now

The Works, p. 19

Chelsea
VOLUME 3, NUMBER 24

Outrage over plan

to close Chelsea
THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER JUNE 4 - 17, 2009

homeless shelter
BY PATRICK HEDLUND
New York’s only 24-hour
homeless shelter dedicated
exclusively to serving the
elderly is set to close at the
end of the month under a
restructuring plan that will
eliminate the Chelsea drop-
in center.
Peter’s Place, located in
the basement of St. Vincent
de Paul Catholic Church on
W. 23rd St., provides hot
meals, showers and clean
clothes on a round-the-
clock basis to more than Chelsea Now photo by Patrick Hedlund
100 seniors per day.
The city Department wide “drop-in” centers from
of Homeless Services nine to five.
announced late last year that In response to this and
it would reallocate fund- other planned cuts to senior
ing for its shelters serving services throughout the city,
specialized populations— a group of local advocates
including women, the elder- formed the Senior Outrage
ly and those suffering from Coalition to oppose the shut-
mental illnesses—as part of tering of Peter’s Place, which
a consolidation plan reduc-
ing the total number of city- Continued on page 4

Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel

Scenes from Broadway 2.0 Chelsea Now photo by Tequila Minsky

The city recently shut down seven blocks along

Broadway at Times and Herald Squares for its
“Greenlight for Midtown” pilot program, which
refashioned the traditionally car-congested streets
as pedestrian malls. As seen on page 13, the proj-
ect has been drawing traffic of another kind to the
new urban oases.
‘Hey Eli, I’m open!’
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning works on a game plan with young residents of Chelsea’s Fulton Houses
complex, who got the chance to participate in a football clinic with the former Super Bowl MVP at Chelsea Piers
on Fri., May 29. The event was donated by Manning as an auction item during St. Vincent’s Hospital’s annual
fundraiser last year. See story and photos on page 8.

1 4 5 S I X T H AV E N U E • N Y C 1 0 0 1 3 • C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 0 9 C O M M U N I T Y M E D I A , L L C
2 June 4 - 17, 2009

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THE
BUZZ
CRDC PICKS ARE IN The Chelsea Reform Democratic
Club made its endorsements for citywide office on May 28,
giving the thumbs-up to Democratic candidate Bill Thompson
in his long-shot bid to unseat Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
CRDC also voted to endorse public advocate candidate Bill
de Blasio, despite members showing strong support for civil
rights attorney Norman Siegel. Judy Richheimer, the club’s
executive vice president, said that four CRDC members
spoke in favor of Siegel as opposed to one for former (and
possible future) mayoral candidate Mark Green and one for
Eric Gioia. None spoke for de Blasio, and Richheimer sug-
generate positive publicity. “You guys got played,” Nash said
of the piece, which detailed how Elder agreed to let artist
Nadia Bertrand stay at the hotel for the cost of two paintings.
“It’s a retaliatory move by Elder to try to make himself seem
appealing to a little group of tenants.” We admit to being a
bit suspicious of the story ourselves at first, despite the fact
that Bertrand visited our offices herself to let us know about
the deal and denied being asked to pitch the piece by anyone
at the hotel. (Elder himself even seemed surprised to see us
when we showed up at Bertrand’s party to celebrate the deal,
so we stand by our judgment.) Regardless, hotel tenant Ed
Hamilton’s popular “Living with Legends” blog lit up with
comments (38 at last count) after he linked to the story, with
most readers echoing Nash’s questions about Elder’s sincerity.
“Trading art for rooms was one of the ‘offenses’ levied against
Stanley Bard and Family in Elder and [shareholder Marlene]
Krauss’s legal subterfuge,” wrote one commenter. “Problem
is, Stanley rarely ever did that—it’s an URBAN LEGEND

WIGS
gested that a letter to the club signed by Congressmember
Jerrold Nadler and Assemblymember Richard Gottfried in
support of the Brooklyn councilmember likely tipped the
scale in his favor. In the comptroller’s race, David Yassky
edged out John Liu by the slimmest of margins, and the club
r
4FOTBUJPOBM
4FMFDUJPO
PG
8JHT endorsed Richard Aborn for district attorney.
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'JOFTU
JO
/:$
DICK AND JOHN In related news, the Chelsea-based
r
"MM
3FBTPOBCMZ
1SJDFE Gottfried came out in support John Liu for his run at comp-
troller, calling the Queens councilmember “a reform-minded
$BMM
/PX

212.243.9379 legislator who takes on issues regardless of politics or partisan-
ship.” Liu already counts a slew of endorsements from across
the city, including nods from Downtown Councilmember Alan
Gerson, Upper West Side State Sen. Eric Schneiderman,
Congressmember Charles Rangel and the Working Families
Party. “His experience and his integrity position him as the
best-qualified to lead the city forward,” Gottfried said in a May

8
SE
4U

/:$
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XXXTBMPODFDJMJBDPN 27 statement. “I am confident he will continue to make a dif- Novac Noury declared after a State Supreme Court special
ference for working families as the next comptroller for New
York City.” Liu will get a stiff challenge from Councilmembers
David Yassky, Melinda Katz and David Weprin in what’s shap-
ing up to be one of the most hotly contested races of the year.
“I’m thrilled to receive the support from Assemblymember
Gottfried, a true visionary in New York government,” Liu said
in the statement. “He has been a leader on so many critical
issues, from health care to the integrity of public institutions,
and I am looking forward to working with him.” The two have
an overlapping interest in improving access to health care;
Gottfried as chairperson of the Assembly’s Health Committee
and Liu as member of the Council’s Health Committee.
- BREAKFAST SPECIALS - PAINTER PLANT? Our recent article about a Canadian
artist who arranged for a free month-long stay at the Chelsea
MONDAY - FRIDAY FROM 6 - 11 a.m. Hotel in exchange for a pair of paintings elicited quite the
reaction among some of the hotel’s more vocal residents.
- BRUNCH SERVED - Particularly incensed was tenant Arthur Nash, who’s had a
SATURDAY & SUNDAY 10 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. longstanding feud with hotel stakeholder/manager David
BANQUET ROOM & CATERING - 212-924-3709 Elder and called the story a “plant” orchestrated by him to
Your Passion is
exploring the
world
EVERYONE DESERVES A SMILE!
that Stanley didn’t do anything to dissuade.” Another reader
described it as “Nothing but poorly conceived propaganda,”
and yet another thought of the financial implications of the
deal: “The new CFO must be mighty busy this morning figur-
ing out how to report this to the tax man…”
STOOP SALE The 400 block of W. 21st St. between Ninth
and 10th Aves. will hold its fourth annual stoop sale from 11
a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sat., June 6. “You never know from year to
year what kinds of treasures—from books to white elephants—
will turn up on our stoops,” said Ann Sewell, a longtime
resident of the block across from the General Theological
Seminary. “It’s a great way to meet people on the block and
from the neighborhood.” The rain date is set for Sun., June 7.
GOOD TIMES FOR DISCO DEVELOPER “The judge
has thrown their petition out of court. I have won the petition,”
referee ruled on May 11 that hotelier Andre Balazs and his
partners in the Standard Hotel can’t affix an aluminum water
gutter to Noury’s 51 Little West 12th St. building. Noury argued,
and the referee agreed, that the “scupper,” as Noury called it,
represented an illegal encroachment onto his property. The rul-
ing now clears the way for Noury—a.k.a. the Arrow Keyboard
Man and the Phantom of the Organ™ of the 1970s and ’80s
disco days—to move ahead with plans for his own development
on a lot abutting Balazs’s swank, new, High Line-spanning hotel.
Noury said the scupper would have blocked use of his own air
rights, and that, as a result, potential development partners
were previously put off. One builder who notably bailed was
Henry Hay of Centaur Properties, who Noury knows back from
when they both used to hang at Studio 54. “We were about to
go contract,” Noury said, “but he backed out of the triple-net
lease because he did not want to be involved in a lawsuit.”
Hay is currently building the project at Eighth Ave. and 15th
St. where Rebar, Cajun and Chelsea Grill used to be located.
Noury assured that a cascading, 40-foot-high waterfall abutting
Balazs’s new hotel remains a key element of the project, but
that, on the advice of potential partners, he’s retooled his
concept a bit. Instead of a mini-inn, it will now most likely
either be “a multi-retail with terraced views” or “an exclusive
mini-mansion.” “I have the right to build 10 stories—13,000
square feet—grandfathered under FAR 5,” Noury asserted.
However, since the Standard is built on massive stilts, the
blockage by—not to mention the waterfall splash-age from—
Noury’s project will be minimal, he said. His building will

Introductory
($380 value)
$99 Offer reach no higher than the Standard’s third floor and block
a mere, oh, four to six of the boutique hotel’s 343 rooms.
Before he bought it in 1979, Noury’s small Meat Market
UÊՏÊiÝ>“ˆ˜>̈œ˜ building was a 24-hour strip club, “a topless and bottomless
UÊ*iÀˆœ`œ˜Ì>Ê
Ý>“ˆ˜>̈œ˜ pit” with “walls of lust,” as he described it. He transformed
UÊ"À>Ê
>˜ViÀÊ-VÀii˜ˆ˜} it into Club RSVP, a $100-monthly-membership after-hours
UÊ
i>˜ˆ˜}Ê*iÀvœÀ“i`ÊLÞÊi˜ÌˆÃÌ club for the Studio 54 set. Back in those disco days, Noury
UÊ
œ“«iÌiÊ-iÌʜvÊ8‡À>Þà used to perform at Studio 54 with his wireless arrow keyboard,
­ˆvʘiViÃÃ>ÀÞ®ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ which could shoot either water, shaving cream or sparks. He had
248 W. 23RD ST. (Btwn.7TH & 8TH AVE) a cameo with the contraption in the original “Hair” movie, using
it to fire a blast of white smoke during the hallucination scene.
646-290-5576 (Check YouTube.)

