Adam Wainwright Injury Should Reignite Designated Hitter Debate

Abstract: By the time Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom reached Yankee Stadium on Sunday afternoon, he had heard the news that Adam Wainwright, the St. Louis Cardinals’ ace, might be lost for the season. Wainwright injured his ankle and Achilles’ tendon in an at-bat on Saturday night in Milwaukee. He was placed on the disabled list on Sunday, and the team announced on Monday that he would miss the rest of the season. Wainwright’s injury should rekindle much-needed discussion about bringing the designated-hitter rule to the National League. While this is not a debate that keeps me up at night, it is one that is giving N.L. managers nightmares. At least it should. Pitchers are injured all the time, of course. It’s the nature of the beast. Matt Harvey, Yu Darvish, Jose Fernandez and Zack Wheeler have all missed time with arm injuries in recent years. But they were injured performing duties generally related to pitching. Having N.L. pitchers continue to hit is a part of the game whose time has passed. There is risk enough in pitching and fielding the position. Why add to the risk by having the pitcher hit? Last week, Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals jammed his thumb while batting. He told CBSSports.com that he would have no problem with the National League dropping its rule that pitchers must take their turn at bat. “If you look at it from the macro side, who’d people rather see hit — Big Papi or me?” Scherzer said, referring to the Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz. “Who would people rather see, a real hitter hitting home runs or a pitcher swinging a wet newspaper? Both leagues need to be on the same set of rules.” Image Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang injured a foot while running the bases in an interleague game in 2008. Credit Richard Carson/Reuters DeGrom, a former shortstop, said he would prefer to keep the tradition. “It’s unfortunate what happened,” he said, referring to Wainwright. “But I just feel like that’s been part of the National League.” If baseball ever dies, the cause of death will be complications caused by tradition. The Mets are off to their best start since 1986, and a large part of their success will hinge on the performance of a pitching staff anchored by Harvey and deGrom. Manager Terry Collins needed only one name to make his point about wanting to see the designated hitter in the National League. “Chien-Ming Wang,” Collins said, referring to the former Yankees pitching star who injured his foot in 2008 while running the bases in an interleague game against Houston. Wang was 8-2, and he had won 46 games in the previous three seasons. But the Yankees suspected the injury led to a change in his delivery and then to shoulder problems, which prematurely derailed his career. He won only eight more games in the majors, and he now pitches in the Atlanta Braves’ system. “Here’s one of the, at the time, best pitchers in baseball,” Collins said. “He blew his leg out and never recovered from it.” The battle over the designated hitter has been going on for more than a century. Connie Mack made the suggestion in 1906, and the Oakland A’s owner Charles O. Finley carried the flag for the idea in the 1970s. Finley argued that most pitchers could not hit anyway, so why not replace them with professional hitters who could put punch in the lineup and fans in the seats? The D.H. was adopted in 1973 , but only in the American League. Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson , who spent most of his executive career in the American League, would be fine if things stayed that way. Image The Mets’ Jacob deGrom likes the tradition of a pitcher hitting. Credit Kathy Willens/Associated Press “I happen to like pitchers hitting,” he said. “I wish they were better at it, but I don’t see this injury risk as a strong rationale for a D.H. in both leagues.” He added: “I think it’s foolish to think you could put some of these guys in a cocoon and eliminate injury risk across the board. Our biggest problem with pitching injuries is not with running or swinging, it’s throwing. That’s the biggest problem we have. That’s the one we need to focus on.” Alderson does not feel that an injury here or there justifies a drastic change. “I don’t legislate change on account of one incident,” he said, although there now have been several. “If you’re seeing a pattern — of conduct, or injury or performance of one type or another — then I think that’s something you begin to think about and consider addressing.” The injuries to Scherzer and Wainwright may be the catalysts for renewed discussion. Collins, for one, sounded as if he wanted to have that conversation. There is nothing romantic or nostalgic about watching one of your pitchers — especially your ace — be injured while running out of the batter’s box or being nicked by a pitch he could probably not hit anyway. “You can’t tell me that anybody comes out to Citi Field to see Matt Harvey hit,” Collins said. “Not a person there.” Case closed. At least it should be.

Adam Wainwright
St. Louis Cardinals
Max Scherzer
Chien-Ming Wang
Baseball
Sandy Alderson
Terry L Collins
Sports injury


D’Antoni Changes Knicks’ Lineup, but Results Don’t Change

Abstract: Mike D’Antoni had given the Knicks just about everything they could want: the freedom to shoot, the latitude to improvise and the patience to let them work out the kinks. After having more kinks than victories, it was time for something new. Hoping to stanch a losing streak and regain some chemistry, D’Antoni reshuffled his starting lineup Sunday afternoon. Nate Robinson and Al Harrington were out. Jared Jeffries and Tim Thomas were in. But the changes proved largely cosmetic, and the result all too familiar, as Carmelo Anthony led the Denver Nuggets to a 117-110 victory at Madison Square Garden. Anthony, who missed three games because of an injured elbow, scored 32 points, including 11 down the stretch, as Denver turned a 4-point deficit into a 114-108 lead. At that point, it did not seem to matter which Knicks were on the court. They missed their last eight field-goal attempts over the final five and a half minutes. The Knicks (11-18) were more competitive and more efficient than they were in Friday’s humiliating loss to Minnesota. Still, the game ended in defeat, their sixth in a row. “It’s still a work in progress,” D’Antoni said. “We got to see who needs to start games, who needs to finish games and how we need to play.” It appeared that D’Antoni wanted more ball movers, as opposed to ball shooters, on the court. Robinson and Harrington have a tendency to play one-on-one. But they were on the court in the final minutes when the offense once again became stale. Robinson took five of the final eight shots, often with a defender right on him. He scored a team-high 20 points but went 5 for 17 from the field. “The ball stopped,” said Chris Duhon, who had 11 assists and 17 points. “We ended up taking bad shots at the end of the game, tough shots with the shot clock running down. You can’t beat a good team that way.” The Nuggets (20-11), who have been revived by their November trade for Chauncey Billups, lost control of the game briefly when the Knicks wiped out a 12-point deficit in the second half. But Anthony and Billups (14 points) hit the big shots, and Denver converted 57 percent of its field-goal attempts. Harrington missed a 3-point attempt that could have cut the deficit to 3 points with 30 seconds left. He finished with 15 points, going 5 for 12 from the field. David Lee had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks. D’Antoni said the Knicks’ shot selection late in the game “wasn’t very good,” but he said their biggest problem remained on defense. “I know I joke around a lot about it, but the only way we’re going to win is to get better at it,” he said. That was, at least in part, why D’Antoni inserted the lanky Jeffries and Thomas into the lineup, and moved the 6-foot-8 Wilson Chandler to shooting guard. But D’Antoni also seemed to be looking for some accountability in the offense. Harringon and Robinson are the Knicks’ two most explosive scorers, but they can be impulsive and self-indulgent. D’Antoni has touched on those issues, without pointing to specific players, for the last two weeks. “It’s something we will definitely work on,” D’Antoni said. “A good offense just means the ball moves. It can’t come down to individual play and it can’t come down just to going one-on-one. We got away with it a little on the West Coast because we were making shots. It was a little bit of fool’s gold. And that will not last.” The new lineup produced the desired results, at least initially. In the opening minutes, the Knicks seemed active on defense and organized on offense. They had a 12-10 lead when D’Antoni made his first substitution. Harrington and Robinson said they were fine with the move to the bench. Judging by their play, they were also unaffected. Harrington shot the ball the first three times he touched it Sunday, resulting in a 3-pointer and two misses, including an air ball. “We lost five in a row,” Harrington said, “so I think sometimes you have to change things up, bring more firepower off the bench, see how that works.” REBOUNDS Renaldo Balkman, a fan favorite during his two seasons with the Knicks, had 9 points and 8 rebounds for the Nuggets in his first game back at the Garden. He has made an impression on his new coach, George Karl. “I love him,” Karl said. “I’ve asked him three times today: ‘Tell me your scouting report on the Knicks. What about Chandler? What about Richardson.’ He said: ‘I locked them down, man. I don’t know.’ I don’t think he’s going to be a coach in his future.”

