NOVEMBER 13, 2009 Downtown Express

Downtown Express photo by J.B. Nicholas

With about 15,000 people crossing Church and Vesey Sts. during a peak hour, the intersection is believed to be the busiest pedestrian crossing in the country. One pedestrian manager, a former Corrections offi cer, says it was easier to manage inmates than the crowds near the World Trade Center site.

BY JULIE SHAPIROThe $2.25 million ear-

marked for Millennium High School’s gym could disap-pear unless the city fi nds a place for the gym soon.

The $2.25 million accumu-lated slowly, over several bud-get cycles, as local politicians advocated for Millennium to get a gym. But once the fund-ing fell into place last year, thanks to allocations from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Councilmember Alan Gerson and the city, progress on the gym halted as the city said none of the proposed sites would work.

“I fi nd it inconceivable and totally unacceptable that after all the money was allocated many months ago, they could not have come up with a site,” Gerson said.

“In a tight year when the city is cutting back projects, it’s pretty tough to justify keeping this money on hold indefi nitely, which is why there needs to be a light at the end of the tunnel…. This should be done this year.”

Gerson, who is leav-ing offi ce at the end of the year, expects to speak with the School Construction Authority later this week and hopes the city commits to a site before the end of December.

Millennium Principal Robert Rhodes has been fi ghting for a gym since his school opened in a Broad St. offi ce building in 2003, only to fi nd a new obstacle at every turn.

The initial plan was to build the gym on the 34th

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON In a gruesome accident,

an elderly actress from Westbeth was partially run over by a Parks Department garbage truck while riding her motorized scooter in what is supposed to be a protected bicycle lane last Thursday morning.

Initially, Shami (pro-nounced Shah-mee) Chaikin, 78, was listed in critical condition at St. Vincent’s

Hospital. But as of Tuesday, there seemed to be growing hope that she would pull through after her stomach surgery.

In an e-mail to Downtown Express on Tuesday, Miriam Chaikin wrote, “My beloved sister is seriously damaged. She passed one crisis yester-day and has more to go. But she holds on against great odds — and we pray.”

Toni Dalton, a friend of

City playingprevent defenseon school gym?

Woman crushed by truck in bike lane

BY JULIE SHAPIRO The pulsing intersection of Church

and Vesey Sts. in Lower Manhattan is a sea of buses, trucks, taxis, con-struction vehicles — and, most of all, pedestrians.

More people traverse this block at rush hour than any other curb in New York City, the country, and perhaps the world.

“There is no street that has a higher density, including Times Square,” said Sam Schwartz, a traffi c consultant whose engineering company helps manage the intersection.

During a peak weekday hour, 14,800 people cross Church St. at Vesey St. Schwartz predicts the number will soon climb above 15,000, as Goldman Sachs opens its new headquarters a couple blocks away in Battery Park City.

For the fl oods of commuters, resi-dents and tourists who pass through this intersection at the northeast cor-ner of the World Trade Center site, it often feels like barely organized chaos as pedestrian managers hold yellow chains to stop people from crossing against the light. Briefcases and elbows

fl y as people rush to their offi ces in the morning and the PATH trains in the afternoon.

But whether they realize it or not, the thousands of pedestrians are actu-ally part of a carefully choreographed dance, where each step is timed down to the second using computer models. The goal of the chains and whistles is to keep traffi c fl owing and to keep the pedestrians safe.

Not everyone appreciates the effort. Of several dozen people who spoke to

A cross to bear on Church

Continued on page 8

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downtown expresss®

VOLUME 22, NUMBER 27 THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN NOVEMBER 13 - 19, 2009

YANKEE PICTURES, P. 15

November 13 - 19, 20092 downtown express

POSH SQUASH PENTHOUSE The most exclusive penthouse in Lower Manhattan

could soon be coming to 60 Pine St. That’s the location of the Down Town Association, a

private club for businessmen (and more recently women) founded in 1859. The club is planning a three-story addi-tion to the landmark six-story building, including squash courts and bedrooms for members.

“We’re a social club,” said Mark Altherr, a financial analyst and president of the club. “And social clubs these days need bedrooms and athletic facilities.”

The squash courts will be the only ones in Lower Manhattan, Altherr said. The bedrooms will be conve-nient for members who live out of town, or local mem-bers can use them to put up visiting relatives.

Altherr said the club has been considering the expan-sion for about 15 years, but they just started seeking approvals now. He will be presenting the designs, by Page Ayres Cowley Architects, to Community Board 1’s Landmarks Committee this Thurs., Nov. 12. After the board issues an advisory resolution, the city Landmarks Preservation Commission will weigh in.

Altherr hopes to open the addition to the club’s nearly 700 members in the beginning of 2012.

It looks like the association has a good chance of get-

ting C.B. 1’s approval, especially because the addition is set back over 20 feet and will not be visible from Pine St.

Landmarks chairperson Roger Byrom, who toured the club with other C.B. 1 members last week, was also pleased that the owners are removing modern additions like a fire escape from the building and are adding his-toric features.

The Down Town Association was Lower Manhattan’s first social club and boasted such notable members as Franklin Roosevelt. Members have access to club ser-vices including daily meals, humidity-controlled cigar storage, a barbershop that gives facials and pound-for-pound, one of the largest men’s rooms anywhere.

GAY HEATThe goo goos have never gone ga ga for former

Republican State Sen. Majority Leader Joe Bruno, but dare we say that politics can make for some strange bedfellows — we would of course only be speaking metaphorically.

The goos or good government groups often saw Bruno as one of the chief roadblocks to Albany reform, but on Tuesday, Dick Dadey, leader of Citizens Union, urged Senate Democrats to follow the example of Bruno who “courageously” let a gay rights bill reach the floor for debate in 2000 even though Bruno knew it couldn’t pass without Democratic support. Dadey, also the former head of the Empire State Pride Agenda, is urging the Dems to allow an open debate and vote on gay marriage even though a few Democrats oppose the measure.

The government and gay right groups have certainly amped up their criticism on the Senate Dems’ footdrag-ging in recent weeks. First Alan Van Capelle accuses unnamed Democrats of lying about marriage, and now they’re being accused of being less than Bruno.

Them’s fighting words in Albany and the Democratic leadership did not take kindly to it. We hear without the arm-twisting of Gov. David Paterson, Van Capelle and others Tuesday night, the leaders would not have agreed to bring marriage to a vote sometime this year.

NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-17

EDITORIAL PAGES . . . . . . . . . . 18-19

YOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21

ARTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-26

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

The upcoming week’s schedule of Community Board 1 committee meetings is below. Unless other-wise noted, all committee meetings are held at the board offi ce, located at 49-51 Chambers St., room 709 at 6 p.m.

ON MON., NOV. 16: The Waterfront Committee will meet.

ON TUES., NOV. 17: The School Rezoning Task Force will meet at 5:15 p.m., and the Youth & Education Committee will meet at 6 p.m.

ON WEDS., NOV. 18: The Tribeca Committee will meet at 6:00 p.m., and the Battery Park City Committee will meet at the B.P.C.A. at 1 World Financial Center, 24th Fl., at 6:00 p.m.

ON THURS., NOV. 19: An information session on helicopters will take place at the board offi ce at 4:30 p.m. and the Quality of Life Commitee will meet at 6 p.m.

Read the Archiveswww.DOWNTOWNEXPRESS.com

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downtown express November 13 - 19, 2009 3

M.T.A. promises faster M15 buses by next SeptemberBY LESLIE PICKER

“Faster and more reliable.” That was the catchphrase the city Department of Transportation and M.T.A. offi cials used to describe their newest innovation for a more effi cient bus system during a presentation to the Community Board 1’s Seaport/Civic Center Committee on Tuesday night.

The joint project is called Selective Bus Service, and it will run 8.5 miles on the M15 route along First/Second Aves., Allen St., Madison St., St. James Pl., Pearl St. and Water St. The city’s target date for implementation is Sept. 5, 2010. The goal is to create a speedier travel experience for bus commut-ers on the eastern side of Manhattan.

“Buses in New York City are very slow. They’re the slow-est in the country among large cities,” said Joseph Barr, the director for transit development in the D.O.T.’s Division of Planning and Sustainability.

S.B.S. will be speedier than the M15 due to several new features, said D.O.T. and Metropolitan Transportation Authority offi cials. It will mandate that customers pay for their ride ahead of time at outdoor machines instead of holding up the bus swip-ing MetroCards inside. There will also be a bus signal priority, a special type of technology, which holds green lights for buses. Bus lane hours will be expanded and enforced to ensure freer space for bus travel, said the D.O.T. and M.T.A.

The new bus program will replace the M15 limited stop line and will have a few less stops. There are three bus stops in the C.B. 1 district that will be affected by the new bus system: South Ferry, Wall and Water Sts. and Fulton and Pearl Sts. The stops just to the north will be Madison and Catherine Sts., Grand and Allen, and Houston and Allen.

During their presentation, D.O.T. and M.T.A. offi cials included a study indicating that the current buses were only in motion for half of an average rider’s commute. Due to slow bus speeds, bus ridership has remained stagnant throughout the past 15 years while subway ridership has

increased. Through the new program, city offi cials hope both the subway system and the bus system can have the reputa-tion for fast, reliable and comfortable transit.

The fi rst phase of the program was instituted along Fordham Road in the Bronx about one year ago. Offi cials said it increased ridership by 10 percent, and decreased the aver-age bus rider’s travel time by 20 percent.

“If we could decrease travel time from 125th St. to South Ferry, I don’t see how anyone could be against that,” said Robert Marino, M.T.A. deputy director of government and community relations.

But several members of the Seaport/Civic Center Committee had their reservations. Committee member Joe Lerner said that bus lanes might cause even greater delays if people park their cars there.

“When you have police offi cers on every third block on First Ave., and they start ticketing cars, you’ll see how fast buses can go,” said Lerner.

Some of the committee members were concerned about the bus lanes causing greater congestion among commercial and car traffi c. Others said that buses do not always stay in their lanes when an obstacle like a parked car is standing in their way. Cars in the regular lane often need to “stop short” to let buses in, said committee member Ann DeFalco.

In response, the D.O.T. offi cials said that they were mid-way through a traffi c analysis of the plan, but believed there to be extra capacity along the route to host bus lanes.

Other members were concerned about fare evasion due to the outdoor paying machines and the potential for lost rev-enue. But to deter free riders, inspectors would walk through the buses to make sure that everyone has paid, according to the M.T.A.’s Marino.

“If you get caught without a receipt on the buses, you get a $100 ticket,” he said. “It’s the same fee as if you jump the turnstiles at the subway station.”

Cortlandt’s fi nishing touches The refurbished entrances to the Cortlandt St. R/W station on Church St. got a fresh coat of paint last week in preparation for their opening sometime in December. Only the northbound platform of the station will be accessible next month; the southbound platform won’t open for about two more years. The whole station has been closed since 2005, and until recently the northbound entrances were covered in blue plywood. Local residents hope the northbound platform will reopen in time for the Christmas shopping season, benefi ting Century 21 and other Downtown businesses near the World Trade Center site.

Downtown Express photo by Julie Shapiro

Location Bloomberg votes (percentage)**

Thompson votes(percentage) **

Gateway Plaza 380 (77 percent) 111 (23 percent)

Independence Plaza North* 505 (57 percent) 386 (43 percent)

Southbridge Towers * 178 (73 percent) 66 (27 percent)

Confucius Plaza 486 (76 percent) 157 (24 percent)

Knickerbocker Village* 262 (64 percent) 146 (36 percent)

Chatham Towers* 141 (59 percent) 97 (41 percent)

*Results are drawn predominantly from the complexes listed, but they may include some adjacent residential buildings or omit one building in the housing community.

** Percentages refer only to those who voted for Bloomberg or Thompson, not those who picked other mayoral candidates.

Downtown housing votesOne week after Mayor Mike Bloomberg

won reelection over challenger Bill Thompson, the detailed results show that Bloomberg per-formed solidly across most of Downtown. He took major housing complexes on both the East and West Sides, including Battery Park City’s Gateway Plaza, where he got 380 votes to Thompson’s 111, and Confucius Plaza in Chinatown, where he received 486 votes to Thompson’s 157. Overall, Thompson did better

on the East Side, particularly in city-subsidized housing. His best showing was at the N.Y.C. Housing Authority’s Vladeck Houses between Madison and Water Sts., where he received 209 votes to Bloomberg’s 43. One of Bloomberg’s most solid wins was in northern B.P.C., where he took 207 votes compared to Thompson’s 35. The data was compiled by Downtown Express from a New York Times breakdown of unof-fi cial results by election district.

Selected Bus Service on the M15 route will have express stops where riders will pay before the bus comes.


Canal accident A truck jumped the curb at Canal St.

and the Bowery early Wednesday afternoon and plowed into a building on Canal St. Eight people were transported to Bellevue Hospital, all with non life-threatening inju-ries, an F.D.N.Y. spokesperson said. Two of the patients were in serious but stable condition late Wednesday afternoon, and the others had been released, the spokesperson said. In addition to the truck, four other vehicles were involved in the accident. Local politicians including Borough President Scott Stringer and State Sen. Daniel Squadron have said this intersection near the Manhattan Bridge needs to be made safer and they both renewed these calls late Wednesday.

Yank fans jam ferryThe crush of Staten Islanders at the

Yankee ticker-tape parade on Fri., Nov. 6 caused a near-riot at the Whitehall and St. George ferry terminals, but there were no arrests, police said.

Two men who were injured at Whitehall when some travelers tried to force open the sliding doors to the ferry slip were taken to Downtown Hospital with minor injuries, and one passenger sustained a minor leg injury at the St. George termi-nal. Police cleared the terminal near South Ferry and service was suspended shortly before 2 p.m. and resumed after 3 p.m. when extra ferries were provided to serve the crowds.

Teen burglary bustPolice arrested Sylvia Daly, 18, and her

boyfriend, Jeremy Roman, 17, on Sun., Nov. 15 and charged them with the Sept. 20 bur-glary of the Sohotel at 341 Broome St. at Bowery. The suspects stole laptop computers and a cell phone from the hotel, police said.

