downtown
OF INDIA
®
VOLUME 23, NUMBER 37
Mayor Bloomberg was joined by Martin Luther King III on Monday to announce a new campaign to push Congress
to pass tougher gun control laws.
Mayor pressures Congress
for tougher gun control
BY JOHN BAYLES
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has long
been a proponent of tougher gun con-
trol laws. In the wake of the shooting
spree in Tucson, Arizona on January 8,
the mayor has amplified his position
and is now directing his advocacy, and
anger, at Washington.
On Monday Martin Luther King
III, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino
and others, including a slew of fam-
ily members who lost loved ones in
the Columbine shooting of 1999, the
Virgina Tech shooting of 2007, as
well as the Tucson tragedy, joined
Bloomberg at City Hall. Their purpose
was to announce a national campaign
express
THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN
to try and convince Congress to take
two “common sense” steps toward
solving a “broken” background check
system.
Part one of the campaign urges
Congress to ensure that all names of
people prohibited from buying guns
are in the background check system.
The second part of the campaign seeks
to close what some consider loopholes
in gun control law, specifically the fact
certain gun purchases, such as those
occurring online or at gun shows,
do not currently require background
checks.
“The time has clearly come to finally
fulfill the intent of the common sense
YOGI’S
AND NEPAL,
P. 27
JANUARY 26 - FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Memo to Albany:
Renew and reform
rent regulations
BY ALINE REYNOLDS
Affordable housing and
other protections avail-
able to low-income tenants
Downtown and citywide
might disappear, if the state
rent regulation law expires
in June.
State Assemblymembers
representing four of the
five boroughs held a hear-
ing at 250 Broadway last
Thursday, where several city
housing advocacy groups
and tenants testified about
the importance of renew-
ing the Emergency Tenant
Protection Act, which
Downtown Express photo by J.B. Nicholas
In historic vote,
C.B. 3 O.K.’s SPURA
redevelop guidelines
BY LESLEY SUSSMAN
A long and bitter 43-year
stalemate over future devel-
opment of a 7-acre par-
gun law passed after the 1968 assas- cel of land at the foot of
sinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. the Williamsburg Bridge
and Bobby Kennedy, by creating a came to a successful con-
loophole-free background check sys- clusion this Monday when
tem for the sale of firearms,” said Community Board 3’s Land
Mayor Bloomberg. Use, Zoning, Public and
Both Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Private Housing Committee
Menino have been the leading voices voted almost unanimously
behind the group Mayors Against Illegal to approve a set of general
Guns. The group has swelled from 15 guidelines that would pave
mayors when it was formed in 2006 the way for action on the
to 550 mayors today. It has launched long-dormant Seward Park
a new website, www.fixgunchecks.org, Urban Renewal Area, or
where the public can sign a petition in SPURA.
favor of the campaign. The historic 20-to-1 vote
Continued on page 16
applies to all buildings built
in New York City before
1974. They are also lobby-
ing for passage of the omni-
bus bill, which would make
the E.T.P.A. effective in all
city buildings.
Brooklyn Assembly
Member and Housing
Committee Chair Vito
Lopez, who led the hearing,
said there is a “major battle”
going on between landlords
seeking to deregulate the
rents in their buildings, and
tenants who are being driv-
en out of their homes due to
escalating rents.
Continued on page 16
marked the end of two years
of contentious debate over
details of the general guide-
lines by members of the
committee. The approval of
the guidelines signaled to
the Bloomberg administra-
tion that area residents and
stakeholders have finally
reached some kind of con-
sensus and are now ready
to get down to details about
the site’s development.
Tuesday night, the mea-
sure went before C.B. 3’s
full board at its monthly
meeting, which was expect-
ed to second the commit-
tee’s vote, giving the board’s
Continued on page 20
2 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 downtown express

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A place to listen and ponder
A man sat last Sunday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City.
/DID\HWWH6WUHHW The building’s third floor currently houses the exhibit “Voices of Liberty,” which
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more about the exhibit.

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downtown express
PHONY 9/11 COINS
D OWNTOWN
DIGEST
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and U.S.
Representative Jerrold Nadler are calling
on the Federal Trade Commission to imme-
diately shut down the National Collector’s
Mint, which is selling fake September 11
commemorative coins.
The company, which has a history of
fraud, is offering a new 10th anniversary
9/11 coin that they falsely claim has been
authorized by the government and made
with silver from the ashes at Ground Zero.
“National Collector’s Mint has no shame.
By deceiving consumers into buying these
worthless ‘9/11 commemorative coins,’ this
company is preying on the memories of that
tragic day, generating millions in profits, and
diverting potential funds to finance the 9/11
Memorial at Ground Zero,” said Schumer in
a statement.
In July 2010, Schumer and Nadler passed
a law to create an official 9/11 medal that
would raise funds for the National 9/11
Memorial and Museum at Ground Zero.
Under a matching program, $10 would be
donated to the memorial for each coin sold.
Every dollar spent on the phony coins,
the politicians say, is two dollars that could
Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011
have gone toward the memorial.
“We must act now — and act with force
— to make it crystal clear that we will not
tolerate 9/11 scams, and will prosecute
swindlers to the fullest extent of the law,”
said Nadler.
P.E.P. OKAYS GREEN MOVE
TO 26 BROADWAY
The Panel for Educational Policy decid-
ed to grant the vacant classroom space
on the first two floors of 26 Broadway
to the Richard R. Green School, a high
school currently located on the Upper
East Side.
The vote, held last Wednesday, was unan-
imously in favor of Richard R. Greene
as opposed to a second Millennium High
School, which Downtown parents were lob-
bying for.
Councilmember Margaret Chin, who was
backing the parents in their wish for a new
Millennium to be sited at 26 Broadway,
said the vote denies access to 400 public
school students to “the top-notch education
Millennium is known for.” The high school’s
selective program, she said, is in high demand
among the Downtown community.
3
NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-9, 12-21
The main campus, at 75 Broadway, has
EDITORIAL PAGES . 10-11
YOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
ARTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-27
CLASSIFIEDS. . . . . . . . . . . 26
been forced to accept more students than
it can handle for years, she said, and has
worked hard to raise funds to be able to
C.B. 1
M
expand.
“The D.O.E. has repeatedly underes-
timated the influx of families into Lower
Manhattan and has failed to provide ade- EE TING S
quate space to serve Downtown students.”
State Senator Daniel Squadron was C.B.1’s meeting schedule for February
equally disappointed by the outcome of the was not updated in time for this publica-
P.E.P. vote. tion.
It’s “disappointing,” he said, that the
D.O.E. decided against allowing Millennium
to expand into 26 Broadway, “when there
were options that would have allowed a solu- SEND YOUR
tion for both schools.”
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver called
the decision a “slap in the face” to Lower Letter
Manhattan families.
“My School Overcrowding Task Force,”
to the Editor
he said, “helped convince the D.O.E. to lease NEWS@DOWNTOWNEXPRESS.COM
that space with the understanding that it 145 SIXTH AVENUE, NYC, NY 10013
would be used to serve Downtown families.
“I will continue to press the D.O.E to open PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR PHONE NUMBER
new classroom space in Lower Manhattan
and I will continue to fight for Millennium FOR CONFIRMATION PURPOSES ONLY
High School.”
4 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011
POLICE BLOTTER
Blow your Mind
Police arrested two men in the early hours of Thurs.,
Jan. 20 and charged them with running a 24-hour cocaine
and marijuana business catering to New York University
students, patrons of East Village and Lower East Side bars
and Tribeca residents.
The arrests were the result of a three-month NYPD
investigation and sting operation that was uncovered when a
court employee told police he found business cards offering
cocaine and marijuana for sale that were tucked in the pages
of The Village Voice in a box in front of an N.Y.U. dorm on
Third Ave. at E. 10th St.
The drug pushing cards had also been shoved under the
apartment doors of Independence Plaza in Tribeca, accord-
ing to the complaint.
The defendants, Thomas Zenon, 49 and Miguel Guzman,
43 were arraigned on Fri., Jan. 21, and were being held in
lieu of $1 million bond or $750,000 cash bail, according to
the office of Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.
Undercover police had made 12 buys from Zenon and
Guzman between October 19 and Jan. 20, including two
$1,110 buys of more than a half ounce of cocaine, according
to the complaint. Both suspects had previously served time for
federal drug convictions, according to sources. Guzman, identi-
fied as a former Ohio State football player in a Daily News item,
was carrying 16 grams of cocaine, more that $1,600 and four
cell phones when he was arrested. Zenon had more than $600
on him and a stash of 20 bags of marijuana inside a coffee ther-
mos in his car when he was arrested, the complaint says.
One N.Y.U. student told the Daily News that one of the
suspects offered him cocaine outside the 10th St. dorm and
handed him a card with a cell phone number and the words,
“Blow your Mind.”
Construction fatality
Police found a man lying on the ground unconscious next
to Gouverneur Hospital, 227 Madison St. across from the
Alfred E. Smith Houses around 11:26 p.m. Wed. Jan. 19.
An Emergency Medical Service team declared the victim,
Richard Smith, 46, of Long Island, employed by a roofing
contractor working on the hospital, dead at the scene. The
victim apparently fell to his death and there was no criminal-
ity involved in the incident, police said.
Subway sleepers
A man who got on an E train at Roosevelt Ave. in Queens
at 4:30 a.m. Sat. Jan. 15 fell asleep, missed his stop and woke
up at Canal St. to discover that his right front pocket had
been cut and his iPod stolen. The victim didn’t report the

