Riverdale Review, October 11, 2012 by Andrew Wolf

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Volume XIX • Number 39 • October 11 - 17, 2012 •

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Early AM fire guts Kappock St. apt. injures 2 By DERVEDIA THOMAS Soot everywhere, blown-out windows, broken glass on the floor and the smell of something burning—the scene was dismal in the twelfth-floor apartment at 735 Kappock Street hours after a fire left an elderly couple hospitalized last Friday. Building Superintendent Enrique Alcosta said he believes the fire may have been caused by a short in the cable from the couple’s air conditioner. According to Alcosta, longtime tenant Alfons Afon, whom Alcosta estimates to be around 90 years old, discovered the fire coming from his living room air conditioner and tried to put it out on his own at around 7:30 a.m. “He likes to do things himself,” Alcosta said.

Fireﬁghters on the roof.

The fire department arrived at the scene at around 8 a.m. after being called by a tenant on the sixth floor. By that time, both Afon, who wears an oxygen mask, and his wife, Ellen, whom the super said is in her 70s, were hospitalized after sustaining injuries. “He looked bad,” Alcosta said. “His whole face was black.” He also said Afon’s wife had inhaled a lot of smoke. The couple has lived in the building for about 50 years. Next-door neighbor Claude Littlefair, who has lived in the building for 40 years, called the situation puzzling. “How can this happen for no reason?” she said. “I live alone, and it’s scary because sometimes I go away for a while.” The sound of the fire engines and the “commotion” in the hallway prompted her to open her apartment door. “The hallway was full of smoke,” she said. “How could they be breathing in that smoke?” Sixth-floor resident David Shapiro, 65, saw the fire trucks outside when he was coming back from a walk. “It’s terrible, I know the people,” he said. In his 40 years of living there, Shapiro said he has known of only one other fire

A freak fire may have started in the air conditioner in this 12th floor apartment at 735 Kappock St. Extensive damage was done to the home of two elderly residents who were hospitalized as a result. in the building, and that was blaze started since the matter is A building employee said 30 years ago. still under investigation. But he on Tuesday that Alfons Afon Alcosta said that about 40 did say the Alfons’ living room had sustained third-degree percent of the tenants are senior was completely destroyed, while burns and was in intensive citizens. the other rooms in the two- care at Jacobi Medical Center. Fire Marshall Robert Cox said bedroom apartment sustained The hospital would provide no he could not confirm where the smoke damage. information.

Milton Fein, 77, educator, inﬂuenced schools here for decades

Milton Fein was an educational leader here for decades.

By ANDREW WOLF Milton Fein, the principal of P.S. 7 for more than a quarter century, died this past Monday at the age of 77 after a long illness. When he retired in June of 1998, he was the city’s most senior elementary school principal. In the community, he was a singularly important ﬁgure whose career helped shape education in all of the schools in the northwest Bronx. Fein, who grew up and lived most of his life in Riverdale, had been known for the aggressive and spirited leadership he gave to his school and to his colleagues, the principals and administrators of District 10. Within six months of assuming the helm of P.S. 7 in 1971, he was elected as the District 10 union representative of the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, a post he held until his retirement.

Born in The Bronx, Fein spent most of his childhood in Riverdale. His family was related to the Breakstone cottage cheese empire. His mother, Helen, was an artist, whose family owned Bloom’s, a well-known Bronx retail establishment with stores on Fordham Road and on the 149th Street Hub. His father, Joseph, ran the country’s largest wool processing business (“he made sure your pants didn’t shrink”) and lived in Riverdale until his death. After a detour in New Jersey, where Fein attended kindergarten, his family settled in North Riverdale. His grandfather had built a house on Tyndall Avenue in 1910, and the Feins moved in next door in the mid-1940s. He attended P.S. 81, but was transferred into P.S. 7, the school he would come to lead, for the third, fourth, and ﬁfth grades to be part of an “intellectually

gifted class.” Mr. Fein’s father had also attended P.S. 7 as a child. “We had the same teacher for all three years,” Fein noted. “Her name is Elizabeth C. Clarke, and she lived in north Riverdale.” Ms. Clarke proved to be a big inﬂuence on young Milton. “She was very much ahead of her time. She did things then that are looked on as avant garde today,” Fein recalled. In 1997, Ms. Clarke toured the P.S. 7 building with her former student. “A P.S. 7 teacher asked me what kind of student Milton was,” Ms. Clarke recalled, “and I told her that ‘he kept me on my toes.’ The teacher replied, ‘well he keeps us on our toes, too.’” After the ﬁfth grade, Milton Fein returned to P.S. 81, which was then a K to 8 school. With no local high school in Continued on Page 11

Thursday, October 11, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

Truck deliveries at new 230th St. mall could trigger a huge traffic nightmare By DERVEDIA THOMAS A long-awaited development along Broadway and West 230th Street may leave motorists stuck in even more traffic at the busy intersection. Motorists who normally park at the site, which is currently a parking lot managed by Propark America, will have a little over a month to make other arrangements before construction gets underway on the Broadway Plaza shopping mall. Construction on the three-story mall, which will include one level of parking facilities and two levels of retail, will start in late November or early December, coinciding with the holiday shopping season. The project will bring construction vehicles, fire and gas trucks for initial infrastructure installation and then trucks delivering merchandise when the plaza opens for business. These vehicles will take at least two to three minutes to back into the project site and will block both lanes of traffic for at least one minute, Michael Berfield, leasing agent for developers Equity One Inc., said in his address to Community Board 8’s Economic Development Committee on October 2. “We have spent a lot of time making it as easy as possible for trucks to get into their stalls as quickly as possible,” he said to the committee. “I can’t say, however, that we’ve come up with some brilliant solution that avoids the scenario where the trucks back in.” Trucks will be able to back into the site from the West 230th St. side, while the Verveelen Pl. side will be used for both entry and exit. “We looked at dozens of different options,” Berfield said. “Bringing them in the back, bringing them down Verveelen, cutting them through the side, doing something that would avoid that maneuver, and the reality is, to get the types of tenants that I think everyone wants, we have to have that type of loading.” Broadway will suffer minimal interference, he said, with only trucks from the fire department, Con Edison and other utility agencies setting up the initial infrastructure using that street. Berfield added that delivery trucks should not pose a problem during peak time. “You have to keep in mind the time of day that this is happening,” he said. “It’s normally happening extremely early in the morning or very late at night because these truckers don’t want to be in traffic any more than you want them to cause traffic.” After a certain period of operation, a study will be conducted to determine whether additional traffic signals are warranted near Verveelen Place or whether

traffic signal timing needs to be looked at, Berfield said. This is likely to happen after the shopping center has been in use under normal conditions. Chair of the Economic Development Committee Sergio Villaverde assured members of the community board who raised concerns that there are avenues to address any problems that may arise. “I think it bears noting that the [construction] permits have conditions with them,” he said. “If we see an issue, we can approach the developer, and if not, there are other ways to address it. So there are a few safety valves in place. We especially have to assume they want to finish this project quickly and not be stuck in traffic behind the rest of us.”

