TRIBUTE TO TEDDY
Teddy Roosevelt eyes his next prey from the newly restored murals in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda at the American Museum of Natural History. After two years of conservation treatment, the huge canvases were re-introduced to the public this week.

MTA TO RESUME BLASTING AT EXPLOSION SITE
After a routine detonation became out of control and erupted to the surface of Second Avenue on Aug. 21, the MTA stopped blasting at the site on East 72nd Street until an investigation could be completed. The agency announced last Thursday that it had concluded that investigation and would resume blasting at the site, with a number of safety measures in place.

“We have completed our review of the incident and have implemented a number of corrective actions. From this moment forward, blasting operations will be subject to additional management scrutiny and enhanced safety procedures to ensure that the community and workers are kept safe,” said Michael Horodniceanu, president of MTA Capital Construction, in a statement.

Some of the improvements include a superintendent sign-off on a pre-blast checklist and an additional layer of protective rubber blast mats over the explosives. The MTA has also hired an independent safety consultant, Thacher Associates/Total Safety Consulting, to provide outside monitoring of the contractor at the site.

NEW MEDICAL FACILITIES TO BRING HUNDREDS OF JOBS
Last week, Mayor Bloomberg announced plans for a collaboration between City University of New York and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to construct two new state-of-the-art outpatient cancer care facilities on the Upper East Side.

The city will sell a 66,000-square-foot site at 525 E. 73rd St. for $215 million to the partnership, and MSK will construct a 750,000-square-foot facility designed for innovative outpatient treatment programs. The hospital plans to use the facility to treat lung, head, neck and hematological cancers.

CUNY Hunter College will build an up to 336,000-square-foot Science and Health Professions building on the site as well.

“Thanks to our innovative approach to economic development, today’s announcement is yet another step towards making New York City home to the world’s most talented workforce,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “Not only will these two great institutions play a critical role in creating great jobs in one of the city’s growing industries, but they usher in the innovators and medical advancements of tomorrow.”

The projects are expected to create 3,200 construction jobs and 830 permanent jobs.

TURTLE BAY REJECTS MIDTOWN ANNEX IDEA
President of the Turtle Bay Association William B. Curtis released comments this week that will be presented at a City Planning Commission meeting on Sept. 27, rejecting a city proposal to annex an area of what is now considered Turtle Bay into East Midtown.

“What we cannot accept is any intrusion of Midtown beyond the current eastern boundary. City planning, however, is trying to annex an irregular area lying between Second and Third avenues, and East 43rd and East 45th streets and absorb it into the East Midtown study area. We strenuously object to this,” Curtis said in the statement.

Curtis cited the fact that that area has always been considered part of the East Side, not Midtown, and that the residential character of the area would make any type of Midtown upzoning inappropriate.

ANTIQUES AND ART AT THE ARMORY
Avenue magazine presents Antiques, Art & Design at the Park Avenue Armory this Friday, Sept. 21, through Monday, Sept. 24. The exhibit features over 60 dealers specializing in high quality art and antiques, including French, English, Italian, Swedish and Continental furniture from the 17th century through mid-century modern, fine silver, Russian antiquities and rugs, Tiffany lamps, French Art Nouveau and Art Deco furniture and objects, and many other types of art. Public show hours are 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. each day. Admission is $20. 643 Park Ave. Visit avenueshows.com for more information.

HOYLMAN WINS SENATE PRIMARY
In the 27th district Senate race, attorney and former chair of Community Board 2 Brad Hoylman beat out opponents Tom Greco, a Chelsea bar owner, and Tanika Inlaw, a public school teacher, to win the Democratic nomination. Hoylman, who received a reported 69 percent of the votes, will likely succeed Sen. Tom Duane, who surprised many when he announced he would retire at the end of his current term.

SODA BAN PASSES LAST HURDLE
Last Thursday, the New York City Board of Health approved Mayor Bloomberg’s “soda ban,” which prohibits the sale of soda and other sweetened drinks in any container over 16 ounces.

