12-1-10 DE

BY ALINE REYNOLDSLast Sunday, tree vendor Scott

Lechner was taking two or three deliv-ery calls at a time in his cluttered, smoke-fi lled R.V. parked on Sixth Avenue next to SoHo Square.

It was opening week of his com-pany, SoHo Trees, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from now through Christmas Day.

SoHo Trees began as your everyday neighborhood tree vendor in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

“It was 1982,” Lechner said. “We were just a few young Brooklyn boys from the streets.”

He had no idea then that the small-scale business venture would turn into a competitive citywide operation. Today, SoHo Trees operates 12 loca-tions around Manhattan, including 20th Street and Second Avenue, and Hudson and Clarkson Streets. The company delivers the trees to the cus-tomers’ homes, installs and even deco-rates the trees, which range from $39 to $2,000.

Like most vendors around the nation, SoHo Trees has struggled in recent years as fuel, shipping, labor and rent prices have escalated and profi ts have steadily dwindled.

“We’ve been treading water [in recent years],” said Lechner, who wouldn’t reveal the company’s fi nan-cial status.

But the company has managed to stay alive, running on the sales pitch of pro-viding great-quality trees for reasonable

Downtown Express photo by John Bayles

Ruslan Komitsev is one of the many SoHo Tree employees stationed at the company’s Sixth Avenue location for the holiday season.

BY JOHN BAYLESAt the eleventh hour of

Monday’s special legislative session called by Governor Paterson, the New York State Assembly passed a moratorium on a controver-sial drilling technique used to acquire natural gas.

Horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has come under fi re from envi-ronmental groups across the country because of possible dangers the technique poses

to ground water. The New York State Senate passed similar legislation in August and the bill now awaits the Governor’s signature.

On Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said, “This moratorium will help ensure that the hydrofrack-ing process will only be allowed in New York after a thorough, deliberate and unrushed analysis of the process is complete.”

Environmental Con-

BY ALINE REYNOLDSAfter a hiatus that lasted

several weeks, Park51 has once again found itself in the media limelight.

SoHo Properties, the developer of the proposed community center on Park Place, has applied for $5 million in federal grant money that would fi nance programming at the center, including domestic violence

prevention and homeless veteran services. The grants would also fund two multi-cultural art exhibits, immi-gration services and Arabic and other foreign language classes, according to its blog, park51.org.

“Park51 remains commit-ted to exploring all sources of revenue and funding to build the community cen-ter in Lower Manhattan,”

Assembly passes fracking moratorium

Park51 seeks funding from L.M.D.C.

Cult of holiday cheer

Continued on page 9

Continued on page 17


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DOWNTOWN DIGEST

NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9,12-19

EDITORIAL PAGES . . . . . . . . . . 10-11

YOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

ARTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-27

CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

C.B. 1MEETINGSThe upcoming week’s schedule of Community

Board 1 committee meetings is below. Unless other-wise noted, all committee meetings are held at the board offi ce, located at 49-51 Chambers St., room 709 at 6 p.m.

ON WED., DEC 1: C.B. 1’s Financial District Committee will meet.

ON THUR., DEC 2: C.B. 1’s Planning and Community Infrastructure Committee will meet.

ON TUES, DEC 7: C.B. 1’s Battery Park City will meet at Battery Park City Authority, 1 World Financial Center, 200 Liberty Street, Manhattan

BLACK’S WAIVER PROMPTS “RED THURSDAY”

Opposition to Mayor Bloomberg’s appointment of Cathleen Black as schools chancellor continued to mount this week, even as the former publishing executive was formally cleared to take on the role. On Monday, State Education Commissioner David Steiner approved a waiver for Black, only after Bloomberg agreed to install Deputy Chancellor Shael Polakow-Suransky as a “chief academic offi cer” advising Black.

In the weeks after Bloomberg announced the appoint-ment, parents, lawmakers, and others protested Black’s lack of education credentials, attempting to persuade Steiner to deny a waiver that would allow Black to assume the role nonetheless.

On November 23, Community Board 1 passed a strongly worded resolution against a waiver, which read, in part, “there can be no reasonable doubt that there are far more qualifi ed and better prepared persons to oversee the management of our schools at this precarious moment in our City’s future, given Ms. Black’s breathtaking lack of professional qualifi cations.”

Several groups have been formed to protest the appointment, including the Deny Waiver Coalition, which calls itself “an association of public school parents and educators as well as concerned community leaders.” Following the news that the waiver had been granted, Noah Gotbaum, a D.W.C. member, said, “Last week

Commissioner Steiner, plus six out of eight experts on his advisory panel, stated unequivocally that Cathy Black possesses neither the qualifi cations, the related life or professional experience, nor any prior interest in public education, to serve as Chancellor. Other than a closed door deal to mollify the mayor – parents and educators want Commissioner Steiner to explain what has changed over the past six days?”

The D.W.C. plans to hold a protest called “Red Thursday” on Thursday, December 2, on the steps of the Tweed Courthouse at 52 Chambers Street, at 4 PM. Attendees – and those in solidarity with the protest who cannot attend – are invited to wear the color red.

SILVER HOSTS CONSTRUCTION JOB FAIR

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is hosting a job fair on December 9 at Rutgers Houses that will focus solely on the construction job market. The New York State Dormitory Authority, the Lower East Side Employment Network and the New York City Housing Authority are also sponsoring the fair.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Gouverneur Hospital will be among a number of groups delivering presentations about specifi c construction jobs currently underway where employment opportunities might exist.


Possible Charter School to move into TweedBY ALINE REYNOLDS

The Department of Education is con-templating what to do with the six empty classrooms in the Tweed Courthouse once their current occupant, Spruce Street School (P.S. 397), moves to its permanent location at Beekman Tower next fall.

The likely candidate is a middle school called Innovate Manhattan Charter School, a prospect that worries many Downtown families.

Eric Greenleaf, a P.S. 234 parent and New York University business professor, stressed that the neighborhood is in dire need of elementary, not middle, school seats. “You don’t put in a new middle school if it’s going to displace hundreds of elementary school kids,” he said. According to a report Greenleaf presented to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s School Overcrowding Task Force committee last week, Lower Manhattan will be lacking 500 elementary school seats by the year 2014.

“It’s very unwise to use [the Tweed space] for anything else than a non-charter, public school,” said Greenleaf.

Other Lower Manhattan parents fear the long commutes their children would have to make to elementary schools outside their neighborhoods. “Kindergarteners are so small — it’s about protecting the littler ones who need the sense of community in their early lives,” said Tina Schiller, the par-

ent of a fourth grader in P.S. 234. Community Board 1 passed a resolution

at its Youth and Education Committee meet-ing last week, citing the need for a non-char-ter, public school in Tweed. Silver echoed

the board’s opinion in a statement, saying, “I strongly urge the Department of Education to use the space at Tweed Courthouse to incubate a new school to serve our growing population.”

The possibility of I.M.C.S. moving into Tweed next year has also rekindled the debate among Downtown educators and parents about the caliber of charter schools compared to traditional district public schools.

I.M.C.S.’s curriculum is modeled after the Kunskapsskolan Education Program, a

Swedish educational enterprise that, accord-ing to the school’s website, features per-sonalized teaching and projects. It is a culmination of ten years of research and development, and I.M.C.S.’s founder, Peg Hoey, noted that the children in the K.E.D. program have outperformed those in other Swedish schools. “It has a distinct advantage of already being tried out by other children,” she said.

The school, she added, is meant to serve as a good segue for District Two elementary school students.

“Our program directly feeds into the kind of innovative, progressive curriculum that [District Two] has in their elementary schools,” Hoey said. “To present another middle school option that builds on that his-tory is something that parents want to see.”

But the educational philosophy has not been tested out in the U.S., which concerns a number of Downtown parents. And the fact that it’s modeled after a for-profi t company makes them equally nervous.

“It’s a corporate business model,” Schiller said. “In actuality, people promoting it [over-

seas] have a fi nancial stake in it.” However, Hoey noted, “I.M.C.S. is run by

a nonprofi t Board of Trustees with the aim “to provide pedagogical services, not opera-tions of the school or fi nancial management of the school.”

And, contrary to parental fears, Hoey maintained that the standards I.M.C.S. set in the school’s 1,200-page charter are strict. The school has a “highly rigorous” cur-riculum and its students must pass the same high-achievement English Language Arts and math tests. The State University of New York, the school’s authorizer, she added, could shut down the school if it doesn’t abide by its own standards.

Jonathan Griffi th would like to send his fi fth grader, Ruby, to I.M.C.S. next year. “I think the traditional model quite frankly is not working,” he said. Ruby, who attends P.S. 3 Charrette School in Greenwich Village, has needed private tutoring the past few years to keep up in math class, for example.

Believe itA visitor from Cincinnati told police on

Fri., Nov. 26 that as soon as he discovered his wallet was gone around 3:52 p.m. he returned to the True Religion clothing bou-tique, 132 Prince St., where he last had it two hours earlier. A surveillance camera at the shop recorded two men kicking a wallet on the fl oor and hiding their faces as they picked it up and walked out. The victim lost $600 in cash and various credit cards.

Twice unluckyA Merrick, L.I. woman told police she

went to the Lucille Roberts fi tness center, 143 Fulton St. around 11:45 a.m., Wed., Nov. 24, locked her bag and street clothes in a locker and returned an hour later to fi nd the lock and her bag had been stolen. She said the same thing happened at the same fi tness center on Sept. 21. This time she lost $100 in cash, house keys, credit cards and a silver necklace that were in the bag.

Women steal walletA saleswoman at Le Page New York, the

gift shop at 72 Thompson St. told police she was busy taking care of a crowd of shoppers on the afternoon of Fri., Nov. 11 and discov-ered when most of the crowd had left around 2 p.m. hat her wallet had been stolen. The victim said she suspected two women who were among the last to leave had made off with her wallet with $15 in cash, her MetroCard and credit cards.

No return policyA man who turned up at the Ralph

Lauren store at 379 Broadway at White St. around 5:30 p.m. Mon., Nov. 29 with a Ralph Lauren coat valued at $5,000 over his arm said he wanted to return the item and get his money back. He left with the coat when the shop declined to accept the coat and refund the money. A surveillance tape examined later showed the man taking the coat from a display rack shortly before 5:30 p.m.

Designer bags goneThe manager of What Goes Around

Comes Around, the boutique at 351 W. Broadway between Grand and Broome Sts., told police that two Chanel bags with a total value of $4,950 were stolen from a display case around 2:30 p.m. Fri., Nov. 26. The shop was so busy that employees were unable to see how the bags were stolen, police said.

Stolen in clubA woman resident of Hudson Square

told police she was in Don Hill’s, the music club at 511 Greenwich St. during the early hours of Fri., Nov. 19 and had put her bag on the fl oor by her chair around 1 a.m. When she bent to pick it up a half hour later, she discovered it had been stolen, along with $220 in cash, diamond earrings valued at $300, her Apple cell phone, credit cards and house keys.

DECEMBER 5, 2010SUNDAY 11A.M. - 2P.M.REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED

SEWARD PARK EDUCATIONAL CAMPUS | 350 GRAND ST. (LUDLOW STREET) | MANHATTAN

and THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK invite you to a

CUNY COLLEGEINFORMATION FAIRFOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, COLLEGE STUDENTS, ADULT LEARNERS

STATE SENATOR

DANIEL SQUADRONNEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY SPEAKER

SHELDON SILVERCOUNCIL MEMBER

MARGARET CHIN

POLICE BLOTTER


“It’s very unwise to use [the Tweed space] for any-thing else than a non-char-ter, public school.”