Market theftAn employee of Jubilee Market, 447

Broadway, left his offi ce at 1:34 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 22 and returned at 3 p.m. to discover that $1,700 had been taken from a cabinet, police said. A surveillance camera recorded a stranger, a white man, in his 20s, 6’2” and 190 pounds, entering the offi ce through an open door after the employee left, police said.

Menacing on Essex St.Police arrested Matthew Senquiz, 16,

on Oct. 30 and charged him with threat-ening the host of a party near Essex and Delancey Sts. with a box-cutter after a Friday night argument with the 44-year-old victim. Senquiz was freed pending a Dec. 7 court appearance on charges of menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.

Soho boutique entryA burglar who entered the Michael Kors

boutique at 101 Prince St. around 6 a.m. Oct. 23 walked out with several handbags with a total value of $12,000, police said. An employee who came to work at 8 a.m. found the front door unlocked, but it was not known whether it had not been locked the night before or if the burglar had forced it open, police said.

— Albert Amateau

BY SAM SCHWARTZ

Dear Transit Sam,I was driving Downtown and was recently

cited for talking on my cell phone during the police department’s most recent crackdown. Here’s the scenario: I was driving and pulled into a “No Standing” zone to fi eld a call. I happened to pick up my phone before I was completely stopped, though I was in the process of pulling off to the side. Do I have a leg to stand on?

Kelly, Tribeca

Dear Kelly,You literally spoke a moment too soon.

Unfortunately, the offi cer observed you talk-ing on your “mobile device” with the car in motion. Even if you were in the No Standing zone, if your engine was on, the offi cer may cite you (although some judges would dis-miss such a ticket, being very literal about “vehicle in motion.”). You also could have been cited for violating the “No Standing”

rule. Talking on a cell phone is not a defense for parking in a No Standing zone.

In the future, either use a hands free device or fi nd a legal parking spot or a “No Parking” zone instead of a “No Standing” zone. You may plead “guilty with an expla-nation” and hope for a reduced fi ne. I don’t think a judge will fi nd you not guilty.

Transit Sam

Dear Transit Sam,On a recent trip to the Bronx, I received

a ticket for blocking a pedestrian ramp. The ticket describes the vehicle as a “BUIC” and “4Dr,” while my vehicle is a two-door Toyota. The ticket states that I was parked on the SS Arthur Ave 60ft E of E 183 St. I consulted a map (I found the ticket in the windshield wiper well after I arrived home to Lower Manhattan) and it looks like I was parked on the north side of Arthur Ave. about 60 feet from E. 183 St. Can I beat the

ticket? Pedestrian ramps are confusing and the street was not marked where I parked.

John, Pearl St.

Dear John,

Pedestrian ramps, I agree, are confusing, and are not always easily defi ned. I have asked the Dept. of Transportation to better highlight these crosswalks through signs or markings or both.

But, John don’t worry about the ticket. There are so many things wrong with it, it’s an embarrassment to the N.Y.P.D.:

Incorrect car make is grounds for an automatic dismissal. (“4 Dr” vs. 2 door will not result in a dismissal).

Arthur Ave. runs north-south so the “SS Arthur Ave.” is meaningless. “60 feet east of 183rd St.” is also meaningless since 183rd St. runs east-west.

Plead Not Guilty, explain the errors as I’ve listed above, and send in a copy of your registra-

tion. Also include a map of the area with a north arrow. Your summons should be dismissed.

All that being said, I don’t condone block-ing of pedestrian ramps. I did look up 183rd and Arthur on Google Street View (what a great tool for these questions) and I believe you parked adjacent to St. Barnabas Hospital. I did see an “unmarked” ramp which is about 50 feet south of a marked crosswalk. So I could see how someone would miss the ramp because there is a nearby crosswalk. I am also asking the D.O.T. to review the intersection design to make the pedestrian ramp more visible.

Transit Sam

Sam Schwartz, a former fi rst deputy com-missioner of city transportation, is president and C.E.O. of Sam Schwartz Engineering, a traffi c engineering consulting fi rm to private and public entities including the Port Authority at the World Trade Center site. Email your questions to [email protected].

Chabad Lubavitch Torah Education Services Inc. at 845 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, New York 11213, a nonprofit organization, is seeking quotes for equipment and materials under the Bureau of Justice Funding.

Work includes: design and installation of closed circuit television equipment, electronic security systems, and access control.

and provide primary contact, telephone, fax and email address.

Transit SamThe Answer man

POLICE BLOTTER


Disabled woman badly injured after truck accident

Chaikin’s at Westbeth Artists Housing, wrote in an e-mail Monday that “Fay just called me. And they put a feeding tube inside her stomach and they think the bleeding mostly came from her shoulder. The doctors feel positive now that SHAMI is going to make it... It’s looking good. HOORAY!!”

The accident occurred on Hudson St., by Abingdon Square Park, just north of Bleecker St., right across from where the Doughboy statue stands. The bike lane is pro-tected from moving traffi c by a row of parked cars, but the truck was using it.

Chaikin has arthritis and a bad back, which is why she rides the motorized scooter. At the time of the accident, she reportedly was on her way to the McBurney YMCA, where she goes daily for her exercises. Apparently, she was riding on the bike lane’s right edge, when she got pinned under the truck’s front right wheel.

Chaikin suffered massive trauma to her shoulder, broken ribs and a punctured lung — but luckily her head wasn’t under the wheel — according to neighbor Nancy Matthews, who went to St. Vincent’s Thursday evening to check on Chaikin after the shocking accident.

Matthews, a Westbeth resident, was gardening at the scene Thursday morning around 9:30 when the events unfolded. She ran to help Chaikin, though — incredibly — didn’t even realize until later who it was because the injured woman’s head had been turned away from her.

Matthews spoke about the accident a few hours later, taking a break from digging tulip holes in Abingdon Square Park. She recalled how she had been moving a sprinkler when she noticed the green Parks Department garbage vehicle coming north up the Hudson St. bike lane, one worker driving, another going around to collect the trash from Abingdon Square Park’s garbage cans.

“He was moving forward slowly,” Matthews said of the truck. “I was working in the triangle — and I saw the Parks guy’s part-ner say, ‘Oh, no!’ He was raising his hands, he looked hysterical. I went, and the driver came out and he said, ‘My God! I didn’t see her! I swear I didn’t see her!’”

Matthews rushed over and reached out to Chaikin.“I squeezed her hand and I said, ‘I’m here.’ She squeezed my

hand back. She was a little bit under the wheel,” Matthews said, “and so she couldn’t really move, and I saw her back [rising and falling] breathing regularly. But as more time passed, I could see her breathing wasn’t as strong, and that scared me. It just seemed like it was so long [until help arrived].”

She clung to Chaikin’s hand for what she fi gures was seven minutes, until police came and told her to back off. She was reluctant to leave Chaikin there by herself without support, but she said she understands the offi cers were just doing their job.

“I said, ‘I can’t let go of her,’” Matthews said, recalling her thoughts at the time. “I’m not a trained fi reman or policeman — but they have their procedures for a reason.

“The police kept saying, ‘I want to hear from you,’” she said of how one offi cer talked to Chaikin. “They cut her clothes off, because they have to see what part is injured.”

Within another 10 minutes, she said, they had loaded the stricken woman into an ambulance headed for St. Vincent’s.

Shami Chaikin is an original tenant of Westbeth Artists Housing, which opened 39 years ago at West and Bethune Sts. in the former Bell Labs complex. Home to more than 300 artists and their families, Westbeth proclaims itself “the world’s largest artists community.”

“She just did a performance last week at Westbeth, with Karen Ludwig,” noted fellow Westbeth artist Gina Shamus, who stopped by the accident scene last Thursday. “They were doing a performance of Miriam’s haiku — and the tanka — I don’t even know what that is.” (Tanka, like haiku, is a classic Japanese poetry form.)

Shami’s brother, Joseph Chaikin, a renowned avant-garde theater director, also lived at Westbeth, where there is a memo-rial to him in the courtyard. Shami often worked in productions

directed by Joseph, who ran The Open Theater. Another sister lives in California.

“I told Miriam I was holding her hand,” Matthews said. “She said, ‘I’m glad Nancy. I’m glad it was you.’”

Assemblymember Deborah Glick was furious that Chaikin was struck by a garbage truck in a protected bicycle lane that is supposed to be off limits to motor vehicles.

“Inexplicably, the New York City Parks Department had a garbage truck in the protected bike lane,” Glick fumed, “and someone in a scooter, a disabled or elderly person, tried to pass it or get by it because it was obstructing the bike lane — where you have a presumption you’ll be safe from motor vehicles. The workers were just picking up the garbage, I’m sure. Just too lazy to be parked on the corner and walk the garbage.”

Vickie Karp, a Parks spokesperson, said she couldn’t discuss the logistics of how the accident occurred, since litigation may be pending.

“I can’t comment at this time,” she said. “The woman who was involved in the incident has fi led a notice of claim, and may fi le a lawsuit.”

Karp confi rmed the vehicle was a Parks Department “pack-er,” or garbage truck. Asked if it’s typical for these trucks to ply the city’s protected bike lanes — of if it’s even legal for them to do so — Karp said, “It’s a good question. I can’t answer it. It’s a police matter.”

The response from the Police Department, though, made it clear that it is not legal for city vehicles to drive in bike lanes: A police spokesperson said the driver of the Parks truck was issued a summons for operating a motor vehicle in a bike lane — which rates as a violation. The spokesper-son also said that, as is done in any accident where there is a fatality, possible fatality or serious injury, the driver was given a breathalyzer test.

“He blew zeroes — negative for any booze,” he said. In gen-eral, it’s highly unlikely for a city employee to be driving drunk while on duty, he added.

As for testing for drugs, that can only done by a blood test, he said; but apparently offi cers at the scene didn’t feel the driver looked under the infl uence.

Transportation Alternatives, the nonprofi t pro-cycling and pedestrian group, has championed the Bloomberg administra-tion’s installation of 200 miles of new bike lanes. Regarding a municipal garbage truck having struck Chaikin in the protected bike lane, Wiley Norvell, a T.A. spokesperson, said, “City vehicles

are obliged to obey the same laws as all other motor vehicles on the streets.”

Norvell said the protected bicycle lanes on Eighth and Ninth Aves. are seeing similar problems with Department of Sanitation vehicles between 14th and 23rd Sts., where the drivers use the lanes “either to park their vehicles, or get a cup of coffee in the morning, or pick up garbage.”

“It’s distressing that these are the city’s vehicles that are caus-ing these problems,” he said.

Norvell added that the bike lanes are popular with motorized-scooter users since they can bypass sidewalk congestion, as well as avoid going up and down curb cuts, which aren’t always in good condition.

Regarding safety in the bike lanes, the T.A. spokesperson said that, for bicyclists at least, using them is much safer than riding in traffi c. He cited a report by the city’s Department of Health on serious bicycle injuries and fatalities from 1996 to 2005, which found only one cyclist fatality in a bike lane caused by a collision with a motor vehicle during the 10-year period.

In December 2006, Eric Ng, a 22-year-old teacher, was killed while cycling near Houston St. on the Hudson River Park pro-tected bike path by a drunk driver barreling down the bikeway from an event at Chelsea Piers.

Continued from page 1

Downtown Express photo by Lincoln Anderson

Westbeth resident Margie Rubin of Disabled in Action, right, gathered with others at the blood-stained spot where her neighbor, Shami Chaikin, below, was hit by a truck last week.

Downtown Express photo by Toni Dalton


Stogies stay up when the market goes downBY LESLIE PICKER

A dense haze billows above a dozen gentlemen seated in the cigar lounge at Barclay-Rex at 75 Broad St.

It was no caricature of middle-aged men in three-piece suits, delicately holding their smoldering stogies. The scene, since the fi nancial crisis struck, looked a little different. White-collar professionals lit up their $30 cigars next to the unemployed. Regardless of paychecks or salary cuts, Barclay-Rex customers have found cigars comforting during the economic downturn.

The store has become one of the few recession-proof spots in the Financial District. According to owner Vince Nastri, whose grandfather started the business exactly 100 years ago, sales increased by more than 20 percent this past summer and have remained positive ever since. The reason? Many New Yorkers — from investment bank-ers to waiters — have found the cigar lounge a haven for stress relief.

“I think no matter what business you’re involved in, there’s a certain degree of pressure,” said customer Peter Weiler, who is the executive vice president of Abel Noser, a brokerage fi rm on Wall St. “It’s part of the territory, so we need to unwind.”

Brian Murphy, who was laid off from JPMorgan Chase, visits Barclay-Rex anywhere from one to three times per week to network.

“The reason I come here is to socialize with people. I try to fi nd a new job, but this is a relaxing place,” said Murphy during an interview in September.

Murphy is one of millions of Americans who smoke cigars, pipes or cigarettes to escape their fi nancial fears. The newest edition of the Tobacco Atlas, a study coordinated by Georgia State’s Institute of Public Health, found the total

number of smokers in America increases during a recession. When consumers are spending less in virtually every other industry, they are spending more on tobacco.

American fi nancial advisers consider commodities like tobacco and alcohol to be “defensive,” or safe investments during tumultuous economic times. Many consumers will make cutbacks on other products so that they can afford tobacco.

“I don’t think anybody has stopped smoking. A lot of our regulars are still coming every day,” said Patrick Gargano, manager of Barclay-Rex.

But the recession is not the only hurdle Barclay-Rex has faced recently. Aside from the economic downturn, the shop has weathered a maelstrom of tax hikes on all levels. The U.S. Congress passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program back in April, increasing taxes by 35 cents per cigar at Barclay-Rex. The state of New York also passed a 9 per-cent increase on tobacco taxes.

The taxes are intended to dissuade New Yorkers from smoking, but the Barclay-Rex owner is not convinced the state has been successful.

“I think that by raising taxes, it drives people out of New York,” said Nastri. “People who use the product will just go elsewhere, but I don’t think that it stops them from smoking.”

In the past several months, the store has had to raise the price of each cigar by $1.10 to offset the new taxes. Both the manager and owner said that increasing prices has cut into their profi ts slightly. But ever since New York City passed the Smoke-Free Air Act of 2002 — which prohibited smoking in restaurants and bars — Barclay-Rex’s business has improved. The cigar lounge as a tobacconist was exempt from the smoking laws and is one of only several establish-ments where people can smoke indoors.

