Bike Share War Rages at Village Forum

GREENWICH VILLAGE Bike share foes griped that newly installed docks blocked building entrances and destroyed the aesthetics of Greenwich Village and SoHo at a packed meeting Thursday night.

Crowding the auditorium of P.S. 41, many locals said they worry the Citi Bike docks the city's hottest talking point since installation recently began will degrade the historic character of the area and block building access for emergency vehicles, seniors and people with special needs.

"How is a fire truck supposed to pull up in front of my building?" Village resident Deborah Stone, 55, asked.

"We have people in wheelchairs and people who use walkers. How are they supposed to get to the curb to get a cab, to get Access-A-Ride?"

The 31-bike docking station was installed on Bank Street near Hudson Street April 24, 2013.

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DNAinfo/Andrea Swalec

Responding to some neighbors touting what a success bike-share programs have been in European cities, Stone snapped.

"I don't care what they do in Paris, I live in New York City," she said to cheers and applause.

Ian Dutton, a former CB2 member and ardent bike-share supporter, dismissed the worry that Citi Bike docks will block emergency access to homes.

"Firefighters can pull a hose through the bikes just like they pull them between two parked cars," the airline pilot said.

Docks placed in the street take away sorely needed parking spots for cars, said Westbeth Artists' Housing resident Jane Klein, 42, who estimated she spends five hours a week looking for parking or moving her car because of alternate-side rules.

A group of SoHo residents griped about the location of a Citi Bike dock placed in the middle of one end of Petrosino Square.

"The northern half of that triangle was created and dedicated for the display of public art," resident Pete Davies said, noting the city initially planned with Friends of Petrosino Square for the space to have that use.

A businesswoman based at 99 Bank St., where residents sued the city and DOT to have a 31-bike dock removed from the front of their building, said the dock tainted the feel of her block.

"They shouldn't be on these little, quaint residential streets," store owner Carol Kaas said.

Community Board 2 initially planned to host an informational film on bike-share programs Thursday night, but opted to give locals the opportunity to voice their opinions about the controversial transportation plan instead.

Representatives of the Department of Transportation declined to attend, CB2 chair David Gruber said to booing from the audience.

Longtime Village resident Stu Waldman, 71, one of many Citi Bike supporters in attendance Thursday, said he would rather see bikes than cars and large trucks on his block.

"Our streets aren't pristine now. Having bikes instead of cars will be a lot better," said Waldman, who runs a publishing company.

Dutton said he thinks bike-share foes will get used to seeing the docks.

"I think if we had this meeting in a month, everything would be fine," he said.

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Proposed Anti-Bias Law Would Protect Transgender New Yorkers, Advocates Say

LOWER MANHATTAN Two state lawmakers from Manhattan opened their doors to transgender people and LGBT advocates Wednesday at a public forum they held to push for proposed legislation they say would extend the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming New York City residents.

The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which State Assembly Member Richard Gottfried and State Sen. Daniel Squadron sponsored, would give statewide legal protections to people who are denied employment, housing, access to health care, or access to stores or restaurants because of their gender.

"It is simply unacceptable that a New Yorker can lose their job or be evicted from their home because of their gender identity or expression," said Squadron, who represents lower Manhattan and the East Village, as well as parts of Brooklyn. "It's time for New York to stand up for what's right and ensure that all people, no matter how they identify, are treated with the fairness and dignity they deserve."

GENDA has passed in the state Assembly five times, but it remains stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.

For transgender New York City residents, who are protected by a city law banning gender-based bias, a new state law would offer additional legal recourse.

"GENDA would allow New York City residents to file a claim with the State Division of Human Rights based on a report of discrimination," said Katharine Bodde, policy counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The law would also protect transgender city residents when they leave the five boroughs.

"No resident of New York state should fear that they're on the wrong side of the county lines when it comes to providing for their family," said Christopher Argyros, a transgender-rights organizer for Empire State Pride Agenda.

