Saturday, June 29, 2002
Tracking our man, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in Bermuda
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Pompano Beach Club, Southampton Parish, Bermuda. Yup, now that you know I’m here, you want to hear all the good local stuff about the big guy, our billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a sometime weekend resident of Tucker Town, 12 miles away. Well, surprise surprise, the news is that there’s no news about Bloomberg. With my usual adroitness, I’ve tried to debrief any number of cabdrivers (in Bermuda, the allotment of cars is one tiny and tinny vehicle per family, and no limos, and cabs are a part of everyone’slife , even if you are a Bloomberg), but there’s no story to be had. The locals will mildly gossip about Ross Perot (he bought a second house next to his original "Caliban" because it has a better dock), Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (he wears beautiful Italian wool suits while staying at his "Blue Horizon"), but that is all. Bermudians are very discreet, ever since the Duke & Duchess of Windsor were banished here in 1940 because of some Nazi connections, before his appointment as Governor of the Bahamas (as King Edward VIII he abdicated the throne to marry the twice divorced Wallis Warfield of Baltimore, "The Woman I Love") and the not yet solved murder of a local dignitary during their stay. The rich of the world who gather here are part of the Bermudians’ livelihood, providing the cachet for upscale vacationing. The luxury cruise liner passengers are attracted here by their fame, coming into Hamilton to shop at the fabled Trimingham, H.A. & E Brown, A. J. Cooper’s and English Sports shops, and buying designer clothes, porcelain and Gosling’s Black Seal rum. Bermuda does not even want the polloi who have recently cruised in on the giant Carnival Triumph liner, on a trial basis, the type of people who will use the beaches and buy a sandwich and soda. But I digress, back to the rich and famous.
Mayor Bloomberg built his Beach Cottage in 1998, a $10.5 million mansion in the traditional simple Bemudian style, using up so much of the native cedar supply that he caused a shortage. [The native cedar, a fragrant juniper that does not mildew or rot, was practically eliminated by a fungus disease in 1944, and its return has been slow. You can see a lot of ancient thin cedar trunks nailed together to form fences. The really accessible native building material is limestone, of which this coral reef chain of islands was formed. Even the poorest houses have solid, elegantly weathered limestone walls and fences, cut by hand-saws in quarries.]
Our Mayor, who has houses also at 17 East 79 Street as well as on Cadogan Square in London, in Vail (a four-bedroom condo), North Salem (a 20-acre farm), and flies his own planes (a 12-seater three-engine Dassault jet and a single engine Mooney Bravo), comes to Bermuda mostly to golf, at the private Mid-Ocean Club, designed by C. B. Macdonald and fine-tuned by the great Robert Trent Jones, which was also the Duke’s favorite course. Good thing that he has not discovered the magnificent Port Royal, actually designed by Jones, a public golf course owned by the government of Bermuda, and amply used by the population, which is 60 percent black (we hit some range balls and putted on the practice green, no time to for a leisurely game when the ocean’s calling and the vacation is short). He seems to live a simple life, no giant parties, typical of the neighborhood (even Charles Watts, the drummer of the exuberant Rolling Stones, has faded into the background). Good for us, it leaves him more time to work on behalf of his constituents, I hope.
Bermudians really know each other. With a citizenry of some 64,000, tightly crowded on a 19 sq. mile island chain, 21 miles long, that is not hard. We still happen to know a few people, having spent many vacations here, between 1974 and 1986, because of my giant ragweed -based hay fewer affliction. Bermuda is a haven, since the pollen do not get blown over from the US, across the 600 miles of sea between the islands and North Carolina. Interestingly, the lush plant life of the islands presents no pollen dangers, although gorgeous flowers bloom all year round. Right now the 20 ft tall pink and white oleander hedges glow with color, as do their more showy cousins, the waxy frangipani. Great royal poincianas spread their branches over the roads. On the single-lane main traffic artery, Harrington Sound to Middle Road to Somerset Road, for a good part you are surrounded by thick walls of palms and broad-leaf trees, a much thicker tropical jungle than the real thing in, say, Mexico. It really protects you from the humid heat. We had heavy rains every day, which did not stop us from beach and hiking activities, except that drying clothes was not possible (luckily, we had enough changes for the five days). But the rains are "guud," we agree with the natives, speaking in their dialect that we have automatically fallen into. "Bermuuda needs rain," we say, relishing the Germanic umlaut-like stretch over every long "oo" syllable.
Rain is most important for the islands, it is the only source of water, for drinking, washing and everything else that the salty ocean stuff will not serve. Bermudians build their houses with gabled roofs and collect rainwater in cisterns, under the structure or to the side of it, in round semi-covered stone barrels that sport two small round ventilating holes, looking like eyes in a suspicious face. In the years of our stay we remember that they occasionally had to import a tanker load of water. Now there are three desalinization plants that successfully do the job.
The daily rains are the source of that great floral beauty, although some native plants seem to be overwhelmed by foreign arrivals. The sharp-needled Casuarina or Australian pine, is such an attacker, as is the purple morning glory, a powerful creeper. But loquats are producing their juicy berries, as before, and the cedars are returning (" you need birds and their digestive systems to spread cedarberries, don’t expect to plant them and see cedars grow," is the local wisdom).
Speaking of growing, the island’s international trade business has completely outpaced tourism, at least in dollar volume. Bermuda has always prided itself of being a legitimate tax haven, and I keep reading, in the Royal Gazette (est.1828) daily complaints about the governmental screeners (presumably the Bermuda Monetary Authority, est. 1969), letting Tyco and Global Crossing incorporate in Bermuda . In insurance alone ("we are the world's insurance laboratory") , Bermuda has some 1,500 captive companies, with 30 local managing firms and over 1,000 employees administering the businesses (captive insurers are formed by large industrial or financial firms to provide self-insurance.) Between captives, reinsurers and excess liability insurers Bermuda companies bill over $38 billion of premiums a year, a huge industry.
More lessons in governance, about how Bermuda protects and reinvents itself, next time .
Wally Dobelis thanks The New York Observer and Bermuda Gazette, online.
Pompano Beach Club, Southampton Parish, Bermuda. Yup, now that you know I’m here, you want to hear all the good local stuff about the big guy, our billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a sometime weekend resident of Tucker Town, 12 miles away. Well, surprise surprise, the news is that there’s no news about Bloomberg. With my usual adroitness, I’ve tried to debrief any number of cabdrivers (in Bermuda, the allotment of cars is one tiny and tinny vehicle per family, and no limos, and cabs are a part of everyone’slife , even if you are a Bloomberg), but there’s no story to be had. The locals will mildly gossip about Ross Perot (he bought a second house next to his original "Caliban" because it has a better dock), Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (he wears beautiful Italian wool suits while staying at his "Blue Horizon"), but that is all. Bermudians are very discreet, ever since the Duke & Duchess of Windsor were banished here in 1940 because of some Nazi connections, before his appointment as Governor of the Bahamas (as King Edward VIII he abdicated the throne to marry the twice divorced Wallis Warfield of Baltimore, "The Woman I Love") and the not yet solved murder of a local dignitary during their stay. The rich of the world who gather here are part of the Bermudians’ livelihood, providing the cachet for upscale vacationing. The luxury cruise liner passengers are attracted here by their fame, coming into Hamilton to shop at the fabled Trimingham, H.A. & E Brown, A. J. Cooper’s and English Sports shops, and buying designer clothes, porcelain and Gosling’s Black Seal rum. Bermuda does not even want the polloi who have recently cruised in on the giant Carnival Triumph liner, on a trial basis, the type of people who will use the beaches and buy a sandwich and soda. But I digress, back to the rich and famous.
Mayor Bloomberg built his Beach Cottage in 1998, a $10.5 million mansion in the traditional simple Bemudian style, using up so much of the native cedar supply that he caused a shortage. [The native cedar, a fragrant juniper that does not mildew or rot, was practically eliminated by a fungus disease in 1944, and its return has been slow. You can see a lot of ancient thin cedar trunks nailed together to form fences. The really accessible native building material is limestone, of which this coral reef chain of islands was formed. Even the poorest houses have solid, elegantly weathered limestone walls and fences, cut by hand-saws in quarries.]
Our Mayor, who has houses also at 17 East 79 Street as well as on Cadogan Square in London, in Vail (a four-bedroom condo), North Salem (a 20-acre farm), and flies his own planes (a 12-seater three-engine Dassault jet and a single engine Mooney Bravo), comes to Bermuda mostly to golf, at the private Mid-Ocean Club, designed by C. B. Macdonald and fine-tuned by the great Robert Trent Jones, which was also the Duke’s favorite course. Good thing that he has not discovered the magnificent Port Royal, actually designed by Jones, a public golf course owned by the government of Bermuda, and amply used by the population, which is 60 percent black (we hit some range balls and putted on the practice green, no time to for a leisurely game when the ocean’s calling and the vacation is short). He seems to live a simple life, no giant parties, typical of the neighborhood (even Charles Watts, the drummer of the exuberant Rolling Stones, has faded into the background). Good for us, it leaves him more time to work on behalf of his constituents, I hope.
Bermudians really know each other. With a citizenry of some 64,000, tightly crowded on a 19 sq. mile island chain, 21 miles long, that is not hard. We still happen to know a few people, having spent many vacations here, between 1974 and 1986, because of my giant ragweed -based hay fewer affliction. Bermuda is a haven, since the pollen do not get blown over from the US, across the 600 miles of sea between the islands and North Carolina. Interestingly, the lush plant life of the islands presents no pollen dangers, although gorgeous flowers bloom all year round. Right now the 20 ft tall pink and white oleander hedges glow with color, as do their more showy cousins, the waxy frangipani. Great royal poincianas spread their branches over the roads. On the single-lane main traffic artery, Harrington Sound to Middle Road to Somerset Road, for a good part you are surrounded by thick walls of palms and broad-leaf trees, a much thicker tropical jungle than the real thing in, say, Mexico. It really protects you from the humid heat. We had heavy rains every day, which did not stop us from beach and hiking activities, except that drying clothes was not possible (luckily, we had enough changes for the five days). But the rains are "guud," we agree with the natives, speaking in their dialect that we have automatically fallen into. "Bermuuda needs rain," we say, relishing the Germanic umlaut-like stretch over every long "oo" syllable.
