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Pulling teeth Dental study examines kids’ post-9/11 toxic exposure B Y YA N N I C R A C K esearchers are calling on Downtowners to send them their kids’ baby teeth — which they say can help them study the spread of pollutants after 9/11 and their effects on pregnant mothers and their children. Scientists at Mount Sinai Hospital want to analyze the teeth of children born after the World Trade Center attacks to find out how they were affected by the disaster’s environmental fallout. “We’re looking for maybe two, three, four teeth of children that were born right after 9/11, or where mothers were pregnant at the time of 9/11 — that would be the best situation,” said Dr. Roberto Lucchini, who is the director of the Division of Occupational Medicine at Mount Sinai and runs the World Trade Center Data Center at the hospital. Lucchini, together with Dr. Manish Arora, an exposure biologist at Mount Sinai, pitched their proposal to Community Board 1’s Youth and Education Committee last month — urging the members to spread the word. “The kids that have been exposed, we can’t undo that,” said Arora. “But we have shown that if children were at higher risk from exposure years ago, there are things that you can do now to help them catch up.” Although extensive research has already linked the dust and debris at Ground Zero to respiratory diseases and cancer in workers and responders, experts say local children’s exposure to the toxins is still virtually uncharted territory. “Children exposed to the disaster — their physical health impacts were the least studied of any exposed population,” said Kimberly Flynn, director of the outreach group 9/11 Environmental Action. Flynn said the initial cover-up of the hazards after 9/11 hampered data collec-

PULLING TEETH Continued on page 6

MARCH 10 – MARCH 23, 2016

DOWNTOWN DAREDEVILS

‘Rooftoppers’ high on Lower Manhattan

Photo by James McNally

Daredevil photographers are scaling Downtown skyscrapers to snap dazzling images that they post to Instagram, such as this image of a “rooftopper” who goes by the moniker Usrnminvalid dangling from the top of 70 Pine St.

BY COL IN MIXSON igh-rise landlords in Lower Manhattan are getting vertigo over a growing trend among adventurous photographers who sneak up to the lofty peaks of Downtown’s iconic towers in the pursuit of stunning vistas. Both property managers and police are at a loss for how to prevent increasing numbers of surreptitious shutterbugs from breaching the rooftops for fabulous photoshoots — a trend that

poses serious liability concerns for property owners. But James McNally, one of the city’s pre-eminent “rooftoppers,” says that he and his ilk pursue their illegal avocation not simply for the sake of mischief, but out of love for the city — and a desire to share its charms. “The reason we do this is we love New York City,” said McNally, who operates under the alias Jamakiss when posting his work on Instagram and other online outlets.

“We know it’s illegal, but we want to show these amazing views.” The rise of the so-called “rooftopping” phenomenon is linked to the advent of Instagram, according to McNally, and since the photo-sharing app’s debut in 2010, the trend has seen a steady increase in popularity. “It’s closely tied with the rise of social photography — a.k.a. Instagram,” he said. “Before that, DAREDEVILS Continued on page 12

Greenwich St. school design approved

Cut-back cantilever gets passing grade from Landmarks, but ‘F’ from locals B Y YA N N I C RA C K A scaled-back version of a controversial cantilever that will overshadow a landmarked building on Greenwich St. was approved by the city this week, paving the way for the residential tower that will house Lower Manhattan’s newest public school. In a unanimous U-turn, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to greenlight the 500-foot,W mixed-use tower planned for 77 Greenwich St., where a three-part overhang will jut out over the landmarked Robert and Anne Dickey House. Local preservationists slammed the commission for approving the design, which they call an unnecessary intrusion. “I think it’s shameful that they’re continuing to approve these cantilevers,” said Todd Fine, president of the Washington St. Historical Society and a champion of Downtown’s architectural history. The design for the tower, whose base will house a 476-seat elementary school extending into the neighboring Dickey House, was initially rejected last month, but the commissioners approved a cutdown version on Mar. 8 after the architects shaved a few feet off the cantilever. The glass behemoth will now jut out over the

Rendering by FXFowle Architects

After the original design, at left, was rejected last month by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the developers of 77 Greenwich St. came back with a less obtrusive version, at right, which shaved two feet off the total overhang and moved the cantilevers highter.

landmark in three places, extending two, four and four feet, according to the architects’ revised plans — meaning the top cantilever extends a

total of 10 feet out over the Dickey House. Previous designs had called for cantilevers of one, three and eight feet, resulting in a total extension of 12 feet. In addition, all of the overhangs are now moved higher up on the façade, in order to make the building appear less imposing above the four-story townhouse. Preservationists had protested the overhang at a public hearing last month and were largely unimpressed by the changes. “I’m not a fan. I don’t think that makes it okay,” said Esther Regelson, who lives Downtown and is a member of the preservation group Friends of the Lower West Side. Not everyone was as opposed, however. Mary Dierickx, a historic preservation consultant and also a member of the Friends, said the new plans were not perfect — but at least a step in the right direction. “I wish they had no cantilevers, but I looked at the revised proposal and it is better. It doesn’t loom as much as it did before,” she said. The overall project, which will include several thousand feet of retail space on the first floor of the tower, is expected to begin construction in the fall and be completed in 2019, according to developer Trinity Place Holdings.

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DowntownExpress.com

March 10 – March 23, 2016

Bar fight Locals say rowdy club violates law

BY CO L I N M I XS O N Tribeca residents fed up with the boozy sidewalk antics outside a noisy Walker St. nightclub believe they finally have the legal ammunition they need to fight back. A lawyer hired by angry locals contends that M1-5 Lounge, which she calls a de facto dance club, has operated for more than a decade without the proper permits. “To have loud dancing you need a cabaret license, and they never applied for one,” said the residents’ attorney, Robin Suttenberg. When the watering hole originally applied for its liquor license in 2003, the owners only sought permission to open as a bar, so operating as a dance club violates the terms of its license, according to Suttenberg, who wants the State Liquor Authority to yank its permit — or at least nix the fancy footwork. “We’ve been requesting and are looking for the [State Liquor Authority] to revoke the license, but, short of that, to absolutely change their method of operation back to what they originally filed for,” said Suttenberg. Locals complain that M1-5 Lounge attracts young and rowdy crowds that queue up in loud lines stretching around the block, and the constant taxicab pickups and drop-offs that go on until M1-5’s 4 a.m. closing time generate even more late-night noise. Residents of the otherwise quiet stretch of Walker St. between Broadway and Church St. say that drunken clubgoers get into fights outside, and sometimes even pass out drunk on nearby stoops. “The part that disturbs me are the crowds outside, and the noise that they make,” said Wayne Turett, who lives across the street from M1-5 Lounge. “There are fights and constant honking.” Neighbors have tried several times over the years to convince the S.L.A. to revoke the club’s liquor license based on such quality of life issues — including a 2007 resolution from Community Board 1 asking the agency not to renew the permit. But state law makes it very difficult to hold a drinking establishment liable for the behavior of its patrons, especially outside the bar, according to Jeff Ehrlich, a member of CB1’s Tribeca committee. “The S.L.A. has their hands tied with things happening on the street,” Ehrlich said. “The bar has to know that the people on the street came from them, and they have to prove that they’re allowing that to happen. And that’s very difficult.” So Suttenberg’s accusation that the bar misrepresented itself in its original application and is now operating illegally as a dance club, could be just what locals need to deep six M1-5. As part of its initial liquor license application in 2003, representatives of M1-5 Lounge wrote a letter to CB1 characterizing the proposed watering hole as a low-key tavern where locals could stop by for a quick drink, a bite to eat, and compete in sedate pastimes, including backgammon and chess. “Our objective is to create a contemporary pub that will cater to a clientele looking for an unobtrusive, smoke free

March 10 – March 23, 2016

Residents of Walker St. complain that the thumping nightclub atmosphere of M1-5 Lounge — which originally billed itself as an “unobtrusive” pub — draws rowdy crowds that line up down the block and cause a late-night nuisance on the street.

environment where they can relax, enjoy food and drink, while participating in recreational activities that include backgammon, darts, pool and chess. There will be music but no dancing,” Nikhal Jain wrote to CB1 on behalf of M1-5, in a letter dated Feb. 13, 2003. And in its application to the S.L.A., M1-5’s owners specifically noted that the establishment would not condone dancing and that tunes would essentially be background music played via jukebox. But when representatives from the bar appeared before the community board last June to request a renewal of its liquor license — as an “unobtrusive” pub — locals confronted them not only with complaints about street noise but also photos that M1-5’s own management had posted to its Yelp page that showed dancing and rowdy scenes inside the club.

M1-5 Lounge via Yelp.com

Images the bar posted to Yelp.com suggest M1-5 Lounge is a dance club, despite that fact that its city and state permits forbid dancing.

