By Caitlin Hawke

This is really a Throwback Thursday post, but I am putting it up a bit early because it is pegged to an event today, Wednesday, May 23, that I wanted you to know about. But first the facts.

Yes, in the photo above, that is famed tightrope walker and master of mystery Philippe Petit walking a line to St. John the Divine on September 29, 1982, to fete the construction of a new tower. If you look closely at the grainy newspaper image below from the Columbia Spectator, you  can just about make out a trowel on his belt that he was symbolically delivering across Amsterdam Avenue -- 150 feet in the air -- to the cathedral and its Bishop. A flourish to inaugurate construction of the south tower of the cathedral's west elevation.

So, the photo above depicts an authorized -- orchestrated! -- walk to the cathedral. You don't have to imagine it because there's film of it (if you are receiving this message by email, make sure to click on the blog post title to view the video on our website). And indeed the trowel is looped on his belt as he makes his way across an unbelievably taught rope in his deacon purple stockings, pausing once to kneel on the wire and once to do a stork pose, then bowing deeply over the edge of St. John's roofline to the applauding crowd. One incredulous spectator shakes her arms over her head saying "Oh boy am I glad that's over!"

Great, yes. But let's just say it was not Petit's first walk at SJTD. That was in 1980, and he went stealth that time as was his wont.

Many a New Yorker knows Petit was a guerilla walker extraordinaire. In 1974, his clandestine operation and magnificent stroll between the two unfinished World Trade Center towers on a 131-foot cable suspended 1,300 feet above the construction site by his merry cabal was first one for the law enforcers; and then one for the history books; and finally one for the spiritual coda of those two towers whose fate we all remember too, too well. I've included two snaps at the bottom of that walk, one where he has an ear-to-ear smile, presumably elated or high on height. And the other of him lying down on the rope. He also danced on the wire that day in '74. Giddy, lollygagging about, and perhaps toying with the powers that be who had no way to get to him. That walk was an act of hubris, insanity, and majesty rolled into one.

In short, so great was Petit that his 1980 tightrope walk, which was inside St. John the Divine, led officials there to name him as one of the first Cathedral Artists-in-Residence. Better to have him with you than against you, you might suppose they reasoned. But actually, the Dean of the cathedral was all for the interior walk. He just couldn't get his board to sign off on it, presumably for liability reasons. Petit, characteristically undeterred, went ahead with the 1980 nave walk. The cops cuffed him on his way down from the wire that day for trespassing; but the Dean, James Parks Morton, intervened and thinking quickly informed the police that Petit couldn't be trespassing because he was, um, an artist in residence, right, that's the ticket.

To this day, the funambulist retains his resident artist title. And he's walked a wire many a time since including once after the terrible fire that broke out in the gift shop to help heal and herald a new beginning.

In a 1999 New Yorker piece by Calvin Tomkins, Petit was quoted as saying:

“When you think about it, wire walking is very close to what religion is. ‘Religion’ is from the Latin religare, which means to link something, people or places. And to know, before you take your first step on a wire, that you are going to do the last one—this is a kind of faith.”

Dean Morton told Tomkins that Petit was "one of the most religious people [I know]....Sometimes very unusual people turn out to be the most religious....I think of this as God’s joke.”

I do believe he believes. Just not in terrestrial authorities.

I love that he has this connection to our neighborhood. Since 9-11, Petit to me is an anthropomorphic poem. He's our living link to the towers he owned for a mid-seventies day. Religare.

In Bloomingdale, we live in the shadow of SJTD, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, or if you prefer, one of the five largest church buildings in the world. You'll agree that its secrets -- like the Petit tales -- and its history are poorly known.

One place to rectify that is with the romp of a Bowery Boys podcast episode devoted to the cathedral -- I'm embedding the audio below. (If you are receiving this by email, please click on the title of the blog post to view the video on our website.) And if you can go to SJTD tonight, May 23, for $125 you can celebrate with the Bowery Boys the 125th anniversary of the ground breaking.

Probably tickets are sold out for the birthday bash. But tell me you weren't tempted!

Replete with peacocks, Greek revival remnants of the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum of 1843, and the little rope-walking giant, the cathedral is a neighborhood gem, a work in progress, ours to cherish, and ours to divine.

The link above is to the Bowery Boys podcast #262: Secrets of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. You may not love their style, but stick with it for lots of great historical information.

By Caitlin Hawke

A little more than three years ago, I wrote about a beautiful neighbor on this blog: Kumiko Imamura. A woman who worked as hard as anyone I've known, and always had a warm hello or good-bye and a smile.

Really, her smile started in her eyes - the smize - and then made its way across her whole face, like sun up at Sun-Chan. 

The quintessence of a hostess, she and her husband Tokishige own Sun-Chan, and Kumiko's way is to welcome you in, tuck you into her apron, make sure you have a hot cup of green tea, and take care of you while you were "hers" -- in her care at her hearth. 

If you've been to Sun-Chan, you know her hearth was, in fact, an inferno.  So this genuine hospitality was all in spite of standing long hours in the yakitori's scorching heat with constant motion around her coming from her loyal staff in a very tight space.

I wrote about her robata here and it's all still true, except it's not:

It's not true any more because tonight, I learned that we've lost this beautiful woman.

In Japanese, depending on how it's written, her name means beauty, forever, child.... To paraphrase James Joyce: She was Kumiko by name and kumiko by nature. And her loss is immense.

She weathered a terrible bout last year with the restaurant losing its gas, and she rebounded from the anguish of the saga with her arms spread wide to welcome her customers back. It's too cruel a twist that she's now gone.

In mourning, the staff and her husband Tokishige have closed the restaurant this week to bid her farewell. I understand there may be a service at the New York Buddhist Church in roughly six or seven days. If you would like details should I learn them, please leave a comment below and I'll be in touch.

I hope Tokishige and Rie and all the Sun-Chan extended restaurant family know that Kumiko is a neighbor who will be missed dearly and that Sun-Chan's community mourns alongside them all.

I won't soon forget this Queen of Queens.

With warmest thoughts of Kumiko and deep sympathies to her loved ones.

By Caitlin Hawke

Did you get yours? The Spring 2018 Block Association newsletter is hot off the press. If you want to jump the gun, you’ll find a copy here.

I’ve lived in the catchment going on half of forever. And still that evening when I put my key to the hole and push open my door to discover the crisp quarterly lying in wait, I drop everything to read it on the spot. Old faithful.

If you are a Block Association member, have you ever wondered how this sweet read wends its way to you? It took me a long time to learn that Ken Henwood was the delivery man for my building, and he’s virtually my next-door neighbor. So, let’s ballpark it at 80 times that Ken has crouched in front of my apartment and glided the quarterly under my door. I am aghast that I’ve never actually thanked him for doing this!  (Ken, thank you!)

If you live in the catchment, you, too, probably have a courier ferrying “old faithful” to your door or building entryway. And you, too, probably dig in as soon as you get it.

We’re coming up on the newsletter’s 47th birthday. The first issue — entitled “Neighborhood News” — rolled off a typewriter on May 20, 1971, thanks to original editor and publisher Richard De Thuin who, sadly, passed away recently. You can read that whole issue right here.

More or less, the newsletter has been chugging along ever since. So here now is a chance to consider the 102-103 Streets Block Association Newsletter and what happens behind the scenes to get it to your door.

The best place to begin is with Hedy Campbell. You may know her name from the many roles she’s had within the Block Association since moving here in 1984. Shortly after arriving, she went to a Block Association board meeting and has stuck around ever since. Over the three and a half decades, she’s organized Halloween parades, solstice caroling nights, Spring planting days, and more.

About eight years ago, the West End Historic Preservation’s effort to landmark the avenue inspired her to think about the people who live in those buildings and the stories they could tell. This led to the launch of the Block Association’s Residents of Long Standing Hall of Fame with 27 inductees and counting — a great feat that we owe to Hedy’s ingenuity and her appreciation for neighborhood and neighbors.

She’s also inadvertently responsible for this blog. Hedy gingerly approached me to manage and update the website when the prior webmaster stepped down. My first response was that I couldn’t imagine taking on more work given my time commitment to BAiP. But how could I say no to her (anyone else ever had that reaction?). That was four years and nearly 300 posts ago!

The hat Hedy’s worn longest is newsletter editor. She took over the duties at the beginning of 1987, succeeding a long line of editors: Richard De Thuin, Mary Louise Taylor, Evelyn Brodwin, Marilyn Ehlers, Connie Fredericks, Ginger Lief and Kathy Giannou. Between 1987 and now, Hedy has had a couple of breaks when Jock Davenport and David Reich each did stints as editor. (My apologies to any past editors I’ve neglected to mention!).

I caught up with Hedy to ask about her 20+ years at the helm. What follows is our recent Q&A.

In the coming weeks, to honor the longevity of our newsletter I’ll be featuring all kinds of pieces “from the vault."  Many of these archival pieces are thanks to Ginger Lief and Ken Henwood who've preserved the back catalog. I'm very grateful to both of them, and to Ginger in particular -- the human "wayback machine." 

