BUDGET BLUES = LOBBYIST PAYDAY
FIRST CUTS FROM STATE, BUT THEY MAY NOT BE THE DEEPEST
By Alan S. Chartock
There is now officially hell to pay among the state’s agencies and not-for-profit community. Anyone with even tangential knowledge of, or influence on, the New York political system is hearing phones ringing off the hook, and for good reason. Facing a multi-billion dollar budget deficit for both this year and next, Gov. David Paterson has pursued a Sherman-like approach to slashing and burning everything. I run a network of public radio stations, and our funding from the state has been cut by 50 percent, with hints of even more to come. I spoke to my cousin, Lois Carswell who, among her other good works, Read more
LIFE TIPS FROM MTV’S ‘IT GIRL’
FOR GUIDANCE IN 2009, JUST ASK: WHAT WOULD WHITNEY DO?
By Lorraine Duffy Merkl
Here’s my New Year’s resolution: watch successful New Yorkers and do what they do.
I truly believe that if I follow this new path, the usual things that I resolve to do (lose weight, get more freelance work, lose weight, improve personal relationships, lose weight, etc.) will all fall into place.
I have decided to add to my list of those to emulate current It Girl and Los Angeles transplant Whitney Port, who has a new series on MTV called The City. Read more
TELLING STORIES
ADAM SANDLER CONTINUES HIS WINNING STREAK WITH BEDTIME STORIES
By Armond White
Imagination is Adam Sandler’s response to bad times. As Bedtime Stories’ hotel employee Skeeter Bronson, Sandler helps his single-parent sister (Courteney Cox) during her new job search by babysitting his niece and nephew. He tells them bedtime stories that spur their own fantasies and—magically—come true in his own life. This is an inspired metaphor for the way pop culture ought to work: It is handed down by one generations, taken up by the next, understood by all, and becomes a source of amazement and spiritual sustenance. Wall-E be damned! Read more
DEFIANCE
EDWARD ZWICK’S BADASS TITLE, DEFIANCE, IMPLIES A HOLOCAUST FILM WHERE THE JEWS FIGHT BACK— BUT IT DOESN’T TOP SPIELBERG
By Armond White
Torn between making an art movie and an uplifting entertainment feature, Edward Zwick can’t stop the gun-battles and genocide of his Holocaust movie Defiance from seeming like cheap thrills and mawkishness. It’s time for Zwick to man-up to his intelligence and go for broke. Defiance needed the moral and formal rigor of a Jean-Marie Straub film—if only to separate it from guilt-inducing memorials like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Reader, Adam Resurrected, Good and Valkyrie. Misguided “escapism” is ruining Zwick’s high-minded ideas. Read more
PREDICTIONS
OUR PANEL OF SOOTHSAYERS PONDERS 2009
Compiled by Dan Rivoli and Charlotte Eichna
As has become a West Side Spirit tradition at the cusp of a new year, we like to ask for predictions from various illuminating personalities populating our neighborhoods. There was no shortage of responses this December, with prophesies for 2009 covering everything from the much-debated replacement for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat to the new First Pet. We hope these forecasts are an enjoyable way to ring in the New Year, or at least a way to pass the time while nursing a hangover. Read more
TALES FROM THE BEDROOM (AND ELSEWHERE)
IN DERROW’S NEW ANTHOLOGY, A WOMAN’S FRANK PERSPECTIVE ON SEX
By Lorne Jaffe
Honest, reassuring sexuality from a woman’s perspective in a literary format. That was Paula Derrow’s goal in compiling Behind the Bedroom Door: Getting It, Giving It, Loving It, Missing It (Delacorte Press, a division of Random House), a frank, often uproarious anthology released on Dec. 30. The collection features 26 of today’s most accomplished female writers, including Susan Cheever, Lauren Slater, Julie Powell and Valerie Frankel, whose unflinching accounts explore everything from the joys and risks of one-night stands to the frequently hilarious accidents that occur in the bedroom or the backseat or any other imaginable place. Read more
SAIGON GRILL SAGA
To the Editor:
I commend Sarah Seltzer and West Side Spirit for keeping the plight and saga of the Saigon Grill workers before the public (“Cover-Up and Fraud Allegations,” Dec. 11). This kind of journalism supports the courage of the workers and the efforts of community and elected officials who have stood up against the mistreatment of these restaurant delivery workers. Read more
BIKE SAFETY, IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
To the Editor:
Reader Bunny Abraham asks Peter Goldwasser of Transportation Alternatives, “[W]hat has been done to alleviate the craziness of the bike riders besides ensuring that they wear helmets?” (Letter, Dec. 11)
Actually, the “helmet law” does not apply to adult civilian bikers; it applies only to children 12 and under, and commercial (i.e. delivery) bikers. So although it is certainly a good idea for everyone to wear a helmet, civilian adults are not required to do so.
To answer Ms. Abraham’s overall question, the laws can be quickly summarized as follows. All bikers are subject to those provisions of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law that apply to bikes, including riding with traffic, obeying the lights, not riding on the Read more
HELICOPTERS NEED REGULATION
To the Editor:
Your well-balanced article (“They’ve Had It with Helicopters,” Dec. 18) illustrated two fundamental problems with tourist helicopters. First, our city government has put the needs of an industry over the needs of its citizens. Second, it has chosen to turn a blind eye when that industry abuses the very citizens that our city officials should protect.
It seems disingenuous when Janel Patterson states that the New York City Economic Development Corporation (for Aviation) “monitor the calls that come into the city via 311.” When I called 311, I was told to call the agency and I was provided a direct telephone number. When I did call (as did some of my neighbors) our calls were not returned. Read more
FLIGHT OF THE CONFETTI
Maggie Bates and Megan and Cathleen Childs from Fort Worth, Texas, revel in swirling confetti blown up from a subway grate. The display is part of the annual air worthiness test for confetti used during the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebrations. Inset: Some of the confetti released at midnight on Dec. 31 will feature handwritten wishes created by people who stopped by the Times Square Visitors Center. Three thousand pounds of confetti will be thrown by hand from various buildings in Times Square to celebrate the New Year. Photo By Andrew Schwartz
