THE FLATIRON PARTNERSHIP'S
new 2010 Sponsorship Program Catalog is a comprehensive roundup of the ways businesses may build brand recognition and logo placement that will be visible throughout the district as well as many venues throughout the City. At the same time, they will help to implement neighborhood-improvement programs. Sponsors will be able to place their logos on items such as streetlamp banners, trash receptacles and ash urns, maps and neighborhood guides.

Prices for most items in the Catalog are the same as in 2009, or lower.

Sponsorships are also available for special events under the Partnership's "Intersections" umbrella, a BID series that focuses on information, ideas and the community. Businesses near the district, but outside its defined boundaries, may participate in a Friends of the Flatiron Partnership affiliate program that provides access to the BID's communications, collateral and constituents.

For additional information, please see the 2010 Sponsorship Program Catalog or contact Eric Zaretsky, Director of Marketing, at (212) 741-2323 or via e-mail at ezaretsky@flatironbid.org.

THE GORMLEYS ARE HERE, ALL
31 of them, a handful at street level but most perched on the edges of rooftops and parapets throughout the Flatiron district and its immediate environs. Made of cast iron and fiberglass, the Gormleys are life-size nude sculptures of their creator, British artist Antony Gormley, and their entrance into the neighborhood was heralded in a welcoming ceremony at Madison Square Park by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

The installation, said the Mayor, gazing skyward at Gormleys mounted on some of the surrounding buildings, "encourages us to look at this cityscape with fresh eyes." It proves, he added, that "even during difficult economic times, we're committed to bringing great art to this city." The Mayor also tossed a bouquet at Danny Meyer's nearby Shake Shack, saying it had "elevated the hamburger to a cultural experience all its own."

Gormley said the exhibition was "a way of linking things you can touch with things you can only perceive."

The project will be on view through August 15. Entitled "Event Horizon," it is being presented by the Madison Square Park Conservancy, which is partnering with NYC & Co. to promote the exhibition. The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership is a supporter.

For more information, click here.

From Delmonico's to Danny Meyer:
Feasting in Flatiron Since the Gilded Age

The date: Wednesday, May 26
The place: The Institute of Culinary Education, 50 West 23rd Street
The time: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The program: Networking, cocktails, food . . . images, artifacts and other ephemera that reflect Flatiron's history of gustatory delights . . . talks and presentations by Miriam Berman, urban archivist, historian and author of "Madison Square: The Park and Its Celebrated Landmarks," and William Grimes of The New York Times, the author of "Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York."

Additional information is coming soon, including details about ticket pricing and registration, but for now, please Save the Date: May 26.

. . . and coming in June, the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership's Fourth Annual Meeting.

A monthly roundup of exhibits and events at the art galleries and museums within the Flatiron district. To be considered for inclusion, please send relevant information to: Eric Zaretsky, Director of Marketing, at ezaretsky@flatironbid.org.

The Mishkin Gallery at Baruch:
'The Beautiful Time in Lubumbashi'

Sammy Baloji's photomontages and stark photographic renderings are the subject of a new exhibition at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery. The show, ironically entitled "The Beautiful Time in Lubumbashi: Photography by Sammy Baloji," depicts current conditions in Katanga, a province of what was once the Belgian Congo and is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lubumbashi is the city in Katanga where Baloji was born in 1978. The show opened on March 26 and will be on view through April 28.

"The Beautiful Time" refers to the mid-20th century when the region's copper mines were abundant, the economy was prosperous and the modern city of Lubumbashi was born. Today the area is marked by decayed industrial landscapes, slag heaps and abandoned factories. Baloji's photographs are testimony to the region's former productivity and subsequent decline.

Ten of the works in the show are photomontages that combine archival black-and-white images of copper mine workers, some in chains, and colonial administrators with Baloji's color pictures of contemporary Lubumbashi.

Baloji's work has been exhibited in Brussels, Paris, South Africa and Montreal. The exhibition, which was organized by New York's Museum of African Art, includes six paintings by Congolese artists whose work has influenced Baloji's photography.

The Mishkin Gallery is at 135 East 22nd Street. It is open weekdays from noon to 5 p.m. and on Thursdays from noon to 7 p.m.

