Monday, May 20
Community Board 3 SLA & DCA Licensing Committee meeting, 6:30 p.m., University Settlement Neighborhood Center, 189 Allen Street (btwn Houston & Stanton Sts) (north of main entrance)

Tuesday, May 21
Community Board 1 Seaport/Civic Center Committee meeting, 6 p.m., Community Board #1 Office, 49-51 Chambers Street, Room 709
Community Board 2 Social Service & Education Committee meeting, 6:30 p.m., St. John’s Lutheran Church, 81 Christopher St., Common Room

Wednesday, May 22
Community Board 2 Arts & Institutions Committee meeting, 6:30 p.m., Little Red School House, 272 Sixth Ave. Little Gym, 4th Floor
Community Board 3 Arts Task Force, 6:30 p.m., Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (btwn E 9th & 10th Sts)

The post goes on to call the sunbathers “self-entitled yahoos” who “look very stupid indeed” and chastised them for crowding the playground and the area around the fountain with their exposed skin. Finally, an impassioned plea came for the sake of the little ones.

“It’s time for management to make sure Playground 10 is for playing, not for sunbathing. And please, management, show some balls and don’t wait to enforce this once the Oval Lawn is open for sunbathing. Think of the children!”

By Nora Bosworth

This Memorial Day weekend, the South Street Seaport will come alive again, arguably for the first time since its devastation during Hurricane Sandy.

On Wednesday, members of Community Board 1 gathered downtown to discuss both South Street Seaport’s summer and long-term plans; the board met with a representative for the Howard Hughes Corporation, the seaport’s long-time manager and developer.

The summer’s attractions will preview the new direction South Street Seaport is taking, as they may actually draw New Yorkers, not just tourists.

“We want this to be a place that the local New York City community embraces and enjoys coming to on a daily basis,” said Christopher Curry, the Senior Executive Vice President of Development for the Howard Hughes Corporation.

Until Sandy, the seaport never suffered from a dearth of visitors. (In 2011 Travel + Leisure declared South Street Seaport the 26th most visited site in the world, tied with the Great Wall of China). On the other hand, with its previous string of just-okay eateries, retail chain stores like Ann Taylor and J. Crew, and kitschy shops, it was never an epicenter for young New Yorkers looking for a good time. That may be about to change.

The summer’s lineup will include a multi-story collection of pop-up stores and restaurants on Fulton and Front Streets, each housed in shipping containers – an economic and trendy solution.

Smorgasbar, the beer, wine and spirits garden that made its debut last year at the Brooklyn food fair, “Smorgasburg”, will also set up camp at the seaport this summer.

Dozens of local food and beverage lines will showcase their goods, featuring foodie-hits like Blue Marble Ice Cream, Landhaus, and the Red Hook Lobster Pound.

Every Wednesday night in June, a variety of bands will perform. In the evenings, beginning July 7th for eight weeks, the seaport will project outdoor films. Audience members will recline in lounge chairs.

At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, the community board voted unanimously to approve the liquor licenses needed for the festivities.

The board generally supports the summer plans, though a few questions arose during the their discussion. Some members expressed concern about noise levels for nearby residents, particularly in connection with the outdoor film series going too late into the night.

Yet perhaps the most prominent worry was whether Howard Hughes Corporation is moving forward with the construction of a permanent new seaport, not just investing in a temporary summer attraction.

“Clearly we wouldn’t be going through all these efforts just to open up some pop-up stores,” Curry said, addressing a member’s question on this issue.

But Jason Friedman, who joined Community Board 1 in 2013, said he worries that tenants will not be interested in renting the available spaces because they are still in disrepair from the hurricane.

“By not doing anything to ready spaces, they’re not helping themselves invite tenants back,” said Friedman in a telephone interview, adding that he is sure Howard Hughes has “good reasons” for not expediting the permanent construction.

The corporation maintains that rebuilding the potential stores will come after they have secured new renters.

“When we find tenants to occupy those spaces, they’ll build up those stores,” said Curry.

John Fratta, a long-time member of Community Board 1, said he was very happy with the meeting’s results. He feels his neighborhood has been historically overlooked, adding that the east side “has always been the step-child to everybody.”

Fratta said one of his biggest concerns is that the original South Street businesses that had to be shut down, either during Sandy or Howard Hughes’ construction, be granted a slot in the revolutionized seaport, if they want it.

All in all, however, he is excited the Seaport will be resurrected come Memorial Day. Friedman echoed this sentiment.
“I thought it was great for the summer,” Friedman said of the plan. “After that is a question mark.”