Melissa Sklarz, a transgender woman who is director of the New York Trans Rights Organization, said GENDA could have given her legal recourse when she was fired after her employer learned she would begin to identify as a woman, not a man.

"GENDA would have created the same level field of opportunity for me," she said.

Noah Lewis, of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, said it's heartbreaking to have to tell transgender people calling to report discrimination in counties without anti-discrimination laws that he has no legal leg to stand on to help them. For those people, the passage of GENDA is a life-or-death issue, he said.

"On a weekly basis, I have [transgender] people tell me they're at the end of their rope," he said.

Gottfried, whose district covers the West Side and parts of Midtown, asked forum participants including the police chiefs of Albany and Rochester to address the oft-stated concern from opponents of the bill that people who are not transgender would use the law to invade women's restrooms and locker rooms.

"I truly believe that passing this legislation will not lead to those types of incidents," said James Sheppard, Rochester's chief of police.

Causten Wollerman, an organizer for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said he had never heard of such an incident anywhere in the country.

"I don't know of any circumstance under which one of these laws has been used to protect or shield someone [regarding] criminal behavior or indecent behavior," he said.

GENDA could be on the agenda at a special session of the state Senate this December. Or, if Democrats take control of the Senate in the upcoming election, the bill could go to the floor early next year, insiders said.

Sixteen states, Washington, D.C., New York City and New York state counties including Albany, Buffalo and Rochester already have laws banning discrimination against transgender people, according to Empire State Pride Agenda.

Sheppard, a 34-year police veteran who is black, described transgender rights as a civil-rights issue.

"You take gender expression out of it," he said, "and it sounds like we're talking about African-Americans or Latinos."

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City Promises Clearer Rules for Park Performers After Busker Crackdown

GREENWICH VILLAGE The city is fine-tuning its rules for where musicians can jam out in public parks.

Amid rampant complaints from musicians who say public-performer regulations are unclear and inconsistently enforced, the head Parks Department administrator for Manhattan said at a recent meeting that buskers can expect to see clearer rules soon on where they're permitted to play.

Parks Department Manhattan Borough Commissioner Bill Castro told dozens of concerned performers at a community meeting Wednesday that that Parks Enforcement Patrol officers who oversee the park will be given new guidance on what musicians and other street performers are allowed to do.

"We are going to make it clear within a matter of a few days," he said. "You will not have a problem."

Castro assured Washington Square Park performers that they will not be ticketed for performing within 50 feet of the park's arch or fountain, as they were in 2011.

"You don't have to be X feet away from this or any of that jazz," he said. "You can be next to the [arch and fountain], as you've always been. It's not going to change."

He also introduced a rule that will go into effect May 8 requiring anyone selling CDs to place them on a table 2 to 8 feet long.

"You can sell those without a permit, but you have to get a stand so people don't trip over them," he said.

But musicians and Community Board 2 members said they want the Parks Department to put all the policies clearly in writing, rather than enforcing only a portion of the laws that appear in print.

"What Commissioner Castro told you is so opposite to the actual text of the park rules," said artists' advocate Robert Lederman, who has battled the city in court for 20 years over rules for "expressive matter" vendors.

Pianist Colin Huggins, who has received dozens of tickets for playing in the park, agreed.

"We want to make sure there's something in the rules to clarify so that it doesn't happen again," he said, referring to the 2011 crackdown.

Longtime local Gil Horowitz, founder of the Coalition for a Better Washington Square Park, urged Castro not to strip the character of the park by restricting artists.

"Washington Square Park is magical, and we want to keep it magical," he said. 

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Rare Andy Warhol Polaroid of Diana Ross to Hit Auction Block

The rare Andy Warhol Polaroid 'Diana Ross' will be up for auction at the Children's Museum of the Arts' annual Art Auction Oct. 23, 2012.

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© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

MANHATTAN One of legendary New York artist Andy Warhol's iconic Polaroids of celebrities will go up for auction Tuesday night to benefit a Hudson Square museum.

