HELP CELEBRATE FLATIRON'S
long legacy of fine dining and good food by joining the BID for a salute to the gustatory greatness that distinguished the district late in the 19th century and that continues today.

"From Delmonico's to Danny Meyer: Feasting in Flatiron Since the Gilded Age" will be presented by the Partnership on Wednesday, May 26. It will include a tasting of dishes from the annals of historic Flatiron restaurants and from the menus of today's local favorites. William Grimes, former chief restaurant critic of The New York Times, will be a guest speaker and will also sign copies of his new book, "Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York." Guests will be able to browse through an exhibit of relevant memorabilia curated by urban archivist and historian Miriam Berman, author of "Madison Square: The Park and Its Celebrated Landmarks." She will also present a 20-minute slide show that illustrates the district's culinary history. (For a profile of Berman, see "Flatiron Newsmaker" in this newsletter.)

All of this will take place at the Institute of Culinary Education, 50 West 23rd Street, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 and only a small number remain. They must be purchased in advance through the Flatiron BID website, www.flatironbid.org/events. For additional information, contact Eric Zaretsky, Director of Marketing, at (212) 741-2323 or by e-mail at ezaretsky@flatironbid.org.

The BID's co-sponsors of the event are the Institute of Culinary Education, Newmark Knight Frank, Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, SD26, Edible Manhattan, Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop and Product101.

IF THE BID SEEMS A LITTLE
more lush this spring, there's a good reason why. More hanging baskets, trees and tree-pit guards have been added as part of the Flatiron Partnership's expanded public improvement program. Fourteen hanging baskets and 15 tree-pit guards were installed along Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue and Park Avenue South, for a total of 40 hanging baskets and 42 tree-pit guards.

Nine street trees have also been planted as a result of a partnership with the Parks Department and the MillionTreesNYC program. There are roughly 260 trees in the area, not including those in Madison Square Park. Since 2008, the BID has been responsible for requesting 36 of them, almost 14 percent of the district's trees.

This expansion follows the master plan developed by the BID and the landscape architect firm Starr Whitehouse. Frank Bulfamante & Sons, a landscaping firm contracted by the BID, implements and maintains the BID's beautification projects.

For more information about the BID's streetscape projects, click here.

THE ONSET OF WARMER
weather and additional daylight has meant extended weekend hours for the Flatiron BID's Clean Team. Starting in April, the team began working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends, instead of from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Weekday hours remain from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with additional crew members throughout the day.

The spring-summer schedule will remain in effect through October.

The 16-person crew, which is overseen by Scott Kimmins, the BID's Director of Operations, earned a 94 percent "good" or "excellent" rating in the most recent Community Survey, making it the BID's highest-rated program.

A FIVE-MINUTE VIDEO WITH highlights of the Flatiron Partnership's free weekly walking tour is now available on the BID's website. It can also be accessed on YouTube. The video was made by the Partnership's Scott Lamkin, who is also its narrator.

The weekly 90-minute tour was launched in April 2007 and has stepped out from the southwest corner of Madison Square Park every Sunday at 11 a.m., rain or shine. To date, more than 2,300 people from 45 countries have taken the tour, which covers highlights of the area in and around Madison Square Park and is led by a rotating trio of guides: Miriam Berman, Fred Cookinham and Mike Kaback. To see the video, click here.

THERE ARE STILL OPENINGS FOR YOU
to get your logo displayed in the Flatiron district as part of the BID's 2010 Sponsorship Program. Logo placement is available on streetlamp banners, trash receptacles and ash urns, maps and neighborhood guides. Sponsors may also participate in special events under the Flatiron Partnership's "Intersections" umbrella, a BID series that focuses on information, ideas and the community. Prices for most items in the Sponsorship Program Catalog remain the same as in 2009, or lower.

For more information, including details about the Friends of the Flatiron Partnership affiliate program for businesses near the district, 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.

IN LIGHT OF CURRENT ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND TO BETTER
understand the needs and problems faced by small businesses, the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) has embarked on a citywide survey of street-level and second-floor retail and services establishments.

The survey, which is being done in collaboration with the Economic Development Corporation and the Department of City Planning, is being conducted through May 31. It can be accessed by going to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/nycretailsurveysbs. All responses will remain confidential, says SBS.

