PORTRAIT OF A NEIGHBOR: MARIAN RIVMAN

Editor’s Note: As part of a regular West Side Rag series, artist Michelle Hill will interview and paint/draw an Upper West Sider. This is the third in that series. To see the full series, click here.

Marian Rivman was born in the Bronx.

When did you move to the Upper West Side?

I moved the day before Thanksgiving in 1968, which was a stupid time to move given how crazy the Upper West Side is during the holiday. I had recently returned to New York after serving two years in the Peace Corps in the Philippines and six months traveling home via the Far East, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Despite the fact that my parents had kept my bedroom in the Bronx intact while I was gone, it was my intention to move to Manhattan as soon as possible.

Why did you move to the Upper West Side?

I’d been staying with my best friend who had an apartment on West 83^rd Street. It was a seriously seedy neighborhood at the time; Columbus Avenue was neither stylish nor safe. My friend’s apartment had been robbed multiple times and she was having a new lock installed. The first thing the locksmith said was “What are two nice girls doing in a place like this?” He was the super of a building on West 68^th Street and said there was a one-bedroom apartment available. We signed the lease the next day. My friend left two years later to move to Israel. I remained and am part of a dwindling breed of New Yorkers who live in rent-stabilized apartments. Having a reasonable rent has given me a great deal of flexibility in my life. I’ve been able to pick and choose my work and I’ve traveled extensively.

What have you been doing since?

I have had several professional incarnations. I was a manpower development specialist and designed training programs to help people get off welfare and into the workforce; I managed a Puerto Rican rock band on the Lower East Side; I was an account executive at a large advertising agency (my Mad Men moment); and I had a business that recruited subjects for consumer research studies. For the last 30 years, I have been a public relations consultant with an eclectic client roster that included the trade association for the scuba diving industry, Fortune 500 companies, bold-faced names and UN agencies, programs and world conferences. I’ve been there, done that and have given away the T-shirts.

What do you love about the Upper West Side?

When I first moved in, it felt quintessentially New York. The neighborhood was diverse, the people were friendly and there were lots of shops owned by local entrepreneurs. It’s an incredibly convenient place to live. You can walk to the theater, Central Park is down the block, and public transportation is readily available.

What do you miss about the old Upper West Side?

Since I moved to the neighborhood, it has been on a non-stop trajectory of development. For years, I woke to construction noise as high-rise buildings went up around mine. For the most part, I embraced the changes they brought. The Loews multiplex was a welcome addition, I joined the Reebok Club before it opened and I’m a huge fan of Trader Joe’s. However, the cost of commercial and residential real estate has reached astronomical levels. For all the time I’ve lived in my apartment, there was a supermarket on the corner. Now the Food Emporium is closed. That they left because it was more lucrative to sell their long-term lease than to sell food speaks volumes about the economics of the Upper West Side.

What needs to be done for the Upper West Side?

It would be great to have a couple of buildings with compact, mini apartments that the mayor is promoting so that young people just starting out and seniors can afford to live on the Upper West Side. I feel fortunate that thanks to rent stabilization I can remain in the neighborhood. I think if I told my friends I was going to give up my apartment, they’d stage an intervention.