For more information about the Mishkin Gallery, click here.

Mad. Sq. Art 2010

"Surveillance," a video art installation by avant-garde filmmaker and native New Yorker Ernie Gehr. The exhibit, a new four-channel high-definition video created in and about Madison Square Park, is comprised of four interrelated "digital playgrounds." Inspired by the proliferation of security cameras in public life, Gehr turns the aesthetics of surveillance into visual poetry, in a tribute to the park itself.
Dates: April 9 to May 14.
Address: Madison Square Park's Video Gallery, just south of the fountain.
Hours: Daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

For more information, click here.

Raandesk Gallery of Art

"Jihay Kang," paintings and mixed media works by Jihay Kang, who uses iconic images associated with Western material culture to explore intersections of consumerism and authenticity. For example, some works seem to depict three overlapping circles that evoke Mickey Mouse, but on closer inspection reveal references to the Holy Trinity. Opening reception on Thursday, April 22, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Dates: April 22 to June 11.
Address: 16 West 23rd Street, 4th floor (In Good Company).
Hours: Weekdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., weekends by appointment.

"Pixel by Pixel," experimental multi-media works by Robert Kent Wilson on canvas, vinyl, wood and paper. An exploration of abstract landscapes contrasted by organic patterns and textures.
Dates: Through April 16.
Address: 16 West 23rd Street, 4th floor (In Good Company).
Hours: Weekdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., weekends by appointment.

For more information about the Raandesk Gallery of Art, click here.

Van Alen Institute

"Architecture on Display," a public event about the history of the Venice Biennale of Architecture, one of today's most prestigious forums for architectural discourse and a model for a range of international exhibitions. Together with the Slought Foundation, the Van Alen Institute is hosting a series of interviews between William Menking, architectural historian and founder of The Architect's Newspaper, and Aaron Levy, executive director of the Slought Foundation, and each of the living directors of the Venice Biennale. The first of those conversations will be with Aaron Betsky, director of the 2008 Biennale, on Monday, April 12, at 6:30 p.m. at Van Alen. It is free and open to the public. Those wishing to attend need to register by Friday, April 9, either by e-mail at rsvp@vanalen.org or by calling (212) 924-7000.
Date: April 12.
Address: Van Alen Institute, 30 West 22nd Street, 6th floor.
The time: 6:30 p.m.

For more information about the Van Alen Institute, click here.

Museum of Sex

"Rubbers: The Life, History & Struggle of the Condom," a multi-media look at how the condom has influenced everything from science to religion while becoming a symbol of promiscuity to some, responsibility to others.
Dates: Through the summer.
Address: 233 Fifth Avenue.
Hours: Sundays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For more information about the Museum of Sex, click here.

THE DAYS DWINDLE DOWN TO
a precious few, but if you haven't yet filed your 2009 tax returns and need some help, don't panic. Baruch College is ready to assist you with federal and New York State returns right through April 15.

Baruch students, all certified by the Internal Revenue Service as tax preparers as part of the college's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA), will be in the atrium of Baruch's Library and Technology building, 151 East 25th Street, from noon to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays through Thursdays; from noon to 7 p.m. on Fridays; and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

All VITA volunteers are qualified to complete federal forms 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ and New York City and State forms IT 150 and IT 201 as well as all accompanying schedules. The service is free and is provided on a walk-in basis, no appointment necessary. For more information, send an e-mail to BaruchVITA@gmail.com, or click here.

DANNY MEYER'S UNION SQUARE
Hospitality Group, which includes some of Manhattan's most popular restaurants -- many in and around the Flatiron district -- has launched a new "learning business" called Hospitality Quotient (HQ).

Based on many of the principles in Meyer's best-selling book "Setting the Table" (2006), its purpose is to provide training programs that enable businesses to transform themselves via the concept of "hospitality." Half-day programs began in March and two-day sessions start in April.

The curriculum, which HQ says is not limited to restaurants but applies to companies across all industries, focuses on such matters as team-building, creating positive work environments and cultivating first-rate leaders. The goal is to assure customers that a business is "on their side," to help turn occasional customers into "regulars," and to earn a business favorite-in-category status.

