Stoppard’s spy thriller, p.
19
Volume 1, Number 19 FREE
A new target for taggers?
A new mural by Kenny Scharf went up on the “graffiti wall” at East Houston St. and the Bowery last week.
In Chinatown, groups battle
over a proposal for new BID
BY LESLEY SUSSMAN
A civic association that wants to
create a Chinatown business improve-
ment district ran into some strong
resistance at Community Board 3’s full
board meeting on Tues., Nov. 23.
Members of the Chinatown
Partnership Local Development
Corporation’s BID Steering Committee
were scheduled to appear at the board’s
6:30 p.m. meeting at P.S. 20, 166 Essex
St., to elicit C.B. 3’s support for the
plan.
But before they even had an oppor-
tunity to make their presentation,
steering committee members found
themselves under attack by a member
of C.B. 3’s Chinatown Working Group
and representatives of the Coalition
Against the Chinatown BID, a busi-
ness and property-owners group that
does not believe Chinatown should
East and West Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Little Italy and Chinatown
have a business improvement district
— known as a BID, for short — of
any kind.
The Chinatown Partnership L.D.C.
is seeking a BID designation because a
$5.4 million government grant that has
paid for extra street cleaning and garbage
pickup is about to expire. Community
leaders are concerned that Chinatown
would revert to the conditions that pre-
vailed before the cleanup program began.
The new BID would be a public-
private partnership in which property
owners would pay annual assessment fees
for extra cleanup of Chinatown’s streets
and for other business improvements. It
would also advocate for a fair share of
government services for the district.
Landlords may pass on the assess-
ment to their commercial tenants.
Residential properties are assessed at
a lower rate than commercial ones,
145 SIXTH AVENUE • NYC 10 013 • COPYRIGHT © 2010 COMMUNITY M E D I A , L L C
A rose is a rose,
but this Rose is
105 years young
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
Rose Padawer was feel-
ing just fine three weeks
ago. At a gathering of fam-
ily and neighbors in her E.
Ninth St. apartment she told
a reporter, “I’m a healthy
young girl of 105.”
“On the first page!” she
exclaimed when she was
told that the reporter was
going to write an article
about her Nov. 10 birthday
bash. “I can read big print,”
she assured.
Her son, Gerald Padawer,
a retired nuclear physicist
Photo by Milo Hess
Citing less need,
Children’s Aid may
leave Sullivan St.
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
The Children’s Aid
Society is considering the
sale of its buildings on
Sullivan St. where it has
been a part of the Village for
and properties owned and occupied by more than a century.
nonprofit groups do not generally pay In a letter to families
an assessment. At least 50 percent of who take part in the soci-
property owners must approve of the ety’s Arts and After-school
plan, though generally BID’s are only Program and the New
started when there is much more sub- Acting Company classes and
stantial support. productions in the Sullivan
The BID’s board would be responsible St. complex, the center’s
for developing the budget and determin- executives said the decision
ing the rate of assessment needed to was not final but is under
fund the services provided by the BID.
Property owners would on average pay
an assessment of approximately 3 to 5
percent of their annual property taxes.
Members of the Coalition Against
the Chinatown BID, however, contend
that hiring a private street-sweeping
service that would be paid for by BID
revenues is not the sole solution for
Chinatown’s sanitation problems, and
Continued on page 2
December 2 - 8, 2010
from Roslyn, L.I., one of her
daughters, Saralta (“call me
Salty”) Loeb from Hartsdale,
N.Y., and a granddaughter,
Alisson Loeb, from Inwood
were on hand for the event.
Also at the party were Grace
Main, who lives downstairs,
and Linda Terry, from
upstairs, who both have
known Rose for more than
30 years.
“Last year she asked me
when I was going to write
my memoirs,” said Terry, a
Continued on page 12
“serious consideration.”
If the society decides
to sell the buildings at
219 Sullivan St. and 175
Sullivan St., it is likely that
its Arts and After-school
Program and the New Acting
Company would close after
June 2012.
“We are aware that this
news will come as a shock to
many,” said a Nov. 28 letter
signed by Richard Buery, the
society’s president and chief
Continued on page 11
EDITORIAL,
LETTERS
PAGE 14
PAPARAZZO’S
POUNDING BEAT
PAGE 23
2 December 2 - 8, 2010
Chinatown groups battle over a proposal for a BID
Continued from page 1
that the Chinatown Partnership L.D.C. is
not qualified to advocate for government
services. They also noted that since the
1990’s, Chinatown-area property owners
have twice rejected BID’s.
The fireworks started early at the C.B.
3 meeting when the evening’s first speaker
blasted the Chinatown Partnership for
not participating in the efforts of C.B.
3’s Chinatown Working Group, a com-
munity-based planning initiative for the
Chinatown area.
Rob Hollander, a C.W.G. member,
said that the Chinatown Partnership was
being “divisive” by not participating in the
group’s efforts to form a comprehensive
development plan for the area.
“I’m concerned about this BID,”
Hollander said. “We have, right now, a
Chinatown Working Group where all the
different voices in the area are coming
together for the first time. Instead, they’re
bypassing the Chinatown Working Group
and creating a division,” he said of the
Partnership.
‘I urge Community Board
3 members to be
supportive of the BID.’
Councilmember Margaret Chin
Hollander was followed by several
speakers from The Coalition Against the
Chinatown BID. Jan Lee, a coalition orga-
nizer, charged the L.D.C. with misus-
ing grant money in its quest to form a
Chinatown BID.
He said that the Partnership had
received millions of dollars in post-9/11
grant money from the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation based on spe-
cific tasks it would accomplish.
“But instead of adhering to their orig-
inal mission, [the L.D.C.] has squan-
dered public funds in pursuit of forming
a Chinatown BID, which is not what their
grant money was for,” Lee charged.
Lee added that more than 150 business-
es — many of them along the critical Mott
St. commercial corridor — have signed a
petition opposing the BID.
“We do not agree with this attempt
to ‘unify’ Chinatown under a pay-to-play
system of politics,” Lee asserted. “The
dubious track records of many BID’s in
the city stand as testimony against a BID
for Chinatown.”
Philip Grossman, an attorney for the
coalition, joined in the attack. He told C.B.
3 board members that an analysis he made
of the Chinatown Partnership’s expendi-
tures revealed that only 31 percent of its
$5.4 million Clean Streets Program grant
Saying clean streets reflect well on Chinatown, members of the Chinatown Part-
nership Local Development Corporation turned out to back the BID plan at C.B. 3’s
Nov. 23 meeting.
was being used for sanitation purposes.
“It’s outrageous and unreasonable,”
Grossman said. “They’re going to waste
any BID grants they get. It’s a bad idea to
let the Chinatown Partnership go through
with its plan.”
A Chinatown Partnership spokesperson
later denied the charge. He said Grossman
had failed to look at the records of the
city’s Economic Development Corporation,
which, as part of an arrangement with the
L.D.C., was “making payments directly to
the contractor” in charge of the cleanup
effort. “Those payments were not reflected
on the C.P.L.D.C.’s books,” the spokesper-
son added.
David Louie, a Chinatown Partnership
steering committee member and chairper-
son of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce
of New York, also denied the charges, and
said it was time for opponents of the BID
plan to “calm down.”
“I’ve heard a lot of unkind and untrue
remarks,” Louie told C.B. 3 board mem-
bers. “A BID is the best way to improve
the quality of life in Chinatown. The BID
would not be a dividing factor but a unify-
ing one. It’s unkind and unfair to say we
don’t have a broad spectrum of support.”
Louie added that in surveys taken on
the proposed BID, 97 percent of commu-
nity property owners who voted declared
their support for a BID. Another 600
business owners and residents wrote let-
ters of support, he said, including longtime
community groups, such as the Chinese
Chamber of Commerce, the Chinatown
American Legion post and the Canal St.
Jewelry Association.
Louie was joined by Patrick Yau,
executive director of the First American
International Bank, who said the
Photo by Lesley Sussman
Partnership had put together a “broadly
based group in support of this plan, and
we’ve submitted documents to show the
support we have.”
Yau said Chinatown’s top three commu-
nity needs were sanitation, affordable hous-
ing and jobs. In other surveys conducted by
the Chinatown Partnership, he said, “The
overwhelming issue for all respondents was
improving Chinatown’s sanitation.
“That’s why clean streets will be our
number one mission, along with advo-
cating for more government money for
Chinatown,” he added. “We just want to
keep our community clean, something
we’re already doing successfully under a
government grant that is about to expire.”
Also supporting the BID plan was City
Councilmember Margaret Chin.
C.C.B.A: ‘Need Sun Yat-sen soon’
BY LESLEY SUSSMAN
At its October full-board meeting,
Community Board 3 considered a proposal
for the construction of a statue of Dr. Sun
Yat-sen to be erected on the traffic island at
Canal and Baxter Sts. in Chinatown to cel-
ebrate the 100th anniversary of the Chinese
Revolution in 1911.
C.B. 3 gave its support to the resolution
that called for the creation of the Dr. Sun
Yat-sen statue. The measure was presented
by Gary Tai, assistant to the president of the
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association,
at 62 Mott St., who said his civic group is
awaiting city approval for the site.
“We wish to honor one of the most
important figures in modern Chinese his-
tory as soon as possible,” Tai said, “as next
“For Chinatown, it’s a moment of
self-determination,” she said. “I urge
Community Board 3 members to be sup-
portive of the BID.”
Chin later said charges that the
Chinatown Partnership L.D.C. was being
divisive by not participating in meetings of
C.B. 3’s Chinatown Working Group were
simply untrue.
“This BID group has been working on
this for the past four years — long before
the Chinatown Working Group was even
organized,” she noted.
Gigi Li, co-chairperson of the Chinatown
Working Group, said the clash of opin-
ions about the BID was not tearing the
Chinatown community apart.
“There are very strong opinions on both
ends,” Li said. “And I would welcome a
presentation by them in front of the mem-
bers of the Chinatown Working Group.
That would show an additional level of
outreach to the community.”
Li added that she had already invited
Wellington Chen, the Partnerhship’s exec-
utive director, to attend the Chinatown
Working Group’s next meeting.
“He has an outstanding invitation to
come before us, but is not required to do
so,” she said.
Li said the whole issue will be discussed
in greater depth at C.B. 3’s upcoming
Economic Development Committee meet-
ing, when the committee will recommend
what position the full board should take
on the matter.
The current government grant award-
ed to the Chinatown Partnership L.D.C.
expires Dec. 31. The Partnership must not
only get approval for the BID plan from
Community Boards 1, 2, and 3, but also
from the City Council. The first-year BID
budget would be $1.3 million, the vast
majority of which would be used for side-
walk cleaning and trash removal.
The boundaries of the BID district cur-
rently under consideration are Broome St.
on the north; Broadway on the west; Allen
and Rutgers Sts. on the east; and White,
Worth and Madison Sts. on the south.
year is the 100th anniversary of the Chinese
Revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
“This statue, which would be erected
adjacent to the Chinatown information kiosk,
would become another world-famous land-
mark in New York City’s bustling Chinatown
community and, undoubtedly, a favorite with
tourists,” Tai said.
He added that the statue would be
designed by the New York City architec-
tural firm of T.C. Ho, at 33 Bowery, the firm
which designed and engineered the statues
of Confucius and Lin Ze Xu in Chinatown.
Ho is also the president of the New York
Viet-American Lions Club.
Tai added that much of the memorial’s
funding would come from money donated by
Sun Yat-sen’s granddaughter.
 December 2 - 8, 2010 3

SCOOPY’S
vated theater, the university had “broken this pledge,” not-
BROADWAY PANHANDLER ing that the seat ends, along with the space’s four walls, are
Get Baked for the Holidays virtually all that’s left of the historic theater. Berman said he
never heard back from N.Y.U. following his letter. However,

Cookie Sheets Measuring Cups

& Spoons
NOTEBOOK Hurley explained to us that the seat ends have actually been
installed in the walls at the end of each row of seats. In the
end (pun intended), Hurley said, “Attaching 1940-ish, metal
THEATER REHAB DRAMA: With New York University ends to what need to be new, functioning seats didn’t work.”
poised to publicly unveil the Provincetown Playhouse in its After we subsequently informed him that the seat ends are
Whisks
Bundt Pans new School of Law building on MacDougal St., preserva- actually set into the concrete walls near the seats, Berman
tionist Andrew Berman on Monday fired off an alarmed shot back he never expected they would be “entombed”
Rolling
g Stand Mixers
Pins e-mail blast, charging that the university has “broken yet this way. “That Poe House approach to preservation pleases
Lots Of Bakeware another promise” regarding the project, of which he has no one expect the spinmeisters of N.Y.U.,” he said. He was
For Very Little Dough Scales been a strident critic. Specifically, the Greenwich Village referring to what he derided as the “Home Depot-style”
65 East 8th St. (off B ’way) • 212- 966-3434 Society for Historic Preservation director says, N.Y.U. has facsimile of the former Poe House in the School of Law
Mon-Sat 11-7 • Thurs ’til 8pm • Sun 11-6
www.broadwaypanhandler.com flouted its commitment on the theater’s seats — and he isn’t building on W. Third St., for which the original Poe House
about to take it sitting down. Berman points to a Feb. 1,
2010, letter that Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U.’s vice president of Continued on page 13
government affairs and community engagement, wrote to
Borough President Scott Stringer in which she stated that
the “end pieces of the chairs, which appear to be from the
1940’s, are being preserved and fastened to the end of each
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! row of seating.” But Berman told us he had it on the word of
a source that the seat ends were, in fact, being sequestered in
a “display area” somewhere inside the theater. He wrote John
Sexton, N.Y.U.’s president, on Nov. 19, saying that, with the
failure to reuse the seat ends on the actual chairs in the reno-

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4 December 2 - 8, 2010

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‘If these walls could talk’

A new mural, above, by Kenny Scharf, went up on the “graffiti wall” at East Houston
St. and the Bowery last week. The man pictured is an assistant, not Scharf. The
juxtaposition of a heap of garbage and the Monopoly game’s Rich Uncle Pennybags
character, below, at Cleveland Place in Nolita could certainly be viewed as an ironic
commentary on our current economy.

