By Sophia Rosenbaum

New Yorkers’ knowledge of how their heating systems work is minimal, and the lack of information often leads to a blame game – tenants blame landords, landlords blame tenants and building managers blame both. But what is really at fault is the combination of antiquated heating systems, the desire for quick and cheap fixes and, of course, city regulations.

“We continue to overheat our buildings for that one selfish tenant that likes to have their windows open or have an air conditioner during the winter,” said Peter Marciano, a building manager in Manhattan.

Marciano said tenants are disconnected from their heat because they don’t pay the bills. It they did, he said they wouldn’t keep their windows open or leave air conditioners in all winter long.

Cue Henry Gifford, who can fix a leaky roof, a malfunctioning heat system or a broken boiler. He’s been working as a handyman since 1982, and he’s got the blackened, wrinkly hands to prove it.

Gifford said understanding a building’s heating system provides insight as to why apartments get so hot and how to fix the problem.

New York buildings use one of three heating systems, each with drawbacks.

When a boiler heats water into steam that moves through the pipes in an apartment, it is producing steam heat. It does not require electricity because heat rises naturally.

“Overall, steam heat is a disaster,” Marciano said. “It is either on or it’s off and the building is either overheated or freezing or both.”

Hot-air heat blows air through tubes called ducts. “People like it because it’s invisible,” Gifford said, “but it’s not practical to control temperatures individually to each room.”

Hot-water heat uses a boiler that heats water just below the boiling point. The water loops from the pipes to the radiators and back to the boiler. Prewar buildings require enormous pipes that are difficult to control. Modern systems used in postwar buildings use much smaller pipes.

Hot-water heating systems provide the most control because they can be adjusted to outdoor temperatures, Gifford said. It’s also easy to add a thermostat in apartments for better temperature control.

Without thermostats in every apartment, controlling the temperature in a building is tricky. Factors like a building’s age, height and heating system all contribute to the system’s efficiency.

Between October 1 and May 31, The City Housing Maintenance Code requires building owners to heat apartments to 68 degrees Fahrenheit from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.—if the temperature outside is below 55 degrees. From 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., buildings must be heated to 55 degrees—if it is below 40 degrees outside.

Marciano, who manages about 20 properties downtown, said heating complaints always start the same. A tenant will call and say “I’ve had no heat all winter.” If that was true, Marciano said he’d have over 200 phone calls from all his tenants.

“The tenant is either lying, they want it warmer or there’s something wrong with that unit,” he said.

Both Marciano and Gifford think the key to efficient heat is keeping the apartment airtight. Like every professional, they have a plan when they get that kind of call.

“I look to see if people are wearing shorts and a T-shirt when they answer the door,” Gifford said. “I stand across the street and see how many open windows they have in the winter.”

Overheating can occur for many reasons besides open windows and air conditioners. Bad boiler installations cause uneven heat distribution and covering an ugly radiator with a bookcase can impede a heating unit. Valves on radiators offer tenants some heat control, but they are often broken or painted shut.

Many times, the outdoor sensor that controls the heating system is in the sun.

“Those sensors get sun from about 7 until 8 every morning, which turns the heating system off just when people are getting out of the shower in the morning,” Gifford said. “Then, they complain, the super turns the heat up and the building is overheated the other 23 hours of the day.”

By Sophia Rosenbaum

Coheed and Cambria’s song “Welcome Home” takes on new meaning this Saturday when the band performs for the first time at Radio City Music Hall.

Coheed and Cambria. Photo by Lindsey Byrnes

“New York has always been the hometown show,” said lead Singer Claudio Sanchez. Sanchez and guitarist Travis Stever grew up just up the river in Nyack, N.Y.  The two other band members — drummer Josh Eppard and bassist Zach Cooper – are originally from further upstate.

Coheed and Cambria’s spent more than a decade creating an intricate science fiction storyline told through seven studio albums – one of which got them to #5 on the Billboard 200 charts.

Saturday’s performance is at the tail end of their North American tour to promote their double album “The Afterman.”

The band continues to create musically complex songs that push the boundaries of progressive rock ranging from the contemporary feel of “Evagria the Faithful” to the snappy pop rhythms of “Number City.”