So, stick around since there's lots more memory lane to come! And if you are a fan of the newsletter, tell Hedy and her team in the comments below.


Q&A with Hedy Campbell, newsletter editor

Caitlin:  To orient us, what roles have you held within the Block Association over the years?
Hedy: My board positions have been co-chair; chair; treasurer; recording secretary; newsletter editor and co-editor. I ran the Halloween parade for many years. And I’ve run caroling for many years. (Anthony Bellov used to run it but some years ago maxed out. He was happy to continue as the musical brains of the operation as long as somebody else did the organizational stuff.) And for more years than not, I’ve been in charge of yard sale refreshments.

Caitlin: Can you tell me a little about your history with the newsletter?  I know it started in 1971 but tell me about when you entered the picture.
Hedy:  For some years starting in 1987 it was just me and my typewriter and our goal was a monthly distribution, which was a goal I couldn’t consistently meet. I don’t remember when we decided to go quarterly, which actually made brilliant sense because we’ve always asked for dues quarterly. Alan Leverenz was the first designer I worked with. Jock Davenport took over from me as editor for some years. David Reich took it over from him, then I became co-editor with David, then I became editor again.

Caitlin: And here we are. Do you know how much people appreciate the fruits of your labor?
Hedy: Not really. We get occasional comments from readers, mainly written on the flaps of contribution envelopes.

Caitlin: Well believe me, we do. So, how does each issue actually magically appear under my door every three months?
Hedy: The issue gets submitted digitally to Best Copy — the Mom & Pop (or more precisely Pop & Son) copy shop on the northeast corner of 101st Street and Broadway. They print it, insert the loose sheet manually, and fold the print run. Block Association member Eliza Lansdale gets it from them. She counts out newsletters and envelopes and runs around the neighborhood delivering them to sub-distributors and building captains who then distribute them further. For instance, she gives a couple of hundred issues to a high-school student who lives in my building. That person subdivides the batch and delivers to the small buildings on West 102nd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue. The big buildings like the Broadmoor and the Master get batches delivered to their building captains.

Caitlin: Why a print newsletter in this day and age?  Do you foresee a day when it will go electronic?
Hedy: In addition to disseminating information, the print newsletter is our vehicle for envelope distribution, which is still primarily how we receive membership contributions from residents. But residents should know that on our website, they can contribute by credit card any time.

Caitlin: In its slightly anachronistic way, I suspect that a paper copy makes people stop and really take the time to read the news and neighborhood vignettes. How much does it cost to produce?
Hedy: Each issue costs about $800. The contribution envelopes cost about $150. We print 2100 copies. And that’s attractive to our advertisers because I estimate that 2-3 people read each issue, so our reach is around 4000-5000 people. The ads generate income to defray the cost of publication, and thankfully we have all the ads we need. Jane Hopkins has done such a good job! In publishing, a 50:50 ratio of ads to articles is the approximate goal, and we’re roughly there.

Caitlin: OK, we've got the distribution but what about the content -- what's your process there?
Hedy:  Four times a year, about six weeks in advance of publication, I send out an email to contributors in which the article lineup, assignments, and deadline are specified. That email is based both on what we historically print in a particular issue (such as the recurring annual events) as well as any current issues of importance (the gingko tree assault, for example). A group of faithful writers submit their articles, which are then lightly edited; this takes several hours, and I am grateful now to be working with Amy Edelman who has come out the gate very strong in this copy-editing role!  Ads that Jane Hopkins collects and all the articles are sent to the designer, Bradley Spear, who then does a preliminary layout. I review the layout and provide feedback about placement and prioritization. Brad makes changes and returns revised layouts for review. With some luck, only minor tinkering remains. Some issues (like the last one of 2017) require more back and forth until the layout is set. Content is proofread, and corrections are provided to Brad who makes corrections and returns a final proof for review. Brad sends the graphic file to Best Copy for printing. And then we start the delivery process above.

Caitlin: What we in the community get out of the newsletter is intangible: first and foremost, its very existence fosters a sense of community. What do you get out of your involvement with the newsletter?
Hedy: I get to shape the content of what is the primary public face of the organization. I believe that the organization’s role in the community is an important one, and therefore making its functions and initiatives known to residents in a way that reflects our efforts accurately and positively is critical. Although there are many residents who are here and have been here for many years, there’s also a lot of turnover. Providing a sense of perspective, which I can do because I’ve been here a long time, is part of what we want to communicate.

Caitlin: It seems you’ve been looking to train someone to take over for quite a while. Do you think you’ll ever succeed, and if not will this 47-year-old institution of a newsletter vanish?
Hedy: It’s possible. There could come a time when I just have to say that’s it. But for as long as I have an associate who will take care of the nuts and bolts of editing and proofreading, I’m happy to oversee it, keeping an eye on the issues of importance to the organization and assigning articles accordingly.

Caitlin: I know that Ginger Leif, a former editor from the earliest days, performed a colossal labor of love by archiving print issues going back to the very first issue (Thank you, Ginger!). These are now part of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group’s files at the Bloomingdale library branch. Have you ever looked at that collection and felt part of the long continuum of time – that we are all impermanent?
Hedy: I haven’t been over to see the archive. I have my personal collection, so I’m aware how fat the folder has grown. I do feel part of the continuum of the neighborhood, especially as I got to know Cherie Tredanari and Ted and Aysa Berger, who were founders of the organization. I feel as if I accepted a baton from them (Cherie ran Halloween, I took it over from her). And I’m concerned, as I know you are, that the next generation of baton recipients doesn’t seem to have identified itself. With the trend toward two working parents, there just isn’t as much time for volunteerism, and since there’s no pressing issue in the neighborhood for residents to rally around (such as crime or drug dealing, as there once was), I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency to get involved. Although I’m very aware that we’re all very temporary, I prefer to focus on what sort of imprint, if only a subtle one, I can leave while I’m here.

Caitlin:  I keep thinking that connecting via technology has supplanted the need for hyperlocal community. But as technology becomes more and more dehumanizing, people will turn back to the local bricks and mortar community right under their noses. There’s so much benefit in it. That’s the lesson I learned from both the Block Association and BAiP. Which reminds me!  Without the newsletter, BAiP would not have taken off as quickly as it did nine years ago. Because of their communications networks two block associations were able to get word out efficiently to all neighbors in five square blocks about BAiP’s creation. The infrastructure of the block associations and their newsletters jumpstarted BAiP. We need to put that on the balance sheet of under "newsletter successes."
Hedy: I couldn't agree more!

Caitlin: I think it’s pretty obvious that we share the love of living in Bloomingdale.
Hedy: Oh, yes, I’ve loved living here. It’s quiet without being isolated. We aren’t swarmed with foot traffic en route to an attraction or institution. People, if they’re inclined, get to know one another, whether because they do the alternate side shuffle, have children, walk a dog, or hang out at the diner. I used to say, especially when Oppenheimer and the Green Farm were here, that I could walk from my building to 96th Street to shop for Thanksgiving and return with everything I needed even though I’d left my wallet at home. I think it’s still pretty true, but maybe not as much.

Caitlin: A village.
That’s a good place to stop because I know that the Annual Meeting on March 22 will focus on the street-level retail crisis. It sure would be nice if every landlord would make a good faith effort to have the shops on our streets occupied by commercial tenants and usher back in the law of supply and demand, and perhaps a new era of local retail. Thank goodness for the shops we still have -- and for their support of the newsletter. And thank you and your team for bringing it to us four times a year.  There's plainly a great amount of volunteer sweat equity and TLC involved.

By Caitlin Hawke

A little over a year and a half back, thanks to this blog, I received a message from New York Times journalist and editor, Daniel J. Wakin. Virtually a lifelong Bloomingdaler with the exception of two stints abroad for the Times, Dan told me he had a book in the works about our neighborhood that he was researching. I was captivated by his conceit: to bring to life the seven buildings along Riverside Drive between W. 105th and 106th Streets by telling the tales of the people who lived there.

I knew the block well as I had my first and only prime lease in one of these "Seven Beauties" as Dan calls them. So I quickly connected Dan to Gil Tauber and Jim Mackin, two pillars of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group (for more on BNHG, see below).

From one of his walking tours, I knew Gil had traced Nina Simone to 336 Riverside (though additional information has been elusive in confirming her residency). Many people know that Duke Ellington lived for a time at 333 Riverside with his sister Ruth and his music company was based there as well. His son Mercer lived next door at 334. This explains the origins of Duke Ellington Boulevard, aka W. 106th Street.

So while some of the characters of this beautiful block were known to me (Julia Marlowe, Marion Davies, Saul Bellow), I'd never heard of Bennie the Bum -- Bernard McMahon -- a bootlegger who worked with Legs Diamond and holed up right here at 334 Riverside Drive with a maimed knee after a $428,000 cash heist from an armored car at the Rubel Ice Company. Given the title of Dan's book, I will leave to your imagination what becomes of Bennie.  But let's just say he never had much use for boots again.

