DOWNTOWN EXPRESS 1-19-11

BY Aline ReYnolds Cathie Black, the city’s new

Department of Education chancellor, had little to say at last Thursday’s school overcrowding task force meet-ing organized by NY State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. But the little that she did say made headlines and sparked outrage around the city.

Task force member Eric Greenleaf, a business professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, has done extensive research on the population boom in Lower Manhattan and the resulting overcrowding in the schools. When he presented his latest data to Black on Thursday, showing

an estimated need for 1,000 additional seats by 2015, Black made a verbal gaffe that riled up the entire educa-tional community.

“Could we just have some birth con-trol for a while? It would really help us all out,” joked Black.

The comment was “shocking,” according to Downtown parent Deborah Somerville and others.

P.S. 234 parent Tina Schiller, who was opposed to Black’s appointment as chancellor, said she was not surprised by Black’s joke. “It just kind of reiter-ates the lightness in which the D.O.E. takes our plight,” she said.

Others like Tom Moore, co-presi-

dent of Millennium High School’s par-ent-teacher association, merely thought of it as a poor attempt at humor. “I don’t think she meant anything by it, [but] it was probably in retrospect not a good idea,” he said.

People elsewhere around the city also took offense at Black’s comment.

City Councilmember Julissa Ferreras of Queens, chair of the NYC Council’s committee on women’s issues, said she was “appalled and offended” by Black’s statement. “The job of a chancellor,” said Ferreras, “is to ensure that our

Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

A maiden call fit for a QueenCunard’s newest ship, Queen Elizabeth, docked at the Midtown Manhattan Cruise Terminal on Jan. 13, 2011 for the ship’s maiden call on New York City. Story on pg 14.

BY Aline ReYnolds Imam Shaykh Abdallah

Adhami, who for 20 years led prayers at a former mosque two blocks away from Park51, is joining Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as one of several chief reli-gious advisors of the future Islamic community center on Park Place.

Adhami and a half-dozen other prominent N.Y.C.-based religious leaders will be added to the executive board of Park51, which is close to gaining nonprofit status.

Adhami and the other reverends, rabbis and Imams soon-to-be appointed by Sharif El-Gamal, chief executive officer of SoHo Properties and the president of Park51, will “create a robust and dynamic reli-gious and interfaith compo-

nent” of the project, accord-ing to a statement issued by the center.

Adhami eagerly accepted the position, calling it an “extraordinary opportunity” to be a key advisor in the project moving forward.

“[Park51] has enormous creative and healing poten-tial for the collective good in New York City and in our nation,” said the Imam, whose former mosque had to close after it lost its lease, according to Park51.

Born in Georgetown, Washington D.C., Adhami studied architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and worked for seven years in international organizational development, communica-tions and executive training He did post-doctoral work on the legal, ethical and spir-itual meanings of shari’ah

Imam shuffle at Park 51

Black drops ball at school overcrowding meeting

Continued on page 20


downtown express®

Volume 23, Number 36 The Newspaper of lower maNhaTTaN JaNuary 19 - 25, 2011

MeRchAnt RiveR house

opens, pg. 15

Mama of them allTurn to pg 11 for a tribute to Ellen Stewart.

Januar y 19 - 25, 20112 downtown express

673 police to man WTC Nearly 700 officers will be assigned to

patrol the World Trade Center once it is fully redeveloped, according an Associated Press report published by The Washington Post.

New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly discussed the need for compre-hensive security at the site at an event held on Tuesday for the Police Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy policing group.

The W.T.C. site requires special monitor-ing, since it is still a terrorist target, Kelly said at the event.

Also, according to the Associated Press, Kelly has chosen a deputy commissioner for the World Trade Center command who is crafting a security plan for the memorial ser-vice scheduled for next September in obser-vance of the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.

Hive at 55 Turns One Lower Manhattan’s Business Improvement

District, Downtown Alliance, celebrated the one-year anniversary of The Hive at 55, a Downtown co-working facility located at 55

Broad Street. In its first year, the Hive has been used

more than 5,000 times, with upwards of 100 regular members, according to the Downtown Alliance. It has grown an average of 22 percent per month, and more than 80 percent of its desks are assigned monthly.

Downtown Alliance collaborated with Pace University, Girls in Tech, GuruLoft and other tech and social media groups to host more than 100 events there thus far.

Speakers at Tuesday’s event included Downtown Alliance President Elizabeth Berger and Rudin Management Chairman William Rudin. President Seth Pinsky of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the com-pany that provided a $100,000 grant to the Downtown Alliance, also said a few words.

Affordable housing guide Community Board 1’s Affordable

Housing Task Force has discovered close to 1,000 affordable housing units in the C.B. 1 area, according to task force chairman Tom Goodkind.

The task force is planning to create a guide “for those who want to live here and think they can’t afford it - pushing for a more diverse community, and protecting our cur-rent tenancy,” said Goodkind.

The group, led by Tribeca-based film pro-ducer Amy Sewell, is also coming up with a dollar figure of the amount of affordable housing the city has subsidized.

The task force also hopes to form Manhattan Seniors, a nonprofit that would be responsible for supervising affordable

services for seniors who wish to age-in-place in the neighborhood.

The 14-member task force will convene for its January monthly meeting next Monday eve-ning at the C.B. 1 offices on Chambers Street.

Silverstein tables bond sale Silverstein Properties, the lead developer

of the World Trade Center, has postponed the sale of $1.3 billion in tax-exempt liberty bonds to pay for 4 W.T.C., one of the three W.T.C. towers that need financing from the bonds, according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal. Borrowers have hurried to capitalize on the Build America bonds, a federal subsidies program, causing volatility in the municipal bond market in recent weeks, according to the report.

Though Silverstein’s bonds don’t fall within the government program, the devel-oper wants to hold off on selling the bonds. “Like many other issuers of tax-exempt debt around the country, Silverstein Properties and the Port Authority have elected to wait until the municipal bond market stabilizes before issuing bonds that will support the ongoing development of 4 W.T.C.,” said Bud Perrone, a spokesperson for Silverstein Properties.

Perrone added that Silverstein would be prepared to “act as soon as market condi-tions improve,” which the developer antici-pates to happen “in the coming weeks or months.”

He noted that the delay of the sale would not imminently affect the construc-tion schedule.

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Downtown Digest

News � � � � � � � � � � � � �1-7, 10-16

editorial Pages � 10-11

youth � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22

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C.b. 1meetingsA schedule of this week’s upcoming

Community Board 1 committee meet-ings is below. Unless otherwise noted, all committee meetings are held at the board office, located at 49-51 Chambers St., room 709 at 6 p.m.

on Wed., JAn. 19: C.B. 1’s Waterfront Committee will meet.

on thuRs., JAn. 20: C.B. 1’s Quality of Life Committee will meet at 5:30 p.m.

on Mon., JAn. 24: C.B. 1’s Affordable Housing Task Force will meet.

on tues., JAn. 25: C.B. 1 will hold its monthly full board meeting at 6 p.m. at 120 Warren Street.

Downtown Express photo by Milo HessLost mittenThis lone mitten hung from a tree branch on Greenwich Street. Feel free to con-tact us if it belongs to you.

downtown express Januar y 19 - 25, 2011 3

9/11 responder hopes to halt Park51 constructionBY Aline ReYnolds

Petitioner Timothy Brown, a 9/11 first responder firefighter who worked to achieve landmark status for buildings impacted by the September 11 attacks, is trying to pre-vent Park51 organizers from tearing down the former Burlington Coat Factory building on Park Place to make way for a sixteen-story Islamic community center.

The lawsuit calls into question the Landmark Preservation Commission’s deci-sion to deny landmark status to the building at 45-47 Park Place. Brown’s suit also cites improper influence by the mayor’s adminis-tration, which he believes led to the commis-sion’s decision.

The American Center for Law and Justice filed an amended complaint on behalf of Brown last Tuesday, requesting that the New York State Supreme Court halt demolition or construction activity at the site until a judge in court hears his case.

The lawsuit, however, might be dismissed, according to the City’s law department. Brown sued developer SoHo Properties — whose chief executive officer, Sharif El-Gamal, is one of the project’s investors — rather than the legal owner of the site, which is 45 Park Place Partners. The company purchased the building at 45-47 Park Place in Summer 2009.

This mishap renders the case invalid, according to Adam Leitman Bailey, the law-

yer representing the city and SoHo Properties in the case. “There has never been a case in New York, ever, where someone can win if they didn’t name the right party in 120

days,” he said. Bailey said the 120-day deadline passed

in early December. But Brett Joshpe, an attorney from the

A.C.L.J. who is representing Brown, refuted the claim, calling it “nonsense.”

“They’ve represented all along that SoHo Properties is the owner of the property before landmarks decision,” said Joshpe. “It’s really an attempt to distract from the substance of the suit.”

A court date is set for Wednesday at noon at 60 Centre Street, in which both sides will present their arguments in front of a NY State Supreme Court judge.

Brown’s suit, filed last August, alleges that, after 20 years of considering the site for landmark status, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission ultimately made an “arbitrary and capricious” decision at the July 13 hearing.

Brown and the A.C.L.J. have both spoken out against the proposed Islamic community center ever since last year, when the Park51 debate began to heat up.

According to the complaint, Brown has reason to believe that demolition of the buildings at 45-51 Park Place could be immi-nent, referencing two complaints on the city Department of Buildings website that cite recent unauthorized work at the site; and developer SoHo Properties’ application for a five million dollar grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation that may or may not be used for capital expens-

Downtown Express file photo

A lawsuit seeking to stop the construction of the proposed Islamic community Center on Park Place might be thrown out due to a technicality.



BY AlBeRt AMAteAu New York University will begin excavation for the clean-

up of the Dec. 6, 2009, oil leak at Washington Square Village — with continued monitoring of air quality and groundwater — in the next week or so, university officials told residents and Community Board 2 representatives on Jan. 5.

While about 5,000 gallons of the leaked No. 6 heating oil was removed soon after the leak was discovered from two tanks in the boiler room and underground areas in front of 3 and 4 Washington Square Village, about 11,000 gallons of congealed oil in the soil must be removed as part of a deeper remediation.

Beth Morningstar, N.Y.U. assistant vice president for strategic initiatives in the university operations division, promised anxious Washington Square Village residents that she would respond to calls around the clock from residents during the cleanup project, which is expected to be complete by early May 2011.

Stephanie Kung, health and safety director of N.Y.U. operations and the person in charge of the cleanup project, told residents that no weekend work has been scheduled at this time. Groundwater test wells, installed soon after the emergency removal was completed, will continue testing. Random air quality tests in public areas of Washington Square Village buildings 3 and 4 will continue during the project, Kung said.

Barbara Backer, co-chairperson of the Washington Square Village Tenants Association, however, called for air testing in apartments on the first residential floor of the buildings.

“There is a whole row of apartments in buildings 3 and 4 with vents in the kitchens and bathrooms and there is air

coming in. I can feel it when I take a shower,” Backer said. Moreover, cracks in the masonry of the buildings also admit air, Backer added.

Kung said she would definitely look into the possibility of more extensive air monitoring, including tests at the Morton Williams supermarket on the south side of Bleecker St. The current plan calls for random air monitoring 10 to 20 feet downwind from the construction area.

Residents and neighbors, including Judith Callet, resi-dential chairperson of the Bleecker Area Merchants and Residents Association, are also anxious about auto and bicycle traffic when the parking lane on Bleecker St. is closed at the end of January and traffic is confined to one lane during the construction period. They asked N.Y.U. to urge the city Department of Transportation to limit traffic on Bleecker St. during the project.

However, Jo Hamilton, chairperson of Community Board 2, told residents that D.O.T. has existing traffic protocols wherever construction impacts on street and sidewalk circu-lation. Nevertheless, the C.B. 2 Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on the cleanup’s traffic impact, Hamilton said. Kung said that D.O.T. is expected to issue construc-tion and fence permits by the time digging begins. While the planted area between the Bleecker St. sidewalk and the

N.Y.U. to start oil-spill cleanup on Bleecker St.

Weapons arraignmentJonathan Shaw, 57, an East Village tattoo artist, pleaded

not guilty at his Jan. 11 State Supreme Court arraignment on charges of illegal possession of assault rifles, handguns, ammunition and knives found in his rented South St. stor-age locker. Shaw, son of famed big band leader Artie Shaw, was arrested Nov. 6, 2010 after an employee of a shipping company notified police about a cache of weapons in Shaw’s Manhattan Mini Storage locker at 220 South St. Shaw has been free on $250,000 bond pending a March 22 court appearance on the 89-count indictment for unlicensed pos-session of weapons including an assault rifle, a .30 caliber semiautomatic rifle, a 12-guage pump-action pistol grip shot gun, a British army rifle, more than 2,000 rounds of ammu-nition, five pairs of brass knuckles and 68 illegal knives and daggers, including a bayonet. Shaw was arranging to ship the weapons to Los Angeles when he was arrested. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. referred to the Jan. 8 fatal shootings in Tucson, Ariz. at the Jan. 11 arraignment. “The events of the past weekend remind us that gun violence con-tinues to plague our nation,” Vance said, pledging to pros-ecute illegal weapons owners and dealers and get stockpiles of illegal guns off the streets.