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Housing Authority tenants want cameras, more security
BY ALINE REYNOLDS
The New York City Housing Authority
has neither the funds nor the personnel to
implement all the security measures its resi-
dents want, such as monitored cameras and an
enhanced Resident Watch program. Yet crime
has risen by 2.8 percent in Lower Manhattan’s
public housing developments over the past
year.
NYCHA’s Safety and Security Task Force,
created last year, is reviewing security and
police issues to improve its services. The task
force will soon release a report documenting
NYCHA’s security problems and solutions. But
under the current system, many public housing
residents are afraid.
At 2:53 a.m. on Sept. 1, armed men con-
fronted Smith Houses resident Anthony Evans,
28, in the playground facing the complex’s
46 Madison St. residence. Evans was shot in
the head, torso and right arm. He was taken
to Downtown Hospital, where he was pro-
nounced dead.
Surveillance cameras recorded the crime
but were unable to produce a clear image of the
perpetrator. Residents of the housing develop-
ment argue the cameras are unreliable guards
against crime.
‘Preserving safety is the
responsibility of NYCHA
tenants, not just the
police.’
Margarita Lopez
“Nobody’s monitoring those cameras, so it
doesn’t make me feel any better one way or the
other if the cameras are here,” said Mary Daez,
a Smith Houses resident.
“If they had somebody looking at those
cameras, and there was a fight escalating, then
maybe they could have said, ‘Listen, there’s a
fight beginning at such and such a place, send a
patrol car,’ and that could have been stopped,”
said Mariainez Quinonez, another resident.
Cameras indeed prove more effective when
they are manned, according to Deputy Inspector
Thomas Hogan, who as the commander of
Police Service Area 4 is responsible for the
security of 25 Housing Authority developments.
A recent analysis conducted by the Police
Department revealed a dramatic drop in crime
after cameras were installed.
But camera protection doesn’t come cheap.
The technology is expensive, Hogan said, and
“paying police officers to just sit there and
watch would be cost-prohibitive.”
This explains why out of NYCHA’s 334
developments, only 15 — including Lillian
Wald Houses in the East Village — have cam-
eras that are monitored 24 hours a day by the
police.
“Deciding which developments got them
was based on crime and cost of installation,”
said Hogan of the manned cameras.
Other local developments, such as Seward
Carmen Ortra, Seward Park Extension T.A. president, right, with T.A. Vice President
Deborah Givens, has been fighting for years to get surveillance cameras installed.
Park Extension on the Lower East Side, don’t
have any cameras at all. Carmen Ortra, ten-
ants association president at Seward Park
Association, who has been fighting for cameras
for the past year, was told in the spring that
NYCHA doesn’t have the money to install
them.
“If we have cameras in the building, even if
they’re not watched every second of the day, at
least if something happens, someone could go
back and look at the tape and see what’s going
on,” said Tamara Johnson, 32, a Seward Park
Extension resident.
‘NO MONEY FOR CAMERAS’
Former local Councilmember Margarita
Lopez, who is now a NYCHA board member,
contended that cameras are only instrumental
in identifying the perpetrators and don’t neces-
sarily prevent the crimes from taking place.
“NYCHA never had money for cameras,”
Lopez said. “That is, again, another dream that
doesn’t have funding attached to it.”
Local elected officials, such as Assembly
Speaker Sheldon Silver and Councilmember
Margaret Chin, secured funding for the cameras
for 12 Lower Manhattan developments.
“I hope very much they’re going to do it for
us,” Ortra said, noting few residents volunteer
to monitor the lobbies. She planned to bring up
the subject in a recent meeting with Chin.
“We’ll look at how many entrances [the
development] has, how many cameras it needs,
and figure out if we can get it into budget this
year,” said Jake Itzkowitz, Chin’s spokesperson.
So far this year, Chin has secured $800,000 for
cameras for three developments — Rutgers,
Vladeck and LaGuardia Houses — which are
supposed to be installed between now and June
30 of next year.
“The priority for [the councilmember] is
that residents in her district are safe,” Itzkowitz
said. “Right now, cameras are the best way to
do that.”
Councilmember Rosie Mendez and
Borough President Scott Stringer have also
Photo by Aline Reynolds
provided funds for surveillance cameras.
Mendez, however, points out that there’s
competition for a limited amount of funds.
This year, for example, her allocations went
toward financing a handicap-accessible ramp
at Lillian Wald Houses and security cameras
for two of four buildings at Campos Plaza.
Baruch Houses, on the other hand, put in its
request for cameras too late, and so missed
out on the money. Mendez also points out
that some residents might take issue with
surveillance cameras, feeling they violate
their civil liberties, so these considerations
must be taken into account, as well.
Around 20 older women and men sat
in the small, stark lobby of 45 Pike St. in
Rutgers Houses on a recent Friday evening.
They were chatting and reading newspapers.
They were without weapons or other protec-
tive gear.
But guards they were. Like others who
serve on Resident Watch in NYCHA develop-
ments, most of them were there to fulfill fed-
eral community-service requirements. Under
law, all NYCHA residents have to perform a
St. Vincent’s looks to market
former Village hospital campus
St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers is
seeking to retain CB Richard Ellis to market
its Manhattan real estate assets, accord-
ing to St. Vincent’s spokesperson Veronica
Sullivan, who issued a brief e-mail press
release Wednesday afternoon.
On Wednesday, St. Vincent’s Catholic
Medical Centers filed a motion with the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court to retain CB Richard Ellis,
Inc. as real estate adviser for the disposition
of its Greenwich Village campus.
“St. Vincent’s is exploring all options
available regarding the Manhattan campus
to maximize value for all of its stakehold-
ers,” said Mark Toney, chief restructuring
December 2 - 8, 2010 5
minimum of eight hours of community service
per month, such as Resident Watch, as a term
of their lease.
The Tenant Patrol program, founded in
1968, was renamed Resident Watch this year.
NYCHA spokesperson Eric Deutsch
explained, “While residents have volunteered
for more than 40 years to enhance the safety
and security of their communities, Resident
Watch is a response to residents’ requests to
improve collaboration among them, NYCHA
and the N.Y.P.D., and to figure out how best
to reduce crime in public housing.”
Smith Houses senior resident Rosa
Ramerez, who patrols her building, said she
hasn’t witnessed any major crimes during the
time she has served. Criminals avoid the build-
ing because “they know we’re here,” she said.
An N.Y.P.D. officer who requested ano-
nymity confirmed that residents sitting in
groups in the lobby deter crime.
“If the residents send the message that
they care about their building, someone who
appears they don’t belong in the building will
say, ‘Hey, these people are watching,’” the
officer said.
Lourdes Leung, head of the Rutgers Houses
Resident Watch, said numbers make a big dif-
ference.
“We have a big group here, so usually noth-
ing happens,” Leung said.
Daez, who serves as the Smith Houses
Resident Watch chief, organized a recogni-
tion dinner on Nov. 13 at St. James Church
to encourage the program’s 100 volunteers in
their efforts.
“We’re working now in conjunction with
the Borough President’s Office and the poli-
ticians to try to get an [additional] stipend
for the residents here, to show appreciation
and hopefully get others involved,” said
Daez.
However, as with the cameras, NYCHA
doesn’t have the funds to cover such expenses.
“It would be asking us one more time to
get money out of a tree that doesn’t give you
blood,” said Lopez.
She emphasized the importance of resi-
Continued on page 6
officer of St. Vincent’s.
The property, which occupies eight build-
ings, at Seventh Ave. between 11th and 12th
Sts., represents a significant source of value for
St. Vincent’s bankruptcy estate, Toney said.
St. Vincent’s Hospital closed at the end of
April with $1 billion in debt.
CB Richard Ellis, an internationally rec-
ognized firm, is well established in the New
York market and accustomed to developing
and implementing real estate strategies for
complex sale transactions, the press release
said.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court will consider
the request at a hearing this month.
6 December 2 - 8, 2010
Join us for an
OPEN HOUSE at
The
Provincetown
Playhouse
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Noon to 5:00 PM • 133 MacDougal Street
New York University invites you to this open house at the newly
re-furbished Provincetown Playhouse! Come tour the historic
theatre and see a new exhibition featuring archival images of some
of the most famous playwrights and actors whose productions
are part of the theatre’s near 100-year history. Light refreshments
will also be served.
From playwrights Eugene O’Neill and Susan Glaspell in
the early twentieth century, to Edward Albee and George Bernard
Shaw at mid-century, and to Sam Shepard, David Mamet, Charles
Busch in more recent years, the Provincetown Playhouse has been
one of the most significant theatres in American theatre history.
The exhibition, designed in collaboration with NYU’s
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development,
will offer visitors a glimpse of past productions at the theatre and
will provide historic context, situating the Provincetown Playhouse
at the heart of the development of modern drama in America.
We hope to see you on Saturday, December 11th!
No RSVP is required.
NYU’s Office of Government and Community Affairs
community.affairs@nyu.edu or 212.998.2400.
Residents want more security
Continued from page 5
dents participating in the program, whether
they get paid or not. The more that residents
monitor their own developments, the less
likely crimes are to occur, she said.
“Preserving safety and security is the
responsibility of NYCHA tenants, not just
the police,” noted Lopez.
But Michael Steele, president of the ten-
ants association at Rutgers Houses, pointed
out that guarding buildings is potentially
dangerous, and that even additional stipends
are unlikely to attract many newcomers.
“Nobody wants to put their life on the
line, and that’s basically what you’re doing,”
Steele said.
And some tenants said they don’t feel any
safer with residents on patrol.
“They’re little old ladies,” Johnson said.
“If you’re at gunpoint, what’re you going to
do? Sit there and try to call the cops?”
“You going to run and save somebody?
No,” said Stephanie Ortiz, a former Resident
Watch volunteer at Smith Houses.
The security program, Ortiz added, typi-
cally ends at 9 p.m., when the residents
return to their homes, after which most of
the crimes occur.
The tenant patrol volunteers at Rutgers
Houses were shaken by a May 30 incident,
when one resident stabbed another with a
kitchen knife. The incident happened after
the volunteers had finished their shift.
VERTICAL PATROLS
In 1995, NYCHA entered into a mutual
agreement with the city to allocate an annual
sum, currently $73 million, to provide above-
baseline police services for its tenants.
“This means that NYCHA is entitled
to receive an enriched level of police ser-
vices compared to other landlords in the
city,” explained Sheila Steinback, a NYCHA
spokesperson.
Beginning at the ground floor, officers
work their way up the stairwells of the proj-
ects, interrogating any loiterers they encoun-
ter along the way. Since only 72 officers are
available to patrol the roughly 170 build-
ings in Lower Manhattan, the police focus
their efforts on housing developments where
crimes have recently transpired.
“We’re taught to ask three questions: ‘Do
you live in the building?’ ‘Are you visiting
someone in the building?’ ‘Do you have any
legitimate business in the building?’” the police
officer said of how they approach loiterers. If
the person refuses to answer the questions, he
or she could be arrested for trespassing.
But residents and advocates claim the
police are intimidating and harassing resi-
dents rather than protecting them.
“Tenants don’t feel they’re receiving the
special police services they pay for,” said
Marquis Jenkins, a community organizer at
Good Old Lower East Side, or GOLES, an
East Village-based housing and preservation
organization that advocates for tenants’ rights.
“They’re more afraid of police services than
Tamara Johnson, a Seward Park
Photo by Aline Reynolds
Extension resident, said the develop-
ment needs surveillance cameras.
they are of the drug dealers,” Jenkins said.
Ismael Sidibe, 23, a Seward Park
Extension resident of seven years, was
recently detained at his building’s entrance
by police offices for trespassing.
“I told them I live upstairs,” Sidibe said.
“They said they didn’t care about where I
live, they just took me to the precinct.”
The police source maintained that loiter-
ers aren’t legally required to show identifica-
tion, and that the officers are only trying to
do their jobs.
“The reality is, there are a lot of bad guys
out there,” the source said. “There are some
people that just don’t like the police.”
COMMUNITY POLICING
In 1990, Mayor David Dinkins established
a community-policing program, in which police
officers were assigned to specific housing devel-
opments, enabling them to form a rapport with
the residents. His successor, Rudy Giuliani, did
away with the program in 1995, when NYCHA’s
police services merged with the N.Y.P.D.’s in an
effort to combat serious crime.
Some of NYCHA’s residents long for a
return to the kind of community policing
Dinkins instituted. Rutgers Houses resident
Dorothea Cody said under the Dinkins pro-
gram the police “knew who everyone was.”
Efforts are being made to alleviate the
problem. At the Sept. 30 Smith Houses
Tenant Association meeting, state Senator
Daniel Squadron asserted that, though the
N.Y.P.D. can’t revert back to community
policing, those tight relationships can be
re-established.
Police Lieutenant Steve Nusser offered
his cell phone number to the residents in
attendance at the T.A. meeting.
“We have to work together,” Nusser told
the residents.
“We need as much information as pos-
sible from you,” he continued. “You’re the
people that live here. Everything people tell
us, we appreciate it and we’re going to act on
it. If we don’t get that information, it makes
our job a lot harder.”
 December 2 - 8, 2010 7

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8 December 2 - 8, 2010

alue
struction • Best V
pert In
entic Fa cilities • Ex
Auth

Photo by Jefferson Siegel

Rob Van Der Hoek, left, and Kristopher Rendon, both sporting facial wounds, leav-
ing Criminal Court on Monday after their arraignment on assault charges.

POLICE BLOTTER
The Best Sports Programs,
and took him to “The Tombs,” at 100 Centre
Dutch-police dustup St., where he was held 18 hours. Billy told
the East Villager that police at the scene said

Hands Down!
An employee of the Netherlands Embassy they just wanted to take him aside and talk
in Washington, D.C., and his Dutch friend to him, but they handcuffed him and took
were arrested after a fight outside Arthur’s him Downtown in a police car. Talen quoted
Tavern, 57 Grove St., during the early hours the judge at his 11 a.m. misdemeanor tres-
With 10 different sports and over 300 classes a week, of Sun., Nov. 28. Rob Van Der Hoek, 30, pass arraignment on Sat., Nov. 27, as asking
the Field House offers Manhattan’s best sports programs a consular official at the embassy, and his why he wasn’t issued a summons instead
for children of all ages. friend Kristopher Rendon, 31, both resi-
dents of Bethesda, Md., were charged with
of being put through the system. Norman
Siegel will represent Reverend Billy at his
assault. Two women, identified in a New Jan. 11 court appearance.
Little Athletes York Post article as Lenneke Veeninga,
SPRING (12 months – 5 years)
Rendon’s wife, and Roos Kouwenhoven,
Soccer | Gymnastics | Dance | Micro-Sports
SEMESTER Tee-Ball | Flip-N-Kick | Flip-N-Twirl
Van Der Hoek’s fiancée, were also involved,
Holiday home invader
according to the Post, but were not charged.
STARTS Youth Sports Development The incident began around 1:30 a.m. when
JANUARY (5 – 16 years) the suspects learned that Arthur’s, a jazz Police arrested Damont Green, 27, on
24TH Soccer | Gymnastics | Baseball | Basketball | Dance club, does not take credit cards. They said Sun., Nov. 28, and charged him with the
Flag Football | Rock Climbing | Martial Arts | Youth Fitness they couldn’t pay cash and argued with the burglary and robbery of a woman in her bed-
waitress. The argument turned physical and room at 55 Morton St. around 5:30 a.m. on
carried outside when police came to break it Thanksgiving Day. The victim, 27, woke up
Chelsea Shears up. Police said the suspects attacked them, to see a man holding a knife, police said. She
Hair Salon for Kids
NEW but Van Der Hoek and Rendon claimed they struggled with the intruder, sustaining an
AT THE CP Building Blocks were beaten by police, according to the Post. injury to her leg, and the man fled after tak-
FIELD HOUSE (18 months – 5 years)
The two men were released on $1,500 bail ing unspecified items. The victim was taken
Enrichment program for children with developmental needs. pending a Dec. 3 court appearance. to Beth Israel Hospital in stable condition.
Green is being held pending a court appear-

The Field House at ance on burglary, robbery causing an injury,

credit-card grand larceny, criminal trespass
Billy bank bustalujah and possession of marijuana.