“Today you can’t smoke anywhere. You can’t walk into a bar or restaurant and smoke,” said Nastri. “So the lounge is a place where [customers] can come, relax, meet people, and smoke their cigar.”

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fl oor of Millennium’s building, but last year the Fire Dept. decided the space was unsafe because it is too high off the ground. In response, Rhodes began working with local realtors to fi nd another space, and he gave a list of possibilities to the School Construction Authority last spring. Rhodes said the S.C.A. never replied and is no lon-ger returning his calls or e-mails.

“I feel like I should be getting paid by the S.C.A.,” Rhodes told Downtown Express. “It’s been two or three years since the money started coming in and we have nothing to show for it. That to me is unreasonable. Being upset is a healthy reaction.”

After the city said the 34th-fl oor space wouldn’t work, Gerson also wrote to the S.C.A. with a list of alternatives, including the former Crunch gym space at 25 Broadway, the former Sports Museum of America space at 26 Broadway, and 140 William St., the former home of the American Numismatic Society and Gerson’s personal favorite because the entire building is empty. The S.C.A. replied to Gerson last week saying none of the spaces would work without giving specifi c reasons for the individual locations.

“We’ve looked into a number of potential sites for a gym for Millennium High School, and for either fi nancial or other feasibility rea-sons, none of the sites were appropriate,” said Will Havemann, spokesperson for the Dept. of Education, in an e-mail to Downtown Express. “We’ll continue to work with Millennium to fi nd a feasible location for a gymnasium. Given the city’s diffi cult fi scal circumstances, cost-effi ciency must remain an important criterion for determining an appropriate space.”

Other spaces Gerson and Rhodes suggested earlier this year include 123 William St., 150 William St., 156 William St., 45-51 Park Place, 335 Broadway, 353 Broadway, 20 Exchange Pl., 201 Pearl St., 40 Rector St., 40 Wall St. and the roof of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel parking garage.

Millennium now holds gym classes in a small weight room and an L-shaped multi-purpose room, neither of which can accom-modate team sports. The basketball team practices at the Chinatown YMCA, which

is only available at odd hours so the athletes have to wake up as early as 5 a.m. The school has only 40 percent male students, a ratio that’s unlikely to change until the ath-letics programs expand, Rhodes said.

Aaron Silverman, the school’s athletic director, said, “Getting kids excited about treadmill running is hard. The impact on the physical education department has been a lack of enthusiasm and the continued frus-tration of the teachers.”

Millennium’s parents are getting frustrated, too. At a parent association meeting Tuesday night, they pledged to kick the campaign for a gym into high gear, with phone calls, rallies, videos, T-shirts and a petition.

“We really need to make a big noise,” said Nichole Thompson-Adams, mother of a ninth grader.

About 30 parents attended the meeting and signed up for committees that will attack the issue from different angles, trying to prod the city’s bureaucracy into action. Several parents worried that the city was stalling so they wouldn’t have to spend money on the gym at all.

When parent coordinator Angela Benfi eld pointed out that the money will be gone unless the city acts now, another parent added, “Maybe that’s the point.”

Rhodes said the economic downturn makes this the perfect time to lease and construct the gym space, because costs are down. Rhodes added that since the gym is fully funded, it is the defi nition of a shovel-ready project that can bring jobs Downtown.

“I’d like to think of it as Millennium’s own stimulus contribution to the city,” Rhodes said at Tuesday’s meeting.

Building a gym would also free up the mul-tipurpose room for classroom space in the over-crowded school. Millennium has 620 students this year, well over its capacity of 525. Rhodes said the city’s budget cuts forced him to accept extra students so he could receive enough fund-ing to maintain his programs.

Deborah Saat, co-president of Millennium’s parent association, concluded Tuesday’s meet-ing by reminding the parents that they are ask-ing for a necessity, not an amenity.

“The school’s not fi nished,” Saat said. “They need to fi nish what they started.”

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“We really need to make a big noise” about getting a gym, said Nichole Thompson-Adams, center, a Millennium High School parent.

Full court press for gymContinued from page 1


Low turnout for hearing on school moveBY ALBERT AMATEAU

A second and fi nal hearing last week on the Department of Education’s plan to relo-cate Greenwich Village Middle School from its crowded Village school building to a new Financial District home attracted even fewer people than the fi rst sparsely attended hear-ing the previous week.

Only three people signed up to testify at the 6 p.m. Tues., Nov. 4, hearing on the unpopular relocation plan. At the Oct. 29 hearing, six people testifi ed.

Elected offi cials and neighborhood advo-cates said they were outraged at moving the middle school out of the Village. They also contended they did not receive adequate notice of the two hearings.

“It’s bizarre that the Greenwich Village Middle School will not be in Greenwich Village,” Keen Berger, a Village Democratic district leader and Community Board 2 mem-ber, told the Nov. 4 hearing. Testifying for C.B. 2, Berger said the board had unani-mously resolved that 75 Morton St., a nearly vacant state-owned building, was the ideal location for the neighborhood middle school.

“We need a middle school in our com-munity, and we strongly object to moving our only middle school to 26 Broadway,” Berger said.

Moreover, T. Elzora Cleveland, president of the District 2 Community Education Council, cast doubt on the legality of the hearing. She told Department of Education

staff members who conducted the Nov. 4 hearing that hearings on matters like school utilization are required by law to be con-ducted jointly by D.O.E. and the appropriate district C.E.C.

“The C.E.C. should be up front in the hearings, not just invited to testify,” Cleveland told Downtown Express.

Matt Borden, chief of staff for Assemblymember Deborah Glick, submitted a letter signed by Glick and Congressmember Jerrold Nadler expressing concern that the moving of G.V.M.S. to the old Standard Oil building at 26 Broadway was planned despite assurances that D.O.E. was “seri-ous about exploring 75 Morton St. site for acquisition.”

The letter, similar to one Glick submitted at the Oct. 29 hearing, said D.O.E. could acquire the Morton St. site permanently for $78 million, whereas the lease on the 26 Broadway location would cost the city $250 million for 30 years and the property would revert to the owner at the end of the period.

Camille Guigliano, parent of a student at P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village, said she only learned about the hearing 36 hours earlier. She added that C.B. 2 should have been con-sulted on the proposed move. At the Oct. 29 hearing, Kate Seely-Kirk, an aide to Council Speaker Christine Quinn, said Quinn’s offi ce was “dismayed” that they not been notifi ed about the hearing.

It has been apparent for at least three

years that the 100-year-old school on Hudson and Grove Sts., where G.V.M.S. is located on the fi fth fl oor and P.S. 3 occupies the rest of the building, is severely overcrowded. D.O.E. has said the sixth and seventh fl oors of 26 Broadway would be ready to receive G.V.M.S. students in September 2010,

allowing P.S. 3 to expand within its exist-ing building. D.O.E. has also been saying it is still pursuing acquisition of 75 Morton St. but that the building could not be made ready for students before 2011.

Overcrowding is also a concern in the District 2 neighborhoods of Tribeca, Chelsea and the Upper East Side, as well as the Village.

Christine Sewell, a parent of P.S. 11 on 21st St. in Chelsea, told the Nov. 4 hearing that parents in Chelsea need a new home for the Clinton School of Writers and Artists, a middle school that shares the P.S. 11 build-

ing. P.S. 11 parents want more middle school venues and welcomed both the options at 26 Broadway and 75 Morton St., Sewell said.

The middle school space at 26 Broadway has 14 classrooms compared to nine that G.V.M.S. currently occupies at 490 Hudson St. There are 215 middle school students in the Village building, and 240 are expected at 26 Broadway next autumn. The Downtown location is also where the Urban Assembly High School of Business for Young Women opened on the fourth and fi fth fl oors this year. In the future, 26 Broadway will have the capacity to accommodate 361 middle school students. Although the new middle school venue has a fi tness room, it does not have a gym for team sports.

Tricia Joyce, an advocate for Tribeca schools who arrived at the Nov. 4 hearing after its speakers list was closed, said later that 26 Broadway and 75 Morton St. were separate issues. More middle school seats will be needed to satisfy the demand in the next few years throughout District 2, she said.

Joyce said the Bloomberg administration misjudged the overcrowding issue because the city’s consultants, the Grier Partnership of Bethesda, Md., had predicted student growth in 10 years that has occurred in one year. Even though the Grier Partnership is no longer engaged by the city, the adminis-tration is still underestimating the number of middle school children seeking admission to public schools, Joyce said.

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‘It’s bizarre that the Greenwich Village Middle School will not be in Greenwich Village.’


Assembly Speaker Sheldon SilverU.S. Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, And

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More commuters are arrivinzg at work on two wheels, the city Dept. of Transportation announced this week.

A D.O.T. survey found 26 percent more bicycle commuters this year compared to last year, and 66 percent more than there were two years ago. The D.O.T. attributed the increase to the new bike lanes rolled out over the same period

While the D.O.T. does not count every cyclist in the city, they use a handful of locations as a measuring stick for citywide trends: the four East River bridges, the Staten Island Ferry’s

Whitehall Terminal in Lower Manhattan and cyclists crossing 50th St. at the Hudson River Greenway. The D.O.T. fi rst measured bicycle volumes at many of these locations in 1980 and has measured all of them since 2001.

This year, the D.O.T. counted an average of 15,495 cyclists at those locations on week-days between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Last year, the D.O.T. counted 12,328 cyclists using the same method. This year the highest count came from the Hudson River Greenway, with an average of 4,289 cyclists a day. The Brooklyn Bridge saw an average of 2,294 cyclists a day.

Community Board 1’s Seaport/Civic Center Committee unanimously approved an advisory resolution on Tuesday night to add the name Frank Durkan Way to Elk St. Frank Durkan was a lawyer best known for defending Irish Americans who were entan-gled in the confl ict in Northern Ireland.

“I think what we often overlook is the number of heroes who live among us, ordi-nary citizens who display tremendous moral courage in their lives” said Durkan’s friend, James Cullen, an attorney, who spoke in front of the committee about the co-naming. “And Frank Durkan was one of those people.”

Durkan immigrated to New York City from Ireland in 1930, and later rose to

become a senior partner at his uncle’s law fi rm, O’Dwyer and Bernstein where he earned a reputation as a zealous civil rights attorney. The fi rm moved to 52 Duane St. in the 1980s in order to be closer to the Supreme Court and U.S. District Court. He died in 2006 at the age of 76.

A few committee members raised con-cerns because some of his Durkan’s clients were accused of smuggling weapons, but they decided to support the co-naming any-way. If approved by the City Council, the Frank Durkan Way sign will be located on the southwest corner of Reade and Elk Sts.

— Leslie Picker

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BY ALBERT AMATEAUA hostile crowd of about 800 people,

including city offi cials, fi lled the Stuyvesant High School auditorium on Tuesday night at a hearing on New York State’s plan to per-mit gas drilling in the state’s Southern Tier, including the six counties of the New York City watershed.

The crowd demanded that the state pro-hibit natural gas drilling in the watershed, which provides 90 percent of the city’s drinking water. Many demanded a complete ban on natural gas drilling in all 27 counties of the state’s southern tier where the gas-bearing Marcellus Shale formation lies 3,000 to 6,000 feet under the surface.

The Nov. 10 offi cial Department of Environmental Conservation hearing, the only one scheduled in New York City, had 160 speakers signed up and not all of them had time to speak before the fi ve-hour ses-sion closed at 11 p.m.

One man leaped on stage at the beginning of the hearing to interrupt the testimony of Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler and shouted, “We want a statewide ban on gas drilling. We don’t need any more public hearings.” Sympathizers in the audience stood, waved “State Wide Ban” signs and cheered, but a State Trooper escorted the man out.

Speaking for the Bloomberg adminis-tration, Skyler said the proposal to allow horizontal hydraulic fracture drilling for natural gas in the city watershed posed a

public health risk. “We have asked the state Department of Health to comment on the health implications of the proposal,” Skyler said, adding that in view of the potential cost of repairing damage to the city’s water sup-ply by drilling accidents it would be prudent to ban drilling in the watershed.

The state’s environmental department has submitted the application and says the drilling will be safe to the water supply.

An hour before the hearing, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer led a rally of environmentalists and elected offi cials.

“A great environmental crisis is facing all of us,” Stringer said. “The safety of the watershed must never be taken for granted. The state says ‘Don’t worry we have protec-tion in place.’ We say, ‘kill the drill,’” said Stringer, leading the rally in a “kill the drill” chant.

Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, and Councilmembers James Gennaro, Daniel Garodnick and Jessica Lappin also demand-ed a ban on watershed drilling at the rally and at the hearing later. Elected offi cials, including Comptroller William Thompson, Assemblymember Deborah Glick and Councilmember-elect Margaret Chin also called for a ban on watershed drilling.

Chesapeake Energy, a leading gas driller, announced last week that that it would not drill in the watershed.

“We can safely and effectively develop the natural gas reserves … and create high-

quality green jobs in the Southern Tier and throughout the state,” Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake’s C.E.O., said in the statement. “Though Chesapeake believes it can drill safely in any watershed…as confi rmed by New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation’s supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, we have chosen to focus our efforts on more promis-ing areas for gas development in the state.”

But Joe Levine, an offi cial of NYH20, a pure water advocate, said that Chesapeake offi cials at a State Senate environmental committee hearing in Albany on Nov. 10 refused to sign a statement that the company would permanently give up natural gas drill-ing in the watershed.

The hydro fracture drilling under review requires millions of gallons of water laced with a cocktail of toxic drilling chemicals to be injected into the shale formation to fracture it and release the gas confi ned in the rock.

Environmentalists say the state’s pro-posed drilling standards do not regulate where the fracking water would come from and how it would be transported to the well-heads. The rules about storing the returned chemical laden water and disposing it, are also inadequate, say opponents of the drill-ing plan.

“All the state is concerned about is the short term economic gain,” said Craig Michaels, an executive with the environ-

mental group, Riverkeeper. “They have not looked at the long term costs of deforesta-tion and water degradation in the area.”