State legislation introduced to combat illegal hotels
BY DIANE VACCA
Catherine Van Sandt Sanchez has lived for
the past 32 years on the third floor of a walkup
on W. 49th St. In her building, the 81-year-old
said, there are two apartments that rent out
for between $29 per night each person for
four people who share a room, to $2,000 for
nine nights.
“We have become the extra hotel in New
York City,” she said at a May 21 public
forum on illegal hotels sponsored by the West
Side Neighborhood Alliance. “We never know
who’s in the building. It’s not safe.”
In the meantime, Sanchez said her landlord
is trying to force her and other tenants out.
“My husband died 14 years ago. We weren’t
married, but we lived together for 18 years,”
she said, explaining that she kept the apart-
ment for her handicapped son. “I’m not the
tenant of record, and so they’re trying to get
me out.”
Sanchez lives in one of the 280 New York
City buildings that are known to operate as
illegal hotels. These residential buildings have
rooms or apartments that are rented to tran-
sient visitors—either tourists who stay for one
or more nights or business people who stay
for extended periods. The only people who
benefit from illegal hotels are the landlords,
most of whom do not pay the New York City
hotel tax, according to a study by the Illegal
Hotels Working Group. Owners of build-
ings with rent-regulated apartments have an
attractive financial incentive to harass or evict
their tenants and rent those units to tourists,
thus shrinking the supply of affordable apart-
ments. Landlords who are attempting a co-op
or condo conversion of their properties also
‘Blatant illegal activities go
on in housing all the time,
but this is a jigsaw puzzle.’
— State Sen. Liz Krueger
besiege their tenants so that they will purchase
or move out, leaving a vacant apartment that
can produce revenue as an illegal hotel, speak-
ers at the forum explained.
Consequently, the tenants are less secure
and experience a diminished quality of life.
The tourists are at risk, too, because most
of these buildings don’t meet the stringent
standards set by the fire code for hotels. The
city loses income and legitimate hotels suffer a
loss as well, and both are compounded by the
financial crisis.
A sample of 125 illegal hotels in the study
conducted by the Working Group had more
than 3,000 outstanding violations issued by
the city Department of Housing Preservation
and Development and over $1 million in
unpaid fines.
New York is experiencing a “precipitous
decline in hotel occupancy in the city as a
result of the collapse of the economy,” said Tim
From left to right: Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Assemblymember
Richard Gottfried, State Sen. Liz Krueger and Councilmember Gale Brewer spoke
at a rally on the steps of City Hall, where new legislation was announced to stop the
spread of illegal hotels.
Judson of the New York Hotel Trades Council
Union, noting that hotel occupancy rates are 30
percent lower than they were at the same time
last year. Judson explained that 4,500—or 15
percent of the union’s 30,000 hotel workers—
were laid off in the first four months of this year.
“The problem is rampant,” he said.
“Illegal hotels act as a threat to tenants and
a drain on the legitimate hotel industry,” said
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer
at a press conference on Sun., May 31, on the
steps of City Hall. “They siphon potential tax
revenue for the city. Operators of illegal hotels
are willfully ignoring the law in a scheme that
is hurting New York.”
The press conference’s organizers, State
Sen. Liz Krueger and Assemblymember
Richard Gottfried, announced they are intro-
ducing bills in an attempt to combat the
city’s illegal hotels on the state level. Krueger
described illegal hotels at the forum as one of
the “legally most complicated” of the “breath-
taking” number of housing issues in the city.
“Blatant illegal activities go on in housing
all the time, but this is a jigsaw puzzle: trying
to figure out what laws we have, what laws
were broken” and what old laws still on the
books are now impediments to protecting ten-
ants today, Krueger said. “Everyone working
on this issue is frustrated with how complex
it has been to try to come up with some
answers.”
“Illegal hotels take available apartments
from an already tight housing market and
disrupt the lives of the residents who still live
in the buildings,” Gottfried said at the press
conference. “They are also dangerous for tour-
ists who are unaware that their ‘hotels’ do not
meet the city’s fire code. By giving the city the
authority to enforce state rent laws, our bill
would keep the worst illegal hotels out of rent-
regulated buildings.”
The Assembly bill would recognize illegal
June 4 - 17, 2009 3
warehousing of apartments and renting them
as illegal hotels, the bill would protect tenants
during the co-op/condo conversion process
by extending the period the attorney general’s
office may check for excessive vacancies.
It will also mandate that rent-regulated
apartments be rented only to an actual person
for primary residential use and not to a corpo-
ration that will rent them out to transients.
The Division of Housing and Community
Renewal is a state agency that lacks the
resources to effectively enforce many provi-
sions of the rent laws and regulations in
New York City, Krueger said. It has very few
inspectors and they don’t do building inspec-
tions, which are done by HPD. The bill would
authorize HPD to enforce rent-regulation law
as well, she added.
Councilmember Gale Brewer also
announced her intention to introduce a reso-
lution in the City Council to support the
state legislation introduced by Krueger and
Gottfried.
In the meantime, people who are living
Chelsea Now photo courtesy West Side Neighborhood Alliance in buildings that are being used illegally by
their landlords are urged to report them to the
Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, whose
director, Shari Hyman, promised to continue
“aggressively pursuing enforcement against
building owners who have illegally converted
hoteling as a form of harassment and would residential housing into hotels as it compro-
give the attorney general the authority to deny mises the safety of both residents and visitors
a landlord’s application for conversion to co-op alike and damages the character of residential
or condo on that basis. In order to discourage neighborhoods.”
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4 June 4 - 17, 2009
One-of-a-kind sr. shelter faces ax, but who’s to blame?
Continued from page 1
has operated out of the church between
Sixth and Seventh Aves. for 16 years.
“The seniors are the most vulnerable pop-
ulation out there, and homeless seniors are
even more vulnerable,” said Muriel Beach,
NYC Chapter president of the Senior Action
Council, who gathered in front of Peter’s
Place with other Coalition members on
Thurs., May 28, to protest the planned June
30 closing. “We have 1.3 million seniors in
New York City. One-third of them live in
poverty—one third—and more are getting
there all the time,” Beach, 81, continued.
“They have the quietest voice.”
“It’s a stunningly simplistic
approach to the problem
[that] ignores the unique
needs of older adults.”
— Arnold Cohen, president,
Partnership for the Homeless
While Peter’s Place does not provide beds
to its visitors, the shelter offers computers
with Internet access, lockers, a pool table
and a staff of client advocates to help place
seniors in affordable housing.
The nonprofit Partnership for the
Homeless has a contract with the Department
of Homeless Services to run the shelter and
seeks to provide its clients with permanent
housing within 90 days of entry. After DHS
announced its consolidation plan—which
includes a scaling back of all 24-hour drop-
in centers to 13 hours—the Partnership testi-
fied before the City Council’s Committee on
Aging on March 30 to decry the proposed
closure of Peter’s Place.
“As soon as we got their RFP [Request
for Proposals], and it said it in it no [fund-
ing for] specialized populations, we started
making noise,” said Piper Hoffman, direc-
tor of advocacy for the Partnership, who
attended the rally. “We were not able to get
anywhere.”
The Partnership could have submitted a
request during the RFP process last year to
establish a consolidated drop-in center at
the current location, but chose not do so at
the time. In response, the Senior Outrage
Coalition charged the nonprofit with not
doing enough to fight for Peter’s Place,
claiming the Partnership backed off its
advocacy for restored funding in line with
its new mission focusing more on homeless-
ness prevention.
“When the RFP came out, that was the
time to protest it, and they did nothing
about it,” said SOC’s Maria Alvarez. She
said the Partnership drew the Coalition’s
Members of the newly formed Senior Outrage Coalition demonstrated in front of
Peter’s Place on W. 23rd St.
attention to the issue at the City Hall rally
in March, only to retreat in its efforts on
Peter’s Place.
“They just said, OK, fine—we’ll walk
away,” Alvarez added, referencing an unre-
lated letter-writing campaign by advocates
that ultimately led the Department of the
Aging to rescind its planned cuts to senior
centers across the city. “Partnership for the
Homeless did nothing of the sort.”
The Partnership denies these accusations,
stating that the nonprofit has continued to
lobby for Peter’s Place while attempting to
place clients in permanent housing before
time runs out. “We’re doing whatever it
takes to find housing for all of our clients,”
Hoffman said. “If we’re not able to do that
by DHS’s deadline, then these people will
probably wind up on the street.”
Robert Reiss, who’s spent nearly 25
years volunteering at a homeless shelter
through his parish, the Community Church
of New York, often deals with clients who
shuttle between Peter’s Place and his shelter,
which has 10 beds. He questioned the pace
of the Partnership’s work in getting elderly
residents into permanent housing, claiming
he’s personally served homeless individuals
Chelsea Now photo by Patrick Hedlund
for up to two years before they’ve found an
apartment.
“Clearly the Partnership for the Homeless
has not served many of these men well,”
Reiss said. “They do it so glacially that
by the time that some of these elderly are
ensconced properly, they’re at death’s door
in many cases.”
Arnold S. Cohen, the Partnership’s pres-
ident and CEO, countered that the problem
stems from the overall lack of housing
options for seniors.
“We do not have a plan to deal with
affordable housing here in the city,” he said,
noting that Section 8 housing is not read-
ily available to the elderly and that some
federal programs have 12-year waiting lists.
“We have 40 to 50 percent of seniors in this
city living on fixed incomes.”
The fear shared by all advocates regard-
ing the loss of Peter’s Place is that many
seniors will be forced to move into shelters
with general homeless populations, which
don’t provide services tailored specifically to
their needs.
“They will be preyed upon in the gen-
eral shelter system, and it’s callous for
the Bloomberg administration to propose
this,” said Norman Siegel, acting counsel
for SOC and a current candidate for Public
Advocate. “You can’t put the people out on
the streets.”
Cohen added that DHS has sought to
address the problem of homelessness too
broadly without focusing on the needs of
specialized populations like seniors.
“It’s a stunningly simplistic approach to
the problem [that] ignores the unique needs
of older adults,” he said. “If they’re brought
into the general population their needs will
not be met.”
In the meantime, Cohen said the
Partnership remains committed to getting
all its clients “a plan for housing” before the
shelter shutters, adding that the nonprofit
pushed for an extension of the closing date,
to no avail.
However, Peter’s Place client Johneesa
Harper, 64, accused the center’s current
staff of referring clients to other shelters
rather than working to find them housing
options. “Instead of them helping the cli-
ents, they’re pushing them out the door,”
she said. “They don’t care how they get us
out.”
Harper explained that one of the shel-
ter’s client advocates had tried to place her
in a Queens apartment but decided to wait
until a larger group had gotten their Section
8 vouchers. Frustrated with the slow pro-
cess, she approached a real estate agent
to negotiate the deal herself. “They pay
people to do a job, and they’re not doing it,”
Harper said. “The clients are nothing but
dollars and cents signs—they’re numbers,
not human beings.”
DHS responded that placing existing cli-
ents into housing remains its top priority.
“We have multiple housing options
available to offer these clients tailored
to different needs,” spokesperson Heather
Janik said in an e-mail. “DHS is sensitive
to the special needs of seniors and is work-
ing with the Department for the Aging to
explore all possible options so that we can
ensure that clients are connected to appro-
priate services and resources for seniors at
the general drop-in centers, and that staff
there will be trained on geriatric issues
and can help clients connect to necessary
resources. Seniors will receive the care and
attention we all agree they must have.”
Carolyn Selman, an employee of the
Gay Men’s Health Crisis a block away from
Peter’s Place, said she has referred people
to the shelter in the past. “I can see people
that really need this place that don’t have
anywhere to go,” she said. “It’s not like it’s
not being used.”
Bob McCoy, 67, has been making the
trip to Peter’s Place from Coney Island for
the past three years. “I’ve been coming here
for years, because they have free food and
a pool table,” he said, calling the closure a
“slap in the face.”
“They turn around with this innocent
little place to throw them all out into the
street,” he said. “It’s a disgrace.”
The Senior Outrage Coalition held a simi-
lar rally on June 3 and plans to demonstrate
again on June 11.
 June 4 - 17, 2009 5

New Yorkers respond to Prop. 8 ruling with their feet

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
Responding to a decision by California’s
Supreme Court that upheld a state consti-
tutional amendment banning gay marriage,
thousands in Manhattan took to the streets
to object to the ruling and demand that New
York pass a same-sex marriage bill this year.
“I have a message for our friends in
the State Senate,” said Scott Stringer, the
Manhattan borough president, to loud
applause and cheering at a Tues., May
26, rally held at Union Square. “The time
has come to pass marriage equality in the
Senate.”
The rally and march was one of more
than 100 held across the country on the day
that California’s highest court ruled 6-1 that
Proposition 8, an initiative approved by vot-
ers in that state last year, was constitutional.
That same court ruled in May of last year
that a 2000 law passed by California voters
that banned gay marriage was unconstitu-
tional.
Between that ruling and the Nov. 4 vote
that reversed it, roughly 18,000 gay and lesbi-
an couples married in California. In a portion
of the recent ruling, the Supreme Court ruled
that those marriages were still valid.
While the Proposition 8 vote led to recrim-
inations and charges that national gay groups
and initiative opponents in California had
blown what should have been a win for the
gay and lesbian community, the May 26 ruling
was expected—though still disappointing. Chelsea Now photos by Patrick Hedlund