Denver Nuggets
New York Knicks
Basketball
D'Antoni Mike
Anthony Carmelo


Inquiries in Britain Uncover Loopholes in Drug Trials

Abstract: The trial of a new drug in a London hospital that nearly killed six men three months ago and left them in intensive care for weeks has prompted numerous reports and recommendations that will change the way drugs are tested. But the six men, who were all young and healthy just months ago, now suffer from serious medical problems, and they have been unable to get any of the drug companies involved in the trial to cover their medical expenses, or provide compensation — other than a one-time payment of under $20,000 apiece. In recent weeks, lab tests and medical reports have shown that the men are suffering from severely damaged immune systems that will probably leave them vulnerable to disease for life. All have spent weeks in intensive care with organs failing, and they still suffer myriad symptoms. One of the men, Navneet Modi, 25, who recently received a master’s degree in business, said that his damaged memory and blackouts made it impossible for him to work, and that he also suffered from fatigue and diarrhea. “Everyone’s turned their back, and I’m angry, really angry,” Mr. Modi said. He noted that the British National Health Service has covered his medical costs so far, but that the company that performed the trial would not reimburse the cost of travel to the hospital. New tests and investigations into the incident have highlighted loopholes in a drug-testing system that in some instances seems better devised to bring drugs to market than to protect human safety, especially when it comes to medicines made possible by advanced biotechnology, specialists said. Already, regulators in the United States and Europe say they are taking a go-slow approach as they develop new procedures. The trial three months ago, conducted at London’s Northwick Park Hospital, “highlighted an urgent need to review the safety of first-in-man trials of novel agents,” concluded an interim British Health Department panel’s report, which was released in late July. The report also urged an examination of “how risks in medicine development are currently assessed and minimized” by drug makers. The drug in the Northwick Park trial, TGN1412, was a potent immune system stimulant that overrides the body’s normal regulatory mechanisms. But it was tested according to much the same standards that govern more ordinary pharmaceuticals . British regulators approved the trial in just 17 days, and the testing company did not have an adequate response plan should disastrous adverse reactions occur, British investigators have concluded. Since the trial, the British Health Department, the United States Food and Drug Administration and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry have been reviewing the data and issuing recommendations for testing new medicines, particularly those aimed at essential biological pathways. “The lesson learned is that now when we see a molecule like this — one with a novel mechanism — we need a very different approach,” said Dr. John K. Jenkins, of the F.D.A. “Now that we’ve seen this episode, we will be very cautious going forward.” TeGenero, the small German biotechnology firm that developed the drug as a revolutionary treatment for cancer and arthritis , filed for bankruptcy-court protection on July 4. A lawyer for four of the six trial subjects, including Mr. Modi, said TeGenero’s insurance coverage — which was $3.7 million — was not adequate to cover a calamitous outcome. The lawyer, Martyn Day, of Leigh Day & Company in London, said the insurance policy included a clause that no payments would be made to subjects who sued. The American-based testing firm that conducted the trial, Parexel International, of Waltham, Mass., has said that it carried out the trial according to “appropriate policies and procedures,” and that it is not culpable. Parexel, which declined to comment for this article, does contract drug testing, with centers in the United States, Europe and Africa. It continues to operate research units at Northwick Park, and has removed all mention of the trial from its Web site. Recent investigations into the trial said all parties did their jobs according to formal regulatory and legal requirements. But, in retrospect, almost all scientists agree that these requirements were inadequate for TGN1412. Mr. Day said that under British law, TeGenero was primarily responsible. The company has maintained that the reactions were unforeseeable. But he said that he would argue that Parexel should have made sure that TeGenero had adequate insurance. He also questioned the design and conduct of what it should have seen as a delicate trial. The six research subjects were given infusions of the new and unknown drugs only 10 minutes apart. Virtually all reviews of the trial have concluded that such new drugs should be given to one patient at a time, with long intervals in between, so that monitors can screen for serious side effects. Mr. Day said that the men should have immediately been given high doses of steroids to treat the serious reaction to the new drug. He said such a reaction was noted as a possibility in the study’s official protocol. He also said that he was shocked to discover that British regulators had approved the first trial of the new drug after 17 days, and had not called in specialists to guide them. In contrast, he said, “It would take three to four months, minimum, to get a paper about this drug published in a peer-reviewed journal.” Within hours of being injected with the new drug, the six men were all experiencing a syndrome called cytokine storm, where an outpouring of immune molecules attack organs of the body. All required weeks of intensive care, suffering failure of their kidneys, lungs and circulatory systems. Lab work on their blood has been recently made public, and immunologists have been thunderstruck by the fury of the reaction. “These numbers are over the top, far different than anything that would occur in nature,” said Marc Gavin, an immunologist who studies immune regulation at the University of Washington in Seattle. “The drug went right to the very heart of immune activation.” In recent tests on four of the subjects, all showed previously unheard-of severe depletion of a type of immune cell called “regulatory T-cells,” according to reports from Prof. Richard Powell, an immunologist, provided by Mr. Day. The cells modulate the body’s reaction to foreign molecules, like those that produce allergies or even infections, and if they are lacking or dysfunctional, it can create overwhelming immune reactions against minor allergens or even the body itself. At the milder end of the spectrum are diseases like lupus and colitis. Professor Powell wrote that Mr. Modi was “highly likely” to develop one of these disorders, at least, based on symptoms and lab tests. For the past three months, regulators all over the world have been trying to piece together what went wrong, because the drug has not outwardly provoked such a response during animal testing. In the United States, the F.D.A. is trying to develope “better biomarkers for human toxicity” that can be used to screen new products for safety before they are introduced into humans for the first time, Dr. Jenkins said. Mr. Modi had just finished business school in London when he signed up with Parexel to earn a bit of extra money, about $3,000. He had planned to return to India this summer to join his family’s electronics business in Calcutta. At 8:30 a.m. on March 13, he became the third human to be infused with TGN1412 at Northwick Park. Within 90 minutes, the pain in his head and back was unbearable, he recalled. Soon, all six trial subjects were moaning or screaming and begging for pain pills. The doctor and half-dozen nurses from Parexel running the trial urged everyone to remain calm and administered paracetamol, a mild pain reliever. Mr. Day said that after Mr. Modi had lapsed into semiconsciousness, the team administered a low dose of steroids. In testimony before the British expert review panel, the intensive-care doctors said that while they were aware that the patients seemed to be having an “inflammatory” reaction, the Parexel team did not inform them of the possibility of cytokine storm for hours. Mr. Modi expressed anger at Parexel, saying that the night he was transferred to the intensive-care unit, the company “turned their back and drew up the drawbridge.”

Biotechnology
Health Department
Food and Drug Administration
Great Britain
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Tests and Testing
Medicine and Health
Science and Technology


Watergate and Lessons Not Learned

Abstract: WASHINGTON — William S. Cohen served as an influential three-term United States senator, as well as secretary of defense, and is a respected global thinker. He believes his defining political moment was a summer four decades ago. As a 33-year-old freshman Republican representative from Maine, he was a central figure in the House Judiciary Committee’s vote on July 27, 1974, to impeach President Richard M. Nixon. It was one of the most important and high-minded deliberations in congressional history. Unfortunately, it failed to become a model for subsequent actions. The impeachment of President Bill Clinton and the calls to follow the same course for George W. Bush and now Barack Obama are petty and frivolous by comparison. Mr. Cohen recalled members’ struggling with the impeachment standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” These recollections are a reminder that American politicians can rise and respond to crises. Mr. Cohen, who ignored advice in 1972 not to go on the Judiciary Committee — because “it doesn’t do anything” — said lawmakers were short on precedents and could look only to English law and the politically tainted effort to impeach President Andrew Johnson more than a century earlier. There was, however, the voluminous record of the charges, including the nationally televised hearings of the special Senate Watergate Committee. To prepare for the impeachment deliberations, Mr. Cohen memorized the testimony before the Senate panel to compare it with his committee’s hearings. He and most of his colleagues, excluding a few Nixon sycophants on the right and Nixon-haters on the left, took their role very seriously, he said. “We realized impeachment had to be of such gravity,” he said, it would have to rely on “the fundamental foundation of the Constitution if you’re going to remove a president that people have just elected.” The mood was tense and the outcome was in doubt well into July. Mr. Cohen was called a “Judas and traitor” by Republicans in his home state, and his children were threatened. The swing bloc — a half-dozen Republicans, including Mr. Cohen, and three Southern Democrats — zeroed in on charges of obstruction of justice. In particular, they focused on allegations that Nixon directed a cover-up of the attempted break-in by campaign operatives into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building, and abuse of power, including using the Central Intelligence Agency for domestic political purposes, trying to get the Internal Revenue Service to go after political opponents and breaking into a psychiatrist’s office to find dirt on a leaker, Daniel Ellsberg. A crucial figure in these deliberations was Representative Charles E. Wiggins of California, the president’s chief defender. “He was a great lawyer,” who forced impeachment advocates to develop a deeper and more substantive case, Mr. Cohen said. On July 27, the committee voted 27 to 11 to impeach the president, with all the Democrats and six Republicans, including Mr. Cohen, in the majority. A week later, other court-ordered tapes were released that clearly implicated the president; Mr. Wiggins and most other Republicans came out against Nixon, who then resigned. The panel focused only on the larger fundamental issues. It rejected impeaching the president over tax evasion or the bombing campaign in Cambodia. Its successors ignored this precedent in voting to impeach Mr. Clinton for lying about sex, or proposing to remove George W. Bush for the Iraq war or his signing statements to interpret legislation, and now some Republicans are calling for proceedings against Mr. Obama for executive actions his opponents consider improper. “You look at the substance of these charges and you say, this is not serious,” Mr. Cohen said. Forty years ago, after the committee voted early that Saturday evening — and it was clear a president was going to be removed for the first time — I walked from the committee room in the Rayburn Building to the Capitol. The flag was flying, tourists were milling about, there were no troops in the streets. It was a seminal American moment.

