DOWNTOWN EXPRESS, MAY 7, 2015

VOLUME 27, NUMBER 24

MAY 7-MAY 20, 2015

IS BEEKMAN SAFER AFTER HIT & RUN? B Y J O SH RO GE R S AND D U SI CA SU E MA L E S E V IC he hit and run driver who smashed into a pedestrian on a sidewalk near Spruce Street School last month has not been brought to justice, but she seems to have made her mark Downtown nonetheless. Beekman St. now seems less dangerous with traffic lights at the intersection of Nassau and stepped up enforcement. “I feel a lot safer,” parent Elena Brower said last week outside the school, referring to the new traffic signals that replaced stop signs. But the changes are not something that can quickly quell the fears of parents who have been worrying about the street’s safety since the school opened four years ago, particularly since there is still a lot of nearby construction. Beekman is “like the Wild West,”

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Downtown Express photo by Milo Hess

The Ladder 8 firehouse was a popular place stop last Saturday for the F.D.N.Y.’s 150th anniversary celebration across the city. The house, used in “Ghostbusters,” is expected to close for perhaps three years.

HITCHCOCK’S LOST DOCUMENTARY ON NAZIS PG. 6 TASTE OF TRIBECA CHEFS DISH ADVICE PG. 20

Tribeca’s ‘Ghostbusters’ firehouse to close for ‘gut renovation’ B Y J O SH ROGERS ho you gonna call? Another firehouse. Tribeca’s famed “Ghostbusters” firehouse is going to close soon for renovations. Hollywood probably won’t care about the temporary loss of the setting of its 1984 blockbuster and sequel, but for neighbors, it’ll mean longer emergency response times for

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quite some time. A firefighter with the Ladder 8 company at 14 N. Moore St. told a Downtown Express photographer that the house will soon close for about three years, and the company is not sure yet where it will go. Jim Long, a fire department spokesperson, said Ladder 8 will be relocated to another house, but it’s not yet decid-

1 MET ROT E CH • NYC 112 01 • COPYR IG HT © 2015 N YC COMMU N ITY MED IA , LLC

ed where. He said the F.D.N.Y. has to evaluate rebids to do the work before it knows when it will begin, how long it will take, and how much the project will cost. “It’ll be a gut renovation,” he said in a phone interview. “A large part of the work is to replace the floor so it can Continued on page 11

SENATOR HIP-HOP We’re pretty sure when Jay-Z drops his next single, he won’t have State Sen. Daniel Squadron rapping with him, but we have to think Mr. Beyonce appreciated the senator’s homage to him this week as Squadron argued against a bill that they both oppose. The bill allows ticket re-sellers like StubHub to continue to rake in profits from charitable concerts without any of the money going to charities like 9/11 families, which Jay-Z supported. Squadron on the floor of the Senate Tuesday rapped somewhat to the rhythm of Jay-Z’s “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”: “Thanks for comin’ out this afternoon/ You coulda been anywhere in the world, but you decided to come to session…H to the izz-O, T to the icket/ On charity

shows/ Sizellers say stick it/ Of ticket scalping, you wouldn’t believe/ How many charities have been cheated, funds diverted like thieves...Now’s the time, Mr. President, I vote N to the izz-O.” Squadron also recited “We shouldn’t scalp the tickets” to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” but we think his heart is really with Hip-Hop. His fans — Squadron’s that is, not Joel’s — may recall his extended 2011 prose tribute, on the Senate floor to MCA, who at the time was recently deceased and was a.k.a. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. Think we’re kidding? Check the video clips at downtownexpress.com.

WHIM OR A PRAYER? It remains a mystery how the Battery Park City Authority decides permits for the ballfields in the neighborhood. We tried asking Robin Forst, vice president for external relations, repeatedly and in many different ways what guidelines the authority uses for the process. That got us nowhere — we were told there were no published or written guidelines. Apparently the decision could be made on a whim or a prayer for all anyone knows. We filed a Freedom of Information

request for any written communications about the ballfield permits or any indication of how the decisions are made — since the B.P.C.A. decided to change the process by opening up the coveted fields to the whole city. It took 12 days not the required five, for them to even acknowledge our request. Then they sent us an application to apply. No thanks, we don’t want to compete with Downtown Little League. Committee member Jeffrey Mihok asked Forst Tuesday night at Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee meeting if the B.P.C.A. had reconsidered the opening up of the permit process — a huge concern for the community that fought to build and then Astroturf the ballfields for yearlong use. Forst responded that they had met with the Downtown Soccer League and “We hear you” — but that question, like the permit process itself, remained unanswered.

HIGH LIFE When Russian B-baller Andrei Kirilenko played for the Brooklyn Nets, he and his family lived Downtown at New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce St. — not coincidentally, we think, developer Bruce Ratner owns the Nets and the

Daniel Squadron covering Jay-Z.

building. But now that Kirilenko is playing back in Russia, his old 5-bedroom penthouse with spectacular views is back on the rental market, at a mere $45,000 a month. The apartment, which has only had Kirilenko as a tenant, includes a guest suite for a nanny or visitors. These may not be drawing cards for the next renter, but in case it’s only slightly out of your price range consider: an excellent public K-8, Spruce Street School, is on the ground floor; and the building is about to begin its own CitiBike-like bike share program with we suspect higher-quality bicycles.

Join us & make Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza

SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2015 Noon - 2 P.M. (Rain or shine) Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza (at Edgar Street and Trinity Place)

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May 7-May 20, 2015

The Downtown Alliance invites you to join us and your neighbors as we plant new flowers and spruce up Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza. We’ll provide the plantings, the tools and the top soil — you bring some elbow grease. Together, we’ll make Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza bloom, and the kids will have a blast too. Light refreshments will be available.

To learn more, visit: DowntownNY.com

DowntownNY.com

DowntownExpress.com

World Trade Center sidewalk is liberated for walkers B Y J O SH RO G E R S It was 40 or 50 small steps for man, and though it won’t be remembered as “a giant leap for mankind,” it did make a little World Trade Center history. Yves Guelat, a Swiss businessman on his way to a meeting at one World Financial Center, ended up being the first to traverse the newly opened sidewalk on the north side of Liberty St. May 5, 2015 just before 10 a.m. “It was a pleasure to do so,” he told Downtown Express, after he found out why two photographers were taking pictures of him near 4 W.T.C. The Port Authority’s Steve Plate, who is in charge of W.T.C. construction, and his colleague Glenn Guzi used just their hands rather than ceremonial scissors to remove the tape blocking the sidewalk. Within seconds, Guelat, Stephanie Adams, a business colleague from Boston, and several others passed through as if it had always been open. The W.T.C.’s PATH station will expand on Thursday, May 7 when Platform B opens, said Plate, who’s been directly involved with W.T.C. rebuilding since 9/11. He said it will put the station back to pre-9/11 capacity. New entrances at 4 W.T.C. and the 2 W.T.C. site are expected to open soon, perhaps next month, although the complete opening of $4 billion expanded station is still a ways off. At Liberty on Tuesday, Plate said, “We’re really close to being finished. It’s part of connecting the site back into the fabric of this great city.” Erica Dumas, a Port spokesperson,

said the day before that “this is an early opening” for the north side of Liberty, which has been closed since 9/11, nearly 14 years ago. “That’s great news,” Steven Abramson, who lives on the other side of Liberty, said a day before the opening. “We really get creamed on the south side of Liberty St... It’s still going to be a bottleneck, but I’ll be able to hop across the street and walk away.” On Wedesday, he said neighbors have been telling him they notice an improvement. Abramson and other Downtown Express photos by Josh Rogers residents on the block have said that the openThe Port Authority’s Steve Plate, just before he opened the Liberty St. sidewalk for pedestrians. ing of part of Liberty St. last May, which coincided with the cials said the change would happen other hand, I like to do it in such a opening of the 9/11 Museum and less this week on an unspecified day. way that we can have a constructive He said it seems community per- dialogue,” he said. “I don’t want it to fettered access to the memorial plaza, led to a crush of tourists on the block. sistence is paying off. be like Congress where both sides butt “I like to pressure them, on the heads and nothing gets done.” The opening of 4 W.T.C. last October exacerbated the problem, Abramson said, because it prompted new security measures, including concrete barriers on the southern sidewalk. Abramson said he had heard a few weeks ago that the sidewalk opening would come sometime next month, but last week during a walk through with him, members of Community Board 1 and other leaders, Port offi-

Stephanie Adams and Yves Guelat, who walked the new sidewalk immediately after it opened. DowntownExpress.com

May 7-May 20, 2015

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STRANGER SLASHES WOMAN It turned ugly when a woman ignored a man who tried chatting her up at the Brooklyn Bridge station (J, Z 4,5,6) in the Civic Center on Sat., May 2 at around 6 p.m., police say. The man, who was later described to police as around 35, 5’6” and 165 pounds, tried to engage the woman, 34, in conversation. When she ignored him, he spat at her — and she just laughed. But then he took out a sharp instrument and slashed her in the arm. He fled the station. The woman was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, where she was treated and then released, police say.