Warhol's 1981 portrait of soul siren Diana Ross will hit the auction block at the Children's Museum of the Arts' annual Art Auction in Chelsea, museum staff said Tuesday.

The shot of a young Ross looking over her shoulder was offered by an anonymous donor, who had its value appraised at $16,000, according to CMA acting director Lucy Ofiesh.

She said the Polaroid offers a "raw, authentic image of a celebrity" and a glimpse at part of New York history.

"[The Polaroids] represent something that's so iconic about New York," Ofiesh said. "It feels like a very authentic, Downtown New York moment."

Bidding for the photo, which is embossed with Warhol's name, will open at $8,000.

In previous years, the CMA has auctioned Warhol Polaroids of Farrah Fawcett, Yves Saint Laurent, Debbie Harry and Dennis Hopper, Ofiesh said.

According to the website of the Danziger Gallery on West 23rd Street, which exhibited some of the Warhol Polaroids this spring, the artist used the shots both as a precursor to screenprinted portraits and as works of art in themselves.

The Diana Ross Polaroid is one of 80 pieces of art up for auction at the event, which will be co-chaired by the actor Ethan Hawke. Works by Yoko Ono, Cecily Brown and Robert Longo are among the offerings.

Proceeds from the gala, which raised $330,000 last year, will benefit the CMA's art outreach programs that visit schools, hospitals and temporary housing facilities in all five boroughs.

The Children's Museum of the Arts' Art Auction begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23, at the Dream Downtown at 355 W. 16th St. Tickets, which start at $150 each, are available online until 3 p.m. Tuesday and at the door after then. Staff members can administer absentee bids if someone wishes to bid but cannot attend the event, Ofiesh said.

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Drunk Woman's Death Prompts Vigilance at Bars, But They Can't Save All

GREENWICH VILLAGE A stumbling girl in her 20s looked lost inside the busy Bleecker Street bar Wicked Willy's one chilly night last spring.

When head bartender Michelle Erland approached the young woman, she said her friends had left her and she didn't know where she was. Erland pulled two $20 bills from the cash register, hailed a cab with a coworker and accompanied the drunk girl to her Midtown hotel.

Wicked Willy's owner Andy Ramgoolie said knowing a customer got home safely was worth losing $40 and two staff members for an hour.

"Everyone who goes here, we're responsible for them," he said. "You really have to make sure people get the right care."

Shana Dowdeswell, 23, likely didn't have bartenders who noticed she needed help as she downed whiskey shots on the nightlife-heavy blocks of central Greenwich Village early the morning of Dec. 7.

The actress died of acute and chronic alcoholism on Dec. 12 after she was found collapsed on the stoop of her family's Minetta Street home. Still grieving her daughter's death, her mother, Laurie Smith,  said at a community meeting late last month she wants local bars to help prevent dangerous binge drinking and stop obviously intoxicated people from leaving bars alone.

In the wake of Dowdeswell's death, Village bar owners and staffers have said they spend thousands of dollars on security measures to try to keep bargoers safe, but that they cannot prevent every tragedy.

Speaking over live music in the Bleecker Street bar The Red Lion, general manager Ann Gibson recently ticked off the pub's long list of safety precautions. The bar and restaurant employs four security guards, has 16 video cameras trained on all parts of the establishment, pays for all staff to participate in an alcohol-awareness training and only hires experienced bartenders who can spot signs of trouble early.

Still, Gibson a pregnant mother of two daughters who said news of Dowdeswell's death "touched my heart" said bar industry workers know they cannot thwart people hellbent on binge drinking.

"I don't think [bars] can totally prevent something like this from happening," she said, referring to Dowdeswell's death.

Nonetheless, she pushed her staff to try.

"Maybe if [Dowdeswell] had relationships with bartenders, they could have pulled her aside and said something," she said.

On streets full of festive bars advertising $2 beers and $3 test tube shots, some young women said they feel pressure to drink more from bartenders and men who offer free drinks.