Bloomberg’s desire to curb the city’s obesity epidemic fueled the measure, which also applies to energy drinks like Gatorade and sweet iced teas. Over half of the city’s adults—and almost half of the city’s public school students—are overweight or obese, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Not surprisingly, vendors of sugary drinks have united to challenge the ban, arguing that it infringes on consumer freedom.

Many nutritionists support the measure, like the eminent Yale University epidemiologist Dr. Kelly Brownell, who told the New York Times, “It completely makes more sense to make the environment healthier rather than to just do pure education.”

While a Times poll found that most New Yorkers were against the law, the Board of Health vote was almost unanimous, with one abstention. Then again, Bloomberg appointed each board member himself.

The ban will take effect March 12, but vendors who break the law will not be fined until mid-June.

CENTRAL PARK RAPE VICTIM STANDS STRONG
The 74-year-old victim of a vicious assault and rape in Central Park last week told the New York Post that she isn’t going to let the horrible incident ruin her park experience.
“I’m not scared. I don’t want to lose that pleasure. I won’t let anything keep me from enjoying the park,” she told the newspaper.

The woman, identified only as an Upper West Side resident, was attacked in broad daylight as she was bird-watching in the park. The alleged rapist snuck up to the woman and assaulted her a few days after she had taken his photo when she caught him masturbating in the Rambles area of the park.

Police caught the suspect, 42-year-old homeless man David Albert Mitchell, as he was walking on the Upper West Side last Thursday. Mitchell reportedly has a long history of violent offenses.

Magicians, stilt walkers, chair-stackers, contortionists, jugglers—even a juggling contortionist—performed for thousands alongside the cheesy children’s rides and Coney Island-style “step right up” games over the course of four days to celebrate the $200 million renovation of the Upper East Side institution. The indoor carnival was part of a fundraiser that marked the launch of the historic building—which typically hosts antique fairs and other artistic events—as the city’s newest cultural destination, complete with its own full-scale arts programming.

Josh Hickey, the ambitious young event planner and head of Hickey Shields Design, had been contracted to put together the high-profile, yet unusual, occasion. Hickey hired the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus to handle the performance elements, which ultimately included around 30 individual entertainers with their own distinctive talents.

Hickey Shields came highly recommended by top-notch clients; its chic, glossy website boasts W Hotels Worldwide, New York City Ballet and Dom Pérignon as just a few of its prestigious patrons. Hickey Shields has designed galas for the Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Asia Society. The entire four-day Park Avenue Armory event seemed to go off without a hitch. It was hailed as a success, written up in culture pages around the city and praised for its unique state fair-meets- Tim Burton
atmosphere.

Then in February, a Facebook post appeared that alerted fans to the fact of Bindlestiff’s dire financial situation. The organization followed by starting a web campaign to raise attention and money, headlined: “Hickey Shields Design cripples Bindlestiff Family Cirkus.” It seemed the circus was in trouble.

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus claims that they have yet to be paid a balance of $26,700 from Hickey Shields. For a group that operates with a number of performers on shoestring budgets, and has a humble annual operating budget hovering between $150,000 and $200,000, this is not small change.

“It’s been kind of a horrible process on our end, trying to keep our mission of entertaining New York in the midst of this,” Keith Nelson, co-founder and executive director of Bindlestiff, says.

Known for its audacious sideshow and burlesque acts, the Brooklyn-based Bindlestiff Family Cirkus has been performing for over 15 years in various incarnations. Formed by Nelson and Stephanie Monseu as a non-profit 501(c) (3) corporation, the duo has produced shows around the world, from Avery Fisher Hall to Burning Man. A few years ago they launched Cavalcade of Youth, a program for young performers to hone their variety skills, and in 2007 Bindlestiff began to offer a Circus Summer Camp for Staten Island kids. But now the company is strapped for cash and is struggling to move forward.

The Park Avenue Armory’s President and Executive Producer Rebecca Robertson, the person behind the impressive new cultural season at the Armory, declined to comment on the record. But representatives at the Armory did confirm the facts: that they contracted and paid Josh Hickey and that they were not involved in paying Bindlestiff. In a statement, an Armory rep said that they were “appalled that Hickey Shields Design has not paid the wonderful performers of Bindlestiff Family Cirkus that Hickey Shields engaged to provide entertainment at the Armory Carnival.”