Reverend Billy Talen of the Church of

23rd Street & Hudson River Park
212.336.6520 | www.chelseapiers.com/fh
GIVE A CHELSEA PIERS GIFT CARD THIS HOLIDAY
Golf • Spa • Field House • Sky Rink • Available Online
Life After Shopping took his angel choir
on a protest march from Columbus Circle
to the UBS bank building on Sixth Ave. at
52nd St., on the biggest shopping day of the
year, the Friday after Thanksgiving. They
demonstrated against the Swiss bank for its
financing of mountaintop-removal coal min-
ing. Police arrested Talen around 4:30 p.m.
Left Mom, 93, on floor
Police arrested Gordon Dowling, 57, of
175 W. 13th St., on Nov. 23 and charged
him with leaving his mother, 93, in the
Continued on page 9
 December 2 - 8, 2010 9

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Continued from page 8

apartment they shared for at least two days,
lying on the floor in a soiled nightgown amid
feces and mold. An Emergency Medical
Service team found her helpless on the floor
while Dowling was in the apartment and
making no attempt to help her, according to
the complaint. Dowling was charged with
three counts of endangering the welfare of
an incompetent and physically disabled,
elderly person. Dowling, who is represented
by a court-appointed attorney, was released
on his own recognizance pending a court
appearance on the charges.
Domestic assault
Police arrested Sebastian Caldwell, 28,
on Fri., Nov. 26, and charged him with stran-
gulation and assault for choking and beating
his girlfriend in their apartment on E. 11th
St. at Avenue A at 2 a.m. Wed., Nov. 2.
Caldwell was also charged with choking and
beating the victim on July 15.
on the floor and hiding their faces as they 4@72/GA.%(!>;
picked it up and walked out. The victim lost
>3@4=@;/<13A0GB67@2AB@33B4/1C:BG
$600 in cash and various credit cards.
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Women wallet stealers 03BE33< <2/<2!@2/D3<C3A
<3EG=@9<G!  7   %%%! "
EEEB67@2AB@33B;CA71A16==:=@5
A saleswoman at LePage New York, the
gift shop at 72 Thompson St., told police she
was busy taking care of a crowd of shoppers
on the afternoon of Fri., Nov. 12, and discov- 2313;03@
ered when most of the crowd had left around
2 p.m. that her wallet had been stolen. The 3 C0CH0=0B8A>C0^WO\]
victim said she suspected that two women ;CA710G033B6=D3</<2A16C03@B

10=8=6HD^WO\]
who were among the last to leave had made
off with her wallet with $15 in cash, her
MetroCard and credit cards.
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Chanel bags went
17 =030E;4E
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;CA710G0=1163@7<7/<2@3A634
The manager of What Goes Around 4@33 8/ < C/ @G
Comes Around, the boutique at 351 West
Broadway between Grand and Broome Sts., 7 <0A2?>=C7DB ^WO\]
told police that two Chanel bags with a ;CA710G0=C:3H230CAAG/<2=CB7A

Wicked mug shot
A patron of Wicked Willy’s bar, 149
Bleecker St., got into an argument with two
other patrons around 4:30 a.m. Sun., Nov.
21, and one of them smashed him in the face
with a beer mug. The other suspect punched
the 37-year-old victim in the eye and both
assailants fled, according to reports.
Religion rip-off
A visitor from Cincinnati told police on
Fri., Nov. 26, that as soon as he discovered
his wallet was gone around 3:52 p.m. he
returned to the True Religion clothing bou-
tique at 132 Prince St., where he last had it
two hours earlier. A surveillance camera at
the shop recorded two men kicking a wallet
Precinct beefs up dinner detail
14B0A07?A0CCdW]ZW\;  0
total value of $4,950 were stolen from a
display case around 2:30 p.m. Fri., Nov. 26. CA71 0G /16
The shop was so busy that employees were
unable to see how the bags were stolen,
police said.
2120A>;H=94B4;B>7=QSZZ]
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Rock-a-bye bag A>274;;48CI4= ÀcbS=T[[XTBT]V^WO\]
;CA710G0/162CB7::3CF/<2D7D/:27
A female Hudson Square resident told
police she was in Don Hill’s, the music 28E0=4BB050380; ^WO\]
club at 511 Greenwich St., during the early 0a^]IT[Z^fXRiQSZZ]
hours of Fri., Nov. 19, and had put her bag ;CA710G0/@03@234/:://<2A16C;/<<
on the floor by her chair around 1 a.m.
When she bent to pick it up a half hour 4 3 0 @ C/ @G
later, she discovered it had been stolen,
along with $220 in cash, diamond earrings
valued at $300, her Apple cell phone, credit
4270<14A<DB82502D;CH
16/;03@E=@9A>3@4=@;32;CA710G4/1C:BG;3;03@A
cards and house keys. 
Alber t Amateau
1143<D=30A:DB^WO\]
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2^]RTacbPaTP__a^_aXPcT
U^aRWX[SaT]PVTbbXgP]S^[STa
1830;40=39>H24B<8C7
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RWP]VT
B6/<9G=C
FTPaTVaPcTUd[c^cWT\P]h
bS\]`O\Ra]^`O\]
0]S5aXT]Sb


The Annual Sixth Precinct Police Roast Beef Dinner will be held on Tues., Dec. 7, from 6 X]SXeXSdP[bU^d]SPcX^]b
R^a_^aPcX^]bP]SV^eTa]\T]c /4@71/</;3@71/<A>7@7BC/:A/<2;CA710G
p.m. to 9 p.m., at the Our Lady of Pompei Senior Center, Father Demo Hall, at Bleecker and PVT]RXTbcWPc\PZT^da 3::7<5B=</<28=>:7<
Carmine Sts. Food has been donated by local merchants and will be served by members of _a^VaP\b_^bbXQ[TcWa^dVWcWTXa
Greenwich Village’s Sixth Precinct. Admission is $12 at the door. All proceeds go to The Caring
Community’s operating fund. For more information, call Sandy Gabin at 212-989-3620.
VT]Ta^dbbd__^ac
7D67B0< ^WO\]
<Pah;^d5aP]RXbO\R<PaVPaTc<X[[b^WO\]
1=;>=A7B7=<A/<2/@@/<53;3<BA0G6C56A/;
BIG FUN! SMALL BUCKS!
Sun. $3.50 Screwdrivers & our famous Bloody Mary’s,
$2.50 Miller Lite Drafts & Bud Bottles
25 <82704;2A0=4
 ^WO\]
Neighborhood ;CA710G033B6=D3</<2:7AHB
Fusion! Mon. $4 Mojito’s all flavors Tues. $2 Margarita’s
CHEAP-EEZ COCKTAILS (except Fri. & Sat.) - Coors & Pabst Cans $3, B>=4;8DBB<8C7 ^WO\]0]S5aXT]Sb
Rootbeer Floats $3, Sloe Gin Fizz $2, Tom Collins $3, =@757</:/<23FB3<2321=;>=A7B7=<A0GA;7B6
“One of the 63 best bars
in NYC” — Time Out, 2009 Whiskey Sours $3, Rum Lime Ricky $3
281 W 12th St @ 4th St. NYC 212-243-9041
10 December 2 - 8, 2010

Assembly backs stopgap moratorium against fracking

BY ALBERT AMATEAU
The New York State Assembly voted 93 to
43 shortly after midnight on Monday in favor
of a six-month moratorium on hydrofracture
gas drilling in the state.
The vote during the last minutes of the
legislative session this year, follows a similar
moratorium passed by the state Senate in the
summer. The resolution needs the signature of
Governor Paterson to ban the process known
as fracking until May 15 of next year.
Paterson is expected to sign the morato-
rium soon.
“Even with the tremendous revenues it
would bring in, we’re not going to risk public
safety or water quality,” Paterson said last
week in an interview on fracking.
Welcomed by city officials and environ-
mental advocates as an important but stop-
gap measure that protects New York City’s
Delaware-Catskill watershed from poten-
tially toxic chemicals, the moratorium was
denounced by gas and oil companies as “a job
killer, an Upstate business killer and potentially
an industry killer.”
But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said
on Tuesday, “I will not let anything stand in
the way of making sure all New Yorkers have
clean, safe water. By preventing hydrofracking
from moving ahead without careful study, we
have protected our water supply and served
notice to the industry that the health and safety
of New Yorkers is our top priority.”
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said
in a joint statement with James Gennaro, chair-
person of the City Council’s Environmental
Committee, that the moratorium was an
important step forwarding protecting New
York City’s drinking water. The Council last
year called for a ban on fracking in the water-
shed area, which supplies 90 percent of the
city’s drinking water, all of this unfiltered. The
other 10 percent of the city’s drinking water
passes through a Bronx filtration plant. The
temporary moratorium goes further and bans
the drilling process throughout the state.
Fracking involves horizontal drilling into
the Marcellus shale formation, which lies more
than 5,000 feet beneath New York State’s 27
Southern Tier counties near the Pennsylvania
border, including the six counties that include
New York City’s watershed.
The process calls for injecting millions of
gallons of water laced with a cocktail of toxic
chemicals under high pressure to fracture the
formation, releasing natural gas trapped in the
shale.
“It is the first time any state in the country
has passed any kind of moratorium on this gas
drilling technique,” Quinn said. “As accounts
of contaminated water, soil and air due to
hydraulic fracturing come in from across the
country, New York is in a unique position to
show much-needed leadership on this issue,”
Quinn said.
But the Independent Oil and Gas
Association of New York on Tuesday called on
Governor Paterson to veto the moratorium,
which could halt all fracking for natural gas in
the state, not just in the Marcellus formation.
“It could result in the potential loss of
5,000 industry jobs, threaten the future of
more than 300 businesses and temporarily
eliminate $1 million in annual revenue that
the state collects from traditional drilling per-
mit fees,” the association said in a statement.
“Hundreds of millions in lease payments and
royalties to landowners and tens of millions in
tax revenues to local towns and counties in the
state also will be lost during this moratorium,”
the association said.
However, Ling Tsou, a Lower Manhattan
resident for 40 years, said she became con-
vinced in the summer of 2009 that fracking
was a public health danger and not the eco-
nomic boon that supporters claim it is.
“It’s not an Upstate-Downstate issue,” she
said on Wednesday. “If you count the expense
of cleaning up after accidents and repairing the
roads that will be damaged by heavy truck traf-
fic, and add up all the other costs, it’s not such
a great economic benefit. We should explore
more sustainable and environmentally safe
energy,” she added.
While oil and gas advocates say that drill-
ing has been done safely for years in the state,
Silver said, “When it comes to keeping pol-
lution and dangerous chemicals out of our
water, there is simply no acceptable level of
risk.” Silver thanked Assemblymember Robert
Sweeney of Long Island for sponsoring the
moratorium and organizing its passage this
week.
Assemblymember Deborah Glick was
among the co-sponsors of the bill, which
also had the support of Manhattan Borough
President Scott Stringer.
In September 2009 the state Department of
Environmental Conservation issued for review
an 809-page draft supplemental generic envi-
ronmental impact statement on hydrofrack-
ing rules. But New York City officials and
environmental advocates protested that the
guidelines were largely written by gas drilling
companies.
Last April, D.E.C. decided to remove the
New York City watershed and the Syracuse
watershed from the generic fracking review
and required gas drillers in those watersheds
to undertake supplemental environmental
reviews for each well.
Environmental advocates acknowledged
that although the D.E.C. decision would
discourage fracking in the two watersheds,
there was nothing to stop the agency from
issuing a subsequent executive decision
including the watersheds in the review once
it is final.
The federal Environmental Protection
Agency has been holding hearings over the
past year preparing for a nationwide report
assessing the safety of hydrofracking. A sci-
ence panel is expected to draft the report early
next year and complete it in 2012. Silver has
said that he favors a statewide ban on fracking
until the E.P.A. issues the final report.

BVW\Q`cab >`SaS\bbVWaQ]c^]\T]`
^WhhO
6][S[ORS
 “Fa la la la la la”
^OabO =44
g]c`S\bW`S]`RS`
TREE LIGHTING AND SINGING
IN WASHINGTON SQUARE!
3fbS\aWdS Under the Historic Arch
eW\SZWab
ESSYS\R
P`c\QV
5ZcbS\T`SS
^Zc[
^WhhS`WOO\RPO`

a community project of
The Washington Square Association
with assistance from the
City of New York Parks & Recreation
and the Washington Square Hotel

^OabO Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 6 pm: sing seasonal songs with song-

leader Mary Hurlbut and the Rob Susman Brass Quartet,
and help Santa with the illumination countdown, as the tree
4@3323:7D3@G lights magically go on.

#% \R/dS Friday, Dec. 24 at 5 pm: celebrate Christmas Eve singing

carols with the Rob Susman Brass Quartet.
0Sb'Ab
 !%#'### Song Books For Each Evening
1]c^]\OZa]U]]R courtesy of The Washington Square Association
^Zc[\gQQ][ T]`RSZWdS`WSa www.washingtonsquarenyc.org
 December 2 - 8, 2010 11

Photo by Tequila Minsky

A nanny, left, talked to a receptionist at the Children’s Aid Society on Wednesday

after bringing two young West Villagers over to use the society’s playroom.

Society may sell its buildings

no longer needs us in the way that higher-
Continued from page 1 poverty New York neighborhoods do.”
The society board of trustees, which
executive officer, and Bill Weisberg, chief oper- meets on Dec. 16, must ratify any decision
ating officer. “The programs are wonderful and to sell the Village buildings.
the staff is comprised of supremely talented Buery said on Wednesday that it was very
and caring people,” the letter continued. early in the process and the society has not
The society, dedicated in 1853 to help yet hired a broker. But he acknowledged that
poor children thrive, now has 45 locations the society has received offers to buy the
in the five boroughs and Westchester. The Village properties.
Children’s Aid Society has been in the The buildings are located within the area
Village since 1892, and was named in 2005 that the Greenwich Village Society for Historic
as the Phillip Coltoff Center in honor of Preservation originally proposed for the South
the society’s retired president. The early- Village Historic District. Although the city’s
childhood annex was opened at 175 Sullivan Landmarks Preservation Commission has
St. 20 years ago, and the main center at 219 designated one-third of the proposed district,
Sullivan St. was renovated in 1994. the Children’s Aid Society buildings were not
“This is really heartbreaking,” Buery said included in the designation.
on Wednesday. “We constantly struggle with “The loss of the Children’s Aid Society,
difficult decisions about which services are an institution which has been in this commu- $1.95
most closely aligned with our mission. We nity for over a century, would be tragic,” said
EACH
will be working hard to support families and G.V.S.H.P Executive Director Andrew Berman
staff through this transition.” in a letter to L.P.C. “If its buildings were to be
In a Nov. 30 news release, Buery fur- sold prior to landmark designation, it would
ther said, “While the Greenwich Village likely lead to their demolition and replacement
community shows a continued demand for with either a condo or dormitory high-rise,
quality and affordable early-childhood and which would compound the tragedy. We are
after-school programs, the neighborhood has urging the city to keep its long-overdue prom-
EASTVILLAGERPDF!-
changed radically in the 119 years since this ise and move ahead with consideration of this
center opened, and it’s clear the community area for landmark designation right away.”
12 December 2 - 8, 2010

For a 105-year-old, life’s still coming up Roses

Continued from page 1
retired singer and emcee who toured with
a troupe that entertained U.S. servicemen
in bases around the world.
Rose, who is hard of hearing and has
a little trouble making herself understood
by strangers, introduced the reporter to
Venice Daniel, her homecare attendant
for the past eight and a half years.
“She’s my good girl,” Rose said, put-
ting her arm around Daniel.
“My mother and Rose were first cous-
ins,” said another guest, Judy Markowitz.
“That makes us second cousins.”
Rose and her late husband, Lewis
Padawer, who owned a carpet store on
Fourth Ave. and E. 12th St., used to live
in Flushing years ago, Markowitz said.
“Rose used to entertain there on a
lavish scale. She was a lively hostess,”
Markowitz recalled.
“I don’t dance anymore,” said Rose. “I
can’t kick as high as I used to.”
Rose was born Rose Anolik in Trakai,
near Vilnius in Lithuania, her son said.
in Pittsburgh, came over to the States a
short time later.
“I’m from Pittsburgh, where people
are nice. They smile, not like New York
where everybody is grouchy and dull,”
Rose said. “Don’t be dull,” she advised
the reporter and suggested that he and
Grace Main, the downstairs neighbor,
might get together.
“Rose used to work in Kaufman’s
Department Store in Pittsburgh,”
Markowitz said. “My Uncle Jack and
Lewis Padawer were best friends. They
went to Pittsburgh to visit Rose’s family
and that’s where they met,” Markowitz
said.
“He stayed in Pittsburgh until Rose
said ‘Yes,’ ” Gerald said.
Lewis Padawer was born in Memphis,
Tenn., in a family that immigrated from
Galicia in Eastern Europe. When Rose
said, “Yes,” he brought her to New York
where he was in the carpet business and
where they raised three daughters and
a son. Lewis died in 1977 at the age
of 69.
Rose is a little uneasy about the future Photo by Albert Amateau

She came to the U.S. when she was 6
years old with an aunt.
“She had three brothers and two sis-
ters who lived to maturity,” Gerald said.
“I think there were other siblings who
died as children,” he added.
Rose’s father, who owned a bathhouse
when she gets old.
“You’re going to have to find a good
home for me,” she told her son and
daughter. They assured her she could stay
where she has lived for the past 35 years
with Venice to take care of her.
“Oh it can’t last forever. But it [the
From left, Gerald Padawer, his mother, Rose Padawer, and Venice Daniel, Rose’s
homecare attendant for the past eight and a half years, at Rose’s 105th birthday
party three weeks ago.
‘good home’] has to be Jewish. I’m a pendence.
Jewish girl still,” she said. “I’m not looking for a man. I want to
Nevertheless, Rose values her inde- be free,” she said.

