Local libraries supportive of midtown renovations, speak out against budget cuts

The New York Public Library system is facing major changes and not everyone is happy about it.

The Committee to Save the New York Public Library (NYPL) has been rallying to stop the Central Library Plan, a plan to consolidate the Mid-Manhattan and the Science, Industry and Business Library into one building. The consolidating, they say would not only cost exorbitant taxpayer money, but would “threaten the 42nd Street Library’s status as one of the world’s great research libraries” and “endanger the architectural integrity of the landmarked building.”

“You don’t update a masterpiece,” wrote Ada Louise Huxtable of the proposed renovations in the Wall Street Journal this past winter.

Angela Montefinise, an NYPL spokesperson, disagrees. Montefinise says, among other pluses, renovations would be a boon to public library branches on the Upper West and Upper East Sides, some of which would greatly benefit from circulating funds.

“One of the benefits of the renovation of 42nd Street is that it would generate $15 million a year annually which can be put right back in the system, including the UWS and UES branches,” explains Montefinise.

Montefinise concedes many of the branches throughout the City are old and in need of repairs, which would be made possible through the plan as well as approximately $260 million of capital work going on around the system.

“While the renovations themselves are happening in midtown, they will benefit the whole system,” she says.

“I think there’s a perception that [the plan] is being done at the expense of other work – that’s incorrect. The funding for that plan is generated from the plan itself — such as real estate sales — and earmarked city money specifically for this project.”

Still, uptown, the consolidation plan is far from many’s minds as they consider more pressing concerns.

Sumie Ota, the network manager in charge of uptown libraries, says while the campaign to oppose major budget cuts is a main issue among library branches, local concerns have more to do with the day-to-day issues of keeping patrons happy.

“As far as allocating funds, the more money the better,” says Ota, “but our biggest concern is keeping the branches open and making our services available. The Central Library Plan is not on our minds.”

“Everyday I see people waiting for us to open our doors or waiting in line for computers,” she adds. “That’s what’s on our minds.”

The budget cuts Ota refers to amount to $47 million, or the largest proposed cut in the library’s history, according to Montefinise.

Montefinise says, in addition to an advocacy campaign to fight the budget cut, there will need to be increased strategic thinking — such as the Central Library Plan itself — as funds are slashed.

Currently, branches across the City are focusing on this effort to reach out to elected officials including sending letters to City Council members to fight the budget cut. The 67th Street library on the Upper East Side, for instance, has already sent over 400 letters to oppose the budget cuts.

The group Citizens Defending Libraries agrees the proposed budget cuts are a major issue currently facing the City’s public library branches.

“Mayor Bloomberg is defunding New York libraries at a time of increasing public use, population growth and increased city wealth, shrinking our library system to create real estate deals for wealthy real estate developers at a time of cutbacks in education and escalating disparities in opportunity,” notes the group.

Ota says there are major projects underway in her network including renovations and restorations, particularly to the Washington Heights and 96th Street branches.

Branch libraries, notes Ota, are also increasing their e-book presence in addition to circulating physical materials, while research libraries are increasingly digitizing their collections.

As far as the future of the consolidation plan, Montefinise maintains it’s never going to be of concern to libraries uptown.

“There is a lot of misinformation out there, and that’s a shame. I think internally employees certainly understand the benefits, and generally support initiatives that generate resources to help them serve the public.”

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

Are we having the right conversation about Marissa Mayer? Mayer, Yahoo’s new CEO and the youngest in the Fortune 500, according to Fortune Magazine, is also the 19th female CEO and an expectant mother. We can choose to view this as a success for women (as long as we don’t act too surprised), however, in the year 2012, it seems like we’re still talking about Mayer’s gender—or issues surrounding her gender (pregnancy, her looks, etc.)—for all the wrong reasons.

(by Alissa Fleck)

According to the Boston Globe, “Working mothers and workplace observers pronounced themselves encouraged that Mayer’s pregnancy was not a factor [in the appointment], somewhat annoyed that in 2012 a pregnant chief executive even merits conversation.”