“The decision by the California Supreme Thousands of marriage equality supporters marched from the West Village to Union Square on Tues., May 26, to protest the
Court today is heartbreaking,” said Cathy California Supreme Court ruling that upheld a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Marino-Thomas, board president of Marriage
Equality New York, one of the groups that
organized the march and rally. “What hap-
pened to equal protection under the law?”
Since the Proposition 8 vote, three
states—Iowa, Vermont and Maine—have
approved same-sex marriage, either through
legislation or by court ruling, and New
Hampshire is on the verge of adopting a
marriage equality law as well.
In New York, the State Assembly passed
a gay marriage bill on May 12 by a vote of
89-52, and activists have been pressing the
Democratic-controlled Senate to approve
the legislation. As of May 26, no vote was
scheduled in the Senate, and the body
adjourns in 24 days. The bill was introduced
by Governor David Paterson on April 17.
Speaking at the rally, openly gay City
Council Speaker Christine Quinn called on
the crowd to aggressively lobby their state
senators. “Make it so the State Senate can
do nothing else for the next 24 days,” she
told the crowd. and gay community, made nine banners with read, “Yes we can” with an asterisk and text
The rally followed a march from varying messages for the event and continu- below it, looking like a footnote, that read
Christopher Park in the West Village, a small ally altered which banner led the march. “But not if you’re gay.”
park on Christopher St. near the Stonewall While the chants and signs clearly tied Corey Johnson, another rally organizer and
Inn, where riots that came in the wake of the ruling and the Proposition 8 vote to anti- member of Community Board 4, broadened
a June 1969 police raid have come to be gay bigotry, there were also indications that that complaint to include the Democratic-
seen as the launch of the modern gay rights some in the community are growing impa- controlled U.S. House and Senate. He urged
movement. tient with President Barack Obama. the crowd to join an Oct. 10 march on
The crowd, which grew steadily larger One of Baker’s banners featured two Washington to seek a “fully inclusive civil
along the route, marched along Washington images of Obama facing in opposite direc- rights bill” by the end of the year.
St. to Sixth Ave., and then went east on 14th tions and the signature slogan from his presi- “We want that from this Democratic
Street to Union Square. dential campaign “Yes we can” connected Congress, this Democratic president,”
Gilbert Baker, the artist who popularized with “No you can’t.” Johnson said, “and we want it before this
the use of the Rainbow Flag in the lesbian Two men in the crowd held signs that year is out.”
6 June 4 - 17, 2009
Deal is sealed for pre-K
classes in West Village
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
Village parents who feared there would
be no seats in their two zoned schools
for their children entering kindergarten
in September can breathe easier. The
Department of Education reached a lease
agreement Fri., May 22, with Greenwich
House for space at 27 Barrow St., pro-
viding a short-term solution to the over-
enrollment at PS 41 and PS 3 in the West
Village.
The agreement calls for space at
Greenwich House for three classrooms of
pre-kindergarten children, thereby making
room in the two Village schools for most
of the children on the incoming kindergar-
ten waiting list.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn,
who organized the task force of elected
officials, DOE staff and parents that
searched for space for the overcrowded
schools, called the lease agreement a great
victory.
‘It’s a neighborhood issue.
Parents want to be able
to walk their children to
kindergarten.’
— Rebecca Daniels,
District 2 CEC president
“Having reached the agreement, we are
able to guarantee space for 4-year-olds to
attend pre-kindergarten in the neighbor-
hood next year and provide all those on
the kindergarten waiting list with a seat,”
Quinn said in a prepared statement. “This
doesn’t answer all of our overcrowding
problems in Greenwich Village or in New
York City. But it is a step in the right
direction and a real example of what can
be accomplished when the community
comes together.”
Manhattan Borough President Scott
Stringer, Congressmember Jerrold Nadler,
City Councilmembers Alan Gerson and
Rosie Mendez, State Sen. Thomas Duane
and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, all
members of the task force, joined in the
statement.
However, Rebecca Daniels, president
of the District 2 Community Education
Find it in the archives
www.CHELSEANOW.com
Council, said it was not certain that the
three classes of pre-K at Greenwich House
would free up space for all the children on
the PS 41 and 3 kindergarten waiting list.
Three pre-K classes, at an optimum
number of 18 children per class, would
account for 54 seats, she noted. The
Greenwich Village kindergarten waiting
list last week had 79 names, but had been
shrinking as parents chose other programs
for their children. The Department of
Education estimates that the waiting list
will disappear when the gifted and talent-
ed kindergarten programs in Manhattan
offer seats to Village-zoned children.
Daniels, however, said that seats
offered in the gifted and talented pro-
grams at Chelsea schools—at PS 11 on W.
21st St. and at PS 33 on Ninth Ave. at W.
27 St.—were more likely to attract Village
kindergarteners than programs on the
Lower East Side or the Upper West Side.
“It’s a neighborhood issue. Parents
want to be able to walk their children to
kindergarten,” she said. “The jury is still
out on whether the wait list will disappear
by September.”
Daniels, whose education council
district also covers Lower Manhattan,
Chelsea and the Upper East Side, noted
that overcrowding is an issue throughout
the district.
“We must immediately work on the
Upper East Side overcrowded schools and
establish the PS 151 school,” she said. PS
151, on E. 91st St., was condemned and
closed in 2001; children zoned for the
school have been assigned by lottery to
other district schools. The DOE is nego-
tiating for the Our Lady of Good Counsel
School building on E. 91st St. as a site for
a new PS 151 in September.
Nevertheless, Daniels said the leas-
ing of the Greenwich House space was
a tremendous relief for parents of the
Greenwich Village school community.
“I have viewed the 27 Barrow St. space
and see this as a very good solution,” she
said.
John White, a DOE staff member who
has been working with the District 2 CEC,
told task force members last week that the
Greenwich House space is elevator-acces-
sible and offers the use of a gymnasium
and a play yard.
“It will be a fine space for the children
it serves,” White said, adding, “After the
2009-2010 school year, pre-kindergarten
service will be returned to PS 3 and PS 41,
where space will have been made available
by the relocation of area middle schools.”

The view inside one of the General Theological Seminary’s 60 hotel rooms
GTS wants hotel use, but
there’s room at the inn
BY PATRICK HEDLUND
Representatives from Chelsea’s General
Theological Seminary met with the community
on May 21 to make their case for legalizing the
property’s use as a commercial hotel—despite
the fact that the religious center has been quietly
hosting guests for the past year.
GTS has been seeking support from neigh-
bors to allow visitors to stay in 60 hotel rooms
inside the Desmond Tutu Conference Center,
which legally permits accommodations only for
guests that are attending an event there or have
some association with the Episcopal Church.
But neighbors have been complaining for
some time that GTS has been welcoming guests
regardless of their relationship to the seminary
since last year, a move confirmed by Chelsea
Now when it attempted to make a reservation
in January.
“You can’t rent a room if you’re not affili-
ated with the Episcopal Church or General
Theological Seminary,” said Chris Ballard, con-
ference planning director of the Tutu Center,
admitting that the hotel didn’t adhere to those
rules last summer.
The Tutu Center entered into a restrictive
declaration with the city in 2005, permitting
the seminary to provide accommodations only
to affiliated guests. Advertisements for the
rooms had appeared on various travel Web
sites, but Ballard said GTS has now “physically
disconnected the equipment that allowed that
to happen.”
However, a call placed to the travel agency
Lois Lane Travel on June 3 revealed that a
guest could book a double room at GTS later
this month for $169 a night, and that person
was not questioned about his affiliation to the
church or seminary. A person answering the
phone at the Tutu Center referred the guest to
the travel agency, explaining that only reserva-
tions for five or more rooms could be made
through GTS.
“That does not make me happy,” said Lee
Compton, chairperson of the Community
Board 4’s Chelsea Preservation and Planning
Committee, which hosted the May 21 meeting.
“What they’re doing is improper.”
GTS assured the board that it is not renting
June 4 - 17, 2009 7
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struction • Best V
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rooms to unaffiliated guests, stating that the
only reason rooms had been available to them
in the past was because of the online advertise-
ments, Compton added.
When asked about the reservation, Ballard
said he was not aware of any dealings between
GTS and the travel agency, adding that the
seminary turns down about 150 requests for
rooms each week.
‘It’s a problem—there’s no
NYC’s Most Flexible
doubt about it. But we’re
almost out of business.’
Day Camps!
— Chris Ballard, General
Theological Seminary
Register for 1, 2 or up to 11 weeks
“All I can say is we’re operating at 30
percent occupancy, so clearly we’re not taking
reservations through any travel agency,” he
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said, explaining that the seminary has already
made a round of layoffs. “It’s a problem— Ages 3 to 17 Years
12 Camps to Choose from:
there’s no doubt about it. But we’re almost out
of business.”
GTS is currently exploring all its options to Golf • Performance Golf • Ice Hockey • Ice Skating • Bowling
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to people outside the [church] community,”
Summer Sports Camps at
Ballard said. “To not be able to rent to other
people means that we have to limit our work-
force.”
Compton said that all the community board
and local residents want is clarification on the
current law, and for GTS to abide by it.
“If what they’re doing is illegal and cannot 23rd Street & Hudson River Park
be made legal, than we cannot condone it,” he
said. “If there are things that can be done to 212.336.6846 | www.chelseapiers.com/camps
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listen to arguments.”
8 June 4 - 17, 2009

Fulton Houses youth receive a Giant visitor in Chelsea

BY PATRICK HEDLUND Manning donating his time to make this a
A group of students from Chelsea’s special day for these kids.”
Fulton Houses complex played the pickup The students were selected by Fulton
game of a lifetime last week. Youth of the Future, a nonprofit organiza-
The 15 youngsters were chosen to par- tion founded by tenant association presi-
ticipate in a football clinic with New York dent Miguel Acevedo. He said one of the
Giants quarterback Eli Manning based on students was picked because he made his
improvements in effort and achievement school’s honor roll this year after failing
in school. most of his classes last year.
Manning, a former Super Bowl MVP, “The kids had a ball. He was so funny
ran drills and threw passes to the play- with them,” Acevedo said of Manning,
ers during the hour-long event at Chelsea who got a kick out of one 9-year-old who
Piers. Each participant also received an kept calling for the ball. “They kept talking
autographed football from the star sling- about it over and over.”
er.
Manning donated the clinic at an auc-
tion for St. Vincent’s last year, and a
buyer bid $35,000 before donating the
event for use by deserving youth in the
community.
“The football clinic was made possible
by the generosity of a wonderful donor to
St. Vincent’s who wanted to see the clinic
used for a great purpose,” said Henry
Amoroso, president and CEO of the hos-
pital. “St. Vincent’s is very fortunate to
Chelsea Now photos by Tequila Minsky
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Privatized pavilion’s opponents make pitch to Board 5

BY ALBERT AMATEAU
More verbal fireworks broke out in the
battle over private use of public space regard-
ing the pavilion at the north end of Union
Square Park.
Members of the Union Square Community
Coalition who are still trying to prevent the
Department of Parks from seeking a seasonal
restaurant concession for the pavilion renewed
their demand at the June 1 Community Board
5 Parks Committee meeting.
Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park
Advocates and a U.S.C.C. board member, told
the committee on June 1 that the coalition
wants the pavilion to be used strictly for com-
munity recreation on the model of a similar
pavilion recently renovated in Columbus Park
in Chinatown.
Supporters of the project, however, insisted
that a seasonal restaurant in the pavilion would
contribute to the liveliness of the park at night.
Parks officials have noted that revenues from
concessions are significant. However, oppo-
nents at the Monday meeting said they feared
that a luxury restaurant would keep people of
modest means out of the pavilion.
The battle is being renewed three years after
the city and Community Board 5 approved the
redesign of the park, pavilion and plaza and at
the north end of Union Square. Construction
on the project began a year ago and is expected
to be completed in the autumn.
Moreover, State Supreme Court Justice
Jane S. Solomon last month dismissed most of
the issues in the coalition’s lawsuit to block the
reconstruction of the 1932 pavilion and pre-
vent its proposed use as a restaurant conces-
sion. The judge declined to rule on the legality
of a concession only because Parks has not yet
granted a concession.
The department is about to draft a request
for proposals, or R.F.P., for a concessionaire
for the pavilion.
Joe Hagelmann, chairperson of the C.B.5
Parks Committee who conducted the Monday
meeting, recalled that Parks Commissioner
Adrian Benepe and Bill Castro, the Manhattan
borough Parks commissioner, three years ago
agreed that C.B. 5 would be involved in the
R.F.P. Chelsea Now photo by Isaac Rosenthal
Charles Kloth, Parks Department director The pavilion at the north end of Union Square
of concessions, replied that he was there to
get input from the committee on what the mers on the south side of the pavilion in an parks, and revenues from those concessions
community would like to see in the R.F.P. But open space that became part of the expanded are significant. Those revenues, however, go
Kloth added that, according to bidding pro- playground. into the city’s general fund and are not auto-
cedure, the R.F.P. would not be made public Former City Councilmember Carol Greitzer, matically allocated to the park where they are
and copies would be issued only to responding a longtime opponent of a private restaurant in generated or to the Parks Department.
bidders. the pavilion, noted that Greenmarket farmers Joyce Matz, a C.B. 5 member for many
Lisa Kaplan, chief of staff for Councilmember back their trucks into the north plaza in view years, recalled that hers was the lone vote in
Rosie Mendez, said that Mendez had called for of the pavilion. 2006 against the board’s approval.
the concession to include moderately priced “I don’t think diners paying high prices “I voted that way because the pavilion is
takeout food. Mendez supported the recon- would want to look at the back of farm public property and should be used by the
struction plan three and a half years ago trucks,” she said. Teen skateboard enthusiasts public and not for a private restaurant,” she
because the playground at the park’s north use the north plaza at night and restaurant said.
end was expanded about three times to nearly patrons would have to endure their noise, Hagelmann indicated that the committee
15,000 square feet. Greitzer added. would not draft a resolution on the pavilion
Luna Park, a private outdoor restaurant Nevertheless, Parks officials have long until at least one more public meeting on the
concession, was operating for several sum- noted that concessions are nothing new in issue has been held.

