Downtown Express, June 12, 2009

Downtown Express photos by Milo Hess

Stormy waters up to Albany Gov. David Paterson, inset, blessed the fl eet Friday as it left Battery Park Friday in the pouring rain for an eight-day trip up the Hudson River in honor of the river’s namesake, Henry Hudson, who fi rst landed in Lower Manhattan 400 years ago. In hindsight, the stormy waters appeared to be a precursor of what was to come in Albany. On Monday, State Senate Republicans appeared to have secured control of the body as Democrats tried to lock them out. The dispute remained unresolved Wednesday as Paterson called for a compromise.

BY JULIE SHAPIRO In the battle between

offi ce towers and retail podiums at the World Trade Center site, offi ce towers appear to be winning.

Negotiations over what to build and how to pay for it have been going on for the past three weeks, and the next meeting of top W.T.C. site stakeholders is sched-uled for Thurs., June 11.

Going into that meeting, the consensus among the stakeholders appears to be shifting toward developer Silverstein Properties’ goal of building as many offi ce towers as possible with

the Port Authority’s help, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told Downtown Express last week.

“That’s the purpose,” Silver said in an interview with editors and reporters last Friday. “Build more, and build more now. That is our purpose.”

Silverstein cannot build his Church St. offi ce towers on his own because he can-not get construction fi nanc-ing. The Port has agreed to help with Tower 4 but refused to backstop much of the fi nancing for Tower 2, saying Silverstein can build it when the economy improves

BY JULIE SHAPIROThe city will not begin

reconstructing Chatham Square this summer, after the unpopular plan drew months of criticism from the community and elected offi cials.

The city insisted this week that the delay does not mean the $50 million project is shelved, but offi -cials would not say when the work would start. Several Downtown politicians and

community leaders said that the project is unlikely to move forward anytime soon.

“I don’t think they’re going to do anything any-more,” said Justin Yu, chairperson of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. Yu met with D.O.T. Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and other high-level D.O.T. staff last week to discuss the Chatham Square plan.

W.T.C. talks focus on towers & money, not podiums

Chinatown happyas traffi c plan isstalled for now

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON Concern is brewing over Pier 40

once more, after the Hudson River Park Trust passed a resolution to ask the State Legislature to extend the lease term for the huge W. Houston St. pier from 30 years to 50 years.

Opponents of The Related Companies’ failed Cirque du Soleil/

Tribeca Film Festival plan for the Houston St. pier fear that with a lease change, the “Las Vegas on the Hudson” scheme could rear its glitzy, high-impact head again.

In the past fi ve and a half years, two efforts by the Trust to fi nd private developers to repair and revamp the 14-acre Pier 40 have sunk. As part of

the second effort, which capsized last year, The Related Companies pro-posed its Cirque du Soleil-centered plan that would have drawn mil-lions of people to the pier annually. But Related couldn’t make its plan’s fi nancials work within the 30-year

Trust wants to pick pier tenants twice a century

Continued on page 3

Continued on page 14Continued on page 10

downtown expressss®

VOLUME 22, NUMBER 5 THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN JUNE 12 - 18, 2009

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

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

ON THURS., JUNE 11: the Landmarks Committee will meet in Room 501 of 49-51 Chambers St.

ON MON., JUNE 15: The Waterfront Committee will meet.

ON TUES., JUNE 16: The Youth and Education Committee will meet.

ON WED., JUNE 17: The Battery Park City Committee will meet in One World Financial Center, 24th Floor.

ON THURS., JUNE 18: The Quality of Life Committee will meet.

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ABZUG OUTLiz Abzug put fast-spreading rumors to rest this week

and told UnderCover that she is not running for City Council in the First District.

Had she entered the hotly contested race for incumbent Alan Gerson’s seat, many saw Abzug as a potential victor whose can-didacy would at the very least dramatically change the campaign. But Abzug said she is friendly with both Gerson and challenger Margaret Chin, which would have made a run diffi cult.

Abzug, daughter of the late Bella Abzug, an icon in the women’s movement and a former member of Congress, also considered running for the seat back when Gerson was fi rst elected, in 2001. She did make a run for City Council against Tom Duane in Chelsea in the early ’90s, but lost.

Abzug, who moved to Tribeca 13 years ago, keeps busy run-ning a consulting business and a leadership institute she founded in honor of her mother, along with teaching at Barnard College. She’s still looking for a chance to leap back into politics.

“I would love to run for Congress,” Abzug said, though she would never challenge Rep. Jerrold Nadler. She would consider running if Nadler ever stepped down, or she could possibly run out on Long Island, where she has a house in Sag Harbor.

SHELLY ON L.M.D.C.Mayor Mike Bloomberg has been campaigning for nearly

a year to shutter the state-city Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and transfer its functions — and money — to the city. Last week, when we asked Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver what he thought about the mayor’s proposal, we expected him to repeat his staunch defense of the L.M.D.C. and its chairper-son Avi Schick, a Silver ally.

Instead, Silver said the leadership of the agency isn’t that signifi cant.

“I don’t think, honestly, who does the job of L.M.D.C. is that relevant,” Silver told UnderCover. “I think what is important, as we see in the development of ground zero, there has to be a coordina-tion between them, a working together. The vehicle is secondary.”

Silver added that he sees no reason to change anything. “I would just as soon leave [the L.M.D.C.’s structure as

is] because its function is running out,” Silver said. “Why change ships?”

The decision of what to do with the L.M.D.C. is ultimately up to Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson, who Silver said is also angling to control the development corporation’s budget.

PHONE DUSTUPCouncilmember Alan Gerson not only lost Downtown

Independent Democrats’ endorsement last week but he also had his cell phone thrown against the wall by club member Gil Horowitz after breaking up an argument Horowitz was having with Gerson’s mother Sophie, 84. UnderCover has tried to get to the bottom of this to see what prompted Horowitz’s anger — was it an overreaction to the coun-cilmember’s justifi able defense of his mother or was it physically aggressive behavior on Gerson’s part? We feel like we’re in a remake of Kurosawa’s “Rashomon.”

Horowitz, 72, says Gerson grabbed and held him while shoving him 20 feet. Then when Horowitz complained to Alan, the councilmember offered the cell phone in case Horowitz wanted to call the police. Horowitz was so angered that he threw the phone across the large hall in St. Anthony’s Church.

There were few witnesses to the hullabaloo at the back of the room since most attention was directed toward the speakers up front.

Allan Horland, a physician and Gerson friend who was keeping his eye on Sophie at the request of her son, agreed Gerson did grab Horowitz and move him away, but said

Gerson reacted appropriately since Horowitz “was waving his fi nger if not his fi st” in the face of an elderly woman who couldn’t easily get up and walk away. Sophie, who lives with Alan, has had two major surgeries in recent years.

Gerson said he would stand by Horland’s account, although he denies ever grabbing Horowitz. At various times over the last week, he has said he “may have ruffl ed” Horowitz as he stepped in, that he “gently ushered” him away from his mother and that he did what anyone would do to someone “threatening” his or her ailing mother.

Horowitz, a psychologist who is supporting Pete Gleason, says Gerson just snapped. He said he never shook his fi nger at Sophie, although he does regret some of the harsh things he told her about her son.

Two witnesses with strong loyalties to Gleason, who beat Gerson for the D.I.D. endorsement, said they saw Gerson take more aggressive action — one said the councilmember grabbed and shoved Horowitz about 7 feet, the other said it was more like a pushing — but neither would speak for attribution.

Another witness who is a Gleason supporter, Adam Silvera, said he was right there and although each person invaded the other’s personal space, he did not notice much if any contact. But Silvera also does not recall the phone throw, which every other witness remembers clearly.

Go fi gure.

ISLAND THINK TANK?Councilmember Alan Gerson tells us he is working with

the New York Academy of Sciences on its goal of opening a non-biotech science center somewhere near its home in Lower Manhattan, perhaps on Governors Island. Gerson says the city’s Economic Development Corp. is also on board and the center is likely to be a think tank.

SAFIR REFLECTSUnderCover caught up with former police and fi re commis-

sioner Howard Safi r at a fundraiser for the New York City Police Museum, where his wife Carol Safi r is president of the board.

Safi r is keeping busy as C.E.O. of the security company he founded, called Safi rRosetti.

“Nothing can be as stressful as being police commissioner,” said Safi r, who held that job under Rudy Giuliani from 1996 to 2000 and before that was fi re commissioner for two years.

Safi r added that the job has gotten even tougher for cur-rent police commissioner Ray Kelly. Kelly has 5,000 fewer offi cers than Safi r had, while Kelly also has to worry about fi ghting terror post-9/11.

“That makes it a lot harder to fi ght crime and protect the city,” Safi r said.

HERE TO STAY?Also in attendance at the Police Museum benefi t was

Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, the First Precinct’s com-manding offi cer, who received an award.

We’d been curious about how much longer Bologna was going to be leading the First Precinct, since the city has a habit of rotating commanding offi cers to different posts every couple of years, and Bologna’s been in Lower Manhattan since 2005.

“If you have to be someplace for four years, the First Precinct is the place to be,” Bologna said, smiling.

He said there was no way to know how long he’d stay at the First, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is trying to keep offi cers at their posts longer, Bologna said.

As for what Bologna would prefer, “You always look for new challenges,” Bologna said, “but as long as I’m here, I’m happy.”

downtown express June 12 - 18, 2009 3

BY JOSH ROGERSAssembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told

Downtown Express last week he was open to fi xed terms for the educational board overseeing the mayor’s management of the schools.

Albany is now debating legislation to renew the seven-year-old law giving the mayor control of the school system. Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have opposed fi xed terms on the Panel for Educational Policy because they say it will handcuff their ability to make changes, and would end the clear lines of accountability.

Silver said: “That’s a fake issue…. I don’t believe it matters.”

He said even under the old system, the mayor was still able to use “political machi-nations” to get what he wanted.

“When the mayor didn’t have control, he had control of the Board of Education,” Silver said. “Go ask [former Chancellor] Rudy Crew, go ask the borough presidents in Queens how many times they fi red their representatives on the board because they made a deal with the mayor….

“Nobody ever became chancellor unless the mayor wanted them, nobody ever stayed chancellor unless the mayor wanted them,”

the speaker said in a 30-minute interview with Downtown Express editors and report-ers June 5.

Silver is not yet backing fi xed terms for the P.E.P., but other Assembly and State Senate Democrats are in favor of it. The current law is set to expire at the end of the month.

Silver spoke before the senate’s upheaval on Monday, when two Democratic senators, Pedro Espada, Jr. and Hiram Monseratte, switched allegiances and appeared to put Republicans back in control. It appears the change increases the mayor’s chanc-es. Bloomberg has been a large campaign contributor to many Senate Republicans. Espada, the Senate’s apparent new president, and Republican Dean Skelos, the apparent new majority leader, said in an Albany radio interview Tuesday that they both supported renewing the law mostly intact.

“The essential core of mayoral control must be preserved,” Espada said.

Silver, a Democrat who has fi rm control of the Assembly, has said all along he favors “tweaking” the old law to let the mayor remain in charge, while giving parents a stronger voice and adding more transpar-ency over issues like school contracts.

City Hall has signaled a willingness to

negotiate on all of those issues with the exception of fi xed terms. Silver, who helped craft the original law with Bloomberg back in 2002, said he would relent on fi xed terms provided the mayor gave parents a stronger role in local school decisions and

made superintendents more accountable to parents.

“I’m willing to trade with the mayor on fi xed terms to get beef at the school level, at the district level,” Silver said.

He said he wants to “make sure you don’t have to stand on the steps of City Hall in order to make your thought as a parent heard about what’s wrong with your child’s education.”

The mayor currently has eight of the 13 appointees to the P.E.P. — the borough presidents have the others — and Silver said this gives the mayor insurance in case an appointee defi es City Hall.

“He doesn’t need all 8 — he needs seven,” Silver said. “I went through that issue with [Bloomberg] seven years ago.”

Some legislators, education advocates and Community Board 1 in Lower Manhattan have suggested going further by taking away most of the mayor’s power. Under this alter-native, an independent board would select the chancellor, and the mayor would only have a minority of appointees.

A spokesperson for the Dept. of Education, which succeeded the Board of Ed., declined to comment on Silver’s remarks.

[email protected]

and the Port should not be expected to take the risk of fi nancing offi ces on spec for a pri-vate developer. In place of Tower 2 and the neighboring Tower 3, the Port wants to build temporary six-story retail podiums.

No one is arguing for Tower 3 to be built immediately and Silverstein appears willing to accept a podium there, but he is still fi ghting for Tower 2.

On Friday, Silver allied himself closely with Silverstein by agreeing that now is the time to build Tower 2. Silver added that Gov. Jon Corzine and Gov. David Paterson are both being “cooperative” in the goal of building more towers now, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg has previously expressed support for building despite the economic downturn.

On Monday, three days after Silver’s comments appeared on DowntownExpress.com, The New York Times’ Web site reported that the city proposed to back-stop $100 million of the fi nancing to build Tower 2, which indicates Bloomberg’s support for the tower. However, the Times also reported that Corzine and Paterson are reluctant to make similar fi nancial commitments because of their already tight budgets.

Silver said Friday that an agreement would require all parties to make further investments.

“They’re trying to work through a con-clusion that has everybody put in a little

more: the Port Authority, the city, the state, and most important, Larry Silverstein,” Silver said. “And I hope to get there.”

The Port Authority has offered addi-tional help to Silverstein on Tower 2, but not as much as Silverstein wants, according to a rebuilding source who confi rmed to Downtown Express the fi nancial numbers in the Times article. The developer turned down a proposal in which the Port would help with the fi nancing if Silverstein put in an additional $370 million of his own money and $430 million of insurance money.

“We remain far apart on a second tower because of how much more public money is required to fund this speculative offi ce building,” Stephen Sigmund, a Port spokesperson, said in a statement. “Our position continues to be that the public’s resources are better spent on public proj-ects fi rst, not more private offi ce space.”