"Your responses will enable the City to directly learn about the challenges you face while helping us to understand the impact of the City's current programs and policies and inform the development of new programs and policies," said SBS in a statement to retailers.

Questions in the survey, which SBS says should take 10 minutes to complete, range from the nature of the respondent's business to the pace of rent increases, and from whether the respondent is familiar with incentive programs to the changing characteristics of the respondent's retail environment. The final question is: "Specifically, what could the city do to help your business grow and stay in New York?"

COME RAIN OR SHINE, THE
Madison Square Park Conservancy's Spring Kids Fest 2010 is good to go on Saturday, May 22, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Kids can enjoy rock music by The Fuzzy Lemons, yoga exercises accompanied with a story by Karma Kids Yoga, cookies and other nibbles from the Treats Truck, book readings by children's authors Bernard Waber ("Lyle, Lyle Crocodile: Lyle Walks the Dogs") and Philip and Erin Stead ("A Sick Day for Amos McGee"), and musical presentations from Tada! Youth Theater.

The easiest way to find the activities is by entering the park at 25th Street and Madison Avenue. For more information, call (212) 538-4071 or visit madisonsquarepark.org.

Kids Fest is a free event presented by the Madison Square Park Conservancy and Time Out New York Kids.

GENERATING CAPITAL,
finding space and organizing internally are just some of the problems inherent in starting and operating a business in New York City. NYC Business Express -- a resource provided by several City agencies, including the Department of Small Business Services -- can help streamline the process. It is an online tool geared to reduce paperwork and time while providing access to critical information needed to run a business.

Using the NYC Business Express Wizard, entrepreneurs fill out an interactive questionnaire specific to the sector in which their businesses operate, generating a customized list of city, state and federal requirements for opening a business in New York.

The list tells what licenses and permits are required and includes information about relevant taxes and regulations. It also shows where to apply for the necessary documents, and provides appropriate links. For some licenses, permits and certifications, business owners can apply directly through the site. The NYC Business Express Incentives Estimator can also help businesses determine the city, state and federal incentives for which they might qualify.

For additional information, click here.

IN HER ROLE AS ONE OF THE FLATIRON PARTNERSHIP'S GUIDES
for the weekly walking tours and as the author of a highly acclaimed history of the neighborhood, Miriam Berman has solidly established creds as an urban archivist.

It is a calling that came to her in mid-career, almost 20 years after she launched Miriam Berman Graphic Design and began creating books, catalogs, brochures and other printed matter for clients ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the International Center of Photography.

Berman earned a BFA from Pratt Institute in 1965, but it wasn't until the early 1980s, while working out of a penthouse office in the Flatiron Building, that she went to an exhibit of picture postcards at a midtown hotel and had the epiphany that led to a second career as an author, historian and collector of New York lore.

"I had moved into the Flatiron Building in 1978," she said, "and although I suspected there was something special about it because of the wonderful sunset views from the penthouse -- you could see the Statue of Liberty from there -- to me it was basically just another office building."

At the postcard show, however, Berman was dazzled by the hundreds of vintage cards that depicted the building, as well as many others that showed historic views of Madison Square.

"The Flatiron Building and the picture postcard seemed made for each other," she said. "The shapes were just right."

Indeed they were. The building was completed in 1902. The "golden age" of picture postcards in the U.S. started only five years later, when the government allowed a divided back for the address and a message, while the front remained completely clear for a picture.

"I saw buildings on those cards that seemed sort of familiar, but there was something a little 'off' about them," Berman said. "I realized I was looking at the bones of the district, but slightly askew. For example, a picture of the Fifth Avenue Hotel reminded me of the Toy Building."

The International Toy Center, as it was once formally known, or 200 Fifth Avenue, now stands where the hotel once stood, at 23rd Street.

Berman began collecting cards and stories, memorabilia and ephemera, eventually realizing she had the makings of a book. "Madison Square: The Park and Its Celebrated Landmarks" was published in 2001 and is now a collector's item.

Berman kept an office in the Flatiron Building, which she now likens to "a piece of sculpture," for 10 years, then set up shop in 210 Fifth Avenue, a lovely 1901 Belle Epoch building with balconies and bay windows. She remained there for 20 years and now operates her graphic design business out of her Greenwich Village apartment.