Council Member Oliver Koppell has announced that reconstruction of a pathway in Seton Park began on October 3, 2012 and is expected to be completed within a month. Koppell allocated $93,000 in discretionary Council funds in FY 2010 for this project, which was one of Community Board 8’s capital budget priorities for that year. The area to be reconstructed will start at Independence Avenue and continue into the park straight to the end. The Parks Department will then pave the existing sitting area and continue in both directions around the lower basketball court and the lower spray shower area. The asphalt path will end at the entrance to the basketball court on the south side and the entrance to the park off Douglas Avenue to the North. During his tenure as a Council Member, in

addition to funding the reconstruction of the pathway, Koppell allocated over one million dollars towards the reconstruction of the ball ﬁelds in Seton Park, including $900,000 for the refurbishment of the soccer ﬁeld.

AARP to hold Oct. 17 Meeting at Presbyterian

The Riverdale Chapter 1546 of AARP will meet on October 17,2012 at the Riverdale Presbyterian Church Auditorium, 4765 Henry Hudson Parkway West at 12:30 PM.At this informative meeting we will have Deidre Donovan a soprano and her accompanist, Eugene Papay,perform solos and duets from their vast repertoire of Broadway Shows.The community is invited. Refreshments will be served. For more information call Manford Segal at 718 -549-0088.

3 The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, October 11, 2012

Reconstruction of Seton Park pathways

Thursday, October 11, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

Around the schools... P.S. 81

This Sunday, October 14, is Fun Sunday. The community is invited to enjoy a fundraiser carnival at the school from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be lots of games, a tag sale, and even a cookie bakeoff. Food will be available for purchase. Parent coordinator Nina Velazquez will be available to receive complaints in the form of pies thrown at her. This annual event is sponsored by the parents association.

Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy

Friday middle school tours for parents of prospective sixth-graders will begin this Friday, October 12, and will continue through December 14 (except for November 23). Tours begin promptly at 8:30 a.m. To register, contact parent coordinator Julie Prince at JPrince4@schools. nyc.gov. RKA is a zoned middle school. To determine whether your child is zoned for RKA, visit the Department of Education website at schools.nyc.gov. The annual RKA College Fair is next Wednesday, October 17, at 6:30 p.m. in the school auditorium. Representatives from more than 60 colleges will attend. The event is free of charge and open to the community. High school open house events are scheduled for Monday, November 19, and Tuesday, November 20, from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Parents of eighth-graders may attend with prospective students. To register, contact jprince4@schools.nyc.gov.

Saint Gabriel School

Eighth-graders invite the community to participate in a car wash fundraiser this Saturday, October 13, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 590 West 235th Street. Drivers are asked to enter the parking lot via the ramp near the school’s main entrance on West 235th Street off Arlington Avenue. For more information, call 718-548-0444.

Riverdale Country School

The school was recently awarded an Educational Leadership Grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation, a major supporter of independent secondary education. The grant will support an ongoing partnership with IDEO, an international design ﬁrm that brings “design thinking” into educational settings. A 2011 workshop with teachers resulted in the Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit, a free 94page guide to the design process speciﬁcally intended for use by educators. The toolkit has been downloaded more than 15,000 times in more than 100 countries. Current goals include spreading the concept of design thinking to other schools and building more case studies of how the concept solves challenges like curriculum development, professional improvement and use of space. The school plans to host a national conference on design thinking for educators this spring.

Manhattan College

The community is invited to attend a talk by former New York state governor David A. Paterson next Tuesday, October 16, at noon in the library’s Alumni Room. Paterson will offer insight on the current state of student loans. During his tenure,

Paterson dealt with the 2008 financial crisis and addressed the issue of health care delivery in the state. He began his political career in 1985 as a state senator representing Harlem, becoming the youngest member of the Senate at the time. In 2003, as Senate minority leader, he became the state’s first non-white legislative leader and then the first visually impaired person to address the Democratic National Convention. In 2007, he became New York’s first African-American lieutenant governor. Since June 2012, Paterson has served on the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority—as governor, he negotiated an MTA bailout plan that prevented service reductions . For more information on the event, contact Janet Rovenpor at 718-862-7437 or janet. rovenpor@manhattan.edu.

Local Scholars

The University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine, has announced that ﬁrst-year student Ariela Melozy Zamcheck, daughter of Norman and Frances Zamcheck, recently participated in the college’s annual White Coat Ceremony in recognition of her transition to the status of physician. The College of Osteopathic Medicine enrolls nearly 500 students, who experience an innovative Patien-First Curriculum. It shares the Biddeford campus with the university’s School of Arts and Sciences. The colleges of dental medicine, pharmacy and health professions reside on the university’s Portland, Maine, campus. U.S. News & World Report has recognized the University of New England as one of the best universities in the North that offer a full range of undergraduate and master’s programs. The College of Osteopathic Medicine in particular is recognized for its educational excellence in primary care and geriatric medicine. Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, has announced that Rene Lauren Berger, a graduate of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School, and Kristijan Bogdanovski, a graduate of the Horace Mann School, are members of the Class of 2016. They were among just over 2,000 students selected from an applicant pool of nearly 7,800. Colgate, a highly selective liberal arts institution, offers 52 majors to a diverse student body of 2,900 undergraduate students. Its liberal arts core curriculum, in use since 1928, is recognized as one of the most ambitious general education programs in the country. Colgate undergraduates have co-authored articles in peer-reviewed journals and have presented research ﬁndings at national conferences. The university supports 25 Division I athletic teams on its 515-acre campus in rural central New York.

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By TESS McRAE Cash tollbooths will be removed from the Henry Hudson Bridge and an allelectronic system will be put into place starting Wednesday, November 10, at 11 p.m., the Metropolitan Transportation Authority revealed in a press release on October 8. The bridge began its transition to allelectronic tolling in January 2011, when gates were removed from E-ZPass lanes, allowing drivers to cruise through without

stopping. The Henry Hudson Bridge is reported to have 87.5 percent of the E-ZPass market share, making it the most logical pilot for cashless tolling. “We are excited about this project,” MTA Bridges and Tunnels President Jim Ferrara said in the release. “It’s good for the MTA because it’s the most efﬁcient way to collect tolls, good for drivers because it provides seamless travel and good for the environment because it reduces vehicle emissions.”

RCT Performing Arts Admissions The Riverdale Children’s Theatre will hold its annual free audition workshops for students in eighth and ninth grade who are applying to LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, Professional Performing Arts High School, Talent Unlimited High School and Frank Sinatra School for Performing Arts in drama, vocal music or musical theater. The workshops will be held on Friday, October 19 and Friday, October

26 from 5 to 7 p.m. in room 330 at the Lehman College Music Building, 250 Bedford Park West, Bronx, NY 10468. Participants must attend both sessions. The ﬁrst will focus on the audition process, school requirements and song or monologue selection. The second will offer one-on-one coaching with performing arts professionals. To register, contact Derek Woods at 646-234-8757 or Derek@riverdaletheatre.org.

