At the Chinatown Off-Track Betting facility on Lafayette Street in Manhattan gamblers crowd the center of an upstairs betting room and stare up at a T.V.

George, a middle-aged immigrant from Jamaica, is looking down at a crumpled NY Post horse racing column. “I should have trusted myself,” he says. “I would have picked a trifecta.” Sure enough, he had circled on his newspaper which horses would come in first, second and third. But he had not followed his gut when betting.

An hour later, George found me to say he had won over $700 after correctly predicting the outcome of two other races. “You brought me good luck,” he said.

Down the street at City Hall, OTB employee Mike Murphy was searching for some good luck on Sunday too. He and 1,500 other workers are set to be laid off in June.

{Click here for photo slideshow}

By: Mellissa Seecharan

A small group of union-backed protesters railed against labor and living conditions at one of the nation’s largest senior care providers’ facilities Wednesday on the Upper West Side. The company, in turn, accused protest organizers of a publicity stunt to collect more union dues.

{Click here for a photo slide show}

Standing outside Atria Senior Living on West 86th Street, between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, eight protestors wore SEIU stickers and called for unionizing service workers at all 23 New York Atria facilities.

Rabbi Michael Feinberg, a community activist, held up an anti-union flier that Atria had distributed to their workers.

“This filer says nothing about the fact that it’s their democratic right to improve their workplace situation, to improve care for residents,” Feinberg said.

Protest organizer Daniel May added that in recent years Atria has increased rent, made medication mistakes, locked-in patients and otherwise neglected its senior population. He said Atria should “begin to sit down with workers and talk about how they can address providing adequate staffing, adequate training to make sure the residents get what they need.”

Atria provides residential service to more than 13,000 senior in 27 states, according to their web site.

A company official said Atria has battled activists all year.

“The SEIU’s press release and protest are part of an ongoing corporate attack campaign to tarnish Atria’s reputation and get more members and dues money,” said Amy Risley, the spokeswoman. “The SEIU continues to lose credibility by attacking our company with distorted claims and half-truths.”

One of the most poignant stories at the protest came from Susan MacArevey, who had traveled from Wisconsin to talk about her mother’s death at an Atria care facility in Albany.

Once her mother hit her head after suffering a heat attack and stumbled around, a family member discovered the body the next day, MacArevey said.

No one had checked on her mother that night, she said. Only one worker had been assigned to look after approximately 134 residents all night, she said.

Atria confirmed that MacArevey’s mother was a long-time resident at Atria Shaker in Albany but refused comment on her case.

Since May 2007, SEIU has continuously campaigned against Atria care facilities nationwide, including a protest at one Davis, Cali. on Jan. 28 over rising rent costs for seniors.

On March 4, SEIU will protest outside of Rockefeller Center against Lazard, Ltd., the investment firm that is affiliated with Atria’s private owners.

Linnea Covington and Daniel Macht contributed reporting

I came to DUMBO for the art last Sunday, but all I got was this quirky story:

Meet Dondi the painting elephant. Dondi is 33, 34 or 37 years old, depending on your source. She was rescued from Thai loggers at a young age, brought to the U.S., and raised by one-time trapeze performers Phil and Francine Schacht.

The D.U.M.B.O. Under The Bridge Arts Festival program promoted Dondi for her painting skills. But the elephant seems to have a lot more tricks up her trunk.

A cursory trip through google’s tubes shows Dondi has a history of performing circus stunts.

From a Circus Flora bio when Dondi was a featured performer last May:

…Dondi has appeared on the “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, with Bill Cosby on the “Merv Griffin Show” and with Betty White on “Circus of the Stars.” She is playful and can show behaviors that no other elephant in the world has ever learned, such as imitating a chicken, roars like a lion, gives raspberries, plays baseball and interacts positively with her human family.

Mr. Schacht told The Daily News that Dondi has been painting for a dozen years. Schacht reiterated to me after Dondi’s performance he considers the animal part of his family. “I have three boys and I treat her like a daughter,” Schacht said.

