Downtown Express, October 30, 2009

Kindergarten students at P.S. 276 in Tweed. The school’s principal, Terri Ruyter, and Nancy Harris, principal of the Spruce Street School, spoke to Downtown Express last week about the beginning of the schools’ fi rst year, their educational philosophies and future plans for the new buildings.

BY JULIE SHAPIRO Samuel Evensen stood

among a crop of rubberized cadavers recently and made an important distinction.

“I’m not a doctor,” he said. “I’m an artist.”

Evensen was speaking in the darkened Bodies exhib-it at South Street Seaport Monday night, after the waves of tourists and school groups had gone home. His audience, in addition to the cadavers, was a small group of art enthusiasts, who had come to learn about what lies beneath the human skin and how to draw it.

“It’s an approach to draw-ing the fi gure from the inside out,” said Evensen, a profes-

sor of anatomical drawing at the Pratt Institute, who is equally comfortable with medical and artistic termi-nology. “Studying anatomy helps you interpret what you see from a live model, and then translate that from a three-dimensional fi gure to a two-dimensional drawing.”

After a brief lesson from Evensen, the group dispersed throughout the exhibit’s nine galleries, set up their easels and started sketching.

“My dream has come true,” said a grinning Tim Boyle, 33, as he prepared to draw a preserved foot skel-eton. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s examination of

BY LINCOLN ANDERSONReturning to his old

Lower East Side stomping ground, Antonio “Chico” Garcia is back in town for a month and a half to work on some commissioned murals, on everything from peace to the Rat Pack.

On Wednesday, Chico — who recently relocated to Tampa, Fla., to reunite with his family — spray-painted a new graffi ti-style mural for the Power of Peace Coalition at Houston St. and Avenue B. Helping him complete the one-day project were his cousin Andres Borrero and William Pentecost, the coali-

tion’s youth activities coor-dinator.

When done, the mural would say, “Stop the Violence” and “Another Way Is Possible.”

“It’s a powerful message,” Chico said of the peace cam-paign, adding that, coinci-dentally, “They call me ‘The Messenger.’

“That’s from New York — and it’s going across the country,” he said of the ini-tiative.

The Houston St. wall has been one of Chico’s signature canvases, spe-cifically for memorials, since the 1980s. Those he

A dead subject for these artists

Chico spreads message of peace back on L.E.S.

Nancy Harris, SPRUCE STREET SCHOOL

Downtown Express: What is your favorite moment of the school year so far?

Nancy Harris: It’s so hard to choose. In the begin-ning, everyday felt like a highlight reel — our first this, our first that. Now that that has somewhat subsided, it’s like when you’re on vacation and the days start to blend together, but in a good way. Every moment is great, it really is.

Terri Ruyter, P.S. 276

Downtown Express: What is your favorite moment of the school year so far?

Terri Ruyter: I don’t know if I can say a favorite moment. There are a lot of very lovely moments — when the students are really kind to each other. The other day a little girl was upset, and her classmates just totally kicked in, and they were just there to comfort her right away.

BY JULIE SHAPIRO Nearly two months into their inaugural year, the principals of the new schools in Tweed Courthouse are keeping busy. When

they’re not watching kindergarteners learn how to read and share and play, Spruce Street School Principal Nancy Harris and P.S./I.S. 276 Principal Terri Ruyter are planning for their K-8 schools’ futures. P.S./I.S. 276 is scheduled to open at Second Pl. and Battery Pl. in Battery Park City in September. Spruce is expected to open in 2011 at Spruce and William Sts.

After Downtown Express toured the schools last week, Harris and Ruyter both sat down to talk about what their students are learning. Some of the responses are condensed for space reasons.

Inside Downtown’s newest schools

Continued on page 11

Continued on page 12 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7

downtown express®

VOLUME 22, NUMBER 25 THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 6, 2009

Downtown Progress Report 2009, pages 15 - 29

October 30 - November 6, 20092 downtown express

TIME CHANGEMargaret Chin’s debut at Community Board 1 Tuesday

night did not exactly go smoothly. The Democratic nominee for the First City Council

District started off on the right foot by speaking for only about a minute during the board’s public session — her brev-ity earned her several approving whispers. (Councilmember Alan Gerson, whom Chin is likely replacing, spoke at the meeting for about 10 minutes.)

But then, later in the meeting, C.B. 1 Chairperson Julie Menin mentioned that Chin requested the board move its monthly meeting to a different night of the week, since Community Board 3 also meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month. Elected offi cials and their representatives often have to scurry from one meeting to the other and can never stay for too long at either.

Community Board 1 — whose members have been known to say, “We’re No. 1 for a reason” — did not seem amenable to this suggestion. Several people called out that C.B. 3 ought to change its meeting time instead. Chin, who had been a member of both boards at different times, said C.B. 3 picked the time slot fi rst.

Sensing a brewing crisis, Menin said the board would discuss the scheduling change another time.

PRIDE & DUANE Empire State Pride Agenda leader Alan Van Capelle chal-

lenged Tom Duane last week to deliver on his promises to get gay marriage passed in New York.

“Sen. Tom Duane, you have told us on multiple occasions you have the votes to pass this bill,” Van Capelle said at ESPA’s fundraising dinner attended by Duane. “Give us the dignity, the rights, and respect we deserve.”

Duane, who represents part of Downtown and is the State Senate’s fi rst and only openly gay member, initially criticized Gov. David Paterson when he put the marriage bill on the front burner this year.

Van Capelle, who singled out other Democratic senators as well, said: “Some senators, even sponsors of the bill, in an attempt to slow us down, will say that we have not made our case. That is a lie.”

Duane later told our sister publication Gay City News, which fi rst reported Van Capelle’s remarks, that “I am angry also. I don’t just gotta pray it’s going to happen. I know it’s going to happen. I have tremendous sympathy for the anger, the impatience, the fear that it might not happen.”

Paterson though had the crowd laughing when he joked that commitment-phobic gays were going to lose a good excuse.

“If you’ve been telling your loved ones, you know, ‘I’d marry you, but we have a legal problem,’” Paterson said. “Maybe like many straight people have done, you’ve led someone along …. You’d better leave now. Marriage equality is coming to New York State.”

PROUD ADDITIONSpeaking of ESPA, Erin Drinkwater, community rep-

resentative for U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, announced that her three years with the congressman are coming to a close. Drinkwater will soon start a new job at the Empire State Pride Agenda as director of downstate organizing.

BILL & CHRISCity Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s blink-and-you-

missed-it endorsement of mayoral candidate Bill Thompson

just eight days before the election should be enough for Council Democrats to deliver her back to the top spot, sources said. According to one councilmember, Quinn’s re-election as speaker was all but guaranteed when she offered support for Thompson at an unrelated press conference at I.S. 89 in Battery Park City on Monday.

“The speaker’s leadership in the City Council is secure; it was never in jeopardy,” said Brooklyn Councilmember Letitia James, a strident voice against the legislative over-turning of term limits that Quinn helped engineer last year. “An endorsement is an endorsement, despite its tepidity. At least [Quinn] mentioned his name, and even went further and added two additional sentences,” she quipped.

Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s press secretary, didn’t mention Thompson’s name a few weeks ago when he announced that the Big Man was endorsing the Democratic nominee.

“So we’ll accept it, and we’ll run with it,” James added, “and we look forward to the next four years with her as our leader.”

Quinn had apparently approached Thompson earlier about the endorsement, but due to tensions between the two — the speaker is seen as too close an ally of Mayor Mike Bloomberg — he put off an announcement. So Quinn slipped in the nod with little fanfare when speaking to reporters after the press conference, framing her position as an afterthought despite broad speculation over what she would ultimately do.

“I’ve spoken to Comptroller Thompson,” she said at the event. “I told him that I am supporting him and I’m ready to be helpful in any way.”

The back and forth between Quinn and Thompson helps explain why even her staff seemed confused as to the endorsement’s timing, with one Council employee intimat-ing last week that the announcement would come before the weekend. Still, the last-minute tip of the cap should be enough to propel Quinn to another term as speaker, regard-less of any lingering enmity between her, Thompson and some Council Democrats.

MERRY GIFT?Salvatore Strazzullo thought he was giving his neighbor-

hood a gift it wouldn’t refuse.Strazzullo, a lawyer and recent Tribeca transplant,

wants to sponsor a Christmas tree this year in Duane Park. He wants to collect toys to put under the tree and hold a ceremony in early December to give the gifts to underprivi-leged children.

But when Strazzullo presented his idea to Community Board 1 on Tuesday, board members were turned off by what they saw as Strazzullo’s attitude of self-promotion. Several board members said it would be a bad precedent to allow people to advertise their businesses (in this case, Strazzullo’s private law fi rm) in public parks.

“I have a problem with it,” said Pat Moore, a board mem-ber. She suggested that Strazzullo, who by then had left the meeting, instead make a quiet donation to the new Battery Park City library.

As opposition to the tree grew, board member Jeff Galloway fi nally used the “g” word.

“I don’t think we should be grinches,” Galloway said. “It’s nice that [Strazzullo] wants to do something nice for the community.”

But the majority of the board disagreed, voting 19-16 against the tree. The board’s vote is only advisory, and a Parks Dept. spokesperson said the city was still reviewing Strazzullo’s application and would likely make a decision next week. Strazzullo did not return a call for comment.

NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-14

Transit Sam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Mixed Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Progress Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15-29

EDITORIAL PAGES . . . . . . . . . . . .30-31

YOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

ARTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33-38

Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

C.B. 1MEETINGSCommunity Board 1 has not yet released its sched-

ule of November committee meetings. For more infor-mation, check CB1.org.

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downtown express October 30 - November 6, 2009 3

BY JULIE SHAPIRO Developer Larry Silverstein sometimes

thinks about leaving the quagmire of the World Trade Center site behind and casting off on his yacht, but he said he’s afraid that without him, the site will never get rebuilt.

“Without a push from the private sector to move this damn thing forward, it wouldn’t happen,” Silverstein said Wednesday at the RealShare New York real estate conference in Midtown.

Silverstein’s comments were among the fi rst he has made on the Trade Center since he and the Port Authority entered arbitration this sum-mer. Back then, in a well-publicized dispute, Silverstein charged that the Port was years behind on key infrastructure projects at the site, preventing Silverstein from building his three offi ce towers on Church St. To compensate for the delays and the frozen credit markets, Silverstein wanted the Port to help him fi nance two of the Church St. towers. The Port offered some assistance, but said Silverstein needed to put in more money as well.

The argument has largely disappeared from the spotlight as Silverstein and the Port make their cases privately before an arbitration panel. As Silverstein pointed out Wednesday, “There’s not a hell of a lot I can say, for obvious reasons.” But he went on to speak about the World Trade Center for half an hour with moderator John Salustri, editorial director for the ALM-Real Estate Media Group.

One problem with rebuilding the Trade

Center has been the revolving door of New York and New Jersey governors, who share con-trol of the Port Authority, Silverstein said.

“Every time there’s a change of executive, there’s a change of agenda,” Silverstein said. “And every time there’s a change of agenda, it wreaks havoc with everything you’re trying to accomplish if you’re trying to hold a specifi c timeframe.”

Silverstein also criticized the Port Authority, though he started by saying they’re “not bad people.”

“The unfortunate thing,” Silverstein said, “is the people who built the Trade Center — the last major high-rise project they were involved with — are long since gone. And the people who are there today don’t have the experience, don’t have the ability, don’t have the compre-hension of what it takes, the need for timely decisions.

“You know,” Silverstein continued, “the attitude is, ‘I’ll get back to you for the decision.’ Construction doesn’t wait for people who say, ‘I’ll get back to you.’ You need the decision now.”

Silverstein said he committed shortly after 9/11 to stay at the World Trade Center for 10 years to rebuild it. Now an optimistic estimate looks more like 17 years, but he said he’s not going anywhere.

“My attitude is you’ve gotta stay there,” Silverstein said. “On a daily basis, you’ve gotta make the decisions that you are required to make so the construction will fl ow unimped-

ed…. I want very much to be around to see it accomplished. So as far as I’m concerned, I’m going to stay right where I am.”

Silverstein said he was not worried that the Port would fi nd a way to complete the project without him.

Silverstein expects the arbitration to fi nish before the end of the year. A source familiar with Silverstein’s position said a few months ago that the developer would ask the arbiters to award him at least $2.75 billion as compensa-tion for Port delays and for all of the rent and insurance he has paid to the authority.

The panel just fi nished hearing two weeks of testimony from Silverstein and is now hearing two weeks from the Port, Silverstein said. If the panel rules in favor of Silverstein and forces the

Port to give him the resources he needs to build the towers, Silverstein said the entire site with all three of his offi ce towers could be complete by 2016. The Port previously wanted Silverstein to only build Tower 4 and wait to build Towers 2 and 3 until the market improved.

A Port Authority spokesperson declined to comment on the arbitration but said in a state-ment, “We are 100 percent committed to restor-ing Downtown and continue to make important progress on all of the public projects on the site, including the 9/11 Memorial, which is our high-est priority.” Previously, the Port has objected to risking billions of dollars on Silverstein’s private offi ce towers, saying the expense would com-promise the Port’s ability to complete public infrastructure projects elsewhere.

Silverstein also gave a brief update on 99 Church St., the fenced-off site next to the Woolworth Building that was supposed to be an 80-story condo and hotel tower run by the Four Seasons. Silverstein stopped construction on the tower this summer after fi nishing the foundation because he could not get a loan to continue building above street level.

“We’re going to have to be patient,” Silverstein said. “Four Seasons’ attitude is, ‘Hey, whenever it comes, it comes. We’re there, we’re ready.’”

Silverstein said he feels the same way and he expects to get a loan in 2011 and fi nish the building in 2013 or 2014.

[email protected]

Silverstein breaks the silence in W.T.C. dispute

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Rape suspect indictedA Manhattan grand jury on Oct. 22

indicted Vincent Heyward, 21, for a series of rapes, sexual assaults and robberies of women in Hamilton Heights and Soho between Aug. 1 and Sept 7, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s offi ce. The offenses include four counts of fi rst degree rape, several counts of sexual assault, bur-glary and robbery that occurred on Aug. l, 10, 18, 23 and Sept. 7.

The Aug. 23 attack was an attempt on a woman as she entered her Broome St. apart-ment, but two witnesses turned up and the suspect fl ed.

Heyward was arrested on Sept. 15 when a DNA sample was taken and matched with DNA at a crime scene, according to pros-ecutors. At a Sept. 21 court appearance he punched a court offi cer and an Emergency Medical Service worker.

ID theft chargeA Brooklyn man who worked as a com-

puter technician at Bank of New York Mellon headquarters, 1 Wall St., was indict-ed Wednesday for stealing the identities of more than 150 fellow employees and using the information to steal more than $1.1 mil-lion from them and from various charities and other institutions.

Adeniyi Adeyemi, 27, is charged with committing the crimes over a seven-and-a-half-year period from Nov. 1, 2001 to April 30, 2009, according to the 149-count indict-ment handed up on Wednesday by District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Arrested on April 30 during the execution of a search warrant of his Prospect Heights home, Adeyemi has been in jail ever since.

He is charged with stealing the personal identifying information of employees and using the information to open more than

30 bank and brokerage accounts with fi nan-cial institutions including E*Trade, Fidelity, Citibank, Wachovia and Washington Mutual. The accounts served as dummies to receive money that Adeyemi is charged with steal-ing via the internet from charitable and non-profi t foundations including Goodwill Industries, The Sudanese American Community Development Organization, the Jacksonville Humane Society and the International Association of Women Judges, the indictment says.

Adeyemi took control of the accounts of Bank of New York employees and stole more than $128,000 from them in wire transfers of less than $10,000 to avoid man-dated transaction reporting, according to the indictment. He used much of the money to ship goods oversees, primarily to Nigeria, the indictment says.

If convicted, Adeyemi is subject to up to 25 years in prison.

New bias lawsuit Another race discrimination lawsuit

looms for Greenhouse, the club at 150 Varick St. between Spring and Vandam Sts.

Raqiyah Mays, 30, a radio talk host, said

last week that she and three others were denied entrance to the club because they are black, according to newspaper reports. Invited to a Sept. 25 fi lm party, they said the only other black people who were admitted to the party were in the company of white guests.

But Barry Mullineaux, owner of Greenhouse, said the bias allegation was unfounded. Mullineaux, who is white, and Johnny Nunez, the black star of the fi lm, “Shooting Stars,” said that an organizing mix-up, not racism, was the problem. Mays and her friends made their bias protests after the organizer of the event with a guest list failed to show up and they were asked to get on the queue for regular patrons, Mullineaux said.

