The Villager

www.TheVillager.com

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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933

June 2, 2016 • $1.00

Volume 86 • Number 22

BY LESLEY SUSSMAN

Community Board 3 got an earful last Tuesday night from a coalition of

Lower East Side activists who complained that the board was dragging its legs in the battle to stop the proliferation of luxury high-rises, hotels and other up-scale developments that are displacing poor people who live in the neighborhood.

Members of the Chinatown Working Group — a coali-tion of grassroots organiza-tions whose goal is to draft a master plan that would pre-serve housing affordability in a wide swath of Lower Man-hattan — spoke out angrily at the full board meeting at P.S. 20 on May 24. They repeat-edly demanded that C.B. 3 at

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

After deliberating for roughly two days, a Manhattan jury

last week convicted Bayna-Lekheim El-Amin on four of fi ve felony charges resulting from a 2015 fi ght he had with two gay men in a Chelsea res-taurant.

“There was no justifi ca-tion for this brutal attack,” Cy

Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, said in a May 25 statement. “Bayna-Lekheim El-Amin struck both victims in a public restaurant with a heavy wooden chair, knock-ing one of them unconscious. I commend the victims for their courage and my offi ce’s prosecutors for ensuring this defendant is held accountable

Activists call on C.B. 3to take a stand againstwave of luxury high-rises

BBQ basher found guiltyof attempted assaultIn Chelsea chair attack

PAUL DeRIENZO

It’s been a busy season for environmental activists in New York City.

Last week, an “emergency petition” and legal action was fi led with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by environmental watchdog group Friends of the Earth to prohibit the restart of Indian Point Unit 2. That reactor was shut down after a control-rod failure last December. F.O.E. is also demanding an immedi-ate shutdown and inspection of the plant’s Unit 3.

The two reactors, located in Buchanan, N.Y., less than an

hour’s drive from New York City, are more than 40 years old and operating under tem-porary licenses. The reactors have experienced numerous mishaps over the past year and Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for their shutdown.

The fate of Indian Point fi gures into a plan announced by the governor late last year, directing the state’s Depart-ment of Public Service to implement a Clean Energy Standard, “mandating that 50 percent of all electricity con-sumed in New York by 2030 result from clean and renew-able energy sources.”

The goal is to reduce green-

house gas emissions in the state by 40 percent while in-creasing reliance on solar en-ergy and continuing the state’s reliance on nuclear power.

Nuclear power produces dangerous waste products that require many years of storage. Public opposition has stymied plans for a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, and so reactor waste is being stored at nuclear plants in underwa-ter pools.

The F.O.E. suits claimed that the recent discovery at Indian Point 2 that a quarter of the nearly 1,000 Unit 2

BBQ BASH continued on p. 12

Fake Uber robs L.E.S. hail, threatens rape.......p. 10Readers sound off on Beth Israel plan..............p. 24Fukushima 5 years later....p. 14

Cries to close nuke plantand go green gain energy

C.B. 3 continued on p. 16

An N.Y.U. graduate proudly accepted a diploma on behalf of his individual school

last Wednesday. Because of N.Y.U.’s size, one person accepts a degree for each

school, such as Tisch School of the Arts or Stern School of Business. See Page 6.

ENERGY continued on p. 8

2 June 2, 2016 TheVillager.com

TRUTH TELLER: Soho’s own James Sol-omon spent years putting together a riveting docu-mentary on the infamous Kitty Genovese murder, “The Witness,” and now it’s finally opening at the IFC Center, on Sixth Ave. at W. Third St., on Fri., June 3. Solomon is best known as a writer for both TV and the big screen (“The Bronx Is Burning,” the HBO series about the Yankees and 1970s New York, and “The Practice,” as well as “The Con-spirator,” a film about the Lincoln assassination). “The Witness,” which Solomon also co-wrote, is his first foray into directing. The film’s hero is Bill Genovese, the tragic victim’s wheelchair-bound youngest brother, with whom she shared a special bond. The film focuses on two questions. First, was the seminal New York Times article on Kitty’s murder in March 1964 overly sensationalistic — and, more to the point, was it extremely mislead-ing? The article came to symbolize concerns over urban apathy and what is now commonly known as “Genovese Syndrome.” Second, the film an-swers the question: Who really was Kitty Genove-se? For one thing, the film proves that the alleged 38 “eyewitnesses” that the Times article claimed watched the grisly murder but didn’t intervene were, in fact, in many cases only “earwitnesses,”

in that Kitty and her killer were circling a block of buildings, which meant that they would have physically been out of view of many of these wit-nesses at certain points. A.M. Rosenthal, the leg-endary former Times executive editor, who even wrote a book in 1973 based on the story, “Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case,” is buttonholed in the film, and bristles at the mere suggestion that the original article could have ex-aggerated residents’ callousness. There are also in-terviews with other journalistic legends, like Gabe Pressman and Mike Wallace, which definitely give a more nuanced perspective on the accuracy of the now-classic article. The film’s hero is Bill Geno-vese. He lost his legs as a young scout in Vietnam when an explosive device was remotely detonated right after he had spotted it. Each time he is shown lifting himself into his chair, or hauling himself up a flight of stairs with his powerful arms in Kitty’s old Kew Gardens, Queens, neighborhood, the viewer feels a deep respect for his resolute quest — to find out the truth of who his older sister re-ally was beyond a hollow media character. We find out she was lesbian and lived with her partner, that she managed a bar in Hollis, Queens, working its day shift, which started at 8 a.m., and drove a sporty red Fiat. In short, she was fun and interest-ing. She was also a very intelligent, popular girl when she was growing up in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The famous photo that we have of her was in fact a mug shot, from when she was busted for taking bargoers’ bets on the horses for a bookie. Solo-mon and Bill Genovese first met through Andrew Blauner, the literary agent. But Solomon also had another deep bond with Bill — in that he, too, lost a beloved sibling, his older brother, John Solomon, to leukemia, in 2010. An accomplished journal-ist, John Solomon also became a top blogger on

homeland security and local emergency prepared-ness after 9/11. The brothers Solomon were top scholar-athletes at Collegiate High School on the Upper West Side, where they were both known as “Solly.” When John became sick, James resigned from Community Board 2, on which he had been an active member, especially on Chinatown issues, and put the film on hold for a several years, which is partly why it took so long to make. For fans of journalism and true crime stories — with a defi-nite emphasis on “the truth” — “The Witness” is a must-see.

CANDIDATES ASSEMBLE AT D.I.D.: As The Villager was going to press, the Downtown Independent Democrats club were vot-ing on who to endorse for Assembly in the 65th District in the September primary election. Sean Sweeney of D.I.D. confirmed that Alice Cancel — who won the April special election to fill the seat left vacant after Sheldon Silver was convicted on federal charges — plans to run for re-election in the primary. “Yes, Alice is running,” Sweeney told us. “John Quinn came from the Lower East Side to my loft at a D.I.D. meeting last week to speak on her behalf, while she was in Albany. She originally told people she wouldn’t run after the special election, but has since changed her mind.” Quinn, a Democratic State Committee member who is Cancel’s husband, recently told us that Cancel had a flare-up of diabetes during the cam-paign, which had her second-guessing whether she should run again, but that she is now set on trying to hold the seat against a big field of candidates. No doubt, the D.I.D. vote will be a heated contest — mainly between District Leaders Paul Newell and Jenifer Rajkumar, who are both D.I.D. mem-bers. Neither district leader has been willing to step aside in their hunger to achieve higher office, causing a deep division in the club. Quinn has said it’s too late at this point, that the split will rip the club apart, though Sweeney says that’s overstating things. The race similarly has multiple Asian can-didates, threatening to dilute the power of China-town’s vote in the heavily Asian district.

SCHWARTZ STONEWALLED: Over on the West Side, things are no less chippy — actually, more so — in the race for the 66th As-sembly District primary election. The Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC last Wednesday strongly endorsed longtime incumbent Deborah Glick over challenger District Leader Arthur Schwartz — but not before Schwartz came in for some bruis-ing questions from the pro-Glick crowd. A long-time Stonewall member who requested anonymity called us to gloat over Glick’s romp, noting that she is “an icon” in the club, as the state’s first openly gay elected official. He added that Schwartz was grilled by some club members on whether he sup-ported banning outside income for state legisla-tors, or at least capping it, or putting it in “a blind trust” while in office. Schwartz, who is running as a reformer, said no to all those ideas. “Deborah has come up with this one as her response to my chal-lenge to her being an enabler of Sheldon Silver,” Schwartz told us afterward in a lengthy e-mail response. “She had three questioners planted to ask me about my position on outside income. One person — reflecting what Deborah said — stated that allowing elected officials to make outside income was at the root of corruption in Albany. That is so untrue,” Schwartz protested. “Sheldon Silver took bribes. Dean Skelos directed business to companies that hired his son. John Sampson

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Filmmaker James Solomon outside his Soho

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SCOOPY continued on p. 19

June 2, 2016 3TheVillager.com

Mount Sinai Announces $500 Million Investment to Create “Mount Sinai Downtown” Network

New Mount Sinai Downtown Beth Israel Hospital on

14th St. with inpatient beds & brand New Emergency Department

Expanded & Upgraded Outpatient Services Convenient to Home & Work

NEW YORK (May 25, 2016) – The Mount Sinai Health System today announced a plan

for the sweeping transformation of Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital, by investing over

$500 million to create the new “Mount Sinai Downtown,” an expanded and unified

network of state-of-the-art facilities stretching from the East River to the Hudson River

below 34th Street.