TEEN GIRLS GRABS IPHONE A group of 14-year-old girls snatched an iPhone 6 out of another woman’s hand while she was waiting for her train, police say. The woman, 29, was waiting on Tues., Apr. 28 at midnight for a southbound A or C train at the Fulton St. station in the Financial District. The

teenagers approached her and grabbed the smart phone, police say. The Brooklyn woman could describe two of the girls — one was 5’6” with short hair in a bun and light-colored gray sweatpants, another was 5’3” with shoulder length hair. The girls fled toward the J, Z platform. The “Find my iPhone” app yielded no results.

ANOTHER FIDI GYM THEFT The thefts keep coming at the Planet Fitness at 25 Broadway in the Financial District — with the third one taking place on Tues., Apr. 28, police say. In this latest incident, a man, 29, came back from working out at 9:30 a.m. to find the lock on his locker gone and his MacBook, worth $2,000, missing, police say. Earlier in April, another man’s locker was ripped off with the thief cleaning out everything inside. In another incident, a woman who left her wallet unattended on a mat for a few minutes regretted that decision — someone grabbed the wallet and took out the cash and credit cards.

SAMARITAN TURNS THIEF It seemed as if, for a moment, a straphanger was helping out a fellow rider who had dropped his iPhone 6 on the track — but that kumbaya moment was ruined when the man who retrieved the phone refused to give it back, police say. On Wed., Apr. 29 at 3:30 p.m., a Bronx man, 20, dropped his $800 smartphone on the tracks near the uptown 4,5 platform at Bowling Green. A man of about 20 got the phone off the track and refused to give it back to its owner, saying, “You have to pay me!” The suspect’s friend got involved when the owner tried to detain the thief saying, “If you touch my friend, I’m gonna [mess] you up!” He then pushed and punched the phone owner — who sustained no injuries. A third suspect was also involved, but it is unclear how. They all fled the scene.

SUSPECT CAUGHT WITH $6 After three women argued, one stole $6 and took off, police say. It is unclear what the argument was

over, but it happened on Sun., May 3 at 5:15 p.m., police say. One of the women, 21, took the money out of the hand of the other woman, 20, who was there with her friend, also 20. Police canvassed the area and found her at 111 John St. with the cash and arrested her.

FOR THE LOVE OF SOCCER A Seaport resident went to a soccer game at Yankee Stadium on Sun., May 3 during the day. When she came back to her neighborhood at 6 p.m., she went to make a purchase at the Duane Reade at 200 Water St., her wallet was gone, police say. The woman, 28, remembers using her wallet when she brought food at the game. She told police that were unauthorized charges on her cards, but the bank had yet to specify where. The thief also got away with her passport.

— DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden 421 East 61st Street, New York, NY 212-838-6878 • mvhm.org

Heirloom Gardening Lecture by Ken Greene Co-Founder of the Hudson Valley Seed Library May 20 at 6:30pm Event will kick off our exhibit The Garden Before the Grid: Seeds, Produce, and Markets in 19th-Century New York

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May 7-May 20, 2015

Would you and your family like the chance to win a cash jackpot and a family reunion holiday? We are looking for British families based in the UK and America to take part in a BBC game show. Contact: family@12yard.com Or write to: 5 Star Family Reunion, 12 Yard Productions, The Hub G7, 70 Pacific Quay, Glasgow, G51 1DZ

The closing date for returning application forms is 31st May 2015. Application forms received after this date may not be considered. All applicants must be aged 18 years and over. Terms and conditions apply. DowntownExpress.com

North Cove Marina plans revealed just before sailing season B Y D U SI CA S U E M A LE S E V IC Brookfield Office Properties and their partners unveiled plans for a shortened season at North Cove Marina Tuesday night — and reverberations from the former operator’s ousting were felt. David Cheikin, senior vice president of leasing for Brookfield Office Properties, introduced the partners who will run the marina as well as the sailing school and club at Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee meeting May 5. Island Global Yachting will manage marina operations and Offshore Sailing School is in charge of the school and club. The marina is slated to open May 21. Brookfield and I.G.Y. were named the marina’s operator at Battery Park City Authority’s January meeting, much to the consternation of many in the community, who backed Michael Fortenbaugh. Fortenbaugh had run a popular sailing school for kids for 20 years and had run the marina for 10. Doris Colgate runs Offshore with her husband, Steve. The school, which was brought in after the bid was awarded, has been in business for over 50 years and has won a slew of awards. Colgate said that there will be a sailing club, corporate and charity events and regattas. The youth sailing program will run June 22 through Aug. 10. As of now, Offshore will have seven boats at the marina and 12 next season, she said. With 12 boats, it is possible to accommodate up to 300 children. There will be two sessions each day Monday through Friday. If a child does both sessions everyday, it will

Downtown Express photo by Dusica Sue Malesevic

North Cove Marina.

cost around $600. Fifty percent of spaces will be scholarships for at-risk and underprivileged kids, she said. When asked why there’ll only be seven boats this year, Colgate said, “We are limited by the agreement. They want to bring, rightfully so, the larger boats on the other three docks.” “To the authority, it’s what we feared, why we didn’t want you to do this and it’s outrageous. Your program sounds great, but there used to be more boats than you could count and you’re talking about seven,” said Jeffrey Mihok, committee member. “Even the vendor you brought in is clearly annoyed by that.”

“I don’t think that’s fair,” said Cheikin, who said there’s half the number of docks in the marina because Fortenbaugh took them. Pile remediation on the south end of the marina is also a factor. That work will be done from July to October. There are 16 berths available and some may go to historic boats, said Simon Bryan, who is part of I.G.Y. and will be the manager of North Cove Marina. “It doesn’t leave us much capacity for visiting boats,” Bryan said. Cheikin said they like idea of party ships, although those boats “clearly will not be able to dominate” the marina. “From our perspective what we like about it is — it brings people through the retail several times a day,” he said. Tammy Meltzer, a committee member, said the community “has spoken quite loudly that North Cove Marina was not a great location for neither ferries or large party boats because there is extraordinary noise and sound that carries both north and south.” Mihok said, “The community is fairly O.C.D. about not wanting party boats docking there.” The future of the historic schooners Shearwater and the Ventura docking at the marina is also not clear as Brookfield Properties and the B.P.C.A. have yet to sign the contract. When asked why — when the bid was awarded in January — neither Cheikin or the authority’s Robin Forst and Kevin McCabe would comment.

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Hitchcock’s long-lost Nazi documentary BY L I N CO L N A N DE R S O N On Tues., May 19, the Museum of Jewish Heritage will premiere a never-before-seen 1945 documentary directed by Alfred Hitchcock. However, unlike a typical film by the master of suspense, this isn’t a psychological thriller that will leave viewers wondering until the mystery is finally unraveled at the last minute. Rather, the documentary was made with the opposite intent: to erase any mystery about what really happened in the Nazi death camps, to expose the unvarnished truth about the Holocaust. It’s called “German Concentration Camps Factual Survey.” In English and German, with English subtitles, it runs 88 minutes. When the camps were liberated, extensive footage of them was shot by British, American and Russian military cameramen, as well as by newsreel cameramen. This array of film, in turn, was used by the British Ministry of Information to create a documentary that would condemn the Nazi regime and document the magnitude of its crimes. In short, it was meant to be the film to be shown to German prisoners of war and the German public to shame them into accepting the Allied occupation. Sidney Bernstein, chief of the film division of the Psychological Warfare Division of the Allied Expeditionary Force, initiated the project and fought for its production. Hitchcock — who was

HIGHWAY TO HEALTH FESTIVAL

described by Bernstein as the film’s director — spent a month overseeing the editing. Ultimately, though, the film was shelved. Now, seven decades later, England’s Imperial War Museum has digitally restored the documentary and assembled it for the first time exactly as Bernstein and Hitchcock originally intended. Bruce Ratner is best known for his development prowess, including building New York by Gehry in Lower Manhattan, the New York Times building, and Barclays Center — home of the Brooklyn Nets, of which he is a part owner. In addition to his development work, Ratner takes immense pride in being chairperson of the board of trustees of Battery Park City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, a position he has held for the past year. The opportunity for the Lower Manhattan museum to host the East Coast premiere of the forgotten 1945 documentary is a great honor, he said. “I would say it’s a major moment in Holocaust documentary,” he stated in a phone interview. “When the Russians reported on Auschwitz, it wasn’t believed. This film was meant to prove and show what the German people and what the Nazis had done — and then to tell the people of the world. “It still shakes the soul, shakes the mind to see this film,” Ratner said. “The ‘Holocaust,’ the word, did not exist as we know it now until the 1970s. Had this documentary been shown at the time, it

would have accelerated understanding of the atrocities and extreme brutality of the Nazis.” As for why the film, in the end, was left on the shelf, he said, there were a number of factors. “It got delayed, in general, in the summer of 1945,” he said. “They didn’t have the Russian material from Auschwitz.” But the film’s visceral impact and condemning message were also reasons why it was decided not to show it back then: In short, there was a fear of alienating the Germans and driving them toward the Soviets. Rebuilding became the focus, not de-Nazi-fication. “You wanted to win them over, and it was felt that this would not do that,” Ratner explained. “Germany became the focal point of the Cold War.” Ratner was born in 1945, and growing up, heard family members talking about the Holocaust. His family lost about 120 members across Germany and Eastern Europe in the war. Afterward, his father sponsored many survivors who came over to America. In 1976, Ratner went to Poland to see Auschwitz for himself. “It was communist,” he said. “Nobody visited Auschwitz in those days.” The Nazis killed about 1 million Jews at the infamous killing camp. Other victims included Continued on page 7