The Children’s Museum of the Arts downtown recently played host to several kids in the foster care system, and Heart Gallery, a non-profit organization that pairs professional photographers with kids and takes their pictures. From there, Heart Gallery, which has over 100 chapters all over the country, displays giant-sized photos of the kids at galleries or in public spaces like Penn Station. The hope, said director Laurie Sherman Graff, is to attract families who might be potential foster parents. In a gallery room at the Children’s Museum of the Arts, 18 large portraits of 20 kids, ranging in age from kindergarteners to teenagers, and will be on display until the end of the month.

Foster kids pose with their professional portrait at the Children’s Museum of the Arts

“It really jumped out at me, the thought that there’s children out there who need families,” said Sherman Graff. “People see these photos and they’re touched by them.”

The original Heart Gallery project started in New Mexico in 2001, and the New York chapter was created in 2006 by Sherman Graff. She has taken portraits of foster kids to exhibits in Penn Station, Times Square and politicians’ offices. Heart Gallery also does match parties, where they invite prospective parents and foster kids, and get them to do activities together.

Many of the foster kids at the event last week shyly told heart-wrenching stories about their experiences in the foster care system.

Most of them had been shuttled from temporary home to temporary home. One 14-year-old girl explained that at one home, the first words out of her foster mother’s mouth upon meeting her were to ask for the $40 in cash that foster kids are given once they go to a new home. Another foster child said that she has hated most of her foster home experiences because it was tough to get along with the families.

But even with their hardships, there are success stories. The keynote speaker at the event was Demetrius, a 17-year-old foster child who has never really had a home or a family, and has lived in 25 homes during his life. Despite this, the young man has aspirations of becoming a lawyer, and has been accepted by two colleges upstate.

“I don’t want to settle for less,” said Demetrius. “I know I’m greater than this.”

Demetrius also said that it was a struggle to follow the correct path. His older siblings are in and out of jail, and have dabbled in drugs. But even though he was often angry at the foster care system, and at his temporary families, he has stuck it out.

Demetrius speaks about how his caseworker helped guide him through a tough adolescence.

Demetrius will age out of the system in 4 years, so he said that at this point, he considers his caseworker to be like family to him.
“My caseworker Toni Anne said to me that I will leave her before she leaves me. And it’s true, I age out in a few years and she was always there for me,” said Demetrius. “I want to help kids like me because being in the foster care system is not easy. We can work together, we can overcome this.”

All success stories aside, Sherman Graff explained that the reason Heart Gallery works in particular is that usually the foster care system will distribute photos of children that look like driver’s license shots. By working with professional photographers, however, they can really capture the personality of a child.

“You come to their level, you engage them in conversation first. If they’re super outgoing or inverted, hopefully that photograph will make their personality shine,” said photographer Camille Tokerud. “You can see your own kids in them. When you see the photo of that child, you can really relate to them.”

Kids currently in the foster system pose at the gallery that displays their portraits.

Camille Tokerud had been looking forward to seeing Nicholas, one of her young subjects at last week’s event. But she was just informed that he was adopted a couple of days prior.

“I got goosebumps,” said Tokerud. “I miss seeing him, but this is why we’re all here. This is why I do this.”

By Adam Janos

Of all the different special interest groups grappling for power in New York City, the Women’s Rights movement is one of the largest and most diverse. According to the New York City Department of Urban Planning, there are nearly 400,000 more women than men in New York, which means the group advocates for an absolute majority in the Big Apple. And with a city this diverse, that means a responsibility for advocacy to a plethora of issues.

NOW’s (National Organization for Women) Mayoral forum at Pace University last Tuesday aimed to address that immense breadth of policy concerns for New Yorkers, and questions about more “typical” women’s rights topics like contraceptive care and paid sick leave, were tempered with more gender-neutral topics like city pensions, mayoral power, and the future of our education system.

The Republicans took the stage first, though of the GOP candidates, only Joe Lhota actually showed up, with billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis cancelling his appearance at the eleventh hour. Lhota was joined on stage by Independent Party candidate Adolfo Carrion, and the two sparred on a variety of issues. Of the two, Lhota got the more memorable lines in; his response to the question, “Why are you a Republican?” – which was met by laughter from the presumably left-leaning crowd – was poignant, and effectively served as the GOP frontrunner’s pitch to a city that will have to look past its own progressive leanings if he is to find a pathway to victory.

