August 14, 2009 Downtown Express

Downtown Express photo by Elisabeth Robert

Two of the “BlackBerry” kittens who were born recently in the Goldman Sachs building under construction in Battery Park City. They and two of their siblings are up for adoption. The mother and a fi fth kitten are missing.

BY JULIE SHAPIRO City Councilmember

Alan Gerson fi nally won the chance to run for reelection this week when a State Supreme Court judge reversed a Board of Elections ruling.

“I’m very gratifi ed,” Gerson said once he fi n-ished shaking his support-ers’ hands outside Judge Edward Lehner’s courtroom Wednesday afternoon. “It’s full speed ahead.”

The only thing that could stop Gerson now is an appeal by Pete Gleason, one of his four opponents in the Sept. 15 Democratic primary. Raymond Dowd, Gleason’s lawyer, plans to bring the case to the

Appellate Division on Tuesday.

But after Judge Lehner’s decision Wednesday, Gerson sounded confi dent that the embarrassing ques-tion of whether he would be allowed a spot on the ballot after spending eight years in offi ce had been laid to rest.

Gerson first ran into trouble two weeks ago when the Board of Elections refused to let him on the ballot because his campaign made a series of mistakes on the qualifying petitions. Gerson submit-ted about 7,000 signatures to support his candidacy, far more than the 900 required, but on some of

BY ALBERT AMATEAUAND LINCOLN ANDERSON

The disastrous collision of a sightseeing helicop-ter and a private plane off of W. 14th St. over the Hudson River on Saturday prompted elected offi cials to demand regulation of the air corridor over the river and prompted Hudson River Park advocates to insist on an end to tourist helicopter fl ights.

The accident, in which nine people perished, occurred at an altitude of

1,100 feet, which is 1 foot below the ceiling at which air space is controlled by the Federal Aviation Administration and, thus, an area where safety depends on pilots’ vigilance.

The helicopter originated from the W. 30th St. heli-port. Located on Hudson River Park property, the heliport has long been the target of neighbors and park advocates because of noise and engine fumes. Moreover, the 30th St. heli-port is the subject of a 2008

Gerson can run after all, judge rules

With 9 dead in the Hudson, copters come under fi re again

BY JULIE SHAPIRO The fi rst tenant of the new Goldman

Sachs tower paid no rent and signed no lease when she moved in this spring.

Pregnant with quintuplets, she com-mandeered just a few square feet of space in the 43-story skyscraper that is nearing completion. It was not the prime real estate with river views, but rather an alcove tucked between two sheets of plywood at the tower’s base.

There, unnoticed by the interna-

tional banking fi rm, the black cat built a bed of newspaper and cardboard boxes. At the end of June, when her new home was ready, she brought fi ve inky black kittens into a noisy world of jackhammers and backhoes.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” said Silkey, a traffi c fl agger for the Goldman site, who discovered the kittens. Silkey, who goes by a single name, noticed the pregnant cat trot-ting across Murray St. this spring and

started feeding her before the kittens were born. Local workers asked Silkey about the cat and soon several people were taking turns buying food.

“A lot of people here love cats,” Silkey said as she waved cars down Murray St. this week. “You don’t want to see nothing happen to them.”

Silkey and others cared for the cat and kittens as best they could, but

Kittens born inside Wall Street’s biggest lion

Continued on page 3

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downtown express®

VOLUME 22, NUMBER 14 THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN AUGUST 14 - 20, 2009

FRINGE FEST BEST BETS, P. 24

August 14 - 20, 20092 downtown express

FITERMAN COMING DOWNThe long-awaited work to take down Fiterman Hall has

been going on for a few weeks now. So far it’s been largely invisible from the street, but soon passersby will begin noticing pieces of the damaged Borough of Manhattan Community College building just north of the World Trade Center site coming down, said Benn Lewis, vice president of Airtek Environmental Corp., the project’s consultant.

“This week there might be something visible from below,” Lewis told UnderCover.

MURAL COMPETITIONDowntowners who complain about the unsightliness of

the World Trade Center construction now have the chance to do something about it. The Port Authority and the city are holding a design competition for a mural that will cover the Church St. fence between Liberty and Vesey Sts.

The high-visibility mural has to be bold and colorful and should optimistically refl ect “the vibrancy of the thriving Downtown commercial and residential neighborhood,” the guidelines state. Perhaps because it would be hard to show any optimism right now about the site’s future, the guidelines add that the mural should “not address the future construc-tion or development of the site.” Renderings blanketing other parts of the site still show offi ce towers that likely won’t be built anytime soon because of the bad economy and the impasse between the Port and developer Larry Silverstein.

The mural application, available at nyc.gov/urbanart, is due Oct. 1. The mural will go up on the vinyl mesh panels along Church St. in December and will stay up at least until November 2010.

GERSON REPRIMANDEDEven supporters of City Councilmember Alan Gerson

have been known to complain about his long-windedness. Usually, his listeners can do little more than wait until he

fi nishes, but Gerson found himself with a much less receptive audience last Thursday at a hearing about his inability to get on the ballot for reelection.

Referee Leslie Lowenstein, who heard the case, grew impatient when Gerson repeatedly embroidered answers to what should have been direct, yes-or-no questions.

“Mr. Gerson, we went through this the other day,” Lowenstein said as Gerson testifi ed for the second time. “I want you to answer the question. There is no need for embel-lishment. This is not a speech-making forum. This is nothing of that sort. This is a proceeding under law. Respond to the

questions and that’s the end of it.” “Yes, sir,” Gerson replied, but he found it hard to break

himself of the habit of long responses, and soon found himself in hot water again. “Sorry, your Honor, it is a hazard of my trade,” Gerson said when Lowenstein stopped him again.

Lowenstein was not pleased and continued to remind Gerson to keep it brief throughout the rest of his testimony.

FERTILE CROWDA fundraiser for the Fertile Grounds Project, an educational

nonprofi t, brought 200 people to the Soho apartment of Aaron Rosenstein last Thursday night, where they danced into the wee hours of the morning and raised about $25,000.

The money will cover full scholarships for 20 teenagers to attend a two-week creative arts summer camp, said Avram Turkel, who sits on the organization’s advisory board. Turkel is a candidate for Democratic district leader running against Paul Newell.

Turkel got involved in Fertile Grounds through Rosenstein, his friend since second grade, and went to Stuyvesant High School with the organization’s co-founder, Becky Raik.

“We’re all looking for an avenue to help out,” Turkel said. It sounds like the party’s cocktails and cannolis didn’t hurt either.

MARKET RETURNSThe New Amsterdam Market is returning to South Street

Seaport with a lineup of four dates this fall. Robert LaValva, founder of the market, planned the dates

to coincide with major city events. The market’s opening day will be Sun., Sept. 13 in celebration of Harbor Day, part of the Henry Hudson quadricentennial. Farmers and purveyors will line up along South St. between Beekman St. and Peck Slip, selling fresh produce, local meats and dairy products and more. The market is scheduled to return on three addi-tional Sundays: Oct. 25, Nov. 22 and Dec. 20.

The New Amsterdam Market previously held two popular one-day market events in the Seaport. This market is sepa-rate from the twice-a-week Fulton Stall Market that Seaport owner General Growth Properties opened in May, which has been struggling to stay afl oat. That market cut out its Friday hours last month and is now down to just Saturdays.

LaValva said it was too early to write off the Fulton Stall Market, since even the gargantuan Union Square Greenmarket took years to get off the ground.

COSMOPOLITAN HOTELThe new designs for the Cosmopolitan Hotel addition

look a lot like the old designs, which could be why the Landmarks Preservation Commission did not hold a hearing on the plans that was scheduled for Tuesday.

Back in June, architect Matthew Gottsegen showed the commission his plan for a new six-story building next to the Cosmopolitan at Reade St. and W. Broadway — replacing the squat Mary Ann’s restaurant building that’s there now — and the commissioners called the design “bland.”

New designs sitting just outside the commission’s hearing room Tuesday showed few changes: The new building is still orange brick with a glassy storefront and a barely articulated corner. The biggest change is that the brick now goes all the way up to the top fl oor, replacing the gray painted aluminum that wrapped the so-called “attic” fl oor in the earlier design. The glass storefront also has more pronouced columns, coated in what looks like ribbed glass.

Gottsegen made some changes to the Cosmopolitan building as well, now proposing to get rid of the hunter green awnings that went up over the storefronts a few years ago.

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EDITORIAL PAGES . . . . . . . . . . 20-21

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Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

CLARIFICATIONThe news article “Gerson’s opponents make the bal-

lot, but he’s kept off another week” (Aug. 7-13) unclear-ly stated the position of Raymond Dowd, a lawyer representing Pete Gleason. Based on Dowd’s testimony at an Aug. 4 hearing, we reported that Dowd accused incumbent City Councilmember Alan Gerson’s of pur-posely falsifying his address on his qualifying petitions. At a subsequent hearing last Thursday, after Downtown Express went to press, Dowd was given time to more fully argue his position, which is that Gerson’s campaign knew about the address mistake on the petitions before the campaign submitted the signatures to the Board of Elections. Dowd also argued that when the board caught the mistake, Gerson’s campaign tried to blame all the problems on the petition printer when really the campaign was more responsible. Gleason is challenging Gerson in the Democratic primary Sept. 15.

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the pages his address was listed incorrectly as 1505 LaGuardia Pl., instead of 505 LaGuardia Pl.

The Board of Elections called Gerson’s campaign in to fix the problem, but the volunteer elections lawyer who responded forgot to sign and date the amended cover sheet on the petitions, according to Gerson. The campaign says the volunteer realized his mistake and submitted a sec-ond amended cover sheet, but the Board of Elections refused to accept it, saying a candidate only has one chance to correct a mistake.

Lehner decided that the Board of Elections should have given Gerson a sec-ond chance to fix his mistake — the “one chance” policy is merely a matter of the board’s practice and is not written into the law. The second amended cover sheet put Gerson “in substantial compliance” with the law, Lehner said.

“The candidate should have the right to correct an error,” Lehner said.

Lehner also considered the arguments of Dowd, Gleason’s lawyer, who said Gerson should be disqualified because his campaign committed fraud on the peti-tions. While the address mistake was ini-tially a printer’s error, Dowd argued that Gerson’s campaign responded by covering up the error and lying about it rather than fixing it.

Lehner did not agree. “It wasn’t fraud at all,” Lehner said. “It

was an error.” Lehner called the Gerson campaign’s errors “minuscule.”

Lehner based his decision on the hour and a half of testimony he heard Wednesday and also on the opinion of referee Leslie Lowenstein, whom Lehner appointed to hear lengthier arguments last week. Lowenstein, too, discounted

Dowd’s accusations of fraud and thought Gerson should be on the ballot.

Lehner, though, criticized Lowenstein on one point. Lowenstein did not let Dowd cross-examine Gerson during the hearings last week, and Dowd should have had that chance, Lehner said. Dowd said he could have proved his fraud case if he’d been allowed to ask Gerson “lead-ing questions,” which are not allowed in a direct examination, but Lehner disagreed saying the error was not fatal to Dowd’s case.

Dowd plans to make the cross-exami-nation issue a large part of his appeal.

Dowd tried to prove that there was fraud and that it was directly attributable to Gerson, but Lehner said he didn’t make the case.

Specifically, Dowd focused on one vol-ume of petitions collected by the Harry S. Truman Democratic Club. The seven pages of signatures, a small fraction of

the total number collected by Gerson’s campaign, originally had the incorrect address and then were modified by hand. The Board of Elections sent a letter to Gerson on July 22 asking when and how the addresses were changed, but Gerson never responded directly, Dowd said.

During testimony last week, Renee Abramowitz, one of the signature collec-tors for the Truman club, said she never modified the address on the petitions. But when the Board of Elections received her petitions, the address was changed to the correct one and the change was initialed “RA.” Abramowitz said she had not writ-ten her initials there.

Jessica Loeser, president of the Truman club, said she corrected some of the addresses after people had already signed the petitions, but she put her own initials when she did so.

Abramowitz’s testimony also raised eyebrows because of the connections she described between politics and her job at the nonprofit United Jewish Council of the East Side. Abramowitz said she regu-larly receives signature collection assign-ments on her desk at work, and when she’s done she turns them in to her boss. The Daily News reported that U.J.C. received $16,000 in discretionary money from Gerson the last two years.

In addition to these issues, Dowd pointed out on Wednesday that when Gerson’s volunteer lawyer submitted the amended cover sheet, the volunteer included the flawed seven-page volume of petition signatures from the Truman club, even though it was clear that the Board of Elections had a problem with it.

Lehner agreed that it wasn’t smart for Gerson’s lawyer to include the problem volume, especially because Gerson had more than enough signatures without it.

“I would guess that if you had to do it over, you would drop that volume,” Lehner said. Still, he did not agree with Dowd that Gerson’s actions constituted fraud.

After Lehner gave his decision Wednesday, Gerson said the worst part of the whole matter was that many of his vol-unteers told him over the past week that they never want to carry petitions again.

“It discourages grassroots participa-tion,” Gerson said of petitions chal-lenges.

Asked if he now felt differently about his decision to challenge Gleason’s peti-tions back in 2003, the first time Gleason ran against him, Gerson called the ’03 race “ancient history.”

Gerson added that he challenged Gleason back then because he thought Gleason did not have enough petition signatures, which he thinks is a more fundamental and important issue than the ones Gleason raised over the past two weeks.

Gerson said all the time he has spent in court recently has not set back his cam-paign. He said that while he spent some of Wednesday’s 90-minute hearing listening to the lawyers’ arguments, he spent much of the time thinking about unrelated dis-trict business. He added that it was nice to have a solid block of time to sit and think, uninterrupted by his cell phone.