Woman, 81, muggedA strapping woman, described as being 5’11” and weigh-

ing nearly 200 pounds, knocked an 81-year-old woman to the floor of the Fulton St. subway station around 10:40 p.m. Tues. Jan. 4 and made off with her bag, according to reports. The victim was returning to her Greenpoint home after her office cleaning job when the suspect followed her and attacked her just before she reached the turnstile, accord-ing to a New York Post item. The victim, Madeline Klima, told the Post that the mugger made off with her paychecks totaling $800.

Bank robbery arrestPolice arrested Enrique Cova, 43, Thurs., Jan. 6 and

charged him with two robberies of the Bank of America branch on Bayard St. near Bowery, one on Christmas Eve and the other on New Year’s Eve. The suspect, who fin-ished serving a seven-year prison term for robbery a year ago, walked into the bank at 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 24, and passed a teller a note saying, “Give me 100 $100 bills or we will take hostages and move in.” He fled with an undetermined sum of cash, according to charges filed with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. The defen-dant returned to the same branch at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 31, passed another note to a teller but fled without anything, according to the charges. He is being held pending a Feb. 1 court appearance.

Movie and dinnerA Bayonne, N.J. woman parked her 2010 Jeep Wrangler

at the corner of W. Broadway and Grand St., around 11 p.m. Sun., Jan. 16 while she went to a movie and had some sup-per. But she returned a couple of hours later and discovered that the car had been stolen, police said. Her bag, with an iPod and another cell phone, were in the car, police said. The victim’s EZ Pass electronic record showed the pass had been used around 8:30 p.m. the following day at the Queens Midtown Tunnel, police said.

Car break-inA Queens woman parked her car in front of 58 Walker

St. around 2 p.m. Sat., Jan. 15 and returned at 4:42 p.m. to discover the driver’s side window smashed and her bag with credit cards, $60 in cash, the car’s Global Positioning System and her Gucci eyeglasses gone.

Subway theftA transit policeman spotted a suspect hovering over a

sleeping passenger on an E train being held in the Fulton St. station around 4:20 a.m. Sat. Jan. 15. The suspect, John Gathers, 55, was arrested and charged with larceny after he

cut the sleeper’s pocket and removed $300 in cash, police said.

Grabbed from shoulder bagA Queens woman told police she was getting off a No.

4 train at Broadway and Wall Sts. around 4:30 p.m. Tues., Jan. 11 when she discovered that a thief had stolen her iPad, valued at $800, from her shoulder bag.

Seaport snatchA visitor from North Carolina who was paying for food at

a cart on the third floor of Pier 17 in the South St. Seaport around 2:35 p.m. Sat. Jan. 15 put his wallet on the counter for a moment when a woman grabbed it and fled, police said. The victim told police he followed the woman who got onto a waiting Water Taxi. He demanded his wallet back but the woman pretended she didn’t understand him. She was gone when the boat pulled away, leaving the victim poorer by $850, which was in his wallet, police said.

Bag stolenA visitor from Madrid, Spain, who was having coffee at

the Starbucks at 233 Broadway around 2 p.m. Sun., Jan. 16, left her bag on a table when she went to another table to talk with a friend, police said. A man picked the bag up, took it to an employee and said it had been forgotten. He returned a short time later, told the employee that the woman who forgot the bag was just outside talking with someone and said he would give it to her. He ran off with the bag con-taining the victim’s Spanish ID, credit cards and 10 Euros, police said.

Lost uptownA Manhasset woman was about to pay her cab fare at 3

a.m. Sun., Jan. 9 after a trip to 54 Wall St. from Midtown when she discovered that her wallet and jewelry, including a David Yurman ring and bracelet, with a total value of $1,900 had been stolen from her bag. She told police she last checked her bag at Brother Jimmy’s, a restaurant on Lexington Ave. in Murray Hill.

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police blotter

Continued on page 8


New exhibit at Police Museum for little people onlyBY helAinA n. hovitz

Lower Manhattan should be on the look-out because; there is a new crop of police recruits and they’re fighting crime before naptime.

After receiving a $150,000 grant from the National Institute of Museum and Library Services, the New York City Police Museum began working collaboratively with the Children’s Museum of Manhattan last year. The purpose of the grant was to cre-ate an interactive exhibit geared towards children under ten, which opened to the public last Thursday. The museum has seen a tremendous increase in student and family attendance over the past two years, and saw a need to create an exhibit specially designed to teach young children what it takes to become one of New York’s Finest.

The Junior Officer’s Discovery Zone on the ground floor of the museum is divid-ed into four sections, including the Police Academy, Emergency Services Unit, Park and Precinct and a Multi-Purpose Area. The Police Academy exhibit features a computer station that takes fingerprints and classifies DNA based on a “loop, whirl, or arch pat-tern.” A memory test identical to the one given on the actual N.Y.P.D. police exam gives kids twenty seconds to study a sweep-ing New York City street scene and answer specific questions about details in the photo, and the physical fitness test is the very same test that all potential N.Y.P.D. recruits must take.

Younger children can play with a magnet board that places different types of officers in various locations citywide, and explains the various uniforms police wear, which vary depending on the job.

“It’s important for kids to know who they can trust if they’re lost or scared, and be able to recognize them on the street” said Elana Yellen, the museum’s manager of education.

Kindergartners from P.S. 19 gave the exhibit its first test run; among them was Naliyah Natalia, 5, who thought the exhibit was “the most special museum” she’d ever been to.

“It’s so cool, and the slide is perfect,” said Natalia. “I like climbing around in the precinct.”

Natalia is referring to the mock First

Precinct residing in the corner of the room, in which kids can crawl through winding hallways full of fun artifacts and pictures and exit down a slide.

Other features include an old style police car that makes rather convincing siren and acceleration sounds, and an Emergency Services Unit truck full of real E.S.U. equip-ment and coded radio call buttons, which 5-year-old Olivia Williams had a blast push-ing.

“I think I want to be a police officer when I grow up,” explained Williams, as she made “radio calls” from the E.S.U. truck. “They have handcuffs and guns.”

But N.Y.P.D. Sergeant Veronica Willis, assigned to the museum as a liaison officer, thinks it is important to show kids that police officers do more than “just arrest bad guys.”

“Kids can learn what it’s like to be an offi-cer, and what skills are required,” said Willis. “It’s important that they learn the roles of their role models.”

Among the guest speakers at the opening ceremony were Downtown Alliance President

Elizabeth Berger, First Deputy Commissioner Rafael Pineiro and Community Board 1 Chair Julie Menin.

“Now that the museum features an interactive exhibit, kids will really be able

to understand how being a police officer works,” Menin said, adding that since the N.Y.P.D. were first responders on September 11, the exhibit has special resonance in the Downtown community.

Yellen also thinks the exhibit is an impor-tant addition to Lower Manhattan because “there are few, if any, places in the neighbor-hood where children can use their imagina-tions and mother and child groups can come to instead of going to each other’s homes.”

Yellen believes, however, that the exhibit is an important stop for children citywide to make.

“Unlike in other places, city kids see police officers in their day-to-day lives, and they need to know that trusted adults are there to keep them safe,” said Yellen.

As part of their effort to bring families into the exhibit, the museum invites grandparents to bring children under the age of five to the museum on Tuesdays from 1:30 to 3 p.m. for snacks, special activities and an “infor-mal support network.” The museum, which resides in the former location of the First Precinct at 100 Old Slip, saw 15,000 student visitors last year and expects that number to grow with the new exhibit.

For more information, call 212-480-3100 or visit www.nycpm.org. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

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Downtown Express photo by Helaina N. Hovitz

Kindergartners from P.S. 19 received first dibs at experiencing the New York City Police Museum’s newest exhibit, the Junior Officer’s Discovery Zone at last week’s ribbon cutting.


New Pier seeking old shipsThe Hudson River Park Trust is looking

for some old ships to dock next to its new pier in Tribeca. The Trust’s master plan calls for three piers with the ability to harbor historic vessels on a long-term basis and Pier 25 is the first to be completed. The other two are Pier 54 and Pier 97.

Certain infrastructure requirements are necessary for historic vessels to dock at a pier for an extended period of time.

“There are things like foam-filled fend-ers and provisions for utility hook-ups to pump out the sewage,” said the Trust’s Vice President Noreen Doyle.

The Trust released a request for propos-als on January 7 announcing its search. Doyle said the programming of the ships and their role at the pier would be based on who applies.

The proposal outlines examples of pos-sible programming including vessels with “room for a classroom that would be made available for environmental or maritime educational programs.” Another example is a vessel that might function as a museum, while a third might offer field trips or other excursions for visitors.

When Pier 25 was designed the Trust knew it would eventually host a historic ves-sel so there were certain assumptions made in the engineering process, said Doyle. The design included three sets of foam fenders, but that does not necessarily mean only three

ships can utilize the space. It is possible that a cluster of smaller vessels such as sailboats could use one set of the fenders while larger ships used the other two.

It will not be the first instance that historic boats have docked next to piers on the Hudson River but it is the first time a boat would be docking for an extended period of time.

“There were some that predated the Trust, but this really is more a fulfillment of the original vision for the park,” said Doyle. “The plan was to incorporate elements of the park’s rich waterfront history.”

As far as any fees associated with the ves-sels and their programming, the Trust’s pro-posal does not prohibit activities that would charge a fee. But Doyle noted that there are certain expectations.

“If it’s something that would make a sig-nificant amount of money, there is an expec-tation that wouldn’t it fully be pocketed,” said Doyle.

Since it is a park, there has to be a bal-ancing of the public interest, said Doyle.

Scenarios include possible dockage fees paid to the Trust or substantial and signifi-cant reinvestments back into the vessels by the operators.

“We’re not going to allow a penny in exchange for a lucrative operation,” said Doyle.

— John Bayles

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

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

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The north side of Pier 25 will soon host historic vessels on a long-term basis in an attempt to fulfill the Trust’s master plan for the park.


Five years later, East River Park work almost doneBY Aline ReYnolds

Amid leftover snow and ice from the recent snowstorms, joggers and dog walkers on a recent weekday made their way up and down the East River Park’s new promenade, which is nearly fully complete.

Structural renovations to the park, which began in mid-2005, are slated for comple-tion by early spring, according to John Natoli, chief engineer of the city’s Parks Department.

Workers are now finishing the final 600 feet of the new, 6,600-foot riverfront walk-way, the key component of the construction project. Joggers, walkers and skateboarders will soon have use of the esplanade’s full length. The project’s landscaping will be completed by early summer, in time for the park’s peak-usage summer months.

The $84 million in refurbishments, fund-ed by the city, involved replacing 65-year-old sewers and the concrete that made up the former walkway.

Redoing the promenade, a 2-mile stretch from 14th St. down to Cherry St., was the project’s most challenging aspect, Natoli said, since it required removal of the old walkway’s wooden piles and support struc-tures and crumbling concrete slabs. The tim-ber, which had limited strength, was used in abundance to uphold the old platform.

The crew built two embayment bridges — which will no doubt be popular with fish-ermen, though they are for use by all park-goers — each with its own set of fluorescent lights. Each embayment bridge cost more

than $1 million. Construction of the north-ern bridge, at E. Fourth St., was completed last May. The southern bridge, at Delancey St., will be finished by August.

Boulders are being used to replace the former timber piles in these areas, placed between the embayment bridges and the promenade to absorb the impact of the water’s waves.

“It was supposed to be just grass, but we found out it’d get destroyed in the storms,” Natoli said, of the decision to go with boul-ders.

To its west, the promenade is bordered by ball fields, playgrounds and tennis courts, which the Parks team spruced up by eliminat-ing paving cracks and adding gravel, where appropriate, as well as fencing and lighting.

The Parks Department worked with the city’s Department of Environmental Conservation in making sure they created an esplanade that is environmentally friendly. The new platform is impervious to erosion, since the steel platform was constructed above the water’s high-tide levels, according to Mohamed Ayoub, administrative con-struction engineer for the Parks Department. And since it’s at a greater height than the old platform, Natoli explained, the new walkway also allows fish to swim underneath.

The park’s Fire Boat House, where Ayoub and his colleagues are based, also needed stabilization, “or it would have fallen into the river,” Natoli said. The Fire Boat House also is home to the Lower East Side Ecology Center.

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Cold bloodedThe freezing temperatures did not seem to bother this runner last Saturday as he jogged in Hudson River Park.


N.Y.U. to start oil-spill cleanup on Bleecker St.

buildings — where the soil is saturated with oil — has already been enclosed behind a chain-link fence, a working-area fence will soon extend to the curb.

The plan calls for excavating “slowly, 2 feet at a time,” said Kung. Shoring will be installed to support the 17-story build-ings. The westernmost tank, No. 3, is to be removed along with oil-soaked soil. The easternmost tank, No. 4, was emptied and cleaned during the emergency remediation and current plans call for leaving it in place; it could be removed if conditions demand, Kung said.

All contaminated soil will be removed by truck, and clean soil will be used for backfill.

