The Village Sun | December 2023 by thevillagesun.com

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Flaco fever hits Lower East Side p. 8

December 2023

Volume 2 | Issue 3

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On life support

Mount Sinai moves to unplug Beth Israel Hospital

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Photo Photo byby Erika Q. Sakamaki Sumner

Ceasefire supporters vow to ‘Shut it down!’ p. 10

The Village Sun • December 2023

Outrage at surprise Beth Israel closure plan BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

ending shockwaves through Downtown Manhattan, Mount Sinai has announced it will close Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital — and soon. The plan is to shutter the historic Gramercy health hub, at 16th Street and First Avenue in slightly more than a half year from now, on July 12. Following the loss of St. Vincent’s Hospital in 2010 and Cabrini Hospital in 2008, this would leave Manhattan south of 23rd Street with just one full-service hospital, New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan, all the way down by City Hall. Meanwhile, everyone, from local politicians to M.S.B.I. hospital staff and union representatives, claims they were blindsided by the news. Mount Sinai officials say the health system has been unable to staunch the iconic hospital’s financial bleeding. At this point, they have no intention to build a replacement mini-hospital nearby, as was the plan a few years ago until scrapped due to the need for bed capacity during COVID. The cost to build a new mini-hospital was $650 million a few years ago but, due to inflation, is now more than $1 billion. Mount Sinai is not publicly saying yet what it plans to do with the property after the closure, saying the goal right now is just to “ramp down” operations at the hospital. Clearly, though, it would be a highly coveted site for residential development, overlooking the historic, 4-acre Stuyvesant Square Park just to the west. Emotions boiled over at a raucous Nov. 28 public forum about the closure plan at Baruch College. The 175-person auditorium was packed to capacity as a panel of Mount Sinai officials seated on stage laid out why the M.S.B.I. Gramercy campus is simply “too large” and a major cash drain on the health system. Elizabeth Sellman, president and C.O.O. of M.S.B.I. and Mount Sinai Downtown — a system of health facilities scattered around south of 23rd Street — told the forum the cash-strapped hospital is projected to lose $150 million this year after years of similar losses. She and the Sinai officials said the health system’s Downtown network — especially its 10 Union Square West location, with comprehensive and urgent care — could pick up the slack after the Gramercy site closes. There are also 30 urgent-care centers south of 42nd Street, they noted. Sellman said 85 percent of patients that visit the M.S.B.I. emergency department are treated and released, meaning they don’t recuperate at M.S.B.I. A full-service hospital, it has hundreds of in-patient beds, though currently uses only 100 per a day. She added there are “four other” E.D.’s serving the area.

opments, people on Medicaid, this is a critical hospital,” Levine emphasized of M.S.B.I. “People are going to default to Bellevue, and Bellevue’s already overcrowded.” “This affects all of Downtown,” said Councilmember Erik Bottcher, who represents the West Side, including Greenwich Village and Chelsea. “You have every elected official who represents this area united to keep this open — as well as everyone in this room.” Sellman noted the M.S.B.I. Downtown health network has 20 locations, calling it “very robust and significant,” to which a woman in the audience called out, “Not 24 hours!” meaning none are open round the clock, unlike a full-service hospital. The forum was then opened to audience questions, many of which were more furious Beth Israel I.C.U. nurse Mark Rubin spoke with pediatric E.R. nurse Aileen Maris after screeds than questions, particularly by nursthe forum on the closure plan. Photo by The Village Sun es and health union members. One nurse angrily claimed there was “no communication” to alert employees of the In short, the C.O.O. said, “We are shift- said, “The lack of transparency here is really forum and asked why it wasn’t being liveing focus to ambulatory care.” troubling. We care about this hospital. streamed, so more people could watch it. Yet, Sellman said, M.S.B.I. will keep its “I don’t like the plan,” he stated, telling “This is a done deal,” spat East Village E.D. open until July 12, as well as its “med the Sinai panel, “We want to work with you surge” nursing for patients before and after to keep it open. There are lots of people in activist Barbara Caporale. “You have proven surgery and acute care. this community, particularly low-income, that you don’t give a damn.” However, District Leader Arthur Mount Sinai has in recent years already Section 8 [tenants], who have no other Schwartz, who previously filed a lawsuit been relocating medical departments from [health] option.” that, he said, slowed down Mount Sinai’s M.S.B.I. to its Uptown campuses to create Councilmember Keith Powers, a life“centers of excellence,” as the officials said. long resident of Stuyvesant Town, across earlier plan to close M.S.B.I., said once All union staff will be offered jobs at other First Avenue from M.S.B.I., hoped at least again — just like before — the health sysSinai locations and the health system will try that there could be a stand-alone E.D. and tem has been moving ahead with a hospital to reassign nonunion staff, the officials said. health center, similar to Lenox Health shutdown without D.O.H. approval. ReguMount Sinai has submitted a required Greenwich Village, which opened on part lations say, “You shall not eliminate services” closure plan to the New York State Depart- of the former St. Vincent’s campus in 2014. without state approval, he noted, adding ment of Health, which must O.K. the plan “We want to keep something there,” that “is going to be the basis of [new] litifor it to go forward — though approval has Powers said, though conceding, “We know gation.” Mark Rubin, a Westbeth resident, came not been granted yet. healthcare is changing.” Meanwhile, local politicians, in a united Robert Gottheim, Congressmember to the forum straight from work in his front at the forum, objected that they had Jerrold Nadler’s district director, accused scrubs. A former photographer, in 2016 been left out of the loop, and declared that Mount Sinai of “dishonesty” in having met in his mid-50s he became a nurse in the the E. 16th Street facility must be saved. with D.O.H. without clueing in local elect- M.S.B.I. intensive care unit, three years after Mount Sinai and Beth Israel merged. He Assemblymember Deborah Glick said, ed officials. if M.S.B.I. closes, people would have to go “You spoke to the state for two years and said he had seen the “systematic evisceration to Mount Sinai West (formerly Roosevelt we found out about this two weeks ago,” he of that hospital since Sinai took over.” Rubin noted often cardiac patients who Hospital), at W. 59th Street, or Mount Si- accused, also expressing concern about what go to the L.H.G.V. stand-alone E.D. are nai Hospital, north of E. 96th Street, noting, would happen with the property. “That’s a schlep for a lot of people, particuFrom the back row, a nurse shouted that transferred for higher-level care to M.S.B.I. larly people with few resources.” the former nurses’ high-rise residence north Without Beth Israel, he warned, “Those Councilmember Carlina Rivera said, of M.S.B.I. is now a New School University patients are gonna die. They’re not gonna make it to other hospitals.” “Quite frankly, many of us feel devastated” by dorm. The Village Sun earlier in the day spoke the news. “Everyone knows, the closer you Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough are to a hospital, the better you feel [about president, noted 400,000 people live in to a young internal medicine resident getting off his shift at M.S.B.I. He said staff your health safety].” Manhattan south of 23rd Street. Rivera said she’d like M.S.B.I. to become “We have been hemorrhaging full-ser- had just been told that, within the next three a so-called “safety-net hospital” — meaning vice hospitals in Lower Manhattan,” he said. weeks, they would be moved to Mount Sinai West or Mount Sinai Morningside (forget higher reimbursement for Medicaid pa- “We’re down to two.” tients, equaling more funding for the hospital. Stand-alone E.D.’s are not the same as merly St. Luke’s). “It is still very busy,” he said, though addBut the politicians were indignant to a full-service hospital, he stressed, noting, hear the Sinai officials respond that they, in “There’s something special about an emergen- ing, “They are closing beds down. But peofact, tried working with State D.O.H. over cy department and a hospital at the same site.” ple that were here last year say that it’s less the past two years, in vain, to get safety-net L.H.G.V., at 12th Street and Seventh busy, a huge difference.” A Sinai community affairs rep assured hospital designation — yet never told them Avenue, actually will be adding hospital about it. beds in the next few years — but not many, there would be more outreach meetings, with live-streaming, as the closure plan Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, not- only a dozen. ing his daughter was born at Beth Israel, “For people that live in NYCHA devel- moves forward.

The Village Sun • December 2023

Police Blotter Homeless man stabbed to death in S.D.R. Park Publisher & Editor in Chief Lincoln Anderson

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It was 4:10 a.m. on Sun., Oct. 22, as the victim was walking at Houston Street and Avenue D. The unidentified man came up suddenly from behind her and clamped his hands tightly around her neck. After being strangled, the woman fell to the ground, blacking out briefly. She got up and the man fled on foot toward Avenue C. The victim suffered bruising to her knee and a cut on her neck. The suspect is described as around 35 to 45 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 140 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black sweatpants and black sneakers. Police ask that anyone with information contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline. Tips leading to an arrest and indictment result in a reward of $3,500.