The conversation about whether you can “have it all” has been a hot topic as long as women have had top jobs. Victoria Budson, founding executive director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, said we should be focusing more on how companies can better maximize talent, including incorporating women of “child-bearing years,” rather than talking about whether you can really “have it all,” according to the Globe. 

Though here at NY Press we do feel the need to question why the Globe follows this observation up by dissecting Mayer’s beauty. How often does that happen with male CEOs? Do we somehow take her achievements at Google to be all the more astonishing because she has a “Kathleen Turner voice” (according to Vogue)? Not that there’s anything wrong with being a beautiful CEO. I mean, let’s talk about Tim Armstrong over at AOL. Let’s talk about how he “demolishes old-fashioned oppositions of beauty and brains” (also Vogue), or maybe not, because, you know, he’s a man.

In 2010, when there were 12 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, 11 of them were mothers, reported the Wall Street Journal. Mothering does not just make you incommunicado after 5 p.m., it has its benefits in the CEO world—learning to raise children can facilitate the management of others. Former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said “parenthood taught her the value of picking battles at home and work,” according to the WSJ. So if we decide to view motherhood as a moot point, or even an upside, what conversation should we be having about gender?

Unfortunately the WSJ also reported the reality: “Men with children are more likely to rise into management than women with children in most major industries.” Additionally, women who manage still make 79 cents to the dollar of men who manage, a figure which has stagnated since 2000, said the Journal.

This is why the conversation about gender must stay on the table, but for the right reasons. Hopefully when the next expectant, mother or woman CEO is designated, we won’t have to talk about whether it will be doable, we can just talk about progress.

He was not too happy about it.

But when we reached him on Friday, Barron was looking toward the future and throwing a few jabs at the city’s political establishment.

City & State: How are you doing and how did the election go?

Charles Barron: We’re riding high. We were up against an alignment of unprecedented forces in the annals of New York State politics. I don’t think a candidate has ever faced a presidential photo-op during a Democratic primary. [Jeffries] even reduced the governor to a robocall in a Democratic primary.

I’m talking about the President, the Governor, two state senators, the city council speaker assigning staff people to his campaign, two borough presidents, two county leaders – these are powerful people. A lineup of assembly people, a line up of state senators.

All for me. It turned into a “Stop Barron” campaign. The New York Times endorsed him, the Daily News, the Wall Street Journal endorsed him. Crains. The Observer. The only way the New York Post helped me is by endorsing my opponent.

CS: Was all this about Jeffries or was this about you?

CB: It wasn’t focused on him. They could have done this with Donald Duck and won. Have you ever been involve din a campaign with that kind of alignment. Why? They called me a monster, a racist, a bigot, a malignant clown. I joined a press conference about the congressional redistricting to speak out against the new lines. It wasn’t in my interest to have Jeffries’s own assembly district in there. And he even sent out a mailer with Daily News saying I was a malignant clown

CS: Any positives from the campaign?

CB: In spite of all of that, with just $100,000 and 200 dedicated souls volunteering, we got 10,000 votes. We’re going to continue to build this movement. We’re going to run other candidates. We’re going to continue to build the Freedom Party and we’re going to continue to use running in democratic parties to get access to power.

CS: Why did you vote no on yesterday’s City Council budget?

CB: When I first came into Council in 2001 there were 83,000 summer employment jobs. Now there are a mere 31,000 slots. And over 140,000 youth will apply for these slots. We’re in for a long hot summer. There’s a $65-billion budget. And there’s that money from the Citytime settlement. You’re telling me you couldn’t squeeze out a few million to keep our youths off the streets?

CS: What’s next for you? Are you thinking about Albany and who your replacement will be?

CB: My future is bright and I’m going to make voice louder than ever and continue the movement for justice, liberation, economic emancipation and peace abroad. I haven’t been looking at [William Boyland Jr.’s seat]. Yes I would be very strong for that, but that’s something I am not looking at right now.

As for East New York, I want to maintain the city council seat, and get someone in our ranks to take my place.

