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When you make amazing things happen for people year after year, it doesn’t go unnoticed. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital a top 5 hospital in the nation Learn more at nyp.org/reasons
Becoming one of the top 5 hospitals in the nation doesn’t happen alone.
A leading hospital in the nation is also a leader in telehealth.
It happens with the help of our amazing nurses, staff, volunteers, and the pioneering Columbia and Weill Cornell Medicine physicians. It’s no surprise that their groundbreaking research and clinical trials have transformed treatments into innovative care—making our hospital a leader in the nation for healthcare:
Great medical care is too important to keep behind the walls of a hospital. That’s why NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a leader in redefining what a hospital’s reach can and should be:
As the hospital with more top doctors than any other, and a dedicated care team to support patients, these and the many more amazing things we do will continue to happen year after year.
T:11”
Our world-class treatments include minimally invasive techniques like focused ultrasound—giving renewed hope to those with movement issues— as well as developing lifelong heart implants for patients not eligible for transplants, teaching a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer effectively, and developing breakthroughs in precision and genomic medicine.
We give people access to virtual urgent care on the go and video follow-up visits to save time commuting to a doctor’s office, deploy a fleet of stroke ambulances to give neurologists real-time remote video access to help stroke victims immediately, and have installed physical kiosks in pharmacies that provide convenient, private, virtual access to expert medical care. With over 500,000 virtual encounters across 80 services, these are just a few ways NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is making amazing things happen for more people than ever. Download our NYP App
Learn more at nyp.org/reasons
A top 5 hospital in the nation Ranked by U.S. News & World Report 2019–20. NewYork-Presbyterian has more top doctors in Castle Connolly’s America’s Top Doctors 2019 list than any other hospital in the nation.
A top 5 hospital in the nation Ranked by U.S. News & World Report 2019–20
A top 5 hospital in the nation is right here in NYC
Ranked by U.S. News & World Report 2019–20
The local paper for Downtown ntown
SPECIAL REPORT HEALTHY MANHATTAN ◄ P.9
SECOND TIME AROUND FOR SURAJ PATEL POLITICS
The 2018 challenger to Rep. Carolyn Maloney is gearing up for the 2020 ballot MIchael Bloomberg, seen here in his Super Bowl ad, is spending millions and targeting the Super Tuesday primaries. Photo: Courtesy Mike Bloomberg 2020 via YouTube
THE BLOOMBERG METHOD PUBLIC EYE
As the primaries get underway, my old boss, your former mayor, is using the same tactics in his run for president that he used throughout his billionaire business career BY JON FRIEDMAN
I have to smile as I watch America trying to make sense of Michael Bloomberg’s insurgent presidential run. Journalists and pundits are racking their brains to explain Bloomberg’s improbable, unconventional strategy. They claim on cable news shows to understand the ori-
BY SERAFINA SMITH
Suraj Patel – son of immigrants, trilingual NYU professor, Stanford-educated lawyer, Obama campaign alum and family hotel exec,
East Village New Yorker who takes the M14A bus because the L train is a “debacle,” and 2020 candidate for Congress – is “a crazy energetic person.” That’s according to Utkarsh Yadav, a former 2018 campaign intern who’s in charge of branding and engagement this time around. Patel says he’s always been that way. “Even in school I did every sin-
gle activity and sport and everything possible,” he says. This is Patel’s second run for Congress against incumbent Rep. Carolyn Maloney in New York’s 12th District. With a platform focused on climate change and rebuilding New York City’s infrastructure, (also including progressive policies such as free college,
WEEK OF FEBRUARY
13-19 13-19 2020
INSIDE
THE MANY LIVES OF A CITY
Recent additions to the collection of the Museum of the City of New York tell the story of Gotham and its diverse inhabitants. p. 8
CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
GIVING UP FLOWERS FOR V-DAY
My most profound memory of Bloomberg was as an innovator who got things done.
Even without petals, love will be in the air. p. 5
gins of the lifelong success of this self-made billionaire, media tycoon and three-term mayor of New York City. To that, I propose a word that Bloomberg’s base of Noo Yawkers can appreciate: fuhgeddaboudit! The Intellegencia can’t appreciate that Bloomberg is simply repeating his history. The same tactics that he employed to
‘PUPPIES OVER PROFITS’
NY bill proposes banning retail sales of dogs, cats, rabbits. p. 2 Suraj Patel campaigning in 2018 at a town hall in the Church of the Holy Trinity on East 88th Street. Photo: Douglas Feiden
CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
GETTING A JUMP ON COLLEGE PREP
For some high-schoolers, summer camp is for SAT study sessions, working on essays and getting a taste of college life. p. 18
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Crime Watch Voices NYC Now Healthy Manhattan
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FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL
presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration a lay point of view,” lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders separate a in and then, how he arrived his decision, detailing Visitors to the blog at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want unthey whether really want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiArbitration Man, suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in actions the owners, policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s quantitative give us the first with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step problem. the xing fi of deformality for To really make a difference, process is a mere complete their will have to to are the work course, the advocaterising rents, precinct, but chances-- thanks to a velopers looking find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout lives on who problem. Angelo, vexing most said Mildred construction permits gauge what Buildings one of the Ruppert said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She on the Over the past is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever Every New Yorker clang, tion Act tangible signs go as they please. work between early, and some come metal-on-metal can construction any small sound: the or on the weekend, have no respect.” the piercing of progress. For many can’t come p.m. and 7 a.m., the hollow boom, issuance of these business owners, that moving in reverse. as after-hours. The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
Newscheck
for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced
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‘PUPPIES OVER PROFITS’ PETS
NY bill proposes banning retail sales of dogs, cats, rabbits BY MARINA VILLENEUVE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York could ban retail pet shops from selling dogs, cats or rabbits as soon as mid2021 under a Democratic state senator’s bill. The state would join Maryland and California and hundreds of municipalities nationwide that have taken a stand to outlaw sales of those pets, Deputy Senate Leader Mike Gianaris said Monday. Supporters including The Humane Society of the United States and the New York State Animal Protection Federation say the vast majority of New York pet stores already don’t sell cats, dogs or rabbits. But Libby Post, the executive di-
rector of the federation, says the proposal is an “opportunity for pet stores to rebrand themselves as compassionate businesses that put puppies over profits.’’ Post said the issue of puppy mills fueled by high demand for young canines is the “most pronounced.’’ But she said there are also mills that cater to owners seeking designer cat breeds and families seeking bunnies for the Easter holiday. The legislation would impact an estimated 80 pet retail stores largely located in New York City and Long Island that have registered with the state. New Yorkers could still buy cats, dogs and rabbits directly from breeders. Pet stores could face penalties for violating the law, which also allows shops to work with animal shelters or rescue groups to offer animals for adoption. The bill would become effec-
tive a year after it’s signed into law. Animal welfare groups argue that importation certificates show New York pet stores too often bring in puppies from states in the Midwest with high numbers of commercial pet facilities. Supporters say the federal government is failing to sufficiently investigate a system in which pet stores can turn to regulated dog brokers who buy puppies from breeders and resell them to retailers. A spokesman for New York’s agriculture department says licensed pet dealers that move animals across state lines must document that a veterinarian observed the pets and that they don’t appear to have a disease. “Buyers are also entitled to receive information about where their pets came from and dealers are required to provide that information at the time of sale,‘’ said spokes-
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“Puppy Mill Pipeline” Over 2,000 dogs are for sale in pet shops in New York at any time, according to advocacy group New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets Executive Director Edita Birnkrant. “By passing this legislation we can shut down the puppy mill pipeline and ensure that animals from shelters are adopted at New York shops instead of enriching cruel breeders,‘’ Birnkrant said. Animal welfare activists argued Monday that pet stores make most of their money from
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is unclear. It so far has over a dozen Senate co-sponsors and at least one co-sponsor in the Assembly. A spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his office is interested in any proposal that would better protect pets. The governor last year signed into law the nation’s first ban on declawing cats. “We’ll review this legislation in consultation with the state’s top kibble and chew toy advocate, Captain,“ said senior advisor Richard Azzopardi, referring to Democrat Cuomo’s two-year-old gray and white Northern Inuit dog.