In fact, the bar’s online reviews are peppered with references to dancing. The reviews on M1-5’s Foursquare. com page include statements such as: “Best dance music,” “Always a good time if you're looking to dance the night away,” and “Drinks are expensive but good space to dance.” On Yelp.com — where M1-5 is listed as a “dance club” — “dancing” is mentioned in 71 reviews. CB1 voted to disapprove the renewal — and to ask the S.L.A. to investigate the neighbors’ allegations, according to Suttenberg. The S.L.A. renewed M1-5’s license, despite CB1’s non-binding disapproval, before state investigators showed

up in September, but their findings resulted in a disciplinary hearing in December, during which a representative for M1-5 was lambasted by S.L.A. officials. “What really aggravates me… are people who say they’re a certain type of business,” said S.L.A. Commissioner Kevin Kim at the Dec. 16 hearing. “They say it to the community board and they say it to the S.L.A., and, in this case, even those two things don’t even match, and then to the community you’re just like, ‘Screw you, we’re not going to agree to anything that we’re doing because you’re the community board,’ and take that kind of an attitude and continue to operate in a very open and flagrant way in a manner that’s inconsistent with what you said you were going to do in the first place.” The S.L.A. ultimately decided to send M1-5 back to the community board to request a change in its method of operation to allow it to operate as a dance club. But at CB1’s full meeting on Feb. 23, the board voted unanimously to oppose the application, in addition to requesting the state to force the bar to close at 2 a.m. M1-5 denies that it tried to pull a fast one on the community or the state, and said that its most recent request for an altered permit is merely a part of the business’s natural evolution. “M1-5 management and staff have never tried to fool CB1 board members or any other agency for that matter,” M1-5’s management said a statement to Downtown Express. “Over time our business has evolved and we are simply requesting use of a D.J.” The business went further to refute Suttenberg’s allegations, and said that they’re working out a new security plan to curb the curbside debauchery. “Allegations by their attorney are not corroborated by proof of violations, tickets or summons issued by any city or state agency,” read the statement. “Also, as a response to the community boards [sic] concerns we will be presenting a full security plan to supervise the exterior to eliminate any real or perceived adverse conditions from M1-5.” The bar must now go back to the already unhappy S.L.A. and hope that the agency will disregard CB1’s recommendations and approve the change to its liquor license. If the S.L.A. refuses, M1-5 Lounge will have to trade its D.J. booth for a backgammon set or face stiff fines and even revocation of its license, according to Suttenberg. Even if the agency does sign off on the change, neighbors still have another line of attack, their lawyer said. The bar never obtained a cabaret license from the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs, which is required to host dancing. Without it, a de facto dance club could be shut down by the city. “They are in violation of their Certificate of Occupancy, which prohibits dancing,” Suttenberg said. DowntownExpress.com

DowntownExpress.com

March 10 â€“ March 23, 2016

PULLING TEETH Continued from page 1

tion on chemical exposure. “Because the federal government was more interested in providing false assurances to the public, and because the city government basically carried that message as well, we don’t really have good exposure data,” she said. The Mount Sinai study could help fill in those blanks, because teeth preserve traces of chemicals encountered when they formed. “The teeth can give you some information about the intensity and type of exposure,” said Lucchini. “We can detect what chemicals or exposure happened. And this is something we don’t really have at the moment.” CB1 members thought the study was a great idea. “Sign me up, I’ve got baby teeth,” quipped committee member Wendy Chapman. “But they’re all in the same jar, so you’ll have to figure out which are which.” Chapman, who was pregnant with her middle child during the

attacks, said she had taken part in a different Mount Sinai study in 2002, which also measured the effects of the attacks on pregnant women and their newborns. That study found that the stress caused a dip in birth weights. “The idea is actually to target the people that were enrolled in that study, because there was a lot of information that was already collected,” said Lucchini. Once the pilot is underway and shows results, Lucchini said the team could apply for funding through the World Trade Center Health Program to finance a larger study. But for now, the researchers are looking for any number of teeth from children whose mothers were pregnant and in Lower Manhattan during or after the World Trade Center attacks. Teeth can be sent by mail or dropped off at the hospital, and anyone interested should contact Lucchini or Arora via email for instructions at roberto.lucchini@mssm.edu and manish.arora@mssm.edu.

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March 10 – March 23, 2016

DowntownExpress.com

Food for art Catering company awards arts grants to employees

BY CO L I N M I XSO N It’s a cliché that aspiring artists work in catering while they wait for their big break, but one food-service firm actually tries to make their dreams happen. Soho-based caterer Great Performances, which employs hundreds of artists throughout the five boroughs, awarded four of its right-brained service professionals $5,000 each From left, judge and novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz, on March 7 to help fund their award winners Adam Miller and Kristin Yancy, Great Performances Caterers founder Liz various artistic endeavors. Neumark, award winners Lucy Gram and Evan The company’s founder, Edwards, and judge Diana Roesch DiMenna who has been handing out at the catering business’s annual grant-award grants to her waiters, wait- ceremony for its artistic employees. resses and bartenders since the 1980s, sees the endowments as a five-grand grants to fund a workshop means of giving back and reconnecting of her immersive performance, “The Hunt,” a story of the 1692 Salem with her own artistic aspirations. “We’re so close to our roots, which was Witch Trials viewed through the lens really the arts, and we thought it would be of Greek mythology. Evan Edwards will use his $5,000 a very important to give back in recognition of our staff,” said Liz Neumark, to produce a concept CD he hopes will entice backers to fund his musifounder of Great Performances Caterers. The grant winners were announced cal, “McGurk’s Suicide Hall, a fictional at the Mae Mae Café, located around account of actual events,” which focuses the corner from the company’s Hudson on two immigrants who migrated to the St. headquarters, and were awarded city more than a century ago, but whose based on comprehensive proposals they story remains topical today. Finally, Lucy Gram was awarded a submitted outlining their visions — be it a play, album, film, or some other grant to fund a three-day workshop of “In the Belly,” during which she’ll flesh out artistic undertaking. The proposals were reviewed by a her vision of the production. Neumark was a photographer when panel of high-powered culture gurus, including philanthropist Diana Roesch she founded the catering company DiMenna; Jeffrey Hayden, CEO of in 1980 as a means of providing her Caramoor Center for the Performing artistically minded female friends with Arts; Heather Hitchens, executive direc- time-flexible work they could support tor of the American Theater Wing; and themselves with while pursuing their various crafts. author Jean Hanff Korelitz. “I was pursuing a career as a photogIt didn’t take much deliberation, though. The judges quickly decided rapher myself, and had trouble finding that the four winners had far and away flexible income, and thought that, because the best pitches of the pack, according there were so few opportunities for women in the hospitality industry, which to Korelitz. “It was the shortest meeting ever,” she was so male dominated, I would start a little waitress service, just for a bunch of said. “We all absolutely agreed.” Adam Miller won based on his my friends, who were in different areas of plan to produce a documentary called the arts,” Neumark said. But the business took off and she “Buckets,” which tells the story of famed rhythmist Larry Wright, who, as quickly brought men into the fold in a young man in the ’80s, worked as a order to satisfy gender norms of the busker on the subways, drumming on city’s haute upper class. a bucket in order to support his family. Kristin Yancy received one of the FOOD FOR ART Continued on page 17 DowntownExpress.com

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March 10 – March 23, 2016

Sidewalk-shed shantytown Ancient scaffolding hosts homeless in Fidi BY COL I N M I XSO N Amid some of the priciest condominium developments in the city, there are still some surprisingly affordable accommodations available — in the form of a veritable shantytown that periodically springs up in the Financial District underneath perhaps Downtown’s longest-standing sidewalk shed — but locals hope that the sporadic settlement’s days are numbered. The 8-year-old structure around a troubled condominium development at 45 John Street between Nassau and Dutch Sts. has for years hosted an on-again-offagain homeless encampment, complete with makeshift shelters and furniture, according to the president of the newly formed Financial District Neighborhood Association, Patrick Kennell. “When I say encampment, I’m talking about more than a sleeping bag,” said Kennell, who also serves on Community Board 1. “You have a shanty setup. You have a cardboard shelter, all their belongings. They’re living there and making it their home, and that’s certainly not allowable by law. It’s not legal.” Locals complain that denizens of the sidewalk-shed shantytown make themselves so at home that they even have pets — though not the sort you might expect. “Last year, there was a young woman, who looked very strung out on drugs, and she was fondling a rat,” said Andrea Kanter, who lives on John Street with her husband and two children, aged 4 and 6. “When I walked past her again about an hour later, she was petting a different rat,

just like you would pet your dog.” The illicit inhabitants of the loathed shed are generally sedate — or perhaps sedated — during daytime hours, neighbors say, but come nightfall, the shed can erupt into an all-night rager that has pedestrians crossing the street to avoid getting caught up in the antics, according to Vicki Raikes, who lives in the building next door to the shed. “I came home this past Saturday at 3 am, and they were all really partying under the scaffolding,” said Raikes. “I circumvented them, because it did not feel safe to walk through that.” If drifter dance parties weren’t enough, neighbors say the shadow of the shed fosters a sense of lawlessness that encourages a certain breed of indigent entrepreneurs all too willing to monetize pure, unadulterated horror. “They’re putting out signs that read, ‘Want to see two bums f---? $20,’ and ‘Want to see a bum eat s---? $20,’” said Kanter. “I’m a businesswoman. I’m all for entrepreneurial behavior, but let’s do it in good taste.” The ancient sidewalk shed — and the derelicts it attracts — have become such a fact of life in Fidi that it requires routine visits from the police, Kanter said. “The police have been very responsive. I went to the First Precinct meetings last summer, they gave me their numbers, and I’ve seen them clear away the cardboard boxes several times,” Kanter said. “I think what’s challenging is they have to keep going there. It sort of has become their

Photo by Bill Egbert

The long-standing scaffolding wraps around the corner from 45 John Street onto Dutch St., a dark and narrow passage that creates a shadowy haven for indigent addicts, neighbors say.

