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Volume 2, Number 20 FREE
East and West Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Little Italy and Chinatown
December 8 - 14, 2011
EDITORIAL,LETTERS
PAGE 10
PROGRESS REPORTSUPPLEMENT
PAGES 13 - 24
BY AIDAN GARDINER
The financial crisis facing CooperUnion has some people lashing out inanger and others trying to find a calmersolution, but it seems like everyonein the school is determined to avoidcharging tuition.At the end of October, Cooper’s pres-ident, Jamshed Bharucha, announcedthat the school was considering charg-ing tuition for the first time in roughlya century because a decade of financialdifficulties had ballooned the school’sannual deficit to some $16 million.Many — both within the school andwithout — were shocked by the newsbecause Cooper had long been laudedfor its financial prudence.Now, students, faculty and alumniare trying to both make sense of theproblem and fix it without chargingtuition because they see the free educa-tion Cooper provides as essential to theschool’s success.Doing their part, alumni hosteda forum at Cooper’s Great Hall onMonday. Some speakers pored overfinancial tables and others reaffirmedin impassioned written statementstheir commitment to what they see asthe fundamental principles of CooperUnion.“It’s not that Cooper Union holds upfree education — but that free educa-tion holds up The Cooper Union,” saidDavid Gersten, an architecture profes-sor at the school and an alumnus.Milton Glaser, a Cooper alumnuswho famously designed the “I
♥
N Y”logo in the 1970s, briefly spoke.“Thank you all for being here anddemonstrating your affection and lovefor this school,” Glaser said. “I feel thesame way.”Unlike the community conversationwith Cooper board Chairperson MarkEpstein at the Great Hall a month ear-lier, the three-hour alumni forum pro-ceeded without incident, save for sev-eral hecklers who occasionally punctu-ated the otherwise calm discussion. When Peter Cafiero, Cooper’s alum-ni association president, said that itwasn’t the time to look for fault in thepast, but instead forward to a solu-tion, Professor Roderick Knox repeat-edly shouted, “Accountability!” beforestarting to leave. When another man inthe audience loudly scolded Knox, thetwo briefly argued, but quickly stoppedto allow Cafiero to continue.
Cooper alums try to engineera solution to keep school free
Photo by Tequila Minsky
Trustee Emeritus Milton Glaser, who designed the “I
♥
N Y” logo, was among the Cooper Union alumni who spokeat Monday night’s meeting.
BY LINCOLN ANDERSONANDJEFFERSON SIEGEL
They’ve tried breaking in,and they’ve tried appealingto the conscience of TrinityChurch. Neither worked.Last Saturday, members of Occupy Wall Street tried anew tactic to gain accessto the open lot owned byTrinity at Canal St. and SixthAve. — forgoing food.Just after 1 p.m. onSaturday, three men satdown on the tan-coveredgravel outside the wood-en fence ringing the lot,which is adjacent to DuarteSquare, and commenced ahunger strike. With a signpropped up next to themreading, “Hunger Strike Day1,” Brian Udall, 18, fromMontana; and Diego Ibanez,23, and Shae Willes, 22,both from Utah, appearedcalm, composed and deter-mined.“We are here to apply
O.W.S. hits the wall again; Hunger strike gets stuffed
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
A blue-ribbon panelof architects, design-ers and AIDS activists isconducting a competitionfor an AIDS memorial inthe planned triangle parkacross from the former St.Vincent’s Hospital campusin Greenwich Village.Michael Arad, who wonthe design competition forthe national 9/11 Memorialat the former World TradeCenter site, will head a jury soliciting and judgingdesigns for an AIDS memo-rial in the park. A park atthe site is mandated as partof Rudin Management’s resi-dential redevelopment of theSt. Vincent’s site.Richard Meier, archi-tect of the Getty Center inLos Angeles, museums inBarcelona and Frankfurtand the Westbeth artists res-idence in the West Village,is another member of thepanel.Elizabeth Diller, aPrinceton architecture pro-
High-powered panel is judging designs for AIDS memorial
Continued on page 6 Continued on page 8
INSID E !
