August 13, 2015 - WestchesterGuardian.com

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PRESORTED
STANDARD
PERMIT #3036
WHITE PLAINS NY
Vol. X, No. XXXIII
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
Thursday August 13, 2015 • $1.00
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Building Resiliency Into The Power Grid With Microgrids
Page 3
Front Cover illustration courtesy of Siemens
NYS Appellate Court Ruled Burying
Exculpatory Evidence in Late Document
Dump Is A Brady Violation Editorial, Page 4
WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM
Page 2
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, AUGUST 13, 2015
COMMUNITY
When Opportunities For Public Comment Are Not Available Prior To Important
Planning and Zoning Board Decisions The Public Interest Suffers
The New Rochelle
City Council continues to refer numerous
agenda items to the
Planning Board and
amazingly, no public
comment is allowed at the Planning
Board meetings on these referrals.
What is even more amazing is how
many of these referrals are acted upon
with no comments or questions from
Planning Board members.
A notable item appeared on the
Planning Board’s July 28, 2015 agenda,
a City Council referral regarding a
petition by 43 Church Street LLC to
apply the downtown density bonus
floating overlay zoning for an 8-story,
80 room hotel. This 8-story building
would be five stories higher than the
3 stories currently allowed. The site is
next to the Church-Division garage
that until recently had been used by
local residents living in nearby apartments that have no parking facilities.
Recently, many of these residents were
told that their present parking permit in
this garage has been changed to another
municipal parking lot because the City
Council had rented the upper level
to an auto dealer for vehicle storage.
Because this lot will likely be used for
people staying next door in the hotel
that has no planned parking on site,
chances are angry residents will appear
at the public hearing on August 18 at
City Hall when this hotel application
for rezoning is presented. Meanwhile
the Planning Board had no questions
of the architect who explained that the
hotel would be operated by a division
of Best Western Hotels The Architect
completed his presentation with additional details. A warehouse currently
sits on this site. The referral from the
City Council was approved.
Other
referrals
followed.
Permission was requested to construct
a 71 unit apartment building at 165
Huguenot Street, currently occupied
by a two story building and only 17
on-site parking spaces are planned; a
Maple Avenue rezoning, carry-out restaurants and the historic land-marking
of 157 Davenport were quickly mentioned and given a favorable nod by the
Planning Board
Why do Planning Board members
feel comfortable giving their approval,
often with no questions, and before
public hearings are held? Why do
they feel that a public hearing will not
bring up any facts or conditions they
are not even aware of? What makes
this practice even more disturbing is
that the city council will often approve
these referrals with no comments, and
sometimes even no reading of the item
on the agenda.
After reviewing what was said at
this meeting, can anyone explain why
these items had to be referred to the
Planning Board? Weren’t these facts
available to the City Council before
this meeting? What was the purpose
of the referral?
What makes this so difficult to
understand is why this is an established pattern of City Council. Have
our present City Council members
observed the Planning Board
meetings? Are they aware that this
is the way they typically approve the
referrals they send them? The citizens
of New Rochelle deserve answers to
these questions.
Are Planning Board members, all
of whom are appointed by the Mayor,
truly representing the best interests
of the residents? But can the Zoning
Board of Appeals, whose members are
appointed by the City Manager, be
viewed in a similar way?
On July 7, 2015, the Zoning Board
of Appeals had to vote on whether to
allow a convenience store food mart to
open on the site of a gas station. The
gas station that previously occupied
this site for many years was well known
as a repair shop. Because it was a repair
shop, cars were parked for extended
periods of time and there was very
limited traffic out to the street. But for
this proposed convenience store, there
are only two parking spaces available
for patrons who would stop to buy
something.
The Board of Appeals on Zoning
agenda stated that the change from the
existing auto repair shop to this convenience store “may be permitted based
up the findings that the proposed “use
is more consistent with the character
of the surrounding neighborhood and
would have “less adverse impact” than
this proposed change in zoning. This
change, according to “findings,” would
be “more consistent” with the neighborhood zoning. The site is located
across the street from a housing project
and an apartment building. There also
was need for a dumpster that could not
meet the required minimum setback
from the street.
No citizen input was allowed
until this recommendation was sent
to the zoning board. To his credit,
Councilman Ivar Hyden attended this
meeting and spoke about the zoning
problems presented. Allowing this to
Continued on page 3
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Table of Contents
Community...............................................2
Cover Story...............................................3
Editorial.....................................................4
Legislation.................................................4
Government..............................................5
Creative Disruption...................................7
Travel.........................................................8
Eye on Theatre.........................................10
Local Lore...............................................11
Mary at the Movies.................................13
Calendar..................................................14
Legal Ads................................................14
Cultural Perspectives...............................15
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Page 3
GOVERNMENT
community
When Opportunities For Public Comment Are Not Available Prior To Important Planning and Zoning Board Decisions Public Interest Suffers
Continued from page 2
progress to the zoning board with
no previous citizen input was an
obvious way to avoid, as much as
possible, input or objections by the
residents. Worse yet, the new owner
of this property, when confronted
at the zoning board meeting,
finally admitted he knew the site
needed zoning changes before he
purchased it. So it appears the
Zoning Board of Appeals did not
go along with the change to a nonconforming use and area variance.
By a close vote they voted against
this variance.
City Council members need to
explain the procedures they follow
when development projects are
evaluated. The various boards that
serve the residents need to consider
the impact of their decisions on the
environment of the city.
• The Town of Valhalla: Con Edison,
Entecco, Eaton, Kheops, KeyBank,
TAG Mechanical, and New York
Power Authority.
• Town of Somers, NYSEG,
Sustainable Westchester, Pace
Energy and Climate Center, Booz
Allen Hamilton, Power Analytics,
and Siemens USA.
• The City of Yonkers, NRG Energy,
St. Joseph’s Medical Center, Griffin
House and Con Edison.
In most cases, the funds awarded
to local communities will be directed
toward microgrids that will “power
critical infrastructure: police departments, waste-water treatment plants, gas
stations, hospitals and such,” said Patrick
Wilkinson, head of Siemens Energy
Automation, in an email interview.“This
is also NYSERDA’s vision. Some of the
projects do involve residential buildings, but the level of penetrating to the
residential homes will be limited. We
might be able to aggregate some of the
loads within areas (feeder or substation),
but not to individual home/apartment
to control their TVs, dishwashers and
other appliances. Residents will still
experience the benefits of a microgrid
through better power resiliency, etc.”
When asked if the microgrids
would duplicate the functions of backup
generators that are currently used for
critical services during power outages,
Wilkinson responded “the feasibility studies, as currently structured, will
look at the communities from both
critical and non-critical loads but with
an emphasize on critical infrastructures. The backup generators often
times are meant to only run on a
duration measured by hours. If there is
an extended power outage (days), such
as during Hurricane Sandy and Irene,
critical facilities would be at risk without
power. A microgrid system could continuously provide the power to these
facilities so they can provide emergency services to the communities. The
microgrid system would take priority
to supply power to these critical loads
during a power outage first and then
to provide power to non-critical loads.
We do see projects that include residential housings as part of the proposed
microgrid system.”
Though Stage 1 studies in
Westchester are for the most part, targeting critical infrastructure, microgrid
research in Europe points the way to
potential future innovations for us at the
consumer / residential level.
Traditional power generation facilities not only supply power; they also
supply the system services that make
secure operation of the power grid
possible, in contrast to most forms of
renewable energy that just generate
power.
In Germany, where “the goal is to
COVER STORY
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
By Mary Keon
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Continued on page 6
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Fourteen Westchester County
Communities have been selected
as New York State Prize Winners
for Stage 1 Funding of $100,000/
community, “to conduct engineering assessments to evaluate the
feasibility of installing and operating
a community microgrid at a proposed
site in New York State,” according a
NYSERDA. The communities selected
are: Cortlandt, Valhalla, Croton-onHudson, Irvington, Mamaroneck, New
Rochelle, Mount Kisco, Sleepy Hollow,
Somers, Tarrytown, White Plains and
Yonkers.
The aftermath of Hurricane
Sandy, in 2012, left many communities in Westchester without power for
an extended length of time – up to
10 days in one northern community
during chilly Autumn weather and
extremely heavy snowfalls over the
past few winters have also resulted in
power interruption for many utility
customers. Some Stage 1 communities
were selected based upon severe power
outages related to bad weather and the
likelihood of future interruption due to
their locations on Long Island Sound or
the Hudson River; a few were selected
because they have no plan at all and
need to start somewhere (Tarrytown
and Sleepy Hollow).
According to NYSERDA, the
study partnerships are organized as
follows:
• City of New Rochelle, Con Edison,
Booz Allen Hamilton, Power
Analytics, Siemens USA, Pace
Energy and Climate Center, and
Sustainable Westchester
• Village of Tarrytown, Tarrytown
Municipal Housing Authority,
Public Schools of the Tarrytowns,
Wildey Group, New York Power
Authority, Con Edison, Brookhaven
National Laboratory, and Willdan
Energy Solutions
Village of Sleepy Hollow, Village of
Briarcliff Manor, North Tarrytown
Housing Authority, Public Schools
of the Tarrytowns, New York Power
Authority, Con Edison, Brookhaven
National Laboratory, and Willdan
Energy Solutions
Village of Mount Kisco, Booz Allen
Hamilton, Sustainable Westchester,
Pace Energy and Climate Center,
Power Analytics, Siemens USA, and
Con Edison
Village of Irvington: Hitachi, Green
Energy Corp, GI Energy, Sustainable
Westchester, and Pace Energy and
Climate Center
Town of Mamaroneck, Booz Allen
Hamilton, Sustainable Westchester,
Pace Energy and Climate Center,
Power Analytics, Siemens USA, and
Con Edison
Village of Croton-on Hudson,
Sustainable Westchester, Pace
Energy and Climate Center, Green
Energy Corp., Hitachi Consulting,
GI Energy, and Con Edison
Village of Mamaroneck, Murphy
Brothers Contracting (MBC), Con
Edison, Steven Winter Associates
Inc., IntelliGen, Delta, and Spirae
companies
The Village of Ossining: Sustainable
Westchester, Hitachi Consulting,
Green Energy Corp (GEC), GI
Energy, and Pace Energy and
Climate Center
The City of White Plains: Hitachi
Consulting, Green Energy Corp,
GI Energy, and Pace Energy and
Climate Center.
Town of Cortlandt, Con Edison,
Booz Allen Hamilton, Power
Analytics, Siemens USA, Pace
Energy and Climate Center, and
Sustainable Westchester
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Page 4
EDITORIAL
NYS Appellate Court Ruled Burying Exculpatory Evidence in Late Document Dump Is A Brady Violation
The bludgeoned body of 16 year-old
Jennifer Negron was discovered in East
New York on New Year’s Day 1992,
according the NYDailyNews.com
July 18, 2014 story update by Oren
Yaniv and Ginger Adams Otis. In
1993, Everton Wagstaffe and Reginald
Connor were convicted for her kidnapping, based upon the testimony of one
witness, a drug addled prostitute. No
physical evidence connected them to
her case and the judge dismissed murder
charges against them for lack of physical
evidence. The two spent years in prison
but always maintained their innocence.