Environmental advocates and elected offi -cials noted that the city’s Catskill-Delaware watershed is only one of fi ve in the nation exempted from the federal requirement to fi lter drinking water. That exemption, which comes up for renewal in seven years, could be cancelled because of the dangers of hydro fracking. The cancellation would a force the city to spend $10 to $20 billion for a fi ltra-tion system and hundreds of thousands of dollars to operate annually.

The city has spent $2 billion on a fi ltra-tion system for the Croton watershed, which provides 10 percent of the city’s drinking water.

Catherine McVay Hughes, vice chairper-son of Community Board 1 which covers Lower Manhattan, submitted testimony that the board last month passed a unanimous resolution calling on a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the watershed. Assembly Bill AO8748 would prohibit drilling for natural gas within the New York City watershed or anywhere within fi ve miles of its boundar-ies.

The C.B. 1 submission also notes that there are only about 17 inspectors in the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Mineral Resources.

D.E.C. has extended the public comment period from Nov. 30 to Dec. 31.

‘Kill the drill’ and protect the water, protesters say


Downtown Express during recent rush hours, about half said the chains were inconvenient or even insulting.

“I don’t like it at all,” said Gillian Shapiro, 36, who was on her way from the PATH trains to Wall St. Tuesday morning. “It makes me feel like cattle. Sometimes I go around the block the long way just to avoid it.”

Others called the heavily manned intersection — seven agents plus a supervisor — a waste of money. The Port pays $225,000 a month for pedestrian managers there and one block south at Church and Liberty Sts., which has four agents. The Port pays another $70,000 per month for separate workers who direct vehicle traffi c.

“I don’t see no reason for it,” said Gabriel Moran, 29, who was selling roasted nuts at the corner on a recent afternoon. Moran said people should know how to cross the street on their own.

But many commuters said they understood the need for extra supervision.

“Sometimes people have other things on their mind and they just bolt,” said Jennifer Carty, 43, who works in 7 W.T.C. “The chains keep us safe.”

“I haven’t seen anyone get run over yet,” added Brian Goodrich, 25, who commutes from Midtown to Jersey City, “so that’s probably a good sign.”

If success is measured by the lack of pedestrian injuries, then the program is working. Since the pedestrian manage-ment program started early last year, no one has been injured at Church and Vesey Sts., the Port Authority said. One agent called that fact “a miracle.”

Church St. has been jammed with pedestrians since before 9/11, but the congestion became more concentrated and

noticeable when the Port Authority moved the PATH entrance to Vesey and Greenwich Sts. in the spring of 2008 and closed off the west side of Church St. for construction. Those changes funneled most PATH commuters along a narrow block of Vesey St., where they squeeze shoulder to shoulder between the Trade Center construction fence and the post offi ce building.

“This block here is the worst thing ever,” said Donna Ross, 33, an accountant who reverse-commutes from Brooklyn to Hoboken, struggling against the crowd. “There are too many people. If God forbid something happened, it would be a nightmare.”

Ross and others had a plethora of suggestions: Relocate the PATH entrance, build a pedestrian bridge over Church St. or separate eastbound and westbound pedestrians. Schwartz, a Port Authority consultant who also writes Downtown Express’s Transit Sam column, and Quentin Brathwaite, director of the Port’s Offi ce of Program Logistics, said they looked at all those ideas and more, and they arrived at the current plan through a process of trial and error.

“We welcome suggestions,” Schwartz said, “because frankly, the science of pedestrian control is being written at the corner of Vesey and Church.”

Many of the ideas came from the pedestrian managers who spend all day every day directing the fl ow. Schwartz handpicked agents with law enforcement backgrounds and at least 15 years of experience dealing with crowds, because keeping harried commuters in line is not an easy job.

In fact, Shawn Francis, who spent 20 years as a Corrections offi cer before taking up the chain at Vesey St., said inmates are

easier to corral than the thousands of bankers and consultants he deals with every day.

“[The inmates] had to listen to what we said, basically,” Francis said. “Pedestrians, in the beginning they didn’t want to listen to us.”

John Thomas Apel Jr., a retired Port Authority police offi cer, said the diffi culty of managing pedestrians changes from day to day, hour to hour.

“A lot of it depends on the weather and the mood of the people,” Apel said. “Some days, everyone is nice and wonder-ful. Some days, everyone’s in a bad mood.”

One of the most unpredictable groups is the tourists, who, under normal circumstances, would probably be more inclined to obey traffi c signals than most New Yorkers. If the streets were fi lled with tourists alone, Apel said he would have no problems. But once the tourists mix with New Yorkers who ignore the lights, the tourists also walk out into traffi c, but without the savvy and experience of the locals.

During every light cycle, a handful of pedestrians buck the system, ducking under the chains or around them and dart-ing in front of the express buses that barrel down Church St. Sometimes they get caught on the wrong side of the chain and are inadvertently swept into traffi c rather than away from it.

That’s what happened to Mike Nieves, 41, last week after the Yankees parade. Wearing an Alex Rodriguez jersey, Nieves dodged the chain on the east side of Church St. but didn’t have enough time to cross before traffi c started pouring through the intersection.

“What are you doing, A-Rod?” the nearby pedestrian man-ager called out, as Nieves scurried between vehicles. “You’re going to get hit by a car.”

Once he made it safely to the other side, about 10 seconds faster than if he’d waited for the light, Nieves said he didn’t think the chains were a bad idea, but there should be a better way of managing traffi c without inconveniencing people.

While the pedestrian managers are doing serious work that requires constant attention, they maintain a necessary sense of humor, often pausing to greet regulars or help tourists with directions. Apel said some of the most diffi cult commuters, the ones who “fi ght us tooth and nail,” often come into line after having a close call.

“We change a lot of attitudes,” Apel said. “We save a lot of lives, too,” added Francis, “because you’ve

got people texting and on cell phones, not paying attention and walking straight out. It’s amazing.”

The idea of using a chain to block pedestrian traffi c fi rst came from construction contractors at the W.T.C. site, who were using much shorter chains to keep people safe when large vehicles moved in and out of the site.

“You can use your hands and fl ags and all that, but the most effective is really a chain,” said Carl Passeri, a Port program manager. “It’s a physical impediment you see very easily.”

Brathwaite said the Port initially considered installing auto-mated arms like the ones at parking garage exits, but that could be dangerous if a vehicle lost control and hit it.

The agents also use whistles to tell people when to stop and go.

“People get used to the sound of the whistle,” Apel said. “It’s like Pavlovian dogs. You blow the whistle and they get like it’s the starting gate, just running out.”

The current confi guration of Church and Vesey Sts., with the chains, pedestrian managers and attendant monthly costs, could be in place for years. At some point, the block of Vesey St. along the W.T.C. site will have to close for construction at the Tower 2 site, diverting pedestrians around the post offi ce and dispersing them a bit more. For now, though, Tower 2 is on hold while developer Silverstein Properties waits for the outcome of an arbitration process with the Port Authority.

The real solution will not come until the fi nal Santiago Calatrava-designed PATH hub opens, which is at least fi ve years away. With far more exits and belowground connec-tions, the station is designed to spread pedestrians more evenly around the site and to their destinations beyond.

But Schwartz said the throngs of pedestrians are not new on the W.T.C. site and they will never be dispersed entirely. When Schwartz was traffi c commissioner in the 1980s, Church St. near the World Trade Center “was one of my worst locations,” he said. “We couldn’t put any traffi c through that location during morning rush hour.”

Even once all the transportation infrastructure planned for the W.T.C. opens, the battle between cars and people won’t be completely resolved, Schwartz said.

“This will still be a location where walking is dominant,” he said.

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Chains and whistles to manage the Church St. crowds

Dowtown Express photo by J.B. Nicholas

Pedestrian managers keep communters at bay with chains at Church and Vesey Sts., the busiest intersection in the city.


‘It’s like Pavlovian dogs. You blow the whistle and they get like it’s the starting gate, just running out.’


Port may consider early ban on W.T.C. tour buses

BY JULIE SHAPIRO When the World Trade Center site wel-

comes millions of visitors starting as soon as 2011, they might arrive not by tour bus but by PATH train.

Routing tour buses through New Jersey rather than Lower Manhattan is one idea the Port Authority is considering, Joe Daniels, presi-dent of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, said this week.

“Underlying it is the idea of aggregating peo-ple elsewhere and getting them down [to the W.T.C.] through a means other than just relying on buses,” Daniels said. He said he strongly supports the idea, to improve the experience of both residents and memorial goers.

“There always will be bus traffi c,” Daniels said, “and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it has to be limited…. You can’t turn Lower Manhattan into a big parking lot.”

Daniels spoke at Community Board 1’s W.T.C. Redevelopment Committee Monday night. The committee members have repeatedly requested that the expected infl ux of tour buses on and after the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 not come all the way to Lower Manhattan. But Daniels’ comments were the fi rst indication that the community’s idea is gaining traction with the Port.

When the W.T.C.’s vehicle security center opens, possibly in 2012, some of the buses will be able to fi t there. The plan Daniels discussed was primarily for the interim period after the memorial opens but before the V.S.C. is fi n-ished.

Daniels declined to elaborate on the pro-posal, saying the Port Authority was leading the discussions, which also include the city Dept. of Transportation.

Port spokesperson Steve Coleman said only, “We are working with our stakeholders on the best way to accommodate bus traffi c until the V.S.C. opens.”

ARTS CENTER DESIGNAlso at Monday night’s C.B. 1 meet-

ing, board members got an update on the long-delayed W.T.C. performing arts center.

The city, which is now leading the planning effort, has said the PAC could not begin construction until at least 2014 and would not open until at least 2017. On Monday, Andrew Winters, director of the Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects, said even those far-off dates could be too optimistic.

“There is not a more complicated building type in the world than a perform-ing arts facility,” Winters said. “They’re more expensive than you want them to be, they take a longer time than you want them to and the design goals are very high. When they finally happen, everyone celebrates and no one remembers it was a very long process to get there.”

Winters also gave new details on the PAC design, which will have a 1,000-seat dance theater; a cafe spilling out onto 1 W.T.C.’s plaza; a secondary theater or banquet hall; and an outdoor amphithe-ater on the roof overlooking the memori-al. Preliminary designs by architect Frank Gehry include trees planted on surfaces all the way up the building, continuing the visual theme of the memorial.

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‘There is not a more complicated building type in the world than a performing arts facility. ’

Demolition work still has not begun at the former Deutsche Bank building.

A spokesperson for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which owns the building, said last Wednesday that crews had started knocking down the 26th fl oor. This week, the spokesperson, John De Libero, said the start of work was delayed because the equipment mobiliza-tion took longer than expected and the scissor crane operators had to go through city Dept. of Buildings training. De Libero said the training is now complete and work should begin later this week.

The skyscraper across from the World

Trade Center site was damaged on 9/11 and has been beset with many obstacles since then, including numerous safety violations and a fi re in August 2007 that killed two fi refi ghters.

The latest accident came on Tuesday, when a wrench fell from the 26th fl oor of the building, hit a loading dock and bounced up to strike a worker on the knee, according to the L.M.D.C. and the D.O.B. The worker was treated at the scene for minor injuries and then was taken to the hospital as a precaution, the L.M.D.C. said. The D.O.B. issued violations but did not stop work on the project.

Reports of Deutsche demo were exaggerated

Continued on page 17

WTC BRIEFS


B.P.C. fi eld space gets smaller on some SaturdaysBY JULIE SHAPIRO

Construction of two residential towers next to the Battery Park City ballfi elds is forcing children off part of the fi eld.

The ballfi elds already shrunk by 20 per-cent to accommodate Milstein Properties’ towers at Sites 23 and 24, leaving the Downtown Soccer League and other teams with less space. Then, several times this fall, an additional chunk of the available fi eld space — about 25 percent — closed for the day to accommodate Milstein’s work.

“They should be working around us,” D.S.L. President Bill Bialosky said. “We shouldn’t be playing around them.”

When Milstein’s work forces part of the ballfi elds to close, as it did last Saturday, fewer children can play at the same time, meaning that many sit out on the sidelines. Ian Sorkin, who runs the soccer division for 6-year-olds, said the fi eld space is already small and overcrowded. Rotating children into games and making sure everyone gets enough playing time can result in unhappy parents and children, Sorkin said.

There was some consideration about closing the fi elds again this weekend, but Milstein said late Wednesday that it would not be necessary.

Soccer league parents do not question the need for safety on the fi elds, especially after several accidents at the nearby Goldman Sachs construction, including a steel plate that landed in the middle of a baseball game last year (no one was injured). But parents said Milstein should restrict the heavy work that requires fi eld closures, like hoist and scaffold jumping, to weekdays when the

fi elds are not in use for most of the day. Brian Fingeret, who manages the D.S.L.’s

7-year-old division, said it is not good policy to take away public space to benefi t a private developer.

“It seems like greed is governing these decisions instead of the quality of life of the neighborhood,” Fingeret said.

Maria Rosenfeld, a development adviser for Milstein, said the company has no choice but to do the heavy work on weekends. The hoist and scaffold jumps require Warren St. to close, and the city Buildings Dept. does not allow street closures on weekdays, Rosenfeld said.

“These are not normal activities,” Rosenfeld said. “Our site safety plan some-times requires Saturday work, but otherwise we try to refrain from any other work on Saturdays.”

Rosenfeld said the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy is the one that decides when to close parts of the fi eld, not Milstein. Leticia Remauro, spokesperson for the B.P.C. Authority and Conservancy, said the partial closures should not be surprising.

“Everybody knew there would be times the ballfi elds would be reduced,” Remauro said. “It’s done with everyone’s input.”

Bialosky, though, said that since the B.P.C.A. is the property owner, the authority could choose to protect the league’s interests over Milstein’s.

“We don’t think the community should have to suffer for their added economic gain,” Bialosky said.

Bialosky is trying to get Milstein and the authority to keep the fi eld fully open for the last

two weekends of the soccer season. Roseland said Wednesday that there would be no work on Saturday that would require the fi eld to close at all. But Bialosky said the B.P.C. Parks Conservancy told him on Tuesday that the fi elds would likely have to be partially closed.

Bialosky is also trying to get the Buildings Dept. to revoke Milstein’s Saturday work permit for the next two weeks. The D.O.B. did not comment.