"I think a lot of bartenders go overboard, especially if they think a girl is cute. They'll just keep serving," said Jessica, a 22-year-old Hoboken resident who declined to provide her last name in order to pass under the radar of her sales job bosses.

She and two female friends recently downed drinks at three Village bars. As they prepared to leave the MacDougal Street pub Off the Wagon, a bartender asked what else he could bring them.

"You're not just gonna sit there if you don't drink anything," he said flirtatiously, Jessica said.

Instead of heading home for the night, she and her friends drank another round of vodka cocktails.

Down the Hatch management was not available Friday to comment on its policy regarding serving free drinks.

Lamia Funti, co-owner of the LaGuardia Place lounge Le Souk, said she viewed preventing binge drinking as a joint responsibility between bars and patrons.

"People are responsible for what they do, but at the same time [bars] cannot serve someone who is obviously intoxicated," she said, noting the 4,500-square-foot bar and restaurant has six security guards each night and uses a top-of-the-line identification scanner that records images.

Wicked Willy's found itself in the middle of the debate on personal responsibility versus bars' responsibility for the hazards of drinking in 2011, when the bar was was sued by a 22-year-old customer.

Plaintiff Alan Berger, 22, said Wicked Willie's should have protected him from getting so drunk playing beer pong that he walked across a New Jersey highway and got hit by a car. A judge dismissed the suit, ruling that Berger played the drinking game voluntarily and that Wicked Willy's had no legal obligation to warn patrons about the risks of the game.

Ramgoolie declined to discuss the lawsuit but said he believes bars can make nightlife safer.

"We can't curb everything, but we try," he said, noting that like The Red Lion, he pays for all staff members to participate in an alcohol-awareness training.

The New York State Liquor Authority sets requirements for such programs offered by private entities, but it does not require that bar staff members participate in them.

State law prohibits bars from serving "any visibly intoxicated person" and advises staff to recognize signs of drunkenness like bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, the smell of alcohol and staggering. Though these criteria are subjective, bars can be held legally accountable for an injury or death caused by a visibly intoxicated person who a bartender served, such as in the case of a death caused by a drunk driver.

The SLA did not respond to inquiries by DNAinfo New York about any violations received by the bars mentioned here.

Dowdeswell drank at the basement bar of BBQ on West Eighth Street before she collapsed, manager Ronnie Mejia confirmed. She seemed "normal," he said, and appeared at the bar for only 45 minutes. Dowdeswell's mother believes BBQ was only one of the establishments where her daughter drank alone on her final night out.

Meija said staff at the bar confiscate IDs they believe are fake and throw out people who are visibly intoxicated. However, they likely don't catch everything.

"I'm upstairs, downstairs. I'm busy. Sometimes I can't see every single person," he said.

Smith, who said neither she nor her family had considered Dowdeswell an alcoholic, said she was heartened to hear about the extent of the security measures at many local bars.

But she said she wants New York state to require alcohol-awareness training for all bar staff.

"People should have personal responsibility, but people who are handing out what could be potentially fatal should be trained," she said. "It would have helped the bartenders that were serving my daughter that night."

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Foster Child Photos at Children's Museum Help Match Kids with Families

MANHATTAN About two years ago, a man considering adoption happened upon an image online of a boy looking for a home. The professionally shot photograph showed 11-year-old Nicholas, a youngster he thought had expressive, sad eyes.

A year later, after a first meeting playing cards together followed by months of administrative hurdles, the man and the boy in the photo are father and son.

Social service organizations and the city's Administration for Children's Services will try to make more adoptive parent-child matches in Hudson Square starting Wednesday, when a new exhibition of photographs of foster children goes on display at the Children's Museum of the Arts.

New York City kids living with foster families like a 9-year-old boy shown with his arms protectively wrapped around his 6-year-old sister got the red-carpet treatment when they had their portraits taken by photographers including Deborah Feingold and Len Irish, who usually shoot celebrities for magazine covers.

