tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28594460712401539232024-03-13T14:04:42.192-04:00Noticing New YorkNoticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.comBlogger579125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-10828130099516960412023-12-24T17:07:00.000-05:002023-12-24T17:07:12.863-05:00Noticing New York 2023 Seasonal Reflection<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMUM_uYUTpPqJ2AAf_qw-VuYMGpJgmVQEBqBn4oyc6WHHgFP58_ppCPHMt0RmkaLVi1J7HhWrDCDxlIB__gziqUfgEEaMiYB-hjN7WwLk69D2uPwsr6BEjcQ8HkHUtFD7hbDRyJ2dkw3sRHeBc9IxgCV6PY5wFaZ3B792qN7PvxBZnJBBeDUzVXtc1Sw8/s2195/Angel%20Kite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1700" data-original-width="2195" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMUM_uYUTpPqJ2AAf_qw-VuYMGpJgmVQEBqBn4oyc6WHHgFP58_ppCPHMt0RmkaLVi1J7HhWrDCDxlIB__gziqUfgEEaMiYB-hjN7WwLk69D2uPwsr6BEjcQ8HkHUtFD7hbDRyJ2dkw3sRHeBc9IxgCV6PY5wFaZ3B792qN7PvxBZnJBBeDUzVXtc1Sw8/w400-h310/Angel%20Kite.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> This is Noticing New York's annual seasonal reflection. <p></p><p>In church, just days ago, we sang a Christmas Carol hymn: <span><i><span>"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear."</span></i></span></p><p><span><span>It has in it this line: </span></span><i>"Oh hush the noise of battle strife, and hear the angels sing!"</i></p><p><span><span>Do you believe in angels? Literally, or figuratively?</span></span></p><p><span><i><span>"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear"</span></i><span> started out as a poem.</span></span></p><p><span><span>Here is a poem. I think of it as an angel's song.</span></span></p><p><span><span><b></b></span></span></p><blockquote><p><span><span><b>If I Must Die</b> <br /></span></span></p><p><span><span><i>By Refaat Alareer, beloved Palestinian writer, poet, teacher, and translator.<br /> <br />Refaat was murdered on December 7th by an Israeli airstrike. </i><br /><br />If I must die,<br />you must live<br />to tell my story<br />to sell my things<br />to buy a piece of cloth<br />and some strings,<br />(make it white with a long tail)<br />so that a child, somewhere in Gaza<br />while looking heaven in the eye<br />awaiting his dad who left in a blaze —<br />and bid no one farewell<br />not even to his flesh<br />not even to himself —<br />sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above,<br />and thinks for a moment an angel is there<br />bringing back love.<br />If I must die<br />let it bring hope,<br />let it be a tale.</span></span></p></blockquote><p><span><span>Refaat Alareer taught Shakespeare. <br /></span></span></p><p><span><span>In Palestine the voices of so many are being target for silencing. Journalists are being targeted. Doctors and medical worker are being targeted. The message of such targeting is delivered with awful clarity when their families are targeted and killed as well.</span></span></p><p>Jesus was born in Bethlehem.</p><p>Bethlehem is in Palestine.</p><p>This year the celebration of Christmas is being cancelled in Bethlehem and in Palestine.</p><p>In Bethlehem in a landmark Lutheran church the there is a creche,<a href="https://twitter.com/TheMagnificast/status/1738909674378809615/photo/1"> a nativity scene with the baby Jesus in a keffiyeh, surrounded by rubble</a>. The Palestinian Lutheran minister there, Reverend Isaac Munther, addressed his congregation in front of it.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/22/christmas_cancelled_in_palestine_mitri_raheb">He said</a>:<br /><br /></p><blockquote><i>If Christ were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble. I invite you to see the image of Jesus in every child killed and pulled from under the rubble, in every child struggling for life in destroyed hospitals, in every child in incubators. Christmas celebrations are canceled this year, but Christmas itself is not and will not be canceled, for our hope cannot be canceled.</i></blockquote><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl8IGW8GFYVsX-AB15GPLj9AErwt2DvwLzigLZ6IJF_guj5Ujcz2f6tQSubTmaOmHSUchVgkK2p_rfD2tRvljp01qBaNITKpnXB704swth4G5fiWka7ld1TcRLXT1Mn8QDKTejxJBblYPjGIbO4yw2vAlakqLtvq7fJ3pbECq43Smk1PY98AK49DzzTeA/s1080/Jesus%20RubbleBethlehem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl8IGW8GFYVsX-AB15GPLj9AErwt2DvwLzigLZ6IJF_guj5Ujcz2f6tQSubTmaOmHSUchVgkK2p_rfD2tRvljp01qBaNITKpnXB704swth4G5fiWka7ld1TcRLXT1Mn8QDKTejxJBblYPjGIbO4yw2vAlakqLtvq7fJ3pbECq43Smk1PY98AK49DzzTeA/w400-h241/Jesus%20RubbleBethlehem.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />The lyrics of <i>"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear"</i> were written by a Unitarian minister, pastor Edmund Sears. He wrote it, it's reported, in a time of <i>"personal melancholy"</i> with the the news of revolution in Europe and the United States' war with Mexico fresh in his mind.<br /><br />According to Ken Sawyer <a href="https://www.uuworld.org/articles/came-upon-unitarian-midnight-clear">writing in UU World in 2002</a>: the <i>"song is remarkable for its focus not on Bethlehem, but on his own time, and on the ever-contemporary issue of war and peace."</i><br /><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhieonm4mzAhyi8B09h6hyphenhyphenL9fWt3c9CvPIT0JW7wt5zD16sP3r4gjpIB3HqKM_VBGWuNmelQM374gJJ__f3gmLof0jXvChMbjmnY8GjFxyl-HYIu2TT48Y-ffhz088H8xbBPu27_T57wa4Cswg9oQY3VdFy16-ObvoGkEOvlRHZ-Tsvk8zhKGQX5zKVA44/s2016/Hush%20The%20Noise%20of%20Battle%20Strife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhieonm4mzAhyi8B09h6hyphenhyphenL9fWt3c9CvPIT0JW7wt5zD16sP3r4gjpIB3HqKM_VBGWuNmelQM374gJJ__f3gmLof0jXvChMbjmnY8GjFxyl-HYIu2TT48Y-ffhz088H8xbBPu27_T57wa4Cswg9oQY3VdFy16-ObvoGkEOvlRHZ-Tsvk8zhKGQX5zKVA44/w400-h300/Hush%20The%20Noise%20of%20Battle%20Strife.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Oh hush the noise of battle strife, and hear the angels sing!"</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>In 2019, as part of my seasonal reflection, I wrote beseeching the minister of our Unitarian Universalist congregation for a sermon about peace. Such a sermon has never been delivered. </p><p>Since then, the <i>"peace"</i> sign you see in the picture that I provided below has been removed from the church worship space. It's been placed with the church's historical artifacts.</p>Here, once again, is my 2019 December letter to our minister praying for a sermon on peace, praying, if you will, for peace. Best and blessings to you all this season.<p>
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fra-tJzX79M/XgFt5SGhvJI/AAAAAAAAMWk/Jx8uQevXr0YwMRFbM6MSxDvJM5DAF004wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Peace%2BUnitarian.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1153" data-original-width="1600" height="287" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fra-tJzX79M/XgFt5SGhvJI/AAAAAAAAMWk/Jx8uQevXr0YwMRFbM6MSxDvJM5DAF004wCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Peace%2BUnitarian.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
December 19, 2019<br />
<br />
Re: <i>An Open Letter Requesting A Sermon About Peace</i><br />
<br />
Dear Reverend Ana,<br />
<br />
Last
spring my wife Carolyn and I invested heavily in our congregation’s
fund raising lottery trying to win the prize of choosing a topic for a
sermon you would give. We didn’t win. Had we won, we would have
challenged you with what you might not have found an easy subject,
speaking about Julian Assange, American war crimes, and the U.S. pursuit
of empire. Our choice of subject would not have been be to vex you
with its difficulty, but to ask you to speak to what could be such a
simple concept: Peace. If, these days, conversations about peace are
avoided as difficult, what better than address that difficulty in a
sermon?<br />
<br />
Giving it some consideration, I think that
making a worthy case for a sermon topic is a good a way to gain the
prize of having you speak on a topic we care about, as good a way as
investing in fund raising lottery tickets. Therefore I will try.<br />
<br />
Is
peace a spiritual thing? Is talk about our common humanity, our common
bonds, and about surmounting the blindness that fractures our
relationships a proper thing to address in religious terms? I
acknowledge I’m being obvious here. What I just referred to is supposed
to be basic and elemental to the great faiths.<br />
<br />
I grew
up in the Vietnam War era and I remember churches and church people
taking the lead in saying that the wars we waged in Indochina were
wrong. These days we, as country, are more military extended than
ever. My oldest daughter is now about to be twenty-nine years old. We
had already started bombing Iraq when she was born in January. The war
in Iraq is just one of the perpetual wars that has continued essentially
for the entirety of her life. All of our wars are long now. As
formally measured by some, the War in Afghanistan, with its later
beginning, has surpassed the Vietnam War as our country’s longest war.<br />
<br />
These days the United States <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/01/with-scathing-perpetual-war-letter.html">has been bombing</a>
nine countries, ten if you include, as we should, all of the U.S.
participation in the bombing of Yemen, the other nine countries being:
Mali, Niger, Somalia, Libya, and then, in the Middle East, it’s
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. We have 800 military bases in other
countries. With practically no comment or attention from us, President
Obama opened new military bases across Africa.<br />
<br />
A peace
symbol hangs prominently in our Unitarian Universalist congregation’s
sanctuary where our sermons are given. We begin every Sunday service
singing the words: <i>“let peace, good will on earth be sung through every land, by every tongue.”</i>
Christmas comes every year, and every year we evoke and extol, as is
customary in the Christian tradition, the image of Jesus as the <i>“Prince of Peace.”</i>
In our congregation’s Weaving Social Justice Committee we have
discussed the prospect of rededicating the side chapel within the
sanctuary that is known as the <i>“Peace Chapel”</i> to that cause. In our <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/06/candidate-films-for-social-justice-film.html">list of candidate films</a> for the social justice film series we are working on we have films about the injustice of war. . .<br />
<br />
.
. . But, by and large, we hardly ever actually say anything about peace
or the need to end the perpetual wars for which our country is now
responsible. Has there been any sermon in our sanctuary on the subject
of peace? I can’t recall one.<br />
<br />
I was not at the
Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in June this summer, but I
talked with people who went, and I looked over the multi-day program. I
was told and I saw that there were no sessions on the subject of
peace. Nor was anything said about the antithesis thereof, war,
although we are deeply embroiled in wars to the point that they are
inescapably always in the background our daily American lives.<br />
<br />
Our
congregation through its leaders including members of the social
justice committee is now reaching out to other congregations in our city
and to their social justice actors to coordinate collective activism on
the issues important to all of us. The importance of peace activism
has not been mentioned in those discussions no matter that it is
integrally related to virtually every other issue that is being
discussed of common interest. Has the subject of peace somehow been
tagged as off-limits? Is peace now too controversial to be discussed by
and among religious communities?<br />
<br />
Other social issues
have attracted the attention of organizing Unitarians and have been the
subject of multiple sermons. I understand and support that and among
them are issues like the climate change chaos catastrophe emergency.
The climate emergency is an existential threat to all of humanity. When
the Democratic National Committee ordered that there be no debate
focused on the single issue of climate change– the DNC actually forbade
Democrats from participating in any such debate organized by anyone
else– the case was made that the existential issue of climate is so
fundamental that it is intertwines with and underlies virtually every
other issue that’s important. There are other issues like that; issues
that are inextricably related to society’s other major issues. <br />
<br />
Our
American wars together with the rest of our military interventions that
stoke conflict in other countries are far too often wars which are very
much about the extraction of oil and fossil fuels. Moreover, overall
our wars help keep in place the systems that continue to vandalize our
planet, exterminating its ecosystems. Further, the US military is one
of the <a href="https://fair.org/home/major-media-bury-groundbreaking-studies-of-pentagons-massive-carbon-bootprint/">largest polluters in history</a>, <i>“the single-largest producer of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world,”</i> and that the Pentagon is responsible for between <i>“77% and 80% of all US government energy consumption”</i>
since 2001. The US military is consuming more liquid fuels and
emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries,
polluting more than 140 countries. Obscuring the reporting on this, the
United States, which exempts its military from environmental laws,
insisted on exemptions from reporting of the military emissions of <a href="https://fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin191011Banter.mp3">all countries</a> from climate agreements. The U.S., has itself escaped such reporting by exiting the Paris Climate Accord.<br />
<br />
It
is not clear, but these staggering figures about fossil fuel use
probably don’t include the fossil fuel consumption related to the
initial manufacture of weapons. Consider also that replacement, or
nonreplacement, of what is bombed, burned and incinerated also must
entail substantial additional environmental costs. <br />
<br />
It is not just greenhouse gas emission pollution that the military produces: In 2010, a major story that went <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/2-us-department-of-defense-is-the-worst-polluter-on-the-planet/">largely unreported</a>
was that the U.S. Department of Defense, as the largest polluter in the
world, was producing more hazardous waste than the five largest US
chemical companies combined, and that just some of the pollutants with
which it was contaminating the environment were depleted uranium,
petroleum, oil, pesticides, defoliant agents such as Agent Orange, and
lead, along with vast amounts of radiation. Following our bombings,
birth defects reported in Iraq are soaring. A World Health Organization
survey <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/iraq-records-huge-rise-in-birth-defects-8210444.html">tells us</a>
that in Fallujah half of all babies were born with a birth defect
between 2007 and 2010 with 45 per cent of all pregnancies ending in
miscarriage in the two years after 2004.<br />
<br />
Another thing we face that has been deadening to the human spirit has been the increasing <i>“othering”</i>
of people who we are made to think are different from us. Frequently
now that’s immigrants from other countries who are black or brown.
Often that <i>“othering,”</i> as with Muslims, is stoked in ways that
may cause us to support or tolerate wars in which those others suffer
most and towards whom hostilities are often officially directed. We may
also forget how our wars and military activity push the flow of
populations forcing people to migrate across boarders, as, for instance,
with those leaving Honduras after our country helped bring about the
military coup that replaced the government there.<br />
<br />
Also
basic and underlying so many of our problems are racial, income and
wealth inequality with concomitant inequality in power and influence.
These are things that Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who practiced
ministry through activism and activism through ministry, labored to
eliminate. Not long before he was assassinated, King also began to
speak out against the Vietnam war saying the great challenge facing
mankind is to get rid of war. Before he did so, he carefully weighed
cautions urged on him that as a civil rights leader he shouldn’t do so,
that it would undermine support for his civil rights work, split his
coalition, and that these issues should not be joined together. But
King concluded that the issues were <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/martin-luther-king-hungry-club-forum/552533/">tied together</a> and decided that he would address them on that basis.<br />
<br />
When King expressed his opposition to the war in his very famous “<i><a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm">Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence</a></i>,”
delivered in this city’s Riverside Church, New York City, April 4,
1967, one year to the day before his assassination, he said he was <i>“increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”</i>
He spoke of the disproportionate toll that waging war exacted on the
poor and spoke of the poisoning of America’s soul. . . So it is today.<br />
<br />
War is profitable business. It busies packs of lobbyists who know a great deal more about often <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-pentagon-has-steadfastly-stonewalled-against-making-its-budget-auditable/">secret budgets</a>
than we, as the public, will ever learn. But that profit drains the
resources of our society enfeebling our ability to accomplish so much
else. The Pentagon and military budget is about <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/05/everybodys-realizing-it-now-political.html">57% of the nation’s discretionary budget</a>. If all of the <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-pentagon-has-steadfastly-stonewalled-against-making-its-budget-auditable/">unknowable</a>
black box spending that goes into the Military-Industrial-Surveillance
Complex were included, that percentage could well bump up higher. We
spend more on military spending than the next ten countries combined (or
seven, depending on the year and who calculates), and we spend much
more than all the rest of the countries in the world left over after
that. Of course, much of that spending by other countries is on arms we
supply making the world dangerous. <br />
<br />
We may not fully
know about or have a complete accounting of all the dollars we spend in
these areas, but, in May of 2011 after the U.S. announced that it had
killed Osama Bin Laden, the National Priorities Project calculated that,
<a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2016/11/how-much-do-we-spend-on-our-military.html">as of that time</a>, <i>“in all, the U.S. government has spent more than $7.6 trillion on defense and homeland security since the 9/11 attacks.”</i> Point of reference: a “<i>trillion</i>” is one million millions.<br />
<br />
Just the increase in the military spending in the last two years since Trump came in <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-supermajority-of-americans-want.html">is as much as</a> Russia spends on its entire military budget ($66 billion). Similarly just that increase is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/learning/whats-going-on-in-this-graph-feb-13-2019.html">greater than</a> the entire military budgets of Britain ($55 billion) or France ($51 billion). <br />
<br />
Our
fixated disposition to keep spending more is entrenched: Even Elizabeth
Warren, a senator from Massachusetts who promotes herself as a left
wing progressive, <a href="https://medium.com/the-progressive-edge/progressives-dont-be-fooled-by-elizabeth-warren-d158ffba40fe">voted in 2017</a>
to increase the defense budget by $80 billion, surpassing the $54
billion increase requested by President Trump. 60% Of House Democrats <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/07/14/most-house-democrats-just-voted-for-a-defense-budget-far-bigger-than-trumps/#c11d4576ea0e">voted for</a> a defense budget far bigger than Trump requested.<br />
<br />
Perhaps
most disquieting and insidiously corrupting to our morality and our
souls are the pretexts we adopt to justify going to war and to abide its
horrors, particularly when we leave those pretexts dishonestly
unexamined. The public flailed and many among us continue in their
confusion, unable to sort out that Iraq did not attack the United States
or have weapons of mass destruction before the second war that we
unilaterally and <i>"preemptively"</i> launched to invade that country. Before our first Gulf War attack on that country there were no slaughtered `<i>incubator babies</i>’:
That was just a brazen, cynically staged public relations scam.
Similarly, how few of us know and recognize that Afghanistan did <u><i>not</i></u>
attack the United States on 9/11– We precipitously invaded that country
because the government there was at that time asking that procedures be
followed and proof furnished before it would assist in finding and
turning Osama Bin Laden over to the United States.<br />
<br />
The
foreign country that was most involved in 9/11, and from where almost
all of the men identified as the alleged 9/11 hijackers came, is Saudi
Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the country to which we are selling massive
amounts of weapons (making it that world’s third biggest military
spender) and it is the country with which we are deeply involved
perpetrating war crimes against Yemen.<br />
<br />
In the Vietnam
War, our second longest war, it was the Gulf of Tonkin incident that,
not being what it seemed nor reported to be, was the pretext for war.<br />
<br />
Perhaps
hardest and most challenging to our susceptibilities as caring people
striving to be spiritual and attentive to justice are the pretextual
manipulations to which we are subject in regard to what Noam Chomsky and
Edward Herman spotlighted as the selective <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2018/04/20/worthy-and-unworthy-victims/">distinguishing between</a> <i>“worthy”</i> versus <i>“unworthy”</i> victims. <i>“Worthy”</i>
victims are those who, whatever their number, deserve our outrage and
are a basis for calls for the international community to mobilize toward
war. <i>“Unworthy victims”</i> are those who can die en mass without
attention or recognition like the tens of thousands of Yemeni children
who have died for lack of food, water and medicine because of Saudi
Arabia’s blockade assisted by the U.S.. Often, as with Palestinians
removed from their homelands, these victims are blamed for their own
victimhood. <br />
<br />
Additional layers of pretext pile up when
we encounter journalists and whistleblowers willing to be the messengers
of war crimes. We punish those messengers while, concurrently, there
is no consequence for those who perpetrate the war crimes. Often the
perpetrators are promoted to higher office. That includes those who
illegally torture others to coerce useless, undependable, and <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/06/notes-on-reliability-of-coerced.html">likely false</a> <i>“confessions.”</i> Thus we punish and torture Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning for exemplifying what Daniel Ellsberg called <i>“civil courage.”</i> Thus we vindictively send CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou to prison for disclosing his agency’s torture program. <br />
<br />
Wikileaks,
Julian Assange’s organization has published much that is embarrassing
to the United States and those in power, much of it is particularly
embarrassing to the U.S. military. Wikileaks has never published
anything that was untrue, but the truth of what it has published is
disruptive to the official narratives of the war establishment. That
establishment has been seeking vengeance against and to neutralize
Assange since events in 2010 when in April Wikileaks published
documenting gunsight video footage, under the title of <i>“Collateral Murder,”</i>
of a US drone strike on civilians in Bagdad provided by Chelsea
Manning. The New York Times and Washington Post did not respond to
Manning’s attempts to publish that same footage through them or other
evidence of U.S. war crime in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
Anyone
who wants proof of the pretextual nature of the United States’
persecution of Julian Assange and of the ghastly and sometimes illegal,
abuse of inordinate power against Assange should <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_P9Nj6N58">watch</a> or <a href="https://soundcloud.com/rttv/on-contact-julian-assange-wun-special-rapporteur-on-torture">listen to</a> Chris Hedges June 8, 1019 “<i>On Contact</i>” interview with UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer (“<i>On Contact: Julian Assange w/UN Special Rapporteur on Torture</i>”-
Chris Hedges is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church). The
attacks against Assange began with a highly orchestrated campaign of
character assassination. They have progressed to things far worse.
Both Assange and Manning (who was pardoned from a 35-year sentence after
seven years of confinement that included the torture of Manning) are
now being held in prison, no end in sight, for no crimes of which they
have been convicted. I think we have to agree with the criticism of
this as psychological torture. The continued torture of Manning is an
effort to get at Assange even if that were to involve forcing Manning to
lie.<br />
<br />
The United States wants Assange extradited to the
Unites States to be tried for the crime of practicing journalism that
was unflattering to the United States government. Somehow we have the
highhandedness to conceptualize this journalism to be treason although
Assange is a foreign national. Assange faces no other charges. Under the
laws pursuant to which the U.S. would try him, Assange, like the exiled
Edward Snowden, would not be permitted to introduce any evidence or
argument that disclosing illegal U.S. activity or war crimes benefits
the public. It’s said that the United States wants nothing more than a
show trial and I think that must be considered obvious.<br />
<br />
When
Assange sensed in 2012 that trumped up charges in Sweden would be used
as a subterfuge to transfer him to United States custody for such a show
trial he obtained political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
For this, a British judge sentenced Assange and had him serve 50 weeks
in a high security prison for <i>“bail jumping”</i>; that’s just
fourteen days short of the maximum possible sentence, although the
obviously trumped up charges for which Assange had posted bail were
withdrawn, <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/06/disproportionate-sentences-julian-assange-bail-and-extradition/">negating</a> the original bail terms as a result. A <a href="https://soundcloud.com/rttv/on-contact-julian-assange-wun-special-rapporteur-on-torture">normal, typical sentence</a> for bail jumping would have entailed only a fine, in a grave case, a much shorter prison sentence.<br />
<br />
Britain was able to send police officers into enter the Ecuadoran Embassy to arrest Assange for <i>“bail jumping”</i>
and then later hold him, without other charge for pending extradition
to the United States, because of a change in the Ecuadoran government
that was evidently <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/a-tale-of-cocaine-trafficking-sex-crime-charges-extraordinary-rendition-julian-assange/">CIA assisted</a>,
and as the United States was dangling financial aid for that country.
Assange’s eviction from the embassy, along with his being simultaneously
stripped of Ecuadoran citizenship, was done without due process. <br />
<br />
The
persecution of Assange casts a long shadow to intimidate other
journalists, whistleblowers and activists as they themselves are being
intimidated about disrupting the preferred narrative concerning
America’s militarily asserted empire. Other providers of news simply
lay low not reporting things. As neither the New York Times nor the
Washington Post reported it, you may not have heard about the recent <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/11/scary-swat-team-arrest-of-journalist.html">scary SWAT style arrest</a>
of journalist Max Blumenthal by Washington D. C. police hours after he
reported about the United States government funding of the Venezuela
Juan Guaidó coup team. Blumenthal was shackled and held incommunicado
for an extended period. Not long after that the D.C. police went out to <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/11/after-scary-swat-team-arrest-of.html">similarly arrest</a> activist and journalist Medea Benjamin when she publicized the U.S. backing of coups in Venezuela and Bolivia.<br />
<br />
With
silenced journalists, will we, based on unchallenged pretexts, send our
military into to change the government of Venezuela as there is talk of
doing? In Bolivia the coup we sponsored has been successful without
that. Meanwhile, there is talk of pretexts for military actions against
Iran, Russia, North Korea.<br />
<br />
Journalists who still show courage, are <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/10/list-of-journalists-fired-or-self.html">subject to</a>
exile, sometimes self exile, from their journalistic homes, to
alternative media outlets, where, like Assange, they are likely to be
less heard and will be more vulnerable. Journalist Tareq Haddad <a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/12/08/journalist-newsweek-suppressed-opcw-scandal-and-threatened-me-with-legal-action/">just announced</a>
that he resigned from Newsweek because that publication has been
<a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-resignation-of-tareq-haddad-from.html">suppressing</a> a story of his. His story was about the whistleblower
revelations of buried evidence that the supposed 2018 Duoma chemical
attacks by Syrian president Assad on his own people was <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/new-wikileaks-bombshell-20-inspectors-dissent-syria-chemical-attack-narrative">fairly obviously</a>
a concocted fabrication when it was used as a justification for the
U.S. to bomb Syria. Remember our bombings of Syria? The was another in
2017. It was for such bombings of Syria <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cable-news-trump-syria-war-monger_n_58e79d17e4b05413bfe238eb">the press</a> declared that Trump was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boJqQeUknvw">finally</a> <i>`<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/327779-cnn-host-donald-trump-became-president-last-night">presidential</a>,'</i> and, as the cruise Tomahawk missiles launched, MSNBC’s Brian Williams <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/07/beautiful-brian-williams-says-of-syria-missile-strike-proceeds-to-quote-leonard-cohen/">spoke of</a> being <i>“guided by the beauty of our weapons”</i> using the word <i>“beautiful”</i> three times in 30 seconds. <br />
<br />
The
strenuous suppression of these voices like Assange's that would disrupt
official narratives shows how the conduct of war has a tight moral link
to the choices we make to speak out against war and against the
suppression of the voices that oppose war. In his sermon against war at
Riverside Church that day one year to the day before he was killed,
Reverend Martin Luther Kings Jr. said that, <i>“men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war.”</i><br />
<br />
King also said that, when assuming the task of such opposition, it was difficult to break free of the <i>“conformist thought”</i> of the surrounding world. Indeed, with the complicity of a much more <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/05/coming-june-1st-forum-second-where-do.html">conglomerately owned</a>
corporate media than in King’s time, it seems as if there is a
secularly consecrated catechism of what we know we as Americans are not
supposed to say, what we must veer away from and avoid. We subscribe
with almost religious ferocity to the belief that American
exceptionalism justifies all our actions in the world. It feels, as if
in our bones, that we know that to violate this proposition and say
something else would create a rumbling disturbance in the force (you
know, <i>“Star Wars”</i>). Or is our silence, merely something less
profound than that, just the equivalent of what we think would be an
exceptionally super-rude topic to bring up at a family Thanksgiving or
holiday diner?<br />
<br />
Dr. King
correctly foresaw that there would be significant prices he would have
to pay for speaking out against our country’s war. He concluded that he
had to do so, that he had to `<i>break the silence</i>,’ despite the
prices he knew he would have to pay. He felt that doing so was the only
thing he could do and remain true to himself and his causes.<br />
<br />
Ana,
I have no doubt that there would be prices you would have to pay if you
spoke out for peace; if you spoke out against war. I also acknowledge
that there are prices our congregation could face. Relatively recently
the FBI has <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/27/fbi_raids_homes_of_anti_war">raided the homes</a> of public nonviolent peace activists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/activists-cry-foul-over-fbi-probe/2011/06/09/AGPRskTH_story.html">who have</a> long, distinguished careers in public service. (And the FBI has also been investigating <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/14-fbi-surveilled-peaceful-climate-change-protesters/?doing_wp_cron=1576438941.3002710342407226562500">nonviolent climate activists</a> and <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/fbi-racially-profiling-black-identity-extremists/?doing_wp_cron=1576439028.8715651035308837890625">Black Lives Matters activists</a>.)
But I urge you to deliver a sermon about peace because it would be the
right thing to do. Perhaps it could go along with a rededication of our
sanctuary’s Peace Chapel. And, perhaps, if you would give a sermon
like Dr. King gave against our wars, it might do more than just be a
good thing in its own right: It might serve as a model for the ministers
of other congregations who would follow suit.<br />
<br />
Maybe,
as in Martin Luther King Jr.’s day, there can again be a time when
people see the call for peace as a spiritual issue and our church’s,
temples and congregations again take a lead role in calling for peace
and an end to our wars.<br />
<br />
Have I made the subject of
peace sound as if it is complicated? If so, I am sorry. That can be a
problem in itself. At bottom, shouldn’t this all be so simple? Peace,
supporting peace, speaking out for peace. . Something very simple.<br />
<br />
<i>Last night I had the strangest dream</i><br />
<i> I never dreamed before.</i><br />
<i> I dreamed the world had all agreed</i><br />
<i> To put an end to war.*</i><br />
<br />
* From <i>“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream,”</i> by Ed McCurdy- 1950,<br />
a precursor of sorts to <i>“Imagine”</i> by John Lennon and Yoko Ono- 1971<br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
Michael D. D. White<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAW8gU1jbF4/XgJP7YI8uyI/AAAAAAAAMW8/wbEnd1e4TvUlCYBpXpq0BY1CHR12Xy12ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Unitarian%2BPeace.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1600" height="175" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAW8gU1jbF4/XgJP7YI8uyI/AAAAAAAAMW8/wbEnd1e4TvUlCYBpXpq0BY1CHR12Xy12ACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Unitarian%2BPeace.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>
<br />
Here are links to the prior Noticing New York ventures into seasonal
reflection:</p><blockquote class="tr_bq"> • Thursday, December 24, 2009, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-eve-story-of-alternative.html">A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville)</a>,<br />
<br /> • Friday, December 24, 2010, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/12/revisiting-classic-seasonal-tale.html">Revisiting a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville</a>,<br />
<br /> • Saturday, December 24, 2011, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/12/traditional-christmas-eve-revisit-of.html">Traditional
Christmas Eve Revisit of a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville, the Real
Life Incarnation of the Abhorred Pottersville</a>,<br />
<br /> • Monday, December 24, 2012, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/12/while-i-tell-of-yuletide-treasure.html">While I Tell of Yuletide Treasure</a>,<br />
<br /> • Tuesday, December 24, 2013, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-seasonal-reflection-assessing.html">A Seasonal Reflection: Assessing Aspirations Toward Alternate Realities- 'Tis A Tale of Two Alternate Cities?</a>.,<br />
<br />
Wednesday, December 24, 2014, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/12/seasonal-reflections-no-matter-how.html">Seasonal Reflections: No Matter How Fortunate or Not, We Are All Equal, Sharing a Common Journey</a> <br />
<br /> • Thursday, December 24, 2015, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/12/seasonal-reflection-mayor-de-blasio-his.html">Seasonal
Reflection: Mayor de Blasio, His Heart Squeezed Grinch-Small, Starts
Gifting Stolen Libraries To Developers For The Holidays</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq"> • Saturday, December 24, 2016, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/12/noticing-new-yorks-annual-seasonal.html">Noticing New York's Annual Seasonal Reflection</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq"> • Sunday, December 24, 2017, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/12/this-years-seasonal-reflection-yes-we.html">This
Year’s Seasonal Reflection: Yes We Are Now Living In Ratnerville,
Locally and Nationally, And Yet We Hope And Work Towards Something
Differen</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">t</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Monday, December 24, 2018, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2018/12/this-years-annual-seasonal-reflection.html">This Year’s Annual Seasonal Reflection: It Rhymes (But Not With "Reason" or "Season")</a></blockquote><p></p><blockquote> • Tuesday, December 24, 2019 <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html" target="_blank">An
Open Letter To Reverend Ana Levy-Lyons of The First Unitarian
Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn Requesting A Sermon About Peace</a></blockquote><a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html" target="_blank"></a><p></p><p></p><blockquote> • Thursday, December 24, 2020 <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2020/12/noticing-new-york-2020-seasonal.html">Noticing New York 2020 Seasonal Reflection</a> </blockquote><p></p><blockquote> • Friday, December 24, 2021 <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2021/12/noticing-new-york-2021-seasonal.html">Noticing New York 2021 Seasonal Reflection</a> </blockquote><p></p><blockquote> • Saturday, December 24, 2022 <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2022/12/noticing-new-york-2022-seasonal.html">Noticing New York 2022 Seasonal Reflection</a></blockquote><a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2022/12/noticing-new-york-2022-seasonal.html"></a><br /><br />Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-15770690668801334102023-04-01T00:01:00.025-04:002023-04-01T00:01:00.175-04:00Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Will Be Taken Over By Consortium of The City’s Real Estate Families and The New York City Partnership<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWdPRW5bHHoukkfSfD7fhyaAQaN_VUvH04m6vAUss7PC9IdtGOsITLcTvWFAoRkA6fvZBvL_zBSQfREnvN8JPcLvlRKRIc_hH2-iSTDZukwF713HZF0YyS-EgBVQKh5UUKK-dn4P0icyQUd9nflcJblkGph9SflAsWOxeEsKJGyYAJgeRG9td8GC8yQ/s750/Macys-Parade-No-Need-Empire.gif" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOWdPRW5bHHoukkfSfD7fhyaAQaN_VUvH04m6vAUss7PC9IdtGOsITLcTvWFAoRkA6fvZBvL_zBSQfREnvN8JPcLvlRKRIc_hH2-iSTDZukwF713HZF0YyS-EgBVQKh5UUKK-dn4P0icyQUd9nflcJblkGph9SflAsWOxeEsKJGyYAJgeRG9td8GC8yQ/w400-h225/Macys-Parade-No-Need-Empire.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Whatever <i>"floats your boat"</i>-
Will the public be happy with big real estate industry families and the
New York City Partnership taking over the Macy's Parade?<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p>The Macy’s parade must go on! It’s a tradition. Just like <i>“The Show Must Go On”</i> tradition. In fact, it’s the <i>same</i>
tradition. In the early 1990's when Macy’s Department store first
filed for bankruptcy, one of the first things the bankruptcy court judge <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-01-29-fi-1028-story.html">clarified</a>
was that the Macy’s parade would still be held. In fact, later as
Macy’s, through its acquisition by Federated was coming out of bankruptcy that
bankruptcy judge, Burton R. Lifland, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/21/nyregion/judge-rules-for-macy-parade-and-east-river-fireworks.html">wanted a guarantee</a> <i>“etched in some form of stone”</i>
that Macy's traditional Thanksgiving Day parade would continue. And
its Fourth of July fireworks too! The parade is viewed as an essential <i>“gift to the people of New York,”</i> a matter of vital <i>“public interest.”</i> <br /><br />The
Macy’s parade, approaching its centennial has been held every year
since 1924, except for two years during World War II when there was a
helium shortage.<br /><br />In the 1990's the decisions were being made
<i>reactively</i> to quell the suspense by issuing assuring announcements that the
parade would continue despite any financial difficulties on Macy’s
part. Now action is being taken <i>prospectively</i> and <i>proactively</i> so that
the city will never be in suspense about the holding of the parade
again. A group of real estate families is banding together and forming a
working alliance with the Partnership Fund for New York City to take
over the parade so as to assure that the parade will continue no matter
what happens to Macy’s.<br /><br />The real estate families banding together
to take this responsibility with the partnership are the Ross family (Related Companies),
the Roth family and the Zenkendorfs. Speaking for the Real Estate
parade families in an interview, Steve Roth of Vornado said the
following:</p><blockquote><i>You have to be looking ahead on these issues and we have been looking
at Macy’s with a caretaking eye about the future for sometime now. And
the future does not always stay the same; it can shift a lot.<br /><br />In
2007 our family members, Stephen M. Ross of Related Companies and
Steven Roth of Vornado Realty Trust <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/nyregion/06macys.html?scp=1&sq=Vornado+Macy%27s&st=nyt">were negotiating with Macy’s</a> to
improve the prospects for the future by, abandoning its landmark
building so that we could build for it a new home in a state-of-the-art
mall on 33rd street, just across from its 34th street location. That
was to allow Macy’s to put behind it the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/nyregion/06macys.html?scp=1&sq=Vornado+Macy%27s&st=nyt">drawbacks</a> of age and
inefficiencies associated with the musty old hodgepodge structure it’s
been in for far too long. It’s much the same reasoning as applies to
why we <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/12/citizens-defending-libraries-main-page.html">advocate the sale with real estate project rebuilding</a> of our
libraries.<br /><br />That sale and mall creation deal is not what happened
in 2007. It may have been a good thing. The days of big brick and
mortar retail stores may be numbered. The ultimate future for Macy’s
increasingly looks like maybe none at all. Now, as is also inevitably
pointed out (<a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/12/citizens-defending-libraries-main-page.html">also with libraries</a>-while we are on the subject), <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/11/interesting-to-think-that-it-all-began.html">we have Amazon</a>. Also, it’s to be remembered that Macy’s is exactly in the
vicinity of our Vornado Penn Station redevelopment rezoning plan to
replace the existing neighborhood with new towers. Those <a href="https://chelseacommunitynews.com/2021/12/31/while-youve-been-busy-big-real-estate-has-made-some-plans-for-you/">will be </a>Class
A office towers extending the gorgeous glass skyscrapers of the Hudson
Yards complex to the east around Penn Station and Madison Square
Garden. As you know, this will be done in the name of honoring history
with a faithful recreation of the fabled old Penn Station that was
destroyed with a beautiful rebuilding to summon it back from history’s
graveyard.</i></blockquote><p>The real estate families thought about acting on a broader more
collective base through REBNY, the Real Estate Board of New York, but
acting through such an association would have limited opportunities for
swiftly capitalizing on opportunities arising in the future and confuse
claims of branding and ownership. Mr Roth said that they would
nonetheless be looking out for everyone’s real estate interests: For
instance, Broadway, with its theater ownership chains and the hotels
filled by performance hungry tourists, are a big part of the city real
estate scene. The parade annually features enticing Broadway Show
performances as a big part of what it offers <i>and will continue to do so</i>.<br /><br />The
broadening of who is represented with the new management and
responsibility for the parade, and ensuring that the public interest will be represented, will come from the signing on of the
Partnership Fund for New York City and its participation in the events.
Next year and for the immediately foreseeable future the parade will be
retitled as the <i>“Macy’s <u>and More</u> Parade.”</i><br /><br />Why is Macy’s turning
the parade over to this set of new interests? While the parade
obligation can be viewed as an expensive liability, it is also can, and
does, make money. But who knows how much it actually makes or loses when
factored into Macy’s overall profit and loss statements? Speculation is
that the transfer of the parade is a side deal with respect to some
other real estate transaction Macy’s has been involved in. As observed
in a <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/brooklyn-public-library-trustees.html">Citizens Defending Library</a>
post noting that Jeff Gennette- Jeffrey Gennette, named president of
Macy's, Inc., in March 2014, was on the board of the Brooklyn Public
Library- Macy’s is:<br /></p><p></p><blockquote><i>a player when it comes to real
estate. It sold it's Downtown Brooklyn Fulton store (the former
Abraham and Strauss) plus parking facility to Tishman Speyer summer 2015
while signing a major Long Island City lease. In June 2015, the Wall
Street Journal reported (similarly Fortune and Reuters) how Macy’s “owns
some of the world’s most valuable property and is being urged by
investors to unlock that value.” That language sounds strikingly
similar to that being used about libraries, and the Wall Street Journal
article noted how such a move could be harmful to Macy’s core retail
mission</i>. </blockquote><p>Roth said that letting the public be assured,
starting now, about the real estate industry’s continued shepherdship of
the parade will probable help acclimate the public and quell dissent if
there is any subsequent shutdown of Macy’s 34th Street and takeover of
its property for real estate development in the future.<br /><br />Under the
new plans, the real estate industry families are looking to the <a href="https://www.crainsnewyork.com/people/albert-bourla-tapped-partnership-new-york-citys-new-board-co-chair">new Co-Chair</a> of the <a href="https://pfnyc.org/news/partnership-for-new-york-city-announces-pfizers-dr-albert-bourla-as-new-co-chair/">Partnership Fund for New York City, Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla</a>, to serve as the new Grand Marshall of the parade and its
official public relations face. Roth said this should boost the
advertising profile of the parade <a href="https://healthcarefreedomalliance.com/2020/12/02/70-of-news-advertising-now-belongs-to-big-pharma/">since</a> <i>“Pfizer and its sister pharma companies already buy 70% of the advertising putting news on the national airwaves.”</i></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWB5Qp9iX-8tSX4sAAJKpfAhaqxHLj-nJl8ZgQa70zZG5vJ5l9HQzodcVCGS3VCxyuPbb7WmrXZruV7Vvs1Ep8KWRYB3W8QZ35xdYQFnE_egnxb9GiaxTElYk_4DA8px-o0CpFOpGl7jmkq1alU2pd4gPYjHPi8D24a-Jb7SN9ydD-szRi9gcIct9SSw/s1513/PfizerBoulaCoChairPartnership.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1022" data-original-width="1513" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWB5Qp9iX-8tSX4sAAJKpfAhaqxHLj-nJl8ZgQa70zZG5vJ5l9HQzodcVCGS3VCxyuPbb7WmrXZruV7Vvs1Ep8KWRYB3W8QZ35xdYQFnE_egnxb9GiaxTElYk_4DA8px-o0CpFOpGl7jmkq1alU2pd4gPYjHPi8D24a-Jb7SN9ydD-szRi9gcIct9SSw/w400-h270/PfizerBoulaCoChairPartnership.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pfizer head Bourla will be Grand Marshal of future parades<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>NYS Attorney General Tish James is looking at whether there could be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/24/business/top-new-york-official-opposes-macy-s-merger.html?searchResultPosition=3">antitrust violations</a>
involved in the new arrangements. It may be that she is not impressed
by what’s being proposed, and it is not clear that she was serious in
how she responded being told about Dr. Bourla’s role in the parade. She
said:</p><p></p><p></p><blockquote><i>Bourla is a veterinarian. There
are a lot of animals in the Thanksgiving day parade, not just The Care
Bears, but a whole slew. I’m sure that Dr. Bourla will be making sure
that they are all anatomically correct. After all, somebody heading
Pfizer shouldn’t be involved in selling fantasies.</i></blockquote>Roth
said that the future parade would promote the glories of New York real
estate development more directly. One plan underway is for there to be a
balloon float of the beloved Empire State Building tower. It will
point (it will have to pass through the street somewhat lying on its
side) to a <i>“star in the sky,”</i> which will be another float proceeding ahead of it, a bigger grander version of the <i>Macy’s star. . . .</i><br /><br />.
. . But this new float will be one of the parade’s most attention
getting new technological innovations. Using holographic technology and
an interior projection capability the float will be able to transform
itself, back and forth, before the spectators’ eyes: One moment it will
be the 102-story 1931 Art Deco skyscraper pointing to a star, and the
next moment it will be a Pfizer Covid Shot needle chasing after the
shape of a spiked Covid virus ball. <p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvUaisJvqm0y4IelBBeEuh7FKKm9RksU3qGNUEPZTRg-mMA8ooVGL8SKxJxar2L0Erv65wrP0XdwUo8yl5mNgSNQLxkK8l5lbxa4nL5XRRVdfvWB5q4SVar8b5RVVNlhye_DxsZ3bu4LRPd6j7rzpPJk4zOKZW4t7ZEZaA5nm71gyTeKY88lg6hKOxjw/s750/Macys-Holo-Final-With-Need.gif" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvUaisJvqm0y4IelBBeEuh7FKKm9RksU3qGNUEPZTRg-mMA8ooVGL8SKxJxar2L0Erv65wrP0XdwUo8yl5mNgSNQLxkK8l5lbxa4nL5XRRVdfvWB5q4SVar8b5RVVNlhye_DxsZ3bu4LRPd6j7rzpPJk4zOKZW4t7ZEZaA5nm71gyTeKY88lg6hKOxjw/w400-h225/Macys-Holo-Final-With-Need.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Proof of concept prototype rendering<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Next year’s parade will also have several new floats to promote <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/11/interesting-to-think-that-it-all-began.html">Amazon</a>.<br /><br />The
future of the Macy’s parade having been determined, the future of
Macy’s fireworks is still being worked on. It won’t be handled the same
way as the parade. Started in 1976, as the nation's bicentennial was
being celebrated, the fireworks run up an expensive bill.<br /><br />Dr.
Albert Bourla and Pfizer are apparently ready to provide the answer. It
not just based on the fact that Pfizer is awash in cash. In his own
interview Bourla said:<br /></p><blockquote><i>The annual fireworks, the
explosions, the smell of gunpowder propellant in the air, its
accompaniment by big band marching music, obviously works supremely
well as its intended promotion of our military, how our soldiers fought
to achieve <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-fourth-of-july-quashing.html">this nation’s independence</a>
and how, now, how our military works hard to assure that other
countries around the world are run by the Democratic or otherwise better
regimes we think they should be run by.<br /><br />The military has <a href="https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1602337689851858945?lang=en">tons of</a> <a href="https://www.nationalpriorities.org/blog/2021/04/09/biden-2022-budget-raises-military-spending-past-750-billion/">money</a>.
It’s utterly appropriate that the military is offering to work with
Pfizer to fund this annual event. By this time, everybody should know
that Pfzier has a lot of experience working with the U.S. military and
being a conduit for joint operations. Pfizer’s Covid vaccine shots
(like Moderna’s) <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/video/darpa-seeded-ground-rapid-covid-214655580.html">were financed</a>
as countermeasures by the Pentagon and by USAID (a not officially
acknowledged extension of the CIA). It helped our business tremendously
that the gain of function research to create a Covid virus was also
funded by the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9652287/The-Pentagon-funneled-39million-charity-funded-Wuhan-lab.html">Pentagon</a> and by <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/usaid-wont-give-details-on-4-67-million-grant-to-wuhan-lab-collaborator-ecohealth-alliance">USAID</a> and makes complete sense that all of this was done at the same time going back to 2013. . .<br /><br />People
know and understand that the contract we signed with the United Sates
to deliver the Covid shot countermeasures was signed with the Department
of Defense as a military procurement contract under the “Other
transaction authority” associated with DOD contracts ( OTAs) that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuAjGLk4iTQ">exempt the arrangements</a> from that standard laws that could hamper military operations. The military, for instance, made itself available to handle <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/us/politics/coronavirus-vaccine-timeline.html">the logistics of distribution</a> of our shots. And we are good at <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-rumsfeld-makes-5m-killing-on-bird-flu-drug-6106843.html">working with</a> our government agencies when things need to be <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-secrecy-exclusive/exclusive-white-house-told-federal-health-agency-to-classify-coronavirus-deliberations-sources-idUSKBN20Y2LM">classified</a>
as national security issues. That's why it was no problem for us to be
involved on the inside when, in March 2020 was the decision made to
classify Covid information as a national security secret.<br /><br />If
nothing else, let’s give us credit for this: We’ve worked closely with
Tony Fauci and he’s the head honcho in charge of bioweapons research
funded by the Pentagon, I mean since 2002 when the Pentagon started by
funneling <a href="https://youtu.be/GkkApJEvYpI">$2.2 billion through NIH</a> after the PATRIOT Act, Fauci, with the <a href="https://archive.md/uSFSv">68% raise</a> he got from the Pentagon for that purpose, has been the highest paid official in government, the highest ever.</i></blockquote>Professor
of Law Ana Santos Rutschman, whose name was offered to bolster Bourla’s
credibility about Pfizer’s close relations with the
military, confirmed that the DOD’s contracting mechanism, known as <i>“other transaction authority,”</i> or <i>OTA</i>, allows the department to purchase items or services thus enabling the government to move faster. Moreover, she assured that <i>“DOD is always very involved in vaccine R&D,”</i>
so such use of the OTA’s is hardly unprecedented. She said that
deployed American troops must be understood to be inevitably and always at risk in
their service to the country when necessary, which is the reason for the military to be
involved in such R&D. <p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixpfh8a3mz6HBHHDuDVosQWnkYm_9pQ-wEIKRHhVT0_V8L-rBgh8qxa6iKeJ7G2MA1SA4BQoEzSijeh2inK4bNBvdJ9CQ5bTcbyW2oh1bsX7i3vGMVE2olcHQNMgGJ7ojW4nXCV26XYRaVudd0C2jy6XJGkrZJJw-_cZunrCj5sfNhKIGFritFj_U2lw/s478/WarFireworksMacy's%20Fireworks.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="478" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixpfh8a3mz6HBHHDuDVosQWnkYm_9pQ-wEIKRHhVT0_V8L-rBgh8qxa6iKeJ7G2MA1SA4BQoEzSijeh2inK4bNBvdJ9CQ5bTcbyW2oh1bsX7i3vGMVE2olcHQNMgGJ7ojW4nXCV26XYRaVudd0C2jy6XJGkrZJJw-_cZunrCj5sfNhKIGFritFj_U2lw/w400-h263/WarFireworksMacy's%20Fireworks.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Expecting these financing arrangements may go through, a new corporation, the <i>Improved Truth Corporation</i> is being set up to enter OTAs with the military and serve as the conduit for funds. Wulf Matador, new president of the <i>Improved Truth Corporation,</i> says it is, appropriately, getting the seed money to get quickly underway from the Koch Brother <i>Foundation for Improving Truth</i> and the George Soros <i>Truth Improvement Foundation</i>. <p></p><p>Mayor Eric Adams will be holding a rare Saturday press conference today,
<a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/search/label/April%201st">April 1, 2023</a>, with Boula, Roth and the <a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/AboutASPR/ProgramOffices/BARDA/Pages/default.aspx">other involved participants</a> to
more fully brief the press and answer questions about the status of the
plan for the parade and the fireworks' future.</p><p></p>Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-53586530313676920182022-12-24T14:15:00.000-05:002022-12-24T14:15:49.456-05:00Noticing New York 2022 Seasonal Reflection<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbAT4TKFLTLiVLndmTUw4NAF6oZpIrWy2NxLIe7eW20Rmem9PH9aUL2CRk-Dt2OY4EQfzvqWXuIWv-ilu44g7MUvI59oG8hQ790bpEzpGH2mODlrGoetUQSDhF4Kpwyh2jAtz4aBIM-wAr_l_l1_yetsasLe4XTRISy5ueBVKcZGz-VUZcTiKHmQha/s1525/Top%20Down%20View%20of%20New%20York.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="945" data-original-width="1525" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbAT4TKFLTLiVLndmTUw4NAF6oZpIrWy2NxLIe7eW20Rmem9PH9aUL2CRk-Dt2OY4EQfzvqWXuIWv-ilu44g7MUvI59oG8hQ790bpEzpGH2mODlrGoetUQSDhF4Kpwyh2jAtz4aBIM-wAr_l_l1_yetsasLe4XTRISy5ueBVKcZGz-VUZcTiKHmQha/w400-h248/Top%20Down%20View%20of%20New%20York.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Those who want top-down control of the world would encourage us to be either isolated or in conflict with each other. But on this cold, frigid Christmas Eve, those of us willing to be together have each other to keep ourselves warm and hopeful. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div><p>This is Noticing New York's annual seasonal reflection. <br /></p><p>On this Christmas Eve the wandering polar vortex has brought us frigid temperatures here in New York City. It was ten degrees this morning when I first woke up and checked the temperature. We <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/02/libraries-and-climate-change-dangerous.html">attribute</a> these frequent extreme weather events, both extremely icy frigidity and, alternately, sometimes unseasonably balmy warm winter days, to the slowing of the jet stream (caused by climate warming) that corrals the polar vortexes; no longer effectively corralled by less swift winds, the vortexes lose their shape, becoming octopussy and wander out of place.</p><p>But in this cold we have each other to keep us warm. . . that is, if we haven't been driven apart or into conflict or driven just to hole up in self-imposed solitary confinement out of Covidian fear. It's almost 2023 when we will be entering year four of whatever Covid craziness we chose to continue. And there are those for whom it seems it will never be over, who have gone from <i>not</i> wearing masks (placing some kind of hope in them- just what who knows) back to wearing masks <i>again</i>. Mayor Adams' city administration recently told people that that's something they should do.</p><p>But for those of us who are together, who have not been driven apart, or, as I said, into conflict with each other, we have each other to keep ourselves warm and joyful.</p><p>We all now live in a world where people who are seeking to make things increasing top-down controlled try to isolate us. They generate conflict among us and seek to make us suspicious of each other and generally fearful. Conflict is generated, not only here, but also around the world. America is a perpetually warring nation. At the bidding of the powerful we have a thousand military bases around the world. We don't do anything about it.</p><p>In 2019 as Christmas approached, the season where we purport to venerate peace, I wrote an open letter to the minister of our Unitarian Congregation, the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn, requesting a sermon about peace. I pointed out that for as long as we had been attending, since the mid-90s, we'd never had one. It's now the end of 2022, and despite that request we still have never had one.</p><p>My letter request, still relevant, is reprinted again further on in this post.</p><p>That was 2019. In the Covid lockdown craziness era the Unitarian congregation has gone on to exclude from its premises of <i>`welcoming'</i> worship anyone who has not had the Covid spike manufacturing injections and anyone who does not wear a mask. The church is using its influence demanding these things of the congregation's children as well. . . . I wonder about the lost art of whistling. You can't whistle <i>"Jingle Bells"</i> of <i>"Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel"</i> with a mask on. I wonder if people will remember how to whistle when they stop wearing masks? Have you noticed the how you've heard less whistling in the past three years? <br /></p><p>. . . . Of course, you can't share your smiles either. All your facial expressions <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2020/04/as-digital-technology-steps-in-to-help.html">are covered up</a> and hidden. No wonder we feel suspicious of each other and feel more alone and apart.</p><p>Did I say that those of us socializing and not driven apart have each other for warmth, including emotional warmth? Julian Assange is still being held incommunicado and being tortured in a high security British prison, Belmarsh, Britain's Guantanamo.</p><p><a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2021/12/noticing-new-york-2021-seasonal.html">Last year's seasonal reflection</a> we wrote about Julian's imprisonment on trumped up charges he hasn't been convicted of and should never even be rightfully tried for. Julian has never been mentioned during a Unitarian service of our congregation. It's Julian who has said, different times in slightly different ways: <i>"If wars can be started by lies, then peace con be started by truth."</i></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiP7YeP4XKo1HoPoXd_55thL5u8iP7jxxudKtL7A2ffWoWGc0j_aoBM9qG2l2tqW7MWZbxTOSOMHgMOANOYv8n8_aEbezqYJPzKbOZghtX65G_VfPOlAnOlpgLy3vdoFKNBv2rL3acsRSNAUcNA3JkFZHXuMl61qU6C-XzfKiMBpdgin6CU8kg_vTuK=s624" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="424" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiP7YeP4XKo1HoPoXd_55thL5u8iP7jxxudKtL7A2ffWoWGc0j_aoBM9qG2l2tqW7MWZbxTOSOMHgMOANOYv8n8_aEbezqYJPzKbOZghtX65G_VfPOlAnOlpgLy3vdoFKNBv2rL3acsRSNAUcNA3JkFZHXuMl61qU6C-XzfKiMBpdgin6CU8kg_vTuK=w271-h400" width="271" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julian Assange at Christmas- The center image from the <a href="https://assangedefense.org/weeklyleaks/">WeeklyLeaks site and magazine</a>- Julian, in his prison cell, chained cannot reach the keyboard to give us truth.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> Let's stand together and share truth as we are warm and convivial together.</p><p>I still subscribe to the New York Times. I get it to know where the propaganda is headed. The Times is always in the lead. Once upon a time it was called the <i>"good grey Times."</i> That does not mean that it was accurate then as it cheered on various wars and conflicts such as what was called the <i>"Vietnam War,"</i> extending into Laos and Cambodia with between 4 to 5 million Asian casualties. It only meant that it adopted a pose of sobriety. These days the Times is embarrassing to an extreme in the way its headlines so transparently proclaim how hard they are striving to sell particular propaganda points. . . </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1t3VxZeMOwWuLuAxS5D-qUsX15WsAtw01ya2KfAdI4qu_CJ5W-t0ah_Uig8eKlen65BH4tiD4xylGBvNw72qoCX2K1uCm0B3xOc_jGgFYzvHDf6yHXJalZ6Rp0CBI068wD7cFh1PzyI8gGj8lC6hKQe9yMAfXePCQwBWZcmnxPiEoFmfL9_XU2Fmo/s640/IMG_6172.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1t3VxZeMOwWuLuAxS5D-qUsX15WsAtw01ya2KfAdI4qu_CJ5W-t0ah_Uig8eKlen65BH4tiD4xylGBvNw72qoCX2K1uCm0B3xOc_jGgFYzvHDf6yHXJalZ6Rp0CBI068wD7cFh1PzyI8gGj8lC6hKQe9yMAfXePCQwBWZcmnxPiEoFmfL9_XU2Fmo/s320/IMG_6172.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><i>"Zelensky Plans A Daring Visit To Washington"</i>? What's with the adjectives? Really, why <i>"Daring"</i>? Why not just <i>"Zelensky To Visit Washington."</i> What's <i>`daring'</i> about leaving a war zone? Or is it just the real oddness of a foreign leader addressing our Congress? As we approach WWII levels of spending?</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_VDCAzORVSe64sNzuol2KAbBwfAhDzXWuly1ybVuB_WYCjFH8HovJ5b1zF7RjxPOAGepjSNM2zqDZxOga8se_mzLufU8evKgjGdB4eH4lk8dmP3lzyHgCqFgNFOKdZ69dYNzcCkPxGz2T762d16fiUOHMRIvoWpV_BgwyHhqfGMPaH-wMZi7CHCR/s914/Ukraine%20Will%20Geary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="858" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_VDCAzORVSe64sNzuol2KAbBwfAhDzXWuly1ybVuB_WYCjFH8HovJ5b1zF7RjxPOAGepjSNM2zqDZxOga8se_mzLufU8evKgjGdB4eH4lk8dmP3lzyHgCqFgNFOKdZ69dYNzcCkPxGz2T762d16fiUOHMRIvoWpV_BgwyHhqfGMPaH-wMZi7CHCR/w375-h400/Ukraine%20Will%20Geary.jpg" width="375" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Animated graphic by Will Geary <a href="https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1602337689851858945">retweeted by Max Blumenthal</a> showing this year's spending by the U.S. on NATO's Ukraine War. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Or could the Times have made the intended objective of this headline below any less blatant?</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbr0vWw_rfp4oBljvCLGUK3TurLSjn_y6igvr_s-4bni9ShAN7bQUoezx2lbWWkZboncOeemeElOf1Jb4WRshoOd0fMpzVROAd1LZlNFMYrhRhIw-f9JeqMnjAzTARvooauxrhu4b1jE0uABsFSb0-_nXCqMzbQUfbgLrSzEYhVYDf9RewKw4K_P3h/s640/IMG_6173.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbr0vWw_rfp4oBljvCLGUK3TurLSjn_y6igvr_s-4bni9ShAN7bQUoezx2lbWWkZboncOeemeElOf1Jb4WRshoOd0fMpzVROAd1LZlNFMYrhRhIw-f9JeqMnjAzTARvooauxrhu4b1jE0uABsFSb0-_nXCqMzbQUfbgLrSzEYhVYDf9RewKw4K_P3h/s320/IMG_6173.jpg" width="320" /></a> </p><p>These headlines were from the same front page this week, both above the fold. <br /></p><p>Here, once again, is my 2019 December letter praying for a sermon on peace, praying, if you will, for peace.</p>Best and blessings to you all this season.<p>
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fra-tJzX79M/XgFt5SGhvJI/AAAAAAAAMWk/Jx8uQevXr0YwMRFbM6MSxDvJM5DAF004wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Peace%2BUnitarian.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1153" data-original-width="1600" height="287" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fra-tJzX79M/XgFt5SGhvJI/AAAAAAAAMWk/Jx8uQevXr0YwMRFbM6MSxDvJM5DAF004wCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Peace%2BUnitarian.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
December 19, 2019<br />
<br />
Re: <i>An Open Letter Requesting A Sermon About Peace</i><br />
<br />
Dear Reverend Ana,<br />
<br />
Last
spring my wife Carolyn and I invested heavily in our congregation’s
fund raising lottery trying to win the prize of choosing a topic for a
sermon you would give. We didn’t win. Had we won, we would have
challenged you with what you might not have found an easy subject,
speaking about Julian Assange, American war crimes, and the U.S. pursuit
of empire. Our choice of subject would not have been be to vex you
with its difficulty, but to ask you to speak to what could be such a
simple concept: Peace. If, these days, conversations about peace are
avoided as difficult, what better than address that difficulty in a
sermon?<br />
<br />
Giving it some consideration, I think that
making a worthy case for a sermon topic is a good a way to gain the
prize of having you speak on a topic we care about, as good a way as
investing in fund raising lottery tickets. Therefore I will try.<br />
<br />
Is
peace a spiritual thing? Is talk about our common humanity, our common
bonds, and about surmounting the blindness that fractures our
relationships a proper thing to address in religious terms? I
acknowledge I’m being obvious here. What I just referred to is supposed
to be basic and elemental to the great faiths.<br />
<br />
I grew
up in the Vietnam War era and I remember churches and church people
taking the lead in saying that the wars we waged in Indochina were
wrong. These days we, as country, are more military extended than
ever. My oldest daughter is now about to be twenty-nine years old. We
had already started bombing Iraq when she was born in January. The war
in Iraq is just one of the perpetual wars that has continued essentially
for the entirety of her life. All of our wars are long now. As
formally measured by some, the War in Afghanistan, with its later
beginning, has surpassed the Vietnam War as our country’s longest war.<br />
<br />
These days the United States <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/01/with-scathing-perpetual-war-letter.html">has been bombing</a>
nine countries, ten if you include, as we should, all of the U.S.
participation in the bombing of Yemen, the other nine countries being:
Mali, Niger, Somalia, Libya, and then, in the Middle East, it’s
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. We have 800 military bases in other
countries. With practically no comment or attention from us, President
Obama opened new military bases across Africa.<br />
<br />
A peace
symbol hangs prominently in our Unitarian Universalist congregation’s
sanctuary where our sermons are given. We begin every Sunday service
singing the words: <i>“let peace, good will on earth be sung through every land, by every tongue.”</i>
Christmas comes every year, and every year we evoke and extol, as is
customary in the Christian tradition, the image of Jesus as the <i>“Prince of Peace.”</i>
In our congregation’s Weaving Social Justice Committee we have
discussed the prospect of rededicating the side chapel within the
sanctuary that is known as the <i>“Peace Chapel”</i> to that cause. In our <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/06/candidate-films-for-social-justice-film.html">list of candidate films</a> for the social justice film series we are working on we have films about the injustice of war. . .<br />
<br />
.
. . But, by and large, we hardly ever actually say anything about peace
or the need to end the perpetual wars for which our country is now
responsible. Has there been any sermon in our sanctuary on the subject
of peace? I can’t recall one.<br />
<br />
I was not at the
Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in June this summer, but I
talked with people who went, and I looked over the multi-day program. I
was told and I saw that there were no sessions on the subject of
peace. Nor was anything said about the antithesis thereof, war,
although we are deeply embroiled in wars to the point that they are
inescapably always in the background our daily American lives.<br />
<br />
Our
congregation through its leaders including members of the social
justice committee is now reaching out to other congregations in our city
and to their social justice actors to coordinate collective activism on
the issues important to all of us. The importance of peace activism
has not been mentioned in those discussions no matter that it is
integrally related to virtually every other issue that is being
discussed of common interest. Has the subject of peace somehow been
tagged as off-limits? Is peace now too controversial to be discussed by
and among religious communities?<br />
<br />
Other social issues
have attracted the attention of organizing Unitarians and have been the
subject of multiple sermons. I understand and support that and among
them are issues like the climate change chaos catastrophe emergency.
The climate emergency is an existential threat to all of humanity. When
the Democratic National Committee ordered that there be no debate
focused on the single issue of climate change– the DNC actually forbade
Democrats from participating in any such debate organized by anyone
else– the case was made that the existential issue of climate is so
fundamental that it is intertwines with and underlies virtually every
other issue that’s important. There are other issues like that; issues
that are inextricably related to society’s other major issues. <br />
<br />
Our
American wars together with the rest of our military interventions that
stoke conflict in other countries are far too often wars which are very
much about the extraction of oil and fossil fuels. Moreover, overall
our wars help keep in place the systems that continue to vandalize our
planet, exterminating its ecosystems. Further, the US military is one
of the <a href="https://fair.org/home/major-media-bury-groundbreaking-studies-of-pentagons-massive-carbon-bootprint/">largest polluters in history</a>, <i>“the single-largest producer of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world,”</i> and that the Pentagon is responsible for between <i>“77% and 80% of all US government energy consumption”</i>
since 2001. The US military is consuming more liquid fuels and
emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries,
polluting more than 140 countries. Obscuring the reporting on this, the
United States, which exempts its military from environmental laws,
insisted on exemptions from reporting of the military emissions of <a href="https://fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin191011Banter.mp3">all countries</a> from climate agreements. The U.S., has itself escaped such reporting by exiting the Paris Climate Accord.<br />
<br />
It
is not clear, but these staggering figures about fossil fuel use
probably don’t include the fossil fuel consumption related to the
initial manufacture of weapons. Consider also that replacement, or
nonreplacement, of what is bombed, burned and incinerated also must
entail substantial additional environmental costs. <br />
<br />
It is not just greenhouse gas emission pollution that the military produces: In 2010, a major story that went <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/2-us-department-of-defense-is-the-worst-polluter-on-the-planet/">largely unreported</a>
was that the U.S. Department of Defense, as the largest polluter in the
world, was producing more hazardous waste than the five largest US
chemical companies combined, and that just some of the pollutants with
which it was contaminating the environment were depleted uranium,
petroleum, oil, pesticides, defoliant agents such as Agent Orange, and
lead, along with vast amounts of radiation. Following our bombings,
birth defects reported in Iraq are soaring. A World Health Organization
survey <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/iraq-records-huge-rise-in-birth-defects-8210444.html">tells us</a>
that in Fallujah half of all babies were born with a birth defect
between 2007 and 2010 with 45 per cent of all pregnancies ending in
miscarriage in the two years after 2004.<br />
<br />
Another thing we face that has been deadening to the human spirit has been the increasing <i>“othering”</i>
of people who we are made to think are different from us. Frequently
now that’s immigrants from other countries who are black or brown.