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theft to police until he was notified that a suspect carrying
his iPod had been arrested at Stillwell Ave. in Brooklyn.
A man who got on a Manhattan bound A train at Beach
60th St. in Far Rockaway around 9:30 a.m. Fri., Jan. 21 fell
asleep until he reached his destination at Fulton and Nassau
Sts. and discovered that his wallet had been stolen from his
rear pocket, police said.
Protests FBI actions
A group calling itself the New York Committee to stop
FBI Repression held a demonstration on Tuesday evening
Jan. 25 in front of Federal Bureau of Investigation offices
in Lower Manhattan protesting a Chicago grand jury’s
subpoenas issued to 14 people including Arab-Americans,
Palestinian solidarity activists and three Minneapolis women
supporting the Muslim targets of the investigation.
The group gathered on Broadway in front of 26 Federal
Plaza at 4:30 p.m. and marched to the Justice Department
offices at 1 St. Andrew’s Plaza on the east side of Foley Sq.
The group said the subpoenas were “an attempt to criminalize
solidarity with the Palestinian people” and promised to con-
tinue working for an end to U.S. aid to Israel. The subpoenas
were issued in December demanding testimony in Chicago
on Jan. 25 regarding an FBI criminal investigation. The 14
activists have signed a letter pledging to invoke the Fifth
Amendment and refusing to testify before the grand jury.
Soho bar bash
A man visiting from Peoria, Ill., was in Sway, the bar at
305 Spring St. between Greenwich and Hudson Sts. during
the early hours of Sun., Jan. 23 when a woman hit him in
the face with a drinking glass, police said. The woman, Casey
Tatum, 24, was arrested and charged with assault.
Chambers St. bash
A Brooklyn man, 33, got into a argument with a man
and a woman in front of 125 Chambers St. around 4:50 p.m.
Fri., Jan. 21 when the man threw him to the ground and the
woman hit him repeatedly with her aluminum walking cane,
police said. Omar Shaheed, 27, and Nafeesah Shaheed, 58,
were arrested and charged with assault. Police did not say
how the suspects were related.
Arrest in burglary series
Police on Thurs., Jan. 6 arrested a suspect in connection
with a series of 13 Lower East Side and Chinatown burglar-
ies and home invasions between Oct. 12 and Nov. 15. But
88 Fulton Street
(Corner of 33 Gold St.)
New York, NY 10038
212.587.8930
212.587.8935
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Min. $10
downtown express
the suspect, Irving Walker, 31, was not the Irving Walker, 41,
which police thought they were looking for in November.
The innocent suspect, whose name and former Bronx address
was included in the NYPD call for help issued to the media, had
moved away a decade ago and was in a doctor’s office in Virginia
Beach, Va. during one of the incidents. Although he received a
letter from a detective that he was no longer a suspect, he said
he is afraid to visit his old Bronx neighborhood where residents
might not know that he was cleared in the case.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney
said the Irving Walker who was arrested Jan. 6, has admit-
ted being involved in three of the robberies. An accomplice
is believed to have been involved in all 13 burglaries on
Madison, Catherine, Eldridge, Forsyth, Monroe and Henry
Sts. and East Broadway during the four-week period last
autumn.
Bag theft at marina
A woman left her bag with a coworker at the marina at
86 South St. in the South St. Seaport Museum at 10:45 a.m.
Sun. Jan. 23 and returned a minute later, but the coworker
had put it aside and was unable to find it, police said.
Shop thefts
A man and a woman entered the Marc Jacobs boutique
at 163 Mercer St., around 2 p.m. Fri., Jan. 21, and walked
around for a while until the man grabbed a handbag valued
at $1,295 off a manikin and passed it to the woman who put
it in her bag. The couple then left, undetected, police said.
A Gap Store employee at the 11 Fulton St. branch spotted a
woman on the surveillance camera removing several jeans and
shirts with a total value of $1,310 from a display shelf at 3:06
p.m. Sun. Jan. 23 and putting them in her bag. She managed to
get past the search scanner, which did not go off, and left before
security could challenge her, police said. The whole incident
took less than a minute, the employee told police.
Security agents at J & R Music, 23 Park Row, stopped a
man who was buying two iPads with a total value of $1,228
using two credit cards at 4:47 p.m. Sun., Jan. 23 when they
notice something odd about the cards. The credit cards were
registered to someone with an Asian name and the suspect was
African-American. The suspect, Kenny Henry, 45, was found to
have three other fraudulent credit cards, police said.
Monkeys fire
A fire in the Three Monkeys, a restaurant on the ground
floor of 99 Rivington St. brought firefighters to the place at
the corner of Ludlow St. at 8:11 p.m. Thurs., Jan. 20, an
FDNY spokesperson said. The fire was under control in a
half hour and the cause was under investigation.
Drumsticks menace
Police arrested Jessie Sloan, 27, shortly before 4 p.m.
Tues., Jan. 4, in front of 853 Broadway between 13th and 14th
Sts. and charged him with assault with a weapon, resisting
arrest and possession of marijuana. Police said the defen-
dant, a Queens resident, was trying to hit a man with a pair
of drumsticks. Officers said Sloan swung his fists at them
when they were making the arrest. The suspect, described
as drunk and stoned, was in possession of a small bag of
marijuana when he was arrested, police said.
Cycle rules
Sixth Precinct police are issuing warnings to bicycle riders
to obey the rules. Except for riders under the age of 12 on bikes
with wheels less than 26 inches in diameter, cyclists must ride
on the street, in the direction of vehicular traffic, and not on
sidewalks. Yielding to pedestrians is also the rule. Cyclists must
also obey all traffic signals, pavement markings and must use
marked bicycle lanes or bike paths when available.
 Authentic Thai
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downtown express
App brings 9/11 voices to life and to your phone
BY ALINE REYNOLDS
A new tech application launching next month will allow
people worldwide to listen to first-hand accounts of 9/11
survivors and to record their own stories recalling the events
of the day.
The National 9/11 Memorial and Museum has partnered
with Broadcastr, a Brooklyn-based start-up, to create a digi-
tal map interface of oral accounts that will be available as an
app for Smartphones.
The recordings include memories, testimonies and trib-
utes from first responders, nearby residents and anyone else
who wishes to retell their experiences from 9/11.
The application will categorize the audio entries accord-
ing to location and a map will be displayed with icons iden-
tifying each recording. A recording of a victim’s account of
what it was like visiting the 9/11 family assistance center at
Pier 94, for example, will be tagged at the pier, where the
center was once located.
The recordings are being provided to Broadcastr by the
9/11 Memorial and Museum, who has been amassing a
collection that will ultimately be an exhibit at the museum.
Currently visitors to the museum’s preview site can sit in an
audio booth and listen to the recordings or record their own
stories.
“You slowly start to see that it’s not just a Lower
Manhattan story — it’s a New York story, it’s all over,” said
Jenny Pachucki, an oral historian at the 9/11 Memorial
who is part of a team that selects and approves the audio
entries.
The application is slated to launch on Tuesday, February
8, with approximately 30 9/11 entries. It will be available
on iPhones and Androids, but not on Blackberries. iPads
and Android tablets will also offer the application in a few
months’ time. Registering on Broadcastr.com to file an audio
entry is free of charge.
Home recordings are meant to be user-friendly, accord-
ing to Broadcastr founder and president Scott Lindenbaum,
and can be done using standard computer or Smartphone
microphones.
The Broadcastr audio files will also be organized
by subject, and can be accompanied by photographs.
Someone reflecting on a family member’s 9/11 experi-
ence escaping the falling Twin Towers, for example,
might file the clip under keywords and phrases such as
“family” and “9/11 survivor.” The contributor might also
snap a photo of the family member in front of the World
Trade Center site, and upload it onto the application
along with the audio.
The goal, Lindenbaum explained, is to show how social
media can be used to document history, and how it isn’t
merely an ephemeral means of communication dominated
by Twitter. He hopes to turn the service into a tool that
“create[s] meaningful interactions between people across
great distances.”
Like Twitter and Facebook, Lindenbaum hopes that
Broadcastr will eventually become popular enough to appear
as auxiliary features on companies’ and media outlets’ web-
sites.
The program, Lindenbaum said, won’t single out the
tech-savvy, film buffs, or “YouTube” gurus. Instead, it will
be meant for everyone.
“We’re really excited to get our content out there, and to
be able to tell some of the stories in the meantime before the
museum is actually open [in 2012],” said Pachucki.
Broadcastr only collects and disseminates the stories
in audio format – recording oral accounts, Lindenbaum
explained, is less intimidating than video or blogging for
those who are timid to tell their stories to begin with.
The memorial’s oral historians invite some participants
to their offices and visit others at their homes to perform
the recordings. Some participants break down as they
recall the day, and others decline to do the interviews alto-
gether, fearing the emotional impact. Some of the toughest
Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011
Photo courtesy of Broadcastr
Broadcastr founders Scott Lindenbaum (left) and
Andy Hunter have partnered with the National 9/11
Memorial and Museum to create a new app for
Smartphones.
recordings, Pachucki said, are those in which the person
reflects upon loved ones they lost on 9/11.
“It’s really hard for a lot of people,” said Pachucki. “It’s
surprising how raw the emotion still is for them.”
Joe Daniels, the memorial’s president, expressed his sup-
port of the project in a statement, saying that the Broadcastr
application “allows people around the world to connect to
a place that will continue to inspire thousands of stories of
hope and compassion.”
The memorial’s mission, in part, he said, is to educate
future generations about the 9/11 events that forever
changed the world. “By sharing our collection of stories, we
are supporting our educational mission and shaping history
through memory,” he said.
Pachucki and her colleagues are confident that Broadcastr
will serve as a supplement, rather than a substitute, to the
services provided by the future museum.
“It’s not replacing the authentic site, [which involves]
seeing the artifacts, and delving in some of the visual aspects
of the story,” she said.
The service, she noted, will allow those who don’t have
the time or means to visit the museum to “experience it in
some way.”
Broadcastr and the memorial team plan to co-host panel
discussions and other events at the W.T.C. site and nation-
wide, which would perhaps involve “collecting stories as we
go,” Lindenbaum said.
The Broadcastr team is also visiting the construction
zone to record workers’ perspectives on what it’s like to
rebuild the W.T.C. “It’ll give a little behind-the-scenes feel
of, how did this thing get there and who put it there,” said
Lindenbaum.
Currently, there are a dozen audio posts on the private
beta version of the application, located at Broadcastr.com.
The site is accepting 100 new users per day between now
and its launch. The company’s goal, Lindenbaum said, is to
edit and upload 20 new items every month prior to the ten-
year anniversary of 9/11.
5
First-hand account
from a first responder
Michael Moran, a 9/11 first-responder firefighter, is one
of approximately 500 people who have recorded their 9/11
stories that will be used and distributed by the National 9/11
Memorial and Museum.
Moran is one of a dozen individuals who have partici-
pated in Broadcastr thus far.
Moran’s patience and professionalism was tested on 9/11.
A member of Ladder Company 3 at the time, he remembers
the desperate screams of a fellow firefighter on the radio as he
struggled to free himself from a burning truck that day.
Moran and his crew were ordered to sit tight for several
hours at the firehouse, according to a boss’s orders, before
hurrying to the World Trade Center site to search for survi-
vors. During the wait time, Moran didn’t know if his brother,
Rescue Battalion Chief John Moran, was dead or alive.
He later found out that John had died while on duty.
What follows is Moran’s account from that day, in his
own words, provided by Broadcastr:
“My name is Michael Moran. I’m a member of Ladder
Company 3 [on East 13th Street].
The first tower falls, and I remember knowing at that
point at least a good portion of my firehouse was probably
wiped out, because I knew Ladder 3 was there.
So, I remember they turned the radio onto the Manhattan
channel and there was a guy screaming into the radio that he
was trapped in a fire truck and he was burning. And our guys
couldn’t listen to it and walked away. And then somewhere in
there it came over that if you were assigned to a Manhattan
firehouse that’s where you were supposed to report to. Like
they wanted Manhattan firemen to go to their houses.
By the time we got to my firehouse we had a city bus in
front of quarters and I had time to get my gear on and we
got on the bus. We’re just starting to pull away and the Chief
came out and hit the glass and said ‘Hang on guys, come off.’
He goes, ‘We’re ordered to wait here for one hour.’ And like
the hour comes and goes, alright we’re gonna go, and Chief’s
like, ‘Listen we’re being told to wait, told to wait.’
And it was starting to really kind of get heated, like guys
weren’t happy about staying. And we were ready to go, and
he called everybody up into the office. And at this point I
knew, like when I walked in and I saw my Lieutenant at the
time, and I said, ‘How bad is it?’ and he goes, ‘It’s as bad as
you can imagine, so far, but we don’t know who was off-duty
who’s down there, but as far as we know 3 is gone.’
So that’s when I kind of started asking, ‘You didn’t hear
anything from my brother, did you? What do you…’ No, no.
And I’m asking the Chief, thinking maybe the chiefs would
get… so they call everybody up into the office, and the Chief
is saying, listen, you guys are getting mad, listen, you guys are
on duty. You know, you guys are working. You know, you are
ordered to stay here. You signed into the book, anybody that
leaves here is gonna be [Absent Without Official Leave], is
gonna get charges. He goes, I can’t have…I can’t have this.
So he looks around and he says, ‘Listen, I know there’s
one guy here, Mike thinks his brother’s missing. I’ll turn
around and let Mike sneak out of here.’ … I’m shocked that
he said that. Everyone kind of looked at me, and he goes,
‘Mike, what do you want to do?’ And I don’t know why I said
it or where it came from, but I just said, ‘Chief, my brother
would want me to act like a professional. So if you say we’re
ordered to stay here, then I’m gonna have to stay here’…
Afterwards he told me that he appreciated that I said that
because that shut everybody else up.”
6 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011
Governor’s task force will work to improve Medicaid
BY TOM DUANE
On Jan. 5, 2011, Governor Andrew
Cuomo issued an executive order creating
the Medicaid Redesign Team. New York’s
Medicaid program provides health insurance
coverage to almost one in four New Yorkers,
and costs more than $52 billion per year.
The Medicaid Redesign Team is charged
with conducting a comprehensive review
of the state’s Medicaid program; making
recommendations to the governor by March
1, 2011, on potential Medicaid spending
reductions in the state’s Fiscal Year 2011-
’12 budget; and issuing a final report at the
end of Fiscal Year 2011-’12 on additional
short-term reforms and systemic changes to
improve quality of care at lower cost.
While this will be incredibly difficult
work, I was pleased to be named one of
the team’s 27 members, along with state
Assemblymember Dick Gottfried and two
Republican legislators, relevant experts from
various state agencies and healthcare and
insurance industry stakeholders, as well as
one representative of Medicaid consumers. I
would have hoped for more consumer repre-
sentation; as always, I will speak out to ensure
that the concerns of New York’s least power-
ful constituencies — which certainly include
Medicaid consumers — are addressed.
Key areas on which I plan to focus
include:
• Continuing the reform of Medicaid
payment mechanisms to better reimburse
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State Senator Tom Duane at a health-
care hearing.
primary and preventive care services,
thus encouraging better management of
health problems and reducing the chance
they will develop into catastrophic ill-
nesses.
• Reducing health disparities among
New York State’s poor and minority popu-
lations by improving quality and perfor-
mance of healthcare providers.
• Expanding and strengthening
“Medical Homes” to improve coordina-
tion among health professionals involved
in a patient’s care to achieve better health
outcomes.
• Maximizing federal funding pro-
vided by the new healthcare law (the
Affordable Care Act of 2010) to support
innovative ways to care for persons suf-
fering with multiple illnesses, including
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downtown express
those with behavioral health problems, office directly at 212-633-8052.
in addition to chronic physical health
problems. Duane represents the 29th state Senate
If you would like more information about District. Until the end of last year, he was
the Governor’s Medicaid Redesign Team or chairperson of the state Senate Health
would like to share your suggestions, please Committee. With the Senate Republicans
visit http://governor.ny.gov/medicaidrede- back in power, Duane is now the committee’s
sign. Of course, you may also contact my ranking Democrat.
Nadler: Don’t repeal health act
On Tues., Jan. 18, Congressmember Jerrold
Nadler spoke on the House floor in fierce
opposition to H.R. 2, the Patients Rights
Repeal Act, the product of Republican efforts
to repeal the landmark Affordable Care Act.
“Repeal of the Affordable Care Act would
be catastrophic for the American people and
for our economy,” Nadler said in a press
release. “Instead of spending our time look-
ing for ways to build on and perfect the
healthcare reform law, Republicans want
to take a sledgehammer to it, to throw out
everything, without any consideration at
all. No matter that our economy still needs
our attention. No matter that millions of Rep. Jerold Nadler
Americans remain out of work.”
In his remarks on the floor, Nadler noted pays and deductibles,” Nadler continued.
that repealing the act would deny 32 million He added that, for seniors, the act
Americans healthcare, and drive up the nation- strengthens Medicare.
al debt by an additional $1.4 trillion over the “Mr. Speaker, when our predecessors
next 20 years. The Affordable Care Act also passed similarly historic laws such as Social
laid the groundwork to stave off the 55 percent Security in 1935 and Medicare and Medicaid
of personal bankruptcies that are caused by in 1965, they knew the measures would
healthcare emergencies, Nadler added.
“By banning…the ‘pre-existing conditions’
require further consideration,” Nadler stated.
“In the years since those crucially important
insurance bar, banning annual and lifetime cov- programs were signed into law, Congress has
erage caps, and capping annual out-of-pocket made, and will continue to make, improve-
expenses, this law ensures that nobody will go ments to those programs.”
broke because they get sick,” Nadler said.
“No longer will women go without critical Nadler represents the 8th Congressional
maternity care coverage, access to mammo- District, which includes the West Side,
grams, and other key preventive care services Greenwich Village, Soho, Lower Manhattan
— services that will be available without co- and part of Brooklyn.
Mendez’s asthma-free act is law
More than three years after City
Councilmember Rosie Mendez originally
introduced the Asthma-Free Housing Act,
significant parts of the legislation were incor-
porated in a proposed amendment to the
New York City Safe Housing Act, which was
passed by the City Council earlier this month
on Wed., Jan. 5.
The new law designates asthma triggers
— including mold conditions and vermin
infestation — and makes the remediation
requirements more stringent.
“With this legislation, we acknowledge
that mold and rodent infestation — housing
violations that make a major contribution to
the asthma epidemic in New York City — are
Rosie Mendez
just as serious as other major code infrac- that identifies some of the city’s most
tions,” Mendez said. “I am very pleased that distressed residential buildings and estab-
we have expanded the Safe Housing Act to lishes direct measures to bring the build-
include these asthma triggers, so we can bet- ings up to code.
ter understand their health impact on fami-
lies that live in substandard housing.” Mendez represents the Second Council
The legislation expands the 2007 act District, which includes the East Village.
downtown express
Non-artist residents feel like ‘criminals’ in Soho, lawyer says
BY ALINE REYNOLDS
Two of the city’s trendiest neighborhoods
have an outdated regulation in their zoning
law that some loft residents want the city to
do away with.
Other area residents, however, might be
displaced if the regulation is abolished.
The artist certification for residents of
Soho and Noho, established in the early
1970’s, when artists began populating the
area, requires at least one member of house-
holds to be a “creative” artist. They must
prove their status in an application to the
city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
Soho and Noho’s special zoning allows
for residential use in artists’ joint work-
living quarters — in keeping with the neigh-
borhoods’ traditional light-manufacturing
character.
Section 12-10 of the New York City
Zoning Resolution refers to housing in Soho
and Noho as “arranged and designed for use
by…not more than four nonrelated artists,
including “adequate working space reserved
for the artist”
The rule is “a stopgap measure designed
to appease both artists and building owners
who did not want the violations for illegal
occupancy,” according to Margaret Baisley, a
Soho-based real estate lawyer who strongly
opposes the zoning law’s artist-in-residence
provision.
Residents who apply for artist certification
must submit a “professional fine arts” résumé,
Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 7
two letters of recommendation and other
material that demonstrates at least five years of
commitment to a particular fine-art genre.
Successful applicants are permitted to have
commercial jobs in the arts, or side jobs in
other fields, but must exhibit a “professional,”
noncommercial involvement in the creative
arts, according to the application. Interpretive
artists, such as musicians, actors and dancers,
are generally ineligible for certification. D.C.A.
claims not to aesthetically judge the appli-
cants’ artwork. A D.C.A. spokesperson did not
respond to questions by press time.
In 2009, the city rejected half the artist-
certification applications it received.
The administration has recently stepped
up enforcement of the law, which it ignored
for several years, according to Baisley. The
Department of Buildings now denies cer-
tificates of occupancy for buildings until
each residential unit has an artist certificate.
D.O.B. also requires proof of certificate for
Soho and Noho loft occupants who apply to
renovate their spaces. Downtown Express photo by Aline Reynolds
Nevertheless, many residents violate the
Attorney Margaret Baisley thinks the artist-certification requirement for Soho and
rules, and occupy their lofts illegally, accord-
Noho residents should be lifted.
ing to various sources.
Baisley said only about 20 to 30 of her Baisley helps her clients avoid fines and moved elsewhere.
Soho clients per year make the effort to appointments at the agency’s administra- “We don’t think you should make criminals
comply with the zoning rules. About half of tive court by gathering together every bit of people who want to come into this area,”
them get approved, while the other half get of evidence attesting that they are, indeed, Baisley said. The Buildings Department, she
denied. Several others sell their lofts rather creative artists. continued, should focus on collapsing cranes
than bother hunting down artist tenants to One attorney she represented didn’t want
occupy them. the stigma of living illegally in Soho, so she Continued on page 19
8 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011
Manhattan Youth lets kids play their way
BY MICHAEL MANDELKERN
This past Monday, on a frigid after-
noon, Manhattan Youth debuted its indoor
Imagination Playground, a trial program
with potential to expand this year.
Parents and babysitters brought curious
toddlers and kids, ages two through five, to
the lower level of the Downtown Community
Center. The children instantly latched onto
bright blue foam blocks, creating structures
and forms on their own.
“I want to build it high,” said one child as
he connected two blocks with a long, bend-
able cylinder.
“Wheels,” said another kid as he grasped
a circular piece.
The room was full of giggles as more chil-
dren entered the space. Manhattan Youth
employees kept a watchful eye and parents
looked on, but the kids were the ones in
charge.
“It’s not, ‘Oh no, [a block] should go
there,” said Alex Roche, director of the
Downtown Community Center. “Kids use
the space for their own imagination,” said
Roche. “They make what they want to.”
One child tried to put together two pieces
that at first seemed not to fit.
“Uh oh,” he said.
He eventually connected the pieces and
built a structure without any help from the
adults.
Children worked together to build com-
plex arrangements, some crawling to find
Fighting to make
Lower Manhattan
the greatest place
to live, work, and
raise a family.
Assemblyman Shelly Silver
If you need assistance, please contact my office at
(212) 312-1420 or email silver@assembly.state.ny.us.
pieces while others dashed across the room
to drape their creations with blankets and
scarves. Others worked more independently.
“Up, down,” said one kid as he lifted
what would appear to an adult to be a dumb-
bell, but to a child could be anything.
The first Imagination Playground at
Burling Slip in the Seaport that opened over
the summer inspired Roche to bring the
model to Manhattan Youth. He found the
moveable objects, without anything fastened
to the floor, to be a “great concept.”
Roche recently ordered the equipment
from Imagination Playground, a non-profit
and architecture firm partnership founded
by architect David Rockwell, who designed
the Burling Slip model. The organization’s
goal is to “constantly reconfigure their envi-
ronment and to design [children’s] own
course of play,” according to the organiza-
tion’s website.
The materials are sold in a box set on
wheels and include various shapes, such as
foam noodles and floor mats, some with
holes in them that can be connected togeth-
er.
The new Manhattan Youth program just
got underway, and fittingly, as the winter
weather makes playing in the park and
outdoors unpleasant and harsh. But Roche
plans to expand the hours beyond the cur-
rent 12:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Monday-
through-Friday timeframe.
“This is the first day. We just opened the
A child plays with the moveable parts that are the basis for the Imagination
Playground model.
door and there are already people walking
in,” said Roche as he introduced the new
program on January 24. He said parents
have expressed interest in the Imagination
Playground, and that he anticipates a contin-
ued strong turnout.
“We’re always trying to foster creativity,
even at a young age,” said Roche.
Many of Manhattan Youth’s activities,
such as the Friday night program geared
towards children ages nine through 14,
appeal to youths ages five and over, but
Roche senses a “growing need” for programs
aimed at younger children.
The new class is currently geared towards
pre-kindergarten children, because some of
Protestors want large-scale
education reforms
BY ALINE REYNOLDS
Demonstrators congregated on the steps
of Tweed Courthouse last Friday to protest
mayoral control of public schools and to
lobby for hefty reforms to the city system.
Several protestors held up banners, each
listing one of ten education reforms the
group is asking the D.O.E. to implement
immediately.
Among the proposals the protestors
highlighted were equitable funding for all
schools, a halt to the proliferation of charter
schools; an end to school closure; and a push
for smaller class sizes.
John Yanno, a teacher at John Jay
High School and a member of Grassroots
Education Movement NYC, bemoaned the
shortage in funding for his school and the
co-location of Millennium Brooklyn in the
building. Seniors at John Jay have huge holes
in their schedules, he said.
downtown express
Photo courtesy of Imagination Playground
them are not yet in school and many pre-
school programs end by the late morning.
But Roche plans on opening the facility to
older children later in the year and bringing
the equipment outside once the temperature
rises to an appropriate level.
The Imagination Playground is open
exclusively to Manhattan Youth members,
but nonmembers can purchase a day guest
pass for $25 that gives them access there
and to other Downtown Community Center
programs.
For more information on the Imagination
Playground log on to www.imaginationplay-
ground.org or call Manhattan Youth for spe-
cific program queries at 212.766.1104.
“They literally spend their afternoons
hanging out in the bathroom or hallway,
‘cause they have nowhere to go,” said
Yanno.
Muba YaroFulan, a public school par-
ent and a member of Coalition for Public
Education, accused the D.O.E. for failing
its students by not offering them quality
classroom education or a sufficient num-
ber of after-school programs; and for shut-
ting parents out of the decision-making
process.
“Money is being spent more towards
the prison system than educating our 1.1
million students,” she told the crowd. She
also mentioned Black’s controversial birth
control joke from the January 13 School
Overcrowding Task Force meeting held at
250 Broadway.
Continued on page 18
downtown express Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 9

