November 5, 2015 - WestchesterGuardian.com

Transcription

PRESORTED
PRESORTED
STANDARD
STANDARD
PERMIT#3036
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WHITEPLAINS
PLAINSNY
NY
WHITE
Vol.VI,
VI,No.
No.XLV
XLIXI
Vol.
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
Thursday
October
8, 2015 5,
• $1.00
Thursday
November
2015
New
We Face
RealRochelle
Challenges to
Fire Department
Awards
Representative
Democracy
Story Page 4.
Story by Lee Hamilton, Page 5
Photo Courtesy of the City of New Rochelle
How Effective Was the
Vote You Just Cast?
Steve Mayo Page 3
Supergirl to
Superstruct?
John McMullen Page 7
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, NOVEMBER 5, 2015,
COMMUNITY
Should New Rochelle Try Two Way Traffic?
By Peggy Godfrey
How many times
do you hear a honking
horn in New Rochelle’s
downtown? There is a
distinct possibility that a
lot more horns will be honking if New
Rochelle converts Main and Huguenot
Streets from one-way to two-way, slower
traffic in an effort to help the downtown
businesses. This prospect was addressed
at the October 20, 2015 meeting of
New Rochelle City Council. Concern
was also raised regarding nearby streets,
including Jackson and Pratt Streets and
blocks near the turn at Huguenot, and
toward Main Street from the I-95 area.
RDRXR paid for the traffic study
and this report is part of their evaluation
of the downtown New Rochelle area,
included in the back of the GDEIS
(Generic Draft Environmental Impact
Statement) that can be found in the
New Rochelle Public Library.
Aided by research presented to
council as reported in the Access, Fall
2012 issue titled, “Two Way Traffic
Keep Right,” the study stated two-way
streets aid businesses: traffic that moves
more slowly improves “livability of the
downtown areas.” Two-way traffic
patterns also allow drivers to reach their
destinations with greater ease, avoiding
the need to navigate around a series of
one-way streets.
The study does note that one-way
streets do offer drivers greater ease in
making many left-hand turns. Although
signal timing at two way intersections
can address this disadvantage, fewer
cars are be able to make the turn in
the allotted signal time. By contrast,
one-way streets allow more cars to flow
in traffic. But, will the slower traffic of
two-way streets have the opposite effect
and instead discourage people from
coming downtown? Another layer of
complexity is added as planners consider
when and where left turns should be
banned. This has to be evaluated along
with average trip lengths and the size of
the downtown district.
At this city council meeting, the
AKRF traffic study prepared by Nelson
Nygart (and paid for by RDRXR) was
discussed by Mike King. Traffic counts
in the study were related to the various
aspects of proposed downtown development. Elements to be considered include
pedestrians, access and egress to and from
the train station, the park and bike riding.
Automobile counts were taken starting
downtown east at the Radisson, and at
exit 16 on I-95. The peak traffic from
Cedar Street to Shop and Stop was less
than one car per minute.
Changes in access near the train
station and Station Plaza were suggested. Traffic Planners propose
redirecting traffic going into the train
station from Memorial Highway and
having vehicles exit the station on North
Avenue. It was suggested this change be
tried before the needed repairs are made
on the bridge by the state. If Burling
Lane is made one way then Lockwood
is the next exit street to North Avenue.
The analysis suggested shifting traffic to
Memorial Highway to free up North
Avenue.
The study noted that Main Street
is narrower than Huguenot Street and
perhaps a striped median would be used
on Main Street to make it possible to
pass someone who is double-parked. It
might also be useful to have a painted
island added at the western end of Main
Street at the Pintard intersection. A trial
for two-way traffic was suggested. Some
left turns could be banned until the city
is able to establish the desired flow of
traffic The impact of blocking eight to
eleven parking spaces on Huguenot to
facilitate two-way traffic is unknown.
With regard to RDRXR, New
Rochelle Development Commissioner
Luiz Aragon suggested a pilot study
is needed to sort out bus traffic. If
City Council approves a plan, the
city can pass any needed legislation.
Councilman Jared Rice noted the need
to calm-down car traffic. There is lack
of agreement on the best pattern for
traffic on Division Street but it is known
the Police and Fire Departments avoid
them. The study also suggested Main
Street has an antiquated signal system.
Changes to Exit 16 from I-95 were
brought up by City Councilwoman
Shari Rackman, as was the prospect of a
street on the edge of the Toyota property
disappearing. Council member Barry
Fertel asked why the “one way in and
out of the station” couldn’t be reversed
and was told this is due to the inability to turn North on Division Street.
The ability of people who live in New
Rochelle to get in and out of the station
with this plan was discussed.
Although the traffic counts were
made last year in anticipation of
changing these downtown streets to two
way traffic flow, it is obvious the plan is
to complement RDRXR’s development
proposal. The traffic study illustrated
intersections with delays from 55 to 80
seconds (classified as E or F) and some
exceeding 89 seconds. For example,
Centre Avenue North and Main Street
northbound left turns in the morning
rush hour had an “F” northbound or
a delay of 91.3 seconds. At Echo and
Main Streets during the AM rush hour,
the left turn had an F or 229-second
delay. Main Street and Memorial
Highway in the PM rush hour had an E
or 66.8-second delay. There were more
intersections with D, a delay between
35.0 and 55.0 seconds. North Avenue
at Anderson Street had a left turn of
51.5-second delay in the morning -peak
hours. Division and Huguenot Streets
had a 50.9 second delay for right turns
in the morning peak traffic.
After the meeting, Councilman
Lou Trangucci suggested that he had
doubts about whether a two-way traffic
system would work in downtown.
However, he felt the city should give it
a try.
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Table of Contents
Community...............................................2
Commentary.............................................3
Cover Story...............................................4
Government..............................................5
Community...............................................6
Creative Disruption...................................7
Travel.........................................................9
Eye on Theatre.........................................11
Local Lore...............................................12
Literary Award........................................13
Calendar..................................................14
Legal Ads................................................14
International Film...................................15
Mary at the Movies.................................16
Sam Zherka, Publisher
Mary Keon, Editor /Advertising
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Page 3
COMMENTARY
Hey Voter: How Effective Was The Vote You Just Cast? City Services Not
Improved Yet? Call “Yer” Political Machine! (And Good Luck With That!)
By Steve Mayo
C
M
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CM
MY
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enjoy a one-vote majority on its council,
but that condition is always at risk of
revisions owing to the fractious state
of the city and its political organizations. Its mayor is a Republican
apostate, having flipped parties rather
clamorously in 2007 (“…Issues of the
Republicans in Washington have been
destroying the Republican Party”) though
it is not apparent how his present
“Democratic-ness” has influenced his
tenure. The District Attorney also abandoned her Republican affiliation to join
the Democratic Party.
New Rochelle presents a pathetic
example of Republican Party organizational woe and personal ambition. After
decades of generally conservative political control, interspersed with alternating
terms of Democratic and Republican
mayoralties, the GOP was essentially banished from city hall in 1991.
The mayoralty and a tenuous council
majority were swept from office and
given up to a suffocating Democratic
Party machine that regulates the city.
This one party controls finances
and management; directs zoning and
planning board appointments; the
membership of boards of assessment
review, civil service, historical landmark
review, human rights, “industrial development,” municipal arts and the youth
bureau. Precisely where all this newlyincubated “industry” is located in New
Rochelle remains nebulous. In an
informal manner, the party apparatus
accretes its dominant status by assigning
candidacies for the nominally independent library board and the PTA,
as well as exploiting the Federation of
United School Employees (FUSE!)
teachers’ union contacts to control the
legally separate New Rochelle Board of
Education.
And where does the Republican
loyal opposition fit into all of this?
Well, “fit” is not the right word. In fact,
Republican influence has withered to
essentially, no actually, less than, zero.
Of seven council seats, a seriously conservative Republican tenuously holds
one, vigorously and assiduously sticking
up for the small property and business
owner, regularly on the lookout for
waste in personnel assignments and
material supplies. The party constantly
argues for improved systems of police
patrol and defense against fires and
threats to public health.
The other, a crony capitalist of the
first order who has been quoted as saying
he couldn’t act “too Republican” and
fiscally “conservative” for fear of antagonizing his leftish (although reliably
capitalistic) clientele from the city’s
leafy Scarsdale/Mamaroneck bordering
northern environs. So bereft of even a
trace of civics class-idealism that he will
rely almost exclusively on the guiding
gusts of city council majority sentiment
when voting. Likely any majority will
do, Democratic, Republican, right, left,
socialist or Royalist. According to one
regular council observer, he has been
heard speaking for himself (and in this
one case, the entire board) only once
recently, when he had to take the place
of our usually loquacious but lately laryngitic young mayor Bramson.
Republicans are absent from the
fabric of city life and yet through luck,
the county executive’s fiscally conservative message resonates with enough city
residents to send two Republicans to
the county board. In the 10th County
Continued on page 4
THE NEXT GENERATION
OF SURGEONS
© 2015 St. John’s Riverside Hospital | All Rights Reserved.
By the time many
of you have read this,
the election season may
already have ended. For
you, it is too late, so clip and save this till
next year. For others, please read on and
then hurry to the polls.
The issues have never been clearer.
In fact, the issues get clearer every year.
Your “governments,” (there are “oh, so
many!), are taking advantage of you. If
you live in New York City or in another
metropolitan giant, the local government budget is larger than that of many
states and countries. The budgets of
prominent suburbs surrounding New
York (Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk and
Bergen for instance) are often larger
than those of many small cities.
With size comes carelessness and
neglect. Purchasing decisions have
greater impact. Hiring choices affect
the work lives of enormous bureaucracies covering multitudes of offices.
Decisions over capital construction and
maintenance ultimately concern thousands of users, employees, taxpayers and
visitors. But with so much at stake, we
have invested very little in the process
of selecting the decision-makers and
leaders in our various villages, towns,
cities and counties and in and among
the states.
In the northeast generally, the
electoral process is integrated with a
binary political system where choices
of candidates for primary and general
elections are entrusted to two major
entities: Republican and Democratic
affiliates of the larger national organizations. Alternatives are rare. While New
York State is more tolerant of third or
forth parties than other states, it still is a
considerable challenge anywhere in the
state, from Hauppauge to Horseheads,
to gain real traction against the “binary
two” in terms of funding, organization
and the benefits of incumbency.
Regional demographics and
national political sea-changes, such as
the Progressive period, FDR’s New
Deal, the Goldwater (from a Republican
perspective) disaster, Watergate and
the Reagan realignment, have made
this into a generally leftist Democratic
stronghold, with stubborn outposts of
rightist Republican success in certain
(but no longer all) suburbs, exurban and
rural areas. These patterns have repeated
commonly throughout heavily populated regions of the Northeast, Pacific
west and Northwest and occasionally
throughout the South, the Midwest and
the remainder of the nation.
For those of us living in Westchester,
the second wealthiest county in the
nation in terms of median income per
person (though only 47th wealthiest in
sum total, likely due to its relatively small
population of 973,000), what quality of
life has this political system wrought? A
mixed bag for sure.
Considerable wealth in Rye, Pound
Ridge, Scarsdale, Chappaqua and other
zip codes in the middle and north of the
county has brought superior services,
nation-leading educational systems and
pleasingly amenable, almost pastoral
Main Street business districts. Down
county, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Mount
Vernon and White Plains along with
the mega-township of Greenburgh,
though “suburban” by virtue of location,
struggle with the urban issues of
crowding, population growth, delivery
of public services, and transportation. If
incorporated as a city, Greenburgh, with
a population of 88,000 would be the
second largest in the county.
