June Flatiron Newsletter

in this issue

	The BID Safety Team: A Year on the Street Annual Meeting Slated for June 12 Tuck In That Bib: It's the Big Apple BBQ! Meet Eric Zaretsky: Our Newest Staffer Madison Square Park: Summer Preview The Duke Comes to Calvary Discover Flatiron: Calvary Episcopal Church Flatiron Flashbacks: 23 Skidoo Non-Profit Profile: Common Ground Jeter Gym to Open June 27 Free Flatiron Walking Tours Every Sunday Newsroom Newsletter Archives

Annual Meeting Slated for June 12

The second annual meeting of the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District is scheduled for Thursday, June 12, at Cipriani 23rd Street, 200 Fifth Avenue. The agenda will include a review of the past year, election of directors, a discussion of the BID budget and plans for the upcoming year.

Registration and continental breakfast is at 8 a.m. and the meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m.

Guest speakers are to include Andy Wiley-Schwartz, assistant commissioner of the NYC Department of Transportation, who will talk about an important project planned for the Flatiron district involving the department's public plaza initiatives.

Only registered members of the BID will be eligible to vote at the meeting. All property owners, merchants, not-for-profit organizations and residents are members if they are located within BID boundaries (click here for map).

RSVPs are required. Register online by clicking here or by calling 212-741-2323 for further information.

Tuck In That Bib: It's the Big Apple BBQ!

Accompanied by the sound of jazz, blues and bluegrass, some of the country's top pitmasters return to Madison Square Park on June 7 and 8 for the sixth annual Snapple Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. Live music, seminars and cooking demonstrations will be offered from noon until 6 p.m. each day, along with barbecue from a slew of award-winning restaurants, including such Flatiron favorites as Blue Smoke and Hill Country. Pitmasters from Alabama, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia will also be on hand. Admission is free and the barbecue goes for $8 a plate, with sides and desserts priced at $4 and beverages from $2 to $6. The event benefits the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Meet Eric Zaretsky: Our Newest Staffer

Seven years ago, when Eric Zaretsky was processing loans for a bank in Chicago - his first job following graduation from the University of Wisconsin - he knew that what he really wanted to do was return to New York, the city of his birth, and become active in urban affairs. He moved back here in 2002, subsequently left the banking business, and is now the newest member of the Flatiron Partnership staff.

Eric joined the BID last month as Director of Marketing and Economic Development. He also celebrated two other milestones in May: he turned 30 and he was awarded a Master's degree in Urban Policy Analysis and Management at Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy.

Born in Manhattan and raised in Washington Heights, Eric attended the Bronx High School of Science before heading for Wisconsin, where he majored in sociology and concentrated on urban studies.

"I have always loved New York," he said, pointing out that his father was born here and his mother has lived here since she was 3. "When I came back home, I went to work for JP Morgan Chase as a loan officer, but I knew I wanted to do something else. I wanted to become more involved with city government."

In January 2007, he did. He interned at the Department of Small Business Services, then was hired by the Economic Development Corporation, where he worked on a variety of marketing and strategic projects aimed at attracting and promoting businesses in New York.

Eric and his wife, Jamie, a MetLife attorney, live on the Upper West Side.

Madison Square Park: Summer Preview

The Madison Square Park Conservancy's 2008 summer programs, ranging from entertainment for children to concerts and readings for adults, begin this month.

Mad Sq Kids, sponsored by Credit Suisse, is a series of music and dance programs presented on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. on the Oval Lawn. It kicks off on Tuesday, June 3, with family musician Danna Banana and continues through Aug. 21.

Mad Sq Music, now in its sixth year, fills the air on Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. Concerts feature a variety of musical genres and are held on the Oval Lawn. They begin June 18 with The Kennedys, a folk-rock duo, and end on Aug. 6. Bring a blanket. No chairs allowed on the lawn.

Mad Sq Reads: Notable authors reading from books that range from novels to memoirs to poetry will be at the foot of the Farragut Monument on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. from June 5 through Aug. 8. The first is Richard Price, whose latest novel, "Lush Life," was published to rave reviews. Each program is expected to last about one hour.