Sanchez and Cooper had a moment in between performances to talk with reporter Sophia Rosenbaum about life on tour, Saturday’s show and their first double album.

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SR: All of you are from the New York area. What’s special about playing in New York City?

ZC: New York will be a special show because all of our families will be there. I’ll go out to dinner with my wife, hang out with friends who will be in town. Those kinds of shows are a lot different than the every day touring shows.

SR: Radio City’s got a lot of history. How does it feel to get to perform there?

CS: I’ve definitely gone to the Christmas Spectacular. To get to perform on that stage is a real thrill and a big win for Coheed.

ZC: For headlining, this is the biggest crowd I’ve ever played. It’s such a cool venue. It’s really exciting for me to be playing there.

SR: Radio City is a seated venue and Coheed is very much a band that feeds off of the crowd’s energy. How do you think this will impact your performance?

ZC: We’ve played a couple of fully seated venues and you couldn’t even tell because the crowd had so much energy. But sometimes, in the seated venues, people feel constrained or it’s a little more tame. Hopefully, the crowd is just as excited as we are. It should be a high-energy, really fun time.

SR: Is there something you do every time you come to NYC?

CS: I’ll visit Midtown Comics or I’ll go down to the East Side and visit Tokyo Seven.

ZC: When I’m in New York, I like to walk.  That’s the one thing I like to look forward to.  No agenda, just walk. For a while, my wife and I were living in the Village and I’d find myself walking all the way uptown to Central Park and just going. It’s very inspiring – all the people and all the things you can see.

SR: As a progressive rock band, you’re always experimenting with your sound. Have you noticed if it’s had an influence on your fan base?

CS: For some reason, people find these two albums a bit more accessible. There’s something in it for everyone. It covers a lot of ground musically.

SR: What is your favorite track off the second part of the double album, “The Afterman: Descension”?

CS: It would have to be a tie between Number City and Gravity’s Union.

ZC: It’s a toss up between two songs. I’m really having a strange attachment to “2’s My Favorite 1” mainly because it’s the first song I recorded with them and it’s the song I auditioned on. “Number City” because it’s quirky and funky and weird. It’s a melting pot of all these musical styles. I love the horns section.

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Coheed and Cambria takes the “Great Stage” Saturday at 7 p.m. with Between the Buried Me and Russian Circles. Four days later, they head to Toronto to kick off their international tour.

Tricia Donegan coaxes inspired poses and generosity out of her local yoga enthusiasts

By Sophia Rosenbaum

Yoga studios in New York are as common as pizza joints, but there’s a reason Lady Gaga chose Tricia Donegan to be her yoga instructor.

Donegan, 42, is a burst of energy with a toned physique adorned with tattoos and a mess of curly, multi-colored hair. She’s the owner of Bikram Yoga Lower East Side—a walk-up studio with cases of water bottles lining the stairwell, pops of pink paint from the floor to the ceiling and people dripping in sweat from the 107-degree yoga room.

With a team of 15 other instructors, Bikram Yoga LES offers six classes a day, seven days a week. Monty Stilson, 54, has been taking classes at Bikram Yoga LES for more than a year and said the only negative part is all the laundry.

“Tricia truly has a gift to deliver the perfect balance of wit and wisdom, all the while coaxing the body into never-realized positions and undreamed feats of strength,” Stilson said.

Donegan’s yoga business is just one of her many ventures. She is also a Lower East Side community activist and a mother of a 5-year-old daughter, Lula.

“I’m here to change the world,” she said. “I build communities wherever I go.”

Donegan was born in Michigan and moved to New York City in 2001. Prior to her career as a yoga instructor, she worked as a restaurant owner in Atlanta. Although she loved the restaurant business and being a community activist in Atlanta, she feels much more at home in her yoga space at 172 Allen St.

“Everyone who comes to the yoga studio is trying to empower themselves or better themselves in some way,” she said. “This is a true well-being destination for people, so it becomes this safe haven for people to come and let go of themselves.”

For more than a decade, Donegan has been teaching Bikram yoga, or hot yoga, which is a series of 26 postures and two breathing exercises in high-heat, high-humidity rooms. While Bikram originated in the early 1970s, it has became popular in the United States in the past decade.
Donegan said the heat forces students to focus on their bodies and push themselves more than a regular exercise class.