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May 7-May 20, 2015

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to premiere in Battery Park City Continued from page 6

Gypsies, the disabled, homosexuals, dissidents and non-Jewish Poles and Russians. “It’s inexplicable,” Ratner said. “That’s why it very much resonates today.” While the Russians filmed Auschwitz, the British documented Bergen-Belsen, and the Yanks recorded other sites. Other camps shown include Dachau, Buchenwald and Majdanek. In all, the film includes footage from 14 locations (10 camps and four sites of atrocity) discovered in Austria, Germany and Poland. The combat cameramen who shot the footage used very simple cameras, Ratner noted, but “there were a lot of them.” Although Bernstein called Hitchcock the director, a more apt description would be “treatment adviser,” according to a release by the Imperial War Museums, in that Hitchcock was not present for the actual filming or the creation of the rough-cut. The documentary bears a

Hitchcock hallmark, Ratner said, namely, long, wide shots that show the scenes in their full context. “That was done to prove it wasn’t staged,” he explained. The movie also uses symbolism to evoke the camps’ horrors. “Hitchcock was always about symbolism,” Ratner noted. “It’s not like the 15-minute newsreels of the day. It’s done with a certain degree of artistry and care.” Five rough-cut reels of the film were originally completed, but a planned sixth reel was never made — until now. To create the new, digital version, the restorers went back to the original footage — a total of 100 reels of film — and followed the 1945 film team’s instructions. There is also a new soundtrack, with a narrator reading the original script, plus new sound effects added. Ratner has seen five of the film’s six reels. Asked how graphic it is, he admitted, “It’s very hard to watch.” For now, the plan is to show the long-lost documentary on only one night, Tues., May 19, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, at 36 Battery

Image courtesy of Imperial War Museums

A still from Alfred Hitchcock’s documentary film, “German Concentration Camps Factual Survey,” which will be shown in Battery Park City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage this month. The April, 1945 image shows Jewish children at the BergenBelsen camp after the British liberated them.

Place, at 7:30 p.m. “They want to be very careful about how this is being released,” Ratner said.

Tickets for the premiere are available at mjhnyc.org, or by calling 646437-4202. Ticket prices are $25, $15 for members and $10 for students.

A Celebration of the

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MAY 7-10, 2015 Trinity Church &

Thursday, May 7

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Friday, May 8

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SPIRITUALS

The Choir of Trinity Wa ll Street Stanley Thurston, guest conductor

Saturday, May 9

7pm | Trinity Church

COMPOSER PORTRAIT : Trevor Weston The Choir of Trinity Wa ll Street Julian Wachner, condu ctor

St. Paul’s Chapel

Sunday, May 10

11:15am | Trinity Church

CHORAL EUCHARIST: Duke Ellington’s Sacred Service The Choir of Trinity Wall Street Julian Wachner, conductor

2pm | Trinity Church FINALE: Circlesongs with

Bobby McFerrin and the Choir of Trinity Wall Street Learn more at:

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Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street t St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway & Fulton Stree

REGGAE DANCE PARTY

9pm | St. Paul’s Chapel

DowntownExpress.com

May 7-May 20, 2015

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Coyote caught in B.P.C.

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LIU Brooklyn School of Business, Public Administration and Information Sciences

Entrepreneur and Visionary Edward Rogoff Selected as Dean of LIU Brooklyn School of Business Dr. Edward Rogoff has been selected to lead the LIU Brooklyn School of Business, Public Administration and Information Sciences. Dr. Rogoff is the recipient of the 2010 Outstanding Educator of the Year award, given by The United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He joins LIU Brooklyn from Baruch College, where he directed the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship. Dr. Rogoff founded the CUNY Center for Student Entrepreneurship and was instrumental in developing nationally ranked undergraduate and graduate Entrepreneurship programs. “The LIU community is privileged to have Dr. Rogoff join our University,” said Dr. Kimberly R. Cline, president of LIU. “A leader in business curriculum development and an experienced entrepreneur, he has a deep understanding of New York City, national, and global business landscapes. Dr. Rogoff’s vision for the University’s business-focused academic programming reaffirms LIU’s growing reputation as a leading experiential

learning university.” “It is an honor to join LIU Brooklyn, a rising university rife with opportunity and a palpable spirit of entrepreneurial thinking,” said Dr. Rogoff. “I look forward to working with the esteemed faculty at LIU Brooklyn to bring the School of Business, Public Administration and Information Sciences to new levels of achievement. My approach has always been to teach students to be business leaders, not to teach students about business leadership.” “I see the rapid change in technology, financial systems, and entrepreneurship support systems as new demands on business education and great opportunities for LIU with its current curriculum in these areas, strong faculty, and involvement with many of the leading businesses in these sectors,” said Rogoff. “We need to keep evolving to meet these needs and anticipate the coming demands on business schools,” he said. Dr. Rogoff prides himself on building what he calls “structures of opportunity” to serve LIU Brooklyn students, the

University community, and New York City. According to Rogoff, exceptional opportunities exist in the form of potential synergies with leaders and organizations helping to take advantage of downtown Brooklyn’s preeminence in real estate, technology, and arts activity and commerce. “Dr. Rogoff possesses the rare combination of entrepreneurial skill and educational creativity, said Dr. Jeffrey Kane, vice president for Academic Affairs.” He has a well-deserved reputation for making a difference at the convergence of business, scholarship, and community. We are delighted about the educational and career opportunities Dr. Rogoff’s leadership brings to current and future LIU Brooklyn students.” LIU Brooklyn’s business-focused students and academic programs are well known in New York City business and higher education communities. Students currently hold competitive internship positions at the Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Nets, New York Stock Exchange, and the U.S. Department of Commerce, among others.

LIU Brooklyn’s School of Business also enjoys partner affi liations with the “Big Four” accounting firms, where students and alumni intern, work, and excel. As a result, LIU Brooklyn is ranked among the Top 50 Colleges in the Northeast for Salary potential by Payscale.com. Dr. Edward Rogoff is the author of two books, The Entrepreneurial Conversation and Bankable Business Plans, and his work has been published in The New York Times, The Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship Research Journal, and Forbes. He holds a B.A., M.B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Columbia University. LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY LIU is one of the nation’s largest private universities. Since its founding in 1926, LIU has provided high quality academic programs taught by worldclass faculty. LIU offers 500 accredited programs to more than 20,000 students and has a network of over 200,000 alumni that includes leaders in industries across the globe. Visit liu.edu for more information.

Take the Next Step at LIU Brooklyn’s

School of Business, Public Administration and Information Sciences • Join an experiential university where tech, entrepreneurial thinking, and influence converge • Ranked as one of the top 50 colleges in the Northeast for salary potential by PayScale.com • Supported by a network of over 200,000 alumni • Top internship placements at The New York Stock Exchange, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch, and the U.S. Department of Commerce, among others • Located minutes from the MetroTech business district, Wall Street and Midtown Manhattan Choose from 4 Academic Areas: • Finance, Law, Accounting and Taxation • Managerial Sciences • Public Administration • Technology, Innovation and Computer Science

Find out. liu.edu/brooklyn/business DowntownExpress.com

May 7-May 20, 2015

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Hit & run on Beekman Continued from page 1

said Ashley Duncan, who has three children at the school. “If [cars] can’t make the turn, they just jump the curb. It’s a real big danger.” That’s exactly what happened April 13 outside the school. Video viewed by Downtown Express shows the driver backing up several times in order to be able to make the turn onto the sidewalk and head west past a traffic jam. The driver, who police believe is a woman, apparently didn’t realize she had pinned a pedestrian to the wall, badly injuring the victim’s leg and cutting her face. The video was taken by Terence McDonagh, project executive of New Line Structures, Inc., which is working with Pace University on constructing a new dorm at 33 Beekman St. He said he was not authorized to release it to the press. Captain Mark Iocco, the First Precinct’s commanding officer, said the same car was involved in an accident in Brooklyn about 30 minutes after that incident. The car was pulling into a parking spot and hit an elderly lady, he said at last week’s meeting of the First Precinct Community Council. The elderly woman couldn’t identify her, and could only confirm that the driver was a female, he said. “Right now she’s a suspect,” said Iocco. There are four witnesses that the police have spoken to, but none of them could see through the tinted windows of the car. The police are looking to speak with one more witness, a jogger who may have seen through the windows and

gotten a good look, but he hasn’t been found yet, said Iocco. The suspect has filed an insurance claim. The police are working with the insurance company and they are “investigating her up and down,” said Iocco. Meeting attendees pressed him to question her, but he said. “We could bring her in as a suspect … but if she says ‘I want a lawyer’ — this is going to go nowhere. “We want to have a solid case when we bring this to the D.A. We can’t bring it the D.A. with holes all over it.” But even if she is charged, it would only be for a misdemeanor, according to officers in the precinct’s community affairs office. Meanwhile on the street, the new traffic signals, which city officials insist were not installed because of the hit and run, are helping. The Dept. of Transportation approved the signals last year, but delayed the installation because of the construction of The Beekman hotel at 5 Beekman St. The construction is nearly complete, allowing the installation, but there are still construction -related lane closures nearby on Nassau St. and the Pace project. Liz Chen, a Spruce parent, said that ironically, when the K-8 school opened, safety measures were put in east of the school, but now more students will be coming from the west along Beekman because of a rezoning prompted by the new Peck Slip School. Beekman traffic has been a problem since police closed part of Park Row for security reasons Chen said. “It’s been bumper to bumper since 9/11,” she added.