I wrote a little about Dan's book "The Man With the Sawed-Off Leg and Other Tales of a New York City Block" here, and Dan kindly agreed to sit down with me for an interview just as his book was set to publish on January 23. What follows is my exchange with this son of Bloomingdale. What I didn't know was how in sync I would feel with Dan's love of the layers of our streets.  In some parts of the interview, had I not known he was describing our neighborhood, I would have recognized it all the same.

If you are interested in encountering these long-gone neighbors of yore, grab Dan's book here. It's a wonderful read for anyone who loves to imagine both what lies behind these beautiful facades and, of course, who came before us.  You'll also find Dan lecturing for Landmark West on February 21.

Enjoy!

An Interview with Bloomingdaler Daniel J. Wakin
Author of "The Man With the Sawed-Off Leg and Other Tales of a New York City Block"

Caitlin Hawke: I know you grew up on W. 106th and then moved away. So, can one go home again?
Dan Wakin: You can if home is an amazing, variegated, vibrant neighborhood in a city that half the world wants to come home to. Can you go home again to your childhood house? Yes, with emotional complications.

I was born in 1961, moved away for college and returned to the neighborhood after graduation. I lived on 109th and Amsterdam then 113th between Amsterdam and Broadway (commuting to Newark, N.J., where I was covering the federal courts). I was then assigned in 1992 as a correspondent to the Rome bureau of The Associated Press, spent six years there and then became news editor for southern Africa, based in Johannesburg. We moved back to my childhood home on W. 106th in 2000.

Caitlin: What appeals to you about the neighborhood and how did you deal with returning to your childhood home to live as adult?
Dan: I like living in a neighborhood that is a place people come home to after work, but is still a truly commercial, vibrant, urban scene with big institutions and diverse populations. It's both cul-de-sac and destination, a zone apart yet a hub of its own. It's a fundamentally unpretentious place that will never successfully put on airs, where comfortable dowdiness and frayed elegance exist side by side with tenement life, strivers and college students. Riverside Park is our back yard and you can see the river, a reminder of our island city status. (Peace, Bronx.) Sadly though, many of the apartments are way beyond the means of middle class people. By neighborhood I'm talking RSD to CPW and 96th to 116th.

I solved the melancholy of nostalgia for my childhood by reveling in the great life my boys were making for themselves as they grew up here.

Caitlin: Yes, I size you up as a fairly nostalgic person. That can be a dirty word in the boom-boom times of NYC real estate. Do you really think of yourself as nostalgic - even for a day that preceded your time on earth such as the times you write about in your book?
Dan: I wouldn't say I'm a nostalgic person. As journalists, we're very un-nostalgic - always looking for the new or the unknown or the unrevealed. But I do have a strain of nostalgia, which helped make this book something of an escape from the day-to-day. And I do feel pangs when a favorite store or building disappears. Then, when I realize how quickly you forget those old places, and the new becomes part of the scenery, I realize I'm not as nostalgic as I thought. Development vs. preservation is one of the major storylines of New York City. I'm not an activist nor an investor, but an observer fascinated by the duet. I also love sunlight and air and historical rootedness. Often when I think about wanting to live in another time on earth, I wallow briefly but then I think back to how lousy it was for large classes of people and then I'm not so nostalgic.

Caitlin: How do you feel about the changing architectural profile of the UWS?  
Dan: This is hard to answer - the development on Columbus Avenue in the high 90s is so different from the high rises popping up in the 70s and 80s, for example. The architectural profile of the UWS has always seemed a glorious corned-beef hash to me. Some glass towers in the mix are not terrible. Though I'd hate to lose all the tax-payers on Broadway.

Caitlin:  What do you miss most in the neighborhood from the time you were growing up?
Dan: Again, hard to answer. I was a kid then, and an adult now. Those are two very different kinds of people. If I can project myself into childhood now, I'd say I'd miss the passel of kids that hung around on the sidewalk after school or during the summer and played street games or demonstrated an enjoyable idleness.

Caitlin: Let's talk a little about your book. I wanted to congratulate you on the publication. It reads to me as very much as an ode to Bloomingdale, and in particular to that beautiful block of Riverside Drive from 105th to 106th Street.
Dan: Thank you!

Caitlin: You gave a standing-room-only talk on January 17 for the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group, and something struck me: you showed very few pictures of the bricks and mortar. This book is not an architectural romp through time, it's about the flesh and bones that inhabited these grand buildings over a certain era.
Dan: Yes, good point. I am deeply fascinated by this stark contrast: between permanent structures of brick and stone, eternally there, standing in the same spots from my childhood to my middle age to long after I'm gone, and the countless generations of human beings who have lived, died and disappeared from memory inside those walls. Soft, evanescent flesh vs. hard, permanent bricks. Memories, stories, experiences vs. urban topography with its own meaning.

Caitlin: Yes, what a wonderful idea to dig into the insides of buildings. We tend to fixate on the exteriors since we can access the architectural and construction details more easily. What historical, governmental, archival or other records did you find most useful for the physical history of the buildings?
Dan: The City Register, Department of Buildings web sites, The Real Estate Record (at Columbia University and online) and newspaper electronic archives.

Caitlin: And for the personal histories of the "characters"?
Dan: Private archives, published memoirs, corporate histories, court and government records, census records, city directories.

Caitlin: What was the hardest part of getting to the people who inhabited or passed through your buildings?
Dan: Except for famous names like Duke Ellington and Marion Davies, they were not quite at the level of fame to have much preserved about them or biographies written. Although I was just contacted by a researcher - after my book was published - who said there is an unpublished memoir by Lothar Faber, of the pencil family, that mentions 335 RSD!! Oh well.
 
Caitlin: Yes, you have to eventually go to press. But I know what you'll be reading soon! So what most eluded you or bedeviled you in your research? And what darlings did you have to kill for lack of flesh you were able to recreate?
Dan: Some of the characters were just not super fascinating. I mean, how many of us are? I'm bedeviled by the feeling that if I had just spent more time digging, scrounging, reading, etc., I could have provided a fleshier picture. But you have to cut off the hunt sometime. Biggest footage on the cutting room floor is more detail about the works of the poor artist Michael De Santis, who painted portraits of Columbia professors and died destitute, a boarder at 337 RSD. I left out details of my mini-tour of the sites where his pictures remain, and the paintings that Columbia has in storage, and efforts to restore some of them. My smart editor also had me cut excessive detail about minor criminal characters. The cast of extras just got too large.

Caitlin: So which of the "Seven Beauties" is your favorite on the outside?  And which had the best characters on the inside?
Dan: River Mansion at 337 Riverside Drive. I feel a real connection from my childhood, because I grew up a few doors away from it. In some weird way, I connected it with Miss Havisham's house from "Great Expectations," a book I loved growing up. It's also the most interesting building of the bunch, with the stark contrast between the limestone ornamentation and red brick.

Caitlin: I agree and having lived right next to it, I often imagined how beautiful it must be inside. So who were the best characters in your research?
Dan: Marion Davies who lived at 331 Riverside was a live wire. Michael De Santis, the artist, in 337 Riverside makes me feel melancholy. And the gangsters of 334, of course, are the juiciest.

Some of the "characters" who have lived in the Seven Beauties on Riverside Drive:
Actresses Julia Marlowe and Marion Davies and Nobelist Saul Bellow (Credit: R. Meek)

Caitlin: And of all the people you researched, who do you most wish you could hang out at Henry's with for a beer and an interview?
Dan: That would be Jokichi Takamine, the Japanese scientist who overcame opposition from rivals and anti-Japanese sentiment and isolated adrenaline. How could he fire his mother-in-law, who helped set him up in the U.S., as president of his company? How did he feel living three doors away from the mistress of the man [newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst] whose newspapers so atrociously whipped up fears of the "yellow peril?" Is it true he denied partial credit for his adrenaline discovery to his long-suffering assistant?

Let me also say that meeting one of the great musical figures in American culture - Duke Ellington - would be incredible. And I'm sure Henry's would have been particularly delighted to have him there.

Caitlin: Yes!  The ghost of Birdland would approve, too.  So as we near the end of our interview, I wondered if you would reflect.  Your book focuses on a pretty tiny slice of New York City. Does it tell us anything about the city as a whole?

Dan: I think it does. You could dig deep into lots of individual blocks in New York and find some pretty interesting stories. But the mix of people in these particular townhouses really does get at the essence of what makes the city so great. Here you have manufacturers from a century ago who made stuff we still use today living next to actors, writers, builders, inventors and a gang hideout. They all came to this place to make a buck or make a mark, and did it living shoulder to shoulder. Surely their paths crossed directly, and sometimes without them even knowing it. That amazing mix is really the essence of New York. And we living in this town are all part of that mix, and can rightfully claim that history as our history. Gangsters? Inventors? Famous actors? Heiresses? Indigent artists? They're all just our neighbors.

Caitlin: With this book and your NYT byline, you've now left a trail of electronic breadcrumbs for a future researcher to write about at least one of inhabitants of your building. Can you give me some stories that a researcher could never find about your family, growing up on W. 106th, the mark you hope you'll have left?
Dan: At this point, I'll retreat to the journalist's stance and say I'd rather tell the story than be part of the story. But thanks for asking!

