By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

Meditation expert Martin Boroson came up with the idea for his One Moment Meditation technique out of necessity. When Boroson arrived at a corporate law firm in Dublin to teach a meditation session in 2002, he found that instead of a few hours in a quiet, relaxed location as he had expected, the session was going to take place in a boardroom during lunch hour, with sandwiches lining the conference table.

Boroson decided to teach the roomful of lawyers in suits a short meditation exercise instead of the longer one he had planned. “To my surprise, something happened and it really worked. You could feel the change in the room, he said.

After that experience Boroson realized that, for many people, meditating for a minute could be more valuable and more realistic than meditating for a longer session.

Martin Boroson meditating. Photo by Ronan Temple Lang

The One Moment Meditation technique starts with what Boroson calls a “basic minute. Boroson starts and stops the minute by ringing a bell and tells people to focus on their breathing. If the mind wanders, he suggests gently bringing the focus back to the breath.

He chose a minute because it is an easily identifiable unit of time and because everybody, no matter how busy they are, can spare a minute. Although people have a tendency to want to try a longer session after they realize that they can do a minute, Boroson cautions against that.

“If you were to do that exercise for longer than a minute, it would become something else; you wouldn"t realize how much you can do in just a minute, he said.

Boroson, 50, advises people to eventually reduce the amount of time to less than a minute so that it can be used anytime, anywhere. Once you are comfortable with meditating for a minute, and learn how do-able and effective it is, then you learn how to reduce the length of that, step by step, until “it only takes a moment, said Boroson. “You can meditate while waiting for something to download or on the subway or while standing in line.

Born and raised in New York, Boroson studied philosophy at Yale, got an MBA and then trained as a psychotherapist. He recently wrote a book about his meditation technique titled One Moment Meditation: Stillness for People on the Go, and he teaches One Moment Meditation through online courses, one-on-one sessions and workplace training.

Although the book is influenced by his personal practice of Zen Buddhism, the technique is not in any one tradition. According to Boroson, the method of One Moment Meditation is most useful for two distinct groups of people: those who have tried to mediate and failed and people who had a concentrated meditation experience but have struggled to integrate it into their daily life.

“Most people get that meditation is good for you. They know they should go to the gym, meditate, save for retirement and floss, Boroson said. “But all these things we ‘should" do become stressful. Even the thought of meditation can become stressful. This escalating cycle of stress is what Boroson calls “stresscalation.

April 16 is National Stress Awareness Day and Boroson is hoping that people will observe the day by taking a vow not to pass stress on to others.

Boroson wants to use meditation as a tool to help create happy work environments, and his technique has been used in some unlikely places where a little calm is needed.

For example, Boroson taught 150 physicians at Kaiser Medical Center during rounds so that they could use meditation to quickly collect a bit of calm before entering the examining room.

“We are so in the habit of thinking that great change takes time, but it can just take a moment, Boroson said. “A mental shift can happen in no time. You can change your mind in an instant.

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For more information, including a demonstration of One Moment Meditation visit www.onemomentmeditation.com.

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

In 1998, Michael Miscione was a television producer, when he decided to make a documentary in honor of the centennial consolidation of the five boroughs. This project was the beginning of his life as a New York City historian.

“This was a life-changing moment because it made me realize how much I loved New York City history, said Miscione.

Miscione has a position few New Yorkers even know exists's he is the official historian of the borough of Manhattan. The position is state mandated and each borough has an historian appointed by the borough president.

When Scott Stringer became Manhattan borough president in 2006, Miscione met him at a debate and told him he would love to be the new borough historian if the then-current borough historian, Caledonia Jones, stepped down. When the vacancy became available, Miscione became the seventh historian to hold the position.

“I like the terms ‘position" and ‘appointment" better than ‘job," because the word job implies a paycheck, Miscione said.

The position is unpaid, which means that borough historians have day jobs. “I and my fellow historians sort of fit it into the cracks of our lives, the Upper East Side resident said. Miscione also works as a tour guide.

Borough Historian Michael Miscione. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

In Miscione"s role as borough historian, he holds press conferences to commemorate important anniversaries, gives speeches and answers questions from media, the public and city institutions.

Two big anniversaries coming up this year include the 200th anniversary of the creation of the street grid and the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

“I am getting assaulted with triangle fire everything, and the actual anniversary isn"t until weeks from now, said Miscione.

