By Adam Janos

High rise developments on the Upper East Side could get significantly bigger soon. The community, meanwhile, could get less and less in return.

Land Use Attorney Shelly Friedman spoke to Community Board 8 on the Upper East Side Wednesday to discuss a text amendment that would make zoning regulations laxer for developers of community facilities (i.e. university and hospitals) throughout the neighborhood so as to permit a large-scale construction for Memorial Sloan-Kettering and CUNY-Hunter.

Currently, MSK/CUNY’s plan for development has a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 12.0, even though it’s set to be constructed on an FAR 10.0 site. In laymen’s terms, FAR is the total bulk of building a developer is allowed to

construct. Buildings are measured in total floor space, so whether a building is tall and skinny or short and squat is beside the point; it’s total floor space of the building compared to the total land area that matters.

The institutions in question co-purchased a plot of land between East 73rd and 74th Street along the FDR drive, and intend to turn the lot into a 750,000 square-foot outpatient cancer facility (MSK) and a 336,000 square-foot Science and Health Professions Building (CUNY).

Unfortunately for the developers, because of the FAR overreach, the institutions need to either find a way to shrink their buildings down by 17 percent, or else apply for a special permit.

That special permit – the Large Scale General Development permit, ZR Sec. 74-743 – currently calls on developers such as MSK and CUNY to deliver the community an investment in the way of open space and/or public works, to help

make amends for their zoning overreach. That investment could come in the form of a public plaza or affordable housing, amongst other items. MSK and CUNY, however, want to change the text on the amendment, and – in turn – change the script. Rather than build a plaza on the plot land they’re sitting on, they’d rather put money into restoring Andrew Haswell Green Park, a strip of land on the East River between East 59th Street and East 63rd that’s fallen into disrepair and currently is locked off behind a chain-link fence.

But since the permit regulation says nothing about investing in current parks – only creating new ones – they’d have to put a change into the language of the zoning law that would allow community facilities such as theirs to offer park development outside of the immediate vicinity of the building being constructed.

Unfortunately for MSK/CUNY, the plan raised a lot of questions for community board members, who among other things, questioned whether or not rehabilitating a park at East 59th Street was adequate compensation for a homeowner on East 73rd who suddenly found themselves with a new gigantic tower for a neighbor.

“Those who suffer should be rewarded,” said Sarah Chiu, community board member and local resident. “With these buildings comes traffic, diminished light… but the idea of this permit is then you can say, ‘at least I have this park. At least I have this plaza.’”

Lo van der Valk, another resident, thought the change to the permit was too elastic, and that if the permit didn’t assign an explicit economic ratio of “total extra square feet” to “resources for park development,” future developers could use the new regulations of the special permit as a fiscal loophole to overbuild and then invest a minimal contribution in the parks department, rather than making adequate public space on the premises of their building, as the current permit necessitates.

According Friedman, however, this isn’t a matter of building a park somewhere else versus building one on location, seeing as MSK and CUNY’s lot of land sits over the FDR drive and – as such – an open space would be ill-suited for the area in question. After all, who wants to sit at a plaza by the highway? Rather, he claims the text amendment would help his clients serve the community more appropriately, and more in the spirit of the original permit.

“You [Community Board 8] have repeatedly expressed interest in more open space,” said Friedman. “This is our attempt to address that.”

City’s continuing ed programs respond to the changing job market

By Laura Shin

Bob Makarowski has been teaching at Baruch College’s Division of Continuing and Professional Studies for more than 20 years. In the course of those two decades, Makarowski says he has witnessed a noticeable shift in the role these programs play in students’ lives—a shift toward the practical.

“There’s a lot less interest in the courses that are more entertainment-oriented, more fun,” he said in a recent interview. “We still have fitness and swimming courses, but most people come into class not because they have intellectual interest, but because they have a financial demand.”

New York City’s economy has made a robust comeback since the 2008 recession, recovering all the jobs it lost during that time, plus more. But in order for the city’s residents to take advantage of new opportunities and stay competitive in the eyes of employers, many adults have had to learn new skills. They have turned to the city’s continuing and adult education programs to fulfill that need.
“Individuals are seeking certifications and taking classes to strengthen their resumes,” said Roy Cohen, career coach and author of The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide. “It also makes a difference on the job as companies measure employee qualifications, commitment and value. Continuing education demonstrates a desire to remain current and to contribute in a meaningful way.”