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selling pet supplies anyways. But Pet Industry Advisory Council President and CEO Mike Bober said New York’s bill would threaten locally owned pet stores while doing nothing to address irresponsible breeders. Bober, whose group represents the nation’s pet industry, said it’s more important to strengthen and enforce federal standards for pet providers. “These protections, along with the consumer warranties that pet stores are required by law to offer, are not mandatory for any other animal source,‘’ Bober said. The fate of New York’s bill
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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG STATS FOR THE WEEK
ARREST AFTER PHONE SNATCH At 2:35 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 31, police said, a 24-year-old man grabbed a cell phone from the hands of a 40-year-old man on the southbound 2 train at the Chambers St. Station. The victim tried to stop the suspect and a struggle ensued, during which the victim was punched in the face, police said. The suspect then crossed the subway tracks to the northbound platform and boarded a northbound 2 train, according to police. The train was held at the Houston St. Station, where police officers arrested the suspect and recovered the victim’s phone, a Samsung Galaxy A20 valued at $239.. Orlando Johnson was charged with robbery.
ARREST AFTER POLICE OFFICER ASSAULTED A man was arrested after striking a police officer and resisting arrest, police said. According to the police report, at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, Ahmad Tucker, 29, struck a police officer on the face and mouth with his right fist, causing swelling to the officer’s face and head, as well as lacerations to the right side of his mouth. The incident took place
Reported crimes from the 1st precinct for the week ending Feb 2 Week to Date
Year to Date
2019
2018 % Change
2019
2018 % Change
0 2
1 0
-100.0 n/a
0 3
1 2
-100.0 50.0
3 4
1 0
200.0 n/a
19 9
3 7
533.3 28.6
Grand Larceny
3 33
2 12
50.0 175.0
14 119
12 75
16.7 58.7
Grand Larceny Auto
1
0
n/a
4
0
n/a
Murder Rape Robbery Felony Assault Burglary
Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr
behind 185 Greenwich St. near Fulton St, police said, and the officer later reported that he could not remember some details of the incident after being struck. Tucker, who police said flailed his arms to prevent arrest, was charged with assault.
JUICED At 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, police said, a man approached the newsstand in front of 52 Broadway and took a container of Tropicana
juice from a display, saying, “Give me an orange juice for free!” When the newsstand vendor told the man to put back the juice, the suspect struck the vendor with a closed fist, causing an injury above his left eyebrow. The suspect then fled on foot, heading south on Broadway. The container of orange juice was valued at $2.
CONCRETE MIXER VANISHES Leave the keys in the ignition and
RIDE FOR HALF PRICE Starting in late January, low-income New York City residents who are at or below the federal poverty level may qualify for a half-priced transit fare using a Fair Fares MetroCard.
Check your eligibility at nyc.gov/fairfares or call 311 for more information.
even a concrete mixer truck can disappear. Police said that at 7 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 27, two men stole a 1995 International model 4900 concrete mixer truck with New Jersey plates XHEJ37 belonging to a company called Linear Logistics, located in North Bergen, NJ. The theft occurred in front of 575 Broadway near Prince St., where the driver had left the vehicle parked and unlocked with the keys in the ignition, police said. The truck was valued at $6,000.
WALLET STOLEN On Saturday afternoon, Feb. 1, police said, a woman’s wallet was stolen from her bag while she was seated inside Sarabeth’s at 339 Greenwich St. She later received a text message from her bank alerting her to a credit card transaction at Jeffrey at 449 West 14th St. in the amount of $5,443.75. She told police she had not authorized the transaction. The other items stolen included $100 in cash and the wallet, valued at $40.
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OF VALENTINES AND HALFTIME SHOWS BY BETTE DEWING
“You make me smile with my heart” As some of you know, those words are from the ever timeless “My Funny Valentine.” And yes, composers Rodgers and Hart wrote them about couple love. But “smiling with our hearts” is so universally needed. So are songs that apply to family, friendship and neighbor love. And you’ll agree that infinitely more needs to be said about these affections so essential to everyday health and well-being.
Super Bowl R-Rated Concern And yes, I dare to say it, a little of that was sure needed in the Super Bowl halftime show viewed or heard by a worldwide audience. Some critics allowed the pole and other dancing by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira was “not suitable” for young viewers. Not surprisingly, the Reverend Franklin Graham was one who protested the exploitation of women in this prime time performance, especially one watched by many children. Dad Billy might have said “not suitable for any viewer.” And as for the lyrics, they sure have little or anything to do with love. A few critics also called it “sexual exploitation” of these two pop star women artists, but others found it “a real breakthrough for Latina women artists to make the Super Bowl show.” Too little remembered in general now
is how “women as sex objects” was a foremost concern of the Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem feminist era. So was women being inordinately judged by their appearance, which had better be youthful. Have we come a long way?
Valentines for Volunteers But back to Valentine’s Day and the need to celebrate family, friendship, neighborly love, and don’t forget love of volunteers, especially those who spend time with those, often old people, who are too much alone. Reportedly, elders are low on the volunteer recipient list and yet New Yorkers are home to a record number of 85-plus citizens. Incidently, it’s also the fastest-growing age group and the needs often grow greater with age and these stories need to get out there.
Remembering Kirk Douglas’s Late Life And this relates to actor Kirk Douglas departing this life at age 103. Unlike so many living a very long time, he no doubt had the best care money could buy and a devoted wife and family close by. Even so, living so long is difficult with problems I suspect Douglas felt should not be publicly aired. He did mention the word “forgotten” once. And yet problems that come with age, often due in part to ageism and age segregation, especially need to get out there for these years to be made more livable – indeed livable. Then
too, just maybe we are living too long. When the going gets too rough, should assisted suicide be legal?