In a counterproposal to the Port Authority, Silverstein suggested that he take over much of the infrastructure work on the eastern side of the site, near his towers, including the demolition of the old temporary PATH station and the rebuilding of Greenwich St., another source involved in the rebuilding said. This source said Silverstein, who would charge develop-ment fees for the work, would still save the Port Authority money because private companies can move more quickly than government agencies.

The closed-door meetings about the Trade Center site began after an impasse between Silverstein and the Port Authority

over the tower fi nancing and delivery of key site infrastructure threatened to halt progress. Alarmed by that prospect, Silver called all the site stakeholders together, and they held their fi rst meeting May 21 at Gracie Mansion, at Bloomberg’s invitation. The meeting included Bloomberg, Silver, both governors, Larry Silverstein and Port Authority executive director Chris Ward.

There had been three major meetings with top stakeholders including Larry Silverstein since then, Silver said last week. Those three meetings were held quietly and out of the public eye, often at odd times of the day, Silver said. In addi-tion, Deputy Mayor Bob Lieber has been chairing daily meetings of lower-level staff representing all the parties, the second rebuilding source said.

The next publicly announced meeting of the principals will be June 11. Although the Port Authority and Silverstein disagree vehemently on the fi nancing for Tower 2, a few people involved said this week that the outlines of an agreement could still come by Thursday.

“We’re not there yet,” Silver said Friday. “It’s a matter of money, it’s a matter of commitment, it’s a matter of saving money, it’s a matter of refocusing so we can get a result.”

Bloomberg’s offi ce and Silverstein Properties declined to comment.

All the parties involved have been reluctant to talk after Bloomberg made it clear he wanted the negotiations to be entirely private.

“We’re all sworn to secrecy,” Silver told Downtown Express, explaining why he could not go into more detail.

But Silver did repeat his position that now is the time to build Towers 2 and 4, even though the economy is down.

“We’ll be in a different business cycle by 2014 or 2015,” Silver said. “And there are some people who think, there is no other development going on in the city, no other offi ce space. If you look at all the studies, everybody will tell you there’s going to be a need for expanded commercial space in New York City.”

Silver listed the other offi ce projects that are falling through, from Hudson Yards to Atlantic Yards, which will make the World Trade Center towers all the more important.

“New York, Downtown Manhattan, ground zero is going to be the place to go,” Silver said.

Silver said the rebuilt World Trade Center could follow the example of the original Twin Towers, which initially fi lled with government offi ces because there was little demand for commercial space.

Silver’s fi rst district offi ce was in room 5489 of 2 W.T.C., he recalled, and later he was moved down to the 26th fl oor as the real estate grew more valuable. Finally, he was moved out of the building altogether.

“Hopefully there will be a market for it,” Silver said of the new offi ce towers at the site, “and we can prepare for it.”

With reporting by Josh Rogers

Silver: Fixed terms on school panel is ‘fake issue’

W.T.C. talks focus on towers & dollarsContinued from page 1

Downtown Express photo by Patrick Hedlund

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver


Littlejohn convictedA Brooklyn jury of seven men and seven

women last week found Darryl Littlejohn guilty of fi rst degree murder for killing Imette St. Guillen, 24, a John Jay College student, after abducting her from a Soho bar on Feb. 25, 2006.

The June 3 verdict came after less than seven hours of deliberation at the end of a trial in which a young woman testifi ed about being kidnapped and molested by Littlejohn in Queens several months before the St. Guillen murder. Littlejohn, 44, is currently serving 25 years to life for the Queens kid-napping.

Lawyers for Littlejohn said last week they would appeal the St. Guillen murder convic-tion on the grounds that the Queens victim should not have been allowed to testify.

Littlejohn had been employed as a bounc-er at The Falls, 218 Lafayette St., where St. Guillen was last seen alive. Her bound and gagged body was found in the wetlands off the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn. DNA evidence was crucial in the conviction.

Daniel Dorrian, 36, manager of The Falls at the time of the incident, also testifi ed and acknowledged that he had failed to tell police that he had ordered Littlejohn to help St. Guillen out of the bar at closing time. The Falls went out of business shortly after the St. Guillen murder.

Dorrian’s family also owns Dorrian’s Red Hand on Second Ave. at E. 84th St., where Robert Chambers, convicted in the 1986 “Preppie Murder” case, met his victim. Littlejohn is scheduled to be sentenced July 8.

Gallery robbedTwo men entered Koh Art Gallery at

66 W. Broadway at Murray St. around 8:30 p.m. Thurs., June 4 and demanded money from the woman, 60, who owns the place with her husband. When the woman refused, the suspects tried to grab her hand-bag but her husband, 71, shoved the two intruders out and locked the door. The suspects returned sometime later, entered the gallery and pointed what appeared to be a gun on the man and knocked him to the fl oor. One of the suspects then grabbed the woman, took her handbag with $140, credit cards and ID, and fl ed with his accomplice, police said.

The receptionist at Koh said no one was available for comment Wednesday.

Teen girl suspectPolice are looking for a teenage girl in

connection with a May 13 purse snatch-ing on the Lower East Side that resulted in the victim’s falling to the sidewalk and suffering a head injury. The female victim, 47, was walking in front of 62 Hester St. between Ludlow and Orchard Sts. at 1:35 p.m. when the suspect, described as a Latina between 15 and 17 years old with brown hair, ran up behind her and grabbed her bag, knocking her to the ground, police said. The incident was classified a robbery because the victim was physically injured. Phone the N.Y.P.D. Crimestoppers line at 800:577-TIPS (8477) or submit informa-tion about the suspect on line at www.crimestoppers.com.

— Albert Amateau with Jared T. Miller

contributing reporting

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BY JULIE SHAPIRO There hasn’t been much good news about the World

Trade Center site lately, as delays, cost overruns and dis-putes continue to dominate the public face of the project.

But at site meetings led by the Port Authority, an execu-tive with Silverstein Properties said one project consistently lifts everyone’s spirits: Tower 4, which the developer is building in the southeast corner of the site.

“Everybody is more or less in awe of how fast it’s rising,” said Glenn Fidje, a construction executive with Silverstein.

The progress is still mostly invisible from street level, but that’s going to change soon. Structural steel will begin poking out of the ground in September, and the building’s concrete core will rise as well, Fidje said. Another tower crane will arrive around the end of the summer.

On a recent afternoon, scores of workers moved over Tower 4’s subgrade levels, erecting the steel rebar that strengthens concrete columns and preparing concrete molds for upcoming pours. Most of Tower 4 has risen to the B1 level, just below what will become the ground fl oor.

“You come out in the morning and you see something, and you come out in the afternoon and it’s different,” Fidje said as he looked out across the site. “It’s amazing.”

Fidje joined Silverstein Properties a year ago because he said he could not pass up an opportunity to work on the rebuilding of the World Trade Center.

“It’s the greatest development project in the world,” he said.

Designed by Fumihiko Maki, Tower 4 is scheduled to top out in the middle of 2011. The 64-story tower will contain retail on the fi rst fi ve fl oors and offi ce space above, totaling 2.3 million square feet of space. The Port Authority and the city are slated to occupy two-thirds of the offi ces, but Silverstein has not locked in an agreement with them.

Several other pieces of the Trade Center site are moving along rapidly as well, particularly in the memorial quad-rant, where steel framing the tower footprints has taken shape over the past six months. Across much of the memo-rial, that steel has risen nearly to street level.

The site of One W.T.C., the Freedom Tower, was busy as well, with workers below grade preparing forms for concrete pouring. Steel for the tower has risen to 105 feet above street level around one of the two tower cranes in the tower’s core.

But Tower 4 has made the most visible progress over the past several months, and Fidje credited that to the strong communication between Silverstein, contractor Tishman Construction Corp. and subcontractor Rogers & Sons Concrete. Rogers & Sons, a small family-owned fi rm based in Lagrangeville, N.Y. won the job over more established contractors, Fidje said.

“Every day you learn something different,” said William Sousa, a foreman with Rogers & Sons. He said Tower 4 is the biggest project the company has done, and he is seeing construction methods he never saw in his 20 years with Rogers & Sons.

At a typical high-rise, workers have a two-day concrete cycle, framing the forms one day and pouring the next. At Tower 4, the monumental fl oor slabs below grade require much more preparation. They are also stronger than the concrete in other buildings Rogers & Sons has done, as a security measure.

Sousa said it was important to him to be part of the rebuilding, and his 11-year-old daughter likes telling her classmates where her father works. While many people are skeptical about the World Trade Center construction, Sousa said the fi nal product would ultimately matter more than the process.

“In end, I think it’s going to be a nice job,” he said.

[email protected]

W.T.C. tower work continues despite impasse

Downtown Express photo by Josh Rogers

Workers building Tower 4 at the World Trade Center site, top and middle, and Tower 1, bottom.

Photo by Joe Woolhead

Photo by Joe Woolhead


BY JULIE SHAPIRO Two months have passed since Pam Chmiel was forced

to close Klatch, her popular Maiden Ln. coffee shop. She hasn’t slowed down since.

Chmiel spent the first several weeks trying to reopen her shop after her landlord evicted her for falling three months behind in the rent. Since it became clear that she would not be able to negotiate a lower rent and a deal to reopen, Chmiel has poured her energy into two summer projects: opening a small seasonal outpost of Klatch in Riverside Park on the Upper West Side and expanding her Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp.

“It might be a harsh reality in the fall,” Chmiel said, but for now she is keeping too busy to think about reopening Klatch elsewhere in Lower Manhattan. “My passion really is the Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp. I’m very excited about making this work this summer.”

The boot camp consolidates the months-long process of opening a business into just two weeks. That’s how long the group of 12 teenagers each session will have to plan and launch an espresso bar. They will likely be working out of a storefront on Chambers St., donated by Michael Garr & Co.

Chmiel, a Financial District resident, led her first teen boot camp last summer in South Street Seaport,

but between the closure of Klatch and the recession, she expects this summer’s boot camp to have a different tenor.

“It’ll definitely come up in conversation,” she said of her experience with Klatch.

This summer, Chmiel will put more focus on teaching the teens to develop a business plan. The 15- and 16-year-olds will work with an accountant to figure out startup costs and potential profits.

Chmiel will also teach the teens the lessons she learned from Klatch’s closure: Never ignore an eviction notice, don’t be afraid to charge the prices you need to charge and it’s up to you to protect yourself with a solid plan.

When Chmiel started Klatch in 2003, her experience was not so different from the one the teens will have in her program. She opened Klatch, her first business, only about 12 weeks after thinking up the idea of a neighbor-hood coffee shop just a few blocks from the World Trade Center site.

“I didn’t have a lot in place,” Chmiel said. “It took me a year to get a feel for it.”

This summer, Chmiel will run two sessions of the espresso shop boot camp in July, and in August she will launch a video production boot camp that will teach teens to make commercials for local businesses. Each two-week session costs $650.

For more information about the boot camps, visit teenentrepreneurbootcamp.org.

Klatch closed but business owner has life lessons for teens

L.M.D.C. expands its small business grant programBY JULIE SHAPIRO

Hundreds of Downtown businesses struggling with street closures will get a lifeline beginning Thursday when the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. plans to expand its $5 million small business grant program.

The number of eligible blocks will jump from about 70 to 205, and businesses on those blocks will be eligible for up to double the amount they could have received before the change.

For O’Hara’s Restaurant and Pub, that means the dif-ference between $11,000 and $22,000. O’Hara’s received an $11,000 grant from the L.M.D.C. last fall based on street closures outside the restaurant after the August 2007 fire at the Deutsche Bank building next door.

Now, rather than giving businesses like O’Hara’s $2.50 per square foot per month the street was closed due to public construction, the L.M.D.C. is upping the grant to $5 per square foot. The limit of $25,000 per business will remain the same. The L.M.D.C. is also expanding eligibil-ity to include not just shops on blocks closed by construc-tion, but also shops that are up to one block away from the closure. The changes take effect this week.

O’Hara’s and other businesses that have already received checks will automatically receive another check in the mail soon, if they deserve more money based on the new guidelines. All the new changes are retroactive to July 2007.

“That’s great, especially now,” said Michael Keane, owner of O’Hara’s, upon hearing the news. “It would take a little of the burden off of us, to have a couple [thousand dollars] in the bank so we’re not worried every week. It’s nice to have something for a rainy day.”

Ever since the fatal Deutsche Bank fire across the street, Keane’s restaurant has been covered in protective scaffolding, which he said makes it hard for customers to find the place. The recession has also hit him with a 10 to 15 percent drop in business since last year as the lunchtime crowd evaporated and fewer tourists visited the neighborhood, he said.

Keane plans to use the new grant money to replace a refrigerator and spruce up the restaurant with new chairs and stools.

The L.M.D.C. expanded its grant program this week after sustained pressure from Community Board 1, and especially from Ro Sheffe, chairperson of the board’s Financial District Committee. Sheffe was concerned that the L.M.D.C. had spent only about $1 million of the $5 million allocated to the program, and meanwhile shops that were not initially eligible were going out of busi-ness.

One of those was Klatch, a Maiden Ln. coffee shop that closed in April.

From the time the L.M.D.C. grant program started, Pam Chmiel, who owns Klatch, said she should have been eligible. Construction closed the block in front of her cof-fee shop for nearly two years, but it cleared up just before the L.M.D.C. program’s eligibility date of July 2007, which meant she could not apply. Klatch was still recov-ering from the construction when the recession slammed the business over the winter, and by spring Chmiel was evicted for being three months behind in her rent.

After the closure of Klatch, a popular neighborhood gathering place, Sheffe and elected officials pushed the L.M.D.C. to expand the grants to include more business-es. The L.M.D.C. complied, and based on the changes, Maiden Ln. businesses are now eligible because of the construction happening one block away on John St.

