Photo of the day: LOOSING NEW YORK
We have been loosing our city at a rapid speed since the 12 year Bloomberg administration. Our new mayor Bill DeBlasio didn’t make things any better. A shill and phoney sell-out as our city’s history continues to be torn down left and right while being raped by an overbuilding of glass towers where they ought not to be.
As a tour guide I am supposed to tell people how wonderful New York City is...I do. But they don’t see that Harlem is now only 40% black, overrun by self-righteous white yuppies renovating Harlem’s brownstones pushing the original residents out. Greenwich Village once an epicenter of gay culture, dance clubs, cool quirky shops, cutting edge boutiques is now devoid of anything gay, buried in GAP, Polo, Starbucks, Sephora, Michael Kors, more GAP, more Polo, more Michael Kors. (Btw, Michael Kors being a screaming queen doesn’t count.)
The mushroom rate of the ‘space needle’ über high, über rich residential high rises on 57th and 58th Streets will put parts of Central Park’s south end into permanent shadow at certain times of the year. Jackie Onassis is turning in her grave.
Jackie O. would also be horrified to discover that grand Central Terminal is to be encased in super tall, super glassy high rises, therefore dwarfing the spectacular station, reducing it to a needle in a haystack.
Tribeca and Soho once filled with artists and art spaces are now filled with tourists artfully shopping. Times Square has become a 2nd rate shopping mall filled with Elmos badgering your for $5 photos. The lower east side aka ‘the Bowery’ is rapidly loosing any trace of our large immigrant history. It IS filled with our ‘new immigrants’ the young rich, spacey Millennials, trust fund babies and tech company millionaires. Apartments costing $1 million in the Bowery are cheap.
Little Italy is nothing but 6 or so blocks of Italian restaurants trying to hang on while the Chinese and the stores of Soho eat up their once large thriving Italian neighborhood. Fuggedaboudit.
New York’s harbor was once the busiest harbor in the world. Today, with a combination of damage from hurricane Sandy and the sheer greed of the Bloomberg/DeBlasio real estate ‘developers’, in South Street Seaport nothing will be left but a few gratuitous red brick buildings and only one old sailing ship to be now surrounded by a mirror glass ersatz ‘Pier 17’ and two gigantically tall mirror glass ‘luxury towers’ encroaching on America’s historical land mark the Brooklyn Bridge.
Go to Brooklyn then you say? Oh no, that is being gentrified at a hyper speed such has been never witnessed before in America. The foot of the Brooklyn Bridge is now being encased in a towering glass apartment building in DUMBO and the once spectacular view of the bridge from the Brooklyn Heights promenade is now obliterated by a gigantic apartment complex. If anyone would have told me that one day the views of the Brooklyn Bridge will be gone, I’da said you’re nuts.
Further in Brooklyn, whites buying $1+ million town homes in Bedford–Stuyvesant is now the norm. What was once our largest African American neighborhood, now has it’s residents being forced to go back to their Southern roots where they might be able to afford the rent. Meanwhile ultra hipster Williamsburg battles it out with ultra orthodox Satmar Jewish Williamsburg for real estate, who will win is anybody’s guess.
Hey, but Hans you’re safe in Queens. Not so, as my neighborhood fights off the flood of ‘poor upper middle class’ who can’t quite afford the $500,000 to $1 million dollar glass towers of the East River’s Long Island City. One by one we are seeing the affordable shops disappear, street vendors forbidden and a slimey corrupt councilman like Jimmy Van Bramer sign off on real estate deals wiping places like the spectacular 5 Pointz Graffiti Museum and the immigrant’s car-repair shops of Willet’s Point off the map while he brown noses his way up in the mayor’s administration.
If anyone has noticed, I haven’t posted daily “Photos of the Day” since mid June, I needed time to reflect. I will continue to tell people how ‘wonderful’ New York is, but I will also tell them that the city is an illusion, a big grand, sparkling, smoke & mirrors illusion. With my camera I will try to find something worth capturing that someone’s cell phone camera has not. My main concentration will be on researching and writing a book about my Von Rittern land baron roots in Bremen, Germany, and a second book on my Broadway stage door memories.
In the meanwhile, my German guests, while taking my tours say to me, “Sadly, it’s happening in Germany too, capture it while you can.”