Democratic machines predominate. In White Plains, no Republican
has served on its Common Council
for more than a decade (apart from
the fortuitous succession of an amiable
Republican mayor years back). So
ubiquitous is Democratic indoctrination, that a local White Plains paper
(not warranting any citation here), after
noting the unusual challenge of a single
Republican to six Democratic officeholders, could manage only to thank Anne
Marie Encarnacao for her pluck and
then endorse again six incumbents so that
they could finish the good works that they
‘have just begun’ (sic) (emphasis, exclamation, the author’s). Mount Vernon
has suffered the benighted leadership of
a Democratic kleptocracy for decades.
The only recent flash of Republican
life occurred two years ago when a
Democrat council member crossed
party lines and endorsed Rob Astorino
for re-election as County Executive.
Yonkers Republicans presently
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COMMUNITY
STRONG
Page 4
LETTER TO EDITOR
COMMENTARY
Hey Voter: How Effective Was The Vote You Just Cast?
Continued from page 3
Legislative District, we have a bold and
principled, fiscal and social conservative.
By contrast, the 11th County District
Legislator is openly misty-eyed and
Utopian in quest of a suspired judgeship,
rather than being focused on our social
and economic betterment. In short, New
Rochelle Republicans are as rare as 1909
S-VDB pennies in political, civic, charitable and ordinary non-governmental
organization (NGO) participation and
leadership.
Wouldn’t a Democrat raised on
the ideals of Roosevelt, Kennedy and
McCarthy (Eugene, that is) appreciate the intellectual contributions of
just a small and reasonable complement of Republicans to serve in local,
state and federal office? Why the
anti-GOP animus in New York and
throughout the northeast? One can
understand how pronouncements by
South Dakota’s Congressional delegation of Republicans (and Democrats for
that matter!) concerning economics and
culture to state flax growers might grate
on metropolitan ears. Coastal, “Eastern”
concerns certainly command their own
biases. But what ever happened to
canons of humanity and fairness? And
what ever became of “bi-partisanship?”
I accept that it might be difficult to
celebrate bipartisanship or even play at it
when the opposition is non-existent, as
in White Plains or seems to be in hiding
in New Rochelle, or in Mount Vernon,
simply extinct. But wouldn’t the reanimation of a legitimate opposing party or
confederacy (other than a mere primary
faction) contribute mightily to the marketplace of ideas?
We are faced with budget constraints
in local, state and federal government;
questions of Common Core standardization and dreamed-of individuation in
education theory. The country is searching for effective, but humane approaches
to law enforcement, reliable national
defense and border security. Wouldn’t
constructive ideas from minority parties
targeting the problems we face be worth
the discrete cost in political control to
the majority party to (usually, though
not exclusively, Democrat)? Isn’t the
public welfare worth a fractional cost in
political power?
And why does one hear the media
and punditocracy cry for “bi-partisanship” only when and where Republicans
are in control in the United States
Senate and Congress, the state capitals
or the rare municipal legislative chamber
and mayoralty? Where Democrats
dominate as they do throughout most of
the northeast, why is “partisanship” to be
accommodated? Why is it not worthy of
censure there?
With the voting concluded or
soon to be, the smoking and muddied
remains of the electoral battlefield
should be worth the attentions of our
citizens. Those not consumed with the
latest travails of our Mets, Giants or
favored fantasy sports franchises should
take a look at the results. Have any
incumbents lost? Has any machine been
displaced? Are any careerist bureaucrats (not deserving of Civil Service or
union protection) or family, friends and
hangers-on in danger of losing their
job through loss of office by a political
patron (never mind notions of vocational competence)?
Will the residents of Mount Vernon
have any chance of getting Memorial
Field completed after thirty years of
incompetence, irresolution and not a
little bit of corruption in the next five
years? Are White Plains residents happy
with the aggressive ticket summonsing
along Mamaroneck Avenue that hurts
local businesses? In New Rochelle, can
we expect something new from another
unquestioning council membership,
newly or identically constituted?
And lest one think my bare
Republican ties are obstructing my
thinking: are our readers in Eastchester
and Harrison content with the dizzying
ascent of real property taxes over the past
20 years or so of GOP predominance?
Is the political system working in
your local government? The next time
you are “mugged” by civic reality; the
explosion of taxes, fees, water and utility
billing (and the incessant growth of
gross receipts taxes and other add-ons by
such private suppliers), instead of calling
your “perennial” officeholder who hasn’t
yet done anything to curb the “inflation
of living and working expenses,” perhaps
you should find yourself an unruly
claque of “Tea Party”-type rabble-rousers to take up your cause.
Do you really think that the incumbent who owes his existence to the
feeding of the local political contraption will risk his economic well being by
doing anything, new or old, which could
displease his patrons? Why now? And
why for little you?
Stephen I. Mayo is an attorney,
owner of Mayo Linoleum Works
LLC, host of “The Steve Mayo Show”
with Cornelia Mrose on WVOX radio
1460 AM, Mondays from 6 to 7 PM
(www.thestevemayoshow.com)
and
legal counsel to the Westchester County
Tea Party. He is not embarrassed to be
known as a Republican.
Dear Editor:
Recently the Mayor of New
Rochelle has again called upon the
citizens of New Rochelle to take
part in supporting his plan to transform the skyline of New Rochelle
so it will be visible from outer space.
In order to accomplish this he has
called upon RDRXR to erect four
skyscrapers in the middle of New
Rochelle designed to attract people
from New York City to establish a
residence here. Of course, RDRXR
wants the taxpayers of New
Rochelle to provide them with tax
abatements.
The people of New Rochelle
need this development like a hole in
the head.
To make sure the residents of
New Rochelle die broke, the school
board wants to borrow $50 million
to fix the schools.
Since many people are opposed
to the mayor’s development plans
we are being labeled by our illustrious mayor as naysayers, among
other things.
Sincerely,
Larry Lucadamo
New Rochelle, NY
COVER STORY
New Rochelle Fire Department
Promotion and Awards Ceremony
On October 21, 2015, the New
Rochelle Fire Department hosted
their annual Promotion and Awards
Ceremony at the Council Chambers in
City Hall. Mayor Noam Bramson and
FD Chaplin Father Martin Biglin joined
Chief Louis DiMeglio as he honored
50 Firefighters with the Life Saving and
Unit Citation Awards and the Mayor
sworn in Firefighter Steven Fridovich.
Though we can never repay the
members of our Fire Department for
their daily acts of heroism, the ceremony
recognizes Firefighters for their amazing
acts of courage and bravery throughout
the year. Recipients of the Unit Citation
Awards included the three firefighters who delivered a healthy baby girl
on September 16, 2015 (Lt. Anthony
Margiotti, Firefighters Jarred McLean
and Daniel Thompson).
July 31, 2015
Unit Citation: Lt. Robert Ciotti, FF
Thomas Hensler and FF Babatunde
Ogunleye of Engine Company 24
Unit Citation: Lt. Carl Bartucca, FF
Richard Bongiorni, FF Andrew Burpee
and FF John Cestone of Engine
Company 21
Amazing Grace was performed by
the Westchester Fire Fighters Pipe Band.
Recipients of the Unit Citation and
Life Saving Awards:
November 2014
Unit Award Citation: Capt. Andrew
DiMaggio, Lt. Thomas Moriarty, Lt.
Anthony Marsico and FF Richard
Bongiorni, of the Urban Search And
Rescue Task Force.
February 6, 2105
The Life Saving Award: Lt. Bruce
Savage, FF Peter Celestino, FF Nicholas
Williams, PFF Neil Brown and Lt.
Michael Petrone (Off-duty) of Engine
Company 21.
February 8, 2015
The Life Saving Award: Lt. Anthony
Margiotti, FF Stephen Schmitt and FF
Marstus Hewitt of Engine Company 24.
February 21, 2015
The Life Saving Award: Lt. Robert
Ciotti, FF Daniel Thompson and FF
Jarred McLean of Engine Company 24.
April 25, 2015
The Life Saving Award: Lt. Anthony
Margiotti, FF Stephen Schmitt and FF
Daniel Thompson of Engine Company
24.
May 28, 2015
The Life Saving Award: Lt. Robert
Ciotti, FF Gary Bruzzese, FF Durette
Tyler and FF John Cestone of Engine
Company 24.
July 3, 2015
Unit Citation: Lt. John Sanfilippo, FF
Andrew Burpee and FF Durette Tyler of
Tower and Ladder Company 11.
Unit Citation: Lt. Michael Rende, FF
Eric Sarracino, FF Edgar Melgarejo and
FF John Cestone of Engine Company
21.
Unit Citation: DC John Reed and FF
Andrew Pelham of Rescue Car 2302
Unit Citation: Lt. Michael Rende. FF
Andrew Pelham and FF Timothy Ward
of Rescue 4
Unit Citation: Capt. Donald Bradley
and FF Alfred Bruzzese of Rescue Car
2302
September 7, 2015
Life Saving Award: Lt. Philip Cicchiello,
FF Kenneth Hanson, FF Robert
DiPasqua and FF John Bollettieri
Engine Company 21
September 16, 2015
Unit Citation: Lt. Anthony Margiotti,
FF Jarred McLean and FF Daniel
Thompson of Engine Company 24
Page 5
bills to the floor, where members get
several chances to shape the legislation
through amendments. The regular order
requires negotiation and compromise,
and gives members a fair crack at crafting
policy for the nation.
The American people want
Congress to work. They don’t expect a
solution to everything, and they certainly don’t expect miracles. But they
do expect a Congress that tries to make
progress and that’s capable of developing creative approaches to the major
problems of the day. The frustration for
me is that we know how to do things
better with a time-tested process, but
members of Congress simply ignore it.
the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.
GOVERNMENT
Congress’s Problems Are Deep-Seated But Fixable
By Lee H. Hamilton
A lot of ink is being
spilled about the speakership drama in the U.S.
House, the demands by
members of the conservative Freedom
Caucus, and the turmoil besetting the
Republicans who run Capitol Hill.
There is a pervasive sense in Washington
that Congress has gone, at least temporarily, off the rails.
Even members of Congress are
saying it. “I think the House is bordering
on ungovernable right now,” one prominent Republican told NBC earlier this
month. I’ve been around congressional
politics for over 50 years, and I can’t
ever remember hearing a member of
Congress say such a thing.
All this attention on the crises of
the moment suggests that resolving
them will fix Congress. It won’t. There
are three deep-seated issues that have to
be addressed before Congress can play a
constructive role in sustaining our place
in the world and tackling the tough
economic and social issues we face at
home.
The first sounds simple, but it is not:
Congress should work its will by letting
its members vote on the major issues of
the day. In legislatures, whoever controls
procedure usually controls results. In
Congress, leaders - and sometimes followers - in both parties for years have
manipulated the process to get the
results they want.
Omnibus bills and continuing
resolutions are part of this. Leaders try
to avoid tough issues if their caucus
members don’t want to vote on them.
The 60-vote requirement to avoid a filibuster in the Senate plays a role. So does
the “Hastert Rule” in the House, under
which a majority of the majority caucus
has to give its approval before a measure
moves forward.
