Our Town Downtown - October 5, 2017

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The local paper for Downtown wn MORE THAN MERELY SURREAL <P.12

WEEK OF OCTOBER

5-11 2017

Since 2014, the city has financed over 77,000 units of affordable housing through the mayor’s Housing New York initiative. Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photo Office

AFFORDABLE HOUSING PLAN’S IMPACT ON DOWNTOWN Youth and supporters from the Ali Forney Center gather on the steps of City Hall Sept. 28 to advocate for the new legislation. Photo: Liz Hardaway

HELPING HOMELESS YOUTH SHELTERS New legislation would raise the age for raise the age for runaway young people, streamline intake procedures and extend shelter stays BY LIZ HARDAWAY

City Council members presented four pieces of legislation last Thursday that would help the city’s efforts with combating youth homelessness.

The legislation included raising the age for runaway homeless youth from 21 to 24; streamlining youth intake at the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) from the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD); extending how long youth can stay in a shelter from 30 to 60 days, and 120 days with guardian permission; and requiring DYCD to never turn away a homeless youth. “While we support the intent of the following bills,” said Commissioner Bill Chong of DYCD, “it would be ex-

tremely challenging for the Administration to implement these measures without adequate funding.” “Young people who face the cold hard truth of aging out,” Alexander Perez, 24, who testified at the city council hearing for the Committee on Youth Services on Thursday, “now [have] to understand why things like funding come in between the city’s youth having a semblance of what home is.”

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COMMUNITY Mapping a mayoral initiative BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

Housing New York, an ambitious 10-year plan to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing across the city, has been a centerpiece of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s policy agenda during his first term. Since de Blasio took office in January 2014, the city has financed over 77,000 units under the plan, which will cost a projected $41.4 billion. Nearly 24,000 of those units are in Manhattan, 4,935 of which are new construction and 18,927 are preserved units. According to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, hous-

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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 view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally 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 indiMan, Arbitration 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 owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a 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 who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one 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 signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” can’t come p.m. and 7 a.m., of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. 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

n OurTownDowntow

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Newscheck Crime Watch Voices

for dollars in fees ated millions of and left some resithe city agency, that the application dents convinced

2 City Arts 3 Top 5 8 Real Estate 10 15 Minutes

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ing is considered affordable when a household spends no more than 30 percent of its income on rent. Housing New York aims to preserve or create affordable housing for households falling into various qualifying income categories. The income categories, which range from “extremely low income” to “middle income,” are based on household income as a percentage of the region’s Area Median Income (AMI), as defined annually U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Households classified as “low income” (those earning 50 to 80 percent of AMI; or between $47,701 and $76,320 for a four-person family in 2017) are the most heavily targeted of the income bands, ac-

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DOCUMENTARY-RICH NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL MOVIES Forget red carpets — what matters at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual uptown event are the works themselves BY JAKE COYLE

Ninety-nine feature films will dot the sparkling lineup at the 55th New York Film Festival, which kicked off last Thursday night with Richard Linklater’s “Last Flag Flying.” There is no way, really, to take as a whole an 18-day festival that will include new films from Todd Haynes, Woody Allen, Agnes Varda, Claire Denis, Greta Gerwig and Hong Sangsoo. But the common denominator at the sober-eyed New York festival has always been quality, as discerned through an especially global outlook. The only currency that matters at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual uptown event is the movies, themselves — not red carpets (they’re typically short and perfunctory), not prizes (there aren’t any) or even Oscar buzz. The New York Film Festival generates a lot of conversation by keeping the noise at bay. “I see a lot of things shifting in the film festival world, and they’re shifting for reasons that have to do with

things other than the art of cinema,” says Kent Jones, the festival’s director. “We’re 55 years old now and we’ve always stuck to our mission. And I think that means a lot to the audiences and the filmmakers.” The festival’s main slate, its most curated selections, numbers 25 films this year. Most of them (“Lady Bird,” “Call Me By Your Name,” “Mudbound,” “The Square”) have been plucked from the standouts of Sundance, Cannes, Telluride and other festivals. But this year’s festival is also intent to play by a different set of rules than other major international film festivals. The main slate is light on world premieres, a much-sought designation for prominent entries elsewhere. Others will play in a different format: Arnaud Desplechin’s “Ismael’s Ghosts” will screen in a director’s cut that differs from the version that opened the Cannes Film Festival in May. There will still be several muchwatched premieres. Allen’s “Wonder Wheel,” the 81-year-old filmmaker’s second film for Amazon Studios, is the closing night film. A “return to form” is often said of Allen’s later works but the gala slot is a clear sign of belief in Allen’s latest. Set in 1950s Coney Island, it stars Kate Winslet, who will also sit for a staged conversation at the festival. Opening the festival was “Last Flag Flying,” a road trip reunion of three for-

mer Navy men (Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne) who are something like older, grown-up versions of the main characters in Hal Ashby’s “The Last Detail” (1973). In Linklater’s film, which Lionsgate and Amazon will release Nov. 3, the trio reunites to bring home the dead son of Carell’s character, a young soldier killed in Iraq. Chloe Zhao’s sensational sophomore feature, “The Rider,” goes further in blending fiction with nonfiction. A deeply heartfelt heartland elegy, it stars real Sioux cowboys in South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, following a rodeo star (Brady Jandreau) forced to contemplate quitting. Including Zhao, a third of the films in the main slate are directed by women — many of which rank among the class of the festival. Zhao is just starting out but Agnes Varda, the 89-year-old French filmmaking legend, has been at it for decades. Her “Faces/Places,” which she co-directed with the much younger photographer JR, chronicles the unlikely duo traveling the French countryside, looking — and finding — chance encounters that they then memorialize with massive photographs JR pastes across buildings, barns and other structures. The festival’s documentaries as a whole are a vibrant, varied bunch, teaming with big personalities like Joan Didion, Steven Spielberg and Jane Goodall.

Author Joan Didion at home in Hollywood. From “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” at the New York Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Julian Wasser “Odds are, if you just walked into something at the multiplex, it might

OCTOBER 5-11,2017 not be that good,” said Jones. “The average documentary is good. The films that we’re showing, as far as I’m concerned, are well above average. I think it’s possible to be so much faster and more fluid with documentary filmmaking than it was in the pre-digital age. There’s a richer sense of character in a lot of documentaries that I see than in the average fiction movie.” One case in point in Rebecca Miller’s tender and intimate character study of her father, the playwright Arthur Miller. Just as personal is Travis Wilkerson’s “Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?” wherein Wilkerson investigates a tragedy in his family’s past. His great-grandfather killed a black man in 1946 Alabama in a crime that went unpunished. Alex Gibney’s inquiry into the past in “No Stone Unturned” is more journalistic. He calls it “a hardcore criminal investigation.” The documentary peers into the 1994 Loughinisland murders in Northern Island, where six men were gunned down in a pub. The tale is just one of the thousands of unsolved murders from the Troubles, the 30-year conflict that ended in 1998. But for Gibney, the story of Loughinisland is a microcosm of how injustice gets buried after times of great violence. “We’re hoping that the police will finally bring a case. I just can’t believe that they haven’t already,” said Gibney. “There has to be some justice.”

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CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG BAD GUY FOILS GOOD DEED A Good Samaritan was rewarded with an injury. At 1:45 a.m. on Friday, September 22, a 25-year-old man saw a 33-year-old man taking a wallet from a 22-year-old woman who was sleeping on a northbound 1 train, police said. The 25-year-old then approached the pickpocket and a struggle ensued.

The pickpocket grabbed a metal bike chain and lock from the younger man’s bike and hit him in the head, cutting him. The man then ed in an unknown direction at the Chambers Street station with $60 cash he had taken from the woman, plus the bike chain he had snatched from the younger man. Police searched for the assailant but could not locate him.

Photo by Tony Webster, via Flickr

APOLOGY DECLINED — FORCIBLY

STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 1st precinct for

Bad blood between two co-workers led to spilled blood. At 8:45 a.m. on Friday, September 22, a 47-year-old man assaulted a 45-year-old man on a construction site at 2 Park Place, stabbing the victim with a knife, cutting the man’s left shoulder. The victim later told police that the previous day the two men had had a verbal dispute, and the day after, when he approached the older man to apologize the latter said, “I don’t want your f*cking hand� before stabbing him. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital and the weapon was recovered. Eon Leitch was arrested September 22 and charged with assault.

Week to Date

Year to Date

2017 2016

% Change

2017

2016

% Change

Murder

0

0

n/a

1

0

n/a

Rape

1

0

n/a

13

8

62.5

Robbery

2

0

n/a

54

45

20.0

Felony Assault

4

2

100.0

63

64

-1.6

Burglary

2

2

0.0

47

96

-51.0

Grand Larceny

15

21

-28.6

742

780 -4.9

Grand Larceny Auto

0

1

-100.0

11

42

-73.8

POLICE NAB SLASHER

JACKAL AND HIDES

SHOWER SHOCK

There was yet a third slashing incident on that Friday. At 8:05 p.m., a 28-yearold woman was standing outside 195 Broadway on her way home from work when she was approached from behind by a 43-year-old man who said, “Don’t turn around.� The woman did turn to face the man, who slashed her right shoulder with an unknown object, police said. The woman was able to identify her attacker to arriving officers, who arrested Mark Hunter on assault charges.

A burglar made off with some highend designer leather jackets. At 3:47 a.m. on Wednesday, September 20, police responding to a radio call found that the front door of the Jeffrey Rudes store on Greene Street had been forced open. A review of store security footage showed that a man had entered the store and took six leather jackets totaling $21,600 from a clothing rack.