[email protected]

Gerson wins place on the ballotJanuar y 19 - 25, 2009

Continued from page 1

‘It wasn’t fraud at all. It was an error.’

Judge Lehner

BY JULIE SHAPIRO Margaret Chin dropped her challenge

against fellow City Council candidate PJ Kim this week after it became clear that she had little chance of knocking Kim off the ballot.

A. Joshua Ehrlich, Chin’s lawyer, had accused Kim’s campaign of fraud in the collection of petition signatures. Although Kim submitted about 5,500 signatures, well over the 900 required, Ehrlich had argued 5,000 were invalid.

“I’m happy we can fi nally focus on the issues in the campaign,” Kim said after Ehrlich withdrew his claim. He accused Ehrlich and Chin of “perverting the judi-cial system of political purposes” and said their actions amounted to harassment.

Leslie Lowenstein, a court-appointed referee who heard the case last week, found no evidence that Kim or his campaign committed fraud. Lowenstein’s job was to hear arguments from both sides and then give an opinion to State Supreme Court Judge Edward Lehner, who was to decide the case. Lowenstein recommended that the judge not only keep Kim on the ballot,

but also that the judge sanction Chin and Ehrlich for bringing a “frivolous” lawsuit.

Lowenstein made his recommendation on Tuesday and Judge Lehner was sched-uled to make a decision on Wednesday. But just beforehand, Ehrlich withdrew his complaint against Kim, which meant the judge did not have to rule on it at all.

Lehner took the opportunity of Wednesday’s hearing to criticize Chin and Ehrlich for bringing the suit, but he decid-ed not to issue sanctions against them because he did not see “real, deliberate bad actions.”

Still, Lehner said the suit “probably should not have been brought” and added, “Maybe, Mr. Ehrlich, you’ll reconsider this type of [petition] in the future.”

After the hearing, Ehrlich said he dis-agreed with the judge and that Kim’s signatures had serious problems. He previ-ously argued that the signature witnesses for Kim’s petitions either forged their names or committed other fraud. Ehrlich said his case was hampered by the fact that only nine of the 29 witnesses he sub-poenaed showed up at the referee’s hearing

last week. Kim said his lawyer never got a copy of the subpoenas, though Ehrlich said he sent them.

Kim and Chin are just two of the four candidates challenging incumbent Councilmember Alan Gerson for his seat in the Sept. 15 Democratic primary. Earlier in Wednesday’s hearing, Lehner granted

Gerson’s request that he be placed on the ballot, after the Board of Elections previ-ously removed him.

A critic of what he called “draconian” election law, Lehner appeared pleased at the end of Wednesday’s hearing that he had allowed all fi ve of the candidates a chance to run.

Kim remains in the race after Chin’s ‘frivolous’ lawsuit

Downtown Express and its sister pub-lication, The Villager, are sponsoring a forum for the primary candidates in the District 1 City Council race on Mon., Aug. 17, at Pace University. All fi ve Democratic candidates in the race for the Lower Manhattan seat have confi rmed their atten-dance. They are City Councilmember Alan Gerson, Pete Gleason, Margaret Chin, Arthur Gregory and PJ Kim.

The forum will be held at 1 Pace Plaza, entrance at Spruce St. near Gold St., in the multipurpose room. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and seating is limited. The

forum, which is free and open to the pub-lic, will start promptly at 7 p.m. and end about 8:30 p.m.

The co-moderators, Josh Rogers, asso-ciate editor of Downtown Express, and Lincoln Anderson, the associate editor of The Villager, will ask the questions, which will include some written by attendees. Readers can also email question sugges-tions appropriate for all five candidates to [email protected] (put “Forum Question” in the headline) or mail them to Downtown Express at 145 Sixth Ave., NY, NY 10013.

Express sponsors candidates’ forum


Arrest in bank robberiesDetectives from the Manhattan Major

Case Squad arrested Frank Bonacorso, 48, a Chelsea resident, on Wed. Aug. 5 and charged him with robbing fi ve banks and attempting to rob two others in Lower Manhattan, Soho, Greenwich Village, the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side between June 17 and July 22.

The suspect was charged with passing notes to the tellers in the seven banks. He hit the Valley National branch on 434 Broadway near Howard St. at 2:10 p.m. on July 21 but fl ed when the teller refused to hand over any money, according to the complaint fi led by the Manhattan District Attorney’s offi ce. Twenty minutes later he passed a note to a teller at the Emigrant Savings branch at 110 Church St. near Park Pl. and again fl ed when the teller refused to give him money, accord-ing to prosecutors.

But he stole $3,060 from the HSBC branch on Sixth Ave. at Waverly Pl. on July 22, the complaint charges. On June 17 the suspect hit the HSBC branch on Third Ave. at 68th St. and made off with $500, and on June 23, he stole $1,410 from the TD branch on Columbus Ave. at W. 86th St. On June 29 he robbed the HSBC branch at 45 E. 89th St

of $977 and on July 6 he stole $1,500 from the Country Bank branch at Second Ave. at 48th St., the complaint says. Bonacorso was being held in lieu of bail pending a court date next week.

Gang assaultA group of men confronted a victim, 41,

on Bowery and Prince St. around 10:50 p.m. Sat., Aug. 8 and one of them snatched his iPod, police said. The victim tried to take it back but the attackers hit him with beer bottles and left him bleeding from a head laceration, police said.

Chinatown scam Authorities on Aug. 6 arrested Tong Hui

You and Xiao Ling Chen, who had offi ces fi rst at 9 E. Broadway and currently at 15 Division St., for illegally practicing law and operating a fraudulent immigration consul-tation service.

The defendants were indicted for grand larceny, fraud, practicing as an attorney without being admitted to the bar and violating the city’s Immigration Assistance Services Law. The indictment is the fi rst time the city immigration law has been criminally

enforced, according to a spokesperson for District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

The indictment says that Chen, known as Linda Chen, was the president of Da Bure Immigration Consultation where You, known as Kevin, purported to be a law-yer and represented that he had special connections in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency and the U.S. Embassy in China.

The defendants took $4,840 from a cli-ent, promising that relatives in China would get immigration approval within six months and that relatives in the U.S. would receive green cards. The promises were false and the victim went to a Chinatown civic group, which referred the victim to the District Attorney’s offi ce.

Tribeca muggingTwo suspects approached a victim, 25, on

W. Broadway south of Canal St. around 1:30 a.m. Fri, Aug. 7, asked him for cigarettes, then pushed him to the pavement and grabbed his camera bag and fl ed, police said.

Burglary on PrinceA burglar broke into a Michael Kors

boutique at 101 Prince St. at Mercer St. around 5:30 a.m. Fri., July 7 and made off with bags and sunglasses valued at $13,000, police said. A security guard at the Apple store next door was called away for a moment to admit an employee through a side door and returned to fi nd the glass door of the boutique broken and a blue sedan being driven away, according to reports.

Seat belt leads to arrestPolice stopped a black Jeep at the north-

east corner of Clarkson and Washington Sts. at 11:40 a.m. Fri., July 31 because the driver was not wearing a seat belt. Police say the driver, Charles Rhodie, 46, had no documen-tation for the vehicle and it had been listed as stolen. Rhodie was charged with posses-sion of stolen property.

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POLICE BLOTTER

After 140 years, the foot-long water main that resided at the intersection of West Broadway and Duane St. fi nally had its fi ll, bursting for the fi rst time since 1870 at 2:30 a.m. last Friday. The break caused fl ooding in15 residential and offi ce buildings, several of which were promptly evacuated.

Although many were stuck standing on the sidewalk during the wee morning hours, others in the neighborhood didn’t even know about the incident until they saw it on the news.

“I just had to walk an extra block out of the way. They got it fi xed really quickly,” said Annouchka Engel, who lives on Murray St. and West Broadway. “This morning there was water everywhere, and now it’s almost all cleared up.”

Local businesses, however, were instantly faced with devastating, unavoidable damages.

“The majority of our stock is damaged, as well as a lot of our electronic equipment, but the city is going to compensate us,” said Dajuah Morgan, assistant manager of the American Apparel store at 140 West Broadway. Once the basement had fi lled with water, as much as

$50,000 worth of merchandise was badly dam-aged, but she predicted that the store would re-open again early that evening.

The telecommunication building at 60 Hudson St., a longtime concern among residents because of its diesel fuel storage, experienced several feet of fl ooding in the basement.

The repairs shut down West Broadway from Reade St. to Worth St., Thomas St. and Duane St., and Church St. from Worth St. to Reade Street, but by around 2 p.m., almost every street had been reopened, tenants were allowed back into their buildings, restaurants were serv-ing, and traffi c was fl owing.

“It happens in every city,” said Michael Saucier, spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Protection, noting that the department spends $20-30 million each year replacing old watermains before they break. As he watched the dozens of Con-Ed workers milling about West Broadway, Saucier astutely resolved, “You can’t get to them all, though.”

— Helaina N. Hovitz

Water main fl oods W. Broadway

downtown express August 14 - 20, 2009 5

Two dozen of the big onesOn Wednesday construction crews started to place 24 of the largest steel columns yet for One World Trade Center, also called the Freedom Tower. The 70-ton, 60-foot-long columns will allow the fi rst fl oors to be built out for what will be a 1,776-foot building. The Port Authority is constructing the offi ce building as the bitter fi nancial dispute with Silverstein Properties continues while a few hundred feet away, Silverstein remains at work building 4 W.T.C. despite the lack of progress in the talks.


BY JULIE SHAPIRO Sixty people lost their homes when the

city emptied a crumbling Chinatown tene-ment last week.

City inspectors decided last Wednesday that the building, 128 Hester St., was in dan-ger of collapsing and immediately ordered the rent-protected tenants to leave.

“It’s so horrible,” Alice Jean, a 52-year-old tenant, said the next day. “Suddenly, we are homeless.”

This is just the latest Chinatown build-ing to be vacated because of a combination of owner neglect and city inaction, and the community activists and elected offi cials who spoke out immediately afterward said real changes are needed.

“There is a growing sense of outrage,” Borough President Scott Stringer said at a press conference held by Asian Americans for Equality, a group that is assisting the 128 Hester tenants and other tenants in similar situations.

Stringer pointed fi ngers at the landlord of 128 Hester, who racked up $10,000 in unpaid penalties over the past year for failing to maintain the building. However, Stringer also blamed the city Buildings Dept., which issued the same violations over and over but ultimately did not prevent the building from falling apart.

In particular, Stringer criticized the Buildings Dept. for allowing the construction of an 18-story hotel at Bowery and Hester St. to continue even after it became clear that the work was destabilizing 128 Hester, which is next door. Even worse, Stringer said, the hotel and 128 Hester are owned by the same people, who stand to benefi t from 128 Hester being knocked down.

“This is really dirty and wrong,” Stringer said.

The Buildings Dept. declined to comment but on Tuesday issued a stop-work order for the hotel at 91 Bowery, which has risen to six stories. AAFE wants D.O.B. to go further and revoke the construction permit, prevent-ing the hotel from fi nishing.

William H. Su, a Chinatown hotelier, is listed as an owner of the 91 Bowery hotel in city documents, and tenants said he also was responsible for doing repairs at 128 Hester St. Both buildings are owned by limited liability corporations that have mailing addresses in the same building. Reached by phone and asked about 128 Hester, Su said only, “I’m not the owner,” and hung up. He did not return subsequent calls for comment.

The current problems are nothing new for the 91 Bowery hotel construction, a site that has received violations for failing to underpin neighboring buildings, not having a safety manager and working without a permit. The construction also destabilized another neighboring building, 89 Bowery, which was demolished last year.

The construction manager of the 91 Bowery hotel, Calabrese Associates, owes over $140,000 to the Buildings Dept. for violations accumulated over the past two years, accord-ing to online documents. Calabrese did not respond to a request for comment.

Asian Americans for Equality pushed hard

for two things in the wake of the 128 Hester vacate order last week: for the city to stop work at the Bowery hotel, which happened Tuesday, and for the city to delay the demoli-tion of 128 Hester, which the city agreed to on Friday. The city had wanted to demolish 128 Hester immediately after emptying it, but AAFE attorney John Gorman asked for more time. Now, the city won’t approve a demoli-tion permit for about a month, Gorman said, and he hopes that will be enough time to prove the building can be fi xed.

Chris Kui, executive director of AAFE, sees a pattern of landlords neglecting buildings that have rent-stabilized tenants, and he said the problem is only growing worse. Kui cited other buildings that have recently been vacated, including 11 Essex St., where about a dozen tenants lost their home in May.

“We’re not against development,” Kui said. “But it should not be at the expense of the poor, of the most vulnerable.”

City Councilmember Alan Gerson agrees and has proposed fi ve pieces of legislation to keep a closer eye on fragile buildings and impose clearer penalties on owners who do not comply. One bill, which has not yet been written, would give owners 48 hours to come up with a response whenever the city noted a problem with a building’s structure. If the owner did not follow through on the plan, the city would do the necessary work and bill the owner.

Under current laws, the Buildings Dept. can refer a problem building to the city Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development for emergency repairs, but that rarely happens.

“It shouldn’t be the exception,” Gerson said

of the referral. “It should be the rule.” Pete Gleason, one of four people chal-

lenging Gerson in next month’s Democratic primary, criticized Gerson for not taking action sooner, since 128 Hester had a long history of problems. Gleason said in a statement that if elected, he would comb city records looking for buildings with structural issues and then he would pressure the city to fi x them. He said he would work with the Buildings Dept. to force owners to make repairs before buildings are vacated, not after the fact.

