IN TODAY'S ECONOMY, SMALL BUSINESSES CAN USE ALL THE
help they can get. It's with that thought in mind that the Flatiron Partnership and the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship at Baruch College, have put together their latest business forum. The program, entitled "Accessing Opportunity: A Business Assistance Forum," will be held on Friday, October 15, on the seventh floor of Baruch's Newman Conference Center, 151 East 25th Street. It is scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and is part of the BID's Intersections series, events focused on information, ideas and the community.

The day will get started at 8 a.m. with registration, a networking breakfast sponsored by Chock Full o'Nuts, and a Business Resource Fair in which a number of companies and City agencies will participate. They are: NBAT, the City's New Business Acceleration Team (see related item in this newsletter); the NYC Health Insurance Link, an online resource that offers unbiased and detailed information about various health plans available in New York City; the New York City Economic Development Corporation; Seedco Financial, a nonprofit that provides financing and technical aid to companies in distressed or underserved communities; TD Bank, one of the country's 15 largest commercial banks; Tekserve, the Apple specialist, which will raffle off an iPad; Con Edison; Time Warner Cable Business Class; and Baruch's Small Business Development Center.

Following welcoming remarks from Jennifer Brown, Executive Director of the Flatiron BID, Mitchel B. Wallerstein, the new President of Baruch College, and Robert Walsh, Commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services, the audience will hear from keynote speaker Lida Orzeck, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Hanky Panky, one of the lingerie industry's most successful companies.

Orzeck, who holds a PhD in social psychology from Columbia University, began as a researcher for the New York Police Department, switched careers 33 years ago and became the head of a fashion firm that makes all its products in the U.S. In addition, Hanky Panky is in the heart of the Flatiron district, with offices and a showroom at 373 Park Avenue South.

Four workshops will complete the program. They are Business Financing Roadmap, led by Yurhina Schmidt of NYC Business Solutions; Marketing & Branding Basics, led by Stanley Kohlenberg of Baruch; Web 2.0 & Social Media for Beginners, led by Ulas Neftci of Baruch; and Banking & Money Management Skills, led by a representative of TD Bank.

Reservations are requested by Monday, October 11. They can be made by calling (212) 741-2323 or by e-mailing events@flatironbid.org.

DEALING WITH CRIME AND COPING WITH EMERGENCIES WERE THE hot topics at the Flatiron Partnership's first Speaker Series event of the season, held September 16 before a packed TD Bank branch at Park Avenue South and 21st Street. The program also served to introduce Deputy Inspector Ted W. Berntsen to the community as the new Commanding Officer of the 13th Precinct, which includes the Flatiron district. (For a profile of Deputy Inspector Berntsen, see below.)

In addition to Berntsen, the audience also heard from Aaron Stanton, a Public/Private Initiatives Analyst with the City's Office of Emergency Management (OEM), who outlined his agency's programs, which are geared to help small businesses prepare for and recover from all kinds of emergencies, from natural ones like storms to man-made ones like terrorist attacks.

Although Berntsen has been at the 13th Precinct for only two weeks, he displayed a quick grasp of his new command as he reeled off a string of statistics reflecting the drop in crime in the area. In 1990, he pointed out, there were 13 homicides in the precinct. Last year, there was one. In 1990, more than 10,000 crimes were committed; last year, that number fell to 2,300. Some problems continue to exist, he pointed out, from homelessness ("always a problem"), to late-night clubs that sometimes give rise to criminal activities, to counterfeiting on Broadway.

Berntsen said one of the problems local businesses can help solve is to keep freight doors locked. "That's how thieves get in," he said. "We call them 'office creepers.' They try to look like they belong and the next thing you know, they're walking out with someone's laptop."

The OEM's Stanton said that 25 percent of small businesses never recover from a disaster, and cited several programs that can help the City's 200,000 small businesses before, during and after emergencies. They include: Ready New York for Business, which outlines five basic steps businesses can take before an emergency strikes; the Corporate Emergency Access System, which pre-credentials key employees for access to restricted areas following an emergency; and CorpNet, a free e-mail service that alerts businesses to current information about emergencies. For additional information about the OEM's services, call 311 or go to www.nyc.gov/oem.

Ted W. Berntsen: The 13th's New Top Cop

"I remember this area as very quiet after the working day ended," he said. "Now it's so much busier. It's more residential, with more nightclubs, more restaurants, more construction. There's a lot happening here."

Berntsen comes to the district from the 17th Precinct, where he had been Commanding Officer since December 2007. He succeeds Deputy Inspector Timothy J. Beaudette, who was promoted to Commanding Officer of Midtown North.

