THE CHANGING FACE OF
Flatiron, from new public plazas and plantings to a hotel and restaurant renaissance, highlighted the third annual meeting of the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership, as a review of the past year, a look at what lies ahead and awards for outstanding performances all shared the spotlight.

District property owners, commercial tenants and residents came to the Baruch College Vertical Campus Conference Center on the morning of June 4 and heard Jennifer Brown, the BID's Executive Director, present a comprehensive overview of activities during the past fiscal year that touched on everything from the launch of the immediately popular public plazas last summer and the street beautification programs now under way to the development of the new Master Plan and what it could mean in the months to come.

The program also featured talks by Gregg Schenker, Chairman of the BID's Board of Directors; Robert Walsh, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services; Andrew Zobler, Chief Executive Officer of GFI Development Co., which, with other equity partners, has invested $200 million in two new hotels in and just outside the Flatiron district, the Ace, newly opened on Broadway and 29th Street, and the NoMad, a block south and slated to open next year; and the Rev. Joel Gibson, Director of Faith-Based Services at the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies.

Several honors were handed out, including the first Chairman's Award. Given to a BID board member who has shown outstanding qualities of leadership, commitment and dedication, it was presented to Nicholas Athanail, a Vice President of the Corcoran Group and neighborhood resident.

A second new honor, the Partnership Award -- given to an individual, business or organization that has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the BID or to the community at large -- went to Baruch College and was accepted by Dr. Kathleen M. Waldron, its President.

For the third consecutive year, the Partnership presented Outstanding Service Awards. This time, they went to Michel Melendez and Moises Gonzalez of the BID's Public Safety Team and to Sebabi Bawa and Namory Touré of the Clean Team.

All directors whose terms had expired were unanimously reelected.

COVERING A RANGE OF
subjects that included everything from urban planning to urban farming, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer -- the most recent guest of honor at the Flatiron Partnership's Speaker Series -- drew one of the largest audiences to attend such an event.

Despite a misty rain, an enthusiastic group of local property owners, business representatives and residents filled the TD Bank branch on Park Avenue South and 21st Street on the morning of June 10 to hear Stringer and to ask questions. TD Bank is a co-host of the Series.

Stringer, who was introduced by BID Executive Director Jennifer Brown, began by touching on one of his favorite subjects: community boards. A native New Yorker who has long been active in community board reform, he said such bodies are now more diverse than ever, "younger and more professional." Stringer said that no matter how big Manhattan has become, "it is still a collection of little neighborhoods" and that to make intelligent decisions, "City Hall has to come to Town Hall."

Some of those decisions, he said, could involve the greening of New York and new concepts such as rooftop gardens and "vertical farming." Stringer cited the new High Line, the elevated pathway on the West Side, as New York's "first park in the sky."

During the Q&A period that followed his talk, Stringer was asked about the recent turmoil at the New York State Legislature (he was a State Assemblyman for 13 years before being elected Borough President in 2006), access for the disabled, and mayoral control of the City's Department of Education. Stringer played a key role in generating new commitments for public schools in the Flatiron district.

Bid on the City

An innovative way to sell apartments has taken root in the Flatiron district, a sophisticated byproduct of an economy that's put a crimp in the movement of residential and commercial real estate. Bid on the City is a new company that offers properties for sale through what it calls "bidding events" that are conducted live and online simultaneously.

The company is the brainchild of Albert Feinstein, a real estate lawyer who is managing partner of the boutique brokerage firm New York Business Group, and Vlad Sapozhnikov, NYBG's senior vice president. Feinstein and Sapozhnikov, both from Ukraine, launched Bid on the City in April.

Once a month since May 17, Bid on the City has conducted bidding events, or auctions, in its sleek new storefront headquarters at 226 Fifth Avenue. The next is slated for July 15. The auctions are for Manhattan properties only, mostly residential condominiums so far, with a sprinkling of commercial properties and residential co-ops.

Bid on the City asks sellers to sign a 30-day exclusive listing agreement, with the auction taking place four weeks later. The company's website provides potential bidders with information such as floor plans, virtual tours, the dates and times of open houses, data that includes comparable prices for similar units, and details about the building, such as its age and its policies regarding pets.

On the day of the auction, interested parties may go to the Fifth Avenue location to bid on site via touch-screen remote control devices, or they can participate online from anywhere in the world. To keep the playing field level for all participants, no one at the auction is allowed to shout out bids.

At the June auction, said Raymond Villani, a real estate advertising veteran who is Bid on the City's managing director, there were registered bidders from five countries outside the United States, an indication of continued interest from abroad in New York properties. The entire procedure has apparently attracted attention from elsewhere. Villani said negotiations are under way for a Bid on the City in Moscow.