A homeless man was fatally stabbed and another man wounded in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Thurs., Nov. 16, police said. According to police, around 10:30 p.m., officers responded to a 911 call of a person stabbed between Broome and Delancey Streets inside the Lower East Side park. Arriving at the scene, they found an unidentified male with a stab wound to his chest, along with a 24-year-old male with a stab wound to his torso. E.M.S. medics responded and transported both victims to Bellevue Hospital, where the 24-year-old Police are searching for these four youths was in stable condition and the other man was proin connection with an anti-Semitic incident. nounced dead. NYPD Two days later, police publicly ID’d the victim as Pasquale Alonso, 25, and announced that a 15-yearAccording to police, on Fri., Oct. 27, around 4:50 old had been arrested in his death, plus the assault on p.m., a 22-year-old man was walking outside the the other man. The youth was charged with murder, attempted Wendy’s burger restaurant, at 20 E. 14th St., between murder, attempted assault and assault. Police are not Fifth Avenue and Union Square Park, when four releasing his name since he is a minor. According to younger males approached him from behind. One of news reports, the teenage alleged killer is also homeless. them threw a quarter, striking the man. After the coin A police spokesperson could not provide any bounced off him and fell to the ground, one of them further background or details on what led to the vi- picked it up and threw it at the man a second time. Anti-Semitic slurs were also uttered during the olence. incident, police said. The punks then fled on foot, heading westbound Teen fatally stabbed on 14th Street. in Chinatown dispute No injuries were reported. A police spokesperson told The Village Sun she Police on Fri., Nov. 24, made an arrest in a fatal did not know, based on the information readily at stabbing in Chinatown. Gianluca Bordone, 19, of Oyster Bay, New York, hand, if the target of the youth’s harassment was A surveillance image of the alleged taxi NYPD was arrested in the killing of Rocco Rodden, 17, of identifiably Jewish, such as, for example, wearing a driver attacker. Warren, New Jersey. He was charged with man- yarmulke. As for the hateful remarks, a second police slaughter and assault. Dimes Square hell fare According to police, on Wed., Nov. 23, around spokesperson said it was not known, based on the in1:50 a.m., officers responded to a 911 call of a male formation the N.Y.P.D. Press Department had availPolice said that an octogenarian taxi driver was stabbed at 96 Lafayette St., between Walker and able, exactly what was said. He confirmed, though, knocked out in trendy Dimes Square after demandWhite Streets. They found two males, a 17-year-old that the comments were anti-Semitic. The youths are being sought on a charge of ag- ing a man pay his fare. and a 19-year-old, both with stab wounds to the torAccording to police, on Fri., Nov. 10, around 1:05 so. The victims were taken by E.M.S. ambulance to gravated harassment. They are all around 5 feet 10 a.m., an 82-year-old yellow cabbie confronted a pasBellevue Hospital, where the younger of the two was inches tall. One wore a black, hooded sweatshirt with senger after the man refused to fork over his fare in pronounced dead and the other was in stable con- a red print on the front, along with a gray beanie. front of 40 Canal St., at Division Street. Another sported a black top with some sort of large dition. But the younger man only responded by punchAs for what sparked the violence, a police spokes- white flowers or blobs on it. A third wore a blue ing the hack, causing him to fall to the street and lose baseball cap with a yellow logo on its front. person said it was basically a case of two groups consciousness. The foul-tempered fare then kicked Police ask that anyone with information call getting into a fight. He said the individuals did not the unconscious cabbie for good measure before the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800know each other previously and that the incident fleeing. He was last seen hopping into yet another 577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA was not gang related. yellow taxi heading northbound on Orchard Street. (74782). Tips can also be submitted on the Crime It was also apparently a mere coincidence that The victim was taken by E.M.S. ambulance to the deadly blade fight happened outside of Live Axe, Stoppers Web site at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on Twitter at @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital an ax-throwing bar, the spokesperson said. confidential. Tips leading to an arrest and indict- where he was treated and released. The investigation remains ongoing. ment result in a reward of $3,500. The suspect is described as 25 to 30 years old and 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall, with a slim build. He was Jewish man harassed last seen wearing a dark-colored jacket, dark pants by young punks in Village Woman, 29, strangled and light-colored shoes. from behind on LES Police ask that anyone with information contact The N.Y.P.D. Hate Crimes Task Force is invesA 29-year-old woman walking on the Lower the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline. Tips leading tigating an incident in which a group of youths allegedly threw money at a man in Greenwich Village East Side in the early morning was choked-out by to an arrest and indictment result in a reward of an unknown man, police said. $3,500. and made anti-Semitic remarks at him.

Got a hot news tip or story idea? news@thevillagesun.com or (212) 682-9227

The Village Sun • December 2023

Bob Contant, co-owner of St. Mark’s Bookshop OBITUARIES BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

ob Contant, the co-owner of the former St. Mark’s Bookshop, died Nov. 6. He was 80. Bridget Marmion, a friend and book marketer, posted on Facebook that Contant died due to cardiac arrest after a bout of a few days with COVID. His wife, Marilyn (M.D.) Berkman, who is a poet, said that Contant also had been experiencing difficulties following knee replacement two years earlier. Contant lived in Gramercy. Writer Ron Kolm, who has worked in Manhattan bookshops for more than 50 years, was a staffer at St. Mark’s Bookshop in its early incarnations. Kolm recently chronicled some of his experiences in “The Bookstore Book: A Memoir.” Contant is mentioned in one of its chapters. Kolm said that in the mid-1970s, Contant was one of a group of four managers — the others included Terry McCoy and Peter Dargis — who ran the East Side Bookstore, at 34 St. Mark’s Place, between Second and Third Avenues. The street “had a lot of bookshops” back then, Kolm recalled. Contant and McCoy had also previously worked at 8th Street Books, where Contant had been a manager.

At East Side Bookstore, Jim Rose was an absentee owner. Feeling they could do a better job themselves, Contant and the others opened St. Mark’s Bookshop at 13 St. Mark’s Place across the street, on the north side of the block. In the early days, they didn’t pay themselves since they all had other jobs, as well. But the store thrived and they added the basement, doubling their space. They then relocated in 1987 to the more spacious 12 St. Mark’s Place, back on the southern side of the street, which is currently home to the new Village Works bookshop. Then, in 1993, remaining partners Contant and McCoy were invited — with the backing of Rodale publishing — to relocate by The Cooper Union to the location of a former hardware store at 31 Third Ave., at Stuyvesant Street, just south of Ninth Street. Cooper Union offered them a 20 percent rent reduction. Today the spot is home to The Bean coffee shop. With its distinctive exposed ductwork in the ceiling, the 31 Third Ave. bookshop won awards for its architects and was featured in New York magazine. The store is said to have done very well in the ’90s and 2000s. It was known for its art books and its curated selection of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, plus small press, literary journals and zines, all tailored to neighborhood tastes, as well as critical theory. You could find on the same shelf, for example, a book of

Bob Contant in front of 136 E. Third St., the last location of St. Mark’s Bookshop, in 2016. Courtesy Village Preservation

illustrations of Russian prison tattoos and the biography of John Joseph of the Cro-Mags, with a photo book on 1970s subway graffiti and other art books on a table nearby. In a 2016 interview with Village Preservation, Contant said the store consciously made critical theory a niche for itself. “Just on 8th Street alone, between 2nd Avenue and 6th Avenue there were about eight bookstores,” he said. “Bookstores in New York were like Starbucks are now, they were everywhere. To set ourselves apart, we focused on Post-Structuralist philosophy, we dedicated a section to it, and we developed a reputation for having critical theory books, which drew people from all over.” The East Village literary landmark attracted high-profile customers, including the likes of Madonna, Susan Sontag, Patti Smith and Walter Abish. However, the financial crisis and the rise of online book sales put a dent in the bottom line. For his part, Contant, in the Village Preservation interview, also blamed mismanagement at The Cooper Union, noting the store’s struggles coincided with the school deciding it could no longer offer free tuition, plus its embarking on a major campaign to develop a new building Third Avenue. “Cooper Union was building its dormitory building on the corner of 3rd Avenue and 9th [Street], and they solicited us to be their commercial tenant, and offered us a 15-year lease and a reduction in the rent we were paying,” Contant said in the 2016 interview. “So we moved in, and we had a very healthy relationship with Cooper Union for the extent of the lease. Maybe 5 years ago, the administration changed at CU and the people who we knew moved on. They weren’t there anymore and taking over was a group that was basically interested in real estate. They were a disaster, not only for the bookstore but for CU itself; they charged students tuition, which was in violation of CU’s charter, and they built the building without having a sponsor, so it put them in serious debt. Basically they misman-