No. 6 heating oil has the consistency of sludge when cold and must be heated before use as heating fuel. The four Washington Square Village buildings had ceased using their boilers for heating and had been on the university co-generation grid before the leak occurred; the heating oil was a backup in the event of an interruption of co-gen-eration power. Now, however, the backup fuel is natural gas, according to university officials at the Jan. 5 meeting.

Residents said that initial reports about whether No. 6 oil was hazardous were con-fusing. The oil is classified in state agency

documents as being in the “not hazardous” category, but the same documents use the word “hazardous” to describe the fuel when it contaminates soil.

Gary Parker, N.Y.U. director of com-munity and government affairs, said he plans to hold information meetings for

residents, community leaders and repre-sentatives of elected officials around 3 p.m. on Wednesdays every two weeks during construction.

Ellen Peterson Lewis, a public member of the C.B. 2 Environment, Public Safety and Public Health Committee, represented the board at

the Jan. 5 meeting. Also attending were Ann Arlen, a former C.B. 2 member and longtime head of the board’s Environment Committee, as well as aides to Assemblymember Deborah Glick, state Senator Tom Duane, Borough President Scott Stringer and Congressmember Jerrold Nadler.

The “Bodies” exhibit is closed for the month of January while it receives a sub-stantial makeover, according to Premier Exhibitions, the company that owns and operates the exhibit.

John Zaller, vice president of creative and design at Premier Exhibitions, said the updated galleries will have “fascinating ele-ments to allow visitors a window inside their bodies to see how remarkable and complex they are.” The exhibit’s curators, Zaller explained, comprehensively thought out the changes.

“Our learning over the past five years, and comments from visitors, has been that people want to know more about how the body works… and what they can do to pre-vent disease,” said Zaller.

There are no plans for exterior refurbish-ments to the building, which is perched at the corner of Fulton and Front Streets, steps away from the South Street Seaport Museum and a two-minute walk from the Fulton Street subway station.

The exhibit will showcase 130 new speci-mens never-before seen in New York, sixteen of which are full-body, along with multime-dia programming meant to provide a “fresh experience for each visitor.” The smaller specimens will also offer a more comprehen-sive view of the development of the human fetus. Visitors will be able to track a fetus’ development from nine to 24 weeks.

Many of the galleries will be updated with interactive features, including illustrat-ed wall displays and a physical examination that assesses visitors’ health in relation to national standards and averages.

The updated galleries will include a display of healthy lungs, which will be juxtaposed to a smoker’s deteriorating lungs. And the gallery featuring the human body’s circulation system will contain a full-body display and a new cast of blood vessels. Zaller expects a physical demon-stration of the deterioration of a smoker’s lungs anticipated to be “really powerful for visitors.”

Sprucing up the galleries, Zaller explained, is an important part of the exhibit’s overall role in the South Street Seaport. The plan, he said, is to keep the exhibit going for the next five or 10 years. “Our feeling is that, as long as people have a body, they’re going to be interested in how it works, what ails it, and how you cure it,” he said. Premier Exhibitions has a long-term lease on the space, with multiple extension options.

Zaller noted that Premier exhibitions has a “very good relationship” with its landlord, the Howard Hughes Corporation, and that the company hopes to “help maintain the health of the Seaport” by attracting new tourists to the area and generating visitors.

— Aline Reynolds

“Bodies” gets a makeover

Photo by Albert Amateau

A cyclist in the Bleecker St. bike lane rode by the section of oil-contaminated soil — behind the fencing — at Washington Square Village.

Continued from page 4


As winter winds chill, BRC continues street outreach efforts BY Winnie MccRoY

As the mercury continues to plummet, the Bowery Residents’ Committee continues their street outreach to area homeless substance abusers and those seeking men-tal health — in preparation for the March 2011 opening of their 127 W. 25th St. vertical campus facility

At half past three on a gray winter Wednesday, I meet up with BRC Executive Director Muzzy Rosenblatt and two street outreach workers as they begin their shift at Madison Square Park. They are easy to spot in their bright orange windbreakers that read “BRC Street Outreach” on the back.

The men, Francis Garzon and Dennis Poirier, say they will begin by circling Madison Square Park, and then walk the interior. The park is part of their beat, which runs roughly from 23rd to 28th Streets between Fifth and Tenth Avenues.

Garzon and Poirier check in with a man carrying several shopping bags who stands on the corner. The exchange is pleasant, but the man says he doesn’t need any help right now. We continue down the east side of the park, where a tall, older white man in a blue baseball cap with an gold insignia embroidered on it is sorting through newspapers in the trash. The guys stop to talk with him. His name is Alan, he says. He is friendly and does not seem to be under the influence of drugs or alco-hol. In fact, he reminds me of a friend’s father. Garzon gives him a card with the BRC hotline number on it, and we move on.

It is sad to see so many older people on the street, especially when it is so cold outside, I say.

“You can’t come to it with pity. You have to admire

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Continued on page 12Photo by Winnie McCroy

BRC outreach workers, Garzon, left, and Poirier, right, in Madison Square Park.


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letters to the editorChancellor Black: Time to lead

Much was made of new Department of Education Chancellor Cathie Black’s off-handed birth control joke at last week’s School Overcrowding Task Force meeting, and for good reason. The crisis that Lower Manhattan is facing as it pertains to the overcrowd-ing of public schools is no laughing matter and should not be handled lightly.

That being said, we do not wish to further elabo-rate on Ms. Black’s poor use of words.

Who hasn’t said something they regret?But it must not go unnoticed that she showed up

to State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s task force meeting unprepared. The fact that it was only her second week on the job is no excuse. When someone starts a new job it should be a no-brainer that they should bone up on all things related to the position, the major obstacles, problems and issues they will face, before they actually take the helm.

When we heard that Ms. Black had never even seen Eric Greenleaf’s data on the overcrowding crisis cur-rently facing this neighborhood, we were surprised, and disappointed. Mr. Greenleaf has spent countless hours, voluntarily mind you, preparing quantitative and qualitative data on the population boom and the obvious need for more Downtown public school seats. His latest projections show a need for 1,000 additional seats by 2015.

Ms. Black said she had Mr. Greenleaf’s data, but that it was under a stack of papers on her desk.

While her performance at last week’s meeting did not bode well, it’s still early. Her words and actions up to this date are not irreversible. Indeed, Ms. Black is now in the position to lead and to set a new course for the entire Department of Education.

So far this year two decisions have essentially been made on a unilateral basis by the Department of Education that show a lack of understanding of just how serious the overcrowding issue in Lower Manhattan is. The apparent move to relocate a school from Upper Manhattan to the space in the building at 26 Broadway and the giving of space in the Tweed Courthouse to an untested charter school illustrate the neglect that has been shown to Downtown’s plight.

Ms. Black must now lead the board of the Department of Education to address the overcrowd-ing issue. The population boom in Lower Manhattan has been one of the great post-9/11 success stories. It is now up to Ms. Black to recognize this and mobi-lize the D.O.E. to support this growth. She can start by pressing to make sure we see a new school built on top of the Peck Slip post office. She can con-tinue by taking very seriously the fact that sustaining Downtown’s post-9/11 residential revival will depend on planning and building infrastructure that supports its population growth.

We do commend the new Chancellor for at least showing up to the meeting. Her predecessor declined numerous invitations to appear before the task force during his tenure. And we recognize the need to listen. But Ms. Black has no time to waste, as there is a long lag time between planning school seats and actually having students sit in them. We’ll give Ms. Black a pass, at this early juncture, on her words. Her actions in quickly addressing the dire school situation in Lower Manhattan are what count.

Painful chapter is closed

To the Editor,When the Deutsche Bank building at

130 Liberty Street finally comes down at the end of this month, it will close out a painful chapter in the history of our city and signal an era of new hope for our Downtown com-munity.

Severely damaged in the 9/11 attacks, the building once again became a focus of grief

and mourning when two city firefight-ers, Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino, were tragically killed in a fire there six years later.

After that terrible day in 2007, I formed a task force made up of members of the

community, oversight agencies and other local officials to ensure that the continued demolition of this building was carried out in a way that was safe, responsible and, above all, prioritized the concerns of our local residents.

I want to thank the members of the com-munity who participated in these discussions and who expressed their ideas about how to make the demolition of the building as safe as possible.

Our task force produced positive results: new safety protocols were adopted for the demolition to minimize the risks to Downtown residents; a Community Notification Plan was put into place

so that residents will be alerted to emer-gencies in the neighborhood; and those who were most affected by the ongoing work were given a seat at the table when impor-tant decisions were made about how the project was moving forward.

I think most would agree that this demo-lition took far too long and caused far too many problems: from the safety and health concerns raised by falling debris and con-taminated air to the disruption of the side-walks surrounding the site.

But, with the perseverance and dedica-tion that our Downtown community has shown time and again since 9/11, we man-aged to get the demolition completed and we now look forward to better days for 130 Liberty Street and a bright future for all of Lower Manhattan.

Sheldon SilverSpeaker of the New York State Assembly

The killers among us

To The Editor:Last month, Sylvie Cachay was murdered

in my district. Last week, her ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Brooks, was charged with second-degree murder. She is just one victim in an upward trend of intimate-partner vio-lence; yet membership to an exclusive club and family ties to an award-winning musi-cian made this particular story infiltrate the media. Even stories about the poodle the victim left behind were published.

Each day in the United States, an average of three women are murdered by an intimate partner. Of female murder victims, one-third are killed by an intimate partner and this percentage is on the rise. In New York City, most crimes are committed by someone the victim knows, and rates of murder and rape are both on the rise. Yet victims of intimate-partner violence rarely become more than a statistic as the media fails to cover all but the most sensational of these stories.

All victims of intimate-partner violence were also sisters, friends, co-workers, daughters, mothers and girlfriends, yet not all victims have ties to prestigious places and people. This does not mean they do not war-rant our attention or our empathy.

The gruesome reality of intimate-partner violence is that it is pervasive in society — but in order to curb the epidemic, we have to first acknowledge that it exists. We need to continue to shed light on all of these egregious acts, not just the ones with catchy headlines. We need to give voice to all of those who are no longer able to do so for themselves.

Deborah J. GlickGlick is assemblymember for the 66th District

Letters policy Downtown Express welcomes letters to The Editor. They must include the writer’s first and last name, a phone number for confirmation purposes only, and any affilia-tion that relates directly to the letter’s subject matter. 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.

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talking pointEllen: The Mama of them allBY JeRRY tAllMeR

It must have been at least 30 years ago that I went to visit Ellen Stewart at N.Y.U. Hospital. She was all dolled up in bed in a fancy pink and yellow ruffled nightgown. “Hello, honey,” she said in that wonderful, inimitable, sharp-edged, soft-core Geechee English that now none of us will ever hear again. “I died twice since you saw me last.”

Well, three strikes is out— or maybe 53 strikes of terminating illness, all told, since then. Ellen Stewart, the creator and lifelong prime mover of Off Off Broadway’s world-embracing La MaMa E.T.C. (Experimental Theater Club), departed this Earth late Wednesday night or early Thursday morn-ing, January 13, 2011.

She may have been 91. She may have been more. Ellen wasn’t going to tell you. The New York Times gives her birth date as November 7, 1919, her place of birth as Chicago, her place of death as Beth Israel Hospital in this city, and says she “spent her childhood years” between Chicago and the rather smaller Alexandria, Louisiana, though I always thought it was the other way round, Louisiana first — Geechee terrain — then Chicago.

It was all a sort of mystery, an unwritten — never-to-be-written — Faulkner novel. But once — just once — when she was letting drop a little bit about her days in Chicago before coming to New York, she hit me with a sunny little s--t-eating Shirley Temple smile, and then: “Some people used to think me pretty, you know.”

Pretty? As my mother would have said, Cleopatra isn’t in it. Sheer café-au-lait gor-geous is what Ellen was, and ever more so as the years went by and the fragility burned ever brighter. Fragile — but oh my! Henry James would have had a field day word-painting it for us, Ellen Stewart’s ever-increasing incandescence.

This farewell is being written several days before a Mass for Ellen was to be held Monday morning January 17, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue and 50th Street — a most appropriate locale in the light of what Ellen, in a profile by me in Thrive, had recalled a few years ago about her arrival in New York in 1950 as an unknown would-be fashion designer.

A cab driver had charged her 50 bucks to take her from Grand Central Station to the Hotel Theresa in Harlem, but Fidel Castro, as it happens, had taken over the whole Hotel Theresa. Somehow she found another hotel.

“Monday morning the man on the eleva-tor told me I could ride all the way down-town on a bus. Went downtown, looking for a job, didn’t get it, saw this big church across the street from a big store. Went into the church, which was St. Patrick’s Cathedral, said a prayer, came out and went into the store, which was Saks Fifth Avenue. I didn’t know what Saks Fifth Avenue was.”

She soon learned. This was in the days when Negro employees at such big emporia

were called “coloreds” and, at Saks, were required to wear blue smocks.

“Sophie Gimbel, who owned the store, said: ‘No niggers in my department’ — yes.” Ellen had declared, “she really said that.” But in the face of such open bigotry at the top and the envy verging on hatred by many at the bottom, black as well as white, black even more than white, slim, stunning “Miss Ellen” did become one of Saks Fifth Avenue’s top dress designers of that era. And not in a blue smock.