A member of the NYPD since 1989 and the son of a policeman, the 43-year-old Berntsen grew up in Staten Island, where he continues to live, along with his wife, Lisa, and two children, Carly, 11, and Scott, 8. He attended the College of Staten Island and Pace University, majoring in business. He began his career on patrol in Brooklyn and moved to the 6th Precinct in Greenwich Village in 1992. He subsequently served in the East Village, Brooklyn and Midtown South before taking charge of the 17th Precinct, moving up the ranks as he went. He became a Sergeant in 1995, a Lieutenant in September 2001, a Captain in 2004 and Deputy Inspector in 2009.

Save the Date: Nov. 18 and Mr. District Attorney

MULTIPLE SNIPS OF A LONG GREEN RIBBON ON THE MORNING
of September 22 formally signaled the completion of a redesigned Broadway corridor south of 23rd Street.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony, led by Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of the City's Department of Transportation (DOT), other municipal officials and local business leaders, was the official conclusion to a set of streetscape modifications that include safety enhancements, simplified traffic patterns, expanded public space and buffered bike lanes. The project was launched during the summer by DOT from 24th Street to Union Square, an extension of improvements made to Broadway between Columbus Circle and the Flatiron district in 2008 and 2009.

Jennifer Brown, Executive Director of the Flatiron Partnership -- which pioneered the expanded use of public space along Broadway with the Public Plazas that were installed adjacent to and north of the Flatiron Building two years ago -- was a speaker at the ribbon-cutting.

"The recent enhancements made down Broadway and in Union Square are an extension of improvements that began in our district in 2008 and included the creation of new public space as well as protected bike lanes and median plantings," she said. "These public spaces are teeming with plant life and human life and are enjoyed by people from within the neighborhood and from around the world alike. Thriving new businesses have opened adjacent to the Plazas, new commercial tenants and residents have been moving into our area and enjoying the open space, and we are a world-class destination for tourists. I want to thank Commissioner Sadik-Khan and her entire team at DOT for continuing to improve our neighborhoods and how we move about them on a day-to-day basis."

Although the latest round of changes primarily affects the Union Square area, the redesign also provides additional public space to the BID, on Broadway between 21st and 22nd Streets, with planters and benches still to be installed. Other changes involving the Flatiron district include new placements for bike lanes; median islands between 20th and 21st Streets, with "floating" parking spaces; the relocation of two bus stops for Staten Island buses and a Gray Line tour bus from Broadway to nearby streets; and new regulations regarding automobile turns off Park Avenue South.

For additional information, go to www.nyc.gov/dot.

A monthly roundup of exhibits and events at the art galleries and museums within the Flatiron district. To be considered for inclusion, please send relevant information to: Eric Zaretsky, Director of Marketing & Economic Development, at ezaretsky@flatironbid.org.

SPACED: Gallery of Architecture
"Manhattan Remembered": An exhibition of drawings, prints and photographs that reflect the many changes in Manhattan -- "a chameleon city," in the words of gallery director Judith York Newman -- over more than a century. The exhibit includes photographs of the Flatiron district in the early 1900s; Anton Schütz etchings of lower Manhattan from the Hudson River in the 1920s; Edward Chrystie watercolors and drawings of lower Manhattan from the 1930s; Berenice Abbott's photographs of Penn Station and a street near the South Street Seaport in the 1930s; Armin Landeck's 1940s lithographs of Greenwich Village; Judith Clancy's 1960s lithographs of the Metropolitan Opera House; Michael Kirk's 1970s aquatints of doorways in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood; and a group of prints from the 19th century. An opening reception will be held at the gallery on Thursday, October 14, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Dates: October 14 to December 11.
Address: 31 West 26th Street, 6th floor.
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday afternoons. For hours, please call (212) 213-1720. Or by appointment.

AIGA National Design Center
"365: AIGA Annual Design Exhibition 31": The best in communication design from 2009, including logos, websites, animations, experiences, packaging and advertisements created by some of the world's most talented designers. To be included, the work had to demonstrate "excellence as the successful pairing of effectiveness and aesthetics." The jury-selected exhibition of 125 works extends a legacy that began almost a century ago and is often regarded as the most selective statement on design excellence today, covering all disciplines of communication design and strategy. In addition to being exhibited at AIGA's National Design Center on Fifth Avenue, these works become part of the AIGA Design Archives and will subsequently be presented in an exhibition that will travel across the country.
Dates: October 1 through November 24.
Address: 164 Fifth Avenue.
Hours: Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Sidney Mishkin Gallery at Baruch
"A Social Context: Group Photography and Identity": A major exhibition drawn from the collection of Baruch College, featuring images by Lucien Clergue, Elliott Erwitt, Larry Fink, Milt Hinton, Gilles Peress, Candace Scharsu, Neal Slavin, Leonard Sussman, Andy Warhol, Carrie Mae Weems and Garry Winogrand. The photographs in the exhibition document groups, recording who was who at a certain place at a specific moment. They include images by photographers concerned with what it means to be part of a group, how group memberships affect an individual's identity and how social perceptions help define groups. The show is curated by Sandra Kraskin, director of the Mishkin Gallery.
Dates: Through October 22.
Address: 135 East 22nd Street.
Hours: Weekdays from noon to 5 p.m., Thursdays from noon to 7 p.m. Closed on weekends.