Greenhouse and Mullineaux are the sub-ject of another bias lawsuit fi led by two black plaintiffs who said they were denied entrance to an Aug. 6 private party for the writer Teri Woods, because they are black. Mullineaux’s lawyer, John L. Sampson, denied allegations about the Aug. 6 event and said the club caters to an inclusive range of patrons regardless of race, religion and sexual orientation.

— Albert Amateau

BY SAM SCHWARTZ

Dear readers,Downtowners are angry about traffi c

offi cers “pulling” traffi c through red lights imperiling pedestrians. I’ve already written to city offi cials conveying my worries that the trend is growing for traffi c offi cers to override red traffi c signals usually at the expense and sometimes peril of pedestrians. I know there are times that this is neces-sary to manage traffi c during an incident or unusual conditions. But, if it is happening on a daily basis, then perhaps the traffi c signal timing should be changed. Here are a couple more tirades below:

Dear Transit Sam,I frequently need to walk or bike across

West St. at Chambers St. The traffi c agents are overriding the red and green light traf-fi c signals. Every time I’m there waiting, the agents prevent east-west crossings for walkers, bikers, cars and buses when the light is green in our favor. This is ridiculous. Let the traffi c signals dictate the fl ow. The traffi c agents are not even necessary.

Edward, Tribeca

Dear Transit Sam,I was particularly interested to read

your response to the letter from Johnny, Brooklyn Bridge (Oct. 16 - 22). I also have noticed traffic agents routinely directing traffic through red lights and into pedestrians. I live near the corner of Adams and Tillary Sts. in Brooklyn where cars are routinely shuffled through

the right-turning red arrow to get onto the Brooklyn Bridge from Tillary St. I’ve filed several complaints with 311 about this issue because it happens to me so frequently, yet no one ever follows up. I finally had enough.

I was walking home from the library on Oct. 14 and had just stepped out from the Brooklyn Bridge median. I had the white walk signal (not even orange flash-ing). The agent watched me step off the curb and then began directing traffic in my direction. The cars even hesitated since they saw there was still a pedestrian in the crosswalk, but the agent just yelled at them to keep going. I confronted the traffic agent, but he claimed that he gave me more than enough time to cross the street. I then asked for his badge number and name, went home and filed a com-

plaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board. I’m not sure if this will go any-where, but I do feel that my life was put in harm’s way by this officer and someone needs to deal with this issue. If you could please follow up on your letter to N.Y.C. D.O.T. and N.Y.P.D. and the response you receive, I would greatly appreciate it.

Rachael, Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge

Sam Schwartz, a former first deputy commissioner of city transportation, is president and C.E.O. of Sam Schwartz Engineering, a traffic engineering con-sulting firm to private and public entities including the Port Authority at the World Trade Center site. Email your questions to [email protected].

Transit SamThe Answer man

POLICE BLOTTER

Gearing up for the opening of the new Goldman Sachs headquarters, Billybey/New York Waterway will expand ferry service between Jersey City and Lower Manhattan starting next week.

As of Nov. 2, ferries will run between Paulus Hook and the World Financial Center every eight minutes on weekdays, almost twice as often as usual.

Paul Goodman, C.E.O. of Billybey, said he anticipated demand for the ferries would rise once Goldman opens its new

43-story tower in Battery Park City later next month. The increased ferry service will run all day Monday through Friday, not just during rush hour, as workers often have to travel to midday meetings across the Hudson, Goodman said.

While Billybey is expanding, Goodman said ridership is down about 10 percent since last year, as the city lost jobs and commuters. But Goodman recently saw the decline level off, giving him hope that the worst is over.

Ferry service expands


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DE: Do you think a new school building helps kids learn?

NH: A school is not made by the space, but that being said, the building can defi -nitely enhance a school, and there are unfor-tunate cases where the space can actually hinder learning. I think it’s what you make of it. Having new walls doesn’t automatically — it’s what you do with it.

DE: What are you most looking forward to about your new building?

NH: Having an auditorium, the commu-nal spaces. The classrooms will have storage. It’ll be huge having space to put things. A larger schoolyard in a more central location, a library, a science lab. All the shared spaces we don’t have now, it’ll be really exciting to have.

DE: The Spruce Street School is slated to move into its new building in the fall of 2011. Would you be concerned if there’s still some construction going on above the school?

NH: It’s not my decision. I get word that we’re moving in, we move; I get word that we’re not, we don’t.

DE: What are the advantages of a school where all the students live very close togeth-er, and what are the advantages of a school

where kids come from a broader area? NH: We’ll be a community school no

matter what, no matter who’s here and what street they live on. We’re here to serve Lower Manhattan and no matter where those lines are drawn or not drawn, we’ll still stay true to that mission. This is the hub — our school becomes the unifying location. We do have somewhat of a spread this year. We have stu-dents who take the school bus because they live more than half a mile away, and then we have students — one student ran up the other day during arrival and her mom said, “We just timed our commute, and it took us 80 seconds to get here.”

DE: Is a certain amount of rote memo-rization useful in learning math? Does that begin in kindergarten?

NH: I don’t know that there’s ever a place for just rote on its own. You can teach kids concepts and the experiences, but they need skills to plug into that framework. I need to have this idea of numbers, but I also need to know the physical skills and the compu-tational skills to make sense of it. It’s similar to reading: I need to have ideas about how books go, what characters do, but I also need to know how to turn a page, and how to look at an unfamiliar word and tackle it. It’s having the skills to support the under-standing of the concepts.

DE: Do you hope that Frank Gehry, who designed your new school’s building, will

come visit? What do you think the kids would ask him?

NH: We want to go over to the site and talk to construction workers, see who we can speak to that’s working on the building right now. And if that included some people who are behind the scenes, Mr. Gehry, of course we would welcome that. I think the students’ questions would be tied to what their curiosi-ties are and what we’re learning about. Right now we’re learning about roles in a school, and the kids are developing interview ques-tions: How did you learn to do your job? Who does your job if you’re not there?

DE: Are there any spruce trees near your new building, and if not, would you like to plant one?

NH: [Laughs] I don’t know! If they can survive in New York, if they’re indigenous… I think being on Spruce St. is enough to hold the name up.

DE: Is there anything kids aren’t being taught today that you would like your stu-dents to learn?

NH: We talked over the summer about who are these kids in 2018, which is when they fi nish eighth grade. We talked about what kind of people we hope they are, what kind of learners they are, who they are in the commu-nity. We don’t know what challenges will come up, what changes. So the idea is of them being adaptable, fl exible, problem solvers.

DE: What fi ve books would you like every graduate of your school to have read?

NH: Everybody should graduate being able to talk about fi ve books they read recently. They should be able to talk about their favorite books, fi ve books that they love. I would love if they could talk about fi ve books they remember from kindergar-ten. But specifi c titles? Some have yet to be written, so it’s hard to imagine.

DE: Is there anything else people should know about Spruce Street School?

NH: For kindergarten next fall, there are a lot of unanswerables right now. But we are starting tours and we’re really excited. Now there’s something concrete for them to look at, which there wasn’t last year. So I’m excited to let it speak for itself.

DE: It seems like people are a little less anxious this year, now that the school is open and they can see it.

NH: That’s the hope.

DE: Do you think a new school building helps kids learn?

TR: Tweed Courthouse is exceptional — we are exceptionally lucky. But it’s what you do with the space. It’s not the fact that it’s all fancy-schmancy; it’s what happens on the inside. It’s how you treat each other and the tone that’s set. And the kids, I don’t know how much they really pay attention.

DE: Next fall, you’ll defi nitely be in your new building in Battery Park City?

TR: [Knocks on the table] I never say defi nitely — it’s New York City.

DE: What are the advantages of a school where all the students live very close together, and what are the advan-tages of a school where kids come from a broader area?

TR: The neighborhood school is a lovely thing — you go to each other’s house to play. The advantage of having kids from outside your neighborhood is you get outside your neighborhood. My daughter’s public elemen-tary school took kids from a broad area. And we got into different parts of the city on play dates that we never would have gotten into. It just broadens your horizons of what’s out in the city.

DE: With kids growing up texting and instant messaging, are spelling, grammar and punctuation a lost cause? When is it appropriate to start correcting them?

TR: Language is a code, and you need to know what is the appropriate code to use when. If you sent a cover letter for a job with IM language, “U R,” you are not going to get the job. It’s part of reading that you know that the beginning of a sentence begins with a capital letter, names begin with capital letters, you end with a period. When I’m reading and it ends with a period, it tells me something. When it ends with a question mark, it tells me something. How do I use those conventions in my own writ-ing? They’re starting that already.

DE: Given your school’s focus on the environment, what would you expect your students to learn that their peers might not know?

TR: We’re trying to do a lot of hands-on science stuff. It’s not just looking at, “how can I be green?” It’s being more cognizant of how my actions impact other people and the environment. I’m hoping we frame this in a way that makes children more aware of how they’re using resources and how other people have access to resources, and the equities and inequities of that, and thinking about that also on a more global scale.

DE: When did you fi rst become interested in environmental issues? What is the biggest threat to the environment right now?

TR: I was in junior high school in the ’70s when that Indian commercial was on and the Indian cried. This was that iconic TV commercial, and that’s when Earth Day started, I think. In seventh grade we studied land pollution, air pollution and water pol-lution, and our teacher let us produce a play about it. The big thing is awareness. Citizen apathy is probably the biggest threat to the environment these days.

DE: What fi ve books would you like

every graduate of your school to have read?

TR: The fi ve-book list could change by the time our students graduate. Remarkable books are being published every year. That said, Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” is on the list, as is Natalie Babbitt’s “The Search for Delicious.” The teachers are already reading Ruth Stiles Gannet’s “My Father’s Dragon” to the kids. It may stretch the students, but Marc Aronson’s book, “Race: A history of Black and White,” is really an incredible story of the history of humanity and how people are set apart by random features and the con-sequences of those actions. I am quite fond of Steve Jenkins as an author of remarkable picture books about scientifi c concepts.

DE: Is there anything kids aren’t being taught today that you would like your stu-dents to learn?

TR: I am planning to have teachers focus on reading and writing in the content areas. I have been reading a lot of more scholarly history books recently. The discipline has very specifi c structures that I am just getting used to — a lot of context is built up and then the author gets to the main part of the story. Science texts also have specifi c structures. I would like our students to be aware of the specifi c styles of the disciplines so that they can actively and critically read these texts and create similar texts of their own. So it isn’t really a topic, it is more of a focus within the disciplines.

Nancy Harris, principal of Spruce Street

Terri Ruyter, P.S./I.S. 276’s principal

Continued from page 1


Downtown Express photo by Elisabeth Robert

Nancy Harris


Terri Ruyter


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The kindergarteners who started school two months ago at Tweed Courthouse looked very busy last Friday morning when Downtown Express stopped by for a visit.

In just a few hours, the students at the Spruce Street School and P.S. 276 painted in primary colors, acted out stories and played dress-up, bingo and soccer. In one 276 classroom, two boys constructed a city of wooden blocks that towered a good foot above their heads.

“Look at this!” the boys called out as Terri Ruyter, P.S. 276 principal, walked past. “We built this ourselves!”

The rooms looked very different from last year, when the ground fl oor of Tweed was occupied by the Ross Global Academy, a charter school. Ruyter and Spruce Principal Nancy Harris bought all new furniture and equipment to fi ll the space, and it had a much lighter, more open feeling without the dividers Ross was using.

Since Tweed is also the Dept. of Education’s headquar-ters, the children have to pass through a metal detector as they enter the school. The classrooms have columns and chandeliers, and the walls showcase quotes about politics and close-ups of Mayor Bloomberg signing bills.

Students from both schools appeared interested in their surroundings, building their own version of Tweed in blocks or imitating the old-fashioned elevators with makeshift pul-leys. On a bulletin board in the hallway, one kindergarten student sketched the school in green, put stick fi gures inside and added a pink-marker label: “Tuet Kordhas.”

Ruyter and Harris share an offi ce and some common spaces, including a cafeteria, but the schools are on opposite sides of Tweed and the students learn separately. Each school has two large corner classrooms with fl oor-to-ceiling win-dows, which make the small classes (fewer than 20 students) feel even smaller.

On Friday morning, the Spruce Street School used one

of these large rooms for a “Spruce Street Circle,” a gather-ing of the school’s three kindergarten classes on the central green and blue rugs. Teacher Gina van der Vliet, from the Netherlands, shared Dutch snacks with the kindergarteners, who are also paired with Dutch pen pals.

Although most kindergarteners cannot read yet, the Spruce Street students were learning the fundamentals by studying several books in depth, including “Caps for Sale” and “Corduroy.” Crouching on the rug, the children acted

out their books in pairs, taking on the roles and voices of monkeys and trolls as the stories demanded.

Over on the P.S. 276 side, seven kindergarteners were in the classroom that serves as a gym, learning to dribble soccer balls with the sides of their feet. The children go to gym in half groups, which both accommodates the small space and gives them more one-on-one attention.

Meanwhile, other 276 students were learning the recipe for pumpkin cheesecake or painting cardboard models of trees, in keeping with 276’s environmental theme.

P.S. 276 is slated to move into its new Battery Park City building next fall, while Spruce is expected to remain in place another year before moving into the new Frank Gehry-designed tower on Beekman St.

The city has not decided whether Spruce and 276 will be zoned for next fall or how the application process will work, but parents of children who will start kindergarten in 2010 can begin touring the schools soon.

The Spruce Street School will hold tours at Tweed Courthouse from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on four Thursdays: Nov. 19, Dec. 17, Jan. 21 and Feb 4. Parents can RSVP by e-mailing [email protected]

P.S. 276 will hold kindergarten tours at Tweed Courthouse from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. on fi ve Wednesdays: Nov. 18, Dec. 2, Dec. 16, Jan. 13 and Jan. 27. Parents can RSVP on the school’s blog, PS276.blogspot.com.

Ruyter will also hold sixth grade information sessions for families with students interested in entering I.S. 276 next fall. The sessions will be held at the Downtown Community Center, 120 Warren St., on three Wednesdays from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.: Nov. 2, Nov. 16 and Nov. 30. Parents can RSVP on I.S. 276’s blog, IS276.blogspot.com.

— Julie Shapiro

A peek into the life of a kindergartener

Downtown Expres photo by Elisabeth Robert

Kindergarteners ar P.S. 276 take gym classes in small groups.


School lottery may be dropped for temporary zoningBY JULIE SHAPIRO

Hoping to avoid a lottery for kindergarten seats next fall, the city may draw temporary zones around each of Lower Manhattan’s elementary schools.

Children entering kindergarten would then be guaranteed a seat in their zoned school, removing some of the uncertainty that plagued the admissions process last year.

“The purpose here is to provide clarity as early as possible to families as to where their children would be registered,” said Elizabeth Rose, director of portfolio planning at the Dept. of Education.

The D.O.E. plans to propose defi nite zone lines before Thanksgiving, but the zones would likely break out as follows: Children in Tribeca would go to P.S. 234, northern Battery Park City would go to P.S. 89, southern B.P.C. and southern Financial District would go to P.S./I.S. 276, and Seaport and northern Financial District would go to the Spruce Street School.

Rose proposed the temporary zoning at a meeting of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s school overcrowding task-force Monday afternoon. Most parents on the taskforce said temporary zoning would be preferable to another lottery. The city had to hold a lottery for this fall’s kindergarteners because they did not zone the two new schools — 276 and Spruce Street — which opened this fall in Tweed Courthouse.

The D.O.E. had hoped to draw the permanent zone lines this fall and have them in place for next fall’s admissions pro-cess. But the District 2 Community Education Council, a group of mostly parents that has a role in school zoning, said two weeks ago that they needed more time and information before they could draw permanent lines.

Rose said Monday that more time would be helpful from the city’s perspective as well, because many residential buildings Downtown that are planned or under construction will not be occupied by next fall. A permanent zoning plan would have to

take those new buildings into account, but including them in a zoning plan next fall would “result in some schools having many fewer children than they can accommodate for this fall,

and other schools still being overcrowded,” Rose said. Monday was Rose’s fi rst time at Silver’s taskforce, where she

is replacing John White as the D.O.E.’s representative. Rose has two children in District 2’s elementary schools and already knows Lisa Ripperger, principal of P.S. 234. Although Rose sometimes referred to all of Lower Manhattan as “Tribeca” and admitted that she had a lot to learn about the area, several parents said Rose’s perspective as a District 2 parent as well as a D.O.E. administrator would be helpful. District 2 includes almost all of Downtown, Midtown and much of the Upper East Side.

If the D.O.E. draws temporary zoning lines in Lower Manhattan, they would be in place for at least one year. If the lines changed in future years, students already at the schools would not have to transfer, and their siblings would be grand-fathered in as well, Rose said.

Nancy Harris, principal of the Spruce Street School, said she needed answers on kindergarten admissions because she’s starting tours soon for prospective families.