Rain is most important for the islands, it is the only source of water, for drinking, washing and everything else that the salty ocean stuff will not serve. Bermudians build their houses with gabled roofs and collect rainwater in cisterns, under the structure or to the side of it, in round semi-covered stone barrels that sport two small round ventilating holes, looking like eyes in a suspicious face. In the years of our stay we remember that they occasionally had to import a tanker load of water. Now there are three desalinization plants that successfully do the job.
The daily rains are the source of that great floral beauty, although some native plants seem to be overwhelmed by foreign arrivals. The sharp-needled Casuarina or Australian pine, is such an attacker, as is the purple morning glory, a powerful creeper. But loquats are producing their juicy berries, as before, and the cedars are returning (" you need birds and their digestive systems to spread cedarberries, don’t expect to plant them and see cedars grow," is the local wisdom).
Speaking of growing, the island’s international trade business has completely outpaced tourism, at least in dollar volume. Bermuda has always prided itself of being a legitimate tax haven, and I keep reading, in the Royal Gazette (est.1828) daily complaints about the governmental screeners (presumably the Bermuda Monetary Authority, est. 1969), letting Tyco and Global Crossing incorporate in Bermuda . In insurance alone ("we are the world's insurance laboratory") , Bermuda has some 1,500 captive companies, with 30 local managing firms and over 1,000 employees administering the businesses (captive insurers are formed by large industrial or financial firms to provide self-insurance.) Between captives, reinsurers and excess liability insurers Bermuda companies bill over $38 billion of premiums a year, a huge industry.
More lessons in governance, about how Bermuda protects and reinvents itself, next time .
Wally Dobelis thanks The New York Observer and Bermuda Gazette, online.
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
The economics of bargain-hunting on East 14th Street and elsewhere
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
"Turn 14th Street green again; bring cash" is as true now as it was in the late 1970s, when Klein's-on-the-Square collapsed and textile imports from China flooded the of bargain basements along our Street of Dreams, West of Broadway. East 14th Street was then a disaster area, of flophouse, dens of iniquity and frequent daytime crime.
The East of 14th Street has had a rebirth, thanks to the 14th Street-Union Square LDC/BID and the hardy residents and businesspeople, the spread of the NYU empire and the cash flow into the poor neighborhood during the 1990s. You can feel safe there while bargain-hunting.
The special charms of East 14th Street are its 99-cent stores. There are three of them, one next to the Met supermarket East of 3rd Avenue, and two on the 500 block, in the Alphabet City. These replacements of the five-and-dime stores have expanded their spaces, going much beyond the original bargain groceries, hardware items, kitchen ware, school supplies and toys from China, to include party goods, dishes, decorative items and clothing. There is also a Bargain Bazaar, with an immense supply of china sets, colorful glassware, figurines of angels, putti, Chinese vases, tea services, clocks and frames. The goods come and go, and currently the store is concentrating on animal art. It you want to equip your den on a whacky elephant or lions' theme, there are clocks, statuettes, busts, framed pictures, lamps and plaques, with giraffe, monkey and donkey images for fill-in. And it is inexpensive, one or two hundred dollars will equip you. To make the environment totally post-modern, the current irresistible is a $5.99 yellow plastic flashlight-siren- radio, for emergency use. Driven by C-batteries (four for 99 cents in the store next door), you can justify the splurge with homefront defense arguments.
The outbreak of bargain store expansion is particularly noted in Columbia County, 100 miles North of Times Square. The poor agricultural community has several, along the shopping strip road, Route 9, near Hudson, three in one strip alone. Food , featured in all of these stores, is important. Their names range from the generic 99-cent store, through Yankee Dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar Store, Dollar General, Family Dollar. Some are national chains, and the last two have also $2-$5 items. Save-a-Lot and Aldi are discount supermarkets, specializing in house brand goods. Unlike the Shoprite, Grand Union and Price Chopper chains with their infinite varieties, these stores have a only a few hundred basic items, at half the brand name prices, stacked in their original cartons on plain racks or skids, and the shoppers pack their own purchased bags. Shopping carts require a 25-cent deposit, enough to assure Aldi's management of their return to the system (sometimes entrepreneurial kid spotters will take them back).
Is all this trading-down good for the country? Not really; the US-product oriened five-and-dimes have been replaced with imports from impoverished countries, produced at subsidized labor rates and paid for by US deficit financing, taking jobs away from Americans. That money, before March 2000, flowed steadily into US investments, increasing demand and pushing up share prices. In the past three years foreign investments have been withdrawing, depressing the market. All this reduces the wage rates in the US and cuts employment.
US needs economic policies that foster consumer spending, to pay for American-produced goods. During the phony boom the US overexpanded its industrial production facilities, and inventories are still too high. The deficit-funded reductions in dividend taxation and the tax cuts for upscale incomes, intended to build up investment in production facilities, are not likely to fulfill the expected results, because corporate America is still geared towards downsizing and cost-cutting. The cuts will push up the stock market, at higher price-earnings ratios. What would give the economy continued upward jolts? Think of investment credits for small business; actions favoring American products that imports cannot affect, such as first-time housing, while interest rates are still low; extension of unemployment benefits.
Now for upbeat news from 14th Street.. While using the Chase bank's ATM, on 1st Avenue, corner 15th Street, saw a neat group of 25 third-graders from PS 34M, the FDR School at 730 E. 12th Street, all in twos, holding hands. They were brought by their teacher, Ms. Shirley Lew, on a field trip, to learn the inner workings of a bank, and to study the handling of money. Branch Manager Shirley Bowen and Assistant Manager Richard Mastucci were on hand for a lecture on the 2nd Floor, and a tour of the vault, the back offices and the client- minded front office. What a neat idea! Last week the class visited a city restaurant, to learn how the chefs, food handlers and wait staff cooperate in bringing meals to hungry customers.
"Turn 14th Street green again; bring cash" is as true now as it was in the late 1970s, when Klein's-on-the-Square collapsed and textile imports from China flooded the of bargain basements along our Street of Dreams, West of Broadway. East 14th Street was then a disaster area, of flophouse, dens of iniquity and frequent daytime crime.
The East of 14th Street has had a rebirth, thanks to the 14th Street-Union Square LDC/BID and the hardy residents and businesspeople, the spread of the NYU empire and the cash flow into the poor neighborhood during the 1990s. You can feel safe there while bargain-hunting.
The special charms of East 14th Street are its 99-cent stores. There are three of them, one next to the Met supermarket East of 3rd Avenue, and two on the 500 block, in the Alphabet City. These replacements of the five-and-dime stores have expanded their spaces, going much beyond the original bargain groceries, hardware items, kitchen ware, school supplies and toys from China, to include party goods, dishes, decorative items and clothing. There is also a Bargain Bazaar, with an immense supply of china sets, colorful glassware, figurines of angels, putti, Chinese vases, tea services, clocks and frames. The goods come and go, and currently the store is concentrating on animal art. It you want to equip your den on a whacky elephant or lions' theme, there are clocks, statuettes, busts, framed pictures, lamps and plaques, with giraffe, monkey and donkey images for fill-in. And it is inexpensive, one or two hundred dollars will equip you. To make the environment totally post-modern, the current irresistible is a $5.99 yellow plastic flashlight-siren- radio, for emergency use. Driven by C-batteries (four for 99 cents in the store next door), you can justify the splurge with homefront defense arguments.
The outbreak of bargain store expansion is particularly noted in Columbia County, 100 miles North of Times Square. The poor agricultural community has several, along the shopping strip road, Route 9, near Hudson, three in one strip alone. Food , featured in all of these stores, is important. Their names range from the generic 99-cent store, through Yankee Dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar Store, Dollar General, Family Dollar. Some are national chains, and the last two have also $2-$5 items. Save-a-Lot and Aldi are discount supermarkets, specializing in house brand goods. Unlike the Shoprite, Grand Union and Price Chopper chains with their infinite varieties, these stores have a only a few hundred basic items, at half the brand name prices, stacked in their original cartons on plain racks or skids, and the shoppers pack their own purchased bags. Shopping carts require a 25-cent deposit, enough to assure Aldi's management of their return to the system (sometimes entrepreneurial kid spotters will take them back).
Is all this trading-down good for the country? Not really; the US-product oriened five-and-dimes have been replaced with imports from impoverished countries, produced at subsidized labor rates and paid for by US deficit financing, taking jobs away from Americans. That money, before March 2000, flowed steadily into US investments, increasing demand and pushing up share prices. In the past three years foreign investments have been withdrawing, depressing the market. All this reduces the wage rates in the US and cuts employment.
US needs economic policies that foster consumer spending, to pay for American-produced goods. During the phony boom the US overexpanded its industrial production facilities, and inventories are still too high. The deficit-funded reductions in dividend taxation and the tax cuts for upscale incomes, intended to build up investment in production facilities, are not likely to fulfill the expected results, because corporate America is still geared towards downsizing and cost-cutting. The cuts will push up the stock market, at higher price-earnings ratios. What would give the economy continued upward jolts? Think of investment credits for small business; actions favoring American products that imports cannot affect, such as first-time housing, while interest rates are still low; extension of unemployment benefits.
Now for upbeat news from 14th Street.. While using the Chase bank's ATM, on 1st Avenue, corner 15th Street, saw a neat group of 25 third-graders from PS 34M, the FDR School at 730 E. 12th Street, all in twos, holding hands. They were brought by their teacher, Ms. Shirley Lew, on a field trip, to learn the inner workings of a bank, and to study the handling of money. Branch Manager Shirley Bowen and Assistant Manager Richard Mastucci were on hand for a lecture on the 2nd Floor, and a tour of the vault, the back offices and the client- minded front office. What a neat idea! Last week the class visited a city restaurant, to learn how the chefs, food handlers and wait staff cooperate in bringing meals to hungry customers.
Friday, June 14, 2002
NYU and the Poe House defenders have reached an agreement
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
As the most recent in the New York university's unending lineup of
dormitories nears occupancy, the last of three in the 14th Street -
3rd Avenue quadrant, one has to ask whether there are limits to a
school's growth? Is a university like a manufacturer of a patented
product, toothpaste or razor blades, who can open a factory anyplace and
produce, pack and ship uniform quality product as long as there is demand?