The story reports further that on the
day before, Wednesday, September 17th,
2014, a New York State Appeals Court
ruled”“the police withheld evidence that
might have cleared them and then lied
about it. The court not only overturned
the convictions, they also dismissed the
original indictments.
The case is discussed in a September
25 2014 posting at prosecutorialaccountability.com. The police stated
that Wagstaffe and Connor were not
suspects until the witness tied them
to the case however, defense attorneys
were able to prove the police lied about
this and they were in fact looking at the
defendants before the witness miraculously appeared.
Connor served 15 years; as a condition of his parole he was forced to register
as a sex offender though no forensic
evidence tied him to the rape of Ms.
Negron. Wagstaffe served 23rd years of
his 25-year term before his conviction
was overturned, having refused previous
offers of parole that required him to
first admit guilt. It was Wagstaffe who
discovered a critical detail that caused
the police case to unravel: a discrepancy
in time stamps that demonstrated the
police had been looking at the two long
before the witness appeared, making it
plausible that the police fraudulently
gave the witness the information she
needed to implicate Wagstaffe and
Connor in the crime.
However, the court did not pursue
the police fraud in making their determination. Instead they ruled on the
defendant’s appeal that they had not
been given the relevant police records
that would have enabled them to refute
the police testimony: a Brady violation. Though the time-stamped records
were given to the defense, they were
not turned over until jury selection was
in progress. The critical document was
included among voluminous documents
in a last minute “document dump,” and
not specifically identified to “afford the
defense ‘an adequate opportunity to
develop a factual record for appellate
review.” (prosecutorialaccountabilityt.
com).
The Appeals Court held that “there
was a reasonable probability that, had
the prosecution identified these documents when delivering them to the
defendants,” [emphasis added] their use
“would have changed the outcome of
the defendants’ trial.” Buried impeachment evidence caused Connor to spend
15 years in jail and Wagstaffe, 23 years,
though they were innocent of the crimes
alleged. This case is one of 100 cases
selected for review by the Conviction
Integrity Unit in the Brooklyn District
Attorney’s office.
At Mr. Zherka’s pre-trial conference, Mr. Hafetz explained to the
court that the defense had turned over
business documents to the government, as they were required to, regarding
promissory notes and payments and
only in response to this, received from
the government some of his business
associate’s documents regarding this
particular subject. This led the defense to
the realization that “the government had
never, during the course of their investigation, sought documents relating
to promissory notes and payments
from Mr. Zherka’s former business
partners,” Mr. Hafetz pointed out. Are
they conveniently ignoring potentially
exculpatory evidence to make their case
and to avoid having to turn over Brady
material to the defense?
“The government would go ahead
and try this case on the basis of, they
haven’t subpoenaed the emails, doesn’t
that make you wonder that maybe there
really is a defense,” he asked?
LEGISLATION
Governor Signs Legislation Developed By NYS Senator Terrence Murphy and
Assemblyman David Buchwald Making Local Waterways Eligible for State Funds
VALHALLA,NY: On Wednesday,
August 5th, NY State Senator Terrence
Murphy announced that Governor
Cuomo has signed legislation sponsored jointly by Senator Murphy and
Assemblyman David Buchwald to fund
improvements needed to protect coastal
and inland waterways and to mitigate
flooding, a long-time concern for
Westchester residents. This legislation
adds the first tributaries in Westchester
County to New York’s list of inland
waterways, making them eligible for
state funds to remediate problems.
“Today’s announcement only
further proves that when we work
together we can accomplish great
things,” said Senator Terrence Murphy.
“By adding these rivers and lakes to
the list of inland waterways, we have
empowered our local communities the
ability to improve our environment,
infrastructure and economy through
crucial grant opportunities. I applaud
my colleagues on both sides of the aisle,
and in both houses, for supporting this
important initiative on behalf of the
localities we represent every day.”
The Inland Waterways Program,
administered through the Department
of State, funds programs that protect
coastal and inland waterway resources
and revitalizes waterfront communities.
The Board of Legislator’s Bronx River
Advisory Board and the Saw Mill River
Advisory Board proposed the idea for
this legislation as a way to fund needed
improvements to ameliorate chronic
Davis Brook, the headwaters of the Bronx River, is located in Valhalla in the 40th Senate District and flows toward New York City
and into the Long Island Sound. New Castle, also in the 40th Senate District, is the origin of the Saw Mill and Pocantico Rivers,
which empty into the Hudson after meandering through Mount Pleasant and Yonkers.
flooding that previously could not be
handled through local budgets.
“Our communities deserve every
opportunity to have clean lakes and
rivers,” said Assemblyman David
Buchwald. “By designating these bodies
of water as ‘inland waterways,’ our
villages, towns, and cities will have the
ability to tap into state funds to make
vital infrastructural advances, improve
water quality, and expand public access
to the beauty of Westchester. Clean and
accessible waterways are imperative to
sustaining a high quality of life for our
area’s residents, and I am pleased that
our communities can now take advantage of state resources to improve our
environment.”
This legislation adds the Bronx
River, Pocantico River, Saw Mill River,
Campfire Lake, Echo Lake and Peach
lake to the state’s inland waterway list,
enabling the Department of State to
“appropriate funds to municipalities
what border these waterways for the
purposes of improving water quality,
ensuring coastal resource and environmental protections, mitigating flooding
Continued on page 5
Page 5
LEGISLATION
Governor Signs Legislation Developed By NYS Senator Murphy and Assemblyman Buchwald Making Local Waterways Eligible for State Funds
and increasing public access to the public
waterways,” said Senator Murphy in his
statement, today.
“Our communities deserve every
opportunity to have clean lakes and
rivers,” said Assemblyman David
Buchwald. “By designating these bodies
of water as ‘inland waterways,’ our
villages, towns, and cities will have the
ability to tap into state funds to make
vital infrastructural advances, improve
water quality, and expand public access
to the beauty of Westchester. Clean and
accessible waterways are imperative to
sustaining a high quality of life for our
area’s residents, and I am pleased that
our communities can now take advantage of state resources to improve our
environment.”
The idea to initiate this legislation
was born from the Board of Legislator’s
Bronx River Advisory Board and
the Saw Mill River Advisory Board.
Legislators have long recognized the
need to address frequent area flooding
and now their budgetary needs can
be addressed through access to state
programs. The legislation now adds
the Bronx River, Pocantico River, Saw
Mill River, Campfire Lake, Echo Lake
and Peach Lake to the state’s inland
waterway list. The Department of State
can now appropriate funds to municipalities which border these waterways
for the purposes of improving water
quality, ensuring coastal resource and
environmental protections, mitigating
flooding and increasing public access to
the public waterways.
“I would like to thank Senator
Murphy and Assemblyman Buchwald
for delivering this important piece of
legislation,” said New Castle Supervisor
Rob Greenstein. “We continue to
grapple with flooding concerns along
the Pocantico and Saw Mill Rivers and
we now have the resources to address
them without dipping into the pockets
of hardworking taxpayers.”
“Revitalizing the Bronx and Saw
Mill River waterfronts are critical to
Yonkers and the entire New York
City and Westchester watershed,” said
Yonkers City Council President Liam
J. McLaughlin. “Thanks to Senator
Murphy, Assemblyman Buchwald, the
BRAB and the SWAB, not only will
we remove pollutants, but we can also
greatly mitigate flooding with these
dollars and increase smart waterfront
development, projects that will create
jobs.”
GOVERNMENT
This Time Was Supposed to be Different, Comments on Congress
By Lee H. Hamilton
The most important
function Congress serves
is to debate and pass the
federal budget. I know—
it also levies taxes,
imposes or relaxes regulations, and once
in a while nudges our social, economic
or political order in a meaningful way.
But the budget tells the government
what to do and makes it possible to do
it. Everything else follows from that.
Even at the best of times, passing
a budget is a test of Congress’s abilities. And these aren’t the best of
times. Its two houses are controlled by
Republicans who don’t see eye to eye.
The White House is in the hands of a
Democratic president who really doesn’t
agree with them.
So to get a budget enacted into law,
everyone involved has to negotiate seriously.They have to make realistic political
judgments about what’s possible. They
have to compromise. Given our divided
government, you’d think that everyone
would step up to these challenges.
Early in the year, following the
GOP’s takeover of the Senate, it seemed
as though they might. Gone, at least in
rhetoric, were the days of shutdowns,
sequestration, and the fiscal cliff. The
“regular order” of committee hearings
and duly marked-up appropriations bills
would be restored.
In the House, Appropriations
Chairman Hal Rogers accomplished
something that hasn’t been managed
for years: all 12 appropriations bills
made it out of his committee. But that’s
where the good news ended. For the
bills themselves were largely political
statements that had no chance of being
enacted, as they contained provisions
that were anathema to Democrats —
including President Obama, who made
it clear he had no intention of signing
them.
What provisions? The appropriators voted to reverse the Affordable
Care Act. They zeroed out family
planning. They imposed strict rules
on for-profit universities. They pulled
back regulations on the environment.
They resorted to long-practiced budget
gimmicks: planning for faster economic
growth than is defensible so they could
increase projected revenues; boosting
military spending then moving it offbudget, which allowed them to claim
to support defense spending without
actually counting it as spending.
So now Congress is headed for
partisan gridlock, and the result is predictable, because we’ve seen all this play
out before. Instead of the regular order,
we’re once again pointed toward fiscal
showdowns.
Last week, Congress gave up on
securing a new round of transportation
funding for the states — at the height
of the summer construction season —
instead announcing a three-month
extension that saves the hard negotiating for the fall. A vote to raise the debt
ceiling also looms in the fall. And, given
the state of play, it seems inevitable that
once again Congress will resort to the
travesty known as a continuing resolution, which relinquishes Congress’s
power of the purse by basically extending fiscal policy as it was the year before.
No member defends this way of
budgeting, but they end up doing it year
after year anyway, as if held hostage by
their own worst inclinations. There are
no serious negotiations at this point.
Which is a problem. Because to
prepare a budget thoughtfully — especially when it requires negotiation with
the other party — demands working
through literally thousands of details.
Yet we’re approaching adjournment
with no serious talks to make mutually
acceptable headway on the budget —
though somehow Congress has found
the time to take a recess, shutting down
for the remainder of the summer.
So with Congress having left
Washington and roughly a dozen
working days once it returns to put a
budget together, the delay we’re seeing
means that Congress won’t actually
be able to resolve the issues it faces.
Congressional leaders seem fine with
this. They rejected early negotiations,
preferring a last-minute confrontation, which will lead to another fiscal
impasse.