“The urgency is there to have some information more con-crete than ‘We don’t know,’” Harris said. “It’s going to be a huge shift if we are zoned, and not knowing where the lines are. And if we aren’t zoned, how does that relate to last year’s process?”

Shino Tanikawa, co-chairperson of the C.E.C.’s zoning committee, said she will support temporary zoning if that is what Lower Manhattan wants. Most people at Silver’s meeting were in favor of temporary zoning, but Tanikawa wanted to talk to additional Downtown parents before mak-ing a decision.

A further complication of the kindergarten zoning deci-sion is that it affects who will get preference to enter sixth grade next fall at I.S. 276, the middle school portion of the new K-8 in southern B.P.C. If the schools are zoned tempo-

Sora Lella Ristorante

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T he exposed white brick, rustic Italian art, modern electric chandeliers and mahogany furniture make it easy to

see why Sora Lella mainly draws couples into its intimate yet casual atmosphere.

Mauro and Simone Trabalza, brothers, chefs and owners of Sora Lella, have opened a new Soho location that’s home to everything from Italian-language meetings to in-house cooking demonstrations. The brothers, along with business partner Fabio Maltese, opened back in March, and while business was off to a booming start, things have slowed in more recent months, possibly because the regulars who went MIA were dining at their Rome location: those who traveled to Italy on vacation have come in with business cards from Isola Tiberina to show for it. The three have put together a menu that boasts traditional roman Italian fare; mixing traditional recipes with clever new creations, their menu changes with the season.

Signature appetizer Caprese del tremila di Aldo Trabalza is made by mixing buffalo mozzarella and cream to produce a pana cotta like creation covered with diced tomato, served alongside a cake of tomato paste mixed with jelly. Together they create a sweet spreadable combination great on bread. The Polpettine della Nonna al vino bianoco, meatballs made

from veal and served in a white wine sauce, are light and zesty, served without their typical cloak of red sauce.

Our waiter, Mario Lisi, attempted to give the group of women at a neighboring table Italian lessons while serving them their pasta, creating an all around European feel to the room, though the Michael Jackson soundtrack playing on repeat detracted from the rustic vibe of the eatery.

The pastas are smothered with Parmesan cheese, overpowering already flavorful dishes. Underneath the thick garnish lies smooth, subtle and plump Gnocchi di patate all’Amatriciana. The Tonnarelli alla Cuccagna is both nutty and cheesy, a wild yet surprisingly pleasing combination. Aldo Trabalza’s version

of eggplant parmesan is tasty and succulent, arriving smothered in melted cheese.

During the daily l’ora dell’Aperitivo from 5:00p.m. to 7:30p.m., tastings of bruschetta, olives, frittata, meatballs, and potato croquettes are offered up along with happy hour drink specials. Their homemade Muslum wine is made by blending red (or white) wine, honey, black pepper, and cinnamon…maybe after a couple of glasses, you’ll be confident enough to join in and test your Italian linguistic skills at the Italian conversation meetings hosted on Mondays and Fridays (beginner level from noon to 1:00 p.m.; intermediate and from 1:00p.m. -2p.m.)

If you prefer your bread served with marinara sauce, your eggplant textured and flavorful, and your cheeses creamy, Sora Lella, located on 300 Spring St. between Hudson and Greenwich Sts., is a destination spot well worth traveling a few blocks off the beaten path to get to…and don’t expect anything less than perfection. “I’d rather go bankrupt than sell food that isn’t fresh or perfect,” says Fabio.

- Le Petite Cupcake



The zoning for P.S./I.S. 276, which is expected to open in Battery Park City next year, could be temporary.


School zones

rarily, then those who live in 276’s elemen-tary zone will have priority for entering the middle school, Rose said. If there is a lottery similar to last year, then all students below Canal St. on the West Side and below the Brooklyn Bridge on the East Side would have priority for sixth grade at 276, she said.

Rose predicted that if the D.O.E. insti-tuted a lottery, “you’d have a lot of really unhappy kindergarten parents even while you might be making some group of fi fth grade parents very happy.”

Several parents said they heard that I.S. 276 is generating a lot of interest outside of Lower Manhattan, especially because fi fth graders can apply to it through a separate admissions process for new schools, rather than through the usual District 2 choice process. All new middle schools accept applications separate from the general choice process, and students may receive offers to both a new school and one that is on their choice application.

“Everyone is going to apply,” said Deborah Somerville, whose son is in fi fth grade at P.S. 89. “They have nothing to lose by applying.”

Somerville is in favor of the temporary elementary zones, partly because her home in southern B.P.C. would almost defi nitely be included in 276’s zone, giving her son and others an improved chance of entering

276’s sixth grade next fall. But Karen Miller, another fi fth-grade

P.S. 89 parent, said she would like a broader group of Downtown kids to have preference for sixth grade at I.S. 276 — though she said she would not want to subject kindergarteners to a lottery to achieve that.

Meanwhile, parents with younger chil-dren at P.S. 89 are focused on a different issue: continued elementary overcrowding there. This year, P.S. 89 has about 140 fi rst graders in fi ve packed classes with nearly 30 students apiece, far more than the 75 students per grade level that the school ought to have.

To relieve the fi rst grade overcrowding, Anne Albright, a P.S. 89 parent, suggested moving two classes of the fi rst graders into P.S. 276’s new building next fall, starting a second grade there a year earlier than planned. Albright has a third-grade daugh-ter and twins in fi rst grade, and she said she would be willing to have her children split between P.S. 89 and P.S. 276 if it meant that they would all be getting a bet-ter education.

“I love 89,” Albright said, but the overcrowding there “is not sustainable. You can’t squeeze these classes down any more.”

Rose said she would discuss the idea with Downtown’s principals.

[email protected]

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The bottle bill means more recycling and a cleaner greener New York.

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human bodies, Boyle said he had always wanted to improve his work by doing the equivalent.

“You can’t do that anymore — buy a cadaver, cut it up,” Boyle said. “This is unbelievable.”

Boyle, an architect, described the bodies on display as “a building before you put the walls up.”

Bodies education coordinator Richard Hinojosa started the sketching sessions a couple years ago after he noticed artists drawing during regular hours. For the same price as a regular admission — $26.50 for adults on weekdays — artists can come after hours and have free reign of the exhibits, along with an introductory les-son. Three more sketch nights are planned for November, and those who have already paid full price once can come back and get half off.

The sketch nights are one way the Bodies exhibit can continue drawing a new local audi-ence as it approaches its four-year anniversary at the South Street Seaport. The unchanging exhibit was initially planned to last only six months, but while demand has fallen off somewhat as Bodies approaches the 2 million visitor mark, the exhibit is still drawing enough people to stay open, said Ken Talberth, director of operations.

“It’s like a Broadway show — you exhaust the local audience relatively soon,” Talberth said from his offi ce over the summer. Based on a recent survey, the exhibit draws about 30 per-cent of its attendees from outside of the country, and another 20 percent from the United States outside of the tri-state area. Many of the local visitors are students, Talberth said.

General Growth Properties, owner of the South Street Seaport, including the Bodies building at South and Fulton Sts., said last year that the exhibit would not remain in the Seaport long-term. At the time, G.G.P. had grand plans to redevelop the Seaport into a high-end mixed-use property, including condos and two hotels, but after the company declared bankruptcy last spring, those plans were put on hold.

Now, Janell Vaughan, senior general manag-er of the Seaport, said the Bodies exhibit would stay for at least another couple years.

“We’re happy to keep them and they seem happy to stay here,” Vaughan said this week.

“Bodies has really had a lot of staying power.” The exhibit sees some repeat visitors, but

few could be more enthusiastic than Mary Zellman, 52, who said Monday’s sketch night was her sixth time seeing the cadavers.

“The challenge never ends,” Zellman said as she sketched a standing fi gure that held a conductor’s baton in his hand. “There is no end to the learning that can be done here.”

Zellman, who lives on Long Island, is both a watercolor painter and a high school physical education teacher, and she said she found the perfect combination of her two interests at the exhibit.

An artist who was more hesitant was fi rst-time visitor Mary Sauer, 23, a recent college graduate. Because the preserved bodies so clearly lack life, “It’s more like just drawing a lump of meat from the grocery store,” Sauer said as she sketched in pastel. “It could be just as helpful if it were not real…. I’d probably rather it not be real.”

Beyond some initial squeamishness, none of the artists Monday night had any moral objec-tions to the show, which takes unclaimed bodies from medical universities in China. After some media investigations into the origins of the bod-ies, last year Andrew Cuomo, the state attorney general, ordered a disclaimer placed at the exhibit stating that owner Premier Exhibitions cannot independently verify that the bodies do not belong to executed Chinese prisoners.

Zellman, Boyle and other artists said the exhibit was done respectfully and focused on learning, which allayed their concerns. Boyle, a Mormon, said the spirits of the dead were no longer in the bodies. In fact, he sees the enormous complexity of the displayed bodies as a helpful argument for intelligent design over evolution.

A friend of Boyle’s, fellow architect Ricardo Lopez, said that despite the complexity of the exposed muscles and systems, in some ways it was easier to draw the bodies than to draw live models. When sketching models in art classes, Lopez, 26, said he sometimes felt awkward about staring at a naked person.

“In this case,” he said, standing inches from a preserved shoulder bone, “it’s much easier not to feel that way.”

[email protected]

Artists take on dead subjects

Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel

Mary Zellman sketches a body on display in the Seaport exhibit.



has featured on its plaster have run the gamut from spiritual leaders to salsa stars, including Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, Selena and Celia Cruz. His first piece there depicted a young girl who was killed on Broome St.

The graffiti guru will also be painting a mural of the Rat Pack stars of the 1960s — Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra and the rest — near a bar between Eighth and Ninth Sts. on Avenue C.

Down in Tampa, Chico has been busy doing detail work and designs on cars and motorcycle helmets, and is now starting to get back into murals, too. He proudly showed some photos on his cell phone of him with Tampa’s mayor at the dedica-tion of his mural for a slain police officer there.

Asked if he was thinking of doing a Yankees mural now that the team is doing so well — maybe that heroic A-Rod kneel-ing pose after he scored a key run? — Chico sounded skeptical.

“A-Rod is the man,” he said, then added, “Personally, I think they should check him out again — he’s hitting home runs too fast.”

Chico’s cousin Andres, who was assist-ing him with the mural on Wednesday, is a born-and-raised Lower East Sider.

“I remember when cabs didn’t go past

First Ave. — not for $1,000,” he said with a smile as proof that he’s seen it all.

The Power of Peace Coalition was started by Councilmember Rosie Mendez

and District Leader Anthony Feliciano last year after Tina Negron, 24, an employee at the Key Food supermarket on Avenue A at E. Fourth St., was killed by a co-

worker there in February 2008. The Lower Eastside Girls Club, which

is part of the coalition, commissioned the peace mural.

Artist spreads message of peace back on the L.E.S.

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Downtown Express photos by Lincoln Anderson

From left, Andres Borrero, Antonio “Chico” Garcia and William Pentecost working on the new Power of Peace Coalition mural on Houston St. last week.


BY PATRICK HEDLUND

GRIMALDI’S STILL ON TRACKThe Financial District outpost of popular

Brooklyn-based pizzeria Grimaldi’s should open sometime next year despite speculation that the pie purveyors are nearing eviction.

According to a notice posted on the door of the forthcoming restaurant last week, Grimaldi’s still owes more than $25,000 in back rent and legal fees for the space at the corner of John and Water Sts. across from the South Street Seaport. The note stated that the tenant has until Nov. 5 to make the payment, which also includes late fees and water and sewer charges, or it will have to surrender the property.

However, Grimaldi’s owner Frank Ciolli assured us that things are still moving ahead as planned. “I’ve been a little remiss with the managing agent,” he acknowledged, adding that out-of-town family obligations have recently kept him occupied. “We’ll take care of it.”

The restaurant, which Ciolli a year ago pegged to be open by early 2009, has already undergone extensive work in advance of a full build-out, including ripping out layers of fl ooring to accommodate an elevator and staircase. “It’s been a nightmare in terms of time loss,” he said, adding that preparation has accounted for “ten times the work” he originally planned for. “It’s a misunderstand-ing. I just didn’t take care of business.”

Grimaldi’s has recently opened fi ve off-shoot locations out West — including res-taurants in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix and another planned for Reno — so any question of the operators’ fi nancial sta-bility would appear unfounded.

For now, Ciolli plans to hand over his long-in-the-works city-approved permits to the landlord to commence with reconstruc-tion, and “then we’ll be able to start to build.” The work includes plans for three fl oors of seating and roof deck.

“I think it’s going to be a very, very won-derful addition to the neighborhood,” Ciolli added. “Nothing worthwhile is easy.”

SOHO, TRIBECA HIGHThe city’s most expensive rental proper-

ties continue to remain below Houston St., with prices for Soho and Tribeca units rising despite a generally inert market citywide.

According to the Real Estate Group New York’s monthly rental market report, the most expensive rents for doorman and non-doorman studios, one- and two-bedrooms can be found in the two trendy Downtown neighborhoods.

Citywide, Soho took the top spot for the average monthly rent of both doorman one- and two-bedroom apartments, coming in at $4,522 and $7,241, respectively. Tribeca had the priciest monthly doorman and non-doorman studio rents ($2,777 and $3,119, respectively), as well as the most expensive non-doorman one- and two-bedroom rents ($4,592 and $6,465, respectively).

The two neighborhoods also benefi ted from average monthly rent increases for many of their unit types, with Tribeca seeing an 8.69 percent ($367) jump in the price of non-doorman one-bedrooms, an 8.04 percent ($232) uptick in the price of non-doorman studios, and an 8.5 percent ($297) spike in the price of doorman one-bedrooms over last month. Soho experienced a whopping 12.87 percent ($525) jump in the price of non-doorman two bedrooms since September.

In the East Village and Lower East Side, average monthly rents for all doorman and non-doorman units combined dropped an average of about 3 percent over last month. Rents stayed relatively unchanged in Greenwich Village, dipping by 0.38 per-cent for all unit types since September. The Financial District also remained steady, increasing by 0.45 percent for all unit types.

SO IT GOES AT LE SOUKEmbattled East Village nightclub Le Souk

had its liquor license pulled last week, just months after reopening amid a drawn-out battle with the State Liquor Authority and the Avenue B hotspot’s sleepless neighbors.

According to the S.L.A., the State Court of Appeals upheld the authority’s determi-nation that overcrowding occurred at the hookah bar near E. Fourth St., requiring a cancellation of the club’s liquor license.

Le Souk had been cited for multiple viola-tions in a January 2007 enforcement sweep of the North African-themed nightspot, result-ing in the March 2008 cancellation. But that decision was overturned after the owners won an appeal this May in State Supreme Court, which found that evidence of overcrowding was based on an inaccurate “guesstimate” and that it was outside the S.L.A.’s purview to make such a determination.

“The Court of Appeals correctly found that the S.L.A. must have the authority to act when bars break local laws,” said Dennis Rosen, the authority’s chairperson. “Bars that allow overcrowding or fail in their basic duty to adequately supervise their premises are often just setting the stage for more seri-ous violations to occur. The Court’s decision [on Oct. 22] was essential for the S.L.A.’s continuing efforts to ensure public safety at licensed establishments.”

Just last week at a meeting of Community Board 3, representatives from the cacopho-nous club squared off with angry residents claiming that noise, traffi c and other negative quality-of-life impacts caused by Le Souk had made life in the area “intolerable.”

Susan Stetzer, Board 3’s district manager, said that despite the recent action, the club was up and running this past weekend.

“People that live in the area were celebrating the news, and by Sunday night they were com-plaining to the community board,” she said.

The S.L.A. only has the power to confi s-cate liquor licenses and can’t actually close the location. According to Stetzer, police at the East Village’s Ninth Precinct had not been contacted about the ruling or asked to take any action.

“I must say, I’m a little frustrated,” she added, recalling that after Le Souk’s fi rst cancel-lation, the club continued to operate for eight months. “It is really diffi cult to get any informa-tion on what the S.L.A. is doing about this.”

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BY ALBERT AMATEAU Six years after Village preservation advo-

cates began urging the designation of a 30-block South Village Historic District, the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday held its fi rst hearing on part of the proposal.

But the hearing, on what the commis-sion calls the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension, covers only one-third of the larger South Village Historic District that the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation wants protected.

Andrew Berman, executive director of G.V.S.H.P., told the commission on Oct. 27 that historic buildings in the entire area were being demolished to make way for new devel-opment or altered in ways that destroy their historic features.

“While the city is gradually considering landmark designation for a part of the neigh-borhood, buildings are being destroyed and most of the neighborhood is not even being considered for landmark designation yet,” Berman said.