Cut to a cold night on MacDougal Street in the early 1960’s. It is intermission time at some play or other, and Ellen Stewart, some-body I barely knew back then, is chatting on the sidewalk with a tall, skinny, coatless, not-bad-looking young guy who is hugging himself for warmth as he hops up and down on one foot and the other.

“This is one of my chicks,” she says to me with a laugh. “His name is Sam Shepard.”

It was to provide a nest for all her chicks that Ellen Stewart had in 1962 opened a tiny off-off-off coffeehouse theater in a $50-a-month basement at 321 East Ninth Street, mostly for the benefit of two fledgling playwrights, Paul Foster and Fredrick Lights (the foster brother who’d lived across the hall from her in Chicago).

The first plays ever done on Ninth Street were Leonard Melfi’s “Lazy Baby Susan,” Michael Locascio’s “A Corner of the Morning” and Andy Milligan’s adaptation of the spooky Tennessee Williams short story “One Arm.” Even though the audiences usu-ally ran to no more than 10 or a dozen hardy souls, Ellen had to shake a miniature cowbell and quiet them down at the start of every show with the mantra: “This is La MaMa E.T.C., dedicated to the playwright and all aspects of the theater.”

I still have one of those bells.Harvey Fierstein’s much-quoted “Eighty

percent of what is now considered American theater originated at La MaMa” may not be altogether true, but it is true enough. Nobody knows just how many thousands of playwrights, composers, directors, design-ers, techies and, oh yes, actors, have been hatched at La MaMa over the past half century, or how many countries around the globe have in one way or another been enriched by La MaMa and vice versa. (The next thing I have to write about in these pages is an angry new play coming to La

MaMa from Estonia.)But Ellen was pursued by bigotry even

unto 321 East Ninth Street, a building dedicated to, in Ellen’s words, “no Jews, no Hispanics, no niggers.” The word was spread around the block that she was running a whorehouse. Finally, to save her landlord from having his property wrecked, La MaMa moved out, in the middle of the night, to 82 Second Avenue, and subsequently to a larger space one flight up over a dry cleaner’s at 122 Second Avenue.

It was there that I caught up with La MaMa E.T.C. and the wielder of that cow-bell.

Her troubles were not over. It was a time when Ed Koch, the mayor, and Robert Moses, the commissioner of everything, were cleaning up the Village and East Village.

“They cleaned up on us,” Ellen had dryly remarked during that profile interview, but in the end, La MaMa outlasted and outma-neuvered them by obtaining an impossible-to-obtain coffeehouse license.

A couple of other hops along St. Mark’s Place finally led to 74-A East Fourth Street, thanks to a $25,000 Ford Foundation grant arranged by a good man named McNeil Lowry. Most of the $25,000 went toward installing a whole new roof and rear wall, but 74-A East Fourth Street remains La MaMa’s home base from that day to this.

Oh yes, Ellen had her faults, as who does not? To her, theater was movement and feeling before all else; she had all too little respect for the written and printed word. You never found much Shakespeare going on at La MaMa; she left that to Joe Papp. But you could always find a superfluity of those Old Greeks and their wailing Trojan Women. Plus everything else.

If Ellen was totally loving she could also be very angry, and could maintain that anger for a long time, as she did with me after an Israeli actress/director I’d befriended turned out to have used a La MaMa booking to lie

her way through Immigration.I rather think Ellen increasingly liked

being treated, toward the end, as a princess — no, loved it. But again, who would not?

There’s an incident I wrote about some years ago, and now I’m never going to have the opportunity to write about it again, so here it goes:

In the winter of 1998 there was an exhib-it at Cooper Union of posters of La MaMa productions from here, there, everywhere around the world. I had the bright idea of walking through the gallery with Ellen while she told me about this place, that place, this audience, that audience, whatever… . She said: “Fine, I’ll meet you at the exhibit.” But then her son Larry Hovell, out in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was about to die, and she had to go be with him.

He took a turn for the better, she returned to New York, we made a second date to go through the exhibit; then Larry really did die. Now, upon her return, we made a third date to view those posters, this time on the Saturday afternoon before a Broadway show I had to cover.

When I got to Cooper Union at the appointed hour, no Ellen in sight, but a La MaMa aide was there to apologize and tell me Ellen was ill.

What kind of ill? “She’s sitting on that wooden bench just

inside the front door. She’s shivering all over. She can’t talk.”

Cooper Union is only two blocks from La MaMa. I covered the ground as fast as I could. Sure enough, Ellen was sitting, all huddled up, on that small wooden bench just to the left of La MaMa’s front door. She was shivering uncontrollably.

I sat down, put my arm around her, and suggested we go to a hospital. She shook her head, No. We sat like that for a long time, and she never stopped shivering. Of course there was no way to get her to her apartment, five flights of stairs over where we were sitting.

Finally I said: “Look, I’ll cancel the thing I have to see tonight.”

“No,” Ellen said — found the strength to say — “You go do your job. I’ll be all right.”

So I went.Before the uptown show I called La

MaMa. The woman in the La MaMa box office said Ellen was still sitting there, still shivering, just a few feet away. No, Ellen couldn’t physically get to her feet.

At intermission I phoned again. Same story. And at close to midnight I called once more. Nothing had changed.

Around 10 a.m. Sunday I called La MaMa anew. Was Ellen Stewart still there on that bench? Could she now get to the phone?

“Oh no,” said the box-office person, “Ellen’s over in the Annex, moving the fur-niture around.”

Dear Old Greeks and Trojan Ladies up there, please lend Ellen Stewart a hand with those chairs.

Ellen Stewart

‘eighty percent of what is now considered American theater originated at La MaMa.’

— Harvey Fierstein


the resourcefulness that allows people to survive this,” Rosenblatt replies. “You also have to try and make a connection, to get them to tell you their name, so that we see they are Alan, not a homeless guy. Then we can see what we can do to help Alan, what Alan needs.”

As we walk, Garzon, a thin, young, soft-spoken Latino man, tells me that he has success at this work because talk-ing to people comes naturally to him. January 12 will mark two years since he began doing street outreach. He was enrolled in a job-training program when he was referred to BRC and has been working with them ever since, walking up and down the avenues, engaging clients who may need housing, detox or other

programs they provide. Although most people are friendly, not all take advantage of the help he offers.

“Some people refuse services,” said Garzon. “I guess they’ve been out here too long so they’re already accustomed to living on the streets. Plenty of times, clients just get accustomed to street life, and they just don’t go nowhere. I have many clients that have been out here since I started working here, who are still on the street. That’s how they survive; their daily routine on the street is what they’re accustomed to.”

Garzon is often paired up with Poirier, a slightly older, bearded man with a friendly smile. Poirier tells me he has been doing outreach for just under two years. He was working in advertising when he saw two men in BRC coats on the subway engaging a homeless man in conversation.

“I looked them up on the Internet that night, liked what I saw and started volun-teering,” said Poirier. “I met Alvin our direc-tor, one thing led to another, he hired me as an outreach worker, and here I am.”

Poirier said he and Garzon reach out to between 200-300 people a month and end up providing services to about eight of those people. When asked how he manages to make a connection with the homeless, mentally ill drug addicts he encounters on a daily basis, Poirier said, “The trick is to getting people to talk to you. It’s about trust.”

“The initial opening has to be really strong,” he said. “It’s just about figuring out what will get them to have a conversation with you; it doesn’t necessarily have to be about services right away. Once you engage

with them and they start to see you as a human being and not an outreach worker, then you can start to have a conversa-tion about some of the things we can help them with, about which programs might fit them.”

Poirier notices a man sitting alone on a park bench, so we double back. Garzon speaks to him in Spanish, and he is friendly, but says he doesn’t need help. When asked if he would be willing to share his story with a reporter, the man replies that he is too busy. We say adios, and move on. We walk outside the park and around the block and encoun-ter another man sitting on a park bench. He is not homeless, he says, indignantly.

“We definitely have regulars, people who are not ready to go into services yet, who need more time, or people who we are in the process of finding the proper situation for,” said Poirier, as we jump in the BRC van and head toward Chelsea Park to meet with one of these regulars who may be ready to access help.

On the way, we stop at Fifth Avenue and 29th Street, where an African-American man lies splayed out on the sidewalk across from the Marble Collegiate Church. Poirier kneels close to him as he gently shakes him awake. They talk, and the man says his name is Gerald, that he is from Pennsylvania and has been in the city for a year. Poirier asks Gerald, whose hands and feet are swollen from the cold, if he has a place to stay, and if he has been using today. No, he replies, and explains that he doesn’t like the shelters he has been in.

“Most clients have different stories about the shelters, like fights happen, or some clients get robbed of their clothing, so they don’t really like the shelter. They consider it a jail almost,” said Garzon. “So that’s where we come in. We have our own programs. We have safe haven programs, transitional housing, and then they move on to perma-nent housing. There is the crisis center for detox and a reception center for people with mental illness. The BRC shelters are better; there are no fights or stealing.”

Rosenblatt is sensitive to the man’s situation, saying, “What if someone came into your house and woke you up?” Although it seems as though the man could benefit from detox, he takes a card, and we leave him. When we drive by the corner later in the evening, he is gone. The guys know, as does Rosenblatt, that you can’t force someone to get the help they may need.

We continue on to Chelsea Park at Tenth Avenue and 27th Street, on the west side. It is colder here, so close to the river, and as an elementary school track team circles the perimeter of the park, Garzon approaches a potential client with whom he made an appointment to meet that afternoon.

As Poirier parks the van, he explains that they have spoken with the man four or five times already, and that they believe he may be ready to get help. But as we join Garzon,


BRC cares, amidst cold


‘Some people refuse services’

— Francis Garzon


BY JAnel BlAdoW The pages of the New Year book begin

with memories of the past…

A stAR is gone… Sparkling, smiling Wendy Stewart left us on Wednesday, Dec. 15, surrounded by loved ones including her sister holding one hand while her husband Joel Greenberg held the other. She was showered with “I love yous” and kisses and continued to touch people even after she was gone.

Wendy, 58, who worked side-by-side with her Joel as an excellent family and wedding videographer-photographer team, became ill last January, when her liver began to fail. As she grew sicker, Joel says, she kept a smile on her face, and dur-ing the last five and a half weeks in NYU Hospital, she thanked the staff and hugged the nurses.

Friends and family gathered for a memo-rial service at Brotherhood Synagogue in Gramercy Park on Sunday, Jan. 9 where many shared loving, touching memories of Wendy’s lively spirit. The next two nights more people dropped by their home on Water Street to sit Shiva with Joel, his sister Janet and her husband Marty Kaplan and celebrate Wendy’s life. The evening was the

kind Wendy would appreciate: people gath-ered around platters of delicious food from Russ and Daughters and Zabar’s, sharing stories and enjoying her prized collection of 1950s straw handbags, many by the famous Midas of Miami.

It was wonderful to share memories and see photos of the lovely young Wendy in Rome and the beaming couple on their wedding day.

What was particularly saddening is that Wendy’s life might have been saved. November 2010, when Wendy went into the hospital for the last time, was the worst month in 15 years to need a liver transplant – none were available. Yet Wendy in death continued her giving as she did in life. She donated her eyes so that someone else could see.

Joel shared in an email: “Her most pre-cious joy in life was in the act of giving and her generosity in life is now extended in death. I was so lucky to be the recipient of all that love and all that giving. I had my own personal Santa Claus, full time.”

Two more memorial services are planned: one in her childhood hometown of Tiverton, Rhode Island at Amicable Church this weekend, and another in her adopted summer home, Vinalhaven, Maine

in August.Over the summer, Wendy said she want-

ed to be buried in the places that made her happy, with people she cherished. Her ashes will be split between the Greenberg family plot in New York, the Stewart family one in Rhode Island and in Maine.

“She had a full, loving life,” Joel told Seaport Report. “I’m lucky to be surround-ed by great friends and love.”

doggone… Another creature of regal bearing of Water Street who also brought smiles and joy to everyone he met passed away five days earlier. Omar, the beloved Basenji boy of Marckle Myers and David Richter died of cirrhosis of the liver on Dec. 10, 15 days before the Christmas boy’s seventh birthday. Anyone who lived in or frequented the Seaport would rec-ognize that imperial curlicue tail with its snowy white tip, especially between Water Street where he lived, Meade’s where he enjoyed a refreshing moment or two, Salty Paw where he relished tormenting the pooches behind the window in doggie daycare and Fetch Club spa and nightclub on South Street where he discovered the most delicious free snacks. The little dog with a lot of personality even has his own

Facebook page where tributes are still coming in.

holidAY glitz… On a festive note, however, another long-time Water Street resident, the noble Harold Reed, opened his lovely home to friends, family neighbors and colleagues for his annual celebration. The between the holidays party was a lively gath-ering with illustrious guests such as Marion Javits and Councilwoman Margaret Chin. While Lincoln Palsgrove who moves on from the Seaport shared the excitement of his new position at General Growth Properties, the parents of actor Barrett Foa who plays com-puter nerd Eric Beale on NCIS: Los Angeles talked about their son’s success on the other coast and the graciousness of the show’s leads: LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell. Between sips of champagne, guests nibbled on delectable bites of steak, crab cakes and more from Table Tales caterers across the street.

