Downtown Express, October 2, 2009

downtown
®

protesting irAn, p. 14

Volume 22, Number 21

express
The Newspaper of lower maNhaTTaN

ocTober 2 - 8, 2009

Would condos or London Eye float on Pier 40?
By LincoLn Anderson A new ad hoc committee on Pier 40 has been formed at the Hudson River Park Trust to come up with ideas to renovate and redevelop the critical but crumbling 14-acre pier. Two prior requestfor-proposals, or R.F.P., processes that sought developers to fix up and program the Lower West Side pier have sunk like stones. The most pressing concern about the two-story Pier 40, at W. Houston St., is its roof, which needs $20 million in repairs. Also calling for an overhaul are the pier’s rusting support piles. The 5-mile-long Hudson River Park is supposed to be financially self-supporting, and Pier 40 is a big part of that equation: Parking — currently Pier 40’s main commercial use — brings in about $7.5 million gross ($5.5 million net) in rent for the Trust, or about 40 percent of the park’s annual operating budget. Parking on the pier is staunchly defended by a strong local constituency of car owners. With improvements, the parking could probably bring in several million dollars more in annual revenue. However, as the pier’s roof deteriorates, sections of the parking are being progressively closed off, not only putting the pier at risk, but reducing the pier’s revenue. In order for the pier to Continued on page 6

A Senate freshman in the center of Albany’s fights
By Josh rogers Daniel Squadron didn’t bring Albany to a standstill for over a month, nor has he ever been arrested for domestic violence, but he nevertheless was one of the state senators making news this year in one of the most turbulent sessions in the Capitol’s history. Squadron, who at 29 is the state’s youngest senator, was the first Democrat in the Senate to back renewal of mayoral control of schools with more oversight, and is one of the senators now pushing the decades-long effort to reform Albany’s system, which is routinely described as “dysfunctional.” The “ dysfunction was worse than I ever imagined,” said Squadron, Continued on page 10

Running for school dough

Downtown Express photo by Elisabeth Robert

P.S. 89 third grader Jack Abrams raced through Battery Park City last Friday as part of the annual Run 4 Knowledge school fundraiser. For the first time this year, 22 kindergarteners from the newly opened P.S. 276 joined the race, which has traditionally raised money for P.S./I.S. 89’s library. Next fall, the Run 4 Knowledge could get even more neighborhood participants as P.S./I.S. 276 opens its inaugural sixth grade class in its green Battery Pl. building. First, though, the city has to work with parents to decide how to zone the middle school.

Middle school zoning debate intensifies in Battery Park City
By JuLie shApiro A battle is brewing over who will attend Lower Manhattan’s new middle school. P.S./I.S. 276, in southern Battery Park City, will open with at least 100 sixth graders next fall. Eventually, the middle school portion will fill mostly with graduating fifth graders from 276’s elementary school. But for the next couple years, before 276 graduates its first fifth graders, the city needs to figure out who will get the middle school seats. Jeff Mihok, a P.S. 89 parent, wants his fifth-grade daughter to have a guaranteed seat next fall in 276, which is rising across the street from his home. “It’s so obvious that it should be for our community,” Mihok said of the green K-8 school, which he fought to build. The city partly agrees, and plans to give admissions preference for next fall to families who, like Mihok, live in southern B.P.C. and the southern Financial District. But Mihok doesn’t Continued on page 3

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October 2 - 8, 2009

downtown express

news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-15, 18-19
Mixed Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

edItorIAL pAGes . . . . . . . . . . . 16-17 YoUtH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21 Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-26
Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

U
POETS PARTY

NDER c over
and Gerson, in the five-way Sept. 15 primary. City Hall was impressed by Kim’s energy and rapid fundraising via Facebook, and they got his take on his first attempt at public office: “The idea of running for office and actually running for office are two very different things,” Kim said. “But this didn’t deter me from politics. A future campaign is definitely in the cards — I just don’t know when.” Perhaps Kim’s most telling answer in the City Hall interview was to the question of who would play him in a movie. Kim picked Yul Kwon, who won “Survivor: Cook Islands,” because, Kim said, “he outlasted and outsmarted everybody.”

CLAssIFIeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

m

c.b. 1 EE TING S

The upcoming week’s schedule of Community Board 1 committee meetings is below. Unless otherwise noted, all committee meetings are held at the board office, located at 49-51 Chambers St., room 709 at 6 p.m.
on thurs., oct. 1: The Infrastructure Committee will meet.

Planning

and

on mon., oct. 5: The WTC Redevelopment Committee will meet at 250 Broadway, 19th Floor, at 6 p.m. on tues., oct.6: The Battery Park City Committee, 1 World Financial Center, 24th Fl., at 6 p.m. on weds., oct. 7: Committee will meet.

Bill Murray may have been the star draw at Poets House’s private party event celebrating its opening last Thursday night, but he didn’t look entirely enthused, or, frankly, happy, to be there. He begrudgingly posed for a couple of pictures before reading some poetry. Almost nobody in attendance approached him. He has been very involved in the project though, even reading to the construction workers as they worked on the Battery Park City facility. A philosophical Alan Gerson, who recently found out he will not be serving a third term on the City Council, was all smiles, and finished his speech with an inspirational quote. “From the words of a young anonymous school child,” said Gerson, “poetry soothes, poetry heals, poetry speaks, what the spirit feels.” Assemblymember Deborah Glick and State Sen. Daniel Squadron also attended. Guests walked around, opened a few books, and sipped either of three light-colored drinks available (a curious selection, since there were no carpets to be found). The hors d’oeuvres were few and far between, and people were ready to go on with the show within 15 minutes.

WRITE-INS
And, the last word on the First District Council race, at least for this week: It looks like incumbent Councilmember Alan Gerson will not be able to blame his loss on the fact that his name did not appear on the absentee ballots. A total of 223 voters used absentee or military ballots, and even if all of those voters had been aware that Gerson was an option and had written his name in, he still would not have had enough votes to beat Margaret Chin. As it was, only 33 people wrote in some version of Gerson’s name. One voter, perhaps confused, wrote in “Armica Gerson,” and another wrote in “Michael Gerson.” Gerson told us Wednesday he was planning to call Margaret Chin later in the day — perhaps to concede? — and would be making an unspecified announcement next week.

The Financial District

SQUIRT GUN CHEST?
Irene Horvath, the Republican who will challenge Democrat Margaret Chin for the First District City Council seat on Nov. 3, has finally begun building her war chest — but she isn’t exactly sprinting out of the gate. The latest filings with the city Campaign Finance Board show that Horvath has received only one $100 contribution so far, and it’s from…Irene Horvath. Some friendly advice to Horvath: With just a month left to go before the election, now might be a good time to start raising money — or at least to start returning reporters’ phone calls.

on thurs., oct. 8: The Landmarks Committee will meet.

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GOBLIN DETOUR
The construction of the new bathrooms in Washington Market Park is adding an obstacle to the park’s annual Halloween parade. Usually, the parade of several thousand costumed kids and parents marches down Greenwich St. from Citigroup and enters the park through the wide gate at Greenwich and Duane Sts. — but this year, that entrance is closed because of the bathroom construction. Rather than try to squeeze all the kids through the much narrower temporary entrance and risk a stampede, the parade may instead continue all the way down Greenwich St. to Chambers St. and then up the Borough of Manhattan Community College steps into the park, said Pam Frederick, president of the Friends of Washington Market Park. Frederick said she is expecting a large turnout, as the parade this year will actually be held on Halloween, which falls on a Saturday.

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downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009

3

Parents debate who gets new seats
Continued from page 1 just want preference — he wants a guarantee that his daughter will get into the school, even if she doesn’t list it among her top choices in the middle school selection process. What Mihok is asking for is a zoned middle school, which is something of an anachronism in District 2, a broad region that stretches from Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side. Most middle schools in District 2 are choice schools, with children from anywhere in the district applying for the slots. Lower Manhattan kids who don’t get into any of their choices are assigned to Simon Baruch Middle School on E. 21st St. Baruch is technically the zoned middle school for Downtown (along with the Village, part of Chelsea, Gramercy, Murray Hill and Midtown East), but not many Lower Manhattan children attend because it is so far away. “Our default school should be in our own community,” said Ann DeFalco, the newly appointed chairperson of Community Board 1’s Youth and Education Committee and a Seaport parent. But while it may sound like a simple request, the Dept. of Education thinks that zoning 276 for Downtown would create far more problems than it would solve. First of all, there would not be enough room in 276’s middle school for all the kids who are currently attending P.S. 89 and P.S. 234 in B.P.C. and Tribeca, said John White, head of the D.O.E.’s Office of Portfolio Development. Downtown has another crop of middle school seats opening in 2011 at the Spruce Street School, but even those wouldn’t be enough to cover all of the neighborhood’s burgeoning middle school population, White said Sept. 15 at a meeting of C.B. 1’s Youth Committee. The question of how Spruce Street’s middle school will be zoned hasn’t heated up yet, partly because the sixth grade isn’t opening until 2011 and partly because Spruce will have roughly half as many middle school seats as 276, which will have about 300. Another problem with zoning 276 to Lower Manhattan, White said, is that it would shut out children who live elsewhere in District 2, and it could create a ripple effect of other communities wanting to close their schools to outsiders. White said he wouldn’t blame parents in other neighborhoods for saying, “Well, if you’re zoning 276 to Lower Manhattan, then you need to zone Lab to Chelsea and Salk to Gramercy and East Side Middle to the Upper East Side.” Lower Manhattan families, who frequently apply to those schools, would likely be upset if the schools became even harder to get into as a result, White said. Scott Scovel, a B.P.C. resident who also has a fifth-grader at P.S. 89, agrees with White. “Giving us zoning rights would be giving us something other parts of the city don’t benefit from, and that doesn’t feel right,” Scovel said. “It begins to disrupt the entire system.” District 2’s Community Education Council, an elected body of mostly parents, has some say in deciding middle school zoning, and White said the C.E.C. could push for more zoned schools as opposed to choice schools. But Scovel and several other parents said they would not want to remove choice from the middle school process. “By the time middle school comes around, I think it’s fair and right for children to have the opportunity to go to many different middle schools,” said Carolyn Happy, copresident of P.S. 89’s P.T.A. Tom Goodkind, whose daughter attended Baruch after graduating from P.S. 89, said that making more middle schools local would be a tradeoff, and maybe a good one. His daughter’s long commute up to Baruch prevented her from attending local after-school programs like Manhattan Youth. And Goodkind said Downtown

‘Giving us zoning rights would be giving us something other parts of the city don’t benefit from, and that doesn’t feel right.’
would benefit from having more local kids stay in the neighborhood for middle school, as opposed to filling the seats with children from elsewhere. “If you have a pile of kids coming in from outside the neighborhood, is that positive?” Goodkind said. The C.E.C. plans to schedule a public meeting on zoning issues in the second week of October, and White expects a decision on 276 by the end of the month. T. Elzora Cleveland, the newly elected C.E.C. president, said she had not formed an opinion on the zoning but wanted to hear from parents. “The council represents the best interests of the entire district,” Cleveland said. “We will do everything in our power to execute fairness.” Some Downtown parents have raised the concern that the C.E.C. no longer has any members who live in Lower Manhattan,

but Cleveland, who lives in Chelsea, said all the members will work to represent all the neighborhoods in District 2. Assuming the D.O.E. continues with its plan to open I.S. 276 as a choice school, not a zoned school, the only children who would have a guaranteed seat would be those graduating from fifth grade at P.S. 276 starting several years from now. Some parents thought that even those children in the same building would have to list I.S. 276 as their top choice if they wanted to get in, but that is not the case. P.S. 276 kids could list I.S. 276 anywhere on their priority list, and if they did not get into the schools ranked above it, then they would definitely get into 276, Andy Jacob, D.O.E. spokesperson, told Downtown Express Wednesday. After that — and this is where the admissions process will start for next fall — priority would go to children who live in southern B.P.C. and the southern Financial District but did not attend P.S. 276. Those children would not have a guaranteed seat. Finally, the remaining seats would be opened up to all of District 2. Scovel and many other parents want the city to give preference not just to the area right around P.S. 276, but to Lower Manhattan as a whole, below Canal St. on the West Side and below the Brooklyn Bridge on the East Side. However, White said that would go against the D.O.E.’s policies and would be unfair to others in District 2. The D.O.E. will distribute middle school applications for next fall in November, and they will be due Dec. 15. District 2’s middle school fair will be held Tues., Oct. 20 at Robert F. Wagner (M.S. 167), 220 E. 76th St., from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. [email protected]

Pols & parents renew call for Morton middle school
By ALBert AmAteAu Kids on stilts and balloons galore made it look like a circus last Thursday in front of 75 Morton St. But the crowd of about 200 Greenwich Village, Chelsea and Tribeca neighbors and elected officials were seriously renewing demands for middleschool space in the state-owned building. The rally, following a similar one last year, demanded that the city and state make space available in the Morton St. property for a middle school to relieve the overcrowding in the school building on Hudson and Grove Sts. that Greenwich Village Middle School shares with P.S. 3. Parents and officials were quick to point out that longer-term solutions are needed to solve overcrowding and excessive class size throughout the Village, Chelsea and Tribeca. “We were able to find space in the Village for the new kindergarten and pre-K classes, but we need to find a new space for the Clinton Academy for Writers and Artists so that P.S. 11 can have the whole building on W. 21st St.,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “We want smaller class size,” said Margaret Chin, the Democratic nominee for the City Council District 1 seat, which covers the South Village, Soho and Noho, Lower Manhattan, Chinatown and the Lower East Side. Chin noted that she has a personal connection to P.S. 3 because her husband, Alan Tung, is an award-winning teacher of the fourth and fifth grades at the school. Community Board 2, the Public School Parents Advocacy Committee and a new group, the N.Y.C. Kids Political Action Committee, joined elected officials in sponsoring the Sept. 23 rally. “I think we’re inching closer to realizing our goal,” said Brad Hoylman, former C.B. 2 chairperson who was the master of ceremonies at the rally. Robert Ely, a member of P.S.P.A.C., said that the city Department of Education asked the state, Continued on page 9

Downtown Express photo by Tequila Minsky

Elementary school students rallied for a middle school at 75 Morton St. last week.