In other words, they’re punting.
I can’t predict how long they’ll make
their continuing resolution last, but with
presidential elections looming, it may
be longer rather than shorter. Instead
of turning over a new leaf, as Congress
promised it would do just seven months
ago, it’s once again consigning us to
fiscal chaos.
You should be angry. It’s a lousy way
to do business.
Lee H. Hamilton is Director of the Center
on Congress at Indiana University;
Distinguished Scholar, IU School of
Global and International Studies; and
Professor of Practice, IU School of Public
and Environmental Affairs. He served as
U.S. Representative from Indiana’s 9th
Congressional District from 1965-1999.
You can find information about the Center’s
educational resources and programs at
http://centeroncongress.org, and you can
share your thoughts about Congress, civic
education, and the citizen’s role in representative democracy on Facebook at “Center
on Congress at Indiana University.”
Reprinted with written permission from
Center on Congress 1315 E. Tenth St.,
Suite 320, Bloomington, IN 47405-1701
Copyright © 2014, Indiana University,
All rights reserved.
Page 6
COVER STORY cont.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
have 80 percent of the country’s power
generated from renewable resources,”
according to the Siemen’s website,
microgrid research is further along
toward the goal of handling both
requirements of an effective power
grid delivery system.
Smart grids are needed to channel
the power where it is needed, when
it is needed while at the same having
the capacity to cope with peak use
demands, independent of weather
conditions. The ultimate goal is to
develop enough sources of renewable
energy to meet consumer demands
and to develop a “smart grid” that
balances “power generation and consumption while distributing electricity
all the way to the consumer level.
Between 2011 and 2013, Siemens,
researched the effectiveness of a small
microgrid network in the community
of Wildpoldsried, Allgaü, Germany,
“where the aggregate output of energy
from renewable resources (wind,
solar & biomass- photo-voltaic and
gio-gas) was nearly double that of
local consumption. The project, led
by Siemen’s Project Manager, Dr.
Michael Metzger, was part of the
country’s IRENE, the Integration
of Regenerative Energy and Electric
Mobility project,” according to
Siemens.
To date, “Wildpoldsreid’s smart
grid has been effective in flexibly
balancing the communities supply
and power demand to maintain
grid stability, aided by two controllable distribution transformers and
the installation of battery storage
units.” In 2015, this Bavarian village
of some 2, 512 (2013- Estimate) **
people, “produces 5 times the energy
consumed locally” and sells the
excess on the grid at a fixed rate over
a 20 year contract. The ability of the
consumer to generate power and sell
it where it is needed has turned enterprising individuals and cooperative
groups who have installed solar panels
on their roofs or invested in a wind
turbine into “prosumers,” according to
an article by Carla Marin writing for
transition.web June 16, 2015.
The revenue generated from
selling excess power on the grid, an
estimated at €4 Million Euro in 2011,
has enabled this tiny village to construct “nine new community buildings
that include a school, a gymnasium
and community hall, complete with
solar panels,” according to their
Wikipedia entry. “Three companies
operate four biogas digesters and a
fifth is under construction. There are
7 windmills and two more on the
way. One hundred and ninety private
households are equipped with solar
power, which pays them dividends.
The district-heating network has 42
connections and there are three small
hydro power plants.” By combining
different methods of energy producing production, the community does
not suffer interrupted service on
cloudy days, for example and wind
generators capitalize on bad weather.
“Europe’s largest smart grid
is located on the Danish island of
Bornholm where 1900 homes representing nearly 10% of the island’s
population were equipped with a
smart switching device in 2013.
Developed by Siemens and IBM, the
device receives information about kilowatt-hour prices every five minutes
and switches electric heating systems
and heat pumps in private homes on
or off automatically to maintain a
pre=determined comfortable ambient
temperature while managing energy
control cost-effectively since the price
of energy varies with the volume
of renewable energies. This is an
important cost-saving feature since
the residents of Bornholm pay the
highest energy prices in Europe. By
channeling low cost green energy to
peak demand when it is available the
demands are reduced on the power
grid and when too little green energy
is available, power is purchased from
the mainland. Wind turbines supply
nearly half of Bornholm’s energy
supply and nearly 30% of Denmark’s
total energy supply,” according to
Siemen’s website and yield and
average of 30 megawatts at their peak.
“Denmark has set benchmark goals of
having half of its total energy supplied
by renewable resources (wind, photovoltaics and biomass) by 2020 and
100% by 2035. Their goal is to be completely independent of fossil energy by
2050. Currently, the Bornholm Cable
supplies energy to the island to make
up the difference between consumer
demand and locally produced renewable energy.”
Consumers connected to the
smart grid have a meter in their
homes set to targeted comfort settings
for heat and can use smart phone
applications to monitor the temperature settings when they are at
work, perhaps to warm up the house
an hour or two before they return
home if renewable energy is abundant
at that time rather than paying a
peak price to access power from the
Bornholm Cable, although current
research shows that consumers yield
the greatest savings when automated
systems are in place. The project in
Bornholm is still in the study phase
and equipped to work with only
electric heating systems, boilers and
heat pumps. Currently, “dishwashers and washing machines cannot be
integrated into the system because
they do not speak the same digital
language,” according to Siemens.
The community’s smart grid is
also equipped with a sophisticated
measurement system, a state-of-theart communications infrastructure,
and distributed, renewable power
generation systems such as photovoltaic and biogas units. Siemens
and IBM are conducting studies in
Bornholm to determine how to best
engage consumers to opt into the
system and this research will likely
influence future building design to
create smart buildings that will integrate automatic management systems
to maintain comfort while reducing
energy costs, since this will yield the
greatest savings over time.
Bornholm residents have also
participated in an electric and hybrid
car study named “Edison,” charging
cars during times of peak surplus
renewable energy to store energy and
balance the grid
In addition to the desirable
benefits of reducing the pollution and
carbon emissions associated with traditional sources of energy, the green
job industry has been a source of job
growth. Borderstep, a think tank
with offices in Berlin and Hanover,
Germany and in Los Angeles, CA
found in a recent study that “170,000
‘green economy’ startups were founded
from 2006 to 2013 and created
1.1 million jobs,” reports Marin.
Borderstep studies “how innovation
and entrepreneurship contribute to
sustainable development and how to
successfully shape the transformation process on the way to a green
economy.” (www.borderstep.org).
COMMUNITY
Mayor Mike Spano Launches 4th Annual Yonkers “Backpack To School” School Supply Donation Drive
Residents and Businesses Encouraged to Donate Backpacks and School Supplies for Yonkers Students in Need
YONKERS, NY – August 6,
2015 – Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano
today announced the launch of the
City’s annual “Backpack to School”
school supply donation drive. The
drive provides backpacks and school
supplies to Yonkers Public School
students most in need. This is the
fourth consecutive year Mayor Spano
and Yonkers Public Schools have
organized the drive that is held in
partnership with sponsors Empire
City Casino, DEALS and Access
Bag N’ Pack. Items donated this
year will be provided to students of
Yonkers’ Enrico Fermi School.
“Back-to-school supplies are
expensive and can be a big financial
burden for working families, especially
those who have more than one child
in school,” said Mayor Mike Spano.
“I encourage the entire community
to join our Backpack to School Drive
and lend a helping hand to those
students most in need.”
According to the National Retail
Federation, the average parent spends
hundreds of dollars on back-to-school
items, including $101.18 on school
supplies, $355.76 on clothing and
shoes and $212.35 on electronics.
Beginning Thursday, August 6,
backpack and school supply donations
may be made at Backpack to School
drop-off locations, including Yonkers
City Hall, Robert W. Cacace Justice
Center, 87 Nepperhan Government
Building, the Board of Education,
Yonkers Riverfront Library, Grinton
I. Will Library, Crestwood Library
and each of the City’s four Police
Precincts. Suggested supply packages
for donation include new backpacks
filled with the following school
supplies:
• Crayons • Colored pencils •
Washable markers • Glue sticks or
Elmer’s glue • Rulers • Pink erasers •
#2 pencils • Pencil Sharpeners • Loose
leaf paper • Composition Books •
Pencil pouches • Pocket folders •
Hand sanitizer • Tissue Packets
Board of Education President
Dr. Nader Sayegh said, “The annual
backpack donation program brilliantly
demonstrates how a collaborative
effort by business and community
sparked the Mayor’s initiative benefits
of our students. We extend a heartfelt
thank you, in advance, on behalf of the
students at the Enrico Fermi School
for the generosity of local business
partners, citizens and families and
everyone who participates.”
Superintendent of Schools Dr.
Michael Yazurlo said, “Community
engagement is essential to the
academic success of children. This
program is a perfect opportunity for
the community to demonstrate a
commit to education and to Yonkers’
children in need. Each morning when
the children slip-on their backpack it
will remind them that there are community people who want to help them
succeed in school.”
The Backpack to School Drive
will run through August 26th. For
more information about the program,
please contact the City of Yonkers
Public Information Office at 914377-6300 or visit www.yonkersny.
gov/backpack.
Page 7
my Surface Pro 3 computer, save the
output on a USB drive, and, back in the
office, transfer it to my MacBook Pro
for any final additions or changes (on
the occasions that I write on my iPad, I use
Apple’s “Pages” program and then e-mail
what I’ve written to myself, using the Pages’
facility to “e-mail the file in Word format”
– this is what I meant above by or, rather,
its format). When I’m finished with the
final writing and spell checking, I e-mail
the file to Barbara (even though her desk
is three feet away) for final editing (which
she does on a Windows machine). When I
get the file back (also by e-mail), I save
it and e-mail it to my editor at a newspaper or magazine. If it’s a proposal
or report for a consulting client, I will
usually print it and hand-deliver it.
An aside, the use of a personal
computer for writing became so natural
so rapidly that, when I saw “Digital Deli”
(http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/),
the wonderful anthology that Barbara
and I contributed to in 1984, and turned
to the article by J. Presper Eckert, the
co-inventor of the first working electronic computer, the “ENIAC,” I was
taken aback to see that he had written “I
must confess that I don’t own a personal
computer. I have no reason to.” – my
immediate reaction (to myself) – “Then
how in hell did you write this article.” I
knew how he wrote it – the same way
that I would have six years before – in
long hand, laboring over the writing,
particularly over the opening, constantly
throwing away pages until, when finally
satisfied, giving the finished product to a
secretary for typing. We had come a long
way since the ENIAC and I was a little
disappointed that the chief engineer of
the computer hadn’t moved with it (but
he was elderly at this point).
A computer can do anything –
that’s the moral of this rambling. We just
have to be lucky enough to be present
when someone develops the necessary
software and hardware to allow me to
write books and broadcast on the radio,
to let Amazon, Netflix, and Yahoo
develop television series shown only
at their sites, to let Steve Gillmor and
his knowledgeable tech friends, stream
a regular television show to us (http://
techcrunch.com/video/gillmorgang/). Years ago I heard Carly Fiorina,
now a presidential candidate but then
CEO of Hewlett-Packard, tell a group
“A digital camera is a computer that takes
pictures, an airplane is a computer that
flies ... and so on.” She got it and could
enunciate it earlier than most. We just
have to be looking for a solution for our
problem and if it’s not there now, it will
come – just as my broadcast studio did.