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10 June 4 - 17, 2009
Julie Finch (center) discusses the historic significance of the Hopper Gibbons House
(in background surrounded by scaffolding) at a May 29 press conference.
Preservationists rally around
Underground Railroad site
BY PATRICK HEDLUND
Gay, A group of preservationists gathered
Str8, outside a former stop on the Underground
Railroad in Chelsea last week to draw atten-
Bi, tion to the site’s historic significance—and urge
Curious? the city to take on action on the threatened
property.
The Hopper Gibbons House at 339 W. 29th
St., the former home of Quaker abolitionists
who helped shelter escaped slaves nearly 150
years ago, recently underwent renovation work
that was deemed illegal by the city.
“This is such an important house on such
an important block for New York City’s history,
it ought to be a tourist destination,” said Fern
Luskin, who helped lead a grassroots charge
to stop development at the site and designate
the building a city landmark. “Instead, it is an
illegal, unsafe eyesore.”
Luskin, along with fellow preservationist
Julie Finch, was joined at the May 29 press
conference by Assemblymember Richard
Gottfried and a group of Bronx high school
students studying the Underground Railroad’s
history.
“It’s architecturally an important build-
ing, it’s historically an important building,”
Gottfried said. “We’re here because the
owner is essentially trying to deface and alter
and destroy the historic value of that building,
and we want that stopped.”
Also attending were Simeon Bankoff,
/ÀÞʈÌÊÀiiÊUÊ
>Ê˜œÜ director of the Historic Districts Council; finish the work.”
Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich
646-731-6658 Village Society of Historic Preservation and a
member of the Friends of Gibbons UGRR Site
and Lamartine Pl.; and Ed Kirkland, a long-
time advocate and chairperson of Community
Board 4’s Landmarks Committee.
1800GayLive.com MC 7003 Ent only 18+ *Limited Free Trial Photography by Kevin E. McPherson
The developers recently finished adding
Chelsea Now photo by Patrick Hedlund
a fifth floor to property—in violation of
the city’s Sliver Law limiting the height of
buildings relative to their width—but the
Department of Buildings has yet to determine
how to take action at the site.
A stop-work order currently exists on the
property, which the DOB issued after finding
the height out of context with the surround-
ing buildings.
“The city is acting schizophrenically about
this,” Bankoff said of the situation, with the
Landmarks Preservation currently consider-
ing the property for historic designation. But
despite the LPC’s ongoing efforts to deter-
mine the property’s significance, the DOB
has “allowed this atrocity to continue,” he
added.
Berman explained that it is “incred-
ibly, incredibly rare” to find documented
Underground Railroad sites in New York
City, which makes the illegal construction
work all the more maddening.
“We fear this house is going to die the
death of a thousand cuts,” he said. “The city
has to step in once and for all.”
The owners of the building, identified as
Tony and Nick Mamounas, have “stonewalled
the community” in its efforts to engage the
developer, Gottfried said. The property’s
architect, John Hulme, even admitted to
Chelsea Now that “any history that was there
is 100 percent gone” and “we are going to
Kirkland also relayed that the architect
told him, “By the time I’m through with this,
there wont be any historic character left.”
“In my opinion, this whole thing is scan-
dal,” Luskin said. “New Yorkers have a right
to reclaim our heritage for future genera-
tions. It should be a museum.”
 June 4 - 17, 2009 11

Advocates honor ‘hero’ abortion doctor at U. Sq. vigil

A vigil held in honor of Dr. George Tiller, one of the
nation’s few physicians to perform late-term abortions,
drew pro-choice advocates to Union Square on Mon., June
1, to memorialize the Kansas doctor, who was gunned
down a day earlier inside his Wichita church.
Planned Parenthood of New York City organized
the event, which saw hundreds gather to pay tribute
to Tiller and sign a large card expressing their condo-
lences and appreciation for his work.
“Dr. Tiller was a hero, a man who had deep compas-
sion for his work and his patients,” said Joan Malin,
president and CEO of Planned Parenthood NYC, in a
statement. “PPNYC had referred patients to his prac-
tice over the years and was always gratified by his
care and compassion. … He was a true inspiration to
us all.”

Chelsea Now photos by Patrick Hedlund

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12 June 4 - 17, 2009

Board players bid longtime leader a Broadway farewell

BY DIANE VACCA
A chorus of West Side players and col-
leagues of former Community Board 4 member
Anna Hayes Levin paid tribute to the longtime
advocate the best way the theater-inclined group
knew how on the evening of Wed., May 27.
“Anna! The Musical” opened—and closed,
except in fond memory—at the INTAR
Theatre’s Rehearsal Studio on W. 52nd St. as
the “Whoeverwasthere Theater” celebrated
Levin’s eight years as chairperson of Board 4’s
Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton Land Use Committee.
Members of the board, elected officials, local
activists and developers all donned costumes
and wigs to dance, sing and quip in the merry
revue penned by CB 4’s talented musical com-
edy duo, JD “Hart” Noland and Joe “Rogers”
Restuccia. Former board chairperson Simone
“Hammerstein” Sindin adapted the familiar
score and tickled the ivories in zesty accom-
paniment.
The cast enacted the general mourning
brought on by Levin’s recent exit from CB
4 and the despondence at the board office,
which was littered with gin bottles, ciga- The guest of honor watching the show
rette butts and unopened mail. Mother Gale
(Councilmember Gale Brewer) and Father
O’Malley (CB 4’s Restuccia) consoled each Quinn’s office, sporting Quinn-like red page-
other over the passing of Board 4. boys—performed two rousing numbers in
In contrast was the exultation of the mayor succession.
Chelsea Now photos by Jefferson Siegel
(“Now I can have my stadium!”) and the Not to be overlooked were Walter Mankoff
developers, who plotted with the mayor to The Related Companies’ Vishaan Chakrabarti (left) and Durst Development’s Helena as “Cardinal Mankoffetuccini” for his somber
take over Levin’s highly active committee. Durst (center) sing about splitting up portions of the West Side as Joe Restuccia and intonation of “Anna’s Third Letter to the
Helena Durst, assistant vice president of Durst Anna Hayes Levin challenge them with zoning demands. Commissioner, often referred to as the ‘Duos
Development, and Vishaan Chakrabarti, Arbori [Two Trees] Epistle.’”
executive vice president of design and plan- Levin, now a singer at the FUCA Lounge, the West Side seemed doomed and lost for- In particular, Dan Golub, former deputy
ning at the Related Companies—or “Vish the reminisced—in a bittersweet revamping of ever until Levin’s secret weapon, her carefully director of land use for the Manhattan Borough
Suit”—conspired and vied with each other to “Thanks for the Memory”—about “hous- groomed and tutored replacement as chair of President Scott Stringer, got rave reviews from
divvy up the West Side. In the meantime, the ing inclusionary, lawyers delusionary” and the land use committee, wrested control from CB 4 chairperson Noland (“Mr. 48th St.”) as
“WSNA-iacs”—members of the West Side “Moynihan and mounting debts, Javits and the the developers with aplomb. New chairperson “the only one who can sing” for his outstanding
Neighborhood Alliance, led by Lucas Shapiro Jets,” as well as ULURP hearings and meetings Elisa Gerontianos—accompanied first by the performance.
and John Raskin—tried to “Accentuate the that dragged on for days. “Affordablettes” and then by the “Fabulous A good time was had by all in the SRO
Positive.” The Clinton Special District and most of Crystals” from City Council Speaker Christine audience.

“The Fabulous Crystals” from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office—(from
“Mother Gale” (Councilmember Gale Brewer) and “Father O’Malley” (Joe Restuccia) left to right) Danielle DeCerbo, Kate Seely-Kirk and Melanie Larocca—sing “Stop in
sing “Old Man River.” the name of Love,” adding at one point, “Stop in the name of the Speaker.”
 June 4 - 17, 2009 13

Car-free and carefree, peds take to Times, Herald Sqs.

In one of New York’s most innovative projects to date, the city
closed seven blocks of Broadway to vehicular traffic at Times
and Herald Squares on May 24, ushering in a new era of acces-
sibility for hundreds of thousands of daily visitors.
The move has created a new venue for urban relaxation
in a Midtown otherwise choked with congestion, drawing
chair-toting fans into the streets to experience the city from
a fresh perspective.
“I think it’s quite nice,” said British tourist Renu Singh while
relaxing on a chair on Broadway near 34th St. “In all the chaos,
it gives you some peace and serenity.”
Nearby, French tourists Nathalie Slonina and Axel Borgeais
enjoyed their own moment of respite in the middle of the road.
“Pedestrians should have more space, because it’s less stress
and pollution and noise,” Slomina said.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Borgeais added. “You can sit
in the middle of a street in New York and take your time to
enjoy the city.”
— Jefferson Siegel

Chelsea Now photos by Jefferson Siegel

14 June 4 - 17, 2009
EDITORIAL
Keep mayoral control,
but with modifications
Too often, the current debate about continuing the
mayor’s control of schools is talked about as if it were a ref-
erendum on two men: Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Schools
Chancellor Joel Klein. Both have been in charge of educat-
ing more than 1 million public school children since 2002,
when Albany gave the mayor real but temporary authority
of the system.
That authority is set to expire on June 30, and Albany
legislators are discussing ways to adjust or dismantle the
current system.
Some parents, education advocates and community
boards have a litany of criticisms of the current system and
say the problems justify taking away Bloomberg’s power.
While we share some, but not all, of those criticisms of the
mayor and Klein, taking away their clear lines of authority
would be a mistake. Giving parents a more meaningful
voice and adding transparency to the system are the only
changes that are needed.
Measuring school improvement is far from a science,
but reading and math scores are up and the schools do
seem better.
Parents of high schoolers should remember when Mayor
Giuliani and the Board of Education frequently quarreled
over schools chancellors and education policy. These City
Hall fights began long before Giuliani. Each side always had
an easy excuse: “It’s not my fault.”
The idea that you can separate politics or politicians
from schools in New York is a fantasy. The difference is the
public can now hold someone accountable.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has sug-
gested some good ways to improve mayoral control. He
would take the current Community Education Councils
— free from the corruption that riddled many of the old
school boards — and give them independence from the
city Department of Education. Like the community boards,
the councils would be trained and selected by the borough
presidents and would have a formal role in commenting on
proposed new policies and school zones. This role, in some
ways similar to the “ULURP” land-use process, should help
prevent the sudden education policy shifts we have seen too
many times in recent years. Forcing D.O.E. officials to lis-
ten to knowledgeable parents and answer questions should
go a long way toward improvement.
We are not convinced that five different borough presi-
dents are the best people to oversee the community councils
— the citywide-elected public advocate might be better —
but regardless, giving the C.E.C.’s independence and more
power makes sense.
State Senator Daniel Squadron, one of the sponsors of
Stringer’s proposal, favors making D.O.E. more like a city
agency. The intent is to leave school policy in the hands of
the mayor and chancellor, but give the City Council inde-
pendent review and more say over contracting procedures.
We hope Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver resists the
calls in the Assembly to make the chancellor answer to
a board with fixed terms, because we have already had
decades to see the problems that can create.
Silver, who has never hesitated to oppose Bloomberg,
also wants to continue mayoral school control while
empowering parents more and adding transparency. These
ideas are on the right track, and the Bloomberg administra-
tion is quietly signaling it can support these adjustments.
City officials have drawn the line in the right place.
They appear ready to accept independent reviews and more
transparency, but they’re saying no to anything that shifts
accountability. If we can’t hold the mayor accountable
when there are problems, we’ll have no one to blame but
ourselves.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Piers’ Pigeon predicament
To The Editor:
Chelsea Piers, the health club at the edge of the
Hudson River in Chelsea, has been trapping pigeons in
cages for about a year and a half. The pigeon advocacy
group Pigeon People has been trying to convince the Piers
that birds are not harmful and can be kept off their prop-
erty through humane methods.
Last December, Chelsea Now took note of the struggle,
and we’re grateful for that notice. Chelsea Piers stopped
trapping pigeons for a while after, but they’ve begun
again.
The Piers’ vice president of corporate communica-
tions, Erica Schietinger, said they had tried humane meth-
ods, which had failed. We appreciate that, but a visitor to
the site can see the spikes had been installed in only a few
places. And they never tried electric strips.
It’s worthwhile repeating that pigeons do not get (or
transmit) bird flu or West Nile virus, and they don’t
exceed other kinds of birds in any other transmittable
disease. People overwhelmingly get diseases from other
people.
Ms. Schietinger notes that fungus can accumulate in
pigeon droppings. She did not say that hosing down the
beams where the birds roost is an easy way to prevent it.
Science shows that this fungus takes a few weeks to
appear, and it doesn’t come from pigeons alone—it’s in
droppings from all kinds of animals and in soil itself. And
doctors know that people almost never get sick from it.
Does Chelsea Piers default to killing pigeons out of
laziness, and do they customarily ignore the facts of sci-
ence? If these were any other kind of birds, they would
think twice before killing (which they are apparently
doing).
Removing pigeons from one’s buildings and grounds is
up to the owner, and it is—and should be—legal. Pigeon
People is merely asking Chelsea Piers to do it in the kind-
est way. We can help, if they would like to work with us.
But does removing pigeons work? No—others simply
take their places. Very few pigeons were at the Piers,
anyway.
Instead, how about this: Prevent feeding in the Piers’
large open areas. Concurrently, use spikes and other
humane methods of deterrent.
Another issue is fire safety. The traps are boxes about
three feet long that are placed on fire escape stairways.
This is illegal, according to the New York City fire code.
We asked the Fire Department to look into it, so why are
IRA BLUTREICH
The government now drives the auto industry
the fire escapes still blocked?
Chelsea Piers was awarded the title of “Green Pioneer.”
We’re glad they’re helping the environment and believe
their compassion should include animals.
We have started a letter-writing campaign to protect
the lives of these birds. Pigeon People disapproves of the
“rogue” activists who, they say, released pigeons from the
cage traps, but we’re glad some of the lives were saved.
Al Streit
Streit is the director of Pigeon People
Veggies edgy about photo
To The Editor:
Re “Goth and gluten in the mix at the Veggie Pride
Parade” (photo, May 21):
Thank you for the captioned photo in Chelsea Now
showing the Veggie Pride Parade. We greatly appreciate
the exposure.
I’m a little perplexed, however, why there was mention
of the Union Square Greenmarket. We are not affiliated
with them, and, of course, the Greenmarket regularly fea-
tures vendors that sell chicken, cheese, fish, lamb, lobster
and eggs. We don’t see meat of any kind (organic or not)
as being “green,” by any stretch.
Regarding the photo, one person in our parade wore a
goth getup (old Halloween costume?) and you decided to
run it. We naturally have little control over how people
dress for our parade. Perhaps next time you can publish
an image that tells people what we’re actually about,
namely, bringing an end to factory farming; more con-
sciousness about the connection between livestock — i.e.
meat — and global warming; and veggie options in the
public schools.
In any case, thank you for covering our event.
Pamela Rice
Rice is the organizer of the Veggie Pride Parade
E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to
news@chelseanow.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to
Chelsea Now, Letters to the Editor, 145 Sixth Ave., ground
floor, NY, NY 10013. Please include phone number for
confirmation purposes. Chelsea Now reserves the right to
edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel.
 June 4 - 17, 2009 15