Often that <i>“othering,”</i> as with Muslims, is stoked in ways that
may cause us to support or tolerate wars in which those others suffer
most and towards whom hostilities are often officially directed. We may
also forget how our wars and military activity push the flow of
populations forcing people to migrate across boarders, as, for instance,
with those leaving Honduras after our country helped bring about the
military coup that replaced the government there.<br />
<br />
Also
basic and underlying so many of our problems are racial, income and
wealth inequality with concomitant inequality in power and influence.
These are things that Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who practiced
ministry through activism and activism through ministry, labored to
eliminate. Not long before he was assassinated, King also began to
speak out against the Vietnam war saying the great challenge facing
mankind is to get rid of war. Before he did so, he carefully weighed
cautions urged on him that as a civil rights leader he shouldn’t do so,
that it would undermine support for his civil rights work, split his
coalition, and that these issues should not be joined together. But
King concluded that the issues were <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/martin-luther-king-hungry-club-forum/552533/">tied together</a> and decided that he would address them on that basis.<br />
<br />
When King expressed his opposition to the war in his very famous “<i><a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm">Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence</a></i>,”
delivered in this city’s Riverside Church, New York City, April 4,
1967, one year to the day before his assassination, he said he was <i>“increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”</i>
He spoke of the disproportionate toll that waging war exacted on the
poor and spoke of the poisoning of America’s soul. . . So it is today.<br />
<br />
War is profitable business. It busies packs of lobbyists who know a great deal more about often <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-pentagon-has-steadfastly-stonewalled-against-making-its-budget-auditable/">secret budgets</a>
than we, as the public, will ever learn. But that profit drains the
resources of our society enfeebling our ability to accomplish so much
else. The Pentagon and military budget is about <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/05/everybodys-realizing-it-now-political.html">57% of the nation’s discretionary budget</a>. If all of the <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-pentagon-has-steadfastly-stonewalled-against-making-its-budget-auditable/">unknowable</a>
black box spending that goes into the Military-Industrial-Surveillance
Complex were included, that percentage could well bump up higher. We
spend more on military spending than the next ten countries combined (or
seven, depending on the year and who calculates), and we spend much
more than all the rest of the countries in the world left over after
that. Of course, much of that spending by other countries is on arms we
supply making the world dangerous. <br />
<br />
We may not fully
know about or have a complete accounting of all the dollars we spend in
these areas, but, in May of 2011 after the U.S. announced that it had
killed Osama Bin Laden, the National Priorities Project calculated that,
<a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2016/11/how-much-do-we-spend-on-our-military.html">as of that time</a>, <i>“in all, the U.S. government has spent more than $7.6 trillion on defense and homeland security since the 9/11 attacks.”</i> Point of reference: a “<i>trillion</i>” is one million millions.<br />
<br />
Just the increase in the military spending in the last two years since Trump came in <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-supermajority-of-americans-want.html">is as much as</a> Russia spends on its entire military budget ($66 billion). Similarly just that increase is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/learning/whats-going-on-in-this-graph-feb-13-2019.html">greater than</a> the entire military budgets of Britain ($55 billion) or France ($51 billion). <br />
<br />
Our
fixated disposition to keep spending more is entrenched: Even Elizabeth
Warren, a senator from Massachusetts who promotes herself as a left
wing progressive, <a href="https://medium.com/the-progressive-edge/progressives-dont-be-fooled-by-elizabeth-warren-d158ffba40fe">voted in 2017</a>
to increase the defense budget by $80 billion, surpassing the $54
billion increase requested by President Trump. 60% Of House Democrats <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/07/14/most-house-democrats-just-voted-for-a-defense-budget-far-bigger-than-trumps/#c11d4576ea0e">voted for</a> a defense budget far bigger than Trump requested.<br />
<br />
Perhaps
most disquieting and insidiously corrupting to our morality and our
souls are the pretexts we adopt to justify going to war and to abide its
horrors, particularly when we leave those pretexts dishonestly
unexamined. The public flailed and many among us continue in their
confusion, unable to sort out that Iraq did not attack the United States
or have weapons of mass destruction before the second war that we
unilaterally and <i>"preemptively"</i> launched to invade that country. Before our first Gulf War attack on that country there were no slaughtered `<i>incubator babies</i>’:
That was just a brazen, cynically staged public relations scam.
Similarly, how few of us know and recognize that Afghanistan did <u><i>not</i></u>
attack the United States on 9/11– We precipitously invaded that country
because the government there was at that time asking that procedures be
followed and proof furnished before it would assist in finding and
turning Osama Bin Laden over to the United States.<br />
<br />
The
foreign country that was most involved in 9/11, and from where almost
all of the men identified as the alleged 9/11 hijackers came, is Saudi
Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the country to which we are selling massive
amounts of weapons (making it that world’s third biggest military
spender) and it is the country with which we are deeply involved
perpetrating war crimes against Yemen.<br />
<br />
In the Vietnam
War, our second longest war, it was the Gulf of Tonkin incident that,
not being what it seemed nor reported to be, was the pretext for war.<br />
<br />
Perhaps
hardest and most challenging to our susceptibilities as caring people
striving to be spiritual and attentive to justice are the pretextual
manipulations to which we are subject in regard to what Noam Chomsky and
Edward Herman spotlighted as the selective <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2018/04/20/worthy-and-unworthy-victims/">distinguishing between</a> <i>“worthy”</i> versus <i>“unworthy”</i> victims. <i>“Worthy”</i>
victims are those who, whatever their number, deserve our outrage and
are a basis for calls for the international community to mobilize toward
war. <i>“Unworthy victims”</i> are those who can die en mass without
attention or recognition like the tens of thousands of Yemeni children
who have died for lack of food, water and medicine because of Saudi
Arabia’s blockade assisted by the U.S.. Often, as with Palestinians
removed from their homelands, these victims are blamed for their own
victimhood. <br />
<br />
Additional layers of pretext pile up when
we encounter journalists and whistleblowers willing to be the messengers
of war crimes. We punish those messengers while, concurrently, there
is no consequence for those who perpetrate the war crimes. Often the
perpetrators are promoted to higher office. That includes those who
illegally torture others to coerce useless, undependable, and <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/06/notes-on-reliability-of-coerced.html">likely false</a> <i>“confessions.”</i> Thus we punish and torture Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning for exemplifying what Daniel Ellsberg called <i>“civil courage.”</i> Thus we vindictively send CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou to prison for disclosing his agency’s torture program. <br />
<br />
Wikileaks,
Julian Assange’s organization has published much that is embarrassing
to the United States and those in power, much of it is particularly
embarrassing to the U.S. military. Wikileaks has never published
anything that was untrue, but the truth of what it has published is
disruptive to the official narratives of the war establishment. That
establishment has been seeking vengeance against and to neutralize
Assange since events in 2010 when in April Wikileaks published
documenting gunsight video footage, under the title of <i>“Collateral Murder,”</i>
of a US drone strike on civilians in Bagdad provided by Chelsea
Manning. The New York Times and Washington Post did not respond to
Manning’s attempts to publish that same footage through them or other
evidence of U.S. war crime in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
Anyone
who wants proof of the pretextual nature of the United States’
persecution of Julian Assange and of the ghastly and sometimes illegal,
abuse of inordinate power against Assange should <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_P9Nj6N58">watch</a> or <a href="https://soundcloud.com/rttv/on-contact-julian-assange-wun-special-rapporteur-on-torture">listen to</a> Chris Hedges June 8, 1019 “<i>On Contact</i>” interview with UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer (“<i>On Contact: Julian Assange w/UN Special Rapporteur on Torture</i>”-
Chris Hedges is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church). The
attacks against Assange began with a highly orchestrated campaign of
character assassination. They have progressed to things far worse.
Both Assange and Manning (who was pardoned from a 35-year sentence after
seven years of confinement that included the torture of Manning) are
now being held in prison, no end in sight, for no crimes of which they
have been convicted. I think we have to agree with the criticism of
this as psychological torture. The continued torture of Manning is an
effort to get at Assange even if that were to involve forcing Manning to
lie.<br />
<br />
The United States wants Assange extradited to the
Unites States to be tried for the crime of practicing journalism that
was unflattering to the United States government. Somehow we have the
highhandedness to conceptualize this journalism to be treason although
Assange is a foreign national. Assange faces no other charges. Under the
laws pursuant to which the U.S. would try him, Assange, like the exiled
Edward Snowden, would not be permitted to introduce any evidence or
argument that disclosing illegal U.S. activity or war crimes benefits
the public. It’s said that the United States wants nothing more than a
show trial and I think that must be considered obvious.<br />
<br />
When
Assange sensed in 2012 that trumped up charges in Sweden would be used
as a subterfuge to transfer him to United States custody for such a show
trial he obtained political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
For this, a British judge sentenced Assange and had him serve 50 weeks
in a high security prison for <i>“bail jumping”</i>; that’s just
fourteen days short of the maximum possible sentence, although the
obviously trumped up charges for which Assange had posted bail were
withdrawn, <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/06/disproportionate-sentences-julian-assange-bail-and-extradition/">negating</a> the original bail terms as a result. A <a href="https://soundcloud.com/rttv/on-contact-julian-assange-wun-special-rapporteur-on-torture">normal, typical sentence</a> for bail jumping would have entailed only a fine, in a grave case, a much shorter prison sentence.<br />
<br />
Britain was able to send police officers into enter the Ecuadoran Embassy to arrest Assange for <i>“bail jumping”</i>
and then later hold him, without other charge for pending extradition
to the United States, because of a change in the Ecuadoran government
that was evidently <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/a-tale-of-cocaine-trafficking-sex-crime-charges-extraordinary-rendition-julian-assange/">CIA assisted</a>,
and as the United States was dangling financial aid for that country.
Assange’s eviction from the embassy, along with his being simultaneously
stripped of Ecuadoran citizenship, was done without due process. <br />
<br />
The
persecution of Assange casts a long shadow to intimidate other
journalists, whistleblowers and activists as they themselves are being
intimidated about disrupting the preferred narrative concerning
America’s militarily asserted empire. Other providers of news simply
lay low not reporting things. As neither the New York Times nor the
Washington Post reported it, you may not have heard about the recent <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/11/scary-swat-team-arrest-of-journalist.html">scary SWAT style arrest</a>
of journalist Max Blumenthal by Washington D. C. police hours after he
reported about the United States government funding of the Venezuela
Juan Guaidó coup team. Blumenthal was shackled and held incommunicado
for an extended period. Not long after that the D.C. police went out to <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/11/after-scary-swat-team-arrest-of.html">similarly arrest</a> activist and journalist Medea Benjamin when she publicized the U.S. backing of coups in Venezuela and Bolivia.<br />
<br />
With
silenced journalists, will we, based on unchallenged pretexts, send our
military into to change the government of Venezuela as there is talk of
doing? In Bolivia the coup we sponsored has been successful without
that. Meanwhile, there is talk of pretexts for military actions against
Iran, Russia, North Korea.<br />
<br />
Journalists who still show courage, are <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/10/list-of-journalists-fired-or-self.html">subject to</a>
exile, sometimes self exile, from their journalistic homes, to
alternative media outlets, where, like Assange, they are likely to be
less heard and will be more vulnerable. Journalist Tareq Haddad <a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/12/08/journalist-newsweek-suppressed-opcw-scandal-and-threatened-me-with-legal-action/">just announced</a>
that he resigned from Newsweek because that publication has been
<a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-resignation-of-tareq-haddad-from.html">suppressing</a> a story of his. His story was about the whistleblower
revelations of buried evidence that the supposed 2018 Duoma chemical
attacks by Syrian president Assad on his own people was <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/new-wikileaks-bombshell-20-inspectors-dissent-syria-chemical-attack-narrative">fairly obviously</a>
a concocted fabrication when it was used as a justification for the
U.S. to bomb Syria. Remember our bombings of Syria? The was another in
2017. It was for such bombings of Syria <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cable-news-trump-syria-war-monger_n_58e79d17e4b05413bfe238eb">the press</a> declared that Trump was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boJqQeUknvw">finally</a> <i>`<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/327779-cnn-host-donald-trump-became-president-last-night">presidential</a>,'</i> and, as the cruise Tomahawk missiles launched, MSNBC’s Brian Williams <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/07/beautiful-brian-williams-says-of-syria-missile-strike-proceeds-to-quote-leonard-cohen/">spoke of</a> being <i>“guided by the beauty of our weapons”</i> using the word <i>“beautiful”</i> three times in 30 seconds. <br />
<br />
The
strenuous suppression of these voices like Assange's that would disrupt
official narratives shows how the conduct of war has a tight moral link
to the choices we make to speak out against war and against the
suppression of the voices that oppose war. In his sermon against war at
Riverside Church that day one year to the day before he was killed,
Reverend Martin Luther Kings Jr. said that, <i>“men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war.”</i><br />
<br />
King also said that, when assuming the task of such opposition, it was difficult to break free of the <i>“conformist thought”</i> of the surrounding world. Indeed, with the complicity of a much more <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/05/coming-june-1st-forum-second-where-do.html">conglomerately owned</a>
corporate media than in King’s time, it seems as if there is a
secularly consecrated catechism of what we know we as Americans are not
supposed to say, what we must veer away from and avoid. We subscribe
with almost religious ferocity to the belief that American
exceptionalism justifies all our actions in the world. It feels, as if
in our bones, that we know that to violate this proposition and say
something else would create a rumbling disturbance in the force (you
know, <i>“Star Wars”</i>). Or is our silence, merely something less
profound than that, just the equivalent of what we think would be an
exceptionally super-rude topic to bring up at a family Thanksgiving or
holiday diner?<br />
<br />
Dr. King
correctly foresaw that there would be significant prices he would have
to pay for speaking out against our country’s war. He concluded that he
had to do so, that he had to `<i>break the silence</i>,’ despite the
prices he knew he would have to pay. He felt that doing so was the only
thing he could do and remain true to himself and his causes.<br />
<br />
Ana,
I have no doubt that there would be prices you would have to pay if you
spoke out for peace; if you spoke out against war. I also acknowledge
that there are prices our congregation could face. Relatively recently
the FBI has <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/27/fbi_raids_homes_of_anti_war">raided the homes</a> of public nonviolent peace activists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/activists-cry-foul-over-fbi-probe/2011/06/09/AGPRskTH_story.html">who have</a> long, distinguished careers in public service. (And the FBI has also been investigating <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/14-fbi-surveilled-peaceful-climate-change-protesters/?doing_wp_cron=1576438941.3002710342407226562500">nonviolent climate activists</a> and <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/fbi-racially-profiling-black-identity-extremists/?doing_wp_cron=1576439028.8715651035308837890625">Black Lives Matters activists</a>.)
But I urge you to deliver a sermon about peace because it would be the
right thing to do. Perhaps it could go along with a rededication of our
sanctuary’s Peace Chapel. And, perhaps, if you would give a sermon
like Dr. King gave against our wars, it might do more than just be a
good thing in its own right: It might serve as a model for the ministers
of other congregations who would follow suit.<br />
<br />
Maybe,
as in Martin Luther King Jr.’s day, there can again be a time when
people see the call for peace as a spiritual issue and our church’s,
temples and congregations again take a lead role in calling for peace
and an end to our wars.<br />
<br />
Have I made the subject of
peace sound as if it is complicated? If so, I am sorry. That can be a
problem in itself. At bottom, shouldn’t this all be so simple? Peace,
supporting peace, speaking out for peace. . Something very simple.<br />
<br />
<i>Last night I had the strangest dream</i><br />
<i> I never dreamed before.</i><br />
<i> I dreamed the world had all agreed</i><br />
<i> To put an end to war.*</i><br />
<br />
* From <i>“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream,”</i> by Ed McCurdy- 1950,<br />
a precursor of sorts to <i>“Imagine”</i> by John Lennon and Yoko Ono- 1971<br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
Michael D. D. White<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAW8gU1jbF4/XgJP7YI8uyI/AAAAAAAAMW8/wbEnd1e4TvUlCYBpXpq0BY1CHR12Xy12ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Unitarian%2BPeace.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1600" height="175" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAW8gU1jbF4/XgJP7YI8uyI/AAAAAAAAMW8/wbEnd1e4TvUlCYBpXpq0BY1CHR12Xy12ACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Unitarian%2BPeace.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>
<br />
Here are links to the prior Noticing New York ventures into seasonal
reflection:</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Thursday, December 24, 2009, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-eve-story-of-alternative.html">A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville)</a>,<br />
<br />
• Friday, December 24, 2010, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/12/revisiting-classic-seasonal-tale.html">Revisiting a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Saturday, December 24, 2011, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/12/traditional-christmas-eve-revisit-of.html">Traditional
Christmas Eve Revisit of a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville, the Real
Life Incarnation of the Abhorred Pottersville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Monday, December 24, 2012, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/12/while-i-tell-of-yuletide-treasure.html">While I Tell of Yuletide Treasure</a>,<br />
<br />
• Tuesday, December 24, 2013, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-seasonal-reflection-assessing.html">A Seasonal Reflection: Assessing Aspirations Toward Alternate Realities- 'Tis A Tale of Two Alternate Cities?</a>.,<br />
<br />
Wednesday, December 24, 2014, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/12/seasonal-reflections-no-matter-how.html">Seasonal Reflections: No Matter How Fortunate or Not, We Are All Equal, Sharing a Common Journey</a> <br />
<br />
• Thursday, December 24, 2015, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/12/seasonal-reflection-mayor-de-blasio-his.html">Seasonal
Reflection: Mayor de Blasio, His Heart Squeezed Grinch-Small, Starts
Gifting Stolen Libraries To Developers For The Holidays</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Saturday, December 24, 2016, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/12/noticing-new-yorks-annual-seasonal.html">Noticing New York's Annual Seasonal Reflection</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Sunday, December 24, 2017, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/12/this-years-seasonal-reflection-yes-we.html">This
Year’s Seasonal Reflection: Yes We Are Now Living In Ratnerville,
Locally and Nationally, And Yet We Hope And Work Towards Something
Differen</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">t</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Monday, December 24, 2018, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2018/12/this-years-annual-seasonal-reflection.html">This Year’s Annual Seasonal Reflection: It Rhymes (But Not With "Reason" or "Season")</a></blockquote><p></p><blockquote> • Tuesday, December 24, 2019 <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html" target="_blank">An
Open Letter To Reverend Ana Levy-Lyons of The First Unitarian
Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn Requesting A Sermon About Peace</a></blockquote><a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html" target="_blank"></a><p></p><p></p><blockquote> • Thursday, December 24, 2020 <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2020/12/noticing-new-york-2020-seasonal.html">Noticing New York 2020 Seasonal Reflection</a> </blockquote><p></p><blockquote> • Friday, December 24, 2021 <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2021/12/noticing-new-york-2021-seasonal.html">Noticing New York 2021 Seasonal Reflection</a> </blockquote><p></p><br />Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-9166379019220222282022-04-01T00:01:00.015-04:002022-04-01T00:01:00.207-04:00New Demonstration Program Now Approved By NYC Landmarks Commission: Related Companies and Vornado Will Use Public’s Love of Historic Districts To Spur Development Working With Disney<div class="separator"><p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="758" data-original-width="1309" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbZkA7KKeeOXEuoLc83Jw30lEVLq9aLpsVC3T_9EFPWNOCqxcUYtanwIv9HiMTAx0Mx5Zxhd_0RBUtDO6WvGavPKt4QEkplACdQ2DlhobuD2t1c5LSQocR_1zbUacw-awzmbM96PG1qN4kUkao2eTn2CrlREadeZKbz1QFBJ1Ego4EjcNUB4UiH9-/w400-h231/RelatedVornadoDisneyJointVenture.jpg" width="400" /> </p></div>It’s history in the making! Not since New York City’s Landmarks laws and programs and Landmarks Commission were ushered in back in the early 1960s has anything new and exciting been done in this area. Looking back, it’s always be more of the <i>same old, same old</i>, or, put another way, more of the <i>same old, save old</i>.<br /><p><br />But that is not to say that the public doesn’t love its landmarks and historic districts; it absolutely does! And that love of the quaint, the old and the curious that acquaints us with our past and where we came from is about to be harnessed by two giant developers of real estate, Related and Vornado, who have gotten the go ahead from the city’s Landmarks Commission (LPC- Landmarks Preservation Commission) to show what they can do working with another company that is expert about what the public loves and should love about its history and its past. That company they will be working with is Disney.<br /><br />The intention of the new demonstration program will be more and better development in the city while the public will, at the same time, be more deeply, efficiently and broadly connected with its sense of history and with the continuity that informs our city populace of where it came from as reflected by the ever evolving range of architecture that has resplendently bedecked NYC over past decades and centuries.<br /><br />The public loves its landmarks and its historic districts; it’s one of the city’s most terrifically popular programs. And the way that New York is imbued with a rich history that can still be observed and absorbed by viewing many parts of the city is one thing that attracts tourists. The attraction of tourists drives an important city industry. However, the real estate professionals appointed by the mayor who serve on New York City’s Landmarks Commission have noted that landmarks and historic districts pose problems for the public. They, therefore, invited some of New York’s premiere developers to consult and see what could be suggested using some of the industry’s infamously creative cleverness.<br /><br />One problem with historic districts is who gets to enjoy them. Partly because they are so desired and sought after as places to live, they have a notorious proclivity to become enclaves for the wealthy. Because they freeze and preclude further development and density, they also preclude expansions to invite additional populations in to enjoy residing there. Another problem the professionals on the Landmarks Commission were eager to solve is that this locked-in low density is often, due to history, in central areas of the city from out of which other areas of the city grew. Those central areas are often, in the professionals opinions, exactly the wrong areas to have low density. Moreover, historic districts such as Brooklyn Heights and Greenwich Village often sit atop transportation hubs and the confluence of subway and bus lines around which it is important to gather greater density and development.<br /><br />The Related Companies/Vornado demonstration program will address these issues by working with Disney plus, introduce into historic districts and landmarks benefits not possible when creaky old structures cannot be retrofitted with new technology. The program will involve relocating a number of landmarks and historic districts to more optimal areas. Actually, a better word for what these relocations will involve is <i>`re-creations’</i> of what gets moved to new areas. The programmatic term that Vornado and Related have decided to use to describe the transfers to new locations is <i>“reestablishments.”</i> The reestablishments will allow leeway for there to be significant improvements integrated into them at the new locations.<br /><br /><i>“None of what we are talking about is without precedent,”</i> said Landmarks Commission Chair Sarah Carroll, <i>“for instance, in Staten Island, we have the Historic Richmond tourist and visitors museum site. This involves historic structures brought to that location from all over the island to form the full collection of its 40 structures.”</i> And she noted that, in practice, with the passage of time, most buildings in historic districts transition from being what was once actually at a site to being de facto recreations of what was previously there: Facades have to be redone (brownstone, while soft and easy to quarry and carve, is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/23/nyregion/saying-goodbye-to-the-face-of-new-yorks-brownstones.html">an exceptionally short-lived material</a> that is never actually replaced with the same dark sedimentary, often riverbed, sandstone), cornices need to be replaced and such ornamental replacements are most typically done more safely with fiberglass design duplications. In Brooklyn Heights, 123 Joralemon Street, one of the historic district’s most conspicuous historic buildings, a carriage house, is <a href="http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/2535">not historic at all</a>; looking circa 1880, it’s a 1993 replacement (designed as if servicing an adjacent mansion) for a 1952 ranch house that looked like it belonged in Queens. So, in this case, what’s really historic? <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23EXYY_LKIGcUC4lCCiGbmAQqLbA841PoBW6alOpcFjaBWgwUzviD4d6im4B30ZvAH5AbI2r9x6mqCbv_ZIfd691CuAb0g97rTCETpes9cK6yoU2XvYkwAEGxd7HN64-I-aJ6IS6tiyy2JnNV5cZkkkWWoc8zkzucXnVqaDEhwwiOZodyNRSLkzPW/s860/123JoralemonStreet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="860" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23EXYY_LKIGcUC4lCCiGbmAQqLbA841PoBW6alOpcFjaBWgwUzviD4d6im4B30ZvAH5AbI2r9x6mqCbv_ZIfd691CuAb0g97rTCETpes9cK6yoU2XvYkwAEGxd7HN64-I-aJ6IS6tiyy2JnNV5cZkkkWWoc8zkzucXnVqaDEhwwiOZodyNRSLkzPW/w400-h134/123JoralemonStreet.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/2535">123 Joralemon Stree</a>t- The historic 1952 house is on the left<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> 123 Joralemon is an example and lesson in how tastes change and how the flexibility of new construction can accommodate this. The exterior of the building fits in exactly the way people currently think it should to comport nicely with the rest of the historic district. When built it was built in 1993, the interior of the structure felt like it fit in with the district that way too, but since then the entire interior has been extensively renovated by a new owner to be the most modern thing imaginable, lots of glitz and glass that’s straight out of the Jetsons. . . But stick a gaslight outside and who would suspect!<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6kKYq3hO8bA-x8_STNk8_W1E_ZtrJQGEW_fjKLW8iqdJiEmAun74yc4sKAOKIjcNhCN4FaeklAFiIZzERblaq8Uis8LonTqnYgx-zFWKfAWgHJ_zZD_G4d15xQF63MOEStkz00w8TgvuzK0BoXAPa7SIR7Lud1oC9ZW95LuUuCSkAv7LxAKPNyR5/s640/123JoralemonStreetRealImposter.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6kKYq3hO8bA-x8_STNk8_W1E_ZtrJQGEW_fjKLW8iqdJiEmAun74yc4sKAOKIjcNhCN4FaeklAFiIZzERblaq8Uis8LonTqnYgx-zFWKfAWgHJ_zZD_G4d15xQF63MOEStkz00w8TgvuzK0BoXAPa7SIR7Lud1oC9ZW95LuUuCSkAv7LxAKPNyR5/w400-h300/123JoralemonStreetRealImposter.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Side by side- Will the real Joralemon Street imposter please stand up?<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>The demonstration program may start small while thinking big, hoping to get its legs under it and to give the developers a chance to prove to the real estate professionals at Landmarks that they are entertaining the right notions in green lighting this program: The candidate historic real estate location that is up for selection for the first relocation is just one single block length’s worth of buildings, 19th Street’s <i>“<a href="https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2017/01/09/a-walk-down-manhattans-first-block-beautiful/">Block Beautiful</a>”</i> in the Gramercy Park neighborhood, between Third Avenue and Irving Place. Where will it be moved to?– <i>That’s where they are thinking big!</i>: Sunnyside Yards in Queens. In Sunnyside Yards there will be room for many future additional relocations. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9fpDVix-Y9kP6AcPf86EpajccvMf66cRBjsA_NFaOyHIplXD0LDDzCuAEJBWdB_JZ_2UJHM14TS4HWfRDs6ycKLFY-dHmkWDN6wQQxgtGlK0_Y4XPV-YdHIkScPqdUB9_eRN-rrTZaMX-pKcMXUFlsaBP92rLc3GAi0oIpxYW_iZhZFxDtjOcAYc2/s1907/Block%20Beautiful.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="1907" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9fpDVix-Y9kP6AcPf86EpajccvMf66cRBjsA_NFaOyHIplXD0LDDzCuAEJBWdB_JZ_2UJHM14TS4HWfRDs6ycKLFY-dHmkWDN6wQQxgtGlK0_Y4XPV-YdHIkScPqdUB9_eRN-rrTZaMX-pKcMXUFlsaBP92rLc3GAi0oIpxYW_iZhZFxDtjOcAYc2/w400-h101/Block%20Beautiful.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "Block Beautiful"<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>The <i>“Block Beautiful”</i> relocation gives Disney the opportunity to show off a transformational talent for which it thinks it is especially suited in a way that will superbly advantage the new program. The <i>“Block Beautiful”</i> is cited as one particular example of changing fashions: <i>“destoopification.”</i> No, that is not a typo for <i>“de-stupefaction,”</i> that is, instead, a name for a phenomena where buildings in New York City with the traditional style of front building stoop, inherited from the old Dutch designs, became déclassé and townhouse owners all over the city modernized by <a href="https://www.brownstoner.com/architecture/brooklyn-brownstone-stoops-history-removal-restoration/">removing the stoops</a> and creating new entrances on the lowest floor. That also allowed extra flexibility creating more rooms if separate apartments were created in the building. But with stunning architectural whiplash, things have changed again in areas like Brooklyn Heights were once-removed stoops are being put back again as hedge-funders gussy up purchased buildings that are again owned and occupied by one wealthy family.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitD8KaKZTLkyv8n79BFotwH2rrCT1obL2L0fp7Xah27cYCSOD0en_V9xcrgimOIcvL9Lo4ZFrhmmOrnbKJVVTCvf1Eqd1BIVnjvl3Ay9y2eF2PpKd9fHpLSREM1QLFTtzQUoseYse0040ZVJIAQFH5jTDx28p9YVUqRQOOnXy_LtUrxgR2CAGbD3r7/s1822/Stoops.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="1822" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitD8KaKZTLkyv8n79BFotwH2rrCT1obL2L0fp7Xah27cYCSOD0en_V9xcrgimOIcvL9Lo4ZFrhmmOrnbKJVVTCvf1Eqd1BIVnjvl3Ay9y2eF2PpKd9fHpLSREM1QLFTtzQUoseYse0040ZVJIAQFH5jTDx28p9YVUqRQOOnXy_LtUrxgR2CAGbD3r7/w400-h106/Stoops.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the dusk of architectural history, stoops can sometime be a `sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't' proposition.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>What Disney with its technology will be able to do is teach the history of architectural fashion change by having the same established historic section display different era facades on different days of the week. To an extent this can be accomplished by projections overlaying different lighting changes, but it will also require storing things like stoops that will have to be rolled out and locked into place certain days. In this regard the reestablished areas will have the advantage of large areas that will be in taller back structures that, with clever design, will not be readily observable. Says Ms. Ona Lott, a Disney executive and representative about its design capabilities, <i>“at our Florida Epcot center, the new modern, futuristic and big, may be cheek by jowl with our ancient Moroccan Casbah, but you don’t notice the former when you are enveloped in and looking at the latter.”</i><br /><br />Putting stoops back in place when they are no longer grandfathered normally can raise all sorts of property line issues, but this won’t be an issue in the reestablished areas as the Vornado, Related, Disney joint venture will privately own the entirety of all the land, including all streets, sidewalks, park and green areas.<br /><br />Another advantage the reestablished areas will have is there will be well thought out technology using the same sort of tunnels and unnoticed passageways that Disney uses at its theme parks for its Disney characters to appear where and only where they are supposed to. This will make sanitation and garbage removal a far more aesthetic proposition. Think of the way things are now says Ms. Lott, the Disney exec: <i>“You have a row of buildings all from the 1800s and outside people are throwing away their 50' flat screen TVs as they graduate to bigger 4K, 8K (or <a href="https://btoktiktok.com/2021/12/11/16k-tvs-explained-what-comes-after-4k-and-8k-resolution/">soon 16K</a>) models. That plus a tangle of discarded routers and USB wires and flavored vodka seltzers is just not very historic.”</i> Now, in reestablished areas, such trash will head out to the landfills via hidden tunnels that nobody thinks about. In place of the missing trash, Disney will periodically manifest historically appropriate trash depicted on its own ultra-realistic large flat screens. And there will be no garbage smell to go with it unless you press the accompanying scent button. <br /><br />Back at 19th Street, between Third and Irving, it will now be possible to put up a series of new towers like those that have been going up on Third Avenue for some time now. Proving that a good job can be done reestablishing the “Block Beautiful” at its new Sunnyside Yards location will make it possible to move on to the next goal of reestablishing Gramercy Park at Sunnyside. <i>“The reestablished Gramercy Park will be quite an attraction, so much so that we are thinking we might actually make it just a fraction larger,”</i> say Ms. Lott, <i>“We will surround it, as before, with a hotel and most certainly the Players Club and the National Arts Club (formerly the mansion with enormous library of Samuel Tilden).”</i> Meanwhile, Vornado and Related will have a whole city block to build on where Gramercy Park formerly stood.<br /></p><br /><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF90chRSKlBqfPCU5TkTq3T93lKsJUiMNY6c_OUAHcrVFw383WKx5I8F7Ri2hIUuzZ85gKHo7dDE4getJsWeEzpKSoQp__7PHwH_U6AviuMVnP_2_jqEKUs_LldWFt-eKf0E3evtgUMkNkEjsSLfHfz43XDfHzv7SfazCCXQZf7wo7oGiqwkGKwpgV/s844/GramercyParkOverjpg.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="844" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF90chRSKlBqfPCU5TkTq3T93lKsJUiMNY6c_OUAHcrVFw383WKx5I8F7Ri2hIUuzZ85gKHo7dDE4getJsWeEzpKSoQp__7PHwH_U6AviuMVnP_2_jqEKUs_LldWFt-eKf0E3evtgUMkNkEjsSLfHfz43XDfHzv7SfazCCXQZf7wo7oGiqwkGKwpgV/s320/GramercyParkOverjpg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gramercy Park as seen from above at its current location- one whole city block!<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Things will lead one to another. A reverter clause affecting Gramercy Park’s chain of title and deed means that when that park property is built on, Union Square will again be privately owned. <i>“It’s complicated real estate stuff,”</i> Related VP David Chablis explained. So Union Square will also be reestablished as one of the linked greenways of the Sunnyside Yards history learning center. Visitors to the reestablished Union Square will again get to visit the old S. Klein’s department store on its border, because, with the restablishments, it will be possible to rewind the historical clock to any time that’s desired. . . <br /><br />. . . But, wait, Union Square, wedged between the Greenwich Village and Gramercy Park historic districts is <i><u>not</u></i> a historic district, right? That’s another advantage to the program; how with more flexible modification, historic destructs can be more easily created and expanded, <i>even retroactively</i>. <br /><br />Nobody living in what are currently historic districts will be required to sell what they now own, but they will be entitled to first dibs discount acquisitions on properties in the reestablishments. If they do sell, they may make hefty profits. Moreover, if they exercise their first dibs options, they and the heirs taking reestablishments property from them will all have continual access to the reestablishment areas without ever having to pay a perimeter fee. For its maintenance and upkeep and the teaching and education that will be provided in the reestablishments Disney will be paid a fee financed with perimeter fees paid using people’s phones much the way that new York metropolitan area drivers have been using E-ZPass® to pay for bridge and highway tolls. The areas will be designated with barely noticeable circumference wires rather like certain Jewish neighborhoods have set out <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/05/13/721551785/a-fishing-line-encircles-manhattan-protecting-sanctity-of-sabbath">the eruv perimeters</a> for Jews observant of the Sabbath in this way.<br /><br />Vornado, Related and Disney will be working with New York’s three public library systems to research historical accuracy. This can be useful, because, in Brooklyn, for instance, the Brooklyn Library has <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2020/04/brooklyn-public-library-president-linda.html">taken over</a> the Brooklyn Historical Society, and, now having subsumed it, has renamed it the <i>Center for Brooklyn History</i>* (there is thought of adjusting the name further to <i>“The Center of Brooklyn History”</i>). Vornado and Related said the fact that the boards of the city’s library systems have been <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/brooklyn-public-library-trustees.html">filled with</a> people from the real estate industry and people who work for content control companies like Disney will help ensure the needed corporation in adhering to the desired historical narratives to be communicated.<br /></p><blockquote>(* The Center for Brooklyn History is <a href="https://www.bklynlibrary.org/locations/center-for-brooklyn-history">currently closed</a>, physically closed, to the public, but is providing <i>virtual access</i> to some history, plus is providing a <i>“grab-and-go”</i> history supply service in its lobby.)</blockquote><p>Mixed in with the reestablishments of New York’s well known historic districts, the Disney company will be integrating duplicates of some of its Disney theme park history re-creations like its Disney Main Street (some building may be done by Alexandria, Virginia and Potomac, Maryland <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2008/10/puzzle-pieces-proposed-prospect-heights.html">Builder/Developer EAY</a>). The city is expected to benefit terrifically in that the new historical areas that can be visited and the much more efficient way that they can be taken in are expected to be a huge draw from tourists in the future.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh72TPgRdz-s6bFzbRkpL2jzw7Wq_aPe-pGvv1W0mgnAceuQxZVbiuZSgrulj1FtCekyBaK2KaTvL_qleLh6UkC88Vl7w4Iedrn-6zBoqXzqbPuFzW5QoARFusb60yKVxXJTAjWLkLDCbeSxWSItmXdMgtwCymdxDQ37HxLfpphGjcE-bM4f2l6OeQF/s1710/EAY%20Builders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="1710" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh72TPgRdz-s6bFzbRkpL2jzw7Wq_aPe-pGvv1W0mgnAceuQxZVbiuZSgrulj1FtCekyBaK2KaTvL_qleLh6UkC88Vl7w4Iedrn-6zBoqXzqbPuFzW5QoARFusb60yKVxXJTAjWLkLDCbeSxWSItmXdMgtwCymdxDQ37HxLfpphGjcE-bM4f2l6OeQF/w400-h127/EAY%20Builders.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Work by Alexandria, Virginia and Potomac, Maryland <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2008/10/puzzle-pieces-proposed-prospect-heights.html">Builder/Developer EAY</a></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p>Because the reestablishment areas will be evolved with the special Disney touch, thinking and creativity, the areas can be copyrighted. Said <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/kols-key-opinion-leader/">Dr. Kols</a>, Disney’s Director of Historical Affairs, <i>“The old adage that `<a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2020/02/privatization-of-history-scary.html">history is written by the winners</a>’ has the corollary that `those who get to write our history, get to own it, . . ahem, . . copyright it.’” “Of course, any such copyright ownership is subject to ‘fair use’ commentary” </i>said Dr. Kols. . . ,<i> “as <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2021/11/what-library-defenders-need-to-know.html">determined by</a> the courts reading our lawyers’ briefs.”</i><br /><br />Mayor Eric Adams is exceptionally happy with the proposed demonstration program. In fact, without Adams the program would not be happening. The program’s legalities would be exceptionally tricky, even likely tripping up on various Constitutional prohibition entanglements, except for the New York State provisions (<a href="http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/lawssrch.cgi?NVLWO:">Executive Law Chapter 18, Article 2-B</a>) that allow Adams, as mayor, to suspend laws and do what he wants pursuant to his declaration of the Covid emergency. Adams says that if the New York City Public Advocate wants to use his standing to challenge any of his actions, the Advocate will have the opportunity to do so with the statute of limitation for a mandamus challenge commencing with the actions that Adams is taking as of this <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/search/label/April%201st">April 1st</a>.<br /></p><p></p>Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-76653082631003966262021-12-29T18:07:00.002-05:002021-12-29T18:39:59.127-05:00Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year From Our Departing Mayor: NYC Residents Must Check Vax Status Of Babysitters, Housekeepers, Plumbers Under New Mandate<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvd8Mv66i89oBgBvh1grnL7FlEUebm6lTfLF7ddbKPqxBf9BBV7jwzr53l4sR0sAFPn3r3C5jzPTX4SPw27EiAP-gbZIG7U8wJEQJmyzGfHREut1cQf0lOIGKUiX18Wf2Z1DTigt1CfI9lPFcy4UcQxosuzA1fmoeK1P3QFnjibYoVH_wxIrfLMtFN=s1297" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="983" data-original-width="1297" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvd8Mv66i89oBgBvh1grnL7FlEUebm6lTfLF7ddbKPqxBf9BBV7jwzr53l4sR0sAFPn3r3C5jzPTX4SPw27EiAP-gbZIG7U8wJEQJmyzGfHREut1cQf0lOIGKUiX18Wf2Z1DTigt1CfI9lPFcy4UcQxosuzA1fmoeK1P3QFnjibYoVH_wxIrfLMtFN=w400-h304" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Your home is a workplace! Post this there visibly to attest that you are requiring your nanny and any plumber, or private tutors entering the premises to prove they have been vaccinated.</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Jezzum!!!<br /><br />Talk about scary!!<br /><br />I am even asking myself of this is true. If it’s true, why isn’t it a major story in the New York Times? . . . But it does seem to be true! The Gothamist is reporting it solemnly in a way that doesn’t look like a spoof that would have gotten through holiday-distracted editors. WNYC is sending the story along in emails, maybe on the air as well.<br /><br />Here is the headline in the Gothamist:<br /><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-residents-must-check-vax-status-babysitters-housekeepers-under-new-mandate"><b></b></a><p></p><blockquote><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-residents-must-check-vax-status-babysitters-housekeepers-under-new-mandate"><b>NYC Residents Must Check Vax Status Of Babysitters, Housekeepers Under New Mandate</b></a>, by Jake Offenhartz, December 28, 2021.</blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg88R932R9ERPCqUBNR4xG_XtusjhLtQbcCXG_QjUw4wupnGsL-IlgmRYgVdoNBsj1j_77k_5915W5u578fB1gx4JPJ0QDvQ1jiSmjYgyhvvC9Jucgctmq12l6mwgYdUj9VhMtEI1rkxT0SWmNiLwlYHkj5DF5cryDyb7pu95jyUPEvqYxUcILCsx4P=s1253" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="949" data-original-width="1253" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg88R932R9ERPCqUBNR4xG_XtusjhLtQbcCXG_QjUw4wupnGsL-IlgmRYgVdoNBsj1j_77k_5915W5u578fB1gx4JPJ0QDvQ1jiSmjYgyhvvC9Jucgctmq12l6mwgYdUj9VhMtEI1rkxT0SWmNiLwlYHkj5DF5cryDyb7pu95jyUPEvqYxUcILCsx4P=w400-h303" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gothamist article on de Blasio's Nanny Mandate<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />This requirement comes from our departing mayor Bill de Blasio days before his administration ends. In a probably obligatory way the NYC Health Commissioner is mentioned as being involved. The City Council wasn't involved.<br /><br />Really awful things often get shoved through on the cusp where one administration is exiting and another coming in. That’s true often at the local government level or at top national levels. <i>It dilutes accountability and blame.</i> One day, you may not even be able to remember who did it, and where will Mr. De Blasio soon have moved onto by then?<br /><br />I’ve tried to keep Noticing New York out of the Covidian debate issues, but this is such an authoritarian shift in city governance it can hardly go unnoticed. You have to ask: <i>What this kind of high-handed intrusion into people’s lives might herald for the future in many areas aside from Covid? </i><br /><br />Here is some of the text of the Gothamist article telling the story- escalating fines and penalties starting at $1,000?:<br /><i><blockquote> The mandate, which took effect on Monday, means that city residents who may not think of themselves as traditional employers are now legally required to check the vaccination status of those paid to work in their homes, according to Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesperson for the city Law Department.<br /><br /> * * * *<br /><br /> Paying a handyman on TaskRabbit to mount a new flatscreen TV on your wall? Under the city’s latest executive order, the person doing the hiring is technically required to verify the handyman’s proof of vaccination. The same goes for nannies, plumbers, movers, private tutors and just about any other professional not directly employed by an outside entity.<br /> Those that don’t abide by the rules could face a fine of $1,000 – with escalating penalties on subsequent violations, according to the city’s guidelines.<br /><br /> * * * *<br /><br /> . . Over the weekend, AKAM, a property manager with roughly 50,000 units across the city, informed residents that they would have to obtain vaccine compliance forms from any worker entering their building.<br /><br /> “Each resident should be able to provide that proof of vaccination to the Management team if requested,” an email sent by AKAM read. “The property reserves the right to revert any fines or other penalties for non-compliance back to the resident if they are determined to be the cause for non-compliance.</blockquote></i>All of this with zero reference to the context of the comparable or superior immunity that it is believed unvaccinated people may have from having had Covid already. At this point, numbers indicate that probably half of New Yorkers or more have already had Covid. It also seems to have zero acknowledgment of the ineffectiveness and short-term protection of the vaccines, especially when it comes to the newer variants. The vaccines don’t provide protection immediately (even you can then carry around a card) and a few short months after a <i>“booster”</i> (three?) the protection may have ebbed to as low as 30%. . . <br /><br />The New York Times has even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/world/middleeast/israel-weighs-giving-approval-for-4th-vaccine-doses.html">published on its front page</a> the thinking that: <i>“too many shots may eventually lead to a sort of immune system fatigue, compromising the body’s ability to respond to the virus.”</i><br /><br />. . . Meanwhile, a major New York City medical center is sending me repeated emails telling me that <i>children over five</i> should all get the still experimental vaccines. Is that truly good, reliable advice for a major medical center to be sending out? What if your doctor has different opinions about all of this?<br /><br />Do I now have to be fined $1,000+ or fire my parent’s trusted long-term caretaker because her doctor has advised against her getting a <i>“booster,”</i> including because she had bad side effects from previous shots?<br /><br />Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our departing Mayor de Blasio.<p></p>Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-82728092299050468872021-12-24T22:35:00.007-05:002021-12-24T22:35:55.088-05:00Noticing New York 2021 Seasonal Reflection<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiP7YeP4XKo1HoPoXd_55thL5u8iP7jxxudKtL7A2ffWoWGc0j_aoBM9qG2l2tqW7MWZbxTOSOMHgMOANOYv8n8_aEbezqYJPzKbOZghtX65G_VfPOlAnOlpgLy3vdoFKNBv2rL3acsRSNAUcNA3JkFZHXuMl61qU6C-XzfKiMBpdgin6CU8kg_vTuK=s624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="424" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiP7YeP4XKo1HoPoXd_55thL5u8iP7jxxudKtL7A2ffWoWGc0j_aoBM9qG2l2tqW7MWZbxTOSOMHgMOANOYv8n8_aEbezqYJPzKbOZghtX65G_VfPOlAnOlpgLy3vdoFKNBv2rL3acsRSNAUcNA3JkFZHXuMl61qU6C-XzfKiMBpdgin6CU8kg_vTuK=w271-h400" width="271" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julian Assange at Christmas- The center image from the <a href="https://assangedefense.org/weeklyleaks/">WeeklyLeaks site and magazine</a>- Julian, in his prison cell, chained cannot reach the keyboard to give us truth.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Today is Christmas Eve.<br />
<br />
I have a long-standing tradition of, every year, on Christmas Eve, publishing a Noticing New York seasonal reflection for the holidays. They can be bittersweet, because, well. . . we have a ways of not living up to the holidays. <br /></p><p>This year? </p><p>I went to an event today. What better way to spend Christmas Eve in a way that could be true to the spirit of this holiday?<br /></p><p>I had to sort of promise to my daughter that it would be sparsely attended, only maybe 18 people, I said. But it was an important group of people. And our number, while perhaps too small, turned out to be larger than that (photos at the end of this post). <br /></p><p>My daughter has in mind to travel in the next few days. It has to do with love and affection. She wants to go see her boyfriend. As you know, we have all of these lockdowns affecting us, so she is worried about travel restrictions. She was understandably worried that possible Covid exposures could affect her plans. As it is, we are getting word of airlines cancelling or contemplating cancelling their flights. </p><p>The lock downs on travel are, in an of themselves, a sort of restriction on communication because there is nothing like traveling to visit somewhere to communicate what that place is really like or what is going on in other places in the world. But my daughter's worry about my <i>`assembling' </i>with others at a demonstration, along with the sparse turnout we now might routinely get for such things, and the general hesitancy for so many of us to be with people people, is another shutting down of communication and of the communal actions that may flow that.</p><p>The demonstration I went to today was a vigil for Julian Assange outside the offices of NBC/MSNBC here in New York City. Why? Because MSNBC (<a href="https://rumble.com/vqvoyn-joe-scarborough-and-claire-mccaskil-lie-to-smear-assange.html">Joe Scarborough and Clair McCaskil</a>) has been lying about Julian Assange basically looking <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-jimmy-dore-show-21082/episode/msnbc-blatantly-lies-about-julian-assange-case-89084570">falsifying the record</a> to stoke anger to facilitate his continued persecution. And persecuting Julian Assange is about about shutting down our communications, shutting down free speech and shutting down the the kind of journalism that holds the powerful accountable.</p><p>Most conspicuously, it is about shutting down those that would shine the kind of journalistic light on and truth telling about the actions of the powerful that might end our endless wars. But Julian Assange has also worked to shed light on so much else of importance, never publishing anything incorrect (something the New York Time sand Washington Post could never claim). For instance, Assange published at least <a href="https://wikileaks.org/COP-26.html">sixteen revelations highly relevant to deceptions by the powerful about climate change</a>, important background for the recent Glasgow conference.</p><p>And Assange isn't the only one doing work to hold the powerful accountable about climate change that is being persecuted. Environmental justice attorney Steve Donziger is also being persecuted and being held unjustly incarcerated right now.</p><p>This Christmas we are entering our third year of Covid lock downs and restrictions. And since my doctor and a number of other people tell me, including friends that were sick, it is apparently our third Christmas and Christmas Eve with Covid. We think Covid has been in New York City since September or October of 2019. It is also the third Christmas Steve Donziger is spending incarcerated because he won an environmental lawsuit against Chevron/Texaco and somehow our federal judiciary system was privatized in a way that allowed Chevron's law firms to prosecute him for that effrontery, see: <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2021/11/what-library-defenders-need-to-know.html">What Library Defenders Need To Know About The Imprisonment of Environmental Attorney Steve Donziger Because He Obtained a Judgment Against Chevron For Its Pollution of The Amazon</a>, Monday, November 1, 2021.</p><p></p><p>Like the shutdown and imprisonment of Julian Assange, the incarceration of Donziger and the way it <i>hasn't been covered</i> by the silent corporate media is a shutdown of information about the control the powerful are exercising over the flow of information. </p><p>Former U.S. Attorney General and antiwar and social justice advocate, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark- died April 9, 2021– Whenever he went to a new country the first thing he wanted was to be taken to see that country’s prisons to understand the country better.</p><p></p><p>Who we in the United States imprison, or sometimes encourage our other colony countries like Britain to imprison tells a story about us.</p><p></p><p>I am a member of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn. Every week we are asked who we are praying for. I list Julian Assange with others every week that we imprison. I don't know if I am being heard, but my list every week (you could so something like this too) goes something like this:</p><p></p><p></p><blockquote>• We give our love and support to journalist and peace advocate Julian Assange, ordered by a British court a week ago to be put into the hands of those who secretly plotted to assassinate and silence him. The US has promised the Brits not to treat Assange cruelly unless the US decides to. Love to Julian’s family, including his brother Gabriel, who we met here in New York where, with their father John, they pleaded for our support as American people to free Julian from his more than now 11 years of incarceration and torture, his now being held incommunicado (currently in Belmash, “Britains’ Guantanamo Bay”), and to remind us about standing for the idea of First Amendment freedom to speak truth to power and to speak against war and war crimes and speak the truth about governments conniving not to handle climate change.<br /><br /> • Our heart is with Steven Donziger- Environmental attorney serving a six-month prison sentence on top of more than two years previous home incarceration BECAUSE he helped indigenous people in Ecuador's Amazon legally win substantial damages for the Chevron/Texaco oil company’s pollution and poisoning of their land and people. -(In a mockery of justice, Donziger’s prosecution was handed over to Chevron, privatizing the judicial system as the NY Times sits passive and silent on the sidelines, one of its lawyer working for Chevron)- Oil Companies like Chevron also take us to war. Donziger returned to house arrest the week before last from Danbury federal prison since there were Covid challenges at the federal prison.<br /><br /> • Payers for whistleblower Daniel Hale, sent away and incarcerated for one of the longest sentences ever because he revealed information contradicting the New York Times false stories about how our predator drone killings are “antiseptic, precise and accurate”; instead Hale revealed that 90% of the people we kill with drones are NOT those targeted and that 50% of the people we target have NO known relation to any so-called “terrorist” organizations. . . .<br /><br /> . . . Hale is being held in a CMU, a Communication Management Unit (“de facto solitary confinement.”- and more restrictive than a Supermax) to keep him and his peace message incommunicado. <br /><br /> • Our utmost spiritual energy and support to Journalist and former UK ambassador Craig Murray released just recently after going to prison for an eight months prison sentence on pretextual grounds. Murray says he will not consider himself free until Assange is released. Murray was imprisoned as vengeance for his (suppressed) whistleblower reporting and close coverage of the Julian Assange trial in Britain and as a means to prevent Murray from testifying in Spain abut the CIA’s illegal spying on Assange (and plans to kidnap and /or assassinate Assange, possibly similarly neutralize other journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitros) while Assange lived at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.<br /><br /> • We light our candles and ache for the prisoners in Guantanamo, incarcerated 20 years, held incommunicado (CIA memo saying some will NEVER be released or allowed to tell their story), violating the Geneva Convention, many of them tortured (even to death) as we tried to get them to falsely “confess” to things they never did.-<br /><br /> • Love and support to Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab, whom the U.S. caused to kidnaped, imprisoned, held incommunicado reportedly tortured, without needed doctors and lawyers (even deploying a U.S. warship for this purpose), for Saab’s so-called “crime” of doing work for a Venezuelan state charity program to feed and provide basic goods to Venezuela’s poor who are being starved by our sanctions. Saab was recently made the subject of extraordinary rendition (‘extradition”) to the United States for further what. .. . .? And for what crime?: Because his country doesn’t have a corporate capitalist system of government?<br /><br /> • We light our candles for the black and brown people who we incarcerate at a far higher rate and for far longer times than those of privilege and convict (often falsely) for crimes that we don’t prosecute white people for– Making us the world’s largest penal colony nation with an incarceration rate more than double any other country, more than six times that of Canada– With about 4.4% and, according to the ACLU, nearly 25% of the world’s prison population.<br /><br /> • Those we incarcerate (Kamala Harris’ “DO NOT COME” people) when they come to our country seeking the political asylum we are legally obligated to give them. There are given no idea of when they might ever be released.— </blockquote><p></p><p>The seasonal tradition is to revere peace at this time. And we still have lots of war, what Julian Assange shed a light on and what Julian Assange is in prison for shedding a light on.<br /></p><p>December 2019 Christmas Eve I wrote and posted a letter to our Unitarian Universalist congregation minister asking for a sermon about peace. We have not since gotten one. My letter mentioned Julian Assange and his contributions and importance in breaking the silence that needs to be broken. I republished my letter last Christmas Eve. </p>My letter of is absolutely still as relevant as it was the last two Christmas Eves. That's because this seasonal tradition of waging war and never saying anything about it never get old. <p>Here is my 2019 December letter praying for a sermon on peace, praying, if you will, for peace.</p>Best and blessings to you all this season.<p>
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fra-tJzX79M/XgFt5SGhvJI/AAAAAAAAMWk/Jx8uQevXr0YwMRFbM6MSxDvJM5DAF004wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Peace%2BUnitarian.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1153" data-original-width="1600" height="287" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fra-tJzX79M/XgFt5SGhvJI/AAAAAAAAMWk/Jx8uQevXr0YwMRFbM6MSxDvJM5DAF004wCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Peace%2BUnitarian.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
December 19, 2019<br />
<br />
Re: <i>An Open Letter Requesting A Sermon About Peace</i><br />
<br />
Dear Reverend Ana,<br />
<br />
Last
spring my wife Carolyn and I invested heavily in our congregation’s
fund raising lottery trying to win the prize of choosing a topic for a
sermon you would give. We didn’t win. Had we won, we would have
challenged you with what you might not have found an easy subject,
speaking about Julian Assange, American war crimes, and the U.S. pursuit
of empire. Our choice of subject would not have been be to vex you
with its difficulty, but to ask you to speak to what could be such a
simple concept: Peace. If, these days, conversations about peace are
avoided as difficult, what better than address that difficulty in a
sermon?<br />
<br />
Giving it some consideration, I think that
making a worthy case for a sermon topic is a good a way to gain the
prize of having you speak on a topic we care about, as good a way as
investing in fund raising lottery tickets. Therefore I will try.<br />
<br />
Is
peace a spiritual thing? Is talk about our common humanity, our common
bonds, and about surmounting the blindness that fractures our
relationships a proper thing to address in religious terms? I
acknowledge I’m being obvious here. What I just referred to is supposed
to be basic and elemental to the great faiths.<br />
<br />
I grew
up in the Vietnam War era and I remember churches and church people
taking the lead in saying that the wars we waged in Indochina were
wrong. These days we, as country, are more military extended than
ever. My oldest daughter is now about to be twenty-nine years old. We
had already started bombing Iraq when she was born in January. The war
in Iraq is just one of the perpetual wars that has continued essentially
for the entirety of her life. All of our wars are long now. As
formally measured by some, the War in Afghanistan, with its later
beginning, has surpassed the Vietnam War as our country’s longest war.<br />
<br />
These days the United States <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/01/with-scathing-perpetual-war-letter.html">has been bombing</a>
nine countries, ten if you include, as we should, all of the U.S.
participation in the bombing of Yemen, the other nine countries being:
Mali, Niger, Somalia, Libya, and then, in the Middle East, it’s
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. We have 800 military bases in other
countries. With practically no comment or attention from us, President
Obama opened new military bases across Africa.<br />
<br />
A peace
symbol hangs prominently in our Unitarian Universalist congregation’s
sanctuary where our sermons are given. We begin every Sunday service
singing the words: <i>“let peace, good will on earth be sung through every land, by every tongue.”</i>
Christmas comes every year, and every year we evoke and extol, as is
customary in the Christian tradition, the image of Jesus as the <i>“Prince of Peace.”</i>
In our congregation’s Weaving Social Justice Committee we have
discussed the prospect of rededicating the side chapel within the
sanctuary that is known as the <i>“Peace Chapel”</i> to that cause. In our <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/06/candidate-films-for-social-justice-film.html">list of candidate films</a> for the social justice film series we are working on we have films about the injustice of war. . .<br />
<br />
.
. . But, by and large, we hardly ever actually say anything about peace
or the need to end the perpetual wars for which our country is now
responsible. Has there been any sermon in our sanctuary on the subject
of peace? I can’t recall one.<br />
<br />
I was not at the
Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in June this summer, but I
talked with people who went, and I looked over the multi-day program. I
was told and I saw that there were no sessions on the subject of
peace. Nor was anything said about the antithesis thereof, war,
although we are deeply embroiled in wars to the point that they are
inescapably always in the background our daily American lives.<br />
<br />
Our
congregation through its leaders including members of the social
justice committee is now reaching out to other congregations in our city
and to their social justice actors to coordinate collective activism on
the issues important to all of us. The importance of peace activism
has not been mentioned in those discussions no matter that it is
integrally related to virtually every other issue that is being
discussed of common interest. Has the subject of peace somehow been
tagged as off-limits? Is peace now too controversial to be discussed by
and among religious communities?<br />
<br />
Other social issues
have attracted the attention of organizing Unitarians and have been the
subject of multiple sermons. I understand and support that and among
them are issues like the climate change chaos catastrophe emergency.
The climate emergency is an existential threat to all of humanity. When
the Democratic National Committee ordered that there be no debate
focused on the single issue of climate change– the DNC actually forbade
Democrats from participating in any such debate organized by anyone
else– the case was made that the existential issue of climate is so
fundamental that it is intertwines with and underlies virtually every
other issue that’s important. There are other issues like that; issues
that are inextricably related to society’s other major issues. <br />
<br />
Our
American wars together with the rest of our military interventions that
stoke conflict in other countries are far too often wars which are very
much about the extraction of oil and fossil fuels. Moreover, overall
our wars help keep in place the systems that continue to vandalize our
planet, exterminating its ecosystems. Further, the US military is one
of the <a href="https://fair.org/home/major-media-bury-groundbreaking-studies-of-pentagons-massive-carbon-bootprint/">largest polluters in history</a>, <i>“the single-largest producer of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world,”</i> and that the Pentagon is responsible for between <i>“77% and 80% of all US government energy consumption”</i>
since 2001. The US military is consuming more liquid fuels and
emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries,
polluting more than 140 countries. Obscuring the reporting on this, the
United States, which exempts its military from environmental laws,
insisted on exemptions from reporting of the military emissions of <a href="https://fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin191011Banter.mp3">all countries</a> from climate agreements. The U.S., has itself escaped such reporting by exiting the Paris Climate Accord.<br />
<br />
It
is not clear, but these staggering figures about fossil fuel use
probably don’t include the fossil fuel consumption related to the
initial manufacture of weapons. Consider also that replacement, or
nonreplacement, of what is bombed, burned and incinerated also must
entail substantial additional environmental costs. <br />
<br />
It is not just greenhouse gas emission pollution that the military produces: In 2010, a major story that went <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/2-us-department-of-defense-is-the-worst-polluter-on-the-planet/">largely unreported</a>
was that the U.S. Department of Defense, as the largest polluter in the
world, was producing more hazardous waste than the five largest US
chemical companies combined, and that just some of the pollutants with
which it was contaminating the environment were depleted uranium,
petroleum, oil, pesticides, defoliant agents such as Agent Orange, and
lead, along with vast amounts of radiation. Following our bombings,
birth defects reported in Iraq are soaring. A World Health Organization
survey <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/iraq-records-huge-rise-in-birth-defects-8210444.html">tells us</a>
that in Fallujah half of all babies were born with a birth defect
between 2007 and 2010 with 45 per cent of all pregnancies ending in
miscarriage in the two years after 2004.<br />
<br />
Another thing we face that has been deadening to the human spirit has been the increasing <i>“othering”</i>
of people who we are made to think are different from us. Frequently
now that’s immigrants from other countries who are black or brown.
Often that <i>“othering,”</i> as with Muslims, is stoked in ways that
may cause us to support or tolerate wars in which those others suffer
most and towards whom hostilities are often officially directed. We may
also forget how our wars and military activity push the flow of
populations forcing people to migrate across boarders, as, for instance,
with those leaving Honduras after our country helped bring about the
military coup that replaced the government there.<br />
<br />
Also
basic and underlying so many of our problems are racial, income and
wealth inequality with concomitant inequality in power and influence.
These are things that Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who practiced
ministry through activism and activism through ministry, labored to
eliminate. Not long before he was assassinated, King also began to
speak out against the Vietnam war saying the great challenge facing
mankind is to get rid of war. Before he did so, he carefully weighed
cautions urged on him that as a civil rights leader he shouldn’t do so,
that it would undermine support for his civil rights work, split his
coalition, and that these issues should not be joined together. But
King concluded that the issues were <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/martin-luther-king-hungry-club-forum/552533/">tied together</a> and decided that he would address them on that basis.<br />
<br />
When King expressed his opposition to the war in his very famous “<i><a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm">Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence</a></i>,”
delivered in this city’s Riverside Church, New York City, April 4,
1967, one year to the day before his assassination, he said he was <i>“increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”</i>
He spoke of the disproportionate toll that waging war exacted on the
poor and spoke of the poisoning of America’s soul. . . So it is today.<br />
<br />
War is profitable business. It busies packs of lobbyists who know a great deal more about often <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-pentagon-has-steadfastly-stonewalled-against-making-its-budget-auditable/">secret budgets</a>
than we, as the public, will ever learn. But that profit drains the
resources of our society enfeebling our ability to accomplish so much
else. The Pentagon and military budget is about <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/05/everybodys-realizing-it-now-political.html">57% of the nation’s discretionary budget</a>. If all of the <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-pentagon-has-steadfastly-stonewalled-against-making-its-budget-auditable/">unknowable</a>
black box spending that goes into the Military-Industrial-Surveillance
Complex were included, that percentage could well bump up higher. We
spend more on military spending than the next ten countries combined (or
seven, depending on the year and who calculates), and we spend much
more than all the rest of the countries in the world left over after
that. Of course, much of that spending by other countries is on arms we
supply making the world dangerous. <br />
<br />
We may not fully
know about or have a complete accounting of all the dollars we spend in
these areas, but, in May of 2011 after the U.S. announced that it had
killed Osama Bin Laden, the National Priorities Project calculated that,
<a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2016/11/how-much-do-we-spend-on-our-military.html">as of that time</a>, <i>“in all, the U.S. government has spent more than $7.6 trillion on defense and homeland security since the 9/11 attacks.”</i> Point of reference: a “<i>trillion</i>” is one million millions.<br />
<br />
Just the increase in the military spending in the last two years since Trump came in <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-supermajority-of-americans-want.html">is as much as</a> Russia spends on its entire military budget ($66 billion). Similarly just that increase is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/learning/whats-going-on-in-this-graph-feb-13-2019.html">greater than</a> the entire military budgets of Britain ($55 billion) or France ($51 billion). <br />
<br />
Our
fixated disposition to keep spending more is entrenched: Even Elizabeth
Warren, a senator from Massachusetts who promotes herself as a left
wing progressive, <a href="https://medium.com/the-progressive-edge/progressives-dont-be-fooled-by-elizabeth-warren-d158ffba40fe">voted in 2017</a>
to increase the defense budget by $80 billion, surpassing the $54
billion increase requested by President Trump. 60% Of House Democrats <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/07/14/most-house-democrats-just-voted-for-a-defense-budget-far-bigger-than-trumps/#c11d4576ea0e">voted for</a> a defense budget far bigger than Trump requested.<br />
<br />
Perhaps
most disquieting and insidiously corrupting to our morality and our
souls are the pretexts we adopt to justify going to war and to abide its
horrors, particularly when we leave those pretexts dishonestly
unexamined. The public flailed and many among us continue in their
confusion, unable to sort out that Iraq did not attack the United States
or have weapons of mass destruction before the second war that we
unilaterally and <i>"preemptively"</i> launched to invade that country. Before our first Gulf War attack on that country there were no slaughtered `<i>incubator babies</i>’:
That was just a brazen, cynically staged public relations scam.