Valentines for Apartment House Staffs And close to home, this surely relates to those who live in doorman buildings – and heartfelt Valentines to these often veritable lifelines for some residents – and so essential in general for safe and livable housing. So are their supers of course, and all are role models for the very busy residents to take time to be more neighborly. And how essential that is for their children to learn. Building staffs bring residents and generations together, And they make the neighborhood safer which is becoming a bit more of a concern. Of course, Valentines are surely due to New York’s Finest and Bravest and elected officials who promptly respond to constituents calls for assistance, Yes, Valentines to philanthropic groups in general, and don’t forget faith groups, especially those who look after – include – their most vulnerable members. And back to the songs we need – well lyrics are needed for all the above – so let’s all write them and sing them! And for now, just change the lyric to “You’re my family Valentine...” or friendly or neighborly Valentine. Valentine’s blessings to you dear readers and advertisers. “You make me smile with my heart “
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Voices
GIVING UP FLOWERS FOR V-DAY ON THE TOWN
BY LORRAINE DUFFY MERKL I no longer measure love in rose petals. My husband Neil and I have been together almost forty years. In that time, our Valentine’s Day acknowledgements have run the gamut. * In the very early years, Neil was on the partner track at his law firm, which operated like a 7-Eleven — they never closed. I should not have been surprised that, though every store in NYC had giant red hearts plastered all over its window displays, when I asked him tearfully how he could not have remembered what day it was, his ingenuous response was: “It’s today?” * One year, I received a ceramic keepsake box. He bought it because it was red. It had a bird on the cover. It’s the thought that counted. * The time I consider my coup de grace was when I got out of my morning shower to find two dozen roses on the bed, then, when I arrived at work, there was a delivery of a dozen more for my desk. And yes, I placed them strategically so all could see my cache. Two back-to-back V-Days in the mid-‘90s though were what put me on the road to not using the holiday as a metric for whether or not I am loved. * I sat in our apartment waiting for Chinese food-forone because Neil had to work late. To add insult to injury, I thumbed through a fashion glossy with a model-turnedactress on the cover. Her story described a perfect life, and last “ultimate date night” as a way of showing how equally perfect her marriage was. The star’s husband
The author with her husband, Neil. Photo courtesy of Lorraine Duffy Merkl led her up the mountain behind their Montana spread where she found a table set for two under a heated tent. They were served a catered meal flown in from her favorite NYC restaurant, and dined to the dulcet tones of a string quartet. I may have thrown the magazine across the room. I don’t recall exactly. I do remember that when Neil returned home, he removed a rather crinkled card from his briefcase. I’m pretty sure I mustered up a tired “thanks,” most likely through gritted teeth. * The following year, he again was on a case that required 24/7 diligence. That time, my reading material of choice was an entertainment magazine, where the aforementioned actress was giving her first interview since her divorce and new life as a single mom. I guess a quixotic Valentine’s Day does not a happy marriage guarantee, I realized. This time when Neil arrived with what looked like the last picked over card from Duane Reade and a bouquet on-its-lastlegs from the Korean deli, I was more gracious than the year before, hugging him and offering a genuine “thank you.” In the years since, I learned to give validity to the phrase I once heard that “love” is not a noun, but an action verb, and shown once a year
with a gift is not it. It’s — in my case, anyway — preparing dinner because Neil knows I would rather wash every dish and pot in the kitchen than boil water; when he used to take our young children to the park on Saturdays, so I could do errands in peace or have a nonchore afternoon to myself; or most recently, holding my 97year-old mother’s hand while she laid in her hospital bed, so she would not feel alone when I took a break to get some rest. Last year, was a first for our long relationship. I put a moratorium on flowers. I decided that I would rather get an impromptu, reasonably priced bunch in July to brighten our home, than get gouged by an obligatory, overpriced one. (Same goes for the pervasive $300 per person pre-fixe, 5-course Vday meal offered by many a restaurant.) I have no doubt that, even without either, love will be in the air on February 14th as it is the other 364 days. As for you dear readers: Happy Valentine’s Day. Or Palentine’s Day. Or Galentine’s Day. Whichever of the offshoots you celebrate. Happy Friday to everyone else. Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novels Fat Chick and Back to Work She Goes.
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Thu 13 BIG APPLE FILM FESTIVAL: CRAPPY MOTHER’S DAY Cinepolis Chelsea 260 West 23rd St 8:45 p.m. $20 bigapplefilmfestival.com 212-691-5519 When three generations of women come together on Mother’s Day, things don’t go as planned. The festival’s closing night film is directed by two-time Emmy Award-winning and Grammy-nominated director Dan Karlok.
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INTERACTIVE WRITING PROMPTS
SJP Seaport Boutique 93 South St 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Free Shop new resort styles, sip a glass of wine, and enjoy a flower wall photo op in store for all your selfie needs. Raise a toast with the girls who get you through it all and browse new resort styles — with 10 percent off and a special Galentine’s gift with purchase. seaportdistrict.nyc 212-732-8257
44 Charlton St 12:30 p.m. $30 Unplug and recharge your batteries during a 60-minute deep dive into the art of listening with guided meditation and live music. Beginner’s Ear brings you closer to the music by opening the mind to both silence and sound. thegreenespace.org 646-829-4400
Chinatown Soup 16B Orchard St 3:00 p.m. $20 Brianna Logan hosts a casual afternoon of writing in a no-pressure environment with nice people and beautiful art. This interactive event invites participants to answer short-form prompts in real time with a focus on finding magic in the mundane. eventbrite.com hello@chinatownsoup.nyc
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Nublu 151 Ave C 8:00 p.m. $10 Confronting a reality of failed job interviews, painful dental visits and traumatic subletting encounters, experimental rock-jazz trio Kadawa delivers hard-driving grooves, telepathic interplay and a twisted sense of humor. nublu.net 646-546-5206
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FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
THE MANY LIVES OF A CITY HISTORY
IF YOU GO
Recent additions to the collection of the Museum of the City of New York tell the story of Gotham and its diverse inhabitants BY VAL CASTONOVO
Peter Stuyvesant’s map of his farm property. Milton Glaser’s “I [Heart] New York More Than Ever” poster following 9/11. A coffee dispenser from Horn & Hardart. A pillbox hat designed by the late Bill Cunningham, “William J.” A New Year’s Eve invite for an inaugural ride on the Second Avenue Subway — and a silver tray mapping surveillance cameras in Manhattan. These material emblems of New York, plus 172 photographs of the city and its citizens, are on view in
WHAT: “Collecting New York’s Stories: Stuyvesant to Sid Vicious” WHERE: Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue (at 103rd Street) mcny.org WHEN: Through December 31. “Collecting New York’s Stories,” an exhibit in two parts that beautifully showcases recent acquisitions at the Museum of the City of New York. The artifacts are quite tactile and in some cases throwaways that fortuitously found their way to the museum. They are testaments to the everyday lives of everyday people in the teeming metropolis. “I think that a lot of people have one view of New York,” said curator Lindsay Turley, who organized the objects in the Tiffany Gallery. “They
Kathy Fixing Her Hair in a Cigarette Machine Mirror, Coney Island, 1959. From Series: “Brooklyn Gang”Gelatin silver print. Museum of the City of New York. Anonymous gift, 2018.40.385 Photo: Bruce Davidson
think of going to Broadway plays every night. New York is Times Square. It’s the Empire State Building. It’s going to the Statue of Liberty. It’s really fantastic to be able to present the view here in our galleries that the lives that people lead while residents of the city is not all glitz and glam. We do a lot of the same things that people do across the country—we work, we figure out which garments to wear each day.”
Bobby Pins, Post-its and More
Sid Vicious Under Arrest for the Murder of Girlfriend Nancy Spungen, New York, 1978. Gelatin silver print. Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Allan Tannenbaum, 2019.6.4 Photo: Allan Tannenbaum
One of the choicest bits of city history can be glimpsed in a Depression-era cosmetology set, owned by Sylvia Green Greenseid, a 1936 graduate of the Manhattan Evening Trade School. The kit boasts metal hair rollers, a curling iron, bobby pins, scissors and a nail file. Said Turley: “It’s a fabulous story. Sylvia Greenseid got her degree right after middle school. She went on to become a working woman in the
1940s. We didn’t have a lot of material in our collection that could speak to the experience of a woman worker in the 20th century.” Lately, the focus at MCNY has been on building out some of the more contemporary areas of the collection. “We’re also really conscious that we are striving to tell all of New York’s stories, so we are thinking about all different types of New Yorkers, not just people who are most likely to save things from exclusive events,” Turley said. The wall at the entryway to the artifacts gallery is festooned with posters, including a hand-made sign from the January 2017 New York City Women’s March — “Respect Us” — with a drawing of a diverse group of women and young girls linking arms in solidarity. The 2016 Presidential contest figures in another piece, artist Matthew “Levee” Chavez’s “Subway Therapy,” a project initiated the day
after the controversial election. Chavez handed out sticky notes and pens and encouraged straphangers to express themselves in the 14th Street pedestrian tunnel. The venting spread like wildfire and resulted in 50,000 notes, a selection captured here in a photomural, along with some of the original Post-its. A sampling of sentiments: “Love is the answer,” “My uterus, my rules,” “Hope is good, but action is better.”