Chmiel was glad to hear the L.M.D.C. is expanding the program, though it is too late for Klatch and the nearby Mardi Gras Pizza, another business on the block that closed recently.

While Sheffe wishes the L.M.D.C. would give grants to Klatch and other closed businesses that would allow them to reopen, he said the changes to the program are just what Lower Manhattan needs.

“The L.M.D.C. was able to make major changes in 30 days, and that’s just amazing to me,” Sheffe said. “It’s wonderful to know an agency like this is so responsive.”

The grant program is slated to cover businesses below Canal St. through the end of 2010, assuming the $5 mil-lion lasts until then. If the money runs out, the L.M.D.C. could add another $2 million to the program, said Mike Murphy, L.M.D.C. spokesperson.

So far, about 75 businesses have received checks

through the program or will receive them soon, Murphy said. The L.M.D.C. will do outreach to small businesses on all of the newly eligible blocks.

The changes to the grant program will not help busi-nesses that have already received the maximum $25,000, like Stylz clothing store on Fulton St.

“We all need some kind of help,” said Dib Reda, who owns Stylz. “All this construction, it looks like it’s never going to finish.”

Next month will mark two years since water main work began on Fulton St., tearing up the asphalt and herding pedestrians onto narrowed sidewalks bounded with plywood. Reda put the initial $25,000 he received last year toward covering his rent. As for how much more money he would hope to get from the L.M.D.C., “There’s no answer for that,” he said.

Joel Kopel, manager of William Barthman Jewelers, also wishes the L.M.D.C. would expand the grant limit beyond $25,000. He expects to max out based on the L.M.D.C.’s changes to the program.

“The grants are a lifesaver,” Kopel said. “It’s like a finger in the dike, holding back the water from getting overwhelmed.”

Still, Kopel added, a $50,000 grant, perhaps spread over two years, would be even better.

“The $25,000 just goes up in smoke pretty quickly,” he said.

Kopel said it was not fair for smaller businesses with only two or three employees to get the same amount of money as larger stores like William Barthman.

Murphy, the L.M.D.C. spokesperson, said concerns of fairness are what led the L.M.D.C. to expand the pro-gram in the first place.

“Our goal is to give [the money] out to the maximum number of businesses,” Murphy said. “Everyone obvi-ously wants more money, but we want to make sure it gets to everyone.”

More information about the L.M.D.C.’s Small Firm Assistance Program, including a list of eligible blocks, will be available at renewnyc.com starting next week.

[email protected]

Pam Chmiel, left, at last year’s teen business “boot camp.”


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BY JULIE SHAPIROSmoky mishaps at the Deutsche Bank

building shut work down twice in the past week.

No one was injured in either of the two incidents, but both prompted Fire Dept. responses and the second exposed a weakness in the building’s safety mea-sures.

In the second incident, at around 4 a.m. Tuesday, workers on the site called the Fire Dept. after a battery-operated forklift outside the building started smoking, said Frank Dwyer, an F.D.N.Y. spokesperson. The forklift was mistakenly left on while it was charging, which caused it to over-heat, said Mike Murphy, spokesperson for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which owns the building.

Firefighters unplugged the forklift, and that would have been the end of it, but they discovered another problem: When workers tried to turn off the negative air pressure in the building, used to keep possible 9/11 contaminants inside, they found that the switch was not working correctly. Even after turning the system off, some negative air pressure remained on the first and second floors, Murphy said.

Negative air pressure contributed to the danger of the August 2007 fire at the Deutsche Bank building, which killed two firefighters. After that fire, the L.M.D.C. installed an external cutoff switch for the negative air pressure system, which could be used in emergencies to make the build-ing safer for firefighters to enter. That was the switch that malfunctioned early Tuesday morning.

The reason the switch did not work was that workers did not properly reset it after it was activated the week before, as part of another F.D.N.Y. response, Murphy said. The L.M.D.C. is now alter-ing the cutoff switch so that it auto-matically resets. The Dept. of Buildings allowed work to resume in the building Wednesday morning after testing the cut-off switch.

One week earlier, another cloud of smoke prompted a massive emergency response at the Deutsche Bank building.

This time, the smoke came from an overheated battery-operated motor on a scissor lift, which workers were using on the first floor to reach the double-height ceiling, said the F.D.N.Y. and L.M.D.C. A scissor lift is like a cherry picker for use indoors, without a vehicle attached.

Workers noticed the smoke at 6:20 p.m. June 3 and notified the fire com-mand chief on site, who called in 12 units to respond, said Jim Long, an F.D.N.Y. spokesperson. The alarm was briefly upgraded to a high-rise fire but Long said there were no flames and by the time firefighters arrived, the com-mander was already turning them away. The scissor lift was removed and no one was hurt.

The F.D.N.Y. initially said the smoke on June 3 was caused by a welding torch, but Murphy, the L.M.D.C.’s spokesperson, said workers were not using torches. The next day, F.D.N.Y.’s Long said the report of welding torches was “unfounded.”

Sparks from welding torches caused several small fires at the Deutsche Bank building in the spring and summer of 2007, before the fatal fire was sparked by a worker’s cigarette that August.

The Deutsche Bank building, damaged on 9/11, is being cleaned so it can be demolished. The building is now decon-taminated down through the fourth floor, and the second and third floors should be done by the beginning of next week. Under the project’s latest schedule, the building would be fully cleaned by the middle of July and demolished by the middle of next January.

As delays have slowed the project’s progress, the cost has ballooned. On Thurs., June 11, the L.M.D.C. is expected to ask its board to authorize another $20 million for the project, Murphy said Wednesday, confirming a report on The New York Observer’s Web site. The $20 million would go to Bovis Lend Lease, the project contractor, and would bring the total compensation Bovis has received to $173 million, Murphy said.

Murphy said the L.M.D.C. has until October to decide where the money will come from, and the L.M.D.C. will seek to use funds from Bovis, Deutsche Bank and the building’s prior insurers rather than using government money. The corpora-tion has received some money back under prior agreements and will be making fur-ther claims for reimbursed funds in the future, but it will also have to defend civil lawsuits connected to the fatal fire.

Murphy also confirmed that the L.M.D.C. estimates it will need to find an additional $30 to $35 million for the project before it is over.

[email protected]

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Trust looks for longer lease on Pier 40

lease requirement of the Trust’s request for proposals, or R.F.P., for the pier. Related insisted on a 49-year lease, and, as a result, was disqualifi ed by the Trust in March 2008. This second R.F.P. process was formally closed six months later, when the Trust rejected a lower-impact, commu-nity-friendly collaboration by the Pier 40 Partnership and Urban Dove/CampGroup, featuring two or three public high schools and possibly a new private high school. The Trust believed this last proposal’s fi nancials would not work.

Meanwhile, the pier, desperately in need of renovation, continues to deteriorate. And so, at last month’s Trust board of directors meeting, former State Sen. Franz Leichter proposed the board ask the Legislature to amend a law he co-wrote — the Hudson River Park Act — to allow a longer, 50-year lease on Pier 40. Taking many community members and park advocates by surprise, Leichter’s idea was not listed on the meet-ing’s agenda and was introduced as “new business.”

“We’re really handcuffed with that 30-year lease,” Leichter told his fellow board members. “I think we really need to lift that restriction, and more important, move ahead on Pier 40.”

Leichter said 160 parking spaces on the pier have been taken out of use because of the roof’s crumbling condition, and that unless something is done, more parking spaces will soon be lost — or worse.

“The piles are in bad shape,” he said of the metal supports on which the pier sits. “We may even have a situation where we have to close the pier.”

Leichter said prior to this week’s Albany shakeup that there is “a glimmer of hope” the park act could be amended this year to address Pier 40’s lease.

“I’ve been told by one of the more infl u-ential legislators that it would be helpful if we had an expression of support” for the lease extension, Leichter said, not naming the legislator.

Of those park piers that are slated for commercial uses — to generate revenue for the park — initially all had 30-year leases under the park act, as Leichter explained it. In order to qualify for historic preservation credits, the lease for Pier 57 — which has a unique, fl oating caisson support system — was extended several years ago to 49 years, he noted. An exception was also made for Chelsea Piers, which got a long-term lease before the Hudson River Park was even for-mally established.

Diana Taylor, the Trust’s chairperson, agreed a resolution requesting a longer lease on Pier 40 is needed — especially because the community has been a stumbling block.

“Pier 40 has been such a problem because there has been so much opposition by the community,” Taylor said. “We have to do something, and I think it’s a great idea,” she said.

Joe Rose was the only board member

who spoke up about discussing the idea with local park advocates fi rst to get an “appro-priate consensus.”

“If the [Hudson River Park] Advisory Council has a concern about [extending] the lease, let’s hear their reason why,” Rose urged.

However, Taylor said no consultation with the community or any consensus was needed before the Trust voted.

“There will be opposition — this is New York City,” she stated. However, she added, “I agree we should work with the other groups, and maybe get a letter from them, too.”

Taylor said she would authorize the Trust’s staff to draft a letter to legislators seeking the 50-year lease and also direct the staff to work with the Friends of Hudson River Park — the park’s chief advocacy group — “to bring them along.”

However, Rose said, he understood the park’s advisory council was supposed to give its assent to these sort of changes.

Leichter disagreed, saying, “I certainly don’t like the idea that action taken by this board requires the approval of the advisory council.”

In the end, the resolution passed unani-mously.

“Thank you, senator,” Taylor told Leichter after the vote.

Arthur Schwartz, chairperson of both the park’s advisory council and Community Board 2’s Waterfront Committee, later said, “The fact that the Trust board passed a reso-lution without fi rst talking to the advisory council and the community boards and the elected offi cials in the neighborhood is both arrogant and poor politics. If there was ever a sure way of making sure there was opposi-tion, this was the way to do it. People in the neighborhood haven’t approved a 49-year

lease on principle — it really depends on the use.”

Schwartz said he and other park advocates were previously in favor of a 49-year lease for Pier 40 when the Pier 40 Partnership/CampGroup plan included the School Construction Authority building schools and supporting community uses on the pier.

Schwartz said he spoke with Leicther at the Friends of Hudson River Park’s benefi t the night before the Trust’s board meeting and told him the community would support a longer lease for those types of uses, but not for big commercial development.

Schwartz noted he was told by a Trust offi cial that the pier is now losing $600,000 a year because so many parking spaces have been taken off line because of the decaying roof.

“I think there’s almost a conscious resolu-tion on the part of the Trust to let the pier deteriorate to justify a longer lease,” he offered.

It’s unclear whether the lease extension would be passed in Albany. The pier is in Assemblymember Deborah Glick’s district, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told Downtown Express he would defer to her on it.

“I don’t know what Deborah’s view is on it yet. She hasn’t told me,” Silver said. “But it’s in her district — and the [assembly]member] is closer to it.”

Silver said that “maybe there’s a com-promise” that could be included in a new Pier 40 R.F.P. process, but didn’t mention specifi cs.

Silver said there’s no chance the amend-ment would be “sneaked in” before the session’s end this month, as some park advocates fear.

“We never sneak anything in,” Silver stressed. “Any bill goes before the substan-

tive committee.”Glick said her offi ce had been getting “a

lot of calls” after the Trust’s board meeting. The callers expressed concern about a Pier 40 lease extension, and were saying, “Don’t do anything that opens the door to Related,” she said.

Glick emphasized that lengthening the lease was Leichter’s idea, not hers.

Glick, too, spoke to Leichter prior to the board meeting, and said he told her the Trust might possibly need to put some addi-tional restrictions on Pier 40’s use along with extending the lease.

Meanwhile, Glick said, she told Leichter that “a lease extension doesn’t address an emergency.”

“The real question is how do we get the roof fi xed to preserve revenue for the pier?” Glick said in a phone interview. “Over 40 percent of the park’s operating budget is generated by Pier 40. Forget the pier’s devel-opment for a minute — it is an immediate, emergency safety issue and affects the park’s revenue stream.”

Plus, Glick added, in the current econo-my, many development projects are on hold.

Glick last year expressed qualifi ed sup-port for a longer Pier 40 lease, such as for a school, but defi nitely not to enable mega-development of the pier.

Last week she said, “Longer lease terms are not necessarily my fi rst choice, in gen-eral.”

Asked if she thought an amendment to the park act could conceivably be slipped through by the end of session, Glick said, “I’ve been here long enough to know that anything could happen. ... Sometimes things happen quickly. ... This is the sort of thing that’s a little more complicated because of its long history and the general care that was taken with the legislation.”

Downtown Express fi le photo by Jefferson Siegel

Pier 40

Continued from page 1


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BY ALBERT AMATEAU Robert J. Healy, whose knowledge of

political lore and gift for gab were legendary in Democratic Party circles in Manhattan and beyond, died on Sat., May 30, at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx at 67.

Born and raised on W. 15th St. to a longshoreman’s family, he lived for several years with his mother in the Robert Fulton Houses in Chelsea and for the last 10 years in St. Margaret’s House, a senior residence on Fulton St.

“He was a political maven and raconteur, extraordinnare,” said Alan Flacks, a politi-cal blogger and member of the Three Parks Democratic Club on the Upper West Side. “If you wanted to know who were the candidates in the Democratic primary in the Fifth Civil Court District in Kings County in 1990-some-thing, he could tell you,” Flacks said.

“Anywhere I went — to a Democratic Party dinner or event — I’d see him, even in Queens, he was there,” said Carlos Manzano, a former president of the McManus Midtown Democrats and candidate for City Council in 1999 and for Manhattan Borough president in 2005.

“I don’t remember a conversation with him that wasn’t delightful,” said Assemblymember Richard Gottfried. “He was something of an iconoclast and he had very smart observations about politics and policy that made a lot of sense.”

Robert Healy was a member of several Democratic political clubs. Louise Dankberg,

president of the Tilden Midtown Democrats on E. 19th St., recalled that Healy was a dili-gent member of the Tilden club’s executive committee. “He came to all our events and knew everything and everyone, especially in judicial politics,” she said.