Red cARpet WoRthY… And Seaport’s own Katrina Szish is now featured contribu-tor to CBS’s the Early Show. Earlier this week her smile lit up our morning TV as she gave her Golden Globes red carpet wrap-up with stylist Robert Verdi.

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Cunard celebrates in New YorkBY teRese loeB KReuzeR

The Battery Park City esplanade at Wagner Park was deserted at 6 a.m. on January 13, except for an occasional jogger. The river was inky black. Behind Governors Island and looming above it, Cunard’s flagship, Queen Mary 2, sat waiting for Cunard’s two other vessels, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. The announced arrival time had been 6:30 a.m., but there was no sign of them.

The morning star glittered above Pier A and a strong tide flowed toward the sea. By 6:45 a.m., the eastern sky glowed red as ferries, sparkling like crystal, plied the chan-nel between Manhattan and Staten Island. After an hour, it was too cold to watch any longer — a good thing because the wait was futile. Quietly, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth had arrived around 5 a.m. and were already in their berths at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal.

The planning, launch and introduction of a cruise ship represents a significant investment for a cruise line. Queen Elizabeth, built in Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard at a cost of approximately $634 million and launched in October 2010 was making her maiden call on New York City; despite her quiet arrival, the fanfare had been tre-mendous.

That afternoon, after the ship’s passengers had been off-load-ed and the vessel cleaned, travel agents and media were invited to board for a tour preceded by a press conference. Executives from Cruise Line International Association announced that the cruise industry was healthy and growing, with New York City getting a significant share of the revenue.

In New York City, cruise passengers and crew spent an estimated $144.6 million in 2010, up from $93.8 million spent in 2009, Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, said at the press con-ference. Most of the passengers who embarked on a cruise in New York City came from outside the tri-state area and spent millions of dollars in pre and post-cruise stays, said Pinsky.

To encourage and capitalize on this spending, George Fertitta, chief executive officer of NYC & Company, the city’s tourism arm, said that NYC & Company had launched a cruise site at www.nycgo.com/cruisenyc to pro-vide cruise ship travelers with information on events and city itineraries.

The site’s suggested itinerary for people with one day to spend in New York City includes a visit to Lower Manhattan beginning with a stop at City Hall to admire “the beautiful architecture” and the nearby Brooklyn Bridge. Then NYC & Company suggests that visitors walk down to Federal Hall National Memorial at Broad and Nassau Streets, end-ing the afternoon with a visit to the South Street Seaport for its waterfront views, shopping, dining and Seaport Museum.

These statistics and enthusiasm for Lower Manhattan might be good news for downtown businesses. However, among the Cunard ships, though Queen Elizabeth was the star of the January 13 “Royal Rendezvous,” she will not return to New York City very often. Queen Mary 2, on the other hand, is a frequent visitor, transporting thousands of passengers every year between Southampton, England and New York City.

That night, the three Cunard ships assembled by the Statue of Liberty for fireworks before they headed south to Florida and the Caribbean. The bitterly cold night might have dampened pleasure in the proceedings for some, but not for anyone whose focus was on the revenue that cruise ship tourists could bestow on the city.

As for Cunard, though the cruise industry is growing, the company has no immediate plans to build another ship. “Queen Elizabeth represents a 40 percent increase in capacity,” said Richard Curtis, a Cunard marketing execu-tive. He said that if the Cunard ships were mostly full most of the time, the company might go forward, but at the earli-est, that would be several years down the road.

Downtown Express photos by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

The atrium of Cunard’s newest ship, “Queen Elizabeth,” includes a large wooden, inlaid panel depicting the original Cunard “Queen Elizabeth.”

On Jan. 13, all three Cunard ships, “Queen Mary 2,” “Queen Victoria” and “Queen Elizabeth,” assembled for a fireworks celebration near the Statue of Liberty.


BY teRese loeB KReuzeRMartin Luther King, Jr. Day may have

been a holiday for some, but it certainly was not for Abraham Merchant, his wife, Lyn, and the employees of Merchants River House. On January 17, with less than three hours to go before opening to the public, they were putting the finishing touches on the Battery Park City restaurant formerly known as Steamers Landing.

Some people applied decals to mirrors to give them an old-fashioned look, others swabbed the newly finished floors, now a dark brown. A few wayward strips of blue-and-white striped wallpaper were applied in places previously overlooked.

In the kitchen, Chef Wade Burch was putting something into the ovens, and said, “Yes,” there would be food on the table when the restaurant opened at 5 p.m.

Abraham Merchant supervised, answered questions and said he was feeling calm. �For a restaurant opening, this is going well,� he said. He has had plenty of experience. Merchants Hospitality now has eight res-taurants in Manhattan, including SouthWest NY at 2 World Financial Center, Merchants Café at 90 Greenwich St. and Pound & Pence at 55 Liberty St.

The changes at Merchants River House are more than cosmetic. Though the res-taurant on the Battery Park City esplanade between Albany and Liberty Streets has knockout river views, Merchant decided that the seafood menu served when the restau-rant was called Steamers Landing had run its course. The new menu is more varied, simpler and less expensive.

With an estimated five million tour-ists a year due in the neighborhood after the National September 11 Memorial and Museum opens, Merchant was thinking about what the visitors might like and what they could afford. Of course, he was also thinking about what locals would like and could afford on more than an occasional basis.

The new menu is plain vanilla American with a few exotic touches. But seafood is not totally absent. House-cured gravlax is among

the starters and grilled North Atlantic salm-on is served as an entrée.

A beverage menu features bottled and draft beer, wine by the bottle, glass or carafe, cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks.

A menu for kids with kid-sized por-tions includes pasta, pizza, mac and cheese, chicken fingers, grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers.

Merchants River House will be open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Monday to Friday and from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends. For more information call (212) 432-1451.

Merchants River House now open

Downtown Express photos by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

With less than three hours to go before opening Merchants River House, employees and workers were still putting finishing touches on the Battery Park City restaurant formerly known as Steamers Landing. (Owner Abraham Merchant was behind the bar.)

Desserts at Merchants River House include a chocolate blackout cupcake made with Valrhona chocolate.

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BY teRese loeB KReuzeR MAh Jongg touRnAMent: After

a run of 10 months, the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s wildly popular exhibit “Project Mah Jongg” will close on February 27, but not before the museum at 36 Battery Place stages a Mah Jongg Marathon. The event on February 6 from noon to 6 p.m. will be a fundraiser for the museum, with a registration fee of $25 per person. In addition to entrance fees, registrants are encouraged to sign up sponsors who will make a donation to the museum in the name of each player. There will be tables for people of all levels of Mah Jongg proficiency, from beginners to “lifers,” plus what the museum describes as “special theme hours, prizes and the chance to play a hand or two with some very special guests.” For more about the tournament, go to www.projectmahjongg.com/programs.html.

The use of Mah Jongg to raise money for charitable purposes has a long-standing his-tory. The game originated in 19th-century China and first became popular in the United States in the 1920’s, thanks to Harper Brothers and the Mah-Jongg Company of America. “It was marketed to all Americans,” said Melissa Martines, curator of the “Project Mah Jongg” exhibit, “but those who adopted it first were leisure-class ladies who had disposable time and income. One of the ways the game was

used right away after its introduction into New York society was as entertainment for charitable events and for groups of women. In the Jewish community, some of the most likely constellations of players would have been synagogue sisterhoods that were raising money for a good cause, plus those who were in similar neighborhoods and those who vaca-tioned together.”

Martines said that in the Jewish commu-nity, German-Jewish women were the first to adopt the game followed by Jewish immi-grants from Eastern Europe, who took up Mah Jongg with great enthusiasm. “In the Catskills, it was the perfect game for bunga-low life because those environments were all inclusive,” she observed. “A lot of the men came only for weekends, so the women and children were left there during the week. The women played Mah Jongg outdoors while they watched the kids.”

The Museum of Jewish Heritage’s Mah Jongg exhibit includes Mah Jongg sets and instructions, historic photographs of peo-ple playing Mah Jongg from the Library of Congress and from personal collections, art work, Mah Jongg memorabilia and “sound-scapes” — oral histories of the game and recordings of people playing it, including some from a Senior Citizen center in Chinatown.

Though not large, the exhibit has attracted

interest from people all over the country, Martines said. “They contacted us because the game of Mah Jongg means so much to them personally. Mah Jongg is a lot about memory, it’s a lot about personal experience, it’s a lot about connecting to your mother or to past generations, to the traditions of your family, it’s a lot about remembering the people you used to play with and it’s also about learning and sharing and socializing and gossiping. You feel the ivory or the bakelite tiles, you hear them clicking and you remember.”

stoRYtiMe BY design: 1 Rector

Park (formerly known as 333 Rector Place), a rental to condo conversion with 173 apartments, has a charming playroom that is mostly unused because no one has yet moved into the 16-story building. But on Sunday, January 23 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., StoryTime by Design will be in the play-room, entertaining children from 2 to 8 years with a dinosaur-themed storytelling hour, including real fossils. The free event

is open to the public. Refreshments will be provided. RSVP by sending an email to: [email protected]

According to a spokesman for the build-ing, 30 percent of the building’s 173 apart-ments have been sold since the sales office opened in early August and move-ins should begin next month.

vAlentine’s dAY cRuise: Don’t miss

the boat! Sure, it’s still January, but it’s not too early to make Valentine’s Day plans. You can treat your sweetie to a Valentine’s Day cruise of New York harbor aboard Statue Cruises’ John J. Audubon. The two-hour cruise features a live jazz band and an assort-ment of gourmet desserts accompanied by beer, wine, soda, cordials and dessert mar-tinis. The cost is $85 per person. The boat leaves at 8:30 p.m. from Liberty State Park and at 9 p.m. from Battery Park, gangway 3. Reserve by calling (877) LADY TIX. For more information, go to http://www.statu-ecruises.com/pd_valentines.html.

Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer

In connection with its exhibit, “Project Mah Jongg,” the Museum of Jewish Heritage is sponsoring a fund-raising Mah Jongg tournament on Feb. 6, with the proceeds to benefit the museum.

Dear Transit Sam,I am sending this note to thank you on

behalf of the community members on the Lower East Side who encouraged me to contact you for help in getting the M21 bus to stop near the entrance to the Broadway/Lafayette subway station. Before the instal-lation of the new bus stop near Houston St. and Broadway, the M21 would instead stop two blocks away at Mott or Greene streets heading in the westbound direction. It took six months, but the mission of getting a new bus stop was finally accomplished thanks largely to the efforts of yourself and Council Member Margaret Chin’s staff. I also offer special thanks for keeping us abreast of

developments and following up at frequent intervals. I’ve used the new stop several times and really appreciate what a difference it makes, especially with all the snow we’ve had the past few weeks.

Mel, Lower East Side

Dear Mel,Your welcome and thank you as well for

the great suggestion! Your rationale made complete sense, and it was an added incen-tive to use mass transit. I’m glad you’re enjoying the new stop.

Transit Sam

Dear Transit Sam,I heard that if you use a New Jersey E-Z

Pass at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, you do not get the discount. In other words, a New York E-Z Pass pays $4.80 but an NJ E-Z Pass pays $6.50. Is this correct?

U.C., Battery Park City

Dear U.C.Yes. If you register your E-Z Pass

with the NJ Turnpike Authority (which includes the Garden State Parkway) you won’t receive the MTA discount. But, if you register your E-Z Pass with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,

you’re eligible for the discount on all MTA facilities (for major crossings, it’s $4.80 instead of $6.50). The other agen-cies that you can register your E-Z Pass with (whether you live in NY or NJ) to receive the MTA discount includes the MTA, the New York Thruway Authority and the New York State Bridge Authority. You can register your E-Z Pass wherever you like but you must call the service center since the online system signs you up according to zip code. The number is 1-888-288-6865. You can have more than one E-Z Pass and you should register it wherever you are going to drive most frequently.

Transit SamThe Answer man


BRC outreach efforts bring homeless in from cold

the man, who stands next to a large suitcase, balks, telling the outreach workers that he has major depression, but doesn’t want to be around other mentally ill people. He says he has spoken with another agency and will wait to see if they can help him. We say goodbye, and the guys make a note to ask another worker, with whom the man is more familiar, to check in with him in a few days.

“He may be playing mom against dad,” Rosenblatt said, explaining that he may also be telling other agencies he is waiting to see if BRC can help him. “But we don’t want to take him some place that won’t be good for him.”

“We provide them with information on the requirements for the programs, to see if they’re eligible,” Poirier explained. “Every client we engage might be eligible for different things. You just have to make a connection with them, get them to start talking and determine which client is appropriate for which program.”

We roll around the corner, and Poirier and Garzon stop to talk with a woman pulling cans out of the trash. These “canners,” they explain, are usually better able to take care of themselves and often have a place to live. It is rumored that one canner in Chinatown put her child through college via recycling.

As we sit in front of the Urban Pathways drop-in center — a Department of Homeless Services program — a woman approaches the van. She came up from Kentucky a year ago, she says, and things didn’t work out. Now she wants to return, to stay with her sister. She has been waiting three weeks for her request to be processed. Can BRC help? Poirier explains that only DHS can provide bus tick-ets to people who want to return to their state of origin. He apologizes, but encourages her to be patient: her ticket will come through.

