A stable attendant sweeps in front of a horse about to leave the stables

Will the Central Park horses finally be outlawed?

By Anam Baig and Sean Creamer

Central Park’s horse-drawn carriages have been a traditional New York City tourist attraction since the 1930s, but animal rights activists have been pushing for years to close the stables, free the horses and find them a home outside the Big Apple.

Three recent incidents involving the horses have resparked the debate and shed light again on the horses and the iconic tourist experience. March 3, a horse was spooked on the Upper West Side and took off, dragging a tipped carriage through heavy traffic. Last December, a horse collapsed near Grand Army Plaza at 59th Street while pulling a carriage holding three adults and a child, tossing them to the ground. In October, another horse, Charlie, died while pulling a carriage on the way to Central Park.

Those in favor of the horse carriages claim that the incidents are sporadic and don’t reflect the high standard used by the industry. The opponents claim that it’s just another day at work for the horses.

Two dueling events happened last weekend when the groups gathered to build momentum on their side as the debate rages. A slew of equestrians from all over the country gathered March 30 to attend ClipClopNYC, where the Horse-Carriage Association of New York welcomed members of the public to see behind the scenes of the industry. The event included tours of the stables, a meet-and-greet with veterinarians who work with the horses and an informational session at Central Park. The event touted the industry’s partnership with Blue Star Equiculture of Palmer, Mass., where retired horses go to live after serving on the streets of New York City.

To counter that event, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, working with other animals rights groups, held an event of its own Sunday, April 1, to protest ClipClopNYC and expose the carriage industry’s practices.

But things weren’t always so black and white for horses in the park.

Frederick Law Olmstead’s original 1870s design of Central Park was meant for horse-drawn carriages both as a means of transport and recreation. Now that those times have passed, many people are vying for the carriages’ ban, citing that the horses are put under unnecessary strain, suffer subpar living conditions and lack roaming space.

Upper West Side Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal and Queens Senator Tony Avella introduced legislation last spring that would ban horse-drawn cabs in the city.

“These horses get easily spooked on city streets. Its not their natural habitat,” Rosenthal said. “It’s dangerous for them and the people in the carriage. My aim is to relieve the horses of work that they are forced to do, dragging hundred and hundred of pounds of carriage and people all day long.”

At the City Council level, legislation sponsored by Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito would ban the use of horse-drawn carriages in the park, allowing electric cars to take the place of the horses as a tourist attraction.

“We support any legislation that gets these horses out of harm’s way,” said Carly Marie Knudson, executive director of NYCLASS, a group that wants to end the use of carriage horses in the city.

Steven Malone, president of the New York Horse and Carriage association with his horse Paddy

“We think the City Council’s route has the advantage of offering an alternative that saves the horses while simultaneously creating new jobs and boosting revenue to the city through the vintage replica cars,” she said.

NYCLASS was founded by Manhattan Mini Storage and Edison ParkFast owner Steve Nislick and Ed Sayres, co-president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). The ASPCA not only acts as the government watchdog for the carriage industry, it donated $250,000 to NYCLASS to support their electric car cause.

Animal rights activists such as NYCLASS, The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, Friends of Animals, the ASPCA and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claim that the horse-carriage industry is equine abuse in its worst form.

But those who are a part of the carriage industry say otherwise. Carriage drivers interviewed for this story were adamant that there is no animal abuse. They claim that PETA and the ASPCA, among others, have stalked carriage drivers at the park and stables with video cameras, looking for instances of abuse. But, according to the drivers, they’ve left empty-handed every time.

Conor McHugh, a carriage driver of 26 years, said protesters of the industry have yelled at customers and at times thrown water or spit on them for taking a ride.

“It’s shameful to the city that allows it—that the customers, tourists of this city, get spat on by people because they decide to take a horse and buggy ride,” McHugh said.

In order to become a driver, applicants must go through oral and multiple-choice exams proctored by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which licenses New York City’s horse carriages. After they get their license, newly established drivers take a test run with an experienced driver for a week to ensure they pick up the skills needed to successfully and safely operate a horse.