Online bidders see and hear everything that's going on in real time, while a "bidding host" conducts the auction and Bid on the City staffers monitor the action to keep everything transparent.

For additional information, click here.

Subway

A Subway sandwich shop has opened at 5 West 25th Street, at the corner of Broadway. Menu items include an array of submarine sandwiches, salads, pizza, chips and cookies.

The store is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. To contact the store, call (212) 206-8482. To view Subway's website, click here.

Eat, drink and be merry on July 14 at Celebrate Flatiron Chefs! in Madison Square Park. The event will feature 24 chefs from Alain Allegretti to Zak Pelaccio, providing the best our neighborhood has to offer from delectable French, Spanish and Italian cuisine to contemporary Asian flair, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern bites and good ol' fashioned barbecue, plus festive summer cocktails, wine and beer.

Proceeds benefit the Madison Square Park Conservancy and help keep the park green and clean. Tax deductible VIP tickets start at $250 for 5:30 p.m. entry ($150 for 6:30 p.m. entry). For more information and tickets call (212) 538-9310, or click here.

RESERVATIONS ARE BEING TAKEN
for one of the season's best dining deals: NYC Restaurant Week: Summer 2009. That's when more than 250 of the city's eateries will offer three-course lunches for $24.07 and three-course dinners for $35. Prices do not include beverages, taxes or tips. The dates are July 12-31, with Saturdays excluded for all restaurants and Sundays excluded for some.

A number of restaurants within the Flatiron district are participating in the twice-a-year event, now in its 17th year. Among them: A Voce, Aspen, Bar Stuzzichini, Blue Smoke, Country, Dos Caminos Park, Giorgio's of Gramercy, ilili, Olana, Pranna, Primehouse New York, Tabla and Tamarind.

For more information about Restaurant Week, click here.

PERHAPS IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE NOW, BUT JUST BEFORE THE first World War, relatively few Americans were familiar with artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh and scores of others equally notable. Even fewer had ever seen their work.

That all changed in February of 1913, when one of the most important exhibits in the history of modern art was mounted, and it all happened in the Flatiron district. The epicenter of this monumental event was the 69th Regiment Armory, the red brick fortress on Lexington Avenue and 25th Street. It had been completed seven years earlier, but first entered the national spotlight as the setting for the International Exhibition of Modern Art, or as it became known, the Armory Show.

As a bronze plaque next to the Armory entrance points out, it was an event that "revolutionized the American art movement by bringing to national attention the new art forms of native American and modern European painters and sculptors."

The show opened on Feb. 15 and ran for a month. By the time it ended, on March 15, an estimated 75,000 visitors had toured the 18 galleries on the Armory's main floor and saw almost 1,300 paintings and sculptures by more than 300 artists from the U.S. and Europe. Many were delighted by what they saw. Many more were dismayed.

Modern art, especially Cubism and Futurism, was a shock to a public accustomed to more conventional means of expression. One of the most controversial works on exhibit was Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2," in which the artist depicted motion by superimposed images that were similar to stop-motion photography. One critic likened it to "an explosion in a shingle factory." Cartoonists made fun of it. The painting now hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, has been seen by millions and today barely raises an eyebrow.

The New York Times seemed particularly offended by facets of the Armory Show. It published a lengthy article on March 16, 1913 with the headline: "Cubists and Futurists Are Making Insanity Pay." The words belonged to a painter, magazine illustrator and art critic named Kenyon Cox, who said, among other things, that Cubists and Futurists "simply abolish the art of painting."

The editorial writers at The Times saw something a lot more sinister.

On the same day as the interview with Cox, the newspaper ran an editorial that called Cubism "part of the general movement, discernable all over the world, to disrupt and degrade, if not to destroy, not only art, but literature and society, too . . . [T]he cubists and futurists are . . . cousins to the anarchists in politics, the poets who defy syntax and decency, and all the would-be destroyers who with the pretense of trying to regenerate the world are really trying to block the wheels of progress in every direction."

On March 15, the show was over, headed for Chicago, then Boston. Only one year later, World War I erupted. As the home of the Army's famed "Fighting 69th," the Armory -- no longer the setting for a war over art -- could return to its original mission: preparing soldiers for the art of war.

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• amNew York: Flatiron's Fanciful Flight
• Flatiron BID Promotes Neighborhood for Holidays
• Mayor Officially Opens the Plaza
• Mayor Bloomberg and DOT Commissioner Sadik-Khan Unveil New Public Space at Madison Square
• Pedestrian Plazas Already an Attraction
• Time Out New York: Flatiron Walking Tour
• Gotham Gazette: The Flatiron District
• 'Strengthening Communities' Panel Held
• BID Tells Businesses: Yes You 'Can'
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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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