You are warmly invited to a ST. ANTHONY CHURCH

talk about spiritual healing
Christian Science Healing:
Christmas
S S :
CHEDULE OF ERVICES
154 Sullivan Street
New York, NY 10012
(212) 777-2755
Praying with Certainty www.stanthonynyc.org
Kevin Graunke
Member, Christian Science Board of Lectureship
December 24
Thurs., December 9th, 2010 5:00PM - Vigil Mass for Christmas
7:30 PM
December 25 - Christmas
Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist
171 MacDougal Street 12 MIDNIGHT - Mass of the Nativity preceded
Between 8th Street and Waverly Christmas carols begin at 11:30pm
One block east of Sixth Avenue

During his talk, Mr. Graunke will draw on ideas 9:00AM - Mass of
from the Bible and from Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, a book the Nativity
that describes how to find health and healing
through practical, spiritual means. He’ll also draw
from his own experience in learning that when we 11:00AM - Mass of
embrace the law of God, of Truth and Love, here
and now, we’ve actually engaged the full law and
the Nativity
the power of God for ourselves.
As an experienced practitioner and authorized
teacher of Christian Science healing, Graunke has
helped many people find renewed health and
lasting answers to problems of all kinds through the
Scriptures as well as in the practical system of heal-
ing presented in Science and Health.
December 2010

SECRETS OF THE CHEF’S SUCCESS, PAGE 5

Let it Snow!
Enjoy ski season, even after surgery
PAGE 2 D E C E M B 2010
ER

Stuyvesant
Eye Care
Roman Dworecki, MD, PC
Comprehensive Ophthalmology
Complete Eye Examinations
Laser Surgery & Microsurgery of the Eye
Attending New York Eye & Ear
All Insurances Welcome
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212-677-3200
LETTER
FROM THE
EDITOR
Dear ThriveNYC Readers,
While we all hustle about getting prepared for the holidays, thoughts of a new year
loom over our heads. Usually those thoughts – at any age – are of shaping up and
feeling healthier. We all want to live longer, happier, more productive and energetic
lives and to do so we need to be the best we can physically.
That’s why we at ThriveNYC visited with personal trainer Harry Hanson who
prides himself in the number of fit and happy “Boomers” he exercises every day.
Hanson believes in cardio and strength training as the key to strong bones and longer,
happier lives.
We also see the merits of fresh air and fun activities. I hobbled around the city
myself for years, feeling older, weaker and less happy because of a deteriorating knee.
I started saying “No” or mostly, “Uh, too busy” when friends asked me to join them
for a drink, dinner, a movie, shopping or a walk around town. I made excuses that
I didn’t need to go to the store or that I could substitute or subsist. I was in denial.
What I was doing was not getting the most out of my life because it hurt to walk and
climb stairs. My excellent orthopedic surgeon, Kenneth E. McCulloch, said these wise
words: “You’ll know when it’s time.” I finally had to admit it was and I’m so sorry that
I waited as long as I did. My knee operation was a life-changer and last season I was
back on skis. I’m looking forward to the snow again this winter.
The not-so wise say this is the gray, glum season but we say bundle up and enjoy
the cold, fresh winter air. Walking around our colorful city at this time of year is
uplifting and the first steps to a fun, fit and fantastic New Year.
Have a great holiday and happy New Year.

Janel Bladow
Editor

Published by COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC

145 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10013
PHONE: (212) 229-1890
ADVERTISING: (646) 452-2465
© 2010 Community Media, LLC
John W. Sutter PUBLISHER
Janel Bladow EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Jerry Tallmer MANAGING EDITOR
Mark Hasselberger ART DIRECTOR
Colin Gregory, Allison Greaker AD REPS
 nyc PAGE 3

Back On The Trail

After knee replacement, I wondered, would I ever ski again?
BY JANEL BLADOW tain’s two double lifts. Again, at the top, I
August 2009. I thought I would never shakily looked down the slope then, encour-
ski again. aged, eased into a slow, controlled drop.
I ripped my right knee while hop- “Best way to stop, especially after a
ping rocks, boulders really, climbing knee replacement, is to snowplow,” advised
Longs Peak in the Rocky Mountains, as Randy who some of the time watched me
a 19-year old college student. as he skied backwards down the run. “Or
I had my meniscus removed less than take one ski out of the trail and single plow.
a year later and arthroscopic surgery Snow plowing uses hips.”
nearly 20 years ago. I’d been limping He also championed the new para-
around in denial ever since. bolic skis. “They are best, especially if
Now I was stretching and flexing you’ve had knee injury or replacement.
with two interns outside the operating There’s less stress on joint, because you
room at New York Downtown Hospital don’t have to work as hard at turns and
talking about our favorite skiing spots. they are more forgiving,” he explained.
I felt great. My knee felt flexible, firm The turns were smooth, easy. I dusted
and without pain. At the moment, all the away the fresh powder in my path. My
aches and groans that go with pounding confidence grew with each turn, every
the pavement were gone. All the canceled run. Randy said I was ready for interme-
dates and missed opportunities because I Photo courtesy Shanty Creek Resorts diate trails. And off we went.
didn’t want to trek up and down subway The old gang enjoys a photo break during a great ski day on Schuss Mountain. With two mountains and 49 runs,
steps were forgotten. more than 67-percent of them beginner
I was energized. I was convinced was I was a downhill skier! my spine. The only way out was down. and intermediate level, my adventure was
healthy. At my side was Randy Anderson, a level My self-talk went from take your time, limitless. The 450-feet of vertical terrain
I was about to have knee replacement three Nordic and Alpine instructor and stop if you feel scared to when doubt, sit and long, winding runs – the longest at
surgery. member of Professional Ski Instructors of it out. I slowly began my descent, making 5,280-feet – gave my intermediary skills
I was about to bolt. America (PSIA) for more than 30 years. long, wide, loopy figure S-s in the snow. plenty of options.
Thankfully, I didn’t because four With his guidance and encouragement, I It was just like getting back on a My day was perfect: downy snow-
months later, I was cross-country skiing challenged myself to take on slopes I never bicycle. flakes the size of silver dollars sailed
across a beautiful, snow-covered mead- thought I would ski again. After a couple more runs, I was sail- through the sky creating a fresh, fluffy
ow upstate. I was gliding through more The day before I warmed up and prac- ing down the hill, stopping with a jaunty carpet under my skis.
than a foot snowfall, early for the season. ticed with a two-hour trek on some of the turn. I was back! My confidence renewed, I know I’m
I was creating a path, enjoying the view resort’s 31 km of cross-country trails. I Randy said it was time to tackle a begin- ready for whatever snow this winter
and watching my dog race ahead then reverse snow-plowed (ski tips out, heels ner run so off we went to one of the moun- brings.
drop on his back and make doggie snow in) up a small incline. I floated across a
angels. field and trudged through the woods.
We were on state land, carving trails I started my downhill morning being
and looking longingly south at the
Alpine runs on Belleayre Mountain in the
Catskills. I hadn’t dared ski downhill in
outfitted with a new set of parabolic
skis, the wider, shorter boards which
have replaced the longer, narrower skis I
Go For It!
a few years, knowing that my achy knee have. Just gliding over to the bunny slope “You can do anything you did before,” taking long walks, moderate hikes,
might let me down. I noticed a difference. A larger “sweet said my orthopedic surgeon, Kenneth E. golfing and low-impact exercises. After
The next month, December, dreams spot” makes skiing a breeze, turns grace- McCulloch, M.D., who has his own that, if you have your quad muscle
of downhill danced in my head. I pushed ful and balance better. These babies were practice in Manhattan and operates at strength and range of motion back,
through three times a week physical easy to handle! NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and there’s no reason not to experiment
therapy, earning kudos and a scaled-back I effortlessly got on the rubber “people New York Downtown Hospital, where I with what sports you can do.”
schedule. mover” – an escalator-like conveyor belt had my knee replacement surgery. Dr. McCulloch says key to a well-
February 2010. I was shushing down that hauls you up the tiny bump of a hill. Surgeons divide activities into low- functioning knee replacement is a good
intermediate trails of freshly fallen snow I disembarked without difficulty but at impact and high-impact and most don’t fit. That’s why he performs a custom
at Shanty Creek Resort in northern the top I froze, nervously looking down recommend high-impact for their knee cut procedure based on a MRI – a 3-D
Michigan. the slope. replacement patients. Nordic or cross- image of the knee that maps out the
And I was pain-free. Could I do it? Fear hotly shot through country skiing is a low-impact sport cuts on a computer.
while downhill, which places more “This gives you the best possible
pressure and stress on the knee joint, a alignment, maximum longevity and
Shanty Creek Resorts high-impact one.
But Dr. McCulloch says factors such
increases the activities you can do.”
Key is physical therapy following
Three villages (Summit, Cedar River and Schuss) with three hotels (Summit Hotel as the strength of your thigh muscles, surgery and building strong quad mus-
& Conference Center, Cedar River Lodge and Schuss Mountain) make up Shanty the skill of your surgeon and the qual- cle strength.
Creek Resorts, surrounding Lake Bellaire in northern Michigan’s Antrim County. ity of your replacement can get you “Take activities step-by-step,
Building started in the 1960s and last year saw a $10-million renovation of one back to as active a life as you once increasing your strength, control and
facility. While the resort has more than 600 rooms and four restaurants, the vibe is enjoyed. work up to tolerance,” he adds. “Start
comfortable, non-crowded and low-key. “I tell patients the first six weeks with low-impact outdoor sport like
A year-round family fun center with golf, swimming and summer sports, Shanty are recovery time,” says Dr. McCulloch cross-country skiing.
Creek is best known for is wintertime activities. Snowshoe and Nordic ski trails wind who graduated Princeton, Columbia “Success is part what the surgeon
through the woods. Three terrain parks and one half-pipe cater to snowboarders while and Stanford (among others) and is a does and part what the patient does.
downhill skiers have 49 runs on two mountains to schuss. board certified hip and knee surgeon. The harder the patient works (at physi-
For those who want to relax, try dog-sled and horse-drawn sleigh rides. And, “Three to four months after surgery cal therapy and strength building) the
there’s always the spa. Visit: www.shantycreek.com is for learning how the knee functions, better the results.”
PAGE 4 D E C E M B 2010
ER
 nyc PAGE 5

IF YOU HAVE THESE...

ASK US ABOUT...
HEALTH PLUS
ELITE (HMO)
SPECIAL NEEDS
PLAN.
Photo by Chris Oliver
Learn what we
Chef Bernard Ros in front of Meli-Melo.
can offer you.
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Shares His TTY/TDD users: 1-800-662-1220