Mad Sq Art: The ceramic sculptures of Richard Deacon are currently on view in the park in an exhibit entitled "Richard Deacon: Assembly." Deacon's seven vividly colored pieces, shown publicly for the first time, represent variations on geometric relationships. Tadashi Kawamata, known for his rough wooden constructions, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, an electronic artist, are on tap for future installations this year.

The Duke Comes to Calvary

The music of Duke Ellington will fill Calvary Episcopal Church on Thursday, June 5, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., when the Gramercy Park Block Association stages its 14th annual spring concert. Admission is free and children are welcome. Refreshments will be served.

Loren Schoenberg, co-director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, will conduct the museum's All Star Big Band in this tribute to Ellington, the late composer, pianist and bandleader who died in 1974 but whose influence on jazz remains monumental.

Calvary is at Park Avenue South and 21st Street.

Discover Flatiron: Calvary Episcopal Church

It is a modest-looking house of worship, but don't let that fool you. Calvary Episcopal Church might no longer have its steeples, but it boasts a history studded with well-known names and it was the birthplace of an idea that launched an international institution.

Calvary had its beginnings in 1836, in a small frame building at what is now Park Avenue South and 30th Street. It moved down the avenue to 22nd Street in 1844 and two years after that, the cornerstone for its present location was laid at Park Avenue South and 21st Street. The architect was James Renwick Jr., then 26 years old, and although he would become famous as the designer of St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Smithsonian Institution and the Free Academy, the Gothic Revival style he employed at Calvary did not immediately meet with universal approval. The diarist George Templeton Strong, who lived just around the corner, called the brown sandstone church "a miracle of ugliness." It did not help that its twin spires were removed in 1860 because they had become unstable.

Nevertheless, Calvary went on to generate an enviable social history. In the 1870s, its parishioners included George and Lucretia Jones, whose young daughter, Edith, became friendly with Emelyn Washburn, the daughter of Edward Washburn, Calvary's rector. The two girls would sit on the rectory roof, taking in the sun and reading Dante to each other. Before long, Edith Jones married and became Edith Wharton. New York society's wedding of the decade took place at Calvary in 1875, when Cornelius Vanderbilt's grandson William married Alva Smith of Mobile, Ala. To celebrate Alva's 39th birthday, Vanderbilt built her an $11 million home called Marble House in Newport, R.I., a mansion that still draws thousands of tourists annually. In 1884, Eleanor Roosevelt was baptized at Calvary. Her uncle Teddy, who lived in a nearby brownstone and would later live in the White House -- as, of course, would Eleanor -- served as godfather.

Calvary is also known for being the titular headquarters of the Oxford Group in the 1930s, when the Rev. Samuel Shoemaker was the rector. It was Shoemaker who is credited with inspiring the 12-step program that became the spiritual guide for Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1975, Calvary merged with two other nearby churches: St. George's Church, near Stuyvesant Square, and the Church of the Holy Communion, at Sixth Avenue and 20th Street, which was later deconsecrated and became infamous as the Limelight disco. At the time of the merger, the Rev. Dr. Thomas F. Pike became rector. Since then he has been active in many aspects of New York life, secular as well as religious. He has been chairman of Partnership for the Homeless and a member of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. On June 29, after 33 years as head of the Calvary-St. George's Parish, Dr. Pike will deliver his final address as rector before retiring. Following services that day, a farewell party is scheduled at the Players Club on Gramercy Park South.

Flatiron Flashbacks: 23 Skidoo

The expression "23 skidoo," a slang way of referring to a hasty departure, usually at the behest of external factors, became popular early in the 1900s. On that, there is general agreement. The origins of the phrase, however, are murky.

For some word detectives, "23 skidoo" had its origins in California's Death Valley at the start of the 20th century, when gold was discovered near a shabby little town called Skidoo. When the vein disappeared, so did Skidoo. Other lexicographers say that "23" was a telegrapher's shorthand way of saying, "Begone!" while still others mention English racetracks, which reportedly limited entries in any event to 23 horses. When that number was reached, the horses got the signal to scamper.

The most popular theory, however, has its roots in the heart of the Flatiron district, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue, Broadway and - naturally - 23rd Street.