You must be alert!
Creative Disruption
On The Radio
By John F. McMullen
I have been a radio
fan as long as I can
remember -- and that
takes me back to 3 or 4
years old when my parents would be listening to “Nick Carter, Master Detective,”
“The Shadow,” “Jack Benny” and “Fred
Allen” on Sunday afternoon / nights. As
I grew slightly older, I moved into my
own shows – “Hop Harrigan” and “Terry
& the Pirates” in the afternoon and “The
Long Ranger,” “Sgt. Preston (with Yukon
King),” and “Sky King” in the evening.
Additionally, any time that I was home
sick from school, I got my mother’s
daily regimen of “Don McNeil’s Breakfast
Club” and “Arthur Godfrey” in the
morning and then the afternoon “soap
operas” – “The Romance of Helen Trent,”
“Our Gal Sunday,” and “Just Plain Bill.”
As I moved into my teen years, commercial radio was changing – dramas
were being replaced by music—and
I moved, first to popular music with
Martin Block and his “Make Believe
Ballroom” and then quickly to “Rock
and Roll,” first with Alan Freed and
to “Jocko” (“Ee tetie ock, this is the Jock
and I’m back on the scene with the record
machine, saying oo pop adoo which means
how do you do”). This stage of my radio
life meant trips to the Academy of
Music and the Apollo Theatre (where
my friends and I were often the only
Caucasians in the audience) and the
building of a very large library of 45 and
33 RPM vinyl records.
My interest in radio went beyond
listening to content. With a friend,
the late Bill McLoughlin, I roamed
the studios of WINS, WMGM, and
WNEW, collecting autographs of
on-air personalities, such as Ted Brown,
and was actually asked into the studio
for a Sam Taub sports show (Marty
Glickman was also in the studio) and
for a Blossom Seely / Benny Fields
variety show (Blossom: “and for John and
Billy to grow up big and strong, they’ll have
to make sure that they have lots of Silvercup
Bread in their diet”). This experience
whetted my appetite for greater involvement with radio and, a few years later,
when funds were available, I bought a
large Grundig Multiband Radio (AM,
FM, and Shortwave) and a friend, the
late Bob Cummings would stay up
all night with me, turning its big dial
and picking up stations far from the
New York area (WCKY – Cincinnati;
WOWO – Fort Wayne, In.; WGN –
Chicago; WKBW – Buffalo; and KDKA
– Pittsburgh (the first commercial radio
station in the country)),
I was still only listening though and,
more and more, I wanted to broadcast –
to be heard over airwaves. I finally had
an opportunity to do so when I was in a
carpool, commuting from the Riverdale
section of the Bronx to the Wall Street
area. Traffic during the rush hour varied
from terrible to plain ugly with backups
usually caused by an accident or a
disabled car. One of the worst elements
of being stuck in a backup was not
knowing the circumstances and location
(“Is it near or all the way down to the end?”
“Is the disabled car being towed off?”“Should
I get off at the next exit and take local streets
or ‘stay with it’?”).The answer came from
a technology used by long-haul truckers
– Citizens Band Radio (“CB Radio”)
and I became licensed as KACK9932
and known on the airwaves as “Captain
America.” It was both a god-send to
commuters on the road (“You got a down
4-wheeler before the 79 backing it all the
way up. Bail out at the 96.”) and a builder
of community. People rallied around this
technology and started clubs – as later
would happen when personal computers arrived.
From there it was a reasonable
jump into “ham” or “amateur radio” and
I became WB2RWC and talked both
around the world and fairly locally on
the “two-meter band.” I found it exhilarating to be on the air in this fashion
– yet, there was still something missing.
It wasn’t like I had been in the studio
with Sam Taub when I was a teenager.
The talks weren’t scheduled or focused
on a particular topic or weren’t intended
to be listened to by other people. It was
fun but just different.
Over the years after, my use of
amateur radio lessened as my consulting business grew but I was fortunate
to be interviewed a number of times “in
studio” by Joe King and Hank Kee on
WBAI’s “Personal Computer Show”
and I also became a regular caller to Bill
Mazur’s morning show on WEVD as
“John from Jefferson Valley.”
I was still hooked – now, if I could
only run a show from my own office,
interviewing people who interest
me without having to have a station
affiliation or spend a lot of money on
equipment – if only! And then I could!
The technology caught up with my
desires and, on Sunday night, August
9th, I hosted my 100th weekly “johnmac’s Radio Show.” All shows have been
hosted from office or from a vacation
location and I’ve had the opportunity to
interview writers, technologists, academics, religious leaders, politicians, human
rights activists, law enforcement officials,
friends from “the old neighborhood” – in
short, people who interest me (you can
listen each Sunday evening by calling 646
716-9756 at 7:00PM Eastern time – you
can also listen to the previous 100 shows by
going to www.johnmac13.com on your
computer and clicking on the johnmac’s
Radio Show tab for the URLs for those
shows).
Writing about this progression from
listener to broadcaster reminded me of
another technological epoch in my life.
I always wanted to be a writer. I wrote
long essays in grammar school, high
school, and college – all in Longhand!
(you remember that). When I wrote for
the high school paper, someone on the
staff typed my column. When I had
to have a paper typed in college, my
brother or my girlfriend typed it for me.
Typing seemed beyond me.
When I went into the business
world, my lack of typing didn’t matter.
There was always a “typing pool” and, as
I moved up the chain, I had a secretary
to type my memos.
This all changed when my wife,
Barbara, and I formed our own company,
McMullen & McMullen. In the beginning, Barbara typed all my memos
(taking away from her own work) but
things began to change when we got
an Apple II and added “EasyWriter”
(written by the notorious “hacker” John
Draper a/k/a “Capt’n Crunch”) to our
software library. Now, I could type
with one finger (or two or three), make
mistakes, correct the mistakes (if I
noticed them) and go on. Barbara could
then edit the finished document, correcting my most egregious mistakes.
Her work in this area continues to this
day although the errors are much less
due to the advent of a spellchecker.
Over the years, using many different word processors, I’ve written 5 books
and approximately 1,900 columns
and news stories. I’ve standardized on
Microsoft Word (or, rather, its format),
a choice made easier approximately
ten years ago when Microsoft made
Word files compatible between the
Macintosh and Windows machines.
Now, when I write at my local Barnes
& Noble, as I often do, I use Word on
Creative Disruption is a continuing series
examining the impact of constantly accelerating technology on the world around us.
These changers normally happen under our
personal radar until we find that the world
as we knew it is no more.
John F. McMullen is a writer, poet, college
professor and radio host. Links to other
writings, Podcasts, & Radio Broadcasts at
www.johnmac13.com, and his books are
available on Amazon.
© 2015 John F. McMullen
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Page 8
TRAVEL
Summer Wanes But Reigns On Long Island’s South Shore
By JOSEPH P. GRIFFITH
Ah, summertime!
The sand! The sun! The
ocean! The beach! You
can’t beat it.
If you are one of
those people who love the beach, there
are never enough of those lazy, hazy,
crazy days of summer. A great way to
enjoy these last remaining, waning,
fast-fading days is with a day trip to
the South Shore of Long Island. Jones
Beach has always been popular, but
it’s crowded and hardly anyone’s idea
of a relaxing time. A popular alternative, lesser known and somewhat less
crowded, is Robert Moses State Park, in
the town of Babylon.
The park, about 15 miles east of
Jones, is located on the western end of
Fire Island, accessible via the Robert
Moses Causeway from the Southern
State Parkway, or Ocean Parkway,
from the Meadowbrook or Wantagh
parkways. The causeway can back up for
miles onto the mainland on weekends,
so the parkway is recommended. Either
way, some parking lots are filled and
closed by 11 a.m. Getting back across the
traffic-choked causeway at the end of a
weekend day is sometimes an exercise
in patience and frustration. There are
several parking lots and parking is $10.
No cars are permitted beyond the easternmost lot, Field 5, near the lighthouse.
Fire Island is a barrier that serves to
protect inner islands and the mainland
from the Atlantic Ocean, and has especially borne the brunt of storms such as
Hurricane Sandy, and bravely held up.
The state park has been restored and
rebuilt several times over the decades
and was named for New York’s controversial master builder.
All along the parkway, a lovely drive
past beach houses, the ocean peeks in
“ the tan fades, the salt is washed off and the sand is shaken from your shoes,
but the memories remain for a lifetime.” – Souvenir shop sign
Fire Island Lighthouse Photo By Joseph P. Griffith
Woodcleft Canal, Freeport Photo By Joseph P. Griffith
from between the dunes on one side,
and all sorts of pleasure craft ply the bay
on the other.
The park has about five miles of
ocean beaches for various recreational
activities, as well as bayside beaches
more suitable for boating and fishing
than swimming. All of the ocean
beaches have lifeguarded swimming
areas. The westernmost end, served by
Field 2, has a public golf course, miles
of empty stretches and good spots for
surfing where the island bends around
into the Great South Bay.
The beaches extend for miles
along the ocean, culminating at Field 5.
There begins the Fire Island National
Seashore, administered by the National
Park Service, and the beginning of
the island communities, starting with
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Kismet. Lighthouse Beach there was
for years noted, if not notorious, for its
clothing-optional policy, which was discontinued two years ago. While some
daring individuals sometimes flout
the law and risk prosecution, the more
common sight now is the many women
who go topless, European-style and perfectly legal.
A different view is had of and from
the historic Fire Island Lighthouse,
completed in 1858. Its light, still in
operation, is 168 feet above sea level
and can be seen more than 20 miles
away. Tours to the top, along a narrow,
winding stairway, are offered, and the
area includes exhibits, a nature trail and
interpretive programs. Annual fundraisers are held to benefit the lighthouse,
including an art show and the Barefoot
Black Tie Dinner Dance. The lighthouse is open year-round.
The intrepid traveler can walk a
mile or more to Kismet and catch a
ferry to Bay Shore, on the mainland.
The long stretch of beach in between is
well populated on weekends, but during
the week, you can stake out a solitary
spot that may afford a hundred yards or
more between blankets. It’s difficult to
imagine such a quiet, isolated, beautiful
spot in New York, but it does exist.
Just across the causeway is Captree
State Park, popular for its fishing
charters and nighttime crabbing. A
restaurant, Captree Cove, overlooks the
bay.
Some of the beaches and parking
lots along Ocean Parkway are for town
residents only, but are open to all at no
charge in the evening. There are several
restaurants with informal dining. At
Cedar Beach, midway between Jones
and Robert Moses, there is a California
vibe, with volleyball tournaments, live
bands and the Beach Hut Raw Bar &
Grill.