Adoption Support Meeting set for Riverdale Y Adoption Support Meeting �The Adoptive Parents Committee A Non Profit All Volunteer Informational Educational Parent Support Group For Couples and Singles Who Have Adopted and For Those Seeking Information About Adoption will hold a Support Meeting Thursday October 11th at 7pm. Special Guest Speaker Rebecca Mendel Esq. an attorney who has specialized

in domestic adoption for over 15 years. She will discuss ALL aspects of the path to domestic adoption including the agency or independent process, paperwork,cost s,advertising and timelines. For Further information Call 212 304 8479 or www.adoptiveparents. org Location Riverdale Y Arlington Ave three blocks from Riverdale Ave and 256th Street.

A discounted toll of $2.20 instead of the cash price of $4 is another incentive for drivers to make the switch. The MTA is set to assist customers who normally pay for tolls with cash by issuing an MTA Cash Reload Card. Unlike the traditional E-Zpass, the Reload Card does not require a bank account or credit card and can be ﬁlled at “thousands of VisaReadyLink or MoneyGram store locations,” according to the press release. The card can be purchased in any MTA Bridges and Tunnels cash lane. Drivers who fail to purchase the Reload Card or traditional E-ZPass will have their license plates scanned and receive a statement in the mail. Drivers will have 30 days to pay the $2.20 toll

with no penalty. Those who still fail to pay the toll will be sent an invoice with a $5 ﬁne, followed by a $50 dollar penalty if the bill is not paid within 30 days of receiving the invoice. If all goes well after one year’s time, a decision will be made on expanding allelectronic tolling to other MTA Bridges and Tunnels crossings. “All-electronic tolling is another example of the innovative ways the MTA is using technology to make travel easier and more convenient for customers,” MTA Chairman and CEO Joseph Lhota said in the release. “By upgrading to 21st-century technology, the MTA is catching up with the best tolling practices used by other agencies around the world.”

5 The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, October 11, 2012

Your money will be no good at the Henry Hudson Bridge on Nov. 10

JASA Van Cortlandt Senior Center is located at 3880 Sedgwick Avenue.

Thursday, October 11, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

Ofelia Castulo receives award from Schervier

Middle East Studies expert to present at Manhattan College

As part of the Great Cities Lecture Series, sponsored by the Manhattan College Urban Studies program and the School of Arts, the College welcomes guest lecturer Diane Singerman, Ph.D., on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 4 p.m. Singerman, associate professor of government and co-director of Middle East studies at American University, will present Cairo, Urban Space and the Arab Spring in the Alumni Room of the Mary Alice and Tom O’Malley Library. The lecture will assess the connection between the city of Cairo and the protest movement that brought an end to the 30year rule of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. A few of Singerman’s most recently edited books include Cairo Contested: Governance, Urban Space and Global Modernity and Cairo Cosmopolitan: Politics, Culture, and Urban Space in the New Globalized Middle East. Her particular work analyzes the formal and informal side of politics, gender, social movements, globalization, public space, protest and urban politics. The Great Cities Lecture Series, started by the Urban Studies program, features prominent speakers who discuss topics involving urban development and life in signiﬁcant cities throughout the world. For more event-related information,

please contact Cory Blad, Ph.D., by email at cory.blad@manhattan.edu. Manhattan College is located at West 242nd Street near Broadway in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, one mile from the Westchester County line and accessible by MTA subway line No. 1. For directions to the campus, visit www. manhattan.edu.

Flea market at St. John’s Church

St. John’s Church will host a ﬂea market on Saturday, October 13, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The sale will be held at the Old St. John’s School located at 3030 Godwin Terrace in the Bronx. Clothes, jewelry, accessories and brica-brac will be sold at bargain prices. Free parking will also be available so get there early and snare yourself a great ﬁnd. For more information, please call 718543-3003.

Orchestra of The Bronx at Lovinger Theatre

The Orchestra of The Bronx will welcome autumn by presenting a concert in the Lovinger Theatre of Lehman College on Sunday afternoon, October 14, at 3 p.m. The program, to be conducted by Michael Spierman, includes J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #3 in G Major; Haydn’s Symphony 52 in C minor and

Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E-ﬂat Major for Violin, Viola and Orchestra featuring two distinguished members of the orchestra, Garry Ianco and Kathleen Patrick. The concert will be presented to the Bronx community without admission charge and no tickets are required. The fully professional Orchestra of The Bronx includes some of the ﬁnest instrumentalists in the New York City area. Its soloists are chosen for their facility and the depth of their artistry. The unique spirit and level of excellence of The Orchestra of The Bronx make for some of the most exciting concerts presented in the tri-state area. The Lovinger Theatre is located in the Music Building near the Paul Avenue gate of the Lehman College campus. it is accessible by the #4 and D trains (Bedford Park Boulevard stop) and numerous bus routes have stops near the College. For those who drive, abundant free parking is available. For more information, call 718-3654209.

Authentic Japanese dance featured at JASA

Come to JASA Van Cortlandt Senior Center on Sunday, Oct. 14, and join in for lunch at 12:15 p.m. and an exciting afternoon featuring Sachiyo Ito and Company performing authentic dances of Japan in full costume at 1 p.m. Sachiyo Ito and Company is an arts organization that bridges East and West through artistic performances and educational programs that promote Japanese culture through the arts, particularly dance. Sachiyo Ito is an artist, choreographer, and arts educator. She founded Sachiyo Ito and Company in 1981 as a not-for-proﬁt educational organization. The Company performs a versatile range of dance styles. A kosher ethnic meal will be served at 12:15 p.m. followed by the performance. Menu includes chicken chow mein, brown rice, Chinese vegetables, roll and dessert. Suggested contribution: $2 for lunch and $2 for the performance for individuals age 60+. For individuals under age 60: $3 for lunch and $3 for the performance. RSVP by Oct. 11 by calling the ofﬁce at 718-549-7400. All ages welcome.

Bon Secours New York Health System’s Schervier Nursing Care Center is proud to announce that Ofelia Castulo is the September 2012 ‘Values in Action’ award winner. The prestigious award embodies the core values of Schervier and is awarded to employees who consistently provide excellent service to residents and the community, and often go above and beyond the call of duty. Ofelia, a nurse at Schervier on the evening shift for over 22 years, was selected for the award based on nominations from her peers. ‘As a valued nurse and team player, Ofelia continuously demonstrates extraordinary dedication to both our residents and staff by offering a helping hand to anyone in need,’ said Olivia Babol-Ibe, Director of Nursing at Schervier Nursing Care Center. ‘Her excellence and passion shows in everything she does, including the quality of care consistently provided to our residents, her keen ability to diffuse challenging situations, and the compassionate support she gives to residents and their families. Ofelia is well-deserving of this award, and is a wonderful example of how each of us is called to joyfully live the mission and core values of the Sisters of Bon Secours.’ The Values in Action award is given monthly to a staff member who demonstrates superior care and a high level of service towards Schervier residents. A Values in Action award ceremony was held on Thursday, September 27, 2012, to honor Castulo and celebrate her accomplishments. Stephen Kazanjian, Director of Mission, presented Castulo with a certificate of excellence and a VIP parking spot for a month. Castulo currently resides in Bergenfield, NJ. Bon Secours New York Health System is part of Bon Secours Health System Inc., a not-for-profit Catholic health system headquartered in Marriottsville, Md. Schervier Nursing Care Center is located in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, and is part of Bon Secours New York Health System, whose mission is to bring compassion to health care and to be ‘good help to those in need.’ Information about Schervier and Bon Secours New York may be obtained from the Business Development Department at 2975 Independence Avenue in Riverdale, by calling (718) 548-1700, and at www. scherviercares.org.