Castle Shakespeare While Shakespeare Downtown’s free performances of “Romeo and Juliet” at Castle Clinton have been canceled for this summer; Bard lovers should fret not, for the New York Classical Theatre is performing “Measure for Measure” outside the grounds of the historic Castle. Now in its 16th season of free outdoor productions, New York Classical Theatre is performing “Measure for Measure” from July 4 to August 9, Tuesdays through Sundays from 7 to 9 p.m. as well as at Brooklyn Bridge Park for some August dates. The company is also putting on “Taming of the Shrew” at Teardrop Park in Battery Park City. Go to www.newyorkclassical.org for

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May 7-May 20, 2015

more information. Shakespeare Downtown (www. shakespearedowntown.org) has postponed “Romeo and Juliet” until June of next year. Funding was the issue for the young non-profit Shakespeare Downtown, which needed $35,000 to put on the play at Castle Clinton, Billie Andersson, the company’s artistic director, told us last month. Andersson started an Indiegogo campaign that raised $5,155 and said in a Thurs., Apr. 30 email, “The only way we could do the play this year is by making extreme compromises. By next year, we hope the extra time will allow us to put on the best production we possibly can.”

Downtown Express photo by Josh Rogers

New traffic signals have been put in at the intersection of Beekman and Nassau Sts.

5 BEEKMAN

ACCIDENT SITE

33 BEEKMAN

Map courtesty of Google Maps

Construction of a hotel at 5 Beekman and a dorm at 33 have made the street more unsafe, parents and community leaders say.

Vbar Seaport opening soon New restaurant Vbar Seaport may be opening May 15 or sooner, Enrico Ciotti, founder of Vbar & Company, told Downtown Express recently. The third restaurant for the group, at 212 Front St., will be open all day. The menu is focused on seafood with a Mediterranean vibe. “We don’t like to rubberstamp” our restaurants, said Ciotti. The first Vbar opened in 2000 in the Greenwich Village followed by the second in 2010 on St. Marks Place.

Do you remember when____________ happened downtown? ...We do. Visit Our Archives At Downtownexpress.com DowntownExpress.com

‘Ghostbusters’ fire house to close for awhile

Downtown Express photos by Milo Hess

Above, a memorial for Harold Ramis last year. The narrow firehouse includes the “Ghostbusters” logo, above right. Continued from page 1

support the apparatus.” Modern, heavier fire trucks are particularly tough on older firehouses. Long said the electricity and plumbing will also be upgraded. The N. Moore firehouse opened in 1905 and was originally a wide double-truck house, but in 1914, the house was cut in half to make room for the widening of Varick St. Ladder 8, which

began on Franklin St. in 1865, was slated to be closed permanently in 2011, but pressure from the City Council saved it along with 19 other houses on the chopping block. The house last year served as a makeshift memorial for actor Harold Ramis, the “Ghostbusters” star. On 9/11, the company rushed to the burning Twin Towers, where Ladder 8’s Lieutenant Vincent Halloran was killed.

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BY JANE L B L A D O W Yay! It’s May! After this winter, I didn’t think it would ever come. But our great neighborhood is shaking off the doldrums and blooming again. All the pots, beds and gardens from Dover to Wall, East River to Nassau are planted, flowering and colorful. Worth the walk around the hood.

A GRAND OPENING….

South Street Seaport Museum kicked off its 2015 season in style with politicos, pundits and even a new president! Captain Jonathan Boulware, who has been at the helm of this rocky ship since 2013 as interim president (hey guys, update the website to acknowledge his new title,) was officially named executive director. And he looked as happy as a clam at his first official event on April 25 as he launched the gangplanks to open the historic ships on Pier 16. We’ll catch up with him in the next month to recount a fish tale or two.

ON THE MOVE…

Over the weekend Save Our Seaport (S.O.S.) and

the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (M.W.A.) joined forces with the Municipal Art Society (MAS) – phew! I have acronymitis! – to celebrate the legacy of urban activist Jane Jacobs with a walking tour through the Seaport. Nearly 100 history buffs and Seaport fans joined leaders Margaret Flanagan and Roland Lewis on several free treks, titled “Towering Masts to Towers: A Conversation about the Past, Present and Future of the Seaport.” The talk touched on hot topics, from the first Dutch settlers through current, controversial development plans. A little political activism and history lesson along with a pep step or two made for an enlightening time outdoors enjoying our community. “To me, the [event] showcased the motivation behind Jane’s Walk – getting people out walking in, looking at and talking about neighborhoods,” said historian Susan De Vries. “Save Our Seaport members …stressed that the Seaport is also OUR neighborhood as New Yorkers. Walks like

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Participants aboard the South Street Seaport Museum’s Ambrose during “Jane’s Walk,” an event honoring Jane Jacobs.

this, especially when held on a beautiful night in an atmospheric neighborhood, inspire conversation and, hopefully, participation in the life and future of our city.” Flanagan, also maritime operations manager of the Waterfront Alliance commented to Seaport Report about the adventure: “Jane’s Walkers in the Seaport compared our local plans to create a successful community-driven waterfront, highlighting maritime heritage and markets, to cities like Vancouver and Seattle. We dug deeper into the goals behind the establishment of the Seaport historic district, and into the factors behind its current re-development.” Check them out for upcoming free tours, mas.org/janeswalk/walks/

BROADWAY AND BALLET…

Why travel Uptown? Catch two superstars of Broadway and a ballet diva’s troupe in your own backyard. A Broadway legend in her own time Patti LuPone, two-time Tony Award Winner for Evita and Gypsy, performs on Saturday evening, May 5, in the Schimmel Center at Pace University, 3 Spruce St. In “Far Away Places,” she “shares her penchant for wanderlust” by taking the audience on “a musical journey.” The songbird is joined by a five-piece band to belt out the best by Sondheim, Porter, Piaf, Willie Nelson and the Bee Gees. Also coming this month…the Gelsey Kirkland Ballet performs Don Quixote four times the following week. The series winds up the month with

another Broadway biggie, Ben Vereen, who offers a festival of song and dance from his Broadway shows (Pippin, Wicked and more) with a three-piece band. Info: schimmel.pace.edu/events or call the box office 212 346-1715.

MEETING POSTPONED…

No annual meeting of Southbridge Towers this Saturday. The co-op’s board of directors have moved it to June 29. An election for a new board of directors will take place the day before. All residents who hit the road for summer, take note.

PUMP IT UP…

Join in or get out and support the annual American Heart Association Walk/Run on Thursday, May 28. The 3-mile course starts at 6:45 p.m., rain or shine, begins in Tribeca and winds up Pearl St., then down Water St. Finish line is over at Brookfield Place with a festival of fun. Registration closes midnight Wednesday, May 13. More than $1.6-million is already pledged toward the $2,750,000 goal.

AND LASTLY…

Don’t forget your mom! Sunday is Mom’s Day so take her out to one of our local, lovely restaurants, buy her some flowers, give her a peck on the cheek or at the very least, please pick up the phone! Over at Da Claudio, 21 Ann St., 20 percent of all lunch and dinner receipts will go to the charity Every Mother Counts. Enjoy a full menu, including springtime specials, and a surprise cocktail blended with mom in mind. DowntownExpress.com

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DowntownExpress.com

May 7-May 20, 2015

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Fanfare, First Lady & neighbors welcome BY LINC O L N A N D E RSO N Standing on one of the new Whitney Museum of American Art’s outdoor terraces, one can take in the whole sweep of the surrounding neighborhood. According to the museum, this was the intent: to have the terraces face inward toward the city, as opposed to outward toward the Hudson River. From the museum’s terraces, one can visually track how the Meatpacking District has evolved. Just to the north is the Standard Hotel, completed in 2009, perched on a massive trestle, straddling the High Line below. The elevated park opened the same year and immediately became one of the city’s top tourist attractions. On a recent Sunday, the High Line was teeming with people swirling about below tree boughs blooming with white and purple petals — almost like some sort of wildly busy Jackson Pollock painting when viewed from the Whitney’s terraces above. Over on Washington St., a former row of meat lockers — with forgotten names like Lamb Unlimited The new Whitney Museum. and Diamond Meats — has been “Mama mia!… What a joy. Welcome transformed into an office building sporting a twisting black metal lattice to the brand-new piazza,” he said. and grass lawns. It’s the new home “Some like to call it the lobby. I’m of the cutting-edge cell-phone giant Italian, I call it the piazza. It’s a place of meeting — it’s a place of city life.” Samsung. The piazza is specifically the Now, rising majestically at the 8,50 0 -square-foot public center of it all, is the new plaza beneath the muse$422 million Renzo PianoU um’s dramatic cantilevered designed Whitney Museum. ARO ND entranceway. which opened to the public “I wanted to make it on Fri., May 1. fly,” Piano said of the design First Lady Michelle of the 220,000-square-foot Obama was at the preview building, which sits on enorceremony the day before with mous support poles, suspended over Mayor Bill de Blasio and others. “I took a brief tour and I fell in the glass-enclosed first floor, as if on love with the building,” Obama said. air. However, Piano quipped, “It’s “This was the most beautiful freight 28,000 tons — so it doesn’t fly. “Art is freedom,” he said. elevator I’ve ever ridden on. Just about every space in this building is “Especially American art — a bit wild.” magnificent.” As a result, the building must mirRobert Hurst, the museum’s co-chairperson, noted, “Rarely does ror that feeling, he said: “It’s got to be one have the opportunity to build a brave, flying...a bit unpolite.” The museum’s 18,000-square-foot museum from the ground up in New York... This defining location places fifth floor is the largest column-free the Whitney among the city’s cultural museum exhibition space in New York. icons.” “I love making buildings, but I Piano, the architect who created the massive “floating ship,” spoke especially like making buildings for over the occasional din of traffic public use,” Piano said. “Art and beauty make us better people. Beauty from the nearby West Side Highway.