Last year, Miscione held an event in honor of the 75th anniversary of the creation of the urban legend of alligators in the sewer. The myth stems from an incident Feb. 9, 1935, when several teenagers in East Harlem were shoveling snow into an open sewer manhole and found a 7-foot-long, 125-pound alligator.

Although Miscione will answer questions to the best of his ability on most topics, he has limits. Very soon after Miscione was appointed, he received a phone call from somebody asking him about a great-grandfather who had lived on the Lower East Side.

The job description specifies that borough historians don"t do genealogies. “So I had to break this man"s heart and tell him I didn"t know anything about his great-grandfather.

Another area Miscione doesn"t like weighing in on is disputed neighborhood boundaries.

“There are very, very few officially definable neighborhood boundaries, and yet for some reason people get so wrapped up in this, said Miscione. “When you tell them that it is blurry or undefined, they get upset.

Miscione grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and has lived in Turtle Bay for his entire adult life. The origin of Turtle Bay, he said, has nothing to do with animals and is thought to be an Anglicization of a Dutch word.

“Being a native New Yorker and having lived through some of the history I talk about is a real asset. It makes me personally familiar with some of the things that have happened and it has given me exposure to the five boroughs. It"s very easy to become provincial if you just stay on your little island, but that is a bad way to be.

Laurence Renard was killed by a dump truck on First Avenue and 90th Street on a January afternoon. Jason King was fatally hit by a truck on Madison Avenue and 80th Street in December. In 2009, 3-year-old Elle Vandenberghe was on her way to pre-school when she was struck by a car on the corner of 82nd Street and York Avenue. It took Elle eight months and 11 surgeries before she regained the ability to walk again.
The Upper East Side is one of the city"s top five most dangerous neighborhoods for pedestrians, according to a new study by Transportation Alternatives, a pedestrian and bicycle advocacy group. Six people in as many months have died after being hit by automobiles in the neighborhood, according to the New York Police Department.

Now, local elected officials are calling on recently enacted laws to crack down on reckless drivers.

The driver who killed Jason King was charged with reckless driving under Hayley and Diego"s Law. It was the first time that the new law has been used.

“The NYPD has set a powerful example by issuing the first summons under Hayley and Diego"s Law, said Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives. “The Police Department has shown it can respond to top community concerns and lead the way in reducing needless tragedy on our streets by enforcing safe driving behavior.

Hayley and Diego"s Law's named after two 4-year-olds in Chinatown who died in 2009 after an idling van backed up into an intersection's allows “drivers who act in a manner that endangers or would be likely to endanger a pedestrian or cyclist thereby causing physical injury or death to be punished with a fine, up to 15 days in prison and a motor vehicle accident prevention course.

“It"s a great step, and I"m glad the police have begun enforcing these laws's that"s the only way we"ll finally start getting dangerous drivers off our streets, said Assembly Member Micah Kellner.

Prior to that summons, State Senator Liz Krueger sent a letter to District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., urging him to enforce Elle"s Law.

86th Street and Third Avenue has the highest number of crashes on the Upper East Side, according to a recent Transportation Alternatives study. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Elle"s Law, which suspends motorists" drivers licenses for up to one year if they seriously injure or kill a pedestrian, was signed and enacted by Governor Paterson last summer after a campaign by Elle"s mother, Heather Vandenberghe. After Elle was injured in 2009, Vandenberghe wanted to make sure that legal recourse existed to get dangerous drivers off the road.

“Particularly in a city as congested as ours, it is critical that drivers pay all due deference to the ‘rules of the road," and that they recognize their vehicles" potential as deadly weapons if they are not operated in a responsible manner, wrote Krueger. “Strict enforcement of Elle"s Law will help get this message across.

Until these laws were enacted, the only legal recourse available to prevent reckless drivers from driving after they were involved in an accident was to charge them with vehicular manslaughter's a charge that is difficult to prove and not always applicable. Because many of these cases don"t qualify as vehicular manslaughter, the driver often faced no repercussions after causing a serious accident.

The new laws make it possible to prevent drivers, who are at fault for hitting a pedestrian or a cyclist, from getting behind a wheel, and politicians hope that the existence of the laws acts as a deterrent.