Ordinary and Not-SoOrdinary People The visual storytelling continues in an adjacent gallery devoted to photos acquired within the last three years, most of them dating from the 1980s to the present. Wellknown photographers like James Van Der Zee, Aaron Siskind and Bruce Davidson share the stage with lesserknowns like Ruben Natal-San Miguel, Robert Gerhardt and Mitchell Hartman. There’s a decided focus on
people versus places, but that’s not to say the city’s architecture and the Brooklyn Bridge are not represented. They’re here, too. But the spotlight is on ordinary, and some not-so-ordinary, people livin’ in the city, the bulk in Harlem, the East Village and the outer boroughs. Allan Tannenbaum photographed John Lennon and Yoko Ono in front of the Dakota (1980), Deborah Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie on a roof (1980), and Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious after his arrest for the murder of his girlfriend at the Hotel Chelsea (1978). Milt Hinton’s photos of jazz legends and Yousuf Karsh’s vintage portrait of the Marx Brothers notwithstanding, the rest capture a cross-section of anonymous folk — young and old, native and immigrant, Black, Asian and Caucasian.
Social and Economic Diversity Photo curator Sean Corcoran points to four photos from the go-go Eighties by Richard Sandler that highlight the city’s historic wealth gap. Two picture well-heeled pedestrians on Fifth Avenue — ladies in fur coats and a man and woman in front of Van Cleef & Arpels — the remainder take us below ground to the graffiti-saturated subways. A solitary man reads a newspaper in one image, a woman holds onto a subway pole that obscures her face in another. Mitchell Hartman’s scenes of Queens’ residents bring us into the 21st century and capture “food carts and street life, a slice of life in a particular neighborhood,” Corcoran said. “I think particularly for out-of-towners, there’s an impression of New York as a mythic city. We want to show a city of communities and neighborhoods with social and economic diversity, to reflect the varied ways of living that take place here.”
Healthy Manhattan
2020 How residents of your neighborhood stack up in terms of diet, exercise and health risks
Restorative Yoga A Kidney Donorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Story What Did You Touch Today?
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FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
NEIGHBORHOODS
HEALTHY IN MANHATTAN BY CAROL ANN RINZLER
How’s your health? Nearly eight of ten New Yorkers say, “Just peachy, thank you.” In Manhattan, the count is even higher. No wonder: Statistics compiled by the NYC Department of Health show that Manhattanites are more active, eat smarter, smoke less, and are more likely than folks in the other boroughs to get vaccinated against the flu. Here’s the catch. Like the United States, Manhattan has its own electoral college: Neighborhoods. Each one has its own health profile, some better, some worse than the island average. For example, says Assembly Member Dick Gottfried, “People living in Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen seem to be consuming more fruits and vegetables and less sugary sodas. We need to know why and learn how to bring others along.” One possibility: Keep supermarkets in place to avoid “food deserts,” places where fresh foods are hard to find because local bodegas outnumber full-service supermarkets by as much as 18-1. Some neighborhoods defy expectations. You may think our most populous one, the Upper East Side, is a bastion of billionaires with an exclusive cigar bar on every corner, but for Council Member Ben Kallos it’s “the secret sauce in the City melting pot, home to
Greenwich Village & Soho
3%
OBESE ADULTS
Photos: Steven Strasser
Financial District
Clinton & Chelsea
Upper West Side
Upper East Side
Stuyvesant Town & Turtle Bay
Manhattan
Citywide
4%
10%
10%
11%
13%
15%
24%
ADULTS WHO SAY THEIR HEALTH IS GOOD Citywide
78%
Manhattan Clinton & Chelsea
83%
residents of every age, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background.” It’s also got the low-
86%
Upper Stuyvesant Town East Side & Turtle Bay
89%
est percentage of smokers. Across the island at Riverside Park Conservancy, CEO Dan Garodnick endorses exer-
90%
Financial Greenwich Village Upper West Side District & Soho
91%
cising in public parks as “good not only for physical wellbeing, but also mental health.” He should know. Riv-
91%
93%
erside Park, which Gothamist calls the best green space in New York, draws more than 3 million visitors a year, lots of
whom must come from the southern West Side where nine of every ten people follow Garodnick’s advice to keep moving. Which is smart, especially when there’s a bicycle aiming for you. Since 2011, cyclists have run into more than 2,250 City pedestrians, mostly in Manhattan where East Harlem topped the list in 2018 with 29 injuries for every 100,000 residents. If you were one of them you know it’s a good idea to have health insurance like 97 percent of folks in Stuyvesant Town and Turtle Bay. Good for them, says their Council Member Carlina Rivera, Chair of the Council’s Committee on Hospitals. “While the number of New Yorkers without health insurance continues to decline, the Take Care New York [TCNY] 2020 goal is to have fewer than 9 percent go without needed medical care due to lack of a policy.” Finally, yes, we Manhattanites die of the same Big Three – cancer, heart disease, flu & pneumonia – as everyone else, but our suicide rate of 5.3 people per 100,000, is a whopping 30 percent lower than New York State as a whole. In fact, our one notable failing is that we binge drink more often than folks in the four other boroughs, probably due to the stress of being better in everything else.
FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
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Exercising in public parks ... good not only for physical well-being, but also mental health.”
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Dan Garodnick, CEO of Riverside Park Conservancy
(IN THE PAST 30 DAYS)
CURRENT SMOKERS
ADULTS WITHOUT
CITYWIDE: 14% MANHATTAN: 13%
HEALTH CITYWIDE: 12% INSURANCE MANHATTAN: 9%
FINANCIAL DISTRICT: 16%
FINANCIAL DISTRICT: 4% GREENWICH VILLAGE & SOHO: 4% CLINTON & CHELSEA: 11% STUYVESANT TOWN & TURTLE BAY: 3% UPPER WEST SIDE: 5% UPPER EAST SIDE: 4%
GREENWICH VILLAGE AND SOHO: 16% STUYVESANT TOWN & TURTLE BAY: 12% CLINTON & CHELSEA: 11% UPPER WEST SIDE: 10% UPPER EAST SIDE: 8%
BINGE DRINKERS
*
34%
Stuyvesant Town & Turtle Bay
31%
Financial District
30%
Source: NYC Health Department’s New York City Community Health Profiles 2018
Greenwich Village & Soho
30%
73%
81%
Clinton and Chelsea
Stuyvesant Town and Turtle Bay
83%
83%
Financial District
Upper West Side
90%
83%
Greenwich Village and Soho
Upper East Side
87%
90% Citywide
25%
Manhattan
25%
*5 OR MORE DRINKS PER DAY FOR A MAN;4 FOR A WOMAN Stuyvesant Town & Turtle Bay
Manhattan
Citywide
CITYWIDE: MANHATTAN: FINANCIAL DISTRICT: 15%
Upper East Side
29%
GREENWICH VILLAGE & SOHO: 15% Upper West Side
19%
CLINTON & CHELSEA:
23%
ADULTS WITH 18 HIGH BLOOD 22 PRESSURE 21 %
%
STUYVESANT TOWN & TURTLE BAY: UPPER WEST SIDE: UPPER EAST SIDE: 15%
24%
%
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
After his positive experience, John Campbell hopes to inspire more living donors. Photo: Courtesy of John Campbell
GOOD DEEDS After a successful career on Wall Street, he wanted to do something that couldn’t be measured in dollars BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
When John Campbell decided to retire four year ago, he started to take stock of his life. He grew up in Sunnyside, Queens and had a tough upbringing. He had to learn how to take care of himself. “I’ve kind of been on my own from the very beginning. I didn’t really have a close family relationship with anybody,” said Campbell, who turned 71 on Jan. 1 of this year. “I just needed to get out of there.” So he did well in school, eventually earning an MBA from the Wharton School and finding success on Wall Street. And now, at the end of his career, he was looking to make an impact outside of the financial world. He wanted to do something you couldn’t put a price tag on. “I read a paper by Alvin Roth, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics,” said Campbell. “And he came up with this notion of: how do you price a good that you can’t charge for?” One example Roth laid out in his paper: becoming a living kidney donor. “It made sense to me,” said Campbell. “I thought it was a pretty
neat idea.” A Gift for a Stranger The idea stayed with him and finally, last September, he went to the Langone Center at NYU to see if he qualified to become a living donor. Typically, people in need of a kidney receive the organ from a family member or loved one. In Campbell’s case, he was volunteering his kidney to whoever in the general public needed it. The screening process was extensive. He met with a nephrologist and a surgeon. They conducted sonograms, X-rays and many, many blood tests. “It was probably close to two full days in the hospital, taking every imaginable test,” Campbell said. “They were probably also assessing me psychologically, to make sure you’re doing this for the right reasons.” Campbell’s kidney was healthy; and by December, doctors found a compatible recipient. “I was quite fortunate that my kidney function was really, really good for a guy my age,” he said. Campbell didn’t broadcast his decision to many of his friends. For one, he’s not much of an attention seeker. And, two, he figured people might find him wanting to donate a kidney to a stranger to be a bit odd, and he didn’t want to be talked out of it.
FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
A KIDNEY DONOR’S STORY
The demand for kidneys is just staggering. I feel so blessed that I could do it.” “I thought: ‘If it’s something I want to do, I’ll just do it and tell everybody afterwards,’” said Campbell. Success in the OR, and After He arrived at the hospital on Dec. 11 at 5 a.m., calm and ready for the procedure. He listened to the explanations from the doctors about how the day would go, and was wheeled into surgery. The doctor asked him what music he wanted to listen to during the procedure, which he thought was a pretty funny question to ask someone who — hopefully — would be asleep for the surgery. “I told him to listen to what he wanted to listen to,” said Campbell. “He goes, ‘No, no, no.’ So I asked for the Irish group, The Cranberries.” The anesthesiologist put him under and he didn’t wake up until 6 p.m. The surgery was successful, for himself and the recipient. Going into the surgery, Campbell had wanted to donate the kidney anonymously. Again, he didn’t want a lot of attention. But when the recipient told the hospital that he
would like to meet the donor, Campbell decided to do it. “This is the God’s honest truth, and I’m being very honest here, I was more nervous the night before I met the recipient than I going to the hospital for the surgery,” said Campbell. When he walked into the hospital on Jan. 16, just a few weeks after the surgery, he and the recipient were a bit shocked when they saw one another. “When he walked into the conference room, we looked at each other and started laughing,” said Martin Cernese, the recipient of Campbell’s kidney. During their respective recoveries in the hospital, Campbell and Cernese would take walks around the floor of the hospital. They passed by one another, and would say hello, but nothing more. The more they saw of one another, the more each of them wondered, “Could that be him?” ‘Bawling Like a Baby’ Cernese, 77, had been on dialysis and waiting for a donor match for two years after his kidneys had stopped functioning. The routine of dialysis had basically taken over his life, and his life was already pretty full. For 25 years he had worked as the director of operations for an airline communications company. As a par-
ent, he had served as president of his children’s school board on Long Island and was active in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Since retiring in 2006, he’s enjoyed reading and going for walks. Now, with “John’s Kidney,” as Cernese says, he is getting that life back. “I went up to him and shook his hand and I said, ‘John, thank you is so inadequate, I don’t know what else to say,’” he recalled. Campbell thanked him in return, which took Cernese by surprise. “What do you mean?” Cernese remembered asking him. “And he explained his situation and he wanted to leave something behind and I started bawling like a baby. I couldn’t control it after that.” The meeting was an overwhelming experience, Campbell said. The two shared their contact information and have been trading emails since. After meeting Cernese, Campbell said he’s glad to have done something in his life that was really meaningful in the moment. He’s also hoping to become an advocate for living donors, and explain his experience so that others in need might benefit. “People might think this is a dramatic thing to do, but it’s not that difficult,” Campbell said. “The demand for kidneys is just staggering. I feel so blessed that I could do it.”
FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
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WHAT DID YOU TOUCH TODAY? PREVENTION
You can reduce the risk of the coronavirus, flu and common cold by washing your hands BY CAROL ANN RINZLER
So far, the Wuhan coronavirus appears to be more contagious but less deadly than a previous one that caused SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly ten percent of the people it infected. Last week Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a new hotline to help answer questions about the novel strain: (888) 364-3065, staffed by public health professionals. While there is clearly more to be learned about this new respiratory infection, one thing is sure: You can reduce your risk for this as well as all varieties of the “ordinary” flu and the plain old common cold by washing your hands with soap and water for two minutes - about the time it takes to sing two choruses of “Happy Birthday.” What did you touch today? Every day, before you touch them, each item on this list is touched by dozens - maybe hundreds - of people, each of whom leaves microscopic particles on the surface. A checklist:
■ The button to call the elevator when leaving your apartment ■ The button to signal your floor ■ The door knob or push-bar to exit the building ■ The door to the cab ■ The change (bills or coins) from the cabbie ■ The change (bills or coins) and new card form the subway clerk ■ The door or pole or seat or strap in the bus or subway car ■ The change (bills or coins) when you buy coffee on the way to work ■ The door knob to your office building ■ The door knob or push bar to enter your office building ■ The office elevator call button ■ The office elevator floor call button ■ The door knob or push bar to your office
“An Apple a Day...” Talk to your doctor about preventive services covered by Medicare
■ The light switch in your office ■ The coffee machine, milk or sugar containers in your office ■ The keyboard at someone else’s desk ■ The phone at someone else’s desk ■ The pen or pencil or folder or book on someone else’s desk ■ The door to the lunch restaurant ■ The flatware and glasses and cups at the lunch table ■ The bill for lunch
■ The change (bills or coins) when you pay the lunch bill ■ The door to the store where you shop for dinner ■ The packages you pick up while shopping ■ The change (bill or coins) when you pay the bill
So wash your hands before preparing food or eating and/or touching your face, lips, eyes, or nose. You have nothing to lose but some germs.
Services covered at 100%: • Annual wellness visit • Flu and pneumonia shots • Hepatitis C screening • Bone mass measurement • Colon cancer screening • Breast cancer mammogram screening • Counseling to stop smoking • ...and much more For free and impartial Medicare guidance, contact the Health Insurance Information Counseling and Assistance Program (HIICAP) at nyc.gov/aging or by calling 311 Para información en Español, llame al 311
This project was supported, in part by grant number 90SAPG0033, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201.
FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
RESETTING THE BODY EXERCISE
Yoga instructor Suzanne Taylor talks about the health benefits that can come from practicing restorative yoga BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
Like so many others, Suzanne Taylor was first drawn to yoga as a meditative practice. “I was at a very low point in my life,” said Taylor. “I felt like I needed somebody to help me navigate the emotional, tumultuous waters.” Taylor sought out a therapist, who suggested she take up yoga as part of her exercise routine. It was advice that ended up changing the direction of her life. After three years of practice, she became an instructor. Now, 24 years later, she’s been able to witness her clients gain the same mental health benefits that she did by taking up yoga. But just as notable, she’s
Suzanne Taylor. Photo: Fernando Milani
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
witnessed clients have some unexpected physical health benefits through the practice of restorative yoga, a passive form of yoga. Restorative yoga, Taylor said, is a cross between deeper relaxation and guided meditation. Props such as bolsters, blocks and blankets are used to support the body while its being held in different poses. But these poses, Taylor said, are much simpler than one might do during an active yoga class. The practitioner might be lying on their back with their feet propped up by bolsters or lying on their side, slightly twisting their torso. Each pose is held anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes; and in a 90-minute class, only about five poses are held. “It’s about opening up the body and helping the body relearn how to relax,” said Taylor. “So many of us are just wound way too tight.” This practice, Taylor said, has positive effects for each of the organs and systems that
You are Invited to
It’s about opening up the body and helping the body re-learn how to relax. So many of us are just wound way too tight.” Suzanne Taylor
the body needs to function. “If someone who’s laying on their back and they have their legs elevated with blocks and bolsters, that affects the circulatory system,” said Taylor. “So it helps to get fluid away from the legs and your legs get a chance to rest, the heart gets a chance to rest. Oxygenated blood flows up to the head, which helps to renew healthy cells in brain.”