I’ll try.
As a tour guide I am supposed to tell people how wonderful New York City is...I do. But they don’t see that Harlem is now only 40% black, overrun by self-righteous white yuppies renovating Harlem’s brownstones pushing the original residents out. Greenwich Village once an epicenter of gay culture, dance clubs, cool quirky shops, cutting edge boutiques is now devoid of anything gay, buried in GAP, Polo, Starbucks, Sephora, Michael Kors, more GAP, more Polo, more Michael Kors. (Btw, Michael Kors being a screaming queen doesn’t count.)
The mushroom rate of the ‘space needle’ über high, über rich residential high rises on 57th and 58th Streets will put parts of Central Park’s south end into permanent shadow at certain times of the year. Jackie Onassis is turning in her grave.
Jackie O. would also be horrified to discover that grand Central Terminal is to be encased in super tall, super glassy high rises, therefore dwarfing the spectacular station, reducing it to a needle in a haystack.
Tribeca and Soho once filled with artists and art spaces are now filled with tourists artfully shopping. Times Square has become a 2nd rate shopping mall filled with Elmos badgering your for $5 photos. The lower east side aka ‘the Bowery’ is rapidly loosing any trace of our large immigrant history. It IS filled with our ‘new immigrants’ the young rich, spacey Millennials, trust fund babies and tech company millionaires. Apartments costing $1 million in the Bowery are cheap.
Little Italy is nothing but 6 or so blocks of Italian restaurants trying to hang on while the Chinese and the stores of Soho eat up their once large thriving Italian neighborhood. Fuggedaboudit.
New York’s harbor was once the busiest harbor in the world. Today, with a combination of damage from hurricane Sandy and the sheer greed of the Bloomberg/DeBlasio real estate ‘developers’, in South Street Seaport nothing will be left but a few gratuitous red brick buildings and only one old sailing ship to be now surrounded by a mirror glass ersatz ‘Pier 17’ and two gigantically tall mirror glass ‘luxury towers’ encroaching on America’s historical land mark the Brooklyn Bridge.
Go to Brooklyn then you say? Oh no, that is being gentrified at a hyper speed such has been never witnessed before in America. The foot of the Brooklyn Bridge is now being encased in a towering glass apartment building in DUMBO and the once spectacular view of the bridge from the Brooklyn Heights promenade is now obliterated by a gigantic apartment complex. If anyone would have told me that one day the views of the Brooklyn Bridge will be gone, I’da said you’re nuts.
Further in Brooklyn, whites buying $1+ million town homes in Bedford–Stuyvesant is now the norm. What was once our largest African American neighborhood, now has it’s residents being forced to go back to their Southern roots where they might be able to afford the rent. Meanwhile ultra hipster Williamsburg battles it out with ultra orthodox Satmar Jewish Williamsburg for real estate, who will win is anybody’s guess.
Hey, but Hans you’re safe in Queens. Not so, as my neighborhood fights off the flood of ‘poor upper middle class’ who can’t quite afford the $500,000 to $1 million dollar glass towers of the East River’s Long Island City. One by one we are seeing the affordable shops disappear, street vendors forbidden and a slimey corrupt councilman like Jimmy Van Bramer sign off on real estate deals wiping places like the spectacular 5 Pointz Graffiti Museum and the immigrant’s car-repair shops of Willet’s Point off the map while he brown noses his way up in the mayor’s administration.
If anyone has noticed, I haven’t posted daily “Photos of the Day” since mid June, I needed time to reflect. I will continue to tell people how ‘wonderful’ New York is, but I will also tell them that the city is an illusion, a big grand, sparkling, smoke & mirrors illusion. With my camera I will try to find something worth capturing that someone’s cell phone camera has not. My main concentration will be on researching and writing a book about my Von Rittern land baron roots in Bremen, Germany, and a second book on my Broadway stage door memories.
In the meanwhile, my German guests, while taking my tours say to me, “Sadly, it’s happening in Germany too, capture it while you can.”
I’ll try.
