West Side Spirit April 24th, 2014 by West Side Spirit

The local paper for the Upper per West Side p Sid DRAWING GENERATIONS OF FAMILY ART, P. 14

WEEK OF APRIL

24 2014

NYPRESS.COM

WestSideSpirit @WestSideSpirit

WEST SIDE WELCOMES NEW PRECINCT COMMANDER

In Brief MAJOR DRUG BUST IN NYC

CRIME Commander Marlon Larin introduces himself to the community, talks crime in the neighborhood BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

UPPER WEST SIDE Police Commissioner Bill Bratton recently reassigned a half-dozen precinct commanders in jurisdictions that extend north of 86th Street as part of a sweeping reorganization that entailed over 60 management changes citywide. Included in the shakeup was 24th Precinct Inspector Nancy Barry, who was promoted to a precinct in the Bronx, according to the 24th Precinct’s Community Council President Tom Burnett. At her desk now sits Commander Marlon Larin, who introduced himself at a recent meeting with residents. A 13-year veteran of the force, Larin’s last post was as second-in-command of the 25th Precinct, which covers portions of East Harlem, where he grew up. Larin said under the progressive new mayor and commissioner – Mayor Bill de Blasio did away with stop-and-frisk and Bratton disbanded the NYPD unit that spied on Muslims – he’s planning to foster a culture of respect for residents in the precinct. “The mission of the 24th Precinct is the same mission that Inspector Barry was carrying…which is to carry on this department in a constitutional, respectful and compassionate manner,” said Larin. “Those were the three words that were coined by the administration and that’s something that we’re looking to continue going forward.” Serious crimes do occur in the precinct, whose territory includes half of

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CITY TO HALVE HOMELESS SHELTER RESIDENTS HOMELESSNESS People living at Freedom House agree that the city should reduce the number of residents there BY MARY NEWMAN

UPPER WEST SIDE Last week, city officials announced that the homeless shelter at 316-330 West 95th Street, known as Freedom House, will be reducing the number of people it houses by half, by November

of this year. The emergency shelter has generated heated debate in the neighborhood since its opening in 2012, and the announcement elicited sighs of relief as well as more debate surrounding the use of the building and the concentration of homeless services on the Upper West Side. Many West Side residents have opposed the use of Freedom House by the Department of Homeless Services. The local nonproﬁt organization Neighborhood in the Nineties

Freedom House, on West 95th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, has become a ﬂashpoint in the debate about the city’s use of emergency shelters in the neighborhood. Photo by Mary Newman

ﬁled a lawsuit to stop the practice, arguing that the building should be converted to its intended use as inexpensive rentals. Their suit was rejected by the state Supreme Court this month, but the group made it clear they will continue to ﬁght for the shelter’s closing. “The shelter must be closed entirely and returned to affordable housing for the working poor,” read a statement by Neighborhood in the Nineties.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

Authorities in New York arrested three suspects in a major drug bust last week. The Drug Enforcement Administration announced Wednesday that more than $12 million in heroin and crystal meth reportedly was confiscated in the arrests. The acting head of the DEA in New York, James Hunt, tells Newsday the seizure from a Washington Heights apartment building is a “significant hit.” Authorities say the drugs were intended for distribution in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and other locations. They say there were enough drugs to fill 600,000 glassine bags sold at street level. The suspects were arraigned Tuesday in Manhattan on multiple counts of drug possession. Their lawyers could not be reached for comment.

PIER 26 TO BECOME EDUCATION CENTER Gov. Andrew Cuomo says Pier 26 in Manhattan will be home to an environmental and education center to promote scientiﬁc research of the Hudson River and surrounding bodies of water. On Friday Cuomo said the state will solicit proposals from organizations to establish and operate the research and education center. The Hudson River Park Trust has already secured $10 million in funds to advance the construction with donations from the Port Authority, the Department of Environmental Conversation and the Department of State. The site’s footprint will allow for a 10,000 and 12,000 square foot facility and will feature a nonmotorized boathouse as well as a new restaurant in 2015. The Hudson River Estuary stretches from the upstate city of Troy to New York.

The Spirit APRIL 24, 2014

NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS CHECK

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The NYPD has been instructed to ease up on jaywalking enforcement methods. Photo by Felix Ling via Flickr.

COMMISSIONER SETS NEW GUIDELINES FOR JAYWALKING STOPS Commissioner Bill Bratton has released a memo urging more discretion in the city’s jaywalking stops, almost four months after the major crackdown. In 2014 alone, over 900 people have had court summons for jaywalking, compared to just 532 in 2012. However, since the very public debacle of Kang Wong, who is now suing the city for $5 million for alleged excessive force, Bratton has added guidelines to how officers conduct their stops. Among the guidelines are to issue warnings to elderly and special needs jaywalkers who are at no safety risk and to only arrest as a last resort. NBC New York

SERIAL BANK ROBBER CAPTURED James Walton, a bank robber wanted in 11 robberies spanning Greenwich Village and the Upper West and East Sides, was captured last week. Walton was caught after attempting to rob the Capital One bank on University Place. He handed the bank teller a threatening note, but the teller walked away. Walton’s description was then sent over the radio waves and Officer Brian Daniels took the

call. Using his knowledge of the area, Daniels drove along Park Avenue South scanning pedestrian faces. Daniels soon spotted Walton, exited his cruiser and grabbed him. A police source said that this is when Walton groaned, “You got me.” NY Post

CHARGES DROPPED IN 84-YEAR-OLD MAN’S JAYWALKING CASE Charges have recently been dropped in the city’s case agains Kang Chun Wong, the 84-yearold man who was beaten and ticketed for allegedly crossing West 96th Street without a signal. The incident occurred last January and Wong was left bloodied and blacked out from a blow to the head. “We are gratiﬁed that the District Attorney concluded, as we have urged, that the charges against Mr. Wong did not merit prosecution,” Wong’s lawyer Michael Bachner said. NY Daily News

THREE VANS ON RIVERSIDE DRIVE STOLEN According to police, three vans parked between West 92nd Street and West 102nd Street, along Riverside Drive, were stolen last month. Two of the

vans have been Dodge Caravans, a “hot car,” police say, meaning that particular model has been repeatedly stolen. There are differing reports on why they are stolen, some saying because they make it easier to transport other stolen goods, others saying it is for the parts. “We do have our patrols out at night,” said Cpt. Marlon Larin, commanding officer of the 24th Precinct. “They will be speciﬁcally looking at these minivans.” DNAinfo. com

ANIMALS EVACUATE VETERINARIAN’S OFFICE FIRE After a fire broke out on the 3rd floor of City Veterinary Care’s West 72nd Street office, several of the animals had to be evacuated. The fire occurred around 2 p.m. and the FDNY were quick to respond and have the fire under control around 2:14 p.m. District 67 Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, whose office is on the same street, was quick to take in some of the displaced pets, including a black cat, whose picture she shared on her official Twitter account. This came 24 hours after a fire broke out in an Equinox gym on Amsterdam and West 77th Street. No injuries were reported in either fire. West Side Rag

APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit 3

CRIME WATCH BY JERRY DANZIG NEWSSTAND BRIGAND A newsstand was broken into and looted. At 6 AM on Sunday, April 20, someone broke open the lock on a newsstand on Broadway and stole $24,000 in cash, cigarettes, and lotto cards. Video is available of the break in.

BOPLIFTER A shoplifter punched a store guard and made off with merchandise. At 3:30 PM on Sunday, April 20, a 39-year-old man walked into a chain drug store on Broadway and shoplifted a variety of items. The store guard attempted to recover the merchandise, but the thief hit the guard before ﬂeeing the store with $1,200 worth of merchandise.

BIMMER BUMMER Someone stole a man’s bike. At 5:30 PM on Saturday, April 19, a man secured his bicycle to a

bike rack at the corner West 63rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue. When he returned later, he found that his Teutonic two-wheeler was missing. The bicycle was a BMW valued at $1,200.

HOPE FOR CITI BIKE, AFTER ALL

GONE FROM A SALON A man broke into a tanning salon. At 7 AM on Monday, April 14, an unknown man gained forced entry into a tanning salon on West 75th Street and stole $1,300 worth of property.

UNIWORSITY Someone took a woman’s bag and credit cards. At 5:30 PM on Tuesday, April 15, a 26-year-old woman left her bag unattended in a university facility on West 62nd Street. When she returned for her bag, she found that it was missing along with a number of her credit cards inside.

Citi Bike may not be as bad off as many people thought. A story this week in The Wall Street Journal quotes a report from the company that runs the program saying it may well be able to survive, and even thrive, without public funding. The company has proposed dramatically raising rates to cover its costs.

The Spirit APRIL 24, 2014

Useful Contacts POLICE NYPD 20th Precinct

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FDNY Engine 40/Ladder 35

W. 66th St. & Amsterdam Ave.

311

FDNY Engine 74

120 W. 83rd St.

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Ladder 25 Fire House

205 West 77 Street

311

Councilmember Helen Rosenthal

563 Columbus Ave.

212-873-0282

Councilmember Inez Dickens

163 W. 125th St.

FIRE

CITY COUNCIL 212-678-450

STATE LEGISLATORS

CARRIAGE HORSE FOES PICKET LIAM NEESON’S HOME NEWS Members of PETA and NYCLASS came together to protest the actor’s recent statements in support of the carriage horse industry

State Senator Brad Hoylman

322 Eighth Ave. #1700

212-633-8052

State Sen. Jose M. Serrano

157 E. 104 St.

212-828-5829

BY VERENA DOBNIK

Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal 230 W. 72nd #2F

212-873-6368

Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell 245 W. 104th St.