From Albany to NYC, gay marriage on our shoulders

TALKING POINT
BY CHRISTINE QUINN
Twice in the last two weeks, I visited
Albany to advocate that the New York State
Senate pass Governor David Paterson’s bill
to legalize same-sex civil marriage. In a
series of private meetings, I told each sena-
tor how important this vote is to me and
my family, and to countless other couples
across New York State. I asked each of
them to do the right thing and vote in favor
of this legislation.
O’Donnell, Deborah Glick, Matthew Titone
and Micah Kellner, as well as Governor
Paterson and his staff, who are all working
tirelessly every day on this issue. I carry
with me the efforts of thousands of advo-
cates and fighters for equality. Countless
people have shown up to rallies, voiced
their support and answered calls to action.
I am both heartened and humbled by the
work everyone has done and the hope we
all have.
California’s recent Supreme Court deci-
sion should not deter us in any way from
our ongoing efforts to ensure civil rights
for all people. We must continue to advo-
cate, write our legislators, make our phone
calls and do all that we can to demand
equal rights. This is not a time to give up,
but a time to redouble our efforts. Millions
are ready for a change—and are ready for
it now. Our state has long been a moving
force in fights for equal rights, and this
crucial bill keeps us at the forefront of this
movement. It is on all of our shoulders now
to show the rest of the country that this
movement is a right and just one. I believe
that after continued discussions and the
work we will do in the weeks to come, we
will make marriage equality a reality in this
legislative session.
Quinn is the speaker of the New York
City Council, where she represents the
Third District, which includes Chelsea,
Hells Kitchen, the West Village, Soho, the
Flatiron District and Murray Hill.

Every family deserves the

legal rights and protections
that only marriage can
bestow. My partner and I
are no exception.

These conversations are among the most

personal that I have ever had with legisla-
tors. I speak to them as a fellow legislator,
as a lesbian and as a person in a serious,
committed relationship who wants and
deserves the same rights they have with
their spouses. Each senator that I’ve met
with has asked me honest and open ques-
tions, and the dialogue can be revealing. I
am touched by how seriously each legislator
has taken this issue, both Democrat and
Republican alike.
The reality is that we are far more alike
than we may have thought. Regardless of
our sexual orientation, we want the best
for our families. My partner and I wake up
every day and worry about the same things
they worry about. We spend some of our
weekends visiting our families, including
last week when we had a barbecue and
more than 20 of our relatives attended.
Every family deserves the legal rights and
protections that only marriage can bestow.
My partner and I are no exception. Chelsea Now photo by Milo Hess
I do not walk into any of my meet-
ings alone. With me, I bring the work of SCENE The nondescript entrance to the Honey Space gallery on 11th Ave. between 21st and 22nd Sts.

LGBT legislators Thomas Duane, Danny

Member of the
New York Press PUBLISHER & EDITOR SR. V.P. OF SALES AND MARKETING ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTOR CONTRIBUTORS
Association John W. Sutter Francesco Regini Troy Masters Doris Diether
Member of the ASSOCIATE EDITOR
National Patrick Hedlund SR. MARKETING CONSULTANT ART DIRECTOR Patricia Fieldsteel
Newspaper
THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Association ARTS EDITOR Jason Sherwood Mark Hassleberger Ed Gold
Scott Stiffler
Published by COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC Chelsea Now is published biweekly by Community Media
LLC, 145 Sixth Ave., First Fl., New York, N.Y. 10013 (212)
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Diane Vacca Dani Zupanovich Cheryl Williamson
16 June 4 - 17, 2009

Attacker escapes
A female resident of 15th St. just west
of Eighth Ave. was walking home from an
East Village club around 3 a.m. Sun., May
31, after stopping at the McDonald’s at
Union Square, police said. A stranger who
followed across town and into her build-
ing put one hand over her mouth and the
other on her thigh and forced her to the
stairs, police said. He asked the victim, 27,
what apartment she lived in, said he had a
gun and threatened to kill her, police said.
At the second floor landing, the victim
dropped her food and managed to scream
for help. The suspect, described only as a
black male, fled.
Delayed arrest
Police arrested Juan Andino, 20, on Tues.,
May 19, two months after the robbery of a
victim in front of a Starbucks on 23rd St.
and Eighth Ave.
Andino, an East Harlem resident who
knew the victim, grabbed and held him
while an accomplice took the victim’s cell
phone, iPod and cash, police said. Andino
was also charged with hitting the victim over
the head with a sneaker before fleeing with
the accomplice, who is still at large. Andino
was being held pending a June 16 court
appearance, according to the Manhattan
District Attorney’s office.
School trespass
Police arrested Edwin Peguero Velez, 31,
in the rear of PS 33 on Ninth Ave. near 27th
St. at 4:15 a.m. Tues., June 2, for trespass-
ing on school property and possession of
a weapon, a gravity knife. The victim also
was carrying a pipe with traces of heroin,
police said.
Long nightcap
A resident of a rooming house at 261
W. 20th St. told police he invited a man
standing in front of his building into his
room for some wine on Sunday evening,
May 31. The victim poured wine for
himself and the guest, then went to the
bathroom for a moment before returning
and finishing his wine. The next thing he
remembered was waking up the follow-
ing morning to find the guest gone and
his computer, two watches, a camera, a
BlackBerry and a book of blank checks
missing.
Jumper’s body found
Police responded to a 911 call about
a body in the Hudson River off W. 17th
St. at 5:07 p.m. Sat., May 30, and found
the body of Elizabeth Brewer, 23, of
Bayonne, N.J. Her physical description
and clothing matched the description
POLICE BLOTTER
of a woman who jumped off the George
Washington Bridge at 1 a.m. Mon., May
22, police said.
Bag grabs
Police arrested a 15-year-old boy on
W. 24th St. at 10:45 p.m. Thurs., May
14, accusing him of sneaking up behind a
woman who was talking on her cell phone
and snatching her bag from her shoulder.
The youth fled west on 24th St. between
Eighth and Ninth Aves., then ducked into
a building where police arrested him. The
suspect’s name was withheld because of
his age.
A man who came up behind a Queens
woman walking on W. 17th St. between
10th and Ninth Aves. during the early
hours of Fri., May 15, grabbed the woman’s
bag and disappeared into the Fulton Houses
complex, police said. The victim lost $200
in cash, credit cards, and her house and
car keys.
Cleaned out
A resident of W. 16th St. at Seventh
Ave. told police on Mon., June 1, that
she hired a man on March 15 to come in
periodically to clean her apartment while
the family was out. She said she noticed
last week that three watches, a diamond
bracelet and three jackets with a total
value of $45,500 were missing. The victim
said she confronted the cleaning man who
“became defensive and resigned.” She said
she tried to reach the cleaning man but got
no response.
A resident of 535 W. 23rd St. told
police that he put a watch and a bracelet
with a total value of $6,250 on a table
in his apartment on Wed., May 27, and
discovered the next day that they were
gone. The victim told police he sometimes
leaves the door open and that workers
were doing a job in his apartment while
he was out.
Club trouble
Police arrested a woman standing in front
of the door of a nightclub at 520 W. 28th St.
who was preventing patrons from leaving
at 4 a.m. on Sat., May 16. The suspect,
Jourdan Atkinson, 27, was also charged
with kicking and spitting on the arresting
officer, police said.
Police arrested Raldy Batista, 24, at
Hiro Lounge, 369 W. 16th St., at 3:30 a.m.
Sun., May 17, for hitting another patron
over the head with a bottle. The suspect
was also charged with possession of a con-
trolled substance for having two Ecstasy
tablets in his pocket, police said.
Shoplifting
Police arrested Mark Lamberth, 39, at
11 a.m. Fri., May 15, in Gristedes, 225
Ninth Ave. near W. 24th St., for trying to
walk out without paying for two packages
of chocolate, a 1.5-liter bottle of Coca Cola
and a cheese Danish.
A security guard at American Apparel,
181 Ninth Ave., stopped Brian Millet and
Patricia Cassidy, both 31, on Friday night,
May 15, and charged them with trying to
walk out without paying for three shirts
they had stuffed into a bag.
E. 14th St. robbery
A suspect snatched an undetermined
sum of cash from the hand of a victim
in a news shop on E. 14th St. near First
Ave. around 9 p.m. Tues., May 26, and
fled, police said. The suspect punched
the victim, 35, in the face after grabbing
the cash and the victim’s cell phone.
Gunpoint robbery
Two robbers entered the lobby of a
residential building on E. 20th St near
Second Ave. shortly before 5 p.m. Sun.,
May 24, when one of them pulled a
silver handgun and pointed it at four
teenagers, police said. The suspects took
a BlackBerry, an iPod and a wallet from
the victims, two boys and two girls, and
fled.
— By Alber t Amateau

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING and PUBLIC REVIEW AND COMMENT PERIOD regarding PROPOSED
LEASE AGREEMENT BETWEEN HUDSON RIVER PARK TRUST (LANDLORD) and
CIRCLE LINE-SIGHTSEEING YACHTS, INC. (TENANT) for PIERS 81 AND 83
Pursuant to the Hudson River Park Act, the Hudson River Park Trust (“Trust”) hereby gives notice of a public hearing to address
a proposed 30-year Lease Agreement between Hudson River Park Trust and Circle Line-Sightseeing Yachts, Inc. (“Circle Line”)
for the continuation of Circle Line’s existing occupancy and use of Piers 81 and 83: Date and Time: June 18, 2009, 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Place: Holland House 351 West 42nd Street Between 8th & 9th Avenues New York, New York 10036 Purpose: To allow the public
an opportunity to review and comment on a proposed Lease Agreement that would allow for the continuation of the existing
occupancy and use of Piers 81 and 83 by Circle Line while also facilitating future construction of a public esplanade and park by the
Trust.