L.P.C. is considering a district of rough-ly 10 blocks between W. Fourth St. and Houston St. from the west side of Sixth Ave to Seventh Ave. South. G.V.S.H.P. has been calling for a new historic district to include those blocks together with about another 20 blocks between Houston and Watts Sts. from the east side of Sixth Ave. to LaGuardia

Place down to Houston St., and to midblock between Thompson St. and West Broadway from Houston St. down to Watts St.

In the 10 blocks that L.P.C. is currently considering, two historic buildings have had alterations that compromise their historic value, one at 23 Cornelia St. and the other at 12 Leroy St. In addition, a row of build-ings at 233-237 Bleecker St. was threatened before the L.P.C. hearing was calendared, Berman said.

In the larger area not under consideration, historic buildings that were demolished in recent years include the residence at 178 Bleecker St.; the Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments, at 133-139 MacDougal St.; the Circle in the Square theater, 159 Bleecker St.; and the Tunnel Garage, at Broome and Thompson Sts. In addition, the brick facade of the Sullivan St. Playhouse, at 181 Sullivan St., was replaced by glass. Furthermore, Fire Patrol No. 2, a 1902 building at 84 W. Third St., has been sold to a private developer whose plans for it are unknown.

Last Thursday, Berman led a demonstra-tion of about 60 Villagers in front of 178 Bleecker St., where a fi ve-story 1861 resi-dential building outside the 10-block area under L.P.C. review was demolished during the summer.

The owner of 178 Bleecker St., John Wu, had applied earlier this year to the Department of Buildings for a permit to erect

an eight-story building on the site. Berman, however, protested that the proposal for the property, which is only 22 feet wide, violates the city’s “sliver law,” which says that build-ings narrower than 45 feet wide cannot be built taller than the width of the streets they face. Bleecker St. is registered as 60 feet wide, which would make eight stories (around 80 feet tall) a violation, Berman said. He added that the fi ve-story building previously on the site was lower than 60 feet tall.

But D.O.B. responded that eight stories at the site does not run afoul of the sliver law because the project involves a merger of two building lots. Nevertheless, D.O.B. last week said the building application was being audited because of community concern and the permit was on hold until the audit is complete. A department spokesperson was unable to say when the audit would be

completed.Lucy Cecere, who was born and bred in

the Village and celebrated her 60th wed-ding anniversary earlier in the week, urged neighbors at the Oct. 21 demonstration to unite against further demolitions of historic buildings in the neighborhood.

Lois Rakoff, a member of the Bleecker Area Merchants and Residents Association, was outraged that the proposed replace-ment would tower over adjacent buildings and overwhelm the tiny MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens Historic District, a group of row houses built around a courtyard just south of the demolished building.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn submitted a statement to L.P.C. at the Oct. 27 hearing urging approval of the 10-block extension and “continued efforts to protect the physical legacy of the South Village.”

Group urges South Village landmarking now

The escalator on the east side of the Vesey St. bridge has been down for a month and a half, and it could be another three months before it’s fi xed.

A severe storm fl ooded the escala-tor on Sept. 17, causing the bottom fi ve or six steps to buckle, said Adam Levine, spokesperson for the State Dept. of Transportation. Robin Forst, director of community relations for the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, said if anyone had been on the escalator at the time of the collapse, they could have been seriously injured.

To get the escalator up and running again will require a new chain and other

mechanical components that have to be manufactured in Germany by the Schindler Group.

“They aren’t actually on a shelf any-where,” Levine said of the needed pieces.

It will cost up to $200,000 and take about three months for Schindler to make the parts and ship them to New York, Levine said. The Port Authority is respon-sible for paying for the bridge maintenance and at fi rst considered not repairing the escalator at all, since the Port is building an extension of the bridge early next year with a new escalator. But the Port agreed this week to fund the repairs, “So we’re moving forward,” Levine said.

Wait ‘til next year, Vesey escalator

Downtown Express photo by Lorenzo Ciniglio

Healthy eatsSen. Kirsten Gillibrand and celebrity chef Rachael Ray got a mixed reception from students at P.S./I.S. 89 Monday morning when they debuted a new healthy menu item at the Battery Park City school. More than 1,600 schools across the city could soon begin serving the soft taco with southwest roasted chicken, sweet roasted corn, vegetarian beans and steamed broccoli, a recipe Ray perfected using ingredients already common in school cafeterias. Other attendees included Deputy Mayor for Education Dennis Walcott, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and State Sen. Daniel Squadron, who said that although he did not try the meal, it looked like it tasted good.


The physical signs of progress are all over Lower Manhattan including at Tower 1 at the World Trade Center, top, and the Goldman Sachs headquarters building which is about to open catty-corner to the W.T.C. in Battery Park City in November, right. But the long-term prospects at the W.T.C. are less cer-tain because of a fi nancial dispute between the Port Authority and developer Larry Silverstein, page 17.

In our 14th annual Progress Report, we take a look at what’s going on Downtown with columns from some of Lower Manhattan’s leaders and others.

Battery Park City Authority chairperson James Gill argues that the authority still has much work to do taking care of the neighborhood (P. 27). His essay comes in the wake of a New York Times op-ed column co-written by the authority’s fi rst chairperson and current vice chairperson, Charles Urstadt, who thinks the city could make about $1 billion and save $15 million a year by taking control of the neighbor-hood and shutting down the authority.

With reports from the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, Community Board 1 and more, pages 16 – 29.

Lots of construction despite the fi ghts over money

Downtown Express photo by Milo Hess



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The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owner of the World Trade Center, is currently in an arbitration battle with the site’s developer, Larry Silverstein.

Silverstein is reportedly asking for at least $2.75 billion from the Port as com-pensation for violations to their 2006 agreement. The Port has missed deadlines in the agreement and paid hefty fi nes for turning the three offi ce sites over to Silverstein Properties late. Silverstein argues that the delays forced him to wait until the credit market froze before he could get loans. The money he is asking for represents the amount he has paid in rent and insurance proceeds to the Port Authority since 9/11.

He fi led for arbitration after attempts to come to a compromise failed.

The Port agreed to loan guarantees for Silverstein to build Tower 4, but refused to back Silverstein’s loans for Tower 2 at the northeast corner of the site.

“The market is telling us they shouldn’t rise,” Chris Ward, the Port’s executive director, said at a City Council hearing in August. “To build into a market that pri-vate capital will not enter means that you are effectively building socialized offi ce space.”

The authority is also constructing the 9/11 Memorial, the W.T.C. PATH Station, Tower 1 (Freedom Tower), and hopes to

build the retail complex planned for the base of the Silverstein towers.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who both tried to mediate the dispute in the spring, argue that it is not feasible to build temporary retail spaces and construct offi ces later, so they pressed the Port to help Silverstein more.

The Port moved last week to reduce its dependence on Silverstein Properties. The authority needs the belowground and low-rise portions of the towers to be built because they contain infrastructure for the vehicle security center and the PATH hub. Some of the exits from the PATH hub, for example, were supposed to funnel com-muters through Silverstein’s Church St. towers.

But last week, the Port decided to spend $20 million to redesign the site so that Silverstein’s towers no longer contain key public infrastructure. That will allow the Port to build its projects without relying on an agreement with Silverstein. The design changes will affect architect Santiago Calatrava’s PATH hub, the vehicle security center and the Freedom Tower.

The Port also authorized additional W.T.C. funds at last Thursday’s board meeting, including $140 million to build the complex’s sidewalks and streets, com-plete with trees and street furniture.

If Silverstein wins enough money from

the arbiter he plans to continue building Tower 4 and will probably start on Tower 2. Both sides have agreed to put off con-structing Tower 3 on Church St. in the short term.

The Port is also expected to get con-trol of the Tower 5 site next year when the damaged Deutsche Bank building is expected to be demolished. The Port plans to wait for a tenant building at the Tower 5 site.

Both sides have been reluctant to speak publicly since the arbitration battle began. They each declined invitations from Downtown Express to submit columns for this year’s Progress Report.

The money fi ght at the World Trade Center

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Offi cial. W.T.C. Target Dates The Port Authority released these target dates for completing portions of the World Trade Center site a year ago and say they continue to be on schedule. Others, including the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center in a confi -dential report, have said the targets are not realistic given the complexity of the site.

Memorial Plaza: September 2011

9/11 Museum: 2013 (January - June)

Transportation Hub: October 2013 – June 2014

Freedom Tower: 2013 (April – December)

Fulton Transit Center: June 2014

PROGRESS REPORT 2009

One World Trade Center under construction.


BY DAVID STANKEThe Port Authority refuses to guarantee

bank loans that Larry Silverstein needs to build two offi ce towers at the World Trade Center site. This position defi es reason. It provides no possibility of a positive outcome for the Port or Downtown. It is a betrayal of the public trust, of everything that was promised us. With no reasonable explana-tion for their position, we can only assume that the Port has a hidden agenda.

The Port Authority has many fi ne quali-ties and capable people. It was bestowed the W.T.C. site because it was an unstoppable force. The Port took 16 acres of historic New York buildings, tore them down and built the two tallest buildings in the world, a New York landmark. How could this same organization fail so badly at a site that has been empty for seven years?

This time, the Port is not the sole author-ity. The memorial controls about half of the site. Silverstein has the right to rebuild the commercial space. The Port is confi ned to the less glamorous pieces: infrastructure and a transportation hub.

This is a dramatic drop in standing for the Port, an organization accountable to almost no one. The massive and extravagantly costly W.T.C. Path Station is their object of pride. The Port is determined to build this $4 bil-lion memorial to themselves.

Consider the fi nancial implications of the

Port’s strategy. It is undercutting develop-ment of two of the largest, most marketable buildings, Towers 2 and 4. It is funding and building the most expensive and least mar-ketable building, W.T.C. 1 (Freedom Tower). The transportation hub can only be justifi ed by more commuters coming to work in the area. W.T.C. retail also depends on com-mercial development to generate pre-9/11 revenue. Silverstein’s buildings are the glue that holds the site together.

The Port is not constrained in its options to build on the site. It got a couple billion dollars of federal money. For the rest, the Port can simply raise tolls on all existing commuters. The W.T.C. can be completed with just two towers but it will be a misap-propriation of commuter and taxpayer funds on a Port Authority ego statement unjustifi ed by principles of urban or fi nancial planning.

If the Port takes control of the W.T.C., construction will drag out for years. There will be more delays (as with W.T.C. 1) and more budget shortfalls (as on every Port project). Full fi nancial risk and management responsibility will fall on the Port.

The Port needs management help at the W.T.C. On W.T.C. 1, Silverstein has saved the Port Authority many times. Silverstein engaged architect David Childs to develop an inspired building and prepared the site for construction. When the Port blew the N.Y.P.D. security review process, Silverstein

and Childs got it back on track with a new design. When the Port took over construc-tion of W.T.C. 1, its many layers of bureau-cracy and construction management brought work to a halt. With Silverstein in control, W.T.C. 1 could be near the 60th fl oor today. Tishman Construction started laying steel for the Goldman Sachs building within months of when they started on W.T.C. 1. Today, Goldman is fully enclosed. W.T.C. 1 is four stories of beams and concrete.

After blaming Silverstein for delays, the Port has been late to deliver every building site, a total of nearly 1,000 days of delays. The Port fi red Phoenix, the construction project man-ager for the site. Construction people in the neighborhood complain about the uncertainty about when and where they will be able to work. Retail businesses are already struggling, and face further reductions in business.

For years, I have pleaded in public hear-ings for the Port to make fi scally respon-sible decisions to rebuild our neighborhood. They never heeded my warnings of pending fi nancial crisis, but were infi nitely willing to pander to every obstructionist special interest that showed up. They heeded the preservationists who belittled community pleas. The Port rarely expressed concern about the fi nancial implications over years of decision making.

The current fi nancial situation is not good. Port spending has no hope of generating incremental revenues. Silverstein could end up bailing on the site, ending the lease pay-

ments that the Port has been receiving since 9/11. Replacement of Silverstein is unlikely, will cause massive delays, and would serve no public good. The Port has already lost JPMorgan Chase as a tenant for W.T.C. 5. Even Westfi eld’s role in the retail space is not locked down. The Port is spending billions on infrastructure to support about 40% of the pre-9/11 commercial space.

If the Port backs bank loans for Silverstein, it could take advantage of Silverstein’s con-struction and management expertise, dem-onstrated on W.T.C. 7 and now at W.T.C. 4. The Port would not have to put up any addi-tional funds for many years, if at all. My bet is on Silverstein to succeed, but if he fails, the Port would get the whole development. The risk to the Port is very low.

The Port must set aside its pride and con-trol and become part of a team. Supporting Silverstein today would enhance its own fi s-cal position tomorrow. If not for Port delays, Silverstein might have already had the necessary funding. A loan guarantee today could atone for Port delays and give New York a spectacu-lar W.T.C. One 9/11 lesson is that people are stronger and can accomplish more when they work together. I hope that the Port Authority understands this, before it is too late.

David Stanke lives across from the World Trade Center site and writes on Downtown issues. He was a consulting party to the Section 106 World Trade Center historic preservation process.

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PROGRESS REPORT 2009 / WTC RESIDENT

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BY JOE DANIELSOver the past year, steel and concrete

have fi lled the western half of the World Trade Center site, shaping the memorial pools and forming the underground spaces of the museum. This tremendous construc-tion progress is keeping us on track to reach our goal to open the memorial by the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in 2011.

In August, we worked with the Port Authority, which is managing the construc-tion, to transfer the historic “Last Column” back to bedrock, where it will be a key feature of the museum. The column has mementos, memorial inscriptions and missing posters, placed there by workers during the nine month rescue and recovery effort.

In the coming months, construction momentum will continue to build. As a result of the united dedication of all stake-holders in the World Trade Center redevelop-ment, including the City of New York, the Port Authority, and Silverstein Properties, the memorial has been unanimously prioritized and construction has progressed on schedule. When the eyes of the world are focused on the site on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we expect to deliver a memorial that the city can be proud of, one that enhances the surround-ing community and makes a lasting impres-sion on all visitors.

We understand the importance of com-municating that progress to the public and informing the thousands of visitors who

already come to the site each day. To accomplish this, we recently opened the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site, adjacent to the World Trade Center site at 20 Vesey St. This space includes models and renderings to illustrate what the site will look like when the memorial is complete, and real-time images of the construction are on display.

Visitors to the Preview Site have the opportunity to participate in creating the Memorial Museum by recording their 9/11 stories for inclusion within the museum’s

exhibitions. In its fi rst six weeks, the Preview Site welcomed more than 100,000 visitors from around the world, a clear indication of the public’s desire to preserve the memories of 9/11 and the aftermath that followed.

As construction progresses, the museum staff continue to develop the exhibitions that will realize our twin missions of commemo-ration and education. In turn, the perma-nent collection of objects, stories, and digital material is quickly growing. We invite you to explore some of our recent acquisitions on

our website, www.national911memorial.org.To help build our institutional archive,

we recently launched a new online initiative called “Make History” at www.911history.org that allows people to upload their photo-graphs, videos, and stories. Uploads are then mapped in Google street view—an immersive ground-level photography feature of Google Maps— so that photographs become jux-taposed with current day panoramas of the locations from which they were taken. The content is also stamped to allow visitors to search by time, location and subject.

This archive will provide a deeper under-standing of the ways 9/11 and its aftermath were experienced around the world. Whether one was here in New York City during the attacks, or watching the events unfold on televi-sion in Tokyo, or stuck in an airport in Sydney — people from around the world experienced 9/11 fi rsthand and can be a part of history by contributing to Make History, part of the Memorial Museum’s permanent collection.

As Lower Manhattan residents and busi-ness owners, we hope that you will continue to be involved in the development of this historic project. We will continue to provide updates and welcome any questions you might have by email at [email protected] or by phone at 212-312-8800.

Joe Daniels is president & C.E.O. of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

The 9/11 Museum has a place to go right now

Downtown Express fi le photo by Lorenzo Ciniglio

The Preview Site to the 9/11 Memorial opened on Vesey St. in August.

PROGRESS REPORT 2009 / 9/11 MEMORIAL


Construction progressAlthough fi nancial disputes regarding the World Trade Center have not been resolved, construction continues at the site and on nearby projects. At the W.T.C., work is underway on the 9/11 Memorial, Towers 1 and 4 (above photo) and the PATH commuter station. The station will connect with the Fulton Transit Center and the Cortlandt St. R,W subway station. The northbound Cortlandt platform is scheduled to reopen in December, over four years after the station was closed for temporary repairs. The southbound platform is scheduled to open nearly two years later, on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. The Cortlandt station, right, is just one piece of the $1.4 billion Fulton Center, a project that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority says is back on track after receiving $424 million in federal stimulus funds earlier this year. The budget of the project has nearly doubled since it was announced shortly after 9/11, and the timeline has lagged as well, but offi cials now say the station will open in 2014 to link 12 subway lines and the W.T.C.