4

October 2 - 8, 2009

downtown express

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downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009

5

PoliCe blotter
W. thames Park muggers
Four teenagers who were playing basketball in the playground on W. Thames and West Sts. around 5:45 p.m. Fri., Sept 18 were stopped by three older youths, one of whom lifted his shirt and displayed the handle of a gun in his waistband, police said. The robbers demanded their cell phones but two of the teens fled. The two remaining victims gave up their phones and a backpack, and the three robbers fled.

no Parking garage
A man who set up his own phony parking service in a Department of Transportation towing garage at 31 South St. around noon Sun., Sept. 20 fled out of a back door shortly before 1 a.m. when police arrived. The suspect, described as a white man about 35, with short hair, 5’8” and weighing 160 pounds, had entered an hour earlier through a side door, put up a parking sign, open the garage door and started doing business for himself. It was not known how many motorists he victimized.

Canal St. robbery
A visitor from Wilkes-Barre, Pa. told police he was shopping on Canal St. near Church St. around noon on Wed., Sept. 16 when three muggers surrounded him, one of them armed with a knife, who said, “Give me what you got.” They took $450 from him and fled south on Church St. The victim, 38, called police who arrested Frederick Young, 37 in connection with the case. Young was carrying a razor in his back pocket, police said.

thirsty intruder
A man entered the McDonald’s at 167 Chambers St. at 11:45 p.m. Sat., Sept. 19, put a plastic cup under a soda dispenser and drew himself some soda without permission, police said. When the manager told him to get out, he hit him in the face with an unknown metal object and fled, police said.

Assault on officer
Three men were arrested at 2:30 p.m. Sat., Sept. 12 for fighting with police on Church St. between Barclay St. and Park Pl. and hitting an officer in the back of the head. Charged with second degree assault was Leonid Kashnirsky, 21, of Staten Island. Anthony Dolce, Alfonso Carlino and Brian Grant, all 21 and Staten Island residents, were charged with attempted third degree assault.

Phone store robbery
A man who entered a cell phone store at 102 Fulton St. shortly after the place opened at 8:30 a.m. Thurs., Sept. 17 told the woman behind the counter, “I have a knife. Open the cash register or I’ll [expletive] you up,” police said. He put her in the bathroom, took $1,277 from the register and fled, police said.

South St. assault
John Carter, 50, was charged with hitting a woman tenant of a 111 South St. building on the head with a wooden club at around 11:15 p.m. Fri., Sept. 25. Carter, a resident of E. 10th St., was identified as the owner of the South St. building in daily press reports. Carter and the victim, 41, were arguing prior to the assault but police did not say what the subject was. Carter was released on his own recognizance pending a court appearance on a second degree assault charge.

Car burglary arrest
Police arrested Peter Rodriguez, 50, on Sat., Sept. 26 in connection with the June 15 break-in of a car parked on Stone St. near Whitehall St. The suspect was charged with smashing the window of the BMW parked in front of 6 Stone St. and stealing a Prada wallet from the car. Police say Rodriquez, a resident of E. 101st St., was arrested after he admitted to police that he was the person on a videotape of the break-in.

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6

October 2 - 8, 2009

downtown express

Floating Pier 40 ideas: Apartments, and maybe the London Eye
Continued from page 1 be renovated, significantly more money is needed, which means bringing in at least one more commercial use — hence the committee’s search. The ad hoc Pier 40 committee includes four Trust board members — Pam Frederick and Lawrence B. Goldberg, who are appointees of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer; Paul Ullman, a gubernatorial appointee; and Joe Rose, the city’s former Planning commissioner — as well as Connie Fishman and Noreen Doyle, the Trust’s president and vice president, respectively. Roughly one day each week, the committee has been meeting with different stakeholders and possible interested development groups. At this point, Ullman and Frederick are the two most active members and the ones doing the outreach and most consistently attending the meetings. The idea is for the committee to be open to hearing all ideas and not rule out any possibilities — including modifying the Hudson River Park Act, if necessary, to allow certain kinds of uses currently not permitted. However, that’s not to say the committee is looking to explore ideas that megadevelop the pier: Ullman, for one, got involved with the Trust over his opposition to The Related Companies’ “Las Vegas on the Hudson” plan, which was in the second R.F.P. round and would have featured a Cirque du Soleil and movie theaters for the Tribeca Film Festival. Ullman, who lives in the Village, and Frederick, a Tribeca resident, both have young children that play in local sports leagues that use Pier 40’s playing fields.

A page from the 1990 planning report for the then-future Hudson River Park discussing residential scenarios for Pier 40, the illustration above depicting a “highest density option,” with 85-foot-tall buildings. In 2009, there is word that some think allowing a limited number of high-end residential condos and co-ops on the pier could help provide funds for its repair.

about the Hudson waterfront. “I don’t think this is something that would work at Pier 40,” Korman said of a hypothetical “Lower West Side Eye.”

intERESt hAS dWindLEd
Particularly before the recession, developers had been expressing interest in Pier 40. Fairway’s owners were said to have been eyeing the pier for a supermarket, though the Trust doesn’t back big-box stores on the pier. Another pitch was for a 200,000-square-foot aquarium, which is small, relatively speaking, compared to Coney Island Aquarium. Although it was hoped the city would be interested in putting public schools on Pier 40, and there was support for this idea from the Trust, word now has it that the School Construction Authority recently said it had serious reservations about the idea: Having students cross a highway was reportedly an issue, plus because of the real estate dive, spaces on land are now more affordable, making the pier less attractive. In addition, after the two failed R.F.P.’s, the Trust is now said to be considering crafting its own a master development plan for the pier, and then contracting out the job to different developers or groups.

BRoAd RAngE oF idEAS
Some ideas that have reportedly been raised, so far, are generally in the nonglamorous, low-impact mold: a warehouse facility for paper products for local restaurants; and a telecom hotel to house Internet data centers and Web servers. The latter, though, was determined to be too heavy for the pier. At the other end of the spectrum, another group — with past ties to Hudson River Park — is said to have mentioned a plan to bring a giant Ferris wheel to Pier 40, along the lines of the London Eye, London’s top tourist attraction. However, Ben Korman of C&K Properties, which used to run the parking on Pier 40, denied any involvement in the scheme. “I really know literally nothing about that idea,” he said. “That has nothing to do with me. … I heard that there is a group that is exploring something along those lines — but I think they’re looking at alternative sites all over the city; I didn’t hear anything

‘The idea is to cast as wide a net for research as possible — to reach into the corners...a broader section of conversation.’
Connie Fishman, president, Hudson River Park Trust

“No matter what, it will be controversial wherever it goes — but it is a success in London and, I think, it is in Paris, too.” Still another idea that has been floating around is for residential use on Pier 40 — specifically for a small number of very highend condos or co-ops. For residential use to be allowed on Pier 40, however, the park act would have to be changed.

oPEn-EndEd PRoCESS
Fishman, the Trust’s president, said of the committee’s efforts, “The idea is to cast as wide a net for research as possible — to

reach into the corners...a broader section of conversation. They’re trying to be openminded.” Fishman said she didn’t feel the committee had the objective of trying to change the park’s legislation without first having a clear idea of what should be done at the pier. In the past, she said, discussion about the pier was “geared to the R.F.P. responses,” adding that, while those two R.F.P. processes didn’t pan out, they were educational. “We know a lot of stuff from what happened before,” she said. As for how long the ad hoc Pier 40 committee will continue its work, Fishman responded that, as of now, the process is open-ended. “There’s no determined schedule,” she said. She confirmed there had been ongoing interest in the W. Houston St. pier — from “national to international” groups — but that “it kind of dried up when the economy went on the skids. ... And because the economy is so bad, this is a good time to do research,” she noted. Asked if the Trust itself will design a master plan for Pier 40’s development, or issue a third R.F.P. for developers, Fishman indicated it’s yet to be determined, replying, “Don’t know enough yet.” Continued on page 7

downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009

7

tribeca park work picks up speed, trust says
By JuLie shApiro By this time next year, it may be possible to play miniature golf several hundred feet out in the Hudson River. The venue will be Pier 25, near N. Moore St., where Manhattan Youth once ran programs before the pier was demolished and rebuilt. The pier, which was closed in 2005 for construction, will likely reopen at the beginning of October 2010 with the mini-golf course, along with sand volleyball courts and the largest playground in Hudson River Park, H.R.P. Trust President Connie Fishman said last week. Already, the glinting, angled roof of the mini-golf building is visible from the mainland. The Trust most recently predicted that Pier 25 would open at the end of 2010, and that’s still what the contract says, but Fishman said the work is moving more quickly than expected. The uplands area to the south of the pier, which includes a skate park and a landscaped path, will also open next fall, Fishman said. Last year, the Trust opened a muchacclaimed section of the park mostly in northern Tribeca, between Laight St. and Pier 40. Now that work on the southern section of Tribeca is moving along, the only uncertainty left is what will happen to the middle piece, between N. Moore and Laight Sts. The question is particularly urgent to some members of the Hudson River Park Advisory Council, who are worried about recent accidents between cyclists and pedestrians on that stretch of the shared bike path and walkway. Strollers exiting the completed piece of the park at Laight St. sometimes don’t realize they are stepping into a veritable highway of bikes as they try to continue southward, and confrontations ensue. On a recent afternoon, several bike commuters swerved to avoid a cadre of teenagers who were ambling along the path’s middle line. “Watch your back!” one of the cyclists yelled as he whizzed past. The advisory council is working with Transportation Alternatives, a cycling advocacy group, to draft safety recommendations, said Arthur Schwartz, chairperson of the advisory council. “It is crucial that we use education outreach to create safety awareness and install effective signage to mitigate the small but significant number of aggressive bike riders in conflict with park pedestrians,” Marc Ameruso, vice chairperson of the advisory council, said in an e-mail. Fishman said she is looking into installing more signs on the shared path, but any changes have to go through the State Dept. of Transportation, which controls the path. The true solution to the problem will come when the Trust completes that section of the park, which will have a separate bike path and walkway. The construction depends partly on work at Pier 26, where the Trust plans to start building a boathouse and food concession next spring using the $6 million each that the state and city allocated in this year’s budget. If there is enough money left over, the Trust could also start building the upland area and dog run just north of the pier, but if not, that portion of the park will have to wait for the next budget cycle. One advantage of the poor economy is that construction prices are down, which could enable the Trust to build more of the park with the $12 million, Fishman said. Also planned for Pier 26 is an estuarium, or maritime education center, but it does not have much funding or a design. The boathouse and concession will be at the base of the pier, so they could open before the other features, which could come later. On Pier 25, the Trust initially planned for a themed miniature golf course, but for now it will just have landscaping, with water and green features. “In a funny way, it’ll look like the park,” Fishman said. If people want extra themed features, they could be added later, she said. The Trust has not decided on an operator for the course or the pier’s other features. One possibility to celebrate the opening of the pier next fall is a miniature golf tournament. [email protected]

Downtown Express photos by Julie Shapiro

As work continues on the Tribeca section of the Hudson River Park, pedestrians and bikers compete for the reduced amount of space. The mini-golf building on the new Pier 25 is beginning to take shape, below.

group looks for revenue sources to save Pier 40
Continued from page 6 port authorities, like Los Angeles and Boston,” Doyle noted.

StyMiEd on StiMuLuS
Doyle, the Trust’s V.P., gave Downtown Express an update on the state-city park authority’s efforts to get federal stimulus funds for Pier 40. She said staff members for Council Speaker Christine Quinn helped identify a grant application they thought might possibly work — under transportation-related uses. In the end, though, the Trust didn’t apply for the grant, given that the application would have been a major effort to do, and since it was a stretch to shoehorn Pier 40 into the transportation category. “We would have been going up against

One prominent park activist thinks residential use might be a good fit because of its low impact.
The Trust made some earlier applications for stimulus funds, but these haven’t netted anything yet, Doyle said, adding that competition for these monies is fierce. “We’re now looking at ‘green’ ideas,”

she said of Pier 40. “If it’s ‘green,’ maybe that will make it attractive to get a grant.” Doyle agreed with Fishman that now is a time to get ideas on Pier 40. “With economic disarray — it’s a time for creative thinking,” she said. Borrowing from Eastern wisdom, she noted, “The Chinese symbol for ‘opportunity’ is ‘chaos.’”

1990 REPoRt RECALLEd
Arthur Schwartz, head of the Hudson River Park Advisory Council and also of the recently reconstituted Pier 40 Working Group, said residential use on Pier 40 would never fly. “That will create huge opposition,”

he told Downtown Express. “That was a proposal for Pier 40 back in the late 1980s or early ’90s,” he said, recalling there was a report on it. Currently the president of New York Water Taxi, Tom Fox was a member of the West Side Waterfront Panel, which created that 1990 report. He still has a copy of it, kept among what he called his “70 boxes” of Hudson River Park-related material in his office out in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Called “A Vision for the Hudson River Waterfront Park,” the document essentially laid out the “bare bones” of what would one day become the Hudson River Park, Fox recalled. Continued on page 15

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October 2 - 8, 2009

downtown express

Chinatown and Little italy unite in historic district move
If the newly designated Chinatown and Little Italy Historic District had a mascot, maybe it would be Marco Polo. The Italian explorer traveled to China over 700 years ago, bridging a language and culture gap to teach each society about the other. Over the past 100 years, the same intersection of cultures occurred across a much smaller distance: the blocks of Lower Manhattan’s Little Italy and Chinatown neighborhoods. To honor the area’s architecture and history, the State Historic Preservation Office designated the Chinatown and Little Italy Historic District by a unanimous vote Sept. 15. “It’s probably the most harmonious interracial community that has ever been,” said Victor Papa, president of the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and leader of the historic district effort. “I can never recall anything that was discordant or tense.” The district is a narrow rectangle that includes Columbus Park and is roughly bordered on the south by Worth St., on the west by Mulberry and Baxter Sts., on the north by E. Houston St. and on the east by a line between the Bowery and Elizabeth St. The state said earlier this year that the neighborhood was significant because of the remaining tenement architecture and the immigrant groups’ social history. Because Marco Polo embodies the district’s spirit so well, Papa is planning a Marco Polo Day celebration for the district on the afternoon of Sun., Oct. 18. Featuring cultural performances and food, the celebration will be held on Grand St. between Mott and Mulberry Sts. from 1 to 4 p.m. By mid-October, the National Register of Historic Places may have added the district to their list as well. Unlike city landmark districts, the state and national designations do not restrict property owners from altering (or demolishing) their buildings. But the state designation does offer tax breaks and incentives for property owners who do preservation work, and it will likely be a boon to tourism in the area. “It’s good for Chinatown and Little Italy because it’s a larger framework for both communities to address the issue of preservation and the issue of economic development,” Papa said. “It will make Little Italy and Chinatown a destination point.” Papa hopes the new district will focus attention on the Italian and Chinese immigrants who settled on the same streets and patronized each other’s shops, each learning phrases of the other’s language. “We hope to make something of that story,” Papa said.