212-866-3970

UPPER WEST SIDE Animal welfare activists picketing Liam Neeson’s home on Saturday said they don’t agree with the actor that the city’s carriage horses should keep working. Neeson didn’t appear as about 50 demonstrators filled the sidewalk in front of his apartment building on the Upper West Side. Police watched, and doormen photographed protesters hoisting signs with such slogans as “Liam Neeson: Stop Supporting Cruelty!” and “Worked to Death!” with an image of a dead horse in a park. Holding the second sign was Peter Wood, an animal protection investigator for vari-

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the Upper West Side from West 86th Street to West 110th Street. Crime statistics in the 24th tracked through April 6 of this year show an 82 percent increase in burglaries over the same period last year while felony auto thefts have jumped 125 percent. Grand larcenies have increased 13 percent. Robberies are down 38 percent and felony assaults are down nine percent. However, in one alarming case, a shot was ﬁred from a .357 caliber handgun at Columbus Avenue and 95th Street during an April 11 altercation between rival “crews” from two nearby housing projects. The “Columbus Avenue Gunnerz,” who are based out of the Douglass Houses on Columbus Avenue and West 104th Street, collided with “Money Comes First,” who are from the Wise Towers further down on 91st Street. Nobody was hurt in the incident, and the 24th Precinct happened to have an anticrime unit already in the vicinity. Officers were able to arrest three minors who were involved on disorderly conduct charges and a fourth who had a previous warrant for jumping bail. The gun, however, was not recovered. “There were no retaliatory acts over [last] weekend but it’s something that we’re still concerned about this weekend coming,” said Larin. Larin said these crews - so called because gangs tend to be older, smarter about their crimes and less transient in their allegiances - often make forays into enemy territory in an attempt to harass rival crew

ous organizations that say it’s cruel for the horses to be subjected to traffic, pollution and possible accidents. “It’s 2014, not 1914. It’s time for a change,” said Wood, who lives in Manhattan. “Horses don’t belong in traffic, surrounded by buses. They don’t belong in the city; it’s outdated, it’s cruel,” he said, adding, “Life attached to a carriage with a poop bag attached to your rear end - that’s no life.’’ Neeson , whose mov ies i nc lude “Schindler’s List,” “Taken” and “Non-Stop,” is a vocal supporter of the city’s carriage horses, which are kept in stables he toured recently with lawmakers. He says the horses are not being mistreated. “It has been my experience, always, that horses, much like humans, are at their happiest and healthiest when working,” Neeson wrote in an April 14 editorial in The New York Times. He called the horse carriage trade a “humane industry that is well regulated by New York City’s Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene and Consumer Affairs.”

members who may be caught alone at the time. The groups are typically made up of no more than 15 individuals ranging in age from 13 to 16, said Larin. In a different incident that Larin said demonstrates the cooperation between the community and police that already exists, a man was arrested for allegedly trying to pay three young girls to watch him masturbate in his car at Columbus Avenue and 105th Street. The girls, who attend the nearby West Prep Academy middle school, ran into the school and alerted the administration who immediately called an officer that was assigned to school safety. Police responded minutes later and arrested Nnamdi Ihim, 25, who was found sitting in his car at the same location. “I wasn’t even in command of the 24th Precinct yet but I had heard about [the incident],” said Larin. “It was just a great job done because obviously he was a sexual predator and it could have turned into something worse. These are the ties that the officers have established long before I even set foot in the [24th Precinct].” When asked about priorities in the precinct, Larin deferred to his second-in-command. “Pedestrian safety is our highest priority,” said the Executive Officer, Captain James Dennedy. Although accidents are down about nine percent overall, the 24th Precinct saw 36 pedestrian collisions this year compared to 21 in the same period last year, according to Dennedy. “We’re focusing our enforcement on summonses that we feel will best prevent pedestrian accidents,” said Dennedy. “Failure to yield to pedestrians, we’ve

Neeson said the city’s horse-drawn carriages have made an estimated 6 million trips in traffic in the past 30 years, most ending up in Central Park. Four horses have been killed in collisions with motor vehicles, with no human fatalities. “In contrast to the terrible toll of traffic accidents generally on New Yorkers,” Neeson wrote, “the carriage industry has a remarkable safety record.” His publicist declined to comment on Saturday’s protest. The City Council must vote on the issue, but legislation has yet to emerge. Mayor Bill de Blasio has pledged to ban the carriages and replace them with electric vintage-style cars, commissioned by a group called NYCLASS. On Saturday, NYCLASS’ members joined protesters from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They noted that the horse-drawn carriage trade was ended in at least three other cities: London in 1947, Paris in 1965 and Toronto in 1998.

written 168 summonses this year compared to 74 last year, that’s a 127 percent increase.” Dennedy said the 24th Precinct has written 123 percent more summonses this year for improper turns and 38 percent more summonses for motorists running red lights. Tickets issued for speeding rose 160 percent while those given for texting rose 93 percent. The 24th now has 12 officers who are trained on the precinct’s two radar guns to catch and ticket more speeders in the neighborhood, up from just ﬁve last year. The precinct is requesting more radar guns, said Dennedy. Burnett of the 24th Precinct Community Council feels good about the choice of Larin for precinct commander, but predicts he won’t be in the 24th for very long. “I think he’s going to be extremely community oriented, which means he’ll be a good listener,” said Burnett. “But we tend to lose the good ones fast.”

APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit

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The Spirit APRIL 24, 2014

A funding shortage for arts teachers leaves some public school students without an arts education. Photo via cayoup/Flickr

STARVING THE ARTS SCHOOLS A new report highlights severe shortfalls in city arts funding BY MARY NEWMAN

Emily Diamond has been the art teacher at P.S. 6, on the Upper East Side, for the past 16 years. She knows she’s one of the lucky ones: the school, and its parents, have worked to ensure she has the supplies she needs. But, having worked at other schools around New York, she also knows that such support is no longer a guarantee. “Art supplies are expensive, let’s face it,” Diamond said. “When you’re a specialist, you are basically working alone. Lots of schools just don’t have the money, so many art teachers don’t feel supported.” A recent report from city Comptroller Scott Stringer shows the extent of the funding gap. Twenty-eight percent of

NYC schools are without a fulltime, certified arts teacher, the report states, and 30% are without any certified arts teacher at all, despite a state mandate that they be provided. Over the last seven years, there has been a 47% decline in funding to hire arts and cultural organizations to provide programming for students. Stringer, in an Our Town oped, notes that the arts funding shortfall hits lower-income neighborhoods particularly hard, with nearly half the schools without art teachers located in the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn. “You’d think that with a $25 billion budget, our Department of Education could afford to provide arts education and comply with state law,” Stringer wrote. “But New York City’s financial support for arts education has been shrinking dramatically.” The comptroller says bringing a full-time, state-certified art teacher to every school that does not have one would cost

the Department of Education $26 million, a drop in its annual budget. Diamond worked at a public school in Queens for a time before joining P.S. 6, and remembers being asked to take on many different roles in addition to art -- monitoring study halls, homerooms, and helping other teachers. That, she says, is common among art departments that have little to no funding. “What I really feel is that as an art teacher, you really have to love kids and love the chaos of the art room,” Diamond said. While the shortage of arts funding has been on teachers’ radars for years, the striking numbers in the Stringer report may ﬁnally bring the issue to a larger public debate. “Making sure that the arts are included in our schools at every age level is essential in providing a well rounded education,” said City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer.

APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit

SHELTER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Alice Morell has lived at Freedom House with her husband for the past year and a half; she said sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d welcome the city ridding the shelter of residents who abuse drugs.

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Robert, another Freedom House resident, hopes he can stay at the shelter while he gets back on track ďŹ nancially. Photos by Mary Newman

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Â&#x2C6; 7%1%6-8%2 VILLAGE /V)6-8%7 Â&#x2C6; Â&#x2C6; (9/) E00-2+832 B0:( N)-+,&36,33( A773'-%8-32 Â&#x2C6; Â&#x2C6; XL P6)'-2'8 '31192-8= '392'-0 Â&#x2C6; the working poor,â&#x20AC;? read a statement by Neighborhood in the Nineties. Several city officials have also joined the ďŹ ght to close Freedom House, including City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The ďŹ rst thing that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m front-andcenter focused on is the homeless shelter on 95th Street,â&#x20AC;? Rosenthal told DNAinfo.com in January. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One of my first priorities is unraveling that contract and finding a better solution for the people that need homeless services, and the people in that neighborhood.â&#x20AC;? The cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s announcement to bring the number of residents at Freedom House from 400 to 200 within the next eight months is seen by some as the ďŹ rst step in closing the shelter all together. The news, however, had not trickled down to the people living at Freedom House, who got no official word about the decision to downsize at the shelter. Alice Morell has lived at Freedom House with her husband for 18 months, as climbing rents in New York became too

expensive for them to handle. While trying to get back on her feet, Morell has felt much safer being able to live in a clean neighborhood since so many shelters are in worse-off parts of the city. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been in other shelters, but this one has been the best,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We can actually save money and live our life safely here.â&#x20AC;? Morell explained that she would be happy if they got rid of the residents who use drugs, and linger in front of the shelter making neighboring residents nervous. She isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t alone in that opinion. Robert, a 24-year-old resident, is happy to hear that they will be getting rid of some residents, and also hopes that they use this as an opportunity to clean up the shelter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re cutting the occupancy level, my hope is that they try to cut the people who are addicts. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use drugs, and I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think you should mix those two groups of people together,â&#x20AC;? he explained. Like Morell, he is also in the shelter as a result of financial struggles. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think what it really boils down to is DHS itself, New