The Mount Sinai Downtown network will include a new Mount Sinai Downtown Beth

Israel Hospital on 14th Street with inpatient beds plus a brand new state-of-the-art

Emergency Department. The new ED will have observation beds and will be equipped

to treat patients with heart attacks and strokes. An expanded and upgraded network

of outpatient services, including expanded behavioral and mental health services, and

physician practices will also be part of the Downtown network. Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s

Emergency Department will remain open until the new ED is up and running.

For additional updates and information, please visit our website:

www.mountsinai.org/downtown

Great News for the Downtown Community!

The current Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital will remain open during this transformation and all services will be available throughout the Mount Sinai Health System. Patients will be able to continue to see the doctors they know and trust.


Named best weekly newspaper in New York State in 2001, 2004 and 2005by New York Press Association

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With music, dance and the tradition-

al bonfire, Jews on the Lower East

Side celebrated the festive holiday

of Lag B’Omer last Thursday evening

outside the Lutowisker Synagogue,

at 262 Delancey St. The holiday cel-

ebrates the day on which Rabbi Shi-

mon bar Yochai revealed the deepest

mystical secrets of kabbalah in the

Zohar (“Book of Splendor”). There

were no reported Madonna sightings

on Delancey last Thursday, however.

Spirit of kabbalah burns on DelanceyPHOTOS BY LESLEY SUSSMAN


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Andrew Hamilton, the new president of New York University, stepped up to the plate at Yankee Stadium on Wed., May 18, to preside over the university’s 184th commencement ceremony.

Receiving honorary degrees were French microbiologist Emmanuelle Char-pentier; Congressmember John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement; Marga-ret Hilary Marshall, former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court and the fi rst woman to hold that position; co-median Billy Crystal, an N.Y.U. alumnus; and Darren Charles Walker, president of the Ford Foundation.

In his address to the Class of 2016, Walker urged them to ask how they can help others share the education that they enjoyed.

“How can we extend the ladder of op-portunity, so that more people can sit in these...bleachers in the years ahead and

experience what you all have experi-enced?” he said.

Speaking in a clipped English accent, N.Y.U President Hamilton noted that the graduates have had a lot of help from their families in getting to where they are today. He urged them to “turn around and give them thanks,” and, with a roar, the grads heartily obliged.

Having taken over the university’s leadership from John Sexton in January, Hamilton, at least so far, has kept a pretty low profi le in the wider Village commu-nity. Which is perhaps not so surprising, given the impassioned opposition to the N.Y.U. 2031 South Village expansion mega-project.

While Sexton was known for wearing his trademark Yankees baseball cap at commencement, Hamilton — a chemist who could very well be a cricket fan — sported a traditional mortarboard.

PHOTOS BY @NYU PHOTO BUREAU

Hamilton steps into the box at N.Y.U. graduation

New N.Y.U. President Andrew Hamilton broke from recent tradition by

not wearing a Yankees cap.


with lineup of heavy hitters up at the stadium


“baffl e-former” bolts are either miss-ing or damaged “is a major failure that affects the safety” of the plant. The 2-inch bolts hold the assembly that sur-rounds the reactor’s uranium core and directs water fl ow. According to F.O.E., “Failure of these bolts could…[deprive] the core of necessary cooling water and potentially result in a meltdown.” A “meltdown” means that the nuclear fuel has partially melted and potentially re-leased radiation into the environment.

However, Entergy, the company that owns Indian Point, has said that the plant is safe and is in the midst of hear-ings before the Atomic Safety Licensing Board aimed to extend their licenses for 20 years. Cuomo has said he wants to close Indian Point but wants to con-tinue operating the James A. Fitzpat-rick nuclear power plant near Upstate Oswego, N.Y. Entergy, though, plans to close Fitzpatrick this year. The dis-pute has contributed to the furor over the role of nuclear power, which cur-rently supplies one-third of the state’s electricity.

On Tuesday, activists carrying white cardboard windmills, yellow and red antinuclear banners and demanding “clean energy” rallied outside City Hall

to criticize the governor’s plan. They said Cuomo’s proposed scheme has no teeth and that the new Clean Energy Standard “won’t live up to its prom-ises.”

In a statement, the environmentalists said the standards need to be “enforce-able” and must “compel” utilities to buy energy from renewable sources. They also slammed the governor for failing to propose more wind power, such as offshore windmill farms.

At a hearing earlier in the day before the City Council’s Committee on En-vironmental Protection, panelists dis-

cussed New York City’s commitment to solar power. Advocates called for city programs to encourage low-income New Yorkers to take advantage of solar power through lowered utility costs.

Currently, the city provides a prop-erty-tax abatement to benefi t solar projects, which advocates want to see renewed and extended.

Meanwhile, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he wants to reduce citywide green-house gas emissions to 80 percent be-low 2005 levels by 2050, by issuing a “Carbon Challenge” to city-based insti-tutions to reduce their emissions.

The Fire Department of New York also shared its concern regarding fi re-fi ghters’ safety when they respond to emergencies in buildings with rooftop solar installations that have been ap-proved on a case-by-case basis.

Advocates say they want the city’s Department of Buildings to issue stan-dardized guidelines for construction of solar facilities, so that fi rst responders know what to expect when they arrive.

PHOTOS BY PAUL DERIENZO

Environmental activists rallied at City Hall on Tuesday, saying Governor Cuomo’s “Clean Energy Standard” has no teeth.

Push to close Indian Point amid plans to boost clean energyENERGY continued from p. 1


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Robbed by fake Uber

On Sun., May 15, around 1:30 a.m., a woman entered a car that she thought was an Uber taxi she had requested in the vicinity of Mangin and E. Houston Sts., near the F.D.R. Drive, after the driver stated that he was there to pick her up.

As the woman rode in the black four-door sedan, however, she began to real-ize the man was not driving toward her residence. And as the vehicle passed the E. 96th St. exit on the F.D.R. Drive, the driver suddenly demanded money while threatening to shoot and sexually assault her.

The victim complied with his de-mands and gave her property to the driver as he exited the highway at an unknown location in northern Manhat-tan. The victim was able to escape the car while it was stopped at a red light on Park Ave.

The woman was not injured and the driver fl ed with the victim’s iPhone, wallet, $20 in cash, a debit card, a Met-roCard, a jacket and a pair of gold ear-rings.

The individual was described as in his 30s, with short hair and a beard.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Police Department’s Crime Stoppers Hotline, at 800-577-TIPS. Tips can also be submitted by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Web site, www.nypdcrimestoppers.com, or by texting them to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.

Fired, fl ipped out

An employee of Spur Tree at Nor-man’s Cay restaurant at 74 Orchard St. reportedly did not handle getting fi red very well. On Sun., May 22, at 1:30 a.m., according to police, the former worker began fl ipping tables, breaking

multiple items, and threatening other workers after being told he was fi red. No one was injured.

The man was arrested the next day in front of 75 Christopher St., when one of the restaurant’s employees saw him and pointed him out to an offi cer.

Christopher Bates, 23, was arrested for felony criminal mischief.

Monster bash

An staff member of the Monster bar at 80 Grove St. was assaulted early Sunday morning, police said. On May 29 at around 2 a.m., a man struck an employee at the bar several times, caus-ing substantial pain.

Police arrested Jovan Lopez, 36, for misdemeanor assault.

With friends like this…

On Mon., May 23, at around 4:30 p.m. at the southwest corner of Wash-ington Square South and Thompson St., two acquaintances got into an ar-gument, when one man got physical. He struck the other man with a blunt instrument on his head, neck and hand, causing physical injury, police said.

The assailant then took property from the victim, including a duffl e bag, items of clothing and $50. A canvass was conducted and police located the alleged perpetrator at Mercer Play-ground, on Mercer St. between Bleeck-er and W. Third Sts. He was positively identifi ed by the victim and the stolen property was recovered.

Matthew Pritchett, 45, was arrested for felony robbery.