March 10 – March 23, 2016

Photos courtesy of Andrea Kanter

(Above) Indigent inhabitants of the eightyear-old sidewalk shed on John Street have horrified locals with, among other things, their disturbing choice of pets — in this case, a rat. (Right) The eight-year-old sidewalk shed on John Street is home to a chronic homeless encampment, where vagrants set up furniture and cardboard shanties beneath the relative sanctuary the shed provides.

regular course of business for someone to go there.” Likewise, the contractor who maintains the shed, which extends around the corner from 45 John St. up dark and narrow Dutch St., repeatedly has to come out to replace the lighting fixtures the vagrant vandals routinely destroy to keep the space beneath the shed in perpetual gloom, which provides the perfect cover for drug users, Kennell said. “The scaffolding contractor, Everest, we’ll call the number and they’re very responsive, but then the problem happens all over again,” Kennell explained. “When you’ve had it up for eight years, it’s a circular problem.” The shed first darkened the sidewalk beneath 45 John Street in 2007 to accommodate renovations undertaken by a Delaware-based entity, 45 John Street LLC. Construction soon ground to halt in the 2008 financial crisis, and after the developer failed to keep up with the mortgage payments, its German lender, Bayerische Landesbank, moved to foreclose in 2009, according to court documents. The developer’s numerous appeals caused the litigation to drag on for another five years — during which no work occurred, but the city continued to rubber-stamp renewals of the scaffolding permit. The parties finally agreed to settle in

2014, and late last year a new developer operating under a shell company called 45 John NY LLC bought the property at auction for $73 million. Though little to no work has occurred at the site since the sale, locals are optimistic that new owners will finally finish the construction and remove the troublesome trellis. “We hope the new developer will complete the project as soon as possible and return it to normalcy,” Kennell said. The fact that the 45 John St. sidewalk shed has been allowed to stand for nearly a decade points to a citywide problem of scaffolding blighting sidewalks for years even when no work is done. “The scaffolding is the root issue,” said Raikes. “If that were to come down, the blight would go away. I’m positive of that, and it’s frustrating to see these permits get renewed without any use of the scaffolding being made.” The state legislature in Albany is considering a bill that would require at least 10 days of work per month to be conducted on a project for a sidewalk-shed permit to be renewed. But even it the bill passes, it won’t provide relief to the residents of John St. anytime soon. On Feb. 19, the Dept. of Buildings issued a new permit for the shed, authorizing it for yet another year. DowntownExpress.com

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Cops warn Downtown of virtual kidnapping scam Victims bilked out of more than $10,000, police say B Y YA N N I C RA C K Police warn that a virtual kidnapping scam is spreading in Lower Manhattan, with three Downtowners duped out of thousands of dollars over the course of two weeks by con artists calling to demand ransom for supposedly abducted family members. First Precinct commanding officer Capt. Mark Iocco recently told locals to be on the lookout for the scammers, who call at random and demand the victims stay on the phone while they wire money to accounts in foreign countries. “Someone’s going to call you up and say they have your son, your daughter, your mother, your father, and they’re going to hurt them unless you stay on the phone and wire money into an account,” Iocco said at the precinct’s community council meeting last month. “It’s a scam and everyone is falling for it, because they’re scared that something will happen to their loved ones.” In three separate incidents since late January, workers in the Financial District, Tribeca and Hudson Square wired more than $10,000 to the con artists, according to police reports.

On Jan. 27, an executive at the ratings agency Moody’s was conned out of $2,000 by a man who threatened to kill his son while he was at work on the 28th floor of 7 World Trade Center. “Unless you follow my instructions, I will kill your son,” the caller told the 48-year-old, and then demanded the victim wire the funds to Mexico City. The father withdrew the cash from a nearby cash machine and sent it via Western Union before contacting the police. Less than a week later, on Feb. 2, another man working on North Moore St. in Tribeca received a phone call saying that his daughter had been kidnapped. The caller did not allow the victim to hang up the phone and similarly gave instructions to wire money to a Mexican location of Western Union. The 51-year-old father cashed a check and sent $1,650. After the con artists hung up on him, he immediately called his daughter, who turned out to be unharmed and at her home in Boston. In the third incident, a 20-year-old man working at ad agency KBS on Varick St. picked up a

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call from a stranger on Feb. 10 and was told that his father had run over someone’s child and was now being held hostage for $4,000 in ransom. The police report noted that the victim transferred three checks via MoneyGram, and was told not to contact the police because the perpetrators all had warrants. Capt. Iocco said the scams have been increasing all over the city in recent weeks, resulting in about 15 calls reported every day. “It’s been happening all across the city,” Iocco said. “We had at least three in the neighborhood, KIDNAPPING Continued on page 12

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March 10 – March 23, 2016

DowntownExpress.com

TWO IS ONE TOO MANY Shoplifters hit an eyewear store in Soho twice over the last month, stealing more than $4,500 worth of designer frames, police say — and prompting the store’s employees to say enough is enough. The LensCrafters store at 390 Broadway was relieved of merchandise worth $2,318 on Tuesday, Feb. 16, when a man walked into the boutique around 5:50 p.m. and bagged six pairs of glasses from Tom Ford, Gucci, Prada and Ray-Ban, according to police. The store’s employees decided not to call the police, however, which a report noted is company policy. But employees changed their minds after the boutique was hit by robbers for the second time in less than three weeks. On Friday, Mar. 4, a man and woman browsed the racks at the store around 4 p.m. before making off with eight brand-name frames from Tiffany and Bulgari, totaling $2,340, police say. According to a police report, both thefts were caught on camera.

A CASE OF MISTAKEN DELIVERY A UPS worker had his backpack stolen while out on a parcel run in the Financial District, according to police. The man told police that he was making deliveries in front of 15 Cliff St. and left his black Adidas backpack sitting on the ground behind his truck. He came back and climbed inside his truck, but noticed his pack was missing when he reappeared, police say — together with a $2,000 UPS scanner, his passport, and a $100 jacket.

CHANGING ROOM RANSACKED A woman left a clothing store with less attire than she came in with after her coat was swiped from a changing room. Police say the victim was shopping at the Zara boutique at 511 Broadway on Monday, Mar. 7, when she left her $800 Woolrich coat in her dressing room while looking for more clothes to try on. When she returned, the coat — as well as her $800 iPhone — were missing, according to a report.

DESIGNER BUST Two women were arrested for allegedly trying to steal a $1,500 handbag from a Luis Vuitton boutique in Soho, police say. The two 24-year-old fashion fiends hid the purse and snuck out of the store DowntownExpress.com

at 116 Greene St. around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday Mar. 1, according to a report. But police say they caught up with the women, who hail from Brooklyn and Idaho, only one day after their escapade, arresting them on charges of grand larceny on Mar. 2.

STOLEN SOCK STASH A woman paid a hefty price for some grub in Chinatown when she left $3,800 in cash stuffed in a black sock on the counter of a buffet restaurant — in an episode that’s ripe for a film plot. The 44-year-old Bronx resident, who told police the money was her tax refund, placed the bundle on the counter at Chinese eatery Yip’s at 18 Beaver St. while she paid for her order around noon on Wednesday, Feb. 24, police say. She then left and forgot the money, only realizing her mistake around 20 minutes later, as she was about to step on a train, according to a report. When she returned to the restaurant, the money was gone — and the story just gets weirder from there. Police say a surveillance video showed a woman wearing a yellow poncho picking the sock bundle off the floor, discovering the cash stuffed inside and handing it to a cashier — who, just two minutes later, handed it to a man wearing a tan jacket and blue jeans. The mystery man is apparently known to the store’s manager, who told police he would help locate him.

ROBBERY ROMANCE? An employee at a designer boutique in Soho seems to have a soft spot for a trendy thief who stole a $5,700 handbag from the store. Police say the suspect in the hip heist was a regular customer at the Kirna Zabete concept store at 477 Broome St., where one employee said she usually inquired about expensive handbags. The customer-cum-crook deviated from her usual protocol, however, when she suddenly swiped a Fendi python purse from the store’s counter at 6:22 p.m. on Friday Feb. 26, according to police. In a police report that read like a personals ad, the stylish shoplifter was described by the store’s employee as well dressed, always wearing a hat, easy on the eyes, soft spoken, with a bright smile, blue eyes and full lips. On the day of the robbery, she wore a black wool poncho with fur ends and was carrying her own handbag, as well as a scarf with fur, according to police.

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DAREDEVILS Continued from page 1

there were a few people posting stuff on Twitter and the Internet, but when Instagram took off is really when you started seeing more of this.” McNally, who works at a startup in the city, launched his photography career in earnest about a year and a half ago, and says that since then he has secretly ascended — or to use his preferred term, “building-hacked” — just about every prominent Downtown high rise you can think of except One World Trade Center. “Off the top of my head, I don’t know. I’ve done a lot,” said McNally, when asked to name the buildings he has summited. “Aside from the Empire State Building and Freedom Tower, most of the tall, marquee buildings in Manhattan.” Late last year, McNally “hacked” the tower at 70 Pine Street, located between Pearl and William sts, in an escapade that he documented with a Go-Pro camera that recorded his ascent from the lobby all the way up to the top of its airy spire, nearly 1,000 feet above the streets of the Financial District. In response to that trespass, property managers at 70 Pine St, along with representatives from other towers similarly invaded by outlaw photographers, met with members of Community Board 1 and officers of the First Precinct on Mar. 2 in an effort to better understand how to defend themselves from the rooftopper rampage. The property owners are concerned that this fad among young photographers is exploding in popularity, and that the trend is only going to pick up steam once the weather warms, according to a representative for 70 Pine St. “It’s cool and everybody’s going to want to do it,” said Joseph Alexander, development project manager for DTH Capital, which along with Rose Associates

