October Flatiron Newsletter

in this issue

	Official Plaza Ribbon Cutting Spotlight on the BID Flatiron Flashes: New BID Businesses On the Calendar News You Can Use Fabulous Flatiron Open Call for Information Newsroom Newsletter Archives About Us

Spotlight on the BID

Updated Discover Flatiron Map Available!

This month the BID will release an updated and expanded version of the wildly popular and broadly praised Discover Flatiron Map. Sixty thousand copies will be printed and distributed throughout New York City hotels, NYC & Company visitor centers, local schools including NYU, The New School, Baruch and SVA, plus area businesses and commercial and residential buildings. Public Safety Officers will continue to carry them as well. The map will also be housed electronically for download or printing off the BID website at www.flatironbid.org/map.pdf.

The full-color map includes an expanded listing of businesses in the district and features eight new categories: Groceries, Gourmet Goodies, Wine & Spirits; Health & Wellness; Yoga, Pilates & Dance Studios; Conference Space; Art & Antiques; Performance Venues; Clubs, Lounges & Billiards; and Music & Musical Instruments. The expansion of the categories reflects the changing character and diversity of this vibrant district. Local architectural and historical attractions and the new Public Plazas are featured on the map as well. Specific business addresses and a Manhattan subway system map are still included.

The BID would like to thank all the sponsors who helped to offset the production costs by purchasing an advertisement on the map.

The Discover Flatiron Map is available free of charge. To request copies, please email us at info@flatironbid.org or call the BID offices at 212-741-2323.

Holiday Shopping Guide

The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership is excited to offer a brand new publication free to the public and just in time for the busy holiday season.

Available starting Nov. 1, the guide features many of the fine restaurants and extensive shopping opportunities available throughout the district and the surrounding neighborhood.

Replete with listings of the endless retail possibilities and a companion map, this foldout brochure also provides a Gift Checklist - so you won't forget anyone this year- and a calendar of important holiday season dates and events. Also included is a directory of the fine dining establishments around the district with addresses and phone numbers.

This limited printing will be available through mid-January of 2009. The guide will be found in local retailers and hotels, NYC & Company visitor centers, and local restaurants as well as online.

To request a free guide or find out where you can get a copy please email us at info@flatironbid.org or call the BID offices at 212-741-2323.

Clean Team Profile: Ousmane Sarr

Ever since Ousmane Sarr first arrived in the United States from his native Senegal, he has been impressed by how everyone here seems to celebrate his birthday, turning it into a joyous occasion embellished by parades, picnics and fireworks. The fact that his birthday just happens to fall on July 4, he says with a wide grin, is no doubt coincidental.

Ousmane (pronounced OOSE-mon), one of the original members of the Flatiron Partnership's Clean Team, is a 6-foot-3 fit-looking fellow who lives in an apartment in Harlem, a long way from home. He was born and raised in the town of Louga, a cattle-market center in northwest Senegal that is linked by rail to the port of Saint-Louis and the capital of Dakar and is inhabited mostly by pastoral nomads and sedentary farmers.

In 1981, when he was 20 years old, Ousmane - who had relatives already living in New York - made his first trip to the U.S. Three years ago, he returned to Senegal for a two-month visit and marveled at how the population had grown in his absence. When he first left Louga, its population was about 50,000. Today, it's closer to 80,000 and it includes Ousmane's wife, children and grandchildren. One day, he says, when he has saved enough money, perhaps they will be able to join him here. Until then, he'll keep on saving.

Flatiron Flashes: New BID Businesses

Berrywild

Berrywild, a yogurt shop, has opened its third location in Manhattan at 2 West 23rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Two yogurts are available, each in an array of flavors. Kinda Icy, a tart yogurt, is available in plain, green tea and pomegranate, while Berry Smooth is a creamier type that comes in plain, Caribbean coffee, and banana. Eight fresh fruit toppings are available, including strawberry, blackberry, mango and kiwi. Over 25 dry toppings are available, according to owner Sam Marelli, although only eight are offered for purchase on a given day. Toppings include Oreo bits, granola and sliced almonds.

Berrywild is open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. To view its website, click here.