Volunteer to be a mentor to children

Children need positive role models. Come to learn more about being a mentor (must be 21 years or older). An open house will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 7:30 to 9 p.m., at St. Gabriel’s Church (Walsh Hall), 3250 Arlington Avenue, Bronx, NY 10463. RSVP: Abby Lerner (212-632-4689).

Riverdale Youth Market at RNH

The Riverdale Neighborhood House (RNH) will host the Riverdale Youth Market every Thursday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. through November 15, 2012. This is a youth-run farm stand offering fresh fruits and vegetables from regional farms. RNH is located at 5521 Mosholu Avenue, across from the Riverdale Library., Since its founding in 1872, RNH has partnered with the residents of the Northwest Bronx to build and sustain a healthy and productive community. RNH delivers ﬁrst-rate educational and social services to the entire community: children, teens, seniors and families. RNH programs strengthen the social fabric of our community and enhance the quality of life for our neighbors.

YIVO Jewish Culture Series resumes at Riverdale Temple

Sunday, October 21 at 2pm at the Riverdale Temple, Miriam Hoffman, award winning Yiddish playwright, journalist and lecturer of Yiddish at Columbia University will give a talk on ‘Backstage with the Yiddish Theater.’ The lecture will explore the stories behind this great cultural institution from the founder of the Yiddish Theater in Rumania, Avrom Goldfadn, to the actors and productions on Second Avenue in New York City as well as in big cities across America. Learn about the actors, comedies, melodramas, musicals and classical theater productions that inspired and entertained audiences. Riverdale Temple is at 4545 Independence Ave. (at 246th Street). The next of four lectures will be on Jews in 19th century Russia and will take place on Sunday, December 2.

SPARC now accepting artist applications

The Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) is pleased to announce that after a very successful 20112012 season of Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide (SPARC), the program is back for another year and is now accepting artist

applications. SPARC is a community arts engagement program that places artists-in-residence at senior centers across the ﬁve boroughs of New York City. The program provides selected artists with a stipend and access to workspace in senior centers in exchange for the creation and delivery of arts programming for seniors. Participating seniors will be engaged in an art project or series of cultural programs over the course of the residency, which will also include a public program component _ exhibits, readings, performances, open houses and other cultural interactions open to the surrounding community. This initiative seeks to connect artists with seniors in senior centers and positively impact the well-being of seniors through arts-based activities. BCA is particularly seeking applications from NYC residents (of any borough) who want to work with a Bronx senior center. Artists will be selected for SPARC through a competitive application process. Artists with bilingual Spanish/English skills are encouraged to apply. For complete details, please visit the SPARC page of BCA’s website at www.bronxarts.org/sparc. asp for this year’s Guidelines and Application. Apply by October 31 and help us put a “SPARC” in the lives of Bronx seniors! Artists who are interested in a SPARC residency with a senior center in another borough are encouraged to visit the website of that borough’s local arts council for application materials and guidelines. The submission deadline is October 31, 2012. SPARC is a collaboration among the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Department for the Aging and the City’s ﬁve local arts councils situated in each borough - Brooklyn Arts Council, Bronx Council on the Arts, Council on the Arts and Humanities of Staten Island, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Queens Council on the Arts. It was developed as part of Age-Friendly NYC, a citywide effort to make the City more livable for seniors, and previously ran in 2011-2012 after a successful pilot called Space for Art in 2009. The 2012-2013 SPARC program is supported, in part, by public funds from the Department for the Aging.

by Bash Dibra. Bring your pet Pooch. Come in costume both of you. Contests for most original, scariest, pet/owner look-alike. First prize winners receive $25 certificate from Fieldston Pets. $10 donation per dog. $5 donation for each additional dog. All proceeds go toward upkeep of Canine Court Playground.

A New York State Insurance Reduction course in defensive driving will be held at the Riverdale Community Center on Tuesday, October 16th, and Tuesday, October 23rd , from 7:00

In a rush to get to the City? Hop on.

Ride the Hudson Rail Link and Metro-North to Grand Central Terminal. Depending on the time of day, you’ll save 10 to 20 minutes each way over the express bus, while relaxing in new, clean and comfortable Hudson Rail Link buses and M-7 train cars. There’s frequent and flexible service, with less than half an hour between trains during the morning rush. And Hudson Rail Link buses accept both MetroCard and a discounted bus/rail UniTicket. For more information, call 511 or visit mta.info. And link up with the Link.

Howl-O-Ween at Van Cortlandt’s Canine Court

Save the Date: Howl-O-Ween on Sunday, October 28, from 12 to 2 p.m., at the Canine Court at Van Cortlandt Park (enter at Broadway and 252nd Street). A canine celebration of halloween fun and frolics, hosted

p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The course will focus on techniques to improve driving skills and students must attend both evenings for the entire six hours to be eligible for a discount on their automobile insurance. The fee is $50 plus a $15 registration fee. The Center is located at the David A. Stein Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy (M.S./H.S. 141). To register or for more information, call the Center at 718796-4724, or visit our website: www.riverdalecommunitycenter.org

7 The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, October 11, 2012

To register, visit www.pawsacrossamerica.com. Presented by Friends of Canine Court and Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy.

Thursday, October 11, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

Thursday, October 11 Riverdale

SCREEN MAGNIFICATION 11 a.m. Riverdale Branch Library 5540 Mosholu Avenue Do you have trouble seeing what’s on a computer screen? All New York Public Library computers for public use have screen magnifying software, called MAGic. Using this software you can: increase the size of everything on a computer screen, have the text on the screen spoken aloud, and change the size and color of the cursor and mouse to make them easier to ﬁnd. Come to learn all about MAGic and try it for yourself! For more information contact Outreach Services at 212-340-0951.

Riverdale

LECTURE 4 p.m. Manhattan College O’Malley Library Alumni Room As part of the Great Cities Lecture Series, guest lecturer Diane Singerman, Ph.D., will present “Cairo, Urban Space and the Arab Spring.” For more event-related information, please contact Cory Blad, Ph.D., by email at cory.blad@manhattan.edu.

