CITY’S UNSAFE PLAYGROUNDS
By David Schlegel
City playgrounds harbor hidden hazards for the general public, according to a new study by New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).
The group found that almost all of the city’s 29 playgrounds surveyed contained hazardous chemicals, inadequate fall zones and potential strangulation risk areas. St. Catherine’s Park, on First Avenue and East 67th Street, was cited as having an unsafe surface, dangerous equipment height and a potential for toxic hazard.
According to a federal consumer safety commission, nearly 200,000 children are injured seriously enough to require emergency room treatment by playing on playground areas.
“Public playgrounds can be wonderful places for children to have fun and face new challenges. But far too many New York playgrounds contain hazards that can injure and even kill,” said C.C. Song, a NYPIRG project coordinator at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
Election Briefs
By Dan Rivoli
SPLIT ENDORSEMENTS FROM MANHATTAN POLS—Three Manhattan elected officials have made split endorsements in the race for comptroller.
Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal threw their support to John Liu, a Council member from Queens.
Liu has racked up most of his support from unions and the city’s black and Latino lawmakers. Stringer and Rosenthal’s endorsement gives him a boost in the Upper West and East Sides, where Democratic primary voters come out to the polls in droves. Read more
Blessed Bisque
By Nancy J. Brandwein
Waiting two hours to eat a $13.95 Lobster Pound lobster roll at the Brooklyn Flea was the first thing my husband and I did when we dropped our kids at the camp bus in July. It’s the kind of time-wasting activity that having kids in tow keeps you from doing; but actually, I have to say it was worth it. There’s nothing like a perfectly made lobster roll, and I’ve always been more partial to lobster cooked piecemeal than fresh from the pot. Read more
Clandestine Cuisine
Don’t give up on your hunt for André, nestled behind a hotel bar
By Tom Steele
New York has more than a few hidden restaurants. The late Chumley’s, a Prohibition-era speakeasy, was perhaps the most famous. It was virtually invisible, with a secret Barrow Street entrance in the heart of the West Village. A number of hotel restaurants are practically hidden; you have to go all the way into the vast lobby of the Waldorf Astoria to find Peacock Alley. Similarly, to find André, you have to go through the Opia Lounge entrance in the Renaissance Hotel, wind your way upstairs and all the way through the usually teeming lounge to the edge of the bar, where you’ll finally find André’s nearly invisible corner entrance. Read more
Hot and Bothered
The dos and don’ts of pairing wine with spicy food
By Josh Perilo
“I’m in the mood for a Cab,” my friend announced as we sat down at my favorite Thai restaurant.
“Ooh,” I said, cringing, “I don’t know about that.”
“I thought you were all about, ‘Drink what you want with whatever you want’?” My friend retorted, smugly.
Indeed, I do offer that maxim as my parting advice to any for whom I have performed a wine tasting. In some cases, however, not just anything tastes good with whatever you are eating. One very obvious example of this is spicy food. Read more
A ‘Bad Boy’ to Get Your Blood Racing
By Deirdre Donovan
Dog days of August slowing you down? Well, the new production of Euripides’ The Bacchae at the Delacorte Theater can set your blood racing again. Directed by JoAnne Akalaitis, the ancient Greek story is alive and kicking with a multi-racial cast.
The last New York staging of The Bacchae was at the 2008 Lincoln Center Festival, with Alan Cumming playing a flamboyant Dionysus in the National Theatre of Scotland production. The problem is that it breezed in and out of the city so quickly that many theatergoers missed the opportunity to see the adapted classic. Read more