In the more than three decades she's been studying the area, she's seen numerous changes, from the rebirth of Madison Square Park to the return of residential accommodations. She sees that development as history coming full circle, harkening back to the days when the district was home to some of New York's most illustrious families.

On May 26, she will discuss another aspect of Flatiron life -- its legacy of fine dining -- when she participates in "From Delmonico's to Danny Meyer: Feasting in Flatiron Since the Gilded Age" a BID-sponsored public event (see related item, this newsletter).

"I would love to have dined at Delmonico's," she said. "It was so elegant, the beautiful service . . . the attention to detail."

And what might she have ordered?

"Definitely the Baked Alaska," Berman replied. "I've never had Baked Alaska. And the Lobster Newberg. I have eaten Lobster Newberg. It was good . . . but it wasn't Delmonico's."

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.

SmartSpaces:
"Revolution!" at 1133 Broadway

SmartSpaces, a two-year-old nonprofit organization that presents contemporary art in the windows of vacant storefronts, is making its first foray into the Flatiron district with an exhibit by conceptual artist Lisa Kirk entitled "Revolution!"

On view through June 1 in the street-level windows of 1133 Broadway, between 25th and 26th Streets, "Revolution!" is a comment on "transgressive" political and social practices. It depicts an upside-down fragrance laboratory and a ransacked display at a luxury store. It is also the name of an actual fragrance created by Kirk that she says calls to mind the odors of revolt: smoke, gasoline, tear gas, burnt rubber and decaying flesh.

Signage and free cell-phone-based audio guides will provide passersby instant access to information about the work and the space, which was donated by Kew Management. A "Revolution!" video, created by Kirk and videographer Gabriel Jeffrey that is intended to look like a commercial for the fragrance, is available on the Ace Hotel's video-on-demand system for the duration of the show. The actual fragrance is available at the Project No. 8a shop at the Ace for $50.

An opening reception has been scheduled for Friday, May 7, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at 1133 Broadway. An RSVP is required. To respond, e-mail RSVP@Smartspaces.org.

For more information about SmartSpaces, click here.

The Mishkin Gallery at Baruch

"Second Baruch Juried Photography Exhibition," featuring the work of some 60 members of the Baruch College community -- faculty, staff and students -- who have emerged from a juried competition to provide 77 images to this pre-summer show. The photos were reviewed for concept, originality and technical quality by a panel of four judges: Dr. Sandra Kraskin, director of the gallery, and Professors Terry Berkowitz, Zoë Sheehan Saldaņa and Leonard Sussman of Baruch's Performing and Fine Arts Department.
Dates: May 7 to June 4.
Address: 135 East 22nd Street.
Hours: Weekdays from noon to 5 p.m., Thursdays from noon to 7 p.m. Closed on weekends.

For more information about the Mishkin Galley, click here.

AIGA National Design Center Gallery

"Design Journeys: You Are Here," a project that not only celebrates the lives and achievements of 25 outstanding designers from culturally and racially diverse origins but is also aimed at encouraging aspiring designers from all backgrounds to consider design as a viable and rewarding career. The show at AIGA is an interactive exhibition.
Dates: May 20 through July 23.
Address: 164 Fifth Avenue.
Hours: Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information about the AIGA National Design Center, 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: Through May 14.
Address: Madison Square Park's Video Gallery, just south of the fountain.
Hours: Daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

"Event Horizon," 31 life-size sculptures of Antony Gormley, the British artist who created them. They appear on rooftops, parapets and at ground level throughout the Flatiron district. Gormley says his installation "hopes to activate the skyline in order to encourage people to look around. In this process of looking and finding, or looking and seeking, one perhaps reassesses one's own position in the world and becomes aware of one's status of embedment."
Dates: Through August 15.
Place: In and around Madison Square Park.
Hours: Around the clock.

For more information about Mad. Sq. Art, click here.

Museum of Sex

"The Sex Lives of Animals," back by popular demand, an uncensored story of the natural world, moving animal sexuality beyond the confines of reproduction and mating and toward discussions of orientation and cognition. The exhibition includes life-size sculptures by Rune Olsen of deer, bonobos, lions and dolphins doing what comes naturally.
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.

"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 and Hours: Same as above.

For more information about the Museum of Sex, 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.
Dates: Through 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.

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

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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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