Check out his daughter’s work:

On Sunday, Schacht would dip a brush into a cans of paint and then help Dondi grasp its handle in her trunk. With a few rapid but breezy motions, Dondi lashed at the canvas Schacht held outward for the animal.

Meanwhile, local artist Nadia Fadeeva mimiced Dondi’s brush strokes on another canvas nearby. Zannah Mass from Two Trees, the development company which sponsored the festival, said at times both the elephant and the artist also collaborated on paintings.

(Nadia Fadeeva replicates Dondi’s technique)

Not everyone saw the value of Dondi’s art. Meet Brooklyn residents Shira Golding and Ari Moore :

(apologies for my horrible camera work. This was my first on-the-fly interview using an Olympus Stylus 710)

Golding and Moore had come out for the art but were disturbed by what they considered animal exploitation on display at the intersection of Main Street and Water Street. So they found some posters at a Bodega, wrote up some slogans — and made news.

(Ari Moore and Shira Golding)

“If an animal in a natural environment decided to pick up a twig and dip it in mud that would be an amazing thing,” Golding said. “That would be something to talk about and celebrate. This kind of thing is a construction.”

The protesters said they received a lot of support from people walking by. When I asked why there weren’t more people joining their protest, Moore said people “maybe don’t see the elephant as part of the community that needs our support — and they should.”

While not exactly defending Dondi’s artistic integrity, Breda Kennedy, executive director of the Dumbo Arts Center, said “I would get more upset about Guantanamo Bay.”

Kennedy said her group organized the festival to promote unknown artists. Two Trees, the development company which owns property in Dumbo and provides the arts center with free rent, asked if they could include the elephant. Kennedy said her group approved the request.

She added the combination of good weather, a media partnership with the Metropolitan Transportation Administration, and, yes, Dondi the painting elephant all drove up attendance compared to last year. “We promote totally unknown names and you only get them out through exposure,” Kennedy said.

Still, Jessica Levine, a project coordinator at the center said while organizers were happy with the larger crowd, not all members of Dumbo Arts Center were comfortable with the elephant’s presence at the festival. “My opinion is that it is exploitative,” Levine said.

Zannah Mass with Two Trees said Dondi’s performance was inspired by the work of artist Vitaly Komar, who planned to attend last weekend’s festival but suffered a family emergency. Mass said Komar founded elephant art academies in Thailand to rescue domesticated elephants that might ordinarily be put to sleep. “A brush is not that far off from a stick,” Mass said. “This isn’t abuse, this is collaboration.”

Mass said in Dondi’s case, there are other precautions the Schacht family takes to minimize the stress of traveling. For one, Dondi rides with mini-horses for company.

Phil Schacht, Dondi’s owner and handler said when on the road, the family stops every four hours for water and exercise.

This sign was visible to onlookers on Sunday too:

One of those onlookers was Kerry Cooke of Manhattan. Cooke said he brought his 4-year old son and 6-year old daughter to Dumbo because neither had ever seen an elephant up so close. “We’re elephant fans,” Cooke said. “He can just stand around. Doesn’t have to do anything.”

Here are a few pictures that illustrate some new principles I’ve learned.

The rule of thirds means that my photos should be framed according to plots on a grid:

In the first picture some kids in Bushwick, Brooklyn are playing outside on a hot day.

The second picture shows a boss at a rug company in Times Square supervising his employees.

In these next series of photos I tried to let my surroundings frame the shot:

Both of these photos are from Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The statue sits in the front yard of someone’s home.

The man on the left was giving away free pickles on Sunday, 9.16.07, in the Lower East Side in honor of International Pickle Day. That same day a man (the picture on the right) sold sausage at a street fair for Little Italy’s Feast of San Gennaro.

I also recently took some extreme close-up photos and shots that emphasized contrast:

The close-ups are more pictures from the pickle festival; pickles and cheese.

In the photo below, I was struck by the richness of the red dress on this Williamsburg clothesline.

Finally, a microphone is silhouetted against a kaleidoscope of colors projected on a screen at the Bowery, in advance of Mashup performer Girl Talk’s performance on 9/15.

P.S. I loved this shot from a church in the West Village on 9/6

.

-Dan