Milstein plans to open its residential tow-ers on N. End Ave. in 2011. The buildings will also have a community center run by Asphalt Green. At that time, the grass ballfi elds will be restored to their former size with artifi cial turf. But until then, the authority said the construction would continue to periodically curtail the use of the fi elds.

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Downtown Express fi le photo by Elisabeth Robert

The construction barrier at the far end of the Battery Park City ballfi elds has been moved in even more on some Saturdays for certain construction maneuvers.

Downtown Express photos by J. B. Nicholas

Is greed still good?Actor Michael Douglas, right photo, gave some fatherly advice in Battery Park Tuesday to Shia LaBeouf, who plays Gordon Gekko’s son in “Wall Street 2.” Director Oliver Stone, above, has been fi lming all over the Financial District with Douglas, who is reprising one of his most famous roles.


Downtown Express photos by Milo Hess

More pinstripes for Wall St.Yankee fans by the hundreds of thousands descended upon Lower Manhattan’s famed Canyon of Heroes Friday to celebrate the team’s 27th World Series win. The Rev. Dr. James Cooper, rector of Trinity Church, blessed the procession as it went by, bottom left. The parade did not seem like old hat to closer and Canyon vet Mariano Rivera, bottom, perhaps the most pivotal player in the Yanks’ last fi ve championships. Top right, Alex Rodriguez enjoyed his fi rst title parade. Many of the old Yankee greats including Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio never got to feel the Canyon thrill after a series win. The Yanks’ fi rst Canyon parade was in 1978 and it was only the sixth one in their history, according to research done by the city in conjunction with the Downtown Alliance, which marks the date of each parade on the Broadway sidewalk. It may be the only accomplishment that the Mets, who fi rst paraded in 1969, achieved before the Bronx Bombers.


BY PATRICK HEDLUND

WOOLWORTH’S ITALIAN ACCENTAn Italian investment group is work-

ing to acquire a majority stake of another Downtown icon, the Woolworth Building, after doing the same with the historic Flatiron Building earlier this year.

The Rome-based Sorgente Group — which closed on more than half of the $190 million Flatiron Building in January, with plans to convert it for hotel use — is currently in talks to purchase a 51 per-cent stake in the neo-Gothic Broadway skyscraper, according to the New York Post. The 57-story building, at the cor-ner of Barclay St. across from City Hall, stood as the world’s tallest high-rise for more than 15 years after it was built in 1913. The building was owned by the Woolworth company for 85 years before being sold to the Witkoff Group for $155 million in 1998.

New York City’s plunging real estate prices have attracted investors from across the world, with office properties falling 62 percent in the first nine months of 2009, the Post reported.

RETAIL RENTS STABILIZINGRetail rents along Broadway from Soho

to the Financial District edged up during the third quarter but are still off the mark compared to the end of last year.

According to third-quarter retail report by CB Richard Ellis, retail rents shot up by 10.87 percent on Broadway between Chambers St. and Battery Park (from $209 per square foot at midyear to $234 in the third quarter), and rose by 0.41 percent on the stretch between Houston

and Broome Sts. (from $481 at midyear to $483 in the third quarter). However, the current figures show a decrease from the end of last year, with rents in the Financial District falling by 7.26 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008 (from $251 per square foot to $234) and Soho dipping by 5.59 percent over the past three quarters (from $510 to $483).

By comparison, retail rents on Fifth Ave. between 14th and 23rd Sts., came in at $269 in the third quarter — a 6.03 percent drop from the previous quarter and a 2.60 percent drop from the fourth quarter of 2008.

ZOË’S FAREWELLSoho standby Zoë, the airy American

restaurant that’s been on Prince St. for nearly two decades, plans to shutter by week’s end.

Owners Stephen and Thalia Loffredo confirmed to The New York Times that they would not renew their lease after 18 years in the space near Mercer St. due in part to changes in the neighborhood.

“It’s no longer a bastion of the art world the way it was,” Stephen Loffredo told the Times’ Diner’s Journal blog. “We can only tweak the concept so far.”

For Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance, Zoë’s passing signifies the continuing death of the area’s indepen-dent restaurants and shops.

“Soho as a neighborhood for individu-ally owned restaurants is disappearing,” he said, citing the closures of former favorites like Jerry’s and the Vesuvio bak-ery, both on Prince St. “I do kind of hate to see [Zoë] go. How many lipstick stores and lingerie stores can Soho support?”

Prior to Zoë, the space used to house a Puerto Rican diner that catered to the area’s construction workers, Sweeney explained.

“That felt like the passing of an era,” he noted. “You could get a coffee for 50 cents.”

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New developments at the World Trade Center

While the city is focusing on building the PAC at Greenwich and Vesey Sts., the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which committed $60 million to the project, is studying moving the PAC farther south to the 130 Liberty site, where its construction could begin earlier. Sayar Lonial, director of planning for the L.M.D.C., said he would have an answer on whether such a move is feasible by the C.B. 1 committee’s next meeting Dec. 14.

MEMORIAL BESTSELLERWhen the foundation building the 9/11 memorial and

museum opened a preview site on Vesey St. at the end of August, one of their goals was to cut into the business of vendors around the World Trade Center site who peddle disaster-themed flipbooks.

So far, the preview site appears to be succeeding. Its top-selling item so far is a booklet, called “Remembering 9/11,” which was designed to compete with the street vendors. More than 4,000 copies have sold for $8.95 apiece, and the foundation is now reprinting them in English, Spanish and French, foundation president Joe Daniels said.

In all, the preview site has attracted more than 230,000 visitors who bought nearly $400,000 of mer-chandise. The profits, about 60 percent of the revenue, will go toward building the memorial and museum.

Daniels said Monday that he has not decided whether the museum will have to charge admission when it opens as soon as 2013. Ticket revenue may be necessary to

cover the $50 million annual operating cost of the memo-rial and museum, but Daniels plans to seek private dona-tions and government support first.

In the rush to get the memorial open for the 10-year

anniversary of the attacks, the construction has been going round the clock. Gateway Plaza resident Bill Love said the high-pitched beeping of swiveling cranes frequently wakes him around 3 a.m. Daniels said he would look into the work schedule and potential noise mitigation.

W.T.C. MILESTONESAlso this week, the Port Authority released its

third-quarter W.T.C. milestone report, showing that it met 21 of its 24 goals from July through September. Accomplishments include installing 750 tons of steel for the memorial museum, erecting 12 jumbo steel columns for 1 W.T.C. and pouring 1,500 cubic yards of concrete for the vehicle security center.

But the Port did not finish installing the arches on the east-west connector and did not bid the structural steel package for the W.T.C. transportation hub. The Port Authority said it would mitigate the impact of these shortfalls so as not to delay the overall timetable of the projects.

The final missed milestone, the demolition of 130 Liberty St., lies in the purview of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., not the Port Authority.

The Port also set new milestones for the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010, marking the first time the Port has announced its specific construction goals nearly six months in advance. Milestones for the first quarter of 2010 include bringing steel for 1 W.T.C. up to the 20th floor level and extending the Liberty St. bridge south to make room for more work on the site.

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Image courtesy of Gehry Partners, LLP

A look of what the World Trade Center performing arts center being designed by Frank Gehry may look like. It will be at least eight years before it opens.



EDITORIALPUBLISHER & EDITOR

John W. Sutter

ASSOCIATE EDITORJosh Rogers

ARTS EDITORScott Stiffl er

REPORTERSAlbert Amateau

Lincoln AndersonPatrick HedlundJulie Shapiro

SR. V.P. OF SALES AND MARKETING

Francesco Regini

SR. MARKETING CONSULTANTJason Sherwood

ADVERTISING SALESAllison GreakerRobert LucarelliJulio Tumbaco

Danielle Zupanovich

RETAIL AD MANAGERColin Gregory

OFFICE MANAGERDavid Jaffe

ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTORTroy Masters

ART DIRECTORMark Hasselberger

GRAPHIC DESIGNERJamie Paakkonen

DISTRIBUTION & CIRCULATIONCheryl Williamson

CONTRIBUTORSFrank R. Angelino Wickham Boyle

Tim LavinDavid StankeJerry TallmerPHOTOGRAPHERS

Lorenzo CiniglioMilo HessCorky Lee

Elisabeth RobertJefferson Siegel

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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.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITORLiberty for New York?

New Yorkers who value freedom, civil rights advo-cates, gays and lesbians got some good news Tuesday night: gays may not have to sit on the back of the bus too much longer, at least in terms of same sex marriage. The Democratically-controlled State Senate fi nally committed to bringing the marriage equality bill to a vote before the end of the year. If it passes, the bill will become law since the Assembly has passed this measure twice already.

Gov. David Paterson deserves enormous credit for not letting the Democratic Senate leaders dawdle too much longer by insisting they commit to a vote. Since a full debate is likely to take only a few hours, we would have strongly preferred a schedule commitment within a week, but the difference between one or seven weeks will not matter much in the long run. Our bigger concern is that with wide disagreement on how to close an ever-increasing state budget defi cit, and given the Senate’s year of stalemate, futility and a domestic violence convic-tion of a gay marriage-supporting senator, the promise could be broken. An unresolved budget defi cit will be an easy excuse to delay the vote yet again.

(Incidentally, as we and others have pointed out before, legalizing gay marriage would help the budget situation as it would serve as a modest, short-term eco-nomic stimulus to the many communities throughout the state with beautiful wedding venues.)

The prospects for passage appear promising, although no one knows for sure. Even a defeated bill would at least put everyone on record. We think it would ulti-mately doom many of the opponents since polls continue to show strong support for marriage rights among the young.

The real reason to pass this is to give equal rights (at least under state law) to consenting adult couples who love each other. It’s to let the thousands of children grow-ing up with gay parents know that New York no longer thinks their dads and moms are second class. It’s to help the next Edie Windsor. She recently lost her partner in life and now owes nearly a million dollars in inheritance taxes because government ignores the commitment she made to her loved one, Thea Spirer.

How many more weeks and years will these injusticies be sanctioned by the government?

Make bike lanes safeLast Thursday’s horrifi c accident that saw Shami

Chaikin, a 78-year-old actress, left in critical condition after being partially run over by a Parks Department garbage truck never should have happened. Chaikin was riding her motorized scooter in the protected Hudson St. bicycle lane.

The Parks workers were collecting garbage and conveniently used the specially protected bike lane. Yet the law is clear: Bike lanes are off limits to motor vehicles, including city vehicles. Municipal employees must be trained to learn they cannot drive in bike lanes.

With bike lanes and biking booming, the city must do more to ensure safety in the lanes. At a minimum, a low curb or barrier with refl ectors should be installed along all lanes’ traffi c-side edges to make it clear that cars must keep out. We need to look to other cities, like Amsterdam, to learn how to make our bicycle infrastructure safer.

Again, no cyclist or motorized-scooter rider should ever be struck by a vehicle in a bike lane, or ever have to encounter one blocking the lane — except in an emergency, such as a critical street repair or fi re.

Tribeca Scrooge?

To The Editor:Re “Merry Gift?” (UnderCover, Oct. 30

– Nov. 6):I have been a resident of Tribeca for over

30 years. I have been on both sides of the fence... on the receiving and giving end. I can’t believe that someone wants to do something for the community for free, for the benefi t of underprivileged children and C.B. 1 is denying that. It is simply unacceptable. Why wouldn’t anyone want to do whatever they could to benefi t children? Is it because Mr. Strazzullo isn’t asking for any assistance, but is denied because they feel that this is “self-promotion?” I am beginning to think it is all about “forget about Christmas” in Tribeca. Most corpora-tions that do “something” for the community do it for self-promotion. If that is the case, what is the problem as long as the outcome is benefi ting those who need it? I don’t even like the sentence, “Salvatore Strazzullo thought he was giving his neighborhood a gift it wouldn’t refuse,” which, to me as an Italian American, is derogatory towards our ethnicity.

Does the community board want everyone to think that all Tribeca residents are fi nancially “fi t?” The truth is, probably most of Tribeca residents could benefi t from some assistance and even if the proceeds aren’t directed towards Tribeca, it doesn’t matter, children in need will be the recipient of something good.

Come on C.B. 1, do the right thing.

Annette Milano

Blame us all for greed

To The Editor: Re “Let us apologize for Goldman Sachs”

(editorial, Oct. 23-29):I’d like to apologize to the readers of

Downtown Express on behalf of the writer of this well-meaning, but misguided edito-rial.

Whatever greed and selfi shness manifests at Goldman Sachs or other corporations is merely a mirror refl ection of the greed and selfi shness and mindless hedonism that per-vades our entire society.

The decisions, attitudes and actions of corporate executives is determined, to a very large degree, by the values and conscious-ness of the masses. What we see at Goldman Sachs, at the local supermarket, at the bank, is largely the direct result of the values and priorities adopted by the vast majority of our fellow citizens.

Bluntly, there is virtually no compassion anywhere in our society.

I certainly respect and welcome the social conscience manifested by Downtown Express. But you need to understand that pointing a fi nger at Goldman Sachs is bark-ing up the wrong tree. If Downtown Express wants to elevate society, readdress wrongs, then it needs to diagnose “the patient” cor-rectly.

The “patient” (America) is suffering from a distorted mass consciousness based on dis-

torted values adopted by our fellow citizens. This is the real cancer.

Michael Gottlieb

Wild for wildlife

To The Editor:The saga of the BlackBerries has been

wonderful to follow. On the one hand, here were all these people willing to step out of their own interested perspectives and see their own character as human beings defi ned by understanding and addressing the real happiness of this mother cat and her kit-tens (“Orphan kittens get homes. Goldman ‘BlackBerries’ adopted,” news article, Nov. 6 - 12). This is the sort of thing that gives one a sense there is hope for our most inva-sive and quite often senselessly destructive of species.

There really are good people out there.The story also points to an interesting

change: Urban wildlife is increasing — feral dogs and cats, but also pigeons (brought here to be eaten; escaped to survive against all odds) and hawks (driven to extinction, now fi nding a way back); starlings and spar-rows and a whole host of native wildlife — squirrels and raccoons and bears and even coyotes.

This increase is a mark of our success: We keep pushing our “bedroom communi-ties” outward from the city core, changing the old habitat to something more suited to our needs.

This increase is also a mark of the ani-mals’ success: They have fi gured out how to live with us. This may be a greater success.