Impeachment
Bill Clinton
Barack Obama
President Nixon
George W Bush


Top Ranks of Bloomberg Managers Are Largely White

Abstract: Since winning a third term in November, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has announced a parade of major appointments: bringing aboard three new deputy mayors and six commissioners and trumpeting most of those arrivals in the Blue Room at City Hall . All nine are white. All but one is a man. Those selections are hardly anomalous. Despite a pledge he made when he took office to make diversity a hallmark of his administration, Mr. Bloomberg has consistently surrounded himself with a predominantly white and male coterie of key policy makers, according to an analysis of personnel data by The New York Times . The city’s non-Hispanic white population is now 35 percent, because of an influx of nonwhite immigrants and other demographic changes in the past two decades. But Mr. Bloomberg presides over an administration in which more than 70 percent of the senior jobs are held by whites, and he has failed to improve on the oft-criticized diversity record of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani . “Obviously, it demonstrates no greater commitment under Bloomberg than there was under Giuliani in appointing minorities to high-level positions in government,” said Abraham May Jr., executive director of the city’s Equal Employment Practices Commission , an independent agency that monitors diversity and discrimination in city government. Moreover, New York lags behind the three cities closest to its population in diversifying its senior ranks. In Los Angeles , 52 percent of the top advisers to Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa are white; in Chicago , that figure is 61 percent for Mayor Richard M. Daley ; and in Houston , it is 55 percent for Mayor Annise D. Parker. “The numbers — they’re sad,” said Kevin P. Johnson, a former assistant commissioner of the Department of Correction, who was responsible for equal-employment policies, but quit in December because he was frustrated by the administration’s efforts. “It’s terrible in a city with such a large minority population.” The Times examined diversity in several top management tiers of the Bloomberg administration. Each tier showed a nearly identical pattern: ¶Of the 80 current city officials identified by the Bloomberg administration as “key members” on its Web site, 79 percent are white, and 64 percent are men. ¶Of 321 people who advise the mayor or hold one of three top titles at agencies that report directly to him — commissioners, deputy commissioners and general counsels, and their equivalents — 78 percent are white, and 60 percent male, according to a database created by The Times, based on public records and dozens of interviews with current and former officials. ¶And of the 1,114 employees who must live in the city, under an executive order, because they wield the most influence over policies and day-to-day operations, 74 percent are white, and 58 percent are men, according to the mayor’s office. In addition to their demographic similarity, many of the recent appointees fall into two broad categories: former Wall Street executives and loyalists from City Hall or the mayor’s re-election campaign. “Given Bloomberg’s background, we shouldn’t really be surprised,” said Bruce F. Berg, a political scientist at Fordham University who has studied racial diversity in New York City government. “He’s picking from the business world, his key advisers are from the business world, and this is still very much a white male bastion.” Mr. Bloomberg declined requests for an interview to discuss the findings. But his press secretary, Stu Loeser, acknowledged in a statement that “there is always more we can do.” Mr. Loeser said, however, that “we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished over the last eight years” in diversifying the city’s management ranks, noting that almost half of the people in citywide programs intended to identify and develop future top managers are people of color. In addition, he said, managers — the nearly 6,000 employees who rank just below the top level administrators — have become more diverse in recent years under Mr. Bloomberg. “These talented up-and-coming managers are positioned to be the next generation of assistant and deputy commissioners, then agency heads, of city agencies,” Mr. Loeser said of those in the training programs. Still, Mr. Bloomberg has conceded that he has fallen short, acknowledging at a news conference last year that “the diversity of our administration has not been as diverse as the city itself.” The homogenous composition of the administration is especially striking in crucial areas where city personnel deal with issues predominantly affecting minority residents, like education, homelessness and child welfare. At the Department of Homeless Services, the Department of Education and the Administration for Children’s Services , 80 percent of the top officials are white, according to the Times’s research — including the newly installed commissioner of homeless services, Seth Diamond. And while the Bloomberg administration, early on, featured minority commissioners at the Department of Finance, the Human Resources Administration and the Administration for Children’s Services, all those positions are now held by white men. “I have chaired and been present at one too many meetings where every senior person happened to be Caucasian, representing the administration,” said Bill de Blasio , the city’s public advocate, and a former City Councilman who was the chairman of the General Welfare Committee. “It’s not really an acceptable situation.” Since the 1990 census, the city’s non-Hispanic white population has dropped to 35 percent, from 43 percent. And that change is reflected in the overall city government work force, which dropped from 46 percent white in 1994 to 38 percent in 2008. Still, little change has occurred in the most senior ranks. Diversity, of course, is one of the most delicate issues and hardest goals to achieve in any workplace. Many employers want a workplace, especially in the public sector, that has highly qualified managers who reflect the broader community and can engage in a vigorous exchange of ideas by people of different backgrounds. So failing to name minority employees to high-level positions, time after time, not only can dampen employee morale, but also send a message that an employer is insensitive or indifferent, according to political analysts and human resources professionals. “This is the most diverse city in the world, and to be respected and seen as the mayoral administration of that city, you want to be pushing hard to build a much more diverse pool of people from which to draw expertise,” said Andrew White, director of the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School . “So if you’re not making that effort, your pool is going to be severely limited, and you’re going to go for the kinds of people that you’ve always worked with.” Mr. Bloomberg pledged during his first campaign, in 2001, to hire people of different backgrounds. And shortly after taking office, he underscored his commitment to diversity, saying that “if you have that as a goal, and you have a process that gets lots of input from various communities, you will wind up with an administration that is reasonably diverse.” More than eight years later, many people credit Mr. Bloomberg with achieving real progress on race relations, by discussing racial issues forthrightly, supporting immigration reform and meeting with different groups regularly on issues like public health, economic development and basic quality-of-life services. “Even though minorities may not be filling out the ranks of his cabinet, in proportion to their ranks in the population at large,” Professor Berg, of Fordham, said, “Bloomberg goes out of his way, on many occasions, to assuage minority leaders, and include them.” No longer, some say, is race viewed as the lightning rod in the way it was under Mr. Giuliani. “Together with a City Hall that listens to every community across the five boroughs,” Mr. Loeser said in a statement, “we’ve helped contribute to creating a city where people are almost universally seen as getting along together better than at any time in memory.” But while his language has been inclusive, that has not translated into concrete changes in the highest ranks at city agencies. A telling measure involves the commissioners who are frequently the faces and voices of the administration at City Council hearings and town-hall-style forums. And the numbers suggest that Mr. Bloomberg has fewer people of color than some previous administrations. According to the mayor’s office, 72 percent of his commissioners and agency heads are white. That percentage is higher than the 63 percent figure during Mr. Giuliani’s first year, in 1994, and his 69 percent in 1998. Mr. Giuliani’s predecessor, David N. Dinkins , who is black, meanwhile, had a cabinet that was slightly more than half white, in keeping with his goal of a “gorgeous mosaic” of an administration. And comparing the “key members” identified by the Bloomberg administration with people in similar posts in the past yields striking results: 79 percent white under Mr. Bloomberg, about 75 percent white under Mr. Giuliani, and 55 percent under Mr. Dinkins, according to a review of earlier city rosters and interviews with former officials. To be sure, some sectors of the Bloomberg administration are more diverse. The New York City Housing Authority is dominated by minorities at the top tier and led by two black officials whom the mayor tapped last year: John B. Rhea , the chairman, and Michael Kelly, the general manager. And at the Police Department, where for the first time ever a majority of patrol officers are minority, Raymond W. Kelly , the commissioner, promoted two Hispanics to department chiefs in the last year and Chief Rafael Pineiro as first deputy commissioner — the highest rank achieved by a Hispanic. Such moves, though, stand out in part because they have been relatively infrequent, current and former city officials said. Mr. Johnson, formerly with the Department of Correction, recalled that at regular meetings, a top official at the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services would invariably boast about the administration’s diversity record. Afterwards, a few equal employment officers would huddle, and scratch their heads. “We would say to each other, ‘What are they talking about? This administration is not diverse,’ ” said Mr. Johnson, who is now an investigator for lawyers. He said that he still had “a lot of respect for the mayor.” But he feels disillusioned, after Mr. Bloomberg’s initial inclusionary talk in 2002. “The message is: Make me a believer again,” he said.

Minorities
Mike Bloomberg
Job Recruiting and Hiring
Appointments and Executive Changes
NYC