– Eric Greenleaf


New report, fi nal location rekindles debateBY Aline ReynoldsSally Regenhard is still reeling over

the loss of her 28-year-old son, Christian Regenhard, a New York City fi refi ghter who passed away on 9/11. His remains have yet to be discovered, leaving her feeling violated and all the more heartbroken.

“If a human being is murdered, you certainly have the right to have the remains of your loved ones be found, and to have a proper burial for them,” she said.

Shortly after 9/11, Regenhard took part in New York City’s painstaking quest to fi nd her son’s remains. The city’s Offi ce of the Chief Medical Examiner staged a Family Assistance Center at Pier 94 in mid-town, where Regenhard and thousands of other 9/11 families brought hair clippers and toothbrushes in order to provide DNA samples. The items were later brought to the O.C.M.E. labs, where they were matched against the human remains uncovered at and around Ground Zero.

At the end of December, the O.C.M.E. is coming out with a third report documenting its latest discoveries. The report reveals that the O.C.M.E. has uncovered 68 additional bone, teeth and skin fragments in the third round of searches, which took place earlier this year, bringing the total count of recov-ered remains to close to 22,000.

An O.C.M.E. offi cial continues to moni-tor areas under excavation at the World

Trade Center site, searching for additional remains. Debris possibly containing remains is collected, placed into barrels and hauled to mobile sifting platforms, machines that fi lter the debris located in Brooklyn and Staten Island.

When the examiners successfully match remains with a hair or skin sampling from a family member, the O.C.M.E. notifi es the loved one.

“They’ll typically send a funeral director to come and collect it,” said Ellen Borakove, director of public affairs at the O.C.M.E.

But there are still many unanswered ques-tions. According to the latest O.C.M.E. data report, 41 percent of the 21,812 remains detected at and around Ground Zero since 9/11 have not been identifi ed. Current DNA testing techniques are not advanced enough, according to the O.C.M.E., for the examin-ers to create complete profi les of the victims. “As new technology becomes available, we want to go back to the remains and test them,” said Borakove.

Borakove indicated that, though the O.C.M.E. isn’t pressuring family members to provide samples for the DNA tests, the O.C.M.E. would be unable to make identi-fi cations without them. The examiners have recently come up with 27 separate profi les of victims, for example, and without family members’ participation, the victims’ identi-ties will amount only to a case number.

“Not everyone chooses to give us sam-ples,” Borakove said. “Some choose to say, their loved one is gone.”

Regenhard launched the Skyscraper Safety Campaign in December 2001, requesting that the federal government participate in the search and identifi cation of the remains. According to the S.S.C., the O.C.M.E. is not fi t for a search of this magnitude.

“How can a relatively small organization [the O.C.M.E.] be competent enough to administer a search in this manner? It is a disgrace,” Regenhard said.

The organization will launch its cam-paign again in early 2011 to call upon the participation of the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command for assistance in the next phases of the remains project.

“I’d call for the City of New York, after nearly ten years of failure, to use the larg-est DNA lab in the world [J.P.A.C.] and to have them come in and try to help identify remains that are still here,” Regenard said.

The location of the remains at the future W.T.C. site stirs up yet another debate. According to Lynn Rasic, senior vice presi-dent of public affairs and communications at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, the remains will be stored in a space “connected” to the 9/11 Museum “at bedrock,” per 9/11 families’ requests. She emphasized that the area will not be a part

of the museum’s public exhibition space, though it is located next to the museum and is accessible through the museum.

“From the O.C.M.E.’s perspective, this new repository will provide a dignifi ed and reverential setting for the remains to repose—temporarily or in perpetuity—as identifi cations continue to be made,” accord-ing to a written statement on the 9/11 muse-um’s website. The on-site laboratory will be connected to a private seating and viewing area for family members to contemplate and refl ect on their loved ones.

But Regenhard and other 9/11 families do not feel that this is a suitable mourning place. Attaching the space to the museum, a public exhibition space, is a betrayal of trust, she said, since the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation promised the families a stand-alone memorial at the future W.T.C.

“I shouldn’t have to go 70 feet below ground fi ghting thousands of people in order to try to pay respect for my son’s human remains,” Regenhard said.

The S.S.C. is researching the national guidelines of the preservation of human remains to see if the museum’s design plan complies with federal law.

The wall separating the O.C.M.E. space and the museum will have a commemorative

SMALL FIRM ASSISTANCE PROGRAMLMDC is accepting applications for the Small Firm AssistanceProgram which assists small retail businesses in lower Manhattanthat have suffered business disruption as a result of publicly-funded construction projects.

On September 1, 2010 LMDC added $1 million to the Programand extended it through December 31, 2015, so long as there aregrant funds remaining. Some businesses previously capped at$25,000 are now eligible for up to $35,000. The Program is opento all small retail businesses on streets impacted by publicly-fundedconstruction including those located on second floors and above.

For further details on eligibility or to download an application please consult the LMDC website at http://renewnyc.com/ProjectsAndPrograms/small_firms.asp or contact the LMDC at212-962-2300.

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December 4th

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Television appearance sheds light on Trinity’s pastBY TERESE LOEB KREUZER

On Saturday, December 4, Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall Street will be in the spotlight when a crew from ABC Television fi lms the church’s Lessons and Carols ser-vice for broadcast later in the month. Then people around the country will be able to glimpse Trinity and its boisterous past, going back more than 300 years.

The fi rst Trinity Church building was consecrated in 1698 at the crest of what the sea-level town of New York might have regarded as a hill. The Anglican Church was erected with the assistance of the privateer and pirate Captain William Kidd, a friend of New York’s governor, Benjamin Fletcher. Captain Kidd provided the block and tackle with which to raise the stones of the modest structure, which was just inside the wall that the Dutch founders of the colony of Nieuw Amsterdam had built to keep the English out. However, when the English took over the colony in 1664 and renamed it New York they came by sea, not by land, and met with no resistance. The citizens just went about their usual business, which was making money. In 1699, the wall was taken down.

Today’s Trinity Church is the third on the Broadway/Wall Street site. The 1698 church burned down in the fi re of September 21, 1776 that destroyed the western side of the city. Its successor had to be torn down when huge snowstorms in 1838 and 1839

irreparably damaged the roof. The present church, designed by Richard Upjohn in the neo-Gothic style, was consecrated in 1846. It was built of sandstone and contained some of the fi rst stained glass windows in the United States, with panes emblazoned

with pineapples, the traditional Colonial sign of “welcome.”

From the sculpted bronze doors at the entrance to the marble reredos behind the altar, Trinity exudes wealth, thanks in part to members of the Astor family. The massive doors, completed in 1896, were donated by William Waldorf Astor (at the time, the rich-est man in the United States), as a memorial

to his father, John Jacob Astor III. The rere-dos, the ornamental wall behind the altar, was the gift of William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and John Jacob Astor III in memory of their father, William Backhouse Astor, Sr. It was dedicated with great fanfare on June 29, 1877 — an event that is memorialized on the sculpted doors now leading to the gift shop on the southern side of the building.

According to Trinity’s archivist, Gwynedd Cannon, at the time the reredos was dedi-cated, it was customary for the priests to pray with their backs to the congregation. “You’ll see Astor’s name carved [on the rere-dos],” she said. “To me that’s kind of funny because he’s from the halls of Mammon. It was almost as though [the priests] were praying to Astor.”

Trinity’s archives go back to the 1690s, Cannon said. They include the parish charter granted by King William III of England in 1697 and a land grant from England’s Queen Anne. In 1705, she gave Trinity land on the west side of Manhattan from Fulton Street to Christopher Street in order to provide some rental income for the struggling parish. Over the years, Trinity sold off much of the land but retained some of it. Several buildings near Canal Street have plaques indicating that they are owned by Trinity, and explain-ing why.

The Astors were the richest members of Trinity’s congregation but not the most politically and historically signifi cant. The

The mission of the Hudson Square Connection is simple; the Business Improvement District wants to make Hudson Square a cleaner, safer and more fun neigh-borhood in which to work and live.

To that end, last July they released a Request for Proposals looking for a team to redesign the area’s streets and traffi c fl ow. In late November the B.I.D. announced the winning team lead by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects and including fi ve other fi rms focusing on urban and industrial design as well as transportation planning.

“This is a project we were set up to do,” said Ellen Baer, president of the Hudson Square Connection.

Twenty-three different teams comprised of more than 100 fi rms applied to the R.F.P.

Baer noted that prior to issuing the R.F.P., discussions were held with various stakeholders in the district as well as the Connection’s board members and amongst task forces focused solely on streetscape and traffi c issues.

According to Baer, “fi rst and foremost” they were looking for a team with a great design sensibility. Second, they wanted fi rms

with a proven track record of “getting things done in New York City,” something Baer described as “in itself hard and unique.”

The team will focus on increasing the “workability” of the neighborhood’s streets by “recapturing sidewalks for pedestrians,” creating green spaces and coordinating the needs of a regional transportation facility, the Holland Tunnel, with the “important needs of a growing business district.”

“We’re extremely excited and more so by the day,” said Baer. “We want to emphasize that we intend to really work with and hear from the stake holders. This isn’t something that will be done and then presented. We’ll be out there talking to people.”

Baer said the fi rst task for the team would be an analysis phase where the team would go from door to door in the district, talking to business owners as well as gather as much information as possible. She said the analysis phase would begin in early January and by next summer there should be a comprehensive vision and framework for the district.

— John Bayles

Team selected to redesign Hudson Square

Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall Street, is the third building on this site. The present church was designed by Richard Upjohn and was consecrated in 1846.


Assemblyman Shelly SilverIf you need assistance, please contact my office at (212) 312-1420 or email [email protected].

Fighting to make Lower Manhattan the greatest place to live, work, and raise a family.


Downtown small biz sector gets boost from Camelot

BY JOHN BAYLESAs the role of small businesses has

changed, so has the marketing behind them. Rarely have small businesses been able to afford to hire their own public relations fi rm, instead having to bank on word of mouth and a dedicated customer base.

Christina Cozzi, founder and president of Camelot Communications, is well on her way to changing that, at least when it comes to Lower Manhattan.

“One of the things I like about Downtown is you can walk into a business and talk to the owner,” said Cozzi.

The young entrepreneur identifi es with her clients, many of who are also young, either in age or in terms of their business’ existence. And she knows regardless of the economic environment, small businesses will not disappear.

“As [President] Obama said, small busi-ness is the instrument of change,” Cozzi noted.

Cozzi paid her dues, moving up the ranks in numerous public relations fi rms prior to starting her own. She noticed in late 2008 and early 2009 that many large corporations were cutting or pulling altogether their communi-cations budgets and she began working on

smaller, independent projects in her free time. Many of her current clients have come

from face-to-face interaction, such as KK Salon on Maiden Lane.

“I just went to get my hair cut at a local salon,” Cozzi said. “Everyone I represent, I’ve visited and patronized.”

Cozzi said what sets herself apart from a larger public relations or marketing fi rm is being able to relate to the needs of her clients.

“I’m not running out of the offi ce, turning off my computer at 5 p.m. and telling them I’ll call them in the morning,” she said.

In late October, Cozzi hosted an event for all of her clients, which she called “Fall in Love with the New Downtown.” Staying true to her entrepreneurial roots, the pro-ceeds went to the Hive at 55, which itself is a turnkey offi ce space for small start-up businesses.

“I wanted to have all the clients in one venue — a family tree type of thing,” said Cozzi. “A lot of the people had never had public relations before. They either couldn’t afford it or didn’t know what it would actu-ally bring.”

Cozzi said word spread quickly about the event and she decided to open it up to other downtown businesses so even more networking could occur.