— Julie Shapiro

www.

downtownexpress .com
Map showing the boundaries of the new Chinatown Little Italy Historic District.

L.E.S. ‘beach pier’ won’t see W.t.C. steel storage
By JuLie shApiro The Port Authority scrapped its plan to use Pier 42 for a staging area for World Trade Center construction after an outcry from local residents and elected officials. The Port Authority wanted to use the Lower East Side pier to store steel beams for the PATH transportation hub starting early next year. Getting the beams to the World Trade Center site would have required about 60 truck trips a day through Lower Manhattan’s already-crowded streets. “It was going to be a tremendous burden on the residents,” said Dominic Pisciotta, Community Board 3 chairperson. Especially on top of the upcoming Brooklyn Bridge reconstruction and the many tour and commuter buses Downtown, the extra trucks would have been both a nuisance and a hazard, Pisciotta said. “We were extremely concerned,” said Susan Stetzer, district manager of C.B. 3. “It was more loss of access to the waterfront. It was more trucks going all the way through from one side of Manhattan to the other. It was beyond a tipping point.” Stetzer found out about the authority’s plan from another government agency in August and got local elected officials involved, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Sen, Daniel Squadron.

22,000 tons of steel will be transported from New Jersey on an as-needed basis.
As a result of the pressure from the electeds and C.B. 3, the Port Authority announced last Thursday that it would not use Pier 42 for the steel. Instead, contractor DCM Erectors, based in South Plainfield, N.J., will bring the steel from New Jersey to the Trade Center site on an as-needed basis, traveling over the George Washington Bridge and down the West Side Highway at off-peak times. DCM will deliver more than 22,000 tons of steel to the site for below-ground work on the transit hub over the next couple years. The new delivery method will be more efficient than

using Pier 42, added Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesperson. The authority is also saving the money it would have paid to rent the pier from the city. Squadron said it was “double good news” that the Port Authority listened to the community and upgraded its logistics plan at the same time. Squadron and others had also been concerned that the Port Authority’s takeover of Pier 42 would prevent the pier from ever being turned into a community amenity. Under the city’s East River Waterfront plan, the unattractive, shed-covered, former working pier could someday become an urban beach, though the project lacks funding or a timeline. Squadron said it would be even harder to get funding for the beach if the Port Authority was using the pier. And, given the World Trade Center site’s history of delays, several people also worried that once the authority got a hold of Pier 42, the agency would not quickly relinquish it. “If they’re parked there till the World Trade Center is done…” Squadron trailed off. [email protected]

downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009

9
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Continued from page 3 in a letter dated Sept. 21, about making 75 Morton St. available for school use. “We remain interested in the property as a school facility to serve students in the Village to supplement other steps we’ve taken to ease overcrowding in this neighborhood, such as opening a pre-K on Barrow St. [in Greenwich House] and entering an agreement with the Foundling Hospital [on 17th St. and Sixth Ave.],” said the letter, signed by Kathleen Grimm, D.O.E. deputy chancellor. The letter could signal a shift in thinking since up until now, the D.O.E. has favored moving the Village school out of the neighborhood to 26 Broadway in the Financial District. The building at 75 Morton St. is underused but still has state offices. D.O.E. asked if alternative sites for the offices have been identified and when the space might be available for conversion to school use. The D.O.E. letter noted that the department must own the property or have a lease for at least seven years in order to commit funds for conversion of the building to a school: “Will the State be able to donate, sell or provide a sevenyear or longer-term lease for 75 Morton St.?” the letter asked. School advocates who toured the building last year discovered that elevator access was inadequate on the seventh floor proposed for the school space. Nevertheless, Ely, who made the tour last year, said at the rally that he was optimistic about the potential use of the building’s lower floors for a middle school. “The city should acquire the property now that real estate prices are down. Once the economy turns, it will be impossible — 75 Morton St. will go to a luxury

residential developer,” he said. Chin agreed: “I’m sick and tired of the city giving tax dollars to developers to build schools.” Hoylman, who also attended last year’s tour of 75 Morton St., said that state offices occupy less that half of the building. “It could accommodate three or four new schools,” Hoylman said. Jo Hamilton, the new chairperson of C.B. 2, recalled attending last year’s rally. “This rally is so important now,” she said, noting that 75 Morton St. would have a jump on conversion to school use because the property has a playground and a gym attached. State Assemblymember Deborah Glick said that D.O.E. officials “should get out of Tweed and look at neighborhoods that need schools. It’s time for a solution now at 75 Morton St. — Now.” Elected officials said Glick was the first official to identify 75 Morton St. as a potential school building. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer noted that his recent report on schools found that the city’s capital plan does not call for a new school in District 2 even though the number of residential units is rising along with the number of school-age children. “D.O.E. must focus on long-term planning to deal with increasing population and I strongly believe that 75 Morton St. should be part of this plan,” Stringer said. As for the stilt walkers, they came from Suellen Epstein’s children’s tumbling class on Warren St. in Tribeca. “I’m glad to lend them for this important issue,” she said. “We all need schools.” [email protected]

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City eyeing governors isle contol
The city is making a renewed bid to control Governors Island, arguing that the island needs a more certain funding stream. The state and city currently split the responsibility for funding Governors Island and they share control of its board. But it can be difficult to wrest operating funds from the state each year, because the state’s overall budget is so large and has so many competing interests. This year, Gov. David Paterson did not put Governors Island in the budget at all, but after months of protests, local elected officials succeeded in getting the necessary funding included. The city’s proposal of taking over the island first surfaced during that budget uncertainty, and Nazli Parvizi, commissioner of the mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, repeated the idea at a meeting of Community Board 1’s Waterfront Committee last month. “Everybody liked the idea,” said Bob Townley, chairperson of the committee. Since every city elected official has an interest in supporting Governors Island, it will be easier to get multi-year funding commitments from the city than from the state, Townley said. The community board has not weighed in officially because the city had not spoken to state officials about the proposal. Paul Goldstein, district director for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said the city had not brought the issue up again with Silver since the island money was put in the budget.

www.downtownexpress.com

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October 2 - 8, 2009

downtown express

Squadron reviews his first year in Albany
Continued from page 1 who unseated State Sen. Martin Connor last year on a campaign centered on fixing what he called a broken Albany system. He said this year’s session had two extremes. The stalemate, which ended two months ago, he said, was an embarrassment, but it also is leading to real change. “The upside of the coup is it did allow us to move the ball further on reform,” he said. State Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., the Senate’s new majority leader who has been criticized for ignoring campaign finance laws, created a 31-31 stalemate when he switched to the Republicans in June. But he couldn’t persuade his ally, Sen. Hiram Monserrate (now on trial accused of slashing his girlfriend), to stick with their defection to the G.O.P. Espada eventually came back to the Democrats in July after they promised him the leadership post. In the course of several interviews with Downtown Express in recent weeks, Squadron, whose district includes all of Manhattan south of Canal St. and Downtown Brooklyn, avoided saying much about Espada. “Getting back to business was critical and that was the way to do it,” Squadron said of Espada’s promotion. “John Sampson has effectively taken on the leadership role and I am very pleased about that.” Sampson is expected to take the top post, president of the Senate, in January when some of the reforms Squadron helped get will take effect. One change will give 32 senators the power to bring a bill to the floor even if it is opposed by the leadership. Squadron hoped the rule would have taken effect earlier for bills like mayoral school control, which was difficult to get to the floor even though it ultimately passed with a vote of 47-8. “What you saw was classic Albany, which is a bill was getting bottled up because for whatever reason, leadership decided to bottle it up,” he said. It was a bruising battle for Squadron. “I listened to Sen. Squadron who seems to know a lot about schools and children,” Sen. Shirley Huntley said on the floor. “It’s amazing when he’s barely an adult himself.” Huntley, whose district includes Jamaica, also said Squadron had a “vested interest” in the bill since his new wife works in the mayor’s office. Huntley did not returns calls for comment for this article. Squadron, for his part, did not criticize her at all, saying some senators may resent him for his age and his desire to speak up. The school bill was also opposed by many parents Downtown and elsewhere. About 15 showed up Tuesday night to an education forum Squadron organized, and criticized him for sponsoring the bill. “I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into,” said Tricia Joyce, a Tribeca parent active in Downtown’s school overcrowding issues. Squadron says the renewal has important changes giving parents a stronger voice by granting the Community Education Councils more review and putting school superintendents back in the districts. The City Comptroller and City Council now have more oversight over school contracts and budgets, which will make the process more transparent, Squadron said. Although most of the parents at the meeting disagreed with Squadron, many also thanked him for hearing them out. “I really respect you,” Joyce said. “I voted for you. But I feel extremely concerned about what we have in front of us.” Squadron said as a bill sponsor, he feels a particular responsibility to make sure the promised improvements are implemented. And he’s happy with the feedback at the forum. “There’s a risk in this kind of conversation, but some of the people who were most frustrated, came up and said or e-mailed to say ‘thank you,’” he said. One reason there was initial Democratic resistance in the Senate to school control is that Mayor Bloomberg is one of the chief donors to Senate Republicans. His endorsement of Squadron last year was a surprise move and Squadron credited it as one of the keys to his victory.

‘Getting back to business was critical and [making Espada majority leader] was the way to do it.’
He may not return the favor. Squadron has been reluctant to endorse anyone in primaries and has not decided if he will endorse in the mayor’s race. He is also now willing on occasion to criticize Bloomberg. Talking about schools in an interview, he began one sentence: “as much as the mayor seems like a permanent fixture in having completely flouted the will of the people to overturn term limits….” He was making the point that school control should be seen beyond one mayor and one chancellor, and that if you don’t give them authority to make changes, you can’t hold them accountable. But criticizing Bloomberg is also not a bad way to make friends with Senate Democrats. Squadron’s next fight is an ethics and campaign finance bill and amendment he was confident was going to pass the Senate two weeks ago. The amendment failed when one Democratic senator was called away because of a death in the family. The Dems decided to pull the bill back, figuring it would be harder to get the campaign finance amendment passed separately. The amendment actually had majority support, 31–29, but in Albany’s Byzantine ways, that was not enough for passage since the majority of the entire Senate, 32, did not vote for it. Squadron and other supporters expect the amendment will pass the Senate sometime this year, when a special session is expected to be called to close the budget deficit. The amendment would set up an investigative unit under the Board of Elections to look into campaign violations.

Downtown Express photo by Elisabeth Robert

State Sen. Daniel Squadron

In pushing reform, he’s gotten high marks from civic groups and from some of his colleagues who have also been pushing for change. “Dan has been a very strong first time out of the box legislator,” said Sen. Liz Krueger. “He has been willing to take on the status quo.” Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause, said it’s refreshing to see someone govern as he campaigned. “He certainly carried the spirit of his campaign into the Senate,” she said. “That is unusual.”

With repor ting by Julie Shapiro

geranium giveaway
The Downtown Alliance will host an Adopt-aGeranium Day from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 7 at Bowling Green Park (at Broadway and Whitehall Sts.) The event will give Downtowners a chance to dig up and keep a geranium. Back in 1996, the Alliance began planting in Liberty Park and ran an event every fall in which people would dig up the plants prior to winter and bring them back to their offices. This event ended after the Sept. 11 attack, and was revived in Bowling Green Park last year, where 6,000 red geraniums were planted. “Last year’s event was such a huge success that we ran out of geraniums, that’s how many people came down. Some people took up to eight at a time,” said Joseph Timpone, senior vice president for operations at the Alliance. In all, more than 4,000 geraniums will be removed from Bowling Green Park in anticipation of the Downtown Alliance’s tulip-bulb planting on Saturday, Oct. 17., in which members of the community will come to plant tulip bulbs and pumpkins. Glenwood Management, which manages several residential buildings within the district, sponsors the event by providing gloves, pots, and shovels. “The office workers love it. We give them shovels and they pick out whatever they want and they dig it up,” said Timpone. “We had guys in 3 piece suits and women in dresses and boots, pulling out the geraniums. Its really interesting… and fun to watch.”