Catch-22

Catch-22, a 2,000-square-foot lounge and event space, has opened at 4 West 22nd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Named for the Joseph Heller novel about World War II and designed to evoke that era, Catch-22 is decorated with paintings of soldiers and features a full bar plus waiter and bottle service as well as an extensive tapas menu. There are separate bars on each of two levels.

Catch-22, which can accommodate 175 people, is open Monday through Saturday until 4 a.m. Opening hours vary throughout the week. Catch-22 is also available for private events. For more information, call 212-675-0607 or click here.

On the Calendar

Speaker Series: Rosie Mendez on Oct. 15

Property owners, business representatives and residents have until Wednesday, Oct. 8, to make a reservation for the upcoming Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Speaker Series, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 15, and featuring Rosie Mendez of the New York City Council.

The event, hosted by the Flatiron Partnership and Commerce Bank, will be at the Commerce branch at 260 Park Avenue South, at 21st Street, from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. A complimentary breakfast will be served.

Councilwoman Mendez represents the 2nd Council District, which includes part of the Flatiron neighborhood. She is expected to address a number of local issues and will participate in a question-and-answer session following her presentation.

Mendez, who took office in January 2006 and whose district also includes the Lower East Side, the East Village, Gramercy and Murray Hill, is chair of the Council's Sub-Committee on Public Housing and a member of the Landmarks Sub-Committee and the Housing, Land Use, Health and Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committees.

A native of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, Mendez earned a B.A. in Metropolitan Studies and Political Science from New York University and a law degree from Rutgers. She began her professional career as a tenant organizer and became a housing specialist at the Parodneck Foundation. She has been elected Democratic District Leader for four terms.

Some of the issues to which she has given particular attention are stemming the loss of affordable housing, utilizing the land-use powers of the City Council for more sensitive development, and curbing the abuses of some bars and restaurants that create excessive noise and crowding.

To reserve a place at the Oct. 15 breakfast meeting, either send an e-mail to events@flatironbid.org or call 212-741-2323.

Save the Date: Nov. 19 Speaker Series

The final installment of the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership's 2008 Speaker Series is scheduled for Nov. 19 at 8:30 a.m. at the Commerce Bank branch at Park Avenue South and East 21st Street.

Enjoy a complimentary breakfast while listening to representatives from ConEd and the New York City Economic Development Corporations' Energy Department discuss the importance of energy efficiency practices. Representatives will also provide updates on the latest steps being taken to cut energy use in the five boroughs and tell you how you can participate and benefit.

Further information will be sent later this month and reservations will be required for this event.

News You Can Use

Mad. Sq. Park Conservancy Presents:

Fall Kids Fest 2008

The Madison Square Park Conservancy's annual Fall Kids Festival will take place on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

This free event, presented with Time Out New York Kids, offers several family-friendly activities. The Conservancy staff will help children decorate pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, and provide a hands-on activity with Apple Seeds children's play space.

Live music and treats from Whole Foods Market Chelsea will be available. Children are also encouraged to come in costume and march in the Mad. Sq. Kids Halloween Parade.

For more information, click here.

Tree Huts Exhibit

The latest art installation in Madison Square Park is literally going out on a limb.

The exhibit - called Tree Huts and consisting of 12 wooden structures placed high in the park's trees - officially opens on Oct. 2 and is presented by Mad. Sq. Art, the free public art program of the Madison Square Park Conservancy. It will be on view through Dec. 31.

Tree Huts is the work of Tadashi Kawamata, who invites passersby to witness, explore and interpret the evolution of the first Mad. Sq. Art project to be entirely fabricated with natural materials using the surrounding trees as its stage. This is Kawamata's first public installation in New York City since 1992, when he created a web of scaffolding around the former Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island.

For more information, click here.

Free Bike Racks Available

CITYRACKS is a program run by the New York City Department of Transportation that provides free bicycle parking racks on city-owned sidewalks throughout the city to encourage cycling for commuting, short trips and errands. Locations must meet certain criteria.

Businesses can expand their client base and improve customer satisfaction by providing convenient parking nearby as a result of properly placed bike racks, according to DOT. In addition, the availability of bike racks discourages cyclists from parking at mailboxes, parking meters, trees, and other sidewalk structures.