On the bay side, Tobay Beach
offers the Seafood Shack and the Salsa
Continued on page 9
Page 9
TRAVEL
Summer Wanes But Reigns On Long Island’s South Shore
Shack, sit-down restaurants with beautiful sunset views. A memorial honoring
residents who died on Sept. 11, 2001, is
a picturesque setting.
Back on the mainland, the center
of the action is the village of Freeport
Fire Island Lighthouse
Photo By Joseph P. Griffith
and its rowdy, rollicking Nautical Mile.
This strip, formally known as Woodcleft
Avenue, has just about everything for
the party crowd: restaurants, bars, dance
clubs, ice cream parlors, souvenir shops,
fish markets, cigars, antiques, car shows,
cruises, yacht sellers, even a waterside
Woodcleft Canal, Freeport Photo By Joseph P. Griffith
Hudsons on the Mile is always
chapel for those in need of repentance
packed with an older crowd that is defiafter a night of debauchery.
Notable establishments include nitely ready for action. A fun place.
Braccos Clam & Oyster Bar,
Hurricane Harry’s, Vue by EB Elliot’s,
Rachel’s Waterside Grill, River House across the street from Hudsons, brings
Grille, JC Cove Waterfront Restaurant a little bit of the beach to the street. Its
& Bar, Woodcleft Crabshack and Otto’s outdoor dance space seems to be the
epicenter of the action for millennials.
Sea Grill.
Tropix, a dance club down the street
Jeremy’s Ale House is basically
a dive bar, but with seafood that’s far from Braccos, seems to be competing
better than it has any right to be. Across with it for the title of loudest, rowdiest
the street, you’ll stand on a long but and sexiest club on the Nautical Mile.
quickly moving line at Pip’s Ice Cream
If you need a break from all this
Parlour, but it’s worth the wait. A couple action, walk to the end of the mile and
of blocks away, Ralph’s Italian Ices, a bask in the moonlight overlooking the
chain, is also good, and usually busy.
bay and the waterfront. As you dine
Several of the restaurants, bars and harborside, you may see swans, egrets,
clubs are outdoors, with live music, D.J.’s ospreys, oyster catchers and other avian
life, fish swimming in the water and
and dancing.
Braccos Clam & Oyster Bar, Freeport Photo By Joseph P. Griffith
even the occasional seal.
Fire Island Lighthouse PreservaAny or much of this can be done tion Society, http://www.fireisin one long day, and it will be a memo- landlighthouse.com/
rable one. To paraphrase a sign seen in Freeport Nautical Mile, http://
a souvenir shop, the tan fades, the salt is www.longisland.com/freeportwashed off and the sand is shaken from nautical-mile.html, http://thenauyour shoes, but the memories remain for ticalmile.us/
a lifetime.
“Next week: the North Shore.”
Long Island South Shore
information
National Park Service, http://www.
nps.gov/fiis/index.htm
Robert Moses State Park, http://
www.nysparks.com/parks/7/details.aspx
Freeport cruises
http://www.freeportwatertaxi.com/
http://www.captloufleet.com/
http://partyboatcentral.com/
http://www.longislandkayakrentals.com/
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Customized tours for groups and individuals
Waterfront chapel, Nautical Mile, Freeport. Photo By Joseph P. Griffith
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Page 10
eye on theatre
Happy Hamilton
By John Simon
After getting rave
reviews Off Broadway,
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s
musical “Hamilton” has
reopened, slightly spruced
up, on Broadway, to even more enthusiastic notices, and can look forward to a
marathon run.
Miranda, of Puerto Rican descent,
is a 35-year-old actor-playwrightcomposer-lyricist, whose previous
musical, “In the Heights,” was a considerable success Off Broadway and On
(1200 performances) earning various
awards and accolades. It concerned
Latino immigrants in their New York
enclave, with Lin-Manuel playing
the lead, Thomas Kail directing, Andy
Blankenbuehler choreographing, and
Alex Lacamoire co-arranging, orchestrating and conducting. “Hamilton” is a
much more ambitious effort from the
same team.
Based on a doorstopper biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron
Chernow, which Miranda picked up in
an airport, its main drift is summoned
up by this introduction from Aaron
Burr: “How does a bastard, orphan son
of a whore and a [vamoosing] Scotsman,
dropped in the middle of a forgotten
spot in the Caribbean by Providence,
impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be
Phillipa Soo and Lin-Manuel Miranda in a scene from Hamilton on Broadway.
Photo © Joan Marcus
by Washington, became an officer, and rap, hip-hop, and R&B, with language
the checkered, chaotic aftermath, in discreetly modern, but Paul Tazewell’s
which he worked himself up as first costumes beautifully period.
Secretary of the Treasury, married an
It represents a new departure in
heiress, and got killed in a duel with the American musical and is, most
Aaron Burr.
likely, a signpost to its future. The
Burr, a fellow lawyer and sometimes musical amalgam, as again orchesmentor, shadows Hamilton throughout. trated, co-arranged and conducted by
He is friend, rival, and enemy, and a Alex Lacamoire, has an amiably unpresort of narrator of the musical, as well as tentious quality that would not jar a
jealous envier. And here they are, besides classically oriented ear. It is moreover
Hamilton and Washington, such firmly supportive of Miranda’s clever
founding fathers as Madison, Jefferson lyrics, often expertly rhymed.
and John Laurens, flanked by Hercules
Take a typical passage from Burr,
Mulligan and the Marquis de Lafayette, hinting at the rich Schuyler girls:
thrashing in the Republic’s birth pangs.
“There’s nothing like summer in the city,
It is a work well conceived and / Someone in a rush next to someone
duly researched (800 plus pages of lookin’ pretty, / Excuse me, Miss, I know
it’s not funny/ But your perfume smells
like your daddy’s got money. / Why you
slummin’ in the city with your fancy
heels/ You searchin’ for an urchin who
can give you ideals?”That urchin is obviously dragged in for the internal rhyme,
but it all sets the tone for the instruments of Hamilton’s ascent.
Most of the times the rhymes feel
spontaneous and natural. Take this,
from the eldest and smartest Schuyler
daughter, Angelica: “Alexander is penniless/ Ha! That doesn’t mean I want
him any less.” That is pure rhyme,
as is a derogatory comment about
Washington: “The best he can do is turn
on, / Go back to plant tobacco in Mount
Vernon.”
David Diggs as Thomas Jefferson and the ensemble of Hamilton on Broadway. Photo
But Lin-Manuel is equally adept at
© Joan Marcus
slant rhyme. Take this, from Angelica:
a hero and a scholar?” The answer is by Chernow, etc.), with Miranda’s book, “Burr, you disgust me.” To which, he:
better brains and harder work than just lyrics and music uniformly commend- “Ah, so, you’ve discussed me,” followed
about anybody else’s.
able. One great innovation is that all by one of the rare instances of flagrant
The musical concerns the American these characters are played by blacks and anachronism, Burr’s “I’m a trust fund,
Revolution, in which Hamilton, favored Hispanics; the other, that all the music is baby, you can trust me.”
The text is full of catchy aphorisms,
which the rhyme underlines. Take
“WASHINGTON: Head full of fantasies dying like a martyr?”HAMILTON:
Yes. WASHINGTON: Dying is easy,
young man, living is harder.” Much
later we get a canny variation from
Washington: “Winning was easy, young
man, governing is harder.”
Miranda also plays with variations
on well-known sayings like “a victory
snatched from the jaws of defeat,” which
becomes “LAURENS: Thousands of
soldiers die in a hundred degrees of heat.
LAFAYETTE: As we snatch a stalemate from the jaws of defeat.” So too
Miranda’s music snatches adroit variations from the jaws of monotony.
The great effect here is the nearconstant presence of the Ensemble,
which out-Greeks the Greek chorus.
It consists of eleven singer-dancers,
male and female, cavorting and vocalizing around the edges of the action,
sometimes even above it on an upper
level. They usually repeat snatches of
the sung monologues and conversations in this nearly sung-through show,
making for the kind of repetition that is
Miranda’s forte as he repeats phrases like
“In the room where the action happens,”
(repeated 41 times) and “I am not
throwing away my shot,” recurring even
more often, with significantly varying
implications.
Thomas Kail’s most important
directorial contribution is the steady
use of a turntable—or sometimes
two concentric ones—allowing for
events to take place in different spots
simultaneously or almost so, compellingly evoking bustle or turmoil. Now
add Andy Blankenbuehler’s inventive
choreography, taking off not so much
from ballet as customary in musicals,
as from modern dance and ballroom
(think “Dancing With the Stars”), with
as much sliding onto the floor as acrobatic leaping into the air. But the stunts
always enhance or interpret the context.
In short, there is a carnival atmosphere, but a somehow serious as well as
amusing carnival. To this David Korins’s
mighty set contributes handsomely
with its architectural construct of what
seems to be sensuous wood, tellingly lit
by Howell Binkley, and suggestive of
all sorts of old-time meeting places. It
brilliantly features three sets of stairs to
the upper level: one left, one right, and
a free-floating one often in the middle.
Just the way Jefferson waltzes down one
of them is hilarious.
Which brings me to the terrific
performances, whose colorblind casting
suggests that the founding fathers might
just as well have been persons of color
as Caucasians.Thus history becomes the
melting pot; or rather the melting pot
takes possession of history.
Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Gold…
Cephas Jones in scene from Hamilton on
Broadway. Photo © Joan Marcus
Take the dazzling writing and
acting in the romantic triangle consisting of Hamilton, the eldest Schuyler girl,
Angelica, and the middle sister, Eliza.
Despite manifest attraction between the
former and Alexander, somehow their
both being intellectuals and, as one song,
“Satisfied,” considers, really unsatisfied,
they are too similar. And so Angelica
goes off to marriage in England after
steering Alexander toward her less
demanding, housewifely sister, whom he
happily marries. Well, happily until that
adulterous affair with Maria Reynolds,
resulting in a scandal that is the beginning of Alexander’s undoing.
The actresses are all marvelous. Like
Hamilton, you may be torn between the
philosophical and sardonic Angelica
(Renee Elise Goldsberry), who ends
up a loyal friend, and Eliza (Philippa
Soo, an Asian American), who turns
into a good, mostly understanding wife.
The youngest, Paggy (Jasmine Cephas
Jones), is given short shrift, but comes
into her own as the adulterous mistress,
Maria Reynolds.
Lee-Manuel Miranda is wonderfully ambiguous as Hamilton, making
sure that the eponymous protagonist
remains an actor, not a star, likable but
not really lovable, and not eclipsing the
others. Well-nigh equal attention is
given to Burr, whom Leslie Odom, Jr.
Continued on page 11
Page 11
underestimating them. Groff is very
funny, but his Off Broadway predecessor, Brian d’Arcy James, may have been
even funnier.