aged what they inherited to the extent that the Attorney General’s Office investigated them for financial reasons. As a result, they got us out by raising our rent. They wanted double what we were paying; we were paying in the neighborhood of $20,000/month in rent and they wanted over $40,000/month. We couldn’t afford it. Nobody could.” In 2011 and ’12, a petition effort was made to get The Cooper Union to lower the store’s rent. A fundraising drive also netted the shop around $24,000. “Bowling for Columbine” filmmaker Michael Moore lent his name and presence to the cause, dropping in to give a talk at the store. But, in the end, it wasn’t enough. By 2013 the lease had become prohibitively expensive. In early 2014, Contant and McCoy vacated the space. St. Mark’s Bookshop reopened briefly in a commercial storefront in the New York City Housing Authority’s First Houses on E. Third Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. While the rent was “extremely reasonable,” Contant said, the quiet side-street location lacked the foot traffic of the busy Third Avenue strip. After hanging on for a two-year run at the new spot, the store closed for good in early 2016. Just before it finally shuttered, St. Mark’s Bookshop was named the “Business of the Month” by Village Preservation. Contant’s wife said he was always very much hands-on at the shop. “Bookstores are made great by their buyers and curated selection and their welcoming of those interested in literature, art and intellectual inquiry into a community,” she said. “Bob was the principal buyer, as well as a co-owner. Years after the store closed, Bob would bump into former customers — or just browsers — who would thank him for having done just that.” Contant also personally decided the “faceouts” — the books whose covers, as opposed to spines, were shown on the bookshelves — and the window display, she added. After the store’s closing, Berkman said, “He kept up his interest in poetry, literature and literary/cultural figures and art, being an avid reader, although he would have much preferred continuing being an active part. He always enjoyed the fun of interacting with others. “He had a wide knowledge and a keen appreciation that I was lucky enough to have shared,” she said. “I have lost half of my brain and all of my heart.” Kolm called Contant definitely an influential operator in the New York City independent bookstore scene. “He was a very powerful figure,” he said. Bob Contant is survived by his wife, Marilyn (M.D.) Berkman, as well as a daughter, Daryl Prezioso, from a previous, brief first marriage, and two grandsons, who all live in Maryland, as well as a sister, Pamm Houchens, of Delaware, and two nephews. In her Facebook post, Marmion said it’s likely that a memorial would be held at a later date.

BY LIZ THOMSON

ulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici who, for some 50 years, made his home at Westbeth Artists Housing, died on Nov. 18 at age 86. He had been stricken by Parkinson’s, becoming increasingly frail, though he made regular appearances at concerts. He made what would turn out to be his final musical outing in October at Columbia’s Italian Academy, where pianist Marc Peloquin and the Manhattan String Quartet gave the world premiere of Del Tredici’s string quintet “Ray’s Birthday Suit.” Peloquin, a New York City-based educator and award-winning pianist, is in the process of recording a multivolume CD set of Del Tredici’s complete piano music. He said that while the death was expected, it was also very sudden. “This loss is profound, I have to admit, seismic for me, honestly,” he said. “He is at peace. I am at a loss.” The composer had long credited Peloquin with reviving his interest in the piano — which was how he started out, as a pianist.

David Del Tredici composing.

David Del Tredici was born March 16, 1937, in Cloverdale, California. He began his career path by enrolling in the University of California, Berkeley as a piano student in 1955. He started his composition studies in Aspen three years later. French composer Darius Milhaud was encouraging of his first work, “Soliloquy.” Del Tredici came east to Princeton, from where he sent a tape of early settings of James Joyce’s writings to the music of Aaron Copland. Copland described Del Tredici as “that rare find among composers — a creator

with a truly original gift. I venture to say that his music is certain to make a lasting impression on the American musical scene,” he said. “I know of no other composer of his generation who composes music of greater freshness and daring, or with more personality.” Much of Del Tredici’s work was inspired by literature. Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” was a longtime preoccupation (“In Memory of a Summer Day,” part one of “Child Alice,” won him the Pulitzer), and in later life he embraced contemporary American poetry, much of it overtly gay. His settings of “My Favorite Penis Poems” did not immediately find favor with singers! In Joyce, a lapsed Catholic, Del Tredici recognized a fellow tortured soul whose inner conflicts found voice in dissonance and atonality. His early works employed Modernist techniques that he David Del Tredici with Leonard Bernstein. picked up from his teacher Roger Sessions, but he soon became a proponent of tonali- a suggestion by me in 2019 of “A Mass for “I remember standing on a corner, somety — indeed, he is regarded as the father of Greenwich Village.” Father Graeme Napier, time before I turned 5,” he said. “I looked up Neo-romanticism in 20th-century music. of St. John’s in the Village church, put the at the flowers and the sky, and suddenly had Leonard Bernstein, whose 70th birthday idea to Del Tredici, whose eyes welled up at this overwhelming sensation of happiness Del Tredici marked with a setting of verse the suggestion. Nevertheless, he responded: that I would never truly grow up. I want to by Joel Conarroe for voice, violin and pia- “There are too many Masses!” trap the ecstasy of life within my music; I “He already had some Herrick settings want to create sounds so beautiful that time done, or at least a bit worked,” Napier re- will stop.” Peloquin said Del Tredici dared to be called. “So the oratorio idea came from wanting to do a substantial work, but using open and take risks. “David dared to live and to compose in a material, or at least ideas, already on the way that combined the highest intellect and back burner.” A keen musician who makes the arts a virtuosity with an openness to reveal the centerpiece of his church’s mission, Napier soul of his being,” he said. “He took risks continued, “David loved having his music without considering the reactions and reperformed here — because of our wonderful percussions of his many adventures.” acoustic and intimate space.” Thomson is the founder and joint artistic William Anderson’s Roger Shapiro director of The Village Trip, which takes place Fund supported the commission. “‘Herrick’s Oratorio’ is one of the most for two weeks every September. For more inremarkable large-scale choral works by an formation, see TheVillageTrip.com. American composer,” he said. “I rate it up there with Andrew Imbrie’s ‘Adam.’ Imbrie and Del Tredici are both products of Princeton, where they both studied with Roger Sessions. David told me that his early Modernism is a resource for him. He’s always employing that body of knowledge, and we feel this clearly in ‘Herrick’s Oratorio.’” COVID, and problems with rehearsing what turned out to be a challenging piece, meant that “Herrick’s Oratorio” was sadly not premiered at The Village Trip this Sepno, appointed Del Tredici composer in resi- tember. But in 2021 we presented a concert dence at the New York Philharmonic. As it of Del Tredici piano music at St. John’s in the would sadly turn out, it was the conductor’s Village, the composer present to hear Marc last such appointment. Had Bernstein lived, Peloquin play. And at this year’s Village it’s probable that Del Tredici would have Trip, he came for the closing “repetitions” of received more high-profile commissions. Erik Satie’s 18-hour piano relay “Vexations,” Nevertheless, he composed works for most with Peloquin closing the marathon, held in of the major American and European sym- the lobby of N.Y.U.’s Paulson Center. Del phony orchestras, as well as countless cham- Tredici had played at the piece’s 1963 East ber and solo works. Village premiere overseen by John Cage. A David Del Tredici listening to pianist His “Herrick Oratorio,” premiered last short film has him speaking about the music. Marc Peloquin during the performance May by Cantori New York under the direcDavid Del Tredici believed firmly that of “Vexations” at The Village Trip this September. Photo by Liz Thomson tion of Mark Shapiro, in fact had its roots in the “purpose” of music was pleasure.