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May 7-May 20, 2015

Photos courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art

From left, Whitney Director Adam Weinberg, Michelle Obama, Mayor de Blasio at the Whitney Museum on April 30.

builds curiosity and desire. I’m pretty sure that beauty will save the world. “Thank you for coming,” he concluded. “The building is yours.” Adam Weinberg, the Whitney’s director, said, “People are calling the building ‘generous’ — airy, open, light, but comfortable and warm.” Mayor de Blasio said “This is an

extraordinary day for New York City, for this nation, for art,” he said. Eighty-four years and four locations later, the museum has returned to the neighborhood where it all began. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, an Continued on page 15

DowntownExpress.com

the Whitney Museum Downtown Continued from page 14

artist, art patron, collector and member of one of America’s wealthiest families, started the museum back during the Great Depression. Back then it was known as the Whitney Studio Club and was located in her apartment on MacDougal Alley. She would hold salons there. The mayor said, “Our first lady knows that the arts are essential to the development of our young people.” Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, Obama recalled, she didn’t think places like the Whitney were for her. Too many children today feel that way, she said. Even a little exposure can go a long way. “One visit, one performance, one touch — and who knows? — you can change a life,” Obama said. “You can find the next Edward Hopper — or who knows? — the next Barack Obama.” The museum includes a wall-length painting by Lee Krasner done right after her husband, Jackson Pollock’s, death; plus “Calder’s Circus,” a diorama of small wire sculptures of big-top performers by Alexander Calder, with which he would do live performances; as well as Willem de Kooning’s famously frenetic “Woman and Bicycle”; Jean-Michel Basquiat’s cynical “Hollywood Africans”; and an in-your-face nude by Carroll Dunham, father of

Lena Dunham of “Girls” fame. Works by Mark Rothko, Georgia O’Keefe and Thomas Hart Benton hang near those of other artists whose names are unfamiliar to most. The museum’s top floors can all be accessed by exterior stairways. Walking down the sleek metal-grate steps, one has the feeing of climbing down through a great clipper ship’s rigging. It also provides a nice breath of fresh air and a visual recharge after viewing each floor’s artworks. The work is arranged chronologically, becoming more contemporary as you descend. Particularly poignant, in the ’60s section, in light of the 40th anniversary of the Vietnam War’s end, is Howard Lester’s video installation “One Week in Vietnam,” which rapidly flashes the names and photos of all the U.S. soldiers killed during a single week, while the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love” plays along. Even the bookstore / gift shop, on the first floor, has an open feeling: It has no walls. The museum was open for free for members the Sunday before the public unveiling. “Oh, it’s wonderful,” said Harriette Silverberg Natkins, an Upper West Sider, after visiting the museum. “Have you been to the other Whitney? This one lets the art breathe.” Standing on the plaza out front, Karen Groner, a designer from Bank St., said, “It’s visually beautiful inside. All three elevators are different. Each

floor sort of has a different window configuration. And I love the wooden floors... And I think the plaza is going to be a zoo all summer.” Will, however, the Whitney be a bit too dynamic? The place’s V.I.P. grand opening April 24 brought a reported crowd of 3,000 partiers to celebrate Downtown’s new art mecca. It was so packed, some people were reportedly worried about the safety of the art on the wall, according to the Post’s Page Six. Among the boldface names rubbing shoulders were artists Julian Schnabel and Kiki Smith and actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Dakota Fanning. “I was there Friday night,” said Elaine Young, a member of Community Board 2 who lives on Jane St., a block away from the new museum. “There were probably 7,000 people. I said, ‘How is this different from a club?’ There was a bar on the ground floor and at least two or three bars on the other floors… I had a Scotch. “One thing the neighborhood is very weary of — they’re going to have a lot of events,” she noted. “All these terraces they have, we don’t want to see rock bands on them blaring on Friday night.” Last Friday night, however, she said, around 11 p.m., a D.J. on one of the balconies was Continued on page 17

This is what happens when the 25,000 landlords of 1 million rent-stabilized apartments have the financial resources to make repairs and improvements. They re-invest the rent in their buildings and our neighborhoods. They provide work to small businesses and jobs to local residents – and, most importantly, they preserve existing affordable housing.

But some Albany and City Hall politicians, like Mayor Bill de Blasio, want to turn back the clock to old policies that failed in the past. They want stricter rent laws, and they want to freeze rents while raising property taxes and water and sewer rates. That would push affordable housing right back into the 1970’s and 80’s. We need to move forward, not backwards.

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DowntownExpress.com

May 7-May 20, 2015

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the Whitney Museum is open Continued from page 15

manning a soundboard and beaming out “a New Age-y thing.” An e-mail was promptly fired off to a top Whitney community-relations official and, within 10 minutes, the throbbing tone had faded away. U Young said she and fellow A RO N D Village activist Zach Winestine “negotiated a very complicated State Liquor Authority agreement” with the Whitney, under which Danny Meyer’s ground-floor restaurant will close at midnight Sunday to Thursday and 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, with only six events with amplified sound on the terraces per year. The State Liquor Authority approved the stipulations, Young noted. Although Young said they’ll “have to be very careful about use of the terraces,” over all, she’s bullish on the new museum. “There’s always people who say it’s too much traffic, too much noise,” she said. “I think the Whitney brings a glow to the neighborhood.” Admission at the Whitney Museum is $22. (Seniors/students, $18. Under age 18 and members, free). Annual membership is about $80.

Downtown Express photo by Tequila Minsky

Part of the Whitney’s inaugural exhibition.

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DowntownExpress.com

April 23-May 6, 2015

17

A trip to the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ PUBLISHER

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B Y V IC T O R IA G R AN THAM We planned meticulously… or so we thought. When my husband and I decided to take our two kids to Disney for the first time this spring we did the requisite research, polled friends with kids the same age, mapped out the day-by-day agenda on the “My Experience” website, downloaded the app, posted to the HRPMamas board for advice from veteran park goers and more. I asked so many questions that one friend ordered me a book for Disney first timers and mailed it to our apartment. (A very nice gesture, but the subtle/not so subtle stop asking me so many darn questions message was received.) We strategized about the best time of year to go and decided on mid-April — post-Easter and post-spring break— based on the number of Mickey ears on one obsessive fan’s website. The fewer ears (and people) the better. Before we left I told my five-yearold that Walt Disney World’s alternate name is The Happiest Place on Earth. He promptly responded with, “How can that be? Does Disney control people’s feelings?” Hmmm. Astute question! After reading an article about Disney’s ubiquitous technology — big data via small wristbands — I was a little wary and a lot curious myself. In spite of our collective low-grade skepticism, we were giddy with anticipation before we left. A whole week off! The Magic Kingdom! Epcot! Even our two-year-old got in on the action. “Mickey Mouf! Poofy!” he shouted excitedly on

LIFE DOWNTOWN a loop. (Translation: “Mickey Mouse! Goofy! Get my butt on a plane already!”) The night before we left I asked my husband — who’d booked the flights— which airport we were flying from. “Newark,” he responded without hesitation. I felt no need to fact check. Mistake number one. When we arrived at Newark an hour before our flight, the kind airline representative gave us a pity-filled look and informed us that we were about 35 miles off course since our plane was scheduled to depart from J.F.K. Huh. I heard there are people who do this, but never thought it would be us. When we finally arrived in Orlando (8 hours later), we were exhausted and took what we thought would be the path of least resistance. We signed up for the luggage service so my husband could relinquish his bag hauling duties. We filed onto the Magical Express bus: a misnomer if there ever were one. It made seven stops before pulling up to our hotel and the luggage service took six hours instead of the promised three. We got our belongings after we were asleep. Though we got off to a rocky start (and there was more rockiness, to be sure — note to self: don’t take toddlers on the Pirates of the Caribbean unless you want to address the resulting P.T.S.D.), the story of our trip to the Happiest Place on Earth

has a happy ending. Eventually we got in the groove and re-adjusted our plans that we’d apparently made for the Stepford version of our family rather than the actual version. For example, the fantasy of us arriving at the park the minute it opened and beating all the other slow pokes was never going to happen with a family full of late risers — we just had to acknowledge and embrace reality. For me the lesson learned is that the more idealized and anticipated a thing is – it’ll be so grand! The vacation to end all vacations! – the more it’s bound to disappoint. Ultimately we had a fantastic trip and my kids are lobbying for us to relocate to Orlando permanently. But for me the best moments were the small ones: when our two-year-old identified a duck as a pigeon. (Whoops.) When my older son took his brother’s hand and the two of them ran across the lush green grass in front of the hotel, linked together and laughing. When my baby said, “I did that!” proudly after riding his first junior rollercoaster. When the boys learned to jump into the pool together in tandem and celebrated with high fives and exaggerated dance moves afterward. All this to say that I think I’m realizing that Kurt Vonnegut had it right when he wrote, “Enjoy the little things in life because one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.” Victoria Grantham, a writer and communications professional, is raising her family in Tribeca.

