downtown

LIZZIE BORDEN ROCKS, P. 22

®
VOLUME 22, NUMBER 19
express THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN SEPTEMBER 18 - 24, 2009

Parents like 4 school

zones, and city
seems to agree
BY JULIE SHAPIRO
Certainty is more
important than choice to
many Downtown parents,
the Dept. of Education
discovered this summer.
The D.O.E. spoke to
parents after a confusing
kindergarten admissions
season in which the rules
kept changing and many
parents could not get
into the school closest to
their home. Based on that
experience, most parents
want the city to create
separate zones for each of
Lower Manhattan’s schools,
with children guaranteed a
seat in their zoned school,
said John White, head of the
D.O.E.’s Office of Portfolio
Development.
“Parents are saying
they want a neighborhood
school rather than a choice
school,” White said at a
Community Board 1 Youth
and Education Committee
meeting Tuesday night.
The alternative to
creating separate zones for
each school would be to
create one large zone for
all of them, with parents
able to choose whichever
one they wanted. If more
students wanted to attend
a given school than the
school could fit, those who
lived closest would have
priority.
The Dept. of Education
is submitting both zoning
alternatives to the District
2 Community Education
Council, an elected group
of mostly parents, which
will hammer out the details
of a final plan by the end of

Continued on page 3 Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel

Margaret Chin celebrated her City Council primary win with many supporters including husband Alan Tung, left,
and their son Kevin.

Four’s the charm for Chin

Downtown Express photo by J.B. Nicholas
Executive Lunch
Two presidents come Downtown
PAGE 10
as she topples Gerson
BY JOSH ROGERS
AND JULIE SHAPIRO
Margaret Chin defeated
Councilmember Alan Gerson in the
Democratic primary Tuesday night
making her the odds-on favorite to
become the first Asian American to
represent Chinatown.
This was Chin’s fourth bid for
the Council seat since 1991 but the
first time she quit her job to devote
herself full time to running. Many
of her supporters who joined in
the celebration Tuesday night said
they voted for her all four times,
including in 2001 when she lost the
open seat to Gerson in a seven-way
race. The district is overwhelmingly
Democratic and if she wins in the
general election in November as is
expected, she will also represent
Battery Park City, Tribeca, Soho
and Noho, the Financial District,
the Seaport, and parts of the Village
and Lower East Side.
On Tuesday night, a beaming
Chin greeted a rollicking, roaring
crowd of 100 at her victory party
at Golden Unicorn restaurant in
Chinatown and she could barely
stop smiling long enough to speak.
“We overcome so many obstacles,
but the final result is victory,” she
said.
Chin took nearly 40 percent
(4,541 votes) in a primary that
drew 11,516 people to the polls,
according to unofficial returns that
should take about a week to certify.
Gerson came in second with 3,520
Continued on page 6
2 September 18 - 24, 2009
NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-15, 18
Seaport Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Mixed Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Transit Sam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
EDITORIAL PAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-17
YOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-21
ARTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-25
Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-25
CLASSIFIEDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-27
Read the Archives
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THE DUTCHMEN COMETH
There probably was more Dutch spoken last Thursday
night on Governors Island than the typical American
tourist hears in Amsterdam (although that’s not very
much) for previews of the Pioneers Change and the New
Island Festival arts events
Guests, who included Frank Heemskerk, minister of
foreign trade from the Netherlands, Ferdinand Dorsman,
director of cultural affairs at the Dutch consulate, and
Paula Grant Berry, a director of the National September
11 Memorial and Museum and the Harbor District,
sipped cosmopolitans, feasted on Dutch delicacies and
took in the art.
It was one part of the many, many celebrations of
Henry Hudson’s grand voyage to Lower Manhattan and
the rest of the continent 400 years ago, so of course the
woman who runs the big man’s namesake river park,
Connie Fishman, also took the ferry ride over.
IT’S ME — BARRY
Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver is not usually one to
be star-struck (in fact, he’s probably more accustomed to
other people being star-struck by him), but he sounded
thrilled on Monday when he told UnderCover about his
encounter with President Obama, who was in town to give
a speech on the economy at Federal Hall.
Before the speech, Obama met with Silver. When they
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at P.S./I.S. 89, Holladay said he would follow the
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shook hands, Obama said, “Oh, good to see you again,”
Silver recalled. “And I said, ‘You know, Mr. President, we
spoke on the phone but I don’t think we’ve ever met.’”
But it turned out that Obama had remembered the
2004 Democratic Convention, when Silver introduced
Obama, then a freshman Illinois senator, to New York’s
delegation.
Silver thought Obama was more likely to remember
him as the one who bought 125 copies of the first edition
of “The Audacity of Hope” and sent them to Chicago to be
autographed. Obama complied, and Silver gave the books
out to all the members of the Assembly for Christmas that
year. The books are now worth over $1,000 apiece on
eBay, Silver said.
Silver was also pleased that Obama mentioned him
by name in his Federal Hall speech on Monday, since he
said only three other people were mentioned: Mayor Mike
Bloomberg, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and U.S.
Rep. Barney Frank from Massachusetts.
“It was interesting that he called out my name, especially
as there were a lot of people that he skipped,” Silver said,
smiling.
GOD & RECESSION
Battery Park City’s evangelical Mosaic Manhattan
Church has a new part-time pastor, after the church’s
financial difficulties forced the full-time pastor to step
down.
Former Pastor Gregg Farah, 42, said the church no
longer had enough money to support a full-time leader,
so he moved his family out to Long Island last month
and is now leading the Shelter Rock Church there.
Farah lived in Battery Park City and his three children
attended P.S. and I.S. 89, the school building that the
church rented for Sunday services, a tie that caused
some controversy several years ago.
The church’s new part-time pastor is Ryan Holladay,
25, who lives in South Slope with his wife and 2-month-
old daughter. Holladay has a master’s in divinity from
the Union Theological Seminary and is in his second
year of law school at New York University. He wants to
maintain the church’s focus on young families.
As for the past issues related to the church’s home

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downtown express September 18 - 24, 2009 3

Parents like four school zones

Continued from page 1
the year, after a series of public meetings. White expects
the C.E.C. to create separate zones for each school rather
than one larger zone, based on the parent input he has
received.
The reason Lower Manhattan needs to be rezoned is
that two new elementary schools are opening to relieve
overcrowding at the existing schools, P.S. 234 in Tribeca
and P.S. 89 in Battery Park City. The two new schools,
the Spruce Street School and P.S./I.S. 276, started their
kindergarten classes last week in Tweed Courthouse
and will move into their final buildings once they are
complete.
If the C.E.C. follows the growing parent consensus
to create four separate elementary zones, White said
the zones would break out roughly as follows: P.S. 234
would serve Tribeca, P.S. 89 would serve northern B.P.C.,
P.S. 276 would serve southern B.P.C. and the Financial
District south of Wall St., and the Spruce Street School
would serve the Seaport and the Financial District north
of Wall St.
White acknowledged that P.S. 234 may not fit everyone
in Tribeca, even if Tribeca is defined by Canal St.,
Broadway, Chambers St. and the Hudson River.
Drawing the line at Chambers St. would also mean that
families who live across the street from P.S. 234 in the
Whole Foods building would not be able to attend the
school.
White presented enrollment statistics to C.B. 1 Tuesday
night, showing how the newly opened kindergarten
classes are taking the burden off of P.S. 234 and P.S.
89. Eventually, once 234 and 89’s overcrowded classes
graduate, the schools will return to their ideal capacities,
with caps of 20 students in the younger grades and room
for pre-K classes and cluster rooms for subjects like
science and art, White said.
White’s prediction relies on Downtown’s kindergarten
population remaining roughly where it is today. But parent
activists say Downtown’s baby boom is still underway,
and another 1,000 elementary seats could be needed even
after the two new schools open. Eric Greenleaf, a P.S. 234
Many parents favor creating four zones for P.S.
89, 234, 276 and Spruce Street, and city Dept. of
Education officials say they are inclined to follow the
consensus.
parent, has pointed to Downtown’s growing birth rate
and new residential construction as warning signs of an
overcrowding problem to come.
However, White said Tuesday that Greenleaf’s
predictions for this fall did not come true, and Downtown
actually saw slightly fewer kindergarteners this year than
last year, even though more children were born in 2004
than in 2003 and Greenleaf predicted that the kindergarten
population would increase this year.
Greenleaf said many families left New York because
of the recession, and that is probably why the numbers
dropped a bit this fall.
But looking further ahead, Downtown’s births have
continued to balloon, with 824 children born in 2007
compared to 616 born in 2004, Greenleaf said. Unless
60 percent of those 2007 children move away or attend
private school, and future years of children do the same,
Downtown will have another crowding problem on its
hands by 2014, Greenleaf said.
Denise Cordivano, director of the Battery Park City
Day Nursery, said she is also seeing dramatic growth. This
year she has 38 pre-K students, up from only 24 last year.
And more of her students are attending public school
than ever before — last year, 100 percent of the nursery
school’s graduates went to public school, the first time in
her 13 years there that that happened.
Tricia Joyce, a P.S. 234 parent, exhorted White and the
city to plan ahead so Downtown doesn’t have to scramble
for temporary overcrowding solutions, as they have in
recent years.
“Our goal is just to not be here again,” Joyce said.
“We need to know that this is going to be addressed in
advance.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, White also gave details on plans
for middle school seats at the two new schools. The sixth
grade at P.S./I.S. 276 will open next fall, and students living
in southern B.P.C. and the southern Financial District will
likely receive admissions preference. The Spruce Street
School’s sixth grade will not start until 2011, because it
is uncertain whether the school’s building will be ready in
time for next September, White said.
White said the city recognizes that more elementary
seats are needed somewhere in District 2, which stretches
from Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side, but the city
needs to examine more data before deciding on locations.
District 2’s Community Education Council will hold
a working meeting on school zoning Thurs., Sept. 17 at
6:30 p.m. at 333 Seventh Ave. between 28th and 29th Sts.
on the seventh floor.
Julie@DowntownExpress.com

Getting out of Tweed schoolyard mud

The city agreed this week to fix up a
muddy expanse outside Tweed Courthouse
so children at the two elementary schools
there will have a safer place to play.
“Right now, the kids are playing on
dirt,” said Nancy Harris, principal of the
Spruce Street School.
Spruce and P.S. 276 both opened
kindergarten classes last week in
Tweed, where one of the amenities was
supposed to be an artificial turf field on
the northeast lawn of City Hall Park.
The Parks Dept. has been promising to
put down artificial turf there for years,
because the lawn is heavily used and the
trees that shade it prevent grass from
growing.
When the turf did not arrive as
promised, parents at the two new schools
brought their complaints to Assembly
Speaker Sheldon Silver, who helped
secure the temporary school space at
Tweed for this fall.
“The poor condition on that lawn area
Downtown Express photo by Julie Shapiro
TheTweed schoolyard in City Hall Park is
mostly dirt. The city promised to fix it
up soon.
needs a pretty immediate remediation,”
Silver said Monday at a meeting of his
overcrowding taskforce. “Especially after
all that rain, it’s less than ideal.”
Manhattan Parks Commissioner Bill
Castro attended the meeting and said he
would find a solution, but it would more
likely be sod rather than artificial turf. A
turf field would require a lengthy design
and contracting process, which the city
has not yet begun, so the turf could not
be installed until at least February, Castro
said. Sod, on the other hand, could arrive
within a couple weeks.
“The plan is to address this one way or
another immediately,” Castro said.
Castro expects sod (carpet-like rolls
of grass) to hold up better than regular
grass in the shady section of the park
that now has only dirt. If the sod does
not work, the city could still install an
artificial turf field later, he said.
The Parks Dept. most recently
promised in July 2008 to install turf
on the lawn, but Castro said he could
not have moved faster on it because
Community Board 1 did not approve the
proposal until March 2009.
A third option for the lawn would be
to spread a natural material, similar to
woodchips, which could also be done
quickly. Castro said he would make a
decision this week.
Harris said she did not have a
preference among the alternatives.
“The right alternative is the one that
allows kids to play safely — the sooner
the better,” she said.
Learan Kahanov, a Spruce Street
parent, said some parents expressed
concerns about the safety of artificial
turf, so sod could be a better choice,
especially since it would come online
sooner.
“It would be nice for them to have
something softer to fall on,” he said.
— Julie Shapiro
4 September 18 - 24, 2009
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POLICE BLOTTER
Baruch Houses murder
A Borough of Manhattan Community
College student who was stabbed on
Saturday evening, Sept. 12 while washing his
grandmother’s windows in the Baruch Houses
project on the Lower East Side died of his
wounds on Monday, police said. His suspected
attacker was arrested soon after the stabbing.
Glenn Wright, 21, of 70 E. 108th St., was
stabbed in the neck outside the building at
549 F.D.R. Dr. while washing ground floor
windows at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. He was
mistakenly identified as the intended target
of a revenge attack, according to reports.
The suspect and four or five companions
fled but police later arrested Joel Herrera,
20, a resident of 7 W. 92nd St. in the Park
West Village complex and charged him with
second degree murder.
Wright, who helped care for a disabled
younger brother at home and tutored students
at the East Harlem Tutorial Program, was
apparently misidentified as someone who
had previously beaten a friend of the suspect’s
and his cohorts. Wright’s father, Peter, was in
the apartment when the attack occurred and
chased the gang, according to news reports.
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital
where he died two days later.
On Tues., Sept. 15, more than 200 East
Harlem friends and neighbors of Wright’s
honored him in a memorial procession.
Herrera, believed to be a gang member,
has prior arrests and was convicted of arson
in 2006, according to reports. He was being
held without bail pending a Sept. 18 court
appearance. Police were seeking the men
who were with Herrera during the incident.
“On behalf of the B.M.C.C. community,
our hearts go out to the family,” said Barry
Rosen, B.M.C.C.’s spokesperson. “This was
one of these instances where a young man’s
future and his life was snuffed out in a most
ridiculous and stupid manner through violence
that was absolutely and totally unnecessary.”
Parking lot fakes
A First Precinct detective investigating
the theft in July of a car from a woman
who was tricked into believing there was a
downtown express
parking lot at the corner of Front St. and
Maiden La. arrested two suspects in the
incident on Sun., Sept. 13.
Steven Pappas, 48, and Rafael Rodriguez,
16, both of Brooklyn, were charged with
criminal impersonation and possession of
stolen property for luring the woman owner
of a Toyota into the closed parking lot at
noon on Sun., July 19, taking her keys,
giving her a fake ticket and stealing the car.
The detective arrested the suspects
who turned up at the site while he was
there investigating the incident, according
to charges filed by the Manhattan District
Attorney’s office.
Was it fate?
Police arrested Destiny Collier, 17,
on a charge of second degree robbery for
snatching an iPod from a woman’s hand
on Saturday night Sept. 12 at the corner
of Maiden La. and Broadway. A teenage
accomplice who was not apprehended
was with the suspect during the incident,
police said. Collier was paroled without
bail pending a Dec. 18 court appearance,
according to a spokesperson for the
Manhattan District Attorney.
Downtown bar theft
The management of Ulysses Folk Bar,
95 Pearl St., told police on Sept. 11 that
thieves stole $2,500 from a cash box on the
fourth floor of the establishment during the
early hours of Sun., Sept. 6.
Robber’s 2nd thoughts
A man walked into a Chase branch on
Broadway at Spring St. at 2:30 p.m. Fri.,
Sept. 11, and passed a note demanding
money to a teller, police said. She read
it, walked away from the window and
the robber, described only as a slim man,
35 to 40, with a light goatee and wearing
sunglasses, a maroon hooded jacket and
maroon gym pants and sneakers, fled.
— Alber t Amateau
with Helaina N. Hovitz
downtown express September 18 - 24, 2009 5