Cozzi created over 100 gift bags, raf-fl ed off items from participating businesses including LightAir, August Black Interior

Design, We’re Worth It and the Bluebell Café, and put her clients “in front of all of the Financial District residents” in one fell swoop. She said the night proved to be a bigger success than she or her clients could

have ever imagined.Camelot Communications is planning a

similar event for the holiday season.“Their success is my success,” said

Cozzi.

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please email: [email protected]

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DOWNTOWN PROFILE

Photo courtesy of Camelot Communications

We’re Worth It, a local start-up that promotes self-esteem through merchandising, was a participant at Camelot Communication’s “Fall in Love with the New Downtown” event.

Photo courtesy of the Downtown Alliance

Streets receive holiday dressingAlmost overnight, Lower Manhattan streets are transformed into glittering lanes

of holiday cheer. This is thanks to the Downtown Alliance, who for the past 15 years has installed over 200 shooting stars and star clusters throughout the district.“Every holiday season, we try to do a little something extra to brighten the season for our 300,000 workers, 55,000 residents and six million annual visitors,” said Elizabeth H. Berger, president of the Downtown Alliance.

The fi xtures will remain up until the fi rst week in January and are custom designed for the Alliance. Pictured above is Nassau Street.


C.B.1 says park solution is a doggone shameBY HELAINA N. HOVITZ

When the fi rst person to speak during Community Board 1’s public session asked those in support of off-leash hours to stand, half of the crowd rose to their feet. One by one, Downtown dog owners took to the podium to speak for those who couldn’t — their dogs.

For the past twenty years, dogs have been free to run off-leash across what has become known as Battery Park’s “Great Lawn,” an impressive span of grass adjacent to Whitehall Street; but all carefree canine play was brought to an abrupt halt after a crackdown in June of this year.

“One day, Pat Kirshner from the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy just showed up and started handing out fl iers to warn us that dogs weren’t allowed on the lawn anymore,” explained Financial District resi-dent Cathy Yee, a member of the Downtown Dog Owners Association, who used to take her energetic pup, Piper, to the lawn every day. “Several weeks later, Parks began issu-ing summonses to those of us who weren’t cooperative.”

This prompted a slew of passionate D.D.O.A. members to show up at last Tuesday’s full board meeting, as they had for the past four months, to ask for a trial period in which their dogs could once again run free. A representative from the Parks Department offi ce also spoke during the

public session and reassured the crowd that no trial period would be approved. The representative added that the city would compromise and set aside a concrete, gated area in which dogs could run free.

The Battery Park City and Financial District Committees proposed an open-end-ed resolution calling for the establishment of a task force to evaluate the current pol-icy, gather and analyze data, and determine whether it would make sense to extend any off-leash privileges. The resolution asks the Parks Department to consider designating a trial period to see what impact, if any, off-leash hours would have.

The resolution passed with 25 in favor, 14 against, and one abstention.

According to residents, there is no record of dogs ever having done damage to the lawn, which is set to undergo major recon-struction in Spring 2011.

“I really don’t understand why there can’t be a trial period, considering they’re just going to tear up the lawn in six months anyway,” said Yee. “It makes perfect sense to have this trial period now.”

Residents claim that some of the fund-raising events held by the Conservatory actu-ally damage the lawn worse than the dogs ever have, or ever could.

“They’re worried about dogs? The Hubble Telescope they had back in June during the 2010 World Science Festival did so much

damage, I couldn’t even play fetch with my dog because I was afraid she might trip on one of the holes and sprain her leg,” Yee explained. “And the tents they used during the fair killed the grass.”

Ro Sheffe, chair of the Financial District Committee, will head the task force, and said though he does not anticipate much cooperation from the Parks Department, the working group will continue their work either way.

“If the community feels very strongly that we should continue advocating for this, then we’ll continue,” Sheffe said. “We’ll advocate for what the majority of our constituents want, and we’re going to go ahead with the task force regardless.”

Earlier drafts of the resolution were tabled at the September and October full board meetings, the latter of which the

Parks Department failed to attend. When Sheffe met with Senator Daniel Squadron several weeks ago, it was suggested that the task force fi nd out how many 311 calls have been placed complaining about dogs running off-leash on the lawn. According to the dog owners at the meeting, virtually no residential opposition has been voiced, and the only thing standing in their way is the government.

Allowing dogs to run off-leash in grassy areas is permitted in 77 other parks city-wide, and the D.D.O.A. wants the Parks Department to formally add Battery Park to the list.

“There’s no place within C.B. 1 where a dog is allowed to walk on grass,” said board member Jeff Galloway. “The prohibition isn’t just off-leash, it’s a prohibition of dogs period.”

Galloway, whose offi ce overlooks the lawn, said it’s been virtually empty since July, and is the only area in the entire park to be fenced off. Before that, he could always spot at least a dozen dogs and their owners on the grass during the wee morning hours. As it currently stands, the closest a downtown dog can get to enjoying a bit of greenery is farther uptown along the East River or in Central Park.

The trouble is, not everyone can get their


“It makes perfect sense to have this trial period now.”

– Cathy Yee


Shanghai next, N.Y.U. looking eastBY ALBERT AMATEAU

A few months after New York University admitted the fi rst freshman class to its branch campus in Abu Dhabi, the university is exploring a new overseas branch: N.Y.U. Shanghai.

The school, in the Pudong district of the city, would be the Greenwich Village university’s third overseas degree-granting campus if the city of Shanghai subsidizes the operating costs and the district of Pudong pays for land and construction costs. N.Y.U. administrators are exploring whether the university has its own funding for design and educational resources, according to David McLaughlin, N.Y.U. provost.

If fi nally approved, N.Y.U. Shanghai could admit its fi rst class as early as the fall of 2013 for as many as 3,400 undergradu-ate and graduate students, most of them Chinese in the beginning.

“No N.Y.U New York tuition dollars will

go into it,” McLaughlin told Washington Square News, the undergraduate newspa-per published at the Washington Square campus.

All courses would be taught in English but at the end of four years all students would have to be fl uent in English and Mandarin, according to the Washington Square News article.

The article also quotes N.Y.U. faculty members who are concerned about aca-demic and intellectual freedom in campuses like Abu Dhabi and Shanghai.

“These are not fully open societies. Although many people see great opportu-nity, there’s also concern,” Professor Floyd Hammack told Washington Square News.

McLaughlin, however, said that the cam-pus would operate under full academic freedom.

“That’s in the agreement with our part-ners,” he said.

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El-Gamal told the New York Times. “It is important to note that this community center will provide hundreds of construc-tion jobs over the next few years and, when opened, will provide 150 permanent jobs.”

The Park51 board also applied for money to purchase equipment and to lease or buy the building at 49-51 Park Place, according to a New York Times report. There is no mention of the money funding the commu-nity center’s prayer space.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf had no involvement in the grant application, according to Gene Grabowski, a spokesperson for the Imam.

“Handling development and fundraising is not in his area of expertise,” Grabowski said. The L.M.D.C. has previously funded the Eldridge Street Project, the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the 92nd Street Y, other institutions with religious affi liations.

Yet the grant request has renewed the fi restorm surrounding the community cen-ter. Though conservative blogger and activist Pamela Geller is not lining up any protests just yet, she is vehemently speaking out against El-Gamal’s latest move.

“The claim that it will be directed to other uses is irrelevant; money is fungible, and money given for one purpose frees up other funds to be used for other purposes,” she said in an e-mail. “The $5 million Islamic suprema-cist request represents nearly one-third of all the $17 million that is now available.”

The request for federal funding, Geller continued, “adds insult to injury” to 9/11 families who are opposed to the mosque.

Other activists, however, are using the news as an opportunity to bolster their sup-port of the project. “We are hopeful that the L.M.D.C. treats [Park51’s] application just as equitably and fairly as any other application, and [that they] base their decision on the merits rather than the politics,” said Deanna Bitetti, associate director for Common Cause New York, a nonprofi t advocacy organization in support of the community center.

Debbie Almontaser, board chair of the Muslim Consultative Network, echoed that Park51’s application “should not be treated any differently than any of the institutions in Lower Manhattan seeking to rebuild and revitalize that area.”

“If Park51 meets all the grant guide-lines,” she continued, “we hope it will be given serious consideration.”

So far, the L.M.D.C. has received 255 applications from a wide range of Lower Manhattan nonprofi ts (south of Houston Street) for its Community and Cultural Enhancement grant, amounting to a total of more than $175 million in funds. The grant, however, is only worth $17 million.

The L.M.D.C.’s community and cul-tural enhancements panel scrupulously reviews every application, singling out grant recipients that are fi nancially fea-sible. “It’s a very careful vetting process,” said L.M.D.C. Board Member Julie Menin, who sits on the panel. The process, which would include site visits, could take sev-eral months.

Neither Menin nor John De Libero, a spokesperson for the L.M.D.C., would com-ment on the likelihood of Park51’s awarding of the funds.

Park51 seeks fed funds

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N.Y.U.’s Superblocks missteps

In two separate editorials in 2004, our newspapers called for the 50-foot-wide strips of city-owned prop-erty on the eastern and western edges of New York University’s two South Village superblocks to be trans-ferred from the Department of Transportation to the Parks Department. Dating back to a resolution passed in 1992, Greenwich Village’s Community Board 2 has long been on record supporting this transfer, which would protect the strips from development.

D.O.T. ownership of the strips doesn’t block their development, whereas if Parks owned them, the state Legislature would have to approve any transfer, sale or development scheme.

With the university now pushing ahead with its ambitious N.Y.U. Plan 2031 expansion scheme — whose epicenter is the two superblocks — these strips are a key battleground between the university and the community. However, show-ing N.Y.U. woefully lacks offi cial support for acquiring the strips, a phalanx of local politicians will assemble Sunday at a 1 p.m. rally on LaGuardia Place between Bleecker and W. Third Sts. to voice support for C.B. 2’s resolution that the parkland strips be preserved. Joining them will be the resi-dents group Community Action Alliance on N.Y.U. 2031.

N.Y.U. wants to acquire these strips for its superblocks plans. Specifi cally, the university hopes to incorporate the current Mercer-Houston Dog Run site into the footprint of its “Zipper Building,” planned on the site of its current Coles gym on Mercer St. N.Y.U. says that by using this strip area, it could bring back some form of Greene St. on Coles’s western side — which was demapped under the superblocks’ original urban renewal plan — increasing the width of the obscure alley there now. If N.Y.U.’s strips bid is rejected, then, from what we’re told, the university wouldn’t redesign the “Zipper” project, but would build it the same size — without widening the Greene St. pathway.

N.Y.U. was overly optimistic to expect it could get these strips, and this will likely be N.Y.U.’s second set-back in its superblocks plans. As we editorialized six years ago, the university doesn’t deserve these strips, for one, for failing to step in and fi x up the dilapidated and sunken playground and seating areas on Mercer St. between Houston and Bleecker Sts. Yes, D.O.T. owns these strips — but given that N.Y.U. was always rumored to be stymieing the strips’ transfer to Parks, ultimately, the university is responsible for their decrepit state.

Of course, the fi rst, stunning superblock setback came last week, when N.Y.U. announced it was abandoning its plans to site a fourth tower — 400 feet tall — within the landmarked Silver Towers complex on Bleecker St. N.Y.U. had to withdraw after Henry Cobb, partner of the complex’s legendary designer, I.M. Pei, wrote the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission last month, calling the site inappropriate. As Cobb wrote: “…[A] fourth tower is profoundly destructive to the landmarked entity, because it closes a composition that was intended to be open and upsets the carefully considered balance between solid and void.” As for the university now developing a shorter build-ing of equal square footage on its Morton Williams super-market site at the block’s northwest corner, Cobb stated in his letter, “Ideally the corner building would be designed so as to make it more responsive to its neighbors and to the landmarked entity.”