Similarly, how few of us know and recognize that Afghanistan did <u><i>not</i></u>
attack the United States on 9/11– We precipitously invaded that country
because the government there was at that time asking that procedures be
followed and proof furnished before it would assist in finding and
turning Osama Bin Laden over to the United States.<br />
<br />
The
foreign country that was most involved in 9/11, and from where almost
all of the men identified as the alleged 9/11 hijackers came, is Saudi
Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the country to which we are selling massive
amounts of weapons (making it that world’s third biggest military
spender) and it is the country with which we are deeply involved
perpetrating war crimes against Yemen.<br />
<br />
In the Vietnam
War, our second longest war, it was the Gulf of Tonkin incident that,
not being what it seemed nor reported to be, was the pretext for war.<br />
<br />
Perhaps
hardest and most challenging to our susceptibilities as caring people
striving to be spiritual and attentive to justice are the pretextual
manipulations to which we are subject in regard to what Noam Chomsky and
Edward Herman spotlighted as the selective <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2018/04/20/worthy-and-unworthy-victims/">distinguishing between</a> <i>“worthy”</i> versus <i>“unworthy”</i> victims. <i>“Worthy”</i>
victims are those who, whatever their number, deserve our outrage and
are a basis for calls for the international community to mobilize toward
war. <i>“Unworthy victims”</i> are those who can die en mass without
attention or recognition like the tens of thousands of Yemeni children
who have died for lack of food, water and medicine because of Saudi
Arabia’s blockade assisted by the U.S.. Often, as with Palestinians
removed from their homelands, these victims are blamed for their own
victimhood. <br />
<br />
Additional layers of pretext pile up when
we encounter journalists and whistleblowers willing to be the messengers
of war crimes. We punish those messengers while, concurrently, there
is no consequence for those who perpetrate the war crimes. Often the
perpetrators are promoted to higher office. That includes those who
illegally torture others to coerce useless, undependable, and <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/06/notes-on-reliability-of-coerced.html">likely false</a> <i>“confessions.”</i> Thus we punish and torture Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning for exemplifying what Daniel Ellsberg called <i>“civil courage.”</i> Thus we vindictively send CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou to prison for disclosing his agency’s torture program. <br />
<br />
Wikileaks,
Julian Assange’s organization has published much that is embarrassing
to the United States and those in power, much of it is particularly
embarrassing to the U.S. military. Wikileaks has never published
anything that was untrue, but the truth of what it has published is
disruptive to the official narratives of the war establishment. That
establishment has been seeking vengeance against and to neutralize
Assange since events in 2010 when in April Wikileaks published
documenting gunsight video footage, under the title of <i>“Collateral Murder,”</i>
of a US drone strike on civilians in Bagdad provided by Chelsea
Manning. The New York Times and Washington Post did not respond to
Manning’s attempts to publish that same footage through them or other
evidence of U.S. war crime in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
Anyone
who wants proof of the pretextual nature of the United States’
persecution of Julian Assange and of the ghastly and sometimes illegal,
abuse of inordinate power against Assange should <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_P9Nj6N58">watch</a> or <a href="https://soundcloud.com/rttv/on-contact-julian-assange-wun-special-rapporteur-on-torture">listen to</a> Chris Hedges June 8, 1019 “<i>On Contact</i>” interview with UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer (“<i>On Contact: Julian Assange w/UN Special Rapporteur on Torture</i>”-
Chris Hedges is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church). The
attacks against Assange began with a highly orchestrated campaign of
character assassination. They have progressed to things far worse.
Both Assange and Manning (who was pardoned from a 35-year sentence after
seven years of confinement that included the torture of Manning) are
now being held in prison, no end in sight, for no crimes of which they
have been convicted. I think we have to agree with the criticism of
this as psychological torture. The continued torture of Manning is an
effort to get at Assange even if that were to involve forcing Manning to
lie.<br />
<br />
The United States wants Assange extradited to the
Unites States to be tried for the crime of practicing journalism that
was unflattering to the United States government. Somehow we have the
highhandedness to conceptualize this journalism to be treason although
Assange is a foreign national. Assange faces no other charges. Under the
laws pursuant to which the U.S. would try him, Assange, like the exiled
Edward Snowden, would not be permitted to introduce any evidence or
argument that disclosing illegal U.S. activity or war crimes benefits
the public. It’s said that the United States wants nothing more than a
show trial and I think that must be considered obvious.<br />
<br />
When
Assange sensed in 2012 that trumped up charges in Sweden would be used
as a subterfuge to transfer him to United States custody for such a show
trial he obtained political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
For this, a British judge sentenced Assange and had him serve 50 weeks
in a high security prison for <i>“bail jumping”</i>; that’s just
fourteen days short of the maximum possible sentence, although the
obviously trumped up charges for which Assange had posted bail were
withdrawn, <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/06/disproportionate-sentences-julian-assange-bail-and-extradition/">negating</a> the original bail terms as a result. A <a href="https://soundcloud.com/rttv/on-contact-julian-assange-wun-special-rapporteur-on-torture">normal, typical sentence</a> for bail jumping would have entailed only a fine, in a grave case, a much shorter prison sentence.<br />
<br />
Britain was able to send police officers into enter the Ecuadoran Embassy to arrest Assange for <i>“bail jumping”</i>
and then later hold him, without other charge for pending extradition
to the United States, because of a change in the Ecuadoran government
that was evidently <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/a-tale-of-cocaine-trafficking-sex-crime-charges-extraordinary-rendition-julian-assange/">CIA assisted</a>,
and as the United States was dangling financial aid for that country.
Assange’s eviction from the embassy, along with his being simultaneously
stripped of Ecuadoran citizenship, was done without due process. <br />
<br />
The
persecution of Assange casts a long shadow to intimidate other
journalists, whistleblowers and activists as they themselves are being
intimidated about disrupting the preferred narrative concerning
America’s militarily asserted empire. Other providers of news simply
lay low not reporting things. As neither the New York Times nor the
Washington Post reported it, you may not have heard about the recent <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/11/scary-swat-team-arrest-of-journalist.html">scary SWAT style arrest</a>
of journalist Max Blumenthal by Washington D. C. police hours after he
reported about the United States government funding of the Venezuela
Juan Guaidó coup team. Blumenthal was shackled and held incommunicado
for an extended period. Not long after that the D.C. police went out to <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/11/after-scary-swat-team-arrest-of.html">similarly arrest</a> activist and journalist Medea Benjamin when she publicized the U.S. backing of coups in Venezuela and Bolivia.<br />
<br />
With
silenced journalists, will we, based on unchallenged pretexts, send our
military into to change the government of Venezuela as there is talk of
doing? In Bolivia the coup we sponsored has been successful without
that. Meanwhile, there is talk of pretexts for military actions against
Iran, Russia, North Korea.<br />
<br />
Journalists who still show courage, are <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/10/list-of-journalists-fired-or-self.html">subject to</a>
exile, sometimes self exile, from their journalistic homes, to
alternative media outlets, where, like Assange, they are likely to be
less heard and will be more vulnerable. Journalist Tareq Haddad <a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/12/08/journalist-newsweek-suppressed-opcw-scandal-and-threatened-me-with-legal-action/">just announced</a>
that he resigned from Newsweek because that publication has been
<a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-resignation-of-tareq-haddad-from.html">suppressing</a> a story of his. His story was about the whistleblower
revelations of buried evidence that the supposed 2018 Duoma chemical
attacks by Syrian president Assad on his own people was <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/new-wikileaks-bombshell-20-inspectors-dissent-syria-chemical-attack-narrative">fairly obviously</a>
a concocted fabrication when it was used as a justification for the
U.S. to bomb Syria. Remember our bombings of Syria? The was another in
2017. It was for such bombings of Syria <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cable-news-trump-syria-war-monger_n_58e79d17e4b05413bfe238eb">the press</a> declared that Trump was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boJqQeUknvw">finally</a> <i>`<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/327779-cnn-host-donald-trump-became-president-last-night">presidential</a>,'</i> and, as the cruise Tomahawk missiles launched, MSNBC’s Brian Williams <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/07/beautiful-brian-williams-says-of-syria-missile-strike-proceeds-to-quote-leonard-cohen/">spoke of</a> being <i>“guided by the beauty of our weapons”</i> using the word <i>“beautiful”</i> three times in 30 seconds. <br />
<br />
The
strenuous suppression of these voices like Assange's that would disrupt
official narratives shows how the conduct of war has a tight moral link
to the choices we make to speak out against war and against the
suppression of the voices that oppose war. In his sermon against war at
Riverside Church that day one year to the day before he was killed,
Reverend Martin Luther Kings Jr. said that, <i>“men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war.”</i><br />
<br />
King also said that, when assuming the task of such opposition, it was difficult to break free of the <i>“conformist thought”</i> of the surrounding world. Indeed, with the complicity of a much more <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/05/coming-june-1st-forum-second-where-do.html">conglomerately owned</a>
corporate media than in King’s time, it seems as if there is a
secularly consecrated catechism of what we know we as Americans are not
supposed to say, what we must veer away from and avoid. We subscribe
with almost religious ferocity to the belief that American
exceptionalism justifies all our actions in the world. It feels, as if
in our bones, that we know that to violate this proposition and say
something else would create a rumbling disturbance in the force (you
know, <i>“Star Wars”</i>). Or is our silence, merely something less
profound than that, just the equivalent of what we think would be an
exceptionally super-rude topic to bring up at a family Thanksgiving or
holiday diner?<br />
<br />
Dr. King
correctly foresaw that there would be significant prices he would have
to pay for speaking out against our country’s war. He concluded that he
had to do so, that he had to `<i>break the silence</i>,’ despite the
prices he knew he would have to pay. He felt that doing so was the only
thing he could do and remain true to himself and his causes.<br />
<br />
Ana,
I have no doubt that there would be prices you would have to pay if you
spoke out for peace; if you spoke out against war. I also acknowledge
that there are prices our congregation could face. Relatively recently
the FBI has <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/27/fbi_raids_homes_of_anti_war">raided the homes</a> of public nonviolent peace activists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/activists-cry-foul-over-fbi-probe/2011/06/09/AGPRskTH_story.html">who have</a> long, distinguished careers in public service. (And the FBI has also been investigating <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/14-fbi-surveilled-peaceful-climate-change-protesters/?doing_wp_cron=1576438941.3002710342407226562500">nonviolent climate activists</a> and <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/fbi-racially-profiling-black-identity-extremists/?doing_wp_cron=1576439028.8715651035308837890625">Black Lives Matters activists</a>.)
But I urge you to deliver a sermon about peace because it would be the
right thing to do. Perhaps it could go along with a rededication of our
sanctuary’s Peace Chapel. And, perhaps, if you would give a sermon
like Dr. King gave against our wars, it might do more than just be a
good thing in its own right: It might serve as a model for the ministers
of other congregations who would follow suit.<br />
<br />
Maybe,
as in Martin Luther King Jr.’s day, there can again be a time when
people see the call for peace as a spiritual issue and our church’s,
temples and congregations again take a lead role in calling for peace
and an end to our wars.<br />
<br />
Have I made the subject of
peace sound as if it is complicated? If so, I am sorry. That can be a
problem in itself. At bottom, shouldn’t this all be so simple? Peace,
supporting peace, speaking out for peace. . Something very simple.<br />
<br />
<i>Last night I had the strangest dream</i><br />
<i> I never dreamed before.</i><br />
<i> I dreamed the world had all agreed</i><br />
<i> To put an end to war.*</i><br />
<br />
* From <i>“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream,”</i> by Ed McCurdy- 1950,<br />
a precursor of sorts to <i>“Imagine”</i> by John Lennon and Yoko Ono- 1971<br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
Michael D. D. White<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAW8gU1jbF4/XgJP7YI8uyI/AAAAAAAAMW8/wbEnd1e4TvUlCYBpXpq0BY1CHR12Xy12ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Unitarian%2BPeace.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1600" height="175" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAW8gU1jbF4/XgJP7YI8uyI/AAAAAAAAMW8/wbEnd1e4TvUlCYBpXpq0BY1CHR12Xy12ACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Unitarian%2BPeace.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>
<br />
Here are links to the prior Noticing New York ventures into seasonal
reflection:</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Thursday, December 24, 2009, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-eve-story-of-alternative.html">A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville)</a>,<br />
<br />
• Friday, December 24, 2010, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/12/revisiting-classic-seasonal-tale.html">Revisiting a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Saturday, December 24, 2011, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/12/traditional-christmas-eve-revisit-of.html">Traditional
Christmas Eve Revisit of a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville, the Real
Life Incarnation of the Abhorred Pottersville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Monday, December 24, 2012, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/12/while-i-tell-of-yuletide-treasure.html">While I Tell of Yuletide Treasure</a>,<br />
<br />
• Tuesday, December 24, 2013, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-seasonal-reflection-assessing.html">A Seasonal Reflection: Assessing Aspirations Toward Alternate Realities- 'Tis A Tale of Two Alternate Cities?</a>.,<br />
<br />
Wednesday, December 24, 2014, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/12/seasonal-reflections-no-matter-how.html">Seasonal Reflections: No Matter How Fortunate or Not, We Are All Equal, Sharing a Common Journey</a> <br />
<br />
• Thursday, December 24, 2015, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/12/seasonal-reflection-mayor-de-blasio-his.html">Seasonal
Reflection: Mayor de Blasio, His Heart Squeezed Grinch-Small, Starts
Gifting Stolen Libraries To Developers For The Holidays</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Saturday, December 24, 2016, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/12/noticing-new-yorks-annual-seasonal.html">Noticing New York's Annual Seasonal Reflection</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Sunday, December 24, 2017, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/12/this-years-seasonal-reflection-yes-we.html">This
Year’s Seasonal Reflection: Yes We Are Now Living In Ratnerville,
Locally and Nationally, And Yet We Hope And Work Towards Something
Differen</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">t</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Monday, December 24, 2018, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2018/12/this-years-annual-seasonal-reflection.html">This Year’s Annual Seasonal Reflection: It Rhymes (But Not With "Reason" or "Season")</a></blockquote><p></p><blockquote> • Tuesday, December 24, 2019 <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html" target="_blank">An
Open Letter To Reverend Ana Levy-Lyons of The First Unitarian
Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn Requesting A Sermon About Peace</a></blockquote><a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html" target="_blank"></a><p></p><p></p><blockquote> • Thursday, December 24, 2020 <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2020/12/noticing-new-york-2020-seasonal.html">Noticing New York 2020 Seasonal Reflection</a> </blockquote>Here are pictures of today's Christmas Eve vigil for Julian Assange. <br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMtKVOuvtINeD6EmtRGiZC4ug7eQ3ooTKK-BhYPA7DuBkqNkgIGOf-EVKZnqJd0fkDhBkYNxEFcRCPpr-xVOC-DICl1duTQQKp9H-V3vNQQXutfst24k8L28ORba7oduTqKggjNxXSSs28KbRCvIgKdZCNLoG8r8qHpoowHnXGknEby-6QZMr2N_DU=s640" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMtKVOuvtINeD6EmtRGiZC4ug7eQ3ooTKK-BhYPA7DuBkqNkgIGOf-EVKZnqJd0fkDhBkYNxEFcRCPpr-xVOC-DICl1duTQQKp9H-V3vNQQXutfst24k8L28ORba7oduTqKggjNxXSSs28KbRCvIgKdZCNLoG8r8qHpoowHnXGknEby-6QZMr2N_DU=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-79049453333968792682021-04-01T00:01:00.021-04:002021-04-02T11:32:56.170-04:00Legal Eagle Arthur Schwartz, Attorney Skilled In Opposing Privatization, Says He’ll Stop Mayor de Blasio’s Even Worse Scheme To Leverage“Covid Emergency Streeteries* Declaration” Into More Real Estate Development<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uy9HD9NPRAA/YGTcuwZa6WI/AAAAAAAANK0/qG3alrdbZu4SbIBOGEo86KViEZtlRC6RwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/Fifth%2BAvenue%2BDouble%2BHeight%2BStreeterie.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1511" data-original-width="2016" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uy9HD9NPRAA/YGTcuwZa6WI/AAAAAAAANK0/qG3alrdbZu4SbIBOGEo86KViEZtlRC6RwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Fifth%2BAvenue%2BDouble%2BHeight%2BStreeterie.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Double height streetery - Fifth Avenue in Park Slope- <i>last</i> spring it was <i>single</i> height.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>(* Also spelled <i>'streateries'</i>)<br /><br />Mayor Bill de Blasio, (“<i><u>Build</u> de Blasio</i>” as he is affectionately known by some in the real estate development community) has an even worse plan with respect to his use of <i>“Covid emergency”</i> declarations for a privatizing takeover of public space to enhance private real estate ownership in New York. It’s an even worse plan and attorney Arthur Schwartz of Advocates for Justice says that he’s going to fight and defeat it. Mayor de Blasio's plan is that he wants to turn property owners’ street occupation rights into <i>even <u>more</u></i> development rights than previously imagined. <br /><br />Schwartz noted how he had already sued when the City Council unilaterally decreed the <i>Open Restaurants Program</i> <u>permanent</u> and he confidently predicted that he would not let this new, expanded and even worse version of that <i>“Covid emergency”</i> based declaration get one wit further. Respecting Schwartz’s earlier legal action see: <b>The Village Sun (<i>Real News For The Community</i>)</b>- <a href="https://thevillagesun.com/locals-suing-city-over-illegal-open-restaurants-program">Locals to sue city over ‘illegal’ Open Restaurants program, by Lincoln Anderson</a>, March 9, 2021<br /><br />Schwartz previously attacked the de Blasio and the City Council for using the <i>“Covid emergency”</i> as an excuse to make <i>`Open Restaurants Program’</i> permanent by passing a law (Intro 2127-A), November 15th of last year, that gave the mayor’s Department of Transportation and whatever any other agency the mayor designated unfettered power to create a permanent program to give the streets away for ‘<i>restaurants.’</i> In the lawsuit Schwartz brought pro bono (representing an ad hoc coalition of community groups under the umbrella name <i>“New Yorkers for Safe Open Streets”</i> a.k.a. S.O.S.) Schwarz pointed out that this extensive delegation of power to the mayor and his agencies amounted to <i>“unconstitutional”</i> changes to the city’s zoning laws bypassing community input and <i>“totally ignoring”</i> the City Charter’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a process that specifically requires zoning change review by community boards, the borough presidents, the City Planning Commission and the City Council.<br /><br />Schwartz said that the permanent long-term giveaway of streets to neighboring properties was a privatizing handout to landlords, and that: <br /></p><blockquote><i>basically, property owners would be able to charge higher rents due to the permanent availability of the parking lane for use for additional seating.</i></blockquote>In other words, with higher rents being charged, there would be no benefit to restaurants or restaurant owners. <br /><br />Ultimately, the community activist attorney* said, the Open Restaurants program post-COVID would not benefit restaurants, only landlord property owners who would be able to charge higher rents due to the permanent availability of the parking lane for use for additional seating. <i>“You can’t be doing this without any parameters at all,”</i> says Schwartz adding to his objections,<i> “there isn’t even the slightest framework to hem in the mayor and his agencies from doing absolutely anything they want or can imagine.”</i><p></p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><i>(* NOTE: </i><i>Arthur Schwartz </i>is <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/06/nyc-based-radio-station-wbai-to-go-back-on-the-air-at-midnight/">the same</a> community activist attorney who successfully represented WBAI free speech radio, <i>"Radio for the 99.5%,"</i> the only truly listener supported public radio station in New York City, in fending off a potentially <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2021/03/new-day-pacifica-bylaw-proposals-group.htmlhttp://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2021/03/new-day-pacifica-bylaw-proposals-group.html">privatizing attack</a> on the station that involved the surreptitious and illegal <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/10/how-proposed-self-cannibalizing-sale-of.html" target="_blank">shutdown of the station</a> in October 2019.) <br /></blockquote>The Village Sun article includes this overview analysis by Schwartz, <i>“speaking to The Village Sun,”</i> he said:<br /><p></p><blockquote><i>what is currently being seen with the Open Restaurants diktat is part of a wider problem of community disenfranchisement perpetrated by City Hall.<br /><br />“To me,” he said, “it’s part of an approach taken by the city that is also reflected in the recent proposal by [Council Speaker] Corey Johnson to create a ‘zoning czar’ that would shorten the ULURP process, where decision making on land use is getting more and more centralized and less involving the affected communities. This is imposing the will of the mayor on communities without their having a say.”</i></blockquote><p>Those of us who have been watching the effect of Covid on city real estate are worried that this will also compound consolidating ownership: Are we are going to be seeing greater consolidation of property ownership in a city where a limited number of real estate families already dominate excessively given the squeeze of high property high taxes from a stressed city in need of income while store fronts are vacant as <a href="https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2020/12/11/one-fifth-of-montague-street-storefronts-empty-amid-covid-crisis/">Mom and Pops close</a> because of the virus? Mom and Pops, unlike the big box stores, don’t have a parallel web-sales presence to help carry them through. Big real estate owners also seem to have an affinity for big-box chain stores where they can replicate deals over swaths of property. . . All this in a city where City Hall has been handing out huge acreage swath to single owners, like the <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/search/label/Atlantic%20Yards">Atlantic Yards</a> (now <i>“Pacific Park”</i>) project, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/search/label/Hudson%20Yards">Hudson Yards</a>, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/search/label/Willets%20Point">Willets Point</a>, the <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/search/label/Columbia%20University%20West%20Harlem%20Expansion">Columbia takeover of West Harlem</a>, etc. often with the aid of <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/search/label/Eminent%20Domain%20Abuse">eminent domain abuse</a> seizures of property from smaller owners. And now public streets and sidewalks will be consolidated in that ownership.<br /></p><p>Mayor de Blasio has defended making the <i>`Open Restaurants Program’</i> permanent saying that assuring that permanence will induce the construction of sturdier outdoor enclosures to accommodate restaurant patrons. He notes that many of the streeteries initially built last spring were ramshackle affairs, thrown up often so improvisationally that they constitute unsettling eyesores to the community. <i>"Knowing that you can keep, rather than quickly scrap what you build, will generate investment in far lovelier enclosures as people think in terms of a future and build with that in mind,"</i> said de Blasio. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wHtDRUI-gb4/YGTSZIWM0JI/AAAAAAAANKo/o23hIWJT1-4JJJ2ZLg-BaZ_jR6dVD8eVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/Irving%2BPlace%2BSrteeteries.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wHtDRUI-gb4/YGTSZIWM0JI/AAAAAAAANKo/o23hIWJT1-4JJJ2ZLg-BaZ_jR6dVD8eVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Irving%2BPlace%2BSrteeteries.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Irving
Place is one of the streets where sturdy streeteries are expected to be
greatly expanded under the new de Blasio permanence program.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />Mayor de Blasio’s new edition of the <i>`Open Restaurants Program’</i> is supposed to be initially be launched mostly by new regulations issued by the mayor. Ideas for it started to get generated when Evan Moore a Department of Transportation Deputy Director was conferring and trading expertise and thoughts with Max Tolstoy of the Department of Buildings. With the streeteries built last year becoming more permanent and with the continuing need for such legal <i>“outdoor”</i> spaces to accommodate patrons given the prospective bans on <i>indoor </i>restaurant space, a number of the streeteries were informing the city that they were going with the expedient of building <i>second stories</i> to their <i>“outdoor”</i> space.<br /><br />Moore and Tolstoy quickly realized there were implications to be considered. For instance: <i>`Should staircases meet any prescribed code standards?’</i> This led to trying to think through possibilities through on a more integrated basis. <i>`Should second stories only be permitted for those who had built sturdier structures making use of the outdoors, for instance, those with locking doors, and operable glass windows?’</i> Then it was realized that with outdoor staircases possible, maybe even lifts and sidewalk elevators being used, especially if wheel chair access is to be nondiscriminatorily provided, why not consider putting some of the new outdoor space structures on the roofs of shorter buildings? </p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cIMZL-tnTMw/YGTO7ZzsKMI/AAAAAAAANKY/FUa6o5tVeWEazeOxGt8MHNPcPSqV0bRpwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Irving%2BPlace%2BSolid%2BDoors%2BWindows.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1423" data-original-width="2048" height="278" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cIMZL-tnTMw/YGTO7ZzsKMI/AAAAAAAANKY/FUa6o5tVeWEazeOxGt8MHNPcPSqV0bRpwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h278/Irving%2BPlace%2BSolid%2BDoors%2BWindows.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Irving Place is a good small street to see in microcosm many solid doors and sturdy operable windows on streeteries. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Thinking multidimensionally this way, and thinking of building upwards in general, Moore and Tolstoy realized they had a tool to work with that they hadn’t been thinking about, known to those who understand the zoning code and regulations as "FAR," for <i>Floor to Area Ratio</i>. The FAR concept, already in the code and thus already available, prescribes that how much and how tall you can build in terms of total square footage will be determined as a multiple of the dimensions of the real estate you own absent any structures. Thus, formally recognizing the right to permanently occupy what <i>was</i> parking lane space as the addition to the owned property that it actually is, means that all building owners with such space attached have additional FAR with which to build higher and more real estate.<br /><br />Mr. De Blasio, immediately blessed this concept with the caveat that any new space built with the additional FAR coming available would have to be deemed <i>“outdoor”</i> space for a period of time, a period of time that would also have to have some conceptual relation to the period of time that people think that Covid, at least as a crisis, is expected to be around. Furthermore, the space would also have to be deemed <i>restaurant space</i> throughout that period. De Blasio further specified that, somewhat along the lines of some of the legal concepts of <i>`adverse possession’</i> or <i>`possession is nine-tenths of the law,’</i> the Moore Tolstoy Open Restaurants Program should henceforth start requiring that parking lane street acquisitions and everything built under the program should be built with a certain level of sturdiness and meet certain minimums of protected enclosure in order to be considered certifiably consummated.<br /><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kUwAd3xl9jI/YGTQs3JSO_I/AAAAAAAANKg/f6wEy6tsbNE_mlSEnd7LK7ZjYs0zu7HOACLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/IMG_2935.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kUwAd3xl9jI/YGTQs3JSO_I/AAAAAAAANKg/f6wEy6tsbNE_mlSEnd7LK7ZjYs0zu7HOACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_2935.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On
19th Street and Park Avenue, one of the city's streeteries is now
rebuilding in a sturdier fashion planning to take advantage of de Blasio
program loans for structures of greater permanence. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /><i>“But you can’t just expect that people will be able to do all this building under the program with insufficient resources to do so,”</i> said de Blasio. That is why eligible owners applying to City Hall for approval will be able to take out loans from the city, <i>“Sturdier Construction Underwriting Motivation”</i> loans. Modeling the program on the federal Covid program Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, these loans will likewise be forgiven if the structures built are sturdy enough to stand for one year. The loans will be funded by tax-exempt bonds issued by Goldman Sachs. The City’s former deputy mayor for housing under de Blasio, Alicia Glen will get a finder's fee for the bond transaction. Although Glen is not now with Goldman, she came to work for de Blasio as Deputy Mayor for Housing from her previous position with Goldman where she led Goldman Sachs’s Urban Investment Group. Glen said that it required a lot of thinking, <i>`to whom the loans should go</i>,' but that Goldman was advising that loans should, for logical reasons, go to the property owners, not the restaurant operators. She said this was the advice the city was going to go with. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RmBfOi81Gc8/YGTe0bl_vcI/AAAAAAAANK8/3o-DBsTYoQoQcu9r7FR9-tzL2Gg_ll-cQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1660/Park%2BSlope%2BStreeteries.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1140" data-original-width="1660" height="275" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RmBfOi81Gc8/YGTe0bl_vcI/AAAAAAAANK8/3o-DBsTYoQoQcu9r7FR9-tzL2Gg_ll-cQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h275/Park%2BSlope%2BStreeteries.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Most
of the streeteries on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, the neighborhood from
which de Blasio originally hails, are expected to go to two story
editions<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Because most of the loans are expected to be forgiven rather than repaid, the source of funds for bond repayment will have to come form another source. Goldman has decided the bonds will be <a href="https://nhc.org/policy-guide/tax-increment-financing-the-basics/"><i>tax-increment bonds</i></a>. Instead of any repayment funds having to come from the real property owners acquiring new properties and building rights under the program, the bonds will be paid off by higher taxes (<i>tax-increments</i>) that the rest of each neighborhood’s properties will pay. This is justified, says Glen, by the additional value and overall uplift the new building and dining spots will add to the neighborhoods. To encourage their acquisitions, the street property acquiring owners will be exempt from real estate taxes for <i>five years</i>.<br /><br />Arthur Schwartz says he will fight the new Moore Tolstoy Open Restaurants Program for all the same exact reasons he brought his lawsuit against de Blasio’s initial Intro 2127-A version of the program prior to these new expansive interpretations, and he emphasizes that this version has all those same faults, flaws and unconstitutionalities, while at the same time "<i>being ten times worse</i>" . . Schwartz says he is absolutely confident he will prevail. . .<br /><br />. . . Nevertheless, mayor de Blasio is set to boldly announce, in a press conference <u><i>today</i></u>, the Moore Tolstoy <i>Open Restaurants Program</i> along with Goldman's imminent issuance of its tax-increment bonds for the<i>“Sturdier Construction Underwriting Motivation”</i> ("SCUM") program loans. That should make a lot of restaurant landlords happy, this first day of April, <i><a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/search/label/April%201st">April 1st</a></i>.</p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NWeK0TiePY0/YGTk8YZXYoI/AAAAAAAANLE/8YmBul37mSsixrvYUX3DQyZidUyT6ijIACLcBGAsYHQ/s1382/That%2BBar.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1382" height="278" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NWeK0TiePY0/YGTk8YZXYoI/AAAAAAAANLE/8YmBul37mSsixrvYUX3DQyZidUyT6ijIACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h278/That%2BBar.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another streeterie in Park Slope that just went to two stories in March.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-arBAkGfSE0M/YGTupuv-U7I/AAAAAAAANLM/U54Mwr12jWsclbw9FJu1uxyDaaTQPWSEACLcBGAsYHQ/s2009/Bogota.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2009" height="301" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-arBAkGfSE0M/YGTupuv-U7I/AAAAAAAANLM/U54Mwr12jWsclbw9FJu1uxyDaaTQPWSEACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h301/Bogota.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And one more<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-55692485046583014252020-12-24T23:08:00.000-05:002020-12-24T23:08:00.384-05:00Noticing New York 2020 Seasonal Reflection<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fra-tJzX79M/XgFt5SGhvJI/AAAAAAAAMWk/Jx8uQevXr0YwMRFbM6MSxDvJM5DAF004wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Peace%2BUnitarian.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1153" data-original-width="1600" height="287" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fra-tJzX79M/XgFt5SGhvJI/AAAAAAAAMWk/Jx8uQevXr0YwMRFbM6MSxDvJM5DAF004wCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Peace%2BUnitarian.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Today is Christmas Eve.<br />
<br />
I have a long-standing tradition of, every year, on Christmas Eve, publishing a Noticing New York seasonal reflection for the holidays. This year I hardly feel up to it. There is Covid, of course. Whatever Covid actually means, we have had about nine months of it in New York City.</p><p>Over the year, I've written a bit about the Covid-19 coronavirus, mostly at National Notice, another associated blog where I write about <i>national</i> issues, politics and economic issues. There I have written about the mysteriousness of <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2020/04/despite-all-information-flung-around.html" target="_blank">what we don't know</a> about Covid. I have <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2020/04/you-already-concluded-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">written about</a> how wackily inadequate our healthcare system is to deal properly with the virus, because insurance companies seek and succeed in profiting in the most unexpected ways from a bad system. I have written about how we are losing valuable personal contact and we are losing the <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2020/04/as-digital-technology-steps-in-to-help.html" target="_blank">value of our faces and facial expressions</a> as a communication device in our Covid shutdown world. I have written about all the weird and hard to square advice and information we've gotten about necessary Covid precautions, a really good example being what we've been told about <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2020/07/you-your-dog-and-coronavirus-lets-be.html" target="_blank">Covid, and dogs, cats, hamsters, minks, ferrets, and sometimes children</a>. I've written about how, despite all its ridiculously impressive graphs of the virus, the New York Times has undependably contradicted <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2020/05/is-new-york-times-offering-misleadingly.html" target="_blank">its own reported facts</a> about Covid. </p><p>And from the very start, <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2020/03/reflections-on-what-it-means-to-be.html" target="_blank">I noted</a> how Covid was pushing us, ever more so, out of the physical realm and into the digital realm, which is very susceptible to the control of others. It affects such basic rights as free speech and the right of assembly. You won't find my National Notice articles easily, because now Google, in all its monopolistic wisdom, seems to be suppressing National Notice with its algorithms.</p><p>Meanwhile, over at <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Citizens Defending Libraries</a> where we write about the selling off of libraries, the elimination of physical books and librarians from this public commons, along with the accompanying exploits of privatizing public assets while also privatizing and controlling information, I wrote about how Covid was being used as an excuse to <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2020/04/bankruptcy-of-state-governments-and.html" target="_blank">financially starve and set up</a> state and local governments for a round of austerity. That round of austerity will, I predict, be used as an excuse for more privatizing sell-offs. Did I mention in that writing what is being done to the Post Office?-- Will Amazon take over its functions? Yes, I did. And describing how these privatized priorities unfold, I also, at <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Citizens Defending Libraries</a>, reported about how, when construction was supposed to halt in New York because of Covid, the luxury tower replacing Brooklyn's second biggest library continued to build based on the cheeky pretext they should be allowed to because the luxury building <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2020/04/although-gov-cuomo-halted-most.html" target="_blank">could be considered</a> urgent <i>"affordable housing."</i> <br /></p><p>That much said, backing up further, the really big part of the Covid picture that's not getting much coverage at all is how this virus is being used as an excuse and an occasion for a huge upward transfer of more wealth to the already most wealthy. We can expect the wealth thus transferred to be spent on about the only thing it can go to: more privatization of public assets and more acquisition of all the things the rest of us now own and share. . .<br /></p><p>The best example of this face of Covid as we close the year 2020 is, once again, a familiar personality, <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/10/new-book-home-wreckers-identifies-nypl.html" target="_blank">Stephen A. Schwarzman</a>. Mr. Schwarzman is the New York Public Library trustee who has been a central specter in the selling off of New York City Libraries and, going along with that, the privatization of the library culture. Mr. Schwarzman is a fellow who thinks that the poor should be taxed more and that the wealthiest like him should be taxed at a lower rate than everybody else. He boasts of his friendship <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/09/stopped-nypls-plan-to-turn-over-its.html" target="_blank">with</a> Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (remember the dismemberment killing of Jamal Khashoggi?). And somehow we name our 42nd Street Central Reference Library after him? Somehow we think he should be an NYPL trustee?<br /></p><p>Mr. Schwarzman was one of the <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/10/new-book-home-wreckers-identifies-nypl.html" target="_blank">central profiteers</a> from the 2008 economic downturn when an almost unimaginable number of homes were foreclosed upon and became the property of companies like those of Mr. Schwarzman's. That was 2008. 2020?: Mr. Schwarzman is very much his same old self, <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/blackstone-rent-stephen-schwarzman-pandemic" target="_blank">back in the news</a> making money from the Covid crisis, again buying up foreclosed homes. Schwarzman is saying his firm was <i>“a huge winner”</i> from the 2008 financial crisis and now he thinks <i>“something similar is going to happen,”</i> as he boasts to his investors about <i>“huge increases in rents”</i> and his firm pursues evictions during the pandemic.<br /></p><p>Mr. Schwarzman would be good company amongst the pre-reform Ebeneezer Scrooge, the pre-reform Grinch and the sour old bad banker, Mr. Henry Potter, from "<i>It's A Wonderful Life,</i>" all of them subjects of our prior Seasonal Reflections.</p><p>All that said, and as much as 2020 has been a year of fervid Covid preoccupation and distraction, I think the best and bigger seasonal reflection to return to is a republication of my last year's letter requesting a sermon from our minister about peace. We could use such communications in all our houses of worship, and innumerable other places as well.<br /></p><p>I have been thinking a lot recently about the simple, but eloquent anti-war 1950 anti-war song <i>“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream,”</i> by Ed McCurdy. I mention it and quote from it at the end of my open letter to our Unitarian Universalist minister requesting a sermon about peace. Like my letter, it too is a prayer for peace.</p><p>To me its amazing that with powerful songs like this with us around since 1950 and songs like <i>John Lennon and Yoko Ono's“Imagine”</i> added to it (1971), every year at Christmas, when we revere peace, we still have war. If anything, it gets worse. <br /></p><p>The seasonal tradition is to revere peace and still have lots of war.</p><p>My letter of last December is absolutely as relevant this year as last. That's because this seasonal tradition never get old. <br /></p><p> But, as I supply this letter for you to read again this year, I invite you to think about one more thing. . . And that's how being on a constant war footing with supposed <i>"enemies"</i> and the need to keep secrets and lie to the public that goes along with it, leads to other things. It leads to other things like the Stephen Schwarzman's of the world having full license to unleash so much Scroogey Grinchiness on the world fully expecting to impoverish the rest of us.</p><p>Here is my 2019 December letter praying for a sermon on peace, praying, if you will, for peace.</p>Best and blessings to you all this season.<p>
<br />
December 19, 2019<br />
<br />
Re: <i>An Open Letter Requesting A Sermon About Peace</i><br />
<br />
Dear Reverend Ana,<br />
<br />
Last
spring my wife Carolyn and I invested heavily in our congregation’s
fund raising lottery trying to win the prize of choosing a topic for a
sermon you would give. We didn’t win. Had we won, we would have
challenged you with what you might not have found an easy subject,
speaking about Julian Assange, American war crimes, and the U.S. pursuit
of empire. Our choice of subject would not have been be to vex you
with its difficulty, but to ask you to speak to what could be such a
simple concept: Peace. If, these days, conversations about peace are
avoided as difficult, what better than address that difficulty in a
sermon?<br />
<br />
Giving it some consideration, I think that
making a worthy case for a sermon topic is a good a way to gain the
prize of having you speak on a topic we care about, as good a way as
investing in fund raising lottery tickets. Therefore I will try.<br />
<br />
Is
peace a spiritual thing? Is talk about our common humanity, our common
bonds, and about surmounting the blindness that fractures our
relationships a proper thing to address in religious terms? I
acknowledge I’m being obvious here. What I just referred to is supposed
to be basic and elemental to the great faiths.<br />
<br />
I grew
up in the Vietnam War era and I remember churches and church people
taking the lead in saying that the wars we waged in Indochina were
wrong. These days we, as country, are more military extended than
ever. My oldest daughter is now about to be twenty-nine years old. We
had already started bombing Iraq when she was born in January. The war
in Iraq is just one of the perpetual wars that has continued essentially
for the entirety of her life. All of our wars are long now. As
formally measured by some, the War in Afghanistan, with its later
beginning, has surpassed the Vietnam War as our country’s longest war.<br />
<br />
These days the United States <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/01/with-scathing-perpetual-war-letter.html">has been bombing</a>
nine countries, ten if you include, as we should, all of the U.S.
participation in the bombing of Yemen, the other nine countries being:
Mali, Niger, Somalia, Libya, and then, in the Middle East, it’s
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. We have 800 military bases in other
countries. With practically no comment or attention from us, President
Obama opened new military bases across Africa.<br />
<br />
A peace
symbol hangs prominently in our Unitarian Universalist congregation’s
sanctuary where our sermons are given. We begin every Sunday service
singing the words: <i>“let peace, good will on earth be sung through every land, by every tongue.”</i>
Christmas comes every year, and every year we evoke and extol, as is
customary in the Christian tradition, the image of Jesus as the <i>“Prince of Peace.”</i>
In our congregation’s Weaving Social Justice Committee we have
discussed the prospect of rededicating the side chapel within the
sanctuary that is known as the <i>“Peace Chapel”</i> to that cause. In our <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/06/candidate-films-for-social-justice-film.html">list of candidate films</a> for the social justice film series we are working on we have films about the injustice of war. . .<br />
<br />
.
. . But, by and large, we hardly ever actually say anything about peace
or the need to end the perpetual wars for which our country is now
responsible. Has there been any sermon in our sanctuary on the subject
of peace? I can’t recall one.<br />
<br />
I was not at the
Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in June this summer, but I
talked with people who went, and I looked over the multi-day program. I
was told and I saw that there were no sessions on the subject of
peace. Nor was anything said about the antithesis thereof, war,
although we are deeply embroiled in wars to the point that they are
inescapably always in the background our daily American lives.<br />
<br />
Our
congregation through its leaders including members of the social
justice committee is now reaching out to other congregations in our city
and to their social justice actors to coordinate collective activism on
the issues important to all of us. The importance of peace activism
has not been mentioned in those discussions no matter that it is
integrally related to virtually every other issue that is being
discussed of common interest. Has the subject of peace somehow been
tagged as off-limits? Is peace now too controversial to be discussed by
and among religious communities?<br />
<br />
Other social issues
have attracted the attention of organizing Unitarians and have been the
subject of multiple sermons. I understand and support that and among
them are issues like the climate change chaos catastrophe emergency.
The climate emergency is an existential threat to all of humanity. When
the Democratic National Committee ordered that there be no debate
focused on the single issue of climate change– the DNC actually forbade
Democrats from participating in any such debate organized by anyone
else– the case was made that the existential issue of climate is so
fundamental that it is intertwines with and underlies virtually every
other issue that’s important. There are other issues like that; issues
that are inextricably related to society’s other major issues. <br />
<br />
Our
American wars together with the rest of our military interventions that
stoke conflict in other countries are far too often wars which are very
much about the extraction of oil and fossil fuels. Moreover, overall
our wars help keep in place the systems that continue to vandalize our
planet, exterminating its ecosystems. Further, the US military is one
of the <a href="https://fair.org/home/major-media-bury-groundbreaking-studies-of-pentagons-massive-carbon-bootprint/">largest polluters in history</a>, <i>“the single-largest producer of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world,”</i> and that the Pentagon is responsible for between <i>“77% and 80% of all US government energy consumption”</i>
since 2001. The US military is consuming more liquid fuels and
emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries,
polluting more than 140 countries. Obscuring the reporting on this, the
United States, which exempts its military from environmental laws,
insisted on exemptions from reporting of the military emissions of <a href="https://fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin191011Banter.mp3">all countries</a> from climate agreements. The U.S., has itself escaped such reporting by exiting the Paris Climate Accord.<br />
<br />
It
is not clear, but these staggering figures about fossil fuel use
probably don’t include the fossil fuel consumption related to the
initial manufacture of weapons. Consider also that replacement, or
nonreplacement, of what is bombed, burned and incinerated also must
entail substantial additional environmental costs. <br />
<br />
It is not just greenhouse gas emission pollution that the military produces: In 2010, a major story that went <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/2-us-department-of-defense-is-the-worst-polluter-on-the-planet/">largely unreported</a>
was that the U.S. Department of Defense, as the largest polluter in the
world, was producing more hazardous waste than the five largest US
chemical companies combined, and that just some of the pollutants with
which it was contaminating the environment were depleted uranium,
petroleum, oil, pesticides, defoliant agents such as Agent Orange, and
lead, along with vast amounts of radiation. Following our bombings,
birth defects reported in Iraq are soaring. A World Health Organization
survey <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/iraq-records-huge-rise-in-birth-defects-8210444.html">tells us</a>
that in Fallujah half of all babies were born with a birth defect
between 2007 and 2010 with 45 per cent of all pregnancies ending in
miscarriage in the two years after 2004.<br />
<br />
Another thing we face that has been deadening to the human spirit has been the increasing <i>“othering”</i>
of people who we are made to think are different from us. Frequently
now that’s immigrants from other countries who are black or brown.
Often that <i>“othering,”</i> as with Muslims, is stoked in ways that
may cause us to support or tolerate wars in which those others suffer
most and towards whom hostilities are often officially directed. We may
also forget how our wars and military activity push the flow of
populations forcing people to migrate across boarders, as, for instance,
with those leaving Honduras after our country helped bring about the
military coup that replaced the government there.<br />
<br />
Also
basic and underlying so many of our problems are racial, income and
wealth inequality with concomitant inequality in power and influence.
These are things that Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who practiced
ministry through activism and activism through ministry, labored to
eliminate. Not long before he was assassinated, King also began to
speak out against the Vietnam war saying the great challenge facing
mankind is to get rid of war. Before he did so, he carefully weighed
cautions urged on him that as a civil rights leader he shouldn’t do so,
that it would undermine support for his civil rights work, split his
coalition, and that these issues should not be joined together. But
King concluded that the issues were <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/martin-luther-king-hungry-club-forum/552533/">tied together</a> and decided that he would address them on that basis.<br />
<br />
When King expressed his opposition to the war in his very famous “<i><a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm">Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence</a></i>,”
delivered in this city’s Riverside Church, New York City, April 4,
1967, one year to the day before his assassination, he said he was <i>“increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”</i>
He spoke of the disproportionate toll that waging war exacted on the
poor and spoke of the poisoning of America’s soul. . . So it is today.<br />
<br />
War is profitable business. It busies packs of lobbyists who know a great deal more about often <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-pentagon-has-steadfastly-stonewalled-against-making-its-budget-auditable/">secret budgets</a>
than we, as the public, will ever learn. But that profit drains the
resources of our society enfeebling our ability to accomplish so much
else. The Pentagon and military budget is about <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/05/everybodys-realizing-it-now-political.html">57% of the nation’s discretionary budget</a>. If all of the <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-pentagon-has-steadfastly-stonewalled-against-making-its-budget-auditable/">unknowable</a>
black box spending that goes into the Military-Industrial-Surveillance
Complex were included, that percentage could well bump up higher. We
spend more on military spending than the next ten countries combined (or
seven, depending on the year and who calculates), and we spend much
more than all the rest of the countries in the world left over after
that. Of course, much of that spending by other countries is on arms we
supply making the world dangerous. <br />
<br />
We may not fully
know about or have a complete accounting of all the dollars we spend in
these areas, but, in May of 2011 after the U.S. announced that it had
killed Osama Bin Laden, the National Priorities Project calculated that,
<a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2016/11/how-much-do-we-spend-on-our-military.html">as of that time</a>, <i>“in all, the U.S. government has spent more than $7.6 trillion on defense and homeland security since the 9/11 attacks.”</i> Point of reference: a “<i>trillion</i>” is one million millions.<br />
<br />
Just the increase in the military spending in the last two years since Trump came in <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-supermajority-of-americans-want.html">is as much as</a> Russia spends on its entire military budget ($66 billion). Similarly just that increase is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/learning/whats-going-on-in-this-graph-feb-13-2019.html">greater than</a> the entire military budgets of Britain ($55 billion) or France ($51 billion). <br />
<br />
Our
fixated disposition to keep spending more is entrenched: Even Elizabeth
Warren, a senator from Massachusetts who promotes herself as a left
wing progressive, <a href="https://medium.com/the-progressive-edge/progressives-dont-be-fooled-by-elizabeth-warren-d158ffba40fe">voted in 2017</a>
to increase the defense budget by $80 billion, surpassing the $54
billion increase requested by President Trump. 60% Of House Democrats <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/07/14/most-house-democrats-just-voted-for-a-defense-budget-far-bigger-than-trumps/#c11d4576ea0e">voted for</a> a defense budget far bigger than Trump requested.<br />
<br />
Perhaps
most disquieting and insidiously corrupting to our morality and our
souls are the pretexts we adopt to justify going to war and to abide its
horrors, particularly when we leave those pretexts dishonestly
unexamined. The public flailed and many among us continue in their
confusion, unable to sort out that Iraq did not attack the United States
or have weapons of mass destruction before the second war that we
unilaterally and <i>"preemptively"</i> launched to invade that country. Before our first Gulf War attack on that country there were no slaughtered `<i>incubator babies</i>’:
That was just a brazen, cynically staged public relations scam.
Similarly, how few of us know and recognize that Afghanistan did <u><i>not</i></u>
attack the United States on 9/11– We precipitously invaded that country
because the government there was at that time asking that procedures be
followed and proof furnished before it would assist in finding and
turning Osama Bin Laden over to the United States.<br />
<br />
The
foreign country that was most involved in 9/11, and from where almost
all of the men identified as the alleged 9/11 hijackers came, is Saudi
Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the country to which we are selling massive
amounts of weapons (making it that world’s third biggest military
spender) and it is the country with which we are deeply involved
perpetrating war crimes against Yemen.<br />
<br />
In the Vietnam
War, our second longest war, it was the Gulf of Tonkin incident that,
not being what it seemed nor reported to be, was the pretext for war.<br />
<br />
Perhaps
hardest and most challenging to our susceptibilities as caring people
striving to be spiritual and attentive to justice are the pretextual
manipulations to which we are subject in regard to what Noam Chomsky and
Edward Herman spotlighted as the selective <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2018/04/20/worthy-and-unworthy-victims/">distinguishing between</a> <i>“worthy”</i> versus <i>“unworthy”</i> victims. <i>“Worthy”</i>
victims are those who, whatever their number, deserve our outrage and
are a basis for calls for the international community to mobilize toward
war. <i>“Unworthy victims”</i> are those who can die en mass without
attention or recognition like the tens of thousands of Yemeni children
who have died for lack of food, water and medicine because of Saudi
Arabia’s blockade assisted by the U.S.. Often, as with Palestinians
removed from their homelands, these victims are blamed for their own
victimhood. <br />
<br />
Additional layers of pretext pile up when
we encounter journalists and whistleblowers willing to be the messengers
of war crimes. We punish those messengers while, concurrently, there
is no consequence for those who perpetrate the war crimes. Often the
perpetrators are promoted to higher office. That includes those who
illegally torture others to coerce useless, undependable, and <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/06/notes-on-reliability-of-coerced.html">likely false</a> <i>“confessions.”</i> Thus we punish and torture Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning for exemplifying what Daniel Ellsberg called <i>“civil courage.”</i> Thus we vindictively send CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou to prison for disclosing his agency’s torture program. <br />
<br />
Wikileaks,
Julian Assange’s organization has published much that is embarrassing
to the United States and those in power, much of it is particularly
embarrassing to the U.S. military. Wikileaks has never published
anything that was untrue, but the truth of what it has published is
disruptive to the official narratives of the war establishment. That
establishment has been seeking vengeance against and to neutralize
Assange since events in 2010 when in April Wikileaks published
documenting gunsight video footage, under the title of <i>“Collateral Murder,”</i>
of a US drone strike on civilians in Bagdad provided by Chelsea
Manning. The New York Times and Washington Post did not respond to
Manning’s attempts to publish that same footage through them or other
evidence of U.S. war crime in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
Anyone
who wants proof of the pretextual nature of the United States’
persecution of Julian Assange and of the ghastly and sometimes illegal,
abuse of inordinate power against Assange should <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_P9Nj6N58">watch</a> or <a href="https://soundcloud.com/rttv/on-contact-julian-assange-wun-special-rapporteur-on-torture">listen to</a> Chris Hedges June 8, 1019 “<i>On Contact</i>” interview with UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer (“<i>On Contact: Julian Assange w/UN Special Rapporteur on Torture</i>”-
Chris Hedges is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church). The
attacks against Assange began with a highly orchestrated campaign of
character assassination. They have progressed to things far worse.
Both Assange and Manning (who was pardoned from a 35-year sentence after
seven years of confinement that included the torture of Manning) are
now being held in prison, no end in sight, for no crimes of which they
have been convicted. I think we have to agree with the criticism of
this as psychological torture. The continued torture of Manning is an
effort to get at Assange even if that were to involve forcing Manning to
lie.<br />
<br />
The United States wants Assange extradited to the
Unites States to be tried for the crime of practicing journalism that
was unflattering to the United States government. Somehow we have the
highhandedness to conceptualize this journalism to be treason although
Assange is a foreign national. Assange faces no other charges. Under the
laws pursuant to which the U.S. would try him, Assange, like the exiled
Edward Snowden, would not be permitted to introduce any evidence or
argument that disclosing illegal U.S. activity or war crimes benefits
the public. It’s said that the United States wants nothing more than a
show trial and I think that must be considered obvious.<br />
<br />
When
Assange sensed in 2012 that trumped up charges in Sweden would be used
as a subterfuge to transfer him to United States custody for such a show
trial he obtained political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
For this, a British judge sentenced Assange and had him serve 50 weeks
in a high security prison for <i>“bail jumping”</i>; that’s just
fourteen days short of the maximum possible sentence, although the
obviously trumped up charges for which Assange had posted bail were
withdrawn, <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/06/disproportionate-sentences-julian-assange-bail-and-extradition/">negating</a> the original bail terms as a result. A <a href="https://soundcloud.com/rttv/on-contact-julian-assange-wun-special-rapporteur-on-torture">normal, typical sentence</a> for bail jumping would have entailed only a fine, in a grave case, a much shorter prison sentence.<br />
<br />
Britain was able to send police officers into enter the Ecuadoran Embassy to arrest Assange for <i>“bail jumping”</i>
and then later hold him, without other charge for pending extradition
to the United States, because of a change in the Ecuadoran government
that was evidently <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/a-tale-of-cocaine-trafficking-sex-crime-charges-extraordinary-rendition-julian-assange/">CIA assisted</a>,
and as the United States was dangling financial aid for that country.
Assange’s eviction from the embassy, along with his being simultaneously
stripped of Ecuadoran citizenship, was done without due process. <br />
<br />
The
persecution of Assange casts a long shadow to intimidate other
journalists, whistleblowers and activists as they themselves are being
intimidated about disrupting the preferred narrative concerning
America’s militarily asserted empire. Other providers of news simply
lay low not reporting things. As neither the New York Times nor the
Washington Post reported it, you may not have heard about the recent <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/11/scary-swat-team-arrest-of-journalist.html">scary SWAT style arrest</a>
of journalist Max Blumenthal by Washington D. C. police hours after he
reported about the United States government funding of the Venezuela
Juan Guaidó coup team. Blumenthal was shackled and held incommunicado
for an extended period. Not long after that the D.C. police went out to <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/11/after-scary-swat-team-arrest-of.html">similarly arrest</a> activist and journalist Medea Benjamin when she publicized the U.S. backing of coups in Venezuela and Bolivia.<br />
<br />
With
silenced journalists, will we, based on unchallenged pretexts, send our
military into to change the government of Venezuela as there is talk of
doing? In Bolivia the coup we sponsored has been successful without
that. Meanwhile, there is talk of pretexts for military actions against
Iran, Russia, North Korea.<br />
<br />
Journalists who still show courage, are <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/10/list-of-journalists-fired-or-self.html">subject to</a>
exile, sometimes self exile, from their journalistic homes, to
alternative media outlets, where, like Assange, they are likely to be
less heard and will be more vulnerable. Journalist Tareq Haddad <a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/12/08/journalist-newsweek-suppressed-opcw-scandal-and-threatened-me-with-legal-action/">just announced</a>
that he resigned from Newsweek because that publication has been
<a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-resignation-of-tareq-haddad-from.html">suppressing</a> a story of his. His story was about the whistleblower
revelations of buried evidence that the supposed 2018 Duoma chemical
attacks by Syrian president Assad on his own people was <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/new-wikileaks-bombshell-20-inspectors-dissent-syria-chemical-attack-narrative">fairly obviously</a>
a concocted fabrication when it was used as a justification for the
U.S. to bomb Syria. Remember our bombings of Syria? The was another in
2017. It was for such bombings of Syria <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cable-news-trump-syria-war-monger_n_58e79d17e4b05413bfe238eb">the press</a> declared that Trump was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boJqQeUknvw">finally</a> <i>`<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/327779-cnn-host-donald-trump-became-president-last-night">presidential</a>,'</i> and, as the cruise Tomahawk missiles launched, MSNBC’s Brian Williams <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/07/beautiful-brian-williams-says-of-syria-missile-strike-proceeds-to-quote-leonard-cohen/">spoke of</a> being <i>“guided by the beauty of our weapons”</i> using the word <i>“beautiful”</i> three times in 30 seconds. <br />
<br />
The
strenuous suppression of these voices like Assange's that would disrupt
official narratives shows how the conduct of war has a tight moral link
to the choices we make to speak out against war and against the
suppression of the voices that oppose war. In his sermon against war at
Riverside Church that day one year to the day before he was killed,
Reverend Martin Luther Kings Jr. said that, <i>“men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war.”</i><br />
<br />
King also said that, when assuming the task of such opposition, it was difficult to break free of the <i>“conformist thought”</i> of the surrounding world. Indeed, with the complicity of a much more <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/05/coming-june-1st-forum-second-where-do.html">conglomerately owned</a>
corporate media than in King’s time, it seems as if there is a
secularly consecrated catechism of what we know we as Americans are not
supposed to say, what we must veer away from and avoid. We subscribe
with almost religious ferocity to the belief that American
exceptionalism justifies all our actions in the world. It feels, as if
in our bones, that we know that to violate this proposition and say
something else would create a rumbling disturbance in the force (you
know, <i>“Star Wars”</i>). Or is our silence, merely something less
profound than that, just the equivalent of what we think would be an
exceptionally super-rude topic to bring up at a family Thanksgiving or
holiday diner?<br />
<br />
Dr. King
correctly foresaw that there would be significant prices he would have
to pay for speaking out against our country’s war. He concluded that he
had to do so, that he had to `<i>break the silence</i>,’ despite the
prices he knew he would have to pay. He felt that doing so was the only
thing he could do and remain true to himself and his causes.<br />
<br />
Ana,
I have no doubt that there would be prices you would have to pay if you
spoke out for peace; if you spoke out against war. I also acknowledge
that there are prices our congregation could face. Relatively recently
the FBI has <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/27/fbi_raids_homes_of_anti_war">raided the homes</a> of public nonviolent peace activists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/activists-cry-foul-over-fbi-probe/2011/06/09/AGPRskTH_story.html">who have</a> long, distinguished careers in public service. (And the FBI has also been investigating <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/14-fbi-surveilled-peaceful-climate-change-protesters/?doing_wp_cron=1576438941.3002710342407226562500">nonviolent climate activists</a> and <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/fbi-racially-profiling-black-identity-extremists/?doing_wp_cron=1576439028.8715651035308837890625">Black Lives Matters activists</a>.)