Pool photo by David Handschuh/Daily News

Pool photos by Peter Foley/Getty Images

Eight years later

Family members marked the eighth anniversary of the
9/11 attack by laying flowers at the World Trade Center
site on a rainy morning last week. Two thousand, seven
hundred and fifty-two names were read at Zuccotti Park
across the street. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife
Jill paid their respects.

9/11 Museum unveils new details

BY JOSH ROGERS
Nine-eleven Museum officials revealed
new details of the plans for the space last
week and acknowledged it will not be an
easy event to explain without offending
someone.
Joe Daniels, president of the National
September 11 Memorial & Museum, said
deciding exactly what to say about the
hijackers was one of the “tough issues we
are grappling with.”
When Daniels was asked by a reporter
if alternative 9/11 views such as the
attack being prompted by U.S. bases in
Saudi Arabia will be presented, Daniels
said the museum’s inclination was to “let
the perpetrators speak for themselves” by
using their “martyrdom tapes.”
In response to a follow-up question,
Daniels said the museum will not portray
the killers as martyrs. “No one will come
to this museum and leave with a feeling
of heroism for the people who committed
the crimes that we bear witness to today,”
he said.
The museum is not planning to make
the videos of the hijackers available but is
considering making portions of the video
transcripts part of the exhibit.
Describing 9/11 as the most
documented event in history, museum
officials do plan to make ample use of
all of the videos, audio files and photos
connected to 9/11. They announced last
week that people all over the world were
welcome to submit stories and documents
to 911history.org to become part of the
museum’s permanent collection. The site
Continued on page 14
6 September 18 - 24, 2009 downtown express

Chin makes Chinatown history with council win

Continued from page 1

votes (31 percent), while newcomer PJ Kim received

1,927 (17 percent), Pete Gleason 1,293 (11 percent)
and Arthur Gregory got 235 (2 percent).
Chin, 56, and several of her volunteers said Chinese
representation for the Council district containing
Chinatown is long overdue.
“For it to finally happen, it is very significant,” Chin
said.
As Chin spoke, one supporter called out in
Chinese that she was breaking a bad spell cast on the
neighborhood.
“No, no spell,” Chin said, laughing. “We’re waking
up the community.”
Chin promised to waste no time in getting to work
on uniting the First District and delivering on her
campaign promises of more affordable housing and
schools. Chin said she would use her background In
community organizing — she was deputy executive
director at Asian Americans for Equality — to fight for
quality of life and other issues.
The First District is a collection of disparate sections,
but Chin said the neighborhoods in the district have
more in common than people realize.
“The West Side can help the East Side, the East Side
can help the West Side — we can all help each other by
working together,” Chin said.
At her victory celebration, Alex Hing, 63, a hotel
worker in Chinatown, took the mic to say that this
Downtown Express photo by Elisabeth Robert Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel
election year was supposed to be all about change, until
the City Council extended term limits for themselves Councilmember Alan Gerson got a consoling hug from a supporter Tyesday night as it became clear the election.
and the mayor. As a result, many incumbents coasted Right, Independence Plaza tenent leader John Scott lifted Chin off the ground in celebration.
into a third term, but not Gerson.
“We showed them!” Chin said. Chin’s lawsuit to knock him off the ballot. like affordable housing and [getting] the Downtown
Chin gave her speech in both Chinese and English, “I put it behind me a long time ago,” he said. Community Center [constructed],” said Glenn Fennelly,
with the Chinese sections getting louder applause from Kim did particularly well throughout B.P.C. There a 49-year-old Battery Park City resident. Parents cited
the mostly Asian crowd. was a light turnout in the north where Kim won with his record getting new schools built In the district.
Gerson, 51, speaking to a dejected group of 62 votes to Gerson’s 42, Chin’s 28 and Gleason’s 22, Diane Lapson, a Gerson supporter who is president
supporters — a few with moist eyes — did not concede, according to an unofficial Gerson campaign tally. of the Independence Plaza tenants’ association, said
but acknowledged that Chin “appears headed toward Chin not only cleaned up in Chinatown — for she was surprised Gerson lost there, but she was more
victory,” and said “this is the end of one chapter and example, beating Gerson by 347 votes to 78 at the concerned about how few of her Tribeca neighbors,
the beginning of another.” He said he was “holding off M.S. 131 voting site, according to unofficial tallies — about 350 in a complex of a few thousand, came out
for a day” so his campaign could regroup, compare the she also did well in Tribeca, winning more votes in the to vote.
returns with internal tallies and decide what to do next. election districts that voted at P.S. 234, beating Gerson “I’m sure Margaret will do a great job,” Lapson said,
He promised a “smooth transition” if he lost. there 183 to 149. “but I’m disappointed that people are so complacent
He also called Chin Tuesday night after she declared Voter turnout appeared to be a bit stronger in and are not coming out to vote.”
victory. Gerson’s speech to roughly 50 supporters Chinatown, where Chin had a vigorous get-out-the- Gerson, on Tuesday night, appeared to be a bit
crammed into Silver Spurs restaurant in the Village, vote effort. tired, but did not show much sadness. He did quarrel
sounded much like a concession — he thanked his Outside P.S. 1 on Henry St., a Chin volunteer was with photographers and reporters from different news
supporters for all of their hard work over his eight calling out to seniors in Chinese. She got one elderly organizations including Downtown Express. After his
years and for working with him to spawn “a political woman to listen to her and took her by the arm, ushering campaign put out a media advisory about his “victory
movement.” He appeared to have accepted defeat, her into the school to vote (she didn’t go all the way celebration,” he then instructed the press that no
not mentioning anything he hoped to accomplish in a into the school, but walked her up to the steps). photographs or interviews would be allowed until his
future Council term. “We need someone who’s in the community who public statements, which he delayed for almost an hour
But his campaign released a statement Wednesday understands it and is willing to fight for it,” said Annie after Chin’s victory speech.
saying they wanted to examine questions “about the Der, 57, another Chinese woman who voted for Chin. Gerson’s campaign this year was a marked contrast
votes reported.” Gerson said he now hopes it will be “Everyone else just looks at us as a number, and after to his 2001 victory in which he raised most of his
less than two weeks before he gets the information they get the votes, they ignore you.” campaign money before his opponents even started
from the Board of Elections. But Chin also won over many white voters in the fundraising. He did not qualify for public matching
Chin said Wednesday that when she and Gerson district. funds this year and he faces possible fines if he does
spoke the night before, he said he would be conceding “She seemed legitimately interested,” said Natalie not pay back his campaign loans. He also had trouble
the next day but that he was not going to publicly Raben, 24. “She was real. She has the right ideas in making the 2009 ballot, a development that cost him a
concede then in order to cushion the blow to his mind.” place on the absentee ballot.
supporters. Raben, who works at a small environmental firm on Voters did receive lots of information in the mail
Gerson said he did “not recall” saying he was planning Orchard St., was impressed that Chin spoke at length and many said the City Council race is what brought
to make a concession, but does remember saying that he to the owner and workers at her firm and seemed them out to the polls. But Jim Gerbig, 45, who moved
would support her if the results hold up. committed to helping small businesses. from Hell’s Kitchen to Battery Park City a year ago,
Kim and Gleason both offered congratulations to Gerson also maintained much support in the district, said he didn’t vote in the Council race.
Chin Tuesday and pledged their support in the general capturing many votes in Battery Park City, the Village “I’m glued to the TV and they didn’t cover the City
election. Gregory did not return a call for comment by and at Southbridge Towers. Council races,” he said. “I got to the booth and realized
press time. Kim said he harbored no resentment over “Gerson has done a lot for the community — things I didn’t know the candidates.”
downtown express
Quinn fends off two challengers to take the primary
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON AND PATRICK
HEDLUND
In citywide Democratic primaries, Bill
Thompson won solidly over Tony Avella
for mayor, Bill de Blasio and Mark Green
finished first and second forcing a runoff
for public advocate, John Liu and David
Yassky made the runoff for comptroller.
Cy Vance won fairly comfortably for
Manhattan district attorney over Leslie
Crocker Snyder and Richard Aborn.
Meanwhile, City Council Speaker
Christine Quinn held off a strong challenge
from Yetta Kurland, winning re-election
to another term in the Third District.
East Village Councilmember Rosie
Mendez romped with 82 percent of the
vote against Juan Pagan.
In the Third District race, after the
votes had come in, at her victory party at
Mustang Harry’s on Seventh Ave. at 30th
St., Quinn acknowledged the race had
been competitive.
“It was a bit more of a West Side of
Manhattan, you know, a take-off-the-
gloves campaign than any of us expected,”
she said. The campaign’s lesson was,
Quinn said: “[That] putting progress in
front of politics matters — and civility is
actually something important. ... I don’t
want to get to a place where we fight just
for the sake of fighting.”
Quinn told a reporter that the race
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September 18 - 24, 2009
got more “negative” and “personal” than
she expected, but was not surprised that
Kurland and Maria Passannante-Derr
were able to mount strong races.
Quinn won with 6,868 votes (52
percent), versus Kurland’s 4,108 votes
(31 percent) and Derr’s 2,117 votes (16
percent), according to the not yet official
returns.
Kurland said, “We won on so many
levels. Eight months ago — 12 months
ago — people told us we couldn’t do it;
it was an impossibility, and we would
just get 1 percent of the vote, that you
don’t go against incumbents, that you
can’t question authority when it becomes
dysfunctional. People were afraid to stand
up to Christine Quinn, and we showed
the entire district, and we showed the
entire city, that the numbers show that
this district is not happy with their
leadership.
“This is just the beginning,” Kurland
vowed. “From now on, we will be a
phantom government in this district. Every
time there is development that happens
without affordable housing, there’s
deals that are made that succumb to big
business and developers and to money, we
will be here, we will be watching. We are
organized, we have power — this is just
the beginning.”
Passannante-Derr and her supporters
gathered at P.J. Charlton, Phil Mouquinho’s
restaurant at Greenwich and Charlton
Sts. Mouquinho, a former Community
Board 2 member and a leading foe of the
city’s plan for a three-district Department
of Sanitation garage in Hudson Square at
the west end of Spring St., said that right
after Passannante-Derr had left the party,
some of her supporters got an idea:
“Some of the people here were discussing
what a run by Yetta would do if she ran on
an independent ticket with support from
Maria’s people” in the November general
election, he said.
Tallying up the numbers, Mouquinho said
for Quinn to win by a total of only roughly
650 votes over Kurland and Passannante-
Derr combined — out of more than 13,000
votes cast — clearly showed weakness on
the speaker’s part.
“Here we have an incumbent who is
speaker who won with 52 percent of the
vote,” he said. “You’re saying the speaker
won by [only] 650 votes? Come on, a
speaker with all the support of Mayor
Bloomberg? Six hundred fifty votes —
incumbent speaker with all that power.”
In Chelsea, a steady stream of voters
visited the Selis Manor polling station
on W. 23rd St. to cast their ballots in the
Democratic primary.
Michael Todd Meyers, 45, of W. 24th St.,
voted for Quinn because he saw the City
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Council speaker’s alignment with Mayor
Bloomberg as a positive thing.
“She seems pretty on point, seems to
know the issues,” said Meyers, who did not
vote for either of the mayoral candidates
and plans to support Bloomberg. “If it’s not
broke don’t fix it,” he added of his choice,
“especially in this economy.”
Another voter, a 39-year-old W. 21st
St. resident who declined to give his name,
conversely viewed Quinn’s ties to the mayor
as a weakness and instead pulled the lever
for Kurland.
“The term-limits thing really upsets me,
and I really believe Quinn lost her way,”
he said, acknowledging he thought Quinn
would eventually emerge the victor. “She’s
one of Bloomberg’s little pawns.”
However, Edward Hlastrova, 87, who
has lived in the same W. 21st St. building
since 1966, voted “Quinn for sure” on
Tuesday morning.
“She’s very good, she’s very serious, she
gets things done,” Hlastrova said, admitting
he didn’t hear much about the two other
candidates, but didn’t like Passannante-
Derr’s “personal attacks” against the
speaker during the campaign. “Quinn to me
is the most qualified.”
With additional reporting
by Albert Amateau
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8 September 18 - 24, 2009 downtown express