Cobb’s letter is a road map for how N.Y.U. must pro-ceed on its superblocks. In short, N.Y.U. must scale back its plans for the superblocks, which simply cannot handle 2 million-plus square feet of new development. Indeed, “responsive” and “balance” are the key words N.Y.U. must be supremely mindful of as it moves forward.

LETTERS TO THE EDITORDisney-fi cation is cliché

To the Editor,The Talking Point jeremiad that

appeared in the November 17-23 issue of your paper by Tom Goodkind did no credit to your fi ne publication. I couldn’t read it without channeling the voice of Dana Carvey’s ‘grumpy old man’ character from SNL: “In my day…we didn’t have PLAYGROUNDS on our Pier! We played on the street and got hit by cars and we LIKED IT!”

The loss of the old Tribeca Pier 25 was surely missed. As the years of repair dragged on, our community suffered. But on a recent windy November Saturday, the new Pier was packed with hundreds of people–young families playing soccer, strolling seniors, teens on skateboards, even a sun worshipper. If one could travel back in time, say seven years to the same location, there would been just a fraction of that number. The old Tribeca Pier had some attractions to be sure: a mini golf course that would have been considered threadbare by trailer park residents, a dirty sandbox or two, and a large swath of cracked asphalt. It was…better than nothing.

Funky? I guess that’s fair. But a ‘fantas-tic space’? True, it was ‘informal’ and had its share of ‘spontaneity’…but then, so do a lot of vacant lots near Shea Stadium. It doesn’t mean I want to live near one. Let’s call the old Pier what it was: tattered and full of mostly unrealized potential. Ask the people using the current Pier (as opposed to shaking their fi sts at it) and I bet few would choose to jackhammer the lovely native grass planters and playgrounds in order to bring back the prior windswept ‘funky’ version. And their numbers will surely decrease once the burger joint, proper bathrooms, beach volleyball, mini golf and more amenities come online.

To compare what The Hudson River Park Trust has done to ‘Disney-fi cation’ is not just a cliché in this case. It’s simply dead wrong. Unless I missed the half pipe next to Adventureland, it’s hard to imagine a more comprehensive design for giving something for everyone to enjoy. Perhaps being kid-friendly means unfriendly to the Tribeca version of the ‘get off my lawn’ crowd. I’ve seen adult painters and photographers and fi shermen doing their thing (spontaneously!) and not a single costumed character.

Mr. Goodkind was right about one thing, though. Our new Pier WAS expen-sive. Civic niceties like our new parks and revived piers on the Hudson may soon succumb to the Red State, ‘government can’t and shouldn’t do anything’ mindset. Funny that we hear few complaints about the high cost of the highway that that serves mostly Jersey-bound commuters. Happily, we have a new lovely, free, open to the public Pier 25 and not a walled off garden for Citibank employees and their guests or a rotting monument to Tribeca’s

days as a working port. I feel like kissing the bureaucrats who made it happen. Why the 1970’s nostalgists long for the good old days of unchecked urban entropy, is beyond me. To all of them, I suggest a one-way bus ticket to Detroit.

Troy Torrison

Pandering to the autocrat

To the Editor,Your November 24 issue exposed your

bias in full view. Three articles occupied your front page: one regarding the 9/11 health issue, another of WTC workers, the last about the West Thames Street bridge. Forty percent of the fi rst page is devoted to a Bloomberg puff photo when you already have an article about the Zadroga 9/11 Health Bill. In almost every issue, you vari-ously describe down to the smallest detail when a parent sneezes at P.S. 234 or how the east of Broadway Beekman Street school is not quite up to snuff for some west of Broadway parents. Many times you report on the really great problems with the school system not being prepared with more schools for a growing Downtown child population, etc. etc. Mind you, this is due to Bloomberg’s giving away the city to his real estate cronies or his Board not having the wisdom to plan for such an eventuality.

Then I turned to page 7. And there is the most important New York City story of the last week – the Catherine Black chancellor appointment by Bonaparte Bloomberg. Doesn’t that story really qualify for the front page? Or does the autocrat’s underhandedness (like his third term deception) and his lack of “transparency” (to use the word of the Upper West Side academics; remember, we used to call it “truthfulness”) not qual-ify as the lead story? Perhaps Downtown Express just shills for Bloomberg or has he promised some new creative job titles at Bloomberg, LLP? (Perhaps Assistant VP of Communications, VP of Public Relations, or Assistant VP Kiss-Up?)

I look forward to your continuing to present major news of the schools front and center even if it taints the petty auto-crat’s image.

Walter Silverman

Letters policy Downtown Express welcomes letters to The Editor. They must include the writer’s fi rst and last name, a phone number for confi rmation purposes only, and any affi li-ation that relates directly to the letter’s subject matter. Letters should be less than 300 words. Downtown Express reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity, civility or libel reasons. Letters should be e-mailed to [email protected] or can be mailed to 145 Sixth Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10013.


TALKING POINT

BY MIRIAM KAPLAN I want to say that this statement from Mr. Pei

is extraordinary good news. Not just because New York University has been defeated on the landmarks issue. But more importantly, because it shows how completely N.Y.U. miscalculated in this regard.

In all of our statements at the Community Board 2 hearings, we danced around the rea-sons for objecting to the fourth tower. We were addressing many important issues — in truth, not so clearly and starkly as the statement from Henry Cobb does — but we were on target.

And yet N.Y.U. couldn’t or wouldn’t hear the message.

With all their high-priced consultants — architects and lawyers — they couldn’t see how wrong they were about the overall design of the block. And they substituted all that foolish talk about dialogue for a true recognition of the spatial relations.

And in that is a great hope to take us for-ward. Just as N.Y.U. was blind with regard to aesthetics, they are blind to the intent of zoning. And it is that blindness that will defeat them in the end.

So far, it doesn’t look like we will have some-one like Pei to come forward on a white charger in the coming battle — though who knows what may happen?

In the meantime, we move on with the confi dence that we do see things more clearly than N.Y.U. does; and with the sure knowledge that these high-priced lawyers and architects are really only hired to see to the accomplishment of the will of those that hire them, and not to defer to excellence where it exists.

I have been studying the history of N.Y.U. this week: For the university campus and for several buildings around the square they had the services of Stanford White; for Bobst they had Philip Johnson; for the south superblock they had I.M. Pei — all of them great architects, who had a vision about what the architectural face of a great university should be and who had a tabula rasa on which to work.

For Plan 2031, N.Y.U.’s biggest redesign effort — probably since its former University Heights campus in the Bronx — the architects were constrained to work within an existing context. N.Y.U. hired big guns. But an existing context is not a proper arena for great architects who have their own vision and ego.

What N.Y.U. got was a plan that clashed as badly as plaid with fl oral print.

What was needed were not-so-great archi-tects — people who could subsume their ego and come up with a design for new buildings that integrated with the existing landscape.

That the architects could not see the ugliness

of their plans (not just the Pei block, but even more so the Washington Square Village block) is a serious mark against them, no matter how high their ratings. That no one at N.Y.U. could see the ugliness of the plans and reject them on that basis alone, refl ects the fact that no one at N.Y.U. has any aesthetic sense nor any basis on which to execute good judgment.

Absolutely everything about Plan 2031 shows poor judgment: the sought-after rezoning to C6-2; putting retail on Mercer St. when there is plenty of retail one block away on Broadway; hous-ing 1,400 students in a dormitory on a block that has about 500 apartments; increasing the underground acreage, even though there is a stream that runs under the two blocks; eliminating the driveways on the Washington Square Village block, which would iso-late the two slabs from each other, but more importantly would curtail the accessibility of ambulances, school buses, deliveries and so forth to each of the complex’s buildings; putting retail in the ground fl oor of the Washington Square Village buildings, which would totally destroy their residential nature; installing aca-demic buildings and a public mall between the two Washington Square Village slabs, which would absolutely destroy any sense of com-mon community; closing the garage on the Washington Square Village block and replacing

it with parking on the Pei block, with no mention of how Washington Square Village’s residents are to get from the garage to their buildings — even if an entrance were to be provided on Bleecker St., there would still be a minimum of the equivalent of a three-block walk in the open from the garage to 1 and 2 Washington Square Village.

That top-class architects would sign off on such a design — which effectively destroys an existing residential community that pro-vides some blessed open space in an open-space-starved part of the city — just to sat-isfy the expansionist plans of N.Y.U. refl ects poorly on them. They may be world-classbut their behavior is that of hacks who go along with anything just to get the commission.

Getting back to Cobb’s statement: Just because we have this good news, we cannot relax. But we can go forward, in the full confi dence that an army is going to form behind us. Because I certainly believe that people will come out from the woodwork to support us — now that they have the confi rmation that N.Y.U. so misjudged this one issue.

Kaplan is former chairperson, Washing-ton Square Village Tenants Association’s Task Force in Response to N.Y.U. Plan 2031

DOWNTOWN NOTEBOOK

Correcting some misperceptions post-St. Vincent’s BY CHRISTINE C. QUINN, JERROLD NADLER, THOMAS K. DUANEAND RICHARD N. GOTTFRIED

As we move forward in the aftermath of the tragic loss of our community hospital, we — the many friends, advocates and support-ers of St. Vincent’s — must work together to take all of the positive steps we can to restore emergency and acute-care services to our community. Having all the ammunition we need in this battle is essential. Therefore, documenting the specifi cs of what services we need with a community health assess-ment is critical to this mission.

We believe our community needs an acute-care facility and emergency room. But it will take hard facts to convince a potential hospital operator to invest the necessary hundreds of millions of dollars to fi nance a new facility, and no one else is going to gather this key data. Therefore, we, as a community, must undertake this process ourselves and work together to compile that information.

Opening a hospital takes more than knowing in our hearts that it is needed and demanding it fervently. It also takes reliable data to document to others that the facility is necessary and will be via-ble. That’s precisely what we’re trying to do, with the support and participation of

a long list of community members, com-munity organizations, healthcare workers and other advocates.

In our efforts to move forward in meet-ing the health needs of the community, we would like to correct some misconcep-tions that we have recently heard.

First of all, the assessment is about guiding future healthcare planning efforts and its scope is being driven by a broad coalition of community stakeholders, not by any private parties or special inter-ests.

Additionally, North Shore-L.I.J. has already begun development of its urgent-care center and that center will move for-ward regardless of the community needs assessment already underway.

We would also like to clarify that while the New York State Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century (the “Berger Commission”) did identify several hospitals and nursing homes as unnecessary and forced mergers and closings, it did not state in the affi rmative that every other facil-ity was needed. In a July 15, 2010, letter to Community Board 2, David Sandman, the executive director of the Berger Commission, stated, “The Commission made no specifi c recommendation or fi ndings regarding St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan — Greenwich Village Campus.”

While Section 2806 of the New York State Public Health Law does require the Health commissioner to make certain findings before closing a hospital, that section only applies if the commissioner, not a hospital’s board, is going to force a hospital to shut down. It has nothing to do with the St. Vincent’s situation. The board of St. Vincent’s decided to close the hospital in no small part because of its overall debt of more than $1 bil-lion, much of which is owed to TD Bank and GE Capital. It is true that a Health Department regulation does require that while a hospital is shutting down, it must care for its patients as it arranges for them to be moved elsewhere.

Unfortunately, we cannot rely on city zoning to force a hospital to re-emerge. Nowhere in the city’s Zoning Resolution does it allow for a local gov-ernment to force a property owner to use a piece of land for one specific purpose — especially when the land is current-ly controlled by the federal bankruptcy court. That is the reality of the situation.