At 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 17, a 40-year-old woman placed her watch on a ledge inside the Equinox Tribeca at 54 Murray St. before entering the locker room shower. When she got out of the shower she discovered that her $5,0000 silver Cartier Ballon Bleu was missing. A search of the premises turned up nothing.

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Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 7th Precinct

19 ½ Pitt St.

212-477-7311

NYPD 6th Precinct

233 W. 10th St.

212-741-4811

NYPD 10th Precinct

230 W. 20th St.

212-741-8211

NYPD 13th Precinct

230 E. 21st St.

NYPD 1st Precinct

16 Ericsson Place

212-477-7411 212-334-0611

FIRE FDNY Engine 15

25 Pitt St.

311

FDNY Engine 24/Ladder 5

227 6th Ave.

311

FDNY Engine 28 Ladder 11

222 E. 2nd St.

311

FDNY Engine 4/Ladder 15

42 South St.

311

ELECTED OFFICIALS Councilmember Margaret Chin

165 Park Row #11

Councilmember Rosie Mendez

237 1st Ave. #504

212-587-3159 212-677-1077

Councilmember Corey Johnson

224 W. 30th St.

212-564-7757

State Senator Daniel Squadron

250 Broadway #2011

212-298-5565

Community Board 1

1 Centre St., Room 2202

212-669-7970

Community Board 2

3 Washington Square Village

212-979-2272

Community Board 3

59 E. 4th St.

212-533-5300

Community Board 4

330 W. 42nd St.

212-736-4536

Hudson Park

66 Leroy St.

212-243-6876

Ottendorfer

135 2nd Ave.

212-674-0947

Elmer Holmes Bobst

70 Washington Square

212-998-2500

COMMUNITY BOARDS

LIBRARIES

HOSPITALS New York-Presbyterian

170 William St.

Mount Sinai-Beth Israel

10 Union Square East

212-844-8400

212-312-5110

CON EDISON

4 Irving Place

212-460-4600

TIME WARNER

46 East 23rd

813-964-3839

US Post Office

201 Varick St.

212-645-0327

US Post Office

128 East Broadway

212-267-1543

US Post Office

93 4th Ave.

212-254-1390

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HOMELESS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 DHS currently has three shelters that solely house homeless youth with a capacity of 167 beds, according to Council Member Steve Levin. “Clearly there are not enough beds for this population,� Levin said. Chong said that 525 beds were available through the DYCD Runaway Homeless Youth (RHY) drop-in centers and crisis shelters, and 128 are in-progress to being implemented. DYCD also plans on increasing the price per bed to $47,000, allowing greater funding for services per youth. “Runaway homeless youth are commonly referred to as

one of the most vulnerable populations in New York,� Councilman Corey Johnson said Thursday at the hearing. “It doesn’t fully describe the gruesome reality of physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse and exploitation that young people endure when they are forced to live on the street.� Typically, DYCD claims to serve an average of 474 youth each night, with 50 beds available, according to Susan Haskell, the deputy commissioner of youth services. “We can find a bed for any young person,� Haskell said. “The number of truly unsheltered youth has been very small for the past couple of years, around 44 unsheltered age 21 or under ... many more

are unstably housed.� However, there appears to be some discrepancies between the numbers obtained by DYCD and other sources. In July 2017, there was a reported total of 60,856 homeless people sleeping in the New York City municipal shelter system, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. At one downtown drop-in center, The Door, which primarily provides services for youth development, 45 percent of young people can’t get shelter when they request it, according to Sarah Meckler, the center’s assistant director of special populations. “We’re hearing two things that don’t jive,� Levin said. “Honestly it’s up to [DYCD] and the providers to explain ... why you’re not on the same page.�

During the hearing, Levin received information that on the previous night, the Ali Forney Center on West 35th Street reported that they had 12 youths in their drop-in center overnight because of a lack of crisis beds to send them to. The Ali Forney Center is a 24hour drop-in center that has become the “largest agency dedicated to LGBTQ homeless youths in the country,� according to their website. The center serves nearly 1,400 youth annually and provides over 70,000 meals annually. Senior director Randolf Scott of DYCD gave out his number during the hearing, 1-646-457-2705, to ensure that no youth goes without a bed. The local laws are planned to take effect on Jan. 1, 2018.

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NEW HOME FOR THE LIGHTHOUSE COMMUNITY Celebrating a move on the Upper West Side for the nonprofit dedicated to helping people with vision impairment BY SOPHIE HERBUT

The Lighthouse Guild has relocated on the Upper West Side to 64th Street and West End Avenue. At their ribboncutting ceremony, they had speakers associated with the Guild, as well as City Council Member Helen Rosenthal, speak about the work the Lighthouse Guild does and their partnerships. “People who are blind are at the core of who New York City is,� Rosenthal said as she welcomed the Lighthouse Guild to the “coolest area of the Upper West Side.� (The previous location was at 15 West 65th Street.) The Guild also featured testimonies from Adrienne Norbeck and Yvette Ramos-Stuckey, two people who re-

ceived help from the organization. Both described the Guild as their “home.â€? “The Lighthouse to me is home because it makes me feel normal and like everyone else,â€? said Ramos-Stuckey. She was joined by her husband, who she said goes everywhere with her. Ramos-Stuckey choked back tears while she was making her speech. She was born with a vein in her eye that wasn’t fully developed. She said doctors predicted she would lose her vision in her teenage years, but she retained her sight until she was in her ďŹ fties. The loss still affected her deeply. She said she didn’t think she could even peel a potato. But teachers encouraged her and gave her the conďŹ dence to live her life. “The best part is helping the 25,000 people we help — that’s what it’s all about,â€? said Alan Morse, president and CEO of the Guild. Morse said his passion right now is with vision studies and health care. He is active in the role of making sure people prevent vision loss and get the

James Dubin, Chairman of the Board of the Lighthouse Guild, cuts the ribbon at the Guild’s new location on the Upper West Side, with Council Member Helen Rosenthal and Manhattan Borough President Gayle Brewer (to right of Dubin). Photo: Ben Asen resources and technology they need to live normally with it. “We’ve been remiss,â€? Morse said. “We’re not doing enough to prevent vision loss.â€? Adrienne Norbeck looked like Alice in Wonderland with her light blue dress and her cropped, blonde hair as she told her story to the audience. She spoke with a soft voice about the trials she’s had to overcome and how the Lighthouse Guild helped her take the ďŹ rst steps to being independent. “I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when I was two,â€? Norbeck said. “And as a teenager, I didn’t take very good care of myself.â€? Norbeck lost her vision completely when she was 28 because of her diabetes. She said she spent a lot of time alone while her husband had to work

and she was afraid of everything. She fell into a deep depression before she sought help at the Guild. “I learned how to read Braille first because I loved to read,� she said. “Now, I want to get a degree in nutrition so I can help people and prevent what happened to me.� In her time, she’s seen many improvements for the blind throughout the city. Norbeck said she loves the “little bumps� that let her know that a sidewalk ends. She also appreciates the voice that indicates when it’s safe for her to cross the street. The Lighthouse Guild has been officially around since 2013, when the Jewish Guild Healthcare and Lighthouse International merged, but their history can be traced back to helping people who are visually impaired

since 1905. Each oor of the new building is designed for the needs of its occupants. A patient can visit two or three doctors without having to travel through different oors. A student can take a technology class and a cooking class conveniently on another oor as well. The Guild purchased and gutted the seven-story building to accommodate the specific needs of their patients and students. The music school, for example, worked with architects to sound-proof their rooms to create an ideal acoustical environment. The entire construction took about a year and a half to complete. But now that it’s done, it’s the new home for people like Norbeck and RamosStuckley.

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Voices

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CASHING IN EAST SIDE OBSERVER BY ARLENE KAYATT

Checking on out — Decorum is dead in social discourse. I’d have to ditto that in other parts of civic life as well. And let’s not forget the commercial sector. A check-cashing store on the northwest corner of First Ave and 90th has been there for years. The shop fronts First and has a window on 90th St. On the avenue side there’s a ginormous “STORE FOR RENT” sign that covers the entire window. There’s also a jewelry counter within the store — added several years ago — which you could usually see from the win-

dow. Not any more, though. The “for rent” sign is plastered across the entire window, making it appear that the check-cashing store and jeweler are out of business. They’re not. Inquiring of the employees at the location, I learned that the owner of the building (across the street from the East Side’s ‘billionaire’s’ high rise on 89th Street) wants to sell the building and wants the store empty. So why a “for rent” sign? The employees who shared the info didn’t know the details — whether the store has a long-term lease and the landlord doesn’t want to buy out, or some other sad and sordid tale of why businesses aren’t making it in Manhattan. What bothered the locals was that it looked like the store had already closed and gone out of business because of the landlord’s misleading sign peddling his property. Hmm, if the landlord’s trying

to sell the building, why a “for rent” sign? Another story for another day. Politics is not for the feint of heart — If “It’s not over till it’s over,” then when it’s over, it’s over, right? Not if you listen to Marti Speranza, one of the candidates who lost the race in the Fourth District’s City Council race to Keith Powers. Her home club, Gramercy Stuyvesant Independent Democrats, held a post-primary club roundtable meeting last week — which she chaired — to discuss why her race was lost before voters showed up at the polls. Sounded like sour grapes to me. Speranza had a plethora of endorsements. And she sought endorsements from the same candidates who ultimately endorsed Powers. Now she’s griping and accusing them of not being progressive and in league against her. IMHO, Democrats and local political clubs should be banding together

to get like-minded candidates elected and not fighting lost elections and going after those who didn’t endorse her. Speranza may want to take note of club member Michelle Winfield’s advice that, when campaigning and otherwise, candidates should let the voters know who they are, what they will and will not do, and not waste their time beating up and denigrating their opponents. Sounds sound. Judgment day — Primary season’s over for this year. Onto the November elections. The judges selected at the Manhattan Democratic Party’s Judicial Convention last week are assured of winning in the November election — they don’t have opponents. To the victors — Judges Lori Sattler, Nancy Bannon, Anthony Cannataro, Verna Saunders, Franc Perry, Adam Silvera — go the role of Justice of the Supreme Court, New York County. Hard fought — espe-

cially for Sattler — who recently was elected to a second term on the Civil Court as an acting Supreme Court justice. Congratulations to all — and a shout out to East Siders Lori Sattler (UES), Nancy Bannon (Midtown East), Adam Silvera (LES). Onto next year’s selections. Praying pop up — One of the highlights of the recent Jewish holiday week, ending with the blowing of the shofar on Yom Kippur, was passing the storefront at 1231 Third Ave (formerly home to Grace’s Marketplace, which is now located on Second Ave in the 60’s) as the end of Yom Kippur approached, and seeing, through lacey-ish curtains, yarmulkas as men and women and children were attending service and praying in the last hours of the holiest day in the Jewish year. A kosher pop up. Why not?