Caitlin: OK, so "Game On!" for the next generation of researchers. Many thanks both for your time and for giving Bloomingdalers this great new source. I don't go by those buildings anymore without thinking of Legs Diamond's boy Bennie the Bum, Bellow, baking powder, and the Duke.



Note: I wrote recently about Dan Wakin's January 17 talk presented by our good neighbors at the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group. If you don't yet know the group, you might be interested in their self-described pursuit:  Discovering, preserving and sharing our history. The tend to concentrate on the neighborhood known as Bloomingdale but sometimes they toss in a too-good-to-pass-up talk on some aspect of Upper West Side history. You'll see their upcoming events right on the BNHG home page.

By Caitlin Hawke

Neighbors are taking the loss of an Upper West Side film institution personally.  And I must say, I have a lump in my throat.

Alas, this is the dawn of a gloomy week for culture on upper Broadway: we say farewell (sayonara, adios, adieu, arrivederci) to beloved foreign and indie film mecca Lincoln Plaza Cinemas (LPC) for good on Thursday.  LPC goes out with a bang on January 28 when staff plan a tribute to the nonagenarian owners, the late Dan Talbot and his widow Toby.  

Sadly Dan died on December 29 (of a broken heart, perhaps), soon after the announcement that the cinema's partner/landlord Howard Milstein would not entertain lease negotiations. Petitions were drafted. Pleas were made. Emails went out fast and furious.

I'm susceptible to speculation about the motive for not renewing the lease and about what will happen with the space.  Indeed all kinds of rumors now swirl -- that Lincoln Center's Film Society will take it over in a premeditated deal. (Very likely, if you want to place bets). That it will become part of the Alamo movie-beer empire or something similar. That LPC will move into the Metro. (This last one's not gonna happen. I've come to believe that the not-so-benign neglect of our local landmark is a strategy to let it crumble-in-place.  And Toby Talbot has lost her programming partner-in-crime.  And the Metro is completely gutted inside, which is rumored to have killed a local Alamo deal a few years ago for the Metro.  But it sure is a nice Bloomingdale thought.  As Gary Dennis has so beautifully documented, Bloomingdale used to be a contender in the realm of theater and cinema.  But no more.  I always whisper a little prayer for the landmarked Metro exterior to stand tall as long as possible and maybe some angel will bring it back.  A naive little dream, yes.)

While most of these rumors would receive open-armed welcomes, it's sort of hard to believe that anyone would get into the retro business of art-house films these days with everyone glued to their phones, streaming their lives away. The old-time concept of a dark room full of silent strangers collectively sharing the magic is just about as quaint as hailing a yellow cab will soon be. 

But there are fine examples of models that work (more on that below); and there are fine examples, such as the Talbots for the past 40 plus years, of what the hip would call "tastemakers."  Nonprofits and small cinemas who still keep the fire burning for those who refuse to watch on a postage-stamp screen.  The tributes to Dan and Toby Talbot have been effusive and, as owners of New Yorker films, the New Yorker Theater and LPC, Dan and Toby earned their spots in the film pantheon by being market makers for the foreign and independent film circuit. Columbia University houses his papers and this blog makes for more good reading if you are interested.  So while Hollywood kicks Harvey Weinstein to the curb, let us hold the Talbots on high.  Cinematic history will be very kind to their legacy.

Just one week more. Forget any conflicted feelings you may have for the Plaza. Yes, it was worn from years of non-stop cinephilia. Yes, yes, a bit dowdy. Yes again that it harbored an occasional pickpocket or two.  But think back and tell me with a straight face that Lincoln Plaza Cinemas didn't open your world. Delight and dazzle you. And upon occasion blow your mind?  

For me it would be like choosing a favorite child, there have been too many delicious films screened there to single out just one. Though I do have a photographic recollection of the cloud I wafted out on after seeing the 1999 Paul Thomas Anderson film "Magnolia."  Yikes, nearly twenty years ago. One frigid Saturday night, I emerged from the late screening and streamed up Broadway humming Aimee Mann's beautiful soundtrack on my way home.

Five days left to get in there and pay homage.  And I have just the right rec: neighbor Manfred Kirschheimer's "My Coffee with Jewish Friends."  Known as Manny, this Bloomingdale documentarian is getting his due after decades in the business and an impressive body of work.  MoMA gave him a retrospective last year; their copywriter put it better than I can when qualifying Manny:

"[he] weds the aesthetic exuberance of modernist urban chroniclers like Walt Whitman, Joseph Stella, and Charles Mingus to the leftist populism of Studs Terkel and Jane Jacobs. His documentary (and quasi-fictional) films are intricate montages of sound and image that thrum with hard bop or proto-hip-hop energy. They are fanfares and requiems for New York’s immigrant working class and demimonde, its art and artists, buildings and builders, haves and have nots."

"My Coffee with Jewish Friends" is a klatch on film.  And Manny makes you a fly on an old-time Upper West Side kitchen wall.  The film is playing every day though Thursday at LPC.

And if after "Coffee" you're jonesing for more Manny, visit the Metrograph.  Just this past Friday, Manny spoke there at the opening of the run of his 2006 film "Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan." "Tall" is also around through Thursday.

Above I mentioned cinema models that could work in the era of smartphones and boom-boom rents: well there is one right there. Perhaps a bit precious on the concessions front, the Metrograph has a calendar that is part old Cinema Village, part Quad and part Film Forum. It's quirky and satisfying programming; and though it's a world away from the Upper West Side, it's well worth a visit--if only to say loud and proud that NYC can and should sustain such art houses.

So vaya con dios, dear Plaza. Fare thee well, Daniel Talbot. Best wishes to the entire LPC family for your next chapter. And to the filmmaking son of Bloomingdale Manfred and our Queen of UWS film Toby, much mazel.

The Metrograph gives me hope.  The good things that the plate tectonics of NYC real estate subduct to the molten mantle do come round again.  Hopefully, we'll know the real ones when we see them and not just follow the next shiny thing.

I am looking at you, Mr. Milstein.

If you are reading this post in an email, you have to click through to see the video below.

By Caitlin Hawke

As an antidote to recent posts that I titled "Empty Storefronts and the Changing Streetscape," which you can read here and here, here now is a feature that celebrates those Mom & Pop businesses, whether old or new, that are in the trenches making it work in Bloomingdale.  Like this week's little juiceteria, a business needs to maximize the output of its square footage to make a dent in the monthly commercial rent. And this is one explanation for all the food and alcohol that's being purveyed around town.  Volume is another must.  That makes Mom & Pop gun shy to say the least. It's hostile terrain for them.

coming out of the ovens and what's in the planning for upcoming feast days and holidays of all denominations.  Just like she was your next-door neighbor.  Because she is.  She is a Bloomingdaler of longstanding.  And now she's the owner of one of the oldest Mom & Pop purveyors around, though many still think of her as the new kid on the block.  But she's endured.  And that's not nothing!

In one of the earliest posts in the "Hyper-Local Eats" blog feature, Judith Norell's Silver Moon Bakery was a first stop.  You can read that old post here, an ode to her ginger blueberry muffin.

Since I have long admired Judith as an entrepreneur, a businesswoman, a second-careerist, a neighborhood champion and an emblem of the Mom & Pop potential to rebound on our avenues, I wanted to feature her again.  

SMB anchors the charming, unchanged historic building, that is captured over the years in these shots below. Judith was able to open SMB because her then landlord, Georgia Stamoulis, became her partner.  To this day, Georgia remains Judith's partner, but Georgia's brother, Michael Rose (who owns Broadway Cellar) is the current SMB landlord. To Georgia and Michael, we owe a word of thanks for keeping this vibrant bakery right where it belongs, bespoke for their special, low-lying corner of Broadway.

So, in 2018, my wish for us all?  Honor thy Mom & Pop.

If we let down our guard, they'll pave paradise and put up a parking lot (under a modern luxe condo).


Q&A with Judith Norell, proprietor of Silver Moon Bakery

Caitlin: Where does the name come from?
Judith: My original thought was to call it Silent Moon Bakery after a Zen poem about the Buddha who, like the moon in the sky, silently illuminates everything.

Caitlin: Artisanal bread baking is a second and illustrious career for you after your work as a professional harpsichordist that I read about here, here and here.  How long did you think you'd be in the baking game when you started SMB?
Judith: I never calculated.  My choices have usually been approached as “an adventure” -- I do it with my full heart, but, like an adventure, it may succeed and may not.

Caitlin: How has business evolved for you as your reputation has been more and more burnished over the years?
Judith: I don’t really know how to answer that question. We opened, and still are, an artisanal neighborhood bakery, and in spite of any publicity we have received, we rely on our immediate neighbors to keep us open. Personally, being an Upper West Sider for many years, I am familiar and comfortable with the political and social attitude in our neighborhood.  This means – at least in my experience – open criticism when things are not perfect, complaints about “high prices” (although in 17 years, our prices have increased much less than most other food items have. Check out our local supermarkets and compare their prices with those of 15 years ago). I personally have not profited financially from our increased reputation, but have tried to benefit our employees whenever things got a bit better.