York City has to get to a point where they are working with the homeless, and not against us,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We all have our different situations, but weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all in the same predicament. It just needs to be about working together.â&#x20AC;? Although several people living in the shelter said theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re OK with decreasing its occupancy, they also fear that it is just the ďŹ rst step to it closing completely. Both Robert and Alice Morell expressed an understanding as to why people might want it to be closed, but are uncertain about what they will do if they are relocated. One Upper West side resident, who asked to remain anonymous, has lived around the corner on 95th Street and Riverside Dirve for the past 28 years. She hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen that much change on the block since Freedom House opened two years ago. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It has made the most minor change, and diversity is what makes New York City so fabulous,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My personal opinion is that [Freedom House] has had no real material impact, other than the fact that it gives people without a home

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The Spirit APRIL 24, 2014

Feedback A CARETAKER TO BE PRAISED Comment on our April 17, 2014 story “A Lifeline for 106-year-old West Sider”: It’s great to know that someone like Zena Foster exists! It seems that many of us have forgotten how to give without looking to receive in return. May Zena be blessed all of her days and may she also ﬁnd a space with her music. Kudos to you Ms. Foster. guitarguy

PROTECT THE HORSES, BAN THE CARRIAGES Comment on our February 6, 2014 story “What Will Happen to the Horses?”: Hopefully, carriage rides will ﬁnally be banned. PETA should stay out of this because they have a dark history and cannot be trusted to protect animals. I hope the OWNERS prove how much they really love their horses by making SURE that not even one displaced horse winds up with an Amish farmer or at a slaughterhouse. The City should pay to board the horses until proper homes can be found. Rivergull

THANKS FOR MOM-ANDPOP SUPPORT Thank you for your piece on the new 80 Riverside Café (“Three Sisters Open New Café,” Apr. 17). At a time when the hue-and-cry over the loss of “mom-and-pop” shops is at an all-time high, these three sisters have started a brand new one. Brava! That means it is time for all those who have bemoaned the loss of shops like this to put their money where there mouth is! (And ﬁll that mouth with yummy pastries!) I have been doing so, and offer an incentive to others. Until May 15th, present this letter (no photocopies) at 80 Riverside Café and (if available) get a free rugelach! (One per letter.) Really! Just cut this letter out and present it. And while you’re there, make sure to have a cup of their excellent coffee. And let’s get word-of-mouth going so 80 Riverside Café remains in our neighborhood for many years to come! Ian Alterman, Upper West Side

Voices

LETTER

SYMPATHY FOR THE EAST SIDE We gave Mayor de Blasio a “C” for the Upper East Side’s neighborhood report card; one West Sider concurs that his neighbors across the park have gotten short shrift BY CYRUS GREENSPON

UPPER WEST SIDE I’m a lifelong Westsider but I’d have to concur with several criticisms of De Blasio’s attitudes toward the Upper East Side. It’s not all Gucci and Chanel over there. Areas around York Ave and First Avenue are inhabited by people that aren’t the mega-rich. And north of 96th Street I think de Blasio would ﬁnd to be quite different than the rest of the Upper East Side. Why support a garbage transfer station on East 91st Street? It’s near schools and Asphalt Green. If he’s serious about traffic safety why not add speed bumps to certain locations (at least) throughout the city and actually enforce speed limits as well. Lower parking ticket amounts and drastically increase amounts for speeding, running red lights, and other dangerous violations.

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APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit 9

The Sixth Borough

A Passover story from the farm

BY BECCA TUCKER

t was midnight when we bounced up our long, rutted driveway. I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t actually concerned. Yes, we were getting home late, but we occasionally close the chicken coop in the wee hours for one reason or another, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only been a problem twice. Once was exactly a year ago. What was the likelihood of a predator attacking our chickens on Passover, two years running? Last year, when we pulled in from my familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seder in the city, I took the baby inside, laid down to nurse her and â&#x20AC;&#x201C; intending to brush my teeth after she fell asleep â&#x20AC;&#x201C; woke up in the morning to hear a bloody tale from husband Joe. The last I had seen of Joe, he was headed to the coop, still wearing his slim ďŹ tting jacket and tie, to close the chickens in. What Joe found inside the coop was mayhem: an opossum in the corner and six missing chickens. Joe chased

the awkward, lumbering little marsupial out of the coop, but it kept trying to get into the barn through a chink in a wall that it obviously knew well. Too well. In the end, Joe â&#x20AC;&#x201C; still wearing a tie â&#x20AC;&#x201C; clubbed it to death with a two-by-four. (Let me just say right here, it is not our idea of a good time to kill sentient beings. It sucks, actually, but it is the unavoidable reality of living on a farm.) That one of the deadliest nights on the farm had occurred on Passover seemed a ďŹ tting coincidence. The holiday, after all, is a bloody rite even by Biblical standards. As the story goes, God brought down 10 plagues on Egypt, culminating in the death of ďŹ rst-born sons. To let the Angel of Death know to smite only the Egyptian ďŹ rst-borns, the Jews painted lambâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blood above their doorways. That there was any connection between Passover and our opossum visitor never crossed my mind. Until last night. We have two coops now; the second is a fenced-off section of a shed, an open-air affair just for warm weather that Joe had thrown together earlier that week for our brand new ďŹ&#x201A;ock. These orange-andcream-colored hens were turning out to be the bargain of a lifetime. They were laying eggs so big that some didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ďŹ t into cartons. I hate to admit it, but they were a lot more pleasant to hang around than our other chickens, which sometimes jump up and peck a hand they think might contain a goody, or fly directly into my head just â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cause. I could put the baby down in their midst and go about my chores without fear that I would turn around to discover my child had lost an eye.

So when Joe came inside and whispered that there were only six of 10 chickens in the new coop? Dismay. My ďŹ rst instinct was to go out and look for the chickens. But wherever they were, if they were still alive, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be roosting in some out-of-the-way place â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and if they could, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be back in the morning. There was nothing to do now except usher morning along by going straight to sleep. As I drifted off, my thoughts turned strange and primitive. Was it superstitious to wonder whether there was something about Passover that was treacherous, still, to this day? And what was it I had heard about a blood moon? Yes, tonight â&#x20AC;&#x201C; right around now â&#x20AC;&#x201C; there was going to be a solar eclipse. Could it be the full moon? I feared the worst for the four MIA chickens. I slipped out of bed early. As I approached the new coop, I counted: one, two chickens pecking in the dirt outside. Then three. And then, as I poured grain into their feeder, a fourth popped out of a cardboard box. Ten chickens present and accounted for. I admired them anew. Although they were newcomers on the farm, they had found hiding places, evaded whatever hungry marauders of the night had tried to get at them. They had been passed over by the Angel of Death. These new chickens were survivors. They must be Jewish chickens. Becca Tucker is a former Manhattanite now living on a farm upstate and writing about the rural life.

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Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street 7:30 p.m., $50 Light Opera of New York presents Victor Herbertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rarely performed musical â&#x20AC;&#x153;Orange Blossoms.â&#x20AC;? See what shocked and titillated Broadway on opening night in 1922. So many independent women, trustfund babies and gay divorcees abound that it may feel more like Cole Porter than the sweeping romantic style customary of the most popular American composer of his day. 917-696-6293

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135 West 89th Street All day, Free West Side Community Gardenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Annual Tulip Festival will be in full bloom on Saturday April 26 and Sunday April 27, a feast for the

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each tied to a set of closely held values and beliefs. These issues will be explored with our panel, including Clare Donohue, Founding Member of the Sane Energy Project, and Lisa DiCaprio, Energy Committee of the Sierra Club, Atlantic Chapter. 212-874-5210

ALESSANDRA BELLONI URINETOWN WORKSHOP PERFORMANCE St. John the Divine at Amsterdam Avenue and West 110th Street 2 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 5 p.m., $75 Internationally renowned singer/percussionist/dancer Alessandra Belloni artist-inresidence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine & REMO artist proudly presents: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rhythm is the Cureâ&#x20AC;? Healing Dance and Percussion workshop from Southern Italy featuring the trance dances & rhythms of the Tarantella. 212-932-7325

LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, 100 Amsterdam Avenue 5 p.m., $25 adults, $15 students Urinetown, music & lyrics by Mark Hollman and book & lyrics by Greg Kotis, is the second offering in our Spring Drama Festival. 212-496-0700

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THE LAW OF THE LAND: OUR CONFLICTED TUSSLE OVER NATURE LECTURE New York Sorciety for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street 11:15 a.m., Free Every great advancement in environmental protection in the United States has not been without a struggle. Often the struggle is less about the need for preservation, but how best to move forward. The struggle is complicated by the emergence of competing narratives narrativ ives

READING Barnes & Noble, 2289 Broadway at 82nd Street 7 p.m., Free Biographer, journalist and screenwriter Amanda Vaill joins us to talk about Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War as told by six writers staying at the hotel during the siege of Madrid. 212-362-8835

APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit 11

CUTTING EDGE CONCERT’S NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street 7:30 p.m., $20 World premieres Harold Meltzer and the members of Mivos Quartet and loadbang. With Sequitur Ensemble 212-864-5400

29 CHAMBER MUSIC COMPOSITIONS OF DAVID AMRAM PERFORMANCE New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza 6 p.m., Free Composer and paramount musician to the Beat Generation, David Amram is the model for a modern virtuoso. Amram has composed over 100 orchestral and chamber music works, two operas, plus scores for the ﬁlms Splendor in The Grass and The Manchurian Candidate, while balancing a career as a pioneering jazz improviser, Native American ﬂute player, and music educator. Celebrating the recent acquisition of Amram’s papers, the Library for the Performing Arts presents a concert of chamber music spanning Amram’s career. 212-642-0142

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING Community Board 7 Offices, 250 West 87th Street 6:30 p.m., Free

CB7’s Health & Human Resources committee will meet and discuss the Neighborhood Design and Safety Task Force, as well as planning to reach out to the community to learn their concerns. 212-362-4008

30 HELEN ROSENTHAL’S TOWN HALL 563 Columbus Avenue at 87th Street 6 – 8 p.m., Free Representatives from several city agencies will be there to answer your questions about everything from alternate side parking to rent increases to food stamps and more. You don’t need to RSVP. 212-873-0282

TO BE OR NOT TO BE: A TALE OF FIVE SISTERS WITH DR. AVIVAH ZORNBERG LECTURE JCC, 334 Amsterdam Avenue at 76th Street 7 p.m., $30 Renowned scholar, teacher, and author, Dr. Avivah Zornberg in the first speaking engagement of her North American tour returns to the JCC. The five daughters of Zelophechad figure in a unique brief narrative which throws them into some tension with Moses. We will study this intriguing narrative, with the help of midrashic and Chasidic sources.