NYU certainly seems to have an unlimited capacity to expand. Founded in 1831, its early emphasis turned to religious training. Real secularization and modernity came with the chancellorship of Henry M. McCracken, 1891-1911, who built the
undergraduate school campus designed by Stanford White in University
Heights, as well as the NYU's graduate, law and medicine schools. The
schools grew tremendously. To improve academic standards and make NYU a
leading research institution, University Heights was closed and sold to
NYC in 1973. It is now the CUNY Bronx Community College.
Presently NYU has some 50,000 students, 1,500 professors and 300
laboratories. The question of academic standard is no longer raised. To
quote Thomas Bender, an NYU historian (NY Times, April 19, 2001),"If
anything stops NYU it will be space."
Greenwich Village people view NYU as the enemy. Although the
intellectual atmosphere is exciting and stimulating, the school expansion
is choking the residential community. This is happening throughout New York.
NYU now admits to 60-odd buildings, Houston to 14th Streets, with 9.3
million square feet, up 50 percent since 1970. That's not including the 27
buildings comprising the NYU Medical Center between 34th and 23rd Streets
(I can count several more).
Current construction at NYU focuses on the South side of Washington Square
There will be the new 12-level $70 million Student Center, west of the
red-brick Bobst Library .Dr L. Jay Oliva, the president of NYU, views the
Student Center as an improvement. The community disagrees, and an opposition group, the
Committee To Save Washington Square, sued NYU, and lost. The appeal was
turned down, and construction has begun.
A further expansion, that of the NYU Law School, west of the Center, involved the
destruction of several historic buildings. The most important was the
former residence of Edgar Alan Poe, a town house where the peripatetic
poet lived part of his most productive period, late 1845- early 1846,
rewriting "The Raven" and composing "A Cask of Amontillado" and other
stories and essays. The house at 85 Amity (now 3rd) Street was built by
Judge Judah Hammond in 1836. The short-lived writer (1809-49), who had
stayed at a farmhouse on West 84th Street, brought along his young wife
Virginia, sick with tuberculosis, hoping that the easier town house
existence and the backyard garden would make life more bearable. He was
making some money,"The Raven" had been published in two journals (my copy,
in the Feb 1845 American Review was signed by -Quarles, with some admiring
editorial comments) and he was in the process of acquiring a literary
magazine, the Broadway Journal. Alas, it folded, the little money they had
was dissipating, and the small family (it included Poe's devoted
mother-in-law, Mrs Maria Clemm) had to move to a cheap cottage in
Fordham, 13 miles north. They could not afford wood for the stove, rested
at night under an army coat from Poe's days at West Point, and Virginia
depended for warmth on her tortoise-shell cat that slept at her bosom. The
poor woman died and Poe really went to pieces. Nearly insanely depressed,
at thirty-eight, he sought out women companions who would mother him.
Plagued by hallucinations, he fled to Baltimore, attempted suicide, became
a vagrant, and died, at the age of forty.
Several cities have recognized Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49), a true literary
genius, who moved from town to town in his frantic newspaperman career.
Baltimore honors him, New York has landmarked the sad cottage where
Virginia died, West Point has named a gate after him, although he lasted
at the military academy less than a year. Only NYU has attempted to
downgrade Poe's stay in their precincts.
After community protests, letters by such supporters as E .L. Doctorow and
Woody Allen and a failed lawsuit, the Save Poe/Save Judson Coalition led
by the Historic Districts Council reached a compromise with NYU, in
January 2001. The front of the Poe cottage will be preserved in the
facade of the new Law School building, a room will be dedicated and made
available for Poe-oriented activities, and the building's height will be
limited to 10 stories.
If you want to visit the site, go to West 3rd Street, between Thomson and
Sullivan and stand in front of the Fire Patrol #2 station (the famous
haunted firehouse, where a fireman suicided in the 1920s, after finding
out about his wife's infidelity). The right half of the red wooden fence
across the street is where the cottage was, the blue fencing eastward
encloses the sites of the three Judson houses, residences once renovated
by Stanford White, New York's great architect of yore. An affable fireman,
who thinks this post is the best girl- watching spot in NYC - lots of
Village cuties wearing low cut-down jeans that expose bare midriffs and
tattoos (a spider over the coccyx is the baddest) - observed the
demolition. He holds out little hope that the reconstruction of the facade
of the cottage will use the original materials, since everything went into
a dumpster. I have been told that some parts of the interior have been
saved.
It is most appropriate that in this, the dumpster era, the Historic
Districts Council has spearheaded a group of 60-odd preservationist
organizations in proposing strengthened preservation of historic buildings
through zoning, tax incentives and better funding of the Landmarks
Preservation Commission. Heads up, dear elected officials.
As the most recent in the New York university's unending lineup of
dormitories nears occupancy, the last of three in the 14th Street -
3rd Avenue quadrant, one has to ask whether there are limits to a
school's growth? Is a university like a manufacturer of a patented
product, toothpaste or razor blades, who can open a factory anyplace and
produce, pack and ship uniform quality product as long as there is demand?
NYU certainly seems to have an unlimited capacity to expand. Founded in 1831, its early emphasis turned to religious training. Real secularization and modernity came with the chancellorship of Henry M. McCracken, 1891-1911, who built the
undergraduate school campus designed by Stanford White in University
Heights, as well as the NYU's graduate, law and medicine schools. The
schools grew tremendously. To improve academic standards and make NYU a
leading research institution, University Heights was closed and sold to
NYC in 1973. It is now the CUNY Bronx Community College.
Presently NYU has some 50,000 students, 1,500 professors and 300
laboratories. The question of academic standard is no longer raised. To
quote Thomas Bender, an NYU historian (NY Times, April 19, 2001),"If
anything stops NYU it will be space."
Greenwich Village people view NYU as the enemy. Although the
intellectual atmosphere is exciting and stimulating, the school expansion
is choking the residential community. This is happening throughout New York.
NYU now admits to 60-odd buildings, Houston to 14th Streets, with 9.3
million square feet, up 50 percent since 1970. That's not including the 27
buildings comprising the NYU Medical Center between 34th and 23rd Streets
(I can count several more).
Current construction at NYU focuses on the South side of Washington Square
There will be the new 12-level $70 million Student Center, west of the
red-brick Bobst Library .Dr L. Jay Oliva, the president of NYU, views the
Student Center as an improvement. The community disagrees, and an opposition group, the
Committee To Save Washington Square, sued NYU, and lost. The appeal was
turned down, and construction has begun.
A further expansion, that of the NYU Law School, west of the Center, involved the
destruction of several historic buildings. The most important was the
former residence of Edgar Alan Poe, a town house where the peripatetic
poet lived part of his most productive period, late 1845- early 1846,
rewriting "The Raven" and composing "A Cask of Amontillado" and other
stories and essays. The house at 85 Amity (now 3rd) Street was built by
Judge Judah Hammond in 1836. The short-lived writer (1809-49), who had
stayed at a farmhouse on West 84th Street, brought along his young wife
Virginia, sick with tuberculosis, hoping that the easier town house
existence and the backyard garden would make life more bearable. He was
making some money,"The Raven" had been published in two journals (my copy,
in the Feb 1845 American Review was signed by -Quarles, with some admiring
editorial comments) and he was in the process of acquiring a literary
magazine, the Broadway Journal. Alas, it folded, the little money they had
was dissipating, and the small family (it included Poe's devoted
mother-in-law, Mrs Maria Clemm) had to move to a cheap cottage in
Fordham, 13 miles north. They could not afford wood for the stove, rested
at night under an army coat from Poe's days at West Point, and Virginia
depended for warmth on her tortoise-shell cat that slept at her bosom. The
poor woman died and Poe really went to pieces. Nearly insanely depressed,
at thirty-eight, he sought out women companions who would mother him.
Plagued by hallucinations, he fled to Baltimore, attempted suicide, became
a vagrant, and died, at the age of forty.
Several cities have recognized Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49), a true literary
genius, who moved from town to town in his frantic newspaperman career.
Baltimore honors him, New York has landmarked the sad cottage where
Virginia died, West Point has named a gate after him, although he lasted
at the military academy less than a year. Only NYU has attempted to
downgrade Poe's stay in their precincts.
After community protests, letters by such supporters as E .L. Doctorow and
Woody Allen and a failed lawsuit, the Save Poe/Save Judson Coalition led
by the Historic Districts Council reached a compromise with NYU, in
January 2001. The front of the Poe cottage will be preserved in the
facade of the new Law School building, a room will be dedicated and made
available for Poe-oriented activities, and the building's height will be
limited to 10 stories.
If you want to visit the site, go to West 3rd Street, between Thomson and
Sullivan and stand in front of the Fire Patrol #2 station (the famous
haunted firehouse, where a fireman suicided in the 1920s, after finding
out about his wife's infidelity). The right half of the red wooden fence
across the street is where the cottage was, the blue fencing eastward
encloses the sites of the three Judson houses, residences once renovated
by Stanford White, New York's great architect of yore. An affable fireman,
who thinks this post is the best girl- watching spot in NYC - lots of
Village cuties wearing low cut-down jeans that expose bare midriffs and
tattoos (a spider over the coccyx is the baddest) - observed the
demolition. He holds out little hope that the reconstruction of the facade
of the cottage will use the original materials, since everything went into
a dumpster. I have been told that some parts of the interior have been
saved.
It is most appropriate that in this, the dumpster era, the Historic
Districts Council has spearheaded a group of 60-odd preservationist
organizations in proposing strengthened preservation of historic buildings
through zoning, tax incentives and better funding of the Landmarks
Preservation Commission. Heads up, dear elected officials.
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Bob Kerrey speaks; memories of Benjamin Ward
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Bob Kerrey, the President of New School University, at 58 has lived many lives. At 25, as a young idealistic University of Nebraska ROTC member who had volunteered for the Navy SEALs, following a family military, he was exposed to the horrors of Vietnam. In his first fire fight at Thanh Phong civilian women and children died in a crossfire, as he rememers it. In his second battle he lost a leg.
Kerrey has written a memoir, "When I Was a Young Man," (A James H. Silberman book, Hartcort, Inc, NY May 2002) using the Burl Ives guilt-ridden line as the title. This relates, sadly, to the dispute about the battle that...Kerrey was subsequently awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he considered rejecting but eventually accepted, and eventually became the only living member of Congress to carry that distinction.
Kerry's post-Vietnam career was truly distinguished. The young pharmacist built a chain of successful restaurants and health clubs, was elected Governor of Nebraska, Senator and now leads the distinguished New School University, renowned for the talents of European refugees who set the standard for its scholarship.