KIDNAPPING Continued from page 10

where money was wired to Mexico. It’s totally out of control.” Iocco said anyone receiving a similar ransom call should signal to someone else nearby to call 911, where operators are trained to instantly connect the caller to the Major Case Squad, which could then give exact instructions on what to say and do. Back in mid-January, before the wave of virtual kidnappings hit Downtown, the F.B.I. and N.Y.P.D. both warned

March 10 – March 23, 2016

owns the former office tower now being converted to luxury residential. “There’s a clear intention that people want to continue to climb, and when the weather gets nicer, with these videos getting several thousands hits, each year there’s going to be an incident.” In December last year, a man fell to his death from the top of the 52-story Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown, according to police, who said he was trying to take pictures from a rooftop catwalk. However, the penalties for such trespassing aren’t particularly stiff, and especially when a private building has a public lobby, defense attorneys can easily argue to have charges reduced to a simple violation, according to officer Brian Nelson. “Private buildings, even though they’re private, if the public has access to them their lawyer will claim they have a right to be in a building … which would knock it down to a violation from a misdemeanor,” Nelson said at the meeting. And even if prosecutors were able to make a misdemeanor charge stick, judges usually avoid handing out the maximum 90-day sentence to first-time offenders in favor of an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, or A.C.D., which essentially lets the culprit avoid jail while doing community service, according to Zachary Johnson, a criminal defense lawyer and former prosecutor with the District Attorney’s Office. “For a first offense that would probably be an A.C.D., which is a six-month stay-out-of-trouble and a few days community service,” said Johnson. Ultimately, community board members walked away with the impression that the police have bigger problems to deal with than Instagramming trespassers, and that it's up to building

New Yorkers about the scam, saying in a press release that incidents have been rising in the city. The bureau noted that the callers often use co-conspirators to convince their victims of the legitimacy of the threat, for example by convincing a victim that a family member had gotten into a car accident with a gang member. “The individual calling pretends to be a friend or relative of the gang member and tells the victim that their family member is seriously injured and needs to go to the hospital, but that

Photos by James McNally

(Above) “Rooftopper” James McNally, a.k.a. @jamakiss, doesn’t limit his turf to Lower Manhattan — he snapped this selfie atop Midtown’s General Electric Building at 570 Lexington Ave. (Right) McNally took this picture from the top of Downtown’s iconic Woolworth Building last summer.

owners and their security staff to ward off the illicit photographers. “I think it becomes exceptionally difficult to expect the N.Y.P.D. to be able to arrest and actually incarcerate these people that are guilty of trespassing,” said CB1 member Paul Hovitz. “There was an announcement that, as a reaction to the subway slashing, they’re now assigning a police officer on every train. So when you consider

how thinly spread they’re going to be, what’s the chances of getting a response, even though you want to curb this problem?” For his part, McNally has every intention of continuing to seek the heights — even if it makes landlords queasy. “It’s not something I’m going to stop doing,” he said. You can look for him on Instagram, or maybe just look up.

their friend will not allow them to go the hospital until he gets paid for the damages done to his vehicle,” the F.B.I. said in a statement. “In another example, a caller might attempt to convince a victim that his daughter was kidnapped by having a young female scream for help in the background during the call,” the statement continued, adding that some of the most prominent scams involve car accidents, drug debts, gang assaults, or persons being smuggled across the border.

“This is a scheme that takes advantage of some of the most vulnerable people in New York City,” said F.B.I. Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos. “We need the public to be aware of this scam and call us if they have been a victim.” Anyone with information about the kidnapping scams is asked to call the F.B.I.’s New York City office at 212-384-1000, or the N.Y.P.D.’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 800-577-TIPS. If you’ve been the victim of an actual kidnapping, you should call 911. DowntownExpress.com

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Crane crew City forms new safety panel to probe deadly Worth St. collapse, make rules BY YAN N I C RA CK The city has formed a panel to investigate the crane collapse that shook Worth St. in Tribeca earlier this month, with the aim of better regulating the massive machines. Last month Mayor de Blasio announced the members of a working group to investigate the cause of the collapse and recommend new policies to improve crane safety across the city. “We put the safety of our people first. This is a group of dedicated professionals that will ensure we have strong, science-based policies in place to protect New Yorkers as we continue to build the greatest city in the world,” he said in a statement. The move came three weeks after a 565-foot crawler crane collapsed on Worth St. between Hudson St. and West Broadway, killing a man

and injuring three others. The crane, which had been used to lift equipment onto the roof of the former Western Union Building at 60 Hudson St., toppled over on the morning of Feb. 5 as workers were trying to lower it due to strong winds. Over the next three months, the panel members will evaluate the circumstances surrounding the collapse and propose additional “best practices and regulations” to make crane operations safer, according to the city. Before releasing its recommendations, the group will also consult with members of the Dept. of Buildings’ existing Crane Rules Advisory Committee, which reviews updates to the city’s crane regulations and includes representatives from the construction industry. According to the mayor’s office, the panel’s first task will be to deter-

Photo by Milo Hess

The falling crane killed one person and crushed several cars parked along Worth St. on Feb. 5.

mine whether current wind restrictions on crawler cranes reflect the best science. Soon after the collapse, the mayor already announced a range of new measures, including a directive to lower crawler cranes into safety

mode whenever steady winds are forecast to exceed 20mph — down from 30mph — and an increase in minimum fines for crane operators from $4,800 to $10,000. CRANE CREW Continued on page 20

Right now, the New York City Council has the opportunity to support a commonsense affordable housing plan that will help more aging adults live independently in their homes in the city they love. Taking action on Mayor de Blasio’s Affordable Housing plan will create 200,000 affordable housing units over the next 10 years for low- and moderate-income residents, including seniors and people of all ages. Today, there are 200,000 seniors on waiting lists for affordable housing in our city. This sensible plan will help right this wrong and give all New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet a chance to live and thrive in the city we all call home.

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March 10 – March 23, 2016

DowntownExpress.com

Trinity scraps condos Locals pleased with church’s new plan for offices at 68-74 Trinity Pl. building

Image courtesy of Trinity Church

Trinity Church has abandoned its earlier plan for a tall residential tower, depicted in this rendering.

BY YANNIC RACK Local leaders applauded Trinity Church’s decision to nix its plans for yet another luxury condo tower in the Financial District, after the church announced it would instead build a community center and offices at its new parish building planned for Trinity Place. “It makes so much more sense,” said Community Board 1 member Tricia Joyce, who attended a series of community meetings meant to gather local input for the development. “I’m delighted that they changed their minds, because the residential construction down here is out of control, it’s unchecked.” At a meeting with locals on Feb. 21, Trinity’s rector, the Rev. Dr. William Lupfer, presented new plans for a mixed-use building at 68-74 Trinity Place, directly across the street from the city’s oldest church. The new proposal, which is not final yet, calls for a 25-story tower with more than 98,000 square feet of community space — including classrooms, gym facilities, a café, and a meeting room — spread across the building’s first five floors. The community center would be topped by administrative offices for the church, with 16 stories of commercial office space starting on the 10th floor. “After listening to input from our many stakeholders, Trinity’s vestry has determined that a commercial tower above the podium is better DowntownExpress.com

suited to supporting the important mission focused work that is the basis for the new building,” Lupfer said in a statement. “Considering our numerous ministries in Lower Manhattan and our close ties to the community, a flexible office component makes more sense.” The church could build a larger tower as-of-right, and early plans called for 25 residential floors atop the base component of parish offices and community space. Trinity started its outreach process last year after residents had criticized those plans for the site, where Trinity’s 90-year-old parish building previously stood. “There was a lot of skepticism about the idea of a tower that tall at this location,” said Ro Sheffe, chairman of CB1’s Financial District Committee, adding that the church’s quest to include the community was a positive surprise. “It’s very gratifying to find a developer who pays that much attention to the community. It’s very, very rare,” he said. In addition to five charettes — design meetings with local residents — the church also commissioned a community study last year, whose results contributed to the decision to rethink the plans. “Without this charette process, TRINITY Continued on page 16

March 10 – March 23, 2016

There goes the neighborhood

Locals say troubled tower project is damaging nearby LES buildings company failed to notify the city of the BY YAN N I C RA CK Lower East Siders gathered near damaging conditions. Extell did not respond to a request the Manhattan Bridge on South St. last week to protest against the 80-story for comment by press time, but company apartment tower rising there — and representatives previously addressed the whose construction they say is damag- concerns at a community meeting last year. “We are aware that there’s been ing neighboring buildings. “This is not about gentrification, some cracking, some issues with doors this is about extermination,” said sticking,” Anthony Abbruzzese, Extell’s Maggie Martinez, who lives nearby at senior vice president of construction, 55 Rutgers Slip. “We need to make sure told residents back then. “We inspected all the conditions and that the structures of these buildings we’ve committed to repair anyhave not been compromised.” thing that was caused by our Foundation work at 250 UND O R construction,” he said, adding South St., where Extell A that engineers regularly inspect Development Company is the neighboring building. erecting an enormous resiIn addition to the new dential glass tower — which super-luxury tower, Lend Lease it calls One Manhattan Square, — the construction firm overseebut neighbors have dubbed the “Building from Hell” — has nearby resi- ing the project — is also building a dents worried that it is slowly destroying smaller, affordable component right next to it. Both buildings are scheduled their own dwellings. “People’s apartments are sloping and for completion in 2019. But protesters who gathered in front walls are cracking,” Martinez said. “That is of the construction site on Wed., March not a safe environment for anyone.” Residents at 82 Rutgers Slip next door 2, said the next-door building continfirst complained about vibrations in their ues to suffer from the effects of the building caused by the new project’s foun- foundation work. “The land is sinking, it’s dangerous dation work more than a year ago, which prompted the developer to install seismic for the people who live here,” said monitors within the building, as well as Louise Velez, who has lived in the neighborhood her entire life. “Are they around the construction site’s perimeter. The project currently has a partial stop- waiting for the building to collapse work order in place, as well as two open onto the people?” To many in the neighborhood, the violations dating from mid-January, accordbuilding also symbolizes a larger probing to Department of Buildings records. According to the D.O.B. website, lem — the displacement of longtime inspectors responded that month to tenants from the area. “This is going to be an 80-story complaints that cracks had appeared in the walls due to the construction next building for the 1 percent,” said Lewis door. The entry notes that the order Barnes, a volunteer with National was issued because the construction Mobilization Against Sweat Shops, or

TRINITY Continued from page 15

we might have built the wrong building,” said architect Fred Clarke of Pelli Clarke Pelli at the Feb. 21 meeting. Apart from their calls for a more appropriate design, locals also asked the church for a range

March 10 – March 23, 2016

Photo by Yannic Rack

Organizer Lewis Barnes, at right, speaks out against Extell Development Company at a March 2 protest at the One Manhattan Square project site.