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1 NEW YORK WRITER’S WORKSHOP PRESENTS: PATTY DANN St. Agnes Library, 444 Amsterdam Avenue 5:30 – 6:45 p.m., Free Telling Stories is a workshop for anyone with a story to tell, whether you’re a published writer or the last time you wrote was in your teenage diary. Dann’s welcoming class will get you writing right away, and give you guidelines on how to keep on writing when the class is done. Patty Dann is the author of three novels, Starﬁsh, Mermaids and Sweet & Crazy. She has also published two memoirs, The Goldﬁsh went on Vacation and The Baby Boat. 212-621-0619

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RESTAURANTS The new NYC-based app uses social media data to get local restaurants to offer discounts

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SWAPPING YOUR ONLINE FRIENDS FOR DEALS

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Ever wondered if you could get paid just to be yourself? A new smartphone app start-up called Haggle is hoping to do just that. It collects your social media data from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare and uses it to give discounts from restaurants. “We wanted an easy way for people to share their value,” said Raji Salimath, CEO of Haggle. “For people to take all of their online data and use it in a way which could be understood by businesses.” The application uses your posts, status updates, pictures, check-ins, friend lists, and a multitude of other similar data to let you “haggle” down your bill. But it is not haggling in the traditional sense. You won’t be trying to barter your meal’s price down one on one until someone relents or gets fed up and flips over a table. “If we could empower both sides with data and figure out what’s a fair price for the transaction, then it could be a good thing for both sides,” said Salimath. The New York-based company, which also has a sister office in Bangalore, India, originally got the idea for the app from the stigma that’s present in haggling in Western countries. It’s often considered cumbersome and difficult because it’s usually only ever used in expensive items such as automobiles or very informal situations such as flea markets. For other services, bargaining is non-existant. Eastern countries utilize haggling on a wider array of goods and services, from the scene of the local street market to booking a room at a hotel. The tradition of haggling is foreign countries is alive since it’s often seen as a cultural adaptation of tourists trying to fit in. “Haggling without any data tends to make both parties upset tense and angry, because both parties do not know about

RESTAURANTS TO HAGGLE West Village Vien NYC Nolita La Churreria Midtown East, Murray Hall Desi Shack Lalibela PS 450 Caliente Cab Co Kips Bay Baluchi’s Bamiyan Greenwich Village Barbuchi Deal Uncle Ted’s Cafetasia Gramercy Mason Jar Ethos Meze Ponty Bistro Perk Kafe Flatiron Salad Pangea East Village Archie & Sons 7 Spices each other and tend to take extreme positions,” said Salimath. Haggle aims to smooth out this issue, giving a vendor in-

formation on the bargainer. The application uses four parameters, which it converts from your social media data: History, which is how many times you go to a certain type of restaurant; loyalty, how many times you go to the same place to eat; influence, which is how often you do go out to eat; and bankroll, how much money you spend on average going out. “We do not blast this data out to anybody. No one gets access to your data. Only you have access to your data and now you could use these four scores to negotiate,” said Salimath. “We take your data, crunch it and put in these different algorithms and give the scores back to you.” Since the Haggle company just started last year, and the application itself was just released this February, the number of participating restaurants is still growing. Currently a handful of restaurants using the service are located in the downtown area, such as La Churreria, a Spanish restaurant, and Cafetasia, a Yelp favorite with their blend of Asian and Thai Cuisine. The Haggle team hopes to expand their app, which is still technically in its beta phase, to offer more opportunities for restaurants by utilizing an open sign up in the future.

APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit 13

GREEN THUMB, CONCRETE JUNGLE COMMUNITY GARDENS Downtown community gardens spring to life while some fight for their lives BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

LOWER EAST SIDE Tenants who built and maintained a community garden behind two East Village apartment buildings said that it will be needlessly destroyed by a management company that recently bought the buildings. Around the corner, another community garden thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s catered to children for the past three decades had its vegetable patch annexed â&#x20AC;&#x201C; illegally they say â&#x20AC;&#x201C; by the owner of the lot who abandoned it in the 1980s. And yet a few blocks farther on is the Creative Little Garden, one of the most vibrant â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if diminutive - in the East Village. All three cases illustrate the struggles and triumphs that come with operating a community garden in a city as dense as New York. In the first case, the gardeners are ďŹ ghting for a lot more than a patch of earth. Their two buildings, at 170 and 174 East 2nd Street, were recently acquired by Westminster Management, which is owned by Donald Trumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also publishes the New York Observer. Some

tenants took buyouts while others decided to stay and ďŹ ght. One embattled tenant told the East Village blog EV Grieve that their garden could be destroyed any day now, which â&#x20AC;&#x153;would be of no beneďŹ t to Westminster, and to the tenants it would be a tragedy.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our garden is not just a decorative tableau, but a part of our daily lives: during the day, it is a place to do our professional work, and to make use of the carefully constructed space dedicated to meditation,â&#x20AC;? said the tenant. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the evenings, it has long been a place for neighbors to meet one another.â&#x20AC;? The tenants have taken legal action to stay in their apartments, but said the management company may be moving too fast for them to save the garden. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In fact, we believe that it is this use of our garden â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as a place to foster community â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which is the reason why it has been targeted.â&#x20AC;? At the Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Magical Garden at Stanton and Norfolk Street, which has been used as a community classroom since the 1980s, residents were shocked last May when workers constructed a fence that cut off their sizable vegetable patch - about half the garden. Members said the lotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s owner, Serge Hoyda, who sold it to the developer that put the fence up, had abandoned the lot some 30 years ago and it was since taken over by people who turned it into what

is now a community hub of agriculture and education. In court papers ďŹ led this past March, lawyers for the garden are citing the NYS â&#x20AC;&#x153;Law of Adverse Possession,â&#x20AC;? which states that someone has a right of ownership to a property if theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve occupied it for at least 10 years. The lawsuit names as defendants both Hoyda and the developer, 157 LLC, who bought the property in January for $3.35 million. The gardenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s executive director, Kate Temple-West, told Our Town Downtown that she and other members are prepared to ďŹ ght for whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theirs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The land belongs in the hands of the community,â&#x20AC;? said Temple-West. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re happy to have legal representation to make sure everyone understands that.â&#x20AC;? The portion of the garden that wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t annexed is still in operation, and members have since been able to bring it under the purview of the city Parks Departmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Green Thumb program. The Creative Little Garden, on East 6th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B, is also part of the Green Thumb

program, along with over 500 other parks citywide. However, according to former garden president Steve Rose, there are no real protections to community gardens who belong to the Green Thumb program, as â&#x20AC;&#x153;the city legally owns the property and can do with it what they please,â&#x20AC;? said Rose. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Once a garden is established, Green Thumb and other organizations support its ongoing existence. I would also assume that there would be a large local resistance to the city closing a garden which is visited by so many people. The neighborhood simply would not stand for it.â&#x20AC;? Green Thumb NYC could not be reached for comment, but according to their website, community gardens under their jurisdiction are preserved as gardens as long as they are registered with the Parks Department and meet the community garden criteria. Green Thumb is one of several local, state and national organizations that are involved in protecting community gardens in the city, many of which started on an ad hoc basis. Parks

across the city are also protected and maintained by organizations like the National Wildlife Federation, the New York Restoration Project and the Manhattan Land Trust, among others. According to Lenny Librizzi of Grow NYC, community gardens in New York are doing just ďŹ ne. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The numbers have fluctuated over the years,â&#x20AC;? said Librizzi. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are between 500 and 600 community gardens in New York City. There recently been a slight increase in the number of community gardens with increased awareness of the environment and interest in healthy lifestyles.â&#x20AC;? For Sara Jones, chair of the LaGuardia Corners Gardens in Greenwich Village, community gardens are about turning bad neighborhoods around and fostering a safe environment for residents. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were created on an empty lot in Greenwich Village in 1979. The 1970s were an economically depressed time in the city,â&#x20AC;? said Jones. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We created our own parks with plenty of hard labor and pride. We turned bad neighborhoods around.â&#x20AC;?