For some schools, the sudden influx of students seeking to improve their skills has provided an opportunity to grow their continuing education departments.

Cathy Pagano, director of Continuing and Professional Education at Pace University, said her department took off in a new direction and has been going strong since 2008 precisely when a large number of displaced, underemployed or just plain worried workers suddenly became interested in going back to school to enhance their skills.

“[The students] are busy people, and if they’re going to put their time and money toward something, they want a reward in terms of career advancement or a new job,” Pagano said. “And that’s how Pace has positioned itself with its continuing education program.”

There are many continuing and adult education programs in Manhattan, and nearly all of them have added programs or courses to accommodate the new needs of the city’s adults. Here is some more information on a few of them.

Continuing Education at Hunter College
695 Park Ave.
www.hunter.cuny.edu/ce

Though the Continuing Education division at Hunter College offers numerous personal enrichment courses, such as those offered by its Italian school Parliamo Italiano, the school has added numerous certificate programs due to an increased demand from students.

New programs include the Finance and Accounting Certificate, designed for students who may want to pursue a job at a financial institution, government or nonprofit institution. Another example is the Legal Secretary Certificate, created for both beginning secretaries as well as experienced secretaries who want to improve their skills.

The number of certificate programs has doubled from 10 to approximately 20 in the last few years, said Christy Moorman, deputy director of Continuing Education and Special Programs at Hunter.

Baruch College – Continuing and Professional Studies
William & Anita Newman Vertical Campus
55 Lexington Ave.
www.baruched.com

At Baruch College’s division of Continuing and Professional Studies, more students are seeking courses to obtain advanced level skills in computer programs such as Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint, said Bob Makarowski, technology instructor.

“We take care of adults who need to quickly become workforce-ready,” he said. “What we’ve seen now is when you’re hired, you’re expected to know these programs.”

In response to this new trend, the school has allowed for more “custom-designed” curricula, Makarowski said, allowing businesses, organizations and even government agencies to come in to take courses and request what topics they want covered in those courses.

Other popular courses include Flash programming, Photoshop, project management and Quickbooks, an accounting and payroll software suitable for small to medium businesses, he said.

Pace University—Continuing & Professional Education
One Pace Plaza
www.pace.edu/continuing-professional-education

One of the most successful new programs at Pace University’s Continuing and Professional Education department has been the Paralegal Certificate Program, said director Cathy Pagano.
It is a five- to six-month program that provides hands-on training in addition to education, she said. Students put together a portfolio while they are in school, and they are also assisted with finding a job once they complete the program.

Another popular program is the Human Resources Management Certificate program. Though the program has been around for several years, Pagano said many new classes have been added as human resource jobs have evolved in recent years.

“Human resources people are becoming revenue producers, so they’re working hand-in-hand with management now,” she said.

Columbia University— School of Continuing Education
203 Lewisohn Hall
2970 Broadway
www.ce.columbia.edu

There are three new areas where certificates are being offered at Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education. They are Business, Sustainability (certificates in Sustainability Analytics and Sustainable Water Management) and Bioethics.

These offerings were added in response to a growth in opportunities and global trends, explained George Calderaro, executive director of public, corporate and media relations at the School of Continuing Education.

“They all reflect developments in society and career opportunities globally,” he said. “With businesses coming out of the economic crisis, people who have business experience need to re-tool, and we also find a number of students coming from a liberal arts background who need a business edge.”

Sustainability is a growing area of interest and opportunity, particularly in the wake of events such as Hurricane Sandy and increased awareness of the environment.

Columbia already offers a master’s program in bioethics, which looks at the ethical implications of advances in biology, biotechnology and biomedicine, but the program has now been expanded and will offer a certificate option in the fall.

Unlike most continuing education schools, Columbia’s School of Continuing Education requires students to apply and be admitted to the programs.

NYU School of
Continuing Education and
Professional Studies
7 E. 12th St.
www.nyu.edu/academics/continuing-education

As New Yorkers seek out ways to be more competitive in the job market, NYU’s School of Continuing Education and Professional Studies is offering some new unique programs.
One is the Certificate in Creative and Critical Thinking with courses designed to challenge students to think in new ways, equipping them with tools to help them be more effective in the workplace.
“In a time where innovation is ever more necessary, competition is ever more fierce and product development is accelerated, the ability to generate ideas seems to be more and more important,” said Robert DiYanni, director of the program.