Caitlin: What is important to you in business as part of your life view?  
Judith: To try to create a harmonious work atmosphere, and to realize that the most genius person can't do it alone, but relies on everyone working with him or her to be successful. People spend at least a third of their day at work, and it should be as pleasurable or at least benign as possible.  I speak from experience; during my apprenticeship in a bakery, the owner didn't know how to talk to those working for him; he was not a mean man, but like many of his generation, started as an apprentice, which meant abuse by his boss, and that he passed on to others when he had power.  He would never praise, only denigrate or criticize; the first time he did this to me, I was sure I would be fired, but, no, it was just his way. If he didn't say anything, you knew it was great.  He also talked down to many of the immigrants from other societies who worked for him, many of them former teachers, doctors, etc., with more education than he had.  So when I started SMB I vowed that it would be different, no fighting, no shouting or screaming.  (We've had a few incidents but they basically resolved peacefully.)  

Caitlin: What is the main challenge you face as a small business on Broadway?
Judith: Rent, rent, rent.
There is absolutely no protection for businesses from the whims of a landlord regarding commercial property.  In our case, when Silver Moon opened, our neighborhood between W. 96th and W. 110 Streets was a neglected area.  Below 96th Street were many co-ops, and fancier stores.  Above 110th Street was Columbia University and all its potential customers.  Our neighborhood was the black sheep, drug-infested side streets, etc.  Now that has all changed, and the landlords are often doubling the rent. Academy Florist, in the neighborhood for over 100 years, had to move because rent was doubled.  Bank Street Bookstore took over.  Henry’s swallowed an enormous rent increase.

Caitlin: So what is the key to SMB’s sustainability?
Judith: I have always believed in “mom & pop” shops, i.e., small, personal stores where the customers are known and catered to.  Too many business in our society care only about the bottom line.  I started Silver Moon Bakery because I love to bake, and also love to communicate with people.  Our counter staff, our bakers, almost everyone knows our customers, many by name, many by their favorite items, coffees, teas or sweets.  I think that, plus my passion for searching out new products, rather than just being another business, is the main key to our sustainability.  In fact, SMB is my culinary playground.

Caitlin: We are living a period of ever-widening economic disparity. Much has been made of this topic in the context of housing in New York.  And one hears more and more about the loss of Mom & Pop businesses.  You are one of the most successful examples -- and I think of you as a relative newcomer (despite that you've already been here for 17 years!) who seems to have the key to Mom & Pop success. Is that true?
Judith: No! See your question about main challenges.  There are many people who would love to live and work in their own community, even here, on the UWS.  But rents are prohibitively high.  Look at the many vacant stores on Broadway – the landlords are waiting for a bank or a chain drugstore who can afford to amortize by having many branches, little labor or production costs, and a high profit margin.

Caitlin: Could you give readers an insight into how commercial rents work in this city?
Judith: There is no limit to what can be charged on commercial property.  At one period, there was a form of commercial rent control, which expired in 1963. An article in the Fordham University Urban Law Journal discusses this:

Caitlin: Do you have any protection from lease to lease?
Judith: No, there is no protection.

Caitlin: How long is a typical lease?
Judith: It can be anywhere from 8 to 15 years.  Ours was originally 10 years, with a 5 year extension. The current lease is for 7 years.

Caitlin: If your rent were to double from one lease to the next, what would your next move be?
Judith: I don’t know. We cannot afford higher rent, since our profit margin is quite low and the two ways to reduce costs are not acceptable:  I will not reduce the quality of our ingredients, or the pay scale of our employees.  We would probably look for another space, but the cost of moving our ovens and equipment might be so high, it would be unrealistic to move.  In that case, we would have to close.

Caitlin: In addition to being a business owner, you are a longtime neighborhood resident.  What do you think about the climate on Broadway?
Judith: It’s terrible.  Chains typically charge more and pay employees less than neighborhood stores. Compare Suba’s prices with Duane Reade’s -- and Mr. Suba’s employees know their customers. The quality of neighborhood life decreases, becomes more impersonal.  Empty storefronts are depressing and destroy neighborhoods.  

Caitlin: Are there still commercial deals to be had on Amsterdam or above 96th Street?  
Judith: I have noticed the new dining corridor, and hope the small restaurants succeed. So I think Amsterdam Avenue will attract diners, but I don’t think residents west of Amsterdam will readily go there to shop.  When I first looked for a place to have a bakery, the manager of the old Gourmet Garage at 96th and Broadway told me: “people will not travel more than a few blocks at most to shop. But to dine is another matter.”  I never forgot that.

Caitlin: What is your understanding of the term gentrification?  Was Silver Moon’s appearance the product of gentrification?  Will gentrification be the demise of businesses like Silver Moon?
Judith: When I moved to 105th Street and West End Avenue, the neighborhood was considered dangerous -- not West End, but the side streets. I actually took a few self-defense lessons before moving in, and learned to walk in the middle of the road when coming home at night.  At that time I shopped at a used childrens’ clothing store on Broadway, bought sashimi from the little Japanese grocery shop on 105th off Broadway, drank café con leche at the Latino restaurant on Broadway & 108th Street [La Rosita], got my videos and dvds from Gary’s Movie Place, and my vegetables from the Korean greengrocer between 105th and 106th Street.  All were small, neighborhood places.  What became SMB was Loretta’s Lingerie, which had red flocked carpeting in the windows.  I moved in because I was a musician, the rents were low and the walls were thick enough so that my practicing wouldn’t disturb others.  Most of the musicians in my building who became successful moved out to more “gentrified” neighborhoods.  

Now, with many old buildings co-oped by the landlords and newer buildings being offered as condominiums, median income has shot up as new tenants came in.  Even rentals are now called, “luxury rental residences” in some cases.  This is my understanding of gentrification – more money flowing into the neighborhood, the quality of life changing, goods becoming more expensive. The mix of working class, artists and middle class which existed when I first moved here, has totally changed.  The druggy side street tenement apartments are now being rented to young, professional couples, and what was once a multi-cultural mix of Latino, Black and Caucasian has disappeared.

Caitlin: What would you like to be doing in five years?
Judith: I would like to travel more, explore the world -- and visit bakers and learn their ways of baking! Listen to music, hike, be with my grandchildren, meditate more and relax.

Caitlin: In 10 years?
Judith: The same!

To join the SMB mailing list, send Judith an email and she'll add you: info@silvermoonbakery.com. 

Remember: December is "Spread the Blove" month.  If you enjoy these blog posts, won't you share this with a nearby friend, family member or neighbor? It's a great way to stay in touch between newsletters of the W. 102nd & 103rd Streets Block Association. So tip off a neighbor who can then receive posts directly to his or her email by just filling in an email address at the bottom of each post.

Love the blog? Spread the blove.

By Caitlin Hawke

I am going to keep it simple today.  December 8th is seared into many a New Yorkers' mind.  I got a chill looking at the front page above. The GOP was prepping a transition to the White House.  There were Russian hijinks on the international stage.  A man was shot in New York City.

John Lennon. Gunned down outside the Dakota.  If you were a New Yorker, you can't forget it. If you weren't yet a New Yorker, you know exactly where you were when you heard the news 37 years ago.  It doesn't matter. We were all New Yorkers that day.

I don't want to get too heavy. But we still need elegies in the face of senseless violence. I am reminded of a statistic I read in the paper: since the song below was written in '68 we've lost more Americans to gun violence than to the battlefields of all the wars in our history. Then again I suppose it's all in how you define "battlefield."

In remembrance of 12/8/80, I offer up an extremely rare gem: Clydie King and her husband Elston Gunn (aka Blind Boy Grunt, aka Robert Zimmerman) covering Dion's 1968 hit "Abraham, Martin and John" by Dick Holler.  A stripped down, harmonic, elegiac duet.  I mean for it to stop us all in our tracks.

On this raw day, thirty seven years late, I give you a power couple and a song I dedicate to the memory of a long lost neighbor.   

Roll on, John.


[If you are reading this post in an email subscription, to load the video you'll need to click on the photo or go directly to the blog page.]

A little prologue before I get to the post today because Thanksgiving is an obvious time to take stock and to enjoy pumpkin -- which I hope you all will.  I am very thankful to live in Bloomingdale and be part of a wonderful community that continually surprises me.  And I am particularly thankful to have a perch from which to celebrate that neighborhood, my muse for purposes of the Block Association blog, where the opinions expressed are my own.

I am also very thankful for this Block Association and to its board and volunteers for doing what they do.  You only had to be in the street on October 31st to appreciate how much joy can come from a volunteer initiative.  If you weren't, you'll get another chance with Solstice Caroling coming right up on December 21st.

To continue to knit the community and share news with neighbors, here on the Block Association blog December will be "Spread the Blove" month.  If you've been enjoying these occasional posts, won't you share this with a nearby friend, family member or neighbor? The blog is a great way to stay in touch all year long with the W. 102nd & 103rd Streets Block Association. So tip off someone nearby. Send them the blog's address or point them to a favorite post. To receive news as it goes online directly to your email, just fill in the "Subscribe" box below. You'll receive a request to verify your subscription.  And voilà!  Just sit back and the next post will arrive to your inbox.