Photo by Joe Woolhead

Downtown Express fi le photo by Lorenzo Ciniglio


The Deutsche Bank building could fi nally begin shrinking next week, when the demoli-tion of the skyscraper across from the World Trade Center site is scheduled to resume.

“Hopefully we’re beginning the fi nal phase of removing this blight from our community,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Monday, at a meeting of his taskforce on the building.

The 26-story tower at 130 Liberty St. is now cleaned of 9/11 dust, so contractors have stopped monitoring the air nearby for asbestos and other toxic materials. They will continue monitoring silica and particu-late matter whenever work is happening in the building.

Assuming it takes a week to demolish each fl oor, the building could come down as soon as May. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the federally-funded public authority that owns the building, has not given a schedule.

The cost of cleaning and demolishing the building has ballooned to about $200 mil-lion as the L.M.D.C. contended with many delays, including eight months of work stop-page after the August 2007 fi re in the build-ing that killed two fi refi ghters and sparked a 16-month investigation by the District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Morgenthau ultimately indicted one construction super-visor with contractor Bovis Lend Lease and two with subcontractor John Galt Corp., and

he indicted Galt as well. Bovis and the city admitted oversight failures leading up to the fi re but were not charged.

While Galt is now off the job, replaced by LVI/Mazzocchi Wrecking Inc., Bovis is

still overseeing the work. Once the Deutsche Bank building comes

down, the future of the site is uncertain. The northern part will be used to build a vehicle security center for the W.T.C. site, and will

eventually have a park on top. The southern part was supposed to be the site of an offi ce tower, and was more recently fl oated for a performing arts center, but neither is likely to begin construction anytime soon.

“There’s a good chance this site could be vacant and fenced off for a number of years,” said Adam Banha, a manager with Masterworks Development Corp., which is building a hotel at 130 Cedar St. nearby. “The owners around that site would strong-ly like to have…some sort of pedestrian use or a community park.”

Catherine McVay Hughes, chair-person of Community Board 1’s W.T.C. Redevelopment Committee, agreed with Banha at Silver’s taskforce meeting.

“There’s enough stalled construction sites in our community,” she said. “We need to make sure it’s not just another deserted lot.”

David Emil, L.M.D.C. president, agreed that the L.M.D.C. needed to fi nd an interim use for the site.

“Right now I don’t know what the answer to that is,” Emil said. “Sadly it’s months off, not days off.”

“But not a year off,” Hughes inter-jected.

Emil paused, then said, “That remains to be seen.”

— Julie Shapiro

Demolition of Deutsche, once again, is about to begin

Photo by Joe Woolhead

The former Deutsche Bank building, across the street from the World Trade Center site.

PROGRESS REPORT 2009


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Little progress on the W.T.C. art building BY JULIE MENIN

The lack of progress on the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center site has been a source of great disappointment to me and the members of Community Board 1. We have recently commemorated the eighth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001 but we still have not seen the real progress needed on this important project or received any specifi c information about when and how it will move forward.

The master plan for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan followed a lengthy public planning process that resulted in a clear con-sensus that the development of signifi cant and varied cultural facilities is essential to the successful revitalization of the W.T.C. site and Lower Manhattan. The PAC was conceived as a calming transition between the bustle of commerce and the refl ection and remem-brance that will be inspired by the memorial and as the spark for the resurgence of arts in Lower Manhattan.

In the years since the master plan for the site was developed, the cultural component of the W.T.C. site has been signifi cantly down-sized. The Drawing Center, the Freedom Museum and the Signature Theater were all once included in plans for the site but have since been eliminated. The Frank Gehry-designed PAC, as the principal and now only remaining cultural facility planned for the W.T.C. site, remains a key element of the mas-ter plan and its realization is absolutely essen-

tial to the revitalization of Lower Manhattan. It is imperative that the Lower Manhattan

Development Corporation, City of New York, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and all other public and private agencies involved in the reconstruction of the W.T.C. site respect the very strong desire of the community to see the promised PAC built as it was intended in a timely manner. C.B. 1 has strongly urged that the design phase for the PAC be completed as soon as possible and made available for pub-lic review. We have further urged that the fund-ing process for the PAC commence immediately so that there will be practical assurance that the PAC will be built.

At a recent City Council hearing, there was a glimmer of hope that we might fi nally see some progress. The engineering plan for the foundation of the PAC has been completed and is expected to go out for bidding next month so that it can be coordinated with the Port Authority work on that corner of the site. Based on information provided at the last meeting of the board of directors of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the P.A. will soon fi nalize the contracts for the footings and the foundation at the corner of the site where the PAC was originally slated to be built. This work is expected to begin in the fi rst quar-ter of 2010, and in order to take advantage of the PATH work outages it is important to have an engineering plan for the PAC now.

It is therefore imperative that we seize this brief period of opportunity during the com-

ing months to begin the needed work on the below grade infrastructure to maintain the viability of the site. We have spoken with the city and asked them to attend the next meeting of Community Board 1’s World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee to present their plans and hear from our members about the urgent need to move this project forward at this critical juncture.

One need only look at the ways in which signifi cant cultural components have helped to revitalize other cities to see its importance as the only community enhancement planned for the W.T.C. site. In Los Angeles, the Walt Disney Concert Hall has become a national cultural landmark, inspiring the commercial, retail, and cultural resurgence of the surround-ing area. In Miami Beach, a public commit-ment to the arts and the South Florida Arts Center sparked cultural revitalization and a renovated Miami Beach Convention Center became the home of Art Basel, turning Miami and Miami Beach into an international cultural mecca. In San Francisco, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and community lead-ers had the vision to create the cutting edge Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which along with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and other museums in the area, have transformed and revitalized the formerly mori-bund Yerba Buena downtown area between the city’s fi nancial district and civic center neighborhoods.

During my tenure as chairperson of C.B.

1, we have advocated tirelessly for the PAC, testifying about its importance at numerous legislative hearings and in discussions with government offi cials. I strongly believe that the development of a world-class Performing Arts Center at the W.T.C. site is critical for the future of Lower Manhattan as a successful neighborhood and I will continue to do every-thing possible to bring about its completion.

Julie Menin is chairperson of Community Board 1 and is also a member of the boards of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

Downtown United Soccer Club and Gotham Girls FC are committed to the providing the opportunity for children of all

ages and abilities to play recreation soccer.

We serve over 1,500 kids in our community. And we are committed to ensuring no child is ever denied the opportunity to

play due to economic reasons.

Through a progressive training methodology and comprehensive/diverse programs, DUSC & GGFC are now

widening their scope and increasing the opportunity to all ages, abilities and backgrounds.

We could not provide these programs without the

generous support of our volunteers, our family, corporate, and local business sponsors.

Next week, we will thank them publicly by displaying their logos.

But this week, we want to offer a heartfelt THANK YOU to all the parents, players, volunteers, local politicians and business

owners who make these programs possible.

You make it

possible! “Dark” and “romantic”, this “white-tablecloth” TriBeCa Northern italian piles on the antipasti and other “delicious” “old-world” delights served “with flair” by “over-the-top” waiters; just “hold your breath when the bill comes” — and “decide the tip” before downing the gratis “housemade grappa.”

~Zagat 2008

“Romance is in the air” at this “dark” TriBeCa Northern Italian where “delicious” food is served by waiters who put on a “great show”; be sure to “finish the night” with the “gratis homemade grappa” — it’ll “help dull the shock of the bill.”

~ Zagat 2007

The food, the service and the ambiance make you feel like you are in a scene from the Godfather. “We will make you a dish you can’t refuse!” Our unique Northern Italian Cuisine, atmosphere and impeccable service will make your dining experience

~Michelin Restaurant Guide, 2008~Z

Open for Lunch & DinnerMon. - Fri., Lunch: 12 - 3 PMDinner: 5 - 10:30 PM, Sat: 5 - 10 PM

Sunday: 5 - 10 PM

visit us at: www.acapella-restaurant.com

$35 Prix Fixe LunchCelebrating our 15th anniversary in Tribeca

11

PROGRESS REPORT 2009 / CB 1

Downtown Express fi le photo by Elisabeth Robert

Julie Menin


Supplemental Public Safety and Sanitation Expanded Downtown Connection Bus Service Installations Comprehensive Web Site Information Kiosks and Maps Retail and Restaurant Guides Hive at 55 Coworking Space Free WiFi at 9 Public Locations River To River Summer

Downtown Community Events Holiday Lights


BUILDING FOR A HEALTHIER TOMORROWNew York Downtown Hospital is a center of excellence for

Wellness and Prevention, inpatient and ambulatory care, and

a leader in the field of emergency preparedness.

You will find an efficient and effective health care experience

at New York Downtown Hospital and will have the best of

both worlds: the support of your own private physician along

with the latest developments in preventive care and specialty

services.

Our Wellness and Prevention Team provides a broad range

of services including a Women’s Health Program, dedicated

to the prevention and treatment of medical conditions that are

common to women; digital mammography; comprehensive

non-invasive cardiovascular assessment; and cancer screen-

ing and detection through Downtown Hospital’s affiliate, the

Strang Cancer Prevention Center.

Bringing the latest medical research, most up-to-date screen-

ing techniques, and the newest technological advancements

to the heart of Lower Manhattan, our Wellness and Preven-

tion Team will advise you on how to preserve your single most

important asset...your good health! This is our commitment

to you.

A community hospital committed to meeting the healthcare needs of people who visit, live, and work in Lower Manhattan.

83 Gold Street, New York, NY 10038 Telephone: (212) 312-5000 www.downtownhospital.org


We’ve still got work to do in B.P.C.BY JAMES F. GILL

A great deal is happening at the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority, and I am once again pleased to provide residents of Lower Manhattan with a look at what lies ahead and projects nearing completion.

As Battery Park City approaches the point of being completely built out, and the realization of our original blueprint, we have gotten many questions about what our future is, what comes next, and what the authority will do? In short, Battery Park City Authority is not going anywhere anytime soon. Indeed, our mission is not only to build, but to manage and maintain, and that is precisely what we intend to do. There is still much work to be done, and many exciting projects on the horizon.

As you know, Battery Park City has debated and studied the use of artifi cial turf on our ball fi elds. Given the authority’s commitment to sustainable development and our roster of award-winning parks, the decision to use any artifi cial surface is not one we arrived at easily. However, we are also committed to our residents having year-round access to the fi elds, and that would not be possible with natural grass.

The huge shadow cast over the ball fi elds by the Goldman Sachs building, plus the wear and tear the lawn takes on a regular basis, makes growing grass unrealistic. It is for this reason we will use artifi cial turf.

However, I assure you that the artifi cial turf we choose, will be state of the art in terms of health and safety. We have engaged a consultant to guide us in our search and a decision will be made in the near future.

The installation of artifi cial turf will have to await completion of the residential buildings and community center currently under construction on Sites 23 and 24. The community center, which will contain two swimming pools, a gymnasium, a fi tness center and an all-purpose room, will be completed by 2011.

One way we plan to use our ball fi elds on a year-round basis is by turning them into an ice skating rink this winter. We have entered into a contract with a business that provides ice skating services. We are hope-ful the rink opening will be Dec. 1st — we’ll provide the hot chocolate if you provide the fi gure 8s.

Battery Park City also continues to fulfi ll its commitment to making our community a bastion of cultural institutions and public art. Poets House, which is housed at the Riverhouse, opened this past September and a branch of the New York City Public Library is in the process of being “fi tted out” and will be operational before the end of this year.

Teardrop Park South will be ready to wel-come visitors next month and will be a fi ne compliment to the award winning Teardrop

Park North. One third of our 92 acres have been set aside for parks and gardens, which are maintained naturally and without the use of pesticides and chemicals. We are com-mitted to maintaining that ratio well into the future.

Starting in the spring of 2010, our rig-orous environmental standards will be enhanced by the installation of communica-tions access nodes, bringing free wireless service to Wagner Park, Kowsky Plaza,

Teardrop Park and Rockefeller Park.Battery Park City will continue to be in

the forefront of the sustainable development movement, and though we are almost built out, we are now in the process of retrofi tting existing older buildings in Battery Park City so that they too are covered by our green guidelines.

Green too will be our redevelopment of Pier A which is located at the southern tip of our property. We entered into a lease agree-ment with New York City to rehabilitate and develop Pier A. Upon completion, the pier will be Silver LEED certifi ed, and after it is rented it will be a boon to the authority, Lower Manhattan, and the city. I think you would agree, this landmark has sat dormant and in disrepair for far too long.

Welcoming students in the fall of 2010, will be New York City’s fi rst green pub-lic school, catering to Lower Manhattan’s kindergarten through 8th grade children. This state-of-the-art elementary and middle school will be a welcome addition to an underserved community.

Hugh L. Battery Park City Authority is not done. As you can tell from the above menu of projects, we are continuing to fi nd impressive ways to improve Battery Park City.

James F. Gill is chairperson of the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority.

Ticket prices$20 General Admission $10 Student/Senior** Available at the door

VenueTrinity Church Broadway at Wall Street

the |trinity choir a New Season of Exquisite Music

Requiem & Remembrance

Jane Glover, Guest Conductor

Musikalische Exequien, Requiem,

Requiem, Déploration sur la mort

de Johannes Ockeghem

Ticket salestrinitywallstreet.org/tickets212.866.0468 Trinity Church Gift Shop

James F. Gill

PROGRESS REPORT 2009 / BPCA


Adult and Pediatric DermatologyComprehensive Dermatologic Care

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Most Major Insurance Carriers Accepted

CELEBRATING 27 YEARS, Buckle My Shoe Nursery School began in 1981with a developmental approach in early childhood. Our original small group, seven two-year olds (to be exact) has grown into two pre-schools comprising of 200 children. The Reggio Emilia philosophy embraces our view of young children and has become the current educational model that meets the “whole child.” The Reggio approach focuses on the “whole child” through creative exploration and play, allowing the child's social, cognitive and reflective abilities to develop through art. Buckle My Shoe Nursery School has an atelier (art studio) along with a full time atelierista (art director) to guide the exploration of materials with children, parents and teachers.

This art curriculum helps weave relationships with friends, family and community in preparation for future life experiences.

The premise “children learn by doing”, is teaching our young children to care for their planet by recycling and reusing various resources.

The Reggio Emilia philosophy helps Buckle My Shoe Nursery School use its community as a resource tool to explore various ideas and develop a liaison between the children and their environment.

We are fortunate to be in one of the most resourceful and culturally diverse cities in the world.

Our children can express themselves and their experiences through language and art. Indeed, they do speak many languages and their art is a critical means of self-expression.

40 Worth St. NY, NY 10013(212) 374-1489

230 West 13th St. NY, NY 10011(212) 807-0518

www.bucklemyshoe.org

Accredited by the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs


VISIT OUR SHOPS!BOWNE & CO., STATIONERS211 Water StreetOpen Tuesday through Sunday, 10am – 6pmExtended Hours for November and December: Monday through Sunday, 10am – 7pm A 19th century shop for custom letterpress printing, seasonal stationery, and holiday cards and gifts.

SOUTH STREET SEAPORT MUSEUM SHOP12 Fulton StreetOpen Monday through Sunday 10am – 6pmExtended Hours for November and December: Monday through Sunday, 10am – 7pm

THE LEGENDARY NORMANDIE SAILS AGAINThe S.S. Normandie was the epitome of Art Deco-era style and sophistication. Her passengers were surrounded by spectacular works of art and design by Jean Dupas, René Lalique and Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann. The exhibition Normandie and the Art Deco will feature over 100 items from the ship and recreate the experience of sailing abroad the one-time French flagships. COMING IN FEBRUARY 2010.

NEW AMSTERDAM: THE ISLAND AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLDCome see Henry’s Hudson’s contract with the Dutch East India Company, NYC’s “birth certificate” (Pieter Schaghen’s letter documenting the sale of Manhattan), and the earliest and rarest collection of New York maps ever assembled. This exhibition was a joint collaboration between the Nationaal Archief (National Archives of the Netherlands) and South Street Seaport Museum.


PUBLISHER & EDITORJohn 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 GreakerJeremy Marks

Danielle Zupanovich

RETAIL AD MANAGERColin Gregory

OFFICE MANAGERDavid Jaffe

ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTORTroy Masters

ART DIRECTORMark Hasselberger

GRAPHIC DESIGNERJamie Paakkonen

DISTRIBUTION & CIRCULATIONCheryl Williamson

CONTRIBUTORSFrank R. Angelino Wickham Boyle

Tim LavinDavid StankeJerry Tallmer

PHOTOGRAPHERSLorenzo Ciniglio

Milo HessCorky Lee

Elisabeth RobertJefferson Siegel

Published by COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC

145 Sixth Ave., NY, NY 10013 Phone: (212) 229-1890

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 publisher’s liability for other errors or omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue.