The relative positions of those streets, the adjacent expanse of Madison Square Park and the triangular shape of the Flatiron Building when it was completed in 1902 all had the effect of increasing the velocity of winds that came swirling through the neighborhood. Otherwise gentle breezes gathered strength and often wreaked havoc with the long dresses that were then fashionable, lifting skirts well above a lady's shoetops. At a time when even "a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking," the possibility of a peek provided great sport for local idlers, wiseacres and even precocious young lads who should have been averting their eyes instead of whooping with glee when an ankle flashed into view. The police, or Roundsmen as they were then known, combined gallantry with crowd control and were said to disperse the Peeping Toms by giving them "the 23 skidoo."

The "23" part of that theory is self-evident (23rd Street), while "skidoo" is likely a derivative of "skedaddle," a verb implying a very quick departure, and the sooner the better. Skedaddle itself might be a dialect form of "scatter." Ironically, the expression "23 skidoo" reached the pinnacle of its popularity during the Roaring Twenties, a period when women's hemlines were higher, morals were lower and bare limbs were as common as lipstick-stained cigarette butts.

Non-Profit Profile: Common Ground

Common Ground, an agency whose mission is to end homelessness, has found its own home in the heart of the Flatiron district.

It is headquartered in the penthouse of the historic Prince George Hotel on East 28th Street - a building it rescued from oblivion, restored to its former glory and now uses as one of its homes for the formerly homeless. (For the story of the Prince George Hotel, Click Here.) Founded in 1990 by Rosanne Haggerty, Common Ground has pioneered the concept of supportive housing, which means a lot more than simply taking people off the street and putting a roof over their heads. It means moving people from the street into affordable housing and a community-like environment, one with access to medical and mental health services, job training, employment opportunities, substance-abuse counseling and quality-of-life components. On-site services are provided by the Center for Urban Community Services.

The Prince George houses single adults. In addition to 416 rent-stabilized studio apartments, all with private bath, it offers such amenities as a communal Computer Room as well as an Art Room, with instructors and room for supplies. There is a terrace for gardening, as well as a Serenity Garden where residents may sit quietly and read or have a private conversation. Every floor has an informational bulletin board listing various optional activities.

About half the tenants have low-income jobs and half are formerly homeless and are sustained by government benefits. Rents are based on 30 percent of either earnings or benefits. The average length of stay, says Common Ground, has been 4.8 years, but tenants may remain as long as they like. The occupancy rate at the Prince George is close to 97 percent.

Since 2004, Common Ground has been running a "Street to Home" program in which teams go into the streets daily at 4 a.m. to document the extent of homelessness and to try and persuade the most chronically homeless to seek permanent housing.

"We try to establish relationships and trust with the street people," said Karen Tumelty, the agency's acting director of fundraising and communications. "So far, we've been focusing on three areas where the homeless population is especially dense: midtown Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens."

The results have been so impressive that last September, the city's Departments of Homeless Services and Health and Mental Hygiene contracted with Common Ground and eight partners, including Urban Pathways - the agency with which the Flatiron BID partners in its Homeless Outreach program - to provide housing for some of the city's most vulnerable people. Common Ground's Street to Home team aims to secure homes for 1,000 of them by the end of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's term on Dec. 31, 2009.

Jeter Gym to Open June 27

The 24 Hour Fitness, Derek Jeter gym will start flexing its muscles in the Flatiron district on Friday, June 27. As the name suggests, the New York Yankee captain has partnered with 24 Hour Fitness, a health club chain that has more than 400 locations and expects to open two additional Jeter-branded clubs in Manhattan this year. The 28,000-square-foot Flatiron facility is at 225 Fifth Avenue, on the corner of East 26th Street, and is directly across from Madison Square Park.

"We're going to be a first-class fitness facility that caters to the demands of New Yorkers and provides a welcoming environment that people can look forward to," said Tom Mora, manager of the new location.

Charter memberships are now available and can be obtained by contacting the gym office at (212) 271-1002.

Free Flatiron Walking Tours Every Sunday

The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership sponsors free walking tours every Sunday.

Join our experienced guides on a 90-minute journey through this vibrant neighborhood, viewing some of the City's most notable landmarks, including the New York Life Insurance building, the MetLife Tower, the Appellate Courthouse and the famous Flatiron Building.

Time:
Every Sunday at 11 a.m.

Meeting Place:
The southwest corner of Madison Square Park, at 23rd Street and Broadway, in front of the statue of William Seward.

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