The Hudson River Park Act requires public review and the opportunity to comment regarding proposed long term leases within
Hudson River Park. The proposed Lease would allow for Circle Line’s continued use of Piers 81 and 83 for operation of Sightseeing
Vessels, Meal Service Vessels, a Speed Boat Vessel and docking by vessels owned and operated by third parties. The proposed
Lease would also allow for certain ancillary uses related to these operations, including automobile parking, administrative and
sales offices, on-site concessions and storage. It would provide, among other things, for an end to the parking lot operations
currently located along the bulkhead in front of Piers 81 and 83, and for the release and return to the Trust of such bulkhead
areas to allow for park redevelopment. A copy of the proposed Lease and Exhibits can be found on the Trust’s website at www.
hudsonriverpark.org.

The public comment period extends from May 20, 2009 to July 23, 2009. Comments may be sent by regular mail to
Laurie Silberfeld, Esq., Hudson River Park Trust, Pier 40, 2nd Floor, 353 West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014 or by email to
clsyleasecomments@hrpt.state.ny.us. The public hearing is being held in compliance with the requirements of the Hudson River
Park Act regarding significant actions.

CHELSEA: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
BY SCOTT STIFFLER
Who in their right mind would ever
Are you want to escape the city for overhyped,
overplayed, undeserving destinations like
the Hamptons? If it’s a pleasant diversion
you want, why go anywhere else? There’s
a reason the world flocks to NYC (and
ready for the it’s not that new pedestrian mall in Times
Square). No, it’s the culturally enriching,
good times to be had by all — much of it
happening within walking distance of the
summer?
place you call home.
Whether you’re a restless resident on
the prowl for something to occupy your
already overstimulated urban mind — or
Best bets for Chelsea arts events charged with the daunting task of showing
your out-of-town guests the best our city
has to offer — summertime arts activities
in Chelsea are sure bets in the quest to be
enlightened and/or entertained.
To that end, here’s our totally biased, not
nearly comprehensive (but still worth your
while) compilation of Chelsea-centric sum-
mertime activities. They’re not arranged
according to genre or date, though; some
aren’t even happening in what any rea-
sonable person would consider part of
Chelsea; and a select few have been lifted
wholesale from last week’s edition of The
Villager. Drives you nuts, doesn’t it? Well,
stop nitpicking and focus on something
palpable to complain about — like NYC’s
relentlessly oppressive July heat. Then,
remind yourself that, all things considered,
you live in one NYC’s craziest, sexiest
neighborhoods — and resolve to enjoy that
rare privilege to its fullest.
Although we’ve put together what we
feel are some of Chelsea’s best events,
some of your favorite artists, activities
or venues may be conspicuously absent.
That’s why we’re encouraging our readers
to submit their suggestions for worthy arts
events to be featured in our mid-summer
through Labor Day “Summer in the City”
arts edition (coming to you around mid-
July). Email Scott@chelseanow.com. In the
meantime, though, consider these artful
offerings; and stay cool. You know how
to do that.
COMEDY: GRAMERCY THEATER
Still don’t believe good things come in
threes? Summer comedy at Gramercy
Theater makes a good case. On June 27th,
“Dixie’s Tupperware Party” breezes into
town. See a drag queen combine a QVC-
style sales pitch with her own outrageous,
occasionally slutty take on life. You’ll soon
be sold on the concept; and you just might
end up buying some Tupperware, too.
June 26th and 27th, get your Gay Pride
on with bitter, bitchy, larger than life drag
artist Jackie Beat. Her show, “Without Me,
You’re Nothing,” is as funny as it is lewd;
and it’s plenty lewd! On June 25, legitimate
comedy legend Joan Rivers mops up the
Photo by Jefferson Siegel floor with deserving targets ranging from
Dancing under the High Line. Hollywood to reality TV. If you’ve never
June 4 - 17, 2009 17
Photo by Bradford Rogne
June 27, Gramercy Theater: Dixie plus
Tupperware equals “party”
seen her live, you’ve not yet lived. This
lady is the real thing; rare, opinionated and
machine-gun-paced funny. The Gramercy
Theater, 127 East 23rd Street at Lexington
Avenue. For tickets call 212-352-3101 or
visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com.
ART: PROTEST AND CELEBRATION
“On the Wall: Four Decades of
Community Murals in NYC” is an insanely
comprehensive, lovingly researched, beauti-
fully rendered work which deserves a sum-
mertime place on your coffee table and a
permanent place of honor on your bookshelf.
The authors, Janet Braun-Reinitz (pred-
sident of Artmakers Inc) and writer Jane
Weissman will be joined by Amy Goodman
(host of Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now”)
for “Protest and Celebration: Community
Murals in New York City.” It’s an evening
which promises to delve deep into how
NYC’s murals educate, organize, beautify
and motivate action. Tuesday, June 9th, at
Bluestockings; 172 Allen Street (between
Stanton and Rivington); call 212-777-6028
or vist www.bluestockings.com.
THEATER: STUCK
June 3rd through June 14th, catch the
world premiere of John Bale’s “Stuck.” As the
title implies, it’s all about the holding patterns
we get into when we lose our professional
ambition around the same time our will to
go on dissipates. Claude Canny (Michael
Sorvino, of the Sorvino family acting dynasty)
is a sculptor and cartoonist who’s lost the
desire to create. Jacqueline Brookes (known
for her signature soap opera roles) is next
door neighbor Uta. A Holocaust survivor
and homeopathic healer, Uta tries to broker
the marital conflict between Claude and wife
Connie. When her touchy feely intervention
fails, Claude shows Uta the door and shows
Continued on page 18
18 June 4 - 17, 2009
CHELSEA NOW SUMMER 2009 ART PICKS
Continued from page 17
Connie the bedroom. The result? A set of
triplets who grow up to become artists with
issues and struggles of their own. June 3rd
through 14th; At Center Stage NY, 48 W. 21st
Street, 4th Floor. $18 general admission, $13
for students/seniors. For tickets, call 347-
230-2388.
THEATER:
IN THE SILENCE OF THE HEART
Created for the inmates in Sing Sing
Correctional Facility (and first produced
there by Rehabilitation Through The Arts),
this family drama penned by Joanna Chan is
presented in English/Spanish with Chinese
subtitles. Yangtze Repertory Theatre’s
Production boldly tackles the murky moral
issues surrounding revelation, conflict and
kinship. Ten years ago, a Chinese boy was
adopted by an African American fam-
ily (whose patriarch worked with the boy’s
father — who was killed on duty). Soon
after that tragic accident, the patriarch leaves
home. He finally returns on Labor Day week-
end, 2008 — throwing the tightly knit fam-
ily into turmoil. Thursday through Saturday,
7:30p.m. and Sundays at 3:00p.m., through
June 14th; at Theater for the New City, 155
First Avenue. $20 general admission; seniors/
students: $15.00. To purchase tickets, 212-
254-1109; visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net
and www.yangtze-rep-theatre.org.
ART: LOVE ARMOR
The traveling exhibition “Love Armor”
began as a way to show compassion and
concern for those (ours and theirs) in the
war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. Like
most good ideas, though, the project quick-
ly morphed into “a profound message of
hope” meant to expand its timely message
into a timeless meditation on the lasting
power of community. Proving that the best
defense is an offense backed by love, artist
The Humvee, reimagined as a weapon of love. (Love Armor, through June 27)
Shirley Klinghoffer and collaborative part-
ner Sarah Hewitt have transformed a war
icon (the Humvee) into a symbol of peace
and comfort — by rendering the destructive
behemoth with materials and techniques
which reference feminist textile and anti-
war art of the 1960s and 70s. Through June
27th, at Brenda Taylor Gallery, 511 W. 25
Street, #401. Call 212-463-7166 or visit
www.brendataylorgallery.com.
BENEFIT: CHELSEA OPERA
The movers and shakers who’ve kept
Chelsea Opera alive let their hair down
and do some moving and shaking of their
own — thanks to the lubricating powers
of the modest margarita. The resulting
shenanigans (be they liquid or lampshade-
based) are all for a good cause, though.
Their “Mid-Summer Margarita Madness
II” event benefits the Opera’s produc-
tion fund. Raise a glass, beat the summer
heat, support the arts and take a chance
on their 50/50 raffl e! The $25 ticket
includes 2 standard margaritas, chips and
a $12 tax deductible donation. To pur-
chase tickets, see the July events page at
www.NYCharities.org. See the good things
your money does at www.ChelseaOpera.
org. Wednesday, July 22nd, 6:00p.m. at
the Caliente Cab Company, 61 Seventh
Avenue South at Bleecker Street.
MUSIC & THEATER: DIXON PLACE
Since 1986, Dixon Place has provided
a space for literary and performing art-
ist to create and develop new works—
while the audience sat in a patchwork
collection of reliably comfy chairs and
couches. Now in a new home and not yet
officially relaunched, they’re still provid-
ing a respectably full calendar of events
until the big reveal this fall. Access the
full schedule at www.dixonplace.org; and
consider these two safe bets: June 14th
at 8:00p.m. and June 15th at 8:00p.m.
and 10:00p.m., Martha Wainwright per-
forms the songs of Edith Piaf (while
multitasking by recording the shows for
her new album and video). From July 9th
through 25th, downtown performance leg-
end Penny Arcade premieres “Old Queen,”
a work commissioned by and for Dixon
Place’s 18th Annual HOT! Festival (the
world’s oldest continuing queer perfor-
mance festival). For Penny’s specific dates
and times, and for more festival informa-
tion, call 212-219-0736 or visit www.
hotfestival.org. Dixon Place is located at
161A Chrystie Street.
CABARET: CYNTHIA CRANE
Show your support for two great neigh-
borhoods that go great together in this
special evening of entertainment, food
and amiable schmoozing. The Greenwich
Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce
presents internationally-acclaimed, award-
winning cabaret performer Cynthia Crane,
performing her show “I am confused,
therefore I am.” That performance happens
at 7:00p.m.. The event begins at 6:00p.m.
and ends at 9:00p.m. — and by the time
you leave, you’ll have some snacked on
some Hors d’oeuvers, lifted a glass in
celebration of the impending June 15th
opening of The Highline, and made a $50
or $75 donation for the benefit of the spon-
soring organization. Thursday, June 11th;
at Arium (31 Little West 12th Street). For
information, call (212) 337-5923
MUSIC: NY MEGAPHONICA
Recently, Avi Wisnia brought his bossa
nova sounds to 92Y Tribeca. Now, Wisnia
celebrates the first day of summer with the
debut performance from his “New York
Megaphonica.” Appearing as part of Make
Music New York 2009, this experimental,
genre-bending group presents improvised
and arranged pieces performed solely with
the human voice (and a megaphone).
Comprised of local NYC band members,
singers, artists and their friends, the group
takes the megaphone out of the realm of
protests and emergency situations and
bends it to the whims of pop, hip hop
and spoken word arrangements. Audience
participation is encouraged, and passers-
by will receive free limited edition T-shirts
and megaphones commemorating “the
largest-ever all-megaphone performance.”
Free; Sunday, June 21st, 12:00p.m. and
12:40p.m. at Union Square Park. Visit
www.myspace.com/megaphonica.
CULTURE: FRESH FRUIT FESTIVAL
Now in its seventh year, the Fresh
Fruit Festival (July 9th through 27th)
still manages to shock with its revelation
that there are lesbians, gays, bisexuals
and transgendered people working in the
arts. Soak up this unexpected revelation
by bearing witness to sassy, provocative
LGBT-themed takes on theater, comedy,
variety, literature, music, dance, poetry
and visual and performance art.
July 24th and 25th, Joel Ensana’s “The
Coronation” finds Grannie living in the
Haight-Ashbury with her gay grandson
and his two lesbian friends. July 14th and
15th, “Miss Mary Dugan” (by playwright
Manuel Igrejas) concerns Joe Azzopardi—
who, as Miss Dugan, is the center of social
life in Cedar Chips, New Jersey.
July 17th through 20th, Devan Hite’s
“Since Psychopathia Sexualis” looks at the
Mormon Church’s anti-gay policies and
politics — through the eyes of a college-
age Mormon student at the University of
Utah who realizes he was sexually aroused
when his two best friends saved his life.
Yikes!
July 26th, take a “Journey Through
the Rainbow” — and bring the kids. This
puppet show, created by Nick Curto and
Hal Rainbow for kids ages 5-9, observes
two families who picnic in the park after
watching the Gay Pride Parade. Needless
to say, they’ve got lots to talk about.
On July 19th, David Gaard’s “Happy
New Year, Lady Lou” finds the titu-
lar character (a much-loved NYC drag
king) nursing a secret which can only
be revealed and resolved by his fellow
desperadoes, divas, drag queens, trannies
and dykes.
All shows described above can be
found at the Hudson Guild Theater; 441
W. 26th St. (btwn. 9th and 10th Avenue;
details on times and prices (plus a com-
plete schedule of festival events), visit
www.freshfruitfestival.com.
ART: FOUR ARTISTS IN CONCERT
Presented by The Chelsea Art Museum
and The Project Room for New Media,
“Four Artists in Concert” is a collection
of visual art by Morgan Russell, Mark
Wiener, Fedele Spadafora, and Stephan
Fowlkes. The exhibit arose out of “Music
& Art,” a concert series that highlights
new music ensembles and visual artists.
Relying on technology to create the exhi-
bition’s immersive environment (in which
art and music intersect), the Internet
was a vital part of the creative process.
The artists listened to music samples
online and uploaded their work on the
website www.artlog.com. Further results
can be seen from June 23rd through 27th
at The Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West
22nd Street (Tuesday-Saturday, 11:00a.m.
to 6:00p.m.; Thursday, 11:00am to
8:00p.m.). Call 212-255-0719 or visit
www.chelseaartmuseum.org.
THEATER: THE RIVALRY
Think political sniping is a relative-
ly new development? See where it all
began in “The Rivalry.” Although their
exchanges were civilized compared to
what passes for discourse on today’s
cable news shows, the debates between
presidential candidates Abraham Lincoln
and Stephen Douglas set the wheels in
Continued on page 19
 June 4 - 17, 2009 19

CHELSEA NOW SUMMER 2009 ART PICKS

Continued from page 18

motion way back in 1858. Long before

radio or television, these charismatic ora-
tors captured the nation’s attention with
nothing more than personality and opin-
ion. You’ll see all of that, plus plenty
of behind the scenes drama. But to see
it, you’ve got to turn off the television
and trek to The Irish Repertory Theatre,
132 W. 22nd Street. Through July 5th;
Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00p.m.;
Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday at 3:00p.m.
For tickets ($65 and $55), call 212-727-
2737; visit www.irishrep.org.