Friday, October 12 Riverdale

FUN FRIDAY 3:30 p.m. Riverdale Branch Library 5540 Mosholu Avenue XBOX Kinect, Wii and Board games of all types and all skill levels. For ages 5 to 12 years. For more information, call 718-549-1212.

Kingsbridge

TEEN ADVISORY GROUP 4 p.m. Kingsbridge Branch Library 291 West 231st Street What’s happening in your world? What’s the hottest book, movie, or cd right now? What programs does the library need? Let us know, and you can earn community service credit for your school. For ages 13 to 18 years. For more information, call 718-548-5656.

Riverdale

SHABBAT BERESHIT 6 p.m. Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel 475 West 250th Street Light Candles at 6:01 PM; Minha/Kabbalat Shabbat/Maariv (Taub Rm) at 6:01 PM. For more information, call 718-5438400 or visit www.csair.org.

Saturday, October 13 Riverdale

SHABBAT BERESHIT 9 a.m. Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel 475 West 250th Street Shaharit Service (Sanctuary) at 9:00 AM; Havurah (Taub Room) at 9:15 AM; Minha/Maariv at 6:01 PM. For more information, call 718-543-8400 or visit www.csair.org.

Kingsbridge

FLEA MARKET 9 a.m. Old St. John’s School 3030 Godwin Terrace The community is invited. There will be varied merchandise for sale: bric-a-brac, clothing (new and used), etc. For more information, call 718-543-3003.

Sunday, October 14 Van Cortlandt

LUNCH & DANCE PRESENTATION 12 p.m. Van Cortlandt Senior Center 3880 Sedgwick Avenue Join in for lunch at 12:15 p.m. and an exciting afternoon featuring Sachiyo Ito and Company performing authentic dances of Japan in full costume at 1 p.m. For more information, call 718-549-7400.

Monday, October 15 Spuyten Duyvil

KNITTING & CROCHET 11 a.m. Spuyten Duyvil Branch Library 650 West 235th Street A get-together for knitters & crocheters at all skill levels to work on current projects, learn new techniques & exchange information. All skill levels welcomed. Registration not required. For more information, call 718-796-1202.

Van Nest

BOOK DISCUSSION 12 p.m. Van Nest Branch Library 2147 Barnes Avenue

Join us for a discussion of Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach. You must read the book to participate! Request a copy at the Information Desk. For more information, call 718-829-5864.

Riverdale

KNITTING CIRCLE 2 p.m. Riverdale Branch Library 5540 Mosholu Avenue Gather with other knitters, and perhaps pick up a few tips and tricks as you work on your own creations. For more information, call 718-549-1212.

Kingsbridge

RETRO GAMES 2 p.m. Kingsbridge Branch Library 291 West 231st Street It’s back to the good old days: join your friends and roll the dice instead of clicking a mouse! Come by for some old fashioned board game fun. For more information, call 718-548-5656.

Kingsbridge

BOOK DISCUSSION 6 p.m. Kingsbridge Branch Library 291 West 231st Street Get the neighborhood read. Check out what the librarian has recommended, and hear what others think about it. We’ve got the books, now we need you to talk! This month’s discussion will be of the book Tender Bar: A Memoir by J.R. Moehringer. For more information, call 718-548-5656.

Tuesday, October 16 Riverdale

e-READER HELP 11 a.m. Riverdale Branch Library 5540 Mosholu Avenue Learn how to download free e-books from the New York Public Library. Get help on using your iPad, Kindle or other e-reader. First come, ﬁrst served. For more information, call 718-549-1212.

Wednesday, October 17 Riverdale

TAI CHI 10 a.m. Riverdale Branch Library 5540 Mosholu Avenue This tai chi (Sun Style) includes agile steps and exercises that may improve mobility, breathing and relaxation. This is an adult program. Registration is required. Due to limited space and a high demand, participants will be chosen by a lottery. Please call the branch at 718-549-1212 to add your name to the list.

Riverdale

BRANDEIS GROUP MEETING 12:30 p.m. Riverdale Temple West 246th St. & Independence Ave. The Riverdale Chapter of the Brandeis National Committee will meet. Marilyn Kaufman, well-known lecturer and speaker, will present a delightful program, “Jewish Jeopardy” a quiz in which each answer will be a Jewish name.

Riverdale

BOOK DISCUSSION 1 p.m. Riverdale Branch Library 5540 Mosholu Avenue The Riverdale Branch Library meets the third Wednesday of every month @ 1:00 p.m. This month the group will be discussing The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. Book club participants must reserve copies of each title through the Library’s catalog system. For more information, call 718-549-1212.

Van Cortlandt

GUSTAFER YELLOWGOLD 3:30 p.m. Van Cortlandt Branch Library 3874 Sedgwick Avenue Meet Gustafer Yellowgold, the friendly creature who comes to Earth from the sun, in this multimedia program launched from the imagination of illustrator/singer/songwriter Morgan Taylor. Animated illustrations of Gustafer Yellowgold are accompanied by live performances of Taylor’s catchy original story songs for a unique experience that entrances children and adults alike. Recommended for children of all ages. For more information, call 7188-543-5150.

Thursday, October 18 Kingsbridge

BABY LAPSIT 10:30 a.m. Kingsbridge Branch Library 291 West 231st Street Stories, songs, puppets, ﬁngerplays, and ﬂannelboard illustrations for babies birth-36 months for parents/caregivers. For more information, call 718-548-5656.

Prof. Patricia Grove mentors high school students on the banks of the Hudson By PAULETTE SCHNEIDER Thanks to its very own stretch of Hudson River shoreline, the College of Mount Saint Vincent was part of last week’s A Day in the Life of the Hudson, an annual data-collection-fest run by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The enchanting riverfront site, accessible only from a gated on-campus pedestrian bridge across the Metro-North tracks, is frequented mainly by lucky ecology students taught by Dr. Patricia Grove, director of the Mount’s Division of Natural Sciences and an expert in Hudson River ecology. For the October 4 event, Dr. Grove led an 11th-grade advanced placement bio class from Yonkers’ Palisade Preparatory School in sizing up the Hudson at that particular spot. The high school bio students were among 3,000 who flocked to 70 measurement locations from New York Harbor to Troy, 153 miles north. Between those points, the waterway is technically an estuary—ocean saltwater is a significant part of the flow. Farther north in the Hudson watershed, runoff is more of a force than the Atlantic, and the composition of the water becomes fresher. Rainfall quantity largely determines the location of the “salt front,” where the saline concentration reaches 100 milligrams per liter. In dry years, the front extends higher up the river because there’s less fresh water coursing down to dilute the mixture. The annual group analysis is coordinated by the DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program and Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in partnership with other water research organizations. Notes and measurements are added to an ever-growing database of facts about the cherished river. Dr. Grove provided a few simple visual devices used to gauge turbidity. In high rubber boots, she handed the tools to students posed on the rocky coast, who relayed them to others standing knee-deep in the moving tide. Good news: The samples were appropriately salty and just cloudy enough to show that algae are able to thrive in beneficial amounts. “In 1979, I wouldn’t have brought students down here and let them go in the river,” Grove said. But now, “It’s a very living river.” In small tanks on shore, an American eel, an oyster toadfish and a few glass shrimp awaited their release back into the wild. The creatures were captured and briefly detained so students could document who resides in Riverdale’s nearly mile-wide segment of estuary. A large commercial tanker plowing north provided an example of how the river serves as a thoroughfare for business as well as recreational vessels. Someone noted the time.

