11.12.08: Filling the City's Needs | New York Social Diary

Filling the City's Needs

3:00 PM. Photo: JH.

11/12. Sunny and cool November day in New York. With Terrible Traffic because of the Veterans’ Day Parade and the President in town visiting the USS Intrepid and speaking.

Unfortunately there are too many cars in New York and a lot of them are not moving but sitting in Parking Zones that are illegal (or should be) or on main cross streets that should have No Cars; or double parked cars, and trucks. There are also traffic directional lights all over town that SLOW traffic with their divisional lanes. Then of course there are the drivers of the Entitlement Clique.

The Bitch-and-Moan Express, that’s where this is going. The other night waiting for one of those dual-directional lights, this one at 49th Street and Third, a cabdriver explained how these green/red arrow (straight/right/left) lights can often catch drivers turning turning too soon or too late, therefore producing ticket revenue. Oh no? Really? Whether this is true or not, this is how the authorities who manage our streets and traffic are perceived. That is not an accident.

The cabdrivers are the most experienced with New York traffic. They are also the most maligned and daily paying for their alleged faults. They are also often picked on and bullied by the authorities (as well as ticketed).

I could do fifteen minutes on cabdrivers. They have one of the hardest jobs in New York. Imagine forty backseat-drivers a day yelling in the backseat. That’s probably an exaggeration but not far off. Cabbies are in the eye of suspicion from all sides. The owners and the Taxi Commission are not exactly a corps of Mother Teresa’s when it comes to the drivers. And the fares/New Yorkers are always in a hurry.

Yesterday they also closed all Central Park roads (except for the transverses) so that traffic was additionally jammed.

Coming out of Michael’s, looking for a cab wasn’t easy. Off-duty signs everywhere, heading in, leaving Manhattan. I hailed an “off duty” on 58th Street just as another man was hailing.

When the cabdriver heard our separate destinations which were both Upper East Side, he suggested we both ride. So we did.

My travel partner was a lawyer from Washington who had just come from a meeting where someone had left wearing his overcoat (which also had his gloves and scarf in the pockets). So there was that.

When he heard I lived near the river the conversation drifted into boats and yachts and the Mediterranean last summer when he was on a big yacht that was cruising the heavenly coast of Italy and visiting Capri. To me, a yacht is the ultimate luxury especially one that can cruise the cradle of civilization. My co-fare described the big yachts (and especially those of Roman Abramovich, the famous Russian Oligarch, who had three, each bigger than the other).

Then we had a laugh over whether Mr. Abramovich was going to be yachting about much more, whatwith the state of things financial.

Governor David Patterson and Lewis Cullman

Amanda Burden and Serena Boardman

Last night the Municipal Art Society of New York held its 2008 Benefit with a dinner for several hundred in a tent with transparent sides and roof, erected on the plaza of the Seagram’s Building across the avenue. They were honoring Kent Barwick, the outgoing President of the M.A.S., an office he has held for decades.

The Municipal Art Society has an enigmatic name. It deals with that which is municipal, of matters relating to or of art, and it is a society. It’s one of those organizations in New York that are the pillars of the city’s institutions. Its presence conjures up images of history, of bygone days, of 19th century times (when it was founded). It was borne of a time when there was, at least in retrospect, what people like to think of as Society, with a capital S.

This annual fete is always understated, austere but not without that quiet, intrinsic elegance always carried off: black tie, long dresses and all. It has dignity to the point of inferring stuffiness (which it is not). The “city fathers” or some types resembling or filling in, are often present at these evenings. From the looks of them you can imagine they are lawyers (white shoe), bankers (the old-fashioned pre-subprime and derivatives kind), university presidents, corporate honchos and tycoons who like the air up there. Their halls are hallowed.

It’s got an old-fashioned WASPy feel. Yet when I looked at the list of the Board of Directors, I see the names of a lot of people I know and like and respect who are anything but stuffy or WASPy in sensibility. These people are really important. They are involved in the life, culture, preservation and development of the city. It is one of the corridors of power because of them.

Jackie in hardhat looking up at Muncipal Art Society's Kent Barwick.

Jacqueline Onassis got involved with the organization when they were trying to prevent the destruction of Grand Central Station forty years ago (Mr. Barwick was on the job then). Her involvement not only drew worldwide attention to the matter, but also to the work and to the organization. Mrs. Onassis had brilliant instincts for using her persona in the public dialogue. She used it shrewdly, and ultimately, wisely. She knew. The Municipal Art Society is a very modern institution protecting our history and our soul as a city and a community.

Kent Barwick has been President for many years. He’s a very WASPy looking guy, tall, lanky, prematurely bald. He’s an older guy now. I never knew him before but you can see the kid in the older face. Last night several people talked about him before he was given his award. Their words were rife with affectionate jabs.

M.A.S. Board Chairman Philip Howard on the dais with Kent Barwick.

Barwick holding his Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis medal.

Whatever it is, there is something about him that evokes amusement with his friends. And respect and affection. One thing we know is that he’s congenial but deadly serious about his pursuits. Amanda Burden recounted the time when the old New York Coliseum at Columbus Circle was going to come down and be replaced by a gargantuan skyscraper looming over the southwest corner of Central Park.

Mr. Barwick organized a mass of volunteers wearing black and holding black balloons, covering the groundspace as much as the proposed building’s shadow over the Park.

Men like Kent Barwick are the people who watch over the city as city fathers, or at least surrogates. No wonder there are a lot of real estate developers involved with the Municipal Art Society. It is a force, and a successful one. A great deal of what makes this city beautiful is because of the M.A.S.’s work.

The Rockettes and Mr Barwick perform the 11 o'clock number.

Mr. Barwick starts out with two left feet.

But then he gets the hang of it. Fred Astaire's got nothing on him. Uh-huh.

Last night Mr. Barwick, in his “farewell” speech reminded us that the great places of New York can be restored and revived. On his parting agenda is “A new vision for Coney Island.” There are two generations now who don’t know about Coney Island where the whole town went for fun and amusement by the sea for more than a half century a half century ago. Coney Island, the new Moynihan Station being created out of the old James Farley US Post Office Building, it’s all happening because of the Municipal Art Society and the City Fathers (and Mothers) led so successfully and admirably by Kent Barwick. Lessons of The Good Example, something to aspire to in these uneasy times.

Now if they could only get a Municipal Traffic Society going ... we could go even faster. And faster.