But I urge you to deliver a sermon about peace because it would be the
right thing to do. Perhaps it could go along with a rededication of our
sanctuary’s Peace Chapel. And, perhaps, if you would give a sermon
like Dr. King gave against our wars, it might do more than just be a
good thing in its own right: It might serve as a model for the ministers
of other congregations who would follow suit.<br />
<br />
Maybe,
as in Martin Luther King Jr.’s day, there can again be a time when
people see the call for peace as a spiritual issue and our church’s,
temples and congregations again take a lead role in calling for peace
and an end to our wars.<br />
<br />
Have I made the subject of
peace sound as if it is complicated? If so, I am sorry. That can be a
problem in itself. At bottom, shouldn’t this all be so simple? Peace,
supporting peace, speaking out for peace. . Something very simple.<br />
<br />
<i>Last night I had the strangest dream</i><br />
<i> I never dreamed before.</i><br />
<i> I dreamed the world had all agreed</i><br />
<i> To put an end to war.*</i><br />
<br />
* From <i>“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream,”</i> by Ed McCurdy- 1950,<br />
a precursor of sorts to <i>“Imagine”</i> by John Lennon and Yoko Ono- 1971<br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
Michael D. D. White<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAW8gU1jbF4/XgJP7YI8uyI/AAAAAAAAMW8/wbEnd1e4TvUlCYBpXpq0BY1CHR12Xy12ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Unitarian%2BPeace.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1600" height="175" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAW8gU1jbF4/XgJP7YI8uyI/AAAAAAAAMW8/wbEnd1e4TvUlCYBpXpq0BY1CHR12Xy12ACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Unitarian%2BPeace.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>
<br />
Here are links to the prior Noticing New York ventures into seasonal
reflection where you can read, including in 2019 when I wrote my open letter asking fro a sermon about peace where I wrote a little more about Unitarians, Rod Serling, and their relationship to peace and Christmas:</p><blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Thursday, December 24, 2009, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-eve-story-of-alternative.html">A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville)</a>,<br />
<br />
• Friday, December 24, 2010, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/12/revisiting-classic-seasonal-tale.html">Revisiting a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Saturday, December 24, 2011, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/12/traditional-christmas-eve-revisit-of.html">Traditional
Christmas Eve Revisit of a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville, the Real
Life Incarnation of the Abhorred Pottersville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Monday, December 24, 2012, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/12/while-i-tell-of-yuletide-treasure.html">While I Tell of Yuletide Treasure</a>,<br />
<br />
• Tuesday, December 24, 2013, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-seasonal-reflection-assessing.html">A Seasonal Reflection: Assessing Aspirations Toward Alternate Realities- 'Tis A Tale of Two Alternate Cities?</a>.,<br />
<br />
Wednesday, December 24, 2014, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/12/seasonal-reflections-no-matter-how.html">Seasonal Reflections: No Matter How Fortunate or Not, We Are All Equal, Sharing a Common Journey</a> <br />
<br />
• Thursday, December 24, 2015, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/12/seasonal-reflection-mayor-de-blasio-his.html">Seasonal
Reflection: Mayor de Blasio, His Heart Squeezed Grinch-Small, Starts
Gifting Stolen Libraries To Developers For The Holidays</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Saturday, December 24, 2016, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/12/noticing-new-yorks-annual-seasonal.html">Noticing New York's Annual Seasonal Reflection</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Sunday, December 24, 2017, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/12/this-years-seasonal-reflection-yes-we.html">This
Year’s Seasonal Reflection: Yes We Are Now Living In Ratnerville,
Locally and Nationally, And Yet We Hope And Work Towards Something
Differen</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">t</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Monday, December 24, 2018, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2018/12/this-years-annual-seasonal-reflection.html">This Year’s Annual Seasonal Reflection: It Rhymes (But Not With "Reason" or "Season")</a></blockquote><p></p><blockquote> • Tuesday, December 24, 2019 <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html" target="_blank">An
Open Letter To Reverend Ana Levy-Lyons of The First Unitarian
Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn Requesting A Sermon About Peace</a></blockquote><a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html" target="_blank"></a><p></p><p><br /></p>
Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-798247587384015962020-04-01T00:01:00.000-04:002020-04-01T00:01:01.332-04:00Brooklyn Public Library President Linda Johnson, Now Poised To Additionally Become Head of Brooklyn Historical Society, Says “Following The Money [The Othmer Funds] Convinced Us History Is Too Precious To Be In The Hands Of Those Not Writing It.”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ff_DJpjtPaY/XoO7EGfCQaI/AAAAAAAAMfY/xdMlvf8_Ybo1xjExNSngK3zXXIpe2TJcACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Churchill%2Band%2BRatner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="1600" height="275" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ff_DJpjtPaY/XoO7EGfCQaI/AAAAAAAAMfY/xdMlvf8_Ybo1xjExNSngK3zXXIpe2TJcACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Churchill%2Band%2BRatner.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Brooklyn Public Library President Linda Johnson is poised to take on new responsibilities holding her position as BPL head. It will occur with a merger that will make the Brooklyn Historical Society in Brooklyn Heights a junior subcomponent of the Brooklyn Public Library, which will now assume the role of the <i>“parent institute”</i> of the Historical Society. This combination was announced by the BPL’s <a href="https://resnicow.com/client-news/brooklyn-public-library-and-brooklyn-historical-society-announce-plans-combine-expanding">press release, February 27, 2020</a>.<br />
<br />
As the plans are solidifying, Ms. Johnson sat down in an interview to describe how the merger plan had come about, and why these plans will be good the BPL’s overall plans and partnership expansions and why it will be good for the history that people will remember. <i>“Our eye first landed on the Brooklyn Historical Society as an institution that we should attend more to when we were making plans for the consolidating shrinkage plans involving the shrink-and-sink sale of the Brooklyn Heights Library across the street and a few yards down”</i> said Ms. Johnson. The Brooklyn Heights Library was being replaced by a luxury tower as a result of the real estate deal that Ms. Johnson steered through the BPL. It was once Brooklyn’s second biggest library, the Business, Career and Education Library and a federal depository library to boot.<br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson said that when the BPL was selling that library it needed a small temporary library to replace it for a time until a planned reduced size library could be built under the luxury tower that was planned. <i> “We considered putting the small temporary library in the Brooklyn Historical Society,”</i> said Ms. Johnson, <i>“we actually talked to them about that.”</i> Johnson pointed out that the Brooklyn Historical Society is a <i>library</i> itself, which she said might have allowed them to argue the temporary arrangement involved a bigger aggregate book count. Johnson pointed out that consolidating shrinkages like what the BPL was doing with the real estate deal sale of the Brooklyn Heights library, with its theoretically sending books and functions to the Grand Army Plaza BPL library, didn’t have to involve just an institutional consolidation of BPL or NYC libraries, like with the New York Public Library’s proposed Central Library Plan.<br />
<br />
<i>“These consolidating shrinkages can also be inter-institutional,”</i> said Ms. Johnson. <i>“That’s what we would have had if we had used Brooklyn Historical Society space for the interim library, and it is the kind of thing we are doing where we are moving the <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/12/citizens-defending-libraries-main-page.html">Brower Park Library into</a> the Prospect Heights Children’s Museum to reduce the museum’s previously expanded space,”</i> said Ms. Johnson.<br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson, smiled, very pleased with herself, as she then got to the subject of the Othmer money, funds left to Brooklyn institutions by a quiet unassuming Brooklyn couple nobody knew had become superwealthy after they invested with their friend Warren Buffett. Said Ms. Johnson:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We were talking to the Historical Society about these possibilities back when we were making plans in 2013. Given the timing, we were almost forced to notice then, due to certain commonalities, something else we needed to think about. The Historical Society was one of the institutions that was among those Brooklyn institutions famously benefitting, receiving millions of dollars, from the surprise bequests of Donald and Mildred Othmer. 2013 was also the mayoral election year when another such institution benefitting from such Othmer bequests was being shutdown: Long Island College Hospital. With gifts during their lives and then thereafter from the wills of the two Othmers, Long Island Collage Hospital received a phenomenal endowment from the Othmers, more than $135 million.<br /><br />It would have been impossible to reach that money and make better use of it- so the hospital could be turned into real estate transactions- were it not for that fact that Long Island College Hospital was convinced <a href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-transactions-and-valuation/long-island-college-hospital-approves-merger-with-suny-downstate.html">to merge</a> with a series of other health institutions, first with Continuum Health Partners and then with SUNY Downstate Medical Center. It involved intricate dealings, but this allowed the endowment funds to be posted as security, something the New York State Attorney General’s office was convinced to pre-approve, (as if they didn’t see what was coming), and </i><i><span class="st"><i>Voilà</i></span> . . . </i> </blockquote>
<i>“Real estate deals and no money sitting around going to waste in troublesome ways that might pull towards different priorities!”</i> emphasized David Woloch a Brooklyn Public Library executive vice president and spokesperson who had joined Ms. Johnson to help her with her interview. <i>“Activists were actually helping to make sure that we didn’t let the connection go unnoticed,”</i> said Mr. Woloch, <i>“because the activists were pointing out the similarity of how libraries and hospitals were both public assets <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/06/our-public-assets-under-attack-calamity.html">similarly</a> up for sale.”</i> <br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson said that money that came into various Brooklyn institutions from the Othmers pre-9/11, in the later 1990s was almost totally unforeseen. <i>“It came out of nowhere,”</i> said Ms. Johnson, <i>“it was something of a `money bomb.’”</i> <i>“And when a bomb hits your house throwing things into disarray,”</i> said Ms. Johnson, <i>“you want to do some cleaning up and vacuuming.”</i> The good thing though said Ms. Johnson is that, while the money came in unexpectedly, it has been a useful tool, a tracer, to spotlight institutions that might need <i>“independence adjustments.”</i> <i>“That’s certainly true with Historical Society,”</i> which deals with <i>“history,”</i> which is <i>“precious.”</i><br />
<br />
Johnson mentioned that when David C. Chang, Polytechnic's president, learned that his engineering school was going to receive more than $175 million- nearly $200 million- from the Othmers he said: <i>“We start from being one of the have-nots and go to being one of the very well-endowed schools.”</i> The blare of that unusual Brooklyn brightness has since been somewhat adjusted via Polytechnic's subsequent merger <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2014/january/engineering-returns-to-nyu.html">celebrated in 2014</a> with Manhattan-based NYU.<br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson also described how things were faring at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, another institution given money from the $750 million estate of a Brooklyn Heights Othmer couple. And she explained that people should watch for new connections between the BPL and the garden.<br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson that, despite the infusion of the Othmer funds, the Botanic Garden’s <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/05/planned-overhaul-of-brooklyns-grand.html">basic trajectory</a>, including shorter hours, higher user fees and its increasingly privatized closures for fashionable weddings (the BPL also <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/05/planned-overhaul-of-brooklyns-grand.html">advertises its spaces</a> for fashionable weddings). She noted that the Botantic Garden had been able to sell off its science research building that was on its outside perimeter. At the same time, Ms. Johnson said that it is important that the Botantic Garden board has behaved in an amendable and basically welcoming way to the <a href="https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2019/04/25/fundraising-surge-for-fight-against-crown-heights-high-rises/">towers and proposed development</a> that, with zoning change reversal, will be set up along its borders blocking sunlight.<br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson noted that the BPL will be implementing a plan that <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/05/planned-overhaul-of-brooklyns-grand.html">gets</a> <i>“gets Oohs and Ahs”</i> connecting the BPL’s Grand Army Plaza central library to the shadier and more pleasant Botantic Garden space. The GAP library <i>“will connect with Mount Prospect Park to create a Central Brooklyn green campus that includes the library, park and Botanical Gardens.”</i> Mount Prospect Park is a public park (with the second highest promontory in Brooklyn) which sits between the library and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. BPL's <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/05/planned-overhaul-of-brooklyns-grand.html">plan involves</a> altering space within the library <i>“dramatically opening up the exterior of the library”</i> to facilitate a new restaurant space within the library building that would unfold to include outdoor café space in the park. <br />
<br />
<i>“All in all,”</i> said Ms. Johnson, <u>“I think the infusions of the Othmer money to the institutions in Brooklyn have met the kind of response they deserve.”</u> Ms. Johnson acknowledged that not absolutely everyone agreed. It’s known that Dr. Donald Othmer himself drafted much of the meticulous detail for the bequests in his own will and that of his wife Mildred’s. Warren Buffett, the friend who handled their investments and made them wealthy <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/id/100900535">told the Wall Street Journal</a>, speaking about what happened with the depletion of the Othmers’ Long Island College Hospital endowment, that if the Othmer’s were alive, <i>“I would think...they would feel betrayed.”</i><br />
<br />
Johnson doesn’t see it that way:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We have something called the cy-près doctrine. It’s a legal concept. The concept basically recognizes how inappropriate, essentially impossible it is for dead people to rule from the grave. The dead don’t know what is going to be what after they die. Lots of things are going to be unexpected and unforeseen. The cy-près doctrine dictates that instead of doing what dead people wanted, you should do what you know dead people would have wanted if they had known better. For instance, do you think the library systems could ever be doing everything they are doing in terms of turning libraries into real estate deals, providing a venue for society weddings, exiling books, and cutting back to much shorter hours, if they had to do exactly what dead people who made the donations to set up the libraries wanted?</i></blockquote>
Johnson said this was an especially important concept when it came to how <i>precious the possession of history</i> is. History, she maintains, <i>is too far too precious not to be kept in the hands of those who are supposed to write it</i>. Ms. Johnson said that was why it was so important for the BPL and the Historical Society to combine into a single unit for historical record custody. <i>“The history of the last several decades is one that I am proud to be a part of,”</i> said Ms. Johnson, <i>“The overarching truth to that history is that it has been a history of the victories of <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2020/02/privatization-of-history-scary.html">privatization</a>– I’ll remind you that it’s axiomatic that history is supposed to be written by the winners.”</i> Ms. Johnson said that as Churchill knew history is to be written by those that command the reins of power. As Churchill is <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2020/02/privatization-of-history-scary.html">famously quoted</a>: <i>“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.”</i><br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson said that it was relatively easy for the board of the BPL and the board of the Historical Society to reach agreement about the merger. <i>“We’re mostly all the same kind of people,”</i> said Ms. Johnson, maybe there is one person on the BHS board who cares about the previous old fusty ideas that people used to promote about what history is, but basically, Ms. Johnson said the <a href="https://www.brooklynhistory.org/about/who-we-are/">BHS board</a>, like the <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/brooklyn-public-library-trustees.html">BPL board</a>, is a complement of the kind of people who know what needs to be written and preserved in terms of history: corporate lawyers (good at things like white collar defense for those charged with accounting fraud), mega-bankers and some real estate people. <i>“Nevertheless,”</i> said Ms. Johnson,<i> “we can improve through the merger and have better control; our <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/brooklyn-public-library-trustees.html">BPL board composition</a> is more refined and fine-tuned in terms of what it needs to be in ensuring everything reflects the private partnership goals and this to be respected.”</i><br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson offered an example of what it means to be keeping things on track or not in terms of history that needs to be written. Recently, Brooklyn For Peace <a href="https://www.brooklynhistory.org/blog/brooklyn-for-peace-and-the-defense-of-civil-liberties/">donated its archives</a> to the Historical Society, over 25 linear feet of organizational records, event ephemera and recordings, and subject files dating back to 1983. <i>“This is the kind of history people want to write?”</i> scoffed Johnson, <i>“<a href="http://brooklynpeace.org/brooklynforpeace/about-brooklyn-for-peace.htm">Brooklyn For Peace</a> has been around since 1983/1984— If history is supposed to be written by winners, how does that work? <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html">We have more wars now than ever</a>. These people are real losers! These space usurping records are prime candidates for culling.”</i><br />
<br />
Similarly in the vein of what makes good historical fodder Ms. Johnson spoke of killing two Othmer birds with one stone: the BHS might also remove records that showed that there were once plans that the 500 beds of LICH were to have been used as a designated isolation hospital in the event of a pandemic.<br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson said she could anticipate acquisition of the Historical Society would be a boon for all sorts of goals important to her. She said the beautiful landmark building the BHS was in would be another great place for wedding and society events without her people eager to mingle at such events needing to Uber any further than Brooklyn Heights. People would not have to go to Grand Army Plaza. She noted that the New Times had already <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/arts/brooklyn-public-library-brooklyn-historical-society.html">let the news out</a> that the plan would start <i>“with the eternal New York City preoccupation”</i> of managing all the real estate dollars that could be involved. Ms. Johnson noted how, in connection with the revealed merger, the BPL has pronounced itself to be <i>“on a space grab,”</i> but that the BPL had not yet decided to characterize this as actual space growth or part of its demonstration of its <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/01/atop-empty-bookshelves-of-flatbush.html">flexibility exercises</a> allowing it to jettison space. Mr. Woloch opined that the BPL could always go back and forth on these characterizations; that there was no need lock itself in respecting these things. He noted that the BHS space might, for certain purposes and at certain times, be nominally cited as an ancillary part of the library space to be tucked nearby David Kramer’s luxury build replacing the Business, Career and Education library. <br />
<br />
As Brownstoner <a href="https://www.brownstoner.com/brooklyn-life/brooklyn-historical-society-brooklyn-public-library-plan-merger-research-archive/">notes</a>, important to the <i>“timeline for the merger,”</i> will be necessary that the BPL and BHS are currently having discussions<i> “with the City of New York regarding funding necessary for combining the institutions.”</i> This is obviously important with respect to Othmer endowment funds has BHS converts into joining the city’s family of libraries and its tradition of <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/08/was-library-administration-officials.html">creatively underfunding</a> them. <br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson said that there would be no <i>“sweeping changes,”</i> respecting the BHS mission, but that she was particularly eager to take on and engage in a <i>“rebranding”</i> for the BHS with a new <i>“less fusty-sounding”</i> name to proclaim the BPL’s ambition for everyone to understand that the institution would be democratically opened up. <i>“It used to be even more fusty-sounding,”</i> said Ms. Johnson, <i>“The Long Island Historical Society.”</i> Ms. Johnson said, <i>“when we took the Business and Career Library out of Brooklyn’s downtown, we updated the name; we now call it a `center,’ the `Business Career Center’; we dropped the fusty-sounding `L-word.”</i> Johnson said <i>“center”</i> sounded modern and distinguished it from the <i>“Commons,”</i> the <i>“Leon Levy Information Commons”</i> that it is above and from which it will be otherwise indistinguishable.<br />
<br />
Johnson said the <i>“rebranding”</i> should also make use of some more of the naming rights that the private partnership building the BPL has been engaged with allows, like the BPL’s partnering with the Nets and the Barclays Center <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/05/as-brooklyn-public-library-holds-gala.html">celebrated at its last gala in May 2019</a> where the Nets and Barclay’s center were honored. <i>“If we put the name `Barclays’ on the landmark Brooklyn Heights building that rules out calling it another ‘center’; you can’t have two ‘Barclays Centers,’ in Brooklyn”</i> said Johnson, <i>“but we might call it something like the ‘Barclays Historical Information Outlet,’ then it would be distinguished and not fusty-sounding at all.”</i><br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson said that she wanted to point out the overall pattern of convergences that she said the merger of the BHS into the BPL was just a one incidental part of: Libraries are also being subjected to consolidating shrinkages while the library is also essentially merging with private sector interests though its private-public partnerships. She described the converging as going in the direction of a <i>“supremacy singularity.” </i> Ms. Johnson proudly pointed out to how this convergence even extended to her own personal life and how she was now living in her own <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-ugh-upshot-after-brooklyn-public.html">personal partnership</a> with Forest City Ratner’s Bruce Ratner, a personal partnership that paralleled the BPL Barclays/Nets partnership.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gssvaOhYMLI/XoO4QQp6bOI/AAAAAAAAMfM/rTcfPsSFERIL0IzHx9lj_AZx9pjFeyMWACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Nets%2BBall%2BFor%2BBrooklyn%2BLibraries2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="480" height="208" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gssvaOhYMLI/XoO4QQp6bOI/AAAAAAAAMfM/rTcfPsSFERIL0IzHx9lj_AZx9pjFeyMWACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Nets%2BBall%2BFor%2BBrooklyn%2BLibraries2.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Ms. Johnson opined that Bruce Ratner was a great man who had contributed mightily to the history of Brooklyn. She said that people had actually called the struggle that Bruce Ratner’s won to bring Atlantic Yards and the Barclays Center to Brooklyn the second “<a href="https://battleforbrooklyn.com/"><i>Battle For Brooklyn</i></a>.” Ms. Johnson said there was too much Brooklyn history that the Brooklyn Historical Society had not covered adequately. She said that this would start to be remedied in a year’s time when the merged BHS would mount a major exhibition of the writings that Churchill created about what a great man he was. <i>“It is time that people realized Churchill’s intimate connections with Brooklyn,”</i> said Ms. Johnson. His mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American, a Brooklynite born in 1854 just <a href="https://www.brownstoner.com/architecture/building-of-the-day-426-henry-street/">blocks away</a> from the landmark BHS building, 197 Amity Street, in 1854. She said the exhibit would be in two parts, the second part drawing parallels between Churchill as a great wartime leader and Bruce Ratner fighting to bring the future to Brooklyn. <br />
<br />
Ms. Johnson said that the exhibit was slated to open in a year, on the <i>first of April 2021</i>, which was why it was being announced today, <i><a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/search/label/April%201st">April 1st </a>2020</i>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>PS: </b>The shrunk-and-sunk library space that will be in the David Kramer’s luxury building at the sight of the former Business, Career and Education Library is next to and <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/09/forest-city-ratner-as-development.html">part of the same zoning lot, real estate development parcel</a> as Forest City Ratner’s One Pierrepont Plaza. The underground BPL library parts can connect to the underground Ratner building parts. The BHS has its own underground parts that are just a few feet away underground from the Ratner building. The Ratner organization has been excellently adept at acquiring, through political machinations, private ownership of public streets adjacent to its properties. The Ratner organization is now looking at doing that for the street between it and the BHS building. If it succeeds (and it may join the buildings with an underground tunnel), it would put the air and development rights to the BHS building in play as part of the Ratner development and zoning parcel. </blockquote>
Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-56765123011808146572020-03-03T12:00:00.001-05:002020-03-03T12:00:44.522-05:00Michael Bloomberg’s Wealth? As It Allows Non-Democrat Bloomberg To Buy The “Democratic” Party, And That Wealth Buys A Lack of Scrutiny, It Is Time To Look Again At Its Suspect Origins<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EZce4Y75gok/Xl6MTRPdK4I/AAAAAAAAMc4/xJKPbCM5thU7w2hlFyfOl5230hPLj7nDACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Overlaid%2BCharts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="400" height="283" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EZce4Y75gok/Xl6MTRPdK4I/AAAAAAAAMc4/xJKPbCM5thU7w2hlFyfOl5230hPLj7nDACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Overlaid%2BCharts.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Overlaid charts from Noticing New York 2014 article, reshaped to show how Bloomberg's increasing annual wealth at the time makes the increasing annual
average wealth of the rest of the "Forbes 400" look virtually flat by
comparison- Anything suspect about this? Read the 2014 article.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
While Michael Bloomberg was New York city mayor, Noticing New York had cause to cover him extensively, including how he used money to control and censor information about himself.<br /><br />As Bloomberg’s wealth is now being used to buy the “Democratic” party from its corporatist leaders, thus only reiterating how those leaders are actually non-Democrat Duopolists, it is time to go back and look at the suspect origins of the money flows Michael Bloomberg controls. Now, as when Bloomberg was mayor, that money is being used to buy a lack of scrutiny and a lot of false myth making about Bloomberg. . So that’s another reason to go back and look at how money flowed into Bloomberg’s hands after he announced his intent to hold political office.<br /><br />I will be writing a lot more about this soon in Noticing New York to bring things up to date, but for the meantime it is important to know where Noticing New York’s articles left off, with this last article in 2014 about Bloomberg’s wealth increases.<br />
<blockquote>
<a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/01/one-last-check-as-mayor-leaves-office.html">One Last Check As Mayor Leaves Office- Bloomberg’s Increasing Annual Wealth: 1996 to 2013, Plus Updates On His Annual “Charitable” Giving</a>, January 18, 2014.</blockquote>
When Bloomberg first announced his interest in running in this race for the Democratic nomination, I <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteMdd/status/1199484110399512578">tweeted in October</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Emoluments Clause violations Round 2: Michael Bloomberg, who threatens to step in to replace departing Biden, did with his terminals what Trump does with his hotels, amassing inexplicable wealth as NYC mayor.</blockquote>
Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-37093928511370088452019-12-24T01:00:00.000-05:002019-12-25T00:42:56.799-05:00An Open Letter To Reverend Ana Levy-Lyons of The First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn Requesting A Sermon About Peace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fra-tJzX79M/XgFt5SGhvJI/AAAAAAAAMWk/Jx8uQevXr0YwMRFbM6MSxDvJM5DAF004wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Peace%2BUnitarian.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1153" data-original-width="1600" height="287" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fra-tJzX79M/XgFt5SGhvJI/AAAAAAAAMWk/Jx8uQevXr0YwMRFbM6MSxDvJM5DAF004wCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Peace%2BUnitarian.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
A number of months ago, I resolved to write a letter to Reverend
Ana Levy-Lyons, our minister at our First Unitarian Universalist
Congregation in Brooklyn, requesting that she deliver a sermon about <i>peace</i>. It was not until just recently, when something urged me to get it done soon, before Christmas, before the start of the new year, that I completed my task.<br />
<br />
Today is Christmas Eve.<br />
<br />
Regular readers of Noticing New York are likely to know that I have a long-standing tradition of, every year, on Christmas Eve publishing a seasonal reflection for the holidays. I began it in 2009 when I wrote a piece with comparisons between the story of the holiday film, "<i>It's A Wonderful Life</i>" with its admonitions about how, without our believing in ourselves and our power to make choices and decisions to improve the world and make it a more hospitable and welcoming place for everyone, we face winding up in the world of "<i>Pottersville</i>." Each Christmas Eve I have written about the holiday parable tales and films, like "<i>It's A Wonderful Life</i>"or Ebenezer Scrooge in <i>"A Christmas Carol" </i>or the Grinch who, like Scrooge, similarly evolved in the <i>"Grinch Who Stole Christmas." </i> These are all, at bottom, the same stories, they are all stories about the pull of greed and how, absent our better decisions and influence, it affects the world versus the world we can decide to have instead. (Links to my previous Christmas Eve reflections can be found at the very end of this post.)<br />
<br />
This year I asked myself what I would provide as my seasonal Noticing New York reflection, and then I realized that with my December 19th letter to Reverend Ana requesting a sermon about peace I had already written it.<br />
<br />
I will leave it to you, as readers, to discern how this letter about the need to substitute peace for our perpetual national wars, like all the previous Noticing New York seasonal reflections, is also about how out-of-control greed distorts the world we live in. . . Is this also a New York City theme, like what Noticing New York generally concerns itself with?: Consider what New York City would be like without national wars. . also consider that Brooklyn For Peace <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/05/everybodys-realizing-it-now-political.html">is addressing</a> this running a “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/324949588140201/"><i>Move The Money</i></a>” campaign with a resolution (<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fx6v6sQJNstsws_PoWAxkAZzJZ0THswGtbVSIbLjMYI/edit">No. 747-2019</a>) introduced for passage in the New York City Council; that's a campaign that our Unitarian congregation's Weaving Social Justice Committee has signed on to as a co-sponsor. <br />
<br />
As this seasonal post has a Unitarian element to it, I should mention that when Charles Dickens wrote <i>"A Christmas Carol" </i>he was regularly attending services at Unitarian congregation-- It is one of many links to the ways in Christmas has become ingrained in our culture with a reflection of Unitarian influences. I should also mention that, taking some liberties, a Unitarian, Rod Serling, wrote an adaption of <i>"A Christmas Carol," </i><i><i>"A Carol for Another Christmas," </i></i>which was specifically structured around an anti-war message. Serling's version of Scrooge is <i>"Daniel Grudge"</i> played by Sterling Hayden. Serling wrote this teleplay as part of a United Nations project. It is an interesting, but flawed piece, and although it includes visiting ghosts, its not as good as his usual "<i>Twilight Zone</i>" scripts: Serling gets sidetracked by trying to sort out the politics of `<i>isolationism</i>' and misses some bigger targets that would have been much easier to hit. Serling's script for "<span class="st"><i><a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2017/12/as-kochs-acquire-ownership-of-time-inc.html">Seven Days in May</a>," </i>which may also be viewed as anti-war and pro-peace is far more trenchant and gripping.</span> Hayden, along with Peter Sellers, who appears at the end of <i><i>"A Carol for Another Christmas" </i></i>in a fascinatingly bizarre bit a surreal carnivalia, are also both much better in the immortally on-target anti-war "<a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2017/12/as-kochs-acquire-ownership-of-time-inc.html"><i>Dr. Stangelove</i></a>." <br />
<br />
Because the letter I wrote to Reverend Ana concerns topics that have been central to the
concerns pursued by National Notice, which I write to deal with national issues such as perpetual
war, the environment and the climate emergency, wealth and income
inequality, censorship and information control, I am also publishing my
letter to Reverend Ana <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html">on National Notice</a>. <br />
<br />
Because
the censorship and information control subjects of this letter are so
important, I am also publishing it <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-open-letter-to-reverend-ana-levy.html">at Citizens Defending libraries</a>.<i> </i><br />
<br />
When I met with Reverend Ana on December 19th to deliver my letter and make my request for a sermon about peace she asked me what should be the thing that such a sermon would seek to bring about as a change in the listening congregation and whether it would be asking for an action step; how would such a sermon be more than just a lamentation or lecture about how the world is terrible in still one more lamentable way.<br />
<br />
I have been thinking about that, and I realized that my letter is a prayer for peace, and that sometimes prayers come first and the answers follow from having offered up prayers. There are, in fact, also things we can definitely do, the Brooklyn For Peace Move the Money campaign is just one small example of what can be built upon. But, lastly, there is just <i>knowing</i> and having others <i>know</i> what they need to <i>know</i>. As you will see in my letter when it gets to the subject of the government suppression of such information, <i>knowing</i> and <i>passing along information</i> is very important.<br />
<br />
Reverend Ana is about to go on sabbatical, so her response to my request with a sermon will probably be a while in coming. There will be time for the matter to gestate. But that doesn't mean that, in the meantime, my letter won't bring about other responses and cause other things to happen, perhaps it will cause something in your own life or some things that you choose to do.<br />
<br />
Best and blessings to you all this season.<br />
<br />
<br />
December 19, 2019<br />
<br />
Re: <i>An Open Letter Requesting A Sermon About Peace</i><br />
<br />
Dear Reverend Ana,<br />
<br />
Last
spring my wife Carolyn and I invested heavily in our congregation’s
fund raising lottery trying to win the prize of choosing a topic for a
sermon you would give. We didn’t win. Had we won, we would have
challenged you with what you might not have found an easy subject,
speaking about Julian Assange, American war crimes, and the U.S. pursuit
of empire. Our choice of subject would not have been be to vex you
with its difficulty, but to ask you to speak to what could be such a
simple concept: Peace. If, these days, conversations about peace are
avoided as difficult, what better than address that difficulty in a
sermon?<br />
<br />
Giving it some consideration, I think that
making a worthy case for a sermon topic is a good a way to gain the
prize of having you speak on a topic we care about, as good a way as
investing in fund raising lottery tickets. Therefore I will try.<br />
<br />
Is
peace a spiritual thing? Is talk about our common humanity, our common
bonds, and about surmounting the blindness that fractures our
relationships a proper thing to address in religious terms? I
acknowledge I’m being obvious here. What I just referred to is supposed
to be basic and elemental to the great faiths.<br />
<br />
I grew
up in the Vietnam War era and I remember churches and church people
taking the lead in saying that the wars we waged in Indochina were
wrong. These days we, as country, are more military extended than
ever. My oldest daughter is now about to be twenty-nine years old. We
had already started bombing Iraq when she was born in January. The war
in Iraq is just one of the perpetual wars that has continued essentially
for the entirety of her life. All of our wars are long now. As
formally measured by some, the War in Afghanistan, with its later
beginning, has surpassed the Vietnam War as our country’s longest war.<br />
<br />
These days the United States <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/01/with-scathing-perpetual-war-letter.html">has been bombing</a>
nine countries, ten if you include, as we should, all of the U.S.
participation in the bombing of Yemen, the other nine countries being:
Mali, Niger, Somalia, Libya, and then, in the Middle East, it’s
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. We have 800 military bases in other
countries. With practically no comment or attention from us, President
Obama opened new military bases across Africa.<br />
<br />
A peace
symbol hangs prominently in our Unitarian Universalist congregation’s
sanctuary where our sermons are given. We begin every Sunday service
singing the words: <i>“let peace, good will on earth be sung through every land, by every tongue.”</i>
Christmas comes every year, and every year we evoke and extol, as is
customary in the Christian tradition, the image of Jesus as the <i>“Prince of Peace.”</i>
In our congregation’s Weaving Social Justice Committee we have
discussed the prospect of rededicating the side chapel within the
sanctuary that is known as the <i>“Peace Chapel”</i> to that cause. In our <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/06/candidate-films-for-social-justice-film.html">list of candidate films</a> for the social justice film series we are working on we have films about the injustice of war. . .<br />
<br />
.
. . But, by and large, we hardly ever actually say anything about peace
or the need to end the perpetual wars for which our country is now
responsible. Has there been any sermon in our sanctuary on the subject
of peace? I can’t recall one.<br />
<br />
I was not at the
Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in June this summer, but I
talked with people who went, and I looked over the multi-day program. I
was told and I saw that there were no sessions on the subject of
peace. Nor was anything said about the antithesis thereof, war,
although we are deeply embroiled in wars to the point that they are
inescapably always in the background our daily American lives.<br />
<br />
Our
congregation through its leaders including members of the social
justice committee is now reaching out to other congregations in our city
and to their social justice actors to coordinate collective activism on
the issues important to all of us. The importance of peace activism
has not been mentioned in those discussions no matter that it is
integrally related to virtually every other issue that is being
discussed of common interest. Has the subject of peace somehow been
tagged as off-limits? Is peace now too controversial to be discussed by
and among religious communities?<br />
<br />
Other social issues
have attracted the attention of organizing Unitarians and have been the
subject of multiple sermons. I understand and support that and among
them are issues like the climate change chaos catastrophe emergency.
The climate emergency is an existential threat to all of humanity. When
the Democratic National Committee ordered that there be no debate
focused on the single issue of climate change– the DNC actually forbade
Democrats from participating in any such debate organized by anyone
else– the case was made that the existential issue of climate is so
fundamental that it is intertwines with and underlies virtually every
other issue that’s important. There are other issues like that; issues
that are inextricably related to society’s other major issues. <br />
<br />
Our
American wars together with the rest of our military interventions that
stoke conflict in other countries are far too often wars which are very
much about the extraction of oil and fossil fuels. Moreover, overall
our wars help keep in place the systems that continue to vandalize our
planet, exterminating its ecosystems. Further, the US military is one
of the <a href="https://fair.org/home/major-media-bury-groundbreaking-studies-of-pentagons-massive-carbon-bootprint/">largest polluters in history</a>, <i>“the single-largest producer of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world,”</i> and that the Pentagon is responsible for between <i>“77% and 80% of all US government energy consumption”</i>
since 2001. The US military is consuming more liquid fuels and
emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries,
polluting more than 140 countries. Obscuring the reporting on this, the
United States, which exempts its military from environmental laws,
insisted on exemptions from reporting of the military emissions of <a href="https://fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin191011Banter.mp3">all countries</a> from climate agreements. The U.S., has itself escaped such reporting by exiting the Paris Climate Accord.<br />
<br />
It
is not clear, but these staggering figures about fossil fuel use
probably don’t include the fossil fuel consumption related to the
initial manufacture of weapons. Consider also that replacement, or
nonreplacement, of what is bombed, burned and incinerated also must
entail substantial additional environmental costs. <br />
<br />
It is not just greenhouse gas emission pollution that the military produces: In 2010, a major story that went <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/2-us-department-of-defense-is-the-worst-polluter-on-the-planet/">largely unreported</a>
was that the U.S. Department of Defense, as the largest polluter in the
world, was producing more hazardous waste than the five largest US
chemical companies combined, and that just some of the pollutants with
which it was contaminating the environment were depleted uranium,
petroleum, oil, pesticides, defoliant agents such as Agent Orange, and
lead, along with vast amounts of radiation. Following our bombings,
birth defects reported in Iraq are soaring. A World Health Organization
survey <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/iraq-records-huge-rise-in-birth-defects-8210444.html">tells us</a>
that in Fallujah half of all babies were born with a birth defect
between 2007 and 2010 with 45 per cent of all pregnancies ending in
miscarriage in the two years after 2004.<br />
<br />
Another thing we face that has been deadening to the human spirit has been the increasing <i>“othering”</i>
of people who we are made to think are different from us. Frequently
now that’s immigrants from other countries who are black or brown.
Often that <i>“othering,”</i> as with Muslims, is stoked in ways that
may cause us to support or tolerate wars in which those others suffer
most and towards whom hostilities are often officially directed. We may
also forget how our wars and military activity push the flow of
populations forcing people to migrate across boarders, as, for instance,
with those leaving Honduras after our country helped bring about the
military coup that replaced the government there.<br />
<br />
Also
basic and underlying so many of our problems are racial, income and
wealth inequality with concomitant inequality in power and influence.
These are things that Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who practiced
ministry through activism and activism through ministry, labored to
eliminate. Not long before he was assassinated, King also began to
speak out against the Vietnam war saying the great challenge facing
mankind is to get rid of war. Before he did so, he carefully weighed
cautions urged on him that as a civil rights leader he shouldn’t do so,
that it would undermine support for his civil rights work, split his
coalition, and that these issues should not be joined together. But
King concluded that the issues were <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/martin-luther-king-hungry-club-forum/552533/">tied together</a> and decided that he would address them on that basis.<br />
<br />
When King expressed his opposition to the war in his very famous “<i><a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm">Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence</a></i>,”
delivered in this city’s Riverside Church, New York City, April 4,
1967, one year to the day before his assassination, he said he was <i>“increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”</i>
He spoke of the disproportionate toll that waging war exacted on the
poor and spoke of the poisoning of America’s soul. . . So it is today.<br />
<br />
War is profitable business. It busies packs of lobbyists who know a great deal more about often <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-pentagon-has-steadfastly-stonewalled-against-making-its-budget-auditable/">secret budgets</a>
than we, as the public, will ever learn. But that profit drains the
resources of our society enfeebling our ability to accomplish so much
else. The Pentagon and military budget is about <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/05/everybodys-realizing-it-now-political.html">57% of the nation’s discretionary budget</a>. If all of the <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-pentagon-has-steadfastly-stonewalled-against-making-its-budget-auditable/">unknowable</a>
black box spending that goes into the Military-Industrial-Surveillance
Complex were included, that percentage could well bump up higher. We
spend more on military spending than the next ten countries combined (or
seven, depending on the year and who calculates), and we spend much
more than all the rest of the countries in the world left over after
that. Of course, much of that spending by other countries is on arms we
supply making the world dangerous. <br />
<br />
We may not fully
know about or have a complete accounting of all the dollars we spend in
these areas, but, in May of 2011 after the U.S. announced that it had
killed Osama Bin Laden, the National Priorities Project calculated that,
<a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2016/11/how-much-do-we-spend-on-our-military.html">as of that time</a>, <i>“in all, the U.S. government has spent more than $7.6 trillion on defense and homeland security since the 9/11 attacks.”</i> Point of reference: a “<i>trillion</i>” is one million millions.<br />
<br />
Just the increase in the military spending in the last two years since Trump came in <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-supermajority-of-americans-want.html">is as much as</a> Russia spends on its entire military budget ($66 billion). Similarly just that increase is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/learning/whats-going-on-in-this-graph-feb-13-2019.html">greater than</a> the entire military budgets of Britain ($55 billion) or France ($51 billion). <br />
<br />
Our
fixated disposition to keep spending more is entrenched: Even Elizabeth
Warren, a senator from Massachusetts who promotes herself as a left
wing progressive, <a href="https://medium.com/the-progressive-edge/progressives-dont-be-fooled-by-elizabeth-warren-d158ffba40fe">voted in 2017</a>
to increase the defense budget by $80 billion, surpassing the $54
billion increase requested by President Trump. 60% Of House Democrats <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/07/14/most-house-democrats-just-voted-for-a-defense-budget-far-bigger-than-trumps/#c11d4576ea0e">voted for</a> a defense budget far bigger than Trump requested.<br />
<br />
Perhaps
most disquieting and insidiously corrupting to our morality and our
souls are the pretexts we adopt to justify going to war and to abide its
horrors, particularly when we leave those pretexts dishonestly
unexamined. The public flailed and many among us continue in their
confusion, unable to sort out that Iraq did not attack the United States
or have weapons of mass destruction before the second war that we
unilaterally and <i>"preemptively"</i> launched to invade that country. Before our first Gulf War attack on that country there were no slaughtered `<i>incubator babies</i>’:
That was just a brazen, cynically staged public relations scam.
Similarly, how few of us know and recognize that Afghanistan did <u><i>not</i></u>
attack the United States on 9/11– We precipitously invaded that country
because the government there was at that time asking that procedures be
followed and proof furnished before it would assist in finding and
turning Osama Bin Laden over to the United States.<br />
<br />
The
foreign country that was most involved in 9/11, and from where almost
all of the men identified as the alleged 9/11 hijackers came, is Saudi
Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the country to which we are selling massive
amounts of weapons (making it that world’s third biggest military
spender) and it is the country with which we are deeply involved
perpetrating war crimes against Yemen.<br />
<br />
In the Vietnam
War, our second longest war, it was the Gulf of Tonkin incident that,
not being what it seemed nor reported to be, was the pretext for war.<br />
<br />
Perhaps
hardest and most challenging to our susceptibilities as caring people
striving to be spiritual and attentive to justice are the pretextual
manipulations to which we are subject in regard to what Noam Chomsky and
Edward Herman spotlighted as the selective <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2018/04/20/worthy-and-unworthy-victims/">distinguishing between</a> <i>“worthy”</i> versus <i>“unworthy”</i> victims. <i>“Worthy”</i>
victims are those who, whatever their number, deserve our outrage and
are a basis for calls for the international community to mobilize toward
war. <i>“Unworthy victims”</i> are those who can die en mass without
attention or recognition like the tens of thousands of Yemeni children
who have died for lack of food, water and medicine because of Saudi
Arabia’s blockade assisted by the U.S.. Often, as with Palestinians
removed from their homelands, these victims are blamed for their own
victimhood. <br />
<br />
Additional layers of pretext pile up when
we encounter journalists and whistleblowers willing to be the messengers
of war crimes. We punish those messengers while, concurrently, there
is no consequence for those who perpetrate the war crimes. Often the
perpetrators are promoted to higher office. That includes those who
illegally torture others to coerce useless, undependable, and <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/06/notes-on-reliability-of-coerced.html">likely false</a> <i>“confessions.”</i> Thus we punish and torture Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning for exemplifying what Daniel Ellsberg called <i>“civil courage.”</i> Thus we vindictively send CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou to prison for disclosing his agency’s torture program. <br />
<br />
Wikileaks,
Julian Assange’s organization has published much that is embarrassing
to the United States and those in power, much of it is particularly
embarrassing to the U.S. military. Wikileaks has never published
anything that was untrue, but the truth of what it has published is
disruptive to the official narratives of the war establishment. That
establishment has been seeking vengeance against and to neutralize
Assange since events in 2010 when in April Wikileaks published
documenting gunsight video footage, under the title of <i>“Collateral Murder,”</i>
of a US drone strike on civilians in Bagdad provided by Chelsea
Manning. The New York Times and Washington Post did not respond to
Manning’s attempts to publish that same footage through them or other
evidence of U.S. war crime in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
Anyone
who wants proof of the pretextual nature of the United States’
persecution of Julian Assange and of the ghastly and sometimes illegal,
abuse of inordinate power against Assange should <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_P9Nj6N58">watch</a> or <a href="https://soundcloud.com/rttv/on-contact-julian-assange-wun-special-rapporteur-on-torture">listen to</a> Chris Hedges June 8, 1019 “<i>On Contact</i>” interview with UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer (“<i>On Contact: Julian Assange w/UN Special Rapporteur on Torture</i>”-
Chris Hedges is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church). The
attacks against Assange began with a highly orchestrated campaign of
character assassination. They have progressed to things far worse.
Both Assange and Manning (who was pardoned from a 35-year sentence after
seven years of confinement that included the torture of Manning) are
now being held in prison, no end in sight, for no crimes of which they
have been convicted. I think we have to agree with the criticism of
this as psychological torture. The continued torture of Manning is an
effort to get at Assange even if that were to involve forcing Manning to
lie.<br />
<br />
The United States wants Assange extradited to the
Unites States to be tried for the crime of practicing journalism that
was unflattering to the United States government. Somehow we have the
highhandedness to conceptualize this journalism to be treason although
Assange is a foreign national. Assange faces no other charges. Under the
laws pursuant to which the U.S. would try him, Assange, like the exiled
Edward Snowden, would not be permitted to introduce any evidence or
argument that disclosing illegal U.S. activity or war crimes benefits
the public. It’s said that the United States wants nothing more than a
show trial and I think that must be considered obvious.<br />
<br />
When
Assange sensed in 2012 that trumped up charges in Sweden would be used
as a subterfuge to transfer him to United States custody for such a show
trial he obtained political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
For this, a British judge sentenced Assange and had him serve 50 weeks
in a high security prison for <i>“bail jumping”</i>; that’s just
fourteen days short of the maximum possible sentence, although the
obviously trumped up charges for which Assange had posted bail were
withdrawn, <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/06/disproportionate-sentences-julian-assange-bail-and-extradition/">negating</a> the original bail terms as a result. A <a href="https://soundcloud.com/rttv/on-contact-julian-assange-wun-special-rapporteur-on-torture">normal, typical sentence</a> for bail jumping would have entailed only a fine, in a grave case, a much shorter prison sentence.<br />
<br />
Britain was able to send police officers into enter the Ecuadoran Embassy to arrest Assange for <i>“bail jumping”</i>
and then later hold him, without other charge for pending extradition
to the United States, because of a change in the Ecuadoran government
that was evidently <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/a-tale-of-cocaine-trafficking-sex-crime-charges-extraordinary-rendition-julian-assange/">CIA assisted</a>,
and as the United States was dangling financial aid for that country.
Assange’s eviction from the embassy, along with his being simultaneously
stripped of Ecuadoran citizenship, was done without due process. <br />
<br />
The
persecution of Assange casts a long shadow to intimidate other
journalists, whistleblowers and activists as they themselves are being
intimidated about disrupting the preferred narrative concerning
America’s militarily asserted empire. Other providers of news simply
lay low not reporting things. As neither the New York Times nor the
Washington Post reported it, you may not have heard about the recent <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/11/scary-swat-team-arrest-of-journalist.html">scary SWAT style arrest</a>
of journalist Max Blumenthal by Washington D. C. police hours after he
reported about the United States government funding of the Venezuela
Juan Guaidó coup team. Blumenthal was shackled and held incommunicado
for an extended period. Not long after that the D.C. police went out to <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/11/after-scary-swat-team-arrest-of.html">similarly arrest</a> activist and journalist Medea Benjamin when she publicized the U.S. backing of coups in Venezuela and Bolivia.<br />
<br />
With
silenced journalists, will we, based on unchallenged pretexts, send our
military into to change the government of Venezuela as there is talk of
doing? In Bolivia the coup we sponsored has been successful without
that. Meanwhile, there is talk of pretexts for military actions against
Iran, Russia, North Korea.<br />
<br />
Journalists who still show courage, are <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/10/list-of-journalists-fired-or-self.html">subject to</a>
exile, sometimes self exile, from their journalistic homes, to
alternative media outlets, where, like Assange, they are likely to be
less heard and will be more vulnerable. Journalist Tareq Haddad <a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/12/08/journalist-newsweek-suppressed-opcw-scandal-and-threatened-me-with-legal-action/">just announced</a>
that he resigned from Newsweek because that publication has been
<a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-resignation-of-tareq-haddad-from.html">suppressing</a> a story of his. His story was about the whistleblower
revelations of buried evidence that the supposed 2018 Duoma chemical
attacks by Syrian president Assad on his own people was <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/new-wikileaks-bombshell-20-inspectors-dissent-syria-chemical-attack-narrative">fairly obviously</a>
a concocted fabrication when it was used as a justification for the
U.S. to bomb Syria. Remember our bombings of Syria? The was another in
2017. It was for such bombings of Syria <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cable-news-trump-syria-war-monger_n_58e79d17e4b05413bfe238eb">the press</a> declared that Trump was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boJqQeUknvw">finally</a> <i>`<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/327779-cnn-host-donald-trump-became-president-last-night">presidential</a>,'</i> and, as the cruise Tomahawk missiles launched, MSNBC’s Brian Williams <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/07/beautiful-brian-williams-says-of-syria-missile-strike-proceeds-to-quote-leonard-cohen/">spoke of</a> being <i>“guided by the beauty of our weapons”</i> using the word <i>“beautiful”</i> three times in 30 seconds. <br />
<br />
The
strenuous suppression of these voices like Assange's that would disrupt
official narratives shows how the conduct of war has a tight moral link
to the choices we make to speak out against war and against the
suppression of the voices that oppose war. In his sermon against war at
Riverside Church that day one year to the day before he was killed,
Reverend Martin Luther Kings Jr. said that, <i>“men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war.”</i><br />
<br />
King also said that, when assuming the task of such opposition, it was difficult to break free of the <i>“conformist thought”</i> of the surrounding world. Indeed, with the complicity of a much more <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/05/coming-june-1st-forum-second-where-do.html">conglomerately owned</a>
corporate media than in King’s time, it seems as if there is a
secularly consecrated catechism of what we know we as Americans are not
supposed to say, what we must veer away from and avoid. We subscribe
with almost religious ferocity to the belief that American
exceptionalism justifies all our actions in the world. It feels, as if
in our bones, that we know that to violate this proposition and say
something else would create a rumbling disturbance in the force (you
know, <i>“Star Wars”</i>). Or is our silence, merely something less
profound than that, just the equivalent of what we think would be an
exceptionally super-rude topic to bring up at a family Thanksgiving or
holiday diner?<br />
<br />
Dr. King
correctly foresaw that there would be significant prices he would have
to pay for speaking out against our country’s war. He concluded that he
had to do so, that he had to `<i>break the silence</i>,’ despite the
prices he knew he would have to pay. He felt that doing so was the only
thing he could do and remain true to himself and his causes.<br />
<br />
Ana,
I have no doubt that there would be prices you would have to pay if you
spoke out for peace; if you spoke out against war. I also acknowledge
that there are prices our congregation could face. Relatively recently
the FBI has <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/27/fbi_raids_homes_of_anti_war">raided the homes</a> of public nonviolent peace activists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/activists-cry-foul-over-fbi-probe/2011/06/09/AGPRskTH_story.html">who have</a> long, distinguished careers in public service. (And the FBI has also been investigating <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/14-fbi-surveilled-peaceful-climate-change-protesters/?doing_wp_cron=1576438941.3002710342407226562500">nonviolent climate activists</a> and <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/fbi-racially-profiling-black-identity-extremists/?doing_wp_cron=1576439028.8715651035308837890625">Black Lives Matters activists</a>.)
But I urge you to deliver a sermon about peace because it would be the
right thing to do. Perhaps it could go along with a rededication of our
sanctuary’s Peace Chapel. And, perhaps, if you would give a sermon
like Dr. King gave against our wars, it might do more than just be a
good thing in its own right: It might serve as a model for the ministers
of other congregations who would follow suit.<br />
<br />
Maybe,
as in Martin Luther King Jr.’s day, there can again be a time when
people see the call for peace as a spiritual issue and our church’s,
temples and congregations again take a lead role in calling for peace
and an end to our wars.<br />
<br />
Have I made the subject of
peace sound as if it is complicated? If so, I am sorry. That can be a
problem in itself. At bottom, shouldn’t this all be so simple? Peace,
supporting peace, speaking out for peace. . Something very simple.<br />
<br />
<i>Last night I had the strangest dream</i><br />
<i> I never dreamed before.</i><br />
<i> I dreamed the world had all agreed</i><br />
<i> To put an end to war.*</i><br />
<br />
* From <i>“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream,”</i> by Ed McCurdy- 1950,<br />
a precursor of sorts to <i>“Imagine”</i> by John Lennon and Yoko Ono- 1971<br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
Michael D. D. White<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAW8gU1jbF4/XgJP7YI8uyI/AAAAAAAAMW8/wbEnd1e4TvUlCYBpXpq0BY1CHR12Xy12ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Unitarian%2BPeace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1600" height="175" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAW8gU1jbF4/XgJP7YI8uyI/AAAAAAAAMW8/wbEnd1e4TvUlCYBpXpq0BY1CHR12Xy12ACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Unitarian%2BPeace.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Here are links to the prior Noticing New York ventures into seasonal
reflection where you can read: <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Thursday, December 24, 2009, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-eve-story-of-alternative.html">A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville)</a>,<br />
<br />
• Friday, December 24, 2010, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/12/revisiting-classic-seasonal-tale.html">Revisiting a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Saturday, December 24, 2011, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/12/traditional-christmas-eve-revisit-of.html">Traditional
Christmas Eve Revisit of a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville, the Real
Life Incarnation of the Abhorred Pottersville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Monday, December 24, 2012, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/12/while-i-tell-of-yuletide-treasure.html">While I Tell of Yuletide Treasure</a>,<br />
<br />
• Tuesday, December 24, 2013, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-seasonal-reflection-assessing.html">A Seasonal Reflection: Assessing Aspirations Toward Alternate Realities- 'Tis A Tale of Two Alternate Cities?</a>.,<br />
<br />
Wednesday, December 24, 2014, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/12/seasonal-reflections-no-matter-how.html">Seasonal Reflections: No Matter How Fortunate or Not, We Are All Equal, Sharing a Common Journey</a> <br />
<br />
• Thursday, December 24, 2015, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/12/seasonal-reflection-mayor-de-blasio-his.html">Seasonal
Reflection: Mayor de Blasio, His Heart Squeezed Grinch-Small, Starts
Gifting Stolen Libraries To Developers For The Holidays</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Saturday, December 24, 2016, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/12/noticing-new-yorks-annual-seasonal.html">Noticing New York's Annual Seasonal Reflection</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Sunday, December 24, 2017, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/12/this-years-seasonal-reflection-yes-we.html">This
Year’s Seasonal Reflection: Yes We Are Now Living In Ratnerville,
Locally and Nationally, And Yet We Hope And Work Towards Something
Differen</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">t</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Monday, December 24, 2018, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2018/12/this-years-annual-seasonal-reflection.html">This Year’s Annual Seasonal Reflection: It Rhymes (But Not With "Reason" or "Season")</a></blockquote>
Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-77168908504673084792019-06-06T18:08:00.000-04:002019-06-06T18:08:30.231-04:00The Commissioners of The New York City Planning Commission: From The Human-scale NYC Viewpoint of Lynn Ellsworth, They Are The Foxes Guarding City Planning Henhouse<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MSOlYohjyig/XPmLYnNQyFI/AAAAAAAAMDU/b26pLNEIma8wefVKeshkcT5hRDL_6DHlQCLcBGAs/s1600/NY%2BCity%2BPlanning%2BCommissioner%2B2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1204" data-original-width="1508" height="318" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MSOlYohjyig/XPmLYnNQyFI/AAAAAAAAMDU/b26pLNEIma8wefVKeshkcT5hRDL_6DHlQCLcBGAs/s400/NY%2BCity%2BPlanning%2BCommissioner%2B2019.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b> </b><b>Top row left to right</b>: Mariso Lago, Kenneth Knuckles, Joseph Douek, Alfred Cerullo, Richard Eaddy, <br /><b>Middle row left to right:</b> Allen Cappelli, Hope Knight, Anna Hayes Levin, Orlando Marín, Larisa Ortiz<br /><b>Bottom row left to right:</b> Michelle de la Uz, Rad Rampershad, David Burney, Carl Weisbrod</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="st">We've grown bleary eyed seeing it on the federal level since Donald Trump took his trip from NYC's real estate world and started appointing his cabinet and top government policy officials: It seems like there isn't a single such appointment made where the inherent conflicts-of-interest and the effective capture by private interests of federal public agencies doesn't seem the carefully crafted intention of the appointment, rather than a gawd-awful mistake, incompetence or general obtuseness about what is in the public interest. (It was <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-drumbeat-to-delegitimize-trump-and.html">right from the beginning</a>.)</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">Where might Mr. Trump have learned that such a cookie-jar approach to populating government could be accepted as routine and par for the course? Maybe from the way that New York City <i>"government"</i> puts the real estate industry in charge of <i>"governing"</i> all things real estate. probably the most egregious example is New York City's City Planning Commission Commissioners. There are tons of other examples in this city (like the <a href="https://vimeo.com/340705554">revolving door at the Landmarks Preservation Commission</a> for those who then lobby).</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i5ZMIExYQHk/XPl0k37yUkI/AAAAAAAAMCw/5b_XnIKrm8EcCt_t0WzFAJey2xjozBvBgCLcBGAs/s1600/Ellesworth%2BVillage%2BOped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="928" data-original-width="681" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i5ZMIExYQHk/XPl0k37yUkI/AAAAAAAAMCw/5b_XnIKrm8EcCt_t0WzFAJey2xjozBvBgCLcBGAs/s200/Ellesworth%2BVillage%2BOped.jpg" width="146" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.thevillager.com/2019/05/opinion-foxes-guard-city-planning-henhouse/">Villager op-ed</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="st">Lynn Ellsworth of <a href="https://twitter.com/tribecatrust?lang=en">Human-scale NYC</a> recently addressed the question just how totally the City Planning Commission is captured by industry interests with an op-ed in The Villager, back up with her research that provides gallery portraits of the Commissioners and the allegiances to the real estate industry that laden them. See: <a href="https://www.thevillager.com/2019/05/opinion-foxes-guard-city-planning-henhouse/">OPINION: Foxes guard City Planning henhouse</a>, by Lynn Ellsworth, May 22, 2019.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">Her opinion piece represents points Ms. Ellsworth made at a May 15, 2019 press conference recently on the steps of City Hall speaking about the current developer practice of grabbing the sky for luxury condo units by building "void" buildings launched upwards to new heights on stilts to be taller than the rest of the city. </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wxadx0RX7fk/XPl--_g8sII/AAAAAAAAMDI/vuyrJundDk8T7QvZqKj3kHylKopXxBYKgCLcBGAs/s1600/Human%2BScale%2BMay%2B15%2BPress%2BConference.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="863" data-original-width="1314" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wxadx0RX7fk/XPl--_g8sII/AAAAAAAAMDI/vuyrJundDk8T7QvZqKj3kHylKopXxBYKgCLcBGAs/s400/Human%2BScale%2BMay%2B15%2BPress%2BConference.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="st">May 15, 2019 press conference</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="st">Ms. Ellsworth's gallery is also reminiscent of a similar round-up of suspect commissioners that Citizens Defending Libraries put together in 2015 when the Planning Commission was hellbent to approve the shrink-and-sink deal that would sell Brooklyn's second largest library in order to turn the site over to the developer of a luxury tower. Full disclosure: As a co-founder of </span><span class="st"><span class="st">Citizens Defending Libraries, I was involving in putting that round up together as well as requests that various commissioners recuse themselves, only a few of which did (there was an opinion of no conflict of interest). See:</span></span> <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/09/report-on-tuesday-september-22nd-city.html">Report on Tuesday, September 22nd City Planning Commission Hearing On Proposed Sale and Shrinkage of Plus Testimony of Citizens Defending Libraries</a>, and <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/10/open-letter-to-nyc-planning.html">Open Letter To NYC Planning Commissioner Cheryl Cohen Effron Respecting Her Vote About Selling & Shrinking the Brooklyn Heights Library, Other Libraries The Revson Foundation, Center for an Urban Future, And More</a>.<br />
<br />
Alicia Boyd of MTOP (<a href="http://www.mtopp.org/">Movement to Protect the People</a>) is another activist who, in concert with a coalition of others, has sought to ventilate these conflicts of interest that usually go unremarked upon. That has included demonstrations and press conference outside of the Planning Commission.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNChjqnS_Yg/XPl8CC4S8eI/AAAAAAAAMC8/bpKY_Mn0BSUFfZ9G7EeNjzWZOYQSe__0QCLcBGAs/s1600/Lynn%2BEllsworth%2BWith%2BCDL.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNChjqnS_Yg/XPl8CC4S8eI/AAAAAAAAMC8/bpKY_Mn0BSUFfZ9G7EeNjzWZOYQSe__0QCLcBGAs/s320/Lynn%2BEllsworth%2BWith%2BCDL.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lynn Ellsworth with Citizens Defending Libraries outside City Hall, <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/12/photo-video-gallery-december-15-2015.html">December 2015</a> protesting library sale. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="st">Ms. Ellsworth's gallery and the research it represents is a beautiful piece of work and valuable to have at hand. She indicates that it may be subject to some refinement with some future revisions, but it is too extraordinary a resource not to be look at now.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">Does Noticing New York publish the work of others?: Seldom, but sometimes. In this case, veteran Noticing New York readers will find themselves in very familiar territory. Enjoy, and file away for future reference. Oh, and as you read, you will see references to NYC library sales.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">* * * </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>The Fox Guards the Henhouse at the Department of City Planning</b><br />
<b>Part 1: Profiles in Complicity</b><br />
<br />
<i><b>Communities Cannot Get A Fair Hearing when the Regulatory Agency is Captured by the Industry it is Supposed to Regulate.</b></i><br />
<br />
By Lynn Ellsworth, of Human-scale NYC, May 16, 2019<br />
(Contact: lynnellsworth [at] outlook.com)</blockquote>
In 1976, sociologist Harvey Molotch wrote a famous essay describing an "<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2777096?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Urban Growth Machine</a>" consisting of a coalition of large property owners, developers, realtors, industry-dependent elites and politicians whose economic interests aligned to push for insatiable real estate development they dubbed "growth". Many years later, Rutgers economist Jason Barr studied high-rise development in Manhattan and <a href="http://buildingtheskyline.org/">described</a> a "Skyscraper Industrial Complex" of real estate developers, real estate advisors and financiers, construction unions, architects, construction and engineering firms whose economic self-interests aligned to demand never-ending and unregulated high-rise construction. <br />
<br />
These forces have crystalized in New York City in the most powerful special interest lobby New York has ever known, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) whose Board of Governors is dominated by an elite group of spectacularly wealthy oligarchic families, some of which have become feudal <a href="https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/state-of-market/from-rockefeller-to-trump-a-history-lesson-about-nycs-oldest-real-estate-families-48606#0">dynasties</a> with thousands of tenants paying rent to them. It is a situation not seen since the medieval period. REBNY's <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2015/04/rebny-members-gave-a-tenth-of-all-ny-campaign-money-021345">financial and lobbying power</a> is a matter of common knowledge. <br />
<br />
This power is only a problem and a matter of public interest when the real estate industry comes to control the institutions that are supposed do the regulating for the public good. The Department of City Planning is a case in point. There, the Fox has come to guard the henhouse and communities can no longer get a fair hearing.* The Commissions hearings have become a kind of Kangaroo Court for communities, for even the Commissioners at City Planning who aren't directly involved in real estate development are all clearly members of the "Skyscraper Industrial Complex". <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(* <span style="font-family: "Cambria",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i>Part
2 will discuss how to repair the situation in the City Charter. This article will be subject to possible revisions- Please send
typo alerts or any new facts to the attention of the author.</i>)</span></blockquote>
To be specific, of the 13 members of the Commission who control the Department of City Planning:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- One is a real estate investor, a donor to the Mayor and runs a $75 million "opportunity fund" for Brooklyn (Douek)<br />
- One is a former lobbyist for the real estate industry (Cappelli)<br />
- Five are real estate developers of various types, ranging from an employee of Bluestone to CEOs of Development Corporations to the head of the Fifth Avenue Committee (de la Uz, Knuckles, Eaddy, Knight, and Marín)<br />
- The current Chair's professional history is that of running the notorious corporate subsidy-granting Empire State Development Corporation, a real estate development entity for the state. It has seriously abused eminent domain to the detriment of black and low-income communities. One academic notes that the Corporation acts as "Robin Hood in reverse, taking from the poor to give to the rich" (Lago)<br />
- Only one has a degree in urban planning, but alas, runs a consulting firm advising city agencies and developers how to "optimize" their retail tenant mix so that it fits the owner's "goals" (Ortiz).<br />
- At least two have serious conflicts of interest with the current rezoning project on the table at Gowanus (Bluestone and Fifth Avenue Committee). At least one had a clear conflict of interest with the East Harlem rezoning (Knuckles).<br />
- Two are architects with high-rise projects under their belts (Burney and Rampershad).<br />
- One has long been a cheerleader for the Hudson Yards project and whose spouse is a partner at the ‘Big Law' firm of David and Polk that advises the developers such as Extell who are involved in the Hudson Yards project as well as many other major real estate players in NY (Levin).<br />
- One is CEO of the real estate controlled BID, the Grand Central Partnership, whose board of directors reads like the Who's Who of the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York and who has pushed for multiple upzonings in Midtown(Cerullo)</blockquote>
Is it any wonder these Commissioners, the majority of which represent the real estate development community, mistake upzoning, real estate profit-making and high-rise projects for actual urban planning? We call on the City Charter Commission to repair the situation (see Part 2 for details).<br />
<br />
<u><i><b>Profiles of the Real Estate Industrial Complex at DCP: with citations. </b></i></u><br />
<br />
<b>Mariso Lago, Chair of the DCP.</b> One of her claims to competence for serving as Chair is her experience as CEO of the Empire State Development Corporation. Part of the <a href="https://esd.ny.gov/about-us">stated mission</a> of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) is to support economies though "real estate development" across New York State. The current Chair is Howard Zemsky, a real estate developer who owns the Larkin Development Group. ESDC mostly organizes public subsidies for big developer-run projects (such as the Amazon project. It also issues public bonds to pay for them and awards contracts to developers. Current NYC "signature" and "large-scale" projects include the redevelopment of Penn Station and of the Javits Convention Center. ESDC specializes in creating interlocking boards of subsidiaries to carry out its work. It is famous for the abuse of eminent domain to impose its vision. It used those powers for the disastrous Atlantic Yards Project that demolished a swathe of Brooklyn as well as the Columbia Manhattanville Project that destroyed an immense stretch of West Harlem for Columbia University's new glass-filled campus. One of ESDC's subsidiaries was also responsible for building luxury housing in Brooklyn Bridge Park - even when it become clear that housing was not needed to subsidize the park. One of the ESDC's subsidiaries still manages a portfolio of 20,200 housing units in New York City. ESDC bonds were used to build a network of 32 adult prisons to accommodate people arrested under the Rockefeller drug laws.* "Good Jobs First" a national good government group, <a href="https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/states/new-york">accuses</a> the ESDC of "awarding lavish subsidies with little accountability." An Institute for Justice report by Dr. Dick Carpenter <a href="https://ij.org/report/empire-state-eminent-domain/">found that</a> ESDC's "eminent domain abuse disproportionately targets those who are less well off and less educated" and acts as "Robin Hood in reverse, taking from the poor to give to the rich." The Brooklyn Bridge Park redevelopment was <a href="https://ny.curbed.com/2016/6/3/11836206/brooklyn-bridge-park-pier-6-financial-dispute">particularly ridden</a> with conflicts of interests and scandal during Ms. Lago's tenure at the Empire State Development Corporation. The architect of one of the governor's biggest deals at the ESDC was <a href="https://www.wshu.org/post/critics-say-problems-cuomos-economic-development-programs-go-beyond-corruption#stream/0">found guilty</a> of bid rigging. E.J. McMahon, Director of the watchdog group ‘Empire Center' has fretted over misplaced priorities at the ESDC with the comment: "What roads could you build, what bridges could you build with the money you are spending on factories [then handed over] for private corporations?" Gotham Gazette <a href="http://www.gothamgazette.com/state/7732-state-backed-scandal-plagued-entities-seek-new-chapter">describes</a> ECDC-supported entities as "scandal-plagued." Ms. Lago has publicly supported a high-rise, glassy, Dubai-on-the-Hudson vision for New York City in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w22JBLwXY3Q">video interview</a> with the real estate press , calling it a ‘win-win-win'. She mentions that the only real strategy DCP has it to define areas to "take more density" and in the same interview she expresses to be one with REBNY's desire to do away with the State FAR cap on height and bulk. She has no training in urban planning.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(*<cite><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">King, Ryan S.; Mauer, Marc;