Other new offerings at NYU’s SCPS include three real estate certificates—Real Estate Development, Real Estate Finance and Investment and Construction Project Management.

The school has also added a “Mandarin for Real Estate Professionals” course, which teaches “basic language skills as well as cultural elements to aid real estate professionals in dealing with Mandarin speakers effectively and appropriately,” said Syd Steinhardt, senior director of public relations for the school.

Nyack College – Division of Adult Education
361 Broadway
www.nyack.edu/content/DAEExplore

At Nyack College’s Division of Adult Education, changes in the job market have inspired administrators to reformat one of their main programs—the Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management program.

Students are enrolled for 12 months and participate in an applied research project, where they look at an organization in their lives, whether it is where they work or a community group they are a part of, and they identify a problem and learn effective ways to resolve that problem.
“Employers want employees to bring about positive change to help the company become more efficient,” said Julie Hood, academic department chair of Organizational Management.

Nyack also offers a wide array of non-degree courses known as “Adult Intensive Tracks,” Hood said. According to her, enrollment in these courses has skyrocketed in recent years.

By Paul Bisceglio

Memorial Sloan-Kettering counsel Shelly Friedman frustrated the Upper East Side’s Community Board 8 at its full-board meeting last Wednesday, Nov. 14, by refusing to hold a second public hearing on the environmental impact of the recently announced medical center construction project on East 73rd Street.

The project, a $215 million real estate deal between the renowned cancer treatment center, Hunter College and the city, will add two new facilities on a lot by the East River: a 750,000-square-foot outpatient cancer care building and a 336,000-square-foot science and health professions school.
Following the deal’s confirmation in September, the project entered a public feedback—or “scoping”—period, during which anyone with concerns about the project’s effects on the surrounding Upper East Side neighborhoods could share their thoughts with the parties involved. Included in the process was a hearing during which residents could speak directly with Friedman and other MSK and Hunter College representatives. The hearing, though, was held on Nov. 1, three days after Hurricane Sandy.

“I am outraged. It’s not even a sham of a mockery,” said Ed Hartzog, a CB8 member, of Friedman’s refusal to entertain the notion of a second meeting after almost no one attended the first. “You had a public hearing, the public wasn’t informed. You are shoving this process forward without any public input.”

Friedman disagreed. The public was well-informed of the hearing, he claimed: It was announced weeks in advance in accordance with scoping rules, and an e-mail went out shortly before the meeting to confirm that it was still on. “The sense was that the city had sufficiently returned to normal,” Friedman said. “There was a sense that buildings were available. This wasn’t like a snowstorm in which people couldn’t navigate the streets. It was terrible, but people were out in the streets, stores were open, transportation was available. There was no reason to put it off.”

He noted that the scoping period had been for comments after the storm.

“Scoping hearings,” he added, “do not conduct themselves according to the Community Board’s rules.”

Board members contended that they were not arguing for rules, but principles. “Forgetting about whether there has to be a second meeting or not, the point is that this is a project in which you claimed to be a good neighbor and part of the community,” said board member A. Scott Falk. “When in doubt, err on the side of openness. You’re expecting us to approve several variances. All we’re asking you to do is hold a second meeting. This is not about what you have to do, this is about what you should do and could do.”

Friedman shot back that holding another meeting would be useless, because the scoping period was still open and the public could still share their concerns. “These hearings aren’t for people to come and get information,” he explained. “The whole concept of the scoping hearing is that there’s material online, and if you have a comment about what’s online, you can come in, you can write, you can telephone, you can e-mail, you can do whatever you want to submit your comments. The hearing is not the be-all, end-all of the scoping process. … Nothing in that process has been compromised.”

CB8 was not convinced. Following the discussion, they voted to pass a motion that requested a second hearing and a further extension of the comment period.

This was not the first time Upper East Side residents questioned MSK’s neighborly character. Earlier this year, co-op residents in a building next to MSK’s outpatient surgery facility at York Avenue and East 61st Street protested renovations to the facility that would block their building’s windows. MSK rejected their requests for a less bulky design.

An offshoot of Occupy Wall Street is raising money to help alleviate consumer debt.

By Caroline Lewis

“Whoa, did you see that?” asked Annie Spencer, a professor at Hunter College and a member of the Occupy group Strike Debt. “The live ticker on the Rolling Jubilee website just crossed $200,000 being raised.” That was enough to purchase and abolish more than $4 million of debt.