And, also unfortunately, neither the fed-eral funds received by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for rebuilding and revitalizing Downtown post-9/11, nor the federal healthcare grants previously allocated to St. Vincent’s can be used to

reopen a hospital. In fact, only after we have the pieces in place for a viable hospi-tal will federal funds — such as mortgage insurance and healthcare grants — be available. By conducting an assessment, and clearly establishing a strong founda-tion for a hospital, we can and will attract a new sponsor and generate crucial city, state and federal government support.

The bottom line is: There is no magic bullet that’s going to get us a hospital immediately. It will take a lot of hard work to get the deci-sions made and the fi nancing raised. No one is happy with this situation. In fact, we are all angry and devastated by this tragedy. However, we are taking the needed steps to make our healthcare whole again. Getting good, solid data to prove the case is an essential part of the job. So, too, are demonstrations, letter writing, community building and other advocacy, cre-ativity and strategic thinking and planning. No one tactic is exclusive. All are necessary. We must and we will work together to regain a hospital and, in the meantime, maintain and expand high-quality accessible healthcare for all, regardless of ability to pay.

Quinn is speaker, New York City Council; Nadler is congressmember for the Eighth District; Duane is state senator for the 29th District; Gottfried is assemblymember for the 75th District.

N.Y.U.’s towering blunder inspires us to fi ght on


M.A.T. Dragons undefeated, win fi rst Championship

The M.A.T. Dragons entered this year’s NYC Flag Football League Manhattan Borough Championship as the team to beat. They had a record of 14-0 and were the number one seed in the tournament.

The Dragon’s fi rst game against Salk School of Science, 3-7, looked like an easy contest. Salk had never beaten M.A.T. in the last 8 years. But M.A.T. found themselves tied at the end of regulation, forced into overtime against a Salk team that seemed to do nothing wrong. And after Salk scored a touchdown and converted an extra point, the best the Dragons could do with their last possession left was only tie the game.

“Basically, M.A.T. had to score from 40 yards out and then convert an extra point just to tie. The crowd, parents, and every-one watching thought the game was over and that Salk had just pulled off the biggest upset in NYC middle school sports his-tory,” M.A.T. Athletic Director and League Commisioner John DeMatteo said. “It was totally inconceivable that they would come back.”

In overtime, M.A.T. quarterback and NYC league M.V.P. Robert Mendez found Forrest Ruiz for a pass and then Anthony Peralta in the end zone on a long bomb and then tacked on the extra point. Salk would answer and in the fourth overtime M.A.T.

won on a touchdown pass and pulled off the come back victory in front of a stunned crowd.

“I’m very proud of the way my team overcame adversity, didn’t get down on themselves, and remained close as a team to come back in that game and win,” said coach Chris Piccigallo. “That game was a wake up call and set the stage for the rest of the playoffs for us.”

M.A.T. proceeded to steamroll through the remainder of the tournament until they again had to come back from a 12-0 defi -cit in the championship game against the M.S.131 team. They went on to win by a score of 34-30 after an interception and run back by Elliot Haynes and a touch-down by Raleak Tanner. After claiming the Borough Championship, M.A.T. faced the winners from the Bronx, M.S. 298 for the NYC Championship. On a beautiful evening along the East River, the Manhattan champs jumped out to a 19-0 lead but the Bronx team brought the score to 32-27 with fi ve seconds left and had a chance to pull off the win. With one second on the clock and the ball in the air, Mikio LaCapra from M.A.T. came down with an interception and sealed the win for the Dragons.

“I could not have been more proud of the way our football team represented our school,” said DeMatteo. “They overcame setbacks and adversity and that is the mark of a true champion. Anyone can win and be

happy with their situation when the going is good, but to not fold under pressure and to keep the spirits of your teammates up when you’re down is a life lesson that our kids have learned. To get up when you’ve been knocked down. It happens in sports and I want our kids to understand that it will hap-

pen in life. They’re better off for learning these lessons now. They’re much better off by being student athletes at M.A.T.”

M.A.T. looks forward to its winter sports season, where it will once again look to be a powerhouse in boys basketball after fi nish-ing 24-1 last season.

There’s so much you want to see

Your daughter’s wedding Your son’s children

Tonight’s sunset

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Holiday vibe is cult-like

prices. “To offer these services is expensive. [The customers] have a right to be demand-ing,” Lechner said as he fl icked the ash from his cigarette onto the fl oor of the R.V.

He conducts business there on an average of 21 hours a day, calling the job a “cult-like dedication.” His co-workers refer to him as “Willie the Hat: Pontiff of SoHo.”

Parents with children and young couples strolled by the SoHo location last Sunday, several of them stopping by with the intent to buy.

“I’m not spending $200 on a Christmas tree,” said Wall Street resident James Fegarty, who is accustomed to paying $150 maximum in London, his hometown. SoHo Trees supervisor Daniel Kirby explained that these are premium plants that last fi ve or six weeks, rather than the typical two or three.

“This one was cut three days ago,” Lechner said, pointing to one in a large stack of wrapped-up trees.

Fegarty, who bargains for a living in the insurance business, managed to bargain down the price to $175 for a tree and a mixed-foliage, Fraser Fir wreath.

“I’m basically giving you the wreath for free,” Kirby said, hoping that the short-term fi nancial loss in the sale would turn Fegarty into a full-time customer.

The wreaths, like the trees, are mostly hand-sheered with machete knives at approx-imately 15 different tree farms around the country. They are cut to order and delivered to the sites by 18-wheeler trucks on a need-by-need basis. “We demand that our trees be as market-fresh as possible,” Lechner said. “And that’s no bull.”

Other passers-by were regulars that come back every year, willing to invest in an annual relic in the name of tradition. SoHo resident Carl Finegan put down $265 for an eight-foot tree, delivery service and a bottle of preservatives. “We’re going away for Christmas,” he said. “It’ll be good to have it when we get back.”

“It feels like a community place,” said Tribeca resident Rebecca Hunch, whose annual tree shopping at the company’s SoHo location has turned into a yearly routine with

her husband and two young children. “It’s fun that the kids remember this is where we get our tree.”

When asked whether the family would let SoHo Trees decorate their tree for them, she replied, chuckling, “Oh Gosh, no.” Unlike meals, when the family often resorts to takeout, she said, decorating the tree is one activity the family carves out time for.

“[Decorating] is part of the experience of it all,” said Kelly Connelly and her college roommates, who strolled by SoHo Trees wearing Santa Claus hats, pushing a shopping cart and boasting above-average bargaining skills. The college girls got their $115 tree reduced to $90.

SoHo Trees’ decorators bring in a small chunk of the profi ts for the company. Lechner hires young freelance artists like Alice Grant and Billy Gonzalez to dress the trees with lights and ornaments, an additional $50-to-$100 service.

“We’ll talk to the customer, and they’ll give us a few key words,” Grant explained, such as a color theme or lighting pattern. They also help out with some housekeeping tasks in the R.V., such as creating colorful labels for the ornaments on sale in a tent at the SoHo branch. The month-long job, she and Gonzalez said, is a good source of steady income.

Other members of the “cult-like” team, like Kirby, work 18-hour shifts. SoHo Trees is like a brotherhood, Kirby said, and an escape from a quiet life in Wasilla, Alaska.

“I feel like part of the family – [Lechner] is kind of like an older brother fi gure,” Kirby said.

Scott Gartland, nicknamed “little Scott,” has been doing it since he was 14 years old. He’s grown accustomed to not seeing his wife and children back home in upstate New York for a whole month, including Christmas Day. “This is what Christmas is to me,” he said. “It’s indoctrinated [in me] since I was a young age.”

He added it hurts a little more every year not to open Christmas gifts with his family.

Yet Gartland, like Kirby, returns every year.

“It’s a labor of love for us,” Lechner chimed in, between sales calls. “The money’s okay, the vibe is great.”


Downtown Express photos by Aline Reynolds

Willie the Hat: Pontiff of SoHo (left) busy at work in his R.V.; FiDi resident Kelly Connelly and her college roommates (top); Rebecca Hunch and her son, Todd (middle); and SoHo Trees’ Javier Echeveste (bottom) busy trimming.


Though it’s the tree at Rockefeller Center that usually hogs the spotlight this time of year, the tree lighting at the South Street Seaport last Friday had quit the fanfare and was spectacular in its own right. One could say it’s the dif-ference between the locals and the tourists that sets the traditions apart.

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BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER

HOLIDAY LIGHTS: Battery Park City’s traditional tree-lighting ceremony takes place on Thursday, December 2 from 5:45 p.m. to 7 p.m. in South Cove. Three Cedars of Lebanon trees will be outfi tted with multi-colored lights for the occa-sion. “They’re a very elegant, gracious tree,” said Abby Ehrlich, director of programming for the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, which runs the event. “The refl ection of the col-ored lights in the water of South Cove is quite magical.”

Santa Claus is always on hand for the tree lighting, and people bring unwrapped toys, books and clothing that are donated to Stockings With Care, a charity started by Battery Park City resident Rosalie Joseph to provide holiday gifts to children in crisis who would otherwise not have the fun holiday that so many children experience. (See last week’s Battery Park City Beat for more information about Stockings With Care.) “It’s sort of like you’re coming to a party where you bring something with you,” said Ehrlich. “What we’re asking is not something for each other but something for others who need things.”

Hot chocolate, hot cider and cookies will be served, and there will be caroling led by Suzze, Maggie and Terre Roche.

PS/IS 276 WINTER CARNIVAL: The PS/IS 276 Winter Carnival is scheduled for Sat., December 11 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at 55 Battery Place. There will be potluck food, carnival games and a holiday tag sale. The school would appreciate donations of new or gently used household items such as toys, books, kitchen items, small furniture and electronic gadgets but adds, “Sorry, no clothes, linens, or plush items at this time!” Place donations in the collection box at the school before December 9. For more information, contact Julie Brown at [email protected] or Magda at [email protected].

2 World Financial Center, 24-hour access: Tom Goodkind, a member of Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee, has secured what he calls “a small victory” for neighbor-hood residents. Brookfi eld Properties, which owns the World Financial Center, has agreed to keep the walkway in 2 World Financial Center open 24/7. This walkway connects Vesey Street on the north with Liberty Street on the south. “I recall fi ve years ago during a cold winter when my daughter and her friends from Bronx Science went to a late-night Battery Park City movie and then tried to walk from the north to the south,” Goodkind wrote in an e-mail. “The security guards told the girls that the World Financial Center was closed. The same occurred when I tried this winter to walk to my E train to work before 6 a.m. The guard would not let me through.”

At a recent Battery Park City Committee meeting at which Brookfi eld representatives were present (to talk about the Winter Garden staircase, which Brookfi eld says needs to be demolished), Goodkind asked about the 2 World Financial Center passageway and the Brookfi eld reps said the connection was open. However, said Goodkind, they later “e-mailed me to say that it actually is not open; they, of course, have always closed the walkways from midnight until 6 a.m.!” Goodkind said that he “insisted” via e-mails, with support from various Community Board 1 staff members, that the community needed access.” Last week, the request was heeded. “I received a very nice email from Brookfi eld telling me that due to my efforts, they are now going to keep

the walkways open 24/7,” said Goodkind. Just to be sure, he checked with the guards on duty. “’Yes,” they said. ‘You are now allowed in at all times — it’s a new rule we just heard about.’”

To comment on “Battery Park City Beat” or to leave Battery Park City information for possible use in the column, e-mail [email protected].

Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kruezer

Stockings With Care, a charity started by Battery Park City resident Rosalie Joseph, is the benefi ciary at this year’s tree lighting ceremony.


Dog owners feel slighted

dogs uptown, as pets are not permitted to ride in taxies, buses or trains.

“For people who don’t have cars, this is really unfortunate,” said Yee. ”Sometimes I rent a car to take Piper out to Prospect Park, and it can be costly.”