N.M.A.S.S., which organized the rally and operates a Workers Center on Grand St. nearby. “Look around at the people here — we are not the 1 percent,” Barnes said, pointing out that a large sign on the project’s construction fence was ironically advertising the mayor’s housing plan. “Why are they building this in our community?” he asked. The development, which will tower over the Manhattan Bridge, is advertised as a “vertical village” with private gardens, romantic fire pits and a covered dog run, where apartments will reportedly sell for between $1 million to $3 million — absurdly expensive for the people currently living all around it. “There’s a lot of low-income people living in this neighborhood,” said Velez. “We’re poor people. We need them to get the hell out,” she said of the high-end builders. Residents like Velez still lament the loss of the Pathmark supermarket that stood at the site and was closed in 2012 to make way for the development. (Last year, Extell said it was committed to including an affordable supermarket in one of the new buildings’ retail spaces.) Rallies against the project have previously drawn hundreds of locals, although Wednesday’s crowd was more humble. Michael Lalan, another N.M.A.S.S. organizer, reminded everyone to come to the group’s monthly picketing of

of community facilities — a scarce commodity in Lower Manhattan. “Anytime we have a developer offer us community space Downtown, it’s a big deal. We don’t get that very often,” said Joyce, who chairs CB1’s Youth and Education Committee and said she advocated for the full gym as well as a drop-in space for local students.

Gracie Mansion, which will take place next Wed., March 16, at 4:30 p.m. “He’s ruining our community? We’ll come to his house,” Lalan said of the mayor. Apart from getting the work at the project to stop permanently — which may seem a futile undertaking — the protesters hope they can garner enough attention to force the city to adopt a rezoning plan that was drafted over the last seven years, which they hope would stop similar developments in the future. However, the Department of City Planning last year dismissed the plan, created by the Chinatown Working Group, which calls for protections similar to the 2008 rezoning of the East Village and part of the Lower East Side that now safeguards that area from overdevelopment through strict height caps on new buildings. Chinatown and the Lower East Side below Grand St. were not included in the rezoning, and critics argue that this, in turn, has driven luxury residential and hotel development into these areas, causing rents and property taxes to skyrocket. “We have our own rezoning plan because we know what we need in this community,” Barnes said. “We need supermarkets, we need schools, we need parks, we need low-income housing. We don’t need this,” he said, pointing at the construction site behind him.

“They’ve provided a great example for other developers, in terms of outreach. Seeing all of those voices incorporated into the design was a thrill. They really listened to people,” Joyce said. Trinity did not confirm a construction schedule for the building, but a rep for the church told CB1 in December 2014 that the building would likely be completed by early 2018. DowntownExpress.com

Tutor team

Local mom joins with university, developer to give kids extra help

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which granted them free access to a second-floor space above the South Street Seaport Museum on Fulton Street, and Pace University sends its students to act as tutors, all thanks to Hernandez’s efforts. “It really is Lugi and her team that make this all happen,” according to Phillip St. Pierre, general manager at Howard Hughes. The result is a program providing oneon-one tutoring for two hours a day, four days a week, which is essential in helping kids — and parents — grapple with the state’s challenging new Common Core curriculum, according to Hernandez. “Common core is something that threw everybody back a little,” said Hernadez, whose son Jaeven, 11, attends fifth grade at PS 397. “At the end of the day, the kids would come home to us parents, and we were trying to teach the children, and we didn’t get this ourselves.”

FOOD FOR ART Continued from page 7

wealth and fame, Neumark says her endowments have allowed many aspiring artists to enjoy some degree of success. “Is there someone who’s a best-selling novelist or on Broadway because of the grant? I don’t think so. But I think we’ve had a lot of small victories,” she said. Certainly, the award winners at Monday’s ceremony were overcome by the generosity of their employer. “I’m just going to cry all morning,” said Gram at the award ceremony, tears of joy streaming down her face. “This a huge deal, thank you so much.”

“We integrated and brought in the guys, because we had hostesses who were freaked out by female bartenders,” she said. The business started handing out grants on a biannual basis in 1984, when two servers received $1,000 grants. The program has since ballooned to award four servers $5,000 each on an annual basis. Though none of the award recipients have yet gone on to enjoy fabulous DowntownExpress.com

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B Y CO L I N M I X S O N A mom in the Financial District single-handedly forged an unlikely alliance between Pace University and development company Howard Hughes that has borne fruit in the form of a novel tutoring program, which provides 25 youngsters ages 8–12 with free, one-on-one tutoring. The new program not only helps kids prepare for the dreaded Common Core exams, but also gives undergraduates at Pace an opportunity to test their teaching skills — and gain a few extra school credits on the side. “It’s a very wonderful win-win situation for all of us,” said Sharon Medow, a professor at Pace University’s School of Education. The Kubemas Tutoring Program is supported by Howard Hughes Corp., a real estate company best known for redeveloping the South Street Seaport district,

Adults from left, Kubemas Tutoring Program founder Lugi Hernandez, Pace University director of school partnerships Patricia Kobetts, and Pace University professor Sharon Medow are surrounded by the precocious young scholars of the Kubemas Tutoring Program.

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March 10 – March 23, 2016

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March 10 – March 23, 2016

B Y L E NO R E S K EN AZY One hundred years ago in Brownsville, Brooklyn, our modern era began. In a squat building that no longer exists, a pretty and soft-spoken mom named Margaret opened an office where women could get something they’d never been allowed to obtain before. Birth control. The place wasn’t called Planned Parenthood in 1916. “It didn’t really have a name,” says Sabrina Jones, author of an upcoming graphic novel, “Our Lady of Birth Control: A Cartoonist’s Encounter with Margaret Sanger.” Back then, the idea of preventing unwanted pregnancies was so new and controversial, even Sanger herself didn’t expect to provide family planning to anyone other than … families. At the time, Brownsville’s population was predominantly Eastern European and Italian, so Sanger made her flyers in Italian, Yiddish, and English. “She assumed the clients would be mothers married with lots of children. Publicly, she never offered birth control to unmarried people — that was too far,” says Jones. Sanger didn’t even seem like a revolutionary. Delicate and poised, she had three children of her own and had, for a while, been living a quiet suburban life up in Hastings. Her husband, a draftsman, worked for the architect Stanford White. He’d urged young Margaret Higgins to marry him while she was still in nursing school, because he was afraid that she’d fall in love with a doctor. Sanger complied, but soon grew restless. As Jones put it, “She wanted a wider world.” Wilder, too. So in 1911 she moved to the Village and was soon mingling (and more) with

the socialists and revolutionaries she met. Her new comrade, Emma Goldman, was probably the person who introduced her to birth control, and did so with an economic argument: Why is it that poor people, who can’t afford more children, always have more of them, while the upper classes don’t? The wealthy had something the poor did not, and that something was contraception. Back then, family planning was still dicey and pricey. “Condoms were very expensive,” says Jones. They were made out of sheep gut. “People washed them and reused them.” Poor women rarely even knew about these. For them, the only birth control was abortion. Sanger worked as a nurse in the slums, where desperate women begged her to tell them the secret: How could they avoid having kids they couldn’t feed, or the abortions they despised? Legally, she wasn’t allowed to tell them. Nobody was. Discussing birth control was against the law, as was dispensing it. When she finally decided to open her clinic, it was “an act of civil disobedience,” Jones says. Sanger went a step further and actually alerted the district attorney to her deed, because she wanted to go to court and get those laws thrown out. The road to that goal was fraught with protest, prison, and a nearly lethal hunger strike on the part of Sanger’s sister. But in the end, the law cracked, and finally doctors were legally allowed to tell their clients about condoms.

Letters To the Editor, Once again another component of the official plan has been found to be a boondoggle (Oculus rift: WTC transit hub ‘opening’ more of a virtual reality, February 25). It just shows how much money could have been saved if the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey could have saved if they just agreed to having the Twin Towers rebuilt instead. For the most part, this entrance will hardly generate any revenue for the agency.