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The Spirit APRIL 24, 2014

A FINAL WISH FOR DICKENS <THEATER, P. 17

AN ARTIST’S FAMILY PORTRAIT

Shalen’s portrait of her mother, “Mom at 101,” done in charcoal

WENDY SHALEN “Family Matters” Prince Street Gallery 530 West 25th Street, Fourth Floor April 22-May 17 Opening reception: April 26, 3 - 7 p.m. Hours: TuesdaySaturday 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

GALLERIES Wendy Shalen’s newest show incorporates several generations of her family as its subjects BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

SOHO About a year ago, artist Wendy Shalen visited her elderly mother at her home in Bridgeport, Conn., and began drawing

a portrait of her in silverpoint, a type of sterling silver pencil that tarnishes and turns brown on paper over time. Her mother, who will turn 102 in June, is bedridden and can no longer speak. She wears a hospital gown every day so that her full-time nurses can care for her more easily. As she sketched, Shalen wasn’t sure her mother even knew she was there. “It’s just so difficult to go through this stage,” said Sha-

len, 63, as she sat in the cafeteria at the Arts Students League of New York at West 57th Street, where she teaches. “You know she would just have a fit if she knew what was going on.” Around the same time, Shalen discovered an antique photo album tucked away at her mother’s house, along with her father’s college yearbook from New York University. In the album, which is 70 years old, Shalen found photographs of her

older brothers and her grandmother, and portraits of her parents on their wedding day. Her mother’s hair was pinned in an elegant bob and her father was dressed in a tuxedo and wore a white tie and a handkerchief tucked in his pocket. The discovery of the photo album, coupled with her mother’s decline, inspired her latest show, “Family Matters,” a collection of 35 family portraits and self-portraits that opened

at Prince Street Gallery on April 22. Incorporating a range of mediums, including charcoal, watercolor, dry point etchings and handmade paper, Shalen’s exhibit features graphite portraits of her mother and father, drawn from the photographs she found in the album, alongside “Mom at 101,” the portrait of her mother in bed at her home in Bridgeport. While the show contemplates the process of aging, it also nods

at generational continuum. Portraits of Shalen’s twin children, Samantha and Luke, now 33, are also central to the show. A watercolor of Luke as a young boy is paired with a graphite drawing of him as an adult, dressed in a jacket and tie, and smiling. “He’s so handsome now,” said Shalen. Samantha recently gave birth to a little girl, Mia, whom Shalen draws while she’s sleeping, just as she did with her own chil-

APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit 15

Wendy Shalen drawing her self-portrait, which she titles â&#x20AC;&#x153;Remembering Babs.â&#x20AC;?

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'SJEBZ .BZ 1. t 8 UI $PM "WF dren. Watercolors and etchings of Samantha cradling Mia suggest a deliberate symmetry with a silverpoint drawing of Mia as an infant, sleeping on her fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chest. Though sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always done figurative work, some of Shalenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recent shows had a more political bent. In 2010 she exhibited portraits of homeless people, and her 2012 mixed media show â&#x20AC;&#x153;Washed Ashoreâ&#x20AC;? in Pound Ridge, New York, incorporated trash she found on beaches into watercolor and pastel seascapes. A few pieces directly responded to the BP oil spill. Shalen has also taught art since she graduated from Brandeis University in 1973. While a teacher at Birch Wathen Lenox School on the Upper East Side in the 1970s, she took courses at the Art Stu-

dents League, where she now teaches. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the summer I teach in the same room where I took classes,â&#x20AC;? Shalen said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Which is really kind of crazy cool. I want to pinch myself.â&#x20AC;? The oldest piece in â&#x20AC;&#x153;Family Mattersâ&#x20AC;? was done in 1980, the year her grandmother died, at the age of 90, and the year Shalenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s twins were born. Her strongest memories of her grandmother Sophie are of her knotted, arthritic hands constantly in motion as she knitted, crocheted and sewed cloth napkins, lace and beaded collars. Shortly before Sophieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death, Shalen drew a charcoal portrait of her grandmother wearing a shawl sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d knitted herself. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Much of the show is dedicated to her creative spirit,â&#x20AC;? Shalen said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My mother was never

happy about me remembering [Sophie] that way, unfortunately. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult to look at.â&#x20AC;? In a nod to her grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own artistic expression, Shalen, who also makes paper from her own recycled watercolor paintings, created a series of thick, stark white paper for the show, imprinted with pieces of her grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lace and crocheted linen. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You know, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re getting older and you really do have a certain perspective on what is important here,â&#x20AC;? said Shalen. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And really, your family is important. Especially as an obsessed artist. Most of us, we do this, we think about it all the time, and I think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to have the perspective that your family is really important and maybe ďŹ gure out a way to do the work that you do but also show your love for your family.â&#x20AC;?

Travel Channel's Adam Richman returns for the fourth consecutive year, along with Food Network star and Iron Chef, Alex Guarnaschelli of NYC's Butter Restaurant. The duo will oversee 40 restaurants from the Upper West Side showcasing their most innovative comfort dishes, and competing to win this year's "Best Comfort Food Dish". We'll be introducing you to new restaurants as well as the neighborhood favorites. The high-energy excitement of the evening will be amplified with renowned wines, creative cocktails, and the returning beats of NYC's DJ PHRESH.

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newtasteuws.com â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bedtime,â&#x20AC;? a watercolor of the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daughter, Samantha, and her granddaughter Mia.

5 TOP

The Spirit APRIL 24, 2014

FOR THE WEEK BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO

DANCE

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DANCE THEATER OF HARLEM 45TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON As part of the company’s 45th anniversary season, Dance Theater of Harlem will present three new works during its upcoming run at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell, the ﬁrst African-American dancer in New York City Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem will premiere past-carry-forward, a study of the Great Migration of African-Americans from the Southern United States to the north during the early 20th century. Dance Theater of Harlem also ppresents Dancingg on the Front Porch of Heaven, which will show for the ﬁrst timee in New York City since its debut in 1993, as well as the New Yorkk premiere of Pas de Dix from Raymonda, along with other new and revived pieces. Lincoln Center Frederick P. Rose Hall 3 Columbus Circle Wednesday, April 23-Sunday, April 27 Assorted show times Tickets $30-$90

FILM

LEARN

DAVID AMRAM: THE FIRST 80 YEARS

RHYTHM IS THE CURE

Director Lawrence Kraman’s 2012 documentary explores the life of David Amram, classical, jazz and film score composer and Jack Kerouac’s musical collaborator. Amram, who also plays the French horn, piano and flute, has collaborated with musicians and actors ranging from Dizzy Gillespie to Johnny Depp, and has composed more than 100 original pieces, including the scores for the films “Splendor in the Grass” and “The Manchurian Candidate,” as well as the music for the 1959 short film “Pull My Daisy,” written and narrated by Kerouac and based on the experiences of fellow Beat legend Neal Cassady. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Bruno Walter Auditorium 40 Lincoln Center Plaza Saturday, April 26 1:00 p.m. Free

DIRECTED BY ROB REINER As the Film Society gears up to honor actor and director Rob Reiner with the 41st-annual Chaplin Award, Film Society Lincoln Center will present four of his classic ﬁlms, including “Misery,” starring Kathy Bates and James Caan, and the coming-ofage tale “Stand By Me,” featuring a young River Phoenix. Reiner’s comedy “The Princess Bride” is also presented during a kid-friendly matinee on Sunday, April 28. “A Few Good Men” rounds out the mini-retrospective of Reiner’s work. Film Society Lincoln Center Francesca Beale Theater 144 West 65th St. Sunday, April 27 and Monday, April 28 Assorted show times Tickets $10

Italian-born singer, percussionist, dancer and ‘musical shaman’ Alessandra Belloni leads a three-part series of afternoon dance and percussion workshops on rhythmic trance dances. Belloni, who uses the tarantella and other Italian folk dances to help heal women who have suffered abuse, will lecture on trance dances and instruct rhythmic tambourine-playing and spiritual dances. Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine Synod Hall Amsterdam Avenue at 110th Street April 26, May 3 and May 10 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Registration fee $75 To register, call 212-932-7325 or email education@st.johndivine.org

MUSIC BROADWAY ON BROADWAY Broadway singers and their faithful fans can raise their voices together at the second-annual Show Tune Sing Along to beneﬁt Broadway Community, Inc., a social services organization that provides resources for the homeless on the Upper West Side. Featuring cast members from recent and current Broadway productions such as Bridges of Madison County, Legally Blonde and Newsies, the evening’s repertoire will include classic show tunes that have been performed on Broadway’s stages. Audience members are encouraged to sing along. Broadway Presbyterian Church 601 W. 114 St. Sunday, April 27 7:00 p.m. Suggested donation $20 Tickets can be purchased at the door

APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit 17

A DYING WISH, PERFORMED THEATER The late Bob Sickinger’s stage adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby gets a full-scale production BY MARY NEWMAN

EAST SIDE Last May, the theater industry was saddened by the death of Bob Sickinger, a charismatic man who believed in community theatre. Known as the father of Chicago’s off-Loop theater, Sickinger earned a reputation for writing and directing challenging productions. In his last days, he collaborated with Alaric Jans to write a musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Nicholas Nickleby. The two met in Chicago many years ago, when Sickinger was heading the Hull House theater program at the James Addams Center. Throughout his career he became known for running provocative plays, including the Off Broadway show “22 Years,” about the life of Charles Manson. He began working on the Nicholas Nickleby production six years ago, originally inspired by his lifetime love of Dickens. At that time, Sickinger was retired and focusing his attention on this play. His wife Jo-Ann said he was getting anxious to ﬁnish it because he knew that he was running out of time as he aged. They finished the play about 2

months before Sickinger passed away, and although he didn’t get to see it performed, he was extremely happy to have finished the script. In his final days, his wife promised that she would produce his play and make sure it found its life on stage. “It was the only thing that would perk him up in those last few days,” Pastor said. His five children were also there to support him, and joined her in promising their father that they would help to produce his final project. Wasting no time, Pastor quickly flew to Louisiana and had the entire play recorded so she could shop around the demo to find interested investors, direc-

tors, and actors. From there, the ball kept rolling and she was able to raise enough money to produce a 34-person play. It is being performed at the Theater for the New City from April 17 – May 4th. Through mutual friends, Lissa Moira came upon the recording and knew she wanted to become a