D e ce mbe r 20 11
PU T S OME J OY IN Y OU R R ET IRE ME N T, P. 4
BY JANELBLADOW
M
y fr iend George (bornandr ais
edonLong Island) met me attheair por tin Albuquer que,N ew M exico.Befor eheading tothe hotelinSantaFeandmeeting up withtheother son our tr ip,w e made aquickstoptoP ecosN ationalH istor icalP arkfor atour of theancientpueblos.Our
g uidew asP ar kRang er Patr iciaLenihan.Shearr iv ed attheN ationalParkServ iceafew y ear searlier f ollow ing ahectic journalisticstintinW ashing ton,D.C.Butshew asbor nand raised onM anhattan’sLow er EastSide,Grand Str eet,in fact.In lessthancouplehoursI hadmettw opeoplein thehig hdesertof N ew M exicoandboth w er e former N ew Y orkers!I thoug htthatw asunique.Butitr eally w asn’t.Ov er thenexttendaysI metalmostasmany N ew Y orkersasI did nativeN ew M exicans.Andevery oneelsew aseither fr omCalif or niaor W isconsin.N ew Y orker shav ebeenattractedtotheplainsandmountainsofN ew M exicoaslong asw hitemenhav ebeencon-quer ing thecontinent.Oneof themostnotor iousN ew Y or ker s,Billy T heKid,bor nW illiamM cCarty intheIr ishslumsof Low er EastSidein1859,roamedtheN ew M exicoT er ritory dur ing thelastnine y earsof hisw ild,shor tlif e.Andfor years,oneof America’sg reatestar tists,Geor giaO’Keef fe,spenther w inter sinN ew Y or kCity w ithher husband,famedphotogr a-pher Ar thur Stieg litz ,andinsummer slef thimhometoshootthechang ing ur ban sky scapew hileshev enturedtosolitude andserenity of GhostRanch.Sheeventu-ally mov edpermanently toAbiquiu, just af ew milesfr omther edhillsandJ oshuatreeshelov ingly painted.W hatdraw sbig city folkstothe ar id mesasof thehig hdesert?T he answ er ssurprisedme.
Co n tin u ed on p ag e 2
N e wY o r k t o N e w M e x i c o
Continued on page 4
2
December 8 - 14, 2011
Fracking opponents demand buffer zone be made bigger
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
The proposed New York State rules fornatural gas drilling by horizontal hydraulicfracturing brought scores of opponents anda few supporters to a hearing at Borough of Manhattan Community College last week.Environmental advocates and New YorkCity elected officials say the relatively newdrilling method known as fracking pres-ents potentially devastating risks to waterresources, air quality and the quality of life,especially in the state’s Southern Tier of counties bordering Pennsylvania, where thegas-bearing Marcellus Shale formation liesmore than a mile below the surface.Indeed, the state Department of Environmental Conservation last year tookthe Catskill/Delaware watershed, which sup-plies drinking water to about 10 million NewYork City and Westchester residents, out of consideration for fracking.Nevertheless the proposed rules call foronly a 1,000-foot buffer zone between frack-ing operations and watershed infrastructure.Borough President Scott Stringer told theNov. 30 D.E.C. hearing that the 1,000-footbuffer would not protect water suppliesfrom potential damage.“I am deeply concerned that this inad-equate buffer zone could compromise thepurity of the city’s unfiltered drinking waterand gravely damage our water delivery infra-structure,” Stringer said.The fracking process involves injecting mil-lions of gallons of water laced with toxic chem-icals and sand under high pressure to fractureshale formations to release methane gas. Theprocess calls for drilling down between 5,000and 8,000 feet to the Marcellus Shale, thendrilling horizontally for several thousand feetinto the formation to be fracked.The city’s Department of EnvironmentalProtection submitted testimony that the1,000-foot buffer zone would not mitigatethe risks of methane gas intrusion into watertunnels and shafts.Albert Appleton, former commissioner of the city D.E.P., called for a minimum bufferzone of one mile. Going even farther, environ-mental consultants Hazen and Sawyer havecalled for a seven-mile buffer zone around thecity’s water deliver infrastructure.Assemblymember Richard Gottfried,chairperson of the Assembly HealthCommittee, said fracking would imperilwater supply and the environment.