Events on Long Island for Jan. 11-17, 2015

Abstract: A guide to cultural and recreational events on Long Island. Items for the calendar should be sent at least three weeks in advance to lical@nytimes.com. Comedy BELLMORE The Brokerage Jim Norton. Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. $34; two-beverage minimum. Greg Vaccariello. Jan. 16 at 8 p.m.; Jan. 17 at 7:30 and 10 p.m. $15 and $17; two-beverage minimum. The Brokerage, 2797 Merrick Road. brokeragecomedy.com; 516- 781- 5233. DIX HILLS Dix Hills Performing Arts Center The Wild Women of Comedy. Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. $25 and $30. Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, 305 North Service Road. 631-656-2148; dhpac.org. EAST HAMPTON Guild Hall The Met: Live in HD, Lehar’s “The Merry Widow.” Jan. 17 at 1 p.m. $15 to $22. Guild Hall, 158 Main Street. 631-324-4050; guildhall.org. LEVITTOWN Governor’s Comedy Club D.C. Benny. Jan. 16 at 8 p.m. and Jan. 17 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. $15 to $47; two-beverage minimum. Chris Distefano. Jan. 23 and 24. $25 and $55; two-beverage minimum. Governor’s Comedy Club, 90 Division Avenue. 516-731-3358; govs.com. PORT WASHINGTON Landmark on Main Street Judy Gold. Jan. 24 at 8 p.m. $37 to $47. Landmark on Main Street, 232 Main Street. 516-767-6444; landmarkonmainstreet.org. Film EAST HAMPTON Guild Hall “John,” live screening from the National Theater. Jan. 24 at 8 p.m. $16 and $18. Guild Hall, 158 Main Street. guildhall.org; 631-324-4050. GARDEN CITY Adelphi University Performing Arts Center “La Cenerentola,” screening of the Gioachino Rossini opera. Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. $5 to $20. Adelphi University Performing Arts Center, 1 South Avenue. 516-877-4000; aupac.adelphi.edu. HUNTINGTON Cinema Arts Center “What It Was” (2014), directed by Daniel Armando. Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. $10 and $15. “Anything But Silent” series, screening of classics with live organ accompaniment by MoMA’s Ben Model; Buster Keaton’s “The Cameraman.” Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m. $10 and $15. “Men of the Cloth,” documentary by Vicki Vasilopoulos. Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m. $10 and $15. “To the Wonder,” directed by Terrence Malick. Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. $6 and $11. “Kings Park: Stories From an American Mental Institution,” screening with filmmaker and former patient Lucy Winer. Jan. 18 at 11:15 a.m. $15 and $20. “Jethro Tull (1969-1980) — Rock Legends Live!,” screening. Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. $10 and $15. “Benvenuto Cellini,” directed by Terry Gilliam, screening. Jan. 25 at noon. $10 and $15. Cinema Arts Center, 423 Park Avenue. cinemaartscentre.org; 800-838-3006. LEVITTOWN Levittown Public Library “The Fault in Our Stars,” 2014 film directed by Josh Boone. Jan. 16 at 1:30 and 7 p.m. Free. Levittown Public Library, 1 Bluegrass Lane. levittownpl.org; 516-731-5728. SAG HARBOR Bay Street Theater “Legends of Rock and Roll, Volume 6,” film screening. Jan. 17 at 8 p.m. $15. Bay Street Theater, Main and Bay Streets. 631-725-9500; baystreet.org. For Children DIX HILLS Dix Hills Performing Arts Center The Magic of Thaddeus. Jan. 18 at 2 p.m. $10. Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, 305 North Service Road. 631-656-2148; dhpac.org. GARDEN CITY Long Island Children’s Museum EXPERIENtial Theater Company, “The Adventures of Perseus,” with live actors and various styles of puppetry. Jan. 11 at 2 p.m. $5 with museum admission, $10. “Kids in the Kitchen,” children will make kid-friendly snacks. Jan. 16, 11:30 a.m. to noon. $4 with museum admission, $11 and $12. Sesheta Weaves Rainbows: Hand Woven and Loomed Beaded Jewelry. Jan. 11 through 18. Free with museum admission. Polar Bear Pals. Create a fluffy polar bear. Jan. 13 through 16, 2:30 to 4 p.m. Free with museum admission, $11 and $12. Long Island Children’s Museum, 11 Davis Avenue. 516-224-5800; licm.org. HEMPSTEAD Nassau Coliseum Disney on Ice, “Princesses and Heroes.” Through Jan. 11. Tickets starting at $25. Nassau Coliseum, 1255 Hempstead Turnpike. nassaucoliseum.com; 516-794-9300. HUNTINGTON Cinema Arts Center Stop Motion Claymation Workshop for Kids. Through Jan. 31. Four classes for $120. Cinema Arts Center, 423 Park Avenue. 800-838-3006; cinemaartscentre.org. NORTHPORT John W. Engeman Theater at Northport “Les Misérables — School Edition,” musical. Jan. 11 at 2 and 7 p.m. Starting at $20. John W. Engeman Theater at Northport, 250 Main Street. engemantheater.com; 631-261-2900. OAKDALE CM Performing Arts Center “Pinkalicious, The Musical.” Jan. 24 at 2 p.m. $12. CM Performing Arts Center, 931 Montauk Highway. 631-218-2810; cmpac.com. ROSLYN HARBOR Nassau County Museum of Art “Family Sundays at the Museum.” Converse, collaborate and create each Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the museum. Through March 8. Free with museum admission, $4 to $10, children 4 and under and members are free. “China Comes to a Gold Coast Mansion.” Families join a scavenger hunt that explores ancient and contemporary art from China. The Chinese Cultural Center presents a Fan Dance workshop; learn dance techniques along with some simple Chinese words. Jan. 18, 1 to 4 p.m. $4 to $10, plus $8 per family materials fee. Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Nassau County Museum of Art, 1 Museum Drive. 516-484-9337; nassaumuseum.org. WESTHAMPTON BEACH Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center “Once Upon a Mattress,” starring The Young Ensemble. Jan. 16 and 17 at 7 p.m. $15. Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, 76 Main Street. 631-288-1500; whbpac.org. Music and Dance BAY SHORE Y.M.C.A. Boulton Center for the Performing Arts Marshall Crenshaw, singer and songwriter. Jan. 16 at 8 p.m. $35 and $40. Y.M.C.A. Boulton Center for the Performing Arts, 37 West Main Street. 631-969-1101; boultoncenter.org. BOHEMIA Connetquot Public Library “Sonny and Perley Perform the Great American Songbook: Post Golden Age,” Sonny and Perley, pianist and vocalist, perform music from the ’50s to the ’70s from Hollywood films and Broadway musicals. Jan. 11, 2 to 3:30 p.m. Free. “Left Jab,” four-piece band covers the standards from the ’40s and ’50s, classic rock and R&B. Jan. 25, 2 to 3:30 p.m. Free. Connetquot Public Library, 760 Ocean Avenue. 631-567-5079; connetquotlibrary.org. BRENTWOOD Brentwood Public Library Songs of Freedom, four dynamic vocalists use harmonic artistry, poetry and movement to demonstrate the American spirit and the nation’s quest for freedom. Jan. 18, 2 to 3 p.m. Free. Brentwood Public Library, 34 Second Avenue. 631-273-7883; brentwood.suffolk.lib.ny.us. DIX HILLS Dix Hills Performing Arts Center Badlands Tribute to Bruce Springsteen. Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. $25 to $35. A Big Band Tribute to “King of Swing,” Benny Goodman, with Felix and the Cats. Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. $25 and $30. Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, 305 North Service Road. 631-656-2148; dhpac.org. GARDEN CITY Garden Stage Coffeehouse Garden City Chamber Music Society Concert, with music by Beethoven, Janacek and Schumann. Jan. 18 at 3 p.m. $10 and $12. Garden Stage Coffeehouse, 223 Stewart Avenue. 516-248-8855; gardenstage.com. HEMPSTEAD African-American Museum Glenn Jones, R&B, with the Delfonics Revue and Petawane. Jan. 24 at 8:30 p.m. $35. African-American Museum, 110 North Franklin Street. aamoflongisland.org; 516-572-0730. HEMPSTEAD Nassau Coliseum Fleetwood Mac, “On With The Show” tour. Jan. 25 at 8 p.m. $63.20 to $216.65. Nassau Coliseum, 1255 Hempstead Turnpike. 516-794-9300; nassaucoliseum.com. LEVITTOWN Levittown Public Library Harmonica Blues!, The Long Island Harmonica Club will play folk, jazz, country, rock and blues music. Jan. 23, 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. Free. Sunday afternoon music – “A Tribute to Elvis,” with Elvis impersonator Bob McArthur. Jan. 25, 2 to 3:30 p.m. Free. Levittown Public Library, 1 Bluegrass Lane. 516-731-5728; levittownpl.org. MONTAUK Montauk Library A Concert of Jazz Standards, by the Pat DeRosa Orchestra. Jan. 25, 3:30 to 5 p.m. Free. Montauk Library, 871 Montauk Highway. 631-668-3377; suffolk.lib.ny.us/libraries/mntk/. PORT WASHINGTON Landmark on Main Street Joan Osborne, singer-songwriter. Jan. 16 at 8 p.m. $42 to $52. Josh Ritter, folk. Jan. 17 at 8 p.m. $47 to $57. The Pedrito Martinez Group, conga. Jan. 23 at 8 p.m. $37 to $47. Landmark on Main Street, 232 Main Street. 516-767-6444; landmarkonmainstreet.org. RIVERHEAD Riverhead Free Library “Piano Plus Concert,” Long Island Brass Guild, a seven-piece brass ensemble. Jan. 18, 2 to 4 p.m. Free. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Riverhead Free Library, 330 Court Street. 631-727-3228; river.suffolk.lib.ny.us. SAG HARBOR Bay Street Theater Nancy Atlas, rock. Jan. 11 through March. 27. $20. Bay Street Theater, Main and Bay Streets. 631-725-9500; baystreet.org. STONY BROOK University Cafe, Stony Brook University Sloan Wainwright, vocalist and songwriter. Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. $22. University Cafe, Stony Brook University, 100 Nicolls Road. 631-632-1093; universitycafe.org. WESTBURY NYCB Theater at Westbury KC and the Sunshine Band, funk. Jan. 23 at 8 p.m. $52.50 to $84.75. NYCB Theater at Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Road. 800-745-3000; livenation.com. Outdoors WESTHAMPTON BEACH Cupsogue Beach County Park CRESLI seal walk at Cupsogue Beach. Two-hour walk led by a naturalist; learn about, observe and photograph seals in the wild. Through April 26. $3 and $5; reservations required. Cupsogue Beach County Park, Dune Road. 631-244-3352; cresli.org. Image HUNTINGTON A scene from the animated film “Watership Down,” an adaptation of Richard Adams’s novel of the same name, will be screened at Cinema Arts Center, 423 Park Avenue, on Jan. 18 at noon. Tickets are $6 to $11 and free for children under 13. 800-838-3006; cinemaartscentre.org . Credit Cinema Int'l Corp Spoken Word BRENTWOOD Brentwood Public Library Lisa Alzo, author of “Three Slovak Women,” will explain how she used oral and social history, in addition to traditional genealogical research, to flesh out the story of her ancestors. Jan. 24, 10 to 11:30 a.m. Free. Brentwood Public Library, 34 Second Avenue. 631-273-7883; brentwood.suffolk.lib.ny.us. LEVITTOWN Levittown Public Library Book discussion with Fran Cohen, “The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells,” by Andrew Sean Greer. Jan. 12 at 1 p.m. Free. Page Turners book discussion on “Delicious!” by Ruth Reichl. Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. Free. Levittown Public Library, 1 Bluegrass Lane. levittownpl.org; 516-731-5728. OYSTER BAY Oyster Bay Historical Society “The Rehabilitation of the Theodore Roosevelt House at Sagamore Hill,” an illustrated lecture by Susan Sarna, museum specialist at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. Free. Oyster Bay Historical Society, 20 Summit Street. oysterbayhistorical.org; 516-922-5032. RIVERHEAD Riverhead Free Library “Author Talk,” a discussion of “Behind Every Great Fortune: The Oheka Chronicles (Vol. 1),” by Frank Amoroso. Jan. 11, 2 to 3:30 p.m. Free. Riverhead Free Library, 330 Court Street. 631-727-3228; river.suffolk.lib.ny.us. WATER MILL Parrish Art Museum “A Conversation with Jack Lenor Larsen,” internationally celebrated textile designer, author, collector and founder of LongHouse Reserve. Jan. 16 at 6 p.m. $10. Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway. 631-283-2118; parrishart.org. Theater BAY SHORE Y.M.C.A. Boulton Center for the Performing Arts Amanda Seales in “It’s Complicated,” interactive one-woman show. Jan. 23 at 8 p.m. $20 and $25. Y.M.C.A. Boulton Center for the Performing Arts, 37 West Main Street. 631-969-1101; boultoncenter.org. EAST HAMPTON Guild Hall JDTLab: A Staged Reading of “What About Miami,” by Rebecca Schull. Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. Free. Guild Hall, 158 Main Street. 631-324-4050; guildhall.org. FREEPORT Lantern Theater at the Congregation B’nai Israel “Winter Cabaret,” a salute to Broadway women. Through Jan. 25. $18, includes wine and cheese. Lantern Theater at the Congregation B’nai Israel, 91 North Bayview Avenue. lanterntheatreli.com; 516-221-1537. HUNTINGTON The Paramount “Criss Angel — Mindfreak Live,” magic show. Jan. 24 at 10 p.m. $49 to $169. The Paramount, 370 New York Avenue. 631-673-7300; paramountny.com. LINDENHURST Studio Theater “AfterPlay,” comedy/drama by Anne Meara. Through Jan. 25. $25. Studio Theater, 141 South Wellwood Avenue. 631-226-8400; studiotheatreli.com. MERRICK Merrick Theater and Center for the Arts “I Ought to Be in Pictures,” comedy-drama by Neil Simon. Through Jan. 18. $18 and $21. Merrick Theater and Center for the Arts, 2222 Hewlett Avenue. 516-868-6400; merricktheatreandcenterforthearts.com. NORTHPORT John W. Engeman Theater at Northport “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” a musical by Christopher Durang. Jan. 22 through March 8. Starting at $59. John W. Engeman Theater at Northport, 250 Main Street. engemantheater.com; 631-261-2900. OAKDALE CM Performing Arts Center “Bring It On: The Musical,” directed by Patrick Grossman. Jan. 17 through Feb. 8. $18 to $27. CM Performing Arts Center, 931 Montauk Highway. 631-218-2810; cmpac.com. PORT JEFFERSON Theater Three “Don’t Dress For Dinner,” comedy by Marc Camoletti, adapted by Robin Hawdon. Through Feb. 7. $15 to $30. Theater Three, 412 Main Street. theaterthree.com; 631-928-9100. QUOGUE Hampton Theater Company, Quogue Community Hall “Time Stands Still,” drama by Donald Margulies. Through Jan. 25. $10 to $25. Hampton Theater Company, Quogue Community Hall, 125 Jessup Avenue. 631-653-8955; hamptontheatre.org. Museums and Galleries AMAGANSETT Sylvester and Company at Home “Dennis Lawrence: New Works,” paintings. Through Feb. 1. Mondays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sylvester and Company at Home, 154 Main Street. 631-267-9777; sylvesterathome.com. CUTCHOGUE Alex Ferrone Photography Gallery “Small Works: The Botanical Exhibit,” works of flora life by 15 regional and award-winning photographers. Through Feb. 15. Alex Ferrone Photography Gallery, 25425 Main Road. AlexFerrone.com; 631-734-8545. EAST HAMPTON The Drawing Room Winter Salon, contemporary drawings, prints, paintings, photographs and historical works on paper. Through Feb. 28. Free. Seasonal hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Drawing Room, 66 Newtown Lane. 631-324-5016; drawingroom-gallery.com. EAST ISLIP Islip Art Museum “Remembering Things Past/Alexander Percy: The Texture of Color.” Jan. 18 through March 29. Suggested donation, $5. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Islip Art Museum, 50 Irish Lane. islipartmuseum.org; 631-224-5402. GLEN COVE Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center “Objects of Witness: Testimony From Holocaust Artifacts,” artifacts lent or donated by Holocaust survivors and their families. Through April 30. Suggested donation, $4 to $10. Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center, 100 Crescent Beach Road. hmtcli.org; 516-571-8040. HEMPSTEAD Hofstra University Museum “Exploring the Centuries: 3rd-20th-Century Asian Art,” woodblock prints, hand-painted scrolls, metal works and sculpture that highlight artistic practices and traditions from Japan, China and India. Through Feb. 8. Mondays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Hofstra University Museum, Hofstra University. hofstra.edu/museum; 516-463-5672. HUNTINGTON Fotofoto Gallery “Italy Photography Workshop Exhibition.” Through Jan. 24. Free. Fridays, 5 to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, noon to 8 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Fotofoto Gallery, 14 West Carver Street. fotofotogallery.org; 631-549-0448. HUNTINGTON Heckscher Museum of Art “Power, Politics, and War: Selections From the Permanent Collection,” continuing. “Modern Alchemy: Experiments in Photography.” Through March 15. $4 to $8; children under 10, free. “Ferdinand Richardt’s Niagara: A Study in Landscape Painting.” Through April 12. $4 to $8; children under 10, free. Wednesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Heckscher Museum of Art, 2 Prime Avenue. 631-351-3250; heckscher.org. HUNTINGTON Ripe Art Gallery “What Is a Portrait?” contemporary photography. Through Jan. 17. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays, 2 to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; or by appointment. Ripe Art Gallery, 1028 Park Avenue. ripeartgal.com; 631-239-1805. HUNTINGTON STATION South Huntington Public Library Linda Louis’s “The Universe From My Window,” a solo exhibit of oil paintings inspired by wax and pigment miniatures. Through Feb. 4. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. South Huntington Public Library, 145 Pidgeon Hill Road. 631-549-4411; shpl.info. JAMESPORT Rosalie Dimon Gallery, Jamesport Manor Inn The abstract painter Ine Wijtvliet and the classical painter Natalia Clarke. Through Feb. 4. Wednesdays through Mondays, noon to 10 p.m. Rosalie Dimon Gallery, Jamesport Manor Inn, 370 Manor Road. 631-722-0500; jamesportmanorinn.com. OYSTER BAY Oyster Bay Historical Society “The Other Side,” featuring 29 photographs by Xiomáro of the William Floyd Estate, a national park unit of the Fire Island National Seashore. Jan. 11 through March 29. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Oyster Bay Historical Society, 20 Summit Street. 516-922-5032; oysterbayhistorical.org. RIVERHEAD Riverhead Town Hall Photographs by Jackie Stevens. Through Feb. 27. Mondays through Fridays, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Riverhead Town Hall, 200 Howell Avenue. riverheadli.com; 631-727-3200. ROCKVILLE CENTRE Molloy College Art Gallery “Poor Art Student... 11!”, a student exhibition. Through Feb. 3. Free. Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Molloy College Art Gallery, 1000 Hempstead Avenue. 516-323-3000; molloy.edu/artgallery. ROSLYN Bryant Library “The Alchemists — Group Exhibit.” Through Feb. 28. Reception: Jan. 31, 2 to 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bryant Library, 2 Paper Mill Road. 516-621-2240; nassaulibrary.org/bryant. ROSLYN HARBOR Nassau County Museum of Art “China Then and Now,” art from the classical, early modern and contemporary periods. “Long Island Collects the Arts of China,” from local collectors’ holdings. “Gavin Rain,” paintings. Through March 8. $4 to $10; children under 5 and members, free. Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Nassau County Museum of Art, 1 Museum Drive. nassaumuseum.org; 516-484-9337. SOUTHAMPTON Southampton Cultural Center Annual Black History Month Exhibition. Through March 2. Mondays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Southampton Cultural Center, 25 Pond Lane. 631-287-4377; southamptonculturalcenter.org. STONY BROOK Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages “LIMarts: Here and Now,” member artists’ exhibition. Through Feb. 1. Thursdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages, 1200 Route 25A. 631-751-0066; longislandmuseum.org. STONY BROOK Simons Center “Art and the Quantum Moment,” prints and handmade books by three artists and scientists visually exploring the physics of quantum mechanics, at Simons Center Gallery. Through Jan. 29. Reception: Jan. 29 at 5 p.m. Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University, 100 Nicolls Road. scgp.stonybrook.edu/art; 631-632-2800. SYOSSET Syosset Public Library Photography by Robert Glick. Through Jan. 28. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Syosset Public Library, 225 South Oyster Bay Road. 516-921-7161; syossetlibrary.org. WATER MILL Parrish Art Museum “Steven and William Ladd: Mary Queen of the Universe.” Through Jan. 19. “Alan Shields: In Motion,” sculpture, installations and video. Through Jan. 19. $5 to $10; children under 18, free. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway. 631-283-2118; parrishart.org.