These all carry a cost. Crucial issues
facing the American people don’t get
addressed. Congress moves from crisis
to crisis. Americans give up on the
institution. And members get frustrated when they can’t vote on issues
they know their constituents want
Congress to address. Giving members
of the House and the Senate a fair shot
at addressing the nation’s challenges
would deal Congress back into the
policy-making arena.
Second, Congress over the years
has developed several bad habits that
it needs to fix. These include huge bills
that become vehicles for special-interest
provisions and leadership wish-lists;
bypassing the committee process; concentrating power in the leaders; curbing
the participation of most members; and
limiting debates and amendments.
The most pernicious of these is the
practice of legislating by omnibus bills.
These consist of hundreds of provisions,
usually drafted in the dead of night
by leadership staff - not members of
Congress - brought to the floor with
scant time for anyone to read them,
limited time for debate, and few amendments allowed. They’re usually timed to
come up just before a key deadline on
a single up-or-down vote, so that the
leadership can threaten a government
shutdown if the bill fails.
The sad part here is that there are
a lot of members who’ve never known
anything different. An entire generation
on Capitol Hill thinks that bills they
had no part in shaping, are unable to
debate, and have no choice but to pass
are the way Congress runs.
It’s not. There’s another way, and it
brings me to my third point. We have
over 200 years of experience on Capitol
Hill that have taught us how to run a legislature so that the voice of the people can
be better heard, multiple viewpoints get
considered, and ordinary legislators get
a fair shot at influencing the results. It’s
called the “regular order,” and it involves
committees with authority holding
hearings, debating issues, and reporting
The Center on Congress is a research center
of the Office of the Vice Provost for Research
at Indiana University Bloomington
Reprinted with written permission from
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Complaints
onE FrEE AdUlT AdmISSIon
home
shoW
the 11th annual fall Westchester county
n o v E m b E r
7 - 8
Westchester county center
STUDENT AWARDS
Six NRHS Students Named National Merit
Scholarship Semifinalists
October 29, 2915 New Rochelle,
NY: The National Merit Scholarship
Corporation has named the following students Semifinalists in the 61st
annual National Merit Scholarship
Program: Eli Sills, Taylor Ullrich,
Oliver Hughes, Rebecca Meisler,
Sammy Stone and Gabrielle Altman.
About 1.5 million juniors in
more than 22,000 high schools
entered the 2016 National Merit
Scholarship Program by taking the
2014 Preliminary SAT/National
Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test
(PSAT/NMSQT). This served as an
initial screening of program entrants.
The nationwide pool of Semifinalists,
representing less than one percent of
U.S. high school seniors, includes the
Lee Hamilton is a Distinguished Scholar,
Indiana University School of Global and
International Studies; and a Professor
of Practice, IU School of Public and
Environmental Affairs. He was a member of
For information about the center’s educational resources and programs, visit our
website at www.centeroncongress.org. Go
to Facebook to express your views about
Congress, civic education, and the citizen’s
role in representative democracy. “Like”
us on Facebook at “Center on Congress
at Indiana University,” and share our
postings with your friends.
highest-scoring entrants in
each state. The number of
Semi-Finalists in a state is
proportional to the state’s
percentage of the national
total of graduating seniors.
To be considered for a
Merit Scholarship award,
Semifinalists must fulfill
Eli, Taylor, Oliver, Rebecca, Sammy, Gabrielle.
several requirements to Photo courtesy of New Rochelle Board of Education
advance to the Finalist level
of the competition. The Semifinalists and honors and awards received. The
and their high school must submit Semifinalist must have an outstanda detailed scholarship application, ing academic record throughout
in which they provide information high school, be endorsed and recomabout the Semifinalist’s academic mended by a high school official, write
record, participation in school and an essay, and earn SAT scores that
community activities, demonstrated confirm the student’s earlier perforleadership abilities, employment, mance on the qualifying test.
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COMMUNITY
Choral Singers Invited to New Oratorio
Taconic Opera invites choral
singers to participate in the world
premiere performance and professional recording of the oratorio JOB
by the company’s General and Artistic
Director, Dan Montez, on March 19,
2016 in Ossining and March 20, 2016
in White Plains, along with Taconic
Opera chorus, professional lead singers
and a full orchestra. Performances will
be conducted under the baton of Dan
Montez himself who is delighted to
debut the fifth of his oratorical compositions in Westchester County.The work
will be sung in English and its musical
influences include Fauré, Ravel and
Poulenc.
All voice parts are welcome,
particularly men, and no dues are
required. Experienced choristers will
not require an audition, however, all
interested singers must read music
and purchase their own score ($20). If
needed, auditions will be held prior to
regular rehearsals during the month of
November: 11/7, 11/11, 11/14, 11/18,
11/21, 11/25, 11/28. Scores will be available at a reduced price during rehearsal.
If interested and/or have additional
questions, contact divamaryc@aol.
com (preferred) or call (914) 649-1826.
Rehearsals
begin
Saturday,
November 7 at 3pm and continue
on Wednesdays from 7pm-9pm and
Saturdays from 3pm-5pm, with time off
for the December holidays. Concerns
regarding conflicts with the rehearsal
schedule will be happily discussed on a
case-by-case basis. Rehearsal location:
Cortland School of Performing Arts, 24
Old Albany Post Road, Cortlandt, NY
(Croton on a GPS).
New Snow Plows to Replace Decades-Old Equipment in Yonkers
Yonkers, NY – October 26, 2015
– Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano and
Department of Public Works (DPW)
Commissioner Tom Meier unveiled
16 new snow plows the City recently
purchased to enhance its snow and
ice control efforts. The new trucks will
replace older vehicles in DPW’s fleet,
some of which are more than 25 years
old. Mayor Spano credited the City’s
financial position with its ability to
make investments in infrastructure and
equipment.
“Everything relates to the City’s
financial position,” Mayor Mike Spano
Photo courtesy of the City of Yonkers
said. “When your finances are strong,
banks compete to purchase City bonds,
as we’ve seen in Yonkers. That drives
down rates, which saves millions in
taxpayer dollars, and gives us the ability
to make the infrastructure improvements that result in a higher quality of
life.”
Over the last three years, the City
has made major investments in infrastructure. In 2014, Yonkers became one
of the first cities in the region to replace
its streetlights with energy efficient
LEDs, saving taxpayers $18 million in
energy costs over ten years; last year, the
City replaced 30,000 aging water meters
with new, state-of-the-art equipment
that will ensure customers receive timely
and accurate readings; and this year the
City invested $8 million to repave City
streets.
The 16 new plows and salters, which
cost $2.3 million, will allow DPW to
take several of its older vehicles offline,
while others will be repurposed to serve
other functions including street brining.
DPW utilizes a fleet of 32 large trucks
and 15 small trucks that salt and plow
streets during winter storms. DPW
crews clear more than 650 lane miles of
roads, 450 dead-end streets and cul-desacs and 100 bridges.
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Page 7
CREATIVE DISRUPTION
Supergirl to Superstruct?
By John F. McMullen
I recently saw the
premiere episode of
CBS’ new Monday
night adventure series,
“Supergirl” and really
enjoyed it. The acting was good, the
special effects excellent, and the story
was faithful to the history of Krypton –
its explosion and the survivors (if it seems
as though I’m also into this comics stuff, it’s
because I am!).
It got me thinking about the differences between my young and adolescent
days of reading comics and now. Two
of the most popular comics then were
“Buck Rogers” (my favorite newspaper
comic then) and “Flash Gordon” – they
both dealt with space travel – impossible,
at least improbable, in the pre-Sputnik
days then. Now, science fiction comics
can’t keep up with reality as we continue
to send exploratory rockets and cameras
into far away galaxies.
The next most interesting comics
to me were the mystery and adventure ones – “Dick Tracy,” “Smilin’ Jack,”
“Terry and the Pirates,” “Little Orphan
Annie,” “The Phantom,” “Steve Canyon,”
“Mandrake the Magician,” and others
of that ilk – all gone now. Why would
they meet the same ends as the space
travel ones? One can only surmise. I
think its because these strips all dealt
with on-going stories, much like the
chapters of a novel, and one would have
to read them continually to be able to
understand what was going on and,
in our Internet age, most of the young
don’t read novels (certainly not in chapters
separated by a day, even a week). Even
the light humor, romance, and western
ones that required on-going attention
to story, like “L’il Abner” (that gave us
“Fearless Fosdick,” “Smoos” and “Sadie
Hawkins Day”), “Brenda Starr,” the
“Lone Ranger,” and “Hopalong Cassidy,”
bit the dust. The only surviving newspaper strip of this type that I can think of is
“Prince Valiant” and I never understood
the viability of that strip years ago, never
mind now.
While the newspaper versions of
“Superman” and “Batman” (which also
required attention to on-going story)
went the way of Buck Rogers and L’il
Abner, “superheroes” (a term that includes
crime fighters such as Batman and the
“Green Arrow,” who do not actually have
super powers but hold their own with those
who do) have done terrifically well in
the movies and in graphic novels and
rather well on television (Right now,
in addition to Supergirl, the “Flash”
and the Green Arrow have their own
weekly TV shows and “Gotham” is set
in Gotham City prior to the advent of
Batman when Detective James Gordon
(later “Commissioner Gordon” when
Batman was in full ascent) had to fight
crime without the benefit of the services
of the “World’s Greatest Detective.”
One only has to consider the success
of the on-going movie blockbusters
based on the Marvel Comics universe –
containing the “Avengers” (as a whole or
as the adventures of its individual members
– “Captain America,” “Thor,” “Iron Man,”
“AntMan,” etc.), the “X-Men,”“Fantastic
Four” and “SpiderMan.” While it is
helpful to know something about these
characters, each of the movies is a standalone story, not requiring knowledge of
the previous chapters – that requirement
is left to the readers of the on-going
comic books for each of the characters.
This readership is much, much smaller
than it was in the “Golden Age of Comics”
(late 1930s to the early or mid 1950s
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Golden_Age_of_Comic_Books) or
even the “Silver Age” (1956 – circa 1970
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Silver_Age_of_Comic_Books) but
the titles provide a “grounding” for the
on-going movies and graphics novels).
I’m sorry for the demise of the
comics. I and many others of my generation learned how to read long before
school because of comics – usually
from the comic strips present in the
Sunday papers – two radio shows.
“Uncle Don” and “The Comic Weekly
Man” would read the comics over the
radio on Sunday mornings to a citywide population of children -- who
would turn the pages and “read along”
with the radio. (New York City Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia, famously read the
comics over the radio during a 1945 newspaper strike -- https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=sKtfaTz_HC0).
Additionally, we got to adapt to the
idea of a continuing story and get used
to waiting for the next chapter, be it the
next day or the next week.
Some think that the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web with
its links and jumps here and there, has
taken away our ability to read novels
and non-fiction books – they go on too
Supergirl, the Season’s #1 New Series Premiere in Viewers and Adults 18-49. Image
courtesy of CBS Entertainment
long (for a terrific explanation of how our
“plastic brains” adapt to the way we take
in knowledge, see the excellent 2012 book
by John Naughton, “From Gutenberg to
Zuckerberg: What You Really Need to
Know About the Internet”; if you can read
the book, beginning to end, the Internet
hasn’t taken away your ability).