The Village Sun • December 2023

David Del Tredici, composer, Westbeth resident

The Village Sun • December 2023

EDITORIAL

LETTERS

M.S.B.I. emergency

C.B. 2 dropped ball

n June 2021, Mount Sinai scuttled a plan to close Beth Israel Hospital and replace it with a smaller, 70-bed mini-hospital a few blocks away. Driving the decision was the COVID health crisis and the urgent need for inpatient bed capacity. However, at the time, Beth Israel’s inpatient daily census had already been dropping. The vital healthcare hub — a renowned teaching hospital — is authorized for nearly 700 beds, yet today fills just 100. Critics say that’s on purpose — since Mount Sinai has been shifting services to its other hospitals. The historic Gramercy institution has been hemorrhaging funds for years. According to hospital officials, it’s projected to lose $150 million this year. Again, critics charge that if high-paying health services were kept there instead of being relocated, the hospital would be doing better financially. Cynics say the scheme is all just a real estate “land grab.” Following a few news reports in recent months that the closing plan had been revived and could happen within “the next year,” reality hit home when Mount Sinai recently announced the shuttering of Mount Sinai Beth Israel is, in fact, slated for July 12 — slightly more than half a year away. Hospital staff say the ramping down will come even earlier, by February or March, with just a “skeleton crew” left to run the emergency department and “med surge” for the final months. Local politicians showed a united front against the closure at a Nov. 28 public forum — the first public outreach Sinai has done about it. All the politicos, nurses, union members and concerned locals who spoke said M.S.B.I. is a critical facility for south of 23rd Street — and that Mount Sinai has not been transparent in its plan. Indeed, it was shocking to hear Sinai officials admit that for the past two years, they have worked with the New York State Department of Health to try to designate M.S.B.I. a “safety-net hospital” to qualify it for higher Medicaid reimbursements. Yet, Sinai says, there is a limited pot of funds for this use, making it a “zero sum game” — meaning other hospitals in needy areas also rely on this money. Sinai officials said other local emergency departments would pick up the slack, that there are dozens of urgent-care centers south of 42nd Street, that its 10 Union Square West health complex is “very robust” (a word they used a lot). They say healthcare is changing, with a focus on ambulatory care. But, as Borough President Mark Levine noted, nothing equals a full-service, 24-hour hospital. Mark Rubin, an I.C.U nurse at M.S.B.I., said that Beth Israel was founded to serve the indigent and that it’s a mission that still holds true. The East Village / Lower East Side is “a melting pot” of different races and ethnicities, a union representative and former nurse stressed, saying this population relies on M.S.B.I. St. Vincent’s Hospital’s closing in 2010 on the West Side, in Greenwich Village, was crushing, after which M.S.B.I. became a key safety valve. Yes, Bellevue Hospital is just north of M.S.B.I., with N.Y.U. Langone just a bit further north. But hospitals like Bellevue are already at capacity — plus, minutes matter with heart attacks and strokes. Congestion pricing would help cut gridlock, but it’s impossible to imagine a bottleneck-free Manhattan Central Business District. Our local politicians have all said they want to work with Sinai to save M.S.B.I. So, let’s get to work and find a way to keep this critical facility open!

To The Editor: Re “Lori Kleinman, garden leader, killed by SUV” (news article, November): In 2016 the city pitched a proposal to redesign Greenwich Avenue, making it safer for pedestrians to cross the street by narrowing the roadway and forcing drivers to drive slower when making the turn. The Community Board 2 Transportation Committee said no. Choresh Wald

Streets gone wild To The Editor: Re “OMG! Wrong-way e-biker fractures rev’s leg” (news article, November): I deeply feel for what Minister Bucey is going through. I was hit by a moped coming off a sidewalk one year ago, suffered a traumatic brain injury and was left semi-paralyzed on my right side. I have lost my livelihood as a cellist. I am so sorry to read about another vehicular assault. We are working hard to get licensing and registration for all e-vehicles made law through our new organization, EVSA (E-Vehicle Safety Alliance). Pam Manasse

Good editorial To The Editor: Re “Can we get along?” (editorial, November): A comparison of The Village Sun’s and The Village View’s November ed-

itorials on the Israel-Hamas conflict for workers’ rights and a safer social leaves me with a high regard for your network. Phil, I am sorry for the loss trenchantly responding to the moral/ of your great-aunt and the 145 othsocietal dimensions currently at play, er workers who perished on this day including the rash of people ripping of horror. Thank you for your part in down Israeli “KIDNAPPED” posters. keeping the light of memory shining. Congratulations on your spot-on approach, editorially. Karen Rempel As for Arthur Schwartz’s “tightrope” dancing, if you will, I am under- Park art and anger whelmed by his evasions and diversions To The Editor: into side issues and cop-outs. Re “New sculpture adds to East Your editorial did not step down into the quicksand pits of (im)moral River Park dystopia” (talking point, by Marcella Durand, November): equivalency! Thank you, Village Sun. The part of this artwork I did like Robert Reiss was the one with recycled core samples arranged in a design, with various Pricey new park colors. I thought it was simple and attractive, a good use of construction To The Editor: materials. Re “Gansevoort Peninsula park What I really like about this talking opens on Hudson” (news article, No- point, though, is that it gives voice to vember): the anger I, as well as many others, Looks great and so much easier feel about the destruction of grass and than building anyplace for low-in- beautiful trees in the park. I don’t live come New Yorkers. What was that near the park and hadn’t known much saying attributed to Marie Antoi- about it until I saw photos and a vidnette…“Let them eat cake.” The tour- eo of beautiful, flowering trees being ists will love it and they are the ones chainsawed into sawdust. Just horrible, that really count around here. How horrible, nasty, stupid, cold, bureaucratmuch did this cost? ic senselessness. We’re told this is necessary to preSophia DeMarco vent flooding, but the community had come up with a suggestion that its creEditor’s note: As stated in the article, ators insisted would have protected the the Gansevoort park cost $73 million. beauty and served the purpose of flood and storm protection. It was coldly disTragedy and progress missed by Councilmember Rivera and others. To The Editor: Re “‘A tangible site for memory and Carol Frances Yost action’: Triangle Fire Memorial is finally dedicated” (news article, November): The Village Sun welcomes readers’ letExcellent article, Phil and Lincoln. ters of up to 250 words. Letters are subThank you for helping readers under- ject to editing for length, clarity, gramstand the historical significance of this mar and factual accuracy. Anonymous event. Out of a terrible, heart-wrench- letters will not be run in the print edition. ing tragedy came tremendous progress Send letters to news@thevillagesun.com.

Lookin’ for love from above

laco — New York’s favorite ce- at the Central Park Zoo after somelebrity owl — touched down at one left a hole in his cage. The bird of the Grand Street co-ops on Nov. 8. prey took up residence in Central Park, Robin Herbst, a psychologist who frustrating efforts to recapture him. lives at the East River Houses, near East Luckily for Flaco, his fave dish is rats, River Park, said the Eurasian eagle-owl so New York is his kind of town. plopped down on her AC unit. On Oct. 31, the runaway raptor “I was only 85 percent certain it was ditched Central Park, and on Nov. 6 an owl, I’m ashamed to say,” she said. was spotted in Sara Roosevelt Park on But after she uploaded a photo of the Lower East Side. Birders specuthe famed avian to social media, peo- late that since he had been hooting in ple immediately ID’d it as Flaco. overdrive, he’s trying to attract a mate. “I posted this pic to our commuUnfortunately, Flaco seems nity Facebook page and they were so doomed to bachelorhood since he is happy to see him,” Herbst said, adding, the only Eurasian eagle-owl in the “He may be the most unifying force in wild in North America. After a week, NYC right now.” he winged it back — solo, sadly — to In February, Flaco flew the coop his favorite oak tree in Central Park.

Flaco chilling on an AC unit.

Photo by Robin Herbst

TALKING POINT BY KATHRYN FREED

A view of the congested F.D.R. Drive from the former Corlears Hook Bridge in late December 2021. The police vehicles at left were responding to a protest by park activists to save the East River Park amphitheater from demolition as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency plan. Photo by The Village Sun

a place where at least 51 percent of the population is minority and at least 23.5 percent of that group has an income lower than the rest of the population. In fact, every census tract but one in this area is an E.J.A. According to Community Board 3, roughly 42

In other words, high pollution is not compatible with human health. So, you could hardly find a worse area on which to inflict more pollution, given residents’ already diminished health and welfare. Making the situation worse, we are on track to lose 55 acres of mature parkland and well more than 1,000 trees due to the East Side Coastal Resiliency plan. We’ve already lost half of the park in the project’s phase one. It’s a cruel irony that residents next to this project are also being subjected to additional dust and pollution as that construction occurs. I am totally outraged. Why is no one percent of the population in C.B. 3 is below else screaming about this appalling situathe poverty level, 46 percent of seniors are tion? We need real mitigation — and I don’t below the poverty level, and 44 percent are mean an asthma center. We won’t accept adminorities, the latter comprising 81 percent ditional pollution when the rest of the CBD Freed is a retired State Supreme Court of the population below the poverty level. is getting less. This will damage our health (Normally, I would say “People of Color,” and our children’s health. The time to de- justice and former city councilmember reprebut the tables specifically use the term “mi- mand change is now, before the final plans senting Lower Manhattan’s District 1 from 1992 to 2001. She was co-counsel on a comnority.”) are made. There is an almost solid wall of limitWe also should demand that more trees, munity lawsuit seeking to block East River ed-income or low-income buildings next to specifically, more mature trees, be plant- Park’s destruction for the East Side Coastal the F.D.R. Drive here, mostly New York City ed in the East River Park area. Right now, Resiliency plan. Housing Authority. The one census tract (including East River Houses co-ops) not considered an E.J.A. was built as limited-income, and today many of its original residents are on limited incomes. It’s also a NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Community), like much of the rest of the area. Finally, at least 18 percent of area residents have a disability. Most appalling, this area already has among Manhattan’s highest levels of asthma and respiratory disease and heart disease. It also had an above-average rate of COVID and COVID deaths. Plus, a general medical study (not just for our area) released last month found there are greater premature births and low birth rates in highly polluted zones.

We need fewer cars — not an asthma center.