New horses from the Pennsylvania stables in Amish country are tested for their ability to work the busy Central Park streets. If the horses do not become accustomed to the incessant traffic noise, bustling crowds and gawking tourists, they are sent back.

“Maybe sometimes they get used to it, but they can get spooked,” said Edita Birnkrant from Friends of Animals, a group that proposes banning animals in the park. “They have an innate instinct. Nothing can change that. There will be times when the horse will startle, and then you have 2,000 pounds of wild animal running out of control in a metropolitan hub.”

The horse-drawn carriage industry has faced scrutiny before. In 1988, when three horses died during a heat wave, the City Council enacted a New York City Administrative Code that regulated carriage horse operation, required licensure of the horse, carriage and driver, and established standards for horse treatment and a horse health advisory board to make recommendations to the commissioner of health.

Since then, the Code has seen many amendments focused on improving the quality of life and well-being of New York City’s carriages horses.
The horses are kept in four stables on the Upper West Side, an area that has been undergoing renovations over the past 10 years, according to Steven Malone, president of the New York Horse and Carriage Association, which represents the city’s 68 carriages, 293 certified drivers and 220 privately owned horses. The stable on 52nd Street has three levels that are connected by ramps, another facet that activists say is dangerous for the horses.
The bottom level holds the carriages. Above them, the horses live in individual stables. The horses have constant access to water and food and their bedding is changed three times a day, according to various drivers who, like McHugh, keep their horses at the stable.

McHugh stood against a backdrop of stable workers cleaning out the empty stables of the horses that had left for work earlier in the morning and explained that if NYCLASS or Friends of Animals get their way, these men would lose their jobs.

“We have people in this business who inherited it from their fathers in the 1950s,” said McHugh. “That’s a long, continuous connection, and someone like the assemblywoman just proposes that we be banned? It just seems so draconian.”

Horses are supposed to work every other day and only for nine hours at a time, giving them the chance to rest after a day of lugging carriages and tourists around from the day before, a result of previous legislature to ensure the horses are treated fairly. ASPCA veterinarians examine them twice a year.

Last year, the ASPCA did an intensive study of the horses for 281 days and found no instances of abuse, according to McHugh.

“The horses have to be groomed and presented everyday. We present them everyday on Fifth Avenue,” said McHugh. “Inspection does not go on behind closed doors.”

But activists say that the abuse exists in the fact that the horses must endure the conditions of the city. Janet Restino, an artist who lives near the stables on the UWS, agrees with this sentiment.

“I don’t think it is a particularly great idea to have horses on the street during traffic and rush hour,” Restino said.

Ivanna Fairweather, a Harlem resident who was walking in Central Park on a recent bright, sunny day, said she’s in favor of a ban.

“We have so many other forms of transportation, why do we need horses? People just want to say, ‘Oh, I took a horse ride in Central Park.’ But those pretentious people don’t know that taking a walk in Central Park is so much better,” she said. “New York is a place to walk; it’s a walking city. We don’t need horses to take us places. I mean, $50 for 20 minutes? What? Are they crazy?”

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.

The Art Studio found its humble beginnings in Schweiger’s Upper West Side apartment. Because of the popularity of her free-spirited lessons for all ages and levels, she was able to nurture her vision into a nationally acclaimed program.

Schweiger now teaches out of the basement of the same building, at 145 W. 96th St., in two large studios where she and her staff hold about 60 classes a week.

Originally trained as a painter, Schweiger studied at Boston University, where she was instructed in classical styles of painting. After college, she became an exhibited painter and her work was featured in galleries across the world.

While she enjoyed her work, she felt that the happiness art gave her could help other people.

“I felt that the joy and the meaning that I derived out of painting was one that I really wanted to share with every type of person,” Schweiger said.

She soon found herself instructing an art class at a senior citizens’ home, where the focus of the class was tapping into one’s creativity and self-expression.

“It literally was miraculous, within an hour and a half, how much these people changed,” she said. “The class had them smiling and laughing. I thought that there was something way deeper going on.”

The classes blossomed into the idea that art is an “elixir to life.” Schweiger thought she could teach people to begin “tapping into their own self-expression, their own essence and their own unique spirit.”