HQ says that how a business makes a customer feel is at least as important as top-notch products and excellent service. To that end, half-day classes are offered in such areas as distinguishing hospitality from service; turning disgruntled customers into loyal ones; team-building; and mediating conflict and providing employees with feedback. In addition, a pair of two-day programs are offered: Creating a Great Work Environment and Creating a Great Customer Experience.

Private programs customized to the needs of specific businesses may also be arranged, either at HQ's New York headquarters (24 Union Square East) or at the client's location. Those sessions can vary in length from one to three days.

For additional information, call (646) 747-6640 or click here.

ON THE MORNING OF JULY 30, 1870, READERS WERE TREATED
to the following passage on the front page of The New York Times:

"A murder more atrocious and more shocking than any recent crime, was committed during the early hours of yesterday morning, in the princely mansion of Mr. Benjamin Nathan, who fell under the hand of the assassin at No. 12 West Twenty-third Street."

It was a sensational case, filling newspapers for weeks, not only here but also in Europe. And it was a murder made even more scandalous by the prominence of the victim, the brutality of the killing and the scene of the crime. At the age of 56, Benjamin Nathan was one of New York's most prominent citizens: a former vice president of the New York Stock Exchange; a past president of Congregation Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States; and a founder of the Jews' Hospital, which later became Mount Sinai.

He lived in what was regarded as one of New York's most tasteful homes in one of the most fashionable parts of town, a high-stoop brownstone just west of Fifth Avenue. It is still there. Today, a Qdoba Mexican Grill is at street level and the side of 200 Fifth Avenue is across 23rd Street, but in 1870, the Nathan brownstone faced the white marble façade of the elegant Fifth Avenue Hotel and stood back-to-back with the home of Samuel F.B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. Next door, at 14 West 23rd, was a brownstone owned by a family named Jones, whose young daughter Edith would become better known as Edith Wharton.

Little Edith was eight years old at the time of the murder, traveling in Europe with her family. Otherwise she might have been awakened by the shrieks coming from the Nathan brownstone in the early hours of July 29. Just before dawn, Patrolman John Mangam of the 29th Precinct was making his rounds along 23rd Street when he heard the screams of two agitated young men, both still in their nightshirts, calling to him from the stoop of the Nathan home. They were two of Benjamin Nathan's nine children, Frederick, 25, and Washington, 23. They summoned Mangan inside, and there, up one flight of stairs, lay the savagely beaten body of their father. The apparent murder weapon was discovered almost immediately, a heavy iron bar called a carpenter's dog, about 18 inches long with the ends turned at right angles. One end was caked with blood and gray hairs.

The brownstone had been half empty that night. Others in the Nathan family were at their country home in Morristown, N.J., and aside from Benjamin and the two sons, the others in the house were Anne Kelly, the housekeeper, and her son, William. The immediate prime suspect was Washington, a reputed ne'er do well who often quarreled with his father about the way he conducted his life, and who was said to spend some $30,000 a year on self-indulgent pleasures. Describing his activities on the night of the murder, he told police he had spent three hours being entertained at a maison de joie at 104 East 14th Street.

An inquest followed, rewards were offered, and many theories were put forth, but in the end, no one was ever charged with the crime. It remains unsolved. One supposition that seems to have lasted, however, has to do with Benjamin Nathan's brother-in-law, a well-connected judge named Albert Joseph Cardozo. Politically powerful, closely allied with the notorious Boss Tweed and already implicated in a corruption scandal of his own, Cardozo "took charge" of the investigation. According to many accounts, he did all he could to impede it, fearing the emergence of "unseemly" facts that might hurt his political career and doing all he could to bury those facts.

It is ironic that Cardozo and his wife, Rebecca, only two months before the murder, had become the parents of Benjamin Nathan's newest nephew, a boy who was not only named for him but who later became one of the most distinguished Associate Justices in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court: the honorable Benjamin Nathan Cardozo.

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The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District, formed in 2006, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to enhance the area's reputation as one of New York's most vital and exciting neighborhoods. This is undertaken by maintaining a clean and safe environment for those who live, work and visit the area; by spearheading area improvement projects; and by marketing the diverse business and retail options in this vibrant and historic neighborhood.

For more information go to our Web site at www.discoverflatiron.org or e-mail us at info@flatironbid.org.

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