Love the Blog?  Spread the Blove.   Thanks for reading!  And Happy Thanksgiving    ~ Caitlin

By Caitlin Hawke

Most kids around here already know Saxton Freymann's work. For the past many years, Sax has donated a gourdgeous sculpted pumpkin to the Halloween festivities put on by the Block Association each October 31st.  While compiling photos from this year's parade, I kept wondering who this pumpking was.  And then Jane Hopkins -- who does such a wonderful job producing the event -- clued me in.

I decided to ask Sax a few questions and hope you'll enjoy this interview with a talented, generous neighbor. He's also provided some shots of past sculptures.  And for you poodle lovers, my lagniappe is Sax's Broccoli dog.  He's good and good for you.

Enjoy!

Caitlin: You carve a mean pumpkin.  What's the secret? Are eyes the window to a pumpkin's soul?
Sax: When I started doing books based on transforming fruits and vegetables, of course I had to include pumpkins.  My approach is to use the natural form and do as little as possible to nudge it towards something it already resembles.  This of course means that the stem is a nose…with some of my favorites I did not add eyes at all -- they are already implied in the wrinkles of the surface.

Caitlin: I understand you are fairly agnostic when it comes to vegetable carving, you'll carve anything! How did you get into food carving? 
Sax: Many years ago my wife met a book designer and packager named Joost Elffers who wanted to do a book showing interesting things that could be done with food. He had already done a book in Europe along these lines and was looking to develop something more in sync with an American market.  I got some produce, made a variety of things and sent him a bunch of pictures.  That led to Play With Your Food, and the success of that book led to a series of children’s books with Arthur Levine at Scholastic.  

Caitlin: Are you a vegetarian?
Sax: I am omnivorous.
 
Caitlin: So you eat the seeds!
Sax: I try to eat as much of the “waste" from my edible work as I can. When I was doing all the books my family would eat a lot of the day’s work.  When I work with pumpkins, I often do not even cut through to the interior… so they last a bit longer.

Caitlin: How long do they last?
Sax: They generally do not last long, although I remember one that lasted for months! Most of what I do is about the final photographs.

Caitlin: How long does your traditional pumpkin take to carve?
Sax: It varies. I probably spend an hour or so on a pumpkin.  

Caitlin: Jack O' Lantern or Pumpkin?
Sax: Pumpkin!

Caitlin: OK, but do you ever light your pumpkins from inside or is it all about the face?
Sax: My pumpkins are not lanterns. They are much more about the surface and the organic form.

Caitlin:  Is there such a thing as carve-offs in the pumpkin sculpting world?
Sax: I have seen all sorts of competitive pumpkin carving over the years, featuring work with much more patience than I have. I am a very uncompetitive person, so that’s not for me.

Caitlin: Do you have any pumpkin trivia you'd like to share?
Sax: I don’t know if it still exists, but years ago there was an annual race on Glimmerglass Lake in Cooperstown, New York, in which competitors hollowed out and rowed enormous pumpkins.  It was a remarkable and hilarious spectacle.  

Many thanks to Sax for his indulgence here and for the many years of pumpkins at our tables.  Readers curious to see more of Sax's work will also find his books How Are You Peeling? and Food Play in print.  Also, scroll down for a short video with Sax. (If you are reading this post in your inbox, you need to go to the following link to see the video: www.w102-103blockassn.org/blog.

By Caitlin Hawke

Who can forget where they were when their first solar eclipse occurred?  Memories of admonitions not to look skyward and of instructions on how to make a pinhole viewer on the playground macadam came flooding back these past weeks as eclispe-mania ramped up to fever pitch.  I tried to resist the hype but then I realized there might not be many more to behold.  We have to wait 'til 2024 to top this one in NYC and after that I can't say.

Nostalgia really came home to roost when every radio spot about the upcoming eclipse recalled Carly Simon's immortalization of the 1970 eclipse in her 45-year old and still inscrutable hit "You're So Vain":

That got me leafing through pages and pages on the internet. It's actually sort of fun to look at old eclipse coverage.  I turned up the March 1, 1970, New York Times front page piece that made me chuckle about the math. You might enjoy it, too.

I'm not the only one thinking back to bygone solar blackouts. In an excellent blog post on the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group's site, Pam Tice unearthed some local history about the 1925 eclipse, also known as "The West 96 Eclipse."  It seems the edge of total darkness was miscaluated and that, in fact, W. 96th Street was the cut off, not further south as predicted.  Bedeviling azimuths! I recommend reading the post in full here.  While you are on the group's site, take a noodle through it. It's a remarkable achievement to have all this neighborhood information in one place.

And today, August 21, 2017, we get to make new memories, with five-year-olds just starting kindergarten who now have their chance to learn about DIY pinhole viewers on the playground macadam, to return to a bit of much-needed innocence, and to experience the wonderment of our mind-boggling galaxy. 





And now for a hidden track.

Totally of its era and sticking with my 70s lookback, the video below by Manfred Mann serves as a nice outro today.  A lagniappe for readers of a certain age who remember the zeniths and nadirs of the 1970s.

Be careful out there.  Ours is one hot star.

If you are receiving this by email, the video will not load; to view it, you must click on the title of this post -- "Azimuth to Zenith" -- to go to the blog page.

My Throwback Thursday feature today is this five-foot tall beauty entitled "107th and Broadway." The light, shadows, palette, and mood quickly conjure up Edward Hopper. The blazing summer morning light illuminates the facade while Neel's own building across 107th Street casts a dark shadow that resembles a Moai in profile.

You don't see any of the mid-1970s grit and political tumult in this tableau.  In Alice Neel's 1976, New York is small-town quaint with a dose of Hopperian solitude.  With a dark shadow looming.

The reason I am bringing any of this up is that (a.) god, don't you love this painting? And (b.) shouldn't we all get together and go see the retrospective of her work, "Alice Neel, Uptown"!  It is still on until April 22nd at the David Zwirner Gallery.

In case you missed it, the New York Times wrote about the show here in February and posted a slideshow of her portraits here.  Have a look below at her "Still Life" from 1964.  You can just glimpse the northern tip of Straus Park through her front window.

In Ms. Neel, there was greatness in our midst.

 
h/t to neighbor Emily B. who grew up on W. 107th for her knowledge that Alice Neel lived right here among us.

Live in the neighborhood?  Spread the word by sharing this.  Also, if you enjoy these occasional blog posts, tell a friend to subscribe.  There's a lot more in store.

By Caitlin Hawke

I am no writer, but I know what darlings are. And I know that real writers have to lay waste to a lot of them.

I haven't written enough. So there aren't many darlings lying around. According to my father, my grandfather used to riff on what Blaise Pascal said:  I made this long because I didn't have the leisure to make it short.

In brief, it takes time to make it short. And good.  But I don't have that much time.

And besides, sometimes it feels good to keep your darlings and write long. Or to round them all up into the same place and see what they are like side by side.  Something akin to the way my father has, over the years, printed out large formats of his favorite photos. He places them in a box that sits on a coffee table, gently ignored by sons, daughters, and grandchildren. And yet every once in a while when we have time, we leaf through these darlings of his. Sometimes he puts them into thematic albums. This shot of the Metro Diner appears in his "fronts & sides" album.

The album is sort of like a mixtape.  Carefully chosen. Then juxtaposed.  Then shared. To give someone else pleasure.

Think of it not as a few darlings on the cutting room floor, but more as a few darlings upcycled.


To navigate to the post, click on the image or the link.

​I hope 2017 is off to a good start and that it will be good to all. Fingers crossed!  And now, The Years in Pictures, 2016 Edition.

Remember, if you enjoy this blog, tell a friend in the neighborhood to stop by!  Subscribe below and get posts directly to your in box.

Note to subscribers: If you receive these blog posts directly via email, you may not be able to see  embedded videos below; to view the whole post, visit the blog here.

And a lagniappe -- or hidden track -- for those aware of my Dylan admiration.  No, not his polka-infused rendition of "Must Be Santa."  But rather a dramatic reading of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's wistful Civil War era Christmas poem reminding us that hate may mock the song of "peace on earth, good-will to men," that "wrong" shall fail, that "right" shall prevail.

Hear that 2017? I am looking at you.

By Caitlin Hawke

This weekend marked the 36th anniversary of John Lennon's assassination outside the Dakota at the age of 40. Had he lived, he would have turned 76 in October. And who can say what else he would have gifted to his family, his friends, and to the world in those decades he never got.

The memory of hearing the news will take you back to precisely where you were the way news of JFK's death seared those in my parents' generation.  I was still up and working on a homework assignment in my childhood kitchen. Part of the report entailed baking Danish cookies. And there I was cramming to get it done when the news came in over the radio. I was stunned and remember processing it with my mother and siblings at the counter. The next day at school, Aisling, a sophisticated classmate -- who struck me as someone who thought for herself -- was devastated.  It wasn't until then that I fully realized this was a cataclysm.

Since I moved to New York in 1988, I've never passed the Dakota without thinking of Lennon.  His ashes were scattered in Central Park after all.

If you have any doubts left, read Dylan's remarks delivered by our Ambassador to Sweden at the Nobel banquet.