Part of the measure of the increase can be found in the way we react to animals. There was Simcha Felder’s chopped off city comptroller race; he took on pigeons, and it turned out more people liked pigeons than Felder (the split was 60/40, roughly). There is the increase in animals being referred for wildlife rehabilitation: the Wild Bird Fund reports the number of urban critters brought in for help has doubled each year for the last three years.

A substantial majority of New Yorkers likes our city wildlife. Borderline cases usu-ally take little persuasion to see how charm-ing these critters are, and how much they add. As to the hard-core: There are people who think the world is fl at, too.

This is not to say there aren’t anxious moments: Pigeons poop (but a good rain storm or some warm water solves that).

The point: The Blackberries and the whole cast of human beings who stood up for them is part of a larger story, a signifi cant part of which is unfolding around us all the time. And that is really neat, well worth watching, and even better, well worth being part of.

Donald JennerSelf-described Secretary/Treasurer of Wildlife in Tribeca



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Silver saved us coin

To The Editor:As Battery Park City homeowners, we want

to commend Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for his decisive action in opposing the great raid on the Battery Park City Authority (“Gov shifts some on B.P.C. $$$, Silver says,” news article, Nov.6 - 12). This was the ill-conceived plan hatched in Albany to direct the authority to borrow $200 million and turn that money over to the state to help plug the budget gap.

That additional B.P.C.A. debt would have been paid by the residents and busi-nesses of Battery Park City. Speaker Silver saw the plan for what it was, an unfair tax on the people who live and work in Battery Park City, and he stopped it.

Battery Park City homeowners already pay among the highest taxes per square foot, both directly and indirectly, of any condo or coop owners in Manhattan. We pay real estate taxes through the B.P.C.A. as a PILOT. Residents and businesses also pay ground rents which underwrite an additional payment to the City of New York, more than $100 million per year, which is supposed to be used for afford-able housing. Finally, we pay fees to the B.P.C.A., which are used to create a very beautiful place which is open for all to enjoy, no matter where they may live.

The speaker understands this and he is working to make sure that Battery Park City remains affordable for current and future residents. Huge increases in the ground rent threaten the viability of Battery Park City, both as a community and as a reliable source of funding earmarked for affordable housing

in the City of New York. Speaker Silver’s action has preserved

Battery Park City’s viability for now, and we look forward to working with him and the B.P.C.A. to ensure our community remains a vitally important part of our great city.

Gene Glazer, Jim Hopkins, Anthony Notaro, Jr. and Pat SmithMembers of the Battery Park City Homeowners Coalition

Admirable but minor

To The Editor:Jean Grillo’s characteristically self-

promotional response claims that I “belit-tle” people who are district leaders by pointing out that it is a minor unpaid Democratic party position (Letter, Nov. 6 – 12, “Leaders lead”). To the contrary, I think it is admirable that some people are willing to devote time and energy to such minor volunteer positions in support of their political party. I have personally worked (always as a volunteer) for numer-ous political causes and non-profit groups over the years. Still, that does not blind me to the reality that working in such a volunteer post cannot begin to compare in importance to being a councilmember, assemblymember or state senator.

The fact that I supported a candidate in a district leader race has nothing to do with my objective assessment of that position. I was simply asked by a friend to assist in a political campaign in which she had decided to become a candidate. If the position my friend was seeking had been dogcatcher instead, my willingness

to help would have been the same. I was “touting” my friend and her abilities, not making a statement about the importance of the job she was seeking.

Ms. Grillo’s characterization of my let-ters as “hate notes” is puzzling. My letters on this particular matter have essentially been analytical in nature.

Finally, I want to respond to the letter from Jeanne Wilcke, which characterizes me as a “political appointee of Alan Gerson” (Letter Nov. 6 – 12, “Club vote”). That remark refers to the fact that Councilmember Gerson appointed me as a member of Community Board 1, another unpaid volunteer position that requires hours of work each month on important community issues which I am very happy to have had the opportunity to do. But anyone who is familiar with my work on C.B. 1 knows that my views on matters that come before that body, as well as on other community issues, are ones that I have formed independently, regardless of whether or not those views are shared by Councilmember Gerson. I call things as I see them without giving a second thought as to whether taking a particular position on an issue might jeopardize or enhance my prospects for reappointment to C.B. 1, and that will continue to be the case.

Bill Love

Editor’s Notes: All community board members are appointed by the borough president, who must consider the local coun-cilmember’s recommendations for half of the slots. Jean Grillo, author of the “Leaders lead” letter published last week, contacted us to clarify that the work she described as a poll site monitor is for pay and is distinct from her unpaid work as a district leader.

“Downtowners help mayor squeak by, voting for Dems in other races” (news article, posted Nov. 5)

I was stunned and disheartened to see the reasons people voted for Bloomberg in this article. Michael Grossman said it best when he spoke of the blatant violation of democracy represented in Bloomberg’s overturning of term limits. ... Is this the message we want to give our children? If you do a decent job of keeping things clean and tidy, and do your math homework and then pay people to be on your team you don’t have to obey the law? I was deeply disappointed in our downtown communities. Especially the people who have children attending our schools. ... Perhaps the small group of us that have been protecting their children by getting them school seats at the last minute when this mayor could not care less have done too good a job. I hope for their sake they don’t have toddlers as when this group is gone all bets are off for the younger children in the neighborhood.

Tricia Joyce

“9/11 health bill”(news article, posted Nov. 5)

The sick fi rst responders have waited so long, now this crap. [We] should have just had a bill for the responders that worked at the W.T.C. So let the others start their own bill. Everyone now wants to be included, which is wrong. Start a law suit for your own group, lady. Sorry but that’s how many are seeing you — as a trouble maker.

[email protected]

“The man washing windows outside the 110th fl oor”

BY ARLINE KLATTE

Downtown ExpressNovember 8-21, 1994

Roko Camej, 53, had been washing windows at the World Trade Center for 20 years, and had a nice tan to show for it when Downtown Express profi led him 15 years ago. “I like my job. I don’t bother anyone and no one bothers me,” he said while smiling. “Except when you people come.”

Camej began fi elding press inquiries about his job in 1975. Some journalists from Germany even asked if they could take

pictures of him washing his own windows at home.

Camej emigrated from Albania to the U.S. with his pregnant wife in 1969, and she had their baby girl the next day. When he started working at the W.T.C., he told his wife he worked inside so she wouldn’t worry about him, but his cover was blown when he appeared on Channel 7 and in the Daily News.

The majority of the windows at the W.T.C. were cleaned by automatic window washing machines that traveled on stainless steel tracks, which took 20 minutes to travel down a fl oor and another 10 minutes to travel back up. Two men traveled with the machine to make sure it functioned properly. The windows at Windows On the World, the restaurant on the 107th fl oor, had to be hand washed because the panes were too narrow for the machines.

“To me, this is normal,” he said while pointing to the round domes atop the World Financial Center. “When I started working here, there was nothing. Now it’s a beautiful small city. We have to be careful not to drop

anything. A penny dropped from here would kill someone.”

Before the 1993 W.T.C. bombing, Camej was on the 107th fl oor and it took him four hours to get out of the building.

“There were so many people in the stairs, I thought they’d fi nd us all like roaches the next day,” he said.

Prepared by Helaina N. Hovitz

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

Continued from page 18 POSTED

ON DOWNTOWNEXPRESS.COM


DC UNITED VS RED BULLS (MAJOR 12-13)

DC United ran into a buzz-saw yesterday on a muddy track that stalled out much of their own fl eet-footed attack two weeks ago. From the start the Red Bulls showed why they are the only unbeaten team this year in the 12-13 Major Division.

The Bulls’ potent forecourt of Dash Liebermann, Lucas Deysine and Theo Munger put the screws to United in a 4-1 victory, fed continuously by a stingy defense and active midfi eld led by standout Alex Scheman. The continuous attacks by Winger Max Wissmann fed the centers Jake Rosenberg and Jason Polychronakos with dangerous crosses while Defender Joshua Lorberblatt, together with second half goalie Noam Saul denied United promising chances.

DC United’s front court of Louis Moreschi, Brian Alvarado and Nigel Epps had a num-ber of good chances in the second half with some timely feeds and solid set-ups from middie captain Aidan Rogers and Henry Lilien. Moreschi and Alvarado combined for several rushes of more than 50 yards, but Moreschi could only put one in the goal, with one called back for a very close off-side call. Middie Ava Anderson turned in her fi n-est game of the season with numerous stops and fi ne outlet passes. Defenders Jasmine Campise and Scarlett Perry also turned in one of their best efforts.

RANGERS VS. DUNDEE (MINOR 9)The game between the Rangers and

Dundee Oct. 31 was a real thriller. Dundee scored early off a squeaker into the corner of the goal and then slammed the door on a Ranger attack, which showed promise for the future. After the initial blow, the Rangers defense stiffened as Noah Goodman, James Turner and Chris Gushee withstood every-thing Dundee‘s offense could throw at them. Rangers goalies Jack McCabe and Jacob Cohen made some brilliant diving saves to keep the game close, but the Dundee shield would also remain unbroken as Olivia O‘Toole, Julian Memmo and Amber Pongrass fought hard for the Black & Gold.

Perhaps spurred by coach Jake Turner‘s half-time pep talk the Rangers were a different team in the second half. Mid-ielders, Brooke Kirwin, Kendall Chapman and Jack O‘Halloran went toe-to-toe with Dundee, continually feed-ing their strikers for repeated attacks.

With time winding down Dundee with-stood a withering array of breakouts and chances by the Rangers. Ranger center-forward Noah Deguchteneere put on a clinic repeatedly dribbling through the defense, but wingers Chris Barker and Liam Doyle just couldn‘t put the ball home as Dundee‘s goalie made several fi ne saves to preserve the 1-nil win.

“What a game!” said referee Manny d‘Almeida.

BORDEAUX VS. NICE (MAJOR 11)Substitute coach Ashley Marable

stepped in for John Griffin as their team, Bordeaux, faced off against Bob Potter’s Nice. Griffin’s son Elias was missing from the lineup as well, Sara Salitan was out with a sprained ankle; and with Luke Marable under the weather, Bordeaux had only 10 players at full strength.

James Carney was in goal for Bordeaux in the fi rst half, masterfully handling a low shot from the left about 12 yards outside of the penalty box. Carney stretched out and tipped the ball around the goal post for a nice save, giving up a corner kick in the process. Both Max Kong and Mateo Flores played well in midfi eld, Anthony Miguez played right fullback, Lumia Nocito played left fullback, and Matt played fullback. Their traditional diamond defense helped keep Nice, including plays by the formi-dable offense of Balthazar Merrin, Gavin Zinzell, Truman Dunn, Graham Nelson and Will Pangburn, scoreless.

With 10 minutes left in the first half, visiting player Tyler Rohan took one for his old team when Zinzell booted a mud-covered ball in his left eye by mistake. Gavin was apologetic, but Rohan was out for the rest of the game. The first half ended 0-0, thanks to Judah Lang in goal for Nice, despite several offensive rushes by Dario Flores for Bordeaux.

In the second half, Dario scored first goal with a quick poke. Jared Beh contin-uously opened the field with his insightful passing, with Athena Karavasilis, Vidal Carrion and Lumia Nocito all playing stingy defense, holding Nice back from scoring. Nice, including players, tried to even the score at one. But Bordeaux’s Anthony Miguez came up with the second goal and teammate Issei the third, both opening their scoring accounts for the year.

Other Nice players made nice passes and worked hard on defense for their team, including Maisie Fisher, Alex Monticciolo, Mia Potter, Lulu Priddy, Auri Ribes, Kyra Russo, Julia Udell and Anna Van Patten, but Nice could not catch up to Bordeaux’s 3-0 lead against a recovered Marable in goal. Then James Carney made up for an earlier open goal miss, by lashing in the fourth goal for Bordeaux, further frus-trating a team which has built a winning reputation in the past few years.

The fi nal score was Bordeaux 4, Nice 0.

LYON VS. MARSEILLE (MAJOR 11)In earlier action, Liz Lamere’s Lyon

team beat Brad Bodwell’s Marseille team 1-0, which made for the fi rst win for Coach Lamere this season. Lucy Winokur scored the winning goal for Lyon with a low strong arc. Way to persevere, Lyon!

The scene at Icahn Stadium last Saturday was one for the ages. Perfect fall weather, big crowd, sun setting behind the fi eld and the best two middle school girls soccer teams warming up for the city’s middle school cham-pionship. Manhattan Academy of Technology in Chinatown had been there before, last year as a matter of fact, losing a heartbreaker to Hunter. Anderson had not. And 3 minutes into the game, it showed.

“Our girls just came out of the gate with a lot of confi dence, a lot of heart and a lot of enthusiasm.” coach John Dematteo said. At the 3:30 mark, Noah Azulai found right mid-fi elder Angelina Panken, who lofted a nifty right-footed goal past the keeper to set the tone of the game. After that, it was pretty much all M.A.T.

The Dragons won 3-0 and fi nished the season a perfect 12 – 0.

Just before the end of the fi rst half, M.A.T. struck again, on a great cross pass from Safi yah Riddle, who found forward Amanda Inglesh wide open on the left side who drilled in a no touch shot on the run.

“That was one of the most beautiful goals I’ve ever seen in middle school soccer, on any level,” coach Rob Mehan said. “We’re very proud of the way our girls played today and they deserved to win.”

Anderson, however, was not going down easy. Anderson forward Gianna Finz, who is

also a track and fi eld champion, broke away on the right side and beat the defense in front of the goal and was tripped up. After a penalty kick ensued, which missed high, the M.A.T. coaches called on defender/midfi elder Akiele Lewis to guard Gianna one on one and stay with her the whole game. The result. She touched the ball once from that point on.

The Dragons also got some strong defensive plays from Elizabeth Yang, Haille McKenzie, Lucero Smith, and Gigi Raskin, who never even allowed a shot in the semi fi nals and fi nals. M.A.T.’s star goalie, Gabby Wallach, wasn’t tested once.

The midfi eld combination of Eve Grassfi eld, Noah Azulai, Eva Bonsignour made sure that the star forward combination of Safi yah Riddle, Angelina Panken and Amanda Inglesh got their shots and were able to work their magic.