The ripple effects of Hickey’s inability to pay out have been widespread and deep. Many freelancers came forward to say that they were not paid in full.

Adam Cardone is a magician and ventriloquist that Bindlestiff hired to perform at the show. According to Cardone, he and his fellow performers did an excellent job.

“It was one of the hardest jobs I’ve done in a long time, just because of the length and the amount of people,” Cardone says. When he found out that he wouldn’t be getting paid promptly, he was shocked. “I’ve done shows where there is some shady stuff going on, but you would never expect that kind of event to have that level of shadiness.”

Cardone has been working with Bindlestiff for over eight years, and has nothing but praise for the way they run their organization.

“Whether we’re doing a smaller-scaled event or a really extravagant event, the quality level is really high, and the professionalism is really high.”

When Bindlestiff sent a letter to the performers explaining that they couldn’t pay them out as planned, Cardone knew it was a serious problem.

“I feed a family of four performing,” he says. “That whole weekend that I was working for them, not to have that money is serious. We all need it. It’s my job.” Cardone claims he often gets multiple inquires every weekend, so when he books a job, he’s often turning down two or three other offers of paid work in order to do it. “It’s like somebody who works a 9-to-5 job missing a week’s salary.”

Bindlestiff ended up paying their performers out of their own pockets. “Our organization decided to basically take out loans and everything to make sure the artists were compensated for their time,” Nelson says. As of press time, they have raised $2,283.42 in donations from their online campaign to offset the costs.

Other contractors who worked with Hickey weren’t so lucky to have a supportive middleman to negotiate payment. Mikaela Zimmerman was the head fabricator for the event. A carpenter who does freelance work, building anything from furniture to elaborate sets like the one for the Armory Carnival, he says that Hickey owes him $6,000 for a month-and-a-half of full-time work and materials, and a small claims court judge agreed, ultimately awarding that amount to Zimmerman. He’s still waiting for a payment that he suspects will never come.

“I just want what’s owed,” Zimmerman says. “Some of my equipment got stolen, some got damaged. That’s how I make a living, with that equipment. I had a rough end of the year.” According to Zimmerman, by the last two weeks leading up to the carnival, he was working 19 hours some days, and that Hickey seemed happy with the job.

“I actually saved him a huge amount of money on the fabrication. I really lowered his costs,” Zimmerman explains. “He thought he was going to spend ‘X’ amount of money, and I helped him by getting cheaper materials. He was happy with that.”

Zimmerman remembers Hickey as slightly eccentric but fun to work with— until the end.

“I used to believe that he’s not a bad guy; he’s just a terrible businessman and he spent more money than he had,” Zimmerman says. “But now I realize, no good man would forget about people and leave them with debts like this.”

Josh Hickey is a slim, well-dressed young man who’s been running his own design firm for the past three years. In a NY1 video (available here) that promoted the Armory Carnival, he wears tortoise-shell glasses, sports smartly trimmed facial hair and a tailored blue blazer over a light blue Oxford. He could pass for a chic boutique retailer or pleasant Brooklyn expat transplanted to the Upper East Side.

He’s a sophisticated and worldly guy (he splits his time between New York, France and Florida), but he’s a tough man to get a hold of these days. His New York City office address is a space he had once rented and hasn’t been back to in months. His phone goes straight to voicemail. When we caught up with him, the first thing Hickey did was confirm that everything being said about him is, to a certain extent, true.

“The sad reality is that we owe quite a few people money,” Hickey says. He doesn’t deny that fact, and he readily admits that be owes Bindlestiff over $26,000.

According to Hickey, some of this problem stems from the Park Avenue Armory.

“There were certain contractual details that were not met,” Hickey explains. “Certain timelines that were not met, certain engagement that were not met, that forced us to make many change orders, many last-minute additions. We just sort of motored through, and at the end of the project were met with a very icy response.”

Hickey said that the total amount paid to him by the Armory for a 650-person seated dinner and opening gala, followed by four days of the carnival, was $220,000. However, last-minute changes at the Armory’s behest pushed Hickey over budget. He claims that he made the Armory aware that all its adjustments would result in higher bills, and when it came time to pay up, they balked. Hickey decided to pay the differences from funds he expected through future jobs, but several of them fell through, and he was stuck.