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May 7-May 20, 2015

Downtown Express photo by Zach Williams

Police take harder line

Police handcuffing a protester last week near Union Square at a #BlackLivesMatter protest spurred by the killing of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. More than 140 people were arrested at the April 29 demonstration. DowntownExpress.com

Mother’s Day mission: Finding the will to chill BY L E KN O RE SKE N A Z Y Mother’s Day is usually marked by burned toast, dandelion bouquets and crayon drawings of mommies and children with hearts all around them. It is a great day. This Mother’s Day, I’ll be giving a talk at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on how come mommies feel so worried all the time. Not that moms haven’t always been worried for their kids. Of course we have. Jewish moms (like me) are famous for it. In fact, the old joke is, “Did you hear about the Jewish telegram? ‘START WORRYING. DETAILS TO FOLLOW.’ ” But for the past 20 or 30 years, worries have come to almost define the job of parenting. We worry about what our kids are eating, watching, reading, wearing, learning, not learning, saying, thinking, texting, sexting (well, maybe that one’s valid), doing and not doing. Not to mention what is in their goodie bag. We worry even under circumstances when most of our own mothers would have breathed a sigh of relief: “Ah, they’re outside for a few hours. Now I can get some work done.” Or, “Now he’s down for a nap. Phew.” What has made us so nervous? I boil it down to four big cultural shifts: 1)  The Media. Of course it is easy to blame the media, because the media are

to blame. My mom could not have named 10 kidnapped children off the top of her head. Today’s moms usually can, and not because there are more “sickos” around, or even more crime. Crime is at a 50-year low. It is that we hear about everything from everywhere all the time now. When I was on Nancy Grace recently, she showed heart-stopping clips of Adam Walsh (murdered in Florida, 1981), Etan Patz (disappeared in New York, 1979) and Elizabeth Smart (kidnapped in Salt Lake City in 2002), as if to say, “See! These things are happening. All. The. Time.” Even though we’re talking three cases separated by decades and thousands of miles. Not flashed on the screen was the fact that tens of millions of children were not kidnapped when they walked to the bus stop. Pretty much whatever we see on television is there because it is the scariest of the scary and the rarest of the rare. If we publicized every time a child died in a car crash in this same hammering way, no one would ever put their kids in the car again.

2)  We live in litigious times, and this outlook is catching. We, too, have started looking at life the way trial lawyers do: Is that playground absolutely safe? Well, no. Nothing is. But thanks to the litigious belief that if something isn’t 100 percent safe, then it is dangerous, we get situations like the one in Richland, Washington, where the school district decided to remove the swings from all its playgrounds. 3)  Thanks to the expert culture we live in, parents are constantly being told what they’re doing wrong. There are experts on everything now, including (I kid you not) how to write a non-upsetting letter to your kid at camp. As if there is one right way to keep kids safe and sound. Please! But hear enough warnings and you start to feel you are endangering your kid if you let him do anything on which you haven’t done Ph.D.-level research. 4)  The marketplace knows there is no easier dollar to extract than the one from the wallet of a worried parent. And so we have a whole aisle of the baby store filled with pivoting, infrared monitors that sweep the nursery at night, as if checking for terrorists in the caves of Yemen. (If there actually are caves in Yemen. You get the idea). Suddenly, just putting your child to sleep in her room seems like it is too

dangerous to do without backup. So this Mother’s Day, the gift I would give all moms is the gift of chill. Our kids are not in constant danger, no matter what the media, the marketplace and the experts (aside from me) are saying. If you can make it to the museum for my lecture, great. If not — no hard feelings! And if you want to try something else that might help you relax, consider participating in “Take Our Children to the Park…and Let Them Walk Home By Themselves” day on Sat., May 9. The idea is to bring your kids, ages 7 or 8 and up, to your local park and let them play and walk home unsupervised. This may sound nerve-racking, but once you do it and see your happy kids bounding home, the fear gets replaced by pride and joy. At 10 that Saturday morning, I’ll be at the Ancient Playground at 85th St. and Fifth Ave. in Central Park, offering encouragement.

Church St. and West Broadway 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The Old-Timer’s Stick Ball Game will close Rutgers St. between Cherry and Madison Sts. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. The Celebrate Spring festival will close Hudson St. between Chambers and Reade Sts. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

Dear Eileen, Yes: Statute 4-07 (f) (1) of the Vehicle and Traffic Law states “Any operator with a learner’s permit shall not operate a motor vehicle in any park, on any play street, or along any block in which there is an entrance to a public playground or park.” So, student drivers should not drive adjacent to any parks, regardless of the number of entrances. Transit Sam

Lenore Skenazy will be speaking at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place at First Place, on Mother’s Day, Sun., May 10, at 2:30 p.m. Admission: $15. For information, call 646-437-4202 or e-mail info@ mjhnyc.org . She is founder of the book and blog “Free-Range Kids.”

TRANSIT SAM Thurs., May 7 – Wed., May 13 ALTERNATE SIDE PARKING RULES ARE IN EFFECT ALL WEEK Happy Mother’s Day! If you’re celebrating Mother’s Day Downtown this weekend, check out the festivals and closures below to be sure you’ll give the gift of avoiding major slowdowns. One New York-bound lane of the Holland Tunnel will close 11 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday. During the same duration, the New York-bound south tube of the Lincoln Tunnel will also close. Watch for major slowdowns into Lower Manhattan and on Canal St. All Manhattan-bound lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge will close overnight 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and midnight Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday. On West St./Route 9A, two southbound lanes will close between W 23rd and Bank Sts. 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. We DowntownExpress.com

dnesday through Friday, 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. Saturday, 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. Sunday, and 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Monday and Tuesday. The National Alliance for Mental Illness Walk will take place 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The route: Fulton St. between South and Gold Sts., Gold St. between Fulton and Spruce St., Spruce St. between Gold St. and Park Row, Park Row between Spruce St., and the Brooklyn Bridge, Chambers St. between Centre St. and Broadway, Broadway between Chambers and Barclays St., Spruce St. between Park Row and Gold St., Gold St. between Spruce and Fulton Sts. The Romanian Day Festival will close Whitehall St. between Morris and Stone Sts. and Broadway between Liberty St. and Battery Pl. noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. The Washington Market School Block Party will close Duane St. between

FROM THE MAILBAG: Dear Transit Sam, Is there a law concerning student drivers driving on streets where parks with multiple exits/entrances are located? I thought there was something about parks with 5 exits/ entrances. Eileen, New York

Email your traffic, transit and parking questions to transitsam@ Downtownexpress.com. Follow me on Twitter @GridlockSam and check GridlockSam.com for the latest in traffic news. May 7-May 20, 2015

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Taste of Tribeca chefs dish out cooking tips Taste of Tribeca chefs say mother knows best. Many of them reminisced about the first meal to inspire them and a trend was noted: mom was usually the cook responsible. They learned a lot from mom over the years and now they have chosen to pass down some of that knowledge to us, such as which cookware will serve us best in our quest for culinary perfection. But do not be too intimidated – even professionals have their guilty pleasures. Read more chefs’ answers at DowntownExpress.com. Taste of Tribeca, the outdoor culinary festival, features dishes from over 60 of Tribeca’s most renowned eateries, benefitting the neighborhood’s elementary schools, P.S. 150 and 234. It’s Sat., May 16 from 11:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. rain or shine on Duane St. between Hudson and Greenwich Sts. A general admission ticket is $45 online or $50 the day of the event (TasteofTribeca.com) and allows patrons to taste any six dishes from the festival’s attending chefs.

ers of béchamel sauce with pasta and ground beef captured my taste buds and my imagination. I was five years old then, and ever since this memory has filled me with the joy of love-filled, well-made food.

Chef – Pavlos Xenopoulos The Greek 458 Greenwich Street 646-476-3941 thegreektribeca.com What are you serving at Taste of Tribeca and why? This year we will be serving a spring-celebration selection that will consist of a triangle spinach pie, an oven baked lemon potato and a small serving of tzatziki. A classic vegetarian combination that is refreshing and fulfilling, celebrating the coming of this long-awaited spring.