The Dragons will celebrate their victory on Dec. 11th at the school’s end of year fall sports award ceremony, where Dematteo will say goodbye to his eight graders, but also look forward to the future with his new 6th and 7th graders.

“I cannot replace the 8th grade girls I had this year,” he said. “They were everything you could ask for in student athletes and I know they will go on to do great things not only in soccer and athletics, but as productive mem-bers of society as well.”

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!

Downtown Soccer League highlights

Undefeated M.A.T. girls take city soccer title


LITERALLY ALIVE THEATER The Village-based children’s the-ater company presents their family-friendly version of that holiday classic “A Christmas Carol” — sure to be more entertaining and less disturbing than the Jim Carrey version currently haunting the movies. Sat, Nov 21 through Wed, Dec 30; at the Players Theatre (115 MacDougal St.). For a schedule, visit www.literallyalive.com. For tickets, visit www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/666025 or call 212-352-3101. Tickets may be purchased at the box office, which opens 11am daily. Use the coupon code “Villager” to save 20%.

LIMECAT FAMILY THEATER Their family-friendly production — “The Goldfish Twins Swim the Big Blue Sea” — is running through Nov 21, every Saturday, 11:30am at St. Luke’s Theatre (308 W. 46th St; and through Jan 31, 2010 every Sun, Noon, at the Actors Temple; 339 W. 47th St). “The Tortoise and the Hare’s Holiday Hoopla” opens at St. Luke’s Theatre on Sat, Nov 28. For a complete schedule, visit www.limecat.org. For tickets, visit www.telecharge.com or call 212-239-6200.

PENNY JONES & CO. PUPPETS The venerable children’s the-ater company presents a puppet ballet set to the rollicking music of Kabalevsky’s symphonic suite, “The Circus & Sebastian” is the story of Sebastian, a park attendant who yearns for a job with the circus. Sun, Nov 15, 11am and 1 pm, at the Westbeth Com-munity Center (55 Bethune St). Admission is free; no reservations required. For information, call 212-924-0525

MANHATTAN CHILDREN’S THEATRE MCT’s latest produc-tion, “The Snow Queen,” is Kristin Walter’s original musical adap-tation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Mischievous trolls, magic mirrors, witches, reindeer and a frozen palace all combine to tell the tale of young Gerda and Kay — who embark on a quest to save their small European village (and themselves) from the chilling effects of the Snow Queen. Through Jan 3, 2010, every Sat and Sun at Noon and 2pm; at Manhattan Chil-dren’s Theatre (52 White St, 2 blocks south of Canal Street between Broadway & Church Streets). For tickets ($20), call 212-352-3101 or visit www.theatermania.com.

TRIBECA CINEMA KIDS CLUB This new series features 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! December 5, discover silent films with Buster Keaton shorts as well as his feature, “The General.” Dec 19, “A Holiday Celebra-tion” screens “Peace Tree” at 10:30am and 1:30pm. 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.

POETS HOUSE Their new home in Battery Park City has a 50,000-volume poetry library, children’s room, multimedia archive, programming hall and reading room (10 River Terrace at Murray St). Call 212-431-7920 or visit www.poetshouse.org. Sat, Nov 14, 11am, Poets House presents “The Buzz with Naomi Shi-hab Nye.” Part of their Poetry for Children series, this workshop of reading, writing and discussing poems features Shihab Nye — author of the recent young-adult poetry collection “Honey-bee.” Free admission.

CHILDREN’S BASKETBALL Children can play with adjustable 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 children the opportunity to experiment with materials such as paint, clay, fabric, paper, and found objects. Admission $10. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm; Thurs, 12-6pm. Children’s Museum of the Arts, 182 Lafayette 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 Tues. at 3:30pm. Action Center to End World Hunger, 6 River Terr, Battery

Park City. Call 212-537-0511 or visit actioncenter.org.

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

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, sleep-ing, creating support networks. Punch card for 10 sessions is $100. Summer Special: $90 punch card if purchased before Aug 31. Playdate Drop-Ins are Mon & Thurs, 10-11:30am and Tues 3-4:30pm. New Parent Drop-Ins are Mon 1:30-3:30pm. Educa-tional Alliance Downtown Parenting Center,197 East Broadway (between Jefferson & Clinton St). Visit edalliance.org.

STORYTIME AT BABYLICIOUS Children ages 3 to 4 are wel-come 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 babyli-ciousnyc.com.

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

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!

TEEN ART CLASSES

212-571-7290

AND OF COURSE . . .

AFTER SCHOOL ARTS ACADEMY

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

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

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

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

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

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

YOUTHACTIVITIES

Pick of the WeekSTUDIO TOURThe Little Airplane Studio Tour gives kids an insider’s look at how children’s television is made. Every aspect of pro-duction — from writing to animation to voice-over recording — will be explained to families by the Little Airplane creative team. Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 11am and 3pm; at 207 Front Street (South Street Seaport). $10 per person; reser-vations required. Call 212-965-8999 or visit www.littleairplane.com. Photo courtesy of Little Airplane Productions


BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN“STEPHEN IRWIN: SOMETIMES WHEN WE TOUCH.”

Through November 29, at Invisible-Exports (14A Orchard St., btw. Hester and Canal St.). Call 212-226-5447 or visit www.invisible-exports.com.

Stephen Irwin transforms vintage pornography — which dates back to the time of his own adolescence — into images of mystifi ed erotica. The Kentucky based artist does this in an almost Romantic fashion while honoring the “less is more” principle.

In his hands, formerly explicit magazine spreads become obscured, be it through undoing their once lusty plastic polish, by rubbing out parts of the image or veiling them in layers of neutral paint. It is a process that adds mystique by taking away information; but as much as Irwin disguises the original porn, he also zooms in on some specifi c details.

In one work, a fi nger recedes into a nest of hair. It is the only recognizable image left and it becomes further crystal-lized as Irwin surrounds it with marble-esque layers of white paint. The attention is driven towards the anatomy of the fi nger, single hairs, and the skin, which has the complexion favored in Leonardo da Vinci’s portraits. The obscured image becomes isolated and even iconographic. It is a good example of how Irwin denies us access but also keeps us focused. It is this divide, which reveals the artist’s witty sense of humor and playfulness that makes Irwin’s work especially enchanting.

Irwin’s images are canny and his transformations of some-thing blunt into something ethereal and poetic are skillfully realized. In addition, his work expresses a gentleness that seems to hint at physical fragility. Singled out body parts, no matter from which part of the body they have been taken and no matter in what kind of act they might be engaged, can appear vulnerable and Irwin treats his subjects almost tenderly. His images manifest as glimpses of deeply personal fantasies, but they are also highly associative.

When surveying the compositions on display, viewers will repeatedly fi nd themselves pondering what exactly has been omitted. What fl eshy details or what kind of person are hid-ing underneath Irwin’s veils? Occasionally, faint images can be traced through thinner layers of paint, but the works that are the least clear and most suggestive are the ones that are the most engaging. They succeed in opening up a vast erotic landscape for us to explore.

“REE MORTON: AT THE STILL POINT OF THE TURNING WORLD.” Through December 18, at The Drawing Center (35 Wooster St., below Broome St.). Call 212-219-2166 or visit www.drawingcenter.org.

It is astonishing to learn that the late American artist Ree Morton (1936–1977) produced her versatile body of work in just a single decade. Her career began in her thirties — after she already attended nursing school, married, and had three children. She later completed her BFA at the University of Rhode Island in 1968 and her MFA at Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia in 1970. Just before her 41st birthday, her life was tragically cut short by a fatal car accident.

This drawing-based show, which further includes a selection of notebook sketches and major drawing-based sculptural works, reveals the profundity of Morton’s perception and the unique spirit that drove her work. The exhibition title was taken from a T.S. Eliot poem, which Morton kept above her studio desk. It is a gesture that leads to the impression that we are meant to discover the artist here as much as the person, who worked ceaselessly to create a voice that would be heard.

Post-minimalism had a strong impact on Morton’s oeuvre, which was further infused with a keen sense of humor. This

made for an unusual mélange and Morton was one of the fi rst to employ a minimal vocabulary for deeply personal statements. According to the press release, it was Morton’s wish to be “light and ironic on serious subjects without frivolity.” In Morton’s body of work, Americana, kitsch, cartoonish illustrations, formal abstraction and language are fused into a harmonious jumble.

Morton was considered part of the feminist movement and her loss, not unlike that of Eva Hesse — who died while in her thirties in 1970 and who also had only worked for a decade — was a major loss for the community.

A career suddenly cut short always leaves a void and the ques-tion of how this artist might have progressed. Morton’s work is sensitive, elegant and has an air of post-modern classicism. It is a shame that despite two posthumous exhibitions — a retrospec-tive at The New Museum in 1980 and a 1985 solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York — her work has all but vanished from the public eye and left her oeuvre largely unrecognized.

The Drawing Center, under the curation of João Ribas, has set sails against this unjust drift towards oblivion. Some of the works on display have never before been shown publicly, making this

exhibit a treat for those who know Morton’s work well and those who just encounter her for the fi rst time.

“HAROLD ANCART: WITHIN LIMITS.” Through December 6, at LMAK projects LES (139 Eldridge St., at Delancey St.). Call 212-255-9707 or visit www.lmakprojects.com.

A thrillingly modest yet elegant installation of two sculp-tures and a drawing mark Harold Ancart’s fi rst New York solo exhibition. The examination of space and its inherent limitations are key concerns for this Belgian artist.

Ancart favors simplicity, minimal gestures, and clarity over visual noise and convolution. The most elaborate work in this installation is made of nearly invisible nylon wire. The different wires, spanning walls and ceiling, are orga-nized geometrically, enveloping the space in-between the architectural confi nes. While this method of drawing “into” space might be seen as an obvious homage to the oeuvre of the formidable Minimalist sculptor Fred Sandback, Ancart offers his own take by adding a notion of painterly gesture.

Post-minimalism humor, vintage porn and subtle sculptureThree art exhibits worth your time, effort

EXHIBIT REVIEWS

Photo courtesy of the artists and LMAK projects

“Jurassic Technology” by Harold Ancart (collaborating w/Olivier Babin)



He has altered some parts of the nylon wire by painting it with layers of polymer and raw black pigment. As a result, the sculpture upon close inspection disproves the illusion of homogeneousness. Certain parts of the wires receive more attention than others, vary in density and hence, offer establish an overall sense of individualism.

Ancart’s preference for subtlety mani-fests in another sculpture — a steel multiple structure with cross-like shapes at the ends — which derives its meaning through the simple interplay of light and shadow. It is the gallery’s wall on which the sculpture is installed, that captures the shadow and because of that becomes an integral part of the work. There is no doubt that Ancart’s sculptural works aim to draw as much atten-tion to the architectural characteristics of their temporary settings, as to themselves.

Though Ancart’s work is well thought out and requires careful planning, it contains a certain sketch-like quality. This is partially due to the restrained nature of the artist’s gesture, but also to the fact that each work embodies a clear set of concepts. It seems fi tting that the only two-dimensional work in this exhibition features the word “IDEA.”

It is Ancart’s challenge of course to trans-late his ideas into three-dimensional form and to transform these three-dimensional works into a spatial experience. His ambition to let each space’s physical limitations provide him with a set of parameters leaves no doubt that there is plenty of room for exploration.

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© Seth Resnick

The Vanishing ContinentA PHOTO EXHIBITION OF ANTARCTICA

BY SETH RESNICK

Limited Edition Photographs Presented By Glimmer Gallery of Tribeca140 Duane Street, New York, NY 10013November 20, 2009 - December 20, 2009

Photo courtesy of Stephen Iriwn and Invisible-Exports

Stephen Irwin’s “Rubbed” (2009, Altered vintage pornography, 11 x 17 inches)



BY JERRY TALLMERTaylor Mac, who wrote it and now over-

sees it, doesn’t know how many roles there are, all told, in “The Lily’s Revenge” — his mixed-stagecraft extravaganza at HERE, in SoHo.

With a laugh he says: “Maybe 45?” Performed, he specifi es, by 36 “living actors” plus others on video. But then, the audience is also part of the show, so the total performers should be 45-plus-??? on any given night.

Just a sampling from the three-page Cast of Characters:

Mary Prime DeityMary Subprime DeityTime (also plays Wind and

Stepmother)An Audience Member (any age or gen-

der)The Great Longing (a talking curtain)Bride PuppetBride DeityBaby’s BreathDaisy #1Daisy #2TulipPoppyForget-Me-Not (the audience)

…and, of course, Lily, a fi ve-petaled fl ower.

And yes, the application of the name “Mary” is just what you think — in Taylor Mac’s words, “a term of opprobrium for gay men.”

He sees “The Lily’s Revenge” as “a hero’s journey” toward full manhood, whatever one’s particular orientation.

No doubt, dear reader, you can fi gure out who plays Lily.

So, Mr. Mac, who or what is Lily taking revenge on?

“The antagonist.” Playwright-director-actor lets it go at that, not wanting to give away the ending. Which comes fi ve and a half hours after the start.

“It kind of goes by very quickly.,” he says. “We’ve cut some repetitions. The environment is always changing. By the time you take it all in, it’s gone. Which is what I wanted.

“We’re engaging with the audience every minute, and get a lot of people in

their 70s. I hear over and over again: ‘We weren’t planning to stay, but…’ ”

There are fi ve acts, six directors — Paul Zimet, Rachel Chavkin, Fay Driscoll, Aaron Rhyne, Kristin Marting, David Drake (with Mac himself available “to give it a certain common vision”) — and a whole congerie of theatrical modes (Noh play, verse play, puppet play, dance, audi-ence participation) within a sort of overall Jungian mythic spookiness.

“I like Jung,” says Taylor Mac. “And it is a Jungian play.

“It’s really only about three and a half hours,” he says of the play’s running time. “The rest is intermissions.”

But the show goes on during intermis-sions, too, all through the HERE prem-ises, upstairs and down, just as Judith Malina had the cast of Jack Gelber’s “The Connection” do at the Living Theater exactly 50 years ago.

Here at HERE, even in the bathrooms you can listen, during intermissions, to an admirably straightforward series of auto-biographical monologues telling how the “Lily” author got to be that author.