While the Upper East Side has seen a barrage of pedestrian deaths recently, the overall number of pedestrian deaths in New York City has sustained a four-year low, according to a Feb. 7 Department of Transportation study. Last year, 269 people were killed in traffic accidents, according to the study. Pedestrian deaths decreased to 151 in 2010, five fewer than during the previous year, and 21 percent fewer than in 2001. Bicycle traffic deaths, which had decreased by more than 50 percent in 2009, increased last year to 18. Senior fatalities dropped by three to 44 last year, or 32 percent fewer than in 2001.

In addition to laws that aim to discourage reckless drivers, Transportation Alternatives outlined changes that could help prevent accidents in the future, including better street design and the enforcement of new laws designed to deter careless drivers.

“Design improvements and greater enforcement of traffic violations by the NYPD are needed to make the East Side streets safer, said Julia Day, director of transportation and health at Transportation Alternatives. “Many of the East Side"s corridors are over 70 feet wide and do not provide adequate crossing time for pedestrians.

Transportation Alternative"s East Side Action Plan, which surveyed more than 600 East Side residents for the study, said that many of the problems on the Upper East Side are structural, and changes such as giving pedestrians a head start by changing the timing of lights, installing pedestrian medians and bike lanes could help protect pedestrians as well as bicyclists.

According to the Department of Transportation"s pedestrian safety report, streets with the lanes see 40 percent fewer fatal or injurious crashes than streets without them. After bike lanes came to Ninth Avenue, pedestrian injuries decreased 29 percent. On Prospect Park West, injuries decreased 21 percent after bike lanes were installed.

“Bike lanes are one way to reduce speeding, reduce crashes for all street users and generally make a street friendly for the majority of folks who are using it: pedestrians, said Caroline Samponaro, director of bicycle advocacy at Transportation Alternatives.

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Portraits of Tragedy

Laurence Renard
On Jan. 24, fashion stylist Laurence Renard was killed on impact by a truck a block from her First Avenue apartment. Renard was pronounced dead at the scene. The truck driver, Diego A. Tapia-Ulloa, was charged with driving with a suspended license.

Born in France, Renard grew up in Paris, Miami and New York, and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology. She worked as a stylist for Victoria"s Secret and on advertising campaigns shot by photographer Bruce Weber.

“She was a really lovely girl, who just had a lot of good energy and excitement about working in the fashion industry, said Weber in a statement released shortly after the accident. “She always just had a really nice way about herself.

A memorial to Laurence Renard, a fashion stylist who was killed by a truck Jan. 24 at the intersection of First Avenue and 90th Street. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Jason King
Jason King, 21, was crossing Madison Avenue early on the morning of Dec. 7, 2010, when he was struck and killed by a Mack truck going in reverse. The driver of the truck, Anthony Regisford, has been issued a summons for careless driving under a new law.

King, who lived on the East Side, was a student at LaGuardia Community College and worked at EAT Bakery's where he was headed when he was killed. According to a police report, an iPod was found at the scene and King is believed to have been listening to it at the time of the accident.

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

Second Avenue businesses are continuing to struggle under the impact of construction in the new year as the end date for the Second Avenue Subway line now stretches into 2018.

Elected reps from the area are once again attempting to come up with plans to alleviate the financial burden felt by the stores and restaurants that line Second Avenue, and are now looking towards lower Manhattan's where small business owners have gotten millions to help them make it through long-term construction projects like the Fulton Transit Center's as a model.

The Second Avenue Subway will offer for some relief to the congested Number 6 train when it is finished in 2018.

In recent years, bills aimed at providing financial assistance to area businesses have passed the State Assembly, and sometimes the State Senate, but were then vetoed by ex-Governor Paterson. Local politicians hope that the administration in Albany led by Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be more open to their ideas to provide struggling business owners with assistance.

Some of the elected officials have modeled their own bills on programs devised by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

As a model for his bill to give a real-estate tax abatement to commercial properties most impacted by construction, Assembly Member Micah Kellner looked at the Small Firm Assistance Program enacted by the LMDC, where businesses suffering the most received up to $35,000.

“It"s a model for what we are trying to do. We are looking at ways this has been done before, said Kellner"s Legislative Director, Paul Curtis.

Lower Manhattan"s Small Business Firm Assistance program may provide a model of economic stimulus for an area impacted by construction, but the funding source is a key difference between projects. The funding for Lower Manhattan came from a federally funded grant and was not enacted through legislation, but the Paterson administration did sign off on an expansion of the small business program.