Then again, the agency knows that it can always get the money by just simply increasing its tolls and fares and whatever forms of transportation and crossings it owns to make commuters foot the bill for something like this. My guess is that Patrick J. Foye is too embarrassed by the costs to attend the opening of the new PATH entrance. Tal Barzilai Pleasantville, NY

Jones’ graphic novel tells that whole story along with the reason she felt compelled to write it. She woke up one morning, turned on the radio, “and I heard the story of a young woman testifying before Congress about the need for contraceptive coverage in student health plans.” That woman, Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, was immediately lambasted by Rush Limbaugh, who called her a slut and a prostitute. “She wants to be paid to have sex!” Limbaugh told his listeners. “She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception!” “I was horrified that in 2012 a woman could still be shamed for advocating birth control,” says Jones. “When I came of age, birth control was a done deal that had achieved near universal acceptance. All the battles were about abortion.” Realizing Sanger’s crusade was back in the crosshairs, Jones reached for her drawing board — literally. Creating “social justice comics” is her standard M.O. Her topics range from army recruitment wiles to Walt Whitman. My favorite is her book about mass incarceration — a graphic novel version of Marc Mauer’s “Race to Incarcerate,” which tells the story of how America came to imprison a bigger chunk of its population than any other country, including China and Iran. It is stunning in its clarity. Reading it feels like a punch in the gut. Graphic novels have a way of making problems present in a way that simple paragraphs (like these!) cannot. Margaret Sanger had her clinic, Jones has her paintbrush, but they share the same mission: Freedom to live and to love. Lenore Skenazy is editor and founder of the book and blog Free-Range Kids, and a contributor at Reason.com.

LETTERS POLICY Downtown Express welcomes letters to The Editor. They must include the writer’s first and last name, a phone number for confirmation purposes only, and any affiliation that relates directly to the letter’s subject matter. Letters should be less than 300 words. Downtown Express reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity, civility or libel reasons. Letters should be emailed to letters@downtownexpress.com or can be mailed to One Metrotech Center North, 10th Floor, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201 DowntownExpress.com

Mayor de Blasio’s false dichotomy in push for zoning plans BY A N D RE W B E R MA N Mayor de Blasio’s twin rezoning proposals to reshape development in our city go before the City Council for a final vote in March. The plans purport that letting developers build taller buildings will result in their including more affordable units, and vastly increasing the number of new market-rate housing units we build, even while building a much smaller number of affordable units, will make our city and our neighborhoods more affordable. But the facts just don’t bear this out. The Mayor’s “Mandatory Inclusionary Housing” (MIH) proposal would require 25–30 percent of new residential developments in certain areas to be affordable. But there’s a catch: the requirement would only be applied when the City changes zoning rules to vastly increase the amount of new market-rate housing that could also be built. Thus affordable housing is only provided if a great deal more market-rate housing is also built than would otherwise be allowed. Sound familiar? This is the formula used ten years ago in Manhattan’s West Chelsea/Hudson Yards neighborhoods and in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg/Greenpoint . Zoning

rules were changed to significantly increase the allowable amount of residential development, with strong incentives for making a fraction of the housing affordable. The result? Quite a bit of affordable housing was built in both areas – more than in any other part of the city, or about 25 percent of new units on the west side and 16 percent in Williamsburg/Greenpoint. But there was also a virtual tsunami of new market-rate housing that utterly transformed those neighborhoods, physically and socio-economically. These formerly diverse areas became among our city’s least affordable and most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, defined by walls of glassy high-rises that resemble Hong Kong or Miami more than New York. This is the model the Mayor is seeking to apply across the city. But there’s a less discussed, more pernicious flip-side to linking these affordable housing requirements exclusively to massive upzonings: neighborhoods unwilling to accept vastly increased amounts of market rate housing get no affordable housing. Case in point: the de Blasio administration has consistently rejected a rezoning proposal for the

Posted To OCULUS RIFT: WTC TRANSIT HUB ‘OPENING’ MORE OF A VIRTUAL REALITY (FEB. 25) Ok. We spent $4 billion to build this extravaganza. Plus a billion on the memorial. To satisfy egos, politicians and real estate fat heads. Now how about we spend about $500,000 on returning the humble, authentic WTC Sphere to the WTC memorial? As the people, remember them? Overwhelmingly called for way back in ’03? See Facebook, Save the Sphere Michael Burke

OVERHANG OVERRULED: FIDI SCHOOL DESIGN TEAM SENT BACK TO DRAWING BOARD (FEB. 19) Very glad to know that the Dickey House will have a new life. Would that the forlorn Downtown Community House around the corner at 105-07 Washington Street also be respectfully repurposed, since it is still the most significant unprotected survivor representing the unique multi cultural immigrant history of the Lower West Side before the neighborhood was destroyed by the building of the Battery Tunnel in the 1940s and the subsequent eminent domain action of the 1960s to construct the World Trade Center. Joe Svehlak DowntownExpress.com

University Place/Broadway corridor in Greenwich Village with an affordable housing component, because we were unwilling to accept a vast increase in the allowable amount of market-rate housing along with it. The Mayor’s other rezoning proposal, “Zoning for Quality and Affordability” (ZQA), would lift height limits by over 30 percent in certain parts of the city when new developments include 20 percent affordable housing. Some might find this a worthwhile trade-off, if it results in more affordable housing. Problem is, it won’t. This part of the Mayor’s plan would apply to areas called “Inclusionary Zones” that currently have strong incentives for including affordable units in new developments. According to the city’s own study, in 95 percent of the cases, they already do. But the city claims existing height limits prevent a higher rate of inclusion – that the caps don’t leave room to ‘fit’ the affordable units, so developers leave them out. Here again, studies say something different. The affordable housing program’s complicated bureaucracy and requirements, comparatively generous tax breaks for building

market-rate rather than affordable housing, and the relative inexperience of smaller builders seem to be the main reasons some developments don’t include the affordable units. Unfortunately, the Mayor’s rezoning plan would do nothing to address these factors, which actually do inhibit the inclusion of affordable housing in new developments. The Mayor’s rezoning proposals create a false dichotomy, claiming if we just allowed more and larger developments, we’d have a more affordable city. At best, evidence indicates the height-lifting approach of ZQA would result in no net increase in affordable housing; at worst, experience shows MIH’s vast increases in market-rate housing would likely accelerate gentrification and inflate rents and housing prices. Either way, these plans will undeniably make for more crowded, less livable communities, with services and infrastructure stretched ever thinner. Worse, such approaches divert us from implementing real solutions to New York’s affordability problems. Our neighborhoods, and our city, deserve better. Andrew Berman is Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

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March 10 – March 23, 2016

TRANSIT SAM Thurs., March 10 – Wed., March 16 ALTERNATE SIDE PARKING RULES ARE IN EFFECT ALL WEEK NJ Transit workers in the rail division may walk off the job Sunday morning. What this could mean for Lower Manhattan is heavier traffic to and from the Holland Tunnel, more buses on streets and a likely diversion of some traffic through Staten Island en-route to Lower Manhattan crossing most notably the Battery Tunnel. Follow me on Twitter @GridlockSam and the website www.GridlockSam. com for strike tips, closure info, protest alerts, and more. Daylight savings time kicks in 2 a.m. Sunday! This means that Monday morning will be a Crash Alert Day: when we lose an hour drivers battle collective sleep deprivation, making roads more dangerous. Crash and fatality rates increase the week after daylight savings time takes effect, so make sure you’re fully awake (two cups of coffee have been shown to help) before hitting the road, and be extra alert. Signs of warmer days to come in Lower Manhattan are here: the Stone Street Pedestrian Mall returns Friday. Stone St. between Hanover Sq. and Broad St., and Mill Ln. between Stone and South William Sts. will close 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day starting Friday. In the Battery Park Underpass, there

will be a full closure of the south tube from the FDR to West St. 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. each weekday night. Use the detour by going south on West St., left onto Battery Pl., continuing onto State St., and going one block north on Water St., then right onto Broad St. The North and South tubes will fully close in both directions from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. each week day night. For the North tube detour, exit onto South St., continue on to Whitehall St., turn left onto State St. to Battery Pl., and then turn left onto Battery Pl. to West St. A slow return to Manhattan on Thursday night: In the Lincoln Tunnel, the New York-bound tube will close 11 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday. Traffic will be maintained in both directions in the remaining tube. The closure will drive more traffic down to the Holland Tunnel, where during the same time, one New-York bound tunnel lane and one New Jersey-bound lane will close. Expect late night delays and extra traffic on Canal and Varick Sts. In the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, one tube will close Monday through Friday nights 9:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. One tube will also close 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. Saturday. During the closure, two lanes of traffic will remain in the open tube. Be sure to check next week’s column for details on the St. Patrick’s Day Parade's domino effects for Lower Manhattan.

CRANE CREW Continued from page 14

A. Crew, general secretary of the National Academy of Construction. Although a press release emphasized that none of the members currently have “pending business before the city” — and would therefore be independent — two of them have prominently served various city and state agencies. Madonia was the chief of staff to former mayor Michael Bloomberg prior to joining the Rockefeller Foundation, and has also served as first deputy commissioner of the Fire Department, deputy commissioner for budget and operations at the Department of Buildings, and chief of staff to the deputy mayor for operations. Goldstein has held executive positions at the MTA Capital Construction Company, the city’s School Construction Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

“We are determined to improve the safety both of cranes and the neighborhoods in which they work by implementing lessons learned from the collapse earlier this month,” said Buildings commissioner Rick Chandler in a statement. The members of the technical working group are Mary C. Boyce, dean of engineering at The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University; Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, president of NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering and dean of Engineering at New York University; Peter J. Madonia, chief operating officer of the Rockefeller Foundation; Bill Goldstein, who most recently served as senior advisor to the mayor for recovery, resiliency, and infrastructure; and Wayne

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March 10 – March 23, 2016

“Rabari Tribal Elder, Rajasthan, 2010.”