It begins:“Eight years old and I attend my fi rst

wedding. Princess Diana rides in a bullet-proof glass pumpkin across the TV screens

of the world. My family wears our pajamas to the wedding and everyone agrees it is a perfect day.”

A little farther on:“I become aware of AIDS on the same

day puberty enters my life. AIDS awareness happens in the form of the Pope preaching abstinence to fi ght AIDS. Puberty comes in a dream that consists of two boys humping each other while Maggie Smith, in Greek toga, astride a Pegasus, reads their wed-ding vows. After this dream I am afraid to masturbate because I think, since I am gay, I will give myself AIDS.”,

Taylor Mac (the fi rst two of his three real names) was born August 24, 1973, in Laguna Beach, California, but grew up in Stockton, California — “kind of a poor suburbia” — near the capitol at Sacramento

“My father worked for the National Forest. He died when I was 4. My mother became an art teacher. Yeah, that stuff is all basically true,” he says of those inter-mission monologues. “To show why I cre-ated this piece.”

Here, just for fl avor, is a wedding-cake slice of “The Lily’s Revenge”:

BRIDE LOVE: There are too many dif-ferent kinds of tomato soup.

GROOM LOVE: There are no options. (He slaps her to take her out of her craze.) It’s just you and me. (Slap) Look at me. (Slap) Just you and me. Forever.

BRIDE LOVE (horrifi ed): Ahhhhhhhh.

SUBPRIME LOVE: What do we do?

BRIDE LOVE: Burn the apartment down.

FLOWER GIRLS LOVE [the Flower Girls are ancient crones a la the witches of “Macbeth”]: Burn mother fucker burn!

BRIDE LOVE: I’ve got the lighter fl uid.

GROOM LOVE: What if you get caught?

BRIDE LOVE: You do it.

GROOM LOVE: Ladies fi rst.

BRIDE LOVE: Why ladies fi rst?

GROOM LOVE: Etiquette.

BRIDE LOVE: Blame.

GROOM LOVE: Chivalry.

BRIDE LOVE: Cowardice.

Jungian? It’s positively Beckettian.Taylor Mac, who has a list of credits and

awards as long as your arm — not least, an Edward Albee Foundation Residency — lives “with my lover” in the Gramercy Park area. He has been affi liated with HERE for 14 years now. His day jobs have included that of “cater waiter” at other people’s functions and parties.

He chose to make the hero of this work a Lily in part because, like “pansy,” the word is a derogation for homosexuality — “but the real reason I chose ‘Lily,’ ” he says, “comes from Greek mythology. Juno is the goddess of marriage, and wherever a drop of her breast milk hits the ground, there a lily grows.”

A closing retrospective from his mono-logues:

“In 2004 George W. Bush is elected President once more, primarily because people don’t want gays to marry. I attend my fi rst lesbian wedding in my home state of California. The wedding is typical: grandma dances disco…The femme wears a dress and Dawn, the butch, a tuxedo…

“This is also the year Ronald Reagan dies and, inspired by Princess Diana’s funeral a few years before. Thousands of people descend on Washington to throw fl owers [for those dead of AIDS] on the White House lawn. Fear of weakness is often confused with bravery.”

Have no fear, Taylor Mac is at HERE.

Flower, on hero’s journey, seeks revengeMixed-stagecraft extravaganza boasts cast of 45 — plus you!

Photo by Ves Pitts

Lily is one fey fl ower you don’t want to mix it up with.

THE LILY’S REVENGEWritten by Taylor Mac, directed by Mac and others

Through November 22

At HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue (between Spring and Broome)

Call 212-352-3101

THEATER


“PRECIOUS” (+)This is an extraordinary story with an

exceptional cast. The painful life burdens of the movie’s main character, a teenager named Precious, will cause you to weep.

In the beginning of the fi lm, an extremely obese teenager, Precious (Gabourey Sidibe), is caring for her Down Syndrome baby whom she has named Mongol. She is soon to give birth to a boy who will be named Abdul. The horror is that both children were fathered by Precious’s own father — who is the boyfriend of her mother, Mary (Mo’Nique), with whom she lives.

Mary, who stood by and allowed the raping of her child, has ill will approaching hatred toward her daughter. One of the most poignant and dramatic scenes depicts a meeting at the offi ce of a social worker, Ms. Weiss (Maria Carey), where the mother states why she resents her daughter. I was pained by the plight of both mother and daughter and wept for both of them.

Precious is shown in a classroom with a half-dozen other girls who become her substitute family. Without the positive inter-action of her social worker, Ms. Weiss, her teacher, Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), and her classmates, I have no doubt she would have been living on the streets.

The performances of Sidibe and Mo’Nique are extraordinary and spellbinding. In fact, the entire cast, including Lenny Kravitz in the role of Nurse John, does a wonderful job.

I believe everyone in the audience must have felt the way I did: How could God allow this to go on and what can our schools and society do to address the problem? The obvious answer is to provide more edu-cational and training programs as well as money for programs to care for those in need who may never work, notwithstanding the prodding of their social workers. Clearly, however, we are not doing enough. The ending of this fi lm, while conveying the pos-sibility of change and a better outcome down the road, does not leave the audience with an unrealistic expectation and happy ending.

I saw the picture at the Regal Union Square Stadium Theater on 13th Street and Broadway

which I like very much because of its stadium seating. The audience was made up largely of young black women. This fi lm concerns problems affecting both blacks and whites and should be seen by every racial group in our country. It took enormous courage to make and participate in this fi lm. Those who did should be rewarded with the honors of the industry and the applause of the nation.

According to The National Center for Victims of Crime: “Incest has been cited as the most common form of child abuse. Studies conclude that 43 percent of the children who are abused are abused by family members, 33 percent are abused by someone they know, and the remaining 24 percent are sexually abused by strangers (Hayes, 1990). Other research indicates that over 10 million Americans have been victims of incest. Victims are often extremely reluctant to reveal that they are being abused because their abuser is a person in a position of trust and authority for the victim. Many young incest victims accept and believe the perpetrator’s explanation that this is a learning experience that happens in every family by an older family member. Incest vic-tims may fear they will be disbelieved, blamed or punished if they report their abuse.”

Rated R. Run time: 1 hour, 49 minutes. 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.

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HAIR COLOR TREATMENTS STYLINGCHILDREN’S CUTS THOUGHTFUL GIFTS

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KOCH ON FILM

Photo by Anne Marie Fox

Gabourey Sidibe stars as Claireece ‘Precious’ Jones in ‘Precious’


GALLERIES & EXHIBITS

“FACES” Letty Nowak’s exhibition of new paintings focuses on faces, but are not “portraits” in the classi-cal 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 Visi-tors can see a unique display includ-ing an elaborate Quechua girl’s dance outfit, a Northwest Coast chief’s staff with carved animal figures and crests, Seminole turtle shell dance leggings, a conch shell trumpet from pre-Colum-bian Mexico, and an Inupiak (Eskimo) ivory cribbage board. Two interactive media stations show visitors in-depth descriptions of each object. Ongoing through March, 2010, at the National Museum of the American Indian (One Bowling Green). Call 212-514-3700, or visit nmai.si.edu.

APEXART: “AVANT-GUIDE TO NYC: DISCOVERING ABSENCE.” This group exhibition aims to map the cul-tural history of twentieth century New York. Through Dec. 19 (291 Church St., below Walker St.). Call 212-431-5270 or visit: www.apexart.org.

A R T I N G E N E R A L : “ E R R AT I C ANTHROPOLOGIES.” This exhibi-tion includes projects by Guy Benfield, Shana Moulton, and Rancourt/Yatsuk. Through Jan. 9, 2010 (79 Walker St., btw. Bowery and Lafayette St.) Call 212-219-0473 or visit www.artingen-eral.org.

CITY HALL PARK (ORGANIZED BY PUBLIC ART FUND): “PETER COF-FIN: 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/petercoffin.

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

MORE NORTH: “NEW PAINT-INGS BY HJÖRTUR HJARTAR-SON.” Nontraditional abstract land-scape paintings 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: “LEON-

ARD ROSENFELD: WIRE AND CAN PIECES 1981-1991.” T hese 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.leon-ardrosenfeld.com.

SALON 94 FREEMANS: “BARRY X BALL: MASTERPIECES.” The artist creates sculptures that investigate the bizarre. Through Dec. 12 (1 Freeman Alley, at Rivington St.). Call 212-529-7400 or visit www.salon94.com.

T H E S K Y S C R A P E R M U S E U M : “ C H I N A P R O P H E C Y: S H A N G -HAI.” 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 exhibition fea-tures ornate abst ract pa int ings . Through Nov. 15 (55 Chrystie St., above Canal St.). Call 212-925-4631 or visit www.canadanewyork.com.

DCKT: “TED O’SULLIVAN: REC-L A M AT I O N O F T H E M O D E R N TONGUE.” This exhibition of paint-ings fuses figurative and architectural elements. Through Nov. 15 (195 Bow-ery, at Spring St.). Call 212-741-9955 or visit www.dcktcontemporary.com.

ELEVEN RIVINGTON: “CAETANO DE ALMEIDA.” The paintings by this Brazilian artist reveal his interest in the history of Latin American geo-metric conceptualism. Through Nov. 15, (11 Rivington St., btw. Bowery and Chrystie St.). Call 212-982-1930 or visit www.elevenrivington.com.

HARRIS LIEBERMAN: “BERN RIB-BECK.” 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.harris-lieberman.com.

HEIST GALLERY: “STEPHEN FLOYD: I LOVE AMERICA AND AMERICA LOVES ME.” This exhibition features political and sexually charged draw-ings. Through Dec. 18 (27 Essex, at Hester St.). Call 212-253-0451. Visit www.heistgallery.com or www.floyd-floyd.com.

LISA COOLEY: “ERIN SHIREFF: LANDSCAPES, HEDS, DRAPERY, AND DEVILS.” This exhibition of photographs, video and sculptures

alludes to otherworldly, ephemeral phe-nomena. Through 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 limita-tions 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 BAS-BAUM.” Three artists explore por-traiture as a means of capturing a moment in time. Through 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 HAR-TUNG.” This exhibition features the video, The Ascent of Man (2009), which the artist adapted from the 1973 BBC documentary of the same name. Through Dec. 23 (133 Orchard St., below Rivington St.). Call 212-598-3012 or visit www.onstellarrays.com.

SUNDAY L.E.S.: “BRYAN ZANIS-NIK: DRY BONES CAN HARM NO MAN.” A selection of photographs that depict constructed 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 MOR-TON: 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 femi-nist concerns, old master works and Pop-Art aesthetics. Through Jan. 9, 2010 (133 Eldridge St. below Delancey St.). Call 212-966-3411. Visit www.woodwardgallery.net or www.cristi-navergano.net.

CLASSES I N T R O D U C T O RY A R T W O R K -SHOPS Are you thinking about taking an art class, but not sure what you want? 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 Alli-ance Art School, 197 East Broadway. Call 212-780-2300, x428; or, visit edalliance.org/artschool.

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

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

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

SUPPORT GROUP FOR FIRST-TIME MOTHERS Join parenting experts Drs. Ann Chandler and Nancy Carroll-Freeman

and new mothers to voice your thoughts and feelings and find support and encour-agement. $25 per group. Every Thurs, 10-11am. Tribeca Pediatrics, 46 Warren Street. Call 212-219-9984.

EVENTS S E N I O R A E R O B I C S A N D SWIM Seniors 65 and up who live downtown can swim free in the Down-town Community Center’s very warm, very beautiful pool (after you fill out a no-hassle registration form). Mondays through Fridays Noon to 1:30pm. If swimming on your own isn’t your cup of tea, their Water Aerobics class is offered Mon-Fri, 12:45-1:20pm. At the Downtown Community Center, 120 Warren Street. For more information, call 212-766-1104 or visit www.man-hattanyouth.org.

THE 4TH ANNUAL REMEMBERING FULTON FISH MARKET ART EXHIB-IT This exhibit commemorates the anniversary of the Market’s move from South Street to the Bronx; features new works from Naima Rauam’s Fish Market Sketchbooks. Free. Through Nov 22, Noon to 7pm daily; @SEAPORT (210 Front St, corner of Beekman). Visit www.rememberingfultonfishmarket.com.

POETS HOUSE Their new home in Battery Park City has a 50,000-volume poetry library, children’s room, multi-media archive, programming hall and reading room. Tues, Nov 17, 7pm: Exper-imental poet Kit Robinson discusses improvisation in writing as it pertains to his own work as well as the writing of

Brazilian author Clarice Lispector ($10, $7 for students/seniors). Wed, Nov 18, 7pm: Cecilia Vicuña — Chilean poet, artist and co-editor of the new Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry: A Bilin-gual Anthology — joins other poets in a reading across 500 years of Latin American poetry ($10, $7 for students/seniors). At Poets House (10 River Ter-race at Murray St). Call 212-431-7920 or visit www.poetshouse.org.

TRIBECA CINEMA KIDS CLUB This new series features classic short and feature length films. “Tribeca Cinema Kids Club” screens flicks appropriate for all ages — augmented by Q&A ses-sions, arts and crafts, live music and (healthy) snacks! December 5, discover silent films with Buster Keaton shorts as well as his feature, “The General.” Dec 19, “A Hol iday Celebrat ion” screens “Peace Tree” at 10:30am and 1:30pm. 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.

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

THE LISTINGS

BREAKTHROUGHThis exhibition commemorates the Nov. 9, 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall on with a 32 x 12 foot image of the 1990 sculpture “Breakthrough” (1990) — a work Edwina Sandys created from 8 Berlin Wall panels. The exhibition also incorporates prints that present the history of the work, fi lm docu-mentaries, and audio excerpts from Edwina Sandys’ grandfather Winston Churchill’s historic “Iron Curtain” speech. Through Dec. 5; in The Project Room for New Media at The Chelsea Art Museum (556 West 22nd St., at 11th Ave.). Tue. Through Sat., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thurs., 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.). Call 212-255-0719 or visit www.chelseaartmuseum.org.

Photo by Rich Sugg, Kansas Starr

Edwina Sandys and Gorby, 1991

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NOVEMBER 13, 2009 Downtown Express

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