Stacy Horn's Blog, page 22

Outdoor Dining

Restaurants in New York City have really embraced outdoor dining. For now, it’s the only way to eat out. New York City hasn’t okayed indoor dining yet. We’ve always had sidewalk cafes, but restaurants are adopting various methods of getting people to pull up a chair.

I liked this one because of the shade it offers. If you’re having a meal during the day, it would be unbearable to sit in the sun. But the table is essentially in the street. It may be hard to tell in this photograph, but they’ve set up this table in a section of the street normally reserved for parking.

I was taking a picture of this set-up because it’s very old-world fancy, which made me nostalgic, when the waiter jumped into the picture. It was very cute and I thanked him.

This place is just a few doors down from where I live and I could hear the music coming in my window, which was fabulous. So I went down to listen. This is a brand new restaurant and I think last night might have been their opening night, but I’m not entirely sure about that. It’s called Dante West Village and it’s on the corner of Perry and Hudson.

This is the set-up at the White Horse Tavern, where I will never go again as long as it’s owned by slum landlord Steve Croman. Croman went to jail for mortgage and tax fraud, and he is the reason my beloved Golden Rabbit is going out of business. The White Horse also set up tables out in the street. There’s another view below.

I think this gives a better idea of where they are putting people. There’s the sidewalk, the bike lane, and these people are in the parking section.

City Hall Park Occupation

Protestors have started occupying City Hall Park. I believe today is day four. I went by on my walk today to take a look, and to take some pictures. That beautiful building in the background is the Surrogate’s Courthouse, which also houses the Municipal Archives. As readers of my blog know, this is one of my favorite places to spend time.

I took this picture of some police coming out of the subway because they were wearing masks. The police aren’t wearing masks so much. It seemed like they were for a while, but now many of the police I come across are not wearing masks.

George Floyd and the Municipal Archives building. I should have talked to the protestors. Their position is extreme. But maybe they have a new vision for law enforcement. By the way, I wish these protests would include the courts, the DAs, and the Department of Correction. They are all pieces of the criminal justice system puzzle (and if you step back, there are bigger pieces that also need to be addressed) and all these pieces need major reforms.

The protestor’s setup reminded me of St. Paul’s Chapel and 9/11. We had stations all along the walls, ringing the pews, and each station had medical supplies, food, beverages, and so on. All the workers and volunteers could come to St. Paul’s, and they usually could find what they needed. Same here.

This really reminded me of St. Paul’s and 9/11. Every day we got donations from all over the world and we had to organize all the boxes and put them away.

Another shot of the supplies. I wish I had gotten a better shot of the sign with the name Eleanor Bumpurs. Decades ago I saw an interview with Spike Lee and he was talking about Eleanor Bumpurs. I’d heard the story when it happened, but I hadn’t given it any thought at the time. But the way Spike Lee talked about it made me research her story. It was the beginning of having my eyes opened to the fact that we weren’t handling situations like hers well, which led to a gradual awakening to many other problems.

The protestors are camped out at the park, and this is where they sleep.

What are you reading?

Below is a list of my pandemic reading so far. It’s not a long list because I’ve turned into a slow reader. There’s also a lot more fiction than usual for me, I see. That’s interesting. I’m currently reading The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.

– Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy by Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano.

– The End of October by Lawrence Wright.

– Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.

– The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

– The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel.

– The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn.

Here is Bali about to climb into my lap. As any cat owner knows, open books are preferred resting spots for cats.

Make Music

I didn’t feel like going for a walk the other day, but I made myself and I was rewarded. It was Make Music day and even though it wasn’t as active years past, I was lucky to catch a renaissance singing group, and this guy playing piano in Washington Square Park. It was just so nice to see live performances again. And to sit among the human race. (The pianist invited people to lay underneath the piano for the sound, and people took turns trying it out.)

When I got home I listened to what was one of my favorite pieces to play when I had a piano and regularly played (this was WAY back in the 1970s): Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique.

Climate Change

I’m supposed to take a walk this morning, but I’m feel awfully lazy, and it’s just a tad too warm. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this summer. It’s supposed to be a hot one. They’re all going to be hot and even hotter ones from now on, probably. God, I’d love to take a swim instead of walking today. I wrote about swimming briefly in my book about swimming. (Except it’s really about death.)

“A few weeks after I’d started swimming again, when it no longer killed me to swim laps, I slid down underneath the water, braced my feet against the side of the pool, then pushed as hard as I could and took off for my next lap. It’s my favorite part. For those first few feet as you surge forward underwater, before you break the surface again, you feel like a rocket taking off into another world, but in slow motion, as the water gently softens what would otherwise have been an explosive burst. In that brief pocket of stretched-out time, as I soared, adagietto, through the bright blue, enveloping water …”

The rest is about death. Some more graffiti from my last walk. I like the skeleton. Big surprise, right?

Love Power

Seen on my walk yesterday. This looks like a father/daughter project, which made it even sweeter.

Goodbye Golden Rabbit

Over the years I’ve watched store after store close in my neighborhood, as the rents kept going up. When everything closed down for the pandemic I worried about who would never reopen again, but weirdly, I only cared about a couple of places and one of them is … I don’t know how to describe it, it’s kinda like a five and dime. But it’s been in the neighborhood for thirty years and I use them to buy this and that, Christmas lights, cards, office supplies. It’s called Golden Rabbit. I see that they categorize themselves as a stationary store, and yes, that makes sense.

I saw them reopen and I was happy, but today they put up going out of business signs. Their landlord was bugging them about the rent for the months they were shutdown, I read online. But when someone opened a GoFundMe campaign for them they said it was just too expensive to operate. I was all set to call Cuomo’s office to do something about it, then I thought maybe this is what they want to do.

I stopped by and asked them. “Is there anything you can do?” He shook his head. “Do you want to do anything?” Again he shook his head. “Are you just done?” And he made this gesture that I can only describe as he’s had enough.

I just feel so enormously sad. It’s not like I can’t find these things elsewhere, but these two people are the nicest people, they’ve always been there, the selection is fun and eclectic. It’s one of the last mom and pop stores in the neighborhood. Of course it will be replaced by something I don’t need and can’t afford. Goodbye Golden Rabbit. You will be greatly missed.

The Pandemic Isn’t Over

But people are starting to act as if it is. Runners are still not wearing masks for the most part. I loved this sign. It alternates between a message reminding people to wears masks and this:

Me and the Boys

Cats are great quarantine companions. This is Bali and Bodhi. Bleecker’s in the bedroom. One annoying thing though. They like to sit on my lap but only if I put a fleece blanket over my lap. Clothes or bare legs won’t do. It must be a fleece blanket, and it’s boiling out. Scroll down for a picture of Bodhi on a fleece-acceptable lap.

Please Watch This Last Week Tonight Episode

God, this episode of Last Week Tonight is so well done. If only everyone would watch it. He quoted from the Kerner Commission! I’ve been studying that report as part of my research (which is actually about fair housing and mortgage fraud, but when I wanted to see how the mortgage fraud began I was led to the riots of 1967 and 1968, the Kerner Commission, and the recommendations in their report).

The history he highlights and the line he draws from that history to now is so correct and so important.