusting nonprofits with the ownership of land on which public housing resides could risk their future, because “nonprofits sell land” in the lucrative Manhattan real estate market.

“I am also here to acknowledge the many challenges that NYCHA residents are facing, such as dilapidated conditions, broken facilities, diminished public safety due to rampant drug .com

and gang activity, lack of clear communication from management, and concerns over what will happen to them with all the recent talks about NextGeneration and privatization,” Brewer said.

NYCHA Chair and Chief Executive Officer Shola Olatoye said in remarks preceding public comment that the process of determining the future management of the authority remains ongoing. Although the public hearing was not a forum for direct discussion, she added that the authority will continue to reach out to its tenants as the city continues implementing NextGeneration NYCHA. The status quo cannot continue considering the current fiscal challenges, but opportunities also present themselves at the same time, according to Olatoye.

“We are excited about [NextGeneration NYCHA]. It is not a kitchen sink plan. It is a plan with very specific strategies about how to ensure that the 178,000 units that comprise the homes of more than 400,000 New Yorkers are here for another generation,” she said.

Photo by Zach Williams

Many NYCHA residents say that a plan to improve the authority’s fiscal situation through partnerships with private enterprises could ultimately undermine its ability to serve low-income residents.

August 13 - 19, 2015

13

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August 13 - 19, 2015

.com

Uptown Tour a Glance of Gansevoort Things to Come

Photo by Tequila Minsky

Ernest Mack, who runs the pier, shouts to the tugboat, which will transport the barge to Staten Island, where the paper will be made into pizza boxes, among other things.

Continued from page 4 insula’s soil needs some remediation to ensure it’s safe for park use.

“As far as remediation,” Anderson said, “we’ve already completed a lot of work on the incinerator in order to allow it to function as a safe garage space for employees. Post-demolition, we will excavate soil as needed — approximately five feet — and replace with clean fill.”

Meanwhile, a new three-district mega-garage at Spring and Washington Sts. is expected to be completed by this year’s end. The garbage trucks currently on Gansevoort, from Sanitation Districts 2 and 5 — which serve Community Boards 2 and 5 — will then relocate to the new Hudson Square garage, which will also house the garbage trucks from District 1, which currently are squeezed into Pier 36 on the Lower East Side. A new shed for road salt at Canal and West Sts. will replace the one on Gansevoort.

The Gansevoort MTS is also planned to have a “recycling education center,” where schoolkids and others can learn how garbage is repurposed for reuse.

The Gansevoort MTS plan, though, still hinges on whether the state and city can agree on a payment to the Hudson River Park Trust in order to “alienate” the part of Gansevoort that will be needed for the MTS. The state Legislature already voted some years ago to alienate the parkland, and a figure of $50 million has been cited. However, the state has been reluctant to pay half of that sum, .com

arguing that the MTS is part of the city’s garbage plan, and thus not a state issue.

“We’re confident there will be a resolution,” Anderson stated.

The design of the actual MTS structure is in the “very, very preliminary stages,” Anderson added. Weinberg indicated that he just hopes the shed is as low as possible.

Over all, Weinberg was inspired by the tour of the W. 59th St. barging operation.

“I think the Whitney ought to do something with artists and recycling,” he added. “We can plan this.”

For his part, Johnson said that, above all, the whole operation in the Village will need to be done safely.

“I appreciate the Sanitization Department’s willingness to work with the community as the Gansevoort Peninsula transfer station is built,” Johnson said. “Touring the W. 59th St. facility gave us a feel for what will be built at Gansevoort.

“While I recognize that the city has an obligation to process our recyclables, it is also responsible for safeguarding the health and safety of our residents and respecting the Hudson’s fragile ecosystem. My community advisory board appointees and I are looking forward to working closely with the Department of Sanitation to ensure that our recyclables are processed in a safe and responsible manner.”

Johnson is currently setting up two more tours, one of the Sunset Park recycling facility — specifically to look at a recycling education center there — and another of Gansevoort Peninsula.

August 13 - 19, 2015

15

The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce & Chelsea Now Support

n e p O s i e lag

l i V t s a eE

Th

ess n i s u b age l l i V t s Ea last e b t i e r h o t v y r fa ed b u t o c y e ff p a o Sh hose t t r o p p and su

T

he “East Village Loves� campaign is conceived by the East Village Independant Merchants Association (EVIMA) and encourages residents and visitors to shop local at their favorite East Village spots. Many businesses affected by the blast have re-opened and are ready for your visit.