In a Barnes and Noble reading on June 12, the former Nvy frogman spoke of the clueless young men caught in a war that brought this country little honor. His book was not meant to be about the horrors of the war, it started with a search about the life of his uncle, who died in WWII, and expanded into xx
We note, sadly, the death of Benjamin Ward, New York's first black Police Commissioner ((1983-89), at the age of 75, on June 10, 2002. Our paths crossed on many occasions, particularly after Mayor Koch's Advisory Committee on Police Management and Personnel Policy, chaired by John E. Zuccotti, recommended that the Police Academy on East 20th Street be upgraded and moved to better premises. A Committee To Save the Police Academy formed, to keep the PA on East 20th Street, both for economic reasons (the PA was then less than 20 years old) and for the protection of the neighborhood, then much threatened by the concentration of methadone clinics, shelters for the hardcore homeless, hospitals ("Bedpan Alley"), drug trade and a high crime rate brought on by the throngs of transients. Commissioner Ward was much in favor of the proposal, and we had at least two spirited encounters in hearings of the City Council, and a discussion in the hallways that convinced me of the seriousness of his effort. The CSPA argument for a cost benefit analysis before a $400 million expenditure did carry some weight; however the proposed move to the Bronx was really subsequently defeated for economic reasons, and the PA has survived, playing an important role as the Mayor's headquarters during the weeks after 9/11.
Ben Ward, son of a Brooklyn cleaning lady (he spoke Yiddish), graduated from Automotive Trades HS, was an Army military police officer and a truck driver before the took the police test in 1951. After seven years of slogging and discrimination as a beat patrolman he decided that only further schooling wold advance him, and earned associate, bachelor and law degrees from CCNY (Brooklyn College), took exams and advanced ro the rank of Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs. We met, as remembered by the Old Curmudgeon, another night law school grad who advanced in private enterprise, on several occasions in Max's Kansas City, the legendary artists' bar on Park Avenue South near of 17th Street, where the Commissioner dropped in as part of his visits to hearings of the Civilian Review Board, across the street.
After an appointment to the office of State Commissioner for Correctional Services,in 1975,, where he addressed the problems that had led to the Attica prison revolt in 1971. Three years later he came back to the PD, and aws appointed chief of the 1,700 member Housing Authority police, and in 1979 Mayor Edward I Koch appointed him as Commissioner Of Corrections, the highest-ranking black official in NYC government
The appoinment as Police Commissioner came in 1983. Ward, a dedicated crime fighter, initiated the campaign against "quality of life" crimes that came to real fruition two Mayors later. He was successful and and did not hesitate to both attack the police excesses affecting the black community and make peace with the community on behalf of his department.
Ward's uprightness was acompanied by a disarming candor and a sense of humor rarely exhibited by lawmen. He retired in 1989 because of a lifelong asthma, also citing the stress, a good pension and the seeming cyclical occurrence of police scandal every 20 years as the reasons. The last scandal was in 1966, and he feared one was due [In 1994 the Mollen Commission gently hinted that the PD under Ward and his two successors "was more likely to minimize or conceal corruption than uncover and uproot it."].
His post-retirement career included service on a corporate, humanitarian and professional organization boards. The family had a house on Copake Lake in Columbia County, and we would see them and exchange friendly nods of recognition in Hillsdale House, a local dining spot. Luckily for me, I was a remembered face, rather than a past adversary, and I made sure not to bring up past controversies.
Bob Kerrey, the President of New School University, at 58 has lived many lives. At 25, as a young idealistic University of Nebraska ROTC member who had volunteered for the Navy SEALs, following a family military, he was exposed to the horrors of Vietnam. In his first fire fight at Thanh Phong civilian women and children died in a crossfire, as he rememers it. In his second battle he lost a leg.
Kerrey has written a memoir, "When I Was a Young Man," (A James H. Silberman book, Hartcort, Inc, NY May 2002) using the Burl Ives guilt-ridden line as the title. This relates, sadly, to the dispute about the battle that...Kerrey was subsequently awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he considered rejecting but eventually accepted, and eventually became the only living member of Congress to carry that distinction.
Kerry's post-Vietnam career was truly distinguished. The young pharmacist built a chain of successful restaurants and health clubs, was elected Governor of Nebraska, Senator and now leads the distinguished New School University, renowned for the talents of European refugees who set the standard for its scholarship.
In a Barnes and Noble reading on June 12, the former Nvy frogman spoke of the clueless young men caught in a war that brought this country little honor. His book was not meant to be about the horrors of the war, it started with a search about the life of his uncle, who died in WWII, and expanded into xx
We note, sadly, the death of Benjamin Ward, New York's first black Police Commissioner ((1983-89), at the age of 75, on June 10, 2002. Our paths crossed on many occasions, particularly after Mayor Koch's Advisory Committee on Police Management and Personnel Policy, chaired by John E. Zuccotti, recommended that the Police Academy on East 20th Street be upgraded and moved to better premises. A Committee To Save the Police Academy formed, to keep the PA on East 20th Street, both for economic reasons (the PA was then less than 20 years old) and for the protection of the neighborhood, then much threatened by the concentration of methadone clinics, shelters for the hardcore homeless, hospitals ("Bedpan Alley"), drug trade and a high crime rate brought on by the throngs of transients. Commissioner Ward was much in favor of the proposal, and we had at least two spirited encounters in hearings of the City Council, and a discussion in the hallways that convinced me of the seriousness of his effort. The CSPA argument for a cost benefit analysis before a $400 million expenditure did carry some weight; however the proposed move to the Bronx was really subsequently defeated for economic reasons, and the PA has survived, playing an important role as the Mayor's headquarters during the weeks after 9/11.
Ben Ward, son of a Brooklyn cleaning lady (he spoke Yiddish), graduated from Automotive Trades HS, was an Army military police officer and a truck driver before the took the police test in 1951. After seven years of slogging and discrimination as a beat patrolman he decided that only further schooling wold advance him, and earned associate, bachelor and law degrees from CCNY (Brooklyn College), took exams and advanced ro the rank of Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs. We met, as remembered by the Old Curmudgeon, another night law school grad who advanced in private enterprise, on several occasions in Max's Kansas City, the legendary artists' bar on Park Avenue South near of 17th Street, where the Commissioner dropped in as part of his visits to hearings of the Civilian Review Board, across the street.
After an appointment to the office of State Commissioner for Correctional Services,in 1975,, where he addressed the problems that had led to the Attica prison revolt in 1971. Three years later he came back to the PD, and aws appointed chief of the 1,700 member Housing Authority police, and in 1979 Mayor Edward I Koch appointed him as Commissioner Of Corrections, the highest-ranking black official in NYC government
The appoinment as Police Commissioner came in 1983. Ward, a dedicated crime fighter, initiated the campaign against "quality of life" crimes that came to real fruition two Mayors later. He was successful and and did not hesitate to both attack the police excesses affecting the black community and make peace with the community on behalf of his department.
Ward's uprightness was acompanied by a disarming candor and a sense of humor rarely exhibited by lawmen. He retired in 1989 because of a lifelong asthma, also citing the stress, a good pension and the seeming cyclical occurrence of police scandal every 20 years as the reasons. The last scandal was in 1966, and he feared one was due [In 1994 the Mollen Commission gently hinted that the PD under Ward and his two successors "was more likely to minimize or conceal corruption than uncover and uproot it."].
His post-retirement career included service on a corporate, humanitarian and professional organization boards. The family had a house on Copake Lake in Columbia County, and we would see them and exchange friendly nods of recognition in Hillsdale House, a local dining spot. Luckily for me, I was a remembered face, rather than a past adversary, and I made sure not to bring up past controversies.
No closure at World Trade Center
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
On May 31, a day after the official closure, at lunch time, I took a walk around the Hallowed Ground. I'll tell you right off the bat that there will not be any closure for me. But that's another story.
The sidewalks at Trinity Church, Wall Street and Broadway, were filled with people. Along the two blocks to Cedar Street there were no religious doom-and-gloomers distributing literature, only the Foot Doctor's flyer people. The crowd was thicker at Cedar and Broadway, the spot from which one saw the cauldron of fire, for months, across the former Liberty Plaza where people before 9/11 sat on park benches, under the shade of green trees, eating sandwiches and enjoying a rest. The plaza is now enclosed by 8-ft green netting and turned into a parking lot for official cars.
Walking East, past it, to Trinity Place (in turns into Church Street at this point), I met a couple, a young chubby woman and a bank guard, discussing how they missed their breaks and and the adventures of meeting tourists from all over the world, visitors to the Towers.
One Liberty Plaza, the tall monolith office building, across from the park, where the Brooks Brothers ground floor store had been the emergency room during the early hours of 9/11, was back in operation. Turning the corner into Church Street, I walked to the Century 21's four-story clothing store, bustling with activity. The fate of the building had been much in the news. When I asked questions, the guard at the door told me; "Life goes on," and that was fine and dandy, the sooner the better.
The Century's block is between Cortland and Dey Streets.The next one South, to Fulton Street, Millennium Hotel, is still fenced in and non-functional, though the building appears relatively sound. Its next-door neighbor to the West, a sturdy columnated 19th century structure, has no problems. Looking East, along Vesey Street, the Verizon building, a typical old-time NY Telephone office structure with blue lights on top, was back in operations The space between it and the Federal Office Building on Church is a flattened surface. That was the site of #7 WTC. I could not look into the Ground Zero area proper, trailers parked side by side blocked out the view completely. A friendly policeman, Jeff Wagner, from the Office of Technical Systems Development, explained the area. The Ground Zero is a pit, seven sub-basements deep. he's been to the edge of it; it is hollow. It was hard to talk about it.
Hoping to geta better look, I went back to Broadway, along the Vesey Street fence of St Paul's Chapel. The entire fence is covered with what we know as 9/11 monuments - memorabilia consisting of flags, posters, mementos, writings of visitors, slightly ragged from the ravages of the winter. They stretch all around the churchyard. Up on Broadway, groups of people were standing in line, clutching tickets and waiting for admission to the viewing stand., made up of a long ramp leading all the way to a platform facing Church Street A pedicab driver in an athletic shirt held up a sign offering to take parties of two down to the South Street Seaport center, where the free ticket distributing agency has relocated ("Pay $15 round trip and save a 20-minute walk.") A passer-by offered as how that was no 20-minute walk, since he works down there. "You have a job, don't you?" responded the pedicab man, and there was no more dispute. Turns out the driver was once a sightseeing bus guide, and 9/!! put him out of work, one of 100,000.