C.B. 1 committee talks dirty phone booths and dirty streets

BY ALINE REYNOLDS
A pair of phone booths on Warren
Street in Tribeca has been giving Shimon
Zlotnikov’s nightmares since the mid-2000s.
In the coming months, his wish to have them
removed might finally come true.
Zlotnikov, 35, said he spends his morn-
ings cleaning up the litter-trashed booths
in front of his business, Shimmie’s New
York, a retail outlet at 28 Warren Street
he runs with his family, which owns the
five-story commercial building. The pay-
phones, which stand side-by-side, pose a
major safety concern, said Zlotnikov at last
Thursday’s Community Board 1 Quality of
Life Committee meeting. He said the booths
have become an evening hub for drug users
and binge drinkers.
“Then there’s the issue of people uri-
nating, defecating and having sex,” added
Zlotnikov.
The booths do not have lights and are
only partially cloaked by metal. Visitors of
the yoga studio above Shimmie’s are afraid
to leave the building at night, Zlotnikov
reported, for fear of being mugged by a per-
petrator lurking in the booths.
To compound matters, the payphones
have been without a dial tone for four or five
years. “These things were really, really good
a couple of years ago, when not too many
people had cell phones,” Zlotnikov said of
the payphones. “I don’t see the usefulness of
a phone that doesn’t work.”
He has complained about the booths
previously, but said that the parties involved
kept on passing the buck, and that nothing
was accomplished.
City law requires that pay phone booths
be removed from their locations after three
months of malfunction, and that the com-
pany’s franchise license be revoked after six
months, according to Zlotnikov.
“These guys fix it just in time for that
three-month mark, and [the problem] starts
all over again,” Zlotnikov said. He spotted
Verizon workers fixing the problem at 4:30
a.m. last Wednesday, the day before the C.B.
1 meeting.
“We’re happy to look into the situation
and help resolve any issues in regard to these
phones,” said John Bonomo, a spokesper-
son for Verizon. He wasn’t able to confirm Downtown Express photo by Aline Reynolds
Zlotnikov’s account of the pay phone prob- Robin Forst from the L.M.C.C.C. updates the C.B. 1 Quality of Life Committee last
lems by press time. Thursday on the neighborhood’s construction projects.
To Zlotnikov’s relief, Allen Chapman,
director of payphones for Titan, the transit the payphone coordinator for the city’s There are currently 300 phone booths
advertising company responsible for oper- Department of Information Technology and in C.B. 1, half the number the district once
ating and maintaining the Warren Street Telecommunications, the agency in charge of had, according to Fergus. He said he hopes
booths, said the company is open to moving supervising phone booth installations. to see more police presence in the area to
the payphones, so long as they locate another The D.I.T.T. would also require the per- deter illegal activity in booths Downtown
Downtown site where they can be placed. mission of the landlord whose building will and citywide.
“To relocate a problem phone [booth], face the telephone booth, along with a letter Zlotnikov said he and Chapman are “on
it would have to stay within the commu- from the First Precinct commanding officer the same page now,” and that he looks for-
nity board [district], and meet all the sit- confirming that the booths are a public nui-
ing guidelines,” explained Patrick Fergus, sance and a haven for illegal activity. Continued on page 18

The Most Beautiful Music

You’ve Never Heard
the |trinity choir
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2011, 7:30pm
Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street

Music from the Sarum Rite

George Steel, Guest Conductor

The Trinity Choir performs sacred music of the Pre-Reformation English Church, from the time of
early Tudor monarchs. Rarely performed today, this gorgeous music is some of the most exquisite of any age.
Trinity is pleased to welcome to the podium for this performance George Steel, General Manager and
Artistic Director of New York City Opera and founder of the Vox Vocal Ensemble.

Preview same day at 1pm.

Ticket Prices
$20 General Admission
$10 Student/Senior

Ticket Sales
trinitywallstreet.org/tickets
Trinity Church Gift Shop
212.866.0468 trinitywallstreet.org
10 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 downtown express

EDITORIAL LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PUBLISHER & EDITOR
John W. Sutter Seward Park success Bike lanes: told him I would consider it and get back
to him. He helped me get the mini-pedi-
ASSOCIATE EDITOR After more than four decades of frustrating inaction cab chained up again, advising me where
John Bayles
at the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, Tuesday night’s Use and abuse to place the locks to stop the next person
ARTS EDITOR vote at Community Board 3’s Land Use Committee, at last, from sawing them off again. He gave me
Scott Stiffler smashed through the inertia. To The Editor: his cell phone number, and I thought that
Finally, this long-vacant eyesore of dirt can be redeveloped Re “Critics can’t roll back the progress wasn’t the greatest move since he just
REPORTERS with new housing and community amenities, and put back on bike lanes” (talking point, by Barbara gave me a way to contact him if I decided
Aline Reynolds
Albert Amateau on the tax rolls, generating jobs and revenue for the city. Ross, Jan. 6): to press charges later. So I assumed it was
Lincoln Anderson Of course, the board’s passing the guidelines is just the I believe Barbara Ross makes sane, bal- a fake number.
first step; the Bloomberg administration next will refine the anced, measured points. It isn’t bike lanes A couple of weeks later I decided it
SR. V.P. OF SALES plan — all the while, hewing to C.B. 3’s guidelines — an envi- that are the problem regarding traffic was time to give up the bike and if the
AND MARKETING ronmental impact statement (E.I.S.) will be done; requests safety. It’s the way people — pedestrians guy was willing to take $150 I was ready
Francesco Regini for proposals (R.F.P.’s) will be issued to developers. and cyclists — use or misuse the lanes. to give it to him. Yes, it was crazy to even
SR. MARKETING CONSULTANT Monday’s vote was the result of hard work and many I really don’t feel very safe when contemplate selling it to the thief. But I
Jason Sherwood hours logged over two years by C.B. 3 members, residents cycling in these bike lanes. Some of my didn’t see any really positive outcome to
and stakeholders. From the outset, committee chairperson fear is from my fellow cyclists who abuse calling the police to report the incident,
ADVERTISING SALES
David McWater said he intended to make this process inclu- their privileges. Same with pedestrians and I had nowhere to store it and didn’t
Allison Greaker
Michael Slagle sive, so that all stakeholders felt invested in the process. So and dog walkers who abuse the bike have the skills to fix it — where the tube
Julio Tumbaco often before, efforts to redevelop SPURA had crashed and lanes. The other fear is at intersections had been sawed through — to sell it for a
burned. The disconnect between advocates for affordable where motorists turn from my blind side. higher price.
RETAIL AD MANAGER housing, on one hand, and co-op owners who feel the area As long as motorists, cyclists, pedes- So I gave him a call and the deal was
Colin Gregory already has enough affordable housing, on the other, locked trians et al. act selfishly, aggressively, done. He agreed to pay $150 and was
BUSINESS MANAGER / CONTROLLER the site in limbo for generations. abusively, New York City will remain a going to give me another bike he doesn’t
Vera Musa McWater and Dominic Pisciotta, C.B. 3’s chairperson, very, very dangerous place. use anymore, which I was going to give
made sure that everyone was on board. The nearly unani- away to somebody in need of a bike. I
ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTOR mous 20-to-1 vote is a testament to the process. The lone Michael Gottlieb hoped that I would one day see my pedi-
Troy Masters “No” vote was by Damaris Reyes, executive director of Good cab all spiffed up, with a family in tow,
ART DIRECTOR Old Lower East Side, who to the end fought for more afford- cycling through my neighborhood. That
able housing. In a constantly gentrifying Lower East Side, would make it all worthwhile to me. One
Mark Hasselberger
one can’t criticize her or G.O.L.E.S. for advocating for their The bicycle thief more cyclist on the road is never a bad
GRAPHIC DESIGNER belief that more affordable housing is sorely needed. thing in my world.
Jamie Paakkonen Yet, we feel the approved guidelines are the right compro- To The Editor:
CONTRIBUTORS mise. Fifty percent of the housing will be market rate, which A couple of weeks ago I was riding my Barbara Ross
Terese Loeb Kreuzer • David will, in turn, subsidize moderate- and low-income housing, bicycle down Ridge St., and to my left I
Stanke • Jerry Tallmer including for seniors. Forty percent of SPURA will have saw somebody walking a bike that looked
retail and commercial uses — but no big-boxes, other than just like my gray, European, adult tricycle
PHOTOGRAPHERS possibly a large movie theater. — which I refer to as my mini-pedicab — Dead on arrival
Lorenzo Ciniglio • Milo Hess This new housing and its population, coupled with that I had parked on my street corner. I
Corky Lee • Elisabeth Robert
retail and commercial uses, will revitalize this part of the looked right to the spot where it’s usually To the Editor:
• Jefferson Siegel
Lower East Side, which has basically been “offline” for chained up and it was missing. I ran after Just how many of Governor Cuomo’s
INTERNS the past 40 years, and is currently used as a massive the man and asked him what he was doing proposed budget, regulatory and good
Andrea Riquier open-air parking lot. This fact was recognized by the new with my pedicab. He was startled and government reforms may be dead on arriv-
co-op residents’ group SHARE, which strongly supported told me that someone just sold it to him, al once reaching downtown Manhattan’s
the guidelines and played an important advocacy role. claiming it was his bike to give away. own New York State Assembly Democratic
Published by C.B. 3 and its leadership deserve immense credit for defying I told him that didn’t sound like a Speaker Sheldon Silvers desk?
COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC the naysayers and pulling this off. For McWater, this is his sec- feasible story since he was a holding a With 100 of 150 votes in the Assembly,
145 Sixth Ave., NY, NY 10013 ond coup, having spearheaded the East Village / Lower East hacksaw in one hand and the metal tube Silver is in the drivers seat. Silver con-
Phone: (212) 229-1890 Side rezoning a few years ago that capped building heights of the bicycle around which the lock had trols his own members via lulus for
Fax: (212) 229-2790 and eliminated the bonus that allows monster-sized dorms. been fastened was sawed in half. We went chairing committees, passage of legisla-
On-line: www.downtownexpress.com Plaudits are also due to the Bloomberg administration, back and forth, he insisting that he did tion, pork barrel member item earmark-
E-mail: news@downtownexpress.com who believed in C.B. 3 and nurtured and facilitated this not steal it and I insisting that he did. ing, office budgets, staffing and mailings
planning process. Going nowhere with this, I asked him to along with renewal of gerrymandering
Gay City
NEWS
TM

