In what promises to be a long process, Community Board 2 recommended last week that the City Planning Commission reject New York University’s (NYU) 2031 expansion plan in Greenwich Village. Although the decision was announced during CB2’s full board meeting, the gathering quickly turned into a community rallying cry against the Downtown university’s real estate development plans for two large plots it owns, bordered by West Houston, West 3rd and Mercer Streets and Laguardia Place.

“This is the end of the beginning…and there is a lot more work to do,” noted Community Board 2 Chair Brad Holyman to the crowd gathered at the Church of St. Anthony of Padua on Sullivan Street. “Some say that we are not rich enough, not powerful enough to take on [an organization] like NYU…If you had told Jane Jacobs that, she wouldn’t have stopped a highway [from being built through Soho].”

Almost 700 local residents from Greenwich Village and its environs were packed into the sub-floor auditorium, cheering Hoylman’s opening comments. The list of speakers topped out at 115, and media from online to print to NY1 attended to hear the community admonish NYU’s development goals.

NYU has become not only a beacon of higher education but a behemoth when it comes to Downtown New York City real estate. The school first established its Greenwich Village presence in 1835 and later moved the main campus to the Village after selling its Bronx University Heights location in 1973. Today, says CB2, NYU is “the landlord for one of the largest stocks of affordable housing in the area.”

The Greenwich Village portion of NYU’s expansion plan, which includes adding square footage in Brooklyn as well as possibly Governor’s Island, would add 2.4 million square feet to the existing main campus and would include faculty residences, student dormitories, an athletics facility, a hotel and retail spaces. The plan includes creating four new buildings on two “superblocks,” which are for the most part residences right now.

For CB2, there are a host of concerns associated with this plan, including the bulk and density of the development changing the character of the Village, 20-plus years of proposed construction and the acquistion of city-owned park strips.

The plan calls for rezoning the area, which CB2 says will greatly alter the character of the Village. The height of the proposed buildings, ranging from 186 to 333 feet, would dwarf the buildings currently on the property, which are around 160 feet. While NYU says there is less than one acre of open space in this area, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) claims there is actually a total of 7.8 acres. The GVSHP estimates the plan will eliminate over one acre of open space, and the height of the proposed buildings will cast shadows on the remaining open parcels.

CB2 added that the new project would attract 10,000-12,000 additional people on a daily basis and house between 1,500-2,000 residents.

“The plan is opposed by NYU’s neighbors, its faculty, its students and many of its own alumni,” added GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman in a statement.

“NYU appreciates the community’s feedback to date and believes that our five-year dialogue with our neighbors has already yielded tremendous results,” said NYU Vice President Alicia Hurley in a statement.

“Thus far, in response to the community’s requests, we’ve produced a strategic plan that helps our projected growth on space needs; allows us to grow our footprint, with a full half of our projected growth on space outside the Village; and provides park land and open space and the donation of a $23 million location for a new public school.”

As Council Member Margaret Chin pointed out in a statement, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer will now have to hold a hearing on the plan. Stringer has until April 11 to submit a recommendation to the City Planning Commission, who will begin their review that same day.

“Parents are really angry, and rightfully so,” said Noah Gotbaum, a Community Education Council (CEC) member for District 3 and parent of children who graduated from P.S. 87, where a paraprofessional allegedly sexually abused a student.

Gregory Atkins, 56, was arrested Feb. 10 on charges of sexual abuse against a student at P.S. 87. Atkins had been working as a paraprofessional at the school since 2008. The victim reported the behavior, and on Feb. 3, Atkins was removed from the school, according to a letter Principal Monica Berry sent to parents.

Atkins was arrested, a 2006 letter from the DOE’s Special Commissioner of Investigation surfaced, detailing what was determined to be Atkins’ inappropriate behavior toward a young male student at his previous school, M.S. 322 in Upper Manhattan. No one at P.S. 87 had seen this letter, and parents are up in arms demanding to know why.

“There’s a lot of anger, obviously—anger primarily because of that 2006 report that wasn’t put in [Atkins’] file,” said Rebecca Levey, co-president of P.S. 87’s parent association. “There are a lot of questions about what the processes are at DOE, why the principal wouldn’t have access to that.”