A friendly guard accepted my home-made business card as a press pass, and I was able to walk up the long ramp to the viewing stand. The entire right side of the ramp is blocked by 8x8 foot plywood sheets, forming a solid fence.. Along about 120 feet of it people have carefully attached the slightly bluish-tinted plastic 20 oz water bottles you buy from a vendor for $1, with the tops cut off, filled with water, each one holding a bunch of short-stemmed roses and carnations. The bottles are stacked three and four high, there are several hundred of them. The flowers are fresh, in full bloom, cared for with love, not a wilted one in the lot, no careless puddles of water. Interspersed are messages of love. The memorials reach all the way, from the start of the ramp to the top, and include a large-print list of the WTC victims of 9/11. It became very hard to bear, and I rushed back down to Broadway and the throngs of people. The vista from the top of the ramp had not revealed any more of the pit than the street view. A policeman in parade uniform whites, there with his family, pointed out a few things. I found out that, as the WTC towers simultaneously exploded and imploded, flying beams not only pierced the upper floor corner of one of the World Financial Center buildings, which I had noted on a winter visit, but also that of one of the two tall buildings at the South edge of Ground Zero, still wrapped in netting and under construction. The blast had been ferocious.
The return walk along Nassau Street, from Fulton to Wall, brought me back to reality. Among the throngs of tourists, sellers of American flags, postcards and picture books of WTC history abounded .[The real mother lode is at Columbus Circle, where at the entrance to Central Park no less than nine stands sell photographs and paintings (mostly serigraphs but also original art), of New York City, WTC views and collages predominating.] It does prove that life goes on. We of the US are tough and capable of striking back, and by now we have some addresses, not just that of the hapless Saddam Hussein.
As an aside, on June 6 a young Muslim leader, Zayed Jasin, gave his undergraduate's commencement speech at Harvard. The 22-year old Chicago-born son of a Bangladeshi father and an Irish-American mother ("I am one of you and also one of them") spoke of the corruption of the term Jihad (inner struggle between good and bad) , with the results seen last Fall, and urged his fellow graduates to help shape a more just, honorable and peaceful society. The noble sentiments, heard in full on Brian Lehrer's WNYC show, were marred by the disclosures that Jasin is a fund-raiser for the Holy Land Foundation, an organization whose funds were seized by the Treasury because of its alleged activities as a terrorist support group, including paying the living expenses of suicide bombers' families. The disclosures, by student Pat Collins, were attacked as prejudiced and worse by another student, president of Harvard's Islamic Society, whose use of trick language ("..never supported those who exclusively..") left a bad impression. The dual performance, with Jasin refusing to condemn the WTC attackers specifically, the use of roundabout language that by implication equates Israel with vthe WTC terrorists and suicide bombers ("we condemn all those who...") did not heal any wounds. Rather, it left this listened with a reinforced concern about the loyalties of the young people studying in American universities who vigorously attack the perceived prejudices of Americans affecting people from the Middle East, but do not condemn the 9/11 terrorists directly and by name, for the record. I speak frankly. Complaints of prejudice will not allay our fears, other words and positive acts are needed. .
.
.
On May 31, a day after the official closure, at lunch time, I took a walk around the Hallowed Ground. I'll tell you right off the bat that there will not be any closure for me. But that's another story.
The sidewalks at Trinity Church, Wall Street and Broadway, were filled with people. Along the two blocks to Cedar Street there were no religious doom-and-gloomers distributing literature, only the Foot Doctor's flyer people. The crowd was thicker at Cedar and Broadway, the spot from which one saw the cauldron of fire, for months, across the former Liberty Plaza where people before 9/11 sat on park benches, under the shade of green trees, eating sandwiches and enjoying a rest. The plaza is now enclosed by 8-ft green netting and turned into a parking lot for official cars.
Walking East, past it, to Trinity Place (in turns into Church Street at this point), I met a couple, a young chubby woman and a bank guard, discussing how they missed their breaks and and the adventures of meeting tourists from all over the world, visitors to the Towers.
One Liberty Plaza, the tall monolith office building, across from the park, where the Brooks Brothers ground floor store had been the emergency room during the early hours of 9/11, was back in operation. Turning the corner into Church Street, I walked to the Century 21's four-story clothing store, bustling with activity. The fate of the building had been much in the news. When I asked questions, the guard at the door told me; "Life goes on," and that was fine and dandy, the sooner the better.
The Century's block is between Cortland and Dey Streets.The next one South, to Fulton Street, Millennium Hotel, is still fenced in and non-functional, though the building appears relatively sound. Its next-door neighbor to the West, a sturdy columnated 19th century structure, has no problems. Looking East, along Vesey Street, the Verizon building, a typical old-time NY Telephone office structure with blue lights on top, was back in operations The space between it and the Federal Office Building on Church is a flattened surface. That was the site of #7 WTC. I could not look into the Ground Zero area proper, trailers parked side by side blocked out the view completely. A friendly policeman, Jeff Wagner, from the Office of Technical Systems Development, explained the area. The Ground Zero is a pit, seven sub-basements deep. he's been to the edge of it; it is hollow. It was hard to talk about it.
Hoping to geta better look, I went back to Broadway, along the Vesey Street fence of St Paul's Chapel. The entire fence is covered with what we know as 9/11 monuments - memorabilia consisting of flags, posters, mementos, writings of visitors, slightly ragged from the ravages of the winter. They stretch all around the churchyard. Up on Broadway, groups of people were standing in line, clutching tickets and waiting for admission to the viewing stand., made up of a long ramp leading all the way to a platform facing Church Street A pedicab driver in an athletic shirt held up a sign offering to take parties of two down to the South Street Seaport center, where the free ticket distributing agency has relocated ("Pay $15 round trip and save a 20-minute walk.") A passer-by offered as how that was no 20-minute walk, since he works down there. "You have a job, don't you?" responded the pedicab man, and there was no more dispute. Turns out the driver was once a sightseeing bus guide, and 9/!! put him out of work, one of 100,000.
A friendly guard accepted my home-made business card as a press pass, and I was able to walk up the long ramp to the viewing stand. The entire right side of the ramp is blocked by 8x8 foot plywood sheets, forming a solid fence.. Along about 120 feet of it people have carefully attached the slightly bluish-tinted plastic 20 oz water bottles you buy from a vendor for $1, with the tops cut off, filled with water, each one holding a bunch of short-stemmed roses and carnations. The bottles are stacked three and four high, there are several hundred of them. The flowers are fresh, in full bloom, cared for with love, not a wilted one in the lot, no careless puddles of water. Interspersed are messages of love. The memorials reach all the way, from the start of the ramp to the top, and include a large-print list of the WTC victims of 9/11. It became very hard to bear, and I rushed back down to Broadway and the throngs of people. The vista from the top of the ramp had not revealed any more of the pit than the street view. A policeman in parade uniform whites, there with his family, pointed out a few things. I found out that, as the WTC towers simultaneously exploded and imploded, flying beams not only pierced the upper floor corner of one of the World Financial Center buildings, which I had noted on a winter visit, but also that of one of the two tall buildings at the South edge of Ground Zero, still wrapped in netting and under construction. The blast had been ferocious.
The return walk along Nassau Street, from Fulton to Wall, brought me back to reality. Among the throngs of tourists, sellers of American flags, postcards and picture books of WTC history abounded .[The real mother lode is at Columbus Circle, where at the entrance to Central Park no less than nine stands sell photographs and paintings (mostly serigraphs but also original art), of New York City, WTC views and collages predominating.] It does prove that life goes on. We of the US are tough and capable of striking back, and by now we have some addresses, not just that of the hapless Saddam Hussein.
As an aside, on June 6 a young Muslim leader, Zayed Jasin, gave his undergraduate's commencement speech at Harvard. The 22-year old Chicago-born son of a Bangladeshi father and an Irish-American mother ("I am one of you and also one of them") spoke of the corruption of the term Jihad (inner struggle between good and bad) , with the results seen last Fall, and urged his fellow graduates to help shape a more just, honorable and peaceful society. The noble sentiments, heard in full on Brian Lehrer's WNYC show, were marred by the disclosures that Jasin is a fund-raiser for the Holy Land Foundation, an organization whose funds were seized by the Treasury because of its alleged activities as a terrorist support group, including paying the living expenses of suicide bombers' families. The disclosures, by student Pat Collins, were attacked as prejudiced and worse by another student, president of Harvard's Islamic Society, whose use of trick language ("..never supported those who exclusively..") left a bad impression. The dual performance, with Jasin refusing to condemn the WTC attackers specifically, the use of roundabout language that by implication equates Israel with vthe WTC terrorists and suicide bombers ("we condemn all those who...") did not heal any wounds. Rather, it left this listened with a reinforced concern about the loyalties of the young people studying in American universities who vigorously attack the perceived prejudices of Americans affecting people from the Middle East, but do not condemn the 9/11 terrorists directly and by name, for the record. I speak frankly. Complaints of prejudice will not allay our fears, other words and positive acts are needed. .
.
.
Friday, June 07, 2002
NEWS FROM PARK TOWERS
NEWS FROM PARK TOWERS
Volume 1, Number 1, Sporing/Summer 2002
From the Editor
Your Board of Directors has asked me to revive the Park Towers newsletter. This issue marks the approximately fourth rebirth of our tenants' publication. Our building is nearly 30 years old, having been started by the Goodstein firm in 1971-2, and completed for occupancy in 1973 . The coop effort turned it into a tenant-owned property in 1983. The first newsletter was established as a vital tenants' communications vehicle in the negotiating process . Once converted, the needs for regular communications abated , to revive during significant changes in the building - such as the replacement of the windows, new roofs, facade work under Local Law 10 (now LL 11), plaza renovation and construction of the gym. The publication has also attempted to keep you aware of changes in the neighborhood, significant local issues, restaurants, movies and theater.
This first revival issue will bring you up to date on the story of the plaza and other issues discussed in the 2002 Annual Meeting, and will tell you some stories of the neighborhood that may be of interest, particularly for newcomers. We do live in a neighborhood that drips with history, and I have been writing a column that deals with the subject. for the past nine years, in Town and Village, a weekly newspaper with 10,000 subscription-paying readers.. (It is named for Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village, and dates back to their founding in 1947, another interesting story. For those who ask me what happened to GUN, or Gramercy-Union Square News, another Hagedorn venue, a freebie, it died after losing significant bucks.)