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Accessible to All Ages One client, who has high blood pressure, told Taylor that after a class, they would test their blood pressure and it would be at a normal level without having taken medication. Another client, who is diabetic, told Taylor that their blood sugar drops dramatically after practicing restorative yoga. “And you think, ‘How the heck can that happen?’” Taylor said. “But I think it really does help to normalize the body.” She said the practice can positively affect the digestive system as some of the poses engage the colon. Additionally, she said it boosts the immune system because the body is less stressed. “So many different components from the body really benefit from the practice,” said Taylor. “Everything just felt so much more calm and peaceful and at ease.” Another benefit, Taylor said, is that restorative yoga is accessible to all ages. She has clients who are students and clients who are in their 70s. Prospective clients shouldn’t feel nervous or intimidated either, Taylor said. This class, compared to active practices, is really about relaxing and resetting the body. “Restorative yoga is just an opportunity to replenish the depleted resources that help us to navigate daily life.”
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FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
Healthcare in Your Neighborhood Lighthouse Guild Health Center provides coordinated vision and healthcare. We have specialized programs to maximize your functional vision and we address underlying medical issues. We provide: • • • •
Diabetes care and selfmanagement education Primary care and specialty physicians Vision rehabilitation services Occupational therapy
•
Physical therapy
•
Behavioral health services including individual and group therapy, day treatment and medication management
We are a Medicare and Medicaid provider and accept many insurance plans.
Located: 250 West 64th Street (bet. Amsterdam & West End Ave.)
Call us for an appointment 212-769-6313
lighthouseguild.org
@LighthouseGuild @LighthouseGld @LighthouseGuild
FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
Bite
211 E 14th St
A
Bond St
6 Bond St
A
Cafe Rakka
81 St Marks Pl
A
Checkers
23 St James Pl
A
Chipotle Mexican Grill
275 Greenwich St
A
Corner Gourmet Ii
66 W Broadway
A
Dear Irving
55 Irving Pl
A
Dig Inn
17 E 17th St
A
Dos Caminos Soho
475 W Broadway
A
Emmetts
50 Macdougal St
A
Empellon Al Pastor
132 St Marks Pl
A
Epistrophy Cafe
200 Mott St
A
Good Century Cafe
243 Grand St
Not Yet Graded (25) Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/or nonfood areas. Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Lighting inadequate; permanent lighting not provided in food preparation areas, ware washing areas, and storage rooms. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Sanitized equipment or utensil, including inuse food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored. Not Yet Graded (21) Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist. Non-food contact surface improperly constructed. Unacceptable material used. Non-food contact surface or equipment improperly maintained and/or not properly sealed, raised, spaced or movable to allow accessibility for cleaning on all sides, above and underneath the unit. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
Group M
175 Greenwich St
A
Happy Garden Palace
54 E Broadway
A
Heaven’s Hot Bagel 283 E Houston St
A
Javelina
119 E 18th St
A
Kati Thai Cuisine
347 E 14th St
A
Keste Wall Street
77 Fulton St
A
Klimat
77 E 7th St
A
Negril
70 W 3rd St
A
227 E 14th St
A
Patea
A
Royal Bangladesh Indian Restaurant
93 1st Ave
A
Sacred Chow
227 Sullivan St
A
San Carlo Osteria Piemonte
90 Thompson St
A
Sauce
78 Rivington St
Not Yet Graded (19) Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies. Proper sanitization not provided for utensil ware washing operation. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist.
Stanton Pizzeria
127 Stanton St
A
The Little One
150 E Broadway
A
The Little Shop
252 Front St
Not Yet Graded (27) Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Plumbing not properly installed or maintained; anti-siphonage or backflow prevention device not provided where required; equipment or floor not properly drained; sewage disposal system in disrepair or not functioning properly. Proper sanitization not provided for utensil ware washing operation. Hot food item that has been cooked and refrigerated is being held for service without first being reheated to 1 65º F or above within 2 hours.
The Pastagram
241 Pearl St
A
Tre Sorelle
61 Reade St
Not Yet Graded (30) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.
Vin Et Fleurs
69 Thompson St
A
Vivi Bubble Tea
226 E 14th St
A
Volare Restaurant
147 W 4th St
A
Whiskey Town
29 E 3rd Street
A
Do
something
us to
you You’d
look
?
into
The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes 10002, 10003, 10004, 10007, 10009, 10012, 10013, 10014, 10038. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received.
857 Broadway
like
JANUARY 30 - FEBRUARY 5, 2020
Pret A Manger
have
RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS
Fine Bakery City Inc 303 Grand St
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
Email us at news@strausnews.com
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
GETTING A JUMP ON COLLEGE PREP CAMP
For some high-schoolers, summer camp is for SAT study sessions, working on essays and getting a taste of college life BY KATHERINE ROTH, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Some summer camps are for unwinding, getting outdoors, playing sports or music, or doing crafts. And then there are those that offer kids - most of them heading into junior or senior year of high school - intensive study sessions focused on upping SAT scores, working on college applications and essays, getting help navigating the admissions process and, in some cases, experiencing a taste of college life. “Our goal is to give them tools for success, and access to high-level instruction and materials that they may not otherwise have access to,‘’ says Nermin Fraser, director of admissions at the Berkeley, Californiabased Education Unlimited.
The organization runs college admission prep camps on the campuses of the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, Yale and Georgetown. Kids stay in dorms and eat in the campus cafeteria. The camps are a lot of work (sometimes accompanied by a little play), and aren’t for everyone, administrators say. Kids who are struggling academically might not be a good fit. “Kids should have an A or B average and be academically motivated. The nice thing about it is that there are no grades. Some kids seek out extra work. Other kids may not be there yet in terms of their mindset. They can benefit from the process in either case,‘’ says Fraser, a former high school principal. “Because we work in small groups with personalized attention, we are able to help kids make incremental growth from wherever they are starting,‘’ she says. Most students in the program are rising juniors, getting ready to take SAT and ACT exams. Rising seniors tend to focus on college applications
and essays. Fraser says campers also go on field trips and tours of local colleges.
Working on Essays Command Education runs college-prep summer programs in New York and Los Angeles. They cater mainly to kids entering senior year. “A lot of students tend to procrastinate during the school year, when there isn’t a lot of time to focus on college essays and applications anyway,‘’ says Christopher Rim, who runs the program. “We structure the camp so that they’re working independently. But it’s easier to focus on working on the essay because they are surrounded by other kids who are working, too .... They submit their essay before they go to sleep. It’s looked at at night, and in the morning they get it back and start on it again,‘’ Rim says. If that sounds like a grueling way to spend part of the summer, Rim says the camps sell out quickly. The hard work put in during the summer makes the college application process less stressful in the long
Summer class at Education Unlimited. Photo: Education Unlimited
run, he says, since students can enter senior year with application and essay completed.
