
By Carol Tannenhauser
Monday, February 20, 2023
Morning clouds followed by afternoon sun. High 58 degrees.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events! Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner to look.
We call the third Monday of February Presidents’ Day, but it is still officially Washington’s Birthday since “neither Congress nor a President has ever stipulated that the name of the holiday be changed.” Washington’s Birthday was celebrated on February 22 until 1968 when Congress passed the Monday Holiday Law to provide “uniform annual observances of certain legal public holidays on Mondays.” More three-day weekends would “bring substantial benefits to both the spiritual and economic life of the Nation,” they said. They were half right. Searching Presidents’ Day turns up no sermons, but a ton of sales. Then again, for some shopping is a spiritual experience. (You know who you are.) Most retail stores are open, while offices, schools, banks, and post offices are closed.
News
While other states have been banning books and courses on African-American history, New York City’s preeminent performing arts center has been working on a project to review and reveal the most uncomfortable aspects of its own founding story — and commemorate what was lost. For Lincoln Center to be built in the 1960s, a thriving community of mostly Black people called San Juan Hill was razed in the 1950s. The story of that neighborhood — known as “Black Bohemia” — is told on Legacies of San Juan Hill, a website so extensive they’re calling it a “digital hub,” which went live last week. Through archival photographs and audio, interviews with former residents, and scholarly essays, it “tells how more than 7,000 families and 800 businesses were displaced by ‘urban renewal’ as the plans for Lincoln Center became reality,” wrote The New York Times. “’We called it ‘urban removal,’ T.S. Monk, the drummer and son of the jazz pianist Thelonious Monk [a former resident] said in an interview for ‘Legacies.'” “It’s a central place for all this information that is expected to grow over time,” said Rosie Marinelli, a spokesperson for Lincoln Center. “We invite you to enjoy exploring content years in the making.” Here’s the link.
In the category of “For Every Kind of Apartment Pet,” Curbed named Upper West Side pet store Petqua, on W. 98th & Broadway, The Best Pet-Supply Store in New York. “In addition to the usual supplies, Petqua stocks crickets and roaches to feed geckos, cages for parakeets, hay for rabbits, and aquariums filled with red-eyed tree frogs and royal pleco fish.”
“The principal of Manhattan’s renowned LaGuardia High School is stepping down next month following a controversial tenure,” according to the New York Post. Yeou-Jey Vasconcelos, 41, “known for her own musical talents, has been sharply criticized by some parents who argue she was dumbing down the academic standards.” One parent said Vasconcelos was “never really on board with the mission of the school” that “balances both instruction in the arts and academics.” Neither, apparently, was her predecessor who “left amid backlash for pushing academic rigor too strongly.” Vasconcelos’ successor has not been named.
“A red menace is stalking Upper West Side motorists,” especially on Riverside Drive, the Post also reported. Since the Rag covered the first incident on February 8, more parked cars have been vandalized with lines and squiggles of red spray paint. “’Somebody’s unhappy and they want other people to feel as unhappy as they feel,’” said local mechanic Bill Boynton, who had five of the graffitied cars dropped off at his Boynton Auto Body shop.” “It’s always a problem parking on Riverside — it’s not very well lit,” Officer Sarah Frankel of the 24th Precinct told the Post.
Finally, Gray’s Papaya was featured in the Wall Street Journal’s Time Capsule series, which spotlights places that have remained remarkably the same over the years. “The plastic pineapples and bananas that originally hung from the ceiling have been replaced by crepe-paper versions, but little else has changed. Nick calls WCBS-FM the sound of New York, and it’s been playing since the day we opened,” said Mrs. Gray, who began managing the business five years ago after Mr. Gray was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The illuminated Gray’s Papaya sign still beckons with its bamboo-style lettering; handwritten signs like ‘Papaya Drink. Made from the Aristocratic Melon of the Tropics’ paper the walls.”
Happy Presidents’ Day!
(Thanks to Joy and Susanne for the tips.)
One thing has changed –the taste of the papaya drink is nothing like it used to be, and the change is not for the better. Alas…
I wish your article had mentioned what year Grey’s actually opened.
“NYC’s Iconic Hot Dog, Since 1973” according to http://www.goldbelly.com/grays-papaya
Way back in the late 60’s there was already a different hot dog and drink place already on that spot.
Why do you have to say that people are “Banning courses on African-American history.” That’s the sort of language that makes people go crazy and think the world is racist. No one is banning courses on African-American history. It’s important to teach the good, the bad, and the ugly history, but one version of history as truth is wrong, and that is what is starting to happen. We are not a racist county. We have racist people here, and we are not perfect or near perfect. But most of us are pretty decent people and want our next generation to be tolerant, educated and open-minded. Not full of hate, distrust, and thinking the world is against them and is racist towards them.