It was hours before “The People’s Bailout,” a live fundraising extravaganza that would kick off the Rolling Jubilee at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village last Thursday, with help from a slew of comedians and alternative music icons.

Thanks, in part, to some unlikely praise from mainstream financial commentators, Strike Debt had already far surpassed their initial goal of raising $50,000.

The Rolling Jubilee is a project designed to put Occupiers in the same speculative secondary debt market as professional debt collectors. They will buy debt from banks for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolish it.

By Monday, the ticker on the group’s website counted more than $350,000 in donations, all of which will go toward reducing the amount owed by some unsuspecting debt-strapped Americans.
Slate’s Matthew Yglesias briefly wonders, “Why is this a better idea than just giving money to poor people?” before admitting that “almost all charitable undertakings are organized around some kind of gimmick.”

“We don’t like the idea of framing the debtor as someone who needs charity,” said Spencer, whose red felt square pinned to her clothing identified her as a member of the movement. “The reality is that three quarters of Americans are in debt of some kind, and increasing numbers of people go into debt for meeting basic needs.”

Praises for the Rolling Jubilee have rightly been qualified by the observation that this endeavor probably won’t make a dent in America’s $11 trillion of debt.

In fact, the group can’t even promise to erase an entire family’s debt.

“This first debt purchase of over $100,000 of medical debt [constitutes] roughly 80 different people,” said Thomas Gokey, who helped execute the group’s successful test run.

That’s because debt is purchased in bundles of defaulted accounts from banks for a fraction of what is owed. The professionals then aggressively seek payment for the full amount from individual debtors. Those in the red don’t have to pay back much for debt collectors to turn a profit.

So what has this foray into the debt market revealed so far? For one thing, there’s a lot more than money at stake. “You’re not just buying their debt,” said Gokey of the accounts purchased. “You’re buying their social security number.”

The social security number comes with the debtor’s last known address and a handful of other information.

“It’s not a lot in the context of debt collection, because they’re not getting any of the documentation that would support their claim that this is how much is owed and it’s for this account and it’s with this company,” said Susan Chin, a staff attorney with the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP).

Chin said debtors are often unaware that they can request verification on claims from debt collectors, and that collectors must stop seeking payment on accounts that cannot be verified.
“In general, there’s not a lot of oversight right now of the debt buyer industry,” Chin said. This may change starting next year. Last month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced plans to police debt collection agencies starting in January 2013.

Some have pointed out the peculiarities of the debt market as limitations of the Rolling Jubilee. For instance, certain kinds of debt—such as mortgages and student debt—are more difficult to abolish due to government protections.

The group’s website counters, “These peculiarities are part of the scandal that we are trying to highlight.”

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the Upper East Side will soon be home to a brand-new building housing a brand-new partnership of city institutions. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the City University of New York’s Hunter College will be teaming up to construct a connected science facility on East 73rd Street, on what is now city-owned property. At this month’s Community Board 8 meeting, officials from both MSK and CUNY presented the project to the board for the first time, soliciting ongoing community input.

Iris Weinshall, CUNY’s vice chancellor of facilities planning, explained that the new facility will replace two buildings that currently house Hunter’s science programs, citing the master plan that CUNY developed for Hunter in 1999.

“The master plan found the current science facilities, both at Hunter’s main campus and their Brookdale campus, were outdated and inefficient, and would be costly to modernize due to the age of the buildings,” Weinshall said. She also noted that the Brookdale campus, located on East 25th Street and First Avenue, is disconnected from the other science and main buildings of Hunter, a problem that the new building will rectify.

“This new science building would replace obsolete labs and classrooms and be within walking distance from the main campus,” Weinshall said. Hunter’s portion of the facility, which will occupy about 40 percent of the western side of the building, will house space for nursing, physical therapy, chemistry, biology, psychology, physics and astronomy programs, with research labs and lecture halls.

The school will also benefit from the proximity to a top-notch cancer center. “Hunter’s nurses and researchers will have the opportunity to develop new collaborations and expand on existing ones with Memorial Sloan-Kettering, an institution with an inspiring and crucial mission,” Weinshall said.

John Gunn, executive vice president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering, said that the partnership will benefit the cancer center as well.

“A hospital like ours that uses leading edge technology in the treatment of cancer is more than simply the best physicians in the building,” Gunn said. “A quality hospital requires well-trained nurses, technicians, researchers and clinicians who are able to collaborate efficiently on behalf of their patients.”