I felt inspired to write today in memory of one genius who chose the Upper West Side as his home leaving an eternal mark on our city.  And I had to stop and contemplate another one-time New Yorker who burns bright still.

Roll on and on and on, boys.

Above, I've embedded a video tribute to John Lennon that I found online. It is set to Bob Dylan's "Roll on, John" from the 2012 album Tempest.  If you receive blog posts by email, the video will not appear.  Click here to see the post on the blog and view the video.

 

By Caitlin Hawke

Below, by popular demand, is the 2016 Gallery of Ghouls with major hat tips to neighbor-photographers Ozzie Alfonso and Barbara Boynton whose shots along with a few of mine are all mixed up below.

The annual Halloween Parade and Party comes off each year thanks to Jane Hopkins who coordinates it with a team of dedicated Block Association board members and volunteers.  You'll see many of them disguised as regular neighbors below, but don't let the costumes fool you.  They put in a little elbow grease to make this come together. 

So this is a huge "Thank You!" to the Block Association's volunteers.  Not just for this evening designed for the kid in everyone, but also for all you do throughout the year!  For many of us, community is taking on ever greater importance in a changing city, and it's comforting to know you are all out there.

Live in the neighborhood? Spread the word by sharing this blog post. Also, if you enjoy these occasional blog posts, you can subscribe below. There's more in store.

By Caitlin Hawke

A day when a bit of levity is in order.  If only to quell nerves.

As you know, the Block Association keeps it local.  And so does this blog.  For the most part.  I try to resist the urge to go beyond the catchment. Sometimes I stretch. But I do so from the perspective of a neighborhood resident.  And what's going on outside of Bloomingdale matters a lot these days.  Today in particular.

Twitter is lighting up with incredible pictures of Upper West Siders turning out to vote.  And turnout in the catchment is just as impressive.  And with luck we're just half a day from knowing what comes next.

Because, finally it is our turn to smoke out the "elephant in the room" aka Election 2016.  The mammoth has been looming for nearly two years and the closer it has gotten, the higher the stress level has become.

But I have a guilty secret.  For a few weeks, I have been walking on air.  In an alternate or parallel universe, all has been well indeed.  Why? How could this be?

What I am about to say is a might controversial: Bob Dylan earned the Nobel Prize in Literature.  And I am ecstatic.

There.  I said it.  And it has nothing to do with our neighborhood.

Ha! (And here's the stretch.) Let me tie Bob to Bloomingdale in a parlor trick.  About a year ago, Jane Jacobs's son Jim authenticated a song co-authored by Bob Dylan entitled "Listen, Robert Moses."  Here's what Jim Jacobs has said, up to you to believe it or not:

So, for those who've been stressing about what's going on, here is one certain thing. Bob Dylan's lyricism is real and enduring. Yes, you might not like his voice. And yes, you might have trouble with his seemingly antisocial ways. You may still hate his gospel phase -- but in time that will all be reassessed.  He now stands to receive the highest literary honor our current civilization knows how to bestow.  And for the last few weeks, thanks be to Swedes the world over, it makes me thrill every time I think about it.

So as my gift to you, fellow Bloomingdalers, to lighten the allostatic load today, below is a crazy, racing, unhinged 2011 Grammy performance of Bob Dylan and his progeny.  Ingeniously paired up with Mumford & Sons, The Avett Brothers, a killer horn section and his own band, a mere five years ago Bob Dylan rocked out like the best of them with an electrifying "Maggie's Farm."

The younger bands set the tone with their superlative live performances:  Mumford's "The Cave" where strength is found in pain, the Avett's beautiful "Head Full of Doubt" make the aptest of preludes to the mythic "Maggie's Farm."  Whoever lined them all up in a row darn-tootingly knew what he or she was doing.  And if you read the lyrics of all three today, each of these songs will sparkle with meaning.

[Note: If you are receiving this post via email, the video below won't load, so you'll have to go here and stream it: https://vimeo.com/20567315 for full effect.]

While I recognize this music and these performances will not be everyone's cup of tea, could we agree that a 50-year-old song that resonates today -- and has in ways become even more pertinent -- performed by musicians two or three generations after its time in this incredible fashion is a feat unto itself.

And even if the times haven't changed.  Bob has changed the world. Or at least given it a good shake over the past 70 years he's been roaming around on it.

As he goes on, so do we all...bathed in his incredible wake.

Neighbors, see you on the other side of this November 8th!  And now to Bob. Enjoy!

By Caitlin Hawke

I'll leave the elephant in the room out of this for the moment as the clock ticks toward our quadrennial ritual of pulling the presidential lever. For this is the weekend we change the clocks, rolling them backward. Nowadays technology does this for most of our clocks...automatically. Making life "easier" and depriving us of this ritual. And in that notion, there is a parable. Technology. Moving backward. Keeping up with time and the times. 

Stay with me here because this brings me to neighborhood news that according to the New York Times yesterday, Bloomingdale is an unwitting character in a new unfolding scandal involving the New York City Marathon and doping of elite runners.  Indeed, you may have walked past surveillance vehicles on our streets as the investigation has spun out.

You can read the tawdry piece for yourself at the link above. Having followed cycling for a while and the vagaries of Lance Armstrong, I have a rubber-necker's fascination about doping in sports. So seeing it come right down the block and, worse, having it afflict my beloved notion of the once-great-but-now-royally-commercial-corporatized New York City Marathon, I wince. But come on, I say to my foolish self. It was hiding in plain sight all these years. And it is everywhere.

Doping. Some claim it's a fair use of technology. Others, an unfair edge. And still others, a public health hazard.

It is perhaps all three. And it is a harbinger of many things to come in this world where cheating is constantly rewarded at the higher ranks of our society and institutions. And technology is the abetting force.

It's enough to make you yearn for the days of Rosie Ruiz when cheating was so lo-tech it was quaint, far less lucrative, and relatively detectable.  (All state-sponsored Olympic game doping aside, of course).

Which leads me to reminding you to turn your clocks back on Saturday before you turn in. And to wishing any runners out there a race of your dreams in the city we love this Sunday. We know at least you will run clean.  Be safe and run on home rounding out of the southeast corner of Central Park, westward-bound with the cheering throngs on 59th Street, back into the Park in the shadow of the Gulf & Western Building's ghost. And up, up, up that hill, yes hill, to the finish line.

And of the elephant in the room wherein all these issues coalesce into one great mixed up mess, I say:  for the love of Bloomingdale, vote on Tuesday.  You can find your polling place right here.

See you on the other side of this free fall.


P.S. Look for the 2016 Gallery of Ghouls, the photo recap of the Halloween parade coming soon.

Readers will know the house I am talking about from our homepage -- that great shot by Ozzie Alfonso.  One of the things I have always loved about it is the color of the brick.  It's an eye-poppingly red-orange terra cotta, paired to perfection with lemon chiffon trim.

Terence Hanrahan had a front row seat across the way in his home where he saw firefighters stabilizing the remaining masonry, and he took some of these shots. Now, of course, a sidewalk bridge has gone up.  But I sure hope our Brick Dame will be restored quickly.

Online reports - either the West Side Rag or DNA Info -- mentioned vibrations that perhaps had jarred the keystone loose.  But this house is a tough cookie; she withstood a lot worse over her 132 year life.  If you scroll down, you'll see a shot of the Queen Anne style house when it was brand new and sat in the lot 25 feet south of W. 102nd Street (before 855 West End Avenue was built).  It sat right on the "avenue."  Then it was but a two-story house consisting solely of the current second and third floors which you will see in the side-by-side photos -- they superimpose perfectly!  That old circa 1888 shot came to me by way of Hedy Campbell who acquired it from a longtime Bloomingdaler Marilyn Buckland.

Built in 1884, the Ralph S. Townsend house sat on West End (depicted in the black and white photos below) until 1893 when it was moved to its current site at 302 W. 102nd Street by Clara Delafield. And there it has sat for a century and a quarter.

Alas, the beautiful brick lady is missing a tooth now.  But she's got good bones, that we know.  To my way of thinking, she's the Maggie Smith of Bloomingdale, and she darn well better outlive us one and all.

Come wander by some day and behold her beauty!

Note how these two buildings superimpose perfectly: take the first and second floor of the building in the black and white immage and imagine them bumped up a story to become the second and third floors of the building above in the color picture, and you've got it.  The front door from 1888 became a set of quirky asymmetrical windows.  A new first floor and an additional floor at top -- a mansard roof -- were added when the house rounded the corner in 1893.

Live in the neighborhood?  Spread the word by sharing this.  Also, if you enjoy these occasional blog posts, tell a friend to subscribe.  There's a lot more in store.

By Caitlin Hawke

This isn't technically a Throwback Thursday post, but I am going to tag it as one since an earlier of my  Throwback posts put me in an Audrey Munson state of mind.  That face is everywhere!

I am not going to retread the narrative.  Her story has been told again, and again, and again thanks both to her long life and her tragic fate. But for a time she was the most sought after model of the time.  Sculptor after sculptor asked her to pose. And it wasn't infrequent that she sat for multiple figures in one work, as you'll see below.