Steve McCurry sees India, in spectacular color Rubin Museum’s retrospective is an epic eye-opener BY NOR M A N B O RD E N Yes, “Steve McCurry: India” is a spectacular exhibition — but then again, Steve McCurry is a spectacular photographer. Best known for his iconic “Afghan Girl” image, which appeared on the cover of June 1985’s National Geographic, McCurry’s first exhibition at the Rubin Museum of Art (RMA) is an eye-opening retrospective of work from his more than 80 visits to the Indian subcontinent during the period of 1982–2014. The show, which includes other iconic images as well as photographs never seen before by the public, coincides with the publication of McCurry’s new book, “India.” It’s also the museum’s first partnership with the

March 10 – March 23, 2016

International Center of Photography. McCurry says that the publication of “Afghan Girl” changed his life — but in my opinion, some of the photographs in this show are just as memorable, including some from two of his previous books, “Monsoon” and “India by Rail.” When McCurry visited India for the first time in 1978, he had only planned to stay about six weeks, but ended up wandering around the subcontinent for two years. He said he had no comprehension of India “until I stepped off the plane. I wasn’t prepared for the feeling of magnificence that it evoked. It felt both chaotic and connected.” McCurry has kept returning over the years Photo © Steve McCurry

MCCURRY Continued on page 24

“Boy in Mid-flight, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 2007.” DowntownExpress.com

Water damage can’t dampen Drama Book Shop’s prospects After burst pipe, Broadway star helps turn the tide BY CO L I N M I XSO N There are few achievements more admirable than nearing the century mark. The Drama Book Shop, a niche bookstore that’s served theater artists and enthusiasts since 1917, has persevered through one and a half world wars, a Great Depression, one disastrous experiment in prohibition, 17 US Presidents, a near catastrophic fire, and — most ruinous of all — the introduction of cinema with sound, followed decades later by the rise of an online book vendor with ambitions to deliver their product by drone. Now, in the final stretch before its grand centennial anniversary, the venerable Drama Book Shop has run into a stretch of bad luck that nearly drowned its ambition of surviving to its 100th year — but thanks to the enduring love amongst New Yorkers for theater and the performing arts, and the unsolicited promotion of one wildly successful playwright, this independent book dealer will survive the digital age and beyond, according to the store’s owner. “I still don’t know how to react to the way people have come in and helped us,” said owner Rozanne Seelen. “The response has been phenomenal.” The Drama Book Shop, located at 250 W. 40th St. (btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.) was recently flooded by several thousand gallons of city water after a pipe broke on the cold night of Sun., Feb. 14, turning the pulpy contents of its acting, history, and design sections into so many theater-themed popsicles by the time employees came to open the door the next morning. The near ruinous turn of events has left the store bereft of some of its most popular titles. The loss of its acting material, which accompanies many budding thespians through DowntownExpress.com

Photos by Yannic Rack

(Above) Allen Hubby and Rozanne Seelen anticipate searching for a new location when the lease is up on their W. 40th St. location, but are confident the Drama Book Shop will celebrate more milestones beyond its 2017 centennial. (Right) From online orders to brick and mortar foot traffic, response to the recent water damage “has been phenomenal,” says Rozanne Seelen.

their tour of Juilliard and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, was an especially hard blow, according to store’s manager and heir apparent. “Rebuilding the acting section is particularly hard,” said Allen Hubby, Seelen’s nephew. “It’s one of our most popular sections. Students need textbooks, and students come here for books and we’re forced to say, ‘Sorry, they drowned.’ ” So it came as both a blessing, and served as yet another testament to the store’s importance to the theater community, when Lin-Manuel Miranda came to Drama Book Shop’s aid. The creator of “In The Heights,” whose Grammy award-winning musical “Hamilton” is currently Broadway’s most coveted ticket, “saved us,” said Seelen. “I really think he did. He will

never have to pay for a book again as long as I live. Any book he wants is free forever.” Having heard of the water damage, Miranda took to Twitter. With a few well-placed hashtags — and in under 140 characters — his words of praise gave the store a much needed boost in sales, helping it produce at least some of the capital needed to finance replacement copies of its waterlogged tomes. “We must have gotten 600 orders saying, ‘Lin sent me,’ ” Hubby explained. “We didn’t even ask him, he just did it out of the goodness of his sweet heart.” Miranda’s association with the Drama Book Shop is based on more than just a great retail experience. Its three floors on W. 40th St. once served as his

base of operations. “The @dramabookshop is not only the best place to get theater-related ANYTHING, I wrote most of In The Heights there. Pls support. #BuyABook,” Miranda tweeted on Thurs., Feb. 18. Other tweets from that day indicate a bright future in marketing, should he choose a new career path. In addition to praising the Shakespeare section’s comfy chairs, he replied to a Twitter follower’s inquiry about whether the upcoming Miranda-penned “Hamilton: The Revolution” would be available for purchase at the Drama Book Shop. “It will be. And I’ll go sign it there,” Mirada vowed, “But they need your help now so I can go sign it there in April.” Other tweets found Miranda

naming his most recent purchases (“When I was last there I got a Noel Coward bio, a King Lear DVD starring Brian Blessed, and the Heathers piano/vo”), and invoking a character from “It’s a Wonderful Life,” who rescues George Bailey from impending bankruptcy and scandal (“If you’re not in NY, you can also purchase items via the site below. BE SAM WAINWRIGHT. HEE HAW”). This latest episode in the long life of Manhattan’s only remaining performing arts bookstore is merely a brief act in an epic play and, when the curtain first rose on the Drama Book Shop in 1917, it revealed a much different set and cast than what you’ll find today. As it was, the Drama Book Shop began less as a bookstore, and more as a bookshelf, located in the Manhattan offices of the Drama League of New York. Back before video (and, later, the Internet) would come to reign as the supreme source of pulp violence, pornography and off-color humor, theater was the ultimate wellspring of all things unwholesome, and the Drama League helped ardent fans of proper drama sift through the many lewd productions that proliferated during the early 20th century, according to Hubby. “Around the turn of the century, theater had gotten a bad name, because a lot of it was quite tawdry,” he said. “So, this group of people who loved theater formed branches all over the country. The idea was they would recommend plays that were worthy of theater, which basically meant theater that didn’t have sex or violence.” Meanwhile, the bookshelf (or card table, depending on who’s telling the story) was managed by one Marge Seligman — and, over time, her meager collection of draDRAMA BOOK Continued on page 25

March 10 – March 23, 2016

The Indian subcontinent, supersaturated by McCurry MCCURRY Continued from page 22

to a country that retains the capacity to “delight, charm and horrify” him. Many of the 37 photographs on view at the RMA show why. His memorable images of crowded, chaotic cities, primitive rural areas, ancient prayer ceremonies and huge religious festivals, and intimate portraits of ordinary people looking directly at his camera, capture India’s unique charms and beauty as well as its economic and cultural extremes that both fascinate and infuriate. Explaining why he’s attracted to India, he says, “There is such an extreme range of class: rich and poor, old and new, sacred and secular…There are Hindus and Muslims, Sikhs and Jains, Christians and Buddhists all living amongst one another.” Before his first trip to India, McCurry had always used black and white film. Realizing his India pictures should be in color, he brought along 300 rolls of Kodachrome. “Color is integral to the story of the Buddhist monasteries, the Hindu temples, and the Festival of Holi,” says McCurry, who seems both pleased with and committed to his transition to color. “That’s the world we live in…color makes the picture more important,” he notes. In 2010, Eastman Kodak recognized his superb use of color by asking him to shoot the very last roll (36 exposures) of Kodachrome they would ever manufacture. He chose to shoot about 24 images in India; the spectacular 40 x 60 inch print “Rabari Tribal Elder, Rajasthan, 2010,” with its subject’s intense stare and McCurry’s supersaturated color, is a testament to both the photographer’s talent and the film. The importance of color in India is also beautifully illustrated by “Boy in Midflight, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 2007,” one of my favorites in the show. McCurry explains: “I’d been in Jodhpur many times, and I know the back streets well. There were always cows, people on bicycles, and workers in that narrow alley. I took a number of pictures, but I’m glad I waited for the moment the boy practically flew through the passageway.” In my view, I thought capturing the boy in mid-air at the end of the alley was fantastic, but framing it with the deep blue back wall, red painted hands and orange wall makes it a masterpiece. The picture’s impact is magnified by the large format print –– 40 x 60 inches. This image supports the artist’s belief that a still photograph “is something which

March 10 – March 23, 2016

“Dust Storm, Rajasthan, 1983.”