Member of theNew York Press

Association

Member of theNational

NewspaperAssociation

GayCityNEWSNEWS TM

© 2009 Community Media, LLC

Views of a bridge

To The Editor:I concur fully with the opening sentence

of the news article on the Brooklyn Banks park (“Don’t let the Banks collapse, skaters say,” news article, October 23 - 29), which states “The Brooklyn Banks is a place with no rules except gravity.” Therein lies the problem for those who live next to it at Southbridge Towers.

There are no curfews, so skaters/bikers remain active well after dark. There is no supervision so some build wooden “jumps” which could be dangerous. The noise of skat-ers/bikers, because to the proximity of the “jumps” to St. James/Pearl St. is magnifi ed by and echoes through the Brooklyn Bridge arches into the apartments of Southbridge residents. Your ample photos demonstrate the graffi ti, and one quote in the article states, quite matter-of-factly, that the park is fi lthy.

Many skaters on their way to the park elect to travel on sidewalks, posing a danger to everyone, but especially to seniors, who frequently complain to me, thinking that as a member of Southbridge’s board of directors, I can solve this type of problem — I cannot. Worse, the park is actually in Community Board 3, so our local Board 1 had no input in the decision to locate it there.

In short, this type of park would be best in a non-residential area, perhaps on Randall’s Island.

John Ost

To The Editor:I just read the article in the Downtown

Express about how the banks are closing. That isn’t a smart move for the city because now skaters and bikers are just going to go to other spots around the city and end up getting in pedestrians’ way and getting kicked out of spots that they aren’t allowed to be. I think the Banks is the one spot in N.Y.C. where skaters/bikers can hang out and ride without getting in trouble or wrecking ledges and benches and getting in people’s ways. Not only that, but the Banks are a historical spot for us. I mean just look at some of the things that happened there.

Joe Karlson

B.P.C. taxes

To The Editor:Re “Gov asks mayor & Thompson for

B.P.C. help” (news article, Oct. 23 – 29): The article misses one key point: Why

is the Battery Park City Authority generat-ing a surplus in the fi rst place! Are we B.P.C. residents some sort of second-class citizens — cash cows to be abused by an unelected B.P.C.A.? Is it even constitutional for an unelected “board” to levy taxes on the people?

A couple of ideas for the state and

our elected offi cials: Dissolve B.P.C.A. and save the millions it costs. Let B.P.C. become a normal city neighborhood where we get to vote directly for people who tax us. We already pay tax for police and parks — it’s called city tax. Return the surplus ($268 million) to B.P.C. residents as a tax rebate. We need to fundamentally reframe this discussion.

The people of B.P.C. need to wake up to fact we are getting fl eeced, and direct their outrage to Sheldon Silver, Daniel Squadron and Mayor Bloomberg. To be blunt, a 900-square-foot condo in B.P.C. has a $620-per-month PILOT; a 1300-square-foot condo across the West Side Highway has a $230 per month tax.

Andy Williams

Mayor’s race

To The Editor:Yes, extending term limits is “troubling

and anti-democratic” and so is your sup-port of a candidate like Mayor Bloomberg, (“Re-elect Bloomberg,” editorial, Oct. 16 - 22) who pushed through that power grab. As far as education goes, perhaps your paper should interview the children who have to endure the unsafe, overcrowded conditions that degrade their education. I’m also surprised that you so easily believe the “grades/report cards” the Dept. of Education has assigned themselves, but perhaps a little critical investigation would have cut through the millions of dollars of advertising spin touting Mike Bloomberg’s misleading educa-tional record and shameful waste of public funds. I object as a parent, but even more I object as a taxpayer and citizen. It seems the Downtown Express no longer represents or serves downtown or its community.

Annette Evans

To The Editor: I’m shocked and dismayed at the

Downtown Express’s endorsement of Michael Bloomberg for mayor. First of all, why is this paper endorsing any candidate? It seemed odd at best.

The move was stunningly incongru-ent with the views of their own readers. Publisher and editor John Sutter knows better than anyone what our Downtown community has suffered at the hands of this autocrat. Unprecedented residential build-ing, under the auspices of “revitalization,” using our tax dollars to supply these as-of-right builders with 30-year tax breaks, Liberty Bond fi nancing and the like. The mayor also turned a blind eye to the mas-sive school overcrowding that happened as a result, saying only when cornered on the issue, “Isn’t it great that families want to stay in New York.” Yet another glib, condescend-ing and, to use his own word, disgraceful remark to the people that put him in offi ce.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOREDITORIALVote this Tuesday

We hope predictions of low voter turnout this Tuesday prove not to be true. In most of the races, the Democratic nominee has token opposition and is expected to cruise to victory. The notable exception to Democratic dominance is of course the mayor’s race, in which Mayor Mike Bloomberg is way ahead in the polls. Few political observers give Comptroller Bill Thompson much chance to beat him.

But no absentee ballots have been counted yet, so everyone still has zero votes. These are important races that will determine what kind of city we live in. We’ve heard from Thompson supporters complaining about Bloomberg’s formidable spending advantage, but Thompson did get his message out, and no amount of money can prevent people from going out to vote for their candidates. We also know people who think Bloomberg is a better mayor than Thompson would be, but they are uneasy about contributing to what they guess will be a Bloomberg landslide win and may not come out. There’s only one poll that counts and that tally will be made at voting sites Nov. 3.

To fi nd out where you are supposed to vote or for other information call the city’s Board of Elections at 866-vote-nyc or visit vote.nyc.ny.us.

We remind our readers that we have previously endorsed Bloomberg, as well as Margaret Chin, Christine Quinn and Rosie Mendez in the Downtown City Council races. You can read our endorsements at downtownexpress.com.

We have not yet endorsed in the borough president’s race because there was no primary and there is not much of a general election. We do think that Scott Stringer has done a very good job as borough president, particularly in professionalizing the community board selection pro-cess. He deserves four more years and we endorse him in Tuesday’s election.

Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with our choices, we do hope you come out to vote Tuesday. Otherwise, you might as well talk to the mirror the next time you’d like to complain.

There’s heartin those Banks

As we fi rst reported two weeks ago, one of Lower Manhattan’s quirky treasures, the Brooklyn Banks, is going to close for at least a few years in order to do extensive reno-vation work on the Brooklyn Bridge and its ramps.

The area has been a nationally-known skateboard park for about four decades. Even “Bored to Death,” the hot new HBO show that takes great pride in fi lming almost entirely in Brooklyn, came over to Manhattan to shoot a scene for “The Case of the Missing Skateboard” episode at the Banks.

The park was saved from extinction fi ve years ago. If it closes indefi nitely, it’s not at all clear there will be much con-stituency to bring it back once a generation of skateboarders and BMX bikers have been shooed away for so long.

We’re less than thrilled with the graffi ti at the Banks and there’s defi nitely room to make it safer for stunts, but it would be a shame to lose this Downtown cultural landmark.

A safe bridge obviously is essential, but the city Dept. of Transportation has changed its assertions about Brooklyn Bridge work before. Offi cials said earlier this year that the nearby Chatham Square project was on schedule and had to happen soon because of the bridge work, then they said Chatham work couldn’t proceed in the near future because of the bridge project.

The D.O.T. should discuss the park closure with Banks’ leaders to see if there is a way this small area can stay or be moved during the long renovation project. We hope it can.



Saying goodbye to those creaky, lovable red levers BY BEN KRULL

They are outdated and clunky, and frequently break down. Still, I will be sad when they are gone.

After the November elections, New York City’s pull-lever voting machines — which have been around since the Kennedy administration — are expected to be replaced by sleek optical scanners. While electronic-voting may reduce problems at the polls, New York is about to lose a link to its political past.

When New Yorkers leave their fi ngerprints on the arm-length red levers this Nov. 3rd, they will be using the same levers that once bore the fi ngerprints of voters casting bal-lots for Robert Kennedy, Nixon, Wagner, Javits, Koch, and Abzug. The machines are a live conduit running through the battles for racial justice, gender equality and gay rights; a repository of a half-century of anger and hope expressed in exactly the same way — by pulling a red lever.

I was 10 years old when I fi rst voted. It was 1969 and my father took me to a polling place on the Upper East Side. I entered the mysterious, curtained booth, which reminded me of the Wizard of Oz, and watched as my father showed me

Mayor John V. Lindsay’s name on the ballot. He told me to pull the lever — which I joyfully did.

It was a while before I “voted” again, but the manual machines have defi ned my experience as a voter. For the past 30 years I have stepped behind the full-length curtain and into the enclosed seven-foot-tall booth, feeling completely alone with my conscience and the names on the ballot.

Usually I know how I am going to vote before I enter the polling place. But other times I have walked into the

booth intending to vote one way...only to change my mind.When Mayor Giuliani ran for reelection, I had decided to

vote for him, even though I was disturbed by his bullying man-ner. But once the curtain closed behind me, something tugged at my gut -- and I couldn’t check his name on the ballot.

New Yorkers will adjust to the optical scanners. Yet I can not imagine that marking a ballot, behind a half curtain, and feeding the paper into a computer-sized scanner, will seem as dramatic as voting on an impos-ing manual machine. Nor is it likely that the new voting machines will be around long enough to serve as a tangible link between generations of voters, or even as a constant from childhood through adulthood, as it was for me. I hope that predictions of a low voter turnout for Nov. 3rd are wrong. It would be a shame if our retiring machines received a paltry sendoff. Every New Yorker should come out to the polls on Election Day, even if it is just to hold hands with an old mechanical friend, one last time.

Ben Krull, an attorney in Lower Manhattan’s Family Court, is a freelance writer

DOWNTOWN NOTEBOOK

I have to say, as much as I respect the editors here, this move was a huge disappointment. Be grateful you are a free paper, as you would lose a lot of subscriptions over this one.

Tricia JoyceMember of the P.S. 234 Overcrowding Committee and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s School Overcrowding Task Force

To The Editor:Forget about Bloomberg’s disrespect for

the democratic process in disregarding two term-limit referenda. Forget about his consum-mate nouveau riche compassionless demeanor. Forget about comparing the moral equivalence of the yuppies’ multimillion dollar Predator Balls and multimillion Manhattan birthday parties with Bloomberg’s odious and ostenta-tious purchasing of an American political offi ce. Forget about: his monarchial control of the Board of Ed; his desire to eliminate the public advocate position so he can have abso-lute fealty; and his acquiescing in the physical tearing up of our city and handing it over to the Liberty Bond corporate welfare “developers.”

Think history. Remember 1964: Johnson defeated Goldwater in a massive landslide. The mandate complex set in and all of Johnson’s great domestic programs and legacies are sub-sumed by a war of mendacity and arrogance of power. Remember 1972: Nixon defeated McGovern with a whopping 19 million plu-rality. All of Nixon’s domestic and foreign policy achievements are soiled by a mandate he believed allowed him to corrupt and subvert the Constitution.

If you think Bloomberg’s fi rst 8 years are a study in Napoleonic arrogance, just give him a mandate for four more in a landslide; Michael I will make George III look like a Founding

Father. Your editorial called Bloomberg a “vision-

ary.” You’re either kidding of delusional. Nelson Rockefeller was a visionary; Mike, you’re no Nelson.

Send Bloomberg back to Boston.

Walter Silverman

To The Editor:Re “Thompson says open Park Row and

consult with the community” (news article, Oct. 16 - 22):

For 8 years, Mayor Bloomberg has aban-doned Chinatown to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s draconian security policies while such measures do not exist at 26 Federal Plaza. Increasing traffi c congestion, emer-gency service access and quality of life issues at Chatham Square and Canal St. are known, but what about the long term economic and fi nancial consequences to the surrounding communities and to the city of these street clo-sures? Can a cash strapped city afford to give Commissioner Kelly unlimited parking and an open check book to protect One Police Plaza?

While Bloomberg claims to be “green” he’s presided over 145,000 government parking per-mits, not including the illegals. His administra-tion failed to enforce traffi c laws despite years of community protest and documentation.

Recently the chief Internal Affairs Bureau offi cer assigned to monitor the permits was removed when reporters found his girlfriend’s vehicle parked on the street with a free parking permit. How convenient that shortly after-wards, the mayor rushed out the announce-ment of the city’s new Fast Fleet Car sharing plan, despite our requesting this for years?

Chinatown is a major tourist attraction. Empty storefronts and struggling business-es deplete tax dollars — thriving businesses provided jobs to many immigrant families. With Chatham Square dug up, this will only worsen.

How has Mayor Bloomberg helped the rest of Lower Manhattan? Ask the Tribeca and Battery Park parents battling for a say in their children’s schools and those who object to a “teach to the test” curriculum and infl ated grades. Ask the heroic Downtown environ-mentalists about the building violations in the Deutsche Bank debacle. We intend to let our mayor know on Nov. 3 that eight years is enough.

Jeanie Chin, Jan Lee and John OstCivic Center Residents Coalition

To The Editor:Regarding buying a third term:It may well be that Mike Bloomberg will

keep the buses running more punctually than his opponent, and he may even save us all a few hundred bucks per capita with his supe-rior management skills. But I’d rather lose the money, and freeze at a bus stop. Washington froze at Valley Forge on behalf of democracy. I can take it too.

John Jiler

Southbridge decision

To The Editor:Re “Privatization risks” (Letter, Oct 23

– 29):At the present time the board of directors

is not able to respond to letters such as the one you submitted. I on the other hand can and will respond to some of the old played out misleading issues you brought up.

Let’s start with the oldie but goodie greed card. Nice touch comparing Southbridge Towers to Wall St., but it’s “apples to orang-es” telling us how billions have been lost by greed and the same thing is happening with the privatization of Mitchell- Lama co-ops.

From what I know and heard, that’s mislead-ing “chicken little.” The sky is not falling.

Your next misleading statement is “Show me a senior co-operator who is enjoying a lifetime of security, from a reverse mortgage along with the low Mitchell-Lama mainte-nance, and I’ll show you a bribed liar. We were told by a board member that there are other ways to access equity.”

Of course if we stay in Mitchell-Lama we can’t benefi t from the various avenues to access equity. If we go private, those avenues open up to Southbridge seniors and others.

As for posters being torn down from the bulletin board, you conveniently leave out the fact that not only anti-privatization posters are being torn down but pro-priva-tization posters were also being torn down. Constructive letters, both pro- and anti- are now behind enclosed glass in the lobbies. I guess that leaves out your vindictive letter.

You mention our board being “privatizer dominated.” Just remember the residents of Southbridge voted this board in overwhelm-ingly fully knowing what to expect as the board was and is transparent.

Your post contained the words “liar” and “henchmen.” Shame on you.

Michael Wishner

LETTERS TO THE EDITORContinued from page 30

Once the curtain closed behind me, something tugged at my gut — and I couldn’t check his name on the ballot.

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


CHILDREN’S HALLOWEEN MASK WORKSHOP Free. Sat, Oct 31, 10:30 am-Noon at Tompkins Square Library (331 E. 10th St., Art Room-3rd Floor).

THE BOO FAMILY According to legend, the Boo Family worked the docks as fishmongers in the early 1800s. While attempting to return home during an unexpected blizzard the evening of Oct. 31, 1809, they disappeared from the wooden piers of lower Manhattan. Every Halloween night since the disappearance, the Boos return to The Seaport for a few hours, searching for their way home. Fortunately, they come bearing treats for costumed kids. Children and families out Trick or Treating are invited to stop by to collect those treats, take pho-tos, and pay tribute to the Boos. Sat, Oct 31, 5pm to 8pm, at outside @Seaport (210 Front Street at Beekman.

THE FOFER SHOW This event, which is part of 92YTribeca’s BYOK Sunday family music series,) features storytelling and songs on guitar and ukulele with projected animations and visits from The Fofers — multi-colored furry creatures with friendly human-like faces who live on a special secret island off the coast of Maine; a magical place of boats and bicycles, tall trees and wondrous plants and animals. Nov 8, 11am at 92YTribeca (200 Hudson Street). Tickets are $15. Call 212-601-1000 or go to 92yTribeca.org.

ARTS +GAMES This project, designed by an art specialist

for school age children, includes clay, painting and jewelry design. Free. Thursdays, through Oct 29, 3:30-5:30pm. Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City (access: Chambers). Call 212-267-9700, or visit bpcparks.org.

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

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

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

KIDS STORYTIME Storyteller Yvonne Brooks leads a story-

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

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

STORIES AND SONGS Created especially for infants, tod-dlers and preschoolers, this event will bring together both the children and their parents. $210 for 4 forty-minute sessions; pre-registration required. Mon or Wed, 9:30am to 10:10am – 6 to 12 months old. 10:20am to 11:00am – 15 months to 2 years old. 11:10am to 11:50am – 2 years old and up. 12 to 12:4pm – mixed ages. BPCPC Meeting Room at The Verdesian. Enter at door north of main entrance (access: Murray St or Warren St). Call 212-267-9700 or visit bpcparks.org.