“We have woeful landlord neglect and it’s got to stop,” Gleason said in a statement. “As our community loses thousands of units of affordable housing a year, it is essential that we improve oversight of the Dept. of Buildings — and stop landlords from driving out long-term residents.”

Margaret Chin, another candidate for Gerson’s seat, joined Stringer and AAFE, her former employer, in speaking out last week in support of the 128 Hester tenants. Like Kui, she said it was important to keep 128 Hester standing, both to allow the tenants to return and to send a message to other landlords who are neglecting their buildings.

“If we let these buildings go down, there’s no stopping landlords from doing this in the future,” Chin said at a press conference Tuesday.

After the press conference, Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3, said the board has been seeing so many demolition by neglect cases that they made the problem one of their top issues to tackle this year. She agrees with the politicians that the current laws are ineffective.

“We need to do more than just issue viola-tions,” Stetzer said.

Whatever the politicians decide about the bigger policy questions, the solution may not come soon enough to help the 128 Hester ten-ants who lost their homes last week. Many are staying with friends and family now that their two nights in a city shelter are up, AAFE said.

AAFE was only able to fi nd a perma-nent new home for one tenant, a 78-year-old woman named Hun Siu Chu. Chu lived at 128 Hester for 29 years and paid just $297 for her two-bedroom apartment, she said through an interpreter. She was scheduled to have cataract surgery the day after the vacate but postponed it because doctors told her she needed a stable home for the recovery.

Among the shell-shocked residential ten-ants was Wallace Lai, owner of the Hong Kong Station restaurant on the ground fl oor of 128 Hester. Lai opened the restaurant four-and-a-half years ago and subsequently opened two others in Chinatown. After the vacate order, he struggled to haul out everything he could sal-vage, from tables and chairs to mixing bowls.

“This is just so unfair,” Lai said. While he and the tenants paid their rent

over the years, the landlord never made basic repairs, allowing leaks, holes and termites to permeate the building, Lai said. Lai sounded discouraged as he added that he was already losing money from suddenly having his busi-ness taken away.

“I haven’t got any time to think about the future,” Lai said last Thursday. “There’s no tomorrow for me.”

[email protected]

60 tenants thrown out as Chinatown tenement is shut

A tenant at 128 Hester St. gathers her belongings after the Dept. of Buildings ordered tenants out because of safety conditions in the building.


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BY JEFFERSON SEIGELBond St. may only be two blocks long, but

for a city thoroughfare, it is an unusually wide street. The cobblestones recall the earlier days of a slower, more neighborly way of life. A walk down the street today reveals a modern furniture store, several bars and restaurants and a high-end fashion boutique.

The three-story building at 26 Bond St. near Lafayette St. dates back to the early 1800s. Residing on its second fl oor for the last half-century has been Jack Champlin, who turned 80 last Wednesday. Champlin, according to friends and neighbors, is that rare commodity that gives a block what can’t be measured in real-estate values: He gives Bond St. the cachet of neighborhood.

That’s one reason why old-timers and new-comers alike on the block gave Champlin a birthday party in front of his home last week. There was dancing in the street as everyone expressed a similar sentiment about their “Mayor of Bond Street.”

“He’s so warm and friendly and kind,” said Carol Conway, who’s lived on the block since 1974.

“He’s the history of the block,” added Denise Martin, a 33-year resident.

“He’s an admirable member of our com-munity,” said Bill White, who has lived on the block 30 years. “He typifi es what makes New York City a community of neighbors, block by block and person by person.”

At the street party, Champlin spent the bet-

ter part of an hour being hugged by one neigh-bor after another, all while being serenaded by the Slavic Soul Party band, which was playing a mix of fi ery gypsy brass and soulful Balkan anthems.

“I’ve seen incredible things happen on this block,” Champlin said after disentangling from another hug.

“It used to be an arts community,” he recounted. “Brice Marden, Robert Mapplethorpe, Abbie Hoffman came here a lot. Robert De Niro’s father had a studio here at 26 [Bond St.], a very good painter.”

A native of Sierra Madre, California, Champlin arrived in New York in 1953 with his partner, artist Dale Joe. Champlin became a fashion illustrator and the pair started working for Family Circle magazine as designers. They moved into 26 Bond in 1959.

“I paid $55 a month and the landlord loved artists. Those days it was so different,” Champlin said of a time when few lived in the area because of its isolation and nighttime crime. Each morning he would encounter his landlord standing across the street. When asked what he was doing, the landlord replied, “I’m counting the bricks.”

In 1964 Champlin let Andy Warhol photo-graph some dance sequences in his loft.

The 1970s were, “very bad, this was a very bad crack block,” he recalled. “We got through that. Now we have paparazzi because of the celebrities who live here.”

New buildings at 40 and 48 Bond St. have

attracted several boldface names, giving the once-staid block “buzz.”

“We’ve been through everything: marriage, divorce, joy,” Champlin said wistfully. His part-ner Dale died in 2001.

Another local, artist Chuck Close, stopped by the street party to say hello.

“He’s such a fi xture in the neighborhood,” Close said after chatting with Champlin. “He’s a friendly, charming, good neighbor.”

As the hugs continued to envelop him, Champlin displayed the voluble energy of someone half his age, greeting old friends,

telling stories and dancing whenever the music started up.

On a recent visit to his doctor, the ebullient Champlin received the kind of prescription that President Obama’s healthcare initiative should consider: He was told to walk dogs.

Per doctor’s orders, these days Champlin is the designated walker of four canine neigh-bors. And when other feline-loving friends go traveling, he tends to their cats.

“We’re all fans of Jane Jacobs,” Champlin said as the party wound down. “This is what she envisioned for our community.”

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Jack Champlin got a hug from a neighbor as the Slavic Soul Party played for his birthday bash in front of his home at 26 Bond St.


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Fatal air crash over the Hudson River

court-approved agreement that reduced the number of fl ights from the location and that ends all tourist helicopter fl ights from 30th St. by April 1, 2010.

At a news conference at the heli-port in Hudson River Park on Monday, Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, along with Borough President Scott Stringer and Councilmember Gale Brewer, demanded that the Federal Aviation Administration regulate New York City’s crowded and dan-gerous air space.

“It’s unconscionable that the F.A.A. per-mits unregulated fl ight in a crowded airspace in a major metropolitan area,” Nadler said. “And it is ridiculous that private planes and helicopters fl ying through a crowded area are dependent on visually sighting other air-craft and communicating with them.”

Nadler demanded that the F.A.A. require all private planes to have a Traffi c Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), which alerts them when another aircraft is getting too close.

“We demand that all general [private] aviation aircraft also be required to carry a Mode C transponder, a device that sends out a constant signal announcing a craft’s loca-tion,” Nadler said.

“Every helicopter and general aviation aircraft should also be required to fi le fl ight plans, even for trips below 1,100 feet,” Nadler said. “In fact, we should give serious consideration to banning all fl ights below 1,100 feet until we can install radar systems that can track them.”

At the same time on Monday, West Side park advocates called for an immediate halt to tourist fl ights from 30th St. and regula-tion of private aircraft fl ights.

“It was a tragic circumstance, and I think someone should come up with a plan that is more intelligent than what’s presently been happening — which is basically no plan at all,” said Robert Trentlyon, founder of the Chelsea Waterside Park Association and a plaintiff in the lawsuit that led to the settlement. “I think there’s too much leeway given to people who can afford to fl y private planes, and most of those fl ights are unnecessary.”

“The Hudson River should be closed to nonemergency helicopters,” added John Dellaportas, chairperson of the West St. Coalition, a Battery Park City advocacy group. “Tourists can ride the Circle Line and businessmen can hop a chopper on the East River or Wall St.”

Dellaportas is a plaintiff in the lawsuit that was fi led against the heliport at the end of 2007 by Friends of Hudson River Park, a parks advocacy group.

The suit named Air Pegasus, operator of the 30th St. heliport for 30 years, and Liberty Helicopters, which runs sightseeing and commercial chopper fl ights out of the heliport. The suit was based on the 1998 Hudson River Park Act, which prohibits tourist fl ights entirely and permits commer-cial helicopter operations only west of the

Hudson River bulkhead line.The 30th St. heliport is on the east side

of the bulkhead — or to the land side of the Hudson River seawall. Under the park legis-lation, the deadline for ending the 30th St. heliport’s operation was 2001, and the suit contended the heliport already had been illegal for six years.

The suit also named the Hudson River Park Trust, the state-city agency building the 5-mile-long riverfront park, because it had not evicted the illegal heliport from park property.

The settlement, however, assumed that the city would fi nd a legal location for com-mercial and emergency helicopter operation on a pier on the west side — the river side — of the park bulkhead. The settlement says that commercial, government and emer-gency helicopter fl ights would continue at 30th St. until the end of 2014 or until a new heliport is in operation on a nearby pier and no longer on the so-called upland portion of the park.

The settlement called for reducing the number of sightseeing fl ights from 25,000 between June 2008 and May 31 of this year, to 12,500 between June of this year and March 31, 2010. It also set fl ight pat-terns requiring sightseeing helicopters, as much as possible, to depart to the west over the middle of the river and then fl y north or south. The required arrival is from the north or south over the middle of the river and then turning left or right to the heliport.

A.J. Pietrantone, executive director of the Friends of Hudson River Park, said on Monday that the heliport has indeed reduced

the number of fl ights in compliance with the agreement and has mostly complied with the fl ight patterns.

“We don’t feel that there has been fl a-grant violations of the fl ight patterns,” he said.

The agreement also required the heliport to erect improved barriers to muffl e noise and buffer rotor wind from the park.

“We did have to take [the heliport] back to court last year to get them to install the barriers,” Pietrantone said.

Noreen Doyle, vice president of the Hudson River Park Trust, said on Tuesday that the Trust was deeply saddened by the tragedy.

“The Trust remains committed to fully complying with all aspects of the June 2008 court-ordered settlement…[including] the complete relocation of the heliport by December 2012,” Doyle said.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn


Continued on page 11


Lorenzo Bossola, 13, and his mother, Paola Casali, missed Saturday’s fatal helicopter fl ight because Lorenzo was scared about it, causing them to arrive a few minutes late at the W. 30th St. heliport. Lorenzo held out their pricey tickets for an 11-to-15-minute helicopter “Big Apple Tour.”

Downtown Express photo by J.B. Nicholas

New York Police Department scuba divers and harbor unit offi cers recovering a body on Saturday afternoon off Hoboken after the fatal midair collision over the Hudson River.


said on Monday that the F.A.A. has for too long taken a wait-and-see approach to low-altitude fl ights over the Hudson River. Quinn called for an emergency oversight meeting of the Council’s Transportation Committee later this month.

The settlement notwithstanding, Mayor Mike Bloomberg has long been on record as saying a heliport on the West Side is vital for corporate business. And at a news confer-ence on Saturday, he responded to a ques-tion about halting sightseeing helicopter fl ights by citing the importance of tourism.

Dellaportas, in an email on Monday, had a very different take on helicopters.

“We view helicopter tours as a need-less safety hazard, a noise and air polluter and an all-around menace,” he wrote. “We believe this great city is as much a draw without these mechanized mosquitoes as with them.”

Liberty Helicopters issued a statement of deepest sympathy for the families of the passengers and fl ight crew of both aircraft in Saturday’s accident and pledged coopera-tion with the investigation of the National Transportation Safety Board. Liberty said Jeremy M. Clarke, 32, the helicopter pilot, who had been fl ying with the company for a year and a half, was an instrument-rated commercial pilot with more than 3,100 total hours fl ying helicopters and 850 hours fl ying Eurocopters, the helicopter involved in the accident.

At a press conference in Hoboken, N.J.,

on Sunday, Debbie Hersman, the National Transportation Safety Board’s chairperson, giving an update on the fi rst 24 hours of the accident’s investigation, provided more details into the grim incident.

Hersman said the helicopter pilot had 1,800 hours of fl ight time before he was hired by Liberty in February 2008, after which he logged an additional 900 hours in the air.

The plane was a six-seater Piper “Lance,” she said. Piloted by Steven Altman, 60, of Pennsylvania, it was fl ying from Teterboro, N.J., to Ocean Beach on the Jersey Shore, with Altman’s brother and nephew as pas-sengers.

Hersman said that slightly more than 1 minute before the collision, the Teterboro airport did an “electronic hand-off” of the plane to Newark Airport. However, Newark Airport had not been contacted by the accident aircraft, she said. Teterboro attempted to reach the plane — but there was “no contact with the target,” Hersman said.

The N.T.S.B. chairperson said Liberty Helicopters has had “eight accidents and one incident” in the last several years, Saturday’s midair collision being the fi rst fatal accident. On July 7, 2007, a Liberty chopper experienced an “auto-rotation into the Hudson River,” which is still under investigation, she said. The tour company had two accidents and one incident last year, she noted.

She said that in Saturday’s collision, the copter — which quickly sunk in water 30 feet deep — had been equipped with

emergency fl oats, but that these must be deployed manually.

Because of the small size of both the plane and helicopter, neither was required to have a fl ight recorder or voice record-er, Hersman said. However, she noted, N.T.S.B., in the past, has recommended that small aircraft be equipped with such devices, and that there are low-cost, light-weight recorders available.

Although the helicopter fl ights had been popular with tourists before Saturday’s fatal collision, in which fi ve Italian tourists died, some foreign visitors had trepidation about going aloft, even before the crash. In the case of Lorenzo Bossola, 13, and his mother, Paola Casali, 42, from Rome, Lorenzo’s mis-givings were what saved their lives.

The two had bought tickets for an 11-to-15-minute “Big Apple Tour” on one of the choppers. But Lorenzo was scared about going up on the copter, which led to their being late and missing the fatal fl ight.