The MSK facility will be an ambulatory outpatient care center that will aim to reduce the time cancer patients spend in the hospital. It will treat lung, head and neck and hematological (blood) cancers.

Todd Schliemann of Ennead Architects, which has designed the building in partnership with Perkins Eastman, presented the preliminary architectural plans to the board, showing how the building will be integrated into the block. The property is bounded by East 74th and 73rd streets to the north and south, and FDR Drive and York Avenue on the east and west.

“What we have tried to do is to break down the massing of the building into eight-story elements so that we can reduce its bulk, create enough setbacks along 74th and 73rd so that we can fit the building into the neighborhood,” Schliemann said. “We believe it’s an institutional building, so we have tried to give it a dignified and institutional character.”
The proposed building’s façade would be a combination of glass and masonry, and would include a number of outdoor terraces cut into the building. The CUNY side will be 16 stories above grade, including a covered penthouse for the rooftop mechanicals, and the MSK side will be 21 stories.

While this first presentation doesn’t merit a formal response from the Community Board, several members expressed their concern that the project will take traffic patterns and light and air for the neighborhood into account as it moves forward. The board will have a chance to make official comments and must approve the project’s forthcoming ULURP application, which is expected to come through sometime in 2013.

The Central Park Conservancy responded, assuring the public that the raccoons are a natural part of the park’s ecosystem and not to be automatically feared. The group estimates the population of raccoons hovers around 500.

Doug Blonsky, the CEO of the Conservancy and the Central Park administrator, assured Brewer in a letter that there haven’t been any confirmed reports of rabies in the raccoon population, and that seeing them out in the daytime is likely more a symptom of bad habits of the people who feed them than of a disease.

“We are also at a time of year when young raccoons are being extricated from nests by parents, so we are seeing an increasing number of raccoons during the day right now who are looking for homes,” Blonsky said in the letter. “Food is probably more important than shelter in these warm months, so they will go the easiest route to a snack.”

He said that while odd behavior in racoons—irregular gait, lethargy, looking disoriented—should be reported to a park worker on sight, the best way to handle raccoons is to give them a wide berth and don’t feed them, even if they stand with their adorable little paws outstretched.

Urgent Care Grand Opening
New York Doctors Urgent Care is celebrating its grand opening at a new location at 205 Lexington Ave. (at the corner of East 32nd Street) on Thursday, Sept. 13, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Local residents are invited to tour the new facility, meet the staff and share appetizers and refreshments. To RSVP, email Susan Nock at snock@newyorkdoctorsurgentcare.com or call 212-684-4700.

Krueger Hosts Event for Immigrants
State Sen. Liz Krueger, along with Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, is sponsoring an event called “Immigrants Connect” on Monday, Sept. 16, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the American Red Cross, 520 W. 49th St. The event will provide information on services available for immigrants who own or are interested in starting their own businesses, citizenship and naturalization processes, and health and government resources available. The event is also sponsored by the Housing Conservation Coordinators and the New York State Department of Labor.

Hunter College Writing Center Announces Fall Lineup
The Hunter College Writing Center offers free lectures and book talks this fall at their 695 Park Ave. location. Joyce Carol Oates will give talks on Oct. 9 and Nov. 27; Daniel Rose will give the annual Jack Burstyn Memorial Lecture on Oct. 16, and Sidney Offit will speak on “The Life and Work of Kurt Vonnegut,” on Oct. 22. Gay Talese will deliver the first Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas Lecture on Nov. 5. All book talks and receptions are at 7 p.m., and refreshments will be served. The Writing Center will also be offering their standard professional courses, led this semester by Daphne Merkin and The New Yorker’s Patricia Marx, who will give master classes in comedy and memoir writing. New course offerings include “Writing and Selling Personal Essays,” with Nancy Kelton and “Editing for Self-Editors,” with Beena Kamlani. Space is limited at all events; register at www.hunter.cuny.edu/thewritingcenter-ce, or call 212-772-4292.

In August 2007, a fire in the Financial District’s vacant Deutsche Bank building claimed the lives of two New York firefighters. The tragedy prompted State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried to create a joint New York City-New York State Task Force on Building and Fire Safety. The Task Force just released its full report this week, and the results have Squadron calling for immediate action.

The report warns that firefighters may be at risk when fighting fires in the city’s hundreds of state-owned buildings. Discrepancies in fire codes between state- and privately-owned buildings exempt the former from fire safety standards, such as  proper building equipment (such as standpipes and hosethread connections) and hazardous material reporting.