PLAYDATE AND NEW PARENT DROP IN The Playdate “Drop-In” is a great place to bring toddlers. While the children play together, parents can socialize in the Parenting Center. The New Parent “Drop-In” gives new parents the chance to discuss their concerns and ask questions. Topics include feeding, sleeping, creating support networks. Punch card for 10 sessions is $100. Playdate Drop-Ins are Mon & Thurs, 10-11:30am and Tues 3-4:30pm. New Parent Drop-Ins are Mon 1:30-3:30pm. Educational Alliance Downtown Parenting Cen-ter,197 East Broadway (between Jefferson & Clinton St). Visit edalliance.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. For more information call, 212-262-9700 or visit bcparks.org.

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

TEEN ENTREPRENEUR BOOT CAMP This program gives teens

the exciting learning experience that they need to succeed later in life. For more information, visit teenentrepreneurbootcamp.org.

YOUNG SPROUTS GARDENING This gardening program is for children 3-5 years old. It includes simple gardening projects appropriate for preschoolers. Free. Tue, through Oct 27. 3:15-3:45pm. Space limited-first come, first served. The Children’s Garden, Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City (access: Chambers St). Call 212-267-9700 ext 348 or visit bpcparks.org.

TEEN VOLLEYBALL All teens are welcome and no previous experience necessary; referee/scorekeeper and ball provided. Presented by the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy. Sat, 4:30-6:30pm. Community Center at Stuyvesant High School, 345 Chambers Street. Call 646-210-4292.

ROULETTE CHILDREN’S CONCERT offers pre-K to fifth-graders the chance to listen and interact with adventurous, professional composers and musicians of a variety of genres. This month: guitarist Andy Schuman and percussionist Chris-tine Bard featuring songs from her children’s musical “The World Was Round” as well as original songs by Andy and all time classics for kids and parents! Oct 24, 2pm, at 20 Greene St (between Canal and Grand St). For $5 tickets, call 212-219-8242. Visit www.roulette.org.

TRIBECA CINEMA KIDS CLUB November will arrive sooner than you think — and with it, a new series featuring classic short and feature length films. “Tribeca Cinema Kids Club” screens flicks appropriate for all ages — augmented by Q&A sessions, arts and crafts, live music and (healthy) snacks! The Nov 7 debut offers “Mad Hot Ballroom” and “I’m Charlie Chap-lin.” Nov. 21: “Magic of a Musical” screens “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” Dec 5, discover silent films with Buster Keaton shorts as well as his feature, “The General.” Tickets: $7 for under 14, $12 for double feature. Adults (over 14): $10, $18 for double feature. Purchase in advance at www.tribecafilm.com/kidsclub on the day of event (btw 9am and 2pm) at the Tribeca Cinemas Box Office, 54 Varick St. For info, call 212-941-2001.

SOUTH STREET SEAPORT MUSEUM Current exhibits include: “New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World”; “Treasures of a President: FDR and the Sea”; and “Monarchs of the Sea: Celebrating the Ocean Liner Era.” The Toddler Play Group meets Oct 28 from 1-2:30pm ($7 per child). Museum and Ship hours: Tues-Sun, 10am-6pm. Adults: $10; Seniors/students: $8; Children 5-12: $5; under 5, Free. At 12 Fulton Street. Call 212-748-8600; visit www.southstreetsea-portmuseum.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 Americas, New York, NY 10013-1548. Requests must be received two weeks before the event is to be published. Questions? Call 646-452-2507.

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BLUES, BEATLES AND BEYOND

ROCK THE HOUSE!

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AND OF COURSE . . .

AFTER SCHOOL ARTS ACADEMY

TRIBECA DENTALFor the Whole Family

For an appointment, call 212-941-9095

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Pediatric Dentists

YOUTHACTIVITIES


Art Guide: October through DecemberBest bets for galleries, exhibitsBY STEPHANIE BUHMANN

DOWNTOWN/BELOW CANAL STREET APEXART: “Avant-Guide to NYC: Discovering

Absence.” This group exhibition aims to map the cultural history of twentieth century New York. Nov. 4 – Dec. 19 (291 Church St., below Walker St.). Call 212-431-5270 or visit: www.apexart.org.

ART IN GENERAL: “Erratic Anthropologies.” This exhi-bition includes projects by Guy Benfi eld, Shana Moulton, and Rancourt/Yatsuk. Oct. 29 – Jan. 9, 2010 (79 Walker St., btw. Bowery and Lafayette St.) Call 212-219-0473 or visit www.artingeneral.org.

CHERYL HAZAN GALLERY: “Substance and Form.” This exhibition features the Argentinean sculptor Carolina Sardi, the American artist John Ensor Parker and the Australian artist Jacqueline Belcher. Through Nov. 10 (35 North Moore St., btw. Hudson and Varick St.). Call 212-343-8964 or visit www.cherylhazan.com.

CITY HALL PARK (ORGANIZED BY PUBLIC ART FUND): “Peter Coffi n: Untitled.“ The installation features monumental silhouettes of iconic sculptures. Through May 2010 (Broadway and Park Row). Call 212-980-4575 or visit www.publicartfund.org/petercoffi n.

KS ART / KERRY SCHUSS: “R.M. Fischer.” This art-ist blurs the lines between art, architecture, fashion and technology. Oct. 29 – Dec. 29 (73 Leonard St., btw. Church St. and Broadway). Call 212-219-9918 or visit kerryschuss.com.

MORE NORTH: “New Paintings by Hjörtur Hjartarson.” Nontraditional abstract landscape paint-ings evoke the rich and varied scenery of these artists’ native Iceland. Through Dec. 6 (39 North Moore St., btw. Hudson and Varick St.) Call 212-334-5541 or visit www.morenorth.com.

SALOMON ARTS GALLERY: “Leonard Rosenfeld: Wire and Can Pieces 1981-1991.” These works fuse elements of painting, sculpture, tribal and outsider art. Through Nov. 14 (83 Leonard St., btw. Church St. and Broadway). Call 212-966-1997. Visit www.salomonarts.com or www.leonar-drosenfeld.com.

SALON 94 FREEMANS: “Barry X Ball: Masterpieces.” The artist creates sculptures that investigate the bizarre. Oct. 29 – Dec. 12 (1 Freeman Alley, at Rivington St.). Call 212-529-7400 or visit www.salon94.com.

SASHA WOLF GALLERY: “Norman Mooney: Carbon Drawings.” This artist works with carbon directly on the wall, paper and panels, using a lit torch. Through No. 7 (10 Leonard St., btw. Hudson and W Broadway). Call 212-925-0025 or visit www.sashawolf.com.

THE SKYSCRAPER MUSEUM: “China Prophecy: Shanghai.” This multi-media exhibition examines Shanghai’s evolving identity as a skyscraper metropolis. Through Mar. 2010 (39 Battery Pl.). Call 212-945-6324 or visit www.skyscraper.org.

VILLAGE/LES/SOHO CANADA: “Michael Williams: Uncle Big.” This exhibi-

tion features ornate abstract paintings. Through Nov. 15 (55 Chrystie St., above Canal St.). Call 212-925-4631 or visit www.canadanewyork.com.

DCKT: “Ted O’Sullivan: Reclamation of the Modern Tongue.” This exhibition of paintings fuses fi gurative and architectural elements. Through Nov. 15 (195 Bowery, at Spring St.). Call 212-741-9955 or visit www.dcktcontem-porary.com.

ELEVEN RIVINGTON: “Caetano de Almeida.” The paint-ings by this Brazilian artist reveal his interest in the history of Latin American geometric conceptualism. Through Nov. 15, (11 Rivington St., btw. Bowery and Chrystie St.). Call 212-982-1930 or visit www.elevenrivington.com.

HARRIS LIEBERMAN: “Bern Ribbeck.” This German artist creates small geometric paintings and works on paper. Through Nov. 14 (89 Vandam St., btw. Greenwich and Hudson St.). Call 212-206-1290 or visit www.harrislieber-man.com.

HEIST GALLERY: “Stephen Floyd: I Love America and America Loves Me.” This exhibition features political and sexually charged drawings. Nov. 4 - Dec. 18 (27 Essex, at Hester St.). Call 212-253-0451. Visit www.heistgallery.com or www.fl oydfl oyd.com.

INVISIBLE-EXPORTS: “Stephen Irwin: Sometimes When We Touch.” The artist alters vintage pornography magazines to create images rich in erotic mysticism. Oct. 23 – Nov. 29 (14A Orchard St., btw. Hester and Canal St.). Call 212-226-5447 or visit www.invisible-exports.com.

LISA COOLEY: “Erin Shireff: Landscapes, Heds, Drapery, and Devils.” This exhibition of photographs, video and sculptures alludes to otherworldly, ephemeral phenom-ena. Oct. 25 – Dec. 20 (34 Orchard St., at Hester St.). Call 212-680-0564 or visit www.lisa-cooley.com.

LMAK PROJECTS LES: “Harold Ancart: Within Limits.” This exhibition features two sculptures and a drawing that explore the limitations of space. Through Nov. 29 (139 Eldridge St., at Delancey St.). Call 212-255-9707 or visit

www.lmakprojects.com. LUDLOW 38: “Friedl Kubelka, Gerard Byrne, Ricardo

Basbaum.” Three artists explore portraiture as a means of capturing a moment in time. Oct. 30 – Dec. 13 (38 Ludlow St., btw. Hester and Grand St.). Call 212-228-6848 or visit www.ludlow38.org.

MUSEUM 52: “Julia Goldman: Girls.” This exhibition features abstracted portraits. Through Nov. 14 (4 E 2nd St., at Bowery). Call 347-789-7072 or visit www.museum52.com

ON STELLAR RAYS: “Tommy Hartung.” This exhibition features the video, The Ascent of Man (2009), which the artist adapted from the 1973 BBC documentary of the same name. Nov. 1 – Dec. 23 (133 Orchard St., below Rivington St.). Call 212-598-3012 or visit www.onstellarrays.com.

GALLERY SATORI: “Ethan Greenbaum & David Scanavino.” A two-person show that incorporates cement sculptures. Oct. 23 – Nov. 29 (164 Stanton St., btw. Clinton and Suffolk St.). Call 646-896-1075 or visit www.gallerysa-tori.com.

SUNDAY L.E.S.: “Bryan Zanisnik: Dry Bones Can Harm No Man.” A selection of photographs that depict con-structed tableaus. Through Nov. 15 (237 Eldridge St., below Houston St.). Call 212-253-0700. Visit www.hortonliu.com or www.zanisnik.com.

THE DRAWING CENTER: “Ree Morton: At the Still Point of the Turning World.” This exhibition features drawings from the 60s and 70s that involve personal narrative and humor. Through Dec. 18 (35 Wooster St., below Broome St.). Call 212-219-2166 or visit www.drawingcenter.org.

THIERRY GOLDBERG PROJECTS: “Barbara Ess: You Are Not I.” This exhibition features photographs and videos, which address the human longing to connect to the world. Through Nov. 15 (5 Rivington St., btw. Bowery and Chrystie St.). Call 212-967-2260 or visit [email protected].

WOODWARD GALLERY: “Cristina Vergano: Just for You.” This exhibition of paintings addresses feminist con-cerns, old master works and Pop-Art aesthetics. Nov. 7 – Jan. 9, 2010 (133 Eldridge St. below Delancey St.). Call 212-966-3411. Visit www.woodwardgallery.net or www.cristinavergano.net.

CHELSEA (All Galleries are West of 9th Avenue unless otherwise indi-cated)

ANA CRISTEA GALLERY: “Zsolt Bodoni: The Foundries of Ideology.“ The young Hungarian painter examines the vio-lent struggles of his country’s past. Through Nov. 21 (521 W 26th St.). Call 212-904-1100 or visit www.anacristeagallery.com.

ANDREA ROSEN GALLERY: “Matthew Ritchie: Line Shot.” This exhibition features abstract paintings, an animat-ed feature fi lm, drawings, and a modular structure. Through Dec. 2 (525 W 24th St.). Call 212-627-6000. Visit www.andrearosengallery.com or www.matthewritchie.com.

BLACK & WHITE GALLERY: “Stefan à Wengen: Nightology.” This exhibition includes works that continue the Romantic tradition of refl ecting on the world. Through Nov. 21 (636 W 28th St.). Call 212-244-3007 or visit www.blackandwhiteartgallery.com.

Photo by James Hewing, courtesy of Public Art Fund

Peter Coffi n’s “Untitled” features silhouettes of iconic sculptures


BY JERRY TALLMERThe 60-point four- column headline in a

newspaper called Dziennik Łódzki, over a photograph of Bernard Aptekar and one of his machine gunners, reads “Sztuka wymierzona w wojne I inima wisc.”

What’s that in English, an American journal-ist wondered.

“I haven’t the faintest idea” said Bernard Aptekar, mildly. “My mother, who was born in Poland, didn’t speak to me in Polish — ever. She spoke English to me, and Yiddish to my grandparents.”

Which adds a certain amount of spice to the fact that he was just back from spending the whole month of September 2009 — he and his wife Bozena — as honored guests of an exhibit of the city of Łódz (pronounced “Woodge”), Poland.

Everything about Mercer Street’s 73 year-old Bernard Aptekar seems mild and quite—everything except his art. His fl amboyant, styl-ized sculptural paintings, or painterly sculptors, are Hieronymus Bosch reborn as a Nightmare Comix running commentary on man’s inhuman-ity to man (not to mention women and children) in work as loud as his voice, Aptekar’s, is low.

As loud and large. With titles to suit: “Aliens at the Intergalactic Café,” “The Defeat of the City of Plutonium,” “Our Men and Some of Their Work.” One layout, “Merrily We Roll Along,” was altogether too huge to fi t into the

classic-columned 85 year-old Miejska Galeria Sztuki, Łódz. At one end of “Merrily We Roll Along,” a newborn babe is clawing its way back into its mother’s womb; at the back other end helmeted Dick Cheney is cradling a machine gun at the prow of a war canoe.

So how, Bernard, did all this come to pass — this homage to a Jewish artist in a town in a land now notably healthy for Jews?

“I don’t know,” says Aptekar. Poland on the one hand is full or virulent anti-Semitism, but on the other, lots of ordinary Poles are sympa-thetic toward Jews.

Ordinary Poles like those in Claude Lanzmann’s great 9 1/2 hour documentary “Shoah” — good simple rural Poles who feel murderous toward any Jews returning to reclaim their houses after the Holocaust?

“That’s true,” says artist Aptekar. “I know some people who got shot at when they went back to their villages after the war.”

All he knows is that two years ago a Polish actress named Malgorzata Potocka came to look “at his stuff in the loft,” just below NYU where he has lived and worked since 1973.

“I think maybe her son knew about me,” says the Aptekar who is also a professor of art at City Tech (New York City College of Technology). “In any event, she looked and looked and then said: ‘We should have a show of this in Poland.’ I said All right, I’ll do it if you can fi nd a place to do it.”

The place she found was this Galleria in a park in the center of the town of Lodz. The curator of the show and administrator of the gallery is Elizabeth Fuchs, who might herself be Jewish.

“I think so,” says Aptekar, quietly. If he doesn’t speak Polish, does he speak Yiddish?

“I used to, but then I had a stroke that took away my use of languages.”

For what it’s worth — possibly zero — while Aptekar and his Polish-born, Catholic-born wife were in town, there was a commemorative ceremony honoring the WW II Jewish ghetto of Łód . It was held outdoors by the old Jewish cemetery. The mayor spoke. An orchestra played Penderecki’s “Seven Gates of Jerusalem.” Five rabbis gave the benediction.

In great ironic contrast with the Łódz embrace of Aptekar’s work is the crass rejection fi ve years ago of a large Aptekar installation in the lobby of the new Conde Naste building at 4 Times Square, New York City. As the truck drove up carrying the prearranged exhibit, the installation was cut short by a gaggle of offi -cious men and women in suits. They looked, the huddled, and they ruled: No Aptekar here today, thank you.

They turned out to be legal eagles from the fi rm of Skadden Arps Slate Meaghe, the new structure’s prime tenants.

Looking back on it at this remove, Aptekar merely murmurs: “I guess they didn’t like it.”

One recognizable face in the display had been that of Martin Luther King, Jr. “I guess they didn’t like that.”

What particularly impressed Aptekar was how “engaged” the Polish general public was in his work. “They asked questions that were thoughtful, serious and pointed. In Poland, not here.”