Soda threat fi zzles

The CVS at 360 Sixth Ave. was the scene of a robbery on Thurs., May 26, police said. At 12:50 p.m. that day, a man reportedly entered the location and was observed by the store manager placing four sodas in his duffl e bag. The manager removed the sodas from the man’s bag and told him to get out. However, as the man was exiting the store, he got into a verbal dispute with the manager and then displayed a knife while stating, “Come outside to fi nish this.”

The man then fl ed on foot to Wash-ington Square Park, where an offi cer who had received a photo of the man arrested him. Upon a search, a crack pipe was recovered.

Jonathan Liu, 36, was arrested for misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon.

Emily Siegel

and Lincoln Anderson

POLICE BLOTTER

A police sketch of the alleged

phony cab driver.


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One man was left dead and three people were in-jured in a wild shooting inside Irving Plaza at a rap concert last Wednesday night, police said.

Gunfi re — reportedly at least fi ve shots — broke out just after 10 p.m. on May 25 in a green room at the Gramercy music club, right before Atlanta rapper T.I. was set to take the stage.

According to news reports, a 33-year-old man was shot in the stomach and died at Mount Sinai Beth Is-rael Hospital; a 34-year-old man, shot in the chest, was taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition; and a woman, 26, was wounded in the leg and ex-pected to survive, according to police.

In addition, Brooklyn rapper Troy Ave — the al-leged shooter — accidentally blasted himself in the leg, according to reports.

Troy Ave, real name Roland Collins, 33, was sub-sequently arrested at N.Y.U. Langone Hospital. The deceased, Ronald (Edgar) McPhatter, was Troy Ave’s bodyguard.

Another rapper, Maino, had just fi nished perform-ing when the shooting broke out. According to re-ports, Troy Ave had a beef with Maino. One media outlet said the fi ght started after someone from one group bumped into someone from another group. The gunfi re is said to have lasted fi ve minutes.

The shots sparked a panic inside the concert hall with — as shown on video that was released — peo-ple stampeding off the fl oor to try to reach safety.

The venue had metal detectors and a police detail at the door, but it is believed the gun was snuck in a back entrance that performers come in through.

McPhatter — who was known as “Banga,” accord-ing to one Web site — was facing felony charges for allegedly shooting at a man last November outside the

Flatiron District bar Pergola, at 36 W. 28th St. One of the bullets allegedly grazed a female bystander, ac-cording to DNAinfo.

The Daily News reported that, in court this Tues-day, attorneys for Troy Ave claimed that the rapper

was, in fact, the “real victim” in the incident and that he did not shoot McPhatter. Although video shows Troy Ave barging into the room and fi ring fi ve shots, his attorneys said there was more to the story than seen in the clip.

Rapper is accused in fatal Irving Plaza shooting

PHOTO BY JEFFERSON SIEGEL

Police officers, detectives and emergency personnel responded to Ir ving Plaza, at E. 15th St.

and Ir ving Place, on the evening of Wed., May 25, after deadly gunfire broke out at a rap con-

cert. At the time of this photo, the victims had already been removed from the scene.


for this horrifi c attack.”The jurors, who appeared to be at

loggerheads at points in their delibera-tions, found the 42-year-old guilty of two counts of attempted assault in the fi rst degree for the fi ght with Jonathan Snipes, 33, and Ethan York-Adams, 26, plus two counts of second-degree as-sault. El-Amin was acquitted on a fi fth count that charged him with second-degree assault for allegedly stomping on Snipes’s head. When he is sentenced on June 14, El-Amin could get up to 15 years in prison.

Jurors began deliberating on May 23 and very quickly sent a note to the judge, Arlene Goldberg, saying they could not reach a verdict. On the morning of May 25, jurors asked what would happen if they reached a verdict on only four of the fi ve counts. They were then allowed to announce their verdicts on the four and instructed to continue deliberating on the outstanding charge of fi rst-de-gree attempted assault on Snipes. They returned a guilty verdict on that charge later in the day.

The case has been fraught from the start.

The fi ght broke out on May 5, 2015, at the Dallas BBQ at Eighth Ave. and W. 23rd St. in Chelsea. The day after the fi ght, Snipes contacted the press, claiming that he and York-Adams, his boyfriend at the time, had been the vic-tims of a hate crime perpetrated by two men. One video showed El-Amin hit-ting York-Adams with a wooden chair as York-Adams and Snipes stood with their backs to El-Amin.

The incident received some press at-tention, and one protest was organized

outside the restaurant that included Councilmember Corey Johnson and state Senator Brad Hoylman. Both poli-ticians are openly gay and both repre-sent districts that include Chelsea.

More complete video of the incident, which went public a few months after the story broke, however, showed that it was Snipes, in fact, who started the fi ght and that only one man fought with Snipes.

El-Amin was not charged with a hate crime. In fact, according to his lawyer, El-Amin is also gay.

When he testifi ed, Snipes said he heard someone say the word “faggot” and he believed that person was El-Amin, so he hit him with his purse. The incident, which lasted about one minute, had three discrete parts. At the trial’s outset, prosecutor Leah Saxtein said that El-Amin was not charged with any crime relating to the fi rst part of the fi ght, when El-Amin pounced on Snipes after being struck. In the videos that were played in court, Snipes ap-pears to strike El-Amin in two of the parts of the fi ght.

The third part, where El-Amin used the wooden chair, was always the great-est threat to him because both Snipes and York-Adams are turned away from him. Yet, El-Amin’s attorney argued his client was acting in self-defense throughout the incident.

Both Snipes and York-Adams testi-fi ed that they were drunk and both men received medical attention from an E.M.T. medic following the incident. They both refused a trip to an emergen-cy room, though, saying they did not have insurance and could not afford the trip. This suggested they did not believe their injuries were serious.

BBQ basher found guiltyBBQ BASH continued from p. 1

A sur veillance photo of Bayna-Lekheim El-Amin in Dallas BBQ the day

of the May 5, 2015, incident that was released by the police.


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Frozen clocks, face masks and fear: Five years

In March, Q. Sakamaki, a globetrot-ting confl ict photographer and former longtime East Villager, returned to his native Japan to document the fi fth an-niversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Fukushima is considered the world’s second-worst nuclear power plant accident in history, after Chernobyl in Ukraine in the former Soviet Union in 1986. The Japanese nuclear accident was triggered by an earthquake and tsunami that deluged Fukushima and killed more than 15,900 people — while more than 2,500 people remain missing to this day.

This page, clockwise from top: On the disaster’s fi fth anniversary, Fukushima fi refi ghters look for victims’ remains in Ukedo, in Namie, inside the evacu-ation zone; a broken laptop computer in an abandoned elementary school in Ukedo; an abandoned school in Namie;

a man cleans a radiation-contaminated area in Odaka in Minamisoma, where the restriction on entry into the evacua-tion zone was supposed to be lifted this spring, but was delayed.

Opposite page, clockwise from top: Schoolgirls pass a panoramic view of Fu-kushima city, the capital of Fukushima Prefecture, where — although the area has been declared safe from radiation — people worry about their future due to the area’s depopulation; a checkpoint on the way toward the radiation-contam-inated evacuation zone in Tsushima, in Namie; Fukushima’s “frozen time” — a clock in a Ukedo elementary zone that stopped right as the tsunami was knock-ing out the nuclear plant; radioactive waste collected in the evacuation zone at Ukedo, an area that was destroyed by the tsunami and exposed to radiation.

PHOTOS BY Q. SAKAMAKI


later, inside the Fukushima evacuation zone


its next monthly meeting issue a strong statement of support for the coalition’s housing preservation agenda.

“We want you to sign a pledge at your June meeting that says ‘no’ to more luxury development,” a C.W.G. member said. “This community board must stop dragging its legs on this is-sue. Low-income people on the Lower East Side and Chinese people in China-town are being treated as second-class citizens by the city and developers.”

A representative of the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops pointedly asked C.B. 3 Chairperson Gigi Li whether the community board was being “complacent “ on this is-sue.

“Do you stand with us or with de Blasio and the developers,” he said. “Are you going to leave us vulnerable to high-rise developers?”

Francisca Benítez, a member of C.W.G. and Chinatown & Lower East Side Artists Against Displacement, or CLAAD, made a desperate plea for action.

“Passing the C.W.G. plan is now more urgent than ever, with Extell and other skyscrapers being built on the Lower East Side waterfront,” she said. “C.B. 3 should support the com-munity’s demand to stop Extell, and

to ensure that no public subsidies or public assets be used to build luxury high-rises. Please sign the Chinatown Working Group pledge, and make a commitment to stand by the plan in full. We need C.B. 3 to help move the plan forward.”