The campaign is a celebration of the rich, diverse, and historic neighborhood in lower manhattan, characterized by a concentration of mom-and-pop establishments that are becoming less common throughout the city

#EastVillageLoves evimanyc.org

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August 13 - 19, 2015

.com

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

FringeNYC From A to Zeitgeist

Sure things, and shots in the dark worth taking and Peoples Improv Theater). “The

BY SCOTT STIFFLER Take a hike, TKTS. Put a brick Broccoli Murder, DiCaprio Dance and in it, Ticketmaster. Keep your pabOther Stories from my 20 years as a lum, “Phantom.” For less than the NYC Cop” blends the best of DeMayo’s cost of standing at the back of a dangerous and disturbing tales from his Broadway house, you can sit in days in blue with candid observations the air-conditioned comfort of a about adjusting to civilian life Downtown theater while watchwithout pepper spray and a ing a FringeNYC performance gun strapped to his hips.

— and have a decent chance of Especially funny is a bit alludeyeing someone who will one ed to in the title, in which he day grace a prohibitively expenmeets Leonardo DiCaprio in sive Midtown stage, or charm a trendy club. Pressed into sertheir way onto your smartphone vice as a dance floor bodyguard, screen (fans of Bradley Cooper, he keeps Molly-trippin’ fans at Melissa Rauch and Morgan bay while marveling at the surreal Spurlock can attest to that). notion of playing Kevin Costner But this 16-day marathon of to Leo’s Whitney Houston. Loopy dance, comedy, drama and performer and SOLOCOM fest uncategorizable lunacy is founder Peter Michael Marino, back more than just a breeding from taking his own show to the ground for things to come.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe, directs.

Year in and year out, “Hank Leaves Home” is Erik the festival plays canary Heger’s solo show developed in collabto popular culture’s coal oration with director Leslie Felbain. mine. With that in mind, The notion of a socially awkward, our totally subjective homeless harp-playing tramp stuck roundup corrals this in neutral as he works the NYC Photo by Morgan Shortell year’s zeitgeist into a subway system has been percolating Serious Theater Collective’s “The Magic Jukebox” takes you on a mirthful mystery tour of the few notable categories. since 2002, when the team first troupe’s satirical targets.

It’s by no means commet at the American Conservatory plete (at 200 shows, Theater in San Francisco (he as a how could it be?), but it does represent intriguing fully funded result is “Kill Sister, Kill!” — in which grad student, she as a faculty member). Categorized work from known quantities and risk-worthy pros- a determined nun struggles to do the Lord’s work in by FringeNYC as a “Clown/Mask” show (aka highly pects. One thing’s for sure: at $18 per show, a shot in that infamous ground zero of depravity: 1970s New physical), this concert/theater performance showcases the dark at FringeNYC beats the buyer’s remorse of an York City. When our good sister’s reunion with her skills from Heger’s eclectic resume: actor (John Proctor expensive Broadway misfire. estranged biological sister is interrupted by a shock- in “The Crucible”), clown (in Speigelworld’s “Vegas FringeNYC shows run Aug. 14–30, 2 p.m.– ing act of violence, the meek woman of God adopts Nocturne” at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas), midnight weekdays, noon–midnight on weekends. a new habit: revenge. Oh, and it’s a musical (specif- and harpist (opening for Roberta Flack and Lou Reed Single tickets are $18. $85 for a Fiver Pass, $150 ically, a “Psychotronic Hell-trip of Song, Sleaze and at the Apollo). for a 10-show Flex Pass and $500 for an unlimited Revenge!”). “The Great Forgotten” is a multi-media Jell-O shots, slave labor, butterfly tattoos, Krishna Lunatic Pass. For the full schedule of shows and drama which set in another of Gotham’s infamous and Afghanistan are the thematic hooks in “Hearts to purchase tickets, visit FringeNYC.org. Also pur- bygone eras: the roaring twenties. Flappers, bathtub Afire” — an intimate evening of harrowing, inspirachase at FringeCentral, inside the City Lore cultural gin and jazz are among the period-appropriate ele- tional true tales told by five NYC community college heritage center (56 E. First St. btw. First & Second ments of culture shock that greet two graduates from students. “Liminal” takes a fresh-out-of-college Aves.), daily from 2–8 p.m. Order on your smart- Bellevue nursing school, just back from witnessing poet, transplants her to NYC, and tasks her finding phone up to 30 minutes prior to performance, at the horrors of World War I. her voice. She’s not alone, though — overtures from FringeOnTheFly.com.