Thoughtful, serious and pointed — these are good words to describe the household in which Bernard Aptekar grew up. It was a union household, a working man’s household, a radical household. If Polish had been Fannie Aptekar’s fi rst language, Al Aptekar’s had been the Russian of the Ukraine.

Here in America he became a union orga-nizer for the projectionists in a movie house, and argued politics with his friend (but not a relative), the noted writer and sociologist Herbert Aptekar.

“After the war,” says his son, my father became a Communist Party (CPUSA) treasurer. People like (far = leftists) Herbert Biberman, Paul Jarrico, Alva Bessie, were always around the house. My father collected money from those such as Humphrey Bogart. It was an interesting way to grow up.

So you come by your politics honestly…“That’s right. Yes, I do,” said Bernard

Aptekar, as agreeable as one might order a soft-boiled egg when the shells are bursting and the monsters growling all around him.”

Embraced in Łódz, shunned in NYC lobbyBernard Aptekar comes by his politics honestly

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BY DAVID TODDIt’s in the rambler tradition of novelists and guitarists alike

that writer Joseph Mattson and musician Ben Chasny come together in their new book-with-soundtrack, “Empty the Sun,” released November 3rd on A Barnacle Book and Drag City Records. Although the title suggests another of the bril-liant, meditative albums the Seattle-based Chasny has released as Six Organs of Admittance — 2006’s “The Sun Awakens” and this year’s “Luminous Night” among them — the novel deals with its light source in a starker, more glaring way.

Author of last year’s “Eat Hell” (Narrow Books), Los Angeles-dwelling Mattson relocates the action from Chasny’s northern dreamlands to the jaundiced roads leading out of his adopted hometown and into a bitter Midwest. Mattson’s hard-boiled narrator — unnamed, but distinguished by lines such as “I was mesmerized and drawn to California as if toward something that could surely kill me, like the wolf — like a bear — but only to make me more alive” — drives a good burn into the fog of Chasny’s abstractions.

Mattson and Chasney recently spoke to The Villager about the challenges of a singular project through the use of two very different mediums.

How did the idea for this project come together for you?

JM: We were up at 3 in the morning drinking whiskey and said, “To hell with movies, who does soundtracks to books?” Outlines on the character who would eventually become the protagonist were worked out — an ace guitar player who loses the index fi nger of his fret hand — and this sketch, coupled with the idea that god is love is oblivion, the notion of the sun pouring out of itself…all of these things fi t the concept of a book with soundtrack, specifi cally a Mattson/Six Organs of Admittance collaboration.

Production-wise, the rough draft of the novel came before the recording, but it was always written as two parts of a whole. We [were] equal collaborators from the get-go.

Is there anything in particular you had in mind for how the text and soundtrack would go together?

JM: Well, there is no specifi c point of convergence, as if someone should listen to a certain song while reading a certain passage in the book. [But] if there is a subconscious purpose, perhaps it’s that the ache, the joy, the terror, and ecstasy of the world can be co-committed in the lyricism of music and the music of words. Two brothers, one with the guitar and one with the typewriter — for this project at least — better than one.

The writing seems heightened and immediate while the music tends to be refl ective. Did you think of the sound-track as providing the emotional subtext, so to speak, of the narrative?

JM: Yes, the emotion of the book is often naked and hon-est, and it’s in these moments that the soundtrack fi lls in a more unspoken emotion, that place where speaking and feel-ing become indistinguishable. There are specifi c moments in the narrative wherein the protagonist — because he is a guitar player — cannot entirely express himself in words, though he must try due to his present disposition, which makes the soundtrack and the confessional narrative symbi-otic to one another. Reciprocally, there are moments in the soundtrack that invoke an emotional abstract that yearns for punctuation found in the book.

Ben, I was wondering if you saw yourself as a writer in this process or as a translator of sorts.

BC: I was mostly excited by the general openness of the whole project. [The book had] a very loose structure, [so] it was easy to imagine a driving soundtrack, music for driving,

and that is what I tried to do. It seemed best to have music you could put in your car.

The book is a road novel from the opening lines on. But on the other hand, it’s also an L.A. novel too. Joseph, do you think you were trying to capture a sense of both place and movement on your end at least?

JM: Yes. Home and the road, magnets both. Movement is crucial — the book was written with a somewhat frantic pace in mind, and the soundtrack is the reality of what’s outside the window. [But] so is the isolation of places all their own. It is a California book that both embraces and rejects California as a place and also the road leading away from it as both damnation and salvation. Place and leaving a place might be as critical to each other as anything else dual in nature.

One of the aspects of California the book explores is downtown L.A. in all its rail-whiskey squalor. What is it that attracts you to that milieu? Everybody else seems to be cleaning up these days.

JM: We’re aware of [that] but don’t pay particular atten-tion [to it], other than to know what to complain about when we’re over at friends’ houses, grumpy and drinking. But as far as sound and words go, well, honesty is best, no matter how beautiful or how ugly. Both of us are attracted to music and writing wherein something vital is at stake physically, emotionally, metaphysically, and otherwise. Just so long as it is alive and vulnerable and bold. Why be rote?

BC: I can see just as much intoxication in sobriety as in drunkenness. It’s just harder to get there. It’s not easy, [but] it’s a place to aspire to. That’s what the mystics have always known.

The narrator was bitten by a wolf as a child. It seemed from the brotherly way you two were talking that perhaps you were both bitten by a similar wolf in one sense or another.

JM: We’re of the same ilk, Mattson and Chasny, but dif-ferent, too. I don’t know. I’ve been bit by a wolf — literally, holes in my leg — but I can’t speak for the goddamn wolf, and if I mention it it’s as a survivor.

BC: I actually don’t recognize the “wolf” as a valid cor-respondence with anything that I feel. I don’t have any rela-tionship with that creature.

What about the bear then, Ben?BC: Now that is an animal I relate to. Don’t forget that

the North Star, the star that most men looked to throughout the ages for orientation, is at the tip of the little bear’s tail. We are all where we are because some explorer or scout or family guided themselves with [it].

It seems that duality, almost as a virtue or ideal, is cen-tral to what you’ve captured collectively with this novel-with-soundtrack. Joseph, does the elephant seal, another prominent image, have anything to do with that?

JM: Elephant seals represent the vulgarity of mammalian existence, the beauty and the violence. [They are] a meta-phor for the total duality of the book, the duality of us, the duality of the answers to this interview, [and for] just breath-ing so long as one might with the dark magnet calling from however far off in the distance.

All this counterpoint and ambiguity suggests a pretty open canvas ultimately. Given that, how in tune would you say you were over the course of this project?

JM: Always in tune but with respect for cacophony.

On the Road (out of Los Angeles)Book/Soundtrack project continues ‘the rambler tradition’

Photo courtesy of Ben Chasny

Joseph Mattson (left) and Ben Chasny

EMPTY THE SUNA novel by Joseph Mattson

Music by Six Organs of Admittance

Published by A Barnacle Book & Record

Distributed by Drag City

First trade paperback with CD soundtrack

$15 A Barnacle Book & Record; 1st Edition (November 3, 2009)

Also available as Vinyl LP soundtrack with large-format book (limited to 1000 copies; $20 A Barnacle Book & Record; 1st Edition (November 3, 2009)

Visit http://www.emptythesun.comand http://www.sixorgans.com

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“WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE” (-)The minus I give this children’s story pains

me. As I have written many times, I don’t enjoy movies that can in any way be described as a cartoon/fable, which surely this fi lm is. So I went to this movie somewhat prejudiced against it.

The picture is based on a book by Maurice Sendak, whom I know and admire. I once asked him to illustrate a children’s book that I was writing with my sister about my brother who was a great athlete, unlike me who was terrible at sports. He declined saying that his style and type of art would not be appropriate for our book.

The story is about a young boy, Max (Max Records), who lives with his loving mother (Catherine Keener) and his sister, a minor character in the fi lm. Max runs away one night, crosses a body of water, and lands on an island where he meets a half dozen creatures who accept him as their king. Max doesn’t know that they have had other kings, all of whom they have eaten.

The animal characters, hybrids and scary in appearance, look like they had been on “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” The lead animal, Carol (voice of James Gandolfi ni), is really frighten-ing. He constantly threatens to eat Max, but is sorry when he leaves the island. KW (voice of Lauren Ambrose) is a female of the same species. She saves Max from Carol by taking him into her mouth for a short while and then releases him.

If I had seen this fi lm when I was eight, I would have been terrifi ed. That did not seem to be the case with the youngsters in the theater when I saw the picture. I did not hear one child crying during the movie.

I saw the fi lm with PA, who did not enjoy it, and with PB who did. I was advised by PT, who has not seen the fi lm, that I would look and sound like a jerk if I criticized it. So, while I won’t disparage it, I must state that I did not enjoy it. After seeing the picture, my friends and I questioned what its moral was. No one could come up with one except for PT who said it was that a little boy could master his own savage emotions.

HG said he disliked the ending most of all, when Max’s mother on having her son home safe and sound, falls to her knees, hugs him, and gives him chocolate cake and milk. I said that was the only scene I loved. HG said, “She was too forgiv-ing, and the kid will run away again.”

So, Maurice, while I didn’t enjoy the fi lm, you did something quite brilliant. You got us all thinking and arguing about the movie which is no little feat.

Run time: 1 hour, 34 minutes. Rated PG. At, among other places, Regal Union Square Stadium 14 (850 Broadway; at 13th St.). For screening times, call 212-253-2225. For the Box Offi ce, call 212-253-6266.

“KILLING KASZTNER” (+)This brilliant documentary seeks

to establish the hero status of Rudolf

Kasztner. Kasztner bargained successfully with Adolf Eichmann to save the lives of 1,600 or more Jews, who were transported out of Hungary to Switzerland, and 19,000 Jews who were sent to work camps instead of death camps. Shortly before the end of World War II, Eichmann successfully arranged for the killing of near 600,000 Hungarian Jews.

Kasztner ends up in Palestine under the British, ultimately becoming a member of the Ben-Gurion government in the new state of Israel. He is called a collabora-tor by another Israeli who is then sued by the Israeli government for libel. The judge hearing the case believes Kasztner lied about certain documents and fi nds the alleged slanderer of Kasztner not guilty. Ultimately the Israeli Supreme Court reverses the judgment, but Kasztner’s rep-utation is never fully restored.

The documentary spectacularly sets forth what occurred and establishes, to my satisfaction, that Kasztner was a hero. Kasztner is killed shortly after the fi rst trial fi nding him to be a collaborator. His assas-sin, who is presented in the fi lm, comes to the conclusion that he was wrong. He now believes that Kasztner was a hero bargaining with the Nazis to release Jews in exchange for money — $1000 for each Jew.

The movie contains a number of enthralling vignettes. One of those is about the Satmar’s founding rabbi, Joseph Teitelbaum, who was saved by Kasztner by being placed on the train to Switzerland. When asked to appear at the Israeli Court on behalf of Kasztner, he refused saying that Kasztner did not save him, God did. The Satmar, one of the largest Hasidic groups in New York City, is centered in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

“Killing Kasztner” will cause you to weep, although there are no concentra-tion camp scenes at which six million Jews died. As far as the world is concerned, the Holocaust appears to be slipping into ancient history, like the days of Rome and Athens.

I urge everyone, Jew and Gentile, to see this fi lm and meet the surviving family members of Rudolf Kasztner, particularly his wife and daughter. It is playing at the Cinema Village. The theater was near full when I went, and the audience appeared to consist of elderly Jews, some of whom may

have been survivors.

Run time: 116 minutes. Unrated. At Cinema Village (22 East 12th Street, between Fifth Avenue and University Place). For screening times, call 212-924-3363.

KOCH ON FILM

Koch: Not wild about these ‘Things’

Courtesy of the Krasztner family

Rudolph Krasztner on the raido in Israel


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HALLOWEEN EVENTS

“FRANKENSTIEN” This rock musical concert retelling of Mary Shelley’s iconic talke features a legend-laden band whose musicians include past members of Frank Zappa’s The Mothers of Invention. Sat., Oct. 31, 8 p.m. at The Highline Ballroom (431 West 16th St.). For $65/$50/$35 tickets, www.theatermania.com (search Franken-steinNYC09) or call 866-811-4111. Visit www.frankensteinaroundtheworld.com.

MERCHANT’S HOUSE The highly haunted museum hosts several events tied to its spooky reputation. Their “Fam-ily Friendly Ghost Tour” happens Noon to 5 p.m. on Oct. 31, every 20 minutes. After the “just spooky enough” tour, come downstairs for cider, creep cakes, lady fingers, and spir-ited 19th century activities. Recommended for ages 7-12. Adults & Children $10. Res-ervations suggested but not required. At 7 and 9 p.m. on Oct. 31, “Ghost Stories of the Merchant’s House Museum” features official Merchant’s House ghost-storyteller, Anthony Bellov reading selections from 19th-century horror classics and recounting highlights from his ongoing research into the strange and supernatural occurrences at the Merchant’s House Museum — in a parlor arranged for a mid-19th century funeral. $25, reservations required. At Mer-

chant’s House Museum (29 East Fourth St.) Call 212-777-1089 or visit www.merchant-shouse.org.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY’S 33RD ANNUAL HALLOWEEN COSTUME BALL This event features underground stars performing in TNC’s Halloween Caba-rets, prizes for best costumes, and Hallow-een delicacies in The Witches’ Cauldron. The one-night fiesta takes over all four of TNC’s theater spaces, plus its lobby and the block of East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues. Sat, Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m. at Theater for the New City (155 First Ave. at E. 10th St.). $20. Costume or formal wear required. Call 212-254-1109 or visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net.

“ R O G E R C O R M A N : P O E & BEYOND” Independent film pioneer Roger Corman gets the respectful ret-rospective treatment in this celebration of “the unholy union of two of America’s great masters of horror, Edgar Allan Poe and Roger Corman.” Featured films include “House of Usher” on Nov. 1 at 3 p.m., “The Pit and the Pendulum” on Oct. 31 at 5 p.m., “Tales of Terror” on Oct. 31 at 3 p.m., “The Raven” Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. and “The Masque of the Red Death” on Oct. 30/31 at 9 p.m. and Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.; at Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue). $9 gen-eral admission. Call 212-505-5181 or visit

www.anthologyfilmarchives.org.

THE RENALDO THE ENSEMBLE These idie art rockers dress in 1930s noir cos-tumes and while performing dadaist gags, absurdist skits and compelling rock, tango and opera. Their Halloween show takes place Oct 31 at the Living Room (154 Ludlow Street), which doubles as a CD release party. Tickets are $10, which includes a free copy of their upcoming CD, “Why Are You?”

GALLERIES & EXHIBITS

EYE ON WALL STREET This exhibition marks the return of contemporary fine arts to Federal Hall for the first time since its re-opening in Fall 2006. See photographs of the Financial District (by Arthur Lavine, shot in 1969) as well as a series of 3 time lapse videos created by Bill Dolson — plus a selection of paintings by contem-porary artists who’ve made Wall Street and Lower Manhattan the subject of their work. Free ; Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm, through Oct 30, at Federal Hall (26 Wall St, at Broad St). For info, call 212-340-1273 or visit www.seaportdistrict.org.

“FACES” Letty Nowak’s exhibition of new paintings focuses on faces, but are not

“portraits” in the classical sense. Through December, at Hal Bromm Gallery (90 West Broadway at Chambers St). Call 212-732-6196 or visit www.halbromm.com.

BEAUTY SURROUNDS US Visitors can see a unique display including 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 visi-tors in-depth descriptions of each object. Ongoing through March, 2010, at the National Museum of the American Indian (One Bowling Green). Call 212-514-3700, or visit nmai.si.edu.

CLASSESI N T R O D U C T O R Y A R T W O R K -

SHOPS Are you th ink ing about tak ing an ar t c lass , but not sure what you want? Come to these art workshops and try out a class before committing to a full course. Class subjects include pottery, cartooning, drawing and photographs. $15 per workshop. The Educational Alliance Art School, 197 East Broadway. Call 212-780-2300, x428; or, visit edalli-ance.org/artschool.

THE LISTINGSPICK OF THE WEEK

Enter an immersive world of churning gears, mechanical mon-strosities, and steam-powered cyborgs as the Abrons Arts Center’s historic Playhouse and catacombs are transformed into “Steampunk Haunted House.” Haunted house tour groups are admitted incre-mentally into a labyrinthine world that trades conventional devices of blood and gore for the more terrifying nuances of suspense and meticulously engineered surprise. Oct 30, 31 from 8pm to 11:30pm; at Abrons Arts Center of Henry Street Settlement (466 Grand St at Pitt St). $25; $10 for students. For tickets, www.theatermania.com or 212-352-3101.

Photo courtesy of Abrons Arts Center

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Downtown Express, October 30, 2009

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Transcript of Downtown Express, October 30, 2009