manhattan express

Stopping the Chop Up the Hudson

Natural History Museum Unveils Expansion

Uber Versus Disability Advocates

ManhattanStands with Paris

MANHATTANEXPRESSNEWS.NYCNovember 19 - December 02, 2015 | Vol. 01 No. 03

04 15 18

03

JACKSON CHEN

November 19 - December 02, 2015 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc2

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BY YANNIC RACK

T he future of the citys heli-copter tour industry is up in the air after frustrated residents and elected officials sounded off about the noisy birds at City Hall last week.

Residents are so disgusted with whats been going on that theres an entire organization to Stop the Chop, said Upper West Side City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal ahead of a November 12 Council hearing on legislation to curb the copters.

These bills before the Council are a critical first step in reducing health and quality-of-life issues that exist because of these tourist helicopters, she said.

Rosenthal and two colleagues, Margaret Chin from Lower Man-hattan and Carlos Menchaca from Brooklyn, have introduced a set of bills that would effectively boot the helicopter sightseeing industry from New York City.

The lawmakers say the legisla-tion is overdue after years of com-plaints about incessant noise and noxious fumes caused by the chop-pers along their route from the tip of Lower Manhattan up the Hud-son River to Washington Heights.

But helicopter-tour operators argue that the economic benefits to the city outweigh the suffer-ing of residents along the path of the tours and near the Downtown Manhattan Heliport.

Before the hearing, the cop-ter critics and helicopter huggers held dueling rallies on the steps of City Hall.

Locals complained that the caco-phonic copters make normal life almost impossible in large parts of Manhattan.

Ive lived on the Upper West Side for almost 40 years my home is now a bunker in a war zone that offers little refuge from the thunderous roar and shaking vibrations caused by helicopter tours, said Rhonda Waggoner, one of the residents who showed up for the hearing.

On good weather days there are more than 300 flights a day, Rosenthal said. Because they run

a loop on the Upper West Side, from Downtown Manhattan up to the George Washington Bridge and back, each flight has two points of noise impact so its over 600 quality-of-life violations a day for Upper West Side residents.

Tour company workers said the whirlybird whiners should just shut up or get out.

These people need to move away, themselves, said Luz Herre-ra, a customer service rep for Liber-ty Helicopters, the citys largest air-tour operator. They want to live in the city with the commodities of the city if you live here, you have to pay the price.

Sam Goldstein, deputy director of the Helicopter Tourism & Jobs Council, was more diplomatic.

We are here because our liveli-hoods are under assault, he said. Dont destroy our families, and dont destroy our jobs.

Although residents and elect-ed officials from as far away as Queens, Brooklyn, and even New Jersey, showed up to blast the bois-terous birds, the epicenter of the problem is in Lower Manhattan.

The Downtown Manhattan Heli-port at Pier 6 near the Battery is the only heliport in the city that allows sightseeing helicopters to land and take off.

Tour flights thunder in an out of

the Pier 6 heliport 28 times every hour during the day, seven days a week, according to figures from the Helicopter Tourism & Jobs Council, amounting to more than 100,000 takeoffs and landings each year.

This heliport continues to plague our community with noise and threats to air quality and safe-ty, said Catherine McVay Hughes, chair of Downtowns Community Board 1, which has vehemently opposed the tours for years.

Its truly a constant onslaught of noise, said Craig Abruzzo, vice

president of Stop the Chop NYNJ, an advocacy group that has been working to clip the wings of the helicopter industry in the city.

Opponents of the air-tour indus-try had more politicians on their side at the hearing, but helicopter boost-ers boasted the support of the citys top elected official Mayor de Bla-sio in the form of the citys Eco-nomic Development Corporation.

The de Blasio administration opposes scrapping the choppers in part because the EDC gets $2.9

Stopping the Chop Up the Hudson

YANNIC RACK

West Side City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal speaks at a November 12 rally that drew other elected officials opposed to the Hudson River helicopter tours, including (l. to r.), State Senator Brad Hoylman, Councilmember Margaret Chin, Borough President Gale Brewer, State Senator Daniel Squadron (back row), and Congressmember Jerrold Nadler.

c HELICOPTERS, continued on p.12

JACKSON CHEN

On a clear summer day more than 300 helicopter tours can leave Pier 6 Downtown for trips up and down the West Side along the Hudson River.


BY JACKSON CHEN

The American Museum of Nat-ural History has unveiled its long-awaited conceptual design plans for a new science cen-ter, which had drawn critics in advance because of its expected encroachment onto portions of an adjacent park.

The design for the Gilder Cen-ter for Science, Education, and Innovation showcases a stone cav-ern-like interior as well as a foot-print into the Theodore Roosevelt Park drastically reduced from what was feared. Designed by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, the conceptual design for the $325 million project was approved by the museums Board of Trustees on November 4.

Beginning its efforts in December 2014, the museum wants the new Gilder Centers design to create a better directional flow for museum patrons, provide more education-al space, and enhance the general publics understanding of every-day science. The design calls for a new entrance into the museum on

Columbus Avenue between 79th and 80th Streets.

The museums expansion plans, early on, caught fire from nearby residents who, in July, formed the Defenders of Teddy Roosevelt Park, an advocacy group that adamantly defends the park space that sur-rounds the museum.

The park right now is a very cozy, intimate, graceful area, said Sig Gissler, president of the group. What theyre proposing to put in there, this big grand entrance, is going to change the nature of the park.

The loud criticism in recent months led the museums expan-sion team to incorporate public input into the conceptual design, according to the museums presi-dent, Ellen Futter.

Futter said that in putting together the new design 80 per-cent of which is being built on the museums existing footprint her team was both cognizant and respectful of the museums setting in the park.

According to the conceptual design, the museum would retool

three underutilized existing build-ings as part of the new Gilder Cen-ter. Futter said that in that way the museum could achieve the expan-sion it aims for while reducing the incursion into the park the design team originally thought necessary.

However, in the 20 percent of the expansion that does take over park-land, the design could result in the loss of up to nine trees. To address the possible loss of trees, the muse-um said it continues to study the issue and has included in its design the planting of 17 new trees and the addition of new park benches.

In its initial review of the muse-ums conceptual plans, the Defend-ers released a statement indicating their continued unhappiness about the loss of parkland.

While the plan would take less parkland than originally indicated by the museum, the extensive loss of green space and mature trees is still cause for deep concern, the groups statement read.

Gissler and others elaborated on their criticism at a November 12 public information session the museum hosted, but some neigh-

borhood residents voiced support for the expansion (see story on page 5).

The museum has been very judicious with respect to where it has added on and respecting how the park ended up evolving and maturing, architect Gang said at a November 6 press event.

She explained that an import-ant consideration in the design was maximizing use of the muse-ums existing footprint. By setting the design further into the existing group of museum buildings, her team was able to create 30 points of connections among 10 of the muse-ums buildings, where there were previously dead ends.

The congestion is exacerbated with visitors going one way, hit-ting a cul-de-sac, turning around, and then bumping into those who are coming in the other way, Fut-ter said of what last years approx-imately five million visitors might have encountered under the muse-ums current layout. The circula-tion is exceedingly difficult the navigation is frustrating.

Natural History Museum Expansion Plan Limits Park Incursion, But Not Enough Say Critics

c DESIGN, continued on p.12

STUDIO GANG ARCHITECTS

A rendering of the new central exhibition hall in the Gilder Center, facing Theodore Roosevelt Park.


The conceptual design for the American Museum of Natural History expansion, indicating the reduction of the Gilder Centers encroachment onto Theodore Roosevelt Park, from the area outlined in red to that outlined in blue.