The principal of M.S. 322 at the time reportedly delivered a verbal warning to Atkins but did not choose to place a letter in his permanent file.

How Atkins came to work at P.S. 87 is unclear. The DOE insists that since he applied for a transfer and had seniority as a paraprofessional, the P.S. 87 principal who preceded Berry had no control over who came to the school. The United Federation of Teachers disputes that and points to its paraprofessional contract, which states that paraprofessionals may apply for transfers and that the head of the school to which they apply makes the hiring decision. In Atkins’ case, however, no one would have known about his past at M.S. 322 because no record existed in his professional file, and that’s what has local parents irate.

Gotbaum said that at a recent CEC meeting, parents wanted to know how the DOE determines what sort of behavior warrants termination and what warrants a simple reprimand. The DOE has said that their hands are tied by what the Office of Special Investigations recommends, but that they train their employees to recognize inappropriate behaviors.

“The Office of Equal Opportunity goes into schools regularly to conduct trainings for teachers and other school-based employees. We provide in-depth training concerning appropriate conduct in the workplace between teachers and students, including sexual harassment, unwanted touching and unwanted contact,” said DOE spokesperson Deidrea Miller in an email.

“We emphasize during the trainings that the focus is not on the teacher’s intent but whether the conduct or contact would make a student feel uncomfortable,” Miller said.

Some parents are pushing for more specific guidelines that would have clearly red-flagged Atkin’s behavior.

Upper West Side Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal said that as a result of this and other recent allegations of sexual abuse in public schools, she and other legislators are looking into ways to put tighter regulations in place at a state law level.

To many city residents, redistricting, whereby states redraw their political maps every decade to reflect population shifts recorded in the most recent census, is an all- too-complex, seemingly esoteric process best left to political pundits and policy wonks.

New York, which has yet to approve redrawn legislative and congressional districts for this year’s election, is among one of the last states to comply with the mandate.

But at a meeting last Wednesday, Feb. 22, of the Downtown Independent Democrats (DID) in Tribeca, the message on redistricting was loud and clear: Partisan redistricting will weaken the Downtown community’s voice as it faces major issues.

In its resolution on redistricting, the DID expressed disappointment in the map released by the New York Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR). “Both the Senate and Assembly maps have been gerrymandered to favor political parties and incumbent politicians with little or no concern for community representation. This is undemocratic and unwise,” the resolution states.

At the meeting, Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, who has been in office since 2007 and who stands to get more of Downtown as a result of the redistricting, noted that the LATFOR maps included significant changes.

“There is tremendous uncertainty here regarding the district lines and dates,” Kavanagh said. He added that it now looks as if the lines will be redrawn.

However, time is now of the essence, as the congressional primary has been set for Jun. 26 and the legislative primary for Sept. 11.

In keeping with the recent court decision to appoint a special magistrate to help with redistricting, on Monday, Feb. 27, a panel of judges in federal court in Brooklyn seized control of the congressional part of the redistricting process. They ordered magistrate Roanne L. Mann to prepare a map and deliver a proposal for the judges’ consideration by Mar. 12.

With the help of a redistricting expert, a professor at Columbia Law School, the judges say they will produce a revised congressional map by Mar. 20, the date set for the petitioning of prospective congressional candidates.

“The most important thing for me from the point of view of a local district leader is that we need to know what the lines are as soon as possible,” said Republican District Leader Janet Hayes.

Hayes said she agreed with the call for community cohesion and cited one example where the opposite was done “in her backyard”: the proposed 75th Assembly District had a bizarre “spike” running north from Midtown west to the Upper West Side, enabling the incumbent’s residence to be included in the district.

“With district lines like these that are drawn to accommodate a single individual,” Hayes said, “it’s no wonder that the average citizen is cynical about the process.”

Paul Newell, Democratic district leader in the 64th Assembly District, is also cynical about the redistricting process. “Albany insiders in both parties drew this map to essentially scratch each others’ backs,” Newell said in an email.

“The [Republican-drawn] Senate map is much, much worse. But Assembly Democrats are equally responsible for it, as they will have to pass those lines,” Newell continued. “Why do they not stand up for their fellow Democrats in the Senate (and the millions of New Yorkers they represent)? Because they get the prize of drawing their own safe districts.”