‘I BELIEVE IN YESTERDAY’ BY JON FRIEDMAN

I miss the good old days of popular culture, the Swinging Sixties and the Me-Decade Seventies. Self-pitying? Check. Pathetic? You bet. There is so much great stuff going on right now in any of the five boroughs of New York City. Ask anyone under thirty years of age. But for the rest of us, well, it’s a sad situation. So much of what we enjoyed about New York City is gone. Yes, that’s our problem. But it is still true. I’m going to sound like One of Those People who stays trapped in the good old days, which may or may not have actually been so great. Remember that for every “Revolver” or “Blood on the Tracks” or Who concert at the Garden or Godfather classic, we also had “Sugar Sugar.” It’s pathetic because I know better. I am a card-carrying member of the club which lives by Bob Dylan’s brilliant takedown of people who remain trapped in yesteryear. In 1992, when Dylan was going through hard times, he told Robert Hilburn, then the sharp music writer for The Los Angeles

Times: “Nostalgia is death.” My gloomy-Gus ‘tude stems from thoughts of how much my culture scene has changed, for the worse. So many of the music landmarks of my misspent youth are as relevant and, oh yes, pathetic as a baseball old-timer lamenting the loss of the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field (not to mention Shea Stadium and the original Yankee Stadium(s). (Cue up The Pretenders doing “My City Was Gone”). If only I was cool enough to walk tall throughout Bushwick and discover new painters, bands and sculptors — my own little version of Martin Scorsese’s terrific, quintessential “After Hours.” Forget it. Next life. When I moved into my first apartment in Manhattan, the West Village was Bushwick. There were endless places to hang out. Hey, media types, do you remember how great it was to drink beers and gawk at the industry celebs at the Lion’s Head? What makes me uber-pathetic is that I still live for the nostalgia. I like it. I was returning to Manhattan on New Jersey Transit on the early evening of Sept. 15. I had a sudden impression that I was the only person on the

Jon Friedman with Elvis Costello at SummerStage, June 15, 2017. Photo: Emily Tan for SummerStage train who was not going to see Paul McCartney play that night at Madison Square Garden. I have seen Paul perform on five other occasions and had steadfastly refused to fork over the exorbitant amount of money for a ticket — roughly the GNP of a small nation. I still felt jealous. I wanted to see Paul, too. Fast-forward to the following Tuesday night when I attended his first concert that week at the Barclay’s Center. Paul was magnificent. We all grinned at the nostalgia (sorry) till our faces hurt and marveled at McCartney’s musical brilliance, at 75 years of age. Paul played 40 (forty!) songs. Rough-

ly 90 percent of them were recognizable Beatles or Wings or Macca solo gems. Yes, it’s true that his singing voice sounds strained, almost ragged by now (remember, the man is 75!). But as a tradeoff, McCartney is a vision on stage. The man never stops — singing, playing bass and lead guitar and piano (not to forget his terrific turn on the freakin’ ukulele during “Something,” his tribute to the late George Harrison). As much as I loved seeng McCartney in concert, I’d prefer to catch Elvis Costello on stage. It’s what rock and roll should always be: fun, rocking, memorable — and affordable.

Costello, perhaps to his chagrin, has never had the kind of following that requires me to spend time on StubHub scrounging for a seat. I’ve seen Costello on virtually every one of his tours since his debut in 1977 and he has never let me down. When I met him, before his CenterStage performance on June 15, 2017, I reminded him that the time he played in a deluge at Jones Beach in 1991 was the most memorable. He nodded, in recognition and shot back: “Until tonight.” Thank you, Elvis. Last summer, I took the students in my culture-reporting class to Greenwich Village for a field trip. It went something like this: Me: “The Bottom Line, where Bruce Springsteen got his big break, used to be here until it closed down ... Moving on, this is where Gerde’s Folk City used to be. Bob Dylan got his big break here, long before it closed down ... Here, on MacDougal Street, there used to be lots of nifty music and comedy clubs, where you could watch the up-andcomers ply their crafts. People like Woody Allen and Bill Cosby (gasps of horror) got their big breaks, long before those clubs closed down. “All right. Who wants to get ice cream at Cones?” Thank heavens that Cones is still in business.

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REGISTERED NURSES REHABILITATION THERAPISTS MEDICAL SOCIAL WORKERS CERTIFIED HOME HEALTH AIDES

Your wife needs help after her stroke and she can’t even ask for it. Among officials at the park renovations’ groundbreaking Tuesday were, fourth from left, state Senator Brad Hoylman, to his left Hudson River Park Trust President Madelyn Wils, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, in a white jacket, and to her left, state Assembly Member Dick Gottfried. Photo: Hudson River Park

WATERSIDE PLAY AREA TO GET MAKEOVER RECREATION Officials break ground for renovation, expansion

Elected officials broke symbolic ground Tuesday morning at Hudson River Park’s Chelsea Waterside Play Area ahead of a complete renovation and expansion of the Chelsea park. The park, off 11th Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets, was built in 2000, and its rubbery surface, safer than concrete, experienced much wear and tear in the intervening years.

Many of the playground’s climbing structures were cordoned off because they had become unsafe. But it’s the park’s popular water features that were perhaps the most missed the last few years, when the drainage system essentially stopped functioning because of either damaged or blockage. The Friends of Hudson River Park, a nonprofit, in partnership with Hudson River Park Trust and with the support of local elected officials, began a capital campaign two years ago to fund renovations and raised $3.4 million for a makeover designed by the firm Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates.

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Services are usually covered by Medicare, Medicaid and most insurers. VNSNY also offers private care. What the Hudson River Park’s Chelsea Waterside Play Area is projected to look like following its renovation. Rendering courtesy of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

© 2017 VNSNY


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MARBLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH Sunday Worship at 11:00am Sunday Worship, led by Dr. Michael Brown, is the heart of our community. It is where we gather to sing, pray, and be changed by an encounter with God. Marble is known throughout the world for the practical, powerful, lifechanging messages as well as world class music from choirs that make every heart sing.

Discover the world around the corner. Find community events, gallery openings, book launches and much more: Go to nycnow.com

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Thu 5

Busy? Live stream Sunday Worship with us at 11:00am at MarbleChurch.org

Upcoming Events Open House New York Marble Collegiate Church | Saturday, October 14 at 12:00pm Marble is excited to once again open our doors as a part of Open House New York. Our church is a prominent example of Romanesque Revival architecture with Gothic influences and preserves many original 1854 features. See our historic Sanctuary, featuring beautiful stained glass windows, two of which are Tiffany, our Labyrinth Room with an inlaid labyrinth and our lovely Chapel. From the spire to the fine details of the interior, Marble is a treasure worth exploring. Join us for guided or self-guided tours. No registration necessary. FREE ADMISSION.

Silent Movie Night: Halloween Edition The Phantom of the Opera Marble Collegiate Church Thursday, October 26 at 7:30pm World-renowned Peter Krasinski returns for our Halloween-themed silent movie The Phantom of the Opera! Come experience thrills and chills with a live, improvised organ score. Tickets are available at the door. Tickets: $20 general admission and $15 for students/seniors

Family Costume Party Marble Collegiate Church | Saturday, October 28 at 12:00pm Join us for another spooky day of fun, food, and prizes. Children and adults are encouraged to dress in costume. Prizes will be given for a variety of costume types! $10 per person; family discounts available.

Event listings brought to you by Marble Collegiate Church. 1 West 29th Street / New York, New York 10001 212 686 2770 / MarbleChurch.org Download the Marble Church App on iPhone or Android

LIVING IN A DYING WORLD: A 19TH CENTURY HOME IN MOURNING Merchant’s House Museum, 29 East Fourth St. Noon to 8 p.m. on Thursdays, and from noon to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays through Mondays, from Oct. 5-30. $15 212-777-1089. nycgovparks.org/events Modern mourning rituals — Facebook tributes, funeral selfies, impromptu Twitter wakes — might seem distinctively contemporary. Yet a compelling new exhibit at the Merchant’s House Museum offering a peek into mourning rituals of the past proves we pay our respects to the dead in surprisingly similar ways — well, in spirit, at least. At the “Truly We Live in a Dying World: A 19th-Century Home in Mourning” exhibition, step back in time to 1865, when family patriarch Seabury Tredwell died in his second-floor bedroom. Scenes of death and grief recreated in the house will explore mid-19th century mourning customs. Viewers can pay last respects at his deathbed upstairs, or join the mourning in the double parlor, hung with black crepe and set for a mid-19th century funeral. The exhibit even has its own hashtag (#mhmcoffin2017) if you’re so inclined to stage your own “postmortem” photograph in a 19th century coffin. Tredwell family photographs and mourning attire and accessories, including jewelry made of hair, a black net veil, and two 1870s mourning gowns will also be on display. Dubbed “Manhattan’s Most Haunted House,” the Merchant’s House is the only family home in New York City know to survive intact from the 1830s. It remains virtually unchanged from when it served as home to Tredwell, his wife Eliza, and their eight children (the youngest, Gertrude, is rumored to be the lingering spirit). Come and explore the life of the dead.

Thu 5 THE VIEW FROM THE TUNNEL ► TransitCenter, 1 Whitehall St., 17th Floor 6 p.m. Free, reservation requested Riders are paying a hefty price for crowds, delays and construction on New York City’s mass transit system. Fed up? Then come to this panel of former MTA insiders to examine the agency’s cultural and structural issues, and learn what it will take to fix the city’s transit. 646-395-9555. transitcenter.org/events

Fri 6 TAKE MY NOSE PLEASE Village East Cinema, 181-189 Second Ave. 10 a.m. $15 Admitting to tinkering with Mother Nature is taboo, unless

you’re a female comedian. This documentary offers a wickedly funny and subversive look at the role comedy has played in exposing the pressures on women to be attractive, and society's desire/shame relationship with plastic surgery. 212-529-6998. citycinemas. com/villageeast

Sat 7 BENEFIT FOR RHINOS AND ELEPHANTS ► The Bitter End, 147 Bleecker St. 5:00 p.m. Free Elephants and rhinos are poached at an alarming rate for


OCTOBER 5-11,2017

their tusks and horns. This live music concert is performed in connection with the day’s Global March for Elephants and Rhinos demonstrations worldwide. All funds go towards nonprofit organizations working on behalf of animal poaching. 212-673-7030. march4elephantsandrhinos.org

Sun 8 THE CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST ▲ Museum of Jewish Heritage, Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Pl. 1 p.m. Free with museum admission Susan Charney, a clinical social worker and a founding member of the National Association of Child Holocaust survivors, was born in Hungary a year before the outbreak of World War II. She will

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discuss her work, including with the late child psychiatrist Judith Kestenberg, 646-437-4202. mjhnyc.org/ events

Mon 9 UNSILENT FILM NIGHT: ‘CITY LIGHTS’ LIVE John L. Tishman Auditorium, University Center, 63 Fifth Ave. 7 p.m. Free Now here, this: Under the baton of music director Mark Gould, students from Mannes School of Music and The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music will perform Charlie Chaplin’s original score to his classic silent film “City Lights.” 212-229-5150. events. newschool.edu/event

Tue 10 AARON MAHNKE DISCUSSION AND SIGNING Barnes & Noble Tribeca, 97 Warren St. 6:30 p.m. Free, priority seating with purchase of the book Aaron Mahnke, creator of the award-winning “Lore” podcast, exposes the darker side of history in his new book “The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures.” Mahnke will share true life scary stories exploring the creatures, people and places of our wildest nightmares. 212-587-5389. barnesandnoble.com/events

Wed 11 ESTHER PEREL: THE STATE OF AFFAIRS The Strand, 828 Broadway. 7 p.m. $26.99 grants admission & signed copy of the book, $15 store gift card Couples' therapist and bestselling author of “Mating in Captivity” Esther Perel’s latest book focuses on infidelity. She argues that affairs have a lot to teach us about the human heart, and can be a window into cultural attitudes about love, lust and commitment. Join her for an exploration of modern marriage. 212.473.1452 strandbooks. com/relationships

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OCTOBER 5-11,2017

MORE THAN MERELY SURREAL MoMA’s Max Ernst exhibition captivates

IF YOU GO

BY MARY GREGORY

In “Max Ernst: Beyond Painting” on view through January 1, the Museum of Modern Art is taking the opportunity to show a recent acquisition with the unlikely title of “65 Maximiliana or the Illegal Practice of Astronomy.” The 34 aquatints which comprise this illustrated book use a form of concrete poetry, where the placement of letters on the page (here cross-hatched like roads, or descending in cupped shapes like falling petals) create a visual poem which join with drawings or pictograms in complex, mysterious creations. Some even use an Ernst-invented written language. The invention of a secret alphabet was not much

WHAT: “Max Ernst: Beyond Painting” WHERE: The Museum of Modern Art WHEN: Through Jan. 1 www.moma.org/

of a stretch for an artist who regularly transgressed, as the title states, beyond painting. Curators Starr Figura and Anne Umland, with curatorial assistant Talia Kwartler, have taken the book as a starting point, or in the geography of the exhibition, a grand finale, for a survey of this important 20th cen-

Gallery view of Max Ernst: Beyond Painting with “The King Playing with the Queen.” Photo: Adel Gorgy

tury master. Ernst (1891–1976) was a founder of both the Dada and Surrealist movements, and his brushstrokes and gestures, both artistic and intellectual deeply influenced both European and American art. In the paintings, collages, drawings, prints and sculptures on display, one experiences the senses of isolation and irrationality that color Dada and Surrealism. Confusing landscapes, enigmatic texts and lonely figures (or machines or creatures or strange hybrids that resemble them) are the norm. We in the 21st century have the blessing of some distance from the angst and horrors of the two world wars. European artists of the early 20th century did not. The trauma of the wars painted the literary, artistic, poetic and cultural landscape with colors and imagery that seem incomprehensible, because they are. German-born, French and then later American émigré artist, Max Ernst was influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories about dreams, and was fascinated by the subconscious, primal emotions and forms of automatic painting. As a young man he studied philosophy, poetry and art, but, in ar World War I was drafted into an army tillery division in the German army he and sent to the trenches on both the er Eastern and Western fronts. After er the war, first in Cologne, then later ed in Paris and in New York, he created ply subversive, questioning, yet deeply thoughtful works. n is Part of the focus of the exhibition ch the endlessly creative ways in which d Ernst utilized the materials and e tools of art. With titles like “The d Gramineous Bicycle Garnished with Bells the Dappled Fire Dampss e and the Echinoderms Bending the d Spine to Look for Caresses” and works that use techniques such as afrottage, grattage and decalcomania (which the curators explain as ed rubbing graphite on paper placed pover objects 659[frottage], scrape], ing wet paint on canvas [grattage], st and pressing paper or glass against ed wet paint to create chance-based re textures [decalcomania]) there are nd certain to be novel experiences and r. revelations for almost every visitor. The exhibition of about 100 works is drawn from the museum’s collection and includes masterpieces like the early Surrealist painting/assemblage,

In 1923, Ernst painted “Woman, Old Man, and Flower,” and a year later, added the mysterious semi-transparent central figure. Photo: Adel Gorgy “Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale” from 1924. From its clear blue sky emerge a gate, a building whose doorknob resembles a cleaver, a woman running with a knife, a man escaping on the roof with a baby and the outlines of distant architectures of authority — arches and domes. About the only non-threatening element is a nightingale. What questions does it raise? What answers, if any, does it offer? What emotions does it evoke? A nearby suite of drawings titled “Natural Histories” offers both alternative histories and

“Lunar Asparagus” a white-painted bronze Ernst sculpture with “The Blind Swimmer.” Photo: Adel Gorgy

alternative nature. There’s a sphinx with a bird’s head, and lightning bolts coming from a dragonfly. Also on view are books and folios that present strange, fanciful creatures like smiling fish or newt-bearing spectacled puffins which hint at the artist’s playful nature. Powerful, totemic sculptures in bronze suggest the influences of Cubism as well as African art, while being imbued with the artist’s ar own sensibility and interests. Ernst Er was deeply involved with the game gam of chess, as can be seen in “The King Kin Playing with the Queen” which is rife with refere references to structures of power. po A lovely momen ment in the exhibition is tthe placement of “The Blind Swimmer” with its vague but clearly biomorphic, reproductive imagery which ca can be seen through “Lunar Aspar Asparagus” from 1935. The white scu sculpture’s tall, wobbly forms ma may have been influenced by the time Ernst spent with Alberto Albert Giacometti the prior summe summer, but have a wit that seems all Ernst. Peripatetic a and always searching both in his hi life and his art, Ernst mined the th hidden corners of the human ps psyche to give voice to a world that h had lost its reason. In doing so he found fo ways to challenge convention conventions, reinvent methods, and find anxiety and alarm, but also whimsy, humor and beauty in the power of imagination.


OCTOBER 5-11,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

‘CRAFTIVISM’ FOR BREAST CANCER ACTIVISM Volunteers at an UWS yarn store knit prosthetic “knockers” for low-income women of color BY LESLIE GERSING

Barbara Demorest figured her cancer doctor wasn’t making small talk when he asked if she could knit. The Washington state resident learned complications from a mastectomy prevented her from getting reconstructive surgery. Her doctor said the heavy, rubbery inserts worn in special post-mastectomy bras don’t work for everyone: they get hot and sweaty, irritate surgery scars, and cost $300 to $500. He showed her a printout of a hand-made, breast-shaped pillow with a link to a website. Demorest immediately contacted the source — a yarnstore owner in Maine who had undergone mastectomy, and got her permission to share the pattern. She then asked a friend to knit her one. “It changed my life,” she told a gathering at Knitty City on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “It was soft, it was light, it was made by somebody who cared, and I could wear it in my bra ... and my doctor said I could wear as it as soon as I could tolerate wearing a bra.” That was six years ago. Now Demorest heads an all-volunteer foundation, giving out at least 1,000 prosthetics a month. More than 300 groups in the U.S. and 16 countries have joined the cause, donating the inserts to women, through doctors’ offices, clinics, hospitals, breast cancer support groups, and directly, through KnittedKnockers.org. The hand-made “knockers” are the latest campaign of “craftivism” at Knitty City, an 11-year-old small business at 79th and Amsterdam Avenue which got international exposure last spring, making thousands of pink “pussy” hats for marchers protesting the Trump administration. Store owner Pearl Chin also donates yarn to an Asian women’s organization, holds free knitting classes during the summer in Bryant Park, and is handing out patterns to make “welcome blankets” for new immigrants. Regulars gather on Tuesdays. However, anyone can come to the store for free patterns, help and discounts on yarn used to

Knitty City employee Nancy Ricci with orange knitted knockers. LatinaSHARE asked for larger, brightly colored inserts. Photo: Leslie Gersing make the “knockers.” Chin expects Breast Cancer Awareness Month to generate even more interest in the project, which benefits LatinaSHARE, a support group serving low-income women of color in New York. When Chin brought them samples, “They looked at the colors and they said, ‘well, could you make them more colorful?’” And, they told her, cup-size matters: “’We’ll have to have them larger than that — C’s or D’s.’” Maria Estrella, LatinaSHARE coordinator and volunteer breast cancer patient navigator at Bellevue Hospital, says the inserts can help many women feel more comfortable after mastectomy. While “the majority opt for reconstruction,” she says, healing, chemo and radiation can delay the procedure “up to a year.” The American Cancer Society estimates one in eight women (252,710) will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year, including 16,000 New Yorkers. While mastectomies are on rise, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons says, “less than half of all women

who undergo mastectomy are currently offered breast reconstruction surgery, and fewer than 20 percent ... undergo immediate reconstruction.” In December, Demorest traveled to Rwanda to teach women how to make their own “knockers,” after learning reconstruction isn’t an option for most of them. They told her that some women are taught breast cancer is a curse, and were dying of shame rather than live with disfiguring surgery. One Knitty City customer shows off a pair of purple knockers to the group, adding that she “says a prayer,” for the women who will get them. Others say they plan to attach personal messages to their finished projects. Demorest nods, telling the group she often gets asked, “Why not manufacture the prosthetics and sell them?” “We’d be meeting one need, but we would be losing out so much on that caring factor,” says Demorest. “When you make the Knitted Knockers, you feel the sense of purpose with your knitting and your crocheting. You are making a difference in somebody’s life.”

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OCTOBER 5-11,2017

Nothing beats newspapers as the most reliable source of local news in print and online Recent studies show:

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Newspapers led online consumption for local news” Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016

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Local media users named newspapers as their “most relied on” source for deals across a range of goods and services.” Coda Ventures Survey August 18, 2016

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What accounts for print’s superiority? Print - particularly the newspaper - is an amazingly sophisticated technology for showing you a lot of it.”

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Local newspapers are still the top source of news about readers’ communities, including their branded Web sites and social media channels.” Publisher’s Daily - August 30, 2016

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Residents are eager for news about their own communities, which, increasingly, only local news organizations can provide” Editor & Publisher - June 1, 2016

Politico - September 10, 2016

STRAUSMEDIA your neighborhood news source 212-868-0190 | nypress.com


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Mayor Bill de Blasio (second from right) and Governor Andrew Cuomo (second from left) tour 23rd Street and the site of an explosion in Chelsea on Sunday, September 18, 2016. Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office.

CHELSEA BOMBING TRIAL OPENS LAW ENFORCEMENT Ahmad Khan Rahimi charged with detonating pipe bombs in New Jersey and Manhattan BY COLLEEN LONG

A trial opened on Monday for a man accused of setting off a pipe bomb in New York City that injured 30 people. While Ahmad Khan Rahimi has not been charged with terrorism, federal lawyers say his interest in jihad, terrorist attacks and terrorist organizations vastly influenced his plans. The government said it is seeking to have an expert witness testify about al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders as a primer for jurors and to help explain some writings he made in a journal. Defense lawyers have argued the government is trying to wrongly paint a picture of Rahimi, an Afghanistan-born

U.S. citizen, as an extremist. They say federal lawyers have drummed up a “radicalization” theory “To make its case more ‘compelling, dramatic, and seductive,’” the lawyers wrote in court papers. Rahimi, 29, who lived with his family in Elizabeth, New Jersey, is charged with detonating a pipe bomb along a charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and planting two pressure cooker bombs in Manhattan on Sept. 17. One device did not explode. The other one detonated in Chelsea. Rahimi was shot by law enforcement during his arrest two days after the attacks. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail. Jurors were expected to see various terrorism-related videotapes, a book, a bloodstained journal with a bullet hole in it and two 2012 emails found during the investigation, after U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Berman ruled the evidence could be included because they might show motive,

intentions, preparation and knowledge of the bombings. They also may hear details of a bomb left in an Elizabeth, New Jersey, trash can, along with video recordings of Rahimi in New Jersey and New York on Sept. 17 and setting off explosives in his backyard two days before the bombing. Prosecutors have said they’re not planning to introduce statements Rahimi made in the days after his arrest, gleaned while he was hospitalized and medicated with a breathing tube down his throat. Investigators asked him yes or no questions and had Rahimi nod his head. His lawyers said he was improperly interrogated. Berman rejected a request to move the trial from New York to Vermont or Washington, D.C. Rahimi also has been charged with attempted murder in New Jersey, because authorities say he shot at police officers during his arrest. Details of the shootout won’t be included in the federal trial.

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Business

APPLYING FUN Appliké Couture is among several businesses on an East 75th Street where children can enjoy themselves BY MICKEY KRAMER

The colorful and decorative window display of children’s T-shirts, hoodies and onesies, emblazoned with drawings of hearts and cherries, and sayings such as “smile forever” and “vintage,” as well as accessories like backpacks and toys, is hard to miss when walking past Appliké Couture on East 75th Street. Felicia Wollerstein, 61, and her husband Mark Wollerstein, 66, opened the children’s clothing and accessory store five years ago this month. “We had just moved into the neighborhood and my husband saw the empty space and said ‘let’s do this,’” said Felicia Wollerstein, who worked in children’s fashion for about two decades prior to opening the store. What makes Appliké Couture stand out is that children can pick their own designs, which are then added to clothes via a heat press. “It’s a very personalized service and we have customers from day one who still stop in.” Wollerstein said. Currently, some of the most popular appliqués are unicorns, rainbows and various emojis.

OCTOBER 5-11,2017

Another part of the store’s appeal are the birthday parties. The store can accommodate up to 20 children (they can take celebrations outside if need be). Appliké Couture hosts about three or four such occasions each month. Brianna Ardizzone, 8, celebrated her sixth birthday at Appliké and, recalling that she and her friends “made shirts and ate candy,” called the day “a lot of fun.” Brianna is still a regular at the store. “They have a lot of cool things and appliqués,” she said. Her favorite custom-designed shirt features a “cupcake.” Brianna’s mother, Barri Ardizzone, raved that “Felicia really makes Brianna feel special.” “They really are amazing,” Ardizzone said of the Wollersteins. “In addition to a terrific selection of clothes, it’s a great community store that, for example, does fundraisers for schools.” Appliké supplies school apparel for a number of Upper East side public schools, including P.S. 77 Lower Lab, P.S. 158, P.S. 290, and P.S.6 Ann Marie Meissner, has shopped with her twin 13-year-old daughters for more than four years. She called the shop a “great, unique concept.” “When they were younger, they’d

Brianna Ardizzone, 8, celebrated her sixth birthday by making shirts and eating candy at Appliké Couture on East 75th Street. Photo: Courtesy of Appliké Couture

Another Appliké Couture satisfied customer. Photo: Courtesy of Appliké Couture

pick out their own decals, but now prefer buying plain shirts,” she said of her daughters. For parents who might like to have a day for themselves, dropping their kids off on East 75th Street between First and York Avenues might be the way to go. Along with designing their own clothes, children can also spend time at two dance studios, The American Youth Dance Theater and Manhattan Dance Academy that share the

south side of the street, and can also visit the Art Center and the School of Rock on the north side of the block. Felicia Wollerstein recalled her favorite moment as when one of her early customers, Bella, a second-grader, was asked to do a “before and after” story for school, and did it about Felicia Wollerstein and the store – the blank shirt was “the before” and the decorated shirt was “the after.” For its fifth anniversary celebration

Kids can celebrate birthdays while decorating clothes with all sorts of designs at Appliké Couture on East 75th Street. Photo: Courtesy of Appliké Couture Appliké Couture is planning two special nights, one for kids and another for mothers. “From the day that we opened nearly five years ago, we have maintained a friendly creative environment and helped kids transform garments into their own creations,” Wollerstein said. “We look forward to seeing the smiles on their faces for many more years to come.”

NEIGHBORHOOD SIDE STREETS MEET 12TH STREET

sideways.nyc

WALLFLOWER 235 WEST 12TH STREET “Half restaurant, half cocktail bar,” Wallflower serves elegant dishes reflecting the French countryside. Rabbit-trumpet royal terrines with celery root remoulade, country pâté with pickled vegetables, and an assortment of fine cheeses all adorn the a la carte menu. Despite the high quality fare by chef Sahara Uy, co-owner and head bartender Xavier Herit says that at Wallflower they are “the opposite of pretension and being fancy.” There is no “bling bling,” just good food and good drinks. For more photos and side streets, go to sideways.nyc.


OCTOBER 5-11,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

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HUGH HEFNER’S NEW YORK MEDIA Or how the sexual celebrant, master marketer and destroyer of mores lured swingers, sophisticates — and yes, sleazoids — into the Playboy Club, turning it into the busiest nightspot in the city BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

One of the most telling time capsules in the city can be found under “Help Wanted — Female” in the classified section of The New York Times. Take March 1965, and scan the ads: They seek “Kelly Girls” and “Gals Friday,” “Dictaphone Secretaries” and “World’s Fair Hostesses.” A marketing firm wants a “Girl Trainee,” and adds, “Housewife OK.” Pan American World Airways “needs girls to fly all six continents” — but they must be single, and please, no contact lenses. And then, wedged in between the listings for bookkeepers and “comptometer operators” at Bloomingdale’s, there comes this gentle throwback: “BUNNY.” A companion ad on a facing page from the same employer gets straight to the point. “GIRLS — LOVELY,” it says. “Apply for glamour, excitement and top earnings as a Playboy Bunny.” The venue, of course, is the Playboy Club, at 5 East 59th Street, “three doors east of Fifth Avenue, three doors west of Madison Avenue,” and the number to call is PL 2-3100. How hopelessly dated, even quaint, it all seems now. But in that era of rotary phones and lettered prefixes, the Plaza 2- exchange, taking its name from the high-end district around the Plaza Hotel, was as iconic as Butterfield 8-, the Upper East Side exchange that gave its name to a 1960 Elizabeth Taylor film

and the 1933 John O’Hara novel on which it was based. Ah, PL 2-3100. Once, it was as celebrated as “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” the title of a pop standard recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra that was derived from the switchboard number for the Hotel Pennsylvania. But did the “PL” really stand for “Plaza”? In the world according to Hugh Hefner, the answer was an emphatic NO. Indeed, operators at the Playboy Club, or “Bunny Central,” were for a time instructed to answer the phone, “Playboy 2-3100.” The failure to do so could result in demerits and the docking of salary. “I still hear that number in my sleep,” says retired Broadway publicist Hal Adler, 95, who worked in the theater district and says he used to squire “chorus girls” to the club in the mid-1960s. “To me, Playboy 2-3100 still brings to mind happy days, good clients and lovely women. It was surprisingly tame, too, at least by today’s standards.” In fact, the New York club enjoyed a semi-wholesome cachet: It was the place where indulgent fathers would take adolescent sons as a rite of passage, providing them a first glimpse of pulchritude and promise. But it had a tawdry side, too. Touching and groping and propositioning were all too frequent. Only flagrant offenders were 86ed. And it was none other than Gloria Steinem, later the co-founder of Ms. Magazine, who went undercover as a bunny for 17 days in 1963 and in an expose in now-defunct Show Magazine, revealed how all would-be bunnies were required to undergo a gynecological exam and testing for sexually transmitted infections, typically at the hands of male doctors. All of this came to mind as news broke that the pipe-smoking, silk-robe clad Hefner — who for better or worse

A 1970 press photo for the syndicated TV show “Playboy After Dark,” which was in taped in Los Angeles. Hugh Hefner (in tuxedo) is at far right, actor-comedian Don Adams, who played Maxwell Smart, also known as “Agent 86,” in the comedy “Get Smart,” is at center, and Playboy cover girl and longtime Hefner girlfriend Barbi Benton is seated between them. Photo: Playboy Enterprises, via Wikimedia Commons

had an outsized impact on the worlds of sexuality, marketing, media, culture, creativity, advertising and brand promotion — had died at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles at the age of 91 on September 27. Reviews of his life and times, issued from critics on both the left and right, were scathing: To conservative Times columnist Ross Douthat, he was a pornographic “father of smut addiction,” a “leering grotesque,” and “grinning pimp.” British feminist Julie Bindel opined that “no one should shed a tear” for the “ultimate enemy of women.” Praise for “Hef” on social media? “It’s disgusting,” feminist critic Susan Brownmiller offered. Defenders included left-wing political activist and TV producer Norman Lear, who tweeted, “We’ve lost a true explorer, a man with a keen sense of the future.” Conservative-libertarian Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist, hailed him for embracing a “sexual complementarity that has bound men and women together since the dawn of time.” Complementarity? Well, call it what you will, but it was sure on display behind the white canopy bearing the black bunny symbol that was arguably the world’s most recognizable logo. It was here, on December 8, 1962, behind the dramatic, shimmering darkglass façade that curtained off 59th Street, that Hefner conjured up his 40,000-square-foot, multi-level palace of dreams and desires, flesh and fantasies, seduction and sexism. Entry to the seven-story nightspot was controlled by a “Door Bunny,” “floor bunnies” served drinks, and patrons were feted by musicians, magicians and chanteuses in the Living Room, Party Room, Play Room, Penthouse and VIP Room which, naturally, stood for “Very Important Playboy.” Why 59th Street? The Copacabana had been around the corner, on 60th Street off Fifth Avenue near the Pierre Hotel, since it bowed in 1941. Hefner believed that the storied nightspot had become a tad stuffy and felt a more unbuttoned club in this buttoneddown part of town could capture the Copa’s overflow. And so it did. Marketed as private club for the “keyholders” who paid a onetime fee of $25 a year, the Playboy Club quickly drew swingers and sophisticates — but it cannot be denied that sleazeballs masquerading as respectable gentlemen also made their presence known. “What do you think I come here for, the roast beef?” one four-martini customer asked Steinem after breathing heavily down her neck. Other patrons offered her Hotel Astor and New Yorker Hotel room keys, she wrote in the 1963 article. There were also the “usual tail-pullings and propositions and pinching

Hugh Hefner donned one of his trademark caps for an event in Long Beach, California, in November 2010, one of the last times he left his beloved Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills in Los Angeles. Photo: Glenn Francis / PacificProDigital, via Wikimedia Commons and ogling,” to which she would utter a ritual reply, “Please, sir, you are not allowed to touch the bunnies.” But if there was boorishness, there was courtliness, too. Adler recalls a “sweet innocence” — even as he sat at the bar, cigarette in hand, surrounded by gorgeous women in low-cut, skintight, one-piece satin outfits complete with black bow tie, bunny ears, threeinch heels and fluffy white pom-pom tails, reminiscent of a scene from “Mad Men.” “I never so much as took off my suit jacket,” he says. “The only thing I ever took off was a lady’s coat at the hatcheck counter.” The club was a commercial smash. It was one of 40-plus Playboy Clubs around the world, and Hefner spent more time at those in Chicago and Los Angeles. But thanks to Madison Avenue’s romance with the Playboy brand, 59th Street brought far more advertising to the magazine and franchising to the Playboy empire. At its peak in the 1960s, the club hosted 2,700 people daily, making it the busiest in the city. It employed 128 bunnies, and Steinem wasn’t the only famed alumni: Model, Vogue cover girl and “American Gigolo” actress Lauren Hutton worked at the club in 1964. Platinum-haired Blondie lead singer Deborah Harry spent five years as a bunny starting in 1968.

But no bunny can endure forever. Constantly policing the “bunny image,” Playboy dismissed scores of women it felt no longer maintained that “look of freshness, vitality and cheerfulness,” the “vibrant, charming look” that included “standards of figure proportion.” Before long, the Playboy Club itself had lost that “look of freshness.” The once-forbidden sexual imagery it had brought to the masses had become passé. Just as it had once eclipsed the Copa, two hot new clubs were now poised to poach its business, Studio 54, which debuted in 1977, and the Limelight, which followed in 1983. After a 21-year run, Playboy shuttered the 59th Street club in August 1983. It briefly reopened in the Hotel Lexington in 1985, with male rabbits to complement its female bunnies, only to close again for good the next year. The unzipping would now take place in other venues. Should it be lamented? Romanticized? Perhaps. But let’s give Gloria Steinem the last word. The subject is bustier padding: “My unofficial list of Bunny Bosom Stuffers,” she wrote in her 1963 expose. “1) Kleenex 2) plastic dry cleaner’s bags 3) absorbent cotton 4) cut-up Bunny tails 5) foam rubber 6) lamb’s wool 7) Kotex halves 8) silk scarves 9) gym socks.”


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OCTOBER 5-11,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

FONTBONNE HALL ACADEMY

OPEN HOUSE Saturday, October 21st, 2017 12:30PM - 3:30PM Register for this event at www.fontbonne.org or contact Victoria Adamo, Director of Admissions, at vadamo@fontbonne.org *accessible via the R train and NYC ferry

“Judas,” Lola Álvarez Bravo, 1942. Gelatin Silver Print, 8 x 10 in. Photo: Throckmorton Fine Art

Inspiring young women to be leaders of tomorrow. Fontbonne Hall Academy t 9901 Shore Road, Brooklyn, NY 11209 Sisters of St. Joseph Schools

EXPLORING THE UNEXPECTED PHOTOGRAPHY

ACTIVITIES FOR THE FERTILE MIND

thoughtgallery.org NEW YORK CITY

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know with Stephen J. Dubner | Live Tapings

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6TH, 6:30PM Public Theater | 425 Lafayette St. | 212-539-8500 | publictheater.org Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the Freakonomics books and the host of Freakonomics Radio, comes to Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater for weekend series. There will be two tapings each night through Sunday ($25).

The Power of Meaning: The Quest for an Existential Roadmap

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10TH, 7PM NY Academy of Sciences | 250 Greenwich St. | 212-298-8600 | nyas.org Lend an ear as an author, a neurologist, and two philosophers come together for the new series The Will to Meaning: Seeking the “Why” of Our Existence. This first conversation asks questions about how to proceed amid suffering, and whether we can draw on universal sources ($15).

Just Announced | TimesTalks: Sir Richard Branson

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18TH, 7PM Symphony Space | 2537 Broadway | 212-864-1414 | timestalks.com Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, speaks with Squawk Box’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on the occasion of the release of Branson’s new autobiography, Finding My Virginity ($60).

For more information about lectures, readings and other intellectually stimulating events throughout NYC,

sign up for the weekly Thought Gallery newsletter at thoughtgallery.org.

An East Side exhibition focuses on the contrasts in Mexican Surrealist photography BY CARSON KESSLER

In Mexico circa 1987, photographer Flor Garduño stumbled onto a mysterious scene. A man holds a bull by a rope. On that bull stands a small goat as if someone had purposely stacked the two creatures like toys. It was a scene she didn’t compose. According to Garduño, she just captured the peculiar moment in Mexico’s history, titling the image, “Totem, Mexico.” Today, the intriguing photograph hangs on the wall at New York City’s Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery on the East Side — one of 40 black-andwhite photographs featured in the gallery’s “Surrealismo Ojos de Mexico: Surrealism in Mexican Photography” exhibit. A gallery that specializes in the work of contemporary Latin American photographers, Throckmorton Fine Art seeks in their newest exhibit to demonstrate the enduring influence of Surrealism in Mexico’s history of photography. “We wanted to highlight this wonderful period,” said Norbereto Rivera, photography director at Throckmorton. “We start off with one of the greats, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, up until Flor Garduño and the current torchbearers in Mexico whose works have a lot of Surrealist influence.” The gallery’s executive director Kraige Block explains the tug-of-war behind the Surrealist movement in Mexico. Many Mexican artists often resisted the labels of Surrealism by refusing to adhere to the “high culture” of Europeans. Other artists viewed Surrealism as a mechanism for celebrating strange juxtapositions. “Surrealism was not an art movement of protest, but instead one that explored the irrational,

the unexpected in life,” Block said. “Our world is so Eurocentric. It is actually very rare that there is a focus on Latin America.” Surrealism in Latin America provides a lens for viewing a country’s history with its many contrasts. Many of the photographs focus on the stark contrasts between rich and poor, ancient and modern, tradition and innovation. The photographs range in content from a 1942 image of “La Quema de Judas,” (the Judas burning), a traditional Easter-time Mexican ritual to a simple 2005 image of seven, silver fish heads, floating in dull water. Despite the emphasis on contrast, most of the images in the exhibition reveal a serious, unifying subject — Mexico and its people. “The current headlines regarding Mexico are unfortunate, but that’s always been a part of Mexico’s history,” Rivera said. “There’s always hardship, but then there’s always this growth and beauty and flourishing in the arts. They are resilient.” Ilona Golovina, 30, a student at the International Center of Photography, appreciated the photographs’ representations of a rich cultural history. “It’s a good look back,” she explained. “You can experience their past through each of these photographs.” The exhibit opened in the midst of National Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 to October 15. However, “for the gallery, it’s Hispanic Heritage Month everyday.” said Rivera. “Latin American art is underrepresented here in the states. [This exhibition] is a good way to start the fall season, and we are happy to be a part of the month celebration.” “Surrealismo Ojos de Mexico” will be open for public viewing at 145 East 57th Street until December 2, 2017.


OCTOBER 5-11,2017

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Keep yourself injuryfree at any age. Attend our upcoming seminars to learn how.

Thursday, November 2: 7pm – 8pm

Thursday, November 9: 7pm – 8pm

Common Athletic Injuries in the Young Athlete – Prevention & Treatment

Preventing and Treating Injuries in the Active Senior

Even the youngest athletes are prone to long-lasting injuries. Join us for a free seminar to learn about:

Aging can slow us down, but it doesn’t have to mean getting injured. Join us for a free seminar to learn more about:

– – – –

– Keeping your knees active after 40 – Symptoms of, and treatments for, rotator cuff syndrome – Treatments for shoulder arthritis, including management and replacement – Causes of, and treatments for, heel pain

ACL injury prevention and treatment options Treating shoulder pain and instability Diagnosing and treating hip pain Preventing and treating ankle instability

Register now at Northwell.edu/LHGVOrtho1 or call (844) 91-ORTHO (6-7846).

Register now at Northwell.edu/LHGVOrtho2 or call (844) 91-ORTHO (6-7846).

Location and speakers for both events:

Lenox Health Greenwich Village - Community Center 200 West 13th Street, 6th Floor New York, NY 10011 Presented by Northwell Health Orthopaedic Institute: Peter D. McCann, MD Director, Orthopaedic Surgery

Etan P. Sugarman, MD Orthopaedic Surgeon

Michael A. Zacchilli, MD Orthopaedic Surgeon

Daniel L. Seidman, MD Orthopaedic Surgeon

Orthopaedic Institute

22212a 9-17

These events are FREE and snacks and light refreshments will be served.


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OCTOBER 5-11,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Acknowledge The People Who Keep Our Homes & Offices Running Smoothly

PRESERVATION

1.

56 Fulton St.

2.

118 Fulton St.

3.

456 Washington St.

B UILDING

4.

261 Hudson St.

5.

102 Charlton St.

AWAR DS

6.

68 Charlton St.

7.

501 LaGuardia Place

8.

100 Barrow St.

Call For Sponsors

2017

NEW CONSTRUCTION

SERVICE WORKER

Tuesday October 24

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AFFORDABLE HOUSING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

%PPSNBO t 4VQFS t 1PSUFS t 0ó DF $MFBOFS 4FDVSJUZ (VBSE t )BOEZQFSTPO $POUBDU Vincent Gardino (212) 868-0190 4QPOTPSFE #Z The local paper for the Upper East Side

The local paper for the Upper West Side

Consultants and Actuaries to Collectively-Bargained Plans www.segalco.com

The local paper for Downtown

The local paper for Chelsea

counting for a planned 58 percent of all units. Under the plan’s targets, 40 percent of the 200,000 affordable units will be new construction. The remaining 60 percent will be affordable units preserved through various strategies, including building improvements, subsidy extensions, and protecting tenants in rent-regulated units. While de Blasio has touted Housing New York as a success as he seeks reelection this fall, some critics claim that the program fails to serve those most in need of assistance. According to the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development, New Yorkers classified as “extremely low income” (those making below 30 percent of the AMI) make up 47.9 percent of Manhattan’s rent-burdened population, but just 12.6 percent of affordable housing units created or preserved to date under the mayor’s program have served this group. The Citizens Budget Commission, using data from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, has assembled a map of projects financed to date through the program. The chart and map here, drawn from the CBC’s analysis, show the program’s impact on Lower Manhattan. Community Districts 1 and 2, which cover much of downtown, have had, respectively, the fewest and third-fewest affordable units financed under the program of all Manhattan community districts.

INCOME CATEGORY (THRESHOLDS FOR A 4-PERSON HOUSEHOLD, BASED ON 2017 AMI) Extremely low income (below $28,620) Very low income ($28,620 to $47,700) Low income ($47,700 to $76,320) Moderate Income ($76,320 to $114,480) Middle Income ($114,480 to $157,410) Total

1

2

NUMBER OF NEW/ PRESERVED UNITS 0 182 222 0 7 411


OCTOBER 5-11,2017

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Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

YOUR 15 MINUTES

To read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes” go to otdowntown.com/15 minutes

AN ACE UP HIS COMEDIC SLEEVE Ted Greenberg on writing for the

Harvard Lampoon and Letterman, and on his new passion project BY ANGELA BARBUTI

Ted Greenberg grew up on the Upper East Side in the 1970s and ‘80s and remembers the city’s “exhilarating grit” at the time, which he says “was a lot of fun as a teenager.” Back then, his neighborhood was a mecca for stand-up comedy, which shaped him as a fledgling comic. His first live performance took place at the Comic Strip’s open mic night, where he took the stage at 2:30 a.m. He went on to attend Harvard University, where he fulfilled one of his early comedic goals by contributing to the renowned “Harvard Lampoon.” Returning to New York, he wrote for “Late Night with David Letterman,” citing his knack for conceptual comedy as contributing to his success there, which ultimately earned him an Emmy Award. As for working with

Dave, he credits his former boss with giving him the best entertainment lesson he ever received. For the past four years, his labor of love has been penning the play “Ace,” named after his father, a Wall Street titan who served as the CEO of Bear Stearns in 1987, the year in which the show is set. The autobiographic plot has his son driving a New York City taxi with a looming deadline of a nineyear overdue paper that he must submit to Harvard or else fail to graduate.

How can you describe your comedy? My stand-up is very broad. It’s goofy; it’s silly. It is conceptual. My heroes growing up were Steve Martin and Albert Brooks, rather than observational comics. And that’s the reason I was hired for “Letterman,” because he was really into that in his early years. He’d much rather do an idea that no one else had done than a set of jokes. Something that appealed to him was putting on a Velcro suit and jumping off a trampoline and sticking to a wall. Just sort of a straight concept. And

when I was writing for him, me and my partner were concept machines. That’s why we were hired. We weren’t prefect joke writers; we just had a lot of great concepts.

What was it like working for Letterman? It was great working for him in that he was the best boss I ever had in this respect: he knew exactly what he wanted. There was a mediary; you gave your stuff to Steve O’Donnell and you rarely dealt with Dave directly. But you did know exactly what he wanted. And the big joke is he wouldn’t dance, take off clothes or act. So from time from time, writers would deliberately submit a routine where he had to jump on his desk, do a jig, take off all his clothes and pretend he was a clown, knowing that was the last thing he wanted to do. But that sort of clarity in a boss is fantastic. And that’s one reason he became who he was. He really knew his strengths and weaknesses early on and was able to shape the show around that.

You went to Harvard and wrote for the “Lampoon” there. It was my dream since I was 15 when I tried to do stand-up was to be on the “Harvard Lampoon.” Because it was really famous even then because of the “National Lampoon.” And I got into Harvard and eventually got on the “Lampoon.” Now my pieces seem incredibly sophomoric and dumb, but it was a humor magazine and I got a lot of stuff published. And crazily, when I was there, Lisa Henson, daughter of Jim, was president, and three years later, Conan O’Brien was president. There was this “Life” magazine spread when Lisa was president with all these pictures revealing the inside of the “Lampoon” castle, something that had not been done before in the press. And in those pictures was Conan O’Brien. It was really very exciting to be a college kid and be in “Life” magazine.

Explain what your show “Ace” is about.

Ted Greenberg. Photo: Hunter Canning

“Ace” is about a 27-year-old who has owed a paper for nine years and today is the day he is given a deadline — he either has to get the paper in or he’s a dropout. And in that 12-hour period, a lot happens. It turns out he’s driving a cab. This is 1987, right after the big stock market crash, and the main character’s father is this huge Wall Street guy who runs this firm called Bear Stearns. So it’s kind of about the kid and his father. And then there’s a third major character who comes in who’s sort of the ‘80s equivalent of Bernie Madoff, this guy named Ivan Boesky. So there’s a ticking clock, the paper had to get in on December 18th, or this guy is a college dropout forever. It’s a really fun and fast 65-minute piece with a great ending.

Ted Greenberg in his autobiographical comedy, “Ace.” Photo: Hunter Canning

Explain your dad’s career and how much of that is in the play. Enough so you know this guy is incredibly charming and great at everything he does and casts a really large shadow. And there are a lot of Ace Greenberg fans who will get their money’s worth. You get the idea that he had this rags-to-riches story where he was one of those guys who came to New York City in his 20s and through grit and cunning, climbed the top of the heap, made a fortune and gave a fortune away. And that’s sort of a nice part. The audience likes hearing that. And he comes off as a very hardened realist about how to handle yourself in the world. There’s this Boesky guy who’s very snakelike and then there’s Ace Greenberg, who’s a rock. And I should point out one thing — that Ace Greenberg was an amazing magician. He was amazing at a lot of things and there is magic in the show. And I’m one of those people who gets angry when there’s magic or special effects in a show that seem gratuitous. But in “Ace,” it totally works and you walk out thinking, “The magic in this show, it couldn’t have been any other way.” I’ve been crusading around town insisting that the magic in this show is not gratuitous.

What was it like driving a cab in the city? It was really exciting and doing it

short term is fun because one minute you’re picking up hookers at Carnegie Hall and then the next minute you’re picking up some woman who missed her train for her bris, so you have to drive her to Salmouth, Massachusetts, so she can make it. Now if I had five kids and had to rely on it for my family, it would be a different story. But when you’re in your 20s and doing it part time, it was this great rush and adventure. And it could be scary. The first two weeks I was doing it, I picked up anybody, so I was a mule for a cocaine dealer and we made eight stops in Queens and I didn’t get paid. How else could an Upper East Side privileged kid have an experience like that other than by driving a cab? And I should mention that I still have this stand-up show that’s monthly at the SoHo Playhouse and it does end with me driving audience members home in a yellow cab. www.tedgreenberg.com “Ace” runs through November 5 at The Marjorie S. Deane Theater, 10 West 64th St.

Know somebody who deserves their 15 Minutes of fame? Go to otdowntown.com and click on submit a press release or announcement.


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Q M C K F R T E I C J H H N L

L I O M T S S H O E S A Y D R

Q T L S O F V O J L O L A E U

H Y R B C O Z E T M O A H R K

J V U O K B A X P N X W S W N

A V C D U N K Y S P M O I E W

C L G Q S S J I O G C I O A Z

K D N V F A E A R K Z R K R U

E S A S M D Q R S M H T S X E

T S C A R V E S S Y G O Q D E

The puzzle contains the names of 15 items of clothing. They may be diagonal, across, or up and down in the grid in any direction.

O I S B K C O A T U M B E L T

Belt Briefs Coat Fedora Jacket Jeans Nylons Pyjamas Scarves Shoes Shorts Socks Swimsuit Trousers Underwear

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1 6 9 8 7 4 2 5 3

Down 1 Computer processor, abbreviation 2 Kournikova of tennis 3 Dieter’s target 4 Data entry skill 5 Cry of dismay (2 words) 6 Fender problem 7 Serious stories 8 Polo match division 9 Sprout 10 Appraiser 11 Campaigns 19 Matrix character 20 Volcano output 23 Physics law maker 24 Alien’s gun 25 Historic time

27 Thing legally 28 Slow burn 29 Kind of paper 33 Storage spot 34 Secure 35 Relative 36 Capriciousness 37 Take the cake 38 Corkscrew 41 Go over 42 Longing 43 Casanova, perhaps 44 Fish 45 Smooth talking 46 Stratford-___-Avon 47 Glimpsed

6 1

51 Ailment symptom 52 Coast Guard officer, abbr. 53 Sunburn healer 54 At no time (poetic) 55 Manner 56 Country singer Loretta __

G F W E X D O F K V U Z Y U Y

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56

I Q I C X E A H W F E D O R A

8 3

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K R I I T O D F S Z M Y D D V

7 4

54

B Y D K C P S W I M S U I T G

53

53

O I S B K C O A T U M B E L T

52

T S C A R V E S S Y G O Q D E

51

WORD SEARCH by Myles Mellor

E S A S M D Q R S M H T S X E

50

K D N V F A E A R K Z R K R U

49

47

C L G Q S S J I O G C I O A Z

48

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3 8

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A V C D U N K Y S P M O I E W

45

9

J V U O K B A X P N X W S W N

44

3

Level: Medium

H Y R B C O Z E T M O A H R K

40

43

Across 1 Great quantity 5 Bizarre 8 Ship members 12 Secretly 13 ___ Royal Highness 14 Howdy 15 Breeze 16 Evidence piece 17 Tech support caller 18 Fine carpenters (2 words) 21 Mermaid’s home 22 Quiz 23 Demagogue 26 Zhivago portrayer 30 Witchy woman 31 Victorian, e.g. 32 Nerve fiber material 36 Old Saxon kingdom 39 Unreturnable serve 40 W.W. II general ___ Arnold 41 Clandestine 48 Egg on 49 ___bug! 50 Ready to pluck

4

Q T L S O F V O J L O L A E U

42

2

38

L I O M T S S H O E S A Y D R

39

37

Q M C K F R T E I C J H H N L

36

G F W E X D O F K V U Z Y U Y

35

I Q I C X E A H W F E D O R A

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K R I I T O D F S Z M Y D D V

33

6

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B Y D K C P S W I M S U I T G

32

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15

Each Sudoku puzzle consists of a 9X9 grid that has been subdivided into nine smaller grids of 3X3 squares. To solve the puzzle each row, column and box must contain each of the numbers 1 to 9. Puzzles come in three grades: easy, medium and difficult.

N

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SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan

by Myles Mellor

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CROSSWORD

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Downtowner 1

OCTOBER 5-11,2017

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

54

22


OCTOBER 5-11,2017

23

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

CLASSIFIEDS HELP WANTED

“THERE MUST BE SOMEONE WHO CAN GIVE MORE KIDS THE CHANCE TO GO TO COLLEGE.� MASSAGE

Telephone: 212-868-0190 Fax: 212-868-0198 Email: classified2@strausnews.com

POLICY NOTICE: We make every eort to avoid mistakes in your classiďŹ ed ads. Check your ad the ďŹ rst week it runs. The publication will only accept responsibility for the ďŹ rst incorrect insertion. The publication assumes no ďŹ nancial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for any copy changes. All classiďŹ ed ads are pre-paid.

Directory of Business & Services To advertise in this directory Call #BSSZ (212)-868-0190 ext.4 CBSSZ MFXJT@strausnews.com

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24

Our Town|Downtowner otdowntown.com

Volume 1 | Issue 3

The Pulse of

Lenox Health Greenwich Village

Breast Cancer Awareness October is breast cancer awareness month – the perfect time to stop procrastinating and get your annual mammogram. Mammograms can detect changes in breast tissue before they are palpable by human hands. That means earlier diagnosis and treatment and a much better prognosis. It’s a fact – mammograms save lives.

Breast cancer facts and stats: – After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. – Risk factors for breast cancer include increased age, early menstruation, late or no pregnancy, and a family history. – Breast cancer is not just a women’s concern. About 2,470 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in men this year. – A woman in the United States has a one in eight chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.

Did you know…

You can decrease your risk of developing breast cancer by exercising regularly, being within a normal weight range and limiting your alcoholic intake.

Did you know…

There will be about 230,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer diagnosed in American women this year.

Getting screened for breast cancer can save your life. Lenox Health Greenwich Village has a state-of-the-art imaging center equipped to meet the breast imaging needs of the entire community. Visit Northwell.edu/LHGV or call (646) 760-6800 to schedule an appointment.

OCTOBER 5-11,2017


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