Scenes from the musical, playing now at Theater for the New City. Photo by Mary Newman

part of this production. She helped ﬁnd singers to sing at Sickinger’s memorial, and everything really started to come together once she became the director. “I knew from the day she read the material that she absolutely understood it,” Pastor explained. “She really understands where Bob was coming from, and she is doing exactly what he would have wanted.” The play boasts a talented cast, and because of the Theater for the New City’s intimate size, the audience is truly surrounded by the performance. The cast

does an outstanding job of bringing Dickens’ classic tale to life. It is a two and a half hour play, but once it ﬁnishes, you are left wishing for more. Opening night was so successful, they had to start turning people away at the door after it was sold out. “The night was glorious, the magic of the theater really kicked in,” said Moira. “The cast was wonderful, and I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it all, it was such a collaborative effort.” Sickinger wanted the play to represent the passion he had for theater throughout his entire life and career. After inspiring his family and friends for so many years, they really wanted to make sure this play came to life on stage in his memory. Pastor’s goal is to bring this production to a larger audience, and hopes to one day see it on Broadway. “I just can’t tell you how exciting this is for me, we’ve worked so hard, and I know he would be so proud,” Pastor said. “This show is an accumulation of everything he loved: theater, literature, and music.”

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY Theater for the New City 155 First Ave. (btwn 9th & 10th St.) Wed-Sat 8 p.m.; Sun 3 p.m. Through May 4 Tickets $18 SmartTix.com or 212-868-4444

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The Spirit APRIL 24, 2014

Food & Drink

<AL FRESCO DINING RETURNS TO HIGHLINE As the weather warmed, perennial park favorite the High Line marked the return of spring with another warm weather staple: food trucks. As Eater reported, food vendors made their seasonal debuts at the park on Friday, April 19. Park-goers can satisfy a sweet tooth

with L’Arte del Gelato, while La NewYorkina serves Mexican popsicles and Melt Bakery offers creative twists on the classic ice cream sandwich (the Elvis is made with peanut butter cookies stuffed with banana ice cream). Meanwhile, the Taco Truck and Delaney Barbeque’s Smokeline counter the sweets with sa-

vory lunch options. Terroir at the Porch, the open-air café at 15th Street at the High Line, will serve wine, beer and small plates when it reopens for the season on May 2, and Brooklyn Soda Works will start serving up homemade carbonated concoctions on June 1.

In Brief The Randolph has a beer and coffee outpost as well as a full-service restaurant.

SD26 NOW SERVING BRUNCH On Saturday, May 3, Italian restaurant SD26, which has served ﬁne Italian cuisine on the north side of Madison Square Park since its opening in 2009, introduces weekend brunch to its repertoire. The new menu includes classic Italian brunch fare, such as asparagus and prosciutto with ricotta and soft-poached eggs and uovo in purgatorio (eggs poached in a red sauce). But executive chef Matteo Bergamini has also crafted new brunch items, including a crispy fried egg with a fava bean puree and sautéed chicory. Not unlike the restaurant’s dinner menu—which features a whole egg baked into house made ravioli and served with truffle butter—the brunch menu is loyal to the breakfast staple; diners can add an egg to many of the brunch menu items, including the pizzas. SD26 (19 East 26 Street) will open for brunch from 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays starting May 3.

BOCCA DI BACCO OPENS ON U.W.S. Italian restaurant Bocca di Bacco, which has four locations in Midtown, opened the doors of its newest outpost on the Upper West Side on Wednesday, April 23 with an inaugural party and open bar. Appropriately, Bocca di Bacco, which translates to the mouth of Bacchus, the god of wine, offers an extensive selection of wines from small vineyards in Italy, along with traditional Italian dishes. The unveiling of the new space comes on the heels of the opening of another Bocca di Bacco location (at 7th Avenue and 21st Street) earlier this month. West Side Rag reported the opening of Upper West Side location at 74th Street and Amsterdam (which formerly housed Arte Pasta, also owned by Bocca di Bacco’s restaurant group) earlier this week.

SPOTLIGHT ON A LIGHTING DISTRICT LOCALE RESTAURANTS The Randoplh reinvents itself amidst a string of retail lighting stores BY HELAINA HOVITZ

LOWER EAST SIDE What the Randolph lacks in prime real estate, it makes up for in soul. Located off of the Bowery in the heart of the Lighting District, the Randolph at Broome (349) is primarily a craft beer and coffee outpost, and Randolph Beer (343) is a full service restaurant. While the twin spaces are just blocks from all of the action on Spring Street, you probably haven’t stumbled upon either one unless you live nearby—or if you’ve followed the sound of the Bluegrass Band. When co-owner Dylan Hales and his partners, Hari Kalyan, Dave Plate, and Eli Hariton, showed

up to see an online real estate listing in “SoHo,” they found something a little more “in-between,” nestled in the matrix of SoHo, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side. Interestingly enough, the fact that the neighborhood was still somewhat gritty when they arrived is what drew them in the most. “When we ﬁrst got here, this was a dilapidated lighting store,” said Kaylan. “The realtor told us this was going to be the ‘Meatpacking of the East,’ but it was mostly old Chinese families. We loved it anyway, because we didn’t want to be surrounded by commercial space.” The boys decided to take a chance and bought Randolph at Broome. A few years later, they did it again, buying what is now Randolph Beer and installing a 37-foot-bar in the former Elite Lighting space.

Sadly, that bar has overshadowed the food prepared by Chef David Schaap, a renaissance man who has worked sid side by side with MiStarre chefs, food truck chelin Starred cooks, and an the staff of Rao’s in Har Harlem. Ra Randolph Beer serves a satisf ying and h healthy kale and g grain salad, but the best thing going for that kale is its place on top of the menu. Once your eyes scroll down, t they’ll catch its co competition: double frie fried chicken thighs, a clas classic cheeseburger with addadd-on options that include a fried e egg and bacon marmalade, green curry mussels, and evil sprouts, which are Brussels sprouts served with maple glaze and bacon lardon. For brunch, you can chow down on breakfast nachos or shrimp and grits while listening to a nameless bluegrass band that features an endless rotation of random new members every Saturday afternoon. “We never know who we’re going to be listening to,” said Hales. “Last weekend we had two 17-yearold twins playing the Ukulele jamming out with the old men.” This summer, you’ll ﬁnd the boys throwing regular beach party-fundraisers for the NYC Coalition Against Hunger (50 Broad Street), to which they also donate 25¢ from every burger sold.

APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit 19

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS APRIL 9 - 16, 2014 The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml. Salumeria Rossi Parmacotto

283 Amsterdam Avenue

Wok City

153-155 Amsterdam Avenue

Gourmet To Go Market

5 West 63 Street

16 Handles

325 Amsterdam Avenue

Grade Pending (31) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan. Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Jean Georges

1 Central Park West

The Esplanade

305 West End Avenue

Maoz Vegetarian

2047A Broadway

Freddie & Pepper’s Pizza

303 Amsterdam Avenue

Pain D’epices

104 West 70 Street

Grade Pending (2)

Talia’s Steakhouse

668B Amsterdam Avenue

Ben & Jerry’s

2720 Broadway

Green Cafe

2585 Broadway

Curry Club

254 West 108 Street

La Ozen Asian Fusion Cuisine

760 Amsterdam Avenue

Not Graded Yet (24) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. Tobacco use, eating, or drinking from open container in food preparation, food storage or dishwashing area observed. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Koronet Pizza

2848 Broadway

Grade Pending (32) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding Insufficient or no refrigerated or hot holding equipment to keep potentially hazardous foods at required temperatures. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Tea Magic

2878 Broadway

Broadway Pizza

2709 Broadway

Grade Pending: Establishment authorized to reopen after inspection conducted on 04/16/2014.

La Mirabelle Restaurant

102 West 86 Street

Grade Pending (23) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked ﬁsh and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.

Tarallucci E Vino

475 Columbus Avenue

Tal Bagels

2446 Broadway

Cafe Eighty Two

2282 Broadway

Macaron Parlour

560 Columbus Avenue

AGING IN PLACE SENIORS Making plans to stay in your home now can help for the future Most people prefer to stay in their home or apartment for as long as possible. The best way to make this a reality is to plan ahead of time to make the amenities in your home as safe and accessible as possible. It can be hard to imagine that tasks around the house that were once done with ease can one day pose a challenge. Anticipating the challenge and planning accordingly may allow you to remain in your home for an extended period of time. Often, with some minor modifications, your home can be adapted to help you stay as long as possible even with some loss of mobility.

Home Modifications Living at home longer may mean renovating a home to make it more accessible. This can include such things as installing ramps to bypass stairs, building a bedroom on the main floor, placing grab bars in the shower, changing the height of kitchen countertops or making a bathroom safer and more accessible. Before you make home modifications, you should evaluate your current and future needs by going through your home room by room and answering a series of questions to highlight where changes might be made. Several checklists are available to help you conduct this review. The National Resource Center on Supportive Housing and Home Modifications is a good place to start. Go to the center’s website at www.homemods.org and click on the link to the “Safety Checklist and Assessment Instrument.”