“Tailor Carries His Sewing Machine through Monsoon Waters, Porbandar, Gujarat, 1983.”

you can always go back to. You can put it on your wall and look at it again and again because it is that frozen moment. I think it tends to burn into your psyche. It becomes ingrained in your mind. A powerful picture becomes iconic of a place or a time or a situation.” Well, this is certainly one of them. In 1983, McCurry returned to India to photograph a series for National Geographic about the monsoon, a season of heavy rainstorms that is synonymous with life, passion, and celebration. On view is “Dust Storm, Rajasthan, 1983,” an iconic image that also graces the cover of “India.” The picture has a mystical quality; the trees and cloud of dust contrast with the bright red saris the women are using to shield themselves from the dust clouds and wind. McCurry says, “I stopped and tried to make pictures, but they didn’t even notice me, they sang and prayed. Life and death seemed to hang in precarious balance.” While shooting the “Monsoon” series, the photographer saw a tailor walking down the street carrying his sewing machine on his shoulder with water up to his neck. The machine was ruined — but when “Tailor Carries His Sewing Machine through Monsoon Waters, Porbandar, Gujarat, 1983” appeared on the cover of National Geographic, the manufacturer sent the tailor a new machine. In his decades-long search for “unguarded moments, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person’s face,” McCurry has given us an incomparable look at the India that is on the cusp between modernity and ancient tradition: the well-dressed customer waiting for his shoes at the cobbler’s shop; a mother and child at a car window; a father and daughter on Dal Lake; a man covered with green powder carried by a crowd during the Holi Festival; huge crowds gathering for the Kimbh Mela Festival; Buddhist monks debating. Steve McCurry has seen it all. Now, through his eyes, you can too. “Steve McCurry: India” is on view through Mon., Apr. 4, at the Rubin Museum of Art (150 W. 17th St., btw. Sixth & Seventh Aves.). Viewable with admission to the museum, Mon. 11 a.m.– 5 p.m., Wed. 11 a.m.–9 p.m., Thurs. 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m.–10 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Admission is $15, $10 for seniors/students, and free for children under 12 (or after 6 p.m. on Fri.). Visit rubinmuseum.org or call 212620-5000 for more info. For artist info, visit stevemccurry.com. DowntownExpress.com

Long shelf life likely for Drama Book Shop DRAMA BOOK Continued from page 23

mas and musicals ballooned, eventually becoming more popular and than the haughty Drama League that birthed it, according to Hubby. So, Seligman took her catalogue of plays and established the Drama Book Shop on E. 45th St. in 1923, in what was then Manhattan’s Publishing District. From there, the store moved a few times, each time heading further west, until eventually finding its way to W. 52nd St. (btw. Fifth & Sixth Aves.) in 1958, when a group of disparate thespians and theater enthusiasts bought the store. Among them was Arthur Seelen, a former actor, whose enthusiasm for theater craft and the people who love it remains a fond recollection of the shop’s more venerable patrons, even after his death in 2000, according to his widow, Rozanne. “He loved the young people who came into the store, and he loved the books,” she said. “Even all these years later, people come and say how much they miss him. It’s a great credit to him.” Seleen, his partners, and, later, his wife, cultivated a staff similarly devoted to the performing arts, whose knowledge of the craft and their faithfulness to the store is as much a key to the shop’s success as its doting clientele, according to Hubby. “We have an incredibly knowledgeable staff,” he said. “People who come to work here stay for years and years, and they don’t want to leave, even though we pay them next to nothing. We have the best staff in the world.” In fact, the Drama Book Shop has produced at least one stellar addition to the theater world. Playwright Douglas Carter Beane, whose work on “As Bees in Honey Drown,” “The Little Dog Laughed,” “Xanadu” and “The Nance” have made him a (literal) marquee name, worked at the store as a bag checker in the ’80s. But, while the store and its staff are sought-after for their prodigious knowledge of theater, that doesn’t always equate to sales — even if they’re able to help the customer pick out the perfect play, according to Hubby. “It is frustrating when someone says, ‘Thank you so much for your help, I’m going to go to Amazon and order that book,’ ” he explained. And, despite its enormous collection of plays and written material concerning performing arts, many of which is out of print and nearly impossible to come by, the Drama Book Shop is a destination for more than just its wares. In addition to its basement theater, where the store’s resident children’s theater company, The Striking Viking Story Pirates, rehearse and perform, the Drama Book Shop has played host to several high-profile, if impromptu revivals. At one point, cast members from the original production of “A Chorus Line,” invaded the store and collectively belted out tunes from the show. That off-the-books revival was followed up by an unofficial production of “Hair,” when cast members of the show’s DowntownExpress.com

Photos by Yannic Rack

(Top) The acting section was hit hard by recent water damage. “Students need textbooks,” notes Allen Hubby, “and we’re forced to say, ‘Sorry, they drowned.’ ” (Above left) Although structurally intact, the ceiling sustained significant water damage. (Above right) The Striking Viking Story Pirates (the store’s resident children’s theater company) perform in the basement theater, and use some of the upstairs space to store props and costumes.

original and follow-up productions met up at the shop and gaily broke out in song, according to Hubby. “We’ve had some revivals,” he recounted. The Drama Book Shop has outlived at least five other theater-themed bookshops in the city, and is now one of three remaining niche performing arts bookstores in the western hemisphere, with one in Los Angeles and another in London still chugging along, according to Hubby. But, as the store’s centennial anniversary approaches, several other threats loom over the bookshop’s future. Even after this reporter began work on the article you’re now reading, a second incident subjected the business’s basement offices to more water damage, on Sun., Feb. 28. Fortunately, this one was less catastrophic, and did more to encourage an early spring-cleaning than anything else, according to Seelen. “It’s making us clean up the office,” she said. More ominous, however, is the approaching end date on the business’s current lease, which will almost

certainly force Drama Book Shop into yet another period of flux in the face of what’s expected to be an enormous rent hike, Hubby said. “Our lease is up dangerously soon,” he said. “We have a very good relationship with our landlord, but we’ll have to move when our lease is up. It will probably triple.” Whatever happens, chances are good that, somewhere in the city, there will be a cozy chair where somebody, from some part of the world, will be devouring a stack of plays curated by the Drama Book Shop. “It is not without its challenges. Every day is an adventure,” said Hubby. “Our customers are very resourceful. If they need a monologue, they’ll find us.” The Drama Book Shop is located at 250 W. 40th St. (btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.). Hours: 10 a.m.–7 p.m. Mon., Tues., Wed., Fri. & Sat. (open until 8 p.m. on Thurs.). Sun., 12–6 p.m. Call 212-944-0595 or visit dramabookshop.com. March 10 – March 23, 2016

March 10 â€“ March 23, 2016

DowntownExpress.com

Just Do Art BY SCOTT STIF F L ER

“THE MOSQUITO” AT DIXON PLACE A familiar face on the nighttime tube (“China Beach,” “Law & Order”) and, more recently, as a cultural commentator on “CBS News Sunday Morning,” Nancy Giles excels at dishing out droll observations whose spice and bite don’t come with the unpleasant aftertaste left by cynicism. The woman knows how to pick her battles, and how to shape her material — qualities that come in handy when Giles is booking talent for “The Mosquito,” a monthly showcase at Dixon Place that conjures visions of an insect whose bite has lasting consequences, while making a cheeky reference to “The Moth,” that 800-pound gorilla of the storytelling circuit. Variety is what sets Giles’ showcase apart, with the host performing alongside a rotating cast of regulars (Pat Candaras, Cynthia Kaplan, Peri Gaffney, Kathryn Rossetter, Sheila Head, Susan Burns, Sue Giles, Nancy Shayne) offering monologues, stand-up, and music. Free. Mon., Mar. 14, 7:30 p.m. in the cozy front lounge space at Dixon Place (161A Chrystie St., btw. Rivington & Delancey Sts.). Visit dixonplace.org or call 212-219-0736. Giles on Twitter: @nancygilesnyc. AMORE OPERA PRESENTS DONIZETTI’S “POLIUTO” AND “THE ELIXIR OF LOVE” Amore Opera continues its seventh season of presenting classic and overlooked operas, at prices well within the grasp of youth and senior members of the community. Directed by Nathan Hull and performed by multiple casts, this double bill of works by Gaetano Donizetti marks the first time “Poliuto” has been presented — in a full production, with full staging — in the United States, since 1859. The two-act tragic tale, based on Pierre Corneille’s 17th century play “Polyeucte,” dramatizes the life of Christian martyr Saint Polyeuctus. “The Elixir of Love,” aka Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore,” is based on the French comedy “Le Philtre” by Eugène Scribe, in which a con man convinces a poor peasant that the beautiful but indifferent object of his affection will come around, thanks to a magic potion (available for purchase, of course). Both productions, sung in Italian with English subtitles, have Italian conductor Daniele Tirilli holding the baton. In May, Amore Opera presents Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” as well a version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta “Iolanthe,” cast entirely with children. Fri., Mar. 11 through Sun., Mar. 20, at The Sheen Center (18 Bleecker St., at Elizabeth St.). For the schedule of performances and tickets ($45 general, $35 for seniors, students, children), visit sheencenter.org or call 212-925-2812. Artist info at amoreopera.org. DowntownExpress.com

Photo courtesy Dixon Place

L–R: Cynthia Kaplan, Pat Candaras and Kathryn Rossetter are frequent guests of host Nancy Giles, at “The Mosquito” — a free monthly variety show at Dixon Place.

Photo by Nathan Hull

The Roman general Severo (Robert Garner) attempts to woo Paolina (Sara Beth Pearson), in Amore Opera’s production of “Poliuto” — through Mar. 20 at The Sheen Center.

Photo by Michael Stever

Immersive and uninhibited: Faux-Real Theatre’s “The Bacchae” gives La MaMa some serious Greek, through Mar. 20.

FAUX-REAL THEATRE’S “THE BACCHAE” Greek theatre performed with “immersive abandon that closely approximates how these plays were first experienced” is the specialty of New York’s avant-garde Faux-Real Theatre — whose interpretation of Euripides’ 5th century tragedy casts its Greek chorus as a girl group, Dionysus as a “gender-bending and mercurial party god,” and its communal party as an uninhibited realm where nobody bats an eyelash at the sight of a titillating costume malfunction or a drunken goat dance. Through Sun., Mar. 20: Thurs., Fri., Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m., at La MaMa (First Floor Theatre; 74A E. Fourth St., btw. Bowery & Second Ave.). For tickets ($18 general, $13 for students/ seniors), visit lamama.org or call 646-430-5374. Artist info at fauxreal.org. March 10 – March 23, 2016

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March 10 â€“ March 23, 2016

DowntownExpress.com