Hundreds rally against beating of a Queens gay man

Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by Lulu Yilun Chen in Crime and Courts, Politics and Government, Queens

Hundreds rally against beating of a Queens gay man from luluyilun on Vimeo.

By Lulu Yilun Chen

Hundreds of people gathered on College Point Boulevard in Queens on a Saturday afternoon to denounce the beating of a gay man whom police say was a victim of a bias crime.

Standing across the street from the protest was about a dozen people who said they were friends of the two men arrested. They protested behind barracks set up by the police and held up signs saying that the public should not rush to conclusions to accuse the suspects of bias.

At about 4:30 a.m. on October 8th two men attacked Jack Price, 49, of College Point, outside a local deli at College Point Boulevard and 18 Avenue in Queens after he stopped to buy a pack of cigarettes on his way home. The two men repeatedly beat and kicked Mr. Price, all of which was caught on videotape from a security camera, according to police.

After the assault, the suspects fled the location, leaving Mr. Price with a shattered jaw, broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Mr. Price managed to return to his home and call 911. He was rushed to Booth Memorial Hospital where he is currently being treated. He was able to identify the two suspects and make an account of the crime, according to police.

Police said that Daniel Aleman, 26, was arrested three days after the assault and charged with felony assaults as a hate crime. Daniel Rodriguez, 21, was apprehended in Virginia five days after the attack.

Supporters of the victim marched down College Point Boulevard from 20th Avenue to 14th Avenue, joined by many city officials, including Helen Marshall, the Queens borough president, Scott Stinger, Manhattan borough president, and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who is openly gay.

Daniel Dromm, the Democratic candidate for City Council district 25, led the crowd chanting, “Now is the moment. Now is the time. We say no to hate crime,” “LGBT, we celebrate diversity,” and “Jack Price was under attack. What do we do? Fight back!”

It was a diverse crowd that ranged from moms carrying seven-month-old babies to men with dressed-in-pink Chihuahuas and grey-haired women holding rainbow flags with the printed words “equality.”

About 300 people stopped at the nearby Popenhusen playground to give speeches, according to organizers. Family members of Mr. Price and city officials, including William Thompson, the City comptroller and mayoral candidate, delivered speeches to the crowd.

“The answer when it comes to hate crime,” said Thompson, “The answer is no.

“We are sending out a message of what we will allow in this city and what we will not,” added Thompson. “We will not be silent in any act, in any community. We will come together, we will let those people know it is wrong and you will not get away with it.”

Joanne Guaneri, 42, the sister-in-law of Mr. Price, embraced her daughter, Amanda Guaneri, 15, listening quietly to the speeches as they stood close to the stair-converted-stage in front of the crowd.

Joanne Guaneri then walked to the microphone and spoke in husky voice, “They beat my brother-in-law until near death. For $10. And for a pack of cigarettes.

“Put aside the hate crime on this, they beat a man to near death and that is why I am out here,” said Ms. Guaneri.

The youngest speaker was Jack Price’s niece, 15-year-old Amanda Guaneri, a student at Bayside High School.

“I am proud of him (Mr. Price) to be my uncle. Whatever he is, he is my uncle. I love him and I will stick behind him,” said Amanda Guaneri, “I want to say to the people following Daniel Rodriguez: Why? Why? He did wrong. You shouldn’t be behind him.”

Those words were directed at a group of 14 people, who supported Mr. Rodriguez and rallied right across the street on College Point Boulevard, arguing that the public should not jump to conclusions and define the beatings of Mr. Price as a hate crime.

Marcel Gelmi, 26, who has known Rodriguez for 11 years, said he was not biased toward gay people.

“Why is this a hate crime? Because Jack Price says so? Those cameras pick up no sound,” said Mr. Gelmi, 26. “Danny had a lot of gay friends.”

Hate crimes are not common in Queens, according to Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker.

“The two hateful people who we believe committed this crime are not representative of Queens County or College Point,” said Ms. Quinn. “The two men who did this are a minority.”

The last time an assault related to the gay community happened in Queens was in 2001, when Edgar Garzon was attacked outside of a gay club in Jackson Heights, Queens, and died because of the injuries.

However, incidents motivated by bias based on sexual orientation were up 5.5 percent within the past two years since 2006, accounting for 16.6 percent of hate crimes conducted in the United States, according to F.B.I. reports.

President Obama signed a bill on Wednesday that finally declared it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation, gender and gender identity.

In the past 10 years, the House and the Senate separately approved the hate crimes expansion numerous times. But congressional Republicans repeatedly blocked final passage.

The new policy will expand the definition of a 1968 hate crime law that applies to people attacked because of their race, religion or national origin.

“I think it’s one small part of a large picture which needs to be painted in order to have a world where everyone can be a full person without being physically, psychologically, or legally punished because of their gender or sexuality,” said Marisa Ragonese, head of Generation Q, a program for young gay and lesbians.

Mr. Price underwent surgery for a puncture in his lung last Tuesday and is now in stable condition, according to Ms. Guaneri.

Effort to Transform Embankment Gets a Boost

Posted on 10. Dec, 2009 by Nathaniel Adams in Health and Environment, Living, Politics and Government

Jersey City’s Historical Embankment, subject of a long campaign to turn it into a park.

By Nathaniel Adams

Robert Hammond, the man behind Manhattan’s High Line Park, is partnering up with Jersey City’s Embankment Preservation Coalition to help them in their mission, hoping to use the success of the High Line to promote their project.

“They’re in a similar place to where we were in 2003,” said Hammond, “they need a real estate and political champion.”

The Embankment is an elevated freight train line that fell out of use many years ago and has been at the center of a 12-year-old fight to decide its fate. Unlike the High Line, a structure built in 1930, wide enough for two train tracks, and constructed as a steel frame raised on metal columns, the Embankment, built in 1902, carried seven tracks and is made of huge piles of earth surrounded by stone walls up to 30 feet high.

“We sort of think of the Embankment as a land art piece we want to preserve,” said Maureen Crowley, director of the Embankment Preservation Coalition.

The coalition and the Jersey City government have been trying for years to turn the structure, which is owned by private developer Steven Hyman, into a public park. Hyman has wanted to use the property to build luxury houses. The two sides have been involved in court battles for years.

The city and the coalition have worked to have the Embankment declared a historic landmark, have tried to acquire it through eminent domain, have blocked attempts by Hyman to demolish the structure, and have filed suit claiming that his purchase of the property was invalid. Hyman has appealed decisions, run campaigns against Jersey City Mayor Jerremiah Healy, and claimed economic hardship as a reason for wanting to replace the embankment with apartment buildings.

Currently, all sides are waiting for the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to decide in the latest of a long series of cases and appeals whether or not the original sale of the property to Hyman by the Consolidated Rail Corporation was legal and valid.

On October 25th, Mr. Hammond visited the Embankment for the first time, walking the length of it at street level and snapping photos of the vivid autumn trees lining the top and the tendrils of ivy spilling over the sides and clinging to the solid, heavy stone walls. That night he spoke at the coalition’s monthly meeting, expressing his enthusiasm for the project and inspiring the organization to keep fighting.

Since Hammond’s visit, he has publicized the project on the High Line blog, which refers to the Embankment as a “sister project.” On November 10th, he met with the Embankment Preservation Coalition in private to discuss strategies.

“It’s all in the very inchoate stage,” said Crowley. “I think he’s going to help with publicity and fundraising ideas at this point.”

The High Line endorsement comes at a time when parks and conservancy projects throughout Jersey City, Hudson County and the entire state are experiencing a surge of popularity and success. In the November 3rd elections, an item allocating 400 million dollars for, among other environmental projects, parks and open spaces, was up for public vote on ballots across New Jersey. It passed 52% to 48%, despite incumbent Governor Democrat John Corzine, the only candidate who supported the bill, losing his office to Republican Chris Christie.

On November 10th, the Jersey City Council approved a resolution to purchase a former landfill next to the Hackensack River, to be turned into a park. The land, sitting beneath the steel skeleton of the Pulaski Skyway, will be connected to a larger planned public development along the Hackensack River which will run through all of Hudson County, from Bayonne to North Bergen.

On October 15th, environmental advocacy group Hackensack Riverkeeper honored Mayor Healy with its annual Friend of Hackensack Riverkeeper award for efforts in historic preservation, creating open spaces, and promoting green policies. The group cited the above projects and the city’s work to revitalize Reservoir 3.

The reservoir is a 14-acre site in the heart of the Heights, an urban residential area of the city. Built in the 1870s to provide clean water to a city susceptible to diseases such as typhoid, the reservoir was closed in 1990. When people started venturing back onto the site in 2001, they found a vibrant mini-ecosystem behind the reservoir’s 20-foot high stone walls.

The Jersey City Reservoir Preservation Alliance, started in 2002, has been working with the city to preserve, protect, and promote the site, offering kayaking programs, ample fishing in a lake populated with Sunnys and Largemouth Bass, and painting classes with natural subjects as diverse as lakeside cat-tails, old brick gatehouses, ducks, islands, falcons, and great blue herons.

This summer the city council passed a resolution allowing the alliance to hire an architecture firm specializing in historic preservation to first study and assess the site to create what alliance president Steven Latham calls “a place for nature to thrive.”

For One Night, Fans Catch a Free Pass at Yankee Stadium

Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by Ryan Hatch in Bronx, Money and Economy, Sports, Uncategorized

With one swing of the bat, Alex Rodriguez choked the life out of one stadium and propelled another into a state of euphoria.

“Go, go, go!” Sree Xaiver screamed as she watched A-Rod’s ball ricochet off the left-field fence and Johnny Damon raced home. “Yes! Yes! Go, score!”

He did score.

And the Yankees won moments later, sending the crowd at Yankee Stadium into a frenzy and the Philadelphia Phillies’ park into a dead zone as the boys in pinstripes won Game 4 108 miles down the New Jersey Turnpike in Philadelphia.

Seated along row 14 in section 111, Xavier, 30, and several thousand fans watched as the New York Yankees took one step closer to becoming world champions for the 27th time after a 7-4 comeback win over the Phillies. Game 4 of the World Series was played in Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Sunday night, but fans in New York were invited to come, free of charge, and watch the game at Yankee Stadium on the 6,000-square-foot Jumbotron behind the center-field fence.

“This is great, we never could have afforded to come up here if they hadn’t done this,” said Xavier, who brought her 9-year-old daughter to the game after walking in Sunday’s NYC marathon.

A Brooklyn native, Xavier said it was her first time in the “House that George Built,” which opened its doors earlier this season. A group of four behind her also said it was their first time inside the new stadium. All claimed it was due to the skyrocket ticket prices for not just the playoffs, but most of the regular season. As of Monday evening, the cheapest ticket price on StubHub for Game 6 at the stadium was $420.50 to sit in the upper deck levels. The most expensive were $20,000 to sit right by the dugout. The same seats occupied by Xavier and others in section 110 (field-level down the right field foul line) are listed at $1,100 for Wednesday night’s game.

The high price of tickets to Yankee Stadium has been an issue since the stadium opened in April. Single-game ticket prices for seats directly behind home plate were listed at $2,500. By early May, the Yankees cut those tickets in half to $1,250 due to widespread outrage from fans, but the team continued to suffer a public relations hit when nationally televised games showed still-empty seats despite the “discount.” It resulted in a boycott by many season-ticket holders, which gave way to more Kate Hudsons and Jay-Z’s filling the stadium’s best seats.

In 1970, principal owner George Steinbrenner bought the team and took out an $800,000 loan to cover all operating expenses when outfield tickets cost only $1. He wanted to brand a globally recognized team.

It worked.

Fast forward 40 years to 2010, when purchasing season tickets for a family of four behind the dugout will end up costing $405,000, slightly half of what Steinbrenner paid for the entire organization in 1970.

On Sunday night, Bronx Bomber fans who might not earn $820,000 in a lifetime had a chance to enjoy a game and enjoy seats that will probably elude them the rest of their lives.

“We are the real fans in here tonight,” Teede Williams, 32, said while drinking a $10 Bud Light on the concourse behind section 111. “Most people in here probably can’t afford the prices to get into actual games. But these are the real fans. You can tell they’re the ones who really care.”

Only the field-level sections of the stadium were open to the public — foul pole to foul pole on the lower level. Each seat in the different sections are generously padded, a feature of only the first level.

Jim Ross, senior vice president of business development for the Yankees, said management decided to open the stadium to foment some “camaraderie among the fans and let them watch the game on our spectacular screen.” He declined to speak on why the prices were so high, but said that $1,250 and $1,500 tickets have sold well.

Other Yankee officials in the ticket office could not give an exact head count on Monday since no tickets were electronically swiped when people walked though the gates.

After Long Delay, Brazilian Duo Finds Radio Outlet

Posted on 01. Dec, 2009 by Christian Yarnell in Immigration

Ricardo Sarmento on the air at Radio America’s studio in Newark.  Click here to listen live to Radio America.

By Christian Yarnell

Ricardo Sarmento, wearing jeans, a black T-shirt, and a New York Red Bulls baseball cap that partially covers his graying hair, waits for the song to finish in his D.J. studio. Then he cuts in. Speaking Portuguese in his deep voice, he says: “Radio America AM. Uma rádio feita pra você!” — “A radio made just for you!”

It took a long time for Sarmento to say those words.

He is half of a husband-and-wife team who founded Radio America, a Brazilian music and news station based in Newark’s Ironbound district, about 18 months ago.

Sarmento, 41, and wife Marcia Martins, 32, moved to the United States nine years ago. Sarmento had worked in radio in Brazil, at one point appearing on a weekly show, but his dream of becoming a full-time radio host remained unfulfilled after arriving in the United States as he faced the struggles of many immigrants, finding work and keeping his family together in a new country.

When they first arrived in the United States, Sarmento worked in construction and Martins, who was a kindergarten teacher in Brazil, as a bartender. Sarmento never gave up, though, on his dream to be on the radio, but it took some six years to get the radio station up and running.

He did not think that his biggest obstacle would be navigating the rules set by the Federal Communications Commission, which he described as tortuous. The breakthrough came at the beginning of 2008 when the FCC opened a new window for AM broadcasts, allowing Radio America to appear in March at the end of the dial on 1700 AM.

At first unable to secure studio space, Sarmento and Martins launched Radio America from their living room. “People thought we had a radio station. We didn’t mention we were at home,” Martins recalls. The station, now based in a small office on Monroe Street, features Brazilian music and news for the Brazilian community.

Brazilians came to Newark’s Ironbound in large numbers starting in the 1970s, in part because of their linguistic and cultural connection to the Portuguese who had settled in the area decades before. Adnor Pitanga, from the Brazilian American United Association or BAUA, estimates that about 70,000 Brazilians live in Newark and surrounding areas, with the highest concentration in the Ironbound.

Pitanga, 63, came to the United States 11 years ago. He was a filmmaker in Brazil and rose to become president of the country’s state-run film agency Embrafilme. Embrafilme was disbanded in 1990 during the failed presidency of Fernando Collor de Mello, whose resignation amid impeachment proceedings led to a purge of many who had served in prominent government positions.

“I had no way to work,” said Pitanga. “I couldn’t make movies anymore.”

When he first arrived in Newark, Pitanga found work as a handyman in a small hotel. Like Sarmento, however, Pitanga found a way back to his craft before too long. He now operates a video production company in New York City that films commercials and private events.

Listeners can tune into Radio America over the internet, but Sarmento and Martins want it to be a traditional radio outlet that serves the local community and offers some public service on their airwaves. They recently gave airtime to a local resident, 28-year-old Cleo Santos, one of many victimized by an unscrupulous moving company that targeted the Brazilian-American community. The company a year ago took $340 from Santos to deliver two boxes to her family in Brazil, but the boxes were never delivered. Workers from the moving company then moved on to a new company, which took another $200. The packages still did not come.

Santos says she was inspired to act because the shipment included Christmas presents for her 10-year-old daughter. She approached local newspapers with the story, but could not find an audience until Martins let her on Radio America. After the radio broadcast, other victims came forward, and many began working together. Brazilian Customs also contacted Santos, and they believe they have located her packages in the Port of Santos.

Radio America can be heard in Newark and a few surrounding towns. Sarmento and Martins are hoping to upgrade their antenna to expand the station’s reach, although the couple says they already run into many fans in the community.

“I can’t stop now,” says Sarmento. “We’re everywhere.”

Pit Bull Ban on Avenue D

Posted on 30. Nov, 2009 by Hamid Razik in Living

By Hamid Razik

Alex Perez says his girlfriend, Waleska Maldonado, and Blue, his 6-year-old pit pull are his only family.

Because they live in the Jacob Riis Housing Project on 14th Street and Avenue D, he would have had to see his family broken up if he had not licensed the dog before a ban prohibiting pit bulls in New York City Housing Authority projects went into effect May 1, 2009.

Now, animal rights groups are asking the housing authority to withdraw the ban, saying it’s too severe and has caused the euthanization of several obedient dogs, not just the menacing ones the rule seeks to eliminate.

“It’s wrong,” Perez, 41, a one-year resident of Riis who works at a bread factory in the Bronx, said of the ban. “A lot of people treat these dogs like family. My girlfriend would be devastated,” if forced to give up Blue. “Me too.”

On any given day, several pit bulls can be seen being walked by their owners on leashes, a legal requirement, among the six- to 14-story red brick high rises that compose Riis and the neighboring Lillian Wald housing projects. Built in 1949, both developments occupy 29 acres of land, from FDR Drive to Avenue D, East 14th and Houston streets, and house 7,400 residents.

Residents have mixed feelings about the ban, which includes all dogs more than 25 pounds but specifies pure-bred pit bulls, Rotweilers, and Doberman Pinschers no matter what their size.

“I hate them. They’re ugly, they’re dangerous,” Lucy Sepulveda, 52, a 40-year resident of Riis said of pit bulls. “I don’t go in the elevator with one of them. Period. Not ever. Not even the owners can control that dog.”

Eddie Garcia, 70, a 48-year resident of Wald, said he is scared of them.

“They cannot be touched, even when you to try to be friendly, they’re not friendly back,” he said. “They are nobody’s friend.”

The housing authority, which maintains 178,500 apartments with nearly 650,000 residents, says there have been 17 attacks since 2007 in which people have been harmed or where animals have been killed or maimed by other, fiercer dogs. A 12-year-old girl was severely mauled by two pit bulls in Brooklyn in 1997.

Since the housing agency implemented the ban, 113 dogs have been turned in, said Jane Hoffman, the president of the Mayor’s Alliance for New York City Animals, Inc. The alliance is an animal rescue group not affilliated with the city. It, along with the ASPCA, is calling for the ban to be lifted.

About half of the dogs have been euthanized, she said. The other half are in shelters or have been placed with families. Residents who had dogs prior to the ban were allowed to keep them as long as they were registered.

Two of the dogs turned in by residents since the ban were located in the Wald and Riis projects, Hoffman said. Of those, one dog was placed with a family. The other was destroyed.

“They’re devastated,” Hoffman said of dog owners. “You have to choose between your family member or your home. Would you like to become homeless or give up a dog that you have had for years?”

Peter John Zayas, 46, a carpet installer and lifelong Riis resident, said there are many senior citizens in public housing who are afraid of the dogs. Thirty-five percent of housing authority residents are 62 or older.

“You don’t see families, you don’t see a little girl walking those dogs,” he said. “It’s all young dudes. They think, ‘My dog is an extension of me, an extension of my pride and my ego.’”

Paul William, who’s lived at 911 FDR Dr. for 30 years, was walking two small poodles through Riis one recent afternoon.

William said he had had a pit bull for 14 years. After it died recently of natural causes, he bought smaller dogs because the pit bulls were too controversial. He said he would not have been able to part with his dog, Shoshoni, whom he thought of as a beloved family member.

“It’s a select few that ruin it for the whole,” he said.

Ironbound Residents Revive Ballantine Brewery Redevelopment

Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by Christian Yarnell in Money and Economy

A view of what was once the main brewery building and parking lot from St. Charles Street. Ferry Street runs to the left of the building. Click here to see a map of the area.

(more…)

Neighbors Are Shaken, but Not Surprised, by Pedestrian Deaths in Hell’s Kitchen

Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by Candice Chan in Beats Blog, Crime and Courts, Manhattan, Metro

by Candice Chan

In the last eight weeks, two people have been killed in traffic accidents within a 13-block stretch of Midtown, on 8th and 9th avenues: a 22 year-old Asian man and a 37-year-old Hispanic woman.

Neighbors say they aren’t surprised.

The accidents come only four months after a commemorative funeral procession was held for the six pedestrians hit by motorists on 9th Avenue since 2001. Community advocates, including the Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Association and the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety, organized June’s event to call for more traffic cops. The victim from November 4, who was struck by a bus as he was crossing 9th Avenue, is the fourth this year involved in an accident near the Port Authority Bus Terminal, police said.

New York’s traffic fatalities were at an all-time low in 2007, with 136 out of 271 total deaths attributed to pedestrians struck by vehicles. But even with falling numbers of motorist driven casualties, in 2001 the city had almost 120 more. Pedestrian deaths still comprise more than half of the total vehicle-related fatal accidents per year.

“The area on the weekends is pretty chaotic,” said a law enforcement official from Midtown South’s precinct, who preferred not to be identified because he hasn’t been authorized by his superiors to speak to reporters. “If you walk around at night, especially, you just see how many people are here.”

Mark Swick, 41, an employee of Siena pizza, was working the night a 37-year-old Hispanic woman was hit at the corner of 40th Street and 8th Avenue in early September. He said he believes a darkened street lamp on the corner may have contributed to the accident, but acknowledges that the area is dangerous even when the lights are working.

“Even the EMS guys said there have been a bunch of accidents like this around here,” Swick said.

Some Hell’s Kitchen residents hope that in coming months the city will find a way to engage some of its 30,000 police officers to ramp up traffic law enforcement.

Anthony Lopez, 44, is an assistant manager of World Famous Generations Menswear shop near the corner of 40th Street and 8th Avenue. He can recall the accident involving Fabiola Grande-Coyotl, a 23-year-old pregnant woman who was struck and killed by a truck at 38th Street and 9th Avenue last November.

“There were a lot of flowers and pictures then,” said Lopez. “Everyone was really upset.”

Everybody’s a Victim in the Epidemic of Domestic Violence, Says Those Who Know

Posted on 22. Nov, 2009 by Shawna-Kaye Lester in Arts and Culture

When Carmen screamed and her petite figure collapsed with a thud onto the stage of the Roy Arias Theater, a member of the audience, 61-year old Ana Cruz, later said the drama gave her flashbacks to her own experiences as a victim of domestic violence.

The drama, The Death of a Dream, was written by Nancy Génova, who said she was seeking to use it as an educational tool to portray the complexity of domestic violence against women, through the lens of all involved.

According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, a membership and advocacy organization,  one in four women are raped or beaten by a partner during their adult life, and approximately 15. 5 million children are exposed to domestic violence each year. One in six women and one in 33 men have been subjected to attempted rape or rape.

Génova said she first began thinking about writing the play in 2001, because of her experience as a social worker and as a victim, for more than 20-years, of domestic abuse. She said she had intended it to be an education tool that would capture the complexity of domestic violence, and show that it is necessary to understand all the variables involved in domestic violence when trying to solve it.

So, she attempted to write for the audience a passageway into the minds of the victim, the witnesses and the perpetrator.

“You can’t grow up to become so aggressive and violent without having had severe childhood trauma,” Génova  said of perpetrators, adding that often times abusers replay the emotions they felt while being traumatized and act on them.

And victims often remain in these unhealthy and dangerous situations, to the frustration of social workers who must make an average of eight intervention referrals before a woman usually abandons an abusive relationship. The playwright said she sought to explain such behavior,

“This is about co-dependency as a kind of drug. It’s so difficult to disengage, you become addicted to each other,” she said.

Though the play has now found a home on the main stage, Génova still wants to see the play used as a teaching tool. She hopes to begin taking it to colleges soon. She said she wishes domestic violence education, like HIV-education, would start in grade school.

“When they’re little, they think that’s how it is,” she said, about those children witnessing abusive behavior in their own homes. “They need to recognize that even if they are witnessing it, it is not correct.”

In the play, Carmen is portrayed by April Hernández-Castillo, one of three members of the all-female cast with Caridad De La Luz as Margie and Rhina Valentín as Martha.

For Valentín, learned behavior is one of many thematic threads in this intricate drama, and it is one that she says makes the work more about humanity than about domestic violence.

“If you are familiar with a certain behavior, it becomes normal,” she said matter-of-factly.

That’s what Cruz’s flashbacks brought to mind: that she thought it was a normal part of her duty as a wife when her husband would tie her up and penetrate her anus.

“I used to scrub myself [after the act]. I did not know I was being raped. Three times I tried to kill myself,” she said. “When April fell on the floor and started screaming, I thought I was gonna scream with her.”

She paused and added, “I forgive him, I am a Christian now. I’m a survivor. That’s what matters.”

De La Luz hopes that this work will help more women recognize negativity, even when it is disguised as love, and that it teaches the public that even though abuse is commonplace, it is unacceptable. She is the only cast member who has not been a direct victim of domestic violence, though she has seen family members struggle with the problem. She explained that she found it particularly challenging to lose herself to Margie, a character who is “so far” from who she really is. Yet Margie now lives through her, because “women are dying out there.” She added that though the process and the tears are grueling for her, it is not nearly as grueling as what a woman’s life is like under conditions of domestic violence.

“If I could change one woman’s mind about how beautiful she is, and important she is, then it’s worth it,” she said.

The high quality of the acting received particular praise from the audience. Vanessa Ortiz, 22, said it took her from being on the outside to seeing the inside of the situation. A bishop from a Bronx-based church, Ángelo Rosario, described it as a very realistic piece about an everyday real-life occurrence.

Responding to queries about the unbelievably believable scene where Carmen screams and crashes into the ground, Valentín said

“It’s real. That’s not faking it.”

For Hernández-Castillo, it is her most rewarding moment as Carmen.

“I know I am screaming for all the women who can’t,” she said, having composed herself from her performance.

“It’s like that Ike and Tina moment when she punches him back. That’s it! You can’t do this to me no more! I am free,” she said.

Hernández-Castillo hopes that until the play closes on November 8, women leave the theater knowing that they don’t have to tolerate abuse, because there is a way out.

“God created us and we’re beautiful women. There’s a way out all day every day,” she said.

Valentín said she hopes that the play will inspire people to go a step beyond being a victim, or even a survivor to asking themselves

“What are you going to do, today, about it?”

Hottest Tickets in Town

Posted on 22. Nov, 2009 by Ryan Hatch in Money and Economy, Sports

By Ryan Hatch

Standing under the elevated subway platform outside Yankee Stadium on East 161st street and River Avenue in the Bronx, two middle-aged men in shiny blue jackets wait for the No. 4 train to arrive and dispense another wave of eager baseball fans.

In hopes of finding people arriving to the game without tickets, the guys each take one more sip of coffee as a new crowd departs the train and descends down the metal steps.

“Who needs tickets, right here, who needs tickets, I got four together, four together,” one of the men says in a loud voice as he walks upstream on River Avenue through jackets and sweatshirts of dark blue and white. “Any seat you want, anywhere in the stadium I got, I got.”

Well, not exactly. They don’t have every seat in the house. They only have about a dozen, really. But tonight for Game 2 of the American League Championship Series between the Angels and Yankees, those 12 tickets for seats at Yankee Stadium are some of the hottest in town. Hot enough, in fact, to possibly fetch upwards of a couple thousand dollars in all.

“I’m hoping for three,” Mingo, 43, says, referring to the goal of making $3,000. “Any less and it’ll be a bad night.”

Mingo and his pal and co-worker “E” (“E” for excellence, he says), both of whom declined to give last or full names in fear of legal action from police, came up empty with the latest group even after wading into the crowd on River Avenue. They returned to their post under the subway and waited for the next crowd to cascade down the steps seven minutes later. Again, no luck.

“It’s still early,” Mingo, 43, donning a Yankees jacket, black gloves and faded jeans, says as he comes back to his perch near the McDonalds rail. “Give it some time. It’s still early. It’s still early.”

It is still early. The clock above the bridge on 161st street reads 4:32 p.m. This gives the guys roughly three more hours of business before their commodity becomes fruitless. First pitch is scheduled for 7:57 p.m. EST.

“Just have to keep moving around, never stand in one spot too long,” Mingo says, as he blows warm air into his clenched fist.

It’s seen as a dying art, this pay-to-play haggling of tickets outside sporting events. More commonly known as “scalpers,” the brokers trying to sell tickets right before an event have watched their business shrink over the years as fans have begun flocking to the Internet to buy tickets.

“They’ve hurt us,” E says of the online brokers. “There’s no doubt about that. Fans are skeptical of us because some people come out here selling fake tickets and ruin our reputation. A few bad apples spoil the bunch.”

So far, StubHub.com stands as the biggest bully the scalpers continue to fight. The site works as a marketplace for people wanting to sell tickets to concerts, sports and theatre, taking a 25 percent commission (10 from the buyer, 15 from the seller) on each transaction.

According to Quantcast.com, a site that monitors web traffic, StubHub had about 2.3 million unique visitors in September 2009. 53 percent of the users were male and nearly three-quarters were between the ages of 18-49. In January of 2007, Ebay purchased StubHub for $285 million at a time when the company had a profit margin of about $10 million with $400 million in annual sales. It’s safe to assume much of that $400 million used to belong to scalpers.

An advantage buyers have on StubHub is a protection guarantee that assures each ticket is real with the chance at a refund if found to be counterfeit. It’s also better equipped to gobble tickets the very second they’re available to the public, automatically purchasing them online. It freezes out scalpers who must wait at the stadium box office for actual, physical tickets and then stand at least 1,000 feet away from the box office to sell. Scalping tickets is legal in 38 states, including New York.

“It’s tough, man,” Mingo, says. “But we’re still working it. We’ll be okay.”

Inside the McDonalds sits Charlie Powell, a 57-year-old Vietnam vet who’s taking a break from the dropping temperatures by drinking coffee and having a hamburger.

“Nobody’s buying anything today,” Powell says. “Look at this stuff. They sell it for four times this much at the stadium but I can’t give it away.”

Holding several boxes of Yankee apparel including wool hats, wooden bats and over-sized foam fingers, Powell, a native of the Bronx, has resorted to selling merchandise instead of tickets due to the rapidly changing business environment for scalpers outside of stadiums.

“I used to sell tickets but it just ain’t what it used to be,” he says. “In ten years, I doubt we (scalpers) even exist anymore.”

An hour passes as the restaurant becomes busier with dozens of people seeking shelter from the harrowing wind and light rain.

Outside, the clock reads just before six.

“Okay, it’s time to move,” Powell said, finishing his Big Mac and zipping up his jacket. “Somebody’s gotta pay my electricity bill.”

Studio Tour Highlights Uneasy Relationship Between Artists and City Government

Posted on 20. Nov, 2009 by Nathaniel Adams in Arts and Culture

Two decades ago, when Jersey City was nicknamed “Kill City,” crime was high and rents were low. Struggling artists, willing to settle in declining neighborhoods for ample space at affordable prices, moved into vacant factories and turned empty floors into working studios.

The gentrification cycle of Downtown Jersey City had begun. Galleries soon opened. Then real estate developers followed with plans for gleaming condominium towers and ambitious rehabilitation projects.

Now, almost 19 years since local artists first began the Jersey City Artists Studio tour, some artists and curators said they are feeling squeezed out by rising rents and the growing demand of expensive real estate development. They complain that city officials are not offering much support, taking control of (and credit for) many of the art scene’s most impressive achievements.

Orlando Reyes, 40, director of Gallery 58, cited the recent tour – a weekend-long city-wide event involving almost 100 locations- as an example. He said it is no longer run by artists or for local artists.

“It’s a real estate scam,” Reyes said, pointing out that over time the city has taken control of the tour and shifted the focus away from the art community to promote overall economic development and real estate development. He noted the tour is now sponsored by financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Capital One.

Reyes, who has run his gallery for seven years, said that there have been fewer visits to working studios in recent years, in part because real estate companies now organize art shows inside their latest condo developments – shows in which the visitor is directed to walk through a model apartment for sale first before entering the gallery.

He sees independent venues like his being sidelined, deliberately ignored, and, at times, even harassed.

Comedian Melissa Surach, 28, said local police insisted on ending one of her performances at Gallery 58 at 4 p.m. on a Saturday because the gallery didn’t have an entertainment license. The event, organized with Grace Van Vorst Church, was a fundraiser to help feed the city’s homeless.

John Fathom, 33, artist and building manager at Rock Soup Studios, says that the city’s policy has been to “let the artists do all the work and then take all the credit.”

Not all artists are critical of the city. Director of Art House Productions Christine Goodman defends the City Cultural Affairs Department.

“Our experience is that the city absolutely supports the arts,” said Goodman. The problem, she insists, is the lack of resources: space, material, and funds.

The city continues to promote its commitment to the arts with posters in PATH train stations advertising city-led development initiatives with a purportedly cultural focus. The biggest such project centers around The Powerhouse, a historical landmark building which is being restored after a $3.2 million contribution from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The building is meant to be the center of an arts district several years in the making, but the area’s history is already a sore spot with many local artists.

The moment many people recall as the turning point in the city’s relationship to its art community came in 2004 when the decision was made to demolish a massive artist loft downtown that had housed galleries, studios and learning space.

It was called the 111 Building, and it looms large in the memories of most long-term resident artists in Jersey City. It was one of the only cultural centers in the area while the city went through its rough period in the ’90s. Many trace their beginnings in the art scene to it.

In 1995, the city established WALDO, the Work and Live Overlay District. Part of the charter was that 10 percent of work/live units be reserved for artists at a discount. In 2002 the city expanded the initiative, designating the area surrounding the 111 Building the “Powerhouse Arts District.”

But the owners of Building 111 wanted to demolish the building and build high-rise apartments on the site. They took the city to court, challenging the neighborhood’s historic designation. The owners won the case, the artists were given a year to move out, and the building was leveled without a historic designation to protect it. Without historic status, several other properties in the area became condos, notably the Waldo Lofts, which lists several galleries on its website (including Gallery 58,) as local attractions. None of the galleries listed are, however, within the designated Arts District.

In 2007 internationally renowned architect Rem Koolhaas unveiled his design for a multi-use high-rise building on the former site of the 111 Building. There was some controversy over building such a large structure in what was supposed to be an area focused on street-level development. However, the site is still vacant, and according to the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation’s development listings, its status is listed as “Planned,” and there is no definitive date for ground-breaking at this time.

In 2007, WALDO was removed from the zoning ordinance. Some people in the art community see this as a result of keeping rent prohibitively expensive for smaller artists.

Sandra Sung, assistant planner at the Division of City Planning, said the regulations are fair and that artists just need to prove their financial solvency like a non-artist would before being approved.

Reyes said he is more cynical about the relationship between the city and the arts. He sees a repeating pattern of artists moving and paving the way for real-estate developers.

“It’s all commerce to them,” says Reyes. “We take our creativity with us.”