9 The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, October 11, 2012

Mt. St. Vincent hosts annual Hudson rite

Thursday, October 11, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

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Continued from Page 1 Riverdale, Fein’s prowess on the basketball courts made him a sought-after commodity, and he found himself in Gorton High School in Yonkers. Fein went on to Michigan State, where he majored in history. While in the Army, he was assigned to teach a course in military justice, and thus by chance began his career in education. “I really didn’t know anything about military justice, and I don’t know why they chose me, but I found I was a good teacher.” When discharged as a first lieutenant, Fein made his way back to The Bronx and a new career. Within six months of the opening of J.H.S. 141 more than a half century ago, Fein was teaching social studies in the new school. He took a leadership role among his colleagues in the formation of the teacher’s union, including the pivotal strike in 1962 that led to the city’s recognition of collective bargaining rights for teachers and to the recognition of the United Federation of Teachers. He took to the picket lines three times during his brief teaching career. The leadership skills honed with the union served him well. After completing the minimum five years as a teacher then required of administrators, he was named as an assistant principal of M.S. 141. When the principalship of P.S. 7 opened up in 1971, Fein was named to that post. “I was the first principal selected by a school board under decentralization. A court decision invalidated the civil service list, allowing the school boards to select qualified candidates off the list. I just happened to be the first.” With the school boards and the superintendents they chose becoming a more powerful force, Fein deftly led his union chapter through this political minefield, managing to bring his membership in line with the “winning side” as the pendulum swung back and forth. However, after the bitter school board

election of 1993, Fein decided that participation in the elections was now doing his members more harm than good, and for the first time in 1996, he sat out the election. The following year, the state Legislature eliminated most of the powers of the community school boards. “The end of decentralization is one of the best things to happen to the schools,” Fein commented, noting that “it is a very positive thing when politics is removed from the selection of professionals to run schools.” Fein pointed to the successes of the tens of thousands of graduates of P.S. 7 over the years. He took pride in the successes that the school enjoyed toward the end of his career as a leader in educational innovation. He considered the school’s finest moment to have come in 1997, when it became the first school in The Bronx, and one of just a handful in the city, to win a coveted Annenberg Arts Education Implementation grant. Fein anticipated continuing his career in education as a consultant and perhaps even returning to the classroom. “I think I would enjoy getting back into the classroom. I moved into administration so early and really miss teaching. I had a lot of fun and so did my students.” But illness forced him to become confined to a wheelchair during the last decade of his life, a fate he accepted with the same aggressive outlook he brought to all his endeavors. He continued to travel, work part time in the schools and take courses. He helped form a book club comprised of teachers and retirees from P.S. 7 and often lead vigorous discussions on historical topics. Fein is survived by his second wife, Anita Ross, a highly regarded stage manager who has worked on a number of top Broadway productions. They lived in Manhattan. He is also survived by his son Skylar, an artist, who lives in New Orleans. “I’m proud of my accomplishments at P.S. 7, and I’m proud of putting together the finest staff in the district, maybe in the city,” Fein concluded when interviewed at the time of his retirement.

Collaborative mural installed at Hebrew Institute By PAULETTE SCHNEIDER Just in time for this week’s bible reading—the one that starts, “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth”—a vivid mural portraying the seven days of creation was unveiled at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. Under the leadership of artist and H.I.R. congregant Shira Rodriguez, it took a year of planning and several months of hands-on labor for 30 youngsters and a few grown-ups to depict the events of that first week. The result of the community collaboration is a series of acrylic-on-canvas panels gracing an entire entrance-area wall on the synagogue’s third floor, designated the “youth floor.” Swirls of light and darkness in the first scene progress to whorls of water and placid clouds, followed by orderly rows of vegetation, a blazing sun with a cool moon and stars, swimming fish and perching birds, and friendly beasts enjoying the Garden of Eden with the casually dressed Adam and Eve—looming in the distance is the Tree of Knowledge, its resident serpent coiled in the branches. The panel for the seventh day has only the Hebrew word for Sabbath in golden letters against a background of warm hues blending into each other in a vertical cascade.

Rodriguez believes in art as a “spiritual practice.” She studied painting at Barnard College and teaches art in a Manhattan Jewish day school. “I’ve been painting since high school, and this is the largest art project that I’ve been a part of,” she said. Rodriguez launched the work by painting her designs on small canvases that served as models. The children then copied her designs onto the wall-height canvases—ﬁrst the youngest applied large blocks of color, then the bigger boys and girls took over to execute the details. During the painting phase, members of the atelier spent hours on the project every Sunday. “There were a lot of young kids the ﬁrst two weeks when we started the background,” Rodriguez said. “So many young kids full of paint! It was very fun.” The project’s visionary, she said, was H.I.R. youth director Menachem Menchel. “It was a joint vision—I certainly don’t deserve full credit,” Menchel argued. “Shira, Rabba Sara (Hurwitz) and I got together and talked about a way to glorify this space that our children inhabit and give it life and give it meaning. It was Shira’s idea of the seven days of creation.” “But it was Menachem who wanted Continued on Page 19

11 The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, October 11, 2012

Milton Fein

Thursday, October 11, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ The RIVERDALE REVIEW

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White Plains

DEPRESSION SCREENING 11 a.m. New York-Presbyterian Hospital 21 Bloomingdale Road The conﬁdential screenings are open to the public at no charge. Walk-in’s are welcome or call for an appointment (914) 997-5779. Screening participants will have an opportunity to take a self-test and meet individually with a mental health professional for a brief interview. Educational materials and refreshments will be available. Referrals for treatment will be offered, if necessary.

White Plains

HANDCYCLING CLINIC 5 p.m. Burke Rehabilitation Hospital 785 Mamaroneck Avenue Participants should have enough upper body strength/ movement to move the hand pedals, but beginners are welcome. There will be many experienced bikers and therapists on-hand to assist people with getting on and off the bikes, as well as aid in using the bikes. A complimentary casual dinner will be served at the end of the clinic. Pre-registration is required. For more information and to register for this free event, contact Alexandra Oudheusden at (914) 597-2497 or email her at aoudheusden@burke.org

Saturday, October 13 Dobbs Ferry

GENEALOGY 10 a.m. Aldersgate Methodist Church 600 Broadway The Westchester County Genealogical Society will meet. Joa Schiavone will talk on ‘A Fond Look Back at the Ol’ Put.’ Guests are welcome. For more information, call Philomena Dunn at 914-953-9173.

Yonkers

MIGRATING SPARROWS 10 a.m. Lenoir Preserve Dudley Street It’s the peak of the fall sparrow migration and we’ll see how many species are visiting the preserve on their way south, along with other fall migrants as well. For more information, call 914-968-5851.

