Some Occupy the Corners supporters with Jayson Williams, Al Sharpton and Tamika Mallory, NAN's national executive director.

Last Friday night, huddled together at the corner of 111th street and 5th Avenue in Harlem, a circle of about thirty individuals held hands. Their eyes were closed in prayer. The orange glow of the headlamps formed neon smudges against the black night sky. Two NYPD officers stood nearby, arms crossed, waiting. Opposite a church on the corner of 129th Street and 7th Avenue, a similar crowd looped around a stage, surrounded by blue lights and peace signs painted gold. Some youths lined up to perform raps and songs, which they had written themselves.

This was the last weekend of Occupy the Corners, an initiative created in response to the recent wave of shootings and organized by National Action Network (NAN), a not-for-profit civil rights organization. For the past four weekends, community activists, politicians, church leaders and local civilians have stood in solidarity at the most dangerous corners in New York, watching for any signs of violence.

On Friday, NAN founder and president, Reverend Al Sharpton, joined the campaigners.

“It’s important that our presence establishes that we are not going to give our corners to the hoodlums and the thugs,” Mr. Sharpton told the hushed crowd. “I’m glad to see the response. We had no idea we’d get to sixteen corners every weekend from 11 PM to 1 AM, but we’ve done it… Tomorrow night we're going to spread national.”

“Amen!” chorused the locals.

“This is our last week of Occupy the Corners but this is not our last week of working together,” assured Tamika D. Mallory, the national executive director for NAN.

“Young people don’t have to live the way that they are living, ducking bullets,” chipped in Iesha Sekou, the executive director of Street Corner Resources.

Reverend and anti-violence activist Vernon Williams told The Observer why he was supporting Occupy the Corners.

“I know that people in this particular area say, why are you standing in that corner right there, and I say, because I know what goes down on this corner,” he declared. “When we leave here, like last week when we left here, there was a shooting. The week before that there was a fight. We know that our presence makes a difference.

“Unfortunately, I’ve done a hundred-plus funerals of young people in the community,” Mr. Williams added, his voice shaking with anger. “This is my nephew’s mother, Reggie Andrews. He was murdered right here, in front of his house on his birthday, and that’s why I’m on this corner.”

A number of parents were present whose children had been killed in shootings. Nathan D. Allsbrooks’s mother and father set up a charity, the Nathan D. Allsbrooks Foundation, in memory of their son, whose life was cut short at fifteen. They were wearing T-shirts with a photograph of Nathan printed on them.

“My son was killed in 2008, just walking by. Someone senselessly came by and…” Cherise Smith trailed off, her eyes glistening with tears. “I see a lot of stuff on the news… It’s all in close proximity, you don’t know until it hits home, how horrific it can be. It ran on the news the whole week.”

Professional basketball player, Jayson Williams, who served an 18-month prison sentence for the manslaughter of Costas Christofi, offered a few words of comfort to Nathan’s father as he made a speech to the crowd.

“Dad, I can feel your pain, I’ve caused a lot of pain in my life and I’m here to try to make as much amends as I can,” Mr. Williams said softly. “I don’t pretend to have all the answers here, I’m still learning as I go, but I can assure you that I want to be a part of this, and anything I can do to reach the young people, and not-so-young people, to help stop the violence in our community, please call on me on me whenever.”

Basketball coach, Chez Williams, was present on behalf Taylonn Murphy, the father of Tayshana “Chicken” Murphy, who was murdered last September.

“She played basketball for me,” Mr. Williams explained. “Apparently, she was out late. Her brother got into a fight with another kid… and they came back after the fight to retaliate, and instead they shot Chicken, because she was outside. Chicken was eighteen. She had offers from all types of colleges.”

Over the weekend, NAN campaigners gathered together all over Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island, lighting up the darkest corners of New York City.

Give us the money... or else. (MTA)

The MTA, nor its allies, will stand idly by as a state judge knocks down the payroll tax providing the transit agency nearly $2 billion a year in fund. Yesterday, they rallied at Grand Central Terminal to insist the tax does not conflict with the state constitution and they will be launching a vigorous appeals.