A rendering of the proposed new Gilder Center entrance to the museum, as seen from Columbus Avenue.


BY JACKSON CHEN

A November 12 informational session for the public hosted by the American Museum of Natu-ral History, just over a week after it revealed its conceptual designs for a new science center to be constructed at its Columbus Avenue entrance, drew angry opposition to the plans encroachment onto the Theodore Roosevelt Park but also won praise from some neighborhood residents.

The conceptual plans, released on November 4, were the results of a years work from the lead archi-tect Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, the landscape architect Joe James, and other members of the museums team.

The proposed design for the Gild-er Center for Science, Education, and Innovation aims to address the museums growing need for an improved interior traffic flow allowing for less patron conges-

tion. According to Ellen Futter, the museums president, the annu-al attendance figures have grown from three million to five million in the past several decades.

The new center would also allow the museum to provide more room for its vastly under-displayed col-lections Futter said only two per-cent of the collection is available for viewing and also make space for educationally-focused resources within the museum.

Given more than a week to review the initial designs, residents arrived fully prepared to voice their thoughts after the museums presentation.

Most of the residential opposition stemmed from concerns over the expansion gobbling up a portion of the Theodore Roosevelt Park. While the conceptual plan showed a dras-tically reduced footprint into the park compared to what had origi-nally been discussed 80 percent of the new Gilder Center would be

built on the museums existing footprint many critics felt any loss of parkland was devastating.

The project would still con-sume a quarter-acre of parkland and remove nine majestic trees, said Sig Gissler, president of the Defenders of Teddy Roosevelt Park. In particular, we worry that the scope of the new entrance, with its attendant increase in foot traffic, would compromise the parks role as a tranquil, intimate community gathering place.

Gissler, who formed the park advocacy group in July, said the group has grown to about 3,000

supporters, who are not anti-mu-seum but pro-park. While the groups president thanked the museum for listening to their con-cerns, hes still worried about the future of what he considers a neighborhood sweet spot.

Since the proposed conceptual design includes the removal of nine trees, James said that there are plans to transplant one of the trees and eventually replace the canopy by planting 17 new trees.

In comments to Manhattan Express prior to the public meet-

Boisterous Forum Shows Angry Opposition,

But Some Support For Museum Expansion

c REACTION continued on p.12

JACKSON CHEN

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BY JACKSON CHEN

Following numerous requests for improved safety for Upper West Side cyclists, the citys Department of Transportation has proposed a protected bike lane on Amsterdam Avenue that won praise from many neighborhood residents.

Community Board 7s Novem-ber 10 Transportation Committee meeting drew a packed crowd that welcomed the proposal with long, hearty applause after the presen-tation concluded and the floor was opened up for questions.

DOT Commissioner Polly Trot-tenberg said there hasnt been a street in the city shes heard more about than Amsterdam Ave-nue, which she described as an important artery of the Upper West Side neighborhood.

The DOT proposal, which calls for the creation of a protect-ed northbound bicycle lane on Amsterdam, would reconfigure the current setup of four lanes dedicated to through traffic and two for parking.

According to the DOTs pre-sentation, the new layout would include three through traf fic lanes, a retooling of the existing parking lanes, and a new six-foot bicycle lane with a five-foot buffer.

Many area cyclists showed their support for what they see as a much-needed proposal, given that there is a successful southbound protected bike lane on Columbus Avenue, but no similar north-bound option.

What Columbus has, Amster-dam needs, said Celine Arm-strong, a frequent cyclist in the Upper West Side area. Right now on Amsterdam, there isnt the per-ception of safety.

Armstrong said she was recent-ly hit by a motorist who was trying to parallel park, adding that the incident never would have hap-pened on Columbus Avenue.

Due to double parked cars and loading trucks, bikers need to go around and merge with lanes with speeding taxis, said Avner

May about biking on Amsterdam Avenue. All of which is a hazard-ous experience.

May, an Amsterdam Avenue resident who used to bike to his classes at Columbia Universi-ty, described the avenue as an incredibly scary place to bike. After being hit by a city bus bik-ing along the nearby 97th Street Transverse through Central Park, May made a personal decision to avoid problem areas and not bike northbound on Amsterdam opting to walk to class instead.

Joining May, many other resi-dents shared their own accounts of being hit, knowing of some-one who was hit, and the general unsafe atmosphere they perceive on the avenue. Supplementing these anecdotal accounts, the DOT shared data that showed 513 injuries, 36 severe injuries, and two fatalities from 2009 to 2013 on the stretch of Amsterdam Avenue from West 72nd Street to West 110th Street.

Additionally, the DOT present-ed statistics on the impact of the Citi Bike program since its introduction on the Upper West Side, which showed an increase in the frequency of bikes using Amsterdam Avenue nearly tri-pling, from 217 for a 12-hour stretch in 2007 to 609 in 2015. On top of the swell of bicycles in the area, DOT officials said that the avenues existing issues also include drivers speeding 59 per-cent of the time during off-peak

hours, crosswalks with unusual-ly long spans, and high conges-tion generally.

Today, Amsterdam Avenue is based on a design that is at least a half-century old, said City Councilmember Mark Levine, whose district covers a portion of the Upper West Side. In order to make this thoroughfare safer for all motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians we need to mod-ernize it.

While the DOT has a preference for Amsterdam Avenue as the neighborhoods northbound bike lane corridor, the agency has also studied other options, including using Broadway or converting the Columbus Avenue protected bike lane into a two-way route.

Even if the agency decides to go with another avenue, Amsterdam Avenue would still see the pedestri-an and parking improvements that are part of the current proposal.

According to DOT, Amsterdam Avenues west side parking lane would be converted into a com-bination of left-turn bays and pedestrian islands. The reconfig-uration would result in a 25 per-cent loss of parking spaces, the agency acknowledged.

As for the east curb on Amster-dam Avenue, the current one-hour metered parking regulation would convert into a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. commercial lane for delivery trucks. According to the DOT, the commercial parking regulations would reduce the likelihood of

trucks double-parking and pro-vide them with a space dedicated for their loading and unloading.

Despite widespread support, some voices of opposition were present in the crowd. According to Gary Greengrass, a business owner on Amsterdam Avenue, the proposal would reduce park-ing spaces for customers. Cyclists and their bike lanes, he said, can be dangerous for pedestrians and the new proposal would create traffic congestion.

Amsterdam is a main thor -oughfare, restricting it is going to create more of a bottleneck, Greengrass said. Traffic comes to a standstill on Columbus. It s going to be the same for Amsterdam.

Most of the boards Transporta-tion Committee members, howev-er, seemed to be in support of the initial presentation. After review-ing the proposal, the committee had questions about its impact on local businesses, the viabili-ty of Central Park West as a bike route, and if there could be any interim safety improvements done before implementation of the plan. DOT officials said Central Park West was too narrow to accommo-date a protected bike lane.

According to Sean Quinn, co-di-rector of the DOTs Pedestrian Projects Group, the biggest bang for the buck would be to tackle this Amsterdam Avenue project as soon as possible.

After gathering community input, the DOT is expecting to start the first phase of the project as early as Spring 2016. During its implementation of the first phase from West 72nd Street to West 110th Street the city agency will also be looking toward the second phase of the Amster-dam project, which involves bicy-cle connections south of West 72nd Street.

I hope this is one part of a real-ly much larger project to make the city, as a whole, a safer place for bikers as well as pedestrians, really anyone for that matter, May said. It really is a matter of lives and limbs. n

NYC DOT

New York City Department of Transportation rendering of Amsterdam Avenues traffic flow if a protected bike lane is added.