Not a dull moment in “Hamilton,”
but I must mention some cavils with
Miranda’s grammar. Thus I question
“more eloquently than thee,” “men
which,” “from whence,” the incorrect
“aggravate” and the fabricated “ingenuitive.” But perhaps after so much
perfection, such errors are only human.
John Simon has written for over 50
years on theatre, film, literature, music
and fine arts for the Hudson Review,
New Leader, New Criterion, National
Review, New York Magazine, Opera
News, Weekly Standard, Broadway.
com and Bloomberg News. He reviews
books for the New York Times Book
Review and for The Washington Post.
To learn more, visit his website: www.
JohnSimon-uncensored.com
eye on theatre
Happy Hamilton
adroitly portrays as Hamilton’s lodestar,
colleague, and nemesis all in one.
First-rate, too, is Daveed Diggs
as both Lafayette, jovially French,
and Jefferson, dandifiedly American.
Christopher Jackson is an impressive
Washington, avuncular, though also
strict, to Hamilton; paternally patriotic
Leslie Odom as Aaron Burr in Hamilton
on Broadway. Photo © Joan Marcus
toward the Revolution, though eventually tired. Anthony Ramos and
Ohieriete Onaodowan are commanding in two parts each.
And then there is Jonathan Groff, as
the delectably conceived King George,
whose music, lyrics, and scatting are
stingingly unique. In elaborately royal
costume and grandiose accouterments, he stands a dummy for his
paraphernalia, part cunningly wooing
back the Americans, part foolishly
LOCAL LORE
Against the Odds: The New York & Erie Railroad
By Robert Scott
With the building
of several short railroads
in the early 1830’s, a contagious malady swept the
eastern United States, infecting hamlets,
villages and cities alike. It was railroad
fever, and it spread through every layer
of society.
Merchants and bankers saw
railroads as a boon to commerce, manufacturers looked to them for cheaper
raw materials and better distribution of
their products, immigrants and laborers
hoped they would provide jobs and
security.
In the second half of 1831, communities in the Southern Tier counties
of New York staged what were called
“railroad conventions.” Intended to spur
the legislature into approving a charter
for a railroad serving the counties bordering Pennsylvania, meetings were held
at Monticello, Jamestown, Angelica and
Owego.
What had vitalized these conventions was a pamphlet, Sketch of the
Geographical Rout [sic] of a
Great Railway. Published in 1829
and revised and enlarged in 1830, its
author, William C. Redfield, was a
self-taught meteorologist and later first
president of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
Redfield’s pamphlet projected a
rail line from the Hudson River to
the Mississippi, a path he had personally traveled and charted himself. He
proposed to connect “the canals
and navigable waterways of the
states of New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri;
and the Michigan, Northwest and
Missouri territories.”
Action was finally taken on April
24, 1832, when the legislature in Albany
issued a charter allowing the creation of
a railroad to be built from New York to
Lake Erie. It stipulated that construction was to begin within four years and
be completed within twenty. It also
specified that the company could only
operate within New York State and
was restrained from making connections with any railroad in New Jersey
or Pennsylvania without the legislature’s
permission.
The New York & Erie Railroad was
incorporated in 1833 by 75 well-known
business figures, including insurance
executive Eleazar Lord, merchant
James Boorman, banker James Gore
King, former New York mayor William
Paulding, and land developer Samuel
B. Ruggles. Eleazar Lord was named
William Charles Redfield, (March 26,
1789 – February 12, 1857) was the first
President of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (1843).
He is known in meteorology for his
observation of the directionality of winds
in hurricanes. Redfield organized and
was a member of the first expedition to
Mount Marcy in 1837; he was the first
to guess that Marcy was the highest peak
in the Adirondacks, and therefore in
New York. Mount Redfield was named
in his honor by Verplanck Colvin.” Image
and bio notes courtesy of Wikipedia.
president. The Erie’s backers also had
the clout to win $3 million in state
credits toward construction.
Although he had studied for
the ministry, Eleazar Lord was never
ordained, and is best known as a founder
of the Sunday School Union. Between
1821 and 1834, Lord was president
of the Manhattan Fire Insurance
Company. Outspoken, forceful and
opinionated, he would be in and out of
the Erie over a period of 12 years--as
the first, third and sixth president of
the railroad. He also would make some
foolishly rash decisions that would cost
it millions.
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Page 12
LOCAL LORE
Surveying the Route
Because he had built a large
mansion near the village of Sparkill
on the Hudson, hard-headed Eleazar
Lord decided to establish the eastern
terminus of the line there. By dumping
rocks and fill in the Tappan Zee, he built
a monster 90-acre pier, 4,000 feet long
and 300 feet wide, to reach the navigable
part of the Hudson. He named the site
Piermont. Washington Irving, Lord’s
friend and neighbor on the opposite
side of the river, groused that this monstrosity narrowed the Hudson, causing it
to flow faster and to erode his property.
The purpose of the long pier was
to dock steamboats bringing passengers
from New York City, 24 miles to the
south. Locating the Erie terminus there
was Lord’s first mistake. For impatient
train passengers anxious to be on their
way, the boat ride was a pleasant but
time-consuming excursion.
To chart the route, Lord chose
Benjamin Wright, former chief engineer
of the Erie Canal. Wright agreed to do
the work for the $15,000 fee voted by
the legislature. Wright knew the steepest
grades would be on the western slopes
of the Shawangunk Mountains from
the valley of the Neversink at Port Jervis,
a grade of 100 feet to the mile. Helper
locomotives would be needed there for
heavy freight trains.
Benjamin Wright (October 10, 1770
– August 24, 1842) was an American
civil engineer who was chief engineer of
the Erie Canal and the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal.[1] In 1969, the American
Society of Civil Engineers declared
him the “Father of American Civil
Engineering”.[Image and Bio notes
courtesy of Wikipedia
Other grades along the route would
average between 60 and 70 feet to the
mile, where helper locomotives would
also be needed. A tunnel less than a mile
in length through the mountainous
ridge would have lessened the grade, but
money was always scarce on the Erie.
The tunnel wasn’t bored until many
years later.
Wright also preferred a less direct
route through Monticello and Sullivan
County, which would have avoided the
narrow Delaware Valley west of Port
Jervis. Although the Delaware route
offered easier grades, its steep walls
made it more expensive to build. Wright
lost that battle.
Lord also ignored Wright’s plan
to bypass Goshen and Middletown to
keep the line shorter. Instead, the line
tapped these agriculturally rich regions
of Orange County for shipments of
produce and milk.
From the start, the Erie’s prospects
were uncertain. The principal natural
resource of the region through which
it passed was timber. In 1834, only one
town on the proposed line, Elmira, had a
population of more than 3,000. The first
major station stop on the route, Goshen,
had only about 500; Middletown
had even less. Binghamton, on the
Susquehanna, was the busy terminus of
the Chenango Canal from Utica, but it
had only 2,000 inhabitants.
Ground was finally broken for the
Erie Railroad near the remote town
of Deposit on November 7, 1835.
Although important as a center of
the Delaware Valley lumber industry,
Deposit was not much of a town. Present
at the ceremony were investment banker
James Gore King, Lord’s replacement as
president of the Erie, and Samuel B.
Ruggles, an Erie director and New York
City real estate magnate who would
James Gore King (May 8, 1791,
New York City - October 3, 1853,
Weehawken, New Jersey) was an
American businessman and Whig Party
politician who represented New Jersey’s
5th congressional district in the United
States House of Representatives from
1849 to 1851. King was the third son of
Rufus King, and brother of John Alsop
King, who served as Governor of New
York. Photo and bio notes courtesy of
Wikipedia
later develop Gramercy Park. The world
of politics was represented by State
Treasurer Peter Stuyvesant and former
Lieutenant Governor Erastus Root.
Eleazar Lord had been eased out of
the Erie’s presidency and did not attend.
Eleazar Lord taken from a miniature
likeness painted on ivory when he
was 36 years old, and which was a gift
from him to his betrothed, in 1824.”An
American author, educator, deacon of
the First Protestant Dutch Church and
first president of the Erie Railroad.
He founded the Manhattan Insurance
Company, and served as its president
1821-34. Lord was the first president of
the Erie Railroad company; a prominent
friend of the New York University,
and he assisted in founding theological
seminaries at East Windsor, Connecticut,
and Auburn, New York.” Image and bio
notes courtesy of WIkipedia.
He scoffed at the idea of a groundbreaking ceremony so far from the
place where construction would actually
begin--at the Hudson.
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Page 13
Piermont and chugged up the Ramapo
Valley to Goshen, a mere 46 miles away.
James Bowen, the Erie’s new president,
was present on this inaugural run, but
whatever glory was connected to it
belonged to Eleazar Lord.
Pulling this first train was the locomotive Rockland, one of three engines
purchased by the Erie from the Norris
works in Philadelphia. The other two
were named Eleazar Lord and Piermont.
The Erie’s first passenger coaches,
measuring 36 feet long by an unusual
11 feet wide, were built by Davenport
and Bridges, in Cambridgeport, near
Boston.
After the opening of the line, John
Stephenson built two large sleeping
cars for the Erie. The line had so little
trackage on which these coaches could
be used, they were later used as trackworkers’ bunk cars.
In August of 1841, as the New
York & Harlem Railroad headed north
through Westchester County, its president, Samuel R. Brooks, made a daring
proposal. He suggested that the Erie
build a branch line from Irvington
eastward to link with the Harlem line
near Kane’s quarry in Tuckahoe. A short
ferry trip across the Hudson was all that
would be needed to join the two lines.
At the modest cost of about
$90,000, the Erie would have had access
to the Harlem Railroad’s midtown
Fourth Avenue terminals, first at
27th Street and later at 42nd Street.
Although an Erie committee recommended the plan, nothing was done to
make it a reality.
The Erie was now busy operating four trains daily between Piermont
and Goshen--two passenger trains and
two freight trains--carrying about 250
passengers and 200 tons of freight.
Roadbed work over the seven miles
between Goshen and Middletown was
almost complete, although no track had
been laid.
Three months into 1842, with many
contractors unpaid and debt mounting,
the Erie declared bankruptcy. Under
severe criticism by newspapers and the
public, Erie President James Bowen
resigned, to be succeeded by William
Maxwell, who would last less than a year.
Enterprising Middletown citizens
organized an association to raise money
and complete the line to their town.
Thanks to their initiative, rail service was
extended from Goshen to Middletown
on July 1, 1843.
In October of that year, Horatio
Allen was named president. Allen was
the engineer who had operated the
English-built Stourbridge Lion 14
years before, when that little locomotive
became the first to run in America.
Redoubtable as Allen was, he could
not resuscitate the Erie and resigned
after only a year. The desperate Erie
turned again to Eleazar Lord for the
third--and final--time.