Back on the road, we cruise west down 23rd Street, stopping when the guys notice a woman with whom they have spoken in the past. She is unreceptive to their offers of help, but an older gentleman perched on a standpipe smoking a cigarette takes a card. The guys tell me he asked them for change,

and later said he was staying at a program in Ward’s Island.

Around the corner, we stop to speak with an older white woman, who sits with her bags in front of a bodega. Poirier and Garzon say they have approached her in the past, and she is unwilling to engage in conversation. She declines to speak to us. Next to her bags stands a box of hand-painted pictures. In

an effort to start a conversation, Rosenblatt offers to buy one of the paintings, which appear to be on sale for $2 apiece. She gives him the fish-eye as she informs him that the cost is not $2, but $20. Stymied, we get back in the van and drive away.

Rosenblatt directs Poirier to drive around the block to find an older white man he often sees by Gray’s Papaya, and we soon find him leaning against a storefront, his shopping cart of possessions ten feet away. The guys know this man, and Garzon warns me as we approach him that the man sometimes

becomes irate.Garzon introduces himself and asks the

man if he needs help. “Why don’t you leave me alone?” the man replied. “You’re always out here, everyone hates you! Your organiza-tion is so bad! Nobody wants you here! I hope you go out of business this year!” he raged.

Garzon’s face remains calm. Letting the man know BRC is here if he needs to access services, Garzon returns to the van. After three hours riding along with the outreach workers, I have a good idea of the challenges that face them.

People living on the street face myriad challenges, from poverty and substance abuse to mental illness. Poirier said that help could come from many different routes. “Some people give a homeless person the info and have them call, and others call BRC to let them know a person in need is out there.”

“If it’s severe distress — an emergency — call 911,” he said. “But if you see a guy in a regular spot, call and we can try to help them. Sometimes we go out there, and they have some very choice words for us, which is cool, it’s okay. But it is absolutely worth the time to call, because that’s our job. It is certainly part of what we do. Even though Francis and I spend a certain amount of time in our zone or area, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to miss a spot. So if you call it in, there’s a good chance we’re going to be able to help that person.”

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‘If it’s severe distress — an emergency — call 911.’

— Dennis Poirier“We provide them with information on the requirements for the programs

— Dennis Poirier


Kahn_CommMediaAd3-2010.pdf 3/5/10 7:12:17 PM

Photos by Clayton Patterson

A final farewell to FA-QArtist Kevin Wendall, known as FA-Q (pro-nounced, “fack you”), left, died Nov. 15 at age 55. From Cleveland, he was active in

the 1980’s East Village squatter scene on E. 11th St. Two years ago, FA-Q went in for surgery for a pituitary tumor, and was supposed to come home in three days and be on one-month’s bed rest. Instead, there were many post-surgical complications, and he spent the last year hospitalized. Not everyone knew FA-Q had kids. His two children, Jessica Wendall Bohach, above right, and Brooks Wendall, left, were recently at Gallery onetwentyeight on Rivington St. on the Lower East Side, where a memorial art show was held for FA-Q, featuring his artwork on the walls. A third child, Angel Louise, died of crib death.

clayton’s page


Lawsuit says Mayor’s office was in the wrong

es. Both facts indicate that the Park51

group is attempting to move ahead with the project “as quickly as possible,” the complaint argues.

“If the buildings are demolished, our case becomes moot,” said Joshpe. “We want to make sure they’re preserved in the interim.”

The complaint requests that the court nullify the L.P.C.’s decision, which Brown considers to be a breach of administrative law. It states that the L.P.C.’s decision was “subject to undue influence from various parties,” particularly the mayor’s office.

The N.Y.C. Law Department, represent-ing the mayor, contends that the L.P.C. acted by the rules, and that the latest alle-gations are “simply an attempt to divert attention from the fact that the lawsuit is baseless.”

Larry Kopp, a spokesperson for SoHo Properties, denied that the developer has immediate plans to take down the build-ings. The project still has a long way to go, he noted, and demolition is still two or three years away.

The complaint also demands further disclosure of the mayor’s offices’ correspon-dences with the Park51 organizers, which

uncover involvement in a process that was still before the L.P.C., thereby thwarting its impartial and fair administration of the City’s landmark laws.

It accuses the mayor’s office of a near-ly five-month delay in responding to a Freedom of Information Act request the A.C.L.J. filed last summer.

E-mail exchanges the mayor’s office finally released in late December revealed that the mayor helped shape Park51’s public relations strategy. One, in particular, men-tions that L.P.C. chairman Robert Tierney looked forward to getting “political cover” the mayor’s support of the project would afford him.

Stu Loeser, a spokesperson for the mayor, said that this type of interaction with a cul-tural or religious group is standard prac-tice. But Joshpe said this is an exceptional circumstance, since the L.P.C. hearing took place around the same time the mayor was in contact with the Park51 organizers.

In response to the initial complaint, the mayor’s office claimed exemptions from unwarranted invasion of privacy and for intra-agency and inter-agency materials.

Julie Menin, the chairwoman of Community Board 1 and an attorney, said she doesn’t believe the L.P.C. decision was tainted by the mayor’s backing of the project.

“The mayor spoke about the project’s use, and L.P.C. was focused on the narrow issue of whether or not the building rose to the level of a landmark,” said Menin.

She and others pointed out that, even if the L.P.C. had landmarked the building, it would not have affected the use of the buildings.

A news advisory put out by the A.C.L.J.

contrarily states the demolition would need to take place in order to develop the “Ground Zero mosque.” Joshpe, however, acknowledged in a phone interview SoHo Properties’ right to decide on the use of the buildings, whether or not they are taken down.

He said Brown doesn’t have plans to legally contest the future Muslim prayer space, though there are “other potential legal remedies at our disposal,” without commenting further.

“This is not so much about sensitivity,” Joshpe said, “as it is about administrative law.”


“The Mayor spoke about the project’s use, and L.P.C. was focused on the narrow issue of whether or not the building rose to the level of a landmark.”

— Julie Menin

Mayor Bloomberg


Re-branding a controversial project

texts, according to a biography provided by Park51. The biography states that Adhami’s works “strive to

relate the eternal relevance of the essence of shari’ah laws as a vehicle to enhance modern lived experience.” Shari’ah law is the fundamental religious tenet of Islam.

Adhami is also founder and chairman of Sakeenah, a New York-based nonprofit that teaches Muslims and non-Muslims about Islamic culture and traditions as well as promoting community service.

Kopp said Park51 will be announcing the other religious leaders in the coming weeks, and will announce the board’s executive director by the end of the month.

TENSIONS GROW BETWEEN PARk51 dEvELOPER ANd RELIGIOUS vISIONARY

Tensions between El-Gamal and Rauf have reportedly been growing as the two gradually formed separate visions for the project, including ideas about its size and character.

Rauf’s wife, Daisy Khan, co-founder and executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, presented Park51 as the Cordoba Initiative to C.B. 1 last spring. El-Gamal, however, ultimately has the upper hand as the developer and self-proclaimed brainchild of the project.

He is now attempting to distinguish Park51, the nonprofit entity that will be responsible for devising the cultural and reli-gious programming of the proposed Islamic community center, from the Cordoba Movement, Rauf’s message of interfaith dia-logue and peace.

“While Imam Feisal’s vision has a global scope and his ideals

for the Cordoba movement are truly exceptional, our community in Lower Manhattan is local,” El-Gamal said in a statement.

Neither Feisal nor Khan will continue to speak on behalf of Park51, nor will they partake in the fundraising efforts of the project, according to El-Gamal.

It seems that Rauf was left out of the decision-making process amid these new developments. His spokesperson, Leyla Turkkan, said he isn’t even acquainted with Adhami, did not have a say in his appointment and was not notified of El-Gamal’s decision prior to the developer’s public announcement.

One source who requested anonymity said that, though their personal relationship is profound, the business relationship between Rauf and El-Gamal has recently been strained.

Rauf wasn’t available for comment as of press time. Turkkan said Rauf acknowledged, though, that the mosque at 49-51 Park Place — now called “Park51,” according to Kopp — must con-tinue its day-to-day operations in his absence.

“The Imam is involved in much bigger, broader issues, like healing divide and interfaith coalition,” said Turkkan.

How large a role he will play in running Park51’s prayers and interfaith programs once the project is completed is yet to

be determined. Rauf played a very influential role in El-Gamal’s personal life,

leading him to the discovery of his faith and spiritual identity, according to Kopp. Rauf married El-Gamal to his wife, Rebekah, and was his mentor for almost 10 years.

OTHER NEW PARk51 dEvELOPMENTS

Park51 will open a multicultural art exhibit space on part of the building’s first floor in the spring. Kopp said the space, now vacant, will also be available for public use until the building comes down in a few years’ time.

The Park51 group also gave its website, Park51.org, a makeover, in hopes of revamping the project’s image and dispelling the myths about the proposed Islamic community center.

Redoing the site, Kopp explained, was a cost-effective way of promoting the project and its mission. “Park51 doesn’t have a desk, or a phone yet. It’s an easy thing to start the ball rolling on,” he said.

The group, meanwhile, is on the verge of achieving non-profit status. It sent in its letter of determination to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in mid-December, which Kopp suspects will be processed by the spring.

“It’d be pretty tough to not get [nonprofit status],” said Kopp.

The government, he said, doesn’t typically deny it to groups unless they have a proven history of malfeasance.

In the meantime, Kopp said El-Gamal is already starting to accrue financing from banks for the center’s construction, a process that will take a couple years.

The community center won’t be ready to open its doors until eight to 11 years from now, according to Kopp.

“The Imam is involved in much bigger, broader issues, like healing divide and interfaith coalition.”

— Leyla Turkkan


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Black’s appearance less than stellar

city’s children are being educated and have the tools to learn — not judge the reproduc-tive choices of women in our city.”

Overcrowding, Ferreras continued, is not a joke to the children and parents in her dis-trict who are also dealing with the issue.

D.O.E. Communications Director Natalie Ravitz said in a statement that the chancellor takes the issue of overcrowd-ing “very seriously, which is why she was engaged in a discussion with Lower Manhattan parents on the subject.”

“[Black] regrets if she left a different impression by making an off-handed joke in the course of that conversation,” said Ravitz.

Julie Menin, chair of Community Board 1, said she was “troubled” by Black’s overall feedback, which she considered to be “glib” in that Black didn’t identify plans to combat “the very serious issue of school overcrowding.”

The chancellor made another verbal slip in describing the D.O.E.’s rough financial terrain she is trying to navigate as chancellor.

“I don’t mean this in any [flippant] way,” she told the task force, “but [there are] many Sophie’s choices.”

Her comment was an allusion to the story of Sophie Zawistowski, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, who was forced to choose which of her two children would live and which would die.

Moore and others deemed it a poor anal-ogy. There are a number of other parallels she could have drawn, Moore said. The one that Black went with was in his opinion, “overly dramatic, and probably a little dis-tasteful.”

Menin was upset with the chancellor’s quip.

“Cracking jokes and telling Downtown parents, even in jest, to use more birth con-trol, and referring to the [D.O.E.’s] choices as a ‘Sophie’s choice’ did not demonstrate a real and concrete, on-the-ground under-standing of what parents face,” Menin wrote in an e-mail.

“[The D.O.E.] has already made Sophie’s choices,” Schiller said. “They’ve already made clear we’re going to have a segregated system,” insofar as separating out kids by performance level.

In contrast, Silver, who led the task force meeting, was satisfied with Black’s perfor-mance. In a written statement, he said he was pleased that Black attended the meet-ing and was able to hear first-hand from parents.

“Jokes aside,” said Silver, “I think she real-ly heard the message that Lower Manhattan schools are in the midst of an overcrowd-ing crisis, and I am hopeful we can work together to find a solution.”

Tamara Rowe, a parent of a Millennium High School student and a member of the task force, felt cautiously optimistic about Black’s attempt to forge ties with the Downtown education community.

She, like many task force members, appreciated Black’s appearance at the meet-ing, pointing out that former chancellor Joel Klein never even attended one of Silver’s task force meetings in the two-and-a-half years of its existence while he was chancel-lor. But Rowe doubts Black’s willingness to change things.

“I think she’s trying to listen,” said Rowe. “I think I won’t know what it really means until I see the results.”

During the meeting, Menin and other task force members disparaged the D.O.E. for not implementing a long-term strategy to relieve overcrowding. “Everything is done piecemeal,” Menin told Black.

The search for more classroom space now, instead of before, when overcrowding was less widespread, is an “absolutely back-wards way of doing it,” according to Menin.

LACk OF FORESIGHT

Members of the task force discussed the lack of foresight the D.O.E. has recently exhibited in accommodating Downtown school children. Several members voiced their concerns about the designation of the 26 Broadway site to an unscreened high school and the giving of empty classroom space in the Tweed Courthouse to an untest-ed charter school.

Black, in her second week on the job, said she has “no gigantic new vision.”

She said she anticipates there to be “tough sledding” in deciding how to allocate the limited sum the D.O.E. will receive in the coming fiscal year. The state is set to release a preliminary version of the 2011-12 budget on February 1.