Broadly built, ballsy by nature and sitting on a a potential love interest and taunts from a Greek vault of stories that make the most gritty “Law & chorus of blue collar workers will prompt this Order” episode seem utterly vanilla, native New “foot soldier of gentrification” to define her place OLD, NEW & TRUE TALES OF NEW YORK Bygone Theatre raised funds for their Fringe Yorker Mark DeMayo made a smooth transition in the world. Producing entity Bedlam Ensemble show by, of all things, putting on a show in their from NYPD cop to NYC comedian. Since retiring was responsible for 2014’s “Tennessee Williams hometown of Toronto, Canada. The adults-only after 20 years on the force (seven as a police officer, Project,” which reimagined the playwright’s sel“Retro Radio Hour: Sin and Sensation” staged the rest as a detective), he’s brought his mouthy, dom-performed one-acts. vintage radio plays, along with period-appropriate Type A flair for true storytelling to stand-up and music and amazing feats of prestidigitation. The theatrical venues (including Gotham Comedy Club Continued on page 18 .com

August 13 - 19, 2015

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Could Be Must-Sees at FringeNYC

Photo by Ben Folstein

Romance is on the menu, in Brooklyn band Level II’s “Love is Like Mud.”

Continued from page 17 Three musical productions make NYC central to their story, or at least vital to its flavor. A contemporary pop score for “Love in the Middle Ages” charts the ups and downs of six men and women of a certain age, who meet at a Manhattan singles mixer.

Eric Kornfeld, who wrote the book and lyrics, teaches Cabaret at Primary Stages and has a mountain of credits that bode well for this project — including the writing of Bette Midler’s HBO special and Vegas extravaganza, “The Showgirl Must Go On.” Matters of the heart also figure into the title (and the marrow) of “Love is Like Mud,” which leavens the implications of its ominous title with hefty doses of sex, humor and music. Brooklyn band Level II plays the music, and all of the parts, in this visually kinetic operetta chronicling the coupling of lonely Jon and Annie, twentysomethings with cramped apartments and oversized

libidos. A clever stick puppet video on loveislikemud.com previews the show’s wry courtship song, “Excellent Choice” — which turns the wine and entrée negotiations of a dinner date into an à la carte assessment of their partnership potential. Serious Theater Collective’s “The Magic Jukebox: New York City World Tour” features 12 musical vignettes from the comedy troupe that gleefully eviscerates everything from dolphin language, to false gods, to flash mobs. A live band backs the sketch players, as they bounce from R&B, to hair metal, to gospel and beyond.

SCIENCE & FANTASTIC FICTION Long-winded but undeniably compelling, You Said Your Damn Ninja Would Take Care of Robocop Productions is, we get the feeling, just a wordy front for a pop shop owned and operated by Queens-based writer, performer, YouTube darling and Shaolin kung fu disciple Shyaporn Theerakulstit. His geek-think solo

WE HAVE MOVED — RIGHT NEXT DOOR!

Photo by Annie Lesser

“Tiananmen Annie” has Ann Starbuck looking back at her time in Beijing, during the Tiananmen Square Uprising.

show — “The Absolutely True Science of Nerds” — plows through its 90 minutes by delivering “completely scientific” lectures on the real-world implications of becoming Batman, and the relative merits of the “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” universes. Assuming you haven’t passed out at that point from a techie tizzy, the show’s closer is a rumination on the behavioral patterns and biological origins of Japan’s “Hyper-evolved Theropod Kaiju” (better known to his frenemies as Godzilla). Not enough spectacle, you say? Theerakulstit also promises music, burlesque and special guests — plus what will almost certainly be a very argumentative Q&A session.