Well, if the young have stopped
reading comics, other than watching
television, what do they do for intellectual enjoyment? The answer seems to
be on-line gaming. In 4th quarter 2014,
“World of Warcraft” (http://us.battle.
net/wow/en/) had 10 million users
(at $14.99 per month, that is some cash
cow). While there are not comparable
statistics for all games, there are some
interesting related figures:
Over 21 million people have
bought the PC or Mac version of
“Minecraft”
(https://minecraft.
net/) and, on January 9th of this year,
1 million people were on the game at
once. A good history of Minecraft’s
development may be found in Daniel
Goldberg and Linus Larsson’s 2015
book, “Minecraft.”
The “World of Warcraft Wiki”
(“WOWWiki”) is said to be the second
largest wiki in the world, after Wikipedia
-- http://wowwiki.wikia.com/.
Linden Labs, creator of the virtual
world “Second Life” (http://www.
secondlife.com), states that 1 million
people use the system regularly.
The first three games in the “Myst”
series have sold more than 12 million
copies.
In short, online games are a big
thing, whether because of the numbers
of “players” or the money spent on
them. Many people not familiar with
the gaming world would find it easy to
dismiss the time spent in game worlds
as simply a waste of time, better spent
doing more productive things. Not so,
writes futurist and games designer Dr.
Jane McGonigal, in both her 2011
book, “Reality Is Broken: Why Games
Make us Better and How they Can
Change the World”, and her well-done
2012 TED talk, “Gaming Can Make
It A Better World” (https://www.ted.
com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_
can_make_a_better_world).
In the TED talk, she says that
we don’t play enough games: “Right
now we spend three billion hours a week
playing online games. Some of you might
be thinking, “That’s a lot of time to spend
playing games. Maybe too much time,
considering how many urgent problems
we have to solve in the real world.” But
actually, according to my research at the
Institute for the Future, actually the
opposite is true. Three billion hours a week
is not nearly enough game play to solve the
world’s most urgent problems. In fact, I
believe that if we want to survive the next
century on this planet, we need to increase
that total dramatically. I’ve calculated the
total we need at 21 billion hours of game
play every week. That’s probably a bit of a
counter-intuitive idea, so I’ll say it again,
let it sink in: If we want to solve problems
like hunger, poverty, climate change, global
conflict, obesity, I believe that we need to
aspire to play games online for at least 21
billion hours a week, by the end of the next
decade.”
She then goes on to explain her
rationale for what seems to be a rather
wild claim. From her studies, she finds
gamers to be super-focused highly-collaborative individuals who are willing to
take on epic tasks. What is needed she
feels is to develop gaming environments
that will allow gamers to take on issues of
importance to the physical or “real world.”
In the talk, she gives an example
of such a game that was created at the
“Institute for the Future”(http://www.
iftf.org/home/)– “We did a game called
Superstruct at the Institute for the Future.
And the premise was, a supercomputer has
calculated that humans have only 23 years
left on the planet. This supercomputer was
called the Global Extinction Awareness
System, of course. We asked people to come
online -- almost like a Jerry Bruckheimer
movie. You know Jerry Bruckheimer
movies, you form a dream team -- you’ve
got the astronaut, the scientist, the ex-convict, and they all have something to do to
save the world. But in our game, instead
of just having five people on the dream
team, we said, “Everybody’s on the dream
team, and it’s your job to invent the future
of energy, the future of food, the future of
health, the future of security and the future
of the social safety net.” We had 8,000 people
play that game for eight weeks. They came
up with 500 insanely creative solutions that
you can go online, Google “Superstruct,” and
see.” (I did the search for you -- http://
archive.superstructgame.net/).
If Dr. McGonigal is correct about
the importance that gaming may have
– and I suspect she is – then I won’t miss
Buck Rogers anymore!
I welcome your comments on these
points to [email protected].
Creative Disruption is a continuing series
examining the impact of constantly accelerating technology on the world around us.
These changes normally happen under our
personal radar until we find that the world
as we knew it is no more.
John F. McMullen is a writer, poet, college
professor and radio host. Links to other
writings, Podcasts, & Radio Broadcasts at
www.johnmac13.com, and his books are
available on Amazon.
© 2015 John F. McMullen
Page 8
COMMUNITY
A Church With A Healthy Heart”
By Ayana Meade
At Hartsdale Seventh Day
Adventist Church they aren’t handing
out “government cheese.” Far from it,
every Saturday, the church gives away
hundreds of bags of healthy organic
food and produce to members of the
surrounding community, as part of its
community outreach program. The
outreach program also includes distributing gently used clothing donated by
high-end sustainable fashion designer
Eileen Fisher, with future plans for her
to visit the church’s program.
As a service to some of the hardest
working members of the community,
every Saturday church volunteers use
a portion of the groceries to prepare
and deliver lunches for the migrant
workers/day laborers that congregate,
waiting for work near the intersection of
Central Avenue and Tarrytown Road.
Individuals and their families are also
encouraged to pick up free groceries at
the church every Saturday from 1:30
to 3:30, and every 3rd Saturday from
3:30 to 5:30—all are welcome. The program’s mission is not solely to service the
homeless or the food insecure, but also
working families that benefit from a
reduced weekly grocery bill.
Louis Urgiles, who does seasonal
work in construction, visits the foodshare with his family almost every
week as a way to save on grocery bills
when in between jobs. His son Kevin
commented, “when we get paid we
don’t have to worry about buying
produce—we have money to save.” The
eight- member extended family which
includes Mr. Urgiles’ step daughter and
grandchild, say what they get from the
foodshare can last them as much as a
week and that they’re glad that the food
they receive is mostly organic, saying “its
better for our health.”
The food is delivered to the church
by Pastor Pasquale Falco, through his
Bread of Life food truck ministry which
services 18 churches and 10 shelters
throughout Westchester County. Since
Church volunteer delivering lunches to migrant workers in
Migrant worker taking a lunch bag delivered by volunteers at
White Plains
Hartsdale Seventh Day Adventist Church
starting their distribution program making it difficult to support a family Westchester County residents—about
in December of last year, the church in an area where the median home price 1 in 5 in the population—are hungry or
has provided healthy and sustainable is $650K. The foodshare program assists at risk of hunger.
produce to nearly 700 people with no members of this community who may
With future plans to expand
religious expectations other than that not have access to other community its foodshare and clothing drive
they partake and benefit from the good services, providing a much-needed relief programs—the church has already
food being offered.
to the weekly grocery bill.
partnered with the Greenburgh Health
Many of Westchester’s migrant
About 90% of the food delivered Center to expand its distribution—
worker community hail from countries by Bread of Life Ministries comes from the church seeks to establish itself as a
in South and Central America such as a partnership with Mrs. Green’s super- resource in the community on healthy
Ecuador, Honduras and Guatemala, market. The other 10% comes from eating and living practices for everyday
as well as Mexico. According to census other sources such as Trader Joe’s and living.
data, the median annual earnings of Panera Bread. Although Westchester
The Hartsdale Seventh Day
men from Mexico employed full-time County, is one of the richest counties Adventist Church is located at 50
in Westchester is $15,000. Women in the state, according to The Food Columbia Avenue in Hartsdale, New
earn less: $10,000 per year on average, Bank for Westchester around 200,000 York.
11th Annual Fall Westchester County Home Show November 7th & 8th At Westchester County Center
The 11th Annual Fall Home
Show, Westchester’s largest gathering
of Home Professionals, takes place this
weekend, November 7th and 8th at The
Westchester County Center.
Innovative and high tech new
products will be showcased this year
along with local crafts and displays. The
Home Show offers a great opportunity
for anyone looking to spruce up their
home to meet with and ask questions of
tradesmen and contractors in a one-stop
information-gathering event.
Wear comfy shoes – you have a lot
of territory to cover! Also bring a small
notebook and pen to jot down names of
vendors and products you may wish to
follow-up on.
Over 150 companies will be represented, offering varied products and
services for the home. Home improvement specialists will be on hand to
answer your questions. They can also tell
you what enhancements will improve
the value of your home and possibly lead
to tax savings.
Exhibitors include “builders,
remodelers, contractors and basement
water proofers. Visitors can investigate
solar energy for the home and shop for
cutlery, Tupperware, candles, windows,
window blinds, curtains, upholstery,
investments,insurance and doors,gutters
and siding, communication services,
flooring, heaters, roofers, fitness equipment, kitchens and baths, tree services,
movers and storage units, shelving,
sheets and mattresses, publications, chiropractors and an animal hospital as well
as vacations and vacuums and much
more, says show manager Wes Jenks.
Many vendors are offering great
prizes, including a queen-size, contour
gel memory foam mattress, from
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admitted for free Information: http://
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Page 9
But don’t take my word for it, this was
voted “One of the Best Spas in the
World” by Travel & Leisure Magazine,
“One of the 10 Best Destination Spas”
by Trip Advisor and “10 Most Luxurious
Spas in the US” – Forbes Magazine and
“AAA Four Diamond Award”. (Not
too shabby.) Woodloch’s philosophy is
to provide you with a “personal awakening of mind, body and spirit.”
Only 21/2 hours away by car, you
could easily be there in time for dinner
after work. As you wander through the
rustic trails surrounded by idyllic woodlands, wetlands, gardens and lake you
will see a variety of birds and flowers. On
one evening walk I was lucky enough
to catch a humming bird hovering as
it was feasting on a Morning Glory
and glimpsed a doe and her little ones
peering through the trees. Later I
watched as a Bald Eagle soared across
the lake searching for its dinner. You can
go kayaking day or night on the beautiful crystal clear lake or try your hand at
fishing for some Bass or Pike. The lake
is well stocked, so you can’t miss. There
are plenty of fishing rods, great bikes and
endless trails to explore.
You’re sure to love the thermalwhirlpool tub on the sundeck with a
glass-enclosed pool area surrounded by
woods. Ladies, If your husband’s not
sure he “wants to go to a Spa” and he’s
an avid golfer, The Country Club at
Woodloch Springs is just across the road
from the Lodge. Golf Digest Magazine
called this magnificent 18-hole 72-par
championship golf course “One of
the Best Places to Play” and gave it
4 ½ Stars. Fern-carpeted forest, lush
wetlands and broad meadows surround
the course, that also has a driving range
and Golf Pros available for instruction.
(Call to reserve tee times before you go.)
Woodloch Springs Country Club also
has tennis courts so bring your racquets
if you play.
One of the things I loved the most
was the majestic 8- high “Water-Wall”
in the Aqua Garden’s floor-to-ceiling
glass enclosed pool area surrounded by
woods. A warm wall of water cascades
over you, offering the most invigorating,
non-stop incredible massage you’ve ever
experienced. It loosens up every muscle
in your body, gets your blood flowing
and clears out your head. Trust me, you
won’t want to leave – I kept coming
back. There’s also a smaller, more-gentle
Water-Wall.
A dedicated “Spa Concierge will
expertly advise you as to which of
the many facial, body treatments and
massages might be best for you. My
favorite massage was the “Deep Forest
Ritual” which begins with a very stimulating exfoliation with specially prepared
black mud made from coffee and dandelions to cleanse, soften and polish the
skin, leaving you tingling all over. While
still covered with exfoliates, you are
wrapped in a Mylar blanket to “bake”
for a while, followed by a therapeutic
hot bath filled with white pine, balsam
fir and juniper. An amazing massage
and a rich body cream to hydrate your
skin follow the bath. By now you’ll be in
an idyllic stupor, half awake, half asleep
in a state of total euphoria. (75 minutes.