He was also a dues-paying member of the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club, accord-ing to Doris Corrigan, State Democratic Committee member. “I think he fi rst belonged to the Horatio Seymour Club,” she said, referring to the Tammany club in Chelsea that dissolved in the 1960s.

Jim McManus, whose grandfather founded the club of the same name, said Healy kept up with the ins and outs of Democratic politics and generously shared his knowledge.

Sean Sweeney, president of Downtown Independent Democrats, said that in a recent conversation, Healy told him he had a few Caribbean governments as lobby clients. Other friends said he was a lobbyist for healthcare industry clients, and no one was sure if he had a law degree.

“Everybody knew Bob, but nobody really knew him,” was the comment common among his friends.

Healy had been in poor health since last December when he was found in his room at the St. Margaret’s residence after having fallen and struck his head. He had been hos-pitalized since then and was later discovered to have a brain tumor.

A sister, Katherine Kearney of Garnerville, N.Y., survives, in addition to fi ve nieces and nephews and 10 grandnieces and grand-nephews. Redden’s Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Robert Healy, 67, font of local political history, dies

Speaker Sheldon Silver Recognizes Downtown Little League Players and Supporters

`

It was great to join so many friends at the Battery Park

City ballfields and see our Downtown Little Leaguers in action.

I also had the pleasure of congratulating a number of players

and supporters who were the recipients of league awards.

I celebrate all the players, coaches, and families as they

wrap up another successful season. I will continue to work

with you to make sure that our Lower Manhattan community

has the safest and most durable playing fields available.

For more information, please call Speaker Sheldon Silver’s Office at 212-312-1420

212-732-5959 212-941-9163

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BY ALBERT AMATEAUBridgetta Sweeney, the mother of Sean

Sweeney, executive director of the Soho Alliance and a member of Community Board 2, died June 1 of complications of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 91.

She was born Dec. 19, 1917, in a sec-tion of Glasgow, Scotland, known as Little Ireland, the daughter of Irish immigrants to Scotland. Known as Jetta, she came with her husband, Daniel, and their 3-year-old son, Sean, to the U.S. in 1950, settling in Brooklyn. In 1977, she and her husband returned to Glasgow. A staunch partisan of the Irish Republican cause, she dem-onstrated in protests during the 1980s against British treatment of imprisoned I.R.A. hunger strikers.

Her husband died of cancer in 1993, and in 1995 she returned to New York to be near her son. She lived in a studio in Tribeca at fi rst, then went to a nursing home as her Alzheimer’s condition pro-gressed, and later moved in with her son in Soho as the disease worsened.

Nevertheless, she had good days, and as a member of the Downtown Independent Democrats club, of which Sean is president, volunteered in the political campaigns of Kathryn Freed and C. Virginia Fields.

Her funeral Mass was Sat., June 6, at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, 263 Mulberry St.

Bridgetta Sweeney, 91

OBITUARIES

Downtown Express fi le photo

Bridgetta Sweeney and Sean Sweeney sharing a laugh in 2000.

www.DOWNTOWNESPRESS.com


BY SAM SCHWARTZ

Dear Transit Sam,There is often severe traffic congestion

on William St. where South William St., Hanover Square and Beaver St. feed into it. The situation is exacerbated by events held at Cipriani’s on Wall St., construc-tion and deliveries on William St. near Exchange Pl., among other reasons. I have contacted the local precinct and 311 at various times, but have not noticed an improvement. What else can be done to relieve the congestion, and in turn, relieve the situation of idling cars and noise pol-lution (honking horns) that result?

Eileen, Financial District

Dear Eileen,I’ve reached out to the N.Y.P.D. and

Dept. of Transportation and they say they’ll increase enforcement of both noise and idling ordinances. But, Eileen, this area is beset with a myriad traffic bottle-necks. The extra security for the New York Stock Exchange leads to checkpoints in the area bounded by Pine St. to the north, William St. to the east, Beaver

St. to the south and Broadway to the west. In addition, there are several construction jobs in the area impeding traffic flow. The good news is that construction on Wall St. between Nassau and William Sts. should wrap up by summer’s end followed by completion of work on Maiden Lane/Liberty St. by the end of the year. But, in Lower Manhattan it seems the work never stops.

Transit Sam

Dear Transit Sam,I need to access the World Financial

Center and I’ve been hearing that Vesey St. in the area is being converted to a one-way street. How does this affect me? What’s the reason for the closure and how long will it last?

Will, Financial District

Dear Will,Vesey St. between North End Ave. and

West St. was made one way eastbound (towards West St.) on Monday. This means you can’t make a right onto Vesey

St. from West St. southbound. You’ll have to use Murray St. to North End Ave. to access the block. The reason for the change is to facilitate the construc-tion of new sidewalks and portions of roadway in anticipation of the opening of Goldman Sachs. I’m told the street will be returned to two-way operation no later than February 2010.

For bus riders, the M.T.A. and Downtown Connection stops on the south side of Vesey St. have been located closer to North End Ave. with the Chambers St. bound Downtown Connection bus being

re-routed to Murray St.

Transit Sam

Sam Schwartz, a former fi rst deputy com-missioner of city transportation, is president and C.E.O. of Sam Schwartz Engineering, a traffi c engineering consulting fi rm to pri-vate and public entities including the Port Authority at the World Trade Center site. Have a question or concern for Transit Sam? Email [email protected] for all your transportation needs.

Transit SamThe Answer man

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“Defi nitely she said they would reconsider it, review it,” Yu said of Sadik-Khan.

Yu is one of many Chinatown lead-ers who oppose the city’s proposal for the complicated seven-way intersection. The city wants to realign the streets that feed Chatham Square, connecting East Broadway to Worth St. and the Bowery to St. James Place. The plan would cut Park Row out of the intersection, essentially making perma-nent the post-9/11 decision to close part of the street to protect One Police Plaza.

Chinatown advocates spoke out against the city’s plan immediately when the city began pushing it late last year. The advo-cates were concerned that the city’s traf-fi c and pedestrian improvements would be outweighed by the negative impact of the three-year construction on local businesses. When the city decided to move ahead with the reconfi guration anyway, residents and business owners banded together, holding rallies and gathering petition signatures.

“I guess D.O.T. got the message,” Yu said.

This week, the city acknowledged the delay in the project, but denied that anything beside the schedule had changed.

“The project is not suspended or shelved,” said Scott Gastel, D.O.T. spokesperson. “We are working on some timing and coordination issues,” he added in an e-mailed statement.

Gastel would not say when construction contracts would go out to bid or when work would begin.

The city previously said it was essential for construction to begin this summer, so that the intersection would be able to handle an increased fl ow of cars during Brooklyn Bridge work starting next year. Gastel would not say how the Chatham Square delay would impact the bridge work.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said in a statement that the reason D.O.T. is delaying the start of Chatham Square work is to coordinate it with the Brooklyn Bridge rehabilitation.

“I am pleased that the city has fi nally heeded our call to slow down this project,” Silver said in the statement. “Undertaking any major construction project in this area at this time would have a devastating effect on dozens of small businesses who are strug-gling during these diffi cult economic times.”

Since the bulldozers won’t be arriv-ing in Chatham Square anytime soon, Councilmember Alan Gerson said the com-munity now has time to work with D.O.T. on a plan that makes everyone happy.

“It’s a wonderful victory for the com-munity,” said Gerson, who protested the Chatham Square plan last month with Comptroller Bill Thompson. “This gives us a chance to regroup.”

Jan Lee, a Chinatown activist and owner of an antiques store, also was glad the project is on hold, but said it’s important to remain vigilant. Lee heard from a city offi cial that D.O.T. is only delaying the project to avoid widespread protests during election season.

If Mayor Mike Bloomberg gets re-elected in November, “this project starts the day after,” Lee said, based on what the city offi -

cial told him.Lee hopes the delay will give the Civic

Center Residents Coalition time to build support for their alternate plan, which would leave the intersection largely as is, reducing the project’s scope, cost and duration. The plan, endorsed by Community Board 3, would add a new one-lane road directly con-necting St. James Place to East Broadway but would leave Park Row in its central position, in the hope that it will one day reopen.

In a seven-page letter to C.B. 3 last month, Luis Sanchez, D.O.T.’s Lower Manhattan borough commissioner, said the community alternative plan would provide some relief to the traffi c that snarls the intersection, but wouldn’t work as well as the city’s plan. Sanchez also said the city’s plan improves pedestrian safety and expands plaza space, while the community’s plan doesn’t.

C.B. 3’s Chatham Square Task Force, which relied on the expertise of traffi c consultant Brian Ketcham, also recommended that the city add a second eastbound lane to Worth St.

In his May 1 letter, Sanchez agreed that widening Worth St. would improve traffi c fl ow, and he said the city’s original plan included that. The city also wanted to add a third southbound lane to Bowery.

But the problem is that widening the streets would cut into park space that has both state and city protections, Sanchez wrote. In late 2007, D.O.T. asked elected offi cials if they would support removing some park space for traffi c improvements, and they did not support it, Sanchez said.

Now, redesigning the intersection would require another fi ve to seven months of

work, Sanchez wrote. “It is simply too late to consider such a

fundamental change to the design,” he wrote, although his letter was written over a month before the city delayed the project indefi nitely.

Gerson said Chatham Square’s current work delay gives the city more than enough time to get approval to remove a small amount of park space and redesign the inter-section. Gerson supports demapping the park areas — which are basically concrete-topped plaza spaces — and he expects that it would take no more than a few months to do so, especially since the city is adding more park space in the design.

Silver, who has a large say on whether the park space is demapped, has not seen any specifi c proposals and has not taken a position, said Caryn Adams, Silver’s spokes-person. In general, D.O.T. should work with the community to reach a consensus for Chatham Square, Silver said in a statement.

Some Chinatown residents would prefer to leave the intersection as is.

Steven Wong, chairperson of the Lin Zexu Foundation, is concerned the construc-tion will hurt his Chatham Square transla-tion business, and he does not want the work to disrupt the central plaza that features a statue of Lin Zexu, a 19th-century Chinese scholar and offi cial.

Before any work starts, Wong wants to see a detailed study of how the plan will improve pedestrian safety, so people “can walk across the street without fear of getting run over by cars,” Wong said.

[email protected]

Which egg came fi rst, the cream or roll?The Museum at Eldridge Street’s Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival Sunday afternoon used food and the arts to trace the story of the Lower East Side from past to present. The free block party featured both ethnic delicacies — the egg creams ran out fi rst — and also included Klezmer music, Chinese opera, yarmulke decorating and Yiddish and Chinese lessons. The warm weather drew a large crowd to the block in front of the restored 1887 Eldridge Street Synagogue.

City halts Chatham Sq. traffi c plan for now Continued from page 1

Downtown Express photos by Milo Hess


Downtown Express photos by Jefferson Siegel

St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral was fi lled to capacity on Sunday for a celebratory Mass by Archbishop Timothy Dolan, above.

BY LINCOLN ANDERSONArchbishop Timothy Dolan led Mass at St. Patrick’s Old

Cathedral on Mott St. on Sunday, kicking off a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the historic house of worship.

The cathedral’s cornerstone was laid in 1809, and it took six years to complete the structure, which is why the bicenten-nial recognition will last, not one, but six years. The church served as the New York Catholic Diocese’s fi rst cathedral until the new St. Patrick’s at 50th St. and Fifth Ave. was completed in 1879. In the early 1800s, Old St. Patrick’s congregation was mainly Irish, but also French, German and some Spanish. Today the cathedral is in what’s now known as Nolita, and the Masses are held in Chinese, Spanish and English.

The cathedral was packed to capacity last Sunday as Dolan, New York’s newly appointed archbishop, entered to a swell of applause, waving to his left and right, and passing under the drawn swords of the Knights of Columbus.

In his remarks, Dolan said he had been honored to visit the crypt beneath the cathedral that morning, where his early prede-cessor archbishops lay entombed.

Dolan summed up the cathedral’s history as “two hundred years of love, service, family, solidarity and community.” But he added, “We can never allow the church we love just to become a museum, or just to become a memory. We are alive.”

Dolan said he was so proud of the old cathedral that he would ask Pope Benedict to elevate it to a basilica, sparking applause from the congregation.

“I just think it deserves it,” he said, citing “endurance” and “faith.” Mentioning the early cathedral community’s “tenac-ity,” he recalled how the Ancient Order of Hibernians had defended the church in the face of anti-Catholic mobs who sought to burn it down.

Remarks were also given by the church’s other religious lead-ers in both Chinese and Spanish. The church’s current pastor is Monsignor Donald Sakano.

Afterward, Dolan exited out through the front door, again to heartfelt applause.

Sister Kathleen Marie Aucoin, a member of the Sisters of Charity — the religious order that used to run an orphanage

at what is now Old St. Patrick’s School — was visibly moved, a tear streak under her eye.

“This is home,” Aucoin said. “This is our cradle.”Among the prominent offi cials attending the Mass was Police

Commissioner Ray Kelly.“It was an awe-inspiring event,” Kelly said afterward. “The

church is beautiful, I hadn’t been to it for a few years and it just sort of hit me again what a beautiful church it is.”

A group of three women in their 70s and 80s who grew up together on Mott St. — Millie Scarpulla, Jean Licari and Fonsina Pumilia — came back for the event, in one case traveling two hours. They recalled going down into the crypt as kids and bap-tisms and marriages in the cathedral.

Asked later about the fate of another Downtown Catholic church, Our Lady of Vilna on Broome St. in Soho, Dolan told Downtown Express he was sure his predecessor, Cardinal Edward Egan, made the right decisions. More than two years ago, the archdiocese closed Our Lady of Vilna, citing its dam-aged roof and a dwindling congregation. But the church’s former members and its supporters in the city’s Lithuanian community contend it is repairable and that it still had a healthy-sized congregation. They fi led a lawsuit against the archdiocese last year to reopen the church.