City to Pay $25,000 to Man Arrested in E-Mail Mix-Up

Abstract: New York City has agreed to pay just over $25,000 to a former private school employee who was arrested, interrogated and held by the police for more than 30 hours on a harassment charge after a bizarre e-mail mix-up last year, the man’s lawyer said on Thursday. The man, William Hallowell, was working as a library assistant at the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx in April 2007 when he had an innocent exchange of e-mail messages with his boss, the library director. But when the library director mistakenly sent a message meant for Mr. Hallowell to an e-mail address that was similar to his but did not belong to him, the recipient at that address replied with a crude and abusive response. The blame fell on Mr. Hallowell, who has left the school. One line in the response said, “I want your sweet body against my skin!” The response also included a racist reference, a mention of using prostitutes, and a statement that the sender had bought a gun and had considered suicide. Soon, the police were questioning Mr. Hallowell, and he became the subject of local news articles, causing enormous embarrassment, he said in a lawsuit filed in July in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Mr. Hallowell, 25, of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., said in the suit that the officers “deliberately and maliciously ignored a mountain of evidence” that proved that he did not send the offending message. Mr. Hallowell said he invited officers to review the messages in his computer. He said it was clear that his account did not contain messages with the address linked to the abusive sender. Mr. Hallowell’s lawyer, Ilann M. Maazel, said, “This was a completely unnecessary nightmare for an innocent man.” The harassment charge against Mr. Hallowell was later dropped. Connie Pankratz, a spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department, said, “To avoid protracted litigation, we thought an early resolution was in the best interest of the parties and the court.” A judge approved the resolution of the case this week. A spokeswoman for the school, which was not a defendant in the lawsuit, could not be reached by phone for comment on Thursday. Mr. Hallowell said he was happy that the case had been resolved “because I know that people will know obviously that I didn’t do this.” He said he hoped that his suit would lead to better training for the police in how e-mail technology works.

Police
Electronic Mail
Suits and Litigation
Computers and the Internet


Thompson Tries to Turn Caribbean Ties Into Votes

Abstract: A steel drum band welcoming the guest of honor? Check. The flags of Grenada, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and other Caribbean island nations adorning the mirrored walls? Check. And the most in-depth account yet from William C. Thompson Jr., a Democratic candidate for mayor, about how his grandparents immigrated from St. Kitts? You bet. The stage was all set on Monday morning for the kickoff event of Caribbean Americans for Thompson, at a catering hall in Flatbush, the heart of Caribbean Brooklyn. The event — coupled with a fund-raiser being organized for this coming Sunday afternoon by the group — underscores the extra attention that Mr. Thompson is lavishing upon the community. With just three weeks to go before the Sept. 10 primary, Mr. Thompson, the only black candidate, is determined to win the support of a group that many political analysts believe is leaning toward him, and is not insignificant in number. According to John Mollenkopf, the director of the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York, 236,000 voters in the city had mothers born in the English-speaking Caribbean, as of November. Mr. Thompson did not make as concerted an effort to woo Caribbean-Americans during his previous run for mayor, in 2009, but this year he is emphasizing his connection: in one of his first television advertisements , released last week, he noted his Caribbean roots. On Monday, in a spirited 30-minute address before an enthusiastic crowd of 300 people, Mr. Thompson infused his stump speech with personal remembrances. He talked about how his paternal grandparents had immigrated from St. Kitts in 1917, before settling in Bedford-Stuyvesant in a house that the Thompson family still owns. He described the codfish that his grandmother made, and watching Mets games on television as a child with his grandfather. And, he said, one of the “most cherished pictures” of his life features his grandmother holding his daughter as a child. But then he pivoted to the present, and tried to imagine what his grandparents’ lives would have been like had they come to New York City in 2013. “I don’t think they’d be able to make it in New York City,” he said. “No matter how hard they work, I’m not sure they would’ve been able to pay the rent.” Mr. Thompson, in a conversation with reporters after the event, said he had never been to St. Kitts, though he did talk once with the prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, who passed through New York years ago. But he said he had been to other Caribbean islands, sometimes for conferences, but also to play a little golf and hit the beach.