Newell added that his proposed rules to ensure a more equitable redistricting process would take into account population equity, community cohesion (keeping neighborhoods together as voting blocs), minority representation and geographic compactness.

DID President Jeanne Wilcke explained that it’s important for residents to be informed about the controversy surrounding the changing of lines of elected officials.

Wilcke said that most residents are not aware that state elected officials are “playing” with the area’s voting power by redrawing lines that split up downtown New York City neighborhoods.

“You want officials who represent all of a given neighborhood,” she says. “Community input and pressure is what gets elected officials to do the right thing and represent the people’s interests.”

Underscoring the ill effects of inequitable district lines, Wilcke said, “It is harder to elect a good candidate when only half the community voting power can vote the candidate in, or vote out an official who has wronged your community when only half in the neighborhood can vote that person out.”

Moreover, she said, Soho would not be what it is today without residents organizing to get laws changed to legalize artists’ live/work lofts.
“Many of our state elected officials promised to allow an independent commission to redraw fair district lines,” Wilcke said. “That hasn’t happened…If our elected officials cannot do the job, it is time for the judges to step in and force fair voting districts for the people.”

DANGEROUS INTERSECTION GETS TRAFFIC LIGHT
The Tribeca intersection of Duane and Greenwich streets has finally received a traffic light, first approved by the Department of Transportation (DOT) in October 2011. The light, which was officially welcomed to the neighborhood when Council Member Margaret Chin, State Sen. Daniel Squadron, Borough President Scott Stringer and CB1 Chair Julie Menin unveiled it on Feb. 22, signals relief for many advocates and members of the community.

Chin said, “I want to thank [the] DOT for recognizing and responding to the needs of a growing community. It is important to constantly evaluate and revise our traffic environment to make sure the safety regulations that are in place are adequate to protect pedestrians.”
Chin’s sentiments were echoed throughout the community. Nelle Fortenberry, a mother of two children and a past president of Friends of Washington Monument Park, reacted earlier this month to the construction of the light, saying, “We are thrilled for every preschooler on their way to the park, every elementary student en route to school, every elderly resident crossing to and from Independence Plaza and the thousands of neighborhood residents who have traversed Greenwich daily at their own risk. Safer days are ahead.”

The intersection has been the scene of numerous accidents involving pedestrians. A recent victim was a 3-year-old boy, who was struck by a taxi while crossing the intersection with his mother last fall. The DOT subsequently agreed to install the light and a new crosswalk.
Prior to this, their stance had been that the Duane and Greenwich intersection did “not meet traffic flow standards for a traffic light.” Now, pedestrians will receive 25 seconds to cross the street, is a welcome grace for Tribeca residents both young and old.

CITYWIDE

TIME WARNER AND MSG REACH AGREEMENT
Just in the knick of time, New Yorkers are celebrating the agreement reached between Time Warner Cable and MSG Network. The well-publicized resolution, which ended a blackout that had forced Time Warner subscribers to forego MSG content—including the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers and the surging New York Knicks—was at center court this week as leading city officials continued to campaign for fair play.

State Sens. Daniel Squadron and Tony Avella have promised to take another important step in ensuring New Yorkers’ longterm enjoyment of their favorite television programming with the introduction of a new bill into the state Senate Feb. 29.

Avella has spoken at length about the unfair negotiating tactics of service providers and networks, saying, “The people who get the most affected are the customers,” whom the senator believes “need to know that their cable franchise will provide the proper programming.” The bill proposes mandatory arbitration hearings by the Public Service Commission in disputes between major cable networks and service providers.

STRINGER CALLS FOR END OF STOP AND FRISK
Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, joined by a diverse coalition of elected officials, community and religious leaders representing all parts of Manhattan, held a rally Feb. 26 hailing the Manhattan Borough Board’s recent unanimous vote approving a resolution demanding reform of the NYPD’s controversial stop and frisk policy. The borough president called for a citywide campaign against the program, which he said unfairly targets black and Latino men.

“Stop and frisk as currently practiced is not just an outrage in communities of color, it is a stain on the conscience of our entire city,” said Stringer. “Today I am standing with a broad coalition of Manhattanites—members of all 12 Community Boards, people from east side and west side, downtown and uptown, and we are all speaking with one voice, demanding an immediate reform of stop and frisk in New York City.”