MON-FRI 8AM TO 8PM

Success SAT 9AM TO 5PM

Chef Bernard Ros’s secret to a long,
happy life is in his kitchen
BY ROWANN GILMAN
If you’re looking for information about
the food business in New York City, Bernard
Ros is your go-to guy. But if it’s good
food, easygoing neighborhood-y feeling and
recession-proof prices you’re after, his res-
taurant, Meli-Melo, is the place to be.
Meli-Melo roughly translates as
“mélange,” in this case, a mix of French
and Italian cuisines that combines the best
of both, with a few flourishes tucked in.
The restaurant’s hand-painted wall mural
says it all: maps of France, Italy, China, and
England accompanied by portraits of native
fish swimming in the surrounding ‘seas.’
Ros arrived in the U.S. a little more
than 40 years ago to see the 1967 World’s
Fair, and decided to stay. Immediately,
his innovative cooking style caught on
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and he was able to start the first of five
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another, created all over town. East side,
west side, upper west down to Tribeca
and now the Madison Park area, Ros has
gentrified his chosen neighborhoods with A Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract.
his uncluttered, flavor-centric menus.
As executive chef and exclusive pastry
chef, Ros is a believer in letting the taste
of the main ingredient shine through,
without the interference of heaps and
The Health Plan for
foams of cover-up flavors. Considered
to be one of the most creative chefs in
the city, he is also known to be among
New Yorkers with
the most good-hearted people in a hard-
driving business.
At night, Meli-Melo turns into a hiring
Medicare & Medicaid
H6264_MKM_2011_4002_v4 F&U 10/05/2010
Continued on page 6
PAGE 6
Move It!
Live longer, stronger and happier
BY JANEL BLADOW
If you want to feel younger, exercise.
That’s the philosophy of personal trainer
Harry Hanson who sees seniors as his
favorite clients.
“Boomers are loyal clients,” he told
Thrive. “They never leave you as long
as you do the job they want. They
care about being flexible, not getting
injured, slowing aging process and stay-
ing healthy. They are great clients to
have.
“Some come to lose weight or lower
blood pressure or cholesterol. All this
can be done with a combined program
of strength training, cardio and diet.”
Hanson became a trainer 25 years
ago after a man approached in him
Washington Square Park and offered
him a job. He was 225-pouns with
6-percent body fat. He didn’t even know
what a personal trainer was.
“At that time it was extremely trendy,”
he says. “People sat around at dinner
parties and said they had a personal
trainer. Now it’s built into your lifestyle.
I was one of seven guys hired, from the
dozens who applied.”
Hanson got certified and stayed at
that Soho gym for 10 months before
opening his own studio.
“My first client was Tom Cruise.
He wanted me to become his exclu-
sive trainer but I have a business here,
family. We still get together sometimes
when he’s in town.”
Today Hanson, the married father of
an 18-year old daughter and a 13-year
old son, has five studios – three in
Manhattan, one in Boston and one in a
private firm. He also owns two personal
trainer schools – The Academy, in New
York City and Boston.
“We are state licensed and interna-
tionally accredited. We graduate about
200 students a year and have 97-percent
placement.”
But unlike most personal trainers,
Hanson is driven not to bulk up young,
athletic bodies (although he has plenty
of those clients too!) but to strengthen
older ones. That’s why he offers a senior
discount at all of his studios.
His senior program incorporates a
basic routine that is a total body work-
out. He believes that if you train two,
three times a week, working on differ-
ent parts of the body – chest, shoulders,
back, biceps, core and legs – you get
the proper workout to slow the aging
process.
“Pilate’s, yoga, core classes, are all
good but strength and resistance train-
ing are the best way to slow aging,
stimulate cells and stay stronger longer,”
he says.
Why is it important to exercise with
age? “Every cell, fiber, tendon, ligament
Photo by Janel Bladow
Harry Hanson, personal trainer
gets weaker as you get older,” Hanson
explains. “The more sedentary you are,
the faster your body dies. Exercise slows
down aging process, constantly strength-
ens every cell.
“There are so many benefits from
exercise: lower cholesterol, lower blood
sugar, rids the body of toxins, makes the
heart stronger, burns calories, improves
digestion, clears mind, makes you feel
good about yourself,” he lists.
Go-to Chef
Continued from page 5
hall for anyone looking for a job, recom-
mendations, referrals, gossip, and industry
news. Out comes the Rolodex; phone calls
are made, appointments set. What’s more,
before Ros places a chef, he trains him in
his own kitchen, sharing his recipes, teach-
ing the prospective chef how to prepare
them, and offering sound business advice.
He will even train the wait-staff. Most
executive chefs guard their recipes with
their lives, but Ros believes that no one is
in business to do a bad job. Well-trained
employees carry that message with them.
“The eyes eat first,” Ros says. In other
words, food must be appealing to the eye
as well as the palate and for that reason
he emphasizes plating and presentation.
In the old days, when service was per-
formed tableside, often in the form of
showy flambés and individual carvers,
food didn’t have the same appeal on the
plate. When composed for presentation
in the kitchen, it comes to the table as a
“Strength training also strengthens
bones to fight osteoporosis and prevent
hip, knee and leg injury and improves
bone density. You’re never too old to
build bone density.
“I’ve had clients come in with a
slight curvature of spine, back pain.
Exercise can help ward off scoliosis.
Stronger core muscles make bending
easier. Stronger muscles mean a better
quality of life.
“Most people don’t know how to pick
up things the right way and often hurt
their backs then can’t pick up groceries,
their grandchildren.”
Hanson believes that with exercise
you can cut down the number of visit you
make to the doctor, saving you money in
the long run. And by working with a per-
sonal trainer, you are less likely to injure
yourself while working out than you are
alone in a gym or at home.
Women are more likely to come
to personal training than men, says
Hanson. “Men think they can do it on
their own but they can’t. Women, on
the other hand, find when they work
with a personal trainer that they’ve been
using too much weight or not enough,
and learn the correct range of motion.
There are so many variables. This is why
people hire trainers.”
Hanson told Thrive about one client,
a very obese woman who came to him
and said that she wanted to fly to Paris
and walk around the City of Lights at
least once before she died.
“She arrived the first time by car ser-
vice,” he remembers. “She was in such
bad shape that we had to help her up
the stairs. She couldn’t climb them by
herself. That was five years ago. She’s
complete visual experience.
“People aren’t interested in elegant din-
ing the way they used to be,” says Ros.
“They don’t want to get dressed up for
dinner. The hardships of the economy
push change, and you must adapt with
your pocket, not your palate,” he adds.
“You’ll notice that the places opening now
are burger restaurants and tacquerias that
offer low-cost, casual, homey food. Before
the recession, restaurants in need of a pick-
me-up might count on changing the chef,
moving to a new location, or checking out
what the competition is up to.
“These days, you have to be more flex-
ible—develop new, less-expensive menus,
offer comfort foods. We serve a $22
three-course lunch and a $24 complete
dinner, and our menu lists six or seven
appetizers and entrées that include wild-
caught salmon, hanger steak, cod, strip
steaks, and half a dozen pasta dishes”
as well as other familiar and comfort-
able foods for which his customers make
repeat visits. There is always a Special of
the Day and a Vegetarian option.
D E C E M B 2010
ER
been to Paris five times since.”
He says the key to a successful work-
out is motivation. “Exercise will make
you happier, increases confidence, help
you feel better about yourself, and feel
stronger,” he says.
Diet, he offers, is another important
factor. He recommends seniors first see
a doctor for blood tests and to check
sugar and cholesterol levels. “Then,
simply stay away from sugar! There’s
absolutely zero benefit in sugar. Seniors
should also cut back on carbs, anything
made with flour. I’m not saying never
eat it, but I believe in moderation to lose
weight and live a healthier lifestyle.”
His recommended carbohydrates: oat-
meal, brown rice and sweet potatoes.
“One time a week, eat whatever you
want. Other six days, only those carbs.
Give yourself a cheat day or cheat meal
to look forward to. It makes it easier to
be more disciplined.
“This is my life,” he continues enthu-
siastically. “I’m here to help people. I’m
not a model or an actor. I’m here to help
people feel good about themselves.”
And with that, he cites another client
as an example.
“A 72-year old woman, her husband
had been in a nursing home, started
to workout. She started to feel bet-
ter, feel better about herself. Now
she’s met a guy and is in love. At 72!
Exercise does that. It gives us all the
confidence, well being, positive out-
look. Imagine meeting someone and
falling in love at 72?”
For more information on senior dis-
counts or to schedule a session, visit:
www.hansonfitness.com.
Part of the way Ros keeps his costs
down is by visiting the Hunt’s Point
Market every day to stock up on his pre-
ferred ingredients rather than order them
from an industry service. As a result of
Ros’s’ savvy, the 40-plus years he’s been in
business he’s accumulated customers who
are now like family. “The idea is to be able
to feel that anyone can walk in and find
something they’d like to eat,” he says.
How does Ros, who is 65, stay as
ebullient and active as anyone in the
restaurant business has to be? “You have
to eat your cake and enjoy it,” he says
metaphorically. Ros feels that it’s all in
your head: “It is very stressful to have a
restaurant and you have to be up on your
game. Don’t aim to project plans on your
neighborhood. Instead, switch your rifle
from your left hand to your right hand.
Be flexible. I’m always waiting for sun-
shine to walk through the door,” he says,
“so give your local restaurant a chance.”
Meli-Melo is located at 110 Madison
Avenue between 29th and 30th Streets.
nyc PAGE 7
PAGE 8 D E C E M B 2010
ER

It’s all about

We provide access to a network of over

20,000 doctors and specialists
as well as on-staff Registered Nurses
who help coordinate your care.
These are just some of the things
Healthfirst Medicare Plan has to offer.

We are Healthfirst Medicare Plan.

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To learn more about Healthfirst Medicare Plan for 2011 or to enroll, call:

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(for the hearing or speech impaired)

Monday through Friday, 8:00am – 6:00pm www.healthfirstny.org

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Healthfirst Medicare Plan’s service area includes the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and Nassau
and Westchester counties. Plans may vary by county.

©2010 HF Management Services, LLC. H3359_MKT10_40 File & Use 10232010


SCOOPY’S NOTEBOOK
Continued from page 3
was razed. For her part, Hurley said, Berman
“dealt himself out of the conversation” on
the Provincetown Playhouse’s renovation a
long time ago, and that she didn’t understand
why he was getting into such detailed criticism
now. “Whether or not Andrew thinks this was
a success is irrelevant,” she said of the theater
project, adding she never saw Berman’s let-
ter to Sexton. “The university is not going to
be negotiating with Andrew Berman in any
realm,” she added. “He’s incapable of nego-
tiating. At this point, it is irrelevant whatever
Andrew Berman says.” The preservationist
wasn’t buying N.Y.U.’s seat-ends story, blasting
back, “I find it amazing that N.Y.U. is embark-
ing on a 20-year, 6-million-square-foot, multi-
multi-million-dollar expansion plan, but can’t
fasten 1940’s seat ends to new seats.” Hurley
said the tweaking of the seat-ends scenario
was broached with Stringer’s Community Task
Force on N.Y.U. Development, at a meeting
that Berman missed. But Berman told us he
only missed one of the task force’s 50 meetings,
and that his representative at that meeting, as
well as others who attended it, reported there
was no mention of any change regarding the
seat-ends scheme. At any rate, Hurley said the
community can come see for themselves and
decide whether they approve of the renovation
job, when the university hosts an open house
at the “refurbished” Provincetown Playhouse,
St. Peter’s Chelsea
Episcopal Church
346 West 20th Street
(between 8th & 9th Avenues)
212.929.2390
www.stpeterschelsea.com
Christmas at St. Peter’s
Timothy Brumfield, Director of music /organist
David Ossenfort, renowned tenor
Laurel Masse, Manhattan Transfer's founding member
The Uptown Brass
DECEMBER 24 Christmas Eve
10:00 PM Christmas music
10:30 PM Blessing of the Christmas
Crèche and Festival Choral Eucharist
DECEMBER 25 Christmas Day
10:00 AM Sung Eucharist
DECEMBER 26
Sunday after Christmas
10:00 AM Sung Eucharist
on MacDougal St. between W. Fourth and
W. Third Sts., on Sat., Dec. 11, from noon
to 5 p.m. There will be free cider and cookies
and live piano music. A new exhibition on the
theater’s history will also be on view in the
Provincetown Playhouse’s lobby.
JORMA PLAYS GREENWICH HOUSE:
The Greenwich House Arts Benefit, on
Thurs., Dec. 9, at the Greenwich House
Music School will be a true community
effort, and will have a special guest this year.
The event will feature local restaurants and
musicians at a cocktail hour, followed by
an exclusive dinner performance by Jorma
Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane and Hot
Tuna. His performance at Greenwich House
will follow two shows celebrating his 70th
birthday at the Beacon Theater on the Upper
West Side.
Unfortunately, the dinner for the
Greenwich House Arts Benefit is nearly
sold out, with board members already
reserving the remaining few. Tickets, $150,
for the cocktail reception — featuring
music by members of the Steven Oquendo
Latin Jazz Orchestra — are available
online at http://www.greenwichhouse.
org/_blog/GH_News/post/An_Evening_
for_the_Senses_to_Benefit_Greenwich_
House_Arts/ or via a link on Greenwich
House’s home page, www.greenwichhouse.
org . Tickets can also be ordered by calling
212-991-0003 ext. 403.
December 2 - 8, 2010 13
Advertorial
A Time for Giving
By Emma DeVito
For those of us who work at not-for-profit organizations to provide care and help to
some of New York City’s neediest residents, these are extremely difficult times.
Most all of these organizations rely first and foremost on government funding,
primarily Medicaid, to offer care. For long-term care providers such as VillageCare, this
includes Medicaid funds for nursing homes, home care, assisted living, adult day health
care and a wide range of HIV/AIDS services for those who have no resources of their
own to access these programs.
As I’ve discussed here previously, long-term care providers have faced a tremendous
load of cutbacks in state funding. Over the past three years, overall the loss of financing
for long-term care programs is approaching $1.5 billion, which came in a total of nine
rounds of cuts by the State.
In a few short weeks, we’ll have a new Governor, and he has targeted Medicaid as
one of the areas that he will look at in seeking to find “savings” to close the State’s $9
billion-plus deficit in the 2011-12 fiscal year.
To me, the situation is dire, because so many of the organizations that have been
impacted by cuts since 2007 are not-for-profits. These organizations serve your friends,
your families and your neighbors, often with care that is innovative and responsive to
individual needs. I fear that another round of significant cuts will severely harm the
safety net that not-for-profits are primarily responsible for – jeopardizing both quality
and availability of care.
I have always gravitated to the not-for-profit sector, coming to VillageCare almost
19 years ago. What motivated me most at the time was the death of a good friend from
AIDS.
We have amazing people working for VillageCare – they are extremely committed and
passionate about their work, and I see every day the positive impact that our services
have on those we serve. The dedication of our staff has, in turn, been an inspiration
to me.
Just as other not-for-profit providers, we serve some of New York’s frailest, and
impoverished, citizens. If we don’t do it, there really isn’t anywhere else for these people
to turn. We’re their safety net.
This is where you come in.
As much as our community relies on the everyday work of charitable organizations
and care providers, they also rely on you, especially in this era of considerable cutbacks
in governmental funding.
Through your donations, you can help sustain the many worthwhile organizations in
Greenwich Village and its surrounding communities that have a mission of community
service. Community support for these organizations is vital in this day and age. In some
cases, I believe that without an outpouring of help now in the form of private donations,
some doors are going to have to be closed by some care providers.
That would be such a loss to our community, and especially for those who are in need
of care and services.
I realize that these have been difficult economic times. But I also know that New
Yorkers are among the most generous people in the nation when it comes to supporting
charitable organizations.
Those donations are extremely important today, and there’s not a single charitable
organization in our community that isn’t facing a crisis in funding, including VillageCare.
Each one needs the help and support of the community.
These organizations care deeply about the needs of those who have considerably fewer
resources than most of us are fortunate to have. If there is a particular community need
that you would like to support, you don’t have to look far for a not-for-profit that is
working hard to meet that need. And you can be sure that they need your help.
Please take time this year to show how much you care.
All not-for-profits are struggling desperately to continue to provide the basic care and
services that many of our New Yorkers require – especially for frail older adults, persons
living with HIV/AIDS and others with disabilities and chronic conditions.
Let’s show those who are in need that they are not alone.
If you aren’t already a regular donor to charitable organizations, I urge you to find
one that supports a community need that resonates with you, and give as generously as
possible.
This may be as important as anything else you do as we approach the end of 2010.
Thank you.
(Ms. DeVito is president and chief executive officer of not-for-profit VillageCare,
which serves some 10,500 persons annually in community-based and residential care
programs for older adults and those living with HIV/AIDS.)
14 December 2 - 8, 2010
EDITORIAL
N.Y.U. ‘super’ errors
In two separate editorials in 2004, our newspapers
called for the 50-foot-wide strips of city-owned prop-
erty on the eastern and western edges of New York
University’s two South Village superblocks to be trans-
ferred from the Department of Transportation to the
Parks Department. Dating back to a resolution passed
in 1992, Greenwich Village’s Community Board 2 has
long been on record supporting this transfer, which
would protect the strips from development.
D.O.T. ownership of the strips doesn’t block their
development, whereas if Parks owned them, the state
Legislature would have to approve any sale.
Mapped as roadbed despite their current, lush,
leafy state in many sections, these properties remain
from planning czar Robert Moses’ plans to widen these
streets for the never-built Fifth Ave. connector to the
unrealized Lower Manhattan Expressway.
With the university now pushing ahead with its
ambitious N.Y.U. 2031 expansion scheme — whose
epicenter is the two superblocks — these strips are a key
battleground between the university and the community.
However, showing N.Y.U. woefully lacks official support
for acquiring the strips, a phalanx of local politicians
will assemble Sunday at a 1 p.m. rally on LaGuardia
Place between Bleecker and W. Third Sts. to voice
support for C.B. 2’s resolution that the parkland strips
be preserved. The residents group Community Action
Alliance on N.Y.U. 2031 will join them.
N.Y.U. wants to acquire these strips for its super-
blocks plans. Specifically, the university hopes to incor-
porate the current Mercer-Houston Dog Run site into
the footprint of its “Zipper Building,” planned on the
site of its current Coles gym on Mercer St. N.Y.U. says
that by using this strip area, it could bring back some
form of Greene St. on Coles’s west side — which was
demapped under the superblocks’ original urban renew-
al plan — increasing the width of the obscure alley there
now. If N.Y.U.’s strips bid is rejected, though, from what
we’re told, the university wouldn’t redesign the “Zipper”
project, but would build it the same size — just without
widening the Greene St. pathway.
As we editorialized six years ago, the university
doesn’t deserve these strips, for one, for failing to step
in and fix up the dilapidated and sunken playground
and seating areas on Mercer St. between Houston and
Bleecker Sts. Yes, D.O.T. owns these strips — but
given that N.Y.U. was always rumored to be stymieing
the strips’ transfer to Parks, ultimately, the university
is responsible for them.
The first, stunning superblock setback, of course,
came last week, when N.Y.U. announced it was abandon-
ing its plans to site a fourth tower — 400 feet tall — with-
in the landmarked Silver Towers complex. N.Y.U. had
to withdraw after Henry Cobb, partner of the complex’s
legendary designer, I.M. Pei, wrote the city’s Landmarks
Preservation Commission last month, calling the site
inappropriate. As Cobb wrote: “…[A] fourth tower is
profoundly destructive to the landmarked entity, because
it closes a composition that was intended to be open and
upsets the carefully considered balance between solid
and void.” As for the university now developing a shorter
building of equal square footage on its Morton Williams
supermarket site at the block’s northwest corner, Cobb
stated in his letter, “Ideally the corner building would be
designed so as to make it more responsive to its neighbors
and to the landmarked entity.”
Cobb’s eloquent letter is a road map for how N.Y.U.
must proceed. In short, N.Y.U. must scale back its
plans for the superblocks, which simply cannot handle
2 million-plus square feet of new development. Indeed,
“responsive” and “balance” are the key words N.Y.U.
must be supremely mindful of as it moves forward.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Tea Partier takes on Glick
To The Editor:
Re “Tea Party’s brew doesn’t go down well Downtown”
(news article, Dec. 25):
No, Assemblymember Glick, we Tea Partiers did not say
we don’t want government to touch our Medicare. Rather,
we said firmly, we want our elected leaders to abolish
Medicare. And while they’re at it, abolish Medicaid, as well,
and completely privatize Social Security.
We want the government to get the hell out of our lives.
Don’t tax us, and don’t give us any stupid entitlement pro-
grams. Fund defense against radical Islamic terrorists, run
the post office, take care of the national parks, secure our
borders and that’s about it.
Eric Dondero
Schwartz’s ‘whine’ wasn’t fine
To The Editor:
Re “It’s time for Obama and us to get back to basics”
(Progress Report article, by Arthur Z. Schwartz, Nov. 18):
Mr. Obama and Mr. Schwartz, being so far left of center,
feeling the ineffable rightness of their cause, became so paro-
chial in their view, they did not raise up their heads and smell
the stench of dissatisfaction and dismay, but went on their
way, smug and self-righteous, devoid of awareness of what
is and what is not. Mr. Schwartz’s whine, sad to say, reveals
that after the shellacking, he still is tone deaf. Too late to
save ACORN, as the squirrels have devoured it.
Bert Zackim
Pit bulls terrorize at Tompkins
To The Editor:
Five dogs and three people have been brought to the hos-
pital after pit bull attacks in the Tompkins Square dog run in
the past two months. This is too much for this community to
handle and I fear their level of frustration is about to blow.
Folks are standing around the dog park bracing them-
selves for the next pit bull attack. I have witnessed folks
carrying knives into the park to protect themselves and their
dogs from out-of-control pit bulls in the dog run.
Other individuals are standing around discussing ways
IRA BLUTREICH
With Black Friday sales up 10% this year, merchants are enjoying ‘holiday cheer.’
to kill a pit bull with a shovel to get it to release its grip on
their dog.
I certainly don’t condone this behavior. I would not
advise anyone to intentionally harm a dog at the run, lest one
find oneself in more trouble than the negligent owner who
brought the dog into the run in the first place.
However, I would be acting irresponsibly as a community
volunteer if I did not bring to people’s attention the degree
to which individuals now feel they must go to protect them-
selves.
Details of attacks:
1.) A couple entered the dog run with their senior
Doberman, which was attacked by a pit bull named Bean.
The Doberman received $6,000 worth of injuries. Both of
the Doberman’s owners were bitten and went to the hospital.
A lawyer for the Doberman’s owners reported that the wife
may require plastic surgery to her breast, which was bitten
by the pit bull. Police arrived on the scene.
2.) Mable, an English spaniel, was attacked in a clampdown
bite from a pit bull. Vet bill to be determined. The owner was
not able to get the pit bull owner’s ID or information.
3.) John and his dog Jesse, a foxhound mix, were both bit-
ten by an unneutered, brown pit bull that was accompanied
by three teenagers. The vet bill for Jesse was $215. However,
John had to go to the hospital for bite wounds and under-
went a round of 10 rabies shots. John reported that after the
attack the teenagers told him, “Our pit bull is the toughest
in the park and could kill any dog there.”
4.) Oriol’s dog, a cocker spaniel, was attacked by a gray
male pit bull being walked by a woman named Geona. The
cocker spaniel required two surgeries to close wounds and
remove dead tissue. The vet bill so far is $4,500. The pit bull
owner refuses to pay the bill. Police arrived on the scene.
5.) A couple came in with a gray male pit bull and took
out a Frisbee. Kuma, a small cattle dog, picked up the
Frisbee and the gray pit ran over and grabbed it tug-of-war
style, then attacked Kuma. The pit bull clamped onto Kuma
and would not let go. The male owner had to strangle the pit
bull to get it to release its grip as the small cattle dog dangled
from its mouth. Kuma received multiple bites and puncture
wounds. The vet bill pending. Police arrived on the scene.
Every time a pit bull attacks, it further maligns the breed
and puts us closer to breed-specific legislation in our state.
Representatives from animal-control agencies must visit
the Tompkins Square dog run as soon as possible to defuse
the situation and bring much-needed education to pit bull
owners about safe handling of their dogs.
Many pit bulls use the park without incident each day.
However, clearly, there is a pattern to note, since nearly all of
Continued on page 16
 December 2 - 8, 2010 15