Brooklyn College, City College, Hunter College, the Jacob Javits Convention Center and Downstate Medical Center are among the many schools, state office buildings and state building-leasing restaurants and salons included in this loophole.

Squadron urged state and city agencies to close these safety code holes immediately by creating consistent standards.

“Simply put, these major gaps in fire code put our first responders and the public at greater risk,” he said in a statement. ” The task force’s recommendations will go a long way toward closing these holes and improving safety — but they must be implemented now.”

rep. Maloney Hails Benefits of all
Last week, Rep. Carolyn Maloney met with local health care providers, patients and advocates to tout the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as it was recently upheld by the Supreme Court.
“It’s important to remember that, because of the ACA, insurance companies can no longer remove young adults under the age of 26 from their parents’ health care policies, refuse to provide coverage to kids under age 19 with pre-existing conditions or place lifetime limits on coverage, all of which have been pushing families into bankruptcy when facing a catastrophic illness or condition,” Maloney said. “Already, the ACA is offering significant tax credits to thousands of small businesses in our congressional district access to help insure their workers.”
Jeff Gold, chairman of the board of directors of the Metro New York Health Care for All campaign, an Upper East Sider and a general partner in the JI Associates tech firm, joined Maloney in praising the ACA’s benefits to small businesses like his own.
“With the United States paying more for medical coverage than any of our industrial/commercial competitors, we must ensure that small businesses and their employees have access to high-quality, affordable medical coverage,” Gold said. “The ACA will allow millions to get affordable coverage instead of going to the most inefficient hospital emergency rooms for basic coverage, and remove the burden of shoving small businesses like mine into stratified risk pools that make coverage harder to buy, afford or even evaluate.”
Other local residents joined in to voice their support and explain how the ACA has personally affected them. Kenneth Davis, president and CEO of The Mount Sinai Medical Center, also expressed his support for the law.
According to data from a 2012 study prepared by the House Energy & Commerce Committee minority staff, the ACA has saved 10,200 seniors in Maloney’s district $7.7 million in drug costs and allowed 6,100 young adults in the district to retain their health insurance, among other local benefits from grants given to local health centers and hospitals and provisions that prevent patients from being denied coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

Hunter Renovation recently Completed
Last week, Hunter College president Jennifer Raab and City Council Member Dan Garodnick cut the ribbon to reopen historic Thomas Hunter Hall. The 1913 Tudor-style building, which was named after Hunter College’s founding president, has been newly restored, with historically consistent new windows and stones. The renovation cost nearly $12 million and included replacing the roof, repairing existing wood window frames and leaded-glass windows and stone replacement and restoration. The building at one time held Hunter College High School and will be available again to house student clubs, lounges, classrooms and the college’s dance program.

Yorkville Historic Resource Survey
Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts is holding a survey of Yorkville to catalogue the neighborhood’s unique historic elements and is looking for volunteers to help with the efforts. The group will be studying a section of the Upper East Side from East 59th to 96th Street, from Lexington Avenue to the East River, encompassing a neighborhood known for its history as a center of German, Hungarian, Irish and Czechoslovakian immigrant communities.
Those interested in helping can contact Matthew Coody at 212-535-2526 or mcoody@friends-ues.org to sign up. Volunteers will get an introduction and instructions at the Friends office, then go out with clipboards and cameras to document building information (address, types of windows, characteristic features, construction material, architectural style) to add to the survey report.

Bruce Jay Friedman, author most recently of the memoir Lucky Bruce, will sit on the memoir and biography panel at the conference. We talked to the Upper West Sider about his long and thriving career as a novelist, playwright, screenwriter (hits include Splash and the story for The Heartbreak Kid), short story author and, now, memoirist.

You’ve been called the “hottest writer of the year” at various points in your career—how has that affected you?
I had a movie that was a very big movie, Stir Crazy [in 1980]. And this entertainment attorney, a young kid, said, “Don’t you realize you’re the hottest writer in Hollywood?” I was so deeply offended—that was exactly what I didn’t want to be. So I moved back to the East Coast, shut off the phone and started to write a novel, which was what I felt I should be doing.

But you also got that mantle for writing the play Scuba Duba in 1968.
Being the so-called hottest playwright is not so bad. You do get better tables in restaurants. You get your—well, it’s more than 15 minutes, actually.