After working in Israel for a year teaching similar classes, Schweiger moved to New York City in 2000. In 2003, she opened The Art Studio NY.

What started as two classes of five students being taught in her bedroom, which she converted into an art studio, quickly grew into a business that has a staff of 15 artists, instructors, graphic designers and administrators.

The studio’s central focus is always to release stress through self-expression. Beyond that, Schweiger has made sure there is a class available for all skill levels.

“We are always adding new classes based on what our students’ interests are,” said Schweiger. “If two students say, ‘I wish you had a calligraphy class,’ we will add it.”

She will soon offer a class with a mix of meditation, yoga and art.

There are also a multitude of traditional classes for young children in the afternoon after school, as well as adult classes for those who wish to unwind after work.

Classes are generally between 10 and 11 people. While the size of the classes remains constant, the length of time varies for each. Some classes will go for several weeks and others will go week-to-week. An example of this is a four-week program where students will learn to make a painting from scratch—literally. Schweiger will lead students through the process of creating a canvas and the intricacies of painting upon the canvas they created.

The Art Studio NY has traveled a long road to get to where it is today, but its ride is filled with interesting stories and occurrences, including when E!’s “Kim and Kourtney Take New York” came to Schweiger’s studio for an episode to get their paint on.

The studio now offers classes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in Central Park. Students even have the chance to go abroad on retreat trips, visiting places such as Italy and Costa Rica.

Schweiger likes to think of her method as “almost like giving people their wings to fly.”

The Upper West Side’s newspaper boxes are under assault by a group of pernicious scrap metal bandits. In January 2012, the West Side Spirit had 17 of its metal boxes stolen from locations between 59th and 96th Street on the West Side. AM New York was even more heavily hit, losing 70 boxes, mainly along Broadway, since December. Metro New York had 45 of their boxes swiped. The boxes retail for roughly $240 and can be sold for up to $60 in scrap.

Upper West Side Council Member Gail Brewer has heard so many complaints about disappearing news boxes and other scrap metal that she wrote a letter to Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway on Feb. 2 asking him to look into the disappearance of newspaper boxes as well as city trash cans or “litter baskets.”

“These thefts waste taxpayer money and can affect the quality of life and health of residents,” she wrote. “I am sure that the Upper West Side is not the only neighborhood impacted by these losses.”

Brewer said that an unusual combination of factors has made this situation more high-profile than most cases.
“You’ve got the freedom of press being infringed on. The rising cost of scrap metal and recycling is making street furniture theft a more common occurrence in the city.”

Anthony, a circulation director at AM New York who didn’t want to give his last name, said the thefts first occurred around the holidays in December.

“That’s when we started seeing them,” he said. The majority of news boxes were taken from the Upper West Side, but there were also some taken from Lexington Avenue.

Joseph Lauletta, circulation director for Metro U.S., said in an email that so many of that paper’s boxes had been stolen that they were thinking of moving to plastic ones.

“We’re losing a couple a week now,” he wrote.

Brewer said she has also received complaints about metal trash cans being stolen from street corners, but the city Department of Sanitation said that it wasn’t aware that any litter baskets had been stolen from the Upper West Side. A spokesperson for the Parks Department said two trash cans disappeared from Riverside Park in the last year, but he wasn’t able to say whether they had been stolen or moved to a different area.

Scrap metal is a hot property right now. Prices for metals have risen dramatically since 2008, according to the Institute of Scrap Metal Industries. Multiple calls to the 20th Precinct to discuss scrap metal theft weren’t returned in time for print.

“Most publicized scrap thefts are copper, but anything can be scrapped,” said Gary Bush, director of materials theft prevention for the organization. Bush, a former Florida law enforcement officer, has over 30 years’ experience in scrap metal theft.

Laws vary from state to state regarding the sale of scrap metal. In New York, scrap metal processors are required to photocopy a person’s license if they bring in over $50 worth of material, while New Jersey requires that scrap metal businesses keep records of all specific purchases and the identity of those they bought from.

Bush said that owners of high-value metals such as copper should be particularly diligent in making sure that the metal is protected.

“Thieves will go after the quick, fast and easy-to-sell materials,” he said.