“Lower Manhattan Development Corporation took funding they had from the Federal government because of 9/11 and used that to create business assistance, said State Senator Liz Krueger. Although there is not the same funding source for Second Avenue, Krueger said that it is a useful model to see how funds were used to assist businesses affected by construction of a transportation hub.

Kellner"s bill would lower the property tax by multiplying the number of square feet by either $2.50 or 50 percent of the building"s tax liability (whichever is lower) for any commercial or mixed use building within the area affected by MTA construction. The bill would require that the decrease in property taxes be passed to the tenant.

The bill originally extended through 2015 but now goes through 2018, to reflect the new end date for the construction project. Although this is the fourth time that Kellner is introducing the bill, he feels optimistic about the chances of it passing's at least in the State Assembly.

“I am confident that the Assembly will pass the bill for a fourth time because nobody wants Second Avenue to turn into a ghost town, said Kellner.

Other local representatives are also re-introducing bills that would help the affected Second Avenue businesses.

In the beginning of January, Assembly Member Jonathan Bing reintroduced a bill that would aid businesses on Second Avenue by providing assistance in the form of grants.

“The Second Avenue Subway Construction Economic Development Grant legislation is an important part of the effort to help establishments negatively affected by the subway construction. This legislation will provide targeted funds to local businesses which have lost revenue during the construction process and help enable their long-term prosperity, Bing said in a statement.

This is not the first time that he introduced a bill to provide economic aid to businesses affected by the subway construction. In 2008, Governor Paterson vetoed a similar bill after it passed in the Senate and the Assembly. In 2008, Bing also introduced legislation that would create a sales tax-free zone, something he plans to do again in the coming weeks.

“The governor said at the time that he was concerned about setting a precedent, but that is no comfort for struggling business owners, said Council Member Jessica Lappin about the bill. “These businesses are struggling and need help. I hope the new governor takes more kindly to their cause.

Joe Pecora, president of the Second Avenue Business Association and owner of Delizia Ristorante & Pizza, said he has experienced the economic impact of the construction first hand. Delizia"s, which has been on the corner of 92nd Street and Second Avenue for 22 years, is hidden behind a tall fence, and the crosswalk directly in front of the restaurant has been diverted to the middle of the block. Pecora used to have a sidewalk café in warmer months, but that hasn"t happened since construction began.

“Foot traffic is down, business is down, rents are down, said Pecora. He estimates that foot traffic is down by as much 50 percent and says business in the area has decreased anywhere from an average of 30 percent to 50 percent.

“A lot of businesses have already closed and I expect more will before the project is over, he said.

While some are looking  to Downtown, others are looking to the Midwest. East Side resident and Columbia Business School student Jared Stone has been examining the problems facing Second Avenue businesses. Together with a team of three other Columbia MBA students, Stone has been looking to Minnesota as a case study.

“In 2010, the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul began constructing a light rail system. To aid businesses affected by the construction, the Metropolitan council authorized a 1 million dollar interest-free small-business loan fund, said Stone. Stone thinks that a similar solution could work on Second Avenue and he is in favor of a property tax abatement.

“The rents are too high when you take into account the likelihood of stores on Second Avenue going out of business, said Stone.

As part of a marketing strategy to get people to the stores, Stone started a blog called “The Second Avenue Shopper that features discounts and promotions for Second Avenue stores and restaurants.

Other marketing strategies are being talked about as a possible boon to the area.

“The MTA has said that they want to start being better neighbors and they are talking about printing a ‘Shop Second Avenue" logo on the back of MetroCards and busses, said Pecora. He thinks that if it were easier to envision the finished product, it would help generate excitement for the project. “The MTA should have models of the future train station on every two or three blocks to try and get a sense of how this will look and make it a destination, he said.

Pecora is hopeful that the proposed legislation will be enacted in order to help Second Avenue businesses, and he thinks that it would benefit the city as well.

“It"s good for the merchant, it"s good for the landlord and it"s good for the neighborhood because you won"t have closed stores, said Pecora. “You have real estate taxes getting paid, sales tax for the city and people with jobs, so in the long run it helps everybody. Some business is better than no business.

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

Central Park bustled with activity the day after a blizzard dumped almost two feet of snow on New York City. Locals and visitors spent the day sledding and skiing, building snowmen and throwing snowballs.