Our elected officials helped the process. Notably, return the pedicab, and luckily he did not district boundaries every ten years after
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver quickly came out in resist and gave it right back to me. reapportionment.
support of the guidelines — in fact, he issued his “e-mail Then he shocked me again, now offer- Republican State Senate majority lead-
Downtown Express is published every week by blast” support statement two hours before the committee ing to buy the bike from me for $100, er Dean Skalos has similar powers, but
Community Media LLC, 145 Sixth Ave., New
York, N.Y. 10013 (212) 229-1890. The entire even voted! Similarly, state Senator Daniel Squadron, which he supposedly had paid the other only controls his chamber by one vote.
contents of the newspaper, including advertising,
are copyrighted and no part may be reproduced
Councilmember Margaret Chin, and Congressmember guy, “the real culprit of the crime.” It felt With Silver’s overwhelming majority, he
without the express permission of the publisher -
© 2010 Community Media LLC.
Nydia Velázquez’s support was also appreciated. absurd to even contemplate his offer, but can let many members off the hook when
But Silver’s endorsement was key. With his voter base I had been torn on what to do with the controversial bills come up for a vote
PUBLISHER’S LIABILITY FOR ERROR
The Publisher shall not be liable for slight on Grand St., where he lives, and as the state’s second most pedicab for a while. and stop whatever he desires. Successful
changes or typographical errors that do not
lessen the value of an advertisement. The powerful elected official, he has always had the power to It was too small to be used as a full- implementation of Governor Cuomo’s
publisher’s liability for other errors or omissions
in connection with an advertisement is strictly
make or break any SPURA proposal. We’re grateful he was size pedicab but too large to fit in my agenda is clearly dependent upon the
limited to publication of the advertisement in any
subsequent issue.
able to balance all the competing interests and endorse this apartment. I didn’t feel right to leave it on cooperation of both Silver and Skelos.
plan wholeheartedly. the corner and take up a parking space for They both along with Cuomo make up
Member of the
New York Press We’re grateful to C.B. 3 for leading this model process, another bicycle, but I felt sad thinking of Albany’s infamous “Three Men In the
Association and to community members and stakeholders for coalescing it being given away. Backroom” who run the show.
Member of the behind the effort. And we thank our elected officials for their I took one more look at the guy and
National leadership and for recognizing, finally, that the timing is right, started to soften. He was an older man, Sincerely,
Newspaper
Association
and that this is a very good plan — the best plan attainable telling me he wanted to fix it up to drive
— that we can expect for this long-fraught site. his family around the neighborhood. I Larry Penner
© 2010 Community Media, LLC suspected he could be lying again, but I Great Neck
downtown express Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 11

DOWNTOWN NOTEBOOK
New York and Curaçao: The Dutch Connection
BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER
Cunard’s new ship, “Queen Elizabeth,” left New York
City on January 13, she headed to Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., and from there to Curaçao, a small island in the
Caribbean, where she arrived on January 19. The trip of
1,945 miles was commonly made in the 17th century;
both Manhattan and Curaçao were once governed by the
Dutch West India Company.
In 1624, the Dutch settled on Governors Island in
New York harbor, moving to Manhattan in 1625. In
1626, Peter Minuit made his famous real estate “pur-
chase” — buying Manhattan from the native Leni Lenape
Indians for around $24. Eight years later, in 1634, the
Dutch arrived in Curaçao, previously occupied by the
Spanish, and kicked them out. With some interludes,
Curaçao has been governed by the Netherlands or affili-
ated with it ever since.
In Curaçao, the Dutch legacy is obvious — even
more than it is in New York City. Both sides of St. Anna
Bay, the deep harbor that bisects Curaçao’s capital,
Willemstad, are lined with brightly painted buildings
in the Dutch colonial style. Many of them date from
the early 18th century. In fact, Willemstad is one of
six UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific
Cultural Organization) World Heritage sites in the
Caribbean, with 765 buildings that have been declared
“national monuments.” Downtown Express photos by Terese Loeb Kreuzer
But though New York City has buried and over-
Willemstad, the capital of Curacao and of the Netherlands Antilles was settled by the Dutch in the 17th century,
written much of its Dutch past, it still exists in ways
shortly after they founded Nieuw Amsterdam (later New York City). At one time, Peter Stuyvesant was governor
that Willemstad makes evident. Both cities were founded
of both colonies.
for commercial reasons and owe their existence to their
deep, natural harbors. The Dutch were interested in
trade, not in ideology — either political or religious.
Both New York City and Curaçao are cosmopolitan and
multi-ethnic, and were from the beginning. Shortly after
the Dutch erected Fort Amsterdam at the foot of the old
Indian trail that New Yorkers now call “Broadway,” 18
languages were spoken in their little colony. Similarly,
Willemstad, which now has a population of 135,000, is
home to people of 55 nationalities.
At one time, one man governed both Curaçao and
Nieuw Amsterdam and the land stretching north and south
of it, which the Dutch called Nieuw-Nederland (New
Netherland). Peter Stuyvesant, born at Scherpenzeel,
Friesland in 1610, arrived in Curaçao in 1638 as the
Dutch West India Company’s chief commercial officer.
In 1643, he was appointed Curaçao’s governor. His
bosses back in the Netherlands instructed him to evict
the Spanish from St. Martin, which he attempted to do
in 1644. He was unsuccessful and lost his right leg in the
battle. He went back to the Netherlands to recuperate
and married a woman named Judith Bayard while he was
there (hence the name “Bayard Street” in Chinatown).
On December 25, 1646, they sailed for America, landing
in Nieuw Amsterdam on May 11, 1647. Stuyvesant was
now Director General of the New Netherland colony,
where he had a lot on his hands: skirmishes with the Willemstad is one of six UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Caribbean.
Indians and the English and an obstreperous population
in the colony. Stuyvesant, the son of a Calvinist minister, recording what happened. Amsterdam.
did not approve of their boisterous way of life. He was Stuyvesant’s trade plan didn’t work. Both Curaçao and However, in September 1664, four English warships
an effective governor in many ways, but definitely not the merchants of New Netherland found it more profit- arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam harbor. The English king,
popular. able to trade with their neighbors — sometimes illicitly Charles II, wanted to give the colony to his brother,
One of the things he had in mind was to encourage — than to haul goods back and forth for thousands of James, the Duke of York. Stuyvesant wanted to fight.
trade between Curaçao and New Netherland. The north- miles each way. Nevertheless, the African Burial Ground The colonists didn’t. On September 7, 1664, Stuyvesant
ern colony could provide food for the arid Caribbean near Foley Square in Lower Manhattan is a testament to conceded to the English and the city became New York.
island in exchange for horses, salt and slaves. Between the slave labor that helped build New York City. Stuyvesant and his family went back to the Netherlands,
1640 and 1795, the Dutch sold an estimated 90,000 Stuyvesant himself prospered in Nieuw Amsterdam. but they returned to America in 1668. The former
Africans as slaves in Curaçao. Peter Stuyvesant himself He bought a 300-acre farm north of the city wall and Director General retired to his farm and died there in
had a slave camp in Curaçao. At Kura Hulanda in the also had a town house with gardens near what is now February 1672. He was buried in what is now St. Mark’s
Otrobonda neighborhood of Willemstad is a museum Whitehall Street. His two sons were both born in Nieuw Church in the Bowery.
12 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 downtown express

WE DO PASSPORT PHOTOS
In a first, Gottlieb Co. sells
a building, markets another
WE PACK AND SHIP BY ALBERT AMATEAU
Real estate developers and brokers who
In 2008, there was a court-ordered auc-
tion of the Horatio St. property to settle the

ART, ANTIQUES &

were expecting a bonanza of opportuni-
ties when the estate of William Gottlieb
began selling some of the 185 properties it
FURNITURE owns, mostly in Greenwich Village and the
Meatpacking District, were disappointed
dispute. Neil Bender bested Gabay with a
$7.4 million bid, but had to give her half the
money under the conditions of the court-
ordered auction.
Another complication arose after Mollie

Both Domestic & earlier this month.

While Neil Bender, heir of the holdings
died. Her daughter, Cheryl Dier, who was
cut out of any interest in the real estate

International accumulated by his uncle Bill Gottlieb, con-

firmed the December sale of 79 Horatio St.,
empire, filed suit in Surrogate’s Court in
Manhattan, challenging Neil Bender’s fitness
just south of the Meatpacking District, and
the posting for sale of 104 E. 10th St., near
St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, the estate
will not be putting any other properties on ‘We are not selling any
the block.
In fact, Bender intends to renew the more properties. We’re
company’s long-held policy of buying and
295 Greenwich St. (corner of Chambers Street) holding onto select properties. disposing of two properties
“We are not selling any more properties,”
New York, NY 10007
Discount Gregg Sullivan, a spokesperson for Bender, that do not fit in with the
Tel. 964-5528 Fax. 964-5530 said last week. “We’re disposing of two
coupons at properties that do not fit in with the com- company’s development
MON. – FRI.– 8:00AM – 7:00PM pany’s development and growth plan, and
mbetribeca.com
SATURDAY – 10:00AM – 5:00PM we anticipate the addition of significant and and growth plan.’
SUNDAY – 11:00AM – 4:00PM
ure strategic properties to our portfolio in 2011
MBE Centers are individually owned and operated franchises. Sec ment and beyond,” Sullivan said. Gregg Sullivan
cu g Both 79 Horatio St., which fetched less
Most major credit cards accepted. Valid at participating locations.
Do eddin than $7 million at the end of last year, and
Restrictions may apply. Copyright Mailboxes Etc., 2011.
Sh r 104 E. 10th St., currently listed for sale
by Halstead Property for $6 million, are to run the Gottlieb real estate holdings. The