— Helaina N. Hovitz

downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009

11

Architects take new crack at remaking greenwich St. South
By Josh rogers The Downtown Alliance has taken a new look at the neighborhood now known as Greenwich Street South with a $400,000 study and an outdoor exhibit displaying some of the ideas. The neighborhood immediately south of the World Trade Center took on its new name in the aftermath of Mayor Bloomberg’s 2002 Lower Manhattan speech, in which he said a new residential neighborhood should be built there with parks, plazas and better pedestrian walkways. The approach to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel would be decked over creating open space. It would be funded at least in part by residential development in the 23-block area. The Alliance study, on display in Zuccotti Park, was released this week and it builds on the work of the city and others on Greenwich St. South. Like the city and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which has also studied the neighborhood, the Alliance commissioned elaborate renderings of what the neighborhood could look like in the future with new parks and development. The study was led by Architecture Research Office and Beyer Blinder Belle and includes several other high-profile architecture firms as well. It envisions between 6.5 and 8.3 million square feet of

A public market and plaza over the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel by Architecture Research Office is just one of the long-term possibilities suggested in a new study of Greenwich St. South commissioned by the Downtown Alliance. Below is the look of a Woodbury Common Ad2 9/17/09 4:58 PM green Edgar Plaza with vine structures by Coen & Partners. Bottom is the base of building near Edgar St. by IwamotoScott Page 1 Architecture. Continued on page 18

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Clifton Maloney, 71, died on one of highest peaks
obituary
Clifton H.W. Maloney, husband of Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, died in his sleep on Fri., Sept. 25, in a base camp on Cho Oyu mountain in the Himalayas a day after having reached the summit of the 27,000-foot-high peak. He was 71. With his climb of Cho Oyu, Maloney, an avid alpinist and marathon runner, became the oldest American ever to summit one of the world’s 14 mountains that are more than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) — the planet’s highest peaks. “He was our rock,” said his grieving wife to reporters on Sunday night on the Upper East Side where she and her husband lived with their daughters, Virginia and Christina. “He died doing what he loved,” she added. They had been married since 1976. His last words were said to be, “I’m the happiest man in the world. I’ve just summited a beautiful mountain.” Maloney reached the 27,000-foot summit of Cho Oyu on the China-Nepal border on the morning of Sept. 24 and spent the night at Base Camp 3 below the peak. The next day he and his party descended to Base Camp 2 at 23,000 feet where he died in his sleep. His body reached Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, on Tuesday on its long voyage home. Clif Maloney was born in Philadelphia on Oct. 15, 1937, graduated from Princeton in 1960, served in the Navy from 1960 to 1963 and graduated from Harvard Business School in 1965. He worked at several financial services companies, including The City Management Corp., Electronic Bond and Share Co. and New York Securities Co. In 1974 he became a vice president of Goldman Sachs & Co. In 1981 he founded his own investment company, C.H.W. Maloney & Co., Inc. A dedicated marathon runner, he finished the New York City Marathon 20 times, including 2008 when he finished as the fastest American in his age group. He was a dedicated sailor and member of the New York Yacht Club. As a mountain climber he conquered five of the Seven Summits — the highest peaks of each of the seven continents, Mt. Elbrus in the Caucuses, Acongagua in Peru, Mt. Vinson in Antarctica, Denali in Alaska and Kilimanjaro in Africa. In addition to his wife and two daughters, his mother, Virginia Wells Maloney of Philadelphia; a sister, Virginia Maloney Lawrence; and eight nieces and nephews survive. Donations in his memory may be made

Carolyn and Clifton Maloney.

to the Clifton H.W. Maloney Scholarship Fund at Princeton, the Explorers Club or the American Alpine Association.

The funeral will be next Fri., Oct. 9, at 11 a.m. at the Brick Church on Park Ave. between E. 91st and E. 92nd Sts.

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downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009 signings as of August 2008 to 1.94 million square feet of singings currently. The average asking price for space in Lower Manhattan decreased nearly 20 percent year over year, from $50.17 per square foot to $40.20. The market’s vacancy rate also increased slightly year over year, from 7.3 percent in August 2008 to 7.5 percent currently.

13

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RENT FORT GREENE
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Kaleb, Apt. 4102
Has more vintage records in his spacious closets than he does clothing.

oFF By A MiLLion

Overall leasing activity for office space Downtown has dropped by more than a million square feet since the onset of the economic crisis, while average asking rents have decreased by about $10 per square foot over the past year. According to a September 2009 market report from brokerage CB Richard Ellis, the Lower Manhattan and Midtown South markets have recorded a total of 3.14 million square feet of lease signings for the year to date, compared to 4.21 million square feet as of August 2008. Midtown South — which includes Union Square, Noho/Soho and Hudson Square/Tribeca — has seen overall leasing activity decline nearly 36 percent year to date compared to 2008, from 1.87 million square feet last year to 1.21 million square feet as of this August. The average asking rent for office space in Midtown South slipped by 20 percent year over year, from $53.37 per square foot to $42.68. Additionally, the market’s vacancy rate rose by more than 63 percent year over year, from 6.3 percent last summer to 10.3 percent currently. Lower Manhattan, which includes the Financial District, World Financial Center and City Hall, has seen a 17 percent reduction in overall leasing activity year to date, from 2.34 million square feet of

CRitiCAL vAndAL

A just-opened public sculpture park in Hudson Square suffered an unflattering reception from one self-styled critic who spray-painted “This is not Art!!” across a pair of the plaza’s installations. The perpetrator, who has not been caught, offered the critique of the sculptures at LentSpace, the Trinity Real Estate-owned vacant-lot-turned-exhibition-space at Canal and Varick Sts. The tags, which appeared only days after the half-acre plot’s Sept. 18 opening, covered two of the sculptures in large black spray paint, including one of the space’s most prominent pieces. The lettering has since been scrubbed from the sculptures, but faint dark blots still remain. “I appreciate the fact that someone joined the conversation,” said project curator Adam Kleinman, of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. “Making things public is fantastic. However, vandalism is illegal, it’s someone else’s property, and it isn’t public by definition.” And although Kleinman called the graffitist “infantile” and “cowardly” for his or her actions, he said the artists were actually “delighted” by the additions. “The artists themselves were interested in it,” he added, while not encouraging anymore freelance art criticism. “Categorically it is illegal.”

Liam, Apt. 3404
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Fiona, Apt. 3201
Scoots out of the parking garage and onto the streets of Brooklyn.

Noah, Apt. 2715
Spends hours in his gourmet kitchen.

Niki, Apt. 2301
Shops the local boutiques with Coco, who‘s always by her side.

Chinatown protestors at Bloomberg event
Mayor Michael Bloomberg could avoid seeing the protestors in Chinatown this week, but he couldn’t avoid hearing them. When word spread that Bloomberg was going to host a free breakfast for seniors at the Jing Fong Restaurant Tuesday morning as part of his reelection campaign, the Civic Center Residents Coalition and other Chinatown groups decided to stage a protest. They gathered about 100 people outside Jing Fong on Elizabeth St., waving signs reading “Chinatown Not For Sale” and chanting “Dump Bloomberg.” Some of the protestors’ top concerns are the closure of Park Row after 9/11, the Chatham Square street reconfiguration plan and the overdevelopment of Chinatown. Bloomberg skirted the protestors by pulling up to the restaurant’s back entrance, but a few of the demonstrators followed him around and started yelling at him there, said Paul Lee, a neighborhood activist. “Bloomberg just cruised right in,” Lee said. “He looked very stern. He didn’t look like a happy camper.” Inside, nearly 1,800 people gathered to eat breakfast and meet Bloomberg, his campaign said. The campaign did not directly address the protest, but said in a statement that the event was a success and that Bloomberg hopes to win Chinatown on Nov. 3.

Chloe, Apt. 1703
Enjoys waking up early to work out at the stateof-the-art fitness center.

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downtown express

downtown heat on iran

Downtown Express photos by Milo Hess

Protesters around City Hall Park were safe last Thursday as they demonstrated against Iran’s harsh treatment of protesters there. Two days later, President Obama joined with President Sarkozy of France and Prime Minister Brown of Great Britain in calling on Iran to cease operations at what they said was a nuclear weapons facility kept hidden from inspectors until recently.

downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009

15

Brainstorming ideas for the pier
Continued from page 7 Indeed, the part of the report on the park’s Greenwich Village section did offer a proposal for housing at Pier 40 — though Fox personally did not support that concept, preferring recreational use. The so-called “highest density option” called for 1,500 residential units on the pier, with the structure rising 85 feet high in some areas. “I don’t think it makes any sense at all,” Fox said of having people living on the pier, calling it “privatizing of the river.” “People don’t want people playing in their front yard,” he explained. “If you have an office building, hotel or residential, you don’t want people playing on your front lawn. The waterfront is precious and should be kept for the public.”

RECREAtion not PRoFitABLE
On the other hand, Fox said of Pier 40’s current focus on sports uses, “The problem with recreation is it’s not a big moneymaker.” Of Pier 40’s other main use, he added, “You can’t underestimate the demand for parking.” Fox — who from 1992-’95 was president of the Hudson River Park Conservancy, the Trust’s predecessor — and the Friends of Hudson River Park, of which Fox is a board member, are still pushing their plan for a business improvement district-like body to raise funds for the park. The BID would assess a small annual tax on property owners bordering the park between Chambers and W. 59th Sts. Despite the rough reception the Friends of the High Line received for its proposed High Line Improvement District, which led to that park group shelving the idea, Fox is still bullish on a Hudson River Park funding district. “It’s moving along,” Fox said. “We’re meeting with the property owners, elected officials. Slow and steady wins the race.” Tobi Bergman, president of P3, a nonprofit group based on Pier 40 that runs baseball clinics and promotes sports uses of the waterfront, said he agrees with the idea of looking into the viability of any and all uses for Pier 40. The focus right now should be to brainstorm and investigate all options, he said, and to avoid knee-jerk condemnations of possible concepts before all their pros and cons have been fully assessed.

A Ferris wheel like the London Eye is reportedly being talked about for Pier 40, although the rumor has been denied by some.

‘Avoid EntERtAinMEnt’
Bergman, for one, said residential might be a use that could work, since it brings in money for the pier but with a relatively low impact in terms of people going to and from the pier, when compared with entertainment uses, such as a London Eye-type Ferris wheel, movie

theaters or restaurants, for example. And some people might not mind having ball fields on one side of their homes, if they have “spectacular views” of the river on the other side, he added. “What I think would create opposition no matter what is high-intensity use that brings a lot of people crossing the bike path,” Bergman said. “I think an entertainment- and a tourism-based approach to the pier is problematic.” Bergman said he didn’t see why residential use of part of the pier is any more a privatization of the space than some of the commercial uses currently leasing space on the pier, such as a signmaking company on its second floor. Also, to address Pier 40’s immediate problem — its roof — Bergman recommended that the Trust stop building out new sections of the park, and instead redirect those funds to fixing the pier’s roof. “They have to drop the idea that they can’t put money into Pier 40,” Bergman said of the Trust. “The pier is deteriorating, which is also reducing the revenue the pier is providing for the park. That’s the first priority — fix that roof.”

include active recreation, like sports — while the rest of the pier can be developed commercially. Bergman and local parents would like to see the pier’s sports uses actually increase, if feasible. “The challenge is how is it possible to keep the good stuff — and expand the good stuff?” he said. “That’s not easy.” A London Eye, on the other hand, would change the neighborhood,

Bergman said, bringing with it things local families and youth sports leagues that use the pier don’t want, like “boat rides, restaurants and clubs,” he noted. One thing is for sure: Whatever does happen at Pier 40, it won’t be done overnight. With all the reviews, vetting and approvals that are needed, after a plan is decided on, it could take a few years to be put into effect.

We Have Downtown Covered

‘EXPAnd thE good StuFF’
Under the park act, space equivalent to 50 percent of Pier 40’s footprint must be open, public-use space — which can

We Know Our Community Like No One Else

16

October 2 - 8, 2009

downtown express

editorial
Publisher & editor John W. Sutter AssociAte editor Josh Rogers Arts editor Scott Stiffler rePorters Albert Amateau Lincoln Anderson Patrick Hedlund Julie Shapiro sr. V.P. of sAles And MArketing Francesco Regini sr. MArketing consultAnt Jason Sherwood AdVertising sAles Allison Greaker Julio Tumbaco Danielle Zupanovich retAil Ad MAnAger Colin Gregory office MAnAger David Jaffe Art / Production director Troy Masters Art director Mark Hasselberger grAPhic designer Jamie Paakkonen distribution & circulAtion Cheryl Williamson contributors Frank R. Angelino Wickham Boyle Tim Lavin David Stanke Jerry Tallmer PhotogrAPhers Lorenzo Ciniglio Milo Hess Corky Lee Elisabeth Robert Jefferson Siegel

letters to the editor
Bike safety
To The Editor: Re “Put the brakes on rogue bicycle riding” (Talking Point by Jack Brown, Sept. 25 – Oct.. 1): As one of the few bicyclists who does stop at red lights, I have to say I would be all for some better enforcement of bicycle behavior. But it has to come hand in hand with automobile and pedestrian enforcement as well. After all, it’s not bicycles that kill more than 300 people in New York City every year. That would be cars. If you want to talk about protecting pedestrians, you’d get your most bang for the buck by getting the N.Y.P.D. to actually enforce laws against cars running red lights, idling with no one in the vehicle, parking in bike lanes, speeding, making illegal turns, etc., etc. I see this behavior every day and the most it seems to get from the police is a shrug, like they’ve got better things to do. You know darn well that if 300 people a year were being killed in construction accidents there would be heads rolling somewhere. And really, “CARR” as an acronym? That’s pretty lame. It makes it sound like the group is promoting more cars on the streets. See what that would do for pedestrian safety! Pedestrian deaths caused by automobile are already way up this year. I’ve always had a problem with groups that label themselves as “against” something. How about a name that promotes pedestrian safety, instead of phrasing it in the negative all the time? Peter Flint