Li responded that the community board is very involved on the issue, which will, again, be on the agenda of next month’s Land Use Committee meeting. Li later told this newspaper that the community board has been working hard to come up with a plan that would stop the proliferation of high-rise luxury development on the Lower East Side.

“We’ve been very involved with the Chinatown Working Group for the past seven years,” she said. “We remain involved and will continue to discuss how C.B. 3 can be most ef-fective in moving the group’s zoning plan forward. It’s understandable that there’s frustration about the time it’s taken to work out the details. Hope-fully, we can soon work out a benefi -cial plan.”

Board member Enrique Cruz, meanwhile, said after the meeting that the community board supports C.W.G. on the issue of curbing ram-pant development, but that C.B. 3, unfortunately, does not have the fi nal call on this issue.

“We’re wholeheartedly on the side of the groups who want to stop mas-sive high-rise and luxury develop-ment buildings in the area,” he said. “The board has already approved the Chinatown Working Group plan. But the problem is that there are different pockets of land involved, so it’s tak-ing longer than expected to fi nalize a cohesive plan. The board has already reached out and met with city plan-ners on this issue. But we’re not the fi -nal decision makers and I understand the frustration of these groups.”

The de Blasio administration reject-ed the C.W.G. plan for a Chinatown / Lower East Side Special District in March of last year, calling it “not fea-sible at this time.”

C.B. 3 member Vaylateena Jones said that the situation is urgent.

“What can we do quickly?” she asked. “There’s an onslaught of gi-gantic buildings being put up in our neighborhood that are charging gi-gantic rents. How can we halt this?”

On another matter, the names of candidates who will be running for C.B. 3’s leadership positions next month were announced.

Li — who is running for Assembly — is not seeking re-election to a fi fth straight one-year term as board chair-person. Instead, three candidates will vie for the board’s top post, incuding Anne Johnson, Jamie Rogers and En-rique Cruz. Karlin Chan and Alysha Lewis-Coleman, the board’s current second vice chairperson, are running for fi rst vice chairperson. Herman Hewitt, the board’s current fi rst vice chairperson, is running for second vice chairperson. David Crane is run-

ning for treasurer, and Meghan Joye for secretary.

It was also announced at the meet-ing that Seward Park was the winner of the Parks Without Borders Com-petition. The Lower East Side green-sward was one of eight recipients throughout the city that will split a $40 million grant for large-scale park renovations.

Residents have long complained that the park was not up to par, point-ing to its fountain, which has long been out of use, play equipment with chipped paint and few entry points.

In other board business, C.B. 3 unanimously recommended approval of the creation of a two-way bike lane on Chrystie St. The plan also calls for the reconfiguration of traf-fic islands at Chrystie St. north of Canal St. and at Second Ave. north of Houston St. in order to improve traffic flow and increase pedestrian safety. The current Chrystie St. bike lane is highly unsafe, especially on its downtown side, which is often blocked by double-parked vehicles and forklifts, leading to many acci-dents in recent years.

The board also approved a measure asking that C.B. 3 be allowed to par-ticipate in decisions made by the state Liquor Authority regarding the new Alcoholic Beverage Control Law.

Governor Andrew Cuomo last year announced the creation of a working group of industry leaders to recom-mend revisions to the state’s Alco-holic Beverage Control Laws. The group will review existing provisions and explore approaches to clarify and modernize the 80-year-old statute.

C.B. 3 is urged to take a stand vs. developmentC.B. 3 continued from p. 1

COURTESY JDS DEVELOPMENT GROUP AND SHOP ARCHITECTS

A design rendering showing the planned 77-stor y 247 Cherr y St. tow-

er, at right, and Extell’s 80-stor y One Manhattan South, currently un-

der construction, at left.

June 2, 2016 17

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BY MICHELE HERMAN

One supermarket door closes and another opens. At the north end of the West Village, we

have lost the Associated despite spirited protests. But at the southern end of the neighborhood, in the Archive Building, the new Brooklyn Fare has a fi rm open-ing date of July 22.

I’m just back from a walk-through of the space. It’s in the latter stages of a gut renovation, started right after D’Agostino vacated last fall. This will be the third Brooklyn Fare store, the fi rst two being in Downtown Brooklyn and on the far West Side of Manhat-tan.

Owner Moe Issa, an Israeli immigrant with a quiet, no-nonsense demeanor, has a lofty goal for the new store, one that few if any have ever attained: He wants to please all Villagers.

How will he do it? “Through volume,” explained the

former Pepsi distributor who went into the grocery business believing he could do a better job of it than the corpora-tions that run — and tightly control — most supermarkets.

“You have to carry everything to make it work,” he said. “You can’t be one-dimensional. You have to

serve the masses.” Issa’s business model involves carry-

ing more product than other stores, so that high-end customers and budget-minded ones alike can do their regular shopping there.

For quite a few months, the space’s huge windows at the Archive, along Greenwich St. at Christopher St., have been covered, leading some locals to fear that the deal had fallen through. Issa’s original projection of a spring opening date was optimistic, yet he said progress has been rapid.

“All supermarket equipment has to be made to order and requires 12 weeks of lead time,” he noted.

He has hired some key positions, and

will do additional hiring in the next few weeks. He said that former D’Ag em-ployees are welcome to apply.

Soon the windows will be opened up, revealing not just the bakery depart-ment but the actual bakery. All baking for the three stores will be done on the premises, which helps keep down pric-es. Also notable: All the meat and dairy cases are enclosed.

“It keeps products at a steady tem-perature,” Issa explained, “and is much more effi cient and a better use of space.”

A low wall separates the aisles from the cash registers to streamline traffi c. Throughout, there’s lots of fresh car-pentry, fl agstone, white tile and vast

swaths of counters and cases. Issa said that everything in the space, down to every wire, has been replaced.

He held his fi rst open house last week and hopes to do a couple more. He reports that he got great feedback. He also said that he used the event “to feel the pulse of the neighbors.”

Since the store is larger than his oth-er two, he will be able to stock more items, possibly expanding his organics.

“One thing I noticed is a lot of fami-lies,” he said. “So I might stock cereal boxes in larger sizes.”

He will wait and see what else the neighborhood wants.

“We have to get a feel in the fi rst few months,” he said. “We count on feed-back. Our demographics are similar at all the stores, but there are always dif-ferences.”

When asked why other supermar-kets have such a hard time staying in business, let alone appealing to wealthy and budget-minded customers alike, he said that he can’t speak for other operators.

“But it’s all about philosophy and vi-sion,” he offered. “It’s hard to run an operation like mine. It’s about staying on top of everything. It’s much more work, but I’m not afraid to put in the hours.”

Brooklyn Fare will have mo’ of everything: Moe

The awning of the Brooklyn Fare supermarket on Schermerhorn St. in

Downtown Brooklyn, the growing chain’s first location.

The historic Stanton St. Shul and the Siempre Verde Garden, the Lower East Side’s newest garden, were the setting last weekend for the re-enactment of a historic protest by local women more than a century ago against an outra-geous hike in the price of meat.

The women’s boycott became a mod-el for future street protests and rent strikes. The Meat Trust had raised the price of kosher meat from 12 cents to 18 cents, an amount local housewives could not afford, eventually leading to the Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902.

The ladies protested, marched into

the street, into butcher shops, taking out meat and rendering it inedible by soaking it with gasoline. They marched into the synagogues, eventually getting rabbinical support. At the protest’s high point, 20,000 women banded together in the effort.

As The New York Times reported on May 17, 1902, the boycott sparked a “riot,” with 85 women, 75 of them Jew-ish, arrested. During the mayhem, one woman even slapped a cop’s face with a piece of liver.

The resistance worked: On June 9, meat prices dropped back down to 14 cents.

L.E.S. housewives carved up meat price gougers

PHOTOS BY CLAYTON PATTERSON

Re-enactors, from left, Claire Costello and Ilyse Kazar, along with an

audience member, cheer in Siempre Verde Garden upon hearing the

news that on June 5, 1902, the Lower East Side housewives had won

their fight to have meat prices lowered.

Re-enactors at the Stanton St. Shul, clockwise from left, Laura Zelas-

nic, Ilyse Kazar, Jonathan Boyarin and Leslie Levinson, depict the

events of Sat., May 17, 1902, when women went into synagogues on

the Sabbath to obtain rabbinical support and to ask that the boycott be

announced and endorsed.