Ditch the Mommy Jeans

protected by the New York City Landmarks
Preservation Commission’s historic district
designations. The five-story walkup on
Horatio St., a block from the High Line,
Get your pre-pregnancy figure back! is within the Greenwich Village Historic
District. The three-story townhouse at 104
E. 10th St. is part of an extension of the St.
Why Beat Mark’s Historic District. The East Village
Around the building dates from 1879 when it was built
for Rutherford Stuyvesant, a descendant of
Bush? Peter Stuyvesant, along with the adjacent
102 E. 10th St.
Spend 60 minutes The 1870 Horatio St. building, now
with us owned by an undisclosed purchaser, was for-
for 6-weeks & drop merly held by the Gottlieb estate in partner-
TWO sizes ship with Vicky Gabay, whose husband, Don,
in the process was an old high school and college friend of
Bill Gottlieb’s. Don Gabay and Gottlieb
bought the building together in 1969 for a
Bring your reputed $68,000. It was the only partnership
property in the Gottlieb portfolio, and after
motivation Bill died in 1999 it passed to Vicky Gabay
& intensity, and Mollie Bender, Gottlieb’s sister.
But Mollie Bender and the Gabays had
a falling out over management of the build-
We’ll do the ing. When Mollie died in 2007, the dispute
rest! continued between Vicky Gabay and Mollie’s
heirs — her husband, Irving Bender, and her
son, Neil.
Ask about our MILF* Classes
*Mothers Interested in Living Fit
Sound off!
212. 865.9290 Got something to say?
www.MindOverMatterNYC.com
Joshua@MindOverMatterNYC.com
E-mail letters to news@downtownexpress.com
surrogate ruled that there was no evidence
that Neil was not able to handle the estate,
and an appellate court upheld that decision
last May.
Cary Tamarkin, who has developed sev-
eral buildings adjacent to Gottlieb properties
over the years, said he was still hoping to
join the market for any other Gottlieb prop-
erty that came online.
“That would be really big news when it
happens,” Tamarkin said.
Gottlieb and his heirs have earned the
reputation of “preservationists by benign
neglect,” by acquiring and holding low-rise,
old buildings in gentrified historic areas and
making little or no improvements to them.
Among the holdings of special interest to
preservation advocates is the 1831 triangu-
lar brick building, the Northern Dispensary,
at 165 Waverly Place, near the intersection
of Grove and Christopher Sts. The build-
ing, where Edgar Allan Poe was reputed to
have visited for medical treatment, has a
restrictive covenant in its deed limiting the
property to medical use. It was last used as
a dental facility by Catholic Charities but
has been vacant since Gottlieb acquired it
from the New York Catholic Archdiocese
in 1998.
downtown express
BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER
WINTER GARDEN SILENT FILM
FESTIVAL: From February 2 through
February 4, film buffs will have a treat at
the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden
with three evenings of silent films featuring
several of the masters of early filmmak-
ing: Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Roscoe
“Fatty” Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin and
Douglas Fairbanks. The Alloy Orchestra, a
three-man musical ensemble, will accom-
pany the films.
The festival opens on February 2 with
three slapstick films including, “One Week,”
with Buster Keaton about a newly mar-
Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011
ried couple and their misadventures, “Back
Stage,” with Arbuckle and Keaton as stage-
hands who end up as performers when the
real performers go on strike, and “Easy
Street” with Chaplin as a homeless tramp
who becomes a policeman.
Harold Lloyd’s last silent feature,
“Speedy,” from 1928, will be screened on
February 3. The plot concerns a horse-drawn
trolley car belonging to an old man named
“Pop” Dillon, a villainous syndicate of rob-
ber barons who want to take over the trolley
route, a beautiful damsel (Dillon’s grand-
daughter), and the young lady’s boyfriend,
played by Harold Lloyd. To save the trolley
route, the trolley must be kept on the tracks
for a certain number of hours per day. The
syndicate does all it can to prevent this, but
Lloyd saves the day by driving the trolley at
breakneck speed through Lower Manhattan,
past Bowling Green, the U.S. Custom House
(now the National Museum of the American
Indian), and the stunning Produce Exchange,
a red brick building that was torn down in
1957 and replaced by 2 Broadway.
The festival concludes on February 4
with the 1926 film “The Black Pirate,” with
Douglas Fairbanks — an adventure film
about murder and revenge. Fairbanks wrote
the script and helped to finance the film,
which was shot in two-tone Technicolor.
All of the screenings are free and start
at 7 p.m.
VALENTINE-MAKING WORKSHOP:
After the success of its wreath-making work-
shop just before Christmas, the Battery
Park City Parks Conservancy is offering a
“Green Valentine Workshop” on Saturday,
February 5 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The
Conservancy will supply recycled materials
such as salvaged paper samples, old maps
and postcards, cancelled postage stamps,
dried flowers and bits of fabric and ribbons.
Participants are urged to bring some-
thing of their own to make their valentines
more personal. The Conservancy suggests
ticket stubs, matchbook covers, photo-
graphs and fabric remnants — or anything
that is resonant and meaningful.
The holiday wreath-making workshop
was striking for several reasons. For one
thing, there were people of all ages from
13
toddlers to grannies. Also, unlike store-
bought wreaths, the wreaths were expres-
sive and personal. They were adorned with
elements that spoke to those who made
them and to those who would receive them.
The valentine workshop is likely to be
equally satisfying.
The workshop, which will be held at 75
Battery Place, is free, but pre-registration is
required. Space is limited. Call (212) 267-
9700, ext. 348 or 366 to register.
YEAR OF THE RABBIT: There has been
quite a lot of confusion recently about astro-
logical signs commonly used in the West,
with some news reports asserting that shifts
in the Earth’s axis have altered the Zodiac
sufficiently and put people who thought they
were born under one sign under the influ-
ence of another. Chinese astrologers, whose
system is based on different calculations,
have remained aloof from this discussion.
According to the Chinese system, 2011 is
the Year of the Rabbit, and it begins on
February 3.
There are two Chinese restaurants in
Battery Park City where residents can cel-
ebrate without having to leave the neighbor-
hood. Liberty View restaurant is at 21 South
End Avenue facing South Cove, and Au
Mandarin is at 2 World Financial Center.
However, Chinatown is not very far from
Battery Park City. It’s a brisk 30-minute
walk, or one can take the free Downtown
Alliance Connection bus to the last stop at
Water Street and Fulton and then catch the
M15 bus heading north.
14 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011
During the Chinese New year it is tradition to hand out money in red envelopes like the one above.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Prepping for the
Year of the Rabbit
On February 3 between 11 a.m. and 3:30
p.m., there will be firecrackers and cultural
performances in Roosevelt Park between
Grand and Hester Streets, and lion, dragon
and unicorn dance troupes strutting up and
down Chinatown’s major streets. On Sunday,
February 6, an elaborate parade with floats,
dancers, musicians and acrobats will march
through Chinatown.
For more insight into these festivities and
Perhaps the most recognizable feature of the Chinese New Year parade is the hang-
their history, visit the Museum of Chinese
ing dragon. The one above is currently hanging inside MOCA.
in America (MOCA) at 215 Centre Street
downtown express
Downtown Express photos by Tequilla Minsky
(one block north of Canal Street). The
museum offers one-and-a-half hour walk-
ing tours on Saturday, January 29, Sunday,
January 30 and Saturday, February 5 from
1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. The tours introduce
visitors to holiday traditions and point out
how the neighborhood prepares for the
lunar new year holiday. Advance reserva-
tions are required. Call 212-619-4785 or
send an email to education@mocanyc.org
for more information. The museum’s website
is http://www.mocanyc.org/
downtown express Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 15
16
Albany pressed to renew and reform rent regulations
Continued from page 1
Strengthening rent regulation laws is
a must, according to Manhattan Legal
Services, an organization based in Lower
Manhattan that offers legal services for low-
income Manhattan tenants. Available rent-
stabilized housing is becoming more and
more scarce, causing low-income residents
to live in households of three or more and
save on basic necessities such as food to be
able to afford escalating rents.
Under the current law, owners of rent-
stabilized apartments must submit docu-
mentation each year to the New York State
Homes and Community Renewal agency.
Tenants are entitled to lease renewals with
succession rights to family members, and
they can report complaints about landlord
harassment, rent overcharges and poor living
conditions to the agency.
If a tenant’s rent exceeds $2,000 per
month, and the household income exceeds
$175,000 for two consecutive years, the land-
lord can be granted high-rent/high-income
decontrol, per state approval. The state
vacancy decontrol law, meanwhile, enables
landlords to permanently take vacant apart-
ments out of rent regulation. They can also
deny new, free-market tenants lease renewals
their predecessors had received when that
same apartment was rent-stabilized.
Both forms of rent decontrol often cause
low-income tenants to vacate their apart-
ments, because they can’t afford to pay the
higher rents. But landlords can quickly find
other tenants willing to pay market rates to
occupy the units, leading to a loss of afford-
able housing and low vacancy rates.
The state law allows cities of one mil-
lion people or more that have vacancy rates
of five percent or less to declare a housing
emergency, allowing municipalities such as
NYC to implement the E.T.P.A. According to
the 2008 NYC Housing and Vacancy survey,
Gun control
Continued from page 1
“If we want to create a nonviolent soci-
ety, we must enforce our public safety laws
to keep the angry and dangerous few from
destroying the peace and harmony of the
many,” said King III.
Also joining Bloomberg on Monday was
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest
daughter of Robert F. Kennedy. She pointed
Read the Archives
www.DOWNTOWNEXPRESS.com
Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011
the vacancy rate for regulated apartments
in Lower Manhattan up to 14th street was
one percent, plus or minus 1.2 percent. The
vacancy rate for unregulated apartments was
4.7 percent, plus or minus 2.7 percent.
Community Board 1 drafted a resolution
at an affordable housing task force meeting
Monday evening that calls for Governor
Andrew Cuomo to renew and strengthen the
“It has become easier and
easier ‘to reach the magic
number of $2,000’ in
monthly rent payments”
— Steven Banks,
Legal Aid Society
state’s rent stabilization laws. It also asks
to enforce stabilized housing through law,
rather than give owners tax reductions that
“limit the life of stabilized units.”
Some vacant rental units at Independence
Plaza North in Tribeca, for example, might
become market-rate, since the owner’s tax
benefits have expired, and the building no
longer has Mitchell-Lama status, according
to Karren Stamm, a Downtown attorney
who represents I.P.N. tenants in court. The
tenants, however, are legally disputing this
claim.
The Mitchell-Lama program was founded
in the 1950s to generate low and moderate-
income housing in exchange for low-interest
mortgage loans. Mitchell-Lama rentals built
after 1973 can automatically become mar-
ket-rate under the current law.
The C.B.1 resolution also encourages the
to the statistic that 34 people lose their lives
everyday to a gun and said though each per-
son may not be a senator or a president, each
life is “a future cut short, a life of accomplish-
ments left undone, and a family torn apart.”
“We owe a duty to each victim to make
their life, and their sacrifice, a part of the
national movement to fix our gun back-
ground check system so it is thorough, com-
plete and comprehensive,” said Kennedy
Townsend.
stabilization of newly created rental resi-
dences, including lofts.
Stamm noted that tenants in some Lower
Manhattan loft buildings could incur deregu-
lated rents were the rent deregulation and
loft laws to both expire.
“If there’s no law, people whose lofts have
not been legalized will not be okay,” she said.
Dwellings that have not yet been legalized
for residential use are run by loft boards,
which typically stabilize the rents. However,
many of the buildings need to be re-filed in
order to qualify for loft law protections. The
law, which was renewed last summer, needs
to be renewed every three years in order for
loft tenants to avoid fluctuating rents and
other forms of security.
The current law also provides tax incen-
tives to building owners to convert several
thousand Downtown office units into resi-
dential space.
Citywide housing advocates are fighting
for the passage of the new bill, which would
repeal the state vacancy decontrol law. The
bill would also replace permanent rent hikes
to cover the cost of renovations with tem-
porary surcharges, and do away with the
Urstadt law, which prevents cities from pass-
ing more stringent rent regulation laws than
those of the state.
Owners are not required to get approval
from H.C.R. to raise the rents of vacant
apartments. And, though owners must sub-
mit applications for “major” capital improve-
ments, their claims aren’t generally verified.
Owners who take apartments out of
rent regulation are not penalized for fail-
ing to file the rent decontrol paperwork.
Michael Skrebutenas, president of the Office
of Housing Preservation at the NY State
Homes and Community Renewal, refers to it
as an “honor system.”
The Assembly Members and witnesses at
the hearing noted that this lack of oversight
permits landlords to improperly deregulate
apartments. It also gives them a motive to
force tenants out of their homes.
It has become easier and easier “to reach
the magic number of $2,000” in monthly
rent payments, according to Steven Banks,
attorney-in-chief of the Legal Aid Society
who testified at the hearing.
“Once a landlord empties an apartment,
he can take advantage of lax oversight and
opportunities in the law to significantly
raise rents,” he said.
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal of
Upper Manhattan, decried the honor system.
“Isn’t there a better way to ensure that the
government can oversee whether that process
has been carried out properly?” she asked.
Maggie Russell-Ciardi, executive direc-
tor of Tenants and Neighbors, the largest
tenants union in NY State, said that land-
lords make unnecessary renovations, inflate
renovation costs or get state approval for
capital improvements they never make.
With protection by the vacancy decon-
trol law, landlords also take advantage of
the system by “[doing] everything they
can think of to get tenants to vacate their
apartments — from turning off the heat
and hot water, to taking tenants to court on
downtown express
frivolous charges, to other forms of tenant
harassment,” according to Russell-Ciardi.
Once landlords raise the rents and deregu-
late the apartments, she said tenants are
left without legal or other recourse to hold
the owners accountable for their unlawful
actions.
Tenants in unregulated apartments often
stay quiet about escalating rents, she said,
for fear of landlord retaliation. “They can
no longer speak up about problems in their
building, or try to organize without fear of
the landlord raising their rent or refusing to
renew their lease,” she said.
Were the E.P.T.A. to expire, elderly and
disabled New Yorkers could also face evic-
tion and homelessness, since they are only
exempt from rent increases in rent-regulat-
ed apartments, according to Banks.
Some have been evicted even with
E.P.T.A. protections. In Stuyvesant Town/
Peter Cooper Village on the East Side, for
example, Tishman Speyer, who bought the
property from MetLife in 2006, displaced
many poor and elderly rent-stabilized ten-
ants by exploiting legal loopholes in the
current laws.
“The landlord used the current, weak-
ened rent laws to bring eviction proceed-
ings based on slender reeds of ‘evidence,’”
according to Steven Newmark, a member
of the board of directors of the Stuyvesant
Town/Peter Cooper Village Tenants
Association.
In a written statement, Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver reinstated his commitment
to ensuring the Assembly’s passage of the
law, which, he said, will help protect work-
ing families from being “priced out of their
homes and communities.”
Alleviating the pressure on families
struggling with housing costs, he said, is a
top priority for him. “Without rent regula-
tion to prevent rapidly rising housing costs,
only the wealthy will be able to afford to
live in New York City.”
Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, a
member of the Housing Committee, said
that sustaining and strengthening the rent
regulation laws is a crucial part of maintain-
ing a society that values the working- and
middle-classes.
“We’ve seen the destruction large land-
lords and real estate speculators cause when
they are allowed to treat the basic necessity
of housing as a commodity to be bought
and sold at whatever price they can extract
from tenants in one of America’s tightest
markets,” he said.
Lopez pointed out that, while he and his
fellow Assemblymembers in favor of the
law can fast-track it through the Assembly,
securing the bill’s passage through the
Republican-dominated Senate might prove
difficult.
Stamm said that we might be seeing more
housing decisions made by the State Court
of Appeals about tenant-landlord cases, such
as the Stuy-Town / Peter Cooper Village
decision, that could beneficially affect broad
numbers of people. “The courts have stepped
in where legislative has not,” she said, “to
revive the spirit of rent stabilization.”
downtown express Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 17

Manhattan Youth Hoops:










Nets top Celts










SPORTS
Having lost to the Celtics by one basket
the week before, the Nets were anxious for
a rematch, and brought their A-game to I.S.
89 last Friday.
Tyler Rohan won the jump ball and
tipped it to Jack McGreevy, who passed it to
Coby Caraballo under the basket to put the
Nets on the board. Caraballo stole the ball
on the next play, going coast-to-coast and
laying it in. The Celtics battled to get and
keep the ball, but the Nets’ full-court press
kept the action at one end.
  (  &      '  
A rebound by Jacob Lawrence-Kreiss was
passed to Caraballo for his third consecutive
Celts, making it 21-12.






But it was Gallagher who came through
for the Nets, followed by a nice drive
by Caraballo that made the score 25-12.
Gallagher’s three-point beauty widened the
gap further, and teammate Lawrence-Kreiss
followed that up with a good pass to Brown
to make it 30-12. As the clock wound down,
Sanon was fouled and added one for the
Celts for a 30-13 score.
Gallagher scored at the top of the
third quarter, making it 32-13. Keith
Rubenstein’s consistent ability to grab
rebounds for his team, and the hard-
working Noah Bootz helped the Celtics '  )
stay in the game. Teammate O’Connor was
fouled and sank a free throw, and followed
)
    '  *  !
  '       + 
basket. McGreevy’s next drive brought the that up with a nice offensive passing drill ,

  -
  $       &  -

score 8-0 for the Nets. Truman Dunn’s shot with Sanon that ended up in a basket for )
               
   
from the key gave the Celtics two points, O’Connor, and a 32-16 score.
but Lawrence-Kreiss answered soon after to Rohan passed to McGreevy for a Nets’ 
 


%

 
make it 10-2. field goal, and seconds later passed it to  
 
 

Niall Gallagher, who was out of town for Brown for another, making it 34-16. Brown  
the first game, made his presence known scored again, and McGreevy followed with
with a rebound, which he passed to Rohan, another. Dunn answered with a nice drive
who laid it up and in. McGreevy was fouled and layup, but McGreevy was hot, scoring
 


 
 
in the act of shooting, making the score his fifth basket as time ran out on the third
15-2. Caraballo scored again, then Dunn quarter.

   

stepped up with good defensive plays, a steal Down 44-18, the Celtics fought back,
and a basket to make the score 17-4. with their star center Carson, who was play-  

Ian O’Connor kept things alive offen- ing the game of his career at his school, and
sively for the Celtics with good passing. He Dunn, who scored his fifth basket. But the    
stole the ball and passed to Dunn for his Nets wouldn’t give.      
third field goal, making it 17-6 at the end of Rohan stole the ball, passed to Caraballo,  
  

the first quarter. who found Brown waiting under the basket
Gallagher got things started for the Nets and made the score 46-20. Caraballo turned     
in the second quarter with a steal and pass over the next Celtics’ possession, passing   
to teammate Jake Cook, who scored. Dunn again to Brown to make it 48-20.
immediately scored for the Celtics, bringing Sanon had another great drive, end-  
  
the score 19-8. Oliver Brown persevered for ing with a layup to make it 48-22, but
the Nets, setting himself up under the bas- McGreevy’s three-pointer made it 51-22. 

   
ket and drawing fouls. Zach Dorf grabbed Gallagher scored his 10th and 11th points 
      
  
    
     
a couple of rebounds for the Celtics, and for the Nets, followed by Caraballo’s fifth  !
"#$
   
O’Connor’s shot bounced into Dunn’s hands basket as the quarter wound down.
again for a 19-10 score, but Lawrence- With two seconds on the clock, Cook
                   
Kreiss’ basket for the Nets made it 21-10. sank a three-pointer for the Nets, bringing     
   
  %
     
Sasha Sanon scored seconds later for the the final score to Nets 58 - Celtics 24.