Who cooked the first meal you loved and what do you remember about it? The first food that I remember fondly was prepared by my mother. It was a piece 1of pastitsio; its heaping lay15.PR.3929_1.qxp_Layout 1 4/21/15 11:40 nice AM Page

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For amateur chefs, what knife and which pot or pan do you think would help them the most? I believe that for an amateur chef, it’s all about the basics. For me, the basics are a chef’s knife, a stainless steel pan with a thick bottom to disseminate the temperature better and a three to five quart stainless steel pot. What would you make if you only had 15 minutes to prepare a meal? I would make one of the most classic, easy taverna dishes that are so popular all around Greece because of its simplicity and tastefulness. Spetsofai is prepared after simmering a village sausage in olive oil by adding fresh colorful peppers, onion, fresh tomato and finishing it with some wine. A classic, easily prepared dish that is one of my favorite creations for The Greek. Is there a packaged food that is a guilty pleasure for you? My most guilty pleasure is for sure the Petit-Beurre papadopoulou, which has been the omnipresent, childhood-staple cookie for every Greek person. It’s a versatile cookie that can be enjoyed both with your morning coffee or end up at the bottom of the feta cheesecake crumbled.

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onions and fried sweet plantains. So simple, but my earliest memory of food. And while eggs are the simplest food to cook, they can be the most difficult to get right. Knife and pot or pan? I love Japanese knives, like Shun. Get an 8-inch chef’s knife and a pairing knife. That’s all you need! Get a Le Creuset Dutch oven. It only gets better with age, and you can use it for so many dishes. It’s worth the investment. 15-minute meal? Grilled squid with a bagnet vert over some mizuna. As much as I love eggs, seafood owns my heart. The freshness of the herbs in bagnet vert can breathe life into any dish, and I love anything that’s bitter, which in this case is the mizuna. Guilty pleasure? Nutella! I hide it from my wife.

Chef – Seiji Ninja New York 25 Hudson Street 212-274-8500 ninjanewyork.com Dish Served? Crème brûlée topped with raspberry sorbet. You will enjoy the texture of caramelized sugar on top. Currently, it is very popular in our restaurant.

Chef – Paul Gioe Smith & Mills 71 N Moore Street 212-226-2515 smithandmills.com Dish served? Oysters and a few mignonettes and condiments to pair with them. Downtown N.Y.C. was built on oysters, and we love paying homage to that. Our cooks’ uniforms allude to the American worker, and oysters were originally that type of food. They’ve only recently become a luxury item. First meal? Of course, my mother. She taught me how to cook. Two fried eggs with

First meal? It was at the Michelin 3-star restaurant Buerehiesel in Strasbourg, France. They were Chef Antoine Westermann’s dishes. I asked a sommelier about wine pairing for dishes and they were so great. I still remember how they tasted. Knife and pot or pan? I recommend a Japanese brand called Misono UX10. I have tried varieties of brands but it is one of the top three. As for the pan, Staub’s pico cocotte. It is a French brand. With this one, it will bring extra fineness to your cooking. Guilty pleasure? Yes, there is this Greek supermarket by my apartment; they carry this delicious chocolate wafer. Continued on page 22

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Taste of Tribeca chefs Continued from page 20

Chef – Michael Cariglio The Butterfly 225 W Broadway 636-692-4943 thebutterflynyc.com Dish served? We are serving hummus with housemade flatbread and beer cheese with house-made rosemary crackers. I wanted to provide something that would highlight general manager Rob Cryan’s drinks. First meal? Pizza is my favorite food — I could literally eat it every day of the week! My family has owned and operated Lorenzo’s Pizzeria in Ohio for over 35 years. It was

the first thing I remember eating, and the reason why I’m a chef. I love that I also get to continue my family’s heritage by making pizzas at Nicoletta in the East Village. Knife and pot or pan? A dull $300 knife is going to work just as well as a dull $10 knife. Either buy cheap ones and replace them often or buy a nice one and learn to sharpen it or have it professionally sharpened. We have an amazing knife store right here in Tribeca called Korin. I highly recommend checking it out. I recommend a 10-inch All Clad sauté pan, they will last you the rest of your life if you take care of them. You can make everything from a killer grilled cheese to pan-roasted steaks and fish. My wife and I have a whole set and it has really changed the quality of our meal prep at home. 15-minute meal? You can make a killer cacio e pepe pasta in 15 minutes. Lots of garlic, black pepper and pecorino romano. Guilty pleasure? Can’t beat a frozen White Castle cheeseburger at 3 a.m. Don’t know what I’m doing up at 3 a.m., but if I’m awake I can crush a whole box, easily.

stick. Nonstick is only for eggs.

Chef – Phil Dixon Dirty Bird To Go 155 Chambers Street 212-964-3284 dirtybirdtogo.com

15-minute meal? Grilled chicken tacos with fresh salsa.

Dish served? Fried chicken sliders because they are Dirty Bird in a bite. First meal? Mom cooked it. It was a traditional El Paso stew called chile Colorado. She would start it in the morning and the house would fill up with the smell of roasting chilies and stewing beef. You would really work up an appetite by the time it was ready. It was best served with handmade flour tortillas, right off the skillet. Knife and pot or pan? I would start them off with a regular workhorse chef knife, with a long and wide blade and a plastic handle. Your first knife is going to take a beating, but once you are more skilled you can upgrade to a fancy one. Invest in a good, thick (the thickness must follow up the edges too) polished steel pan like All Clad makes. Never teflon or nonstick! If you use a steel pan correctly and get it really hot before you use it, stuff won’t

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Guilty pleasure? Ramen noodles.

Chef – Madeline Lanciani Duane Park Patisserie 179 Duane Street 212-274-8447 duaneparkpatisserie.com Dish served? I am serving a warm molten chocolate cake with bittersweet chocolate sauce. First meal? My mother cooked the best codfish cakes and a Portuguese soup called caldo verde. It was delicious. Knife and pot or pan? 10 or 12-inch chef’s knife. 12 or 14inch cast iron skillet. 15-minute meal? A very tasty one! Probably fish. Guilty pleasure? Mikesell’s potato chips from Cincinnati, Ohio.

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May 7-May 20, 2015

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Activities LONG-RUNNING ART AND PLAY Robert F. Wagner Park, Battery Park City; (212) 267–9700; http;//www. bpcparks.org; Mondays – Wednesdays,10 am–noon,; Free. Preschoolers drop-in and play with other toddlers, in this interactive play time on the grassy lawn. Sing and hear stories too. BASKETBALL CLINIC Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City; www.bpcparks.org/event; Mondays, 3:30–5:30 pm,; Free. Staffers teach children of all ages the basics of the sport. No classes May 25, September 7 and October 12. SOCCER CLINIC Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City; bpcparks.org; Tuesdays, 2:30–3:15 pm; 3:30–4:15 pm and 4:30–5:30 pm,;

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Free. Children learn the fundamentals of the game and pre-schoolers have fun kicking, running and being part of a team. Drop in. For ages 3 to 11 years old. ARTS AND CRAFTS Pavilion at Union Square Park, West 14th St. and Union Square East; nycgovparks.org; Tuesdays, 3 pm to 5 pm,; Free. Children explore new topics through arts and crafts. YOUNG SPROUTS GARDENING Nelson A Rockefeller Park (Children’s Garden), Battery Park City; (212) 267–9700; http;//www.bpcparks.org; Tuesdays, 3:15 – 3:45 pm,; Free. Little ones 3 to 5 years old learn about simple gardening projects. Space limited first come, first served. DROP IN CHESS Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery

Park City; www.bpcparks.org/event; Wednesdays, 3:30–5 pm,; Free. Players of every level practice, learn and hone up on skills. For children 5 to 15 years old. PLAYTIME Teardrop Park, Battery Park City; bpcparks.org; Wednesdays, 3:30– 5:30 pm,; Free. Staffers teach children the value of play and create fun projects in drawing, sculpting and murals. For children 5 and older. ART TIME: Nelson A Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City; (212) 267–9700; http;//www.bpcparks.org; Thursdays, 10:30 am–noon,; Free. Young artists are introduced to paper, clay, paint and other supplies. ART AND GAMES: Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City; www. bpcparks.org/event; Thursdays, 3:30–5:30 pm,; Free. Create a fun project, make friends and play games. For children 5 years and older.

SAT, MAY 9 CRAFT FAIR: Chelsea, West 21st St.

between Eighth and Ninth avenues; (917) 589–8893; www.twofairladies.com; 11 am–4 pm; Free. Two Fair Ladies present over 60 handmade artisans featuring handmade jewelry, clothing, accessories for kids and adults, art, ceramics and more. Seventh annual event benefits PS 11.

SUN, MAY 10 TYCOON DOG: Holly Plaza Washington Square Park, McDougal St. and Fifth Avenue; nycgovparks.org; 1 – 3 pm; Free. Children enjoy the music.

THURS, MAY 14 FAR, FAR AWAY: Children’s Museum of the Arts, 103 Charlton St. at Hudson Street; (212) 274–0986; www.cmany. org; 10 am–4 pm; Free with museum admission. The exhibit considers the possibility of alternate worlds,dreamscapes and imagined landscapes– places where adventures occur and fantasy takes over. The exhibit is open through Sept. 6. Opening day features fun activities of art-making workshops and much more.