“After eight weeks, I’m hardly versed in all the particulars,” Dolan replied when asked about Our Lady of Vilna. “At a cur-sory glance, I would say that the decisions that Cardinal Egan reached were very sane.”

Told that Our Lady of Vilna’s supporters want to meet with him, hoping he’ll be more sympathetic than Egan, Dolan responded, “I’m always happy to meet with everybody, but if it’s to change the decision Cardinal Egan made, it might not be that productive.”

The celebratory Mass was followed by a parade up Mott St. that included everything from Civil War re-enactors representing New York’s Fighting 69th regiment to fl oats sponsored by Little Italy restaurants with smooth-crooning singers. Old St. Patrick’s School’s fl oat, designed by Macy’s, featured students sitting at antique desks. On a fl oat bringing up the rear was a 10-foot-high scale model of the star of the hour — Old St. Pat’s.

Dolan celebrates ‘200 years of love’ at Old St. Pat’s


EDITORIALPUBLISHER & EDITOR

John W. Sutter

ASSOCIATE EDITORJosh Rogers

ARTS EDITORScott Stiffl er

REPORTERSAlbert Amateau

Lincoln AndersonPatrick HedlundJulie Shapiro

SR. V.P. OF SALES AND MARKETING

Francesco Regini

SR. MARKETING CONSULTANTJason Sherwood

ADVERTISING SALESAllison GreakerDale KanzlerJason Sparks

RETAIL AD MANAGERColin Gregory

OFFICE MANAGERDavid Jaffe

ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTORTroy Masters

ART DIRECTORMark Hasselberger

GRAPHIC DESIGNERJamie Paakkonen

DISTRIBUTION & CIRCULATIONCheryl Williamson

CONTRIBUTORSFrank R. Angelino Wickham Boyle

Tim LavinDavid StankeJerry Tallmer

PHOTOGRAPHERSLorenzo Ciniglio

Milo HessCorky Lee

Elisabeth RobertJefferson Siegel

Published by COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC

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Fax: (212) 229-2790On-line: www.downtownexpress.comE-mail: [email protected]

Downtown Express is published every week by Community Media LLC, 145 Sixth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10013 (212) 229-1890. The entire contents of the newspaper, including advertising, are copyrighted and no part may be reproduced without the express permission of the publisher - © 2009 Community Media LLC.

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

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Continued on page 17© 2009 Community Media, LLC

Process at Pier 40Over the years we’ve repeatedly called for the Hudson

River Park Trust to work more closely with the commu-nity, no more so than on the intractable, yet critical, issue of Pier 40.

The enormous, 800-foot-by-800-foot, three-level, former shipping pier on the Hudson at W. Houston St. has been the subject of two failed redevelopment attempts within the past half decade alone. Meanwhile, Pier 40 needs immediate repairs — millions of dollars worth of them — for its cor-roded metal support piles and deteriorating roof.

One hundred and sixty parking spaces — nearly a tenth of the pier’s total — are now unusable because of the pier’s continued decay and its rotting roof. As a result, about one-tenth of the revenue the pier produces for the park has also been lost, which is a serious concern since Pier 40 produces 40 percent of the park’s revenue.

Last year, the second failed Pier 40 request-for-proposals process saw The Related Companies unable to make its plan’s fi nancials work within the R.F.P.’s requirement for a 30-year lease. Dubbed “Las Vegas on the Hudson,” Related’s plan would have included a Cirque du Soleil and movie theaters and venues for the Tribeca Film Festival, drawing 2 million to 3 million visitors per year to the pier, changing the character of both the park and surrounding neighborhoods.

Diana Taylor, chairperson of the Trust’s board of direc-tors, and other Trust board of directors, including the cur-rent and former Parks commissioners, Adrian Benepe and Henry Stern, clearly favored the Related scheme, feeling it was the only fi nancially viable plan and that, well, a circus and glitzy entertainment uses were appropriate for Hudson River Park at Pier 40. But because the plan didn’t work fi nancially within the 30-year lease term, it was eliminated from the running.

The Trust then gave the Pier 40 Partnership, a com-munity-based group, and the Urban Dove/Camp Group team several months to collaborate on a joint proposal that included the novel idea of schools on the pier, along with sports uses, while retaining the pier’s central court-yard sports fi eld space as sacrosanct.

This plan seemed to us like the perfect solution for the pier. But as the economy started to cloud, the Trust pulled the plug on the R.F.P. process, claiming this last plan wouldn’t work. As she announced the R.F.P. was closed, again, Taylor said the Trust would probably have to request a longer lease.

At the Trust’s May 28 board meeting, urged on by former state Senator Franz Leichter, the Trust unanimously resolved to seek a change to the state Hudson River Park Act to allow a longer, 50-year lease.

While a 49- or 50-year lease at Pier 40 is O.K., it must only be for the right use — not, for example, to enable a mega-entertainment complex like Related’s plan. In short, the Trust must work with local elected offi cials, park advo-cates, Community Board 2 and other stakeholders to craft an R.F.P. with terms acceptable to the community. The two main requirements should be to retain the courtyard fi eld and pro-vide space for public schools. An R.F.P. that stipulates keep-ing the fi eld should deter another Cirque du Soleil proposal.

If our local elected offi cials feel the community is onboard with a new Pier 40 R.F.P. — that the Trust has tailored the R.F.P. to satisfy the community — then surely they will support a lease extension. The Trust probably would have gotten an extension for the Partnership plan had it tried. The lease’s length isn’t the issue: The use is the issue.

Let’s not put the cart (the lease extension) before the horse (crafting an appropriate R.F.P. that results in an appropriate use).

Changing the park act fi rst, without the community’s sup-port and approval, will just lead to more delays and greater costs, only putting Pier 40 at even greater risk.

LETTERS TO THE EDITORMayor & schools

To The Editor:Re “Keep mayoral control, but with

modifi cations” (editorial, June 5 - 11): As a parent and parent coordinator for

Washington Irving H.S., I am happy to see that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been so supportive on renewing mayoral control of our public education system. It is important that we continue to see the progress we have seen over the past six years. Without mayoral control of the Panel on Education Policy, which Silver has strongly supported, there would not be the accountability that has made such progress possible.

Harlingtton Ariza

To The Editor: The Downtown Express deserves an A+

for its recent editorial, “Keep mayoral con-trol, but with modifi cations.” Mayoral control enables us to vote for, or against Bloomberg based on his performance in regards to public schools. Reverting to a diffuse system with multiple layers of management, and account-ability, means we can’t ever hold any single entity responsible. We should encourage our lawmakers to extend mayoral control, and then use our vote to express our opinions.

Neeta Vallab

A leader’s message

To The Editor:Pete Gleason’s win over Alan Gerson

for the endorsement of the Downtown Independent Democrats was rightly her-alded as a major upset (news article, June 5 – 11, “Gerson loses Downtown club’s endorsement vote”). Lost amid the head-lines, however, was a small win of my own that I want to highlight.

I’ve never been one to care about the spotlight, and spent no time in the press touting my two terms as district leader, even though I was challenged within my club this year. So when 124 D.I.D. members came out to vote June 2, and 89 cast their vote for me to continue as their district leader for the 66th Assembly District, Part B, (a 3 to 1 victory over my opponent, Noel Jefferson) I was overwhelmed by such support.

Such across the board belief in me means a great deal to me, as years of hard work put into my leadership obviously didn’t go unnoticed.

I also want to thank State Senator Daniel Squadron, State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer -- who called me “my eyes and ears in Lower Manhattan” -- for their endorsements. I am humbled to have them at my side.

We have done and will continue to do great things for Lower Manhattan.

Jean Bergantini GrilloDistrict Leader, 66th Assembly District/Part B

The ‘true majority’

To The Editor: Re “Privatizers romp at Southbridge”

(news article, May 15 – 21):The intent to maintain Southbridge

Towers in the Mitchell-Lama program didn’t gain and didn’t lose in this last “election.” Of course the same can be said of those who wish to exit from the Mitchell-Lama pro-gram. Neither did they gain or lose…in fact we might inform Downtown Express that only 39 percent of the community voted for the Southbridge Rights slate. Sixty-seven percent would be needed for a privatiza-tion vote. Where is the romp for privatiza-tion? Such misleading declarations by the Downtown Express display a superfi cial analysis. At the very least, 300 voted to keep S.B.T. affordable for the middle class, the true majority in this city and this country.

What seems overlooked intentionally by the privatizers is the rampant, brazen practice of the sub-letters who rent out their apart-ments at market rate prices and keep this illegitimate money. What is the president of our board, Wally Dimson, doing about this? I have not heard. What is the Dept. of Housing and Community Renewal doing about this? I have not heard. What are the pols, Gerson, Silver, Stringer, doing about this? I have not heard. Their silence is deafening.

The noise heard here is that “the majority has spoken.”

I would like to issue a warning to that majority. It doesn’t take long to become impoverished. It’s harebrained to believe that it cannot happen to any of us. The 300 losers in the election voted to keep a roof over our heads that we can pay for and not be in fear every month of the rent bill and maintenance fees.

Losing Victor Papa in this election is a loss for all fair-minded people with a sense of good judgment as applied to long-sighted thoughtfulness.

Geraldine Lipschutz

“Silver hints W.T.C. consensus is to build more towers” (news article, posted June 5):

Finally a solution to this mess is in sight. Bravo to Silver and the Mayor for pushing this forward. It’s been 8 long years and we have waited long enough. Of course we need to build these buildings now - by the time they open, the economy will be back and NY will once again be the capital of the world. Typical for the Port Authority to refuse to budge - what is the matter with these people? Haven’t they screwed up the WTC enough already?

Dr. Remick

Pathetic. Rebuild the Twin Towers.

Travis

POSTED TO DOWNTOWNEXPRESS.COM


TALKING POINTA W.T.C. solution: Forget about money & cry for the cameras BY DAVE STANKE

This is your last chance. Take action now, or your chance at history will vanish in a cloud of construction dust. The political stars have aligned in your favor. The path to suc-cess is well worn. And I am personally available to advise you on the path to World Trade Center immortality . . . for a nominal fee, although the money is not important.

Almost every piece of the original W.T.C. complex is gone as construction progresses across the site. But the less there is, the more it’s worth. One patch of original plaza still remains where Tower 2 is planned, on the northeast corner of the site. It must be saved. If you’re smart and quick, it will be saved in your name.

The timing is perfect. The Port Authority and Silverstein Properties are locked in a battle over what to build and how to fund it. The Port wants to stick it to Silverstein. What better cause for derailing a building than preserving history? No matter how extravagant and expensive, the Port cannot say no. Now, they don’t even want to!

The governor badly needs victories before his election campaign. The fi nancial and logistical mess at the W.T.C. is so extreme that no real victory is possible. If you don’t have billions to accomplish something real, spend hundreds of millions on a Pyrrhic victory. Taxpayer money is cheap and return on investment is just crass.

The last artifact is the actual surface of the plaza. It was used by workers, tourists, and residents whenever they set foot on W.T.C. property. Anyone could claim it as their per-sonal artifact, a symbolic tour de force awaiting defi nition.

The path to success is well defi ned. I’ve watched it executed to perfection many times. I’ve fought it and lost. Executed properly, your success is as certain as death and the taxes that will pay for it.

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version. First, develop a deep emotional attachment to the W.T.C., which has now left a hole in your life from which you will never recover. Link your pain to the artifact. Prepare to share your pain . . . with tears on demand.

The press needs victims to feed the self-righteous indig-nation of its readers. Use the press. They don’t ask tough questions. No sane columnist will risk insensitivity on 9/11 issues. The press will be your unfi ltered megaphone straight into the ears of pandering politicians.

Soon, you’ll do regular interviews (expertise unimport-ant), hold rallies (minimal attendance required), send out press releases (facts optional), and write op-eds (opinion is cheap). The P.A. will feign reluctance to pay big bucks, but will bury the cost in their huge capital budgets. You will have a commuter-funded artifact with no meaning whatsoever to anyone but you. Start foundations, raise funds and bring your kids, your grand kids, and your support groups on spiritual pilgrimages to the W.T.C.

The preservationist lobby will level brownstones to get behind you. They crave high profi le causes that stop growth and cost other people money. Subverting W.T.C. redevelop-ment has been their most dedicated and successful efforts. It is their Super Bowl. By now, they are aching to relive the glory days of their obstructionist past. Every rhetoric weapon

from the last seven years will be redeployed for this power-ful piece of pavement. It was damaged on 9/11. It’s the highest and lowest piece of the W.T.C. remaining. It’s the most eastern and most northern part of the W.T.C. It’s uglier than the Lollipop building at Columbus Circle. It looks like hell. Authenticity is dripping from this juicy artifact.

Together, we can brand, market, and lobby this artifact. Take a stroll down Church St. Gaze through the construc-tion fence. Let your eyes linger on the exposed surface. Wait for the emotions to surface from deep within your subcon-scious. Feel the passion. Accept it. Don’t question it. You deserve it.

We’ll need a catchy phrase to express the meaning of the artifact. Alliteration is always advantageous. Here’s a few to prime the pump: Coughers Court, Paramedics Pavement, Looters’ Lane, or my personal favorite, the Residents’ Rectangle.

Shield yourself from criticism. Religious connections are particularly useful. The cause can never be about you directly, but about how you feel about someone else. Do it for future generations. You are a giver, a spiritual pilgrim for a greater cause, a humble servant in search of human better-ment, a martyr on a mission. You’ll never have to support claims or numbers. You are on a sacred mission. And I am here for you.

Send your plan with a check to authenticate your sincer-ity. If you’ve done your job, we can make arrangements that will be rewarding (on a spiritual level, of course) for both of us. Oh, and did I mention, it is NEVER, EVER about the money . . . no matter how much it costs.