UWS Cyclists Cheer DOT Plan for Protected Amsterdam Avenue Lane


BY JOSH ROGERS

The scene next spring on the Upper West Side is coming into pretty clear focus: Many dozens of families will be upset to be on the P.S. 199 waiting list. Some live within a block or two of the popular West 70th Street school, and they may be surprised to know that their chil-drens chances of getting a coveted seat were not increased as they expected.

The future is never certain, but its hard to imagine a different scenario, particularly given how school zoning disputes have played out in the past. The November 18 reporting by the New York Times that the Department of Education is now backing off any plans to recommend rezon-ing only makes the picture more clear.

The District 3 Community Education Council has been wrestling with new zoning ideas for two months. There have been lots of long meetings to discuss proposals, but they have largely been attended by parents who thought they were going to be cut out of the P.S. 199 zone. Theres been little sign of participation by the families who will end up being the most aggrieved.

That may be because they live closest to P.S. 199 and the original proposal under consider-ation had them safely within the zoning lines. They would have stayed within the zone regard-less of which option was chosen, but since the CEC is against the idea of shrinking the zone significantly, kindergarten applications from some of these families close to the school will be rejected.

Since the CEC made it clear two weeks ago that it was not going to reduce the P.S 199 zone by much, Joe Fiordaliso, the groups presi-dent, said he has not heard a lot from families whose chances would be reduced, but he knows theyre out there.

Children are worrying, too, he added in a phone interview. He pictures them walking by the school and saying, Daddy, am I going to

school here, next year? What do you say to that? Theres a lot of anxiety and stress for everyone.

He and a few other members of the CEC back reducing the P.S. 199 zone slightly and shifting it to P.S. 452 to the north, but he acknowledges even if that is approved, it would probably only reduce the expected waiting list from 100 to about 85.

Fiordaliso doubts there are many parents close to the school who are unaware that their childrens chances of being admitted are iffy given the chronic overcrowding problems and the outreach the CEC has done about the rezoning debate, but only a few comments post-ed to the councils website mention concern about the zone not being reduced enough.

We know we have to be prepared for all man-ner of lotteries and competitions in our kids lives, one commenter who lives in Lincoln Square wrote. But admission to their zoned neighborhood kindergarten class should not be one of them. If 199s neighborhood continues to be a place where kindergarten admission is largely dependent on who you know (i.e., do you already have a sibling at the school?), with all other families subject to lotteries and summers of panicked uncertainty, everybody loses.

The CEC, an unpaid group of parents elect-ed by PTA leaders in the district schools, has agreed, as is typically done, to grandfather sib-lings of existing P.S. 199 students so that they will have priority admission regardless of wheth-er they stay in the zone.

The group also backs moving P.S. 191 on West 61st Street into a new school building being constructed nearby at Riverside Cen-ter. Fiordaliso said the promise of a new school building in two years could convince more par-ents to enroll at the less popular P.S. 191 this coming September.

P.S. 342, currently slated to open in 2018 in that new building, would instead open up in the 191s current space, under the CEC's pre-ferred plan.

The CEC also plans, down the road, to consid-er combining191 with 342, as 191 leaders have requested, but the council is not currently con-sidering grouping the schools with P.S. 199 or creating a superzone with all three schools as others have proposed.

P.S. 191, which unlike 199, is mostly non-white, has been labeled persistently danger-ous by the state, although the overwhelming consensus is the designation does not reflect reality, and by all accounts, the school is improving under a new principal.

Under the first zoning plan the city Depart-

ment of Education suggested to the CEC, the P.S. 191 zone would have expanded along with P.S. 452 in the hopes of eliminating the waiting list at 199. The CEC opposes expanding the 191 zone because the dangerous designation gives parents added rights to demand placement at another school, so a bigger zone would be an ineffective strategy for addressing the over-crowding at 199.

The CEC also wants to eliminate the right of return at P.S. 199, which quite unusually has had waiting lists even for the first grade. Under this right, zoned families denied a kin-dergarten seat can be admitted in future years if there is space, but this has contributed to the overcrowding and made it difficult to accommo-date families who move into the neighborhood with older children.

The Department of Ed had been expected to present a proposal along the lines of the CEC sug-gestions on November 19 and the CEC had sched-uled an up or down vote December 2. Whether the CEC will take any action at the November 19 meet-ing, in the wake of the DOE's decision to make no recommendation, is now unclear.

Fiordaliso said any plan will be far from per-fect, arguing that said if the CEC had more input as the DOE developed its initial zoning plans, there would be better solutions. He and local school advocates across the city have long criticized the department for underestimating the need for new schools.

We have very little power and authority which makes it exceedingly difficult to affect real and meaningful change, he said. He added, how-ever, that Schools Chancellor Carmen Faria, appointed early last year by Mayor Bill de Bla-sio, has promised him better communication and transparency and so far he has no reason to doubt her.

Similarly, Shino Tanikawa, the CEC presi-dent in District 2, which covers the Upper East Side and most of Downtown Manhattan, said relations with the DOE have improved under Faria, particularly since the chancellor has returned more power to local superintendents.

Tanikawa, who has presided over several con-tentious zoning fights in Lower Manhattan, said her sense is the CEC there will be able to pro-vide more input earlier in the process the next time theres a need to adjust zoning.

But the decisions are never easy. Whatever you do, youre going to be pleas-

ing half the people and making half the people unhappy, Tanikawa said.

This time, the unhappy will likely be the wait-listed families near West 70th Street. n

MANHATTAN EXPRESS

District 2 CEC president Joe Fiordaliso.

After Many Long Meetings,Little P.S. 199 Waitlist Relief Likely

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BY YANNIC RACK

Swinging a golden pickaxe, the MTAs chief engineer chipped away at the concrete floor of Grand Central Terminal last week, finally bringing the long-awaited project to open Man-hattans East Side to Long Island-ers above ground.

At a November 10 ceremony on the terminals lower-level dining concourse, Dr. Michael Horod-niceanu, the head of MTA Capital Construction, symbolically broke ground on a milestone for the East Side Access project, which has been quietly under way for more than a decade.

East Side Access has been in the works for years, much of it as kind of a stealth project right below our feet, he said. Now it will be much more visible to the public.

By creating a brand new eight-track terminal for the Long Island Rail Road below Grand Central, the project will for the first time allow commuters to travel directly to the East Side rather than force them to travel to the West Side at Penn Station.

The Long Island Rail Road has long been constrained, said Patrick Nowakowski, president of the LIRR.

This is a complete game changer.The groundbreaking marked

the start of construction on one of several access points that will con-nect the existing terminal to the new concourse, which will include 25,000 square feet of retail space.

Horodniceanu emphasized that customers would be minimally affected by the construction since all businesses will remain open and most of the removed seating has been relocated to other parts of the terminal.

We are not impacting the cus-tomers here. I hope we can contin-ue to be as stealth as possible going forward, he said. This will, by no means, change the way Grand Cen-tral feels and exists.

On a recent tour of the caverns and tunnels beneath the station (see In Caves Below Grand Cen-tral, East Side Access Project on Track, in the last issue of Manhat-tan Express at goo.gl/1W0NkN), Horodniceanu showed off the scale of the project which is expected to cost the MTA just over $10 billion.

Once completed over the next seven years, the new concourse will serve 162,000 customers a day, according to the MTA, potential-ly shortening Long Islanders daily commutes by up to 40 minutes.n

With Pickaxe to Grand Central Floor, East Side Access Project Finally Breaks Through

YANNIC RACK

Dr. Michael Horodniceanu breaks ground at Grand Central Terminal on the passageway to the new LIRR station being constructed below.