DOT will target installations in areas where multiple requests have been received. To date, over 5,000 bike racks have been installed throughout the city. If you are an interested property owner, please contact the Flatiron Partnership by phone, 212-741-2323, or by email, info@flatironbid.org, with your request. The BID will send them to DOT.

For more information about the program and to learn whether your location qualifies, click here.

Mishkin Gallery Focuses on the Figure

The human figure as subject, object and statement provides the material for the 17 photographers whose images are included in the latest exhibition of works from the Mishkin Gallery's permanent collection. The exhibit, Recasting the Figure in Photography: Portraits, Diversity and Identity, will be on view at the gallery from now until Oct. 24.

The photographs are described as whimsical to disturbing, from traditional portraits to images of figures that actually are "objects" - statues, mannequins or even shadows or body sections.

The Sidney Mishkin Gallery is on the ground floor of Baruch College's Administrative Center at 135 East 22nd Street. It has offered small, museum-quality shows for over a decade. The gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. every weekday except Thursday, when it closes at 7 p.m. It is closed on weekends.

For more information, click here.

Free NYC CERT Training Opportunity

New York City's Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) are groups of community-based volunteers trained in disaster preparedness and emergency response. NYC's Office of Emergency Management staff and partners are offering a free 11-week training course for those who may be interested in becoming NYC CERT members.

The training is free and targeted to individuals who can commit to attending the entire training program, as well as a year of service and attendance at team meetings (usually once or twice a month). Interested individuals must also pass a background check. Training starts Oct. 23.

Click here for more information, or call the CERT Hotline at 718-422-8585.

Free Walking Tours Every Sunday

FREE WALKING TOURS
are sponsored every Sunday by the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership.

Join our expert 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.

'Strad for Lunch' Series

The Workshop for Music Performance (W.M.P.) Concert Hall, a part of Gradoux-Matt Rare Violins, will hold concerts every Monday in October from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. as part of the "Strad for Lunch" program series. The concerts take place at 31 East 28th Street in an elegant 19th-century French d�cor hall. Suggested donation is $5.

For more information, click here.

Fabulous Flatiron

Second Stories: Swann Galleries

In 1941, while America was still at peace, a book dealer named Benjamin Swann founded an auction house specializing in rare and antiquarian books. Swann Galleries not only survived World War II, it has thrived ever since, expanding its staff from four to more than 30 and its auction categories far beyond books. Last year alone, the family-run operation conducted 35 auctions that brought in approximately $33 million in bids.

Swann has called the Flatiron district home for more than half a century, moving into 117 East 24th Street in 1957. In May 1974, it relocated to its present space at 104 East 25th Street, where it now occupies the fifth and sixth floors. Its fifth-floor auction gallery can accommodate more than 200 bidders, while the sixth floor has a maximum occupancy of 140. Bids may also be made online, by phone, by e-mail or by postal mail.

Although it began with books - a category it still calls "the backbone" of its business - Swann began spreading its wings almost 40 years ago into discrete departments for photographs and autographs, maps and atlases. That was around the time Benjamin Swann retired and sold the business to George S. Lowry. Lowry was president until 2001, when he was succeeded by his son, Nicholas, and became chairman, a new title.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Swann added prints, drawings and vintage posters and is now, according to its website, "a world leader in the auction market for works of art on paper."

"We are a specialist house, in that we don't handle three-dimensional objects such as jewelry, furniture or sculpture, although there is some sculpture in the African-Americana category," said Caroline Birenbaum, Swann's director of communications.

"We don't own anything," she added. "Everything we sell is consigned. We have a very wide price range of material. Our minimum is $1,000 per consignment. This might be a single item, or it could be a few related or unrelated items. Some items are grouped together and offered at auction as a single lot. Most often, a lot consists of only one item."

Birenbaum was asked whether she would describe the company as a boutique gallery.

"A boutique connotes something precious," she replied with a smile. "We're not precious. We're very down to earth."

Swann is the only major auction house to conduct regular sales of African-American Fine Art, a category it launched in February 2007. The next such sale is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 2:30 p.m., and will include paintings, drawings and prints.