"Here's a photographer who was one day working for Angelina Jolie, and the next day they're photographing a kid for free to help him find a family," said Laurie Sherman Graff, the executive director of exhibition co-sponsor Heart Gallery NYC.

"They really work on bringing the individuality and spirit of the child into the photo, and that really does reach out to people," she added.

Heart Gallery NYC, part of a national project started in 2001, has displayed since 2006 photographs of children in search of "forever families," as the group phrases it.

About a third of the children photographed are placed in adoptive families after they are featured in photo exhibitions, Graff said. Heart Gallery NYC refers potential adoptive parents to agencies that work with the state to screen families and determine their compatibility with one of the 12,800 foster children in the city. 

Wallace Seay, a director for exhibition co-sponsor the Catholic Guardian Society and Home Bureau which helps match youth and new families said the photo shoots help raise kids' confidence.

"I've seen very shy children blossom during a photo shoot," he said. "It empowers the children and give them a sense of hope and well-being."

Through the end of May, which is National Foster Care Month, the photographs will be part of the "Face to Face" exhibit of youth portraits at the 103 Charlton St. museum.

CMA director of community programs Rachel Rapoport said the Heart Gallery NYC exhibit meshed well with the museum's existing programming for families using the foster system.

Art-making and creativity helps families "bond, interact and play together," she said in a statement.

More than a dozen youth photographed plus several families considering adoption are scheduled to attend a private exhibition debut event Tuesday.

"Some of the people there might be good matches for the kids there," Graff added. "Fingers crossed."

The Children's Museum of the Arts at 103 Charlton St. near Hudson Street is open Monday and Wednesday noon to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday noon to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Tuesday. Admission costs $11 per person, with free entry for seniors and infants under a year old. Admission is pay what you wish on Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m.

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High Line and Standard Hotel Dotted with Pill-Shaped Art

MEATPACKING DISTRICT Pill-shaped public art is popping up all around the High Line.

More than a dozen works by the modern artist Richard Artschwager are being installed on the High Line, Standard Hotel and the Whitney Museum of American Art's future location in the Meatpacking District.

Ranging in size from 1 to 5-feet-tall, the simple black or white capsules the artist calls "blps" are going up in conjunction with a retrospective of Artschwager's work that opens Thursday at the Whitney.

According to a statement from the museum, the spots placed in surprise locations are intended to "inspire focused looking, and draw attention to architecture, structures and surfaces that usually go unnoticed."

The artist first introduced blps, pronounced "blips," in the 1960s, installing them in New York, California and Europe. In 1968, Artschwager pasted 100 of the capsules around the Whitney. Photographs of that project appear in the new exhibition, which is exuberantly named "Richard Artschwager!"

Cecilia Alemani, the director of High Line Art, said putting "a three-dimensional painting" on the High Line was a natural choice.

The High Line is a natural theater for art, with its lush landscape, innovative design and breathtaking views of New York City," she said in a statement.

The curator of the modern art gallery at Yale University, Jennifer Gross, said the spots call attention to the beauty around them.

"Artschwagers blps are a natural extension of the High Lines embrace of its community and will only make even more visible the aesthetic richness of New York," she said in a statement.

Blps are also installed around the Whitney's current location at 945 Madison Ave. at 75th Street, a museum spokeswoman said.

People strolling on the High Line Tuesday afternoon said the art was so subtle they had not noticed it.

"If it's meant to be unobtrusive, it's unobtrusive," said Alice Olive, an Upper East Side resident who works in investor relations.

Her sister, who was visiting from Sydney, Australia, recommended a tweak to the project.

"I think a cluster of them would be more striking. Just one gets lost," said Kathleen Olive, a cultural tour leader.

Deborah Nasalga, a Lower East Side native who now lives in Cairo, N.Y., said she thought  the blps, which will be brought to the High Line by the Whitney and Friends of the High Line, blended in too well with their surroundings.

"I barely see how anyone would notice them," she said.

The blps will be on view through Feb. 3.

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