   
&   '( 
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18 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 downtown express

Committee updated on construction projects

Continued from page 9
ward to seeing the booths moved as soon as
possible.
UNDERUTILIZED ENFORCEMENT
A representative from a citywide traf-
fic and sanitation enforcement unit of the
New York Police Department said his team
feels held back from being able to do their
jobs.
James Huntley, president of the
Communications Workers of America
Local 1182, believes his agents aren’t
being properly utilized. The crew, he said,
feels “handcuffed” from performing their
day-to-day duties, which include catching
illegal pedestrian, driver and biker activity.
He asked the Quality of Life committee
to contact Police Commissioner Raymond
Kelly to recommend that he more fre-
quently assign the traffic agents to catch
violators.
Huntley introduced himself to the com-
mittee and explained the functions of the
C.W.A., founded in 1968. Approximately
70 agents patrol the C.B. 1 area in the
mornings and evenings.
Agents ensure that vehicles come to a
standstill while pedestrians enter intersec-
tions or are at crosswalks, and can issue
violations to drivers that disobey the law.
“We make sure that our agents are mindful
and sensitive to the needs of the commu-
nity,” Huntley told the committee.
C.W.A. Local 1182 assists in emergency
situations, such as when a pedestrian is
hit by a car. The agents also tow derelict
vehicles parked in front of hydrants and
other illegal spots, issue summonses to
excessively large trucks and direct traffic
near construction projects.
Committee member Diane Lapson, who
lives in Tribeca, told Huntley that owners
not curbing their dogs is a major problem
on West Street, in particular, and that she
never sees the perpetrators caught. “If
someone talks to these people,” she said,
“maybe they’d think twice about it.”
Huntley said that failing to curb ones
dog is indeed a violation, and that enforce-
ment agents are on the lookout for viola-
tors.
The C.W.A. recently met with
Transportation Alternatives, a citywide
bike advocacy group, to discuss stricter
law enforcement on cyclists that bike on
sidewalks and run red lights and stop
signs. The unit has also been in discussions
with Transportation Alternatives and city
Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, about
mandatory insurance and licensing for bik-
ers. The requirements, Huntley said, would
“keep the public in safety mode, and make
the cyclists responsible for their actions.”
They would also prove useful, he said, for
documenting car-bike collisions.
Marva Craig and other committee mem-
bers agreed that licensing bikes could be
a deterrent of these and other bike viola-
tions.
His agents can catch speedy bikers
before they enter City Hall Park, Huntley
said, but have no control over their actions
in the park, which is operated and policed
by the city Parks Department.
L.M.C.C.C. UPDATE
Downtown projects are forging ahead
as planned, barring inclement weather,
according to Robin Forst, director of com-
munity relations at the Lower Manhattan
Construction Command Center, who pro-
vided a construction update to the com-
mittee.
A host of construction trucks hauled
away pieces of the tower crane from the
former Deutsche Bank building at 130
Liberty this week and last week. The tower
is scheduled for demolition by the end of
January, but wind and snow might delay
the process, according to a spokesperson
for the Lower Manhattan Development
Corporation, the city-state agency that
owns the property.
Starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Broadway
at Fulton Street will be shut down to one
moving lane of traffic to make way for
a tower crane that will be used to exca-
vate the site for the Fulton Street Transit
Center. As a result, Forst said, all pedestri-
an traffic on the east side of Broadway will
be diverted to the west side of Broadway,
between John and Dey Streets, and to
Fulton Street.
Traffic enforcement agents will be man-
ning the effected streets throughout the
weekend.
Broadway at Fulton Street, according to
Forst, will also be shut down until 10 a.m.
Sunday, and traffic will be diverted to Ann
Street.
The sidewalk shed construction at 180
Broadway, erected to protect the construc-
tion project there, is now complete. The
24-story building construction project at the
site, the future home of a Pace University
dormitory, will be presented to the C.B. 1
Financial District Committee meeting in
March. The project is slated for completion
in 2013.
Chambers and Hudson streets, mean-
while, are moving ahead as planned. The
city began the $24.5 million overhaul of
Chambers Street, between West Street and
Broadway, last summer, which entails replac-
ing a water main, updating outdated utili-
ties and rebuilding the roadway, curbs and
sidewalks. New traffic signals and shrub-
bery will also be installed, according to the
L.M.C.C.C.’s website.

0/,902%035--%2 Black refuses request

02/'2!-3 Continued from page 8
“We’re seeing the highest increase in
kindergarten for the last two years, with
no attention to change that,” she said.
OPEN HOUSES YaroFulan also called for an end to may- The students, she said, are moving up in
37)--).',%33/.3
oral control, which she referred to as “dicta- grades without sufficient classroom space
&/2#(),$2%.!'%3!.$50 3ATURDAY&EBRUARY!-TONOON
torship behavior.” to accommodate them.
#!-002/'2!-3 3ATURDAY-ARCH!-TONOON
&/2#(),$2%.!'%3¯ 3ATURDAY!PRIL!-TONOON “We want our children to know,”
YaroFulan said, “that we’ll continue to
fight – and not fail to fight for them –
until the end, ‘cause they deserve what’s
rightfully theirs.”
P.S. 364 third grader Martha Eckl-
Lindenberg read aloud a letter she and
Lisa Donlan, president of the District One
Community Education Council, wrote to
new D.O.E. Chancellor Cathie Black to
the crowd, saying, “New York City public
school students, parents and teachers cor-
dially invite you to hear our objections to
the D.O.E.’s disastrous policies that are
destroying our schools. Come to hear our
Real Reforms that can actually improve
learning in our schools!”
Donlan said that the D.O.E. has made
no strides to promote integration in a gen-
trifying neighborhood such as theirs.
Girls Prep, a charter school which will
move into classroom space that is cur-
rently occupied by Ross Global Academy,
a failing charter school set to close this
year.
Such charters, she said, are low-per-
forming, and admit few and homeless
special need students. “I don’t understand
why the D.O.E. is selecting to give more
resources to [Charter Prep,] a school that
isn’t proving itself by accountability mea-
sures, and not serving the highest-need
students.”
Leonie Haimson, executive director of
0ROGRAMSFROM*UNE¯!UGUST Eckl-Lindenberg hand-delivered the Class Size Matters, said the D.O.E. is doing
3UMMER!CADEMIC0ROGRAM„3UMMER%XPERIENCE$AY#AMP letter to Cathie Black’s office at Tweed everything they can to undermine the health
3WIMMING,ESSONS„0ERFORMING!RTS#AMP„4ECH#AMP Courthouse during the demonstration last of neighborhood public schools and replace
3PORTS#AMPS"ASKETBALL#AMP,ACROSSE#AMP3QUASH#AMP"ASEBALL#AMP3OCCER#AMP Thursday evening. them with charter schools.
A D.O.E. spokesperson confirmed “The fact that there are several closing
Tuesday evening that Black is not plan- schools on the list which, for years, parents
0/,902%0#/5.429$!93#(//, ning on attending the rally. and teachers complained bitterly about… is
3EVENTH!VENUE"ROOKLYN.9 Donlan was disappointed to hear the directly attributable to their failed leader-
4OREQUESTABROCHURECALL 
EXTORVISIT news. Overcrowding, she said, is becom- ship,” she said. Closing schools, she added,
7770/,902%0/2' ing a big problem in public schools on the “will just lead to more instability in their
Lower East Side. lives.”
downtown express
Attorney: Non-artists feel like ‘criminals’ in Soho
Continued from page 7
and other hazardous issues, rather than hire
“artist police” to penalize Soho and Noho resi-
dents who lack artist certification.
Baisley also objects to the moral implications
of a zoning requirement that sets occupational
parameters.
“Are we going to have a protected class of
zoning for every profession?” she said. “We
don’t zone for butchers, bakers or candlestick
makers.”
Some Soho residents, however, like Sean
Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance, appreci-
ate the law’s restrictions. A nonprofit commu-
nity organization overseeing the neighborhood’s
quality of life, the Soho Alliance would be
influential in any potential effort by the city to
rezone Soho and Noho.
Sweeney said the law discourages aggressive
landlords from taking over the area and hiking
maintenance fees in an effort to evict longtime
artist residents.
“It’s really an affordable housing question,”
said Sweeney. “By maintaining the zoning,
you’re maintaining the ability of artists — of
whom there are thousands — to live here.”
Conversely, artist residents who have certifi-
cation and wish to leave the area are bearing the
financial burden of the outdated law, according
to Baisley.
Their lofts, often their biggest investments,
are now tricky sells. Buyers are cautioned by
lawyers and financial advisers instead to look at
other desirable neighborhoods, like Tribeca, to
avoid the risk of violating the zoning law.
And since the city began cracking down on
illegal residents in the mid-2000s, banks are
more wary about giving loans to residents in
the area, according to a New York Times article
last November, since they fear that lofts that
foreclose would be difficult to resell.
“It’s very tough to find buyers who comply
with the statute, and can pay the price, or who
want to assume the risk of moving into this area
and living illegally,” said Baisley.
As a result, elderly Soho and Noho residents
looking to sell their homes and move to warmer
climates or into retirement homes will get the
short end of the stick, according to a Broome
Street resident who requested anonymity.
“The only asset they have is their home,” he
said. “Because of this law, they’re going to take
less money, when it’s desperately needed? It’s
ridiculous.”
Echoed Baisley, “They should be able to
sell them at a fair price, not at an artificial,
depressed price because a statute from 40 years
ago is suddenly being enforced.”
The artist-in-residence rule, Baisley said, is
also financially damaging to the city, which loses
millions of dollars in transfer taxes from fewer
sales at lower prices.
In response, a spokesperson for the
Department of City Planning, said, “As was
recognized at the time the Soho zoning was
established, creative communities are critical to
the city’s future and are an important compo-
nent of our economic base.”
The Broome Street resident has artist certifi-
cation, but deems the law archaic and hypocriti-
cal, in that many current Soho residents aren’t
7EDAM
PMs4HUR
3UNPM
AM
Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 19
artists and live there illegally. tion from her side work in independent film valid certificate of occupancy. The buildings’
Some residents, he said, go as far as to production. doormen, Baisley said, would laugh them
assemble a phony artist’s portfolio. Becoming certified, she recalled, was out the door, telling them the statute hasn’t
In some cases, others who are legitimate straightforward and painless. been enforced in 25 years.
artists and would presumably fit into the “cre- “I told them I had a job, but also showed But when the inspectors returned with
ative” category, still are not granted certification. them footage and projects I had produced the proper paperwork, she said, they would
David Carlin, who has lived on Wooster Street independently that were nonprofit,” she said. start doling out violations to anyone living
since 1978, was recently denied certification Peter Reginato, a sculptor who rents a there illegally.
because he didn’t present enough artwork as loft on Greene Street, agreed that the art- Baisley stressed that she and others who
evidence to prove being an artist is his primary ist’s certification requirement protects artists wish to see the certification law repealed don’t
vocation. He described the application proce- from predatory tactics by landlords, like his want longtime artists to lose their lofts.
dure as “kind of rough.” own, who has tried to evict him several times “We’re not interested in throwing artists out
in the last 30 years. on their ear,” said Baisley. “We just want every-
“I’d be completely vulnerable myself to hav- one to live in peace in their own homes.”
ing my landlord take back the loft,” he said, In order for rezoning to occur, a group of
‘It seems like downright were the artist residency requirement revoked. Soho and Noho residents might have to band
Like in the Crosby Street couple’s situa- together to create a 197-c rezoning plan, a
greed that they just want tion, the arbitrator in Reginato’s case contin- time-consuming and costly endeavor. Hiring
ues to dismiss it because the landlord isn’t a a private consulting firm to compile demo-
to change the rule.’ certified artist. graphic data, Baisley said, would cost about
D.O.B. began enforcing the artist-in- $1 million.
A Crosby Street resident residence law in the mid-2000’s, according Trying to tally the total number of artists in
to Baisley, when Patricia Lancaster was the area by knocking on doors or otherwise,
appointed Buildings commissioner. would be a useless venture.
“Lancester developed a system of rotating “No one will put their hand up and say, ‘I’m
“They wanted me to submit more pictures of inspectors from borough to borough every living here illegally, please rezone the neighbor-
my work from shows — more than I was able few months so they wouldn’t develop close hood,’ ” she said.
to,” he said. It wasn’t worth his time or energy, relations with the developers whom they The Bloomberg administration recently said
he said, to appeal the decision. He isn’t required were inspecting,” Baisley said. it would only consider rezoning Soho if there
to have artist’s certification, though, since he Soon enough, the inspectors were knock- was a communitywide campaign behind it.
and some other longtime tenants in his build- ing on the doors of Soho lofts and demand- And, until Sweeney receives a groundswell of
ing were grandfathered into the special zoning ing to see certification, which was also complaints about the current zoning, he said,
when it was amended in 1986. required back then for the building to gain a there will be no such campaign.
Carlin, a sculptor by trade who is now semi-
retired, ran a sculpture shop at The Cooper
Union, on E. Seventh Street, for 30 years. He
feels offended the city doesn’t consider him to
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20 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 downtown express

In historic vote, C.B. 3 O.K.’s SPURA guidelines

Continued from page 1
final approval. The guidelines then will get
sent to various city agencies for further
tweaking.
Under the guidelines, about 1,000 hous-
ing units would be built at the site, roughly
half of which would be allocated to mid-
dle- and low-income individuals, along with
retail shops, green space and, possibly, a new
school and nursing home for the elderly.
Over the years, various city administra-
tions had shied away from developing the
empty swath of land — which is currently
used as open-air parking lots on the south
side of Delancey Street and is the larg-
est site of undeveloped city-owned land in
Manhattan south of 96th Street — because
of the fierce disagreement that has sur-
rounded it. The property fell idle more than
40 years ago after the wholesale razing of
blocks of residential buildings by the city for
a never-completed urban renewal plan
The committee’s Monday night action
drew immediate praise from several political
leaders and strong condemnation from one
public member of the committee — Damaris
Reyes — who also serves as executive direc-
tor of Good Old Lower East Side a neigh-
borhood housing and preservation group.
G.O.L.E.S. has been demanding that 70
income families and for senior citizens.
But the new guidelines, worked out by
committee members and local residents —
who for the past two years have been strug-
gling to come up with an income-mix formu-
la for any housing to built on the site — calls
for only 50 percent affordable housing and,
the rest, to be market-rate units.
Reyes told reporters after the marathon
three-and-a-half hour meeting — during
which committee members continued argu-
ing until the last minute over the proposal’s
language and other details — that she was
“deeply disappointed” by the committee’s
vote.
“There are a lot of good points to this
plan and a lot of strong efforts were made,”
she said. “But in the end, I think we should
have seized this opportunity to restore the
units of affordable housing that have been
lost in this neighborhood over the last 40
years.
“I’m not disappointed that we’re finally
doing something with this land, but I’m
deeply disappointed by the percentages,”
Reyes added. “They’re not reflective of the
needs of this neighborhood. They’re not
reflective of what a majority of the people
who spoke tonight wanted.”
Also issuing statements — but in strong
support of the new guidelines — were
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who, over
income housing, and state Senator Daniel
Squadron.
In his written statement, Silver said:
“I want to commend the leadership and
members of the Community Board 3 Land
Use, Zoning, Public and Private Housing
Committee for their effort to achieve, at long
last, a true consensus about the future of
‘With this plan we have a
compromise — and it’s a
good one.’
David McWater
Seward Park. From the outset, this process
was conducted openly, transparently and
fairly and went to great lengths to give voice
to the broad range of views that make up our
extraordinarily diverse community.
“While there were, at times, deep and
principled disagreements among stakehold-
ers, I believe that ultimately this pro-
cess brought our community together,”
Silver said. “The final guidelines that were
approved by the committee tonight strike
an appropriate balance between the needs
neighborhood continues to thrive.”
In his written statement, Squadron said:
“The community board vote is a huge win
for the community. It is appropriate that
after 43 years, a community-driven process
has moved SPURA forward. Over the last
few months, I was honored to work with
members of the committee, community
members and my colleagues in government
— Speaker Silver, Councilmembers Chin
and Mendez, and Mayor Bloomberg — to
support an open and productive process
that will lead to real results.”
Councilmember Margaret Chin, whose
district also includes SPURA, issued the
following prepared statement: “I applaud
the SPURA Development Task Force [com-
mittee] for reaching a consensus on the
proposed guidelines for the development
of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area.
After 43 years, I am pleased to say that
the guidelines that will shape the future
development of the area were derived,
in large part, from the surrounding com-
munity. Community Board 3 members and
residents spent countless hours envisioning
what type of development would be the
most beneficial for such a diverse com-
munity. This process not only brought the
community together but laid the ground-
work for the near unanimous vote achieved
yesterday. I want to thank the chairperson