Downhill Excitement's A trio of sledders fly down Cedar Hill in Central Park on their sled making the best of the blizzard. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Martin Stute, a professor of environmental science at Barnard, took his cross-country skis out of his closet on Monday morning and was soon gliding around the Upper West Side. He planned to ski at least 10 miles by the end of the day. “It"s just fantastic, you can go all over the city and never have to take your skis off, he said. Last year, Stute, 51, skied to a meeting at the Natural History Museum from his Morningside Heights apartment. “I wish I could ski to work but I live too close.

Emiliano Perez, 4, of Mexico City, was excited to play in snow for the second time in his life. “Making a snowman is the most fun part of being in the snow. We even got this carrot for the nose at the supermarket, said his father, Fernando Perez, 35, as he tried to mold the powdery snow into a head for the snowman by putting it in a plastic bag.

Michaela and Franziska Castillo spent the day making snow angels, hiking around the snow banks and running in the light, fluffy snow. Mother and daughter were covered in snow after what Michaela, 7, decided was their final snowball fight of the day before she needed a hot chocolate. “Central Park is the best thing about New York, said Castillo, 35. “Without it, we would go crazy.

“The snow in the park is so beautiful, you can be in the country without taking a train or a plane or anything, said Kathy Jolley, 61. “Whenever it snows, we make sure to come out. Jolley"s husband carried their 14-year-old Maltese, Muffin, in a sling. “Muffin was walking, but then she said ‘enough." She"s an old lady, said Jolley.

Other dogs were more excited to play in the snow. On Monday afternoon, Pam Aguilar and her dog, Ripley, were in Central Park for the third time since the snow started the night before. “Ripley loves the snow. We were out here last night during the blizzard and it was amazing for both of us, said Aguilar, 39. “There were four or five dogs playing and it was just beautiful. Ripley, a lab-pitbull mix, wore booties to protect her paws from the salt as she ran into snow banks as tall as she was.

“We are still looking for the best hill, said Jonathan Bleiberg, 14, carrying a boogie board made for sledding. “This is a baby hill, said his sister, Emily, 10, pointing to the hill on 85th Street and Central Park West near the entrance to the park.

Cedar Hill, near 79th Street and Fifth Avenue, was a popular sledding spot's even for those who had to travel to get there.

“There are smaller parks downtown, but the sledding is better up here. I Googled the best sledding in New York City and Cedar Hill came up, said Jonathan Levitt, 15, of Chelsea.

“I grew up going to Riverside Park, but this hill is way better. said Lauren Soll, 17, a high school senior at Columbia Prep. “This is so much fun, but I just don"t know why we always seem to get huge blizzards during breaks. If only this had happened on a weekday in January, we could have had a snow day, said Soll.

Although the holiday Monday was an opportunity for many to take advantage of the snow, it was a normal day for some's just a little more slippery. Scott Cohen ran through the park in his usual winter jogging outfit of shorts and a neoprene shirt. “You have to be really careful of your footing and diligent of your foot strides, but I couldn"t resist the opportunity to be in the park today. It"s just gorgeous, said Cohen, 50, who is training for the Mumbai marathon and runs in the park most days. “I just try to avoid the shiny curvatures on the road and slow down a bit.

While most people in Central Park on Monday enjoyed the snow, it meant a lot of work for those involved in cleanup. Louis Urruttia, a supervisor at the Central Park Conservancy, said he expected a busy week of shoveling and plowing as he drove a snowplow through the park. “So far this is not as bad as the blizzard of 1996, but it"s up there, he said. Urruttia, 50, estimates that the Conservancy will use six cubic yards of street salt over the week.

Traffic and transit shut down Sunday night, but some lucky travelers managed to avoid the delays. Mark John, of Cape Town, South Africa, flew to New York for a wedding. “We got here just in time on Sunday, right before JFK shut down, said John, 47. The snow was too overwhelming for John"s 2-year–old nephew, who was back in the hotel on the Upper West Side. “He never saw snow before and he started crying, he said. “It doesn"t snow like this in Cape Town.

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

When Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced a proposal for a new school to be named after Frank McCourt at a 2009 memorial service for the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and beloved teacher, it sparked a lot of interest in the new school.

Frank McCourt High School of Writing, Journalism and Literature opened this past fall with 100 9th-grade students and eight teachers in the Brandeis High School building on West 84th Street. As one of four smaller schools within the Brandeis building, Frank McCourt is able to offer the benefits of a small school combined with the opportunities available to a larger school.

“We are really lucky to be at Brandeis. There are four other schools and we all work well together, said Principal Danielle Salzberg. “We are a small school but we have the sports and clubs available to a bigger school through being at Brandeis.