Contributing Editors Needed
I have written the first issue pretty much off the top of my head, using my own material, to get us up to speed. For continued publication contributing editors will have to carry the load. If you are willing to write about neighborhood restaurants, theaters, events, stories of what the children in the building are doing (who graduated what school and is going where is always important) and personal experiences of interest, leave me a note or copy, or e-mail (preferred) at Try to pend your story rather than attach I'm looking forward to your comments and contributions
Web Site Volunteers Needed
If you have the skills and would like to help establish a web site for Park Towers, let me know. The Board will allocate some funds, but this will be a volunteer effort, with opportunities for personal announcements as well as businesss. Significant announcements will continue to be printed.
Have a good summer, and send contributions.
Wally Dobelis 24C
Board of Directors Meeting
on June 6, 2002
I the president's report, Sam Haupt apologized for the slow completion of the Plaza project (more below), and indicated that under Local law 11 we have to initiate repairs to the brick facade.. We are well in the black, with $763K in the kitty, reports Treasurer Tom Mazza. Another good item was reported by Bob Lepisco - the average price of a two bedroom apartment in 2002 is $575, up from $558 in 2001, and $368K up from $348K, for one-bedroom.
Marco Valati , Susan Stewart and Jerry Harber were elected to the Board of Directors, the latter a from-the-floor volunteer, to replace Ronnie Green, a school administrator, who withdrew her candidacy because of work commitment. If you don't know it already, board membership is a serious obligation, demanding your presence at 8 AM every morning a week. You pay for your own taxi or fare and clear your way with your business obligations. We appreciate Ronnie's interest, and she will serve in other ways, on working committees, a method for tenant-shareholders and renters to participate in our local democracy. This is not one of those autocratic co-ops you read about in the papers, we have term limits (two three-year terms), and if you miss three meetings in a row, you are out.
Jerry Harber is a long-time tenant and a printing broker, who can make his schedule fit the building's requirements and can provide on-site assistance as needed.
The board and tenancy thank departing members Jane Austin, Tom Mazza and Bob Lepisco for their service. Sam Haupt, Jeff Margolis, Mary McGrath, Alex Rappola Carol Pfeiffer (sp?) and a Goodstein Management representative, partner Sandy Lewis, continue serving. For the record, Sam was president of the first board and is serving a second (third?) return term. His professionalism has been an important source of comfort for us all Incidentally, the long-term participation of board activists who contribute their professional skills and knowledge have been invaluable resources in the maintenance of our domicile - repairs, additions, refinancing. This is a rare building, where a maintenance fee increase was actually reversed, after a good refinancing.
Now to the plaza, a source of discomfort for us all. As Sam tells it, (I'm giving you the short version) the project was started in 2000 because of persistent leaks in the waterproof membrane under the plaza that periodically flooded the premises of our physician tenants below. A series of expensive expert examinations and localized repairs failed, and a complete renewal was started. The board also incorporated a disabled ramp, meeting the ADA rules and the anticipated requirements of an aging population.
The work was interrupted by a building inspection that revealed need for immediate repair of the balconies on the South side of the building. Plaza work could not be continued until the balconies were repaired. When that was done, plaza work resumed. There was a holdup in the ordering of the marble that replaced the travertine coverings, which had outlasted their lifespan and usefulness. The design of the planters and plants also went through two generations. It should be noted that several tenant committees worked with the Board, the architects and designers in choosing the colors and ambiance of the our personal "park." Tenant-shareholder participation is the Park Towers style, and it has been the method for such activities as the lobby design and re-carpeting of the hallways. As for the delays, the Board apologizes for the conditions we all had to endure, and hopes that the new ambiance and look make up for the suffering.
to make room for new construction. The LPC itself was established as a public agency in 1961, as the result of a public outcry over the overnight razing of the Pennsylvania Station, one of the most beautiful NYC buildings to come off the drawing boards of
Cigarette holes in the canopy
In the ensuing question period it was established that the new canopy, now firmly in place, had been damaged with cigarette holes, most likely from some acts of our fellow tenants. Please watch your ashtrays, friends, these holes are costly to patch.
The roof garden will not be planted this year, neither will the tree pits on 17th and 18th Streets and 3rd Ave, because of the water shortage. We are good citizens. Th Plaza is watered underground. The buckwheat hulls that blew all over the plaza from the mulch have been fastened down. And the reserve fund is about $300K, no immediate problems foreseen..
Stories of The Stuyvesant
Square Park Neighborhood
What is the meaning of the Stuyvesant Square Park Historic District signs posted on 17th Street and elsewhere? These signs should give comfort to those of us who worry about encroachment of tall buildings and loss of daylight and air.
The SSPHD was designated in 1975 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to recognize that many of the buildings in the area around our Park, between 18 and 15th Streets, 1st Ave to Irving, have beauty and are historic treasures, and must not be torn down the noted McKim, Mead and White firm of architects. Since then over 1000 buildings have been so designated, and the SSP, Gramercy Park and Ladies Mile (roughly Broadway to 6th Ave 14th to 20th Streets) areas have been given the HD designation..
Individually designed landmarks worth visiting include the Friends Meeting House, an 1861 Greek revival building (the triangle of the gable faces the street), designed by Charles T. Bunting. Across the street, St. George's Church, 1846-56,a spire-less Romanesque revival by Blesh and Eidlitz, restored in 1867 after a fire attributed to Copperheads, Southern sympathizers who `objected to the Abolitionist policies of its fiery minister. It was largely paid for by its vestryman J. P. Morgan, the famous financier, who also paid for the Chapel (ornate Byzantine-Romanesque Reviva)l and the parish house (Gothic Revival).
Morgan also built the Lying-in Hospital, now Rutherford House, corner 17th and 2nd, as a gift for poor women. In its lobby you can view some memorabilia, including the Aesculapian Oath in beautiful graphics. Despite his awesome reputation, he was an economic stabilizer as well as an acquirer, and died with an estate of a measly $50 million, having donated away the lot, much of it invested in art (visit the Morgan Library).
The park itself was given to the city by Peter Gerardus Stuyvesant, the great-great-grandson of the peg-legged Governor-General of New Amsterdam when the Duke of York's navy occupied the city in 1662 and renamed it. The heir of Peter Suyvesant's farms, from 16th to 23rd Streets was developing the square as a fashionable residential area (he also donated the real estate for St. George's), and his influential family had to sue the city, to start fencing in the two spaces (squatters with pigs had started encroaching on it) and turn it into a public park. The 1849 fence is the longest ornate free-standing structure of its nature in the city. The West Park's fence was restored in the 1980's when the city found some unexpected funds, the East fence still waits for funding. Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association (SPNA), a group founded in 1974 to protect the park and its treasures, has for years been trying to get together the necessary $1-2 million. Meanwhile, it raises funds to subsidize the park department's budget for maintaining the ambiance. If you'd like to join, its President Carol Schachter lives in the building. Membership is $20/yr (??) for families, and you can send the money, with your names, address and interests, Box 1320, Cooper Station, NY 10276. Or call the treasurer Jack Taylor, at 475-2850, for an application. Taylor is a tireless preservationist who has had a lot to do with the landmarks designation for the former Guardian Life building, now the W hotel (d'Oensch and Yost 1911, with a four-story Second Empire mansard roof, one of the largest in the city), the former Stuyvesant High School, a Beaux-Arts beauty, designed by the great school superintendent, Charles B. J. Snyder, with the Corinthian-column-rich Union Square Savings Bank, now a theater, on 16th and Park Ave South, and the grand old Ladies Mile store buildings now renovated to their former glory on Sixth Ave, to name a few. The preservation effort is continuing, and you too can participate, and there. is history, and stories, still to explore.
Examples? Getting back closer to home, the Scheffel Hall, former Joe King's Rathskeller, across 3rd Ave, was once rumored to be the meeting house of German sympathizers, before WWII. During its current renovation into an exercise club by Anthony Macciavone(Sp???) of Sal Anthony's, the workingmen uncovered an early 20th Century glass ceiling, of unknown origin .The bicycle shop, next to the Greek Orthodox Church on 17th Street (originally also part of Scheffel Hall), has a probably 17th Century basement structure, and may have been path of Peter Stuyvesant's farm. The upstairs of the building itself was once the office in which Henry Luce founded Time magazine in 1922, the first of the elegant magazines that form the backbone of the Time-Warner -AOL-CNN empire, a shaper of our awareness.
More neighborhood history is to come- the Union Square beauties, the Broadway treasures - Lord & Taylor, Gorham, the spooky Macintyre Building, rich terracotta and cast-iron structures with stories to match.. Stay tuned. .
Useful Hints
If repairs or helping hands are needed, do not instruct Mr. Nikc in the lobby while you are running off to work, and expect him to remenber. Write up your problem in the Repairs book, open on ther plant-holder'sdge next to the package room.
Schedule your deliveries for the off rush hours.
For my own mental health, I try to say a nice thing to a stranger every day. The elevator is the perfect venue, and a "hello" works.
Volume 1, Number 1, Sporing/Summer 2002
From the Editor
Your Board of Directors has asked me to revive the Park Towers newsletter. This issue marks the approximately fourth rebirth of our tenants' publication. Our building is nearly 30 years old, having been started by the Goodstein firm in 1971-2, and completed for occupancy in 1973 . The coop effort turned it into a tenant-owned property in 1983. The first newsletter was established as a vital tenants' communications vehicle in the negotiating process . Once converted, the needs for regular communications abated , to revive during significant changes in the building - such as the replacement of the windows, new roofs, facade work under Local Law 10 (now LL 11), plaza renovation and construction of the gym. The publication has also attempted to keep you aware of changes in the neighborhood, significant local issues, restaurants, movies and theater.
This first revival issue will bring you up to date on the story of the plaza and other issues discussed in the 2002 Annual Meeting, and will tell you some stories of the neighborhood that may be of interest, particularly for newcomers. We do live in a neighborhood that drips with history, and I have been writing a column that deals with the subject. for the past nine years, in Town and Village, a weekly newspaper with 10,000 subscription-paying readers.. (It is named for Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village, and dates back to their founding in 1947, another interesting story. For those who ask me what happened to GUN, or Gramercy-Union Square News, another Hagedorn venue, a freebie, it died after losing significant bucks.)
