Monday Bulletin: Racism in Private Schools, Milton Glaser Dies, Two Couples ‘Do It,’ Pandemic Style, Cantilever Controversy
Haircut in Riverside Park. Photo by Randy Enochs.
June 29, 2020 Weather: Sunny, with a high of 86 degrees.
Notices:
Our calendar is full of events you can enjoy from home.
News:
Revelations on Instagram of systemic racism within some of NYC’s most elite private schools have led to an apology and attempts at reconciliation at one school on the Upper West Side, NBC reported. “Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School Head, Dr. William M. Donohue, said Wednesday that the accounts of racism on @truecolorsofcolumbia, from students being called a racial slur by other students to being racially profiled by members of the staff, are ‘sobering and shocking’ but the school is listening.”
Milton Glaser, the graphic designer and co-founder of New York magazine, who lived in the West 67th Street Artists’ Colony Historic District until 2007, died Friday, on his 91st birthday. “‘I ♥ NY,’ his logo for a 1977 campaign to promote tourism in New York State, achieved even wider currency (than his Bob Dylan album cover). Sketched on the back of an envelope with red crayon during a taxi ride, it was printed in black letters in a chubby typeface, with a cherry-red heart standing in for the word “love.” Almost immediately, the logo became an instantly recognized symbol of New York City, as recognizable as the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty,” wrote The New York Times. “I’m flabbergasted by what happened to this little, simple nothing of an idea,” Mr. Glaser told The Village Voice in 2011.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter takes a humorous look at hooking up with another couple, pandemic style, in the Daily News. “Before we arrived at their Upper West Side apartment building, Chris and Cary were taking bets we might not show. It did cross my mind. I was terrified they would insist we do it their way on their rooftop — which would have meant a foursome thisclose, cheek to masked cheek in a wood-paneled elevator the size of a broom closet. I was prepared to stand my ground and say: ‘We don’t do that!’”
Residents around 91st Street and Broadway are mounting a battle against the Michael Dell-backed construction of a 19-story condominium with a catch — it has a cantilever extending over the three-story Equinox gym nextdoor that is contrary to the neighborhood’s “aesthetic,” the neighbors argue. “Although members of the group have yet to see the renderings of the project, they are so determined to stop it that they braved the pandemic to gather the signatures of 350 neighbors on a petition seeking to stop it,” Crain’s reported. “They also filed a zoning challenge, saying it’s violating city building codes, which the developer denies.” We last wrote about it here.
91st & Broadway is an ugly and run down stretch. A developer comes along and wants to put in a clean and modern building and building in this spot and a bunch of malcontents are complaining that this goes against the neighborhood’s “aesthetic”.
Unbelievable. I don’t know what legal grounds they have to oppose this building.
Thank you for the informative article.
However, please do not call certain private schools, such as Columbia Grammar and Prep, “elite.” That term smacks of classism and, as such, subtly upholds the existing order with all its prejudices and oppressions. Private schools, such as Collegiate, Trinity, Spence, Brearley, Trevor, and the others, should be described as what they objectively are: “expensive,” or “very expensive.”
Reporters should not be publicists or shills for these expensive and very expensive schools. (And, yes, I am aware of the many full and partial scholarships that these schools grant, and I am glad that they do so.)
Still in all, “elite” should go.
That’s what they are. If you feel that’s a problem then you should be aware that you can’t simply get rid of a problem by getting rid of a word.
Language creates.
The article specifically states that this is happening ‘within some of NYC’s most elite private schools…’
Whether or not you consider Columbia Grammar and Prep to be part of that group is beside the point, because it was the head of that school who spoke up and said, ‘we are listening.’ Be thankful for that, because not all of the heads of the private girls schools are owning up to the racial discrimination that has been going on for years.
Uh Steven,
The point called. Said something about missing it?
Rest In Peace, Milton Glaser.
Readers of the WSR might be interested in knowing, if they weren’t already aware, that Glaser and his design firm were hired to create to the opening sequence to “You’ve Got Mail”, including a digital Apple Savings Bank. Below is an interview with him and his co-creators discussing the credits.
https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/youve-got-mail/
Thanks so much for the link, Merrill, that’s one of my favorite movies and love Milton Glaser’s work!
If you follow the taxi in the opening sequence of “You’ve Got Mail,” it turns left from Broadway onto 79 Street which is shown as one may.