Croton-on-Hudson

STORYTELLING 10 a.m. Croton Point Nature Center Croton Point Avenue Children ages 8 and older can have fun making a mural to tell the story of Croton Point. For more information, call 914-862-5297.

Cross River

75TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 10 a.m. Trailside Nature Museum Ward Pound Ridge Reservation A celebration of this historic museum that has been a mainstay at the Reservation and Westchester County for 75 years with food, music and a tree dedication. Co-sponsored by Friends of Trailside. For more information, call 914-864-7322.

Somers

HALLOWEEN TRAIN SHOW 11 a.m. Lasdon Park Route 35 Special holiday program featuring unique Lionel train display with special tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Parks Department in the main house. Open weekends through October. Admission $5 adults, $2 children ages 12 and under. For more information, call 914-864-7268.

Rye

FALL FESTIVAL 12 p.m. Read Wildlife Sanctuary Playland Parkway Join the ﬁrst fall festival for birds of prey demonstrations, a live animal presentation, a storyteller stroll through the bamboo grove, live music and kids’ activities. Fee $10 adults, $5 children. For more information, call 914-967-8720.

North White Plains

PRACTICAL SHELTERS 1 p.m. Cranberry Lake Preserve 1609 Old Orchard Street Shelters with Sticks and Stones. Learn to make your own easy and practical shelter for use as a backyard clubhouse

or in an emergency situation. For more information, call 914-428-1005.

Sleepy Hollow

ILLUMINATION ART WORKSHOP 1 p.m. Kingsland Point Park 299 Palmer Avenue Go back in time and explore the importance of light as a guiding tool for human navigation in this workshop designed to feature the historic Tarrytown lighthouse built in 1883, which stands just off the shore of the RiverWalk Center. Create a work of art to light up the night made with reﬂective materials, including mirrors, glass beads, aluminum foil, candles, and more. Bring a ﬂashlight to this workshop. For ages 7 and up (adults welcome), $15 per person. Registration at beczak.org.

Cross River

NATURE HIKE 1 p.m. Trailside Nature Museum Ward Pound Ridge Reservation “The Blob” is not just an old horror movie. Known as slime molds, or myxostelids, they live in the woods and chase, engulf and digest their prey. Find out all about them during a hike in search of them at the reservation. Recommended for children ages 7 and older. For more information, call 914-864-7322.

Sunday, October 14 Yonkers

FALL FLEA MARKET 10 a.m. Historic Sherwood House 340 Tuckahoe Road Vendors are needed for the Annual Flea Market held by the Yonkers Historical Society. The cost is $35 per space, and the number available is limited. For more information, call 914-961-8940.

Ossining

COMPASS RELAY 10 a.m. Teatown Lake Reservation 1600 Spring Valley Road Bring the family and play a game that will teach basic compass skills in a fun and enjoyable way. Please note this program is for families with children ages 7 and over. Free for members; $5pp for nonmembers. Programs ﬁll quickly so registration is strongly recommended. Call 914-762-2912 x110 to reserve.

Somers

AUTUMN CELEBRATION 12 p.m. Muscoot Farm Route 100 A celebration of fall with music, games, hayrides and crafts, watch a blacksmithing demonstration, shop the farmers market and view an exhibit of handmade baskets in the Main House Gallery. For more information, call 914-864-7282.

Somers

STORIES FROM THE FRONT 1 p.m. Lasdon Park Route 35 “The Jackson County War – Reconstruction and Resistance in Post-Civil War Florida” by author Danial Weinﬁeld. A free lecture offered at the Lasdon Park’s Westchester Veterans Military Museum. Reservations required; call (914) 864-7263.

Tuesday, October 16 Ossining

GOING SOUTH 8 a.m. Teatown Lake Reservation 1600 Spring Valley Road It’s time to ﬂy! Meet at the main parking lot in Croton Point Park, by the Croton Nature Center sign to join Charlie Roberto as he searches the sky for migrating birds. Free. Programs ﬁll quickly so registration is strongly recommended. Call 914762-2912 x110 to reserve.

Wednesday, October 17 White Plains

COMMUNITY LECTURE 7 p.m. New York-Presbyterian Hospital 21 Bloomingdale Road “Dealing with a Stressful Boss in a Tough Economy” is the subject of a community education program presented by Elizabeth Harris, RN, MA, PMHCNS-BC, a member of the hospital’s professional staff. A question and answer session will follow. No Registration, No fee, free parking, and refreshments provided. For more information, call 914-997-5779.

The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, October 11, 2012

Thursday, October 11

Thursday, October 11, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, October 11, 2012

Thursday, October 11, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

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Thursday, October 11, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

GUEST EDITORIAL

Let’s Take Back Columbus Day

By THOMAS A. BOWDEN More than a century ago, America celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage of discovery by hosting an enormous world’s fair on the shores of Lake Michigan. This “World’s Columbian Exposition” featured statues of the great explorer, replicas of his three ships, and commemorative stamps and coins. Because Columbus Day was a patriotic holiday--it marked the opening chapter in American history--the newly written Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in schools on October 12, 1892. Nowadays, however, an embarrassed, guilty silence descends on the nation each Columbus Day. We’ve been taught that Columbus opened the way for rapacious European settlers to unleash a stream of horrors on a virgin continent: slavery, racism, warfare, epidemic, and the cruel oppression of Indians. This modern view of Columbus represents an unjust attack upon both our country and the civilization that made it possible. Western civilization did not originate slavery, racism, warfare, or disease--but with America as its exemplar, that civilization created the antidotes. How? By means of a set of core ideas that set Western civilization apart from all others: reason and individualism. Throughout history, prior to the birth of Western civilization in ancient Greece, the world seemed impervious to human understanding. People believed that animistic spirits or capricious deities had supernatural powers to cure diseases, grow crops, and guide the hunter’s arrow toward his prey. To get the attention of these inscrutable spirits, people resorted to prayer, ritual, taboo, and human sacrifice, relying always on the mystic insights of shamans and priests. This pervasive mysticism had practical consequences: festering disease, perpetual poverty, and a desperate quest for survival that made offensive warfare against human beings seem as natural as hunting animals. Such was the plight of America’s Indians before 1492--and such was Europe’s own plight, once the civilizations of Greece and Rome had given way to mysticism and the barbarian tribes. It was Western philosophers, scientists, statesmen, and businessmen who liberated mankind from mysticism’s grip. Once scientists revealed a world of natural laws open to human understanding, medical research soon penetrated the mysteries of disease and epidemic, allowing us to look back with pity upon American Indians and other historical victims of diseases now preventable and curable. On a much wider scale, the Industrial Revolution employed science, technology, and engineering to create material goods in profusion, so that even people of average ability could become affluent by historical standards. By demonstrating how wealth can be created in abundance rather than stolen by armed force, America and the West supplied a moral alternative to the bloody tribal warfare of past eras. Western civilization’s stress on the value of reason led inexorably to its distinctive individualism. Western thinkers were first to declare that every individual, no matter what his skin color or ancestry, is fully human, possessed of reason and free will--a being of self-made character who deserves to be judged accordingly, not as a member of a racial or tribal collective. And thanks to John Locke and the Founding Fathers, individuals were recognized as possessing individual rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness--rights that made slavery indefensible and led to its eradication, at the cost of a civil war. These are the facts we are no longer taught--and the measure of that educational failure is the disdain with which Columbus’s holiday is regarded in the country that owes its existence to his courage. It is time to take back Columbus Day, as an occasion to publicly rejoice, not in the bloodshed that occurred before Columbus’s arrival and after, but in our commitment to the life-serving values of Western civilization: reason and individualism. We do so by honoring the great explorer who opened the way for that civilization to flourish in the New World. Thomas A. Bowden is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. Mr. Bowden is a former lawyer and law school instructor who practiced for twenty years in Baltimore, Maryland.