With visual motifs inspired by video games, kabuki, horror movies and Pixar shorts, “Dungeon” uses puppetry and multi-media to take its young hero on a rescue mission/quest. Part of the FringeHIGH series of programming appropriate for teens, “EverScape” finds four gamers escaping their bleak, everyday lives by immersing them-

selves in an online fantasy world of epic battles. Things get real (or do they?) when their expertise presents them with the opportunity to explore the W-2 world of gainful employment, as game developers. The show’s press info is deliberately unclear about their fate, but at least one festival entry indicates that obsessives can come out of their shells — as in, where one man has not gone before — thanks to the fictional world they prefer to inhabit.

“The Universe of Matt Jennings” is a tale of gay awakening told from a Trekkie’s point of view, with our man Jennings in classic “Star Trek” attire, confidently seated at Kirk’s NCC-1701 command chair, as he recalls his (fiveyear?) mission to boldly explore black, white, Christian, queer and artistic identity. Make it so, Matt!

Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theatre brings its Adult Content Warning-worthy blend of manga and anime to Clinton Street’s Celebration

Continued on page 19

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FringeNYC: 16 Days, What Do You Get?

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Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theatre wants you to join their “Kamikaze Cutesauce Cosplay Club.”

Continued from page 18 of Whimsy stage, when the sizable ensemble unleashes “Kamikaze Cutesauce Cosplay Club” upon the good citizens of Gotham. Director and co-choreographer Brian Rott founded the troupe along with likeminded MFA candidates at Italy’s Accademia Dell’Ar, then claimed Laverne & Shirley’s home turf after touring Turin, Milan, Arezzo, Cortona and Berlin.

The result is a physically intense stage show whose dizzy, hybrid sensibility uses movement, puppetry and martial arts to “explore contemporary costume play and the threads that form gender, identity, and culture.”

A HIGH L, G, B, T OR Q QUOTIENT Set in the 1960s in one of Fidel Castro’s brutal UMAP (Military Units to Aid Production) prison work camps that warehoused gays, alongside political and religious dissenters, “Julian .com

& Romero” is written by Alex Perez, whose grandfather was killed while protesting Castro’s revolution. “It’s not just a Cuban story, but a human rights issue that connects on many levels, even today,” he says. The title characters are childhood friends, now with different perspectives on sexuality, faith and culture. The play, which incorporates music and dance of the period, was nurtured during a 2013 run in Theater for the New City’s Dream Up Festival (happening this year Aug. 30–Sept. 20). Storyteller Matthew Dicken, an out-since-13 American, mashes his own sensibilities with those of “The Seven Men I Came Out to in India,” as he travels the subcontinent during a quest to “relearn to see queer” and “claim his mythic ancestors.”

Self-examination of sexuality isn’t a choice for the characters in “Endless Air, Endless Water,” which finds two astronauts in a space capsule with

Continued on page 20

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These Are The Days of Our FringeNYC Lives Taking place in Tompkins Square Park,

Continued from page 19

nowhere to hide, let alone run, when their workplace fling is exposed on national TV. Andrea Alton, whose Molly “Equality” Dykeman persona was a featured act in Dixon Place’s recent HOT! Festival of LGBTQ theater, adds 12 more to her stable of characters, with “Possum Creek.” Set in the titular Ohio town during the Civil War era, it begins by focusing on a naive bride, then spans three decades during which she contends with “lost husbands, babies of uncertain parentage, man-on-man carnality, plagues, and a beloved pig.”

DEAD WRITERS, REAL PEOPLE AND ACTUAL EVENTS A skull with a clown nose serves as the promotional graphic for playwright Anthony P. Pennino’s “I, Horatio.”

Accompanied by a diagonal dagger in each black eye socket, the festive red schnoz is a fitting image for this comedy/drama. Pennino’s interpretation of Horatio from “Hamlet” implies more than just platonic loyalty and admiration at play, when the grieving confidant goes on a mission to grant his prince’s dying request to “draw thy breath in pain to tell my story.”

Shakespearean verse gets a contemporary reboot, when Queens-based Feast Productions unleashes “Hamlet the Hip-Hopera.” The core plot remains, but iambic pentameter is replaced with the strikingly similar cadences of hip-hop — making maximum use of the genre’s knack for advancing narrative and invoking metaphors in the same breath. Rap battles, dueling verses, slam poetry and soaring ballads bring new energy and lyricism to familiar characters under siege and descending into madness.

Taking place in Tompkins Square

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Photo by Rachel Birnbaum

“Hamlet The Hip-Hopera” trades the Bard’s iambic pentameter for its own brand of deft wordplay.