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embezzled money he was appointed to hold in escrow and then lied about it. Thomas Libelous lied to agents from the F.B.I. who were examining his son’s hiring at a politically con-nected law firm. Malcolm Smith of-fered to bribe Republican leaders to put him on the ballot. Pedro Espada stole from a nonprofit to which he directed public money. William Boy-land was convicted of bribery, mail fraud and extortion. William Scar-borough used $40,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses and filing false claims for $40,000 in travel re-imbursements. Shirley Huntley em-bezzled $87,000 in public funds and attempted to cover it up. None of this had to do with income earned from legitimate outside employment. As-semblywoman JoAnn Simon, who has a law practice similar to mine, though principally focused on dis-ability discrimination, doesn’t agree

with this ‘cap’ business either. Then there is the question of spouses. Brad Hoylman has no earned income oth-er than his state Senate salary. (I’m sure he has lots of investments after years as counsel to the Partnership for New York City.) But his partner, David Sigal, is a highly successful filmmaker. Glick’s spouse, Leslie Sharpe, is a successful writer and educator. Deborah stated at Stone-wall that assemblymembers should have no outside income. Same rule, she says for assemblymembers with no children, or six children. My prin-cipled response: The solution is full disclosure. Make tax returns public. Make legislators detail the sources of all of their income, so that con-flicts are apparent. Understand, I have nothing to hide. My income fluctuates between $125,000 and $225,000 a year, depending on what cases settle. I need that money to pay tuition for two children, to pay for music lessons, gymnastics, summer camp, feeding four people,

paying $40,000 per year in proper-ty taxes, helping my daughter with law school, and even helping my employed son out every once in a while, and paying $2,000 per month toward the cost of my mother’s as-sisted living. To set limits would bar both legitimate employment and bar political figures from being people with families. And, oh my — how about saving for the $400,000 each child will need to go to college! Deborah even planted someone to say that I was one of the most suc-cessful lawyers in New York. I ex-pect to hear a lot more of that as she deflects questions raised about her support of Silver. I’m successful because I win a lot of good things — yes. Financially successful — I wish!” For her part, Glick — who has never had an outside job dur-ing her Assembly tenure — blasted Schwartz’s frequent references to his family as “coded language,” in that, in her view, it’s clearly an effort to portray himself as the only straight candidate in the race. “That’s ri-diculous,” the district leader retort-ed. “Brad Hoylman talks about his daughter more than I do, and brings her to political events.” Meanwhile, Schwartz, while not nabbing the prominent gay club’s nod — which was expected — was endorsed by the Village Reform Democratic Club and Transport Workers Union Local 100 last week, and was previously

endorsed by the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Zephyr Teachout, Yetta Kurland and Liz Abzug, among others.

ZONE OUT: Jeannine Kiely, chairperson of the Community Board 2 Schools and Education Committee, re-ported that the Community Education Council for District 2 recently voted against putting a “carve-out” affecting W. 12th St. and W. 13th St. residents into the zone for the new 75 Morton St. middle school. Instead, the zoned middle school for these blocks will be M.S. 104, Baruch, at E. 21st St. and Second Ave.

CORRECTIONS: Due to an editing error, last week’s article “Soho ‘firetrap’ party space flouts vacate order” said that the former Once Upon a Tart space had become Navy restaurant. However, Navy is located next door to the former tart shop space. In addition, the article stated that The Hub space is zoned for art gallery use, when, in fact, it is technically zoned for retail use. Also, the article referred to Sean Sweeney as “the self-described ‘caretaker of Soho.’ ” According to Sweeney, what he actually said was that he was the “director of the Soho Alliance — the caretaker of Soho’s zoning,” mean-ing the alliance is the “caretaker” and not him.

SCOOPY continued from p. 2

2 0 June 2, 2016 TheVillager.com

K ehila Kedosha Janina, at 280 Broome St, is

the only Romaniote-rite synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. Romaniote Jews — who have lived in and around Greece for 2,000 years — have different cultural tra-ditions from Ashke-nazi and Sephardic Jews. The Lower East Side congrega-tion was founded in 1906 by Greek Jew-ish immigrants from Ioannina. The Broome St. synagogue was built in 1927 and now houses a mu-seum. On Sun., May 22, the synagogue hosted its second an-nual street festival. There was music, food, educational and craft vendors, glori-ous weather and a big, joyous crowd. There may even have been a sighting of a member of one of the “lost tribes,” top.

My big fat Greek Jewish festival on Broome St.PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY


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STAY SAFE WHEN DRIVING IN WET WEATHERADVERTORIAL

Drivers must modify their driving habits when weather compromises their visibility and makes road conditions un-safe. Rain can fall any time of year, but tends to be most prob-lematic in spring.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, wet roadways, and rain in par-ticular, are the main cause of weather-related vehicle crash-es. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administra-tion notes that, between 2004 and 2013, rain caused 573,784 crashes.

To drive safely in the rain and avoid accidents, drivers should follow certain precau-tions.

-ers. Inspect and, if necessary change windshield wipers regularly to ensure they are working optimally. Always test wipers before driving in rainy weather.

-ers. Reduced visibility is a ma-jor contributor to wet-weather accidents. Drivers’ views may be hampered by falling pre-cipitation and glare from wet roadways. Cloudy conditions and fog also compromise vis-ibility. When using windshield wipers, turn on your head-lights as well. This makes your vehicle more visible to other motorists and improves your own ability to see the road and

pedestrians.

conditions. Roadways accumu-late oil and engine fluids that can float in rainwater, creating slippery road surfaces. This is usually a problem during the first few hours of a rainstorm or in areas that receive little precipitation and then are subjected to downpours. These fluids make rain-soaked roads even more slippery. Slow down, leave more room between ve-hicles and try driving in the tracks left by vehicles ahead.

-motive group AAA says hydro-planing, when the tires rise up on a film of water, can occur with as little as 1 ⁄12 inch of wa-

ter on the road. The group goes on to say that tires have to dis-place a gallon of water per sec-ond to keep the rubber meet-ing the road. Drivers should reduce their speeds to corre-spond to the amount of water on the roadway. New tires can still lose some contact with the roadway, even at a speed as low as 35 mph. Therefore, reducing speed and avoiding hard brak-ing and turning sharply can help keep the rubber of the tire meeting the road.

the car’s windshield defroster/defogger to improve visibility. Turn it on early and keep it on until the rain has stopped and visibility has improved.

can be frightening, but when skidding, resist any tempta-tion to slam on the breaks. Instead, continue to look and drive in the direction you want to go and slowly ease up on the accelerator.

important to maintain control over the vehicle in rainy con-ditions, so avoid using cruise control.

inflation and tire tread levels can improve traction. AAA recommends checking tread depth by inserting a quar-ter upside down into the tire groove. If you can see above Washington’s head, start

shopping for new tires. Check tire pressure on all tires at least once a month. Get an ac-curate reading when tires are cold and adjust air pressure accordingly.

-ardous during good road con-ditions and even more danger-ous when visibility and other factors are compromised. Switch phones and other de-vices off so you can fully focus on the road and other drivers.

Rainy weather can contrib-ute to poor driving conditions. Drivers should make changes to speed and other factors to make wet weather driving as safe as possible.


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Where are our leaders?

To The Editor:There once was a time when the Village had car-

ing, honest politicians, like Ted Weiss, who worked in cooperation with amazing citizens who worked hard to protect and improve the community — like Jane Jacobs, Verna Small, Ruth Wittenberg, Bill Bowser and Jim Shaw.

The Village team defeated Zeckendorf when he wanted to bulldoze the historic houses; they set up a landmark district; they defeated the Lower Manhat-tan Expressway, which would have divided the city; they stopped Westway’s $4 billion interstate highway in the Hudson River that would have killed off a na-tionally important aquatic habitat.

Where has the spirit of the Village gone? We are

overcome by greed, by politicians who don’t even care enough to save our only hospital and who work only for their own power and advantage. We are betrayed at every turn by those who are chosen to protect our community. Our beautiful neighborhood is being trashed by greedhead real estate schemes. Our lovely river is being hidden behind ugly development proj-ects. Where are the heroes we once had?

We need leaders with courage and honesty, not the go-alongs who are letting our Village decline.

Bunny Gabel

More ‘effi ciency,’ less care

To The Editor:Re “Prognosis for Beth Israel: New E. 13th St.

mini-hospital” (news article, May 26):This is a real estate deal, plain and simple. Doing

the right thing was always off the table. There are radical changes in patient services that are occurring that will reduce the need for much of the hospital la-bor force.

For example, in a 10-day period, I spent two three-day admissions at Mount Sinai Beth Israel; the fi rst time, they brought a big, heavy scale on steel wheels to each bed, removing the patient for weighing; on the second visit, the attendant simply plugged a device into the bed that weighed the whole bed, patient, bed-ding and all.

Richard Kopperdahl

Perils of new ‘golden age’

To The Editor:Re “Prognosis for Beth Israel: New E. 13th St.

mini-hospital” (news article, May 26):There’s a new disease affl icting all the great cities

of the world: Midas-itis. At fi rst, the inhabitants laugh hysterically all the way to the bank. But eventually they all sicken and die as everything turns to gold. Are the hospital emergency rooms ready for this plague?