Some advice for Quinn
While City Council Speaker Christine Quinn unsurprisingly won the Democratic primary race on Sept. 15, her less-than-impressive margin of victory over two firsttime candidates hinted at a growing discontent among voters in the Third Council District. Her constituents, seeing Quinn as the most qualified for the job, rightly delivered her 52 percent of the vote. But the win came against two previously little-known challengers who managed to convince many of Quinn’s formerly faithful voters that her decade in office lasted about a year too long. Many lessons can be taken from this outcome, the first being that Quinn must now prove herself an unyielding ally to the district despite possible higher political aspirations. To be clear, Quinn’s alignment with Mayor Mike Bloomberg — which amounts to either a boon or a betrayal of the district, depending on whom you ask — must never stand in the way of her obligations to the community. Many voters in the highly progressive district loudly expressed their opposition to Quinn’s push to overturn term limits last year, and their displeasure will not and should not be forgotten. If members of Quinn’s own home political club, the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club, began expressing concerns about the direction she seemed to be taking, then certainly the community at large must be feeling some deep misgivings in relation to the speaker. In no uncertain terms, we opposed the legislative overturning of term limits, though we do support extending them to three terms, but only if done by a voter referendum. Should she be re-elected in November’s general election (which would seem likely in the heavily Democratic district), we hope to see Quinn stake out more independent positions so that the Council can remain a bona fide check on the executive in city government’s system of checks and balances. Again, we also support a full investigation of the Council’s “slush fund” scandal and are eager to see the results as soon as possible — whatever the ramifications for Quinn. Some of the speaker’s positions — or lack thereof — regarding major development in the district need to be either re-evaluated or solidified in her third term. For starters, Quinn can definitely improve by ensuring that the three-district Department of Sanitation garage planned for Hudson Square is only built to house two districts, alleviating the burden unfairly placed on that community. This is an issue where Quinn shouldn’t merely act as an enabler of the mayor, but take a more forceful role in the negotiations to find a workable and fair solution. Quinn also needs to take a more active role in the redevelopment of the Hudson Yards, a megaproject that the Bloomberg administration has pursued vigorously. For example, we would like to see her out stumping with Friends of the High Line to preserve the elevated park’s northernmost portion, and attending smaller block association meetings to gauge the direct effects this project poses to the neighborhood. As speaker, if Quinn continues to hold up a proposed measure to regulate commercial rents across the city — a bill she believes may not pass legal muster despite its having enough Council votes — she then needs to foster more far-reaching solutions to address the threats posed to small businesses beyond the minor initiatives she has introduced so far. To Quinn’s primary challengers, Yetta Kurland and Maria Passannante-Derr, we wish them the best in their continued advocacy and activism. We urge Kurland to reconsider her reluctance to join the local community board, since community boards represent a vital component of local government and local activism and have been a launching pad for many careers in politics.

d.i.d.’s drag
To The Editor: Sean Sweeney just could not resist taking one last post-election cheap shot at Councilmember Alan Gerson (Letters, Sept. 25 – Oct. 1, “We D.I.D. it”), but the negative tone and content of his letter says far more about Mr. Sweeney than about Councilmember Gerson, who has served Lower Manhattan well and ably for the last eight years. Sweeney also makes a ludicrous attempt to spin Margaret Chin’s election to the City Council into some kind of victory for Sweeney’s political club, Downtown Independent Democrats. For starters, Sweeney states, “With our support in 2001, Gerson won. Without it in 2009, he lost.” We are obviously supposed to infer cause and effect here. Compare the 2009 vote totals for Council candidate Pete Gleason, who was endorsed by D.I.D. this year, with his vote totals in the 2005 Council race, when he ran against Alan Gerson and was not supported by D.I.D. The results, based on the numbers published by Downtown Express, are very revealing. In 2005, Mr. Gleason got 1,411 votes or 19% of the total. In 2009, running with the D.I.D.’s endorsement and support, Mr. Gleason

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managed to get only 1,293 votes or 11% of the total. In other words, the result of the D.I.D.’s efforts was a net loss of 118 votes. This outcome is even more startling because the 11,516 votes cast in the 2009 Democratic primary represented an increase of 4,196 votes cast over the 2005 number. Yet this 57% increase in 2009 in the total number of votes cast corresponded to an 8% decrease in the number of votes cast for Mr. Gleason. Looked at in another way, if Mr. Gleason had simply held the 19% of the vote that he received in 2005, his total in 2009 would have been approximately 900 votes higher (or 70%) than his actual total. So what Mr. Sweeney should have said, was “Without D.I.D. support in 2005, Gleason lost. With it in 2009, he also lost but a lot worse.” Mr. Sweeney also claims that D.I.D.’s highly negative campaign against Gerson was the deciding factor in Chin’s victory. A look at the neighborhood breakdown of the 2009 voting totals published in Downtown Express shows how preposterous that argument is (news article, Sept. 25 – Oct. 1, “Chin begins work early, promising to ‘always reach out’”). Chin topped Gerson in Chinatown by 1,477 votes, which more than accounted for the margin of 1,021 votes by which she won the election, yet Chinatown was the neighborhood in which D.I.D. candidate Gleason made his worst showing. It is likely that the heavy vote there for Chin reflected a very positive assessment of a local candidate rather than people rushing to the polls because they were stirred up against Gerson by the negative rants of the D.I.D. Also, Mr. Sweeney’s self-congratulatory letter completely ignored the possibility that the Downtown Express endorsement of Chin and the New York Times endorsement of PJ Kim may have played a role. Mr. Sweeney may wish to consider renaming his organization the Soho Independent Democrats to better reflect the reality of its very limited influence. Finally, I had to laugh at Sweeney’s claiming Margaret Chin as a fellow D.I.D. member. That begs the obvious question as to why Sweeney didn’t attempt to get the organization to support her as an alternative to Gerson, since she is much more qualified to be on the Council than the candidate that D.I.D. supported.
Bill Love

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downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009

doWntoWn notebook It’s a tough city, big town or small
By cArL r. huLtBerg In the North Country there is the Town Meeting. Citizens get together to conduct the town’s business and generally shout it out. Of course everything that is important gets decided behind the scenes. From my experience working at the recycling facility in Danbury, New Hampshire for the last year and a half I’d say that many big decisions and deals went down right there at the dump. When one of the honchos arrived in the winter to talk to our Selectman boss, that was my cue to find something to do outside. Perhaps this is the way it has to be in local government, unless we want to return to actual warlord rule. And believe me, there are people working on that project. So how can a Town Meeting/ Community Board meeting be anything but a shouting match? That’s all that’s left, the outrage, the theater. I remember my last Community Board 2 meeting 10 years ago. Having been part of the Village Green Recycling Team center at the corner of Sixth Ave. and Fourth St. for over ten years, we had been a protected eco-project of the former Village community board matriarch Rita Lee (bless her heart). But by 1999 our informal lease on public space was being challenged, to say the least. There were those who thought that since the New York City Dept. of Sanitation was running the curbside program, the Village Green dropoff facility was obsolete. Never mind that most people in the industry knew that the Dept. of Sanitation was disposing of most of the curbside material as trash while the Village Green could document all its markets. Then there was N.Y.U. The university was my employer at the time (N.Y.U. Recycling) and the Village Green had certainly been useful to the university recycling education efforts, but it turned out the presidential penthouse afforded a view of the recycling operation. The same problem for the folks who bought into the disaster co-op across Sixth Ave. After a long-waged war with the building’s former owner, who’d maintained ownership of the commercial properties, he got back at the co-op owners by bringing in porno stores. After losing many battles to this guy, the bitter co-op owners turned their eyes towards a more suitable target: the minority crowded

17

I sat down in tears. Thirteen years of volunteer work and I get drummed out as a drug dealer.
basketball games taking place at the public courts on the corner of Third St. in the summer. The black presence that was supposedly lowering their property values. It wouldn’t have been politically correct to go after the courts themselves, after all they’d been the breeding grounds for future N.B.A. stars. So in their desperation to sell their poison co-ops at not too great a loss, the yuppies from hell from across Sixth Ave. targeted the Village Green. It finally came down to that last C.B. 2 meeting in 1999 when I sat and witnessed an elaborately staged show trial. Somehow these industrious real estate investors had gotten together dozens of “witnesses,” including elderly people from an old folks home blocks away from the V.G.R.T. These folks all stood there and testified to the villainous activities of the Village Green. Drug dealing. Trashing the park. Breaking glass in the middle of the night. Releasing rats into the neighborhood. There were other alleged crimes

I’m not sure I remember. Alone at the meeting late at night after six other meetings had exhausted the limits of my volunteer witnesses, I got up to try to counter this mob. What could I say? We’d cleaned that park for years, chased out the drug dealers, processed hundreds of tons of materials without ever a single local complaint before this... the rats came from the restaurant. Boo, hiss. I sat down in tears. Thirteen years of volunteer work and I get drummed out as a drug dealer. Needless to say, the termination of the Village Green (like the earlier wipeout of the Garden of Eden) was a done deal. The theatrics were just for my benefit, I guess. Soon the Village Green haters had their own private viewing garden that just by coincidence extended the former V.G.R.T. facility right to the limits of the basketball court. Sorry fellows, no more viewing area for the tournament games. As the leader of the real estate crowd had told the basketball organizers at an earlier community board meeting: “Why don’t you boys play basketball in your own neighborhood?” To be fair, Ann Arlen and the late Keith Crandell from C.B. 2 both tried to help. But after all those years, the V.G.R.T. volunteer base was stretched thin and the voices of property owners spoke loud. I suppose we were lucky to have had such a charmed life at the Village Green for so long. Rescuing the original curbside pilot program in 1986 (covered in The Villager, now a Downtown Express sister publication), hanging out with Susan Sarandon while her husband Tim Robbins played pickup basketball. Of course when she got to City Hall in front of the TV cameras, Susan forgot our name. That’s the way it goes. Carl R. Hultberg was a longtime Downtowner active in environmental causes. He’s semi-retired in New Hampshire and writes RagMag, an email blast on politics and music. His email is [email protected].

FroM our arChives
“WtC Cops Call For security beef-up”
By Jere Hester officers who patrol the concourse was adequate and he would not be increasing the number for 1990, adding that crime in the concourse had been on the decline for the past five years. He also said that the Port Authority recently began closing off certain sections of the concourse to make security and maintenance easier. On Feb. 26, 1993, just over three years after the article was published, a car bomb that detonated in the North Tower garage killed six people in the W.T.C. Their names will be included in the 9/11 memorial currently being constructed.

Prepared by Helaina N. Hovitz
*Battery News, founded in 1987, was the original name of Downtown Express. The name was changed in 1990.

Battery News*, October 9, 1989
World Trade Center police who felt they were few in number and far in distance from one another asked the Port Authority to increase the number of cops that covered the seven buildings and the concourse. In the previous month cops at the Port Authority bus terminal took matters into their own hands and handed out flyers to commuters relaying their disgust at the situation. Port Authority P.B.A. President Gus Danese said that police were severely understaffed in all Port Authority guard posts. Residents and commuters reported that they feared walking through the

ira blutreiCh

concourse on nights and weekends the most, since that was when it was most deserted. “It’s a horror show,” said one woman who worked in the W.T.C. “You can’t find a cop.” Gus Preschle, general manager of the World Trade Center, said that the 38

Voter apathy, lack of excitement — it was a real snooze.

18

October 2 - 8, 2009

downtown express

New design could save Tire Swing Park
A month after a group of Battery Park City residents complained about the upcoming demolition of Tire Swing Park, the state presented alternative designs this week that would keep much of the park intact. The State Dept. of Transportation, which is rebuilding the park as part of the Route 9A project, planned to show the designs to a Community Board 1 working group Wednesday night. Then, next Tuesday, C.B. 1’s Battery Park City Committee will review the designs and decide whether the new plan, which preserves the wooden playground, tire swing and southern lawn, is better than the original plan, which includes additional play equipment. The state will build whichever plan the community board picks, and soon — work on the adjacent walkway and bikeway is scheduled to begin Oct. 13. One disadvantage of the new proposal to preserve much of the park is that it would have to go back to the city’s Public Design Commission, which could delay the completion of the project, said Adam Levine, spokesperson for State D.O.T. Under the current design and schedule, the park would reopen by Memorial Day 2010, but changing the design at this late stage could jeopardize that date, Levine said. Signe Nielsen, the project’s landscape architect, drafted the new designs released Wednesday after listening to the concerns of parents and other park users at a meeting last month. Because designing a park involves many tradeoffs — for example, preserving trees versus including a basketball court — Nielsen drafted four different versions of a new plan. All four options keep the current playground and small southern lawn intact. The options are differentiated as follows: • Remove 12 trees, include half basketball court,

Rendering of part of the proposed redesign for Tire Swing Park. Community Board 1 and the state are considering possible adjustments to this part of the plan.

larger athletics lawn • Remove seven trees, include half basketball court, smaller athletics lawn • Remove six trees, no half basketball court, smaller athletics lawn • Remove 14 trees, no half basketball court, largest athletics lawn Preserving trees has been among the chief goals of the Coalition to Save Tire Swing Park, the group that recently formed to push the redesign, because they value

the shade the mature trees provide. Levine expected Wednesday night’s working group to decide on one of those four alternative options (or a combination of them), and for that option to be presented next Tuesday night alongside State D.O.T.’s original plan, which was already vetted by many community groups, including C.B. 1, over the past several years.