$195)
My girlfriend absolutely loved the
“Rosemary Awakening,” their signature treatment inspired by the healing
properties of locally grown organic
TRAVEL
Everyone Deserves a“3-Day Spa Get-a-Way”
By Richard Levy
Need a break?
Consider taking a Spa
Get-A-Way --just three
magical days of pampering with extravagant exfoliating
treatments, deep massages, saunas, thermal-whirlpool tubs, cascading heated
waterfalls, mountain hikes, organic
farm-to-table spa cuisine every day will
rejuvenate your spirit!
A three-day getaway is easier to fit
into a busy schedule and the results will
tide you through to your next vacation.
This is also a wonderful couples escape.
I’ve been to a few luxury spas in my
travels, but my favorite has to be “The
Lodge at Woodloch,” located on 150
private acres of picturesque, rolling
woodlands in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Continued on page 10
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• 914.630.1928
Page 10
TRAVEL
Everyone Deserves a“3-Day Spa Get-a-Way”
Rosemary. It begins with a stimulating
“body polish” of Rosemary and citrus to
cleanse and detoxify. Next there’s a full
body massage, as you’ve probably never
experienced one before, enhanced
by fresh Rosemary infused oils and
herbal heat packs to help relax and
restore tired muscles. This is followed
by a warm seaweed wrap, steeped in
extracts of Icelandic moss and angelica,
to nourish your dry skin, then an invigorating scalp massage. (100 minutes.
$250) These are two incredible treatments you absolutely must take. Also
consider the “Reflexology” massage
-- wonderful for sore, tired feet. There’s
even an intoxicating “Beer Massage.”
“The Lodge Massage” and “Lodge
Facial” are invigorating and only $125
each.
(Detoxification helps purge toxins
and excess fluids from your body, to
eliminate bloating and water retention.
Spa treatments such as hydrotherapy,
massages, heat therapy and other body
treatments will help improve blood
circulation and improve your mental
health.
In the beautiful TREE Restaurant
dining room you’ll get three farm-to
table delicious organic meals each day,
all worthy of a three-star restaurant.
There are so many enticing choices it
will be difficult deciding what to order.
(Not a problem, the waiters are very
attentive and will bring you your two
first choices, then let you decide.) My
breakfast favorites included: Glutenfree Zucchini & Carrot French Toast
with Marcona almonds, Heirloom
Sweet Potato Medley & Kale Hash
with a sunny-side farm egg on top
and toasted Bagel & Lox with meltin-your-mouth smoked salmon, dill
cream cheese and capers.
Lunches are equally delectable and
my favorites were: Grilled Southwest
Shrimp, Freekeh (grain) and corn and
black bean salad; and their juicy 5 Oz.
Organic Bison Burger smothered in
sautéed wild mushrooms on a Ciabatta
roll with steamed Edamame.
My dinner favorites were: Panko
& Grain Mustard Crusted Rack of
Lamb with roasted fingerling potatoes
and Provençal vegetables; Stuffed New
Jersey Flounder with North Atlantic
chunks of crab meat, sautéed zucchini
ribbons, shaved fresh corn and Tasso
Beurre-Blanc; and their Grilled Wagyu
Sirloin Steak Frites with grilled asparagus, fingerling frites, pickled shallots
and green peppercorn sauce.
The restaurant has an outstanding wine list with a large selection of
superior wines by the glass. One thing
you’ll absolutely love about the Lodge
is that you can “go to breakfast and
lunch wearing your plush Spa robe”
(Massage-to-table, as they say). Or if
you are too relaxed from the treatments
and massages to make it to the dining
room, room-service will bring meals to
your room, during mealtimes, only.
Since this an escape, guests are only
allowed to talk on their cell phones
inside their rooms, while in the Lodge.
(Don’t worry --you’ll get over the separation anxiety very quickly.) The 57 well
appointed guestrooms are all luxurious,
with marble baths, walk-in showers
and a private veranda with views of the
woodlands and lake.
The serene and relaxing “Whisper
Lounge” right outside the treatment
rooms is a quiet co-ed lounge with a
fireplace and outdoor woodland porch
with rocking chairs and gliders: a great
place to crash after a massage or treatment. For those who miss the gym,
the 3,500 square foot Cardio Weight
Studio offers state-of-the-art resistance weights, free-weights, treadmills,
elliptical machines, bikes, arc trainers
and a spinning room staffed by expert
trainers.
There are a huge number of innovative classes to choose from every day,
including: “Las Blast”-- a dance fitness
program designed by “Dancing with
the Stars” fitness expert Louis Amstel.
“BodyPump” is the original Les Mills
weight bar class, that will sculpt, tone
and strengthen your entire body with
fast high-rep, dynamic weight work.
“Chakra Guided Meditation” offers a
30 minute guided meditation of deep
relaxation to awaken internal energy,
creativity, love, and strength. The
energy of the Chakras will allow us to
decode out inner wellbeing and infinite
healing. “Raising the Barre”, is a lowimpact class that’s a unique fusion
of Pilates, yoga, and ballet inspired
moves to develop beautiful sculpted
muscles using the ballet-barre and your
body weight to challenge your stability and balance. “Rock Bottom” firms
up your “assets” (Tush) by training the
glutes, thighs, calves and lower body.
“Tuscan Mountain Hike” is a challenging 3-mile hike on uphill terrain
around abandoned bluestone quarries
and rocky outcroppings, leading to a
stunning vista of the Upper Delaware
River.
Now for some “Spa history”: Before
there were spas, bathing played a major
part in ancient cultures. The Greeks
began bathing regimens that formed
the foundation for modern spas, believing that certain natural springs or tidal
pools were blessed by the gods to cure
disease and so, established bathing
facilities around these sacred pools.
Those who desiried healing left offerings to the gods at these sites and
bathed themselves in hopes of a cure.
The Spartans even developed a primitive vapor bath.
The Romans emulated many of
the Greeks bathing practices, surpassing the Greeks in the size of their baths.
As in Greece, the Roman bath became
a focal center for social and recreational
activity. Romans used the hot thermal
waters to relieve their suffering from
rheumatism, arthritis, and overindulgence in food and drink. The Roman
Senate would even hold meetings in
these baths. Thus, the Romans elevated
bathing to a fine art form that evolved
into the world’s luxury spas.
So if you’ve considered going to a
spa resort, but never actually escaped
for a “Spa Get-A-Way”, pull out your
calendar to see where you can pencil
in three days of rest and total relaxation. After some serious pampering,
I suspect you will be more tolerant
with your family, more productive at
work and oblivious to life’s little annoyances, such as traffic jams. You will also,
I suspect, look so good and so relaxed
that your friends might even think you
“had some work done.” The staff at
Lodge at Woodloch is very welcoming and attentive, eager to make guests
feel truly at home. To find our more
about the spa, rates special treatments,
Mid-Week Packages and availability, visit the website at: http://www.
thelodgeatwoodloch.com/spa-hawley-packages/ or call 1.800.Woodloch.
Directions: By car from Westchester
takes about 2 ½ hours.Take Tappan Zee
Bridge to the Garden State Parkway N.
to exit 145 (West Orange/Newark).
Merge onto I-280W (12 miles) to
I-80W to New Jersey (30 miles) to Rt.
15N (Exit 34B, Sparta, NJ) Take Rt. 15
N 18 miles) to Rt. 206N 16 miles).Cross
Delaware River Bridge at Milford. Bear
right onto Rt. 209N. Continue on to
Rt. 6W. Follow Rt. 6W for 26 miles to
Rt. 590E (which comes at the end of
Main Street in Hawley) Bingham Park
will be on your right, The Settler’s Inn
on your left. At this light, make right to
continue on Rt. 590E. Follow Rt. 590E
for 6.5 miles where you will find The
Lodge at Woodloch on your left hand
side directly across from entrance to
Woodloch Springs.
Alternatively, leave your car at
home, take Metro North into Grand
Central. Shuttle over or take a cab to
The Port Authority where the Short
Line Bus will get you there in under
3 hours. The bus takes you to Hawley,
PA and the Lodge van will transport
you The Lodge at Woodloch, only 15
minutes away.
Page 11
GOVERNMENT
EYE
ON THEATRE
Troubled Thanksgiving, Troubling Adoption
By John Simon
There is something
very peculiar about
Stephen Karam’s “The
Humans,”
notwithstanding seemingly unanimous critical
rhapsodizing. It is about a family, the
Blakes, who are meant to be typical
of humanity, or at least its American
section, else why the title?
L-R: Sarah Steele (Brigid) ,Arian
Moyaed (Richard), Jayne Houdyshell
(Deidre, Lauren Klein (Fiona “Momo”
Blake) in the Roundabout Theatre
Company’s production of The Humans.
Photo by Joan Marcus
Well, what could be more typical
of humanity than a handsome paterfamilias, Erik, having been employed for
28 years by an exclusive private school,
being fired for an affair with a teacher?
Or his similarly employed wife, Deirdre,
who looks like a comic gargoyle and
bombards her offspring with gratuitous
email? What about an elder daughter,
Aimee, lawyer and lesbian, who is
afflicted with both a life-threatening
illness and a female lover who suddenly
dumped her, inducing hysteria? And
then there is a younger daughter, Brigid,
who wants to be a composer but is
reduced to tending a restaurant bar. We
also have her live-in lover, Richard or
Rick Saad, not only of Muslim descent
as his beard and name would suggest,
but also a grad student in sociology
who does the cooking for the family?
And finally, Erik’s wheelchair-bound
mother, Momo, who lives with her son,
and suffers from dementia, mumbling
nonsense words nonstop.
I repeat, what could be more
typical-- perhaps a serial murderer and
a prostitute in the family? The author,
who like Erik and Deirdre hails from
Scranton, has them visiting Brigid and
Rick, who newly inhabit a duplex in
Chinatown, for Thanksgiving dinner.
The duplex features a spiral staircase
connecting street floor and basement
Clockwise form top: L-R: Sarah Steele
(Brigid), Cassie Beck (Aimee), Arian
Moayed (Richard), Jayne Houdyshell
(Deidre), Reed Birney (Erik in the
Roundabout Theatre Company’s
production of THE HUMANS. Photo
Joan Marcus 2015
rooms, ideal for overhearing things
being said on the other level. Since the
only bathroom is on the upper floor,
with living room and kitchen on the
lower, there is near-continuous traffic
on that stairway, good for melodramatic
revelations. Overactive bladders, though
not mentioned, may well be responsible.
Overactive as a whole, though, the
Blakes certainly are, involving activities
such as rabbity hopping upstairs and a
game including hammering the dining
table downstairs. There are also thunderous explosions stemming from the
mysterious doings of a female Chinese
neighbor upstairs, and a play-concluding door that closes by itself. Ghosts?
David Zinn’s set is a two-level affair
we see in cross-section, allowing for
much simultaneous activity upstairs and
downstairs. However taxing, this may be
expectable from an author who notes
in the script that the many passages
between brackets (he offers an example
of brackets for those not sure about
what they are) are meant to represent
unvoiced thoughts of the characters,
posing an insuperable problem for both
actors and audience. Odd too is that
Karam writes out in full passages heard
but only indistinguishably, and nonsense
verbiage mumbled incongruously by the
grandmother, Momo.