Dave Stanke lives and writes Downtown. His email is [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter.

Imagine if we let preservationists resolve the dispute at Tower 2?

Poets in motion Thomas Lux and other poets read on the Brooklyn Bridge Monday during Poets House’s 14th annual fundraising walk across the bridge. The group is building its new center in Battery Park City and hopes to open by this September.


BY PATRICK HEDLUND

LOCAL DEVELOPER SCORES A.I.G.

A Downtown developer has part-nered with a Korean investment bank to purchase embattled insurance giant American International Group’s two Lower Manhattan offi ce buildings.

West Village-based Youngwoo and Associates, with the backing of Korea-based Kumho Investment Bank, closed on the high-rises at 70 Pine St. and 72 Wall St. for a reported $140 million, or $100 a square foot.

The two buildings, which are con-nected by a skywalk, have a total of 1.4 million square feet that could possibly be converted into offi ces, apartments or hotel rooms.

Youngwoo and Kumho went under contract last week, and the acquisition is expected to draw participation from a group of international fi nancial fi rms.

“The investment is based on our opti-mistic view on the future of Wall St., New York City and the U.S. fi nancial services industry,” Y.C. Kim, director of Kumho, said in a press statement issued by com-mercial brokerage CB Richard Ellis, which arranged the deal.

Young Woo, the founder of the devel-opment/architecture fi rm, has strong ties to the Korean community and partnered with Kumho last year on a $191 mil-lion bid to redevelop Pier 57 in Chelsea. Youngwoo has projects in Asia, South America and locally in Chelsea, and the company is currently taking on real estate heavyweights like the Related Companies and the Durst Organization in the Pier 57 selection process.

“We are pleased to announce this important transaction and view it as a key stepping stone in our long-range plan to establish a major presence for Korean institutions in the U.S. property and capi-tal markets,” added Youngwoo partner Greg Carney.

DEPECHE SOLD ON B.P.C.

One of Battery Park’s City newest eco-friendly high-rises, The Riverhouse, just added another celebrity to its roster of residents.

Dave Gahan, lead singer of the popular electro-rock outfi t Depeche Mode, report-edly closed on a $6 million penthouse at the building after selling his West Village apartment.

The Sheldrake Organization’s 32-story, LEED-certified development near Rockefeller Park already counts Oscar-nominated actor Leonardo DiCaprio as a tenant, so Gahan should be in good com-pany. The 47-year-old rocker underwent surgery last month to remove a malignant

tumor, and the building’s green amenities — including twice-fi ltered air, on-site water purifi cation and non-pollutant-emitting paints — should serve him well during his recovery.

NEW RULES

The Department of Buildings’ new plan for the public review process regarding building-permit applications has been extended to 45 days after the city agen-cy initially proposed a 30-day challenge period.

The new regulations will take effect starting July 13, and “[t]he reforms will give New Yorkers a stronger voice in the devel-opment of neighborhoods, create greater transparency, and clarify the process for the public and for developers,” according to a statement issued by D.O.B. Commissioner Robert LiMandri.

Under the new initiative, architects and engineers will be required to submit a diagram of any new proposed building or major enlargement for the public to view the size and scale of the development before construction can proceed. After the D.O.B. determines that the application complies with zoning regulations, the diagrams will be posted online for a 45-day review period. The current process has no formal time-frame.

“New Yorkers have a right to know what’s being built in their neighborhood, and now they can easily fi nd out by visit-ing our website,” LiMandri said in the statement. “This new, easy-to-read diagram opens the doors to the construction process like never before and will give more cer-tainty to the community and developers on the future of any project in the city.”

However, some of those who were criti-cal the original proposal still have doubts that the new process will prove effective.

“The bad news… is that D.O.B. did not address the myriad other issues we (and many others) raised about how the rule could actually shield inappropriate developments from challenge rather than help ensure that they are caught, as D.O.B. claims the rule change will do,” stated G.V.S.H.P. executive director Andrew Berman in an e-mail. “We fear that in many more cases, this may force members of the public to fi le a [Board of Standards and Appeals] case if they want to challenge the granting of a permit, as opposed to being able to bring it to D.O.B.”

Also on the offensive was Queens coun-cilmember and mayoral candidate Tony Avella, who echoed the G.V.S.H.P.’s con-cerns.

“While Mayor Mike Bloomberg and D.O.B. Commissioner LiMandri are claim-ing that this will empower the public with greater oversight over new developments, they could not be further from the truth,” Avella said in a statement. “The implemen-tation of any comment period, whether it is 30 or 45 days, will actually diminish the ability of residents to contest new construc-tion by creating a de-facto statute of limita-tions to challenge a new development.”

[email protected]

145 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10013 Advertising: 646.452.2496 or [email protected]

Gay City News is the newspaper of record for New York’s dynamic GLBT community.

March with us:Join Gay City on Sunday June 28 as we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the event that launched the modern gay rights movement worldwide.

As we walk the entire 3 mile parade route we could use your help handing out thousands and thousands of newspapers to people on the sidelines....

Email: [email protected] to volunteer.

STONEWALL 69’

40TH ANNIVERSARY

GAYCITYNEWS.COM

MIXED USE


John De Matteo, the athletic director who built the Manhattan Academy of Technology’s sports program from the ground up, received a Blackboard Award this week for public middle school teacher of the year in New York City.

“I was totally, totally excited,” De Matteo said. He received a plaque at a ceremony Monday night hosted by author and former public school teacher Frank McCourt.

When De Matteo was nominated, he was told no physical education teacher had ever won the award before, so he didn’t have high expectations. But being the first is nothing new to De Matteo, who has pioneered many new sports at M.A.T., a K-8 school in Chinatown, including surfing and table tennis. He also founded several citywide leagues so his students would be able to compete.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” De Matteo said of the award. “People are recognizing that physical educa-tion is important, and I’m glad.”

Backboard leader wins Blackboard Award

John De Matteo, right, athletic director of M.A.T., has just been named middle school teacher of the year in New York City.


JUNIOR MINORS LOWERWhite Sox vs. Brewers

It was a perfect day for baseball Sunday as the White Sox hosted the Brewers.

The White Sox bats were silent dur-ing the fi rst few innings, as the Brewers jumped out to an early lead thanks to the solid defense of shortstop Max Schuss and Lucian Ayala at second. Back-to-back home runs by Brew Crew sluggers Luke Silver and Jack Clothier and singles pounded out by Brooks Valentine, who had hit a three-run homer earlier in the season made for a solid offense. James Purpora and Joseph Safer-Bakal, continued their three-game hit-ting streak of reaching base at every at bat. Trailing 6-1, the White Sox fought back and scored four runs in the bottom of the 4th inning to tie the score behind hits by Miles Dorsey, Ryan Vig, Dylan Guttierrez, Tensi Masuda and Luca Biro.

In the top of the fi fth, the Brewers got their lead off hitter on, but then White Sox pitcher Russell Goldmeer caught a smash off the bat of Roman Hoey, who was also a defensive standout for the Brewers. The ball looked like it was headed all the way to Battery Park, but Russell, in one of the fi eld-ing highlights of the season, gloved it and immediately headed to fi rst base to complete the double play as the Brewers base runner never dreamed anyone could catch such a

hot smash.After a scoreless fi fth inning, the two

teams were granted extra time by umpire Jorge to play the sixth inning because of the break for an awards ceremony in the middle of the second inning. The Brewers threatened in their half, with Lucas Gaffney belting a single then running out two bases on a follow-up single by fi rst baseman Sean O’Toole. Gaffney was left stranded on third as the rally was squashed by the stellar White Sox defense. The White Sox were down to their last out with runners on fi rst and second when Michael Cheeseman legged out an infi eld hit. Paul Stukas alertly rounded third and headed to home on the throw to fi rst to score the winning run. A great fi nish to a great game.

His fi rst batter, Marcus Wong, walked, as did batter three Dante Vega Lamere, but Best was able to strike out the rest.

MINORSTwins vs. Reds

It was a perfect day for a ferry ride to the somewhat unkempt, but always fun, Governors Island.

Will Best performed his best pitching of the year, shutting out the Twins for the fi rst three innings. Douglass Stapler started the rally for the Reds, with a smash to center. Ben Steinberg’s bat struck gold and Stapler

crossed the plate. Tyler Adams’ perfectly-placed grounder down the third base line drove in three runs and gave him his fi rst tri-ple of the season. Best punched it to center to bring Adams home, and the inning ended with a fi ve-run mercy rule. Best struck out two in the second, and Stapler caught a foul tip for out three. The Reds were shut out in inning two, when Adam Greenberg struck out the fi rst two batters. Dante Vega Lamere relieved him on the mound, and struck out the next batter for out three.

In the bottom of the third for the Reds, with Lamere still at the mound, Rohan stepped up to the plate with two outs and tattooed a ball to center fi eld, reaching fi rst. He stole second during Steinberg’s at-bat, and as he stole third, the ball was overthrown and he brought the score to 6-0. Steinberg walked and stole second but was stranded there as Lamere struck out the fi fth batter, just in time to catch the ferry back to Manhattan for a performance with the Trinity Wall Street Choristers.

The Twins exploded into action in the fourth. Greenberg’s bomb brought in run fi ve, and Marcus Wong went home on the overthrow.

Now tied at six, the Reds were anxious to reclaim their lead. Wong, now on the mound for the Twins, struck out the fi rst batter, but Best had a nice single. Oliver Brown did as well, going to second on the overthrow.

Stapler’s beauty to left center gave him a two-R.B.I. double.

Now down 9-6, the Twins faced Adams on the mound again. When Gordon ground-ed to the mound, Adams plucked it from the weeds and sailed it to Steinberg at third to stop Matthew Burnett.

In the fi fth, out of the shadow of the trees stepped Luke Marable, who had not a single practice on the mound, and struck out his fi rst opponent to the delight of the fans. But Levine would not go down easily, putting his foot down and crushing the ball to third. The Twins rounded the bases gleefully, and as the second runner headed home, Doyle threw the ball to Rohan at the plate. The Reds were a bit frustrated when the umpire yelled “safe,” since from their angle, they thought the tag preceded the player touching the plate. Marable remained unfazed, how-ever, and struck out the next batter.

Down 12-9, the Reds did their best to recover the lead and their dignity. But Brown’s bunt single and Jonathan Romano’s walk with two outs were not enough. Wong struck out the last batter and the Twins won, 12-9.

Angels vs. Reds

Wearing their specially-ordered black

Downtown Little League action

Continued on page 21


baseball pants and carrying an offi cial ban-ner, the Mighty Angels (fi rst place) crossed the fi eld in unison and took their place on the visitor’s bench. The Reds were gathered out of site of the banner, listening to the many fi ne plays they’ve made in the past few games, despite coming out on the losing end of the equation each time. Tyler Rohan was on the mound fi rst for the Reds, and Blas Lee got things started for the Angels with a hard hit past Liam Doyle at short for a single. James Borrelli followed suit, grounding it to almost the same place, for a one-bagger. Jackson Vertucci brought Lee home with a grounder up the fi rst base line, which was handled nicely by Tyler Adams for out one. Valentino Rosa’s high fl y to left fi eld brought in teammate Borrelli and himself to second. Jonathan Sandella’s crank to centerfi eld dropped in front of the Reds’ defender, moments after his coach asked him to move back, for run three and a double. Rohan retired the next batter on a called strike three. Rohan fi nished up the inning with a strikeout, and the Reds put on their batting helmets.

Rosa’s fi rst batter returned to the dug-out after three strikes. Jonah Frere-Holmes punched one to centerfi eld, scoring the Reds’ fi rst run with a stand-up double. Tyler Adams made good contact with the ball, but Rosa scooped it up and fi red it to Vertucci at fi rst base for out three.

Lee (3 for 3) started another rally for the Angels in the third with a grounder that

made a path to leftfi eld. Rohan struck out the next batter and walked Vertucci. Best’s great throw from home to Steinberg at sec-ond caught Vertucci while stealing, however, for out one. Rosa (also 3 for 3) cranked another one to left center, driving in Lee. Sandella’s grounder found a hole as well, bringing in Rosa, and he went to second on an overthrow. James Stinnett was up next and was rewarded with a ribbie single, going to second on another overthrow, and then stealing home. When Colon grounded to third base, Stapler saw Stinnett was heading home and threw to Best, who tagged him for out three.

Joseph Scaparelli’s fl y ball was caught by Isabel Best, who was both surprised and happy to see the ball in her glove.

The Angels continued slamming the Reds in the top of the fi fth, when Nick Constaninesco walked, stole two bases and then scored on an overthrow. Rosa cranked another one to rightfi eld for his third con-secutive R.B.I. Sandella also sailed one into the outfi eld, driving in two. Stapler was able to strike out the next two batters, and the score was now 11-1, giving the Angels an automatic win, due to the ten-run mercy rule. Both teams agreed to give the Reds one more chance to face Rosa, but only Steinberg was able to get to fi rst. Sandella relieved Rosa after his 75 pitches and struck out the last Reds’ batter. The Angels took the game 11-1, but the real story was the excellent pitching by Valentino Rosa, who was one batter shy of pitching a complete game (a rarity in the Minors).

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

Soccer for all

seasons!

New Downtown Community Center and P.S. 234 home locations.Private pool. Outdoor ball fi elds.Field sports, karate, computers, arts, crafts, movement, more!Experienced administrators, teachers and childcare professionals.Transportation below 23rd Street with many pick-up locations. Generous counselor-to-camper ratio.K through 6 program.Nature Camp option for grades 5 to 8.

Why send your child on a long, hot bus ride when all you need is right here?

Downtown Day Camp

212-766-1104 x250 www.DowntownDayCamp.comCamp is fi lling up fast —call today!

Available sessionsJune 29 through August 14June 29 through July 24July 27 through August 14August 17 through August 21*

Open house: 6 pm April 7 and 28120 Warren St.