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ongestion pricing is coming. Most people either love it or hate it. Most of us acknowledge the need to reduce traffic and pollution, but are not sure the current proposal does that. This op-ed will examine the plan’s impacts on the Lower East Side, specifically the area next to the F.D.R. Drive from the Brooklyn Bridge to E. 10th Street. Congestion pricing (CP) was passed by the New York State Legislature and signed into effect in April 2019. The intent was to raise money, about $1 billion per year, up to at least $15 billion, for the transit system, and devise a scheme to cut the number of vehicles in the Central Business District by tolling vehicles that enter it. The CBD is Manhattan from the Battery to 60th Street, minus the F.D.R. Drive, the West Side Highway and the Hugh Carey (Brooklyn-Battery) Tunnel. In June, after fast-tracking by the Biden administration, New York State got the goahead to proceed with CP, after an Environmental Assessment rather than a more stringent Environmental Impact Statement. Several federal lawsuits have been filed contesting this determination, most notably by New Jersey. Several more are in the works. One group is actively exploring suing based on what it calls a tax on city residents, especially those living in or near the CBD. For more information on that group, check stopcongestionpricing.com. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, recognizing the projected additional pollution CP would cause in the South Bronx, has agreed to provide around $130 million in mitigation measures, including an asthma center, to try to reduce pollution or its impact on South Bronx residents. The M.T.A. has represented that it has about $20 million to deal with the effects of pollution in Manhattan, especially in the CBD. But the M.T.A. has not indicated it’s willing to make any special efforts to reduce pollution on the Lower East Side, even though its own projections show CP will drastically increase traffic and pollution in parts of our community. The E.A. established seven alternative-pricing schemes and one “No Action” proposal. Each scheme, according to the M.T.A.’s own figures, would raise congestion and pollution amounts in the area — along the F.D.R. Drive, Brooklyn Bridge to 10th Street — at least 5 percent or greater. And, incredibly, in at least three alternatives, pollution and congestion in the F.D.R.’s southbound traffic would increase from 19 percent to 26 percent. So, while the rest of the CBD will see fewer vehicles and less pollution, our area will get an increase. Even more outrageous, this area by the F.D.R. is an Environmental Justice Area (E.J.A.). An E.J.A. is defined as

only saplings are proposed; it will take 20 to 30 years to get both pollution protection and shade from these saplings equal to that of the old East River Park. We also need more grass and natural surfaces for the park. Plants soak up water and capture carbon; they actually produce oxygen while lowering pollution and greenhouse gasses. Currently, park plans call for 62 percent hard and artificial surfaces, which do none of these things. (I could go on about artificial turf ’s dangers and disadvantages, and why pro sports teams are demanding natural turf, or why many American cities are banning fake turf.) Finally, here’s the best thing that could be done for this neighborhood: decking over portions of the F.D.R. Drive and installing air filters to remove the highway’s pollution — pollution that’s already too high. We could put playing fields on top, maybe even connect it to the reconstructed East River Park. This deck could possibly even house surface mass transportation, like a Second Avenue subway extension. If you’re worried about your view next to the former park, remember, there will be a new floodwall there 8 feet to 10 feet tall anyway. Also, as long as the F.D.R. Drive is subject to flooding, it is more and more likely that its infrastructure is eroding and will need replacement. Yet, the park coastal resiliency project does nothing to alleviate the impact of heavy rainfall. After September’s downpour, three of four buildings in my co-op, which is right next to the F.D.R., flooded. It was worse than what happened during Hurricane Sandy. Adding larger catch basins next to and under the F.D.R. could help prevent flooding. Why not make real change?

The Village Sun • December 2023

Congestion pricing would fuel pollution on LES

The Village Sun • December 2023

Protests: ‘Blood,’ glue, boos, blocked bridge BY THE VILLAGE SUN

hanksgiving week saw a flurry of actions by Palestinian supporters demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. On Thanksgiving, about an hour and a half into the Macy’s parade, a group of protesters jumped in between the giant cartoon balloons and promptly glued their hands to Sixth Avenue a few blocks south of the Fox News offices. Fellow demonstrators doused them with a red liquid, as other comrades toted a banner reading, “Liberation for Palestine and Planet.” They sported white jumpsuits with slogans on their chests and backs, like “Racism,” “Consumerism,” “Militarism,” “Fascism,” “Colonialism,” “Imperialism” and “Ethnic Cleansing.” However, parade spectators angrily booed Around 2,000 protesters gathered in Washington Square Park on Black Friday. Photos by Q. Sakamaki them for holding up the cherished holiday tradition. The demonstrators blocked the procession reportedly for at least 15 minutes as taken into custody, both at the parade and go a number of Palestinian prisoners. The next day, Black Friday, an estimatpolice worked to remove them. For their civil afterward, though only four were ultimately disobedience in holding up the parade, some charged with offenses, such as disorderly con- ed 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters rallied in Washington Square Park. Muslims prostratduct and obstructing the street. were arrested. A four-day humanitarian pause in the ed themselves en masse in the fountain plaAfterward, pro-Palestinian protesters met up at Madison Square Park, then marched Middle East conflict had just started. During za, praying toward Mecca. Others chanted the break, Hamas released some of the hostag- slogans, including, “From the river to the sea, over to Macy’s. Police said a total of 34 protesters were es it captured on 10/7 and Israel, in return, let Palestine will be free,” considered by many to be a call for Israel’s elimination. According to the New York Post, there were also a smaller number of pro-Israel supporters in the park. Gathered on the rally’s fringe, they called for Hamas to release all hostages seized in the horrific 10/7 attack. “Bring them home!” they chanted. “Go back to Poland!” one of the Palestinian supporters reportedly bizarrely retorted. Some of the group then marched up Sixth Avenue to slam Black Friday outside Macy’s at 34th Street. “While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping!” they yelled. Then, on Sun., Nov. 26, the nation’s busiest travel day, 1,500 interfaith protesters blocked traffic on the Manhattan Bridge, calling for the pause to become a lasting ceasefire. Among A man glued himself to Sixth Avenue, blocking the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. them were Jewish Voice for Peace members,

10 A demonstrator, covered in fake blood, being arrested at the Thanksgiving Parade.

Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour and Reverend Jacqui Lewis of the East Village’s Middle Collegiate Church. Lewis accused Israel of “genocide.” “Eighty percent of the bombs dropped in Gaza — destroying hospitals, U.N. agencies, schools and refugee camps — are made in the USA,” she said. “As a US citizen and as a minister, I cannot stay silent while genocide is enacted in my name.” On Nov. 27, Congressmember Dan Goldman, representing Manhattan south of 14th Street, plus part of Brooklyn, called the humanitarian pause only a “start down the pathway” to ending the war. “While I’m encouraged that this pause will continue in the coming days to allow for additional hostages to be released and more aid to be delivered, this is not a time for unbridled celebration,” he said. “Rather, this is simply a much-belated start down the pathway toward a conclusion to this war brutally initiated by Hamas on Oct. 7. “On Oct. 6, a ‘mutual and unconditional ceasefire’ existed between Israel and Hamas dating back to May 2021,” Goldman said. “On Oct. 7, Hamas, a Designated Terrorist Organization akin to ISIS, savagely attacked Israel, brutally raping, torturing and murdering approximately 1,200 Israelis and illegally abducting more than 200 civilians, including 33 children and citizens of more than 40 countries, most of whom remain in captivity in Gaza more than seven weeks later. Since the Oct. 7 massacre, Hamas leaders have expressly stated a determination to attack Israel until they achieve their objective of eliminating Israel and killing all Jews. “A resolution that would allow for the end of hostilities must not only include the release of all illegally abducted Israeli hostages but also the full military and political surrender by Hamas and its removal from Gaza. “Unless those conditions are met,” Goldman said, “the United States must continue to support Israel’s just and legitimate defense of its borders and its people against a terrorist enemy dedicated to its annihilation.”

On Black Friday, pro-Palestinian supporters marched up to Macy’s in Midtown.

BY CAROLINE BENVENISTE

his month was a bit quieter than the last few, and there were few discernible themes. We have noticed, though, that Asian spots and sweets continue to flock to the Village. Top Openings: Andie’s Eats – 185 Bleecker St., near MacDougal Street This cake jar bakery has opened where Brooklyn Kolache used to be. The owner, Andie Regan, started her business as a college student at Tulane. Her colorful cake jars are filled with layers of cake scraps, fillings, frosting and toppings. Customers have the option of building their own or choosing from a selection of premade ones. The funfetti, which I tried, was delicious and fun to eat. There are also a few gluten-free options. This is the shop’s fourth location on the East Coast. Honey Bunny – Market 57, 25 11th Ave., at 15th Street, in Hudson River Park Honey Bunny is the first residency at Good To Go, a kiosk in Market 57 which is an incubator for new fast-casual concepts managed by the James Beard Foundation. The chef behind Honey Bunny is the affable Jared Howard, and the menu revolves around his Maryland fried chicken. The chicken sandwich packs chicken tenders between two homemade biscuit halves and comes with Old Bay chips. The result is outstanding! Each chef chosen for Good To Go will spend six months in the program, and during that time will receive help from the James Beard Foundation on how to optimize his or her concept to allow them to continue to develop it after the residency. Honey Bunny opened in September and will be operating until the end of February.