Caribbean
Democrats
William C Thompson Jr
Mayoral races
NYC
Campaign advertising


The Sport of Parkour Gets a Growing Following

Abstract: Ryan Doyle gets his kicks by jumping across the whitewashed rooftops of the Greek island of Santorini, somersaulting over the odd donkey that blocks his way in an obscure alley. He also likes to cascade down the Arabic architecture of the hilly Turkish town of Mardin, pausing for the occasional backflip against a backdrop of minarets piercing the blue sky. Or he can be found returning to nature as he leaps from boulder to boulder amid the white waters of the Verzasca River in southern Switzerland. Mr. Doyle, a 27-year-old Briton, practices parkour, and is one of the sport’s most prominent acolytes, traveling the globe for competitions and teaching the discipline at home and abroad. He has been appearing in films and is a huge presence in cyberspace, publicizing a sport that just a decade ago was a mere underground movement in France. Parkour is also known to some as free running or street tumbling, and while the cognoscenti quibble over what differentiates one from the other, a lay observer could simply describe all forms of the sport as a sort of outdoor gymnastics. According to the World Freerunning Parkour Federation , parkour in its most basic form is the act of moving from point “a” to point “b” using the surrounding environment and the obstacles along the way to increase efficiency. It involves moves like the “tick-tack,” the “kong vault” and the “gap jump.” It has now evolved to focus not just on efficiency, but also expressing oneself through motion, incorporating the odd flip here and there and other graceful moves. At times, parkour almost resembles breakdancing, but the dance floor has no borders and if there were music, it might be improvisational jazz. Practitioners of parkour, called traceurs in their lingo, may even evoke images of Spider-Man as he springs across an urban landscape, only there’s no safety net. Words hardly do justice to describe such a highly visual sport. A visit to YouTube is well worth the stop. But viewers, young and old, should heed the following advice: Do not try these stunts at home. They are incredibly dangerous. In 2007, Mr. Doyle experienced a break to his leg that nearly cost him his limb at the sport’s first major international competition in Vienna. (He placed first anyway). “Parkour to me is expressing yourself through movements,” Mr. Doyle says in an online video as he propels himself across Santorini. “It’s not such a bad thing to fall. Because it’s not a bad thing to progress. You are achieving goals every single day. You connect the dots and you find the quickest way to solve the problem.” Parkour stems from the French “parcours,” which means “course.” Its origins lie in a training program for the French special forces called “parcours du combattant.” David Belle , a 38-year-old Frenchman, grew up on the outskirts of Paris, where in the 1990s he combined gymnastics, martial arts and the military training knowledge passed to him from his father to create parkour. He and a friend Sébastien Foucan established a group of traceurs called the Yamakasi. The movement was promoted globally through films like “Yamakasi” by Luc Besson in 2001. In 2006, the James Bond film “Casino Royal” opened with a chase scene with Mr. Foucan , and Madonna’s Confessions Tour in 2006 also featured Mr. Foucan and other traceurs as performers. Just last month the singer Chris Brown incorporated a crew of traceurs in his act at the Grammy music awards. The rise of YouTube is widely credited with helping spread the popularity of parkour. Traceurs have posted their latest moves, experiments and mishaps, and this has helped the sport go truly global and mainstream. Mr. Doyle has certainly become an Internet sensation. He is sponsored by the energy drink Red Bull and his high-quality artistic videos in Greece, Turkey and Switzerland each have hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube. Mr. Doyle was born in Liverpool and wasn’t great at soccer as a kid so he focused on martial arts and later on free running. His hero is Jackie Chan, whom he calls the godfather of free running. He turned professional at the age of 18. Mr. Doyle has poor eyesight and is only 5 foot 8 inches, or 1.72 meters, tall and he’s lucky to still be in business. At the Vienna competition in 2007, he performed a complicated air flip called a “720 cork” off a 12-foot drop. He misjudged the landing and his shinbone snapped. “The foot was hanging off,” he later recounted , in yet another YouTube video. “It was a mess.” Doctors removed his kneecap and hammered a 11.8-inch, or 30-centimeter, bar down the length of his left shinbone and attached a metal plate on his fibula with 8 screws. They told him he might lose his leg. Mr. Doyle gave up free running for two years but eventually bounced back. “I’m living proof that if you want it enough you can get back on your feet,” he said. “I’m so passionate about what I do, that no matter what injury, I am just going to dust myself off and try again.” He is a co-founder of Airborn Entertainment , which teaches parkour in his hometown of Liverpool. For those who can’t make the trek, Mr. Doyle (and many others) have posted numerous tutorials of various moves on the Web. In a 6-minute clip filmed in Kuwait , Mr. Doyle demonstrates the “cork,” an airborne spiral motion. That tutorial alone has 300,000 viewers. His tutorial clips come with a big warning. The introduction to the “Parkour Roll Tutorial” says, in part, “The examples in this video are performed by a trained professional and are taken to an extreme length to prove a point. Don’t attempt to simulate these moves without the correct safety features in place. This video is in no way meant to replace personalized instruction by a recognized teacher of parkour.” That’s enough to turn me off taking the sport up seriously. Many amateur athletes might incorporate elements of parkour in the sports they already practice. For example, off-road trail runners like me often jump over roots, stones or branches, or speed down stairs skipping steps. A slight miscalculation, or a glance up to enjoy the view, can easily result in serious injury. For those who want to enjoy the sport from the sidelines but can’t make it to Santorini or Vienna when Ryan Doyle happens to be in town, a Web browser may be all that’s needed to enjoy the sport. For those who want just a bit more action, believe it or not, there’s an app for that: iTraceur and Parkour Panda, so anyone can live out his or her dream as a virtual Ryan Doyle.


Some Jostling, but Less of a Frenzy Among Shoppers

Abstract: A year after an unfolding economic crisis sent consumers into shock, they ventured out Friday and opened their wallets a bit — still hunting bargains, but no longer quite so afraid to spend. On the marathon shopping day known as Black Friday , anecdotal reports across the country suggested an encouraging opening of the holiday shopping season, with larger, more enthusiastic crowds than last year. Across many categories of merchandise, retailers noticed that consumers seemed more willing to spend money on themselves than they had been a year ago. And thousands of people explored a new way of interacting with merchants, posting messages on Twitter and getting replies from store employees, often within minutes. Despite the improved mood, frugality has not gone out of style. Many of Friday’s shoppers seemed to stick to lists and take advantage of discounts, rather than give in to impulse purchases. “My feeling is that consumers are just more realistic and more accepting of the economy and where their personal situation is this year,” said Jim Fielding, president of the Disney Store chain. “They’re coming in with a budget and they’re coming in with a list.” Indeed, veteran retailing executives and analysts said that, while store turnout was improved from a year ago, they had never seen the American consumer shop so strategically. “If it’s at full price, nobody’s even looking at the stuff,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for the NPD Group, who spent the day surveying malls. Terry J. Lundgren, president and chief executive of Macy’s, said some 5,000 people lined up outside Macy’s in Midtown Manhattan on Friday morning, slightly more than last year. But he said consumers were still shopping with caution. “They’ve got a budget that they’ve planned to spend and I think most consumers will stick to that,” he said. “We expect that this will be a market-share holiday season. We don’t need consumers to spend more money. We just need to make them spend more money with us.” The National Retail Federation, an industry group, reported that high-definition TVs, laptops, winter coats and Zhu Zhu Pets toy hamsters were among the most sought-after items. How much consumers actually spent on Friday will not become clear for several days. Gerald L. Storch, chairman and chief executive of Toys “R” Us, said he thought the day would be a success. “For the retailers as a whole this might be the biggest Black Friday in history,” he said. It was also a more orderly day, despite some jostling and angry words here and there. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, strengthened security in some stores a year after a temporary store worker in Valley Stream, N.Y., died after being trampled by an unruly crowd. The biggest disturbance appeared to be at a Wal-Mart store in Upland, Calif., which closed for a few hours when shoppers began fighting over merchandise Black Friday got its name because it was perceived as the day retailers shifted into the black, or became profitable for the year. While it is always a high-volume shopping day, that turnout does not necessarily translate into big profits or determine how consumers will behave in the weeks to come. Chains are hoping this season will be better than last, when retailers posted the worst sales figures in decades. Industry sales last year fell 2.2 percent for the shopping season (November and December combined), the biggest decline since at least 1970, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, an industry group. This year, sales are expected to be about the same as last Christmas, give or take a couple of percentage points. The National Retail Federation, a trade group, predicted sales would decline 1 percent, to $437.6 billion. Some industry groups and professionals say that figure is low. The International Council of Shopping Centers, for instance, estimates holiday sales will rise 1 to 2 percent. One bright spot on Friday was a trend of people giving themselves gifts. Many shoppers, after denying themselves for the better part of a year, snapped up discounted merchandise like boots and sweaters. Matthew F. Katz, a managing director in the retailing practice of AlixPartners, a reorganization firm, said the shoe department at Nordstrom was packed with such shoppers. Consumers will wait for better discounts around Christmastime to buy gifts for others, he said. Madeline Hart, 18, a high school senior, arrived at Woodfield Shopping Center in Schaumburg, Ill., at 4:30 a.m. and spent $200 on clothing and accessories at Express and Victoria’s Secret. “I work part time at a car wash, so I bought this with my own money,” said Ms. Hart, peeking into a pair of shopping bags holding a few shirts, a bra and a shiny red vinyl tote bag, a free extra from Victoria’s Secret. While the economy is showing signs of recovery, unemployment is the highest in decades and consumers are still deeply worried, which is likely to affect holiday shopping. The Conference Board said this week that American households were expected to spend an average of $390 on Christmas gifts, down from $418 last year. “Job losses and uncertainty about the future are making for a very frugal shopper,” Lynn Franco, the director of the board’s consumer research center, said in a statement. At Wal-Mart stores around the country, consumers said they were feeling the pain. At a store in Columbus, Ohio, Michelle Perry, 33, a waitress at Waffle House, said she moved this year from a nice rented house in the middle-class suburb of Pataskala to one in a rough neighborhood on the north side of Columbus. “I can’t even let my kids outside without me going with them,” she said. “But we had to do something to save money, and I’m saving $300 a month by switching from renting to buying.” Still, she feels better about her finances this year than she did last year. After Wal-Mart, she was off to Meijer’s to look for an Xbox 360 for her son, and for gifts inspired by the film “Twilight” for her 12-year-old daughter. “She’s got to have the Twilight lip gloss,” Ms. Perry said. “Every girl at her school has it, so she’s got to have it, too.”