By Sean Creamer

Although garbage collection is a dirty job, the old saying goes that someone has to do it. On that note, garbage must also go somewhere. That “somewhere” may soon be the old Marine Transfer Station (MTS) at East 91st Street and York Avenue, though a Hail Mary pass from Rep. Carolyn Maloney and the efforts of some tenacious residents might derail the plan before it gets started.  

Last week, the city announced that it was hosting a bid to construct and reopen the MTS, despite the fact that the Army Corp of Engineers is still considering a permit request and mitigation plan by the New York City Department of Sanitation over building the proposed station.

The Army Corp of Engineers has to approve changes to navigable waterways, a process that is notoriously slow. In the application for the project, Maloney claimed the city provided outdated information, including environmental samples that didn’t show the presence of fish in the area, only larvae.

“Local fishermen and the State Department of Environmental Conservation both say that the area around the proposed MTS is teeming with fish—including Atlantic striped bass—and is one of the best fishing spots around,” Maloney said.
She asked the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to look into reports that the area around the MTS is a striped bass habitat. While the NMFS doesn’t take an up or down vote on Army Corp issues, it does advise them.

“Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, they are required to study the impact of the MTS on the essential fish habitats in the East River in consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service,” Maloney said.

The striped bass is protected under federal law. The East River was traditionally a home to the fish, but decades of pollution caused them to disappear. As the river has been cleaned up over the last 30 years, an increasing amount of marine life has returned to the Upper East Side.

The city has yet to provide the updated information to the Army Corp of Engineers. Until it does, several local representatives think it’s too soon for them to be calling for proposals to build the MTS. The city’s new proposal calls for a greatly expanded footprint on the structure that is already there, which would expand over the East River.

In response to the city’s announcement of the proposal for the MTS, Maloney and several Upper East Side representatives, including State Sen. Liz Krueger and Assembly Member Micah Kellner, came together to spell out why the station would have a negative impact on the community and East River.

“The city needs a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to build over the East River. They don’t have it. And, in our view, they shouldn’t get it. It is clear that this project is an environmental disaster and that it will exert a negative impact on essential fish habitats in the East River,” Maloney said at the event.

“Our community has been clear in our opposition to the construction of this facility, but now residents of the East Side have reason to be doubly outraged,” said Krueger. “In soliciting bids before completing a host of other necessary steps, the city government has attempted to jump the gun and short-circuit its responsibility to safeguard the East River environment and our communities.”

Another reason Maloney said the MTS shouldn’t be built in the neighborhood is that it is in the middle of what the city has designated as a “Hurricane Evacuation Zone A,” which is under the greatest risk of flooding from a storm surge.
“In the case of a flood, the MTS would flood not only into the East River but into the community as well,” she said.
The original station that stands on the location was built in the 1960s and was closed in the early 1990s. When it was built, it was situated next to a factory that produced asphalt and the water in the East River was not as clean as it is today.

Since then, the neighborhood surrounding the proposed site has flourished. Long gone is the factory that gave Asphalt Green Park its name. Located nearby now are two schools, two public housing developments and a senior center that have popped up in the neighborhood.

The city has claimed in the past that the plan to reopen the MTS is part of an effort to redress the disproportionate number of garbage transfer stations in low-income communities.

According to a study done by the Macaulay Honors Society at CUNY on the MTS, these facilities have been located in low-income areas, such as Williamsburg or the South Bronx, to which trucks drive trash from Manhattan. Over half of the existing stations are in Brooklyn, where the median income for households is $40,000. Household incomes near the MTS in the South Bronx are even lower; $21,000 is the average.

The mayor’s office and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office didn’t return calls or messages seeking comment.
Peter Sapienza, a lieutenant in the Fire Department and 25-year resident of the community, feels that due to higher than normal air pollution on the Upper East Side, the city should rethink its proposal.

“New York City has the highest rates of asthma due to the No. 6 fuel oil that most buildings’ boilers use,” he said. The Upper East Side has the highest number of buildings using No. 6 oil in the city and that, on top of the new station, he said will create an even more polluted environment for neighborhood residents.