Plans for the lawn have not been published on the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy’s website, leaving many asking just what it is about the projected new lawn that will make it suddenly unfi t for canines.

“Conservancy and Parks have raised vari-ous issues they think will happen if they allow the dogs to run there,” said Galloway. “But

right now it’s a lot of hypothetical back-and-forth. The point of the trial is to observe what happens so we can make an intelligent deci-sion about whether it’s a good idea or not.”

As more apartment buildings go up, Galloway points out, the number of Downtown residents will increase — and so will the puppy population.

“Bringing our dogs to the lawn is a com-munity building activity. When you talk to the people that bring their dogs there, you fi nd they’ve met some of their best friends there,” he said. “Most people who have dogs have decided they’re going to put their roots down in this community. This type of group is something the community as a whole should value.”

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plaque and a quotation from Virgil’s Aeneid, which some families fi nd equally offensive. “They don’t have to see the bones. The fact that the space is being pointed out to the visitors makes it an exhibit,” said Glenn Corbett, a fi re science professor at John Jay

College and a member of the S.S.C.In the meantime, Regenhard and other

9/11 families will not be at peace until their loved ones’ remains are found and examined in what they consider to be a respectful space at the W.T.C. “All this feels like a knife in the heart,” she said. “The emotions are raw, and the feelings are wounded over and over again.”

Location could be problemContinued from page 5

Griffi th feels she would greatly benefi t from more individual instruction from teachers inside the classroom.

“If what [I.M.C.S.] is professing is one-on-one individual attention with a child, working with them on their goals… I think that’s huge,” Griffi th said.

Griffi th himself attended the Cambridge School of Weston, a small private school in Massachusetts, which he said had a wide vari-ety of subjects and an open-minded approach to learning. “I could involve myself in my edu-cational process, which I really really liked,” he said. Sending Ruby to a private school in New York City, however, is fi nancially not an option for him and his wife.

Yvette Rose, parent of Tyler Rose, who

attends P.S. 234, isn’t even aware of the D.O.E.’s regulations for its public schools. “He’s an innovative thinker — I don’t think he’ll excel as much as [he would] in a situation that’s new and fresh-thinking,” she said.

Rose added that her son is a bit shy in social settings, and would thrive in group projects and other collaborative work embed-ded in the I.M.C.S. curriculum.

D.O.E. spokesperson Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld said the D.O.E. would make a fi nal decision on the Tweed site in the next month or two. Meanwhile, I.M.C.S. awaits approval from S.U.N.Y., which Hoey requested in mid-November.

“I think it’s a tragedy that this all [results] in fi ghting over space,” Hoey said. “We’re all just trying to do wonderful things for the kids.”

The parents opposing I.M.C.S. agree.

Fighting over spaceContinued from page 4

servation Committee Chair Robert K. Sweeney echoed Silver and said, “Decisions regarding the safety of our water and air shouldn’t be made in haste, but should be the result of careful study and deliberation.”

If signed into law, the moratorium would remain in effect through May 15, 2011.

All parties are not happy about the mora-torium. Many gas companies have already

started to purchase leases in order to drill into the Marcellus Shale, located in upstate New York, and one of North America’s larg-est natural gas resources.

The Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York released a statement on Tuesday that said “politics” had “trumped facts” in the Assembly debate.

The I.O.G.A. of N.Y. claims the language of the bill could adversely affect jobs not con-nected to the Marcellus Shale debate and that are currently underway throughout the state.

Fracking moratoriumContinued from page 1


Trinity history highlighted

north churchyard, once the city’s public burial ground, is the site of the graves of two printers — English-born William Bradford (1663-1752) and German-born John Peter Zenger (1697-1746) — whose tussles with government helped establish freedom of the press in the United States. Some of the people in the graveyard are not as well known, but their tombstones refl ect major events in the city’s history. The tombstone of two brothers, Peter and John Huggeford, both doctors who died within 17 days of each other in 1795, for instance, bears wit-ness to the yellow fever epidemic that swept the city that year.

There are Revolutionary War soldiers in the graveyard, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, delegates to the Continental Congress and U.S. Congressmen and Senators. But towering over all, though his monument is far from the largest, is the memory of Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), whose tomb in the south church-yard describes him as a patriot, solder and statesman and rightly says that his “talents and virtues will be admired by grateful pos-terity long after this monument shall have mouldered into dust.” Hamilton — aide-de-camp to General George Washington, fi rst Secretary of the Treasury, founder of the Bank of New York, the U.S. Coast Guard and the New York Post, and architect of the fi nancial system that established the cred-ibility of the United States — was killed by Aaron Burr in a duel in July 1804.

Inside Trinity Church in what is called the “monument room” on the south side of the building is another testimonial to Hamilton created by his grief-stricken comrades in the Revolutionary War who called themselves The Society of Cincinnati — named for Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus who, 2,500 years ago, left his farm to lead Rome when the city was invaded, and who resigned his offi ce and returned to his farm when the crisis was over. George Washington was the

fi rst president of the society, and Hamilton, the second.

Across from the monument room, on the north side of the church is a small chapel — All Saints Chapel — where the Reverend Morgan Dix is buried. Reverend Dix (1827-1908) served as Trinity’s rector for 46 years. As the congregation grappled with whether it wanted to be “high church” and adhere to the imagery of Catholicism though not allegiance to the pope, or “low church” with less formality and ritualistic pomp, Reverend Dix came down on the side of “high church.” By the end of the 19th century, Trinity had decided in favor of “high church” but the fi ght was bitter.

The cenotaph of Rt. Reverend Benjamin T. Onderdonk (1791-1861), fourth bishop of New York, recalls that controversy. The bishop’s memorial, which fl anks All Saints Chapel, looks like it could have come out of Westminster Abbey as he lies in state with an angel at his head and a lion at his feet. In fact, in 1845, the bishop was tried by the Episcopal Church’s governing body. He was accused of “immorality and impropriety” — groping and fondling a number of young women. He was convicted and suspended, though some people said the bishop was innocent and had been found guilty because of his high church sym-pathies. Trinity Parish supported him through-out his ordeal; as archivist Gynedd Cannon remarked, his memorial was tantamount to a public slap in the face to those who had opposed and condemned the bishop.

The Lessons and Carols service on December 4 will be very “high church” with lots of pageantry and singing. “Lessons and Carols is a beloved Anglican liturgy that traces the birth of the Messiah from proph-ecy to fulfi llment in scripture and song,” Trinity says in a press release. “The tradi-tion is based on an inspiring Christmas Eve service that began in England in the 1880’s. During the 1900’s, the service grew into a vibrant rite fi lled with music.”

Those who would like to participate should arrive at the church at 3:30 p.m. in “festive attire” for the taping.


Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

Trinity Church parish, which was chartered in 1696-1697 by King William III of England, has had many famous and wealthy New Yorkers in its congregation, includ-ing members of the Astor family who paid for the elaborate marble reredos in the sanctuary.


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PENNY JONES & CO. PUPPETS Penny Jones & Co. Puppets present their own friend-ly, funny take on two classic tales. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” tells the familiar tale of an apprentice whose attempts to have others do his work results in predictable chaos when he tries magic instead of muscle. “The Fisherman & the Genie” has a humble fisherman catching a genie who grants a wish that soon finds the fisherman and his wife missing their frugal, simple life. There will also be a participatory Whale Game — in keeping with the nautical theme! Sun., Dec. 12, 11am & 1pm at the Westbeth Community Room (155 Bank St. btw. Washington and West Sts.). For tickets ($5), call 212-924-0525. Visit www.pennypuppets.org.

CHANUKAH WONDERLAND What happens for eight consecutive nights, is different each time, but always includes sizzling latkes, delicious donuts, menorah lighting, choco-late Chanukah gelt and prizes galore? The answer’s not exactly a brainteaser, given that this is a Chanukah (Hanukah?) listing. But one thing’s for sure — the fact that this par-ticular celebration is jam-packed with fun (and maybe some jam for those latkes?) is a no-brainer. “Chanukah Wonderland” is My Little School’s gift to you. Dec. 1 through Dec. 8. Locations, times, prices vary. For event details and registration, visit www.mylittle-schoolnyc.com.

DEAR EDWINA After debuting in 2008, scoring two Drama Desk nominations and enjoying a successful 2009 holiday season run, the musical “Dear Edwina” is fast becom-ing a seasonal family-friendly tradition in league with visiting the Macy’s windows and presenting a long wish list to a certain jolly fellow on temporary leave from the North Pole. This heartwarming show about the joys and frustrations of growing up. Has our spunky heroine, (advice-giver extraordinaire Edwina Spoonable) sharing he wisdom on everything from setting the table to making new friends. That it’s done through clever, 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.

Dec. 17 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 www.dearedwina.com for additional details and full playing schedule.

HANUKKAH CELEBRATION AND OPEN HOUSE The Educational Alliance Pre-school hosts this FREE Hanukkah event for Kids & Families. Come celebrate Hanuk-kah and learn about Educational Alliance programs for toddlers and preschoolers. Festivities will include Hanukkah arts & crafts, dancing, sing-a-longs, storytelling, dreidel games, kosher refreshments, tours of the Preschool and more. This year’s celebration will also feature a premiere screening of a new series called “Shalom Sesame” (from the creators of Sesame Street). “Chanukah: The Missing Meno-rah” finds that super-special blue monster Grover in stressing when his special friend Anneliese van der Pol (of “That’s So Raven” fame) gets caught in a game of tag with a chicken and loses her special menorah — just as Chanukah is about to begin! This first-ever communal viewing of the film, coordinated by the JCC Association, will be a special holiday treat for kids and parents alike. Sun., Dec. 5, 10:30 am to 1 pm at The Educational Alliance Preschool (197 E. Broadway. btw. Jefferson & Clinton Sts.). FREE. Appropriate for children age 6 and under. For info, call 646-395-4251 or visit www.edalliance.org/preschool. NOTE: The Preschool offers full day, half day, extended day and 2, 3, 5 day/week options. Financial aid is available. To learn more and set up a tour, please call 646-395-4250 or email [email protected]. Applications are due December 30th, 2010. The Preschool is located at 197 E. Broadway on the Lower East Side.

FIRST COMMUNITY MUSIC NIGHT Every Monday night, Manhattan Youth and Trin-ity Wall Street combine creative forces to bring you chamber music in a relaxed setting. Music lovers of all ages are invited to listen or get involved. If you play violin, viola or cello (and can read music), bring your instrument along and join the seasoned pros of the Trinity Chamber Players. Mondays, 7pm to 9pm, at the Great Hall (in the Downtown Community Center, 120 Warren St.). Call 212-766-1104 or visit www.manhattanyouth.org.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR EVENT LISTED IN THE DOWNTOWN EXPRESS? Listing requests may be sent to [email protected]. Please provide the date, time, location, price and a description of the event (at least three weeks in advance of the event date). Information may also be mailed to 145 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-1548. Requests must be received three weeks before the event is to be published. Questions? Call 646-452-2497.

Let’s do something togetherTrinity Wall Street

an Episcopal parish in the city of New York

Lea

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All events are free, unless otherwise noted.

trinitywallstreet.org · 212.602.0800

All Are Welcome

trinitywallstreet.org

community SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1pmThe Humanity of Supporting OthersThe Tribute WTC Visitor Center presents Susan Retik and Maureen Fanning, two women whose husbands died on September 11. Retik helps widows in Afghanistan; Fanning helps families with autistic children. 74 Trinity Pl

educationSUNDAY, DECEMBER 5, 10amMary: An Islamic PerspectiveWhat does the Koran say aboutJesus’ mother Mary? Led by Lucinda Mosher, Th.D., author and interreligious educator74 Trinity Pl, 2nd Fl Parlor

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5, 10:10–11amSunday School ClassesChildren learn to encounter God in their lives through music, crafts, and lively discussions. Pre K-5th grade, middle school, and high school.74 Trinity Pl, 3rd Fl

worshipSUNDAY, 8am and 10amSt. Paul’s ChapelAn energetic celebration of Communion in the round.