Minerva Durham

Don’t believe hospital spin

To The Editor:Re “Politicians demand ‘clarity’ on whether Beth

Israel is closing” (news article, May 19):The mayor won’t, unfortunately, stop this. He

EVAN FORSCH

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

LETTERS continued on p. 38

BY LENORE SKENAZY

I t’s, like, so much fun getting ready for the summer. Here’s my to-do list:

• Get new bathing suit.• Come on. Who am I kidding? Get out

old bathing suit. Ignore the fact it predates the Bush era.

• The W. Bush era, that is. It’s not like I never get a new bathing suit

• It would just be nice if someday they invented an elastic that stayed elastic in-stead of getting crunchy after a decade or two.

• Also, if someone made bathing suits that don’t go out of style every two (in gla-cial terms) seconds.

• Quit obsessing about age of bathing suit!

• Quit obsessing about age! “Only as old as you feel.”

• Or is it “Only as young as you feel”?• Positive affi rmation: I feel younger

than springtime!

• Of course, springtime has been with us for a while. Ever since the Earth start-ed spinning on its axis, right? Or at least since the evolution of plants?

I do, for sure, feel younger than that.• Just not in my bathing suit.• Anyway: Buy sunscreen!• Choose: White glop no one in the fam-

ily ever will use because it’s like slathering

on blue cheese dressing and pretending that that’s a normal way to walk around? The Buffalo wing look?

• Or the clear spray-on stuff that costs more per ounce than Chanel No. 5?

• Buy both. Mere presence of gloppy white stuff in medicine cabinet will pro-tect family from skin cancer by appeasing angry Coppertone god. Can stay there for years. In fact, has.

• Ignore whole article glimpsed yester-day that said a responsible family would go through a whole bottle of sunscreen in a day at the beach, reapplying after each swim.

• I suppose this is the same family that cleans the coils behind its refrigerator on a monthly basis, as the manufacturer sug-gests, to “boost cooling effi ciency.”

As if it is so easy to move a fridge every month.

• Or ever.• Which could explain our electricity

bills.• Quit thinking about things you didn’t

do in the middle of “to do” list!• To do: Get son’s health form. • Also to do: Stay on hold for 45 min-

utes waiting for pediatrician’s offi ce to remember you are alive, on the phone, and had cheerfully responded, “Sure!” to “Can you please hold?” hoping that your

chipper sympathy for their “crazy day!” would get you better service. So much for that.

You want a crazy day? Try calling the doctor and, after the fi rst 10 minutes on hold, realizing you really have to go to the bathroom.

• Quit drifting off topic! Summer! Coming! Soon! Start exercising!

• Start exercising God-given right to enjoy life without jogging, stretching, crunching.

• If I want crunch, I’ve got the elastic in my bathing suit.

• Get ready for guests: paper plates, napkins, tablecloths.

• Feel guilty about using too much pa-per.

• Feel guilty about not inviting people about not to be invited (but at least you’ll be using less paper).

• Make guest list for festive (if small) barbecue and swim party!

• SWIM?• In what?• To do: Buy bathing suit.• Or not.Happy summer!

Skenazy is a keynote speaker and au-thor and founder of the book and blog “Free-Range Kids”

RHYMESWITH CRAZY

Diving into summer, but maybe not that swimsuit?


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PHOTOS BY MILO HESS

Fleet Week lands in The Battery


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BY TRAV S.D.

How comforting it is to know that in this too-too transient city, where beloved institutions

bite the dust daily, there are some that still endure.

A case in point is the 13th Street Repertory Theatre, an anchor in New York’s Downtown theatre scene since 1972. Two pillars of the company are New York institutions in their own right. Founder and Artistic Director Edith O’Hara turned 100 years old this year, and continues to serve the company in an emeritus capacity — and the company’s landmark production of Israel Horovitz’s “Line” has been open for an astounding 42 years (surpassing

the original run of “The Fantasticks,” which lasted from 1960 through 2002).

But like relationships and sharks (to misappropriate a Woody Allen line), a theatre must keep moving or it will die. And this company is very much alive and kicking. To find out their secret, we spoke with 13th Street’s public relations representative, Jay Michaels.

“Phase two for 13th Street began in 2014 when Susan Merson came on board as Managing Artistic Director, and she began the resurgence and reju-venation the company is now experienc-ing. She brought in lots of new compa-nies into the space. While she remains very much involved with the board and staff of 13th Street, last month she was succeeded by our current Artistic

Director, Joe Battista.”Battista, whom Michaels describes

as a “journeyman theatre artist with a lot of experience,” is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, who has been on the staff of 13th Street for many years.

One of Battista’s first official acts in his new position was to revisit one of 13th Street’s primary programming staples — the four decade-plus produc-tion of Israel Horowitz’s “Line.”

To lead the effort, he hired Jacqueline Wade, founder and executive producer of Women of Color Productions (woc-productions.com), to recast and direct a rebooted version of the absurdist classic about a group of strangers jostling for first place in a line for some unspecified

event. The now-predominantly African American, multiracial cast is designed to “reflect the diversity” of contempo-rary New York and has been tweaked to include such facts of 21st century reality as the smartphone and earbuds.

The resulting production’s success prompted Battista to throw the the-atre’s support behind an entire series of works created by, and about, African Americans.

According to Michaels, “Joe liked ‘Line’ so much, and Jacqueline had all these wonderful ideas about how to push the envelope and make a state-ment. So he asked her, ‘What else you got?’ ”

Diversity initiative rejuvenates 13th Street Rep New cast keeps long-running ‘Line’ relevant

REP continued on p. 28

COURTESY WOMEN OF COLOR PRODUCTIONS

“Black Panther Women” plays at 13th Street Rep through Aug. 7.PHOTO BY SEAN EGAN

An injection of new talent, on stage and behind the scenes, is giving one of Downtown’s anchor theatres a few new pillars.


The next show out of the pipeline was “Black Panther Women,” an origi-nal ensemble piece written and directed by Wade. This historical drama features an all-female, all-African American cast of a dozen, who tell the story of the rise and fall of the controversial Black Panther Party (1966-1982) from the point of view of its female members. The two-act docu-play focuses espe-cially on key players in the party’s evolution, like Elaine Brown, writer,

singer and Black Panther Party Chair from 1974 to 1977; and Afeni Shakur, mother of hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. The cast also portray male characters in the history, such as Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and J. Edgar Hoover. Audiences have been fl ocking to the groundbreaking drama. According to Michaels, houses have been selling out. “Black Panther Women” is slated to play through August 7.

Also part of 13th Street’s diver-sity initiative is “Yaki Yim Bamboo,” a family musical set on an imaginary

Caribbean island, which plays through June 12. And, coming in July, Michaels is directing his own one-man steampunk production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” starring Matt de Rogatis.

The company’s revitalization has been so effective that it has attracted independent work by outside produc-ers, such as “The Over Share Cabaret: Sex, Love and Show Tunes,” a regular variety show presented in the 65-seat space by performer Mel DeLancey, who calls it a “fun place to work” that allows her “more ownership of the perfor-

mance space than you would have in a typical cabaret venue.” She fi rst rented the space back in February and accord-ing to DeLancey, “The managers liked my energy and wanted a more youthful presence in the space.”

From a theatre company that’s approaching the half-century mark that’s a healthy sign.

The 13th St. Repertory Theatre is located at 50 W. 13th St. (btw. Fifth & Sixth Aves). For info, visit 13thstreetrep.org or call 212-675-6677.

REP continued from p. 27

Being sick and hungry is an urgent crisis no one should face. Help us deliver hope, compassion and love, all wrapped up in a nutritious meal.

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COURTESY 13TH STREET REPERTORY THEATRE

L to R: Jenny O’Hara, Edith O’Hara, Carol Schaefer, Joe Battista and Arturo Toulinov.

COURTESY WOMEN OF COLOR PRODUCTIONS

The current version of 13th Street Rep’s long-running “Line” acknowl-edges 21st century realities, such as smartphones and earbuds.


BY SCOTT STIFFLER

Anyone who’s ever introduced a nail to the busi-ness end of a hammer will eagerly testify that a clear vision of things to come is no match for

the shocking lack of respect construction projects have for deadlines. So it’s more a product of steely resolve than luck that the Irish Repertory Theatre’s W. 22nd St. space is back in business on time, and, for the most part, functioning as planned — but it took a bold public dec-laration to ensure their line in the sand didn’t stray from its original location.