BY JACKSON CHEN

A n Upper West Side churchs plans to create a 66-unit residential complex on West End Avenue was met with approv-

al from the Community Board 7, who considered the project rea-sonably appropriate.

The Wes t End Co l l e g i a t e Churchs plans to construct an 18-story building would combine

the property at 378 West End Ave-nue with a structure to be built on 260 West 78th Street. Both of the buildings are currently home to classrooms and facilities for the Collegiate School.

The plan approved makes no specific provision for affordable housing.

To facilitate the new combined building, the church plans to demol-ish the current existing structure at 260 West 78th Street, which the school now calls Platten Hall.

The funding generated by the new development would be used to maintain the landmarked West End Collegiate Church and sup-ports its programs.

With the buildings still occu-pied by the Collegiate School, the start of construction depends on when it moves out, according to Nicole Kolinsky, a spokesperson for the church.

The Collegiate School, which has no affiliation with the church, sold the Platten Hall and 378 West End Avenue for $125 million in the summer, according to Kolin-sky. The Old School Building adja-cent to the church on West 77th Street is also being returned to the churchs ownership.

A letter from school officials stated that its August purchase of a new location at 301 Freedom Place South 10 blocks below its current location was aimed at accommodating its growing needs.

Kolinsky said that once the school informed the West End Col-legiate Church of its plans to move, the church bought the buildings. The purchase gave the church the right to create a residential building with as many as 400 units, but it settled for a modest 66 units.

Collegiate Churchs 18-Story Residence Wins Community Board Okay, But No Affordable Housing

c COLLEGIATE, continued on p.21

JACKSON CHEN

West End Collegiate Church at 77th Street and West End Avenue, with the property it owns at 378 West End to the left.

BY JACKSON CHEN

A n all-girls Catholic school showcased its preliminary plans to construct a 13-story building to an Upper East Side neighborhood crowd that was generally supportive, even if some residents voiced wariness.

The Marymount School of New York and the projects lead architect, Richard Cook of CookFox Architects, presented the conceptual design on October 29 in order to receive early community input.

The proposed new building would be located at 115 East 97th Street, across the street from one of the schools current campuses at 116 East 97th. According to the plans, the new build-ing, which would be fully accessible to differently abled people, would replace the schools tem-porary tennis court and turf field. The 165,000 square-foot design calls for a building that would also include a rooftop greenhouse and meeting space, as well as four stories below ground. The plans show a 13-story building rising from East 97th Street, though school officials describe it as

a 12-story with a rooftop addition.According to the schools director of develop-

ment, Cathy Callender, the main impetus for the new building was the need for an improved gym-nasium and an auditorium for the schools per-forming arts program.

The reason were building a building is we dont have a regulation-size gym, we have a teeny tiny-size gym, Callender said of a facility in the schools main campus on Fifth Avenue at 84th Street, adding that the school is home to many championship teams but lacks an ade-quate home court.

In addition to the need for proper athletic facil-ities and auditoriums, Callender said the new building would also allow for improved dining facilities. The current setup, she said, where the students of the main campus and the East 97th Street building have lunch in the basement, is less than ideal.

Marymount owns three buildings at the main campus at 1026-1028 Fifth Avenue and has another campus at 2 East 82nd Street, but plans to sell the East 82nd Street location and

move out of the current 116 East 97th Street campus. According to Callender, the school has the option to renew its lease at 116 East 97th, but is planning to let it expire in 2021.

On top of the basement-level athletic facili-ties, a new auditorium, and dining facilities, the proposed building includes a media lab, science laboratories, terrace gardens, and classrooms from the sixth to the 12th floors, according to the plans filed with the Department of Buildings on September 29.

When designing the building, Callender said that the school couldve constructed an as-of-right building that was taller and narrower.

East Siders Open But Wary About Marymounts Planned 13-Story Campus

JACKSON CHEN

Lead architect Richard Cook displaying the proposed Marymount model to Lo van der Valk, president of Carnegie Hill Neighbors.

c MARYMOUNT, continued on p.16


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million in annual rent from the operator of the Downtown heliport, Saker Aviation, which hosts five air-tour companies.

As currently drafted, the admin-istration does not support either of the proposed legislation, said EDC chief of staff James Katz during a sometimes-tense exchange with the Council members.

Katz also cited a 2012 study by NYUs Rudin Center for Transpor-tation that said the industry bene-fits the citys economy to the tune of $32 million from the roughly 200 jobs it provides, and nearly $10 million in additional tourism.

But elected officials said that the city shouldnt put the interests of a single, narrow industry above those of its own citizens.

The helicopter industry is a nui-sance. We cannot protect a single tourist experience at the expense of the quality of life of thousands of New Yorkers, said West Side Con-

gressmember Jerrold Nadler.A 2010 plan by the EDC already

aimed at curbing sightseeing chop-pers by eliminating short tour flights (between four and eight min-utes), cancelling tours over Central Park and the Empire State Build-ing, and restricting choppers to fol-low one of two designated routes on

the Hudson River.The helicopter advocates, sup-

ported by EDC, fired back that they have cooperated in the past even cutting down their flight times and are open to working with the city to further lower their impact.

It's hard to propose any kind of compromise when we have a gun

to our heads, Goldstein told the Council members.

At the hearing, Councilmember Brad Lander of Brooklyn also ques-tioned whether the EDC paid as much attention to citizens suffer-ing as it does to economic metrics.

Its easy to measure jobs and money. I know its hard to mea-sure misery, said Lander, but I suppose my question is, have you tried? Have you done something to evaluate just how miserable it is?

Katz acknowledged that its a great question, and well framed, but said the EDC had not gone beyond looking at 311 calls, which he said showed only 162 helicopter-noise complaints in the past year.

But local pols said that figure is irrelevant because they get thou-sands of direct complaints from their fed-up constituents.

Residents are so sick and tired of this that they have given up on calling 311 at all, said Rosenthal.

The Council has not yet set the date for a vote on the legislation. n

c HELICOPTER, from p.3

YANNIC RACK

Mickey Hart, Liberty Helicopters marketing director, leads a rally of those who support Manhattans helicopter industry.

Futter said the new design would allow the IMAX theater located in the middle of the muse-um to serve as the central navigational point. Around the theater, a roundabout style path-way would be created with better directional way-finding, according to the plan.

The conceptual design also included the museums plans for two new exhibition spaces, more collection display space, and educational labs and classrooms. Additionally, the muse-

ums library, which currently has limited public access, would be made accessible to visitors.

Gang explained that the expansions func-tional design focused on creating both a phys-ical and an intellectual flow to the museum. The urban cavernous styles of the new Gilder Center were inspired by ice caves and can-yons that instill a sense of discovery and flow, she said.

Architecturally, we were searching for what is it that represents this flow that is so import-ant for connectivity and design, Gang said.

But also for the sense of discovery we want people to feel.

The plan the museum announced is still con-ceptual and the expansion team continues its work on the schematic design of the center. The project is expected to head into its public review phase in the first quarter of 2016, which will include going before the citys Landmarks Pres-ervation Commission. If approved, the Gilder Center is expected to begin construction in 2017, and the museum is aiming for a 2020 opening, following its 150th anniversary in 2019. n

c DESIGN, from p.4

ing, Gissler said that his group is always in favor of planting more trees, but that wouldnt be a prop-er replacement for the mature trees that would be chopped down for the expansion. He said that they would continue to voice their con-cerns to the museum, since their action to date has yielded some improvement to design plans.

Were pleased we had some impact, but were still disappointed theres still extensive loss of land and of trees, he said.

Following Gisslers comments, other members of the Defenders group suggested that 100 percent of the Gilder Center should be built within the museum footprint and that the museum had the alterna-

tive of constructing the new center on the museums parking structure located on its West 81th Street side.

However, Ann Siegel, the muse-ums senior vice president for oper-ations and capital programs, said that the Columbus Avenue location between 79th and 80th Streets was clearly the best location for solving the museums congestion problems and providing an open face for the centers goal of science innovation.

When Gang pointed out that some in the community value the open space on top of the parking structure, members of the audi-ence shouted out opposition to claims of it being an important or beloved public space. That in turn led other residents to shout their appreciation for the open space at the Arthur Ross Terrace

above the museums parking lot. At times, audience members

hissed and laughed mockingly at comments from the museum, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the museums Hayden Plane-tarium, was interrupted in mak-ing remarks. He was able to voice his view that the concentration of activities and resources at the pro-posed Columbus Avenue expan-sion site would create a crosspol-lination of ideas for museum visi-tors that would inspire them and encourage innovation.

Some neighborhood residents spoke out in favor of the new Gild-er Center. Longtime museum-go-er and volunteer Jerry Halpern, a lifelong Upper West Sider, said the design was enormously exciting.

It is an organic piece of archi-

tecture which makes vivid what I attempt to teach in the museum, said Halpern, who volunteers as a museum tour guide. Which is that our collections are a tool in the hands of not just the scientists, but the next generation that is coming up.

Chris Hernandez, a city science teacher, said the museum and its pro-posed new science center would be a boon for his students and for educa-tion as a whole. The museum engag-es in educational collaborations with scores of schools across the city.

Science education is going through a paradigm shift and an evolution of speed and scope thats unprecedented, Hernandez said. Innovative, informal learning cen-ters like this are needed more than ever to enrich what we do in the classroom. n

c REACTION, from p.5


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F ollowing outcries from pol-iticians, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is taking another look at how to expedite the Second Avenue Subway proj-ects next phase.

On November 12, the MTAs chair and chief executive officer, Thomas F. Prendergast, met with a bevy of city and state politi-cians to explore different options for speeding up the perennially delayed expansion project.

The Second Avenue Subway was dealt a blow on October 28 when the MTA board voted in favor of a 2015-2019 capital pro-gram that cut $1 billion in funding for the projects second phase.

The second phase, which cre-ates three stations on a new sub-way line, would connect the Lex-ington Avenue lines 125 Street Station to a new subway station at 96th Street and Second Avenue. The first phase, with three sta-tions that expand the Q line from East 63rd Street to the new 96th Street station is scheduled for

completion by December 2016.The MTA is committed to find

every possible way to acceler -ate this project, Prendergast said in a statement. We will employ alternative procurement methods to speed the planning, design, environmental review, property acquisition, utility relo-cation, and construction prepa-ration in our proposed 2015-19 Capital Program.

T h e a g e n c y h a d e a r l i e r explained that it simply was not feasible from an operational standpoint to get a tunnel-bor-ing machine in place and chewing rock by 2019.

In Prendergasts second state-ment since the political backlash from the funding cut flared up, the MTA chair said the agency shared the goal of bringing more subway access to East Harlem as quickly as possible.

At a November 3 press con-ference, State Assemblymember Robert Rodriguez, whose district includes East Harlem, termed the delay economic injustice. The same day, Congressmembers Charles Rangel and Carolyn Malo-ney noted that the Lexington Ave-nue line, the only current option on the East Side, is the nations most crowded line and pointed to the significant disparity in income levels between East Harlem and the Upper East Side neighborhood served by the new subway lines first phase.

According to Prendergast, the MTA will work with Rangel, whose district covers most of Upper Man-hattan, to speed up the environ-mental review process and secure the most federal funding possible.

If these efforts to speed up the project timetable are successful, the MTA will amend our Capi-tal Program and seek additional funds to begin heavy construction sooner, Prendergast said. n

Pols Pressure Forces MTA to Rethink Second Ave. Subway Funding Cut

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MTA chair Thomas F. Prendergast delivering testimony before the State Assembly in Albany.


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A leading organization that represents New Yorkers who use wheelchairs is charging that Uber, the car service hailing app, is reducing transportation options for its members and threatens the transportation advances made for them in recent years.

People who use wheelchairs fought hard for access to the taxi system, said James Weisman, the president and chief executive offi-cer of the United Spinal Associa-tion, which has 43,000 members nationwide and some 3,000 in New York City. Ubers refusal to provide accessible vehicles undermines their success by replacing acces-sible yellow cabs with inaccessible Uber vehicles.

In an email, Weisman wrote that the Taxis For All Campaign, which includes his association and other disability groups, with help from Governor Andrew Cuomo, forced the Bloomberg administration in December 2013 to agree to add 2,000 accessible yellow cabs to the fleet of roughly 13,400 in the city. The fleet is supposed to be 50 per-cent accessible by 2020.

Currently, there are 531 accessi-ble yellow cabs and 1,304 accessi-ble green boro cabs on the streets. There are other transportation options for wheelchair users and disabled people.

Enter Uber.The app, which allows users to

hail a for-hire car using their smart phones, launched in New York City in 2011, but became embroiled in controversy this year when the number of Uber cars reached crit-ical mass and Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed capping them. The focus in that controversy has largely been on reducing any congestion caused by more for-hire cars on city streets. The concerns of people who use wheelchairs or other disabled people have not been central in the debate over Uber.

As the competition for custom-ers increased, yellow cab drivers increasingly elected to not use accessible vehicles fearing a loss

of fares and cash that might result from the additional time needed for customers using wheelchairs. The result is that the recent victory for accessibility is evaporating.

Wait times have gone up, but putting that aside, the owners of the yellow cabs are complaining because they cant get their accessi-ble cabs on the road, Weisman told the Manhattan Express.

The association and other advo-cacy groups held a roll in outside Ubers Midtown headquarters in July. The group also used a mass mailing and videos to attack Uber.

Uber does not operate acces-sible vehicles, but it does have a tab called UberWAV, for wheel-chair accessible vehicle, that links users to other providers that deploy accessible vehicles in the outer boroughs and in Man-hattan above West 110th Street and East 96th Street.

In an email, an Uber spokesper-son wrote, Uber has helped make the accessible taxi system work, allowing New Yorkers with dis-abilities to get a reliable ride with-in minutes, instead of being left stranded. While we are constantly exploring new ways to better serve all people with disabilities, Uber has in fact been commended by members of the disability com-munity for increasing the freedom and mobility of riders and drivers with disabilities."

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United Spinal Association, Taxis For All Campaign, and other wheelchair user advocates held a roll-in outside Ubers West Side headquarters this past July.

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However, Marymount chose to go with a shorter and wider design, which prevents an elevator cul-ture, where students cant easily walk between classes. Callender credited Cook with being very care-ful in his design to avoid that prob-lem, but the resulting wider foot-print means that the school cannot move forward as-of-right.

The next step, she explained, is the Department of Buildings rejecting the schools application

because the plan is not as-of-right, and Marymount filing an applica-tion with the Board of Standards and Appeals. If approved there, the school hopes to start an estimated three years of construction in 2017.

In the meantime, residents con-cerned about the upcoming devel-opment are hoping to keep open lines of communication with school officials. Callender said Marymount is planning on holding another public information session on a date to be determined.

Were just afraid its really going

to change the nature of the block, said Jules Feinman, founder of the 97th & 98th Streets/ Lexington & Park Ave. Neighbors association. Its a humongously long project thats going to disrupt the lives of thousands of people.

Feinman said the long construc-tion process would create noise and congestion issues for the near-by residents. East 97th Street, he explained, is already overcrowded because it acts as a throughway from the East Side, across Central Park, to the West Side, and the con-struction process would exacerbate that problem.

The block associations president, however, emphasized that the group was willing to work with Marymount in facilitating the project.

Were not a bunch of NIMBY freaks, Feinman said, using the colloquial abbreviation for not in my backyard. Were not say-ing you cant build your building because youre going to deprive people of sleep, but you got to come up with hours that make sense.

Similarly affected by the large project, Christina Johnson, presi-dent of the Lexington Houses Res-

ident Association, voiced concerns about the buildings height.

Construction would be anoth-er concern, but its something thats not permanent, Johnson said. The major concern would be height-wise because that would be something thats lasting.

Johnson said the proposed build-ing would cast a shadow over the Lexington Houses and their court-yard on East 98th Street, depriving the residents of sunlight. Throw-ing residents into perpetual dark-ness, she said, is a major concern.

The Lexington Houses presi-dent, however, suggested one reme-diation the school could attempt would be working with her group to develop a community garden that mutually benefits both groups. Still, Johnson would prefer if Mary-mount would consider the impact of the new buildings height and reduce the proposed 13 floors. She conceded, however, that she has concerns about construction at any significant height.

To me, it doesnt really matter what size the building is coming in because sunlight is going to be gone, Johnson said. n

c MARYMOUNT, from p.10

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A rendering of the proposed new Marymount School campus building at center, behind a five-story building.


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FATALITY: DEAD PEDESTRIAN AFTER TAXI FAILS TO YIELD (24TH PRECINCT)

On November 8, an 88-year-old woman crossing West 109th Street at Columbus Avenue was struck dead by a yellow taxi, police said. At around 12:42 a.m., the yellow taxi, operated by 73-year-old Salifu Abubkar, was making a right turn with the green signal onto West 109th Street before fatally striking the pedestrian.

The woman, identified as Luisa Rosario, was found unconscious and unresponsive while lying on the pavement, according to police. Police said Abubkar, a Bronx resident, remained on the scene as Rosario was transported to St. Lukes Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Abubkar was charged with a failure to yield to a pedestrian after an investigation by the NYPDs Colli-sion Investigation Squad.

BURGLARY: FIRE ESCAPES AS ENTRANCES (19TH PRECINCT)Police are looking for a two-time burglar who accessed homes on the Upper East Side through their

rear fire escapes. The suspect entered the East 81st Street homes on November 2 at 7:45 a.m. and 9 a.m., respectively, according to police.

From the first apartment building, the suspect made off with $1,765 worth of electronics, jewelry, cloth-ing, and personal documents, according to police. Shortly after, the suspect made off with two stolen lap-tops and prescription medicine worth $2,500 from the second apartment from, police said.

ATTEMPTED ROBBERY: RESISTANCE (26TH PRECINCT)On November 4, two suspects were reported attempting to steal a womans purse in Morningside

Park near West 116th Street, according to police. Police said that around 6 p.m., the 24-year-old victim was approached from behind and thrown to the ground by one of the suspects who grabbed her hair.

According to police, the victim resisted giving up her purse and the suspects fled empty-handed after another person walked by.

FATALITY: PEDESTRIAN LEFT DEAD (20TH PRECINCT)Police said the driver of a 2002 Toyota Camry fatally struck a pedestrian on November 7 at around 5

p.m. The 86-year-old female was crossing West End Avenue near West 64th Street when the vehicle travel-ling northbound on the avenue hit her, according to police.

While the vehicle remained at the scene, the victim was transported to St. Lukes Hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said. The NYPDs Collision Investigation Squad has an ongoing investigation of the incident, according to police.

ATTEMPTED ROBBERY: FOUR VS. ONE (26TH PRECINCT)Four females are wanted for an attempted robbery on November 4 at around 6 p.m., police said.

According to police, four females in their 20s approached a 24-year-old female victim and threw her to the ground at the intersection of Morningside Drive and West 116th Street. The four suspects attempted to grab the victims handbag but were unsuccessful and fled.

Police Blotter

Midtown North Precinct306 West 54th Street212-767-8400

Midtown South Precinct357 West 35th Street212-239-9811

17th Precinct167 East 51st Street212-826-3211

19th Precinct153 East 67th Street212-452-0600

20th Precinct120 West 82nd Street212-580-6411

23rd Precinct162 East 102nd Street212-860-6411

24th Precinct151 West 100th Street212-678-1811

26th Precinct520 West 126th Street212-678-1311

Central Park Precinct86th Street and Transverse Road

212-570-4820


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Uptown and Down, Manhattan Stands With Paris

PHOTO ESSAY BY MICK MEENAN & DONNA ACETO

In the 24 hours after at least 129 people were killed in Paris in coordinated ter-rorist attacks for which ISIS has claimed responsibility, crowds turned up at various Manhattan locales to show their respect, love, and solidarity for the people of the City of Lights.

Throughout the evening of November 14, one day after the tragic news came from Paris, mourners gathered outside the French Consulate on Fifth Avenue between 74th and 75th Streets to leave flowers and notes of condolences. Along with the blue, white, and red of the French flag, a graphic rendering of the Eiffel Tower used on social media to signal support for the residents of Paris was affixed to the Consulates door.

Throughout the darkened hours, the crowd remained somber and quiet.

Hours earlier, many hundreds surged into Washington Square Park in Green-wich Village to show support for the peo-ple of France and mourn those lost. For the most part, that gathering, too, was quiet, except for when the crowd raised their fists and sang La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.. n

EXPRESS OURSELVES

DONNA ACETO

The silence at Washington Square Park was broken when the crowd, with fists raised in the air, sang La Marseillaise.

MICK MEENAN

Flowers and notes of condolences were delivered by a quiet and somber crowd at the Consulate.

MICK MEENAN

A rendering of the Eiffel Tower conveyed the depth of emotion of those on hand.

DONNA ACETO

A sign of spiritual solidarity with Paris at Washington Square Park.


Schumer, Nadler Play Key Roles in Manhattan Pedestrian Safety

BY BETH FINKEL

Walking the streets of Manhattan is dan-gerous and were not talking crime.Pedestrians accounted for two of every three

traffic fatalities in the borough from 2003 to 2012, highest in the state and well above the national average of less than one in eight.

And the older the pedestrian, the more dan-gerous our streets are.

While New Yorkers 65 and above make up 13 percent of the states population, seniors accounted for one third of pedestrian fatali-ties from 2003-2010. Older pedestrians died at a rate of 4.9 per 100,000 New York resi-dents, more than three times the rate of 1.5 for younger residents.

Add up all the numbers and New York is the third most dangerous state for senior pedestri-ans in the nation. Not surprisingly, over half of New York City voters 50 and older surveyed by AARP called traffic lights that are timed too fast for safe crossing a problem.

Senator Charles Schumer and Representa-tive Jerry Nadler can do something about what is clearly a threat to the residents of Manhat-tan. As members of a conference committee reconciling the House and Senate versions of the federal transportation bill, they should ensure that the strong pedestrian safety mea-sures included in the Senate measure remain in the final conference report with the House.

Both versions move in the right direction and neither requires additional federal funding.

The House requires the federal secretary of transportation to encourage states to adopt design standards that take into account all users of roads and requires a report by the sec-retary identifying best practices.

Encouraging states is good, but it doesnt go far enough. The Senate requires the transpor-tation secretary to establish design standards for the safe accommodation of all users through all phases of project planning, development, and operation. It provides a waiver for states including New York that already have a poli-cy in place or a law on the books to provide for safe and adequate accommodation for all users, ensuring those states receive additional federal resources to implement their policies while mak-ing all states safer for pedestrians. And it requires state transportation departments to report on implementation and determine compliance.

The Senates Safe Streets provision has the backing of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, the Alliance for Biking and Walking, and the group America Walks, along with the Institute of Transportation Engineers, the American Planning Association, and others.

The population of Manhattan, New York, and the nation is aging. People are living longer, and the Baby Boom generation is moving into retirement.

As people age, they become more suscepti-

ble to dangerous roads; in 2013, the 50-plus accounted for 33.7 percent of the nations pop-ulation but 45 percent of pedestrian fatalities. And from 2009 to 2013, pedestrian fatalities grew by 16 percent while overall traffic fatali-ties actually declined.

As we age, we are looking for safe communi-ties where we can remain close to our families. The ability to walk safely to shop, visit a park, attend an event, medical appointment, or cul-tural or religious institution, see friends and family, or simply get exercise is becoming more and more important.

Research shows that well-designed sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, and other features to accommodate all modes of travel can significant-ly reduce injuries, deaths, and automobile crash-es. Additionally, safe, convenient, and efficient transportation infrastructure enhances the qual-ity of communities, supports property values, and mitigates the effects of traffic congestion.

As the shortest day of the year approaches and darkness falls before evening rush hour and as Americans embrace more transpor-tation choices were reminded of just how important safe streets are.

Thats why we need Senator Schumer and Representative Nadler to make sure federal law keeps pace with our needs.

Beth Finkel is state director of AARP in New York State and a resident of Manhattan. n

EXPRESS YOURSELVES

The Magic in Finding Something Precious But Lost

BY LENORE SKENAZY

Remember that old expression Finders keepers, losers weep-ers? Does it even exist anymore?

Last week I lost my phone on the Q58 bus, but before I even realized it was missing, I sat down at my computer and found emails from my family, Call a lady named Grace. She has your phone.

She did indeed.Shed found it on the seat next to

her, taken it with her to work, and reached the favorites on my con-tact list. Soon I was in a Mexicana Car Service car heading to her at her workplace in Maspeth, Queens: United Basket. This turned out to

be a cool 100-year old factory filled with every possible basket (big sur-prise) and an even cooler young woman, Grace Chen, who cheer-fully handed over the Android, ada-mantly refused a reward, and hur-ried back to her job.

A couple of months ago some-one stole my wallet on the subway, and another wonderful young woman a waitress in a Colom-bian restaurant found it on the street, bereft of cash but otherwise intact, She contacted me and also refused a reward.

Could it be that this is the way of the world or at least New York? Finders arent keepers? I started asking around.

I got a message that said, I found your phone. Please call me, recalled Natalie Yates, co-founder of the digital agency Blue Iceberg Interactive. I did. It was a taxi driver in Westchester. Hed just gotten off his shift, found the phone, and he said that once his wife got home, she could take care of the kids and he could drive back into Manhattan with his truck to bring me my phone.

Drive it in? After his shift? I can survive without my phone

for a night! Natalie told him. To which he replied with a laugh, A lot of people cant.

Instead, they arranged for him to drop it off the next day, where-

upon he told Natalie that he always returns things, including, one time, $10,000 that had been left in his cab. For that good deed, he got a $20 tip.

Natalie gave him $30.For her return efforts, perform-

er Laurie Gamache got some love-ly wine.

I used to live in a little basement studio on West 96th Street, said Laurie, who now teaches theater arts at the School of the Blessed Sacrament, as well as running the Theatre West 97th program at the Franciscan Community Center on the Upper West Side. I was getting

c SKENAZY, continued on p.20


Launched in August 2014, Uber-WAV is generating nearly 4,000 trips per month with an average pick up time of five to seven min-utes, the spokesperson wrote.

Uber is known for generating controversy and lawsuits.

The California chapter of the National Federation of the Blind sued the San Francisco-based com-pany in 2014 after drivers refused to transport service dogs. That case is in settlement talks with the federation hoping to set a national standard for Ubers handling of ser-vice dogs. A wheelchair user in New York City and another in Arizona have sued the company.

In disability cases, Uber, which does not employ drivers or own cars, has said that it is an app and not a public accommodation as that is defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act and so it is not subject to the provisions of that federal law.

Hundreds of cab companies, rid-ers, and drivers have hauled Uber into federal court in class action law-suits accusing the company of unfair

business practices, stealing tips, charging fees that it is not authorized to collect, and other allegations.

Uber responded to the mayors cap proposal with an aggressive and well-funded media and lob-bying campaign. The de Blasio administration eventually with-drew the proposal and is now con-ducting a study on Ubers impact. That study is to be completed by the end of this month.

Since March of 2014, Uber has spent just under $390,000 lobbying City Council members, the mayors office, and the citys Taxi and Lim-ousine Commission, with $302,500 spent on lobbying the Council. Between mid-2013 and mid-2015, Uber spent $110,000 lobbying state officials, though some of those lob-byists were also counted as lobby-ing New York City elected officials.

Advocates worry that Uber will win a state law that allows it to operate anywhere by preempting local regulations and the companys economic impact will continue to reduce the transportation options for people who use wheelchairs and scooters, leaving them with even fewer choices. n

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ready to go on the road with A Cho-rus Line, and so I was cleaning out the place. In a crack in the plaster of her fireplace, she found a class ring.

The year on the r ing was 1980-something, and this was still in the 80s. There was a name engraved, too. Laurie put it in a box in her desk drawer, intending to try to find the owner. But then it slipped her mind. For decades.

By the time I got back years later I forgot all about it, she explained. But when she was pre-paring for a move, she cleaned out her desk and opened a little box she found. Oh yes! The ring! How to find its owner?

Well, in the intervening years a device had been invented to do just that: the Internet. So instead of thumbing through phone books, Laurie instantly found the owner on line an upstate judge and sent it back to her. The judges husband runs a winery, so the exchange con-cluded with a drinkable reward, nicely aged.

Just like the ring.Dana Rubin, the chief executive

officer at Rubin&Co, an executive communications and content cre-ation company, had a different sort of experience recovering something lost. She came home one night to a ransacked apartment.

What pained her most was the loss of a bag of jewelry, including sentimental pieces given to her by her parents.

I was devastated, she recalls.About a year later, she called a

charitable organization to come pick up some furniture she was donat-ing. As the workers lifted up her mattress, there was the jewelry bag. She had put it there for safekeeping which, apparently, worked.

Id been sleeping on it all year, she said.

According to my sister-in-law, however, even in a world of good people and eureka moments, there is only one sure-fire way to find a lost and precious item: Go online and shop for a replacement. Press Purchase. Look up.

There it is.

Lenore Skenazy is a speaker, author, and founder of the book and blog Free-Range Kids. n

c SKENAZY, from p.19

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According to the project s architect, Richard Cook of Cook-Fox Architects, the new building would feature red and tan mason-ry that matches the surrounding buildings and residential terraces that allow for planting. The build-ing plans also incorporate ideas for environmental sustainability and a goal of achieving Leader-ship in Energy & Environmental Design certifications.

The plans also call for the creation of a small garden, named the Heal-ing Turtle Island Garden, between the church and the residential building. The gardens name comes from an initiative by the Collegiate Churches of New York of which the West End Avenue church is one of the ministries for reconciliation with the indigenous Lenape tribe, who lived in an area stretching from southeastern Connecticut to north-ern Delaware that includes the city. Turtle Island was the Lenape name for what European settlers termed the New World.

After tearing down the old build-ing, the construction of the new property at 260 West 78th Street

would be done alongside renovation work on the existing 378 West End Avenue building.

The renovations of the West End Avenue building would include restorative work on the buildings faade, cornices, and balconies and a full window replacement pro-gram. Additionally, the renovations would include a two-story rooftop addition that is minimally visible from the street.

After the presentation during CB7s November 4 meeting, the board unanimously approved the plan, which members said they felt was contextually sensitive to the his-toric district and took steps to visu-ally reduce the buildings bulk and introduce greenery to the property.

The boards one suggestion was about the possibility of an affordable housing component in the plan, but the church contended that would create a much bulkier building.

With board approval, the proj-ect now moves for approval from the citys Landmarks Preservations Commission since its located in the Riverside-West End Historic District. Kolinsky said the church expects to go in front of the LPC in early December. n

c COLLEGIATE, from p.10

COOKFOX ARCHITECTS

A photo of 378 West End Avenue with the Collegiate Schools Platten Hall behind it compared to a CookFox Architects rendering of the reconstruction of the properties with Platten Hall replaced with a building that steps back from the street as it rises.

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BY ZITA ALLEN

A rthur Mitchell, the pioneer-ing ballet dancer, artistic director, and choreographer who, in the 1950s, became the first African-American principal danc-er with the New York City Ballet (NYCB) was celebrated at Colum-bia University October 27 and 28.

The occasion marked Mitch-ells donation to Columbia of his archive a treasure trove of pho-tographs, posters, clippings, and correspondence with the likes of Igor Stravinsky, Josephine Baker, Alvin Ailey, Geoffrey Holder, Car-men de Lavallade, David Dinkins, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela. The archive also includes film footage and other material documenting an amazing life, a stellar career, and the impact of a man whose life has helped change Americas cultural landscape.

On October 26, the two-day event, entitled The Arthur Mitch-ell Project Symposium, opened with a retrospective of the career of this self-described political activ-ist through dance, among whose achievements was the co-founding in 1969 of the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH).

The centerpiece was a conver-sation between Mitchell, who is now 81, and friends, including icon Carmen de Lavallade, former NYCB ballerinas Allegra Kent, a Barnard College dance pro-fessor, and Kay Mazzo, a found-ing member of the George Bal-anchine Trust. Barnard professor Lynn Garafola, who co-chairs the Dance Department, moderated as Mitchell recalled how, when he was a young teen, dancer Mary

Hinkson introduced him to the Katherine Dunham School where future mentor and DTH co-found-er Karel Shook taught ballet. Mitchell also expressed heartfelt appreciation for NYCBs founder and choreographer George Bal-anchine and co-founder Lincoln Kirstein when recounting his his-toric admission to that company and how, years later, Balanchine made generous gifts of his own masterpieces and more to Mitch-ells fledgling company.

Punctuating these and other moments were film clips of Mitch-ell partnering Hinkson in Bal-anchines Figure in a Carpet or dancing with de Lavallade in Don-ald McKayles classic Rainbow Round My Shoulder. There was

also a clip of Mitchell partnering Kent in the Agon pas de deux that Southern TV stations refused to air because it featured a black man dancing with a white woman.

The two days were full of such reminiscences as well as analytical insights shedding light on Mitch-ells illustrious career and his tre-mendous impact on the nations arts and culture.

Three panel discussions on October 27 focused on the key role Mitchells archive can play going forward in incorporating African Americans stories and influence into our understanding of ballet history. One panel tackled the role Mitchell and DTH played in creat-ing opportunities for other artists of color. Moderated by Pulitzer

Prize-winning columnist, author, and Columbia professor Margo Jef-ferson, that panel included former DTH principal Karen Brown, one of the few black women to serve as artistic director of an American ballet company (Oakland Ballet), Karyn Collins, a Rutgers Universi-ty journalism professor and dance critic, Robert Garland, a DTH cho-reographer and former principal, DTH founding music director and composer Tania Len, and Vernon Ross, former DTH wardrobe mas-ter and designer who now works with the Metropolitan Opera and Radio City Music Hall.

Another panel looked at the importance of Mitchell and Shook, his DTH co-founder, having cre-ated an institution that included not only the company but a school and an outreach component, as well. Moderated by Brent Hayes Edwards, a Columbia professor of English and Comparative Litera-ture, it included former DTH prin-cipal ballerina and current artistic director Virginia Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post critic Sarah L. Kaufman, Florida State University professor Anjali Austin, a former DTH dancer, and Barnards Garafola,

The third panel discussed the political, cultural and socio-eco-nomic turmoil of the Civil Rights era and its impact on Mitch-ells decision to create DTH and debunk all the myths and buga-boos that plagued aspiring black ballet dancers for so long. This panel also grappled with questions about how to build on advances into this once taboo dance terri-

Columbia University Honors Dance Pioneer Arthur Mitchell,

Accepts His Archive

COURTESY: JENNIFER PELLERITO, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

A young Arthur Mitchell showing off the ballet technique that won him his distinction as the first African-American principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.

c ARTHUR MITCHELL continued on p.25


BY PAUL SCHINDLER

W ith Jackson Pollock: A Col-lection Survey, 19341954, the Museum of Modern Art offers what it terms a concise but detailed survey of this abstract impressionist American painter.

The exhibition, which runs from November 22 through March 16 in the second floor Paul J. Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Gal-leries, traces his evolution from the 1930s and early 1940s during part of which he worked for the WPA Federal Art Project when his work consisted of what MoMA describes as loosely figurative images based on mythical or pri-meval themes, to the late 40s and early 50s when he pioneered his drip painting style that result-ed in the radical abstractions for which he is best known.

A reclusive figure with his wife Lee Krasner, a painter and the steward of his legacy after his death at 44, he left Manhattan for the then quiet confines of Long Islands East End toward the end of 1945 Pollock struggled with alcoholism and sought Jung-ian psychotherapy, the influence of which some critics see in his work after 1940. He died when he crashed his convertible under the influence of alcohol in the sum-

mer of 1956. MoMAs exhibition features

about 50 works paintings, drawings, and prints from its collection, which the museum boasts is unparalleled in the breadth, depth, and quality of Pollock holdings.

The exhibition includes what MoMA termed arguably Pollocks greatest masterpiece, One: Num-ber 31, 1950 (1950).

The exhibition also includes rare and little-known engravings, lithographs, screenprints, and drawings.

The array of works brought together here, drawing on a wide array of materials and techniques, underscores, in MoMAs estima-tion, the relentless experimen-tation and emphasis on process that was at the heart of Pollocks creativity. n

A Concise But Wide-Ranging Pollock Show at MoMA

JACKSON POLLOCK: A COLLECTION SURVEY, 19341954Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St.

Nov. 22-Mar. 16: Fri., 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m.

Sat.-Thu., 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

$25; $18 for seniors; $14 for students

moma.org

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART/ POLLOCK-KRASNER FOUNDATION/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY, NEW YORK

Untitled, c. 1950; ink on paper, 17 1/2 x 22 1/4".

MUSEUM SPOTLIGHT

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FEMININE PERSUASION: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN SONGWRITERS

In her annual Thanksgiving week show at Feinsteins /54 Below, Ann Hampton Cal-laway celebrates the work of women song-writers who have inspired her own career as a composer and lyricist. Billie Holidays God Bless the Child, Carole Kings Will You Love Me Tomorrow?, and Dorothy Fields The Way You Look Tonight are among the tunes Callaway will perform, along with classics from Peggy Lee, Joni Mitchell, Cyn-thia Weil, Michelle Brourman, and Amanda McBroom. Callaway is directed by Dan Foster and backed by her all-star trio Ted Rosen-

thal at the piano, Martin Wind on bass, and Tim Horner on drums. Nov. 22-28, 7 p.m. 254 W. 54th St. Tickets are $60

manhattan express

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