“I’m a Republican and have been probably since I was ten years old,” said the former MTA Chairman. “I do believe in government from a libertarian point of view… that the government shouldn’t be in the bedroom, it shouldn’t be telling us what to do, it should be limited in its focus. It should direct us, and control society in a way such that it’s not overbearing. So look, I do disagree, vehemently disagree, with the national Republican Party. I’m doing everything I can to change it. But… I do believe that the Democratic Party is not fiscally disciplined enough, and I’m really focused around fiscal discipline.”

Unfortunately for Lhota, being the “most memorable” in the stage was a double-edged sword, and he had a few key slip-ups. He may have saved his most inelegant comment for last, when he answered the question– in the lightning round – if he considered himself a feminist.

“I’ve never thought about it before,” the candidate glibly replied.

Perhaps the hours prior to a women’s rights mayoral forum would have been a good time for that.

On the Democratic side, the more crowded stage (Christine Quinn, John Liu, Bill Thompson and Bill de Blasio) left less breathing room for any individual candidate to give a run away performance. Quinn grabbed some easy cheers when referring to herself as a “pushy broad”, but – curiously enough – she otherwise stayed away from identity politics and made no mention of the glass ceiling she’d be breaking as the city’s first female mayor.

The Dems spent a large share of their time debating a question relating to Comptroller Liu’s 2011 proposal to merge the city’s five pension plans under one umbrella, which he estimated would shave $1 billon per year from New York’s budget. Speaker Christine Quinn condemned that the decision to announce the proposal publically through the press before receiving widespread union support, saying the matter would have better been handled behind closed doors. The public advocate agreed.

“The stakeholders weren’t consulted properly,” said de Blasio.

After each of the candidates had spoken – and critiqued – the Comptroller’s proposed pension merger, Liu injected the debate with a healthy dose of humor.

“I support my plan,” said Liu. It was one of several funny quips from the Comptroller, who in another deadpan moment noted that while he would like to crack down upon those who purchase and bankroll prostitution in the city, he has serious reservations about using the term “Johns.”

It was a light note in a forum that was decidedly substantive. This was in no small part due to Purnick, who repeated questions and interrupted candidates when she felt they were being evasive. Those on stage rose to the challenge.

For the last question of the forum, the four Democrats were asked, as Lhota and Carrion had, if they considered themselves feminists:

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

It was an affirming end for a robust debate, and those at NOW can take comfort in knowing that the women’s rights movement is healthy and rising.

By Helaina Hovitz

On Friday, May 10, dozens of glamorous dogs — and a few badly in need of a good home — gathered at Han Nari & MG, a dog apparel and accessories boutique at 20 East 20th Street. Fortunately, nobody showed up wearing the same dress.

The event was co-sponsored by lifestyle site City Dog Expert and the East Village based non-profit K9Kastle, an organization dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and finding homes for at-risk and surrendered companion animals in NYC.

The event included a raffle, bar, discount shopping, dog sushi, puppy cocktails, and a photo booth.

“It’s harder to get senior dogs adopted because they need more care,” explained Tara Ciabattari, Vice President of K9Kastle. “The cost is usually at least around $1,000, for medication, blood work, surgery (if needed), and dental.”

Fortunately, K9Kastle steps in to foot the bill so the dog is more adoptable and ready to go. The organization is able to find foster homes for most of the dogs, but some are boarded in shelters.

“These organizations are desperate for fundraising,” said Kimberly Marie Freeman, event organizer for Senior Soiree.

By the time four Chihuahuas arrived together in a baby carriage at 7:30 p.m., the place was packed.

One of the dogs up for adoption, Twinkie, still recovering from hernia surgery and the removal of a tumor, was lounging on a dog bed on one of the stores lower shelves. He was joined by tiny Italian greyhounds Fiona and Misha, 9, who also need a good home.
“There has never been a greater need to shelter and rehome stray and surrendered companion animals in New York City than right now,” said Freeman.
The number of at-risk and special needs animals in New York City and its boroughs reached its highest number ever in 2012.
Freeman’s dog, Houdini, 5, is a Shih Tzu mix rescue from animal care and control. He was on the kill list because he had behavioral issues.
“It took me six months of training work to get him to allow people to touch him,” said Freeman, who is also a dog trainer by trade.
On Friday, he was good natured trotting around in his tux, greeting other dogs and loving the attention from those who pet him. Houdini earned his name after he escaped from crates and puppy gates six times in his first day home.

Lots of other lucky dogs with good homes and stellar wardrobes came, too, like six-year-old ZiZi, “a couture dog, who is an author, model, and philanthropist that tries to attend all the doggy events she can,” according to her mom, Ilene Zeins.

ZiZi eagerly jumped on anyone who cooed over her bright pink manicure and extravagant black dress.