Huling, Tracy (February 2003). </span></cite><span style="font-family: "Cambria",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100710191543/http:/www.sentencingproject.org/doc/inc_bigprisons.pdf"><i><span style="color: #663366; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Big Prisons, Small Towns: Prison Economics in
Rural America"</span></i></a></span><cite><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span></cite><span class="cs1-format"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">(PDF)</span></i></span><cite><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">. The Sentencing
Project. Archived from </span></cite><span style="font-family: "Cambria",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/inc_bigprisons.pdf"><i><span style="color: #663366; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the original</span></i></a></span><cite><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span></cite><span class="cs1-format"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">(pdf)</span></i></span><cite><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> on 2010-07-10.)</span></cite></blockquote>
<b>Kenneth Knuckles, Vice Chair of the Commission.</b> He has been on the Commission since 2002 and has no training in urban planning. He was the longtime CEO of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation (known as UMEZ) and only retired from there at the age of 70 in April of 2018. UMEX is a real estate development organization that does a few other small business support activities under the heading of "economic development." Substantial funding for UMEZ comes from New York City, meaning UMEZ has an internal incentive not to bite the City hand that feeds it. Under Mr. Knuckles, UMEZ provided $87 million in loans to real estate development projects and was the key player setting up the controversial East River Plaza that benefited big developers (specifically, Ratner, Blumenfeld, and Canyon Capital Advisors). That plaza <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/realestate/commercial/21plaza.html">is a vertical mall</a> for big box stores and features a bizarre $64 million parking lot that <a href="https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2012/04/20/east-river-plaza-parking-still-really-really-empty-new-research-shows/">as of 2012</a> was nearly empty, with less than 5% used of the spaces actually in use. A senior accountant who worked at UMEZ <a href="https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Upper-Manhattan-Empowerment-Zone/reviews">wrote about</a> his experience there on Glassdoor, saying "the only successes I saw while I was there were in funding large corporations to develop areas in Harlem." Mr. Knuckles is <a href="https://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180420/REAL_ESTATE/180429985/kenneth-knuckles-stepping-down-as-head-of-upper-manhattan-empowerment-zone">quoted in Crain's</a> thus: "I would like to say we created the environment that was conducive to stores like Whole Foods [now owned by Amazon] coming to Harlem." The role of Whole Foods in the "whitification" of Harlem was called out in 2016 in Michael Henry Adam's moving <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-black-harlem.html">opinion column</a> in the Times, "The End of Black Harlem" in which Adams wrote: "Whole Foods might as well be Fortnum and Mason…To us our Harlem is being remade, upgraded, and transformed, just for them, for wealthier white people."<br />
<br />
<b>Joseph Douek, Commissioner.</b> He is Chair and CEO of an investment and hedge fund called Viceroy Equities <a href="https://therealdeal.com/2018/10/30/this-firm-is-launching-a-75m-opportunity-zone-fund-focused-on-brooklyn/">which is</a> "betting big on Brooklyn with a $75 million Opportunity Zone fund". Recall that opportunity zone investors will pay zero capital gains taxes if their real estate investments are held for ten years. Opportunity zones are pure subsidies to real estate investors. He has no training in urban planning. Opportunity zones in Brooklyn overlap with proposed upzonings.<br />
<br />
<b>Alfred Cerullo, Commissioner</b> is the President and CEO of the Grand Central Partnership, a big real estate Business Improvement District (BID). That BID drove the recent upzoning for the Vanderbilt Corridor and Midtown East, as both upzonings directly benefited members of the Partership. Of course, the Board of Directors of the Grand Central Partnership also reads like a who's who of the Real Estate Board of New York, with REBNY's CEO John Banks literally serving as the official secretary of the BID. Cerullo is a Republican and former actor with a law degree, but no training in urban planning. SL Green, a big real estate firm, owned 1 Vanderbilt and spearheaded the shocking upzoning for that area. <br />
<br />
<b>Richard Eaddy, Commissioner.</b> Mr. Eaddy's work prior to government service was with ET Partners, a real estate development and consulting firm. He had previously been Chief Financial Officer of the real estate company "L & M Equity Participants" the precursor of L& M Development partners, a firm which brags on its website that it has "over $7 billion in development, construction, and investment". He was also development manager at the real estate company Olympia and York. His master's degree is in real estate development. He has no training in urban planning. It is safe to consider Mr. Eaddy to be a member of the real estate development community.<br />
<br />
<b>Allen Cappelli, Commissioner</b> A lawyer without training in urban planning who appears to be a professional board member, although according to the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/nyregion/20mta.html">he was</a> once a lobbyist for the real estate industry. He is a former member of the board of the MTA where he served for 8 years overlapping with John Banks, current president of the Real Estate Board of New York (Cappelli was appointed to the MTA in 2008, while Banks was already on it while Banks continued to be on the MTA with Cappelli until 2015). As a resident of Staten Island, Cappelli "<a href="https://www.silive.com/news/2015/06/transit_advocates_disappointed.html">was the</a> only [MTA] member of the board to vote against increasing tolls and fares." Note that the New York Times has <a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/mta-board/">called the MTA</a> "one of the most unwieldy bureaucracies in the state" with an infamous amount of "bloat." After leaving the MTA, De Blasio put him on the Civil Service Commission for three days a week of work at $412 a day.<br />
<br />
<b>Hope Knight, Commissioner</b> is President and CEO of a private entity known as the "Greater Jamaica Development Corporation" whose mission is to "plan, promote, coordinate and advance responsible development" and is specifically responsible for glassy towers in the Jamaica neighborhood known as "The Crossing" and the "Hilton Garden Inn" and is now actively promoting to builders property lots containing 99,000 and 84,000 square feet respectively. The Chair of the Board of the corporation is Peter Kulka, CEO of KJL Management Corporation, a <a href="https://start.cortera.com/company/research/k7n7jxn2r/kjl-property-management-corp/">real estate property management</a> company in Queens." The Corporation's job of cheerleading new development includes the <a href="https://gjdc.org/business/marketing-statistics/">breathless phrase</a> on their website "Jamaica makes new development happen! $3.7 billion worth!" Ms. Knight's prior work had been on the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zones" from 2003-2015, (an entity described under the paragraph for Commissioner Knuckles.) Ms. Knight does not have a degree in urban planning but instead an MBA from University of Chicago and considerable prior experience in banking with Morgan Stanley. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Anna Hayes Levin, Commissioner.</b> Her degree is in law, not urban planning. She served for many of the Empire State Development Corporations subsidiaries such as those for the redevelopment of Hudson Yards and the Javits Center. For example, she was "alternative director" of the Hudson Yards Development Corporation. She had been chair of the Land Use Committee of CB4 during the tumultuous and controversial approvals for the Hudson Yards project between 2001 and 2009. At the time, she was also on the Javits Community Advisory Committee and on the Penn Station Community Advisory Committee, all ESDC projects. Ms. Levin is married to a senior counsel and long-time partner at the law firm of Davis Polk, a firm which claims (in their words) to be ‘'at the center of the real estate marketplace." Their clients <a href="https://www.davispolk.com/practices/corporate/real-estate">include</a> major real estate players in NYC including SL Green, Slate, Naftali, Related, RXR, and Extell. Their website specifically states that the firm advised Related on the Hudson Yards deal. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Orlando Marín, Commissioner.</b> He is currently employed by the Bluestone Organization, which is "a private developer" and which describes itself on its website as "a real estate development company." Bluestone's website says it is developing projects with the ‘Fifth Avenue Committee" (a real estate development corporation whose Chair is also on the Commission). Mr. Marin also once worked at the Empire State Development Corporation. He has a BA in architecture and a diploma in ‘Real Estate' as well as a Master's in public administration. He lives in the Longwood area of the Bronx, an area that Crain's describes as a place where investors "clamor to rezone." Bluestone's website describes its investments in areas where upzonings have been or are now on the agenda, including Bushwick, Jamaica, Gowanus, Crown Heights and Rockaway. Some of these are in partnership with developers such as the Fifth Avenue Committee, Hudson Properties, and Jonathan Rose. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Larisa Ortiz, Commissioner.</b> Ms. Ortiz does have a degree in urban planning, but her principal job is working as a consultant (Larisa Ortiz Associates) to real estate developers and government agencies. She specializes in how to optimize their retail rents. Many of her clients are either large shopping center developers and New York City agencies and BIDs. She markets herself as (from her website) a "commercial district advisor." Her firm's mission includes to "develop market-based strategies for the redevelopment of urban places." One of her clients is the New York City Economic Development Corporation where she advised them on the miserable "Fulton-Nassau Crossroads" program for retail in Lower Manhattan and the similarly controversial retail destruction of the Essex Street Market.<br />
<br />
<b>Michelle de la Uz is a Commissioner</b> and Executive Director of the "Fifth Avenue Committee" which is unequivocally a real estate development firm, notwithstanding its status as a "community development corporation." It's website claims real estate assets of over $100 million and has buildings in the works that will cost more than $400 million. The committee does specialize in "affordable" housing, a term whose definition is obviously contested throughout the city and Uz does have a record of voting against rezonings that she thinks do not have deep enough levels of affordability, but she does not question the high rise or skyscraper character of De Blasio's policies. She does not have a degree in urban planning. The Fifth Avenue Committee was instrumental in the demolition of the Brooklyn Public Library in Sunset Park. They received a no-bid contract to take on that particular development project. The village of Sunset Park <a href="https://patch.com/new-york/sunset-park/sunset-park-library-redevelopment-opponents-cry-backroom-deal">hotly contested</a> the arrangement, pointing out that the Fifth Avenue Committee had given heavily to De Blasio's non-profit "Campaign For One New York." Her organization in 2017 got $2.945 million in revenue from "government grants" and spends over $5 million for salaries, nearly all of its total revenue. Part of its revenue comes from $385,000 in rents from the buildings it owns. The Fifth Avenue Committee founded the "Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice" to advocate for certain groups during the planning for the Gowanus upzoning, a group that has pushed in favor of the rezoning.* De la Uz wrote an <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-for-housing-answers-look-up-20180809-story.html">op-ed in the Daily News</a> in 2018 advocating for a spot rezoning for the community-contested project at 80 Flatbush Street in Brooklyn that favored a single developer, saying ‘we need to build bigger' and says resistance to developers is just "a regressive reality that must change" echoing the unproven fantasy REBNY p.r. line that not building skyscrapers might "impact job growth." She then fantasizes in the op-ed that the 80 Flatbush project was going to happen "without public subsidies" which indicates a weak grasp of reality. Last, her organization partnered with another developer, Hudson Properties, to advocate for building a child care center next to the spot on the Gowanus canal that emits coal tar fumes that are so toxic that even the Environmental Protection Agency is concerned. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(* <span style="font-family: "Cambria",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i>See
the audit and <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/112475743">990 forms for Fifth Avenue Committee</a> that Propublica has kindly
made available.</i>)</span> </blockquote>
<b>Rad Rampershad, Commissioner.</b> Mr. Rampershad is an architect, not an urban planner. He is resident of the low-rise, heavily down-zoned neighborhood of Richmond Hill, Queens, where Gary Barnett the CEO of Extell also lives. He is a Senior Project Manager at the Gerald Caliendo architecture firm in Briarwood, Queens. His firm designed the glassy high rise "Four Points by Sheraton" in Long Island City and the similarly massive glass tower known as the "Z Hotel" in Hunters Point north of Long Island City. Architects like this are courtiers and dependents to the real estate industry. <br />
<br />
<b>David Burney, Commissioner.</b> Mr. Burney does have a degree in urban planning and is director of the Urban Placemaking and Management program at Pratt Institute School of Architecture, all of which definitely makes him not a real estate developer and not a deep part part of the "Growth Machine." He was Director of Design and Capital Improvement for NYCHA for 13 years under Bloomberg, a worrisome aspect of his professional life: as we all know there has not been adequate capital improvement in NYCHA for many, many years during the Bloomberg era. Mr. Burney <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Burney">was also</a> one of the architects who did the massively over-scaled 29-storied Zeckendorf Towers in the Grammercy neighborhood while he was at the firm of Davis, Brody, & Associates.<br />
<br />
<b>Carl Weisbrod, former Chair of the Commission.</b> He is a senior advisor at HRA, a consulting firm that advises real estate developers and government agencies on big redevelopment schemes. The Real Deal <a href="https://therealdeal.com/new-research/topics/people/carl-weisbrod/">credits Weisbrod</a> for turning Times Square into the tourist zoo that it has become while he was in a "series of government positions." He was for example president of the Economic Development Corporation for some of that period during which time he used "eminent domain aggressively to help the city take-over much of the land in the 42nd Street area." While at HRA he led the rezoning of Hudson Square on behalf of his client the real estate division of Trinity Church. That rezoning is resulting in the subsequent demolition of many a historic property in that area. He is a lawyer, but has no degree in urban planning. He was for many years head of the Alliance for Downtown, a big real estate BID (developer Bill Rudin was one of the founders) that dominates much of the politics of Lower Manhattan. As head of City Planning, he pushed through De Blasio's upzonings, over the opposition of 90% of the community boards in the city. In that position, he also green-lighted the massive Extell tower in the Two Bridges area of Manhattan, claiming that the developer's requests amounted to a "minor modification" of the permit he granted, thus Carl Weisbrod, former Chair of the Commission. He is a senior advisor at HRA, a consulting firm that advises real estate developers and government agencies on big redevelopment schemes. The Real Deal credits Weisbrod for turning Times Square into the tourist zoo that it has become while he was in a "series of government positions." He was for example president of the Economic Development Corporation for some of that period during which time he used "eminent domain aggressively to help the city take-over much of the land in the 42nd Street area." While at HRA he led the rezoning of Hudson Square on behalf of his client the real estate division of Trinity Church. That rezoning is resulting in the subsequent demolition of many a historic property in that area. He is a lawyer, but has no degree in urban planning. He was for many years head of the Alliance for Downtown, a big real estate BID (developer Bill Rudin was one of the founders) that dominates much of the politics of Lower Manhattan. As head of City Planning, he pushed through De Blasio's upzonings, over the opposition of 90% of the community boards in the city. In that position, he also green-lighted the massive Extell tower in the Two Bridges area of Manhattan, claiming that the developer's requests amounted to a "minor modification" of the permit he granted, thus allowing the developer to avoid going through ULURP. The Manhattan Borough President has sued the city over Weisbrod's decision. Weisbrod has since become Chair of the Trust for Governor's Island which is overseeing a major plan to allow developers to have their way with the island. Cityland <a href="https://www.citylandnyc.org/joe-rose-former-city-planning-chairman-on-weisbrod-citylaw-breakfast-discussion/">describes</a> Weisbrod at the time of his appointment as having a "continuity of a pro-growth outlook" (with "growth" referring to real estate development.) When he was appointed to City Planning, Cityland also noted that "his commitments to curtail the limbo of the pre-certification process, loosen the shrink-wrapping nature of some building envelope controls….. will be welcome news for developers." Cityland concluded with obvious satisfaction that he would get those things done for the developer community.<br />
<br />
<b>Part 2: What is to Be Done?</b><br />
<br />
The Fox Guarding the Henhouse situation can be fixed with tighter conflict of interest rules in the City Charter. <br />
<br />
To be continued…Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-79442608666086848432019-04-01T00:01:00.000-04:002020-03-31T20:49:31.579-04:00Un-Change That You Can Believe In?: Is The Brooklyn Heights Association Going To Endorse Greater Density In The Neighborhood As A Way For Its Neighborhood To Regain Historic Character? (It’s Being Discussed.)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nfDII6R_ZJU/XKDTBQwk65I/AAAAAAAAL3U/hxXZZEggP-AgwnVzVvxN05YkuiiVE_aZgCLcBGAs/s1600/Bklyn%2BHeights%2BDensity%2BSide%2BBy%2BSide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="1600" height="143" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nfDII6R_ZJU/XKDTBQwk65I/AAAAAAAAL3U/hxXZZEggP-AgwnVzVvxN05YkuiiVE_aZgCLcBGAs/s400/Bklyn%2BHeights%2BDensity%2BSide%2BBy%2BSide.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The corner of Montague and Henry Streets: On left, the current <i>problematic</i> vista; On right, the view as some Brooklyn Heights Association trustees may hope that it will be approved, restoring the neighborhood's historic flavor. (Click to enlarge for better consideration) Note: The rendering of this proposal <i>triples</i> the office real estate brokerage space of Brown Harris Stevens, a not unlikely result of the addition of this much real estate to the neighborhood.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Nothing is official or publicly disclosed yet, but rumors are out that there is dissension and disagreement at the Brooklyn Heights Association as a result of an idea proposed by an emergent faction of the board that is raising hackles with the others. It all stems from the fact that there is a sense that the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, the first neighborhood in New York City to be designated an historic district, has fast been losing its historic character. - Oh for history’s sake!<br />
<br />
How can Brooklyn Heights regain, restore and reestablish the historic flavor and character that has made it so deliciously revered as one of the city’s most special areas to stroll through and that invariably attracts and is recommended to tourists and to visitors coming from everywhere?<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kQ6sVZW5qBo/XJ-XXXfTMwI/AAAAAAAAL28/_mm1NddIHVgHgyyfd-gpVflwQvbQ1CYBgCLcBGAs/s1600/BklynHtsBoundaries.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="779" data-original-width="771" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kQ6sVZW5qBo/XJ-XXXfTMwI/AAAAAAAAL28/_mm1NddIHVgHgyyfd-gpVflwQvbQ1CYBgCLcBGAs/s320/BklynHtsBoundaries.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ny.curbed.com/2015/3/18/9982438/how-brooklyn-heights-became-the-citys-first-historic-district">Brooklyn Heights historic area boundaries</a>.</td></tr>
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The reason the question has presented itself in a nagging way that is far from easy to sidestep is because of the visual intrusions of the tall glass towers shrieking modernity that have recently been built ringing the perimeter of what is officially the protected historic part of the neighborhood. The protected part of the neighborhood is actually smaller than many presume, ending, for example on Montague Street at the boundary of Clinton Street. The poster child for such <i>“back to the impending future”</i> intrusions is the super-tall luxury condominium tower, replacing what was once Brooklyn's second most important library at the corner of <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/05/hillary-clintons-new-national-campaign.html">Tillary and Clinton</a> where they intersect at Cadman Plaza West.<br />
<br />
That tower, developed by David Kramer and his Hudson Companies, was endorsed and <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/09/open-letter-to-brooklyn-heights.html">promoted by</a> the Brooklyn Heights Association. Destruction of the public library to create the tower also created a <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/09/open-letter-to-saint-anns-school-please.html">financial windfall</a> for the neighborhood’s elite Saint Ann’s School, which was, no doubt, influential in the politics that sent the tower soaring up to dominate the skies of the historic neighborhood from <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/01/its-what-brooklyn-heights-association.html">all sorts of vantages</a>. It is possible that when the BHA endorsed the luxury tower they never realized just how visually dominant it would be in so much of the neighborhood.<br />
<br />
But now, according to the rumors, one emerging faction of the Heights Association is pointing out that, while the tower is seen looming from many of the key streets and intersections of Brooklyn Heights, there are places where it can’t be seen because view of it is still blocked by the older historic buildings making up the fabric of the neighborhood since it was officially designated historic by the Landmarks Commission on <a href="https://ny.curbed.com/2015/3/18/9982438/how-brooklyn-heights-became-the-citys-first-historic-district">November 23, 1965</a>. The same faction of the BHA (basically the core group that lobbied to sell the library) are pointing out that the visual intrusions of the tower are not always that bad, and are they are saying that there is, in this observation, the seeds of a solution to make the <i>unsightly</i> tower less “<i>sightly</i>” . . . Or, if you will, make the tower less Brooklyn Heights Historic District “<i>sitely</i>.”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wxquYZsWZd0/XKFX6wyF0rI/AAAAAAAAL34/Pz6z96-FpMsPHy9_UCri836hQbi1WRp5gCLcBGAs/s1600/Other%2BCandidates%2Bfor%2BHistorical%2Benlargement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1090" data-original-width="1600" height="272" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wxquYZsWZd0/XKFX6wyF0rI/AAAAAAAAL34/Pz6z96-FpMsPHy9_UCri836hQbi1WRp5gCLcBGAs/s400/Other%2BCandidates%2Bfor%2BHistorical%2Benlargement.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Other candidates for <i>“historical enlargement”</i>: At left, the creamy white Supreme Court Appellate Division building on Pierrepont and Monroe Streets; and, at right, a series of townhouses on Monroe Street that no longer feel cloistered away from the bustle of the moderns age. ( The Supreme Court building attracted film crews for many an episode <i>“Law and Order.”</i> If the success of <i>“Law and Order”</i> can result in six spin-off series, which it did, why can’t recognition of the attractiveness of the Supreme Court building equally justify addition of another half dozen similarly beautiful floors? The demand will be to fill those extra floors with condos, not more justice manufacturing.)</td></tr>
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The answer being proposed is to bring greater density to the Brooklyn Heights and allow the truly historic buildings of Brooklyn Heights to express their historic influence more fully by building extra floors matching and multiplying the same historic flavor those buildings contribute to the neighborhood now. If those buildings rise up enough extra floors they can blot out the visibility of Kramer's One Clinton luxury condo tower and perhaps also diminish the conspicuousness of the other glass-glazed luxury hulks that have bounded up into the skies elsewhere on the neighborhood’s periphery.<br />
<br />
With nobody currently on the board of the BHA officially talking, the internal politics and arguments being exchanged are, as yet a little unclear. However, Hank (Henry) Gutman, a former BHA board member and <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/brooklyn-public-library-trustees.html">currently on</a> the board of the Brooklyn Bridge Park corporation and on the board of the Brooklyn Public Library that sold the Business, Career and Education federal depository library to create Kramer's luxury tower, seems to have an inside line on the development oriented thinking that is behind the proposal. Gutman says <i>“allowing the extra density unlocks the real estate value historic neighborhood designations invariable trap unused in their neighborhoods, and that unlocking of value will serve as an engine for quick restorative development that will assist the Heights neighborhood to regain its historic flavor.”</i><br />
<br />
Gutman said that, if the Heights Association proposes this solution, he strongly believes the de Blasio administration will accede and work with the BHA to implement it. Among other things, says Gutman:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>This is consistent with other goals of the city. The city needs to grow and become more dense. It’s a city policy to add density along subway lines and at the transit hubs where those lines converge. Right now Brooklyn Heights, sitting atop the convergence of a huge proportion of the city’s subway lines, is hogging our subway lines without giving any density back. It’s time for the neighborhood to give back! </i> </blockquote>
Gutman is hopeful about the future of similar proposals in the future: <i>“If implemented successfully in Brooklyn Heights, I am sure it’s the kind of thing that can be programmatically replicated in other neighborhoods throughout the city,”</i> says Gutman.<br />
<br />
Another thing to think about says Gutman is how this would address what he considers the almost inherently <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-ugh-upshot-after-brooklyn-public.html">elitist nature</a> of historic neighborhoods. <i>“Nobody is making historic neighborhoods anymore,”</i> says Gutman, <i>“yet, given the crap people are building these day</i>s [Gutman wouldn’t comment on Kramer’s work], <i>everybody wants to live in them. Given the automatic scarcity that results, the neighborhoods become enclaves for the wealthy who outbid everyone else.”</i> . .<br />
<br />
. . . <i>“This is the solution,”</i> says Gutman, <i>“now, by adding greater density, we will be building more historic places where people can live.” </i><i><i>. . . . </i></i>And, says Gutman,<i><i> </i></i>it sort of goes along with something else he has always liked to say, which is<i><i><i><i><i>“</i></i></i>if you know how to create history, you'll be a winner when it's all said and done.</i></i><i><i><i>”</i></i></i><br />
<br />
Is this a proposal that the Brooklyn Heights Association will be promoting? As far as anyone knows, it’s only being discussed at this point, but what may the clincher for endorsement by the BHA is another related proposal that would be combined with it . . . <br />
<br />
. . . The extra density to hide modern towers proposal would create multiple extra tall buildings of a historic character throughout the Heights neighborhood. They would all have additional steel columns to ensure support for the extra floors, and could perhaps also have more. There is a feeling that, if done right, the new taller-than-average historic character towers scattered throughout the neighborhood could also become the supports upon which to rest a new, but temporary overhead bypass for the BQE to allow the repairs to the BQE's existing structure without tearing down the promenade. That would substitute for the Department of Transportation’s (hard to believe) plan for repair and modification of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade that involves six years during which a six-lane highway would run along the Heights in place of the promenade.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5j2e9bxjFV8/XKEajcfQTAI/AAAAAAAAL3s/Mhmwjz6yIlEaL-6z4EtrKc57Kc7z7DJfQCLcBGAs/s1600/Bklyn%2BHts%2BHistoric%2BDisttrict%2BBQE%2Bbypass%2Bmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="779" data-original-width="771" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5j2e9bxjFV8/XKEajcfQTAI/AAAAAAAAL3s/Mhmwjz6yIlEaL-6z4EtrKc57Kc7z7DJfQCLcBGAs/s320/Bklyn%2BHts%2BHistoric%2BDisttrict%2BBQE%2Bbypass%2Bmap.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A red line tracks how a BQE bypass over taller <i>"extra historical"</i> buildings could cut through the historic district to save the promenade from the DOT plan. Once upon a time, Robert Moses wanted to run the BQE through the middle of Brooklyn Heights which would have involved tearing down much of historic Brooklyn Heights. In contradistinction, this plan, with a similar BQE route, builds up and creates more of the historic district. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The BHA has said it very much opposes the reviled DOT plan. Gutman thinks the historic towers supporting a bypass would be a much better plan. And City Councilman Steve Levin, who usually keeps his constituents guessing about his actually stance on development issues until the <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/02/councilman-stephen-t-levin-comes-to.html">very last minute</a> (and who says he opposes the DOT promenade plan) has, in this case, already said, it's<i> “exactly the plan to replace the DOT plan”</i> that he has been <i>“on the look out for.”</i> <br />
<br />
I wanted to get this article out as soon as possible to let New Yorkers know what is being considered as soon as possible, but this publication may be a little premature. Gutman thinks the BHA factions are about to resolve their differences and says he thinks the BHA may come out to announce a more definitive proposal, as soon as today, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/search/label/April%201st">April 1st</a>.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0Qao6IoqrI0/XKEWgzLZ3qI/AAAAAAAAL3g/K99CVNjPRkgrz_H3SivoitBKXVJZpJI4ACLcBGAs/s1600/Extra%2BTall%2BWith%2BHighway%2BOverhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1122" data-original-width="1600" height="280" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0Qao6IoqrI0/XKEWgzLZ3qI/AAAAAAAAL3g/K99CVNjPRkgrz_H3SivoitBKXVJZpJI4ACLcBGAs/s400/Extra%2BTall%2BWith%2BHighway%2BOverhead.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Example of how <i>"extra historical</i>" buildings could support BQE bypass. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-87978447106825342092018-12-24T21:41:00.000-05:002018-12-31T20:23:56.935-05:00This Year’s Annual Seasonal Reflection: It Rhymes (But Not With "Reason" or "Season")<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3YYGwsLELbc/WixlSUcS4zI/AAAAAAAAJI0/fvfaNXktUagLh4CyEK_j35IkR9_R1JfpQCLcBGAs/s1600/ItsAWonderfulRatnerville.gif" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="263" data-original-width="350" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3YYGwsLELbc/WixlSUcS4zI/AAAAAAAAJI0/fvfaNXktUagLh4CyEK_j35IkR9_R1JfpQCLcBGAs/s400/ItsAWonderfulRatnerville.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From our Thursday, December 24, 2009, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-eve-story-of-alternative.html">A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville),</a></td></tr>
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It seems almost as if we are back again where we started. That's not because history repeats itself, but because history, as they say, rhymes. <br />
<br />
Every year since 2009 Noticing New York has engaged
in the tradition of a seasonal reflection post as we reach the cusp of
the new year.<br />
<br />
When I first started, we took the example in "<i>Its' a Wonderful Life</i>,"
of what could happen if one greedy man, the banker in that story, Henry Potter, took over and owned everything in the town of Bedford Falls. That was to compare how everything in Brooklyn was being handed over to Forest City Ratner in Brooklyn (hence the visual above). It was only a small town in that fictional story. And it was only the Borough of Brooklyn in our comparison. . .<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hGRcqyMsmrw/XCGTXiFi_4I/AAAAAAAAKJg/WqwqKRYRQ08uDCQNtvpmg4lXen1aAYcFACLcBGAs/s1600/Amazon%2BOver%2BGovernment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1424" height="178" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hGRcqyMsmrw/XCGTXiFi_4I/AAAAAAAAKJg/WqwqKRYRQ08uDCQNtvpmg4lXen1aAYcFACLcBGAs/s320/Amazon%2BOver%2BGovernment.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
. . . Now, similarly, with much of the mechanisms repeating, Amazon is set to take over a swath of Queens. See: <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2018/12/amazon-headquarters-lands-in-long.html">Amazon Headquarters Lands In Long Island City: What Happens When Our Elected Officials Hand The Task of Governing Over To A Private Sector Corporation</a>, Monday, December 23, 2018.<br />
<br />
But that story has broader swath. Amazon is taking over everything, and it is doing so nationally. It probably is never more evident than during this season when the packages pile in to everybody's lobby. But if you read the article linked to above, there are free speech and preservation of public discourse concerns that accompany that Amazon takeover.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QJCeEY6_bvE/XCGGNpM1zhI/AAAAAAAAKJQ/QLnAS1fjfqc8d3RuBdY6QJCm_zi-N2gUACLcBGAs/s1600/Ana%2BLevy%2BLyons%2BNov%2B11%2B2018%2Bsermon%2Bno2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="1600" height="263" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QJCeEY6_bvE/XCGGNpM1zhI/AAAAAAAAKJQ/QLnAS1fjfqc8d3RuBdY6QJCm_zi-N2gUACLcBGAs/s400/Ana%2BLevy%2BLyons%2BNov%2B11%2B2018%2Bsermon%2Bno2.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sermon about Amazon at First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn</td></tr>
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A recent <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/12/sermonizing-in-brooklyn-heights-about.html">sermon</a> at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn by Minister Ana Levy-Lyons was about
what it means for Amazon to be taking over. Last night we watched <i>"A Christmas Carol"</i> again, the definitive classic version with Alistair Sim. <i>"A Christmas Carol"</i> is among the several classic seasonal tales I've written about this time of year in these reflections. They are all thematically related, like the Grinch tale. Reverend Levy-Lyons' sermon echoed the lessons that we heard all over again as the spirits teach Scrooge in their visitations; the lessons that human beings and the value of life is rich and multi-dimensional, and that we are not fully human if we allow ourselves to be a hammered down to the thinness that, in the Amazon, world defines us as merely consumers looking for bargains at the cheapest possible price. Its confusing: The pre-transformation Scrooge was <i>abstemious</i>. . . And what are we supposed to be doing when confronted by Amazon?: Meditate on this and it might become clear– It has to do with our <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2018/12/amazon-headquarters-lands-in-long.html">connection</a> to other people, our connection to the general community and its welfare. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1SSIJC4AMu4/XCGEPWRKpfI/AAAAAAAAKJE/wY6J_pZLV8QH3J0mUwuX3Xkp3Erq88V-wCLcBGAs/s1600/Library%2BGoing%2BUp%2BBehidn%2BChurch%2B02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1080" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1SSIJC4AMu4/XCGEPWRKpfI/AAAAAAAAKJE/wY6J_pZLV8QH3J0mUwuX3Xkp3Erq88V-wCLcBGAs/s400/Library%2BGoing%2BUp%2BBehidn%2BChurch%2B02.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Corner of Monroe and Pierrepont- The luxury tower replacing the library, no about two-third complete, is rising up as seen behind the First Unitarian Universalist Church.</td></tr>
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<br />
What else is going on this season? The luxury tower that is replacing the Business, Career and Education Brooklyn Heights Library, the central destination federal depository library in downtown Brooklyn is going up now. At two-thirds complete it is getting to be evident how readily it will be seen from many parts of the neighborhood, like, for instance, it is now visible from the corner or Monroe and Pierrepont streets. Monroe Street was a focal point from which the push to sell the library emanated. Meanwhile, we held community meetings at each end of Monroe to prevent that sell off.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b1Db4-MsvZY/XCVQije1RzI/AAAAAAAAKKQ/CAmQn_E8r0YarIky8BV0yIsyl-jeTY96wCLcBGAs/s1600/Dumbo%2BView%2BLux%2BTower%2BReplaces%2BLibrary%2B02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="974" data-original-width="1280" height="303" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b1Db4-MsvZY/XCVQije1RzI/AAAAAAAAKKQ/CAmQn_E8r0YarIky8BV0yIsyl-jeTY96wCLcBGAs/s400/Dumbo%2BView%2BLux%2BTower%2BReplaces%2BLibrary%2B02.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from DUMBO waterfront of the luxury condo replacing the library, now tall enough to be seen above the nearby elevated roadway.</td></tr>
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As of this of this solstice, the semi-complete building was also casting long shadows onto Cadman Plaza Park. See: <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/12/in-this-winter-solstice-season-long.html">In
This Winter Solstice Season, Long Shadows Being Cast By The
Not-Yet-Complete Luxury Tower Replacing Brooklyn Central Destination
Library</a>. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C-s60kr6nn4/XCFGLTVV1qI/AAAAAAAAKIg/aQsbqcQRC9s0mQtNVv-EVjbTLJjsTxPHQCLcBGAs/s1600/Luxury%2BTower%2BSolstice%2BShadows.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="360" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C-s60kr6nn4/XCFGLTVV1qI/AAAAAAAAKIg/aQsbqcQRC9s0mQtNVv-EVjbTLJjsTxPHQCLcBGAs/s400/Luxury%2BTower%2BSolstice%2BShadows.gif" width="300" /></a></div>
Just weeks ago we lost a library defender who fought along side us to prevent the destruction of that library, Justine Swartz, also known as Ambrosia. See: <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-beloved-library-defender-is-gone-but.html">A Beloved Library Defender Is Gone, But Not Forgotten: Justine Swartz, Our Ambrosia</a>.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qCQ7OYxHAwo/XCFHBoffpnI/AAAAAAAAKIs/Tn35wTNIIk4gA2m-WtXDSHOXnock9SpzgCLcBGAs/s1600/Justine%2Bno2%2BIMG_0862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qCQ7OYxHAwo/XCFHBoffpnI/AAAAAAAAKIs/Tn35wTNIIk4gA2m-WtXDSHOXnock9SpzgCLcBGAs/s400/Justine%2Bno2%2BIMG_0862.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christmas Day 2015, we ran into Ambrosia (in the seat of honor) on Montague Street.</td></tr>
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Another concern that is very present this year is an accelerating
censorship and control of information. I had a chance to start writing
about it here in October: <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/10/on-media-interview-with-dean-starkman.html">On
The Media Interview With Dean Starkman: The Difference Between "Access
Reporting" and "Accountability Reporting" Explains How Very Important
Things DON'T Get Reported- Plus Consider The Censorship Crisis</a>, October 4, 2018.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--8wc7osn6Kk/XCFIkXerwwI/AAAAAAAAKI4/8N1vaBTSAbEVdRjls399Uh5eyprQ3rpVgCLcBGAs/s1600/Access%2BJournalism%2BCensorship.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="480" height="226" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--8wc7osn6Kk/XCFIkXerwwI/AAAAAAAAKI4/8N1vaBTSAbEVdRjls399Uh5eyprQ3rpVgCLcBGAs/s320/Access%2BJournalism%2BCensorship.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
But, I have not been writing fast enough to keep up to write yet about Facebook's more recent <a href="https://www.projectcensored.org/social-media-censorship-in-the-era-of-so-called-fake-news-as-we-approach-midterm-elections/">censorship binge</a> done coordinating with Twitter. So much <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/10/list-of-journalists-fired-or-self.html">censorship</a> like that and <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/01/books-as-catalysts-in-world-where.html">suppression of information</a> in our society suppresses the things that are anti-war, critical of the military and that might lead us in the direction of greater world peace. . . It's something to think about especially in this season when we sign cards to each other about <i>"peace on earth."</i><br />
<br />
Since censorship is about control of information there is one part of this story that is huge in a meta-way, and that is how the Facebook censorship binge, abetted by the actions of other social media giants, has, itself, gone largely unreported or misrepresented, especially in terms of the censoring of anti-war and anti-authoritarian sources of information (including police violence accountability sites). <i><br /></i><br />
<br />
That brings us around again to the subject of Amazon and the frightening thought that Amazon, <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/11/interesting-to-think-that-it-all-began.html">with its</a> origins in and ongoing ties to the military and CIA, now sells <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2018/12/amazon-headquarters-lands-in-long.html">about half</a> of all the books in this country, plus it is taking over as a key supplier of all the old and classic films we once rented from video stores. It's also scary how much Amazon, busily collecting data, knows about each of us, plus scary how little we, conversely, know about Amazon. <br />
<br />
Here are links to the prior Noticing New York ventures into seasonal
reflection where you can read: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Thursday, December 24, 2009, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-eve-story-of-alternative.html">A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville)</a>,<br />
<br />
• Friday, December 24, 2010, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/12/revisiting-classic-seasonal-tale.html">Revisiting a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Saturday, December 24, 2011, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/12/traditional-christmas-eve-revisit-of.html">Traditional
Christmas Eve Revisit of a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville, the Real
Life Incarnation of the Abhorred Pottersville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Monday, December 24, 2012, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/12/while-i-tell-of-yuletide-treasure.html">While I Tell of Yuletide Treasure</a>,<br />
<br />
• Tuesday, December 24, 2013, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-seasonal-reflection-assessing.html">A Seasonal Reflection: Assessing Aspirations Toward Alternate Realities- 'Tis A Tale of Two Alternate Cities?</a>.,<br />
<br />
Wednesday, December 24, 2014, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/12/seasonal-reflections-no-matter-how.html">Seasonal Reflections: No Matter How Fortunate or Not, We Are All Equal, Sharing a Common Journey</a> <br />
<br />
• Thursday, December 24, 2015, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/12/seasonal-reflection-mayor-de-blasio-his.html">Seasonal
Reflection: Mayor de Blasio, His Heart Squeezed Grinch-Small, Starts
Gifting Stolen Libraries To Developers For The Holidays</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Saturday, December 24, 2016, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/12/noticing-new-yorks-annual-seasonal.html">Noticing New York's Annual Seasonal Reflection</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Sunday, December 24, 2017, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/12/this-years-seasonal-reflection-yes-we.html">This Year’s Seasonal Reflection: Yes We Are Now Living In Ratnerville, Locally and Nationally, And Yet We Hope And Work Towards Something Differen</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">t</a></blockquote>
Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-19544330068775346282018-12-23T14:34:00.000-05:002018-12-24T21:41:40.020-05:00Amazon Headquarters Lands In Long Island City: What Happens When Our Elected Officials Hand The Task of Governing Over To A Private Sector Corporation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bVhTOC5cLoE/XCE7ROT_r_I/AAAAAAAAKIU/2X7apiYwHc0u6kzG_BnO2haE4mSnBG1pgCLcBGAs/s1600/Amazon%2BOver%2BGovernment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1424" height="222" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bVhTOC5cLoE/XCE7ROT_r_I/AAAAAAAAKIU/2X7apiYwHc0u6kzG_BnO2haE4mSnBG1pgCLcBGAs/s400/Amazon%2BOver%2BGovernment.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
I remember the young and tender age I was when I was horrified to have explained to me the concept of <i>“the company store,”</i> the store in the company-owned town, which was the only place to buy things, where those things were priced at a price you couldn’t really quite afford so you were perpetually in debt to the company, which was the only employer in town, that didn’t pay very much so that you could never earn enough to leave town. . . <a href="http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/peonage/">Peonage</a>! My mind boggled at the concept— to be so unfree, cut off from any choice! Could such inconceivable traps have ever existed?<br />
<br />
Symbolizing how absolutely closed the system was, some companies even issued their own currencies, their own <i>“money”</i> or company <i>“script”</i> to pay workers’ salaries that they would have to spend at the company store. Safely in the past?: Just a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/mexico-walmex/court-outlaws-wal-mart-de-mexico-worker-vouchers-idUSN0546591320080905">few years ago</a>, a division of Walmart (Wal-Mart de Mexico or Walmex) was doing this with its Mexican workers paying workers with vouchers, in lieu of cash, redeemable at its outlets until the Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled this violated the Mexican constitution.<br />
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Imagine the way that a private corporation could once take over and become <u><i>everything</i></u>!<br />
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These days Amazon, famous for paying its workers low wages, has just become the <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/11/interesting-to-think-that-it-all-began.html">second biggest U.S. Company</a> as of September 2018. We think of Amazon as having <i>low prices</i>, unlike the prices of the company store that were always <i>too high</i>, but it is becoming increasing hard to shop elsewhere and the real price we are ultimately paying may be an illusion as Amazon is allowed to run rampant as a predatory monopoly putting all other competition out of business.<br />
<br />
Amazon’s inescapability will be brought home for New Yorkers in another, yet more intense way now that Amazon is landing a <i>“headquarters”</i> in Queens’ in Long Island City. Flexing the musculature of its enormous bigness quite openly, we see Amazon being allowed to take over our city’s governance with New York state powers be turned over as well. City and state officials are aiding and abetting Amazon in the process are letting Amazon do that. That is thanks principally to Bill de Blasio as New York City's mayor and Andrew Cuomo as New York State's governor.<br />
<br />
<b>State and City Subsidizes For Amazon- A Popular Topic</b> <br />
<br />
The first thing you hear about Amazon’s plan to land a <i>“headquarters”</i> in Long Island City is that in exchange, to <i>“lure”</i> Amazon here, it will be getting an amazing glut of subsides including tax exemptions, from both the city and state plus the federal government as well. How much?: It’s clear that the amounts can only be spoken of in terms of more than a billion+ dollars multiplied by what? The estimates of the total subsidies (which we will have to come back to) range. As they were calculated and negotiated in secret and have not been thoroughly or openly vetted by any economists, we should not make the mistake others may make of pretending that we truly know much about this deal so soon after its revelation. There are even nondisclosure agreements about making much of this information public that apply to the future.<br />
<br />
The most fitting quick observation about these massive subsidies is that other tech giants, Google, Facebook and Twitter, all have very sizable presences in New York City with none of them receiving such subsidies.<br />
<br />
<b>Amazon "Give Backs"?/Sizable Acreage</b><br />
<br />
The next thing I heard (on the radio- perhaps a WNYC radio excited announcement of the deal?) was how Amazon was expected to be <i>“give back,”</i> or might <i>“give back”</i> in things in return. . . . It’s said that Amazon with its development partners <a href="https://commercialobserver.com/2018/11/amazon-hq2-incentives-benefits-long-island-city/">will</a> <i>“build a 600-seat public school, affordable space for manufacturers, arts groups and early-stage tech companies, and a 3.5-acre waterfront esplanade and park”</i> while building <i>“1.15 million square feet of office space”</i> Anable Basin properties are part of the more than one million square feet of property Amazon is expected to take over. (One million square feet is 22.9 acres, comparable to the Atlantic Yards site excluding the additional eight acres owned by developer Forest City Ratner <i>before</i> that Ratner mega-project was launched. Last year, a plan to rezone 15-acres in the basin area was being spearheaded by a family-owned plastics factory (That company is Plaxall) that controlled 12.6 of those acres. Amazon’s plan involves taking over the bulk of that land– but not all the family-own acres– plus obviously more elsewhere.)<br />
<br />
New York Times architectural critic Michael Kimmelman, who sometimes splits the baby trying to make happy both activists and the powers-that-be, made the embarrassing suggestion that rectification could be made with respect to Amazon’s arrival if Amazon invested in NYC’s <i>“public libraries”</i> and <i>“local school programs.”</i> See: <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/11/michael-kimmelmans-unfortunate.html">Michael Kimmelman’s Unfortunate Suggestion That Amazon Invest In NYC’s Public libraries (per Eric Klinenberg)- See: “Amazon’s HQ2 Will Benefit From New York City. But What Does New York Get?”</a> - Kimmelman balanced his essay's seeming enthusiasm for Amazon's arrival in this respect slightly: He contrapuntally glowered about the Amazon giant’s plunking down here and the <i>“insularity”</i> and libertarianism of the tech industry in general.<br />
<br />
Do we really want<i> “gifts”</i> or <i>“give-backs,”</i> from giant mega-monopolies, so labeled in intentionally confusing narratives as we allow such entities to take over sections of the city supplanting government, and doing so in the name of `<i>private/public partnerships</i>'? We’ve seen this before. For instance, when the MTA, sending its head Joe Lhota to a ribbon cutting was <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/09/promoting-obfuscation-of-what.html">promoting</a> a <i>“$76 million Barclays Center subway station”</i> as a <i>`gift'</i> from Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner. The notion gets pushed with the too-good-to-be-true con that <i>“not a cent of it came from taxpayers’ pockets,”</i> despite the fact that, all told, Forest City Ratner was walking away with overall project subsidies totaling $2 - $3 billion.<br />
<br />
Last week there was a NYC Public Advocate Candidates Forum in Brooklyn Heights. Sixteen self-proclaimed candidates for that city-wide elected office took part in panel discussion (and a few additional candidates who have thrown their hat into the ring weren't there). Amazon was naturally discussed. It was discomfiting to hear how many of those candidates thought that Amazon's arrival in Queens should simply be accepted as a given and that all that needed to be discussed was what Amazon would <i>"give back," </i>as if this was the way that government should work. The candidates are too numerous to inventory their Amazon positions here, right now.<br />
<br />
<b>Rethinking So-called "Charity" As Wealth Concentrates In Those With Agendas</b><br />
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The unbelievable math, simply ignoring the facts to parade, as window-dressing these ersatz <i>“gifts,”</i> brings to mind <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/09/theres-much-you-should-note-trust-when.html">conversations now being had</a> advising us to reexamine and not be taken at face value the theoretical benefits of the so-called <i>“giving”</i> by the wealthiest in our nation. Anand Giridharadas who has addressed the subject in a new book <i>“Winners Take All- The Elite Charade of Changing the World”</i> has questioned the ethos where <i>“The winners of our age must be challenged to do more good, but never, ever tell them to do less harm.”</i> <br />
<br />
More succinctly, Mr. Giridharadas <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/09/authors-anand-giridharadas-eric.html">has said</a> that while <i>“giving back”</i> sounds nice, its not the same as <i>“taking less.”</i> <br />
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Furthermore, given the difficulty of <i>“looking a gift horse in the mouth,”</i> such private sector <i>“gifts”</i> are harder to criticize than what is provided by elected officials. That sadly is the case even when such <i>“gifts”</i> reflect an agenda on the part of the wealthy donors and an effort to shape the world as they would like to see it shaped. Take, for instance, this undemocratic result: how a school district can wind up with less funds for what the public wants funded when the (Bill and Melinda) Gates Foundation pays the school district on condition that it divert its available funds away from other expenditures that were the district's priorities; instead the funds go to a questionable pet project the foundation is promoting. Or very similarly, consider the funds that get advanced to pay for schools to be converted into private charters?<br />
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Under those circumstances, do we want our public schools furnished as gifts from the private sector? Isn't it preferable to have public services provided by our own elected governments whom we can ultimately hold to account? (If we don't want our schools taken over by the private sector, what about <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/11/michael-kimmelmans-unfortunate.html"><i>our <u>libraries</u></i>?</a>) But what is, in fact, happening in this day and age is that we are more and more, in all sorts of ways, turning our governance over to private corporations like Amazon.<br />
<br />
David Callahan whose new book is <i>“The Givers: Wealth, Power and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age,”</i> <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/09/theres-much-you-should-note-trust-when.html">writes</a> how, as government is starved and retreats while the influence of the superwealthy increases, the new <i>`philanthropies’</i> have become <i>“a much stronger power center,”</i> that <i>“in some areas, is set to surpass government in its ability to shape society’s agenda.”</i> Callahan has also previously pointed out that this <i>“growing say over central areas of civic life like education and public parks . . is often wielded against a backdrop of secrecy.” </i>As that shift in influence occurs, it is often with the superwealthy like Bezos, the world’s richest man, contributing to that <i>starvation</i> of government as, for example, he sidesteps payment of sales tax.<br />
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<b>Not Playing Fair Amazon Takes More, Never Less </b><br />
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Let’s be clear, despite some similarities in the eyewash aspects of it, Amazon’s dealings with respect to coming to Long Island City were not an example of such <i>`philanthropic’</i> equations: What transpired, with respect to Queens was supposedly in <i>`negotiations,’</i> supposedly adversarial. However, with it being mostly all in secret, it was apparently mostly about the government’s surrendering of governance decisions and the norms of government supremacy to give Amazon things it was demanding, things there is little reason to believe Amazon deserved or should have been given.<br />
<br />
It can be readily argued that Amazon has never been about playing fair, that its extraordinary growth (while paying shareholders little) has been about benefitting from a tilted playing field, not paying sales taxes, taking advantage of its monopoly status to squelch competition. It's resulted in a huge amount of value others have created in the economy being reshuffled to wind up in the Amazon/Jeff Bezos coffers.<br />
<br />
It is not in Amazon’s nature to <i>“take less.”</i> When Seattle passed a small tax on businesses making more than $20 million in gross revenue in order to address its homeless crisis (greatly acerbated by skyrocketing rents), Jeff Bezos and his Amazon, Seattle’s biggest employer and the second biggest company in the United States, used their political heft to crush the tax, getting it repealed. That was the absurdity even though Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest man has been <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/14/as_jeff_bezos_earns_191k_per">calculated</a> to be making <i>“roughly $191,000 per minute”</i> while the median Amazon employee’s salary is just <i>$28,000</i> and many of Amazon’s workers, impoverished by the low wages the monopoly pays, collect food stamps.<br />
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<b>Amazon's "Headquarters" Bidding War Fake Out</b><br />
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The huge subsidies that Amazon is to get coming to New York are because Amazon used its monopoly hugeness to announce that it was holding <i>“an auction”</i> amongst American cities to locate its <i>“second”</i> (“HQ2") headquarters. That proved to be a giant fake-out: Amazon is <u><i>not</i></u> delivering its end of what it advertised; its so-called <i>“second headquarters”</i> will just be some, maybe not all, of its current growth and expansion at <i>two</i> locations, New York City and Crystal City, Virginia just outside of Washington, D. C. and only a <i>“stone’s throw away from the Pentagon.”</i> (So recycling these hyped up baloney terms is NYC getting <i>"H2Q/2"</i> or maybe <i>"H2Q3"</i>?) <br />
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In other words, unconstrained by anything that was <i>"bargained for,"</i> Amazon is simply following through on what it likely wanted to do anyway, have a major presence, and therefore influence, in the nation’s <i>political capital</i> and in its <i>financial capital</i>, the nation’s two major power centers. Ask yourself why you think Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post; it's for the very same reason. This division putting some of the Amazon offices in a separate location near the Pentagon will probably also help Amazon manage the flow of those of its workers needing <i>security clearances</i> to do the military work Amazon does for the Pentagon and CIA.<br />
<br />
The deception of the <i>“auction”</i> was exquisitely characterized by New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim (also one of the announced candidates running for Public Advocate) who wrote an pre-announcement opinion piece opposing Amazon’s Long Island City arrival with law professor and sometimes political candidate Zephyr Teachout. Ms. Teachout, an expert and activist with respect to corruption, has been an alert critic of the way that monopolies are taking over our economy together with the opposing American tradition that says they shouldn’t, because monopolies make slaves of us. In 2015 she gave an address at Cooper Union: <a href="https://cooper.edu/events-and-exhibitions/events/zephyr-teachout-monopoly-moment-new-anti-trust-paradox">“The Monopoly Moment: The New Anti-Trust Paradox.”</a> Assemblyman Kim and Ms. Teachout wrote (in part):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i> . . this whole tournament has been a sham. There is no HQ2. Instead, Amazon is expected to announce a fairly routine expansion, adding new satellites in Queens and in Northern Virginia. The countless hours spent courting Amazon were undoubtedly valuable for Amazon: the company gained free media coverage and untold amounts of economic data from each bidding city. But it has been a terrible waste for those cities and states whose public servants labored to win a prize that would never materialize. Even for the biggest Amazon boosters, such casual dishonesty should be cause for consternation. It’s like getting a marriage offer along with a confession of infidelity.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i> * * * </i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i>If Amazon indeed locates a substantial part of its business in New York, serfdom is the style of “partnership” the city should expect. Despite the familiar promises, Amazon is not a good partner. Not for the cities it occupies, not for the merchants who depend on it, not for the workers it employs. The company does not seek partnership; it seeks control. </i></blockquote>
See: Opinion- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/opinion/amazon-new-york-business.html">New York Should Say No to Amazon- A city that thrives on the energy of its neighborhood merchants should not offer incentives and giveaways to an internet giant known for squashing small businesses</a>, November 9, 2018.<br />
<br />
<b>Government's Surrender of Its Real Estate Tax Power</b> <br />
<br />
One of the fundamental government powers that will be surrendered in the Amazon deal is that Amazon will <u><i>not</i></u> <i>pay real estate taxes</i>. Instead, the Amazon section of the city, carved out from the rest of the city will make payments in lieu of taxes pursuant to a <i>“PILOT” agreement</i>. All the reasons this will be attractive to Amazon are reasons it will not be good for the public, that includes things like suspicions about the amounts paid, inability to challenge and rethink them going forward, and, like the increasing patchwork of other areas affected by such PILOTs (Brooklyn Bridge Park, parts of Atlantic yards/”Pacific Park”), being cut off from the vicissitudes of the city and communal obligations of all New Yorkers to address them.<br />
<br />
<b>Government's Surrender of Land Use and Zoning Powers</b> <br />
<br />
Another of the fundamentals of local governance surrendered to Amazon will be <i>zoning</i> and <i>land use controls</i>. Density and how the land will be used will not be subject to the normal way such controls are supposed to be thought through and established with the normal City Council and community reviews. Just one way this is showing up is that Jeff Bezos has been promised his Amazon site will come equipped with a helicopter landing pad. Helicopter landing sites are a serious land use issue. Helicopters are dangerous, which is why, after a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/05/17/archives/5-killed-as-copter-on-pan-am-building-throws-rotor-blade-one-victim.html">1977 accident</a>, the helicopter pad atop the MetLife building, formerly the PanAm Building is no longer active. Helicopters are also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/a-plague-of-helicopters-is-ruining-new-york.html">extremely noisy</a>, not to mention, as anyone who has been around a landing site knows, their fuel has a pronounced unhealthy stink to it.<br />
<br />
<b>One Way Government Power Is Lost: Regulatory Capture</b> <br />
<br />
The surrendering of these governmental powers results from the involvement of the state’s Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC or ESD), a quasi-governmental, unaccountable public benefit corporation that is notorious for its being subject to <i>“regulatory capture,”</i> which is to say that rather than being careful to ensure that public benefits are achieved, the agency answers to its private developer clients (in the case it will be Amazon and its agent developers) to give them what they want.<br />
<br />
<b>Privatizing Government's Power of Eminent Domain (To Push out Competing Economic Life)</b><br />
<br />
Another power that ESDC has is the power of <i>eminent domain</i>, the power to condemn and take property from other private landowners for <i>“public use.”</i> In recent years, as with Atlantic Yards, that <i>“public use”</i> has meant giving land or property over to another more favored private developer. In the case of Atlantic Yards it was used to acquire land to build a <i>private</i> arena (infamously named "Barclays"). That use of eminent domain may not have been actually necessary given that Forest City already owned other adjacent property. Eminent domain was also used to a very large extent push out the competition of other developers building in the Atlantic Yards vicinity. . . Oh, wait– <u><i>pushing out the competition</i></u>?– Exercising of that superpower of government sounds like a perfect match for our Amazonian outfit. <br />
<br />
. . . Before government steps in to pick the winner, people should stop and think. Such shoving aside of other economic life for the promises that a property owner/developer with the political heft theoretical offers when asking that these powers exercised on its behalf often doesn’t go very well at all. When the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Kelo v. City of New London case validated such shenanigans in New London, Connecticut, a huge swath of land was cleared to be turned over to Pfizer. The land, all other properties removed from it, wound up as an <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/12/eminent-domain-abuse-gifts-that-keep-on.html">abandoned, empty grassy field</a>.<br />
<br />
Forest City Ratner, taking over with eminent domain the 22 acres that is formally considered Atlantic Yards project (distractingly renamed "Pacific Park" out of embarrassment and to side-step bad press), has probably slowed the development in the area where it supplanted its competitors. Forest City Ratner (its heirs and assigns including the Chinese government) has kept few of the promises Forest City Ratner made in connection with everything it was given by government officials on a preferential, essentially no-bid basis. That mega-project, once projected to be complete in 2013, is years, perhaps decades away from completion. At one point the revised estimate of the then head of ESDC was that it could take <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/04/permission-to-speak-frankly-how-we-know.html">perhaps 40 years</a> in all to complete. Meanwhile the developer has destroyed affordable housing it will never replace.<br />
<br />
Because ESDC’s powers are so phenomenal, its procedures require that it only come in to exercise its powers in an area if there is a letter from the locality (in the case New York City) inviting it in to supersede local laws. In this case that letter is probably being delivered <i>by Mayor de Blasio</i>. However, perhaps to give de Blasio cover, there was another letter signed by a slew of local electeds, city council members, saying that they wanted Amazon to come to New York. These city council members are now, en mass, <a href="http://amp.gothamist.com/amp/articles/create?article_id=5bedbd14ec23ea000192f37f&__twitter_impression=true">disavowing</a> what they previously signed. Time will tell whether their display of this announced change of heart will evolve into effective action.<br />
<br />
<b>Supplanting Other Economic Life With Subsidies And Preferences (Falling Short of Eminent Domain)</b> <br />
<br />
Whether or not ESDC actually exercises its condemnation powers in any respect, the preferences and subsidies that are to be given Amazon will have an exiling effect pushing out others. Maybe the Amazon plan will ultimately provide <i>“600-seat public school, affordable space for manufacturers, arts groups and early-stage tech companies,”</i> but at a Department of Education building at 44-36 Vernon Boulevard, approximately 1,000 staff will be <a href="https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/1000-public-school-staffers-moving-make-room-amazon?utm_source=daily-alert-thursday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20181115&utm_content=article2-headline">kicked out</a> of the area. The cost for them to pull up stakes and rebuild is probably <u><i>not</i></u> being calculated. Further, with the redirection of two sites intended for residential development to Amazon, those sites <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2018/11/15/amazon-deal-will-disrupt-plans-for-affordable-housing-on-long-island-city-sites-700784">will not produce</a> the approximately 1,500 units of affordable housing that was in the works. So that lost housing must be considered as another cost.<br />
<br />
All of the preferences and subsidies for Amazon will serve to push out, displace and deprive of opportunity other economic activity that would be looking to have a place in Long Island City’s relatively <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2018/11/13/amazon-aside-long-island-city-real-estate-pricey.html">hot and active</a> real estate market. There is a flip side too: Those pushed-out competitor businesses will also be unhappily affected by diminished city services with Amazon-occupied properties subtracted from the tax base.<br />
<br />
<b>Our Government's Bet on Amazon Could Align New York With Amazon's Policies</b><br />
<br />
When the government is incurring so many costs on behalf of Amazon, when it is putting so many eggs in the Amazon basket, it can affect long term alignments. . . . When I was at the state finance agencies we bonded out the state’s settlement income that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/opinion/how-the-big-tobacco-deal-went-bad.html">resulted from</a> successfully suing the tobacco companies, when New York State joined as plaintiff with other states around the union represented by their attorneys general. What this meant was that the annual amounts that the tobacco companies had agreed to pay New York State as damages for dissemination of false and misleading information about cigarettes plus the consequent harm to the health of citizens and increased medical costs to the state were collected up front by the state through our issuance of billions of dollars in bonds, which were to be paid off over time from the payments the tobacco companies were obligated to make under the settlement.<br />
<br />
Given the bonds were supporting the tobacco companies’ payments, I remember being personally worried that the state, wanting its bonds not to default, might acquire a vested interest in the continued financial health of the creditor tobacco companies through the issuance of the bonds. I worried that the state might therefore want company cigarette sales to do well so the companies would always be able to make the payments unhampered by declining consumption. But, for the very reason that the states had sued the tobacco companies, the state still needed to pursue health, safety and welfare goals; it still needed to continue to exercise its police powers to cut down on smoking and run tobacco consumption prevention programs. In the case of our New York State bonds, that likely conflict of interest was forestalled through the purchase of bond insurance: If defaulting tobacco companies didn’t make their payments the bond insurer would have been left holding the bag after paying off the bond holders; it would be the state's problem.<br />
<br />
Quite surely, one reason Amazon is moving here to the financial capital is to more closely align itself with the powers here. But New York, as a policy matter, has to think about whether it will want to endorse Amazon’s monopoly practices. It will also need to sort through its position on Amazon’s <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/11/interesting-to-think-that-it-all-began.html">involvement and roots in</a> the military, Amazon’s relationship with the CIA and the general ongoing implications respecting surveillance as the tech sector of the economy evolves. It is worth remembering that once upon a time New York, a financial capital in the 1800s, was a northern city, but because of New York banks investing the cotton trade and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mvkgay/city-of-seditiion-new-york-citys-surprising-role-in-funding-slavery-and-the-civil-war">plantations</a> long after the legality of the slave trade itself was ended in the United States in 1807, New Yorkers were complicit in the perpetuation of <a href="http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/in_the_news.htm">slavery</a>. <br />
<br />
It’s easier to allege what you are that you are acting in a morally neutral way, that what you are doing is <i>“just business,”</i> if you don’t have sunk costs invested someone else's enterprise. If your investment means that you have essentially become their partner, you will be quite reluctant to see their business succumb.<br />
<br />
<b>Does Alliance Between Government and Monopoly Produce Fascism?</b><br />
<br />
Law professor Tim Wu, who ran for the Lieutenant Governor slot on the ticket with Zephyr Teachout when she was running for governor of New York State has his own anti-monopoly ideas.<br />
<br />
He warns of a link between monopoly control and the rise of fascism and totalitarianism. <br />
<br />
Mr. Wu who has already written <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/12/privatized-national-parks-as-realms-for.html">two excellent books</a>, one <i>“The Master Switch”</i> helped earn him the title as <i>“father of the concept of net neutrality.”</i> He has a new book out: <i>“The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age.”</i> He recently adapted his book into an op-ed for the New York Times Sunday Review section: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/opinion/sunday/fascism-economy-monopoly.html">Be Afraid of Economic ‘Bigness.’ Be Very Afraid.-</a><br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/opinion/sunday/fascism-economy-monopoly.html">In the 1930s it contributed to the rise of fascism. Alarmingly, we are experimenting again with a monopolized economy</a>. November 10, 2018.<br />
<br />
Explaining how control by monopolies contributed to the rise of fascism in the 1930s, particularly in Nazi Germany, Wu explains that <i>“extreme economic concentration”</i> creates economic conditions ripe for dictatorships when <i>“democratic accountability”</i> is avoided as loyal alliances are formed between those in power and large enterprises that then feel themselves to be above the law. He points out how there is <i>“there is a direct link between”</i> such concentration <i>“and the distortion of democratic process”</i> given the escalating imbalance of power as huge corporations pursue their political goals.<br />
<br />
In order to flat out reject it, Mr. Wu alludes to a line of thought, championed Robert Bork (of Saturday Night Massacre and rejected-supreme-court-nominee fame) and the <i>“Chicago school”</i> of law and economics. Bork and the Chicago school argued to change antitrust law by saying that antitrust law should not concern itself with the political implications of concentrated economic power. Wu concludes, rejecting that notion as false, saying:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We have forgotten that antitrust law had more than an economic goal, that it was meant fundamentally as a kind of constitutional safeguard, a check against the political dangers of unaccountable private power.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>As the lawyer and consumer advocate Robert Pitofsky warned in 1979, we must not forget the economic origins of totalitarianism, that “massively concentrated economic power, or state intervention induced by that level of concentration, is incompatible with liberal, constitutional democracy.”</i></blockquote>
It is probably worthwhile to remember that one of the sometimes used
definitions of "fascism" is an alignment that merges government and
corporate power. <br />
<br />
<b>Will Alignment With Government Allow Amazon To Write The Rules of The Market Place?</b> <br />
<br />
Earlier this year Stacy Mitchell, wrote a cover story for The Nation titled <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/amazon-doesnt-just-want-to-dominate-the-market-it-wants-to-become-the-market/">“Amazon Doesn’t Just Want to Dominate the Market—It Wants to Become the Market.– The company is a radically new kind of monopoly with ambitions that dwarf those of earlier empires.”</a> February 15, 2018.<br />
<br />
Speaking about Amazon on Democracy Now after the HQ2 deals were announced, Ms. Mitchell said that Amazon, increasingly the gatekeeper, was essentially <i>“privatizing”</i> what should be an open market where the rules that govern the buying and selling of goods are set by the public and open to view. Instead, Amazon is making commerce its own private arena where Amazon, in control, <i>“sets the terms of trade”</i> and <i>“basically creates the rules and regulations by which other companies and other participants are allowed to operate”</i> rigging things to increasingly pick <i>“the winners and losers,”</i> and it using that <i>“power to push others out of the marketplace and to gain more power for itself.”</i><br />
<br />
She painted the picture <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/14/as_jeff_bezos_earns_191k_per">saying</a>, in part: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Amazon is so dominant in so many areas. It’s now capturing one out of every two dollars that Americans spend online. . . it controls the underlying infrastructure for a lot of the internet—you know, over 40 percent of the world’s cloud computing capacity. It’s increasingly moving into shipping and package delivery. It’s taking on UPS and the Postal Service. It has the largest market share in home voice systems, through Alexa. And on and on it goes.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>But I think, rather than think about Amazon as being dominant in any of these markets, the way to understand what this company is all about is that Amazon is about controlling the essential infrastructure that other companies need to use in order to reach the market. Its online platform, more than half of all product searches online now start at Amazon’s website. And what that means is that if you’re any company producing or retailing anything, increasingly, if you want to be able to reach consumers, you have to become a seller on Amazon’s platform. And what that means is that Amazon now controls your business. They have the ability to gather data on what you’re doing, to use that data to compete against you. They can levy a kind of tax on your trade. They can demote you in the search results. They can retaliate against you if you complain.</i></blockquote>
Remembering how Amazon is a giant information vacuum, sucking up tons of detailed information about its consumers and about the retailers selling to them through Amazon, allows you to understand the worries some have about how Amazon, with its <i>"auction"</i> ploy, managed to induce almost all the major cities in the country, all the economic centers, to collect, organize and supply to it vast amounts of confidential data about local economic activity. Then think about Amazon's disposition to use information that only it is privy to tilt the playing field in its direction. Now realize what an advantage the information Amazon now has in deploying its resources in terms of real estate investment and economic planning. <br />
<br />
<b>Amazon's Potential To Control Public Discourse</b> <br />
<br />
In her Nation cover story Mitchell noted that as it <i>“inevitably transfers wealth to the few”</i> the Amazon setup is also turning over to that lucky elite even the ability to regulate public discourse, plus much more, endowing them with: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>the power over such crucial questions as which books and ideas get published and promoted, who may ply a trade and on what terms, and whether given communities will succeed or fail.</i></blockquote>
Her article points out that Amazon having aggressively sold books and other items below cost shutting down bookstores <i>“in droves,”</i> today <i>“nearly half of all books, both print and digital, are sold by Amazon.”</i> Mitchell does not take next step of noting that, for a <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/11/interesting-to-think-that-it-all-began.html">company with</a> such significant CIA and military connections, that’s so dedicated to, and expert at, data collection and consumer profiling, the implications are enormous.<br />
<br />
There is a lot to be thought about in this regard, <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/11/interesting-to-think-that-it-all-began.html">including</a> how Amazon chose to start its business with books, drove the industry and public toward digital books, and now also has extraordinary control other content, particularly the digitally supplied video and film, that is such an important part of the overall milieu for thought and discourse.<br />
<br />
<b>Robotic and Remote, Amazon Is Likely Civically Unhealthy and May Quash Innovation</b><br />
<br />
On Democracy now Mitchell also said <i>“our calculations suggest that we’re losing about two retail jobs for every one job created in an Amazon warehouse.”</i> The hemorrhaging of these jobs may be accompanied by a quashing of future innovation throughout the United States. In her Nation article, Mitchell cites studies starting with work based on observations of paired cities by C. Wright Mills and economist Melville J. Ulmer that cities with locally owned businesses and local economic power are more <i>economically robust</i> and <i>civically healthy</i>, with a <i>greater variety of jobs</i> and <i>residents more involved in community affairs</i>, more investment in public infrastructure and better at problem solving.<br />
<br />
But, probably more important. . . Amazon’s total control and top-down robotic streamlining of everything it does, might be thought of as benefitting the public with a cost-saving efficiency that justifies all its aggressive usurpations, but near the end of her Nation article Mitchell reminds us that history tell us that <i>“a surge of innovation and start-up activity”</i> followed in the wake of the Federal antitrust actions against, AT&T, IBM, and Microsoft. That's exactly the same point that Tim Wu made exploring this subject in <i>“The Master Switch,”</i> which also included his exploration of the creativity unleashed in the film industry when its vertical integration, and the related censorship affecting it, was broken up. Thereafter we saw the flourishing of <i>“the new Hollywood era”</i> (late 1960s to early 1980s) with more idiosyncratic, experimental films made with greater license that were more cerebral, edgier, more defiant, moodier, and more erotically explicit.<br />
<br />
Jane Jacobs thought along similar lines when she explored where economic vitality and innovation flows from. In her first, groundbreaking book, <i>“The Death and Life of Great American Cities”</i> (1961), Jane Jacobs celebrated the dynamism, vitality and benefits of diversity in American cities. She was rejecting the cookie cutter, centrally-produced, sterile monotony, albeit efficiency, of programs like Robert Moses’ exercises in <i>“Urban Renewal.”</i> Jacobs, in her later books extended these concepts exploring granular examples of what brings vitality, dynamism, innovation and sustainability to national and <i>city economies</i>.<br />