“I think somebody put a hand in our...because he [Lorenzo] didn’t want to come,” said a shaken Casali afterward, as she sat with her son on a low stone wall along the Hudson River Park bikeway by the heli-port.

Although she had previously taken a tourist helicopter fl ight in New York City, she now asserted, “I think we can enjoy other things. We can walk. We can visit Guggenheim. We can visit MoMA. It’s not important to take helicopter.”

A group of Spanish tourists arriving at the heliport around 5 p.m., fi ve hours after the fatal accident, were shocked to hear the

news. They had paid 98 euros apiece — around $125 — for their tickets. At least two of them had been reluctant to go aloft.

“My sister, she didn’t want to fl y,” said Juan-Antonio Belda, 38, of Alicante, Spain. “My sister said, in a few hours, it could be us.”

Asked how she felt, his sister, Sylvia Belda, 31, patted her arm and shivered to indicate goosebumps, then held out a shak-ing hand.

As for Juan-Antonio, he was fatalistic.“These things, it’s like a lottery,” he

said.Similarly, their friend Alejandro Falco,

33, said he wouldn’t be deterred from taking a tourist helicopter fl ight in the future, feel-ing the odds are against being in a crash.

“It’s probability,” he said.The horrifying accident on a beautiful

summer day was witnessed by thousands along the Lower West Side waterfront, from parkgoers out enjoying the High Line and Hudson River Park to residents gazing out from apartment windows, balconies and rooftops.

Jasmine Pan, 28, was taking her Golfi ng 101 class at Chelsea Piers on Saturday morning around noon when she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“The only thing I saw was a black heli-copter going down,” she said. “I called 911; it said to leave a message. I was a little bit scared. At least three of us, we saw it.”

Additional reporting by Patrick Hedlund

and Jefferson Siegel

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Two days for teen cafe Teens from all five boroughs (and one

from Chicago) have come together to open an espresso bar on Fulton St. for two days only under the supervision of Financial District resident Pam Chmiel.

Mötley Brüe, a rock-themed espresso bar near Nassau St., is the sixth temporary cafe of the Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp, a not-for-profi t organization dedicated to teaching teens the essentials of opening a business.

The teens put together everything from writing the business plan to designing the store’s interior, and, finally, operating their espresso bar.

Mötley Brüe offers up Williamsburg’s

Porto Rico coffee and espresso, local baked goods from Billy’s Bakery, an exhib-it of classic rock guitars, and, as the young entrepreneurs write in their press release: “In true rock ‘n’ roll fashion, the teens will rebel against recent trends and offer free Wi-Fi to all customers.”

Mötley Brüe will be open for business at 127 Fulton St. on Aug. 13 and 14, and all proceeds are donated back into the program.

In case you can’t find the storefront amid all the construction blockades, the bright logos and classic rock music should be a dead giveaway.

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they soon called the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, who in turn called in the experts: Rich and Patti Brotman.

The Brotmans have been rescuing cats in Battery Park City for over 15 years, and they formed an animal search and rescue unit after 9/11 with the neighborhood’s Community Emergency Response Team.

For the past several Saturdays, Rich Brotman, 54, has been rising at dawn to put sardine-baited traps near the black cat’s makeshift home, across from Applebee’s on the west side of the Goldman site. He has caught four of the kittens so far, and now they are living in a large cage in his Gateway Plaza apart-ment, where they are slowly getting used to being indoors among people. Soon, Brotman hopes to find adoptive families for the kittens.

Brotman trapped the mother as well, but he released her back into the neighborhood after getting her neutered because she was too feral to make a good pet. Brotman initially heard from workers that there were as many as eight kittens in the litter, but the count could have been exaggerated or several kittens may have died shortly after being born, as Brotman only counted five.

After being released, the mother reunited with her last remaining con-firmed kitten, and about a week ago they disappeared from the Goldman site.

That means the spectacle that capti-vated Silkey and dozens of others is now likely over. One construction worker grinned as he described watching the still-pregnant cat weave around excavat-ed pits and heaps of materials, dodging the heavy machinery.

“We just stopped and looked at each other,” the worker said, shaking his head.

Now, the four rescued kittens are far removed from the dust and grime of the construction site. On a recent sweltering afternoon, they rested quietly in a cage in the Brotmans’ cool apartment, their eyes large and watchful.

“They’re scared still,” Brotman said as he reached in to stroke them. “They’re not lap cats yet.”

The kitten with the roundest face — they don’t yet have names, but Brotman nicknamed them “the BlackBerries” — allowed Brotman to pick him up briefly, but he soon scrabbled at the bars of his cage, eager to get back inside. One of the less friendly kittens still hisses occasion-ally, but Brotman said they all just need more human contact. Brotman plays a lot of Grateful Dead music for the kittens, especially the album “American Beauty.”

“It relaxes them,” he said. The Brotmans rescued the kittens just

in time — if they are still stray when they are seven weeks old, it’s hard to ever turn

Kittens born inside Wall Street’s biggest lion

Downtown Express photos by Elisabeth Robert

Rich Brotman holds one of the Goldman “Blackberries,” fl anked by Arlo, a deaf white cat discovered at the South Ferry subway construction site a few years ago, and Bumper, a dog rescued after Hurricane Katrina. Silkey, who helps direct traffi c near the Goldman Sachs construction site, helped take care of the mother cat before the kittens were rescued by Brotman.




them into friendly pets, Brotman said. Cats on construction sites are nothing

new, and Brotman said the construction is actually what brings strays to the neigh-borhood — just as it has for the past 20 years. Sometimes construction workers dump cats at the sites to keep the rats at bay. Other times, cats find the sites on their own, drawn to the temporary shelter and scraps of food from the workers.

The city has more strays than usual this summer, partly because of the mild winter, Brotman said. Also, the poor economy means that more people abandon pets they can no longer afford.

Despite the economy, Brotman hopes he’ll be able to find homes for the four kittens, and he is also seeking donations because each kitten needs about $300 worth of veterinary care.

For now, the kittens fit right into the Brotmans’ one-bedroom apartment, a menagerie of former strays. There’s Bumper, the Chihuahua-spaniel-dachshund mix Brotman rescued after Hurricane Katrina. There’s Freebo, a Yorkie that the Brotmans had planned to keep only tem-porarily after a nonprofit found him on the streets of Brooklyn.

And there are a few more felines, including the alpha male of the apart-ment, a deaf, white cat named Arlo who was discovered by construction workers rebuilding the South Ferry subway station several years ago. Brotman, who works in video editing, was reluctant to give an exact number of pets he owns because he wasn’t sure if so many were allowed. Linda Belfer, president of Gateway’s ten-

ant association, said she didn’t know of any limits on cats, and the complex’s owner did not comment.

In addition to the live cats and dogs that peek out from inside bookshelves and from behind the couch in the Brotmans’ apartment, dozens of others stare down from the walls in the form of photos, art-work and figurines. The Brotmans work assiduously to keep the apartment clean, but it still has the unmistakable odor of pets. The couple has no children.

“Animals are more on our level,” Brotman said.

The Brotmans started rescuing stray cats in the early ’90s, when Battery Park City was one big construction site. In 1994, large cat colonies sprung up in South Cove and where Stuyvesant High School would later be built. The Brotmans worked with nonprofits and the B.P.C. Authority to feed the cats, give them vet-erinary care and find homes for them.

Ever since then, “People call us when-ever there’s an animal issue,” Brotman said. After 9/11, the Brotmans and oth-ers received formal Federal Emergency Management Agency training, and now they teach people with pets about prepar-ing for disasters. In 2007, they helped rescue animals when 90 West St. flooded across the street from the World Trade Center.

Because of the ongoing construction in the neighborhood and at the W.T.C., Brotman said, “I don’t think we’ll ever be out of business.”

For more information about adopting one of the Goldman kittens, call Rich and Patti Brotman at 212-912-0607 or e-mail them at [email protected].

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The cat and kittens spent most of their time in this narrow area inside the tower.



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College’s two big splashesThe Borough of Manhattan Community College pool got a new, energy-effi cient lighting system thanks to an $800,000 grant from Borough President Scott Stringer. Stringer joined college president Antonio Perez for a ribbon cutting at the pool Tuesday, one of the hottest days of the summer so far. In addition, B.M.C.C. also recently received $11 million in federal stimulus funds to make other environmentally-friendly upgrades. Some of the money will be used for a new gymnasium lighting system, which currently must be kept on all day in order for the lights to function properly. The upgrades will save the school $1 million a year in energy costs and reduce its carbon emissions by an estimated 5,400 metric tons — the same amount that’s produced by about 940 cars a year.


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2009 City Council District 1 Democratic Primary Forum

Limited seating. Forum starts at 7 p.m.; Some audience questions will be read.

Moderated by: Downtown Express’s Josh Rogers & The Villager’s Lincoln Anderson

Margaret Chin

Alan Gerson

Pete Gleason

Arthur Gregory

PJ Kim

Monday, August 176:30 p.m. (doors open)Pace University Multipurpose roomOne Pace Plaza (Spruce St. near Gold)

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Downtown Express photo by J.B. Nicholas

Go get ‘em Justice SotomayorSonia Sotomayor, center, got a fond sendoff Friday from friends and neighbors as she departed from her Greenwich Village home for Washington, D.C., for confi rmation to the U.S. Supreme Court the next day. At Blue Ribbon Market across the street — where Sotomayor is known for buying her favorite, sturgeon on toast, or sometimes just breadsticks and a decaf — Sasha Acosta and Milcar Cruz said “Sonia mania” continues. “People come in here asking for ‘the judge toast’ or ‘the Sotomayor toast’ — I’d say, almost once a day,” Acosta said on Monday. “One couple wanted coffee and breadsticks. They were very New Yorky. They said, ‘We’re on the Sotomayor tour!’ We didn’t have any breadsticks, so they left.”


BY PATRICK HEDLUND

DOWNTOWN OFFICE LOWSAverage asking rents for Downtown offi ce

buildings have fallen more than 12 percent over the last six months, with forecasts indi-cating that prices could drop below $50 per square foot for the area’s highest-quality prop-erties by next year.

According to a report from brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle, average rents for all Downtown offi ce buildings have slipped 12.4 percent dur-ing the past six months — from $48.75 per square foot to $42.70.

The area’s top-class trophy properties, which went for an average of just over $70 per square foot a year ago, have seen nearly a 7 percent decrease over the last six months —from $64.54 per square foot to $60.23.

The report stated that the sub-$50-per-square-foot scenario has already occurred at some Downtown properties. If trophy build-ings were to suffer similar drops, Downtown asking rents would return to levels not seen in fi ve years.

Rents for all Downtown offi ce types tum-bled nearly 16 percent over the last year, com-pared to 17 percent decrease in Midtown.

“Longer-term, beyond 2011, the trophy market outlook is decidedly more positive,”

James Delmonte, vice president and director of research for Jones Lang LaSalle’s New York offi ce, said in a statement. “New construction will nearly halt over the next fi ve years, except for scaled-back work on the World Trade Center. In the early to mid-1990s, the last time new construction was severely limited, pent-up demand caused rents to spike in the latter part of the decade.”

RETAIL RUINSDowntown retail rents showed signifi cant

slippage as of midyear, following the trend of double-digit decreases across Manhattan’s major commercial corridors.

Along Broadway, Downtown’s most active retail stretch, rents fell as much as 20 percent in some areas, according to a second-quarter report from brokerage CB Richard Ellis comparing prices to end-of-year 2008.

In Soho — on Broadway between Houston and Broome Sts.— retail rents dropped by 6.03 percent since the fourth quarter of last year, from $510 per square foot to $481 in midyear 2009.

Lower Manhattan fared worst of all, with rents along Broadway between Chambers St. and Battery Park tumbling 20.34 percent over the last six months, from $251 per square foot to $209.

“With national G.D.P. looking like it is close to bottoming out, and the traditional strength of Manhattan as a global retail magnet, the second half of 2009 should see a marked improvement in the market,” said Alison Lewis, senior managing director and head of CBRE Tri-State Retail, in a statement.

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Downtown Express photo by Elisabeth Robert

Fake green before the real stuffWorkers painted some fl owers Wednesday on the construction barriers needed to protect joggers, bikers and strollers as work continues on the Hudson River Park’s Tribeca section. The artwork, “Botanizing on the Asphalt” by Nina Bovasso, is the latest in the Downtown Alliance’s “Re: Construction” project to improve the look of Downtown’s many construction sites. Also opening this week is “Rainbow Conversation” by Rachel Hayes. This work will decorate the construction fences surrounding Louise Nevelson Plaza at Maiden Lane and William St.

Yo-Seaport-yoWith Downtown as a backdrop, Danilo Packer, 21, the 3-time Brazilian national yo-yo champion showed how to make the toy defy the laws of gravity. He was one of many champions who came to the Seaport Saturday to compete in events organized by YoYoNation.com, “The Laceration Combo,” “The Cow Wrap,” “The Reverse Suicide” and “Split the Atom” were just a few of the tricks up the yo-yoers sleeves.