* special add-on week, see registration form for details

Ready forsummer?

We are!

212-571-7290

16-36 3-5

6-12 6

8-14

Continued from page 20


ARTS +GAMES Art project designed by an art specialist includ-ing clay, painting and jewelry design. School-age children. Free. Every Thursday through October 29th. 3.30-5.30 P.M. Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City (access: Chambers) 212-267-9700 bpcparks.org

BABYSITTERS’ TRAINING (RED CROSS) Gain skills and confidence to care for infants and school-age children. Graduates receive certification. For 11-15 year olds. Members $50; Non-Members $60. Pre-registration required. Call 646-210-4292. June 27. 10am-6:30pm, The Verdesian, 211 North End Ave. bpcpc.org

CHILDREN’S DAY AT THE SOUTH STREET SEAPORT Bring your child for an exciting day of performances, attractions and fun for the whole family. Beware! There may be Pirates hiding around the corner! Free with Museum admission. June 13, 12-5 P.M. South Street Seaport Museum, Pier 16 212-748-8786 south-streetseaportmuseum.org

CHILDREN’S BASKETBALL Play with adjustable height hoops for kids of all sizes, plus fun drills to improve your skills. Free. Mondays and Fridays through October 30 (except holiday week-ends) 3.30-4.30 P.M. for 5-6 year olds, 4.30-5.30 P.M. for 7&older. Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City, Lower Manhattan (access: Chambers Street) 212-267-9700 bpcparks.org

DOWNTOWN SUMMER DAY CAMP Your child can enjoy the same enriching activities that country day camps offer with-out the stress of traveling out of the city every day on the bus.

Camp combines a daily program with special events to give your child an exciting and varied camp experience. Kids K-6th grade. To register and for rates go to downtowndaycamp.com or call 212-766-1104 x250

GO FISH Catch-and-release fishing, family performances and art projects. Free. June 13, 10 A.M.-2 P.M. Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park 212-267-9700 bpcpc.org

KIDS PROGRAMS Fun ways to put children’s energy to good use. Kids are exposed to art, basketball, chess, cycling, explora-tion, gardening, and music among other activities. Days, materi-als fees, and park locations vary. Battery Park City Parks Conser-vancy, Two South End Ave. 212-262-9700, bcparks.org

TEEN PROGRAMS Save teenagers from the boredom blues through classes on art, babysitter training, CPR, and environ-mental activism. Days, materials fees, and park locations vary. Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, Two South End Ave. 212-262-9700, bcparks.org

PRESCHOOL PLAY AND ART Join other toddlers, parents and caregivers for interactive play on a grassy lawn. Toys, books and equipment provided. Free. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, through October 27 (except September 7 and October 12) 10 A.M- 12 P.M. Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park.212-267-9700 bpcparks.org

SUMMER ART COLONIES The Children’s Museum of the Arts

will run a Summer Art Colony on Governors Island and the CMA facility at 182 Lafayette Street in Soho for children ages 6 to 14. The two-week day camp sessions, led by professional artists, will begin on June 15 and run though September 4. CMA’s Sum-mer Art Colonies allow children to spend their summers explor-ing nearly every art form in the fine, performing and media arts. The classes are structured to allow full immersion into art. For more information call 212-627-5766 or visit cmany.org

TODDLER PLAY GROUP Story time, play time and fun edu-cational activities are all part of the Community Toddler Play Group for parents with their children. Foster your toddler’s imagination through history, science and maritime-themed activities using interactive materials and engaging book readings.$7 per child, free to family members, Every Wed. 1-2:30 P.M., South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St, 212.748.8786, southstreetseaportmuseum.org

TODDLER STORY TIME Babies from 18 months old to 3 years old and their parents/caregivers can enjoy great books, lively songs, and rhymes, and meet other babies in the neighborhood. June 18 and 25, 10.30 A.M. Pre-registration needed. The New Amsterdam Branch Library, 9 Murray St. 212-732-8186

TEEN ENTREPRENEUR BOOT CAMP It’s a program that gives teens the exciting learning experience that they need to succeed later in life. For more information, please go to teenentrepreneurbootcamp.org

SUMMER CAMPS AT THE EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE ART SCHOOL Top-Quality, Affordable Choices for Summer Fun. For dates and rates go to edalliance.org

WEEKLY FAMILY TOUR Every Sunday at 2 P.M., families will be able to explore the National Historic Landmark Eldridge Street Synagogue through a hands-on tour, guided play on our interactive history tables, and an art activity. $10 adults, $8 seniors, $6 children Museum of Eldridge Street, 12 Eldridge St. 212-219-0888, eldridgestreet.org.

YOUNG ARTISTS PROGRAM, SPRING 2009 Students experience creating in professional art school. Class size is limited to 12 students-individual attention is maximized. All art supplies are included. For ages 10 to 14 and 15 to 19. Classes start June 29.Meetings twice a week for 6 weeks. $220 per 12-session course. Educational Alliance Art School. 197 East Broadway between Jefferson and Clinton Streets. 646-395-4237 edalliance.org/artschool

TEEN VOLLEYBALL All teens are welcome and no previous experience necessary. Referee/Scorekeeper and Ball Pro-vided. Presented by the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy. Saturdays, 4:30-6:30 pm. Community Center at Stuyvesant High School, 345 Chambers St., 646-210-4292

MANHATTAN YOUTH’S DOWNTOWN COMMUNITY CENTER First spring catalog is now online at manhattany-outh.org. Join Manhattan Youth’s community center and take part in activities such as swimming, ceramics, to toddler tumbling. Convenient hours and friendly staff. 120 Warren St. 212 766 1104, manhattanyouth.org.

SUMMER FAMILY CONCERT SERIES It’s a summer event for the whole family to enjoy! Free. Every Thursday. June 18: Brady Rymer. June 25: Princess Katie and Racer Steve. Washington Market Park, 6:30 P.M. Greenwich & Duane Streets. (rain location: Downtown Community Center - War-ren Street between Greenwich and West Streets) washing-tonmarketpark.org

YOUNG SPROUTS GARDENING Gardening program for children 3-5 years old. Simple gardening projects appropri-ate for preschoolers. Free. Tuesdays through October 27th. 3.15-3.45 P.M. Space limited-first come, first served. The Children’s Garden, Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City (access: Chambers Street) 212-267-9700 ext 348. bpc-parks.org

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

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

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

• Creative Movement/Pre-Ballet (ages 3-5)

19 Murray St., 3rd Fl. (Bet. Broadway and Church)

212-608-7681 (day)

www.murraystreetdance.com

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

TRIBECA DENTALFor the Whole Family

For an appointment, call 212-941-9095

General Dentistry & Cosmetic Dentistry + Implants

Bleaching + Orthodontics

Dr. Martin GottliebDr. Raphael Santore

Dr. Reena Clarkson,Orthodontist

Dr. Ken Chu,Dr. Grace Chin

Dr. Roula MavrogiorgisPediatric Dentists

19 Murray Street Between Church & Broadway www.TribecaDentalCenter.com

YOUTHACTIVITIES


ARC RECORD SALEThe ARChive of Contemporary Music (a not-for-profi t archive, music library and research center) collects, preserves and provides information on the popular music of all cultures throughout the world. Their over three million sound recordings makes them the largest popular music collection on Earth. Now, a piece of the ARC hold-ings can be your own. Their stellar sale happens June 13 through June 21, daily, from 11:00a.m. to 6:00p.m. Expect to fi nd tons of Broadway recordings (most for a buck), Jazz LPs, world music, punk, DVDs and an “Astroturf Yardsale” of 50s kitchen stuff and clothing. At 54 White Street (3 blocks South of Canal between Church & Broadway); call 212-226-6967 or visit http://www.arcmusic.org.

FIGMENT ART FESTIVALWant to win a bet? Challenge your friends to find a fresh air art event that’s more unique, funky, and fun than FIGMENT — which brings large-scale participa-tory art to Governors Island. The 3-day event (followed by the presence of a season-long sculpture garden and minigolf course) includes over 300 artworks, perfor-mances, games and other activities. They supply the fun; you supply a willingness to dive in, participate and create (the public is encourages to bring art, cos-tumes, toys, games). Best of all, it’s free and devoid of corporate sponsorship and advertising — which means the contemplation and creation of art won’t have to compete with visual clutter from the likes of Citibank and Snapple; now that’s refreshing! June 12 through 14 (Friday, 10:00am to 5:00p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10:00a.m. to 7:00p.m.). A map and schedule can be seen at http://figmentnyc.org.

NY CHINESE CULTURAL CENTERGet a rare, wide-ranging glimpse of China’s ancient folk cultures when The NY Chinese Cultural Center’s School of the Arts presents its 35th Annual Student Recital. This community event sees the students presenting a dynamic range of dance and art — with the help of drums, tambourines and fans. China’s ethnic tribes and nationalities will be rep-resented by everything from the traditional Red Ribbon Dance to Tai and Mongolian folk dances. Students will display their mastery of the sword and the spear through Peking Opera pieces. They’ll also present “Dunhuang,” a visually inspiring work which premiered at NYCCC’s Lunar New Year Festival on February 21. Sunday, June 28, 2:00p.m. at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center (199 Chambers Street, between Greenwich & West Streets). Admission is $20, $15 for groups of 10 or more. For tickets, call 212-220-1460 or visit www.tribecapac.org.

IVANOVMiscreant Theatre puts their own bold, dyspeptic spin on Anton Chekov’s “Ivanov.” Once prosperous, our now-feckless and depressed anti-hero struggles to make sense of his vulgar existence while suffering the oppressive presence of a com-munity obsessed with gossip and greed. If that sounds like a downer, rest assured that Miscreant has assured us they’ll be wringing the last drop of depraved humor from Chekov’s script — proving that suffering can be highly entertaining if it’s happening to somebody else. The Germans have a word for that; but the Russians are the ones who turned it into an art form. Through June 28 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street. Tickets are $18 ($10 with student ID). For performance days/times — or to order tickets, call 212-352-3101 or www.theatermania.com; visit www.miscreanttheatrecompany.org.

COURTROOM ARTISTS SALUTE NYPDThree award-winning courtroom illustrators who’ve made careers drawing the likes of Madoff, Manson and Gotti have turned their considerable talents towards the behind-the-scenes men and women who bring these offend-ers to justice. “The Police in Our Community” depicts members of the NYPD on routine patrol in the subway and on horseback — as well as images of rescue boats, police divers and offi cers securing USAir fl ight 1549 upon its spectacular landing in the Hudson. Artists Elizabeth Williams, Bill Robles and Aggie Kenny are the contributors. Once the exhibit closes, their drawings will be up for sale at a gala fundraiser to benefi t The New York City Police Museum (100 Old Slip, between Water St.; and South St.); Opens June 16, runs through the fall. For more information, visit www.nycpolice-museum.org.

Photo by Doug Kehl

Dancers show their moves at the 2008 recital

Photo by Anya Klepikov

Jeff Barry as the down, out and thoroughly depressed Ivanov

Setting up for the ARC record sale

ALISTTHECOMPILED BY SCOTT STIFFLER [email protected]

ART

DANCE RECIETAL

ART

THEA

TER

Photo by Ian Whalen

Artist Marc Kehoe, from FIGMENT, 2008

Image supplied by the artist

“Transit” by Aggie Kenny; watercolor, 2008

SHOPPING


BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN

Claire Oliver Gallery is currently featur-ing a site-specifi c installation by the Russian artist Georgii “Gosha” Ostretsov — who has been part of the Moscow art scene since the mid-1980s. Eclectic, and as visually overwhelming as it is enticing, “Coolville” is comprised of painted, mural-sized can-vas comic strips that sparkle through vivid color and form. Arranged along the walls, suspended from the ceiling, and contrasted with the occasional life-size fi gurative sculp-ture, the paintings have not only taken over the gallery’s exhibition space; they’ve trans-formed it into a science fi ction wonderland.

When asked how the concept for “Coolville” developed, Ostretsov explains that it began with his search “for the mean-ing of the word ‘beautiful’ on the Internet.” Using the Russian to English dictionary, “the word ‘Coolville’ came up and the beautiful Utopian village in the gallery” got its name. Despite a sense of playfulness, the mood here is serious and the tone satirical (an “enduring characteristic of Russian culture” according to the press release). Ostretsov’s world is one charged with political energy and rebellious spirit. In this project, the biggest challenge (besides creating an entire utopian city in the middle of a gallery space)

was “to explain the story of the Russian art-ist to a new American audience.”

Although he has exhibited extensively in Russian and Europe, “Coolville” marks Ostretsov’s U.S. debut — a fact which has a keen impact on this particular project. While as a conceptual artist Ostretsov expresses his ideas in various forms, “Coolville” aims to combine Eastern and Western ideas. Ostretsov draws inspiration from the early 19th century literary works of Gogol, the absurdist’s writings and the theatre of OBERIU (a short-lived avant-garde grouping of Russian post-Futurist poets in the 1920s and 1930s) — as well as from the seminal narrative installation works by the Russian-American conceptual artist Ilya Kabakov.

Most importantly, “Coolville” employs a style derived from Pop Art and Western com-ics — which Ostretsov views as a “universal language between Eastern and Western cul-tures.” Indeed, they are easy to follow and comprehend, as their narratives unfold in a largely visual manner.

However, to Ostretsov (who was born in Moscow in 1967), there is another impor-tant aspect. “In the Soviet Union, comics were prohibited as capitalist propaganda,” he explains. The Bolsheviks had banned comics due to their “bourgeois” Western ori-gins. Despite occasional appearances in chil-dren’s magazines like “Murzilka” or “Veselie Kartinki,” they continued to exist largely in the underground — until the Perestroika era in the late 1980s. It was because of their controversial if not secretive status that Ostretsov, became “attracted to comics as an antagonistic way to express [himself].” They were not a part of the everyday, but instead contained a taste of revolt. Cartoons are not “pop but protest!” as Ostretsov puts it.