JOAN RIVERS’ FUNERAL FILLED WITH SURPRISES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS
Joan Rivers’ funeral today was filled with surprises and disappointments. The surprises were the great wonderful celebs that showed up on a moment’s notice, many by foot sauntering up 5th Avenue! I was 1st row behind the reporters but they …were all on ladders and mostly barricaded a good camera shot, but between the elbows and butts I saw:
To think I saw in one hour: Kathy Griffin (very shaken) and Rosie O’Donnell arrive together, Howard Stern, Judge Judy!!, Rachel Ray, Andy Cohen (by foot, one of the few to wave to the crowd), Geraldo, Barbara Walters, Michael Kors, Ivanka Trump walking up 5th, Carolina Herrera, Donald Trump (by limo), Sarah Jessica Parker who you could see kept saying “amazing, amazing” with a big broad smile, Whoopi Goldberg (in tears) coming on foot from around the corner, columnist Cindy Adams, reporter Deborah Norville, Letterman’s Paul Shaffer, Joy Behar very upset, Marlo Thomas and husband Phil Donahue walking hand in hand up 5th, Glenn Close (she’s tiny!), Hugh Jackman and Audra McDonald who both sang in the service, Wanda Sykes, Hoda and Kathie Lee arriving in same car, Dr. Oz, singer Judy Collins, Clive Davis, the complete cast of Fashion Police including Giuliana Rancic, and Kelly Osbourne looking fabulous in her purple meticulously curled mohawk hairdo. The only photo I got was Whoopi and Ivanka 😦
The Gay Men’s Chorus sang “There’s Nothing Like a Dame.”
The disappointments: NO red carpet or craft services! WTF?! That was exactly what Joan had requested! Biggest disappointment of all – NO Meryl Streep. The least she could have done was to send in a tape of her “crying in five different accents.”At least my friend Susan Godwin was there to show support from animal and dog lovers and me making it clear I was saying ‘thank you’ for her support of the gay community her entire career long. Thank you Joan.
Best quote from the service: Howard Stern paid tribute to his friend, joking, “I hope Joan is somewhere chasing Johnny Carson with a baseball bat,” and added, “Joan was a best friend for the world.”
Butts n elbows
Ivanka Trump
Photo of the day: PAYING MY RESPECTS TO JOAN RIVERS
Photo of the day: Paying my respects to Joan Rivers. How could I not leave flowers for a woman who fought for AIDS funding before it was popular? Who worked in ‘Gods Name We Deliver’s soup kitchen and made the meals, and surprised some homebound guests by delivering them personally. Who fought for gay rights and equal rights? Whose NYC comedy club appearance proceeds all went to charity? I left a rainbow colored assortment of roses for Joan & Melissa, thanking them both.
Joan Rivers – a true New Yawker. Brash, bold, in your face, a fighter and . . . she made it. Living on 5th Avenue. Still relevant at 81. Gone way to soon, New York will be a sadder and emptier place without her. “Can we talk?”
Photo of the day: INGRID BERGMAN DIES, August 30, 1982
Photo of the day: INGRID BERGMAN DIES – This was the startling headline New Yorkers were greeted with on August 30, 1982. Bergman had died at the young age of 67 in a London hospital of breast cancer leaving us with incredible memories of “Casablanca” and “Gaslight”. I had spent a wonderful evening alone with her ten years earlier in 1972 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater as she was appearing in the play “Captain Brassbound’s Conversion.” I just gazed at her as we talked. Her face had not changed, her voice was exactly the same, her eyes still sparkled. I was so mesmerized realizing I was looking into the actual eyes of Ilsa Lund….
Photo of the day: THREE FACES OF GRIEF at ERIC GARNER RALLY
Photo of the day: THREE FACES OF GRIEF – Three mothers, three dead sons. Today at the Justice For Eric Garner Rally on Staten Island, led by Rev. Al Sharpton, the mothers of three slain boys made a surprise and very powerful appearance. Ferguson, Missouri’s Michael Brown’s mother (right) barely able to speak through her tears, Kadiatou Diallo (center), the mother of 22-year-old Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo, who died in a hail of 41 NYPD bullets in 1999, and the mother of Ramarley Graham (left) an unarmed 18-year-old shot and killed by NYC police in 2012.