Image supplied by the artist

HopeFull Mood Swings (Oil On Archers

Paper), July 16 at the Chelsea Hotel

ART: ABSTRACT ART SHOW

The Chelsea Hotel, that “rest stop for
rare individuals,” has been praised in
song and film; but the art that hangs on
the walls is at the heart of the hotel’s last-
ing legacy. A potent part of that legacy
is much-missed former manager Stanley
Bard. This exhibit pays tribute to Bard —
who, turning 75, is being acknowledged
for “his lifelong contribution to the arts.”
Artist Susan Olmetti, who lived at the hotel
during the Bard era and benefitted from
Bard’s support, pays tribute to his generos-
ity with her one-night-only “Abstract Art
Show.” July 16; 5:30p.m. to whenever; at
Art Studio 219, at the Chelsea Hotel; 222
W. 23rd Street. For more information, visit
www.susanolmetti.com.
DANCE: THE WORKS
The 35th Anniversary Season of Jennifer
Muller’s contemporary dance company
“The Works” is part of The Joyce Theater’s
“Walk it Off” dancers Gen Hashimoto, Mariana Cardena, Abdul Latif, Susanna Bozzetti. (At The Joyce Theater, June 9-14)
25th anniversary commissioning initiative.
Program A, happening June 9th, 10th, 12th,
13th and 14th, features a revival of their clas-
sic work “Tub” plus 2005’s “Momentum and
the world premiere of “Bench.” Program B,
on June 11th, 13th and 14th features 2007’s
“Edge,” a Joyce premiere of 2008’s “Aria,”
and the world premieres of “Tangle” and
“Walk It Off.” For information on the content
and concepts behind those provocative titles,
visit www.jmtw.org. For ticket prices and
times, visit www.joyce.org or call JoyceCharge
at 212-242-0800. At The Joyce Theater, 175
Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street).
ART: IMAGINARY ENEMY: LIAO
YIBAI
Don’t miss your chance to see the first
New York exhibition from Chinese artist
Liao Yibai — who lives and works in
Beijing and Chongqing. A unique voice
among Chinese contemporary artists, his
stainless steel sculptures explore how the
Chinese imagined the myth and threat
of America during and immediately fol-
lowing the Cultural Revolution. This
collection of new works, “Imaginary
Enemy,” contains many pieces whose
whimsical titles are balanced out by omi-
Photo by Carol Rosegg
nous imagery and messages. “Top Secret
Hamburger,” for example, recalls the
artist’s first taste of an American ham-
burger. Considered an icon of American
capitalism, he bit into the burger and
discovered it was rancid. That’s just
one of the potent metaphors you’ll dis-
cover. Through August 15th, at Mike
Weiss Gallery, 520 West 24th Street
(btwn. 10th and 11th Aves.). Gallery
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday; 10:00a.m. to
6:00p.m.; Call 212-691-6899 or visit
www.mikeweissgallery.com.
20 June 4 - 17, 2009
Lonely lunar worker: gone looney?
Son of Bowie creates his own space oddity
BY TRAV S.D.
FILM
Frequently, an actor is called upon to
carry a picture; less often, is he asked to be
the picture.
Such is the case with Sam Rockwell in
“Moon,” a sci-fi one-hander in the tradition
of “THX-1138.” “Countdown” and long
stretches of “2001: A Space Odyssey” —
not to mention the song “Space Oddity”
by writer-director Duncan Jones’s father:
David Bowie.
Rockwell plays Sam Bell, the lone
human inhabitant of a lunar mining facil-
ity (aside from an infuriatingly calm robot
named GERTY, voiced by Kevin Spacey).
We are already suspecting that Sam is
going a little space-happy when he has an
accident that seems to push him over the
edge. He wakes up in the base’s infirmary
only to discover another version of himself
now inhabiting the station. Is this second
edition of himself a clone? The result of a
time warp? A hallucination? GERTY will
never tell. But the suspicion that Sam’s
greedy bosses back on earth are somehow
behind it all is never far away.
Rockwell acquits himself admirably in
the sink-or-swim role,
by turns heartbreaking and hilarious as
he interacts with what is essentially
an empty room. Equally rewarding,
though, is the world he is given to inhabit
MOON
opens: June 12th at AMC Empire
and Sunshine Theaters, NYC
Directed by Duncan Jones
— which in the tradition of Ridley Scott’s
“Alien” is more plausibly mundane than
fantastical, casting an illusion of realism
over a world that has never existed. Sad-
sack Sam’s lunar workspace is the ulti-
mate corporate cubicle (one with a fourth
wall), rife with coffee mugs, post-its, and
pictures of the family. In one of the more
delightful touches, he watches old (now
very old) episodes of “Bewitched.”
Combined with Jones’s realization of
the silvery-grey, dusty lunar surface (a
vision which seems to have benefited from
more than a few hours of research in the
NASA archives), the recognizable work
environment conspires to trick us into
believing we are watching our own future.
That — and the political vision of an afflu-
ent society being built on the backs of
workers cruelly used beyond your wildest Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures
imagination. Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell
/.%
2%#4/2
0!2+
$ /7 . 4 /7 .