So, while I usually try to stick to the Block Association's immediate environs when featuring things in this blog, I thought it was fair to stretch it a bit with this offering.  The truth is, we boast a few prime Audreys right here in B'dale.  And I have come to think of her as an honorary neighbor. What links us to the rest of the city (and well beyond) is one long chain of Audreys -- ornamenting buildings and fountains and bridges.  Arms outstretched.  Breasts bared. Laurel crowned. Leafed in gold. Marble hewn. Bronzed. Iconic.

I give you now, up close and personal and all in one place, the muse extraordinaire of Bloomingdale and well beyond.  Miss Audrey Munson.

About This Gallery
For details about each sculpture depicted below, hover over the image with your cursor and a caption will appear with date, site and sculptor. Most (but sadly not all) are in place today; you can go see her for yourself.

If you want to explore more of our neighborhood's history, click here to see all prior entries in the recurring feature of this blog, "Throwback Thursday."

Finally, live in the neighborhood?  Spread the word by sharing this; tell a friend to subscribe.  There's a lot more in store.

By Caitlin Hawk(e)

Calling all vendors.  Now is the time clear out all that STUFF!  Turn your closet clutter into cold cash.  Our annual yard sale, AKA Spring Bazaar, is upon us in a few short weeks. If you've been to one, you know how fabulous the vibe is.  Our city turns into a small town for the day.  No ersatz.  No faux.  No hipster bergamote macarons.  No street fair "Italian" sausage sold by vendors from Jersey.

Just real local neighbors, hawking real, useful stuff.  Recycling life's necessities, and giving new life to someone else's treasure.

You know you need to make room in your closets, right?  Let's do this.  Let's all hawk our stuff!

The who-what-when-how of it is all here.  See you on W. 103rd Street on May 21st!

​By Caitlin Hawke

"And we just happen to live in the greatest city in the world."

​ If you recognize these phrases, most likely you've just been to see "Hamilton" by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and you know the song as "The Schuyler Sisters."  I have dug up a couple of videos for you to delect, in case, like me, you have a slight addiction and can't spring for another ticket.

But now here's the thing.  What does Hamilton -- the person or the musical -- have to do with Bloomingdale?  

Cherchez la femme!  Or les femmes, as the case may be.  Pivotal characters in Alexander Hamilton's life, the Schuyler sisters turned out to have had it bad for the father of our Treasury and Federalist extraordinaire.  Hamilton married one, Elizabeth, aka Eliza.  And it seems he may have had an affair with another, Angelica, the eldest of the sisters.  The musical will explain that all to you.

So now you see how we get to Broadway genius Lin-Manuel Miranda from Bloomingdale without a detour to Miranda's beloved Washington Heights.  You go to Schuyler Square at W. 106th Street and West End Avenue, and you contemplate the lives of two of Philip Schuyler's daughters who flew very close to Alexander Hamilton's incredible flame. And then you listen to Lin-Manuel's "The Schuyler Sisters."  And you scheme about how to get your next ticket to the hottest show in the greatest city in the world….

This video is for the hard core fans.  The three King Georges from "Hamilton" lip-syncing
​"The Schuyler Sisters" number to the delight of the #ham4ham crowd.

By Caitlin Hawke
h/t to the West Side Rag and thanks to reason.tv

"What was once a rundown dying section of the great city of New York has been recreated..."  This, of course, depends on your definition of "rundown" and "dying."

Despite its richness, the neighborhood around Columbus Avenue and West 98th and 99th Streets was considered blighted and declared a slum in 1951 under the banner of "urban renewal" effectively plowing over a vibrant neighborhood.  Robert Moses, head of NYC's slum clearance committee, had, according to biographer Robert Caro, an egregious hand in its destruction through the sale of these blocks to a developer who envisioned "Manhattantown," which ultimately made way for Park West Village, which is now surrounded by "Columbus Square." This 21st century envisioning of neighborhood living is for historians to evaluate in the years to come.  And one needs to dig ever deeper for the savory dressing in this urban "Turducken."

Why do I say that?  Because, the very premise upon which this plan for "urban renewal" hinged was false. The condemned village, now known as the Old Community, was not a slum. Yes, it was modest.  But it was home to an integrated community of artists and families.  Moses infamously said, "Someday you’ll thank me for these projects and forget about these people.”

Thanks to neighbor and filmmaker Jim Epstein, Moses is wrong (again): we will not forget these people, our neighbors.  Featured recently in the West Side Rag, Jim's film "The Tragedy of Urban Renewal: The Destruction and Survival of a New York City Neighborhood" is today's Throwback Thursday. A local neighborhood goneby but not forgotten, the Old Community is filled with unforgettable faces and stories.  Moses supposes erroneously.

For further information, see this piece by Kevin Baker.

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By Caitlin Hawke

Photos by Ozzie Alfonso, Robin Bell and Barbara Boynton

On October 31st, it was déjà boo all over again on West 102nd Street.

Thanks to a team of volunteers headed up by Jane Hopkins, the annual Halloween festivities left no man, woman or child behind.  The pint-sized promenaders trucked around the block in full regalia and were sweetly rewarded for their efforts.  And the not-so-pint-sized also turned out in force.  Super heroes, fluffy pets, princesses, a bag of bones and a tooth.  Yes. A tooth.  (And to be fair, a dentist).  These were the costumes of the night.

Have a look through the gallery below and try to figure out who among us isn't dying to get into the spirit.

Superheroes

By Caitlin Hawke

Even if it means repeating an image I've posted, there is no better Throwback Thursday than one where I can deliver news of a local organization paying tribute to the neighborhood's past.

In fact, the organization will be commemorating a commemoration of a world tragedy: the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912.  She was bound for our city on that maiden voyage and aboard were illustrious New Yorkers including Bloomingdale residents (2747 Broadway) Ida Straus and her husband Isidor, an owner of Macy's.  That fateful night, Ida chose to remain behind and stay aboard with her husband when she was offered a seat in one of the lifeboats: "I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together."  And so they did.

Three years later, the city dedicated Straus Park to their memory (below).  Looking back and reading contemporaneous accounts, I get the feeling that the memorial was as much in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Straus's mutual devotion as it was in defense of New York's successful men who were seen as "grasping and lack[ing] a spirit of sympathy and social service" according to a New York Times piece. Interestingly this was also the time of the Revenue Act of 1913 reinstating the Federal Income Tax, which would have considerably hampered "New York's successful men."  But I digress.

Fifty-nine designs were submitted, with the winning submission receiving $10,000.  Architect Evart Tracy and sculptor Augustus Lukeman won the competition to design the Straus Memorial.  Evart said: "we have sought to make the peaceful spirit of the monument and the tiny pool in front of it the one dominating note—an eternal peace that runs through the spirit of the world deeper than its turmoil."  I'd say they fairly well succeeeded!

And so have Friends of Straus Park who now maintain plantings and support gardening of this park in the spirit in which the park was designed. It is thanks to the Friends of Straus Park that a centennial fête for this triangular oasis will take place on Saturday, October 3rd.  It's an all-day affair called "Art in the Park." From 10 am to 5 pm, there will be art of all sorts (think jewelry, photographs, paintings...). There's also music and food planned. And at noon, neighbors will commemorate this park's centennial.

When you are done here, amble down West End Avenue to West 104th Street for a rollicking good yard sale put on by our friends at the West 104th Street Block Association.

It's bound to be a beautiful day in the neighborhood. And we have our very own peaceful park in which to contemplate it.

By Caitlin Hawke

In the June 2015 issue of our newsletter, neighbor Lydia Dufour has a wonderful piece about a former leader of this block association and one of the primary founders of Bloomingdale Aging in Place: David L. Reich.

BAiP has been a dynamo of community building these last six years, and its backbone has been its technological structure and the administrative framework meticulously laid down by David Reich. It is fair to say that BAiP is absolutely soaring with over 1000 meet-ups each year, 100 volunteers to make all the activities and services available to neighborhood adults, and new blood and fresh ideas pulsing through the organization every day.  All this was accomplished under David's leadership -- at first with a dedicated steering committee and then alongside a very roll-up-your-sleeves board that is going strong today.

David is, quite simply, a force of nature when it comes to neighborliness and getting things done. He may find purpose and meaningful engagement in all that he has taken on over the years in our neck of the woods, first with this block association and now with BAiP.  But we are all the beneficiaries of his efforts.  The mark he continues to make on this neighborhood ought be proudly and loudly noted. 

And so it was, on April 9th, when all of BAiP's current and former board members gathered to thank David as he passed the presidency of BAiP over having come to the limit of his term.  Thankfully, for BAiP's sake, David will continue serving on the board AND leading BAiP's ping pong group.

To quote Lydia, all BAiP's board members including me "count our blessings that he so successfully transplanted to our corner of Manhattan and will continue to be a vital member of the BAiP board as well as an active community and activity volunteer with the organization."

In honor of his unparalleled work within the organization, the Board of Directors of BAiP presented him with the following commendation.


To learn more about BAiP's opportunities to get involved, please email: info@bloominplace.org or call (212) 842-8831.