The borough president pointed to statistics showing that the NYPD recorded nearly 700,000 stop and frisk encounters in 2011, a record and a 600 percent increase since 2002. Police failed to find a gun in 99.9 percent of these encounters and failed to make an arrest in 94 percent of these cases. Nearly 86 percent of the stops targeted black and Latino men.

“In large parts of the city, today’s stop and frisk policies have made entire communities feel like suspects targeted by law enforcement instead of citizens protected by it, even if they have done nothing wrong,” said State Sen. Daniel Squadron. “As it’s practiced, stop and frisk has created a climate in which young black and Latino men and their families have a fundamentally different relationship with the NYPD than other New Yorkers.”

Residents of Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village are attempting to wrest control of their destiny.

Two tumultuous years after Tishman Speyer Properties relinquished control of the complex of 25,000 residents, the Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association is working with Brookfield Asset Management to put together a bid to purchase the 60-year-old housing community.

“Our community has been through a lot over the past five years, and we continue to live in a state of limbo, with the future ownership of the property unclear. We simply cannot and will not sit idly by and wait for our future to be determined for us,” read a letter sent by the Tenants Association on Nov. 30, 2011.

“We believe that the time is now right to put forth a conversion proposal that will give residents the opportunity to buy their apartments at a reasonable price while also allowing rent-stabilized tenants to continue renting without fear of harassment should they decide not to buy.”

Stuy Town, as it’s commonly referred to, stretches on an 80-acre tract from 14th to 20th Street along First Avenue and the East River. It comprises more than 11,000 apartments. Since its inception in the late 1940s, Stuy Town has stood as a model of affordable housing for the middle class.

In 2006, Tishman Speyer Properties purchased the complex from MetLife in a move that was widely lauded within the real estate community. Four years later, Tishman Speyer walked away from the site rather than let it go into bankruptcy.
Back when the site was first put up for sale, the Tenants Association tried to put together a bid but was outgunned by Tishman Speyer.

The group is hoping for a different outcome this time around.

East Side Council Member Dan Garodnick was raised and still lives in Stuy Town and has been instrumental in trying to help the Tenants Association in their quest to purchase the complex.

“It would be a historic win for the tenants to take control of our future,” he said. “It’s important to make sure that this will continue to be a stable place for people to live and raise their families.”

Garodnick said that without the protection of the Tenants Association conversion proposal, another real estate company could come in and create the same havoc and upheaval that happened five years ago.

To prep for the upcoming bid, the Tenants Association held the first of a series of house parties last week. At the parties, a group of residents, numbering no more than 20, discusses the bid proposal.

“We’re trying to solicit feedback and find out what’s a reasonable price that people would pay for their apartments,” said Al Doyle, president of the Tenants Association. They also hosted a recent telephone town hall where more than 2,000 people dialed in to hear about the conversion process. The Tenants Association hopes to have a bid plan together by the end of April.

Doyle said that so far, the feedback from residents has overwhelmingly been positive. “There’s a lot to work out still, but most of the residents seem excited about being able to purchase their apartments,” he said.

Part of the purpose of the meetings is also to clear up any misinformation about what might happen during the conversion process. Some of the complex’s more elderly residents fear that the process might endanger their rent-stabilized apartments.

“They have a fear because of what happened with Tishman Speyer, tossing out as many people as they could,” Doyle said. “A lot of the older residents have lived here 50-60 years and they’ve never owned property, so it makes them nervous.”

“If residents don’t want to take part in the process or purchase their apartments, they don’t have to and nothing will happen to them,” Garodnick said.

Part of the reason for making a bid, according to Doyle and Garodnick, is that it would actually protect these vulnerable rent-controlled residents, something an outside company might not feel obligated to do.

Joan Hamilton, a longtime Stuy Town resident, is leaning toward supporting the Tenants Association’s bid, though she doesn’t know if she will purchase her own apartment.

“We would be more in charge of our own destiny,” she said. “It would certainly be better than the rent going up every 10 minutes like it seems to do now.”

Tenants Association board member John J. Sheehy said that the group is striving to return the community to the stability of solid ownership.