Did all the hype around your work ever make you feel pressure about your next projects?
No, I always had an appointment with that next thing to write. I’d finish a novel and think, why not try a play now? I’d always go back to the short story—that’s what I’m doing now—that was always my anchor.
I think you will hear that if you’ve written a novel, it doesn’t mean you can write a play; if you’re written a play, it doesn’t mean you can write short stories. I’ve never bought that. To me it’s storytelling, in one form or another. And I’ve gotten away with it so far.

With novels and memoirs, writers often write from their experiences. How do you navigate writing about real people?
The person you’re worried about slandering is the last person to recognize himself in a book. However, occasionally, as happened to me with my first novel Stern, I was terribly concerned about my boss. I needed the job and I had him as a character, not the most lovable character. I disguised him in a million different ways, but still, he was a very smart guy. But he never said a word. The book was published and he gave me a raise.
Then I got in the elevator and a woman I’ve never heard of before gets on. She starts screaming “Why? How could you do that to me?” I’d never met the woman, I knew nothing about her. She identified closely with that character and you could not dissuade her.

How did you approach writing your memoir?
The struggle for me was trying to find the right voice—not so much what the book was, but what voice. I’ve got at least half a dozen different voices. Finally I decided to just be me, and then the book was relatively easy [to write].

There is so much pressure on writers now to self-promote their work and find commercial success—how can young writers deal with that?
To the extent that it’s possible, and that I have any advice at all, is to just really get rid of all that and write a wonderful story and let the rest take care of itself. I’m sure Salinger wasn’t thinking of promotional opportunities when he wrote Catcher.

Allen Houston, executive editor of Manhattan Media, will be part of the editor’s panel at the conference. For a full lineup of writers and information on the Writers’ Conference, which runs June 6-9, visit hunter.cuny.edu/ce.

Jennifer Raab, president of Hunter College. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.

By Ellen Keohane

Hunter College’s Latin motto, Mihi Cura Futuri, translates to “The care of the future is mine.” Jennifer Raab, the college’s president since 2001, said she takes these words very seriously.
“We’re a public college committed to supporting the future of the city,” Raab said. Most Hunter students are from the city or tend to stay here after graduation, she said.
Raab said Hunter is filling an important need. “Private education is really pricing itself out of the range of most average New Yorkers and Americans,” she said.
As president of Hunter College, the largest college in the CUNY system, Raab also administers Hunter College Elementary School, Hunter College High School and Manhattan Hunter Science High School.
“Jennifer has a passionate belief in the transformative potential of quality public education,” Vita Rabinowitz, Hunter College’s provost and vice president of academic affairs, said via email. “From the start, her priority has been to raise the academic profile of the college while maintaining our richly diverse student body, and in this she has succeeded brilliantly.”
Since her appointment more than 10 years ago, Raab, 55, said she has seen SAT scores of entering students increase alongside the school’s U.S. News and World Report ranking. “We’re very proud in general of the rising standards,” she said.
One important milestone has been the opening of the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College. “We have over 50 doctoral students in our new school,” Raab said. Accredited in 2011, the new School of Public Health shares space with the Hunter College School of Social Work in a newly constructed building in East Harlem.
Another accomplishment has been the restoration of the Roosevelt House, a double townhouse on East 65th Street. The house was a wedding gift from Sara Delano Roosevelt to her son Franklin and his wife, Eleanor. Hunter College had owned the townhouse since 1941 but it had fallen into disrepair. “We were able to obtain the funding and have them totally renovated according to historic standards; now they are the home of a flourishing public policy institute,” said Raab, who previously ran the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.
A graduate of Hunter College High School, Raab earned her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master’s degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She also has a degree from Harvard Law School.
Originally from Washington Heights, Raab now lives in the Bronx with her husband, Michael Goodwin, a columnist for the New York Post. Their daughter Miranda graduated from Bronx High School of Science last year and is now a freshman at Duke University. Raab’s stepson Scott and his wife, Jennifer, live in Manhattan.
Before her stint at the Landmarks Commission from 1994 to 2001, Raab worked as an urban planner, campaign manager and corporate lawyer.
Raab said her 10 years as a litigator prepared her to be the “ultimate advocate and cheerleader” for the college. As a litigator, you have to advocate for your client, she explained. Indeed, when talking about the school, Raab’s enthusiasm is impossible to ignore. “Hunter is a place where every day we get to see the American dream come true,” she said.  n