Getting Help Keeping a house running smoothly requires a lot of hard work. If you are no longer able to keep up with the demands, you may need to hire someone to do laundry, buy groceries, run errands, clean the house or perform any necessary repairs. Those who are unable to perform Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), such as getting in and out of bed, walking, bathing, dressing, and eating, can often continue to stay at home with outside

A willingness to get help can enable people to stay in their homes. help. There are a number of services that can be brought in to assist with ADLs and other personal care. You can hire someone, such as a personal care aide or home health aide, to help you out a few hours a day or around the clock. Some health care services can be provided at home by trained professionals, such as occupational therapists, social workers or home health nurses. Check with your insurance or health service to see what kind of coverage is available, although you may have to cover some of these costs out of pocket. If very specific conditions are met, Medicare will help pay for all or a portion of home health care.

Transportation Declining health often

causes a decline in independence and mobility. Many seniors lose the ability to drive or simply feel uncomfortable behind the wheel at night. Investigate transportation options in your area so you can maintain an active social life, get medical care and shop for necessities. You might find family members willing to take you to the grocery store, friends who will drive you to social events, nearby bus routes, reduced fare taxis or senior transportation services funded by a local not-forprofit. Staying in your home should not mean being cut off from community activities you enjoy. Finding new ways to get around, even after you are no longer driving, may allow you to stay engaged and active.

The Spirit APRIL 24, 2014

Property

AG: AIRBNB ENABLING ILLEGAL RENTALS An investigation by the state attorney general’s office claims that over 60 percent of city apartments recently listed for short-term stays on AirBnB’s website were offered illegally. Under state law, a permanent resident of the apartment being rented must be present

when subletting the apartment for fewer than 30 days. An analysis by Sumanta Ray, an investigator with the AG’s office, said in an affidavit ﬁled Monday that, “the majority of the listings were for the ‘entire apartment’ meaning that the host would rent the entire apartment and thus presumably would not be present during

You Asked

the rental period.” The data looked at more than 19,000 units being rented in New York City on Jan. 31, all but one of which were offered for less than 30 days. Ray said 64 percent of the listings were for the entire apartment. Ray also said that just ﬁve “hosts” were responsible for renting 203 units,

indicating that third party brokers are renting units on behalf of owners. The AG said in a memo that listings that run afoul of the law are fueling the “illegal hotel” industry. AirBnB spokesman David Hantman said in a statement that those who abuse the service are swiftly booted.

DEVELOPMENT A parking lot is being built over an area formerly used as green space by tenants of Park West Village. Photo by Daniel Fitzsimmons

Buying in a seller’s red-hot market

he headlines are true real estate inventory is at historic lows. This is the case across all price points and neighborhoods, from the Upper Eastside to the Upper West Side, from downtown to Harlem. There are no longer fringe New York City neighborhoods. Desirable properties are selling fast, and many receive multiple bids within of coming on the BY SUSAN ABRAMS days market. Here are some insider tips to help a buyer succeed in this overheated marketplace. 1, Know the marketplace. Research comparable properties. A lot of buyers make the mistake of forgoing a buyer’s agent. A good agent knows the marketplace and how best to present your bid, especially in this competitive market. 2. Decide on your no-regrets price. I advise buyers to offer the price that they can comfortably say I will have “no regrets” if I lose the property. Offer your highest price and then don’t look back. 3. If you can, waive the financing contingency. In a seller’s market, cash is king. If you can’t pay cash, sellers are typically OK with a buyer obtaining financing as long as the contract is not contingent on the buyer obtaining a mortgage. Buyers should get a pre-approval letter from a lender. Only waive the contingency if you are able to do so confidentially and always consult with your lender and counsel before doing so. 4. Write a personal letter. The letter should discuss your connection to the apartment, why you love the property and position you as the best buyer. 5. First impressions count. Be friendly, courteous and positive when you tour the property. The seller’s agent is watching to see who expresses reservations and who might be a problem buyer. In a multipleoffer situation everyone prefers to deal with the nice guy, not the difficult purchaser. Susan Landau Abrams is a Licensed Associate Broker at Warburg Realty

THEY PAVED PARADISE Park West Village tenants: green space destroyed for parking lot BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

UPPER WEST SIDE Tenants of Park West Village at 97th Street and Columbus Avenue are in court to prevent their landlord from converting green space they use as a recreational area into a parking lot, even though construction is well underway. Historically, tenants parked in the West 97th Street parking lot on land that is now owned by

Jewish Home Lifecare, which plans to build a 20-story nursing home on the site. JHL obtained the property in a 2011 land swap deal with developer Joseph Chetrit, who owns Park West Village. Tenants also parked at the West 100th Street parking lot, which Park West Village has its own plans to build over. As parking spaces are built into the tenants’ lease agreements, and negotiations for alternate parking accommodations failed, Park West Village decided to convert green space

located between its three residential buildings into a parking lot for tenants against their wishes. Lawyers for the tenants are appealing a decision by the state that allowed construction of the parking lot on the green space – known by tenants as the “central recreational area” – to go ahead. The case is scheduled to be heard by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Anil Singh on June 4. “Judge Singh has prohibited the landlord from compelling members of Park West Village Tenants’ Association to move their cars from the 97th Street parking lot or the 100th Street parking lot while the lawsuit is pending,” wrote lawyers Catherine Grad and Douglas Simmons in an April 20 update to tenants. “He has not, however, stopped the landlord from completing work on building parking spaces…in the central recreational area of Park West Village. We

believe that, if we win the case, the landlord will be required to restore the recreational space and open area that used to exist at Park West Village.” A Park West Village spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment. Meanwhile, JHL’s nursing home project has stirred no shortage on controversy in the community. Critics, including State Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell and City Council member Mark Levine, contend that construction of the nursing home will disrupt students at nearby P.S. 163, cause traffic congestion in the area and threaten the neighborhood’s open spaces. Public hearings on JHL’s draft environmental impact statement are being held May 7 and 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of P.S. 163, located at West 97th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit 21

Real Estate Sales Neighborhd

Address

Central Harlem 352 W 115 St.

$135,656

Manhattan Valley

Upper W Side 102 W 85 St.

$319,000

Halstead Property

Central Park South

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106 Central Park South

$2,250,000 2

Douglas Elliman

Upper W Side 222 Riverside Drive

$1,995,000 2

P.S. Burnham Inc.

Midtown

150 W 56 St.

$2,099,000 2

Penny Penzner, Lreb

Upper W Side 160 W 87 St.

$1,360,000 2

Halstead Property

Midtown

157 W 57 St.

$6,927,600

Upper W Side 100 W 93 St.

$1,130,000 2

Halstead Property

230 Central Park South

Price

Bed Bath Agent

485 Central Park W

$470,000

Upper W Side 102 W 75 St.

$999,999

Town Residential

Lincoln Square 205 W End Ave.

$870,000

Lincoln Square 62 W 62 St.

$2,600,000 3

Douglas Elliman

Midtown

157 W 57 St.

$8,760,450

Upper W Side 440 W End Ave.

$600,000

Douglas Elliman

Lincoln Square 115 Central Park W

$6,500,000 3

Brown Harris Stevens

Midtown

125 W 56 St.

$950,000

Upper W Side 325 W End Ave.

$2,700,000 2

Brown Harris Stevens

Lincoln Square 185 W End Ave.

$580,000

Corcoran

Midtown W

454 W 50 St.

$390,000

Upper W Side 107 W 89 St.

$2,150,000

Lincoln Square 315 W 70 St.

$625,000

Halstead Property

Isen & Company : Real Estate Advisors

Upper W Side 65 W 95 St.

$2,650,000

Lincoln Square 150 Columbus Ave.

$16,000,000 5

Douglas Elliman

Midtown W

408 W 57 St.

$399,000

Corcoran

Lincoln Square 155 W 68 St.

$1,015,000

Midtown W

315 W 55 St.

$470,000

Lincoln Square 2025 Broadway

$579,000

Citi Habitats

Love Where You Live Realty

Lincoln Square 167 W 71 St.

$240,000

Coldwell Banker Bellmarc

Midtown W

322 W 57Th St.

$970,000

Coldwell Banker A.C. Lawrence

Lincoln Square 1965 Broadway

$4,725,000 3

Brown Harris Stevens

Lincoln Square 185 W End Ave.

$665,000

Keller Williams

Millennium Partners

Lincoln Square 200 Riverside Boulevard $1,450,000 Lincoln Square 155 W 66 St.

$197,000

Lincoln Square 50 Central Park W

$42,000,000

Lincoln Square 20 W 72 St.

$299,000

Lincoln Square 235 W End Ave.

$2,650,000

Manhattan Valley

$320,000

2788 Broadway

Upper W Side 33 Riverside Drive

$602,000

Upper W Side 107 W 82 St.

$390,000

Corcoran

Upper W Side 127 W 82 St.

$870,000

Corcoran

Upper W Side 310 Riverside Drive

$305,000

Core

$1,398,000 2

Halstead Property

Midtown W

350 W 42 St.

$1,700,000 2

Keller Williams

Upper W Side 11 Riverside Drive

Midtown W

350 W 42 St.

$859,000

Douglas Elliman

Upper W Side 203 W 87 St.

$515,000

Douglas Elliman

Midtown W

350 W 50 St.

$1,450,000 2

Sumitomo Real Estate Sales

Upper W Side 150 W 95 St.