Incumbents win in leader races

While incumbent Councilmember Alan
Gerson lost his seat in Tuesday’s primary,
the incumbent Democratic district leaders
mostly won reelection Downtown.
The one newcomer to win was Paul
Newell, in District 64, Part C, but he
had the support of current district leader
Adam Silvera, who decided not to run
for reelection. Newell beat his opponent
Avram Turkel with 66 percent of the vote
(934 votes), according to unofficial results
from the city Board of Elections.
District leaders act as liaisons between local
elected officials and constituents, help rally the
party and are not paid for their work.
Newell is best known for unsuccessfully
challenging Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver in the Democratic primary last
year. This year, Newell supported Gerson
challenger Pete Gleason in the Council
primary, while Turkel supported Gerson.
Another Gleason supporter, Jean Grillo,
handily beat her challenger Noel Jefferson for
female district leader for District 66, Part B.
Grillo received 76 percent (2,089 votes).
Two other contested races, for District
64, Part B, both saw the Gerson-supporting
incumbents win, though the margins were
smaller. Alice Cancel beat challenger Norma
Ramirez with 56 percent (1,428 votes) and
John Quinn beat David Diaz with only 51
percent (1,285 votes).

Five-Star Basketball NY 9/11 health forum

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First session is a free trial session to see if the
program is a good fit for your child
The World Trade Center Environmental
Health Center is hosting a public health
forum on Tues., Sept. 22 from 4:30-7:30
p.m. at Bellevue Hospital Center Old
Medical Library, 8th floor, C/D building,
on First Ave. between 27th and 28th Sts.
“We’ve designed it so it can meet the needs
of both people in the community who
might have questions, to go talk about
our program, what we’ve learned, what
we see evolving as far as healthcare needs
are concerned,” said Terry Miles, executive
director of the health center. There will
be a number of speakers, and after each
presentation there will be a panel of experts
to answer audience questions.

Fall Academy Saturdays

Beginning 9/26 $375
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downtown express September 18 - 24, 2009 9

B.P.C. art is for the gutter, official says

Much to the chagrin of one of its
board members, the Battery Park City
Authority voted last week to spend over
$380,000 on a piece of artwork that
looks like a giant manhole cover.
“It’s a tough economy to spend money
on this bull[crap],” said David Cornstein,
authority board member.
The circle of concrete and steel will
be set into the asphalt of the W. Thames
St. cul-de-sac. Cobblestones used to
mark the center of the street’s end, but
they deteriorated after garbage trucks
and moving vans repeatedly drove over
them.
The area is now paved in asphalt, but
the city’s Public Design Commissioned
required the authority to replace the
cobblestones with another artistic
feature. The authority opted for a design
by Audrey Matlock that is inspired by
manhole covers and features concentric
circles embedded with colored lights.
Cornstein and other board members
were surprised by the project’s hefty
price tag. Robert Mueller, the only board
member who lives in Battery Park City,
said it was ironic to spend so much Rendering of the manhole-inspired artwork slated to be at the end of W. Thames St.
money on an art feature for one of the
ugliest places in the neighborhood. the street. “We are in tough times,” Gill said, voting in favor of the artwork, but
Security vehicles use the street’s end as James Gill, chairperson of the “but we would prefer to maintain our Cornstein stayed silent, leaning back in
a parking lot, and several buildings have board, and Jim Cavanaugh, president artistic standards to the extent we can. I his chair and rolling his eyes.
their garbage picked up there. Mueller of the authority, both defended the think we can well afford this.”
expenditure. Most of the board members agreed, — Julie Shapiro
conceded that the artwork would improve
10 September 18 - 24, 2009 downtown express

2009 Best Sushi Restaurant - Time Out NY

The Greenwich Grill’s “Tokyo-Italian”:

Japan Deliciously Meets Italy in TriBeca
What is Tokyo-Italian?
It is a delightful and delicate fusion cuisine of your familiar Italian
dishes with a great abundance of fresh seafood, vegetables, and
meat common in Japanese dishes. Based off the recipes of our sister
restaurants in Japan, the Greenwich Grill chefs (who are also from
Japan) recreate their signature dishes in TriBeca. Of course, many of
the ingredients are directly delivered from Japan.

It’s ridiculously expensive though, right?

Surprisingly not. For example, our current lunch prix-fixes are Pasta
Prix-Fixe for $12 and Entrée Prix-Fixe for $18. Customers can also
enjoy the Tasting Course well-priced at $28 during dinner hours

What if some of us wanted to eat a burger for lunch?

We have a secret menu that includes our original burger –
“WAGYU” Greenwich Burger ($12) which can be served with
optional toppings of Cheddar cheese, bacon, and/or a sunny-side
up “JIDORI” egg. It’s definitely one of the most popular lunch dishes
here. We also have the Ebisu Curry ($10) which is a Japanese-style
curry that can be served with Mozzarella cheese, deep-fried pork
cutlet, and/or fried vegetables. Many of our customers arrive having
heard about it and come to try it themselves and some even come
almost every week to have it.
We actually heard you serve sushi for lunch as well.
Yes, we do. We serve a selection of Sushi Azabu (the basement
floor sushi bar) dishes on the Greenwich Grill floor. Since customers Downtown Express photos by J.B. Nicholas
can dine as a large group, try our Tokyo-Italian and also have
high-quality sushi, we believe there is a great range of ways for
customers to enjoy the Greenwich Grill experience. Aside from
our food and accommodations, we are pleased to serve you with
Presidents lunch; Clinton
top-notch “Omotenashi” service philosophy to make our customers’
dining experience the best possible. mystery is revealed
Please call us to make reservations or stop by for a seat After President Barack Obama spoke at Federal Hall on Wall St. on the one year
during our lunch (Mon-Fri) and dinner (Mon-Sun) hours. We anniversary of the collapse of Lehman, he and former President Bill Clinton came up to
will be delighted to serve you. Greenwich Village to meet for a private lunch at Il Mulino Italian restaurant on W. Third
St. Afterward, Clinton was treated like a rock star as he walked through the Village for
Lunch Prix-Fixes about 10 blocks, stopping at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at W. Eighth St. and Sixth Ave.
According to a salesperson, Clinton bought “a bunch of books — more than two.” The
Pasta Prix-Fixe $12 / Entrée Prix-Fixe $18 associate, who didn’t give her name, said it was really “not cool” to say what books people
buy — but then proceeded to reveal a couple. One was “The Owl Killers,” a medieval
mystery by Karen Maitland. Another, she hinted, was by someone “who did something
that they didn’t really like.” She gave another hint: The person’s first name starts with “T.”

428 GREENWICH ST. “Ted Kennedy?” we guessed. “Thank you!” the associate said, laughing, confirming that
the book was “True Compass,” the memoir of the late Massachusetts senator, who last
(BET. VESTRY & LAIGHT) year endorsed Clinton’s lunch partner over his wife, Hillary, for president. Clinton bought
another biographical book about a deceased person, but she wouldn’t be more specific. As
212.274.0428 for the rest of the more than two books, she said, “Historical mysteries seems to be one of
his likes. … He’s very nice, signing autographs,” she added.
GREENWICHGRILL.COM / We cater and deliver!
— Lincoln Anderson
downtown express
DeLury Park breaks ground
Benches and manmade waterfall aside,
the new DeLury Square Park will echo
the lush landscape of Manhatta as Henry
Hudson discovered it 400 years ago.
DeLury Square’s towering trees and
jagged boulders “will be like a little piece of
the country,” Parks Commissioner Adrian
Benepe said at the groundbreaking last
Thursday. The new park will be a small
reminder of the forest Hudson found in
1609, Benepe said.
The $2.6 million park, funded by the
Lower Manhattan Development Corp., is
slated to open next spring. The city created
the 8,800-square-foot park space by
buying a parcel of land from the adjacent
Southbridge Towers complex and bumping
the existing concrete plaza out into the
intersection of Fulton and Gold Sts.
Before landscape architect Alex Hart
designed the park, he met with Southbridge
residents about what they wanted to see. The
residents, including many seniors, liked the
benches on the existing plaza but requested
a more inviting space, frequently using the
word “oasis.” One resident suggested a
water feature that would block the noise of
traffic from the busy intersection.
Hart designed a waterfall that pours into
a reflecting pool and paths that meander
through flowers and fragrant shrubs. He is
maintaining nearly all of the mature trees
that now dot the plaza (a couple will be
September 18 - 24, 2009 11
transplanted) and will add 16 saplings.
“You can’t call it a renovation of DeLury
Square because it’s such a transformation,”
Benepe said.
The park will retain its name, which
honors John J. DeLury Sr., a Sanitation
Dept. worker who fought for better
conditions and better pay. He united
several factions among the workers and in
1956 founded Local 831 of the Uniformed
Sanitationmen’s Association. Harry Nespoli,
said DeLury deserves credit for, among
other things, changing the term “garbage
man” to “sanitation worker.” The union’s
headquarters are nearby.
Several Southbridge residents who
attended last week’s groundbreaking said the
new park would be a big improvement over
the crowded plaza and the old Fulton and
Gold street pattern. The city is reconfiguring
that intersection so the streets meet at a right
angle, rather than in a sweeping curve, a
change that made the park possible.
The city also paid Southbridge Towers
about $5.5 million for the 5,800-square-
foot piece of land that forms the bulk of the
park. In remarks at the groundbreaking,
Southbridge board president Wally Dimson
praised the city for the park’s design and
added his hope that the park be completed
with no delays.
— Julie Shapiro
12 September 18 - 24, 2009 downtown express

BY JANEL BLADOW
The kids are back at school but you
wouldn’t know summer is over by the
crowds Downtown on a Monday afternoon.
South Street Seaport (S3) has been on a roll
all month.
ROLLIN’ DOWN THE RIVER … Boop,
boop, boop…September started with a
blast with a John Fogerty concert on Pier
17. More than 5,000 people watched the
former Creedence Clearwater Revival
rock god ramble through major hits like
“Centerfield” (“Put Me In Coach”) and his
crowd-pleasing closer “Proud Mary.” A
V.I.P. crowd including such neighborhood
notables as the gregarious Howard Reed
filled the outdoor second floor balcony at
You Read It...
S EAPORT R EPORT
Uno’s Grill overlooking the stage. General
manager of South Street Seaport Janell
Vaughan, host of the party, happily greeted,
danced and agreed that the night brought
back great memories. Perfect summer
night!
JEWELS OF THE YANGTZE… The first
vendor cart on Fulton St. coming into S3 is
a must stop for those interested in unique
necklaces, bracelets and other baubles.
Each piece at Exotic Handmade Jewelry —
necklaces, earrings, bracelets and bags —
carries a Buddhist symbol. Most are made
of plant resin or yak bone.
This is the first year Tashi Dhondup
Lama has had his business at the Seaport.
“It’s been good. Good experience. Sales
good. All good except the weather in the
beginning of summer,” the young man
told S.R.
Tashi came to the U.S. in 2002 with his
sister Sherap as Tibetan refugees and settled
in Colorado. After graduating college, he
moved to New York City in 2006 and got
into the jewelry import business.
“Tibet is rich in stones and jewelry and
has always fascinated me,” Lama said. “The
inspiration for many of the pieces comes
from my grandmother, she used to do exotic
bead work.” Tashi showed us an elaborate,
large neckpiece similar to her creations.
Now his uncle and family in refugee camps
in Nepal make the jewelry based on his
cousin’s designs.
“It’s really a small family business. But
my ambition is to bring the Tibetan culture
to the world,” he said.
We asked if he’s met Tibet’s biggest
cheerleader, Richard Gere. “No, but I
6 through Jan. 3. Or look up his web site,
www.ehandmadejewelry.com.
THE DUTCH ARE BACK… Last
weekend kicked off the celebrations.
Four hundred years ago, an Englishman,
hired by the Dutch East India Company,
sailed the Halve Maen (Half Moon), up
a waterway in search of a northern route
to the Far East. Instead, Henry Hudson
discovered the river that bears his name.
The Dutch bought the land at the mouth
of the river for a reported $24 and started
a small settlement. It’s been quite the party
ever since.
As part of the festivities, The South
Street Seaport Museum opened its latest
exhibition, “New Amsterdam: The Island At
The Center Of The World.” The $24 receipt
from Pieter Schaghen for the purchase
of Manhattan by Dutch Governor Peter
Minuit from the Lenape tribe in 1626 is

And so did thousands

saw him here in New York.” He explained
that the room was big, crowded and he
was way in the back. While Tashi sells
of our Readers. his jewels, sister Sherap is a student at
John Jay College. You can find him at S3
through the end of the month. He’ll be at
To advertise call 646-452-2496 the Bryant Park Holiday Market too, on
41st St & Ave. of the Americas, from Nov.
just one tiny piece of this amazing history.
Learn of Catalina Rapalje who lived from
the beginning of New Amsterdam, raising
her family on Paerlstraat, through her
eighties with 145 relatives, and island’s
takeover by the English. Exhibit runs
Tuesdays to Sundays, to Jan. 3, 2010,
www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org.