To read the full interview click here.

Pictured: Rodrigo, Photo by Alissa Fleck

An Elmo impersonator was arrested and subsequently hospitalized Sunday outside the Central Park Zoo for shouting, among other things, anti-Semitic obscenities at passersby.

(by Alissa Fleck)

An investigation into Elmo’s background uncovered the man, who gave the name Adam Sandler, formerly ran a Cambodian pornography site. Additionally, Gothamist revealed Elmo-gone-crazy-in-the-park is by no means an isolated incident.

The Wall Street Journal reported last fall the men and women who don these cartoon costumes for tips are frequently undocumented workers who speak little, if any, English. One could transform “from an undocumented immigrant from Peru whose grasp of English is tenuous to perhaps the most iconic American character of all time, Mickey Mouse,” reported the same article.

Many of the workers told the WSJ the job was preferable to other comparable jobs because people would touch, hug and even kiss them, rather than acting like they didn’t exist.

I visited Times Square, where the vast majority of fuzzy cartoon characters in NYC congregate (due to legality issues and tourist activity), with the hope of seeing how others in the business thought the industry might be affected by the recent Elmo incident.

I approached four separate Elmos, and one Cookie Monster conversing with an Elmo, all of whom were non-English speakers or were more forthcoming with cuddly pats than answers. The “conversations” were repeatedly interrupted by groups wanting pictures, which the characters were more than happy to oblige. After each picture, they would hold socks open for a tip, and hang their oversized heads in mock dismay if tourists did not pay up.

I finally offered one Elmo a dollar to answer questions, per his insistence, but once I’d handed over the cash, he would not answer or respond to requests for his name. None of the Elmos indicated they had heard of the arrest.

Andres, disguised as Spongebob, said he had purchased his costume at the store himself and had not heard of the arrest either. As I approached a solitary Mickey Mouse, he was playfully roughed up by a man whose pants were around his knees.

The greatest concentration of fuzzy characters was gathered outside the Times Square Toys R’ Us.

I finally made a breakthrough speaking to one Elmo named Rodrigo, from Ecuador, currently residing in Patterson. When asked how he came into this job and his costume, he responded with unintelligible, high-pitched, cartoonish squeaks. I repeated the question and he again squeaked. When I asked a third time, he said in a low, if frustrated, voice: “I know somebody.”

Rodrigo said he had not heard about the arrest, but seemed concerned about the incident. “What happened to the guy in Central Park?” he asked. Rodrigo said he makes $50 to $60 a day and only works in front of the Toys R Us. He has not been doing this long and does not currently have another job.

While talking to Rodrigo, a Hello Kitty approached. “She does not speak English,” Rodrigo said. I asked if they knew each other and he said they were friends.

I then asked if he likes his job: “No, but we need the money,” he said. He does like kids though.

More Hello Kittys meandered over, seeking out hugs, while a Shrek and Puss-in-Boots, seemingly working as a team, patted passing children. A security guard immediately inside Toys R Us said the fuzzy characters are not allowed into the store.

A Hello Kitty approached a man selling comedy tickets for a hug. “Who’s in there, Kitty?” he asked. “Is that a Chinese woman? I’m not a tourist. You wanna buy a comedy ticket?”

Erica, a teenage tourist visiting the city with her mother, hugged and took a picture with Rodrigo-as-Elmo.

When asked if she was ever “weirded out” by who might be in the costume, she replied: “Sometimes.” She also said she would not hug a random stranger on the street who was not in costume.

Greg Wrigley, a tourist from West Virginia, has two daughters and a grandson. He was visiting the Toys R Us with children from his church and said they had taken pictures with the characters. When asked how he felt about not knowing who was inside the costume, he said: “I do wonder who’s really in there. Is it a boy or girl? A child or adult? It doesn’t bother me one way or the other.

“When they put on the costume, they’re no longer a person,” he said. “They become a character. You expect them to take on the character.