Here to torture, instruct and protect
Ayvazian inspired by the power of pounding music, high boots
BY JERRY TALLMER
These boots were made for walking,
and that’s just what they’ll do.
One of these days these boots are
gonna walk all over you.
—Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood,
1966
Everybody has a dirty little secret in
Leslie Ayvazian’s “Make Me.”
Hank and Sissy’s dirty little secret is
that they are all washed up and don’t
know it.
Eddie and Connie’s dirty little secret is
that Eddie is too bored to take seriously
the power games Connie pursues as soon
as their two girls are packed off to school
every morning. Indeed, he plays along —
until it’s too late.
Phil’s dirty little secret is Mistress
Lorraine, the dominatrix to whose “dun-
geon” he goes to every day for punish-
ment, by words and whip, for being a
weak, lousy mayor of the New Jersey town
in which they all live — and Phil isn’t his
real name either.
The strands of these six lives, or
three pairs — Hank and Sissy, Eddie and
Connie, Phil and Mistress Lorraine —
are crisscrossed together like intermesh-
ing spiders’ webs by the playwright who
did as much, and more, for those real-
ity based “Nine Armenians” of her own
personal bloodlines 13 years ago. There
were no boots and whips in that poetic
drama, except perhaps on the feet and
in the hands of Turkish soldiers in 1915
slaughtering Armenians in the Forgotten
Holocaust.
Here, in “Make Me,” at the Atlantic
Stage 2 on Chelsea’s West 16th Street,
it is to Mistress Lorraine in her Lower
East Side dungeon — in the midst of one
of Phil’s groveling penitential sessions —
that Connie has come for instruction on
how to wield a whip and make it sting,
how to swagger-stride in those huge high
dominating boots, all that.
So how did Connie find a dominatrix to
study from? Why, on the Internet, of course
— just the way real-life Leslie Ayvazian,
playwright and sometime actress, found a
real-life dominatrix to educate the “Make
Me” company in whip handling, boot
swagger, and other such matters.
“She comes to rehearsals and is abso-
lutely fantastic,” Ms. Ayvazian said one
morning last week; just before heading for
Providence, Rhode Island, for her son’s
graduation from Brown University.
One doesn’t suppose your dominatrix
taught the male actors how to whip.
“No,” the playwright replied dryly,
The first sparks of “Nine Armenians”
and of “Make Me” had flashed upon her,
she says, in different ways.
“With ‘Nine Armenians’ it was the
single image of an Armenian-American
family in the driveway of their house,
June 4 - 17, 2009 21
THEATER
MAKE ME
Written by Leslie Ayvazian
Directed by Christian Parker
Presented by Atlantic Theater Company
May 31 through June 14
Atlantic Stage 2, 330 West 16th Street
(212) 279-4200, or www.atlantictheater.org
packing a car with food and memories
though they would only be separated a
couple of hours.”
“I was away too much [as an actress]
when my son was growing up. So I wrote
‘Nine Armenians’ for him.
“With ‘Make Me’ it was several things.
First, my son the lead guitarist and his rock
band — this loud, pounding music that nor-
mally I would not choose to be around. But
Photo by Doug Hamilton
here was my darling son, Ivan Anderson,
making this music since he was in seventh From left: Jessica Hecht, Richard Masur, Candy Buckley
grade, and now he was a senior at Brown!
“He’d even composed music for me PHIL: Sat on my shoulders and instructing Connie on ways and means):
when I was driving a car, and with all this I gripped my head between your legs, “ ‘Before you and your client…embark
started thinking in very literal terms about Mistress. on a scene, you decide what he can handle
the kind of power in this throbbing, pound- and what the limits are. You’re not here
ing music that I’d found inspiring in a way Suddenly I see, as if it were yester- just to torture. You’re here to protect!’”
I hadn’t expected. day, tall, gorgeous Salome Jens galloping Leslie Ayvazian, born-in-Boston
“That was one component. around gloriously naked, tossing her long Armenian, turns 60 this summer. (Her
“Another — this will sound funny — hair, whip in hand, as the Pony Girl in José play “High Dive” celebrated turning 50.)
occurred when I was participating in an Quintero’s 1960 production of Genet’s Ivan’s father is her husband, prestigious
actors’ workshop with Olympia Dukakis “The Balcony” at Circle-on-the-Square on architect Sam Anderson. “He’s very cool,”
six years ago, when Ivan was a senior in Bleecker Street. she says. “I’ve had a crush on him for 33
high school. All of which brings us to a topic of some years.”
“This woman came in — I don’t know current national interest: Torture. Does The director of “Make Me” is Christian
her name, never did — wearing these huge, “Make Me’ not have some relevance here? Parker. The actors are Jessica Hecht as
high boots. She saw me eyeing them, and “To tell you the truth, not really,” Connie, Anthony Arkin as Eddie, Ellen
said to me: ‘What size are you?’ and then says the woman who wrote it. “Not like Parker as Sissy, J.R. Horne as Hank,
handed them to me to wear. I started walk- Christopher Durang’s play, ‘Why Torture Richard Masur as Phil, and Candy Buckley
ing around the room, and as I walked I felt Is Wrong, and the People Who Love as Mistress Lorraine.
a kind of power. When I got back to my Them.’ You know, the dominatrix and her Yes, playwright Ayvazian still has those
chair my shoes were gone and there was a client have to have a very pure relation- oversized boots. No, she says, she doesn’t
note on the chair saying she’d taken them. ship. It’s like she says in the play (when wear them. Cool.
It left me with no choice except to walk to
my car in these huge, high boots.”
?
The scenes (or intersecting fragments
Like to Party with TINA
of scenes) in Mistress Lorraine’s dungeon
are comedic and degrading all rolled into
one, for Mistress Loraine, like Leslie
Ayvazian’s Internet find, is, no matter how
domineering, a teacher, a painstaking —
and pain-giving--instructor at heart. The Substance Use Research Center
There is even a whiff of Jean Genet here. at Columbia University
MISTRESS: Foot fetish, pony play, seeks medically healthy Meth users between the ages of 21 and 45
leatherfetish, role play to participate in a 10-session study evaluating stimulant effects.
CONNIE: Pony play?
MISTRESS: Pick up a crop. Flick You can earn up to $1,004.
it like this on the back of the head.
Remember pony play, Phil?…What
For more information, please call: (212) 543-6013 or (212) 543-6545
did you do?
ALL PERSONAL AND IDENTIFYING INFORMATION WILL BE KEPT CONFIDENTIAL
PHIL: I galloped, Mistress.
MISTRESS: What did I do?
22 June 4 - 17, 2009
Words escape aphasic astronomer
Actress recalls theatrical pioneer Joseph Chaikin’s aphasia
BY JERRY TALLMER
THEATER
When Joe Chaikin asked Susan Yankowitz
to write a play about aphasia, he gave her three
instructions:
One, the main character — the aphasiac
— should not be a man. Two, she should have
been hit by a car, and not by a stroke. Three,
she should be an astronomer.
“I could understand that the first two condi-
tions were to separate the character from Joe
himself,” says dramatist Yankowitz, “but why
an astronomer, I asked Joe. He said: ‘Stars!…
Stars!…Stars!’
Much-loved actor-director-playwright-the-
atrical pioneer Joseph Chaikin (1935-2003),
founder of the Open Theater experimental
company, had suffered a massive stroke during
a heart-valve operation in 1984 that tangled his
brain and his speech into an often poetic Lewis
Carroll maze of words, phrases, and scrambled
syllables for the rest of his life.
The condition, not as rare as you might
think, is called aphasia.
But Joe never stopped directing or co-direct-
ing plays, sometimes with the infinitely patient
help and encouragement of actor-playwright
Sam Shepard among others. One such play
had been Susan Yankowitz’s 1970 “Terminal,”
a disquisition into mortality.
The play that Chaikin subsequently asked
Ms. Yankowitz to write, and which he directed
for the Women’s Project in 1991, seven years
after his stroke, was “Night Sky.” It is now with
us once more.
In the lead as, yes, a top-rank astronomer
named Anna who, hit by a car, can no longer
make her words do what she wants them to
do, is the tall cool blonde movie actress Jordan
Baker, not seen on stage in these parts since
Edward Albee’s Pulitzer-winning “Three Tall
Women” of 1993. With her in “Night Sky”
are Jim Stanek, Tuck Milligan, Lauren Ashley
Carter, and Dan Domingues.
As it happens, Ms. Baker had, some years
ago, had the opportunity to observe Chaikin
directing — “or trying to direct” — a revival of
“Terminal” on Cape Cod.
“It was fascinating to watch. At one moment
he said: ‘Z-Z-Zebra.’ Everybody thought he
was trying to say: ‘Zipper.’ But no, he was try-
ing to say: ‘Zigzag!’ Because he wanted the
actor to zigzag across the stage.”
A year and a half ago, just as Jordan Baker
had decided to move back to the city where
she was born — this one — “with the intent of
doing plays,” her eye fell on “a little blurb about
“OWL AND THE SPARROW” (-)
Regrettably, this film did not come close
to providing an enjoyable evening of enter-
tainment at the theater.
I wanted to see the picture because,
like most Americans, I am fascinated with
Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, my sister
took care of a Vietnamese child who had
been injured in that war. He lived with her
and her family in their Orange County, New
York home for about a year before return-
ing to Vietnam. Not long ago, she visited
him in Vietnam where he now has his own
NIGHT SKY
Written by Susan Yankowitz
Directed by Daniella Topol
Through June 20
Baruch Performing Arts Center,
55 Lexington Avenue
For tickets, call (212) 352-3101 or
online at www.NightSkyThePlay.com
‘Night Sky’ ” in some newspaper, and she told
her managers to look into it.
Sixteen years earlier, the story had been
otherwise for Smith College and Rutgers
University graduate Baker, who’d been told by
acting teacher William Esper “that my height
would be my cross to bear. Then ‘Three Tall
Women’ came along.”
Despite an agent who told her that Edward
Albee was all washed up, 6-foot-plus Jordan
Baker found herself at a tryout, sitting next
to Marian Seldes, the terrific non-stop actress
who all her life has had the same cross to bear.
Marian took one look at my flats and said:
‘I think this one is yours.’
Actually it was both of theirs. When the
play, whittled down from three hours, finally
opened, two of its three tall women — differ-
ing aspects of Albee’s real-life adoptive mother
— were Marian Seldes and Jordan Baker.
(Distinctly not that tall was prizewinning Myra
Carter as Mom 3).
In “Night Sky,” astronomer Anna has to
cope not only with her aphasia, but also with
the needs and moods of longtime live-in boy-
friend Daniel and rebellious, brainy 15-year-old
daughter Jennifer. . .
A key passage — a sort of distillation of the
play and of aphasiac Anna’s locked-in emotions
toward Daniel — comes almost at the end of
“Night Sky”:
ANNA: So mis — so misery! Words
dis — disappear. Despair. Heart in jail.
No can move love to mouth.
DANIEL; Try. I need you to try.
ANNA: You…Daniel…Wish on stars
beloved man Daniel. Waking up night-
KOCH
ON FILM
family. When I was a member of the City
Council (1966-1968), I proposed a bill that
would allow some Vietnamese children from
the North and South to receive medical care
in New York City’ municipal hospitals. It
The cast; casting their gaze towards Anna (Jordan Baker)
mare, face smiling bright, breathing life.
Big luck from me.
DANIEL: You mean big luck FOR
you.
ANNA: Yes. Good luck for me!
(Flings her arms around him.) Thank
you thank you.
“ ‘No can move love to mouth’ — that’s
really the way I think about myself,” says Susan
Yankowitz, whose many works include a novel,
“Silent Witness,” about a deaf mute.
Joe Chaikin’s passion and dramatic intensity
had been evident ever since this playgoer first
laid eyes on him at Julian Beck and Judith
Malina’s 14th Street Living Theater in 1962,
where Joe, at age 27, was the Galy Gay of
Bertolt Brecht’s caustic “Man Is Man,” direct-
ed by Julian.
Susan Yankowitz had known Joe almost as
long. The Newark, New Jersey-bred daughter
of a lawyer father and a “self-educated spec-
tacularly beautiful” mother, “who wanted to
go to Hollywood, but her mother wouldn’t let
her,” Susan came out of Sarah Lawrence with
“no intention whatsoever of having anything
to do with theater.” It took 15 years and a
degree from Yale Drama to make her change
her mind.
She and her husband, Herb Leibow, live on
the Upper West Side; he’s publisher/editor of
a literary journal called Parnassus.
never became law.
The “Owl and the Sparrow” is a poorly
concocted fairy tale involving the lives of
three Vietnamese individuals. Ten-year-old
Thuy (Pham Thi Han) who has no parents,
works for her uncle making bamboo trin-
kets. Feeling abused, she runs away from his
home. Lan (Cat Ly) is a 26-year-old airline
stewardess who is having an affair with a
married man. The third main character, Hai
(Le The Lu), takes care of an elephant at a
local zoo. He is distraught by the news that
the zoo intends to sell the elephant to a zoo
Photo by Carol Rosegg
“It didn’t tale me terribly long to write
‘Night Sky,’ ” she says. “I think I instinctively
understood [Joe Chaikin’s] condition.”
Actress Baker, the Manhattan-born golden
girl from California whose husband is actor
Kevin Kilner, had an even more immediate,
more personal reference.
“My people,” she says, “are from Montana,
and my grandfather, Alfred Louis Rowe, the
son of the sheriff who opened up the Montana
Territory, had a stroke at age 85. I think of him
sitting in his chair, trying to speak to me. He
had aphasia. You’d be amazed at the number
of people walking around with aphasia.”
The daughter of a Merrill Lynch Wall Street
stockbroker “who would be outraged if he
were alive today,” Jordan Baker gets her name
from a character — Daisy Buchanan’s golf-
playing girlfriend — in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
“The Great Gatsby.”
“My parents were playing cards up in
Riverdale just before I was born. And they
decided that, boy or girl, they would name the
baby Jordan. When I was 13, they gave me
the book.”
There have been at least three Jordan
Bakers in “Gatsby” films: Carmelita Geraghty
in 1926, Ruth Hussey in 1949, Lois Childs in
1974. The Jay Gatsbys were Warner Baxter,
Alan Ladd, and Robert Redford. Stars, stars,
stars! — but no telescope, no astronomer, and
no aphasia.
in India in order to reduce its expenses.
The storyline of how the lives of the three
individuals intertwine and how their issues
are resolved is crudely portrayed, and the
finale is unbelievable. One truly enjoyable
aspect of the film is the performance of
Pham Thi Han. She is a wonderful actress
and indeed could be the Shirley Temple of
Vietnam in the making. On the other hand,
some of the kids who did a wonderful job
in “Slumdog Millionaire” are not doing so
well in India. (In Vietnamese, with English
subtitles.)
 June 4 - 17, 2009 23

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PETS
My Teacup Yorkie Terrier & English
Bulldog puppy for adoption which is AKC
registered. Interested person should
email Rev. Alan Walker through
revalan09@live.com
TUTORING
Does your child need help with
school work?
I am an energetic, creative, compassion-
ate, organized, reliable and experienced
NYS Certified teacher with a Masters
degree in Education from NYU.
Affordable tutoring is available for all
ages and levels of students in all areas
of english, math, social studies and
study skills.
Please contact me at 917-952-5849,
or at Merylamy@gmail.com.
chelseanow.com
chateau plus Picasso-Cezanne exhibit;
fully escorted exclusive excursion Aix en
Provence. Sept 13-20, 2009, excellent
accomodations,private art lectures,
renowned vineyard, visits with local
celebrities. Les Baux de Provence,
St Remy, Picasso-Cezanne-Van Gogh-
Renoir. Fantastique!
www.frenchtraveler.com
800-251-3464
PAINTING & PLASTERING
Wall Women Painting & Plastering
Over 25 yrs experience. Located in
Chelsea area. Excellent References.
Free estimate Call 212-675-0631
TRAVEL
To Advertise in
Chelsea Now,
please call
646.452.2496
JOIN THE
WEDDING
PARTY!
A DOUBLE-WEDDING GIVEAWAY CONTEST!
Starting June 12, Gay City News readers may enter to win:
• round-trip tickets to Key West
• 5-day 4-night honeymoon
• wedding bands
Two lucky couples will be drawn on Valentine’s Day,
February 14, 2010. Visit GayCityNews.com to participate!
SPONSORS:
• American Airlines
• Diamonds International
• Island House
• Kleinfeld Manhattan
• Pearl’s Rainbow Key West
ADVERTISERS: Please contact
JSherwood@GayCityNews.com or
646-452-2471.
24 June 4 - 17, 2009

NYC. It’s a beach town.

Fun, sun, sand & music at Water Taxi Beach

South Street
Seaport
Relax on a new sandy beach and take in
the magnificent views of the Brooklyn
Bridge. Delicious food and drinks at
The Fish Shack, 9-hole miniature
new! golf, ping-pong, skeeball and
chances to win prizes.

Long Island
City
Enjoy the waterfront with sun, fun,
food and lots of music. Tons of sand
and volleyball while looking
at the Manhattan skyline.
FREE Water Taxi Weekend
Evening Shuttle from
East 35th Street.

LIC shuttle
music

Long Island City South Street Seaport FREE Shuttle

May 30, 8pm June 5, 1pm Friday night Parties every to LIC
Victor Franco: Turntables on parties Saturday on weekend evenings
Libation with the Hudson* spun by night between Water Taxi Beach/LIC
Ian Friday June 6, 4pm Melting Pot featuring and E.35th St.
May 31, 1pm Victor Franco: NYC Studio 54 DJ
Nicky Siano Friday 8pm - 2am
Believe In Davidson Saturday 8pm - 3am
Boris Ospina & bringing back
Oscar P a bit of Or during the day take
June 4, 4pm Saturday Night New York Water Taxi’s
NY Island Party: June 7, 1pm Fever. Hop-on/Hop-off Pass
Victor Franco Rythmist Beach
Saturday 11am - 7pm
* Every Friday all summer
Sunday 11am - 7pm

new at South Street Seaport • Long Island City

OUR OFFICIAL TRAVEL

www.harborexperience.com | 866-982-2542
| www.harborexperience.com | 866.984.6998 & TOURISM PARTNER