When you feel have to justify people who are outraged at the mere suggestion of asking our country to explore its history from more than one angle (even though that is what good historians do) that’s the sort of language that makes people go crazy and think the world is racist
“…but one version of history is wrong” Take a beat PUWS-we have been exclusively learning about one version: white men’s lives written about by white men since we stepped on this land. Did you really think white guys did it all? Granted they kept us ALL down ( inclusive of women) for as long as they could and continue to do so. So pardon if there are revisions to the the way the story is told and it’s uncomfortable. It’s a long time in coming.
They said it because it’s true.
Please cite one. Be sure to distinguish “history” — a recitation of facts that happened in the past — from “advocacy”, a proposal for actions one would like to see happen in the future.
When have history courses been banned?
Not in this state, but in red states like Florida, etc. It is happening in GOP controlled states.
Actually, we have a long history of official racism, including laws mandating segregation at state levels and federal laws written to exclude large numbers of black peoples from programs and protections granted to whites (federal mortgage programs, labor laws excluded heavily black occupations, etc).
Were you taught that? And what makes you think that teaching this would cause hatred and distrust?
I think the history makes it very clear that African -Americans have been discriminated against. However, the question is why a separate course is required? Isn’t it a part of American history?
American History does not accurately break down the system of chattel slavery and how every opportunity for descendants of the African slave trade were stymied by federal government policy; on both a macro and micro level. Furthermore it does not break down how wealth was distributed from the labor of the slaves and their indentured relatives during reconstruction, and how the descendants of those who inherited it still thrive today. It does not accurately break down racial injustice in housing, medicine, music/art, education, economics, psychology, sociology, and politics. We read about Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Martin Luther King jr. and that’s about it. There’s a reason people are scared of the truth, the real truth, because it would have every one of us examining our place in society and how manipulated our legacies have all been.
We also have history of civil rights violations of Jewish Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans. Should we also create and mandate history courses on these subjects?
History classes that cover discrimination teach the difference between legally mandated discrimination and the discriminatory behavior of private actors.
And as a member of one of those groups mentioned by you, I can state with positive assurance that anyone who equates the treatment that my forefathers received with the treatment of blacks in America doesn’t know American history.
There are some very dark chapters in the history of “others” in America. The Chinese Exclusion Act, the Crescent City Lynchings, Wounded Knee, the Osage Indian Murders … the imprisonment of doctors trying to liberate women, the imprisonment of gays … the list goes on and on. Was it “as bad” as slavery? No, but only if you weren’t the one hanging from a rope. But sadly, there were plenty of people hanging from ropes and victims in all sorts of heinous acts. The largest mass lynching in America was of Italian immigrants in New Orleans. History should not be a comparative exercise.
Yes, we should. But remember only one group in American History were bred like cattle and were lynched in the thousands for crimes such as supposedly looking at someone wrong. You aren’t fools so don’t act like it. It’s a waste of all of our time and does a disservice to all groups who experienced discrimination in this country. When the most marginalized of us are free, we are all free. I dare you to examine the history of white supremacy and see how if it didn’t exist, slavery of black folks along with anti semitism and discrimination of Irish and Mediterranean people wouldn’t have happened as well.
“You aren’t fools so don’t act like it?” You can’t argue without insulting someone? And of course WSR published it because it only censors inconvenient comments while passing insults and derogatory comments through.
Can’t win on the merits? Pivot to tone policing.
There’s no better way to shut down a discussion than to suggest that anyone with a different viewpoint is acting like a fool.
” I dare you to examine the history of white supremacy and see how if it didn’t exist, slavery of black folks along with anti semitism and discrimination of Irish and Mediterranean people wouldn’t have happened as well.”
Anti-semitism long precedes slavery of Black people in America. It doesn’t diminish the evil of slavery to acknowledge that. Statements like yours are one of the reasons people have concerns about the new teachings on African American history.
No thanks Paul. I’m with PragmaticUWser.
Paul is correct on the facts…
A NYC pet store that stocks roaches. Thanks for the laugh!
Re: “Yeou-Jey Vasconcelos,..criticized by some parents who argue she was dumbing down the academic standards.” and “her predecessor who faced “backlash for pushing academic rigor too strongly.”
You have to love this Damned-if-you-do / Damned-if-you -don’t attitude!
Good luck, young teachers!
Just to be clear, people were relocated, not just put out on the street, like they did in the 1970s when they closed down all the SROs.
and the cross Bronx Expressway displaced Jews. Robert Moses did it to everybody
When the Cross Bronx Expressway sets up a “digital hub” about who it displaced, be sure to let us know. This exhibit is at Lincoln Center, the place that displaced San Juan Hill.
The hostility on here to giving the smallest inch to reckoning with what happened to Black Americans for generations is nauseating.
Petqua is our go-to store for our pooches. We like the personal service from the lovely owners.
Had to move away from our home at 76th and B’way but I cannot get used to not being near my beloved Grey Papaya. Going cold turkey is rough.