Another high profile pup, 16-month-old Pomeranian Gia, was wearing a tootsie roll and lollipop dress and matching hair bow. Soon, she’ll make her cover debut with PUP Culture Magazine.

Frankie, 6, who was all hot pink fur head to toe, didn’t seem to mind the unwanted advance another dog made from behind. In all fairness, Frankie was peacocking.

Nearby was five-year-old Suri, wearing a pink polka dot bow with pearls and matching necklace, sitting snuggly in her owner’s tote bag.
“We always go to dog fundraisers, and it’s a great excuse to wear fancy outfits,” said her mom, Artesia Adamo, who lives on Iriving Place and 18th Street. “Too many of these dogs need homes.”

Furry guests were served dog sushi hors d’oeuvres and given doggie bags full of treats to take home, and a pee-pee incident around 7:45 p.m. was handled discreetly and professionally by store employees.

The event, which drew 100 guests to the Gramercy Park store, raised $1,000 for the cause. All proceeds will go towards supporting senior, special needs, and surrendered dogs.

K9Kastle usually cares for about twenty dogs at a time and four to five times as many cats. They’re currently funded, in large part, by donations, because the grant from the Mayor’s Alliance is almost at the end of its run. They are hoping to open up their own shelter soon.

To adopt Misha, Fiona, Twinkie, or another senior dog, please visit k9castle.petfinder.org.

By Kristine Keller

Last Sunday I found myself at a desolate corner on the southwest edge of Greenwich Village. I was meeting a friend for brunch, who sent me a text with the proper street coordinates and a line that said “meet me inside at noon.” It was all very Murder She Wrote, if Angela Lansbury’s character could text, so naturally I was completely on board. I had no idea why said friend chose this arbitrary spot for our catch-up over eggs and bottomless coffee. It wasn’t a local treasure or on the list of any recommended restaurants. An hour in I had to ask, what gives with all the mystery? Turns out, we were there because my friend saw on Instagram that her crush had been making the regular rounds at this spot every Sunday. “Now look like you’re laughing really hard so I can Instagram a brunch picture here and he’ll see it,” she advised me.

What said friend was really doing was cultivating her brand image. It’s by no means a revolutionary argument to say that the practice of branding is powerful. Professional marketers representing juggernaut businesses to smaller-scale start-ups spend billions every year in hopes that the right tagline or compelling story will leverage their brand. The goal is to lock in consumers, hope that they’ll engage, and that ultimately, their efforts will result in a pretty penny. And while industries are pouring resources and energy into social media strategists and branding consultants, there’s a new type of branding that’s emerged from motivation of a different kind. And like business-savvy branding, this type of packaging might also add partners to your rolodex. I’m referring to, of course, to the branding of “you.” And like masters who’ve convinced us that the contents inside of a Heinz jar or Crest tube are magic on the tongue, capturing the essence of your neatly packaged “you” takes skillful craftiness in the form of witty tweets and filtered photos.

In 2013 the vast majority of us have graduated from the beginning stages of social media to wearing virtual cap and gowns and receiving honorary doctorates in the field. There’s Facebook to illustrate the breadth and depth of our friendships. I’ve got a boatload of friends, and you can count all 900 of them! There’s Instagram to demonstrate that we’re seeing concerts we wouldn’t care about if it weren’t for the pop-up notification that read “that dude you’re interested in is now following you.” Now there’s even a video platform called Vine to proclaim: See! I was really at the aforementioned concert I uploaded pictures from!

It’s remarkable that we have ways of presumably connecting with more people than ever — but on the flip side, all of these connectors can also leave us grossly disconnected. Scan a room at Saturday brunch and notice the gaggle of tables spending more time photographing their plates than actually chatting with one another. And would those denizens have even gone to said brunch place, had they not planned on uploading the salivating food photos?

In the next few years, researchers will have to pay extra close attention to the role of social media in social comparison theory. The theory says that we use others as a benchmark in order to gain “accurate” self-perceptions of ourselves. But in an age when everyone is expertly marketing their own self-brand, we may be comparing ourselves to friends’ lives that don’t actually exist. My advice is to use social media with a grain of salt – allow it to capture a piece of your day but don’t let it dictate your day. And understand that the seemingly perfect life you’re viewing through rose-tinted filters and “likes” is just the work of a brand manager and not a benchmark for the way you should spend your Sundays. Ah yes, and if only Angela Lansbury’s character could text, then she’d say: u r totes right.

Kristine received her Master’s in Psychology from New York University. You can e-mail her at StreetshrinkNYC@gmail.com for questions.