EDITORIALPUBLISHER & EDITOR

John W. Sutter

ASSOCIATE EDITORJosh Rogers

ARTS EDITORScott Stiffl er

REPORTERSAlbert Amateau

Lincoln AndersonPatrick HedlundJulie Shapiro

SR. V.P. OF SALES AND MARKETING

Francesco Regini

SR. MARKETING CONSULTANTJason Sherwood

ADVERTISING SALESAllison GreakerJulio Tumbaco

Danielle Zupanovich

RETAIL AD MANAGERColin Gregory

OFFICE MANAGERDavid Jaffe

ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTORTroy Masters

ART DIRECTORMark Hasselberger

GRAPHIC DESIGNERJamie Paakkonen

DISTRIBUTION & CIRCULATIONCheryl Williamson

CONTRIBUTORSFrank R. Angelino Wickham Boyle

Tim LavinDavid StankeJerry Tallmer

PHOTOGRAPHERSLorenzo Ciniglio

Milo HessCorky Lee

Elisabeth RobertJefferson Siegel

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PUBLISHER’S LIABILITY FOR ERRORThe Publisher shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher’s liability for other errors or omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue.

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Danger in the skyOn Tuesday, the Piper “Lance” single-propeller

plane involved in Saturday’s terrifying midair collision over the Hudson River off W. 14th St. was lifted from the river bottom. Recovered with the plane were the bodies of the last two victims of the fateful accident — still trapped inside the fuselage.

Sunday morning, the helicopter that had taken off from the W. 30th St. heliport carrying fi ve Italian tourists for a brief sightseeing fl ight, was hauled from the river’s murky depths, again, with more bodies — four — inside. A total of nine people died in the collision, the worst air accident in New York City since November 2001, when Flight 587 crashed in Rockaway, killing all 265 aboard.

Following this accident, we’ve all learned more about the degree to which small aircraft, fl ying under 1,100 feet over the river, are basically completely on their own — and dependent on sighting other aircraft visually — in what is basically totally unregulated airspace. This sort of accident, tragically, was just waiting to happen.

There needs to be far greater air control of the Hudson River corridor below 1,100 feet. Although radar is ineffective in tracking aircraft at these low alti-tudes — because of the city’s tall buildings — the least that must be done is to require pilots to have their radios on and tuned in to and communicating with air control. The pilot in last Saturday’s collision was out of contact with air control for only slightly more than a minute, but that’s when he rammed into the rear of the copter.

The ill-fated helicopter pilot involved in Saturday’s col-lision may have done nothing wrong; at the last minute, another copter pilot at the 30th St. heliport reportedly tried in vain to warn him of the danger fast approaching him from behind. The fact is, however, that West Side residents and park advocates have rightly long called for the heliport to get out of the Hudson River Park.

First, there is the wind, noise and diesel-fuel pollu-tion from the copters’ engines, all of which negatively impact parkgoers in Hudson River Park and nearby residents. In a worst-case disaster scenario, there’s always the real risk of a copter crashing into Hudson River Park or onto the West Side Highway or into a residential building.

It took a lawsuit by Friends of Hudson River Park to force a settlement last year under which the W. 30th St. heliport agreed to halve the number of its tourist fl ights — from 25,000 to 12,500 annually — as of last month. Also under the settlement, tourist helicopter fl ights from W. 30th St. must cease by April 1, 2010. This will prob-ably mean a cut in revenue for the Trust, which currently gets $1 million in annual rent from the heliport. But there are far better commercial uses for the park that also gen-erate revenue, with far less quality-of-impact cost.

The settlement also says that commercial, govern-ment and emergency helicopter fl ights would continue at W. 30th St. until the end of 2014 or until a new heliport is in operation on a nearby pier. We were more encouraged on Tuesday, however, when Noreen Doyle, the Hudson River Park’s vice president, said the Trust is committed to “the complete relocation of the heliport by December 2012.”

The presence of these nonessential, tourist helicop-ters — as we saw last weekend — increases exponen-tially the danger in the Hudson corridor.

In short, it’s time to ban the tourist chopper fl ights. There are many reasons why tourists fl ock to New York City. Helicopter fl ights don’t top the list, we’re sure — and ending them won’t cause any drop-off in tourism. An IMAX “aerial tour” of the city would be just as fun — and 100 percent safer.

LETTERS TO THE EDITORF.Y.I.

To The Editor:As a condo owner, I read the article on

Battery Park City ground rent with great inter-est (news article, Aug. 7 – 13, “B.P.C. resi-dents push for ground rent changes”). Most of the residents of B.P.C., myself included, know little about the B.P.C. Authority. My conclusion is that B.P.C.A. is simply a taxa-tion body for B.P.C. They may sugarcoat their function, but a mandate to generate revenue for the city, to be spent outside B.P.C. is a disgrace. In essence the goals of B.P.C.A. and the people of B.P.C. are completely antag-onistic. This is even before you throw in the actual cost of B.P.C.A. itself. The B.P.C.A. should be dissolved and let B.P.C. just be another normal neighborhood in N.Y.C.

Andrew Williams

Council race

To The Editor:A recent letter by Bill Love, a political

appointee of Councilmember Alan Gerson, about Gerson’s removal from the ballot by the Board of Elections fails to point out several facts (Letters, Aug. 7 – 13, “Ballot access”).

First, it should be noted that Gerson has engaged in some of the very same ballot access issues that he is bemoaning. For instance, in 2003 Mr. Gerson chose to challenge the only other candidate off the ballot, Pete Gleason, who is also his current opponent. Gerson did this to avoid having a primary. By attempting to kick Gleason off the ballot in ‘03, Gerson held up Gleason’s matching funds and pre-vented him from fairly challenging Gerson. Mr. Love, does that sound democratic to you?

Secondly, it is politically expedient for Gerson to cry typographical error. However, his current troubles stem from legal blun-ders involving serious allegations of fraud.

Thirdly, the Board of Elections gave Gerson an opportunity to cure and explain his petition defects. He mishandled his opportunity. This is no surprise to his constituents. Gerson is notoriously known for missing important meetings, from constantly postponing his Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee, to having one of the worst attendance records, and being chronically absent or late to important community meetings.

On the other hand, Gerson was neither missing nor late when casting his vote for an extension of an undemocratic third term twice rejected by the voters of New York City.

I ask Mr. Love, and the voters of the First Council District, does this sound democratic to you?

Adam SilveraDemocratic District Leader and Pete Gleason supporter

To The Editor:I have to respond to your article on

PJ Kim being a Republican (UnderCover, July 31 – Aug. 6, “Young Republican”). I remember an issue being made of Julie Menin having been a Republican. But with her, she had a strong record of ser-vice here. Now Kim comes along and it is reported that he too was a Republican, although he volunteered on Democratic campaigns once he got to New York.

The fact is that he was a Republican when George W. Bush was elected presi-dent. He did not change his registration until Nov. 2006. To boot, he barely has any record here; being limited to the fact that he was thrown off Community Board 1 for insufficient attendance.

At the last minute (April 2009), he decides to run for City Council and within a month he raises $70,000. The record will show that most of his money comes from outside of New York State.

According to Downtown Express: “Kim could be the only candidate who could support Mayor Bloomberg.” I think he’s done a good job,’ Kim said.” (news article, June 5 – 11, “Newcomer to the Council race says fresh approach is need-ed”)

I have a problem with a young Republican-Democrat supporting a Republican-Independent mayor buying a third term election, ignoring the people’s term limits vote. Bloomberg should not be able to buy an election and a “former” Republican should not be able to buy a Council seat.

I disagree that “rumors of Kim’s Republican roots had some fact and some falsehood.” I don’t see “falsehood,” only facts. However the story is spun, he was a Republican; he moved into the commu-nity and has no record. His fundraising alone raises eyebrows; his money does not come from the district and some comes from Republican donors.

John R. ScottJohn R. Scott has volunteered for City Council candidate Margaret Chin at some of her campaign appearances in Tribeca.

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.

www.DOWNTOWNEXPRESS.com


“THE WATERFRONT OF OUR DREAMS”

Aug. 20, 1990This week in 1990, Manhattan’s West

Side was getting ready to house the “largest and greatest waterfront park in the world” by the year 2000. Of course, reporter Jere Hester was referring to Hudson River Park. The construction was burdened by delay and confl ict as the former West Side Waterfront Panel, a community organiza-tion appointed by Gov. Mario Cuomo, struggled to fully develop plans and raise funds for a 4 and a half-mile park that would stretch all the way to 59th St. The group was criticized by other commu-nity activists and advocates for relying too heavily on funds from developers, and not seeking out more public funding for the $500 million dollar project,

Panel chairperson Michael Del Giudice emphasized the group’s progress and refused to entertain the idea of asking the government or mayor for more money, considering they had already gotten a commitment of $200 million from the city and state during a fi scal crises. Kathryn Freed, who later became a councilmem-ber, was described as a “Tribeca commu-nity activist,” who worried the commu-nity would get “screwed” and demanded something in writing.

The plan called for a 200-acre park with an esplanade, tennis courts, bas-ketball hoops, playing fi elds, and major restoration of the rapidly deteriorating piers. Cuomo had appointed the panel to explore the possibility of extending the walkway 154 miles up the Hudson to the Mohawk River. At the time, the economy was defl ating, and many hoped

that the plan would boost the economy…but as Hester wrote almost 20 years ago, the panel’s plan was “iffy at best.” They considered everything from raising the real estate tax assessments of waterfront properties (an idea that recently surfaced again) to scaling back on the $185 million dollar pier rehabilitation plan.

On September 1999, Hudson River Park’s fi rst permanent section opened in Greenwich Village. Part of the park’s permanent Tribeca section opened last summer, and the rest is scheduled to open at the end of next year.

Prepared by Helaina N. Hovitz

RIPPED FROM OUR HEADLINES

BY JERE HESTER

BY JERRY TALLMER Kate Mostel scratched out one after

another of the close friends in her address book. “They’re dropping like fl ies,” the Irish in her said. And that was more than 25 years ago. Zero she didn’t have to scratch out. He was already gone. And she would go not too long later.

Well, Kate, just this past couple of weeks we’ve lost Walter Cronkite, whom I knew only through the tube; Frank McCourt, whom I knew and loved in print and in the fl esh; Sidney Zion, whom I think I could call my closest friend for 45 years; and now, just before the weekend, Budd Schulberg, age 95, whom I’ve known and hero-wor-shipped since I was in my teens, and whose “What Makes Sammy Run” had a certain one-to-one shaping force on my life that no other book could ever parallel.

Budd Schulberg was at Dartmouth College, in the hills of New Hampshire, seven years before me; in fact, he also pre-ceded me by seven years as editor in chief of The Dartmouth, a fi ve-days-a-week broad-sheet that was the oldest college newspaper in this country. There are people who would also have called it the best.

In my time the central crisis with which we had to deal was Hitler, Fascism, Isolationism and World War II. In Budd’s time it was Depression, Breadlines, Strikes, Big Business vs. Labor, the New Deal.

Budd set a precedent for us in display-ing editorial guts. He took himself and The Dartmouth into Vermont to report, in depth, on the bitter granite quarry strikes. Among the quarry owners there were a number of fat cat Dartmouth alumni who had in years past contributed heavily to the college.

Let’s put it this way: “It cost the col-lege a million dollars, but it was worth it to have a Budd Schulberg at Dartmouth,” said Ernest Martin Hopkins, the grand old college president of Budd’s day and my own — and this, in either case, in an era when there were damned few Jews, big-city Jews, in the student body altogether, much less running the school newspaper.

Which brings us to “What Makes Sammy Run,” the Hollywood novel on which Budd, the son of Paramount’s B.P. Schulberg, was at work, across the river in Thetford , Vermont, in my junior year of 1940-’41. I would go across the river and hang out at Budd’s house because I was in love with his wife, Jigee, but everyone in and out of Hollywood was also in love with Jigee (Virginia Ray) Schulberg, so that was all right.

Budd did not show me or anyone I knew any part of the work in progress, and that was all right, too. All the greater bite and impact when, a year or two later, “What Makes Sammy Run” did come out, with its quietly acid-etched portrait of a copy boy who rises to Hollywood tycoon over the dis-emboweled corpses of those who befriended him, worked with him, loved him.

The unspoken point about Sammy Glick

was, and is to this day, that he was not only a Jew but also a certain kind of Jew, a hustler who could almost have sprung from the cartoons in Julius Streicher’s Nazi newspaper — avaricious, ruthless, tireless, principle-less, the ironic opposite of self-effacing, sensitive, stammer-prone Budd himself.

The day I fi nished reading “What Makes Sammy Run” was the day I swore never to become a Sammy Glick myself — so thank you, Budd, for keeping me from becoming a Hollywood mogul with bucks up the bazoo, or any other kind of tycoon, alas.

Speaking of which: In 1952 or ’53 the Hollywood mogul Sam Spiegel was assem-bling the elements of what was to become a movie called “On the Waterfront,” script by Budd, direction by Kazan, etc. etc.

At Dartmouth College, in Budd’s day and my own, there had been an extraor-dinary professor of English named Sidney Cox. Now, in the early ’50s, some few years after Cox’s death, Budd thought there should be some sort of memorial to him. He assembled a small group — himself, myself, a half-dozen others — to go up to Hanover of a spring weekend to work out the details of such a memorial. Budd, as shooting neared on “On the Waterfront,” fl ew up to Hanover by way of a small airport in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

“But Budd,” shrieked Sam Spiegel when Budd told him he was taking the weekend off, “what about the picture?”

“Don’t worry, Sam,” Budd said, “I’ll have the script with me, and I’ll fl y back Monday morning.”

“But Budd,” Sam Spiegel shrieked, ”what if the plane crashes?”

All of which reminds me of an earlier movie — 15 or so years earlier. An epic called “Winter Carnival,” produced by pres-tigious Dartmouth alumnus Walter Wanger, to be partially shot in Hanover during the real winter carnival of 1938, my freshman year.

For one whole week or more, The Dartmouth was full of features about the movie, its stars (Ann Sheridan, Richard Carlson), its settings, its crews, its creators and other endless gobbledygook.