Lord turned down the suggestion
that the Erie change the few miles of
track already laid from six-foot gauge
to the narrower standard gauge, another
monumental mistake. A change of
gauge then would have cost less than
$250,000. When the Erie finally
switched to standard gauge in 1880,
Eleazar Lord’s rash decision cost more
than $75 million. His obstinate and
rigid personality soon caused friction,
and he resigned in July of 1845, after
only nine months.
LOCAL LORE
Twin Disasters
The presidency of his successor,
James Gore King, was fraught with
financial problems: little more than
a month after the ground-breaking,
the most devastating fire New York
City had ever experienced broke out
in the downtown business district and
destroyed much of the oldest portion of
the city. Of the city’s 26 fire insurance
companies, 23 went bankrupt. Many
merchants who had subscribed to the
Erie’s stock offering were wiped out.
The financial panic of 1837
followed, engulfing the entire nation
and causing the railroad boom to
collapse. Banks failed everywhere and
the stock market fell apart. The value
of locally held shares declined $20
million. The average number of shares
traded daily dropped from 7,393 in
January to 1,534 in June. Rail stocks
nosedived as new railroad companies
collapsed. On April 5 work was halted
on the Long Island Railroad with only
15 miles of track laid between Jamaica
and Greenport; it would remain stalled
for years. Other projected lines died and
were never resurrected.
Work on the Erie Railroad ceased
for two long years, leaving only a small
portion of the roadbed completed and
no track laid. James Gore King hurried
to London hoping to cajole added
financing but found British investment bankers wary. A discouraged King
returned, hoping New York State would
take over his railroad and complete it.
The Erie survived, thanks to a $3
million loan extracted from the state
legislature by its politically influential
directors. It was payable in installments-if work went forward.
Eleazar Lord, former president
of the Erie, persuaded the directors to
lay ten miles of track westward from
Piermont. Once this was approved,
he convinced them to extend the line
another 36 miles to Goshen, and seven
more miles to Middletown.
Another Wrong Decision
By October of 1839, Eleazar Lord
was back as president of the Erie. Now
he made a second rash and expensive
decision--one that would take the Erie
years to recover from and cost millions
to rectify.
The gauge of railroad track rapidly
becoming standard in Britain and the
United States was a width between
rails of 4 feet 8-1/2 inches. According
to legend, this was the length of the
axles on ancient Roman carts, copied
by British builders of stagecoaches and
wagons. In fact, the first railroad coaches
hauled by steam locomotives in Britain
were simply ordinary stagecoaches and
wagons fitted with flanged wheels.
Lord decided that Erie tracks
should be wider than standard gauge.
He arbitrarily chose six feet. Such a
wide gauge would make Erie locomotives larger and heavier--better able, he
decided, to negotiate the Erie’s tough
grades. Moreover, wider Erie freight cars
could carry bigger loads. A wider gauge
also would mean a more comfortable
ride for passengers. And it guaranteed
the Erie could not link with other lines,
thus meeting the legislature’s restriction.
Lord’s unusual plan for laying tracks
between Binghamton and Hornellsville
was to erect a causeway of timber above
ground for 117 miles, lifting the tracks
clear of marshy areas and making snow
removal easy.
When the line was finally built in
Samuel Bulkley Ruggles (April 11, 1800
- August 28, 1881) was an American
lawyer and politician from New York.
He was a member of the New York
State Assembly in 1838, and a Canal
Commissioner from 1839 to 1842 and in
1858. As a large landholder, he donated
the land for the creation of Gramercy
Park in New York City. Its restrictive
covenant has preserved it through much
development nearby. He was a member
of the city’s Chamber of Commerce,
which published his reports on economics
and public policy. In the 1860s, he
represented the United States at several
international conferences on economics
and statistics in Europe.image and Bio
notes courtesy of Wikipedia
traditional fashion along a different
route, this long line of unused and rotting
pilings remained a curiosity visible from
Erie trains for many years. Estimates of
the amount wasted by Eleazar Lord on
driving white oak piles ranged between
$600,000 and a million dollars.
A Short Trip
Always at odds with Erie directors, Lord left again in May of 1841.
A month later, the first Erie train left
Editor’s note: Look for Part Two of Against
the Odds: The New York and Erie Railroad
in next week’s issue of The Westchester
Guardian.
mary at the movies
Movie Review: Mission Impossible-Rogue Nation
By Mary Keon
The action never stops in Mission
Impossible, a rollicking blockbuster
espionage / adventure film, written and
directed by Christopher McQuarrie.
As the film opens, IMF (Impossible
Mission Force) Agent Ethan Hunt
(Tom Cruise) is desperately trying to
prevent “the package,” a crate of nerve
gas pirated by Australian terrorists, from
leaving an airstrip, aided by fellow field
agents Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell
(Ving Rhamses).
Once that problem is solved, Hunt,
who is determined to prove that a
mysterious underground syndicate is
behind seemingly unconnected international incidents, is abducted by one of
the Syndicate’s teams, headed by Janik
Vinter (Jens Hultén).
In the meantime, CIA Director
Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) appears
before a Senate Oversight Committee
and persuades them to disband the
IMF Agency to absorb it back into the
CIA, leaving Hunt out in the cold and
on the run. IMF Agent William Brandt
(Jeremy Ritter) runs interference for
Hunt and Dunn wherever he can.
The disavowed and mysterious MI5
Tom Cruise is a scene from Mission
Impossible. Photo © Paramount Studios
agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson)
is involved with the Syndicate and
springs to Hunt’s aid more than once,
yet always seems to be leveraging his
expertise to her advantage. Ferguson
will be familiar to STARZ audiences as
Elizabeth Woodville, queen consort to
King Edward IV in The White Queen,
for which she received a Golden Globe
nomination. An exceptionally talented
actress, Ferguson will vaguely remind
you of Ingrid Bergman and that is by
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Page 14
mary at the movies
Movie Review: Mission Impossible-Rogue Nation
design. She brings great depth to a
demanding role that has her tumbling
across sets, giving as good as she gets in
fight scenes and leaning way in around
curves in the road during motorcycle
chase scenes, always keeping Hunt ever
so slightly off-balance.
Alec Baldwin and Simon Pegg in a scene
from Mission Impossible Rogue Nation.
Photo © Paramount Studios
The plot takes us behind the scenes
at the magnificent Vienna Opera
House where a production of Turnadot
is in progress. The editing juxtaposes
drama in the fly loft as snipers take aim
against a head of state, with the drama
onstage, as American tenor, Gregory
Kunde, sings Nessun Dorma during a
critical scene. Opera fans will agree that
Mission Impossible, Rogue Nation is
worth the price of admission just for a
glimpse of the Vienna Opera house and
to hear Kunde sing Nessun Dorma.
The script takes us to Austria,
Morocco and London, cleverly incorporating recent headlines of international
incidents and weaving them together
as evidence of a plot to take over the
governments of the world. But who is
behind it and what is the motive? Simon
Lane (Sean Harris) is the Rogue leader
the IMF agents are trying to find.
McQuarrie was thrilled to have
access to “all of the toys” to embellish his
Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson in a scene from Mission Impossible Rogue Nation.
Photo © Paramount Studios
plot, regardless of the cost – a reported
$155,000,000 and audiences seem to be
appreciative: as of August 6, Mission
Impossible Rogue Nation had grossed
$144,254,207 worldwide.
Though this is the fifth movie in
LE G A L N O T I C E S
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER
Index No. 59750/2013
SUPPLEMENTAL SUMMONS WITH NOTICE CITIBANK, N.A., Plaintiff, against THE UNKNOWN
HEIRS AT LAW OF THE ESTATE OF HILDRED I. BUTLER A/K/A HILDRED ONEAL, DECEASED, if they
are living and if they are dead, the respective heirs-at-law, next-of-kin, distributes, executors, administrators, trustees, devisees, legatees, assignees, lienors, creditors and successors in interest and
generally all persons having or claiming under, by or through said defendant who may be deceased,
by purchase, inheritance, lien or inheritance, lien or otherwise any right, title or interest in or to
the real property described in the complaint, NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION AND
FINANCE, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LEONARD BUTLER AS HEIR OF THE ESTATE OF HILDRED I.
BUTLER A/K/A HILDRED ONEAL, ROBERT BUTLER III AS HEIR OF THE ESTATE OF HILDRED I. BUTLER
A/K/A HILDRED ONEAL,
Defendants, To the above- named defendants: YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the
amended complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your answer, or, if the amended complaint
is not served with this supplemental summons, to serve a notice of appearance, on the plaintiff’s
attorneys within 20 days after the service of this supplemental summons, exclusive of the day of
service (or within 30 days after the service is complete if this summons is not personally delivered to
you within the State of New York); and in case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be
taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the complaint. NOTICE YOU ARE IN DANGER
OF LOSING YOUR HOME if you do not respond to this summons and complaint by serving a copy of the
answer on the attorney for the mortgage company who filed this foreclosure proceeding against you
and filing the answer with the court, a default judgment may be entered and you can lose your home.
Speak to an attorney or go to the court where your case is pending for further information on how
to answer the summons and protect your property. Sending a payment to your mortgage company
will not stop this foreclosure action. YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER
ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF (MORTGAGE COMPANY) AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH
THE COURT. The foregoing supplemental summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to an
Order of the Honorable William J. Giacomo, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York,
Westchester County, dated the 16th day of April, 2015 and duly entered in the office of the Clerk of the
County of Westchester, State of New York. NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT. The
object of the above captioned action is to foreclose a Mortgage to secure $112,000.00 and interest,
recorded in the Office of the County Clerk of Westchester County on March 17, 2008 in Control No.
480650041, covering premises known as 13 HARPER AVE, MONTROSE, COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER,
STATE OF NEW YORK (SECTION 54.08 BLOCK 1 LOT 28).
The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale of the premises described
above. Premises situate lying and being in the County of Westchester, and more particularly described as follows: Map of property belonging to Edward M. Lent located at Montrose, Town of Cortlandt, Westchester County, New York, made by Reynolds and Chase, C.E.’s dated Peekskill, May 8,
1922 and filed in the Office of the Register of the County of Westchester, on the 25th day of June, 1922
as Lot Number 14 on said Map. Said lot lying and adjoining on the Southeaster side of Harper Avenue,
as, laid down on said map. Dated:
Rego Park, New York
_______________, 2015
SWEENEY, GALLO, REICH & BOLZ, LLP.
By: Rosemarie A. Klie, Esq. Attorneys for Plaintiff
95-25 Queens Boulevard, 11th Floor Rego Park, New York 11374 (718) 459-9000
Notice of Formation of New York Huaqi BioEngineering, LLC, filed with SSNY on 5/18/15. Offc.
Loc: Westchester Cty. SSNY desig. as agent of the
LLC upon whom process against it may be served.
SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 2 Montross
St, White Plains, NY 10603. Purpose: Biosciences
research.
