Brooklyn state of mind
Billy Joel’s original band to perform at On Stage at Kingsborough
GERM POLICE
SICKNESS SLEUTHS: City disease detectives have already slapped three parents with summonses for allegedly failing to get their kids vaccinated
against the measles virus, pictured here in 3D. Getty Images
down the allegedly unvaccinated
kids amid some gumshoe
investigative work into
the outbreak that’s affl icted a
whopping 329 people — including
44 additional cases since
last week’s emergency order,
interviewing measles patients
to identify their contacts, before
tracking them down and
verifying their inoculations
are up to date.
Parents of the three unvaccinated
kids must appear
at a hearing, where they’ll be
slapped with $1,000 fi nes if the
violation is upheld.
The city announced the violations
the same week that fi ve
Williamsburg residents sued
the city for the right to not
vaccinated their kids, claiming
the scale of the measles
outbreak does not warrant the
city overruling their religious
objection to the shots.
And the city is making
good on de Blasio’s promise
BY COLIN MIXSON
They’re feeling fi ned.
Municipal virus investigators
are on the prowl for unvaccinated
Williamsburg residents
amid a growing measles
outbreak affecting Brooklyn’s
Orthodox Jewish community,
and the city sickness sleuths
have already slapped three
parents with summonses for
allegedly failing to get their
kids inoculated, according to
the Department of Health.
The summonses were issued
after Mayor Bill de Blasio
and city Health Commissioner
Dr. Oxiris Barbot issued an
emergency health declaration
on April 9 mandating residents
of four Williamsburg zip
codes — 11205, 11206, 11211,
and 11249 — get their shots of
the MMR vaccine, or else face
justice at the hands of the Department
of Health’s dogged
“disease detectives.”
The investigators tracked
to shut down schools that
violated the Health Department’s
February exclusion
order forbidding unvaccinated
kids from attending
class, issuing closure orders
to four Williamsburg yeshivas,
included among a total
23 area academies that have
received notices of violation
for admitting students
without inoculations.
The city allowed another
neighborhood school, the
United Talmudical Academy,
to reopen after ordering
it closed April 16 for
refusing to provide offi cials
access to vaccination and
attendance records.
Offi cials traced the borough’s
measles outbreak to a
Brooklyn resident traveling
from Israel — home to another
outbreak of the disease — in
October, and so far 25 people
have been hospitalized for
measles, including six people
who required intensive care,
according to Barbot.
Health Department.
of the measles that New York
City has experienced since
1991, according to Barbot, and
its spread represents a major
spike over the two infections
that plagued New Yorkers
in 2017.
airborne pathogen produces
symptoms including fever,
cough, and a runny nose,
and can cause diarrhea, ear
infection, pneumonia, encephalitis,
about 1 out of every 1,367 kids
infected dying due to fatal
complications from measles,
according to the Department
of Health, which also maintains
21 days following exposure.
INSIDE
By Julianne McShane The band is back!
Members of Billy Joel’s original
backing band will play some of the
Piano Man’s greatest hits at On Stage at
Kingsborough on May 4. The Lords of
52nd Street take pride in playing the iconic
tunes that they helped make famous,
according to the band’s drummer.
“We said, there are a lot of tribute
bands out there doing our stuff, so why
don’t we do it, the original guys?” said
Liberty DeVitto, who calls Clinton Hill
home.
At the Manhattan Beach show, the sextet
will play songs including “My Life,”
“Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,”
“New York State of Mind,” and “Movin’
Out,” among others, according to
DeVitto.
The group — whose main members
include saxophonist and keyboarder
Richie Cannata and guitarist Russell
Javors — first reunited in 2014, when they
played to an adoring crowd after being
inducted into the Long Island Music Hall
of Fame, DeVitto said.
“They wanted us to play one or two
songs at the event, and when we played
the first, the crowd went so wild that we
played five songs,” the drummer said.
The three other musicians who will
play with the Lords at their upcoming
show include bassist Malcolm Gold and
guitarist Dennis DelGaudio, who worked
on “Movin’ Out” — the 2002 Broadway
musical set to Joel’s songs — and singer
and pianist David Clark, who has spent
years performing Joel’s tunes.
DeVitto, Cannata, and Javors joined
Joel’s band in 1976, and shot to stardom
the following year, when the music man
released his fifth album, “The Stranger,”
which sold more than 10 million copies
and featured hit singles including “Only
the Good Die Young” and “She’s Always
a Woman.”
“I remember we came out of a gig
and I saw this crowd of girls crowding
around him, and I thought to myself, ‘I
think we did it,’ ” DeVitto said. “We went
from touring in two rental cars to private
planes and the best hotels in the world.”
DeVitto went on to play on 11 of Joel’s
albums over the next 30 years, but he and
Joel no longer speak — DeVitto launched
a lawsuit in 2009 claiming Joel owed
him hundreds of thousands of dollars in
unpaid royalties, which was settled out of
court a year later.
The band is back: Members of Billy Joel’s
old backing band — known as the Lords
of 52nd Street — will play some of their
original rock hits at a May 4 show at On
Stage at Kingsborough. Kevin Mocker
Javors stayed with the band for a
quarter century, and Cannata left in the
early 1980s.
DeVitto went on to play with other
musical icons — including Stevie Nicks,
the Beach Boys, Elton John, and Carly
Simon — and started his own original
rock band, The Slim Kings, with Cobble
Hill resident Michael Sackler-Berner and
Dyker Heights dweller Andy Attanasio.
The pair of younger Brooklynites ensures
that the group’s sounds stay fresh, according
to DeVitto.
“I’m the old school guy, and they have
the new ideas,” he said.
The Lords of 52nd Street at On Stage
at Kingsborough (2001 Oriental Blvd. at
Oxford Street in Manhattan Beach, (718)
368–5596, www.onstageatkingsborough.
org). May 4 at 8 p.m. $32–$34.
Your entertainment
guide Page 39
Police Blotter ..........................8
Letters ....................................30
The Right View .................... 32
Standing O ............................34
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 2 IFE, APRIL 26–MAY 2, 2019 M BR B G
There have been no fatalities
so far, according to the
This is the largest outbreak
The highly contagious
and death — with
that symptoms can appear
anytime from seven to
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City disease detectives issue violations to parents of unvaccinated kids
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