— Julie Shapiro

Studying greenich St. South
Continued from page 11 new development depending on whether the Floor to Area Ratio is 15 or 18. Liz Berger, the Alliance’s president, said aside from the long-term possibilities, there are several things that could be accomplished relatively soon. She hopes to see more Alliance-sponsored art projects decorating construction sites, initial streetscape and fencing improvements, and work underway building a small park near Edgar St. “It could happen in a year,” Berger said of the short-term goals, although there are not yet cost estimates. The auto-centered neighborhood is also not inviting for pedestrians, but Berger said she thinks it’s getting better and walkers will begin to notice soon. “People are crossing [into the neighborhood] — it’s just not a positive experience,” she said. She said one of the goals is to convert the area from a “donut” into a destination, feeding off its planned connection to the W.T.C., which will have Greenwich St. running through it. The city and L.M.D.C. began working together on their plans for the neighborhood a few years ago and eventually decided to scale most of it back to focus on what they and Community Board 1 agreed was a pressing need — garage space for commuter and tourist buses. The idea was to expand the Battery Tunnel Garage to accommodate commuter buses during the week and the overflow of tourist buses visiting sites like the W.T.C. 9/11 memorial on weekends. It had looked like the garage project was close to being finalized, but the city’s Economic Development Corp. said earlier this year that the project was on hold until the economy picked up. Berger said she hopes the study and exhibit help convince the city that a bigger garage is a bad idea regardless of the economy. “Let’s hope we change their mind,” she said. The last thing Greenwich St. South needs is “an oversized piece of city infrastructure.” An E.D.C. spokesperson said the agency had not yet reviewed the Alliance study. Berger said Lower Manhattan’s narrow streets cannot accommodate more buses and the solution is a regional plan relying on public transportation Downtown. Catherine McVay Hughes, chairperson of Community Board 1’s W.T.C. Redevelopment Committee, said she would be open to a plan for alternatives to reduce the number of buses coming Downtown instead of building a garage, so long as anti-idling and no standing regulations were enforced against buses. She said she agrees with the Alliance conclusions on the need for parks. She said there are also many mundane, short-term improvements like cleaning up dormant

The long-range redesign of Greenwich St. South could be funded in part with about 6.5 million square feet of new development if the floor to area zoning ratio was 15.

construction sites that could be done. “There are lights that are burned out, the Deutsche Bank building needs to come down, stalled construction sites need to be taken care of,” Hughes said. For example, construction stopped at 50 West St. many months ago, yet the sidewalks are still blocked because of construction

barriers, Hughes added. Berger said she wants to hear people’s ideas for the neighborhood and hopes they’ll visit the park at Liberty and Church Sts. and go to greenwichstreetsouth.net to learn more. [email protected]

downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009

Transit Sam
Rich, Lower East Side

19

The Answer man
I can remember and allowed access to Allen which is necessary to access Allen St.’s east curb between Stanton and Houston Sts. Transit Sam, why did they break something that wasn’t broken? Can you fix it?

By sAm schwArtz
Dear Transit Sam, Do you remember that boiler truck that was taking up a few precious parking spots on Sixth Ave. between Vandam and Prince St. that I wrote you about? Finally, it’s gone! Thank you Transit Sam — you’re the go-to man! Ivan, Soho Dear Ivan: Credit must also go to the N.Y.C. Dept. of Transportation, which responded with dispatch. Summonses were issued, and that apparently did the trick! Transit Sam Dear Transit Sam, I drove down Houston St. eastbound and followed signs for the Williamsburg Bridge. It told me to turn right on Allen St. which I did. However, when I got to Delancey St., there was a new sign saying, “no left turn.” It’s now impossible to get to the Williamsburg Bridge. Isn’t the sign on Houston St. misleading? What’s the right way to go? Bill, Houston St.

Dear Bill, It puzzled me too, but I got down to the source of these turn prohibitions that were springing up around Allen and Pike Sts. N.Y.C. D.O.T. is installing bike lanes in the left lanes of both streets adjacent to the center medians. The no left turn restriction is in place to reduce potential accidents between cars turning left across the bike lane and cyclists. Left turns and U-turns are permitted at Grand St. from Allen St. Southbound left turns from Allen onto Canal St. are also permitted but northbound left turns are restricted there. To get to the bridge, new signs have been put in place directing traffic to use Chrystie St. From here, you can make the left turn onto Delancey St. for access to the bridge. For more on the new bike lanes, see the next letter below. I’ve also asked D.O.T. to remove the old signs still in place that direct traffic onto Allen St. for the Williamsburg Bridge from Houston St. The Allen-Pike project should wrap up within the next six weeks. Transit Sam Dear Transit Sam, New traffic

Dear Rich, Sorry Rich, this is all part of the new bike lanes on Allen St. and Pike St. as described in my response above. But, at this location, even Stanton St. traffic can now no longer go through. The center median is being connected across the intersection. This will also happen at three other intersections: Allen at Broome and at Hester Sts., and Pike St. at Monroe St. Transit Sam
Downtown Express photo by Joshua A. Knoller

This sign at Houston and Allen Sts. misdirects drivers to the Williamsburg Bridge. Because of construction, motorists must use Chrystie St. to get to the bridge.

regulations

prohibit

southbound traffic on Allen St. from making a U-turn via Stanton St. This u-turn has been allowed as far back as

Sam Schwartz, a former first deputy commissioner of city transportation, is president and C.E.O. of Sam Schwartz Engineering, a traffic engineering consulting firm to private and public entities including the Port Authority at the World Trade Center site. Email your questions to TransitSam@ DowntownExpress.com.

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20

October 2 - 8, 2009

downtown express

Parents get in the fun as downtowners top village league
Three dozen Little League parents from Tribeca, Battery Park City and Greenwich Village lived their fantasy last week when they took the field at the Yankees’ minor league stadium in Staten Island for a softball game that turned into a successful fundraiser. The Sept. 23 contest between a Downtown Little League team and a squad of parents from Greenwich Village Little League took place under the lights at Richmond County Bank Ballpark. With $1,800 raised from the parents on the diamond, the leagues plan to sponsor games at the stadium next year for teenagers in their older divisions. The 11-inning affair had many of the trappings of a professional game, with an announcer blaring the name of parents as they stepped into the batters box and the left field scoreboard tallying each run as it scored. The aging players suited up in a stadium clubhouse, and spectators — also known as devoted spouses and kids — looked on from box seats. “While all of the adults who participated had a great deal of fun reliving their glory days” said Tom Merrill, president of the Downtown Little League, “we mainly were looking to raise money so that our older kids can experience playing baseball on this wonderful field next season.” Downtown rallied on its first at-bat as Santo Rosa, Norm Kleinman and Joe Romeo struck consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs. Ian Behar and Peter Braus knocked in the first runs with singles, and a fielder’s choice by Charlie Sewell gave Downtown a quick 3-0 lead. The offensive outburst was short-lived, as the 30-, 40-, and 50-somethings on both teams discovered how winded they’d become chugging 360 feet around the bases. By the ninth inning, Downtown had upped its lead to 5-0, when John Carr of Greenwich Village hit a double to deep centerfield that pushed across a run to avoid a shutout. “No one will remember the 5-1 score,” Merrill said after the Downtown team posed for a photo in left field. “What they’ll remember is that they got to live their fantasy for a few hours.” But Greenwich Village’s Larry Smith, who organized the event, was quick to add, “We’ll beat them next year.” goalie for Real Madrid, which proved an astute move; he blocked shots by Hull and DeGuchteneere. Noah DeGuchteneere also played well for Valencia, going after the ball, but Jordan Roseman, Oscar Sullivan, and Kristen Pierre kept close watch on Valencia’s offense. Another goal was scored by Fish on a pass from Ogden Opheim, and Vegas took a powerful shot that Ostermaier couldn’t contain for the fourth goal. Finally, Luke Sullivan was able to score from the pack of Real Madrid players that converged on Valencia’s goal in the final minutes of the game. Coaches Roya Sullivan, Curt Child, and Bill Sullivan were proud of the teamwork and tenacity displayed by Real Madrid, and the Valencia coaches (John Chow, Alison Regan, and Scott Morrison) awarded a “game ball” to Hillel Rosenshine for playing in position, being open for passes, and helping the offensive attack.

Parents from the Downtown Little League, above, played Greenwich Village Little League parents Sept. 23 on the Staten Island Yankees’ field to help raise money for teens to play on the professional field next season.

downtown soccer action
MAjoRS 10
Real Madrid Vs. Valencia

On a beautiful Sunday morning, an energetic group of Major 10s took the full field in a Downtown Soccer League game Sept. 20. Real Madrid began with several sustained drives to the Valencia goal after dribbling and passing among many players, and the first shot on

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Sunday, October 4, 1-4pm 74 Trinity Place, 2nd Floor

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goal by Jeremiah Wysoker went wide to the right. Aidan Ostermaier later blocked other shots by Wysoker and his teammates. Valencia’s Henry Hull, Maria Scovel, and Yannick DeGuchteneere actively got control of the ball, but Jackson Deysine was able to get it away, and soon Jack Vegas got a hold of it and from midfield dribbled and took a hard shot which provided the first Real Madrid goal. On the kickoff following, Josh Roseman’s quick defensive effort and a handball penalty on Valencia meant Real Madrid gained control again. On a breakaway, Joshua Fish dribbled through a crowd to take a shot-on-goal that hit a defender first and the goalie second, but went in for the second score. In the second half, Drew Child played

The Trinity Youth Chorus is hosting an open house for kids and their families. Join us for “Trinity Idol” karaoke, arts and crafts, games, group rehearsal and sing, performances, and more. Open to all families. No charge. The Trinity Youth Chorus is a collective of Lower Manhattan choirs offering area children the opportunity to be part of a serious choral program of disciplined music-making.

Information: call Anne Damassa at 212.602.0706 or email [email protected].

Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel

The youngest members of Battery Park Synagogue sang during a candle-lit procession Monday night shortly before the end of Yom Kippur, at a service called Neilah. The service, held at the Marriott Downtown hotel, then concluded with the blowing of shofars, or rams’ horns, signaling the end of the Jewish fast day.

downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009

21

youth aCtivities
Arts +GAmes This project, designed by an art specialist for school age children, includes clay, painting and jewelry design. Free. Thursdays, through Oct 29, 3:30-5:30pm. Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City (access: Chambers). Call 212-267-9700, or visit bpcparks.org. BeGinner tennis Lessons Group sessions with an experienced instructor will emphasize the fundamentals of the game of tennis. Lessons are held for beginner kids ages 6-12 and beginner teens/adults over 13. Community Center at Stuyvesant High School, 345 Chambers St. To register, call 646-210-4292. Visit ccshs.org. 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 painting, collage, and sculpture through self-guided art projects. Open art stations are ongoing throughout the afternoon, giving children the opportunity to experiment with materials such as paint, clay, fabric, paper, and found objects. Admission $10. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm; Thurs, 12-6pm. Children’s Museum of the Arts, 182 Lafayette Stret. Call 212- 274-0986 or visit cmany.org. downtown summer dAy CAmp Enjoy the same enriching activities that country day camps offer without the stress of traveling out of the city every day on a bus. The camp combines a daily program with special events to give children an exciting and varied camp experience. Kids K-6th grade. For rates and to register, go to downtowndaycamp.com or call 212-766-1104, x250. GLoBAL story hour Through weekly stories, participants learn about new countries and cultures, participate in interactive activities, and learn how to make a difference. Every Fri at 3:30pm. Action Center to End World Hunger, 6 River Terr, Battery Park City. Call 212-537-0511 or visit actioncenter.org. kids storytime Storyteller Yvonne Brooks leads a storytime with arts and crafts for kids ages 3-7, every Sat at 12pm in the children’s section. Baby storytime with storyteller Stewart Dawes takes place on Fri at 4:00pm for ages younger than 2. McNally Jackson Booksellers, 52 Prince St, (between Lafayette and Mulberry). Call 212-274-1160 or visit mcnallyjackson. com. kids proGrAms Put your children’s energy to good use through art, basketball, chess, cycling, exploration, gardening, and music among other activities. Days, materials fees, and park locations vary. Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, Two South End Ave. Call 212-262-9700 or visit bcparks.org. stories And sonGs Created especially for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, this event will bring together both the children and their parents. $210 for 4 forty-minute sessions; pre-registration required. Mon or Wed, 9:30am to 10:10am – 6 to 12 months old. 10:20am to 11:00am – 15 months to 2 years old. 11:10am to 11:50am – 2 years old and up. 12 to 12:4pm – mixed ages. BPCPC Meeting Room at The Verdesian. Enter at door north of main entrance (access: Murray St or Warren St). Call 212-267-9700 or visit bpcparks.org. pLAydAte And new pArent drop in The Playdate “Drop-In” is a great place to bring toddlers. While the children play together, parents can socialize in the Parenting Center. The New Parent “Drop-In” gives new parents the chance to discuss their concerns and ask questions. Topics include feeding, sleeping, creating support networks. Punch card for 10 sessions is $100. Playdate Drop-Ins are Mon & Thurs, 10-11:30am and Tues 3-4:30pm. New Parent Drop-Ins are Mon 1:30-3:30pm. Educational Alliance Downtown Parenting Center,197 East Broadway (between Jefferson & Clinton St). Visit edalliance.org. teen proGrAms Save teenagers from the boredom blues through classes on art, babysitter training, CPR, and environmental activism. Days, materials fees, and park locations vary. Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, Two South End Ave. For more information call, 212-262-9700 or visit bcparks.org. presChooL pLAy And Art Join other toddlers, parents and caregivers for interactive play on a grassy lawn. Toys, books and equipment provided. Free. Mon, Tue and Wed, through Oct 27 (except Sept 7 and Oct 12) 10am- 12pm. Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park. Call 212-267-9700 or visit bpcparks.org. storytime At BAByLiCious Children ages 3 to 4 are welcome to participate in free storytime with songs, stories and lots of fun. Free. Every Tue, 9:30am. At Babylicious, 51 Hudson St (between Duane and Jay St). Call 212-406-7440, or visit babyliciousnyc.com. tour de pArC Tricyclists, bicyclists and scooter riders 9 years old and younger show their pedal power in a cycling tour of the parks. Helmets required. Sept 19, 10am. Esplanade Plaza. Call 212-267-9700 ext 348,or visit bpcparks.org. toddLer pLAy Group Story time, play time and fun educational activities are all part of the Community Toddler Play Group for parents with their children. Foster your toddler’s imagination through history, science and maritime-themed activities using interactive materials and engaging book readings.$7 per child, free to family members, Every Wed, 1-2:30pm, South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton Street. Call 212-748-8786 or visit southstreetseaportmuseum.org. teen entrepreneur Boot CAmp This program gives teens the exciting learning experience that they need to succeed later in life. For more information, visit teenentrepreneurbootcamp.org. younG sprouts GArdeninG This gardening program is for children 3-5 years old. It includes simple gardening projects appropriate for preschoolers. Free. Tue, through Oct 27. 3:153:45pm. Space limited-first come, first served. The Children’s Garden, Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City (access: Chambers St). Call 212-267-9700 ext 348 or visit bpcparks.org.

teen VoLLeyBALL All teens are welcome and no previous experience necessary; referee/scorekeeper and ball provided. Presented by the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy. Sat, 4:30-6:30pm. Community Center at Stuyvesant High School, 345 Chambers Street. Call 646-210-4292. wouLd you Like to see your eVent in the downtown 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.

www.

downtownexpress .com
The Downtown Little School
(2 blocks east of B’way, off Fulton)

15 Dutch Street The Downtown Little School

15 tours and information call (212) 791-1300 or visit For Dutch Street
(2 blocks east of B’dway, off Fulton)

Serving children ages 2 - 5 years.

