A new program at the Tenement Museum

“What have you always wanted to know about your ancestors?” educator Adam Steinberg asked his tour group, at the Tenement Museum on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It prides itself on being a fun, lively, interactive experience, while other museums host stuffy show-and-tells. It has educators, not tour guides. And now its new program, “Getting By: Past and Present”, combines tour and a roundtable discussion where everyone’s history is involved.

A recent “Getting By” started at the museum’s red-bricked building at 97 Orchard St. Visitors introduced themselves as being from Baltimore, Philadelphia, and London. Some had ancestors from Russia and Poland: Ashkenazi Jews who all immigrated to America. First the group talked about what life must have been like for great-grandparents. Then, everyone went off to the preserved apartments of the museum.

The 150-year-old tenement building showcases snapshots of immigrant life in apartments from two different time periods – 1870, with German Jewish residents, and 1930 with Italian Catholics. During the walk-through, Steinberg continually posed questions to the group.

“The Baldizzis were illegal, but received welfare from the city,” he said. “Do you think they should have received government help? What about immigrants in the same situation today?”

Lokki Chan, the museum’s Education Associate for Program Coordination, and a manager of “Getting By,” talked about the program’s relevance today.

“According to the 2006 American Community Survey, immigrants and their children now account for more than 60 percent of New York City’s population, the highest portion of the city’s population comprised by immigrants since 1901,” she said. “The need for building understanding among people of vastly different backgrounds is more urgent than ever.”

Engaging the group has always been a staple of the Tenement Museum. But on Oct. 29, it started the two-hour long, daily program “Getting By” as a revamping of its “Kitchen Conversations”, an optional visitor and educator discussion post-tour.

Now, “Getting By” offers in-depth discussion throughout the tour, and a mandatory roundtable discussion with the same educator afterward.

When “Kitchen Conversations” was receiving mixed feedback, the museum introduced “Getting By” to facilitate an easier transition from tour to talking. “After the tour, people would become uncomfortable and leave rather than stay and talk,” said Steinberg. “Now, with open-ended discussions integrated into the tour, feedback is excellent.”

“It was more like taking a short course than a museum tour, “ said David Solomons, a visitor from Sunday’s group who had Jewish ancestors living in London’s West End.

After the tour of the apartments, the group returned to the front room and sat around a table for oolong tea, cookies, and a post-visit chat.

“I got to speculate what my ancestors experienced coming from Europe, and what they had to deal with,” said Peter Swanson, a graduate student from Oregon.

“Learning with experience seems the most effective way, and this tour was experiential,” Solomons said. “It was very fulfilling and enjoyable.”

Outside the borders

Last Friday, Dec. 4th, I went to Philadelphia with my Point of View class, organized by our teacher James McBride. The whole semester McBride has been giving us writing exercises that defy the norm, some revolving around bowling alleys, chewing tobacco, and McSorley's Irish Pub on 7th Street. But taking a trip to Philly topped everything. A train ride, a walk around the city, and a lunch date at the wonderful Foodery (which boasts 800 kinds of beer) was organized for the sole purpose of a good essay. And I can't wait to write about it.

When I visited Philly a few years ago on college tours, I wasn't exactly impressed. And compared to New York, it might as well have been the Alaskan tundra. But coming here by myself, exploring alone, showed me a new, beautiful side of the city that I never knew existed.



Some of the more interesting and beautiful row houses I saw.



There is so much history here. Since I'm from Boston, it's kind of funny to see how both colonial cities fight it out for tourists. Revolutionary stuff is fascinating.



Former home of James Madison.

There was even something to remind me of my favorite beat.



That's right LES-ers. Another Delancey in cheesesteak city.

Being partial to NYC, I didn't think I would be all that interested in Philly. But every city has such quirks and beauties to offer. I was proven wrong here!

The little post office that could

At the beginning of October, I wrote an article for my The Beat: Reporting Downtown class at NYU about a tiny post office on the Lower East Side that was on the United States Postal Service's list for closure.

Because of massive losses (due in large part to the internet!) the USPS is trying to scale back its services. The Pitt Street Post Office is special because it sits in a NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Community - with at least 50 percent of residents 60 and over) on Clinton Street, and the elderly is the one of the biggest snail mail demographics.