<br />
It’s too far afield to go deeply into all of Jacobs' ideas on the subject, but suffice it to say that, in Jacobs’ view, its not the efficiency of centralized planning that generates economic life and vitality; it’s quite the opposite— It’s the very messiness of a lack of centralized planning, and it’s a <i>diverse environment</i> where innovations are generated bottom-up, the result of serendipitous collisions of variety. To add one more consideration: No doubt the multiplication of conscious observing human minds is certainly another essential part of the equation. . . That’s whatever stock you place in the future of A.I. ("Artificial Intelligence").<br />
<br />
To Jacobs the economic monoculture of a car manufacturing city like Detroit, albeit however efficient as a <i>passing phase</i>, was a recipe for <i><u>future</u> economic stagnation</i>.<br />
<br />
The sometimes presumed efficiency of consolidation with top down and centralized control has its defenders. It was one of the rationales resorted to by the gilded age robber barons of the nineteenth century to defend their aggregating empires. Such a style of management known as <i>“Weber-Taylor bureaucracy”</i> or <i>“Taylorism”</i> was favored during the era of the Junker Aristocracy and in the Weimar Republic in Germany in the time that led into Hitler's era and was, as Ed D’Angelo (<a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/08/libraries-as-threat-to-perspective-that.html">writing about libraries</a>) noted, emulated by Vladimir Lenin who imported it to the Soviet Union. It also, at that time, influenced the style of management in the United States, <i>“Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller admired* the German model”</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(* Some of the admiration flowed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm"><i>mutually</i></a>:
Hitler had a life-size, full-length portrait of Henry Ford on his
office wall in Munich; the Germans awarded Ford and he accepted the
Grand Cross of the German Eagle, in 1938, that nation's highest
decoration for foreigners; and Ford subsidiaries busily manufactured
armaments that the Nazis used against the U.S., trucks and planes.) </blockquote>
Does, such a consolidating, concentrated top down management approach help an economy and civilization advance long term? Did it help the Soviets catch up and advance into the modern era? The Amazon created science fiction series <span class="st"><i>"The Man in the High Castle</i></span>," which speculatively posits a future that never happened, envisions that if Germany had won World War II to take over much of the United States, German efficiency would have led in short order to a range of technological advances . . .Humm: Maybe-- Or is Jane Jacobs right: Does such the kind of monoculture and lack of variety such as we are getting with Amazon's relentless march of takeovers lead, in the longer term, to stagnation? <br />
<br />
<b>Consumerism As The Trap</b><br />
<br />
Why do we let Amazon get away with such bad behavior, especially if it is, in so many ways, so bad for our economic, civic and political health? In an <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/12/sermonizing-in-brooklyn-heights-about.html">eloquent sermon</a> at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn, Reverend Ana Levy-Lyons, responding to the news of Amazon's arrival and dealing with a number of these issues, suggests that we are trapped by consumerism and the pay-off of what seem to be cheap purchases.<br />
<br />
Reverend Levy-Lyons suggested that the way the Amazon world redefines us and appeals to us as just mere consumers
flattens our dimensionality as human beings, so that we thus lack the <i>“larger, fuller expressions of our selfhood,”</i> winding up reduced to the part of us that just <i>“takes from the world.”</i> Her verdict was that it results in a sort of <i>de-spiritualization</i> and that, for example, as <i>“consumers we want to buy books and music as cheaply as possible,”</i> but as full-fledged <i>“spiritual
beings having a human experience on this earth . . what we may really
want is for writers and musicians to be able to make a living.”</i><br />
<br />
The way out is not simple. Economist John Maynard Keynes described a conundrum, the paradox of thrift, a sort of <i>"prisoner's dilemma"</i> proposition, that if everyone responded to a slow and uncertain economy by acting in their <i>individual</i> self interest to increase their rate of savings to be safe, then everybody would be hurt more as the economy was slowed down even further and made more uncertain as a result. The Keynesian solution was governmental pump-priming, a sort of resort to collective action. . .<br />
<br />
. . . When the question is what to do about Amazon, we may not realize it, but the solution is somewhat similar. We might not quickly realize the similarity because, instead of thinking about prompting more spending overall, we are thinking about how to refrain from spending that goes to the big giant. But the answer is again to view the situation in terms of what is best for everyone collectively, and, as Reverend Levy-Lyons suggests in her sermon, to act collectively to deal with it. This may involve uniting into groups as Reverend Levy-Lyons gives the example of a collective of antiquarian book sellers that acted together in concert to
protect one of their group when Amazon was victimizing them. . .<br />
<br />
More likely, what is going to be more effective in terms of organizing collective action is for government to do its job in confronting Amazon as the monopoly it is and reining it in, in the ways it needs to be restrained. That is why it is so unfortunate to see government instead aligning with Amazon and turning the powers of government over to Amazon.<br />
<br />
<b>Stalked Like Gazelles</b><br />
<br />
Without collective action, separated from the rest of our herd, Amazon hunts us down like gazelles: Reverend Lev-Lyons <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/12/sermonizing-in-brooklyn-heights-about.html">began</a> her sermon with a vivid description of how Amazon making <i>“no effort to hide their tactics”</i> during <i>`negotiations'</i> with companies about prices would <a href="https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/a-new-book-portrays-amazon-as-bully/">stalk them</a> <i>“the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle”</i>: In fact, she pointed out that <i>“<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-strategies-jeff-bezos-used-to-build-the-amazon-empire-2014-3">the Gazelle Project</a>”</i> is <i>“what Amazon called a new initiative to work out contracts with small publishers,”</i> and that involved simply making those companies it was <i>`negotiating</i>' with disappear from its internet universe when it wanted to show them they had no negotiating power. Disappearing from that universe now means companies can't survive.<br />
<br />
It may be testament to Amazon’s ubiquity that there is more than one <i>“gazelle”</i> story to tell about Amazon. In her cover story for The Nation, Stacy Mitchell <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/amazon-doesnt-just-want-to-dominate-the-market-it-wants-to-become-the-market">told a story</a> about the trauma that a sporting goods company, coincidentally (?) named Gazelle Sports, making running shoes, had in dealing with Amazon. Once popular and highly rated, the company suffered a downturn as more of its shoppers ever more reflexively did more and more of their overall shopping at Amazon. Ultimately:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Gazelle Sports would join Amazon Marketplace, becoming a third-party seller on the digital giant’s platform. “If the customer is on Amazon, as a small business you have to say, ‘That is where I have to go,’”</i> [The founder of the company] <i>explains. “Otherwise, we are going to close our doors.”</i></blockquote>
<b>Amazon Prime - Amazon Videos</b><br />
<br />
We previously mentioned in passing, <span class="st"><i>"The Man in the High Castle</i></span>." That's just one example of a made for internet streaming that is available to be watched free by Amazon Prime members. Another that you'll hear a lot about is <i>"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,"</i> that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/04/entertainment/marvelous-mrs-maisel-season-2-review/index.html">swept up</a> a lot of Emmy Awards while also getting a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/01/golden-globes-2018-marvelous-mrs-maisel">couple of</a> Golden Globes awards. You can watch these series for free if you are an Amazon Prime member, which means that you have already pre-paid for Amazon accelerated shipping as an inducement to do all your shopping there. <br />
<br />
One thing that has so far gone unmentioned is that the Amazon Long Island City waterfront site would be just blocks, only a few minutes away, from Silvercup Studios, that's one of the city's very important film studios where, for example, HBO once filmed <i>"The Sopranos."</i> Specifically, Amazon's offices would be just a fifteen minute walk to the existing studio facilities and perhaps just half that to the <a href="https://licpost.com/silvercup-west-contamination-cleanup-completed-paves-way-long-stalled-development-waterfront">planned</a> <a href="https://qns.com/story/2014/10/03/community-board-approves-silvercup-studios-expansion-permits/">Silvercup Studios West expansion</a> planned for the waterfront just below the 59th Street Queensborough Bridge. With Amazon almost singlehandedly <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/11/interesting-to-think-that-it-all-began.html">replacing</a> all the video stores of the days of yore, being the only source for many films once obtainable there, and now expensively investing in its own video shows, films and content, this should not go unnoticed.<br />
<br />
Amazon will have a headquarters in the political capital of the United States and here in the financial capital as well: Maybe Amazon will never need to open another headquarters (HQ4?) in Hollywood, as the entertainment capital of the country.<br />
<br />
<b>We Don't Really Know What's Coming</b><br />
<br />
Norman Order, the city’s foremost expert on the Atlantic Yard mega-project and its dealings with ESDC and local elected officials, wrote an analysis based on that history cautioning how little we can be sure of what to expect based on what we know or is promised now: <i>“Atlantic Yards within a few years changed significantly.”</i> See: <a href="https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2018/11/15/for-amazon-hq2-deal-atlantic-yards-serves-as-a-warning/">For Amazon HQ2 deal, Atlantic Yards serves as a warning</a>, November 15, 2018 By Norman Oder.<br />
<br />
Oder stresses the vagueness of the elusive subsidy calculations and the supposed benefit they generate, plus the lack of transparency that can be expected going forward, the probable lack of enforceablity along with a disinclination to enforce agreements: <i>“If Atlantic Yards is a guide, ESD will be quite accommodating to Amazon, willing to revise agreements and evade transparency.”</i><br />
<br />
What might be coming? Be open to thinking big-- Previous to the announcement of Amazon’s interest, what is slated to become the Amazon site, land along the 1000 foot long artificially created shoreline inlet known as Anabel basin, was being covered more innocuously as another planned rezoning and real estate development. . That might involve the tallest building outside of Manhattan, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/nyregion/tower-development-long-island-city-queens.html">700 foot tower</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Calculations of How Hugh The Subsidies?: An Afterthought</b><br />
<br />
Given all of the above, the question of Amazon huge subsidies and just how much they are should be an absurd afterthought. The New York Times editorialized that Amazon shouldn’t be getting the subsidies calculating those subsidies at <i>$1.5 billion</i>. See: Opinion-<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/opinion/new-yorks-amazon-deal.html">New York’s Amazon Deal Is a Bad Bargain- The city has what the company wants, talent. Why pay them $1.5 billion to come?</a> By The Editorial Board, November 14, 2018. Another Times article says <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/nyregion/amazon-long-island-city.html"><i>$1.7 billion</i></a>.<br />
<br />
Good Jobs First, the watchdog group on economic development incentives, <a href="https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/amazon">calculates</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The taxpayer costs of these two deals is high, both in absolute terms and on a per-job basis, contrary to Amazon’s artful spin. Together, we believe they exceed $4.6 billion and the cost per job in New York is at least $112,000, not the $48,000 the company used in a selective and incomplete press release calculation. (11/14/18)</i></blockquote>
Good Jobs First <a href="https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdfs/Statement%20day%20after%20HQ2%20finalized%2011-14-18%20V5.pdf">calculates</a> the subsidies of both the New York and Virginia deals as exceeding <i>$4.6 billion</i> and says that separately, just New York State’s award under the Excelsior program is projected at <i>$1.525 to $1.7 billion</i>. Greg Leroy executive director of Good Jobs First discussed the subsidies along with others on Democracy Now on <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/14/as_jeff_bezos_earns_191k_per">November 14. 2018</a> and at <a href="https://www.wbai.org/archive.php">7:30 AM</a> was also on the air on WBAI’s Morning Show that same morning.<br />
<br />
Peter Rugh <a href="https://indypendent.org/2018/11/new-yorkers-denounce-cuomo-de-blasio-amazon-giveaway/">writing in</a> the Indypenent, like many others puts the total subsidies in the <i>$3 billion range</i>, <i>$1.7 billion</i> in subsidies from the state and another <i>$1.3 billion</i> from the city. He observes that the <i>“state legislature could put a cap on the governor’s Excelsior tax credit program but many in Albany are ready to roll out the Amazon welcome mat.”</i><br />
<br />
On top of this there will probably be other subsidies piled, like perhaps Federal EB 5 program for financing. One day perhaps we'll see. <br />
<br />
Mr. Oder notes at the end of his article, that when Governor Andrew Cuomo was asked; <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>why the New York incentive package was worth twice as much per employee compared with the one in Virginia, where taxes are lower, Cuomo said he didn’t know how it was calculated. “There’s all sorts of ways to work these numbers,” he said.<br /><br />That’s for sure. Ultimately, neither he nor de Blasio will be around to do that math, while future governors will have ESD at his or her disposal.</i> </blockquote>
* * *<br />
<br />
When, in my tender youth, I heard about the horrors of the trap of <i>"the company store,"</i> its seemed almost like an impossible fiction from the past. Now-a-days, it is remarkable what we seem to take pretty much in stride coming from Amazon . . . even as, like things once were in those days or yore, Amazon is so all enveloping that it is <i>everything</i>. Like in those days, it even seems to have become the government. Meanwhile, "<i>The Company Store</i>"? We seem to know that now as a clever marketing name that was adopted for a retail outlet . . . .<br />
<br />
. . . Not surprisingly, they too <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Company-Store-Duvet-Arcadia-Original/dp/B00PMDO35I/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1545677987&sr=8-7&keywords=The+Company+Store">sell through Amazon</a>. Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-4513336242937766552018-12-14T14:26:00.000-05:002018-12-24T22:21:00.556-05:00Where Manhattan’s Beloved Central Destination Donnell Library Once Stood: $500 Cocktails, $1,500 Ice Cream Sundaes, And Dining While Sitting On Coyote Pelts<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--f81L0wNqLw/XBQCK82SC0I/AAAAAAAAKFY/LE5lzEbfOukSqxKsZCNsUXKG1ygfcahZwCLcBGAs/s1600/Donnell%2Bvs%2BSundae.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="1098" height="231" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--f81L0wNqLw/XBQCK82SC0I/AAAAAAAAKFY/LE5lzEbfOukSqxKsZCNsUXKG1ygfcahZwCLcBGAs/s400/Donnell%2Bvs%2BSundae.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The hard choices facing society: You could have your $1,500 ice cream sundae (left) or you five-story Donnell Library (right)</td></tr>
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It’s a <i>not so pretty please</i> with a cherry on top . . .<br />
<br />
. . . A $1,500 ice cream sundae– And it’s plain vanilla! OK, so it’s <u><i>not</i></u> supposed to be just <i>“plain”</i> vanilla; it’s supposed to be <u><i>Madagascar</i></u> vanilla.<br />
<br />
Where do you get this expensive sundae? At the Baccarat Hotel, which sits where the beloved central destination Donnell Library once stood in Manhattan, across from the Museum of Modern Art. <br />
<br />
In November 2015, I wrote here in Noticing New York about the skewed priorities of selling that very substantial and important library for a pittance in a shrink-and-sink deal to replace it with a luxury hotel, luxury restaurants and luxury condominiums– See: <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/11/priorities-to-be-replicated-private.html">Priorities To Be Replicated?: Private Luxury Now Abounding Where Former Donnell Library Stood, A "Replacement" Library Is Nowhere In Sight</a>. (The article was written on the 8th anniversary of the library’s sale.)<br />
<br />
And the priorities at the time were very evidently those things that catered to the wealthy: The luxury hotel, the luxury condominium building, the luxury restaurant replacing the Donnell Library all opened more than year before the “replacement” library opened, that was a replacement the NYPL was too embarrassed to call Donnell as promised. That replacement library opened almost nine years after the library’s sale.<br />
<br />
If you want to see images, of the old Donnell vs. the “replacement” see Citizens Defending Libraries (I am a co-founder): <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/06/images-and-links-53rd-street.html">Images and Links- The 53rd Street "replacement " for the Donnell Library to be opened Monday and What We Lost</a>.<br />
<br />
The luxury hotel in the building replacing the library is the <i>Baccarat Hotel</i>. In the November Noticing New York article about these topsy-turvy priorities we wrote about the expensive dining to be had the hotel’s Grand Salon whilst sitting on <i>“coyote”</i> pelt upholstered chairs. The inadequate replacement for Donnell opened in <i><u>June</u> of 2016</i>. . .<br />
<br />
. . . That June is <a href="http://www.grubstreet.com/2016/06/summer-eating-checklist.html">just when</a> New York Magazine was advising readers they could blow their rent checks <i>“on a single cocktail”</i> by ordering a <i>the new $500 Le Roi cocktail at the Baccarat hotel</i>. See also the <i><a href="https://robbreport.com/travel/hotels/baccarat-hote-new-york-city-unveils-expensive-cocktails-gold-leafed-2726336-eg17-2726336/">$450 Sidecar Royal</a></i> served in the Hotel’s Les Boissons bar (<i>“The opulent New York City property is sticking to its roots with this new ultra-luxe libation”</i>– what, it’s <u><i>roots</i></u> as a <u><i>library</i></u>?). <br />
<br />
Previously, how very little the Library was sold for could be measured against what apartments in the luxury tower were selling for: The $60 million asking price for the penthouse was almost <i><u>three</u> times</i> what the NYPL netted to sell the five-story, recently renovated, 97,000 square foot Donnell Library. Other apartments were selling for close to exactly what the NYPL netted on its sale. With <i>“Le Roi”</i> cocktails going for $500, it seems that the perhaps $23 million netted by the NYPL could be measured by multiples of the cocktail price. <br />
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Well, to keep up to date with extravagance, a new article in USA Today now advises us that you can get a $1,500 vanilla sundae at the hotel too! See: USA Today: <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2018/12/11/some-most-expensive-meals-you-can-buy/2225135002/">Gold popcorn and a $2,000 frittata: Five of the most expensive meals money can buy</a>, by Rasha Ali, December 11, 2018.<br />
<br />
The article provides us with a list of the most expensive (though simple) foods the wealthiest of us can foolishly spend their money on: a $5,000 burger, a $2,700 pizza pie, $2,500 for popcorn (a 6.5 gallon tin), and a $2,000 frittata. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, from USA Today, that's a picture of a $1,500 ice cream sundae you can get where one upon a time there was a grand public library.</td></tr>
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<br />
About the $1,500 ice cream sundae it says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>It's literally just vanilla bean ice cream, dressed up in fancy accessories. The ice cream is served at the Baccarat Hotel New York and is made with vanilla imported from Madagascar (fancy).<br /><br />It's also served with black truffle crumble with dark chocolate, hibiscus champagne sauce and donned in an edible gold leaf, then served in a $1,200 crystal bear. The ice cream alone costs $300, but if you want the whole ensemble, it'll cost you $1,500.</i></blockquote>
The last visit to the 53rd Street Library that <i>“replaced”</i> Donnell this is what we noticed: The architect had designed the front entrance with two separate doors, one east, one west, for library patrons to enter before they descended to the library’s mostly underground space– One of those doors, the west one, was closed off so that library patrons didn’t come too close to rubbing shoulders with those well heeled chums and chumettes visiting the luxury portions of the building for $1,500 ice cream sundaes.<br />
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Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-10661218462716927212018-11-03T14:16:00.001-04:002018-11-03T14:47:56.285-04:00How To Vote On The Three City Charter Reform (Reform?- Really?) Proposals on The November 6, 2018 Ballot! (NO, NO. . . & MAYBE. .?) <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The adviceon how to vote on three proposal to change the NYC Charter sent out by two activist coalitions (above) is pretty similar and largely negative about the proposals. </td></tr>
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The short answer is—<br />
<br />
Vote <b>NO</b> on #1<br />
Vote <b>NO</b> on #2<br />
On #3?: <u><i>Think</i></u> about it, only <b><u><i>MAYBE?</i></u> YES</b>.<br />
<br />
In other words on the three proposals to change the New York Cit Charter that are on Tuesday’s ballot (all that “<a href="https://mailchi.mp/humanscale/the-three-ballot-proposals-1306597?e=14543961c7"><i>flip the ballot</i></a>” stuff you have been hearing about that sounds oddly, perhaps intentionally, reminiscent of <i>“Flip the Congress”</i>) here is how it is recommended that informed, community activist-minded voters vote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
1. On “Campaign Finance Reform- Reducing the amount of contributions to politician’s campaigns and increasing the amount of matching funds.” <b>VOTE NO</b>.<br />
<br />
2. On “Creation of New Community Engagement Agency.” <b>VOTE NO</b>.<br />
<br />
3. On “Term Limits on Community Boards.” <b><u><i>MAYBE</i></u> VOTE YES (but <u>THINK ABOUT IT!!</u>- <i>see <u>below</u></i>)</b></blockquote>
We are shortcutting this process and not doing all our own thinking on it. Instead, having reviewed them, we present here the consonant recommendations, with some very validly expressed reasoning of both <a href="http://app.scsend.net/?q=email/view/14j9fNXObsCYtqbR3QXXLnVsjdFNZV6zUq">MTOPP (The Movement To Protect The People)</a> and <a href="https://mailchi.mp/humanscale/the-three-ballot-proposals-1306597?e=14543961c7">The New Yorkers For A Human-Scale City Alliance</a>, two activist group coalitions vigorously fighting for more responsible, less destructive development (with less displacement) that will better reflect the wishes of New Yorkers.<br />
<br />
First off, as you can glean from the title of this post, to call something a <i>“reform”</i> doesn’t mean that it actually is validly and unquestionably a <i>“reform”</i>; some changes labeled <i>“reforms”</i> actually make things worse for most of use while shifting more power, benefit and control to the powerful (think Trump’s <i>“Tax Code <u>Reform</u>”</i>). Next, the way that revisions to the City Charter get proposed and put before the voters makes it likely that proposed changes will benefit those already powerful and controlling the process and <u><i>not</i></u> those wanting to challenge power. This will likely hold as the general reality of things unless and until strong, broad based populist efforts seize the initiative and coordinate for proposals that effect true reform. That is not exactly true of the mostly below-the-radar way that the current proposals were cooked and served up.<br />
<br />
Here is some background on what happened as described by The New Yorkers For A Human-Scale City Alliance. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The Mayor created a Charter Review Commission last spring, shoved it through with little advertising or public debate, and that Commission came up with three ballot proposals that you will encounter when you go to vote next week. Most voters had no idea it was happening. We testified at one of their hearings about campaign finance and community board reform. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The City Council, not to be outdone, created its own Charter Review Commission, which, I am told, is preparing another round of hearings this winter. We testified at the first round of their hearings and will be testifying again this winter and spring.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The composition of both Commissions is not encouraging (too many people who reflect the views of <b>Big Real Estate and the Mayor</b>), but the presence of campaign finance reform advocate Sal Albanese on the Council's commission is a hopeful sign that the Council's Commission will continue to address that particular issue this winter and we could get better reform ideas out of them that with the bad ideas the Mayor's team has come up with. Here is what is on the ballot (to see more detail, go to Ballotopedia <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/New_York,_New_York,_Question_1,_Campaign_Finance_City_Charter_Amendment_(November_2018)">here</a>.)</i></blockquote>
Remember that every ballot proposal is worded by the people who want to see it enacted and is thus worded with the hope of <i>enticing</i> people to vote for it. <br />
<br />
One thing that is highly discouraging is that, as City and State <a href="https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/politics/new-york-city/charter-revision-commission-ballot-questions-html">observes</a> in its reporting: <i>“The measures from de Blasio’s commission . . have drawn overwhelming approval from the city’s Democratic lawmakers.”</i> Proposals that please "<i><b>Big Real Estate and the Mayor</b>"? </i>This is another example of how the Democratic machine in New York City continues to work against the most fundamental interests of the public while nominally working for the public dressing up, without significant challenge from the press, in fauxmanteau progressivism. That’s why, to get some genuine reforms, this city needs to institute instant run-off voting and start growing third party generated alternatives for the voters to vote for.<br />
<br />
Below are the proposals worded as you will see them on Tuesday’s ballot followed, in each case respectively by the analysis and recommendations of MTOPP and The New Yorkers For A Human-Scale City Alliance. Interjected in brackets is some of my own Noticing New York thinking about the composition of community boards.<br />
<i><b> </b></i><br />
<i><b>Question #1: Campaign Finance</b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>This proposal would amend the City Charter to lower the amount a candidate for City elected office may accept from a contributor. It would also increase the public funding used to match a portion of the contributions received by a candidate who participates in the City’s public financing program.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In addition, the proposal would make public matching funds available earlier in the election year to participating candidates who can demonstrate need for the funds. It would also ease a requirement that candidates for Mayor, Comptroller, or Public Advocate must meet to qualify for matching funds.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The amendments would apply to participating candidates who choose to have the amendments apply to their campaigns beginning with the 2021 primary election, and would then apply to all candidates beginning in 2022.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Shall this proposal be adopted?</i></blockquote>
<b>MTOP’s Recommendation to vote <u>NO</u>:</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>Campaign Finance Reform- Reducing the amount of contributions to politician’s campaigns and increasing the amount of matching funds.</b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>First you have to keep in mind that there are a lot of laws on the books that allow Politicians to get large sums of money from various sources. For example, campaigning and collecting funds when you are not facing an opponent! This allows existing elected officials to create large war chests that they can use later, if a challenger does come a few years down the line.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Thus the reducing of the contributions will only benefit the large, well machined candidates who have the real estate industry working behind them exercising all of those other loopholes. Whereas the small candidates who truly must rely upon small contributions will be further hurt. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>For example, in the election campaign against Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, she had three campaigns working for her. Her own, the Mayor’s and the Hotel Industry!!! So a reduction in contributions to her campaign would not have made much of a difference, but with Ede, who was running against her, it would have been large since she had only one campaign!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>MTOPP's Position:</b></i><br />
<i>MTOPP says no. If real voting reform is wanted (and it is not) then all of these loopholes need to be eliminated not just campaign contributions.</i></blockquote>
<b>The New Yorkers For A Human-Scale City Alliance’s Recommendation to vote <u>NO</u>:</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>Proposal 1: Vote No. Lowers the maximum campaign contribution in the City's Campaign Finance Law (not the state law) from $5,000 to $2,000. </b></i><br />
<i><b>Vote NO.</b></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Why vote no? Think about it. Can you afford to give $2,000 to a politician? This is a fake fix to the campaign finance system and all the politicians know it. It won't stop the dependence of politicians on the wealthy or on big real estate, nor does it even address the issue we have been raising for a year about loopholes big as trucks that allow big real estate to get around the rules that are part of this law. This isn't a even an improvement - it's a pretend fix, an actual insult to good government groups and to the public. Don't let any politician get away with the claim that they "improved" the system with this one. It would be a shameful lie on their part. <b>Vote NO</b>.</i></blockquote>
* * * *<br />
<i><b>Question #2: Civic Engagement Commission</b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>This proposal would amend the City Charter to:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Create a Civic Engagement Commission that would implement, no later than the City Fiscal Year beginning July 1, 2020, a Citywide participatory budgeting program established by the Mayor to promote participation by City residents in making recommendations for projects in their communities;</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Require the Commission to partner with community based organizations and civic leaders, as well as other City agencies, to support and encourage civic engagement efforts;</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Require the Commission to establish a program to provide language interpreters at City poll sites, to be implemented for the general election in 2020;</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Permit the Mayor to assign relevant powers and duties of certain other City agencies to the Commission;</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Provide that the Civic Engagement Commission would have 15 members, with 8 members appointed by the Mayor, 2 members by the City Council Speaker and 1 member by each Borough President; and</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Provide for one of the Mayor’s appointees to be Commission Chair and for the Chair to employ and direct Commission staff.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Shall this proposal be adopted?</i></blockquote>
<b>MTOP’s Recommendation to vote <u>NO</u>:</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Creation of New Community Engagement Agency.</i></b> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>This is suppose to be a government agency that will encourage more community engagement, foster more participation in elections and provide Community Boards with City Planners, (professionals who are suppose to know all about the rezoning laws etc..)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Now isn’t the community board suppose to be the place for community engagement? And why would you need a completely new government agency just to provide the community boards with planners? </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The answer is simple. If you empowered community boards to hire their own planners, then the planners would be beholden to the community board and have their best interest at heart. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>However, if you allow another agency to do the hiring then those being hired would be beholden to that agency’s directives. The Department of City Planning has such a bad reputation in communities all over the city that they are no longer trusted and in some community boards are told to get the hell out! Now this new agency who’s leaders will be hired by the Mayor, will hire and then lend City Planners to community boards.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The rational is that the only reason community boards are saying no to all of these rezonings is because of ignorance. If they just understood all the benefits that would be gained from all the developments being proposed Community Boards would be more willing to agree to them. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>For example, when the City Planning Commission was reviewing the Brooklyn Botanic Garden rezoning to increase the heights on land that was downzone to protect the garden, the Department of City Planning blamed the no vote that Community Board 9 gave because CB9 didn’t have a planner! </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>But we we did. We had Richard Birack, Borough President Eric Adams's planner, at every meeting, “giving” his expert opinion, that sometimes amounted to pure lies and half truths. But the proof is in the pudding, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the devastating effects of rezoning, not when there are so many examples out in the world, including how the Department of City Planning will simply ignore all suggestions from the community despite all of those so called “community engagement” sessions!!!</i></blockquote>
<b>The New Yorkers For A Human-Scale City Alliance’s Recommendation to vote NO:</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>Proposal 2: Vote No. Creates a Civic Engagement Commission dominated by Mayoral Appointees who then get to mess around with so-called participatory budgeting and community boards land-use work. </b></i><br />
<i><b>Vote NO.</b></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Why vote no? This is a blatant attempt to create even more power for a despotic Mayor who already has way too much power in our Charter. It also makes some of us laugh. Our Mayor won't even take petitions or respond to petitions that neighborhood groups send him, and he wants a Civic Engagement Commission? Worse, those who came up with this idea seem to think civic engagement just means controlling community boards on land use and pretending to give us a say in budgeting. Ugh. This is an Orwellian proposal. <b>Vote no</b>. </i></blockquote>
* * * *<br />
<br />
<i><b>Question #3: Community Boards</b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>This proposal would amend the City Charter to:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Impose
term limits of a maximum of four consecutive full two-year terms for
community board members with certain exceptions for the initial
transition to the new term limits system;</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Require
Borough Presidents to seek out persons of diverse backgrounds in making
appointments to community boards. The proposal would also add new
application and reporting requirements related to these appointments;
and</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>If Question 2, “Civic Engagement
Commission,” is approved, require the proposed Civic Engagement
Commission to provide resources, assistance, and training related to
land use and other matters to community boards.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Shall this proposal be adopted?</i></blockquote>
[<b>Noticing New York Thinking:</b><br />
<br />
As can be seen from the analysis of MTOPP and The Human Scale New York coalition below, there are huge problems with the current composition of the city's local community boards, including that they are often rife with conflicts of interest and accountable on very short leashes to the Borough Presidents. We have seen the composition of such boards punishingly changed by Borough Presidents when they represented the community in their votes. We have also seen the calculated re-composition of the boards and their committees in advance to prepare for and ensure the vote results the real estate industry wants in instances such as the proposed sale of public libraries for real estate deals. But does the institution of term limits ensure any improvement with respect to what needs to be fixed?: Only sometimes in some particular instances, and other times it can have the <u><i>opposite</i></u> result.<br />
<br />
In general, the Noticing New York thinking is to favor term limits for <i>powerful executive positions</i> like the President of the United States or the Mayor of the City of New York because they wield such power of office that, together with the bully pulpit keeping them in the spotlight, the power of their incumbency undermines accountability. In the case of others operating as part of communal bodies that need to be strengthened in standing up to those powerful executives, it is likely a different story. Term limits mean that those who have increased their power and influence by becoming knowledgeable (and appropriately skeptical?) learning how to represent the public are turned out of office, their resources lost even when the public needs and wants them. Term limits can make office holders think short term and in terms of their <u><i>next</i></u> office, <i>not</i> their <u><i>current</i></u> one, which may <i>not</i> mean representing their current constituents' priorities. Term limits were introduced to New York City by big money interests and when offices change hands big money has an extra out-sized influence when voters need to familiarize themselves with entirely new faces and dig down below a public relations blitz veneer (case in point- Councilmember Laurie Cumbo who obtained office by virtue of REBNY money and proved to be outrageously opposite to her the promises of her innocuous, reassuring campaign platitudes.)<br />
<br />
The question is how to make community boards more accountable to and representative of the community. More transparency with stricter conflict of interest controls would help a lot. Should community board members be elected directly by the public?: The problems with that, as with electing school board members and judges, is that it is too much for the average voter to catch up with by the time they get into the voting booth. That opens the door for other inside powers to have too much influence.<br />
<br />
What community boards and other New York City boards of influence (the Landmarks Commission, City Planning Commission, boards of the three city public library systems) might benefit from is diffusing the appointments to those boards among more elected officials who the public is likely to be able to identify and hold accountable when their interests don't get represented. One of the benefits of all the myriad appointments to boards and commissions now made by the New York City mayor is that the public knows who the mayor is and, as such, can more easily hold him or her accountable. What the mayor does is more likely to be written about and covered by the press. But one individual having all the power involves no checks and balances and sets up just one easy target for the powerful influencers like the real estate industry. Others who <i>could be making appointments</i> include, as the case may be: The New York Public Advocate (giving that office more of the power it should have), The City (and perhaps sometimes State) Comptroller, local City Councilmen, perhaps in some cases the City Council as a body, Borough Presidents (offices that also currently have scant power). <br />
<br />
If nothing else, more diffused power means that when moneyed interests want to put the fix in they have more elected officials to corral and buy off and it is harder for them to operate for long stretches in secret. It is also likely to provoke a few more real open debates on a few more things before votes rather than discussions before votes being as scripted as they almost always are now.<br />
<br />
Maybe, rather than succumbing to the eyewash and pretending that there is any worthwhile <i>"reform"</i> here, all of three of these proposals should just be short down together.] <br />
<br />
<b>MTOP’s Recommendation to vote (a “<i>hard one</i>”- That is <u><i>not</i></u> very clear) YES:</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>Term Limits on Community Boards</b></i><br />
<i><b>There are two points of view: The Upper White Middle Class Community Boards and the Community of Color Community Boards.</b></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>As
has been the case since the inception of Community Boards and their
empowerment in 1974, community boards have fared a lot better in white
upper middle class neighborhoods than in communities of color.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b><i>White Upper Middle Class Community Boards</i></b><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Community
Board members in white upper class community boards are knowledgeable,
know their stuff, have been around the block and have been a thorn in
the real estate industry side, because of their unwillingness to let
anything slide by them.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>These board members are very
strong and Borough Presidents have been unwilling to let them go because
of the political consequences. However, if term limits are introduced,
then the Borough Presidents can not be blamed and then they will get to
put who they want in, who will be beholden to their goals and not
necessarily the goals of the community.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Thus term limits in White middle class communities may weaken these boards!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b><i>Communities of Color</i></b> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>What
about communities of color, who’s boards are already weakened? There
have been countless complaints against these community boards and their
members. Serious violations of the law are done openly and no one does
anything about it. For the most part the board behaves like a private
club with a few people running the whole thing for years, at the expense
of the rest of the community. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>These open violations
are tolerated by the City and Borough Presidents, to enable the
political structure to get what they want from the board when they need
it, i.e. rezoning requests.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In these communities people
see term limits as a great opportunity to get rid of these long
standing board members and to attempt to integrate and to diversify.
However based upon the experience of a Community Board (CB9) who had a
major change in their members over the past four years ago, this may not
be the answer, especially if the Borough President has his eyes on that
community for rezonings.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b><i>An Example of Changing the Guard at a Community Board</i></b><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In
Community Board 9, (CB9) Borough President Eric Adams, in 2014,
removed the long standing (30 years or more) board members (Jewish and
White men), and replaced them with Black folks who had the same agenda
and motive - to rezone the community. However, not all of the new board
members were apart of that intention and thus we have been successful at
least of not having another rezoning request materialize at CB9,
despite certain members of CB9 working all kinds of tricks to do so.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>But
our struggle hasn’t been easy, we have had to file at least seven
lawsuits, we have demonstrated, we have filed complaints, we have been
arrested and have decided to dedicate our entire lives to protecting
this community against certain Community Board members who’s intention
it is to fulfill Borough Hall’s mandate of rezoning for the real estate
industry.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In fact, we lost one of our strongest allies,
who was the first vice-chair of CB9 because she was a strong opponent
against a massive rezoning. She was removed off the board despite being
an officer of the board, after only two years of service, whereas there
were other board members who had been on the board for over 30 years,
still there.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>That means that even if community boards
members are replaced, a lot of how that board will function will be
determined by the Borough President and his/her agenda, </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b><i>MTOPP Position</i></b><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>MTOPP
Says Yes. This was a hard one, because we don't want to see community
boards weaken, but if this city wanted true diversity then they would
diversify who can place members on the Board. Right now all of the board
members are placed there by the Borough President with only the City
Council members making recommendations. Having City Council people make
those appointments as well as the Borough President could go a long way
to diversifying and ensuring that it is not just the Borough President’s
agenda that will be followed.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>What we know however is
that true diversity can not happen when only one person is allowed to
appoint and remove board members off of community boards and this is not
going to change unless people really fight and demand it.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In
the case of CB9 we do believe that having representatives that are on
the board who reflect the majority of the residents in the community has
empowered us to at least prevent a massive rezoning, where as if the
board was still in the hands of those few we might be writing a
different story.</i></blockquote>
<b>The New Yorkers For A Human-Scale City Alliance’s Recommendation to vote YES:</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>Proposal 3: Vote Yes. Term Limits for Community Boards</b></i><br />
<i><b>Vote YES!</b></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Why vote this way? Well, to start with, Community Boards are, in the words of Councilmember Reynoso, "political cesspools", meaning that since they are unelected, they get filled with an even worse stew of unregulated conflicts of interest, lobbyists, political sycophancy, and executive teams of Democratic Party Political Clubs. They are the fiefdoms of Borough Presidents who appoint them and who control them tightly (ex: warning people who speak in ways they don't like to be quiet or get lost or just mass firing them as has happened in the Bronx). The Community Board system desperately needs four reforms: </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>1. term limits (and hey, if we need the institutional memory of the old-timers, they can always serve as non-voting public members);</i><br />
<i>2. to be elected by neighborhood voters, we don't need a Borough President choosing who represents us, like a one-person Electoral College - we know how not to vote for lobbyists or real estate developers.</i><br />
<i>3. much stricter conflict-of-interest rules to rid the boards of lobbyists;</i><br />
<i>4. and a new mission and mandate to actually do something relevant to neighborhoods. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>We see term limits as a good start and we can have them without the creepy civic engagement commission the Mayor wants. We need more reforms as well, but this is one of them. We demand term limits from our elected politicians, why not term limits for our unelected neighbors who pretend to be looking after our interests? <b>Vote YES!</b></i></blockquote>
Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-38807871268446046252018-06-30T01:35:00.000-04:002018-07-01T12:15:01.641-04:00New York Times Didn’t Cover Biggest New York City Election Story As It Unfolded: The Insurgent Campaign of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez– And It Has National Repercussions<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cLrt8dkzGUU/Wzhn2VJzfWI/AAAAAAAAJy4/c2RKZFX64tAmzsW3BjN9MJu2VzZtPfuxACLcBGAs/s1600/Alexandria%2BOcasio-Cortez%2Bwin%2Bover%2BCrowley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cLrt8dkzGUU/Wzhn2VJzfWI/AAAAAAAAJy4/c2RKZFX64tAmzsW3BjN9MJu2VzZtPfuxACLcBGAs/s400/Alexandria%2BOcasio-Cortez%2Bwin%2Bover%2BCrowley.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It was front page news in the Times, but the Times did not report events leading up to it as they unfolded.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is about a major local and national news story that the New York Times didn’t cover as it unfolded . . . <br />
<br />
Wednesday, the day after the primary elections it was on the front page of the New York Times: Democratic Power Broker, Once a Possible House Leader, Loses Primary. (On the Times website the article’s <a href="https://www.wral.com/democratic-power-broker-once-a-possible-house-leader-loses-new-york-primary/17657574/">print headline</a> is now: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/nyregion/joseph-crowley-ocasio-cortez-democratic-primary.html">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Defeats Joseph Crowley in Major Democratic House Upset</a>.) The opening paragraph reads:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Representative Joseph Crowley of New York, once seen as a possible successor to Nancy Pelosi as Democratic leader of the House, suffered a shocking primary defeat on Tuesday, the most significant loss for a Democratic incumbent in more than a decade, and one that will reverberate across the party and the country.</i></blockquote>
The article also lets you know the election was not exactly a squeaker: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The race was not close. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez had more than 57 percent of the vote </i>[57.5 actually- a 15% double digit lead]<i>, with almost all precincts reporting.*</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(* 15,897 to 11,761 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/new-york-house-district-14-primary-election">when</a> 98% of the districts reported.) </blockquote>
Ocasio-Cortez did it with people power, defeating the money. Crowley outspent Ocasio-Cortez significantly, by perhaps more than 8 times, with a recent set of <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2018/06/27/crowley-ocasio-cortez-house-democrats-new-york-281819">tallies from</a> Politico for April through June 6th giving Crowley expenditures of $1.1 million versus $128,140 for Ocasio-Cortez.<br />
<br />
I heard on the Jimmy Dore show after the election (<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-jimmy-dore-show-21082/e/55135936?autoplay=true">June 28th- June 30th</a>) that the New York Times <i>never covered</i> the campaign of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before she won. Could this be true? I checked it out: It is basically true, plus the Times never ran a picture of her as candidate either.<br />
<br />
How did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez win the election if her campaign wasn’t being reported on by mainstream media and the paper of record, the New York Times, the principal newspaper for her hometown of New York City? The Jimmy Dore Show offered the satirical suggestion the voters got into the voting booth and just made a <i>lucky guess</i>.<br />
<br />
By contrast, The Jimmy Dore show proudly crowed that it covered Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as an insurgent candidate worth paying attention to a year ago.<br />
<br />
Some things worth knowing about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez: She is frequently referred to as a <i>"progressive,"</i> sometimes as a <i>"grassroots progressive,"</i> to distinguish her from the <i>faux-mantel progressives</i> (or <i>"fauxmanteau progessives"</i>), corporate democrats dominating the Democratic party like NYC mayor Bill de Balsio or councilman Brad Lander (locally) who inoffensively give largely safe lip service to certain social ideas, but stow away any principled response when confronting money and establishment power (aligning with such power to sell off public assets <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/12/who-is-selling-our-libraries.html">like libraries</a>). Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, like Bernie Sanders the man she previously campaigned and organized for, refers to herself as a "<i>Democratic Socialist</i>." She is for single-payer universal health care, government-funded higher education, the abolition of ICE (a post 9/11 agency founded in 2003), and she seeks justice for Puerto Rico now targeted in a <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/05/planned-overhaul-of-brooklyns-grand.html">brazen privatizing attempt</a> to transfer the island from its people to wealthy profit seekers. This means she is considerably to the left of the New York Times and the usual establishment interests that Democratic and Republican parties serve. <br />
<br />
As for verification of the assertion on the Jimmy Dore Show that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign was <u><i>not</i></u> covered by the Times before her win turned the world of mainstream media political coverage upside-down, if you go to the New York Times site and do a date restricted search to discover mentions of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign you find mentions of it in just <u><i>five</i></u> articles, and essentially no coverage that would tell you who she was or what she stood for as a candidate or indicating the strength and attraction of her campaign or what her win would signify.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V_5bxwamwKA/WzhkfiisDGI/AAAAAAAAJyg/vZLDQ-vTQ4wv7D5RHXNRBFgjn_SB9jolgCLcBGAs/s1600/Before%2BPrimary%2BElection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="929" height="365" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V_5bxwamwKA/WzhkfiisDGI/AAAAAAAAJyg/vZLDQ-vTQ4wv7D5RHXNRBFgjn_SB9jolgCLcBGAs/s400/Before%2BPrimary%2BElection.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just five articles mentioning the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before the election.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Hilariously, the New York Times has subsequently treated her win as so important that if you search its site without date restrictions you now get lost in a sea of more than 60 headlines (so far) virtually all published in just a few day's time.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FllztzRI0Kk/WzhlS6mVfzI/AAAAAAAAJys/Wjjgi3yNcGYr_UQyW5oFiL_Vo6KBBfCjACLcBGAs/s1600/After%2BPrimary%2BSo%2BMany%2BTimes%2BArticles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1216" data-original-width="1600" height="303" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FllztzRI0Kk/WzhlS6mVfzI/AAAAAAAAJys/Wjjgi3yNcGYr_UQyW5oFiL_Vo6KBBfCjACLcBGAs/s400/After%2BPrimary%2BSo%2BMany%2BTimes%2BArticles.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you search the Times now, you will get lost there are so many articles about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, more than 60 mentioning her since her primary win.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Here, in date order, are the few words the Times offered about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez <u><i>during</i></u> her campaign to defeat Mr. Crowley in those five Times articles that mentioned her:<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/us/politics/women-candidates-midterms.html">Stacey Abrams Didn’t Play It Safe. Neither Do These Female Candidates</a></b>, by Susan Chira and Matt Flegenheimer, May 29, 2018.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="css-1h6whtw">
<i>The question
went out late one night on a private message chain of insurgent female
candidates for Congress: Do you really attack a fellow Democrat? </i></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="css-1h6whtw">
<div class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0">
<i>“I
feel like I’ve been pulling punches,” wrote Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
who is challenging a longtime Democratic incumbent, Joe Crowley of New
York, in a primary. “Do you ever get any pushback from voters, or those
who don’t want ‘party infighting?’”</i></div>
<i>Within the hour, peers from Texas, Washington State and North Carolina had weighed in: Keep up the fight. </i></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="css-1h6whtw">
<div class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0">
<i>“We’re
not trying to ask permission to get in the door,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a
28-year-old organizer on Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, said in
an interview.</i></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
Opinion: <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/opinion/adem-bunkeddeko-in-the-ninth-district.html">Adem Bunkeddeko in the Ninth District</a></b>, by The Editorial Board, June 14, 2018. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>In
the 14th Congressional District, which spans Queens and the Bronx,
Representative Joseph Crowley is defending his seat against an insurgent
campaign from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a former campaign organizer for
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Mr. Crowley, the Queens Democratic
leader, has ambitions of succeeding Representative Nancy Pelosi as the
House Democratic leader that could redound to the city’s benefit. But
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 28, has won an impressive measure of support, casting
herself as a grass-roots alternative to an incumbent with deep sway in
local politics. </i></blockquote>
<b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/nyregion/new-york-today-primary-races-to-watch.html">New York Today: Primary Races to Watch</a></b>, By Jonathan Wolfe, June 19, 2018.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Democratic
upstarts in the city. A group of incumbent Democrats in New York are
facing primary challengers, many of whom are first-time candidates under
the age of 35. Representative Joseph Crowley, who some see as possibly
replacing Nancy Pelosi as the head of the House Democrats, is being
challenged for the first time since 2004, by the progressive candidate
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Representatives Carolyn Maloney (Manhattan’s
East Side and parts of Queens), Eliot Engel (the Bronx), Yvette Clarke
(central Brooklyn) and Gregory W. Meeks (southern Queens) are also
facing insurgents within their party.</i> </blockquote>
Opinion: <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/opinion/joseph-crowley-alexandria-ocasio-cortez.html">If You Want to Be Speaker, Mr. Crowley, Don’t Take Voters for Granted</a></b>, by The Editorial Board, June 19, 2018<i>.</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>. . Indeed, the snubs should be galling not only to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Crowley’s constituents in New York’s 14th Congressional District, in Queens and the Bronx, but also to anyone who cares about the democratic process.<br /><br />Mr. Crowley, 56, is a powerful congressman who leads the Queens County Democratic Party. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 28, has presented him his first major primary challenge in years. Despite long odds, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a former Bernie Sanders campaign organizer, has garnered significant support, waging a high-energy campaign and positioning herself as a grass-roots alternative to Mr. Crowley.<br /><br />The candidates have met once, in a Spectrum News NY1 debate last week at which both candidates held their own.<br /><br />* * * * <br /><br />Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter after the debate that in sending Ms. Palma, Mr. Crowley chose “a woman with slight resemblance to me” as his surrogate. Both Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Ms. Palma are Latina.</i></blockquote>
<b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/nyregion/congress-primaries-democrats-midterm-ny.html">For Democrats Challenging Party Incumbents, Insurgency Has Its Limits</a></b>, By Shane Goldmacher and Jeffery C. Mays, June 21, 2018.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>For Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, challenging Representative Joseph Crowley has meant watching local Democratic officials bolt the other way from her at parades, wary of appearing too close to her. Some have agreed to meetings, but behind closed doors — no cellphones allowed.<br /><br />Mr. Patel, 34, and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 28, are among a group of energetic Democratic insurgents across the country, many of them young or female or people of color, who are seeking to knock off some of Congress’s most tenured Democrats.<br /><br />* * * *<br /><br />Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign, in particular, has become a cause célèbre for some on the left who seem set to put a scare into Mr. Crowley, the head of the Queens Democratic Party, one of the last and most powerful political machines remaining in New York. MoveOn.org and Our Revolution, an outgrowth of the Sanders campaign, both endorsed her, and the news site The Intercept has generated a drumbeat of negative stories on Mr. Crowley.<br /><br />Earlier this week, she showed up to debate Mr. Crowley, the potential future leader of House Democrats in Washington — only to discover that he was a no-show, a Latina surrogate sent in his place. (Mr. Crowley had debated her earlier this month.)<br /><br />“We have a political culture of intimidation, of favoring, of patronage and of fear and that is no way for a community to be governed,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said.<br /><br />* * * <br />Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said there is “camaraderie” among congressional challengers, and that she’s spoken with Mr. Bunkeddeko and Mr. Patel to “share best practices in dismantling this calcified machine.”</i> </blockquote>
By contrast to those paltry five articles before the election, in the few days since, the Times has run more than three score articles where mention of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez factors in. There are pictures of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez galore and video to boot, a positive glut, surely enough to surfeit the most avid fans. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is not the main subject of each and every one of these articles, but she is a central subject of a very respectable number of them. Since, along with its own by-lined stories, the Times also runs stories by-lined by the Associated Press and Reuters this jump up in number is also a window into their coverage. <br />
<br />
Sometimes the biggest news stories are what is not being covered in the mainstream press. I guess that's one reason I am getting more and more of my news from sources like the Jimmy Dore Show. <br />
<br />
Here, to conclude this article, are links to 62 articles in the Times in which Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has been mentioned since the Tuesday June 26th primary through today, Friday June 30th. Enjoy perusing just the headlines. They will give you a sense of what's covered. I can't think who would dare to read all the articles themselves. It's enough to make a media hound like Senator Chuck Schumer extremely jealous. Enjoy:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Elections- <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/elections/100000005978191/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-celebrates-victory-in-the-bronx.html">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Celebrates Victory in the Bronx (Video)</a></b> June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York - <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/nyregion/alexandria-ocasio-cortez.html"><b>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: A 28-Year-Old Democratic Giant Slayer</b></a>, By Vivian Wang, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000005978658/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-on-her-upset-victory.html"><b>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: I’m ‘Unapologetic About What I Believe’(Video)</b></a>, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
Opinion: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/opinion/-alexandra-ocasio-cortez-democrat-crowley.html"><b>What Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Victory Means, by The Editorial Board</b></a>, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Briefing- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/briefing/supreme-court-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-world-cup.html"><b>Supreme Court, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, World Cup: Your Wednesday Briefing</b></a>, By Chris Stanford, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/nyregion/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-bio-profile.html"><b>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Emerges as a Political Star</b></a>, by Andy Newman, Vivian Wang and Luis Ferré-Sadurní, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/nyregion/joseph-crowley-ocasio-cortez-democratic-primary.html"><b>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Defeats Joseph Crowley in Major Democratic House Upset</b></a>, by Shane Goldmacher and Jonathan Martin, June 26, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/nyregion/nixon-cuomo-ocasio-cortez-new-york.html"><b>What Does Ocasio-Cortez’s Win Mean for Cynthia Nixon?</b></a> By Jesse McKinley, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Opinion- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/opinion/ocasio-cortez-14th-district.html"><b>The Lessons of a Stunning New York Primary</b></a>, by Frank Bruni, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Letters- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/opinion/new-york-primary.html"><b>New York Primary Shocker</b></a>, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Opinion- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/opinion/ocasio-cortez-crowley-new-york-primary.html"><b>Primary Turmoil Visits the Democrats</b></a>, by David Leonhardt, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/nyregion/ocasio-cortez-crowley-primary-upset.html"><b>An Upset in the Making: Why Joe Crowley Never Saw Defeat Coming</b></a>, by Shane Goldmacher, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/nyregion/ocasio-cortez-fallout-klein-senate-democrats.html"><b>Ocasio-Cortez Toppled a Giant. Are These N.Y. Democrats Next?</b></a> By Shane Goldmacher, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/politics/ocasio-cortez-massachusetts-pressley.html"><b>Will a Shocker in New York Have a Ripple Effect in Massachusetts?</b></a> By Katharine Q. Seelye and Astead W. Herndon, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York/Big City- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/nyregion/new-york-primaries-lessons-of-ocasio-cortez-victory.html"><b>Lesson of the Blue Wave Primaries? We’re All Struggling Now</b></a>, By Ginia Bellafante, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/us/politics/democrats-joe-crowley-ocasio-cortez.html">Top Democrat’s Defeat Throws Party Leadership Into Turmoil</a></b>, by Jonathan Martin and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, June 27, 2018. <br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/us/politics/primary-results-highlights.html"><b>4 Takeaways From Tuesday’s Primary Elections</b></a>, by Alexander Burns, Jonathan Martin and Matt Flegenheimer, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/us/politics/politics-roundup-kennedy-immigration.html"><b>Here Are the Biggest Stories in American Politics This Week</b></a>, by Emily Cochrane, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
U.S.- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/28/us/ap-us-governors-race-ny.html"><b>Facing Cuomo, Nixon Looks to Ocasio-Cortez Win</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
U.S.- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/26/us/ap-us-new-york-primary-crowley.html"><b>Political Novice Ocasio-Cortez Scores for Progressives in NY,</b></a> by The Associated Press, June 26, 2018.<br />
<br />
U.S.- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/29/us/ap-us-ocasio-cortez-the-view.html"><b>Political Star Ocasio-Cortez Appears on TV's 'The View,'</b></a> by The Associated Press, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
U.S.- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/27/us/ap-us-new-york-primary-ocasio-cortez.html"><b>Shock, Then Ambition: Ocasio-Cortez Hopes to Shake Up House</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Television/Best of Late Night- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/arts/television/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-interview-stephen-colbert.html"><b>Ocasio-Cortez Tells Colbert: ‘We Changed Who Turns Out’</b></a>, by Giovanni Russonello, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/06/27/us/politics/26reuters-usa-election-crowley.html"><b>Democrat Joseph Crowley Loses Bid for 11th Term</b></a>, by Reuters, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Arts- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/29/arts/ap-us-news-shows.html"><b>Guest Lineups for the Sunday News Shows</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/27/us/politics/ap-us-pelosi-democrats.html"><b>Pelosi Doesn't See Party Shift to Left in Crowley Defeat</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/us/politics/is-this-the-year-women-break-the-rules-and-win.html"><b>Is This the Year Women Break the Rules and Win?</b></a> By Kate Zernike, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/27/us/politics/ap-us-democrats-identity-crisis.html"><b>Stunning Defeat Emboldens Left as Dems Eye New Identity</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Opinion- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/30/opinion/democratic-socialists-progressive-democratic-party-trump.html"><b>The Millennial Socialists Are Coming</b></a>, by Michelle Goldberg, June 30, 2018.<br />
<br />
Television/Best of Late Night- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/arts/television/jimmy-fallon-anthony-kennedy-supreme-court.html"><b>Seth Meyers Tries to Persuade Kennedy to Stay on Supreme Court</b></a>, by Giovanni Russonello, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/us/politics/abolish-ice-midterms-immigration.html">How ‘Abolish ICE’ Went From Social Media to Progressive Candidates’ Rallying Cry</a>,</b> by Sydney Ember and Astead W. Herndon, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
Reader Center- Bulletin board- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/reader-center/election-coverage-midterms.html"><b>From New York’s Primary Upset to Polling Data, How The Times Is Covering the Elections</b></a>, By The New York Times, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/26/us/politics/ap-us-primary-rdp.html"><b>Democratic Heavyweight Loses in New York as Trump Picks Win</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 26, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/06/27/us/politics/27reuters-usa-election.html"><b>Democrats Reading Tea Leaves After U.S. Congressman's Upset</b></a>, by Reuters, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/27/us/politics/ap-us-primary-rdp.html"><b>Trump Celebrates Victories for 3 Endorsed Candidates</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/06/26/us/politics/26reuters-usa-election.html"><b>High-Ranking House Democrat Dealt Surprise Defeat at Polls</b></a>, by Reuters, June 26, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/26/us/politics/ap-us-primary-rdp-the-latest.html"><b>The Latest: In Oklahoma, Republicans Ousted Over Teacher Pay</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 26, 2018.<br />
<br />
Briefing- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/29/briefing/29weeklynewsquiz.html"><b>News Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of the Week’s Headlines</b></a>, by Chris Stanford and Anna Schavverien, June 29, 2018. <br />
<br />
U.S.- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/27/us/ap-10-things-to-know-today.html"><b>10 Things to Know for Today</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/nyregion/joseph-crowley-party-boss-queens.html"><b>Crowley’s Loss Heralds an ‘End of an Era’: Last of the Party Bosses</b></a>, by J. David Goodman, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/27/us/politics/ap-us-primary-takeaways-.html"><b>Primary Takeaways: A Liberal Newcomer Ousts Top Dem Leader</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/politics/ice-immigration-eliminate-agency.html"><b>Agents Seek to Dissolve ICE in Immigration Policy Backlash</b></a>, By Ron Nixon, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/us/politics/ben-jealous-maryland-governor.html"><b>Ben Jealous ‘Just Climbed K2’ in Maryland Governor’s Race. Next Is Everest.</b></a> By Daniel Victor, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/28/us/politics/ap-us-congress-immigration-protest.html"><b>Hundreds Arrested in DC Protesting Trump Immigration Policy</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/29/us/politics/ap-us-trump.html"><b>Trump's on a Hot Streak: Court Rulings, Vacancy, Summit Plan</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York- New York Today: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/nyregion/new-york-today-who-won-the-primaries.html"><b>Who Won the Primaries</b></a>, by Jonathan Wolfe, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York- New York Today: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/nyregion/new-york-today-corpse-flowers.html"><b>Where the Corpse Flowers Bloom</b></a>, by Jonathan Wolfe, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
Briefing- Asia and Australia Edition/China, South Korea, Najib Razak: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/briefing/china-south-korea-najib-razak.html"><b>Your Thursday Briefing</b></a>, by Inyoung Kang, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/nyregion/donovan-grimm-republican-primary-congress.html"><b>Dan Donovan, Aided by Trump, Holds Off Michael Grimm in G.O.P. Primary</b></a>, by Shane Goldmacher, June 26, 2018.<br />
<br />
Briefing- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/briefing/maryland-supreme-court-russia.html"><b>Maryland, Supreme Court, Russia: Your Thursday Evening Briefing</b></a>, by Joumana Khatib and Marcus Payadue, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
Student Opinion- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/learning/summer-reading-contest-week-3-what-interested-you-most-in-the-times-this-week.html"><b>Summer Reading Contest, Week 3: What Interested You Most in The Times This Week?</b></a> By The Learning Network, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
U.S.- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/27/us/ap-us-trump-north-dakota.html"><b>Trump Dubs Heitkamp a 'Liberal Democrat,' Urges Her Defeat</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Briefing- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/briefing/supreme-court-disney-unions.html"><b>Supreme Court, Disney, Unions: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing</b></a>, by Joumana Khatib and Marcus Payadue, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Briefing- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/briefing/anthony-kennedy-immigration-world-cup.html"><b>Anthony Kennedy, Immigration, World Cup: Your Thursday Briefing</b></a>, By Chris Stanford, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
U.S.- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/migrant-shelters-ice-contracts-counties.html"><b>All Over U.S., Local Officials Cancel Deals to Detain Immigrants</b></a>, By Simon Romero, June 28, 2018.<br />
<br />
U.S. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/us/gender-letter-women-voices-high-pitched.html"><b>Gender Letter: What Should Women Sound Like?</b></a> By Jessica Bennett, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
Briefing- Europe Edition- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/briefing/supreme-court-migration-poland.html"><b>Supreme Court, Migration, Poland: Your Thursday Briefing</b></a>, by Dan Levin and Matthew Sedacca, June 27, 2018.<br />
<br />
Briefing- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/briefing/supreme-court-capital-gazette-sicario.html"><b>Supreme Court, Capital Gazette, ‘Sicario’: Your Friday Briefing</b></a>, by Chris Stanford, June 29, 2018. <br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/us/politics/primaries-henry-mcmaster-trump.html"><b>Trump Helps Boost Two Preferred Candidates While Progressive Democrats Gain</b></a>, by Jonathan Martin, June 26, 2018.<br />
<br />
New York- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/nyregion/new-york-today-world-cup.html"><b>New York Today: Where to Cheer, or Cry, During the World Cup</b></a>, by Jonathan Wolfe, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
Politics- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/29/us/politics/ap-us-immigration-separating-families-the-latest.html"><b>The Latest: ACLU Says Government Wrong to Detain Families</b></a>, by The Associated Press, June 29, 2018.<br />
<br />
Elections- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/26/us/elections/results-new-york-primary-elections.html"><b>New York Primary Election Results, by The New York Times</b></a>, June 28, 2018.</blockquote>
Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-33756448446527807342018-04-01T00:01:00.000-04:002018-04-01T00:01:06.922-04:00Reimagining Our Library Spaces: Where Once There Were Books There Will Now Be “Maker Rooms” To Be Named Appropriately After A Famous Hedge Funder and Presidential Candidate<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l_NPEJnHmyc/Wr_e7KdVc2I/AAAAAAAAJlY/UXidYfVOj58cFqD-K6l4k63m7rTPZ6YwACLcBGAs/s1600/A%2BNight%2Bof%2BBain%2BPhilosophy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="1549" height="227" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l_NPEJnHmyc/Wr_e7KdVc2I/AAAAAAAAJlY/UXidYfVOj58cFqD-K6l4k63m7rTPZ6YwACLcBGAs/s400/A%2BNight%2Bof%2BBain%2BPhilosophy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Major" changes are coming to Brooklyn's Gran Army Plaza Library with name changes to reflect the future and sponsorship</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Do you know about the <i>“Major”</i> changes they are making to our libraries, perhaps particularly as exemplified by the changes in the works at Brooklyn’s last central destination the library, known up to this point in time as the Grand Army Plaza (“GAP”) Library? The changes being made are so extensive that everything is getting renamed. The library won’t be called a “<i>library</i>” anymore, but an <i>“Information Center.”</i> Inside, all the rooms will be renamed after a hedge funder acclaimed for creating value through corporate restructurings who may yet run again successfully for president.<br />
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But first, speaking of holding elected office, did you know that Brooklyn Public Library is making a big thing about its announcement via BPL president Linda Johnson that the <i>GAP Library</i> is being renamed after <i>Major R. Owens</i> a librarian who went on to become a prominent, revered black congressman representing Brooklyn. Major Owens <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/nyregion/major-r-owens-congressman-who-championed-education-dies-at-77.html">died</a> in 2013. That was that <a href="https://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/12/when-did-plans-to-sell-libraries-plus.html">the year</a> that the BPL announced that it was starting to sell shrink and sacrifice libraries for real estate deals, <i>“the <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2013/02/what-libraries-are-affecting-by-city.html">most valuable ones first</a>,”</i> like the <i>Pacific Street Library</i> next to Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards and Brooklyn’s second-biggest library the central destination Brooklyn Height Library in Downtown Brooklyn also <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/09/forest-city-ratner-as-development.html">adjacent to</a> Forest City Ratner's property.<br />
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The changes being made at the formerly named GAP Library and the plans to now name it after Major Owens are the reason that the New York Times just ran an article descriptive of many of the changes (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/25/nyregion/brooklyn-library-major-owens.html">In Brooklyn, Modernizing a Library for Downloads and Robots</a>, by James Barron, March 25, 2018) that begins by recounting a dream Major Owens is said to have once had: <br />
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<i>Major R. Owens once dreamed that an alien spaceship had landed and that the creature that clambered out told the first person it encountered, “Take me to your librarian.” When the alien was brought to the library</i> [“information center”?], <i>his human guide pointed up and said, “look up in the sky, it’s a librarian, it’s a robot, it’s a . . . </i></blockquote>
Why should a dream about librarian-seeking aliens and robots commence a New York Times article about the how libraries are changing? It may seem far out, but good explanations will come to those who wait.<br />
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First, let’s talk about the rest of the visionary renaming of the spaces within the library. Lest the Major Owens renaming seem too populist or bookish, other spaces in the library will be renamed for achievements that more customarily get recognition in our society. The 42nd Street Library has now been renamed by the NYPL the “<i>Stephen A. Schwarzman Building</i>” (or the sassy sounding “SASB” for short). Mr. Schwarzman, still very much alive, is for anyone who doesn’t know, the head of the Blackstone Group and now the first Corporate CEO to pull in an annual income <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/02/library-selling-nypl-trustee-schwarzman.html">exceeding $1 billion</a>. Naming the “building” after Mr. Schwarzman is not only good for the burnishment of his brand, it inspires <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/01/nypls-presentation-of-its-master-plan.html">democracy</a> by helping to encourage everyone else to follow in his footsteps in being alert for ways to achieve similar wealth . . . And so that they too may have their exploits <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/01/nypls-presentation-of-its-master-plan.html">chronicled</a> by the likes of such famous authors as Jane Mayer.<br />