Downtown Little School is now an TRIBECA DENTAL too! elementaryFamily For the Whole school
Come hear about our program. Elementary School Open House Wednesday February 23 @ 6:30PM. Currently enrolling 5, 6, and 7 year olds.
Dr. Martin Gottlieb Dr. Raphael Santore Dr. Reena Clarkson, Orthodontist Dr. Ken Chu, Dr. Grace Chin Dr. Sara Fikree Pediatric Dentists

www.downtownlittleschool.org

Moving Visions’ Murray Street Studio

Dance for Children and Teens
• Modern Ballet (ages 5-18) • Choreography (ages 8 & up) • Creative Movement/Pre-Ballet (ages 3-5)

A Wise Choice for your child’s dance education!

General Dentistry & Cosmetic Dentistry + Implants Bleaching + Orthodontics

Adult ClAsses

Yoga - tai Chi • Chi/dance/exercise for Women
www.murraystreetdance.com

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

212-608-7681 (day)

For a tour orStreet information, please call Kate or Adrian at more 19 Murray www.TribecaDentalCenter.com Between Church & Broadway 212-791-1300 For an appointment, call 212-941-9095

22

October 2 - 8, 2009

downtown express

Welcome Home, Poets House
Glass-enclosed space’s opening was grand
By mArceLLA VeneziALe After years in a cramped SoHo office, one of the country’s premiere poetry organizations has finally moved into its new home in Battery Park City. Founded by the poet Stanley Kunitz and arts administrator Elizabeth Kray in 1985, Poets House celebrated with an open house, readings and music last weekend. “This is the beginning of the true life of Poets House in this space,” said Executive Director Lee Briccetti. The glass-enclosed, 11,000 square foot space boasts panoramic views of the Hudson, shows off its entire 50,000 volume poetry collection, and is eco-friendly. “Our goal was to make it a place that was cutting edge,” said architect Louise Braverman, “not a dusty old place, but at the same time with the warmth of the poets.” Visitors enter on River Terrace and proceed through a double height foyer. Veer right and you’ll enter Elizabeth Kray Hall (which hosts readings, lectures and other programs). The high tech room can screen rare books on a projector, integrate sound into events and record programs digitally. Garage doors behind the podium open onto a small courtyard for outdoor programs. To the hall’s left is the Constance Laibe Hays Children’s Room. Though it doesn’t open full-time until April 2010, it will host monthly programs this fall. The space is friendly and inviting — and, like the rest of Poets House, contains artifacts from Kunitz (including two of his typewriters, which rest on a library card catalog). A curtain of paper cranes from the former space hangs, and stuffed animals pose with books. “We want it to be very hands-on,” said Mike Romanos, the Children’s Room coordinator. A curving staircase winds above the Children’s Room, with an Alexander Calder mobile at its base. It will be on loan to Poets House for the next two years. The oval, glass-enclosed Cheney Chappell Exhibition Space at the top of the stairs places visitors squarely in the spectacular expanse of sky, water and land across the street. A collection of vintage books by poets such as Dylan Thomas, e. e. cummings, Ted Hughes and an early edition of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” are currently on display alongside Kunitz memorabilia. The Reading Room and Reed Foundation Library, which holds all of Poets House’s books and current literary journals, occupies much of the second floor. Tables, chairs and couches invite people to linger. The couches were of utmost importance to its member poets in recalling the coziness of the Spring Street location. The library enforces silence more strictly as guests progress through, until the Quiet Reading Room, where it is mandatory. Black and white photographs of Gwendolyn Brooks, Adrienne Rich, Robert Pinsky and other poets who have read at Poets House, grace the walls. The Stanley Kunitz Conference Room claims a corner spot at the end of the library, with sweeping views of the Irish Hunger Memorial, the Statue of Liberty and the Hudson’s expanse. Guests celebrated the opening of this airy, sunlight-drenched space. On Friday morning (sustained by complimentary bagels and coffee), they listened to readings by former Poet Laureate Billy Collins, several nearby Stuyvesant High School students, and two members of a Poets House workshop for senior citizens. “This is a place in New York, and it’s a great, slick, modern place,” Collins said. “It balances the wrong image of poetry, that is something collecting dust on a shelf.” The standing-room-only crowd applauded and laughed at Collins’ readings, particularly “Oh, My God!” which mocks the teenage girl’s colloquialism. The festivities attracted even newcomers. Mary Lou Wu lives in Chinatown and says the presence of Poets House peaked her interest. “I’ll come by when they have events and educate myself about poetry,” she said. Silvia Gallo, a poetry lover, was visiting from Brazil on Saturday. “I knew there was a Poets House before this one, but I had never seen it, so I thought I would come,” she said. Though clouds rolled in that day, a reading and performance

Photo courtesy of Mark-Woods.com (© 2009)

A good (new) place to sit and read

by Natalie Merchant packed Nelson A. Rockefeller Park across the street. Seats filled quickly, and people spread out on the grass to watch. The poets Mark Dody, Philip Levine, Regie Cabico and Patricia Spears Jones, among others, read. Poet Marie Howe quoted Robert Frost, “Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to let you in.” Others read poems inspired by Poets House, particularly Michael Heller, who said, “The word that comes to me today is nourishment.” Crowd favorites Galway Kinnell and Billy Collins rounded out the series. Kinnell read his poem “Oatmeal,” and Collins closed, fittingly, with “Poetry.” Natalie Merchant performed selections of poetry she has set to music (including “If No One Ever Marries Me” and “Sailor, O Sailor”). The organization’s new vitality inspired former member Esther Louise, a librarian and former writer herself, to become involved again. “I plan to use it a lot,” she said. “I will renew my membership.” In the coming months, Poets House will host a variety of readings and lectures. In October, celebrate the life and work of poet David Bromige (who passed away this year) with poets

including Gary Sullivan, Geoffrey Young and Nick Piombino. Later, John Felstiner (author of “Can Poetry Save the Earth?”) will hold a reading and two seminars on poetry and nature. On November 14, kids can read, write and discuss poetry with Naomi Shihab Nye, author of the teen poetry collection “Honeybee.” On November 18, Cecilia Vicuña, co-editor of “The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry,” introduces a night of readings that span 500 years of Latin American poetry. Poets House is already planning further, including collaborations with future neighbors like the New York Public Library and Museum of Jewish Heritage. Since it won’t have to fret about rent anymore, thanks to a yearly, one dollar lease with the Battery Park City Authority until 2069, director Briccetti was confident in the organization’s future. “We have a sustainability we’ve never had before,” she said. “We have a permanency. We know we’re going to be here for the next 60 years.” Poets House is located at 10 River Terrace. For information on upcoming events, call 212-431-7920 or visit www. poetshouse.org.

downtown express

October 2 - 8, 2009

23

Pan Asian Rep rips, reveals Marcos
By Jerry tALLmer When the people of People Power — the masses of ordinary Filipinos who had finally had enough of the Marcos tyranny and his martial law — broke into the grandiose Malacañang Palace that President Ferdinand and First Lady Imelda Marcos had finally, hastily evacuated, what soon came to light was a beyond-belief treasure trove of Imelda’s finery. Heading the count, according to many reports: 15 mink coats, 500 gowns, 1,000 handbags, 3,000 pairs of shoes. Yes, three thousand. Imelda said it was all for the people’s good; to set an example, show them how they should want to live — and want their leaders to live. “She certainly was controversial,” says Tisa Chang. “I think controversial figures are far more interesting than noncontroversial ones, don’t you?” Tisa Chang, Artistic Producing Director of the Pan Asian Repertory that she founded at La MaMa 32 years ago, has been the prime mover of bringing to New York the East West Players Los-Angelesspawned production of “Imelda.” Broadway had its “Evita.” OffBroadway has its “Imelda.” It has been “refined,” trimmed down from its West Coast launch, says Ms. Chang, and so has its cast, from 15 or 16 actor-singer-dancers to just a dozen. Trimmed down or not, it spells out — and I do mean spells out — every last detail in the up-from-poverty life and times of the Iron Butterfly (or Steel Butterfly; take your pick) who was once ranked among the most powerful women of her, or any, era. “I thought it timely to bring to bring this work to New York,” says Tisa Chang. “First, because Imelda Marcos” — born July 2, 1929 — “has just reached her 80th birthday, over there in Manila, and then because Corazon Aquino died a month ago [on August 1] — the Corazon who was propelled by, yes, People Power to win the presidency over the Ferdinand Marcos who very probably had had her husband, democracy-minded candidate Nimoy Aquino, assassinated right before election day. “Imelda” the musical indeed starts with Imelda Romuelduz of Leyte Island, in her early 20s, having been named “Miss Muse of Manila” in consolation for losing a Miss Manila beauty contest, pouring out her woes and dreams (someday… an Oscar!) to none other than the young journalist Nimoy Aquino she takes to be her boyfriend. “I’m not your boyfriend,” he insists, but she won’t listen. The end of the story is in the cards (but not given away) at the beginning of the story. We follow Imelda step by step up the ladder, including her training in speech, posture, and everything else by — no, not

Salty commentary, spoken and sung, gives ‘Imelda’ satirical sting theater
IMELDA: A NEW MUSICAL
Book by Sachi Oyama; Music by Nathan Wang; Lyrics by Aaron Coleman; Choreography by Reggie Lee Directed by Tim Dang A Pan Asian Repertory Theatre (Tisa Chang) presentation in association with East West Players (www.panasianrep.org) Through October 18 At the Julia Miles Theater, 424 West 55th Street (9th/10th Aves.) 212-239-6200, or www.telecharge.com

Henry Higgins, but tough, swaggering, sarcastic, ambitious Ferdinand E. Marcos, a bully with a heart of yellow. Matter of fact, you can find the very word “heart” sprinkled like powdered sugar through and through “Imelda” the musical — an overweening sentimentality which was not trimmed out. What couldn’t be trimmed because it’s just there is that “corazon” happens to be Spanish for “heart.” Nimoy Aquino on Imelda: If I had raised the butterfly, reminded her she was a caterpillar once; if I had shaped her blazing wings, how she would fly without her ostentatious fronts, and not kiss up to spiders… Marcos on Imelda: I raised the butterfly, gave her the grace to dazzle in her royal flight. I shaped her blazing wings and now the world is blinded by the sight, despite the criticism… If that sort of salty commentary is sung or spoken throughout the show, at climax things can’t help collapsing back into “heart”-iness via a manystanza’d “Myself, My Heart” aria given the Corazon whose Nimoy has been shot to death as he stepped from the plane at Manila Airport, returning from exile in New York — the city worshipped by old acquaintance Imelda for its shoe stores, its fur stores, its jewelry stores, its real estate, its excitement…“and the world’s best pizza.” “Every precious pearl that I buy / Every pair of shoes that I try / Is a gift of my respect for the poor” — so goes

Photo by Carol Rosegg

Jaygee Macapugay as Imelda Marcos with the Three Muses (L-R): Angelica-Lee Aspiras, Sacha Iskra and Jonelle Margallo

the corollary of Imelda’s love affair with New York. “I don’t like pizza,” snaps Nimoy. The Imelda of “Imelda” is actress Jaygee Macapugay, the Marcos is Mel Sagrado Maghuyop, the Corazon is Liz Casasola, the Nimoy is Brian Jose. All twelve members of the cast are FilipinoAmerican, as is choreographer Reggie Lee. If Imelda was once the Muse of Manilla, there are three Muses scattered through the show like a Greek chorus. They are based on the onetime Blue Ladies — upper-class females who surrounded and supported the real Imelda. (Was real Imelda the real Imelda? That is another question, partly addressed by this piece of theater). Imelda and Marcos came to full power in 1965, when he, a congressman from Ilocos Norte (in the sticks) was elected president.of the Philippines. “Ironically,” says Tisa Chang, “I was in Manila in the ’60s, for the filming of

‘Ambush Bay,’ a World War II movie [released 1966, starring Hugh O/Brian and Robert Mitchum], in which I played a Japanese-American spy who helps the Americans to accomplish their mission. It ends with General MacArthur’s ‘I shall return’ speech.” It was after that fling at cinema that she came back to the New York City where she’d been born, to work with a Chinese theater group at Ellen Stewart’s La MaMA E.T.C. (Experimental Theater Club), from which all things have flowed, then as even now. Tisa Chang likes to quote a wisecrack recently perpetrated by “Imelda” director Tim Dang: “We hope it has legs to go with the shoes.” Just by the way, Ms.. Chang, how many pairs of shoes do you have at home? “You mean in my closet?” Pause. “Forty.” Pause. “Many of which are in the show.” You could heel me.

24

October 2 - 8, 2009

downtown express

The LisTings
outstanding contribution, impact and relevance to art today. Through October 20, at Woodward Gallery (133 Eldridge St). Call 212-966-3411 or visit woodwardgallery.net. “fACes” Letty Nowak’s exhibition of new paintings focuses on faces, but are not “portraits” in the classical sense. Meet the artist from 1pm-6pm on Sept 25/26; Oct 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17. The exhibition runs through December, at Hal Bromm Gallery (90 West Broadway at Chambers St). Call 212-732-6196 or visit www.halbromm.com. bers St) 2nd Floor. Call 212-279-4200, or visit dnadance.org. tABLe tennis trAininG proGrAm 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. new BeGinninGs ChAir 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 212-6020747, 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 encouragement. $25 per group. Every Thurs, 10-11am. Tribeca Pediatrics, 46 Warren Street. Call 212-219-9984.