“I think you trust whoever hires them,” added Wrigley. When asked how he would feel to know many of the characters were not hired, but in fact purchased the costumes themselves, Wrigley seemed surprised by the possibility. (The WSJ reported these workers do not need a license, and the Elmo incident reveals they are by no means vetted.)

“I guess that’s possible,” he said. “But [bad] behavior would give them away. If they grabbed someone inappropriately, they’d be beaten half to death, at least where I come from they would. I don’t know about here.”

As Wrigley spoke, a nearby Minnie and Mickey each swung a baby into the air for a family picture.

Right there, whenever you like, on your browser, iPhone or iPad. Yes.
Let’s be real: Nobody but Nielsen families watches TV on a television set anymore. I bet so few people watch “TV” TV that only a few of you understood my killer Nielsen family joke!

To be honest, who has time to sit around and watch the tube? Most of it’s not must-see; if it is—trust me—some bar in Williamsburg has a theme night for it. Not to mention how totally unhip it is to actually watch TV these days. We all know kids these days are watching the Internet just like the rest of us. If you are watching TV, it’s likely you’re using a DVR to do it, which is sort of what Aereo is about.

All the way back in 2009, Vishesh Kumar and Sam Schechner reported in the Wall
Street Journal, “The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to a new type of digital video recorder from Cablevision Systems Corp., [which set] the stage for wider use of the technology.” That, of course, was the good ol’ Cablevision DVR Plus; much lauded for not requiring a small object in a room but derided for being unfathomably
slow in the beginning. When Cablevision launched their bright idea, a slew of networks sued them too. Cablevision hired a lawyer and won their case—no spoilers, but Aereo just hired the same one.

The original defense rested on the fact that DVR Plus members were basically doing the same thing TiVo lets you do: recording content that anybody with an antenna and a TV has free access to. Every recording was saved to an individual’s own private virtual DVR storage. It’s very much like when Universal and Disney sued Sony
because the Betamax was considered an evil piracy device. Aereo is is likely to use the Cablevision defense because their whole system works by allotting members their own private pair of micro-antennae located on the company’s Brooklyn rooftop— in effect, you’re paying Aereo to hold on to your antenna for you.

Like millions and millions of my contemporaries, to me, the Internet equals an Absolutely Everything Machine. If it’s not on the Internet, I don’t know about it. Even if it is on the Internet, if it’s not in the cheap-to-free price range, I actually do not want it. Aereo’s $12/month price is not bad at all. If you add in the price of monthly Netflix and Hulu Plus accounts, the price tag for your TV diet is still way less than my grandfather pays for cable. After an extended Beta, Aereo launched for New York residents on March 14th. New users get a 90-day free trial. Their website looks nice and the video quality is just fine when you’re watching it live—that’s right: live streaming video.

All this actually-on-the-air-right-now content reminded me of what a huge letdown it was back in the day when there was “nothing on!” But with Aereo, I flipped ahead in the guide a bit, set it to record 30 Rock, did things, came back at 9 p.m. and was actually giddy! To think, my very own, brand-new episode of 30 Rock saved snug in my 40 hours of DVR storage space on the Aereo cloud and—What?! Under the Recordings tab, I found
a friendly, devil-red line of text that read: “Not recorded: System error.”

I felt feelings then that I hadn’t felt since I once forgot to put a new VHS tape
in for the Star Trek: The Next Generation series finale. There’s bound to be issues at first. And an episode of Seinfeld and an airing of the Addams Family movie recorded just fine later on.

Broadcasters need to stop and take stock of their industry. Here is another example, of many, of a business model showing us that the future of television is not allergic to revenue. But still, these clunky old brands are so afraid of reality that they’ve become incapable of taking all this money I’ve got sitting around.

Services like Aereo could be a non-candy lifesaver for these guys. All of the ingredients are there: TV, Internet, willing consumers and money. And think of how much more in touch networks would be with all the data available from a web audience. Instead of spending cash picking on the new kids, legacy media outfits might consider a few smart investments.

Don’t be afraid of working together to make life easier for consumers.
How do you get your sitcoms? Think the plaintiffs are right? Let us know at nypress.com!
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