“When we put a poster up outside the theatre with the date of May 17 as the first preview, and announced ‘Tickets are now on sale,’ everybody knew the doors had to open,” said Ciarán O’Reilly, Producing Director of the Irish Rep, regarding their return to a vastly improved version of the place they’ve called home since 1994, when the nomadic company put down roots in Chelsea’s 1911-built Stanwick Building.

“We thought we would be in more toward the end of last year than now,” said O’Reilly, who admitted in an early May phone interview that this best-case sce-nario existed purely “in our dream world. So everybody thinks, as far as construction goes, we’ve ended up in an extraordinary place.”

For a man whose stock and trade involves the fine calibration of drama to achieve maximum effect, “extraordinary” may actually be an understated descrip-tion of the very nearly realized $13 million “Campaign For a Permanent Home” project that began in September 2014 — when Irish Rep co-founders Charlotte Moore and O’Reilly stood at the tip of stage left, gripped their

hands around a single sledgehammer, and took the first of many hefty swipes necessary to bring major structural changes and technological improvements to the two floors that their nonprofit arts organization had just gone from renting to owning. Although O’Reilly would spend the next 20 months making frequent visits to the site, it was the last time he’d wield an instrument of

destruction in the name of progress.“I wore the hard hat, that was mandatory,” he

recalled, “but handling the tools would not have been allowed. There were four different contractors on the job, and it was run by the city,” whose $6 million

Back in Chelsea, Irish Rep makes a play for home‘Shining’ is a fitting first for a revamped theatre

IRISH continued on p. 30

PHOTO BY CAROL ROSEGG

Matthew Broderick and Billy Carter in “Shining City,” at Irish Rep through July 3.

COURTESY IRISH REP

New seats give the space some green cred (not to be confused with the silver LEED rating earned by the new HVAC and electrical systems).

PHOTO BY JAMES HIGGINS

Irish Rep co-founders Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly administer a little tough love to the wall of their W. 22nd St. theatre, in 2014.


contribution to the project was adminis-tered through the Department of Design and Construction. “There’s an awful lot of moaning about the city,” O’Reilly acknowledged. “But, at the end of the day, we had huge respect for them, work-ing within a system that can be extremely complicated and dense. So you can grind your teeth and say, ‘Why is this or that not happening?,’ but they have a process to go through to make the system work for us. It took thousands of pages of paperwork, just to make things right. It’s taxpayers’ money at work, and has to be accounted for.”

Irish Rep’s facade, box office, rehears-al, and administrative spaces underwent changes, ranging from the radical to the cosmetic. All of the major tasks are complete, although O’Reilly was quick to point out that visitors should note, “It’s not 100 percent. There’s a good number of finishes that are still on back order; wood paneling on the walls, special light-ing for the pillars. That will happen throughout the summer. In the fall, we’re going to have the opening of the whole institution.”

Certain signature flourishes remain; the lobby’s distinctive stained glass win-dows, for example. Other features are new, such as the air conditioning system, which divides the building into 14 differ-ent zones. The second floor rehearsal stu-dio also underwent major changes; all the better to be occasionally cast in the role of community room and gallery space (through June 24, the newly christened Irish Rep Gallery presents Geraldine O’Sullivan’s “16 Letters” exhibition of collages based on correspondence before, during, and after the Easter Rising and the First World War). Spacious new bathrooms (both of them unisex, one wheelchair accessible) were added to the second floor, with a similar pair on the ground level inside the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage — whose expanded height (now 24 feet, from its previous 12) creates, for those familiar with the original facility, the perception of having suddenly entered a grand loft space more likely to be found in an alto-gether different part of town.

“You’re looking at two floors now instead of one, when you’re sitting in the theatre,” O’Reilly noted. To access the new 40-seat balcony, a wall was knocked down, during the addition of a lighted staircase (outfitted with a metallic mesh railing that furthers the aesthetic of open-ness). In doing so, it was good riddance to a portion of the theatre whose sight lines were a source of contention for

audiences, actors, and directors alike.“We were very conscious of what we

used to call our ‘jury’ section,” he said, recalling with very little fondness how it “forced us to cater to the audience to our right as well as to our main section in the front, where most of the seats were. In the old space, the couch [the focal point of their current production] would have to be much further back. Now, we can bring the actors right into the spotlight

and not have to worry about serving a profile audience. There’s a wing section where the ‘jury’ seats used to be, so we have a backstage that allows us to roll on scenery. We also have a beautiful new revolving stage.”

Don’t expect to be dazzled by any of the imagery and action that sort of technology can achieve, should you (and you should) attend “Shining City,” the production chosen to launch Irish Rep’s

revamped facility. A brooding tale of the emotionally bruised and physically dis-placed, “City” manages to pack a wallop without deploying any of the flashy tech upgrades.

“They’re permanent installations, to be used when a play requires five, six, seven scenes,” O’Reilly notes, of the tracking and revolving options. “I don’t think Charlotte and I would pick a season based on showing off those things,” he asserts, while politely declining to tip his hat regarding a summertime announce-ment that will list the choices for their next season. “It has to be the right thing to do,” he says of their new toys, “but it’s good to know that when the time comes, we can pull it off.”

O’Reilly did, however, happily con-firm that despite significant changes to the Mainstage space, Irish Rep’s good working relationship with sound waves remained intact.

“We were living in dread of it,” O’Reilly said, recalling their maiden voy-age with a full house. “It had somewhat perfect acoustics before. You really could whisper on the stage and be heard in the back row. And we were afraid, with dou-ble the ceiling height, we were going to lose that, which seems to not be the case. Sound travels well. The actors need to look up a little bit more to acknowledge the presence of the balcony, but it’s just a slight adjustment of the head, really.”

More significant adjustments were required, however, when keeping every element of production in-house was no longer an option.

Irish Rep’s W. 22nd St. base, O’Reilly notes, “had become a pretty well-oiled machine” before the walls came tumbling down. “We have really missed that feel-ing of going to one place where rehears-als happen, and where our offices are,” he said, noting that his schedule on any given day during the past year-and-a-half might involve an early morning visit to check on progress at the Chelsea theatre, office work in Midtown (on Park Ave., in the same building as the Irish Consulate), rehearsals at A.R.T./New York (Eighth Ave. & W. 36th St.), and then off to Union Square’s DR2 Theatre, where much of the past two seasons took place.

It’s something more than coincidence, then, that “Shining City” speaks to the universal longing for a place to call one’s own, and functions as a reunion on more than one level. This is the first NYC revival of “Shining City” since its 2006 Broadway run — and it marks yet another Irish Rep presentation of Conor McPherson’s work, following

IRISH continued from p. 29

COURTESY IRISH REP

The Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage space, after its ceiling height was raised to accommodate a new balcony.

COURTESY IRISH REP

A staircase takes visitors to the newly installed balcony (in a later phase of its construction, wire mesh further contributes to the theatre’s new-found sense of open space).

IRISH continued on p. 31


“Port Authority” and “The Weir” dur-ing their time at DR2 (both polished and highly enjoyable productions, and similarly wrenching as “City” in their raw portrayal of those who yearn for roots while coping with loss).

O’Reilly, who directs “City,” expressed gratitude and pride for the theatre’s “terrific rapport with Conor, whom we think is one of Ireland’s top living playwrights.” This work, he notes, “is almost all about disloca-tion. All of the characters are out of their homes, and trying to find a home within

themselves. It’s a quite seemingly simple play — one set, four actors; and at this time, with so much else going on, it seemed to have the right feel for us coming back.”

Having old friend Matthew Broderick on board is another coup for O’Reilly, who notes, “I just sent him the script, not really thinking he was going to say ‘yes.’ But it was such a good script for him; quite different. It allows him to bury deep into something. He’s better known for musicals and comedy, which he has a huge flair for — but this was a different attack.”

Stopping short of a review (“Shining City” is embargoed for such scrutiny until

its official premiere), this publication can happily confirm that even in previews, Broderick’s performance as a guilt-ridden man — driven to seek counseling after a jarring encounter (real or imagined?) with his deceased wife — hits home, especially when confronting the sequence of events that led him to lose control, then lose his bearings. It’s a facet of the human condition that’s utterly appropri-ate, O’Reilly notes, for Irish Rep’s return to form after being “suddenly scattered to the wind. We were so used to steering our own ship, so we really missed the neighborhood. We never got over that.”

“Shining City” is currently in previews (then, running June 9–July 3). At the Irish Repertory Theatre (132 W. 22nd St., btw. Sixth & Seventh Aves.). Irish Rep’s 2016 Gala Benefit (“Finian’s Rainbow: In Concert”) happens Mon., June 13, 7pm, at The Town Hall (123 W. 43rd St.). The per-formance (hosted by Saoirse Ronan, with Tony Award winner Jim Norton in the title role) will be followed by dinner at Bryant Park Grill (25 W. 40th St.). For reservations to the Gala (single tickets start at $100; premium seating/dinner packages start at $500) or tickets to “Shining City” ($70), call 212-727-2737 or visit irishrep.org.