GallerIes & eXhIbITs
south street seAport museum Current exhibits include: “New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World”; “Treasures of a President: FDR and the Sea”; and “Monarchs of the Sea: Celebrating the Ocean Liner Era.” On the Ships (call or visit web site for specific days/times): “Public Sails Aboard 1885 Schooner Pioneer.” An Oct 3, 1-4pm “Lower Manhattan Walking Tour” meets at 12 Fulton St (rain date, Oct 4). The Toddler Play Group meets Oct 7, 14, 21, 28’ from 1-2:30pm ($7 per child). Oct 16, 5-8pm, “Free Fridays: Maritime Mysteries” delivers tales of unexplained disappearances madness culled from the history of seafaring. Museum and Ship hours: Tues-Sun, 10am-6pm. Adults: $10; Seniors/students: $8; Children 5-12: $5; under 5, Free. At 12 Fulton Street. Call 212-748-8600; visit www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org. the pAintinG Center Center In the Main Gallery: “Paintings and Works on Paper” by Brian Brooks and Robert Bunkin. In the Project Room: “Recent Painting” by Denyce Celentano. From October 1-24; Tues-Sat, 11am-6pm (opening reception, Sat, Oct 3, 3pm-7pm). At The Painting Center (52 Greene St, 2nd Fl). Call 212-343-1060 or visit www.thepaintingcenter.com. “heeB hundred portrAit exhiBition” Heeb Magazine presents its fourth annual list of activists, artists, actors, musicians, movie-makers, comedians, creative-types, foodies, fashionistas, innovators and intellectuals that you need to know about. Free. October 2-19, at 92Y Tribeca (200 Hudson St). Visit www.92y. org. out of the ArChiVe: proCess & proGress This exhibition features the work of Tomie Arai, Albert Chong, John Yoyogi Fortes, and Swati Khurana and does so with an installation, a gallery talk, a catalogue, several essayists, and online interactive events and opportunities. Through Oct 30. All events & exhibitions are free (donations accepted); at the Asian American Arts Center (26 Bowery, just below Canal; 3rd Floor). Gallery Hours: M-F 12:30pm-6:30pm, Sat, 3pm6pm. Call 212-233-2154 or visit www. artspiral.org. Related to the “Process & Progress” exhibition, there will be a Gallery Talk with artists and scholars at White Box, (329 Broome St) on Wed, Oct 7, from 6-8pm. keith hArinG new york Woodward Gallery presents a playful body of work from Keith Haring’s early years in New York; unique subway drawings, studio interiors and other never-beforeexhibited works underscore Haring’s

PiCK oF thE WEEK
CREAtivE EXPRESSion oF thE LoWER EASt SidE
“MENAGERIE: Creative ExPression of The Lower East Side” features film, print, painting, sculpture, stained glass, mixed media, illustration, music, dance, and freestyle collaboration. Curated by Shell Sheddy, this collection of works from LES artists showcases creations not necessarily about (or set in) the neighborhood. Participating artists include Marlis Momber, Paul Davies, Ronnie Norpel, Bonnie Rosenstock, Juan Carlos Pinto; films by Richard Sandler and Aldo T; performances by LouLou, Annie & Helen Stratford. Through Oct 31, at Tompkins Square Library Gallery (331 E 10th St, btw Aves A&B). Mon/ Wed, 2-7:30pm and Sat, 1-4:30pm. For information call 212-802-4507.

eXhIbITs
“formAtiVe Lines: workinG in drAwinG And sCuLpture” 24 members of the Sculptors Guild display 86 works of drawings and sculptures which examine the interdependent relations between drawing and sculpture, bridging the distinctions between twoand three-dimensional artworks. In House 19, on Nolan Park (Governers Island). Through October 4. Call 212-431-5669 or visit www.sculptorsguild.org. BeAuty surrounds us Visitors can see a unique display including an elaborate Quechua girl’s dance outfit, a Northwest Coast chief’s staff with carved animal figures and crests, Seminole turtle shell dance leggings, a conch shell trumpet from pre-Columbian Mexico, and an Inupiak (Eskimo) ivory cribbage board. Two interactive media stations show visitors in-depth descriptions of each object. Ongoing through March, 2010, at the National Museum of the American Indian (One Bowling Green). Call 212-514-3700, or visit nmai.si.edu. the Better hALf- Artist CoupLes on dispLAy The exhibition presents young artist couples who are balancing careers, creating art and being married to another artist. Free. Educational Alliance Art Gallery, 197 East Broadway (between Jefferson & Clinton St). Visit edalliance. org/artschool. CLAsses introduCtory Art workshops 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 Alliance Art School, 197 East Broadway. Call 212780-2300, x428; or, visit edalliance.org/ artschool. dAnCe And piLAtes Ballet, jazz, tango, hip-hop, and modern dance classes are offered for all levels. $16/class, discounts available. Ongoing. Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway (at 53 Cham-

Photo courtesy of the artist

eVeNTs
housinG works Bookstore CAfé Tuesdays, 8:30pm: “Punch Up Your Life”—a free comedy series hosted by Jessi Klein and Pete Holmes. Oct 8, 7pm: free reading and panel on Coming Out in Teen Fiction features authors. Oct 18, 5pm: The Writers Studio (reading with Susan Choi); Free. Oct 19, 70m: Best New Poets reading (free). Oct 22, 7pm: Moth StorySLAM ($7). 126 Crosby Street. Call 212 334-3324 or visit www.housingworksbookstore.org south street seAport Through Oct 18, “Sea Warriors” features flags of renowned pirates on display, mounted on 16 historic lampposts throughout cobblestone streets of The Seaport. Sept 27, Noon to 5pm, at Pier 17, the free “Pathmark Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration Pathmark Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration” offers comedy, music and dance. For more information, call 212-SEA-PORT or visit www.southstreetseaport.com. somos AmeriCAnos: responses to 9/11 from the LAtino ArtistiC Community This program features Latino artists’ responses to the attacks of September 11th. Six artists with roots in Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Spain will show examples of their work and talk about how 9/11 impacted their lives. October 15, 6:30pm, at the Tribute WTC Visitor Center (120 Liberty Street). Free, but reservations are required. Email rsvp@tributewtc. org to save your seat. For more information, call 212-312-8800 or visit www. national911memorial.org. the mAnhAttAn GrAphiCs Center The fine-art printmaking school offers classes in monoprinting, lithograpy and silk screening; at 481 Washington Street (between Spring and Canal Street). Visit www.manhattangraphicscenter.org.\ 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. Coming up: Meredith Monk on Oct 6 and, Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Howard on Oct 7. On Oct. 14, 7pm: Charles Bernstein speaks with Brazilian poet and editor Régis Bonvicino. $10, $7 for students/seniors. 10 River Terrace (at Murray St). Call 212-431-7920 or visit www.poetshouse.org. CLothinG driVe Benefit Firefly Childrens Boutique is collecting children’s summer clothing for the John D.V. Salvador Foundation (www.jdvsfoundation.org), to be sent to an orphanage in the Philippines (St. Martin de Porres’). October 1-8, get ten percent off any one regular priced item in the store per customer donating items. At Firefly Childrens Boutique (224 Front St, btw Beekman St and Peck Slip). Call 646-416-6560 or visit www.fireflychildrensboutique.com Art in odd pLACes 2009 Explore the ordinary and ingenious to be found in the spectacle of daily life—by taking in tours of manhole covers, portable fountains and parades featuring electro-acoustic bicycles. That’s just a sample of the work you’ll find from over 60 participating artists. Oct 1 through Oct 26. Locations vary; 14th St, from Avenue C to the Hudson

“Grilled with Bread” by Bonnie Rosenstock (taken at Chelsea Market)

River. For a schedule of events, visit www. artinoddplaces.org. the iron heeL A troupe of actors unfamiliar with injustice and bloody conflict gets educated on matters of mercenary wars, stolen elections and corporate bailouts upon discovering the memoir of a 20th century revolutionist. Elizabeth Ruf-Maldonado adapted the Jack London novel as an operetta. $10. Through Oct 11 (Thurs through Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm). At Theater for the New City (155 First Ave, btw 9th/10th Aves). 212-254-1109 or www.theaterforthenewcity.net. tenement tALks The series presents a panel discussion and reception following a screening of the film “Lower East Side: An Endangered Place.” Free. Wed, Oct 14, 6:30pmFilm Screening, Panel and Reception. At the Tenement Museum Shop, 108 Orchard Street (Delancey). Call 212-982-8420 or visit www.tenement.org.

the season is “CPE REDUX: The Return of the Berlin Bach.” Sun, Oct 18, 3pm at St. Mark’s Church (131 East 10th St, at Second Ave). $20 Tickets available at the door; in advance, by calling 212-280-1086. Seniors (62 and over), students and musicians onehalf price. Subscription plans available.

Tours
federAL reserVe BAnk of new york tour Visitors will be able to tour the Fed’s gold vault and learn about the Federal Reserve’s central banking functions. Free. Federal Reserve Bank of NY, 33 Liberty Street. Call 212-720-6130, or visit newyorkfed.org. museum At eLdridGe street These guided tours, led by historian-trained docents tell the story of the 1887 landmark synagogue, and illuminate the experience of the East European Jewish immigrants who settled on the LES in the late 19th century. Sun.-Thurs, 10am-4pm. $10 adults, $8 seniors, $6 children. Museum at Eldridge Street, 12 Eldridge St. Call 212-219-0888, or visit eldridgestreet.org. ListinGs requests for the Downtown 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.

musIc
City winery Every Sunday, the Klezmer Brunch Series pairs top tier musicians with top tier lox and bagels. October 10, the NYC Wine & Food Festival presents a Bob Dylan Wine Pairing (9:30pm). 155 Varick Street (at Vandam). Call 212608-0555 or, for a full schedule of upcoming events, visit www.citywinery.com. “sundAys in-the-Bowery with the BAnd” features The Queen’s Chamber Band (with Elaine Comparone on harpsichord). Their inaugural concert of

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October 2 - 8, 2009

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koCh
“PARiS” (-)

on FilM

and stories are far more interesting. The film is playing at the IFC Center on Sixth Avenue at West Third Street. The theater has the most comfortable seats and often the best movies. On this occasion, however, it was only the seats that I enjoyed. Not Rated; 130 Minutes. In French with English subtitles. At IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue, at West 3rd Street). For screening times, call 212-924-7771 or visit www.ifccenter.com. For the Box Office, 212-924-5246.

The film, written and directed by Cedric Klapisch, received excellent reviews. My expectation was that the City of Lights would be displayed in an exceptional manner. Take it from me, it is not. I don’t claim to know Paris well, but I have visited the city on several occasions. In my opinion, its beauty is predicated on the splendor and uniformity of its architecture. Unfortunately, the panoramic views from the sky in this film are so small that the magnificence of the city and that harmonized architecture is lost. Pierre (Romain Duris) is a dancer in poor health due to a heart condition. His divorced sister Elise (Juliette Binoche) and her three children move in with him to tend to his needs. Elise decides to find a girlfriend for Pierre — who has his eye on a woman in an apartment across the street. The most interesting character is Roland (Fabrice Luchini), a professor who stalks one of his students, Laetitia (Melanie Laurent). With all of the advance publicity about “Paris,” I was surprised to feel so bored after having seen it. The movie is a French version of Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” but Altman’s characters

“CoCo BEFoRE ChAnEL” (+)

The film is about the two Chanel sisters — Gabrielle (Audrey Tautou) and Adrienne (Marie Gillain) — who at a young age were placed in an orphanage by their father. As young women, they both became courtesans and Cabaret entertainers. One wicked song they perform about a dog resulted in Gabrielle receiving the dog’s name, Coco, as her own. As courtesans, the young woman attract the attention of lovers. Adrienne meets a baron and Gabrielle a French nobleman, Etienne (Benoit Poelvoorde). From that point on we learn little of Adrienne’s life. Coco now occupies center stage. Coco’s affair with Etienne leads to a more intense affair with an Adonis-like Englishman known as Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola). Boy, in need of money, is already engaged to marry a wealthy Englishwoman. While
Audrey Tautou as Coco, before “Chanel”

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

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he will never marry Coco, their intense affair continues and becomes one of true love. The movie depicts the period in which Coco is played against the dissolute French society comprised of Etienne’s 2 friends — bawdy and ever searching for sensual pleasures. While there is little display of naked bodies, the mood of sexual joy between Coco and Boy truly dominates the screen and gets your attention. Tragedy enters Coco’s life. In response, she becomes one of the world’s great designers of women’s clothing — whose creations are still standards and delight the eye. Coco’s intelligence and indominibale spirit were her strength. She was totally unafraid of violating

conventions, and she never backed down. “Coco Before Chanel” is not a great film, but it is a good one. The show was sold out when I saw it on opening night at the Paris Theater, and the audience was comprised primarily of women. The picture reminded me of “La Vie en Rose,” which depicts the life of Edith Piaf and includes her most famous songs. If you haven’t seen that picture, get it on video. PG-13, 105 minutes. In French, with English subtitles.) At The Paris Theatre (4 W. 58th Street). For screening times, call (212) 688-3800 or visit www. theparistheatre.com. For the Box Office, call 212-593-4872.

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MIKE BLOOMBERG: GETTING RESuLTS FOR ThE MIDDLE CLASS.
Mike Bloomberg understands how hard it is for New York’s middle class to make ends meet in these difficult times. And he knows that you get results through independence, by standing up to the special interests and putting progress ahead of politics.
Prescription Drug Plan:
A new discount card to help New Yorkers save money on the high cost of prescription drugs.

Financial Aid for Students:
Making it easier for middle-class students to afford community colleges.

Fixing the MTA:
Taking on the bureaucracy at the MTA to make our subways and buses faster, safer, cleaner and more affordable.

Creating Jobs:
Creating or saving 400,000 jobs by cutting taxes for small businesses and investing in new technologies.

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MIKE BLOOMBERG: PROGRESS. NOT POLITICS.
Paid for by Bloomberg for Mayor 2009