“It’s sort of like spaghetti,” she said. “If you try to bend cold spaghetti, it breaks. But when you put it in the water, you can do whatever you want with it.”

Tamara Pollack, Donegan’s life partner, said part of what makes Donegan talented are her interpersonal skills and her deep understanding of yoga.

“She won’t tell you to blindly push into a locked knee, she won’t just coach you into a deeper backbend,” she said. “Instead she will empower you in your weakness and lead you toward your strengths. She wants to see you try, and once you enter her hot room, that’s all you want to do.”
Four years ago, Donegan created a class that combined her love of yoga with her passion for community engagement. Nite Sweats is a donation-based class that’s offered the first Friday of every month.

The proceeds go to the Lower East Side Girls Club, which counts Donegan among its board members. The Club serves girls and young women from ages 8 to 23, teaching them the importance of education, healthy eating and equality.

“We’re not just babysitting girls from the projects,” Donegan said. “We’re giving them power.”
Donegan said Nite Sweats rakes in about $1,000 a month for the Girls Club.

“Tricia Donegan’s luminous and infectious presence enriches our community in boundless ways,” said Lyn Pentecost, the visionary behind the Girls Club. “She lives, works and runs her unique business on the Lower East Side and sends her daughter to school on the Lower East Side. One can’t get more ‘community’ than that.”

And while Donegan rarely leaves the neighborhood, she frequently goes on tour with Lady Gaga as her fitness instructor. She said she’s proud of her accomplishments in life thus far, but attributes most of her success to yoga.

“I have so many ideas, I have so much energy and it wasn’t until I slowed my head down with yoga that I realized why I am here,” she said. “Once you get real precise, then your dreams come and chase you.”

Despite a setback from Hurricane Sandy, the historic shelter looks ahead to a new facility and a robust Thanksgiving

By Sophia Rosenbaum

The New York City Rescue Mission has a lot to be thankful for post-Sandy.

“It’s a little bit of a hardship to be blocks away from the worst of it,” said Joe Little, the mission’s director of community relations. “But, we were able to sustain some continuity for four or five days while being in the middle of mild-mannered chaos.”

While the mission lost power for four days, they continued to feed hundreds of people, including what Little calls the “perennial homeless” and the “temporarily homeless.”

The mission, which is tucked behind a construction project just south of Canal Street, helps those who have slipped between society’s cracks to find refuge, offer a meal on their plate and a bed to sleep in at night—24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“It’s a sanctuary of hope,” said Martin Bowman, a reformed cocaine addict who now greets anyone who walks through the doors with a smile as the mission’s front desk supervisor. “It challenges your worldview and hopefully starts people on a path to transformation.”

Bowman, who has been affiliated with the mission for 12 years, is just one of their many success stories.

Lost in a sea of scaffolding, the mission is getting a top-to-bottom makeover. With long sheets of plastic serving as makeshift doors and the resonating sound of drills and hammers, Bowman said he’s eagerly awaiting the new six-story building, which is still on track to be complete in early 2014 despite the setback from Sandy.

Many New Yorkers in dire straits can’t welcome the new construction soon enough. Statistics from the 2011 Census Bureau detail a rising poverty rate in New York City, which is currently at 20.9 percent, up nearly one percentage point from last year. In raw numbers, that means close to 1.7 million people fall below the poverty level of $22,811 for a family of four in New York City. Rising poverty paired with our current national economic crisis translates to more people out of work, out of money and out of a place to live.

For the mission, this means more people to help. Packaged as a soup kitchen, a pantry and a shelter, the mission offers a variety of 24/7 services, from three meals a day to overnight lodging to counseling, and men-only 12-step programs for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.

Harry Benjamin, 58, has been coming to the food pantry for years because he and his wife do not bring in enough money to support his two children.

“I come here to eat,” Bejamin said, ”so that I can have enough food before my next check comes.”
Bowman said all the security guards who work with Benjamin come to the mission for pantry packages to sustain their families.