&
percent of the new units be allocated for the years, has been perceived as opposing and concerns of all stakeholders and will
affordable housing for low- and moderate- developing the site for predominantly low- result in a development that will ensure our Continued on page 21

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downtown express Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 21

In historic vote, C.B. 3 O.K.’s SPURA guidelines

Continued from page 20
of Community Board 3, Dominic Pisciotta,
and C.B. 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer,
and in particular Task Force Chairperson
David McWater. … This vote has shown
both the diversity of the Lower East Side
and the strength of unity in this neighbor-
hood.”
Chin added, “I would also like to com-
mend my colleagues in government for
their support of the process, and in particu-
lar, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for
his prompt statement of support last night.
I will continue to work on behalf of the
community to obtain the resources that will
move this project forward while ensuring
a variety of housing options that meet the
needs the community as a whole.”
In a statement of her own,
Congressmember Nydia Velázquez said,
“The Lower East Side has always drawn
its strength from the neighborhood’s diver-
sity. It is therefore fitting that the Seward
Park area’s future is being determined
through an open and inclusive process,
which takes into account the views of local
residents. These guidelines represent a big
win in the fight for affordable housing and
true compromise that balances the commu-
nity’s many competing needs.”
The standing-room-only Tuesday evening
meeting, at the Henry Street Settlement’s
Youth Gym, 301 Henry Street, was attended
by nearly 300 residents along with a large
contingent of G.O.L.E.S. supporters, who,
at times, demonstrated their displeasure
with committee members by extended clap-
ping of hands, cheers, jeers and catcalls.
‘The guidelines strike
an appropriate balance
between the needs
and concerns of all
stakeholders.’
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
Before the committee got down to its
historic vote, more than a dozen local
residents addressed the committee, most of
them advocating for more affordable hous-
ing units on the site rather than market-
rate ones, for the development of parks
and open space, and the preservation of
the Essex Street Market, which is being
included in the SPURA redevelopment plan
and is at risk of being razed.
Ed Delgado, a former SPURA resident
whose family lived there 43 years ago and
who hopes to be allowed to move back
when the site is redeveloped, told the jam-
packed meeting that he was pleased by the
guidelines.
“I never thought a day would come
when we could sit down and speak to each
other,” he said. “If we don’t speak to each
other, the only ones who will have a voice
in the development of this site are people
with money.”
However, Luther Stubblelfield, vice
president of the Baruch Houses Tenants
Association, sounded a more angry note.
“It was a shame that the city and the
mayor are constantly focusing on money
and high rents,” he said. “If that happens
to this site, even retired police officers and
firefighters couldn’t afford to live here.”
After residents had their chance to
speak, John Shapiro — the hired facilitator
for the committee’s SPURA process — and
committee members got down to business.
They heard from committee chairperson
Dave McWater, who said that while this
was a “watershed moment” in the develop-
ment of the SPURA site, “it’s not the final
moment.”
McWater noted there is still a long way
to go before the dream of development
comes true.
“Right now, we just want to make sure
our basic tenets are here,” he said. “We still
have to hear from various city agencies.”
McWater said the site’s development
would result in affordable housing for 1,500
people, jobs for 600 to 700 local residents
and opportunities for home ownership, more
open space and even a new school.
“With this plan we have a compromise
— and it’s a good one,” said McWater, a for-
mer chairperson of the community board.
Current C.B. 3 Chairperson Dominic
Pisciotta also spoke in support of the con-
sensus guidelines.
Committee member Joel Kaplan, execu-
tive director of the United Jewish Council of
the Lower East Side, previously had spoken
in support of more market-rate — rather
than affordable — housing on the site. But
on Monday night he backed the consensus
guidelines.
Kaplan told this newspaper after the
meeting that the vote was “a victory for
everybody. I think the overwhelming vote in
favor of the guidelines was indicative that
most people felt this was the best way to
move forward,” he said.
After the vote, Pisciotta praised the
committee members’ for the process and
historic vote.
“It’s been more than 42 years in trying to
find a compromise,” Pisciotta said. “I want
to acknowledge the hard work committee
members have put in the past two years.
This is a tremendous first step. Now we
need to take the next step and get down to
more details.”
22 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 downtown express

TUESDAY CHILDREN’S ART CLASSES Asian American Arts

Centre is sponsoring an after school Children’s Art Class program

YOUTH which focuses on children from 6 to 14 years old. Instructors Caro-

line McAuliffe and Lu Yi — both teaching artists who have been
working with young people for several years — offer a program

THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE MUSEUM The Junior Officers
Discovery Zone is an exhibit designed for ages 2-10. It’s divided
into four areas (Police Academy; the Park and Precinct; Emergency
Services Unit; and a Multi-Purpose Area), each with interac-
tive and imaginary play experiences for children to understand
the role of police officers in our community — by, among other
things, driving and taking care of a police car. For older children,
there’s a crime scene observation activity that will challenge
them to remember relevant parts of city street scenes; a physical
challenge similar to those at the Police Academy; and a model
Emergency Services Unit vehicle where children can climb in, use
the steering wheel and lights, hear radio calls with police codes
and see some of the actual equipment carried by The Emergency
Services Unit. At 100 Old Slip. For info, call 212-480-3100 or visit
www.nycpm.org. Hours: Mon. through Sat., 10am-5pm and Sun.,
noon-5pm. Admission: $8 ($5 for students, seniors and children.
Free for children under 2.
DOWNTOWN COMMUNITY CENTER For info on swim les-
sons, basketball, gym class, Karate and more, call 212-766-1104.
Visit manhattanyouth.org. The Downtown Community Center is
located at 120 Warren St.
CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF THE ARTS Explore painting, col-
lage and sculpture through self-guided arts projects. Open art sta-
tions are ongoing throughout the afternoon — giving children the
opportunity to experiment with materials such as paint, clay, fab-
ric, paper and found objects. Regular museum hours: Wed.-Sun.,
12-5pm; Thurs., 12-6pm (Pay as You Wish, from 4-6pm). Admis-
sion: $10. At the Children’s Museum of the Arts (182 Lafayette St.
btw. Broome & Grand). Call 212- 274-0986 or visit cmany.org. For
group tours, call 212) 274-0986, extension 31.
ACTIVITIES
designed to stimulate children’s capacity to explore their own artis-
tic originality and cultural background. Children are introduced to the
language of visual forms as well as those of Asian art forms. The
15-week semester begins on Feb. 8.The first class (3pm to 4:30pm)
is for children ages 6-9. The second class (4:40pm to 6:30pm) is for
weekly story followed by a massive sugar rush. Life is good! Books from 1:30-3:30pm. The fee is $175 for 10 weeks (siblings: $100). At children ages 9-14. Registration hours are Fridays, 10:30 am to 5pm.
of Wonder is located at 18th St. (btw. Fifth & Sixth Aves.). Call 212- “Stories & Songs,” a variety of musicians teach and perform child- Tuition is $235 and includes all supplies. Asian American Arts Cen-
989-3270 or visit booksofwonder.com. Cupcake Café, at the same friendly music. Movement, dancing and rhythm instruments add to tre is located at 111 Norfolk St. For info, call 212-233-2154. Or visit
address, can be reached at 212-465-1530 (visit cupcakecafe.com). the fun. Mondays, through April 25 (except 1/17 and 2/21) as well as artspiral.org and www.artasiamerica.org.
on Wednesdays, Jan. 12-April 13. Space is still available in 40-min-
POETS HOUSE The Poets House “Tiny Poets Time” program ute classes: the 9:30-10:10am class for children 6-14 months — and WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR EVENT LISTED IN THE
offers children ages 1-3 and their parents a chance to enter the the 12 noon-12:40pm class for mixed ages (6 months to 3.5 years). DOWNTOWN EXPRESS? Listing requests may be sent to scott@
world of rhyme — through readings, group activities and interactive There is a $231 fee for 14 weeks (20% discount for siblings). Both downtownexpress.com. Please provide the date, time, location, price
performances. Thursdays at 10am (at 10 River Terrace and Murray events take place in the Meeting Room at the Verdesian (211 North and a description of the event. Information may also be mailed to 145
St.). Call 212-431-7920 or visit poetshouse.org. End Ave., btw. Warren & Murray, in Battery Park City). For info or to Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10013. Requests must be
register, call 212-267-9700, ext. 366 or 348. Visit bpcparks.org. received three weeks before the event is to be held.
ANGELINA BALLERINA: THE MUSICAL Everyone at the Cam-
embert Academy is all aflutter because a special guest is coming to
visit. Angelina and her friends are excited to show off their hip-hop,
modern dance, Irish jig and ballet skills — but will Angelina get that
moment in the spotlight she’s hoping for? Based on characters from
the PBS series, this show is appropriate for ages 3-12. Through Feb.
19, Sat. at 1pm & 3pm and Sun. at 1pm. At the Union Square The-
atre (100 E. 17th St. btw. Union Square East and Irving Place). For
tickets ($39.50-$65), call 1-800-982-2787 or visit ticketmaster.com.
Also visit angelinathemusical.com.
DEAR EDWINA This heartwarming show about the joys and frus-
trations of growing up has our spunky heroine (advice-giver extraor-
dinaire Edwina Spoonable) sharing her wisdom on everything from
setting the table to making new friends. That it’s done through clev-
er, catchy and poignant songs makes the experience enjoyable and
engaging for kids who know what Edwina’s going through as well
as adults who remember what it was like. Through Feb. 25 at the
DR2 Theatre (103 E. 15th St.). For tickets ($39), call 212-239-6200.
For groups of 10 or more, call 646-747-7400. Visit dearedwina.com
for additional details and full schedule.

SATURDAY AFTERNOONS AT THE SCHOLASTIC
STORE Every Saturday at 3pm, Scholastic’s in-store activities are
designed to get kids reading, thinking, talking, creating and mov-
ing. The Scholastic Store is located at 557 Broadway (btw. Prince
& Spring). Regular store hours are Mon.-Sat., 10am-7pm, and
Sun., 11am-6pm. For info about store events, call 212-343-6166.
Visit scholastic.com.
BOOKS OF WONDER & CUPCAKE CAFÉ Literate kids and cup-
cake enthusiasts of all ages mingle at the space shared by Books
of Wonder and Cupcake Café. The Café has sweet stuff all day,
every day (they’ve got some of the best icing in town) — while the
bookstore has story time Sundays at Noon (appropriate for ages
3-7). There’s simply nothing better than being able to depend on a
Moving Visions’ Murray Street Studio
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GAZILLION BUBBLE SHOW: THE NEXT GENERATION Three
years into its run, the Gazillion Bubble Show welcomes creator Fan
Yang’s 20-year-old son into the family business. We’re promised
that “Bubble Super-Star” Deni Yang will elevate this already spec-
tacular experience to new heights of bubble blowing artistry). The
open-ended run plays Fri. at 7 p.m., Sat. at 11am, 2pm and 4:30pm
and Sun. at noon and 3pm. 75 minutes, no intermission. For tickets
($44.50 to $89.50), call 212-239-6200 or visit www.telecharge.com.
Visit gazillionbubbleshow.com.
PRESCHOOL PLAYAND STORIES & SONGS A new session
of “Preschool Play” has been added: This program invites walk-
ing toddlers to join other children, parents, and caregivers for fun
interactive play, art and theme days. Thursdays, through March 24,
212-608-7681 (day)
www.murraystreetdance.com
Photo courtesy of The Metropolitan Playhouse
Catch a vegetable — and this show — if you can.
THE FESTIVAL OF THE VEGETABLES
Once upon a time, composer/librettist Michael Kosch and choreographer/costume
designer Rachael Kosch created a suite of savory vignettes designed for children
and their families. Sometime later (the present day to be exact), “The Festival of the
Vegetables” is poised to return for its fifth annual production. Metropolitan Playhouse
presents, proudly we’re assured, this music-dance-poetry-theater piece in which a
troupe of dancers and actors (ages 5 to 45) perform a series of lighthearted poems
and dances that reveal the secret life of vegetables. It is set in a vast supermarket
where a toddler, shopping with mom, nods off to sleep. The child dreams of vegetable
adventures — each story introduced by a couple of bumbling yet eloquent produce
clerks. Vegetable-people of all varieties jump and whirl in a whimsical salad. Duncan
Broccoli dances a Scottish reel; King Potato holds vegetable court; lithe String Bean
Fiddler twirls and trills; Colonel Corn stalks the scary SpinWitch; Arugula weds rav-
ishing Radish; and Rotund Rutabaga perches on pointe. If your kids won’t eat their
vegetables after this show, maybe they’ll at least appreciate the entertainment value
supplied by all that stuff that grows in the ground, helps you grow and is very, very,
very good for you! Sats. and Suns., 11am, Feb. 6-20 (with a special opening evening
performance Feb. 5, at 7pm). At the Metropolitan Playhouse (220 E. 4th St., btw.
Aves. A & B). Tickets are $10 for children 12 and under; $15 for adults. For reserva-
tions, call 212-995-5302 or visit metropolitanplayhouse.org.
downtown express Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 23