“It removes the fear of what happen if rent stabilization were removed in Albany and creates a sense of comfort,” he said.

At the end of the day, Doyle said the residents have to do something.

“One way or another, we have to gain control of the property,” Doyle said. “We can’t wait for another Tishman Speyer.”

- With additional reporting by Sean Creamer

Much of Koenig’s legacy resides in the field of New York State Election Law and Petitions. He was known as one of the top experts in the field, according to colleagues he worked with over the years. He provided counsel to the Codes Committee of New York State, and his knowledge had lawyers clamoring for his interpretations.

“He was never a lawyer, but everyone thought that he was,” said Council Member Gale Brewer, who knew Koenig for over 20 years.
Koenig dedicated many years to working for the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Elections, where he revised, clarified and rewrote much of the election law that is followed today.

“Jerry Koenig is not replaceable,” Brewer “He’s a real loss.”

His election knowledge was born out of a love of New York State politics. His friends have said he had a photographic mind. “He could tell you who ran against whom, the issues and the year,” according to Alan Handell, senior vice president at Astoria Graphics Inc., one of the largest democratic printing companies in New York, and a friend who worked with Koenig many times over 40 years worth of state elections.

His immense knowledge of legislative law and policies led to him be “known as the gold standard of election law,” Handell said.
Before Koenig passed, he worked as the petition coordinator for Barack Obama’s reelection campaign. He took the job in 2008 after retiring from the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Elections. Koenig was working on the election petitions for the Obama campaign up until his death; he finished his final petitions and died as they were ready to be filed, according to Handell.

Born in the Bronx in 1933, Koenig always had a spot in his heart for the sciences and his home borough. Koenig graduated from The Bronx High School of Science in 1950 and became heavily invested in The Bronx High School of Science Endowment Fund, where he sat on the board for many years.

“His generosity was legendary,” said Brewer. “He scrutinized everything for the good of the public.”

While Koenig was a man who supported his hometown, he also had great zeal when it came to his community. He constantly hosted meetings in his home for the many organizations he was involved in.

Koenig liked to be known as a progressive Democrat, according to Handell. He was a member of the Park River Independent Democrats for a few years, but he and Geissman eventually moved over to Three Parks Independent Democrats, a very energetic democratic organization.

“They took their policies and politics very seriously,” said Brewer. “They were not wallflowers; they were not the people who stood back.”
Koenig lived on West End Avenue in the same building Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan grew up in (he served as a treasure trove of information on her character when she was appointed for the position). He was very involved not only at work but at home, as well. He was a member of his co-op’s operating board, where he took the idea of civic engagement to heart. He scrutinized property tax bills, the water board taxes and other taxes for the good of his neighbors, according to Brewer. If there was ever a problem, Koenig would work tirelessly until the issue was resolved.

“He was a true West Sider,” Brewer said.

Gregory Atkins, 56, was arrested Feb. 10 on charges of sexual abuse against a student at P.S. 87. Atkins had been working as a paraprofessional at the school since 2008. His alleged victim, an 8-year-old male student, told police that Atkins led him into a bathroom stall on four separate occasions during the school day on Feb. 2, where Atkins forced him to undress, touching him and claiming he was checking for bruises. He also allegedly made sexual comments to the student. The victim reported the behavior, and on Feb. 3, Atkins was removed from the school, according to a letter Principal Monica Berry sent to parents.

Parents were warned that investigators may need to question them about their children’s contact with Atkins, but so far no other allegations have come forward—not from P.S. 87, at least. After Atkins was arrested, a 2006 letter from the DOE’s special commissioner of investigation surfaced, detailing what was determined to be Atkins’ inappropriate behavior toward a young male student at his previous school, M.S. 322 in Upper Manhattan. No one at P.S. 87 had seen this letter, and parents are up in arms demanding to know why.

“There’s a lot of anger, obviously—anger primarily because of that 2006 report that wasn’t put in [Atkins’] file,” said Rebecca Levey, co-president of P.S. 87’s parent association. “There are a lot of questions about what the processes are at DOE, why the principal wouldn’t have access to that.”