CELEBRATE
Speaker Sheldon Silver THE HIGH HOLY DAYS EXPERIENCE
School Zoning Process Underway
A Joyous, Music-Filled, Spiritual Celebration
WITH
THE SHUL OF NEW YORK
A Synagogue for Spiritual Judaism
Rabbi Burt Aaron Siegel

a diverse and inclusive congregation

Celebrating our 10th Anniversary year
Join us at the historic
Angel Orensanz Foundation
th (the oldest synagogue still standing in New York City)
On September 9 , I had the pleasure of being on hand to welcome
172 Norfolk Street, south of Houston Street, in the Lower East Side
the children and parents to our two new schools, PS 276 and the
Spruce Street School. All of our hard work to relieve local Seating is limited - secure your tickets in advance
overcrowding here in Lower Manhattan and to open the two new ROSH HASHANA YOM KIPPUR
schools this year has come to fruition. Friday Sept. 18th 7pm Sunday Sept. 27th 7pm
Saturday Sept. 19th 10am Monday Sept. 28th 10am until sundown
3:30 Yiskor
CHILDREN’S SERVICES
I recently joined parents and Community Board 1 members for the 12:30 BOTH HOLIDAYS
first discussion on zoning options for our four Lower Manhattan
For tickets, directions and other information
schools - PS 89, PS 234, PS 276. Parents interested in participating
in this process should contact my office at 212-312-1420, or email www.theshulofnewyork.org
silver@assembly.state.ny.us. Email - board@theshulofnewyork.org
questions ? 212 475 8763
downtown express
&
MIXED USE
BY PATRICK HEDLUND
STUFFED TRUFFLES
The luxury North Tribeca rental complex
Truffles has leased all of its nearly 300 units
in a little more than six months.
The Jack Parker Corporation
development, which officially launched
sales back in February, has rented out all
291 apartments, made up of studios through
three-bedrooms.
In late April, Truffles — located at
Washington and Desbrosses Sts.—had
leased about half its units only a month
after opening, following a reduction in
prices by as much as $250 per month for
some units.
GRAND FACADE SAVIOR
Five years after a residential building in
Soho had to be evacuated due to an unstable
foundation, owners of the condemned five-
story Grand St. structure are planning to
demolish it and preserve its historic cast-
iron facade for future redevelopment.
Community Board 2’s landmarks
committee voted to recommend approving
the demolition of 74 Grand St. at its Mon.,
Sept. 14, meeting, assuming the owners
safely dismantle and store the building’s
historic features, including the facade,
vaults and fires shutters, for future reuse.
“They’re going to take it down piece by
piece, and it’s going to be stored somewhere
until they get the building down completely,”
said Doris Diether, co-chairperson of the
landmarks committee, adding that no plan
currently exists for future redevelopment of
the property.
Residents of 74 Grand St. had to be
evacuated back in September of 2004 after
heavy rain flooded a neighboring excavation
pit, causing extensive structural damage to
the building.
Since then, the building, located at the
corner of Wooster St., has been supported
by steel girders on its western face. Diether
noted that the owners will eventually store
the building’s historic features on site while
considering future construction.
UNION REAL ESTATE
The Cooper Union has appointed a new
vice president of finance and administration,
it announced on Monday.
Theresa C. Westcott, who will be leaving
the same position at Polytechnic Institute of
New York University, will also be treasurer
Read the Archives
www.DOWNTOWNEXPRESS.com
September 18 - 24, 2009 13
and oversee the East Village-based school’s
real-estate operations.
Before joining what was then
Polytechnic University in 2004, Westcott
served as senior vice president and C.F.O.
at Planned Parenthood of New York City,
handling the organization’s financial
RENT FORT GREENE
operations. Prior to that, she spent 11
years as an executive at Empire Blue
Cross and Blue Shield in New York.
…find youtopia.
N.Y.U. SIGNS SKIRMISH
New York University’s Silver Towers
recently got slapped with a violation by
the city for illegally installing No Parking Kaleb, Apt. 4102
placards and other signage throughout the
historic South Village complex. Has more vintage records
The property, known as University in his spacious closets
than he does clothing.
Village and located between Bleecker and
W. Houston Sts. from LaGuardia Place
to Mercer St., is a city landmark that
requires any new work to be approved Liam, Apt. 3404
by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Loves the spectacular
Commission. views of Manhattan.
The signage in question includes about
a dozen attached and freestanding notices
located around the 5-acre complex, as well
as a series of “canine hygiene stations” for
residents to clean up after their pets. Fiona, Apt. 3201
According to landmarks law, L.P.C. must
Scoots out of the park-
pre-approve all work at a given site and ing garage and onto the
issue a permit for any construction to move streets of Brooklyn.
forward. In this case, the work included
stand-alone concrete stanchions embedded
into the ground, as well as signs attached
to fencing throughout the complex and near
the property’s notable Picasso sculpture.
Noah, Apt. 2715
“On the N.Y.U. scale of things it’s Spends hours in his
pretty minor, but it’s a small thing which gourmet kitchen.
unfortunately says a lot about N.Y.U.,”
said Andrew Berman, executive director of
the Greenwich Village Society of Historic
Preservation, which has been a vocal
Niki, Apt. 2301
watchdog of the university’s development
plans. “N.Y.U. knows that once a building Shops the local bou-
is landmarked you can’t install concrete tiques with Coco, who‘s
stands for signs without getting landmarks always by her side.
approval. But they did it anyway. N.Y.U.
seems to think that landmarking is great, as
long as they don’t have to actually obey any
rules, or do anything differently than what
Chloe, Apt. 1703
they would have done anyway.”
Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U.’s vice president Enjoys waking up early
of government affairs and community to work out at the state-
engagement, explained that signage has of-the-art fitness center.
always been present at the property and
that the new placards simply replaced old
ones that “everyone ignored.”
“Prior to the landmarking of the site,”
Hurley said, “we had set in motion a series
of repairs to the roadbeds and the lighting
in the area, as well as the removal of old
ad-hoc signage with new, nicer signage for
the site. Some of the work has stretched
to take longer than anticipated. We are
working with L.P.C. to ensure we are in
compliance.”
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14 September 18 - 24, 2009 downtown express

Community marks eighth anniversary with quiet ceremony

BY HELAINA N. HOVITZ
A hurricane threatened to blow the
microphone off the stage, and stray
drops threatened to rain out the Sept.
11 community remembrance ceremony
that Bob Townley, executive director and
founder of Manhattan Youth, organized for
Downtown community members, but the
storm stayed away right up until the end.
As kids wrapped up their soccer games
the day Sept. 10, resident and musician
Bob Horan started off on a high note with a
lighthearted folk song, and everyone gathered
a little closer together in front of the makeshift
stage created from Rockefeller Plaza.
His next song, “If I Had a Hammer,”
prompted most of the older crowd to sing
along with smiles on their faces. Parks patrol
stopped to watch as more people filed in,
including a few faces from P.S. 150, board
members and several residents of Southbridge.
(Full disclosure: this writer helped Manhattan
Youth organize the ceremony.)
“We lost a lifestyle that had a sense of
security to it, and we saw how the effects
of terror were able to bring discomfort to
our neighborhood,” said pastor William
Grant as he took the stage. “If we had
lost hopefulness it would have been
understandable, but we weren’t able to turn
there for long because of the remarkable
vitality of this neighborhood.”
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver arrived
at 6:50 p.m., but all were so engrossed in
Grant’s speech that the swarm of people
that almost always flock him upon arrival
stayed put. He told me he had just come
in from Washington to be there that night
because of, “how important it is for us to be
here in defiance of those who wanted us to
be desolated.”
Silver presented a proclamation for the
community in commemoration of the event.
He remembered the teachers leading 8,000
students safely out of harm’s way, and
recalled the sight of Lady Liberty standing
tall in the darkness and smoke.
“The strength and glory of our community
is found in the diversity of our people. Let’s
stand together with knowledge that they
can’t crush our spirit,” Silver said.
Several others got up to speak next, Fifth grader Cecilia Gault, who was 2 years old on 9/11, sang “Imagine” accompa-
including Imam Mustapha Senghor, director nied by Lisa Ecklund-Flores of Church Street Music School at last week’s community
of the Harlem Islamic Cultural Center, ceremony.
whose story of charity and acceptance
brought tears to the eyes of many. Candles happened, and it was important for me to The next day, Grant sent an
were then handed out, and all were asked to sing tonight because even though I was e-mail to all the participants, expressing the
remember in whatever way they saw fit. 2 years old when it happened, I was still personal effect the gathering had on him.
Cecilia Gault, a fifth grader at P.S. 89, here for it,” Gault said. She just recently “As I watched the Reading of the Names
closed out the show with her own rendition found that she has been accepted to the Ceremony this morning — and my wife and
of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” She has been a Professional Performing Arts School. I lit our candles from last night — I felt so
student at Church St. School of Music for Rabbi Glass blew a shofar, and all much more grounded in the observance, so
four years. went on their way, perhaps a little more much more connected to it because of our
“We were living in Gateway when it lighthearted than when they came. ceremony yesterday evening.”

9/11 memorial
Continued from page 5

makes use of Google Maps to help put

the submissions in context.
The museum also released new images
of the 121,000-square-foot underground
museum last week. Visitors will descend
under the memorial plaza to view the
exhibits and remnants from 9/11 and its
aftemath including the W.T.C.’s bedrock
and slurry wall, and the Survivors’
Stairway, which some 9/11 survivors
used to leave the W.T.C. Some of these
elements were originally thought to be
part of the memorial but they have become
part of the museum. If the museum is
able to avoid charging an admission, the
distinction probably will not matter, but if
it does charge, it will mean that artifacts
that some consider part of the public
memorial will have an admission fee.
Daniels said the museum foundation
continues to look for ways to make it
free.
Pieces of the original W.T.C. facade will
be visible from the memorial plaza. Under
the current schedule, the plaza would open
by Septmeber 2011, and the museum one
year later, although some construction
anylysts have concluded the timeline goals
are unrealistic given the complexities of
building the new W.T.C.

Josh@DowntownExpress.com
Rendering of part of the 9/11 museum.
downtown express September 18 - 24, 2009 15

Downtown Express photos by Milo Hess

Celebrating the harbor

Princess Maxima and Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands had a good view of
the ship parade in New York Harbor last Sunday from the deck of a Netherlands Navy
launch. Many historic ships were on display just off Battery Park, including a replica
of the Half Moon, the vessel that 400 years ago carried Henry Hudson up the river
that now bears his name. The ship parade was part of Harbor Day, which also included
outdoor concerts, free bike rentals and art exhibits in honor of Hudson’s discovery of
New York.
16 September 18 - 24, 2009 downtown express