My teacher, who has connections at the Daily News, submitted my article and it was published on Nov. 18.

Daily News article from Nov. 18

Then Gothamist, a prominent NYC blog, picked it up:

Gothamist's Extra Extra

I was already excited about the attention the story was getting, until Nov. 20, when the USPS announced they were reducing the list of closing P.O.s in NYC from 14 to five.

Gothamist: Post Office Death Count Down to 5

The Pitt Street Post Office is staying open!

The decision of the USPS was due in part to community activism (and there has been a lot around Clinton Street) but I was so happy that my article may have had influence, no matter how little or how much.

Vegan Treats at BabyCakes NYC

When one thinks of cupcakes, eggs, milk, and sugar usually figure into the list of ingredients. But BabyCakes NYC, a vegan bakery on the Lower East Side, defies the standards and you won't know the difference. Seriously.

When I approach BabyCakes, the bright interior stands out on a city block pockmarked with dim, swanky bars and shadowed, crumbling tenement buildings.

Inside the air is warm and sweet, and everything from the walls to the bakers’ outfits is a light, pastel pink. It feels like walking into a Hollywood baby nursery, with signed photos of Chevy Chase and the Golden Girls adorning the space. At first glance, BabyCakes looks like any other bakery in New York: tiny – with only seven chairs - and quirky, exuding a pleasant, sugary atmosphere.

But a glance at the menu reveals the hidden treat: all of its pastries are free of dairy, eggs, refined sugar, soy, and most are also free of gluten. And they are delicious.

“I always had a hunch everyone who knew me thought I was crazy when I announced I was quitting my job in fashion to open a bakery,” says Erin McKenna, owner of BabyCakes, on the bakery’s blog.

McKenna opened BabyCakes in 2005 to satisfy her own sweet tooth. “She was inspired to open the bakery because of her own dietary restrictions,” says Emily Woesthoff, general manager of BabyCakes NYC. “An intolerance to wheat, dairy and sugar left her on an endless quest for really delicious desserts.”

When McKenna couldn’t find suitable treats at other bakeries, she decided to bake her own. After a year of experiments, using ingredients such as agave nectar syrup (to replace refined sugar), garbanzo beans (instead of wheat flour) and coconut oil (known for heart benefits), McKenna opened BabyCakes and started selling her creations.

Since then, BabyCakes has received glowing reviews from The New York Times and Vanity Fair, and has celebrity fans including Martha Stewart and Natalie Portman. This vegan treat-seller attracts a young crowd, but also older generations who want to eat their sweets in a healthier way.

The bakery is unique in making vegan goodies – including cookies, cupcakes, breads, and even donuts - that don’t taste vegan, or like they are missing ingredients. I ate two red velvet cupcakes, one gluten-free, made with garbanzo beans, and one made with spelt (wheat). One cupcake is $3.95, with breads (such as banana and pumpkin spice) at $5 a slice, and cookies $1.50 each.

The gluten-free one was creamier and smoother than its counterpart, which was grainy and a bit more “healthy-tasting.” However both were unbelievably delicious. If I had gotten these in a blind test I would never have guessed they were dairy-free and sugar-free. The frosting was rich, sweet, and had a great cream cheese flavor that red velvet is famous for. The cupcakes themselves had the right amount of crumble and stickiness.

In May, Babycakes came out with a cookbook called “Babycakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York’s Most Talked-about Bakery”, bringing non-New Yorkers access to this wealth of unconventional treats.

The bakery is also opening another outpost in Los Angeles, where veganism, like in New York, is a growing trend.


A very special cupcake

An Interview with Carey Pulverman, Worm Lady

Carey Pulverman, 24, is known as the “worm lady.” She earned this nickname as the project manager of the Manhattan Compost Project at the Lower East Side Ecology Center. The Center was founded in 1987 to jumpstart recycling, composting, and environmental awareness in New York neighborhoods.

A resident of the East Village, Pulverman has always maintained an active interest in the environment. The worm lady got her start at NYU, where she majored in Metropolitan Studies and found an internship at the Ecology Center. The experience combined her two passions: a love for cities and a mission to save the earth. Pulverman teaches kids how to compost at home in worm bins and community gardens, in an outdoors classroom in East River Park. Pulverman spoke about her job that literally has all the dirty details.