Sales
Black Friday (Shopping)
Shopping and Retail
United States Economy


Vettel Spoils Hamilton’s Bid

Abstract: Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari won the qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix, preventing Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes from equaling Ayrton Senna’s record of eight consecutive pole positions. Vettel was half a second faster than the Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Sebastian Vettel
Singapore
Lewis Hamilton
Ayrton Senna
Car Racing


A Fight to Open a Low-Cost Clinic in New York

Abstract: GRAND VIEW, N.Y. If Lloyd Hamilton were writing a classified ad, it would sound too good to be true: “Harvard Med School grad, retired from full-time practice, wants to serve the poor at low-cost clinic. Will work free.” Instead, it’s not quite good enough. That’s why Dr. Hamilton has spent the last few months meeting with lawyers and churches and charities and politicians in hopes of resuming the work he did for more than 15 years at a clinic until budget cuts this year closed it down. Not too many people at 81 would be working so hard to try to do so much for so little. But that seems to be what it takes for him to return to something that once seemed pretty simple: being the health care provider at the bottom of the pecking order in Rockland County. “Doc Hamilton is a cross between Spencer Tracy and Marcus Welby,” said Dennis Lynch, a lawyer and longtime patient of Dr. Hamilton who is now trying to help him. Mr. Lynch said Dr. Hamilton’s persistence may soon result in a new clinic to serve the poor. “He has single-handedly kept this thing going to the point where he may be a few days away from seeing his first patient,” Mr. Lynch said. Since around 1991, Dr. Hamilton has been spending half a day each week at Rockland County’s low-income clinic in Pomona. It wasn’t glamorous work and his pay came to about $7,000 a year. Those who showed up, many of them immigrants and nearly all of them poor, suffered from hypertension , diabetes and other chronic conditions. They had no other medical care. Then, there was no clinic. Facing the loss of about $110,000 in state funds that covered about a third of its costs, county officials told Dr. Hamilton last fall that it would have to close at the end of 2008. They suggested that four federally supported community health care centers around the county would pick up part of the slack. Dr. Hamilton figured there had to be a way to open his own clinic, where he’d be glad to work at no charge serving the same patients. But as he contacted local charities and community organizations, he kept hearing that it was either not part of their mission or not feasible. Those who were interested ran into liability and malpractice issues. He would have had to pay about $10,000 in insurance just to open up shop. He figured he could do it without malpractice insurance — his clients over all are probably the least litigious demographic in America — but was strongly advised against that. “It only takes one avaricious nephew,” he said. “The risk is small, but it’s not zero.” Finally, he and Mr. Lynch came up with an idea. A year ago, Mr. Lynch had started a foundation called Doctors Within Borders with the goal of opening a free or low-cost clinic in Westchester County, the name a play on the international medical aid group that won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. His group ran into its own roadblocks and still isn’t off the ground. But it did provide a legal framework and a way to handle contributions, some of which came in after publicity locally in The Journal-News about Dr. Hamilton’s situation. After two months of looking, the clinic still does not have a home, but Dr. Hamilton is hoping to locate it at the United Methodist Church of Spring Valley, which has a food pantry and other services for the poor. He has lined up a second physician willing to donate time as well. It has occurred to both of them that there must be plenty of retired doctors who would be willing to donate their time if liability issues were resolved — not to build a practice, not to fight with insurance companies, but just to practice medicine for those who need it the most. How many? Who knows? “I have one close associate who when he retired wanted nothing to do with medicine,” Dr. Hamilton said. “He wanted to do art, to paint, to go to Timbuktu, anything but medicine. He was fed up with it. But then I approached another doctor and he said yes immediately — he’d be with me tomorrow if we could get the liability worked out.” It’s his story, but it’s ours as well. Remember that army of volunteers the Obama Era was going to unleash before the economic crisis obliterated all else? It’s still out there, but it will take more than just good will to make it happen. Whether it’s Doctors Within Borders or Builders Within Borders or Teachers Within Borders, the need has never been greater. But unless you can match up the need with those who can respond to it, all the good will in the world gets you exactly nowhere.

Nonprofit Organizations
Medicine and Health
Health Insurance and Managed Care
Rockland County (NY)
Economic Conditions and Trends
Budgets and Budgeting


In Hot Water

Abstract: Q. Is there a medical reason to keep children under 12 out of a whirlpool or sauna? A. While there are plenty of common-sense reasons to keep people with childish judgment out of heat and water at any age, studies (mostly in Finland) have not linked careful sauna use to serious medical problems in healthy children. The chief injury risk to children seems to be scalding. Whirlpool baths appear to be dangerous to children — and adults — chiefly as a drowning risk, especially if a strong whirlpool mechanism traps a small body. Another possible risk is bacteria in a whirlpool that is not properly maintained, but again, the risk is not age-specific. A Finnish review article published in 2006 in The International Journal of Circumpolar Health noted that children in Finland were first taken to the sauna at an average age of 5 months. A single physiological study of healthy babies with an average age of 7 months found no harmful cardiovascular responses after a three-minute exposure. But the review also said that a sauna put bigger demands on a child’s circulatory regulation than on that of an adult, and it reported that a study of 20 children 5 to 10 years old found moderate hormonal changes. The review concluded that healthy children older than 2 could be allowed in a sauna with adequate adult supervision. There were some caveats for children who had specific heart disorders, but a study of sauna-like heat as a treatment to dilate blood vessels in some very young infants with heart failure because of ventricular defects found benefits that avoided surgery in some cases.

Saunas
Heart
Child Care
Medicine and Health


Dropping $100 for a Day at Jacob Riis, the ‘People’s Beach’

Abstract: Standing in line at Pier 11, where Wall Street terminates at the East River, on a Sunday morning in July can make you feel old and dull and limited, at once socially and idiomatically. “Your shoe game is strong,” a young woman tells a friend who has arrived just in time to board the ferry that is scheduled to leave at 11:30. The shoes in question are flat-heeled gladiator sandals in coral suede. The woman wearing them is tired. “We started with bottomless brunch and drank all day and I didn’t get home until midnight,” she says. Another friend caroused more aggressively, not landing at home until 7 o’clock, and the feeling is that she will not rouse for the beach. Later, on the return ferry from the Rockaways to Manhattan, a tawny bohemian mother, in only vaguely apparent middle age, tells me that the 9 a. m. boat is even more alienating, as it is full of 25-year-olds coming directly from whatever they had done the night before. She is with her 4-year-old daughter, who attends a Mandarin Montessori school in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In a context like this one it is hard to imagine what it is all for — the constant prodding of children toward achievement, the endless roundelay of enrichments that begins at conception, the eviscerating process of admission to a suitable college when, really, it will all end here, in a hangover on a boat to the beach where the only corrective is more to drink. Image Morgan Barker, 6, and Tyrone Matos, 36, center, in the barbecue area behind the Riis Park beach. Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times On the weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day, American Princess Cruises sends one or two vessels a day, with a capacity for 250 passengers and an actively used full bar, to Jacob Riis Park on the western end of the Rockaway Peninsula. Built in 1936, under the auspices of Robert Moses, Riis Park is a spectacular urban beach, in part because of the absence of high-rises behind it and in part because it is so wide that it avoids seeming unbearably cramped, though historical images tell us that in previous decades it was significantly more crowded. Named after the famed Progressive-era journalist and photographer who documented the rank indignities of tenement life in New York, Riis is typically described as the “people’s beach,” a place developed for poor immigrants as a counterpoint to Jones Beach, intended to draw the middle class. In his biography of Moses, “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro counters this impression, writing that at the time it was built Riis held the largest parking lot in the world; it now has space for more than 9,000 cars. (The parking lot is so enormous that it served as a dump for debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.) As you walk the shoreline today from the western tip at the Fort Tilden border, it is hard to distinguish the demographic at Jacob Riis from whatever you might find on the eastern end of Long Island. In the way that no definition of 21st-century urbanism is sufficient without an incorporation of the epicurean, the concessionaire at Riis Park this year and for the next several is the Brooklyn Night Bazaar . The bazaar is an amalgamator of small-batch indulgences, which, like so much cooking now, exist as rarefied interpretations of average-Joe mainstays. There is something about going to a public beach in Queens and having moules-frites (or tacos for $7, each made with locally caught monkfish) and washing all of that down with a $10 Ginni Hendricks cocktail (made with Hendricks gin) before you top it off with a paleo chocolate mousse made from cacao, dates and cashews — every one of these things completely delicious — that feels a little like flying privately to the mullet toss at the state fair . As one beachgoer in front of me on the seafood line so aptly put it, “I think it is all great. But then again I’m a gentrifier.” Image Eddie Colon, 37, on the promenade in the section of the beach where people were grilling. Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times Belvy Klein and Aaron Broudo, the entrepreneurs behind the Riis Park Beach Bazaar, argue that, as Mr. Klein put it, “You can go out to the Hamptons or Montauk or the Jersey Shore and find concessions that are a lot more.” While that is undoubtedly true, there were many decades when there would have been no reflexive analogies to be made between East Hampton and whatever might be on offer at a city beach. As the aesthetic of wealth has become ever more dominant, so too has the upscaling of public recreation space. Six years ago, San Francisco parks opened to gourmet food vendors. This spring, the Bronx got a public golf course, managed by Donald J. Trump, where green fees are nearly twice what they are at other municipal courses. The point, obviously, is that you’re not supposed to think you are at a public course; you’re supposed to think you’re at Winged Foot. If you take the ferry to Jacob Riis (round trip $30), rent a beach chair and umbrella ($30), eat lunch, have a drink, buy a bottle or two of water and have some ice cream (from Brooklyn’s Ample Hills), you will have spent approximately $90 for a day at the beach. If you bring houseguests or children you will have spent much more. If you come by Uber and return home that way, as many people now do, if you buy a sarong or a pair of sunglasses from one of the fashion trucks located near the food hall, then you probably could have flown to Miami. On the day I visited Jacob Riis, it was not that black and Latino families were not to be found. They were there, though mostly not in the vicinity of the culinary theater or on the beach. They had congregated back behind the boardwalk on a lawn given over to grills where they were barbecuing. Chances are that for most of the people waiting in line for oysters by the beach, segregation is a dirty word.