Seven years later — upon returning to the campus and The Dartmouth after World War II — I went through the bound-volume stories of that weekend, several of which mentioned Budd Schulberg among the screenwriters. And one other sentence, just one: “Also in the party is the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.”

We did not know who he was. In 1938 we at Dartmouth, we kids, we about-to-be stellar members of the classes of Sidney Cox, did not know who Scott Fitzgerald was. He had already been forgotten.

But Budd Schulberg knew. He was in fact taking care as best he could that week-end of that unknown Hollywood writer who was “also in the party.” And a dozen years later, in 1950, Budd put him into another novel, “The Disenchanted,” which subse-

quently became a Broadway prizewinner starring Jason Robards, Jr.

There are many other Budds, of course, whom I did not know, do not know. The Budd who was a prizefi ght nut I never knew — sensitive, quiet, deep-think, tongue-tied Budd Schulberg, the heavyweight champion of ringsiders — well, tied with Norman Mailer and Pete Hamill, among others.

The Budd Schulberg who named names — that Budd I never knew, and never talked with him about it, either. Figured it was his business — and I had seen “On the Waterfront” anyway, with its apologia for naming names, and worshipped it for other, more dazzling, less arguable reasons, and still do.

I was even one of the few theatergoers who thought the 1995 Broadway musical adaptation of “On the Waterfront,” though

a crazy idea, wasn’t actually all that bad. The very last time I ever saw Budd, at

the Players Club a few months ago — a very beautiful old man under a crown of thick, glossy white-on-white hair — he told me, with pride, in a thin, halting whisper, that that same musical adaptation of “On the Waterfront” was at that very moment a smash hit in London.

I asked if he would like to be interviewed by me about his whole life and times, look-ing back from age 95, and he nodded yes. Then this thing happened, and that thing happened, to him as well as to me, and I never got around to it. So this will have to do, Budd, and thanks for everything, start-ing with that anti-role model, Sammy Glick. I owe you one.

DOWNTOWN NOTEBOOKThanks, Budd, for everything, even for Sammy Glick

“THE WATERFRONT OF OUR DREAMS”

Aug. 20, 1990This week in 1990, Manhattan’s West

Side was getting ready to house the “largest and greatest waterfront park in the world” by the year 2000. Of course, reporter Jere Hester was referring to Hudson River Park. The construction was burdened by delay and confl ict as the former West Side Waterfront Panel, a community organiza-tion formed by Gov. Mario Cuomo, strug-gled to fully develop plans and raise funds for a 4 and a half-mile park that would stretch all the way to 59th St. The group was criticized by other community activ-ists and advocates for relying too heavily on funds from developers, and not seeking out more public funding for the $500 mil-lion dollar project,

Panel chairperson Michael Del Giudice emphasized the group’s progress and refused to entertain the idea of ask-ing the government or mayor for more money, considering they had already got-ten a commitment of $200 million from the city and state during a fi scal crises. Kathryn Freed, who later became a coun-cilmember, was described as a “Tribeca community activist,” worried the commu-nity would get “screwed” and demanded something in writing.

The plan called for a 200-acre park with an esplanade, tennis courts, bas-ketball hoops, playing fi elds, and major restoration of the rapidly deteriorating piers. Cuomo had appointed the panel to explore the possibility of extending the walkway 154 miles up the Hudson to the Mohawk River. At the time, the economy was defl ating, and many hoped

that the plan would boost the economy…but as Hester wrote almost 20 years ago, the panel’s plan was “iffy at best.” They considered everything from raising the real estate tax assessments of waterfront properties (an idea that recently surfaced again) to scaling back on the $185 million dollar pier rehabilitation plan.

On September 1999, Hudson River Park’s fi rst permanent section opened in Greenwich Village. Part of the park’s permanent Tribeca section opened last summer, and the rest is scheduled to open at the end of next year.

Prepared by Helaina N. Hovitz

RIPPED FROM OUR HEADLINES

BY JERE HESTER


ARTS +GAMES This project, designed by an art specialist for school age children, includes clay, painting and jewelry design. Free. Thurs through Oct 29, 3:30-5:30pm. Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City (access: Chambers). Call 212-267-9700, or visit bpcparks.org.

CHILDREN’S BASKETBALL Children can play with adjustable height hoops, plus participate in fun drills to improve skills. Free. Mon and Fri through Oct 30 (except holiday weekends) 3:30-4:30pm for 5-6 year olds, 4:30-5:30pm for 7 & older. Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City (access: Chambers Street). Call 212-267-9700, or visit bpcparks.org.

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF THE ARTS (CMA) Children can explore painting, collage, and sculpture through self-guided art projects. Open art stations are ongoing throughout the afternoon, giving children the opportunity to experiment with materials such as paint, clay, fabric, paper, and found objects. Admission $10. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm, Thurs 12-6pm. Children’s Museum of the Arts, 182 Lafayette St, Call 212- 274-0986, or visit cmany.org.

DOWNTOWN SUMMER DAY CAMP Enjoy the same enrich-ing activities that country day camps offer without the stress of traveling out of the city every day on a bus. The camp combines a daily program with special events to give children an exciting and varied camp experience. Kids K-6th grade. For rates and to regis-ter, go to downtowndaycamp.com or call 212-766-1104, x250.

EAST INDIAN FAMILY DANCE Children will be able to expe-rience energetic and joyful community dancing at Battery Park City. Free. Aug 15, 6:30-8pm. Esplanade Plaza (located along the Hudson River at the end of Liberty St). Visit bpcparks.org.

FUN FOR KIDS AT THE NYC POLICE MUSEUM Kids can test out the sirens used in an NYPD patrol car, take their friend’s “mug shot” in a police line-up and see what life is like on the other side of the bars in a real jail cell — a much more. Adults $7, children (6-18): $5.00, children under 6: free. New York City Police Muse-um, 100 Old Slip. Call 212-480-3100, or visit nycpolicemuseum.org.

GONE FISHIN AT THE SCHOONER PIONEER Participants will have an opportunity to use an otter trawl net to catch live animals in New York Harbor, and examine them up close before releasing them. They will also learn about the local harbor estu-ary where these creatures live, and how human activity threatens their survival. $40 adults, $35 students & seniors, $25 children 12 and under. Aug 29, 12-3pm. South Street Seaport, Pier 16. Visit southstreetseaportmuseum.org.

GLOBAL STORY HOUR Through weekly stories, participants learn about new countries and cultures, participate in interac-tive activities, and learn how to make a difference. Every Fri at 3:30pm. Action Center to End World Hunger, 6 River Terr, Battery Park City. Call 212-537-0511, or visit actioncenter.org.

KIDS STORYTIME Storyteller Yvonne Brooks leads a storytime with arts and crafts for kids ages 3-7, every Sat at 12pm in the children’s section. Baby storytime with storyteller Stewart Dawes takes place on Fri at 4:00pm for ages younger than 2. McNally Jackson Booksellers, 52 Prince St, (between Lafayette and Mul-berry). Call 212-274-1160, or visit mcnallyjackson.com.

KIDS PROGRAMS Put your children’s energy to good use through art, basketball, chess, cycling, exploration, gardening, and music among other activities. Days, materials fees, and park locations vary. Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, Two South End Ave. Call 212-262-9700, or visit bcparks.org.

MOVIES FOR KIDS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN Special screenings for the kids are shown through Aug 30 at 10:30 and 11:45am, daily. Films shown: The Legend of Quillwork Girl and her Seven Star Brothers, Letter from an Apache and others. National Museum of the American Indian, One Bowling Green. Call 212-514-3700, or visit nmai.si.edu.

PRESCHOOL DAY CAMP Children 18 months to 5 years old are invited on a quest for summer fun! This summer’s theme is “Safari.” Kids will learn about the jungle, do safari searches for animals, plan a “trip” to far away places, and engage in a lot of imaginative play. Flexible schedules including half days, full days and day care options are offered. Limited space is still available through Aug 21.The Educational Alliance, 197 East Broadway (between Jefferson & Clinton St) For more information, call 646-395-4250 or email [email protected].

PLAYDATE AND NEW PARENT DROP IN The Playdate “Drop-In” is a great place to bring toddlers. While the children play together, the parents can socialize in the parenting center. The New Parent “Drop-In” gives new parents the chance to dis-cuss their concerns and ask questions. Topics include feeding, sleeping, creating support networks. Punch card for 10 sessions is $100. Summer Special: $90 punch card if purchased before Aug 31. Playdate Drop-Ins are Mon & Thurs, 10-11:30am and Tues 3-4:30pm. New Parent Drop-Ins are Mon 1:30-3:30pm. Edu-cational Alliance Downtown Parenting Center,197 East Broadway (between Jefferson & Clinton St.) Visit edalliance.org.

PRESCHOOL PLAY AND ART Join other toddlers, parents and caregivers for interactive play on a grassy lawn. Toys, books and equipment provided. Free. Mon, Tue and Wed, through Oct 27 (except Sept 7 and Oct 12) 10am- 12pm. Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park. Call 212-267-9700, or visit bpcparks.org.

SUMMER ART COLONIES The Children’s Museum of the Arts will run a Summer Art Colony on Governors Island and the CMA facility at 182 Lafayette Street in Soho for children ages 6 to 14. The two-week day camp sessions, led by professional artists, will run though September 4. CMA’s Summer Art Colonies allow children to spend their summers exploring nearly every art form in the fine, performing and media arts. The classes are structured to allow full immersion into art. For more information, call 212-627-5766, or visit cmany.org.

STORIES AND SONGS Created especially for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, this event will bring together both the children and their parents. Free. Mon and Wed, from Sept 14. 9:30am to 10:10am– 6 to 12 months old. 10:20am to 11:00am – 15 months to 2 years old. 11:10am to 11:50am – 2 years old and up. 12 to 12:4pm – mixed ages. BPCPC Meeting Room at The Verdesian. Enter at door north of main entrance (access: Murray St or War-ren St) Call 212-267-9700, or visit bpcparks.org.

STORYTIME AT BABYLICIOUS Children ages 3 to 4 are welcome to participate in free storytime with songs, stories and lots of fun. Free. Every Tue, 9:30am. Babylicious, 51 Hudson St(between Duane and Jay St). Call 212-406-7440, or visit baby-liciousnyc.com.

STORIES FOR ALL AGES Children are able to enjoy a storytime in beautiful Battery Park City. Aug 15, 11am. Rector Park West. Call 212-267-9700, or visit bpcparks.org.

TODDLER PLAY GROUP Story time, play time and fun educa-tional activities are all part of the Community Toddler Play Group for parents with their children. Foster your toddler’s imagination through history, science and maritime-themed activities using interactive materials and engaging book readings.$7 per child, free to family members, Every Wed, 1-2:30pm, South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St. Call 212-748-8786, or visit south-streetseaportmuseum.org.

YOUNG ARTISTS PROGRAM-SUMMER ART CLASS-ES This program provides affordable art classes for kids and teens — allowing students to experience creating art in a professional art school environment. Class size is limited to 12 students, so individual attention is maximized. All art supplies are included. For ages 10 to 14 and 15 to 19. Meetings twice a week for 6 weeks. $220 per 12-session course. Through Aug 14. Educational Alliance Art School. 197 East Broadway between Jefferson and Clinton Streets. To register, or for more information, call Lee Vasu at 646-395-4237 or visit edalliance.org/artschool.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR EVENT IN THE DOWN-TOWN EXPRESS KIDS LISTINGS? Listings requests may be e-mailed to [email protected]. Please provide the date, time, location, price and a description of the event. Information may also be mailed to 145 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-1548. Requests must be received two weeks before the event is to be published. Questions? Call 646-452-2507.

Recreational Soccer for Fall 2009 Age appropriate skills training, FIFA recommended formats, supervision by licensed coaches – FUN club experience. Registration begins May 23rd. Tryouts for Travel Soccer Teams 2009 – 10 Competitive teams U10 – 18. Play in local leagues and regional tournaments. Tryouts take place in May: see websites for details. Academy Training U6 – 9 Serious skills training without the pressure of league play. Summer Camp: June 8 – August 21 Half- and Full- day options available: register by the week. Summer programs for Travel level players 2009 Weeknight training + weekend games. ALL PLAYERS welcome. DUSC Fratelsa Camp, July 20 – 24, players U10 – U14. DUSC Markovic Summer Academy, June 29 – July 2, for HS players. NEW! DUSC NORTH at Randalls Island Summer camp, Fall Travel and Academy teams.

Soccer for all

seasons!

Moving Visions’ Murray Street StudioA Wise Choice for your child’s dance education!

Dance for Children and Teens• Modern Ballet (ages 5-18) • Choreography (ages 8 & up)

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212-608-7681 (day)www.murraystreetdance.com

ADULT CLASSES Yoga - Tai Chi • Chi/Dance/Exercise for Women

YOUTHACTIVITIES


BY BONNIE ROSENSTOCKUrban Art. Street Art. Mural Art. Aerosol

Art. Spray Art. Guerilla Art. Tag Art. Call graf-fi ti what you will — but there’s no denying it’s a big part of life in NYC (whether we realize it or not). That sentiment was expounded by painter/photographer Shell Sheddy.

Sheddy, who prefers to be called “an art activist,” is the curator of “GRAF: Reading the Writing on the Wall; images of the L.E.S. 1968 to present,” an overview of this contentious art form (currently showing at the Tompkins Square Park Library Gallery).

Sheddy, who has installed exhibits at the library and at other venues, likes to create themed shows that talk about our surround-ings. Given that the whole history of the Lower East Side is intertwined with political, social and personal expressions of graffi ti, Sheddy realized this was a natural subject. “Sometimes it’s to speak out about something that’s wrong. Sometimes it’s creating something the com-munity can rally around, like hardships, times of greed, overdevelopment and destruction, and fi nding ways to fi ght back — whether it’s making murals or doing something in the com-munity gardens. Sometimes it’s just to say that you are present,” she explained.