$1,400,000 2

Douglas Elliman

Upper W Side 15 W 72 St.

$2,275,000 2

Douglas Elliman

Midtown W

322 W 57Th St.

$1,060,000 0

Douglas Elliman

Upper W Side 201 W 72 St.

$1,820,000 2

Brown Harris Stevens

Upper W Side 257 Central Park W

$9,150,000 4

Corcoran

Morningside Heights

535 W 110 St.

$595,000

Corcoran

New York Homes

Upper W Side 203 W 87 St.

$542,500

Hecht Group

Upper W Side 250 W 90 St.

$737,500

Upper W Side 15 W 72 St.

$815,000

Brown Harris Stevens

StreetEasy.com is New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most accurate and comprehensive real estate website, providing consumers detailed sales and rental information and the tools to manage that information to make educated decisions. The site has become the reference site for consumers, real estate professionals and the media and has been widely credited with bringing transparency to one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most important real estate markets.

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The Spirit APRIL 24, 2014

YOUR FIFTEEN MINUTES

LIFE WITH JOHN, DUSTIN AND HARRY Q&A

ing.

Eileen Haves has been a New York talent agent for four decades. BY VALERIE GLADSTONE

Having John Travolta throw his arms around you in a midtown pizzeria was only one of the perks of Eileen Haves’ 40-year career as a New York talent agent. Born in Brooklyn, raised in the Bronx, and an Upper East Side resident since her 30s, she has worked from her office in the neighborhood, along with her new orange tabby cat, Baron.

How did you get into show business? My aunt took me along when she joined The Players, a drama school on West 72nd Street, run by June Justice, which taught children and adults. Excited to see what acting was all about, I asked my parents if I could take classes. I studied from the time I was 11 to 13. I was very shy, so the teacher started me off very simply by asking, “How are you?” When I answered, “fine,” she explained that I should say more and continue the conversation. It re eally wasn’t really so much abou ut acting, as about learning how to t talk to and approach peop ple. By 16, I people. had become even ev ven brave enough to give e some lessons myself to t kids in my build-

Why didn’t you pursue your acting career? It was just too tough to find work. I wanted something steadier. And I had begun to be intrigued about other aspects of the business. My first job was with Ashley Steiner Famous Agency, which is now ICM. I started as a relief switchboard operator and then moved up to receptionist.

Who were some of your clients when you started casting for commercials? Dustin Hoffman. I remember he was shy and would usually come in at lunchtime when the ofﬁce was pretty deserted. This was before he and Jon Voight became famous with “Midnight Cowboy” and he starred in “The Graduate.” Jon and cl Ally McGraw were clients in the theater division, we called it “legit.” Funny, they al all made it around the same tim time.

Do any hug huge stars stand out? Harry Belafonte. B When he came into the office, everyone - even the men t to get a look - would try O at him. Once my friend Norma an and I set up a fake meeting in the lobby so passs we could pass

by him. We made some fake conversation. He knew what was going on.

Eileen Haves has been representing top acting talent for four decades.

What are some of the biggest differences in the business between when you started and today?

It’s amazing how much good manners count. And a pleasant voice. It takes some training.

There’s a lot more work but you have to work harder for it. We used to sell clients on the phone - now we do it all by email. And people certainly don’t look down on commercials. No one could get anyone to do Preparation H for awhile but I had a guy, who wasn’t phased by it at all. He said, “I’m an actor; I can do anything.” He ended up making an awful lot of money doing Preparation H commercials.

Do your artists ever get competitive with one another?

What makes someone good? A pleasant personality, always on time, polite, never gives anyone a hard time, and if you’re going to be late to a n aud ition, calling to say so. Same for when you go on vacation – let people know.

A lot. One might call me and say, “I saw that you sent so and so out three times last week. Why didn’t you send me?” And I’ll respond, “Are you AfricanAmerican in your 50s?” Since in that case it was a young white man in his 20s, there wasn’t much he could say.

Are they thankful for your help? They all say thank you and many of them send me gifts on the holidays but I especially remember D. Wallace Stone, who went on to play the mother in the movie “E.T.” I ﬁrst ran into her at a Halloween party. She was dressed as a bunny. I asked her to come into the office the next day. Someone said to me, “Eileen, don’t you ever stop working?” Anyway, much later, after she’s made a lot of commercials and “E.T.” she came back office to say a special thank you. to the

APRIL 24, 2014 The Spirit 23

CLASSIFIEDS Classified Advertising Department Information Telephone: 212-868-0190 | Fax: 212-2868-0190 Email: classified2@strausnews.com Hours: Monday - Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm | Deadline: 2pm the Friday before publication ANIMALS & PETS

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CARS & TRUCKS & RVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S Donate your car to Wheels For Wishes, beneďŹ ting Make-AWish. We offer free towing and your donation is 100% tax deductible. Call (917) 336-1254

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Donate your car to Wheels For Wishes, beneďŹ ting Make-AWish. We offer free towing and your donation is 100% tax deductible. Call (855) 376-9474

2014 Dodge Grand Caravan AVP/SE $23,788, Stock #F41337A, 93 MILES, MSRP $25,970 Nielsen Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, 175 Route 10 East Hanover, NJ 877-3931692, www.nielsendodge.com

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REAL ESTATE - RENT

Upper Manhattan Rentals Tim Heath, The HomeďŹ nder Licensed Real Estate Agent Specializing in Manhattan Valley, Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Sugar Hill, Washington Heights, Inwood Call or text 917-689-2944 Bohemia Realty Group 2101 Frederick Douglass Blvd New York, NY 10026

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OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND. Best selection of affordable rentals. Full/ partial weeks. Call for FREE brochure. Open daily. Holiday Real Estate. 1800-638-2102. Online reservations: www.holidayoc.com

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PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, PURSUANT TO LAW, THAT THE NYC DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS WILL HOLD A PUBLIC HEARING ON Wednesday, May 07, 2014 AT 2:00 P.M. AT 66 JOHN STREET, 11TH FLOOR, ON A PETITION FOR NICKY MEATBALLS INC. TO ESTABLISH, MAINTAIN, AND OPERATE AN UNENCLOSED SIDEWALK CAFE AT 483 AMSTERDAM AVE IN THE BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN FO R A T ER M O F T WO YEARS. REQUEST FOR COPIES OF THE REVOCABLE CO N S E N T AG R E E M E N T MAY BE ADDRESSED TO: DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, ATTN: FOIL OFFICER, 42 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10004

Remember to: Recycle and Reuse

Directory of Business & Services PAINTING

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WANT LESS CLUTTER & MORE SPACE ?

REAL ESTATE - SALE

Land For Sale: FARM SACRIFICE! 5 acres - $19,900 Great views, quiet country road, gorgeous hilltop setting! So Tier, NY. Guaranteed buildable! 5 tracts avail UNDER $20,000! Terms! Hurry! 888-905-8847. Newyorklandandlakes.com

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SENSUAL BODYWORK young, handsome, smooth, athletic Asian. InCall/OutCall. Phillip. 212-787-9116

VACATIONS

Massage by Live-in Home Health Aide, 20+ Years Exp. Certififed. References. 718-393-7715

Hiring One Ton and 3/4 Ton Pickup trucks to deliver RVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. .10 a mile. Sign-on Bonus, 4 Terminals & 8 Backhaul Locations. Call 866-764-1601 or www.foremosttransport.com

2014 Ford Focus SE, $17,912, 4,179 miles, Stock #E41359A, MSRP: $19,912. Nielsen Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, 175 Route 10 East Hanover, NJ 877-3931692, www.nielsendodge.com

NYC~REAL ESTATE CLOSINGS $895.00. Expd Attorney, Real Estate Broker, ESTATES/ CRIMINAL MATTERS Richard H. Lovell, P.C., 10748 Cross Bay, Ozone Park, NY 11417 718 835-9300.LovellLawnewyork@gmail.com

HEALTH SERVICES

2013 Audi A5 Coupe $38,995 Stock #9141 MSRP: $45,210 SAVE: $6,215, Audi Manhattan Open Road Auto Group Audimanhattan.com, 800 11th Ave at 55th St., New York NY 212-515-8200

2013 Audi A8L $79,995 Stock #09848X MSRP: $96,925 SAVE: $16,930, Audi Manhattan, Open Road Auto Group Audimanhattan.com, 800 11th Ave at 55th St., New York NY 212-515-8200

LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL

POLICY NOTICE: We make every effort to avoid mistakes in your classified ads. Check your ad the first week it runs. We will only accept responsibility for the first incorrect insertion. Manhattan Media Classifieds assumes no financial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your sales rep directly for copy changes. All classified ads are pre-paid.

To advertise in this directory Call Susan (212)-868-0190 ext.417 Classified2@strausnews.com

UPPER MANHATTAN RENTALS

:H DUH D SURXG PHPEHU RI WKH $VVRFLDWHG 3UHVV DQG WKH 1DWLRQDO 1HZVSDSHU $VVRFLDWLRQ

Enjoy Life! Spend Less on Rent TIM HEATH, THE HOMEFINDER

Licensed Real Estate Agent call or text 917.689.2944 REALTY GROUP

2101 Frederick Douglass Blvd New York, NY 10026

Specializing in Upper West Side Morningside Heights Manhattan Valley Harlem Hamilton Heights Sugar Hill Washington Heights Inwood Variety of Studios to 4 Bedrooms

The Spirit APRIL 24, 2014

NEW YORK’S VOLUME DEALER

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2011 Audi A5 2.0 CABRIOLET ........$34,795

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