“For the eight and half million passengers who ride with us every single day, and for everybody in the New York metropolitan area, the transportation mobility tax is a key component of the transportation system that drives the economy of New York City, of Long Island and of our New York suburbs,” Mr. Lhota declared. “In fact, it drives the entire economy of the state of New York. Without the service that the MTA provides, New York would choke on its own traffic.”

This tariff required employers and self-employed individuals, located within the MTA’s 12-county region and who earned more than $50,000 per year, to set aside between 11 and 34 cents for every $100 in payroll costs. Governor Cuomo already signed legislation on December 12, 2011, revising the Mobility Tax structure by exempting or reducing some categories of taxpayers who had been paying the 0.34% rate. However, to compensate for the reduction in funding, the State agreed to make the MTA whole with direct payments.

If Wednesday’s court ruling stands, the MTA will lose $1.8 billion dollars of its budget, which is 15 percent of its total annual revenue.

“We’ve created a concentration of people and jobs that simply cannot exist without the public transportation system that the MTA provides,” added Robert D. Yaro, President of Regional Plan Association. “We simply cannot afford to pull the economic legs out from under the MTA.”

The State Legislature passed the tax in 2009. Upon taking office in 2010, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano,  initiated a lawsuit to challenge the MTA’s payroll tax. The court ruling sympathized with the residents of Nassau County who were “unfairly burdened” by the tax. Nassau County alone has paid nearly $10 million in MTA Payroll taxes since the law went into effect.

“The bill is unconstitutional because it appropriates public monies for a local purpose,” the court ruling found. “And that it is unconstitutional for imposing liability onto political subdivisions for the debt of a public corporation.” Furthermore, the MTA must be “self-sustaining” under Public Authorities Law section 1266(3).

Mr. Mangano declared victory for taxpayers and job creators throughout the New York State.

“This is a great victory for every taxpayer and tax relief as the Supreme Court decision buries the job killing payroll tax,” Mr. Mangano rejoiced. “This success sends a strong message to job creators that we will not allow residents to be nickeled and dimed to the poor house nor will we allow job killing taxes to go unchallenged. This is a historic victory for tax relief and tax reform.”

Four similar lawsuits have been overturned, a fact the MTA hopes will eventually play out in this case.

Denise Richardson, director of the General Contractors Association, was keen to point out that this may be a hollow triumph. “To every elected official cheering this ruling, I have one simple question,” Ms. Richardson retorted. “Will your constituents support you when they realise that you put their jobs, their families, their quality of life and their communities at risk?”

Mr. Lhota was confident that the court ruling would be overturned.

“I am optimistic that we will prevail,” he simply said. Mr. Mangano declined to comment on whether he thought the MTA would be successful in this endeavor.

Ramona Singer and Sonja Tremont-Morgan. (Photo by Lenny Stucker)

After some time spent roving the idyllic Hamptons lanes last Saturday, The Observer found ourselves at a charity gala honoring the music of Billy Joel. The Michael J. Fox Foundation’s Team Fox had teamed up with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to put on the snazzy soiree.

Onstage, a Billy Joel tribute band was playing at considerable volume. We asked the brave souls seated near the front how they felt about the idea of setting up a tribute band.

M.C. and host for the evening Gina Giordan was keen to point out that she did not choose the band, and was unconvinced that anyone could compare to the legendary Billy Joel.

“I have had the pleasure of interviewing Billy Joel numerous times,” Ms. Giordan told us. “There is only one Billy Joel, and when he performs, you know why.”

Comedian Jackie Martling appeared to be of two minds over whether he would want a comedy tribute group set up in his honor.

“I’d be honored, although I’d hate it if they were good,” Mr. Martling bellowed over the blare from the stage. “No I wouldn’t. Yes I would.” And what if the tribute group was actually better than him? “That’s impossible! I was going to train people to tell my jokes [at a school].”

The band was at least playing for some worthwhile causes. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world’s largest nonprofit health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research. The Michael J. Fox Foundation is committed to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through funded research and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with the disease.

For some guests attending, such as celebrity housewife Ramona Singer, these causes were unfortunately closer to home.

“My mother actually passed away from leukemia,” she confided.

Michael J. Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, has since become an activist for research toward finding a cure, which led him to create his foundation.

Mr. Martling, who has worked with Mr. Fox, remarked with a mischievous grin that he knew him more intimately than most.