True confessions of a Trader Joe’s shopaholic

NOTEBOOK
BY MICHELE HERMAN
In the spring of 2006, when my cost-conscious Manhattan
mom cohort learned that Trader Joe’s — the national chain
known for high-quality food at rock-bottom prices —
would finally establish a Manhattan beachhead, we were
primed. One friend plastered herself against the front
window to monitor the store’s progress like one of those
stuffed animals with suction cups on its paws. On opening
morning, another mom arrived at P.S. 3 with Trader Joe’s
malted milk balls already in hand. Here, take one, she said,
practically pushing them into our mouths, as over the moon
as a new dad with a box of cigars.
I fell hard myself. Among recent life-altering borough
improvements, I rank the arrival of Trader Joe’s right up
there with the new cantilevered segment of the Riverside
Park bike path and the parent coordinators in the public
schools — the departing chancellor’s one, indisputably
great contribution to the system.
I know I’ve fallen smack dab into
a demographic straight out of ‘Stuff
White People Like.’
This is not to say it’s been easy — shopping at the mini-
Manhattan version of a normal Trader Joe’s can be some-
thing of a hero’s journey, complete with the call to adven-
ture, the supreme ordeal of the line, and the triumphant
crosstown return across 14th St. with the elixir (32 ounces
of maple syrup for the price of 16 at the Greenmarket!)
strapped onto my bike.
I know I’ve fallen smack dab into a demographic and
I know I’m straight out of the book “Stuff White People
Like.” But really — what’s not to applaud about a store
full of fresh and affordable good food (but not scary upper-
echelon-foodie good, like that new store on Hudson St.
that specializes in salt)? What’s wrong with a store where,
even when the line follows the entire periphery of the store
and spills onto E. 14th St., the staff never grows surly?
Who wouldn’t want to pay the same amount but get twice
as much vanilla extract, holistic dog food, grape tomatoes,
Irish breakfast tea, eggs?
I could go on. For quite a while. The dirt-cheap salsa
autentico tastes almost as fresh as my favorite, Tortilla
Flat’s; the citrus shampoo makes my kids smell like a
grapefruit orchard; the hummus comes in almost as many
varieties as white paint at Janovic Plaza. The cheap cartons
of M.S.G.-free chicken broth. The big ziploc bags of brown
sugar that never hardens; the milk that stays fresh for a
week; the bran cereal a third the price of All-Bran; the
Hanukkah gelt.
Not everyone shares my ardor. My husband, for one,
isn’t buying. I think he’s jealous. The more demented I
grow about Trader Joe’s the more he defends Western Beef,
which he used to spend half his time maligning. He started
to notice the Trader Joe’s bills on our shared credit-card
account. Of course, I explained. What you never saw was
the even greater amounts of cash I used to dispense to other
local merchants — a 20 here to the drug store, a 20 there
to various health-food stores with their various loss leaders,
an occasional 10 to Gourmet Garage and D’Ag’s.
Actually, I’m lying. It’s what we addicts do to protect
our habit. I do buy more at Trader Joe’s, all kinds of good-
ies I would never consider anywhere else. Why? Because
they’re under one roof and they’re cheap and good and I
have a good warm feeling because I always run into an
old friend or two. So I bring home apple-cured bacon,
brickle-like grahams that make Nabisco’s seem like par-
ticle board, palmiers, candied ginger, sorbet, frozen bake-
yourself mini-croissants, brioche, sweet-crunchy-salty trail
mix, chocolate. My old life had room for two kinds of nut
staples: walnuts and peanuts. Now I keep toasted almond
slices, shelled pistachios and mixed nuts so fancy they have
no peanuts at all in the freezer alongside the spare bag of
chocolate chips and the extra pound of butter. And, though
we tend to eschew prepackaged dinners, I do sneak the
coconut curry Thai chicken sticks and the pleasingly slip-
pery pot stickers into our regular menu rotation.
Anyway, my husband talks out of both sides of his
mouth. I see him there on the sofa when 10 p.m. rolls
around. When a commercial comes on NY1, he moseys
to the kitchen. We both know he’s hoping to find a nice
puffy bag of thick, ridged potato chips, or white cheddar
corn puffs, or at the very least some restaurant-style tortilla
chips. There’s an unasked question on his lips, the same
hopeful one the kids ask regularly: “Going to Trader Joe’s
soon?” And let’s not kid ourselves — on the day I make the
trek, they love me better.
Not all the products (as he is quick to point out) are
first rate. The peanut butter is weirdly runny. At the bot-
tom of the cheddar twists there can be an alarming amount
of oil; the cereals are too sweet. But Trader Joe’s keeps
prices low and excitement high by instantly discontinuing
anything that doesn’t pull its weight in sales to make way
for new products. I understand — it’s the same system I
developed at Christmas and birthday time when the kids
were young: Before anything new came in, something old
had to go out.
The policy is adhered to without mercy, providing a
fine lesson in the Buddhist art of nonattachment. Goodbye
chocolate-hazelnut spread that was cheaper and slightly
more pleasingly filberty than Nutella! Goodbye sun-dried
tomato pesto, Parisian twist Danish, pierogis, pack of eight
colored candles for $1.50!
In the four years I’ve been braving traffic to get to the E.
14th St. Trader Joe’s, I harbored one dream: a bigger store
on the West Side. Last summer it arrived with no fanfare
whatsoever, in half the former Barnes & Noble space on
Sixth Ave. and W. 21st St. It’s much like a Trader Joe’s
in Anywhere But Manhattan, U.S.A.: big, roomy, deep,
with an enormous panhandle in the back just for the dairy
cases.
At the East Village store, by the time I got to the check-
out, the other people on line felt like the guys in my pla-
toon. I knew the faces and piercings of all the employees.
There’s an unasked question on my
husband’s lips: ‘Going to Trader Joe’s
soon?’
Now a funny thing has happened. I zip to the Chelsea store
midday midweek when there’s no line. It’s so big that it’s
possible not to touch a single customer. The staff hover on
the horizon like figures in a Brueghel painting. It’s almost
too easy, and I no longer feel heroic on the ride home. It’s
also impersonal and a little suburban. But I can live with
that.
The thing that worries me is the butter. The price has
gone up from $2.49 to $3.29 a pound, and the sticks have
suddenly become short and squat like European butter. I’m
waiting for an e-mail reply to my query, which I know will
come, because Trader Joe’s is the kind of company that
sends chummy e-mails. At least so far.
There are few things I love more than Trader Joe’s chewy
bocconcini, but one of them is the hope the company gives
me for that elusive third way. Usually, you have to pay
a price to get a bargain. At the Burlington Coat Factory
on the next block, you have to sift through a hundred of
last season’s crappy, unloved acrylic remainders. H&M is
cheap, but that’s in part because the fabric is so thin and
someone is no doubt getting exploited.
Five years into its Manhattan run, Trader Joe’s is still
occupying the perfect niche between the little hippie-dippy
California convenience chain it once was and the mega-
corporate, upscale sell-out I hope it will never become.
The company wins and the consumer wins. I have only one
remaining wish: that it find its way into neighborhoods in
far more desperate need than mine for good, fresh food.
Sound off!
Write a letter to The Editor

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16 December 2 - 8, 2010

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Continued from page 14
these dogs have been placed in negligent hands by New York
City Animal Care & Control or its affiliated rescue agencies.
Let’s work together to put an end to this needless carnage
before the situation escalates.
Garrett Rosso
Yes, Bettina, Hudson Square is real
To The Editor:
Re “There’s no Hudson Square” (letter, by Bettina
Goldstein, Nov. 4):
Perhaps it’s because the holiday season is rapidly
approaching, but when I read Bettina Goldstein’s letter
regarding Hudson Square, I thought of a letter received by
The Sun in 1897 from a young girl named Virginia.
So with all due respect to the brilliant editors of The Sun,
who so powerfully assured the 8-year-old girl, “Yes, Virginia,
there is a Santa Claus,” it seems appropriate to say, yes, Ms.
Goldstein, there is a place known as Hudson Square. It exists
as certain as the creative energy that flows through the minds
and souls of the people who work here, in the synergistic
relationships developed among the companies based here,
and in the light-filled streets characterized by the warmth
and charm of a small town.
And in the months and years ahead, as the neighborhood
continues to progress, soon the streets will have a look and
feel that distinctly defines Hudson Square, as well.
Ellen Baer
Baer is president, Hudson Square Connection
Cobb’s letter is spot on
To The Editor:
Re “N.Y.U. scraps plans for fourth tower in landmark site
after I.M. Pei objects” (news article, Nov. 18):
Henry Cobb’s letter is a gem. It explains the beauty of
University Village and provides an understanding of why
building a tower on the supermarket site will also be destruc-
tive of the integrity of University Village.
Tobi Bergman
Bootleggers are not artists
To The Editor:
Re “Art squeezed out of the parks” (letter, by Robert
Lederman, Nov. 25):
Mr. Lederman makes some good points in his letter, but
as usual he misses the point as well.
It is true that Mr. Benepe has a tin ear when it comes to
the issues of artists or art in the parks. At the same time,
he does have the evident propensity to sell out the parks to
private retailers who take up much more space than private,
individual, legal vendors. Mr. Lederman’s photos illustrate
that nicely.
You can go all the way back to the removal of Bob
Bolles’s public sculptures in the small park at Broome St.
and West Broadway to see that Mr. Benepe is more likely
to destroy a local artistic heritage than to preserve it. In
spite of support from the community, the sculptures were
removed, with only one minor piece returning to its origi-
nal location, and then only after years of arm-twisting by
community members.
Now Mr. Benepe has attempted to institute a new policy
that would harshly restrict the numbers of “artists” in the
parks. This overkill policy is clearly unconstitutional and has
led to more expensive legal battles for the city. Unfortunately,
this policy affects everyone who sets up a display in the parks
in exactly the same manner. In other words, an outright art
bootlegger gets the same treatment as a bona fide artist.
The motive to remove them all and to privative the parks
is obvious.
This brings us to the real problem and the one glaring
omission from Mr. Lederman’s comments. It is a fact that
after all these years of strife, no one seems to have the guts,
brains or willpower to simply be guided by the judge’s words
in the court finding that gave artists their rights in the first
place. Art, he ruled, is painting, sculpture, printmaking and
photography. An artist is a person who creates art.
Until someone in a position of authority gains the back-
bone to actually do something about art bootleggers and
illegal vendors, Mr. Benepe and Mr. Lederman will carry on
with their war, while true artists, other legal vendors and the
public will continue to be caught in the middle. Same old,
same old, as they say.
Lawrence White
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East Villager, Letters to the Editor, 145 Sixth Ave., ground