From 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., people arrive in spurts to claim two plastic bags stuffed with staples like rice, pasta, canned fruits and canned vegetables. Some unexpected treats like cookies and chocolate toffee also make their way into the bags through donations from Starbucks and other local bakeries.

From July to September, over 900 people volunteered at the mission to help serve the 500 people they help a day, according to David Knoche, the mission’s volunteer manager and administrative assistant. From spaghetti and meatballs to a full Thanksgiving meal, Knoche said numbers are up for those using soup-kitchen services for their daily meals since the 2008 recession.

“It takes a village to make things happen,” he said.

While he may not look it in his professional attire of a purple button-up shirt and black slacks, Knoche is a recovered alcoholic and dope addict. He has been clean for over 30 years and attributes much of his success to God.

The mission focuses on religious and spiritual guidance to help people escape drugs and homelessness. James Rowntree, 53, has been in the 12-step program for seven months, and is homeless, but not an addict.

“I’ve got no family, no money, no place to live,” he said in a British accent. “I believe that God wants me to be here.”

People at the mission like Rowntree break the mold of what most people think of when they hear the word “homeless.”

The same is true for Bowman. Although he was raised by a “solidly middle-class family,” his egocentric tendencies eventually tied him in the drug scene.

“My real addictions were power,” he said. “I had no intention of helping the homeless at all,” he added with a laugh.

But, after the tables were turned and Bowman experienced first-hand what it was like to be homeless, he dedicated his life to helping those in need.

“The real struggles in life are universal,” he said. “If you’re a homeless addict, we provide help. If you’re a businessman, we provide help. This place does so much more than just provide people with a meal.”

Little said that despite minor setbacks from Sandy, they are still gearing up for their 14th annual Great Thanksgiving Banquet, where he expects at least 1,200 people—up 200 people from 2011.
“We have a bigger space this year for the celebration,” he said. “So we think it will be bigger this year. Also, I think no matter what your socioeconomic status is, people are very aware of the plight of the homeless right now because of Sandy.”

By Sophia Rosenbaum

Chocolatier Jacques Torres’ business is booming at his Brooklyn shop—but melting on Hudson Street.

Torres attributes the success of his Dumbo outlet to the area’s rezoning, which sparked a residential boom. He’s hoping the same will happen in Hudson Square, an area in west Soho, where a rezoning plan that would change the area from largely a manufacturing district to a mixed-use district is the subject of dispute.

“If you want a neighborhood, you have to bring character to the neighborhood,” Torres said. “A small bar. Someone who can make bread. People selling books, a small grocery store. All of those things make a neighborhood.”

Torres and other Hudson Square business owners got a glimmer of hope for their rezoning plea Oct. 18, when Community Board 2 nixed the proposal but set the stage for a compromise. The board wants building heights set out in the zoning plan lowered, more open space put aside and part of the adjacent South Village to be landmarked.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” board chair David Gruber said about the preservation of the South Village. “We have to save it from getting knocked down, because if it lags too much behind, we’ll lose a lot of buildings.”

Trinity Real Estate, which owns 40 percent of the property in Hudson Square, has been working for a decade on promoting the rezoning project, which would affect a 34-block swath bounded by the West Side Highway, Morton and Barrow streets, Sixth Avenue and Hudson Street, and Canal Street.

About 4 percent of the area is currently designated as residential, which translates to a few hundred people, according to Lloyd Kaplan, whose law firm represents Trinity. Kaplan said the proposed rezoning could bring 6,000 new residents.

“It’s a significant gain, but hardly an overwhelming one,” Kaplan said. “It seems like the right kind of balance that would produce around-the-clock 24/7 activity that supports retail developments that are so important to the future of any area.”

Andrew Berman, the executive director for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said he was “pleased with the language” in the board’s recommendation.

“It seems as though the community board recognizes that this is absolutely essential,” Berman said. “Rezoning will only accelerate the destruction of the South Village.”

The zoning proposal calls for building-height limits of 320 feet on avenues and 185 feet on narrower side streets. The board wants to limit building height on avenues to 250 feet for buildings with affordable housing and 210 feet for those without. On side streets, the board wants a maximum of 185 feet with affordable housing and 165 feet without.

Berman believes the board’s height limits are still too high, saying the numbers encourage out of character high-rise buildings.