“Trying to balance all the competing forc-es is not easy at all,” Black said. “It’s clear that your needs are great, and we’ll try to deal with them as well as we possibly can.”

And while task force members were pleased with her presence at the meeting, many walked away feeling skeptical or dis-couraged by her plans — or lack thereof — for Lower Manhattan public schools.

According to task force member Shino Tanikawa, also a member of Community Education Council District 2, the chancel-lor doesn’t seem to have a vision for public schools at all.

“It’s time for her to think about what her priorities are for the city,” said Tanikawa. “You have to do planning. There’s no excuse for it.”

In Greenleaf’s opinion, Black focused on listening, rather than commenting. “She was clearly being very, very cautious. I think we

expected that,” he said. What the task force is most interested in, he added, is her actions moving forward in securing more public school seats Downtown.

Beyond her seeming receptiveness to par-ents’ concerns, “I didn’t get a lot of comfort that anything else was going to change,” said Somerville, a P.S. 276 parent.

Moore was also unimpressed with Black’s lack of urgency as it pertained to the over-crowding issue.

“We were hoping for a little bit more of an acknowledgement from her,” said Moore.

Black’s response to parents’ concerns, Moore added, “gave everyone the impression that she wasn’t going to change any of the plans in front of us right now.”

The next School Overcrowding Task Force meeting is scheduled for Friday, February 4, at Silver’s office at 250 Broadway.


Downtown Express photo by Aline Reynolds

Cathie Black (left) and Julie Menin (right) at last week’s overcrowding task force meeting where Black made a less than stellar first impression.

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THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE MUSEUM The Junior Officers Dis-covery Zone is an exhibit designed for ages 2-10. It’s divided into four areas (Police Academy; Park and Precinct; Emergency Services Unit; and a Multi-Purpose Area), each with interactive and imaginary play experiences for children to understand the role of police officers in our community — by, among other things, driving and taking care of a police car. For older children, there’s a crime scene observation activity that will challenge them to remember relevant parts of city street scenes; a physi-cal challenge similar to those at the Police Academy; and a model Emer-gency Services Unit vehicle where children can climb in, use the steering wheel and lights, hear radio calls with police codes and see some of the actual equipment carried by The Emergency Services Unit. At 100 Old Slip. For info, call 212-480-3100 or visit www.nycpm.org. Hours: Mon. through Sat., 10am-5pm and Sun., noon-5pm. Admission: $8 ($5 for stu-dents, seniors and children. Free for children under 2.

DOWNTOWN COMMUNITY CENTER For info on swim les-sons, basketball, gym class, Karate and more, call 212-766-1104. Visit manhattanyouth.org. The Downtown Community Center is located at 120 Warren St.

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF THE ARTS Explore painting, collage and sculpture through self-guided arts 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. Regular museum hours: Wed.-Sun., 12-5pm; Thurs., 12-6pm (Pay as You Wish, from 4-6pm). Admission: $10. At the Children’s Museum of the Arts (182 Lafayette St. btw. Broome & Grand). Call 212- 274-0986 or visit cmany.org. For group tours and visit, call 212) 274-0986, extension 31.

SATURDAY AFTERNOONS AT THE SCHOLASTIC STORE Every Saturday at 3pm, Scholastic’s in-store activities are designed to get kids reading, thinking, talking, creating and moving. The Scholastic Store is located at 557 Broadway (btw. Prince & Spring). Regular store hours are Mon.-Sat., 10am-7pm, and Sun., 11am-6pm. For info about store events, call 212-343-6166. Visit scholastic.com.

BOOKS OF WONDER & CUPCAKE CAFÉ Literate kids and cup-cake enthusiasts of all ages mingle at the space shared by Books of Wonder and Cupcake Café. The Café has sweet stuff all day, every day

(they’ve got some of the best icing in town) — while the bookstore has story time Sundays at Noon (appropriate for ages 3-7). There’s simply nothing better than being able to depend on a weekly story followed by a massive sugar rush. Life is good! Books of Wonder is located at 18th St. (btw. Fifth & Sixth Aves.). Call 212-989-3270 or visit booksof-wonder.com. Cupcake Café, at the same address, can be reached at 212-465-1530 (visit cupcakecafe.com).

POETS HOUSE The Poets House “Tiny Poets Time” program offers children ages 1-3 and their parents a chance to enter the world of rhyme — through readings, group activities and interactive perfor-mances. Thursdays at 10am (at 10 River Terrace, at Murray St.). Call 212-431-7920 or visit poetshouse.org.

ANGELINA BALLERINA: THE MUSICAL Everyone at the Cam-embert Academy is all aflutter because a special guest is coming to visit. Angelina and her friends are excited to show off their hip-hop, modern dance, Irish jig and ballet skills — but will Angelina get that moment in the spotlight she’s hoping for? Based on characters from the PBS series, this show is appropriate for ages 3-12. Through Feb. 19, Sat. at 1pm & 3pm and Sun. at 1pm. At the Union Square Theatre (100 E. 17th St. btw. Union Square East and Irving Place). For tickets ($39.50-$65), call 1-800-982-2787 or visit ticketmaster.com. Also visit angelinathemusical.com.

DEAR EDWINA This heartwarming show about the joys and frustrations of growing up has our spunky heroine (advice-giver extraordinaire Edwina Spoonable) sharing her wisdom on everything from setting the table to making new friends. That it’s done through clever, catchy and poignant songs makes the experience enjoyable and engaging for kids who know what Edwina’s going through as well as adults who remember what it was like. Through Feb. 25 at the DR2 Theatre (103 E. 15th St.). For tickets ($39), call 212-239-6200. For groups of 10 or more, call 646-747-7400. Visit dearedwina.com for additional details and full playing schedule.

GAZILLION BUBBLE SHOW: THE NEXT GENERATION Three years into its run, the Gazillion Bubble Show welcomes creator Fan Yang’s 20-year-old son into the family business. We’re promised that “Bubble Super-Star” Deni Yang will elevate this already spectacular experience to new heights of bubble blowing artistry). The open-ended run plays Fri. at 7 p.m., Sat. at 11am, 2pm and 4:30pm and Sun. at noon and 3pm. 75 minutes, no intermission. For tickets ($44.50 to $89.50), call 212-239-6200 or visit www.telecharge.com. Visit gazil-lionbubbleshow.com.

PRESCHOOL PLAYAND STORIES & SONGS A new session

of “Preschool Play” has been added: This program, for walking tod-dlers, invites you to join other children, parents, and caregivers for fun interactive play, art, and theme days. Thursdays, through March 24, from 1:30-3:30pm. The fee is $175 for 10 weeks (siblings: $100). At “Stories & Songs,” a variety of musicians perform child-friendly music and teach. Movement, dancing and shakers add to the fun. Mondays, through April 25 (except 1/17 and 2/21) as well as on Wednesdays, Jan. 12-April 13. Space is still available in 40-minute classes: the 9:30-10:10am class for children 6-14 months — and the 12 noon-12:40pm class for mixed ages (6 months to 3.5 years). There is a $231 fee for 14 weeks (20% discount for siblings). Both events take place in the Meeting Room at the Verdesian (211 North End Ave., btw. Warren & Murray, in Battery Park City). For info or to register, call 212-267-9700, ext. 366 or 348. Visit bpcparks.org.

TUESDAY CHILDREN’S ART CLASSES Asian American Arts Centre is sponsoring an after school Children’s Art Class program which focuses on children from 6 years old to 14 years old. Instruc-tors Caroline McAuliffe and Lu Yi — both teaching artists who have been working with young people for several years – offer a program designed to stimulate a child’s capacity to explore their own artistic originality and cultural background. Children are introduced to the language of visual forms as well as those of Asian art forms. The 15-week semester begins on Feb. 8.The first class (3pm to 4:30pm) is for children ages 6-9. The second class (4:40pm to 6:30pm) is for children ages 9-14. Registration hours are Fridays, 10:30 am to 5pm. Tuition is $235 and includes all supplies. Asian American Arts Centre is located at 111 Norfolk St. For info, call 212-233-2154. Or visit artspi-ral.org and www.artasiamerica.org.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR EvENT LISTED IN THE DOWNTOWN EXPRESS? Listing requests may be sent to [email protected]. Please provide the date, time, location, price and a description of the event. Information may also be mailed to 145 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10013. Requests must be received three weeks before the event is to be held.

youthactivities

Photo by Bob Lee

Nurtures your kid’s artistic nature. See “Tuesday Children’s Art Classes.”

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Enjoying Preschool Play in Battery Park City. See “Preschool Play.”

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A budding Junior Officer works on his memory skills. See “New York City Police Museum.”


BY JeRRY tAllMeRLet us do a little triangulation.Here, at one point, is 21 Clinton Street

on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City.

This is where The Living Theatre, found-ed by Judith Malina and Julian Beck in 1947, lives and breathes these days, 64 years later, as does Judith herself, with a new play by her called “Korach” — a quasi-biblical hymn to anarchy (though Julian is long gone, as is, more recently, second husband Hanon Reznikov, who left behind him an early draft of the present work).

Far, far away, at the apex of an immensely long thin triangle, is Mount Sinai — not the New York City medical center, but the desert heights from which Moses, the lone, imperi-ous, infuriated climber, brought back down the Ten Commandments only to smash them in the face of rebellious, anarchic challenges to his authority.

And here is the third peg of that extreme-ly extended triangle, is a restaurant called Viand Cafe (at Broadway and 75th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan) where Judith Malina has come uptown to talk about “Korach” and theater and girlhood and anarchy — and her father, Max Malina (the rabbi who got himself and his family out of Germany and to New York just in time when Judith was three).

“When I was 12 years old,” Malina is saying, “I saw a movie called ‘Nurse Edith Cavell’ “ — released 1939, so Malina must really have been 13 years old — “in which a beautiful English actress named Anna Neagle, just before she’s shot as a spy by a German firing squad in World War I, says: ‘Standing as I am between God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough.’

“That’s when I realized we must have no hatred or bitterness against anyone. I saw this movie,” says Judith,” at the Beacon Theater.”

What??? an interviewer all but shouts. Judith, the Beacon Theater is right over there, two doors away from where we’re sit-

ting. It’s a rock palace nowadays.“I know, “she says calmly. “So I ran home

from the Beacon Theater — we used to live around here; we lived everywhere — and said to my father, the German-Jewish rabbi who was trying to rouse opinion against Hitler: ‘Papa, I’ve just seen this movie! We must not hate the Nazis!’ “

And what did your Papa say?‘”He was horrified by my politics since

I was 11.”Max Malina, were he alive today, would

be doubly horrified by “Korach,” in which the pace is set by Comrade Emma Goldman (all 4 foot 11 inches of actress Judith Malina, on film) preaching anarchy — the real pure stuff — first, last, and always.

EMMA: We are now in the midst of a profound social upheaval. We Anarchists can take heart that the young generation has lost its faith in government — not in any specific regime or government — but in the very notion of government itself. The time is ripe for us to organize the Anarchist Movement. If all the young people that are drawing the ‘A’ in a circle on the wall…really understood what that ‘Circle A’ means, we could really have a splendid revolution now — and in the deepest sense they do understand that the ‘Circle A’ means the yearning to be free of the unneces-sary restrictions that our social system demands — and of the abuses of puni-tive law….

We will rally that energy, but we must beware of the ruthlessness of the

great opposing camp. They are afraid of freedom because they believe that freedom will lead to chaos. We must show them the sense of consensus and collective decision-making that Anarchism offers. We must reassure the people that Anarchism doesn’t mean disorder, but a higher form of human organization. Comrade Alexander Berkman said, “Anarchism is organi-zation; organization, and nothing but organization.”

If the people are not convinced of this — if they are afraid that anarchism means chaos and violence — they will wipe us out. They will eliminate us without mercy — as they have done in the Ukraine, in Spain, wherever the burgeoning Anarchist Movement threatened the maintenance of the state. Wherever Anarchism has been tried, it has succeeded in exemplify-ing a harmonious society. But it has frightened the people in power, and the Anarchists have always been wiped out — all the way back to Korach, in

Living Theatre’s ‘quasi-biblical hymn’ to anarchy fights fairJudith Malina: Horrifying with her politics since age 11

dowNTowN ExPREssarts&entertainment

Photo courtesy of kennedyyankoart.com

L to R: Andrew Greer, Jay Dobkin and Tom Walker.

KORACHWritten by Judith Malina

Directed by Brad Burgess

Running Time: 55 minutes, no intermission

Through February 28

At the Living Theatre (21 Clinton St. btw. Houston & Stanton Sts.)

Tickets: $20 (Students/Seniors: $15. Seniors. Wed, pay what you can)

For reservations, call 978-273-5443

theater


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essential

celebrating20years

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‘Men Go Down’ worth going Downtown forRetelling of classic feels purposeful and relevant

BY MARtin denton (nYtheAtRe.coM)“Men Go Down, Part 3: Black

Recollections” is the newest work by John Jahnke and Hotel Savant. I’ve been a fan of Jahnke’s work for a decade or more, but I must admit that this latest piece is so oblique that it’s hard to recommend wholeheartedly.