They spoke in support of Eric Garner and accountability the police must take for brutal unjustified shootings that have become common place in this country like the old Jim Crow south. Name after name from the last two decades, including Trayvon Martin and Eleanor Bumpers were read off, it sent a chill through me. These are gestapo Nazi racial murders like that of Berlin 1939. There are taser guns, tear gas and mace – none used, shooting point blank is out and out murder. (Whatever happened to ‘shoot to maim and stop’?) Yet no Teflon police (or George Zimmerman) are in jail.
Choke-hold victim Eric Garner’s entire family was present: Esaw Garner, Eric Garner’s widow and Eric Garner’s mother Gwen Carr and their children. To see so many faces of grief on one stage has left me shaken and is something I will not forget.
MARILYN MONROE June 1, 1026 – August 5, 1962
Marilyn Monroe June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962: the ethereal eternal beauty.
This stunning painting is one of my treasures by friend and artist See Tf.
Postcard story from New York – “A GRANDE DINNER FOR TWO in 1914- 100 YEARS AGO TODAY”
Postcard story from New York – “A GRANDE DINNER FOR TWO in 1914- 100 YEARS AGO TODAY”
New York, July 30, 1914
“Churchill‘s,” Broadway and Forty-ninth Street, New York.
To: Mrs. Wm. A. Johnson
250 N. Water
Franklin, Ind.
“Wed. evening,
Dearest Momma,
Have just gotten back from having dinner here. A Mr. Barkus from South Carolina to me and little Miss Blair to dinner. He sent us both roses – mine were two dozen cream tea roses. He left on the train for S.C. and sent us home in a taxi,
With lots of love,
Maude
A grande evening was had by all 100 years ago to the day. It seems Mr. Barkus from South Carolina was quite a gentlemen sending the two ladies home in taxis and roses the next day!
In Times Square things were still ’rosey’, but World War I had just been declared and two days later Germany had declared war on Russia.
Churchill’s was ’the’ place to be at the time. Lobsters! Champagne! Showgirls!
For the decade before Prohibition, Churchill’s Restaurant and Cabaret was one of the largest and swankiest of the “lobster palaces” along the Great White Way.
The eponymous establishment was the creation of ex-NYPD Captain Jim Churchill. Located on Broadway at 49th Street, the eatery could accommodate 1,200 patrons and employed a staff of 300. Guests could dine on the special for a mere buck-twenty five, listen to live music, dance and rub shoulders with denizens of the theater district like actress Anna Held and philanthropist and nightlife fixture Diamond Jim Brady.
Attempting to refute the notion of the scandalous, sinful “Broadway Life” popular in the fictions of the day, Churchill said “Broadway is simply the Coney Island of night-time New York, where some of the people play a bit, eat a bit, drink a bit, talk, sing and laugh a bit—and get a bit dizzy. But the dizziness imparted by Broadway is no more fatal than the dizziness that comes from riding on a gaudily-painted merry-go-round…”
Shortly after the passage of the Volstead Act in 1921, which established prohibition, Churchill shuttered his business, leasing the ground floor to the Toy Yoeng Syndicate of America, which converted it into a Chinese restaurant – today known as the popular Ruby Foos.
(Note the bandshell in the way back above the crowd, that’s Maurice Levi and his orchestra. Kinda like the Harmonia Gardens in Hello Dolly, 2 girls out for dinner on the town.)
SOCIAL SECURITY STRIPS MY 88 YR OLD MOTHER OF HER 1958 USA CITIZENSHIP BECAUSE SHE “FAILED TO REPORT TO THE GOVERNMENT” WHEN SHE APPLIED FOR HER BENEFITS AFTER WORKING HARD IN THE USA FOR 33 YEARS!!
Social Security today made the most outrageous claim I have ever heard!!!
We went to the lower Manhattan Social Security office to seek a replacement card for mom. We had all the legal documents: USA passport, Social Security card and, government sealed naturalization papers. The barely literate woman told my mother that the Social Security office that makes her monthly benefit payments, (that mom worked hard for 33 years), has never recognized her as an American Citizen because (direct quote) “you failed to report to the government when you applied for your benefits.”
We were in shock and mom almost lost her balance with her cane as her blood pressure started to rise rapidly and she grew faint.
The SS worker claimed, that because her papers were so old, from 1958, the computer does not recognize her as a citizen. By her logic, any person who applied to become a naturalized citizen before the computer age, is NOT recognized as an American citizen.