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 December 2 - 8, 2010 17

EASTVILLAGERARTS&ENTERTAINMENT
Baby, it’s Hot Inside
Downtown theater brims with ideas brought to boiling point
BY TRAV S.D.
November was such a busy month
that I only saw one show from last
month’s column: but I saw it 50 times. The
show, of course, is Philip K. Dick’s “Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” —
playing at 3LD Art & Technology Center
(www.3ldnyc.org) through December 10.
I would love to give it a glowing review,
but seeing as how I am in it that might
be construed as more than usually biased.
Therefore, we turn our attention to the
virgin snows of December….
I am luridly expectant at the prospect
of seeing “What She Knew” — playwright
and critic George Hunka’s retelling of
“Oedipus Rex” from Jocasta’s point of
view. In this production, the “First of the
Red Hot Mamas” will be played by Gabriele
Schafer. Schafer is best known as one half
of the company Thieves Theatre, which
she ran for many years with her husband
Nick Fracaro, and was most notorious for
a theatre piece they did in the early 90s in
which they lived in a teepee at the foot of
the Brooklyn Bridge for several months.
More recently, I saw Schafer play both
Hamlet’s father and mother in a Butoh-
influenced version of the Shakespeare
play (“Q1: The Bad Hamlet” — produced
by New World Theatre). The hair-raising
performances I saw makes me to think
there couldn’t be a better person to do
an “erotically transgressive” one-woman
show about Oedipus’s mother. The pro- Photo by Greg Cook
duction is under the rubric of Hunka’s Susie Perkins carries a heavy burden (see Theater for the New City).
company, Theatre Minima, and will be
playing at Manhattan Theatre Source, November 2 through 11, the move about TNC’s cavernous Johnson member of The Hooters and songwriter
December 1-11. For more info: www.thea- Incubator Arts Project will be presenting Theatre. This year’s production is entitled of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time.” His
treminima.org. “Emancipatory Politics” — written and “The Return of Ulysses to His Homeland collaborator, David Forman, has written
I am also happy to report that Theatre directed by Eric Bland and his company and the Decapitalization Circus.” Hmm…. and recorded with Bette Midler, Cyndi
Askew’s “Horatio’s Rise” — written and Old Kent Road Theater. I’d previously seen wonder if it will be political? The produc- Lauper, Aaron Neville, Jack Nitzsche, Ry
directed by Jason Jacobs — opens at and enjoyed Bland’s “The Protestants” — tion runs December 2 through 19. Also Cooder, Maryann Faithfull, Levon Helm,
The Cell (www.thecelltheatre.org) on which had its absurd aspects, but it looks opening on the 2nd is Matt Morillo’s Taj Mahal and others. “Dollface” runs
December 1. Producer Tim Cusack has as though he is embracing Incubator “Angry Young Women in Low Rise Jeans through January 16. For info on all three
been doling out tidbits about the show Arts’ experimental mandate and trying with High Class Issues.” While its tagline, of these shows as well as others at TNC,
to me for over a year knowing as he some new things, including puppets and “Even though it’s a play, it doesn’t suck” go to www.theaterforthenewcity.net.
does of my abiding interest in all things “movement through the space” in this strongly inclines me to throw their press “Mapping Mobius” at LaMaMa E.T.C.’s
19th century. The titular “Horatio” is, “collage-like” story about a bunch of radi- release in the wastepaper basket, its prom- First Floor Theatre promises to be a trip-
of course, Alger — author of scores of cal leftists in Arizona (don’t they know ise of “foxy, urban women” in (let us not py experience. Taking as its inspiration
rags-to-riches novels that were consid- that’s McCain country?) Of the cast, forget) “low rise jeans” has convinced me the eponymous, technically impossible
ered inspirational in their day, if a bit Becky Byers, Gavin Starr Kendall, Iracel to do the big thing and give the produc- “strip,” it’s supposed to describe what
preposterous in our own. In Jacobs’ play, Rivero, and Alexis Sottile are well-known tion a second chance. This is the show’s happens when a scientist delves into a
a teacher introduces a wayward student and heavily endorsed by me. The others second NYC revival since its premiere model of his own mind, presumably wind-
to “Ragged Dick.”(Stop giggling now. I approved by association. The production in 2006, and it has been produced as far ing up in some sort of feedback loop. Far
mean it!) From what I can glean, the play will be at St. Mark’s Church. There’s more away as Australia, so someone must like out! (If the fuzz is reading this, I didn’t
has serious overtones without ignoring info available at www.incubatorarts.org. it. “Angry Young Women” runs through inhale.) At any rate, if you too want to
the unavoidable humor inherent in some Several shows at Theater for the New December 12. “Dollface” — opening on have your mind blown, “Mapping Mobius”
of Alger’s work. Having enjoyed several City this month tickle my fancy. First, December 23 — is less interesting for — by The New Stage Theatre Company
of this company’s productions, including there’s the annual return of the seminal its concept (a Queens woman enrolls in (www.newstagetheatre.org) — is playing
“I, Claudius,” “Cornbury” and “A Night in Off-Off Broadway company Bread and a comedy class and then gets involved December 2 through the 19.
the Tombs,” I feel comfortable giving this Puppet Theater. This is the 39th year with a jewel heist) than for its personnel. On December 6, Terranova Collective’s
one an advance “thumbs up.” The run is the company has come back to TNC, Several of the collaborators have interest- Groundbreakers Playwrights Group is
just one week, ending on December 5. For and it’s always impressive to see those ing music biz credits on their resumes.
tickets and info: www.theatreaskew.com. eerie, gigantic, medieval-looking puppets Co-composer Rob Hyman is a founding Continued on page 18
18 December 2 - 8, 2010

December Downtown Theater: Hot, Hot, Hot

Continued from page 17
presenting “Bug Out!” — a bill of ten-
minute plays inspired by the word “bug.”
If you’re not a fan of creeping insects,
don’t fret. The organizers have given the
artists wide latitude as to how to interpret
their mandate and the products of their
imaginations are just as liable to include
irritated humans, or hidden recording
devices. The quintet of young scribblers
includes Lauren Feldman, Andrew Kramer,
Nick Mwaluko, Leah Nanako Winkler, and
Halley Feiffer (daughter of Jules and a
multitalented artist in her own right. She
not only writes, but acts. You may have
seen her in “The Squid and the Whale”).
“Bug Out” plays one night only, December
6, at HERE Arts Center. For more info, go
to www.terranovacollective.org.
I am luridly expectant
at the prospect of seeing
“What She Knew” —
playwright and critic
George Hunka’s retelling
of “Oedipus Rex” from
Jocasta’s point of view.
December 7 through the 15, the Kraine
Theater will be the site of “The Corporate
Personhood Play Festival.” I like the
name and the theme of this festival very
much (it refers to recent legal decisions
that make it possible for corporations to
commit all manner of calumnies under
the pretense that they possess the same
rights as individual human beings). The
fest includes nine short plays in two sepa-
rate bills, and to give you a flavor, here’s a
description of “Oh, Donna” by the excellent
young playwright Lucille Scott Baker: “A
young heiress (and friend of Paris Hilton)
who has organic tendencies with organic
juice and a few secrets, takes over the
world’s third largest communications com-
pany.” I’m there! And lest there be any doubt
about the subversive tendencies of this festi-
val, all shows are FREE! Why, it’s downright
un-American. “The Corporate Personhood
Play Festival” is a co-production of Horse
Trade Theater Group and The Subjective
Theatre Company. More info at: www.
subjectivetheatre.org.
Finally, I would be remiss in my duty
as a corrupter of public morals if I didn’t
recommend these sick, twisted holiday
shows. December 3-11, one of the funni-
est performers I know — Bradford Scobie
— brings his “Moisty the Snowman Saves
Christmas” to Dixon Place. This parody
of Rankin-Bass holiday specials, penned
by and starring Scobie, was a hit of last
year’s NY Musical Theatre Festival (www.
nymf.org) and also stars the great Murray
Hill, among others. For info: www.dixon-
place.org.
December 10-30, End Times
Productions — the folks who brought
you “Manson: The Musical” — return to
Ace of Clubs with their 4th annual “Naked
Holidays.” This “Yuletide Bacchanalia”
promises an array of comedy sketches
involving Adolph Hitler, the Tea Party, and,
by my count, 13 scantily clad showfolk. Talk
about roasting chestnuts! For tickets: www.
endtimesproductions.org.
Over at PS122, December 15-19,
you can catch “Brothers and Sisters and
Motherf**kers.” This solo show — featur-
ing one Jibz Cameron as Dynasty Handbag
— takes us to a Handbag Family Holiday
Dinner featuring “hatred, drugs, murder, spi-
der, old babies, secrets, the devil, grandma
and explosives.” For info: www.ps122.org.
And on December 14, don’t miss me as
the titular slasher in “Jack the Ripper’s
Holiday Spectacular” — along with my
chorus of cuties, The Bleeedin’ Tarts, piano
man Albert Garzon of Ixion Burlesque,
country duo the Tall Pines, contortionist
Amy Harlib, burlesque side show art-
ist Foxxx Trot and music hall chanteuse
Photo by Lee Wexler
Lorinne Lampert. It’s all at Bowery Poetry
Club. Be there or be square! See you next In an experimental ant colony, a worker ant worships a Queen Ant after the Queen
year! gives a motivational speech. See “Mapping Mobius” on page 18.

155 1st Avenue at East 10th Street

Reservations/Info 212-254-1109 Online at www.theaterforthenewcity.net

BREAD & PUPPET ANGRY YOUNG nonviolent

THEATER WOMEN IN LOW executions
Wednesday - Sunday RISE JEANS WITH Written & performed by
December 2 - 19 steve ben israel
THE RETURN OF HIGH CLASS Fri - Sat, December 3-4
ULYSSES TO HIS ISSUES 8pm Tix $12
HOMELAND Written by
Wed-Sun @8pm Tickets $12 MATT MORILLO
Directed by
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
THE Adapted & Directed
DECAPITALIZATION BOBBI MASTERS
Thursday- Sunday, by ZEN MANSLEY
CIRCUS Thurs - Sun
December 2 - 12
Perfs Sat - Sun @3pm Thu-Sat 8pm, Sun 3pm December 16 - 24
All Seats $12 All Seats $20 Thu-Sat 8p, Sun 3p

Stoppard’s spy thriller: Who’s got the briefcase?
‘Staggeringly brainy play’ stirs together physics, espionage, love
BY JERRY TALLMER
Think of it this way:
An actor is but a particle of a person,
unless of course he (or she) is several par-
ticles of several persons — in, for instance,
a staggeringly brainy play by Tom Stoppard
that stirs together quantum mathematics,
particle physics, love, death, espionage, a
London swimming pool and a handful of
post-Shakespearean twins who may or may
not be double (or triple) Cold War secret
agents — theirs and ours.
The play is called “Hapgood” — which
is also the masculine-sounding name of its
undeniably feminine heroine and her even
more feminine quasi twin sister.
We are never told what dire nuclear
secrets are in a briefcase that keeps changing
hands in and around the dressing rooms of
that London swimming pool, just that those
secrets are dire and that one of the partici-
pants in this hugger-mugger is referred to as
Russian One.
“We call this man Russian One,” says a
typical Stoppard notation, “because he is
Russian and because there are going to be
two of them.”
The play is called
“Hapgood” — which
is also the masculine-
sounding name of its
undeniably feminine
heroine and her even more
feminine quasi twin sister.
“Hapgood” was written in Orwellian
1984 — 18years after the “Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern” that put Stoppard on the map
as an upcoming playwright of consequence.
That was also, as it happens, one year after
Elise Stone as Elizabeth Hapgood.
THEATER
HAPGOOD
Written by Tom Stoppard
Directed by John Giampietro
A Phoenix Theatre Ensemble production
8 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 2 — then Tues.-Sat., 8
p.m. & Sundays, 3 p.m. through Dec. 12
At the Wild Project
(195 E. Third St. btw. Aves. A & B)
For tickets ($25), call 212-352-3101
Visit www.PhoenixTheatreEnsemble.com
December 2 - 8, 2010 19
wrong, with concepts like non-Euclidean
geometry — I mean, looking at it from Euclid’s
point of view. The mathematics of physics
turned out to be grounded on uncertainties, on
probability and chance. And if you’re me, you
think — there’s a play in that.”
From non-Euclidean geometry it was,
for Stoppard, just a hop, skip and jump to
quantum mechanics. “So I started reading
about that.”
And came up with, Stoppard style —
uncertainties, probability and chance as such
things might apply to characters who, in
Smith’s words, “are able to and not be
there.”
As, for instance, if you’re twins. One of
a pair of twins.
Russian One, for instance — is he or
isn’t he? Mrs. Hapgood, for instance — is
she or isn’t she? And what will she do —
which Hapgood will she be — to get her
kidnapped son back from the bad guy(s)?
The kid is, 11-year-old Joe (13-year-old actor
Jack Tartaglia), a British schoolboy as Czech-
born Stoppard was once himself a British
schoolboy.
Except that Joe’s father just happens to
be Joseph Kerner (actor Joseph J. Menino),
Soviet nuclear physicist and double (or
Photo by Monty Stilson
Continued on page 20
WORKS ON WALLS II
Hedy O'Beil Marilyn Sontag Margo Meade Arnold Wechsler Miriam Hirschhorn
Barbara Scavone Estelle Levy Marlena Vaccaro Leslie Shaw Zadoain
Victoria Weill Anna Walter Herb Mendelsohn Liz Curtin William Jefferson
Diane Rode Schneck Horst Liepolt Sheila Schwid Oscar Maxera Toni Dalton Francia
December 2 - December 30, 2010
Tuesday - Saturday 11am-5pm
U.S. President Ronald Reagan launched his
pie-in-the-sky Star Wars anti-missile pro-
gram.
To Craig Smith and Elise Stone, stars of
another kind, the acting kind — they are
also two of the prime movers of the seven-
year-old Phoenix Ensemble — no play could
be more timely. Indeed Smith and Stone,
husband and wife, are saying this to me just
a day or two after one lone U.S. senator — a
Republican gentleman from Arizona — has
thrown a screw-you-Obama monkey wrench
into any renewal or extension of the nuclear-
reduction START treaty.
“Stoppard is such a careful playwright,”
says big, sensible, graying Smith — who in
>ÀÌiÀÊ ÕÀ`i˜Ê
i˜ÌiÀÊvœÀÊ̅iÊ
}ˆ˜}
this “Hapgood” portrays Blair, the head of a
CIA-type London-based intelligence opera-
i˜ÌiÀ°œÀ}
tion that has Lily Hapgood (i.e., short, dark,

À̈ÃÌÊ,iVi«Ìˆœ˜\Ê/…ÕÀÃ`>Þ]ÊiV°Ê™]Óä£äÊUÊȇnÊ«“
beautiful, fiery Elise Stone) as one of its
most prized agents.
“With particle physics,” says Smith, “once
gAllery 307
something is observed it is changed.” 307 7th Avenue, Suite 1401
Einstein in a nutshell?
“Absolutely. Meta-theater.” ­LiÌÜii˜ÊÓÇ̅Ê>˜`ÊÓn̅Ê-ÌÀiiÌî
“Which changes from night to night,” New York City, NY 10001
says his wife.
“I am not a mathematician,” voracious *…œ˜i\ÊÈ{È°{ää°xÓx{
reader (of everything) Stoppard told an
interviewer for the Paris Review in 1988, Ó£Ó°nǙ°Ç{ää
“but I was aware that for centuries math-
ematics was considered the queen of the
sciences because it claimed certainty. It was >Ê«Àœ}À>“ÊœvÊ̅iÊ
grounded on some fundamental certainties
— axioms — that led to others.
Ê«i>ÃiÊۈÈÌʜÕÀÊÜiLÈÌiÊvœÀʈ˜vœÀ“>̈œ˜\ÊÜÜÜ° ÕÀ`i˜
“But then, in a sense, it all started going
20 December 2 - 8, 2010

