Morning Bulletin: Homicide Update, Ambitious Teenagers, An ‘Affordable’ Townhouse
Stroller rally outside Monica & Andy’s. Photo by Keith Marder.
October 29, 2018 Weather: Cloudy, with a high of 59 degrees.
Notices:
A Karaoke sing along and more local events are on our calendar.
News:
The neighbor considered a “person of interest” in the homicide of Susan Trott on West End Avenue was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at a hospital. “Detectives recovered evidence in another apartment in the same building,” the Daily News reported. Trott had drawn the ire of some people. “‘People were threatening to kill and hurt her,’ said Stephanie Lee, a friend of hers from the neighborhood. Trott started a petition seeking people who supported her pigeon-feeding hobby, and was often referred to as the “bird lady,” Lee said. She also helped with gardening and maintenance at nearby Joan of Arc Park, Lee explained.” Adweek also wrote about Trott’s history in the advertising industry.
Teenage twins at the Dwight School are working on ambitious projects. One helps refugees in Greece, and the other designs prosthetics.
Famed composer Ned Rorem recently turned 95. “Rorem’s twilight is passing quietly at his apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. With daily help from his niece Mary Marshall, he takes walks in Central Park, plays his music on the piano and does crossword puzzles. (With first and last names that lend themselves to crosswords, Mr. Rorem has appeared countless times as a clue in The New York Times’s puzzle. “It’s the only one I can get,” he joked.)”
A UWS townhouse is asking “only” $4.8 million. “Currently asking $4.795 million, it’s a house in one of the city’s most beloved neighborhoods with plenty of room for living, and it rings in at far less than the average luxury condominium, where you probably wouldn’t even get a sunken garden and a magical third-floor terrace.”
That isn’t really an update on Sue Trott. The neighbor has been in the hospital since it happened. I keep checking the news to see whether they have charged the neighbor. It is hard to believe anyone would kill someone for feeding the pigeons, no matter how much it contributed to the rat problem – I would hope suing, reporting to the Department of Health or some sort of non-violent protest would be the approach.
Intolerance has taken hold, even here on the UWS.
I am consistently shocked by the outrage expressed against anyone who is not exactly like some individual Commenters. Examples include homeless, poor and minorities who try to get access to this neighborhood’s schools.
Intolerance is expressed in many ways here.
contrary to what some believe, Dannyboy and I don’t always agree.
But we are both long time West Siders, and thus, i have the exact same reaction as DannyBoy to many of the postings on WSR. I never lose my shocked reaction at the level of intolerance and downright ignorance that is on display from many on this site. what has become of the UWS? is it because anonymous social media brings out the worst in people?
The West Side Rag has not done justice to Susan Trott’s life.
By all appearances, this was an exceptional woman, community minded, well known, kind and warm-hearted with many interests. She was a trail-blazer as a woman in her industry, an expert in her field, a lover of animals. Those i have spoken to who knew her personally spoke in superlatives.
She was brutally murdered in her own house.
The New York Times and Adweek have both published articles that detailed much about her life. Adweek, for example, gave a glowing review of her career in the advertising industry. the NY Times articles included the following named quotations:
“She was fun and a little crazy, and she was very smart and great at what she did,” Ms. Thomas, who lives in South Carolina, said in a phone interview. “She was somebody I looked up to.”
“… Ms. Lee said Ms. Trott was always cheerful. She would often stroll her white bulldog in a baby carriage because he had trouble walking.”
“You couldn’t miss her,” Ms. Lee said. “She was kind of from like a movie.”
“Ms. Lee recalled a time she spotted Ms. Trott at Riverside Park, the bronze statue of the French heroine towering over her petite figure. Ms. Trott stretched her arms. Suddenly, four birds swooped in to perch, two on each arm.”
***
And yet, while there have been many positive comments from readers who knew Ms. Trott, the actual coverage in WSR has been overall weighted towards the negative comments of one person, who apparently had a grudge against Ms. Trott. By the way, i wouldn’t take all his negative stories about her at face value. She is not here to defend herself.
Why has the WSR not given her a full bio? Her life and 30 year presence in the community certainly deserves one.
Hear hear!
Let me preface my comments by saying that her murder is horrible and I feel very badly for Ms. Trott and she did absolutely nothing that led her to deserve such a fate. It is a very scary world we live in.
I have a friend who lived in the building and knew her in passing. She was by nature a fairly pleasant person. But she was also quite divisive. People asked her repeatedly to change her behavior and she stubbornly refused, even though it impacted the lives of many.
It is fair to describe her as “the lady who fed the pigeons” because that was a distinguishing characteristic. If you lived nearby that is likely how you would remember her in the sea of anonymous faces that is NY. She clearly did many wonderful things in her life and those should be celebrated and publicized, and my sympathies are with her friends and family.
Again, her eccentricities did not merit her fate. Hopefully her killer will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law – much as Ms. Trott’s eccentricities do not merit her death, her killer should not be excused from responsibility due to any of her illnesses.
May Ms. Trott rest in peace.