We thought we were not hearing right. After repeatedly arguing with her, we were told to go to another office on another floor, but it was closed. We had taken a difficult arduous hot trip by bus and taxi ($25. each way) to apply for her replacement card. So we were handed a card with an 800 telephone number on it to further find out if mom is a citizen or not – after having voted in every damn election since 1958 and proudly voting her first time for President Kennedy in 1960!!!
The 800 left us on hold for over one hour, we never got through.
Mom is so distraught, she has become ill.
So America – this is this wonderful country we have. Unless you “report to the government” when you apply for your Social Security benefits and you were not born here, you are STRIPPED of your citizenship!!!
(I am going back tomorrow to the SS office the have it out with them.)
JULY 23rd UPDATE:
Dear all: Thank you all for your emotional and strong supportive comments. ! I went back to Social Security today and saw 2 more people who generally all had the audacity to say (with heavy broken Chinese/English) the same thing no matter what office or position they hold, it is like hitting your head against a brick wall or a bad nightmare you can’t wake up from. They all claim: Her 1958 docume…nt is too old and has to be sent to their offices (who knows where) to be verified. So they are taking a xerox copy and verifying THAT, while we have the original with a government seal in OUR hands! Furthermore, they say it is HER fault for not having known that when she became a citizen that she had to also notify Social Security that she had become an American vs. the other story that she should have “reported to the gov’t” when she retired – huh?!?!!! So – HOW did she get 4 USA passports in her lifetime? How did she get her SS card and benefits? My mother worked for the CEO of Manufacturer’s Hanover Bank, her security clearance was top level to work on the top executive floor-how did she get that?? And now, because of some idiots in the local office here, logic has flown out the window along with her citizenship?!?!?!! AND – they took her social security card away from her! We are left awaiting the pending “investigation”. You do not wish to hear mom’s foul opinion of this country right now, sorry guys…. I will next contact local politicians (NOT fake councilman Jimmy ‘camera ready’ van Bramer) and the news stations. We are emotionally and physically wiped out, mom is still too shakey to leave the house. Thank you ALL for your loving support.
JULY 24 UPDATE:
Social Security-gate UPDATE: They say “write your congressman” – I paid mine a visit! Congressman Joseph Crowley, 14th District, Queens and got results (we hope). I was met by his executive assistant Ms. Madrid whose first reaction was, “What more proof do you need?!”.
These are the facts: Immigration papers “pre computer age” have a different set of numbers and are truly not linked into today’s …Social Security computer system, an astonishing fact considering on the web site Ancestry.com you can look up birth/death/marriage/prison/burial records from the 1700’s! This is a HUGE failure on our government’s part.
Ms. Madrid had my mother sign a letter approving congressman Crowley investigating the matter, and immediately in front of me, called Social Security herself. You could hear the woman at the Social Security offices saying “Absolutely not! Absolutely not!”
MOM WAS AND STILL IS A NATURALIZED UNITED STATES CITIZEN ! !
The local office here, has to have someone physically look up the records (who knows where) and verify it’s her, despite the fact she is in their system and despite the fact we had alllllll the proof in the world. The entire situation comes down to (no racism intended) poor English and bad attitude. What should never, ever have been said to her, (twice!) is that she is not a citizen in the SS computer system – that is the result of poor translation on Chinese American women working at the office. Maybe it is their incorrect translation, maybe it was because we saw them at the end of the day and they were both in a foul mood, but either way we received (indirectly) an apology from the congressman, a confirmation of citizenship today, and told instead of the 4 week “research/waiting time”, it will just be the standard 2 week period for her.
In the meantime, our wonderful local WPIX11 TV news station, with the help of friend and their reporter Greg Mocker offered to help if, after 2 weeks there are no results.
Once again, mom and I thank you ALL for your quite passionate support !
God bless America . . .
These are the facts: Immigration papers “pre computer age” have a different set of numbers and are truly not linked into today’s …Social Security computer system, an astonishing fact considering on the web site Ancestry.com you can look up birth/death/marriage/prison/burial records from the 1700’s! This is a HUGE failure on our government’s part.
Ms. Madrid had my mother sign a letter approving congressman Crowley investigating the matter, and immediately in front of me, called Social Security herself. You could hear the woman at the Social Security offices saying “Absolutely not! Absolutely not!”