Don’t destroy the Specialized High Schools To the Editor: The Editorial “Targeting the Specialized Schools” (October 4) hit home with me. Having taught at Bronx Science at a time when Principal Reidy described the Chinese and Korean students at the school as “speaking Asian,” having served as a college mentor who wrote letters of recommendation for seniors to some of the most prestigious colleges, and having substitute taught in the Saturday prep courses, I have my own perspective on the recent NAACP lawsuit alleging that lack of success on the specialized high school aptitude test (SHSAT) constituted racism. The lawsuit did not explain how the SHSAT discriminates, just that it must, given the outcome skewed towards white and Asian students. Since the Bronx Science student body is greater than 50% Asian and the 2012 census puts the NYC Asian population at 11.8% (and the white population at 44.6%, black at 25.1%, and

Hispanic at 27.5% (all races)) it is clear that test preparation, whatever its value, is not the basis for SHSAT success. So what is? From my experience, many of the Asian students at Bronx Science come from very modest homes; many with parents who do not speak English. These parents do, however, relentlessly push their children to succeed. Students with English deﬁciencies do not have to be told. Such students attend Friday night and lengthy weekend language classes. These kids also push themselves to unprecedented levels. I had one senior who was ethnic Chinese from Viet Nam with a 3.86 average who worked 40 hours per week at a restaurant in Manhattan after school until midnight and commuted to Queens to sleep and back to the Bronx for school, day after day. Somehow he was also a member of the award-winning Robotics Team. (He got into Carnegie Mellon for engineering.) His work

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ethic was the norm among Asian students, not the exception. The ethic is to postpone spare time until success is achieved, which could be after a medical or advanced degree. The test prep classes in which I substituted, though wellmeaning, were not intensive, test-directed drills. The NYCDoE states, “The SHSAT is a timed multiple-choice test with two sections, verbal and math, that must be completed in a total of 2 hours and 30 minutes. In the ﬁrst section, students demonstrate their verbal reasoning and reading comprehension by ordering sentences to form a coherent paragraph, answering questions of logical reasoning, and analyzing and interpreting texts. In the second section, students demonstrate their math skills by answering computational and word questions that require arithmetic, algebra, probability, statistics, geometry, and trigonometry (on the Grade 9 test only).” My kids watched ﬁlms and had content discussions but did not drill with sample tests or discuss test-taking strategies that can be useful to inexperienced test takers. Unlike the Regents Exams, the City does not provide access to previous SHSAT exams for practice. As Mayor Bloomberg stated, the NYC school system is the preparation for the SHSAT. Continued on Page 19

To the editor: Mr. Stephen J. Budihas, President of the Association of Riverdale Cooperatives and Condominiums (ARC), sent a letter

Collaborative mural

Continued from Page 11 to create a mural,” Rodriguez insisted. This week’s Sabbath program, Menchel said, will discuss “art in creation—“God as an artist—and we’ll incorporate the mural into our pedagogic and educational approach.” “Over the past few days,” he continued, “we’ve shown a number of teenagers the art, and they were really excited because they’re learning art. And they connected with Shira, and they’re already discussing the next project in the teen lounge.” Artisans as young as three years old had a hand in the murals, “even if it meant a child would get to ﬁll in paint somewhere so that they could feel a sense of ownership,” Menchel said. “For a child, that’s very important. It’s a sense of pride and a sense of empowerment.” The project was funded as a memorial by the Kustanowitz family, and architect Bob Santoriello was involved behind the scenes.

to the editor last week. I found his letter full of propaganda in order to scare shareholders and gain support to continue the abuse, harassment, fraudulent and usury charges, bridge of contract and defamation resident shareholders had suffered since the formation of the co-ops. The Supreme Court is full of these cases; there is a back log of almost 6 years. Co-ops were sold under the impression that it was a home in a community when in reality it was trap to live under a dictatorship. The shareholder does not have proprietary rights therefore his home is not protected by law; he did not buy a home but a piece of paper (something like a very expensive membership to a very cheap club). No matter how much money you invest in the apartment, it is not yours, so you are wasting your money. There is a high risk of a cooperative going bankrupt where the sponsor or owner of unsold shares own more than 10% (which are most coops in Riverdale). If they stop paying their maintenance, the co-op can’t pay its bills so it could end up bankrupt and since a shareholder has no property rights, a shareholder could end up being a tenant of who ever buys the cooperative. This is one of the main reasons why banks are reluctant to lend

Management Companies and associations and politicians who support their dictatorships. If the job of the board is so difﬁcult and no payment is received, why some board members want to keep the job so bad? It must be some beneﬁt to it or are they afraid if they live, the new

board might do an audit and ﬁnd out something illegal and they might go to jail or pay back some money? Let’s keep ﬁghting for our home, register in WWW. COOPABUSE.COM and email me at Rosa.Nazar@gmail.com to protect our co-op homes. Rosa Nazar

OUR BUS IS YOUR BEST BET.

Specialized Schools Continued from Page 18 The SHSAT is a measure of due diligence in the stated areas. Period. It awards those who have spent a young lifetime preparing for it, and rewards them with a public school education among the best in the U.S. Robert F. Drake

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19 The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, October 11, 2012

Ruling could save your co-op home

money to buyers where more than 10% is own by one entity. ARC should reevaluate its function; their function should be to protect the shareholder’s home. Maybe we, as owners of the cooperative, should reevaluate if we want to belong to an association who supports proprietary leases, bylaws and laws that only protect the sponsor, management (usually a company attached to the sponsor), board which are loyal to the sponsor not the resident shareholders). Finally the court is starting to understand we have rights as humans and ARC is using our money to make sure we continue having no rights. Shareholders have no rights to protect their home in housing neither in bankruptcy. We have some rights in the Supreme Court but it is expensive and only a person with a lot of money like Mr. Fletcher can afford the Supreme Court. ARC should start protecting the shareholder’s home. Mr. Budihas, the disaster awaiting the future of the cooperative housing was created by the dictatorial behavior of board of directors, sponsors,

Thursday, October 11, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW