UPPER WEST SIDE NOW
NTARY
Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010
Surge In New Stores
Breathes Life Into UWS
And Defies Gloomy Trend
By Erica Block
W
hen Spanish chef Jesús
Núñez was seeking a spot
to open his New York res-
taurant Graffit, everyone told him the
Upper West Side was not the right
area. “People don’t come to the
Upper West Side to have dinner,”
Núñez said he was told. “They go
downtown.”
But Núñez found the perfect space
for his restaurant on 69th street and
decided to defy the naysayers, open-
ing on Dec. 12. “I could go to a
neighborhood where all the other res-
taurants are, yes,” Núñez said. “But
if I come to the Upper West Side, I’ll
be more special because, here, there
is no restaurant like mine.”
Núñez is joining a mini boom
of Upper West Side restaurant and
store openings. From cookie shops to
a planned retail building on Broad-
way, the area is seeing a surge in re-
tail activity that has some observers
optimistic the neighborhood is re-
gaining it’s verve after several years
of decline.
Janet Currie, an economics profes-
sor at Columbia University and Upper
West Side resident, said that the re-
The Upper West Side has felt economic hard
times with ‘For Rent’ signs popping up all
over the neighborhood.
cent flourish of businesses on the
Upper West Side “reflects both the
fact that New York was not as hard
hit as some other areas by the eco-
nomic downturn,” and, as such, the
area is able to right itself relatively
quickly.
The Upper West Side has felt eco-
nomic hard times with ‘For Rent’
signs popping up all over the neigh-
borhood. Along with OTB branches
across the city, the Off-Track Betting
parlor on West 72nd street, between
Columbus and Amsterdam, recent-
ly closed.
But other parts of the Upper West
Side are seeing a definite surge. In
particular, Currie noted that the area
between 100th and 116 th streets
“seems to be picking up.” One new
restaurant Currie enjoys is Buca, an
Italian place, on 103rd street between
Amsterdam and Broadway. Buca
uses local and organic ingredients in
their dishes whenever possible and
its location is small but was jammed
with customers one recent afternoon.
Amsterdam Avenue around 72nd
Street is also seeing a spate of activ-
ity. Around Thanksgiving, the retail
warm-cookies-and-milk-joint Insom-
“All The Neighborhood News”
nia Cookies (whose Village locations
are mainstays with NYU students)
debuted its new store at 405 Am-
sterdam Ave. Well-reviewed Chinese
restaurant Grand Sichuan recently
opened a branch on 75th Street and
Amsterdam Avenue. Lobster roll em-
porium Luke’s Lobster opened Dec.
17 at 426 Amsterdam Ave.
The Yard, a wine bar and casual
restaurant, recently opened on Free-
dom Place and 68th Street. Nearby,
the Gracefully food market at 65th
and West End Avenue opened this
month. West Lake Palace opened in
the former Silk Road Palace location
at Amsterdam and 81st Street.
Other recent openings are colo-
nizing parts of the neighborhood
underserved by retail. A Brooklyn
Industries store opened its doors re-
cently on 99th Street and Broadway,
a stretch better known for diners
than trendy fashions. It joins a new
Urban Outfitters clothing store on
the block.
And across the street, on the east
side of Broadway between 99th and
100th Streets, plans are afoot to trans-
form the former Metro Theater into
a shopping destination. The art deco
Metro Theater closed in 2005 after
more than seventy years running.
Until recently, the Metro’s space has
remained empty as one commercial
project plan after another commer-
cial project plan continued to fall
through. Upper West Side resident
Michael Oliva recently started the
Metro Theater Project which is try-
ing to raise money to transform the
building into an arts, education and
retail space. He envisions the future
Metro as being what it once was—
not the adult film site it became dur-
ing the 1970s and 80s—but a place
for the diverse residents of the neigh-
borhood to gather and interact with
one another.
According to the Metro Theater
Project’s website, the Metro when
it reopens (as the Metro Art Center)
plans to “provide a fun and exciting
outlet for community nightlife that
is safe and inclusive to an ethnical-
ly and financially diverse audience
of neighborhood residents”. It fu-
ture Metro Art Center will be a “com-
munity-driven effort,” the site says“,
with an emphasis on involvement
and contributive diversity”.
PL IME
COM $1.00
IN THE NEWS
States Block
Needle Exchange
Despite multiple federally funded stud-
ies showing that access to sterile sy-
ringes makes injection drug addiction
less deadly without increasing use,
needle exchange has remained a po-
litical battleground.  Page 2
Resident With
Incredible Memory
An Upper West Side resident is among
six Americans with “superior autobio-
graphical memory,” a condition that al-
lows them to remember almost every
day of their lives. Louise Owen, 37, was
recently profiled on “60 Minutes.” Page 3
Ex-Riding School
Gets New Tenant
The former Claremont Riding Acad-
emy on 89th Street will soon become
part of the Stephen Gaynor School. The
school, for children with learning dis-
abilities, will next year place about 30
children in preschool classes.  Page 3
Adults Conquer
Fear of Bikes
With the cost of gasoline rising dramati-
cally and people becoming increasingly
sensitive to the size of their carbon foot-
prints, more and more riders are dust-
ing off their bicycles for the first time
in years. And more and more adults are
learning to ride for the first time.  Page 4
Former bounty hunter
Carl Tanner is
making his
debut at the
Metropolitan
Opera with a
singing role
in Puccini’s La
Ring In The New Year Fanciulla del
West.  Page 3
Without Leaving UWS Home Is Where
The Art Is there
Why venture from the neighborhood when the Upper There isn’t enough room in the galler-
ies in Manhattan for many artists to
West Side offers so many great ways to spend New show their work. These space limita-
Year’s Eve? Here are some ideas: tions have led artists to expand the
definition of a gallery by opening their
doors, of those of friends or sponsors,
to the public and displaying artwork in
T
he New Year’s Eve Concert for Peace at the Cathedral Church of St. their homes.  Page 6
John the Divine will feature the lighting of thousands of candles, $60.
Gov’t Mule plays the Beacon Theatre for “2 Nights of Peace & Mule.” The Green Fairy Returns
Four-course prix fixe menu and champagne toast for $175 at Dovetail. New Government officials recently agreed
York Road Runners jog through Central Park to ring in the New Year. Five- to allow the word “absinthe” on bottle
hour premium open bar, hors d’oeuvres and DJ at the Empire Hotel for $125. labels, effectively ending a 95-year
Fatty Crab offers a $75 dinner including a glass of champagne and one hour of ban. Absinthe enthusiasts from Seattle
all-you-can-eat crab. The Gilfords play Prohibition with a midnight champagne to Boston are thrilled that the spirit has
toast, and a live broadcast of the Times Square ball drop for $125. Sistermonk returned to the United States.  Page 7
plays the Thalia Cafe at Symphony Space, free. Stay home with an ounce of
Zabar’s Desietra Ossetra caviar for $120. Open bar and unlimited food at the Researchers Seek
Sunburnt Calf for $100. Bistro Ten 18 offers a Antibiotic Alternatives
four-course menu for $85 with an optional wine Facing a growing incidence of bacterial
New York City Ballet’s Sara pairing for $45. VIP tickets for $100 will get you resistance to antibiotics, pharmaceuti-
Mearns dances in George a bottle of champagne, two bottles of premium cal companies are struggling to come
Balanchine’s The Nut- liquor, and a selection of appetizers per table for up with new drugs to fight infections.
cracker on New Year’s Eve $100 at Village Pourhouse. The New York Phage therapy is the use of what are
at Lincoln Center City Ballet at Lincoln Center performs George known as bacteriophage, viruses that
 Photo: Paul Kolnik Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, tickets $250. are parasites of bacteria.  Page 9
2 News
UPPER WEST SIDE NOW
State Laws Block
Funds For Needle
Exchange
By Lauren Browne
E
very Tuesday morning,
Miguel Ramos and his
team from the nonprofit or-
ganization New York Harm
Reduction Educators park two mid-
size motor homes on a Manhattan
street corner. They pitch a small white
tent along the sidewalk; stock it with
sterile syringes, cookers, cottons and
water; and wait for neighborhood ad-
dicts to drop by.
The organization, known by locals
as the “Cadillac of harm reduction
programs,” is one of the oldest nee-
dle exchange programs in the coun-
try. Such programs were born in the
1980s, during the early stages of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic, when injection
drug users were disproportionately
affected by the disease.
Two decades later, New York City
health workers like Ramos have
helped decrease HIV infection in drug
addicts by 75 percent, according to a
2005 study.
But despite multiple federally
funded studies showing that access
to sterile syringes makes injection
drug addiction less deadly without
increasing use, needle exchange has
remained a political battleground.
Health experts across the country
celebrated victory a year ago when
Congress voted to lift a 21-year ban
on federal funding for needle ex-
change programs. While legal pro-
grams in states like New York and
California are already applying for
new funds, underground operations
have little hope of any financial as-
sistance. Antiquated state law, rather
than federal funding, is still the real
obstacle to needle exchange, accord-
ing to grass-roots advocates.
Meanwhile, injection drug users
with no access to clean syringes are ac-
quiring fatal blood-borne diseases like
HIV and hepatitis at alarming rates.
Legal barriers disproportionately affect
poor, minority populations, according
NEEDLE EXCHANGE FACTS
• More than 60 percent of IV drug
users in New York are infected
with hepatitis C.
• There are 12 exchanges operat-
ing throughout the city.
• In a recent one-year period, ex-
change programs gave out 1.9
million syringes, and collected
1.5 million.
• There are between 40,000 and
110,000 IV drug users in the
city.
• In New York City, only about 10
to 20 percent of injection drug
users go to syringe exchanges.
Source: New York City Office of Drug
Use Prevention
to new research. Improperly discarded
needles litter towns and endanger res-
idents, while increased rates of disease
place financial burdens on an already
stressed health care system.
“Simply put, needle exchange pro-
grams enable the addicted to contin-
ue down the destructive and deadly
path of drug dependence,” states the
Florida-based nonprofit organization
Save Our Society From Drugs, in its
position statement.
Florida state drug parapherna-
lia laws currently outlaw needle ex-
change.
In November 1988, Congress
banned federal funding for any pro-
gram that distributed sterile syringes
for illicit drug use. The ban undercut
initiatives providing important public
health services, according to commu-
nity health experts.
States were left with the power to
decide whether they would permit
and fund needle exchange programs
via a public health exception to drug
paraphernalia laws. Many decided
against it.
But this past December, Congress’
decision to lift the 21-year-old federal
Two decades later, New York City health
workers like Ramos have helped decrease
HIV infection in drug addicts by 75 percent,
according to a 2005 study.
funding ban gave legalized programs
a glimmer of hope.
There have already been funding
cuts at the state level, says Herbert
Quinones, program director at New
York Harm Reduction Educators. “We
are definitely applying for federal
money, but that’s not guaranteed ei-
ther. The administration has just de-
cided to freeze domestic funding. So
who knows what’s going to happen?
We’re hoping for the best.”
In states that have outlawed nee-
dle exchange, like North Carolina and
Nevada, activists believe that federal
funds will do nothing for the injec-
tion drug users they serve.
“We don’t have any needle ex-
change programs in the state of Ne-
vada,” says Jennifer Morss, executive
director of the nonprofit organization
Aid for AIDS of Nevada. “So I can’t
really tell you how the funding would
affect our programs.”
Some 94 percent of injection drug
users surveyed in Las Vegas reported
that they would use a clean-needle
exchange program if one were made
available, according to a 2001 study.
“The health department can apply
for all the federal funding it wants,”
says Harney. “Even if the federal law
has lifted the ban, this is still a state
issue. If the state doesn’t allow us to
receive those funds, we’re not going
to get them. There is such a fear at
the legislative level.”
As in many states, the North Caro-
lina drug laws are tricky. Although sy-
ringe exchange programs are banned,
drug injectors are legally permitted
to purchase sterile needles without a
prescription from local pharmacies.
But North Carolina has strict drug
paraphernalia laws. Anyone caught
in possession of a needle without
having a prescription, even if it was
just bought from a pharmacist, can
be (and often is) arrested.
Pharmacists also have the right to
refuse to sell a syringe if the customer
does not have a prescription. Some
request identification—sorely lacking
in the homeless population—or other
information before they are willing to
sell needles.
“One day a guy came in here look-
ing for me to give him a clean nee-
dle,” says Harney. “But he couldn’t
find me. So he goes to a pharmacy
down the street. Pharmacist asks to
see a prescription. He says he doesn’t
have one but asks whether the phar-
macist would rather be filling him a
prescription for HIV or hep C meds.
The pharmacist replies, ‘If you’re a
junkie, you deserve to have AIDS.’ ”
Harney started the Needle Ex-
change Program of Asheville in 1994.
“I was an outreach worker in west-
ern North Carolina,” says Harney.
“Every day, I was tripping over nee-
dles in the streets. That’s when I de-
Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010
Miguel Ramos, site manager of the New York Harm Reduction Educators’
needle exchange in Manhattan provides a local resident with clean syringes.
 Photo by Lauren Browne
cided to do something about it.”
Harney describes his operation as
“illegal but tolerated” by local officials.
Political support in what is considered
by many to be the most liberal pocket
of the state sustains his efforts.
Although there are other harm re-
duction organizations in North Car-
olina, they do not openly advertise
needle exchange services. Injection
drug users are often too afraid to seek
out clean needles or other health ser-
vices.
“We operate underground,” says
said one public health activist in
North Carolina who asked to remain
unnamed for fear that she would be
targeted by law enforcement officials.
“The minute they find out that we’re
passing out syringes, we get shut
down. People are scared to call the
police or call the ambulance when
someone has OD’d. They’re afraid of
the legal repercussions. They think
they can’t go to the doctor because
the doctor is going to see the track
marks. So they never go to the emer-
gency room.”
IV drug users account for more
than 20 percent of new HIV infec-
tions in the U.S., according to 2007
data from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Injection
drug use is also the leading cause of
hepatitis C infection.
Restrictive drug paraphernalia
laws disproportionately affect mi-
nority populations. In the Raleigh-
Durham, N.C., area, white injection
drug users are five times as likely as
black users to report pharmacies as
their primary source of syringes, ac-
cording to a January report by Family
Health International.
Public health officials believe that
individuals who do not obtain their
needles from pharmacies must ac-
quire new needles illegally or simply
reuse the ones they or their friends
have. An estimated 50 percent of
Americans diagnosed with HIV are
black, according to 2007 data from
the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
But syringe exchange programs
don’t benefit only injection drug
users.
“My biggest concern is proper dis-
posal of used needles,” says Harney.
“Don’t flush ’em down the toilet.
Then you’re gonna need a plumber.
Don’t put ’em in the garbage can.
It puts garbagemen in harm’s way.
Don’t throw it over your fence and
get your neighbors in trouble. This is
about public health and safety for the
entire community. I’ve received pizza
boxes of needles, milk jugs, Pepsi bot-
tles, you name it.”
Mickela Mallozzi teaches “The Masala
Bhangra Workout” Monday nights, 5:30
p.m. at the The West Side YMCA, 5 W. 63rd
St. mickela@masaladance.com
Editor
Sascha Brodsky
Art  Director
Alexey Katalkin
Photography
Galya Kovalyova
Contributors
Elizabeth Johnstone, Abe
Lebovic,
M.R. O’Connor, Ben Postman,
Micki Steele
Upper West Side Now
is published by
New York Now Media, LLC,
188 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10013.
(646) 397-7143.
Upper West Side Now is not
responsible for unsolicited
manuscripts.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the USA.
www.upperwestnow.com
 News 3
Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010 UPPER WEST SIDE NOW

Neighborhood In Brief
Parents Criticize Success Academy Plan Researchers Find UWS
The planned Upper West Success Academy charter school will not help the overcrowd- Resident With Incredible
ing of schools in the neighborhood, some parents told a recent community board meeting. Memory
The Academy will open on the Upper West Side next summer but education Have a hard time remembering what you
officials haven’t said exactly where it will go. “We just don’t believe that had for breakfast? Well, meet an Upper
you’re ever going to help those parents who aren’t in a failing school West Side resident who is among six
who want to go to your school,” said local parent Eric Shuffler. Americans with “superior autobiographi-
Parents say they are concerned the school will bring in children cal memory,” a condition that allows
from outside the area and add to overcrowding and deplete them to remember almost every day of
limited resources. But a spokeswoman for the Academy told their lives. Louise Owen, 37, was recently
the Dec. 16 Community Board 7 education committee meeting profiled on “60 Minutes.” Owen, a pro- Controversial Tacos
that the new school won’t hurt current students. fessional violinist, lives on West 100th Head To Neighborhood
Street. Researchers say that Owen can re- Patty’s Taco Truck is heading to the Upper West Side after
member details of every day from 1985 getting the cold shoulder at its former location on 86th
Former Bounty forward. Street and Lexington Avenue. UES residents complained
Hunter To Sing At about the truck and tickets and violations often plagued
Met it. The truck will now be serving Columbia University stu-
Former bounty hunter Carl SJP Turns Nose Up dents.
Tanner is making his debut AT UWS Pad

at the Metropolitan Opera
with a singing role in Puc-
cini’s La Fanciulla del West.
The Upper West Side resi-
dent will appear on stage
Dec. 27. Tanner said he
is “very excited” about his
debut and “hopes to see
you there and is looking
forward to greeting every-
one afterwards.”
13-year-old Goes Missing
Police are searching for a 13-year-old girl who has been
missing from her Upper West Side home since Dec. 10. Xio-
mara Speller of 28 W. 91st Street was last seen leaving her
home about 9 p.m. She is 5-feet-2 inches, 130 pounds and
was last seen wearing a yellow shirt, blue jeans, red sneak-
ers and a black jacket.
Advertise with
The $21.5 million Upper West Side duplex that actress
Sarah Jessica Parker had been considering is reportedly
back on the market. The fourteen room apartment in The
Brentmore building has eight bedrooms and five and half
bathrooms. No word on why the “Sex and the City” star and
husband Matthew Broderick decided against the move from
her current West Village digs. UPPER WEST SIDE NOW
Ex-Riding School Gets
New Tenant
Competitive rates,
The former Claremont Riding
Academy on 89th Street will
maximum local exposure
soon become part of the Stephen
Gaynor School. The school, for
children with learning disabili-
ties, will next year place about
30 children in preschool classes. email uwsnow@gmail.com or call 646-397-7143
Sources say the school paid $12
million for the five-story building.

©Frederick Charles

“It is possible to be awestruck by the exotic

splendor of this meticulously restored sanctuary.”
Edward Rothstein, The New York Times

Visit the Museum at Eldridge Street

Based in the 1887 Eldridge Street Synagogue
A National Historic Landmark
12 Eldridge Street between Canal and Division Streets
Sunday through Thursday from 10 am to 5pm
4 Life
UPPER WEST SIDE NOW Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010

Adults conquer their

fear of bikes to avoid
the gas pump
By Cassandra Lizaire

“I
had the flier for a year before I
finally signed up.” Zalima Khan
said with a grin as she waited for
her instructor to help pick out a
bicycle for her petite frame. “It’s just something
I always wanted to do.”
Khan, 44, of River Edge, N.J., had come to a
bicycle shop in New York City where she joined
four other adult women intent on learning, or
refreshing, their bike riding skills. Khan was in
the last week of instructor Terry Chin’s three-
week course and she and the others made their
way to a nearby bike path. A few weeks earli-
er they had wobbled and careened. Today they
were pedaling and balancing on their own,
while learning more advanced skills.
“Look right, steer right. Look left, steer left!”
shouted Chin. “Don’t pedal when you’re going
over a bump!”
Chin, 58, has taught hundreds of New Yorkers,
including some who’s who of the city’s limelight,
to conquer their pedaling fears. “People take it for
granted that biking is elementary, but it’s not,”
said Chin. “I’ve got it down to a science where
everybody rides by the third week, not perfectly,
but they get by. From then on it’s going over pot-
holes, shifting gears, and learning bike signals.”
With the cost of gasoline rising dramatically
and people becoming increasingly sensitive to
the size of their carbon footprints, more and
more riders are dusting off their bicycles for the
first time in years. And more and more adults
are learning to ride for the first time.
Bicyclists says the nation’s population of 57
million bike riders is on the rise, especially in
cities.
“In the last five to eight years, cities like
New York, Portland, Boulder and the Washing-
ton, D.C., area, have seen large increases in the
amount of bicycling,” said Andy Clarke, presi-
dent of the League of American Bicyclists, based
in Washington, D.C.
The league has a roster of 1,100 certified in-
structors across the country who are helping nov-
ices get into gear. John Ciccarelli, of San Francisco
has taught students one-on-one for seven years
and this spring he joined other cycle instructors
in the city’s first “Learn to Ride a Bike” clinic.
“The interactive process of teaching someone
to ride is challenging, but fun for the teach-
er,” said Ciccarelli, whose students range from
pre-teens to sixtysomethings. “You’re teach-
ing someone who doesn’t believe they can do
it. Being able to help them achieve a major life
goal is really fulfilling.”
Mallika Nallani, a 40 year-old wife and moth-
Zalima Khan celebrates with a classmate after
learning to balance and pedal on her own.
 Photograph by Cassandra Lizaire
er of two, attended the San Francisco bike clin-
ic along with about 15 others. She was hoping
to relearn the riding skills she developed as a
child in India. “I was nervous I would fall, but
it became easier after a while and I learned
in about two hours!” she said. “It was so ex-
hilarating. Now I feel encouraged to try other
things I think I might not be good at.”
For her part, Susan McLucas of Somerville,
Mass., has run classes through her Bicycle Rid-
ing School and through the Cambridge Center
for Adult Education since 1985. Her Web site
boasts that she has taught more than 2,000 stu-
dents. “I can count the people who didn’t get
it on one hand,” said McLucas, “occasionally
people learn in their first few minutes. Every-
body starts out terrified,” she added, “but they
are euphoric by the end.”
Adult students tend to be more difficult
to teach than children because their fears of
biking have become ingrained over the years.
Older adults have also lost some of their equi-
librium and level of fitness. McLucas rewards
each student who learns to ride in her four-ses-
sion, weekend courses with a picnic ceremony
complete and even a “diploma” for completing
the course. She also offers tips to first-timers.
“Learn on a bike that is small enough that
you can sit and have your foot on the ground,”
McLucas said. “Stop way before you need to stop
and, whichever way you start to lean, turn that
way. Wear a helmet and keep it nice and slow.”
Even closet nonbikers are giving cycling a try.
“I don’t know why I never learned,” said Lena
G., one of the women in Chin’s class. “But I
want to try and do a triathlon and swimming
and biking are my two weakest links.”
Before departing, the women who have
bonded and cheered each other over the past
few weeks, exchanged numbers and vowed to
go riding together soon.
“Otherwise, what would I be doing?” said
a student named Muriel, “Watching TV in the
morning? This,” the fresh air and sunshine,”
is a better alternative.”

Bikes Are Back, And So Are The People Who Make Them
String music played re-
cently in the brick garage
where soft-spoken John-
ny Coast, founder of Coast
Cycles, hand-builds bicycle
frames.
A few unpainted projects
hung on the wall, and a
row of metal files, the tools
of his trade, were lined up
neatly near a 5-foot-high
metal tool cabinet.
Momentarily, the gravel-
ly whine of an electric drill
shattered the serene atmo-
sphere as it filed away burrs
inside a thin tube of steel
alloy.
“I come from a long line of
craftsmen,” said Coast, 32,
who began to weld when he
was 12 years old. “Basical-
ly I looked around to build
things and wanted to con-
tinue that tradition in my
family as I grew older.”
He was deep into the 40-
hour process of building a
steel, lugged bicycle--one
of three that month for cus-
tomers who paid $1,000 or
more for a custom-size and
later, custom-painted, frame.
Coast works alone in his
studio on the edge of New
York City, but he’s part of a
growing number of crafts-
men at the heart of a surg-
ing interest in hand-made
bikes generated partly by
the mystique associated
with urban bicycle messen-
gers and effectively revital-
izing a century-old tradition.
Coast launched his busi-
ness in 2005, and he’s man-
aging a two-year waiting
list for new customers re-
sponsible for what he calls
an “explosion of orders.”
Half of what he builds is
track frames, the brakeless,
one-gear bicycles designed
for races in a curved and
banked velodrome The first
Madison Square Garden in
New York City was a site for
track bike racing as early as
1879.
Recently, the track bikes
used by bicycle messengers
in New York and other urban
centers have seeped into
the public consciousness
and spawned a new fashion
trend.
“The messenger crowd,
more than any single de-
mographic, is responsible
for this resurgence in the
handmade bike,” said veteran
frame-builder Richard Sachs.
Since the 1980s, many bi-
cycle messengers have used
one-speed, fixed-gear track
bikes to do their jobs. With
no brakes, these bikes have
nothing on them to steal
and are simple to maintain.
Sachs, 55, who works in
Connecticut, has built more
than 4,000 frames in his
30-plus-year career.
He said that rise of the
Internet made it easier
for people to be infatu-
ated with the equipment,
and eventually messengers
began to buy and sell parts
and frames. Online forums
and chat groups provided
a way for cycling enthusi-
asts outside of the messen-
ger scene to take interest in
older, handmade frames--
specifically track bikes.
“A cult arises,” said Sachs.
“If you look at the way
things have gone, the mes-
sengers got in early, and
then the society or fashion
or culture began to co-opt
what the messenger likes.”
By Tomas Dinges
6 Arts
UPPER WEST SIDE NOW
Home Is
Where
The Art Is
By Laura Cameron
B
lanka Amezkua didn’t change any-
thing about her home when she
began displaying artwork in her bed-
room. The shabby linoleum, the bare
light fixtures and the robin’s egg blue walls are
all still there, but now every month an artist
comes into Amezkua’s apartment in the Mott
Haven neighborhood of New York’s South
Bronx and installs a work of art.
There’s an opening on the first Saturday of
every month, and on Thursdays and Fridays the
public is free to wander in to view the work.
Amezkua sleeps with the art at night, and dur-
ing the day, she rolls the mattress up and stores
it in the closet.
Artists have always come to New York City to
make it, but with real estate at a premium, there
isn’t enough room in the galleries in Manhat-
tan for many artists to show their work. These
space limitations have led artists to expand the
definition of a gallery by opening their doors, of
those of friends or sponsors, to the public and
displaying artwork in their homes. Not only
do these not-for-profit galleries give artists a
place to showcase their work, but the empha-
sis on collaboration, rather than competition,
also nurtures artistic communities outside of
the mainstream art world.
“It is difficult to show in Chelsea or SoHo
galleries. This space is less intimidating,” said
Hayato Matsushita, who curates a gallery–
named Junto–at his home in Bushwick, Brook-
lyn. “It just seems genuine, we’re not doing it
for money.”
Four years ago, Matsushita, a Japanese-
American artist, had to move out of his studio
in SoHo. They were tearing down the building
and he had one month to find a new space.
He came across a listing on Craigslist for two
lofts side by side in the basement of an apart-
ment building in the gentrifying neighborhood
of Bushwick. He now uses this space as both
his home and to showcase his artwork and the
work of people he knows.
The walls, the floor, and the exposed ducts
on the 13-foot ceiling are all painted white.
The only furniture is a rectangular table, and
four chairs, in the center of the main room. The
other room has a bar with a refrigerator and a
movie screen hanging from chains bolted into
a wooden beam. Matsushita describes the space
Artists have always come to New York City to make it,
but with real estate at a premium, there isn’t enough
room in the galleries in Manhattan for many artists to
show their work.
as minimal, and zen-like–a nod to his Japanese
roots. He explains that the clean, white space
is like a blank canvas. The minimalist aesthetic
allows the work he exhibits, done by local art-
ists, many of whom live in the same building,
to speak for itself.
Collaboration is the overriding theme at
Junto. Matsushita describes the lofts as a multi-
creative space. Two modern dancers currently
live there with him. They sleep in the tiny liv-
ing quarters that lie behind a white curtain at
one end of the room and they rehearse in the
large room while Matsushita stays in another
loft next door.
Matsushita pays his rent by making models
for architectural firms. He has managed to es-
tablish himself in the Manhattan art scene–a
couple of years ago he worked at Museum of
Modern Art doing art installation and he has
had two solo shows at Christopher Henry Gal-
lery in the Lower East Side–but he likes the
grassroots feeling of Bushwick.
“I wanted to promote young artists, to show
their work,” he said.
Matsushita publicizes shows using postcard
fliers and on the gallery Web site, but the peo-
ple who attend generally hear about the event
by word of mouth.
The artists initially funded the Bronx Blue
Bedroom Project but now the project has a
grant from the Bronx Council on the Arts and
other arts programs in the city, to encourage
Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010
The rooftop at Junto Gallery in Bushwick,
Brooklyn.  Courtesy of Valeria Forster
home galleries.
This month, at the Bronx Blue Bedroom Proj-
ect, Michelle Frick has made bird’s nests out of
intravenous cord and placed tiny eggs that have
the names of different heart diseases imprinted
on them. There are syringes and other hospital
materials strewn about the room and the sound
of birds chirping is playing on a stereo.
Blanka Amezkua’s lifestyle changes accord-
ing to what work is being exhibited in her
home. At the moment, she’s sleeping on a futon
in her living room because she doesn’t want to
disturb the fragile nests.
Amezkua said the project is a huge commit-
ment for the artists and for her, but she finds it
very gratifying. She is almost maternal toward
the artwork. Every night she covers each one
of the nests with fabric to avoid getting dust
on the eggs.
The informal events in these spaces–some-
where between a private and a public venue–
have made the artistic community more
inclusive
“Sometimes I call people up and say I’m
having a dinner party, bring over a painting
so we can talk about it,” said Jason Andrew,
who displays art in the windows of his ground
floor apartment in Bushwick. The gallery, called
Norte Maar, is a perfect square, with all white
walls, and lots of natural light. Andrew said
that a painting is finished when the public sees
it, and his home completes the circle.
Andrew said he is not opposed to the main-
stream galleries, which do something very dif-
ferent from what he is trying to achieve. He
describes his home as a relaxed setting that
facilitates conversations about art in the com-
munity.
“It’s way off the beaten path of the critics and
collectors,” Andrew said, “the driving machine
that is the art world.”

Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010
The Green Fairy Returns To America
By Julie Zeveloff
A
bsinthe is a spirit of myth-
ic proportions: it has been
blamed for violence, in-
sanity, and bizarre halluci-
nations--most notably the conjuring
of little green fairies. Some even
claim it helped drive Vincent van
Gogh to suicide.
“Absinthe has always had this
strange phenomenon where it’s the
victim and the beneficiary of its mys-
tique,” said Robert Lehrman, a lawyer
who represents Kübler, a Swiss-based
absinthe distiller. “There is something
different about it that has helped and
hurt it at the same time.”
Now, after nearly a century, Ameri-
cans have the chance to sample the
mischievous green liquor for them-
selves. Government officials recently
agreed to allow the word “absinthe”
on bottle labels, effectively ending a
95-year ban.
Absinthe enthusiasts from Seattle
to Boston are thrilled that the spir-
it has returned to the United States.
Most now realize that it does not
cause violent rages or visions of green
fairies, and while van Gogh did im-
bibe, the stuff didn’t kill him.
“Absinthe was an important ingre-
dient in some of the earliest cocktails,
and it’s been missing in our coun-
try since 1912,” said Gwydion Stone,
founder of the Wormwood Society, a
Seattle-based absinthe aficionados
club. Not only are bartenders learn-
ing to recreate pre-ban absinthe cock-
tails, Stone added, but they are also
mixing innovative new drinks using
the licorice-flavored spirit.
Absinthe originated in Switzer-
land’s Val de Travers in the late 18th
century. It contains a minimum of
nine herbs, usually including worm-
SPOTS TO SIP ABSINTHE:
Absinthe Drip
26 Little W. 12th St., nr. Ninth Ave.;
646-624-2444
The Dove Parlor
228 Thompson St., nr. W. 3rd St.;
212-254-1435
Suba: Absinte Mojito
109 Ludlow St., nr. Delancey St.;
212-982-5714
wood, anise and fennel. The result-
ing pale, lime-green liquor is “a very
perfumed spirit with the flavor of
anise,” said Ted Breaux, an absinthe
researcher and distiller who creat-
ed Lucid, one brand of absinthe now
available in the United States. “It’s
slightly sweet, goes down easily and
packs quite a punch.”
Though originally consumed as a
medicinal stomach-soother, absinthe
soon spread through Europe as a pop-
ular social lubricant. But the potent
liquor was banned throughout much
of Europe in the early 1900s amid ru-
mors that it caused violence and in-
sanity. The United States followed
suit, outlawing absinthe in 1912.
Later, the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration kept absinthe off shelves by
banning thujone, a chemical found in
wormwood that is toxic in high doses.
There things stood until a few
years ago, when several people who
were determined to reintroduce the
spirit to the United States petitioned
the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax
and Trade Bureau. When they point-
ed out that products with less than 10
parts per million of thujone are con-
sidered “thujone-free” by the FDA,
Dining
the government relented and agreed
to allow the term “absinthe” back on
bottle labels.
When it is not mixed into cock-
tails, absinthe is most popularly con-
sumed with sugar cubes melted into
it, a concoction dubbed the absinthe
drip. The spirit is best consumed care-
fully, as the alcohol content of most
brands hovers around a stinging 60
percent. Distributors say that ab-
sinthe is gaining popularity as more
bars and liquor stores start to sell it,
but it can still be tough to find a bot-
tle, or even an absinthe cocktail, since
only a handful of companies current-
ly distribute in the United States.
Quality absinthe can be expensive
and time-consuming to produce, dis-
tillers said. “The secret of absinthe is
not only in the wormwood and the
thujone, it’s in the recipe and all the
herbs involved,” said Peter Karl, a
partner in the Kübler distiller. A bot-
tle of Lucid retails for around $60,
and other brands are similarly priced.
In New York City, where a drink
can be had on nearly every street cor-
ner, absinthe is relegated to high-end
cocktail bars.
“Aside from the classic drip, I think
they don’t know what to do with
it,” said John Deragon, a bartender
at PDT on Manhattan’s Lower East
Side, referring to other bars. Deragon
has been mixing absinthe recipes, old
and new, for the past several months.
His repertoire includes some pre-1912
classics, like the Sazerac, a bitter cock-
tail that was popular in New Orleans
in the 1830s, and the Sea Fizz, which
calls for egg whites and lemon juice.
He is also experimenting with some
new combinations of his own, includ-
ing one kumquat-flavored concoction.
Since absinthe’s herbal flavor is
so intense, it can be tricky to incor-
porate it into a drink. “It’s like hav-
ing a bright, sharp color,” explained
Breaux, who has devoted much of his
career to recreating an absinthe that
meets federal food and drug guide-
lines. “It works with some things,
and not so well with other things.”
Preparing an absinthe drip is a
complicated process compared to
mixing a drink or pouring a beer,
said Sunita, owner of a Manhattan
bar that goes by the same name, and
who preferred not to give her last
name. It calls for sugar to be melted
over a slotted absinthe spoon, which
can take several minutes. “It takes a
while to prepare, so that time is lost,”
she said. At Sunita, an absinthe drip
costs $14.
Is absinthe a passing fad, or will
it become a bar-shelf standard? Ab-
sinthe makers think that by keeping
the standards for their product high,
they will eventually reestablish the
liquor’s former popularity.
“We feel the introduction of a prod-
uct that offers quality will help those
in the United States understand why
it was so popular in France” before it
was outlawed, said Breaux of Lucid.
He and other distillers want Ameri-
cans to know that absinthe is “not
green dye in a bottle of vodka.”
Sunita agreed. “I think it’s here to
stay,” she said. “People enjoy sipping
it. In a cocktail, it’s quite delicious.”
Taste The Magic:
A Tropical Berry Makes
Sour Foods Taste Sweet.
By Katia Bachko
I
t was Valentine’s Day, and Adam
Whitten wanted to give his girl-
friend, Julie Edmonds, a school
teacher in New York City, an experi-
ence she wouldn’t easily forget. He
knew she had super sensitive taste
buds, so sensitive that eating any cit-
rus fruit—even oranges and grape-
fruit--made her mouth pucker up like
a wizened prune.
So he presented her with a tiny
a box, inside of which were six red
berries, about the size and shape of
cranberries. Whitten told her don’t
ask any questions, just eat one of
the berries, and then he presented
her with a selection of some of her
least favorite fruits--oranges
and grapefruits. Prepar-
ing herself for the
usual distasteful
experience, Ed-
monds got a sur-
prise: They didn’t
taste sour at all;
they actually tasted
sweet. Edmonds was
delighted, he said. “She had
never eaten an orange before,” Whit-
ten said. “I thought that would be a
perfect Valentine’s Day gift.”
The berry that made the U-turn in
taste for Edmonds is called “magic
fruit.” The plant grows commonly in
tropical climates, but, thanks to some
enterprising and adventurous eaters,
it is now finding its way to the living
rooms around the country where peo-
ple of all ages are enjoying its magic
effects.
The plant was first discovered in
the 1725 by a French explorer, Des
Marchais, when he traveled to Af-
rica’s Gold Coast where magic fruit
grows indigenously, said Adam Leith
Gollner, author of “The Fruit Hunt-
ers,” a new book that explores the
history of magic berries and other
fruit. During the trip, Marchais ob-
served that locals ate these berries be-
fore consuming bland porridges and
tart palm wine and noticed that the
berry significantly sweetened nor-
mally sour foods.
Food scientists are still not certain
about how the berry works. They do
know that, in order to taste food, hu-
mans rely on the tongue’s receptors,
of which there are four types, one
each to identify sweet, sour, bitter
and salty flavors. According to Harry
7
UPPER WEST SIDE NOW
Lawless, a professor at Cornell Uni-
versity’s food science department,
magic fruit contains a protein called
miraculin that seems to attach itself
to the sour receptor and acts some-
how to neutralize the reaction to
sourness. “A spoonful of sugar helps
the medicine go down because it
masks the bitterness,” Lawless said.
The same effect may occur with
the miracle fruit. When miraculin de-
tects foods that have low pH value--
ones that are acidic and taste sour--it
releases sugar molecules into the sour
receptors, changing the perception of
sourness into sweetness, according to
one theory. The effect lasts approxi-
mately one-half hour, before
it wears off complete-
ly. And it leaves no
adverse effects, Dr.
Lawless said. “It’s
a naturally occur-
ring berry and, as
far as I know, it’s
totally safe.”
In fact, Lawless was
enthusiastic enough about
miracle fruit that he contributed his
research to a cookbook of dessert
recipes. Each of the dishes would be
“sweetened” with lemon juice, a clev-
er substitute for sugar, and then peo-
ple would take some extract of the
berry before eating the dishes. But
the innovation was never approved
by the Food and Drug Administra-
tion. “There’s speculation that the
sugar lobby was involved,” said Goll-
ner, the author of the upcoming book.
The agency’s disapproval may en-
hance the experience for some: “It’s
a forbidden fruit; what could be more
exciting?” Gollner said.
For today’s legions of foodies,
magic fruit is offering a unique op-
portunity to rediscover everyday
foods. “You look at a lemon that
you’ve tasted a million times, and
all of a sudden it tastes delicious and
sweet and nonsour at all,” said David
Barzelay, 25, a law student.
Barzelay often hosts miracle-fruit
parties, inviting friends to sample the
berry’s effect on a variety of foods.
Last February, he ordered 75 miracle
fruit berries and invited a few dozen
friends to his apartment. First, he
asked his guests to taste a wedge of
lemon and watched their faces puck-
er up.
8 Family
UPPER WEST SIDE NOW
Baby, You’re a YouTube star
By Matthew Lynch
I
n her most critically acclaimed
moment on film, Augusta Mill-
er is in her car seat holding a
sippy cup. The opening notes
of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”
play on the radio as she sits quietly,
seeming to contemplate the lyrics of
the classic 1980s rock anthem. Then
the music fades and Augusta, age 15
months, looks perplexed and a little
angry. She begins to wail and extend
her arms skyward. When the music is
turned back on, she is pacified. When
the music is cut again, she cries until
it comes back.
“It’s like a calm washes over her,”
Augusta’s mom, Zoe Miller, 34, ob-
serves from off-camera. The video is
a part of a series Miller has posted
to YouTube entitled (with tough in
cheek) “My Brilliant Daughter.” This
episode led to a sequel a few months
later, when Augusta developed the
ability to sing along.
There’s no telling how many par-
ents like Miller post videos of their
infants and preschoolers on sites
such as YouTube, MySpace or AOL
Video, but it’s clear that tens of thou-
sands are doing it. Even as they con-
front privacy issues, parents use the
video sites to connect with family and
friends or share their children with
the virtual world. Truveo.com, a vid-
eo-specific search engine, has thou-
sands of videos starring young kids
in its index.
“I started thinking, this will be
funny for the grandparents,” Miller
said recently, explaining why she put
the videos of Augusta online. While
uploading the videos, Miller used
YouTube’s keyword tagging system
For many parents, YouTube presents a way of sharing the same kind
of home movies that families of an earlier generation might have
watched together in a living room on holidays or at reunions.
and soon earned the respect of Jour-
ney fans across the Internet. People
she had never met were leaving com-
ments.
“Your daughter is brilliant! Jour-
ney and Steve Perry ROCK!,” one fan
who goes by the screen name bib1956
wrote of the first video.
“At first it kind of creeped me
out,” said Miller, a computer tech-
nician. “Then I thought, well, I did
it to myself by putting those tags on
there and now I just think it’s kind
Eco-baby Showers
By Karen James
There were no gifts trimmed in glit-
tery wrapping paper and nylon ribbon
at Susan Rosenkranz’s baby shower.
There were no baby-themed paper
plates for the soon-to-be mother, no
of funny that people have discovered
her from all over the place.” Miller,
who lives in the Midwest, is careful
never to give away her location too
specifically in any of the “My Brilliant
Daughter” videos.
While impressive, the 600-plus
views that Miller’s first Journey video
has received haven’t quite made it a
YouTube blockbuster. “Star Wars ac-
cording to a 3 year old,” the site’s lat-
est viral smash to feature a toddler,
recently scored more than 4 million
views in two weeks. (In that video,
hilarity ensues when a 3-year-old girl
tries to explain the major plot points
of the first Star Wars movie.)
Yet the majority of parents who
post on the site deal in more mun-
dane content. Videos of first steps or
birthday parties are far more prev-
alent than foul-mouthed toddlers
or diaper-wearing “American Idol”
hopefuls.
For many parents, YouTube pres-
ents a way of sharing the same
kind of home movies that families
of an earlier generation might have
watched together in a living room on
holidays or at reunions. The easy-to-
share videos connect with grandpar-
ents and family members in far away
places without chewing up e-mail
“inbox” space. “It’s a very big world
out there and we’re able to make it a
little smaller,” said Mike Levinstein,
31, father of 8-month-old Jonah, the
star of TheLevinsteins.com.
Mike and his wife Leah use You-
Tube to host videos of their son and
his play companion, their 2-year-
old pug. The couple is living in Ohio
while Mike earns his master’s in
higher education administration,
and they want to keep in touch with
their extended families in Pennsylva-
nia and elsewhere.
YouTube’s privacy settings allow
users to limit who is able to view their
videos by designating who can watch
or comment on them, but parents
such as the Levinsteins are comfort-
able with anyone in the online com-
munity seeing their home movies.
“We don’t show the front of the
house, we don’t put the address out
streamers of pastel crepe paper or
cakes accented with plastic rattles.
If the men and women gathered in
the glow of reusable Christmas tree
lights hadn’t been plying Rosenkranz
there,” Levinstein said. “We’ve taken
a lot of measures in our home and in
our lives to make sure that we’re se-
cure. I don’t think that being public
is endangering him. If we ever felt
that it was we would change it im-
mediately.”
That view is shared by privacy ex-
perts.
“I don’t think we should live in
total paranoia and fear that if we put
a picture or a video of our kids on-
line, that immediately places them
in danger,” said Stephen Balkam,
chief executive of the Washington-
based Family Online Safety Institute.
“Common sense is really what’s re-
quired here. The video of the tween
or teenage kid acting out in a risky
way is far more problematic than, say,
parents posting their 1-ear-old walk-
ing for the first time.”
Balkam’s institute is a member of
the Internet Safety Technical Task
Force, which launched this month as
and her husband with gifts, it might
have seemed like just any environ-
mentally conscious couple’s potluck
party. But there were gifts: a green
wooden dragon, organic cotton re-
ceiving blankets, baby outfits in paw
print and jungle motifs and used chil-
dren’s books, to name a few.
Ecologically minded families like the
Rosenkranzes want everything they
Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010
Augusta Miller at age 15 months in a video her mother uploaded to YouTube.
 Courtesy: Zoe Miller via YouTube
part of an agreement struck between
MySpace and 49 state attorneys gen-
eral. It will review, among other con-
cerns, identity authentication and
age-requirement enforcement on so-
cial network sites including YouTube.
Parry Aftab, executive director of
WiredSafety.org, an online safety
and education group, urges parents
to use privacy settings and to be judi-
cious about the videos they post. “We
just need to weigh our wanting to be
proud and showing off images of our
kids with the risks that we’re posing
because of sharing,” she said. “The
best way to do it is to control who
sees it. Look at what you’re posting
before you post it and decide you re-
ally want to make it public.”
Users often find out how public
such videos are only after they’ve
posted.
Ken Wong, 39, a web designer, has
been sharing videos of his 21-month-
old son, Joshua, on YouTube since
Joshua’s birth. His friends often
pass links to the videos onto friends,
whom Wong might not know.
“When they finally meet Josh-
ua, they’re like, ‘Oh my God! I’ve
watched you since you were a little
baby.’ It’s really cool that way,” Wong
said. “I didn’t expect the whole viral
element.”
When Joshua approaches school-
age, Wong said he may set the videos
as strictly private, so that only those to
whom he has granted permission can
view them. Ultimately, parents who
post online let their comfort levels dic-
tate what goes up and who sees it.
Of course, it will be a few years be-
fore the stars of these videos will be
able to give their own user feedback.
“I do sort of worry that he’s going to
get really mad,” said Wong. “At the
same time I hope he thinks it’s cool.”
Many ecologically conscious par-
ents view the modern baby shower as
particularly wasteful, with its throw-
away gift wrap and bonanza of plastic
toys headed inevitably for the landfill.
In contrast, they see an eco-shower as
a simpler, homier affair, more about
good food and conversation, and less
about ribbons and balloons.
At these parties, parents may even
request re-gifts, items that have been
handed along from one family to the
next. Guests present coupons for ba-
by-sitting or homemade meals and
offer handmade books filled with
sage parenting tips. Presents, perhaps
bought from consignment stores, ar-
rive wrapped in reusable materials like
baby blankets, or not wrapped at all.
own to be as natural and earth-sustain-
ing as possible. And with low-impact
and organic goods from food to furni-
ture increasingly available, expectant
parents aren’t waiting until their babies
are born to involve them in earth-con-
scious consumerism. Instead they are
updating a ritual for new parents into
one that better reflects their lifestyles.
Welcome to the eco-baby shower.

Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010
As Infections Become Resistant Walking With The Unknown
To Antibiotics, Researchers
Look To Natural-Born Killers
To Fight Diseases
By Sion Rogers
F
acing a growing incidence of bacte-
rial resistance to antibiotics, pharma-
ceutical companies are struggling to
come up with new drugs to fight in-
fections. The solution may lie in one of nature’s
natural killers.
Phage therapy is the use of what are known
as bacteriophage, viruses that are parasites of
bacteria.
Phage attach to a target bacterial cell, punc-
turing through and entering its host. Once
inside, a phage can use its new home as a rep-
lication factory before bursting and destroy-
ing the cell in search of new hosts. Phage can
kill bacterial cells and disinfect contaminated
food products.
Phage were discovered in the early 20th cen-
tury separately by Frederick Twort and Félix
d’Hérelle. D’Hérelle quickly realized the medi-
cal applications of this natural phenomenon,
administering phage to patients suffering from
dysentery, but his crude experiments produced
varied results. While his research was pursued
in the former Soviet Union, it was abandoned
by the West in the 1940s in favor of newly dis-
covered antibiotics.
Now Western companies are returning to
this field of research armed with a better un-
derstanding of nature’s bacterial predators.
Intralytix Inc., a phage company based in Bal-
timore, was established in 1998 and has been a
leader in phage therapy, in particular applying
this technique to decontaminate food. In 2006,
it was the first company to receive approval
from the Food and Drug Administration for
a phage product. Phage International, Inc., of
Los Altos, Calif., was founded three years ago
and is conducting research in Tibilisi, Georgia,
into bacteriophage therapy technologies.
“Phage are stealth killers,” said John Vazza-
na, president and chief executive of Intralytix.
Phage even can target and kill a specific species
of bacteria, even a particular strain, he added.
The Intralytix product that won FDA ap-
proval is LMP 102 and it is known to be ef-
fective in combating Listeria monocytogenes,
An electron micrograph of bacteriophages at-
tached to a bacterial cell.
Health
one of the most deadly food-borne pathogens
found in ready-to-eat foods.
Another food safety product developed by
Intralytix and now under review by the FDA
is effective against E. coli O157:H7, the strain
of bacteria responsible for the recent contami-
nation of spinach in the United States, Vaz-
zana said.
Phage therapy does have its limitations.
According to Dr. Caroline Westwater, from
the Medical University of South Carolina, the
fact that the majority of phage are so highly
specific about which bacterial cells they attack
can pose problems.
“This means you would have to know ex-
actly what bacteria you’re dealing with, unlike
with antibiotics, where you can simply admin-
ister a broad-range drug to kill a variety of bac-
teria,” Westwater said.
Broad-ranging antibiotics, however, can in
some cases cause more damage by destroying
some of the good bacteria in the human body,
Westwater said.
At Phage International, the firm’s goal “is to
promote the commercial use of phage therapy
in the Western world,” said David Hodges, se-
nior vice president of Phage International. “I
believe that within eight to 10 years, phage
therapy will be a part of Western medicine.”
Phage International owns the Phage Thera-
py Center in Tbilisi, in the former Soviet Union.
This facility offers treatment for people suffer-
ing from antibiotic resistant infections. The
center is very precise about screening patients
to ensure they are a compatible candidate for
treatment.
“Patients will send a sample of the bacteria
to the labs in Tblisi,” Hodges said. “We then
check to see if we have a bacteriophage to at-
tack that type of cell.”
If accepted, patients have to travel to Tbili-
si for the treatment itself. “Patients will find
out about us through word of mouth,” Hodges
said. “They search on the Internet or find out
about it from their friends.”
So is it likely that phage therapy will over-
take antibiotics in popularity?
“I very much doubt that,” said Vazzana, of
Intralytix. “I view them as a complement to
antibiotics, not a rival.”
By Jessica Freiman
R
ita Smith is a fitness fanatic and step
aerobics is her passion, so when the fa-
miliar motions in class left her with an
unfamiliar pain, Smith knew something was
terribly wrong.
“As soon as I stepped up onto the step with my
right foot, I was in so much pain,” Smith, 59, said,
“but as soon as I stopped, the pain went away.”
Smith tried to go on with her daily life, going
for mile-long walks each morning, but the pain
caught up with her. After one particularly ex-
cruciating walk, she removed her right shoe
and took a closer look.
“My foot was completely white,” Smith re-
called. “No blood was circulating to my foot
in my shoe.”
It took six months and several tests to dis-
cover what was really going on in Smith’s right
foot. Peripheral arterial disease, also known as
PAD, was the culprit.
“I had never heard of this disease before,”
Smith said
Like many Americans, Smith ignored the
situation because she simply thought having
trouble walking was part of getting old. And,
like many Americans with PAD, Smith was put-
ting herself in danger of something even great-
er: the heart attacks and strokes that doctors in
recent years have found often follow this symp-
tom traditionally seen as a mild inconvenience.
“There are a lot of things that can cause pain
when you walk once you’re older, like arthritis
and back problems,” said Dr. Diane Treat-Jacob-
son, assistant professor in the school of nursing
at the University of Minnesota and author of a
recent PAD awareness study published by the
American Heart Association. “Many older peo-
ple think it’s just another part of aging, so they
don’t bother to talk to their doctors about it.”
Only 25 percent of Americans are aware of
PAD, even though it is both common and dan-
gerous. Roughly nine million American men
and women are affected with the condition,
which is associated with a high risk of heart
attack and stroke.
“We tend to think of coronary disease as one
primarily of men, but PAD is definitely an equal
opportunity disease,” Treat-Jacobson said. “It’s
often thought that more men have this type of
disease and women might think, ‘Oh, I don’t
need to worry about that.’”
The risk of PAD for both men and women in-
creases after the age of 50 and for people who
have diabetes, high blood pressure or high cho-
lesterol.
Also at risk are smokers and former smok-
ers, like Smith: Though she quit 20 years ago,
9
UPPER WEST SIDE NOW
Rita Smith is once again able to enjoy one of
her favorite activities -- walking her dogs --
now that she’s been treated for peripheral ar-
terial disease.  Courtesy of Rita Smith
she used to smoke heavily, going through 40
cigarettes per day.
Together with his own history of smoking,
Daniel Sullivan, 68, who has high blood pres-
sure and high cholesterol, was at high risk for
heart attack and stroke when he felt a similar
pain in his left leg four years ago.
Once a runner on his high school and college
track teams, Sullivan, of New York, found it
“kind of ironic” that someone who spent eight
years running as much as he did would have
leg problems today.
His golf hobby was the first to go when Sul-
livan could no longer bear the pain he felt in
his legs when walking.
He continued to ignore it until he went out
for dinner with friends one night and had to
walk several city blocks to reach the restaurant.
“I could walk about three blocks and after
that the pain would become more severe,” Sul-
livan, also a former smoker, said, “at which
point I would either have to wait at the corner
or start limping.”
Sullivan’s friends noticed he was lagging be-
hind, and encouraged him to see a specialist.
It turned out that PAD, a disease he too had
never heard of, was responsible for his pain,
and his doctor inserted a stent in an artery in
his left leg.
Often, people don’t even have symptoms or
the symptoms are hard to describe to doctors,
Gwen Twillman, executive director of the PAD
Coalition, based in Washington, D.C., said, and
might only manifest when the case becomes
advanced--a blister or a sore on the foot that
does not heal in four to six weeks.
“This is a sign that the blood isn’t getting to
your foot to heal that wound,” Twillman said.
Some therapies that people with PAD can try
to control the disease and lower their risk of
heart attack or stroke include stopping smok-
ing, taking aspirin, lowering cholesterol and
taking anti-platelet medications.
In addition to the risk to heart health, simply
putting a stop to the pain was what motivated
Smith to consult with her doctor.
“I used to walk a mile a day,” she said, “and
then I couldn’t even walk to my mailbox with-
out having to stop. It was like a clamp on my
leg. It felt like a shin splint in addition to a
pulled muscle.”
10
UPPER WEST SIDE NOW
Bollywood On
The Upper West Side:
‘Slumdog’ Dance Is Now A Fitness Craze
By Amy B Wang
“B
alle! Balle!” Sarina Jain shout-
ed during a packed session at
a West Side YMCA class on
the Upper West Side on a re-
cent night, calling out the rough equivalent of
“Whoo!” in the Punjabi language. Nearly forty
women and one man thrusted and stomped and
jabbed the air in the exercise studio in sync to
the hit Indian pop song “Jai Ho,” which blasted
from the speakers.
“Feel… the… beat of the drums!” Jain ex-
claimed through her headset. “Shoulders!
“You burn over 500 calories” in a 45-minute session
Shoulders!” and then “Turn those lightbulbs!”
as the dancers bobbed their arms and twisted
their hands in unison.
So exuberant was Jain’s sweat-drenched
class that the YMCA cleaning staff gathered
to watch them through the studio windows.
You may remember “Jai Ho” from “Slum-
dog Millionaire”—specifically, from the film’s
Fitness
high-energy train station dance sequence that
enlivens the closing credits. The movie and the
number have inspired a growing interest in
bhangra, a traditional Indian dance common
in Bollywood films. Bhangra classes are popping
up across the U.S., where “Slumdog,” which
won eight Academy Awards, including Best
Picture of 2008, has grossed over $125 million.
Jain, who teaches Masala Bhangra—“spicy
bhangra” —at several gyms in Manhattan, says
some of her class sizes have doubled since the
movie was released.
“When people see that scene in the movie,”
Jain says, “they’re like, ‘Honey, that’s what we
do in class! That’s what we do every Tuesday!’”
“You burn over 500 calories” in a 45-minute
session, she adds.
Jain, who is Indian-American, decided 10
years ago to combine fitness instruction with
her native culture by creating the Masala
The high-energy number that takes place at the end of “Slumdog Millionaire” has inspired an in-
terest in learning Bollywood-style dancing, including bhangra.
Sarina Jain says her “Masala Bhangra” dance classes in New York have become popular following
the success of “Slumdog Millionaire.” 
Bhangra workout. She’s since trademarked
the term and had her routine certified by the
Aerobics and Fitness Association of America.
The “Jane Fonda of India,” as Jain is known to
some, has her own line of exercise videos and
has appeared on Fit TV.
“The only reason I joined the gym was for
this class,” says Kristin Carey, who credits the
bhangra classes with everything from greater
stamina on the dance floor to newly glowing
skin. “I never worked out until now, but this
just makes you want to move.”
“For me, it’s the music,” says Carine Desir,
who upgraded her gym membership so she
could take Masala Bhangra. “You’re feeling the
drums. You let it lead you. After my first class, I
said, oh my God, that was awesome.”
The trend is spreading to some unlikely cor-
ners. At Springstep, a dance and music studio in
Medford, Mass.s, the bhangra class filled past
capacity for the first time this year, according
to programs manager Allie Fiske.
“Right now everything related to India is
on the top because of ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’”
says Mary Pirela, a fitness instructor in Min-
neapolis. Pirela has arranged for Jain, who has
certified Masala Bhangra instructors from Ma-
plewood, Minn., to Elk Grove, Calif., to fly in
to give a master class in April and certify local
instructors.
Pete McCall, an exercise physiologist with the
American Council on Exercise, says bhangra’s
different jumps and side-to-side movements
make it an effective and relatively low-impact
form of training. He likens the cardiovascular
benefits to running on a treadmill at a moderate
pace, with a lower risk of repetitive strain in-
Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010
Photo by Marie Claire Andrea
juries. “It’s a great way to train the entire body
at one time,” he says.
Bhangra music and dance originate in Pun-
jab, a diverse state in the northwest of India,
below Kashmir, that was divided between India
and Pakistan when the two countries were par-
titioned. Farmers there once celebrated harvests
by dancing in the fields to the syncopated beats
of a dhol drum and the repetitive plucking of
the tumbi, a stringed instrument.
The distinctive sound has seeped into Ameri-
can popular music, especially hip-hop. Rapper
Missy Elliott sampled bhangra beats in her song
“Get Ur Freak On,” as did Jay-Z in “Beware of
the Boys.” Jay-Z recorded a remix of the song
with Indian musician Punjabi MC.
“I have been so emotional—in a good way—
and proud and amazed by how this movie has
rejuvenated the appreciation for Indian cul-
ture,” Sarina Jain says.
Renu Kansal, an Indian-American dance in-
structor in Denver, wasn’t sure if this appre-
ciation had gone mainstream when she added
three new bhangra classes to her roster last
October. Colorado, she says, is “not exactly the
teeming hotbed of the Indian community.”
But one class filled up so quickly she had to
find a larger studio space. Kansal plans to start
bhangra classes for children.
“People get the hang of the steps really eas-
ily,” Kansal says. “You feel very quickly on
that you’re good at it.” There’s no baseline fit-
ness level required for bhangra, something she
thinks will contribute to its appeal and stay-
ing power.
“I mean, gigantic, hairy Punjabi men do it,”
she says. “So basically, anyone can.”

Volume #1 No. 3 | December 23, 2010
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11
UPPER WEST SIDE NOW
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Bathrooms: 2 Suite: Yes Living Area:
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