MOM WAS AND STILL IS A NATURALIZED UNITED STATES CITIZEN ! !
The local office here, has to have someone physically look up the records (who knows where) and verify it’s her, despite the fact she is in their system and despite the fact we had alllllll the proof in the world. The entire situation comes down to (no racism intended) poor English and bad attitude. What should never, ever have been said to her, (twice!) is that she is not a citizen in the SS computer system – that is the result of poor translation on Chinese American women working at the office. Maybe it is their incorrect translation, maybe it was because we saw them at the end of the day and they were both in a foul mood, but either way we received (indirectly) an apology from the congressman, a confirmation of citizenship today, and told instead of the 4 week “research/waiting time”, it will just be the standard 2 week period for her.
In the meantime, our wonderful local WPIX11 TV news station, with the help of friend and their reporter Greg Mocker offered to help if, after 2 weeks there are no results.
Once again, mom and I thank you ALL for your quite passionate support !
God bless America . . .
News media and senators next . . .
PHOTO OF THE DAY: GERMANY 2014 WORLD SOCCER CHAMPIONS
PHOTO OF THE DAY: GERMANY 2014 WORLD SOCCER CHAMPIONS – JAWOHL ! ! !
Photo of the day: This morning’s subway breakfast is now being served . . .
Photo of the day: This morning’s subway breakfast is now served . . . bagels, assorted fruits, coffee and fresh orange juice. You never know what to expect in a NYC subway 🙂
Photo of the day: Gay Pride means…never being too old to wear your favorite blue sparkly dress
Photo of the day: Gay Pride means…never being too old to wear your favorite blue sparkly dress
Photo of the day: Gay Pride means . . . never being too old to stand up for your rights
Photo of the day: Gay Pride means . . . never being too old to stand up for your rights
Photo of the day: WAKE ME WHEN IT’S TUESDAY…
Photo of the day: WAKE ME WHEN IT’S TUESDAY… Monday morning blues
Photo of the day: HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER!
Photo of the day: HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER! – Slowly melting ice cream cones, bright colored beach balls, warm sand between your toes, the smell of the ocean, the smell of sun tan oil, swinging in your hammock, fishing on your favorite lake, looking for sea shells, flip flops, big summer hats, warm summer rains, night time base ball games, Nathan’s hot dogs on the board walk, your new cool shades, 4th of July fireworks, girls in bikinis – lifeguards in Speedos, the sound of children playing in a fountain, kiddie pools, back yard barbeques, late night sunsets and the smell of night blooming honeysuckle in the air. Happy summer! Make it a good one to remember! 
Photo of the day: A HEEL IN NEED OF A SOLE
Photo of the day: A HEEL IN NEED OF A SOLE – Ok, I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve seen people beg for travel money, beer money, drug money, food money or just the food or cigarettes, etc. . . but begging for money for new shoes because your feet hurt – – – well then why isn’t almost every woman in town sitting next to him?!?!? “Need money for more comfortable Pradas”, “Low on Louboutins”, “Need a new pair of wedgies”, “Brother can you spare a Croc?” “Hungry for Harley boots.”
Photo of the day: BABY JANE HUDSON LIVES!
Photo of the day: BABY JANE HUDSON LIVES! – Walking along Abingdon Square in Greenwich Village I came across that unmistakable shock of white unkempt damaged hair, tiny little old lady frame and the dark sunglasses to hide behind. There she was, listening to big band music outside of Injera Restaurant. Perhaps she was humming her favorite tune….”I’ve written a Letter to Daddy…”
(For those of you too young, the reference is the scenery chewing performance by Bette Davis as a fading demented film star in the 1962 film “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?”)
Injera Restaurant for Ehtiopian Fusion food with a flair: http://injeranyc.com/
Photo of the day: MM = MACY*S + MARILYN
Photo of the day: MM = MACY*S + MARILYN – As part of department store Macy*s current Americana theme, the flagship store in Herald Square has been decorated with giant banners of what they feel is ‘Americana’. Mount Rushmore, hot dogs, apple pie, the American flag and…Marilyn, the eternal all American girl!
America = the Grand Canyon, light houses and Marilyn!
NEW YORK CITY - IN THE WIT OF AN EYE 