DOWNTOWNEXPRESSARTS&ENTERTAINMENT
A riot of revivals in London
Jacobi’s “Lear” tops list — and is New York-bound
BY ANDY HUMM
What’s old is new on the London stage.
I saw a lot of revivals among nine plays at
Yuletide in the West End, most of which
were like fine wines –– a 1603 Shakespeare,
an 1895 Wilde, a 1938 J.B. Priestly and
a 1980 Aykbourn, along with a few new
plays. I even saw Sheridan’s “The Rivals”
(1775) at the very Theatre Royal Haymarket
where it was revived in 1821 to open the
“new” building of what started as the “Little
Theatre in the Hay” in 1721.
The oldest and greatest in the lot, “King
Lear,” made my trip to “Frozen Britain” –– as
the BBC blared for days –– worth it. Seeing
“Lear” in the intimate, 250-seat Donmar
Warehouse (to February 5; donmarware-
house.com/pl114.html) was like having a
volcanic domestic dispute erupt in a living
room. With a furious and riveting Derek
Jacobi in the lead, a splendid supporting cast
and brisk direction by Michael Grandage,
it was almost too much to bear witnessing
–– the true test of a great “Lear.” (A very
good recent vintage Lear, Sir Ian McKellen,
was in the audience.) Grandage, the artistic
director of the Donmar who gave us the
Tony-winning “Red” last season, continues
his run of excellence.
This dark tale is brightly lit on a bare
stage surrounded by sloppily whitewashed
walls. The kingdom is in transition and the
bad relations are moving in.
The intensity and truth with which these
players interacted and drove the story for- Photo by Johan Persson
ward made me forget that I was watch-
Derek Jacobi offers a furious and rivetingly unforgettable King Lear.
ing a 17th-century tragedy in verse. It felt
as if it were really happening, not just wide as part of the NT Live series (nation- play on a flat screen and in the larger BAM taut three hours.
being declaimed — though the incomparable altheatre.org.uk/61172/venues-amp-book- Harvey Theater time will tell, but he’s the Still another tale of a screwed-up fam-
Shakespeare poetry comes through. And I ing/usa-venues.html#list) around the world, best Lear I’ve ever seen. Gina McKee’s oily ily gets a new twist in Matthew Bourne’s
was blown away by the unique and subtle including NYU’s Skirball on February 3. Goneril, Gwilym Lee’s tender Edgar, and “Cinderella,” his dance version at Sadler’s
way of handling the storm scene. I’ll let that This cast will appear in the flesh at BAM the Earl of Gloucester of Paul Jesson (who Wells (to Jan. 19; sadlerswells.com/show/
be a surprise because there are ways you can (bam.org/view.aspx?pid=2653) from April played the bluff dad of a gay son in “Cock” at Matthew-Bourne-Cinderella) set in the
see it soon. 28 to June 5. the Royal Court last season) were exception-
This production is being telecast world- How Jacobi’s ferocious performance will ally fine, but there wasn’t a wrong note in a Continued on page 24
24
London calling — all revivals
Samantha Bond, deliciously malevolent as Mrs. Chevely, and a fine Alexander
Hanson as Sir Robert Chiltern in Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband.”
Continued from page 23
London blitz of 70 years ago. Bourne first
produced this show in 1997, but it is said to
be substantially revised.
While I’m partial to his “Swan Lake,”
just revived in New York, and “Play with-
out Words,” “Cinderella” brings out all
the darkness, humor and joy he’s famous
for in this fairy tale choreographed to
Prokofiev’s magnificent score.
Kerry Biggin as Cinderella and Sam
Archer as her RAF ace beloved shine, as
do Lez Brotherston’s breathtaking sets
and costumes. There are even several
sweet tributes to gays in the military.
This show should become a perennial.
Written in 1938 and set 30 years
earlier, J.B. Priestly’s “When We Are
Married” (at the Garrick to February
26; whenwearemarried.com) concerns
three upright, uptight, upper middle
class couples on the verge of celebrating
their mutual 25th anniversaries in small-
town England. But instead of cutesy
nostalgia, the characters get twisted in
hilarious knots by the revelation that
unknowingly they may never have been
legally married.
Under Christopher Luscombe’s direc-
tion, it’s a fun send-up of marriage
with a great ensemble including Michele
Dotrice, Maureen Lipman and Rosemary
Ashe as the wives and comic great Sam
Kelly as one of the husbands.
Marriage is also center stage in Oscar
Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband,” getting
a worthy revival at the Vaudeville (to
February 26; vaudeville-theatre.co.uk)
directed by Lindsay Posner, with sump-
tuous sets by Stephen Brimson Lewis.
Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011
NOBBY CLARK
Alexander Hanson, so good as Frederick
Egerman, the male lead in the Broadway
revival of “A Little Night Music,” is
equally fine as Sir Robert Chiltern,
whose successful life in business and
politics is upended by a shady request
from Mrs. Chevely (Samantha Bond, in
a deliciously malevolent turn), his own
past and being put on a pedestal by his
noble wife (Rachel Stirling).
The drama is compelling, the comedy
a bit less so, as Wilde’s aphorisms were
not landing with the shock and laughter
they ought to. Not sure if that’s due to
Elliot Cowan — who is an able actor —
as the Wilde stand-in Lord Goring, to the
direction or to the fact that the play is
more than a century old.
I had never seen Sheridan’s “The
Rivals” (at the Royal Haymarket to
February 26; theatre-royal-haymarket.
com) and was happy to be introduced
to it by this stellar production led by
the delightful Penelope Keith (as Mrs.
Malaprop) and Peter Bowles (as Sir
Anthony Absolute), who were co-stars
of the old popular BBC comedy “To the
Manor Born.” Directed by the legendary
Peter Hall, “Rivals” has lavish sets by
Simon Hughes. Heterosexual romance
has been touted as normative for cen-
turies, but Sheridan makes us see how
difficult it can be to negotiate. Tam
Williams also shines as Absolute’s son
Jack, who tries to win the woman for
whom he is intended by pretending to
be someone else so that she will really
love him. It’s complicated, as they say on
Facebook.
Finally, the Tricycle Theatre took a
break from the trenchant political the-
ater for which it is known and staged
Kerry Biggins shines in the title role of Matthew Bourne’s “Cinderella.”
“Midsummer (a play with songs)” (to
January 29; tricycle.co.uk), a two-hander
about unlikely early middle-aged lov-
ers, written by David Grieg and Gordon
McIntyre and performed amiably by Cora
Bissett as Helena and Matthew Pidgeon
as Bob. It was a hit at the Edinburgh
Festival and has considerable charms, yet
could do with some judicious trimming
–– but please not the priceless chat Bob
has with his penis!
Coming up in the West End: For those
of you planning trips to London later in
the year, here are a few noteworthy pro-
ductions coming up. You can read more
about them and others at londontheatre.
co.uk.
Penelope Wilton is in Albee’s “A
Delicate Balance” at the Almeida (May
5-July 2);
Danny Boyle is directing “Frankenstein”
at the National (February 5-April 17),
with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny
Lee Miller alternating as the doctor and
the monster and choreography by Bill T.
downtown express
Photo by Somon Annand
Jones, whose “Fela!” opens there January
13 (both will be telecast in New York by
NT Live);
Peter Hall is directing “Twelfth Night,”
with Simon Callow as Sir Toby Belch and
Rebecca Hall as Viola at the National’s
Cottesloe (January 11-March 2);
Ian Rickson is reviving “The Children’s
Hour” at the Comedy Theatre (January
22-April 2), with Keira Knightley,
Elizabeth Moss, Ellen Burstyn and Carol
Kane;
“The Lord of the Flies” is set for the
Open Air in Regent’s Park (May 19-June
18);
Shakespeare’s Globe is offering “All’s
Well that Ends Well,” “Much Ado about
Nothing,” “Doctor Faustus” and “Anne
Boleyn,” among others, including a cov-
er-to-cover reading of the King James
Bible for its 400th anniversary!
“War Horse,” which I saw in 2009 and
loved, is still running at the New London
Theatre and is finally coming to Lincoln
Center on March 15. Not to be missed.
downtown express
Henry James and Old New York
Lowe’s lecture charts cultural current set in motion
LECTURE
HENRY JAMES, A CHILD OF THE VILLAGE
A Lecture by David Garrard Lowe
Presented by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic
Preservation and the Beaux Arts Alliance
Thurs., Feb. 3, 6:30-8:30pm
At the Church of the Ascension (12 W. 11th St. at 5th Ave.)
Free (reservations required)
rsvp@gvshp.org or 212-475-9585, ext. 34
Visit gvshp.org and beauxarts.org
BY STEPHEN WOLF
Few of us back in grad school could tolerate Henry James.
His tedious, twisting sentences were too long and filled with
many commas and compound-complex phrases within each
other — and his sluggish, complicated characters certainly
didn’t seem like New York. Not when we’re strolling over
to Ginsberg’s on East 7th or spotting James Baldwin or
Cummings in the Village. That was New York: The Stork
Club and Scott Fitzgerald, Whitman and Langston Hughes,
Holden in a cheap hotel and anything about the Brooklyn
Bridge. Certainly Henry James was not New York. But of
course he was, and both his work and some of that world
are among us every day.
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Photo courtesy of The New York Public Library (nypl.org) and The Miriam and Ira D.
Wallach Division of Art (Prints & Photographs, Print Collection).
Henry James in 1889, from the portrait by Mrs. Anna
Lea Merritt.
25
At 6:30pm on February 3, the eminent author and lec-
turer David Garrard Lowe is speaking at the glorious Church
of the Ascension, at Fifth Avenue and 11th Street. Lowe is
a brilliant New York architectural historian, and his lectures
are as richly rendered as his books. He is the author of,
among others, “Beaux Arts New York” and “Art Deco New
York.” Lowe’s book “Stanford White’s New York” was the
favorite of its editor, Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
The event is co-sponsored by the Beaux Arts Alliance, of
which Lowe is the president. A New York organization that
“celebrates the cultural links between the United States and
France,” the Alliance proudly boasts that it “found New York
a city of sooty brownstone and left it one of bright marble,
furnished it with palaces and galleries, caravansaries and
public monuments.”
“It was the Beaux Arts style,” Lowe declared, “that made
New York dare to be extravagant and also to be beauti-
ful.” Dedicated to celebrating French creations, the wit of
Molière, elegant boulevards and Burgundy wine, the Alliance
also is concerned about the “cultural current set in motion
by American writers like Henry James” — who is the topic of
Lowe’s lecture, “Henry James: A Child of the Village.”
Henry James is one of those rare writers claimed by both
the United States (he was born in New York City in 1843)
and England — to which he claimed citizenship in 1915
owing to the reluctance of the U.S. to enter The Great War.
In the advertisement for Lowe’s approaching lecture, one
of James’s works, cited from his many volumes of writing
(24 volumes when issued in 1918), is “Washington Square.”
The novel — at 198 pages, short compared to most of his
Continued on page 27
26 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 downtown express

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Henry James and Old New York

Continued from page 25
other novels — is set in a Greenwich Village
of the 1840s, 40 years earlier than the time
James wrote it. The central character is
Catherine Sloper — the dull, unattractive
daughter of a renowned physician. At a
party, Catherine meets Morris Townsend
and is enthralled by him. Catherine’s father
disapproves of the relationship. Believing
that Townsend only courts his daughter for
his money, he declares he will leave nothing
in his will for Catherine if she insists on
marrying Townsend. Catherine breaks with
her father, but Townsend rejects Catherine
when she tells him of her father’s ultima-
tum. Despite two other offers of marriage
during her lifetime, Catherine becomes that
antiquated vision of an unmarried woman:
a spinster. Fearing the return of Townsend,
when the doctor dies, he leaves his daughter
but a small piece of his fortune. The story
ends with Catherine, lonely and aged, sitting
in a parlour with her knitting “for life, as it
were.”
James was born into a wealthy, promi-
nent and educated family residing at 21
Washington Square, perhaps the city’s most
elegant neighborhood of its day. Soon after-
wards the family moved to 11 Fifth Avenue
and, in 1848, to 58 West 14th Street. It
was this home that “became to me,” wrote
James, “for ever so long afterwards a sort
of anchorage of the spirit,” and though
traveling through much of Europe in his
youth (then educated in Newport before
entering Harvard to study law), his world
of New York was generally confined — save
for a few pleasant visits to the new Central
Park — from 14th Street and Fifth Avenue
down to his grandmother’s house along
Washington Square.
The home of Doctor Sloper was actually
the home of James’s grandmother. This small
section of the city (14th down Fifth Avenue
to Washington Square) had a refined, estab-
lished, prosperous air. It provided a sort of
buffer to the crowded, miasmic ghettos far
downtown.
When James writes of New York at this
time, he states it is “small, warm, dusky”
and, ideally, “homogenous.” But James was
born into a New York undergoing enormous
and rapid change. At the time of his birth the
city’s population was 391,114 — but with
the arrival of many thousands of Irish fleeing
starvation and Germans escaping political
repression, the city swelled to almost two
million when “Washington Square” was
published in 1881.
And James was horrified.
He despised the destruction of so much
of the city in its ramped expansion Uptown.
The demolition of the home where he was
born had the effect, James wrote, “of having
amputated half of my history.” But he espe-
cially loathed the unending swarm of filthy
immigrants who turned New York into what
he called a “terrible town” with its horrid
discord of accents, their lack of good man-
ners, the “denizens of the New York Ghetto,
heaped as thick as the splinters on the table
of a glass-blower,” how the tenement fire
escapes had become “perches and swings for
human squirrels and monkeys,” and the city
itself was festering with “the swarming…ant-
like population [that] darted to and fro.”
That James hated what New York
had become perhaps explains why he set
“Washington Square” 40 years earlier than
when he wrote it — back to the time of his
birth, before the surging waves of untidy,
often uneducated immigrants, before the
destruction of so much of the city’s glori-
ous architecture, before the loss of his
own youth. Though he had tried captur-
ing a portion of his beautiful, irretrievable
past, perhaps he realized he had failed to
do so (which may explain why he omitted
“Washington Square” from a collection of
his New York stories).
Whatever David Garrard Lowe speaks to
us about on the evening of February 3 will be
enlightening. He lectures widely in the U.S.
and Europe. At New York’s Metropolitan
Museum of Art, he is its most popular lec-
turer, selling out audiences — weekly — of
over 500 people.
His lecture will conclude with commen-
tary on the renovation of the Church of the
Ascension, where the event is held. The first
church ever built on Fifth Avenue, it was
consecrated in November 1841 just prior
to the time in which James’s “Washington
Square” is set. Some of New York’s richest
and most powerful citizens once sat in its
rented pews, August Belmont and William B.
Astor among them. When poet and Revered
Percy Stickney Grant was appointed as rec-
tor in 1893, he would accept the position
only if use of the pews was free. The church
agreed though strongly encouraged volun-
tary donations.
The New York writing of Henry James,
like the stately architecture created then,
preserves a portion of some of New York’s
most elegant and refined times. No one will
present to us this time and that work better
than David Garrard Lowe.

Just Do Art!
COMPLIED BY SCOTT STIFFLER
Music you can think to.
NYPL: SUFI MUSIC WITH RUMI
It’s got a beat, and you can think to
it — and while the sounds are pleasurable,
Sufi music is not the stuff of bubble gum
pop diversion. Instead, it’s a reflection of
Sufism views on the afterlife. This unique
performance is a programming event accom-
panying the NYPL’s insightfully curated and
philosophically sound “Three Faiths” exhibit
(on display at the 42nd St. & Fifth Ave.
branch through February 27). Hear the mys-
Photo courtesy of the New York Public Library
tic sounds of Sufi, which include the kanun
(a string instrument found in Near Eastern
traditional music); the ney (an end-blown
flute); and the def (a frame drum). The
music will be accompanied by the poetry of
Rumi. Light Turkish food will be provided.
FREE. Sat., Feb. 5 at 1pm. At the Jefferson
Market Library (425 Ave. of the Americas,
at 10th St.). For info, call 212-243-4334 or
visit nypl.org. This event is fully accessible
to wheelchairs.
BODY LANGUAGE: THE YOGIS
OF INDIA AND NEPAL
Sadhus — the mystics, ascetics, yogis and
wandering monks of South Asia — renounce
worldly life, earthly possessions and social
obligations. Instead, they devote their lives
to religious practice and the quest for spiri-
tual enlightenment. The tradeoff for all that
self-denial? They look damn good (not that
they need the ego boost). Good thing for us,
though, that Thomas L. Kelly’s exhibit “Body
Language” is brimming with photographs
documenting the enigmatic, vividly decorated
(or nude) ascetics of Hinduism. Hot bods
and life at a level of discipline and dedication
that’s utterly foreign to most of us is reason
enough to get you through the door — but
the contemplative folks at the Rubin Museum
of Art hope you’ll emerge from this and other
exhibits with more doors open than the one
that’s just let your libido out. Maybe you’ll
find enlightenment, illumination and tran-
scendence of the physical body by looking
(and leering?) at these Sadhus — whom Kelly
describes as “disturbing, annoying, inspiring,
exasperating, irrational, wise and powerful.”
Jan. 28 through May 30, at the Rubin
Museum of Art (150 W. 17th St.). Call 212-
620 5000 or visit rmanyc.org. Admission is
$10 for adults; $5 for seniors and students
(with ID) — free for seniors the first Monday
of every month, and free for children under
12 and for museum members. Gallery admis-
sion is free to all on Fridays between 6pm
and 10pm. The museum is open Mon., 11am
to 5pm; Wed., 11am to 7pm; Thurs., 11am Photo by Thomas Kelly
to 5pm; Fri., 11am to 10pm; Sat. & Sun. Who said a life of contemplation means
from 11am to 6pm (closed on Tues.). you can’t look fabulous?
28 Januar y 26 - Februar y 1, 2011 downtown express