Contributing Editors Needed
I have written the first issue pretty much off the top of my head, using my own material, to get us up to speed. For continued publication contributing editors will have to carry the load. If you are willing to write about neighborhood restaurants, theaters, events, stories of what the children in the building are doing (who graduated what school and is going where is always important) and personal experiences of interest, leave me a note or copy, or e-mail (preferred) at Try to pend your story rather than attach I'm looking forward to your comments and contributions
Web Site Volunteers Needed
If you have the skills and would like to help establish a web site for Park Towers, let me know. The Board will allocate some funds, but this will be a volunteer effort, with opportunities for personal announcements as well as businesss. Significant announcements will continue to be printed.
Have a good summer, and send contributions.
Wally Dobelis 24C
Board of Directors Meeting
on June 6, 2002
I the president's report, Sam Haupt apologized for the slow completion of the Plaza project (more below), and indicated that under Local law 11 we have to initiate repairs to the brick facade.. We are well in the black, with $763K in the kitty, reports Treasurer Tom Mazza. Another good item was reported by Bob Lepisco - the average price of a two bedroom apartment in 2002 is $575, up from $558 in 2001, and $368K up from $348K, for one-bedroom.
Marco Valati , Susan Stewart and Jerry Harber were elected to the Board of Directors, the latter a from-the-floor volunteer, to replace Ronnie Green, a school administrator, who withdrew her candidacy because of work commitment. If you don't know it already, board membership is a serious obligation, demanding your presence at 8 AM every morning a week. You pay for your own taxi or fare and clear your way with your business obligations. We appreciate Ronnie's interest, and she will serve in other ways, on working committees, a method for tenant-shareholders and renters to participate in our local democracy. This is not one of those autocratic co-ops you read about in the papers, we have term limits (two three-year terms), and if you miss three meetings in a row, you are out.
Jerry Harber is a long-time tenant and a printing broker, who can make his schedule fit the building's requirements and can provide on-site assistance as needed.
The board and tenancy thank departing members Jane Austin, Tom Mazza and Bob Lepisco for their service. Sam Haupt, Jeff Margolis, Mary McGrath, Alex Rappola Carol Pfeiffer (sp?) and a Goodstein Management representative, partner Sandy Lewis, continue serving. For the record, Sam was president of the first board and is serving a second (third?) return term. His professionalism has been an important source of comfort for us all Incidentally, the long-term participation of board activists who contribute their professional skills and knowledge have been invaluable resources in the maintenance of our domicile - repairs, additions, refinancing. This is a rare building, where a maintenance fee increase was actually reversed, after a good refinancing.
Now to the plaza, a source of discomfort for us all. As Sam tells it, (I'm giving you the short version) the project was started in 2000 because of persistent leaks in the waterproof membrane under the plaza that periodically flooded the premises of our physician tenants below. A series of expensive expert examinations and localized repairs failed, and a complete renewal was started. The board also incorporated a disabled ramp, meeting the ADA rules and the anticipated requirements of an aging population.
The work was interrupted by a building inspection that revealed need for immediate repair of the balconies on the South side of the building. Plaza work could not be continued until the balconies were repaired. When that was done, plaza work resumed. There was a holdup in the ordering of the marble that replaced the travertine coverings, which had outlasted their lifespan and usefulness. The design of the planters and plants also went through two generations. It should be noted that several tenant committees worked with the Board, the architects and designers in choosing the colors and ambiance of the our personal "park." Tenant-shareholder participation is the Park Towers style, and it has been the method for such activities as the lobby design and re-carpeting of the hallways. As for the delays, the Board apologizes for the conditions we all had to endure, and hopes that the new ambiance and look make up for the suffering.
to make room for new construction. The LPC itself was established as a public agency in 1961, as the result of a public outcry over the overnight razing of the Pennsylvania Station, one of the most beautiful NYC buildings to come off the drawing boards of
Cigarette holes in the canopy
In the ensuing question period it was established that the new canopy, now firmly in place, had been damaged with cigarette holes, most likely from some acts of our fellow tenants. Please watch your ashtrays, friends, these holes are costly to patch.
The roof garden will not be planted this year, neither will the tree pits on 17th and 18th Streets and 3rd Ave, because of the water shortage. We are good citizens. Th Plaza is watered underground. The buckwheat hulls that blew all over the plaza from the mulch have been fastened down. And the reserve fund is about $300K, no immediate problems foreseen..
Stories of The Stuyvesant
Square Park Neighborhood
What is the meaning of the Stuyvesant Square Park Historic District signs posted on 17th Street and elsewhere? These signs should give comfort to those of us who worry about encroachment of tall buildings and loss of daylight and air.
The SSPHD was designated in 1975 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to recognize that many of the buildings in the area around our Park, between 18 and 15th Streets, 1st Ave to Irving, have beauty and are historic treasures, and must not be torn down the noted McKim, Mead and White firm of architects. Since then over 1000 buildings have been so designated, and the SSP, Gramercy Park and Ladies Mile (roughly Broadway to 6th Ave 14th to 20th Streets) areas have been given the HD designation..
Individually designed landmarks worth visiting include the Friends Meeting House, an 1861 Greek revival building (the triangle of the gable faces the street), designed by Charles T. Bunting. Across the street, St. George's Church, 1846-56,a spire-less Romanesque revival by Blesh and Eidlitz, restored in 1867 after a fire attributed to Copperheads, Southern sympathizers who `objected to the Abolitionist policies of its fiery minister. It was largely paid for by its vestryman J. P. Morgan, the famous financier, who also paid for the Chapel (ornate Byzantine-Romanesque Reviva)l and the parish house (Gothic Revival).
Morgan also built the Lying-in Hospital, now Rutherford House, corner 17th and 2nd, as a gift for poor women. In its lobby you can view some memorabilia, including the Aesculapian Oath in beautiful graphics. Despite his awesome reputation, he was an economic stabilizer as well as an acquirer, and died with an estate of a measly $50 million, having donated away the lot, much of it invested in art (visit the Morgan Library).
The park itself was given to the city by Peter Gerardus Stuyvesant, the great-great-grandson of the peg-legged Governor-General of New Amsterdam when the Duke of York's navy occupied the city in 1662 and renamed it. The heir of Peter Suyvesant's farms, from 16th to 23rd Streets was developing the square as a fashionable residential area (he also donated the real estate for St. George's), and his influential family had to sue the city, to start fencing in the two spaces (squatters with pigs had started encroaching on it) and turn it into a public park. The 1849 fence is the longest ornate free-standing structure of its nature in the city. The West Park's fence was restored in the 1980's when the city found some unexpected funds, the East fence still waits for funding. Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association (SPNA), a group founded in 1974 to protect the park and its treasures, has for years been trying to get together the necessary $1-2 million. Meanwhile, it raises funds to subsidize the park department's budget for maintaining the ambiance. If you'd like to join, its President Carol Schachter lives in the building. Membership is $20/yr (??) for families, and you can send the money, with your names, address and interests, Box 1320, Cooper Station, NY 10276. Or call the treasurer Jack Taylor, at 475-2850, for an application. Taylor is a tireless preservationist who has had a lot to do with the landmarks designation for the former Guardian Life building, now the W hotel (d'Oensch and Yost 1911, with a four-story Second Empire mansard roof, one of the largest in the city), the former Stuyvesant High School, a Beaux-Arts beauty, designed by the great school superintendent, Charles B. J. Snyder, with the Corinthian-column-rich Union Square Savings Bank, now a theater, on 16th and Park Ave South, and the grand old Ladies Mile store buildings now renovated to their former glory on Sixth Ave, to name a few. The preservation effort is continuing, and you too can participate, and there. is history, and stories, still to explore.
Examples? Getting back closer to home, the Scheffel Hall, former Joe King's Rathskeller, across 3rd Ave, was once rumored to be the meeting house of German sympathizers, before WWII. During its current renovation into an exercise club by Anthony Macciavone(Sp???) of Sal Anthony's, the workingmen uncovered an early 20th Century glass ceiling, of unknown origin .The bicycle shop, next to the Greek Orthodox Church on 17th Street (originally also part of Scheffel Hall), has a probably 17th Century basement structure, and may have been path of Peter Stuyvesant's farm. The upstairs of the building itself was once the office in which Henry Luce founded Time magazine in 1922, the first of the elegant magazines that form the backbone of the Time-Warner -AOL-CNN empire, a shaper of our awareness.
More neighborhood history is to come- the Union Square beauties, the Broadway treasures - Lord & Taylor, Gorham, the spooky Macintyre Building, rich terracotta and cast-iron structures with stories to match.. Stay tuned. .
Useful Hints
If repairs or helping hands are needed, do not instruct Mr. Nikc in the lobby while you are running off to work, and expect him to remenber. Write up your problem in the Repairs book, open on ther plant-holder'sdge next to the package room.
Schedule your deliveries for the off rush hours.
For my own mental health, I try to say a nice thing to a stranger every day. The elevator is the perfect venue, and a "hello" works.
Wednesday, June 05, 2002
Springtime troubles in Columbia County
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
After creating Heaven and Earth, God rested in Columbia County, enjoying the beautiful green Spring season. Later in the Summer, when it became mercilessly hot, God moved to Amagansett, swimming daily in the Atlantic Ocean. At least that’s what I would do if I had the godlike attributes of wisdom, power and mercy.
The belated Spring has been troublesome, with cold spells and downpours worrying such early flower plantings as we dared to set out, up here in the Taghkanic foothills, 110 miles north of Manhattan. One tray of tomato seedlings was lost to a late May snowfall. I had waited to plant the replacements, until May 25, the safe Memorial Day weekend. Mother Nature cooperated, but there are other perils.
Waking up early, the first week of June , I walked over to the window to note a young deer investigating the garden gate. Browsing for a delivery of fresh vegetables, I assumed, hurrying downstairs, ready to negotiate terms, but the doe had decided to vacate the field.