Raandesk Gallery of Art at In Good Company
"Trilogy: Three Series of New Paintings by Jason Bryant": Eight large-scale paintings organized in three distinct conceptual series informally identified as Rubric, Merging Iconography and Symbolic Portraiture. The work is a continuation and further exploration of Bryant's fascination with film, the skateboarding culture, and presentation of the self. Bryant's body of work reflects his signature photorealistic style through aggressive compositional cropping and the uniform editing out of a subject's eyes with highly technical refinement.
Dates: Through November 12.
Address: 16 West 23rd Street, 4th floor (In Good Company).
Hours: Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. and by appointment.

Museum of Sex
"Rubbers: The Life, History & Struggle of the Condom": A multi-media look at the condom's influenced everything from science to religion.
Dates: Ongoing.
Address: 233 Fifth Avenue.
Hours: Sundays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS WHO WANT
to open restaurants, bars, bakeries or butcher shops in New York City might qualify for a new streamlined program from NBAT -- the New Business Acceleration Team. The program is geared to speeding up the process by which businesses can open their doors by providing them with the necessary answers and services that will allow them to do so.

Applicants for the program must be opening either a restaurant, bar, bakery or butcher shop that seats no more than 50 people. Qualifying bars must plan to serve food. Prior to their opening, businesses must make no major alterations to their physical space, such as changing entrances and exits, or building an extension. Supermarkets with a minimum of 6,000 square feet of selling space also qualify.

The program facilitates the coordination of most inspections by making the appropriate arrangements with the relevant City agencies and, where necessary, scheduling multi-agency inspections on the same day. Inspections include -- but are not limited to -- those conducted by the New York Fire Department, the Department of Environmental Protections, the Department of Buildings, and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

For more information, interested parties should contact NBAT at 1 Centre Street, Room 1010n, New York, N.Y. 10007, or e-mail nbat@nbat.nyc.gov. To access NBAT's website, go to www.nyc.gov/nbat.

Mad. Sq. Mark't

FOR THE SECOND YEAR IN A ROW, the Madison Square Park Conservancy has teamed up with Urban Space Management, public space planners, to present Mad. Sq. Mark't, an outdoor marketplace on the western edge of the park from 23rd Street to 25th Street. It features some 60 merchants whose products range from clothing, jewelry and accessories to spices, puppets and playing cards. And for the hungry shopper, a food court on Worth Square offers selections from neighborhood favorites ilili, Almond and 11 other establishments.

The market is open daily, rain or shine, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., through October 23.

Fall Kids Fest 2010

THE MADISON SQUARE PARK'S ANNUAL FALL KIDS FEST WILL
take place on Saturday, October 16, rain or shine, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. This free event, presented with Time Out New York Kids, will offer entertainment and activities that include live music, food and refreshments; fall and Halloween-themed arts and crafts; and a pumpkin patch. Kids will also be able to take a blank book and create their own illustrated work at Scholastic's "Klutz Build-A-Book" station. And as part of the Halloween celebration, kids can come in costume and march in the Mad. Sq. Kids Halloween Parade.

For more information, click here.

Mad. Sq. Music: Studio Series

NOW IN ITS FIFTH YEAR, THE MAD. SQ. MUSIC: STUDIO
Series, presented by The Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, will gear up for its last concert of the season. It's at the southern end of Madison Square Park on Saturday, October 9, at 3 p.m. The Refugees, a Grammy-nominated folk trio, will perform, along with Will Kimbrough, a young singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from the Alabama Gulf Coast. Seating at cafe tables is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

• Flatiron BID to hold business help forum
• Opening day for the newest stretch of Broadway's green ribbon
• New top cop at 13th Precinct: Ted W. Berntsen
• Our city could use a little 'Manhattanization' - (San Francisco Gate)
• BID seeking vendor for pedestrian plaza
• Flatiron BID holds fourth annual meeting
• RFP for eats on plazas
• Flatiron BID to honor L&L Holding
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The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District, formed in 2006, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to enhance the area's reputation as one of New York's most vital and exciting neighborhoods. This is undertaken by maintaining a clean and safe environment for those who live, work and visit the area; by spearheading area improvement projects; and by marketing the diverse business and retail options in this vibrant and historic neighborhood.

For more information go to our Web site at www.discoverflatiron.org or e-mail us at info@flatironbid.org.

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