The letter, addressed to then-chancellor Joel Klein, details the commission’s findings after an investigation was launched when a young boy’s mother brought her concerns to school officials at M.S. 322. The investigation found that Atkins had developed an inappropriate relationship with the student.

While there were no allegations of sexual misconduct, it was found that Atkins often attended the student’s sports games, walked him home, told his mother that he could babysit her son and bought the boy gifts, including a jock strap and other athletic equipment. The final conclusion from the commission was that “appropriate disciplinary action be taken” against Atkins. The principal delivered a verbal warning to Atkins and did not choose to place a letter in his permanent file.

How Atkins came to work at P.S. 87 is unclear. The DOE insists that since he applied for a transfer and had seniority as a paraprofessional, the P.S. 87 principal who preceded Berry had no control over who came to the school. The United Federation of Teachers disputes that and points to its paraprofessional contract, which states that paraprofessionals may apply for transfers and that the head of the school to which they apply makes the hiring decision. In Atkins’ case, however, no one would have known about his past at M.S. 322 because no record existed in his professional file, and that’s what has local parents irate.

“Parents are really angry, and rightfully so,” said Noah Gotbaum, a Community Education Council (CEC) member for District 3 and a parent of children who graduated from P.S. 87. “Not only is there a breakdown in execution, there’s no policy. It’s the DOE passing the buck. The DOE has been unaccountable in this matter and in this realm for years, and parents want to know why.”

Gotbaum said that at a recent CEC meeting, parents wanted to know how the DOE determines what sort of behavior warrants termination and what warrants a simple reprimand. The DOE has said that their hands are tied by what the Office of Special Investigations recommends, but that they train their employees to recognize inappropriate behaviors.

“The Office of Equal Opportunity goes into schools regularly to conduct trainings for teachers and other school-based employees. We provide in-depth training concerning appropriate conduct in the workplace between teachers and students, including sexual harassment, unwanted touching and unwanted contact,” said DOE spokesperson Deidrea Miller in an email.

“We emphasize during the trainings that the focus is not on the teacher’s intent but whether the conduct or contact would make a student feel uncomfortable,” Miller said.

The DOE declined to answer further questions on the record about whether or not they have concrete policies. Staff members at P.S. 87 also declined to be interviewed.

Some parents are pushing for more specific guidelines that would have clearly red-flagged Atkins’ behavior. “In terms of parent interaction, in terms of every policy from hiring the principal to CEC elections to testing to everything the chancellor’s regulations are, down to the smallest detail, they want to control everything,” Gotbaum said. “When it comes to the safety of our kids, there’s nothing.”
Upper West Side Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal said that as a result of this and other recent allegations of sexual abuse in public schools, she and other legislators are looking into ways to put tighter regulations in place at a state law level.

Citing the Office of Special Investigations, Rosenthal said, “Maybe their role should be expanded, with ways to follow up [on investigations’ findings]. We must have a much more robust system of protecting children.”

Levey said that she and her co-president, Rachel Laiserin, are focused on keeping parents united and informed in the wake of the devastating case.

“The priority is keeping the parent community together and not letting people give in to anger and fear. There is certainly a place for that, and we as a PA have formed an ad hoc committee run by a father who is an ex-prosecutor, keeping his ear to the ground with the DA’s office,” Levey said.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott met with P.S. 87 parents the Monday after Atkins’ arrest at a meeting closed to the press. Levey said that Walcott also met with her and Laiserin to hear parent concerns prior to that meeting. The DOE released a letter to parents stating that going forward, they will enter investigative reports into their system “in such a way that pertinent information will be visible to schools for consideration when making hiring decisions” and will also review past cases where special investigations found substantiated allegations of misconduct.

“What parents want—and I just don’t think they’re going to get it—they just want somebody to take responsibility,” said Levey. “We just want someone to say, ‘We messed up.’”

The first in the series of events was held Feb. 27, where residents listened to environmentalist Paul Reale from the Climate Reality Project. Reale, one of the Carbon Squeeze founders, unveiled the Carbon Squeeze Challenge, whereby residents receive points for doing various environmentally conscious tasks, like buying green power or planting trees. The Carbon Squeeze will run a leader board on its website where the most energy-conscious Upper West Side residents will be represented.