Like all of Jahnke’s theatre, this is a feast for the senses: painterly stage pic-tures parade before us along with beautiful (often unclothed) bodies of both genders; meanwhile our eyes and ears are overloaded

with surprising, startling imagery — a door-bell that sounds like a miniature symphony, human-size frames that house ever-morphing “oil paintings” depicting the main characters in various costumes and poses, a view out a window into a black night filled with swirling stars and clouds and, at one point, fireworks.

Where “Men Go Down” proves prob-lematic is in its meaning. The visual and

aural components are endlessly striking, but the text and script they support are elliptical in the extreme — even to the point where characters frequently leave out key words from their sentences (usu-ally, but not always, the nouns). This makes for challenging parsing, especially when there’s such a stupendous sensual feast unfolding from every direction.

The play takes place in a hotel room in Turkey in the year 1895. Here, a long-ago king named Endymion, who has recently been awakened after sleeping for a thousand

years, is visited by the goddess Diana and by a nymph named Dryope who has been carrying his unborn child, also for a millen-nium. Dryope says she wants Endymion dead, so that she can finally birth his offspring. Endymion is also pursued, or haunted, in waking dreams, by a trio of gods who mani-fest themselves as hotel cleaning staff, and by his ancient love Hylas, who was Heracles’s lover in Greek myth, who appears momen-tarily as a hotel chef.

Now, this is all based in obscure Greek myth — but the tale is not at all well-known to contemporary American audiences. In fact, without a full page of program notes, I would have had trouble coming up with as specific a summary of the play as I’ve provided.

In any event, though “Men Go Down” on the surface is a kind of retelling of this classic tale, the play’s raison d’etre feels more purposeful and relevant. What I got from the piece was the story of a man who feels entitle-ment without responsibility; someone who sleeps or retreats or blames rather than ever

behaves accountably for his actions.Jahnke’s direction and design concept

are stunning, and the realization of that design — by Peter Ksander (set), Kristin Worrall (sound), Bruce Steinberg (lighting), Ramona Ponce (costumes), Taili Wu, Andrew Schneider, and Rebecca Adomo (video) — is utterly breathtaking. The cast of eight is led by Alexander Borinsky as Endymion (who makes a wondrously surprising entrance near the start of the show) and Hillary Spector and Tanisha Thompson as his antagonists Diana and Dryope; Tim Eliot, Liz Santoro, Michael Ingle, Melody Bates, and Mikeah Jennings complete the ensemble in smaller roles that require them to dance, move, and serve as various forms of chorus.

There are moments in this piece that will stay with me due to their unexpectedness and beauty. But I did not feel much transformed or moved by the proceedings — which sur-prised me, because with the work of John Jahnke and Hotel Savant, that’s almost always what happens.

MEN GO DOWN, PART 3: BLACK RECOLLECTIONSWritten & Directed By: John Jahnke

Produced by Producer: Hotel Savant

Through January 23

At 3LD Art & Technology Center

80 Greenwich St. (btw. Rector & Edgar)

Running Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes; no intermission

For tickets ($25), call 212-352-3101

theater

Photo by Dixie Sheridan

Hillary Spector as Diana, Goddess of the Moon and Alexander Borinsky as Endymion, former King of Elis.

There are moments in this piece that will stay with me due to their unexpectedness and beauty. But I did not feel much transformed or moved by the proceedings.

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A hymn to anarchy

Biblical History.We will lose every battle — except

the last one.

This, from the woman who in May of 1963 (with her husband/co-artist/co-anar-chist Julian Beck, along with actors and audience) burst in over the roof of their padlocked 14th Street theater to foil the feds and stage one last performance of Kenneth Brown’s “The Brig” — a Malina-directed portrait of hell as a U.S. Marine Corps disci-plinary center.

This, also, from the woman who even earlier (1959) had brought forth at that tem-ple the artistically even more revolutionary “The Connection” — a “jazz play” by young Jack Gelber about a roomful of druggies sit-ting around waiting for their fix to arrive. Or who placed before New York eyes and ears the rarely hazarded works of Bertolt Brecht and William Carlos Williams.

“I have always considered my theater,” says the Judith of here and now, “to be an adjunct of my father’s German-Jewish synagogue. Wherever we lived, East Side, West Side, my father’s study is where he conducted services, did bar mitzvahs, did circumcisions. On Saturdays you didn’t ride in a vehicle, didn’t turn on a light.

“In those days I considered myself a heretical Jew. I had to make a decision: Am I going to be an actress or am I going to be observant?”

One of the places where the Malina lived for several years was the old Broadway Central Hotel — the one that later fell down and killed a few people. “Six seventy-three Broadway,” says Judith, “between Bleecker

and Third.”Brad Burgess, the young director of

“Korach,” who has come uptown with her to sit in on the interview, shoots Judith a look.

“I can’t believe you remember that,” Burgess says, “when you can’t remember your current address.”

Judith Malina was born June 4, 1926, in Kiel, Germany. Three years later she arrived in America.

Brad Burgess was born March 1, 1985, in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in Lowell, went to Catholic schools, and is a nice kid sporting a 1960s Abbie Hoffman head of hair. His roots are French, Irish, Austrian. These (and nights), he is oversee-ing 25 anarchy-minded actors — some of whom, the Korachites, pop up on stage from 10,000 years punishment under the earth.

Korach himself is played on Clinton Street by Tom Walker, who has been with the Living Theatre only 39 years. “He’s been Faust, George Washington, Humboldt, and now Korach.”

Where would Max Malina have ranked Korach among villains?

“About three steps below Adolf Hitler.”The Broadway Central Hotel — to be

exact, the third floor of the Broadway Central Hotel — was where 11-year-old Judith Malina and her girlfriends first started putting on plays.

Judith, says her interviewer, it’s all well and good to preach and practice anarchy — but surely you didn’t create that com-pany and put on all those extraordinary shows and hold everything together all those years and are still doing it without some measure of discipline. Maybe good strong discipline.

“Discipline, yes,” says Malina, “but not punitive law. Punitive law, no.”


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Arts World Financial Center has an impressive roster of cultural events ready to be penned into that nifty 2011 calendar you recently purchased. Feb. 2-4 (7pm each night), the “Silent Films/Live Music” series features some of Hollywood’s great-est physical comedians — backed by the sounds of found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics (courtesy of the three-man ensemble, Alloy Orchestra).

Wed., Feb. 2, 1920’s “One Week” stars Buster Keaton; 1919’s “Back Stage” stars Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle; and 1971’s “Easy Street” stars Charlie Chaplin. Thurs., Feb. 3, 1928’s “Speedy” features Harold Lloyd as the eponymous hero who attempts to save the last horse-drawn trolley bus from greedy railway magnates. It was shot on location in NYC and features several land-marks including Yankee Stadium, Luna Park, Columbus Circle, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Fri., Feb. 4, 1926’s “The Black Pirate” has Douglas Fairbanks as a man who, bound by honor, vows to avenges the death of his father at the hands of a pirate gang.

FREE. At World Financial Center (220 Vesey St.). For info on these and other events, call 212-945-0505 or visit artsworldfinancialcenter.com.

Buster got back. From “Speedy” — starring Buster Keaton. See “WFC Winter Garden.”

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Ellen Stewart, 91, doyenne of La MaMa and all avant drama

BY WicKhAM BoYleEllen Stewart — the mercurial, magi-

cal, inventive, prescient founder and longtime artistic director of the famed La mama Theatre died in New York City on Jan. 13. Stewart was my mentor, my boss, my partner, the grandmother to my children — and to generations of us who worked in New York City or American or world theater, she was our mother.

Everything about Ellen Stewart is swathed in mystery and wonder. Even The New York Times, bastion of fact, attributes three possible dates for her birth, from 1917 to 1919. Her birthplace was Chicago, but her accent morphed. It was different when she spoke to the press, her adoring audiences or to her bad “babies,” and it could range from Geechee Louisianan, to across the world or become the grittiest street-corner ban-ter. Like the theatrical form she spawned, global, multicultural, cross-disciplinary and just damn undeniably La mama, Ellen Stewart herself was a hybrid before any-one else envisioned that possibility.

Stewart came to New York City with a carpetbag jammed full of dreams to be a fashion designer. She was going to study at Parsons, but lack of funding saw her land as a porter in Saks Fifth Avenue. Stewart so often told this story:

“The coloreds, for back then that is what we were, coloreds, wore blue smocks and carted the goods everywhere in the store. One day as I was leaving for lunch, wearing one of my own cre-ations, sewn in my little garret, a fancy patron stopped me and inquired where I had bought my dress. When I told her honestly that I myself had made it, she marched me to my boss to be dressed down for insubordination.” Instead, the wise head of Saks gave Stewart her own line of dresses, Miss Ellen. “And that, baby, is how Mama made good on a promise to my brother Freddy [Lights] and his friend Paul [Foster] to make a little playhouse for them,” she said.

In the early years the police constantly raided Stewart and La mama because, as she said, “The police saw a Negress in a basement and lots of white men traips-ing down the stairs and they thought — Ahhhhh, brothel. Well, baby, it was only theater.”

And yes, theater it was, but never only theater. The theatrical style that was developed and championed by Ellen Stewart and La mama literally changed the face of every piece of live perfor-mance, video and film that modern view-ers take for granted. La mama pioneered shows that crossed over and married swirling stages, bespoke films, live music, electronic accoutrements, words and not just in English; all wrapped around a directorial style where the audience was immersed in, surrounded by or an actual

part of the show. The world stage is now chockablock full of these techniques; you see them in commercials, in Broadway shows, in circus and in school plays. But when La MaMa began in 1961 all of this was uncharted territory.

Ellen Stewart prided herself on never reading scripts and picking plays, opera or art shows by a series of reactions she called her “beeps.”

“Baby, if it beeps to me, Mama will know, and if it doesn’t, I don’t care what the words say and who your real mama is, it is not for La MaMa!” I would see her on the phone to Bogotá or Brooklyn or Belgium with artists and she giving notes via her beeps: “Look at Pages 5, 23 and 91, that is where the trouble lies.” And time after time, artists told me that infor-mation was salient to redoing the work.

If it all sounds magical, voodoo crazy, woo-woo incomprehensible, then so does the fairy tale Stewart spun in the East Village and around the world. La MaMa will celebrate its 50th anniversary this October and it boasts two buildings on East Fourth Street alone. In fact, the La MaMa Theatre really was the linchpin on which the East 4th Street Cultural District was anchored. In these two buildings are three theaters, an office, Stewart’s private residence and an

amazing archives containing every script, mask, piece of Mylar, check stub, video and photograph ever to emanate from the halls of La MaMa. On East First Street is La MaMa’s La Galleria, which holds down the funky distaff side of an East Village now resembling nothing of its gritty roots.

The roll call of legends who began, returned or graced La MaMa include (but beware this list could never be exhaustive, or it would encompass pages): Harvey Keitel, Liz Swados, Andrei Serban, Diane Lane, Harvey Fierstein, Al Pacino, Bette Midler, Bob Wilson, Philip Glass, Sam Shepard, Adrienne Rich, Tom O’Horgan, Peter Brook, Robert De Niro and even Joe Papp himself before he founded the Public Theater. As a wonderful, and deserved tribute, the Public sent out a press release saying that their season would be dedi-cated to Ellen Stewart.

And the list of awards bestowed upon her is equally august. Stewart won a Tony in 2006 for theatrical excellence, count-less OBIE awards, the Human Rights Award from the government of the Philippines, the Sacred Treasure Award from the emperor of Japan and the Les Kurbas Award from Ukraine, and she was an officer in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Ellen Stewart was a MacArthur Genius (MacArthur Fellowship) grantee in 1985 and she took her subvention and pur-chased a former monastery in Umbria, Italy, in the shadows of the renowned Spoleto Festival. Here, Stewart and La mama created a summer institute for international artists of stature and aco-lytes. When Stewart first proposed this idea to the then business manager, James Moore, he exclaimed, “Oh, my God, what will she do with that pile of rocks?” As with everything she touched, Stewart’s alchemy spun it into artistic gold.

Even with all these honors, Ellen Stewart could still be seen sweeping the sidewalk in front of the theaters. When I interviewed with her to be the executive director back in the 1980’s she asked me, “Well, Miss Wicki [we were all Miss or Mr. and our first name], you have gotten a fancy education since first working here at Mama’s when you were 19. Are you too big to clean a toilet or sweep with me?” I wasn’t then and it was always an honor to do whatever it took to light up the stages and watch Mama’s silver locks shake as she rang her bell and sang out in that complicated lilt, “Welcome to La MaMa, dedicated to the playwright and ALLLLLLLLL aspects of the theater.”

File photo

Ellen Stewart, founder of La MaMa Theatre, at City Hall in September 2004 for the announcement of the Fourth Arts Block deal with the city. Seven properties on E. Fourth St. between Bowery and Second Ave., plus several vacant lots, were sold for $1 each to Fourth Arts Block, a.k.a. FAB. Under the deal, the properties were permanently dedicated for use by cultural, nonprofit organizations, assuring that the theaters, dance studios and other artistic uses on the block would not disappear.

obituary

DOWNTOWN EXPRESS 1-19-11

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