EDITORIAL LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PUBLISHER & EDITOR
John W. Sutter
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Margaret deserves Unsafe streets
vote, when she voted for a three-district
sanitation garage and salt shed at Spring
St, ignoring Hudson Rise, the community’s
Josh Rogers
ARTS EDITOR
her win, and Gerson To The Editor:
alternative? I assume Quinn will not be re-
elected speaker. Maybe she’ll have more
I was happy to read Helaina Hovitz’s
Scott Stiffler
REPORTERS
our thanks article regarding the unsafe crossings on
Fulton and Gold Sts. which surround the
time now to work on the issues that affect
her district.
Albert Amateau
Lincoln Anderson On Tuesday, one of the largest Chinatowns in Southbridge Towers community (news
Patrick Hedlund the country moved toward getting its first Chinese- article, “Neighbors say Seaport crossings Denise Levine
Julie Shapiro American to represent them in a legislature. are not safe,” Aug. 28 – Sept. 3).
SR. V.P. OF SALES AND Margaret Chin’s Democratic primary win in the Back when construction began on
Fulton St. I voiced my concern regarding
MARKETING
Francesco Regini
Lower Manhattan City Council race practically
assures her of victory in November. Even some who the safety of S.B.T.’s’ intergenerational Vendor policy?
SR. MARKETING CONSULTANT didn’t support Chin have told us it is a good day for population, as well as the bustling throngs
Jason Sherwood all of Downtown and we agree. of tourists and residents and workers To The Editor:
Chin was buoyed by a large turnout in Chinatown, from the surrounding area who are forced Now that Ms. Chin has defeated Mr.
ADVERTISING SALES daily to navigate the dangerous, make- Gerson for the District One City Council
Allison Greaker but one of the most positive things about her victory
Julio Tumbaco is that she was also able to win some election districts shift pedestrian crossings. After initially seat, the public artists of Soho have to
Danielle Zupanovich in whiter parts of Lower Manhattan like Tribeca and opposing the sale of S.B.T.’s property to wonder what will happen next. After
the Financial District. There continues to be an east- N.Y.C., I agree with it now. years of meetings, negotiations, mediation,
RETAIL AD MANAGER
Colin Gregory west divide in Lower Manhattan, but Chin’s strong But as I wrote way back when these and hearings Mr. Gerson came up with a
showing on the West Side shows us all that this line projects began, traffic lights or speed bumps confusing vending plan that would have
OFFICE MANAGER were needed. Stop signs that blend into caused serious harm to street artists.
David Jaffe can fade. It is quite an impressive showing for a
challenger to capture nearly 40 percent of the vote the construction barricades are accidents What will Ms. Chin do? Will she walk the
ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTOR in a five-way race. waiting to happen. Makeshift crosswalks same path that Ms. Freed and Mr. Gerson
Troy Masters painted over unpaved, uneven patches of walked before her and come up ideas that
One of the reasons we endorsed Chin a few
ART DIRECTOR weeks ago was she made it clear she was running to pavement at the end of blind turns, carrying are harsh on public art display while largely
Mark Hasselberger represent the entire district, and she has good ideas construction equipment, added to the ignoring the huge illegal vending and art
GRAPHIC DESIGNER about bringing the neighborhoods together. We look regular flow of busy traffic and emergency bootlegging problem? Or will she see that
Jamie Paakkonen forward to seeing her begin to put her plans into place, vehicles on Fulton and Gold Sts., are totally the heart of the problem is bootlegging/
DISTRIBUTION & CIRCULATION reaching out to opponents, supporters, skeptics and unacceptable. illegal vending, and finally come up with
Cheryl Williamson those who haven’t formed an opinion yet. It appalls me to watch on a daily a plan that protects legal vending and
Chin defeated four opponents including the basis my friends and neighbors dragging artists while focusing on the legions of
CONTRIBUTORS
Frank R. Angelino incumbent, Alan Gerson. We had tough criticisms their walkers, or looking for some level illegal vendors? Will she be able to tell the
Wickham Boyle of him when we made our endorsement, but we ground to anchor their canes into in an difference between the two groups when
Tim Lavin also pointed out that he did have a record of some attempt to simply cross a street to pick her predecessors seemed to be blind to the
David Stanke accomplishments including getting desperately up a much needed prescription, or, to obvious variances?
Jerry Tallmer needed schools for this area. exercise what little independence they It is up to public fine artists to define
PHOTOGRAPHERS We also remember Gerson’s service on Community still possess, and, perform some necessary this difference for Ms. Chin. I hope that
Lorenzo Ciniglio Board 2, including chairing the board and helping it chores such as banking or shopping. I they take this opportunity to do so.
Milo Hess turn in support of Hudson River Park. When Lower pray when a young parent attempts to If, on the other hand, public fine artists
Corky Lee cross Fulton or Gold Sts., with their young will come to the table with Ms. Chin as
Elisabeth Robert Manhattan was reeling from the 9/11 attacks, Gerson
was like a second councilmember before he took children, while dodging the mighty swing professionals and as citizens they will do a
Jefferson Siegel
office. He has worked hard for the First District for of a back-hoe, or the frightening sight of far better job of protecting their rights than
more than eight years and he deserves the gratitude a cement mixer, as it barrels along to its if the sit back and wait for the inevitable
Published by of our community. If he remains in public service, destination. Traffic patterns are changed to come their way. It is their call. It will be
COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC we would welcome it. Regardless, we wish him well each week. Pedestrians never know where interesting to see if fine artists have the guts
145 Sixth Ave., NY, NY 10013 in his next endeavor. the oncoming traffic will be emerging from to stand and speak their mind.
Phone: (212) 229-1890 Chinatown has been represented well by the last next. One certainty is that we will be reading
Fax: (212) 229-2790 two councilmembers, but any large ethnic community Now, I’m not one to stand in the it all in the Downtown Express and The
On-line: www.downtownexpress.com living in a legislative district deserves to have one of way of progress, but I feel that we have Villager. For that we can be thankful.
E-mail: news@downtownexpress.com their own represent it at least some of the time. The years of construction, and, years of this
fact that it had never happened in Chinatown was same disruption ahead of us. I strongly Lawrence White
Gay City
NEWS
TM

Downtown Express is published every week by
Community Media LLC, 145 Sixth Ave., New
York, N.Y. 10013 (212) 229-1890. The entire
contents of the newspaper, including advertising,
are copyrighted and no part may be reproduced
without the express permission of the publisher -
© 2009 Community Media LLC.
PUBLISHER’S LIABILITY FOR ERROR
The Publisher shall not be liable for slight
changes or typographical errors that do not
lessen the value of an advertisement. The
publisher’s liability for other errors or omissions
in connection with an advertisement is strictly
limited to publication of the advertisement in any
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© 2009 Community Media, LLC
disturbing, and the unbridled enthusiasm at Chin’s
victory party was electrifying.
Another positive component of this election was
the emergence of PJ Kim, a newcomer to Lower
Manhattan. He finished his campaign as graciously
as he started and we say again that we hope this
bright man stays Downtown and remains active in
the community.
We know Chin will be making the Downtown
rounds, listening, discussing and working on solving
problems. That’s how she ran her campaign and
that’s how she has worked for the last few decades
here.
To those who say time will prove us wrong, we
say if it does, there will likely be a better, stronger
candidate to run against her in four years. That’s the
beauty of democracy. Downtown showed that Tuesday
and that’s something we can all be happy about.
urge that stronger, more stringent
speed restrictors be installed, and that
additional Traffic Enforcement Agents be
assigned to assist and assure the everyday
safety and improve the strained quality of
life that we have been forced to endure for
far too long, I urge that this be done before,
and, not after, some unthinkable disaster.
Joseph Morrone
Quinn message
To The Editor:
With Christine Quinn getting only 52%
of the district’s votes, maybe she will now
comprehend that the community is unhappy
with her record. Did she expect to get our
An unhealthy debate
To The Editor:
It’s not a new thing that so many citizens
are up in arms about the proposed health
care legislation. It’s not just that they don’t
know the facts. I believe they don’t care
to know the facts because they have, for
one thing, been sold a bill of goods by the
special interests here, namely the health
insurance industry as well as the right
wing in general. They talk about socialized
medicine as if it were part of the red scare
that I thought went out with McCarthy and
his ilk. Of course, England has it, as do
Continued on page 17
downtown express
Downtown Express
Sept. 25 – Oct. 8,
2001
The first Downtown Express published
after the 9/11 attack included:
An article about firefighter efforts at
the World Trade Center. When Kevin
Denkins of Ladder 8 arrived at Tower
One, people were huddled in the lobby;
most were injured, some dead. Four of
their ladder company went missing,
including Lt. Vincent Hakloran, who lived
with his wife and 5 kids in Westchester.
Three members of the first precinct were
injured by falling debris, but all made it
out alive.
Five surgeons at N.Y.U. Downtown
Hospital worked on 30-year-old Deborah
Mardenfield for six hours to keep her
alive after the landing gear from one of
the planes hit her
“When the towers collapsed…no
one knew what was going on, no one
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Continued from page 16
other civilized countries. At this moment
it’s political suicide over there just to drop a
notion about undoing those programs. Only
in America do we still rant about socialism,
forgetting that Social Security and Medicare
are examples of very successful social
programs in the U.S.
The health insurance industry has done
nothing to help the economy except hire
people who would be better served using
their experience in hospital administrations.
I am convinced this would be a good idea.
I recently had a hernia repair and was
mistakenly billed $5,900 for surgery and
inpatient care when in fact my surgery
was as an outpatient. The surgeon was
terrific, his crew was terrific; only the
administrators screwed up. In the end it
cost me $328, a genuine bargain.
President Obama is not totally blameless
over the current snag. For one thing, he is
a lawyer and quite apparently he is looking
more and more as if he is against any reform
in the medical malpractice issue along with
the resulting problem of unnecessary testing,
which the president himself has recognized
as a big part of the cost situation. So he
needs to get his act together. He may also
simply have to wait until a detailed bill is
put together that has all of the features he
wants, including the public option or some
acceptable variant of it. Then he can go out
there and sell it to a public that surely has a
lot more common sense that those few but
very well-covered screamers. Get with it,
media.
Barry L. Cohen
September 18 - 24, 2009 17
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
knew if other buildings were going to 1,000 people to N.Y.U.’s main building, city Office of Emergency Management
come down or if there were gas leaks,
other explosions,” said hospital director
on Sept 24, but the meeting erupted in
anger and chaos after just ten minutes
didn’t show up. Many residents vowed
that a public demonstration would be
Leonard A. Aubrey. when an expected representative from the staged.
Police officer Joseph Albert had been
volunteering at the site for 48 hours
without revealing he had asthma, and
as soon as he was treated, wanted to get
back out there, and went back on the
front line. Two hours later, he stopped
breathing and been taken to intensive
care. He was later released.
Ninety percent of students at P.S. 234
showed up the following week at their
new location P.S. 41 in the Village. P.S.
150 students who relocated to P.S. 3 also
in the Village, and I.S. 89 students went
to Lab school in Chelsea.
Linda Secondari-Black wanted just 15
minutes to grab her baby seat, stroller,
some clothes, and birthing books before
she gave birth to her son, Luca. The
F.B.I. told her nobody was allowed to
go in, yet her neighbor was allowed in
the day before. Her husband was able to
retrieve their pet cat days earlier.
A meeting called by City
Councilmember Kathryn Freed on the
matter of the frozen zone in Tribeca drew
POSTED
ON DOWNTOWN EXPRESS.COM
“Growing up with Downtown’s scars”
(Downtown Notebook by Helaina N.
Hovitz, posted Sept. 10)
You are not alone. There are many
who continue to suffer the subconscious
shellshock that you do.
Reaperducer
Helaina, this is a beautiful, heartfelt
piece. Having visited you two weeks after
911, I was very taken with your parents
decision to stay and to aid in the effort to
rebuild the area. Like pioneers, not running
scared, you’ve forged ahead with heads held
high. Too bad the city hasn’t done the same.
Libby Harris
“In debt and facing fines, Gerson loses SEND YOUR
last shot at matching funds” (New Article,
posted Sept. 11)
Gerson is best you can get...because he
has got the experience and he knows what
Letter to the Editor
our state wants. I’m going to support him. NEWS@DOWNTOWNEXPRESS.COM
Peter9996 145 SIXTH AVENUE, NYC, NY 10013
I am supporting City Councilman Alan
J. Gerson because even before he was City
Councilman he was a long time community
advocate. Now that he is a City Councilman
PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR PHONE NUMBER
he is effective, honest and ... has a big
heart.
FOR CONFIRMATION PURPOSES ONLY
Jack Wilson
18 September 18 - 24, 2009 downtown express

Transit Sam
The Answer man

Downtown Express photos by Joshua A. Knoller

After an inquiry from Transit Sam’s office about garbage accumulating under the benches at the Houston St. medi-
ans, right, the NoHo BID has taken responsibility for making sure it is kept clean.

BY SAM SCHWARTZ Dear Transit Sam,

Dear Readers,
One of my employees from my company, Dan Schack,
reached out to the NoHo BID regarding a quality of life issue
for pedestrians walking along the new Houston St. medians.
Along the Houston St. corridor, particularly at Broadway, new
benches were installed, complimented by attractive plantings.
The space became very popular and has drawn a lot of
pedestrians. However, there were currently no trash cans on
the median and the space behind and underneath the bench
How a child learns to learn was overrun with garbage. After sending a letter to the NoHo
will impact his or her life forever. BID, they came back with an almost instantaneous and positive
reply! I post the response from the NoHo BID here.
Progressive Education for Transit Sam
Two-Year-Olds – 8th Grade
Dear Dan,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. From this day
OPEN HOUSE forward, the NoHo NY BID will take full responsibility for the
maintenance of the median from the east side of Lafayette and
Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 6-8pm Houston, to the east side of Mercer and Houston, including
RSVP to openhouse@cityandcountry.org the intersection at Broadway and Houston. The reconstruction
of Houston St. has resulted in a unique and beautiful public
space. We promise to do our best to meet the standards set
Visit www.cityandcountry.org forth by both the SoHo and NoHo communities. Please feel
for information and application materials free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns.
th Harriet Fields
146 West 13 Street, New York, NY 10011
Executive director, NoHo BID.
212-242-7802
The United Nations General Assembly begins next
week with all these world leaders coming into town.
What does that do for those who are Downtown trying
to navigate around the city? What would you advise?
Franco, South Ferry
Dear Franco,
Every year when U.N. gridlock arrives around the
third week of September, the message is simple; when
our president and other world leaders move about our
city streets, you don’t! Thus, my advice would be to take
transit or stick to the west side and you’ll be much better
off. Many leaders usually take up residence at the Battery
Park Ritz, Barclay Intercontinental and the Waldorf-
Astoria, just to name a few. This essentially means that
for most of next week, First Ave. between 42nd and
48th Sts. will be closed off, and the F.D.R. Drive will be
subject to freezes in both directions (not to mention the
one lane northbound that’s still closed around the clock
from 14th to 18th Sts). In addition, all east side avenues
will likely be frozen as the leaders are shuttled to/from
their hotels to the United Nations, causing all kinds of
tie-ups stretching as far back as downtown. Play it safe
and use transit beginning Monday through the end of
the week!
Transit Sam

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downtown express September 18 - 24, 2009 19

Dutch teacher finds Nirvana and class differences in N.Y.C.