Beach
Parks
Riis Park Beach Bazaar
Jacob Riis Park Queens
Rockaway Peninsula Queens
Income Inequality
NYC
Gentrification


New York City Voters Back Adding Casinos, Poll Finds

Abstract: New York City residents are not eager to have a full-scale casino in the five boroughs. And if new casinos are built upstate, most city residents say they would not be interested in visiting. But a majority of city voters support a ballot measure to allow as many as seven casinos in New York State, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. The finding is good news for supporters of expanded gambling in the state, including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. New York City is home to about 40 percent of the state’s registered voters, and Election Day turnout in the city is expected to be higher than in many other parts of the state because of the race for mayor, so support for the casino measure in the city would greatly increase the odds of passage statewide. Debate over the measure, which would amend the State Constitution, has been muted: A coalition of casino supporters, financed by about $3 million primarily donated by gambling interests, has begun airing television commercials in the city and on Long Island. There is little organized opposition. The poll quoted the Nov. 5 ballot language, which lists only positive arguments for allowing casinos, such as promoting job growth and increasing education funding. After hearing that language, six in 10 likely voters said they would vote yes. “That is a strong margin of victory for the gambling amendment,” said Steven A. Greenberg, a Siena College pollster. “If support is 60 percent in New York City, I am hard pressed to see how it could fail statewide.” City residents, however, were less enthusiastic about opening a full-scale casino in the city, with 42 percent in favor and 50 percent opposed. New York already has five full-scale casinos run by Indian tribes and nine slot machine parlors at racetracks. Mr. Cuomo and lawmakers have agreed that if the ballot measure passes, they would allow only four casinos at first, and all of them would be upstate. In the new poll, New York City residents said they expected both positive and negative effects from expanded casino gambling. Seven in 10 said they thought it was quite likely that the casinos would bring in significant new revenue for government. “Just in my apartment building alone, twice a month they have buses come and take people to Atlantic City,” Albert Perrotto, 55, from Far Rockaway, Queens, said in a follow-up interview. “If they take them to upstate New York instead, it would be a shorter ride, and people would go upstate, and the revenue would come here instead. It makes a lot of sense to me.” At the same time, six in 10 city residents said they thought it was most likely that new casinos would increase societal problems such as crime and compulsive gambling. Quin Stratton, 23, who works for a credit-card processing center and lives in the Bronx, said she supported the amendment but would not want to see a full-scale casino developed in New York City. “If it’s in the city, it will attract people who don’t have a lot of money, and they will blow their whole paycheck,” she said. “If the casinos are upstate, or far away, it’s harder,” Ms. Stratton added. “They would have to actually get into a car and would have to make that decision. If it’s in the city, then someone who gets off work will walk by and say, ‘Hey it’s a casino!’ and blow everything they just made.” Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, has promoted the casino measure as an economic boon to struggling upstate regions and has predicted that tourists could be lured beyond New York City by the new casinos. But city residents in the poll expressed little interest in traveling upstate to visit a gambling destination. Only about one-third of city residents said they would be likely to visit one of the new casinos, and two-thirds said it was unlikely they would do so. The citywide poll was conducted on landlines and cellphones from Oct. 21 to 26 with 1,215 adults, including 701 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all adults and four percentage points for likely voters.

New York
Casino
Polls
Gambling
NYC
Referendum


With Door to Important Win Open, Mets Hit a Wall

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Nationals had the tying runs on first and second with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning of a 3-1 game when Mets Manager Terry Collins first wondered if he should change pitchers. Bobby Parnell was on the mound, having surrendered a walk and a single, and Collins sent word to his bullpen to have Jeurys Familia, the team’s closer, start warming up. Parnell had once been Collins’s closer. After missing more than a year in his recovery from Tommy John surgery, he was only now reasserting himself in the Mets’ bullpen as a setup man. He had allowed one run in his first 13 games back, and the velocity of his pitches was picking up. As Familia got loose, Parnell got Tyler Moore to line out to left field for the second out. At that point, Parnell hardly looked overpowering, but Collins, in the quick calculations that a manager has to make, figured he would give Parnell one more batter — Michael Taylor. If Taylor reached base and extended the inning, he would go to Familia, presumably with the Mets still leading by at least a run. But Parnell proceeded to bounce a pitch in the dirt, and both runners moved into scoring position. Now a single would tie the score. Although the situation made Collins a little more uneasy, he stayed with Parnell. Familia, he concluded, was not quite ready to enter the game. Image The Mets' starter, Noah Syndergaard, allowed one run and five hits in five innings on Wednesday. Credit Brad Mills/USA Today Sports, via Reuters And then, on a full count, and just one strike from getting out of the jam, Parnell fired a fastball — and Taylor punched it past a diving Ruben Tejada at shortstop. Two runs scored, tying the game at 3-3. At that point, with Familia no longer in position to protect a Mets lead, Collins left Parnell in the game to pitch to still one more batter. And Danny Espinosa proceeded to smack a double, scoring Taylor to give the Nationals a 4-3 lead, and, a short while later, the victory. Considering the circumstances — with the Mets battling the Nationals for the lead in the National League East — the loss was perhaps the most demoralizing that Collins and his players have experienced all season. And Collins was quick to take the blame afterward for not making the pitching change that he had considered in the bottom of the eighth but then never did. “That’s all on me,” he told reporters as he spoke about the loss. “That’s not on Bobby.” In case anyone did not believe him, he repeated that sentiment about five times as the postgame news conference proceeded. Collins had preached the importance of winning the three-game series with Washington because the Mets are the team doing the chasing in the N.L. East and are trying to prove they are serious contenders. After six consecutive losing seasons, this was quite possibly the most important second-half series the Mets had played in a long time. In the end, they took one of the three games, but as they headed back to New York to begin a four-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers — and matchups with Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke — they knew they could have won two. Image Ian Desmond scored on a teammate's single in the fourth inning, cutting the Mets' lead to 3-1. Credit Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency Instead, the loss dropped the Mets to three games behind the Nationals and their record to 49-46, including 2-4 since the All-Star break. They dressed and collected their belongings in near silence. The series had come at a vulnerable time for the Nationals, who have lost some of their best players to injuries: Jayson Werth, Ryan Zimmerman, Denard Span and Anthony Rendon were all key parts of their starting lineup. On Wednesday, they lost another player, third baseman Yunel Escobar, in the fourth inning, when he injured his hand swinging at a Noah Syndergaard fastball. The pitch was so devastating, and yet so erratic, that it caused Escobar to swing awkwardly. The game was the most important start to date of Syndergaard’s rookie season, and much of it was like the pitch he threw to Escobar. He was searching for his command, mostly masking his lack of it with pure talent, throwing as if he were trying too hard to make an impression. Syndergaard ended up walking five batters, including four with runners on base, after walking just five batters in all of June. He allowed five hits, but they were singles. As he wrestled with his mechanics, he allowed 10 base runners in his five innings of work, but only one run. “I just really couldn’t get comfortable on the mound,” Syndergaard said. “My mechanics were a little out of whack. I tried to make adjustments out there, but it just wouldn’t click.” When Syndergaard came out after the fifth inning, having thrown 98 pitches, he told Collins he had started to feel better. Still, Collins pulled him, feeling he did not want to take any chances in a game of this magnitude. The Mets’ offense, meanwhile, did what it often does, which is not much. It scored three runs in the fourth off Jordan Zimmermann, giving the Mets a 3-0 lead. But Mets hitters reached base only once more over the final five innings, and after the Mets lost the lead, their three batters in the ninth struck out in order. In the gloomy clubhouse, Parnell denied that pitching on back-to-back days had anything to do with his eighth-inning failure. Collins, reviewing everything that went wrong, said he could have sent catcher Kevin Plawecki to the mound to talk to Parnell and stall, to buy Familia more time to warm up. “I could’ve delayed it,” Collins said, beating himself up a little bit more.

Mets
Bobby Parnell
Noah Syndergaard
Yunel Escobar
Baseball
Washington Nationals


Some Cabbies Win Right to Reject Racy Rooftop Ads

Abstract: For Mohan Singh, the breaking point came last year when his granddaughter, who was 6 at the time, saw a seductive woman in an advertisement affixed to the roof of his taxicab. She proudly announced that she suddenly knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. “The car was parked in my driveway, and the advertisement was there for FlashDancers ,” said Mr. Singh, 56, whose taxi has had rooftop advertisements since the day he began driving, five years ago. “And my granddaughter said, ‘I want to be a FlashDancer.’ ” Disgusted, Mr. Singh recalled how his taxicab, while parked in front of his South Ozone Park, Queens, home, had elicited a similar response from an 8-year-old nephew — only the boy had proclaimed his desire to become a client of FlashDancers — a Manhattan strip club. Until Thursday, Mr. Singh and other owner-drivers of cabs whose medallions they do not own could do nothing but feel self-conscious and shake their fists at the rooftop advertisements they objected to for ethical, religious or other reasons. The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission unanimously approved a regulation that would prevent owners of yellow taxi medallions, who often lease drivers the right to operate taxis in New York, from installing any signage a taxicab owner “reasonably” deems inappropriate. Mr. Singh was among a number of taxi drivers who testified at a public hearing before the regulation was approved about their feelings of helplessness regarding the advertisements that, as one driver put it, are “something the driver carries, literally, on his back.” Still, the regulation falls short of helping drivers like Osman Chowdhury, who owns neither his medallion nor his cab. Mr. Chowdhury, 45, said he routinely drove his leased taxi to his mosque, where, among fellow Muslims, whom he called “conservative,” he stood out like a black sheep due to the images of lingerie models and strippers atop his vehicle. Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a cabbies’ advocacy group, said the regulation “allows, for the first time, the vehicle owner to have some control.” Ms. Desai said she also saw the new regulation as a step toward ultimately requiring medallion owners to give some of the revenue from taxi-roof advertisements to vehicle owners. Not all the advertisements are for strip clubs. Banks, airlines and retailers are among other advertisers. She, and several drivers who own their cabs but not the medallions, said medallion owners typically earned $100 to $200 a month from companies like VeriFone Media, one of the largest suppliers of rooftop taxicab advertisements. VeriFone officials did not respond to a request for comment. Vehicle owners who do not own medallions generally are not compensated for advertisements, they said, even though the signs weigh down their vehicles, raising gasoline costs.

Taxi and Limousine Commission
New York Taxi Workers Alliance
Taxicabs and Taxicab Drivers
Advertising and Marketing
Strip Clubs and Strippers