“Hudson Square is more densely built up than Soho and the Village, but it’s not Midtown,” Berman said. “They come too close to allowing the mistakes that have already happened, like the Trump Soho building.”

But local merchants see rezoning as much-needed progress.

“It’s just the evolution of the city, and it happens all the time,” said Peter Howlett, director of design at the upscale furniture showroom George Smith, which has a branch on Hudson Street.

Nicholas Balint, manager of the Hudson Square Pharmacy, believes it’s inevitable that bigger chain stores will inhabit the area without zoning changes.

“You’re going to get a Jamba Juice and a J. Crew next to 200-year-old buildings,” Balint said.

Balint and Torres, who both referred to Hudson Square as a “ghost town” at nights and on weekends, are hopeful the rezoning will bring new life to their businesses.

“How can this neighborhood live like this?” Torres asked. “We need people to come to this neighborhood to make it alive.”

The Village Halloween Parade, a 39-year tradition, is just another check on the list of Hurricane Sandy’s victims, which includes the destruction of much of Atlantic City, Long Island, Downtown Manhattan and the New York City mass transit system.

“For the first time in our 39 year history, the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management and the NYPD have CANCELLED the Parade,” read the official website of the Village Halloween Parade, which was scheduled for Halloween night.

Serra Hirsch started piecing together her costume Sunday evening, moving the tree and the bear around to see where she wanted them. Photo by Sophia Rosenbaum

Instead of intricate costumes and mobs of people taking over 6th Avenue in the Village, clean-up crews will be working to remove fallen trees and bring power back to the millions in the dark since Monday’s super storm.

Destruction around the metropolitan area evoked images of doomsday. A spooky coincidence, perhaps, but this year’s Halloween parade featured an end-of-the-world theme: “Tick! Tock!,” a poke at the Mayan calendar’s prediction of the end of the world in 2012.

Jeanne Fleming, the producing director of the parade, sent an email Tuesday evening to participants and media alerting them to the cancelation of the parade after Mayor Michael Bloomberg made it official on Tuesday afternoon.

Fleming is working diligently to reschedule the parade, but said it is only possible if the organization’s small budget allows for it.

“It seems at the moment as if we cannot afford to do it a week later,” she said.

Meanwhile, Serra Hirsch, a puppeteer who has been active in the parade since 1994, remained hopeful Tuesday evening that the parade will be rescheduled sometime next week.

Hirsch said the cancellation was a “huge bummer” for her, but said mass transit is crucial to the return of pre-Hurricane Sandy New York City.

“We can’t return to normal until the subway returns,” she said. “The city is crippled with no subway, and the police, sanitation, and other services aren’t really available to make the parade run smoothly and safely.”

Hirsch said she understands the decision to cancel the parade, as safety is an issue to begin with because people’s costumes cause obstructed views, and drunk audience members sometimes become aggressive.

“I don’t think they had a choice,” she said. “The light’s are out still throughout the parade route. It’s just not safe.”

Jennifer Weidenbaum, 34, has gone to the parade with Hirsch for five years and started working on her ski-costume in August. She attempted to get into the city Tuesday from her home in Jersey City, but said too many roads were closed. On her drive home, she was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

“I was actually happy when I was listening to the radio in the car when they said the parade was cancelled,” Weidenbaum said. “I don’t want any of the city’s resources to be directed towards a parade when there’s so many other important things going on.”

Sunday afternoon, Hirsch was busy at work on her elaborate campfire costume scene of two girl scouts at a campfire roasting marshmallows with a bear lurking behind them. Hirsch’s plan was to act as the head of one of the girls and said she planned on pretending she had no idea there was a bear behind her.

While Hirsch is working on her costume at a much more relaxed pace now, she is still set to appear on Kelly and Michael’s live Halloween show, which was moved to November 5 due to the storm. If she wins the costume contest, she could win a $10,000 gift card to Home Goods.

Weidenbaum is still planning on celebrating Halloween this evening in her Jersey City neighborhood. Her costume of an Olympic skier racing down a mountain to the finish line is almost complete, and she plans to use it for next year’s Halloweenparade in the West Village.

“I’ll have a leg up next year,” she said. “I’ll put it in storage.”