Notice of formation of Makletta Enterprises, LLC. Arts.
of Org. filed with SSNY on 4/20/15. Office location:
Westchester County. SSNY designated agent of LLC
upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail
process to: US Corp. Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave, Suite
202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: any lawful act or
activity.
Notice of formation of NINEBAR, LLC. Art. of
org. filed with SSNYon 06/11/2015. Off. location:
Westchester County. SSNY shall mail process to
the LLC, 2828 Broadway 9E, New York, NY 11025.
Purpose: Any lawful activity. SSNY designated
as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it
may be served.
Notice of Formation of Virtuous Systems LLC, filed
with SSNY on 6/3/15. Offc. Loc: Westchester Cty.
SSNY desig. as agent of the LLC upon whom process
against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to
the LLC, 302 South First Avenue, Mount Vernon, NY
10550. Purpose: Technology company that install and
configures computer network systems, wiring, surveillance, video wall and more.
WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN LEGAL ADVERTISING
WestGuardAdvertising@aol.com
the Mission Impossible franchise, the
script is fresh and exciting while the
action moves along at a breathtaking
pace. Cruise delivers an excellent performance and did many of his own
stunts, including hanging off the side
of a plane on takeoff and a dive scene
that involved holding his breath for
6 minutes. Baldwin is well cast as the
snarky CIA chief out to clip IMF wings
while veteran actors Pegg, Rhamses and
Ritter give dimension to their characters
and work together well an ensemble.
McQuarrie and his cast deliver a
first rate action thriller that will have you
on the edge of your seats and hoping this
team will collaborate on future projects.
Produced by J. J. Abrams, Bryan
Burk, Tome Cruise, David Ellison,
Dana Goldberg and Don Granger;
Bad Robot Productions, Skydance
Productions and T. C. Productions.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures.
MPAA Rating PG-13, for sequences
of action and violence, and brief partial
nudit
CALENDAR
News & Notes From Northern
Westchester
By Mark Jeffers
You know it’s bad
summer TV when the
highlight of the week is
watching “Bachelor in
Paradise,” but my girls
prevailed and I watched just enough
to make me run off to write this week’s
“TV free” edition of News & Notes.”
Did you know that the film
and television industry boosted the
Westchester economy by $18 million
in 2014, up from $13.8 million in the
previous year? The increase is attributable in large measure to a 32 percent
increase in on-location production
days, which totaled 318 last year. The
numbers are part of an economic report
compiled by Westchester County’s
Office of Tourism & Film. The report
includes a 2014 survey of local municipalities, which showed that 90 percent
of the county’s cities, towns and villages
received revenue from the film and
television industry; 66 percent of film
productions patronized local businesses
and 25 percent hired local vendors.
The Field Library in Peekskill will
present Hudson Valley Llamas, a special
Library Live program, on Thursday
August 20th at 6:30pm. Come see some
real, live llamas at the library. They
will have experts from Hudson Valley
Llamas to tell you all about these gentle
animals. There will be some llama jokes
and stories, too. Don’t miss this chance
to get up close and personal with real,
live llamas at the library.
I will be bending over backwards
to get to this event! On August 15th
and September 5th the Katonah Village
Improvement Society will present Free
Summer-time Yoga from 10 to 11am
on the John Jay Homestead lawn and
An Autumn Equinox Yoga Celebration
on September 19th from 10:30am
to noon. In the event of inclement
weather, the seminars will relocate to the
John Jay Homestead Ballroom.
The Port Chester Council for the
Arts and LawnChair Theatre presents
PUBLICATION EVERY THURSDAY: 914.216.1674 M-F 11A- 5P
SUBMIT ADS TUESDAY, 10 DAYS PRIOR TO RUN DATE
Page 15
among forty of Westchester County’s
up-and-coming business leaders who
recently received the 2015 “Rising Star”
Award from The Business Council
of Westchester. The “Rising Stars”
program is specifically designed to recognize individuals under the age of 40
who exemplify leadership, foresight and
a vision for the future of Westchester
County. Ortiz, 33, is Vice President of
Finance and Accounting at Diamond
Properties, and is an expert in corporate
finance analytics, financial reporting and
accounting. She is credited with helping
to lead the company to become one of
the first to achieve the Westchester
Green Business Certification.
On August 22nd the Read Wildlife
Sanctuary, at Playland Park in Rye
presents “Insect Walk: Who’s Out There
and What Are They Doing,” from 1
to 2:30pm, find out about these vital
creatures as you scout for them at the
preserve.
We recently had a blue moon in
the northern hemisphere sky, does that
mean it was sad or made of bleu cheese?
…See you next week.
parts. Residents also play in theme
park showcases for tourists where they
can see the great moments of cinema
come alive (something like Disneyland
and Universal Studios in the US). The
lives of most residents revolved entirely
around the film industry and those who
were not working directly in the films
were likely working in one of the supporting industries that attracted film
production crews to Tabernas. Life in
this town was like a never-ending film.
But with the passage of time and
the economic crisis, Tabernas lost all its
glamour and with it, the citizens, their
jobs. Pubs and local businesses were
forced to close; grown men in their peak
earning years lost their jobs and further
opportunities. Today, there is hardly any
decent paid work, only few tourists get
lost in the town and no future prospects
are in sight.
All of a sudden, a rumor flies that
a new big film production starring
Claudia Cardinale is coming into town.
For few people, this news offers a ray
of hope; a chance to escape the rough
reality of their daily lives. Some of the
workers in the town’s western film
museum start to dream of joining the
backstage production crew as electricians
or carpenters.
Another middle-aged man, who
happens to look like Jack Palance,
dreams of doing a stunt scene in front
of Cardinale. In fact, he still believes
that she is that young and beautiful
young woman that seduced Henry
Fonda and Charles Bronson in Leone’s
One Upon a Time in the West, back
in 1968. Pepe Novo, another actor
and stuntman, has a darker story. He
believes that he is son of Henry Fonda
who had a one-night-stand affair
with his mum during the shooting of
Leone’s film. And so, till now, he still
sports the same outfit worn by Fonda
in the classic spaghetti western: a
cowboy dressed in black from top to
bottom and big dark sideburns. If I
remember correctly, it was Fonda’s sole
villainous role in his renowned career.
The Last Spaghetti Western is a
very funny, yet poignant film about
how cinema can influence ordinary
people to the extreme, by compelling
them to live in a twilight zone somewhere between between reality and
fiction. It also shows how the image
of great stars like Eastwood, Bronson,
Fonda and Cardinale challenge time to
remain eternally beautiful as a long as
the film plays on again and again.
CALENDAR
News & Notes From Northern Westchester
“Romeo & Juliet” at the Westmoreland
Sanctuary in Mount Kisco on August
13th and at the Bedford Village
Memorial Park on August 14th.
The Northern Westchester Artists
Guild is sponsoring Art Under the
Bridge on Saturday, August 15th, at the
Chappaqua Train Station from 9:30am
to 1:30pm. After you have enjoyed the
work of local artists and artisans you can
stroll over to the Farmer’s Market and
shops on lower King Street.
The premiere equestrian competition the American Gold Cup returns
to Old Salem Farm in North Salem
on September 9-13, equestrian athletes
including Jessica Springsteen, daughter
of rocker Bruce Springsteen, horse
owners, VIPs, celebrities and young
riding hopefuls will all be there for the
show and jumping event…
Families are invited to free up some
space around their house by cleaning
out those closets, basements and attics
and bringing the “used but usable”
items to the Saxon Woods Garage Sale,
Saturday, September 26, from 9 a.m. to
3 p.m., at Saxon Woods Pool in White
Plains.
The good folks at Lasdon Park,
Arboretum and Veterans Memorial,
Route 35, in Katonah will hold a “Tour
of the Main House” on Sunday August
23. Learn about the history of the park
during a tour with the horticulturist.
Pre-registration required at (914) 8647263. Meet in the Shop at Lasdon.
Jill Ortiz of Diamond Properties was
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
The Last Spaghetti Western
By Sherif Awad
Spaghetti Westerns
were films about the
American West made in
Italy and Spain during
the mid-1960s, cashing in on great box
office demand worldwide. Sergio Leone
contributed to the most famous and
enduring ones like The Dollars Trilogy
starring Clint Eastwood and One Upon
a Time in the West starring Henry
Fonda, Charles Bronson and Claudia
Director Tonislav Hristov
Cardinale.
One documentary director from
Bulgaria is still influenced by the genre
and decided to travel to the small town
where they filmed these movies half a
century ago. Tonislav Hristov made his
first feature-length documentary, Family
Fortune, in 2009, followed by The Rules
of Single Life, Soul Food Stories and
Love and Engineering. The latter was
shown in Tribeca Film Festival last year.
And so Hristov travelled to the
Andalusian town of Tabernas to film his
documentary, Once Upon a Dream: A
Journey To The Last Spaghetti Western,
where he met many local residents
who are still captivated by the magic of
Westerns that were once shot in their
arid desert landscapes.
Tabernas is located in the southern
desert of Spain, a place that has served
for decades as the backdrop not only for
Spaghetti Westerns; the town has also
welcomed the cast and crews of many
other successful Hollywood productions
that went on to become international
hits and part of cinematic history:
Jack Palance look alike wants to join the film
King of Kings, Cleopatra, Lawrence
of Arabia, Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade. Elizabeth Taylor, Harrison
Ford, Claudia Cardinale, Sean Connery,
Steven Spielberg and hundreds of other
famous names in the film industry have
visited here and left their mark.
For generations, local residents
lived in an almost surreal setting, caught
in a twilight zone between theatre,
film and life. They all somehow made
a living working in theatre and film;
some as extras and others won bit
Pepe Novo
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a
film/video critic and curator. He is the film
editor of Egypt Today Magazine (www.
EgyptToday.com) and the Artistic Director
for both the Alexandria film Festival ,
and the Arab Rotterdam Festival in The
Netherlands. He also contributes to Variety,
in the United States and is the Film Critic of
Variety, Arabia (http://amalmasryalyoum.
com/ennode189132 and The Westchester
Guardian: www.WestchesterGuardian.com
Page 16
PEOPLE
The 4th Annual WFAN Celebrity Softball
Game, took place Thursday Evening, August
6th at 6 PM at City Field in New Rochelle
Top Left to Right: Radio Personality Craig Carton, Former Yankee Mariano Rivera,
All-Star Coach Harold Crocker, Parks and Recreation Supervisor Frank Bernabei.
Photo Credit: Adam Smith
Left to Right: Radio Personality Boomer
Esiason with Ray Rice
Open 10AM - 8PM Mon-Sat.
Juice Bar • Smoothies • Salads
Paninis • Rice Bowls
Dine In -Take-Out • Dobbs Ferry Delivery
914.479.5555
MIXONMAINNY.com
Both teams: WFAN’s All- Stars vs. our local team players
63 MAIN ST., DOBBS FERRY, NY
WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM

August 13, 2015 - WestchesterGuardian.com

Transcription

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