“We’ve been working since November to try to pay everybody back. It hasn’t happened as quickly as I would have liked,” Hickey said. “I cannot pass judgment on the Bindlestiff Cirkus. They have every right to be extremely angry with me; I owe them money.”

Hickey says that members of Bindlestiff began contacting his potential clients this past winter, telling everyone who would listen about its plight, and as a result, his business dried up faster than you can shoot a girl out of acannon. “They sort of shot themselves, and everybody else we owe money to, in the foot, because we lost our spring season in New York,” Hickey
explains. According to Hickey, he plans on paying his debts to the carnival contractors as soon as new business comes in, but now he’s struggling to book any jobs.

Before the Armory Carnival, Hickey seemed to enjoy a stellar reputation among his clients, receiving multiple contracts from several of them and booking gigs through word-of-mouth. Jeannine Glazewski, the director of special events at The Asia Society, which contracted Hickey for three different events a few years ago, raved about Hickey’s work and professionalism.

“He worked within our budget, and we were happy,” Glazewski says, explaining that they had to trim plans to meet the budget of only several thousand dollars, and that Hickey had no problem doing so. “He was reliable; he was cheerful; he was cooperative; he delivered on time.”

Glazewski stresses that Hickey creatively accommodated Asia Society’s needs, repurposing materials from a dinner he planned for them at the Waldorf for their next family benefit to cut costs.

It’s unclear whether Hickey had ever produced anything on the scale of the Armory Carnival. He says that his company contracts “interior construction projects on a continual basis,” and that they were involved with the renovation of a 17th-century landmarked building in Paris that cost, in total, about a million Euros. Still, Hickey claims he’s unable to pinpoint the moment when he lost fiscal control over the Armory project.

“What I would have done [differently] is I would have every single contract in the name of the Park Avenue Armory,” he says. “That’s now my practice.”

Hickey and his lawyers are exploring the possibility of litigation against the Armory, though Hickey is hesitant to pursue that avenue for fear of permanently destroying his stateside reputation. But he’s also running out of options.

“It’s not like we’re running a multimillion dollar company and there’s this huge nest egg I’m sitting on,” Hickey says. “People look at my Facebook page”— now taken down—”and they look at my blog”—on which he describes himself as “the luckiest person alive” and boasts about his work on the Armory show— “and they come to these conclusions that I sort of deceive people to support some sort of extravagant lifestyle, and that’s not the case.” He said that he’s lived in France for seven years, that his
family is there, and that he’s not hiding from his responsibilities.

“One of our options is to file for bankruptcy,” he admits. “It’s not something that I want to do, because it’s not right.”

By Lorraine Duffy Merkl

“Step right up, folks! We’ve got arcade games and prizes, stilt-walkers and circus performers, magicians, jugglers and a 50-foot Ferris Wheel!”

On Columbus Day, I took my daughter and her friend to the Park Avenue Armory, whose 55,000-square-foot hall was transformed into a fantastical carnival.

Traditionally, these traveling circuses were meant to bring relief from the tedium of daily life with attractions like the half man/half woman, contortionists and sword swallowers.

Although we enjoyed our time there immensely, these past couple of months has proved to me that Manhattan doesn’t need an actual midway to distract us, since a carny-like atmosphere is often created by our day-to-day, nonstop sideshows.

We now live in a post-Waiting for Superman world where people are appalled to “learn” what everyone has known all along: there are subpar educators out there who can’t be fired no matter how bad they are at their jobs.

Melissa Petro, the former sex worker turned New York public school art teacher, wasn’t one of them. She did her job well, was liked by her co-workers and students and was only punished by the school district when her past came to light.

I think what bothered many people more than her stripping and hooking was the fact that she openly talked about it, choosing not to let it be a dirty little secret of which she would have to live in fear of exposure.

Petro did the work needed to go from the world’s oldest profession to the noblest one, making her the perfect example of how people who have made a poor choice can actually turn their lives around.

What is the impetus for people to improve themselves or their situations if what they did before is always going to be held against them? I argued to my friends.