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The sassy SASB is the <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/01/nypls-presentation-of-its-master-plan.html">central jewel</a> of the NYPL system. The renaming of the spaces at the BPL’s central jewel, spaces at the GAP Library will be in a similar vein and may help another recognized financial wizard to burnish his brand, which means perhaps also helping him politically in the future. The name change will also help the BPL get across what it has to offer and the message it intends to send to its clients.<br />
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The BPL is focused on how to repurpose its library spaces for the 21st Century and the 22nd Century. “<i>We are looking to the future,</i>” says BPL president Ms. Johnson hardly suppressing her glee as she borrows the Buzz Lightyear phrase to say that with our library information centers we are headed “<i>To Infinity and Beyond!</i>” What does this mean? It means the new repurposed spaces will all meet the standards of what is called in the new jargon for transforming libraries, “<i>Makerspaces</i>.”<br />
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Here is more to let you know how exciting information center <i>makerspaces</i> can be if they are for young adults (<a href="http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2015/10/14/looking-to-create-a-makerspace-in-your-library-here-are-some-ideas/">from</a> the Young Adult Library Services Association): <br />
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<i>Makerspaces, sometimes also referred to as hackerspaces, hackspaces, and fablabs are creative, DIY </i>[“Do It Yourself”- exciting!] <i>spaces where people can gather to create, invent, and learn. The focus, actually, is on the type of learning that goes on, not the stuff. Making is about learning that is: interest-driven and hands-on and often supported by peer-to-peer learning. This is often referred to as connected learning. Also, you don’t need a set space to facilitate this type of learning. You can have pop up makerspaces at various library branches, afterschool programs, community centers, etc. Or you can set up a ‘maker cart’ that can travel anywhere in the library. Perhaps what your teens need most are maker backpacks that are stuffed with resources and activities they can do at home.*</i></blockquote>
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(* <b>NOTE:</b> "<i>At home</i>"- No expensive library space needed!)</blockquote>
Of course, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/everyone-is-a-maker/473286/">makerspaces</a> are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7FZhUle0R8&feature=youtu.be"><i>flexible</i></a> <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/04/building-murphy-library.html">spaces</a> so they can be a lot of things, and they don’t have to be for the youth. They are also intended for <a href="http://connect.ala.org/node/252071">adults</a>. Going back a few years, the BPL has already converted much of its space at the future Major R. Owens Information Center (MROIC <i>“pronounce it `More-ick’,”</i> suggests BPL PR officer David Woloch) into conference rooms that can be used by “makers” starting new businesses or needing “gateways to technological tinkering” for their work.<br />
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“<i>There was one problem with our makerspace efforts</i>,” said Ms. Johnson, <i>“but we have the solution now. The term `makerspace’ has been around far too long, since <a href="http://tascha.uw.edu/2014/06/libraries-makerspaces-a-revolution/">2006</a> when we were <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/12/when-did-plans-to-sell-libraries-plus.html">first telling</a> the public of big changes for our libraries. The term has lost its pizzazz. We like to keep mixing up the terminology so when we use so it always sounds fresh and convincing when we say we are doing future oriented things nobody has yet been able to conceptually grasp. `Makerspaces’ was the term back when we first introduced in alongside `STEM’ education. For excitement purposes we now often mix it up now by referring to `<a href="https://nc3t.com/stem-education/">STEM</a>’ a lot of the time to ‘<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/vince-bertram/stem-of-steam-were-missin_b_5031895.html">STEAM</a>’ education.”</i><br />
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Ms. Johnson then presented her big news: <i>“We have a brand new name for these makerspaces, and we do mean `brand.’ We will now be calling them `Romney spaces.’ That is honor of Mitt Romney when he was a presidential candidate so <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gvY2wqI7M">memorably differentiating</a> for us that our society is composed of `makers’ and ‘takers.’”</i> Ms. Johnson continued on to say that they had further refined to term that would usually be used to clearly indicate that upscale clientele they hoped to attract to the spaces should have <u><i>fun</i></u> in them by calling the spaces: <i>“Romney Romping Rooms.”</i><br />
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Ms. Johnson explained that affixing the <i>Romney</i> name to these spaces to highlight the <i>maker/taker</i> dichotomy would help her and the library in its mission a great deal. For instance, Johnson said that people often reacted negatively when articles like the one in the Times wrote sentences like<i> “among many other things, the plan for the central library calls for replacing two levels of old-fashioned `stacks,’”</i> Ms. Johnson said that if she could just more succinctly say they were doing away with all the <i>“taker”</i> spaces in the library she would get a better reaction. Henceforth all the space in the library not devoted to the <i>Romney Romping Rooms</i> will be designated and described as <i>“taker” spaces</i>.<br />
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Similarly, while doing a presentation for Open House New York the other day, architect Francine Houben, working for the NYPL to <a href="https://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/02/how-many-books-are-disappearing-from.html">remove books</a> from both the 42nd Street Central SASB library and the Mid-Manhattan Library (in a consolidating shrinkage) <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/03/open-house-new-york-hosts-nypl.html">got flack</a> for saying that <i>“stacks”</i> that could not be easily removed from the libraries and done away with at the whim of the trustees were <i>“problematic.”</i> Not surprisingly, the NYPL, in sync with the BPL and Queens Library, will also be dividing up their spaces into Romping Room spaces and <i>“taker”</i> spaces.<br />
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Much of the former GAP Library will be closed for many years to create the Romney Romping Rooms, but the BPL already has plans to ensure that they are a success when they open. The BPL will open them with a special overnight event. The BPL has already had several all night 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM nights of <i>“<a href="https://www.nightofphilosophyandideas.com/">Philosophy and Ideas</a>.”</i> Repeating this wonderful idea, the <i>“makers”</i> of Brooklyn will be invited to fill the Romney Romping Rooms for an all night inauguration.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coverage of a previous BPL philosophy night when attendees were not required to walk the tightrope of Bain Capital's prescribed philosophy </td></tr>
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<i>“Previously, we didn’t steer the ideas under discussion so much,”</i> said BPL spokesperson David Woloch, <i>“but in honor of bequeathment of the Romney name we will provide a focus this time.”</i> Mr. Woloch said that libraries are about <i>“information,”</i> and that being <i>“a `maker’ in a DIY, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps society is about capitalism”</i> so that putting the two together the focus for the evening would be virtues of <i>“information capitalism.”</i><br />
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Mitt Romney’s own Bain Capital has been gathering together some of the suggested reading material. Included is a selection from <a href="https://catalog.nypl.org/search">John E. Buschman’s</a> <i>“<a href="https://www.bklynlibrary.org/new-catalog">Dismantling the Public Sphere- Situating and Sustaining Librarianship In the Age of the New Public Philosophy</a>”</i> where he summarizes an overview of thinking from Frank Webster setting forth what he sees as the tenets of <i>“Information Capitalism.”</i> Although what was presented was intended by both those authors to be a critique of <i>“Information Capitalism,”</i> the executives at Bain thought it was a spectacularly well put description of what they believed in and ought to promulgate. Those tenets were summarized as follows: <br />
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• The ability to pay is now a major criterion determining provision of high-quality information.<br />
• Provision is made on the basis of private rather than public supply.<br />
• Market criteria are the primary factors in deciding what is made available.<br />
• Competition for funding (as opposed to a steady tax or tuition basis) is coming to be regarded as the appropriate mechanism for organizing the economics of librarianship.<br />
• Commodification of information is the norm.<br />
• Private information vs. public is favored.</blockquote>
Makers coming to spend the night to discuss <i>“information capitalism”</i> will be invited to bring and change into their pajamas. <i>“We think this will help us corral a lot more young people,”</i> says Woloch, <i>“something that’s very important to us.”</i> In addition, following its new principles the BPL now holds no events without <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/08/mostly-in-plain-sight-few-conscious.html">partnering with</a> private sector partners. In this case it will be partnering with Victoria's Secret and Flap Happy, another pajama manufacturer. Models from Victoria's Secret will stroll through the Romping Rooms modeling night lingerie, <i>“which should certainly help with our young male attendance”</i> says Woloch. The BPL is not breaking any new ground here: Britney Spears <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/britney-spears-unveils-lingerie-collection-731546">unveiled</a> her new lingerie collection in the Celeste Bartos Forum of the NYPL’s sassy SASB in 2014.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In 2014 Britney Spears <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/britney-spears-unveils-lingerie-collection-731546">howed off</a> her new lingerie (right) in the Celeste Bartos Forum of the NYPL’s sassy SASB (center) while the SASB stacks (left) were empty of books</td></tr>
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Flap Happy will be donating free pajamas for those who don’t bring their own. What kind? Rompers with feet of course. The Rompers will have the Bain Capital Logo embroidered above a (not so vintage?) Romney presidential campaign buttons. Bain is also partnering in the event and Flap Happy is one of the companies, now manufacturing in China, that has been through a Bain restructuring that stripped out excess value.<br />
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<i>“We expect we may start implementing modest charges to use the Romney Romping Rooms,”</i> confessed Ms. Johnson. <i>“Modest charges are a way of testing whether makers are really and truly real makers. . . plus it will serve to reduce the absurd cost and burden on society of maintaining libraries.”</i> Ms. Johnson says the charges, the kind of thing that was previewed by the BPL when it was turning over library space free of charge to <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2014/07/articles-and-information-about.html">Spaceworks</a>, a private company with good intentions like Bain, <i>“does not mean that we are privatizing the space.”</i><br />
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<i>“Our libraries have always been a public commons,”</i> says Ms. Johnson, <i>“but we are talking about ushering in the future and while the libraries continue as a commons in that future we understand that commons in terms of having evolved and kept pace with the future to become the neo-commons that makes sense today.”</i> <br />
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The Times article about the changes in the library tells us that Congressman and former librarian Major Owens was always referred to the <i>“Librarian in Congress”</i> a play on the <i>“Library of Congress.”</i> The BPL’s David Woloch is frank when he is asked about why the library is being named after Major Owens:<br />
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<i>Several reasons: There is the fact that Major Owens was black and we have to cover over and divert attention from <a href="https://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/12/who-is-hurt-most-when-libraries-are.html">how harmful</a> what we are doing to the libraries is, most particularly to <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-consideration-of-race-equality.html">people of color</a> and those who are not so very wealthy. Then there is the felicity of the name `Major.’ When you are consolidating and <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/11/drastically-reducing-manhattans-main.html">shrinking</a> <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/06/embarrassment-of-past-riches.html">libraries</a> it makes those libraries <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/07/deceptive-representations-by-new-york.html">seem bigger</a> if you can call them `Major.’ In fact, where we used to call this particular library the `central’ library, we are revising it to call it the system’s `major’ library, so it will be a `Major Major Library.’</i></blockquote>
<i>“I know that’s sort of Hellerish thing to do,”</i> Woloch told the Times reporter making sure reporter was <i>“Catch 22ing”</i> that he was making a <i>“literary allusion.”</i><br />
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Chris Owens, son of Major Owens, <a href="https://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/29/34/29_34owens.html">a musician, singer-song-writer</a>, politically active as a District Leader, former candidate for political office himself, and an activist who fought Atlantic Yards says he is not going to be fooled by the BPL naming anything after his father. He says: <br />
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<i>Anyone who accepts what they are doing to the libraries by <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/12/why-turning-libraries-into-real-estate.html">turning them into real estate deals</a> and <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/02/how-many-books-are-disappearing-from.html">eliminating books</a> with space conversions is getting `<u>booby prizes</u>.’ It’s unacceptable. My father was Democrat and nobody is going to allow his name to be wrapped around a bunch of Romney Romping Rooms named after a Republican looking to fleece the public. Now that the BPL has announced the intention to use my father’s name they’ve <u>booby-trapped</u> this for themselves because come time to cut ceremonial ribbons we will call them out on this.</i></blockquote>
Chris Owens went on to link it into the Atlantic Yards fight:<br />
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<i>We fought Atlantic Yards and we fought Bruce Ratner. We know that the first two most valuable libraries the BPL wanted to sell, Pacific and Brooklyn Heights were both adjacent to Ratner’s Forest City sites. We know that the person who prioritized those libraries for the BPL’s sale <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-multiplicity-of-scoops-astounding.html">came from</a> Forest City Ratner. We are not going along with any of this cover-up.</i></blockquote>
So why did the Times begin its article about what the modernization of a library by recounting a dream about <i>librarian-seeking aliens</i> and <i>robots</i>? Why were “<i>Robots</i>” referred to in the Times headline for the article?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BPL <i><a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/11/bpls-bklyn-bookmatch-match-for-human.html">robot librarians</a></i></td></tr>
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It was possible to refer to “<i>Robots</i>” in the headline because the article explained how the library makerspaces could now be used by makers to build robots. The BPL’s Woloch also bluntly explains there was another reason: <i>“We asked the Times to put `robots’ in the title of their article. People were regularly Googling to find a Noticing New York article about how the BPL is on the cutting edge of introducing <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/11/bpls-bklyn-bookmatch-match-for-human.html">robot librarians</a> to replace the real ones. Putting`robots’ in the title of the Times article helps divert attention when people are looking to find out how soon we might really be shifting to robots librarians.”</i><br />
<br />
But to be fair, there is real talk about using library `Romping’ spaces for various sorts of robots to roam. Architect Francine Houben, working for the NYPL, has suggested that the new central atrium of the soon to be renovated Mid-Manhattan Library will be an excellent place to test fly robotic drones before procuring a license to fly them outside, especially if sight lines are improved by the oft suggested removal of bookstacks. Such robot drone flying includes test flying swarms of <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2018/03/tomorrows-future-absurdities-today.html">new nano-robotic bees</a>.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zApAVUC6NhQ/Wr_Sb5wD9WI/AAAAAAAAJlI/gv1GaE0mgf8Z73YSJhtCM6C9jtzb_kCUwCLcBGAs/s1600/Mid-Manhattan%2BAtrium%2Bwith%2BDrones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="768" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zApAVUC6NhQ/Wr_Sb5wD9WI/AAAAAAAAJlI/gv1GaE0mgf8Z73YSJhtCM6C9jtzb_kCUwCLcBGAs/s400/Mid-Manhattan%2BAtrium%2Bwith%2BDrones.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Mid-Manhattan atrium space- According to architect Architect Francine Houben a perfect place to fly drones, even better if the book stacks are removed as suggested. </td></tr>
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Yes, it is possible to imagine a future where, when you visit a library, you will be met by a flying drone and, surprise, <i>it will be your librarian ready to serve you.</i> (Such flying robotic librarians would also solve <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/12/articles-about-library-privacy-and.html">surveillance challenges</a> in keeping track of what patrons read.)<br />
<br />
But why <u><i>aliens</i></u>? Does it seem creepy that everyone these days is suddenly always bringing up extraterrestrial aliens? <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/03/29/two-pilots-say-witnessed-ufo-while-flying-plane-above-arizona-audio-reveals.html">Fox News</a>, <a href="http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/03/13-reasons-to-believe-aliens-are-real.html">New York Magazine</a>, <a href="http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/sacred-rock/3686087?snl=1">Saturday Night Live</a>, even on the front page of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/science/ata-mummy-alien-chile.html">New York Times</a>? Is everyone having the same dream? Like in <i>“Close Encounters of the Third Kind”</i>?<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FA5J3_gMezg/WsAzlUFjDJI/AAAAAAAAJmQ/zc1aO5IqF-4GmWbBO5n3yvXlurKZUj-PgCLcBGAs/s1600/NY%2BTimes%2BAlien%2BIn%2BChile%2BDNA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="463" data-original-width="611" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FA5J3_gMezg/WsAzlUFjDJI/AAAAAAAAJmQ/zc1aO5IqF-4GmWbBO5n3yvXlurKZUj-PgCLcBGAs/s320/NY%2BTimes%2BAlien%2BIn%2BChile%2BDNA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Here is the creepy thing. The NYPL is selling the biggest science library in New York City (SIBL, the Science, Industry and Business Library) to the son of a librarian, a man who became wealthy beyond belief through his knowledge of <i>science</i>. The man leads a life like he is hell-bent desperate <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/01/as-nypl-senior-execs-present-pretty.html">to be written into</a> a James Bond novel, a feet of the world’s largest yachts, a fleet of vintage warplanes, building the largest airplane in the world, building a plane to go into space. His name is Paul Allen. Mr. Allen also had a sci-fi <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/01/as-nypl-senior-execs-present-pretty.html">sort of dream</a> that could relate to what a landing alien in the future might find if they land: <i>A dying or threatened civilization that can only save itself t it can find the trove of knowledge it needs</i>.<br />
<br />
What, additionally, is Mr. Allen spending his money on now besides privately acquiring NYC’s biggest science library? He is spending muti-millions of dollars on trying <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/02/24/heres-what-aliens-probably-look-like/">to discover</a> the extraterrestrial aliens out there! And now, just so you know, that is absolutely true, notwithstanding that this article has been an <i>April Fool’s article</i> written satirically for your amusement even as it riffs off far too much else that is unfortunately too, too true. (If you want to know how real such threats truly are to our libraries, go to <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/12/citizens-defending-libraries-main-page.html">Citizens Defending Libraries</a>, of which I am a co-founder, and there you will find facts galore.)<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kKdAkRIpcCQ/Wr_oBGdn3SI/AAAAAAAAJl0/smcgfHQ1JWAxW73a8srH83ZVwC9lPawQACLcBGAs/s1600/Now%2BNext%2BStrategic%2BPlan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1023" data-original-width="1600" height="204" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kKdAkRIpcCQ/Wr_oBGdn3SI/AAAAAAAAJl0/smcgfHQ1JWAxW73a8srH83ZVwC9lPawQACLcBGAs/s320/Now%2BNext%2BStrategic%2BPlan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Something more that is <i>true</i>: At the last Brooklyn Public Library trustees meeting on February 27, 2018, where trustees were given copies of the NYPL's the BPL's <a href="http://coreytegeler.com/bpl-now-next/#preface">updated "strategic plan"</a>, the creatively titled (but <i>hard to type</i>) "Now➔ Next." At the same time, the trustees were told that a substantial portion of the Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn’s biggest library would be closed for a long while the library is <i>“modernized”</i> and, as described by the Times, its stacks eliminated. What’s more, as was clear with what else the trustees were told the meeting there will be other libraries concurrently off-line: The central downtown Brooklyn Heights Library, once Brooklyn’s second biggest library and the only other central destination library is closed and now a hole in the ground as it is substantially shrunk, pushed more underground and its books largely eliminated as it is replaced by a supertall luxury tower (its Business, Career and Education Library has virtually disappeared), the Sunset Park Library will be shut down as it becomes a real estate project, construction will similarly put the <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/02/bpl-plans-to-move-brower-park-library.html">Brower Park Library</a> into the Children’s museum in another consolidating shrinkage, the Greenpoint Library too is getting `modernizing' construction. Creation of a DUMBO library as an <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/12/an-open-letter-regarding-brooklyn.html">experiment in teeny-weenyness</a> was supposed to pick up some slack, but the trustees were told they haven't yet found the teeny-weeny space for it. This will be as <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/03/open-house-new-york-hosts-nypl.html">Mid-Manhattan</a> the city’s largest circulating library is closed for <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2018/03/open-house-new-york-hosts-nypl.html">book-eliminating</a> <i>“modernization,”</i> the 42nd Street Central Library where books have been eliminated undergoes work and, as mentioned, SIBL, the city’s largest science library is sold to Mr. Allen, its science library eliminated.<br />
<br />
That said, in the spirit of April 1st let’s put just a few more last words in the mouth of BPL spokesperson David Woloch:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>In today’s day and age of the internet, the inconvenience of temporarily closed libraries matters less and we’ve steadily <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/09/empty-bookshelves-as-library-officials.html">removed</a> a lot of the books from the shelves ahead of time in tests that proved our conclusion about this to be true. These extended concurrent closures of library space will also help people forget what libraries were in the past while letting them get used to not having libraries in the present so that in the 21st Century future people won’t even know what they are missing when we reopen our doors of those spaces we have, for the time being, still kept, to experience our fabulous Romney Romping Rooms. Besides, in the interim, we are partnering to send our library patrons off to city museums with a new <a href="https://lowincomerelief.com/get-freebies-brooklyn-public-library-card/">“One-Pass” or "NYC culture Pass" Museum visit program</a>. This is great because Museums are themselves partnering with profit making partners seeking attention with sensational <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/met-hopes-for-big-rewards-with-pair-of-blockbuster-art-shows-1512054000">blockbuster</a> shows. Moreover, in the future, for greater efficiency and cost reduction we may further meld our infotainment institutions, so who knows what we will then be asking people to get used to or to do without.</i></blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0hGInKka2EU/Wr_m8405tcI/AAAAAAAAJlo/uvEy62_IvecTTnD4eR1MYqdd9zXxXpdvwCLcBGAs/s1600/BPL%2BTrustees%2Bhearing%2Babout%2Bthe%2Bculture%2Bpass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1083" data-original-width="1600" height="216" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0hGInKka2EU/Wr_m8405tcI/AAAAAAAAJlo/uvEy62_IvecTTnD4eR1MYqdd9zXxXpdvwCLcBGAs/s320/BPL%2BTrustees%2Bhearing%2Babout%2Bthe%2Bculture%2Bpass.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>For real: Linda John before the BPL trustees on February 27th ad they are told about a "culture pass" to send patrons to museums.</i></td></tr>
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<br />Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-90518891362171506402018-03-29T18:27:00.001-04:002018-03-30T11:26:27.132-04:00With No Irony, No Trepidation, The New York Times Publishes Story About Micro-Housing That Mimics Our April Fools' Story For 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s0veYT1Wtqw/Wr1nj_g9ASI/AAAAAAAAJiE/Mh2LTxg7hf41RvlhiWZfPY8lx2jl1MZlgCLcBGAs/s1600/April%2B1%2BNNY%2Band%2BDrainage%2BPipe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="881" data-original-width="1600" height="220" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s0veYT1Wtqw/Wr1nj_g9ASI/AAAAAAAAJiE/Mh2LTxg7hf41RvlhiWZfPY8lx2jl1MZlgCLcBGAs/s400/April%2B1%2BNNY%2Band%2BDrainage%2BPipe.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Come on everybody: The New York Times just ran an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/world/asia/hong-kong-housing-crisis-ideas.html">article about</a> "<i>extreme ideas</i>" for solving housing crisis problems that suggests people take up compact living in drainpipes . . . . .<br />
<br />
. . . . Didn't people read our Noticing New York article done for last April 1st?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
See: <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-giant-leap-forward-into-tiny-benefits.html">A Giant Leap Forward Into Tiny Benefits: Bloomberg Micro-Apartment Initiative Shrinkage Grows Under de Blasio, Saturday, April 1, 2017</a>.</blockquote>
At this rate what the heck are people going to be able to produce for April Fools' Day that will safely constitute genuine satire without the truth catching up too fast? Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-4259338778978727962018-01-29T19:27:00.000-05:002018-01-29T19:27:00.683-05:00Reporting About Multiple Troublesome Real Estate Deal Connections Between Presidential Son-In-Law/Advisor Jared Kushner and Presidential Advisor Stephen A. Schwarzman, New York Times & Press Overlook Connections, Including Library Sale<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oa5RElI7M1Y/Wm-4wq9ldyI/AAAAAAAAJUk/9cjV_gIXiVQkn3aRx2r6Sgu1lldW6JP9ACLcBGAs/s1600/Schwarzman%2Band%2BKushner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="955" data-original-width="1249" height="305" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oa5RElI7M1Y/Wm-4wq9ldyI/AAAAAAAAJUk/9cjV_gIXiVQkn3aRx2r6Sgu1lldW6JP9ACLcBGAs/s400/Schwarzman%2Band%2BKushner.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stephen Schwarzman and Jared Kushner <a href="https://www.google.com/search?biw=1280&bih=849&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=n7FvWtTNIJCdzwK6-ZigDQ&q=Schwarzman+Jared+Kushner&oq=Schwarzman+Jared+Kushner&gs_l=psy-ab.3...48301.54711.0.55443.19.15.3.0.0.0.105.1122.14j1.15.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.3.163...0i24k1j0i10i24k1.0.inRPxkJAVtI#imgrc=uIVopPX4X6h7cM:">captured in black tie</a> together in 2007 around the time the Donnell Library sale was being concocted. Schwarzman with Trump running his economic forum where the public infrastructure he wants to privatize was discussed. Graph information about the benefit Schwarzman's Blackstone is getting from a Kushner-negotiated deal with Saudi Arabia for selling American infrastructure and where public employee pension fund money is being taken from to benefit the Trump family. New York Magazine dubs Kushner the nepotistic "<i>President-In-Law</i>." </td></tr>
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Last August when the New York Times reported on the economic benefits of being politically connected to Donald Trump as president (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/19/business/the-benefits-of-standing-by-the-president.html">The Benefits of Standing by the President</a>, by Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Ben Protess and Michael Corkery, August 19, 2017) it came up with an impressive seemingly one-stop-shopping list of real estate deal connections between presidential son-in-law/advisor Jared Kushner and presidential advisor Stephen A. Schwarzman, the head of the Blackstone Group. Of course, the bigger topic lurking was conflicts of interest.<br />
<br />
As impressive as the list was when compiled, the question is <i>what did it still leave out</i>? One thing it left out was the a library shrink-and-sink deal, the sale of the <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/12/donald-trump-whose-son-in-law-was-in-on.html">Donnell Library</a> once owned by the NYPL, for a <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/06/real-estate-deal-revelations-in-scott.html">minuscule fraction</a> of its <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/04/whats-wrong-with-these-numbers-baccarat.html">value</a> in what was <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/10/snowden-booz-and-dismantling-of.html">essentially a no-bid transaction</a> arranged in secret.<br />
<br />
Here are the Kushner/Schwarzman transactions the New York Times listed in their article that day: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• In 2013, (before Mr. Trump was a candidate), Blackstone financed the purchase of warehouses and industrial buildings by Mr. Kushner’s family company.<br />
<br />
• Blackstone also made a loan, which has since been paid off, to Kushner Companies on a Rector Street property (2 Rector Street) in Manhattan.<br />
<br />
• In the summer of 2016, an entity controlled by Blackstone lent $376 million to Mr. Kushner’s company to purchase a large property in Brooklyn that the Jehovah’s Witnesses had operated for many years.<br />
<br />
• Separately, Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, invested up to $500,000 in a fund that Blackstone manages. <br />
<br />
• Mr. Kushner urged the staff at his Commercial Observer newspaper, to place Jon Gray, the senior Blackstone executive at Blackstone who runs Blackstone’s real estate business, higher on its list of “Power 100” real estate executives and in 2016, Mr. Gray was No. 1 on that list. (Blackstone is the largest commercial real estate investor in the world.)</blockquote>
And adding context, consider which is most important:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka, attended what many described as the obscenely lavish <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/business/dealbook/stephen-schwarzman-palm-beach-party-trump.html">70th birthday party</a> Mr. Schwarzman held for himself in February 2017 at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., near Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.<br />
<br />
• Mr. Schwarzman speaks with Mr. Trump as much as once a week, typically (the Times tells us) “<i>about the economy though also about social policy</i>.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• When the national economic policy forum that Trump had created and put Schwarzman in charge of imploded following Trump's <a href="https://qz.com/1189777/a-supermoon-and-total-lunar-eclipse-will-coincide-for-the-first-time-in-152-years/">embarrassing</a> racist<span class="st"> Charlottesville</span><i> </i>comments, Schwarzman <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/business/trumps-council-ceos.html">called</a> Jared Kushner to give Trump a heads-up. Then, with the panel not yet announcing it was disbanding, Trump tried to claim it was his initiative. (<i>Infrastructure</i> had been a key topic for the forum's moguls.)</blockquote>
A few months before the Times article, Bloomberg News zeroed in on the Kushner Schwarzman connections. See: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-26/the-kushners-the-saudis-and-blackstone-behind-the-recent-deals">Kushners' Blackstone Connection Put on Display in Saudi Arabia</a>, by Caleb Melby and Hui-yong Yu, May 25, 2017.<br />
<br />
The Bloomberg article was far more direct in how it linked a <i>$20 billion Saudi investment</i> in Schwarzman’s Blackstone not just to Trump, but specifically to Jared Kushner and to a <i>$110-billion arms sale</i> to the country Kushner concurrently negotiated to the country noting that Schwarzman was with Kushner and Trump in Arabia when these deals were negotiated:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>When Saudi Arabia announced last week a $20-billion investment in a U.S. infrastructure fund managed by Blackstone Group LP, many noticed that it came shortly after presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner personally negotiated a $110-billion arms sale to the country. What went unnoticed -- and is largely unknown -- is how important Blackstone is to the Kushner family company.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Since 2013, Blackstone has loaned more than $400 million to finance four Kushner Cos. deals -- two of which have not been reported -- making it one of the business’s largest lenders. And their ties go beyond the loans. Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone’s co-founder and chief executive officer, heads Trump’s business-advisory council and was in Riyadh with the president and Kushner. The Saudi promise to invest in Blackstone’s fund drove the firm’s stock up more than 8 percent.</i></blockquote>
The Bloomberg article thoughtfully included a chart to make explicit how much Blackstone stock had gone up when Blackstone nailed, as the Times described it, “<i>one of the biggest deals on Wall Street this year</i>.”<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KYRl2lRmKA4/Wm902mDp7UI/AAAAAAAAJUU/3EQ665NDjDk0vxjZL-KJaO3QTv1WHzgVQCLcBGAs/s1600/Blackstone%2BPrice%2BSoars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="800" height="211" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KYRl2lRmKA4/Wm902mDp7UI/AAAAAAAAJUU/3EQ665NDjDk0vxjZL-KJaO3QTv1WHzgVQCLcBGAs/s400/Blackstone%2BPrice%2BSoars.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
By contrast to the earlier Bloomberg article, the<i> triple-bylined</i> Times article somehow neglected to mention the stunningly huge Kushner-negotiated arms deal at all, a deal which has all sort of implications given that Saudi Arabia is currently <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/12/15/us_backed_saudi_bombing_of_yemen">busily using</a> its U.S. supplied arms to bomb and cut off food and water to the people of Yemen. It’s not exactly fair to think that this arms deal is even hinted at by Times statements that, <i>“Other deals involving chief executives with ties to Mr. Trump were announced during his visit to Saudi Arabia”</i> or <i>“In all, there were more than 40 signed agreements between Saudi Arabia and largely American corporations, including General Electric and the defense contractor Lockheed Martin.”</i> Nor should we be expected to cleverly discern the information when being told that the <i>“guest list”</i> for the business meeting that the “<i>Saudis scrambled to put together . . on the same weekend as Mr. Trump’s visit</i>” included “<i>an oil executive, defense contractors and a college president</i>.” <br />
<br />
Given that the Bloomberg article had let the cat out of the bag covering the major points of the Kushner/Schwarzman real estate relations <i>in May</i>, the toned-down write up by the Times of essentially the same facts <i>in August</i> almost comes across as damage control together with a dutiful checking of the box for the paper of record obligated to cover what is obviously major news. Much of the Times article equivocally explained that there may or may not be indications of quid pro quo in Schwarzman’s and Kushner’s dealings and it almost sounds like an <i>apology</i> for Mr. Schwarzman being in Riyadh to say that:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Dozens of chief executives from across the United States faced pressure over the meeting. Some of them, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they had felt they had no choice but to go if they wanted to do business in Saudi Arabia.</i></blockquote>
The Times article takes a sort of have your cake and eat it too approach, one that’s almost schizoid, about whether it is truly suggesting to its readers that there is anything bad about economic benefits that flow from being politically close to Trump and Kushner. (With multiple bylines pastiched did some reporters <i>have cake</i> while others <i>ate it</i>?) The article quotes Schwarzman furnishing this profundity: <i>“Public service is a core value for people of my generation . . . It’s a great privilege to be asked to help the country — even if it occasionally comes with some degree of criticism.”</i><br />
<br />
The article also includes comments about Mr. Schwarzman from <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/09/really-wylde-new-ny-federal-reserve.html">Kathryn S. Wylde</a>, the president of the Partnership for New York City, a regular go-to person for quotes who can be depended upon to say nice things about powerful people. Sinking any last possibility that the article’s ambiguity doesn’t do its job the article contains this direct statement: <i>“There is no suggestion that Blackstone did anything wrong.”</i><br />
<br />
Nevertheless, the Times probably figured that they were leaving a sufficient trail of crumbs for any readers priding themselves on being astute about such things to read between the lines and between the ambiguity and the denials. That includes those readers who would intuit the sort quid pro quo they consider abominable, as well as those eager to know what Mr. Kushner and Mr. Schwarzman are up to so that they can keep up with the competition and abreast of the latest tactics and status of what people can get away with.<br />
<br />
The Bloomberg article writing about how <i>“the sequence of the deals and the intertwined personal relationships of the principals raise concerns about conflicts of interest”</i> is also different from the Times in that the Bloomberg article reported on <i>the lack of transparency</i>. It said that of the <i>“$400 million to finance four Kushner Cos. deals”</i> that Blackstone has loaned since 2013, two <i>“have not been reported.”</i> More specifically, that Blackstone <i>“was quietly financing two Kushner endeavors,”</i> that although documents didn’t show it, Blackstone was among the project lenders giving Kushner an <i>“$88 million loan for the property at 2 Rector St.,”</i> and that a <i>“similar arrangement enabled Kushner Cos.’ purchase of five Jehovah’s Witnesses warehouse and printing buildings”</i> and <i>“again, Blackstone was among the undisclosed partners.”</i><br />
<br />
This lack of transparency is an essential ingredient of the story. It should not be glossed over. It was wrong for the Times to neglect to mention it.<br />
<br />
In May the Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.businessinsider.nl/jared-kushner-ties-george-soros-goldman-sachs-peter-thiel-1-billion-loan-2017-5/?international=true&r=US">reported</a> how Kushner improperly didn’t disclose (just forgot to?) business ties and <i>$1 billion in loans</i> he owed with <i>“personal guarantees to pay more than $300 million of that.”</i> (See: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-adviser-jared-kushner-didnt-disclose-startup-stake-1493717405">Trump Adviser Kushner’s Undisclosed Partners Include Goldman and Soros- Investments show ties to major finance and technology names</a>, by Jean Eaglesham, Juliet Chung and Lisa Schwartz, May 3, 2017)<br />
<br />
More specifically (and the list below includes <i>Blackstone</i> declining to comment):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Lenders to Mr. Kushner, either directly or via properties he co-owns, include Bank of America Corp. , Blackstone Group LP, Citigroup Inc., UBS Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. Royal Bank of Scotland didn’t respond to requests for comment; representatives of the other firms declined to comment. </i></blockquote>
The Times did eventually report <i>separately</i> about Kushner’s lack of disclosure (<i>separately</i> is not such a good thing), but in another example of the Times lagging months behind, it was finally reporting only <i>in November</i> about non-disclosures previously reported by others. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The potential conflicts extend from the cabinet to the West Wing. Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, an adviser whose portfolio ranges from Middle Eastern peace to government technology, revealed over the summer that he had failed to disclose dozens of assets on his initial government ethics forms.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i> “It is precisely because we have extraordinarily wealthy individuals running the government that we have no way of knowing what the conflicts of interest really are,” said Gary Kalman, executive director of the FACT Coalition, a network of anti-corruption groups. “They use complex structures to hide their money, both domestically and abroad.”</i></blockquote>
See: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/us/politics/trump-appointees-conflicts-of-interest.html?_r=0">Too Rich for Conflicts? Trump Appointees May Have Many, Seen and Unseen</a>, by Nicholas Confessore, November 10, 2017.<br />
<br />
Another layer texturing the information about the $20 billion Saudi investment in Blackstone is that the money is seed money for deals to <i>privatize American public assets</i>. So you can bet that $20 Billion will be generating scads of spin-off deals. Those deals may not benefit the American public, in fact you can expect them to diminish the public domain and the wealth of what is publicly owned, but beneficiaries like Jared Kushner are not likely to be far away. The sale of the Donnell Library in which Kushner and Schwarzman each participated on opposite ends of the transaction, was essentially a prototype for the kind of selling off of public property that we ought to anticipate Saudi/Blackstone funds will be used for. The Blackstone fund is looking <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-26/the-kushners-the-saudis-and-blackstone-behind-the-recent-deals">to mobilize</a> “<i>more than $100 billion of purchasing power for infrastructure projects</i>.”<br />
<br />
There is more texturing to the Blackstone/Kushner/Saudi/Military arms deals to consider if you think about that how <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/open-secret-saudi-arabia-israel-get-cozy-n821136">tight</a> the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/covert-israeli-saudi-arabia-relations-171120142229835.html">behind-the-scenes</a> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42094105">alliance</a> <a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/06/05/israel-gcc-alliance-shall-named/">has been</a> between the Saudis and the Israelis. The same trip Trump and Kushner took in May going to Saudi Arabia also involved <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/05/22/why-trumps-flight-from-saudi-arabia-to-israel-is-such-a-big-deal/?utm_term=.2b8421fb836c">flying directly</a> to stop in Israel next. The Times noted more recently about that stop in Israel:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Last May, Jared Kushner accompanied President Trump, his father-in-law, on the pair’s first diplomatic trip to Israel, part of Mr. Kushner’s White House assignment to achieve peace in the Middle East.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Shortly before, his family real estate company received a roughly $30 million investment from Menora Mivtachim, an insurer that is one of Israel’s largest financial institutions, according to a Menora executive.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The deal, which was not made public, pumped significant new equity into 10 Maryland apartment complexes controlled by Mr. Kushner’s firm.</i></blockquote>
(See: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/07/business/jared-kushner-israel.html">Kushner’s Financial Ties to Israel Deepen Even With Mideast Diplomatic Role</a>, by Jesse Drucker, January 7, 2018.) <br />
<br />
When the New York Times finally got around to reporting about the nondisclosure of potential conflicts of interest by Kushner on his ethics forms and other Trump advisor/associate ’s business engagements that are generating potential conflicts of interest, it reported that among the investments Mr. Kushner initially failed to publicly disclose was a real estate technology start-up called <i>Cadre</i>. <br />
<br />
According to PR <a href="https://www.builtinnyc.com/2017/04/05/cadre-disrupting-real-estate-nyc">published</a> on the web, Ryan Williams, the “<i>co-founder</i>” and face of Cadre, a young (<a href="https://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/day-in-the-life-of-ryan-williams/">29-year-old</a>) black fellow from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who came from Goldman Sachs, had just recently started working at Blackstone’s real estate private equity group when he started <i>“thinking about a new endeavor — disrupting the real estate industry at large,”</i> i.e. starting Cadre. He says that Blackstone had <i>“approached him about working in their real estate group given his technology experience.”</i> (See: <a href="https://www.builtinnyc.com/2017/04/05/cadre-disrupting-real-estate-nyc">How this 50-person startup is planning to completely transform the real estate industry</a>, by Taylor Majewski, April 5, 2017.)<br />
<br />
As “<i>Thrive Capital</i>” Jared Kushner and his brother Joshua Kushner <a href="https://nypost.com/2016/01/26/real-estate-startup-cadre-raises-whopping-50m/">are</a> backers and strategic advisers to Cadre. Cadre’s offices <a href="https://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/day-in-the-life-of-ryan-williams/">are in</a> the Kushner owned Puck Building. In other words they are very much involved.<br />
<br />
In a March 1, 2017 <a href="https://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/day-in-the-life-of-ryan-williams/">Real Deal article</a> (Trump assumed the presidency January 2017) Ryan Williams explained his closeness with the Kushner brothers, styling himself as a metaphorical third brother:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Every day, I speak with Josh Kushner. Josh, an investor through Thrive Capital, brings his tech domain expertise. He played an incredible role early on helping to seed us and give us the capital to build the business. Josh and Jared are both like brothers to me. Jared was an adviser and not involved operationally day to day. He was always a great sounding board for us.</i></blockquote>
Assessing this undisclosed close business relationship that Jared has with his brother Josh, it is worth bearing in mind that when Jared Kushner wanted to contend that he was taking appropriate steps to deal with his conflicts of interest he <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/jared-kushners-trumpian-divestment-strategy">transferred</a> some of his questionable assets to brother Joshua and to a trust overseen by his mother. Such laughably useless gestures are the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/09/media/jared-kushner-new-york-observer/index.html">family M.O.</a> when it comes to ‘<i>resolving</i>’ conflicts of interest with Donald Trump putting his own business interests in the hands of his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. Ivanka, Trump’s daughter and Jared’s wife, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/us/politics/ivanka-trump-and-jared-kushner-still-benefiting-from-business-empire-filings-show.html">similarly retains</a> the benefits of her business “<i>empire</i>” through such trust and close family relationships.<br />
<br />
The Times has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/opinion/donald-trumps-caldron-of-conflicts.html">editorially worried</a> that the Saudi Arabian government might try to <i>exercise influence</i> over Donald Trump through companies that Trump Organization recently established in that country wanting to do real estate deals there. Meanwhile, one of the Trump Saudi trip deals, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/06/stephen-schwarzman-man-making-deals-to.html">unveiled concurrently</a> with the Schwarzman infrastructure privatization investment and the arming of the Saudis, was for the Saudis to put $100 million into the hands of Ivanka for a “<i>new foundation</i>” she was proposing.<br />
<br />
When quid pro quo arrangements (possibly illegal) are <i>bilateral</i>, i.e. people connected by being each on one side of a single transaction, it is easier to conceptualize, comprehend and identify them. When organizations are huge, diffuse and ubiquitous, identifying problematic conflicts of interest can be much more challenging. Some people think it’s sufficient to conclude that the system is defective if you know powerful players view themselves as all being in the same club looking out for each other. Maybe so, but with multiple players and possible combination there are a lot of variations in between the simple <i>bilateral</i> and the <i>`we are all in the same club'</i> mentality. They can be very hard to spot. <br />
<br />
When Connecticut Governor John Rowland resigned in 2004 in a bribery scandal one of the bribery schemes that was uncovered was an exceedingly difficult to detect <i>three-way</i>: Bribing the governor <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2004/03/18/nyregion/buyer-of-rowland-s-condo-to-plead-guilty-to-giving-false-tax-information.html">by having</a> an antiques dealer pay him nearly twice the legitimate value when purchasing a condominium from him, while one step removed, that overpayment was funded and reimbursed by a business man who had <a href="http://www.countytimes.com/news/a-plea-of-guilty-by-wayne-pratt/article_608f52f4-aa9e-57d2-8bc8-5d5ee04387d0.html">the real interest</a> in bribing the governor buying antiques from the dealer at an inflated price. <br />
<br />
How do you spot these things, or know with any certainty when they <i>have</i> or <i>have not</i> happened?<br />
<br />
Back in May WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz produced a story alerting the public to another business deal partner quietly helping to fund Jared Kushner projects, an outfit called CIM Group, a private equity company based in Los Angeles. (See: <a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/trump-kushner-little-known-business-partner/">Trump and Kushner’s Little-Known Business Partner</a>, May 25, 2017)<br />
<br />
The story told how “<i>CIM has done at least seven real estate deals that have benefited Trump and the people around him, including Kushner</i>.” These include: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Kushner’s $340 million purchase of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower (<i>“one of the biggest real estate transactions in Brooklyn history”</i>).<br />
<br />
• The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/06/us/politics/donald-trump-soho-settlement.html?_r=0">trouble plagued</a> Trump SoHo that <a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/ivanka-donald-trump-jr-close-charged-felony-fraud/">could have</a> gotten Trump family members <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-ivanka-trump-and-donald-trump-jr-avoided-a-criminal-indictment">criminally indicted</a> that CIM rescued with “<i>a reported $85 million lifeline</i>.” (Family investors include Donald Trump and his children Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr.)<br />
<br />
• 200 Lafayette Street, an office building.<br />
<br />
• 2 Rector Street, an office building.<br />
<br />
• 85 Jay Street, a parking lot in Brooklyn, (“<i>for an eye-popping $345 million</i>.”) </blockquote>
The story raises a slew of concerns about CIM’s trustworthiness and its interest in influencing politicians including with donation of “<i>tens of thousands of dollars to a series of statewide political action committees</i>.” It quotes Konrad Putzier, a reporter for the Real Deal magazine saying that “<i>CIM stands out as being very secretive</i>.” It quotes Laurent Morali, the present president of the Kushner Companies saying of CIM that they “<i>can work through complicated situations, are thorough and strategic</i>.”<br />
<br />
The story sniffs around for the traditional <i>bilateral</i> sort of quid-pro-quo concerns saying that the “<i>full extent of CIM’s government ties is not known</i>,” while telling us that public disclosure documents show that CIM “<i>received annualized rent of $37.7 million from the General Services Administration and other federal agencies</i>” and that it has “<i>pursued an array of lucrative government contracts, pension investments, lobbying interests, and a global infrastructure fund, all of whose fortunes could benefit from a Trump presidency</i>.”<br />
<br />
And the article reports that CIM has gotten a great deal of its money from public pension funds. This, with concerns of pay-to-play overtones when political donations are made, is something that Schwarzman’s Blackstone has also been <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/10/plutocratic-class-warrior-stephen.html">involved in</a>. WYNC links to the information that public employee pension funds in at least <i>seven states</i> (California, New York, Texas, Arizona, Montana, Michigan and Missouri) <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-hotel-exclusive/exclusive-a-new-york-hotel-deal-shows-how-some-public-pension-funds-help-to-enrich-trump-idUSKBN17S13O">have invested in</a> a CIM fund benefitting Trump and his family. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DBBA1cQLW-Y/Wm9zYhDutpI/AAAAAAAAJUI/mXPZAbpANSsR_S_HVC0oM_07oqRmRPpIgCLcBGAs/s1600/Seven%2BStates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1088" data-original-width="1590" height="272" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DBBA1cQLW-Y/Wm9zYhDutpI/AAAAAAAAJUI/mXPZAbpANSsR_S_HVC0oM_07oqRmRPpIgCLcBGAs/s400/Seven%2BStates.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Reuters, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-hotel-exclusive/exclusive-a-new-york-hotel-deal-shows-how-some-public-pension-funds-help-to-enrich-trump-idUSKBN17S13O">seven states</a> where the money from public employee pension funds is going to help the Trump family. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As noted, WNYC was sniffing for problematic overly-cozy <i>bilateral</i> arrangements.<br />
<br />
Here is something more to think about- Schwarzman’s Blackstone also does business with CIM. Blackstone did the following two deals (reported in 2017) with the CIM Group that could be viewed as infusing cash into the business:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Blackstone Real Estate Partners <a href="http://news.theregistrysf.com/blackstone-buyer-211-main-san-francisco-312mm/">bought</a> 211 Main Street, an office building in San Francisco from CIM for $312.9 million or $750 per square foot, according to sources that were aware of the sale. CIM reportedly acquired the property in 2009 for <i>$113 million</i>. (“<i>Blackstone declined to comment when contacted for this story</i>.” March 29, 2017)<br />
<br />
• The Blackstone Group provided a $360 million loan to CIM Group to finance 1440 Broadway according to a December 21, 2017 <a href="https://therealdeal.com/2017/12/21/cim-group-scores-360m-loan-for-1440-broadway/">article</a> in the Real Deal.</blockquote>
Conflicts of interest in government are a diminishment of the public realm because they mean, by definition, that decisions being made are slanted to be more beneficial to private interests than to the public whom government officials are supposedly in office to serve. The idea that the public realm is susceptible to being sold off is what then makes infrastructure deals, selling off publicly owned American infrastructure, just as Schwarzman’s fund is setting up to do, such juicy attractions for the greedy. The <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/11/priorities-to-be-replicated-private.html">private plundering</a> of the Donnell Library with Kushner on one side and, on the other, Schwarzman in a position of public trust as an NYPL trustee, is a prime example of just how heinously detrimental to the public the <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/06/picture-video-gallery-opening-ceremony.html">looting</a> of its assets can be. . . But we are increasingly at the mercy of those in power who would seek to enrich themselves by diminishing the public realm, claiming its various dismantled parts as their own territory.<br />
<br />
One final symbolic irony, perhaps even an irony that’s forcefully intended: In 2011 a new slogan was raised, a cry adopted and resonating across the country, recognizing the public as the “<i>the 99%</i>” while power and wealth were being wielded with increasing destructiveness by the “<i>1%</i>.” It was raised by Occupy Wall Street a protest movement that took to the street and seized Zucotti Park in New York City in order to be publicly heard and seen. Zucotti Park was once named <i>Liberty Plaza Park</i>, before it was renamed in honor of a real estate lawyer. . .<br />
<br />
I’ve <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-and-banks-messages.html">written previously</a> in Noticing New York about how Zucotti Park and its occupation directly raised the question of the public realm and how we are shrinking the public domains both physical and cultural that the public is still permitted to occupy.<br />
<br />
Although Zucotti Park is dedicated and supposed to be <i>for the public</i>, it is technically <i>privately owned</i> by an adjacent property that got zoning bonuses for providing the public with the park. Ever since Occupy Wall Street was <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2011/11/times-editorial-page-quandary-after-hes.html">forcible evicted</a> from the park, tight private ownership control has been exercised over the park to ensure that such meaningfully expressive protests don’t erupt there again. The latest news about Zucotti: Schwarzman’s Blackstone acquired <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/12/04/blackstone-has-contract-to-buy-49-percent-of-one-liberty-plaza/">49% ownership</a>* of it and the adjacent building. A trophy intended to be symbolic of someone’s victory?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(* <b>NOTE:</b> If you know real estate, you know the various structures whereby 49% can be actual control.)</blockquote>
Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-22074369090543659942017-12-24T15:31:00.001-05:002017-12-24T15:31:57.343-05:00This Year’s Seasonal Reflection: Yes We Are Now Living In Ratnerville, Locally and Nationally, And Yet We Hope And Work Towards Something Different<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3YYGwsLELbc/WixlSUcS4zI/AAAAAAAAJI0/fvfaNXktUagLh4CyEK_j35IkR9_R1JfpQCLcBGAs/s1600/ItsAWonderfulRatnerville.gif" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="263" data-original-width="350" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3YYGwsLELbc/WixlSUcS4zI/AAAAAAAAJI0/fvfaNXktUagLh4CyEK_j35IkR9_R1JfpQCLcBGAs/s400/ItsAWonderfulRatnerville.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From our Thursday, December 24, 2009, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-eve-story-of-alternative.html">A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville),</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Every year since 2009 Noticing New York has engaged in the tradition of a seasonal reflection post as we reach the cusp of the new year.<br />
<br />
The theme, borrowed from "<i>Its' a Wonderful Life</i>," has been that if enough is not done to oppose greed and the usurpation of our public commons and community we wind up living in "<i>Pottersville</i>," the fictional <a href="http://nationalnotice.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-good-news-is-that-there-are-books.html">dystopian</a> town that Bedford Falls became when the selfish banker Henry Potter (not Harry Potter) took it over when men who could not keep their spirit and will to fight alive let the greed triumph.<br />
<br />
The theme has been that in the real world the fictional "<i>Pottersville</i>" is an all too real "<i>Ratnerville</i>." That's "<i>Ratnerville</i>," as in Forest City Bruce Ratner taking over the entirety of a neighborhood for a monopolistically controlled megadevelopment. Or you may recognize it equally well today as "<i>Jared-Kushnerville</i>" another New York City Developer, or recognize it by the name of Kushner's father-in-law, Donald Trump the nation's Distractor In Chief who also fledged in this city's real estate industry: That would make it "<i>Trumpville</i>." Indeed, isn't that what we have as every wish and every good instinct of the public is ignored so that the greedy can grab more for themselves?<br />
<br />
Isn't that exactly what he have when among the self-serving deals Trump <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/06/stephen-schwarzman-man-making-deals-to.html">put in his basket</a> visiting Saudi Arabia this year was <i>$20 billion</i> to be invested with Stephen Schwarzman's Blackstone Group for privatizing America's public assets?<br />
<br />
As we commiserate about what is happening nationally, commiserate that it has been a terrible year of seizures, it is important to remember how interconnected what happens on the national level is with what is happening here locally in New York City, how much of what is national was nurtured to awful fullness by this city's real estate industry. A review of Noticing New York's seasonal reelections of years past reflects this.<br />
<br />
Among other things, <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/01/who-is-jared-kushner-trumps-son-in-law.html">Jared Kushner</a> and <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/12/more-on-privatization-of-libraries-and.html">Stephen Schwarzman</a> (aside from other deals they have been involved in together) have both been involved in selling off our New York City libraries. That too has implications building upon implications, including national ones.<br />
<br />
<b><i>As for keeping our spirits up and keeping up the fight?</i></b>: One thing that involves is staying informed plus making sure that others can stay and get informed, and that is one reason fighting to save our public libraries is a critical fight that will give us leverage to win more of these fights to regain our beloved figurative Bedford Falls in the future. If you click and use the link available here to visit <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/">Citizens Defending Librarie</a>s you will be one of the first to visit the new <b><a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/">Citizens Defending Libraries main web page</a></b>. It's subject to some refinement and upgrading that you'll see in over the next days, but it is a good way to start the new year. It may also be surprising to read there about how interconnected the library fight is to everything else we may be thinking about in term of regaining <i>Bedford Falls</i>.<br />
<br />
Here are links to the prior Noticing New York ventures into seasonal
reflection where you can read: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Thursday, December 24, 2009, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-eve-story-of-alternative.html">A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville)</a>,<br />
<br />
• Friday, December 24, 2010, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/12/revisiting-classic-seasonal-tale.html">Revisiting a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Saturday, December 24, 2011, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/12/traditional-christmas-eve-revisit-of.html">Traditional
Christmas Eve Revisit of a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville, the Real
Life Incarnation of the Abhorred Pottersville</a>,<br />
<br />
• Monday, December 24, 2012, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2012/12/while-i-tell-of-yuletide-treasure.html">While I Tell of Yuletide Treasure</a>,<br />
<br />
• Tuesday, December 24, 2013, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-seasonal-reflection-assessing.html">A Seasonal Reflection: Assessing Aspirations Toward Alternate Realities- 'Tis A Tale of Two Alternate Cities?</a>.,<br />
<br />
Wednesday, December 24, 2014, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/12/seasonal-reflections-no-matter-how.html">Seasonal Reflections: No Matter How Fortunate or Not, We Are All Equal, Sharing a Common Journey</a> <br />
<br />
• Thursday, December 24, 2015, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/12/seasonal-reflection-mayor-de-blasio-his.html">Seasonal
Reflection: Mayor de Blasio, His Heart Squeezed Grinch-Small, Starts
Gifting Stolen Libraries To Developers For The Holidays</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Saturday, December 24, 2016, <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/12/noticing-new-yorks-annual-seasonal.html">Noticing New York's Annual Seasonal Reflection</a></blockquote>
One must keep one's fighting spirit up. Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-4352356109790340902017-10-27T19:32:00.000-04:002017-10-27T19:32:29.645-04:00Appellate Court Hearing on View-Blocking Brooklyn Bridge Park Development: Who Knew What And When As A Community Needed Protection? (In the audience Mr. Gutman nods.)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cz8UfwTUr68/WfOxZXjns9I/AAAAAAAAJEM/oPBMr2XRLSUn4WkrWYXaXywc6_T3sPsBwCLcBGAs/s1600/After%2BHearing%2BGutman%2Band.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="640" height="297" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cz8UfwTUr68/WfOxZXjns9I/AAAAAAAAJEM/oPBMr2XRLSUn4WkrWYXaXywc6_T3sPsBwCLcBGAs/s400/After%2BHearing%2BGutman%2Band.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outside after Friday, the 20th Appellate Court argument: Center background in suit and blue shirt Hank Gutman member of the defendant Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, Center in trench coat Otis Pratt Pearsall who sought protection for views from the Promenade, foreground in red tie Steven Guterman who started plaintiff Save The View Now organization to object to view-blocking <i>Pierhouse hotel/residential complex being oversized.</i> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Friday, the 20th, there was an Appellate Court argument on Monroe Place <a href="http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2017/10/20/group-fighting-%E2%80%98save-view%E2%80%99-brooklyn-bridge-argues-pierhouse-case-appeals-court">about whether</a> the already mostly constructed <i>“bulky Pierhouse hotel/residential complex in Brooklyn Bridge Park”</i> should be reduced in size because it is 30 feet taller than the view plane height limit negotiated with the community in 2005. Technically, the hearing was about whether the community group <a href="http://savetheviewnow.org/"><i>Save The View Now</i></a> was within the statute of limitations when it brought its lawsuit. In bigger picture terms, the discussion and questions being asked by the judges involved <i>who knew what when</i> in terms of protecting the community from the encroachment that now blocks the iconic view of the Brooklyn Bridge the public previously enjoyed when visiting the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.<br />
<br />
It was explained to the court by a lawyer defending the development and the quasi-governmental Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation that oversaw it that there were decisions to alter the building by putting additional (view-blocking) mechanical equipment on top of it because of Hurricane Sandy, <i>which hit New York City as Superstorm Sandy October 29, 2012</i>.<br />
<br />
When after that was it that, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation made the decision and was the building’s taller height ever made official with any sort of publicly released and available approval document? That did not appear clear from any response to the judge’s questions. And, presuming something like that actually happened, when it was incumbent upon members of the public to notice that the assured height limit negotiated in 2005 was being cast aside so that the public needed to take action to protect itself.<br />
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One thing I found particularly interesting during the hearing arguments of the lawyers for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation and the developer (Toll Brothers) was to watch Hank Gutman (Henry B. Gutman). Although sitting in the audience, Hank Gutman tends to be very much a central player:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
• Mr. Gutman is on the board of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, which, with him there, has been promoting maximum development within the “<a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/05/looking-gift-horse-in-mouth-examination.html"><i>park</i></a>” for some time now.<br />
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• Mr. Gutman is also a trustee on the Brooklyn Public Library board, which has been promoting sale of its libraries to turn them into redevelopment projects, like the Brooklyn Heights Library sale benefitting developer David Kramer and his Hudson Companies (plus also benefitting Kramer’s architect, <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/06/its-marvelous-to-have-books-indeed-but.html">Marvel Architects</a>, the same firm working on and doing the calculations determining how tall the Pierhouse Building would be.)<br />
<br />
• Mr. Gutman was also on the board of the Brooklyn Heights Association (having also been an officer there too) <a href="https://brooklynheightspress.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/turmoil-in-heights-key-figures-in-bha-resign-over-lawsuit/">until the beginning of 2011</a> when he resigned in protest over a lawsuit the neighborhood brought against improper development in Brooklyn Bridge Park.<br />
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• Lastly, Mr. Gutman (along with a fellow BBPC trustee <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/brooklyn-public-library-trustees.html">also involved in</a> pushing library sales, David Offensend) was one of the <a href="https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150924/brooklyn-heights/brooklyn-bridge-park-bigwigs-were-quick-buy-condos-disputed-pierhouse">first to buy condos</a> in the extra-tall Pierhouse building that was the subject of the litigation. In theory, any applicable law was interpreted such that the trustees’ purchase of apartments was not considered a breach of ethics.</blockquote>
What was interesting to watch about Mr. Gutman was the way he was nodding his head affirmatively to help communicate to the court that everyone knew that the building was going to be extra tall, so much taller than originally expected. <i>`Did the community know?’</i> Gutman nodded his head. <i>`The Brooklyn Heights Association knew?’</i>: This was when the fellow in the chair immediately in front of Gutman swiveled around happily excited to confer with the nodding Gutman. That man looked like a lawyer; you know, the briefcase, the suit, the haircut, etc. Gutman is a lawyer too.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a1szczNIuXQ/WfO1hXSoTBI/AAAAAAAAJEY/HRO7OkUB_QA6dTOJcB13qCQPlO9QF22mACLcBGAs/s1600/Nodding%2BMr%2BGutman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="742" data-original-width="1600" height="185" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a1szczNIuXQ/WfO1hXSoTBI/AAAAAAAAJEY/HRO7OkUB_QA6dTOJcB13qCQPlO9QF22mACLcBGAs/s400/Nodding%2BMr%2BGutman.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nodding Mr. Gutman was first out of the court house.</td></tr>
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The nodding, or subtle gestures to hopefully communicate with the court, is typical and permitted courtroom decorum. Members of the audience are not supposed to actually talk or be disruptive, but, like a public hearing, you sort of hope that maybe you’ll have a lot of people on your side of the case in the court room and that subtle facial expressions during the arguments will get picked up upon. . . . Then there is the subject of <i>chuckling</i> (sometimes absurdities will provoke that reaction in you if you don’t want to actually cry): The United States Justice Department is prosecuting a woman <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/woman-laughed-jeff-sessions_us_59a8cb8ae4b0b5e530fd7c8b">who chuckled</a> during a United States Senate hearing when it was asserted that the record of racial discrimination by Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions was a <i>“clear and well-documented”</i> record of <i>“treating all Americans equally under the law.”</i> Senator Elizabeth Warren was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/08/elizabeth-warren-mitch-mcconnell-silence-senate-debate-jeff-sessions-nomination">silenced and kicked out of the Senate Chamber</a> for attempting to introduce facts that would have set the record on this straight.<br />
<br />
I was fascinated by how firm and opinionated Mr. Gutman seemed to be about how <i>everybody knew</i> what they <i>supposedly knew</i>. I remember back to February 3, 2015 when the there was <a href="http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2015/2/4/brooklyn-bridge-park-cac-calls-halt-pierhouse-pier-6">a vote</a> by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Community Advisory Committee (CAC) calling for a halt to the building’s construction. The CAC is supposed to be comprised of members from the community to represent it and is supposed to exist to help keep track of what is happening with respect to Brooklyn Bridge Park. The CAC that night voted for a halt in construction partly based on the fact that the CAC had not been informed of how the building would be extra tall blocking the views that were supposed to be protected. The CAC may have no actual powers, but at the meeting the BBPC described the CAC as the <i>“primary vehicle for communicating with the public.”</i><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kTbzD21Qoq4/WfOpm_1PHWI/AAAAAAAAJD8/FKoEcOJbnyUSBPTULk3vToEIkSWfC1i8wCLcBGAs/s1600/Feb%2B3%2B2015%2BCAC.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="843" data-original-width="1111" height="302" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kTbzD21Qoq4/WfOpm_1PHWI/AAAAAAAAJD8/FKoEcOJbnyUSBPTULk3vToEIkSWfC1i8wCLcBGAs/s400/Feb%2B3%2B2015%2BCAC.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brooklyn Eagle <a href="http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2015/2/4/brooklyn-bridge-park-cac-calls-halt-pierhouse-pier-6">coverage of the CAC vote meeting</a> attended by a public very upset about the oversized development.</td></tr>
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<br />
At the meeting the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation representatives provided their explanation of how the building had become so extra tall. What I remember asking myself and listening carefully for at that meeting was what the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation board knew and approved. That’s the BBPC board that Mr. Gutman is on. It seemed to me that violating the agreed upon view protections, something so important to the community, something giving so much extra benefit to the developer in terms of extra building rights, was something that the BBPC board should have approved. . . <i>What did the BBPC board know and when?</i> - It would seem that in a rational world the board should have had to debate and formally approve it. I didn’t hear anything about that.<br />
<br />
Instead, I heard the most obfuscatory explanations about how the much bigger building just sort of happened at staff level, ostensibly for a conglomeration of strange and obscure technical reasons. I quote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>When you are dealing with height, height should be a very easy thing to understand, but when you are dealing with a building’s it’s more complicated to understand, which involves a question of where are you measuring from and where are you measuring to? One of the questions I like to bring up on that is with respect to One Freedom Tower and, is it the tallest building in America or not. Do you count the spire as height? There are a lot of questions. . . </i>.[the public audience got impatient at this point and started complaining volubly] . .<br />
<br />
<i>. . So we got questions from developers about where do you start counting from and where do you count to? And we went to the ESDC</i> [the Empire State Development Corporation, the nominal state authority parent of the city-controlled BBPC, an obscure quasi-governmental authority famous for having the freedom from being exempt from rules and getting to make them up instead. The exemption enjoyed by ESDC and BBPC as its nominal subsidiary includes exemption from the standards of NYC zoning and NYC’s normally applicable ULURP process for public review] <i>A construct that ESDC uses for a lot of project plans is that whenever you have project plan those project plans are specific, and then you have a design attached to them. The general plan you have for Brooklyn Bridge Park, as you saw, is actually very general, and people have had problems with people asking questions that are not covered in the general project plan. And what they have done in order to deal with that discrepancy is that in those cases they would defer to the local zoning plan</i> [from which they are exempt]. <i>The project plan does not actually say what the hundred feet is or where you measure it to. Let’s look at how the New York City zoning code answers those two questions, and then the New York City zoning code there is a height restriction and there are lots of ways to calculate . </i>. </blockquote>
One would think that in order to implement the agreement with the community about preserving views, one would naturally look first and foremost to the BBPC's overall basic project plan for the building. That plan had no need to be subject to any limiting constraints, but the BBPC representative went on to explain how BBPC instead chose to go outside the project plan to refer to NYC zoning (<i>to which it was <u>not</u> subject</i>) to pick a higher-up starting point to measure the building (referring to the floodplain calculations) and also allow things like <i>“basically mechanical things, back of generators, HVAC equipment, elevator overrides, things like that . . to exceed height restrictions.”</i> He said, they then told developers they could exceed the height limitations these ways, <i>“having got that instruction from ESDC.”</i><br />
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Thereafter when Superstorm Sandy happened, the BBPC representative said things got even worse for the community in terms of the building’s extra height. The representative explained, floodplain elevations were changed to raise the building up higher <i>“and that changed all the math that was involved.”</i> That extra elevation for the starting point <i>at the bottom</i> of the building was additional to the other changes blamed on Sandy at the court hearing about moving view-blocking mechanicals to the roof to make it taller <i>at its top</i>. Naomi Klein warns us about “<i>disaster capitalism</i>”: When disasters strike, the monied interests take advantage of those disasters in self-serving ways.<br />
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The logic of these calculations didn’t go by unchallenged when they were explained at that February 3, 2014 CAC meeting: Local community activist Tony Manheim said that given that the BBPC project plans "<i>trump</i>" New York City zoning when desired, <i>“It’s a little bit disingenuous to take advantage of avoiding New York City zoning when it’s convenient to do so and then cherry pick zoning practices to allow the exceeding of height limitations by bulkheads which somehow seem to also include a bar and café.”</i> <br />
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The Sandy related changes that made the building still bigger were, according to the ESDC representative, being made <i>until September 2013.</i> If construction of the building started in summer of 2013 as was stated at the court hearing, that would mean that Sandy related design changes were being made even <i>after</i> construction started. At the hearing it was discussed that people in the community were first beginning to notice that the building was getting too tall in September 2014. The plaintiff organization Save the View Now was formed because of this in <i>December of 2014.</i><br />
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Mr. Gutman’s nodding of his head doesn’t necessarily indicate anything beyond that fact that he wanted the court to rule that the community knew and that Brooklyn Heights Association knew about the extra large size of the building at times early enough to cause the statute of limitation impediments the team of development supporting attorneys were arguing should defeat the case. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Mr. Gutman (a BBPC board member), or the BBPC board knew at these or these (or other even earlier) times of the building’s extra large size. (Rather than it being just the BBPC staff engaging in technical interpretation somersaults). But it makes me wonder and sort of gives me that feeling that this was pretty much the case. . . .<br />
<br />
. . . And if that is so, I have to ask: Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation is a governmental entity endowed with enormous governmental power- Doesn’t it thereby stand to reason that it owes a responsibility to the public to be absolutely clear, and should clearly alert the public when it is <u><i>not</i></u> planning to honor an agreement about protecting an important identified and agreed to public interest? Is the BBPC entitled to play cat and mouse games about what it is doing?<br />
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Notwithstanding Mr. Gutman’s head nodding, it was not until very late in the game that public really figured out or knew what was going on.<br />
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At the hearing the development defending attorneys argued that the community reacted to the size of the building with “<i>Rip Van Winkle</i>” tardiness. It was asserted that community had “<i>inquiry</i>” notice, “<i>constructive</i>” notice, and “<i>actual</i>” notice of the bigger building and the mechanicals “<i>above the roof of the building.</i>” Leave it to lawyers to come up with assertions involving such parsed out multiplicities. There was no assertion of <i>“information gotten by pulling teeth”</i> notice, <i>“cat and mouse game triumph”</i> notice, or <i>“able to decipher technological gobbledygook”</i> notice. I also heard no direct explanation of what notice the Community Advisory Committee, the BBPC’s “ the <i>“primary vehicle for communicating with the public,”</i> got when it believes it got <i>no notice</i> and that instead the BBPC “<i>dribbled out</i>” information in a way that was deliberately intended to be uninformative.<br />
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It was even hinted that maybe notice letting the public know didn’t even matter: A development lawyer made the dodgy assertion that the <i>“view was improved”</i> by the project. It was affirmatively asserted there was no stealth or concealment on the part of BBPC. <br />