High Costs and Discounts The camps tend to have hefty price tags, though. Education Unlimited’s summer camps range from around $3,000 for a 7-day college admissions camp to $8,000 for a 21-day version. Command Education’s offerings cost an eye-popping $20,000 for a weeklong camp, including counseling before and after camp to help navigate the college admissions process. Many camps offer discounts or, in
some cases, full scholarships for qualified students in need. Nevertheless, for-profit collegeprep camps give wealthier kids a leg up, says Rick Mayfield, director of learning and achievement at the San Luis Coastal Unified School District in San Luis Obispo, California. “What we have tried to create in schools are resources that kids and families can tap into to help them with the process that do not cost money,‘’ he says. “There are adults that can show how to go about the application process, help with letter writing, and applying for scholarship funding.’’
FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
SECOND TIME CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Medicare for All and getting money out of politics), Patel is gearing up again – this time in a race with additional hurdles. For one, Maloney, a favorite of the Democratic establishment, recently became the first female chair of the House Oversight Committee. But Patel isn’t worried. “We now have an oversight chair who rakes in more corporate PAC money than Mitt Romney,” he says. But this won’t be a straight Patel-Maloney rematch: New York’s June primary ballot will also include three other challengers. And, as NYC tabloid readers may recall, Patel has some leftover stigma from a 2018 campaign faux pas to overcome. The candidate says he’s not too worried about the memory of his “Tinderbanking” deception, where campaign staffers created fake accounts on various dating apps and tried to “catfish” constituents into voting for him. Patel claims his team tried this tactic one time for two hours, “the tabloid coverage was out of proportion” and says it hasn’t dissuaded him from trying more unconventional strategies this year. In 2018 those efforts included spinning alongside constituents at FlyWheel classes to talk policy. Maloney’s district may not be easy to snatch from her, but Patel hopes his multifaceted identity will help him align with voters across the spectrum. New York’s 12th is one of the wealthiest congressional districts in the country, but also one of the most economically disparate – home to both Trump Tower and the Queensbridge Houses.
“New York Story” The son of immigrants from India, Patel grew up helping out his family’s businesses, a motel in Indiana and a bodega in Bloomfield, New Jersey. He moved to Indiana from New Jersey at the age of five, but visited Bloomfield “all the time,” and remembers his father working as an MTA engineer before the move. Patel believes his is the “New York story,” even if he didn’t move back to the city until 2006 to attend NYU Law, the last in a series of prestigious degrees that he holds from Stanford, Cambridge and New York University, where he is now an adjunct professor of business ethics. As a trained attorney, Patel is “used to working 14 hour days,” and his energy knows nearly no bounds – he says he can be “hyper even.” It makes sense, then, that he describes campaigning – a truly extroverted pursuit – as “one of the most fun experiences of your life.” A not so fun experience for Patel? Introspection. “Down time makes me a lit-
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com tle sad,” he says. “Alone time makes me a little sad.” In 2018 Patel garnered just over 40% of the vote against Maloney, who has served in Congress since 1993. That was the year of insurgency from the left; the year fledgling grassroots electoral groups staged their first test run for a progressive power grab after Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential upset; the year of the “Blue Wave.” But it wasn’t quite the year for Patel, who couldn’t ride the wave far enough. And so he’s at it again in 2020. For her part, the incumbent recently launched her own reelection bid, but hasn’t commented on Patel’s candidacy. The campaign declined an interview on the record, but prepared a statement from Rep. Maloney: “Debate and discussion are vital to the democratic process, and the energy they generate will help our party hold the House, take back the Senate and win the Presidency in 2020.”
BLOOMBERG METHOD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
“Fun Part” of the Campaign But what will Patel do differently this time around – besides nixing the catfishing? Well, hit the pavement a lot harder above 59th Street, for one thing – and explain to wealthy Upper East Siders who may have more to lose by changing the system that, “change is coming to America,” and they might as well get on the train before it pulls out of the Q-train station without them. Two years ago Patel told BuzzFeed News that he “dropped the ball” with older voters. Now he admits he not so much dropped the ball as didn’t play ball up there at all – focusing too much on younger, newer voters and not spending enough time convincing Maloney’s loyal base to cast their ballots instead for the 36-year-old. His number one policy issue this year is climate change, a force which he believes affects us all. Patel says the earth’s changing temperature is not just “some sort of global phenomenon” but a local concern, citing problems like subway tunnels that remain unfixed six years after Hurricane Sandy, and making promises like a sustainable renovation of NYCHA, New York’s infamously underfunded public housing authority. For now, though, Patel is gearing up for what he describes as the “fun part” of the campaign – the on-the-ground part where he’ll zip from Saturday farmers markets to coffee shops and even chat up voters while running the Brooklyn Half Marathon in May. He’s “building the apparatus” again with many repeat staffers from 2018 like Yadav, who hopes that the name recognition they built up two years ago will serve his “youngest-feeling, energetic friend,” better this time around, in this muchmore-crowded, presidential-electionyear bid to take all that energy to Washington.
In November, Bloomberg filed for the Arizona Democratic presidential primary. Photo: Courtesy Mike Bloomberg 2020 via Twitter
become a billionaire media entrepreneur are the ones he is using again, now, in national politics. Forgive my arrogance but most of the so-called experts have not got a clue. Why? Because they see Bloomberg as outsiders.
Mike the Boss But I am different. I worked for Mike Bloomberg’s nascent media company in its early days, from 1993 to 1999. Back then, Mike enjoyed kibitzing with his employees, both in the office, then located at 499 Park Avenue, and at the annual picnic that he threw for the staff and families every summer at his sprawling home in nearby suburban Armonk, N.Y. (The petting zoo was a favorite destination). We pulled together at the holiday party at the Big Apple Circus, too. I got a pretty good glimpse into his thinking. I had a ringside seat. You see, for a while, my desk was only a few yards from his – heck, if my memory serves me well, the entire company was housed on the same floor when I joined up, in 1993. We were all in it together – topping our thenrival Reuters, then taking down the heavyweights, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Once Again, a Daring Strategy Once again, my old boss has
come up with a daring strategy to push himself into the fray. In the 20th century, it was called the Bloomberg Terminal. It published data better and faster than anyone else on the Wall Street scene. Why did Bloomberg focus on Wall Street? Because that’s where the big money was. Let the mutual fund companies battle for the small-ticket investors. Now, he is bypassing the traditional Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada smackdowns to focus on Super Tuesday. Why? That’s where the big votes are. Let the other candidates scrap for scraps in small states.
Innovator Bloomberg understood how to get the most out of a small, ferociously hard working staff. He was a visionary and an innovator. To supply content on the Bloomberg Terminal, he decreed that we lifelong “print” reporters would now tape and film interviews in the field to accompany our stories. This may have been the first time that a news organization did this – years before the rest of the media joined in. My most profound memory of Bloomberg was as an innovator who got things done. Period. That’s how he conquered the business world. That’s how he intends to become our next president. Mike never worried about of-
fending people with his brashness. I’ve never met a smarter or more self-confident person. He is the epitome of a leader. He communicates his vision well, and people who believe in it follow him avidly. He commands loyalty. In the old days, we Bloomberg employees joked about “drinking the Kool-Aid.” But we did, anyway.
Bumps in the Road Bloomberg is hardly perfect, of course. If he has fiascoes on the campaign trail, the point of his campaign might be moot. On Feb. 6, the Intercept reported that sizable chunks of Bloomberg’s policy positions had been taken from a plethora of news organizations. Being accused of rampant plagiarism isn’t in the playbook of winning friends and influencing people. He is still trying to explain his support for the controversial stop-and-frisk policy of his NYPD. And there’s the matter of some reckless comments he made way back when, which look especially damaging in the #metoo era. The media like to discover a New Thing and proceed to build it up until there is nowhere to go but down. That will happen to Bloomberg, too. Just watch. Still, bet against him at your peril. The guy is a winner.