Mayor Bloomberg obviously didn’t agree with me and ordered the tenured-teacher out of the classroom.

Weeks later, I watched his press conference regarding an unrelated matter, where he declared that in this city, “tolerance defines us.” It was like looking in a funhouse mirror that distorts everything.

Next, you could have knocked me over like the milk bottle pyramid at which you throw softballs to win the giant panda. Two homophobes decided to gay bash a man in the Stonewall Inn—the birthplace of the gay rights movement, as well as the establishment where I believe the phrase “bash back” originated. Apparently, the assailants had not known the place’s history. They live on Staten Island—under a rock.

Then it was time for something as light and fluffy as cotton candy. The Kardashians moved in (temporarily, I hope) to open a clothing store downtown. Because this family will not blow its collective nose without cinematic documentation, their exploits will be a new reality show titled, Kourtney & Kim Take New York!

Lastly, there was the day I awoke to Carl Paladino on TV claiming to embrace the gay community, on the heels of saying that homosexuality was not “an equally valid and successful option.” He argued that someone else had written his remark and he hadn’t wanted to say it. But he did say it, as well as some cracks about the Gay Pride Parade. He apologized to the gay community, but lost the support of those who agreed with the original statement that he didn’t want to make in the first place. My head started spinning as though I’d just gotten off the Tilt-A-Whirl.

Well, no one ever said living here was dull. That’s part of the beauty of NYC; you can’t guess what’s going to happen next. Or in carnival parlance: Round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows.
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Lorraine Duffy Merkl’s debut novel Fat Chick, from The Vineyard Press, is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Actress Kelly Rutherford with members of The Knickerbocker Greys at the opening night benefit for the American Cancer Society’s HOPE LODGE NYC. Photo by Patrick McMullan Company

“The AVENUE Antiques & Art at the Armory restored my faith in shows. The atmosphere at the show was incredibly upbeat and positive. Most importantly, the level of interest shown was phenomenal, as was the high level of attendance,” said exhibitor Michael James of The Silver Fund.

Antiques & Art at the Armory opened the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 2, with a private preview to benefit The American Cancer Society’s HOPE LODGE Jerome L. Greene Family Center NYC, and then ran daily through Sunday, Dec. 6. Seen shopping among the crowds those days were Jon Bon Jovi, Wayne Gretsky, Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang, Cyndi Lauper, Patti Smith and John McEnroe.

Show attendees were also treated to exclusive lectures from the prestigious Royal Oak Foundation and a designer breakfast panel discussion, “Decorating with Antiques in the Modern World,” moderated by Today show and 1stdibs contributor Susanna Salk. The panel featured Mario Buatta, Maureen Footer, Miles Redd and Guy Regal.

When assessing the show results, AVENUE magazine publisher Julie Dannenberg said, “All of us at AVENUE feel so lucky to be accepted by the dealers and equally as thrilled that our community of Upper East Siders has been energized and motivated to shop again!”

Among the shows’ many notable sales were a fine pair of late 18th-century Portuguese open armchairs in the Chinese Chippendale style from Michael Pashby Antiques of New York; a set of silver by English Silversmith Paul de Lamerie; five paintings, including one by Norman Rockwell and one by John Grimshaw, from M.S. Rau of New Orleans; sailor’s woolwork pictures and a 17th-century botanical engraving from Earle Vandekar of Knightsbridge from Maryknoll, N.Y.; and a pair of important 1940s Austrian wall sconces from The Silver Fund of San Francisco.

Guy Regal, of Guy Regal Ltd./Newel LLC, said, “Life has finally been returned to the art and antique market via the AVENUE Show. There was an excitement on the floor from the moment the doors opened. Happily it continued past the end, as I had a fabulous follow-up sale the next day.”

Georgina Bloomberg and Susan Bloomberg. Photo by Patrick McMullan Company

Images from artist Janos Schaab in the Hubert Gallery booth. Photo by Patrick McMullan Company

The Milord Antiques booth, MilordAntiques.com. Photo by John Peden

One of M.S. Rau Antiques’ booths. Photo by John Peden

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AVENUE is a sister publication of Our Town, published by parent company Manhattan Media.