IRISH continued from p. 30

A creative menu brought to you by Chef Franco Barrio with locally sourced produce serving New York style food in the heart of the West Village.

(212) 989-3155 | thebespokekitchen.com615 ½ Hudson St, New York, New York 10014

Theater for the New City • 155 1st Avenue at E. 10th St.Reservations & Info (212) 254-1109

For more info, please visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net

The Queenby: Aditya Rawal

“ The story of a wife seeking vengance for her

husbands betrayal”

June 2 - June 19Thurs.- Sat. 8 PM

Sun. at 3PM$15.00

The Beekeepers Daughter

by: Karen Malpede“A healing journy of a Muslim

refugee after she is embraced by an American Family”

June 2 - June 19Thurs.- Sat. 8 PM

Sun. at 3PM$18.00

Death of a Black Man

(A Walk By)by: William “Electric” Black“an immersive experience geared to the Hip Hop Culture, blending rap, poetry, song and movement”

May 5 - May 22Thurs.- Sat. 8 PM

Sun. at 3PM

$15.00

Suddenly a Knock at the Doorby: Robin Goldfin

“A new play based on the sto-ries by award winning Israeli

Film-maker Edgar Keret”

May 5 - May 22Thurs.- Sat. 8 PM

Sun. at 3PM$18.00

PHOTO BY CAROL ROSEGG

Billy Carter as novice counselor Ian and Lisa Dwan as his estranged girlfriend Neasa in “Shining City.”


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promised he wouldn’t allow more hospital closings. But while I think he ran for offi ce with high hopes, I think his “pragmatic,” money-minded side is coming through too much now.

I don’t believe the hospital’s spin. I don’t. I’ve heard this before. “Too many beds”? Come on, now! I re-alize the hospital seems to be struggling, but I wish healthcare wasn’t based on money. Far too often it is. Medicare and Medicaid are being cut, aren’t they? They shouldn’t be, but they are. That’s unfair to all of us. That hurts the hospital.

But I can’t believe the wild, phantasmagorical promises we’re getting from the hospital administra-tion. They’re trying to seal their concept, just like a new brand of coffee. We’re supposed to be very impressed. We’re supposed to feel we’ll all be bet-ter off.

Hey, if a hospital downsizes, who benefi ts? Our population is expanding, isn’t it?

Carol Yost

Beth Israel North went quietly

To The Editor:Re “Politicians demand ‘clarity’ on whether Beth

Israel is closing” (news article, May 19):Do you know that Beth Israel North closed in 2004

in the face of only scant protest and media coverage? I wrote a column about it and I also got The New York Times City section to cover it — I was quoted in the article.

Beth Israel North was located on East End Ave. across from Gracie Mansion. Once called Doctors Hospital, it had a wonderful emergency room, which saved my life in 2000 when I had bilateral pneumo-nia. It was just a great hospital that doctors still talk about missing. But I wonder if the mayor knows about it and that it was replaced by ultra-luxury condos. I’ve been told that many of its tenants rarely live there.

You will agree losing these places of healing is di-sastrous.

Bette Dewing

St. Vincent’s saved so many

To The Editor:Re “AIDS Memorial supporters are the community,

too” (talking point, by Keith Fox, May 26):St. Vincent’s Hospital and the Sisters of Charity

provided healthcare to millions of New Yorkers for more than 160 years. For most of this period, patients relied on charity to fi ght disease and disability, often during a time when medical science didn’t provide the know-how to treat dreadful disease and disability. We’re talking about infl uenza (the 1918-19 epidemic), polio, TB. The list goes on and on.

Without St. Vincent’s many would have died and/or suffered from disability. Not to mention infants and mothers who would have died with-out proper care. Whole families could have been wiped out.

Let us not forget the “clouds of witnesses” oversee-ing relief to the sufferers. As horrible as AIDS was, we shouldn’t allow the years of help and compassion of 160 years of St. Vincent’s now to be buried under

the splendor of a billionaires’ playground. Let’s not forget our values.

Gemma Fastiggi

Put hospital in memorial

To The Editor:Re “AIDS Memorial supporters are the community,

too” (talking point, by Keith Fox, May 26):Leaving St. Vincent’s Hospital out of the memorial

is despicable. Without St. Vincent’s nurses and doc-tors, there would be no memorial.

Eileen Dunn RNDunn was president of the nurses union at St. Vin-cent’s Hospital

Stairway to heaven

To The Editor:Re “Trees tower in P.B. vote” (news article, May

26):It’s great to see the DeWitt Clinton staircase fund-

ed. This will completely change the nature of that side of the park, as close to connecting it to the Hudson River Park as you can make it. These visual and ac-cessibility cues matter. More to the point, I know it is something dear to Phyllis Waisman, an epic participa-tory-budgeting volunteer and facilitator.

Great job by all of you, and a special thank you to Ms. Waisman, a genuine doer, who makes everyone else’s projects happen, with grace and civility.

Patrick Shields

More shady developer deals?

To The Editor:Re “No way! C.B. 2 pans Jane tower plans” (news

article, May 26):Neighbors worry how something so bizarre could

be built on beautiful, landmarked Jane St. We also worry that, helped along by staff at the Landmarks Preservation Commission and maybe the mayor, de-velopers are encouraged to break with the standards of landmarking.

Is there a bribe here? Certainly sounds like a possi-bility based on the pay-to-play schemes that de Blasio is being investigated for.

A rightly cynical public is always wary about what deals are being made in the background. And guess what? Who is the lobbyist working for this inappro-priate residence at 85 Jane St.? James Capalino, the ever-present wolf at the door.

Elaine Young

C.B. 2 kicks the can, again

To The Editor:Re “No way! C.B. 2 pans Jane tower plans” (news

article, May 26):Thanks for nothing, Community Board 2. You

passed a unanimous resolution against 85 Jane St. because of its “monolithic glow-in-the-dark presence on a quiet Village street.” But when the Washington Place Block Association, the Greenwich Village Block Associations and others came to you with the same objection to the refl ecting steel beams proposed for the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire building, all we got was a worthless town hall meeting that accomplished noth-ing and resulted in the royal brush-off from you.

We had asked for a hearing before your Landmarks Committee, just like Jane St. residents got; we asked for a board resolution, just like Jane St. residents got. We needed you to tell the the city’s Landmarks Preser-vation Commission that this ugly, noncontextualized “art” installation is “a stark, self-referenced intrusion on the... streetscape… .” We got nothing.

Noreen Shipman

B.O.E. training is to blame

To The Editor:Re “B.O.E. blames poll workers for chaotic prima-

ry” (news article, May 26):I am angry but not surprised that the Board of Elec-

tions says the problem with the primary on April 19 was that there were not enough savvy poll workers. I have for 10 years repeatedly advocated two measures that would increase the number of available poll workers:

First, allow half-day shifts. Currently, poll work-ers must work from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. — an 18-hour shift. This is not true anywhere else in the nation. New York State allows half-day shifts, but the B.O.E. has not even answered my repeated request for split shifts. Recruitment would be a lot easier if a person could work from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., or 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. — but the Board of Elections has refused.

Next, improve the training. Currently, poll workers must sit through a four-to-six-hour “training,” which is often confusing and demeaning, in part, because trainers are not vetted for competence but for politics. The classes are composed of a mix of new and repeat poll workers, so neither group is well-served. Then, the students must pass a multiple-choice test that is very poorly written — and many fail.

I have repeatedly suggested ways to improve the skill of the trainers, the validity of the test, the rel-evance of the curriculum, and quality control for the poll workers. As a college professor of psychology, I am appalled at many aspects of the training — but the B.O.E. has never responded to my suggestions.

These two changes — in hours and in training — are just a start. I know a dozen more aspects of the voting process that need reform. As a Democratic dis-trict leader, I have recruited many poll workers, tell-ing them, “If you want to help your country, you can sign up for Afghanistan or for New York City primary day.” Some accept the challenge, and then tell me they will never do it again.

The poll workers who show up, year after year, are heroic, working despite the B.O.E. The next primary is June 28 — will the B.O.E. improve by then?

Keen BergerBerger is Democratic district leader, 66th Assembly District, Part A

E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to [email protected] or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 Metrotech North, 10th fl oor, Brooklyn, NY, NY 11201. Please in-clude phone number for confi rmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published.

LETTERS continued from p. 24

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY

Going for a spin at night in Washington SquareHula hoops with lights inside of them, photographed with a long shut-

ter speed, made for some interesting patterns.


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