Additional events in October include Swann's auction of artifacts from the world of magic, which became an annual event in 1997. Usually held near the end of the month to coincide with Halloween and the death of Harry Houdini, this year's magic show is scheduled for Oct. 28 at 1:30 p.m. It's called Magic Collection of a Gentleman and everything in it is being offered by a single collector who prefers to remain anonymous. It includes books, periodicals, catalogs, signed photographs and 77 lots of Houdini material, including letters, handcuffs and what was described as "water-torture hardware." Also on the block will be an ensemble once worn on stage by "the Original Chinese Conjurer, Chung Ling Soo" (real name: William Ellsworth Robinson, a New York magician who masqueraded as an Asian). Chung died in 1918 when a trick in which he appeared to catch bullets fired from a gun with his teeth went wrong.

"My God, I've been shot," he gasped. "Lower the curtain."

It was the first - and last - time Chung spoke on stage in English. He died the following day.

For more information about Swann Galleries and upcoming auctions, click here.

Discover Flatiron: Baruch College

Three years after architect James Renwick Jr. designed Calvary Episcopal Church at Park Avenue South and 21st Street, he turned his attention to a new project just a short walk away. The year was 1849 and the new structure was at the southeast corner of Lexington Avenue and 23rd Street. It was called the Free Academy and its presence signaled a radical new concept in higher education: a tuition-free combination of prep school and college for any student who could pass the entrance exams.

"Open the doors to all," said founder Townsend Harris, the Board of Education president who would later open Japan to trade with the U.S. "Let the children of the rich and the poor take their seats together and know of no distinction save that of industry, good conduct and intellect."

Established by law in 1847, the Free Academy would later become known as City College of New York and its site would eventually hold what today is Baruch College. The Free Academy welcomed its first class on Jan. 15, 1849, when 143 students filed into the imposing new structure - one of the first Gothic Revival college buildings on the East Coast - five professors began lecturing and the great experiment got under way. In 1866, the Free Academy was renamed the College of the City of New York. In 1907, construction of the new CCNY campus at 138th Street and Convent Avenue was completed and the school moved uptown, although some classes continued in the original building.

In 1919, CCNY launched its School of Business and Civic Administration, the precursor to Baruch, and in 1927, the original Free Academy building was demolished. A year later, a cornerstone was laid on that site for a new 17-story structure (now known as the Lawrence and Eris Field Building) to house the business school. Even though it did not admit women until the 1930s, it was reputedly the biggest school of its kind in the nation. For the next several decades, it was known colloquially as "City College downtown" or "the business school."

It became the Baruch School of Business and Public Administration in 1953, when it was renamed in honor of alumnus Bernard M. Baruch (class of 1889), a financier, statesman and advisor to Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 1961, the City University of New York was established and seven years later, Baruch College achieved independence, becoming a senior college in the CUNY system.

Today, Baruch's student body is acknowledged as the most diverse of any college in the country, coming from more than 120 nations. Stretching along Lexington Avenue from 22nd to 25th Streets, the school offers graduate and undergraduate programs and is ranked among the top 10 percent of U.S. colleges by the Princeton Review. In addition to the Field building, Baruch includes the Newman Vertical Campus, which opened in 2001 and whose location between 24th and 25th Streets is known as One Bernard Baruch Way, the college's official address. Other Baruch structures are the Administration Center and the Steven L. Newman Hall on 22nd Street, and the Information Center and the Library and Conference Center on 25th Street.

The office of the current president, Dr. Kathleen M. Waldron, is in the Vertical Campus. So is a statue of Bernard M. Baruch, just inside the main entrance. He is shown relaxing on a park bench, a nod to his reputation for conferring with public officials while sitting on benches in Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., and in New York's Central Park. These days, he can often be seen sharing that bench with a student.

Open Call for Information

Volunteer Flatiron!

The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District is seeking information about events and volunteer opportunities from nonprofit organizations located in the district for inclusion in upcoming editions of the monthly newsletter and on www.discoverflatiron.org, the BID's website.

The Flatiron district has many distinctive qualities that draw people to it, including its history, architecture, restaurants, retail and educational institutions. Another important quality of the district that is often overlooked is the large number of nonprofit organizations in the area. By providing added visibility to the prospect of volunteerism within the community, the Flatiron Partnership hopes to bring together the many nonprofits in the neighborhood with all those interested in serving as volunteers.

Please send the relevant information to info@flatironbid.org.

Newsroom