“Lots of people say, ‘I’ve got to live greener,’ but then we just hand out a bunch of leaflets and say goodbye,” said Reale. “The answer is not just a one-hit-wonder event. It’s to get people coming back time and time again.”

During his presentation in the Jewish Community Center on Amsterdam Ave., Reale highlighted some of the grim effects of carbon emissions and global warming, including intense weather patterns and dangerous droughts. Dozens of Upper West Side residents joined elected officials like Councilwoman Gale Brewer to discuss those and localized issues such as hydrofracking.

After the meeting ended, Community Board 7 member and one of Carbon Squeeze’s founders, Mel Wymore, declared the challenge officially open.

“We need to hold each other responsible as a community and then challenge other communities to take responsibility,” said Wymore. “Then we can start a revolution.”

The Carbon Squeeze advocacy group began as a conversation between various members of the Upper West Side community. The group began meeting once a week to discuss ways to get people thinking about their environmental impact. Wymore said that they decided on a game because people need incentives and triggers to change behavior.

The incentives come in the form of squeeze points. Points do not just have to be earned by making bigger decisions like switching to green energy, they can be earned just by attending events, reading books on the Carbon Squeeze book list or writing a letter to a legislator.

“We have to wake people up to climate change,” said Martha Cameron, a Brooklyn resident at the event who wanted to implement a similar program in her own community. “I have seven grandchildren and they are all going to have to live through this.”

The first step is for interested residents to calculate their carbon footprint at carbonsqueeze.org. Then players can begin racking up points. As of now, the contest is only local, but The Carbon Squeeze founders want to eventually include other parts of Manhattan. The next competition could be a challenge between the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, or the movement could expand to other cities, said Wymore.

Both Wymore and Reale emphasized that they want to make an actual, measurable difference with this program. The next event will occur April 6 and will feature speaker Colin Beavan, the “No Impact Man.” Each event will be themed to focus on a particular area of environmental impact, like food or transportation.

“This is all about you,” said Reale at the end of the event. “This doesn’t end tonight; it starts tonight.”

Points are awarded for differing health violations. Two points are deducted for minor problems such  as improper thawing techniques,  while critical violations that could be considered health hazards (such as hot or cold food being stored in improper temperatures) will cost a restaurant up to 10 points. However, if a restaurant doesn’t earn a grade of A during the initial inspection, they are able to appeal to the DOH and post a “grade pending” sign. According to City and State, the average grade in New York City, from the program’s inception in Aug. of 2010 to Dec. 2011, is a B.

An interesting (and stomach churning) divide is illustrated in the study that was released. It seems that some cultural cuisines are cleaner than others with German, Polish, and Bangladeshi restaurants getting the dubious honor of the highest number of violations per inspection. The city’s 24 Bangladeshi establishments, which garner average of 14.7 violations every time the health inspector comes around still get a grade of an A 58 percent of the time. In contrast, Pakistani establishments, which represent the mean of average scores, have nearly half of their locations posting a grade of B or Grade Pending.

Did the Department of Health consider the somewhat politically incorrect nature of the formatting of this report? Is dividing cuisine by country of origin P.C.?

Critics of the new system say that it was devised as a new source of revenue which is costing small businesses thousands of dollars. Currently fines are levied to all restaurants with violations, even those who earn an A. According to Andrew Rigie, the Director of Operations for the New York State Restaurant Association, the increased frequency of inspections is also forcing these restaurants to spend money on sanitation consultants, as well as attorneys to represent them during the appeals.

The city introduced the new system as a way to fast track restaurants into correcting health violations. Indeed many of them have cleaned up their act to get better grades. Pak Nashamen, a Coney Islandbased Bangladeshi restaurant, earned a stomach churning 111 points on an inspection in Sept. of 2011. This inspection wasn’t graded and they appealed the decision. During a follow up six days later, Pak Nashamen only racked up two points of violations. If that’s not progress, I don’t know what is.

Blumberg with some of her students

“I was extraordinarily unhappy and I realized that my boyfriend at the time was not going to marry me. I realized I wouldn’t want to marry him. I just had to take a look at everything I wanted all over again. Working with dogs was the only thing that truly stuck.”

In a city with thousands upon thousands of stray dogs, with only three shelters within the five boroughs, animal awareness and care is more important than ever.