SUNDAY, 9am and 11:15am

Trinity ChurchWorship, preaching, and ceremony in the best Anglican/Episcopal tradition. Sunday school and child care available.

MONDAY – FRIDAY, 12:05pmHoly EucharistTrinity Church

THURSDAY, 5:15pmEvening Prayer All Saints’ Chapel(inside Trinity Church)

Watch online webcast

TRINITY CHURCHBroadway at Wall Street

ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL Broadway and Fulton Street

The Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, Rector The Rev. Canon Anne Mallonee, Vicar

music & the artsTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1pmConcerts at OneRose Ensemble Trinity Church

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1pmConcerts at OneAnna Tonna, mezzo-soprano and Rupert Boyd, guitarSt. Paul’s Chapel

special worshipSATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 3:45pmService of Lessons and CarolsThis Anglican liturgy traces the birth of the Messiah in scripture and song. This service will be taped for ABC affiliate stations.Trinity Church

YOUTHACTIVITIES

TRINITY YOUTH CHORUS: CAROLING CONCERTThe choirs of the Trinity Youth Chorus and the ISO-Trinity-Florentine Youth Orchestra (PS 89, PS 315, Chinatown-Florentine, Peppercorn, Junior and Senior Choristers) invite you to an informal concert of holiday music — with a reception in the Parish Hall after the concert. FREE. Fri., Dec. 17, 7-8pm at Trinity Church (Broadway at Wall St.). For info, call 212-602-0800 or visit www.trinitywallstreet.org.

Photo by Leo Sorel

The Trinity Youth Chorus gathers outside St. Paul’s.


BY TRAV S.D.November was such a busy month that

I only saw one show from last month’s col-umn: but I saw it 50 times. The show, of course, is Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” — playing at 3LD Art & Technology Center (www.3ldnyc.org) through December 10. I would love to give it a glowing review, but seeing as how I am in it that might be construed as more than usually biased. Therefore, we turn our attention to the virgin snows of December….

I am luridly expectant at the prospect of seeing “What She Knew” — playwright and critic George Hunka’s retelling of “Oedipus Rex” from Jocasta’s point of view. In this pro-duction, the “First of the Red Hot Mamas” will be played by Gabriele Schafer. Schafer is best known as one half of the company Thieves Theatre, which she ran for many years with her husband Nick Fracaro, and was most notorious for a theatre piece they did in the early 90s in which they lived in a

DOWNTOWN EXPRESSARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

Photo by Greg Cook

Susie Perkins carries a heavy burden (see Theater for the New City, page 23).

Baby, it’s Hot InsideDowntown theater brims with ideas brought to boiling point



teepee at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge for several months. More recently, I saw Schafer play both Hamlet’s father and mother in a Butoh-infl uenced version of the Shakespeare play (“Q1: The Bad Hamlet” — produced by New World Theatre). The hair-raising performances I saw makes me to think there couldn’t be a better person to do an “eroti-cally transgressive” one-woman show about Oedipus’s mother. The production is under the rubric of Hunka’s company, Theatre Minima, and will be playing at Manhattan Theatre Source, December 1-11. For more info: www.theatreminima.org.

I am also happy to report that Theatre Askew’s “Horatio’s Rise” — written and directed by Jason Jacobs — opens at The Cell (www.thecelltheatre.org) on December 1. Producer Tim Cusack has been doling out tidbits about the show to me for over a year knowing as he does of my abiding interest in all things 19th century. The titu-lar “Horatio” is, of course, Alger — author of scores of rags-to-riches novels that were considered inspirational in their day, if a bit preposterous in our own. In Jacobs’ play, a teacher introduces a wayward student to “Ragged Dick.”(Stop giggling now. I mean it!) From what I can glean, the play has seri-

ous overtones without ignoring the unavoid-able humor inherent in some of Alger’s work. Having enjoyed several of this com-pany’s productions, including “I, Claudius,” “Cornbury” and “A Night in the Tombs,” I feel comfortable giving this one an advance “thumbs up.” The run is just one week, end-ing on December 5. For tickets and info: www.theatreaskew.com.

November 2 through 11, the Incubator Arts Project will be presenting “Emancipatory Politics” — written and directed by Eric Bland and his company Old Kent Road Theater. I’d previously seen and enjoyed Bland’s “The Protestants” — which had its absurd aspects, but it looks as though he is embracing Incubator Arts’ experimental mandate and trying some new things, including puppets and “move-ment through the space” in this “collage-

like” story about a bunch of radical left-ists in Arizona (don’t they know that’s McCain country?) Of the cast, Becky Byers, Gavin Starr Kendall, Iracel Rivero, and Alexis Sottile are well-known and heavily endorsed by me. The others approved by association. The production will be at St. Mark’s Church. There’s more info available at www.incubatorarts.org.

Several shows at Theater for the New City this month tickle my fancy. First, there’s the annual return of the seminal Off-Off Broadway company Bread and Puppet Theater. This is the 39th year the com-pany has come back to TNC, and it’s always impressive to see those eerie, gigantic, medi-eval-looking puppets move about TNC’s cav-ernous Johnson Theatre. This year’s produc-tion is entitled “The Return of Ulysses to His Homeland and the Decapitalization Circus.” Hmm…. wonder if it will be political? The production runs December 2 through 19. Also opening on the 2nd is Matt Morillo’s “Angry Young Women in Low Rise Jeans with High Class Issues.” While its tagline, “Even though it’s a play, it doesn’t suck” strongly inclines me to throw their press release in the wastepaper basket, its prom-ise of “foxy, urban women” in (let us not forget) “low rise jeans” has convinced me to do the big thing and give the production a second chance. This is the show’s second NYC revival since its premiere in 2006, and it has been produced as far away as

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I am luridly expectant at the prospect of seeing “What She Knew” — playwright and critic George Hunka’s retelling of “Oedipus Rex” from Jocasta’s point of view.

Photo by Lee Wexler

In an experimental ant colony, a worker ant worships a Queen Ant after the Queen gives a motivational speech. See “Mapping Mobius.”



December Downtown Theater: Hot, Hot, Hot


December Theater

Australia, so someone must like it. “Angry Young Women” runs through December 12. “Dollface” — opening on December 23 — is less interesting for its concept (a Queens woman enrolls in a comedy class and then gets involved with a jewel heist) than for its personnel. Several of the collaborators have interesting music biz credits on their resumes. Co-composer Rob Hyman is a founding member of The Hooters and song-writer of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time.” His collaborator, David Forman, has writ-ten and recorded with Bette Midler, Cyndi Lauper, Aaron Neville, Jack Nitzsche, Ry Cooder, Maryann Faithfull, Levon Helm, Taj Mahal and others. “Dollface” runs through January 16. For info on all three of these shows as well as others at TNC, go to www.theaterforthenewcity.net.

“Mapping Mobius” at LaMaMa E.T.C.’s First Floor Theatre promises to be a trippy experience. Taking as its inspiration the eponymous, technically impossible “strip,” it’s supposed to describe what happens when a scientist delves into a model of his own mind, presumably winding up in some sort of feedback loop. Far out! (If the fuzz is reading this, I didn’t inhale.) At any rate, if you too want to have your mind blown, “Mapping Mobius” — by The New Stage Theatre Company (www.newstagetheatre.org) — is playing December 2 through the 19.

On December 6, Terranova Collective’s Groundbreakers Playwrights Group is pre-senting “Bug Out!” — a bill of ten-minute plays inspired by the word “bug.” If you’re not a fan of creeping insects, don’t fret. The organizers have given the artists wide latitude as to how to interpret their mandate and the products of their imaginations are just as liable to include irritated humans, or hidden record-ing devices. The quintet of young scribblers includes Lauren Feldman, Andrew Kramer, Nick Mwaluko, Leah Nanako Winkler, and Halley Feiffer (daughter of Jules and a mul-titalented artist in her own right. She not only writes, but acts. You may have seen her in “The Squid and the Whale”). “Bug Out” plays one night only, December 6, at HERE Arts Center. For more info, go to www.ter-ranovacollective.org.

December 7 through the 15, the Kraine Theater will be the site of “The Corporate Personhood Play Festival.” I like the name and the theme of this festival very much (it

refers to recent legal decisions that make it possible for corporations to commit all man-ner of calumnies under the pretense that they possess the same rights as individual human beings). The fest includes nine short plays in two separate bills, and to give you a fl a-vor, here’s a description of “Oh, Donna” by the excellent young playwright Lucille Scott Baker: “A young heiress (and friend of Paris Hilton) who has organic tendencies with organic juice and a few secrets, takes over the world’s third largest communications company.” I’m there! And lest there be any doubt about the subver-sive tendencies of this festival, all shows are FREE! Why, it’s downright un-American. “The Corporate Personhood Play Festival” is a co-production of Horse Trade Theater Group and The Subjective Theatre Company. More info at: www.subjectivetheatre.org.

Finally, I would be remiss in my duty as a corrupter of public morals if I didn’t recom-mend these sick, twisted holiday shows. December 3-11, one of the funniest perform-ers I know — Bradford Scobie — brings his “Moisty the Snowman Saves Christmas” to Dixon Place. This parody of Rankin-Bass holiday specials, penned by and starring Scobie, was a hit of last year’s NY Musical Theatre Festival (www.nymf.org) and also stars the great Murray Hill, among others. For info: www.dixonplace.org.

December 10-30, End Times Productions — the folks who brought you “Manson: The Musical” — return to Ace of Clubs with their 4th annual “Naked Holidays.” This “Yuletide Bacchanalia” promises an array of comedy sketches involving Adolph Hitler, the Tea Party, and, by my count, 13 scantily clad showfolk. Talk about roasting chestnuts! For tickets: www.endtimespro-ductions.org.

Over at PS122, December 15-19, you can catch “Brothers and Sisters and Motherf**kers.” This solo show — featur-ing one Jibz Cameron as Dynasty Handbag — takes us to a Handbag Family Holiday Dinner featuring “hatred, drugs, murder, spi-der, old babies, secrets, the devil, grandma and explosives.” For info: www.ps122.org.

And on December 14, don’t miss me as the titular slasher in “Jack the Ripper’s Holiday Spectacular” — along with my cho-rus of cuties, The Bleeedin’ Tarts, piano man Albert Garzon of Ixion Burlesque, country duo the Tall Pines, contortionist Amy Harlib, burlesque side show artist Foxxx Trot and music hall chanteuse Lorinne Lampert. It’s all at Bowery Poetry Club. Be there or be square! See you next year!

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BY STEPHANIE BUHMANNSince opening its doors to the public in 2004, the Rubin

Museum of Art has become the Western world’s premier institution for those seeking a comprehensive look at Himalayan culture.

But what does Himalayan art actually describe or entail? Is it strictly art of a Buddhist background? A visit to this engaging museum makes one point clear immediately: Himalayan art, as well as its geographic roots, are intriguing-ly diverse. Characterized by Tibetan, Nepalese and Kashmiri religious culture, it is infl uenced by Buddhism — but also by Hinduism, Bon and various other indigenous religions.

The fact that Himalayan art and culture enjoys an increasing popularity in the West is in part refl ected in the museum’s 100,000 annual visitors. Founded by the collec-tor Donald Rubin in 1999 as a nonprofi t institution, the museum not only focuses on establishing and preserving a permanent collection of artworks, but also on showcasing exhibitions that refl ect the vitality, complexity, and historical signifi cance of its fi eld of study. One of the fi rst revelations is that the Himalayan region is extensive and multi-faceted, comprising parts of Afghanistan, Myanmar, the Tibetan Plateau, Nepal, Kashmir, Bhutan, as well as the northern-most regions of India and Pakistan.