The school"s namesake, who hosted several of the early Blackboard Award ceremonies, was a legendary writing teacher at Stuyvesant High School long before becoming a best-selling author.

Frank McCourt High School emphasizes humanities's literature, history and writing's and offers classes across disciplines.

“Different and complementary subjects taught together, said Salzberg.

Math and science are co-taught by a teacher in each field. Ninth graders learning earth science solve problems by using statistics if they are studying algebra, and spatial reasoning skills if they are studying geometry. Literature and history classes are also taught together.

“The focus is on working with kids on problem solving, said Salzberg.

The school, which admits students based on test scores, middle-school transcripts and interviews, has interviewed over 100 8th-grade students for next year and is currently midway through the admissions process.

“We have students from all five boroughs with different middle-school experiences, said Salzberg.

Before starting at Frank McCourt, Salzberg, 38, was an assistant principal at Millennium High School in Lower Manhattan and taught at Baruch High School.

“It is very exciting to start a new school, said Salzberg. “There is a great energy. We have 100 families who all wanted to take a chance on a new school.

A bartender recalls the night Elaine Kaufman made him follow Hunter S. Thompson around the restaurant, apologizing to those offended by the original gonzo journalist"s comments. A speechwriter remembers how he would bring his dates in to get Kaufman"s approval. A maître d" reminisces about the authors who would bring Kaufman rough drafts to get her feedback.

Elaine Kaufman.

“She was a celebrity amongst celebrities. Everybody loved Elaine. Elaine got to know all the celebrities. She would protect everybody and she kept all the paparazzi away, said maître d Giovanni Adamo. “Table four in the back was the writers" table, and on Thursday night all the writers used to meet. People like Gay Talese, Bruce J. Friedman, Norman Mailer. A lot of big names.

The drinks and memories flowed on Monday evening at Elaine"s, the venerated writers" and artists" hangout, where regulars have been gathering to celebrate the warmth and wit of longtime owner Elaine Kaufman. Kaufman died last Friday at the age of 81. Since Kaufman opened the restaurant and bar in 1963, she could be seen holding court at the Upper East Side institution almost every night.

“There was a lot of interaction between tables. We would meet a lot of people we didn"t know and re-meet a lot of people we had met a long time ago, said longtime patron Eileen Miller, a photographer. “It was like going to someone"s home. Elaine"s hospitality was just amazing. And she was terribly funny.

“She was part grandma, great job counselor and love advisor. I used to bring all my dates to audition for Elaine, said speechwriter Arthur Bochner.

Bochner said Kaufman often played matchmaker. When he came to the restaurant without a date, Kaufman would always point to prospects at the bar. If Bochner expressed doubts, she would say, “Well, is she good enough for a night?

“Elaine was different things to different people. She was a great boss, said bartender Kevin “Duffy Philzone. “She was demanding but she didn"t ask anything of me she didn"t ask of herself. If she liked you, she loved you.

Elaine lived four blocks away from her restaurant on East 86th Street, between First and York avenues. “She was a neighborhood girl, said Adamo. “I am going to miss her not walking through that door every night. Come nine o"clock and I still look out that door expecting to help her out of a cab.

Like many longtime customers, Frank Kelly, an editor at Crain"s New York, came on Friday to share memories and drinks.

“It was a zoo on Friday. You couldn"t really move, Kelly said. “Governor Paterson came and it was so crowded it was almost impossible to clear a space for his security. Kelly returned with his wife, Eileen Miller, for dinner on Monday night.

“It felt like such a family that it was easy to forget sometimes that Elaine was running a business, but she never forgot that she was running a business, said Darren Grubb, a political consultant.

Memorials will be held from 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, and 5-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10, at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home, 1076 Madison Avenue.

“Someone of her stature needs all of Yankee Stadium for a memorial, said Miller. “The restaurant isn"t big enough.

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

The Brooklyn School of Inquiry held an open house in 2009 at the Brooklyn Historical Society because its own building was not ready yet.

“We moved into our building two days before school started,” said Principal Donna Taylor. “I brought a picture of the school building to show parents what it would look like.”

Since then, the Brooklyn School of Inquiry in Bensonhurst has had to cap the number of open houses because of a surplus of interested applicants. The school currently goes from kindergarten through 2nd grade but will eventually go through 8th grade. Two kindergarten classes will be added each year until the school reaches capacity.