Unfortunately, that iteration of the space unexpectedly closed a few months later. Chez Stanley, “a casual restaurant inspired by the neighborhood bistros of Paris,” will be opening at 93 Greenwich Ave., between W. 12th and Bank Streets. Recently, this operator decided to annex the next-door space at 95 Greenwich Ave., former home of the now greatly missed El Condor. According to their updated liquor license application, the larger Chez Stanley will offer “a tightly curated seasonal menu of fresh salads, cured meats, cheese, warm bread and slow-cooked main courses. Complementing the food is a drink menu of small production wines, classic cocktails and aperitifs, as well as press pot coffee, espresso and loose-leaf tea.” Hirado, an omakase restaurant, will open at 357 Bleecker St. (between Charles and W. Figs stuffed with chocolate ganache, dipped in Ecuadorian chocolate and accented 10th Streets). Paul Smith had a store at the with gold leaf at Dandelion Chocolate. Photos by Caroline Benveniste location for years. The owner of Hirado has other Japanese restaurants around the city Village Zero Waste Shop and Refillery (50 Loong Kan (22 E. 13th St., between Fifth and in Canada, including Pâtisserie Fouet, University Place between E. Ninth and E. Avenue and University Place) will open in a Japanese-inspired French bakery at 15 E. 10th Streets) helps Village denizens reduce the old home of Babu Ji. That once well-re- 13th St. (between Fifth Avenue and Univerplastic waste. Products like hand soap, dish garded Indian restaurant originally opened sity Place). soap, detergent, shampoo and more are sold in the East Village but then shuttered in in bulk. You can bring your own containers, 2016 after accusations by its employees of Other: Shmoné, Israeli chef Ayal Shani’s liveuse upcycled ones for free or purchase some wage theft. Babu Ji reopened on E. 13th ly restaurant at 61 W. Eighth St. (between Street in the old All’onda space in 2017 but to reuse. There are also composting supplies available. In addition to this location, closed again a few years later and the space Sixth Avenue and MacDougal Street) there is one at 318 E. Ninth St. KazuNori, has languished ever since. Shoo Loong Kan earned a Michelin star in the guide’s latthe handroll chainlet from Sugarfish, has promises “an authentic Sichuan-style hotpot est edition. According to news outlet ISopened its fourth location at 205 Bleecker experience,” and has a positively reviewed lo- RAEL21c, Shani “skipped a special ceremony in New York, awarding him his St. (east of Sixth Avenue). This long-emp- cation in Flushing, Queens, as well as a few first-ever Michelin star, to cook for IDF in Texas and on the West Coast. The large, ty space housed a branch of Ikinari Steak, soldiers stationed along the border with a Japanese fast-casual steak concept. Re- linear space at 208 W. 14th St. (between the Gaza Strip.” cently another KazuNori opened at 125 Seventh and Eighth Avenues) will soon house branches of MomenTea Kitchen and University Place in the Union Square area. We can always use your help! Please write Mēdüzā Mediterrania, at 657 Hudson St., Sushi Makoto. Silver Spoon Cafe opened to us at vsuncandg@gmail.com to let us know there in January 2022, serving what one reis a large, new restaurant in the Gansevoort what you’re seeing! viewer called “Comfort Cuisine for Foodies.” Hotel. There are 245 seats in three dining

rooms, including a glass-enclosed atrium. The menu is inspired by Mediterranean cuisine but has some Asian influences, as well. Also Open: Finally, after a long wait, Plantshed has Grove Street Social (61 Grove St., west opened at 46 Eighth Ave. (at Jane Street). of Seventh Ave. South) is a new bar that There are a cafe, plants and home goods serves cocktails and small plates to accom(many of them plant-related) featured at pany the drinks. The space was previously this pretty and airy shop. This is the fourth the short-lived Korean drinking spot Bar location in New York. The Huntress is an Ninano. Local Hoops “is focused on buildunusual store that has opened at 632 Hud- ing a global community around the game of son St. (between Jane and Horatio Streets). basketball.” Their store at 85 Christopher The space is lovely and quirky, with home St. (west of Bleecker Street) sells basketgoods, vintage finds and a selection of items balls and branded clothing, such as sweats, to cleanse your home, such as a sage smudge T-shirts, hats and sneakers. kit. Dandelion Chocolate sells two-ingredient, single-origin dark chocolate (most Closed: 70 percent cocoa) made from cocoa beans Scotch and Soda — 317 Bleecker St., and sugar. This San Francisco brand has at Grove Street, has shuttered. The Dutch opened a store at 395 Bleecker St. (between chain sold men’s and women’s apparel. For a Perry and West 11th Streets) that is slated while, Blank Street Coffee opened location to remain open until March 2024, but may after location in the Village, but finally, one stay longer depending on how popular it has closed: The branch at Seventh Avenue is. Samples of the different chocolates are near 13th Street disappeared at the end of available to taste at the store. Other prod- October. ucts, such as various truffles (including chocolate-dipped figs) and hazelnut choc- Coming Soon: olate spread, are also for sale. A Sustainable A Chinese hot pot restaurant Shoo

Reduce plastic waste by refilling your soap, shampoo and more at A Sustainable Village. You can bring your own containers.

The Village Sun • December 2023

Comings & Goings

The Village Sun • December 2023

Teddy Swims in a soulful flow at Terminal 5 BY EVERYNIGHT CHARLEY CRESPO

eddy Swims is a man of mystery in that, despite his rocketing fame, he intentionally is keeping his private life out of the public eye. For the most part, the 31-year-old singer-songwriter is letting his lyrics do the talking, and his message is that he is a lover, not a fighter. Everything else about him is left to speculation. Born and raised in Georgia, the man named at birth Jaten Collin Dimsdale forged a career in music by posting videos on social media of himself in his bedroom studio singing popular cover songs. Gaining a substantial online following, he rebranded himself as Teddy Swims and pivoted a hobby into a profession. Signed to a recording contract, he recorded several singles and four EPs. Most recently, he released a debut album, “I’ve Tried Everything but Therapy (Part 1),” on Sept. 15. A week after the album’s release, Swims performed locally at a pizza festival in Brooklyn. A two-month North American tour brought him as a headliner to his first major New York City stage, Terminal 5, on Nov. 14. He was backed by a five-piece band, Freak Freely, whom, during the concert, he repeatedly referred to as his best friends. On stage, Swims was a sight, with countless tattoos across his bald head and above his eyebrows, bearded cheeks, red fingernails and white-

he was leading the music ministry in a church service. Swims’s vocal strengths remained consistently soulful and passionate, and the Freak Freely band helped highlight the power of Swims’s vocal range with sparkling arrangements that never stole the spotlight. Between songs, Swims professed love and gratitude for his fans, who responded with cheers to just about anything he said. Introducing “What More Can I Say,” he spoke about the trouble he had when an ex-girlfriend found photographs of another woman on his cell phone. This might have seemed like he was revealing something new, but the episode was clearly defined in the lyrics. He later dedicated “You’re Still the One” to his mother. He dedicated “Amazing” to the fans who attended the concert with their lovers. Authenticity is a huge part of Swims’s appeal. He seemed to wear his heart on his Along with an authentic style, the singer sports his trademark tattoos. sleeve, seemingly getting emotional during Photo by Everynight Charley Crespo and between his songs. Swims’s performance was honest, heartfelt and even raw, far more framed sunglasses perched on his head. A long covers of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and than the average performer. Nevertheless, by raincoat with overly long sleeves covered most of Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One.” not revealing any personal anecdotes beyond a colorful shirt and white, cuffed trousers. Swims is reportedly the grandson of a Pen- the content established in his song lyrics, he He started the concert wearing thick black tecostal preacher, and that influence seemed to invited his fans into his world, yet protectively socks with no shoes. Later, he slid white sneak- be present. Early in the show, before his voice kept them at arm’s length. ers over his socks. Throughout the evening, he warmed, he cleverly turned his microphone paced back and forth across the wide stage as he to the audience at moments when he was not For more of Everynight Charley Crespo’s covcrooned and swooned through 20 songs, includ- reaching the higher notes. For most of the erage of New York City’s music scene, check his blog, ing eight from his album, earlier viral hits and performance, however, he sang powerfully, like The Manhattan Beat.