Stoppard’s spy thriller

Continued from page 19
triple?) defecting secret agent.
Which is how Stoppard writes plays.
Wheels within wheels. A riddle within a
mystery within an enigma.
So: Is she is or is she ain’t? Is the brisk
smooth Hapgood the same physical entity
as the slipshod, druggy, beatnik Hapgood,
played by Elise — is she a twin or is she
not?
“I have a very small window of opportu-
nity,” says Ms. Stone of hers and the play’s
climactic double-exposure moment. “I only
have seconds.”
“As long as it takes to do a really fast
costume change and let your hair down,”
says the sturdy Midwesterner who married
this vibrant girl from the Bronx back when
they were acting together for all those years
at the late Eve Adamson’s now defunct
Jean Cocteau Repertory in the Bowery Lane
Theater on the corner of Third Avenue and
Bond Street.
“Which is now an upscale retail store,”
Stone informs me. But back in the day,
Cocteau Rep devoted itself to serious pro-
ductions of serious plays old and new, of
many genres, including this one — a year-to-
year wide-ranging nourishing spectrum you
could seldom find anywhere else in town.
“Were you ever in Kaliningrad?” Kerner
asks the unmarried Hapgood he still loves
so much, as they watch their son Joe kick a
rugby ball past the goalie into the net.
So: Is she is or is she
ain’t? Is the brisk smooth
Hapgood the same physical
entity as the slipshod,
druggy, beatnik Hapgood,
played by Elise — is she a
twin or is she not?
“Í was born in Kaliningrad,” Kerner
tells the boy’s mother. “So was Immanuel
Kant, as a matter of fact. There is quite a
nice statue of him. Of course, it was not
Kaliningrad then, it was Konigsberg, seat of
the Archdukes of Prussia. President Truman
gave Konigsberg to Stalin. My parents were
not consulted and I missed being German
by a few months.
“Well, in Immanuel Kant’s Konigsberg
there were seven bridges. The river Pregel,
now Pregolya, divides around an island and
then divides again, imagine nutcrackers
with one bridge across each of the handles
and one across the hinge and four bridges
on to the island which would be the walnut
if you were cracking walnuts.
“An ancient amusement of the people
of Konigsberg was to try to cross all seven
bridges without crossing any of them twice.
It looked possible but nobody had solved
it” — and then, finally, years later, the Swiss
mathematician Leonhard Euler proved it
can’t be done.
All of which, Stoppard confessed to the
Paris Review interviewer, replicates — or
is replicated by — all that who’s-got-the-
briefcase wild-goose-chasing in and around
those swimming pool lockers in Act I.
Which is also how Stoppard writes
plays. Crossing over unseen rivers to imagi-
nary islands via impossible bridges.
Though the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble
is a communal organization “with around
seven artistic directors,” Smith admits he
might have been the first to come up
with the idea of doing a group reading of
“Hapgood” to hear how it might go across
in 2010.
Stoppard — though Smith and Stone
never met him or even talked with him —
was no stranger to them. They’d been in
lots of his stuff at the Bowery Lane. And
indeed, over the years, I myself have been
engrossed and delighted by Cocteau Rep’s
attentions,” and “Night and Day.”
In short, “Hapgood” fits perfectly into
the Phoenix Ensemble’s dedication to what
Smith defines as “language-oriented intel-
ligent theater — classic classics and modern
classics.”
The Smiths live in the East Village, not
far from the theater where they go to work
nightly in “Hapgood.” (They also go to
work in daytime jobs, always have, to pay
the rent, he for a publishing house, she as
a teacher.) If Lily Hapgood has one child,
well, the Smiths have three, two boys and
one girl, all three from Ethiopia.
Toward the end of “Hapgood,” physi-
cist Kerner is applying an anecdote about
world-famous physicist Niels Bohr to
explain the uncertainty principle.
“Niels Bohr,” he says, “lived in a house
with a horseshoe on the wall. When peo-
ple said, ‘for God’s sake, Niels, surely you
don’t believe a horseshoe brings you luck,’
he said, ‘no, of course not, but I’m told it
works even if you don’t believe it.’ “
So much for Bohr via Kerner via
Stoppard. Seems to me I’ve heard that
same story before, only then it was
Einstein’s wall on which the horseshoe
hung.
That’s what’s called the Double
Uncertainty Principle.

NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY SPEAKER

SHELDON SILVER
WITH STATE SENATOR DANIEL SQUADRON,
COUNCILMEMBER MARGARET S. CHIN

and THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK invite you to a

CUNY College
Information
Fair IN LOWER MANHATTAN
FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS,
COLLEGE STUDENTS & ADULT LEARNERS

11:00 A.M. - 2:00 P.M.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 5, 2010 REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED

Receive one-on-one counseling and information on:

N Academic and honors programs N Financial aid and scholarships
N Adult and Continuing Education N Citizenship and immigration services

SEWARD PARK EDUCATIONAL CAMPUS 350 GRAND ST. (ENTER ON LUDLOW STREET) NEW YORK, NY 10002

Just Do Art!
COMPILED BY SCOTT STIFFLER
MUSIC FESTIVAL, AND HOLIDAYS,
IN WASHINGTON SQUARE
The Washington Square Music Festival
will put you in the proper holiday mood — not
too early, and not too late — when it presents
a concert offering strings, winds and piano
(with guest artists Stanley & Naomi Drucker,
clarinetists). This FREE concert features music
by Telemann, Mozart and others. Fri., Dec. 10,
8pm at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church
(371 Sixth Ave. at Washington Place). For info:
212-252-3621, or www.washingtonsquaremu-
sicfestival.org.
The Washington Square Association offers
two chances to sing yuletide carols in down-
town’s historic park. The WSA, by the way, is
the organization that provides that spectacular
45-foot Christmas tree under the Arch (lit for
the season between the hours of 4pm and 1am).
The Washington Square Park Arch is located
at the foot of Fifth Ave., one block south of
Eighth St.
On Tues., Dec. 7 at 6pm, song leader Mary
Hurlbut (accompanied by The Rob Susman
Brass Quartet) will lead you in the singing
of holiday songs (complimentary songbooks
provided). Santa Claus has promised to appear
and help the children in the illumination count-
down. On Christmas Eve (Fri., Dec. 24 at
5pm), gather again at the Washington Square
Arch and join The Rob Susman Brass Quartet
Photo by Ken Howard
as everyone sings carols (those free songbooks
will be there too, compliments of the WSA). For
Washington Square’s the place to be for
info: 212-252-3621.
holiday activities!
Photo by Isaac Rosenthal
Chelsea Rittenhouse and Andres Gonzales.
NUTCRACKER IN THE LOWER
Like a fruitcake wrapped in ribbons and given to you annually by your least favorite rela-
tive, self-professed “daring and new” productions of “The Nutcracker” come our way every
year and immediately proceed to overstay their welcome. So get a jump on the holiday glut
and get your bad Downtown-minded self to the limited-time-only Urban Ballet Theater ver-
sion. “Nutcracker in the Lower” brims with salsa, krumping and hip-hop. The party scene,
traditionally depicted as an opulent 19th-century Ball, becomes a holiday salsa party. Native
American and African styles reinvent the Angels’ and Arabian divertissements of the second
act — with enough classical ballet to retain the ballet’s traditional flavor (Tchaikovsky’s
original score remains largely intact throughout).
Performances are Dec. 2, 3 at 7:30pm, Dec. 4 at 3 & 7:30pm and December 5 at 3pm. To
purchase tickets ($20), visit www.theatermania.com or call 212-352-3101. Group & family
discounts are available. At Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement (466 Grand St. at
Pitt). Visit www.abronsartscenter.org and www.urbanballettheater.org.
UNSILENT NIGHT 2010
Phil Kline’s annual holiday event takes
place in more than 27 cities around the world
— and with a stat like that, you know NYC is
among the unusual suspects. “Unsilent Night
2010” — the local version — is celebrating
its 19th year of gracing our good town with a
boombox parade that defies description, logic
and expectations. This participatory experience
lets marchers become their own roving sound
sculpture — as they swarm through the streets
of the Village blaring recordings on cassettes,
CD’s, mp3’s and, of course, the humble but
proud boombox. Kline describes the experi-
ence as “like a Christmas caroling party except
we don’t sing, but rather carry boomboxes,
each playing a separate tape or CD which is
part of the piece. In effect, we become a city-
block-long stereo system.” Free. Sat., Dec. 18,
7pm. Gather at the arch in Washington Square
Park, and less than an hour and mile later, end
up in Tompkins Square Park. For info, visit
www.unsilentnight.com.
CHANUKAH AT THE NEW SHUL
The New Shul goes invites you to “Do the
Light Thing” by helping to create a public light
sculpture in the heart of Greenwich Village that
will shine a light on the miracle of Chanukah
and send a message of hope and peace to the
world. Dance to the music of Sasson, sing
some Chanukah songs, keep warm with a cup
of steaming hot chocolate and taste tradition
with a delicious potato latke from CuisinEtc
Catering & Special Events. FREE. Sat., Dec. 5,
5pm at the Arch Plaza in Washington Square
Park (the area between the arch and the foun-
tain). Visit www.newshulblog.blogspot.com.
CHANUKAH FESTIVAL: FIRE ON ICE
What holds eight candles, is really cool and
comes to us courtesy of the folks who promise
you “Judaism with a smile?” It’s a Menorah
that a sculpturer will carve out a 500-lb.
block of ice — the main draw of Chabad’s
“Chanukah Festival.” Other activities include
the consumption of delicious hot latkes and
the decorating of doughnuts — plus music and
all-ages crafts & activities. On Sun., Dec. 5.
At 3pm, enjoy the sculpturing and activities.
The Menorah lighting ceremony takes place
at 4:30pm. At P.S. 89 (201 Warren St.). Free
admission. For info, call 646-770-3636. Visit
www.chabadofwallstreetnyc.com.
THE TRINITY CHOIR
The 2010-2011 concert season is distin-
guished by the debut of Julian Wachner —
principal conductor of the Trinity Choir and
Trinity Baroque Orchestra. The Choir’s annual
destination event, on Dec. 12 and 13, is
a presentation of Handel’s “Messiah.” For
other upcoming performances, please visit
www.trinitywallstreet.org. With the exception
of “Messiah,” concerts will be presented on
Thursday evenings.
Can’t make it? All performances other than
“Messiah” on Dec. 12th will be available for
viewing via live webcast at www.trinitywall-
street.org. The Trinity Choir will also perform
free preview concerts at 1pm on most show
December 2 - 8, 2010 21
days. Concerts begin at 7:30pm, (except for
“Messiah” on Dec. 12, which starts at 3pm)
at Trinity Church (Broadway, at Wall St.). For
individual concerts, $20 general admission.
$10 student/senior tickets are available only
at the door. Tickets for “Messiah” range from
$30 to $50. To purchase, visit www.trinitywall-
street.org/tickets or call 212-602-0800.
HOLIDAY EVENTS AT THE
MERCHANT’S HOUSE MUSEUM
Do you pine for a holiday experience that
harks back to those days of old — as in, say, the
mid-19th century? If so, look no further than
the Merchant’s House Museum. Built in 1832,
MHM exists year-round as a lovingly curated
time capsule offering a glimpse into the lives
— and mindset — of the prosperous merchant-
class Tredwell family (whose various members
occupied the house for nearly a century).
Dec. 2 through Jan. 10, the exhibition
“Christmas Comes to Old New York” uses
recreated scenes of holiday preparation to
reveal how modern holiday customs came to
be. Included with regular museum admission
($10, $5 for students/seniors). Tues., Dec. 7
from 6-8pm, the “19th-Century Holiday Party”
lets you enjoy holiday decorations, savor festive
delicacies, drink from the “Bowl of Bishop”
and join in the caroling. ($25, free for MHM
members.) Reservations required. On Fri., Dec
10 at 7pm, “To All, Wassail: A Concert of 19th-
Century Holiday Songs & Stories” features The
Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society (MHM
artists-in-residence) in a concert of vocal quar-
tets, solos, holiday readings and sing-alongs
($25, $15 for MHM members). Reservations
required. On Dec. 17, 18 & 19, “An Old
Fashioned Christmas in New York: Tours by
Candlelight” offers tours beginning every 20
minutes, Fri., 6-9pm, Sat. & Sun., 4-8pm.
The halls will be decked and the rooms lit by
flickering candlelight as costumed actors relate
the Christmas tradition of mid-19th century
New York ($20, $15 for children 12 & under,
$10 MHM members). All events take place at
the Merchant’s House Museum (29 E. Fourth
St. btw. Lafayette & Bowery). For info and
reservations, call 212-777-1089 or visit www.
merchantshouse.org.
Photo courtesy of the Merchant’s House Museum
Just like the ones we used to know:
Holidays at the Merchant’s House
Museum.
22 December 2 - 8, 2010

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The agony and the ecstasy: A snapshot of my life
PAPARAZZO
DIARY
BY J.B. NICHOLAS
Frequently, I tell people that my life is crazy,
just freaking crazy. If you ask me why I say that,
typically, I’ll spit out some gibberish about find-
ing myself engaged in some kind of debauchery
on the margins of society and the city, then
standing next to some celebrity or king, with
me reeking — of one thing or another — from
the night before. Basically, living the high and
low life, one subway or bike ride at a time.
Often, I fear, it doesn’t make sense. But for this
installment of Paparazzo Diary, I’m going to let
the photos do the talking. Here, a sample of
pictures from the last 10 days of my life.
PSYCHEDELIC TEA PARTY
It was supposed to be a simple night
out. A friend’s birthday in his DUMBO
loft. But then I got there early and dis-
covered that another friend, who lives in
the same building, a building in which
some barefoot girl I met on the train years
before once lived, was having a mushroom
tea party. I go there and people are upside
down doing yoga. Then they brought out
coolers of the stuff, and shamans who
blessed the tea as they handed out brim-
ming cups of the holy concoction.
CHARLIE SHEEN’S HOOKER
Capri Anderson is her porn name. Last
Monday she charged about the city trying to
get the 12K that Sheen apparently promised
her for her companionship a few weeks
back, first telling her tale on “Good Morning
America,” then to N.Y.P.D. detectives whom
she met at her lawyer’s office. The highlight
of my day was getting “parked-in” by an
S.U.V. driver in front of Trump International
Tower just as Miss Anderson took off up
Justin Bieber — before P.D. was body-slammed.
December 2 - 8, 2010 23
Central Park West with my competition in
tow. After I banged on the S.U.V.’s back
windshield to get him to move, the driver
— fresh from the Jersey Shore — hopped
out, pulled a badge and said, in no uncertain
terms, “I’m a cop! I’ll f------ kill you!”
“Yeah, whatever man. Can you just move
your truck? I’m trying to work here.”
BODY-SLAMMED BY BIEBER
Tween pop sensation Justin Bieber was in
town last week to sell his new book — this
is his second — “First Step 2 Forever.” I
caught up with him outside his Midtown
hotel where, as he walked past his fans to
his waiting S.U.V., one of his bodyguards
grabbed me by the shoulders and body-
slammed me into the side of the vehicle. My
reaction? I kept shooting. Isn’t this the same
kid that just did an anti-bullying P.S.A.? The
cops refused to charge him.
S.J.P. FLASHPOINT
J.B.’s people weren’t the only ones throw-
ing ’bows at the paparazzi last week. So, too,
were Sarah Jessica Parker’s. As she exited the
preview premiere of the new “Spider-Man”
show on 42d St., her bodyguard panicked
in the face of scores of theatergoers and two Photos by J.B. Nicholas
paparazzi, knocking down an old lady and
Capri Anderson hides from the camera, right before her lawyer, right, smacks
ripping the flash off of my camera. Again, the
Paparazzo Diary with his briefcase.
cops wouldn’t do anything. I hope they cut me
as much slack if I’m ever accused of breaking
somebody’s something. I doubt it, though.
SUDDENLY — GWYNETH
On Monday, I was outside the Ace
Hotel, at 29th St. and Broadway, staking
out a French film producer with an alleged
newly acquired taste for drugs and hook-
ers. Suddenly, out came Gwyneth Paltrow,
walking with her younger brother, Jake.
Sheer beauty and no drama — nothing
more to say.
Gwyneth Paltrow and her brother on W. 29th St.
24 December 2 - 8, 2010

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