As one of five citywide schools for children who qualify for the Gifted and Talented program, and the only one in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn School of Inquiry only accepts applic ations from students who score in the 97th percentile or higher in the Department of Education’s Gifted and Talented testing process. Even so, the interest from those qualified students exceeded expectations.

“I was surprised by the huge demand, and by how quickly we became a destination,” said Taylor.

Taylor left a 20-year career in book publishing to work in education. After teaching for several years, Taylor attended the Department of Education’s Leadership Academy, which trains principals.

At the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, emphasis is placed on incorporating art into the school day. In addition to visual arts classes, all students study violin by the Suzuki method. The school also has an optional homework policy. Students are given activities that can be done at home, but are not mandatory.

“We use the inquiry model so that students are interested in learning, rather than teacher-directed learning,” said Taylor. “There is no correlation between high academic achievement and homework.”

Interest in the school has helped make it a success, but Taylor cautions against judging the outcome too soon.

“It is such a happy occasion when the mission and vision of a school is so aligned with what parents want for their kids,” said Taylor. “Still, until we reach capacity, it remains to be seen how it all bears out.”

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

P.S. 452 opened last fall in order to alleviate overcrowding at P.S. 87 and P.S. 199. Both Upper West Side schools had waiting lists. Located in the M.S. 44 building on West 77th Street, the school currently has three kindergarten classes. Eventually, the school will go from kindergarten through 5th grade.

Principal D. Scott Parker jumped at the chance to start a school from the beginning. He was an assistant principal and, before that, a 4th-grade teacher at P.S. 199.

“The opportunity to lead a new school doesn’t happen that often and this is the first new school on the Upper West Side I can remember,” said Parker. “It was a really unique opportunity to create something brand new that is engaging for the little kids.”

Some parents were disappointed at first that their children could not attend P.S. 87 or P.S. 199, but this year has been off to a good start. Eight kindergarteners who had been waitlisted at the other schools were offered spots at the beginning of the fall. All but one stayed, according to Parker.

“We had bad press before we even started. It is not easy to be the new kid on the block, so it is especially great for us to be considered new and noteworthy,” said Parker.

P.S. 452 employs an integrated approach to the curriculum across disciplines.

“We integrate reading and writing and science and use a unit-based approach,” said Parker. “For example, during a science unit on trees, teachers will also use trees in reading and writing and art.”

The school also employs a social-emotional program with psychologists. For kindergarteners, this involves learning to empathize and to recognize their own emotions. The program will continue to grow as the school does.

“This year has been very exciting and receiving a Blackboard Award is very encouraging to the community,” said Parker.

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke

Even before P.S./I.S. 276 Battery Park City School moved into a new green building this past fall, residents were excited about the school.

“Before we moved into the building, people in the neighborhood would send me pictures of the progress,” said Terri Ruyter, the school’s principal. “That’s how invested the community is. I think it is because the community wanted another school in the neighborhood for a long time.”

Heralded as the city’s most environmentally conscious school, P.S. 276 moved into a new green building in southern Battery Park City this past fall after spending its first year in “incubator” space at the Dept. of Education headquarters half a mile away.

“We have a beautiful new school,” said parent coordinator Erica Foley Weldon.

“It is all green construction with solar panels and state of the art everything.”

P.S. 276 has sweeping views of New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty and New Jersey.

The school gets 50 percent of its energy from solar panels, focuses on recycling and composting, and has a weather station. With an outdoor science laboratory, P.S. 276 emphasizes early science education.

“We have a science teacher who studied early childhood science education at Bank Street and she integrates the natural world into the curriculum,” said Ruyter.

For 6th graders, there is an environmental component to the science curriculum. During a unit on the weather, the older kids viewed An Inconvenient Truth in order to add context to the curriculum.

The school also places great importance on art and music.

“We aim to educate the whole child,” said Weldon.

Small classes of 20 to 25 students ensure that students get plenty of attention. The school now runs kindergarten through 2nd grade, with a 6th grade, and will grow as the children do. By 2013, Ruyter expects the school to reach full capacity as a kindergarten through 8th grade.

The community plays an important role in the school, and the administration credits the amount of parent involvement.

“We have a great community and PTA,” said Weldon.

“The green building is lovely, but it’s mostly about the community,” said Ruyter. “We have a great parent body and even people who don’t have kids are very proactive and involved. There is really a sense of this being a neighborhood school.”