On an unusually warm winter day, Suzanne Antonelli, a grandmother, sat with her grandkids at Asphalt Green Park. She voiced her concern over how traffic to the waste station would make an already dangerous intersection even worse. “It is just going to congest it so much more,” she said. “I just don’t know where Bloomberg’s head is with this whole thing.”

2nd Ave. Air Quality Study Says “No Problem”
MTA Capital Construction released the results of an air quality study last week that monitored the effects of construction activity between East 69th and East 87th streets along Second Avenue. The study and resulting report, by the consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, found that while some pollutants were found at slightly elevated levels, the increases were due more to vehicle traffic and dirty boilers in the neighborhood than the subway construction.

The study was completed by collecting samples over a four-week period in the fall of 2011, and samples were taken at various times to test for levels or particulate matter of different sizes. Specialists also interviewed residents about odor levels and recorded what they reported to compare with blast times.

The study found that the levels of particulate matter equal to or smaller than 10 microns (PM10) were “below the reference level used as the benchmark to indicate no adverse PM10 health effects during the monitoring period.” While daily levels of PM2.5 (particles equal to or smaller than 2.5 microns) were found at higher than reference levels on three different days, the study concluded that these spikes were “primarily attributed to local traffic emissions, other local sources such as commercial and residential boilers and regional or background levels, with no significant contribution from blasting activities.”

The analysts also determined that the acrid odors some residents have complained about did not emanate from the blasting sites.

Garodnick Makes Bank
Upper East Side City Council Member Dan Garodnick is sitting on a campaign war chest of over $1 million, according to his most recent campaign filings, which show him raising $1,015,455 between 2010 and the most recent Jan. 17 filing. The three-term council member, who was elected in 2005 and has held the seat for the 4th District since, is running for an as-yet-declared citywide office in 2013. He has pulled in $282,895 in the past six months, $274,895 of which came from individuals and partnerships and $8,000 from “other monetary” sources like PACs and government groups. Garodnick’s campaign, which is widely rumored to be aiming for the comptroller’s race if current Comptroller John Liu runs for mayor, spent $33,930 during the filing period, mostly on consulting and fundraising.

Brooklyn Council Member Domenic Recchia, chairman of the Finance Committee, is another likely contender for the comptroller’s seat and reported a $541,559 closing balance in his campaign filings last week.

Fight Back Against Heart Disease
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America, and Lenox Hill Hospital, in conjunction with the American Heart Association, has created an event to help curb those numbers. Go Red for Women will be held at the hospital’s Einhorn Auditorium at 103 E. 76th St. on Friday, Feb. 3 from 10:30 a.m.–2 p.m. The hospital will offer blood pressure and cholesterol screening, nutrition and pharmacological counseling and peripheral vascular disease assessment by a leading cardiologist, all free of charge.

New Bridge to the East
For over 70 years, the 78th Street pedestrian bridge has been allowing residents to safely cross the FDR for a scenic excursion on the East River Esplanade. Last Friday, after a major overhaul by the Department of Transportation, the newly renovated bridge reopened to foot traffic.

Council Member Jessica Lappin, Assembly Member Micah Kellner, Manhattan Borough Parks Commissioner Bill Castro and members of the 79th Street Neighborhood Association joined Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan at the reconstructed bridge for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“With the reconstruction of the 78th Street pedestrian bridge, New Yorkers can better connect to the East River

Esplanade to get exercise and enjoy its wonderful views of the river and Roosevelt Island,” said Commissioner of Parks & Recreation Adrian Benepe.

In July of 2011, the bridge was taken down and a prefabricated metal bridge was constructed in place of its concrete predecessor. The new bridge has been outfitted with improved safety guard rails, wider sidewalks, structurally sound construction and ADA-compliant ramps for added safety and improved access.

The project was funded by the Parks Department and cost $11.9 million to complete.

Healthy Food Drive
The NorthEast Community Bank’s Upper East Side branches at 1751 2nd Ave., at 91st St., and 1470 1st Ave., between 76th and 77th streets, will host themed charity drives each month of the year starting in February. The first drive will focus on obtaining the healthy foods that are often in short supply to those with limited incomes.