BY JULIE SHAPIRO
Alex Bakker discovered last week that
if there’s one word that transcends cultural
boundaries, it’s “iPod.”
Bakker, an assistant principal in
Amsterdam, uttered the magic word while
he was guest-teaching Michael Parrish’s
third-grade class at P.S. 89 last Friday, and he
immediately got the kids’ attention. Bakker
was telling them about his teenage son, who
plays electric guitar and worships Nirvana
(“I love Nirvana!” a couple of 8-year-olds
called out). Bakker added that his son asked
him to bring a new iPod home as a souvenir,
and the kids burst out with endorsements of
Apple’s products, telling Bakker about the
ones they owned.
Bakker visited New York as part of a
job swap in honor of the 400th anniversary
of Henry Hudson discovering Manhattan.
Eleven Dutch professionals, including a
firefighter, bartender and midwife, spent last
week in New York shadowing an American
in their profession. The guests and hosts will
then switch places, with the Americans visitng
the Netherlands within the next month.
Bakker, 49, spent most of his swap week
with Parrish at P.S. 89 in Battery Park City. He Downtown Express photo by Elisabeth Robert
said the biggest difference between 89 and his
Dutch teacher Alex Bakker showed P.S. 89 third graders pictures of Holland last week as part of a one-week exchange program.
school in a much poorer section of Amsterdam
He said a school in Harlem he visited had more in common with his school in a poor section of Amsterdam than the Uptown
is not in culture or educational philosophy —
school has with P.S. 89.
it’s in the population they serve.
“These are privileged students,” Bakker sport; and while Dutch children can find summer and last year took Dutch lessons, so up seeing that.”
said, watching Parrish’s students draw M&Ms to eat, they do not have chocolate she can name farm animals in Dutch. Bakker said one of the most interesting
pictures. “There’s no way the kids at my with peanut butter in it, like Reese’s. “It was a surprise that he came,” Julie parts of his visit was seeing integrated C.T.T.
school have so much attention and focus.” Bakker also told the students about a said. “It was funny.” (collaborative team teaching) classrooms
Bakker liked that Parrish had the students section of northern Amsterdam that used to Angelique Vandervis, mother of another with special education students.
sit together on a rug in the back of the classroom have abandoned factories but is now turning Dutch student in Parrish’s class, said she The swap program has gotten little
for some of the lessons, and he hoped to try residential, with lots of new buildings under was excited for her daughter Nia to meet coverage on this side of the Atlantic, but
that at his school, though he wasn’t sure his construction. Bakker. Dutch television stations have aired clips of
kids would sit still long enough. Bakker also “Just like here,” Parrish said, “they’re “She really liked it,” Vandervis said. “She Bakker and Parrish teaching at P.S. 89, and
visited a school in Harlem (a neighborhood putting up buildings where people want to knows a little bit of Dutch, so she felt she the Web site jobswap.org has blogs from all
named for a Dutch town), and he said he live.” could show it off.” the participants.
found more familiar challenges there, and Elisha Beh, 8, said it was interesting to Vandervis was born in Holland and Parrish, 35, said he was thrilled to be
that his school had more in common with the learn about Bakker’s life. returns with her husband and children twice selected for the swap program and looks
Harlem school than the Harlem school had in “I like that he’s able to show us what a year. While all schools in the Netherlands forward to teaching English in Amsterdam
common with P.S. 89. he’s used to at home, and we can show him are free — even schools with a religious when he visits for one week next month.
Parrish’s students had many questions for what we’re used to,” she said. As for the focus — Vandervis said she prefers New He will take many photos and incorporate
Bakker: Does Amsterdam have skyscrapers? biggest differences, she added, “Their schools York schools because they integrate students his experiences into lessons for his P.S. 89
What kind of sports do the kids play? Have are more flat — our schools are taller and with physical or learning disabilities into the class, including their upcoming unit on
they ever eaten American candy? skinnier.” classrooms. bridges. But Parrish said the question he
Bakker replied that most buildings in To 7-year-old Julie Schoenmaker, the “I love for my children to see that this is most curious to answer is, “Are 8-year-
Amsterdam are much shorter than those pictures Bakker showed looked familiar. She is life, people in all shapes and forms,” olds just 8-year-olds no matter where you
in New York; soccer is the most important visited her grandparents in Holland over the Vandervis said. “I really like that they grow are?”

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20
ARTS +GAMES This project, designed by an art specialist
for school age children, includes clay, painting and jewelry
design. Free. Thursdays, through Oct 29, 3:30-5:30pm. Nelson
A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City (access: Chambers). Call
212-267-9700, or visit bpcparks.org.
BEGINNER TENNIS LESSONS Group sessions with an
experienced instructor will emphasize the fundamentals of
the game of tennis. Lessons are held for beginner kids ages
6-12 and beginner teens/adults over 13. Community Center
at Stuyvesant High School, 345 Chambers St. To register, call
646-210-4292. Visit ccshs.org.
CHILDREN’S BASKETBALL Children can play with adjust-
able height hoops, and participate in fun drills to improve
their skills. Free. Mon and Fri through Oct 30 (except holiday
weekends), 3:30-4:30pm for 5-6 year olds; 4:30-5:30pm for 7
& older. Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City (access:
Chambers Street). Call 212-267-9700, or visit bpcparks.org.
CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF THE ARTS (CMA) Explore
painting, collage, and sculpture through self-guided art proj-
ects. Open art stations are ongoing throughout the afternoon,
giving children the opportunity to experiment with materials
such as paint, clay, fabric, paper, and found objects. Admission
$10. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm; Thurs, 12-6pm. Children’s Museum
of the Arts, 182 Lafayette Stret. Call 212- 274-0986 or visit
:
b l e
Tre
S o m e
U p
St i r
gle& Sing!
i n
MixM
Sunday, October 4, 1-4pm
74 Trinity Place, 2nd Floor
The Trinity Youth Chorus is hosting an open house for kids and their families.
Join us for “Trinity Idol” karaoke, arts and crafts, games, group rehearsal and
sing, performances, and more. Open to all families. No charge.
The Trinity Youth Chorus is a collective of Lower Manhattan choirs offering
area children the opportunity to be part of a serious choral program of disci-
plined music-making.
Information: call Anne Damassa at 212.602.0706
or email adamassa@trinitywallstreet.org.
September 18 - 24, 2009
cmany.org.
DOWNTOWN SUMMER DAY CAMP Enjoy the same
enriching activities that country day camps offer without the
stress of traveling out of the city every day on a bus. The camp
combines a daily program with special events to give children
an exciting and varied camp experience. Kids K-6th grade. For
rates and to register, go to downtowndaycamp.com or call
212-766-1104, x250.
GLOBAL STORY HOUR Through weekly stories, participants
learn about new countries and cultures, participate in interac-
tive activities, and learn how to make a difference. Every Fri at
3:30pm. Action Center to End World Hunger, 6 River Terr, Bat-
tery Park City. Call 212-537-0511 or visit actioncenter.org.
KIDS STORYTIME Storyteller Yvonne Brooks leads a story-
time with arts and crafts for kids ages 3-7, every Sat at 12pm
in the children’s section. Baby storytime with storyteller Stew-
art Dawes takes place on Fri at 4:00pm for ages younger than
2. McNally Jackson Booksellers, 52 Prince St, (between Lafay-
ette and Mulberry). Call 212-274-1160 or visit mcnallyjackson.
com.
KIDS PROGRAMS Put your children’s energy to good use
through art, basketball, chess, cycling, exploration, gardening,
and music among other activities. Days, materials fees, and
YOUTH
ACTIVITIES
park locations vary. Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, Two
South End Ave. Call 212-262-9700 or visit bcparks.org.
STORIES AND SONGS Created especially for infants, tod-
dlers and preschoolers, this event will bring together both the
children and their parents. $210 for 4 forty-minute sessions;
pre-registration required. Mon or Wed, 9:30am to 10:10am – 6
to 12 months old. 10:20am to 11:00am – 15 months to 2 years
old. 11:10am to 11:50am – 2 years old and up. 12 to 12:4pm –
mixed ages. BPCPC Meeting Room at The Verdesian. Enter at
door north of main entrance (access: Murray St or Warren St).
Call 212-267-9700 or visit bpcparks.org.
PLAYDATE AND NEW PARENT DROP IN The Playdate
“Drop-In” is a great place to bring toddlers. While the children
play together, parents can socialize in the Parenting Center.
The New Parent “Drop-In” gives new parents the chance
to discuss their concerns and ask questions. Topics include
feeding, sleeping, creating support networks. Punch card
for 10 sessions is $100. Playdate Drop-Ins are Mon & Thurs,
10-11:30am and Tues 3-4:30pm. New Parent Drop-Ins are Mon
1:30-3:30pm. Educational Alliance Downtown Parenting Cen-
ter,197 East Broadway (between Jefferson & Clinton St). Visit
edalliance.org.
TEEN PROGRAMS Save teenagers from the boredom blues
through classes on art, babysitter training, CPR, and environ-
mental activism. Days, materials fees, and park locations vary.
Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, Two South End Ave. For
more information call, 212-262-9700 or visit bcparks.org.
PRESCHOOL PLAY AND ART Join other toddlers, parents
and caregivers for interactive play on a grassy lawn. Toys,
books and equipment provided. Free. Mon, Tue and Wed,
through Oct 27 (except Sept 7 and Oct 12) 10am- 12pm. Robert
F. Wagner Jr. Park. Call 212-267-9700 or visit bpcparks.org.
STORYTIME AT BABYLICIOUS Children ages 3 to 4 are
welcome to participate in free storytime with songs, stories
and lots of fun. Free. Every Tue, 9:30am. At Babylicious, 51
Hudson St (between Duane and Jay St). Call 212-406-7440, or
visit babyliciousnyc.com.
TOUR DE PARC Tricyclists, bicyclists and scooter riders
9 years old and younger show their pedal power in a cycling
tour of the parks. Helmets required. Sept 19, 10am. Esplanade
Plaza. Call 212-267-9700 ext 348,or visit bpcparks.org.
Moving Visions’ Murray Street Studio
A Wise Choice for your child’s dance education!
Dance for Children and Teens
• Modern Ballet (ages 5-18) • Choreography (ages 8 & up)
• Creative Movement/Pre-Ballet (ages 3-5)
ADULT CLASSES Yoga - Tai Chi • Chi/Dance/Exercise for Women
19 Murray St., 3rd Fl.
(Bet. Broadway and Church)
downtown express
TEEN VOLLEYBALL All teens are welcome and no previous
experience necessary; referee/scorekeeper and ball provided.
Presented by the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy. Sat,
4:30-6:30pm. Community Center at Stuyvesant High School,
345 Chambers Street. Call 646-210-4292.
TODDLER PLAY GROUP Story time, play time and fun
educational activities are all part of the Community Toddler
Play Group for parents with their children. Foster your tod-
dler’s imagination through history, science and maritime-
themed activities using interactive materials and engaging
book readings.$7 per child, free to family members, Every
Wed, 1-2:30pm, South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton
Street. Call 212-748-8786 or visit southstreetseaportmu-
seum.org.
TEEN ENTREPRENEUR BOOT CAMP This program gives
teens the exciting learning experience that they need to
succeed later in life. For more information, visit teenentre-
preneurbootcamp.org.
YOUNG SPROUTS GARDENING This gardening program
is for children 3-5 years old. It includes simple gardening
projects appropriate for preschoolers. Free. Tue, through
Oct 27. 3:15-3:45pm. Space limited-first come, first served.
The Children’s Garden, Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery
Park City (access: Chambers St). Call 212-267-9700 ext 348
or visit bpcparks.org.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR EVENT IN THE DOWN-
TOWN EXPRESS KIDS LISTINGS? Listings requests
may be e-mailed to listingseditor@gmail.com. Please pro-
vide the date, time, location, price and a description of the
event. Information may also be mailed to 145 Avenue of
the Americas, New York, NY 10013-1548. Requests must
be received two weeks before the event is to be published.
Questions? Call 646-452-2507.
212-608-7681 (day)
www.murraystreetdance.com
downtown express September 18 - 24, 2009 21