“The Merchant of Venice (or how not to live in a multi-cultural world”) is one of four FringeAL FRESCO shows.

Bigotry, a fractured legal system and the nature of justice figure heavily into Hip to Hip Theatre Company’s take on what they call “Shakespeare’s darkest comedy.” This free outdoor production is appropriate, given the Company’s mission to perform no-cost and family-friendly

classics in their home borough of Queens.

Ann Starbuck’s solo show “Tiananmen Annie” is based on events she experienced in 1980s Beijing — first as a student, then working for CNN during the Tiananmen Square Uprising. A FringeHIGH entry, the spoken word/poetry piece “The Broken Record” addresses violence between black youth and the police, expressing the “fury, helplessness, and grief we feel watching these stories play on repeat” while contemplating how to prevent this familiar, often fatal pattern.

Set on a hot

Photo by Julian Voloj

Hip to Hip Theatre Company’s take on “The Merchant of Venice” takes place in Tompkins Square Park, and won’t cost you a dime.

Los Angeles night in 1992, writer and director Tess R. Ornstein’s “Cherubim” finds parallels between the reaction of a multi-racial family following the disappearance of fiveyear-old Kea Charmichael and the Rodney King riots.

Playwright and director Delaney Yeager pays tribute to Samuel Beckett, by stranding her all-female cast in the middle of nowhere as a means to explore friendship and empowerment in the face of the unknown, in “Waiting for AAA.” Years before British writer Roald Dahl created worlds of wonder and menace (“Matilda” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”), his real life played out like an Ian Fleming novel. “Yesterday Was Beautiful” fleshes out the period in World War II when Dahl — a spy on her Royal Majesty’s dole — visited Washington on cloak and dagger business, and in the process bedded (the married and older) Congresswoman Clare Booth Luce.

Scandal somehow eluded the prolifically priomiscuous Dahl, but it was bread and butter for Glenn Milstead — whose drag persona Divine committed some of the most memorable atrocities in cinematic history. “Divine/Intervention” finds the star of John Waters’ still-stunning early-career cult films (including “Multiple Maniacs” and “Polyester”) alone on the night of his death, wrestling with the demons that lurk just beyond the mascara. Bobby Goodrich stars, with a script by E. Dale Smith based on an original concept by the show’s director, Braden Chapman (aka Mimi Imfurst, a longtime and formidable presence on the drag and cult theater circuit). Writer and performer Jay Malsky takes liberties with the star of “At Liberty,” when he brings one of Broadway’s most brassy, belated broads back for one final tour. “Elaine Stritch: Still Here” looks every bit the safe bet, as evidenced by fundraising clips on the show’s Facebook page.

Hunkered down at the piano, Stritch sings for her supper by granting a donor’s request to hear the “Charles in Charge” sitcom theme. “I don’t like things that aren’t about me,” she says, barely making it past the first verse, “so sometimes I make them about me even if they’re not.” What follows is a good example of what you’ll get at FringeNYC, and reason enough to go. .com

Long Afternoon’s Journey Into ‘Kapow-i GoGo’ Marathon adventure brings ’90s anime to the stage

Courtesy of Kapow-i GoGo

Madeleine Bundy (left), as Kapow-i GoGo, fights one of the show’s many villains.

BY CHARLES BATTERSBY Dedicated theatergoers will boast that they sat through epic plays like “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” the unedited “Hamlet” or “Angels in America” — but there is a show running Off-Off Broadway that tasks audiences with a four and a half hour adventure performed in a single afternoon. What’s most remarkable is that it isn’t longtime theater enthusiasts in the audience — it’s fans of cartoons and video games who join the character of Kapow-i GoGo on her afternoon-long adventure.

The stage show of the same name, “Kapow-i GoGo,” is a loving homage to video games and cartoons, especially Japanese ones from the ’90s. The title character is a pastiche of heroines and heroes from anime shows and the Nintendo franchise — equal parts

“Pokemon,” “Dragon Ball Z,” “Legend of Zelda,” “Final Fantasy” and a heaping dose of “Sailor Moon.”