“I love Michael J. Fox,” he told us playfully. “He’s a great kisser.” Mr. Martling’s blonde bombshell of a girlfriend, seated loyally beside him, raised her eyes to the two-stories-high ceiling.

Bromance was blossoming elsewhere in the packed studio, as Zachary Tunick articulated his feelings about the owner of East Hampton Studio, Michael Wudyka. “He’s a rugged, good-looking man who’s got a heart of gold and is very sensitive,” he related.

Inspired by Mr. Fox’s Back To The Future franchise, The Observer asked guests what time period they would travel to if they were equipped with Doc’s fabulous time machine. Ms. Singer wanted to explore the court of Louis XIV, where the Sun King was surrounded by devastatingly beautiful and politically empowered mistresses.

“Women had to have their power through their beauty at court,” Ms. Singer explained. “The whole thing of, like, the French court, the English court, that really intrigues me. I read historical novels.” Perhaps for Ms. Singer, the Real Housewives of New York City are a modern version of Louis XIV’s mistresses at the glamorous royal court?

A few guests would only bounce back to the past to change history. Ms. Giordan wanted to journey “back in time just enough to meet and marry my soul mate, singer/songwriter Jeff Buckley.”

Partygoer Jack Lester had a heroic mission in mind—and rather a dark one.

“I would want to go back to 1938 ... so that I could assassinate Adolf Hitler,” Mr. Lester replied brusquely, as if this were the most obvious choice imaginable. Murder indeed appeared to be on his mind as he watched the reality-TV housewives swanning around the studio.

“What I think is outrageous is how the Housewives of New York City have become worthy of celebrity status. Why is that?” Mr. Lester asked The Observer. Interviewer and interviewee seemed to have traded places. “The housewives themselves don’t see the irony. They really think they are celebrities. They don’t see the absurdity of it. They really believe that they have contributed something to our culture.”

Mr. Martling, being one of the older (and wiser) guests at the party, said he would rather return to the days of his own youth than an earlier period in history.

“There are so many romantic answers to that, but there are so many places you could go where they wouldn’t have toilets and they wouldn’t have showers,” Mr. Martling retorted, shrugging his shoulders. “It would be horribly uncomfortable. In my life personally, I’d like to go back to high school.”

Charmed by the whirl of cocktails and canapés, we had completely lost track of time. We beat a hasty exit, pausing to contemplate the idea of summer vacation and the waning of another summer Out East.

jbenhamou@observer.com

“We are issuing a call to expand the human capacity of the bridge,” Councilman Brad Lander of Park Slope declared at the Manhattan entrance to the 129-year-old span yesterday. An average of 4,000 pedestrians and 3,100 bicyclists cross the Brooklyn Bridge every day, according to the Department of Transportation. A good many of them have close encounters of the two-wheeled kind.

Along with a few colleagues in the council, Mr. Lander wants the city to consider expanding the narrow boardwalk atop the beige bridge to accommodate more passengers. The plan calls for tripling the crossing’s width, to the current size at the piers. This would create twice as much room for pedestrians as well as a dedicate lane for bikes.

Currently, the two mix in the narrow strip, with many near misses as bikes swerve around slow walkers and photographers unwittingly back into oncoming traffic for that perfect shot of the new Frank Gehry building.

“Everyone knows that the Brooklyn Bridge is such a popular tourist destination, we want to make sure the bridge is safe” Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who represents Lower Manhattan, said. “To maintain a healthy New York, it’s important to expand the walkway.” Because nothing is worse for your health than a big fat tire print.

The council members admit they have yet to explore the feasibility of the project, though they acknowledge the engineering challenges and cost could be considerable. At the same time, a new walkway was added to the Williamsburg Bridge when it was rehabilitated by the Bloomberg administration, so the pols are hopeful the same could be done here. It could even become a matter of debate during the upcoming mayoral elections.

“We’re not engineers,” Mr. Lander admitted.

But when they represent some of the most bike-crazed constituencies in the city, something must be done. “The Brooklyn Bridge belongs to all New  Yorkers,” North Brooklyn Councilman Steve Levin said. “It was an amazing engineering feat in its age, but in 2012 it’s time to update it a bit.”