Archive for April, 2009

Fri. Apr. 17-Sun. May 17 – “Exit Cuckoo”; the latest production from the Working Theater, written and performed by Lisa Ramirez about the overlooked world of working mothers; at the Clurman Theater, 410 W. 42nd St. in Manhattan; show times at Tues. 7 p.m., Wed-Sat. 8 pm., Sat. 2 p.m., and Sun. 3 p.m.; tickets $25; more info at 212-279-4200. Visit their website for more info: WorkingTheater

By James T. Madore

ALBANY – Negotiations to avert fare hikes and service cuts by the MTA will intensify Monday as lawmakers return to the Capitol after the holidays.

State Senate Democrats were expected to debate privately another bailout plan that includes a modified payroll tax on employers in the 12 counties served by mass transit and adding a host of new levies, knowledgeable sources said last night. Gov. David A. Paterson also was to step up efforts to woo Senate Republicans with a first meeting with Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), the minority leader.

State officials are seeking to head off implementation of a “doomsday” budget by the operator of the Long Island Rail Road, New York City subway, Long Island Bus and other services. Several trains would be mothballed next month and fare hikes averaging 23 percent would go into effect around June 1.

Paterson has vowed to keep lawmakers in Albany until a deal is reached.

“This is obviously something that we’re going to be heavily engaged in this week,” said Austin Shafran, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans).

Factions of Senate Democrats have derailed a $1.2-billion rescue plan for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority – backed by Paterson and the Assembly’s Democratic majority – over the payroll tax and tolls on now-free East River and Harlem River bridges. Shafran said Sunday the Senate would not consider bridge tolls, including last week’s amended proposal from a state commission.

Paterson aide Erin Duggan said: “There are a lot of good options and solutions on the table. The governor just needs the legislature to work with him.”

Dan Weiller, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), said he continues to work with Paterson and Smith to “keep huge fare hikes and major service cuts from going into effect.”

The Senate GOP, shut out of talks so far, is demanding money for bridges and roads on Long Island and upstate. With Democrats split, Republican votes are required to adopt a rescue plan.

Richard Ravitch, the former MTA chief who led the state commission, said, “If they haven’t done anything by the end of [this] week, the MTA is going to start taking drastic action.”

An MTA spokesman wasn’t immediately available to comment.

Hope for a Harvest of Tolerance From Anne Frank’s Tree

by David W. Dunlap

“Our horse chestnut is in full bloom,” Anne Frank told her diary on Saturday, May 13, 1944, “thickly covered with leaves and much more beautiful than last year.”

She would have been 79 this year, turning 80.

Had she survived, Miss Frank would still be able to see the horse chestnut tree by which she measured the seasons of life during her two years of hiding from the Nazis, not just behind the building in Amsterdam from which she and her family were taken by the Gestapo in 1944 but — if the plans of the Anne Frank Center USA are realized — at 10 sites around this country, including New York City.

Ten saplings that originated from that stately but seriously ailing tree are to be brought here later this year for distribution by the center, a nonprofit organization with an office on the fifth floor of 38 Crosby Street.

But let’s back up a moment. Who knew there was an Anne Frank Center in SoHo?

Not many people, obviously; though Yvonne Simons, the executive director, is hoping to raise the organization’s low profile. Until recently, the 32-year-old center — which is affiliated with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam — concerned itself largely with coordinating traveling exhibits based on Miss Frank’s life and diary.

Now, through art and writing programs in schools and prisons, it is also focusing more generally on the theme of tolerance. (On May 11, the Vineyard Theater will present a selection of student plays inspired by the diary.)

The 10 horse chestnut saplings, each about three feet high, are intended as a living expression of that mission.

“What we really hope to do is plant them in areas across the U.S. as a symbol of the growth of tolerance,” Ms. Simons said. She said she would like to see one planted around the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, another near the White House.

One sapling is destined for the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, which features Miss Frank’s story in its Power of Children gallery. To find the other seven potential sites, Ms. Simons said, the center plans to issue a request for proposals.

Horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) can be found throughout New York parks. Just look up wherever you see those chocolate-brown nuts that look as if someone had gone over them with Pledge. A mature tree can reach 85 feet.

The Anne Frank Tree in Amsterdam, as it is now called, has had a troubled recent history, under such attack by fungi and moths that the city of Amsterdam decided in 2007 that it would have to be felled before it could fall on its own accord. An international protest followed. Now the ailing tree is braced by a structural support and is expected to remain standing for up to 15 years.

Miss Frank would have last glimpsed the tree in August 1944, before she and the other Jewish occupants of a secret annex in a warehouse and office building in Amsterdam were rounded up by the Gestapo. At the age of 15, she died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Though Miss Frank referred to the tree sparingly in her diary, it is clear how important it was to her as evidence of so much that she could not experience.

“From my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind,” she wrote on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 1944.

“When I looked outside right into the depth of nature and God,” she added, a few paragraphs later, “then I was happy, really happy.”

PEF demands governor stop playing politics with people’s lives

“Governor David Paterson continues to play a damaging game of politics with the state workforce and their families. We are disappointed that he continues to claim to have only two choices: concessions or layoffs,” New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) President Kenneth Brynien stated at a press conference today held at the union’s headquarters in Latham.

“PEF recognizes these are difficult times. We recognize that people’s wages are being frozen or cut and jobs are being lost all across this great state. Like the governor, we, too, do not take our decision lightly. If we weren’t so certain there is a better way to save the state the $481 million, our position might be very different.

“The governor claims to “have taken a major step toward restoring our state’s fiscal and economic strength.” We do not believe that calling for the layoff of nearly 9,000 employees and the economic ripple effect this will have on the state’s economy is consistent with his goal. We continue to offer proposals that will meet the governor’s financial need as well as eliminate the need for contract concessions and layoffs by making state government more efficient and
cost-effective. Unfortunately, these proposals have been largely ignored, as the governor insists on sacrifice that he has been unwilling to demand from others.

“The governor has insulated his political appointees from cuts ensuring that all of the reductions fall on the people actually doing the work. Cuts in agencies such as the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities will be on the people working directly with
New York’s most vulnerable citizens. In a time when some of these citizens died in a fire because of low staffing, the governor cuts even more staff.

“We demand that the governor stop playing politics with peoples’ lives and realize there are less damaging ways to cut the cost of state government than by laying off hard working public employees.”

PEF represents approximately 59,000 professional, scientific and technical employees of New York State. For more information, call Director of Public Relations Darcy Wells at 518 785-1900, ext. 277 or on her cell at 518 859-1274. Or e-mail her at dwells@pef.org

Alan Lubin Addresses NYSUT Convention

Recently in Buffalo, New York, BALCONY Co-Chairman Alan Lubin addressed the NYSUT Convention echoing the theme “Speak Up Speak Out!.”

Lubin, who serves as Executive Vice President of the NYSUT, a 600,000 member union, provided us with his speech: ALubin