I will concede that Joe Mantello has
directed savvily, and that we get interesting performances from Sarah Steele
(an amiable Brigid), Arian Moayed (a
believable Richard or Rick), Cassie Beck
(a somewhat annoying Aimee), Lauren
Klein (a touching Momo, though not
looking old enough), Reed Birney
(an excellent Erik) and even Jayne
Houdyshell (Deirdre), however miscast.
I did like Karam’s previous play
(“Sons of the Prophet”), so we can at
any rate hope for the next one.
Back in 1995, A.R. Gurney had the
questionable idea of a play about Sylvia,
a talking dog and the titular heroine of
the comedy “Sylvia.”
Greg picks up the dog in Central
Park, or, rather, she picks up him. A stray,
but with an improbable collar spelling
out her even more improbable name,
she is taken home by him, over the desperate protests of his English-teacher
wife, Kate. He lavishes growingly
improbable love on the dog and she on
him. In consequence, he cruelly neglects
his wife, loses his office job and has
a female friend run from the house
screaming. He finally seeks out a therapist who is uncertain of her gender. She
counsels divorcing Kate and shooting
Sylvia before he /she rushes off to visit
his or her shrink. The Greg-Sylvia love
affair, despite no physical consummation, is a textbook case of zoophilia, a.k.a.
zooerasthia.
Now, a problem with a female
Robert Sella, Annaleigh Ashford and
Matthew Broderick in Sylvia. Photo by
Joan Marcus
talking dog is that, both in the writing
and in the acting, it requires a human
actress to impersonate her. This results
in the relationship coming across less
weird and engendering facile laughs. Yet,
even in fantasy, should we get a dog that
quotes Homer and Tennessee Williams,
and sings pop songs in close harmony
with the owners?
Surely, even for a fantasy, “Sylvia”
takes too may liberties, including a dog
persistently nuzzling a female visitor’s
crotch and eventually using four-letter
words. One male actor portrays a fellow
eccentric male dog owner, a female
visitor, and a confused therapist who
depends on patients to decide whether
they are speaking to a man or a woman.
In the end, Gurney has Sylvia
proving both man and woman’s best
friend, and blissfully coexisting in a
production) is a good but somewhat too
sing-songy Greg, Annaleigh Ashford
an impeccable Sylvia, Julie White a
perhaps overly comic Kate, and Robert
Sella convincing as the three Others.
Daniel Sullivan has directed sedulously,
David Rockwell has designed winning
sets, and Ann Roth has contributed
stylish costumes even for a canine.
But somehow, though surrounded
by audience laughter, I felt my fantasy
bone insufficiently tickled, and offered
not quite enough bone for canine, let
alone human, consumption.
Annaleigh Ashford in Sylvia. Photo by
Joan Marcus
menagerie à trois. For me, the play asks
for way too much. It has its anthropomorphic protagonist, bizarrely costumed
but still a human actress, jumping on forbidden furniture, embracing a human,
piddling on the floor, and having sex
offstage with a male dog in the bushes.
This said, Matthew Broderick
(whose real-life wife, Sarah Jessica
Parker, played Sylvia in the original
John Simon has written for over 50 years
on theatre, film, literature, music and fine
arts for the Hudson Review, New Leader,
New Criterion, National Review, New
York Magazine, Opera News, Weekly
Standard, Broadway.com and Bloomberg
News. He reviews books for the New York
Times Book Review and previously for
The Washington Post. To learn more, visit
his website: www.JohnSimon-uncensored.
com
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Page 12
GOVERNMENT
LOCAL
LORE
‘The Commmodore’ and ‘The Central’
By Robert Scott
If anyone can be
said to have had the
Midas touch, “The
Commodore,”
as
Cornelius Vanderbilt liked to be called,
had it. But he was not so much a railroad
builder as a ruthless railroad acquisitor.
One of Vanderbilt’s claims to fame
was his rail line linking New York and
Chicago. He did not actually build it;
he created it by melding a number of
existing rail lines.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
When he died on Jan. 4, 1877, four
months short of his 83rd birthday, he
was the wealthiest man in America. He
may very well have been the richest man
in the world.
Born in early 1794 into a humble
Staten Island farm family that still
spelled its name in the Dutch style, van
der Bilt, young Cornelius quit school at
the age of eleven. With $100 borrowed
from his mother, he bought a small
sailing sloop. His first enterprise was
carrying passengers and cargo between
Staten Island and Manhattan. He also
peddled small items to the crews of
ships in the harbor.
As his business prospered, he
bought larger and larger vessels.
Eventually, his coastal schooners were
carrying freight to ports on Long Island
Sound and the Atlantic. Never one to
miss an opportunity to make money, he
also bought Hudson River steamboats
that plied the river to and from Albany
and the Erie Canal.
During the California Gold Rush
that began in 1848, his company prospered by carrying passengers and cargo
from New York to Central America.
After passengers crossed Nicaragua
overland to the Pacific, their voyages
were resumed in his vessels that sailed
up the west coast of Mexico to San
Francisco.
By 1853, the 59-year-old entrepreneur was worth $11 million. Even more
wealth poured into his coffers during
the Civil War when the Union Navy
leased his vessels to carry supplies to its
warships blockading Southern ports.
The New York & Harlem
Railroad
Vanderbilt’s next target for expansion was the New York & Harlem
Railroad, originally chartered in 1831
as the New York & Harlaem Railroad.
(The Dutch spelling, Harlaem, would
be retained in the corporate name until
1889.) By manipulating the price of its
stock, he took over this ailing railroad in
the spring of 1864, just before his 70th
birthday.
Extending some 132 miles north
from New York City to Chatham in
Columbia County, the Harlem line had
purposely built its tracks as far from the
Hudson as possible to avoid antagonizing powerful steamboat interests. At
Chatham, passengers could connect
with a train on the Albany & West
Stockbridge Railroad and reach Albany.
When first opened in 1832, the
New York & Harlem was little more
than a horse car line that ran from
Prince Street on the Lower East Side to
14th Street and Union Park, later called
Union Square. The fare was one cent
and marked the beginning of streetcar
service in New York City.
The line did not reach its goal, the
village of Harlem, until five years later.
The delay was caused by the tough
bedrock of Mt. Pleasant (later called
Observatory Hill and now Carnegie
Hill), requiring a 596-foot tunnel to be
bored at great expense between what
would one day be 92nd Street to 96th
Street. Hudson and Harlem Division
and New Haven trains still enter and
emerge from this tunnel today.
After obtaining permission of the
New York Legislature to extend its rails
north to the Bronx and Westchester,
the line reached White Plains in 1844,
Dover Plains in 1848 and Chatham in
1852. When the Harlem decided to
switch from horsepower to steam power
in 1837, it needed a place to service its
locomotives. The company chose a site
at 42nd Street and Fourth Avenue, far to
the north of residential and commercial
areas of the city.
Additional parcels were added
until the railroad owned the entire
area between Madison and Lexington
avenues and from 42nd to 48th streets.
The New York & Harlem had an asset
of immeasurable value: Its franchise
gave it exclusive rail access to the east
side of Manhattan. Strapped for cash,
in 1848, it made a 400-year lease with
the New York & New Haven Railroad,
allowing the New Haven joint use of its
rails from Woodlawn in the Bronx to
Manhattan and its terminal facilities.
As the city grew northward, smoke,
cinders, noise and excessive speed
caused residents to complain. In 1856,
the Common Council banned locomotives south of 42nd Street because of a
growing number of accidents involving trains and pedestrians. To continue
service to the depot at 26th Street,
coaches were disconnected from locomotives at 42nd Street and individually
pulled by horses down Fourth Avenue
for 16 blocks.
Steamboat traffic on the river
was seasonal, but railroads could not
compete with the riverboats’ low passenger fares and freight rates. The Harlem,
too far from river towns to carry freight
to or from them, was solely dependent
on commuter traffic from the Bronx
and northern suburbs.
The Hudson River Railroad
The second jewel in Cornelius
Vanderbilt’s crown was a railroad that had
originally been promoted by merchants
and businessmen in Poughkeepsie, some
55 miles north of the city. Steamboats
served Poughkeepsie and connected it
seasonally with Albany and New York
City. When the river froze in winter,
however, Poughkeepsie’s trade with the
outside world virtually froze as well.
In 1846, the Hudson River Railroad
was chartered by the Legislature in
Albany to build a rail line along the east
bank of the Hudson. A year later, the
Hudson River Railroad Company was
organized and sold $3 million in capital
stock. The New York City Common
Council gave the company permission
to lay double tracks along the west side
of Manhattan from Chambers Street
to Spuyten Duyvil. After crossing
Spuyten Duyvil Creek, the line would
John Edgar Thomson
John Ereicsson
enter Westchester and then Putnam,
Dutchess and Columbia counties.
Terminals were constructed
at West Broadway and Chambers
Street, and farther north at Eleventh
Avenue between 30th and 32nd streets.
Passenger coaches and freight cars
were hauled by horses between the two
depots and by steam locomotives north
of 30th Street.
By September of 1849 trains
were running to Sing Sing (Ossining)
and later to Roa Hook, a mile north
of Peekskill. Poughkeepsie was still a
steamboat trip away. On the last day of
1849, amid much celebration, through
trains began operating from Chambers
Street to Poughkeepsie. Two years later,
the rail line reached its final destination, Greenbush, across the river from
Albany.
Unfortunately, the railroad had
encountered engineering problems
building through the Hudson
Highlands. The Hudson River line
soon became debt-ridden, its $3 million
capital eaten up by unforeseen construction costs. Moreover, it could not
compete with rates charged by boats on
the river. It sank deeper into debt, and
its stock fell.
Sensing an opportunity and
using the enormous profits being
made during the Civil War, only a few
months after acquiring the Harlem
line, Vanderbilt bought control of the
Hudson River Railroad. It became the
second jewel in his crown. The tracks of
two other railroads serving the city--the
Pennsylvania and the Erie-- stopped in
New Jersey at the Hudson River’s edge,
putting them at a competitive disadvantage. Passengers were transported to and
from New York City on steam-powered
ferries; their freight cars moved on
scows called “lighters.”
The New York Central
Expansion toward the fast-growing
city of Chicago and the Middle West
was inevitable for eastern railroads.
Pennsylvania Railroad head J. Edgar
Thomson stole a march on his rivals
by pushing its rails westward beyond
Pittsburgh. In upstate New York was
the New York Central, a consolidation
of nine small railroads, with a doubletracked line between Albany and
Buffalo. The Hudson River Railroad
had a cooperative arrangement with the
New York Central to share the expenses
of its terminals in New York City. The
Commodore canceled that arrangement at the end of 1866.
The winter of 1866-67 was
unusually cold. With no competing steamboats moving on the frozen
Hudson River, on January 14, 1867,
the Commodore placed an advertisement in newspapers announcing that
his Hudson River Railroad would
no longer ticket passengers or check
baggage beyond its northern terminus
near Albany.This meant that New Yorkbound passengers from the New York
Central would have to walk across the
newly built revolutionary 2,000-footlong iron bridge over the Hudson with
their baggage, avoiding the occasional
train of the only railroad still using it, the
Boston & Albany.
The advertisement added a postscript pointing out that the Erie
Railroad was now the only way for
travelers to reach New York City from
Buffalo without changing coaches or
Continued on page 13
Page 13
celebrating his achievements in sea and
land transportation. Standing imperiously in a central niche was a giant
40-ton bronze statue of Vanderbilt
by German-born sculptor Ernst
Plassman.
George Templeton Strong, prominent attorney and indefatigable diarist,
was present on November 10, 1869, at
opening ceremonies featuring leading
officials of the city, state and federal
governments. Mayor A. Oakey Hall,
a tool of corrupt Boss Tweed, was the
principal speaker.
Strong recorded his impression of
the statue and the frieze: “The colossal
Cornelius Vanderbilt, looming up in
the midst of the chaos,” he told his
diary, “was draped in a dressing gown
or overcoat, the folds whereof are most
wooden. As a work of art, it is bestial.”
St. John’s Chapel, the handsome
Georgian-Federal building designed
and constructed by John McComb,
Jr., was taken down in 1918. McComb
would go on to co-design and construct
New York’s City Hall.
In 1929, Vanderbilt’s huge freight
terminal building was demolished to
make way for the entrance plaza to
the Holland Tunnel. Today the only
reminders of the neighborhood’s
colorful past are to be found in street
names--tiny Ericsson Place, St. John’s
Lane and Vestry Street.
Vanderbilt’s heroic statue was
removed and set up in front of Grand
Central Terminal, where it stands to
this day, pensively looking down Park
Avenue South, formerly called Fourth
Avenue.
For Hudson line trains to reach the
passenger station Vanderbilt planned
for the East Side, he needed a connection between the Hudson and Harlem
railroads. Accordingly, on April 24,
1867--eight months before he took over
the New York Central--he arranged
for the New York Legislature to pass a
bill chartering a new railroad. Its corporate name, the Spuyten Duyvil & Port
Morris Railroad (SD&PM) described
its intended route. It would connect with
the Hudson line at the mouth of Spuyten
Duyvil Creek and with the Harlem line
at Mott Haven, with a branch to Long
Island Sound. Vanderbilt’s plan was to
combine all passenger traffic on the east
side of the city.
Completed in 1871, the sevenmile-long SD&PM cost a cool million
dollars. After leaving the Spuyten
Duyvil station, it went north along
Spuyten Duyvil Creek, the boundary
between Manhattan Island and
Westchester, to 231st Street before
heading south to the Harlem River.
When the Harlem River Ship
Canal was blasted out later leaving
a small portion of Manhattan called
Marble Hill as an outlier, the SD&PM
tracks were relocated along its northern
bank, shortening the line’s length to six
miles. It is still in use today.
LOCAL LORE
‘The Commmodore’ and ‘The Central’
rechecking baggage. Passengers and
freight customers complained about the
lack of service, and New York Central
stock plummeted. The Central quickly
capitulated.
Vanderbilt quietly began to buy
large blocks of Central stock. By the
time of the line’s annual meeting in
December of 1867, he owned most of
its shares--and control of the company.
Cornelius Vanderbilt became its new
president. Two years later the two
railroads were merged into the ponderously named New York Central &
Hudson River Railroad.
At the time he took over the New
York Central, Vanderbilt was making
plans for a giant freight terminal
on Manhattan’s West Side and for a
grand new passenger depot on its East
Side, the latter structure to surpass all
other stations in America and Europe.
For his freight terminal, he purchased St. John’s Park from land-rich
Trinity Church. The once-swampy
area south of Canal Street and west
of Broadway had been earlier called
Lispenard’s Meadows until the vestrymen of St. John’s Chapel on Varick
Street converted it into a residential
neighborhood popular with the city’s
wealthiest aristocrats.
On June 25, 1775, George
Washington had landed nearby on
the Hudson’s shore between Hubert
and Laight streets. Only recently
appointed Commander-in-Chief of
the Continental Army, he was on his
way to Cambridge to take command
of the troops besieging British General
Thomas Gage in Boston. He spent the
night at the nearby home of Leonard
Lispenard.
Originally called Hudson Square,
then St. John’s Park from the chapel
completed in 1807 on the east side of
the square, it was open only to residents
of the houses facing on it. By the 1840s,
however, the area began to be invaded
by commercial buildings. The wealthy
fled northward to Washington Square,
especially after the Hudson River
Railroad ran tracks down the west side
of Manhattan in 1847. Vanderbilt paid
a million dollars for the small sylvan
park surrounded by once-elegant
mansions converted into boarding
houses and tenements.
Uprooting some 200 graceful
hickory and chestnut shade trees, he
erected a massive three-story granite
warehouse and freight terminal covering
four acres. A lone holdout in the once
exclusive residential area, Swedish
engineer John Ericsson, designer of the
Civil War turreted USS Monitor, stubbornly continued to occupy his home
until his death in 1889. At the nearby
Phoenix Foundry on West Street, he
had constructed America’s first iron
ships with screw propellers.
Vanderbilt’s building was topped
by a 150-foot-long and 31-foot-high
pediment—a frieze cast in bronze
George Templeton Strong
A. Oakley Hall
LITERARY AWARD
Author Kathy Cannon Wiechman Receives The Great American Book Prize
By John Grimaldi
WASHINGTON,
DC, Oct 22 - The first
annual Grateful American
Book Prize will be officially
awarded tonight to author Kathy Cannon
Wiechman for her work of historical
fiction,
Like a River: A Civil War Novel, at a
ceremony to be held at President Lincoln’s
Cottage here.
David Bruce Smith, co-founder of
the Prize, has called the work “a pageturner about the plight of a pair of teens
caught up in the conflict between the
states. It brings home the essence of what
the war was all about and is bound to
quickly engage readers, particularly young
readers. It’s an exemplar of what the Prize
is all about-to encourage authors and publishers to produce fiction and nonfiction
that accurately depict the past as a means
of showing young readers that history
is not quite as boring as they may have
thought.”
Dr. Bruce Cole, the former chair
of the National Endowment for the
Humanities, inspired Smith to pursue
the establishment of the Prize. Cole,
who is also co-founder of the award, has
described the U.S. as “a country of historical amnesiacs.” He believes that the Prize
will give publishers, established authors
and those just getting started an important
focus on readable books about American
history. “History can use the help of a
‘good read’to generate enthusiasm among
young people.”
‘History can use the help of a ‘good read’ to generate
enthusiasm among young people’
Author Wiechman agreed. “My
passion for US History came during my
school years, not from history class, but
from reading biographies and historical
fiction, books that made history come
alive. When I write, my goal is to make
history live and breathe for today’s readers
the way it does for me. Having Like a
River honored by this inaugural award
gives me hope that I can accomplish that
goal,”
Weichman’s Prize comes with a cash
award of $13,000 representing the original
13 colonies. Wiechman will also receive
a medallion created for the occasion by
Smith’s mother, artist Clarice Smith.
Two additional authors were
also acknowledged by the panel with
Honorable Mention certificates at
the event with Honorable Mention
Certificates, Darlene Beck Jacobson’s
novel, Wheels of Change, which confronts Washington DC’s racial turbulence
during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency,
and Michaela MacColl’s, The Revelation
of Louisa May, a deftly appealing combination of actual events and history culled
from the life of Louisa May Alcott.
The judges of 2015 consisted of
co-founders Smith and Cole as well as
Dr. Rod Paige, former U.S. Secretary of
Education, Dr. Louise Mirrer, President
and CEO, New-York Historical Society,
Dr. Douglas Bradburn, author, historian
and Founding Director of the Fred W.
Smith National Library for the Study of
George Washington at Mount Vernon,
and John Danielson, founder of Chartwell
Education Group and former Chief of
Staff at the U.S.Department of Education.
Page 14
CALENDAR
News And Notes From Northern Westchester
By Mark Jeffers
It appears that
my children’s favorite
question “How do we do
this, Dad” is now being
answered more times
than not by Google, oh well I guess it
gives me more time to write this week’s
“Missing those quizzes” edition of
“News & Notes.”
A Holiday Food Drive to benefit
the Community Center of Northern
Westchester will be held on Saturday,
November 7th from 9am to 1pm. Let’s
not forget our neighbors in need during
the holiday season, please bring your
donations to the Bedford Hills Train
Station.
If you have daughters of any age
you are familiar with the American
Girl dolls and books. On Saturday,
November 7th, there is an opportunity
to meet the series author, Valerie Tripp,
with the proceeds supporting the scholarship program at the Mount Kisco
Child Care Center. From 10:00am to
12:30 pm there is an author reading
and book signing at the Mount Kisco
Elementary School. Tickets are first
come, first served, purchase at the door
for $5.00 per person.
On November 6th Westmoreland
Sanctuary is pleased to congratulate
this year’s honoree, Bonnie (Trotta)
Tisi at the 3rd Annual Fall Fundraiser.
Bonnie has been a tireless philanthropist in our community and has served
on Westmoreland’s Board for more
than thirty years. All proceeds from the
event benefit environmental education
programs and to enrich and conserve
our 640 acres of land.
The Small Town Theatre Company
Presents “How I Learned to Drive,” at
The Hergenhan Center in Armonk.
Performance dates are November 20
and November 21 at 8pm. The cast
includes Toni Fazio (White Plains),
David Sevensky (Yorktown Heights),
Tatiana Szpur (Ossining), Armand
Paganelli (Ossining), and Colleen
Fay (White Plains). Nellie O’Brien
(Yorktown Heights) will direct the
production.
Clear your calendar for Saturday,
November 21st as it is time for the
famous Christmas Boutique at St.
Patrick’s School in Bedford. Once
again the school will be transformed
into a winter wonderland with dozens
of vendors with a wide selection of
gifts and goods such as candles, food
items, custom made shirts and jackets,
jewelry, Christmas ornaments, artwork,
wreathes and much more. There will
also be a silent auction with many great
prizes. Food and refreshments are also
available as is a supervised arts and crafts
room is available for children so the
parents can freely shop, even Santa is
available for photos.
If you are braver then I am, you
might want to take part in the 7th Annual
Westchester Polar Plunge which takes
place on Saturday, November 14th at
10:00 am at Glen Island Park in New
Rochelle. This is a fund raising event in
support of New York Special Olympics,
so if you can’t take being a Plunger, at
least go down and support those that are
willing to freeze for a good cause…
The White Plains Public Library
recently received a $1 million dollar gift
from a group of anonymous donors
which will help finish renovations on
the 45-year-old institution’s first floor,
including creation of The Hub, a special
library for adults.
My wife does most of the food
shopping for the family so I have not
felt the sting of all of the A & P closings
(Katonah, Mount Kisco, Bedford,
Goldens Bridge), but yesterday when
she said she was running to the store to
pick up milk and eggs, It involved two
hours and a tank of gas! See you next
week.
courts
Supremes Won’t Delay Home Healthcare Wage Hike Rule
By John Grimaldi
‘The cost of companionship care will
increase sharply, making
it even harder for those
who most need it to afford the cost’
WASHINGTON, DC, Oct 30
- The Supreme Court has refused
to grant the delay of a new Labor
Department rule that is likely to
have a serious impact on the elderly
and home-bound. The rule will go
into effect in a few weeks, according to Dan Weber, president of the
Association of Mature American
Citizens.
The home healthcare industry
had asked the high court to stay the
regulation requiring a hike in wages
for “companionship workers” - those
who help the elderly and disabled
live in their own homes rather than
in a nursing home. The industry still
seeks a Supreme Court appeal of a
lower court decision that okayed the
pay hikes. In the meantime, the cost
of companionship care will increase
sharply, making it even harder for
those who most need it to afford the
cost.