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
YOUR 15 MINUTES
RESILIENCE AND HOPE BOOKS
Author Erin Khar talks about her battle with heroin and opioid addiction, and why she wrote a memoir
Part of what compelled me to write this memoir is that it is the book I needed when I was younger.
BY ASHLEY AROCHO
Erin Khar is known for writing on addiction, recovery, mental health, relationships, parenting, infertility and self-care. Her first book, “Strung Out,“ reveals the struggles she faced with addiction at age thirteen in Los Angeles and how having her first child helped her get sober. As she began the process of finding an agent, selling, writing and editing her book, her Lower East Side apartment suffered major water and roof damage during a fire. Through it all, Khar managed to write an open and honest story of her fifteen-year battle with addiction. “Strung Out,” from HarperCollins/Park Row Books, comes out on February 25.
You talk a lot in the book about your opioid addiction, and I wondered what got you to a place where you felt like you could write a memoir about your experience? When I was actually at the New School, I had a professor there say to me that she thought I had a memoir in me.
Khar struggled with addiction for 15 years. Photo: Sylvie Rosokoff
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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
As I started writing more and more about my addiction and recovery, the response from people was so overwhelming that I realized I had an opportunity to use my story to create this narrative that might actually help people. Not just help people struggling with addiction, but also help people understand addiction who may have preconceived ideas about what addition is and what addiction looks like. Doing that it helps lessen the stigma and shame around addiction. That was the driving force for me.
What made you decide to seek help and get clean? When I found out that I was pregnant I was still using drugs, and I didn’t stop using immediately. I stopped within less than two months. But I had to find a doctor who would detox me without using methadone. And I did. And I knew that I was committed to staying off of drugs for my pregnancy, but I didn’t have faith that I’d
To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to ourtownny.com/15 minutes
be able to do so once the baby was born because I had fifteen years of struggling. When I talk about this story to people, it always sounds a little bit trite. But when my son was born, I just looked at the baby, who I hadn’t really felt connected to while I was pregnant. But from the moment that I first held him, just looked at him and the love that I had was just so overwhelming that I had that thought pop up in my head — I love you more than I hate myself. That was sort of the impetus to start doing the work I needed to do so that I could stay off of drugs permanently ... I really did stop beating myself. I learned to like myself, learned to take care of myself, and learned to show myself love and compassion that I hadn’t been able to do before.
Photo Courtesy of Courte Harper HarperCollins/ Park Ro Row Books
After you gave birth, did you battle with postpartum depression? Was it a difficult time when you thought you might relapse? I was definitely concerned that I might have postpartum depression, because I had a history with depression and anxiety.But I did not, thankfully. It was really hard, but I think having him and feeling like I wanted to do this not just for me but for him, kind of pushed me to do the work. The other factor is that I had support from my family. You know, I had my parents who were supportive, that financially made it possible for me to get things like therapy. And also, they were supportive in terms of my emotional well-being at that time. You know a lot of people don’t have those things, and I always try to highlight that because, you know, I had a lot of privilege in terms of a community around me, in terms of financial privilege that I could afford to access mental health services. All of those factors. And it was still really hard for me. So, when people don’t have those support systems in place, it’s extremely difficult to maintain any long-term sobriety. And I mention this because one of the things that’s part of my platform is advocating for government funded treatments.
What do you recommend for people struggling with addiction who don’t have insurance or have insufficient insurance and can’t pay out of pocket for treatments or programs that can help them? There are options, but it’s not easy to get subsi-
dized services. There are services through harm-reduction organizations where they can help people with medically-assisted treatment. I’m talking about for people struggling with opioid addiction. So instead of going on something like methadone, which has a whole other set of problems, they’ve been really successful helping people with Suboxone, which is an antagonist. So that’s one thing…looking for subsidized programs that may offer medicated assisted treatment. There are 12-step recovery programs that are free. And I think, you know, one of the things, in terms of spreading the word about this, is it’s not just for people that are struggling, but for the people who know people who are struggling. It’s really important that we as a community, number one, meet people where they’re at. And number two, are there [for them]. I understand that it can be frustrating when we’ve seen somebody relapse repeatedly. But helping them doesn’t mean that you have to go and enable them. But helping them means showing up to have a meal with them, picking up the phone when we need somebody to talk to. When somebody reaches out for help, I think that we were taught for a long period of time to have this tough love approach, and that doesn’t really work. You know, community is probably the number one thing that is free that we can do to support people who are in recovery.
You’ve said that communities of privilege and their addiction stories are being told, but the same is not necessarily true for people of color. Can you share how those stories could be told, or how you’re helping to change the conversation so those stories can get out? I think that the variety of addiction stories being shared is expanding, and that’s important because it will pave the way for others to do the same. Part of what compelled me to write this memoir is that it is the book I needed when I was younger. I didn’t have a frame of reference for young, female heroin addicts who had shared their stories. Historically, across all book genres, there has been a lack of diversity. That is changing, which is great, but we still have a long way to go. As a writer with the opportunity to share my story with a wide audience, one of my goals is to help destigmatize the topic of drug addiction. And further, I feel a responsibility to support and uplift the stories of people who face barriers that I did not — racial, financial, social, cultural. These are barriers that people struggling with addiction face, and barriers that people of color have faced in the publishing industry.
Know somebody who deserves their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to ourtownny.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.
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The puzzle contains the following words. They may be diagonal, across, or up and down in the grid in any direction.
N F A N E W O O D F L O O R S
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S G K G U E Y U F E G V Y C L
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WORD SEARCH by Myles Mellor
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N F A N E W O O D F L O O R S
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T C H O T C H K E L C O F H M
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L L R G Z U U Z I T O D S P V
56
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V I X A Q J W S A N J L R G E
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Q A D E C O R A T E K O W G G
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Z L M J M O L D I N G G A N N
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SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan
by Myles Mellor
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CROSSWORD
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FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com
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FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
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Backed by American Standard’s 140 years of experience $ 2 Ultra low entry for easy entering and exiting 3 Patented Quick Drain® fast water removal system 4 Lifetime Warranty on the bath AND installation, INCLUDING labor backed by American Standard 5 44 Hydrotherapy jets for an invigorating massage 1
1-855-225-1434 Visit us online at
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Meet & talk with volunteer directors from non-profit agencies about summer and school year opportunities When: Time Where:
Thursday February 27, 2020 5:00 – 6:30 PM The Nightingale-Bamford School 20 East 92nd Street
www.dental50plus.com/nypress MB17-NM003Ec
FREE TO ATTEND
D O N AT E YO U R C A R Wheels For Wishes benefiting
Make-A-Wish ® Metro New York * 100% Tax Deductible * Free Vehicle Pickup ANYWHERE * We Accept Most Vehicles Running or Not * We Also Accept Boats, Motorcycles & RVs
WheelsForWishes.org Call:(917)336-1254 * Car Donation Foundation d/b/a Wheels For Wishes. To learn more about our programs or financial information, call (213) 948-2000 or visit www.wheelsforwishes.org.
Receive a free American Standard Cadet toilet with full installation of a Liberation Walk-In Bath, Liberation Shower, or Deluxe Shower. Offer valid only while supplies last. Limit one per household. Must be first time purchaser. See www.walkintubs.americanstandard-us.com for other restrictions and for licensing, warranty, and company information. CSLB B982796; Suffolk NY:55431H; NYC:HIC#2022748-DCA. Safety Tubs Co. LLC does not sell in Nassau NY, Westchester NY, Putnam NY, Rockland NY.
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1-800-404-9776
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FEBRUARY 13-19, 2020
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