The bank recommends that donations should fall into the category of nutritious foods such as whole-grain items—dry rice, oatmeal, packaged beans, cereal bars and other similar items. The proceeds will be donated to the Yorkville Common Pantry on East 109th Street. For business hours and more information, visit necommunitybank.com.

Ocean Exploration
The Explorer’s Club will host a public lecture with the crew of Tara Oceans, a 118-foot schooner that travels the globe diagnosing the health of the oceans. The French-owned ship, which will be docking in the East River Feb. 5-11, has spent the last several years collecting and categorizing plankton, which is responsible for half the planet’s oxygen, in order to study the relationship between climate change and the oceans.

Tara Ocean’s chief scientist, Eric Karsenti, and Romain Troublé, French sailor and chairman of Tara Foundation for Marine Research USA, will speak at the event. Explorers Club member Mara G. Haseltine, an artist and environmentalist, will unveil “La Boheme: A Portrait of Today’s Ocean’s in Peril,” her latest sculpture based on her discoveries on board Tara Oceans. The lecture will be held Monday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. at 46 E. 70th St. Tickets are $20, $5 for students with ID, and seating is limited. Advance reservations are required and can be made by calling 212-628-8383.

By Sean Creamer

The New York College of Health Professions, which is chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, has been offering education in the fields of Western, holistic and integrative medicine for 30 years. After great success in their Long Island location in Syosset and two locations in New York City, the college will now collaborate with the world-famous Open Center to hold continuing education classes for even more students, starting Feb. 3.

For many years, the college only offered classes at its Syosset location but, according to Barbara Carver, vice president of marketing and communications for the College, the program began to attract students from Massachusetts and Connecticut, which prompted them to begin expanding into New York City.

“One of the fastest-growing occupations for nurses is holistic care, which would be utilized in assisted living conditions,” Carver said.

The partnership between these two educators is a momentous occasion for both institutions because it exemplifies the growing acceptance of holistic practices in the Western spectrum of medicine.

“We are going to be working jointly with Open Center staff,” Carver said.

Both organization have been working in the field for over 25 years, each teaching in differing styles.

The New York College of Health Professions welcomes both new and continuing education students and offers classes to members of the public who wish to enhance their knowledge of Eastern medicine. One of the most popular classes offered by the College is “The Science of Self-Improvement,” where students learn how to assess their strengths and weaknesses versus their personal goals. This type of learning characterizes the outside-the-box style of education that the College offers.

The College was the first to give degrees in acupuncture and massage therapy, according to Carver. As holistic medicine begins to take hold in Western practices, the College has gained “a worldwide reputation for being at the top of the field,” She said.

The College offers many of its programs to the public, such as massage therapy, healing arts and energy work and physical arts. These classes are all included in the curriculum of the continuing education major and serve to expand upon the culture behind the medicine, a facet of holistic care that is crucial to implementing it in a field dominated by Western medicine ideals.

Although the College offers many of its programs to the public, the focus of the curriculum can be found in its continuing education program, where registered nurses, doctors, physical therapists and chiropractors take classes in the aforementioned fields to be certified as holistic caregivers.

While the College has been accredited to award degrees in the field of holistic care in traditional college-style classes, The Open Center explores much more the spirituality of holistic care while still teaching the techniques of the trade.

The Open Center has been teaching the practices for over 28 years, bringing “over 500 programs of exceptional depth and integrity to audiences totaling more than 10,000 annually,” according to The Open Center’s website. Akin to the New York College of Health Professions, The Open Center offers classes in the many fields of holistic care, ranging from the physical to the spiritual side.

The Open Center focuses not only on teaching the practice of holistic medicine but on living it. This is a notion that the College shares as well, requiring that continuing education students take one class in yoga, tai-chi or reiki because “physical arts play an essential and vital role in the education of our holistic health practitioners [as they] grasp an understanding of the culture behind the medicine,” according to the College’s course description.

Now that these two programs have united, students will be able to take advantage of the best of both worlds, working toward accredited degrees from the New York College of Health Professions while taking advantage of the many spiritual classes offered by The Open Center.