By Angela Barbuti

Vinny Guadagnino is living life vicariously through himself. At least that’s what the quote on his Twitter page’s background says. When asked about it, Guadagnino explains that he was only being sarcastic. But it does make a lot of sense that he would be content with his life. At 25, the Jersey Shore veteran was offered a talk show on MTV, where he literally opens the door of his Staten Island home to welcome celebrities for a family-style interview, complete with a home cooked meal by his mother Paola. The Show with Vinny, which airs Thursday nights on MTV, is just the beginning for the Italian-American entertainer. He wants to pursue stand-up comedy, acting, and maybe even get a law degree. But whatever he chooses, he has his family — and now a newfound bunch of celebrity friends — as his biggest fans.

How do you think your Italian heritage plays a role on the show?
We’re not sitting there waving Italian flags around. We like to eat, my mom likes to cook, my uncle likes to drink wine. We like to hang out like a family and keep it real, and I think that’s really what the culture’s all about. And that’s what the show is about too. People are hanging out with an Italian mom — they open up and act very casually.

Your mom is a big part of the show. How is she handling all the fame?
Well she’s been on Jersey Shore, so she’s recognized as Vinny’s mom. I can’t wait till she’s giving autographs — that’s gonna be great. She loves it. My Uncle Nino loves it a little too much — he’s like a fame whore. But my mom, she gets a kick out of it, so I just hope it continues for her.

I think one of the funniest parts of the first episode was when your mom fed Lil Wayne broccoli rabe. What have been your favorite moments on the show this season?
They don’t even know what Italian food is, it’s hilarious. Oh man. Every episode has a funny moment of its own, because you don’t know what each celebrity brings to the table. Little Wayne was awesome and cool; he taught me how to skateboard. With Mindless Behavior, we did a little dance thing. Which each guest, I try to do something funny that they like to do. And I end up failing at it miserably.

How do you prepare for the celebrity interviews?
I do a ton of research. My production company helps me out a lot. But I also go on my own and always try to Google, “things you didn’t know about” the person. Just so when I’m talking to someone, they know that I did my homework and am not just trying to use them for my success. That I’m thoroughly interested in them.

So your guests have no idea what to expect?
No, there’s no pre-interview that says what my questions are going to be. With me, you’re just going to go in there and hangout with a family. It’s all a regular conversation from the top of my head.

Who were you most nervous to interview?
Probably Mark Wahlberg. You know, it’s Mark Wahlberg. He’s a legend and one of my favorite actors. Just to be sitting down with him was an honorary experience for me.

You are very open about dealing with your anxiety and wrote a book about it called Control the Crazy. Does anxiety affect you on this show?
No, it’s actually a perfect cure for my anxiety. When I do a show like Jersey Shore, I don’t have a TV or radio; I can’t read or write. I can’t do anything. I just kind of sit there. But on a show like this, I have to prep, interview. I’m in the zone. I have to be on.

You took the LSAT on the day Jersey Shore premiered. Do you think you’ll ever go to law school?
Umm. I’m trying not to. I like entertaining and being on TV, but I love politics and government. So maybe one day I’ll go back and get the degree just to have it. I like accomplishing things. I liked getting my Bachelor’s degree. That would be another goal to accomplish — a law degree.

You take improv classes at Upright Citizens Brigade.
I do that with standup comedy now, trying to mix that world into my career as well. It helps me a lot with being a talk show host and an actor, and everything in life.

I read you want to do more scripted TV.
Yeah I love scripted TV. That’s my dream job — acting on a regular series. But I also want to stay on MTV. I like this job and being part of that family. Also, I give speeches to students talking about my book. I want to keep that self help, motivation aspect a part of my career.

Where do you live on Staten Island? What are your favorite places there?
I’m in the middle of the island. There are some really good restaurants out here. There’s this little bar called Schaffer’s that’s right down the street from my house. You feel like you’re walking into the 1950’s. There’s this place called Royal Crown that has the best Italian subs you’ll ever have in your life.

I like the quote on your Twitter page. “I live vicariously through myself.”
Oh yeah. [Laughs] I’m just a smart ass and I hate when you go to people’s pages and they’re like, “I’m this, I’m that.” So I just said, “I live vicariously through myself,” which makes no sense at all.

I thought you meant that since you like your life and have such a cool job, you’re living vicariously through yourself.
You know what, I’m gonna go with that. Thank you. I’m gonna keep that. You made it deep for me.

Watch The Show with Vinny on Thursday nights at 10 p.m. on MTV
Follow Vinny on Twitter: @VINNYGUADAGNINO