There is a generation of young theater fans who grew up with these characters, watching Sailor Moon defend the Moon Kingdom before school, seeing Goku battle Vegeta every weekday afternoon, and staying up all night trying to reach the final disk of “Final Fantasy VII.” Those kids are adults now, and they crave not only nostalgia from their childhood, but also deconstruction of these classics.

We spoke with playwright Matt Cox, co-director Kristin McCarthy Parker and star Madeleine Bundy about their show. Matt Cox describes it as “An amalgamation of everything I loved as a fourteen-year-old. It’s this big epic journey and adventure that

Photo by Cristina Pitter

Playwright Matt Cox (front right) performs as “Mr. Snuggles.”

you get to take an audience on for four and a half hours.”

Bundy describes her character, Kapow-i, as “Every protagonist you see in video games and cartoons. She represents not just these female heroes, but just heroes. Whatever you grew up with, whether it was something from ‘‘Star Trek,’’ ‘‘Star Wars,’’ anime, or ‘‘X-Men,’’ you can project your ideal hero onto her.”

The show began in a weekly serialized format, performed with one short episode per week. In its current format, all of those episodes have been combined together, along with new mate-

rial. “There is a novelty that we have,” says Bundy about the episodic format, similar to “binge watching on Netflix.

People love sitting at home on their couch and watching an entire season in an afternoon.”

The most recent marathon performance occurred on a Saturday afternoon, McCarthy Parker explains. “We settled on treating it like Saturday morning cartoons, so that we could be in the afternoon and not take up a person’s entire Saturday or Sunday evening.”

Continued on page 23

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‘Kapow-i’ Delivers Nostalgia With a Side of Deconstruction Continued from page 21 To enhance that “Saturday Morning” feeling, the lobby of the theater has a cereal bar, and attendees can munch on sugary cereals during intermission between episodes. The producers even created collectible trading cards featuring their characters; the sort of item that would be included with toy action figures. “All of this is to create an atmosphere of nostalgia,” says McCarthy Parker.

Despite the nostalgic sweetness, the show takes some very dark turns in its later parts. The story sends Kapow-i and her friends on a series of heroic journeys over the course of 30 years. At first, the gang lives in a colorful, child-like world. As the third hour approaches, the themes become darker, reflecting the more mature anime that became popular in America as the ’90s stretched on. In the final story arc, Kapow-i’s whimsical world transforms into a dark dystopia, and she becomes an antihero who is part Sarah Connor, part Ellen Ripley, and part “Future Trunks” from “Dragon Ball Z.” McCarthy Parker points out that Kapow-i’s audience is made of people who are more likely to go to Comic Con than a Broadway show. “People go to the theater with the expectation that they’re going to sit in their seat and be respectful, and we’re trying to break that a little bit. We’re able to do that because we’re at a comedy theater, with a bar in the lobby. That’s fun and refreshing for people who don’t have the most experience with theater, or the most positive relationship with theater.”

Courtesy of Kapow-i GoGo

Puppeteers provide special effects.

The entire team laughed as Matt Cox recalled how, at one performance, the audience made liberal use of the bar during the show’s many short intermissions. “The first time we did the show as a marathon, we did it at night.

We started at seven or eight, and went until one. At that show, the audience was particularly intoxicated, and they had a GREAT time.” Bundy noted that audiences at afternoon shows are more “respectfully tipsy.”

However, drinking is a not a requirement to enjoy Kapowi-’s adventure. All it takes is an enduring love of classic anime and video games.i

“Kapow-i GoGo” will return to the Peoples Improv Theater (123 E. 24th St, btw. Park & Lexington Aves.) on Sat.,

Aug. 29 for another marathon matinee, beginning at 1 p.m. Visit kapowigogo. com for info and tickets ($30).

MADONNA

Photo by Anya Gibian

L to R: Mike Axelrod, Madeleine Bundy (as Kapow-i GoGo) and Hank Lin share a tense moment. .com

August 13 - 19, 2015

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Mount Sinai’s number one mission is to keep people out of the hospital. We’re focused on population health management, as opposed to the traditional fee-for-service medicine. So instead of receiving care that’s isolated and intermittent, patients receive care that’s continuous and coordinated, much of it outside of the traditional hospital setting.

Thus the tremendous emphasis on wellness programs designed to help people stop smoking, lose weight and battle obesity, lower their blood pressure and reduce the risk of a heart attack. By being as proactive as possible, patients can better maintain their health and avoid disease.

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