“It is also clear that drilling operationsand associated major truck traffic would haveserious harmful environmental impacts,”Gottfried said.“If hydrofracking is not safe for the NewYork City watershed area — and it is not —then it is also not safe for any area wherepeople drink groundwater,” Gottfried said.Residents of Dimock, Pennsylvania,where fracking has been conducted fornearly three years, have discovered their wellwater has been contaminated with gas.But oil and gas industry advocates con-tend that the U.S. could become energyself-sufficient and improve air quality withrelatively clean-burning natural gas. Thereserves of methane gas in various shaleformations in the U.S. would rival SaudiArabia’s oil reserves, according to gas indus-try sources.Supporters also declare that gas drillingwould pump millions of dollars into thestate’s economy in taxes, employment andland leases to property owners.The Independent Oil and Gas Associationof New York told the D.E.C. Nov. 30 hearingthat the proposed rules were too onerousand would limit opportunity for Upstatecommunities to share in the new drilling’seconomic benefits.“Without moderation, these well-intentioned but unnecessarily burdensomerequirements will prove to be a regulatorymonument to lost opportunity,” said BradGill, the association’s executive director.But environmental advocates say the pro-posed rules were really drafted by the gasindustry, and that D.E.C. lacks the staff toenforce them.The Delaware River Basin Commission,composed of the governors of New York,New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware,cancelled a vote on fracking in the riverbasin scheduled for Nov. 21 after JackMarkell, Delaware’s governor, said hewould vote no.
Photo by Shell Sheddy
On Wednesday, “Fracktivist” EkayniChamberlain dropped off a “messagein a bottle” — toxic fracked water fromthe Sautners’ well in Damascus, Penn.— and a letter for Governor Cuomo athis Midtown office. The “deep house”singer has held a silent vigil outsideCuomo’s office every Monday for thepast two months.
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December 8 - 14, 2011
3
ROSKOFF DOES IT AGAIN:
It’s an annual ritual, justlike Santa Claus, the Hanukah menorah, overindulging oneggnog and regifting. We’re talking about
Allen Roskoff
’sholiday party — actually, we’re talking about the zanyinvite that Roskoff always does for the party. This year’stheme takes it inspiration from Ken Kesey’s chilling clas-sic of dysfunctional administrators running the asylum,“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Naturally, the out-spoken gay political activist stars as the rabble-rousingMcMurphy, with white-jacketed Mayor
Bloomberg
andpotential mayoral candidates Council Speaker
ChristineQuinn
and Police Commissioner
Ray Kelly
pushingRoskoff/McMurphy to the brink. Meanwhile, anotherRoskoff nemesis,
Susan Stetzer
, Community Board 3’sdistrict manager, is ironically pictured as a sexy pole danc-er because, according to nightlife advocate Roskoff, she’sa foe of bars and clubs, and so has earned his wrath. Hey,we don’t make this stuff up (in fact, we
couldn’t
make thisstuff up!), we just report it.
NEVER GIVE UP THE FIGHT!
Legendary, lavender-loving L.E.S. activist
Frances Goldin
, below right, was atMonday night’s alumni meeting at Cooper Union’s GreatHall, adding her voice to the chorus of cries for no tuitionat the prestigious, but cash-strapped school. ... Last month,after Occupy Wall Street was evicted from Zuccotti Park,
Daniel
, below left, was wheeling down to the FinancialDistrict park to try to lend his support.
“It’s Worth The Trip Down The Street!”
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