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22
She sings, she swings, she murders
New take on oft-told tale of Lizzie Borden rocks
BY JERRY TALLMER
Bridget the maid, sometimes called
Maggie, speaks.
Well, more properly, she sings. And she
doesn’t like it when the Borden daughters,
Emma and Lizzie, address her as “Maggie,”
just because she’s Irish, which they often
do. But much has changed since yesterday
in this house in Fall River, Massachusetts.
Listen to Bridget:
In the house of Borden,
“somebody” left us quite a mess.
Splattered blood and bones
everything,
except on Lizzie’s dress.
It’s a crime scene, it’s a nightmare,
It’s a bloodbath, it’s a fright,
And it blew the roof off
the House of Borden.
“Lizzie Borden,” the full-length rock
musical (or near-opera) that holds forth
through October 17 at the Living Theater,
down on Clinton Street, is a basic idea’s
third, fullest, and manifestly most
informational incarnation. Also the most
poetic (at least a reading of it has surprised
me, favorably, in that last respect).
This, in spite of the fact that, like its
two earlier manifestations, the melodic
melodrama spills the beans halfway
through, arriving at its own ex cathedra
guilty verdict — for the August 4, 1892
axe murders of her father and stepmother
— on the Lizzie whom a real-life
Massachusetts jury declined to convict,
after an hour and a half deliberations
(less than the running time of this show),
back there in the summer of 1893.
LB3 is the handiwork of the triumvirate
of Tim Maner (book, lyrics, and some
of the music), Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer
(lyrics and music), and Alan Stevens
Hewitt (music, musical arrangements,
musical director). Enthusiastic true-
believer Tim Maner is over-all director of
the whole shebang.
There have been dozens upon dozens
of Lizzie Borden emanations and
explorations over the years — non-fiction
books, novels, poems, plays, ballets,
pieces of music, movies, television works,
newspaper and magazine features, comic
strips…
Tim Maner, who sees her in terms
of Medea — “almost a superstar” once
the dust had settled following Lizzie’s
acquittal — hopes that his and his co-
creators’ 19-years-in-the-making end
product digs emotionally deeper than
most other Lizzieana.
How much of it is spoken, how much
sung?
There are some very short spoken
scenes, perhaps five lines. It’s not a rock
opera per se, but it’s 85 percent music.
“Make that 95 percent,” Maner amends.
We laid ’em out in the dining room,
It’s going on day two.
September 18 - 24, 2009
on
Lizzie B, prepped for her infamous 40 whacks
I know it sounds disgusting,
but it’s1892.
There’s no a/c, it’s August,
and it’s 95 degrees.
(Spoken) Well, you do the math.
In addition to such time-binding
anachronisms, the libretto is studded with
inferences to or fragments from “Macbeth”
(“Whoda thought the old man had so much
blood in him?”), Michael Jackson (“Burn
the old thing up / Burn the old thing up”),
Henry James (“Turn of the Screw”), and
Psalm 130 (“Out of the depths / I cry to
thee / Lord, Lord, hear my voice”).
The actual blood-soaked Lady Macbeth
of 92 Second Street, Fall River, Mass., was,
Maner thinks, Lizzie’s jealous, nutty,10-
year-older sister Emma, “who disappears
to Fairhaven when the deed is to be done,
and only comes back when it’s over.”
Jealous of what? Of papa Andrew
Jackson Borden’s wont to visit Lizzie in
her bed in the middle of the night. Which
may be why she killed him, if she did. Or
it may be because he chopped the heads
off all her pet chickens. Which is what
one of my fathers-in-law did to the pet
rabbits of one of my wives — only he did
it with a shotgun.
Andrew Jackson Borden, at any rate,
was a strange guy — a widower who,
after Lizzie and Emma’s mother died, had
married a much younger and less pleasant
woman.
Lizzie Borden took an axe,
Gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
Gave her father forty-one.
—old sidewalk jump rope jingle
Tim Maner was a founder and first
artistic director of the Tiny Mythic Theatre
Company of the 1990s, also a co-founder,
co-director of the HERE theater company
(in what’s now the editorial and business
premises of The Villager and Community
Media Inc., just below Spring Street.)
The first version of LB3, then called
“Lizzie Borden: An American Musical,”
was in fact a Tiny Mythic production that
ran for two nights in the summer of 1990
at the Ohio Theater, north of Canal Street.
Four years later, a second, fuller version
enjoyed a two-week run at HERE.
“The first one ran for maybe 20
minutes, the second one for an hour
ten,” says Maner, who with fellow actor/
musician Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer put
those first two ventures together. “We all
played in bands in those days.”
Maner had been friends at NYU’s Tisch
School “in the mid-1980s — it depends
how old you make me in your article” —
with actor- and playwright-to-be Peter
McCabe, who would marry lawyer-to-be
Hillary Richard.
“Hillary and Pete came many times to
the show [at HERE], and loved it. The
show closed, and we all went on to do
other things. Then, a little over two years
ago, I got a phone call completely out of
the blue. It was Pete, saying they wanted
to do [i.e., produce] the [third] show. He
wanted to give it to Hillary as a birthday
present.”
downtown express
Photo by Carl Skutsch
THEATER
LIZZIE BORDEN
A rock musical by Tim Maner, Steven Cheslik-
DeMeyer, and Alan Stevens Hewitt
Directed by Tim Maner
Presented by Took An Axe Productions
Through October 17
At The Living Theatre, 21 Clinton Street (south
of Houston)
(212) 352-3101 or www.theatermania.com
Hillary Richard is today the executive
producer of the Took An Axe production
of “Lizzie Borden” at Judith Malina’s
Living Theatre. Peter McCabe is the
producer (they are also the producers of
three young daughters).
The first thing Maner did was call Steven
Cheslik-DeMeyer, who lives in Austin,
Texas, and then join him down there
for two days’ digging into documentary
material about Lizzie Borden. The results
of this research would be fed into the
script during several workshops “To
strengthen the narrative,” says Maner.
It also soon became apparent “that we
had to strengthen the music.” To that end,
Maner and Cheslik-DeMeyer recruited
Brooklynite Alan Stevens Hewitt, who
in short order became musical director,
arranger, and co-composer of LB3.
The rest is herstory.
downtown express September 18 - 24, 2009 23

On Fourth Street, classic meets contemporary

Fifteen seasons strong, TC’s future is 416 year-old play
THEATER
TEATRO CÍRCULO
At 64 East 4th Street
For tickets and information: 212-505-1808
or visit www.teatrocirculo.org

BY BONNIE ROSENSTOCK
Teatro Círculo has been on the go ever
since it was born fifteen years ago as a
traveling company. It was the brainchild
of a group of CUNY graduate students
of Spanish literature, who mounted their
first production (based on three interludes
by Cervantes), as a homage to one of
their retiring professors — a Cervantes
specialist. As a result of the show’s success,
they were asked to tour it around to the
other CUNY colleges.
“We had ten to twelve gigs based on
that night,” recalls TC’s artistic director
José Cheo Oliveras. “We realized that as
artists, we needed to do it. It was related to
Spanish classical theater. We had all trained
with Dean Zayas, the head of the Theater
Photo courtesy of Teatro Círculo

Continued on page 24 From the upcoming “El Caballero del Milagro”

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24
On Fourth Street, classic meets contemporary
Continued from page 23
Department at the University of Puerto Rico,
and wanted to continue that in New York.”
To celebrate their fifteenth anniversary
season — which coincides with the 400th
anniversary of Lope de Vega’s seminal 1609
“Arte Nuevo de Hacer Comedias” — Zayas
and Oliveras have selected his picaresque
1593 “El Caballero del Milagro” (aka, “El
Arrogante Español”) to present for three
weeks, Wednesday to Sunday, October 28
to November 15. There will be supertitles
in English for non Spanish-speakers.
Zayas, a specialist in the Spanish Golden
Age (ca.1492-1681), has come from Puerto
Rico to direct; and Gloria Zayas, costume
teacher at the university and the top
designer on the island, has agreed to do the
costumes. “We decided to go back to our
roots, back to the people who inspired us,”
says Oliveras.
At least five or six generations of acting
students here in New York have been
taught by Zayas, declared Oliveras, 45;
born in Santurce, raised in Carolina (the
birthplace of salsa) and a 1987 graduate
of the University of Puerto Rico. He also
credits Zayas with having a tremendous
impact on the revival of the classics. “He
continued doing this when no one else
was putting energy into it. The vocabulary
is archaic and it’s difficult to understand
the idiomatic expressions of the time, but
you can ask him anything and he knows
exactly what it is and how to approach it,”
emphasized Oliveras.
Zayas, 70, loves this play for the language
and the rhythm, which reminds him of the
zanies and other intriguing characters of the
Italian Commedia dell’arte. It takes place in
KOCH
“THE BAADER MEINHOF
ON FILM
COMPLEX” (+)
This terrorist gang, which operated in
Germany in the 1970s, was very effective.
It specialized in bank robberies and murder,
and its successes terrified the German
population and nearly brought that country
(then under Chancellor Willy Brandt leading
the Socialist Party) to a collapse.
The gang killed their opponents — who
were leading members of the government
— by riding by on motorbikes and gunning
them down in their cars. The leaders of
the gang were two middle-class people,
Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) and
Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck).
The trial of the gang leaders and others by
a German court reminded me of the scenes
in old newsreels showing the outburst of
the chief judge in Nazi Germany after the
failure of von Stauffenberg to assassinate
September 18 - 24, 2009
Taking a bite out of de Vega
Hitler. At that trial, the chief judge yelled at
the defendants in an unsympathetic way, as
does the chief judge in this film — creating
sympathy for the defendants who apparently
were given much greater liberty to engage
in outbursts than I believe would have been
tolerated in a U.S. court. Their sympathizers
engaged in horrendous conduct, yelling and
applauding the statements of the defendants,
in the courtroom itself.
Before conviction, all of the defendants
died in prison at the same time from gunshot
wounds. There has been an ongoing debate
as to whether they committed suicide
or were killed by their jailors. The movie
attempts to resolve the mystery.
Two problems I had with the film were
that the subtitles were too small, making
them difficult to read — and that they
did not remain on the screen long enough
to adequately read. Nevertheless, it is an
amazing movie and well worth your time.
In German, English, French and Arabic,
with English subtitles. Rated R; 2 hours, 24
minutes. At the Angelika Film Center (18
West Houston Street, at Mercer Street). For
screening times, call 212-995-2000 or visit
www.angelikafilmcenter.com.
Photo courtesy of Teatro Círculo
The bank robbers of “Baader Meinhof”
downtown express
occupied Italy, when the Spanish Empire
controlled most of the country. It is atypical
of Lope’s almost 500 surviving works of
manners and decorum — the cape and
sword plays of gentlemen and ladies of high
society. This is a world of frank unbridled
sensuality, humor that borders on the
grotesque and a repudiation of honor. The
lower class, rife with French, Spanish and
Italian prostitutes, mingles freely with the
upper class. “It is another phase of Spanish
society of the time in which people will do
anything to make a living,” said Zayas.
The main character is a kind of Don
Juan Tenorio, not a typical caballero of the
Golden Age. “Lope said a lot of things that
he wouldn’t be able to write about later as
he became more a part of the establishment,
which included the monarchy. It is a very
agile and fast play that basically speaks
about morality and the situation of people
in a big city. The conflicts are not that
different from today,” said Oliveras.
While TC was originally conceived
to perform the classics, early on they
realized they also needed to do some Latin
American theater; hence, the “círculo.”
“Traditionally, Spain and Latin America
have been kept apart, and we wanted to
be inclusive,” says Oliveras, who’s lived in
New York for twenty-two years. So each
year they introduce one contemporary
and one classical piece. As a bridge with
artists from the island (from Wednesday,
October 21 to Sunday, October 25), in
collaboration with the Puerto Rican theater
group Palanganas, Inc., TC is presenting “7
Veces 7” (“7 Times 7”) — seven short plays
by seven different contemporary Puerto
Rican writers, based on the seven capital
sins, as directed by Iliana Garcia. Oliveras
describes the plays
Photo courtesy of Constantin Film Verleih GmbH
downtown express September 18 - 24, 2009 25

THE LISTINGS JOIN US ON SEPT. 24TH, 4:15 PM

TO RALLY FOR hmmmm, More
elementary
an ADA compliant school The
middle school. seats Village Infirmary
Wouldn‛t that be
wonderful!
as an
Early Childhood Center

YOU MEAN,
MY KID MIGHT NOT
75 Morton St. NO

as a new
Photo courtesy of The Sculptors Guild
HAVE TO HAVE 40 KIDS WAITLISTS
Some of the works from “Formative Lines” IN HIS CLASS? FOR
KINDERGARDEN!

Pick of the Week middle school

EVENTS: THE SCULPTORS GUILD In House 19, on Nolan Park (Governers
“Formative Lines: Working in Drawing Island). Through October 4. Call 212- Wow, the yard
and Sculpture” features 24 members of 431-5669 or visit www.sculptorsguild.org. What a beautiful dream: could be used by
the Sculptors Guild displaying 86 works of Governors Island is open to the public on a middle school option in the neighborhood
drawings and sculptures which examine the Fridays from 10am-5pm and Sat/Sun, 10am- on evenings
our neighborhood that
interdependent relations between drawing 7pm. It is reached every hour by ferry from
helps open up seats and weekends.
and sculpture — bridging the distinctions the Battery Maritime Building next to the
uptown as well!
between two and three-dimensional artworks. Staten Island ferry in Lower Manhattan.