Because of the negative connotations of the word “graffi ti,” Sheddy went back to its Latin roots to play with “graf” and “graph” (which means to inscribe, write, put a mark down); to, she clarifi es, “make your presence known. I thought it was important to address the images and do this show to present all the variations of graffi ti since it is treated as ‘criminal mischief’ instead of ‘artistic expression.’”

Jane Weissman, co-author with Janet Braun-Reinitz of “On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City,” also acknowledged that graffi ti is “a loaded word.” She and Braun-Reinitz are involved with Artmakers — the artist-run, politically oriented community mural organization. “We try to stay away from the word ‘graffi ti artist,’ which to so many people means tagging, which we all agree is vandalism. Graffi ti artists who work with community groups and create commu-nity murals, like Lady Pink, Tats Cru and Lee Quinones, are ‘aerosol artists’ who wield the can in lieu of the paintbrush in the name of ‘fi ne art,’” said Weissman.

However, Sheddy (who has an autographed copy of Weissman’s book) noted that not all muralists use aerosol; some use paintbrush-

es and stencils. She agreed that what she terms “ego tags” have denigrated the form, but believes that sometimes it can add something to a wall or mural that integrates it. “When some-one scribbles initials or names without interest-ing letters across something, like a beautiful old building or someone else’s art, that is invasive and disrespectful to your work. But I liked the subway cars being covered.”

The list of participating graf luminaries is an ongoing, evolving process similar to the art form’s ephemeral character (so works might be added throughout the run). “The nature of street art — graffi ti, murals, tags, stencils, stickers, light chalk, projecting lights onto side-walks — is change,” she explained. “Graf is a transient medium. Even muralist community-based art makers understood that the murals would not last, except perhaps in memories and photographic documentation,” Sheddy said. “It would be wonderful if they could stay there forever, but even the artists paint over their own murals.”

Apocalynn, a resident of the Lower East Side who is of Cherokee descent, defi nes herself as a spray artist. Her original panels, which are imbued with Native American symbols, animals and spirits, hark back to the 1980s. Juan Carlos Pinto’s extraordinary portraits of John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Salvador Dali and Bob Marley (which appeared on subway station walls) are composed entirely of cut up, recycled MetroCards.

One corner of the gallery is devoted to “public art/private collection,” through fi ve works by Leviticus — including a broken down wooden stool with his trademark orange lines and yellow signature, and a particle board De La Vega, “Become Your Dream” with signature fi sh drawing.

Peter Missing, who is back from Berlin, is still “missing,” but at least one of his works

will eventually appear. His symbol of an upside down wine glass with three strikes crossed and the message “the Party is over” was ubiquitous on the walls and sidewalks of the East Village in the 1980s.

Rebecca Lepkoff, Silviana Goldsmith, Marlis Momber and Paul Adrian Davies provide lin-gering memories and photographic documenta-

tion. “It’s a good thing I have the best street photographers of the neighborhood represent-ing the images that surrounded us and helped to defi ne our neighborhood from the late 1960s to the present,” said Sheddy. She was born on the Lower East Side, left as a child, and moved back to the East Village as an adult in 1989. Her wall of striking color photographs on foam core depict artists at work — murals and tags on a plenitude of surfaces all throughout the Lower East Side.

The youthful, prolifi c Sheddy, blessed with a curly black mane, an infectious laugh, quick wit and mind, was the “She” graffi ti artist of an earlier era (but she’s not exhibiting any of these works). She did a series in the subway and upstate called “She walks and talks, like she actually is one” — her lady series (spoken word and drawings of a woman’s face in fuchsia paint). “It was a boy’s world, which is why I did it. It was extending myself to put it out there and see how people reacted to it. First, there is nothing on the wall, and then boom, the next day there it is,” she said. “A lot of times when dealing with graffi ti, you don’t have permis-sion; you have to give yourself permission,” she laughed.

Sheddy installed a pull down roll of heavy construction paper on a wall. “When the artists found out about the show, they were like, ‘how great, a blank wall,’ and the library people were like, ‘oh, no, a graffi ti show,’ panic. The best thing would be if they could paint directly on the library wall. We compromised and will have something that can be taken away,” she said with a mischievous laugh. Oh, the temptation.

‘Art Activist’ sheds light on ‘aerosol artists’Exhibit documents ephemeral medium throughout L.E.S.

Image courtesy of the artist

“Love Mother Earth” / by Shell Sheddy (on E. 10th St., bet Ave. A & E. 1st St.)

GRAF: READING THE WRITING ON THE WALLThrough August 31

At the Tompkins Square Park Library Gallery

331 E. 10th Street (between Avenues A and B)

Hours vary according to library schedule. Call 212-228-4747 or visit www.nypl.org

ART

JULIE & JULIAAs many of you know, I recently spent

six weeks in the hospital and two weeks recovering at home. “Julie & Julia” was the fi rst fi lm I saw in eight weeks, and it was a wonderful choice. It is pure entertain-ment.

The title of the fi lm should be amended to “Julie, Julia & Nora.” Nora Ephron’s script and direction along with the perfor-mances of Meryl Streep and Amy Adams add up to one joyous picture.

Ms. Ephron did something unique in basing the movie on the life of Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and the experience of Julie Powell (Amy Adams) who wrote an on-line blog about her experience in cook-ing all 524 recipes in Julia’s cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” She completed the task within her self-imposed deadline of 365 days. The fi lm goes back and forth between the lives of the two women, and both actresses are totally convincing in their roles.

The supporting roles of Julia’s husband,

Paul (Stanley Tucci), and young Julie’s hus-band, Eric (Chris Messina), are also mar-velously performed. One scene of Julia and Paul becoming sensual in bed may cause some, who thought of Julia as a mother fi gure, to close their eyes feeling as though they accidentally violated the privacy of their parents’ bedroom.

THE HURT LOCKER (+)This is without a doubt one of the best

war pictures I have ever seen, and I have seen most of them.

The fi lm follows three American soldiers in Iraq responsible for defusing bombs. They often drive along dangerous roads in which bombs, intended to maim and kill American soldiers, have been planted by Iraqi terrorists.

Staff Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) is assigned to the unit after his predecessor was killed disarming a bomb. James, clearly not your normal soldier, wants to compe-tently perform his duties and return home alive. He has already disarmed over 700 bombs and seems to care nothing about his own safety. The second person in the unit, who prefers to operate by the book, is Sgt. J. T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie). Sanborn worries that James’ actions are endan-

KOCH ON FILM



FringeNYC celebrates lucky year 13Best bets among a bevy of odd offeringsBY SCOTT STIFFLER

What happens every August, exhausts even the most tireless theatergoer, and features more thespians than a barrel full of bloated, budget-busting Broadway babies? FringeNYC.

Taking place August 14 through 30, FringeNYC bills itself as “the largest multi-arts festival in North America” — and backs up that boast with several dozen productions by over 200 companies from all over the world.

Now in its thirteenth year, this wildly uneven, curiously curated fest has birthed many genuine works of genius — while bestowing its seal of approval on more than one yawn-induc-ing, head-scratching debacle. Often rough and frayed at the edges but ultimately elegant in form and noble in function, its $15 per-show ticket price means you can take more than a few chances before your bill totals the cost of just one Broadway show. For FringeNYC tickets and information, visit www.fringenyc.org or call 866-468-7619. Discount passes to multiple shows are available.

Sight unseen, here are our totally biased, not nearly comprehensive picks of likely prospects and unusual suspects.

ALCHEMIST OF LIGHTIt’s 1914; do you know where your leg-

endary fi lmmaker is? This new comic thriller is based on the life of early-era cinemagician George Méliès (whose 1902 fi lm “A Trip to the Moon” has special effects which still amaze). “Alchemist” combines the tale of a has-been French fi lmmaker gunning for a comeback with screenings of legendary fl icks from the fi rst years of the last century. At The Connelly Theater. At Lafayette Street Theatre.

COMPLETE WRITERThis serious comedy centers around two

obsessive linguists, a determined child and a charismatic guru. Together, this motley crew (each with their own agenda) clash over the power and perversion of language. At The Studio @ Cherry Lane Theater.

CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTHIn this true story presented as a multi-

media drama, a brother and sister salvage pages from their father’s unfi nished memoir from the wreckage of a plane crash. Two generations of West Africans become linked by a shaman’s prophesy. At CSV Cultural and Educational Center.

DANCING WITH GHOSTSA thematic companion to the previously

listed show, this modern exploration of ancient performance and manipulated per-ception draws from shamanic lore to tell the tale of Harley Newman — named for his uncle (an adopted brother to the shaman in a tribe of headhunters). At HERE Arts Center, Dorothy B. Williams Theater.

EMINENEA runaway girl and a mysterious stranger

roam a post-apocalyptic landscape in search

of safety —while trying to avoid border patrols and two-headed mutants. At The New School for Drama Theater.

FACE THE MUSIC…AND DANCE!Five NYC choreographers present dif-

ferent perspectives on the struggles of mod-ern life. In the process, they reveal the power of dance as an anecdote to despair. Choreographed by Tina Croll, Heidi Latsky,

Maura Nguyen Donahue and Noa Sagie (and, we suppose, a fi fth person not listed in the promotional blurb!). At The Robert Moss Theatre.

GROUPIESOld or young, gay or straight, black or

white; almost every fl avor percolating in the great American melting pot has been fasci-nated by the trappings of fame. “Groupies”

starts with that pop concept-cum-conceit — then branches out with unexpected trips into the minds, passions, and sexuality of four very different people. Central to all of their psyches? Celebrity. Central to the play? Humanity, love, regret, loneliness and unexpected twists. At The Studio @ Cherry Lane Theatre.

Photo by Naftali Beane Rutter

The obsessive linguists of “Complete Writer”

Photo by Motoyuki Ishibashi

The Samurai storytellers of “Scattered Lives”



HAROLD PINTER PAIRTwo one-acts by Harold Pinter (“The

Lover” and “Ashes to Ashes”) ask the respective questions: Can a woman be both wife and mistress to her husband? Can a man reckon with his wife’s erot-ic sadomasochistic past? Discover the answers amongst the angst, the pauses, the menace and the humor that combine to make the signature Pinter style. At The SoHo Playhouse.

HIS GREATNESSIs fi ction stranger than truth? This

work, much-praised during its Vancouver run, delivers a “potentially true” story about two days in the last years of the life of a playwright who’s grasping at former glories while gasping for a comeback. Is that desperate playwright Tennessee Williams or just based on his persona? The producers aren’t telling. At the Cherry Lane Theatre.

HOW NOW, DOW JONESIt’s 1968 all over again — with a 2009

twist — in this updated version of a decades-old work whose theme of fi nancial distress seems depressingly familiar. Musical com-edy helps the medicine go down as central character Kate frets over her fi ancé’s deci-sion to delay the wedding until the Dow Jones Average hits 1,000. At Minetta Lane Theatre.

I WILL FOLLOWA Long Island girl goes on a 20-year

search for truth, love and religion — helped along by the omnipresent music of U2. At The Actors’ Playhouse.

JUST DON’T TOUCH ME, AMIGOWriter and performer Fernando Gambaroni’s

one-man show turns out to be the tale of every man — and woman — who has every arrived in NYC, went to sleep, and woke up the next day with an overwhelming sense of being the new kid on the block and a stranger in a strange land. At manhattan theater source.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAMAlabama-based BAMA Theatre Company

takes a stab at Shakespeare’s perennial summertime tale by having its eight actors

magically morph from character to charac-ter with only the contents of a single suit-case to help set the scene. At The Cherry Lane Theater.

MUFFIN MANThis modern take on the classic nursery

rhyme tells the musical tale of a little barista in love with the Muffi n Man. Can Lyla navi-gate the daily barrage of customers, family and friends in order to tell the Muffi n Man how she feels? If you still believe in happy endings, you already know the answer. At The Lafayette Street Theatre.

SCATTERED LIVESSwords rip through fl esh in this meld-

ing of traditional Japanese Samurai story-telling and revved up rock music. Shido stumbles through drunken battles against countless warriors in search of his way back to Bushido. At the Robert Moss Theatre.

SOME EDITING AND SOME MUSICMortifi cation used to be the normal reac-

tion when somebody sneaked a peek at your diary. This modern trio, however, doesn’t mind putting their innermost thoughts on YouTube for all to see. Can they market their online personas while controlling their lives outside of the electronic realm? At The Robert Moss Theatre.

TALES FROM THE TUNNELDirty? Hot? Sticky? Crowded? It can

only be the NYC subway system in the sum-mertime. Sit in air conditioned comfort as you hear over 150 true stories culled from people who ride in a hole in the ground. At The Connelly Theater.

UNION SQUAREDThis romantic comedy about a woman

who falls in love with her husband’s mistress is set in Union Square and complicated by the presence of a meddling Jewish mother. At The Players Theatre.

WILLY NILLYPiper McKenzie (the theater compa-

ny whose brains are the brawn behind Brooklyn’s Brick Theater) presents “Willy Nilly” — a “musical exploitation” timed to coincide with 40th anniversary of the Manson family and the Tate-Labianca Murders. This self-proclaimed “tasteless rock’n’roll spoof” tells the tale of a filthy

faux-Messiah, his cult of wanton women and high Hollywood murder — through copious amounts of gore, gratuitous nudity and cruel stereotypes. The man behind this ambitious affront? Trav S.D. — a Downtown Express contributor and prolific renaissance freakazoid. At Dixon Place.