“Home healthcare workers
deserve a living wage but aging, disadvantaged Americans also deserve
the help they need to live their daily
lives in their own homes. Making
matters worse is the fact that the
ruling comes on the heels of reductions in Medicare and Medicaid
reimbursements for home healthcare
services,” Weber noted.
Whether or not the Supreme
Court agrees to hear the industry’s
appeal is uncertain, leaving millions
of older and incapacitated individuals
wondering how they will cope in the
coming years.
The Visiting Nurse Service of
New York, in a recent statement,
called for a new focus on the issue.
“Until we agree, as a country, that the
services provided by America’s Home
Health Aides are worth finding the
extra Medicare and Medicaid dollars
to pay them what they deserve,
then we will continue to suffer the
negative consequences of piecemeal
measures.”
Weber pointed out that the
average age of Medicare home
healthcare beneficiaries is 82 and
two-thirds of them live below the
federal poverty level. They have
chronic illnesses such as heart
disease, COPD and diabetes. They
live mostly in rural parts of the
country where access to alternative
care is limited and significantly more
expensive.
“They are Medicare’s oldest,
sickest and poorest beneficiaries and
the majority of them are women.
[email protected]
LE G A L N O T I C E S
Notice of Formation of MadeByRK LLC Art. Of Org. filed
with SSNY on 5/7/15. Office Location: Westchester
County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon
whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail
process to: Renée Kashuba, 21 Tappan Landing Rd,
Tarrytown, NY 10591. Purpose: any lawful purpose.
NOTICE OF FORMATION of Bark and Fester LLC. Arts of
Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 8/20/2015.
Office location: WESTCHESTER County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall
mail copy of process against LLC to principal business
address: Oliver Castaneda, 3 Chalford Lane, Scarsdale,
NY 10583. Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Formation of Natural Movement of Color/For A
Positive Change, LLC filed with SSNY on 8/6/2015. Office
location: Westchester County. SSNY designated as agent
of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall
mail process to Steve Mollette 214 Bleloch Ave. Peekskill
NY 10566. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.
WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN LEGAL ADVERTISING
Meanwhile, the home healthcare
sector, an industry with more than
half a million employees will be
devastated. In fact, the Centers of
Medicare and Medicaid Services says
that some 5,000 home healthcare
companies will go out of business by
2017,” he said.
Weber called on Congress to
recognize the urgency of dealing
with what he called “an intolerable
situation that has far reaching consequences for the elderly and for the
nation as a whole.”
Notice of formation of 515 Creative Print Solutions,
LLC, filed with SSNY on 06/5/2015. Office location:
Westchester County. Principal office of 515 Creative
Print Solutions, LLC: 16 Harmony Drive, Larchmont, N.Y.
10538. SSNY designated as agent of 515 Creative Print
Solutions, LLC upon whom process against it may be
served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC 16 Harmony
Drive, Larchmont N.Y. 10538, upon whom and at which
process may be served. Purpose: any lawful purpose.
NOTICE OF FORMATION of FOUR COUSIN BURGERS
& FRIES OF WC, LLC. Articles of Organization were
filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on
8/10/2015. Office location: Westchester County. SSNY
has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom
process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy
of any process to the LLC c/o Gellfam Management Corp.,
173 Whippoorwill Road, Hillsdale, NY 12529. Purpose: For
any lawful purpose.
ABOUT AMAC
The Association of Mature
American Citizens [http://www.
amac.us] is a vibrant, vital senior
advocacy organization that takes its
marching orders from its members.
We act and speak on their behalf,
protecting their interests and offering
a practical insight on how to best
solve the problems they face today.
Live long and make a difference by
joining us today at http://amac.us/
join-amac.
Commercial Office
Space For Rent
Commerical Office Space available
in quiet, well-maintained elevator building. Centrally located
in downtown New Rochelle,
1 block to train; 1/2 block to
bus stop. Convenient to 1-95.
Some amenities.
1-2 desk offices $500/month.
800 sq. ft. $1950/month
One month FREE RENT for
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Call Management Office directly:
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PUBLICATION EVERY THURSDAY: 914.216.1674 M-F 11A- 5P
SUBMIT ADS TUESDAY, 10 DAYS PRIOR TO RUN DATE
Page 15
INTERNATIONAL FILM
ISFFC Awards
By Sherif Awad
Before our jury
gathered to deliver
the awards of the
fifth edition of the
International Short Film Festival of
Cyprus (ISFFC), we were invited
to visit the ancient city of Kourion.
Located on the southwestern side
of Cyprus, Kourion, is home to a
Greco-Roman Theatre, The House of
Achilles and The House of Gladiators
where astonishing mosaic artwork celebrating Greek mythological figures
can still be seen among the and excavated ruins. Many films we discussed
last week were winners of the festival’s
awards at the closing night.
The Best Director Award went to
the Canadian director Martin Edralin
and his film Hole for its handling of
difficult and delicate subject matter
with courage, vision and restraint.
Inspired by the life of Ken Harrower, a
disabled Canadian man whose childhood was filled with intense hospital
care, Harrower succeeded in overcoming these difficulties to become
an actor and a painter. The central
character is Billy, a gay disabled man
who lives alone and is searching for
intimacy.
The second Prize for Best Short
Film went to Ave Maria by Basil
Khalil (Palestine) both for the nimble
ensemble cast and its refreshing,
comic take that illuminates current
complexities in this part of the world.
The jury decided to split the
trophy for Best Documentary Award
between two films. Giovanni and the
Water Ballet by Astrid Bussink (The
Netherlands) won for its charming
Antonis Katsaris in Austerity
and appealing approach to gender malaise, breathing life into still
identity issues along with Villages drawings and paintings. The five-minof the Absent by Omar Shami Nasr ute film revolves about a character that
(Lebanon) for its distilled and poetic looses his vitality and sense of purpose,
portrayal of older people left behind going about his days in a detached
by their children. The poignant, con- robotic trance while walking, shaking
densed five-minute documentary a hand, making love or addressing
conveys the heartbreak of family parliament. The journey of the charelders, who though forsaken, still acter becomes progressively more
grotesque and dreamlike as surreal
remember their sons and grandsons.
The jury also conferred a Special situations reflect the fatigue of a midMention for Always Tired by Jochen dle-aged man.
Two special mentions were also
Kuhn (Germany) an animated short
that explores contemporary social given to two films: The first was Our
Always Tired by Jochin Kuhn
Fathers’ Sons (Denmark) by Ulaa
Salim for a seamless build-up towards
the climax that delivers a real punch to
received social views. The second was
for My Stuffed Granny by Effie Pappa
(Greece) for successfully using a fairytale to reflect on timeless economic
issues and for capturing real human
emotions in clay animation.
Our jury was also to decide the
prizes of the competing Cypriot films
in the National Competition. The
First Prize for Best National Film
went to Out of Sight by David Hands
and Christina Georgiou for transporting the viewers through many
layers of narrative within a single shot
and for its fusion of sound design and
imagery: an exquisite achievement.
The film revolves around an old man
who walks around an empty house as
he hears the voices of his loved ones
and relives the memories that made
the house a home, finally standing
outside the house after visiting each
room. In the final shot, we see the
man watching as his house is razed by
a bulldozer.
Second Prize went to Austerity
by Renos Gavris for reflecting the
economic havoc in Cyprus, Greece
and Europe told through the eyes
of a struggling pensioner. The film’s
unsentimental dramatization of contemporary socio-economic conditions
is underscored with an appealing
and effective soundtrack. Both films
starred Cypriot visual artist and actor
Antonis Katsaris who was given
a special mention for his two performances. I hope to return soon
to Cyprus for the long film festival
next April, to enjoy again its calm
Mediterranean beauty and the welcoming hearts of the Cypriot people.
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Page 16
MARY AT THE MOVIES
Movie Review: Suffragette
At the beginning of the last century,
all women were treated like chattel,
forced to function within the constraints
of a paternalistic society abetted by an
archaic legal system and in Britain, a controlled press. Whether they were Ladies
or Laundresses, women were not allowed
to manage their own affairs: not their
money, their property or the children they
risked their lives to bring into the world.
The commonality of their circumstance
cut across rigid class distinctions, uniting
many as sisters who vowed to forge a
more just society for their daughters.
Suffragette, written by Abi Morgan,
is an historic drama that captures the
determination of British women who
recognized that 50 years of ladylike
behavior had failed to secure their right
to self-determination. A small group
of British Suffragettes embarked upon
a campaign of anarchy, shattering
Meryl Streep stars as Emmeline
Pankhurst in Sarah Gavron’s
SUFFRAGETTE, a Focus Features
release. Credit: Steffan Hill Focus
Features
store windows, blowing up mail boxes,
cutting telegraph lines, and bombing the
Chancellor of the Exchequer’s home to
call attention to their cause. Sadly, it was
not until the public self-sacrifice of one
brave woman in 1918 stunned the nation,
that Parliament finally relented, as thousands of women marched through the
streets to mourn her death.
Carrie Mulligan (Bathsheba
Everdene- Far From The Madding
Crowd) plays Maud Watts, a young
married woman who works in a commercial laundry with her husband.
Watt’s life of quiet desperation becomes
much harder as her commitment to the
Suffragette movement grows.
Helena Bonham-Carter plays Edith
Ellyn, modeled on the life of Edith
Garrud. Though she is a healer by day,
Ellyn plots with Pankhurst, an escalating
series of attacks on the social order to call
attention to the cause and civil disobedience eventually devolves into anarchy.
In an interesting twist of fate, BonhamCarter’s great grandfather, H. H. Asquith
was the Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom from 1908-1916 who opposed
the Suffragette movement.
Meryl Streep, in a cameo role, plays
Emeline Pankhurst, an historical person
and gifted orator who reminded her
followers “they do not want to be lawbreakers, they want to be lawmakers.
This small group of women endured
brutal police beatings, harsh imprisonment, forced feedings to interrupt hunger
strikes, separation from their children,
ruined health and in one case, death. Yet
their sacrifices eventually changed the
social dynamic and contributed to the
success our own struggle for women’s
rights. The 19th Amendment giving
women the right to vote was ratified on
Aug. 18, 1920
This is an inspiring story of women
who sacrificed everything to give women
the rights we enjoy today, taking on
the issues that women have struggled
with throughout history. Maud Watts
coped with the sexual aggression of
her employer throughout her teen
years and Violet, another character, is a
battered woman. Mulligan and Bonham
Carter, in particular, deliver powerful,
Oscar-worthy performances, effectively
conveying the toll prison took on their
characters. Meryl Streep is very believable as the inspirational Mrs. Pankhurst.
Brendan Gleeson, as inspector Arthur
Steed, manages to be both stern and
understanding as the private inspector
who trails the women and tries to turn
Watts into his informant.
Written by Abi Morgan; directed
by Sarah Gavron, produced by Alison
Owen and Faye Ward. Suffragette is
rated PG for some intense violence,
thematic elements, brief strong language
and partial nudity.
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(L to R) Brendan Gleeson stars as Inspector Arthur Steed and
Carey Mulligan stars as Maud Watts in director Sarah Gavron’s
SUFFRAGETTE, a Focus Features release. Credit : Steffan Hill
/ Focus Features
Carey Mulligan (center) stars as Maud Watts in director Sarah
Gavron’s SUFFRAGETTE, a Focus Features release. Credit :
Steffan Hill / Focus Features
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