How did you get into composting?

I started in college, by bringing my food scraps to the LESEC Compost Drop Off at Union Square, when I lived in an NYU dorm. When I got my own apartment, I got a worm bin.

What made you want to major in Metropolitan Studies?

I grew up in the suburbs of Southern California, and so I had an interest in cities, and how the organization of life is different from where I lived before.

Why New York in particular?

I wanted to live on the other side of the country, because staying in California would be too similar to being in high school.

I read that you studied abroad in Panama. What did you do there?

I studied the social sustainability of a really small seaweed farming project in the Caribbean off of Colón, Panamá. I looked at how the employees felt about their jobs and if they cared about the environmental impact.

How do you feel about your job?

What’s great is that my job is outside, in the East River Park, as opposed to being inside in an office building. My office is in the park, in an old fireboat house on the river. I ride my bike here; it’s a nice balance of city and nature. During the winter, we have more indoor workshops on composting, but it’s an all-year round program and students from neighboring schools come here to learn.


What are your students’ favorite things to hear about worms and composting?

They really like to hear about how the worms have babies, it is one of their favorite topics.

How do you use composting in an apartment setting – how does it compare to composting in a backyard?

I compost at home in a worm bin in my closet, as well as at my community garden, La Plaza Cultural. I don't think either is more difficult, it just depends what kind of space you have.

What is your favorite thing about your job being outdoors?

Not staring at a computer all day!

How do you see the future of the Ecology Center?

We are pretty small, with only six staff members, so we can’t really expand until we have more office space. But our compost drop-off program at the Union Square Greenmarket has doubled every spring for the past three years. We get up to six-seven tons of food scraps a week!



The cycle of composting

Where political extremes come together in the weirdest of ways

Leave it to the Lower East Side to have the ultimate architectural paradox: a statue of Vladimir Lenin gracing the top of a luxury apartment building. What a way to bring old-school immigrant politics and current gentrification together.

The LES is all about the smallest quirks, the tiniest details that can escape your eye if you keep your head down and your I-pod earbuds in. There's street art everywhere, ancient 19th century advertisements peeling off tenement walls, and Stars of David engraved on buildings that now house Chinese bakeries and Hispanic hair salons.

One of my favorite oddities of this neighborhood can only be glimpsed if you lift your eyes skyward at the corner of Avenue A and East Houston Street, to the top of a 13-story apartment building called Red Square.

It was built in 1989, the same year as the fall of the Berlin Wall, by urban developer and former NYU professor of radical sociology Michael Rosen. Atop it stands Lenin, hero of many Eastern European immigrant workers who started promising, but underpaid/overworked lives in this neighborhood. Paradox much? Check out Lenin's stance. He is raising his right arm in the direction of Wall Street, a "**** you" to the triumphant capitalists of the late 1980s. Such defiance becomes more confusing with the building's purpose as a luxury apartment complex. I love this part of town.

Veggies - A-hoy to the East River docks!

Since becoming a vegetarian almost a year ago, I've been on a constant mission to find a great veggie-friendly restaurant on the Lower East Side, but the neighborhood is surprisingly empty of one.

I've found plenty in the East Village where I live - Curly's Vegetarian Lunch at 14th Street and 1st Avenue (my personal favorite - try the crabfakes and "chorizo"!), Caravan of Dreams at 6th Street and 1st Avenue, Kate's Joint at 4th Street and Avenue B, and Lula's Sweet Apothecary at 6th Street and Avenue A (vegan ice cream that everyone has to try to believe).

BabyCakes, on Broome Street on the LES, is a great vegan bakery that tempts me every time I'm walking in the neighborhood. But aside from that, below Houston Street restaurants that aren't steak and fish-heavy seem hard to find. In such a thriving, modern, and youth-centered neighborhood, it's odd that the restaurants aren't following the nationwide trend of young people taking vegetables and tofu over meat. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough...






LES, you need more of this goodness! Delicious burrito property of Curly's Vegetarian Lunch.