BY GIL J. EISNER

ennifer Elster, native New Yorker and multimedia artist, presents her latest exhibition, “QUITE A BITE,” in the 19th-century structure that houses The Development Gallery in Tribeca, where everything is part of the show. Elster’s art ranges from historical assemblages and text-heavy paintings and sculptures to photographic series. “QUITE A BITE” includes works both never before seen and spanning more than three decades of intense, highly instinctual, and, what Elster calls, often-prophetic artistic creation. Upon entering the 4,000-square-foot space there is a maniacal collage of paintings orbiting a work called “Mad Face,” scattered on a wall. Walk in further, through assemblages of warnings and questions prompted by the artist, made with everything from paper towels to scraps of paper, expressing her desperation to communicate. Plastic concealents cover assemblages that address a range of subjects, such as her proximity to the Twin Towers on 9/11, and lead us right to our current world crises. Elster’s unique and distinct handwriting scrawled on wooden planks blurts out to us from a plinth. Circle the plinth and notice a plank that reads, “How Can I Explain No Time to Divide.” Hanging construction lights pointedly illuminate the art while the ductwork makes its own insane pattern on the ceiling. The juxtaposition of disarray with the grandeur of 16foot Corinthian columns running down the center of the space creates a strange, unique journey. In another part of the gallery, enter “The Garden of Artifacts,” assemblages from Elster’s own life, including homages to meaningful people. A chalice from her childhood crowns the assemblages of treasures: “Somehow it made

Anthony Haden-Guest reading poetry.

Artist Jennifer Elster at the show’s opening night party.

The Village Sun • December 2023

Quite a bit to ponder at ‘QUITE A BITE’ show

Photos courtesy The Development Gallery

A message at the “QUITE A BITE” show.

most dire of circumstances. A gas mask and Hanging on a nail in the brick wall is a suit lie in a cot, entitled “A Graveyard From it through,” Tomorrow’s Despair.” A reminder of the frathe artist houndstooth blazer worn by singer David gility of our existence and the looming world says. Wood cut from her tree, stones collected Bowie during Elster’s work styling him for his crises. through time, roses from momentous occa- “1. Outside” album. A large, barren brick wall features a conA silver plate given to her by her psychosions. “The Birds are Frolicking” on her grandstruction light hanging over “Weathered parents-in-laws’ silver anniversary platter. analyst, who possessed one of Elster’s favorite Woman,” a graphite sketch of a figure who Bouquets of dried flowers she collected from minds, and a coconut head reminding us of appears to have seen too much. Hawaii’s recent climate issues, also make their her grandfather’s front lawn the day he died. Elster’s text paintings of collective conChimes, Elster’s signature sound transi- debuts. cerns are an accumulation of both worry and Apocalyptic predictions infused with tion between her live performances in the galrebellion. lery, are displayed as a tribute to their original the artist’s obstinate, dark optimism crackle Her own skull and teeth are on display in throughout. owner, her recently deceased uncle. the photographs “My Bite,” “Quite a Bite” and Self-portraits entitled “Warfare,” showAn ode to Indigenous Americans includes “Same, We Are.” gifts from the chief of the Ramapough Nation ing Elster in a gas mask and suit, dance on The artist invites us in to explore her remand a pouch from the chance meeting Elster the walls like past cautionary messages. These iniscence, foresight and thought provocations, had with a Native man in the desert when she pieces create their own pattern of fears that which lead us back to ourselves. beckon the audience to pay attention to the was in a desperate state of depression. Perhaps the overarching question the show poses is: “With such beauty in the world, how did we end up here?” There were performances throughout the evening on Nov. 16, opening night. Elster held forth in readings and song. Also shown were two of her short films, “Nuclear Codes, 2016” and “In the Woods Pathway No. 1-2,” featuring Glenn O’Brien and Jorgen Leth. Anthony Haden-Guest performed spoken word in front of a giant X-ray of Elster’s teeth. Failure Egg, featuring Jack Helfrich, Rob Roth and Jemila MacEwan, debuted “scurry, scurry,” a live, interactive, audio visual performance.

Jack Helfrich, right, of Failure Egg hanging out with a friend.

Jennifer Elster’s “QUITE A BITE” runs through Dec. 23 at The Development Gallery, at 75 Leonard St. Follow ChannelELSTER.com for new work and updates on programming and @TheDevelopmentGallery on Instagram. For inquiries, including on art, e-mail AtachiAtTheDevelopment@gmail.com.

The Village Sun • December 2023

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Scooby Scoop: Hospital beds to harpoons W

INGING IT: Don’t say the Washington Square Association doesn’t know how to rock Halloween. Board member Erika Sumner was an avenging angel, while her brother, W.S.A. President Trevor Sumner was Lightning from the movie “Big Trouble in Little China,” and friend Thelis Negron was a space fairy. On top of that, Erika gave away 44 pounds of candy to trick-or-treating local kids. “P.S.,” she said, “next year I’m ordering 55 pounds of candy.” BEDDER LATE THAN NEVER: Lenox Health Greenwich Village could be getting some inpatient hospital beds soon. Since opening in 2014, the place has been a stand-alone, 24-hour emergency room and comprehensive healthcare center. But, to local residents’ chagrin, as “stand-alone” indicates, it’s not connected to a full-service hospital with beds. However, at the October meeting of the Community Board 2 Health and Human Services Committee, Northwell Health doctors and administrators said they anticipated eight hospital beds on site at L.H.G.V. by 2025, with four more planned in the future, for a total of 12. Margarita Oksenkrug, a Northwell spokesperson, told us she couldn’t confirm anything right now but would be sure to keep us updated. DAPOLITO…FUGHEDABOUTIT? What’s going on with the Tony Dapolito Rec Center, already? “The Dap,” as it’s known for short, has sat empty for a few years now, as a planned renovation seems to have sputtered out. The only activity at the place, at Seventh Avenue South and Clarkson Streets, is the e-bike delivery guys hanging out in front. We’ve recently even heard talk that the building might not survive. Kelsey Jean-Baptiste, the Parks Department’s press officer, told us, “The overall reconstruction of Tony Dapolito Recreation Center requires emergency structural stabilization work before the larger planned project can begin. This building is over 100-plus years old and therefore is a complex project that requires significant engineering studies. We will keep the community board updated as we move forward with repairs and evaluation of the facility.” The building is named after the legendary former C.B. 2 Chairperson Tony Dapolito. If he were around today and heard his center was endangered, we’re sure he would utter an outraged, “Fughedaboutit!” THEATER, AHOY! Ori Kushnir, the new owner of St. Mark’s Theatre 80, has been telling us he’s close to landing a new theater tenant for the space. In October, he reported they “have a draft lease out to a theater company.” But we haven’t heard any updates since. He also cleaned out the whole building and found a bunch of “Moby Dick”-style harpoons that former owner Lorcan Otway left behind, which he sent to Otway. SHOE-BE-DO-BE: We were enjoying a bite to eat at North Square restaurant at the Washington Square Hotel the other weekend, when our friend was dazzled by a distinguished-looking gentleman’s stylish shoes. They were two-tone, with slate-green vamps. An associate informed us that the man in the shoes was none other than Alexander Nehamas, the famed “love philosopher.” The place’s whole back room, in fact, had been commandeered for a VIP party for a “Love Conference” that was occurring at New York University. Were they all wearing amazing footwear? FIVE TASTES SWEET: Cabin restaurant, at 205 E. Fourth St., recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. The place is the passion project of brothers Dennis and Joey Aponte, who grew up in a single-parent,