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Respecting the Brooklyn Heights Association the argument was particularly interesting. The lawyers defending the development’s size argued that by virtue of a December 2011* letter from BHA President Jane McGroarty that referred to an acceptable height for the building that was <i>“exclusive of mechanical equipment”</i> the record showed that Brooklyn Heights Association, the “the dominant civic organization” of a community of what was “not a bashful community,” had notice and was aware and was not objecting to the ultimate height of the building.<br />
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(* Hank Gutman had left the BHA board <a href="https://brooklynheightspress.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/turmoil-in-heights-key-figures-in-bha-resign-over-lawsuit/">earlier that year</a>.)<br />
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Really? Is that a good argument? December 2011 was nearly a year before Superstorm Sandy and the cascade of rejiggering alterations with all the <i>“math”</i> involved changing (concluding September 2013) that, among other things, put an unexpected and atypical amount of extra stuff on the building’s roof making it taller.<br />
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There is other stuff we could brawl about here like what people are referring to the “<i>bulkheads</i>” being permitted on top building. If you think you know buildings “<i>bulkheads</i>” might sound relatively innocuous and if you Google images of “<i>bulkheads</i>” for examples, the small slant-roofed minimalist protrusions you’ll see are not likely to suggest to you what has been constructed atop this building under the “<i>bulkhead</i>” rubric. . including, as Tony Manheim put it, <i>“a bar and café”</i> ?<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-id_UAYYBhOA/WfO2WSQ_DxI/AAAAAAAAJEk/QI8xlINPczwPPDOFgCkbUypF6obB55ZwQCLcBGAs/s1600/Analysing%2Bafter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1600" height="315" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-id_UAYYBhOA/WfO2WSQ_DxI/AAAAAAAAJEk/QI8xlINPczwPPDOFgCkbUypF6obB55ZwQCLcBGAs/s400/Analysing%2Bafter.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crowd lingers to analyze after the hearing. Plaintiff attorney Jeff Baker on highest steps.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This article is not intended to parse the exact legal arguments that forayed into the field at the Friday appellate court hearing, nor analyze the relative strength of the arguments and why certain arguments should perhaps logically prevail. This musing over the situation is more for the purpose of giving a general feel for what is happening and the overall context in which it is taking place.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F62RCaGKWHg/WfO6SUjg9DI/AAAAAAAAJFA/yeantxM9cvgAmOfQ0Yhyxa1ASmEUSRHAwCLcBGAs/s1600/Baker%2BGuterman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="858" data-original-width="1090" height="313" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F62RCaGKWHg/WfO6SUjg9DI/AAAAAAAAJFA/yeantxM9cvgAmOfQ0Yhyxa1ASmEUSRHAwCLcBGAs/s400/Baker%2BGuterman.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Closer up: Plaintiff attorney Jeff Baker on steps, Steve Guterman in red tie.</td></tr>
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Will the appellate judges issue an order that could result in 30 feet being removed from the top of the unexpectedly tall view-blocking building? People find that outcome startling to imagine, but it is absolutely within the judges' power to do so, although situations of this type presenting precedent are rare. And, as counsel for the plaintiffs told the court, the defendants knowingly proceeded to build at their own risk.<br />
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The judges by their tone and skepticism seemed to at least consider that the community was likely treated badly. But when do judges these days ever decide <i>against the money</i>? One thing we might expect is something we have seen before in these situations: An opinion that scolds the BBPC and public development officials (including its board?), but then protects the monied interests from lose of their ill gotten gains despite such a judicial upbraiding.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s3fD8SXXGS8/WfO4k7vasqI/AAAAAAAAJE0/IIaojwYUQdwD0Qg6I5SNbqwBcU-Qqt0WwCLcBGAs/s1600/Save%2BThe%2BView%2BDec%2B2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="593" height="251" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s3fD8SXXGS8/WfO4k7vasqI/AAAAAAAAJE0/IIaojwYUQdwD0Qg6I5SNbqwBcU-Qqt0WwCLcBGAs/s320/Save%2BThe%2BView%2BDec%2B2015.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was in the <a href="http://savetheviewnow.org/2014/12/">first posting</a> of Save The View Now December 31, 2015 to alert the community about the building's height.</td></tr>
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Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-62907023684546609922017-10-16T16:19:00.001-04:002017-10-16T16:19:53.464-04:00Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Scandals: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump- One! Harvey Weinstein- Two! Bill de Blasio Library Pay-To-Play Scandal- Three?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9CbscD9HZ-k/WeUI8KXorcI/AAAAAAAAJC8/er0H0fgpj6MUI1aiQ5_xYWW8rj3y1_eFwCLcBGAs/s1600/Jared%2BKushner%2BHarvey%2BWeinstein%2BIvanka%2BTrump%2BCy%2BVance%2Bde%2BBlasio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="959" data-original-width="1600" height="238" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9CbscD9HZ-k/WeUI8KXorcI/AAAAAAAAJC8/er0H0fgpj6MUI1aiQ5_xYWW8rj3y1_eFwCLcBGAs/s400/Jared%2BKushner%2BHarvey%2BWeinstein%2BIvanka%2BTrump%2BCy%2BVance%2Bde%2BBlasio.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
If you have been catching up with the news recently you know about the scandals involving Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. . .<br />
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Vance's office was ready in 2012 to prosecute Ivanka, the daughter of Donald Trump and her husband Jared Kushner for real estate fraud, “<i>allegedly duping prospective buyers in a failed Manhattan project dubbed Trump Soho</i>” (a violation of the Martin Act). <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-ivanka-trump-and-donald-trump-jr-avoided-a-criminal-indictment">Reportedly</a>, against his staff's recommendations (and despite some damn good email evidence), Vance did not prosecute. His receipt of campaign contributions was involved. . . Now under the spotlight, Vance just <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/manhattan-da-vance-back-31g-donation-trump-lawyer-article-1.3540956?cid=bitly">gave back</a> money, a $31,000 donation from Father (Donald) Trump's lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, he took in 2013 after dropping the case. Another $9,000 from employees at Kasowitz’s law firm and $9,000 more raised at a breakfast hosted by Kasowitz was <u><i>not</i></u> returned.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rk6aFVT1QQo/WeULRhbe0rI/AAAAAAAAJDM/4Uunbr7d7egwbDCuwbFhfuWU_PIhBZEUwCLcBGAs/s1600/Ivanka%2Band%2BKushner%2BCampaign%2BMoney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="1600" height="185" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rk6aFVT1QQo/WeULRhbe0rI/AAAAAAAAJDM/4Uunbr7d7egwbDCuwbFhfuWU_PIhBZEUwCLcBGAs/s400/Ivanka%2Band%2BKushner%2BCampaign%2BMoney.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>That's one scandal!</i><br />
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Then there is the case of movie production mogul Harvey Weinstein whom a slew of women have now <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories">accused</a> of sexual assault and harassment. Vance made a decision not to prosecute Weinstein in 2015. His decision not to prosecute was despite an very <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories">damning</a> police sting audio tape that documented his <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/10/11/headlines/more_women_accuse_harvey_weinstein_of_rape_assault_harassment">harassment</a> of an Filipina-Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez in a Manhattan hotel.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-klmpr6eYxHo/WeULEx9YN6I/AAAAAAAAJDI/1z98JcRPwQUEGmjztVtuD2Bb3RX8SPDNQCLcBGAs/s1600/Harvey%2BWeinstein%2BVanace%2BCampaign%2BMoney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-klmpr6eYxHo/WeULEx9YN6I/AAAAAAAAJDI/1z98JcRPwQUEGmjztVtuD2Bb3RX8SPDNQCLcBGAs/s400/Harvey%2BWeinstein%2BVanace%2BCampaign%2BMoney.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Again, Vance's
receipt of campaign contributions was involved. . . The lawyer, <span class="st">Elkan </span>Abramowitz, who helped Harvey Weinstein avoid charges (Vance's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/nyregion/cy-vance-defends-weinstein-decision.html">former law partner</a>) <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/10/12/weinsteins-lawyer-gave-thousands-to-vance-after-da-let-client-off-hook/">reportedly</a> donated $26,550 in campaign cash to
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. (including $2,100 <i>after</i>
Vance let Weinstein walk) plus, according to campaign finance records, his law firm gave Vance another $11,500, before Vance's Weinstein decision.<br />
<br />
<i>That failure to prosecute is scandal number two!</i><br />
<br />
The media is beginning <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/10/13/557585831/new-york-district-attorney-on-the-defense-over-handling-of-weinstein-allegations">to notice</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-didnt-manhattan-da-cyrus-vance-prosecute-the-trumps-or-harvey-weinstein">connect the two</a> because of the similar behaviors on Vance's part. The New York Times editorial board issued <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/opinion/cyrus-vance-campaign-donations.html">an editorial</a> saying: "<i>that eyebrows understandably soar skyward when a district attorney
pockets cash from a lawyer who may have a client facing charges that
could send that client to Attica.. . . As lawyers might say, res ipsa loquitur. The thing speaks for itself.</i>"<br />
<br />
<i>Is there one more? </i><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vaZesccgt6Y/WeUOn8eadSI/AAAAAAAAJDY/PYu1gXI6fW0NpWaYPqtTNrU1Id1JtnLlACLcBGAs/s1600/Cy%2BVance%2BBrooklyn%2BHieghts%2BLibrary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="1600" height="203" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vaZesccgt6Y/WeUOn8eadSI/AAAAAAAAJDY/PYu1gXI6fW0NpWaYPqtTNrU1Id1JtnLlACLcBGAs/s400/Cy%2BVance%2BBrooklyn%2BHieghts%2BLibrary.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
. . . Now you might remember that until recently <a href="http://nypost.com/2016/05/22/feds-da-probe-de-blasios-52m-deal-to-turn-library-into-condo/">Cyrus Vance</a> was working with US. Attorney Preet Bharara to investigate pay-to-play deals by Mayor Bill de Blasio. And you may remember that <a href="http://nypost.com/2016/02/21/developer-with-ties-to-de-blasio-scores-job-despite-being-outbid/">one of those pay-to-play deals</a> was the <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/07/open-letter-to-us-attorney-preet.html">sale of the Brooklyn Heights Library</a>. Then Donald Trump fired Preet (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/us/politics/preet-bharara-us-attorney.html">March 11, 2013</a>) and just a few days later (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/16/nyregion/cyrus-vance-letter-de-blasio.html">March 16, 2013</a>) all these investigations <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/nyregion/mayor-bill-de-blasio-investigation-no-criminal-charges.html?_r=0">were dropped</a>. . . And? We'd love to know more about what was involved.<br />
<br />
Preet Bharara has since lifted the curtain <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/22/ex-us-attorney-preet-bharara-tells-story-behind-trump-firing-him.html">to say</a> that he believes that before he Trump fired him Trump was trying to “<i>cultivate</i>” a relationship with him where he'd be asked by Trump to do the wrong thing.<br />
<br />
How hard do you think it would be to trace aspects of the Brooklyn Heights Library and other pay-to-play deals being investigated back to campaign contributions to Vance from those close to de Blasio or Democratic party operatives or involved developers wanting de Blasio's real estate favoring reign to continue undisturbed?: The Times editorial noted that the list of Vance's donor's <i>"is
strewn with law firms and individual lawyers" </i>some of whom<i> "may have unsavory motives when they open their wallets."</i><br />
<br />
But we don't even have to get to that kind of extensive cross-checking to bring us full circle to the Vance contributions we have already discussed. We need only note that the Brooklyn Heights shrink-and-sink-a-public-library scheme <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/11/priorities-to-be-replicated-private.html">replicated</a> the previously executed Donnell shrink-and-sink-a-library and replace it with a luxury tower scheme. That Donnell deal also involved a woefully lacking excuse for a valid "<i>bid</i>." For both deals there was a significant <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/11/priorities-to-be-replicated-private.html">overlap of people</a> involved behind the scenes. And, if you could have flipped people to get them talking, the trail led back to Trump son-in-law <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/12/donald-trump-whose-son-in-law-was-in-on.html">Jared Kushner</a> as a principal financial beneficiary from the sale of Donnell . .<br />
<br />
. . . It's probably not exactly what Trump supposedly had in mind when trying to "<i>cultivate</i>" a relationship with Bharara unless you want to think generally in terms of privilege exercised by a well-connected elite prone to take advantage of the commoners.<br />
<br />
It's been suggested that <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-didnt-manhattan-da-cyrus-vance-prosecute-the-trumps-or-harvey-weinstein">an excuse</a> for Vance's decision not to prosecute is that it is waste of his office's resources to prosecute the powerful who can fight back and bollix up prosecutions by hiring expensive lawyers and pay for 14 carat <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/nyregion/harvey-weinstein-new-york-sex-assault-investigation.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0">obfuscatory PR maneuvers</a> regular folk can't afford. (Similar to the Weinstein case, in 2011, Vance abandoned a sexual-assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund.). . .<br />
<br />
. . . On the other hand, shouldn't our first priority be to prosecute the powerful whose conduct entrenches corruption at the core of our system and warps our most important institutions?<br />
<br />
Coincidentally or not, <i>The New Yorker</i> magazine got the ball rolling with major stories it respectively ran about <u><i>both</i></u> the Kushner/Ivanaka Trump and Weinstein failures to prosecute. . .<br />
<br />
. . . We could hope that another New Yorker story might get the ball rolling on a <u><i>third</i></u> such story about the non-prosecution of de Blasio. <i>Maybe not</i>: David Remnick, the New Yorker's editor is a trustee of the New York Public Library and investigating the Donnell Library sale or anything leading back to it would be unconformable for the NYPL trustees (and perhaps particularly <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/06/stephen-schwarzman-man-making-deals-to.html">Trump buddy</a> Stephen Schwarzman).<br />
<br />
Or we could hope that another prosecutor with power and authority, most obviously New York State Attorney General Eric Schniederman, could pick up the scent . . . But <i>maybe not</i>: It has been noted that Schneiderman <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/02/nys-attorney-general-eric-schneiderman.html">also takes</a> political donations from those he could or should be investigating- How was it that the Times editorial put it about <i>eyebrows understandably soaring skyward when a prosecutor
pockets cash from a lawyer who may have a client facing charges that
could send that client to Attica?</i><br />
<br />
Vance is running for office unopposed in the November 7th election. <i><br /></i>Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2859446071240153923.post-73440343377615316472017-10-05T14:48:00.000-04:002017-10-05T23:12:59.005-04:00“Ex Libris: The New York Public Library”- Reviewing A Film By Film Maker Frederick Wiseman- A “Love Letter” That Exposes NYC libraries To Attack?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y7AdbXhqYV0/WdZ2xcX1ZRI/AAAAAAAAJBc/xNgaG_k0rSoARLpRSWN9fusWuHDHdZXxQCLcBGAs/s1600/Fred%2BWiseman%2BCollage%2Bcopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y7AdbXhqYV0/WdZ2xcX1ZRI/AAAAAAAAJBc/xNgaG_k0rSoARLpRSWN9fusWuHDHdZXxQCLcBGAs/s400/Fred%2BWiseman%2BCollage%2Bcopy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Center: film maker Frederick Wiseman being interviewed at the NYPL by Errol Morris. Upper left and counterclockwise from there: Erroll Morris commenting on what was "<i>risky</i>" to say at the library, "Fred" Wiseman as guest of honor at NYPL trustee meeting, Wiseman with NYPL president Tony Marx after Errol Morris interview, Wiseman's camera filming NYPL trustees in November 2015 as they meet in a room lined by empty book shelves two-flights high.</td></tr>
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Frederick Wiseman is esteemed as a maker of documentary films. He has a new product out showing at the Film Forum in New York City. As it was partly financed by PBS, we may soon see it on TV in a while too.<br />
<br />
The film is being fervently embraced by its titular subject, the New York Public Library: In the Film Forum’s theater lobby you cannot only buy DVDs of other Frederick Wiseman films, you can buy an NYPL tote bag and other merchandise to support and help fund the NYPL. . . .<br />
<br />
. . . One must wonder then whether Wiseman’s latest product is a documentary or a public relations document. If it is a documentary then it is desperately in need of a considered review because at 3 hours and 17 minutes it is a substantial commitment for any moviegoer to decide to see. If it is a public relations product then . . what sort of consideration does it deserve and what warning signs perhaps need to be posted?<br />
<br />
It’s probably a cruel question to ask if Frederick Wiseman’s “<i>Ex Libris: New York Public Library</i>” is actually a documentary? My instinct is to go easy on Mr. Wiseman and not criticize him too much. Wiseman is a prepossessing fellow. There is something impish and almost instantly endearing about him as a human being. The quality, no doubt, helped him along in his career. And there are additional things that prejudice me towards him, that he’s a pack rat who hates to leave anything on the cutting room floor, his love of sustained observation, including of human foible, and the way he seems to see everything as interconnected . . . he appears to care about liberal values, if viewed through a jaundiced eye.<br />
<br />
I will endeavor therefore to review “<i>Ex Libris</i>” as a documentary which offers rich detail to tell us how wonderful libraries in New York are, but at the same time I’ll point out it’s central failings, which means posting those warning signs about the film’s tendency to masquerade as a misleading PR exercise.<br />
<br />
Did you know that there is enormous scandal about how the NYPL management has been working at selling libraries, turning them into real estate deals that benefit real estate developers, not the public, eliminating books and librarians in consolidating shrinkages? If you don’t know this walking into “<i>Ex Libris</i>,” you are not going to walk out of the film being informed of it either. <br />
<br />
Interestingly, however, if you are sufficiently armed with the facts, the film’s amplitude and what may be Wiseman’s perhaps surreptitious satire probably undermine the film’s trustworthiness as truly dependable PR.-<br />
<br />
No matter, as there are few who will actually go to see such a long documentary about a deceptively benign subject, there are few who will realize or note in passing regarding the film that anything lurks about it that is negative concerning the NYPL or its management. That’s the secret sauce for success in the tactically tight embrace of this film by NYPL’s management as a `<i>positive</i>' message, . . and it’s what you’ll glean from most of the other reviews of this film. It’s also what your takeaway would be from the film’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UsglJmevFM">2:23-minute trailer</a>, which with thousands of views already, probably many more people by far are going to see. The trailer, the failings of which are far worse than the film, comes across as pure saccharin propaganda and it ends insidiously with a hinted endorsement for the NYPL’s ongoing elimination of books: An NYPL hired architect (from Mecanoo) working on the consolidated shrinkage of the Mid-Manhattan Library explains in a likely focus-tested phrase intended to support selling library real estate: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“For me libraries are not about books. As a lot of people think they are a storage space for books: No, libraries are about people.”</i></blockquote>
Before I get into a more thorough assessment of “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>,” a few caveats. While I have devoured perhaps more than my fair share of documentaries, until now I’ve been largely unacquainted with Mr. Wiseman’s volume of work, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0936464/">over forty films</a> since, 1967. And with some of Mr. Wiseman’s films running very long (“<i>Near Death</i>” six hours, “<i>Belfast, Maine</i>” four plus hours, “<i>Public Housing</i>” almost four, “<i>High School II</i>” and “<i>State Legislature</i>” both over three and a half, “<i>National Gallery</i>” three hours), that is a deficit that I am not quickly going to make up. .<br />
<br />
. . . I will fill in to an extent with things I learned about Mr. Wiseman when I went to <a href="https://livestream.com/nypl/events/7643977/videos/162787358">watch</a> him chat, interviewed by fellow-documentary maker Errol Lewis. Where was that? <a href="https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2017/09/14/frederick-wiseman-errol-morris">At the 42nd Street Library</a>, where he was introduced NYPL president Tony Marx lauding his “<i>amazing film</i>” as heartily as if it were a promotional release, not the <i>documentary</i> he was introducing it as.<br />
<br />
Bottom line, my defect is I come to Mr. Wiseman’s films knowing very little about his previous movie making, but knowing a lot, through my own intent observation, about the subject of his latest, “<i>Ex Libris: New York Public Library.”</i> In fact, I am so close to the subject of the film that in one scene I caught a few glimpses of myself, intently observing the same NYPL board of trustees meeting that Mr. Wiseman was at that moment focusing on. <br />
<br />
The film is not just about today's NYPL; it is also obviously intended to be about the NYPL’s possible future, where it is headed, how it is steering there. That is very much what I am interested in too.<br />
<br />
Mr. Wiseman came to the NYPL as his subject at a particularly tumultuous time. He was filming for 12 weeks in 2015, September through December. It was just months after Scott Sherman published his book savaging of the NYPL’s management and direction with its much decried <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2014/05/may-7th-8th-2014-our-press-release-and.html">Central Library Plan implosion</a> (assisted by public activists including myself and <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/">Citizens Defending Libraries</a> of which I am a co-founder): “<a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/06/real-estate-deal-revelations-in-scott.html">Patience and Fortitude- Power, Real Estate, and the Fight to Save a Public Library</a>.” The book consummated a devastating critique of how off-course the NYPL had veered for which Sherman got huge attention beginning when he wrote a series of articles for the “<i>The Nation</i>.” And Sherman’s was far from a lone voice.<br />
<br />
In addition, although the film somehow avoids noting it, the filming was during the extended period the iconic Rose Reading Room <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/02/photo-video-gallery-february-14-2015.html">was closed</a> following an reported accident with a chunk of ceiling falling just days after the Central Library Plan was <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2014/05/may-7th-8th-2014-our-press-release-and.html">derailed</a>. Visually, other spaces in the 42nd Street library have to substitute in the film to suggest the grandness of that space.<br />
<br />
Wiseman’s apparently adulatory film doesn’t contain the even faintest whiff of what was up that allowed a thorough lambasting of the NYPL by Sherman and others. You’d never ever know from the film. But Wiseman knew about Sherman’s book.<br />
<br />
On Twitter it was recently <a href="https://twitter.com/twiceaprince/status/908000859946143744">wondered</a> why Wiseman took “<i>a swipe</i>” at “Scott Sherman's excellent book when asked about NYPL trustees' <i>transparency</i>?” What Wiseman said about Sherman, published in an interview about the film Vanity Fair, was: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I didn't start with a thesis. I wanted to learn something about the library. In one sense, what I learned about the library is what you see in the film. And if I could say it in 25 words or less, I shouldn't have made the movie. Scott Sherman started out with a thesis about the library, and that's not my cup of tea.</i></blockquote>
It sounds pretty awful for Wiseman to say that. The only thing that defuses the remark and makes it less of an indictment leveled specifically at Sherman is to know that the 87-year-old Wiseman has sort of a personal thing, a point of pride, about <u><i>not</i></u> having “<i>a thesis</i>” when he, himself, works. . . . Last November in his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoEViyKlIhc">acceptance speech</a> for his Oscar, an Honorary Award at the 2016 Governors Award ceremony, Wiseman spoke of his method this way: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Making a movie is always an adventure. I usually know nothing about the subject before I start, and I know there are those who feel I know nothing about it when it’s finished. I never start with a point of view about the subject or a thesis that I want to prove. I also don’t do any research in advance of the shooting. I usually don’t know, in advance, what’s going to be shot, or what I am going to stumble across in any day, or any moment of any day.</i></blockquote>
(The night he got his Oscar Wiseman was the subject of kind and <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=YouTube+Frederick+Wiseman+oscar&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8">laudatory words</a> from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyiE-5o9XHk">Ben Kingsley</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWXnLW8Akms">Don Cheadle</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TumTHzntBEM">Rory Kennedy</a>.)<br />
<br />
Not having “<i>a thesis</i>” when he works is not a casual, recent thing for Wiseman: If you go back to 1998, you can find Wiseman <a href="https://current.org/1998/02/fred-wisemans-novelistic-samplings-of-reality/">telling</a> a journalist writing for Current this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I'm pleased that people refer to the literary quality of the films. I think it's because I reject the idea of simple, didactic, thesis-oriented films. I'm interested in complexity and ambiguity, not in simplifying the subject in the service of any particular ideology. I hope that when someone sees my movies he knows what my views are. But if I could summarize my views in 25 words or less, I shouldn't have made the movie, I should have written the 25 words.</i></blockquote>
This Wiseman tic may have been one of the reasons Wiseman chose to include in his film a sequence where, in October of 2015, Elvis Costello was <a href="https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2015/10/16/elvis-costello-paul-holdengr%C3%A4ber">being interviewed</a> by Paul Holdengräber about his memoir “<i>Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink</i>.” Discussing Costello’s political opinions and activism, Holdengräber asks Costello about <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ySa5JQtut0YC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=%22Greil+Marcus%22++%E2%80%9Csongs+of+revenge+and+guilt.%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=2Hp84mMvpf&sig=1k_Jf6eHbijfdKPkSBjRA3Wld8s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlwc2mxrnWAhXHbiYKHbgVBIIQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=%22Greil%20Marcus%22%20%20%E2%80%9Csongs%20of%20revenge%20and%20guilt.%E2%80%9D&f=false">a characterization</a> of him by professor Greil Marcus concerning the vehemence of his feelings and predilection to sing “<i>songs of revenge and guilt</i>.” Not eager to be pigeonholed himself, Costello responds somewhat dismissively about Marcus writing “<i>long and intricate books</i>” saying:<br />
<br />
<i>Professor Marcus's-you know, it's his job to create a thesis like that. That's what he does.</i> <br />
<br />
Certainly, narrow pigeonholing should be dismissed as all too facile and not conducive to thought. Nevertheless, Wiseman’s suggestion that the reason Sherman painted such a different picture when he wrote about an area substantially overlapping with the subject of Wiseman’s own film implies derogatorily, that Sherman proceeded with a lack of investigative curiosity and open-mindedness while it exalts Wiseman’s own approach as a superior, more neutral, patient and inquisitive search for the truth. <br />
<br />
But is that the case? Scott Sherman wrote his <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/upheaval-new-york-public-library/">first article</a> for The Nation about how the NYPL was pursuing scarily expensive off-course plans eliminating books and straying from its traditional and core mission as a library in November of 2011. If you follow the course of his subsequent articles for The Nation culminating in the writing of his 2015 book, you can see Sherman’s thinking evolve as researching, he delves further into the subject, among other things, obtaining and reading <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/hidden-history-new-york-citys-central-library-plan/">minutes of NYPL trustees meetings</a>. It’s that exploratory evolution that leads Sherman to zero in on how real estate interests factored into what he first observed about the undermining of the NYPL mission. And, in the end, it is clear how Sherman is driven to find out more about his subjects, as he evaluates in his progress of exploration what he is discovering to be important.<br />
<br />
By contrast, Wiseman’s films, at least this latest one, may be deceptively less inquisitive, and less neutral. The effect may be insidious. The notion that what you are seeing in a Wiseman film is captured randomly is an illusion that unites with other aspects of Wiseman’s adopted style, the absence of any narration and the absence of any commentary or interjection of identifying labels: It gives the viewer the feeling that Wiseman isn’t exercising control or influencing the viewer’s conclusions.<br />
<br />
<i>But Wiseman likes control.</i> He is meticulous in his editing. He takes maybe eight months to a year to cut down the footage ultimately using perhaps only 1/25th of what he shoots, <a href="http://to make the sequence appear that it took place in the way it's being shown">compressing</a> an hour of real-time film into five minutes “<i>to make the sequence appear that it took place in the way it's being shown.</i>” He <a href="https://current.org/1998/02/fred-wisemans-novelistic-samplings-of-reality/">says</a>, he approaches his editing “<i>just like someone writing a novel: the events are not staged, of course, but the way I condense and rearrange them is not the same as in real life. I call my work reality fiction.</i>” He also edits so that the way that individual sequences relate to each other provide a structure for the film. His television contracts dictate that there is to be no reediting of his work.- “<i>It's the only area of my life I'm meticulous about</i>,” <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/12/the-wisdom-of-wiseman/">he says</a>, but that is unlikely the case. He also exercises control by serving as his own producer, director, editor, and sound technician on location and then distributing his work.<br />
<br />
There is also the sort of editing that occurs, on the scene, before anything is filmed as Wiseman chooses what to shoot and which way to point the camera. During his discussion with Errol Morris he explained about how with the opening of his film“<i>Welfare</i>” he was “<i>playing against cliche</i>,”the cliche that welfare recipients were black (which he said wasn’t his experience when there), and how, for one scene he used very near the beginning of the film he had “<i>deliberately picked</i>” and “<i>decided to follow</i>” a Caucasian couple to film their hardship interview because his “<i>impression was that the majority of people at the center were all white</i>” and he “<i>liked the way they looked, or the way they looked amused me.</i>” <br />
<br />
In other words, hardly random, Wiseman’s films are heavily freighted with the influence of his choices. Paradoxically, that influence is probably strengthened by the way that Wiseman pulls back. hiding himself, leaving the viewer to conclude they, themselves, are finding their way to their own interpretations while, with no open announcement about his intentions, Wiseman escapes accountability to debate or defend them. Subtlety such as this likely flies below the radar screen of media literacy most people have usually acquired.<br />
<br />
Accordingly, Wiseman’s responsibility for what he shoots and how he comes to shoot it is an issue.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QRDgKrwKz9g/WdZH0ZiYR6I/AAAAAAAAI_I/7e0eRwxZrak14suJOPZPSu-fC16dCUOwQCLcBGAs/s1600/Wiseman%2BTrustee%2BMeeting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1223" data-original-width="1467" height="332" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QRDgKrwKz9g/WdZH0ZiYR6I/AAAAAAAAI_I/7e0eRwxZrak14suJOPZPSu-fC16dCUOwQCLcBGAs/s400/Wiseman%2BTrustee%2BMeeting.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wiseman, cheek sunk into his palm, is introduced as guest of honor at NYPL trustees meeting the day “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>” opened. NYPL president Marx is on far left. This is not the trustees' usual tapestry-festooned meeting room. </td></tr>
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Credits for “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>” give extensive thanks to <i>the managemen</i>t of the NYPL naming a list of those running the show at this powerful organization. September 13th, the day that “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>” opened was, perhaps by coincidence, the day of the NYPL’s board of trustees meetings. Mr. Wiseman was introduced there as an honored guest. The trustees were told his “<i>must see movie</i>” is “<i>an absolute love letter to the libraries</i>” and Mr. Wiseman, (“<i>Fred</i>” to them) was described as a “<i>renowned film-maker</i>” who “<i>became part of the NYPL family in 2015</i>.” The trustees viewed and applauded the trailer for the film as part of their official meeting.<br />
<br />
Mr. Wiseman then thanked the trustees, advising them: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>It was a great privilege for me to get permission to make the film and I was pleased that when I approached Tony </i>[Marx, NYPL president]<i>, he said OK, although I guess with some trepidation. . . I want to thank Tony and Carrie </i>[Welch, the NYPL’s head of External Relations]<i> was particularly helpful as my <b>consigliere</b> giving me good advice all the way through the filming. I want to thank the board for also giving me permission and hope you all get a chance to see it.</i></blockquote>
Did the NYPL regard <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=consigliere&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8"><i>consigliere</i></a> <a href="https://www.nypl.org/press/press-release/september-18-2014/new-york-public-library-appoints-carrie-welch-chief-external">Carrie Welch</a> as “<i>Fred’s</i>” handler when he was there? Ms. Welch oversees the NYPL’s “<i>Development and Communications & Marketing groups.</i>”<br />
<br />
Wiseman’s Academy Award acceptance boast that he doesn’t “<i>do any research in advance of the shooting</i>” or more importantly his <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/12/the-wisdom-of-wiseman/">assertion</a> that “<i>The shooting of the film is the research</i>” along with his preference to know very little about what he is shooting before he shoots it makes the question of access and how it steers him, highly disconcerting, especially when he tells you that during the shooting the NYPL’s top officer overseeing its public relations was giving him “<i>good advice all the way through the filming.</i>”- It undermines Wiseman’s Academy Award acceptance claim that what he shoots is just what he is “<i>going to stumble across in any day, or any moment of any day</i>.”<br />
<br />
Whatever serendipity does still infuse “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>,” it must be asked with respect to each and every scene: Was this scene filmed for reasons entirely random, or because the NYPL’s publicity department thought it would be good for “<i>Fred</i>” to film? <i>The same must be asked about the scenes that <u>don’t</u> appear.</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CUWBowdfmeI/WdZOgDvTeKI/AAAAAAAAI_k/5gymRvZr5lc_Vj2vuE9Om1HP0hvqEsyiwCLcBGAs/s1600/Ex%2BLibris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="1024" height="215" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CUWBowdfmeI/WdZOgDvTeKI/AAAAAAAAI_k/5gymRvZr5lc_Vj2vuE9Om1HP0hvqEsyiwCLcBGAs/s400/Ex%2BLibris.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the trailer for the film, NYPL hired architect Francine Houben: <i>“For me libraries are not about books. As a lot of people think they
are a storage space for books: No, libraries are about people.”</i></td></tr>
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For instance, in one segment Francine Houben, an architect the NYPL hired from the firm of Mecanoo of the Netherlands, presents plans for the consolidating shrinkage of the Mid-Manhattan Library at what was public auditorium space in Mid-Manhattan (gone now with its closure). That renovation <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/01/as-nypl-senior-execs-present-pretty.html">will involve</a> a huge elimination of books. The scene is key because it contains Houben’s (I said this before) probably focus-session-tested pronouncement, which is also strategically placed in the trailer, that `<i>libraries are not about books, or their storage, but about people.’</i><br />
<br />
The Macanoo firm <a href="http://www.mecanoo.nl/News/ID/371/EX-LIBRIS-The-New-York-Public-Library-by-director-Frederick-Wiseman">is promoting</a> “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>,” and particularly <i>this scene</i> and <i>this statement</i> by Houben on its website. Houben and the Macanoo architects have several times since been careful to emphasis to the NYPL trustees that the plans for the Mid-Manhattan renovation address the future with the intentionally flexibility that <i>many more books can be removed from the library</i> in years hence than might be removed initially.<br />
<br />
By contrast, what <u><i>doesn’t</i></u> appear in the film is another contemporaneous evening during the period Wiseman was filming, December 10, 2015, in the exact same Mid-Manhattan space when Houben again presented these plans, but this time with the public present. There was a Q&A following during which a cadre of dedicated library defenders from the <a href="http://www.savenypl.org/">Committee to Save the New York Public Library</a> (I am also a member of that group) with other members of the public joining raised alarm and complained about the disappearance of books in the libraries. Library Defenders from <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/">Citizens Defending Libraries</a> were absent because they were responding to the fact that, at the same time, the City Council <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/12/press-release-advisory-city-council.html">was pushing forward</a> with votes to sell the second biggest library in Brooklyn, the central destination Brooklyn Heights Library in Downtown Brooklyn.<br />
<br />
In her introduction of the presentation that evening of December 10th, the NYPL Chief Operating Officer (who we will name and talk about in a minute), referred to the planned redesign of the Mid-Manhattan Library as "<i>the library of the future</i>," with apparently no self awareness of the irony that <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-library-of-future-envisioned-21st.html">previously</a> SIBL, the Science, Industry and Business Library, the central destination library completed at a cost of $100 million in 1996 that is <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/01/as-nypl-senior-execs-present-pretty.html">being done away with</a> as part of the MML renovation, had also been referred to as "<i>the library of the future</i>." In the sequence in the Wiseman film where the NYPL Chief Operating Officer introduces Francine Houben, the COO speaks to Wiseman’s camera’s about the <i>'transparency'</i> of the design process. At the parallel presentation on that December 10th evening the Chief Operating Officer tactfully adapted her remarks to avoid such a brag: If on that open-to-the-public evening she’d attempted such a claim and Wiseman had been filming his sound track would undoubtedly have picked up guffaws from the audience.<br />
<br />
Whatever it results from, the absence of context debilitates Wiseman’s “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>” severely. That is unless you bring along your own insider knowledge. . .<br />
<br />
. . A central figure in the film is the NYPL’s Chief Operating Officer. She is one of the many people in power thanked by Wiseman in the credits at the end of the film. If you are astute and knowledgeable you might pick up in those credit thanking her at the end of the film that her name is <i>Iris Weinshall</i>. Knowing this might then lead you to know that she is the wife of Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the U.S. senate. You’ll note in the film that 42nd Street Central reference Library is now named the "<i>Stephen A. Schwarzman Building</i>" after a billionaire of rather nefarious reputation, but you won’t note that <a href="https://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/stephen-schwarzman.asp?cycle=16"><b>Stephen Schwarzman</b></a> and his <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/recips.php?id=D000021873&party=D&chamber=S&type=P&cycle=2016">Blackstone Group</a> make major contributions to <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/10/plutocratic-class-warrior-stephen.html">Senator Schumer</a> (making Schumer <a href="http://gothamist.com/2016/03/31/stuy_town_affordable_housing.php">in 2014</a>
the #1 Blackstone-supported politician in New York State and the #4
Blackstone supported politician nationwide).<br />
<br />
. . At the time of the filming Ms. Weinshall was newly in her job having stepped in to replace <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/11/priorities-to-be-replicated-private.html">David Offensend</a>, who came to the library from Evercore, a Blackstone spin-off, and stepped down from his library position after his unpopular association with the sale of the Donnell Library and the real estate sales of the discredited Central Library Plan. Weinshall would push forward with implementation of the Offensend-initiated SIBL sale and work with the city to start the sale of the Inwood Library for redevelopment. (Neither the extraordinary central destination SIBL, nor the Inwood Library is in the film.) Before arriving at the NYPL Weinshall <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/brooklyn-public-library-trustees.html">was engaged</a> in similar work with respect to real estate assets of CUNY. Because Wiseman doesn’t use any title cards or provide any labeling information, none of this is known to the average viewer. <br />
<br />
When you know who Ms. Weinshall is you may hear her words in the film differently when, in a senior staff meeting, they are discussing circulation and she is urging more focus on (<a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/03/physical-books-vs-digital-books.html">more expensive</a> for the library) <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/03/physical-books-vs-digital-books.html">digital books</a>. An interesting side-light on this (I will emulate Wiseman style here, opting for inclusion what might deceptively seem not very relevant). At the last NYPL trustees, the one where Wiseman was lauded, NYPL president Tony Marx told the trustees this about his start as NYPL president:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>When I walked in the door I asked people: So what is the metric of success? And the answer was “circulation,” that I got from scholars. And I thought to myself, well that’s interesting, if that were true, then we could close every branch, we could close every building, and spend every dollar we have on the latest bestseller and lend them for free. And they would fly out of the building and our metrics would soar. You see I was a college president: I understand the whole metrics thing and how metrics can be played.* That’s crazy.</i><br />
<br />
(* Read chapter 3, <i>“Arms Race- Going To College,”</i> in Cathy O’Neil’s <i>“Weapons of Math Destruction.”</i>)</blockquote>
Another example of significant information lurking in the film that is discernible only to the cognoscenti, is a staff meeting exchange where it is suggested that “<i>CUF</i>” could be “<i>commissioned</i>” to do some work to help support and get the NYPL’s desired message out on a certain subject to deal with politicians and the public. It will be a very rare film viewer who knows what “<i>CUF</i>” is, but, for those who know, the off-handedness with which it is suggested that CUF will do the NYPL’s bidding and carry its water is startling.<br />
<br />
“<i>CUF</i>” is the “<i>Center for an Urban Future</i>,” an organization that has been <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/06/where-are-they-now-sharon-greenberger.html">heavily involved</a> in helping push forward sale of New York City libraries, including writing and placing a number of Op-Ed articles arguing for the conversation of libraries into real estate transactions (for instance two <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2016/01/brooklyn-public-library-trustees.html">similarly tracking Op-ed’s</a> by David Giles and Jonathan Bowles). The latest of these Op-eds, by Cuff’s current policy director, Matt Chaban, appeared in the New York Times the Monday <i>following the opening of “Ex </i><i><i>Libris</i>”</i>: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/opinion/libraries-affordable-housing.html?mcubz=3&_r=1">Libraries Can Be More Than Just Books</a>, September 18, 2017. That article <a href="https://twitter.com/AYReport/status/909785400465600512">incredulously claimed</a> that the replacement for the once-famed Donnell Library, “<i>opened beneath a <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/11/priorities-to-be-replicated-private.html">luxury hotel</a> to largely positive reviews</i>.”<br />
<br />
The NYPL has a weird flip-floppy approach in terms of acknowledging the <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/11/priorities-to-be-replicated-private.html">awfulness</a> of what it did in terms of its shrink-and-sink sale disposal of the beloved Donnell. There have been times when it has necessarily acknowledged its Donnell deal was a debacle, something never to be repeated. Other times, the NYPL has reversed itself and, as if hoping that people are ready to forget history, tries to burnish the deal that created a luxury tower as a success. Reversals that involve forgetting actual fact and history this way are more easily done if an organization like CUF, an apparently independent third-party, lays the groundwork.<br />
<br />
Another test for the exceptionally knowledgeable attending the film is the briefest glimpse of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer sitting alone towards the end of an NYPL gala for the wealthy; the brief flash on the screen seemingly intended to convey some fish-out-of-water incongruity. There is, in fact, incongruity beyond the visual: Brewer who rose as a politician and protector of the public interest on Manhattan’s the West Side has become a supporter of library sales, <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/02/manhattan-borough-president-gale.html">supporting</a>, in her borough, the sale of SIBL, <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2017/01/nypl-announces-its-intention-to-sell.html">Inwood</a> and having her representative on the City Planning Commission, Anna Hayes Levin, <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2015/09/report-on-tuesday-september-22nd-city.html">vote for</a> the shrink-and-sink sale of the Brooklyn Heights Library being replaced by a luxury tower.<br />
<br />
An axiom often applied to elected and public officials is <i>“watch what they do, <u>not</u> what they say.”</i> With organizations like CUF operative, maybe its not just a question of what the NYPL says, but also what CUF says while floating NYPL's arguments into the public discourse.<br />
<br />
Wiseman’s films involve an almost obsessive documentation of <i>what people say</i>. Wiseman may or may not be a skeptical listener when it comes to what people say in this film. I can’t judge the earlier Wiseman films I haven’t seen, but one discussion from 1989, respecting a book about the Wiseman films then extant, generated this <a href="http://www.documentary.org/column/reality-fictions-films-frederick-wiseman">assessment</a> from a reviewer:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Whatever setting he visits . . . he carries the same basic interests : a concern for power, authority, and control and the way institutions shape both the people they serve and those who administer them. Though he finds occasional moments of competence and courage, mostly he records frustration, callousness, suffering and indifference. For all the thousands of feet of film he shoots, he repeatedly shows us the same kind of behavior: bureaucratic doubletalk, the debasement of language, hypocrisy, the dehumanizing effects of bureaucracy and what he calls the "surrealism of the normal."</i></blockquote>
As a co-founder and leader of <a href="http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/">Citizens Defending Libraries</a> I have spent a lot of time striving, in defense of libraries, to communicate what is great and superlative about libraries, the value inherent in them that is critical to preserved. But that by itself cannot be the sole reason for Citizens Defending Libraries to exist or its primary goal. I suspect that if we could perfect exactly what we had to say about what is special and essential concerning the libraries, that no matter how we honed our eloquence there would never be anything to prevent our message from being adopted and restated, polished with even more glittering rhetorical flourish by the NYPL's high-paid PR professionals. .<br />
<br />
. . For instance, at the last NYPL trustees meeting President Tony Marx said this (after Wiseman departed), and I could not help feeling as if he was quoting ideas of my own about how libraries so are valuably <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/02/libraries-and-climate-change-dangerous.html">bottom-up, not top-down</a> in what they provide. Marx seemed to be taking words virtually out of my mouth, while perhaps expressing them better- Marx was riffing to explain speak about the NYPL’s new motto “<b><i>More People Reading More</i></b>”:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>This institution is the holder of the history, culture of humanity and we need to share that corpus with more of our fellow citizens. We need to inform them with quality information. We are also unique in another way, because we will meet anyone wherever they start and take them further; so whether you walk in illiterate, or walk in as a Nobel Prize winner we’ll take you and get you what you need so you can go further. We have no requirements. We have no certification. We have no curriculum. We have no `expectations,’ except that you will come, read, learn, and contribute. We have an undying commitment to serve everyone, to meet them where they are, and to move them forward. And it is that commitment, your commitment, this institution’s commitment that led us to the notion of “<b>More People Reading Mor</b>e.” </i></blockquote>
One might wonder whether this paragraph of very fitting words was first generated with a thought that they might be used in conjunction communicating about the release of Wiseman’s film. At the Trustees meeting Marx actually stirred them in to a smorgasbord of concepts that other trustees might better respond to including metrics.<br />
<br />
Bottom line the message that libraries of New York are extraordinary institutions serving democracy from top to bottom in every aspect is of extraordinary importance. That's whether expressed by NYPL management as in the above paragraph, by Wiseman in his film, or by me and Citizens Defending Libraries. We are all on the same page when we express it. It’s also a very attractive message to adopt. When Wiseman spoke with Morris he spoke of his current appreciation for <i>positive messages</i>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I think it is just as important for documentary film makers to make films that show people being kind and decent and generous as it is to show absurdity. . . I really think that documentary film makers who only make exposé movies are missing out on lots of great subjects. . . .You have to acknowledge that goodness does exit from time to time.</i></blockquote>
Where we differ and what I find far more urgent to communicate about is how selling libraries for a pittance while eliminating books and librarians is at odds with these ideals. And, turned around, isn't really Wiseman, placidly shunning an<i> exposé</i><i>, </i>who is <i>missing out on a great subject?</i><br />
<br />
While one may agree with the NYPL that Wiseman’s new film is, in fact, a “<i>love letter to the libraries</i>,” that does not necessarily mean Wiseman is, per se, 100% in the business of selling conclusions in “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>.” <br />
<br />
Wiseman has a reputation for ambiguity. It’s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-exchange-frederick-wiseman">been asserted</a> that an “<i>element of ambiguity</i>” is in all of his films. As quoted in the beginning of this piece Wiseman says he is “<i>interested in complexity and ambiguity, not in simplifying the subject in the service of any particular ideology</i>.”<br />
<br />
He has <a href="http://www.indiewire.com/2014/09/8-smart-things-documentary-legend-frederick-wiseman-shared-about-his-career-69564/">propounded</a> his “<i>horror of didacticism, I don't like to be told what to think. Many of the events in these films are complicated and ambiguous, and I like the idea of films being complicated and ambiguous.</i>”<br />
<br />
Embrace of <i>ambiguity</i> may help account for the different reactions it has been noted that Wiseman’s films elicit. Mary Hawthorne <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-exchange-frederick-wiseman">interviewing Wiseman</a> for the New Yorker in 2011 suggested he presents something of “<i>a Rorschach test</i>” because everybody has “<i>something different</i>” to say about his films:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>David Denby describes you as "an ardent crusader for reform," Catherine Samie as "a predator of humanity," both "virginal and diabolical," and Errol Morris as "the undisputed king of misanthropic cinema."</i></blockquote>
Within that scope of reactions, Wiseman has been described, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-frederick-wiseman-retrospective-20160825-snap-story.html">at least</a> with respect to his <a href="http://www.documentary.org/column/reality-fictions-films-frederick-wiseman">early films</a>, as a “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/02/archives/watching-wiseman-watch-his-films-do-not-just-depict-social.html?mcubz=3&_r=0"><i>muckraker</i></a>”(<i>“in the business of handing out `searing indictments’”</i>), so much so that Wiseman took time to refute the description as a “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11335097/Frederick-Wiseman-One-common-misconception-is-that-Im-a-muckraker.-My-films-are-more-complicated-than-that.html"><i>misconception</i></a>” when being interviewed about “<i>National Gallery</i>” in 2015, saying that he didn’t think he was.<br />
<br />
Ambiguity, and Wiseman’s almost mischievous diffidence in indicating where he might be coming from are likely ingredients in Wiseman’s formula for obtaining access to get the footage he wants. The film that put Wiseman on the map was his first, “<i>Titicut Follies</i>” a film about the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. By all accounts “<i>Follies</i>” it is a pretty good candidate for anyone’s <i>muckraking</i> <i>exposé </i>list. It shows guards herding and taunting naked patients through a desolate setting. Amazingly, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11335097/Frederick-Wiseman-One-common-misconception-is-that-Im-a-muckraker.-My-films-are-more-complicated-than-that.html">according to</a> Wiseman the “<i>super-intendent of Bridgewater . . . loved the film when he saw it, and he thought it fulfilled all his hopes in helping me get permission. But when his job was in jeopardy because of how the film was received, he turned against it.</i>” <br />
<br />
Wiseman, however, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11335097/Frederick-Wiseman-One-common-misconception-is-that-Im-a-muckraker.-My-films-are-more-complicated-than-that.html">equivocates</a> now about the film’s negativity: “<i>I think the guards, in their own rough-and-ready way, were more tuned into the needs of the patients than the so-called helping middle-class professionals, the psychiatrists and the social workers. I have always been as interested in showing people doing decent and kind things as horrible things</i>.”<br />
<br />
As a continually prolific <i>autuer</i> Wiseman must inevitably be preoccupied with the questions of access and where his next footage will come from. That’s especially certain since, even as “<i>Titicut Follies</i>” was the film that established his reputation, it was tied up for decades in litigation restricting and limiting its viewability. The litigation, brought by the state of Massachusetts, was based on the lack of permitted access. What’s more, Wiseman is a lawyer equipped to mull on these intricacies.<br />
<br />
For Wiseman the sweet spot must be the point at which he can get his footage and yet his scenes will still yield meaningful insight consistent with what people expect from him. If he is lucky, his subjects may self-satirize themselves with a seeming unwitting lack of self awareness.<br />
<br />
There is, for instance, one scene in “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>” that I do believe was included for comic relief and to emphasize that the intellectual exercises that occur at the library are not guaranteed to be always on target. It occurs in the same now closed Mid-Manhattan Library auditorium room where the scene with NYPL's architect occurred. In it, there is a slide show presentation by someone who is apparently the author of a book who, with great passion, propounds how the history of the Jewish delicatessen is imbued with essential-to-recognize sexual symbolism. Pans by the camera directed out to show the audience, suggest that those listening are not buying such <i>mishegoss</i> no matter the gusto with which the excited author is selling it. The device of providing commentary by showing the reactions of others is one Wiseman seems to use frequently.<br />
<br />
An early scene in “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>” shows NYPL president Tony Marx addressing NYPL staff exuberantly giving a spiel that he hearkens back to several times elsewhere in the film about the glories of public private partnerships and their key to future success of the libraries. The camera pans over the glum nonreactive faces of the librarians in the audience. If you are picking up on the relationship you may realize that because of a disequilibrium of power with their employment hanging in the balance the audience is not at liberty to respond with more overt displays of disapproval.<br />
<br />
The scene is subtle. Perhaps a decade hence, after our nerves have rubbed raw watching long fights play out about privatizing all the public property in post-Maria Puerto Rico (another example of a disaster capitalism scenario) we will be more starkly, acutely aware of the need to be wary of the glorification of "PPPs' (Wall Street lingo for "<a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/06/stephen-schwarzman-man-making-deals-to.html"><i>Public-Private Partnerships</i></a>"), the `<i>partnering</i>' with private wealth. Today, however, I believe that this concern is apt to sail over the heads of those who traipse in to see a film about how great libraries are.<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/movies/ex-libris-new-york-public-library-review.html?mcubz=3&_r=0">New York Times review</a> that will send a lot of people to see the film observed that the film doesn’t “<i>overtly</i>” address the NYPL’s “<i>scuttled</i>” Central Library Plan (overtly”?), but notes that <i>“Big money is a thread running through the movie, including in meetings with Anthony W. Marx, the president of the library, and other senior staff members.”</i> The Times review also goes outside the four corners of the film to comment for the record on the incongruous oddity of the NYPL selling to Mr. Schwarzman, a “<i>private equity executive</i>,” the right to have his name on that library “<i>alongside quotations from immortals like Jorge Luis Borges and Thomas Jefferson</i>” for a transfer of $100 million.<br />
<br />
The Times review is also the one that calls the library “<i>the democratic ideal incarnate</i>,” a phrase Tony Marx quickly seized upon to introduce the film to the NYPL trustees and then again to attendees of the Wiseman Morris discussion. The Times assertion, however, that Wiseman in his film “<i>lays bare</i>” the NYPL organism is highly questionable.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rhyqKujWoPs/WdZSuRFUmfI/AAAAAAAAJAE/9EtigillxdoC-UiP4d5CFGyGjxKEa3p8wCLcBGAs/s1600/Empty%2Bbookshelves%2B2%2BFlights.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rhyqKujWoPs/WdZSuRFUmfI/AAAAAAAAJAE/9EtigillxdoC-UiP4d5CFGyGjxKEa3p8wCLcBGAs/s400/Empty%2Bbookshelves%2B2%2BFlights.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">November 16, 2015 NYPL trustees meeting not, as usual, in the ornate tapestry-festooned trustees room, but in another room of the library with <i>empty book shelves</i> two-flights high.</td></tr>
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How does “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>” take up the theme of “<i>big money</i>”? There is a lot in the film that juxtaposes differences in class, as well as issues concerning race in the library. There is one scene that covers a November 16, 2015 NYPL trustees meeting, and its aftermath, the annual photographing of the NYPL trustees as a group for the NYPL annual report.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7WjkMCNlE0I/WdZUgj7SfjI/AAAAAAAAJAQ/2p1UFtB0I7Yb0YPKAdknIFzhNzXPv4eTQCLcBGAs/s1600/Annual%2BNYPL%2BTrustee%2BPhoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7WjkMCNlE0I/WdZUgj7SfjI/AAAAAAAAJAQ/2p1UFtB0I7Yb0YPKAdknIFzhNzXPv4eTQCLcBGAs/s400/Annual%2BNYPL%2BTrustee%2BPhoto.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Annual photographing of the NYPL trustees: Wiseman's camera man and probably Wiseman in foreground filming </td></tr>
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I know the exact date of the trustees meeting because I was there. I can be seen right after flattering closeup of another library defender in the public audience, Christabel Gough: Although she is unidentified and the film makes no mention of it, Ms. Gough, a critic of the NYP, was absolutely key in multiple ways to launching the lawsuits that helped scuttle the Central Library Plan.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-raQe-m83PJc/WdZXXEPuCwI/AAAAAAAAJAw/bZBr6IJKoQEHs9pTmJnhY3eW8XwGJQjxQCLcBGAs/s1600/No%2BBooks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-raQe-m83PJc/WdZXXEPuCwI/AAAAAAAAJAw/bZBr6IJKoQEHs9pTmJnhY3eW8XwGJQjxQCLcBGAs/s320/No%2BBooks.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">November 16, 2015: Another room, <i>empty of book</i>s, the NYPL trustees passed by to have their picture taken</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wiseman camera filming trustees</td></tr>
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Interestingly, the trustees did not hold this meeting in their usual grand space a room with huge antique tapestries on the walls. Only if you truly pay attention will you realize that the room where they met instead was once completely line with books that, now gone, has left an expanse of empty shelves. <br />
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The trustees meeting does <i>not</i> show the trustees at work. Instead it shows the trustees at the end of their meeting. Most meetings end incorporating a regular tradition of providing the trustees with some kind of intellectual candy for dessert, special access to particular treasures of the library that help them feel more erudite and connected with the library’s mission.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In a glass case, Phillis Wheatley artifacts brought from Schomberg collection the for delectation by the NYPL trustee at their meeting.</td></tr>
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In this case the treasure, from the Schomberg collection, was a selection of works by Phillis Wheatley, “<i>the first African American poet to be published in this country</i>,” collected by Arthur Schomberg himself. The articles of interest were presented and explained to the rest of the trustees by fellow trustee British-born Ghanaian-American Kwame Anthony Appiah. who, `<i>volunteering</i>’ for the job, told them of Ms. Wheatley’s history writing her poems as a slave before she was freed, including reactions of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington to Ms. Wheatley’s poetry.<br />
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Errol Morris asserted that all of Mr. Wiseman’s films have <i>“cringe-worthy”</i> scenes. The history of slavery is problematic in this country and desperately problematic in a world where the effects of slavery persist with effects that are clearly also topics of touched on several ways in the film. There is perhaps something “<i>cringe-worthy</i>” about this presentation to the wealthy trustees who include Wall Street and real estate moguls, and even a genuine princess.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A "<i>likeness</i>" of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Phillis-Wheatley">Phillis Wheatley</a></td></tr>
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Following suit to once again emulate Mr. Wiseman’s predilection for reaching to include the seemingly extraneous and often lengthy I will tell you that as I sat in the trustees meeting listening to Mr. Appiah speak about Wheatley, I knew of my own family records concerning a branch of the family related to some ancestral Stratfords who acquired and owned Ms. Wheatley as a slave. It reads as follows:<br />
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<i>In or about the year 1761, a slave ship arrived in Boston Harbour with a cargo of slaves; As I have before stated in these pages, slavery existed in the North (however their sense of right and justice forbade the perpetuation of it) and was present in Grandfather's family, so it was found in other branches of it.</i><br />
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<i>Mother tells me of a Mr. Wheatly who married an Aunt of ours, whom I have heard her make honorable mention of. On a certain occasion, while looking over her time honored books, I found a volume of Poems ascribed to Phyllis Wheatly embellished with a likeness of a female African; I asked Mother who she was, when she gave me the following history.</i><br />
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<i>Aunt Wheatly was in want of a domestic, on hearing of the arrival of a slaver, she went on board to purchase, in looking through the ships company of living freight, her attention was drawn to that of a slender frail female child crouched down upon the ships deck, which at once enlisted her sympathies; now Mrs. Wheatly was one of those women cast in a fine mould (so to speak) she was all Soul! and although she could, agreeable to the prevailing custom of the times, buy and own human beings; yet she could treat them as such, not as cattle.</i><br />
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<i>Owing to the frailty of the child, she procured her for a trifle, as the Captain had fears of her dropping off his hands without emolument by death.</i><br />
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<i>Mrs. Wheatly at once set herself about reinstating the child's health and constitution; first of all she must have a name. She gave her that of Phillis, and as was the custom, they generally took that of the owner as an affix, thus she became known as Phillis Wheatly.</i><br />
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<i>Well, here she was ignorant of the English language which must be learnt, and Aunt thought, that she must educate her, thus they became at once, teacher and pupil; she proved very attractive, and made great proficiency; as soon as she could read well, she began to make rhymes, that step by step, she showed a genius for composition.</i><br />
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<i>Aunt being an educated lady, appreciating her talent, gave Phillis full scope for her generous; the result was that she became a favourite, not only in the family but with literary men and women of those times; Aunt clothed her in good apparel, and made her an inmate of her sitting room yet Phillis had the good sense to withdraw when company came, unless particularly desired to remain, as they often came to have and interview with her.</i><br />
<i> </i><br />
<i>Her poems were published both here and in England, which country she visited in 1773 and was cordially received by persons of high distinction.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In Mother's volume there was a correct likeness of Phillis. After the decease of Mrs. Wheatly she married, which proved an unfortunate affair, for up to the time of her marriage, she had lived a life of ease, and very probably was not much accustomed to domestic duties.</i><br />
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<i>N.B. New York March 1866. In a fruitless search to obtain a copy of her poems, I learnt that a stray copy brought $15.00 under the hammer, that of mother's cost perhaps 25C.-- </i></blockquote>
Perhaps polite and politically correct in the time it was written (in the <i>1800s</i>), but this certainly induces cringes when it strays so far from the politically correct we are now used to. Nevertheless, it’s history.<br />
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The NYPL trustees, a self-appointing board, are not all just the wealthy, powerful and connected: There is another bunch of trustees consisting of celebrity artists like Calvin Trillin and <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/05/ethan-hawke-appointed-as-trustee-of-new.html">Ethan Hawke</a>, that are perhaps less inclined to show up for meetings. How would you categorize George Stephanopoulos a trustee who does show up?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vested, sitting before <i>empty bookshelves</i>, trustee <a href="http://appiah.net/">Kwame Anthony Appiah</a>,at the NYPL trustee meeting where he volunteered for the presentation Wiseman caught on film of the Phillis Wheatley artifacts.</td></tr>
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Trustee <a href="http://appiah.net/">Kwame Anthony Appiah</a>, who volunteered to present information about the Phillis Wheatley artifacts is a novelist and cultural theorist with a particular interest in the subject of <i>morality</i>. New Yorkers viewing “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>” are unlikely to recognize him during the film for how they know him best, the current author of the New York Times weekly “<i>The Ethicist</i>” where he offers his solemn advice on what is the moral thing to do, responding to letters posing quandaries.<br />
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When Appiah launched his stint as Times Ethicist (September. 30, 2015, two months before you see him on film) he began with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/magazine/what-should-an-ethicist-tell-his-readers.html?mcubz=3&_r=0">a column</a> answering a question from a librarian asking whether she should act as a whistle-blower about the “serious damage” posed by a “poorly planned” radically downsizing of the library’s collection with the discard “straight to the trash-hauling bin” of a huge number of books. The librarian thought that “If local researchers knew the scope of devastation underway, they would have strong objections.” The librarian says that she is already “in hot water” with her administrators. <br />
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Appiah’s response was to tell the inquiring librarian to give it a rest, to let her administrators proceed, and that it was probably “<i>a little overblown</i>” to call this “<i>whistle-blowing</i>’’ assuring the librarian (and his readers) that the decisions made:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>don’t sound morally wrong. They reflect a judgment at odds with your own; they don’t reflect corruption, abuse or a total abandonment of the institution’s purposes.</i></blockquote>
At no time writing back does Appiah disclose that he is a trustee of the NYPL, a member of the decision-making board criticized for exactly the same kind “<i>serious damage</i>” to public assets do to book destruction and a “<i>poorly planned</i>” radically downsizing of the libraries. In essence he is just providing his own self justification for some very questionable actions he himself is partaking in. He is saying, listen to the people in power, they know best and are not improperly motivated.. <i>Is that ethical? . . .</i><br />
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. . . Well as it’s his first column Appiah poses to himself the question: <i>“Is there anything I should let readers know?”</i> His answer?: <i>That he’s fallible.</i> But now, because you read it here, you also know that he’s a trustee.<br />
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“<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>” has a fascinating scene that takes place in the Greenwich Village Jefferson Market Library where the economic and social theories of antebellum southern ideologues, particularly George Fitzhugh, justifying slavery, are juxtaposed with the those of slavery-opposing Karl Marx and his pen-pal on such subjects, President Abraham Lincoln. Fitzhugh, we learn, thought that <i>slave society</i> is better than a <i>free society</i> because it solves conflict between capital and labor while freeing up and giving time to an aristocratic leisure class that can then do the productive and worthwhile things in the world like run the political system. To Fitzhugh slave society is better because “<i>the idea of free society is a failure</i>,” and because slave owners take better care of their workers than the factory owners of the north. . . . <i>So, let us have a world of masters who make decisions and run the world because they will know better, and let those that are slaves rest assured that these masters will take good care of them.</i><br />
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Another scene in the film incorporates a discussion about the bowdlerization of history books to refer to African American blacks first coming to this country "<i>immigrating</i>" here as "<i>workers</i>."<i><br /></i><br />
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What meaning do juxtapositions create? Can anyone really guess what Wiseman is intending by the juxtapositions his film includes? Similarly, can anyone really guess what he intends, by what he leaves out by either design or by accident that could create even more arresting juxtapositions? One library defender who rushed out to see the film immediately and was irritated by what it didn’t convey about the current crisis of management described the film as “<i>lazy</i>.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From "<i>Ex </i><i><i>Libris</i>,</i>" a digital library sequence with two contrasting scenes: On left a digitizer carefully sorting vintage photographs, and on the right the hi-speed factory sorting of books delivered to libraries from off-site </td></tr>
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In one sequence, (which you can see as a clip Errol Morris selected for their discussion- it's at exactly the <a href="https://livestream.com/nypl/events/7643977/videos/162787358">one-hour mark</a>), one experiences the extended deep quiet and slow process of digitizing parts of the library’s collection punctuated by the occasional click of impressively expensive machines and lighting equipment. This is immediately followed by a switch to the load clatter of the NYPL Long Island City, Queens book-sorting “<i>BookOps</i>” operation as books whiz by at phenomenal speed making it barely even possible to recognize what they are or that many of them are indeed books at all (some aren’t). Again, the machinery is impressive and evidently expensive, but here the books are not so reverently handled.<br />
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As you watch books and photographs being digitized they are handled with care respectful of their delicate three-dimensional physicality reminding you how digitization must ultimately fall short of completely preserving their messy, musty essence. In the contrasting BookOps scene, documenting a new system where books kept off-site from the libraries will be obtained by <a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/12/american-library-association-issues.html">digital request</a>, you recognize that this is not your father’s library and while you may be stunned by the gee-whiz future aspect of it, you may also yearn nostalgically of the more personally interactive relationship previously standard in delivering library books to the patrons looking to find them. <br />
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Morris’ reaction to the scene selection was to be struck by <i>“really well-to-do college kids copying photographs”</i> (they are well dressed) contrasted with the black workers (in T-shirts and baseball caps, some wearing earphones listening to music) mechanically sorting books. Wiseman already cat-and-mouse about his intentions and how the scene spoke for itself said, <i>“I don’t think that’s quite fair to the library,”</i> and went on to make the case that to see such racial or economic overtones in the clip or how the NYPL was depicted library generally, was not <i>a “fair analysis</i>” because, after all, the book-sorting provided <i>“jobs”</i> while the digitizers were probably <i>`trained.’ </i> Just before playing the Clip Morris had joked with Wiseman about whether it was<i> "risky" </i>to criticize the library on its turf at event hosted by it.<i> </i><br />
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Although it doesn’t sound from the exchange above that Wiseman, protective of the NYPL, was grappling with ambiguity or nuance, it is probably fair to say that Wiseman often presents for interpretation by his audiences what he, himself is grappling with ambivalently, that he may actually be entreating the mixed reactions of his audience as late step in formulating his own thinking. . . <br />
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. . . Christo famously considers the artworks he produces with wife Jeanne-Claude to consist not just of the physical art produced, but also of the public’s reaction including during the process of making the art and getting permissions for it. Is it possible to think that when Wiseman refuses to give answers about what he is doing he is actually including the ranging reactions and debate of his audiences as a part of his product? If so, then this review, with its quarrel pointing out all that the film is missing, should be considered a naturally invited extension of the film itself.<br />
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At an initial showing of the film at Film Forum the same night as the Errol Morris discussion was followed by a <a href="https://filmforum.org/events/event/qas-with-ex-libris-filmmaker-frederick-wiseman-event">Q&A with Wiseman</a>. Library defenders who were worried about the management of the libraries and its banishment of books were there. Unfortunately, when one library defenders asked about this during the Q&A the microphone was seized from her before she could complete her question. Wiseman avoided an extended response and countered simply that with respect to the "<i>some 5.2 million books</i>" not now at the 42nd Street Library that he was being asked about, "<i>They are stored in New Jersey</i>" (some sixty miles away and not necessarily all of them).<br />
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On another day the Film Forum’s Q&A after the film was <a href="https://filmforum.org/events/event/ex-libris-introduced-by-nypl-staff-from-the-film">with Michele Mayes</a> the NYPL’s General Counsel.<br />
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Does anyone expect that General Counsel Mayes' interactions with a Film Forum audience would be anything other than a close hewing to a set of scripted PR talking points? The same must be asked of all the time that other NYPL executives got extended screen time in the film. . . <br />
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. . . There is a scene in Wiseman’s 1969 “<i>Law and Order</i>” where a police officer is choking a prostitute during an arrest. The Harvard Gazzette <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/12/the-wisdom-of-wiseman/">says that</a> “<i>Wiseman, alert to ambiguities, refused to condemn him,</i>” and the scene, Wiseman said, is proof a camera does not change behavior, and that “<i>most of us think our behavior is appropriate for the situation we are in.</i>” Introducing Wiseman before talk with Morris, NYPL President Marx says of Wiseman: “<i>He was everywhere. and as you’ll see we forgot that he was here.</i>”<br />
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Most viewers of the “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>” are likely going to come away with the distinct impression of Marx as the consummate showman. It is doubtful though that people who give it considered thought will conclude that Marx ever felt like he was stepping off stage or that he or the senator’s wife ever forgot that there was a camera trained on them as they spoke.<br />
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Wiseman asserting his dedicated appreciation for complexity <a href="https://current.org/1998/02/fred-wisemans-novelistic-samplings-of-reality/">has said</a>, <i>“You have to discard your simple-minded notions, otherwise you are doing propaganda.”</i> Was Wiseman willing to embrace complexity in this film? “<i>Ex </i><i>Libris</i>,” certainly poses the question of whether Wiseman, shooting scenes getting “<i>good advice all the way through the filming</i>” from the NYPL’s top PR officer, passed his own test of avoiding doing simple-minded propaganda. . .<br />
<br />
No doubt people will come away from this film with a renewed and deeper appreciation of the value of libraries, but the "<i>every thing is fine here</i>" message they are likely to take away together with Wiseman's perhaps deliberate failure to sound an alarm, means that the libraries that this film is "<i>an absolute love letter</i>" to will be exposed and unprotected from the attacks that now threaten them. . .<br />
<br />
. . Still, what can you rightfully expect from a documentary? Or is the question, more properly, what do you expect of a promotional film? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>PS:</b> The Film Forum is not selling Scott Sherman's “<a href="http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/06/real-estate-deal-revelations-in-scott.html">Patience and Fortitude- Power, Real Estate, and the Fight to Save a Public Library</a>” (<i>now in paperback</i>) in the lobby. </blockquote>
Noticing New Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15726747803887470424noreply@blogger.com0