Unlike some of our gun-toting neighbors, we are ready to concede the rights of the original inhabitants of the country. I happen to have handy the deed and tax bills authenticating our rights to the nearly two acres, since 1980, with backup documentation available that carries back the fee simple rights to the time in 1684 when the Catholic King James II’s governor Robert Dongan conferred the property to Robert Livingston, subsequently the Lord of the Livingston Manor. There had been some disputesof title - the feisty Dutchmen who had settled the county (then part of the jurisdiction of Beverwijck, now known as Albany), such as Kiliaen van Rensselaer and Major Abraham Staats, also had rights there, having bought some of the land from the Mohican Indians in 1649 and 1657. Nevertheless, the wily bi-lingual Scot (whose great-grandson Philip Livingston is remembered as a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, not too happily, while another, Chancellor Robert R., swore in George Washington as the first President of this country) hung onto it, by marrying Alida Schuyler, Nicholas Van Rensselaer’s widow, and claiming her heritage.
The Livingston title might have been under some question during the Glorious Revolution (1688-89), when Parliament overthrew the Catholic King and invited William and Mary of Orange (Netherlands) to rule over what was to become the British Empire. Militia captain Jacob Leisler headed the revolution in New York, better known as the Leisler Rebellion. His confrere Jacob Milborne led a contingent to Albany to overturn what they called the Papist Albany Convention. Despite help from Staats and other Dutch sympathizers who were greatly gratified by their coreligionist taking over the rule in Great Britain , the Convention held on, with Mohawk support. When King Charles II found refuge in France, and his benefactors the French started flexing their arms in a war, the Leisler faction planned military action to deal with the threat of French Canada, with the aid of the Dutchmen of Beverwijck But there was factional strife within the New York rebellion, and when a new Governor, Henry Sloughter, arrived in New York with royal troops in 1691, Leisler’s attempt to hold on to his rule proved fatal. He and Milborne were captured, tried, convicted of treason and "hung ‘til halfe dead," then beheaded, while his Beverwijck allies went to jail. But they survived, the Columbia County phone book is full of the names of their progeny .The Parliament in 1695 reversed the conviction, and released the prisoners.
Meanwhile, the politically astute Lord Livingston (1654-1728), who had consolidated two small properties into a 160,000 acre manor, ruled the land. His progeny spread (a nephew, Robert Livingston Jr, 1663-1725, imported to help manage the interests, also married a Schuyler and had many children ) were both Tories and American revolutionaries, assuring the manor’s survival under any political regime . They were hard landlords, the tenants rebelled and did some barnburning and the like, dressed as Indians, and in 1840s the Anti-Rent Movement challenged the manorial system. Samuel Tilden, the brilliant lawyer and legislator, New York’s governor and presidential candidate, the most illustrious resident of Gramercy Park ever, wrote the legislation that broke up the manorial system and made it possible for me to acquire title, a hundred plus years later.
I was ready to bring all this to the attention of the native deer population and their advocates, conceding their right to trespass and forage on unimproved land but vigorously objecting to their browsing in proprietary vegetable gardens and chewing up the branches of evergreen trees, imported from Massachusetts and planted at some considerable documented cost. I have all the paperwork on hand, recently used in protesting the tax reassessments imposed by local authority, in an event locally known as "grievance day." But, unlike the government, the deer would not stay still, relying for their survival on hit and run tactics rather than negotiated settlement. This microcosm is strangely reminiscent of the international political disturbances that upset our sleep. .
Speaking of political disturbances, herewith a message from Dr. Paranoia:
Would not expect about nuclear war between India and Pakistan, as long as Musharraf retains domestic power, but there are knotty items to worry about. The conflict is an al-Qaeda creation, finely thought out chess game steps in the resurgence of al-Qaeda and its Taliban asylum providers.
It started with terrorists inducing their Kashmiri separatist clients to outrage the Indian government by attacking and killing 30 civilians, more effective than the killing of 12 legislators in December 2001. The harsh Indian response has already helped al-Qaeda, by pulling away the Pakistani military forces from the Afghanistan border If the escalating conflict produces a nuclear conflagration, al-Qaeda may win Pakistan.
Musharraf has to keep the warlike rhetoric going (rocket tests, sympathy for Kashmiris) for domestic patriot consumption. US cannot admit to the al-Qaeda action in Kashmir; if it does, it will have to attack it, siding with India, as part of the US war on terrorism. That would bring on Musharraf’s enmity, and increase the potential of war. If Musharraf caves in, he may lose power to a terrorist sympathizer government in Pakistan, with nuclear weapons. Best US can do is threaten both India and Pakistan to cool it, with a huge public opinion campaign, explaining the immense losses and economic aftereffects of a nuclear war, a difficult task when much of the public cannot read. To the governments a better poit is to stress economic losses: even a conventional war will create problems, since US industrialists do not like to invest in troubled and rambunctious countries.
Wally Dobelis thanks Dr. David William Voorhees and the Columbia County Historical Society.
After creating Heaven and Earth, God rested in Columbia County, enjoying the beautiful green Spring season. Later in the Summer, when it became mercilessly hot, God moved to Amagansett, swimming daily in the Atlantic Ocean. At least that’s what I would do if I had the godlike attributes of wisdom, power and mercy.
The belated Spring has been troublesome, with cold spells and downpours worrying such early flower plantings as we dared to set out, up here in the Taghkanic foothills, 110 miles north of Manhattan. One tray of tomato seedlings was lost to a late May snowfall. I had waited to plant the replacements, until May 25, the safe Memorial Day weekend. Mother Nature cooperated, but there are other perils.
Waking up early, the first week of June , I walked over to the window to note a young deer investigating the garden gate. Browsing for a delivery of fresh vegetables, I assumed, hurrying downstairs, ready to negotiate terms, but the doe had decided to vacate the field.
Unlike some of our gun-toting neighbors, we are ready to concede the rights of the original inhabitants of the country. I happen to have handy the deed and tax bills authenticating our rights to the nearly two acres, since 1980, with backup documentation available that carries back the fee simple rights to the time in 1684 when the Catholic King James II’s governor Robert Dongan conferred the property to Robert Livingston, subsequently the Lord of the Livingston Manor. There had been some disputesof title - the feisty Dutchmen who had settled the county (then part of the jurisdiction of Beverwijck, now known as Albany), such as Kiliaen van Rensselaer and Major Abraham Staats, also had rights there, having bought some of the land from the Mohican Indians in 1649 and 1657. Nevertheless, the wily bi-lingual Scot (whose great-grandson Philip Livingston is remembered as a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, not too happily, while another, Chancellor Robert R., swore in George Washington as the first President of this country) hung onto it, by marrying Alida Schuyler, Nicholas Van Rensselaer’s widow, and claiming her heritage.
The Livingston title might have been under some question during the Glorious Revolution (1688-89), when Parliament overthrew the Catholic King and invited William and Mary of Orange (Netherlands) to rule over what was to become the British Empire. Militia captain Jacob Leisler headed the revolution in New York, better known as the Leisler Rebellion. His confrere Jacob Milborne led a contingent to Albany to overturn what they called the Papist Albany Convention. Despite help from Staats and other Dutch sympathizers who were greatly gratified by their coreligionist taking over the rule in Great Britain , the Convention held on, with Mohawk support. When King Charles II found refuge in France, and his benefactors the French started flexing their arms in a war, the Leisler faction planned military action to deal with the threat of French Canada, with the aid of the Dutchmen of Beverwijck But there was factional strife within the New York rebellion, and when a new Governor, Henry Sloughter, arrived in New York with royal troops in 1691, Leisler’s attempt to hold on to his rule proved fatal. He and Milborne were captured, tried, convicted of treason and "hung ‘til halfe dead," then beheaded, while his Beverwijck allies went to jail. But they survived, the Columbia County phone book is full of the names of their progeny .The Parliament in 1695 reversed the conviction, and released the prisoners.
Meanwhile, the politically astute Lord Livingston (1654-1728), who had consolidated two small properties into a 160,000 acre manor, ruled the land. His progeny spread (a nephew, Robert Livingston Jr, 1663-1725, imported to help manage the interests, also married a Schuyler and had many children ) were both Tories and American revolutionaries, assuring the manor’s survival under any political regime . They were hard landlords, the tenants rebelled and did some barnburning and the like, dressed as Indians, and in 1840s the Anti-Rent Movement challenged the manorial system. Samuel Tilden, the brilliant lawyer and legislator, New York’s governor and presidential candidate, the most illustrious resident of Gramercy Park ever, wrote the legislation that broke up the manorial system and made it possible for me to acquire title, a hundred plus years later.
I was ready to bring all this to the attention of the native deer population and their advocates, conceding their right to trespass and forage on unimproved land but vigorously objecting to their browsing in proprietary vegetable gardens and chewing up the branches of evergreen trees, imported from Massachusetts and planted at some considerable documented cost. I have all the paperwork on hand, recently used in protesting the tax reassessments imposed by local authority, in an event locally known as "grievance day." But, unlike the government, the deer would not stay still, relying for their survival on hit and run tactics rather than negotiated settlement. This microcosm is strangely reminiscent of the international political disturbances that upset our sleep. .
Speaking of political disturbances, herewith a message from Dr. Paranoia:
Would not expect about nuclear war between India and Pakistan, as long as Musharraf retains domestic power, but there are knotty items to worry about. The conflict is an al-Qaeda creation, finely thought out chess game steps in the resurgence of al-Qaeda and its Taliban asylum providers.
It started with terrorists inducing their Kashmiri separatist clients to outrage the Indian government by attacking and killing 30 civilians, more effective than the killing of 12 legislators in December 2001. The harsh Indian response has already helped al-Qaeda, by pulling away the Pakistani military forces from the Afghanistan border If the escalating conflict produces a nuclear conflagration, al-Qaeda may win Pakistan.
Musharraf has to keep the warlike rhetoric going (rocket tests, sympathy for Kashmiris) for domestic patriot consumption. US cannot admit to the al-Qaeda action in Kashmir; if it does, it will have to attack it, siding with India, as part of the US war on terrorism. That would bring on Musharraf’s enmity, and increase the potential of war. If Musharraf caves in, he may lose power to a terrorist sympathizer government in Pakistan, with nuclear weapons. Best US can do is threaten both India and Pakistan to cool it, with a huge public opinion campaign, explaining the immense losses and economic aftereffects of a nuclear war, a difficult task when much of the public cannot read. To the governments a better poit is to stress economic losses: even a conventional war will create problems, since US industrialists do not like to invest in troubled and rambunctious countries.
Wally Dobelis thanks Dr. David William Voorhees and the Columbia County Historical Society.