PUBLIC SCHOOL
PARENT
GALLERIES CLASSES
ment. $25 per group. Every Thurs, 10-11am.
Tribeca Pediatrics, 46 Warren Street. Call
212-219-9984.
ADVOCACY
COMMITTEE
CB2
COMMUNITY BOARD 2, MANHATTAN

THE PAINTING CENTER CENTER In INTRODUCTORY ART WORK-

the Main Gallery: “Paintings and Works on
Paper” by Brian Brooks and Robert Bunkin.
In the Project Room: “Recent Painting” by
Denyce Celentano. From October 1-24;
Tues-Sat, 11am-6pm (opening reception,
Sat, Oct 3, 3pm-7pm). At The Painting
Center (52 Greene St, 2nd Fl). Call 212-343-
1060 or visit www.thepaintingcenter.com.
“HEEB HUNDRED PORTRAIT EXHIBI-
TION” Heeb Magazine presents its fourth
annual list of activists, artists, actors, musi-
cians, movie-makers, comedians, creative-
types, foodies, fashionistas, innovators and
intellectuals that you need to know about.
Free. October 2-19, at 92Y Tribeca (200
Hudson St). Visit www.92y.org.
SHOPS Are you thinking about taking
an art class, but not sure what you want?
Come to these art workshops and try out
a class before committing to a full course.
Class subjects include pottery, cartooning,
drawing and photographs. $15 per work-
shop. The Educational Alliance Art School,
197 East Broadway. Call 212-780-2300,
x428; or, visit edalliance.org/artschool.
DANCE AND PILATES Ballet, jazz, tango,
hip-hop, and modern dance classes are
offered for all levels. $16/class, discounts
available. Ongoing. Dance New Amsterdam,
280 Broadway (at 53 Chambers St) 2nd Floor.
Call 212-279-4200, or visit dnadance.org.
TABLE TENNIS TRAINING PRO-
EVENTS
POET’S HOUSE Help Poets House cel-
ebrate its new home in Battery Park City, and
discover their 50,000-volume poetry library,
children’s room, multimedia archive, pro-
gramming hall and reading room with views
of the Hudson River. The Grand Opening
event happens Sept 25/26 at their new loca-
tion (10 River Terrace). Free admission. Call
212-431-7920 or visit www.poetshouse.org.
THE MANHATTAN GRAPHICS CEN-
TER The fine-art printmaking school offers
classes in monoprinting, lithograpy and silk
screening; at 481 Washington Street (between
Spring and Canal Street).
NEW YORK CITY
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Office of Franchises, Concessions and Consents
REQUEST FOR BIDS FOR THE OPERATION OF THE FERRY HOUSE CAFÉ AT EAST RIVER PIER 11, IN THE BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN
Pursuant to §1-12 of the Rules of the Franchise and Concession Review Committee, DOT’s Office of Franchises, Concessions and Consents
is soliciting bids for the operation of the Ferry House Café located at East River Pier 11, also known as the Wall Street Ferry Pier, in the Borough
of Manhattan. The successful bidder will also have the option of (a) installing and operating a kiosk on the Pier and/or (b) placing a limited
number of tables and chairs on the Pier (collectively referred to as the “Optional Facilities”). The Solicitation Number is 84110MNAD444
(please use in all correspondence regarding this concession). The initial term of the License will be three years, with two three-year renewal
options to be exercised at the sole discretion of DOT.
Hard copies of the Request for Bids may be obtained at no cost beginning September 14, 2009, Monday through Friday, except holidays,
from 9am to 3pm at: ACCO Contract Management Unit, Department of Transportation, 55 Water Street, Ground Floor, New York, NY 10041
The deadline for receipt of Bids is Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 2pm.
Bids must be submitted to the ACCO Contract Management Unit, Department of Transportation, 55 Water Street, Ground Floor,
New York, NY 10041. There will be a pre-bid conference/site visit on September 30, 2009 at 11am at East River Pier 11, NY, NY. Attendees
are asked to RSVP. Attendance by bidders is optional but strongly recommended. The Authorized Department Contact is Owiso Makuku.
She can be reached by fax, phone, email or regular mail at: Fax Number: 212.839.4834; Phone Number: 212.839.6550; Email Address:
concessions@dot.nyc.gov, Postal Address: DOT Franchises, 9th Floor, 55 Water Street, New York, NY 10041, Re: Pier 11 Café
All inquiries should be submitted in writing and will be answered in writing.
Interested companies and individuals can download the Request for Bids from the DOT Website:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/rfpintro.shtml

KEITH HARING NEW YORK Woodward
Gallery presents a playful body of work
from Keith Haring’s early years in New York;
unique subway drawings, studio interiors
 o
and other never-before-exhibited works
underscore Haring’s outstanding contribu-
tion, impact and relevance to art today.
Through October 20, at Woodward Gallery
(133 Eldridge St). Call 212-966-3411 or visit
œÃ“ïV
woodwardgallery.net.
“FACES” Letty Nowak’s exhibition of
new paintings focuses on faces, but are
not “portraits” in the classical sense. Meet
the artist from 1pm-6pm on Sept 25/26; Oct
2,/3, 9/10, 16/17. The exhibition runs Sept
24 through December, at Hal Bromm Gal-
lery (90 West Broadway at Chambers St).
Call 212-732-6196 or visit www.halbromm.
com.
GRAM Table tennis training is offered for
players of all ages and skill levels. It’s a great
opportunity for all to come together, enjoy
the sport, and build new friendships. Mon-
Fri, 10am to 1pm, $100 a year for ages 6-15
and 50 and older; $200 for others. American
Asian Cultural Center of Tribeca, 384 Broad-
way, lower level. Call 646-772-2922.
NEW BEGINNINGS CHAIR YOGA Trinity
Church’s seniors group meets for one hour of
gentle yoga while seated. 10-11am. Ongoing.
Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street. Call
212-602-0747, or visit trinitywallstreet.org.
SUPPORT GROUP FOR FIRST-TIME
MOTHERS Join parenting experts Drs.
Ann Chandler and Nancy Carroll-Freeman
and new mothers to voice your thoughts and
feelings and find support and encourage-
BOOK LAUNCH An event for the
revised version of Joyce Mendelsohn’s
“The Lower East Side Remembered &

"1
Revisited: History and Guide to a Legend-
ary New York Neighborhood; 6:30pm,
Sept 23, at Angel Orensanz Foundation
for the Arts (172 Norfolk St).
kahnDERMATOLOGY PLLC
i`ˆV>ÊUÊ-ÕÀ}ˆV>ÊUÊ
EXHIBITS
Hirshel Kahn, MD | Shoshana Landow, MD
HOUSING WORKS BOOKSTORE
CAFÉ Tuesdays, 8:30pm: “Punch Up Your Robin Borkowsky, MD | Terri Raymond, PA-C
Life” — a free comedy series hosted by
Jessi Klein and Pete Holmes. Sept 20, 11am: 5 Harrison Street | Suite A | New York, NY 10013
Kids’ Concert: Laurie Berkner with special
Tel: 212.619.0666 | Fax: 212.691.6326
Listings www.kahndermatology.com
continued on page 26
26 September 18 - 24, 2009 downtown express

THE LISTINGS
Hebrew School
Bar and bat-mitzvah instruction Listings MUSIC tions. Free. Federal Reserve Bank of NY, 33
continued from page 25 Liberty Street. Call 212-720-6130, or visit
Tot-Shabbat Sing-a-Long SONGS OF JOHN & ABIGAIL newyorkfed.org.
Religious instruction guest Susie Lampert; $20. Sept 24, 7pm: The ADAMS The Knickerbocker Chamber
Adult Education Moth StorySLAM ($7).10 storytellers com- Orchestra soiree previews a dramatic song SOHO ARTS WALK Experience SoHo’s
pete. Their theme: The Dark Side. Sept 26, cycle when KCO musicians join soprano art scene like never before with a walk down
Family Shabbat services 10am-6pm: An Open Air Street Fair closes Elizabeth Dabney and baritone Peter Clark famous cobblestone streets that were once
National Jewish Outreach/ Crosby Street; thousands of $1 books, mov- to present excerpts from Music Director the stomping grounds of such greats as Andy

Learn to Read Hebrew ies, records, CDs; plus food, beer, clothes and
accessories. Housing Works is located at
Holidays & Celebrations 126 Crosby Street. Call 212-334-3324 or visit
High Holiday Services www.housingworksbookstore.org
Lifecycle events THE BETTER HALF- ARTIST COUPLES
Brit, namings ON DISPLAY The exhibition presents
young artist couples who are balancing
careers, creating art and being married to
Join us for the High Holidays at another artist. Free. Educational Alliance
Gary S. Fagin’s “A Distant Love, Songs of
John and Abigail Adams.” All proceeds
benefit the Knickerbocker Chamber
Orchestra. Thurs, Sept 24, 6-8pm, at 366
Broadway, #10A. Suggested donation:
$200 per person, $350 per couple. For
more information, www.knickerbocker-
orchestra.org.
CITY WINERY Every Sunday, the
Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Free
admission into galleries. The third Thursday
of every month, through September. Visit
sohoartswalk.com.
MUSEUM AT ELDRIDGE STREET These
guided tours, led by historian-trained
docents tell the story of the 1887 landmark
synagogue, and illuminate the experience
of the East European Jewish immigrants

The Marriott Financial Center Hotel Art Gallery, 197 East Broadway (between
Jefferson & Clinton St). Visit edalliance.org/
85 West Street, 2nd Floor Ballrooms artschool.
Rabbi Joseph Goldman, officiating BEAUTY SURROUNDS US Visitors can
see a unique display including an elaborate
Quechua girl’s dance outfit, a Northwest
Our 24th year of serving the Downtown Community! Coast chief’s staff with carved animal figures
and crests, Seminole turtle shell dance leg-
Battery Park Synagogue gings, a conch shell trumpet from pre-Colum-
385 South End Avenue, New York, NY 10280 bian Mexico, and an Inupiak (Eskimo) ivory
For more details: (212) 432-7022 info@bpsynagogue.org cribbage board. Two interactive media sta-
tions show visitors in-depth descriptions of
each object. Ongoing through March, 2010,
an unaffiliated, egalitarian congregation
at the National Museum of the American
…serving the downtown community since 1986 Indian (One Bowling Green). Call 212-514-
3700, or visit nmai.si.edu.
Klezmer Brunch Series pairs top tier musi-
cians with top tier lox and bagels. At 9pm
on Sept 29, it’s Will Kimbrough and Kim
Richey ($18-$25). October 10, the NYC
Wine & Food Festival presents a Bob
Dylan Wine Pairing (9:30pm). 155 Varick
Street (at Vandam). Call 212-608-0555 or,
for a full schedule of upcoming events,
visit www.citywinery.com.
TOURS
FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW
YORK TOUR Visitors will be able to tour
the Fed’s gold vault and learn about the
Federal Reserve’s central banking func-
who settled on the LES in the late 19th cen-
tury. Sun.-Thurs, 10am-4pm. $10 adults, $8
seniors, $6 children. Museum at Eldridge
Street, 12 Eldridge St. Call 212-219-0888, or
visit eldridgestreet.org.
LISTINGS REQUESTS for the Down-
town Express may be mailed to Listings
Editor at 145 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10013-1548 or e-mailed to
listingseditor@gmail.com. Please include
listings in the subject line of the e-mail
and provide the date, time, location, price
and a description of the event. Informa-
tion must be received two weeks before
the event is to be published. Questions?
Call 646-452-2507.

ASK FOR HOMEMADE MACARONI

Ravioli 11.00
DAILY Baked Ziti
Lasagna
11.00
11.75
SPECIALS HOT HERO SANDWICHES
~ Free Delivery Chicken Parmigiana 8.75
Chicken Cutlet 8.75
($7.00 Minimum) ~
Sausage & Peppers 8.75
Potato & Egg 8.75
Eggplant Parmigiana 8.75
PIZZA PIES Meatball Parmigiana
Veal Cutlet Parmigiana
8.75
10.00
Neapolitan 16.75 Grilled Marinated Chicken 8.75
Sicilian 12 slices 25.00 Chicken, Mozzarella & Lemon 8.75
Chicago 16.75 Italian Philly Cheese Steak 8.75
Small Neapolitan 13.00
Mini Pie 7.50
LARGE SELECTION OF TOPPINGS 3.75 Each
HOT PLATES
DAILY SPECIALTY PIES CHICKEN
Eggplant Parmigiana 13.00
(CALL FOR PRICE)
Chicken Parmigiana 13.00
Chicken Marsala 14.00
CALZONES 6.50 topping 1.75 Chicken Francaise 14.00
Chicken Sorrentino 14.00
SALADS VEAL
House Salad 6.50 Veal Milanese or Parmigiana 14.75
Caesar Salad 12.00 Veal Marsala 14.75
Grilled Chicken 10.00 ROLATINI
Spinach Salad 5.75/8.50 Chicken Rolatini 14.75
Greek Salad 5.75/8.50
SEAFOOD
Fried Calamari (appetizer 10.00) 15.00
Pasta Salad 5.75/8.50
Shrimp Scampi 15.00 HAIR U COLOR U TREATMENTS U STYLING
Caesar with Chicken 7.50/10.00 Calamari & Linguini (red sauce) 15.00 CHILDREN’S CUTS U THOUGHTFUL GIFTS
SELECTION OF APPETIZERS, Grilled Salmon 15.00
JAPANESE STRAIGHTENING
SOUPS & SIDES (see full menu) * Prices may vary
We Specialize in Catering    
 !  " #   $
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Let us cater your next party — Your place or ours
.   $  %   ( / *  0  ! 1  $  %'
 $   $  %' 2 #  $  %  3 / *
'REENWICH3Ts212-732-5959 212-941-9163

! 4 1 # $ %  3 / 3   0   ! 1 # $ %  5 / 6   0   1  $ %    / 6
-ON 7EDAM PMs4HUR 3UNPM AM
downtown express September 18 - 24, 2009 27

DOWNTOWNCLASSIFIEDS
DEADLINE WEDNESDAY 5:00PM MAIL 145 SIXTH AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10013 TEL 646.452.2485 FAX 212.229.2790

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28 September 18 - 24, 2009 downtown express

The Stakes are High.

The Choice is Clear.
Choose Progress Over Politics.

“There’s a steep cost to politics as usual—and the

middle class always gets stuck with the bill. We can’t
afford to let that happen again. We’ve made a
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—Mike Bloomberg www.mikebloomberg.com

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Paid for by Bloomberg for Mayor 2009