May 7-May 20, 2015

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At 30, Guerrilla Girls still on same masked mission Activists engage at Abrons, on the street

Courtesy of the Guerrilla Girls

Little has changed since the '80s, when the Guerrilla Girls first challenged disproportionate gender representation in the art world.

BY PUMA PERL The Guerrilla Girls are not ready to make nice. In all likelihood, they never will be. Celebrating three decades of feminist art, activism and protest, they continue to expand their vision — and they ARE a vision, continuing the tradition of masked avengers by exposing the dirty underside of cultural and artistic inequalities. They are warriors who don gorilla masks (and, occasionally, miniskirts and heels) to educate the public through a blend of outrageous humor and action. There has been little change in the art world since an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art first kicked off their outrage in 1984. Presented as the “most significant contemporary art in the world,” it was comprised of 169 white men and 13 white women. Fact: In 1985, there was exactly one woman represented in single person exhibitions at four major New York City museums — the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan, the Modern and the Whitney. In 2015, there were a total of five women. In 1985, in 18

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May 7-May 20, 2015

of the major art galleries, no more than 10 percent of the shows included women. Some galleries showed none at all. In 2014, that number jumped all the way to a high of 20 percent; some galleries still showed none. I learned all of this and more through a visit to the current exhibit at Abrons Arts Center, which is part of the Henry Street Settlement. Titled “Not Ready to Make Nice: Guerrilla Girls Birthday Party, 30 Years and Still Counting,” the retrospective will continue through May17. This is the first New York City exhibit that displays all of the posters that have been used throughout the years. It includes guided tours of the timeline, videos, and a blowout birthday celebration on May 15. Additionally, New Yorkers can expect surprise visits all over town from the Girls — who, with the help of supporters, will be slapping up stickers around East Village and Chelsea art galleries and joining with other activist groups to expose corruption in the art world. On May 1, they participated in the May Day demonstrations that

shut down the Guggenheim Museum. In collaboration with the activists who operate the Illuminator (a cargo van equipped with audio and video equipment), they have projected images bearing their message onto the Whitney and various art galleries. Guerrilla style, naturally. One of the most interesting aspects of the guided tour, primarily conducted by Guerrilla Girls founding members Frida Kahlo and Kathe Kollwitz (with an assist from newer member Zubeida Agha), is the ways in which the targets and vision have broadened over the years. Triggered by the inequalities of the art world, they have expanded into addressing sexism, racism, oppression and corruption in film, politics, health care, education and anywhere inequities exist — which, of course, is everywhere. Part of the 2015 mission is drawing attention to the poorly paid employees of museums and the ownership of art by the richest of the rich (a current hashtag is #poorlittlebillionaires). Studying the timeline, the visitor becomes aware of technical growth

and the ways in which communication and the building of community have been impacted, especially for those increasingly few of us who remember mimeograph machines and heading out at night with a bunch of posters and a tub of glue, throwing them up on any available surface. Today, supporters are encouraged to post photos on Instagram showing the locations where they have placed the stickers distributed by the Guerrilla Girls, who are internationally recognized. The exhibit includes a wall of notes written to them, both supportive and enraged, as well as the opportunity for guests to post up their own messages. An 18-year-old girl writes of “urgent needs for guerilla action here in Pakistan!” A 14-year-old gay teenager tells of picking up the book “Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers” at age 11, and finding the courage to come out. Naturally, there are fair amounts of letters demonizing them as “stupid, lesbian, feminazis” Continued on page 28

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Waging ‘Guerrilla’ war in world gone bananas Continued from page 26

among other epithets and questioning them as to why they “hate men,” totally missing the point that this is about dismantling, redistributing, and redefining power, regardless of gender. Attempts at attacking the Guerrilla Girls personally are doomed to fail, due to the cloak of anonymity — not only in the form of the gorilla masks that are worn in public, but in the early choice that was made not to reveal individual identities. Although there were realistic concerns about the outcomes of targeting powerful individuals, the ways in which the anonymity resonates have more to do with keeping the focus on the issues and avoiding the external appointment of leaders, stars or, as is most often the case with groups of females, preoccupations with looks and personalities that result in over-

Photo by Puma Perl

Anonymity keeps the focus on issues and avoids the external appointment of leaders.

shadowing the message. What has evolved over the years is a group of women, some consistent, some shifting (there have been over 100 Guerrilla Girls to date)

who have become the art. There is a shared sensibility, warmth and friendliness, and a sly humor happening behind those heavy masks, as well as a uniform possession of

the history and the mission. The task is serious but the actions and educational techniques are great fun. When asked whether there was a goal to become obsolete, Kahlo replied, with a laugh, “Hope not.” So far, in 2015, there have been Guerrilla Girl gigs in Austria, Spain, California, Georgia and Texas, with more to come. In September of 2016, they will be back in the New York area, at Stonybrook University. They write no proposals, accept no grants, have no funding stream and are indebted to nobody. I asked Kahlo how they kept going and she stated that basically it is the kindness of strangers — people are moved by the message and offer support and requests for exhibitions and other types of gigs. She described its beginnings as a “mom and mom” store — selling materials, gradually expandContinued on page 30

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THE LIBYANS (ISRAEL) Sacred music of the Jews of Libya

FEEDEL BAND (ETHIOPIA) Ethiojazz, funk and soul with dancers

FRIDAY MAY 8

EMEL MATHLOUTHI (TUNISIA) Electronica-inspired voice of The Arab Spring

NIYAZ (IRAN) Global trance pioneers with a whirling dervish dancer

SATURDAY MAY 9 FREE CURATED BY LIVE SOUNDS / ISABEL SOFFER

GUAYO CEDEÑO + COCO BAR (HONDURAS) Caribbean surf guitar master with special guest Aurelio Martinez

FLAVIA COELHO (BRAZIL) Urban baile funk, forro, ragga and hip-hop via Rio and Paris

ARTSBROOKFIELD.COM

@ARTSBROOKFIELD @BROOKFIELDPLNY

DowntownExpress.com

March 26-April 8, 2015

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Guerrilla Girls sticker it to them Season’s final Salon with new street campaign Continued from page 28

ing. “We do not care about becoming wealthy,” she added. The Guerrilla Girls initially began and added members through word of mouth in artistic circles. Since they are now appearing all over the world, I asked Kahlo and Kollwitz how one becomes a Guerrilla Girl. They smirked behind the gorilla teeth. “Hazing,” said Kathe. “A lot of bananas,” added Kahlo. Thinking back, I have to laugh at that question too, since the answer is so obvious. Guerrilla Girls share a spirit of rebellion with the world. Through the empowerment of education and hilarity, they encourage others to take a stand and to refuse to accept the unacceptable, to pay it forward and pass it on. Become a Guerrilla Girl of the mind and body — and

The Guerrilla Girls will continue to appear on the streets of New York throughout their stay here. Catch up with their actions on Facebook or Twitter, and learn more about them at guerrillagirls.com. For a schedule of activities related to the current exhibit at Abrons Arts Center (466 Grand St. at Pitt St.), visit abronsartscenter.org/galleries/guerrillagirls-not-ready-to.html. Puma Perl’s next Pandemonium production will partner with AH Presents and take place on Friday, May 22 at Sidewalk Cafe, 94 Ave. A (at Sixth St.). Bands and performers include The PinUps, Red Gretchen, The Lord Calverts, Puma Perl and Friends and Danny’s Devil Blues. No admission, no cover, all ages, 7 p.m.–1 a.m.

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who knows? You may someday be a Guerrilla Girl, too.

Just leaving the house without a small fry or juice box would more than qualify for an evening of therapeutic relief — but a Pen Parentis Literary Salon gives parents who write the chance to meet other likeminded authors and access resources to help them become prolific (or at least productive). Their May 12 gathering will be an especially swanky one, given that it takes place in an elegant private library on the top floor of the original home of the New York Times. The guests are best-selling author Sarah Pekkanen, Pulitzer Prize nominee Charles McNair, Amazon #1 Women’s Fiction pick author Amy Scheibe, and triple-threat writing phenomenon Liz Rosenberg. Wine-fueled schmoozing precedes the readings, after which there will be a Q&A moderated by Pen Parentis founder M. M. De Voe and its new Salons curator, novelist Christina Chiu. Purchase books to be signed (or at least read), and proceeds will go to Community Bookstore in Brooklyn. This is the Salon’s season-closer. It returns, monthly, begin-

Photo by Michael Luppino

Amazon #1 Women’s Fiction pick author Amy Scheibe reads, signs books and answers your questions at May 12’s Pen Parentis Literar y Salon.

ning on Sept. 8 — with Ed Lin, Jack Miller and Tim O’Mara already booked for the night’s “Crime Fiction” theme. Tues., May 12, 7 p.m. on the 16th floor of 41 Park Row (btw. Spruce & Nassau Sts.). Free and open to the (21+) public. RSVP strongly suggested via penparentis.org. Twitter: @penparentis. Yeah, they’re on Facebook too (facebook.com/penparentis).

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May 7-May 20, 2015

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May 7-May 20, 2015

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