You haven’t always been a dog trainer, what made you take the leap?
I kind of gutted my life the way you gut a house. I literally quit everything in my life: boyfriend, house, and job. Everything that I thought was who I was. It’s kind of cliché but I went traveling for five months. I decided to do everything I wanted to do. I’ve been volunteering with dogs for years and I was no longer satisfied doing it when I had the time. I knew I wanted my job to be involved with dogs. It’s what it had to be.

Why dog training?
At first it was dog walking, which was totally unsatisfying. Then I did veterinary clinic work and assistant work and it just wasn’t what I was looking for. I went back to the roots of where it all began with The Discovery Channel and National Geographic. This is super embarrassing, but I loved, “The Dog Whisperer.” He’s actually the reason I wanted to do dog training. When I started researching it, I realized how wrong he was and decided to scientifically figure out how dogs behave. I decided I wanted to do positive reinforcement training. I joined a dog meet up group. In February I started a dog training apprenticeship, and I just finished that and launched my company, Sabra Dog Training.

Politically, how do you feel about the way shelters handle dogs in NYC?
It’s something I’m still trying to form an opinion on because I’m part of two different groups. Straight from the Heart is a rescue organization. Ten years ago they brought a suit against the city because there are no shelters in two of the five boroughs. The court mandated that every borough should have its own shelter. Ten years later nothing’s happened. Shelters need some sort of reform in the city, but then you get into a deeper issue which is open admission vs. no-kill shelters. Every city needs an open admission shelter. A place to bring the strays to, but you need to make difficult calls everyday because you have to decide which animals to euthanize on a daily basis. How much time is this dog going to get before we announce him un-adoptable? Then there’s the other side, which is the no-kill rescue groups. Lots of people believe every animal deserves a chance. There was a Michael Vick dog that couldn’t be adopted out because it was too dangerous. They accepted the life of that dog. I believe every dog deserves a chance at life, but the more I read and see, some dogs might not ever fully recover from the abuse they’ve experienced, to a point where they actually feel safe. Is there a solution? Is there an answer? I don’t know. There are so many philosophies on what is right.

So what goes into dog training? How do you deal with the dogs?
It depends on the dog. It greatly depends on the client because it’s all about owner compliance. Sometimes you see people who come in and maybe it was their boyfriend or girlfriend that convinced them to try training. So they don’t feel that they need it because they feel they have complete control of their dog. So one thing I learned from the teacher I apprenticed under: when a client really wants to try something, and it’s just the worst idea ever, you let them try it because they won’t let up.

Any client horror stories?
Well there’s this one dog who’s a very serious food guarder. We were trying to work out different desensitization programs to do with the dog. You don’t want to push the dog beyond its threshold. The husband says, “This dog will never bite me.” Meanwhile I’m thinking: this is an animal with teeth, it will bite anyone if provoked beyond its tolerance threshold. The husband-in my opinion-was showing off. Luckily we were dealing with a Shitzu not a Rottweiler, and I was comfortable letting him learn the hard way. I told him to stop, but he said, “He’s not gonna bite me.” So I stepped back and said okay. The dog snatched the treat out of the man’s hand, and I thought that would be enough to make him back off. But he reached down to try to get the treat out of his mouth, and the dog repeatedly bit him. Luckily because it was a Shitzu the only thing that was injured was the man’s ego, but from now on (at least I hope) he’ll take what I say more seriously.

Then there are other clients-I did a free phone consult with someone in Miami, who was ready to bring their dog back to the shelter. They weren’t prepared for the responsibility of taking care of a puppy. My favorite cases are those that make sure the dog keeps a home, rather than putting it right in a shelter. Because she had tried everything she was kind of at the end of her rope, and she was very willing to try anything. Those are the kind of sessions I find most rewarding. You’re changing the life of an animal and a family. It’s painful to give a dog away. My focus, even in my business, was that any dog that was rescued receives a ten percent discount off of any service I offer. There are too many dogs that need to be adopted.

Do you have a dog?
No, I don’t have any time for one. Between starting a business and working for someone else’s, there’s just no time. I’m big on owner responsibility. If you don’t have the time or the money to take care of a dog: DON’TGETONE!