“Coolville” is a bizarre realm, where the artist takes on the role of a superhero. In his hands, art becomes a powerful tool against all kinds of evil, enabling him to wrest con-trol from a reviled regime and create a new world. It is a story of struggle, victory and progress. But the struggle to push ahead is not without its emotional challenges, and Ostretsov occasionally masks his superheros as to provide them with an extra layer of protection (or, as he admits, to establish a barrier fear; the artist manifests as a protec-tor or teacher to society at large).

When asked what kind of teachings his superheroes might like to convey, he explains that he would like to “show a way how people could live tomorrow.” Pondering that every day there emerges new examples of how this futuristic life might materialize, he wonders if the destruction of patriarchal superiority and its replacement with a matri-archal system could be the answer. Ostretsov argues that the most important requisite of a leader should be a general love for the people. As women give birth to boys and girls, and so have been equipped by nature to love members of both sexes equally, they might be the solution.

“Coolville” is part of Ostretsov’s ongo-ing New Government project, on which he has been working since the late 1990s as a commentary on the nature of power and despotism in post-Soviet Russia. Based in a Euro-Christian culture, Gosha’s heroes “rally against ternary and The New Government [and] through comics this story can be eas-ily told.” In the past he stated: “As the act-ing organ of power, the New Government must demonstrate its operative status; closely watch over the mass media, so that the reality of historical events does not undergo distor-

tion; react quickly to disasters; carry out a policy of scientifi c-technological progress; provide for the evacuation of the globe’s population in the event of planetary catas-trophe; vigilantly ensure general adherence to the Constitution; act as a punitive power; give some attention to the development and support of cultural-educational activities; and engage as much as possible the intellectual potential of man.”

This summer, more can be seen of Ostretsov’s work as the artist will represent The Russian Federation in the 53rd Venice Biennale. For the biennial, which runs from June to November, Ostretsov has put together an autobiographical installation in which he “constructed the house where [he] lives and in the last of six rooms sits a self-portrait robotic sculpture who draws an eternal ‘0’ on the table. This symbolizes both infi nity and noth-ingness. By making art I cheat death — It will live on past me.”

Russian artist: cartoons are protest, not pop Utopian wonderland charged with political energy

Image supplied by the artist

“Attack From Within” by Gosha Ostretsov

GOSHA OSTRETSOV: “COOLVILLE”Through June 27

Claire Oliver Gallery

513 West 26th Street

212-929-5949 or www.ClaireOliver.com

The paintings have not only taken over the gallery’s exhibition space; they’ve transformed it into a science fi ction wonderland.

“I want to build a District Attorney’s offi ce that’s defi ned not by how we handle the big, high profi le cases, but by how we handle the tens of thousands of cases each month that won’t ever get written about—cases that don’t involve infamous acts or famous people, but whose outcomes mat-ter every bit as much.

“I’ll never forget that as your next DA.”

— Cy Vance

A passion for justice.The experience to deliver it.

ART


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CLASSESI N T R O D U C T O RY A R T W O R K -SHOPS Are you thinking about taking an art class, but not sure what you want to take? Come to the art workshops, try out a class before committing to a full course and make an artwork to take home. Pottery, Cartooning, Drawing and Photo-grams $15 per workshop The Educational Alliance Art School 197 East Broadway 212-780-2300 x 428 edalliance.org/artschool

ADULT FITNESS PROGRAM Yoga at 9:15 A.M. on Mondays, Zumba at 7 P.M. on Mondays and Thursdays and Total Body Workout on Tuesdays at 9 A.M. Free trial classes, Downtown Community Center, 120 Warren St., manhattanyouth.org.

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

DOWNTOWN BOATHOUSE Offers a number of kayaking classes and trips for a variety of levels. Go to the Park office and get an identification card (cost $9), which is needed for any class in the park. Ongo-ing. 241 W. Broadway, 646-613-0740,

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TABLE TENNIS TRAINING PRO-GRAM Table tennis training and play to players of all skill levels, and provide a venue for players of all ages to come together, enjoy the sport, and build new friendships. Mon.-Fri., 10 A.M.-1 P.M. $100 a year for people ages 6-15 and 50 and older, $200 for others. American Asian Cultural Center of Tribeca, 384 Broadway, lower level. 646-772-2922.

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

S U M M E R D E T O X & W E I G H T LOSS Free health talk from Dr. Lou Gregory about the right and healthy way to lose weight and keep it off just in time for summer. June 16, 7 P.M. Tribeca Chi-ropractic PLLC, 249 W Broadway 2B. 212-226-6320

SUPPORT GROUP FOR FIRST-TIME MOTHERS Join parenting experts Drs. Ann Chanler and Nancy Carroll-Freeman, and other new mothers to voice your thoughts and feelings and find sup-port and encouragement. $25 per group. Thursdays 10-11 A.M. Tribeca Pediatrics,

46 Warren Street. 212-219-9984

WEIGHTWATCHERS Weekly meet-ings to help motivate you and keep you focused. Stop dieting and start living! Come and meet our friendly group and new leader. From $9 per week. Tuesday afternoons at 3.30pm. Doors open from 3.00pm for weigh in. Caring Community Room, Level 2, 310 Greenwich St. Entry at side of building next to Washington Mar-ket Park.646-673-5096.

EVENTS FIGMENT 2009 This annual participa-tory arts event will include artwork in every medium, from installation to performance to music to games. Participation is open to any artist who would like to share their work, and visitors of all ages and interests are invited to share in these creations. Free. June 12, 10 A.M.-5 P.M, June 13-14, 10 A.M.-7 P.M. Governors Island. Free ferry service runs from The Battery Maritime Building located adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry in Lower Manhattan. figmentnyc.org

FREE HEARING SCREENINGS AT THE LEAGUE FOR THE HARD OF HEAR-ING Every Wed. from 12-2 P.M. and every Thurs. from 4-6 P.M.. Call or email to schedule an appointment. LEAGUE FOR THE HARD OF HEARING, 50 Broadway, 6th

Fl. 917-305-7766, [email protected].

35TH ANNUAL STUDENT RECITAL AT THE NY CHINESE CULTURAL CEN-TER Dance and art come together as students present the traditional Red Ribbon Dance, Ballet and Tai Chi as well as visually inspiring Dunhuang. $20, $15 for groups 10+. June 28, 2 P.M. BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center-199 Chambers Street (between Greenwich and West St.) For tickets call: 212-220-1460 tribecapac.org

5 0 & B E Y O N D C O M M U N I T Y EXPO This event, presented by the Lower Manhattan Health Care Coalition targets people over 50 years old and addresses issues affecting them, includ-ing stress management, financial plan-ning, volunteering, sleeping well without medication, healthy aging, diabetes management, and eating for energy. Free. June 14, 11A.M-4:00 P.M. PS 20, located at 166 Essex Street (between Houston and Stanton Streets) 212-374-4100.

PUBLIC SAILS ABOARD 1885 SCHOO-NER PIONEER Enjoy spectacular views of the New York Harbor from the deck of the historic ship. Tuesdays-Fridays: 3-5PM, 4-6PM and 7-9PM, Saturdays-Sundays: 1-3PM, 4-6PM, 7-9PM. Prices: 4-6PM and 7-9PM sails: Adults $35, Stu-dent/Seniors $30m Children 12 and under $25. 1-3PM and 3-5PM sails: Adults $25,

Student/Seniors $20, Children 12 and under $15. Members receive $5 discount. Reservations suggested. South Street Seaport. Pier 16. 212-748-8786 south-streetseaportmuseum.org

WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL STREET FAIR The program will include interac-tive exhibits, experiments, games, and shows designed to entertain and inspire: Discovery Labs, Bio Bus, Philadelphia Zoo on Wheels and many others. June 14, 10 A.M –6 P.M.Washington Square Park, Central Park West at 79th Street. world-sciencefestival.com/2009/street-fair

VOLLEYBALL AFTER WORK Leave your workday behind and join other adults for good-natured, fun and cooperative pick-up games of volleyball on the beautiful outdoor Esplanade Plaza. Everyone gets to play! No experience necessary! Free. Esplanade Plaza (access: Liberty Street) Wednesdays, through September 30. 6 P.M. to 7.30 P.M. 212.267.9700 bpcparks.org

EXHIBITS BLACK&WHITE WORKS This group exhibition will highlight a diverse range of black & white artworks in varying media. Through July 31.Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, 31 Mercer Street, 212.226.3232 feldmangallery.com

BEAUTY SURROUNDS US Featuring an elaborate Quechua girl’s dance outfit, a Northwest Coast chief’s staff with carved animal figures and crests, Seminole turtle shell dance leggings, a conch shell trum-pet from pre-Columbian Mexico, and an Inupiak (Eskimo) ivory cribbage board. Two interactive media stations show visitors in-depth descriptions of each object. Ongoing through March 2010. NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, One Bowling Green, 212-514-3700, nmai.si.edu

J O H N K E L LY - T H E M I R R O R STAGES:SELF PORTRAITS 1979-2009 An unknown area of artistic expression of this enigmatic performance artist is presented in the form of self- por-traits-drawings, paintings, photographs and video. Through June 26. Alexander Gray Associates.526 W 26th Street. 212-399-2636. alexandergray.com

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

THE LISTINGS

Listingscontinued on page 27


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YOUNGER THAN JESUS The exhibit presents the artwork of fifty international artists born after 1976. Ongoing. $12, seniors $10, students $8, under 18-free.The New Museum, 235 Bowery newmu-seum.org

READINGS AND TALKS

WE REMEMBER WITH REVERENCE AND LOVE:AMERICAN JEWS AND THE MYTH OF SILENCE AFTER THE HOLOCAUST Author Hasia R. Diner will discuss her compelling book, bringing new insight to the topic of the indifference of American Jews to the atrocities of the Holocaust. $5, free for members. Get tickets online or call 646.437.4202. June 24, 7 P.M. Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial

to the Holocaust Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Place 646-437-4339 mjhnyc.org

HARBOR VOICES Book signing and a meeting with the author of “Harbor Voices” put together with a walking tour of the historic district of South Street Seaport makes an afternoon to remember. Children can create and decorate their very own tug model that actually floats! Free admission from 5-9pm. June 19, 508 P.M. South Street Seaport Museum 12 Fulton St. 212-748-8786 southstreetseaportmuseum.org

HENRY HUDSON’S MANHATTAN is an opportunity to hear landscape ecolo-gist Eric Sanderson discuss the natural history of Manhattan as it was found in 1609.Book signing of Sanderson’s “The Natural History of New York City” will follow the tour. Free. June 14, 2 P.M. Teardrop Park (between Warren and Murray streets) 212-267-9700 bpcparks.org

TOURS GOURMET WALKING TOUR OF TRIBECA Visit Tribeca’s most delightful gastronomic destinations. Stop at gourmet stores, wine and cheese shops, bakeries and more. Taste samples and get an inside look at new products. Francine Segan, noted food historian and guides the tour. $25. June 19, 11 A.M.- 1 P.M. Meet at 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street at Canal Street. 212.601.1000 92ytribeca.org

PUBLIC ART WALKING TOURS LMCC offers a series of three self-guided audio tours exploring public art downtown. Titled “Art and Security,” “Art and the Body,” and “Monuments and Memory,” the 45-minute tours are narrated by Perry Garvin and William Smith. Download the free tours to your iPod or other MP3 player and start walking. lmcc.net

TRIBUTE WTC 9/11 Walking tours of Ground Zero. Daily. VISITORS CENTER, 120 Liberty St. For hours and info, visit

tributewtc.org.

WALL STREET WALKING TOUR Free 90-minute guided walking tour weaving together the history, events, architecture and people of downtown. Thurs. and Sat. at noon. Meet at the steps of the National Museum of the American Indian. One Bowling Green, Alliance for Downtown NY, 212-606-4064, downtownny.com

1625: DUTCH NEW YORK Walk along the shoreline of 1625 as we visit sites – and some extant remains – of the original Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, now New York. Visit architectural digs, Stone Street, the shortest lane in Man-hattan, the edge of Fort Amsterdam, and more. $20; $15 seniors and students. June 20, July 11, Aug. 8 and Sept. 5 Runs approx. 90 mins. Meet at One Bowling Green, on steps of National Museum of the American Indian 646-573-9509

MUSEUM AT ELDRIDGE STREET Guid-ed tours led by historian-trained docents tell the story of the 1887 landmark syna-

gogue, and illuminate the experience of the East European Jewish immigrants who settled on the LES in the late 19th century. Sun.-Thurs., 10 A.M.-4 P.M. $10 adults, $8 seniors, $6 children Museum Of Eldridge Street, 12 Eldridge St. 212-219-0888, eldridgestreet.org

LAST CHANCE

ZVIDANCE Lower Manhattan Cul-tural Council launches the summer and the River to River Festival with the first of the series of site-specific performanc-es- “White” by ZviDance at the annual opening weekend of Governors Island. “White”, performed on Fort Jay, high-lights its historical significance and eerie sense of abandonment in a provocative and unexpected way. Free. June 13. 3:30 and 4:30 P.M. Fort Jay, Governors Island. Governors Island Ferry-Battery Maritime Building at 4 South Street. 212-219-9401 ext 118 lmcc.net/sidelines

AND DON’T FORGET…

MUSIC ON THE OVAL This unique out-door summer concert series that will bring the sweet sounds of rock, funk, reggae, and soul to the famed Stuyvesant Town Oval every Wednesday night from through July 15. Free. 7 P.M. pre-show 6 P.M. The Stuyvesant Town Oval- between 16th and 18th Streets and Avenues A & B (the entrance is off First Avenue and 16th Street) 212-598-5296 stuytown.com

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

THE LISTINGSListings

continued from page 25

Downtown Express, June 12, 2009

Documents

Transcript of Downtown Express, June 12, 2009