Governed by an independent board of directors, the museum’s mission entails the exploration of connections between Himalayan art and other world cultures. Along these lines, it aims to address a broad audience, including both specialized scholars and novices. It indeed serves as a serious international study center, as well as a tranquil place that can simply be enjoyed by all. In that sense, the Rubin functions as an institutional ambassador. It does not advocate a religion, but a rich culture that fi nds its artistic

expression through religious iconography and symbolism. By spreading enthusiasm for its subject, the museum hopes to achieve its ultimate goal — to help preserve a culture that counterbalances an increasingly fast-paced world that suffers from a global attention-defi cit disorder.

While succeeding in exuding an immediate sense of calm, the museum’s exhibition space is quite impressive. It spans six fl oors and about 25,000 square feet. A striking spiral staircase dominates its core, evoking a Mandala-like structure of a circle that is set within a square. The staircase organically connects the various fl oors, some of which are dedicated to the permanent collection and others to periodi-cally changing displays.

Structurally, it initiates a dialogue among Himalayan paintings, sculptures, textiles, ritual objects, and prints from the 2nd to the 20th centuries. All installations are organized with a focus on education and frequently feature comprehen-sive wall texts that supply the viewer with aesthetic, social, and historical contexts. The works on the second fl oor serve as an intentionally didactic introduction to the museum’s overall discourse.

The basics of Buddhist iconography and symbolism are presented in an easily accessible manner. Sculptures and works on paper (most of which were originally scrolled) feature Buddhas (enlightened persons), Bodhisattvas (awak-ened beings who aspire to attain enlightenment), Tantric Deities (deities who personify various enlightened qualities and can have many heads, arms and legs to symbolize their abilities), Wrathful Deities and Female Deities. Here one can learn about the meaning of postures, for example, which function as keys to the compositions.

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RMA Explores Buddhist Culture, Himalayan Art

Image courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Art

“Shakyamuni Buddha” — Tibet; 16th century. Pigments on cloth (44.25 x 35 in).


One realizes that a hand gesture tells you not only about intentions, but specifi es the identity of the fi gure engaging in it. A hand loosely pointing downward in fact “touches the earth” and signifi es Buddha calling the earth to witness his enlightenment. A hand pointed slightly upward expresses “do not fear” and a downward facing right hand with its palm turned towards the viewer implies a giving gesture, implying that wishes and blessing will be granted.

One of the most striking subjects that can be repeatedly found is the “Wheel of Life” or “Wheel of Becoming.” In most general terms, the “Wheel of Life” describes the strug-gles, pitfalls and stages on the road towards enlightenment. In these images, Yama, the Lord of Death, holds a large wheel in his mouth. Locked between Yama’s fangs, the wheel has several rings or compartments that show human fi gures and animals. These signify various stages of worldly existence — including hells, ghosts, animal realms, world of human beings and various gods. In its center are usually three animals, such as a pig, a rooster, and a snake. They symbolize what Buddhists call the three klesha (root delusions or mental affl ictions), namely igno-rance, attachment, and aversion. The fi gures on the right side are being led down in dark-ness, while those on the left side are led up in radiance and light. Stories of glorious or punishing worlds that await us after death exist in most religious traditions. However, in contrast to Christian and Muslim beliefs of Paradise as a fi nal state, Buddhism views it as only one station in the endless cycle of death and rebirth. At its ultimate, it is a place where fi nal enlightenment might be attained.

In addition to its permanent displays, it is through periodically changing exhi-bitions and innovative educational public programming that the Rubin encourages its audience to explore the artistic legacy of the Himalayan region and contextualize it. Its educational program includes a 10-session museum-school residency called “Thinking through Art,” which teaches students in grades K-12 basic art techniques using the art and culture of the Himalayan region. All in all, hundreds of lectures, discussions, fi lm screenings and musical performances are held throughout the year. This past November, one could witness the pioneering video artist Bill Viola discussing Buddhist references in his work with the Tibetan lama Ponlop Rinpoche, hear the British actor Brian Cox pondering existentialist questions, or watch famed fi lm director Mike Nichols addressing the emptiness in contemporary American life and art. In December, Robert Wilson and Laurie Anderson, among many others, will take part in public panels at the museum.

Recently, the museum has begun to include contemporary exhibitions in its rep-ertoire, revealing its commitment to bridg-ing the past and the future. At times, these contemporary programs bring together seemingly unconnected themes to exem-

plify the universality of Himalayan ideas. For example, Harlem in the Himalayas (now in its third season, occurring on select Friday evenings and presented with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem) features renowned jazz artists who are asked to play at least one piece inspired by a work of art in the museum during their performance.

Until April 11, 2011, the Rubin will present works by fi ve artists of different gen-erations and ethnicities, working between 1960 and the present. All of these artists have contemplated the fl eeting nature of all things. Here, color photographs by the South Korean Atta Kim stand out. Employing a long exposure technique that in the case of a street in New Delhi, for example, leaves the architectural details crisp and the street action a mysterious blur. Kim addresses Buddhist notions of impermanence and the impossibility of grasping the true essence of a subject.

Considering the Rubin’s extensive out-reach to its surrounding communities, one could not think of a better place for it than New York City. While the vibrancy of the diverse communities found in the Himalayas are surely unique, it certainly fi nds a tasteful refl ection in our multi-faceted metropolis.

The Rubin Museum of Art is located at 150 W. 17th St. (btw. Sixth & Seventh Aves.). Hours: Mon. & Thurs, 11am-5pm. Wed., 11am-7pm. Fri., 11am-10pm. Sat. & Sun., 11am-6pm. Admission: $10. $7 for seniors, middle/high school students, artists & neighbors in zip codes 10011 & 10001. For college students, $2 (with ID). Children & RMA members, free. Gallery admission is free every Friday from 6-10pm. For seniors, gallery admission is free on the fi rst Monday of the month. For info, call 212-620-5000 or visit www.rmanyc.org.

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Photo by Peter Aaron/Esto, courtesy of the Rubin Museum

RMA’s spiral staircase evokes the Mandala’s “structure of a circle that is set within a square.”

Buddhist Culture


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UNSILENT NIGHT 2010Phil Kline’s annual holiday event takes place in more

than 27 cities around the world — and with a stat like that, you know NYC is among the unusual suspects. “Unsilent Night 2010” — the local version — is cel-ebrating its 19th year of gracing our good town with a boombox parade that defies description, logic and expectations. This participatory experience lets march-ers become their own roving sound sculpture — as they swarm through the streets of the Village blaring record-ings on cassettes, CD’s, mp3’s and, of course, the hum-ble but proud boombox. Kline describes the experience as “like a Christmas caroling party except we don’t sing, but rather carry boomboxes, each playing a separate tape or CD which is part of the piece. In effect, we become a city-block-long stereo system.” Free. Sat., Dec. 18, 7pm. Gather at the arch in Washington Square Park, and less than an hour and mile later, end up in Tompkins Square Park. For info, visit www.unsilentnight.com.

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HOLIDAY RECORD & CD SALEThe ARChive of Contemporary Music’s Holiday Record

& CD sale helps support the ARChive — a not-for-profi t music library which collects, preserves and provides infor-mation on popular music from 1950 to the present (ARC keeps two copies of all recordings released in America, and their collection numbers over two million sound recordings). There will be over 20,000 items for sale — but don’t worry about depleting the permanent collection. The items are new donations from record companies and collectors, and there’s

not a used, returned or defective product in the bunch. What you will fi nd, though, will be mostly pop and rock record-ings, collectible LPs priced below book value, hundreds of CDs priced at $1 to $5 each and cassettes 4 for $1.00. Not enough? There will also be many hard to fi nd 7” singles, shelves of new music books, African, reggae & world-music releases, classical LPs (most for 50¢ or LESS), videos, 60s psychedelic posters, and Sony Yule log DVDs (just released by Johnny Cash, Mariah Carey and Kenny Chesney, for $5 each). For the dis-en-vinyled, ARChive’s newly-departed

food stylist neighbors left behind “TONS of high-end and everyday kitchenware.” Support the ARChive mission by becoming a member, and you’ll shop the sale before the gen-eral public and be welcomed at their Dec. 9 cocktail party. For membership details and other info, call 212-226-6967, visit www.arcmusic.org and check out their blog (arcmusic.wordpress.com). The sale takes place Sat., Dec. 11 through Sun. Dec. 19, daily from 11am to 6pm. At 54 White St. (3 blocks south of Canal, btw. Broadway & Church. Take the 1 train to Franklin, or any train to Canal).

NUTCRACKER IN THE LOWERLike a fruitcake wrapped in ribbons and given to you

annually by your least favorite relative, self-professed “daring and new” productions of “The Nutcracker” come our way every year and immediately proceed to overstay their welcome. So get a jump on the holiday glut of medio-cre productions and get your bad Downtown-minded self to the limited-time-only Urban Ballet Theater version. “Nutcracker in the Lower” brims with salsa, krumping and hip-hop. The party scene, traditionally depicted as an opulent 19th-century Ball, becomes a holiday salsa party. Native American and African styles reinvent the Angels’ and Arabian divertissements of the second act — with enough classical ballet to retain the ballet’s traditional fl avor (Tchaikovsky’s original score remains largely intact throughout).

Performances are Dec. 1, 2, 3 at 7:30pm, Dec. 4 at 3 & 7:30pm and December 5 at 3pm. To purchase tickets ($20), visit www.theatermania.com or call 212-352-3101. Group & family discounts are available. At Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement (466 Grand St. at Pitt). Visit www.abron-sartscenter.org and www.urbanballettheater.org. Photo by Isaac Rosenthal

Chelsea Rittenhouse and Andres Gonzales.

HOLIDAY EVENTS AT THE MERCHANT’S HOUSEDo you pine for a holiday experience that harkens back to

those days of old — as in, say, the mid-19th century? If so, look no further than the Merchant’s House Museum. Built in 1832, MHM exists year-round as a lovingly curated time capsule offering a glimpse into the lives — and mindset — of the prosperous merchant-class Tredwell family (whose vari-ous members occupied the house for nearly a century).

Dec. 2 through Jan. 10, the exhibition “Christmas Comes to Old New York” uses recreated scenes of holi-day preparation to reveal how modern holiday customs came to be. Included with regular museum admission ($10, $5 for students/seniors). Tues., Dec. 7 from 6-8pm, the “19th-Century Holiday Party” lets you enjoy holiday decorations, savor festive delicacies, drink from the “Bowl of Bishop” and join in the caroling. $25, free for MHM

members. Reservations required. On Fri., Dec 10 at 7pm, “To All, Wassail: A Concert of 19th-Century Holiday Songs & Stories” features The Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society (MHM artists-in-residence) in a concert of vocal quartets, solos, holiday readings and sing-alongs ($25, $15 for MHM members). Reservations required. On Dec. 17, 18 & 19, “An Old Fashioned Christmas in New York: Tours by Candlelight” offers tours beginning every 20 minutes, Fri., 6-9pm, Sat. & Sun., 4-8pm. The halls will be decked and the rooms lit by fl ickering candlelight as costumed actors relate the Christmas tradition of mid-19th century New York ($20, $15 for children 12 & under, $10 MHM members.). All events take place at the Merchant’s House Museum (29 E. Fourth St. btw. Lafayette & Bowery). For info and reservations, call 212-777-1089 or visit www.merchantshouse.org.


D O W N T O W N N Y. C O M / H O L I DAY

12-1-10 DE

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