immigrant family in Section 8 housing in the nearby Vladeck Houses. Their hard-working mom labored at Gouverneur Hospital for 35 years. Local activist Frank Gonzalez gave the bros kudos for marking the milestone, saying it’s no easy feat, especially for local Latino kids. Chef Dennis echoed, “Out here in Alphabet City and the Lower East Side, there’s not many of us — Latino-owned restaurants.” The food is a big part of their success, including their famous “sand clock” fried chicken, crispy Brussels sprouts and tasty tapas, like bacon-wrapped dates. “It’s all food science,” Dennis explained. “I learned from a celebrity chef, Jordan From left, Thelis Negron, Erika Sumner and Andino. He gave me the opportunity to cook with Trevor Sumner on Halloween. Courtesy Erika Sumner him at James Beard House.” The third member of their team is manager Dresdent “Dre” Baluyot, who brings MAN IN THE VAN: Landon Semones, the a hospitality-industry background. Guests at the anbusker who balances motionless on the front wheel of a bike for hours in Washington Square Park and lives for months in a purple van parked in front of 2 Fifth Ave. just outside the park, recently departed for the South, where he’s from. His pattern is to live on the street in Greenwich Village from May to October, then head to New Orleans for Halloween to “do the statue,” as he puts it, then on to North Carolina, where he has family. The Fifth Avenue spot is perfect for him because it has street bike racks in front where he can park his custom-built bike, which is very heavy. “I have an apartment on Fifth Avenue,” Semones crowed to us a couple of months before he left. He also sometimes does poetry on a typewriter in the park. But he’s From left, Dennis Aponte, Joey Aponte had some friction with some in the tony co-op. Things and Joseph Ayala of the N.Y.P.D. Hispanic came to a head when Sixth Precinct police gave him a Society at Cabin’s fifth anniversary party. ticket for fixing a motorcycle on the sidewalk outside Photo by The Village Sun his vehicle. But local resident Pam Wang vouched that the motorbike was hers, and Semones eventually beat niversary bash included Seven Guzman, son of LES the rap. Semones intends to return to the spot again in homegrown actor Luiz Guzman, along with Freaky the spring and sees no reason to move: “Why should I?” Fridge. The N.Y.P.D. Hispanic Society was also in the he said. “I’m established. I’ve been pushed around my house. “These guys, the Aponte brothers, they’re a suc- entire life. … They may own the building,” he scoffed. cess story for the Lower East Side, what they’ve done,” “The city may own the sidewalk and the parking space. said Joseph Ayala, the society’s president. Just don’t But I own the gutter — I sweep it every day.” He said ask them about the place’s backyard garden, which has one guy in 2 Fifth Ave. even lets him shower in his been shut down since COVID. Community Board 3 place, as do some others in the area. However, another told us they did have “a complaint” about use of the co-op member told us, requesting anonymity, “I think backyard the same month as the anniversary, as well he’s an eyesore. ... He puts out chairs and has people as previously. Dennis, though, said Cabin wrongly gets hang out.” After one tiff with someone in the high-rise blamed for noise coming from backyard parties at the who wanted him gone, Semones chalked a message on the sidewalk: “2 Fifth Ave. people are s---ty.” Said the Jared Kushner-owned building next door. MOSQUE MANEUVERS: Mustapha, our co-op owner, “If we’re so bad — then leave.” contact at Madina Masjid, at 11th Street and First Avenue, tells us that, as of now, it doesn’t look like the place’s worshipers will be moving to a swing space after all as the mosque readies for a planned facade replacement and interior renovation. This summer, the mosque was mulling the idea. But, at $20,000 a month, the temporary space, on the west side of the avenue between 10th and 11th Streets, proved too expensive, he said. Instead, the mosque intends to renovate its existing building while still maintaining services there. The interior work will start from the top. Floors will also be added at the east end of the property, where the mosque’s minaret currently rises. The exterior will be given a more ornate look. Asked when the work would start, Mustapha shrugged, “God knows,” noting that was a quote not from the Koran but from “I Want To Break Free,” by Freddie Mercury, whom he insisted was a Muslim. Umm…actually Zoroastrian. Anyway, we trust his mosque report was more accurate than his Landon Semones striking a peaceful pose earlier this fall. Photo by The Village Sun rock trivia.

rupted world. This is a trial of women who are not perfect, but we are all here because we are dedicated to peace and nonviolence, willing to make great sacrifices on behalf of others. So when you heard our character references, from mayors, bankers, teachers and the former executive director of Greenpeace and Amnesty [International], you can see that we have loving goals, not selfish goals. “I believe that the staff, shareholders and customers of this corporation want the economy to continue — they’re not in business to intentionally destroy capitalism,” Farrell continued. “And I have to believe that they can’t know the extent of the deadliness of the projects they fund. As one of my co-defendants said, ‘To believe that all the people in the HSBC building support killing and displacing people would mean an awful lot of people are sociopaths and that can’t be true.’ “Ultimately, my guess is that the people who work for this bank aren’t so different from me and from you. And I don’t think any of us would do something if we knew it would cause so much death and human suffering.” Earthalujah!!!

OP-ED-ALUJAH! BY REVEREND BILLY

nce in a while something happens where we see daylight — the power of individuals and communities suddenly returns. Such a thing happened in London, when a couple of years ago nine women associated with Extinction Rebellion-UK walked up to the headquarters of a key climate criminal, HSBC, and — being careful not to hurt anyone — smashed the giant front windows of the company’s headquarters. The British government threw the book at the women, agreeing with the bank that the cost was £500,000 and limiting the de- The nine environmental activists outside the HSBC bank HQ before their action. fendants’ ability to travel, etc. But after a six- Extinction Rebellion week trial, the jury found the activist women Not Guilty! Their straightforward case was a toxins being financed by the bank. They and experience into the courtroom. And “Necessity Defense.” The women demonstrat- started things off with an open mind, and then she told you to put aside your personal ed that a small amount of property damage built the details into a big picture. They thoughts. She told you to disengage emocontrasts dramatically with the worldwide put what was before them to the “common tionally. Maybe that’s what the board of violence of HSBC’s fossil-fuel emissions. sense test.” After listening to the defendants HSBC tells their staff to do, too? The activists argued that their simple demon- passionately defend humanity and the plan“There are many people I have known stration was a necessary moral lesson in a et Earth, the jury took only two hours of over the years who work somewhere that is political world where people cannot defend deliberation to set them free. not living up to the ethics they would like themselves against suffering and early death. In her closing speech to the jury, Clare to see in the world, but they stay — to keep Reverend Billy (a.k.a. Bill Talen) and the The jury acted as an island of actual de- Farrell, a co-founder of Extinction Rebel- their salary and pay the rent or mortgage — Stop Shopping Choir will perform at Joe’s Pub, mocracy. They asked for materials to help lion, said: and continue to wish that the organization at 425 Lafayette St., on Sun., Dec. 10, and them understand the fine print in the Paris “The prosecutor explained yesterday how will change. Sun., Dec. 17, at 6 p.m. For tickets ($15) and “We are trying to live honestly in a cor- more information, visit revbilly.com. Climate Agreement. The jurors studied the important it is that you bring your wisdom

The Village Sun • December 2023

London 9 are cleared in megabank window smash

Nepal and passing of Pax, my spirit animal CITY DOG BY LYNN PACIFICO

inally on the journey I’d planned three years ago, while standing by the Buddha stupa in Kathmandu, a large black street dog came over to me and flipped onto its back on my foot. The dog was smiling and wiggling around. I took a photo. Then a strong feeling of love welled up within me. Unbeknownst to me, at that same time, my ex-service dog Pax died. Pax was a fixture for years at local community advisory meetings. Knowing that nothing fun would happen at those meetings and that she would lie on a hard floor for hours while humans talked, she would whine a complaint: “Not this again! Let’s leave!” But, an obedient dog, she lay down quietly and waited. I felt guilty for dragging her to all the meetings. Instead, we should have been out enjoying the company of others, playing ball and enjoying walks. I first saw Pax when the late New York Council of Dog Owner Groups President Bob Marino, shared a plea for her from Must Love Dogs — Saving NYC Dogs, a volunteer group for NY Animal Care and Control. Pax

was a volunteer favorite because of her friendly, sweet nature, but was to be killed the next morning because she had kennel cough. I was thinking about getting a service dog and she was part Lab, so I put a hold on her. If I had met her first, I might not have taken her since, picked up as a stray, she was feral. Then, at the Animal Care Center, she had been kept in a cage 23 hours a day. She was just seven months old and it took two hands to hold her leash. I hired a trainer right away and Pax was a quick study. A natural as a service dog, she would put her chin on my knees when she sensed an episode coming. If I didn’t pay attention she would press harder until I couldn’t ignore her. She would lie down with me till it passed. Her pillow name was “Stinky Monkey.” Bike advocate George Bliss’s bike shop was close, so Pax and George’s pit/Rottie puppy Moxy became playmates until they got older and Pax became selective of who she let close. I heard recently that George has lost Moxy. Pax and I would go down to the Leroy Street dog run for fetch, her favorite game. Unfortunately, the run’s hard surface was rough on her and she began to have difficulty getting up after playing ball, whimpering and limping. I began to limit her ball playing, going instead

Pax laughing at wearing mom Jehan’s hat. Photo by Jehan Selim Harney

to the Hudson River Park’s lawn, where Pax would watch the rats and other wildlife. Strangers don’t approach when you’re with a large, blackish (dark brown) pit bull. But she would have been welcoming since she always seemed to be searching for someone. She was looking for a specific young man/boy, someone she loved dearly from her past. She pined for him. When Pax was 8, I realized that I could no longer bring her to the Leroy St run since

she was now in dire pain after even a short ball session. I found a family in Queens with a backyard who wanted her. She knew, in that way of hers, that I was giving her away and she complained during the ride to her new home, emphatically whining, “No!” I will never forget her watching me leave. She was well-loved and happy in her new home, which included two teen sons. It felt better that she got a boy to love. It had been four years since then when I received the news in Nepal: “Pax passed away peacefully while sleeping last night. She had cancer. Her condition deteriorated and she was having a hard time walking. I felt there was the soul of a monk in Pax. The joy and beauty she exudes… the compassion n love… Ironic how she sat in our backyard by the Buddha statue on top of where she would eventually rest… she loved that spot. Rest in peace, beloved Pax. U will always be in our hearts.” If I was still in Nepal, I would go back to find that street dog with treats, thank it for channeling Pax and tell it what a great dog Pax was. Pacifico is a fourth-generation Villager who 15 loves dogs, nature and New York City.

The Village Sun • December 2023

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