WOYZECKComing off rave reviews from its Los

Angeles run, L.A.’s Gangbusters Theatre Company presents their acclaimed produc-tion of George Buchner’s classic about a mentally challenged enlisted soldier who is provoked by his superiors to kill his unfaith-ful lover. At Lafayette Street Theatre.

gering the lives of all three men in the unit. The third soldier, Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), believes that he was wounded because of James’ irre-sponsible behavior and unwillingness to avoid danger.

The United States is now scheduled to remove its troops from Iraq by December 31, 2011. We should get out of Afghanistan even sooner. It is not a country that can be saved, nor is it a plot of land that is worth saving. Last week, five American

soldiers were killed in one day — and casualties will increase with each passing week. Remaining in Afghanistan is simply a waste of American lives and blood.

“The Hurt Locker” (I have no idea what the title means) was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The script, clearly based on fact, was written by Mark Boal (who was once enclosed with a bomb squad in Baghdad).

Don’t miss this film, every moment of which is filled with excitement. It is cur-rently playing at the Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema on East Houston Street which has very comfortable, stadium seating.

Koch on fi lmContinued from page 23

FringeNYC is a great opportunity to reconnect with (or discover) some of down-town’s most creatively ambitious theaters. Here’s information on all of the FringeNYC venues. Drop by or visit them online to dis-cover what’s playing all year long.

VENUES #1, #2 CSV Cultural and Educational Center (Milagro) and CSV Cultural and Educational Center (Flamboyan), 107 Suffolk Street (Rivington & Delancey Streets; csvcenter.com)

VENUE #3 Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie Street (Rivington & Delancey Streets; dix-onplace.org)

VENUE #4 The Connelly Theater, 220 East 4th Street (Avenue A & Avenue B; connellycenter.org/theatre)

VENUE # 5 Theatres at 45 Bleecker — The Lafayette Street Theatre, 45 Bleecker Street (at Lafayette; myspace.com/45bleecker)

VENUE #6 The Robert Moss Theatre, 440 Lafayette Street, 3rd Floor (Astor Place/ East 4th Street; 440studios.com)

VENUE #7 Manhattan theatre source, 177 MacDougal Street (8th and Waverly Place; theatresource.org)

VENUES #8, #9 The Players Theatre and The Players Loft, 115 MacDougal Street (West side of MacDougal, just south of West 3rd Street; theplayerstheatre.com )

VENUE #10 Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane (6th Avenue & MacDougal Street. Call 212-420-8000)

VENUE #11 The Actors’ Play-house, 100 Seventh Avenue South(Grove & Bleecker; actorsplayhouse.org)

VENUE #12 The New School for Drama Theater, 151 Bank Street (West & Washington Streets; drama.newschool.edu )

VENUE #13 The Cherry Pit, 155 Bank Street (West & Washington Streets)

VENUES #14, #15 The Cherry Lane Theatre and The Studio @ Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street, (7th Avenue & Hudson Street; cherrylanethe-atre.org)

VENUE #16 The SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street (6th Avenue & Varick/7th Avenue; sohoplayhouse.com)

VENUES # 17, #18 HERE Arts Center (Mainstage) and HERE Arts Center (Dorothy B. Williams Theater), 145 6th Avenue (Enter on Dominick, one block S of Spring; here.org)

FringeNYC: Where it’s at


Photo by Andrew Rothenberg

Christian Levatino as Woyzeck


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HAIR COLOR TREATMENTS STYLINGCHILDREN’S CUTS THOUGHTFUL GIFTS

JAPANESE STRAIGHTENING

CLASSES DANCE AND PILATES Ballet, jazz, tango, hip-hop, and modern dance class-es are offered for all levels. $16/class, discounts available. Ongoing. Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway (entrance at 53 Chambers St) 2nd Floor. Call 212-279-4200, or visit dnadance.org.

TABLE TENNIS TRAINING PRO-GRAM Table tennis training is offered for players of all ages and skill levels. It’s a great opportunity for all to come togeth-er, enjoy the sport, and build new friend-ships. Mon-Fri, 10am to 1pm, $100 a year for ages 6-15 and 50 and older; $200 for others. American Asian Cultural Center of Tribeca, 384 Broadway, lower level. Call 646-772-2922.

N E W B E G I N N I N G S C H A I R YOGA Trinity Church’s seniors group meets for one hour of gentle yoga while seated. 10-11am. Ongoing. Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall St. Call 212-602-0747, or visit trinitywallstreet.org.

SUPPORT GROUP FOR FIRST-TIME MOTHERS Join parenting experts Drs. Ann Chandler and Nancy Carroll-Freeman and new mothers to voice your thoughts and feelings and find support and encour-agement. $25 per group. Every Thurs,10-11am. Tribeca Pediatrics, 46 Warren St. Call 212-219-9984.

EVENTSHARMONY ON THE HUDSON The Family Music Festival at Battery Park City. Participants will enjoy music, food, games and art activities. Free. Sept 13, 1-6pm. Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, (access: Battery Place) Call 212-267-9700 or visit bpcparks.org.

S U N S E T J A M O N T H E H U D -SON Participants will improvise on African, Latin and Caribbean rhythms in a drumming circle led by master drummers. Instruments provided, or

bring your own. Every Friday, through Aug 28, 6:30-8:30pm. Robert F. Wag-ner, Jr. Park. Call 212-267-9700 or visit bpcparks.org.

FREE HEARING SCREENINGS AT THE LEAGUE FOR THE HARD OF HEARING Every Wed, 12 –2pm, and every Thurs 4-6pm. Call or email to schedule an appointment. LEAGUE FOR THE HARD OF HEARING, 50 Broad-way, 6th Fl. Call 917-305-7766, or visit [email protected].

P U B L I C S A I L S A B O A R D 1 8 8 5 SCHOONER PIONEER Enjoy spec-tacular views of the New York Harbor from the deck of the historic ship. Tues-Fri: 3-5pm, 4-6pm and 7-9pm, Sat-Sun: 1-3pm, 4-6pm, 7-9pm. Prices: 4-6pm and 7-9pm sails: Adults $35, Student/Seniors $30m Children 12 and under $25. 1-3pm and 3-5pm sails: Adults $25, Student/Seniors $20, Children 12 and under $15. Members receive $5 discount. Reservations suggested. South Street Seaport. Pier 16. Call 212-748-8786, or visit southstreetseaport-museum.org.

DANCE 2 8 T H A N N U A L D O W N T O W N DANCE FESTIVAL Enjoy perfor-mances featuring ethnic, classical and contemporary dance from around the world. Free. Aug 22-23, 1pm. Battery Park. Call 212-219-3910, or visit bat-terydance.org.

EAST INDIAN FAMILY DANCE Expe-rience energetic and joyful community dancing for all ages. No experience necessary. Free. Aug 15, 6:30-8pm. Esplanade Plaza, Battery Park City (located along the Hudson River at the end of Liberty St)Visit bpcparks.org.

EXHIBITS THE BETTER HALF- ARTIST COU-PLES ON DISPLAY The exhibition

presents young artist couples who are balancing careers, creating art and being married to another artist. Free. Opening reception- Sept 10, 6-8pm. Educational Alliance Art Gallery, 197 East Broadway (between Jefferson & Clinton St) Visit edalliance.org/artschool.

JOHN LENNON-THE NEW YORK CITY YEARS Rare, or ig inal and never-before-seen artifacts of John Lennon are on display at this rocking exhibition. $24.50; students with ID, $19.50. Buy tickets at museumtix.com or 866.9ROCKNY. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex, 76 Mercer St. Visit rock-annex.com.

BEAUTY SURROUNDS US Visi-tors can see a unique display includ-ing an elaborate Quechua girl’s dance outfit, a Northwest Coast chief’s staff with carved animal figures and crests, Seminole turtle shell dance leggings, a conch shell trumpet from pre-Colum-bian Mexico, and an Inupiak (Eskimo) ivory cribbage board. Two interactive media stations show visitors in-depth descriptions of each object. Ongoing through March, 2010. National Muse-um of the American Indian, One Bowl-ing Green. Call 212-514-3700, or visit nmai.si.edu.

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK Visit Manhattan’s oldest surviving building, 54 Pearl Street which has witnessed nearly 300 years of the city’s history. Ongoing. $4, $3 seniors and children under 18, and free to children under six. Fraunces Tavern Museum, 54 Pearl St. Call 212-425-1776, or visit fraun-cestavernmuseum.com.

MARINE ECOLOGY ABOARD 1885 SCHOONER PIONEER Learn about the creatures that inhabit the local harbor estuary, harbor water quality, and what is being done to maintain this valuable ecosystem. $30 adults / $25 students & seniors / $20 children 12 and under / Members receive a $5 discount. South Street Seaport, Pier 16

(Programs Afloat). Call 212-748-8786, or visit southstreetseaportmuseum.org.

W O M A N O F L E T T E R S : I R È N E NÉMIROVSKY AND SUITE FRAN-ÇAISE The exhibit examines the life, work, and legacy of this enthralling, often controversial, literary figure. Now extended through Aug 30. $12 adults, $10 seniors, $7 students, chil-dren under 12 free. Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Pl. Call 646-437-4202,or visit mjhnyc.org.

WOMEN OF WALL STREET This exhibition showcases notable women in the world of finance and Wall Street. Museum of American Finance, 48 Wall St. Call 212-908-4110, or visit finan-cialhistory.org.

MUSIC SUMMER SOUNDS AT TRINITY-YESTERDAY AND TODAY BAND A tribute to the music of the legendary Beatles will be a treat for the listen-ers at the Trinity Church. Free. Aug 26, 12:30 and 2:30pm. Trinity Church Broadway at Wall Street. Call 212-602-0800, or visit trinitywallstreet.org.

COOL MUSIC FOR WARM SUMMER DAYS The Harlem Blues and Jazz Band will cool off the summer heat and warm up the spirit. Free. Aug 20, 12:30pm. 24 State St (1 Battery Plaza). Call 212 407-2429, or visit rivertoriv-ernyc.org.

LO-FI RADIOSTARS Classic rock jam band from Connecticut in concert at the Sullivan Hall. Tickets are available online or by calling 866-468-7619. $10. Aug 27, 7:30pm. Sullivan Hall, 214 Sul-livan St (between Bleecker and W 3rd St). Visit sullivanhallnyc.com.

FRONTIER-A TRIBUTE TO JOUR-NEY Great rock from the 1980s comes back again thanks to this Journey trib-ute show. $12. Aug 14, 7:30pm. Tickets

are available by calling 866-468-7619. Sullivan Hall, 214 Sullivan St (between Bleecker and W 3rd St). Visit sullivan-hallnyc.com.

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS Trio, whose music t ranscends musical genres, will participate in the Seaport Music Festival. Free. Aug 14, 6pm. South Street Seaport, Pier 17 Stage (Fulton and South St) For more informa-tion, visit seaportmusicfestival.com.

TOURS FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK TOUR Visitors will be able to tour the Fed’s gold vault and learn about the Federal Reserve’s cen-tral banking functions. Free. Federal Reserve Bank of NY, 33 Liberty St. Call 212-720-6130, or visit newyorkfed.org.

1625: DUTCH NEW YORK Walk along the shoreline of 1625 as the tour visits sites – and some extant remains – of the original Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, now New York. Visit architectural digs, Stone Street, the shortest lane in Manhattan, the edge of Fort Amsterdam, and more. $20; $15 seniors and students. Sept 5. Runs approx. 90 mins. Meet at One Bowling Green, on steps of National Museum of the American Indian. Call 646-573-9509.

SOHO ARTS WALK Exper ience SoHo’s art scene like never before with a walk down famous cobblestone streets that were once the stomping grounds of such greats as Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Free admis-sion into galleries. The third Thursday of every month through Sept. Visit sohoartswalk.com.

GANGSTER, WRITER, RABBI Par-ticipants of this Lower East Side Walk-ing Tour will learn about the common ground between gangster Jack Zelig, writer Sholem Aleichem & rabbi Jacob Joseph. Aug 23, 11am.The walking

tour will begin at the Eldridge Street Synagogue (12 Eldridge St, between Canal and Division). Call 212-219-0888 or visit eldridgestreet.org.

LOVE AND COURTSHIP WALKING TOUR This unique Lower East Side walking tour explores love at the turn of the century. $15 ($12 for students and seniors) Sept 6, 2pm. The walking tour will begin at the Eldridge Street Synagogue at 12 Eldridge St, between Canal and Division Sts. Call 212-219-0888 or visit eldridgestreet.org.

M U S E U M A T E L D R I D G E STREET These guided tours, led by historian-trained docents tell the story of the 1887 landmark synagogue, and illuminate the experience of the East European Jewish immigrants who set-tled on the LES in the late 19th century. Sun.-Thurs, 10am-4pm. $10 adults, $8 seniors, $6 children. Museum at Eldridge Street, 12 Eldridge St. Call 212-219-0888, or visit eldridgestreet.org.

LAST CHANCE

ICE FACTORY 2009 FESTIVAL OF NEW WORK Downtown theater companies have the opportunity to showcase their latest projects during the summer fes-tival. Through Aug 15, 7pm- “Banana Bag and Bodice”. Tickets are available online. SoHo Think Tank, Ohio Theater, 66 Wooster St. Call 212-966-4844, or visit sohothinktank.org.

LISTINGS REQUESTS for the Down-town Express may be mailed to Listings Editor at 145 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-1548 or e-mailed to [email protected]. Please include listings in the subject line of the e-mail and provide the date, time, location, price and a description of the event. Informa-tion must be received two weeks before the event is to be published. Questions? Call 646-452-2507.

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